talk of the underworld...(teddy/fletch) (CLOSED)

I was sat on my designated bed, Celestial Bronze arrow shaft in hand as I focused on fletching new feathers into the end. I had reused the old ones so much they had gotten mucky and dirty, and were a little less than happy to stay on course for me when they flew. I was often asked why I didn't use plastic vanes like most people living in the modern era of archery society today. Those people didn't usually shoot bows, apparently, because anybody who did would know that feathers make an arrow much faster, with much better velocity, stability, guidance... And just about everything... Plus, the pro's used them. Lost in the music playing on the radio that always filled the cabin with sound that was now playing "Roxanne" by The Police, I hadn't heard the knock on the heavy door of my cabin.
I was pulled from my thoughts by the call of my name, which I looked up to instantly. I could see one of my siblings standing at the door with another camper. Why would someone be here for me? I got up, arrow still in hand, and I made my way over to the door. The closer I got, the more I recognized the camper. The taller boy with straight, short black hair and hazel eyes could only be Eli. I was a little surprised to see him here so randomly, as I had only talked with him once before, but that didn't make me feel any less friendly.
I nodded to my half sibling in thanks for opening the door that I hadn't heard. They nodded back and took their leave. I turned my attention back to the doorway.
"Eli, come in," I said, unable to shake the surprise from my voice. All the same, I lifted the corner of my mouth into a crooked smile. "What's up?" I asked as I let him enter the cabin and pulled on the heavy door with a strong tug to force it closed. 2 years living in this cabin and I STILL hadn't gotten used to how heavy that pure gold door was. How was it even pure gold? Where did they get it? How did they melt it? What? Fletch, it's literally a camp for children of Greek Gods and Goddesses with flying horses and people with the bottom halves of goats. You think a golden cabin dedicated to your father is weird? I thought to myself, dismissing the whole internal questionnaire I had just undergone. I made my way to my bed and sat down, moving my arrows over to my other side to clear a space for Eli, which I patted as an invitation for him to sit as I brought my gaze back up to him.

A whirlwind of information came shooting at me from Eli's mouth. I raised my eyebrows in overwhelmed response as I tried to focus on what he was trying to tell me.
Did he say he was going to the underworld? I couldn't help but blink in confusion a few times at the thought. He asked me if I wanted to come, which caused me to knit my eyebrows and part my mouth, in again, a confused manor.
"Wait... What?" I said, deciding that I should maybe speak instead of look at him like he had six heads. People didn't like that much. "Could you... Could you say that a bit slower? I'm not sure I heard you right." I hadn't meant it to be rude, I genuinely was not sure if I had heard correctly. Why go to the Underworld? What was there? What was important? I decided to voice my mental questions.
"And... If I did hear you right, why are you going to the underworld?"

I blinked after he had finished telling me this information slower. I still can't say I understood it.
"Eli..." I started, trying to pick my words right. "Why would you want to go to the underworld to make swords? Camp has Celestial Bronze." I picked up an arrow shaft I had finished fletching earlier and showed it off. "Why would you want to go down to Hades' domain? I doubt he appreciates anyone there but his children... And even then..." Hades never really struck me as a good dad. I didn't really know any of his demigod children all that well... Except Carmine Umbra who I'd had a few run in's with.
"I mean, I get that this Ater guy is a child of Nyx, but still, TARTARUS is where Nyx is, and I'm definitely not going to sit here and let you two go to Tartarus," I added. "Plus, sight-seeing? You do know you're a demigod, right? Monsters will tear you apart, dude. Ater's a child of NYX. You don't think they'll smell that? And you? It's not like you're a child of a minor God, they'll smell your dad on you. You two will be magnets." I didn't want to seem uncool here, but even I knew that this was a bad, bad idea. There was a very distinct reason why this camp had borders around it. It was to protect us all from what was crawling around outside, and if you left? Well, having been on a quest I knew how dangerous it was out there. I thought about camp, and everything that was going on, and I couldn't even begin to understand why they wanted to leave with all of the things going on around them.
"I have so many responsibilities in camp," I said as I thought about the Nymphs and Satyrs I needed to protect and hide from Mr.D, and Finn, who I needed to heal and give my all to while my sister Roxy was on a quest of her own. I needed to be here for my cabin as the cabin leader, and I needed to be here in case anything happened to anybody, or anything happened to the camp. "I can't just leave with Charlie building up his empire and taking demigods from our camp, and driving the Nymphs and Satyrs crazy in our forests. I already have so much to think about." I hadn't realized how much I was needed in camp with so many of my reliable friends out of commission. It all started to weigh down on my like the sky on Atlas. I shook my head slightly to rid myself of the overwhelmed feeling that began to form in my chest. I blinked and looked at Eli. "We might need you here," I said.

(Right so Gin and I don't exactly know how we feel about people dropping in and out of the underworld whenever they please. Without a real REASON or anything. We ESPECIALLY dont know how we feel about demigods leaving camp to go sightseeing. I mean, that never happened in the books. Demigods are only supposed to leave when on quests. Y'know?)

I twisted the arrow I had picked up in my fingers tightly, causing my callused fingertips to turn white. I watched intently as the bronze twisted around in my grasp, not wanting to look at Eli as I chewed on the bottom of my lip trying to get a grip on myself. I was never angry, and I didn't like to be, but now with my rising stress levels it was hard not to be.
"So, you're telling me, that you think she meant doing great things by making a sword in the underworld and going SIGHTSEEING, when Camp, your home, is so chaotic. you don't think she meant that you could do great things IN camp to help us with Charlie? That didn't cross your mind at all?" My shoulders were hunched tensely, my foot tapped rapidly on the ground, barely hitting it at all with my heel. Eli seemed calm, but I wasn't at all.
"And you're asking me to protect you by covering for you, when you are making this conscious decision to abandon us, while I am protecting people who are utterly defenseless and have no choice in the matter?" That part was probably what got me most. The fact that I was being used as a shield by two guys who were so eager to leave and get themselves killed, while I had already made myself the biggest shield I could for the hidden forest folk and one of my dying friends. I shook my head unable to comprehend.
"You're even asking me to drop EVERYTHING I'm protecting to make sure you don't get yourselves killed?" I looked up at him with knit eyebrows and an unbelievable expression. "You're asking me to do that, because you're a couple of guys who want to willingly, and selfishly put yourselves in danger to make a black sword and see the Grand Canyon?" I hadn't realized I had stopped spinning my arrow. It was now clutched tightly in my fist, knuckles white as I pushed and released pressure onto it like a stress ball that wouldn't give me the satisfaction of squishing and inflating back up so I could do it again.

I set my jaw and shook my head slowly, looking up only at the empty spaces of my cabin. I wasn't able to look at Eli, no, I didn't WANT to look at Eli. After all I had pointed out about how important it was that we have Demigods in camp, he STILL wanted to leave for his own selfish reason. Because he had "been here too long" and "Wanted to get out".
All I could give in response was a scoff that normally I would try to hide, but I didn't bother this time. I wasn't about to help him or this Ater guy out on this stupid endeavor of getting themselves killed while they turned their backs on the camp to sight see. This was my home. The people, and all around everything about it meant more to me than anything. I wasn't usually one to turn my back on a Demigod wanting my help. Had there been any other reason that made sense I would help and cover their tracks. That is, I would if I trusted them. How could I trust Eli now? How could I know he wasn't going to go find Charlie and join his cause. So many demigods no were. This could all just be a cover for them so that nobody suspected they were going.
Fine. Let them go. Let them go travel around and dodge monsters around every corner, let them risk their lives to make a black metal sword that wouldn't even affect Charlie more than Celestial Bronze would. He was a demigod, he died the same way all demigods could, being impaled by something pointy. It didn't matter the metal you used.
On that mental note I got up and walked steadily over to the golden door of my cabin. I gripped the knob tightly and turned it forcefully. With one quick tug the door swung open on my command. It was much lighter than usual, but that could have been because of the annoyance and anger that flowed through my body, filling my nerves and muscles with just as much fiery passion as I felt in my chest right now. Man, I hated this feeling, and I hated Eli was making me feel it.
Without a word I motioned for him to leave.
"Happy trails," I said with a dry, sarcastic and unsatisfied smile.

As much as I wanted to continue on with my silent treatment, as angry as I was, I was not a stubborn person. I let a long and frustrated breath escape my chest, exhaling from my mouth as I kept my eyebrows knit watching Eli making his move out the door.
"You don't get it, do you?" I started. Though I felt like poison dripped from my mouth as I spoke, the words came out sounding a lot more disappointed than angry. "Just because I'm incredibly angry at you doesn't mean I won't be your friend if you go." On top of everything else I was annoyed at Eli for having that little faith in my loyalty to my friends. How could I drop someones friendship even if they did turn their back on me when both the camp and I needed them? For most, that would be a pretty easy thing to do, but I couldn't even think about it now, not when I needed my friends. I also couldn't believe that he thought I would not want to be his friend when I previously stated my concerns for him dying on this little outing.
"And you ALSO don't understand, that we have a whole armory FILLED with weapons and metal made for killing monsters, and I hate to say it, but demigods too. Charlie hasn't gained anything but an ego boost during this whole thing. He's still a demigod, and he still dies the same way. it's not like he has some incredible God-like abilities that make him impermeable to damage done by Celestial Bronze. Making black weapons isn't going to do anything but delay our cause. You know what we SHOULD be doing? we SHOULD BE training demigods, not handing them weapons they've never used before and saying 'have at it!' Eli, it's like you've never been there. Come on man, your father is Hephaestus. You know we have weapons. You're NOT going for the camp and you know it. If you were, you would have no interest in 'sight seeing'. You'd be staying where you're needed." I ended my rant hotly, the whole argument getting me fired up once more. I made a quick mental note to go to the archery range and blow off steam later. I didn't want to feel like this for long.

Again, I wanted to be stubborn, but I couldn't find it in me to turn away Eli's offer without saying a word, especially because he was trying his best to come up with a compromise. Unfortunately I was also having trouble finding the right words to say.
"We'll see, man," I said finally after thinking it through. I leaned on the heavy gold door, crossing my arms over my chest and tucking one leg behind the other.
I didn't want to give him a straight answer right now... Especially because defeating Charlie seemed so far away from now. I was also still wary about going out of camp without consulting the Oracle for quests. The only demigods who did that were working for Charlie. The others knew better than to go out on suicide missions if the cause wasn't important. I didn't want to argue more, so I just left it at that.
I was tired and completely done with the conversation at this point. All I really wanted to do was forget about the whole thing. I wanted to grab my bow and go to the range, shoot off steam and have it all feel better. After that maybe I'd go hang out with some friends, maybe Casper, who would help keep my mind off of it, or Luke, or go check on Finn to see how she was doing even though I had just been there this morning.
I brought my attention back to the matter at hand, as much as I wanted to get out of here instead.
"Yeah, well, thanks for coming to me first, I guess," I said in response to his justification about our friendship. "I'll see you later."