[Third Person's PoV]
Lucian and Annabeth sat back-to-back in the middle of the room, surrounded by scattered papers and drawings. Beatrice floated happily on her broom, circling them.
"Alright, so let's recap everything we've decided," Lucian began. "Instead of having two protagonists in the same story, we're creating two separate series. These series will interconnect, happening close together, where they sometimes run into each other."
Annabeth nodded. "Our goal, and the most important part, is the ending. We need to make it appear that there are beings out there trying to destroy the world and rebuild it in their own image. These beings will be gods from different universes, trying to increase their power by spreading their faith. The way they know best is to restart the world from scratch. The protagonists, upon finding this out, will each make it their mission to protect their world. The ending needs to show them going into a deep sleep to create a barrier that keeps these intruder gods out."
Lucian turned towards Beatrice. "Your part in this is key to everything."
Beatrice's expression grew serious as she nodded.
"I'm sorry to do this, but you need to do most of the heavy lifting. You'll have to take on three different identities for this to work."
Beatrice, still serious, shook her head. "Worry not, Master. My purpose is to serve you with my whole being. Whatever you want me to do, I will do without a second thought."
Lucian smiled and nodded. "First, you need to travel the world and create deep, hidden ruins that would be impossible to find, all relating to this. They need to be connected to our story."
"During this time, Annabeth and I will be publishing the books. Then I want you to take on the identity of an archaeologist and 'discover' these very ruins, presenting them to the world."
Annabeth added, "When the ruins are discovered, people will begin to see the connection between our stories and the real world. Lucian and I will take on different identities as the authors. When asked how we came up with the story, we'll say it's a funny story—that we both dreamed it. When we realized we had different dreams about the exact same thing, we decided to write a story based on those dreams."
Lucian pointed to Beatrice. "This is where your other identities come into play. First, you'll be the owner of a book club where you, with a bunch of people, try to dissect every detail of the books. But in reality, you'll be an occultist, the actual leader of one. You'll preach about how everything is coming together, how the story and the ruins are a message from us—the two protagonists in the stories."
"You'll tell people that we need their help, their faith. That the ruins Annabeth's protagonist made were so people wouldn't forget about them, to keep believing. We need people's faith to keep the barrier active, but since people have forgotten, we are growing weaker and the barrier is coming undone."
Lucian took a deep breath to calm himself, as he was getting too excited. Annabeth wasn't any different.
Leaning back on each other, Annabeth sighed. "This is crazy, I hope you know that," she said with a large smile.
Lucian chuckled. "I know... but I'm unexpectedly having so much fun," he said, closing his eyes.
Annabeth also closed her eyes and giggled. "I wasn't complaining."
Annabeth then let out a sigh as they continued their planning, "The books will have lines which Beatrice will take and turn them all into a Bible. Once the Occult gets enough traction it will undoubtedly become a church. When that happens, our identities as authors will be turned into messengers."
"Then we also need to worry about the other gods trying to interfere and stop this. This is why I'm having Beatrice be the main person for all of this. Even if she is killed, she'll just respawn in my shadow," Lucian said.
Annabeth then let out another heavy sigh, "Lucian… I hate to say this… but I think we will need their help."
"Huh? Whose help?" Lucian said, turning to look at Annabeth in confusion.
"The help of the Three Fates—"
"Nope, absolutely not," Lucian adamantly denied without a second thought.
"You think I want to ask for their help as well? I'm thinking about all of the different possibilities, all of the different outcomes, every possible cause and effect. And for the most part, we are relying heavily on luck. You and I both know luck is a very big part of all of this, and we're not always going to be lucky. You yourself said it, Lucian, one of the reasons they chose you is because you were the strongest out of all of the other possibilities."
Lucian let out a loud grumble, "Why did I have to be born so beautiful and irresistible? This is why they say beauty is a curse," he said as he moved around the papers with drawings of ruins and symbols.
Annabeth slowly turned to look at him and gave him a deadpan look.
Lucian closed his eyes as he sighed, "I might be immature for saying this, but I'm still not doing it. It is something I'm sticking to my guns about… but I'll consider it."
Annabeth smiled as she nodded, "It was only a suggestion anyways. Now for the titles for our books."
"I already thought of mine, here," Lucian said, sliding a piece of paper with a title.
Annabeth picked it up and looked at the design of the title. It was dark red with black smoke coming out of it. She then read it out loud, "Ascension Through Paradoxes: Book 1: Arise."
Annabeth nodded her head, "Much better than the one you first suggested."
"Are you really throwing shade right now?"
"No?"
"Good, then. What's yours?"
It was Annabeth's turn to present her title to Lucian. He saw how it was made out of grey, crumbling stone, like it would break apart any minute now. "A Journey Through Ruins: Book 1: Awakening."
"This is good," Lucian said with an impressed look.
Annabeth smiled and nodded her head, "Obviously."
Annabeth suddenly had an idea. She used her recently gained ability and projected a 3D blueprint of a ruin.
"Oh?" Lucian said as he looked at it.
"With this, we can create ideas for ruins, thus making it perfect. Actually, I think this should help me advance with my potion, since we'll be making more than one, don't you think?" she smirked, as the 3D image slowly spun around in front of her.
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A/N: A few things I want to say…
First, everyone's idea was amazing. I really had a tough time choosing, so I combined some of the best ones I saw. I hope you liked them
Second, I actually started a patron like many Suggested, as some of you who read my other fics have seen. Although I don't really have advanced chapters for my 3 fics… but I do have a new one, yall can check out, Just exclusive to Patron, it's called [I Am Iron-Man (MHA)], it has 12 chapters 👉👈
patreon.com/Shadow_D_Monarch3
And Third, it's something I keep wanting to mention but keep on forgetting and then remembering after I post the chapter. This Fic is the first of one out of all my fics to reach 20k in collections, which in my opinion is absolutely crazy, since all of the great fics I have seen have been around the 20k collection mark, so seeing this for something I myself created it's mind blowing in my opinion. I just wanted to thank everyone for the support 🙏 ❤