Rules:
Reply at least once every day or two
No tangents with you and just one other player
At least one good-sized paragraph per post
Semi-literate to literate grammar
Location: Woods: Zeus' Fist -> Cave of the Oracle: Athena Parthenos
There were a dozen things that Lauren could've been doing. Planning for the next Capture the Flag match, perhaps, patrolling the camp boundary even. Instead of doing either of those two intelligent, normal things, she simply sat in the woods, at the top of Zeus' Fist, using the relative solitude as an opportunity to clear her head. She'd been at Camp Half-Blood since she was nine, it was more of a home than the mortal world had ever been for her. And it was in danger.
Like most demigods, her relationship with her father was... distant, to say the least. But occasionally, she dreamed of the Underworld, though she'd never actually been, where she had free reign, and could explore the Fields of Asphodel, the Fields of Punishment, and even Elysium, though she could never stray too far before she woke. However, ever since the gods had cut contact, and sealed the gates of Olympus, even that had been barred from her, causing her to lose the one connection she had to her father, beyond genetics.
Quite frankly, the entire situation made her nervous, which led to her spending more time than usual in the woods, as though plotting strategies that she couldn't yet use. A quest, in her eyes, seemed like common sense, and yet the Oracle, a girl named Penelope, had yet to offer a prophecy related to their current situation, which left them without options. None of them had the guts to sneak out, not without some kind of clue of where to go, or even what was causing the rift between the gods and their children. If they were going to fix the problem, they needed to know more.
After a few more moments of contemplation, she scaled down from Zeus' Fist carefully. After all, if she fell, that was a fifteen foot drop, and unlike the god it was named after, she had no way to manipulate the air to break her fall. Once she was safely on the ground, she walked back toward camp, passing the pegasus stables, the Big House, the volleyball court, until she made it to her destination. While Athena had never been a goddess she'd understood, she respected her, and the Athena Parthenos was an impressive sight nonetheless. It had been relocated to the hill above the Cave of the Oracle after the battle between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood, where it could be on display as it was supposed to be. She wasn't the only camper there, a few children of Athena were studying in its presence, as though it helped them concentrate. Hopefully, its power would work on the Oracle as well, give her the boost she needed to spout a prophecy in a timely manner.
Kalen, Son of Demeter
Location: Dining Pavilion -> Arena
"I heard someone was kidnapped." Kalen looked up slightly at the words, spoken by one of his youngest siblings, Cecelia. It took him a moment to realize what she was talking about, his foggy brain moving slower than usual. "That's why they aren't talking anymore, they're looking for the person who was taken."
"Who told you that?" He asked, frowning. The topic of their silent parents had been circulating for weeks, everyone speculating without any real proof.
"One of the Aphrodite campers." She replied, looking proud of her oh-so-reliable informant.
"It's just gossip, Cece. Truth is, nobody knows why they aren't communicating with us." Another child of Demeter chimed in, and Kalen nodded. The speculations never ended, in recent times. After all, the silence from their godly parents was... strange. For people like Kalen, who'd never spoken to his mother, there was really no difference, but even Dionysus was gone, apparently granted a reprieve from his punishment at Camp Half-Blood. He'd disappeared without a word about a month before, just exacerbating everyone's suspicions. Radio silence from all of the gods, ignored prayers, and an increase in monster attacks had put everyone on edge.
"We could ask Chiron." Cece said quietly.
"Good idea. Seen him recently?" Kalen nudged her. While the centaur was occasionally seen, he was often holed up in the Big House, presumably just as confused as they were. "If he knew something, he'd tell us."
"Maybe there'll be a quest!" Another of his siblings said excitedly, and Kalen cringed slightly. He'd gone on one quest before, and that was enough for him.
"Yea, maybe. I'll see you guys later." Kalen muttered, getting to his feet and leaving his food uneaten. Most of the campers were eating lunch, but there were still a few roaming about, training or talking with fellow campers. And there was plenty of Kalen's least favorite part of camp - the couples. A bunch of hormonal teenagers, it wasn't unusual, but Kalen took no part in it. Mostly because it always creeped him out, as they were all technically cousins or related by some extent, even if godly relations 'didn't count.' He ignored the people around him, choosing to walk to the training arena. He never trained with other campers, as most of them could kill him without effort, but he often watched other people train, to try and pick up tips without actually risking death.
The most notable group of campers in the arena was the Ares cabin. Children of the god of war, they spent a lot of time trying to hurt other people, and most were no match for them. He saw a couple glances his way, as though they could smell an easy target, so he wasted no time half-jogging to the bleachers, where he could sit safely without people trying to stab him.
Kiran, Son of Apollo
Location: Apollo Cabin -> Forge
Kiran woke up late, one of the last people to remain in the Apollo cabin. Most of them were morning people, and woke up with the sunrise, whereas Kiran rarely woke up before noon, and he was barely a person before a heavy dose of caffeine. He changed quickly into a Camp Half-Blood shirt and jeans before jogging toward the forge. He'd been struggling to learn how to forge, though his attempts were pretty pathetic. Fortunately, some of the Hephaestus campers were patient enough to try to teach him a bit, particularly Lincoln, but it seemed that, despite the many hours spent in the forge, he was a terrible student. Even something as simple as trying to make a sword was ridiculous, the edges so dull and the metal so unevenly tempered that the weapon, if it could be called that, was little more than a hunk of metal. He'd tried to make a small mechanical centaur, inspired by something he'd seen someone else make, that was only supposed to walk around, and it ended up blowing up in his face, singing off half of his eyebrow over six months before.
Despite the amount of people in the forge working over heavy flames, the heat wasn't uncomfortable, not to him. He lacked the powers that most children of Apollo valued - archery, singing, medicine - and instead excelled in powers reflecting Apollo's other side. Light, heat, that was his specialty. His eyes were less sensitive to bright lights, which was helpful, and he could withstand slightly more intense heat than most, though nothing even close to what a Cyclops could tolerate. After a few minutes in the forge, he had no doubt that he'd start feeling that heat.
He didn't spare a glance at the other campers in the forge, figuring it was safer for everyone involved if he worked on his own on something simple. His eventual goal was to be actually good at smithing, to the point where he could make supplies that would help people, but for the moment, he just wanted to work without injuring himself or others. That alone seemed to be a Herculean task. Despite his misgivings, he pulled a few steel scraps from the discard pile, figuring he shouldn't waste the Celestial Bronze on his attempts when he knew they'd end badly. He set to work hammering the steel, not quite sure what his goal with the metal was, except that he'd like something that wouldn't blow up in his face.
(I'll code later posts when it's only one character per post)
Kaiden Armitage, Son of Aphrodite Location: Aphrodite Cabin > The Forge Indirectly Interacting With: Lincoln (Mephobia
), Kiran (Permanent Exhaustion
)
The Aphrodite Cabin was empty. This was the first thing Kaiden noticed as he walked in. It wasn't like people couldn't walk around the camp and talk to other people, but his siblings were a bunch of gossips, so they usually hung around each other. 'It's not like it matters,' Kaiden thought to himself, 'If anything, it will serve as some much needed, peace and quiet.' On the way over to his bunk-bed, he nabbed one of Sadie's trashy magazines. As much as he complained about how much his family liked to spread and read about rumors, Kaiden wasn't much better. He couldn't really deny that the publication wasn't interesting to him, at least.
It was only a few short moments before the door to the cabin slammed open. Groaning, Kaiden pulled off his headphones and turned to the sound of the noise. "This better be good," the teenage boy grumbled to himself, "I just got to the good part of the article." Brandishing the magazine above his head, he noticed the source of the noise. Harper. Kaiden thought he might have died a bit inside just then.
Harper, one of his youngest sisters, was notorious for being quite a bit of a brat. She definitely had an attitude, and the spunky 8-year-old hardly got along with anyone, not for their lack of trying. Sometime last summer, she seemed to have attached herself to Kaiden; he had no idea why. They shared no common interests, and their personalities were on completely different sides of the spectrum. However, as rude and careless as Harper was, she was also a crybaby, and always wanted to get her way. Her visit was probably not for anything good.
As if she could read Kaiden thoughts, the young girl brandished a small dagger above her head. "Kaiden!" she shrieked, "My knife is broken!" Sure enough, running along the length of the blade was a massive crack. How she managed to break it, Kaiden had no idea; Children of Aphrodite weren't particularly strong fighters. The teenage boy sighed, and made his way down from the top bunk of his bed. "And what do you want me to do about that?" He asked.
"Can you take me down to the forge and ask the Hephastus campers what they can do?" Harper responded cheekily.
"Why would I do that? Can't you do it; you're old enough now."
"They won't listen to me!" huffed Harper. "And it's not like they take me seriously anyway! They think I'm just a little kid." she pouted, stomping her feet on the wooden panels of the floor.
"No wonder." Kaiden murmured to himself, before facing Harper head on, "I guess I can. But you owe me!"
Harper ran over and gave him a choking hug. "Thanks, you're the best brother ever!" Kaiden nearly took it as a compliment, until he realised he was her only brother. His hand was quickly grabbed, and the son of Aphrodite found himself being pulled towards the Forge.
As they made their way across camp, Kaiden couldn't help but wonder how strange things had been recently. Not many people had noticed, but Olympus had apparently shut off communication with the camp, as well as the rest of the mortal world. It was definitely worrying, especially to someone like him. Kaiden didn't have any sword skills, and he was a decent magic user at best. However, he didn't have much time to dwell on it, because he and Harper had already reached the Forge.
Grabbing the small dagger out of his sister's hand, Kaiden brandished it out in front of him. 'Might as well get to the point,' he thought, before calling out, "Could anyone help us with this?"
A: "All these rumours are getting sort've out of hand, huh."
D: "Yeah, you believe em?"
A: "Can't say. But I wouldn’t be surprised if any of them were true.”
J: "Well, we know we've burned."
A: "That's that."
J: "Mhm."
D: “What about you, Cass? Any word?”
Caspian looked up from his hand of cards. "No," he said and observed his three brothers at the table. They were all bloody good at maintaining a poker face, but he could tell each of them were nervous. They all were.
It had already been weeks of godly silence, and the camp was sputtering a few different words and stories about their parental abandon. It wasn't as if they were unfamiliar with it. Some cabins were more in touch with their demi side, while others were comfortable with disengagement. Nineteen was one of the latter. Despite her lucky gifts to her children, Tyche wasn't the most nurturing of mothers. She was never the type to go out of her way to bring prosperity or happiness to her kids.
She doesn't appear to those searching for her.
Yeah. So an invitation to the wedding? Fuggetaboutit.
"She's more like a vodka aunt than a mum, huh?" His brother Adrian had once half heartedly joked. He said it with such a mean mug of a smile, that Caspian missed the timing to laugh. It was no wonder that Cabin Nineteen looked like a bunch of greasers and hoodlums, clad in leather. His siblings all had their own set of troubles, a few of them from mafia and criminal family backgrounds. He only had a handful of siblings- a perfect number of people for a poker table. As their counsellor, and apparently ma's most (or rather least) favourite, he felt responsible for them all.
"Listen, just sit tight. Penelope’s been at it for days. Something materials bound to come up, and if that’s not the case..”
A: “Something else will?”
“Yeah. Don't sweat it. But always stay on yer toes, alright?" With his words his brothers seemed to relax a bit, and in turn Caspian felt better at ease. He didn't want to believe it, but he could always tell when something big was coming his way. Fortunately, his gut feeling told him his siblings would fare just fine.
"You fellas enjoy the next round, I’m heading out for a smoke."
★
Taking a long drag of his cigarette, Caspian spotted a familiar flare of red glaring in the sun. Smiling, he eyed the lass making her way up towards Athena Parthenos. Deciding to snuff out his smoke, he crushed the butt under his shoe.
"Oi! Dark one!" He called, running up after her. As he caught up, Caspian dropped his hands to his knees to catch his breath. "How you holding up with all this nasty talk?"
Behind his wicked smile, Caspian felt genuine concern.