madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-some light gambling before the conspiracy theory session-

Teqi blinked her tired eyes open, excepting harsh white lights to assault her, but she was just met with a dusk like darkness, only splashes of neon in a few spots. It was hard to make out the room, but she didn't recognise it, and she couldn't feel the air on her skin or the ground beneath her properly, so she knew it was a dream immediately.

It was a faded sort of black, so she knew it wasn't her horror theme park of a nightmare that might be her own mind, and she wouldn't have to run to her little tent. She tried to turn around, to make sure nothing would pop out at her from wherever, and that was when she registered that she was sitting down. It looked like a plush chair, and then a table appeared in front of her slowly.

The room came to life around her, more tables appeared as the darkness was pushed to the corners of the room by neon signs. They lined the tables, and lit up what looked like old fashioned arcade games. Then her other senses kicked in, and Teqi could hear people chattering quietly and the sound of dice rolling, but nobody else was in the room, only making it more unnerving to begin with.

She realised where she was. A casino.

Of course, she'd never been to one, but she had seen them in movies, and Nico seemed to know a bit about them as well. Then another thing faded into her sight, a figure. Teqi's hand was immediately on her knife pouch, but when the person sat down at a seat that only appeared in that moment, she let go.

They were dressed in a black suit, with an equally dark hat covering most of their face, but Teqi noticed they had stubble and a faded scar that looked like a tooth near their ear. The only sign that they were a god was the silver wreath design on the hat, confirming Teqi's immediate suspicion that this was an unwanted visit from Olympus.

The god picked up five cards from in front of him, and Teqi realised that there was a stack in front of her as well, and few placed out on the table between them. "Okay, I want to sleep properly so let's get this over with. Just tell me what cryptic message you have for me and we can go home."

Teqi couldn't see his eyes, but she imagined he had either rolled them or raised his eyebrows at her bluntness. "I don't have a cryptic message. I've come to explain."

Teqi raised her eyebrows sceptically, shuffling her five cards. The god sighed, "I can imagine you have noticed that certain... aspects of Olympus have contacted you?"

Teqi didn't talk, just watched tiredly.

"To put it simply, we need you. Or more specifically, we need you to not hate us. I'm afraid Aphrodite hasn't done a very good job at that, but Hermes did try. The thing is, if you do hate us, there's a much bigger chance that Gaea will manipulate you onto her side of this war."

Teqi snorted at the Aphrodite part of the speech, half glad that the god was self-aware, and half pissed he was prying into her life.

"So Zeus is desperate to get you on his side.-"

"I'm on this fucking quest in the first place, is that not enough anymore?" Teqi snapped, narrowing her eyes. The cards in her hands crumpled as she squeezed them.

"No. It isn't. 

"You pose a threat to Olympus, but if your quest fails then Gaea will rise, so Zeus cannot kill you... Yet." The god said after a long pause.

"I'd like to see him try."

"As entertaining as that would be." The god said dryly, hat tilting down. He was looking at his cards.