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Who: Dean, and other participants in the competition
What: marksmanship competition!
Where: the archery range
When: backdated to March 8
Warnings: violence against innocent targets?

There are targets all set up at different intervals, and more waiting by the sidelines. It's come to Dean's attention that certain parties may end up being a little on the destructive side for this competition, so he wants to be prepared. Not to mention there are apparently going to be some other showboats coming out this afternoon.

Dean would like them all to bring it.

This being his own competition, he steps up to the plate first, gun in hand. There are very few misses, and most of his shots are tightly clustered on the targets. Beat that, Apollo cabin.

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"Hey, things happen when you're up to something. Sometimes you've just got to roll with it, and awesome happens." It isn't always awesome; sometimes it's more like oh-gods-what-did-i-get-myself-into or just intense regret at getting caught. But he doesn't get caught often enough for that to be an issue, so it's usually awesome. Natalie moreso when she gets into it, with her powers.

"I am fantastic," he says cheerfully. "Alive and kicking after rescuing some dragons, and I'm pretty sure this doesn't qualify as a fate worse than death, so it's safe to say I'm unoathed, too."

Her face darkens for a second but she tries not to linger on it, as much as she wants to avoid making light of the problem. It's all in the past and it's been out of her hands, but it all goes back to how much she hates letting a situation get out of her control. Harboring that sort of hatred is sort of useless for a demigod - or a teenage girl, actually.

"Good. I missed you, you oath-taking jerkface," Natalie says sweetly.

He sees her face fall, immediately concluding that it must be about the oath. She hadn't even talked to him for, like, two weeks after she found out; of course that has to be it. He's about to say something about it, but Natalie gets to it first, and he just rolls his eyes good-naturedly.

"So, funny thing. We were in the middle of a fight - you know, being totally heroic and all - and the person comes out of nowhere and nearly kills me. The weird thing, though, is that right when he nearly got me, this... shield thing came out of nowhere, stopped him dead in his tracks. Last I checked, I didn't have any force fields in my belt, but then this burned out rock appeared in my pocket," he says conversationally, pulling it out. "Must have been in with some nuts and bolts I had lying around. Maybe you could tell me what this rune means, since you're good at that stuff?"

Translation: you could have just told him, Natalie, dios mio.

Oh, she nearly forgot about that. It practically slaps the blush right onto her cheeks. "It means," she begins seriously, reaching for the rock and turning it over between her fingers. "'Helpful Ladyfriend' in Ancient Greek, actually. It's almost archaic, I'm surprised I even remembered what it meant."

More powerful than she thought, too. That puts the grin back on her face and she doesn't even bother fighting it.

Where's the fun in telling him about these things, anyway?

He grins, thinking the blush cute on her, but mostly pleased at having caught her. When she explains, though, he has to raise an eyebrow.

"'Helpful Ladyfriend,' really? And archaic, too? You couldn't just find something normal like, I dunno, 'shield'?" he teases.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Natalie insists, keeping the charade up, though ducking her head shyly. She knew he would catch her at some point.

Natalie pulls her ponytail over her shoulder, twisting her hair around her fingers. "How powerful was the shield, then?"

"No, silly me, of course you don't know. These things just appear in my tool belt now and then. Because, you know, totally a normal thing you'd find in a workshop."

Rolling his eyes, he continues, "Looked pretty strong. Like I told you, it stopped him dead. Whoever this Helpful Ladyfriend of mine is, she really knows her stuff." Leo grins at her, a twinkle in his eye. "I should probably thank her."

"Uh huh."

She licks her lips thoughtfully, resting her hands on her hips as she considers him. "Didn't I promise you something for when you got back? I probably shouldn't forget it since, like, you're here and all," Natalie muses.

He's tempted to draw out the teasing about his mystery lady, but with that little reminder, he decides to let it drop.

"Now that I think about it, there was something," he agrees, smiling. "Remind me what that was, again?"

Natalie rolls her eyes to the skies before lifting her hands to rest them on his shoulders. This is not the best segue into a serious conversation, but she cannot turn down that kind of opening.

So, in front of everyone who might be looking, she leans in a kisses him. A well deserved show of affection.

He kisses back without hesitation, despite knowing that anyone could be watching them. If Natalie minded, she wouldn't be doing it. There's a cheeky grin on his face when they pull away.

"It's good to be back."

That smile is returned with one that wavers. "I missed you," Natalie mumbles, almost unheard though she makes sure it reaches his ears. The simple words carry more weight than she intends but that's what happens when she hits another slippery patch.

Okay, so Leo isn't the best with people. Never has been. But even he can tell there's something off about her smile, and the way she says those three simple words. It's clear she is happy, but not as happy as he would have liked.

He pulls back a little, giving her a critical look, as if that alone might tell him what the problem is. "Nat, did something happen while I was gone?"

Natalie nods her head to the side - the most indifferent gesture one could possibly make. She doesn't speak for a long moment because she fears she is one breath away from shattering again. What she doesn't realize is that she is made of stronger stuff, that she has a sturdy enough base to pull through these troubling times. The brave front isn't entirely a lie.

"Yeah."

Well, okay. Not exactly what he was hoping for, but at least it's an answer. He takes a breath, looking around at the goings-on around them. Natalie can play it as nonchalant as she likes, but he's come to know that when she acts that way? Something is definitely bothering her.

"Do you, um," he begins hesitantly, finally looking back at her, "want to talk about it? Somewhere else, or... later, even?" Or not at all? he adds silently. He's not the person to come to about your personal troubles, but... she's his girlfriend. If he can't be there for her, what good is he? And besides, they kind of made a pact to talk about things anyway, right?

She lowers her head, tucking hair behind both ears so it doesn't curtain her face.

"Not in, like, incredible detail," comes a mumble, "I just talked to my dad after you left, just checking in with him. I thought things were okay, but ...." Everyone here has family problems. They're mostly demigods - that's bound to happen. And here, Natalie is agonizing over someone who isn't been her real mother. Rubbing under her eye, she sniffs and looks away.

"Oh," he says softly, nodding. Her dad - her parents - her mom. Natalie has told him before that there's... things going on with her mortal mom. Something must have gone wrong there.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Leo assures her, touching her arm lightly. It's a sensitive subject, he knows. He just wishes he'd been here when it happened, though part of him is a little glad that he wasn't. Hearing people here talk about their families... it makes his stomach clench sometimes, especially after meeting Melinoe, though he'll never admit to it. It's not like he's the only one who's lost a parent around camp.

Natalie tugs at the necklace he made for her for Christmas, not enough to pull the weapon out, just fiddling with it before she looks to him again. She feels immensely guilty even talking about her family around him, so it takes her a moment to find the right phrasing for all of this.

"My mom's getting this really shitty treatment that's supposed to screw with her brain and causes some memory loss," she mumbles, making sure no one else hears her. "No magic necessary. Apparently she agreed to it, so like ... I'm kind of at a loss, being all the way across the country and dad keeps saying, like, yeah it's for the best, but I don't really know. I -- don't." It takes a great deal of effort to finish that small spiel and she slides her shaking hands into her jacket to hide them and keep them still.

He listens silently, unsure of how to reply. It's not a problem he's ever been faced with before - never will be - nor has anyone he's known until now gone through it. What is he even supposed to say?

"Well, hey, if she agreed to it, it can't be all bad, right? Maybe she thinks it'll do some good. Not - Not the memory loss," Leo adds quickly. "But I mean, like, overall, I guess? Maybe screwing with her brain is what she needs? That always fixes the automatons. Not that she's a machine or anything! But it sounds like they're trying to hit her reset button or something."

...He's just making this worse, isn't he.

Nah, she was worse off before he said anything. She does feel some relief, spilling this to him.

Her jaw does tighten at his comments, but she tries not to hold it against him. Like she has no idea how Annie Cresta's situation is, he can only imagine how it must be from her end of the deal and so on. Talking about family in general is something she doesn't like to do that often around Leo in the first place and she doesn't want to extend the conversation any more than she has to.

"Let's hope it's not a factory reset," she mumbles, sighing tiredly.

Edited 2014-03-31 06:07 (UTC)

"We don't get a factory reset," he answers matter-of-factly. It's a thing that's always irritated him on a level; it would be more than a little useful if humans could do that once in a while, and not just machines. They'd be a lot easier to fix if that were the case.

Of course, losing all of the previous data and memory... He sort of gets where Natalie is coming from on that end, at least. If they had to reset Sky like that, and she lost everything... yeah, that wouldn't be easy to deal with.

"I know."

Her lips sit in a tight line on her face. "I do a lot of stupid shit to get my mind off things, but the last thing I'd want to do is forget anything. Forget you," she says plainly. What she'd like is a more numbing sensation but that involves more chemicals than she's willing to take.

Hearing that sends a wave of something like relief through him, because there are plenty of times where Leo wonders just how bad he is as a boyfriend, or a friend, or a person in general. When he feels that way, though, he tries his hardest to mask it, and it's usually not as hard as one might think, as long as he has a project to work on.

For now, he replies, "Well, good, because that would suck major monster butt. And I like to think I'm pretty memorable." He flashes her a smile. It's a sorry attempt, maybe, but he's trying to cheer her up, at least a little.

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