madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-stowaways and eggs-

Teqi went straight to the level of the ship with all of the bedrooms as soon as Percy had dealt with the angry nymphs, her side had been restitched and had a bandage wrapped around her whole middle so there was no chance it would re-open. They had an hour till dinner, but Annabeth said that Teqi and Percy were making said dinner so they could 'deal with their problem and start getting along', which meant she had half an hour to recover from the whole day. She was fine, it was all fine. 

Totally fine.

Her mouth tasted like ambrosia and bitterness, she went into the bathroom and took the shower head off the wall, the stretchy cord connecting it was long enough that she could straddle the bath and wash all of the blood from her hair.                                                                                                                       She watched it swirl down the drain like watercolours, deepening in colour when a bit of the dye in her hair came out aswell. The inky red and black ran between her toes, cooling her off. She stayed like that, hunched over and trying to breathe deeply until there was a knock at the door.

Teqi grabbed her towel from the large rack and her hairbrush, finding her own cupboard in the large bathroom. She let Jason in, and walked down the long hallway past closed doors until she could shut her own behind her, and finally relax. Not really, she hadn't relaxed properly once in gods know how long, but she couldn't feel the eyes of people on her. She sunk against the widen door, towel over her shoulders to stop her dark hair from dripping.

Teqi had got to design her room, her bed, which was sunken in the wall, had a soft green doona and a white blanket, matching the mound of cushions she could bury herself in at night in hopes to keep Phobos out, or at least the memories of him.

Multiple cylindrical pot plants were attached to the wall, nothing grew out of them yet, but there were others scattered through the boat so Teqi could grow vines if they were attacked. She waved her hand and small vines hung from the pots. A large round window was in the centre of the wall opposite the door, with a thick sill so that Teqi could sit on it and pretend she was the main character in a cool fantasy book. Her wardrobe was in the wall, with two large doors that blended in nearly completely, only visible when you spotted the handles.

Next to the wardrobe was a bookshelf, also sunken into the wall, with black elastic strung in front of the books and sketchbooks so that they didn't fall out onto the ground when the ship moved. Little objects were in between the books as well, a small gold toucan, a pair of Purple Heart shaped sunglasses, a my little pony version of Olive the pegasus from Ginny, and multiple first aid kits.

Teqi's asexual flag was hung up above her bed, and a few posters of lyrics and album covers were stuck next to the door.

In the bottom of her wardrobe wrapped in blankets was her skateboard from Will, and Branca's Christmas present, which had been smuggled in after new year's. A brand-new electric guitar. It was a soft yellow, the pick guard [big plastic part around the strumming area] and the fretboard [stick bit] were brown, so its name was pikachu, obviously.

Teqi hopped onto her bed and ran the hairbrush through her hair slowly, partly to get the knots out and partly because it had become a habit to calm herself down. That and chewing on her lips. They cracked a lot. It was dark outside, the large porthole becoming an abyss into the night, so she pulled the frosted screen across it, leaving the light on full brightness so that the shadows inside couldn't creep over towards her.