Co-write between Audunia and Lunas Legion
Camp Half-Blood
June 15th, 2037
She could hardly believe the state of Camp Half-Blood when she arrived, its slap dash organisation was enough to drive anyone insane, but the lack of uniformity between all the cabins especially drove her over the edge. She understood representing the god accurately, but that did not mean they had to be such architectural eyesores. Natural-esque looking bungalows immediately next to a cobblestone house that looked more like a pile of stones that had been accidentally knocked down, not to mention some having chimneys for some reason.
She’d spent her first two days in the garrison itself, finding comfort in the wooden columns that reminded her of Camp Jupiter and the cohort garrisons. Though the forest gave it a more serene vibe than the plain surrounded by the Californian mountains. But, much to her frustration, it appeared her attempts at ensuring cleanliness and that the garrison held the correct amount of stocks had been interpreted as avoiding dealing with the Greeks and so she was sent to familiarise herself with the Camp. Apparently insisting that reading about it was not enough.
So now, she strolled along the wood’s edge on the summer's day. Her gladius was on her belt, the scabbard tapping against her jeans with every step, and her scutum was fastened on her back. Its weight soothed her anxiety at this new world she found herself in, reminding her that she was still a member of the Legion and would continue to be so for the foreseeable future. She’d found a nice little route to walk along, the waters of Long Island Sound on one side, the dark water glittering like diamonds in the sun, and the camp’s woods on the other. Gazing into its dark depths, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of excitement at the idea of playing Capture the Flag in those woods the coming Friday. It would feel good to be where she belonged, she was certain there was a standard of the garrison to ho-
She stopped herself, her face darkening with her thoughts. Caught up in all the alien wonder, and lackadaisy nature of the Greeks, she’d almost forgotten that there was a reason she was here. She silently chastised herself, the same lapse in awareness was what put her in this mess and away from the comforts of Camp Jupiter. She doubted they’d even put her in line of sight of any metaphorical standard, much less grant her the honour of carrying it into battle. Such an honour was reserved for those that deserved it.
A blast, sharp and loud, tore her from her thoughts, eyes darting the woods and horizon of the lake to find its source. The noise was far too loud and mechanical for it to have been a tree falling, and she couldn’t fathom anything from the sea that might’ve made the noise, short of a submarine or battleship. And if they had one of those sailing up the Long Island Sound, they probably had greater issues to deal with. Her eyes caught gentle ripples in the tide, following them to their source. To describe the source as anything but horrifying to Tia would be an understatement, seeing a camper actively firing a shotgun at the sea. She didn’t care if the sea had insulted the girl somehow, she could count at least three or four different violations being committed by just holding the shotgun alone, much less firing it.
“What in the gods name do you think you’re doing?” she shouted, storming forwards as mindfully as she could, keeping well clear of any potential firing line. She was all for enforcing the rules, but she had grander ideas for her future than ending it full of buckshot at Camp Half-Blood.
“What do you think I’m fucking doing?” Cornelia swore, gesturing in front of her to a haphazard firing range of bottles and cans balanced precariously on metal poles, not turning away. “Or have you never seen someone with a gun before?”
Tia’s face was the picture of confusion at the girl’s answer, somehow she hadn’t expected the gun-brandishing the child to have no concept of general politeness. “Obviously I can see what you’re doing,” Tia replied, working to recover herself and hide the momentary shock that had caught the words in her mouth “I’m asking why you think it’s a great idea to be firing off into the Sound,” her eyes fell on the shotgun, feeling as though the better question would have been where the child had even gotten the gun from.
“Because where else would I be pointing it?” Cornelia said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, the shotgun clicking as she ejected a shell onto the sand. She reached down, rolling the shell with the butt of the shotgun into a small pile by her leg. She glanced over the pile, as if counting, and tsk’d before looking up.
“Oh.” Her eyes narrowed slightly and she looked away quickly. “You’re one of them. Got curious or something?”
“I would’ve expected there to be a firing range or something, I can’t imagine the nymphs in there are particularly happy with you randomly firing at them” she said authoritatively. Her eyes narrowed at the girl’s last statement, ironically becoming quite curious at what she meant “One of them,” she asked, her arms folding across her chest “You mean Roman?”
“Well you aren’t Greek are you?” Cornelia snorted, putting the shotgun’s strap over one shoulder and gesturing vaguely in Tia’s direction. “And if the nymphs or whatever’s in there have a problem-” She pointed to the ocean. “They haven’t complained about it yet. And if they know what’s good for them, they fucking won’t!” She raised her voice, shouting out into Long Island Sound.
Tia fought to keep her face as neutral as possible, clearly the Greeks were slightly more unhinged than even the most outlandish rumour at Camp Jupiter said they were. Threatening nymphs seemed like a waste of time, but here someone was, yelling at it with gusto. Strange people. She tilted her head slightly “What’s your name?”
“What’s yours?” Cornelia retorted. “If they haven’t told you mine then your centurions or whoever’s in charge now have done a really bad job at telling you about this place.”
The strapping holding the shield in place on her back rustled as Tia shrugged. “They only tell us the names of councillors and leaders, not troublemakers. Though I’m starting to think it’s one and the same here.”. Her feet shifted slightly, half expecting that saying her name first was some sort of unknown loss in conversation here and the other half expected to get some sort of dismissal in response. “My name’s Constantina” she said, deciding it would be less effort trying to coax the name of the girl than having to find it out by asking about.
“Huh. And here I was hoping you’d insist I said first so I could tell you no.” Cornelia sighed. “I guess I need to go burn something down if they’ve stopped telling the transfers about me already.”
A laugh escaped Tia’s lips, soft and entirely unwelcome, caused by the sheer ridiculousness of the girl’s statement. She’d witnessed ridiculous things in her time, like when one of her fellow legionnaires was knocked off the walls during the war games and landed in some of Hannibal’s droppings or a faun with green hair, but the idea of committing arson for attention was ridiculous. The look in the girl’s eye told her that it wasn’t as funny as she thought it was. “Wouldn’t recommend it when you’ve just admitted to planning it. You might buy yourself some time by not saying your name, but I’m sure it won’t be hard to find the name of an angry girl walking around with a shotgun.”
Her eyes fell on the pile of discarded shells, her eyebrow raising “Speaking of, I would suggest getting this,” she gestured with her head to the shells at the girl’s feet and the impromptu shooting gallery. “Cleaned up and train at the appropriate facilities, unless the nymphs do decide to let you know they’re unhappy being shot at and decide to flood the place. If not, I may suddenly feel compelled to actually find out your name and report these violations.”
Cornelia was silent for a moment, thinking, before she laughed. “Oh, you…” She couldn’t keep talking, the laughter getting in the way of the words. “Ahahahahahahahaha…” She stopped, coughing, barely managing to stop herself bursting out into laughter again. “You’re for fucking real, aren’t you? I’ve been doing this for, like, nine months and no one gives a shit enough to stop me because everyone wins. Archers and everyone else don’t have to put up with shotgun blasts, I normally get some peace away to do my thing where I don’t have nosy Romans or Greeks going ‘why is that girl using a shotgun’ or whatever and honestly if the sea did flood the place it would’ve already by now.”
The feeling of her cheeks burning was frustrating, her jaw clenching slightly at her embarrassment. Maybe it would have been wiser to figure out the idiosyncrasies of the camp and the chaotic armoury its campers used, but she hardly had the time when she was putting her effort into just staying in the garrison’s territory and ensuring it was complying to the Legion’s standards. She had noticed it a thousand times, but this hammered home that Greeks just did not like doing things by the book. “They just let you shoot into the sea?” she cast her eyes at the admittedly scenic view, the green hills that sloped down along the water's edge a brilliant green in the summer sun. If it were better circumstances, it would’ve been nice, but now it just felt claustrophobic that she was trapped in the small territory that made up the camp.
“This place is so stupid,” she muttered, her fists balling tightly as she stormed past the girl, any grace in her steps robbed by the loose sand. She couldn’t help think that maybe it would’ve been smarter to just stay at Camp Jupiter and weather all the disappointing stares and laughs instead of coming to an entirely new place just to look like a fool.
“Says the person who’s camp admission process is whether a wolf spirit likes your vibe or not?!” Cornelia called out after her.
Sand kicked up when Tia stopped suddenly in her path, turning her head sharply “She examines whether you're worthy or not of being a legionnaire, better than leaving the children to their own devices in the hopes a faun finds them before a monster does.” she scoffed angrily.
“Well doesn’t that fucking suck…” Cornelia mumbled to herself, barely audible. “Well I guess she just occasionally gets it wrong.” Cornelia shrugged.
“She’s never wrong.” Tia shot back, though she wasn’t certain if she was defending Lupa’s honour at the insult of a Greek or whether she was convincing herself that she was still worthy of her place in the Legion.
“I’m pretty sure she’s wrong.” Cornelia said. “Like, ninety-nine-point-nine percent. Maybe go ask her to double-check. Just to make sure.” Maybe she should check if she was a child of Discordia, because despite everything else, she always seemed to be really good at stirring things up.
Her lip curled in anger, who was this random girl to disrespect a goddess like that, especially the one who cared for Romulus himself? She could feel her gladius growing heavy on her belt and her hand was itching to make this girl pay for her disrespect, though even angry she doubted fighting outside of the arena was sanctioned nor was fighting the first Greek she met particularly good for forging relations. Still, the temptation was there.
“What could you possibly know about Lupa, Graecus?” she asked, her tone cold and slow.
“Depends.” Cornelia smirked. “Go ask whoever’s in charge here now, if you want their story. If you want the truth, well, I think it’ll piss you off more if I don’t tell you.”
Shaking her head, Tia struggled to understand the ego of this girl. What was it with demigods that made themselves miserable and angry seeking to bring that misery and anger to every person that came into contact with them, and then using that as something to show off and brag about? She could admit that she’d been presumptive by showing up and attempting to institute some Roman order to the camper, but that hardly required ridiculous levels of hostility. “Sure, finding out who you are is the only thing I wanna do,” she said sarcastically, before turning around and continuing back to the Roman garrison “Try not to shoot yourself,” she called over her shoulder.
“I’d say valē, but we’d both know it’s a fucking lie.” Cornelia shouted back, ignoring Tia otherwise as she started to pack up everything she’d brought down earlier back into the duffel bag.
