Hey, guys-guess what? TODAY WAS MY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! WHOOOOOOO!

As you can probably tell, I am very excited. I got As on all my finals, even my Biology II final, which is the one I was most worried about.

So, summer means I'll have more time to write-yay-but not for a few weeks yet. My sister's graduation and graduation party are tomorrow, so I probably won't be able to write or update then. And Sunday I have church, and then I probably need to socialize with my family, since they're coming down for her graduation. Also, I should probably pack then.

Which brings me to another subject-Monday, I'm leaving to visit my aunt. This has happened before, and those that read this then know that I can't update fanfiction while I'm there, for the following reasons: 1. I don't have my chapters (they're saved on my parent's computers). and 2. She doesn't have wifi. We're coming back on Thursday, so I should have an update up next Friday, at the latest.

And, since I feel really bad about my recent and future absence (get excited, people), and also because you are already halfway to the 2000 review goal, I'm going to TRIPLE UPDATE today! Ta-DA! (Get happy, people. This is probably the only time this will happen. Ever.)

This is a Calypso chapter-I really like these; I should do them more often. Many of you should be very happy with this chapter, as it contains a scene that has been asked for numerous times.

Enjoy! (I'll respond to reviews next chapter)

Chapter LXXVI

Calypso

Calypso knows she's a little too old to throw tantrums. By a few thousand years. But when the bronze mirror's wiring sparks and momentarily catches fire, burning her fingers-for the third time-she can't help it. She screams and curses and throws various mechanical tools across the beach.

It doesn't really help the mess, and it definitely doesn't accomplish anything productive, but it sure as Hades makes her feel better. Funny how screaming curses at the gods, the Fates, and the world in general can help a person feel so...refreshed.

When her anger finally dies down, she just stands there, chest heaving, staring around at the mess. Not that it's really all that much worse; she hasn't had much time to clean up, since she's been so busy trying to find away off of this gods-forsaken island.

There are various scraps of metal everywhere-gears, springs, bolts, sheets of bronze, all half-buried in the sand. A few pieces of cloth, too, are fluttering in the breeze-remnants of one of her new t-shirts, which had gotten caught in one of her experimental machines and been shredded to bits. Fireproof or not, her clothes weren't protected from malfunctioning machines.

Finally, she sighs, and then turns to thoughtfully study the mirror, sticking her burned fingers in her mouth to soothe the pain.

She crouches down and squints into the depths of the mirror's mechanical parts, peering into the shadowy darkness. With her free hand, she reaches in and roots through the wires until she finds the burned ones, and disconnects them to replace them with new ones. She tosses the old ones unceremoniously onto the sand, and then reaches in to connect the new ones, carefully trying to avoid catching them on fire again.

She's been spending the last three days on this stupid mirror, trying to get it to work.

But she isn't trying to get it to show her Leo again-she'd already managed to get it to do that without any more problems. No, she's trying to make it better-much better. She wants it to show her Gaea-any and all threats to the Seven.

But there's more than that, too. She wants to turn it into a communication device-a kind of two-way mirror that would allow her to contact the outside world.

And, so far, she's failing miserably.

By all counts, it should work, but no matter what she tries, something keeps going wrong. Or, instead of showing her anything, the mirror just goes frustratingly black.

She's sure the gods probably have something to do with it-after all, the curse on Ogygia was that she would be alone here, with no means of communication unless the gods decide to visit. But if it's possible to see the present-and maybe the future-than it should be possible to have outside contact.

So, since it isn't working, it makes sense for her to think that the gods are interfering to prevent it, for some unknown reason.

They want to keep you imprisoned here. A voice whispers in her mind, resonating up from her feet. To keep you locked away forever.

Calypso glares at the ground. "Shut up, Gaea. And get off of my island."

She waits for the voice to come again, but the presence withdraws, leaving her feeling strangely alone.

Or not so strangely, since she's the only one on an island in the middle of nowhere.

A suddenly familiar feeling causes her to straighten up suddenly and hit her head on the rim of the bronze mirror-again. Swearing and rubbing the back of her head, she stands up and turns around to face the water.

A pillar of flames is descending from the sky, and making its way into the bay, turning the water to steam. That's the familiar feeling.

Calypso's expression sours, and she deliberately turns away to continue working on the mirror.

"It had to be Hephaestus." She mutters. "Out of all that could have come, it had to be him."

She's not entirely sure how she feels about talking to the father of the boy she's in love with. Would he approve? Is he coming to tell her off?

Funny. She thinks with a dry grin. It's usually the other way around. The father of the girl doesn't approve of her boyfriend. But Atlas isn't exactly the protective, fatherly type.

Whatever Hephaestus has come to talk about, she decides she doesn't care. And maybe if she ignores him for long enough, he'll get the hint and go away.

She hears the sand shift beneath his feet as he finally steps onto the beach, but she doesn't turn to greet him as she once would have. She just keeps tinkering with the mechanics of the mirror.

He walks up behind her-she can feel him standing at her back, waiting in uncomfortable silence for her to say something. Or to greet him with the proper respect, maybe. He shifts his wait several times, and even clears his throat once, but Calypso just goes on ignoring him for all she's worth.

"Calypso." He finally says in his gruff voice. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

And who's fault is that? She thinks in reply. But she's careful to give no outward sign that she's listening to him.

"You might be wondering why it's been so long." He pauses there, to give her a chance to speak.

You and the rest of the gods went all super-schizophrenic, that's why you haven't been here. And before that, you were on Olympus with Zeus, pouting because Percy Jackson had the nerve to criticize you. Calypso answers for him in her head.

"Our Greek and Roman sides have been fighting each other lately." Hephaestus continues.

And I'm assuming that, since you're here now, something happened to stop that. Calypso thinks.

"But peace is being made between the camps-and Athena's old grudge against the Romans has been resolved, thanks to a couple of demigods and a satyr." She hears him scratch his chin, the way he always does when he's nervous or thinking hard about something-possibly both.

He stands in silence for several more uncomfortable minutes, obviously unsure as to how to say something. Finally, though, he sighs.

"Calypso, you have to stop trying to contact the outside world." He tells her, his voice no longer conversational. Now he's all business, albeit reluctant.

Calypso finds a small box on the floor-like an electricity control box. Her fingernails scrabble at the edge, trying to open it, and she strains to pry the lid off. It opens, suddenly, and fills the wire-filled chamber with golden light, making her freeze in surprise.

It makes it much easier to see all the intricacies of the mirror's mechanics-gods, Leo's a freaking genius. She's mostly interested in the box on the floor though, since she's never noticed it before, and she squints at it, pushing it open wider.

It looks like the mirror's source of power-magical power, regular power-like the battery, or the engine. But it looks like there's something wrong with it...and it's too bright for her to really see what it is...

She reaches in to see if she can figure out what it is by touch-and, of course, it's like sticking her hand in a light socket. Or a pool of liquid fire. Take your pick.

She swears, loudly and horribly, and yanks her hand out of the mirror's depths. Her curses get steadily more creative as she gets a good look at her fingers. Before, they'd been a bright, burned red-after all, this wasn't the first time they'd been burned-but now, they were brilliant, dark crimson, and blisters were already blooming on her knuckles.

Her curses just get worse as the pain grows, and she invokes the names of most of the gods, including Hephaesus, cursing them, cursing the world, cursing the stupid mirror.

The burn is almost worth it, though, when she stands up and sees the look on Hephaestus' face.

He's flustered, shocked, and maybe a little offended-she's pretty sure he's never heard her curse before, at least not like that.

"Bronze bulls, girl." He says in disbelief. "Where in Hades did you learn all that?"

His tone-so surprised, and disapproving-as if she's a child that needs scolding-sends her over the edge, and anger rushes through her like fire.

"I'm not freaking Snow White, Hephaestus. I'm not a pretty little girl that sings to the animals and is the perfect, obedient woman." Calypso spits at him. "I'm tired of being sweet, and innocent-because I'm not. I'm the daughter of a Titan, and a damn good sorceress on top of that." Her anger fades a little, and with one last resentful glare, she finishes her rant. "And besides, I learned a lot of those curses from your son."

Hephaestus stares at her with wide eyes for a few seconds, and then he throws back his head and laughs, a loud, booming laugh that echoes across Ogygia and sends birds flapping into the air in alarm. When he manages to pull himself together, he wipes tears from his eyes with his rough, calloused fingers and grins at her-a smile so achingly familiar, so heartbreakingly similar to Leo's, that it makes her anger disappear almost completely. "I bet you did, didn't you?" He asks, amused.

Calypso glares at him half-heartedly and turns to the surface of the mirror, watching her reflection. "Your son curses almost more than you." She mutters. "And as to your earlier attempt at a conversation-I'm trying to create something to help myself. Being the god of mechanics, you should appreciate that."

When she looks up, Hephaestus' smile is gone, and he's looking grimly off into the distance. "Your attempts are admirable, of course, but futile. Zeus doesn't want you to leave the island. He feels it's a further insult to him." He looks back at her. "And I don't want you to leave either, although it's for a different reason."

"Why?" Calypso bursts out loudly, spreading her hands in a questioning gesture. "Why wouldn't you want me to leave? You, of all people, who's seen my suffering and even once told me how much you wished my curse could be broken. And you even told me it would be someday-so why not now?"

Hephaestus' expression is pained, but she ignores it and continues glaring at him, demanding an answer with her eyes. "It's not that I don't wish your curse to be broken, Calypso. You're a good girl, and I know my son likes-loves-you. But that's exactly why I don't want you to leave." He sighs and runs his hand over his face. "As Leo was leaving your island, he swore on the River Styx that he would come back for you."

"I told him not to." Calypso tells Hephaestus. "But I kind of figured he did anyway. He's stubbornly idiotic."

Hephaestus smiles dryly. "Isn't that the truth. But my point, Calypso, is this: If you escape Ogygia yourself, and he doesn't come back here for you, he's breaking his promise. Even if it's not his fault. And you and I both know what happens when you break a promise on the River Styx."

Calypso nods wordlessly and stares at the horizon, at the exact spot where Leo's raft had disappeared into the distance. To think she could bring something so terrible onto Leo, the boy she's desperately in love with, without even knowing she did it-it makes her heart ache even more.

"And there's more, too." Hephaestus continues. "Your continued attempts to establish contact with the outside world? The mirror? It's compromising the island's magic-destabilizing everything. The curse, the spell that keeps it hidden, everything-it's all being unbalanced." He tells her.

"Good." Calypso shoots back. "I hate it here."

At that, Hephaestus looks surprised again. "I thought you loved this island."

"I did. Once. And it is my home. But it's also my prison, and it's so bloody perfect here. It gets annoying." She replies.

Hephaestus looks around at the mess that her section of the beach is now. "Very perfect. So clean."

"Shut up." Calypso tells him, but she can't really be mad at him when he's in one of his rare, I-care-about-organic-life-forms moods. And he's being sarcastic-something that rarely ever happens at the same time.

"Please, Calypso. Abandon your attempt to leave this island. Let Leo rescue you. Otherwise-well, you know what'll happen." Hephaestus pleads her, and his eyes are so full of concern-she's happy to see him care so much about a person. Especially since it's Leo.

"I don't need rescued." Calypso tells him, although she's mostly just irritated at his choice of words. "I'm not a damsel in distress."

"Gods forbid you were." Hephaestus says, and Calypso lets herself smile. "You and Leo stray a bit far from tradition, though, don't you?"

"I hate tradition." Calypso replies, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "I'm tired of it."

"Fine, then-you're not getting rescued, you're letting him pick you up." Hephaestus tells her tiredly.

Calypso ponders that for a bit. "Pick me up for what?"

"Bronze bulls, girl, do I have to think of everything?" He grumbles. "I don't know. A date, the beginning of the rest of your lives together. Take your pick. I'm no good with the romantic stuff."

The beginning of the rest of our lives...together. Calypso muses, smiling. I like that.

"Fine." She says out loud. "I'll wait for Leo to get off of this accursed island. But I won't wait for years-I've been here long enough. He can have till the winter solstice, but then, I'm going to bust myself out and go pick him up. Got it?"

Hephaestus nods. "Understood. I'll make sure to tell him...oh, sometime soon." Then, after glancing up at the sky, he leans forward and whispers in her ear. "As for the mirror-try adding immortality."

Then he pulls back and Calypso turns away as he reveals his true form-it wouldn't kill her to see it like it would a mortal, but it'd definitely scar her for life. No way does she want to see Hephaestus in his birthday suit-so to speak.

When she opens her eyes, he's gone-and she's alone again.

So, I've decided to start meditating. Today, actually. Just now, actually.

The reason for this is that I have continued trouble with the voices in my head (no, I'm not insane-I'm a writer. The voices are my characters.) Does anyone else here ever have that problem? Seriously, it's like all my characters I've ever created or written about are all crammed into a tiny cell (my brain) and they're all yelling at me, for various reasons. They are my muses (I have way more than nine) but they are very annoying.

So, in other words, my mind is a hectic, crazy place with ADHD thoughts that are impossible to keep in order. In the hope that it will calm these thoughts, I have decided to meditate. I'll tell you how it goes at a later date. :)

I love you, defend blue ice cream from all haters, don't listen to the voices (it depends on what they're saying, I suppose, but I listen, and I'm crazy), and stop to smell the roses!