[CHB] IC 1: The New Arrivals

[GrandDM]

Locations

Camp: see below for details on sublocations.
Areas of Camp

Climbing Wall (with rockfalls, lava and earthquakes)
Lake (containing naiads, used for canoeing)
The Big House (where Chiron and Mr. D live, councillor meetings
are held and anyone ill is kept)
The Pavilion (I think; I'll check that later) (where food is served)
The Arena (where combat training is held and evening campfires lit)
The 12 cabins (see the Gods entry below)
The Forest (containing various monsters, used for Capture the Flag)
The strawberry patches
The armoury
The basketball court
The racetrack
The archery range
The Pegasus stables


Questing: just put an appropriate tag ("x's quest", "quest for the x")
Olympus
************************************************** ***********
[Camp: The Border]
As any new arrivals stumble over the boundrary line, they are taken to the Big House. There, they will meet Chiron, the centaur trainer of heroes, and Mr. D (Dionysius), the wine god sentenced to oversee the camp for a century. They will be shown a video, explaining to them what being a demigod means, and then Chiron will take them on a tour. Finally, once the tour is done, he will leave you at the door of the Hermes cabin to meet your new cabinmates, at least until you're claimed.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan can be found in one of his usual spots between the cabins and the lake among a few trees, dressed in a standard issue T-shirt and belting out some Thad Jones (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fAg6u4j8dds) on a tenor saxophone.

[GrandDM]

Rick is nearby, doing pullups on a branch.

"Hey, Lan! Got anything with a solid beat to it? I need some workout music!" He calls out with a grin.

"51...52...53..."

[Deathkeeper]

Lan rolls his eyes.
"Just go easy on her, muscle kid. Those aren't grown with hanging demigods in mind."
He'll shift into a solo sax version of Green Onions. (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_bpS-cOBK6Q)
And despite the funk in it the tempo never really changes, so it IS a steady beat.

[GrandDM]

Lan rolls his eyes.
"Just go easy on her, muscle kid. Those aren't grown with hanging demigods in mind."
He'll shift into a solo sax version of Green Onions. (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_bpS-cOBK6Q)
And despite the funk in it the tempo never really changes, so it IS a steady beat.

Rick grins again, then removes one hand from the branch, does ten one-handed pull-ups, then switches to the other hand. After that, he flips upside-down, puts his legs over the branch and starts doing (I'm not actually sure what it's called... sit-ups? Crunches? Something like that, anyway) to the beat.

[Deathkeeper]

(Sit-ups make you extend yourself higher than crunches and therefore uses more muscle. At least those the labels used back in my schools)

Lan will eventually finish up and unbuckle the neck-strap.
"So, what's up with you? Any news?"

[Aric Kale]

Rick and Lan may feel a chill breeze pass by, soon followed by Colin, gliding on the air currents like a surfer on the waves. Hey guys! Oops, sorry, was I interrupting again?

[GrandDM]

Rick and Lan may feel a chill breeze pass by, soon followed by Colin, gliding on the air currents like a surfer on the waves. Hey guys! Oops, sorry, was I interrupting again?

Rick pauses at the top of a crunch-situp-thing and grins (he grins a lot).

"Nope. Just in the middle of my morning workout. How went the quest?"

[Deathkeeper]

Lan quirks an eyebrow as he starts packing up his instrument.
"You had a quest?"

[Aric Kale]

Colin shrugs sheepishly, I guess, it wasn't anything major. I was assigned to protect a satyr on his first retrieval, or whatever you call it. Nobody died, and we got the kid. So I suppose it went well. He doesn't look injured, apart from an easily missed bruise on his cheek.

[GrandDM]

Colin shrugs sheepishly, I guess, it wasn't anything major. I was assigned to protect a satyr on his first retrieval, or whatever you call it. Nobody died, and we got the kid. So I suppose it went well. He doesn't look injured, apart from an easily missed bruise on his cheek.

"Cool. Are they undetermined, or do we know who their parent is?"

[5a Violista]

Camp
Near the Lake

Roxanne, girl of 14 years old, sits, staring across the lake and playing her guitar. She's pretty good, and the music is very calming. The day is pretty nice, as well. Birds, a nice breeze, and everything else.


Near a Training Area

Melissa, on the other hand, doesn't have a guitar. She is, instead, stretching, to get ready to practice combat again. That's her favorite part.

((Is there anyone I can interact with?))

[Deathkeeper]

"Keeping my cousins safe, huh? Thanks, then. Sometimes it really makes the difference." Lan says.

[Aric Kale]

Colin smiles, obviously pleased with the recognition given by Lan. He turns to Rick, Hey, would you like to head down to the training ring?

[Felandria]

Zeus Cabin

Felandria bounds out of the cabin, excitedly.

Another beautiful day.

She then heads towards the training area to see if any of the kids need anything.

[5a Violista]

Camp - Training Area

Felandria will see Melissa there. She looks like she needs something. After all, who's going to tell her what she's doing wrong if she keeps on trying to do it by herself?

She looks like she's about to begin training, right now.

[Felandria]

Camp - Training Area

Felandria will see Melissa there. She looks like she needs something. After all, who's going to tell her what she's doing wrong if she keeps on trying to do it by herself?

She looks like she's about to begin training, right now.

Fel walks over to the girl and gently puts a hand on her shoulder.

Do you need anything, Melissa?

[Deathkeeper]

Near the Lake

Sometime after he talks to Rick and Colin, Lan finds and plops himself down next to Roxanne along with his instrument case.
"You're doing pretty well. A little shaky once and a while, though."

[5a Violista]

Near the Lake

Roxanne continues playing (albeit softer) as she responds to Lan. she nods, and says, “Thanks,“ she says. “It‘s much better playing with someone else.“(hint, hint)

Training Area

Melissa nods and answers without looking up. “Yes. I need to practice stealth, but I can‘t judge the right amound of silence versus speed by myself. To put it simply, I can‘t tell if I‘m too loud.“

[Aric Kale]

)(Sorry GDM, hadn't seen this on my phone.)(


"Cool. Are they undetermined, or do we know who their parent is?"

If we know, I wasn't made aware of it. Anyways, I'm heading off to the training area. At which point, Colin will invite Rick to join him as he walks away.

[Felandria]

Near the Lake

Roxanne continues playing (albeit softer) as she responds to Lan. she nods, and says, “Thanks,“ she says. “It‘s much better playing with someone else.“(hint, hint)

Training Area

Melissa nods and answers without looking up. “Yes. I need to practice stealth, but I can‘t judge the right amound of silence versus speed by myself. To put it simply, I can‘t tell if I‘m too loud.“

Alright then, I'll go into the woods, two minutes later, you come after me, I'll see if you can sneak up on me.

[GrandDM]

)(Sorry GDM, hadn't seen this on my phone.)(
If we know, I wasn't made aware of it. Anyways, I'm heading off to the training area. At which point, Colin will invite Rick to join him as he walks away.

((No worries.))

Rick joins him, grabbing two sturdy sticks from the ground on the way.

"I think I'll use these today - we don't want anybody getting hurt, now, do we?"

He shoots a sly grin sideways at Colin.

I'm assuming they'll meet Melissa when they enter the training area, in which case Rick will walk over to her.

"So, you standing around here for any particular reason, or did you just feel like pretending to be a statue?" he teases with a smile.

[Deathkeeper]

Near the Lake

"Yeah, an audience makes it easier sometimes." Lan says as he lays down on his back, legs crossed, one hoof waving ever so slightly to the tempo.

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

Anika Sunseri sat on the cool grass, looking up at the evening sky and the stars that were beginning to shine into existence overhead. She was beginning to make out the dips of Ursa Major and the jagged lines of Cassiopeia turning on in the sky above. This was her sky; it was nice to be back in the States after two long years living with her father in Japan, and three years before that stationed in Italy. Japan and Italy were cool, for sure, but those strange skies wasn't home.

Anika was still adjusting to life at this new camp where her father, Captain Sunseri, was stationed. For one thing, she had left her old tutor back in Japan, and that meant she was free from lessons until a new one was procured. That was fine with her. She'd rather learn things for herself; much better than listening to a balding man in an ancient suit drone on and on about world wars and mercantilism from some dusty textbook.

Soon she'd be back in those lessons, but for now she was free. She leaned back slowly until she was completely flat on the ground and her entire field of view was the sky above. She made out a single comet streaking across the evening sky; one of the late Perseids, shooting away from the constellation Perseus.

[Deathkeeper]

Army Base

Sometime later, Lan arrives in a jeep driven by a young person whose identity can be confirmed later at about nine in the morning. He leaves then to head home and presents his papers and such to the guards, et cetera.
He'll presumably be led to wherever Alika is at this time.
"Hello, you must be Alika. My name is Lan Baker, and I've been hired to help with your homeschooling. It's nice to meet you."
Lan appears as he does in his original description, clean-shaven (he thinks it's a stereotype that all satyrs rock goatees. Although he's considered trying it once he looks to be in his twenties) with bright green eyes. He's wearing a simple polo shirt with khaki cargo pants and a brown fedora with a gray band around it. Lan likes cargo pants. Too bad his fur makes them itch like hell. Regardless, under the Mist his ears look only slightly pointy, and his knees and legs twisted, resulting in him walking with a cane (which is not an unstrung bow what are you talking about).

[GrandDM]

Army Base

Sometime later, Lan arrives in a jeep driven by a young person whose identity can be confirmed later at about nine in the morning. He leaves then to head home and presents his papers and such to the guards, et cetera.
He'll presumably be led to wherever Alika is at this time.
"Hello, you must be Alika. My name is Lan Baker, and I've been hired to help with your homeschooling. It's nice to meet you."
Lan appears as he does in his original description, clean-shaven (he thinks it's a stereotype that all satyrs rock goatees. Although he's considered trying it once he looks to be in his twenties) with bright green eyes. He's wearing a simple polo shirt with khaki cargo pants and a brown fedora with a gray band around it. Lan likes cargo pants. Too bad his fur makes them itch like hell. Regardless, under the Mist his ears look only slightly pointy, and his knees and legs twisted, resulting in him walking with a cane (which is not an unstrung bow what are you talking about).

As he enters, his satyr nose will detect a whiff of monster scent.

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

Anika startles to her feet, brushing off the strands of grass that still cling to her gray pants.

"Oh! Father didn't tell me he had hired someone for my tutor yet!"

Her gaze gives Lan a once-over, and she's glad to see that her newest tutor isn't some dinosaur with a bad combover. Hopefully he'd be a bit more interesting than Mr. Ling, although one can never judge a book by its cover.

"It's Anika, though, not Alika, Mr. Baker, although it is a pleasure to meet you as well."

Anika speaks in the courteous, deferring tone that a military upbringing has taught her to use when conversing with her superiors.

"Will lessons begin this evening?"

[GrandDM]

Army Base

Anika startles to her feet, brushing off the strands of grass that still cling to her gray pants.

"Oh! Father didn't tell me he had hired someone for my tutor yet!"

Her gaze gives Lan a once-over, and she's glad to see that her newest tutor isn't some dinosaur with a bad combover. Hopefully he'd be a bit more interesting than Mr. Ling, although one can never judge a book by its cover.

"It's Anika, though, not Alika, Mr. Baker, although it is a pleasure to meet you as well."

Anika speaks in the courteous, deferring tone that a military upbringing has taught her to use when conversing with her superiors.

"Will lessons begin this evening?"

Her father marches in.

"No, they'll start now. You can learn something useful instead of staring at the sky."

[Deathkeeper]

Army Base

Lan frowns and pulls out a card from his pocket. He looks at it a moment before replacing it.
"Must have been a typo. Anyway, sure, where did you last leave off at?"

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

"Of course, Father."

She bows her head respectfully to her father, a habit picked up in Japan, before directing the rest of her speech to her new tutor.

"In history, I was covering the arrival of the Europeans in Latin America. Will I require anything in particular for the lesson, Mr. Baker?"

Her tone remains respectful and deferring, not betraying how much she'd rather be outside than cooped up learning about Cortes and his conquistadors.

[GrandDM]

Army Base

Lan frowns and pulls out a card from his pocket. He looks at it a moment before replacing it.
"Must have been a typo. Anyway, sure, where did you last leave off at?"

"Trigonometry."

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

Anika has to work a bit harder to keep her forced smile holding as her father spoke. Her history lessons might be dry, but at least they were based on things new and exciting to her, adventures and quests and danger. But trigonometry... it was just so boring. The concepts were simple, yet the chapters in the textbooks dragged on and on. Mr. Ling never had let her skip ahead or speed up the pace. Just the thought of those math lessons made her want to shudder, but she retained her composure, nodding her agreement to her father's words.

[Deathkeeper]

Army Base

Lan's face brightens. "Oh, math, that works fine. No, just a pad and pencil will probably suffice. Have you set up a space for us, Captain?"

[GrandDM]

Army Base

Lan's face brightens. "Oh, math, that works fine. No, just a pad and pencil will probably suffice. Have you set up a space for us, Captain?"

"Certainly. Right this way."

He leads the pair to a small building on the outskirts of the base. The monster scent is noticeably stronger here.

"Here's the schoolroom."

((Who's on escort detail for Lan?))

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

Anika pulls out a notebook and a pencil from the drawstring bag she carries with her, and flips to a page full of diagrams of triangles. The margins are full of doodles, swirls and symbols that tell a story for her and no one else. She flips the pages a few more times, past earlier lessons on trigonometry and circle trigonometry and sine waves and radians until she reaches a fresh sheet.

She looks attentively to her father and Lan now, waiting for further direction from either.

[Deathkeeper]

Army base

((If you mean who's keeping an eye on him, probably just some mooks. If you mean who's his backup, probably Fel or Rick since they're old enough to pose as drivers.))

"That will be all, Captain. I'll let you know if we need anything. And thank you." he says with a polite smile.

[GrandDM]

Army base

((If you mean who's keeping an eye on him, probably just some mooks. If you mean who's his backup, probably Fel or Rick since they're old enough to pose as drivers.))

"That will be all, Captain. I'll let you know if we need anything. And thank you." he says with a polite smile.

((Let's go with Rick, unless anyone objects - it will keep the scene moving.))

The captain closes the door.

"Not quite all, I'm afraid. You see, this building is right on the edge of the base. The walls are thick enough to block out a lot of sound... which means I've got you right where I want you."

He turns, and raises a hand to his face, pulling it away to reveal the sickening grin of a dracaena. The rest of the skin and uniform drops to the ground, and it lunges, claws outstretched!

Rick, who was following at a distance, is waiting outside and doesn't hear a thing.

[Haleyintraining]

Anika's eyes go wide with shock, and the cogs turn wildly in her head, trying to make sense of the scene she sees before her, but to no avail. She's frozen to the spot, terrified.

Is she asleep? This doesn't feel like any dream she's ever known, but do you know you're dreaming before you wake? The logic seemed to fit with a dream... things that didn't make sense that she hadn't questioned at the time. Suddenly she had a new tutor out of nowhere, a tutor her father had never mentioned before he arrived. Her father had acted quite hostile towards her; he was a serious person, but he loved Anika and wouldn't say such things about her hobbies lightly. It was he who had sat with Anika on warm nights in Italy, pointing out the tail of Draco arching across the sky.

So she must be dreaming. After that was decided in her brain, a matter that took no more than a few seconds, her body kicked back into action and she dived behind the school house desk.

[Deathkeeper]

Army Base

Lan pivots and steps, letting the monster fly past him, smiling.
"Fastest rescue op ever!"
Normally it takes weeks for him to get close to a half-blood, proceed to be alone with them, and inevitably get attacked by monsters. Now he doesn't have to give that math lesson!
...okay, he definitely would have diverted the subject to Greek history or biology anyway.
His expression darkens a bit as he kicks off his false feet, twirling his staff into a defensive stance.
"I should ask what you did with her real father, though."
Now that s-'s gotten real Anika might start to notice his hooves and how his legs bend in a much more natural way than she saw before, just not a human way, and his ears, which until I'm corrected by specific lore I'm going to assume are shaped like a goat's like many interpretations.

[5a Violista]

Camp - Near the Lake

Roxanne laughs. "No, I meant someone else playing along."

The relaxing song has a tempo shift, and the melody shifts to be some popular song that everybody knows, and whoever doesn't know it is probably missing out on everything in life. "Come on, I'm sure you know this song." It looks like she's about to sing as well as play.


Camp - Training Area

Melissa nods at Fel, and stands there, waiting for the two minutes to go by.

When Rick and Colin arrive, Melissa responds. "Well, yes," she says, only looking at them briefly. (I figure that's par for her - in the whole year that Melissa has been here, she has only rarely and briefly looked people in the eyes. :smallconfused: Except during combat training.)

"You see, I've been cursed by a hideous monster to be made of stone for the rest of my life, until my Prince Charming comes along and saves me," she says with an absolutely straight face, keeping track of the amount of time left before she goes and searches for Fel. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven...

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

From behind the desk, Anika surveyed the action unfolding before her.

Was her new tutor... were his legs... was he a goat? What were they called, those mythological half-goat things... centaurs? No, that's for horses...

She really had to stop stargazing before she slept. Mythology was meddling with her brain.

[GrandDM]

Army Base

Lan pivots and steps, letting the monster fly past him, smiling.
"Fastest rescue op ever!"
Normally it takes weeks for him to get close to a half-blood, proceed to be alone with them, and inevitably get attacked by monsters. Now he doesn't have to give that math lesson!
...okay, he definitely would have diverted the subject to Greek history or biology anyway.
His expression darkens a bit as he kicks off his false feet, twirling his staff into a defensive stance.
"I should ask what you did with her real father, though."
Now that s-'s gotten real Anika might start to notice his hooves and how his legs bend in a much more natural way than she saw before, just not a human way, and his ears, which until I'm corrected by specific lore I'm going to assume are shaped like a goat's like many interpretations.

"Oh, her father's fine... but if you want to see him again, girl, you'd better come with me!"

The door slams open, and Rick backs in, twin swords out and flying, hacking through several more dracaenae that are chasing him. The one in his right hand gleams red, and the one in his left is wreathed in wisps of black mist.

"Hey, Lan, things just got - OHHHKAY!"

He narrowly avoids having his throat taken out by the draecana posing as Anika's father, limbo-ing backwards to avoid the flying claw, then neatly lopping his head off while impaling another one with his other hand. They both crumble to dust.

"Kid, get over here. Lan, take the rear. I can open a hole, but it won't last long."

There are a whole load of spears and tridents jabbing at him, but Rick parries most and avoids those that he can't.



Camp - Training Area

Melissa nods at Fel, and stands there, waiting for the two minutes to go by.

When Rick and Colin arrive, Melissa responds. "Well, yes," she says, only looking at them briefly. (I figure that's par for her - in the whole year that Melissa has been here, she has only rarely and briefly looked people in the eyes. :smallconfused: Except during combat training.)

"You see, I've been cursed by a hideous monster to be made of stone for the rest of my life, until my Prince Charming comes along and saves me," she says with an absolutely straight face, keeping track of the amount of time left before she goes and searches for Fel. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven...

Rick spreads his arms wide, his customary grin spread across his face.

"Well, wait no longer! I'm right here!"

[Deathkeeper]

Army Base

Lan goes over to one of the discarded shoes and pulls out a bowstring he had secreted in the foam before placing them both in his pockets. No need to leave behind evidence. He starts stringing the bow.
"Darn it, Rick! If you weren't so delicious it might have been a whole five minutes before they blew your cover! You might have had a new personal record!"
He then rolls up his pants well exposing his goat legs...along with the stash of arrows he got past the metal detectors as his "leg braces."
"Let's rock."

Near the lake

"Aww but then I'd have to get uupp." he whines sarcastically. He'll sing duet with her, though.

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

Anika cautiously comes out from behind the desk. Well, if she was going to have such an insanely exciting dream, might as well just go with it instead of wasting her slumber hiding behind a desk. It's not like such lucid dreams really came around that often, and who knew when she was going to wake up.

"I don't believe we've met..?"

Normally she would be more passive amongst strangers, but she was emboldened by the fact she thought none of what she was experiencing was truly real.

[GrandDM]

"Just because you aren't as good-looking as me, Lan... I'm Rick, by the way. Excuse me one moment."

He ducks, allowing a trident strike to go past his head, then grabs it and pulls, slamming the draecena on the other end into her fellows, causing them all to stumble. Standing up, he kicks one of them, sending all of them sprawling. He sheaths his left-hand sword into one of the twin scabbards crossed on his back, grabs Anika's arm and drags her out of the door, pulling her towards the fence that runs around the perimeter.

"Come on, Lan!"

The draecenae scrabble to their feet as fast as they can, taking off in pursuit of the three.

[Deathkeeper]

Army Base

"Like Tarturus I'm not! You have any idea how many times I've convinced rescuees of my good intentions with my face alone? More than you, I'd imagine, and I have goat ears! Even if they don't fully notice them it takes some serious hotness to compensate."
He says all of this of course while trotting backwards and picking off the few beasties dumb enough to leave their heads and vital organs exposed for more than two seconds.
Also of note is that Lan rarely used bawdy humor like that, it's just that Rick makes it really hard not to.

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

Anika is vaguely perturbed; is that what her subconscious thinks about? Boys (and goat-boys) debating their own hotness?

She allows herself to be pulled along, having no idea where they were going herself. She was just along for the ride, she supposed.

[GrandDM]

Army Base

Anika is vaguely perturbed; is that what her subconscious thinks about? Boys (and goat-boys) debating their own hotness?

She allows herself to be pulled along, having no idea where they were going herself. She was just along for the ride, she supposed.

As they reach the fence, Rick slashes at it with his sword, parting the reinforced metal links like paper. He pushes Anika through, then comes after her. He waits for Lan to get through the hole, then wrenches the links together and pulls a portable welding torch from his backpack, running it quickly up and down the links to seal them. As the draecenae reach the fence, he shuts off the torch and steps back, returning it to his pack and drawing his second sword again. The monsters hiss and claw at the fence, but can't break through it. Some break off and start looking for another way out.

"Come on. I arranged emergency transport before we left."

Assuming nothing else unexpected happens, he'll lead the group across a couple of fields and into a small copse, where two pegasi are grazing. He leaps up onto one and pulls Anika up behind him, then grins at Lan.

"Mount up, fuzzy."

[Deathkeeper]

Army Base

Admittedly, hot members of their preferred gender kicking bad dude butt is a common dream among teenagers. Although maybe in an actual dream they would have been shirtless and human.
"Are you kidding me? All natural seats! Way better than that stupid truck. Which smelled terrible, by the way. Take us up, buddy!" he says patting his steed, who he's probably grazed with a few times.

Once in the air he'll take a moment to adjust his pants so his tail can stick out and not be wrapped uncomfortably around his waist.

[Haleyintraining]

Army Base

"I don't suppose I should tell my Father that I'm leaving..?"

Anika's voice is still filled with the nonchalance of not believing her current situation to be true. When she realizes that it is, her calm is likely to shatter, but for now she's completely at ease with her imaginary buttkicking boys aboard a pegasus. Pegasi weren't something that would be completely out-there to feature in her dreams - after all, she was quite familiar with a different pegasus, swooping down to allow Perseus to rescue Andromeda from the cliff of her mother's folly.

[GrandDM]

Well, all pegasi are descended from that Pegasus, who's immortal.

They take off, soaring through the night sky.

"Anika... your father is dead."

[Deathkeeper]

Skies

"Well, we- wait, what? Are you sure, Rick? Infiltrators don't often kill important people. Draws too much attention and loses them bargaining chips."

[Haleyintraining]

Skies

"WHAT?!"

Anika's quirky, bizarre, but altogether fun dream had just popped into a nightmare. She'd had just about enough of this. She squeezed her eyes tight, hoping to wake up, hoping to be able to open her eyes in her own bed and go out to the common room to see her Father, prim and proper in his uniform. But no luck. All that existed beneath her eyelids was the image of that creature tearing off his skin.

[GrandDM]

"Well, Lan, where do you think the disguise came from? Draecanae don't have the power to shapeshift or veil themselves... and if it was a veil, it would have dissipated. If it was a shapeshift, it would be gone. The disguise dropped. Crumpled. There's only one explanation for that.

Besides, things have been hotting up on the monster front recently. You must have noticed - how many attacks have we had in the past couple of months? Do you really think that amount of monsters is normal for a retrieval? There's something up at the moment."

[Deathkeeper]

Skies

"Draekes are also crazy reptiles with inhuman features, so for it to look convincing there was doctoring or magic involved anyway, which could have a hundred methods. More importantly give hundred feet up is not the place for this conversation!"

[Haleyintraining]

"Mr. Baker, we've got to go back!"

Anika's tone is pleading and insistent, although attempting to keep her emotion restrained under her propriety. An icy feeling was building in the back of her spine, a tingle that licked up her back and into her mind: what if you're not dreaming?

It was impossible. This was impossible. But now that the doubt was in her head, she had no way to shake it. It chiseled its way into her mind, burrowing deeper and deeper, until her vision swam and the world blurred so far away beneath her.

[GrandDM]

"Go back? We'd die. The monsters would probably get us - you can be sure they've called in reinforcements by now - and even if we didn't, Lan and I would be arrested for kidnapping you. Even if that all went well, more and more monsters would show up. They can smell demigods, and if you don't come to camp, you'll just get attacked over and over until they kill you - which, given that they're invulnerable to mortal weapons, won't take very long."

[Deathkeeper]

Skies

Lan makes a motion to Rick to make it apparent his passenger may need watching to avoid falling off.
"We're a rescue team, not an assault force. I have two arrows left and they have a whole base they've overrun. We're just lucky they're too dumb to figure out firearms. If he's alive on this earth we can find him Anika, but we can't commit suicide now looking."

[Haleyintraining]

Skies

"Wait, what? I don't understand."

Anika's head feels even fuzzier now, and she blinks repeatedly, trying to clear her mind. It's becoming more obvious that she isn't dreaming, but... she must be dreaming. She tries to think rationally about her situation, but it's difficult for her to comprehend.

"Can you just..." She fumbles for words. "Explain?"

Then, as an afterthought, "Please?"

[Beans]

[Hermes Cabin]
Neiz (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15834844&postcount=9) comes out of the Hermes Cabin, her (frankly ludicrous) hair swishing in the wind as she stretches, rose-pink eyes bright (at least, the one not hidden by her hair is). She heard there were going to be newbies soon, and newbies are always so interesting! New bonds to make, new motivations and fears to learn. She glances down, adjusting her neckline down juuuust a bit---after all, enticement is just one of many ways to get people off guard, and that's when you find out what makes them tick.

Pulling out her folding fan, she gently wafts herself, doing a practice eyelash-flutter---gotta keep in practice.

[Deathkeeper]

skies

((Gonna take this since GDM won't be on for a while and Lan is the social one anyway))
"Anika, those creatures came to kill you, no one else, because of your heritage. Your mom. We're taking you to a safe place where you can stay without having to worry about them. And since it's hidden, human authorities don't know about it so we're technically kidnapping you, which is why we do this in secret. Most of the time we only deal with actual people for at least a while on rescues."

[Haleyintraining]

Skies

"What does my mom have to do with any of this? She's..."

Gone? Dead? Anika didn't know how to finish her sentence. It was an unspoken rule between the Sunseris: You didn't talk about Anika's mother.

"...she never knew me," Anika finished weakly.

Thinking of the past wasn't going to get her anywhere. The long-past, or the recent events that had just transpired in the base's schoolroom. She couldn't think about it. Instead, she changed the topic.

"What is this safe place?"

[Deathkeeper]

Skies

"Your mom has everything to do with it. But let's not drop those bombs at five hundred feet up.
And we're going to Camp Half-Blood. It's where kids like you live when their heritage starts to manifest and we need to keep them safe from, well, a lot of things and after we can get them out of their current lives safely. That's usually up to my people and the occasional guy like Rich. Actually Chiron has helped out once or twice when we needed an adult. It's usually because we smell like animals and not what they're looking for. Still kind of odd that the people with animal butts are the chief human infiltrators."
Lan is getting off subject to try and distract her a bit.

[Haleyintraining]

Skies

"I... see. So, what are you exactly, if not a mathematics tutor?"

A furry... animal-butted mathematics tutor. Anika got to admit, he was still one-up on Mr. Ling.

[Deathkeeper]

Woods

He's only half-fuzzy, you know.
"Oh, I'm a satyr." he says, grinning and taking off his hat to let his horns show.
"and I totally would have gotten you onto a different subject. Math isn't my best subject when it comes to keeping it interesting."

[Haleyintraining]

Woods

"Oh?"

There is nothing Anika likes better than interesting subjects.

"Such as..?"

[Deathkeeper]

Skies, Because LDK forgot Which thread he was posting in Last Time

"Oh, biology, Greek history, *cough* "mythology." Anything that doesn't require too much reading, since I thought you might be dyslexic."
Demigods are usually dyslexic.

[Haleyintraining]

Skies

Anika looks at him strangely, surprised he knows that about her.

"I am, but I've been homeschooled all my life so I've had lots of special training to try and compensate. I've always loved stories too much to bear not being able to read, although by this point I think if I hear the words 'graphemes', 'phonemes', or 'phonological awareness' one more time I will scream."

Anika suddenly remembered what the satyr had said before the word 'dyslexic', and she smiles excitedly.

"Mythology?"

[Felandria]

Camp - Near the Lake

Roxanne laughs. "No, I meant someone else playing along."

The relaxing song has a tempo shift, and the melody shifts to be some popular song that everybody knows, and whoever doesn't know it is probably missing out on everything in life. "Come on, I'm sure you know this song." It looks like she's about to sing as well as play.


Camp - Training Area

Melissa nods at Fel, and stands there, waiting for the two minutes to go by.

When Rick and Colin arrive, Melissa responds. "Well, yes," she says, only looking at them briefly. (I figure that's par for her - in the whole year that Melissa has been here, she has only rarely and briefly looked people in the eyes. :smallconfused: Except during combat training.)

"You see, I've been cursed by a hideous monster to be made of stone for the rest of my life, until my Prince Charming comes along and saves me," she says with an absolutely straight face, keeping track of the amount of time left before she goes and searches for Fel. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven...

Fel makes her way through the woods, eventually settling on a spot with a decent gap between trees, which should give Melissa an appropriate challenge.

[Deathkeeper]

Skies

"Yeah, sometimes kids just don't know their heritage, so it's a lot easier to be safe and explain to them what satyrs are before they catch me with my pants off. Which I'm warning you now is going to happen as soon as we land because if you think wool or fur coats are hot and itchy just try having one naturally and pants on top of that. Ugh"
He scratches his calf, annoyed.

[Aric Kale]

Training Area

Colin simply follows behind Rick, letting him deal with the conversations and such.
It's not that he didn't like people, he just wasn't completely comfortable with the English language and the way it's supposed to be used...
Despite the fact that he's been at camp for about five years now.

[Beans]

[Hermes Cabin > Training Area]
Neiz heads over to see if anyone's training; it's fun to watch people train, for several reasons.

[Haleyintraining]

Skies

"Is it all true, then? Not just pegasi and satyrs, but all of it?"

Anika thought about all the stories she knew about the sky, all the myths and legends. Andromeda on the cliff. Pan and Typhon. Ganymede and Aquila. Were they as real as the stuffy history lessons she sat through with Mr. Ling, as true as Cortes and the Conquistadores?

[Deathkeeper]

Skies

Lan considers it.
"A lot of it, at least. That one about Chiron dying is at least partially bogus, since he didn't."

[Haleyintraining]

Skies

Anika nods. Honestly, she doubts that everything that is considered legitimate history actually happened exactly how the books say. Still, even if all the legends aren't 100% accurate... the fact that they are true in any degree is just... amazing.

"How far are we away? From the camp?"

[Deathkeeper]

skies

"Should be pretty close. Hey Rick, is that it over there?"
Lan points, so GDM can get back in the conversation because oh heck did we post without him a lot. Sorry bro, my OCD acts up with this stuff.

[5a Violista]

Camp - Near the Lake

The song is rockin'! If there was an audience, they would be pleading for encores.

After it's finished, Roxanne stops with the guitar. "Well, that was fun," she says.


Camp - Training Area

Melissa doesn't respond to Rick's jest. She should have at least laughed, though. That was pretty funny.

Five...four... She finishes counting aloud, just under her breath. "Three...two...one."

Without looking back, Melissa rockets off towards where she thinks Fel went. (Rick and Colin can follow her if they want.) Despite going so fast, she is rather quiet - stealthy enough that, if Fel didn't know Melissa was coming, she probably could write it off as just her imagination.

Upon finding Fel's hiding-spot, Melissa approaches her, trying to be as stealthy as possible. However, she's just too impatient. I'm sure that, if she was more patient, she would be better at it. She just moves a tad too fast and didn't wait long enough for the right moment to sneak up on her.

[Felandria]

Camp - Near the Lake

The song is rockin'! If there was an audience, they would be pleading for encores.

After it's finished, Roxanne stops with the guitar. "Well, that was fun," she says.


Camp - Training Area

Melissa doesn't respond to Rick's jest. She should have at least laughed, though. That was pretty funny.

Five...four... She finishes counting aloud, just under her breath. "Three...two...one."

Without looking back, Melissa rockets off towards where she thinks Fel went. (Rick and Colin can follow her if they want.) Despite going so fast, she is rather quiet - stealthy enough that, if Fel didn't know Melissa was coming, she probably could write it off as just her imagination.

Upon finding Fel's hiding-spot, Melissa approaches her, trying to be as stealthy as possible. However, she's just too impatient. I'm sure that, if she was more patient, she would be better at it. She just moves a tad too fast and didn't wait long enough for the right moment to sneak up on her.

Quick as a flash, Felandria turns to Melissa as she approaches.

Hello.

Honey, you need to focus when sneaking up on someone, it's not something you can rush into.

[GrandDM]

Rescue Mission

"Yes, that's camp."

Rick puts his pegasus into a steep dive, swooping gracefully down into the stables. He lowers Anika down, jumps off himself, and puts his pegasus into one of the compartments.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, the only safe place on Earth for children of the Greek gods."

He walks back over to Anika.

"You never knew your mother, because she was a Greek goddess. All of us here -except the satyrs - are the children of gods. When I was eight, I found out that my dad was Ares, god of war. We don't yet know who your mother is, so you'll be staying in the Hermes cabin until you get claimed."

He turns more serious.

"Our director is known as Mr. D. You can guess what that stands for, I hope. He was sent here by Zeus as punishment. Do not rise to anything he says or does, because there's nothing he enjoys more than riling us up and punishing us for it.

Anyway -" his usual grin reasserts itself - "Once you've settled in, you'll start lessons. I'll be training you in combat - everyone learns combat here. As for your other lessons, those will be determined after a few days, when there's been time for a better judgement of your capabilities."



Camp - Training Area

Melissa doesn't respond to Rick's jest. She should have at least laughed, though. That was pretty funny.

Five...four... She finishes counting aloud, just under her breath. "Three...two...one."

Without looking back, Melissa rockets off towards where she thinks Fel went. (Rick and Colin can follow her if they want.) Despite going so fast, she is rather quiet - stealthy enough that, if Fel didn't know Melissa was coming, she probably could write it off as just her imagination.

Upon finding Fel's hiding-spot, Melissa approaches her, trying to be as stealthy as possible. However, she's just too impatient. I'm sure that, if she was more patient, she would be better at it. She just moves a tad too fast and didn't wait long enough for the right moment to sneak up on her.

Rick leans over to Colin.

"Look, it worked!"

[Haleyintraining]

Stables

It's a lot for Anika to take in, but it's not as if she can get much more shocked than riding a pegasus away from an army camp after being chased by monsters, then learning that her father was dead.

The one thing Anika does catch on is 'settled in'.

"All my things are back home though, clothes and the like."

All Anika has with her is what she's wearing - gray pants, a lilac sweater, and running shoes - as well as whatever she keeps in her drawstring bag.

[Deathkeeper]

Stables

Lan hops off his mount and, true to his word, immediately goes commando. He sends his pegasus back to his stall and goes over, stretching his legs out a bit.
"We keep clothes around for everyone. Don't worry about it. One of my cousins once ended up with a trio of half-bloods from Washington. After a trip like that no one had much to carry."

Near the Lake

"Mhmm. Was mostly you, though. My voice isn't great."
Lan's singing voice really isn't fantastic. I mean, it's a lot better than you'd expect from someone who can't laugh without bleating a little bit, but he wouldn't be making any all-county chorus recitals anytime soon.

[Beans]

[Stables]
A girl (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15834844&postcount=9), around 17, starts coming up the path toward the satyr and new girl; her long hair streams in the slight breeze like a pastel rainbow and she gives a wiggly-fingered wave.
Hey Lan, I see we've got our newbie! Her attention focuses on Anika. Hiya cutie, what's your name?

[GrandDM]

Stables
"Like Lan said - we can provide all the stuff you need. Camp Half-Blood has been here for a long time. Now, if you'll excuse me for a minute, I need to get out of this army gear."

He strides off in the direction of twelve cabins, arranged in a U-shape. Disappearing inside one, he emerges about a minute later in his normal outfit, walking back to the stables. He's now barefoot and topless, wearing only a pair of shorts. He's tanned and very muscular, and although he has a good few scars, they don't detract from his looks. His twin swords are, as ever, in their crossed scabbards strapped to his back.

"Oh, hey Neiz."

Apart from that greeting, he pays minimal attention to her. He knows all about how she manipulates people, and doesn't have time for it.

((Posting order now Hayley, LDK, Beans, me

Also, I can't be on for as long as usual tonight. I don't know exactly how much time I've got, but I highly doubt it will be more than an hour.))

[Haleyintraining]

Stables

Alright, Anika could get a tad more shocked, as evidenced by the arrival of the older girl. Growing up an army daughter, she'd never seen someone with such... flamboyant a hairdo. And pink eyes... Anika suddenly felt extremely out of place. Were all demi-gods like this? Rick might not have chartreuse locks, but he was an even more imposing figure than most of the young army men she'd known growing up. Her eyes flashed down to catch the fringes of her own sensibly shoulder-length brown hair; she was completely ordinary. Lan and Rick must have made a mistake... she didn't belong here.

Despite her inner turmoil, she maintained a polite, respectful demeanor as she spoke.

"Anika Sunseri. And you're Neiz?"

[Deathkeeper]

Stables

"That she is. An odd name, though. Some people pronounce it 'trouble.' Funny how people are, huh Neiz? This isn't the time, please."
Lan has nothing against people and their odd ambitions, but the last thing he needs is someone like that dealing with the out-of-place, grief-stricken newbie.

[GrandDM]

Stables

Rick leans over and whispers in Anika's ear, low enough that Neiz can't hear it - "Daughter of Styx. Her powers are to do with pacts and deals, as well as social situations. She's manipulative. Be careful around her."

[Beans]

[Stables]
Neiz frowns, toying with a pale green strand of hair.
Is it really so hard to believe I just want to greet a new camper? Fine, fine, I'll find somewhere with fewer sticks in the mud. She glances at Rick as he whispers to the newbie, then gives the brunette another wave before she turns to trot off. See you 'round, doll!

[AnimeKid]

Stables

As she is leaving Niez would run smack into Yu who was coming to see what the commotion was about. Having turned a corner that prompted the soft collision Yu looked down with a slightly surprised look on his face. "Hm? Oh Neiz. Pardon me, didn't mean to bump into you." With a small polite bow he moved out of her way and moved forward to Rick, Lan, and Anika.

He slightly adjusts his glasses which had slid down his nose in the collision as he regards the new demigod. "Welcome back Lan, Rick. I'm guessing this is the new girl then? With polite bow he says, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Yu Narukami. It's a nice to meet you."

If Anika was observent she would find that Yu's expression barely changed while he was talking.

Training Grounds

A little ways off from Fel and Melissa's position they would hear loud battle cries and the sound of what they could guess were fists slamming into wood and cracking it. Sounds like Kanji was at it again.

Is okay? Cause if I'm right there is a slight time disparity between the two locations correct?

[Haleyintraining]

Stables

Anika nods in response to Rick's warning, and puts it in her mind to remember for later.

The new boy seems polite enough, Anika judges, although something about him seems a bit eerie (not to mention his hair is also of an interesting hue). That said, he reminds Anika of some of the boys who lived with her on the base in Japan, and that sets her a bit more at ease.

"I'm Anika. It's a pleasure, Yu."

She gives the boy a slight bow.

[AnimeKid]

Stables

Yu nods to her as a slight smile works it's way onto his face, he was possibly about to make a new friend."I hope your transition was a safe one. If you ever need anything you can ask me and I'll do my best to help. Just knock on the Zues cabin door and either I or my half-sister Felandria should answer."

Yu raises his hand to his chin as he expression changes fully for the first time to one of thought. "Actually if Lan and Rick don't mind, and you as well of course, I could help show you around. Would that be agreeable?"

[Beans]

[Stables > Lake]
First Lan has to be anti-fun, then she gets bumped into... bleh. Neiz decides to head down by the lake, since it's nice there---she does have an affinity for water, after all.

[5a Violista]

Camp - Training Area

Oh, no! She was caught!

As soon as Melissa was caught, she immediately feels frustrated, like she wants to just punch a rock or something. Unfortunately, that would hurt, so she just has a cry of frustration instead.

After a deep, calming breath, Melissa says, "Okay. Thanks. Now I know what I need to - "

She cuts off her sentence upon hearing Kanji cracking wood. Are the trees alright? "Do you think we should see if everything's alright?" she asks Fel. Anything to run off and take another breather.


Camp - Near the Lake

"Well, thanks," replies Roxanne to Lan's compliment. "But, seriously, I think you should start up a band and sell CDs all over the place every time you go out on missions to bring people back. You'd be famous! I'll even be your lead guitarist. It would be the perfect cover."

Is she being serious or is she joking? Only she knows for sure. Let's end this scene, though, before some temporal-spacial paradoxes occur where someone runs into two of a certain lovable satyr in the same hour.

[Felandria]

Camp - Training Area

Oh, no! She was caught!

As soon as Melissa was caught, she immediately feels frustrated, like she wants to just punch a rock or something. Unfortunately, that would hurt, so she just has a cry of frustration instead.

After a deep, calming breath, Melissa says, "Okay. Thanks. Now I know what I need to - "

She cuts off her sentence upon hearing Kanji cracking wood. Are the trees alright? "Do you think we should see if everything's alright?" she asks Fel. Anything to run off and take another breather.


Right behind you.

Felandria follows Melissa towards the sound.

[Aric Kale]

So many people at the Training Grounds. It's to be expected, of course, but Colin doesn't exactly know how to react. He settles for awkwardly laughing at Rick's joke, waving to Kanji and grabbing the most spear-like stick.

[Deathkeeper]

Stables

Lan pauses for a moment. I mean geez, flying horses were pretty visible but did everyone stop to say hi?
"I don't know, Yu. An escort of three's a bit much for showing around someone new, but you can come if you want. Just expect to be bored when we have to take some time to report in to the bosses."

[GrandDM]

Stables

"I agree with Lan - three is too many. Also, things didn't exactly go to plan, and the military will be hunting for us. That means I'm going to have a difficult time moving around outside camp, and Mr. D is going to be angry. Someone needs to get to the Big House and explain things as fast as possible, before he finds out for himse-"

"Oh, I already have."

A pudgy man in a leopard-print shirt ambles over. On close inspection, his feet hover about an inch above the ground. He's drinking a Diet Coke.

"So this is the new girl, Anita. Well, I'm sure you'll prove as useful as the rest - a snort attests that he doesn't think that that means much use at all -and as for Hick and Ham, I think a month cleaning toilets should be appropriate punishment."

He smirks, his purple eyes glittering with amusement.

"With respect, sir, it could have gone a lot worse. The draecenae would have attacked no matter what once they knew Anika was being moved, and you'll notice that none of us are hurt, which is more than would have happened if most other retrieval teams had taken this operation."

The man snorts.

"Oh please, don't flatter yourself. Just because I was cursed to oversee this dreadful place by Zeus doesn't mean I have to listen to every whine you have. Any more complaints from you or the satyr, and I'll make it two months. As much as I hate to say it, you're the best fighter we've got, and you need to learn to keep a low profile."

Training Grounds

Rick brings up his two sticks into a guard position, and nods at Colin.

"Let's go."

[Beans]

[Near Lake]
Neiz spies Roxannne and starts to watch the younger girl from a distance, though she does a decent job of making it look like she's eying a few nymphs nearby.

[Haleyintraining]

Stables

Anika knows Mr. D's type; that kind is all too common in the upper echelons of the military, and therefore she's had many years to learn how to exhibit the proper behaviour so as not to incur their wrath. That, of course, means she makes no mention of the fact that her name is really Anika, not Anita, and she stands respectfully until given further instructions.

[Deathkeeper]

"Yes, sir. Whatever you say, sir."
It should be noted that this happens with almost every operation, and almost every time Lan serves less than half because either Chiron points out it was impossible to do better or D just decides he'd rather use him as a servant like he does with all the satyrs. So he's not worried.
"Military shouldn't be a problem, Rick. They've been on manhunts for our kids before, and they'll be looking for their captain first. Officers and all that. And the monsters will probably clear out now, so they'll have to have a whole investigation of how so many troops vanished.
Oh and by the way sir, these guys were way too prepared. There was enough of 'em that there wasn't enough humans around to mask or scents. If anyone else is heading out they should be warned; my little cousins won't stand a chance against that."
He's very careful not to make that argument about himself.

[GrandDM]

((I was planning to have Chiron intervene anyway :smalltongue:))

Dionysus raises an eyebrow.

"Really? How fascinating. I suppose we'll have to increase the guard on missions, then. With any luck, all of you will get yourselves killed and I'll be free."

He shakes his head, and ambles away.

Rick frowns at Lan's words.

"I suppose. My major worry is that they'll blame us for the captain's death after finding the skin, but we did the best we could."

He looks over to Anika.

"Come on, I'll take you down to the Hermes cabin and introduce you to your cabinmates. Lan, you might want to go talk to Chiron and get him to intervene with Mr. D."

[Deathkeeper]

Lan shakes his head.
"I should anyway. We'll need better tactics, and there's few better than him for that. And most of the ones who are better are your parents, who probably have bigger issues."
And he'll go to do that, knocking gently on the big lodge's door if the centaur isn't outside. And checking his usual spots if he's not there.

[GrandDM]

Big House Porch

Chiron opens the door. "Ah, Lan. What can I do for you?"

[Deathkeeper]

Big House

Lan smiles. "Afternoon, sir. Wanted to report in. Job went sideways. Everyone got out, but there were way too many Draekes* to keep quiet. Thought you should know so we can restructure the teams a bit, since I'm quite sure Mr. D won't be giving them much tactical advice. Oh, and I think Rick wanted me to ask about getting us out of latrine duty. Again."
That's the closest he's come to an actual complaint.
*a common slang shortening for Draecenae.

[GrandDM]

Big House Porch

"Again? Mr. D. really does seem to have it in for you, even more so than everyone else. I'll have a word with him. As for the teams, I suggest one satyr with one permanent escort, to be with him at all times, and an additional demigod to provide a scout and possibly backup. Teams should be arranged according to combinations of abilities - Rick, for example, is good in a fight but doesn't have any powers that allow him to escape quickly. Thus, he should be paired with a demigod who perhaps can't fight quite as well, but has more mobility."

[Deathkeeper]

Big House

"Much obliged, sir. I think some situations might call for different ideas, but it's otherwise a good idea. There are times where stealth is still viable, and three people might draw too much attention, which is where some item or two or sending demigods with less powerful and noticable bloodlines might work better. But that's just my two pence, as they say."

[GrandDM]

Big House Porch

"Good point. Anyway, I have work to do, so if you'll excuse me..."

He smiles, backs inside and shuts the door.

[AnimeKid]

Stables

Yu looks on the situation sliently as he conteplates both peoples inputs and remains confused. "Wait, so do I buzz off or help if I want to? I'm getting two different signals here." As Lan heads off in one direction and Anika and Rick head off in another direction. Yu sighs as he heads off to find something to do. Another failed attempt.

Training grounds

Everyone would come across Kanji performing mock CQC against a couple of wooden training dummies. He looks like he just got here, yet the training dummies look like they have already taken a good beating. Getting the feeling that other people have come he takes a look as he says, "Huh? Oh it's you guys. Did ya need somethin'?"

[Haleyintraining]

Stables

Anika has spent the time during the conversation listening, trying to ascertain the situation in which she's found herself and the characters in play. She's glad when Mr. D leaves, but Lan's departure is a bit of a discomfort; he was the one keeping her from feeling lost. Still, she has Rick, and she nods agreeably at his offer to show her to her cabin. Hopefully her cabinmates are a bit less intimidating than most of the characters she's met thus far...

[Aric Kale]

)(I think Colin would pair well with Lan and Rick. Anyways, his character would be most comfortable with them.)(
Training Grounds

Colin slashes the air in front of him in a left to right diagonal slash "\". This should create a windwave which comes flying towards Rick.

[Deathkeeper]

Big House

Lan will go to meet up with Rick and Anika and should arrive within a few posts unless someone interrupts him.

[5a Violista]

Training Grounds

Melissa sighs upon seeing only Kanji and a bunch of beat-up dummies. Trying to save fqce, she says, “Look, it‘s not like I was worried, or anything. It‘s just that I wanted to make sure the practice dummies were still alive. I can see that they are, so I guess that means I can go.“

She turns towards Fel, and thanks her for her help, before walking towards her cabin, the Hermes Cabin.

((Since I‘ll be out of town for the week, please don‘t try to talk to her until Saturday; you‘ll just be stuck until I get back.))
However, when Anika arrives at the cabin, Melissa will give a friendly welcome to her new cabinmate. She finds the military fascinating, so I‘m sure they‘ll have a lot to talk about at night before Lights Out. Melissa is mostly normal and friendly, so that‘s a plus. The only abnormal things about her are that she refuses to talk about her family and deity-parent, and she almost refuses to make eye-contact.


Near the Lake
The lake seems to be Roxanne‘s customary place to play her guitar.
((As with Melissa, please don‘t communicate with Roxanne unless you don‘t mind waitinf ‘til Saturday for a response.))

[Beans]

[Training Grounds]
Neiz heads up to pick a training dummy and work on her shield-and-cestus technique.

[Felandria]

Stables

Yu looks on the situation sliently as he conteplates both peoples inputs and remains confused. "Wait, so do I buzz off or help if I want to? I'm getting two different signals here." As Lan heads off in one direction and Anika and Rick head off in another direction. Yu sighs as he heads off to find something to do. Another failed attempt.

After saying goodbye to Melissa, Fel heads to the stables and runs into Yu.

What's up, Yu?

You OK?

[Beans]

[Training Area]
Ducking and weaving, Neiz circles around the training dummy---shoving with her parallel shield, darting in for a quick punch with her cestus, always dancing back and forth. Anyone watching her can see her style is a mix of evasion and defensive maneuvers.

[GrandDM]

Stables -> Hermes Cabin

Rick leads Anika over to the twelve cabins. They're all very different. Rick nods to the ugliest, badly painted in red with a boar's head over the door and barbed wire around the roof.

"My cabin. Ares. I wish somebody in there had the skill to redecorate it, but there you go. This one here-" he points at the one they're closest to, with a caduceus over the door "-is Hermes, where all the undetermined - that is, all the demigods who haven't been claimed by their parents - as well as the known children of minor gods stay. A word of warning - you don't go into a cabin that isn't yours. If you need me, I'll most likely be in the arena during the day, but if I'm in my cabin, knock on the door and ask. Ignore the mockery. If you want Lan, he'll be wandering around somewhere. Try the lake and edges of the forest, but don't go in - there are all sorts of creatures in there. You're not allowed to enter the forest until you've been trained sufficiently in combat that you can defend yourself."

He knocks on the door. There'll be an answer after your next post (to give you a chance to react to that large block of information, and also because I need to create the Hermes councilor.)

Training Area

As the wind blast shoots at Rick, he drops prone, lying flat to the ground and letting the worst of it sail over him. Immediately after, he springs up and sprints at Colin, launching a flurry of blows from all angles with the sticks - hard enough to leave a bruise, but not any serious damage, and fast enough to be a serious challenge for him, but not impossible.

[Haleyintraining]

Outside Hermes Cabin

Anika is beginning to think that the phrase "safe place" was a bit of hyperbole on the part of her rescuers. Still, she is excited. She never got to go to a sleep-away camp growing up - although she supposed she lived her entire life at a sleep-away camp, in a sense - and this was going to be an adventure, like she'd always dreamt! She tried to push all the less pleasant parts out of her mind and just focus on those positives.

"I could help with that sometime, if you'd like."

Anika was gesturing towards the shoddy paint job that was the Ares cabin.

"I have a fair bit of experience with those kind of things."

Living on the base was pretty much life meets boy scouts - carpentry and mechanics were just two of the things she'd been taught by soldiers there. And painting... she and her father always painted their bleak quarters, creating a home from where there was before bleak propriety.

[Aric Kale]

Training Area

As the wind blast shoots at Rick, he drops prone, lying flat to the ground and letting the worst of it sail over him. Immediately after, he springs up and sprints at Colin, launching a flurry of blows from all angles with the sticks - hard enough to leave a bruise, but not any serious damage, and fast enough to be a serious challenge for him, but not impossible.

Training Area

Colin blocks a good portion of the strikes, but definitely receives some bruises. On the other hand, the son of Boreas isn't making it easy for Rick. With every counterstrike and parry, a gust of wind blasts out from the staff; hard enough to knock an average demigod back.

[GrandDM]

Training Area

Colin blocks a good portion of the strikes, but definitely receives some bruises. On the other hand, the son of Boreas isn't making it easy for Rick. With every counterstrike and parry, a gust of wind blasts out from the staff; hard enough to knock an average demigod back.

Rick grits his teeth and leans into the blasts, several times skidding backwards, and switches tactics, striking from the sides, forcing Colin to parry in directions that he can't blast wind at Rick from.

[Beans]

[Training Area - The Cabins]
After her training, Neiz starts heading back so she can shower and change... and sees Rick and the new cutie again! She hangs back a good distance for now, just watching.

[Aric Kale]

Training Area

Colin growls, attempting to leap above Rick in a motion that would allow him to land a hefty blow on the other's back. His mastery of one particular element should aid him in this endeavor.

[AnimeKid]

Stables

Yu turns to look at Felandria in surprise but his expression melts into one of happiness at his big sister. Living with him Felandria would know that Yu is big on family and familial bonds. He was better at that than he was at interacting with other people. "Hey Fel. It's nothing really. I was trying to help out the new girl and make a friend. I mean everyone at camp is great, but I've don't have many actual friends except for mabye Kanji and that's probably because he's almost as bad at social interaction than me. I think I'm getting better though. Anyways I can just try again later I guess, you don't have to trouble yourself over it sis."

Training Grounds

Kanji gains a tick mark on his head as he says, "Hey! What do you mean you weren't worried! You think I was doin something I wasn't supposed to!" as Melissa walks off and Kanji, in his annoyance, started pummeling the training dummies harder and faster. The dummies, which had held up to this point, were being rapidly decimated and withing 5 minutes were utterly demolished. Kanji snorts before looking over to where Rick and Colin were having their fight before shrugging and pulling up a seat to watch the show.

[Felandria]

Stables

Yu turns to look at Felandria in surprise but his expression melts into one of happiness at his big sister. Living with him Felandria would know that Yu is big on family and familial bonds. He was better at that than he was at interacting with other people. "Hey Fel. It's nothing really. I was trying to help out the new girl and make a friend. I mean everyone at camp is great, but I've don't have many actual friends except for mabye Kanji and that's probably because he's almost as bad at social interaction than me. I think I'm getting better though. Anyways I can just try again later I guess, you don't have to trouble yourself over it sis."

Fel smiles warmly and gives Yu a hug.

Oh, honey, of course I do, we're family.

I'm sure you'll be fine, just be yourself.

[AnimeKid]

Stables

Yu closed his eyes and smiled warmly at the hug, Fel always could make him feel better. He nodded and once the hug was over said in a very heartfelt manner, Thanks sis, you always know what to say." He smiles once more before he thinks and says, "Actually now that you're here sis I've been wondering. Do you think we're going to get any new quests soon? I don't mean to sound like I'm looking for trouble its just that things have been a little hectic if what I heard from Mr.D was true about the new girls retreival. It could mean that a quest will turn up soon."

[Felandria]

Stables

Yu closed his eyes and smiled warmly at the hug, Fel always could make him feel better. He nodded and once the hug was over said in a very heartfelt manner, Thanks sis, you always know what to say." He smiles once more before he thinks and says, "Actually now that you're here sis I've been wondering. Do you think we're going to get any new quests soon? I don't mean to sound like I'm looking for trouble its just that things have been a little hectic if what I heard from Mr.D was true about the new girls retreival. It could mean that a quest will turn up soon."

I hope so, I'm getting a bit antsy myself.

Do we know which cabin the new girl belongs to?

[AnimeKid]

Stables

Yu shakes his head as he says, "Last I saw she was being taken to the Hermes cabin. So she probably was undetermined. Plus she didn't seem like a Hermes Kid. She was really polite and proper." It would be at that moment when Yu's stomach practically roared. He gained a look of slight surprise on his face before looking down impassively and putting a hand on his stomach. "I think I'm getting hungry. Hope dinner is going to be soon. Oh are we doing capture the flag again today?" Yu always did like capture the flag. It was one of the few camp activities that everyone participated in and it let him test his skills.

[Felandria]

Stables

Yu shakes his head as he says, "Last I saw she was being taken to the Hermes cabin. So she probably was undetermined. Plus she didn't seem like a Hermes Kid. She was really polite and proper." It would be at that moment when Yu's stomach practically roared. He gained a look of slight surprise on his face before looking down impassively and putting a hand on his stomach. "I think I'm getting hungry. Hope dinner is going to be soon. Oh are we doing capture the flag again today?" Yu always did like capture the flag. It was one of the few camp activities that everyone participated in and it let him test his skills.

Yes to both.


At which point the dinner bell rings.

Speaking of which, chow time, come on, let's get there quick.

[Beans]

[By The Cabins]
Dinnertime already! Neiz turns, pulling out her folding fan as she makes her way to the pavilion---it's hot out here, after all.

[AnimeKid]

Stables-->Dining Hall

Yu nods with a slight smile on his face as he says, "Race you there!" With that Yu rushed off to the dining hall the wind whipping around him to increase his speed to beat Felandria there.

(Later)Training Ground-->Dining Hall

Kanji was woken up from where he fell asleep in the training ground. He shakes his head as he slowly gets up, his joints popping. After limbering himself up Kanji heads toward the dining hall for some grub.

[GrandDM]

Outside Hermes Cabin

Anika is beginning to think that the phrase "safe place" was a bit of hyperbole on the part of her rescuers. Still, she is excited. She never got to go to a sleep-away camp growing up - although she supposed she lived her entire life at a sleep-away camp, in a sense - and this was going to be an adventure, like she'd always dreamt! She tried to push all the less pleasant parts out of her mind and just focus on those positives.

"I could help with that sometime, if you'd like."

Anika was gesturing towards the shoddy paint job that was the Ares cabin.

"I have a fair bit of experience with those kind of things."

Living on the base was pretty much life meets boy scouts - carpentry and mechanics were just two of the things she'd been taught by soldiers there. And painting... she and her father always painted their bleak quarters, creating a home from where there was before bleak propriety.

"Unfortunately, my cabinmates wouldn't like that. Neither would Dad. But thanks for the offer."

He smiles at her.

The door still doesn't open, because I've been ill and not been able to create the Hermes guy.


Training Area

Colin growls, attempting to leap above Rick in a motion that would allow him to land a hefty blow on the other's back. His mastery of one particular element should aid him in this endeavor.

As he jumps, Rick rolls underneath him and hits his ankles hard with one of the sticks, hoping to send him tumbling.


Yes to both.


At which point the dinner bell rings.

Speaking of which, chow time, come on, let's get there quick.

((Capture the Flag should be interesting. How are we going to run all the NPC demigods?))

Rick-clone 3 heads over to the dining hall, sitting down at the Ares table. He's the only one there observing the least table manners - the others are raucous and rowdy, grabbing food, talking with their mouths full and generally being mildly disgusting.

[Felandria]

Stables-->Dining Hall

Yu nods with a slight smile on his face as he says, "Race you there!" With that Yu rushed off to the dining hall the wind whipping around him to increase his speed to beat Felandria there.

Since Yu is using his abilities, Fel grows to her normal giant size and runs towards the dining hall at full speed.

[Aric Kale]

Training Grounds

Rick is successful! Colin hits the ground and rolls, losing his staff and righting himself swiftly. If he can recover in time, he will extend his left hand and push with the wind...
If this doesn't work then he'll just yield, as he hears the dinner bell.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz eyes all her fellow campers as they come in; she sees giant-Fel and indulges herself in a little staring, since you don't get to see your crush huge and bouncing along every day.
((Do minor deities have their own tables, or do they just stick with the Hermes table?))

[Haleyintraining]

Outside Hermes Cabin

Anika understands. Maybe she'll get the chance to redecorate her own cabin at some point, if her cabinmates don't mind.

At that moment, she hears the dinner bell.

"What's that?"

[Deathkeeper]

Outside Hermes Cabin

"That would be the dinner bell," Lan says, striding over. "Everything's being handled it seems, Rick. So we have slightly less to worry about."

[Haleyintraining]

((Since Anika is caught up in that conversation for now and this thread seems pretty stagnant at the moment, I figured I'd make up a second character.))

Dining Hall

Having finished eating, Simon (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15868937&postcount=11) gets up from the Apollo table. He throws away his garbage, then leans himself against the wall by the door, beginning to scrawl something in Ancient Greek in his moleskin notebook with his beloved nib pen. Every once and a while he raises his gaze to survey the dining hall, keeping an eye out for anyone else having finished their meal who might want to chat.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz heads in, turning towards the Hermes table to get her own seat---a good one, hopefully, since the Hermes table is always stuffed to the brim.

Meanwhile, a black-haired girl (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15869345&postcount=12) covered in scars slinks over to her place at the end of the Ares table. She looks like she'd really rather be ignored; for an Ares kid, she's decidedly... un-Ares.

((I kinda had a similar idea, though more because it seems a little hard to get much interaction for Neiz so far.))

[Haleyintraining]

Outside Hermes Cabin -> Dining Hall

A pre-teen boy exiting the Hermes cabin offers to show Anika to the dining hall, and she graciously accepts, allowing Lan and Rick to discuss their important camp matters. She figures she'll meet up with them after dinner, and they'd be able to show her the cabin then.

After arriving in the dining hall and picking up their dinners, the boy immediately beelines for an empty chair beside a gaggle of other twelve-year-olds Anika assumes to be his friends. In any case, there were no chairs left to spare there, so she scans the Hermes table for an empty seat.

She spies one by the strange-haired girl Rick had warned her about. Well, she may have been a bit odd, but at least she had been nice to her earlier. Anika sets her tray down and slides into the seat.

"It's Neiz, right?"

------

Meanwhile, Simon notices the scarred girl slip into a seat at the end of the Ares table. He considers going over to chat, but she seems like she wants to be left alone.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz smiles excitedly as the new girl comes and talks to her!
That's right! I never managed to get your name, though, unfortunately... She toys with a lock of her hair, smiling sweetly.

Meanwhile, Carrie glances around; she hates the rule against sitting at other gods' tables. It means she's always stuck with her half-siblings, most of whom are no kinder to her than dear old Dad.

[Deathkeeper]

Lan would probably just recap the talk with Chiron to Rick, so that can be handwaved.
Lan will be sitting with his fuzzy salad-munching kin, as usual, but he can be called over by anyone interested. There's no real rule saying you have to eat at a table, I think. There's just an unspoken one about not sitting at other gods' tables.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table ; Dining Hall

"Anika. Anika Sunseri."

She extends her hand to Neiz, smiling back. While she will be conscious of Rick's warnings, she wants to keep an open mind about the other girl. It's not as if people were exactly lining up to be her friend here; better to make friends than enemies.

Wall near entrance ; Dining Hall

Simon scratches his brow with the back of his pen, deep in thought. Suddenly his face illuminates with an idea, and the pen dances out of his hand, scrawling loopy letters on the paper at a breakneck pace as Simon chews pensively on a thumbnail. The pen falls to the paper, the idea scribed, and he picks it up again, turning over his next idea in his head. He glances up again, noticing the Ares girl doing the same. Maybe he should invite her over... no, he wouldn't want to be a bother.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Hermes Table

Seated down at one end is a rather thin, kind of sad looking girl. She's seated close to people, but only because the Hermes table is always crowded. She isn't really conversing with anybody. She's just quietly eating her meal.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz is happy to shake, her hand warm and smooth-skinned.
Nice to meet you, sweetheart. How's settling into camp been? Having fun yet?

Carrie glances from Simon to her fellow scrawny sad girl, but is distracted by one of her half-sisters making a joke at her expense. She just looks down, biting her lip at the younger girl's jibe.

[GrandDM]

Dining Hall

Rick is sitting at the end of a bench on the Ares table looking mildly disgusted at how his half-siblings are conducting themselves - loud, brash, making rude jokes and generally not observing the least table manners.

He leans over to the scarred girl. "Hey."

[AnimeKid]

Dining hall

Yu came to a stop outside the dining hall as he finished after Felandria. The barest traces of a pout on his face is the only way to tell that he didn't like losing. "Man, that growing power of your's is just not fair sis. At least my power doesn't make me exponentially faster. Just linearly." he says in a joking manner.

He takes his seat at the Zeus table and eagerly starts to eat. Surprisingly Yu an intake quite a large amount of food. However he always makes sure to mind his manners, even if they amount of food he ate was probably around 3 times what the average teenage boy needed.
__________________________________________________ _______

Kanji however came in to dinner a little later than everyone else. He heads to the Ares table when he notices Carrie being given a hard time by some of his other siblings. Kanji, liked Carrie. She was a little shy but at least she wasn't a jerk like half of their other siblings who Kanji had to go full delinquent mode in front of just to get some freakin' respect.

Deciding to nip the problem in the bud Kanji meaningfully sat down firmly next to Carrie the look in his eyes practically daring anyone to say anything about it or her. Should the jests at Carrie die down enough he would give her and empathetic nod before digging into his food, eating it savagely but not messily.

[Felandria]

Dining hall

Yu came to a stop outside the dining hall as he finished after Felandria. The barest traces of a pout on his face is the only way to tell that he didn't like losing. "Man, that growing power of your's is just not fair sis. At least my power doesn't make me exponentially faster. Just linearly." he says in a joking manner.

He takes his seat at the Zeus table and eagerly starts to eat. Surprisingly Yu an intake quite a large amount of food. However he always makes sure to mind his manners, even if they amount of food he ate was probably around 3 times what the average teenage boy needed.

Fel shrank back down after reaching the hall.

Hey, you're the one who wanted to race.

She smiles, gives Yu a friendly little punch on the arm and joins him at the Zeus table, eating a hearty meal.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

"I haven't done much settling yet, unfortunately. Rick and Lan have been too busy to show me the cabin, and all my things I left back at home."

Anika stops, flipping the last 24 hours over in her head.

"It's all a bit hard to believe, really. I'm not sure how much I fit in here."

She still hasn't entirely gotten the lay of the land. Judging by the fact the Hermes table is fit to burst and some of the other tables only have a handful of occupants, she figures that the "don't go into other gods' cabins" rule also applied to dinner tables. Aside from that, she didn't really know what to expect from her new home.

Wall near entrance

The next time Simon pokes his head up from his moleskin, he notices two boys sitting with the scarred girl, seemingly on her side. Yeah, calling her over would definitely be a bother.

Instead, he flips to the next page of his notebook and scribbles a quick set of stanzas. When he's finished, he smiles coyly, twirling the pen around in his fingers as he tries to think up the next line to his current project.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz nods. Aww. Well, I'd be happy to help, doll---we're cabinmates, after all! She giggles, reaching to pat her hand. You'll fit in just fine here, don't worry about a thing.

Carrie looks up at Rick and Kanji, her favorite half-brothers; as the jibes trail off, she smiles shyly at them. Thanks. She works on selecting the best bit of dinner to be offered to the fire, looking a lot happier.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes

"So, what's the scoop on all this?"

Anika gestures around to the tables that surround her, and the camp in general. Aside from the brief "y'er a demigod, Harry" from Rick and Lan, she hadn't really got much introduction to the camp or what exactly one did here except 'be safe'.

Wall near entrance

Another boy from the Apollo table has finished eating, and he joins Simon at the wall. Deftly, Simon slips the pen behind his ear and the moleskin into his pocket. The two boys begin talking, Simon laughing at some joke the other boy had shared.

[Aric Kale]

Dining Hall

Colin enters the hall, grabs his food and sacrifices most of it to the fires. He also gives a friendly wave to the Ares table before heading over to the Hermes table, sitting near Anika. (if there's room) Despite being a teenager, Colin seems to pick at his food, he looks tired, though not unhappy.

[GrandDM]

"You're -" without looking, he catches a small piece of meat lobbed their way "- welcome."

He waves back to Colin, and leans backwards in his seat so that he's close enough to talk to him.

"Saved by the dinner bell, Colin! I'll get you next time." He says with a wink.

Scraping a portion of food into the fire, he sits down and demolishes his roast, a plate piled high with potatoes, carrots, purple sprouting, gravy and a quarter-chicken.

He remarks to Carrie (his favourite half-sibling) "The downside to having a metabolism like mine is that you have to eat a lot more than most other people."

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz shrugs. Well... you have a godly parent, I have a godly parent, everyone's got a godly parent here---well, everyone human, I mean, not the satyrs and nymphs. And because you're a demigod, you have a scent that monsters can detect and go after you. It can be masked by normal humans' scents, but unfortunately the scentiest humans are usually not nice. She takes her fan out, wafting herself gently. Normals can't see monsters and stuff because of The Mist... uhhh... oh, and you're going to get claimed by your godly parent at some point, so you'll know what's up with your lineage and stuff.

Carrie giggles softly.
I've got a fast metabolism too---that's why I'm so scrawny, after all.

[AnimeKid]

Dinner hall

Kanji tears into a piece of chicken, hastily chewing and swallowing before he says, "Your appitite ain't a huge revelation Rick. Heck I'm pretty sure it's a demigod thing with how much freakin' Narukami of all people is eating about half his body weight in food." Kanji's words seem rude but there is no malice or disrespect in them. it's just the way he talks.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

"Your mother is Styx, I think was what Rick told me? What is she like?"

Having a goddess for a mother... it was pretty much unfathomable. But it was why she was here... it was one thing she and Neiz had in common. Anika wanted to ask Neiz who she thought her mother was, but she's unsure of whether or not that would be an acceptable thing to ask.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz shrugs. Styx is my mom, that's right... she's interesting. Spends most of her time down in the Underworld, since that's where her river is, but she's one of the staunchest Zeus loyalists out there. She's nive, but she's very firm about any type of agreement---you make a pact, you stick to it, or there's a price to pay. She giggles, sipping her drink.
I got her silver hair and rose eyes too---demigods usually have similar features to their parents.
She gestures around. Hermes's kids get his trickster's face, Aphrodite's kids are super pretty, Ares's kids tend to be big and brawny---though, as our dear Caroline shows, not always. Neiz points with her fan to the scrawny girl at the Ares table.

Carrie giggles a little at Kanji. Her half-brother is brash and to the point, but not hurtful or cruel like so many of their other siblings. He has Fel to keep up with, of course he's going to be burning lots of energy.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Despite herself, Anika can't resist asking:

"Do you have any idea whose daughter I might be?"

[Aric Kale]

Hermes Table

Anika may feel a tap on her shoulder. If she turns in response she'll see Colin's polite, if not a wee bit shy, smile. Don't worry about it, miss, all is revealed in time...

[GrandDM]

Forums swallowed the original...

Dining Hall

"True, but at least I get fast healing and improved strength and speed out of it. He just gets full."

He leans over to Carrie.

"I've been thinking. I know Dad doesn't like you much, but he wouldn't have given you that sword if he didn't think you had some potential. I reckon I could get you on my next quest if you like; you'd be able to show him what you can do."

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Carrie blinks, surprised. R-really? I... aww, Rick!
She squirms a little in overjoyed excitement, a smile lighting up her scarred face, looking like she'd be hugging him like crazy if they weren't at the dinner table. You're the best big brother in the world, you know that? I promise I won't let you down.

Neiz giggles a little. Colin's right, darling---it's really best to let it just sort of... happen. She smiles at Colin with fluttering eyelashes.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Anika turns, and seeing the boy a slight blush roses her cheeks. This boy seems almost military: polite, professional... but maybe even a bit sweet. Her blush deepens, but she shrugs off the thoughts, returning to her regular self.

Instead, she smiles back at the boy Neiz called Colin.

"I don't believe we've been introduced? I'm Anika Sunseri."

[AnimeKid]

Dining Hall

Kanji however has no such restrictions as he reaches behind Carrie to gently punch Rick's shoulder as chuckles."Knew there was a reason I liked you caveman." He smiles from ear to ear as he uses the same arm to give Carrie a one armed hug to show his support. "Just you wait big sis. You are goin' to make dad eat his words like a box of Cherrios!"

[Aric Kale]

Colin scratches his head, apparently not noticing the blush-or not knowing it's significance- and introduces himself, Oh, sorry, greetings come first, don't they? I'm Colin Anemos Polemo, son of Boreas, god of the North Wind. Pleasure to meet you Ms. Sunseri. Colin offers his hand to shake, though the spacing is a little cramped.

[GrandDM]

Rick grins back at his siblings. "Least I can do for my favourite sister. And I'm hardly a caveman - could a caveman have your head off before you even saw his hand move?"

There's a glint in his eye that suggests he isn't kidding.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Carrie leans against Kanji, giggling. It's a little odd being called 'big sister' by a guy as huge as you are, Kanji.

She rolls her eyes a little at Rick, but it's clear she's happy to have such a good relationship with her fellow Ares kids.

[AnimeKid]

Dinner Hall

Kanji rubs the back of his head with his free hand as a small blush colors his face from embarressment. "I-I'm not that tall sis. You just haven't hit your growth spurt yet. Besides do you know how much hell it is to find clothes that fit sometimes?" He still has a small grin on his face as he says this. It was nice to feel appreciated.

He gave a grin to Rick, it was different than the one he gave Carrie. Where the grin he gave was friendly and gently, the grin of a big brother ironically enough, the grin he gave Rick was savage, yet playful in it's own way. "Maybe so big bro, but a caveman would be just fascinated by these groundbreaking human inventions called a shirt and a pair of shoes."

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Colin.

Anika shakes his hand, only the faintest tint of a blush betraying her temporary loss of composure.

"And you can just call me Anika. Or Ani."

He was so much like some of the military boys... the nice ones, at least. Always polite and proper, calling her Miss and by her last name. Inside, she melted a bit; speaking to this boy made her feel like she was almost home again.

[Aric Kale]

Hermes Table

Colin clearly has no idea what's running through Anika's mind. Alright, Ms. Ani, if you insist. Oh, don't forget to offer some of your meal to your godly parent. Even if you don't know who she is, wouldn't want to upset a god. The youth returns to his meal, seeming slightly more energetic. Anika and Neiz may notice that despite the lack of wind, Colin's hair has been blowing as if there's been a steady breeze.

[GrandDM]

Dining Hall

"Hey, just because I'm better looking than you doesn't mean I should cover it up!"

There's a playful grin on his face, but his eyes betray that he really does quite enjoy verbally sparring with Kanji.

"And Carrie- you don't have to be the size of me or Kanji to be a good fighter. Small and quick can be better in many situations. Tell you what, I'll give you some lessons if you come down to the arena at, say seven every Thursday?"

((I think we can do that off-screen))

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz smiles as he goes.
Oh, I forgot to mention the offering bit---generally you pick the best morsel to offer up, since gristle and such aren't a very pleasant thing to give to someone, especially not one's mother or father. She giggles a little.

Carrie grins, almost bouncing in excitement as she nods. I'm not bad, but I could definitely use help from someone as great as you, Rick!

[AnimeKid]

Dinner Hall

Kanji actually pouts a little, not realizing he's doing it as he looks at Carrie. "Hey, what about me? I'm great too ya know. Heck I'm probably even greater than Rick. Kanji Tatsumi is a man's man you know. I'm like the demigod Denzel Washington. Or the demigod Old Spice Guy."

[GrandDM]

[Dining Hall]

"Thanks, Carrie. And Kanji -"

One of the other Ares kids - a new arrival, only recently claimed - butts in: "Oh, shuddup and grow a spine. I don't know why Dad likes you so much, you're just a soppy girl."

The rest of the table shifts subtly as it tries to get away from Rick, whose eyes are narrowed and one corner of his mouth lifted in a slight snarl.

"You're new, aren't you? I'll forgive you. Once. If you want to find out exactly why Dad likes me, make another crack."

The other guy leans right in, shoving his meaty face right into Rick's.

"Ooh, I'm so scared! What's the big boy going to do? And how about the runt? Why do you even talk to her, if you're so amazing - she's an embarrasment to the name of Ares!"

Rick looks over at Kanji and Carrie, making a subtle gesture indicating that it's their choice how to play this.

[AnimeKid]

Dinner Hall

Kanji barely hears the tail end of the Ares campers comment before his faces shifts. Where his face was once genial it looks down right feral now. If the kid facing him, Rick, and Carrie wasn't a son of Ares he might have flinched from how fierce Kanji looked. He wrapped his arms around Carrie as if to shield her from the boys words as he spoke once again. Kanji grit his teeth hard, practically grinding them as his temper was threatening to blow the roof.

He looked at Rick and said brother would be able to see just how much Kanji was itching to make the kid eat his words. Kanji was looking to see how the words were affecting Carrie. If there was even a hint of sadness the kid was going to feel the pain. His eyes were begging Rick to knock the kid down a peg.

[Felandria]

Felandria heads over to the Ares table, reverting to her usual size as she does so, she looks sternly at the ones antagonizing Rick.

Is there a problem here?

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Carrie is held close by Kanji; as soon as the other kid starts talking about her, she stares down at nothing and her face is mostly blank, but tinged with pain. She does look up with a bit of a blush at Felandria, a little surprised and perhaps a bit relieved.

At the Hermes table, Neiz's eyes can't seem to leave Fel; she watches the tall redhead, no longer seeming to be planning and evaluating.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Anika carefully sections off the most delicious-looking strawberry from her plate to offer her mother... whoever her mother is. Soon her plate is empty, save for the prized strawberry, but she will wait for Neiz before going to put it in the fire.

[Aric Kale]

Hermes Table

Having already given a portion to his father, Colin returns to his meal, only to pause once again when the Ares clan causes a ruckus...and then Felandria walks over. Now, Colin doesn't mind Fel, he actually has quite a bit of respect for her. He also thinks that she should stick to minding Zeus' kids and let Ares' deal with themselves.
This is a topic they've butted heads on often.
Colin sighs, Fel, let Rick manage his own crew, please. He is the head of Ares at camp...I'm sure he can handle one scrawny upstart.
He then returns to his mashed potatoes.

[Felandria]

Hermes Table

Having already given a portion to his father, Colin returns to his meal, only to pause once again when the Ares clan causes a ruckus...and then Felandria walks over. Now, Colin doesn't mind Fel, he actually has quite a bit of respect for her. He also thinks that she should stick to minding Zeus' kids and let Ares' deal with themselves.
This is a topic they've butted heads on often.
Colin sighs, Fel, let Rick manage his own crew, please. He is the head of Ares at camp...I'm sure he can handle one scrawny upstart.
He then returns to his mashed potatoes.

Fel arches an eyebrow towards Colin.

That's what I'm worried about.

Fel turns to Rick.

I'll go talk to Dionysius, keep him busy.

She holds up what appears to be a drinking horn.

Don't make me regret it.

Fel leaves, allowing Rick to handle things himself.

[GrandDM]

Rick grins.

"Oh, I won't. Now then... I think that after you've apologised to Carrie, you'll be on cleaning duty for a fortnight. The cabin could do with tidying up."

"And what if I don't want to apologise?"

Rick grins.

"Then, as councilor for the Ares cabin, I'll be assigning you daily combat training... with me."

The camper seems to be about to scoff, but the boy on the other side of him grabs his shoulder and whispers urgently into his ear. His face pales.

"A - alright then... I apologise for what I said. But you'd - you'd better watch your back!"

Rick snorts.

"The day you or your buddies get the drop on me will be the day I'm deaf and blind. Oh, and Carrie isn't a disgrace to Ares - you are. Ares isn't just about fighting, he's about discipline, order and respect... all of which, from what I have seen, you lack. By the way - three weeks now. Anything out of you but "yes, sir" and I'll take you to Chiron."

"Yes... sir."

The "sir" comes after a pause that's a little too long to be anything but deliberate disrespect. Rick smiles, and turns back to Kanji and Carrie.

"I'm sorry about that. But seeing Fel reminded me - did I ever tell you the story about when she beat me in a sparring match? Pretty sure I didn't. Anyway, I had her on the ropes, when suddenly she does her "Daughter of Zeus" thing and hits me with a lightning bolt! Launched me across the arena and I hit my head on a pillar. Out cold for twenty minutes while my skull healed."

He grins and takes a swig of his drink.

"Only time I ever lost a fight to anyone but Dad. You think I play rough, try getting trained by him sometime. I'd be covered in bruises, scrapes and cuts every evening. Six of my scars came from him. Talking of scars, this one - "

He points to a burst-like pattern on his left shoulder

"- was where Fel hit me with the bolt. That was one hell of a burn..."

He smiles and shakes his head at the memory.

[AnimeKid]

Dinner Hall

Kanji watched Carrie's face fall when the Ares camper started talking and narrowly restrained himself from throttling the kid when Rick started laying into the kid and gave him cleaning duty. He almost wished the kid had picked the combat training. He hated it when the Ares campers picked on Carrie, especially since he saw a lot of himself in her. She didn't act the way others thought she should and she was ostracized because of that. The Ares camper and his friends had better watch their backs. Because anything they started...well he would be happy to finish it and make sure they learned their lesson.

Forcibly calming himself down Kanji does his best to smile at Rick but thanks to his anger it comes off as more menacing than jovial like he intended. "I-Is that so? Man Ms. Felandria's tough. Then again, I should know Zeus kids are tough. Narukami over there slings lighting around like it's a freakin' toy. Had to switch my shields handle for a rubber one in order to stop being a giant lightning rod. I can beat him if my stamina outlasts his. Otherwise it's pretty hard to hit the guy with how his zips over the battle field." His tone is a bit forced but he is being truthful.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz offers the best part of her meal to Styx with a smile, then glances over at Fel and the scene going on with a small frown. Pity that some campers aren't quite as nice as they should be.

Carrie looks up when Rick has dealt with the situation, smiling a little. I'm alright, don't worry... She pats Kanji's back, hoping to reassure him at least a bit.

[GrandDM]

Rick grins.

"I know that look. As much as you'd enjoy - we'd enjoy - taking him down, it's a bad idea. And I know all about fighting windriders - I spar regularly with Colin. He's a pain in the butt to get anywhere near, although I've developed a few tactics that help."

He absently touches the hilt of one of his swords - the one with the obsidian pommel jewel - with his free hand.

"Anyway, Carrie - how are you holding up? Don't let what he said get to you."

((I don't want this running too far without Beans.))

[Haleyintraining]

Dining Hall

"What's happening?"

Anika's voice is at a whisper as she nudges Neiz, slipping the strawberry into the fire as she does so. Was it typical for this kind of thing to happen between campers that weren't "quite as nice as they should be"?

[Aric Kale]

Hermes Table

Colin looks up from where he's making paper airplanes and laughs. It's true, I spar with the Children of Ares often, especially Rick. Why do you think they call me Anemos Polemo? The airplanes lift off from the table and glide around his head.

[5a Violista]

((Wow, time moves a lot slower than I thought it would!))

Apollo Table

Roxanne sits there, idly chatting and eating with those sitting around her - chatting more than eating, actually.


Meanwhile,
Just recently arriving at the Dining Area,

Melissa just barely gets her food - just soon enough! Any later, and there might've not been enough for her.

She stands, craning her neck to look throughout the Hermes Table for an empty spot. Unsatisfied by the empty chairs she found, Melissa decides to just sit against a wall and eat there. It's better, right?

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Neiz notices Melissa heading toward the wall; already done with her dinner, she stands from her seat at the Hermes Table and waves to beckon the other girl, smiling.
She glances to Anika. You know Rick already, and Miss Fel is the senior counselor---they're dealing with an unkind Ares camper being unpleasant to Carrie---she's a bit of a misfit in the Ares cabin, but Rick doesn't let anyone bully her.

Carrie smiles up at her big brother.
I'm okay, don't worry---I'm used to it and I've got my brothers looking out for me.

[5a Violista]

Dining Hall

Melissa notices Neiz beckoning her over. Dang it. Should she just pretend that she didn't notice anything? No, she already spent too long looking over there, and if she went to that comfy spot on the wall, that would be pretty rude, and...

...and so Melissa sings sighs and walks towards Neiz's offered seat. "Thank you," she says, staring at her food as if it were the most appetizing thing in all the world, before beginning to eat.

Eating is a pretty normal thing to do in a mess hall.

[GrandDM]

((Just looked at my last post and realised I got ninja'd by the very person I thought was not online and needed an opening back into the scene. Brilliant.))

Rick gives Carrie a quick one-armed hug.

"The fact that you're used to it is bad in itself, really. But at least you don't have Kanji's temper."

He grins at his brother, then glances around to make sure nobody else is watching before leaning in and whispering to Carrie:

"Here, I've got something for you."

He takes a box out of his pocket, and opens it to reveal a small crystal vial on a golden chain, like a necklace. The vial has some strange fluid inside it, but it doesn't look disgusting - it's rather pleasant to watch it flowing about.

"Gorgon's blood, from the right side. Incredibly potent healing powers. I got hold of this a while back, but I don't have much use for it - I heal well anyway. So I got it mounted in this necklace for you."

[AnimeKid]

Dinner Hall

Kanji nods in agreement with Rick's statement before wincing when his temper is brought up. He looks down at the table a little embarrassed. He didn't use to be that fiery, but it came naturally these days. Was he destined to become a mean brute like his brothers? Would he turn on Carrie one day, just to deny his hobbies? Kanji shook his head at the thoughts as he said in a subdued voice. "Yeah, I'll uh try to work on that. Seriously though Carrie, you can always count on me and Rick. We'll watch our for ya. That's what family is supposed to do right?"

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Carrie blinks in surprise, blushing, before tentatively reaching for the necklace.
Oh... you guys... you're the best brothers ever. Her face lights up in just about the cutest damn smile.

Neiz smiles as she steps aside to let the other girl sit and eat.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Anika is unsure whether or not to follow Neiz or stay seated at the table. After a moment of deliberation, she decides to stay put; she doubts Neiz wants to babysit the new girl all the time, and she likely has things to do. Rick and Lan would meet up with her after dinner. Probably. Maybe.

"Are you one of Neiz's friends?" she says to Melissa, her voice tentative, yet polite.

Wall by entrance -> Apollo Table

Simon is still scribbling away in his moleskine, but with a satisfied twack he slams the book shut, ink already dry as if by magic. He is fairly happy with his handiwork, and now he looks around the dining hall once more. He'd been a bit oblivious for a while and missed all the drama at the Ares table, so everything seems pretty quiet as he looks around. The crowd is thinning out quite a bit as everyone finishes their meal, but Simon doesn't feel like going anywhere just yet. Instead, he slips into a recently vacant seat at the Apollo table, one near Roxanne, and waits to get involved in the conversation.

[GrandDM]

"I didn't mean it like that. But anyway, what you said. We're always here for you, Carrie. And thanks."

He gives Carrie another hug, before standing up.

"I'm going back down to the arena."

[Aric Kale]

Hermes Table

Colin perks up at the mentioning of the arena. He starts "windwalking", as Rick calls it, and follows, hoping to meet some new challengers.

[GrandDM]

[Arena]

When Rick enters the arena, he turns sideways and walks out of view. As Colin enters, he will suddenly find Rick dropping on him from above (assuming he comes through the door). If he fails to counter, he will be on his front on the ground with Rick's knee in his back and Rick's dagger at his throat.

"You're dead. You of all people should know to look up."

If, on the other hand, Colin enters via the air over the top, Rick will quickly sheathe his dagger and pull his training swords, moving to the centre of the ring and adopting a guard position.

[Felandria]

The Big House

Felandria walks up to find Dionysius sitting on the porch, holding a glass of water and staring up at the sky.

Beautiful day, isn't it?

What is it, Felandria?

A message from your father, extending my punishment?

Felandria takes a seat next to Dionysius.

Just figured I'd sit and have a chat.

Maybe have a little drink.

Felandria pulls out the drinking horn, it fills with wine.

I won't tell.


She hands the horn to Mr. D, who lets out a sigh of relief and takes a sip.

Believe me, Mr. D, I want your punishment to be over as much as you do, no offense.

There's nothing I'd love more than to stay here and guide the others, ever since I got here, I've truly felt at home.


Look, Felandria, you've been here, what, six years now?

If you're intending to stay and wait for my job, I'm afraid you'll be waiting a long time, you know how your father is.

But perhaps he may let you go if he knows I'm wanting to do the job.

I've wondered for years what my destiny is, I mean, I know what I want most is to take a place at my father's side, live forever, but I know the fates may have something else in store for me.

And until I know what my purpose is, this is my home, and I will do whatever is required of me to make sure that Camp Half Blood is safe and that the other demigods are taken care of.

Well, all that's very nice, Felandria, but the fact is I'm likely stuck here for a long time, but you're young, and unless something changes, mortal, don't sit around here waiting.

Make something of yourself, dear, don't waste your gifts.

[Aric Kale]

Arena

It's Colin, of course he's going over the top! :smalltongue: Spear in hand, he slashes a wind wave towards Rick. Just to keep him on his toes. Hello my friend. Shall we let some others join us, a two versus two match? Colin continues to hover in the air, let's say, four feet above Rick's head.

[GrandDM]

[Forbidden Wine]


The Big House

Felandria walks up to find Dionysius sitting on the porch, holding a glass of water and staring up at the sky.

Beautiful day, isn't it?

What is it, Felandria?

A message from your father, extending my punishment?

Felandria takes a seat next to Dionysius.

Just figured I'd sit and have a chat.

Maybe have a little drink.

Felandria pulls out the drinking horn, it fills with wine.

I won't tell.


She hands the horn to Mr. D, who lets out a sigh of relief and takes a sip.

Believe me, Mr. D, I want your punishment to be over as much as you do, no offense.

There's nothing I'd love more than to stay here and guide the others, ever since I got here, I've truly felt at home.


Look, Felandria, you've been here, what, six years now?

If you're intending to stay and wait for my job, I'm afraid you'll be waiting a long time, you know how your father is.

But perhaps he may let you go if he knows I'm wanting to do the job.

I've wondered for years what my destiny is, I mean, I know what I want most is to take a place at my father's side, live forever, but I know the fates may have something else in store for me.

And until I know what my purpose is, this is my home, and I will do whatever is required of me to make sure that Camp Half Blood is safe and that the other demigods are taken care of.

Well, all that's very nice, Felandria, but the fact is I'm likely stuck here for a long time, but you're young, and unless something changes, mortal, don't sit around here waiting.

Make something of yourself, dear, don't waste your gifts.

The sky suddenly clouds over, and a deafening crash of thunder fills the air. A bolt of lightning hits the ground in front of the two, and a twelve-foot man in a toga with long hair and a beard is standing there. In his hand is a massive, hissing spear of electricity, a bolt of lightning caught in a single moment. His face is contorted in a snarl of anger.

"How dare you?! My own daughter, breaking the prohibition I specifically set down? I would have thought better of you."

He snaps his fingers and the remaining wine in the horn turns to water. ((Assuming it isn't ridiculously god-resistant))

"From now on, that horn will no longer produce wine. Be grateful I don't punish you further."

[Arena]

Rick nods.

"Very well. Who do you have in mind?"

[Felandria]

[Forbidden Wine]



The sky suddenly clouds over, and a deafening crash of thunder fills the air. A bolt of lightning hits the ground in front of the two, and a twelve-foot man in a toga with long hair and a beard is standing there. In his hand is a massive, hissing spear of electricity, a bolt of lightning caught in a single moment. His face is contorted in a snarl of anger.

"How dare you?! My own daughter, breaking the prohibition I specifically set down? I would have thought better of you."

He snaps his fingers and the remaining wine in the horn turns to water. ((Assuming it isn't ridiculously god-resistant))

"From now on, that horn will no longer produce wine. Be grateful I don't punish you further."

He vanishes with a clap of thunder.

((Except for the part where he leaves before I can speak, that's precisely the reaction I was looking for))

How else was I supposed to get your attention?

I needed to speak with you.

[AnimeKid]

Dinner Hall-->Arena

Yu finished up his plate as he watched Felandria walk off to talk to Mr.D. He shrugged to himself as he didn't particularly like Mr.D's company but had no problem with the god himself. Unless he was in one of his moods that is. Generally he was neutral about the man. Since he was finished eating Yu picked up a large vine of grapes and walked up to the fire to sacrifice them to Zeus. Giving a small bow to the flames he left the dinner hall to make way to the arena. If a quest did show up soon like Felandria had hoped he would make sure that he was ready. As he showed up to the arena he noticed Rick and Colin in standby fighting positions facing each other. He tilted his head in confusion before walking forward to address them.

"Um, is the arena occupied? I could just go over in the corner. Or if that doesn't work for you maybe I could join your training session." He looks slightly nervous as he addresses the two of them. He knew Felandria said that trying to make friends with Rick would be easy. It was just that he seemed to have so many friends that Yu was intimidated to try.

Ares Table

Kanji watched Rick leave before he says to Carrie, "Be right back okay? I'm gonna go make my offering. We can do something together after you finish 'kay? Ive done enough training today and some social activity with someone who's not a jerkwad sounds really good right now." Kanji stood up from the table as he grabbed the juiciest piece of steak that he could find before walking up to the fire and burning it in Ares name. He watched the flames for a second before turning and heading back to his seat with Carrie.

[Aric Kale]

Arena

Colin nods to the side, acknowledging Yu, for one. And I was considering your sister-Carrie, was it?-if you don't think she'd mind. He continues to hover, it appears to be a basic power for him, a byproduct of 11 years with his father, and it drains little to no energy to do so.

[Beans]

Ares Table

Kanji watched Rick leave before he says to Carrie, "Be right back okay? I'm gonna go make my offering. We can do something together after you finish 'kay? Ive done enough training today and some social activity with someone who's not a jerkwad sounds really good right now." Kanji stood up from the table as he grabbed the juiciest piece of steak that he could find before walking up to the fire and burning it in Ares name. He watched the flames for a second before turning and heading back to his seat with Carrie.
Carrie already made her offering and is full, so she stands and stretches a little.
Wanna, um... we could head down to the lake and scope out some nymphs.
She's joking... well, mostly. Rick and Kanji are the only ones in her family she's come out to, though it's sometimes kind of obvious.

[GrandDM]

[Forbidden Wine]

((Except for the part where he leaves before I can speak, that's precisely the reaction I was looking for))

How else was I supposed to get your attention?

I needed to speak with you.

((Sorry; I'll get rid of that once I've posted this.))

Zeus narrows his eyes. His grip tightens on the Master Bolt.

"Be very careful what you say next. I am already in a bad mood from dealing with this damned Tartarus situat- nevermind; I shouldn't tell you that. Explain yourself."

[The Arena]

"Sure. Alright Yu, pick a side. Colin, you'll be faster than me - take a windwalk over to Carrie and ask her."

[Felandria]

[Forbidden Wine]

((Sorry; I'll get rid of that once I've posted this.))
Zeus narrows his eyes. His grip tightens on the Master Bolt.

"Be very careful what you say next. I am already in a bad mood from dealing with this damned Tartarus situat- nevermind; I shouldn't tell you that. Explain yourself."


Felandria steels herself and regains her composure.

That's exactly it, Father.

The Tartarus situation.

I had a dream last night about Tartarus, he had left the camp in ruins, everyone was either dead or wounded, and you know how I feel about this place, I would defend it with my life.

That's why I had to do it, Father, I so rarely see you and I needed to get your attention.

Let me help, let me prove myself, I can protect the place I love and find out what I'm capable of.

I beg of you, Father.

[GrandDM]

[Monstrous Problems]

Zeus sighs, and shakes his head.

"Very well. Call a meeting of councilors. I will fetch those Olympians who know more of this. Look away."

He begins to glow as he reverts to his true form for the journey to Olympus.

As he leaves, Rick comes sprinting towards them.

"Did I just hear what I thought I heard? Because if I did, this is a lot worse than you think. We need to go grab the councilors and Chiron."

((As far as I know, we're the only people who actually have characters that are councilors, so we can skip the finding-everybody part and go straight to the meeting))

[Felandria]

[Monstrous Problems]

Zeus sighs, and shakes his head.

"Very well. Call a meeting of councilors. I will fetch those Olympians who know more of this. Look away."

He begins to glow as he reverts to his true form for the journey to Olympus.

As he leaves, Rick comes sprinting towards them.

"Did I just hear what I thought I heard? Because if I did, this is a lot worse than you think. We need to go grab the councilors and Chiron."

((As far as I know, we're the only people who actually have characters that are councilors, so we can skip the finding-everybody part and go straight to the meeting))

Fel averts her eyes as Zeus departs, she turns to Mr. D.

I tried.

She turns to Rick.

I'll fetch the other counselors, if you can inform Chiron.

Felandria runs off, shifting to giant size for speed.

[GrandDM]

Fel averts her eyes as Zeus departs, she turns to Mr. D.

I tried.

She turns to Rick.

I'll fetch the other counselors, if you can inform Chiron.

Felandria runs off, shifting to giant size for speed.

[The Meeting]
((Minor timeskip here, unless you have any objections?))

The meeting is being held in the Big House. Everyone is sitting around a table. Ares is present, sitting next to Rick, as well as Artemis, standing at Zeus's shoulder. Zeus has positioned himself next to Felandria. Mr. D. and Chiron are in their usual seats.

"I have called this meeting because it is no longer possible to withhold from Camp Half-Blood what is coming. You have all probably noticed an increase in monster activity recently... but that's only the start. Tartarus, the spirit of the pit, is rising. I have brought Ares and Artemis with me, as they are best qualified to tell you about the threats."

Artemis steps forward.

"As Tartarus rises, he will bring with him a great flood of monsters. When he is fully risen, it is possible that almost half of all the monsters in existence could be on Earth at any -"

Rick stand up.

"No. Not half. I had a dream recently... it was Tartarus, standing at the head of a mighty army. As I watched, my view shifted, following the column back down through Hades, down through the pit... and I watched as the last monster exited through the door the Tartarus made. Forgive my interruption, but you were gravely underestimating the threat."

Now Ares enters the conversation: "Kid's right. Tartarus is easily strong enough to pull them all out, even the big monsters. I doubt we could stop them if they got that far. We need a quest - send a group down through Hades to go into the pit and give Tartarus a good kicking before he's strong enough to fight back. And I know just the guy to do it."

His hand falls on Rick's shoulder, but Zeus narrows his eyes.

"Surely my daughter should lead the quest? She is stronger than him, he's admitted it himself -"

"Actually, Lord Zeus, I haven't. I said she beat me in a fight because she knocked me into a pillar with a lightning bolt - and since then, I've developed a couple of tactics to deal with that. But anyway - I think the choice to lead us is fairly clear. We're going to fight something from the depths of hell? We should be led by a child of Hades."

[Felandria]

The Meeting

Felandria stands up, human sized as a sign of deference to her father.

You aren't the only one who had a dream, Rick.

Tartarus standing right in the middle of camp, everything in ruins, our bodies strewn all over.

He threatens our home, and I will not stand for it, I love this place, I love all of the demigods, and if anyone's going to protect it, it's going to be me.

However.

I have no issue with the two of us working together to defeat this threat, this is not a time for ego, this is a time for action. As a matter of fact, I suspect even the two of us together may not be enough.

We need one more.

[GrandDM]

The door swings open, and a pale, gaunt boy walks in. He's wearing a black leather trenchcoat, black skinny jeans and a black t-shirt with a skull on it. At his side is a sword in a black scabbard with silver ornamentation.

"That would be me. I am Geoff. Son of Hades. I can get you through my father's realm to the entrance of the pit, and help to protect you while we are down there."

Chiron nervously stands.

"Then all that remains... is the Oracle's prophecy. As the leader of the quest... Geoff should go."

Each of the three gods nod, and Geoff walks up the stairs. Several minutes later, he returns and recites the prophecy.

Five shall go and brave the pit
With death around and lanterns lit

The spirit rises to attack
But Zeus's get shall hold him back

The son of Ares stands ahead
Forever living, always dead

A choice that's made leads to a grave
If the camp you are to save.

[Deathkeeper]

The meeting

Oh look, something to actually do.
Lan coughs loudly near Fel.
"Well, if you don't mind the intrusion, Sirs and Ladies, I've been out keeping the kids alive for years, and I'll be a dandelion before I let you go out there without a little extra voice of reason."

[Haleyintraining]

The Meeting

Simon's pen copies down the words Geoff recited, and as the others discuss who should go on the mission, he scratches notes around the prophecy in his moleskine.

"with death around" -> likely the underworld
Zeus's get --> Felandria?
Son of Ares --> Rick?
"leads to a grave" --> poetic, yet doesn't necessarily imply death

[GrandDM]

Rick nods.

"I agree. We'll need your nose. On the basis of that prophecy, it's obvious that Felandria has to be part of the main group. It also seems that that group will number five instead of the usual three. I am hesitant about going myself, given the line about the son of Ares, but I really think I have to if you're to have the best chance of success. I'd also like to bring Carrie. That gives us Fel, me, Carrie and Geoff, plus Lan, so we need one more demigod."

Ares raises a finger. Although now human-sized, his voice is still much stronger than an ordinary person.

"All very well, but you need secondary groups. You aren't going to make it through the pit with all the monsters focused on you. You should have at least two more threes of demigods to draw some of the heat off you."

[Haleyintraining]

The Meeting

"Felandria doesn't HAVE to be part of the main group... technically, Yu could be 'Zeus's get' instead of Felandria."

Simon doesn't necessarily mean anything by this; he's just working out the parameters of the prophecy.

[GrandDM]

The Meeting

"Felandria doesn't HAVE to be part of the main group... technically, Yu could be 'Zeus's get' instead of Felandria."

Simon doesn't necessarily mean anything by this; he's just working out the parameters of the prophecy.

"True... but I really think it should be Fel. She's go more experience, and she's more powerful. Plus, I have a lot more experience fighting alongside her than I do with Yu."

[Haleyintraining]

The Meeting

Simon nods, circling the Felandria he has written down on his paper. As he had been speaking, his pen had scrawled out Rick's list:

Main Group:
Rick - Ares
Felandria - Zeus
Lan
Carrie - Ares
Geoff - Hades
?

Auxiliary One:
?
?
?

Auxiliary Two:
?
?
?

"If you want, I can help out in your group, Rick. Or in one of the auxiliaries..."

[Felandria]

Yu would make an excellent asset for one of the secondary teams.

And Neiz as well.

[5a Violista]

Hermes Table

Melissa smiles, but doesn't make eye contact with Anika; however, she makes it clear that she's vested in the conversation. "I suppose so," she says. She wants to add something else, but can't think of a way to say it...darn her inability to tell the truth without making it sound like a lie!

To give her time to think of some way to continue the conversation, Melissa chews more food and swallows.

Fortunately, she can still use hyperboles and exaggerations without a problem. "She's probably the best person you'll ever meet."

"My name's Melissa." That statement will sound like it's the worst and most blatant lie ever imagined; there's no way that she can be a Melissa! By the tone of her voice and her body language, anyone would be a fool to believe that Melissa's name is actually Melissa. "What's yours?"



Apollo Table

Roxanne finishes talking about a popular band going on tours around the USA, and the conversation shifts to a song she has been trying to write. Noting that Simon sits by her, she pulls out a sheet of paper that has the lyrics and the chords written on it. The meter needs a little work, and the sentence structure could probably be more clear, but the song has good chordal progression. The song's third verse is unfinished, leaving the reader hanging about what happens to the couple next. (It's a song about a broken heart and an old pick-up truck sitting on top of the mountain in the morning.)

She turns towards Simon. "Oh! Just the person I wanted to see. I need a professional opinion on this song, because I can't seem to finish it." Roxanne slides the lyric sheet to Simon. "What do you think of it so far? Should I have them stay separated or get back together?"

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Anika raises an eyebrow at Melissa's blatant lie.

"Are you sure about that? Don't worry, I'm not going to steal it; I have one of my own."

Anika laughs, extending her hand to Melissa.

"I'm Anika."

Anika's slightly surprised at how much praise Melissa gives to Neiz; Rick hadn't said the nicest things about her, but now she figures Rick must just have a grudge for some reason.

Apollo Table (before the timeskip)

Simon leans over the paper to take a look, his bangs falling into his eyes.

"Maybe switch the first half of that third verse with the end bit of the second... with those chords, and if you tweaked it a bit, it would work really well with a bittersweet ending."

He rips a page out of his moleskine, his pen hastily scribing what he has in mind. He hands Roxanne the paper with his revised second and third verses, leading into a bridge.

[GrandDM]

[The Meeting]

"Actually, I think Neiz might be more useful on the primary team. She'd be an asset, especially while we're fighting our way through Hades itself. Less so in the pit, but she'd still be useful."

[Aric Kale]

The Arena

Colin nods and flies off to find Carrie. He first heads back to the dining area, as that's where he saw her last. If she doesn't leave in the next five minutes, he'll land and walk over to her, waiting for a lull in the conversation so he can explain what he needs her for.

The Meeting

There's a knock on the door, then Colin walks in, leaning on his spear with blood dripping down his left arm. Hey...was in the forest...strange monsters...they're dead now. Ambrosia please? The battered lad falls over.

[Felandria]

[The Meeting]

"Actually, I think Neiz might be more useful on the primary team. She'd be an asset, especially while we're fighting our way through Hades itself. Less so in the pit, but she'd still be useful."

Felandria stands up.

I'll go find her and bring her in.

Felandria exits to go find Neiz.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Carrie is exiting with Kanji; when Colin comes, she'll be easy to find, though she'll look fairly confused at what's going on.

---

[Lake]
Neiz, on the other hand, has already made it down to the lake, a favorite spot of hers as Fel may have learned over the years. When she sees the older girl coming, she looks genuinely excited and a little giddy, something really pretty rare for her.

[Haleyintraining]

The Meeting


"If you want, I can help out in your group, Rick. Or in one of the auxiliaries..."

((I figured this comment probably got missed; it was kind of hidden at the bottom.))

Simon's eyes widen a bit at Colin's arrival, but knowing someone else will look after the boy, he continues working on his list.

Main Group:
Rick - Ares
Felandria - Zeus
Lan
Carrie - Ares
Geoff - Hades
Neiz - Styx

"Right now we have two children of Ares in the main group... we might be better off splitting Rick and Carrie up for balance."

[Felandria]

[Lake]
Neiz, on the other hand, has already made it down to the lake, a favorite spot of hers as Fel may have learned over the years. When she sees the older girl coming, she looks genuinely excited and a little giddy, something really pretty rare for her.

Felandria finds Neiz by the lake and gently puts a hand on her shoulder.

Hey, Neiz.

Can you come with me to the big house?

We have a quest.

[Aric Kale]

Arena ~ Carrie

Colin chuckles, telling her that it's part of training with Rick.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall]
Carrie blinks, glancing to Kanji briefly. Oh, okay, sure... where is he?

---

[Lake]
Fel... is... touching her!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Neiz looks up at her, cheeks flushing as she tries to stop her own hands from landing on Fel's own and squeezing it.
O-of course! She tries to get back her usual composure, standng up.

[5a Violista]

Hermes Table

Melissa laughs as well, trying to laugh that off as a joke. I knew I should have come up with a fake name. So much easier. But, if she did, that would be pretty silly.

She shakes hands. "Meeting you has been the highlight of my day," she says with a wink and another laugh. "So, what do you think of Camp Half-Blood?"


Apollo Table (a while ago)

Roxanne looks over the changes. She plays the chords on an air guitar, just to make sure the fingering is not too spread out for her fingers.

"It looks great! Everybody loves bittersweet endings." she says excitedly. "You're the best. When I finally become famous, I'll make sure to put in a good word for you."

[Felandria]

[Dining Hall]
Carrie blinks, glancing to Kanji briefly. Oh, okay, sure... where is he?

---

[Lake]
Fel... is... touching her!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Neiz looks up at her, cheeks flushing as she tries to stop her own hands from landing on Fel's own and squeezing it.
O-of course! She tries to get back her usual composure, standng up.

Come on, sweetie.

Felandria takes Neiz by the hand and walks her back over to the meeting.

[Aric Kale]

The Arena

Colin gestures for her to follow him. The Arena, we're going to participate in a two versus two duel. Yu is already there, besides Rick.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

"It's a bit overwhelming," Anika confesses. Particularly coupled with what had happened earlier that day, but she isn't about to delve into that.

"It's hard to believe that my mother is actually a goddess... and I still have no idea who she is. What about you? Are you a daughter of Hermes?"

Apollo Table (earlier)

Simon smiles.

"Make sure to let me know when the song is done. I'd love to hear the finished version.

It is at this point that Rick stopped by the table, letting Simon know of the counselor's meeting.

"Got to go represent the best cabin there is."

Simon winks at his younger half-sister as he heads out, moleskine and nib pen in hand.

[Beans]

[Dining Hall > Arena] {pre-meeting}
Carrie smiles at Kanji before setting off with Colin.

---

[Lake > Big House]
Neiz swallows hard, confused and a little scared by the unfamiliar feelings growing as warmth seems to flow up her arm from Felandria's hand and spread through her whole body... but even if she doesn't quite understand what's going on, she does know this is nice. She lets herself indulge, leaning against Fel as her cheeks heat up.

[AnimeKid]

Dinner Hall

Kanji nods at Carrie to go on. Once she leaves with Colin he sighs before heading towards the obstacle course. back to training it was then.

[5a Violista]

Hermes Table

Melissa shakes her head 'no'. Without speaking, her powers don't kick in. Then, she laughs. "Wouldn't life be easy if that were the case?" She rolls her eyes and leans back, looking at the ceiling, wishing she had a different mother. (But then I wouldn't have the challenge to come up with a thousand different ways to circumvent speaking the truth.)

"The truth is, I neither know nor care," she lies. Melissa sighs. Wistful thinking. "And if I did, which I don't, then I would wish I never know my mother was a cruel, manipulative woman with no respect for others and a love for only confusion and discord." She grinds her teeth, seething at the memory of her mother, the goddess of chaos and strife.

She's hoping Anika can pick up the hints. Most people don't.

Her mood suddenly shifts, and she looks at Anika for the briefest millisecond, before turning her gaze back to her food. "Well, you had better continue to have a nice stay here. Welcome," she says with a smile. (Wow; for someone who refuses to look people in the eyes out of combat, she has managed to at least make her voice sound friendly.)

Apollo Table (earlier)

"I will," promises Roxanne. She'll quickly finish it and practice it a lot so she can perform it tonight in Apollo's cabin. "Good-bye," she says, "Make sure nobody else forgets it for a moment." They are the best cabin, after all.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Anika is confused for a moment, the gears whirring in her brain as she tries to make sense of the confusing whirlwind of words that had come out of Melissa's mouth.

Her mind flitted through a number of options:

One, Melissa could just be being purposefully contradictory to mess with the new girl. But her voice sounded friendly, not cruel, so that option didn't seem likely.

Perhaps the other girl knew who Anika's mother was, and was attempting to imply something. Anika hoped not... a mother with 'no respect for others and a love for only confusion and discord' sounded worse than no mother at all, but it was a distinct possibility. Anika cycled through the night sky in her mind, her thoughts running through the different mythology associated with each constellation and planet. Eris, the largest of the dwarf planets, was named after the goddess of strife and discord. Could Eris be her mother?

Another possibility, of course, could be that Eris was this girl's mother, given the context. But why would she be being so wishy-washy about it, beating around the subject with all those negatives and double negatives?

The next idea Anika had was that this was some sort of game... maybe Melissa had lost some kind of bet? Anika remembered calling jinx on friends when she was younger, and then they weren't allowed to speak until someone said their name... maybe there was a camp version of something like that Melissa had fallen victim to.

Maybe she'd failed a quest and was cursed to speak in a roundabout fashion. That was pretty much in line with the Greek mythology Anika knew.

Or perhaps Anika was on the wrong track entirely. Maybe this was just the quirky way Melissa was... she'd already come to the conclusion that this camp wasn't exactly for the normal crowd. At least Melissa's hair was a normal shade, although from the brief moment of eye contact the two made Anika could tell she had heterochromia.

All these thoughts spun through Anika's head in a matter of moments. Superhumanly fast, one might say, although how was Anika to know that this wasn't what it was like inside everyone's melon?

In any case, Anika opted to keep her mouth shut on her theories. Despite her quirkiness, Melissa seemed quite nice, and she'd hate to burn the bridge by saying something faux pas.

"I hope so. Oh, what is the cabin like? Lan and Rick were going to show me around, but we got interrupted by dinner, and I don't know where they've got off to now."

[Felandria]

[Lake > Big House]
Neiz swallows hard, confused and a little scared by the unfamiliar feelings growing as warmth seems to flow up her arm from Felandria's hand and spread through her whole body... but even if she doesn't quite understand what's going on, she does know this is nice. She lets herself indulge, leaning against Fel as her cheeks heat up.

Felandria smiled as she walked with Neiz to the meeting, Neiz had always been shy around Fel for some reason, and she was glad that Neiz was feeling more comfortable around her.

Now that she was older, Fel almost felt like the kids were her kids sometimes, her instincts told her to be protective towards them, no matter which cabin they belonged to.

As they get to the house, Fel turns to Neiz.

I just want to prepare you, my father is here, as well as Ares and Artemis.


And they enter the house.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Hermes Table

Rachel is still seated here. She was usually one of the last ones to leave. She always ate really slowly. Mostly cause she kept getting distracted by the fears around her. Especially if there was some kind of event later that night, or the next morning. People would always be afraid of failing, and that fear would get to Rachel.

It sounded like something big was happening. There was probably gonna be a quest soon. Rachel didn't think she should volunteer. She couldn't really see herself being of much use. But, if one of the higher ups asked her...well, how could she say no to them?

[5a Violista]

Hermes Table

Melissa sighs; here's someone else who didn't figure out that Melissa can't tell the truth and have people believe her. Obviously not, because there's no way anyone could have come up with that that quickly.

However, answering questions for the new person is good enough; it shows that the friendship was at least salvageable. At least this time, Melissa didn't accidentally make the new person think that she hates everyone and never wants to speak to him again. That's good news, right?

"Well," she says, thinking of a way to put it. "You saw how this table was during dinner, compared to all the other tables, didn't you?" Full to the brim, disorderly, and very diverse, is what she means. "Well, I can hardly imagine it being any different than your first impression," by the which she means packed, with your roommate's stuff and yours intermingled, and always with a friend or potential friend around every corner.

Melissa notices that most her food has been eaten during the lulls in conversation while she tried to think of how to say what she wanted to say. "Well, thank you for your time; now, you should go make more friends who are more useful than me."

She stands up and puts away her tray before quickly leaving the dining room. Well, that didn't go too badly...

Maybe next time, she could just pretend that she's mute and just write out everything she wants to say? Nope, Melissa has already tried it, and that particular escapade ended in disaster.

[GrandDM]

[Arena]

When Colin and Carrie arrive, Rick nods to his sister and draws the two regular celestial bronze swords he's picked up for this session.

"Live weapons today. With me, Colin?"

[The Meeting]

"How did they get through the barrier?! Unless... oh, that's bad. We're in more trouble than we thought. Monsters can't pass the barrier, even strong ones... but there's nothing to prevent them rising within it. Tartarus has obviously worked that out. Every monster that's killed around the world will probably end up rising here. We need to get in there fast. What's our organisation looking like so far?"

[Dining Hall, as Melissa is leaving]

Rick ambles over to Melissa.

"I don't know how you put up with it. Must be hard having Eris for a mother."

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Shoot, Anika thinks, watching Melissa leave. Had Anika offended her in some way?

Well, what now? The dining hall had relatively emptied by this point, and Rick and Lan were Gods-know-where... same with Neiz and Colin.

Hmph.

"I guess I'll just... wait here then," Anika murmurs to herself, tracing the knots in the wood of the table with her finger.

[Deathkeeper]

Hermes Table

Luckily, I had Lan show up late and stop talking immediately afterwards, so it makes sense for him to stop by or come back, depending on this timeline.
"What's up, Anika? They didn't leave you all alone, did they?"

[Aric Kale]

Arena

Colin takes his place at Rick's side, his spear held vertically in his hands. Are you sure it'll be fair? Yu may be a son of Zeus, but we are a strong team. As he says this he steps away from Rick, holding his spear behind him. His right hand is just under the threes foot long blade, and his left is held out in front of him.

)(The spear is at this angle \ with the blade at the bottom.)(

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

"Not maliciously," Anika answers, rising to her feet. After a beat, she adds, ""Is that Melissa girl cursed?"

[AnimeKid]

Arena

Yu pushes up his glasses before he takes him off of his face and sharply throws his arm out, still holding the glasses, and almost quicker than the eye can see the glasses transform into Truth Seeker. The Celestial Bronze katana's two and a half foot blade shined beautifully before cackling with electricity. "I think we'll manage. Carrie's not an invalid either. Not to mention, if you think that I rely on my title for my power. You'll be in for shock. Yu's voice remains even and calm even as he makes his little joke. His eyes are keen and focused on the two demigods as he starts forming strategies in his head. First and foremost in order to have a hope of victory they needed to seperate the two. Rick and Colin practiced together constantly so they would fight together better than him and Carrie. As he came up with these strategies he waited for the signal to start.

[Deathkeeper]

Hermes Table

Lan frowns. "She has trouble saying things that are definite truths, I think. Something like that; I don't know why."
(PS I assume Lan could have figured that out after how many years he'd known her. Let me know if you don't want anyone to have gotten it)

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Hmmm. Anika bites her lip, deep in thought. Compulsive liar, perhaps? That didn't seem to fit, but she decides to let it drop for now.

"Where've you been?"

[Deathkeeper]

Hermes Table

"Oh, I eat with my cousins. They're okay, although Mr. D likes to have us serve him more than any of you humans." Lan says.

[Beans]

Felandria smiled as she walked with Neiz to the meeting, Neiz had always been shy around Fel for some reason, and she was glad that Neiz was feeling more comfortable around her.

Now that she was older, Fel almost felt like the kids were her kids sometimes, her instincts told her to be protective towards them, no matter which cabin they belonged to.

As they get to the house, Fel turns to Neiz.

I just want to prepare you, my father is here, as well as Ares and Artemis.


And they enter the house.
Neiz tries to calm her blush and look more composed, taking a deep breath and entering. She immediately bows her head in deference, most notably to Zeus.
---

Arena

Colin takes his place at Rick's side, his spear held vertically in his hands. Are you sure it'll be fair? Yu may be a son of Zeus, but we are a strong team. As he says this he steps away from Rick, holding his spear behind him. His right hand is just under the threes foot long blade, and his left is held out in front of him.

)(The spear is at this angle \ with the blade at the bottom.)(
Carrie stands beside Yu, pulling out a garishly pink Hello Kitty nail file... that turns into a sheathed greatsword, Laudanum. The wicked points of the sealed weapon's pommel and crossguard glint as she grips the scabbard.
Unlike what my dad thinks, I'm not a helpless damsel in distress. I survived getting these scars, I can survive getting more.

[GrandDM]

[The Meeting]

Rick calls Neiz over and explains what's going on.

((Haven't time right now to write out a long block of speech, sorry))

[Arena]

"I might not always be coherent, but I'm sure you'll get my point soon enough."

Grinning widely, Rick twirls his borrowed swords in a complex pattern.

"Let's go."

He adopts a defensive stance, waiting for Yu and Carrie to attack.

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Anika listens, nodding. She's unsure of what she's supposed to be doing next, so she'll just let Lan continue speaking.

[Deathkeeper]

Hermes Table

"There's some pretty heavy stuff going on. Gods and quests and such. I'm pretty much the oldest satyr still active in camp, so that makes it my duty to go with Rick and Fel. Is there anything I can do for you in the meantime?"

[Felandria]

[The Meeting]

Rick calls Neiz over and explains what's going on.

((Haven't time right now to write out a long block of speech, sorry))



Fel puts her hands on Neiz's shoulders, looks her in the eyes and smiles.

So, what do you say, are you in?

[Haleyintraining]

Hermes Table

Gods and quests and such? Despite herself, Anika felt a twinge of excitement. What she wouldn't give to go with Lan and Rick and Fel... as if they'd want the new girl to tag along.

She put that idea out of her mind, instead asking, "Might you be able to show me the cabin now? If you're not too busy preparing for the quest, of course."

[Deathkeeper]

Hermes Cabin

"What, the Hermes cabin? That'd be more of a job for Colin or someone. I don't live there. I can stick around if he or one of the other kids is there."