I don't always blame them. [The words are instant, bitten off sharply] I blame them when it's their fault. We're told we have to just accept that this is the way things are, that the gods do what they want and we have to deal with the consequences, but that shouldn't be how it is. Things being that way is how we ended up with Luke. [And Percy is well aware that it sounds like he's headed down that path, and if all he has to reassure her is his promise that he won't, that'll have to do. Percy know he'll never turn against his family like Luke did, but there's a vast, untravelled space between starting a war and doing nothing]
I'm not - I don't mean they should cut off all contact. That's part of the problem. Everything is done on their terms. They come to us when they need something, and they abandon us when they feel like it. [And she tries telling him that they aren't pawns, that he shouldn't think like that, and his anger boils over again] It is like that, Rachel! That's literally what happened. I spent six months unconscious and two with no idea who I was, being chased by the world's ugliest check out ladies because Zeus is a baby and Hera is using us all in her chess game against Gaea.
[Annabeth may not have any feeling left in her hand anymore, he's squeezing it so hard. Sea-green eyes bore into Rachel's, and it's highly likely she's never seen him this intense (or angry) about anything.] Giants can only be killed by gods and demigods working together. But Zeus has made it totally clear where he stands on that, and all of the others have fallen in line with that too. Even my dad. Demigods don't work with gods. We work for them. And if that's fate, then screw fate, too.
[And beneath the intensity, beneath the anger, there is a wealth of pain. There is the boy who grew up with a monster as protection against monsters, who's in love with a girl who had to run away when she was seven, who has seen too many friends die, and who wasn't expected to make it past sixteen himself. The gods have failed Percy Jackson, and it hurts]
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I'm not - I don't mean they should cut off all contact. That's part of the problem. Everything is done on their terms. They come to us when they need something, and they abandon us when they feel like it. [And she tries telling him that they aren't pawns, that he shouldn't think like that, and his anger boils over again] It is like that, Rachel! That's literally what happened. I spent six months unconscious and two with no idea who I was, being chased by the world's ugliest check out ladies because Zeus is a baby and Hera is using us all in her chess game against Gaea.
[Annabeth may not have any feeling left in her hand anymore, he's squeezing it so hard. Sea-green eyes bore into Rachel's, and it's highly likely she's never seen him this intense (or angry) about anything.] Giants can only be killed by gods and demigods working together. But Zeus has made it totally clear where he stands on that, and all of the others have fallen in line with that too. Even my dad. Demigods don't work with gods. We work for them. And if that's fate, then screw fate, too.
[And beneath the intensity, beneath the anger, there is a wealth of pain. There is the boy who grew up with a monster as protection against monsters, who's in love with a girl who had to run away when she was seven, who has seen too many friends die, and who wasn't expected to make it past sixteen himself. The gods have failed Percy Jackson, and it hurts]