[closed] And I'm not sleeping now

[pheromonecoffee]

Who: Ange and Minato
When: Wednesday
Where: The edge of the trees
What: Sibling bonding?
Warnings: Hades kids and sibling bonding like what are you expecting flowers and rainbows and shit come on look at them

This is a disaster. An absolute disaster. Somewhere between Olympus and the battle at their return to camp, half of SEES went missing. It makes Minato sick to his stomach. His head buzzes. They've suffered losses before, losses were just a part of things but--

Nothing like this, never before. Missing? Dead? Disappeared like the other demigods? Minato has no idea. He moved through Monday and Tuesday in a daze, his thoughts loud and cloudy and sounding for the most part like radio static when you turned the knob just too far. He could hear, but he couldn't make out what he was trying to think about. And the worst part of all, he was helpless. He promised to protect them and he was absolutely helpless to do so.

Wednesday morning is the first day he wakes up with his head clear. And it crashes down on him. In his mostly-fixed bunk, he presses his hands to his eyes in cold light of almost!sunrise. The cabin's not as full as it used to be, but it's still too full to get his head together. He tosses his uniform jacket over his pajama shirt and pulls on his boots, trying not to wake anyone up.

He's gripping his SEES band in his hand when he closes Cabin 11's door, and makes for the woods. The camp will be buzzing soon, with the satyrs and campers, and even the dryads and naiads. And he can't. Deal with that right now.

It's at Zeus' Fist where he stops and sinks down, holding his head in his hands. His friends are missing, his team is half gone, the camp was nearly destroyed and he can only imagine dozens of spirits died when their trees had burned, his father had to break every rule just to keep him and his siblings and cousins alive, Zeus threatened to kill them, and half of Olympus wants them dead.

This week probably cannot get any worse.

His (after?)life is a goddamn mess.

Comments

[airdives]

Ange doesn't really sleep well any more -- too many nightmares, not that she would admit that some of the things in her past (?) life caused her to shake and want to scream uncontrollably. The night was cool, perfect for thinking about things without anyone interrupting. And so she had also snuck out awhile before, dodging the security harpies to stalk around the perimeter of the camp, inspecting the damage.

When she sees something move near Zeus's Fist -- gods, what is that? -- she draws the knife she's started keeping on her person and calls out quietly.

"Who's there?"

[pheromonecoffee]

He doesn't feel like sitting up. He doesn't feel like facing people. He wishes he'd had his headphones on so to ignore her. If she stabbed him, well, he wouldn't be too upset. He'd wave to his father on the way down or something.

He doesn't lift his head--it feels too heavy to anyway. But he'll answer, barely loud enough to carry to her. "It's me."

Don't kill him, Ange. In fact, don't even look at him. He feels like the weight of the world is crushing him. It's worse than the suffocating feeling of knowing his time was up, worse than the pressure of being the Seal. He can't believe he's really failed.

[airdives]

Well, she looks at him even if he subconsciously wishes her away -- because she's not a mind reader, and only seeing him properly can confirm that it's actually him. After being toyed around with so much, being used, she's used to things not being what they seemed.

"What are you doing out here? It's past curfew." Says the girl who snuck out for a midnight hike. Oh well.

[pheromonecoffee]

"... Needed time to think." Elbows still propped on his knees, he turns his face away from her. Less likely for her to see how fucked up in the head he is right now. He watches the wind rustle a few leaves.

And a second passes, and he lifts his hands to dig the heels of his palms into his eyes. How much worse could it get? A lot worse, he knows, but... he wonders who next. Is Ange going to be the one who goes? Aigis? Is it going to be Dead-senpai? Maybe Ken. Maybe, Minato thinks, it will be him, and he'll wake up again as the seal with new memories of losing everyone he cared about?

"I'm dead, you know." His voice cracks. It never cracks. Minato has always kept his cool. He needs to get his shit back together. "Where I'm from. Curfew doesn't mean much when you're already dead."

[airdives]

She resists the urge to snap at him, just a little bit -- dead sure does mean dead, but she's used to it and dealing with it. (Kind of, she puts that out of her mind, the fact that she's probably not coping as well as she thinks she is.) Instead, she resorts to her clever wall of sarcasm, which is mixed with affection and a bit of self-pity.

"We can make a dead kids club. See you later. I am dead." She says it like she would speak English in Japan -- with the accent, something that seems to amuse her if not him. It is, at least, an attempt at cheering him up.

[pheromonecoffee]

He coughs out a laugh. But it's not really a laugh, more just a breath that might carry some bitter amusement.

"... They're not. They weren't. Most of them didn't remember me, but they weren't dead." Except Ryoji, and Minako, too. But the others who went missing? They were definitely alive. "They could never catch a break." We could never catch a break, he thinks. It's self pity, he knows it, but he can't help it this time. This place has been nothing but cruel to him. Giving him a second chance. Taking away every opportunity to spend it with the people he died for.

Less than a second passes from his last words before he shuts his mouth tight. He knows an uncomfortable amount of people who've passed through this camp that were dead. "Maybe that's what happens to Hades' kids."

They lose everything. They die. They have the shittiest luck known to man. Can that be genetic?