forum Camp Half-Blood (closed 5/5)

Started April 20, 2023 by @ElderGod-yellowqueen

tune

Jason held his helmet in his hands still, resisting the urge to toss it at the Aphrodite kids perfect face. It'd be somewhat amusing to see how she would react to having get stitches on perfect skin. It took a moments pause to remember her name, and he spent that thinking time glaring at her. Amelia.

She'd been cleaning out her nails with her dagger and he rolled his eyes, of course she would. He hadn't even touched his weapons, if he had to fight he'd just.. Pick up a big stick or something. It wasn't like he actually needed to expend much energy on this game. Unfortunately, he did have to expend energy replying to to Amelia's taunts.

"It could have gone.. Better." Jason conceded partially, still scowling. "But it's not my fault that this team has the average IQ of a pack of rabid squirrels. Full offense given by the way." A bit of the frown relaxed and he managed an annoying little smile.

"But I don't plan on "Defending" anything, they lost the privileged of my help the moment they ignored my plan. You do the guarding, try not to break a nail." He crossed his arms, and to show his resolve, sat on the ground, criss-cross apple sauce. He kind of wished he'd brought a book, for all of his intelligence, you'd think he'd have the foresight to realize this game wouldn't be much different than the last few. The other campers had been bored of his plans before he'd even shown up. The thought annoyed him, so he tried to sulk harder.

Turns out that wasn't possible, so Jason just started playing with the curls in his hair, sighing dramatically every once in a while.

Amelia raised her eyebrows as Jason plopped right down on the ground. She crossed her arms as she watched him fir a minute, smirking. As if she was actually going to do any work. She wasn't risking breaking a nail. And even if these weren't a new pair of nails she still wouldn't have done anything. If they came for the flag she would let them take it, easy as that. She didn't like this game and never put up a fight. It was up to the others to get to the other teams flag first. If they did that, yay they won. If they didn't, well, they lost big whoop. It wasn't like she really cared. The sooner this game was over the better.

She sat down on the ground, corsing her legs best she could with the armor. She didn't exactly look ladylike but at the moment, she didn't really care. Everyone else had already scattered, going along with some other person's plan that was very distinctly opposite of Jason's. It was kind of funny. "Well I don't plan on defending either. If they make it to the flag they can have it." She was sitting right down next to him. Her shoulder could almost touch his if she shifted too much.

She looked at him, taking in his apperance. "I have some products for curly hair if you want them. I can even show you how to style them. It would be a shame if you let them suffer." His hair coukd look wonderful if only he uses the right products and styling methods. She could help if he let her. He probably wouldn't but it was still fin to poke at him. She would likely be more surprised if he said yes.

Jason raised an eyebrow as Amelia plopped down right next to him. His lips drew into a line and he scooted over maybe two inches. Personal space much? He didn't care if their shoulders touched, but it was the principal of the thing! He snorted quietly, some "defense" the two of them were. The other team could waltz in, grab the flag, and Jason doubted either of them would so much as bat an eyelash. Well maybe Amelia would, she'd probably take the chance to bat her eyelashes at anything.

He noticed her looking at him and he stopped playing with his hair, making direct eye contact. If someone was going to stare at him he wanted them to know he could see them doing it. Besides, he didn't hate the attention. She opened her mouth and he almost sighed again. Here it comes. The spiel. Aphrodite kids were all the same. "oh what eyeliner do you use? Is that concealer? What brand of eye shadow is that? I can help you with your nails next time! Your eyelashes are so natural, you've got to do something with them. Have you thought about dying your hair?"

True to form, she offered to help him with his "curls". What a shame it would be to let them suffer!
The boy gave a nastily sweet smile, his voice mocking as he spoke.

"Oh. My. God. You're too sweet. Really going to swoop in and save my poor, neglected hair." He rolled his eyes, the smile dropping and his voice going back to its normal smug, sarcastic tone.

"Maybe I like my hair the way it is, huh? Maybe I already know what products to use and how to style it? How about next time I tell you how to take care of your cuticles. I'm sure that dagger is doing wonders for them." Jason smirked slightly, Aphrodite kids were always so easy to rile up. He'd spent all summer once just learning about cosmetology just so he could provoke them and how to properly present himself as an added bonus. That had been a bad school year.

Amelia glowered at him, narrowing her eyes. Here she was, offering her help, advice, and most importantly, her products. Something she rarely ever did. She crossed her arms with a huff. "You don't have to be such a jerk, jerk." Don't her best comeback but it was the best she could come up with at the moment. "And I'll have you know I was not caring for my cuticles. I don't hate myself. I was cleaning the dirt out if them. I don't have my nail file on me at the moment so I'll do what I have to when my nails are dirty."

She was making a face as she sat there. Here she was, trying to be nice and extending an olive branch and he had thrown it back in her face. The two of them both had very strong personalities and often got into it with one another. But just because they fought all the time did not mean she did not care about his hair. It shouldn't be suffering like that. She knew there was no convincing him about his skin and taking care of it so she didn't bother trying. She had before and it worked out terribly for her.

The others had all but gone. She didn't know why they trusted both Amelia and Jason to watch the flag. They should know by now neither of them was going to do a thing to stop anyone. They must be that confident in their skills that they would reach the other team's flag first. That was proved wrong as Amelia looked through the woods. She could swear she saw a hint of their leather armor and certainly not wearing a blue helmet. They must be from the other team come to take the flag. As long as they didn't try to fight her, she was good. She even took her helmet off now to prove that to them. She did not want to be taken as a threat. She wasn't one.

Her hair was a little messy from being in the helmet and she had to shake it out and run her hands through it. In just a few moments, she had calmed down the friz that had grown and it lay almost perfectly on her head. Well, that was better than not perfect at all. So she would take it.

Jason burst out laughing at her attempt at an insult. It seemed unreasonably funny to him, clutching his stomach and just barely managing to not topple over. It took him a while to calm down, savoring the annoyed expression on her face. Good. Served her right.

"Was that the best your feeble mind could come up with? I'd suggest you read a book, but I'm not sure you can read anything that's not a make-up label. "

He continued to smirk, shaking his head slightly. He didn't need her pity or her help. Other people were only there to get in the way. At best they could do physical labor he couldn't, but Jason was finding himself hard pressed to think of anything that he couldn't do better than his peers. Hm. Made sense to him.

He tuned out her justifications about her nails. He didn't actually care at all. And she seemed more pre-occupied in fixing her case of helmet hair than continuing to speak, which was just fine with him. It left him more of an opportunity to hear the sound of his own voice.

"You know this game is stupid anyways? I mean, how often are we actually going to be paired up into teams of other demi-gods? It would be much more efficient to have us train individually to maximize survival rates. And the weapons training? Do not get me started on that…." Despite his sentence, Jason very much did get started on that. He could manage to talk about nearly anything and often didn't need another person to actually have a conversation with. To him audience participation was discouraged actually.

Eric stayed relaxed, making sure not to tense up or clamp done his grip on his powers. He walked up the shore, towards where most of Blue Team seemed to have come from. He could have sworn he heard the sounds of talking and laughing, which meant whoever was guarding the flag was obviously relaxed. That was either a sign of not being ready, or being so confident that he should maybe be careful.
A longer look through the undergrowth showed helmets with red plumage, though one of them was sitting on the ground next to whoever had been wearing it. Whoever was wearing the other one was beginning to drone, on and on and on, and Eric had to assume it was that chatty, arrogant guy. The one… What was his name?
Well. It didn't matter.
He rounded the bend, and scanned the area, looking for the flag. It had to be in plain sight, but hiding it in a way where only part of it was in plain sight was a perfectly normal thing to do.

Amelia looked at Jason with an incredulous look. "I do read, I'll have you know. Just because I don't science books for fun doesn't mean I don't enjoy it." She enjoyed a good romance or fantasy novel. Those we're always good to dive into. She enjoyed them alit, even if a couple of her siblings teased her for it. But she would never read school books for fun. Not unless she wanted it to send her to sleep.

"Listen, all I do was try to offer my advice and some help. You didn't need to be so rude." As if she couldn't be rude herself. Amelia was just confident in who she was (no she wasn't) and she wasn't going to let anyone step on that. And Jason just happened to be absolutely insufferable. She hated his guts. She didn't even know why they started fighting in the first place. He was likely being a know it all and she had clapped back at him and here they were, in this never ending fued. It was quite exhausting but she never saw it ending. Not because of her but because of him.

"Oh yes, I'm sure you're right," she said in a sarcastic voice. "Try telling Chiron or Mr. D. I'm sure that will go great." She knew it would definitely not go great. Looking forward, she noticed a bit of movement. She looked away. She was going to pretend she saw nothing.

(nearly nine hours later and i finally put up a response)

The walk toward the boundary line was unbearable. Malcolm wouldn't stop talking, even when she made it clear that she wasn't interested in whatever story he had to tell. It almost felt like a mother telling their young child to be a little bit quieter, and Coral wondered if this was how her mother felt. At one point, she heard, rather than saw, her team splitting up in different directions. Of course, it would be impossible to not hear them. Their loud laughter, and the sounds of them running around like idiots all mixed together, making it clear to anyone twenty-five miles away where Red Team was. One would think that they'd be quieter, and more stealthy while playing a dangerous rendition of the classic elementary game Capture the Flag, but no. Not when Ares Cabin was the leader of the team. And everyone at Camp knew that Ares's kids didn't do stealthiness. After a few minutes of walking, Coral stopped abruptly. This caused Malcolm to stop in the middle of his story, and glance around the forest, before whispering a question.

"What's wrong?"

Coral didn't reply and merely pointed toward the end of the river. There, not so expertly hidden in the shrubbery, was the flag for Blue team. And much to her surprise, there was nobody guarding it. This was bad. Oh, not for them. This was excellent news, and she would have never thought the flag would be here, of all places. But this was horrible news for Blue Team. Clearly, an Athena kid did not make the plan. She felt sorry for the poor bastards who would get scolded for not guarding their flags. She narrowed her eyes, and glanced around, staying quiet. She slowly started walking forward and then stopped. Near the shore, were two members of the other team. She couldn't see their faces, only the blue plumage from their helmets, but she knew that it would be best to avoid them. She motioned to Malcolm to stay quiet, and for the first time tonight, it seemed the boy finally listened to her. They walked through the area filled with thick shrubbery and tall trees, quickly and noiselessly, and then finally, manage to find themselves a couple of feet away from the flag.

"Estos idiotas no sirven para nada," she hissed as they made to the flag, with Malcolm trailing behind her, his hand on the hilt of the sword, ready to take it out at a moment's notice.

Eric heard something behind him, and turned to look. It was Coral, and one other kid whose name he couldn't remember. He only remembered Coral's name because she was one of a few other Spanish speakers.
They pulled even with him, and Coral shushed the boy with her, before pointing ahead. Eric followed her finger, and saw the flag. He'd been overthinking where they'd hide it, which made him chuckle.
"Traelo." he said quietly, nodding at the flag, before turning and stepping in the direction of the two Blue Team 'guards'.
Eric flexed and made an upwards pulling motion, and the earth around the two erupted upwards, the stone mixed into the dirt melding and molding into an almost closed circle. He left them with a way out, not wanting to panic either of them, but a small one, so it would take them at least a little bit of time.

Once they had had the flag, the three Blue Team members headed off back towards their own flag. If they could get there before Red Team did, with both flags, they'd win.

Jason blew some of his hair out of his face, he'd gotten most of his points across in his monologue when Amelia started speaking again. He personally found her voice grating, it got on his nerves slightly more than average, but otherwise he couldn't give a damn for the girl. He was only talking to her now because of availability, he definitely wasn't getting any stimulating conversation from this, it was almost painfully predictable.

"Rude? Oh boo-hoo, is someone not worshiping the ground you walk on?" Jason rolled his eyes. "Trust me, if I was actually trying to hurt your feelings, you'd know. You're so sensitive I-"

He cut off at the sound of rumbling. The earth sprung up suddenly, forming a dome around the two Blue team members, blocking out sunlight with the exception of a small pinprick on one side. Jason sat up straight at the sudden interruption looking back and forth, then let out the most dramatic "UgHhh" and flopped backwards onto his back, staring at the ceiling of the dome.

He glared at Amelia in the dark. "Normally, I'd just wait in here until the game was over, but I am not getting stuck in here with you. I can feel my IQ going down just by proximity. Try not to breath too much, your air-headedness wastes oxygen."

After a moment he stood, pacing the circle, poking at it and feeling the mix of crumbly earth and stone. Jason shrugged, these weren't his clothes anyways, it was the camp's armor, so he went to where there was still a pinprick of open space. He scooped up his helmet on the way and started idly using it to chip away at the wall, steadily widening the hole. He'd get out eventually, maybe he'd just make it a crawl space so Aphrodite over there would be too afraid to crawl out and get worms in her hair. The slightly metallic banging let him know he'd hit stone, so Jason moved down slightly and starting working there, trying to get the stones out. This wasn't the first time he'd been locked an enclosed space by someone, wouldn't be the last.

He wasn't expecting Amelia to help, so he tried to make the scratching sound as obnoxious as possible.

Amelia's eye was twitching. The more Jason spoke the greater the urge she had to stab him in the eye. Or maybe the mouth just so he would shut up. He thought he was so much better than everyone else just because he was very smart. News flash, he wasn't. No one at this camp cared. All of the Athena children were smart, not just him. So she didn't understand why he thought he was even better than them. Plenty of people were smart here in camp. They might not be genius smart but there was a lot of street smarts. Oh the joy she would get by seeing him get bested by someone with street smarts. It would be a wonderful occasion. She would have to throw a party.

She was about to cut Jason off from whatever he was going on about, when the ground started shaking. She gripped the ground, eyes wide as she looked up at Jason, who was still standing for some reasons. Standing and shaking did not go very well together. Then the earth sprung around them and dirt and stone encased the two into almost comellet darkness. There was only a small opening at the top.

Enclosed. Dark. There was so little space. Amelia couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe. she began gasping for air. It was too tight. It was too small. She didn't do very good in enclosed spaces. It spiked her anxiety, caused her to panic. She was certainly panicking now. She didn't want to hear whatever Jason had to say. Whatever tease or smart words he was going to tell her. Haha, you're afraid of small spaces. What a looser. Except he would say it in a smart way. Bceyase he was smart and that was what he did.