It didn't take long for Penelope's sense of curiosity to get the better of her as she kept staring into the cabin. She was amazed not only by the size but the variety of bits and crafting areas. the cabins own forge along with so much variety in each of the bunks. Internally she started to collate questions about all the things as she tried to take everything in at once.

It was only then that she realized that this was a family, people who she somehow had never met before that day but her future was now connected with like cogs turning against one another. She listened as Kenna described how they would support one another and work together. She had grown up as an only child and hadn't really realized that it could be more than just her and her mum, well and her aunt form time to time - but a cabin full of siblings..

"Oh.. Lead on!" she quickly followed her new big sister, that would take some getting used to, as she started into the building pointing out all the major features.

Penelope had played in her share of playground games but the rules as it had been explained seemed pretty rough. She had left the sword behind but had a large bronze shield strapped to her back that she could just about hold if she used both hands. Once the flag had been set in place she had used the watchful eyes of some of the rest of Red team to let her pull together some defences for the flag using ropes as pull traps and tripwires in the dense forest of the south woods.

The net was a simple enough trap, designed to block off access to anyone trying to come through the undergrowth, having made sure there weren't many paths that anyone bigger than her could navigate.

She had been lying in the underbrush near the flags waiting to see if she could catch someone as they tried to do it, worst case it would stop the access through and as the surf child of Iris headed up the path she pulled the rope to block the path and hopefully scoop him up.

"Not today!"

Penelope kept pushing forward, small tendrils of smoke floating up from her fingers as her hand pressed forward, amazed by the ease that the door swung in now the barriers and pins had moved aside. It was solid and metal but was so well balanced it didnt take any effort. 

She opened her eyes wide as she looked back at Kenna. "It did, I felt the door and then it just wanted to open!". She grinned as Kenna mentioned it was cool "It was super cool - But it wasn't magic, I could feel the gears and everything!" It was only at that point she remember it was more than a barrier and looked on in awe into the Hephaestus cabin now she had made it past the threshold. As she looked in she could see an array of projects, mostly partially built, littering the foyer. Her mouth hung open as she tried to work out what each were supposed to do. Behind it were an array of bunk beds, a stairwell leading downwards and...  a fireman's pole dropping down from an upper floor.

Penelope kept her foot in the door as she leant back out of the cabin - she was sure there hadn't been an upper floor and could confirm her confusion as she looked upwards. As she looked back at Kenna once more she tried to talk but no words came out in a state of mixed awe and confusion - Maybe there was something to this magic thing...

Penelope sighed, hearing it was indeed a test she listened and looked out frustratedly at the door. Machines should just work like they should, you clicked a button or a lever or a something. The idea that you had to feel it just sounded like more of that magic thing the lady had told her at the big house.

She placed a hand out against the door not really knowing what to expect, her hand feeling awkward against the cold metal. She wasn't sure how to listen with her hand or what she was supposed to be listening to, if it wasn't opening what would there be to listen to...

She Looked back at Kenna, seeing the attempt at encouraging and realizing that this was where she was supposed to be staying actually feeling like she wasn't breaking in but maybe where she was supposed to be. She turned back taking a deep breath and trying not to over think it.

She closed her eyes and she felt the warmth of her hand against the cold metal of the door, the heat conducting through and spreading across the door. She saw the light through her closed eyes as if there was the warmth of flames around her hand. It was then she started to feel the door, the mechanisms, the pistons, as if her fingers had reached into the door itself to trace the lines and motion within it.

She got an instinctive feeling and started to rotate her hand on the spot, as she did she started to feel the bars in the door turning, the gas within the door starting to vent.

She looked back in surprise and excitement at Kenna as the noise and vibrations started inside the big steel door. "Wait.. its doing it.. its doing it!"

Penelope looked around the frustration still obvious on her face. She had meant to stick with the couple of other campers on her way back after the bonfire but had ended up stumbling to the big house.. now she was starting to realize just how people-ing that crowd had been and just wanted a bunk for the night. She had dropped her pack next to the door as she had tried to examine the big mechanism..

"No, I am not okay - this door doesn't want to open - I can see its a steam-lever-bolt thingy" She says waving at the centre of the main entrance door into the cabin. "But they didn't give me a key or the code or whatever it is to get in".

Hearing that Kenna was a member of the cabin as well made her feel a bit more hopeful - she hadnt been through the claiming that night, she would know the trick to the locking mechanism.. she just hoped it wasn't a test of some sort as she felt weirdly that the door itself was dodging her attempts to understand it.

She looked up to see Kenna looking at her.. oh yeah introductions.. "Hi I'm Penelope.. so whats the trick to opening the door?"

Penelope stopped at the massive vault doors into Cabin nine, looking over the metal panelling and the strongly mechanical feel to the building. She stopped and stared at the mechanism, staring at steam vents and solid locking bolts built into the structure. It definitely matched the description but she guessed the first test was to determine how to open the way.

She tried to dig through her rucksack but she hadn't been given any kind of key or code to punch in for this big lump and she didn't think a spare set of clothes was going to do much. She looked at the mechanism and guessed something turned a main circular something to retract the bars.. gah!

She looked around for another way in but the big metal building looked secure and she guessed this was going to fail her at the first test! She knew she should have gotten instructions after the bonfire..

Out of frustration she landed a kick at the bottom of the mechanism...

Penelope keep staring in to the sparks of fire flickering off of the bonfire trying to work out as much as she could.. it could be up to three years clutching her pack and keeping on in the Hermes cabin. It didn't seem the worst of places but she had been given warnings to watch her stuff..

Her mind kept going back through the gods.. she knew her mum so it had to be one of the boy gods... she tried to remember all of them.. there had been so many when Barnaby had rattled them off..

From across the other side of the fire there was a "pssst" she looked up worried she might have stood in the wrong place or had missed some part of the process.. looking over she saw the guitar and the Leader person, James,  who had been at the big house when she had arrived. She worried for a moment before she saw the wave turn into a thumbs up. With a relief she tilted her head sideways and then gave a very determined thumbs up back while still gripping the pack with the other hand busy still trying to remember more of the boy gods... Apollo - But a space rocket wasn't exactly like a sun chariot...

Soundtrack:

82!

plans for a banner

https://i.imgur.com/vxlbsNS.gifv

Penelope hugged her bag close to her having been guided to the sprawling Hermes cabin making the most of the advice to keep her belongings near her. She hadn't had anything to unpack as her rucksack contained everything she had brought with her across from the West coast.

James had said said that this was the place to come to and see if your godly parent sent a sign. What she hadn't accounted for was the potential of over a year in the company of thieves and ner-do-wells dwelling in the unclaimed area of the Hermes cabin. She would have to make sure there was a way to get their attention if no sign appeared, there were details of a promise after all, that implied some kind of agreement.

Penelope arrived early and found a space to huddle away as the fire lit and the others started to gather. She realized she hadn't felt any of the cold since she arrived at camp and now with her pack in her arms, the crackling flames and her mum's aviator jacket she was definitely feeling that warmth in her bones.. her vision focused on the flames and around its dancing embers, enough to distract her focus from the other worries she had found herself dwelling on.

Static pictures:

https://i.imgur.com/gEYSKaX.png

Penelope nodded along as James was talking through the details of the gods and the claiming, and the details of Hermes, taking a mental note of at least some of the details.

"Understood - keep my pack close." she said taking a mental note of this. At least her rucksack would be mostly comfortable to use as a pillow.

She picked up the bag from between her feet, pulling it up and slinging it over a shoulder. She managed to snag one more cookies before heading for the door with James. She wouldn't need to leave anything in the cabin after the warning she was given and would be able to attend this bonfire plan to see if the sign showed up.

She followed James out of the door trying to look past him to tell which cabin they would be headed towards.

((and fin))

Imgur moving gifs

https://i.imgur.com/ALu6tX9.gifv - thumbs up
https://i.imgur.com/hNkpjzP.gifv - stimulating
https://i.imgur.com/eqbwxSi.gifv - smile
https://i.imgur.com/ngZi9pf.gifv - cookie
https://i.imgur.com/M3ygld3.gifv - tree
https://i.imgur.com/McUIxCe.gifv - huff
https://i.imgur.com/LKHQKOk.gifv - dodgems
https://i.imgur.com/BLlFW39.gifv - stairs

Placeholder for art and other details.

Penelope took the time to listen through each of the instructions, just about mapping these to what the satyr had told her. Time in the unclaimed cabin and then maybe being picked.. as James spoke she was very specific about her age "Ten and two months.." she knew the extra amount was important because it was the way she could tell who was older and younger in her class, she had found out that a birthday later on in the year stuck you in about the middle of the year but only while she was listening to James continue did she realize that thirteen was such a big age for the kids at camp.

She didn't really have much of an idea if this unclaimed cabin was a good or a bad thing, the whole unclaimed thing reminded her of times in gym class being left near the end to join a team. Would this mean she would be left aside for he next year and five sixths. If so it seemed a little unfair - if you made it here and the bonfire was the place to claim them then why would some choose to wait.

She frowned as she thought that the rules should be easier to follow, this whole any time up to thirteen seemed less than straightforward. "I guess that all makes some sense.." She realized that Barnaby had given up as she had started to bombard him with questions with all the gods and their powers and things, she had not gotten through them all "So which one was Hermes again?" If she was going to have cabin mates for however long up to a year and a half she should really get more information on them.

She took the minute to flip through the note/drawing pad but none of the questions she had came up with looked unanswered to her anymore. She stifled a yawn as she listened to James' answer, suddenly realizing how much the tiredness of the journey and the flight and the trek to camp had taken out of her..

As James started to explain just how bad phones were she started to come to a realization she was likely to be without the use of hers for the next foreseeable future and each note of just how bad the ramifications of using it could be sank in. "oh.. okay I guess"

"I think he mentioned the mist but we were halfway through the aeroplane travel and he got very grumpy about trying to answer all the questions and tried to get some sleep." she realized that was roughly the time she had moved onto sketching, she hadn't really felt the need to sleep while the plane whizzed through the sky.

When she questioned the whole fighting for the gods thing James explained it was much more monster fighting and not dying - she could appreciate the not dying thing - it tended to be considered pretty bad. She nodded with appreciation as the explanation went on, another cookie was summarily defeated . "Good. So self defence, not army things. I think I understand now. I was worried when Barnaby said about wars and things" she remembered the idea of saying nice things about people when you are talking about them. "but he was really good at killing the attack birds at the school".

Somehow it seemed like the girl had run out of steam or questions, possibly both and the pages after this seemed to be filled with crude aeroplanes and helicopters instead of more testing questions..

At the sound of all the foods James listed Penelopes stomach gave a rumble, thankful for the cookie even if she had said it wasn't a good choice.. but her mum had always said to be careful not too eat too many sweet treats as it would damage you teeth and make you fat.. she decided this one time a cookie's worth of energy would be needed.

She kept nibbling away at it as James explained the answer to the camp being a safe place.. she had mostly gotten the answer magic from Barnaby and had thought he had mostly been trying to dismiss her based on her age.. here was a second person telling her the same thing.

Magic could fix all things, do all the things and grow all the things.. that sounded like she was in the wrong place. She liked to poke at gadgets and mess with the big spinning gubbins of cars.. magic just felt like.. cheating.

"It was a long flight over.. five hours and twenty two minutes. plus all the time waiting in the airport.. and Barnaby said I couldn't even use my phone... not even in aeroplane mode, like that's why they designed it for. so i asked lots and lots of questions and half of the answers were to do with Magic"

As James mentioned the empire state building she picked up the notepad and flipped it around.. on a full page was a sketch in pencil of a building clouds part of the way up and then a pointy building tip with a set of boxes on top that might generously be made out as houses.. to one side is a not of 600th with multiple under lines and on the other is a scored out DOGS with its replacement GOᗡS written below..

"Barnaby said they live up there, but he couldn't tell me if they were on the top or above it and how it would work if they were all very high up and couldn't breathe and would all float and flop around in space.." 

She realized she also had been through a low walk from the city to where they could get the strange taxi cab out here. another cookie would replenish the lost energy this one time. She quietly let James start talking again before slowly grabbing another cookie and starting to nibble on it.

"So from what I could tell we come here to work out who dad was and then we learn to fight all the big things?" She really didn't like the sound of fighting things, lots of pain and owwies plus she really didn't like the sight of blood. Maybe she should have asked her mum for a note to be excused, she had one of those for school somewhere but suspected that 'track' was not going to cover monster slaying.

Penelope took the moment to look around the strange old-y style building. It was weird in that it was all different styles and weirdly filled up, a big cat head on one side, some kind of arcade game in another corner and 

Penelope stomped in her big boots across the wooden floor, settling her rucksack between her feet as she settled into the big couch. She looked at the cookies for a moment "You know these are mostly just energy rather than anything nutritional.." though from the smell and the audible grumble of the gnawing hunger from the long journey she did seem to reconsider their merits of cookies as a food group.

She gingerly took a cookie and pulled her water bottle from the side of her bag to wash it down with.

"I mean I got the parent god connections, that was just weird biology stuff, but there were a few bits Barnaby said I should ask you" she said very matter of fact-ly..

Thinking back to her journey and the questions that Barnaby had tried though had often failed to answer to any satisfactory level, she started onto her list.. "So.. first question - how does the fleece and tree work together to protect here. All Barnaby could tell me was magic but how does it even know where to protect? Is it linked to the roots its grown under the camp?" she had a number of questions that they had discussed on the way to camp but this was the last one so was still on her mind..

She began to recall a good few more of the questions and pulled her NASA notepad out that she had started to fill up on the flight over. looking down she saw a number of scored out questions either she had discounted or Barnaby had given enough of an answer to..

- Where do all the montsers coem form? - Tar-tar-us
- so they just apear? - Yes (unstaisafctory)
- What lets them trak dwon people demidogs? Somehting about smells - still incnolusi.. ask?
- Why shoud I not be us-ng my moblie? More unknwns for atracting mosnters?
[X] note: ask mor questions at camp
[X] note: Can I at least use it inside the perimiee protcet camp plaice?
[X] note: do they at leest have Wifi?
- How do they work out your divin parent? Some kind of god firewurk?
- If the gods are up there are they a bove or bellow Space? Something about else place - Barnby said to ask camp
- and do all the stɘʞɔoЯ and satelights not hit them up there? See above
 

The other side had a sketch of a tall building with its top cut off by a line and then some kind of crude sketch of a city on the top...
The list stretch across two more pages of the notepad - slowly devolving from further questions filling the edges of the margins in a neat (if not so well spelt) handwriting into more drawing based attempts to remember facts notation and then into a set of pictures of rockets and machinery with little sketches of pistons..

The noise of the girl's ongoing monologue could be heard before the two came into sight of the camp.

She couldn't have been more than ten and had a single small rucksack on one shoulder, an overly large aviation jacket that drowned the rest of her outfit; a set of denim dungarees, a flannel top and some sturdy looking boots. Her arms were gesturing around the hillside as she spoke.

"....Sure, I understand its magic but why does the fleece work and why would the tree be the focal point, maybe a network of roots or other network in the ground hooking it together."

Next to her was a kid that looked maybe thirteen but had pointed horns just above their hairline and a leaving hoof prints behind him.

"I just said it was the mythical fleece and the tree was the work of Zeus so they just.... work"

This did not sound like the first discussion of metamagical subjects these two but from the levels of exasperation the girl did not seem to be getting any answers to this current mystery.

"So the boundary is protected somehow by magic and then the camp inside has children of the gods. They do the training and surviving and what.. fight for the gods." She had never wielded a weapon before and didn't really see a point to it.

Fighting just seemed kind of nasty and primitive, there were better methods to injure someone if that was the goal but it just seemed a waste of effort most of the time.

"Then I go in and they assign me a place and then I can go home after the summer and I what.. become better at fighting things?"

From the sigh of the Satyr it sounded like this was another topic that had came up before.

"If you head into the big house then someone will talk you through it all... and hopefully have a few more answers for you."

She looked up at the four story really old designed house, it seemed pretty sprawling and had a fair few differing styles of architecture from the past. It looked like it was just about holding together from across the years and styles though the clement weathers that Barnaby had told her about this place definitely must have helped.

As Barnaby stopped outside the door, Penelope realised this was a her job to go in. She looked over the big door, no knocker, no doorbell, no instructions. She signed and rapped on door twice and pushed open the door. She paused in the doorway and absent minded-ly turned back to the satyr "Oh yeah. Thanks for killing monster and getting me here." She had learned to work out a nice thing to say when you finished talking to them, it made sure they were... less problematic.. more likable... she had pretty. much just worked out that it was an easier life if it was a thing she did. People frustrated her but for now she had another person on the otherwise of this doorway.

She pulled a wide smile onto her face and marched up to the person in the lobby of the big house. She had learned this technique as well over her years of analysing people. She gripped her hands together at her front and spoke strongly "I am Penelope Belleci from the West Coast, Satyr Barnaby told me to report in for the camp. I got the basics on the way in but he said you could confirm some of the logistical points..."

Penelope Belleci

biography

Mirabella (Miri to her friends) had always been a diligent and hardworking student through school and university as she grew up in Italy. Through study and dedication she pushed towards her goal of rocket science. 

She ended up moving to Frascati, Italy for her dream job, working on the satellite design at ESA Centre for Earth Observation. 

The gods could rarely avoid looking in on the latest technologies being developed in the mundane world and the exploration of space was definitely no exception.

This god took the form of an eccentric West Coast American engineer/mechanic coming along with a bunch of other American Colleagues visiting Frascati to share knowledge between space agencies.

He spent his time with very in depth questions and even made a few suggestions that, although very American, actually provided insight into mew areas of development for the launch process. Their discussions moved to dinner and even the suggestion of a job over at Cape Canaveral. One thing lead to another and their discussions lead them to a night of passion in his hotel room. 

It was a whirlwind time as she accepted the job and planned to uproot her life but when she arrived in the states, the visas were sorted, the job was real but the engineer she had grown to know was no where to be seen or known of.

The strangeness cast by the mists was made worse when she found herself pregnant and alone in a new country, the only thing keeping her sane was though the chance to work on the next big NASA project and that deep connection to the child.

Named Penelope Luna Belleci, the child grew up in the states as a slightly awkward but technically gifted girl. She was the kind of child who would dismantle electronics if left unsupervised.

She definitely inherited her mothers technical aptitudes but this did not extend to the rest of her academic abilities, she had trouble concentrating, trouble following along with text and it frustrated her as she could see how things worked so well in her head but all the words just got in her way.

As she got older she learnt the hard way that making friends wasn't easy and mom was always busy with her work - still they found time to hang out and talk about how they were doing. She would tell mom about her current building projects and mom would tell her of her other siblings - the space satellites, one out orbiting the sun and another being built and prepared with scientific research.

It wasn't until around 3rd grade she actually made a friend she somehow kept. It wasn't so much as she befriended Barnaby as much as he kept up a friendship with her. He was funny and pretty popular and knew all sorts of weird things and could do all kinda gross tricks. 

Her Aunt ended up moving over to look after her while her Mom went back to Europe to talk about the part of the US in the ESA programs.. It wasn't until she heard from her Aunt that mom had had a heart attack while on stage that she worried. After a few weeks treatment mom was able to come back to the states but the trauma had taken its toll and Aunt Ophelia ended up staying on to help out for a while.

It was into 4th grade when a dark cloud cast a shadow over the school, soon the screeching of birds could be heard as they descended towards Penelope as she moved between classes. It was only Barnaby who was able to drag her into the music rooms to escape the worst of their talons.

From within here they crashed through the instruments, throwing noise and disruption into air and causing the birds to drop onto the ground. and Barnaby dragged her from the school (leaving a pretty wrecked music room in their wake)

After a startling discovery that her friend had horns and goat hooves and that there would be more monsters coming their way, the pair quickly made their way to speak to Penelope's mom and aunt. It was then that Barnaby dropped the second revelation that she was the daughter of a god and that she needed to go to camp to learn how to be safe.

It took the two of them a good amount of time to travel over from the West coast over to New York, though a pair of flight tickets were sorted for the majority of the trip. There were scuffles with monsters and troubles with the long trek from the city out to the camp but they finally made it there. 

Physical Description

Penelope is young with light brown, nearing blonde hair that tends to be kept out of the way in a braid or ponytail. She tends to go for practical choices of clothing, sturdy dungarees or simple jeans and a tee, often with a plaid shirt. her resting look tends to be pretty studious but likely half caught up in her own thoughts.

Her prized possession is her mothers flight jacket, although she was never a pilot, it had been her way of collecting and storing patches form each of the organizations she worked for and with.

Personality

Penelope is very analytical in her ways, she assesses the weight of ideas and the best way to implement them with the available material.

She prefers to talk about machinery which, if constructed properly, would not break down or betray them. Her favorite pass time is to work on transparent systems like car engines, the basic principles could all be observed, understood and then repeated to keep it all going.

About Me

Birthdate:  1st Nov 2011 (just turned 10)
Likes: lego building, cooking, cars, engines, gummy sweets, melon, corn on the cob, that switch on the inside of the fridge for the light when the door opens.
Dislikes: the dark, heights, relationships, Aphrodite kids, bad design theory, perpetual motion machines, aeroplanes
Family:

• Mom: Mirabella Belleci
• (Rocket Scientist - Satellites)
• Dad:
• (God: An unknown and shadowy male god of Olympus)
• Siblings:
• (None)
• Other:
• Aunt: Ophelia Belleci

Others:

• Satyr:
• Barnaby

Happy Thoughts: When a creation comes to life.

Nightmares: The monsters within the dark coming for her

Fatal Flaw: Over Deliberation

PLAYED BY: SHADOWSOVERSCOTLAND

FACE CLAIM: Anna Chlumsky (my girl)

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Active on both TJ and Azrael