Percabeth after the first war, who haven’t really gotten to be teenagers, who feel both too old and too young for their skin. Who are so so glad that the war is over, but also feel surprisingly lost, because fighting the war has been their future, their purpose, their job for as long as they can really remember
Annabeth and Percy, who do what all adrift teens do when everything is overwhelming and painful and exciting and when it feels like you don’t have a purpose any more:
they make a bucket list.
it starts small. They go clothes shopping together, close enough to Sally’s house that they can get home quick if they need too. They start to develop their own senses of style. They go to a farmers market. They make graffiti at one point and nearly get caught but the entire time they’re giggling through their fingers.
then comes the hair.
it was just a random item on the bucket list: hair dye.
and they were going to get crazy colors, Percy was going to dye his bright teal blue, no hesitation. He was decided. But then they’re standing in the shopping aisle, looking at the colorful boxes, and Percy’s eyes catch on a model, and they have long dark hair that’s just the same shade as Annabeth’s.
and he scans the aisle, and there’s another one, a bright sandy gold, and he turns to Annabeth, who is debating between silver and purple with all the intensity of a teenage war veteran, and says “I have a stupid idea”
they grab a boxed bleach on their way out.
they dye their hair together, and it’s a mess and the dye gets everywhere and it’s not quite even and both of them get a little light headed from the fumes but it’s so much fun
and they refuse to let anyone in the bathroom until their hair is dyed, rinsed and blow dried even though it takes forever because bleaching is a much longer process
when they finally emerge, Sally gasps and then starts to laugh and then Paul joins in and then they’re all laughing.
Percy’s hair is black, Annabeth’s hair is blond.
They’ve switched hair colors. And it’s silly, but it’s also a constant reminder that they’re not alone.
It’s being able to wake up from a nightmare and seeing blond hair on your pillow instead of black and thinking “Percy”. It’s having a bad day where you can’t seem to keep your mind from slipping away from you, then seeing black hair in the corner of your vision and thinking “Annabeth”. It’s a tangible sign that they are connected, that they are alive, and that there is someone who understands. A physical reminder of love.
When their roots grow out, they look at their inverted hair and smile. Like always, they match.
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An overview of Rachel Elizabeth Dare’s hair, and her hairbrush (and why the hairbrush should be appreciated more)
I’ve seen lots of people saying that Rachel bringing a hairbrush is unrealistic, and people with WAVY hair (which is way different from curly hair) saying it's unrealistic too, so this post is telling them why they’re wrong. So I LOVE Rachel, not just because she looks like me (same pasty, easily sunburned skin, and plethora of freckles; her poor bank account, spending so much on sunscreen), but also because I relate to her so much! One reason I relate to her is that HER HAIR LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE MINE, HER OFFICIAL ART HAIR LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE MY HAIR, way too curly, way too frizzy, and easily tangled. So, for all the straight-haired people reading this (also I will be showing this to all my friends, all of whom have straight or wavy hair, except one of them has two waves down the back of her hair and is delusional because she thinks her hair is curly) this is my hair brushing routine and other things about my hair so you understand what I mean when I say that taking care of hair like that is HARD:
I take a shower and use curly hair-specific shampoo (which is expensive)
I also do a wash-out untangle thing to make it easier to brush
I use curly hair-specific conditioner, a detangling spray, and two hair mask things to make the brushing easier
I use either a WET brush or a detangling brush, but usually the WET brush
I keep a spray bottle on hand to keep it wet the whole time
It takes at least 30-45 minutes for me to brush my hair
I wash my hair out again to get the conditioner and hair masks out
I use a wide tooth comb after that because water makes it a little tangled
Sometimes after that, I use a leave-in conditioner, but not often
If I brushed it for a fancy event or something then I use my diffuser to dry it, if not I braid it and go to bed because I take night showers unless it's a fancy event or sometimes a weekend
I sleep in a silk bonnet and use only a silk pillowcase
I can only brush my hair wet
I can’t run my fingers through it a lot
I have to go to a haircut place that specializes in curly hair
I can't brush it in the morning or casually
I brush it every three days because I can’t get it wet lots because that's bad for it
To get the Frizz™ that’s on the top of my head every morning to calm down when I put it up I wet it with my sink water
The only hair ties I can use in my hair on a normal basis are scrunchies
I only wear my hair down the day after or after I brush my hair
I wear it up every day
My friends can't do my hair a lot of the time unless I instruct them or find a tutorial video of a style of curly hair like mine, and they call me controlling when I do that
My friends with wavy hair say that wavy hair is harder to take care of than curly hair and I hate it because they don’t know what they’re talking about
If I don’t brush my hair it all becomes one giant matt on the back of my head and if that goes on too long it becomes painful and I get a scalp rash
Buying products is an expensive necessity
One I hadn’t brushed my hair for a week and when I took it down to redo my bun my friend looked at me in Horror™
Only one of my friends actually puts in the work to do my hair and helps me with it because she enjoys styling it and understands it’s hard to take care of after helping me brush it a few times, surprise surprise she’s my best friend
No hair clips, they get stuck in my hair
Once I was brushing it and my hairbrush just broke in half
I have an undercut that you can’t see with my hair down, just to make it easier to deal with; it’s an inch-or-half-an-inch-idk-which-one-thick, inch tall stripe that’s right above the back of my neck, at the base of my skull
I shed like a fucking dog
My hair also becomes so frizzy it looks like I brushed it dry when it's humid, and I live in a humid and hot place
Ginger hair makes you sunburn easier (and unable to tan)
I got bullied in school for being ginger because there’s something wrong with that in the minds of middle schoolers (I was also bullied for being gay and not ashamed of being queer but that’s not the point)
I would be called a leprechaun a lot as a kid, Saint Patrick's Day was and still is hell
Every time someone with straight hair complains about their hair being frizzy, I die a little more inside
Being pale an ginger, doing makeup, dying hair, and literally buying clothes is hard
especially makeup
I use the palest concealer they have at Target (it's called porcelain)
That’s all I can think of right now but I know there’s more. It’s entirely realistic that Rachel would bring a hairbrush because she has experienced all of this, and all of this started to happen to me when I was years younger than her. I said that I couldn’t brush my hair dry and Rachel could have had to, or maybe she would have waited for a part of the labyrinth with water to wet it and then brushed it, or had Percy use his water powers to wet it (Platonic Perachel is amazing, and I need more of it, they’re one of my fav brotps). So anyways guys, respect Rachel and stop questioning her hairbrush, they were in the labyrinth for a while, she needed that thing and it had done its fair share of service. That hairbrush has done more than being thrown at Kronos' eye.
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