Hello wonderful readers! I hope that you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: *insert v funny joke about how I'm not Rick Riordan and couldn't own PJO/HoO if I tried*
~headline: damn you corporates!~
…
After much waiting and an intense build-up, it's finally the day. The day that he meets Annabeth once more. He's not nervous, he swears. You know, he just has the jitters. Like anyone would. He checks how he looks in the mirror like three thousand times. It's not like he's wearing anything exceptional, just a baseball cap, a pair of sunglasses and a plain blue t-shirt. Today, he does have to head to the studio, just has to record one of his newly written songs for the album, he thinks he'll be doing More Than True, and then after that bit of work is squeezed in, he'll be heading out to meet Acropolis, Annabeth, in the flesh. With her friend. But still. It's going to be pretty amazing.
He doesn't know that for certain, it could be a huge bumbling pile of awkwardness, though he'd still think of it as legendary. Meeting her the first time was way too brief, and it caused a chain of events that weren't so good, so Percy hopes that this will be a redeemable second meet-cute. Percy thinks the first part of the first one was cute, but the second part of it all, with the media and their freaking talons was nowhere near that. He just hopes that nobody notices them today. Like, really really hopes.
He walks into the studio, smiling as he passes a couple of management people he recognizes. He goes first to the writing room, where Nico and Silena sit. Nico's talking on the phone, and when he sees Percy, he tries to whisper, "okay, love you, bye," which Percy manages to hear. He sits down with a smirk.
"Who was that?"
"A friend." Nico glares.
Just because Percy's having his own problems doesn't mean he can't get invested in his friend's love life. "You never tell me that you love me as a friend. I feel short changed."
Silena smiles. "It's his boyfriend," she says plainly, and Nico literally looks like he would guillotine her head off if he had the chance. "Will, I think."
"What the fuck Silena?" Nico mumbles.
She shrugs. "I can't help it. You're smitten, and it's so painfully obvious. You have love on the brain." She sings the last part, and Silena's voice is so sweet, that it comes out beautifully.
"And you're going to have, what my boyfriend calls, a fucking concussion."
Silena blinks, and then scoots away. Percy, being braced, leans forward, and smiles toothily. "Ah, so you confirm it."
"Yeah. It's no big surprise. I have a boyfriend. Yippee." He still looks like he wants to kill someone. Percy backs away even more.
He clears his throat. "Well, I'm only here for the morning, and I have to record a couple takes for a song, so like. Let me know if you need me."
"I'm sure we won't." Nico says, the same time Silena jumps in—
"Sure. We will. Dionysus gave us some technical stuff to work on. Music video ideas too."
"The fucker." Nico mumbles aloud.
Percy puts three fingers up. "F word counter: three."
He leaves before Nico can get another word in, and walks over to the recording room. Once he gets in, he adjusts all the microphones, and situates his electric guitar, attaching it to a couple of other chords. Percy doesn't know all the names and stuff of them, but he knows how to do it, so it doesn't really matter. He strums the guitar, just to familiarize himself. He's been doing so much work with lyrics, that there's been some neglection of the music portion. This is just an addition he wrote out last night before going to bed for More Than True. He warms his fingers up, plays a couple of chords, and then moves onto a quick scale. Although he wasn't trained or anything like that, he learned a couple of them from youtube videos. They help to get your fingers moving.
Then, he does a couple vocal warmups, just to jog his voice. Up and down. Around and around. Forward, backward, through his nose, around his ears. Moving his voice all around, creating different effects. Working on pitch, seeing how high he can go without bailing out. The exercise part of it always makes it easier to execute the song. More Than True is a little more pop-like, but some of the notes get up there, so preparation is needed. It's not all going to be on one take, more like different snippets pushed together until the best version of the song comes out. That's one of the things Nico, Leo, and Silena do, edit different parts of the music together. Austin helps with composing and lyrics, occasionally Nico and Silena too. Leo's more of a tech guy, so most of his help comes from that. He is really grateful that he's working with a group of people that are not only his friends, but are also just talented individuals. Leo, as much as his work has been downplayed, does do a lot. Percy initially hired him because they were friends, but then he realized what a good editor and tuner he was. If a note was off beat, but the content around it was good, he would either have Percy re-record, or he'd just edit it. Percy knows if he makes a mistake, he'll have his main team to fix it.
Dionysus and the rest aren't his main team. They're not real ones. They aren't the ones that aren't there for the money, the ones that he keeps closest. Leo, Nico, Austin and Silena actually seem to care about his content. Nico points it out bluntly if his lyrics suck ass. Leo, who isn't the most musically inclined, does wonders with his editing. He can make shitty stuff sound like heaven on earth. Austin is an excellent composer, he sends in random riffs, random stuff to Percy just for the sake of it sometimes. And Silena is amazing with designing stuff. Album covers, music video premises, album names. There are a couple of people on Dionysus' side that do public image type stuff, but Silena is the real mastermind of it all. He's endlessly grateful for all of them.
They make the job a little more bearable. And okay, that maybe makes Percy sound like he hates his job. He doesn't. He just— at times it's hard to manage the totally commericilized part of it. He loves to write music. He doesn't hate the premise of his job, just the people and practices that come with it. The people that have forced themselves onto everything, not the ones he's chosen for himself. He found the people he keeps closer himself. Leo, because of course, he was Percy's best friend. Nico, who came along later when Percy first moved to LA. He messaged him through Instagram, and then they hit it off. Or well, as much as you can hit it off with Nico. Silena came from again, social media. Twitter. She tweeted at him her own rendition of an album cover and the rest was history. Austin covered one of his songs on his own youtube channel, which has about seven hundred thousand subscribers, and Percy discovered it, and then immediately connected. They became his core circle as his management became more and more toxic. Now, he doesn't know what he'd do without them. Probably just not be as successful as he is.
He shakes himself out of his appreciated funk (though they totally deserve it), and actually goes to record the song, trying to do his best to do it in just a few takes. When he messes up, he re-does the part, and then tries to finish up the song. He does at least four versions just in case. One, singing it just a capella, another with just the music track, and then two with both so that everything can be layered. If he makes a mistake, another recording goes in the bunch, and though he aims for only four tries, there usually ends up being an average of six or so.
It kind of is tedious work, because the song is around three minutes long. It takes five to ten minutes to set up, depending on how well his voice is doing another five minutes to warm up, and then he leaves at least thirty minutes of recording. Writing a song can take from like, fifteen minutes to three days if he's in a real rut, and recording takes forty minutes to an hour.
Today though, he's actually really pumped, and wants to finish this up soon, wants for time to go by faster. His first attempt is pretty good, there's only one small pitch screw-up, and the next one is basically perfect. The a capella track is easy because he doesn't need to focus on getting the notes and chords right on his guitar, as well as vice versa for the music track. Thirty-five minutes later, he's done with everything, and takes all the audio onto a hard-drive. He checks the time, which reads twelve-thirty. That means he has about an hour left before he needs to leave and head to down-town LA.
He walks back to the writing studio, where Nico and Silena are looking over a couple music tracks, Austin is typing on a computer, and Leo is looking at… beaches?
Percy sits down and looks at him weirdly.
"For a music video," he explains. Percy continues to look at him weirdly, because that's out of the blue. Pun intended.
Percy coughs. "I don't think any of my recent songs have anything to do with the beach Leo."
Leo shrugs. "You like water right?"
"Doesn't everybody?" Percy leads on.
"Probably not Nico." Nico looks up at his name, sees Leo, glares, and then looks down. He's obviously chosen not to waste his energy on any of this. Percy is grateful for that realization. It keeps them safe. "He doesn't like anything." Leo whispers. Nico, who Percy guess has ultra good hearing, puts a middle finger up without another word. Silena looks a bit affronted, but that's just the group dynamic.
"I like to swim. But I haven't written any songs about that since like, my Youtube days."
"Oh." Leo says, clicking off of the tab. "Right."
Percy spends the next hour or so looking at his watch, hoping that time goes by quickly. He bounces his leg against the ground, hoping that'll make everything go by faster, because like maybe his foot controls the speed of a second (spoiler alert: as he learns, it doesn't). He checks his mailbox for Annabeth's phone, and finds an envelope with his name and a phone shaped figure in it. He takes it out, and it is indeed hers. That's just another piece of the plan coming together, and now it's secure, in his pocket.
Then, he goes to the studio in the final stretch (a horribly long ten minutes), and starts recording a voice memo on his phone, from some lyrics he wrote a while ago. It's literally just to pass the time. And useless. As he's in the middle of his third try, he sees that it is indeed time to head out, and he grabs his phone without leaving the app, and heads to the lobby area.
And well, when he gets there, Dionysus and a couple of others are like… waiting. For him, almost. "Percy." Dionysus says. "Where are you headed?"
"Out." Percy says, not really wanting to tell his creepy-ass boss he's going to meet the girl of his dreams.
Dionysus smiles. "Well, we wanted to talk to you."
He looks at his watch. He doesn't really have time. If he wants to get there remotely early, he'll have to leave now. "I— could we do this tomorrow?"
"Are you going to be late for something?"
"I'm seeing someone." He says, and at Dionysus smirk, he realizes that's the wrong wording. "I mean—" Percy starts.
Dionysus interrupts. "That Annabelle girl?" He suggests. "Because if you are, then I have to say, it's a lost cause."
Percy looks down at his phone and smiles. "Why?"
"You already ruined it with Calypso, and yeah, that added a couple news stories. Promotion. All the important stuff but…" he pauses, "if you continue to do this, defy us, you could just," he snaps his finger like a fucking criminal mastermind in a movie would, "disappear"
"You need me." Percy says, confident. "So I wouldn't." They do, right? It's not like he's here for nothing. This boasts their popularity because he has a huge following. Going on twenty million, for his Instagram. Numbers don't directly constitute fame or talent, but they certainly do help in this business.
Dionysus shrugs. "You'll be gone in a couple years or so. Why not speed the process up?"
"I'm a fucking minor Dionysus." Percy says, swallowing hard. Okay, well that kind of changes things. If he really thinks that he can get away with fucking zapping Percy away, then it must be remotely true. Dionysus may be crazy, but he isn't stupid. Percy's always known this. It has never scared him like it does now, because he always thought that through everything, Dionysus was on his side. "You can't do this." Percy feels his own voice wavering. God, this is pathetic.
"It's not like I'm exposing you or anything," Dionysus laughs again, the criminal mastermind thing. It's a low cackle almost. "Just having my friends on the other side pull some strings. Are you ready? Would you be ready for that?" That's— not very cool. At all. Remotely. Like okay, Percy understands the industry is kind of corrupt, but this is a little much, even for it. He looks down at his phone again, hoping it's getting all this.
"I don't need you Dionysus. I'm talented on my own."
He is. He is. It's his passion, he didn't get here for nothing. Dionysus can't erase that. Even if the management drops him, he'll still have a big following. He'll still be able to release albums. He gets enough money that he could continue to pay Leo, Nico, Silena and Austina a steady amount. Dionysus can't make him vanish. Even if he wanted to.
Right?
Dionysus shrugs. "With no guidance, then you won't get anywhere." He tsks. "It's a shame. You had a lot of potential. But well, my plan is a bit grander than a teenage pop-star. Hell, we had your friend," he snarls, "Anna Bean's, was it?" Even now, in a situation like this, he's forgetting names. "Whatever it is, we got her name leaked. Easy as that. If we have that power, then in comparison, you stand small."
"Fuck you. She's a minor, like me." He can't let anything more happen to her— won't let them do anything to her. She's so special to him. Really. He doesn't want to see her today and the first thing he tells her is bad knews. He wants to hug her, talk to her, possibly kiss her, but of course, only if she feels that way too.
"We sent her phone to a media company," he continues, "shifted the blame I guess," Percy is curious as to why, like a cartoon villain (read: Dr. Doofenshmirtz) he's revealing his plans. "We sent it over, and that's that. And then they gave it back to you, as planned, don't think we didn't see your post Percy." He shrugs. "But as kids these days say, 'pics or it didn't happen.' You have no proof." For once, Percy is not amused by Dionysus's pop cultural ignorance.
Percy's hand shakes as he holds his phone up. "I guess that's why it's recording." He says, in awe of himself, because isn't that so fucking badass? He only realized it a couple minutes ago, he never turned it off while in the room recording that voice memos. There's going to be some bad singing at the beginning, but everything Dionysus said, the entire conversation is now on it. He has proof.
He checks his watch. If he heads out now, he'll only be running ten minutes late. Dionysus goes to snatch the phone. "Not if you don't have it!" He exclaims, lunging forward. Percy dodges away, but Dionysus manages to scratch him. What the fuck?
Dionysus tries to get it back again, and Percy's eyes widen, because he's really insane. Why didn't Percy see this before? "Another charge for you." Percy says, "assault. And tampering with evidence. I think I'll get a large settlement." He actually has no clue wat the fuck he's saying, but he hopes it's somehow true. And also, like, the scratch didn't hurt at all, but it's the thought that counts, right?
"You wouldn't sue." Dionysus snarls.
Percy shrugs, and then waves the phone in the air. "I will." He's not powerless like Dionysus seems to think he is. "And I could." He says, stuffing the device into his bag. He checks his watch again. If he heads out now, he'll be fifteen minutes late. At the earliest. Shit. "As much as I'd enjoy chatting further, I gotta go." Percy saves the voice memo, and then stuffs his phone into his bag. Zipping it up tight, he dodges his way through Dionysus and the other corporates. Fuck them all. He doesn't have any proof of them being there, so he can't sue them or anything, but he can sue Dionysus. And it is in his power to fire individuals who aren't working well, so. Yeah. He has some power, more than Dionysus has now.
Percy suspects that Atlas is a part of it too, and he'll have to ask Calypso to do some snooping to help him out. He'll repay her, in some way. But yeah. This is just so fucking messed up. Percy feels like he needs a break from all of this control.
And he's not a bad person. He's creative, and he knows this. He doesn't need to be controlled. He has power, unlike what everyone has told him. He has influence, Percy alone has the power to cancel someone, or bring a new artist fame. He's not just some random Joe Schmo from out the street that he feels painted as. He's Percy Jackson. And yes, using fame to get what he wants at the expense of others isn't good, but if it's at the expense of Dionysus Vino, he'll do it. Now that Percy has actual evidence, stuff that he can use against Dionysus, he can finally get back at him. As Percy thinks about it, he's always been sort of toxic. Percy just hadn't seen the pure insanity within him until now.
He walks out to his car and gets in, putting his head against the dashboard. He checks the time on his watch, and realizes that he's going to be really late. Shit, shit, shit. He can't have Piper thinking that he's bailing. If he missed out of Annabeth one more time, he doesn't even know what he'd do. That would just be so unfortunate.
He starts the car, and drives away. It's finally time for him, Percy Jackson, to see her, Annabeth Chase, once more. This time, he has her phone. This time, he has receipts. This time, he won't second guess himself. And this time, he's going to get it all right.
…
~treat others with the same respect in which they treat you~
Yeah! That happened! Okay so like ik Dionysus isn't a villain but like it was nice to explore him in this sort of way lol. Idk. Fun. I liked writing his character in this. Villains are always fun. So yeah! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! These next couple are going to be *super* exciting. Tysm for reading! Leave a review, lmk what you think! Stay safe and healthy! Until the next chapter!
TheLil'Lion