Fall (Percy Jackson x Reader)

twenty-seven

i figured i'd be generous with this chapter, as i know i won't be able to write for a while. i'll try to get another one drafted soon, but i hope i'm being kind enough by uploading this now.

i'm not sorry for the cliffhanger, though ;)

enjoy!!
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For the eighth time in her seventeen years of life, (Y/N) felt less than confident about a quest.

Sure, she's battled Empousai and Hydras, Chimeras and Minotaurs, Drakons and Basilisks and Laestrygonians. She never died—not permanently, at least. She's still standing and breathing and living her dangerous-as-fuck, extremely shitty half-blood life.

But this quest is different.

This is her destined be all, end all.

And she knows more than the others. She knows her responsibilities and she knows that one wrong move means game over. Which is fine on its own. Any mishaps, and her group can cope, find a solution, restart the game—she knows that.

But there's more.

There's so much more that no one can be trusted to know. Just thinking about it makes her shiver involuntarily.

It's disgusting.

"Are you okay?" Clarisse asks, her brow furrowed as she stares at (Y/N)'s distant expression.

The daughter of Persephone blinks, her eyes clearing as she returns her consciousness to the present. "Totally fine," she responds, flashing a smile at the girl in front of her. "You said we'd scout together before splitting up?"

Clarisse nods, hidden relief filling her at the fact that (Y/N) isn't completely out of touch with reality. "That's right. We'll—"

"What in the world is that?"

The girls look over to Annabeth, who leans against the deck railing as she squints at the distance. Intrigued, (Y/N) approaches, Clarisse following just behind. "It looks like a . . . an amusement park?" (Y/N) says, furrowing her eyebrows at the faint outlines of varying roller coasters sat atop a smudge of light green.

"How do you even see that?" Clarisse asks, her hands acting as a visor above her eyes to minimize the morning sun's glare.

Annabeth scoffs lightly. "You get used to it."

(Y/N) rolls her eyes in response, turning her head at the patter of footsteps.

Percy approaches the girls, hands in his pockets and hair in its usual messy state. "What are we lookin' at?" he asks, flashing a gentle smile at his girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

His chest warms at the remembrance.

At the other end of the deck, Reardon's loose finger bone clacks against the algae-covered metal of a pocket telescope. He holds it up to his eyeless eye socket (Annabeth gave up on the logistics of his vision half an hour prior, when he told her to watch her step while nearing a slippery patch on the deck—only for himself to skid across it and bump into a fellow crew member, creating a chaotic domino-type tumble) before announcing to the crew, "Land ho!"

Percy gently nudges (Y/N) to the side, his arm brushing against hers. "Is that an amusement park?" he asks, eyebrows furrowed.

"How the fuck?" Dropping her hands, Clarisse stares at Percy in amazement.

Tyson jumps down from the upper deck, his typically disheveled hair windswept and tangled. "I'm here, I'm here!" He runs up to the railing, looking frantically across the waves. "Where's the sheep?"