In Survive, I Think That As Soon As Polites Becomes A Flat Pack Version, Odysseus Falls To The Ground

In Survive, i think that as soon as Polites becomes a flat pack version, Odysseus falls to the ground and freezes, unable to look away from his friends broken body, tears pouring down his face, as Eurylochus screams for some kind of direction or order or something.

But Odysseus is still, face being slowly covered in the blood of his comrades, focus only on Polites. He knows the cyclops will fall soon.

He hopes the lotus was strong enough.

He prays.

He prays, silently begging over his best friends shattered remains that his intellect didn’t fail him, it couldn’t fail him. It didn’t fail him all through 10(?) years of war.

He had lost too many men to be wrong.

He knew them all.

And now, every time Eurylochus, or the crew calls out “Captain”, he freezes, taken back to one of his largest failings yet. And beyond that, taken back to the night he truly became the monster, years before he even knew of the underworld. That horrible night, when he saved his family. When he ensured their safety from the gods and the might of Troy.

This is why Odysseus doesn’t respond when his men are drownon, screaming, desperately trying to hold on to anything that won’t drag them down deeper.

This is why Odysseus doesn’t react when the souls of all of the men he failed scream, begging for him to remember them (see what i did there), demanding an explanation of why he let guilt get the better of them.

Odysseus isn’t even present. He is in his mind, singing a lullaby to Astanyx and Telemachus. He is serenading Penelope and living out his life if he had never left for war.

THE FALL OF THE SUN, THE FINAL VERSE

do you ever think about the tapestry of percy and annabeth sitting in arcane’s cavern for almost a year waiting for annabeth to arrive? more specifically, do you ever think about how out of all the moments from annabeth’s life that aracne could’ve woven she chose to depict her at one of the happiest moments of her life—finally together with a living percy post-war? do you ever think about arachne, basically alone in this cavern for decades, cursed into monstrosity for daring to best a goddess, weaving this image of pure love? of a connection so strong that it would send the pair depicted through the crumbling floor to tartarus together rather than be separated ever again? even as that tapestry, that image of devotion, crumbled with them?

no? just me?

WHY. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME.

I-

I may never recover from this.

i keep seeing sad posts talking about "may castellan making sandwiches every day waiting in hopes that her son will return" and.

guys.

there is no hope for may castellan. she is not waiting at the door with lunch and a tentative smile, waiting for him to come home even though he didn't yesterday, or yesterday, or yesterday, or yesterday. "in hopes" implies that there will come a day when that hope fades. in hopes implies she knows the odds are bad. in hopes implies reality will eventually catch up to her.

there is no hope for may castellan.

she is not waiting in hopes for her son to return. she is preparing, day after day after day (after day after day after day after day after) for the inevitability that luke will return to her. she does not know he is dead. she does not understand he is gone. she does not realize that time has passed; to her luke is nine, still. to her she is still placidly awaiting to return of a fourth grader. luke is not nineteen and betraying his camp. he is not twenty and housing a titan. he is not twenty one and watching his friends get slaughtered in an arena, twenty-two and forcing his sister to hold up the sky, twenty three and realizing, soul shuddering in his chest, that he has made a mistake he can never take back, that he can never undo what he has done.

luke castellan to his mother is a child who has not yet lost all his baby teeth. the cookies she makes for him are soft, because she remembers that. he still leaves the crust behind on his sandwiches. he has scrapes on his elbows and dirt on his nose. he flinches before he hugs her. he spends a lot of time outside, but he comes home before dark.

may castellan's tragedy is not that she is penelope waiting for odysseus to one day return and we know that he will not. may castellan's tragedy is that she does not understand her hero has left at all. may castellan's tragedy is that she will never understand, and she will continue to age, and continue to deteriorate, and one day she will die and she will spend eternity walking the dying poplar fields, whittled down to the memory of something missing from her.

there is no hope for may castellan.

It’s kind of funny because statistically, there is a 100% escape rate of demigods from Tartarus. If you count gods and titans, there’s either a 90% or a 92% escape rate (depending on whether you subscribe to all six of Kronos’s kids freed the cyclops and hundred hand ones or just the three gods). This is all based on people who willingly went there and attempted an escape (or who lived there and attempted to escape in Damasen’s case). So this doesn’t even take into account that monsters die, return to Tartarus, and escape all the time.

So we have: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Nico (2x), Percy, Annabeth, Bob/Iapetus, Damasen, Apollo (sort of) and Will who have all been. That is 14 instances and the only one who didn’t make it out is Damasen who we could probably lop in with the regular Tartarus denizens who didn’t willingly go there. In that case, it becomes a 100% escape rate all around.

Just breaking down the demigods that went and made it:

Percy Jackson - extremely powerful godly powers, very good swordsman

Annabeth Chase - does not have offensive godly powers, but she’s an accomplished strategist and talented with weapons

Nico di Angelo - extremely powerful godly powers, very good swordsman, was not in a great headspace the first time, had a buddy the second time so that was a lot better for him

Will Solace - very powerful healer and also has plague powers, brought zero weapons

They all have various different skill sets and I think are a decent sample of the different types of demigods Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter might have to offer.

So statistically, a demigod’s odds are pretty good if they want to pop down there for a quick visit and then get out. That exotic tour destinations thing might work out. Nyx might need to start advertising.

Headcanon time! Everybody knows Penelope weaves but Odysseus whittles. It’s relaxing for him and gives him smth to do w his hands while listening to ppl talk. He never looks like he’s listening but he 1000% is. He always comes up w the most scathing comebacks when ppl get mad at him for “not listening.” He’s made lots of combs and trinkets for Penelope which she loves.

During the Trojan war, it was a nice way to pass the ten long years. He started by making more stuff for Penelope but then started making for stuff for Telemachus too. Toys like horse figurines, yo-yos (yes the greeks had those), dice, tops, etc. By the time he starts the journey home, he’s got a whole trunk of toys for him. He makes a few more on the ship but it’s hard bc there’s no wood and he’s a little busy fighting for his life.

He was dreaming of the day he could give all his gifts to his family but they were lost when his boat sank.