Prepare Myself For A War [Percy]

[gabrielle]

i pack my suit in a bag. i'm all dressed up for prague. i'm all dressed up with
you. i'm all dressed up for him, too. prepare myself for a war before i even open
up my door. before i even look out, i'm pissing all of my bullets about. wrap
myself in a bag. i'm all wrapped up in prague. i'm all wrapped up in you. i'm
all wrapped up in him, too. prepare myself for a war. and, i don't know what
i'm doing this for. trying to let it all go. how can i when you still don't know?

[/size][/right]

Gabrielle had no idea how Percy managed to stay in the Poseidon by himself cabin before her and Tyson had come along. At any other time, the decor of the cabin was breathtaking. In her loneliness, the long room was dark and miserable. The abalone-like walls glowed in the dim light, creating an illusion as if they were under water. Every time Gabby found herself inside Cabin Three, she was reminded of the vastness of the ocean, the dark recesses that light never reached. It only magnified the emptiness of the bed across the room from hers. Gabrielle managed to ignore this, chalking it up to her over imagination. There was no way she was worried about him. Percy didn't need anybody worrying about him; Wonder Boy could do anything.

Still, Gabrielle had learned to avoid Cabin Three at all cost during Annabeth's quest. It hadn't felt right without her constant bickering with Percy, or messing with his stuff just to laugh whenever he caught her. She would constantly be reminded of these funny, albeit dysfunctional, occurrences with her sibling. These thoughts made her uncomfortable. Gabby had convinced herself she wasn't supposed to care for Percy, yet alone miss the idiot. Whenever she went to bed at night, she'd find herself thinking of her brother, wondering if he was okay, or even alive. To quell any worries she'd have, Gabrielle would convince herself that Percy wouldn't even think of her well-being if she was in his position. The thought helped, though Gabrielle knew it was a complete lie. The two shared the same, Godly blood, even if they hated to admit it. Gabby couldn't wait for him to be back and safe just as much as any other camper.

Gabrielle had actually managed to find a routine at camp. The activities she once skipped now filled her days. Honestly, Gabby was willing to do anything as long as she wasn't alone in the Cabin. Unfortunately, curfew was looming. Gabby had been walking back from a late-night practice in the arena when she heard the first word of Percy being back. She stopped in her tracks, eyes widening as a young camper chattered excitedly about seeing the son of Poseidon walking through the camp earlier that day. Quickly, her eyes darted back and forth, not knowing where to look first. Her heart started beating in excitement. Percy was alive and somewhere in camp.

Bless the gods.

Trying to play off her joy, Gabrielle took the cool approach, acting as if she hadn't even heard the camper. She nonchalantly began to walk toward the cabin, silently figuring that was a good place to start. As she neared the main twelve cabins, Gabby's pace quickened, her excitement getting the best of her. The daughter of Poseidon was practically in a dead sprint by time she reached Cabin Three. Smiling, she rushed inside, expecting to see her brother. Gabby stopped upon seeing the cabin empty, as per usual. The joy she had felt immediately disappeared, replaced by dissapointment.

"Stupid kid." She muttered in disdain, figuring the kid must have been lying about seeing Percy. Gabby doubted he was back.

word count: 525.
inspiration: prague by damien rice.
outfit: whateva.[/size]

[Ψ ADMIN SUSHI Ψ]

Percy rubbed the back of his neck as he headed back from the beach. He decided to skip out on dinner unable to face Annabeth even for a second. After his talk with Sophie, Percy was feeling only slightly better about himself. He spent dinner sitting in the ocean still attempting to contact his dad or any of the gods but none of them were listening. Percy couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t do something about Phobos. He also couldn’t believe he punched Luke in the jaw. It wasn’t like him, though it had been something Percy wanted to do since his betrayal. It didn’t mean Luke deserved it now. What sucked the most was Percy realized he didn’t even know Luke, not really. He had been at camp for a few weeks tops and it turned out that Luke wasn’t who he claimed to be. He didn’t know the real Luke. Percy had it set in his mind that Luke was the bad guy. He was just another line in a prophecy “you shall be betrayed by the one who calls you a friend.”

Percy scowled and kicked a rock out of his path. Leaving him alone to think was dangerous. It was doing more harm than good. It was enough to make his brain explode. At this point an aneurism was quiet welcome. Since Percy wasn’t up for dinner he sure as hell wasn’t up for sing-along time. He could hear the campers heading in this direction. They had finished which meant everyone was heading back to their cabins. Percy hurried to Cabin Three before he could spot Annabeth or Luke.

He ducked into Cabin Three immediately taking his shoes off and tossing them over his shoulder. Percy flopped down on his bunk and closed his eyes. He lay there silently for a moment before sitting up and looking over at the other bunk in the cabin. It was filled. He blinked. Percy stared at his sister for a minute. Did it make him a bad person that he almost forgot about his sister? In his defense he had only met her at the beginning of the summer. Regardless of this though Percy felt guilty for forgetting her even for a split second. And even though she did have the tendency to bother the crap out of him he was glad to see here sitting here in the cabin.

“Long time no see.” He said trying to smile. Percy chewed on his lip, “So uhh, did you miss me?” Even though he was happy to see Gabby he still couldn’t shake the events of the entire day. Percy hadn’t even noticed that he was still in the same cloths from this morning. This morning they fought Phobos, Riley died and Luke came back. It seemed like it had happened centuries ago.

Percy was starting to count this to one of the worst days ever. He could only hope that Gabrielle didn’t start giving him hell for whatever reason. Percy didn’t need his sister legitimately hating him too; it was bad enough his girlfriend probably hated his guts. Percy couldn’t stomach any more let downs today. He was surprised he hadn’t had a full-blown mental breakdown. Then again the day wasn’t over quite yet, there were still about two hours left for him to go cuckoo for coco puffs. Not that he wanted to be labeled legally insane. Percy just wanted to erase this entire day from his memory and from time itself.

WORD COUNT”583
SONG”H E RE

[gabrielle]

i pack my suit in a bag. i'm all dressed up for prague. i'm all dressed up with
you. i'm all dressed up for him, too. prepare myself for a war before i even open
up my door. before i even look out, i'm pissing all of my bullets about. wrap
myself in a bag. i'm all wrapped up in prague. i'm all wrapped up in you. i'm
all wrapped up in him, too. prepare myself for a war. and, i don't know what
i'm doing this for. trying to let it all go. how can i when you still don't know?

[/size][/right]

Gabrielle walked dejectedly toward her bed, disappointment washing over her. She had really hoped that he would have been sitting on his bed, all of his limbs intact, giving her the annoyed, older brother look he had perfected in the short time they had known each other. She sat down the bed, pushing various items out of her way. She had accrued quite the mess in Percy's absence, dirty clothes littering her bed and floor. Empty cigarette packs and bags of snacks sat crumbled in various spots, all acquired with the help of some Hermes' kids and sheer determination. Percy's side of the room was cleaner, virtually untouched, though still messy. Gabby had ignored the urge to trash his things for no reason at all, managing to keep her destruction tendencies to her side of the cabin. It was out of respect, but if you asked her, Gabby was just much too lazy to touch his things.

She laid back in her bed, beginning her normal routine. Even if Percy was back, Gabby was far too tired to go searching for him all over camp. She doubted he really wanted to see her, anyways. Training had taken all the life out of her, her body being bruised in places she didn't even know about. Gabrielle was becoming a better fighter, though. A handful of campers could still beat her in combat, but Gabby was starting to gain a reputation with a sword. She wasn't as good as her older brother, but she'd be damned if she wasn't going to try. Of course, Gabby would rather die than tell him that.

She reached over to turn of her light, but froze when Percy came rushing into the cabin. She watched silently as he took of his shoes and laid down on his bunk. Gabby really didn't know what to do. Should she say something? Hug him? Gabrielle didn't know the protocol with these sort of things. She jumped a bit when Percy suddenly sat up, eyeing him warily. The confusion was clear in his eyes, soon replaced by recognition. Gabby clenched and unclenched her jaw, rolling her eyes. "Wow. You forgot about me. Nice." She spoke dryly in reply to his words, nostrils flaring. While she had been worried about her brother's well-being, he had completely forgotten about her. She felt stupid for even worrying. Gabby barely even knew the kid.

"Can't say I missed you that much, Wonder boy." Gabby lied, now too offended to even consider admitting that she had missed him. Shrugging off her indignation, Gabrielle sighed, looking at her brother. Well, he didn't look any different. For some reason, she imagined him coming back older and more hardened. Honestly, he looked as stupid as ever. "Well, you have all your limbs, so I'm assuming the quest went swimmingly." Gabrielle gave Percy a huge, sarcastic grin and two thumbs up. Squirming around in her bed, Gabby shifted to face her brother.

"How did it go? Is Annabeth okay?" Gabrielle said the last part sort of bitterly, barely caring for the daughter of Athena's safety. Something seemed to be bothering Percy, as per usual, and Gabby was sure Annabeth at the root of the problem. She always was.

word count: 535.
inspiration: prague by damien rice.
outfit: whateva.[/size]

[Ψ ADMIN SUSHI Ψ]

Percy flinched a little at the tone in Gabby’s voice. He scoffed and kicked his legs over the side of the bed. She was clearly pissed at him and he wondered how she knew that he had forgotten her even for a split second. Percy took off hiss jacket and tossed it to the floor. “I didn’t forget about you.” He said only telling half of the truth. Percy sighed; he should have known that Gabrielle wouldn’t have worried about him. After all why should she? Percy tried his best to hide the hurt from his face. Great. His own sister didn’t want to see him or really care about him.

Percy scoffed and looked around the cabin to avoid making awkward eye contact. He stared at the fountain for a moment briefly wondering if he could try Iris messaging his dad. If Percy was going to tell anybody about Phobos attempting to play puppet master it would be him. Percy wasn’t having luck with the long distance calling so he seriously doubted that a simple rainbow message would help matters. He did a double take back to Gabby. She had a dumb smirk on her face and for a second Percy wanted to yell at her and rant about the quest but he held back.

Rolling his eyes Percy glanced down at his body and then back to Gabby. “Invincible. Kind of hard to destroy the undestroyable....indestructible.” He mused shaking his head after deciding that the first word was probably incorrect. Percy frowned and hesitated. He looked back up to his sister no bothering to hold back the sadness in his eyes. “If you count bringing back a dead half-blood and another half-blood who is supposed to be dead in his place, then yeah Gabby it was just peachy.” He grumbled. It wasn’t fair to snap at Gabby, she had no way of knowing how the quest had actually gone. He drew in a deep breath and tired again with a friendlier tone.

“Do you want the cliff notes version?” He asked. Percy’s eyes moved to the ceiling as he thought of a way to shorten everything. “Phobos was at the lighthouse and he had persuade a son of Hermes to follow him, his name was Riley. He uhh, was the brother of a girl here at camp. Phobos did this ritual and was going to trade a soul for a soul, a son of Hermes for another son of Hermes. We were too late to stop the kid and Riley...” Percy cleared his throat. “The person Phobos wanted to bring back was Luke Castellan. I guess he hoped that Luke would be his perfect little servant since he served Kronos.” Percy rolled his eyes. “We fought Phobos, Nick got hurt and we made it back.”

Percy reflected back on the events of that day. Had all of that really happened in one afternoon? Percy sniffed and forced a slight smile but it was short lived. “Luke’s back I guess is the abridged version. And it might put you in a good mood to know that Annabeth and I are kind of...” Percy felt awkward discussing his relationship with Annabeth to Gabby. Percy turned away and took Riptide from his pocket, placing it on the side table next to a framed picture of Percy, Annabeth and Grover. What he wouldn’t give to have the G-man here. But he was too busy out in the Wild.

“I er...I punched Luke in the face.” Percy said turning his head to look at Gabby. He didn’t know if she would even give two flying Pegasus about the details of the quest or even the fact that they had brought a dead half-blood back to camp.

Percy suspected that they burned the shroud of Riley, son of Hermes at the bonfire. It kind of made Percy glad he didn’t go, sure he felt a little guilty but he wouldn’t be able to handle looking at Riley’s sister. He remembered how hard it was to tell Nico about Bianca. Percy didn’t want to do that again. How many more demigods had to die at the hands of an evil crazed Immortal? And why was it that Percy was always present for it? Dumb luck didn’t capture the actual emotion well enough. Maybe it was a curse, maybe kids of Poseidon were cursed.

WORD COUNT”730
SONG”H E RE