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Annabeth is pretty sure her luck can't get any worse. And from a demigod? That's saying a lot.

She's faced all kinds of monsters, nearly died more times than she can count, fought a war, lost her boyfriend, found her boyfriend, and taken off for a quest to save the world (again), and -- tumbled into another reality. She's pretty sure this is Hera's fault. She doesn't know how, yet, but there's no one else who has out for her quite as much as Her Royal Annoyance, the Queen of Heaven herself.

"If you expect me to follow you into that cave without a good reason? You've got another thing coming."

Annabeth's no coward, but she's never had an experience with a cave that didn't end in monsters. She wouldn't mind blowing off a little steam, to be honest, but that's not her top priority right now. Getting home is.

Octavia, frankly, has no idea what the floating hell is going on.

Even with the death of the vegetation and the acid rain, she does not get lost in these woods. She knows her way back to Arkadia and Polis, but a mile out from staying true to her word and taking Ilian home she doesn't know where she is anymore. The vegetation isn't dead or wilting from radiation, there are the sounds of animals and insects that, last she knew, had died off at the first signs of the coming radiation.

"Look," she says, annoyed as she points up with her free hand as the other holds tight on Helios' reigns. "See those clouds? Last time it rained, it was acid. You want to die, fine, but I'm going inside."

The whole forest is alive around them, which points to the rain being rain again, but she doesn't trust it. Not when she found some blonde girl wandering around about as lost as she is and absolutely no help in figuring out what's going on.

Not to mention the company. Annabeth's met friendlier monsters than this girl. Then again, if this girl were friendlier, Annabeth would be a lot more uncertain about going anywhere with her. She isn't nice, isn't even helpful, but she hasn't left Annabeth alone and there's something familiar about her wild eyes. They've never met before, obviously, but this is a girl who knows distrust. She knows fighting for survival. Every demigod has had a look like this in their eyes before.

"Great," Annabeth says, her mouth screwing up into a frown. "Creepy forest, check. Acid rain, sure, why not?"

And sine that is a good reason, she follows into the cave's mouth at a wary distance, a hand on the hilt of the bronze dagger at her belt. It won't do anything against mortal enemies -- or acid rain -- but if there really are monsters in here? It's the only weapon they've really got between the two of them.

"Is there any other weird weather I should know about?"

She's not sticking around because she wants company. Octavia would rather be alone in her traveling, but this girl is as close as she's come to finding anyone that might be able to explain anything.

Annabeth can't see it, but Octavia frowns at the question.

"Not anymore."

She'd rather not explain the acid fog and why it's not an issue anymore. And she'd rather not even explain the black rain too much, either, if the world has decided to aggressively stop ending now.

Whatever it is the world is doing, whatever Octavia might have gotten rid of in the last cave, she still has a sword on her back. Not that she's ever needed one in a cave before now. She barely registers the strange noise ahead of them as anything other than the potential drip of water, except that the closer they get the stranger it sounds. Clicks and scratches instead of the drip of a water source.

"You hear that?" Next to her, Helios rears backward and then resolutely refuses to go forward.

Helpful and verbose, she thinks.

Annabeth tenses when she hears the strange noises, unsheathing her dagger. The celestial bronze glows softly in the darkness, but it's not bright enough to illuminate whatever's further inside.

"I'm willing to bet whatever's making that sound doesn't like strangers."

Or anybody. There's a weird rustling, something like scuttling, and the sound makes her skin crawl. Over that, she can hear the pattering of rain starting to fall outside. Unless they want to brave potentially acid rain, there's nowhere to go but in. She continues to advance, but carefully.

Of course the world wouldn't stop ending without finding another way to try to kill them.

There's a second for her to be bitter about the inevitability of this before the resolve sets in. Another few to draw her sword and make sure she has a good grip on Helios so the horse doesn't bolt out into the other potential danger boxing them in with whatever the hell is in front of them.

Octavia readies for the fight with only a cursory glance at Annabeth and is both glad she's armed and... Even more confused.

"The hell is that?" Said about the dagger, because since when did weapons glow, but really a more apt question for the creature that comes up in front of them. A wide triangular head with huge, bulging eyes.

At least it's not a spider.

Instead of black and hairy it's green and scaly, huge, towering over the both of them even when Octavia's on horseback. Annabeth blinks once, taking that in, and then hopes it doesn't breathe fire. Or spit acid.

"A mantis," Annabeth decides aloud, keeping her eyes on the thing. It's probably too much to hope that being that big makes it slow. "This might not be a bad thing. The Ancient Greeks believed they could show lost travelers the way home."

It tracks them with its huge eyes, not looking especially friendly. Then it lunges at them, forelegs extended, apparently a lot more interested in lunch than helping anyone. Annabeth curses in ancient Greek, slashing at it with her blade.

Helios rears back before Octavia can do much other than hold on. This thing is huge, and absolutely not interested in showing them anything other than a fight. A fight she can't do anything in while trying to keep a spooked horse in check, so she lets go.

Maybe the rain is rain again, and Helios will be safer there.

Octavia lets out a war cry as she surges forward into the fight, swinging her sword at the mantis' middle but only making glancing contact against the large scale there. So, she switches tactics, taking the force of the glancing blow and aiming downward toward one of the joints in its legs.

As Octavia attacks the mantis's front, Annabeth takes the opportunity to roll behind the monster, and aims her dagger at its unprotected metathorax. She scores a hit at the same time as Octavia, and the monster roars (do insects roar?) angrily. It lashes out as though to smack Octavia like a kangaroo; and then, even more disturbingly, its head rotates almost a full one-eighty to glare at Annabeth, kicking a good leg in her direction. She's thrown backwards, landing on the rocky earth with a groan.

Her head feels like it's splitting in half, but she's not going to lie around like easy prey for the -- well, praying mantis. She pushes herself back to her feet as soon as she's able, hoping Octavia's managed to hold it off in the meantime.

Edited 2017-04-22 02:55 (UTC)

This is easily the strangest fight Octavia has ever been in. She manages to dodge the punch (if it can be called that) by dropping to the ground and going for the other leg, but misses as it swoops out to kick Annabeth. Then the thing's head spins around and she is very ready to just be done with this.

With Annabeth down and the mantis looking very much not in her direction, Octavia aims for its neck. Even with it hobbled, she has to jump to reach it with anything more than the tip of her sword, but the momentum she takes with her follows them both down. The arms and legs twitch as if to keep fighting, but the head rolls off into a darker corner of the cave.

She stands for a few breaths, still ready to fight, but the twitching limbs slow and stop, and there's nothing else for her to take out the rush of adrenaline on.

"You okay?" Octavia doesn't move across the body to where Annabeth is, doesn't even sheath her sword, but she relaxes enough to hold the weapon at her side.

Annabeth exhales, taking in the beheaded monster. It doesn't disintegrate like the monsters she knows -- the fact that it was vulnerable to Octavia's weapons at all means it isn't like the monsters she knows, not unless there's another kind of enchanted weapon that Annabeth's never heard of. She doubts it. The fact that Octavia could see it was equally weird. If there is a Mist out here, it doesn't work too well.

"Ow. Yeah." She almost nods but luckily thinks better of it. "Believe it or not, that thing isn't the angriest bug I've ever met."

Her dagger had clattered away when she fell; she goes to pick it up and resheathe it, moving a little slow from soreness. She wouldn't admit it, but she's actually...impressed. Mortals taking on monsters isn't the king of thing she's seen much of, and she'd honestly assumed Percy's mom and stepdad were the exceptions. They still are, obviously, but maybe this girl is an exception too.

"I'm Annabeth, by the way."

Edited 2017-04-22 04:11 (UTC)

No, nothing enchanted about anything with Octavia. Just sharp.

"Octavia," she says only now because she was never particularly skilled at introductions, and finally sheathes her sword. "How many of these things have you seen?"

Because that was... Something. It's almost refreshing to fight without killing someone, just something. To lose herself for a few moments in the adrenaline and movement of a battle where she feels accomplishment looking at the body instead of, well, nothing.

Octavia. That's an incredibly Roman name, and Annabeth doesn't think that's a coincidence. She files that tidbit away for later, something to think more about when she has more information.

Right now, her expression grows wary. Maybe Octavia did see the monster, and maybe she won't call Annabeth crazy. But mortals have never been very reliable. Not when it comes to the truth about Greek gods and monsters.

"That was my first praying mantis monster. As for the other kinds...a lot. Hundreds, at least. Probably more. I've been fighting them for a long time."

"Oh yeah?"

Octavia watches Annabeth like she is, finally, trying to figure her out as a person instead of just a clue to why the forest suddenly became completely unfamiliar. Not that she can't still be both, of course.

She looks down at what's left of the mantis and kicks it hard enough that one of the arms that had been standing upright flops over onto the ground. "I saw a two headed deer once, but the worst I fought before this was other people." It isn't meant to sound like a threat, Octavia doesn't even look up at Annabeth when she says it, but it could serve as one. Mostly it's an example of how she absolutely has no experience with giant bug monsters.

Whether or not it's a threat, Annabeth doesn't feel threatened by Octavia. Octavia's clearly dangerous, sure, but not to her. Not right now. Her tone, her body language -- it's all wrong for an attack. Annabeth doubts the other girl would hesitate to strike back if Annabeth acted aggressively, but that's not an issue. Fighting mortals just isn't something that a hero does.

Which is why she frowns. She knows that mortals fight each other, obviously -- her dad's a military history professor, for crying out loud -- but that's not the kind of thing she expects to hear from girls who can't be any older than she is.

"Sounds like we're both a long way from home."

She looks over at Annabeth and scoffs, almost a laugh, the kind completely devoid of humor. "You think?"

Octavia isn't interested in fighting her, if only because there's nothing to gain on top of a hundred other reasons to not fight a stranger. Annabeth isn't Azgeda, she isn't from some other clan threatening peace. None of those reasons makes Octavia a hero in comparison. Of all the things she feels like lately, 'hero' doesn't even make the list.

Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim. There isn't time to worry about any of that right now.

"Helios," she calls and turns back to the mouth of the cave. Wherever they are, she doesn't want to lose her horse to acid rain or having him get spooked enough to run further away than she can chase him.

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PIC PROMPTS / TFLN / RANDOM SCENARIO
HAN SOLO velocities	BETTY MCRAE bombsheller	RIVER TAM subsulcus	RIVER TAM (AU) comprehender
SIMON TAM vest	BRIA THAREN exulted	NADINE CROSS bridaled	GU JUN-PYO toddler
available on special request: veronica sawyer, benjamin linus, imani, maria deluca, mushu, poseidon, niccolò machiavelli, malik al-sayf, chloe

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finally something not pain

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