Dreams and things (CLOSED)

I lightly pushed past Fletch and up the stone steps of the Cabin 12 porch. I lifted my fist up, and with a slight hesitation, I rapped on the blueish purple door. I stood still, waiting for a long duration of time before someone actually opened the door.
"Yo."
The door cracked open, just big enough for a head with a wavy mop of black hair to squeeze out and inspect the visitors. He looked up at us with a lazy expression, but a small smile grew on his face when he realized it was us.
"Oh hey." He spoke out.
Liam swung the door open, smoky air poured out of his cabin as if it had been overflowing with the thick gas.
I coughed loudly, swiping my hand in the air in front of my face in hopes of lessening the strong smell of marijuana that just ransacked my nose like an drunk, unwelcome guest.
"Uh, hi Liam." I choked out. "I was wondering if we could talk to you about the quest and stuff."
I could feel my eyes sting and wondered if I could get second hand red eyes.
Liam's smile faded from his face and he motioned towards us to come into his cabin. Fletch and I exchanged glances before we stepped into the foggy haze. It cleared a bit and I finally got to take a better glance at his cabin. There were beanbags all over the ground and like most other cabins, bunk beds were lined up against the walls of the cabin. There were a few shelves displaying a proud collection of bongs on one side. Underneath the shelves, rows of skateboards hung up on nails. On the other side there were an assortment of disco balls, DJ turntables and strobe lights were place in a chest. At the back end there were posters of scarface and Bob Marley.
Liam sat down on a bright purple beanbag, and Fletch and I followed suit; I sat on a green beenbag with blue polka dots and Fletch sat on an orange bean bag with hemp symbols all over it.
"You really personalized the place." I noted.
Liam nodded as he stretched out over his beanbag. "Yeah, might as well make this place a little cozy after living here for so long. I've been throwing stuff away recently though. I've been getting more siblings and I should clean this place up for them. I don't think they would appreciate a bong collection over their heads while they sleep. Or the stench."
"Wow." I noted in surprise. "That's pretty considerate of you. Throwing sentimental weed machines away just for another person's comfort."
Liam shrugged as if it was no big deal. "I used to get high all the time a couple of years ago, but now everything's just overkill. Been busy surviving and getting brainwashed anyways. You got to mature some day, yaknow?"
It was simple to ease into conversation with Liam, especially when Finn wasn't present, he was a lot more relaxed and open.
"That reminds me," I began. "Fletch has been having these dreams about Charlie brainwashing kids in a mental institution. We were wondering if you knew anything about his powers and what this might mean." I looked to Fletch to see if I missed anything out.

"So what you're saying is, to make him more influential in one's sanity... he feeds off of other people's insanity? What does that do to them?" I inclined.
"I dunno, I've barely ever dabbled in madness. One time I accidentally made an ant chew its arms off." Liam scrunched his freckled face up, as if the thought repulsed him. "That power is scary to have, and so unstable. I think it works a bit like the albedo effect. Charlie feeds of their insanity making them less sane and giving Charlie a bigger joint to smoke."
Knowing what powers Dionysus kids were capable of doing. Charlie was a special case though; he knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it.
"Madness control is hard to come by." Liam pointed out, as if he was reading my mind, (maybe he was). "Most of the time we're able to sense a person's emotion or mood, maybe even how stable we are. We really shouldn't be able to twist it."
"Is it bad? Him feeding off mental case kids? Like, urgent bad?" I wanted to know if Fletch's dream was more of an update of what Charlie's doing, or if it was a warning to act upon it.
Liam looked in between us with light green eyes. His mouth twitched downwards in a frown.
"I wouldn't take it lightly. I have no idea how bad it can be but... if there are people in danger..." Liam trailed off, his eyes looking at the abstract patterns the bottoms of his hung up skateboards made.
"My half brother wouldn't hurt mortals without a good excuse. If it's a good excuse, then we need to do something about it."
I almost forgot that the two were half brothers. Always made the connection that they had the same dad, but the idea that such opposite personalities could consider themselves in any way related... it seemed so foreign to me. Despite the varying half siblings at camp.
Liam also raised a good point. This must be grave if he's affecting innocent people. I looked to Fletch. We seemed to have the same word on our mind. Quest? But it seemed so soon since the last quest group left. There couldn't possibly be another one for the same guy.
"If you need my help... I'm always available." Liam looked at us, probably catching our drift.
His eyes glinted in hesitation. The problem with always being indifferent was that when you weren't, it stuck out like a sore thumb. The madness probably scarred him in some way, or at least he wasn't the exact same person as before.

I stared out at the Hermes cabin, directly across from the Dionysus cabin. I think Fletch and I are both thinking of the same person. Finn.
"We shouldn't leave her alone." I said at last with a sigh.
I'm sure I didn't even need to mention her name for Fletch to be on the same page. He's smarter than he makes himself out to be.
"We should wait until the others get back. Maybe if we can try to iris message them.... tell them if the can get more insight on where Charlie is and what's he doing.... maybe they can do most of the work for us. It seems redundant going on multiple quests for one person. We might still end up needing to anyways, but if at least we used the current expedition to our advantage, and to the advantage of everyone else of course, we can get more done."
That's the best I got. I gave my last drachma to Alyssa, so we might have to go hunting for another one. That was always fun with Fletch, going on dumb mini quests for diminutive objectives.
"We can go on a brave search for a drachma. Maybe one of us will get a dream of the other's location and sneak in a call. That would be a blessing." I noted.
I would be prepared to suck up to Zeus for that sort of thing at the moment.
"But at the end of the day... we gotta bring in the last batch of forest people over to Dean's cabin." I mentioned.
There was no way of forgetting that one. A sudden thought raced across my mind. Having Leo on a quest with me would be great. I thought.
Woah there, buddy. Leo's milky voice resonated throughout my head. A quest? We're both exhausted and I can feel it. BOTH of us. BOTH. I CAN FEEL IT.
"Woah alright there, don't get your nipples in a twist." I muttered out loud.
"What?" Fletch asked, a puzzled and slightly terrified expression against his darkened gold skin.
"Nothing." I said quickly, a sheepish grin on my face.
Whoops got to remember I am having a conversation INSIDE my head.

I raised my eyebrows, taking in Fletch's idea.
"Stealing from the thieves.... nice, nice." I approved with a nod. "That might be tricky though. I bet Finn knows where they hide the goods though." I suggested.
As heartbreaking as it was doing so, I wanted to see Finn. Most of all I wanted to hear her voice and have her dish out some flirtatious or snide remarks at one of us. I doubt she was in the mood for it though, it had been getting so bad. Avoiding her was a horrible solution, however. I was there for Finn no matter what.
We began to head out to the Big House, I glimpsed at the dark tinted windows of the Hermes cabin, where I could only see vague shapes of campers moving about. I could only imagined they had some secret compartment safe with an intricate password and guarded by invisible microscopic bees. We walked over to the side of the Big House, where beds on wheelchairs were set up and equipment on small round tables. A couple of Apollo medics were playing darts with the assortment of sterilized medical tools, and I wondered how sanitary that could be. Another medic was telling the joke about Argus walking into a bar, one I've heard a dozen times around this area of the Big House, to a young demigod, about nine or ten, whose whole left side of her body was covered in large green welts. The girl didn't enjoy the joke too much. We entered the screen door, Fletch's half siblings gave him a friendly wave as we left the porch. Inside it was much more quiet. To the right, there was a door guarded by a boy about twelve years old holding a celestial bronze musket to his side like a palace guard. He looked serious, with a stern look on his face and his nose scrunched up in what was meant to be intimidating, but it just looked cute. His large blue eyes widened as we approached him.
"Password!" He screamed.
"Shh!" I put my finger to my lips as I looked across the room to who might have heard that.
Chiron lifted his head up from reading The Winged Helmet Daily on the couch across the room in his wheelchair-bound form. He only raised his eyebrows in concern. Mr.D however, had been playing Pac Man on a dusty old arcade game he had recovered from a mortal dumpster and installed in one side of the room.
"Pinot Noir!" He yelled out, and I wondered if he always cursed in wine. "What's the meaning of this? I had almost beat my high score!"
He turned around, his face purple in frustration, and pointed a pudgy finger at the young boy.
"You kids and your flappy birds! Think it's more important than this, huh?"
The boy shook his head in terror, hugging his musket for comfort.
"No sir!"
The protruding vein had finally disappeared from Mr.D's face as he calmed down with a sigh, his droopy purple eyes moved towards me.
"Stop trying to make your own cult of small children, Lars. You're a horrible role model for them anyways."
"Will do." I muttered through clenched teeth.
I had no patience in arguing with him today, it would only make matters worse.
As soon as Mr.D looked content and returned to his Pac Man, I crouched down beside the boy and whispered "Midnight Love." the album of Marvin Graye's song, Sexual Healing.
He shuffled aside and we entered through the door.

"So. We want to see if we can iris message the quest group right now and see if they can do us a favor involving getting more information about Fletch's dream and blabbity blah. You know, basic demigod stuff. Anyways, we need a drachma for that and we're shit poor and since you were a Hermes kid I was wondering if you guys have a stash we can just... steal from." I explain in rushed sentences.
Finn's bloodshot eyes widened as she lifted her arm up towards us and for a second I thought something was wrong until she spoke up.
"You're iris messaging Roxy?" she croaked out in her gravelly voice. "Let me talk to her."
Wow, how could I be so stupid. I completely forgot that Finn would want to talk to her best friend. I should have offered, she didn't need to ask (or in her case, demand).
I took her cold hand. It was once sun-kissed from all her years spent outside in the forest, but they began adopting a pale, sickly green glow to it. I could feel her hand tremble against mine and I squeezed it in a desperate attempt to make them healthier.
"Of course, Finn." I whispered to her gently. "We'll call her from here."
Finn seemed to relax a little, her arm going limp in my hand except for the slight squeeze she retaliated to me.
"Thank you." She gurgled out.
She closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath.
I wanted to break down in tears then and now. Cry for Finn, cry for Justin, cry for all my friend's whose had injustices done to them at Charlie's hand. His good guy demeanor of social equality is a facade for his unjust deeds against those who weren't on his side. I could feel tears forming in my eyes, and I hurriedly tried to blink them away, sniffling and wiping an arm on my face. Finn didn't need to see me cry for her. I had to keep in control, at least for now, I'm pretty sure a friend crying for you wasn't a great boost in your morale. Instead I pulled Finn in for a hug. She tensed up in surprise, unsure if she should be this close to me in general.
"You're the bravest person I know." I whispered to her, placing a kiss on her cheek before Fletch pulled me away.
He had a wet cloth on hand and I guess it was a great idea to just rub my whole face just in case any blood got on me.
I turned back to Finn, and I could see a genuine smile play in the corners of her mouth.
"You aren't half-bad yourself, mate." She croaked. "The Hermes cabin doesn't have a stash, we may be thieves but we're also incredibly messy and uncouth, not to mention we steal each other's shit sometimes, so we lose track of what's ours and what isn't. There's probably tons of drachmas just lying around on the floor or on someone's bedside table."
Her voice became quieter the more she spoke, as if she was running out of voice fuel to keep speaking until her last sentence was barely a whisper. I kept my hand tightly wrapped against Finn's. I had only just realized that she wasn't wearing her signature gloves. Her hands were covered in scars and burn marks from a previous battle that seemed to have a dark past. I kept quiet and placed my other hand on hers so it wouldn't catch Fletch's attention. Things were depressing as it was, I didn't want to open another can of soul-devouring worms.

I scrunched my face up in a look of annoyance.
"One mini adventure is a good number." I muttered.
"Don't be such a baby." Finn said with a smirk. "I can think of a few half siblings out there that would love a pair of Lily's underwear as a lil' trophy they can hang up on their walls."
Heat rose to my face.
"Wha-no! That's totally not cool! Lily is not gonna let some perverted preteen boy hang her underwear up like a mantle!"
Finn chuckled and turned over on her back as she stared at the ceiling, her hand still tightly gripping mine.
"How about a.... slightly lewd teen lesbian?" She suggested. "I have one in mind."
I paused for a moment, staring at her with a face of utter confusion.
"You?"
"No! She's a redhead, about our age. I don't know her all that well but she seems cool, and I'm pretty sure anyone who's sexually attracted to women are automatically sexually attracted to Lily."
I felt a twinge of jealousy in my chest. Not a lot of people openly ask Lily out, but there have been attempts, and by far cooler people than me. I felt a little bit better, however, knowing that I promised myself I wouldn't try to get in the way anyways. I raised my eyebrows at Finn does that little remark include you too? Finn was a mysterious person, and I was never sure of who she liked.
"Even, she might feel better knowing it's in the hands of a lady at least." Finn implied, catching the glance I gave her. "Or... you can just not tell her."
"Yeah no way." I protested. "I have some self respect."
Finn gave out a pained laugh. "Enough self respect to ask the girl you so blatantly liked for her underwear?"
"Shut up, it was your idea!" I complained.
I wanted to facepalm hard enough for this direly embarrassing situation to be over.
"We'll be back soon!" I said in exasperation, my face still red. "You can go talk to your lady friends and we get our information!"
Finn looked a bit hurt that we had to leave her, but she looked set on having us iris message Roxy.
"....alright, chums. Best of luck."
Fletch and I took turns brofisting Finn and made our way to the door.
"Anything you need, Sheila?" I asked her.
"Just get one of Fletch's stupid siblings over here and keep me company. I wanna see if I can take his wallet from my bed and maybe we can speed up this drachma process. The one who keeps on getting bullseye with Roxy's scalpel would be great, thanks."
I chuckled. "Whatever you say, Finn."
I closed the door behind me, gave the younger boy a soldier's salute and followed Fletch to the porch. I couldn't help but feel watched, and as I slipped outside I could see Mr.D's purple eyes bore into me with a steady stare, almost waiting for me to do something bad.
"Hey, Damon." Fletch called out to his half sibling. "Finn needs you."
Damon gave a sly smirk and looked over at his other half sibling.
"See? The ladies love me." He proceeded to stand up with much swag and hobble away with jeans down to his knees.
I could hear the drachmas jingling in his pockets as he strode into the big house and for the first time ever, I begged to Hermes that Finn would be able to coin this sucker's money.
"Alright, I'm gonna be straight up honest about this one to her." I told Fletch, an anxious edge to my voice.
"Honesty is the best policy right? Just go in and ask her for panties. Yup, she'll be impressed at how straightforward I am and will totally not just whip out her dual swords and stab me on the spot."
I pulled on the medallion I wore around my neck nervously. I needed something to go by first to calm my nerves.
It felt like in an instant, we were at the ominous gray doors of the Athena cabin. I looked to Fletch for some consolidation before I made a fool out of myself.

Thoughts raced through my mind as I stood there, baffled, in front of the only girl that has really ever managed to make my heart do an intensive fitness work out with any gentle touches she leaves on my body. Every single worst case scenerio, including her never talking to me again stuck to my mind and lingered like an unwanted leech you couldn't pull off. I knew I couldn't wait forever though, the best thing I could do is to stop keep her waiting, and play it off like I wasn't about to piss my pants from the pressure her stormy gray eyes put in me.
"So. This is going to sound incredibly horrible and offensive..." I began.
"That sounds like a great start." Lily replied, her voice growing wary.
"... Do you have any drachmas we could borrow?" I asked, changing my tone to an inquisitive one.
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Uh, um. No. Sorry, spent the last one getting new trucks for my long board. Last ones were busted after I took a swim with those bloodthirsty nymphs. That wasn't that offensive you know."
Lily looked at me as if I might have gotten a brain tumor while she was brainwashed.
I took a deep sigh. "Just hoping I could dodge a bullet."
Why does no one have a drachma these days?
"So we kind of need your underwear for a thing..." I mumbled out, hoping she couldn't hear me.
Oh she heard me.
Lily's eyes widened in a confused expression, her eyes knit together and her legs pulled up against her chest protectively.
"Okay, no?" She said as-a-matter-of-factly.
"We need a drachma to reach Roxy and Quintyn and warn them about Fletch's dream that he had but apparantly everyone's dirt poor around here 'cause the Hermes cabin has basically robbed everyone of their stuff but we can get a drachma if we trade a Hermes kid with something of value..."
"My panties are of value around here?" She asked inquisitively.
I shivered when she said panties. It felt like such a sexual word, just making me more uncomfortable with this whole situation.
"You know of everyone's infatuation with you...." I dragged on.
There was no point on beating around the bush, as I had learned with Lily later on, she's keener than most campers. She knows she's the equivalent of that one popular girl in high school.
Lily sighed, as if she tried to be ignorant of it, but she couldn't. "Yeah well, that doesn't make me want to sell my underwear for drachmas. At least charge more than one! I bet they're worth, like, fifteen at least."
"Wow, someone thinks high and mighty of themselves."
Lily laughed, and I was glad she was being a good sport about this whole topic. She looked at me with a 'really dude?' expression. I was sure it was supposed to be light hearted, but I could see a tinge of annoyance in her eyes, and I flinched in response.
"I'm just saying, if my privacy is going to be invaded like that, it's got to be worth it."
"If it's any reconciliation, it's going to a girl, about our age. No creepy underage boys who've never seen lady bits except in covers of playboy magazines."
"A girl wants my panties?"
Why must she keep on saying that word.
Woah, bud? What are you feeling under there? I head Leo ask. I'm getting some weird vibes over here, excited to see me tonight?
Gods damn empathy link.
"Who is she?" She pressed on when I kept silent. "Is it Finn?"
"Surprisingly, no. It's a red head."
Her eyes widened.
"Gaige? I've seen her around." She told us. "Really? She wants it?"
She didn't look convinced, and we weren't that convincing.
I turned to Fletch but he just looked like a quiet spectator, silently watching Lily's respect for me go down with a pained expression on his face.
"I wouldn't lie to you if I didn't think this was super important." I reminded her.
Also something honest that we learned about each other, I was more honest than I really should be.
"This is... so... I don't even know, really uncomfortable?" She pointed out.
"I know, and I wouldn't go to you unless it was supeeeeer important." I repeated.
Lily had an unsure expression on her face, squinting at me with a suspicious glance. She slowly stood up from her bed, and made her way to her cabinet, her eyes still knit together in profound uncertainty. She began rifling through the drawers underneath, and I shrunk against the bed, my face reddening.
"This... doesn't mean I approve or accept this exchange of... gifts." She informed, saying the last word with distaste to her voice.
She hesitated before locking on on something in the drawer, and pulling it out, hiding it quick in her hands before I even dared to try and look at it.
"Get up, boys." She instructed.
Fletch and I obeyed before she could say the last word. Lily escorted us to the door hurriedly, before she could change her mind or lose her temper.
Another thing I learned about Lily. She has a short fuse. Turn from sweet and caring to Hades' worst nightmare with the drop of the hat.
"If I hear about this, I will gut you two like a Calydonian boar." She hissed out.
I turned to face her again.
"Wha-"
A light blue cloth was suddenly thrown at my chest by a red-faced Lily. Before I could respond she closed the door. I gripped onto the cloth before it fell to the ground. My heart pounded against my chest, I really shouldn't be having this.