---

---

Things were not going well at all, and she listened to what Zeke was saying, "Sensahry ahverload is naht a good din... I'd really 'ope dat I dahn't 'ave to use dem again ahr whatever in dis place. It isn't great... Was fine to use to track you down in dis place, naht so much fahr anythin else," she said to him with a shrug. Then came his brief explanation of the connection to the Odyssey, and she nodded, "Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I 'aven't read de Odyssey, dough readin in braille is likely a bet defferent den what you're used to. I know about de lotus flowers and stuff, guess de name o' dis place makes sense now."

Her attention shifted to suddenly being handed something to drink, before someone (guessing from what she heard Zeke) instantly grabbing it from her hand again and doing something with it. "Naht bein able to see might actually be an advantage... I can't see de flowers ahr de objects i'm 'anded... Sence so far I 'aven't exactly felt de urge to eat ahr drenk anythin so far..." she then said, but it was hard for her to tell where everyone in the group was or what they were doing still, the sounds and noises were still overwhelming to her. "where is everyahne anyway?" she then asked, unsure of where everyone was.

---

---

He probably shouldn't be too surprised that other gods aside from the Greek Pantheon existed. Though he was still somewhat getting used to all of this insanity at points. Of course still there was the chaos that followed them everywhere they went no matter what happened. That was something that he wasn't entirely sure that he'd ever get used to. He followed along after the others to see where they were heading up the mountain, and they passed by a few normal people as they went along.

That's when he looked up to see the eagle, which was a bit bigger then he would have expected, it was when Persephone said they should find some cover that it definitely was made apparent that it wasn't a good thing, and that's when he saw the harpies. He headed over towards the restroom area so that they could hide there for the time being, when he looked over and saw a few familiar faces. "Where ded dat group go to again ahr sahmethin? Because pretty sure it wasn't 'ere." he ended up saying.

---

---

She was very much a bit concerned with how Andy was doing, but she was rather glad that she had seemed to get her own revenge on the monsters by killing them with lightning. Killing monsters can be very therapeutic when it came down to it. Though Mary didn't exactly need Damon telling her to hurry up to run through the opening. She had already been planning on doing that, so she ran as fast as she could, making sure Andy was keeping up a bit, and exited the Labyrinth and out into the open air.

Once they were all out, she turned to look at Andy, "Are you okay?" she asked her, before her attention shifted to the air above them and heard the sounds of harpies. "I'm fine, and I know we're all tired... But we need to get out of the open..." she started to say, before hearing someone calling to her and she turned to look, seeing Jason, Niah and Stella, along with Persephone? Well that was interesting to say the least. "...Well looks like we're going to have to talk to at least one of those two sooner rather then later... I've got this Andy, I need to give Niah something anyway..." she said as she led the way, hurrying over to where the others were now. She gave Stella a slight wave before walking straight up to Niah, before handing her the gem that Madalyne had handed her. "...I'm sorry... She asked me to make sure this got to you and Nancy..."

---

---

Andy stumbled out into the bright light of California. Her whole body was shaking as she gasped for air trying to control her fear and anger and sadness. She felt cold and hot at the same time. Instinctively she flinched away from Damon, a part of her still hating him for pulling a knife on her, and a part of her wishing it were Arthur that was there to comfort her. She looked up at Mary trying to figure out how to answer her question. Was she okay? Could she be okay? "No." She missed Arthur.

When Andy saw Niah and Jason and Stella she ran over to the trio, not really registering that someone else was with them. She practically flew into Niah, stopping short when she realized Niah was taking something from Mary.




Taking cover near the bathrooms as Persephone had recommended Niah kept an eye on the sky. If the goddess was uncomfortable that did not bode well for them. She looked over and saw Mary and Andy...without Mads...coming toward them.

"They were in the Labyrinth." Her voice was devoid of emotion suddenly. She already knew that Mads was gone. Fallen into Tartus. Lost to them. She bit back the urge to swear on her mother that she'd get Mads back.

"Thank you, Mary." She said holding out her hand. Niah glanced at the gem. She knew what it was, so she quickly tucked it away in her bag. Her hands were shaking, but her voice remained steady as she spoke.

"Andy?" She didn't say anything else, the small girl stepped up and the two hugged. Niah wouldn't have said she had been fond of Andy, but the kid had been through a lot before learning she was a demi-god. This couldn't have been easy. Even expecting it. To lose the only blood she had, non-god-related blood at that, couldn't be easy. And Niah had lost one of her best friends in the whole world. She needed to call Nancy. After a moment of hugging Andy the two parted, Andy still clutching the sword awkwardly.

"I need to find a way to make a rainbow. I need to let Nancy know." Hopefully Nancy was in a position to take an Iris call (something Niah considered one of the perks of working with Greeks).

"Can I go with you? I want to call Arthur." Hopefully the Harpies and whatever the Eagle were would leave them alone long enough to get their calls out.

---

---

---

---

San Fransico, Sierra Trail:

"More monsters really?" Damon said sounding really annoyed as he could see several harpies and what looked like a giant eagle were soaring overhead. He looked between Mary, Niah and Andy they were talking and Mary handed something to the new girl, the group didn't seem to get a break when some of the harpies flew down and started to attack them. One of the harpies swooped down and kicked Niah pretty hard knocking her to the ground. The next one would attack Mary and started to claw at her and she would get a few scratches on her, while another went and attacked Stella but missed. Another would attack Andy and tried to grab her into the air by her shoulders with it's taloned feet, but Persephone quickly stepped in using her powers on the nearby plants and quickly killed it while Damon swung at one of them that attacked him managing to knock it backwards, one of the harpies would swoop down and grab Jason trying to drag him off as well.

---

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---

"Sure thing follow me." Poseidon said seeing that Sera was finished with her dinner, and got up waving for his two daughters to follow behind him and out of the dining room. He would lead them into a hallway it was littered with paintings and various statues and other bits of art from Greece. Kiera was amazed how it all looked really beautiful as she followed behind her father. There were a few guards patrolling the hallway as Poseidon eventually led the two girls to a room and opened the door for them. "Hopefully you two will like it. Someone will be in with a clean set of clothes for you and if you need anything feel free to ask." Poseidon said as Kiera smiled slightly and nodded. "Thanks dad." Kiera said as the god closed the door behind them.

The room was just as nice as well to there was a nice balcony nearby that overlooked Atlantis below them along with two very comfortable beds as well to. Kiera tossed her stuff down on the bed, she was physically, mentally and emotionally tired and just wanted to relax she had a feeling that she would be safe here and didn't have to worry about any monsters coming in and attacking them. "How are you doing?" Kiera asked as she turned to face her sister she knew that today alone was a lot to actually take in.

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Kristin would quickly snap out of it and shook her head when Zeke smacked the drink out of her hands, Cassian was unlucky as he seemed to take a drink from it and sighed. Demi was with Alexios hopefully he was immune to what was actually happening here, Nancy however wasn't handling things well right now seeing the girl had gone off and ran into a nearby janitor's closet. "Zeke make sure she's okay, if Demi is with Alexios he should." Kristin said as she turned to look at Janelle she seemed to be immune as well to that could be helpful. "Janelle help me round up the others and we meet back up here sound good?" Kristin asked hopefully that would work out.

Over where the skeeball game was a kid had approached him and looked the kid up and down for a moment. "Want to play together?" He asked as he started to get ready to play a few rounds now to. There was a lot of arcade games as well that looked pretty enticing to play to. Over where Alexios and Demi were he was way into the slot game. "But I want to win you so many prizes." Alexios told him in the distance Demi could see a little shop where he could buy things and turn in prize tickets and what not.

---

---

”It would be interesting to read in braille. You should get an audiobook of the Odyssey in original Greek. The story is way more colourful.” Zeke commented. He had read it in Greek once. The English version wasn’t the same after that, but Ezekiel still loved the story. ”But ya, the lotus plant is infused in all the food and drinks. We are in the den of the modern-day lotus eaters.”
Ezekiel was glad to be talking to Janelle. He wasn’t expecting her to forgive him, but it was nice to have an actual conversation.

Back with the rest of the group, lotus free for the time being, Ezekiel had just finished suggesting getting a rope to tie everyone together when Nancy took off. ”NANCY! Zeke yelled and stepped to go after her. He stopped, though. They needed to stay together. Ezekiel looked over at Kristin and shook his head. ”We need to stay together, Kristin. We are wasting time separating to try and round everyone up. Someone keeps getting lotused, and then we start the chase all over again. Let’s all go get Nancy, then we can go round up Cass, then Demi and Alexois,” he suggested. He turned once more. CRASH!
Ezekiel hit a member of the wait staff. Their tray flipped up, and cake smashed all over Ezekiel. ”Σκατά,” Ezekiel cursed before his eyes glazed over. He rotated in a small circle while wiping cake onto his finger and ate it. ”You guys should try this. Seriously, it's to die for.”

---

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Location: Atlantis

Skills: Hydrokinsis

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---

Finally Sera could relax her guard fully, she was pleased to see the comfortable beds and couldn't wait to fall asleep. "Oh well...." She was about to answer only to yelp with surprise upon being shocked by an electric eel when she was about to go to the other unclaimed bed. "I think I could be better." Groaning and glaring at the eel as it wiggles away from her. Finally sitting on the bed with a huff, rubbing her arm where the sea creature had touched her skin. "I just never.... thought this would become my life. This is like stuff you read in fantasy novels or a plot to a video game. Knowing its real is...... its freaky." The girl sighed lowly, biting on her bottom lip out of nervousness. "Im sure every demigod felt like this before they got used to it. Thinking its just a dream before accepting it as their new life..... Today was rather frightening actually. I wish we all had made it out safely from that cave." Sera never ever wanted to go back into any sort of cave again out of fear. Even thinking about it made her body numb along with the nauseated feeling rising up into her throat. Shaking her head a few times. "Ugh."

---

---

Demetri was becoming more and more afraid that he wouldn’t be able to break Alexios out of the trance. This place was a worse trap than he had imagined, and if everyone who fell under its spell kept running off to do whatever it was that they wanted…well then they’d be wasting all day just chasing each other and letting the mission fall to the wayside. What’s more, if what was said before was true and time truly didn’t flow the same in this hotel then who knows how much time they’d already spent out in the real world? His heart began to race, panic settling in as he wondered how long had passed, if his mother was worried about him. Had been a reasonable enough amount of time for her not to worry that he hasn’t w ritten back? Or did a full year go by and leave her wondering what became of her only son? No. Determination filled Demetri now more than ever as he tried to snap Alexios out of it all before trying to regroup with the rest. He gave a loud clap right next to the gods ear and suddenly the glaze faded away from his eyes, turning back towards the beautiful jade green they were before. ”Right then. No more of that got it? Let's go to find the others and the only food we eat is what's crafted from those finely sculpted hands you got.”

Demi took Alexios’s hand, pulling him away from the slot machines and towards where he thought he’d last seen the others. The lights and sounds of this place were the building's own form of defense. They were disorienting and constantly bombarding the senses as if the hotel itself was actively working against them. Luckily for him, it didn’t seem that the hotel had much sway over him. Having dodged every advance from the lotus eaters and being able to navigate the maze of people until he found Zeke and the rest. Once he’d caught sight, Demetri began to run, yanking Alexios behind him as he finally made it to Zeke. Sure he still wanted to yell at him, smack him, and tell him how incredibly stupid he’d been the past week but all of that didn’t matter now. Zeke was safe and that was all he cared about. ”Bad news, Party God can party foul. He was lotus’d not too long ago, had to break him out of it.”

Cassian smiled as the boy approached him, asking if they wanted to play together. He studied the boy's mannerisms, how he spoke, the way he approached, all to see if the guy was interested in him or simply being nice. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t appear to be. But that didn’t mean that that couldn’t change somehow. After all he had to have approached him for some reason beyond Skeeball. No stranger would simply do so without another motive. ”Been a while since I’ve played, might be a bit rusty. But I’d love it if you joined me.” He was an expert marksman, and honestly this game probably wouldn’t be too difficult for him. But every guy loved to help and explain something to another, and who knows maybe he’d get himself a Ghost moment. Cassian grabbed the ball, rolling his arm back before swinging it forwards and letting go. The ball ran up the lane before falling into the backboard and down the gutter.

He gave the guy and awkward smile as he pushed his hair back a bit in false frustration. ”Like I said, been a while. May need a few pointers if you have any?” Cassian said as another ball slid down the reserve and clattered against the opening for them to grab. He held his hand out for the guy to grab, his smile changing to a warm and welcome one. ”I’m Cassian by the way. What’s your name?” He wasn’t sure if he was getting anywhere with this guy, but who knows, some things took time and this might be one of them.

---

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Something was wrong. Stella could see it in the way Andy and Mary were looking and from the way they both rushed over to Niah. She was trying to wrack her brain over what was going wrong when the large eagle swooped in and tried to attack her. She let out a screech and dropped and rolled away from the creature. It was large, ugly, and that beak. It looked curved, sinister and like it was ready to pluck something out. Something in the back of her young mind rang out, something about an eagle that would pluck out something in Greek mythology. The moment for trying to remember Greek mythology was not this moment, as the eagle seemed determined to grab the young girl and drag her into the sky and away from her friends and family.

Stella grabbed at the sickle from her mother and focused on the plants around her. They were out in nature again, instead of a moving metal box. She could use her mother's gifts again. She willed them to move, reaching up for the bird and drag him down to the ground. The first connection was weak, some light vines wrapping around and grasping at the eagle and making it so it was tangled, but it wouldn't last. Stella could tell as much. So she gripped the sickle tighter and focused more and the vines and plants ensnared the creature tighter, thorns snagging in to keep it from becoming air bound again.

---

---

Well things were definitely going not so great, and insanely chaotic. Nancy had taken off and seemingly wasn't doing so great with things, and that currently meant she was probably the only person seemingly keeping her head and not having any sort of issues with regard to the lotus stuff and all. That was certainly useful, but she did have to think about what made the most sense. And Zeke's whole idea was the most sound. They shouldn't separate and they should stick together. Of course her thinking somewhat a little more highly of Zeke was instantly dampened by him crashing into someone from what she could hear, and then him going on about cake.

Janelle was getting fed up with all of this, and thinking nothing more of it, she grabbed Zeke by the shoulders, turned him so she was (pretty) sure that he was facing her, raising her hand, and promptly took slight aim (hopefully) and slapped him across the face. At least her aim was right, but that didn't seem to do anything, so she decided to hell with it and slapped him a few other times. "Stahp actin like a tahddler and steckin everythin you fend into your mouth!"

---

---

He wasn't sure what was going on between the group now, as the others who had taken off somewhere else were now in the area. That still didn't make a whole lot of sense to him, but he figured to just go with it at this point. Everything was chaotic, and Niah mentioned they had gone into the Labyrinth, something he wasn't entirely sure how it fully worked, and he knew next to nothing about. However things were shortly interrupted by harpies deciding to attack them, well that was rude of them now wasn't it?

Drawing his sword, Jason instantly swung at one of the harpies that was there, and managed to hit it. Unfortunately though it didn't seem to kill the creature immediately which was definitely annoying. Even more annoying was seeing how now the harpy was keeping its distance away from him to avoid his sword. "Well dis is annahyin, who said dey could actually make smart tactical mahves," he couldn't help but mutter under his breath at the creatures.

---

---

"I'm sorry..." was the only thing she could really say, before they started getting attacked by monsters again. Honestly they couldn't catch a break no matter what with regards to it. "Sorry, seems like that call might have to wait a second..." she said as she instantly got attacked by a harpy. Well that was rude of it. However she couldn't do a whole lot but managed still to draw her sword and start attacking the harpy.

The creature got hit, but also got seemingly got smarter with attacking and was keeping back away from her. "Alright, well if you want to stay at a distance be my guest, I can do range attacks," she muttered under her breath, as she drew a few of her knives and instantly started throwing a few of them at the harpy, managing to kill it completely now. This was getting really really annoying that they couldn't get a second of not dying.

---

---

Nancy was rocking back and forth, hugging her knees to her chest as she sobbed in the closet. No one had come after her, that she knew of. That was fine. Preferable, even. She had fallen to pieces, weak and vulnerable. She breathed in the scents of the cleaning products and once she could cry no more, she stared into the wood grain of the door. How had she thought she could do this - what had possessed her to leave behind the Legion, to travel to the place of her waking nightmares? They needed her, the Legion. These people didn't need her. She couldn't protect them. She was useless, worse than useless really.

Dimly, she was aware of Joanie's familiar weight on her shoulders. She turned her head, reaching out and touching Joanie with a shaking head. And when she turned her head away again, facing the door once more, she noticed something that hadn't been there moments before. Instinctively, she knew that it was from Apollo - from her father. It was a pair of headphones and an old cassette player, complete with a mixtape. She picked it up carefully, studying it and barely comprehending the words, as the letters danced around, but she picked out a few of her favorite songs.

She hugged it to her chest and she wept.

---

---

"I just want like five minutes!" Andy yelled. She held up her hand and ...nothing happened. ARRGHH!!" She yelled. Trying to draw deeper. Anger and sadness welled within her. She felt so helpless and she refused to allow that to control her. She couldn't be helpless. She had to be able to do something, make some sort of difference.

Lightening cascaded down wiping out most of the harpies. Andy took several deep breaths trying to get the anger she had just released under control. She wanted to cry and wanted to scream more. She wanted to bring down more lightning and destroy the whole area...that last one she knew wasn't a good idea. This was California if she wasn't careful and looked at it wrong it'd catch fire.




Niah clutched her bag, making sure it was secure, and then she stood up taking in the fight. A whole lot had happened in a few seconds. The eagle had swooped down, but Stella seemed to have that thing under control with her plants. Andy had almost been lifted up by a harpie, but Persephone had saved her.

She reached out with her Odikinesis trying to get the harpies to lose interest in them. She could tell one seemed to have lost interest. So she drew her sword and stabbed at a different harpie. As she did lightning filled the area. Niah stabbed the harpie as all the others fell from the sky roasted. She looked at Andy, raising an eyebrow surprised at the child.

---

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---

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San Fransico, Sierra Trail:

With all of the harpies dealt with the eagle was screeching to try and get itself free, thanks to Stella however Persephone decided to make it a little bit tighter using her own vines to keep it tied down and secured. All of the harpies that were killed laid dead on the ground and a few seconds later they all burst into dust. The weather seemed to start to go bad now however as clouds started to cover the area and it started to rain, quickly washing the monster dust away now. Persephone looked at Andy and made her way over towards Andy and gently pulled the girl into a hug knowing that the girl was upset now. "Are you okay child?" The goddess asked Andy.

---

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---

Kiera sat down on the bed she stared at the electric eel and giggled slightly seeing her sister getting a slight shock was a little bit amusing to her. Kiera tossed her gear down on the ground at the foot of her bed, while looking back at Sera and nodded slightly towards her. She was still pretty new to being a demigod and all as well to and it was both fun and really hard, Kiera had just lost her girlfriend and she missed her dearly still. "I only found out like a year ago that I was a demigod as well to." Kiera said to Sera as she went to lay down resting her head against the pillow which was actually very comfortable.

"It's definitely has been a pretty interesting adventure however." Kiera said as she watched the eel trying to get out of the room as it swam towards the window and bumped its head against the window. She got up and made her way towards the window and opened it up, and the little sea creature quickly swam out and closed it behind her once again and made her way back to her bed.

---

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A few seconds later a girl came up to where Cassian and the boy were. "Whats up little bro?" She asked as she stared at the boy standing next to her brother and gave him a slight glare she didn't like him in her opinion. "Uh it's Aran." He said extending his hand to Cassian and gestured towards the girl. "And this is my sister Anya." He said as he introduced his older sister. "And you are only older by a few minutes." He said shaking his head to his sister.

Kristin stared at Zeke as he ended up bumping into a server and got himself a face full of lotus cake, she then rolled her eyes and shook her head as Zeke stupidly just decided to eat some of that cake. "And you just said to not eat anything or get separated in here." Kristin said with a slightly annoyed voice as Janelle started to slap him and managed to snap him out of it which was a good thing then. And a few seconds later Demi came back with Alexios, it was a little worrying then that this place could affect a god. Sunshine was getting a bit annoyed and wondered off to go and find Nancy..

Over in the closet Joanie would gently nuzzle against Nancy to try and get her attention while making some noises and a few seconds later Nancy would hear some scratching sounds and a meow could be heard on the other side of the door. And a paw would be seen sticking out through the small crack between the door and the floor Sunshine clearly wanted Nancy's attention.

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Stella was glad that the fight was over, and the eagle was tied up on the ground, and it seemed that with Persephone's help it was even tighter than how she had left it. She sighed and went to check on Arbor, whom seemed happy that there were no more monsters threatening anyone that he considered his. She gently pet the pup and nuzzled him more a moment before looking around the group. It seemed that the other young girl... Andy, if she remembered right, was now getting comforted by her sister. Stella frowned as she watched the other girl and could tell there was really something deeply wrong.

She wanted to go comfort Marygold, but she was also aware that it might not be the moment, as she said that they might go make an Iris call. She decided to stash away her scythe, as it wasn't needed anymore, and she looked around at the now larger group. They probably needed to get a move on again, as there was still the giant and the other monsters, but maybe taking a break for five minutes wouldn't be a terrible thing. However she was afraid of asking for it aloud. What if that just invited more trouble upon them? What if the Eagle just got out and made itself their enemy again as they were in the middle of that break? No, best not to say anything just yet.

---

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Ezekiel didn’t understand why Janelle had slapped him. She really needed some cake to loosen up a bit. He went to offer her some shirt cake when she slapped him again. And again. And again. Ezekiel grabbed Janelle’s hand as his eyes sharpened into focus.
”Okay! Okay… I’m good, I think. Ya, I’m good.” He quickly released Janelle’s wrist, so she didn’t feel like he was holding her there. He looked at the mess on his shirt and sighed. He started to wipe the stuff off, trying to salvage what was left. At least he wasn’t wearing one of the new shirts he had bought.
Ezekiel looked over, seeing Demetri and Alexios and he sighed in relief. Demi looked alright and Alexios was, whatever. He looked back at Janelle. ”Thanks Janelle. I mean, my face is throbbing now, but thank you.” He looked at Kristin and frowned at her. ”Oh, don’t get all high and mighty. The lotus eaters compel you to eat what they give you. Its like siren magic. You don’t get the option to say no if their magic hits you. Now, let’s go get my sister. No separating. Everyone hold hands or something. Once we have Nanc we can go find Cassian.”
Ezekiel reached out to Demetri, offering his hand to his boyfriend to take. They had a lot to talk about. Like a lot but this wasn’t the time or the place. Right now they just needed to focus on getting out of this place alive and hopefully before 2030.

---

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Bit by bit, piece by piece, Nancy came back to herself.

It started with small acts of rebellion - of breathing in deeply, feeling the rise and the fall of her own chest; of clenching her toes and unclenching them; of twitching each finger in turn. She then slowly uncurled herself, stretching out her limbs and leaning her back up against a bucket filled with cleaning supplies. "I'm okay," Nancy then whispered, finding her voice - still hoarse and sore, but hers and hers alone. "I'm okay," she murmured again, staring at the door. She registered the meowing of a cat and a paw underneath the door - Sunshine.

Nancy rose to her feet, shaking and unstable. With each blink, she could see it again so clearly - the men she had thought were her friends, the dizziness in her head, their hands on her, all over her, gripping and wanting and about to take, take, take - and then the blood, oh, there had been so much blood, as she stood over their bodies. She paused, a hand on the doorknob. Did she want to open the door, to let Sunshine in - to relive more of her trauma, and to watch it happen to others?

"I'm okay," she whispered, before opening the door.

---

---

Location: Atlantis

Skills: Hydrokinsis

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---

"Oh I'm sure.... so far it seems interesting." Sera yawned while laying back upon the bed. "Hopefully I don't get shocked or something by any other animals..." She really didn't want to get woken by a sudden shock to her body, or even a poke or prod. Putting the blanket over her body while settling down into the bed. "....Never thought I'd sleep underwater. Under stars, sure, but not deep in the ocean. Guess if I ever need to sleep I can do it almost anywhere. Maybe not a tree....trees don't look so comfortable..." She mumbled sleepily. The young demigod was pretty tired and was pretty much ready to pass out and go into dreamland. Which is just what she did. Sera was basically snoring as soon as the blanket was wrapped around her body.

---

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Andy had done her best to hold it together. She hated that as soon as they had come out of the Labyrinth there had been a fight. She wanted to rest. She wanted to grieve a little. Of course, she knew that she and Arthur, and Nancy and Niah would go for Mads. There was no way they'd let her stay down there. But she had watched her aunt, her only blood family turn to dust. Andy didn't know how long it took for monsters to reconstitute, but the time between that and them being able to rescue Mads was too long, it didn't matter how long.

There were arms wrapped around her. She hadn't even realized it at first. But she was crying into them. The person felt comforting, like hot cocoa on a cold day. After a moment she was able to pull herself together again. She nodded. "We were in the Labyrinth. My aunt...she is in Tartus." She wasn't going to explain everything about Mads, but that was what the others needed to know. That was what Niah already knew.

It was raining...Was that her fault?




Niah frowned looking up at the clouds that had formed. That'd make sending an Iris message more difficult. She needed light to make the rainbow. She wasn't certain if the storm had been Andy's doing, or if it was just the mist's way of covering the sudden lightning storm the child had created. Niah let Perseophne handle comforting Andy and walked a few feet away to try to get an Iris message sent.

Getting a rainbow was the tough part. It was raining. But finding a spot where some sunlight shone through to make the proper rainbow was harder than expected. It took her a moment to find a spot that seemed right. She did the normal thing and tossed one of the Greek coins, but nothing happened. She adjusted her position. The rainbow was there...but weak. She quickly tossed the coin and asked Iris to connect her to Nancy.

An image of Nancy appeared. She looked like she had been crying, and Niah couldn't see her all that well. The image was distorted and fuzzy. It brought to her mind a memory of when she was little and holding the rabbit ears of the TV to try to improve the reception. She smiled at the old memory and the face of one of her best friends.

"Nancy, I don't know how well this will hold. It is raining here and there are clouds, so the rainbow can disappear any moment." She trailed off. How do you tell your friend that the third part of their soul is gone? "I love you, Nancy."

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Standing there in stunned silence and shock as Janelle began to assault his boyfriend, Demetri couldn’t move. One slap was fine, he’d of smacked the God of Parties to release him from the hotel's grasp if he didn’t think it would incur further wrath from the Goddess of Love. But Janelle didn’t stop. Zeke got to her first, gripping her wrist before finally letting go. He wanted to say something, to yell at her or ask her what her deal was, but he saw who he was surrounded by. Zeke would surely disapprove of that behavior, and the others had already seen a similar side to him on the train ride here. He didn’t know what they would think if he said anything, if maybe they’d think that part of him was creeping back out of him, if they thought he’d be a threat to the mission and Janelle. He wasn’t ofcourse, but that didn't stop people's perspectives from taking over their own thoughts. His jaw was clenched as he bit back words he wanted to say before choosing to focus on what Zeke was saying instead of what had just happened. ”Right, about that. I haven’t actually had any urges to eat or drink anything here.” He said before muttering the next statement. ”Then again I haven’t had the urge to eat anything for a few days now so…” Maybe that’s why he and Nancy hadn't been affected yet. He recognized the look in her eyes when they met in front of the Hotel, but perhaps their issues would be a blessing in disguise. Either way Zeke was right, they needed to stick together, they’ve all ran off too many times already and it was getting hard to keep up.

Demetri channeled the negative emotions he was feeling, a darkness coming over his eyes as he took every word he wanted to say to Janelle and shouted them inside his own mind. He felt that familiar tug inside his chest, a string pulled taut. Shadows coalesced around those before him, tendrils flicking up like flames in the air. Dark smoke encircled everyone's wrists before they all began tethered to one another. ”Got you babe. No more separating. I’ve manacled all of us with solidified shadows. Where one goes, we all go. Got it?” Tethered or not, Demetri still took Zeke’s hand. Feeling its familiar warmth against his usually cool hands. It was like they were back in the Infirmary, holding hands underneath the desks as they read silently amongst each other, secretly together without even having to say as much. There was a tug at the corner of his lips, a smile threatening to creep out at the thought. He lurched forward, planting a gentle kiss where Janelle had slapped him. He didn’t have healing powers like Zeke, but a kiss made everything feel better. That was the rules.

Cassian hadn’t expected to be third partied. He watched as the new girl wedged herself in between their conversation, giving him a glare. He wondered if perhaps this was his girlfriend, but that was quickly disproven when Anya called Aran her little brother. Was she always so hypercritical of the people that her brother interacted with? Or did she simply dislike Cassian in the way Nancy did? ”Aran and Anya. Pleasure to meet both of you. Where are your names from? They sound so unique.” He’d forgotten all about the hotel, its traps, and its ability to freeze time for those inside of it. Who knew how old these two were, and with names like that it was difficult to place a time period. But he wasn’t thinking about any of that, only about the game they had momentarily abandoned and the beautiful guy before him. His hand released Aran’s, pointer finger flitting between the pair with a slight look of shock at them.

”A few minutes? So you’re twins. That’s so cool, I’ve never met twins before.” Cassian didn’t think the twin gods Artemis and Apollo counted for the statement. While he’d never fully met the pair in general, it was their godlyhood that counted against them. He’d never met any mortal twins, thought he couldn’t exactly say that seeing as how everyone here should be mortal. Fully gone were the people he’d ventured in here with, Janelle and her twin brother forgotten as the hotel made those details foggy in his mind. It was as though he could sense a bit of inconsistency in his statement, but he figured it was simply due to the gods and nothing else. He picked up another Skeeball, holding it in his hand before tilting it towards the twins. ”So who’s next?”

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"You're lucky dat's all I ded, because you literally just ran into sahmeone, secahnds after tellin us not to eat anythin mend you it doesn't seem to effect me, and den promptly do de din you told us naht to do. Talk about bein a 'ypahcrite," she said to him, shaking her head. "A few slaps in de face is de least you deserve fahr pullin dat sahrt o' stunt." it was apparent she was starting to get annoyed with this whole thing at the moment, since she was practically acting like a babysitter to literally everyone else here.

The whole situation was getting ridiculous, she was getting tired and was about ready to just walk off by herself. Over the noise in the casino she had heard some useful information, but she was too busy babysitting everyone to even say what it was. The group seemed to be ready to head on, but she was more then ready to punch someone if they so much as reached towards anything that was offered to them by those who worked here at the hotel.

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Jason wasn't entirely sure what was going on or what had happened. All that he knew was that it was bad, and from what he could figure, someone was dead. They were missing the Roman girl who had gone with them. Now they had someone else with them who he had no idea who he was, but still. That didn't bode too well for their current situation. Seemed like they were going to take a break for a moment for the group to send off a message to someone else to let them know, that was something he understood them doing.

He put his sword away and just figured he'd wait to see what happened nearby. Though he knew that since they were still out in the open, he figured he'd at least keep watch or something like that. Since that way hopefully they wouldn't be overly surprised if monsters attacked them while they sent their message. This was definitely an interesting quest to say the least. Andy mentioned something about the roman girl being in Tartarus now, so that kind of answered the question he already was pretty sure he knew the answer to.

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She wasn't entirely sure how things were going to really go for Niah telling Nancy what had happened. Mary still wasn't even sure what to think of what had happened in general for herself. But that wasn't the only thing to worry about, as Andy didn't seem to be doing all too well at the moment. Before she could go over there to check on her, someone else went over to her. That person she recognized as Persephone, who immediately wrapped Andy into a hug, so she figured it might be best to leave Andy alone at the moment.

With Andy sort of explaining to everyone the basics or what happened with Madalyne, she figured she'd take a second to check on the other literal kid who was with them. That being Stella, as she wandered over to her little sister. "So how are you doing? Anything interesting happen with you guys?" she asked her, since Andy had just mentioned what happened with them more or less, she figured she'd see what happened with the others.

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San Fransico, Sierra Trail:

The message was still going alright for the most part between Niah and Nancy, however it was still pretty fuzzy due to the storm that was going on around the group. "I am so sorry for your loss." Persephone said to Andy as she continued to hug the young demigod, if there was a way that she could help she would, but she couldn't really. She knew that Tartarus was not a good place to be in at all even for a mortal to be in at all. The eagle seemed to be still as it laid there letting out a slight huffing sound, it had stopped struggling now which was a good thing. Damon looked over at Jason and walked over towards him and extended a hand towards him. "I'm Damon son of Hephaestus it's nice to meet you. Should we keep watch for a little bit and let the others rest a bit?" He asked to his fellow demigod, making sure that no other monsters would sneak up on them was probably a good idea. There weren't any other monsters at all really which was a good thing then for now at least.

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Kiera smiled slightly towards her sister and nodded slightly, she had spent a few nights outside under the stars with Leda outside of her cabin and they would look out into the stars sometimes which was always pretty nice and relaxing. "Yeah I wouldn't have thought about sleeping under water at all before until now honestly." Kiera said as she looked over at Sera and smiled at her she would make sure that no other fishes would try and do that to her half-sister while she slept.

And like that Sera was out pretty quickly, Kiera laid on the bed while staring up at the ceiling, she really didn't feel like sleeping her mind quickly started to wonder over to Leda and wondered how she could have tried to prevent her girlfriend from dying. Kiera then rolled onto her side looking out the window overlooking the rest of Atlantis below. It looked rather beautiful as she watched the various sea creatures swimming below the window to their room was pretty relaxing eventually Kiera ended up falling asleep.

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Kristin looked at Demi as he essentially bound them all together, however for Demi it would feel pretty taxing to him, it was probably due to him not eating anything at all for the last few days he would start to feel pretty lightheaded now he needed some more food. "Really is binding us all together that necessary?" Kristin asked sounding a little bit annoyed, Alexios quickly started to get jealous of Zeke and Demi, he would quickly step in between Zeke and Demi as he looked at his betrothed. "Shall we go and find your other friend?" The god asked the group wanting to move forward. "How are you doing there Janelle?" A voice only Janelle would be able to hear, despite her not being able to see, she would be able to see her father Hypnos had come to see her.

Sunshine the cat clearly started to meow louder and louder once Nancy had opened the door the cat rubbed up against Nancy's legs nearly tripping her over clearly wanting her to follow it. Then a few seconds later Nancy would be face to face with an Iris Message from Niah, though it looked pretty fuzzy and choppy she would be able to recognize her friend.

"It's Russian or something like that." Anya said with a slight shrug as she stared at her brother she still didn't like Cassian at all still as a waiter came over he would offer the three of them a lotus shaped cake which the twins would take and quickly ate it Cassian would have the urge to take it as well to. "Laser tag is way more fun there is one down the hallway here." Anya suggested pointing towards where it was. "That does sound like fun." Aron had said while looking at Cassian while the twins ate their food.

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Stella reached down to gently pet Arbor, as the wolf was still a bit on edge from everything that had happened. If Stella was being honest with herself, she was still on edge herself. The fight had been intense and the reunion with the other campers had been less than happy in their case. It also seemed that while they still had a task ahead, it was time for a break so that Niah could make an Iris call and so that Andy could calm down a little.

When Marygold walked over to her, she offered her a small smile and looked up at her sister. "Well, I'm alright, I have a puppy now. This is Arbor, by the way. As for anything interesting..." Stella decided to tell Marygold a short version of what happened, about the cyclopses, the harpies, the basilisks, and now meeting up with Persephone in San Francisco. If there was anything she had left out, it hadn't been on purpose, it had been more for the sake of time. "What about you, aside from what... just happened. I am sorry about that by the way. That couldn't have been easy to watch."