We Met on the Internet (Percabeth AU)

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Annabeth

You're taking what you want right from me 
Wrapped up in so much Life is just the way you hold me 
You pick your miscellaneously 
Wrapped up in all the choices you're not giving to me

It's all repeating again. 

Just consistently repeating over and over again. 

The days, the weeks, the hours. All of the same activity. Nothing at all. I see friends, family, people, go on walks, look at happy perfect families, with their perfect kids, and their perfect golden retriever. I smile at them on some level, it's not as if anyone could see my face with this mask on, no one will see my smile so all I do is crease my eyes, make it look as if I'm content since nothing else really matters. 

The daily routine has become the same every single day. Having any sort of steadiness in my life would satisfy me a year ago but now all it does is make me feel sick to my stomach. 

I wake up half an hour before classes, stay in my bed scrolling through posts on Tik Tok or Instagram or Pinterest until I get my laptop from the desk where I left it the night before only to crawl back to my bed and attend classes till 1 pm. 

It's been like that for a month. 

I don't have the motivation, none of it. Sure I may still eat and sleep and shower every day, get my work done for the most part at least but anything else? Everything else? It's just there. Not affecting me, not affecting anyone. 

On weekends normally I'd see friends or family but I haven't recently. I just continue the same routine as my school days since I have no idea what else to do. 

Today was a Saturday from what my surroundings were like. I woke up to my phone alarm at 11 am, wishing I let myself sleep an extra hour at least. I grab my laptop and hop back into the blankets. 

When I open it there are some notifications, from friends. People that go to my school I suppose, most of them I have no idea what their names or faces are but that doesn't stop me from being on the same servers as them or liking their Instagram posts. 

On discord, there are a number of notifications from servers, but no DMs. I open them up one by one, first checking any rant or vent channels then ignoring the rest. I used to be active on these, I'd talk to random people in the same fandoms as me, make new friends, not caring about all the stuff people said about meeting friends online. 

Now I just make sure people are alright? They probably aren't but if they don't want to talk to me there isn't anything I can do about that. 

Turns out there was one DM. 

From Piper. 

We were "Best Friends Forever" or whatever you call it last year. We'd see each other after school, eat lunch with each other, be there for each other. Maybe we still would be if I stopped making an effort. 

There was a message along with an invite. 

Piper: hey anna, join if you want. theres some kids from school and people we met online too. 

It was a simple invite to another server. 71 people in total. 38 Online. I don't know why but I join. Maybe it's because 72 is a nice number, multiples of 9 usually are. But now that I joined I got myself into something I suppose. 

I look through. It's organized, pleasant to the eye. 

I read through the roles knowing it'd be pointless considering I'd probably never even say anything but that didn't matter at the moment. 

I go to roles, checking off whatever. 

Pronouns: She/Her
Color: Grey
Sexuality: Bisexual
Age: 15 - 17
DMs: Open

And that was all. 

I don't have a clue what else to do so I just open another tab, thinking of possible things to type out of boredom. 

All of a sudden the messenger goes from grey to a red "1." 

Opening the main chat where the ping was I see something. It's just a message but it makes me feel better. 

percy: hiii helloooo heyy welcome @annabeth 

Word Count: 707

Authors Note: here we have a classic online friendship- wait no- friendship? not sure. maybe enemies? we'll see. anyways i was bored and here we have it. percabeth meeting online, the pandemic and all, stuck at home like the rest of us. i know this chapter was pretty- fine it was completely boring especially with the lack of dialogue but i think it might pick up soon. OH AND if your reading this and you haven't today or even if you have idc, go get something to eat, go drink water, or go to sleep or all three depending on what you need. you deserve it and i believe in you.