robowest | [ DEPARTURE ]

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game: end

[ DEPARTURE ]

DEPARTURE

It's time to go.

Most people are on the train by now. Settled into their cabins and among friends and loved ones. There are only three new arrivals left to board and once they do, Hal pulls a conductor's hat out from underneath the bar, tugs it on, and steps around it to the middle of the train. He opens his mouth to talk, voice filling the train.

"It's time to go. Stops happen once a day until everyone's departed and I already have your stopped listed. If you'd like to be prioritized, let me know, otherwise we'll go in order of death. Settle in and enjoy the ride. If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask, folks."

This, of course, means that those who died earliest (Manfred, Higekiri) will depart first while those who died latest (Barnham, Damian, Percy) will depart last. There's a stop for everyone, though those who want to get off together are more than welcome to. Hal pulls a notepad and pen out of his pocket later and people will notice that he goes around the train confirming stops with everyone. Whatever feeling Hal may have had to a character back in town isn't noticeable here -- he is simply a robot assigned with a job.

After that, it's all a matter of settling in and enjoying the ride. If that's possible for you, at least.

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[ like. say the wrong thing, jackson, and you're going to get up close and personal with the train floor? it will almost probably happen, but for now she's just hugging back exactly as tight. probably too tight. whoops. that's what he gets for this? ]

If you ever keep anything from me ever again you're going to be in so much trouble.

[ it wasn't like he had a choice? she doesn't even sound truly angry. he's actually heard her when she's furious with him, and while she's kind of angry it's more directed at the situation than percy himself.

...for now.

this is terrible comfort what the fuck scolding him? instead of saying something useful? but really this is how he can tell this is actually really truly annabeth, yes. she sure is a person. ]

[In a way it's actually better. He has her back. He has her back and he pulls back just enough to look at her carefully.

This...is Annabeth Chase. This is the girl with the beautiful blonde princess curls, the girl who can kick his ass six ways to Sunday, the girl with the beautiful Californian looks and the smartest person he's ever met. This is the girl who smirks when she's victorious, lets her eyebrows pinch together when she's worried, laughs and calls him Seaweed Brain in the most loving way possible, tried to tear down the world to find him, specifically, the girl he jumped straight into the Underworld for.

This is his true home. This is everything that matters in the world and even if she's scolding him, even if she's not telling him everything's okay, that's how he knows. This is Annabeth and he loves her deeply, more than he did before the fall.

It's why he says nothing for a moment. And then, softly:] Yeah, I know. [Without further warning he moves forward, cutting her off with a kiss. It's a little insistent and a little needy but it's pouring out weeks of apologies and worries, hours of stress and determination and thousands upon thousands of minutes of thinking about her every step of the way. In the end, the methods were messed up. But the ending was still just what he wanted.]

[ oh, okay. there's no resistance at all to the kiss and it's a shade different from any other she can recall. even getting him back from the romans, because things had been okay, then. they're not entirely okay now; percy isn't about to laugh fondly without a hint of everything that's happened the past few weeks and annabeth would probably kill in order for him to be able to do that, but they can't change what happened and she already knows neither of them will ever choose to forget. they're messed around with too often in the natural course of their lives as is.

someday something this terrible will happen again. they're demigods. worse than that, they're heroes. it will always be percy jackson's door that trouble comes to, and neither of them are ever going to be the sort of people who can turn it away. someday percy might have to lose annabeth again, or she will a thousand times lose him and have to fight tooth and nail to get him back. it will never be easy, even if annabeth were the sort of girl who hadn't told him she'd never make things easy on him. the universe isn't nice with heroes. even right now they have to go back and fight gaea with their friends, and they might die or they might not.

it doesn't matter what comes next as long as percy is with her. that has been true for years now, and maybe they'll actually manage to keep it true for years to come, even though demigods have never really lived to be old. she's willing to take on the odds.

that's the fervent feeling she responds with, not gentle when she presses closer.

she is even less gentle when after about two minutes she leans back a little, slow enough that he'll come with her, and at the point where leverage works out right she, you know. slides one leg back so she can balance herself and then hook her hands into his shirt and toss him over her shoulder, breaking the kiss at the last second to do so.

why is she the way she is. she will then proceed to, like, put her hands on her hips and stare down at him. ]

You know I had to do that.

[ DID SHE REALLY, THOUGH? SEEMS FAKE? actually she is the one who died first here and yet percy is unlikely to judo flip her in retaliation. life isn't fair. ]

...I love you. [ this does not quite match up with what just happened but okay. ] In spite of the fact you drive me crazy.

[The world marches on. They have so many things to do, so many lives to save, so many problems to fix. Gaea's still waiting and Percy knows that the moment they get home they'll have to fight her and they'll be closing the Doors of Death. He doesn't know what lies beyond that. He knows they have to fight to get home, but the final piece of the puzzle falls in place the moment he feels her with him.

Annabeth has always had his back. As long as he has her, he can survive anything. He knows that more than ever.

Which is a problem when he's starting to actually enjoy himself, and when he actually starts to follow her thinking that maybe, just maybe, she'd let him get away with this. He should have known it was a false idea though and though he should have seen this coming there's a slightly startled noise of surprise when he finds himself flying through the air and landing on his back again on the train floor.

Just like New Rome. Just like home. He looks up at her with wide green eyes, quirking his lips a little. It's not quite a smile, and it's definitely not a laugh like the last time but she's one of the only people who may be able to see that he's genuinely happy even so. Strangely, he doesn't bother getting off of the ground yet either.]

Love you, too. [There's an equally strange pause.] I drive you crazy and my mid-twenties humor is also probably going to drive you crazy. [He thinks back to their first week here when he was sure even then they would always be together. It's why he watches her quietly before he finally gives her a real grin.]

...we have a lot left to do. And there's nobody else I want with me more than you because that's just how it's always been, you know? I don't want to do this again and I'm never letting you out of my sight again. I can't let that happen. [He's shifting to sit up on his knees. Or. Knee? Percy what are you doing...]

So...what do you think, Wise Girl? After everything's over...will you marry me? [He did tell Natalie he would ask her. That part never changed. (And then again, he's also expecting her to yell at him so his expression's schooled into something partially exasperated and partially fond. It's a default by now.)]

[ there we go, something approaching a smile and not the broken sadness for a second, and then percy just goes and does the thing. which annabeth actually is not expecting? even when he just gets up to his knees - or one knee - her initial thought is not "oh my god my boyfriend's proposing to me" it's "oh my god what an idiot get off the floor and your mid-twenties humor is going to be exactly the same as your teenaged humor, which has not actually improved since we were preteens?". because he's sixteen and she's seventeen and he just killed himself earlier and they have to go fight the mother of gods in a little while and this was somehow nowhere on her priority list. they haven't gone to college? percy has not prepared for college at all he needs a bootcamp or something, and just.

treasure this moment, percy, because annabeth is rarely completely fucking surprised by things he does (or at least not to the degree of being momentarily speechless but that just happened.

...she's briefly tempted to punch him in the face but that's probably not a valid response. neither is gaping at him, though. oh my god? ]

No! [ wait. shit. she didn't mean no, because it's percy and gods help her she's stupid in love with him and it's not really stupid teenage love and hasn't been in months. but. ] I'm not marrying you until we're eighteen. I'm not getting married in the timeframe where we need a note from our parents saying we can.

[ why is this her objection to this situation beyond the fact she absolutely Hates having to obtain permission for shit she wants to do. which implies, of course, that she actually would like to marry him, although "until we're eighteen" also indicated that. ]

And none of this excuses you from going to college, just so you know? You still have midterms and finals to beat after we take care of Gaea, Seaweed Brain. And eventually college applications. You promised.

[ at least she warned him once, but maybe at this point in their lives it bears repeating. ]

I'm never, ever going to make it easy on you, Percy.

[ apparently she is not going to give him a straight yes straight off sorry percy that exasperated and fond expression was probably a good one to put on. give her like. another minute here. ]

[He watches the flicker of emotions in her face, smiling a little wider as she thinks on it and even laughing gently when she immediately says no. That doesn't surprise him. He stays on the ground in that position even as she tells him all of the reasons they can't and as far as he's concerned there's nothing stopping him. The future is better to think of. One more thing to keep him going. He finally digs into his pocket.]

I did say after everything. That includes getting into college and heading for New Rome. [And finally he reveals a jewelry box.] Guess I should just hold onto this?

[ percy. holy shit. good to know the thing that gets him to legitimately smile again is his girlfriend saying "no" to his proposal? even if it wasn't exactly a no so much as conditions. ]

You used your merit on an engagement ring?

[ or, alternately, he literally picked it up in rome. actually neither option would be that surprising.

like. can she talk here, she wasted a bunch of hers on blue food. ]

Not all of it! I used it to get us to go wherever home is and also make it possible for us to send letters and call people from other universes if people agree to that. This was just part of it. [He'll open the box, looking at the ring.] I could always give it back to Hal and just use money we make from our college jobs that could be going to our rent instead if you want. [He's missed this.]

And anyway you started it with the blue food. I had to up the ante.

Did you just ask me to move in with you, too?

[ she's edging away from exasperated to amused. that has to be a good sign? percy, what's next. are you going to bring up kids. shit he's probably going to bring up kids. no, annabeth refuses to be the one who gets blindsided by everything? she holds out her left hand. ]

Since I'm fairly certain you've also already made us into parents [ she will ask for a full list of who he adopted and is dragging back with them in like, a few minutes ] I think you need to let go of the ante and let it rest for a while.

[ there is literally nothing he can ante up further. unless he starts talking about pensions or something? ]

Yes, after everything's over. Or as over as it ever gets, with you. So, after college.

[ or at least getting into college, they can debate the specifics IN A FEW YEARS? ]

You know me. Pushing my luck and all. [But there's a small smile as he scoots forward to slip the ring on her finger. He doesn't let go of her hand though.] After college. That gives you like five years to plan how you want the rest of our lives to go.

[And also defeating Gaea and the like. He deflated a bit then, looking at her silently.]

Now you can ask me whatever you want. I know you. You have a list of questions and maybe a flowchart.

I'll let you have some say.

[ ...maybe. but since he doesn't let go of her hand, she will tug him to his feet so they can like. sit back down on the train bench thing. that would be good? ]

First question: who's coming back with us and is it possible to drop them not in Tartarus?

[Sitrinf is good. He crawls back up onto the bench with her and settled next to her. He wastes little time in resting his head on her shoulder and looping his arms around her waist.]

Natalie, Xion and probably Jason. I told Natalie to take them to my mom and Paul's apartment with an explanation of what happened. Wouldn't be the weirdest thing she's heard.

[ annabeth will for her part lean back against him. ]

Good. That should keep them out of trouble. And they can keep an eye on your family, while they're at it. [ doesn't at least one of them have superpowers? ] While we deal with...everything else.

[ hahaha. ]

Why don't you just tell me about everything else from the start?

They'll be okay. I already told Natalie everything about the city that I thought was important.

[He falls quiet then, snuggling into her shoulder and holding her waist tighter.]

That's a lot. But the important parts...Hal approached me about the coal miner job our first week here. He said that if I told anybody you and I would be disqualified from the game and we couldn't get back home. Nisha knew you and I were dating. But I was working with her until she was executed. Then...in the second week, Damian came to me and told me he was looking for someone to kill someone else to end the game. I didn't realize it at first, but he was telling me he was the Bounty Leader and he was looking for the Deputy. Because of my merit, I was able to get information out of Hal about the game and the roles and everything. I was taking it back to the others. It's how I accidentally found Milla who told me she was a Bounty. We suspected Noctis was because he had information that no one else would know unless they spoke to the Bounty or were the Bounty. With those three together, Hal told them about Shinnosuke being the last Bounty. So...we've been working together for weeks. Natalie told me she was the Doctor and we convinced her to switch the name to Damian for revival.

And...Damian told us he challenged the Deputy to a duel and the Deputy said no. That's how we got a handwriting sample and when I spoke to Will, Will knew why I was asking. He showed me a letter Dr. Lecter wrote to confirm the match. And so I talked to Dr. Lecter and we tried to negotiate but it was too late by then. He knew he was going to die. So...that didn't work.

[There's more. There always is. But first...] Will told me how you died. It's why I trusted Will's guidance.

About how I was put in the stocks? Or how it was mostly a crime of opportunity?

[ she's not going to complain about who percy trusted. his judgement is occasionally questionable in terms of plans of action, but he's usually pretty good at telling when people can be trusted. mostly. kind of. look... ]

I wasn't sure if you were the one who'd gotten the entire story out of Hal or not. I knew someone had, but wasn't sure how to tell you so. We need to think up codewords and phrases in case anyone ever tries to censor things we're saying ever again.

[ an idle aside, but. ]

Your information-gathering was top-notch.

Dr. Lecter told me why you were put in the stocks. And I learned about Russell. Everything came at me all at once and mostly when it was too late. But I got the information I needed. I had to...you weren't here and I had to put effort in. Isn't that what you said to me?

And anyway...[A not-so-subtle snuggle.] Mr. Barnham told me on Sunday. This whole week has been the worst week of all. But...I'm glad it's finally over.

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[ DEPARTURE ]

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i h8 u passionately

probs not enough

I STILL H8 U PASSIONATELY!

:*

>( >( >(

<3333

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