Messing around

[GeneralArin]

Having nothing better to do, Jake was in the Amphitheater. It had been a day or two since the fiasco on the beach, and he had finally gotten some of the calibrations on Agamemnon. He hadn't managed to get a proper aquatic test, though. Anyway, he was tired of work and training. Why else would he be in the one place no one would look for him?

Jake kicked up a long stick and swung it around absently. He swung it around like a light sword, feinting invisible blows from imaginary ninjas as he backed onto the stage. He jumped back a good ways and held out the stick as if keeping an enemy at bay.

"Beg for thy life, filth! For today you face the wrath of Sir Jake the awesome!" He shouted, complete with the melodramatic tone.... he couldn't help but have a broad grin as he said it.

[Cerulaen]

At the moment Daquiri wandered into the Amphitheater to see if they actually had a nice stage there, she seriously wished she had a video camera. Seeing "Sir Jake the Awesome" flailing around with a long wooden pole shouting in Olde English was some serious blackmail material. While her utter disgust of him from the beach a few days ago was still there, she couldn't help but voluntarily speak to him just for the purpose of teasing him to no end. And Daquiri had never been called a "nice" teaser.
"Didst thee lose thy way to the water closet?" Daquiri deadpanned. She put a hand on her hip, arching a blonde eyebrow.

[GeneralArin]

Jake nearly jumped of the stage in pure reflex.
He whipped his head over to see the girl from the other day standing there, smirking at him. He actually was at a loss of what exactly to say, being taken off guard like that. After he recovered his wit, he said,
"No. Actually, I was tacking down the Ancient Macguffin of Destiny when I was attacked by zombie ninjas."

Actually, when after saying it aloud, maybe he should have just agreed.

[Cerulaen]

Daquiri had the pleasure of witnessing Jake being surprised out of his wits when she spoke out loud. If she'd gotten a picture of the look on his face, she probably could have made some money around the camp. However, when she heard his response, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at the boy's stupidity.
"I don't think you're helping your case," the red-head dithered. Unsheathing her dagger, she flipped it around in the air and caught it by the tip of the blade and pointed it at Jake. "And there's really no point to playing with fake 'weapons.' "

[GeneralArin]

"Probably not." He agreed, giving a sheepish grin. When she pulled out he knife, he scoffed. He put his weight back onto one leg.
"Sure there is. It's lighter, and I don't need to worry about damaging it." He flipped the stick in his hand, then held it out dramatically. "For verily, fixing chips be-ith a pain in the butt."

Eh, she already thought he was an idiot. It wasn't like he was going to ruin his impression or anything at this point.

[Cerulaen]

Daquiri let loose a rather unlady-like snort. "If you train with a weapon lighter than what you'll be using, your muscle won't be conditioned correctly. And," she continued, crossing her arms over her rather large chest, "if you allow your weapon to be damaged while practicing, that just shows your own incompetence."
The red-head didn't really know why she was giving this guy the time of day, but she stayed put anyway. However, her foot was tapping almost involuntarily with impatient irritation.

[GeneralArin]

Jake gave her a bemused look.
"Does it look like I'm practicing?" He said with a broad gesture. "I'm fighting zombie pirates."

Of course he knew how to practice correctly. However, he's done more than enough practice, and he doubted a bit of play with a stick would do any harm to his muscles, ones toned by long hours between training and forging.

"Besides, weapons get dinged up all the time. That's what happens when you hit heavy objects against each other. They get less sharp, and nicked, making you have to go sharpen them down so that they're nice again..." Jake had been absently gesturing with his stick while he was talking. "And that's such a pain, really."
He swung the stick a thoughtful swipe through the air.
"I guess you probably wouldn't know about that."

[Catryn Greyling]

[Hey guys, sorry.  Didn't notice this topic 'til now.]

  Camp Half-Blood was the biggest camp Cat had ever been to, that was for sure. She had already seen the fields, the Big House, and the volleyball courts on the way in. Then she was properly introduced to Peleus the dragon on the tour with Syl (although she wasn't sure if Peleus was actually acknowledging that she was not an enemy or just blowing steam in her face), and they had checked out the inexplicably roofless mess hall, as well as the canoe lake, the armory, the infirmary, the arts and crafts pavilion and the arena. She also got to take a look at the pegasus stables (one word: awesome), and then, after settling into her own cabin, the other cabin clusters. She wanted to explore the woods, hopefully find a good hiking trail, but... she had a strange feeling she'd regret it. She knew to listen to her intuitions; she'd have to wait a bit longer before venturing into the forest.

  This morning she had decided to see the other odd features of Camp Half-Blood, including the serene beach and the climbing walls, which she made a wide arc around. It was only reasonable, considering it had lava pouring down the sides, and the fact that the walls clashed together every once in a while... Gosh, she would not want to be in the middle of that thing when that happened. She shuddered involuntarily at the thought of the wall slamming into her back and crushi- agh. No.
  She was also dying to see the archery range, but she decided to see the amphitheater first, since it was on the way anyhow. She'd heard from her cabinmates that Apollo kids sometimes led sing-a-longs down there with a magical campfire (something about it being... colorful?) and she wanted to see it for herself. Also, she had made it pretty clear that she would not be singing in front of the other campers. Her cabinmates - also her half-siblings, but she preferred not to think too much about that - had smirked knowingly, as if to say "Ha, you'll come around." Oh, how that pushed her buttons. She didn't like it when people pretended to know and understand her. And she definitely wasn't going to 'come around'. She could be very stubborn if she wanted, she thought with satisfaction as she kicked a rock along. A child of Apollo, refusing to sing. What an oddity. But she was fine with that. Mostly.

  She came upon the deserted amphitheater and gazed around. With a jolt, she suddenly realized... it wasn't quite as deserted as she thought. There was a guy holding a stick at the bottom by the empty campfire, talking to a familiar strawberry blonde girl on the other side of the theater... Daquiri, the girl she'd met in front of the Hermes cabin a few days ago.
  Cat could only see the guy's back and his dirty blond hair, but she could tell he was at the very least two years older than her. He swung the stick and said to Daquiri, "I guess you probably wouldn't know about that."
  She took a step back, wondering if she should just leave. Eavesdropping wasn't really her thing, nor was heedlessly dropping into a conversation.


  [Yippee, super long post.]

[Cerulaen]

((Lulz, walls of text FTW! Way to outdo us, Cat. xD))

Daquiri was about to comment on how Jake could put a class of ADHD kids to sleep with his weapons-play review, but when she heard him add that last remark her eyes sparked with indignation.
"Oh, I wouldn't, would I? And what do you think my life has been like, since you apparently know everything about it?" Daquiri's voice was now dangerously low; her past was a touchy subject and she never talked about it to anyone, let alone this particular boy. But she hated when people assumed things about her--especially when it was because of her looks.

[Catryn Greyling]

[Pfft yeah, that's how I roll. ]

  Cat tensed a little. Daquiri was clearly in a dangerous mood now. Should she step in before things got too bad, or leave the two to resolve this themselves? That was assuming they were going to make peace instead of fight more. But Daquiri seemed the type to readily injure people if they irritated her rather than let it go, and she wasn't sure if the boy would be willing to retaliate with his stick. Hopefully not.
  She found herself staying put, waiting for the boy's response.

[GeneralArin]

Jake's brows went up as she was suddenly angry with him. It took him several moments to try to piece together why she was mad at him.
"Uhhh..." Was his suave response in the meantime, "I meant because you were new. Actually." He said slowly, eventually coming to the conclusion that she was angry because he said she wouldn't know about that sort of thing. "New people normally don't know about weapon upkeep."

He reviewed her statement in his head for a moment.
"When did I talk about your life?" He asked, tilting his head and running a hand through his head as he tried to remember. Geeze, it was times like this where he wished he would talk a lot less... or at least had more people skills.

[Cerulaen]

((Lawl, Ri doesn't yell, Jake. What part of 'dangerously low' was confusing? xD))

[GeneralArin]

(The part where I didn't see it. XD I'll change it to "angry")

[Cerulaen]

((Haha, thank you. I can't have Miss Laurens OOC, now can I? xD)) ((P.S. Sorry if my nitpicks are annoying, I get WAAAAY defensive of how my character is portrayed...))

[Cerulaen]

"You assumed that I don't know what I'm doing just because I'm new. And by assuming that, you're implying that you don't think I've had to deal with crap like this my entire life. Does it look like I don't know how to use this dagger?" The red-head spun her dagger with her fingers to emphasize her point. "I'd watch how you word things, Hammer Head."

((Sorry, shot post, I can post more if you need me to when I get off work))

[GeneralArin]

(Nah.)
Jake raised a brow. "Hammer Head?" He gave an amused scoff at the name. Quite frankly, he could only think of one other new person that had a in depth knowledge of weapons. So, it wasn't a unfounded assumption.
"Come on, you can do better." He said, grinning. He leaned on the stick he had been using. "I'm clearly an insufferable idiot by saying there's no harm in taking it easy every once in a while."

[Cerulaen]

((Ugh, I kept on starting to write this on my phone and then it kept getting deleted cuz the page would reload -.- So sorry for the late response, heh.))

Walking slowly around the Amphitheatre, all the while giving Jake a wide berth, Daquiri ran a hand through her long hair as she eyed the blond. "Would you rather I use my R-rated insults?" she quipped. It wasn't like he could come up with anything past "Princess." Although, he had somehow managed to hit a good one all the same.
Jerk.
The red-head wrinkled her pert nose at Jake's last statement. "You are an idiot, yes. Among other things. But I've never been allowed to "take it easy," as you say. So it's a luxury you can keep to yourself."

((I wish I had a mental picture of the Amph...))

[GeneralArin]

Jake held up his hands in a broad shrug. "Well, in that case you should relax more." He said, settling back into position. "I mean, you are at camp." He said with a dry grin. "It's a safe place, no monsters, no vanillas thinking you're insane... and you get to play with sharp objects and have neverending sodas."

[Catryn Greyling]

Maybe this was a good time to step in. "The never-ending sodas sound good to me," Cat spoke up, casually jumping down a few steps towards the bottom of the amphitheater.

 [Yep, it's a short, lazy post. Sue me. (Or not, that's good too.)]

[Cerulaen]

((Sigh. Writing Daquiri takes so much work.))

  Daquiri turned her head at the sound of a new voice. The girl she had met a few days ago, Cat Greyling, was now making her way down the Amphitheatre steps. Daquiri resisted the urge to knit her brow in annoyance. Cat was the one who'd gotten "claimed" right in front of her. The red-head was still denying that it was anything more than an illusion played by these...well, delusional campers.
  "I don't drink soda. It dehydrates your body," Daquiri informed them primly. When one had to come up with as many insults a day as she did, they needed all the energy they could get.

[GeneralArin]

Jake glanced up to see another girl join them, one that he didn't think he had seen before. He gave a quick nod of acknowledgement with a grin.
"Nah, you just drink enough and it counteracts it." He said with a laugh, knowing full well that's not how soda works. "That's why you need it to be unending."

He straightened up again and gave a more proper wave to the new person.
"Hey, there! Tired of getting burned on the rock wall?" He joked.

[Catryn Greyling]

Cat shrugged at Daquiri's comment. "True enough." She knew what soda did; she also knew that the phosphoric acid in it wore away at the bones and could cause osteoporosis, which was basically frail, brittle bones. She only allowed herself one soda a month, at the most. But she still kind of liked it.

 The blond guy looked up at her too, and gave her an acknowledging nod and grin. She considered her options for a quick moment and decided to just nod back. She raised an eyebrow at his 'why never-ending soda is okay for you' theory. He looked like he was joking, but Cat couldn't be completely sure. Hopefully he was, or the poor guy was going to have major health issues.

 He straightened and waved, addressing her properly, following up quickly with another joking comment. "Oh, I stayed far away from that wall," she responded dryly, smirking slightly. "I have plenty of time to injure myself in stupid ways once I get a feel for the place." She let her gaze sweep around the amphitheater. "At least this area seems normal," she said, half to herself.

 She set her sights on the dead campfire, then gave the boy an inquiring glance. "I heard something 'bout a... multicolored campfire from my... from the other kids in the Apollo cabin," she corrected herself. "They are kidding, right?" she asked, looking critically at the ashy pit. Perhaps they added certain chemicals to their fire to give it different colors while it burned, like fireworks. She didn't know if that could actually work, as she'd never tried it, but if that was something they did here (and actually pulled off without blowing themselves up), then she'd definitely like to see it. And if her cabinmates had only been trying to pull one over on her, they could still give it a try.

[Cerulaen]

((I'm at 500 posts, guys ))

Daquiri had yet to see anything that was all that spectacular here at "Camp Half-Blood." Well, okay, so the wannabe-warrior kids running around with weapons, and the glowing symbols, and the disappearing arrows--and not to mention the giant, gleaming bronze death trap of a dragon--those were all pretty high on her "Weird Things To Stay Away From" list. But still. Now they were talking about a fire that changed colors? Daquiri was honestly starting to believe that these kids had an agenda for how many times a day they could get her to think they were all whack. And so far, they were succeeding in branding themselves as completely off their rockers.
On the bright side, at least Cat seemed just about as skeptical about the chameleon campfire as she was. The red-head had some sort of grudging appreciation towards the Apollo girl, if only because she wasn't all gung-ho about this Greek gods stuff as everyone else appeared to be. Daquiri thought back to her initial meeting with the girl at the Hermes Cabin and how she had noted that she'd worn a very similar expression to that of Daquiri's usual ones. It was still obvious that the brunette was much different from Daquiri--after all, she would rather stick pins in her eyes than joke along with Jake--but the strawberry blonde couldn't help but feel that, out of everyone, this girl might be someone that could actually understand her on a similar level.
Might.

((Yeah, I know, no dialogue, but Cat was speaking to Jake anyway so I figured I'd just have her respond to the next thing. xP This post can be character development and reflection, lawl.))

[Axel The Bunny]

(hey can i join im incredibly bored ATM)

[Catryn Greyling]

[Huzzah! I shall joineth thee, Lady Daquiri the Sharp of Tongue, in thy reflective, character-developing posts.]

 Cat's gaze was on the dormant fire pit, but she stayed aware of Daquiri and the blond boy. She didn't dare look Daquiri in the eye at the moment; she admittedly found her quite intimidating and the last thing she needed was to have awkward eye contact. She still didn't quite know what to make of the girl with the fiery red-gold hair and a temperament to match.
The guy, he was much easier to get a basic read on. He seemed to be the casual, friendly jokester-type guy, someone that would be easy to get along with. Not that she'd know too much about getting along with people. Daquiri, on the other hand, was a closed book. She seemed touchy about personal subjects, something Cat had noticed when she asked her if she was a Hermes child and the strawberry blonde had flatly informed her that her father was dead.

 Cat had been around people like her, people who weren't particularly fond of other people and seemed aloof and disdainful and angry and proud. But she had never really talked much to them, or wanted to. Sure, she could sometimes relate. There were days she'd just ignore everybody (but it didn't really matter considering everybody was already ignoring her) and involuntarily scowl at nothing. But at the end of the day she preferred being... what was the word... more even-tempered. (That was two words attached with a hyphen, but Cat couldn't care less at the moment.)

 She was curious, though. She still remembered seeing Jared, Mr. Sunshine, get claimed, how he had instantly taken to the idea of being a child of a flippin' god, an all-powerful, immortal being that was only supposed to exist in stories. He had accepted it in a blink of an eye, and was super excited, even. This girl was the exact opposite. Cat had seen her reject the idea alongside herself when she had gotten claimed (how odd that was, being 'claimed'. Was she a lost puppy at the pound or something?), and if she had to guess, she'd say Daquiri was still not in agreement with the whole mythology thing around here. She didn't even know if she herself was completely into this Greek camp. And she was partially Greek.
On one hand, she felt like she could trust them and believe that what they were telling her was true. On the other hand, there was logic and reason. It really was confusing. She'd start thinking like the other campers here, just accepting the gods as a reality, then suddenly - what was she thinking? What was she even doing here? She wondered what went through Daquiri's mind every morning she woke up in this place, if she too marveled at the oddity of her situation. Come to think of it, what went through the minds of every camper? Did they truly believe this? She honestly didn't know what to think.

 The past few nights she had tossed some of her dinner into the fire like Corra had shown her that first night, asking her father to show himself, show her her purpose here, and reassure her that this wasn't some sort of crazy prank. There had been nothing so far.

 She imagined her eyes burning holes through the campfire. Maybe that'd be enough to get the sun god's attention.

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