New Camper! Axel's Arrival

[Axel Gauthier]

 

The door to the big house swung wide as a confident redhead rushed in. He surveilled the area, paying little heed to the exhausted-looking Satyr behind him. Then the boy raised his arm in the air in a sort of "victory gesture." The old goat puffed heavily, taking the opportunity to lean for a moment against the doorframe. "Geez, kid - I ain't no spring chicken anymore. Take it easy!"

"What're ya talkin' about?" the ginger replied, finally turning to look at his companion. "You said we needed to go quickly. To think of it like a game. Like a race."

"That was a JOKE!" The exasperated man bleated. "I just meant we have to move quick and avoid monsters, not that we had to run the whole way here!" The kid hadn't been bratty exactly, but definitely stubborn and suspicious. As the adult in the situation, the old satyr had attempted to keep a good head on his shoulders. He tried to put himself in the kid's shoes. If he's been that age and had suddenly been thrust into this scenario, he supposed he'd be suspicious too. But it was hard to be sympathetic when the child was wearing him out so. The moment he'd implied it was a challenge, the boy had taken off running and hadn't slowed for a minute. All the while shouting back questions that the goat-man had been too focused on  keeping up to answer. "Yer insane. Well, at least we got you here. Now I'm gonna go take a nap!" He spun on his heels - or hooves rather- and strode back out the door.

"H-hey! Wait! You never told me-" the boy called out, but there was nobody there. He turned around, noticing for the first time that the two of them had not been alone in the Big House. There was a man behind the desk, watching the scene unfold. "Oh, hey! So... uh..." To be honest, he wasn't quite sure how this worked. That old goat had insisted he come here, and he'd figured it beat going home. But as to what exactly his objective was (besides winning the race to this building) he hadn't a clue. "Pardon the intrusion, but um... where am I?"

---

@ Dustin Graves

Edited September 26, 2022 by Axel Gauthier

[Dustin Graves Rare]

It was Dustin's turn to be at the big house. Even though he sucked at helping the younger kids. The last kid that he had helped was Octavia and that was because he had to go help the satyr with the job. Not that it was a problem. He rather enjoyed the fighting that day. Regardless, and on the other hand, he was waiting for the younger campers at the moment to make their way here, if there was anything that would come in today. Sometimes they didn't make their way in. Those were sad days. Doing this job was all a part of being a cabin leader. Even thought he sucked at helping sometimes. He was always busy with something, barely having time to do anything that he wanted to do. Sometimes he had to wonder how it would feel to not be a cabin leader anymore. Honestly, he knew that things would have been interesting if he never got it. There would have been fights on who would take the spot. Lilythe would have had to pick along with the other camp directors. His brothers and sisters were really something. He smirked a little as he shuffled the papers in front of him. He had been thinking about the hand to hand combat training that he was in charge of. The older campers wanted something more difficult and he could understand that much. He was just about to get up from his chair when the door opened relevel another camper and a satyr for a moment then he ran off. He smirked at the commotion that they had caused. The boy seemed to turn back around and noticed him, which honestly was good. It meant that he didn't have to call out to him. Less work right. He shook his head for a moment letting the boy know that it was okay. "You're at camp halfblood. Did he not tell you anything?" Dustin couldn't help but question the red head boy.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Dustin Graves

[Axel Gauthier]

"Not really," the boy shrugged. "He said it was a race, so we ran here. I won - clearly. You saw me win, right?" Realizing that was probably not as important to this dude as it was to him, he did not wait for an answer. The important thing here was getting some answers. The building he'd arrived in was rather large, and this lobby-type area seemed designed for welcoming new arrivals. Arrivals like him, he supposed. He walked up to the man, looking him up and down. The guy was clearly athletic judging by his form, and there was a certain dangerous air about him. Axel wasn't sure if that meant he was dangerous to him or just a dangerous person to piss off, but he wasn't about to take any chances. He placed the dagger the satyr had given him on the desk, just in case this was a no-weapons-allowed kind of meeting.

"I was playing chess with this dude in the park - won that too by the way - but then he turned into a freaky snake-dude and tried to kill me! I was gonna beat him up with a stick but that goat dude shot 'im with an arrow first. Gave me that knife there in case there were more of 'em. He said we had to come here to get away from the freaky snake monsters, and y'all'd let Dad and Mr. Rainer know I'm not comin' back home tonight. Not that I wanted to anyway." He hadn't learned much from the hurried converation with the old goat, but he'd managed to put a few things together. "So, I'm guessing this is like a boot camp or something? Ran past some kids with swords on the way in. Plus, he said this place was safe from the monsters so... Gonna show me how to fight 'em? That or feed me to 'em as some ritual sacrifice." It was meant as a joke, but didn't sound like one. Axel had a few "tone issues" that made it hard to tell when he was being humorous. "So, what's a half-blood?"

[Dustin Graves Rare]

Dustin blinked at the boy words for a moment and smirked having an idea on where the kid was going to be placed. Honestly, it was always a game for him to find out where the kids were going to go. The only one that he hadn't been able to pin point was Octavia and that was mainly because she was so little. Although the jar of pennies should have been a idea for him, it just never clicked. "Well, Welcome to Camp-halfblood." He told the boy with a smile. "I indeed did see." he told the boy. "I'm Dustin by the way. What's you're name?" He questioned the boy just a little before the boy started going into great detail about the whole mess that he was in. He watched as the boy put the dagger on the desk and Dustin had moved it away to the inside, making sure that he would give it back to the rightful person later. 

Dustin deadpanned for a moment as the boy just keep talking. However, when he asked if the camp was a boot camp he couldn't help but laugh a little. "No, it's not a boot camp not really. Just a summer camp or a camp you can spend the whole year at." he told the boy with a small smile, he nodded his head and smirked. "You're right. We're going to teach you how to defend yourself against them. So yes to fighting, you game for that?" he questioned the boy, though he was pretty sure that the boy would think he was crazy but this was going to be the one thing that he wouldn't be joking about. Then the real question came from the boy and Dustin was ready for it. "Halfblood are the children of the god and a human." He told the boy. "So either you're mom or dad is a god, and by the response from earlier I'm going to say that it's you're mom." he stood up and walked around the desk and patted the seat next to the desk. "Sit, it's going to be a long talk, want anything to drink, maybe some cookies. I didn't cook them. I doubted it would be any good." He mused with a light chuckle.

[Axel Gauthier]

Axel faltered for a moment, realizing suddenly that he'd gone on quite the ramble. Worse, he'd been practically speaking over the man. And adults in his experience did not like being talked over. He quickly corrected his behavior and answered his first question. "Axel Gauthier, sir!" the boy nearly barked. Perhaps he had overcorrected. Still, Dustin didn't seem particularly hostile. He was actually being quite a bit more patient than the boy was sed to from his superiors. Though he did notice him slide the knife away.

The next question was met by far less hesitation. Game for fighting? Hell yes he was game! If there were more monsters like snake-man out there, he was down to go slaughter every last one of them. A certain hunger burned in his eyes at the thought. Those kids with swords out there... he was going to join them. What's more, he planned to be the best among them. Axel Gauthier, slayer of beasts. It had an epic ring to it. So to answer that question - "Hell yeah, when do I start?"

Though the continued explanation raised more questions than it answered. A god!?! His mom was a GOD!?! What the heck dd that even mean? He was fairly certain Dustin's assessment was correct, though he wasn't sure how he knew. If Axel's dad was a god, he wouldn't be so sick all the time. He'd be able to stand up for himself - and to stand up for Axel. No, Mr. Gauthier was was far too weak to be a god. But that meant... HIs whole life, Axel had felt out of place. Like he was someone special, a protagonist in a world of side characters. It was an arrogant thought, one he had tried very hard to scrub from his brain. But if what he had seen was real, if there really was something supernatural about him then... It didn't make him better than others, he knew that. But it did make him different in all the ways he had longed to be different. The suspicious kid wasn't normally quick to believe such wild claims. But he desperately wanted to.

The hunger in his eyes grew deeper, like a large bonfire threatening to set flame to the trees around it. "Mmkay... I'm listening." He took a seat, shoving a couple of the offered cookies in his mouth. He was too excited to even realize this was the first thing he'd eaten in nearly a day.

[Dustin Graves Rare]

Dustin blinked a little when the boy now named Axel called him sir. Honestly, it made him feel a little old, and hell he was only 18 at the moment. He shook his head for a second before laughing a little. "You don't have to call me sir," he told Axel, the smile still very much on his face. "I'm not that much older than you, you know." this time Dustin couldn't help but laugh a little more. 

Dustin noticed right away how eager the boy was to start fighting and he couldn't help but want to guess his godly parent already. If he was being honest with himself he knew that there was a whole cabin just like him. Heck, he had been...well no..he was in love with the cabin leader of that cabin. But he would wait to see where he was placed before he went that far. He shook his head at the boy and smirked. "Well, you could start as soon as tomorrow. We have to get you claimed first," he told the boy with a nod of his head. 

He watched the boy for a moment as he began to talk about the parent being god thing. Honestly, it was always interesting to see what others thought of the whole statement. Most didn't believe him or them depending on who it was. However, the boy said that he was listening and he was ready to start his thing. "As I said a second ago. You have a godly parent. Just like most of the people here. It's either mom or dad. Again we can say for certain that it's your mom this time. The gods like to come down and like to be with mortals for some time and then go back to their lives." he honestly didn't want to get into the whole sex talk with a thirteen-year-old. He would let one of the older campers do that. "During that time, we are born. Born of god and mortal... which makes us demigods." He told Axel with a nod of his head. "You have ADHD and or dyslexia... all traits of a demigod." He told the boy. "Camp half-blood is a safe place for kids like us to come to, to be safe and learn how to keep ourselves in the outside world. So all of us in here have had this talk and were in your shoes at one point or another." he ran a hand through his hair and smiled some. "Any questions?"