ισορροπία

there is no way to avoid this mess.

tonight will be madness.

we have reached the base camp of mount bullshit.

it's a fucking taco, okay? it can't hurt you.

i guess i'm gonna have to make your decision for you.

please don't smoke.

you're fucking kidding, right?

tell me why you're here.

i want you to understand something. i am a monster.

tonight, everything i'm doing is pure.

i need to know if you're with us or with them.

you can tell us. are we all really dying tonight?

it doesn't work if you live.

those people are idiots.

i'll handle this. just let me handle this.

what the fuck are you saying?

does that make you feel better?

we work as a team.

i told you, you weren't leaving.

how many times have you eaten here in the last five years?

do you wanna know why you're being punished?

where did you go to school?

i'm pretty sure he doesn't even know about your existence.

you're paying him to serve you.

it doesn't really matter whether he likes you or not.

how'd you get out of there?

i'm the one that got away.

you entitled piece of shit!

i am perfectly capable of deciding when i eat, and what.

you haven't touched your food.

that is not what i meant, and you know it.

he's basically insulting you.

i've been stealing money from you.

here, we are family.

[name], do you want my life?

what do you need?

can i help you?

what the hell are these?

how did you get these?

i noticed you didn't ask his name.

what the fuck does it matter?

do you hear it? do you hear the silence?

do you know how fucked you are?

oh, no, that won't be necessary.

you aspire to greatness, but you'll never achieve it.

sorry. you're dying.

unfortunately, i think my eyes were a little bigger than my stomach.

can i get the rest to go?

i don't like your food.

what did you say?

you've taken the joy out of eating.

when i eat your food, it tastes like it was made with no love.

everyone knows love is the most important ingredient.

you're kidding yourself.

this is one of them.

your single purpose on this earth is to serve people food that they might actually like, and you have failed.

the worst part is, i'm still fucking hungry.

you've bored me.

you know my name?

how is it?

maybe there's a spare boat somewhere and we can get out of here.

that was a shock! i didn't see that coming!

you will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.

you know what i'd really like? a cheeseburger.

please don't say mouthfeel.

thank you for dining with us tonight.

we must embrace the flame. we must be cleansed.

i love you all.

you told them it was my birthday?

it seemed funny about three hours ago.

now that... is a cheeseburger.

accept it. accept all of it.

❝ i can't even say he deceived me. i knew exactly what he was and i jumped in anyway. ❞

❝ i think eventually i got so used to the chaos and the pain and the toxicity i began to look for it. ❞

❝ i never got a chance to discover myself. i never had that privilege. ❞

❝ you can tell me anything. i mean i can't promise i'm good at keeping secrets, but i'm a hell of a listener. ❞

❝ no one wants to yearn anymore. ❞

❝ i'm doing some of my best work here and you don't even have the decency to roll your eyes at me. honestly it's hurtful. ❞

❝ i know what you're thinking. ❞

❝ if i ask for your help are you gonna make a big deal out of it? ❞

❝ can we just be normal for like two seconds for once. ❞

❝ i would say i don't know what's wrong with you but i actually do and that's the problem. ❞

❝ against my better judgement i trust you and i think that says a lot about the state of the world right now. ❞

❝ i don't actually care but i'm bored so i'm here. ❞

❝ last time i listened to you we almost died. ❞

❝ i would've come sooner. i would've been here if you'd only asked. ❞

❝ i don't want to hurt anymore. ❞

❝ you don't have to hurt anymore. you can let go of those burdens. ❞

❝ it'd be a lot easier if i actually cared as little as i pretend to. ❞

❝ i do need you. i wouldn't be here if i didn't. ❞

❝ sometimes you don't know it's wrong until it's too late. sometimes you don't know you're being hurt until you realize you're in pieces. ❞

❝ pretending you don't need people doesn't make you strong it just makes you a jackass. ❞

❝ you're gonna be okay. eventually. but first you gotta not be okay for a while. it's gotta suck so you can actually recognize when you're alright again. ❞

❝ you shouldn't have said that. ❞

❝ sometimes i wish they had done something worse. then it'd justify how hard it's been to get over it. ❞

"That's right, the camp songs were the same for decades, if not hundreds of years, and then during the most epic battle since the Age of Heroes, we decided to change them, to mess with you."

Smiling slightly, Odysseus bends, plucks a few blades of grass himself, and idly braids them. He regards Ethan with a sideways look while he rambles off:

From her peripheral she noticed a body being deposited not in the most graceful of manners by a pegasus that she was fairly positive was Blackjack. Her eyes fell to the gun in her hands realising the idea might be a bit absurd to someone stuck fighting like it was still the bronze age. "My husband is better with a sword." Sally replied not really having another answer as her attention immediately went to the grisly looking wound in his side.

After everything he’d pledged to Kronos, he’d thrown it all right back into his face, and the Titan hadn’t even bothered to kill him himself for it.

How cowardly. He couldn’t believe how angry he was about not being slain by Kronos’s hand—but he was. Did he seriously mean so little, after all? That his betrayal was little more than a glancing blow, that he could be waved off like an annoying gnat?

And Camp Half-Blood: all of this had begun because some campers just weren’t important enough to merit resources or attention, left to sleep on the floor of a crowded cabin they didn’t even belong to.

Gods, he sounded pathetic. It was likely the pain talking; his gut was killing him—probably literally, he realized grimly.

“Who’s your husband?” He mumbled, the touch to his hair making him slip his good eye shut. This woman seemed… kind. Kinder than what was typical, at the very least.

So, who the Hades was she, then? A minor goddess he didn’t know about? A dryad of some type? Few people from his world were kind on purpose, especially if they didn't think they’d get anything in return (they also didn't tend to carry shotguns).

He groaned hoarsely as they stood, and it was only by the white-hot ache searing through him distractingly, that Ethan didn’t start protesting until he could see kids in orange shirts performing field medicine in the distance.

“Wait—no, I can’t—don’t bring me there. They won’t want to help me.” He scowled, despite the effort such an expression took. Better to make himself look cruel than be humiliated when he was sent away. For good measure, he even tried to dig his heels in.

But as it turned out, parties were marginally more entertaining when spent among company that actually spoke to him.

❝ i can't even say he deceived me. i knew exactly what he was and i jumped in anyway. ❞

❝ i think eventually i got so used to the chaos and the pain and the toxicity i began to look for it. ❞

❝ i never got a chance to discover myself. i never had that privilege. ❞

❝ you can tell me anything. i mean i can't promise i'm good at keeping secrets, but i'm a hell of a listener. ❞

❝ no one wants to yearn anymore. ❞

❝ i'm doing some of my best work here and you don't even have the decency to roll your eyes at me. honestly it's hurtful. ❞

❝ i know what you're thinking. ❞

❝ if i ask for your help are you gonna make a big deal out of it? ❞

❝ can we just be normal for like two seconds for once. ❞

❝ i would say i don't know what's wrong with you but i actually do and that's the problem. ❞

❝ against my better judgement i trust you and i think that says a lot about the state of the world right now. ❞

❝ i don't actually care but i'm bored so i'm here. ❞

❝ last time i listened to you we almost died. ❞

❝ i would've come sooner. i would've been here if you'd only asked. ❞

❝ i don't want to hurt anymore. ❞

❝ you don't have to hurt anymore. you can let go of those burdens. ❞

❝ it'd be a lot easier if i actually cared as little as i pretend to. ❞

❝ i do need you. i wouldn't be here if i didn't. ❞

❝ sometimes you don't know it's wrong until it's too late. sometimes you don't know you're being hurt until you realize you're in pieces. ❞

❝ pretending you don't need people doesn't make you strong it just makes you a jackass. ❞

❝ you're gonna be okay. eventually. but first you gotta not be okay for a while. it's gotta suck so you can actually recognize when you're alright again. ❞

❝ you shouldn't have said that. ❞

❝ sometimes i wish they had done something worse. then it'd justify how hard it's been to get over it. ❞

But there are a few new faces too. Or, rather, old faces—older than they were, both familiar and unfamiliar. He does a few rounds before he gets started, something he didn't often do before, just to see who made it. And who didn't, though he's still sitting on the information.

If there's ever a surefire way to get a teenager to clam up, it's to comment on how long it's been since you saw them around. It has been quite a few years, but Ethan is, basically, still a teenager. Still playing swords with blades of grass.

With his guitar slung around his back, Odysseus sits next to him. His posture leans forward, as if he's not planning to linger here too long.

If he’s being honest with himself, in fact, he’s sort of… happy about it. But he definitely can’t say that out loud. 

They were finally at peace, no more titans trying to conquer or destroy the world. The campers needed a very much appreciated break after everything that happened during the battle of Manhattan, but they are still collecting the pieces from it. So much was lost ;  friends, allies, lovers, family. Some of them are alive, barely, and they would forever grieve the dead. Annabeth was recovering from it herself    —   or at least trying to, because how does someone deal with the death of a very important person ?  Luke was always more than just a camper to her. He was like an old brother, her mentor, the family she always wanted. But he was gone now and it looked like the daughter of Athena still had tears to shed for him. She hears someone approaching and she quickly clears her tears.   ❝ Why aren’t you with the others ? ❞

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t grow tired of it, sometimes, and that evening, he’s definitely not in the mood to stand on the outskirts of more funeral pyres, being glared at through tears. 

So, he figures it’s best for everyone’s peace that he stay away for now. Besides, between Argus’s reluctance to let him leave the Big House often, and the wrath of the healers he’ll incur if he pops his stitches, walking all the way to the amphitheater might not be advisable tonight. 

Still, he’ll go stir-crazy if he can’t walk at least a little, so knowing that he’s being watched from the Big House, he takes a short stroll, not expecting in the slightest to run into anyone– much less the girl he’d almost killed on the Williamsburg bridge.

He flinches and tries to back away, but she notices him before he can– and he should have known she would; she’s Annabeth Chase, a prodigal genius. Of course she caught him.