νεκρός || Annabeth Chase x Fem!OC

Vol. 2-13: Big angry kitten go MRRRROOWWWWW

TEMPEST

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"This is bullshit," I complained as we walked closer to the Smithsonian. "Grover, everything in here is either dead or a robot. Why would Artemis have come here?"

"Could you please stop smoking?" Zoe said. In the past hour, she'd been trying the "diplomatic" approach. It just made me see how desperate she really was. I removed my cigarette from my lips and made sure to blow the smoke away from everyone in the group.

"Mmmmmm, delicious," I said, taking another puff.

"This is it," Grover said. "We have to go in."

"Why?" Bianca asked as Thalia went in first.

"This is where Artemis was."

Zoe grumbled, "I cannot see why the goddess would've come here, but very well." Then she pointed to a No Smoking sign, and smiled triumphantly as I put out the cigarette and threw it in the trash.

"Happy?" I asked her.

"I'll be happier if thee perishes."

LMFAOOOOOO.

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The main part of the museum was one huge room with rockets and airplanes hanging from the ceiling. Three levels of balconies curled around, so you could look at the exhibits from all different heights. The place wasn't crowded, just a few families and a couple of tour groups of kids, probably doing one of those holiday school trips.

"This is boring," Thalia complained. "We aren't finding Artemis or Annabeth, and all of this stuff is dumb."

Frankly, I used to enjoy the Smithsonian. I've been a few times, scattered throughout very decades, typically coming when they got a new and very important exhibit or something. But now, looking at all of these things made me think of Annabeth. She's a total dork, and probably would've known every fact about the things in here, like who built it and their children's names and how often they took a shit while doing said projects. Her mind has always perplexed me; her ability to remember things so perfectly, I mean. It's nearly picture-perfect. I don't get it.

So, this time, I didn't enjoy myself. I didn't mind Zoe nagging Grover about why we were at the Smithsonian, or Thalia complaining about being bored, or Bianca begging everyone to stop. None of that bothered me. I was stuck looking at all of the displays around here and thinking about my missing friend, wondering if she was even still alive at this point. I suspected she was, since I hadn't been able to summon her ghost. But, I can't summon my family's ghosts, either. Because they don't want to talk to me. And if Annabeth doesn't want to talk to me, there isn't anything I can do.

The thoughts were stinging me, but in a weird way, it was urging me to keep going. There were only two possible reasons I couldn't talk to her ghost; either she didn't have one, or she didn't want to talk to me. I had to find out which one, but I could only do that if I found that cavern she had been stuck under.

Part of me was tempted to just split off from the group and go ahead on my own. Travel directly west, and talk to ghosts along the way. I'm a lot more aware of how quests work. You get a general idea of your goal, and on the way, you figure things out. That's how it is. And, well, I've been doing that since I died. I'd just get a faint idea of what I wanted to do, and on the path there, some new things came up. It used to be a goal of mine to see Mount Fuji in person. Along the way to that goal, I learned that jellyfish can be friends and Mormons are fucking crazy.