Who: Luke Castellan What: Dealing with dream shenanigans Where: His apartment When: Tonight Warnings/Status: Just Kronos things and possible dying needs | complete.
The dreams had been complicated and difficult. Seeing his mother again had, as predicted, broken his heart all over again. At least as much of his heart as seemed to be left. It had hurt him when he'd woken as well. He felt like everything was going sideways and he wasn't sure he wasn't entirely slipping away into nothing. With every step forward, he felt like he was one step closer to him becoming the thing he was dreading. He didn't want to become the person he felt that he was going to.
He could still feel his entire body reeling from the pain of going into the River Styx. Everything was going according to Kronos' plan. His anchor to the living world was Annabeth. Thalia was also a part of it, but mostly he'd pictured Annabeth. He'd pictured her smiling at him over some stupid joke he'd told, pictured her when she was younger - when they were all younger. There was a flash of blue eyes that were distinctly Thalia and her laugh. He could still hear it echoing in his mind and he wasn't entirely sure that he wasn't slowly going crazy.
Now he had The Curse of Achilles. He hadn't actively attempted to find out, but when he'd been cleaning dishes, he felt something sharp. However, when he pulled his hand out, there was nothing. He was perfectly fine. He didn't know how to tell Thalia or Annabeth. Both of them were worried about him. It was easy to tell that they were. The Curse of Achilles was just another notch, another step closer to the end.
Luke didn't know if it was really the end, but something in him felt it. Like a warning sign. He hoped that Kronos didn't take over his body, but he was less and less certain of it not happening. Especially considering everything else that was going on. But how would he know? Would it come on gradually or all of a sudden if it happened? Would anyone be able to stop him. He knew his weak spot. He was going to have to tell Thalia, maybe Annabeth. Maybe Percy. He was going to have to tell someone who could kill him if it came down to it. He just had to find someone who wasn't going to feel bad about it. That was the thing, though, wasn't it? Someone who didn't mind killing and knew what they were up against.
Kronos wasn't just some bad movie villain with greasy hair and a weird mustache. He was a god, a Titan. He was in Tartarus that was how terrible it was. Whoever went up against him had to be able to hold their ground against him. He knew it was probably a ridiculous amount of fatalistic thinking to believe all of this was going to end with his death or someone having to kill him. If he was lucky, none of it would transfer over and he'd just live with the knowledge that he'd probably killed all of the people he knew, even half-siblings.
Then again, that wasn't exactly lucky was it? He just didn't want to hurt people here. Not everyone was equipped to deal with these things. Even though they were constantly attacked over and over again by ridiculous things.
It was just that there were things he was prepared to live with and things he wasn't. Or maybe it was things he was prepared to pretend he could live with and things he really couldn't manage to live with even a little.
Sighing, Luke stood up and made his way to one of the windows. Whatever happened, he needed to make sure that his friends were prepared for it. He needed to make sure that people in general were prepared for it. He needed to make sure that someone was prepared to end his life if it was necessary. He started to compile a list of information he had on Kronos from the dreams: weaknesses observed and particular abilities. He also put on that list where his weak spot was. He'd give it to Thalia in the morning and tell her to hide it somewhere he wouldn't look. Then it wouldn't matter and they'd be able to deal with it. Until then, however, he just had to manage to keep himself from going crazy from the constant barrage of 'what ifs'.