So Many Stories
Title: So Many Stories
Author: storm-brain
Pairings: none
Summary: They were all gone, but there stories were clamouring to be told. Rick Riordan as he writes the Lightning Thief. One-shot
Rick stared at the blank virtual paper, drumming his fingers on the keyboard. Clippie popped up in the corner, and he immediately clicked ‘hide office assistant’.
His one room apartment was dark, and the power flickered threateningly as the wind raged outside. Nervously, he checked the power on his laptop, and disconnected it from the wall. The battery symbol popped up.
Just do it. He told himself. The mortals will blow it off as fiction, and you need the money.
He typed a few words, the keys making loud clacking noises. He stopped, read them over, and held down the backspace key until they disappeared.
And then the stories. There was no higher honor then being remembered forever. They thought they could defeat the titans- them, a group of kids under twenty. But they couldn’t leave the fighting to the adults. The adults had been killed already.
All the stories, clamoring to be told. He would change their names, of course, every half blood would know their real ones.
Sisys, his best friend, the satyr who had not survived his second meeting with Medusa. His statue stood in the corner, watching him work with sad eyes.
Leo Flint, the son of Apollo who had been taken down in the first battle. The first of many, many battles.
Cooper and Trevor Snag, the brother sons of Hermes. Killed on the same day when they met a dracane in a dark alley when smuggling some junk food for the campers.
Clara Brumsfert, the daughter of Ares he had actually sort of been friends with her last couple years… she had been lost in the labyrinth, with her boyfriend, Charles Rodreg (Who’s sanity had been restored by Mr. D) had entered by accident and she went looking for him.
Nick von Angels, who had mourned his sister Bailey until he was killed by Kampê at the age of fourteen.
Zelda Moontwig, old lieutenant of the hunt and daughter of Atlas, who had saved his life several times on their mission for Artemis.
Tanya Glass, daughter of Zeus, who had died saving the Hunt from an army of monsters. A distraught Artemis had told Chiron that there had been hundreds, attacking when she was at the winter solstice meeting and unable to help them.
Miranda Bottlegump, daughter of Aphrodite. Overpowered by an army of Lastrygonians.
His mortal friend Reilly Eliza Willing, found murdered in an alleyway in a case that baffled police. Rick knew better.
His mother, who had died of breast cancer last year.
And finally Beth Ann Follow, who he had thought he loved, but had spent years convincing himself was just a childish crush. She had always been convinced that Logan was still inside the Titans Lord’s body somewhere, and had hesitated a moment too long when he got close.
Rick knew that Chiron would probably let him come to camp as a swords master or something, but he could never walk by those cabin’s again, not when they were haunted with the ghosts of his friends and petty enemies. Even Blackjack had been killed by Thorn the manticore.
He had saved the world, and this was what he got. At least he was still alive.
He hadn’t wanted this. He wished he had never met them. Any of them, if they were just going to be torn away.
With a sigh, he touched his fingers to the keyboard, glad that his dyslexia had lessened with age. As the wind roared outside, Rick Riordan drummed the keys impatiently.
So, so many stories to tell.
After a moment’s thought, he pressed the keys for real, typing the truest words he had ever spoken or written.
Look. I didn’t want to be a half blood…