Temper, temper! Alexander Figgles, Private

"Oh." Charity wasn't sure what to make of that. The chimera made him ask her out? Why would Parker actually go through with it if he didn't really care about the answer. She raised an eyebrow at him and nodded. "Family can be stupid." All the time. She added to herself, then shrugged. "No big deal."

She swam around a bit, feeling an uncomfortable silence setting in. She went under a few times to have some privacy, to think, to, brood? She'd been doing a lot of that lately. Too much. Finally she came up and smiled. No more miss unhappy-face.

By the time she came up I was already flying just above the water. I grew my wings, flying felt so right. I twisted around and around. I saw her come up. I flew up into the air, retracted my wings and dived into the water right next to her. Water felt just as right as the air, I can breathe, it felt so good. I swam back up. The surface is one place I didn't like.
"Yes we can be friends!" I said smiling.

Charity grinned, getting splashed with water. "Nice! I wish I could do that! I think flying would be a lot of fun." She flapped her arms a little. "It doesn't really work, does it?" She floated on her back for a few minutes, looking at the retreating sun. She raised her hand and gave a little wave as it moved behind the trees. She supposed that she should go soon. What with curfew.

"It's getting kinda late." She said quietly.

"I sleep here, in a cave anyways... so you can go," I said nodding towards her. I loved to swim. I loved every bit of it. The currents, the flow, the feeling of water touching your skin... Same way I like flying, The Air Currents pushing you, the flow of free air, the feeling of air touching your skin. I closed my eyes for a second and savored this... then i realized that the last time I swam was... with Agile. I jumped out of the water, hovering over it. Looking upon it in horror.

Charity walked to the shore, drying off with her towel. She didn't really want to go, but it was probably best to not get eaten by harpies or anything like that. She pulled her on her shorts over her swim suit and turned back to Parker in time to see him jumping out of the water, a horrified look on his face.

"What's wrong?" She looked at the water and back at him. "Parker?"

I saw the vision, the one that haunts me at night... except... somethings different. Agile and I were attacking a small hellhound, no big deal... then... that happened, I've pretty much memorized it. A new monster comes around, Titus, the titan that Alexander supposedly killed. It says he won't kill everyone in the camp if one of us sacrifices ourself. He won't take me so he takes Agile, she says I love you... she... its too horrific to say. I only say... she left, when anybody asks. Then I see something else. Someone else... I look into the corner of my eye and see a women... one that was made out of stone... Gaea? The image faded and I was on the beach, shivering, I was looking at my hands, there were tears in my eyes.
"Why Agile... why did you do that..." I said, looking at my hideous hands.

Agile? Who was that? Charity took a small step forward. He didn't seem really there. Like he was thinking, or maybe remembering something. Obviously it was something very difficult, which she understood. She understood completely. It was all to easy for her to get sucked into her nightmarish experience in that ally. She waiting patiently for a few minutes, but curiosity got the better of her.

"Parker, are you OK?" She decided it probably wasn't a good idea to sneak up on him, so she made sure she was in his line of vision. Her hand found her necklace, like it always did when she was upset or concerned. Her fingers traced the outside of the Fleur De Lis. "You seem kinda..." Her voice trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"Dammit Agile! You couldn't have just let me die... you just couldn't," I said. A tear trickled down my face. Then I realized, Gaea did this. She... she did this. I grew my two inch long claws. My eyes started to turn from yucky yellow to brilliant gold. I started to get greener and grow fur on my fore arms, my teeth grew into long, jagged spikes. My monster side is taking over. With all my might, I reverted back to normal. Oh god... that almost happened. I would've killed most people in camp if it did. I looked at Charity.
"Why couldn't she have let me die," I said, another tear trickling odwn my face.

Charity got ready to make a mad dash at any moment. He seemed to be converting into what he called 'the monster side'. From what she'd heard of it (which wasn't much), it wasn't something she wanted to stick around for. She was good at running, very good, actually, but she wanted to make sure he was actually losing it before she ran off.

He didn't. She breathed a sigh of relief as he turned back into his normal state, or, what she was used to at lease. He was crying. She breathed in, unsure of what to do. If she had known him for longer, she probably would have been able to help, but she had no clue what the situation had been, or who Agile was. Charity signed again and said the only thing she could think to say.

"Maybe she couldn't bare the thought of you dying. The thought of carrying on without you." She turned away slightly. "I don't know..."

"She... she couldn't have just... why? I know its because... that she knew... that it wouldn't have worked... why... why did she have to know that?... She... I loved her..." I said, my black tears started to dribble down my chin. I turned to the sky. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT!? WHY!? WHY DID YOU TELL HER IT WASN'T GOING TO WORK OUT BETWEEN US! HUH!? YOU STUPID GOD OF LOVE! WHY! WHY!" I said and collapsed. Why? The gods knew it wasn't going to wrok but what happened... they cursed me.

Charity listened, horror building up with each sentence. She looked up at the sky, expecting to have them both cursed or killed or something worse for what Parker had said. She took a deep breath. Nothing was happening, yet. She walked over to Parker.

"Hey, don't, don't yell like that. It's..." She had nearly said 'it's going to be fine', but she somehow knew that it really wasn't. "It's hard, and stupid, and completely messed up. But that's life for freaks like us." She made sure to emphasize the 'us', to make sure he didn't take it the wrong way. "There's nothing to be done now." In retrospect, it wasn't very sympathetic, at all. Actually, it was kinda cruel, but she wasn't used to people breaking down and yelling and crying. Well, not people she didn't hate.

I turned at her, my eyes truned instantly gold. "I can yell at the gods all I want, they were the ones who cursed me. Aphrodite told Agile it wasn't gonna work out. Gaea killed Agile... What have the gods done for me? Nothing but suffering. Nothing. I know I'm starting to sound like that Luke kid... but I kinda like sounding like him..." I said, my spiked knuckles grew a little longer. I took out my chain, covered in spikes. I lashed it onto the ground. It burned it. I'll listen to the gods, I will make a new race of gods just as they asked. Just not the way they planned...

Charity took a step back. She had never been great at giving advice. But this...He was having a meltdown. This was part of what she hated about Stephanie, about her mother. When they didn't get their way, they broke down and cried, or yelled, or acted like a two year old. Parker wasn't exactly doing the same thing, but this was just as aggravating. She tried to be logical, she tried to be sympathetic. It was never enough. Never. Whatever she tried to do, Parker obviously didn't want to be comforted. This made her very annoyed indeed. She wanted to leave him there and let the tantrum run its course, but she supposed that wouldn't be nice. Instead, she sat on the beach a few feet away and started playing her pocket flute that she usually kept with her.

Temper, temper! *Alexander Figgles, Private*

Temper, temper! Alexander Figgles, Private