Chapter 10: Annabeth Takes Advice from a Friend and then Discovers Fandoms
Annabeth had had a terrible rest of the day after her return and punishment. Thalia and Ariadne wouldn't even dare go near her, much less say anything along the lines of "I told you so." Percy wouldn't be home until later that evening, so she couldn't apologize just yet. She didn't really want to face him anyways; shame and embarrassment prevented his return from being an anticipated one. Instead of facing the day head on like she normally would have done, letting her hubris take over, she resorted to slumping down on her bunk and silently crying. It was almost a natural thing for her to be assertive and angry when she was jealous and territorial, Rachel had taught her that about her self several summers ago. It was not natural however for her to fly off the handle like that, especially in front of the people who manage a lot of her social and business life, especially in front of Percy. The whole ordeal gave her a deep sense of shame the more she thought about it. Just as she was really getting into her self-pity, two sets of footsteps and two giggling voices came into earshot on the porch of the cabin. Annabeth recognized the duo as her sister, Ariadne, and her newest best friend with whom she had spoken with earlier, August. Annabeth listened carefully as the voices got hushed, knowing they were probably trying not to disturb her as they talked about her. She only caught pieces of what they were saying, Ariadne mentioning something about "a bad mood" and "best not to mess with her", with August responding with something along the lines of "left my iPod inside" and "need it back." With that, the door swung open quietly, and the two sets of footsteps made their way inside. Annabeth pretended to be asleep so they wouldn't be tempted to bother her. The footsteps made their way to the back of the cabin towards the bookshelves; well one of them did anyways. The other set stopped next to her bunk and let out a sigh.
"August!" Ariadne whispered vehemently, "I told you to leave her alone!"
"I know but…" August whispered back and trailed off. Another sigh escaped August's nostrils before she continued. "I know what it's like to lose my temper and it's not fun at all. I just want to know if she's ok or not. Maybe we could talk or something, I dunno." August said in a worried tone that made Annabeth almost start crying again. For someone who had only been at Half-Blood about a week and had known her for less time than that, Annabeth was moved at how much August cared.
"It's very nice that you care, but leave the poor girl alone for right now. You two can talk later. Now where did you leave it?" Ariadne asked, a little more afraid of Annabeth's wrath than her friend. August mumbled something about the loft upstairs, which held mostly old books and battle plans. Ariadne groaned.
"Stay here, don't wake her. I'll find it and be right back down." Ariadne whispered in an annoyed tone as she climbed the later upwards. Annabeth heard a slumping sound next to her bunk and then breathing, implying that August had taken a seat.
"I know you're awake. It's ok though, you don't have to talk to me." August said, tapping on something that was making a rhythmic sound; something common for Apollo's cabin when they were nervous. She paused before starting again. "I know I'm not you. Hell, no one is you. From what I hear, you're the bomb dot com, always in charge and stuff." Annabeth almost laughed at August's use of expressions but stifled it, interested in what August had to say. "You may be only half human, but half is enough to make some mistakes. Don't be too hard on yourself ok? People do stupid shit, but they move on. I know that you think you're above making dumb choices, but mistakes are what make us better people in the long run." Annabeth liked this new camper, but silently cursed Apollo for having children who knew their way around words. Her depression was no longer lingering as she took August's words to heart, and she could no longer enjoy her pity party. Just as she was about to get up and address August herself, she heard movement and felt the other side of her bunk sag a little. "Also, sulking causes a lot of stress. I should know, it happened to me during finals." August finished, sighing again. Annabeth knew August was sitting on the side of her bunk, but she honestly didn't mind. The peace was quickly interrupted as Ariadne's footsteps made their way down the ladder to the loft.
"For fuck's sake August what did I tell you!" Ariadne squealed. Annabeth turned over onto her stomach to see August with a terrified look on her face and her younger sister running over towards her friend, about to kill her. Annabeth sat up and motioned for Ariadne to stop.
"It's fine Arry, August was just trying to help." Annabeth explained, wiping her eyes. August smiled at her, looking glad that she could help.
"It's not that. After I told her not to, she goes ahead and does whatever she pleases. I swear, it's like you do the opposite of whatever I tell you at all times." Ariadne complained, picking up Annabeth's extra pillow and lugging it at August. Annabeth chuckled as August rolled her eyes and Ariadne huffed in frustration. The two of them reminded her of Thalia and herself. As August stood up to challenge Ariadne with the pillow, August's shirt had caught Annabeth's attention.
"August?" Annabeth said, causing August to abandon her revenge and look at Annabeth. "Is that a Firefly t-shirt?" August looked down at her t-shirt of a large steampunk looking spaceship on the front, with the word "Firefly" scrolled across the top in golden cursive. August smiled and nodded.
"Yup. Browncoat for life! You?" August smiled again, looking as happy as ever now that she had someone else to bond with over sci-fi. Annabeth was indeed a Browncoat, having gotten the DVD's for Christmas the past year and falling in love with it. Ariadne face-palmed, not wanting Annabeth to start bringing up how much she thought Ariadne looked like River Tam.
"They can't take the sky from me either." Annabeth quoted. August high fived her for the reference.
"Well we should best be off. Take the rest of the day off still." Ariadne instructed Annabeth like a young nurse. "I don't want you to tire yourself out too much."
"Yes yes I understand. Now out you two. I know that you've got classes to get to." Annabeth ordered as the two of them skittered out into the camp again. She lay back on her bunk, feeling better now that she knew her friends loved and respected her no matter what. Whether out of fear or not was still up for debate, but she shoved that thought out of her head. Knowing she had the rest of the day off, Annabeth grabbed her sketchbook and pencil. Blueprinting had always calmed her down, and she had been working on some massive plans for her imaginary dream home that she would build in the Bahamas with Percy. It was a silly, but not implausible; he was the son of the sea god after all. However, her hands weren't really interested in drawing that as she stared down at the blank grid page that should have been dedicated to the second story balcony. Instead, the Firefly theme song played over in her head.
"They can't take the sky from me." She mumbled to herself as she managed to sketch out a pretty detailed outline of the airship, Serenity. Annabeth managed to lose track of time as she worked on it's detail and figure. Everything had to be perfect; this was Serenity she was drawing. As she finished the final lines of the port side, her brother came walking in.
"Heard you lost it back there." Malcom mentioned as he flopped down onto his bunk and opened his DS.
"I'm not going to talk to you if you're just going to talk about that. I feel bad enough about it as is." Annabeth responded, dusting of some eraser marks from her work. Malcom looked at her from his video games, feeling a little guilty about giving her a hard time.
"So…" He started, trying to break the awkward silence, "Blueprints?"
"Nope." Annabeth replied curtly, "Serenity." Malcoms eyes went wide as he slipped off his bed and looked over his sister's shoulder.
"Holy crap Beth that's awesome!" He complimented, also being a Firefly fan. "You gotta post that on DeviantArt!" Annabeth looked at him oddly. "DeviantArt is an art sharing site. Go check it out." Malcom recommended, taking the sketchbook from Annabeth and admiring her work. Annabeth once again pulled out her laptop and typed in the web address.
"So this site is where people can post whatever art stuff they want then?" Annabeth asked, scrolling through the homepage. She liked the idea of an entire website dedicated to sharing the different arts. She wondered if her mother had anything to do with it's founding, or at least a sibling.
"Pretty much. Scan this sucker into your computer and post that shit." Malcom demanded, pointing to the printer in the corner of the room that was mainly used to print out blueprints and battle plans.
"Alright, no need for such harsh language." Annabeth chided, taking the sketchbook and the computer over to the printer. In no time, she had scanned her artwork onto her computer, set up an account on DeviantArt, and posted her masterpiece. As she waited for comments, she took the opportunity to search other's artwork. Many artists were amazing; painters, photographers, and writers alike all gathered to show off their talents. Some were underwhelming, but Annabeth chose not to let her opinions be voiced just yet. Best to build up a reputation of power and then attack was what her mother had stood for. As she lurked around, something caught her attention on certain works of fan art. Some artists belonged to groups dedicated to certain shows, and some delved deeper, dedicating themselves to certain couples or characters within the shows.
"Finding it interesting?" Malcom asked, only half interested since he was so caught up in his beloved video games. Annabeth was interested in the site, but had turned her attention to a certain group.
"These people are delusional! There is no way in Hades that Rose was a better companion to the Doctor than Amy!" Annabeth complained, having stumbled across a Doctor Who group dedicated to the pairing of Rose/Doctor. Annabeth usually wasn't one for romance or drama, but Doctor Who was something she took rather seriously considering it was the only show she had kept up with since she was younger. She was offended that there were people who thought that Rose could have been a better companion when Amy's story was clearly superior, at least in her mind.
"Easy there Beth, people have opinions too." Malcom chided, still not completely interested.
"Well these opinions aren't right." Annabeth grumbled, scrolling through the topic of discussion. "And none of them can spell! I'm dyslexic and I can tell!" Annabeth whined, disgusted at the level of ineptitude of her fandom.
"It's the internet. Did you honestly expect any form of decency?" Malcom asked, slightly amused at his sister's disgust.
"From Doctor Who fans at least." Annabeth huffed. She closed the computer and went back to drawing in her sketchbook. She still didn't feel like drawing blueprints, so she ended up sketching out Captain Mal in an action pose, holding out his revolver towards a currently not drawn enemy. Annabeth admired her work, not even sure if she could draw people well. Mal had turned out rather well, but something in the back of her head told her that he looked like an older version of Percy more than Nathan Fillion.
"Watcha drawing now?" Malcom asked, again caught up in his screens. Annabeth gnawed on her pencil as she looked down at her drawing.
"Who would be a worthy opponent for Captain Mal?" Annabeth asked her brother. Malcom paused his game and got up to look over Annabeth's shoulder again.
"Well, he looks like he's really battling it out in that pose. Maybe think about someone not in Firefly." Malcom suggested. He had always enjoyed science fiction, and was even the one who gave Annabeth the Firefly DVDs for Christmas. He loved that his name was akin to the star hero as well. "Maybe try someone more… I dunno… spacey."
"Spacey? Really Malcom?" Annabeth looked at her brother like he had just started speaking Mandarin. "You see, this is why I'm the favorite. Mother would never approve of such anti-language."
"No, you're the favorite because you take after mom the most. By the way, that comment is coming from a girl who has used the words "timey-wimey" and "wibbly" on many occasions." Malcom shot back, going back to his games.
"In context! I was talking about Doctor Who." Annabeth responded. Then, she got an idea, and her hands went flying across the paper. It took her no time to complete the basic sketch before Malcom interjected again.
"Inspired much?" Malcom commented, now more fascinated with his sister's intense focus than his own games.
"And done." Annabeth said, dusting off the paper and holding it up. She had successfully drawing the 11th Doctor dueling it out with his Sonic Screwdriver against Captain Mal and his Revolver. "Is it good?"
"Fantastic! I'm pretty sure that's the biggest nerdgasm I've ever seen on paper, and it's completely amazing!" Malcom was almost as ecstatic at Annabeth's drawing than she was. "Post it!" He demanded, pointing at the scanner.
"Nergasm? Again with the non-words. I swear if it weren't for your eyes and naturally ability to process like a computer, I'd think you were an Apollonite." Annabeth commented, scanning her picture and posting it to her newly made account. "So what happens after I post it?"
"People comment and say if they like it or not." Malcom responded watching Annabeth mess with her account. "Oh hey look! First comment!" Malcom moved Annabeth's hand and clicked on the image to bring up the comments.
"Apparently TardisMaster65 really wants Doctor Who to kick Mal's ass." Annabeth said, reading the very misspelled and very 'colorful' comment.
"The one underneath it is even worse, and it's on Mal's side… oh gods that's harsh." Mal grumbled, reading the comment that had just appeared which had far worse grammar and language, if that was possible.
"Oh gods they keep appearing every time I refresh!" Annabeth panicked, watching the ensuing cyber fight before her escalate. "I just drew a picture! Why do people think I'm attacking their shows?"
"This is what is called a fandom war." Malcom explained, slightly mortified at the insults being thrown back and forth. "They happen sometimes, and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it."
"So you're basically telling me that fans use the internet to argue with each other over things that don't need to be argued over?" Annabeth concluded, still trying to figure out what was going on.
"Yeah, pretty much. Welcome to the internet." Malcom said with a hearty pat to Annabeth's shoulder. Annabeth took a deep breath and exhaled before speaking, still fixated on the screen.
"The internet sucks."
AN: A few things before updates:
1)This chapter wraps up the Reyna Vs Annabeth side story.
2)I know that Malcom (yes that is how you spell his name in the books) has never been given an official personality, and is really implied to be a generic Athenian. However, I liked the idea of an equal for Annabeth to bounce comments and banter off of, so I ended up kind of giving him a mix between my personality (the gamer with the deadpan sarcasm and lover of sci-fi) and my good friend Kent's (crude language and humor) with Annabeth's brain. So if you ever wanted to know how I write for him, that's pretty much it.
Now then, LIFE UPDATES TIME YAY! So first of all, I'm going to have loads of free time in the next few weeks. So prepare for trouble, and make it double because my second fan fiction just got released! It's called The Punk and the God Father. If you like what you see here, maybe go check it out! So, here's a heads up about this fic; I may be throwing a pretty heavily lemon scented chapter at you next chapter. Though I'm not going to just strait up write a porno (for various reasons, namely I'm lazy and hate writing detail) implications will be heavy handed. So that being said, be prepared. That's about it. Happy Holidays everyone!
