[3] 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐒 ― p.jackson, l.valdez

011.

「011. hocus pocus...idk i didn't watch the movie」

BARBIE'S LEGS better've been toned as fuck after all the walking she was doing. honestly most of the walking was a blur. but she did remember quite literally stumbling over the second titan. after entering the storm front, they plodded on for what really did seem like hours, relying on the light of percy's celestial bronze blade, and on bob- who glowed faintly in the dark like some sort of crazy janitor angel, or perhaps a walking glow-stick. either way, it was slightly weird. if real-jerald where here you could've summoned a flashlight, her spiteful part of her mind (who she was nicknaming fake-jerald out of pure loneliness for not having jerald with her) said, you fucked that over, didn't you?

shut up, fake-jerald, barbie snapped to her mind.

make me, bitch.

barbie decided real-jerald was far nicer to converse to.

barbie could only see about five feet in front of her. in some sort of strange way, tartarus reminded her of whenever she stayed with her dad and arjun. she always used her old room, which had only gotten a slight makeover. the warm glow of her fairy lights was something so nostalgic and homely to her. it made her miss the mortal world even more.

except here in tartarus, the fog was made of ink. rocks loomed out of nowhere. pits appeared at their feet, and all of them had barely avoided falling in. monstrous roars echoed in the gloom, but barbie genuinely just couldn't tell where they came from. all she could be certain of was that the terrain was still sloping down. down seemed to be the only direction allowed in tartarus.

if she backtracked even a step, she felt tired and heavy, as if gravity were increasing to discourage her. assuming that the entire pit was the body of tartarus, barbie had this really nasty feeling they were marching straight down his throat. she was so preoccupied with that thought she didn't notice the ledge until it was too late.

percy yelled, "whoa!"

he grabbed for her arm, but she was already falling. fortunately, it was only a shallow depression. most of it was filled with a monster blister. she had a soft landing on a warm bouncy surface and was feeling lucky – until she opened her eyes and found herself staring through a glowing gold membrane at another, much larger face. she screamed and flailed, toppling sideways off the mound, hearing a shrill rippp sound.

her heart did a hundred jumping jacks. percy helped her to her feet. "you okay?"

"am i okay?" she hissed, not really caring about herself once she'd hear the ripping sound, "is my fucking dress okay? i think my heart was just stabbed!"

"wait your heart was-"

"my pride and joy!" she wailed loudly, not giving two shits if a monster came right now. pushing aside the dramatics of mourning her dress- she'd worked hard to sew it together. broken several needles and had needed leo to cast her a celestial bronze one. she'd gotten a whole roll of celestial bronze infused fabric from her mom. she thought it was unbreakable. she thought it was invincible. yet here she was, glaring at the side of her dress as a thin piece of fabric glinted.

"barbie," annabeth spoke in an even voice, "c'mon... monster could- you can't just-"

she was quite good at keeping her temper even usually. this was not usually.

she stomped her foot on the ground, glaring at annabeth and then her dress, "i worked so hard for this. i worked tirelessly for days on this dress- made sure the heming was just right. i made sure that it was perfect, i made sure that... that everything was good. that it was okay- that it wouldn't rip, i sewed the perfect dress. i-"