Wow

Riptide Chapter 3

The street outside the bookstore is quieter than usual. It’s just about closing time and Percy is shelving all the books who were moved from their nooks through the course of the day. Sally is cleaning the coffee counter, snacking on the last cookie in the display case and humming a song that Percy can’t quite place.

“Where have I heard that before?” he asks, rounding the corner of the nearest bookcase.

Sally smiles without looking up from what she’s doing. “It was one of your dad’s favorites. Every time it was on the radio, he’d turn it all the way up and sing along. Badly.”  

Percy laughs. “So I got my singing voice from him?”  

Sally looks up then. “Of course. I mean, I sing like an angel so it couldn’t be me.”  

They continue their customary movements around the store, making sure all the tables are clean, the books are put away, and the oven is off, before heading to the back office.

It’s a small, unimpressive space with just enough room for two people, three if necessary. There is a small wooden desk that Percy remembers helping his dad build, still being able to note the by P+P carved into one of its legs. He runs his hand over it as he sits down, feeling comforted by its graininess against his skin.  

Sally puts on her reading glasses and opens up her ledger, making notes of the days profits. “How we lookin?” Percy asks.

Sally sighs contentedly and leans back in her chair. “To be honest, we’re killing it.”  

Percy smiles and lifts his hand for a high-five which Sally returns gleefully. “I knew it. Big book chains eat your heart out.”

As she sits back, she begins to simply watch Percy, who squirms under her gaze.

“Don’t do that thing,” he says.

“What thing?” she asks, playing dumb.

“That thing where you watch me and use your mom witchcraft to just like, get everything out of me.”

She smiles and shrugs. “Can’t help it, just comes naturally.”

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anon drop mandalorian au link!

hero

so direct action is not an option available to you. what can you do right now instead?

Be mindful of the content you’re putting on your social media accounts. Stop retweeting/reposting violent images and videos of black people dying. Know that content like this, even with trigger warnings included, can be very emotionally disturbing/distressing and yes, even traumatic, for black people navigating the internet right now.

Report any images and videos you see where protestors’ faces are visible/unblurred, particularly in content surrounding the lootings. Don’t retweet or repost these images and videos. This can be a death sentence. 

DONATE, PARTICULARLY TO MINNESOTA-BASED BLACK YOUTH MOVEMENTS / MUTUAL AID FUNDS WHO ARE DOING WORK ON THE GROUND. FOLLOW/BOOST IF YOU CAN’T.

• The Minnesota Freedom Fund, a mutual aid group fighting back against the unjust MN bail system, is taking donations. (Twitter)

• The Black Visions Collective, a Minnesota-based freedom fighter organization creating campaigns for justice, is taking donations. (Twitter)

• Reclaim the Block, a coalition to demand that Minneapolis divest from policing, is taking donations. (Twitter)

• Crowdfunding for black trans people in need thread. 

• Comprehensive Minnesota bail fund/support document for May and June.

It's gonna be such a funny mess when Donald Trump dies of a stroke on April 1st, 2024.

Naturally everybody will think it's fake because of the date only to lose their minds (both positively and negatively based on their opinion of trump) when realizing it's real

There will be massive celebrations in the streets and on social media and lots of predictable "don't speak ill of the dead" discourse about those celebrations

Weird evangelicals will pull some weird number trick talking about how Jesus was conceived on April 1st and that makes Trump a sort of messiah and people will make fun of that

The Republicans (after they're done with the faux-sadness and faux-outrage) will stomp over each other to be his successor but none of them will succeed. They'll tear each other apart and have no single nominee for the November elections.

There will be discourse about if Biden and the living former presidents should go to his funeral (they won't, he was a traitor insurrectionist)

The Ukraine-Russia War immediately goes in favor of Ukraine as morale in the Kremlin is reduced. China similarly backs off from its threats on Taiwan.

Ten thousand new memes are made, some sticking around for years to come.

Not a month later a bunch of unofficial biographies of Trump hit the bookshelves, many with new details about just how awful he was.

HOW TO DONATE TO BLM WHEN YOU HAVE NO MONEY

a black woman named zoe amira posted a video on youtube. this video is an hour long and filled with art and music from black creators. it has a ton of ads, and in result will rack up a ton of revenue. 100% of the ad revenue from the video will be dispersed between various blm organizations, including bail-out funds for protesters. it will be split between the following, dependent on necessity

brooklyn bail fund

minnesota freedom fund

atlanta action network

columbus freedom fund

louisville community bail fund

chicago bond

black visions collective

richmond community bail fund

the bail project inc

nw com bail fund

philadelphia bail fund

the korchhinski-parquet family gofundme

george floyd’s family gofundme

blacklivesmatter.com

reclaim the block

aclu

turn off your adblocker and put the video on repeat. do not skip ads. let it play on loop whether you’re listening or not. mute the tab if you need to focus elsewhere. but let. it. play.

youtube will donate to blm for you.

please, please reblog. for people who don’t have money to spare, this is incredibly important information to have.

h

stay down

An AU in which Grover is on the Argo II as protector instead of Hedge, because I say so. He and Percy get to have an actual conversation about the aftereffects of Tartarus + that godawful conversation with Jason.

Percy is tired. That’s what he tells Grover when he asks how he’s doing (and Grover asks often).

I’m just tired.

Saving the world for the fifth summer in a row gets tiring, you know? I’m gonna go nap. Wake me up when I’m on watch.

It’s nothing. Just haven’t been able to sleep. Since the world is ending again.

Everyone else has stopped asking.

It’s not for lack of caring. Percy’s loyalty outweighs his self-deprecation; he can’t think lowly enough of the people around him to claim they don’t care about him. He just makes it easier for them to forget. Indifference is more comfortable than concern. How can Percy explain himself to Jason, Piper, and Leo, who don’t know him; to Frank and Hazel, who admire him; or to Annabeth and Grover, who love him? He tried with Jason after the incident with the poison, and the guy gave him that hard-pressed grimace—lips pulled tight and to the side—before dismissing the topic entirely. Jason paused, perhaps to think, and Percy heard rejection in the silence. It was just like when he set fire to the band room at Goode: Percy was standing with his face sooty and his skin torn apart by debris, looking out at the horror and disbelief on the faces of his peers. So he did with Jason what he did then. He ran.

Maybe Jason truly thought nothing of it. The guy was raised by wolves, after all. He doesn’t seem like the type to sit in his emotions. Maybe the conversation took a turn down a road Jason can’t walk either; maybe he’s a runner, just like Percy.

Tired gets everyone else off his back. Annabeth narrows her eyes with that analytical stare that used to break Percy, but even she can be fooled. That stare worked when his problems were smaller—the weight of the world instead of the weight of himself. After a lifetime of shouldering impossible burdens, the thing that makes his legs shake is getting out of bed in the morning. Just the weight of sixteen years, of five straight summers being a hero. If he lives to see a time where the world doesn’t need a hero—when it doesn’t need Percy—who will he be? Childhood turned to dust alongside the first monster he plunged Riptide into. What story will he write when it comes time to put down the sword and pick up the pen?

PLEASE HEED THE TAGS BEFORE READING 

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i made a college vine compilation b/c Suffering™️

(warning for loud noise in some of them)

you’re a symphony (i’m just a sour note) chapter 1

by @jasonsmclean

The room is filled with noise, the sound of string instruments being played consuming all other sounds. There’s the occasional shuffling of sheet music, or the frustrated sigh, and whispers lie just beneath the peaceful hum of music. It’s a comforting loudness, one that would soothe over any stressed soul.

Once the clock hits six, silence takes over the once pleasantly noisy room. It’s almost ominous, the hearing equivalent of watching clouds cover the sun. A hush falls over the musicians, putting their instruments in resting position, their expectant eyes immediately focusing on the black-haired conductor in front of them.

Only Reyna isn’t ordering them to pull out a particular piece yet. Her eyes stare at the clock, almost in disbelief that the time has the audacity to hit six. By the time a minute passes, the orchestra shifts uncomfortably because Reyna never starts practice late. It’s evident nobody knows why she hasn’t started.

Jason knows. He can’t help but to look past Reyna at Annabeth, who has an emotionless look on her face. “He’s late,” he informs her.

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Call me, Percy? valentine’s day edition. edit by sophii <3

This is Annabeth’s first Valentine’s day with Percy. Well, it’s actually their second, but it is the first one they will be spending together without anybody else and without having to be in school.

She has always celebrated previous ones with Hazel and Piper, going to Hazel’s mom’s restaurant and eating stupid amounts of food before watching rom coms in Hazel’s bedroom while they made themselves sick eating cookies and ice cream. She misses their love, misses being surrounded by and wrapped up in it on days like those, with chocolate smeared on cheeks and limbs crossed over underneath blankets. She hadn’t realised how much she would miss them until they were miles and miles away, making their own memories and futures just as she is.

She just misses them, is all.

“You got plans for the weekend?”

Annabeth looks over at her friend as they finish packing up from their lecture. “Percy’s coming down.”

“Right. You gonna go for dinner or something? That new italian restaurant in town is really good.”

They’re leaving the lecture hall now and Annabeth dodges a wild elbow which had been heading for her face. “Oh, um no. That’s not really our thing. We’re gonna go for a drive down the coast and probably get burgers or something.”

That earns a laugh. “Right. Y'all are cute.”

“Thank you, I think so too.”

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