halfbloodhill_logs | 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...

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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.

Closed Doors [Open in spite of Thread Name]

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