royalflowers | Call Me Out!

[Been meaning to do this for awhile, but... uhh, ideas. I suck at them. Got any yourself?]

[How about camping out/cheap motel room plan their next move?]

[There's a knock at the door, and a voice.]

Callie? It's me, I'm back.

[The knock and the call were a warning; it wasn't like they could afford more than one hotel room, so they were stuck sharing one, which wasn't turning out too bad. They were both used to sharing a barracks with a lot of other kids, after all, and cabins at Camp Half-Blood. Without those experiences, this might have been... very awkward.]

[But after the warning, the door rattles a little as Ven unlocks it, coming inside and letting it shut with a clunk behind him as he lets some grocery bags drop on the little table next to the window (curtain shut, of course).] I couldn't remember what you liked, so I got some turkey and some ham and cheese, you can have first pick. And a couple of those salads you have to mix together if you want one of those, and some milk.

*One of the downsides of the fall of New Rome, no budget. They managed to scrape together enough for a regular set of motel stays. But they couldn't double up the room count. Not without Callie doing things involving bank vaults that would be frowned on.*

Turkey, but I'm fine with whatever.

*Callie was in a pair of shorts and a tank top she used to sleep in, and to do any weapon repair she needed. Like she was currently doing with all the weapons spread out on a bath towel in front of her as she works on each piece. Treating the blades with oils and other tools she had. As well as working on modifying a revolver she'd picked up to fire more useful rounds when dealing with monsters.*

*Callie wasn't one to parade around, but she wasn't quite modest. She was a good soldier, so if being a good soldier conflicted with modesty... the soldier won. In this case she needed clothes that oil stains wouldn't be a problem on. The room situation wasn't a big deal, Ven was certainly on the short list of people Callie trusted enough, certainly superior to any of the children in Hermes Cabin. Even Dean, who she liked well enough, was a bit too... male, for her taste to sleep quietly.*

Any news? I would have figured the Senate might have some of the Eagles working the sticks for any of us hunting for information? Given both Praetors are... occupied.

[Ven's only request about Callie's clothes was to not sleep in ones stained with oil. True, they'd likely be out of this motel in the morning, early, but just in case they weren't he didn't want to be caught by some cleaning lady with a bunch of sheets that had stains ground into the weave of their fabric. They couldn't afford to pay for those, after all - and they didn't want to draw more notice to themselves than they had to, given they were two minors unaccompanied by any "adults." They were both, after all, technically runaways, and they didn't need to have any awkward questions asked about who they were, why they were there, and what they were doing with a bunch of lethal pointy stuff.]

[He moved to sit on the bed closer to the door to stuff the cold things in the tiny mini-fridge under the old TV, passing over the wrapped turkey sandwich as he did so and keeping the ham and cheese for himself. He glanced over the various knives and things spread in front of her, eyes checking for weaknesses in the blades, cracks of any sort, and finding nothing obvious - Callie was nothing if not thorough, after all. He'd work on his own sword once she was finished with the supplies.]

I finally got word from Jason. [He reached into the back pocket of his jeans to pull out a folded piece of paper torn from a notebook, offering it to her.] He says he found some kind of stronghold down there, and he's planning how to take it out of commission. Haven't heard from Reyna yet, but I think we would've gotten an IM from someone if something was wrong with her. Heather would've told me, at least.

*She'll sleep in her Jupiter shirt tonight, they should be through a Laundromat before they get where they're going thanks to her powers and the best paths. Either she'd be shortsless now or later, no escaping that with the clothes she has with her.*

He need us? *Callie wiped her hands off with a rag, before she took the sandwich and the note. Looking the note over first before taking any bites.* Cause I would love to go pick a fight with a stronghold right about now.

Also thinking we should get a Post Office box, or maybe a phone answering service? We can't use cell phones, but we could check it for messages a lot easier than looking for eagles, and IMs won't find us if we're in the middle of something dangerous.

*Also because Callie still didn't trust Iris, her messages, or her kid. But we don't have to get into that as she inspects the machined bits of revolver allowing it to handle imperial gold ammunition.*

[At which point he will... scrupulously not be looking. And trying not to think about it, either. Although that one was going to be much, much harder with her in the next bed.]

[Still, a laundromat would be good to get to. He'd brought a couple changes of clothing, but life on the road was harder on clothes than life in either camp in a lot of ways. He was wearing out the knees of his jeans really quickly.]

He's still got that group he pulled out of a monster attack with Lupa's wolves, so he says he's fine for now. He'll let us know if it changes, though.

[Ven starts unwrapping the sandwich, studying it more intently than is needed, but it's pretty obvious the motions are only to keep his hands occupied while he's sitting and the staring is his brain thinking. The ADHD shows less in him than other demigods since he had to get it under control to survive, but he still has a tendency to fiddle with things just to move a little and burn some energy. He's not particularly hungry right at the moment, either.]

An answering service might be good - a PO box wouldn't work if we have to move suddenly, and letters take too long to get anywhere, but there're services where we could use any phone and all we'd need is an access code for the account. There's plenty of places that still have payphones up, too, so we wouldn't have to worry about how to call it.

But we need to figure out where we're going next - did you pick up anything from your doorways?

PO Box would be more for me than us. Set it up someplace neutral like a dead-drop, and make sure the location is somewhere easily accessed with a minimal number of jumps from either coast, so probably in Oklahoma. I can go get things from it without having to head all the way to Long Island or the refugee scattered over Northern California.

*Callie leaned back and happily started on her sandwich once she was done with the note. She wasn't especially hungry, but years of dubious meals meant she ate when there was food, and worried about overdoing it later. Not all her houses fed them regularly. It also meant she could pause and order her jumbled thoughts over where to go.*

No point heading into the Northeast, the camp and Olympus should have that part of the country covered. If Jason and his merry men have the south covered... we should probably try for the Southwest. Not only because there really isn't anyone out there, but someone is being clever with a cloaking spell or something. I can't see any monsters at all from any Starbucks in New Mexico or Arizona. Which is pretty much impossible.

[He nods at her explanation, satisfied with her reasoning - once again, Callie was thorough. New to the Legion, sort of prickly, but no one could fault her attention to detail. Ven figures it's part and parcel with her powers, since if she's not paying attention to the doors she uses... well, it's all too easy to be lost.]

[But when she says that bit about not locating any monsters, he lowers the sandwich he was about to bite into to stare at her almost incredulously.] None? That doesn't make any sense, those things are everywhere. I'd expect blank spots in the desert, but even Phoenix? Or Tuscon, or Albuquerque?

No, there should be ones in the desert too. Not as many, and there are plenty of other ways to die out there. Which means someone is trying to keep demigods with any sorta of special senses off their scent.

*Children of Janus could see the paths choices take. Sadly the branching tiny changes a choice can make lead to infinite possible outcomes when choice is on the table. And when it isn't, when fate steps in, well... that isn't something Janus has dominion over and so his kids can't see those impacts. Meaning when Callie's looking for futures and giving herself a headache, it's a problem if she doesn't see herself getting killed by ANY monster in a branch of choices. Since, for Demigods, those things are a pretty common thing. And to top all that off, she couldn't see any monsters through the mist when she manually opened doors into the edges of the Southwest, she couldn't travel that far but she could use it as a looking glass of sorts. Still nothing.*

Either Dean and some other mortals aware of things have been cleaning house, or something's up out there. We should probably contact the senate, or the camp, and wait for instructions and possibly back-up. *Said with such a tone that Callie has no intention of doing any of that, because it would be easier, faster, and overall more effective to just go check it out, and call for help if things get rough.*

I meant Starbucks in the desert, not monsters. Not even they're greedy enough to build something out where there's no way to get water without laying miles of pipeline.

[At least, he doesn't think they are. But that's a debate for a different time, and Ven's sinking into thought for a minute, sandwich hanging more than halfway forgotten from his hand.]

Well... hmmm. [He knows exactly what Callie means when she says those things, and while a large part of him thinks that what she's saying is legitimate, and the right thing to do, well... he won't deny that the rest of him wants to do exactly what she's implying. Good Roman soldiers don't just run off, after all not without direct orders and a clear goal; that's very definitely a much more Greek thing to do.]

[He's not going to point that out to her, however. There's no point in inciting her wrath for showing her that she does have some similarities to their Hellenic counterparts, but more than that he knows where this is coming from. The lack of action before getting out of camp had been grating on her (and him, but more her), and while they've gotten a few monsters out of the way and sent a couple of scattered demigods to one of the refuges, they're not any closer to the truth about what was going on than they were. Her Janus senses have to be driving her crazy with options, and he's not about to dismiss those godly instincts.]

Jason says it's about time I stepped up and started trying to take some responsibility. I guess this is as good a place as any to start. More than half the Senate's dead or missing, anyway. [Ven had been lucky when he got to Camp Jupiter - Jason was already there, the expectations had already been placed on him to succeed as the Son of Jupiter and the Grand Leader of All, even if he'd only been a Legionnaire at the time and all of eleven years old. Ven had been able to avoid all that and the focus that came with it, something that he'd desperately needed as a damaged fourth-grader, but in theory he has the same capabilities. As long as Aqua was around to be their Centurion, he obviously couldn't take over (and didn't want to), but having more leaders with actual experience never hurt the Legion. It's time to at least give it a try, Ven.] Do you have any specific place you want to start, or just the general area?

Edited 2014-05-31 04:16 (UTC)

Unless Dad was behind them and really did leave them as a means for his children to travel.

*It wasn't completely impossible, and if true would be just about the only thing her father has done with his kids in mind.*

And the ones that aren't are mostly loyal to Octavian. He'd probably try to order us back to camp as his spies. I... it's hard to pick a place to start when I know someone is blinding me. We should probably start at the edge of this blind spot and work our way in.

*That pause was Callie thinking about something that's been bothering her, but wasn't quite something she could put into words without... problems. Challenging an Augur's position was bad enough, the things she kept thinking about the state of the senate? That his play for power was selective intervention? Or even more overt acts against Rome to secure power? He tried to take over the moment Jason and Reyna were out of the refugee camps and with the Graecus. Still, she had more pressing concerns to handle immediately.*

I don't like it, not seeing what's there to kill me. Even vague ideas like my headaches come with are more than what I get right now outta there... I don't think we can just rush in.

I'm not spying for Octavian. [Not that he thinks Octavian would ever try to recruit him, really - despite being in different cohorts, thanks to his cousin literally interfering in his presentation to the Legion, Ven's loyalty to Jason is practically a byword among the Romans. Whenever Jason needed help with something, as much as Ven could be there, he would be. He's the aide de camp, the lieutenant, the right-hand man, and his tone when he says those words is entirely serious. He's noticed Octavian's machinations himself, you'd have to be blind not to, but he also knows Octavian's not stupid enough to try and recruit him to his side with that degree of loyalty.]

We'll start at the eastern edge and work our way in, then. Once we get there I can read the weather patterns; they might tell us something more. We can search by segments or take a spiral in to the center of the null spot, but if it's that obvious to you, then we're most likely going to find something there.

Edited 2014-06-01 05:15 (UTC)

If you would even entertain the idea, I would have abandoned you in New Jersey. *She's smiling but it's pretty easy to tell she's serious. If Ven were the type to listen to Octavian any more than to just understand how off the rails powermad crazy he is, she'd have abandoned him long ago. Not even counting the whole half-sibling to Jason Grace, Zeus's gift to New Rome.*

You're in charge, just remember hiding things from me isn't that hard, if I were one of my siblings who focused on the whole choice thing instead of doorways, maybe. I'll want to space out jumps, I want to arrive at the edge of this thing as fresh as possible, so you're not in it alone when we get there, so we should probably spend half the day traveling. Instead of anything faster.

It'll give us time in a laundromat, so that's a plus.

New Jersey? The Hellhole of America? Come on, you don't hate me that much. [She's entirely serious, as he was, but at least she's smiling, and he doesn't try to resist making a little joke out of it. Not that he really thinks she hates him, but he's not sure if she really likes him either.]

[Still, she's got a pretty smile. She needs to do it more often, and he smiles back in return.]

You're not infallible, no one is, but your power is mostly about the doors and not the choices thing, and that's pretty cut and dry. I trust your instincts about all of that; its your powerset, after all. [He pauses to finally take a bite of that sandwich, chewing and swallowing before getting back to the problems at hand.] A laundromat would be heaven. And at some point we're going to need to figure out how to get more clothes, or find Jason or Reyna for more money.

It's about how I hate Octavian. *She'd have killed him if it wouldn't complicate things too much. Mostly because, due to her status as sour outsider she could do it without it washing back on Jason or Reyna. But it hadn't come to that, just yet.*

*Callie ignored his statements on her powerset, she knew she was hard on herself, but that was just her nature. If she were better at seeing choices, the branches, the options... well, maybe she'd be in a better place than she was.*

Drop box. *She practically singsonged the words.*

You could always let me steal things? There have to be some jerks that deserve less than they have. *Practical, but Callie often walked that fine line of a to her word Roman Soldier, and a teen with authority issues.*

[Just don't tell Ven that, and he won't be duty-bound to try and stop her. As a long-term Legionnaire, he's required to try and save officers, even from another cohort. Not that he doesn't think Octavian needs to lose that position, but assassination attempts need to be stamped out.]

We're not stealing things, not unless it's life or death. [Not that he hasn't stolen things himself in the past - he kind of had to as a runaway - but he still feels guilt about that time of his life, even if he did what he had to do to survive. It's not a feeling he likes.] I'm sure Jason and Reyna can find some money somewhere to let us buy socks when we need them; we didn't have everything actually in the city.

[And he finally gets down to devouring that sandwich for real now, thinking of other possible strategies. It might be time for some sort of salvage expedition to the ruins of Camp Jupiter, for one, to see what they turn up there.]

*She doesn't tell people things, it's overall better for all parties if nobody knows what she plans. People might not approve of her actions, and try to stop her. Or worse, try to talk her out of it.*

Even if I find, I dunno, drug dealers to beat up? Maybe some sort of monster with an ATM card? *Not saying to steal candy from babies, but the can probably find the right things if they looked. And nobody should mind.* Fine... we don't steal.

*She let silence fall while she ate, then she wiped her hands off then got back to her weapon repairs. Looking over the handgun again. Wishing slightly she had a way to transform it. She hoped the imperial gold in the handle and barrel would hide it from mortal eyes enough.*

...Hey, Ventus, you ever... you know, liked anyone?

Only if they try to beat us up first, they're mortals. ...But okay, if a monster has an ATM card, maybe then. [After all, that'd more be spoils of war, wouldn't it? At least, that's what he's going to tell himself. It makes sense in his head, considering monsters only halfway run on sense to begin with.]

[Ven's not inclined to break the silence - he's not one of those people that feels the need to chatter, unlike his brother John. He loves him, of course, but it's true that he doesn't really know when to shut up half the time. The rest of his sandwich is quickly gone and he drinks half a bottle of water to wash it down before pulling out his own sword and his sharpening stone. It still felt weird to not be carrying his pilum and all of his equipment, but with most of their equipment wrecked and having to operate as a strike-and-run force, it wasn't anything he could change.]

[Her question takes him by surprise in the middle of his sharpening, though, and he looks up with a surprised, somewhat confused expression.] That's a... weird question. Why do you want to know? [His tone isn't accusing, just... confused.]

Mortals can also be evil, it isn't something monsters have a monopoly on. *Thought it was worth noting. Besides, they'd be at a disadvantage since their weapons can't harm mortals.*

*Let's not talk about John, she undid her oath, but that doesn't mean she likes the guy anymore than when she made the oath.*

It's a normal question. We just don't have normal lives, and humor me. It isn't like we did a lot of polite smalltalk in Camp Jupiter.

[He's gonna let the moral conundrum go for the moment, since they're not going to agree on this and he can tell - and truthfully he's a little more interested in, or confused by, her question.]

You're not really one for small talk, though.

[Still... what can it really harm. He goes back to sharpening his sword, holding it up to his eye to make sure it's level as he talks.]

I'm... not really sure. There was a girl... [He trails off for a minute, remembering, then comes back to himself and starts talking before Callie can prod him.] You remember I told you that I used to be really... bad about being with people? It took me a couple of years to come out of it all the way, I wasn't really like I am now until I was thirteen. And when I was twelve, there was a girl in the Cohort named Dawn - you don't know her, she mustered out a long time ago, she's a lot older than us. But she always treated me nicely, she'd always smile at me and say she hoped I was doing well, helped me some when Aqua wasn't around, and she was one of the people I liked the most. I thought that maybe I liked her like that? But it probably wasn't that way, it was probably just that she was a nice person and made a real effort to make me feel welcome and like I was a part of the Legion, even with all my problems.

But that's the closest I've ever come, I guess. [And he makes a face.] Not that the nymphs at Camp Half-Blood would listen when I said I wasn't interested.

Talk is dangerous.

*Callie was distant because people knowing you was dangerous. Knowing what made you tick, your strengths, your weaknesses. All information that could be turned on you later. Thus until she had some sense she could talk to someone openly, she didn't. And that was that.*

*And she didn't ask people things, because such acts required reciprocation, which most of the time she was just... unwilling to consider. Unless that information was of importance immediately.*

So you like older women? *There was a smile there, she was kidding.* Sounds like her trying probably had a hand in your getting out of that place you were?

And if she was like the Graecus Nymphs, probably would have pushed you further into that place.

[And yet she was talking to him. By her own choice. Part of him realizes what a rare thing that is - he's seen her, both when she first arrived to the Legion and when they were in Camp Half-Blood, talking to almost no one. Nico, Sojourner, Aqua... and even then she didn't speak much unless spoken to. So Ven's... actually kind of honored, but at the same time he knows not to push it. He's not about to ask her questions unless she deliberately invites them - doing so would likely scare her back into her shell, and it was time she started coming out of it. He didn't mind helping her with that, even wanted to do so. It feels to him like there's a very nice person who'd just been badly damaged hiding in there, and he wants to meet her.]

[Her smile and joke, though, is greeted by what can only be called a "face" in return, a deliberate choice on his part to just... treat it like any teenage talk session.] No, not really. I mean I guess maybe, age seems kind of pointless a lot of times, but not with her. I was still pretty much a kid and she was college age so we were just on completely different levels. But it was... [There's another pause for him to gather his thoughts before he continues.] It was really nice just having someone around who was that nice. I love Aqua, but she's my cousin in two directions - and I know family doesn't always get along, but you know Aqua. She'll never give up on anyone who's still trying. But Dawn didn't know me, didn't have anything to gain from it, and she was still that nice to me, even when I had problematic days. There were a lot of people at the start who kind of whispered about me and avoided me, and a lot who just didn't get what I'd gone through. If there's one thing that's not that great about the Legion, it's that standard they have for homogeneity, and I didn't fit that for a long time, so they talked about me behind my back some. I don't think they wanted to tick off Aqua or Jason, or Jupiter, and they probably saw I was trying my best, so it wasn't as much as it could've been, but it- I'm rambling, aren't I? Sorry. [Callie gets a sheepish grin in apology, because he really had been going on and on and had gotten off track a pretty good amount.]

[The nymphs, however, get a very deliberate eye-rolling.] Gods you have no idea. We all got stuck with it, me and John and Jason. I know Zeus was really bad about running around and falling in love in the myths and Jupiter wasn't all that much better, but they all thought it was hysterical that all of his sons weren't interested in all that flirting and stuff and that we'd want to avoid it. Maybe they thought we'd be more like him, but once they figured out we weren't, a bunch of them thought it was a great game to harrass us about it.

[And he'd gotten the worst of it, so he's kind of extra-biased against all that now.]

You were lonely, and she cared.

*There, Callie summed up that ramble into one sentence. And Callie understood that far better than most of the camp. Someone who wants nothing but to see you happy, without any baggage explaining why. Just... that they're nice. It's a good thing, Callie wish she found that at some point when she was younger.*

And for a mature disciplined well oiled war machine, the cohorts gossip a lot. I've gotten used to the whispers, it's not too different from the outside world. Don't think they even realize it.

Remember, the Graecus Nymphs also haven't seen a male child of Zeus in, what, half a century? The fact they could play with one at all probably got them all... excited. Then, instead of what they expected, they got a new toy to play with. If it was happening to one of the Grae- greeks I'd have laughed.

Yeah - that's it, exactly.

[He occasionally gets on tangents when he tries to explain something he doesn't quite have the words for. At least Callie's capable of cutting through that to the heart of what he's trying to say. He goes back to sharpening his sword, which he'd stopped during his ramble.]

But she's the only one that I even kind of had that reaction to. I don't... not want it, but I want it to mean something. I want it to be someone I can talk to, and who can talk to me, and who I can count on to be there with me in the middle of bad situations. Dating or whatever just to do it, or because you think it'd be fun, I can't do that. [There's another small face, somewhat annoyed, though it fades pretty quickly.] The Legion gossips and has a lot of rigid standards within it that they want you to fall into quickly. I get the feeling that a lot of the people who don't know me very well still think of me like kind of a kid because I haven't looked for that kind of thing or even expressed a lot of interest in it so far.

And trust me, I got laughed at a lot when the nymphs chased me. It didn't seem to occur to anyone that getting laughed at for being harassed, even in kind of a friendly way, would just turn me off it more.


Willa Monday	Maya Matlin	Imogen Moreno	Sasha Torres	Callie Jacob

Sky Smith	Rikki Chadwick	Zarina	X-23	Tiger

Callie!

Hmm...

Okay, let's try this

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...So, themesong for these two? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzhAS_GnJIc

Yes, yes that works.

/stabs heart