[ he makes a point of pinching his arm — hard — and wincing. then, he presses his index and middle finger together to press against the pulse in his neck, feeling it beat beneath his fingers. it's the first time he's done that since he arrived, but he schools his expression into nothing but a sarcastic canvas. it's unsettling, to have that reaffirmation, this isn't some vivid dream a dead kid has before he arrives at hades' doorstep, served his eternal punishment until someone higher and more powerful deems his sentence over. his arm drops to his side to hang uselessly, mouth pressed into a line as the corners pull upward. ]
Kind of took a boat along the River Styx. [ he lifts a shoulder, shrugging it off casually. he's dead — he has no idea how he isn't in the afterlife, running naked in a field of cactuses. he has no idea how he's here. even though everyone keeps telling him why, he adds all those types of questions into the i don't know pile. it unnerves him to not have any of the answers, when he used to pride himself on knowing too much. and where he had always fallen short in that department, the girl before him always picked up his slack. ]
[ it's too tempting to remark on her appearance, the one change he can visibly take note of that doesn't quite match up to his own memories of her. but percy's stated she's changed. perhaps he's standing in front of a stranger, just as she is when she looks at him. she has to see him as someone other than luke — the rest of the merry gang of demigods look at him a little too closely, eyes sharp and narrow, wondering where the hint of gold in his eyes rests if not in his blue irises. he feigns looking sheepish, but his tone is anything but genuinely confused, ] Guess we got sort of lost ... [ he makes a show of glancing around, the party alive and well, while this conversation continues to be steered by him in a direction that will leave him standing alone in a crowded room. but it's partly what luke wants, despite having sought her out first; it's best if she takes off, brows pinched, rather than looking at him the way she is, as though she's seeing a ghost of someone she remembers, rather than that of a stranger she should feel uneasy around. ]
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Kind of took a boat along the River Styx. [ he lifts a shoulder, shrugging it off casually. he's dead — he has no idea how he isn't in the afterlife, running naked in a field of cactuses. he has no idea how he's here. even though everyone keeps telling him why, he adds all those types of questions into the i don't know pile. it unnerves him to not have any of the answers, when he used to pride himself on knowing too much. and where he had always fallen short in that department, the girl before him always picked up his slack. ]
[ it's too tempting to remark on her appearance, the one change he can visibly take note of that doesn't quite match up to his own memories of her. but percy's stated she's changed. perhaps he's standing in front of a stranger, just as she is when she looks at him. she has to see him as someone other than luke — the rest of the merry gang of demigods look at him a little too closely, eyes sharp and narrow, wondering where the hint of gold in his eyes rests if not in his blue irises. he feigns looking sheepish, but his tone is anything but genuinely confused, ] Guess we got sort of lost ... [ he makes a show of glancing around, the party alive and well, while this conversation continues to be steered by him in a direction that will leave him standing alone in a crowded room. but it's partly what luke wants, despite having sought her out first; it's best if she takes off, brows pinched, rather than looking at him the way she is, as though she's seeing a ghost of someone she remembers, rather than that of a stranger she should feel uneasy around. ]