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[ His voice goes quiet as he explains, ] My mom taught me when I was a kid. [ There's clearly more to it than that. It still means a lot to him, and he finds himself softly tapping the old pattern out on the table - I love you. Thankfully, there's no one around to notice. ]

I knew what I was doing, too, but it was the kind of possession to make me do something and make me think I wanted to all along. I didn't know it was an eidolon until later.

[ He laughs, the sound hollow. ] Careful, dude. Someone might overhear and think you've got feelings for me or something. [ Sobering a bit, Leo continues, ] I'm okay. Maybe a little shaky, but I'm fine. [ He pauses. ] It sucks not being able to control it like you want, doesn't it?

…oh. [He doesn't know what it means, but he can read the tone well enough. 'Don't pry.' He's open if Leo wants to elaborate but he's not nosy enough today to wrestle it out of him. He kinda owes him that.] That's actually really cool.

So basically you were mindcontrolled but not body controlled? Something like that. Man…I know I keep saying I never want to come back as a demigod but I seriously mean it now.

[A derisive snort follows.] Funny. [Also sorry you're not really his type Leo.] It sucks a lot, but may as well add it to the list of things that suck about this place currently. It's kind of an impressive list. But…good.

[ He'll tell you about it sooner or later, Ryan. ] She did it so she could keep track of me when she was in a different room.

That's basically it, [ Leo confirms, ] but they could do full-body possession, too. Percy and Jason got that end of it, before Piper talked them out of us.

[ Leo rolls his eyes. ] It gets longer every day, dude. Sometimes I think I'd rather face Gaea and the end of the world than the crap we get here. But you won't have to deal with it again, right? At least there's that. You've got a lot more control with your other powers anyway, Water Boy.

Pretty smart idea.

Ah. [Well that's even worse.] How bad was it before Piper stopped them?

[There's a short sort of laugh.] Maybe, but it still wasn't enough was it? I probably won't have to deal with it again since they only gave me one but still, once was definitely enough. Instead now we have other things to worry about.

I wasn't there when it happened, [ Leo says, ] but she said the eidolons made them fight - swords drawn, powers ready to go and everything. They might've killed each other if it weren't for her charmspeak.

[ Just like he might have killed her and Jason when he was controlled in October, if it weren't for her powers. Leo's glad he'd been given that pin. The possibility of something like that happening again without her here to talk him or anyone else out of it... unnerving, to say the least. ]

Hey, even demigods have to work in teams most of the time. You're not always going to be able to take on something by yourself. [ Not that he's a great motivator or anything, but it's true when it comes to survival. Without his friends, Leo probably would have died long before coming to the Drabwurld. ] Now we just have to fix everything.

Lucky she was there then. I didn't realize the eidolons were that dangerous. I'm pretty sure we don't have anything like that around our parts of the world, unless you count, I don't know, politicians or something.

[Sigh.] Maybe not, but this could have been one of those times since verbal communication wasn't working out that great. I have a lot of stuff to fix and a few other things to work around now. [A pause.] On the bright side, I only have to really worry about Kelsi. Everybody else I know that's still here can kinda take care of themselves.

I'm pretty sure that politicians always count.

Morse code will only help so much with that. Not everyone understands it. [ He hesitates for a moment and starts digging in his tool belt, needing something to fiddle with while he figures this conversation out. ] Sometimes trying to take something like that on by yourself just makes things worse.

[ Anyway. He caught that "still here", don't think he didn't. ] So, your sister...?

My dad's tried multiple times to get us interested in politics and that's pretty much all I've ever gotten out of it.

I mean maybe we should just be glad everybody understands everybody here most of the time, but it wouldn't hurt to be multilingual or whatever. I mean I kinda speak some Spanish and some French but not enough to make a difference. Morse at least is just the same pattern of dots and dashes right? How hard can it be? [Hm.] I'm used to working in teams, but something like that? I don't think it's safe to endanger everybody.

[There's a pause before he speaks again, a little too casual about it.] Back in Albuquerque to the land where her black American Express works and summer's just beginning. It's probably better that way.

You should try politics with the gods. There's a reason I try to stay as far away from that crap as possible.

[ Admittedly, that isn't very far. Such is the life of a demigod. ]

I didn't know you knew Spanish. I grew up with that, too. [ He is, after all, from a Mexican family. It took a long time for him to realize that not everyone switches between languages willy-nilly when they're having a conversation. ] But yeah, it's just dots and dashes. Easy, if you pay attention.

And now you know why I didn't want to use the Blessing when we were sparring, [ Leo says with a tired sigh. ] I've lost control before, too. It wasn't pretty.

[ And he goes quiet with the confirmation, remembering how hard it was for him when Jason and Piper left. ] That sucks. But she'll probably like it better. I know she got really excited when she heard the Station might have coffee, so at least she won't have to live without that now. [ Small favors, he supposes. But that's Leo's way of saying he's got your back, bro. ]

Edited 2015-03-02 17:28 (UTC)

I can barely bargain with Sharpay. I'm not even going to try with the gods.

A little, but I'm not going to say it's good Spanish. It's like...not so bueno espanol. [Case in point.] But I can pay attention enough to learn some dots and dashes.

Yeah...I feel like I should apologize for that, too, since I was purposefully trying to get you to use it. You were right. I should have thought that one though. You weren't even really using the Blessing against lightning-me, were you?

[He shrugs even if Leo can't see it.] She'll be a lot happier having cute cabana boys waiting on her hand and foot instead of the imps.It just kinda makes you wonder why they bring people here if they're just going to get rid of them so soon. What are they really looking for?

[ That actually gets him to laugh. ] Lo que es malo, amigo. I'll try not to judge. Not everyone grows up with it.

[ He shifts uncomfortably. ] It's not your fault. You didn't know anything about it. You didn't know what could've happened. [ What has happened. Only Jason and Piper know, and they're long gone. ] And yeah, I was. The fire is the Blessing. I'm the only person in centuries to have this power, remember? The cabin used to say it was actually a curse because those of us that have it tend to come hand in hand with destruction, and... I agreed with them.

Got me. They just sent Annabeth away again, did you know that? That's the second time since I've been here. I dunno what they think they're accomplishing by doing that, but sending the daughter of a war goddess away doesn't seem like it's going to help their cause.

[At least he can laugh about it, too.] I really should practice but not a lot of people I know use it so there's almost no point, you know? I wouldn't blame you if you judged a little.

I can probably guess. [He can't. Not to the extent Leo knows and he knows that.] I think I just keep disassociating it because yeah, that definitely doesn't sound like a Blessing. And remind me why you can't just ask your dad to take it back?

Annabeth. Percy's girlfriend? [Assumptions. Lots of assumptions, but he'd heard Annabeth's announcement about Percy's departure a while ago and put that together.] I never met her but no I didn't know that. [A beat.] When'd they send her out?

There's definitely not a lot of people around here who speak it, that's for sure. There's not really much reason for you to learn Spanish, but Morse code could definitely help - especially if we started teaching other people so they'd get it, too. I can't be the only one here that knows it.

[ There's a soft laugh. ] Tell me about it. It wasn't so bad, honestly, until my mom - [ He hesitates, and decides to go a different route. ] She made me promise I wouldn't use it. I didn't think it was a problem until I broke it. If I had any way of actually talking to my dad, I probably would have asked him to take it back.

[ Heavy stuff. ]

Yeah, her. It wasn't even that long ago - like a day or two, maybe.

It could do more than help. We could use it to keep all communication a secret so our information doesn't fall into the wrong hands, right? Have you ever asked the network if anybody else knows it?

I can't say I blame her. [That hesitation is, of course, suspicious, but he won't bring it up yet. Soon, Valdez.] ...breaking promises is always the worse, isn't it? [That's all he says on the subject though.] I'd say maybe try talking to your dad via Morse too but somehow I don't think that'd help. He's a god, right? What about a sacrifice or something?

How do we keep losing people without knowing about it? There has to be a way we can catch them in action and figure out how they're really doing this.

Not yet. I have thought about that, but we don't know how many Unseelie would understand it, either. We'd have to, like, make a code or cipher or something to mask what we're saying, just in case, so they wouldn't catch on.

[ This is Cold War-level stuff, and Leo's not sure he wants to go there. At least the wars back home are all straightforward.

He's quiet for a moment before continuing. ] It sucked majorly. But I never forgot why she asked me not to use it, after that.

[ With a bitter Laugh, he says, ] I'm pretty sure that wouldn't do anything to get his attention. Supposedly, he's been watching over me all these years, but he hasn't even tried to talk to me except that one time. Now they're all locked up on Olympus, Zeus's orders, and most of them are going crazy anyway, so trying to talk any of them is a thousand times harder than it used to be. I don't think my dad is really into sacrifices, either, but I dunno. Never asked. I still try to do the offerings whenever I eat, but I don't know if any of them get it from the Drabwurld.

All I've heard is that one minute they're there, and the next, gone. It's like the second they're alone and the monarchs don't want them anymore, they vanish, and all that's left is their shard. It's messed up.

Can you make a code out of morse code and still call it morse code though? [That seems pretty complicated, bro.] At that point we might as well make up our own language.

That's the problem with breaking promises. Really seals the deal whether you want it to or not.

Supposedly? You'd think he'd make more of an effort if he gave you some freaky blessing-curse thing. I'll take a wild guess and say you can't really just march on up to Olympus, can you? [Rhetorical question.] They've made it pretty clear that this world and our worlds aren't connected but I still don't think that makes enough sense if they're supposedly watching us long enough to know who to bring. Or however it's decided.

...this is probably a really, really bad question to ask but where's her shard?

If you can substitute some letters for others with the normal alphabet, you can probably do it with Morse code, too, [ Leo says pointedly. ] We'd just have to make sure whoever's on the receiving end has the key to decode it.

Yeah, it kind of... burns it into your memory. [ And not a trace of humor in his voice. Now is not the time for humor, Valdez. ]

Technically, we could. The Empire State Building isn't that far away from camp, but Olympus is basically on lockdown. I don't think we'd be able to get in even if we went. [ He snorts. ] And how they watch us before bringing us sounds a lot like the gods watching us from their thrones on Olympus. They're a lot alike, the good and the bad.

[ Leo pauses before answering, considering that. ] I'm... not really sure. Probably one of the other demigods that are still around, but I don't even know all of us. Thalia, maybe?

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