Annabeth

I'll have to admit, What Percy had done might have been a new record in terms of perfectly timing something he did for me. Just when I had gotten too exhausted to keep going (Tartarus was still affecting me like that) Percy had made a platform appear in the water. A small part of me hadn't fully realized that Percy had constantly been there, so me being exhausted far from shore wasn't really a dangerous thing and Percy making the boat appear hadn't really saved my life. That small part loved him excessively for that. The rest just loved him a normal amount for being there. I had also liked when Percy had dried me up after realizing I was cold. But when he had gotten the blanket out and wrapped me in it, that was when I completely lost it in a strictly positive way. I moved my arm to open the blanket wrap. I wanted to give him a hug right now so I motioned for him to come to me which he almost immediately did. I then wrapped the blanket around both of us and gave him said hug. As we sat there cuddling, the boat slowly drifted to shore. "Sorry if I came off rough" "What do you mean?" "When I let you under the blanket and gave you a hug I felt like I had done so very aggressively" "It was a bit sudden, but I wouldn't call it aggressive" "Good. You know that feeling when a monster hurts you, or rather hurts me, and you really, really want to stab it for what it has done?" "Sure, happens all the time" Okay, I know Percy can be a bit overprotective of me, but here's the thing: During my early life, people didn't really care about me or my safety, so having someone who was always there to make sure I was alright was actually something I liked because I had lacked it in childhood. That was also the reason why I had enjoyed the cuddles and validation Percy had given me earlier as much. "Well, I just got that feeling, except with hugging instead of stabbing." "I guess that's one way of putting it. But yeah, relatable. I don't think I even have the willpower to let go of you right now." I looked to the beach and saw someone standing about 50 meters away from us. I had a feeling it was Piper. Apparently her Percabeth sensor had finally kicked in. Or maybe she was doing a cupids arrow thing and increasing our feelings. It made sense, both because she appeared to be focusing and because my feelings were unusually strong. Don't get me wrong, I always loved Percy (Yes, even when he was an annoying little seaweed brain, especially then) but this was still extreme. I decided not to tell Percy and just let him enjoy the moment. We shared another kiss before the boat reached the shoreline. I wanted to get off but Percy stopped me. "Want me to send us to my cabin?" "Well, the lake is here and your cabin is over there" "Hey, I'm a child of Poseidon and that means that the area I can use my boat on ends where I want it to" He summoned a wave that carried us all the way to cabin three where it disappeared into the ground which probably wasn't great for the latter's structural integrity. Luckily, the ground was very even in this area, so the risk of causing a landslide was minimal. Well, it wouldn't have been the first natural disaster caused by Percy *cough* Mount St Helen's *cough*

Once we were changed back (I always had a stash of my clothes at Percy's cabin just in case) I realized that it was time to go back to school. "Guess it's time to say goodbye now" I told Percy. This part never got any easier. If anything, it kept getting harder due to the trauma that tended to accumulate whenever we were separated. "Yeah, see you soon" He gave me one last hug before I left his cabin to go find Piper and small Damasen. But before I did that, I paid cabin 14 a visit.

I found both of them together on the beach. "Did you do anything?" Was the first thing I asked. "When?" "When Percy and I were on the boat, our emotions were really strong. Did you have anything to do with that?" "I have no idea what you're talking about" Piper said. I almost believed her, but then I noticed that the last sentence had practically been dripping with charm speak and why would Piper use charm speak on a true statement. "Why would you lie to me like that? I thought I could trust you" I said. My statement was only slightly more honest than Piper's had been. "Fine, it was me. You two were looking super cute together and I decided to just…. dial up the love a bit. Please don't get mad at me. You're scary when you're angry" I decided that as punishment for interfering with my emotions, Piper would be sentenced to 10 seconds of death glare. "But to be honest, thank you. I could really use a little dopamine rush. I see our transport is already ready." Seconds later, we were back in our dorm room, just seconds before being called for dinner.

"I'd say operation-give-Nico-a-hug was a full success. Like, we actually gave him a hug" "And he was the happiest I've seen him in a while" "The same could be said about you. Today was the first day in almost a week without a flashback I think. Also, when you were on that boat with Percy you just seemed so happy, even before I increased your feelings." "Well, it was a great day. I heard you told Percy something about Annie" "Oh, it was just that she once mentioned that she liked being in small spaces because it scares her when she's exposed" "Well, Percy apparently decided that the best course of action would be to steal a bunch of cardboard and make a little room out of it. She absolutely loved it" "Y'all are so lucky to have him. If I'm being honest, he seems a little too protective over you" "Perhaps by regular standards, but for me it's playing right into my trauma, but like in a good way. As in, my trauma makes me like it." "And I am once again realizing that all of personality is influenced by your trauma" "All of my personalities to be exact" "That doesn't make it better" "I know. Now let's get to dinner"

During dinner, I thought about what Percy had done. I had a suspicion that he had specifically waited with raising the boat until I was not only exhausted but also far from shore, so I would perceive the situation as dangerous, making the "rescue" a bigger deal. I guess that's technically a form of manipulate behavior. I decided to discuss this with Piper later.

After dinner, we went back up to our room.

"So, random question, if someone puts you in a specific situation that changes the meaning of their actions in order to influence the perception you have of them, would that be considered manipulate behavior?" "I understood about half of what you just said but I'd say it does sound manipulative. Can you give an example?" "As you know, when we were in the lake, Percy made a boat appear so I'd have something to rest on. But here's the thing: Percy waited until I was exhausted and far from shore before doing it. Because of this, I really needed a place to rest, so what he did was a bigger deal than it should have been." "So he's tricking you into thinking he did more for you than he actually did?" "I guess" "But why would he manipulate you? He loves you more than anything" "I never said he was using those methods to harm me. I mean, I'd never use them like that. And I don't see how what he did would cause me any harm apart from making me slightly worried. My interpretation is the following: One way people express their love for each other is by protecting each other. However, your ability to protect someone is limited by how much danger they are actually in. Maybe Percy made the true assumption that if I felt like I was in danger, he would be better able to protect me and show his love and so he put me in a danger- that's not actually true. He allowed me to put myself into a situation which I considered a bit dangerous. This worked so well because of my tendency to initially overestimate how well I will handle a given situation. I thought I could swim far away from shore and get back easily, but then I realized I couldn't, or at least it would be very hard. That's when Percy decided to help me. That way, it seemed like he helped me a lot more than he actually had, meaning that he could better express his love for me. Basically, he used tactics related to manipulate behavior to make me feel loved which is completely fine. Why would I not be okay with that?" "You not being okay with something doesn't necessari-" "Stop making this seem like a bad thing. It's fine. He loves me so much he can't express it directly" "Alright, Percy loves you and he's not really being manipulative. I get it." "Good."

We sat in silence for a few seconds. Then I had a stupid idea. I turned to Piper, trying to look as scared as possible while also tensing up my whole body. Piper reacted almost immediately. "Annabeth, can you hear me?" "Yes" I answered, but with my voice sounding like how I thought would sound in a flashback "What can you see?" "A dorm room" "What date do we have" "I'm not sure" I answered. "But I think it's the day where you were tricked into thinking I'm having a flashback" In that moment, I broke character and began laughing instead "That wasn't funny, Annabeth" "Personally, I think it was. You should have seen your face" "You can't just fake a flashback. That's a serious thing" "Did you never fake being sick? Sicknesses can also be serious, but no one cares about that" "That makes sense" "Also, I know how serious flashbacks are, I've had hundreds it not thousands of them over my life. I mostly just wanted to know how you'd react" "Don't you know how I react from your actual flashbacks" "The whole thing about flashbacks is kind of that memory filing doesn't work, so I don't remember that much of my own flashbacks" "Oh, I guess it's the same for me. Do you also do this for Percy?" "I think I've done it once. He was a bit annoyed but after helping me through so many flashbacks, one more didn't really make a difference, also he was just relieved that I wasn't actually suffering" "You're really good at justifying your actions" "Well, if something is not justifiable, why do it in the first place?" "I guess that makes sense. But still, faking a flashback is kind of mean" "I won't do it again, at least not to you. Why even would I? I already know what your reaction to it is, so there's no reason for me to do it again. I wonder if I got any messages" I took my laptop out and opened my self-coded communication software. There were a few new messages. The first was a voice message from Annie where she said that she liked the idea of this communication method. "Is that what her voice sounds like in this world? It's a bit lower than in the inner world. I guess the body is just not physically able to do her true voice" "That's pretty much what she sounds like. Still cute as Hades though, right?" "Definitely" "Okay, any idea how to pronounce this name?" "That would be Thalce. Like Thalia's nickname Thals. I have no idea why it's spelled with a ce at the end. I only met him once and he didn't tell me" "I might actually know him. Did his voice sound like a mix of Percy and Thalia?" "That's probably the best you could describe it" "Then I actually know him. I met him once or twice in the inner world, but he never had the time to tell me his name." I read his message

Hey there. I'm Thalce. I'm just testing if this thing here works. Did you code this yourself Annabeth? If so, good job. Very intuitive and easy to use. Well, gotta go now. See you maybe soon-ish

"Not very informative, but at least some communication is happening. This is definitely better than individual sentences or even just words floating around my brain."

This day did actually end up finishing without me having any real flashbacks. We just got ready for bed as usual and nothing extremely bad happened. We eventually began talking about the dates we had been on with our boyfriends "…The dam snack bar. I ordered a piña colada-" "You know what that always reminds me of? That one song. 'I was tired of my lady…'" "Wait, don't sign it, it might trigger me" was what I wanted to say, but I was suddenly super dissociated.

Piper

"… I read the paper in bed. Annabeth, you okay?" I had noticed Annabeth looking weird, like she was switching. Had I just triggered that? In that case I would have broken the rule of never intentionally triggering anyone, even if it was a positive trigger. On the other hand, this hadn't been Intentional so I was probably fine. But even if it wasn't, Annabeth never stayed angry with me for long. I waited for the switch to finish and whoever was out to be (or at least appear to be) grounded enough for a conversation. "Hi, who is this?" I asked. "Chris" "Hi, yeah, uh, sorry for triggering you" "You don't need to apologize to me. If anyone, you need to apologize to Annabeth." "But I triggering you out" "Think about it. If you hire a new employee and fire an old one to make space, whom would you have to apologize too. The former employee or the new one?" "The former one" "Exactly, your singing brought me to front which I don't mind, but Annabeth got kicked away from the front, so she might be angry" "Then I better watch out. Annabeth against you is not something you want" "I'm sure she's far less scary than what I have seen" "I don't know what you've seen, but I think you're right" "Let's just say things happened down there that made us change our views on Percy. Saying it was terrifying would be an understatement." I remembered what Annabeth had told me shortly after the house of Hades. Percy had apparently controlled a puddle of poison and attempted to drown a goddess in it. I didn't really know the details since Annabeth had told me about this, she was crying and also really terrified so I hadn't really understood everything she said. She might have even been partially in a flashback. After this incident, Annabeth had also canceled her plan to give Percy a list of the things he might be able to do with his powers because she was too afraid of what he might do. "I mean, Percy was by far not the scariest thing I saw down there but that's not a very high bar. Like, if you say less scary equals higher, it's low because everything was very scary." I could tell he was telling the truth because he still sounded genuinely scared and also why would he lie? "Do you still find it scary? Like right now? If so, that's completely valid. Sometimes I'm still scared when I think about how my dad was kidnapped and that was a lot longer ago" "A bit I guess" "Anything I can do about it?" "Not really. Well, there is one thing…" "Just tell me what it is. I won't judge" "Could you sing the song again. It gives me a feeling of safety and it tells me that the trauma is over" "Of course. And in the personal columns…" The music did its job and Chris seemed less scared than before. "Thanks, this really helped me. It also probably annoyed everyone else, or at least anyone who's near the front." "What does that actually mean? I know you have this cockpit thing, but what else is there. Does close to front actually mean that you're close to the cockpit? How far away from it can you get?" "I could answer your questions now, but I think if we actually showed it to you, with like a 3D model, it would be easier. Unfortunately, I have no idea how 3D modeling works so no answers for you. Anyways, what time even is it?" "Three minutes till lights out." "Then I guess there will be no explanation until tomorrow." I got my dagger out from my bag and put it on the night stand. "Why did you do that?" "It's just to give off some light once the main lights are off. I think Annie actually started that because she was scared in the dark" "Makes sense. Not only because she's a child but also because she grew up in the wild, at least in regards to monsters, so any dark place meant uncertainty and uncertainty meant a potential threat." "If that had happened to me, I'd also be scared of the dark" "Well, good night then Piper" Chris said after getting out Annabeth's dagger and putting it next to mine. "Good night, Chris. See you maybe tomorrow"