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The first thing Nancy was truly aware of, coming out of the horrific and traumatic flashback, was her own breathing. It was quick and short, truncated - I'm hyperventilating. Shit, she realized. The next thing she processed was that someone had their hands on her shoulders - Zeke. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. She hated it when people saw her like that - like a prisoner in her own body, unable to cope with the horrors of the past. She didn't even like showing that vulnerability, that aching and festering wound, to Niah or Mads. Nancy focused on her breath. In her mind, she listed off the names of singers she adored - a simple task, but one that she found calmed her - Joan Jett. Whitney Houston. Billy Joel. Madonna. Janet Jackson. Gradually, her breath slowed, becoming deeper, until her breathing was normal.

"Sorry, that was a little gnarly," Nancy said softly. "You weren't supposed to see that." No one really was. Nancy couldn't think of the last time she had fully lost her mind like that - to the point where she had almost blacked out, trapped inside of her own head, disconnected from the world around her. But as horrific as that had been, it also had been draining. The tension, the fear, the terror, the anxiety - it had all gone out. And now, Nancy felt fragile and empty - better than fragile and exploding with emotion, but still, not great. It was more a quiet fear now, a soft sorrow.

Nancy fixed her eyes on her pet dragon - she felt a little ashamed of having lost it so completely in front of Zeke, she didn't want to meet his eyes. But her pride also demanded she couldn't just look at the ground, no, she had to make it seem like it wasn't her avoiding eye contact, it was just a coincidence, that she was totally and absolutely fine.

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"Oh, shit, they're going to the Lotus Hotel? That's so cool!" Leda said, almost a little bit jealous. "The place sounds totally wicked, like the ultimate arcade. It's on my bucket list to go there." Of course, Leda also wasn't too worried about the ~never wanting to leave~ business. She figured that she'd be able to make it out okay. And the experience of being there had to be mind boggling, world altering - imagine a date there! Plus, everything was free, making it ideal for a demigod on a budget. Of course, it also helped that the Lotus Hotel was the exact opposite of Leda's current situation - where she was being made to wait for what felt like an eternity.

Leda sometimes got a bit destructive when she was bored. She started kicking at the ground ever so lightly, looking up and trying to see if the rest of the stragglers were coming from time to time, and sighing when they didn't appear. "Ugh, I'm so bored..." Leda complained. "Can't we just get on with it? If they're not coming, maybe one of the harpies ate them and it was destiny," Leda joked. She knew the harpies wouldn't start eating campers until given explicit permission to do so.

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The Beach:

Joanie looked up at Nancy and nuzzled against her neck and cheek doing her best to calm down Nancy while staring at Zeke for the longest time before turning her attention back to Nancy wanting some pets clearly. The beach had been cleared out for the most part until there was a slight cough as Bryan made his way over towards Zeke and waved towards his two half-siblings. "Hey uh sorry one of our cabinmates told me where you were but anyway Chiron wants you two to meet him at the Big House, also Danielle your other Praetor is there to. Something about a new quest that Rosie saw." He said to the two of them, he wasnt really sure why he needed the two of them but he was just relaying the message back.

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Kiera was also getting a little bit bored of waiting for the others to show up as she looked towards her girlfriend, she wasnt sure if that place was actually really fun to go to in her opinion. She of course still had her family outside of camp, if she was trapped in there and came out twenties years later or something like that then she'd most likely would have lost her parents then. "We could always make our way towards the enterance now while we wait for the rest of them to show up maybe?" Kiera suggested giving a slight shrug, she was more or less just really eager to get going already now as well.

But she was glad that she wasnt going there and she was on a quest right now with her girlfriend as well as Arthur who she had known before coming to Camp-Halfblood. She then started to catch some movement coming from the other side of the dining pavilion as a few of the other campers were walking away and saw that it was the two Romans that they were waiting on. "About time they showed up." Kiera said Romans seemed to take their time with a lot of things she thought she paused for a moment and could hear a car starting to beep it's horn coming from the camp's enterance.

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Madalyne gave a slight shrug towards Demi, changing every month at the full moon was never really fun, though she was able to practice and shift on her own willingly as well to. The pain in Demi's shoulder would be gone now as they got closer back towards the center of the camp. "We should get you to the Big House first, I gave you some unicorn horn that works just as well as nectar or ambrosia so you should be feeling a lot better now." Madalyne said towards Demi, and she had a feeling that Zeke would end up being there and he could tend to him once he was there.

She paused for a moment and looked towards Niah and then over at Demi, she knew what was actually bothering Nancy since they were both trapped in the Lotus Hotel and Casino together. It was a secret that she wasn't going to let Demi know it wasn't her place to tell him that anyway, though she knew that Nancy didn't hate Demi as far as she knew anyway. "She doesn't hate you as far as I know anyway. And it's not really my place to say what really happened there it's really personal is all that I can say. Nancy only hates one person in particular which is Leandra so you don't have to worry about that." Madalyne told Demi as they walked past the dining pavilion now and were approaching the Big House now.

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"I kind of want to know right now to anyway we can just fill in the three of them once they get in here anyway." Kristin said as she looked over towards Cassian. "Though three members to a quest is usually the best there are exceptions from time to time with allowing more people in for a quest. Like the Quest for Artemis a few years back, which had about five people or so in it if I remember correctly." Kristin pointed out she knew that Percy was apart of that one when he was younger and at camp. She then reached over and grabbed another handful and took another bite as she looked towards Chiron.

Chiron sighed slightly and nodded as he took the drawings that Rosie had made and handed it over towards the center of the table, one of them had everyone in the room standing outside of the Lotus Hotel and Casino while the other was what looked like inside of the hotel itself with the Doors of Death in the room itself to. "Rosie drew this not to long ago." Chiron told them as he looked towards Rosie as she nodded. "Once everyone is in i'll tell you the prophecy that came with it."

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Stella nodded a bit as Marygold said it looked like everyone was almost there, but it seemed that she was still missing the last person in her group, the Roman girl. Stella did wave back to Jason when he waved to her and she smiled a bit at that, as she felt a bit better now that she saw him again. She knew that he would keep an eye on her, and he really had been kind the day before. She looked up to Marygold again as she spoke but wasn't sure if she should or could really add anything to that. She wasn't sure how long the meeting would take so maybe this was normal?

She looked up as someone mentioned that the last of the Romans were arriving and smiled at that. "Take care sister, and I'll see you when we're both back." She looked up at Marygold one last time before walking over to Jason at that point. She tugged on the straps of her bag again, trying to get rid of the nervous energy she had bubbling up inside of her. "Are you ready to go then once the Roman girl joins us?"

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Once Nancy seemed to come back to herself, Ezekiel dropped his hands from her shoulders. He shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets and fidgeted with the lining. He supposed Nancy losing it like that in front of someone must have been hard for her. A weakness. And for someone who was the former Roman leader and who wanted to join Artemis, weakness wasn’t good.
”Honestly, I’m glad I saw it. I mean… I didn’t know it was that bad Nanc, not that I should have had to be shown that, I should have just got it and backed off.” Ezekiel looked down, seeing the dragon there and his eyes widened before he frowned. How long had that been there and when did Nancy get a pet dragon? Shaking his head, Ezekiel looked back at Nancy.
A cough sounded behind him and Ezekiel whipped his attention around, ready to tell whomever to back off. He saw Bryan and listened to what he had to say and Ezekiel sighed heavily. He ran a hand through his hair and waved his half-brother off. ”Ya alright, we’re on our way,” he said by way of dismissal and turned to look at Nancy. ”Sounds like Rosie and your seer must have had a similar vision to yours. We should go,” he said. No doubt the others would already be at the Big House waiting for them to hear the prophecy. Ezekiel looked back at the dragon as he shifted his feet.
”Look, for what it’s worth Nancy, I am sorry. For arguing with you and pushing you there. I know you don’t need saving, you’re badass enough without our help but for whatever it may be worth, I want to be there for you. I don’t want to give you some sob story but I mean, we were both on our own for a while. I know you have your family with the Romans but you have me too.” He looked back at Nancy and stepped aside, turning to head for the Big House. ”It’s not too late to run. I could say you stole a pegasi or something,” Zeke joked.

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Andy shifted standing next to Arthur as close as she could without touching him. She felt that if she did she'd not want to let go. Everyone was talking and complaining about waiting and she didn't care. The longer they waited the longer she got to stay by Arthur.

But it didn't matter cause there was Mads coming. Their time was up. Maybe they'd get to ride to the city together. But the quests were about to start. It felt so different from the mad flight across the States to find the Roman camp.

"Hey." She said quietly when Mads had finally reached them. Would she want to wait and say goodbye to Nancy?




Niah shrugged at Demi's question. Her fake smile had faded, and she looked sad more than anything. "Nancy is closed off. She trusts two people, well I suppose three now. And you're not one of them." She had more she could say. But she decided not to. "Maybe that'll change on the quest." She added.

As they approached the Big House, she glanced around the gathered group. Her quest group was there and she felt a flush of guilt for being late to join. At least she wouldn't have to try to find the two Greeks in their rooms or something. She didn't even know which buildings belonged to which really. She hadn't bothered to learn.

"I'm ready." She said to Jason and Stella. She hadn't heard the car beep. She wished she would have a chance to say goodbye before they had to separate. But unless they could fit fifteen people in one vehicle they wouldn't get a chance for it.

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Janelle wasn't too sure what to say or do at this point, since it seemed like Chiron really didn't want to have to repeat himself. Of course, she could understand that, but she wasn't too thrilled about it. Especially because of what seemed to be going on with Demetri and Zeke, that being something she didn't want to touch with a ten foot pole at this point, and she was not too thrilled that they were apparently involved in this sort of thing too. Yeah, she was having the time of her life at the moment, and honestly it made her wish that she was going off on one of those other quest at the moment.

Of course, Chiron finally relented, and seemed to show them something. Except. There was a bit of a problem with Chiron showing the group something and not really giving a description of what they were looking at, aside from it being some sort of drawing. "If you dahn't mend me askin, can sahmeone please describe to me what you're all lookin at?" she asked a bit bluntly. She was a bit annoyed, especially because of this situation being created where she had to rely on others to tell her what was there. It wasn't like in a fight, where she could rely on her hearing to locate everyone, nope, it was a piece of paper, with a drawing on it, that she couldn't see.

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Jason was a bit glad that the others seemed to finally be joining them. The two Romans and Demi seemed to be showing up, and of course there was the whole thing where Demi was apparently going to be going on a quest with Janelle, so that was certainly going to be an interesting group to say the least. It didn't matter too much now though, since obviously he was going to be going off on his own quest with one of the kids and one of the Romans. Yeah, this was going to be a fun trip, that was for sure.

"Yeah, all ready. Well as ready as you could possebly be to go ahn a quest ahr whatever. Dedn't go ahn de last one, so 'ahnestly naht even fully sure what to expect, me sester tahld me about it, but pretty sure dis is goin to be defferent," he said towards Stella with a bit of a shrug, before looking at Niah as she stated that she was all ready to go. This was going to be a fun quest, that much was for certain. He didn't know what to really expect, so he figured to just be ready for anything.

Mary looked over as others made the comments that the Romans they were waiting on were finally deciding to show up. She wasn't too sure what to expect from Madalyne, since she knew next to nothing about her. What she did know was that Andy seemed to trust her a bit, so that had to count for something right? Then again, she wasn't too sure whether it was a good thing or not, since sometimes kids weren't exactly the best when it came to judging people, so who really knew?

"Take care Stella," she commented with a slight wave, though she didn't say much more then that. Sure, sometimes it paid to be optimistic about situations, but honestly there was no way that she could be anything other then more realistic about the quest. With this many people going on several different quests, the odds weren't exactly favorable to all of them easily making it back. Mary didn't voice that out loud though, and looked at Madalyne, "Ready to hit the road?" she asked her. She was ready to get this over with, but she understood if others needed a little bit longer.

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Demi thought as he heard the name again. Leandra. He'd only met her a few times briefly, recalling how she'd mentioned her and Nancy's opposing views and less than friendly stances against one another. He hadn't really seen anything bad with Leandra, though she did seem more relaxed than most of the other Romans he had met. Somehow that made Demi more worried. If she hated Leandra, and Demi got along alright with Leandra, then chances were she'd hate him too. His shoulders sunk deeper as he tried not to hang his head too low to the ground. "Right." He said, sounding almost defeated by the idea. Romans, not the best at pep talks it seemed. Hell he'd gotten more pep from Zeke and he was the camp asshole.

Niah answered him as well, driving more nails into the coffin. "I'm sure it will. Well, good luck on your quest." Demi said trying to sound cheerful as she walked on over to her group. His lips curled inwards a bit as he gave Mads a flat smile before moving past Andy, ruffling her hair a bit and stopping to hand her a small container. "Don't tell the others I gave you and Arthur this but here. They'll help with pain, infections, and burns. It's topical so just…ya know. Apply it." He handed her two containers full of the herbal cream he'd created back at the Infirmary before heading into the Big House himself.

The inside didn't look too great. Everyone was clearly on some sort of edge, and worst of all Janelle was there. Demi didn't have any real issue with her, but with Zeke now dating him it felt a little…tense, if not at the very least awkward. He tried to break the tension by helping her out as he caught the tail end of what it was she was saying. "Oh, uh, it's a drawing of most of us plus a few others outside some resort or club? Not really sure. The other is us, what I can only assume is inside in front of some large black doors. They…kinda give me the creeps I'm not gonna lie"

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As Demetri walked in, not skipping a beat towards answering Janelles question, there was a small huff of breath that escaped Cassian's mouth. He moved closer towards the image, examining it closely as his lips twisted into a frown. "It's a club. Though your first guess was much closer. That-" He said placing a finger on the drawing so that it made a loud sound. "-is the Lotus Hotel and Casino. It's a building designed to lure people, and Demi-gods, in and never wish to escape. It's said to be run by the Lotus Eaters, and that time within the Hotel passes by differently than in the real world. Or at the very least your perception of time will be. If the gods weren't all locked off I'd be a bit less concerned, but I doubt any of them will be able to help us out."

Cassian moved his finger across the image towards the other drawing. Having it land onto the Doors they will be standing before. "The next image I don't know a whole lot about. I only know two things about it. First, they're known as The Doors of Death, the second is that it's how monsters come to be in this world. Sort of a gate from the Underworld." This mission suddenly sounded harsher than looking for one of the Big Three's weapons. Cassian moved away from the images, still eyeing them as he stepped back before breaking his gaze to look at Demetri. "And where have you been? Aside from keeping us all waiting, much like your friend Zeke who you scampered off with." He felt on edge after seeing the drawings, so his tone was a bit harsher than he cared to admit. "Fighting a Manticore while you waited about. It's gone now so there's that. As for Zeke, I don't know where he is, last I saw him he was with Nancy."

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Nancy's eye twitched as some kid came up to them, explaining that they were needed at the Big House. Fucking radical. She purposefully pet her dragon, as it was a simple task, easy to focus on. Joanie didn't demand her to confront the worst moments of her life, over and over again. She had already gone through hell in this conversation with Zeke, and she felt tired and drained - she felt like a ghost possessing a zombie, all out of sorts, barely present. No doubt the graecus scum would pester her for every little detail, twisting and squeezing the trauma out of Nancy like a wet rag, desperate to retrieve each last drop. And when they were done, they would toss her aside like trash.

The kid turned to leave, and Zeke said they had to go. Nancy's legs felt stiff, rooted to the spot. She had just had a meltdown here - she wasn't in any rush to go have yet another traumatic experience. And she really didn't like the way the Greeks ran their business anyways, it was messy and chaotic and doubtlessly would end up going in circles, forcing her to repeat herself over and over again. Nancy was tempted by the idea of riding off on a pegasus, of running away from all of this. She really was. She didn't want to face the Lotus Hotel and Casino ever again - she really didn't. It haunted her nightmares and her daydreams, those terrible memories always on repeat in the corner of her eye, following her like phantoms.

But as much as Nancy was thoroughly traumatized, she was also prideful. She wasn't going to run in fear in front of the Greeks. And while she didn't say so, she did care about Zeke - she didn't want to see him get hurt. "Okay, we're going to establish some rules quickly," Nancy said, her voice getting an authoritative edge to it, as if she were about to address the Senate of New Rome. "I will not set foot inside that grody ass nightmare hotel. Period. I can go with you as far as the Strip. I will not answer the same question twice. I reserve the right to get up and leave at any moment, for any reason. But I will try to help how I can."

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Leda heard the car horn beeping and concluded that Argus must've been as annoyed with all the delays as she was. Fortunately, it seemed like the two slacking Romans finally showed up. The Romans were painfully slow. Leda shuddered to imagine a world in which she had been a Roman demigod; being a speedster over there must've been a special sort of hell. Leda already thought everyone was slow - the Romans made her fellow Greeks look like little Iris or Hermes legacies basically. "It's about time!" Leda exclaimed. She then gave her girlfriend a grin, and a peck on the cheek. "Race you to the van?" she teased.

"I can even give you a 60 second head start," Leda offered, "to make things fair, of course." She winked. She knew that pretty much any head start she offered wouldn't really be enough time for Kiera to beat her, unless the head start happened to be the exact length of time (or more, really) that it would take Kiera to complete the trip. But it wasn't going to be that much time. There was no fun in that. And Leda wasn't always the most gracious loser - she loved to win, especially when it came to speed.

Arthur Stanford

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Location:Big House (outside)
Skills: N/A

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Arthur waited more, happy to see that people were finally showing up. Watching them all with a cautious eye, he tried to do a mental headcount of people.
This was happening now, and it was just about in front of them, far outside of his ability to do anything to actually stop it from happening. He gave a nervous look from person to person; feeling as in edge as ever, like he'd jump of anything unexpected happened.

Holding Andy's hand as long as possible, he still couldn't shake the dread of being separated, no matter how he tried to rationalize that things would be fine. This was happening, and it was going to hurt a lot. He would be split from Andy, and be sat worrying about her almost the whole time. Arthur's worries were slightly pushed off by Demi's gift, and he nodded mutely and mouthed thanks.

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Kiera looked at her girlfriend and smiled towards her offering her to race over towards the van knowing that she really didn't have a chance to beat Leda due to her speed really. "Sure thing, the looser has to do whatever the winner says." Kiera said teasingly as she looked over towards the others and gave them a slight wave before quickly running off towards the entrance to the camp. She managed to get to the top of the hill when she saw the van was parked by the entrance Argus was sitting in the front seat and was reading a book by the looks of it.

The van was just large enough to fit the group that was going off on their quest, the van itself had Delphi Strawberry Service painted along the side of the van itself. The camp sold the strawberries to local establishments around the city that used it, Kiera started to make her way down the hill and making her way over towards it.

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Madalyne looked over towards Demi for a moment gently patting him on the shoulder giving him a slight smile, she did hope that Nancy was able to get along with him at least on their quest anyway. "It'll be alright she'll come around eventually." Madalyne said to Demetri as he entered the Big House, she looked over towards Andy and smiled towards her. "Hey Andy, how are you doing?" Madalyne asked her niece as she looked over towards Mary. She didn't really know the daughter of Ceres all that well, but she had a feeling that they'll have time to get to know one another pretty well soon enough. "Yep i'm ready as much as I can be." Madalyne told her though she was really nervous of potentially dying and ending up in Tartarus.

She looked over her shoulder she was hesitating and didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to Nancy at least anyway, as she noticed both Zeke and Nancy making their way over now. The daughter of Neptune had run off towards the van and looked over at Mary and Andy for a second. "Go on ahead i'll catch up." Madalyne said as she looked at Niah before making her way over towards Nancy and Zeke. She looked between the two of them for a moment she didn't see any marks on Zeke which was probably a good thing then since they talked she quickly pulled Nancy into a hug. "How are you?" Madalyne asked Nancy she really did feel bad for leaving Nancy alone with a bunch of Greeks.

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Kristin was about to answer Janelle's question as she looked over at Chiron with a slightly annoyed look he must have forgotten that the girl was actually blind and couldn't see at all. But Cassian was actually able to answer that question for her as she looked over at the pictures again that Rosie had drawn and getting a better look at the second drawing that was there. And remembered that was also how Percy and Annabeth managed to escape from Tartarus to during the whole fight against Gaia.

"The god Thanatos is the one who does control the Doors of Death if I remember correctly as well to." Kristin said though she wasnt sure why he had moved them to the hotel, or whether that was him or not really she stared at Cassian. "The gods are more or less forbidden to really deal with mortal affairs they don't help that much or very little at all." Kristin pointed out, so it'll end up just being them on their own for the most part once they enter the hotel it seems.

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Andy stuffed the jar from her brother into her bag. "Thank you." She told him before he headed inside. She smiled at her Aunt when she joined, relieved that their group was complete now. But of course when Nancy appeared, as Andy had expected, Mads went to talk to her. She sighed. She understood wanting to say goodbye, but she knew everyone was getting annoyed about having to wait and this was yet another delay.

The group started toward the van and she held onto Arthur's hand as they walked over there. At least she'd be at the van ready to get in when Mads joined them. She half leaned into Arthur, "Sit next to me in the van." She requested quietly. Then said loudly, "Sorry, we've got a couple of people coming still. They should be here quickly though." At least she hoped.




Niah nodded to Jason. She understood most of what he said, so she didn't have to ask him to repeat at least. Finally, Nancy came back from the beach. She sighed a little relieved. "One moment, let me talk with Nancy. I'll meet you at the van." She was not leaving without an actual goodbye to her friend. She knew it was probably pissing off the Greeks, but the addition of the new prophecy had made a mess of things.

She joined Mads and Nancy. "Hey." She gave a half-smile. One that was just because she was standing beside her friends. "Just remember you've killed a dragon." If Nancy could do that, she could do anything she put her mind to. "The driver is waiting for us, but I wanted to say see you again soon." She opened her arms for a group hug, letting Nancy and Mads come to her.

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Once Bryan left, Nancy spoke up, laying down some ground rules and Zeke found the corners of his mouth lifting a little. It wasn’t in so much amusement but in respect of her. Nancy spent time in her own version of Tartarus but she was still strong enough to lead and tell everyone within ear shot exactly what she expected and wanted.
”You won’t hear any protesting from me and if they try pushing more information out of you, I’ll blind them,” Zeke declared. They started walking back to the Big House and Zeke looked at the dragon again.
”So that’s new. When did you get a dragon?” They reached the Big House and were joined by Madalyne then Niah shortly after. Zeke looked at the three of them and nudged Nancy with his elbow. ”I’ll meet you in there.” He looked at Madalyne and Niah, wondering what to say to them both for the quests they were about to go on. In the end he didn’t say anything but nodded to them both before leaving the trio to say their goodbyes.
Ezekiel walked into the Big House and noticed a few things. One, there were a lot more people here than he was expecting and two, Demi was talking with Janelle and Cassian. Wonderful. Ezekiel walked over, standing next to Demi and glanced down at the table.
”What I miss?” he asked casually. As he looked at the drawings though, something else caught his eye and Zeke grabbed Demi’s sleeve. ”Is this, blood?” He demanded, warning bells going off in his head.

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She was a bit annoyed to hear Demi decide to finally show up and talk. Though she was grateful that he at least seemed to somewhat answer, with Cassian deciding to explain a bit more about everything, still. Janelle was not thrilled at all to have Demetri there. Personally, she'd rather not be in the Big House at all. "I dedn't exactly ask you," she ended up snapping a bit towards him, before she ended up hearing Zeke come into the room, and she looked a bit annoyed at the moment.

Of course, everyone was continuing to discuss what was going on, and nothing really was making too much sense. She didn't know what this casino was or anything. Nothing really productive seemed to be discussed though, since all they were doing was talking about the building, and not figuring out what was going on or what the were even going to be doing. "Is everyahne 'ere ahr whatever so we can finally 'ave explained to us what de 'ell is goin ahn?" she ended up asking, figuring they might want to hurry this along in general.

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Mary contemplated teasing Leda and Kiera a bit about their conversation, but decided against it. Of course, she was fairly glad that all of the Romans had decided to join them finally. Then again, it sounded like they were going to be waiting a little bit longer, since it did seem like Madalyne was going to talk to Nancy a bit now that she was walking to the Big House with Zeke, who ended up continuing into the building without her. She wasn't too sure they should be taking too much longer, they really did need to get going at this point.

"Yeah, sure, see you in a few minutes," she ended up saying to the Roman, glancing over to look at Andy who seemed to be sticking rather close to Arthur. It was kind of cute seeing the two kids together like that. She thought nothing more of those who were taking a while catching up, and followed the others over to the van, and personally she didn't care who she ended up sitting next to, as long as they hurried along with this already and got going.

Jason wasn't too sure how things were going to go, and he looked at Niah when she commented about going to go talk to her friend for a moment or something like that. He could understand that, but also he was getting a little impatient on the whole, getting going on the quests thing. Since after all, they had been standing around waiting for the Romans to show up, and now they were apparently going to be waiting around for them a little bit longer.

He just nodded in acknowledgement to her, before falling along up towards the van, and he just sort of looked at it, a bit skeptical that everyone was actually going to be able to fit in the van. It kind of didn't exactly look like it'd hold them all. Then again, if he was counting seats correctly, it should hold everyone. Barely really, but it should, in theory. Would it be a bit cramped? Probably, but that was something they'd be dealing with for a short ride anyway right?

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Demetri stuck his tongue out at Cassian, choosing to ignore him past that and focus on what Kristin was saying. He wasn't particularly happy to hear any of the information given, though at least a singular nugget of it may be more than they needed. "Thanatos? He controls them? He was a bit miffed when I summoned him last time though mostly because I didn't use real cattle, as if I could find enough here to do soI. Maybe we can just call him up? Ask him to move the doors outside or somewhere closer so that we aren't walking into a weird time warping den." Sure the gods seldomly helped with mortal affairs, but they could offer a nudge at the very least. Demetri figured moving the doors wouldn't be too much of an ask. Certainly less so than asking to revive someone. Janelle seemed to be on edge with him, his mouth half opened unsure of how to even respond.

When Zeke entered the room, Demi's face lit up. A dopey smile plastered across as he watched his boyfriend come into view, casually asking what he missed as if that wasn't what Nancy and him were just talking about. He'd completely forgotten about the stains of blood on his shirt, given that all the pain had faded away. It was still wet to the touch but his mind was elsewhere until Zeke’s tone took a turn for the worse. Demi pulled his arm back, dislodging his sleeve from Zeke's grasp and holding it up to his chest as he tried to cover it with his other hand. "It's fine. I'm fine. There was a monster trying to breach the camp, I took care of it but it got in a lucky shot before it left." He silently cursed to himself, wishing he'd asked to change shirts before coming here so that Zeke wouldn't have to worry about what happened in his absence.

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Cassian didn't expect a lot of help from the gods. Just one in particular. He'd heard stories of his father being able to split his consciousness when massive parties were thrown. It was how he and his mother had met. And if the Lotus Casino and Hotel was nothing but an eternal party, why wouldn't his father be able to step in even if for the briefest moments of guidance. Besides, the idea that the gods followed any laws was ridiculous. Zeus alone consistently broke rules whenever he saw fit, and they had several godly visits in the past few days. Why shouldn't he believe his father couldn't do the same and in a much more controlled fashion. After all, it's just another party.

Cassian rolled his eyes at Zeke and Demis' display, figuring now was neither the time nor place for it. "A lot. So maybe focus on what's going on here before you worry about if someone's been hurt. We are, after all, in a camp where it happens a lot. But the short of it is this. A whole bunch of us are going on a quest it seems. Somewhere where we will need to enter the Lotus Hotel and Casino, a place run by the Lotus Eaters and that has a warped perception of time. I.e. a day there could be three years out here, we don't know. Avoid eating their food, it's an easy way to have them lure you in. Aside from that we are to find the Doors of Death, a gateway of sorts used by Monsters to enter our world from Tartarus. The Doors are typically operated by Thanatos the God of Death, why we need to find these Doors is beyond me. Any further information is being held up by our tight lipped counselor here who is waiting for the last of us to arrive before revealing any further information."

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Nancy appreciated what Zeke meant, when he claimed he would blind anyone who tried to push her. She knew that he meant well. But she didn't want him to do that if that happened. Nancy didn't like other people fighting battles for her - if someone decided to push her too much on the gnarly details, Nancy wanted to handle it herself. Sure, she didn't always handle things in a super healthy and helpful way, but at least she could say that she had done it herself. It was a personality trait that had both helped and hindered her in her life - her almost incapability to fully trust someone else and let someone else take care of her. "Joanie's been around, she just doesn't like the archery range," Nancy told Zeke, giving her tiny purple dragon a friendly scratch on the snout. Nancy didn't say when she had gotten Joanie though - mostly as that day had also been rather traumatic and Nancy had had her fill of trauma for the day.

She nodded when Zeke said he would see her inside. A part of her was glad to see Niah and Mads, not just because she loved them both dearly and was going to miss them terribly, but also because it meant another moment's delay from the horrible gauntlet of her own trauma she was about to have to undergo again.

Nancy returned Mads' hug, a little tighter than normal - she didn't want to let her friend go, either of them. But she released Mads. She smiled a bit sadly as Niah pointed out she had slain a dragon before. "You'll scare Joanie talking about that," Nancy joked. "But the thing is... I couldn't have done it without you two. I can do anything if you're by my side," she told her friends sincerely, before joining the group hug that Niah had opened up.

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Leda smirked slightly as Kiera accepted her challenge, even adding on a fun set of conditions. Leda yawned, stretching her arms out above her head. She tilted her head from side to side, loosening up her neck slightly. Leda then reached down, touching her toes on either foot. By this point, it had been at least a minute or so. "Mm, s'pose that's enough of a start," Leda mused, before taking off at what - to her - was a light, casual pace. Rather than an indescribable rainbow streak, Leda was actually moving at a pace that allowed others to clearly see the outline of her body - still moving faster than the most gifted mortal runners and athletes, but not so slow as to become just a beam of light to the naked eye.

Even then, the Rainbow Princess made it to the van way before the others. She smirked, spotting her girlfriend coming down from the hill. "Hurry up, slowpoke!" Leda shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth to project her voice some. Andy and Arthur made it down and Leda waved at them slightly. She was already growing slightly bored, her brief bit of entertainment ending. She knew better though than to swipe Argus' book and skim through it quickly - she didn't doubt that with all of those eyes, he'd be able to see a speedster coming and react in time.

Arthur Stanford

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Location:Big House (outside) -> Van
Skills: N/A

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Arthur quietly nodded, and took a seat next to Andy in the Van. At least they got to ride together for a little while, that was really nice, and it would hopefully kill a lot of the tension in waiting for things to kick off, since things would finally actually be in progress. He gave a glance over to Kiera and Leda, knowing that the three of them would be spending a good amount of time together too. For not though, he just held Andy's hand, and was ready for this all to kick off. Plus, he would never say no to some climate control, a thing that seemed to be missing in a lot of the camp.

Sitting in the van, Arthur closed his eyes, and thought about the situation before him. He needed to self reflect, see what had happened to get him where he was today. It all seemed to be so much, the meeting of his best friend, finding out she was his sister, and then her dying. That hit him hard, and after that, his other best friend being turned into an animal and killed. Besides those two terribly traumatic events, it all seemed pretty okay, but the burden of that just seemed to absolutely ruin his ability to experience happiness here.

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Kiera watched as Leda quickly sped past her and managed to beat her to the van without to much of an issue, she knew that she'd obviously end up loosing anyway in the first place anyway. "You'll be a slowpoke once you hit your forties." Kiera said jokingly towards Leda as she started to make her way into the van and quickly climbed into the back of the van. She was a little bit annoyed that they'd have to wait on the two Roman's but then again the three of them did seem to be really close and Nancy wasn't going on this group of quests. Kiera looked between Andy and Arthur, seeing that Arthur was fairly quiet.

"Hey is everything alright Arthur you are kinda quiet?" Kiera ended up asking Arthur as she looked over towards him and leaned forward gently nudging him, to get his attention, they were going on a quest together after all as well to. Argus looked towards the group and nodded slightly as he leaned back slightly and continued to quietly read his book while they waited for Niah and Madalyne to come over. Kiera then turned to Leda forgetting the bet that she had did before getting to the van itself.

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Madalyne looked towards Zeke and gave him a slight nod as he started to head off before returning the hug from Nancy, she really wanted to stay with her for as long as possible and didn't want this moment to end really either. She smiled slightly when Niah pointed out the quest that they went on before they became Praetors for New Rome which felt like a lifetime ago now. She knew that Nancy was going to be experiencing her own hell very soon and wished she could take her place instead. "Even if we are going to be far away from one another we'll still be there for you in spirit." Madalyne said as she joined in the group hug, hugging her two best friends that she loved dearly and would die for them if it came to it.

"We'll all come back from our quests together and we will go take back our home together, and you Nancy will join the Hunters." Madalyne told Nancy as Joanie nuzzled her head against Nancy's cheek making a little chirping like sound as well to. Madalyne sighed slightly as she looked at Nancy. "I wish we could stay longer though. You are really strong Nancy, you are going to do great on the quest." She said looking at Nancy she knew that she could at least count on Zeke since he was her sister after all.

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Kristin looked towards Demi for a moment and sighed slightly for a moment as she ran a hand through her hair, she really did doubt that Thanatos himself would help at all and agreed with what Cassian was saying before adding. "I don't think invoking the of Hera for hurting a cow would be wise at all really honestly since cattle are her sacred animal after all." She pointed out as she looked at Demetri knowing that Hera can be extremely petty and easily angered to.

Rosie listened to the group as they started to talk a little bit as she took a seat and leaned forward as she started to think a little bit about the prophecy that she had received before speaking up, they were just mainly waiting on one person now which was Nancy. "It looks like we have only one person really, so i'll just mention the prophecy now." Rosie said as she closed her eyes and looked towards Chiron for a moment as he nodded. "Six heroes will enter the home of the Lotus Eaters, to stop the monsters must defeat the king of giants, and take control of the Doors of Death, to aide those trapped within Tartarus." Rosie said as she looked towards the group.

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Andy and Arthur sat next to each other. She was thankful for his presence. Thankful for this bit more time with him. She looked around the van wondering if everyone in there would be coming back. She didn't want any of them to die. But she knew it was a danger of quests. She knew that it was important that they were in groups of three. Her group wouldn't be complete until Mads joined them.

Niah got in letting them know Mads was on her way. That was everyone but Mads now. She didn't know if Argus would be annoyed at the longer delay. She got the feeling that the others were though. They had the drive to get to the City and then from there the group would split up heading in their separate directions. She knew that Niah's group needed to go to California. Other than that she didn't know where anyone was actually going, not even her own group.




Niah nodded to Zeke, like him not knowing what to say. He wasn't her friend, so there wasn't much. Niah leaned into the group hug. "Imagine we are there." Then after a couple of beats took a step back. There was a lot she wanted to say. But she decided with, "Don't worry Joanie. Nancy would never hurt you." She smiled. "We should get to the van before the Greeks get any madder."

She turned, and as soon as she was facing away from Nancy her smile dropped and her eyes shone with unshed tears. She quickly walked over the hill to the van joining the Greeks in it. "Sorry for the delay. Mads should be right behind me." She found an empty seat and buckled in.

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It’s fine. I’m fine. Ezekiel looked at Demetri closely, his hand still up where he had grabbed Demi’s shirt. His fingers twitched before he let his hand fall back to his side. Demetri was fine, visibly Ezekiel could see that now but initially…
Cassian’s voice chimed in and Ezekiel turned around slowly and looked at him. Ezekiel leaned back a bit, a smirk forming on his face. ”Apologies Cass. Didn’t realize my being a healer would impede on your desire to be the new spokesperson of the camp. Hey Kristin, better watch out. Mr D’s kid is trying to steal your spotlight.” He turned his head to look at Kristin when he addressed her but after he was done he looked back at Cassian and stepped towards him, eyes narrowing. ”Mind yourself or maybe I’ll let you suffer a little before healing you on our quest.” He turned, taking a step back so he was closer to Demetri again and stared at Rose who started to talk and explain more of the prophecy.
He got a little more information than he did from Nancy but that was because Rose had never been and didn’t need to battle herself and mind to speak about the hotel. Ezekiel looked over Rose’s drawings, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, his fingers twitched against his legs as he tapped out an unheard beat.
”Great and how exactly are we supposed to get to these doors without our mind going mush. As far as I know, as soon as you walk through those doors, the lotus eaters are doing everything to make you feel at home and then pretty soon, one hour turns into three days.” Just once, Zeke would like to stay at camp and defend the barrier.

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Janelle was more or less just continuing to listen to the conversation going on around her, and she was more or less ignoring Zeke and Demetri at this point. She wasn't too sure what everyone was even going on about with the hotel or what ran it or something. Of course, people seemed to be more or less talking now about the full prophecy, as Rosie had finally decided to share the full thing, and not just some image that she drew that people seemed to have forgotten that Janelle couldn't see, and more or less people just assuming things.

At the moment, she didn't really have any sort of idea in general of what to say to add anything to the conversation. Everyone else was already sort of talking, and truthfully it did sound a bit like it was arguing or fighting here and there. That was about it for the moment anyway. There wasn't much else she could do to contribute, at least not without ending up talking with Zeke and Demi, who she very much did not want to talk to right now.

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Jason still wasn't too sure if everyone would actually be able to really fit in the car, he was mainly skeptical about it, but figured whatever. It likely wasn't going to be a very long ride hopefully anyway, since that would not exactly be a fun long distance ride. He eventually found an empty seat, and he personally didn't care who he ended up next to, since it was a short trip. Though he wasn't entirely sure where his group was even going to be heading.

Well, he figured that they'd figure that out eventually. It was a bit confusing what even they were supposed to be doing aside from going off after some object. Truthfully, he hadn't been paying too much attention as to where they were going or anything like that, aside from the knowledge as to who it is that he was going on the quest with. He probably should have paid a bit more attention to that really.

Mary eventually got up to the van, not surprised at all by Leda zipping on ahead, considering the fact that she was a speedster and very much hated sitting still. Honestly she probably was going to practically be bouncing around the van until they stopped and got out of it in the city, since she had no doubt Leda might think she could outrun the van into the city. She wasn't going to say anything about that though, best to not give Leda any ideas about it anyway.

She eventually climbed into an available seat, and just sort of waited for those that were remaining to get into the van so that they could all get going and leave. It seemed to be the other Roman girl, Madalyne, who they were waiting on, as Niah had joined the group already in general. Okay, so now back to waiting for the Romans or whatever, she wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but oh well, the main thing was it was getting a little annoying at times that it has been taken a while, and they always were waiting on the Romans.