Over the hills to camp...

[Penelope Belleci]

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..."

[James Selway Rare Rare Rare]

James was in the big house as it was his time again to man the front desk. He had gotten away to Spain with Arsen over the Holidays which was nice for a change. The two had hit the town for drinks, dancing and much more fun. Arsen had been such a good friend that he even got James some records while he was over there. Putting the record player behind the front desk, he was closing his eyes and jamming out to some of the artist he found. James might not be a child of Apollo but that did not stop him from loving music with all of his being! 

Hearing the sound of the door open he opened his eyes to see a young girl standing in front of the desk with her hands together. Smiling he nodded to her as she spoke. Laughing when she said the words logistical points he got up. Standing tall he stretch and towered over the girl. "Welllllllcome Penelope" he said as he finished his stretch. "My name is James Selway, I am a son of Tyche and a cabin leader here at Camp Half-Blood" Going around the desk he waved her to follow him, "Take a seat over here on the couch and I will grab us some cookies" he said with his clam, chill vibes he always seemed to give off. Grabbing the plate that had just been made not even an hour ago he walked back placing them on the table before taking his own seat.

[Penelope Belleci]

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..

 

[James Selway Rare Rare Rare]

Each camper that came through those doors, were always different and not in a bad way but in a way that kept the cabin leaders on their toes. But this girl in particular seemed to be a very literal and factual one. Laughing he nodded "Yes that is true, we do have better food in the dining hall. The Dryads prepare a delicious assortment of  barbecue, grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, and fresh bread so we do have healthier things." Hoping this might make her feel better about taking a cookie. It wasn't as if they ran off just cookies here but a lot of campers did love them! It wasn't long after when he saw her take one.....good he thought to himself. With all the craziness of travel it was a good treat to give the new campers. 

Seeing that she was straight to the point he nodded to let her continue as it seemed this girl was on a mission! But how old was she? She couldn't be older than 13 of course but for one so young she seemed so on top of things. "Wow that is a question to start with" he said laughing as most who came into the big house for their first time wouldn't even even know where to begin. "So I guess Barnaby said it dealt with magic which is true. I mean I am not sure how the magic works but do know what it can do. Like cure any living thing, resurrection, magical protection like our borders, it causes plants to grow, and can shapeshift if needed" he said thinking hard about this. It wasn't as if he thought we was going to get a lore test!!!! 

But upon this she pulled out a notebook that had things scribbled in it. Trying to look over on the page it seemed like a lot of writing and drawings. Making him smirk as he took a cookie himself. Leaning back he relaxed "Sooo did he tell you about the God's having mount Olympus above the empire state building?" he chimed in to see where she wanted to go with this conversation next.  

 

[Penelope Belleci]

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.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Penelope Belleci

[James Selway Rare Rare Rare]

Thinking back to his own time coming to camp half-blood he was around 10 years old and scared out his mind. The monster who came to get him smashed his house to pieces killing his parent.....maybe his sister? He didn't even know if she was alive or not...…..his mind was then brought back to the munching of cookies as he looked at Penelope with a smile. He knew the answers he was giving her might not be what she wanted to hear but it was what he had. He was not immortal after all. He did have a fair amount of knowledge on creatures but that was from his own study over the years.

"Well it was a good thing he didn't let you.......phones are a beacon when demi-gods use them for monsters to find them. You wouldn't want to have your airplane to go down after an attack happen while you were on board." he said nodding his head. It was one of the downsides of being a demi-god with recent technology.

James wondered when he notebook would come in handy! Penelope turned it around to show a drawing that she had done which he looked impressed at. Even the dyslexic writing at the top made him smirk a little bit more. "Well the way I think about it as if they are floating above the empire state building but again it is all because of magic....mortals cannot get to it or see it due to the mist....which did Barnaby talk about the mist?" he finished saying with a smile. 

"Just about" the words came out kind "we need to train you as your power grows so does your scent to the monsters of this world. All they want to do is to kill demi-gods like you and I, Which is why Barnaby went to find you. Our job as cabin leaders are to prepare you in your fight when you are not at camp." He did not want to scare the little girl but the world was a dark place for demi-gods like them. Many died before they even got the chance to be claimed and thanks to Percy Jackson it was a lot less now than it used to be!

[Penelope Belleci]

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..

[James Selway Rare Rare Rare]

Being a demi-god had its perks and also its downsides!!! Not being able to use a phone without alerting the monsters to their location was definitely one of them! It wasn't as if James had gotten used to one since he was only ten when he went to camp. "I know it ......well it sucks but it is better than becoming monster chow."  This was very true in the fact that demi-gods don't come back from tartarus like the monsters do. 

James sat there with a smile on his face as he listened to the girl in front of him talk about the Satyr becoming grumpy. Well they didn't have it easy finding the half-bloods and then trying to get them to camp. Many died doing just that! "Well there was several wars but that was from enemies rising up from the depths of evil. " James said with a shiver. The wars had not been easy but they had saved the world...didn't they? "That is good he was! Monsters once they get the scent of a half-blood will do anything to end them" he tried to say in a way that didn't sound too bad!

"But until you are claimed you will stay in the Hermes Cabin, which I will show you too after we are done here" he said with a smile. "Then the bonfire will happen.....but how old are you Penelope? " He had asked the girl as Barnaby had not told him her age. "The God's made a promise you see, that every demi-god by the age of thirteen will be claimed by their parent. Some do it earlier than thirteen while others do it the day of their thirteenth birthday." He knew that Penelope must have had a long day and could be tired out. He did not want to make her more exhausted than she was but also wanted to make sure she had been told all the things. 

[Penelope Belleci]

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..

[James Selway Rare Rare Rare]

Making a little umming sound when she said her age, a bit of him felt pain deep down. As he was just as young as she when he arrived at camp.  To have such pain at that age made him sad, but Penelope seemed to be in better shape than he when he arrived. It had been a satyr who saved him from a monster who killed both his parents and maybe his sister? "Well then we will see which God is your parent then....hopefully soon" he said with a hopeful tone! 

It was good to make sure the new campers had all the information and such. It was hard enough being thrown into this life style without any idea that it was real enough. So when she asked who Hermes was a smirk came onto his face "Most think of him as the messenger god but is also known for travel, messaging, invention, sleep, speed, and thievery. So keep your stuff close to you when you get assigned a space there" he said with a twinkle in his eye. He remembered being in that cabin until he was claimed at a much older age. He was thick as Thieves with Lilythe as she was older and wiser than he. 

Then realizing the time he stood up "So let's get you to your cabin" stretching as he knew they had been there some time since Penelope arrived. Walking over to the door he watched Penelope as the two of them would be off to find Hermes Cabin soon and then tonight would be the bonfire!

[Penelope Belleci]

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))

Edited January 26, 2023 by Penelope Belleci