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SAVE THE EARTH SIBS AU
[ this world is earth as we know it in modern days, but some people here were once upon a time elsewhere. in different worlds, as different people, with different lives. they were all reborn here for vague reasons as of yet unknown, souls tied to new lives and new bodies, but the core of them all remains. and sometimes there are echoes. the first memory always comes with the numbers. a string of random code that, when written on any surface, opens a network of people like you. people who are remembering lives that once were. people who are getting echoes of that past.
echoes come in many flavors. the color your hair used to be. what your name was. how to speak a language you forgot. a skill you never had in this life, but had in the other. a memory. there's no telling what it will be, although they tend to be tied to what you experience, what triggers them. seeing a face from a past life might bring a memory of that person. someone saying something they once said might bring that memory. doing something you once did might bring back a skill in full force. after the first echo, they all come. sometimes more of them come when Weird Shit happens, when they have to fight against the mysterious forces gathering.
before anything occurs, annabeth clarke lives a perfectly average life by anyone's standards. she has a mother and a father. she has an older brother. they have a dog. at school she gets straight a's and she's on the track team. she has friends, although she'd call her brother luke her best friend, older or no. her childhood was an ordinary if happy affair, and she wants nothing more than to graduate high school and attend a college near enough to visit her family when she pleases.
it changes when she gets her first echo. the first thing that doesn't quite fit, overlaid with the rest of it. there's a boy named percy who's on the swim team for another school and she's there for a friend and she meets his eyes and it clicks. she's seen those eyes before.
he drools in his sleep.
it's not a guess but a memory, a memory of something she doesn't and couldn't know, and it's baffling as anything, as are the numbers. she ditches the meet as quickly as she can and tries not to think about them. but other things keep coming back, in different ways and at different times. a spider crawls up her leg and she remembers them covering her entirely in webs, crawling over her skin, and spiders hate annabeth from that moment on. her brother's girlfriend tosses her a college pamphlet and she remembers different pamphlets that were meant for thalia that made no sense. luke ruffles her hair and she finds an orange shirt in the back of her closet that she never bought. they have a fencing day in gym and annabeth suddenly knows how to use a sword.
she goes to another swim meet in another town and sees that boy again. this time he has a shock of gray in his hair and she remembers her brother - different, but it's luke - being crushed beneath the weight of something, remembers taking it willingly and then there was nothing but pain and a weight she couldn't bear, but had to.
annabeth ditches the meet again, sending an apology text to her friend. by the time she's home it's dark and she goes up to luke's room. she hasn't said a word about the echoes, has only watched the network of people with disjointed memories and skills off and on, but this time she goes straight to her brother's room. opens the door, drops onto his bed and punches him in the shoulder. ]
Luke? [ a memory where luke walked away makes her think she's going crazy. she's been thinking that forever, though. so annabeth, now with a streak of gray in her hair, just wants the comfort of her dumb older brother being his usual self. at...late at night. but he can put up with it because he loves her, right? ]
echoes come in many flavors. the color your hair used to be. what your name was. how to speak a language you forgot. a skill you never had in this life, but had in the other. a memory. there's no telling what it will be, although they tend to be tied to what you experience, what triggers them. seeing a face from a past life might bring a memory of that person. someone saying something they once said might bring that memory. doing something you once did might bring back a skill in full force. after the first echo, they all come. sometimes more of them come when Weird Shit happens, when they have to fight against the mysterious forces gathering.
before anything occurs, annabeth clarke lives a perfectly average life by anyone's standards. she has a mother and a father. she has an older brother. they have a dog. at school she gets straight a's and she's on the track team. she has friends, although she'd call her brother luke her best friend, older or no. her childhood was an ordinary if happy affair, and she wants nothing more than to graduate high school and attend a college near enough to visit her family when she pleases.
it changes when she gets her first echo. the first thing that doesn't quite fit, overlaid with the rest of it. there's a boy named percy who's on the swim team for another school and she's there for a friend and she meets his eyes and it clicks. she's seen those eyes before.
he drools in his sleep.
it's not a guess but a memory, a memory of something she doesn't and couldn't know, and it's baffling as anything, as are the numbers. she ditches the meet as quickly as she can and tries not to think about them. but other things keep coming back, in different ways and at different times. a spider crawls up her leg and she remembers them covering her entirely in webs, crawling over her skin, and spiders hate annabeth from that moment on. her brother's girlfriend tosses her a college pamphlet and she remembers different pamphlets that were meant for thalia that made no sense. luke ruffles her hair and she finds an orange shirt in the back of her closet that she never bought. they have a fencing day in gym and annabeth suddenly knows how to use a sword.
she goes to another swim meet in another town and sees that boy again. this time he has a shock of gray in his hair and she remembers her brother - different, but it's luke - being crushed beneath the weight of something, remembers taking it willingly and then there was nothing but pain and a weight she couldn't bear, but had to.
annabeth ditches the meet again, sending an apology text to her friend. by the time she's home it's dark and she goes up to luke's room. she hasn't said a word about the echoes, has only watched the network of people with disjointed memories and skills off and on, but this time she goes straight to her brother's room. opens the door, drops onto his bed and punches him in the shoulder. ]
Luke? [ a memory where luke walked away makes her think she's going crazy. she's been thinking that forever, though. so annabeth, now with a streak of gray in her hair, just wants the comfort of her dumb older brother being his usual self. at...late at night. but he can put up with it because he loves her, right? ]
no subject
when he shifts, though, she scoots closer to lie down and lets him give her a foot blanket. ew. annabeth doesn't even complain. ]
I promise not to get you up at 5am. [ she does not make any promises about 5:01am. but the devil is in the details. annabeth curls up on her side facing luke, and tries to figure out what he's not saying, or doesn't know how to say.
the idea that he's going crazy (or not) too floats in the back of her mind, but how does she even begin to bring that up? ]
Do you think mom and dad would hire an exterminator?
[ it's the first thing to come to mind. she immediately mentally kicks herself because it sounds dumb and why wouldn't they? but they don't have that big a spider problem, unless annabeth is alone. ]
no subject
Where this came from, he doesn't know. Annabeth hasn't acknowledged it so maybe it's just something she's trying out. He smushes his face further into his pillow but he appears thoughtful at the question.]
Probably if I tell them I've been finding bugs in the back of my closet. [He doesn't have a problem lying to their parents now, a habit he's developed on his own. His lips draw into a line though.] They've been following you? [The question even surprises him. He knows Annabeth isn't fond of spiders and has noticed they seem to appear around her, but he has no reason to think that spiders are truly sentient enough to genuinely pinpoint Annabeth over other members of the family...right?] We can ask them in the morning. I, um. [An awkward pause.] ...got a few things I might need to ask them, too.
no subject
but she goes still when he says following you because it sounds so stupid but it's true. and it's not a thing anyone should be asking her, because it's crazy. spiders aren't out to get people. you can joke about it, but they don't really care about people and she's imagining it, how they start to crowd her.
except she knows she isn't.
luke hesitates, and annabeth watches him, careful. ]
What do you need to ask them? [ what's going on with you? is it what's going on with me? they suck at this and she almost asks but instead she just squeezes his hand. ]
no subject
He allows the gray strand to wind around his finger and his mind is scarily blank. Spiders following young girls, the scent of a bonfire on the wind that he associated with a summer camp he's never been to, things that follow him out of dreams.
Luke hates to lie to Annabeth, but he can bend the truth a little as to not worry her too much even as he grasps her fingers.]
I want to see about making a doctor's appointment to get a prescription for something to help me sleep. I don't want to do melatonin...heard it makes people dream up some pretty weird shit. [It's a start? It's kind of a start.] I bet we can get an exterminator out here tomorrow afternoon if they call first thing in the morning.