tushanshu | o3 ♆ video

[Those who have seen it before might recognise that Percy is sitting in Annabeth's suite and using her console rather than his own] Okay, so, first things first. Sea prunes? Don't go there. And I'm saying that as the guy whose dad probably invented them.

[His fingers reach for a nearby pen and absently tap it against the desk before he scrawls something meaningless on a piece of paper nearby. People who have spoken to Percy before might not that he's more twitchy than usual, almost agitated.] Second, um. Are there any jobs going in places that are a little more Foreigner friendly? Apparent customers won't buy things from places if the person serving them calls them a jerk, even if they're being one. The managers don't seem to like it, either. Something without boring, repetitive tasks would be great, too. As it turns out, that's kind of hard to deal with when you're ADHD. [A beat. He fold the paper in half absently slides it into a nearby book.] And if any writing could be in Ancient Greek, that would be awesome. Dyslexics of the world untie, that sort of thing.

[He picks the book up and places it somewhere off-screen, seemingly unaware of what he's doing. A grin tugs at the corner of his mouth, and he laughs, a little sheepishly] Okay, so I don't do a great job at selling myself. But I promise, I'm hardworking. I'm resourceful, I don't mind manual labour, I can talk to sea creatures and horses, and I make a mean garden hose. And I really, really need something to do here, or else I'm going to lose my mind. And believe me when I say no one wants a crazy demigod on their hands. [He gives a small wave, and is about to disappear when he thinks of something]

Oh yeah! Apparently there are some people who don't know how to swim? I can totally teach you, if you want. Or...I dunno, take people on water rides around the turtle. Floating around in the ocean in a bubble is pretty neat, I'm just saying.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Can't help you on the job front, but I could probably translate things into Ancient Greek if you needed to read something. [B) Yeeeaaaah not being dyslexic.]

...Really? You know Ancient Greek?

And Latin.

You're not a demigod by any chance, are you?

[UHHHHHHHHHHHH.] What? No. What kind of question is that?

[He blinks a little] What? Oh, it's just that those two languages are like, inborn with demigods. It's just a weird coincidence, don't worry about it. Translations would be great!

Oh. [Well, she knows she's not a demigod, so there's no problem there. Except for the fact that being a Daughter of the Moon is why she knows Ancient Greek and Latin.] It's fine. I guess not a lot of people our age would know anything about these languages anyway.

Great! Just let me know whenever you need anything.

Yeah, they're not exactly common. How did you get into them? [He still sounds casual, but he's asking for a reason. Percy doesn't really believe in coincidences]

Sure thing. Is there anything you need? Like...I dunno, swimming lessons?

I don't know. Plenty of high schools teach Latin, particularly in good school areas. I mean, La Brea's no Hollywood High, but we're pretty up there educational wise. And why wouldn't someone want to learn a few dead languages? Latin and Ancient Greek are pretty much the foundations that modern English were built on. [That sure did just happen. Look at the way she avoids that question, aw yeah.]

I live by the beach; it'd be pretty sad if I didn't know how to swim already.

I didn't even think about it until I ended up in camp, to be honest. I had enough trouble with English, and I spoke that. Turned out I had so much trouble with it because my brain was wired for the Greek.

You live by the beach? That's pretty awesome. But yeah, if you need help from a son of a sea god any time, just let me know so I can return the favour.

Yeah. I live in Los Angeles, so I'm not that far away from any beach. [A long pause as she chews on her lip.] How can you do that? Just be so calm about, you know. Talking about what you are.

[Percy's a lot of things, but stupid (surprisingly, to some people) is one of them. He leans forward a little bit; when he speaks, there's a kind of maturity to his tone that was mostly missing from his post]

It's...complicated. I definitely wasn't always calm about it. I didn't even want to believe it when I first found out. A lot of it now is just being used to it - this has been my life since I was twelve, it's who I am, even if it gets weird and unfair sometimes.

But honestly, right now? I'm kind of relieved. Back home, I have to hide what I am most of the time. I don't have to do that here.

[It makes sense. Everything that she's seen so far has made it quite obvious that people who are different aren't going to be taken away and cut open to see how they tick. And there are people here far weirder than she is.]

It must be nice, just letting yourself be who you are.

[He smiles, genuinely] Yeah. It's weight off my shoulders. There's enough to worry about here without that on top of it.

It does kind of get you fired, though. If being who you are involves calling people out on being jerks.

Tell me about it. I'm going crazy, waiting for something to happen here. [It's both worrisome and seriously boring.]

Didn't anyone tell you that it's better to kill with kindness?

And then something happens, and you're like oh man, why was I wishing for this again?

...Not really. My mum is more of a 'be honest and stick up for yourself' type.

[She grins and nods, because y u p.] Not that I'm the kind of person who does the wishing sort of thing. Catty would, though. And we would get into a lot of trouble.

My mom's the exact opposite of that.

[He grins back.] Story of my life. The getting into trouble bit, at least.

'Lie and let people walk over you'? Really? [he's teasing]

Trouble is pretty hard to avoid.

[Whoa, dude. You're getting a glare.] Let people feel like assholes on their own. They never do when you tell them off.

Tell me about it. When you're a demigod, it literally smells you out.

[He just grins at the glare. You ain't got nothing on his girlfriend, Vanessa] Hey, who cares how they feel? It makes me feel better. Still, that's pretty good advice.

It smells you out?

[Yeah, until she starts knocking you through brick walls and stuff. That chaos thing.] Why wouldn't you care? People can be jerks, sure, but they're still people.

Yeah, It's a demigod thing. Apparently we smell like KFC or something for monsters.

[He makes a bit of a face] I mean like - obviously a jerk's still a person. Maybe bullies don't listen when you tell them they're being assholes, but I don't think that means they shouldn't be told. It doesn't mean I'll let a monster eat them. [He pauses for a moment] Drool on them a bit, maybe, but not eat them.

[It's like, not at all dissimilar to how Followers can recognize Daughters, but that's probably because they wear giant glowing amulets, too.] Monsters don't really have great taste, do they? [Because KFC, ew.]

No, I guess it doesn't mean that they shouldn't be told. [It's a quiet admission. She more than told Adamantis, and man, that felt so good.] Maybe it just depends on the situation.

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