Less-Than-Happy Ending (OPEN)

[Isaac Winters]

Isaac walked slowly past the row of cabins, only seeming to be half-present. Yesterday he'd gotten back from the quest with Adonia. He hadn't seen her since it had ended, and that may have only been because he'd spent the return trip and the last day in a bit of a daze. The quest had ended, them victorious in retrieving the bow, but it had been more difficult than he'd expected. Cyrene had been killed before they'd even made it to Vegas. Once there, they'd faced the harpies that Adonia had been so terrified of. Isaac had done his best to fight them off, but there'd been so many... He'd never really been that scared of those things before now.

They had succeeded, but the ending felt bittersweet. It felt anticlimactic. This didn't feel like a victory. He just couldn't shake this feeling that somehow the quest had been a let-down. It wasn't the grand adventure he'd imagined or that other painted quests as being. Maybe they just had this rose-tinted view of quests before going on them, and after you'd gone on one the blinders were removed and you saw them for what they really were. Not a victory, though not a defeat. They just were.

He sat down on the steps to his cabin, sighing. He needed a distraction, something else to think about. He'd be grateful now for one of the dreams of Alice, but he hadn't had one since he'd left on the quest. He still didn't know what was going on with her, and he was no closer to understanding it than he had been before. He had no distractions from his thoughts, and thus he was stuck in this ever-present funk, feeling like he'd have been better off if he'd never gone on the quest. Actually, there were a number of people who'd be better off. Adonia would be better off, because Xavier wouldn't have walked out on her in Chicago. Cyrene would be better off, because she'd still be alive. Isaac had probably suffered the least of anyone who had gone on the quest.

Hopefully anyone who left next would leave him out of things. And someone would be leaving at some point. It sounded like Rachel still hadn't stopped spouting prophecies left and right. It was only a matter of time until the next one came.

Word Count: 421
Notes: Ok. So the quest ending was something Arielle and I had discussed, so I wrote it out as we'd talked about it going. I decided to say Adonia made it back and just go with her fading out of things after that. Other than that... I think this should all be good.

[Ellie Brigid]

Ellie took a step backwards, analyzing her work in the Poseidon Cabin. Her face flickered down into a slight frown, looking at the semi-unsemetrical room. Her side was as neat as it could get for a thirteen year old girl. Her brother's side...was more or less sloppy. Ellie had been trying to do as best she could with the room without moving too much of her brother's stuff around. Ever since he got back, Percy had been more or less neglecting his side of the room. His quest seemed to of gone meh-ish from the rumors around camp. He seemed a bit sadder from when he first left, and Annabeth seemed to have distanced herself from him. She was definitely happy at the moment that she wasn't in a relationship. So many around here had seemed to gone...wrong? Oddly? She wasn't sure.

She was 95.7% sure that all this mood change had come as a result of the quests that had been going on. She had heard that quests sometimes did horrible things to people. Changed them in no other way anything else at Camp could. It seemed like quests were the real test as either a failure or a success in the demigod world. That was why they were being sent to Camp, and getting trained, right...? To survive out there in real life. It didn't seem that appealing to her, especially as a child of the Big Three. Thank the gods she hadn't gotten a quest. Sure, Percy had gotten one when he was twelve and and done fine. Ellie, she wasn't sure how she could possibly pull one off. Once again looking back at the room, and deciding she couldn't do any better without juggling around Percy's stuff, she exited and gently shut the door. Hopefully the inspectors would cut her brother some slack; real life didn't seem to be giving him any.

Looking directly across from her side of the "U", she saw another demigod. If she counted and remembered correctly, it was the Athena cabin. She had, of course, seen him around camp; just not recently. After a few seconds of thinking, she remembered his name: Isaac Winters. It was a relief to see him again. On the fellow camper level. She had never talked to him, but the name rung a bell in the quest area. She couldn't quite place who's quest, but she was pretty sure that he had been picked to go along...or leave on a short notice or something. Now that she thought about it, it seemed that a lot of people had been leaving for quests. He had sort of a "out of it" look. The younger girl tilted her head, frowning a little. So many people seemed kinda down today. She debated for a moment, before deciding to walk over to him. "H-hey..." she said quietly, semi looking down at his shoes before lifting her head slightly. "I-Isaac, r-right...?" The younger girl tilted her head. "A-Are you do-doing o-okay?"

OOC: WOO!! So after knowing eachother for like, what? 2 years...? WE FINALLY GET TO THREAD THESE TWO xD
and... PERCY sorry for the sloppy bedroom kinda-godmod; in one your threads I thought I read that it was kinda sloppy, so I took it from there. Just tell me if you want me to take it out/things are different now. It's totally fine xD
ALSO: Matt, I hope this is okay >.<
IC: 524