halfbloodhill_logs | Closed Doors [Open in spite of Thread Name]

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Closed Doors [Open in spite of Thread Name]

Who: Callie, People who might find her.
What: Third Cohort's resident angry teen is being even less social.
When: Late Afternoon
Where: Amphitheater
Why: She takes (perceived) rejection very well.

Callie, if you can believe it, has been even less social now that she's been demoted. Any direct conversations she did her best to end quickly, she was... polite, but it was clearly forced. She'd also started varying her locations to hide out from other people. Part of it was the thought of getting out of here kept gnawing at the back of her mind, part of it was just avoiding the choice. The choice she didn't want to face.

Right now she was doing a paper map from her camera, marking out the places she's been. Something to keep her mind off things, she needed to do it anyway. A 'coverage map' she could show Dean would help them work out whatever favor she owes him, even if it isn't getting his car. But if they find a way around the magics of Trivia's children, she wanted to be ready. It hurt to even consider being trapped here by an 'ally.' When they were trapped due to the siege, that was one thing. But the Greeks who made it clear how much they owed for such hospitality now had this as a prison. How would they find the Red Room without sending out parties, how would they hunt down any information from within a barrier so tight it was meant to contain all manner of transit?

And with the walls tightening, all she really wanted was to find a space to be in peace, which was becoming more complicated with so many people and so few places to go. At least, for the moment, nobody seemed to keen on a talent show, or singing, so the theater seemed more than empty. And anyone who sought her out would look in the woods, Nike's cabin, or behind Cabin two.

She should be safe here for a little while, for whatever passed as safe anymore...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Aqua hadn't said anything to Callie about the temporary demotion mostly because she wanted to see what the demigod would do. She'd even given Callie some time and distance, knowing that the initial reaction wouldn't be a good one. Now, though, she had to step in. Not as a Centurion, but as someone who genuinely cared about Callie. A friend.

She spot checked Callie's usual places before wandering the camp with what seemed like aimlessness. Eventually, Aqua arrived at the theater, and quickly spotted the demigod. She walked over to Callie and sat down, enough room between them that she was comfortable with. It was more than time to have this sort of conversation. The Centurion sighed. She hadn't wanted to bring it up, but...well. If it would help Callie, then maybe.

"You know, letting people in does help."

"Is that an order?"

Callie didn't need help. That's what she told herself, because help meant that someone else had a hand in her life. And everywhere she turned she felt less and less of a hand in her own life. Choice hurt, there were so many ways it could all go wrong if she tried to see down the paths of what could be... but being trapped was worse. And the more people she let in, the less room she had to move.

She kept working, she didn't look up. She knew Aqua meant well, but Callie had discovered she was bad at family. She was better off just not trying anymore.

"No. I'm not speaking to you as Centurion, but as an equal. I'm not going to order you to do anything you don't want to. The only thing I am going to do is tell you a story about someone who used to be very much like you."

Aqua looked up at the sky, composing her thoughts.

"There was a little boy. When I first met him, he was the loneliest child I'd ever met. He avoided people, hardly spoke, and he was very uncomfortable when someone tried to befriend him. I was only a kid myself when he arrived, but at one point, I made a blanket fort for him to hide in whenever it got overwhelming. He didn't want to be close to people. He'd been shuffled from foster home to foster home, and his own mother hadn't been able to take care of him since he was born.

"It broke my heart to see him like that. He was only ten. I wasn't much older, maybe eleven at the time, but I didn't give up on him. I couldn't. It took a long time for him to come out of his shell, but it was worth it to see him smile more."

Now, she looked at Callie. She wanted to judge her reaction, and she couldn't do that while looking at anything but her.

"His name was Ventus Bradford."

Callie's first thought was, 'Don't. You don't want to be equal to me.' but she let it go unsaid. Aqua cared, in ways Callie only understood when applied in any other direction. But mostly she didn't feel like putting the effort into driving her commander off.

Callie listened, this was a classic tactic. You mention how someone gets better and therefore everyone can get better. That was original. Nobody has ever tried this tactic on Callie. She'd never seen that child was hustling for drug money, or had a habit of sleeping with any girl he met. Still, she listened to see who the ending punch line of this little story was.

And she did her best to hide her surprise, it was still clear that wasn't where she thought this was heading. "That's great, I'm glad he's found himself a better life. What's your point?"

Callie had decided, long ago, most of the legion was better than her. She had her one skill, and no matter what good it was. No matter how hard she worked, she was never going to be more than who she was. Dave saw it, Dave saw what she was worth, nothing. So the idea that Ven was better than her? She was already there, just now the definition of how changed, as she had to reassess his whole nice thing. Since he clearly learned it, it's probably some way to disarm people.

"He took in someone he could trust, someone who genuinely cared about him, and started with that. Ven worked his way up to trusting other people. One or two, and then adding a little more. It helped heal him, though I know that there are still things he hasn't told me about his past."

Aqua shook her head. She didn't mind that Ven didn't tell her everything. When he was ready, he would tell her. If he never wanted to, then she would respect that.

"My point, Callie, is that I know you can do it. You're intelligent, you know change as intimately as Ven does, and I believe that you're a good person. And...I want you back in the Third Cohort as a full member again."

She meant every word. If Callie had been worth nothing, then Aqua wouldn't have bothered with any of this. The Centurion believed that she was worth more with all her heart, and there wasn't a thing that could change her stance on that.

"He started with family, right?" Callie didn't have that avenue, her brothers both hated her. One for abandoning her, the other for being self-centered. Maybe they were both right, who even knew anymore. She sacrificed everything for Jude... but she couldn't just live in the house with him and be happy. She wanted to help fight Gaea, she wanted revenge. She wanted to be useful, to be more than... worthless.

The important news was that Aqua didn't want her demoted, or wanted her out of it quickly. Which probably meant she either didn't get to argue, or it was on deaf ears. Callie put her pen down because it was clear she wasn't going to get to work while Aqua was here. Callie knew change better than anyone in this camp, it wasn't easy and it wasn't nice. The choices you make stay with you, and define you. And there's no way to take them back no matter what you try. "Change doesn't work backwards. And it can't be forced, so I can pretend to be someone I'm not, give up the last thing I have that's mine, or I can remain an outcast of both the legion and the Graecus camp. It's not a choice anyone will like me to make. Not without Trivia giving me another option to take."

She'd given herself a migraine looking for an ending, a place she ended up she wanted... she couldn't find one. She couldn't leave but she saw no reason to stay anymore. In New Rome her punishment would have either been handed to her directly from Reyna and Jason, Reyna who had supported Callie's distrust, or it would have been decided by a meeting of the Centurions or the Senate. Nothing like that happened.

"Only me, and I'm just a cousin. His mother was, still is, in a mental hospital."

She hummed in agreement. Callie was right in that change couldn't be forced, and pretending was not something the Praetors or anyone else was looking for. It had to be genuine.

"I won't ask you to change if you truly don't want to, Callie. Who you were before is impossible to regain, but you can be someone like her. A mix of now and back then. You're the only one who can decide on what parts you want to change, and what parts you want to keep. You don't have to pretend or give up what's yours. You don't have to be alone, and change doesn't always need to be a bad thing."

Aqua glanced away for a second. What she said next she had no idea how it would be taken, but she felt it was needed.

"Maybe you won't believe me when I say this, but...Ven and I care about you very much. Whatever choice you make, no matter how much I might disagree with it, I'll respect it."

"Who I was? She was ten. That girl is gone and I don't want to be her again!" Callie snapped before she could really draw that feeling back. Her fingers played with the gold charm that hung around her neck. The girl who was an easy mark in every foster home she ended up in, the girl who was fighting with... no, no, never again. She'll never go there again. "Both my brothers hate me."

And they're right to...

Her fingers stayed on the necklace as she thought over the words. Aqua wouldn't lie about these sorts of things, it wasn't in her. Not... unless she was much better at it than Callie suspected. And Callie wasn't the easy mark she used to be, Liam taught her that much. "Why? Why do people keep caring..."

"I'm sorry." And she meant it. She hadn't meant to make Callie angry, but, well, it happened. The important thing, perhaps, was that Aqua's only reaction was to be genuinely sorry to bring it up.

"Because we see someone worth caring about."

"Why? What do you see that's so worthwhile?" Callie couldn't see it, she tried and failed. She had her value to the legion but that was it. She'd never made an effort to be anything beyond a soldier. She never walked the tables in the mess, she never reached out during downtime. The only person less approachable in her mind was Reyna, and Reyna had the advantage of being Reyna.

"What do you see that I can't..?"

"Loyalty. Strength. Honesty. Straightforward. I see trustworthiness in you, and the potential to be a good friend, if you let someone. While earning your trust and respect can be hard, it's well worth it."

She'd always valued her Cohort on an individual basis. Their thoughts and opinions mattered very much. Callie was no exception.

She hadn't figured on an actual answer, "Most of those things are why I'm in trouble in the first place. My concern for the legion here is why I distrust the other groups, I'm hardly stronger than half the camp, if I didn't speak my mind and speak it directly nothing would have come up. I'd be just like everyone else enjoying all this... freedom, until they snuffed that too."

She figured the lockdown would ruffle more feathers, that more people would be outraged that instead of being put to use they were waiting for a sign, or an oracle, or some good luck to just answer their prayers. Do the Graecus just expect their parents to answer this for them? "What strength I have comes from everything else, and everything else is a part of me. And Lupa, or Mr. D, or Chiron wants me to give up that part of me for what? Because some flower child didn't like my tone, I disliked a cabin that barely stands, and I ditched a Faun in Philadelphia? Now that same Graecus, and a bunch of other campers are so lost in Cupid's festival wasting time."

"The only reason I'm here is that I'm not gifted at Trivia's powers, otherwise I'd be doing the only thing I'm good at. Legion work."

"The duty of the fauns here is to help protect the campers. Of course he would be upset by that and report it, especially when Gaea is targeting demigods. The son of Cer--Demeter most likely thought that you had used a racial slur. Cupid's festival is their way of regaining their morale and lifting the spirits of the other campers while their leaders plan on what must be done to regain what's been stolen. Even the Legion would have done that."

Aqua could agree with Callie on disliking the restriction of their freedom, especially since this Camp was smaller than the Roman one. Still, she did understand why it had to be put in place.

"You could always ask about their culture, why they do the things they do, instead of assuming. There has to be at least one Greek you can trust. Then find an Egyptian and a Norse you can trust. They're only asking for respect, and at least a modicum of the same trust you give to the Legion. The moment you feel like you can do that, Callie, will be the moment that I, as Centurion, vouch for you."

Edited 2014-02-15 16:25 (UTC)

"Protecting the campers at the cost of everyone beyond these walls. If given the opportunity I would happily give up this safety to see if there are any other legionnaires trapped out there, in need of us," Callie retorted, all these rules, all the restrictions. If they were to protect the safety of demigods they were already wrong. There are still demigods outside the camp, and the camp couldn't support more people. Not the way it is. "And the son of Demeter declared me 'holier than thou' based on the fact I find speaking through rainbows weird and that I did not find this camp my home. He's an idiot, and given his big focus on celebrating Cupid and Aphrodite instead of wanting to recover what is lost, he is better off here far from combat."

Trying to defend the thoughts and opinions of that Graecus ass wouldn't work. And everyone flocked to him like his touch was gold. His position on things were what was wrong.

"And he's also why I don't need to learn about their culture. This is a camp, not a city. They are children, not an army. They think that playing capture the flag makes them soldiers, and that being away from their family is a sacrifice!" There are tears in her eyes as she gets dangerously close to what the real meaning of sacrifice is. The real distinction between what she has lost and what he has given up, "The Greeks I do talk to, the ones that aren't assholes, are few and far between. And no amount of understanding why they do things will change that this isn't a city, this is a summer camp. And to fight Gaea and her Red Room, we would be acting, not waiting for permission from their leaders."

"And if you can't see the problem with this, I don't want you to vouch for me."

Aqua waited patiently for Callie to finish. If she'd expected her Centurion to give up or get angry, then she was going to be very disappointed. If anything, it made Aqua more determined to get to the heart of the matter.

"Then what does 'sacrifice' mean, Callie? Tell me, what does it mean for you?"

She wanted to understand, or maybe even needed to.

"Sacrifice is not telling Jude what I am, where I am, and having him hate me for leaving him behind. Cause if he knew about Trivia's blood he'd become a target to monsters." Callie started, eyes still gleaming with where her heart was, "It was five years of taking crap from people using me and my brother for a cheap paycheck. Making sure that everyone hated me more than him, so I got beat up. It's doing whatever it takes so that the legion survives, so that I don't have to carry anymore dying children from a burning school. Even die, just to make sure someone else doesn't have to be me."

"And apparently this makes me selfish, that it's all about me. That I feel I'm better than everyone." Her eyes are burning and she's trying not to cry. She mumbles her next words. "Anyone that thinks I'm better than them must be the lowest form of crap on this earth..."

She was quiet as she listened. It hurt to see Callie in so much pain, but at the same time she couldn't help a feeling of admiration to Callie's conviction. She wanted to reach out and hug her, but she knew she shouldn't. She knew Callie wouldn't appreciate that without permission, and so Aqua refrained from doing so.

"Callie, that took a lot of courage and love to do what you had to do. I wish you didn't have to do any of those things and go through all that pain. But...instead of being someone he hates, why not be someone Jude can be proud of?"

"By lying? He can't know what I am, so he can't know what I do. Plus I abandoned him two years ago. He's happy now, he has a family... putting him in danger and relocating him somewhere safe? Like this prison. Then I really would be selfish, and everything Dave thinks about me would be true."

Callie made a choice, her or Jude. His happiness for her's, it wasn't a trade she'd make. He could have a good, happy life. One with a family that cares, really cares. Not just... using him for a paycheck, or as unpaid cleaning. Crap, she was crying wasn't she?

"It didn't take any courage, I wasn't scared."

"Courage doesn't mean facing a fear. It can be part of what makes someone courageous, but it's not all that it is. You did what was needed to protect your brother, and then faced the consequences of those decisions."

Aqua made as if to reach out, but she stopped and took her hand back.

"Now that Jude's happy, why can't you let yourself be happy? Just because you had to lose something doesn't mean that you can't gain another thing."

"In this prison? The only thing that works for me is legion work. Quests, being useful. I'm not even a full legionnaire anymore. And if I could call this place home, what then? It'll just make sure this place burns just like New Rome. And thanks to the stupid barriers I won't be able to save anyone!"

Callie turned away to try to salvage some of her dignity. She didn't know how to let people in, she didn't remember. Some people just... understood, not through words, or sharing, or feelings but... they knew. She didn't even realize all her walls until she was faced with the idea of getting passed them.

"Then don't make a place your home. Make other people your home. Ven did."

She shook her head. She was hoping maybe some of this was getting through, but she wouldn't know for sure.

Callie knew her initial response to the idea, 'so I can watch them die?' but kept that to herself. Not very helpful, to always assume the worst. But someone has to.

"We're in a war right now, nobody is safe no matter how many barriers this place has. I don't want anyone to become me, that includes making them in my death."

Callie's luck wasn't entirely in - Ven spotted a patch of color that didn't match the theatre around it as he was flying (keeping away from the nymphs, since it was nearing Valentine's Day and some of them were getting really crazy). Upon a closer look, he saw Callie, sitting by herself. That wasn't surprising, really, since Callie had never liked crowds, or people in general, but Ven had seen her around enough lately to know that the punishment inflicted upon her had hurt her more than she wanted to acknowledge. Already anti-social, she was becoming a downright hermit, ducking away from any conversations and public interaction. He thought about it for a moment or two, then shrugged and let go of the winds so he could drop to the ground outside the amphitheatre. Walking in normally would likely be better than showing up in a cyclone.

He moved towards her, not trying to muffle his footsteps and not speaking until she acknowledges his presence herself.

Callie's pen moved over her project without looking up. She ignored the presence on the edge of the theater for a little while. They made no attempt to conceal themselves, and they were too far away for a sneak attack. If the one of the two Greek cabin counselors were to kill her it would simply prove in death what she was saying. The Graecus are undisciplined and untrustworthy. But odds were better she was being watched by a member of the Third. Nico would probably have announced himself in some way, Dean didn't seem the kind to be quiet and wait, Sojourner's footsteps are different...

Well, if they were going to leave, they would have by now. "Can I help you?"

No, he won't go away, and no, he wasn't Greek. And after eliminating all those people, Callie likely wouldn't be surprised that it was Ven when he spoke up, starting to walk over to her position.

"I saw you down here as I was flying over. You look like you could use some company."

"And what does that look like?" Callie retorted, still not looking up. She wasn't really in a mood for company and yet everyone insisted on it. She was expected to reach out when really what she wanted was some level of freedom.

"I don't need a babysitter, I'm within the confines of the prison. You can move along."

Ven shook his head as he sat down near her, not really close but not all that far off, either. Not that she would be able to see the gesture, but she'd have to look up at some point, right?

"Just that you could use some company." She looked lonely - he knew she was lonely. He also knew she would never, ever admit it. He didn't say anything else, though, just sat there with his own eyes half-closed as he watched the sky with his head tilted back, halfway lost in his own thoughts (but always aware of her) and waiting for her to say or do something on her own without him pushing her.

The problem with admitting to anything, a need, a hope, a desire, is now two people know. You would assume only the person you tell learns, but you learn too. And that is often more dangerous all around. So Callie didn't give him an answer. She didn't admit, but she didn't deny either.

And he still didn't leave.

"Aqua told me, so you can save any of that." Her words sharp as she tried to prevent any more attempts to save her. Or whatever everyone tried to do. It was all words, no substance, nothing she could label as proof they would save her if it was harder than talking.

And Ven honestly had no idea what she was talking about when she said that. His head came down once more and he looked at her with obvious confusion, because that seemed to be a complete non-sequitur and it didn't make a whole lot of sense. "What're you talking about?"

She'll respond with this look of 'really think about it, high flier.' Because there's really only one thing that would make sense as far as she knows. But as Ven shows he clearly hasn't gotten there she'll tell him straight.

"Your arrival at camp? How screwed up you were? That stuff, from the outside perspective," Callie didn't look at him while she brought this up. Mostly because she didn't know how much Aqua was suppose to mention about that. It can't be a secret, he was like that in public. She can't claim any of what she's done in the legion was confidential, right?

"Oh... all of that." He wasn't really surprised at the fact that Aqua had decided to share it with Callie - he'd already told her some himself, after all, and one would think it would be the kind of story that would give Callie some faith. After all, he'd been a messed-up kid, just looking for some sense in a world that was literally trying to kill him, and he'd risen above it and become a happy, productive member of (a very small) society. He shrugged, though; he hadn't asked Aqua to do that, and he can guess from Callie's reaction that the attempt to reach her hadn't gone all that well. She was just too... riled for it to sink in.

"I wasn't going to say anything more about it, not unless you asked. It's still... not really something I like to think about, much." He'd been so uncertain at that point in time, so close to breaking. If Lupa hadn't found him, he probably wouldn't have survived another three months on his own, likely because of a monster he couldn't evade. As the Legion grew, changed, and rotated, fewer people knew about what he'd been like when he arrived, and he'd found he preferred that.

"But I was wondering something - at Camp Jupiter, we couldn't leave there, either, unless you got official furlough from the praetors or were sent on a quest by the senate. So why is the same thing bothering you so much here?" It's an honest question, because he honestly can't see any difference, except that the Greek camp was smaller than the Roman. But it was the same experience, wasn't it?

Callie took the option that didn't involve going over either of their pasts, she wouldn't appreciate anyone throwing her past out to people. She can't be shown as a story of how 'it gets better,' also she found most people didn't understand without living through something like it.

"We had New Rome, which we couldn't go to all the time, but it was there." She'd been on furlough, and more than a few quests. There was so much more space, so many more faces. It wasn't home, but it wasn't a summer camp. It was built for a life, a place to stay for the long haul. "Here they made a huge deal out of having a cafe for Valentine's Day? There were plenty of places to eat around Market Street. It takes the world ending to decide they need to be on guard year round? Camp Jupiter never felt so... shut in. You know?"

What she was saying made sense, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't notice it too, to some degree. New Rome just... it not only felt bigger, it was bigger, and there was more to do. Camp Half-Blood was permanent, but it was built more or less as a rest stop for demigods and not as a place to found a life on. He wasn't entirely sure why that was; maybe the gods being more active on the Greek side made their children's lives more inherently dangerous, and so they just hadn't needed a place to found a life on.

But even as he puzzled her comments over, and nodded to agree with her conclusion, an idea began building in Ven's brain. She felt confined - well, no wonder, given her father and her powers, and now being cut off from those powers more or less. There wasn't anything he could do to change that, but maybe he could help in another way.

"They just made a big deal out of the café because they wanted to do something nice for people after the attacks. But hey, I've got an idea. It's the same one that Aqua did for me." He paused a moment to make sure he had her attention, then went on. "You don't feel like you can get away from everyone here and what they think the camp and the world and everything should be, right? So let's set up a space for you that's yours and yours alone. We've got a lot of tents up on Jupiter roof, I'll bring one down and you can set it up in the woods somewhere or wherever you want that will get you the space you want. And we'll get Chiron to okay it and make it a rule that no one can go in it or disturb it. So whenever you need to just get away from everyone and drop some stress you can go there and do whatever you want for awhile and no one can interfere."

Callie rolled her eyes, but a smile gave away she was just a bit amused by his suggestion, "That's a great idea, but I had it back when I was still in the Hermes cabin." Callie stood up and went to one of the archways at the edge of the amphitheater, for people to come into the stage from behind, instead of from the front. And put her hand against it.

The doorway shifted suddenly into a bit of woods, there was a small firepit, and something covered with a bit of canvas. A rock that was smoothed to sit on, and some wood that was probably meant for constructing something. "I had spent a few nights in the bunker the forge kids have here, but after their counselor found me in it he told me to build a Lean-To in the woods. I... it got to cold to do that yet. But I left some supplies out there and a doorway. So I can reach it from anywhere."

"I'm used to having to make my own privacy, and I don't want any of the Greek camp to know about it. I'm just glad I haven't needed it too much since I've been staying in the Nike cabin." The idea was great, but it still wasn't... freedom. The number of choices to be made in camp just never matched the choices to be made in Camp Jupiter, and New Rome was even more options for the child of Janus. "Besides, I wouldn't really know what to do with myself if I had real space of my own. I've never had my own room."

At least he tried. It was obvious to anyone who spent any time looking at the situation that Callie was very uncomfortable in the Greek camp, even outside her clashes with most of the campers. Ven understood that; it was smaller, more confined, and somehow less structured all at the same time. And while he was fine rolling with the punches and adapting to wherever he landed, Callie had gone through one too many punches to like how that sort of scenario turned out.

"It's gonna get warmer soon - do you want help with that when you're ready to build again?" It was the least he could do, was offer to help. She had to like the idea at least somewhat if she'd started it on her own initiative, so despite her other statement, there was still some value in it. "I haven't either - I was always sharing with another kid in the foster homes, and then with twenty other kids in the legion. But it's nice to just have a place where no one will bother you or even see you if you don't want them to."

"...If you want? I was limited in how much I could do on my own." Callie's not used to just... offers to help, but she can't exactly claim she could do all the work she wanted on her own. She honestly hoped that Nike didn't get around too much, so the cabin will stay relatively low population. And since it wasn't in honor of a God of Thieves, she'd be a little more comfortable with her stuff.

"Why do the Greeks bother, what's waiting for them if they make it?" In Camp Jupiter it was easy, it was part of why she felt... okay, she didn't really have much choice. In Juvie she'd have died to one of the many monsters there waiting for demigods who aren't protected by the Mists when things go wrong.

But once she got to Camp Jupiter there was something waiting after her time in the legion. Do her years of service, retire to New Rome, build a life for herself. It probably wouldn't be a very impressive life, but it'd be something her's. Finally being free of every other rule she had to abide by in her life. Here... there was nothing there, you get kicked to the mortal world with, what? You don't have a high school diploma, no money unless you have a parent waiting for you, no skills you can really shape your world with. What did the Greeks expect to come of their little... summer camp.

"I don't mind. It's fun to get out and just do something with your hands sometimes. Just physical work that doesn't need a lot of thinking." There's so much going on around camp lately that could fry a person's brain if they let it, so it was kind of a relief to concentrate on those things he didn't need to think about. Even the Greek activities like the climbing wall of death and learning to ride pegasi were good for that, he'd found. If it was physical, he didn't need to concentrate on it too much.

But he couldn't help her with her question. Ven's not entirely sure either, and at first he shrugs in confusion, but - well, something does kind of make sense to it. "I guess... it's just cultural, really. The Greeks always made a big deal out of heroes in the old days, being the first or the strongest or the quickest or whatever, so they're still thinking like that. I mean, the Spartan women used to tell their sons to return with their shield or on it. Us Romans had heroes, but there was always a lot more emphasis on working as a unit and integrating, making everything Roman as much as they could. When you hear about Rome in mortal history you hear about all the political stuff and the emperors and conquering other nations, not quests and everything like that. I guess they figure that if the demigod's good enough, they'll learn everything they can here, then they'll get out in the world and be a kind of modern-day hero. And those that don't, they weren't meant for it in the first place, probably."

"Building a hiding spot in the middle of the woods is 'fun?'" There was a little hint of a smile as she said it. Ven, you're weird. If she could understand the idea of working on things to just get your mind out of everything else going on in the world. And there was a lot going on.

"Yeah, sure, some have families at home when they get out of here. Someone to help them get through all the... mortal things. And some of them will use their gifts to make it, be the next music star, or get into a pro sports team. But... not everyone can just turn their gifts into a mortal place in the world." Callie's problem was that New Rome answered that, some left New Rome for the mortal world, but a fair number stayed. There was a whole life there, and there were no lost lonely children. The Greeks... if your family died in the process of your being found, what did you have? A world of monsters to kill you while you juggled a normal life?

Or... well, most Greek heroes did not get a happy ending to their story. That... she didn't want to dwell on.

The only problem with hiding where no one would expect you to be was that you still had a chance of being found by someone who wasn't looking for you. With all of the talk and preparation for Single's Awareness Day, especially with the love being in the air of his own cabin, Harry decided laying low was his best option. Not that he begrudged his siblings their happiness, and most probably figured he was being a typical single teenager on Valentine's Day, but the truth was he didn't trust himself not to let any ugliness slip.

Being surrounded by happy couples and celebrations of commercial love was a little more than frustrating when you'd already burned your one true love to death after she betrayed you in every way possible.

So Harry had found his way into the theater with his notebook and a couple of dusty tomes, only to find the place slightly less empty then he had hoped.

"We've got to get a real library."

"One that isn't in another cabin," Callie didn't look up right away, it was so much easier to avoid people in the city of New Rome. Terminus might know where you are, and pop up to shout at you when you jump around the city using your own little shortcuts, but anyone else would need to look really hard. New Rome was almost as good with the space to hide out.

"Need a solitary hiding spot? Or can you share?"

Shrugging, Harry made his way down the marble steps, trying to find a good spot that wouldn't be intruding on Callie's space. "Pretty sure that's my line. As long as you're not waiting for your make out partner I think we can share."

Of course, it was only after saying so that the possibility she might be hiding out here to avoid thinking about romance in any form, sort of like he was, actually occurred to Harry.

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