Hi there! I bring to you my eighth Percy Jackson fanfiction, and my first centered around Sally Jackson. She's such an multi-faceted character, and always puts Percy first, but I'd never really delved into her personality like this helped me to. I thought of this when I was writing a paper for school and I realized how strange the ellipsis really is. Then I found out it was from a Greek word, and WHOA Sally Jackson plot ideas were taking over my mind. So I wrote this.
Thank you, icy roses, for checking this over and giving the all-systems-go. And thank you, Rick Riordan, for giving us such an amazing woman to work with and to take care of our favorite Son of Poseidon. You're both awesome!
Here we go!
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Ellipsis
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Summary: An exploration of a vulnerable, post-Poseidon Sally Jackson, and punctuation, all in one; a lamentation of why things just couldn't work.
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"Ellipsis comes from a Greek word [elleipein] that means "to come short", as in "close, but not quite there." -Charles Hodgson
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Sally had never been a linguist.
She had, however, been a writer.
And she did know her punctuation.
So when Poseidon had finally left she and her baby alone, she knew exactly how to describe her situation.
She felt empty, she felt numb, and she felt like there had to be more. A climax, maybe? Did she dare to hope for another chance with the sea god? No. She couldn't. She reminded herself that she had been the one who asked him to leave, anyway. His presence had only reminded her of the promises he'd given but she knew he couldn't keep.
So. He'd followed her wishes and left. And now, her life seemed like nothing more than a cluster of ellipses to her.
Yep, she mused. Ellipses, the "..." markings that most referred to as "dot dot dot"s? They were now her life.
Not many knew that the root of the word "ellipsis" was Greek. Well, she thought, it was. Fancy that. She figured that long ago, one of the gods' lovers would have come up with that word. Io, possibly? Medusa? Because the gods were never enough. They always fell short. For all their splendor and sex appeal, there really wasn't anything meaningful in a relationship with them.
Sally avoided thinking about her baby for the time being—she still didn't know what to do with him or her. All she knew was that she would be as unselfish as possible, and try to give her kid the life she'd never had. Her childhood had been a mess. Her kid's childhood would leave behind memories of laughter and dancing.
In the brief time Sally had spent at college before returning home to care for her uncle, she had admired ellipses. Their strange ability to transfer the scene she imagined in her head right onto the page—still conveying a wealth of emotion—was incredible, and unparalleled by any other punctuation mark she'd ever happened across. The comma? Bland. The period? Commonplace. Most people skipped over those pushovers, anyhow. But the ellipsis...she'd taken much advantage of the ellipsis and its abilities in her writing.
Then real life had hit her. She'd been yanked out of her dream and catapulted back to the life she thought she'd escaped. And the ellipsis was forgotten.
Now she remembered.
Her child's father—and the whole Greek world!—represented one huge "dot dot dot"; always trailing off, always falling short in their responsibilities. Even those dreaded curses on the River Styx couldn't guarantee fairness or happiness. The Olympians thought they were so important, so imperative to the world, but all they did was fool around.
So let them play, Sally decided. I can make it on my own.
And she did.
