(Do people still put Writer's Notes in bold?)

Hello. It's been a while. Have y'all seen the TV trailer for the new Percy Jackson series? Looks awesome - awesome enough to make me come crawling back here.

Disclaimer: I have not read anything in the Rick Riordan Literary Universe since, like, 2014.

RACHEL ELIZABETH DARE

Set sometime in the future

"Look, Rachel, I gotta be honest with you." Annabeth's gray eyes regard me with wary intensity and, dare I say, judgment.

With a sigh, she puts her pencil down - a rare and downright shocking sight from our Head Architect. It's a Tuesday afternoon and Annabeth is hard at work designing townhouses for New Athens, the upcoming village for grown-up demigods that will be neighbouring Camp Half-Blood. From an artist's perspective (mine), her designs are super cute.

The daughter of Athena, whose opinions and rationality I trust most in the world, tells me emphatically, "You absolutely should not dye your hair blue."

At that very moment, guess who walks through the door?

"Blue? Sounds like the BEST idea!"

The glorious and heroic Seaweed Brain himself, back from a month of travelling the seven seas to learn the ways of ocean diplomacy, strides through the door with barely a knock. He immediately heads to the drafting desk to give Annabeth a swift kiss and suddenly, I feel a bit awkward witnessing a reunion between the power couple of the Greek demigod world. However, they also happen to be two of my closest friends. I've hung out with them so much that me, Grover and Tyson (my fellow third wheels) started a Percabeth Bingo game. Today, I can check off Percy 'distracts' Annabeth when she's architect-ing.

When Percy sees me, he seems weirdly surprised even though I'm always visiting their place. Incredulously, he asks "Wait, Rachel, you wanna dye your hair blue?"

I nod, prompting Percy to stare at me with - yet again - wary intensity and judgment. He turns to Annabeth and says, "Whoops, I thought you were talking to Nico."

Annabeth laughs. "Oh yeah, Nico could definitely rock blue hair."

Now this is a topic that interests me. Quite frankly, the topic of Nico di Angelo's hair interests everyone at Camp Half-Blood. I chime in, "Percy, have you seen Nico recently?" Percy shakes his head. I gesture my hand to my waist, "He's got long hair now and recently got a sleeve tat of skulls and hounds and other Hades-related stuff. Not gonna lie, it's a look."

Percy smirks knowingly. "Oh dam, I bet his boyf- what. What the- what in Tartarus is THAT?!"

Eyes wide with bewilderment, he points at the corner of the room where Dorothea, my hellhound puppy, is lounging on a little bed in her little onesie. Unlike Mrs. O'Leary who resembles a mastiff, Dorothea is much smaller with long wiry fur prone to knottiness, a haughty face that appears slightly smushed, and an underbite. Annabeth adores her.

"Percy, meet Dorothea!" Annabeth exclaims brightly. She gets up from her seat (wow, she's really distracted now) and picks up the monster puppy, cradling Dorothea preciously in her arms. "Rachel started fostering Dorothea a few weeks ago and now we- I mean, Rachel is thinking of officially adopting this li'l thing. Isn't she the cutest?"

Dorothea bares her snaggle tooth at Percy. Admittedly, she's not the kindest to strangers, yet.

"Uhhhh, yeah in a way," Percy replies carefully. He hesitates and it's hilariously obvious that he is searching for something positive to say. Finally, he says slowly, "I see she wears clothes."

Annabeth beams. "Yes! I made her this onesie!" She holds Dorothea up by the armpits to fully show off the lilac romper decorated with ducklings. A little known fact about Annabeth - she's an absolute beast at crocheting. The onesie fits Dorothea perfectly, and the purple and yellow tones contrast beautifully with Dorothea's mud-brown fur.

At this point, Dorothea is growling quietly and baring all her teeth at Percy, who is now grimacing tensely. Meanwhile, Annabeth has started gazing at Percy with the whole, big-pleading-gray-eyes thing.

"You know Percy... Nico says he's found a few dens of hellhound puppies who've lost their mom. With some obedience training - which I can help out with, of course - I'm sure Camp Half-Blood and eventually New Athens would thrive with a few more good hellhounds like Mrs. O'Leary. Besides, I've been working from home a ton and while you're away on assignment, it'd be great to have a cuddly companion - no offense, Rachel."

"None taken," I say.

"Annabeth, are you saying you want to get a puppy?" Percy asks cautiously, "A hellhound puppy?"

Alright, now I'm feeling awkward again but for a totally different reason. "Alright! Um, Dorothea and I are gonna go... On a walk. Yeah that's a good reason. I'm gonna walk the dog." I grab the proud-faced puppy from Annabeth, who smiles at Dorothea fondly, whereas Percy's expression is unreadable. As I place the owl-printed harness on Dorothea, Percy and the tiny hellhound seem to be having a staring match.

"Nice to see you, Percy!" I wave goodbye while Dorothea tugs on the leash for the door.

"Great to see you and Dorothea too!" Percy calls back. With a wink.

Later that day, I get to see another Big Three kid who is often out of town.

Recently, things at Camp Half-Blood have been relatively peaceful and there's been a trend of demigods getting into a wide variety of leisurely activities. More "mortal" hobbies, perhaps. To be honest, it's been lovely to see demigods having interests outside of monster-slaying. However, the children of gods and goddesses cannot help being overly-competitive, out-for-blood, deceptive, battle-minded demigods.

Needless to say, board game nights are fun here. When I was a kid, I was particularly obsessed with playing Mythomagic but my mom deemed it unladylike for me to collect action figurines, so she enrolled me in painting classes. I have to say, props to my mother because I then got obsessed with throwing paint at canvases and basically dropped Mythomagic. At least until I discovered there were other former Mythomaniacs at Camp Half-Blood. As for tonight, it's the Mythomagic tournament and just my luck, in my first match I am paired with the last tourney's champion.

"Sorry, Rachel." In a not-so-sorry manner, the son of Hades slides forward his last figurine with a flourish. "Stealth and power win again."

It takes me a second to realize that I lost. Devastatingly.

"Ugh, I miss it when you were more emo than theatrical," I tease, as I peer at the figurines placed strategically at the center of the table. Only now it is clear that Nico had a gambit in mind the entire time.

"So I've been to dying to ask," Nico says, his dark eyes lit up in humour, "Are Percy and Annabeth really going to get a dog?"

I chuckle. "Yeah, Annabeth told me right before the match that Dorothea is gonna get a new friend. Her words not mine."

As I begin to gather my defeated figurines, opposite of me Nico leans back contentedly as if to admire his performance in the game. In his hand, he begins to fiddle with the figurine that dealt the final blow.

"Good to hear," Nico tells me, with a satisfied grin. "My dad's been nagging me to take a few abandoned hellhound puppies up here. Apparently, with no big heroic quests lately, Hephaestus TV's been mostly reruns and Persephone's getting bored. She wants to start a hellhound sanctuary and my dad hates it. Hades is always complaining about puppy poop all over the palace."

He places the figurine back on the table. The statuette appears to be grinning at me as well. A hellhound.

Nico leans forward. "Between you and me, I already have a hellhound puppy for Percy and Annabeth in mind. A real rascal but I think they can handle it, especially now that Annabeth's come around."

"They'd be terrific hellhound owners," I assent, "Between you and me, better hellhound owners than myself. Also, don't you mean Percy?"

"Nope, I mean Annabeth - she needed some convincing to get a hellhound and as expected, giving you Dorothea did the trick," Nico leans forward. "Rachel, let me tell you something..."

"... That this Mythomagic match is a metaphor for strategically getting Percy and Annabeth a hellhound?" I guess.

"Yes that, but also that dealing with Percy and Annabeth as a couple can be kind of a pain."

Inwardly, I laugh because that's another thing to check off the Percabeth Bingo card: A well-respected half-blood is visibly irritated at Percy and Annabeth antics.

Nico continues, "I tell Percy that I need a place for hellhounds. He suggests New Athens. Never mind - no room for hellhounds at New Athens, says Annabeth according to Percy, even though hellhounds are harmless. Small children might find them scary - there are no small children at Camp Half-Blood, I say. But there might be small children in New Athens. Okay, I go and tell my dad that Camp Half-Blood can't have any more hellhounds. Hades gives me hell, no pun intended. I don't blame him - there is so so much puppy pee everywhere. Then Percy says he wants a hellhound puppy anyway because Mrs. O'Leary is lonely and should have a friend. I say let's give Rachel a puppy - she said she wants a creature in her cave. Percy says, okay, one friend is enough for Mrs. O'Leary. You, Rachel, get a puppy. Persephone is mad at me for taking a puppy. Hades is mad at me for taking the one puppy he actually likes. Annabeth accuses me of trying to manipulate her into getting a puppy by getting you a puppy - she thinks me and Percy are in cahoots. Annabeth is correct - before Percy left for the oceans he asked me to give you Dorothea while he's away so when Annabeth is working long hours designing New Athens, Annabeth is extra inclined to cuddle a puppy and therefore more inclined get a puppy."

I decide not to interrupt his rant. My mind wanders and wonders what sort of onesie would Annabeth make for her and Percy's hellhound.

"The worst part is, after hearing all this, now my boyfriend wants a hellhound puppy but I want a cat," moans Nico.

Oh hello again. You made it to the end of this chapter, hooray. Feel free to tell me in the reviews how much the fanfiction world has changed because I have NOT been reading/writing/watching(?) anything fanfiction-related.