Dear gods, it's been forever. Hi again! The prodigal writer has returned once again, this time with the forever promised 200th CHAPTER! Like holy cow? I didn't expect this two or three years ago. Like seriously. Over 2000 reviews? People who still stick with me even though it's been like, 6 months?

So anyways, this is the chapter in which the characters finally decimate what's remaining of the fourth wall.

Disclaimer: I do not own this franchise, although I DO in fact own the oldest Dear Fanfiction story in this fandom? So I guess I'm pretty proud.

fourth wall

noun

the space that separates a performer or performance from an audience.

the conceptual barrier between any fictional work and its viewers or readers.

"he breaks the fourth wall by having Sam refer to the script and the play he's acting in"

As most stories on this website start, it was a very beautiful day, and Annabeth and Percy were lounging around near the docks.

Surprisingly, it was actually Percy who first said the phrase that would set the scene for the entire rest of the evening. "I wonder when that one author is going to publish another chapter of Dear Fanfiction. It's been like, what, three years?"

At this, Annabeth seemed to have a revelation, her eyes going very wide for a moment before saying, "Stop. I... I think I just realized something vitally important that none of us have seemed to really pay attention to before."

"Which would be...?" Percy asked.

"We are almost entirely self-aware."

"Self aware?"

"Do you realize that in this portrayal of us, none of us seem to care about the fourth wall? I literally just mentioned that I am only a portrayal Percy this is a big problem."

He thought for a second, before replying "I'm not really seeing the problem? When I narrated the books I talked to the audience all the time! I'm pretty sure they liked me better than third person too."

"This is exactly what I'm referring to! You just acknowledged that we are characters in a book, and that there is an audience watching our every move."'

"Well it's better than lying to ourselves."

"Is it though? This could destroy the entire fabric of our very reality! We need to fix this. We need to repair the fourth wall."

And with this, Annabeth grabbed hold of Percy's hand and forced him into a standing position, before dragging him along with her towards other campers.

"Stop." He said, planting his feet into the ground. "I actually kind of like my interactions with the fandom, so how about before you go stomping around trying to fix things we see what everyone else wants to do about it."

"How do you suppose we do that?" She asked, in her sassy 'your plans never work, Percy, and trust me I don't want to end up in a perilous situation in the underworld again' tone of voice.

"I think we should have some interviews. See what the characters themselves think."

She thought for a minute, not wanting to admit he had a point. "Fine." She finally said, "But please, for the love of the gods, refer to our friends as 'friends' and not 'characters.' It's weirding me out."

"Done."

And so they began to look for their fellow campers. "Connor! Travis!" Percy yelled, seeing the pair of brothers. "Over here!"

"Yeah?" Travis said with a grin. "What's up?"

Percy opened his mouth to say something, but Annabeth interrupted first. "We have no fourth wall."

"You're just now discovering this?" Connor laughed.

"It's not funny! This could tear apart the entire fabric of our reality!"

"So we're conducting interviews to see how you guys feel about the direct fan interaction that seems to be happening."

Connor jumped at the chance to express his opinion on this certain subject. "I love it, actually! Like. A lot. I used to feel a lot more self-conscious about how the people around me really felt about me, but now that I'm aware of the other side of the wall, I can see that I'm actually a really highly loved character despite my small role in the series! Plus I was able to pressure the author of this story into writing a fanfiction especially about me! I've always thought of myself as a particularly fun character, so my lack of participation in, say, the second series has had me really put off. I like the screen time the fans give me!"

Percy gave Annabeth the, 'see?' look, and Annabeth gave Percy the 'that's Connor, not necessarily the best judge for these sorts of things' look, and Connor and Travis gave each other the 'couples, what can you do?' look.

Annabeth cleared her throat before saying, "Alright then. Thanks for your opinion," very dryly. No one really appreciates being wrong.

"There's Nico!" Percy yelled, heading towards that direction. Although he was never around much anymore, luckily the author always had him around during convenient moments like this!

"Nico, how do you feel about our lack of fourth wall?"

"Lack of fourth wall?" He repeated, confused.

"The fact that we're very aware of our fans, and the fact that we're in a book series."

"Oh..." There was silence for a bit, Annabeth and Percy exchanging 'did he forget we're here?' looks, before he spoke again. "I don't know? I mean, I get really freaked out reading smut fics sometimes, and just knowing that some of those pairings are even out there! You know? And I appreciate that people really like me a lot, because at least when my confidence is low I know there's a trillion teen girls in love with me, but I'm also sick of being paired with all those OCs, you know? I feel like they'll pair me with anything."

Percy laughed. "Dude, I know! Tell me about it. I read a fic that paired you and me together, and it was literally the funniest most crack-worthy thing. We're technically cousins, you know? And we're both dudes! And you're like... well... Nico. It was pretty graphic too, but just ew. I almost wanted to wash my hands, even though I only read a little bit. But those fics are all over the place! Apparently we're quite a popular-"

Percy hadn't seemed to notice that Nico had paled even whiter than his usually light skin tone. "Uh, yeah." He laughed awkwardly. "I have to go." Then he scurried off in the opposite direction.

"Huh... He seemed to want to get out of here in a hurry. So was that a yes or a no?"

"We'll put it down as a 'no' on the fourth wall for now."

"I wish we could ask Thalia, I have a feeling at least she would agree with me."

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, they got one more no, four more yes', and a "What the hell is a fourth wall, and why are you bothering me Princess?"

And so Percy triumphantly grinned at the knowledge that most of the campers actually did agree with him.

Annabeth was still not pleased. "This doesn't change the fact that this could actually tear apart-"

"The very fabric of what holds our universe together, I know, I know." Percy cut her off, "But I seriously doubt that author of this story would even let that happen. That story arc seems to involve more effort than past records have shown she's willing to put into her work. She doesn't really like effort."

"Hmm. Maybe you're right?"

"Besides, chances are it'll still be another year or two before she would even get around to writing a chapter in which our reality falls apart."

Annabeth nodded, beginning to accept the fact that maybe being as self-aware as they come wasn't such a bad thing.

After all, it works for Deadpool and anime.

So there you have it!

Luckily, it's summer, which means I'll either be writing, or feeling super guilty that I'm not writing.

Also I've gotten really into anime recently, so part of me was wanting to write a fanfic for an anime, and the other part of me was thinking "my other readers would murder me if I published something after so long, and it ended up being for Death Note."

OH! I almost forgot I CHANGED MY USERNAME.

So sorry! This is still the same me though. Just me under a new name, which I will be signing as from now on.

-MajorGodComplex

(farewell old URL!)