The sounds of chattering was loud, and Todd wished that sometimes, just maybe they would be a bit quieter.

But hey, he was at camp after all, and demigods and quiet just did not belong in the same space.

There he was, heading over to the Hermes table, where he spotted his siblings, his full ones, seated at the table as he then moved to plop on down between the two sandy haired twins, "Hey kiddos," he spoke, ruffling their hair with his hands, "You sleep well?" he asked them.

The girl just giggled a bit before grinning at him, "Of course! Xander has been helping me go to sleep remember?" she asked him, her eyes beaming at his name. Todd smiled at her excitement as he hugged her close to him.

The boy, however, reached up to lift his hand off of his sandy locks, "Stop it Todd!" he protested, "We are not eight anymore!" he remarked, "But yes, I slept well. Did you know that Travis snores loudly in his sleep?" he remarked to him.

Todd rose an eyebrow at the mention of this, and he then said "Travis is around?" he asked the teenagers, and his brother nodded his head.

"Yeah, just for the weekend though." he remarked as he moved his hands to fix his hair that Todd oh so generously ruffled up. "Then he goes back to his hometown."

"What brings him around?" Todd asked them.

"Well," he rubbed the back of his neck, "We only know rumors... Something about uncovering an old prophecy?"

"Wait isn't that how the Romans have their prophecies?" 

"Well, yeah... This one though is definitely Greek though."

Todd pursed his lips as he then looked to his sister as he then said, "So, Ashley, what is this about Xander? Why has he been helping, weren't you nervous about talking to him?"

The teenage female smiled warmly as she then said "Well he noticed my symptoms and offered to help out with them." she told him, and Todd smiled, ruffling her hair again lovingly.

"Well, at least you have a reason to talk to him now." he remarked with a knowing smirk.

She blushed, but nodded, "Yeah... It is great to talk to him, he makes me feel so..." she struggled to find words.

"I get it Ash," Todd told her as he then moved to get some food on his plate to begin eat his own breakfast, "Let's not talk about your Xander..." he spoke as he picked up the apple from his plate to take a bite out of it.

"But Todd," began his brother, "If we don't talk about Xander, then whatever will we talk about?" he asked sarcastically.

He smiled, "Well Casper... I had that dream again." he pursed his lips as he looked at his apple for a moment before he took another bite from its cool, crispy golden exterior.

"The dream with the dark mist, or the dream of the mortal and Ancient Greek world's colliding?" Casper spoke.

"More like both, think I should talk to one of the Hypnos Cabin kids?" Todd replied as he then moved to finish the apple, his brother only nodding his head "Well I should get ready for capers then."

"Todd." came Chiron's voice, and the blonde male turned his head, putting his hands into his pockets.

Meekly, Todd walked over to the centaur, and he looked up to him, "Yes Chiron? Did I do something wrong?"

"On the contrary Mr. Elkborn, you can do something completely wonderful, but first do your capers then meet me in the Big House." he told the young male, and Todd swallowed a bit as he turned his body around to attend to his morning capers, which were washing the dishes with his younger siblings.

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Helena dreaded sword fighting class. It was difficult, and swinging a long and very sharp piece of celestial bronze was just not her thing.

Luckily for her, she would only be doing this class once a week, as per her promise with her older brother Percy.

So here she was, standing in the open field after breakfast caper, to which she thanked the gods that she had no morning capers. She ran a hand through her dark hair, her brown eyes staring at the dummy before her, which barely had any scratches on it from her abysmal sword handling skills.

The demigod teaching her, Skylar, only shook her head as she then looked to the sea demigod, "Great skies you're so hopeless," she began, and she walked over to fix her stance by spreading her feet apart and raising her arms slightly, "Remind me why are you even here again? Shouldn't you be making the lake part or something like that?" 

Helena scoffed, "Because one, Todd is too busy with capers, two," she looked to the dummy as she then swung her sword again, "I promised Perce, and finally," she managed to get a slight slashing movement, "I can't be a one trick pony." she huffed, moving a hand to wipe her brow. Who knew swords could be so... Heavy?

Skylar offered the girl a soft smile, and she then moved to then look at the scratch, "About an inch deep and sixteen inches long." she spoke, tracing a finger along the long slash which started from the left shoulder and ended at the right hip, more like right above it. "Not bad for a hopeless case." she then backed up a bit, and she then looked to her wristwatch, "Your hour is up. Now run along Helena." she remarked as she then moved to wait a bit.

When Helena did not move at all, Skylar scoffed, "Look please run along. I still have a class to attend to you know." she said in a rather annoyed tone.

Helena held her arms up in defense as she then nodded, "Fine. See you around Sky." she then waved the daughter of Ares goodbye before she walked away towards the Big House. Helena was always free for the most part, and so she smiled softly, and the demigod of war smiled back to her.

Helena turned on her heel after this, and she then went on her way as she hummed softly, basically skipping as she thought about how her skills were improving, even if it was ever so slightly.

At least she would when she bumped into someone, and she nearly fell backwards with a yelp. Her hair billowed as her body proceeded to fall.

A pair of arms shot out to catch her, one hand delicately on her wrist and the other arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her nearly into their body.

As Helena slowly pushed her hair up and out of her eyes, continually murmuring her apologies to the halfblood who caught her, the person remarked, "Man I had really hoped that we had gotten rid of the whole clumsiness issue." the voice was masculine. Helena knew whose the face it belonged to as she slowly raised her face to look at who the savior/victim from her actions, were.

And she couldn't help but smile at the goofy grin she was looking at, "You can let go now Elkie." she teased.

Todd nodded, "Alright," he chuckled as he then moved to slowly let her go, and he flashed her a soft smile, "Well, Chiron wants to see me in the Big House, any idea as to why?" he asked as the duo kept walking along.

Helena hummed, not knowing why as Todd opened the door for her, "Not sure really. Chiron has been a bit perplexed as of late. Thanks." she spoke before she walked inside the building with him, a smile plastered on her lips as they walked into Chiron's office. Sitting in the chair at the desk however, was someone new.

"Dad?" came Todd's rather surprised reply.

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Samuel yawned for a while. And it was the good kind of yawn, the kind where you open your mouth to the widest someone can stretch it, eyes shut tightly as you tear up a bit from the relief that the simple yet really contagious action granted as he lifted a hand to wipe his eyes a bit as he recovered from his well deserved nap. 

"That hit the spot." he smiled before yawning again, this one shorter than the last as he then looked around. He had been sleeping in his favorite spot, in a rather sunny spot in the open fields next to a rather short and stout pine tree, which provided enough shade for his face so the blistering sub didn't make him burn.

The shuffling of footsteps was audible, they were light and rather rushed as Samuel quickly rubbed his eyes awake, his free arm, which tingled from the lack of circulation since his head was currently resting on top of it, was used to prop himself up as he turned his head to see the person who approached.

"Did I disturb your sleep?" the curly dark haired teenager asked Samuel.

He scoffed, "Obviously not Xander," he began, "I've been awake for a while." he remarked sarcastically, causing the other male to roll his eyes.

"Sam, was that sarcasm I just heard?" he asked while raising a brow.

Samuel only smirked in return, and he pushed himself up as he then brushed his arms against his jeans, his necklace of beads hanging loosely around his neck, and he shrugged haplessly. "So, what's up?" he asked his brother.

Xander grinned, "Well, I am not sure you heard, but FINALLY Ashley has come to me for help." he remarked proudly, as if he had been expecting it for so long. 

With good reason too. Ashley has had several problems when it came to falling asleep, that much was known throughout camp, especially since the Elkborn siblings practically lived at camp.

Todd actually had brought it up in a meeting a long time ago. Mainly bad dreams that seemed too surreal, which led her to not want to sleep as much. As far as any Hypnos kid could tell, it was just a classic case of insomnia.

Samuel knew better than that, so he had told his brother about it. He would do it himself, but...

He was an old romantic, and knew that his bother was oblivious to Todd's sister's feelings, so that was more than enough of an excuse for the slender male to hand it off to Xander.

It was also extremely lucky that Xander had accepted the task, but then again Xander was always willing to help people, that is just who he was. 

"Is there anything else you wanted me for, or are you just here to tell me something that I already know?" Samuel asked after a brief moment of awkward silence between brothers. 

"Well, yeah pretty much." he remarked with a shrug of his shoulders.

Samuel nods his head, "Well, congrats Xander. I should get going then, I got important things to do now." he remarked with a smile, and he then waved the younger male farewell as he then walked away, humming more to himself as he then saw the Big House.

'Was there a meeting today?' he thought to himself. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small planner. He looked through it and sighed softly, his yes raking over the pages as he hoped that he was not missing out on anything.

"Well," he swore, "I will get chewed out again if I'm late..." he pocketed the planner as he jogged lightly inside the Big House, already dreading the long and boring routine monthly meeting, but grateful he had the hour long power nap right before it.

He just hoped the meeting wouldn't be that draining.

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Elara had dreaded this rather long meeting. It was one thing she always hated having to do. It was not like she had much of a choice in the matter- She was the only Hades demigod currently residing on camp grounds.

That alone had enough perks for her, but no, she HAD to attend meetings and do leader like things. It mentally drained her, those boring meetings.

"'Come to Camp Half Blood', they said, 'It will be fun', they said." she mumbled as she sat down in the chair as she slowly leaned more weight into it, her legs moving so they were raised, lifted on top of the wooden mahogany surface as she spun in her chair slightly out of boredom. 

Elara was always early to these kinds of functions, as she had nothing better to do. So, out of pure boredom, she opened her hands and let them rest freely at the sides of the chair, and she concentrated.

Soon enough, a pair of long, yet thin bones sprouted from the ground and into her palms, her fingers wrapping around them as she then raised her arms, her head turning to make sure nobody was around, her legs returning to the ground as she soon sat normally.

Glad to see that nobody was around, she smiled as she then moved the bones to the surface, and she began to hum softly, her hands tapping the bones to the dark coffee colored surface, the bones making a soft yet deep thudding noise against the wood.

She loved the sound of the bones on the table, colliding with one another. It helped her relax and not be bored.

She kept this up for a while, her head nodding for a bit as she closed her eyes a bit. She took in a deep breath, and she began to sing.

"I'm waking up to ash and dust. I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust. I'm breathing in the chemicals." she took in an exaggerated deep breath as she smiled, barely containing her laughter as she then continued, imagining that the song was actually playing.

"I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus. This is it, the apocalypse. Whoa." she then stopped tapping as she grinned to herself, glad that nobody was in there with her.

Where people had failed her in the past, music filled the hole in her heart with happiness and joy. Well, that and her older brother Nico. She was glad for him at least, he kept in good touch with her too, in fact, she was half tempted to ditch the meeting and go shadow travel to his location, no matter how far he was from camp.

She then kept singing in her soft voice, "I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones. Enough to make my systems blow. Welcome to the new age, to the new age. Welcome to the new age, to the-"

"If you were that desperate to make music," spoke up a new voice, a bit of a rough edge to it, "You could have just asked me you know?"

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NOTES:

I am SO SO SO sorry this is so late! I promise to be better!

Anyways, guest appearances by:

Kathryn Newton as Ashley Elkborn, daughter of Hermes

Aidan Gallagher as Casper Elkborn, son of Hermes

Nick Robinson as Xander Matthews, son of Hypnos

Jay Ryan as Hermes, God of messengers, travelers, roads, trade, and thieves

Pierce Brosnan as Chiron