Author's Note
Hey guys! As you may have noticed, this is an SYOC fanfic. It takes place in an alternate universe where Percy Jackson and co. never existed, so that events that occurred in the canon book series (Titan War, Giant War, etc.) never happened. There are some minor changes to how Camp Half-Blood functions that should be made clear in this chapter but the overall setting and premise of this world remains the same. Rules for the SYOC can be found at the end of the chapter, and the character form is on my profile.
"I hate togas."
"They're stupid," one of the other senators agreed. "It's a large piece of fabric that you wrap around yourself. Do you think Julius Caesar ever tripped and fell on his ass?"
"Probably," Elisa said. She tugged on the fabric to straighten out the pleats. The ancient Romans truly knew how to make clothing uncomfortable-if you didn't hold your arm close enough to your body, or moved around a little too vigorously, the whole garment tended to get undone.
"Could we please get order," Lyda called from the podium. Elisa didn't envy the praetor for having to quiet down an entire room of senators and ghosts.
Senate meetings always tended to be rowdy, but everybody seemed particularly restless this time. Maybe it was the chill: it was uncharacteristically cold for a June afternoon. Elisa regretted not bringing a scarf. The lemures would probably complain about her breaching dress protocol, but it was worth not freezing.
Lyda raised her voice again. "Senators, could we please have order? We were supposed to start ten minutes ago."
The noise in the room eventually died down to a few hushed whispers.
"Let's get started. Today's Senate meeting is mostly for housekeeping purposes. We're discussing the weapons supply-"
There was a collective groan around the room.
"-and news from the augur," Lyda said, as if she'd never been interrupted. She gestured to the side of the room, where the other praetor, Aron, and their augur were standing. "If you all remember our previous shortage of spathas…"
Elisa nodded along and tried her best to look interested. When she'd been nominated to the Senate, she hadn't thought it would be so tedious. She honestly preferred her responsibilities as a centurion, even if that involved herding around kids who couldn't get into formation and didn't know how to make their beds properly.
Yes, she had been a new camper once, too, but Elisa was sure she wouldn't have any more patience with a littler version of herself. Once, she'd managed to give herself a nice deep gash all the way down her leg from sword practice. A few days later, her centurion approached her in the infirmary and gently suggested that perhaps the longsword was not the best weapon for her.
She generally had to fight to stay awake when Lyda ran through administrative tasks, but the cold in the room kept her alert enough to notice the praetor stepping down from the dias and beckoning the augur up.
He was new, Elisa noticed. Their old augur had probably resigned to go to university. This one was short and young-looking: no more than thirteen, if she had to guess. He cast a nervous gaze around the room, then cleared his throat.
"Hi, everyone. I'm Hugo. I'm the new augur. Uh…the omens. I've consulted with the gods and the omens are. Not good. Thank you," he said.
He started backing away from the podium, but stopped when Jodie Kaye from the First Cohort stood with her arm extended slightly. Hugo clearly didn't know its meaning; he looked desperately towards Aron, who just shrugged and gave Hugo an unhelpful smile.
Lyda frowned and elbowed him. "Do you have a question, Senator Kaye?"
"Could the augur please elaborate on what these bad omens are?"
Usually Elisa was irritated by post-augury questions, and especially those asked by Jodie. The daughter of Ceres was a notorious keener, probably gunning for praetor upon Aron's inevitable retirement. This time, though, she found herself nodding in agreement.
"Yes, well…" Hugo looked vaguely embarrassed. "I can't tell very clearly what they are, yet."
"You can't?"
"No. Well, sort of. The birds are flying in an inauspicious direction. And they make no noise. A disturbance, likely soon. A bad sort of disturbance. But that's all I've been able to see."
Always with the disturbances, she thought. It was such a vague thing to say. Was it really a demigod camp if you weren't being disturbed all the time?
Jodie clearly had the same thought. "Is there any indication of when the disturbance is going to be?"
"No."
A few of the Senators at the other end of the bench let out a collective murmur of exasperation that quickly rose to a full conversation.
Lyda took the dias once again and called for order, looking extremely disappointed in them. "Thank you, Hugo. I will keep you all updated on any new augury. For now, I'd accept a motion for an hour long recess. I think you'll need it before we talk about planning next month's war games."
"Motion to go for lunch," someone at the back of the room called.
"That would be in order," Lyda said. There was a flurry of activity as the rest of the room moved towards the exits. She turned in Elisa's direction. "Senator Rojas, could you stay behind for a moment? I'd like to have a word with you."
"Of course."
They waited until the room was empty save for the praetors, Hugo, and Elisa herself. Lyda stepped down from the dias and gave her a half-hearted pat on the shoulder. "Are you okay? You seemed kind of out of it today."
More than usual? Elisa wanted to ask, but she shrugged instead. "It's just cold in here, that's all."
Lyda seemed skeptical, but she didn't push the issue any further. "Anyways. Your sixth-year anniversary at camp just passed, right?"
"Yep." Six years since she'd stumbled into camp as a confused eleven-year old.
"Did Dave give you another line before he left?"
Elisa held up her arm to show her tattoo: the letters SPQR, a two-faced man, and five lines. "Nope."
"Great. Well, not great that Dave didn't do it, but Hugo here can have a go at it. Hugo?"
The new augur spoke the words haltingly, like he'd just memorised them. Elisa watched as a new line burnt itself into her skin. It didn't hurt; at least, not as much as it had in her first year. It had taken her ages to realise who her father was, and she'd had to return to the augur a second time to get the symbol imprinted separately.
"You should probably go to lunch," Aron said to Hugo, finally moving from his spot near the door.
"Shouldn't you go, too?"
Aron grinned. "No, Lyda and I don't need to go for lunch. We eat naughty probatio. I caught one the other day, so I'm probably gonna be full for a whole week-"
"Aron." Lyda was trying to stifle a smile, too. "But yes, you and Elisa should go get something to eat while we set up for the next session. I'm sure she can show you around New Rome while you're at it."
Hugo nodded and walked off towards the exit, but Elisa stayed behind for a moment. The kid probably wouldn't wander out too far.
"Putting me on tour guide duty, Praetor Choi?"
"You're great with kids."
"Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that. And how did you remember it's been six years since I came to camp?" Not even Dave had remembered, and Dave was the sort of organised freak who colour coded lists of omens in two-inch binders.
Lyda had the decency to look confused. "Oh. That's the sort of thing you need to remember as praetor, I guess."
The silence afterwards stretched out for an uncomfortably long time. Aron was minding his own business and seemed unlikely to rescue her, so Elisa decided to change the topic.
"I'm leading some of the kids out on a scouting mission. Maybe we could check for signs of that disturbance Hugo was mentioning."
"Yes. That would be great," Lyda said. She reached out as if to clasp Elisa's arm, but then let her hand fall back to her side. "Don't let me down."
"I won't."
The shed was dark and a little stifling, as sheds were usually inclined to be. It was also lined with various sharp objects intended to maim or kill, as sheds were usually not inclined to be.
Sheds also weren't usually frequented by overworked camp counselors, but then again, there wasn't much about Camp Half-Blood that was usual.
"We're not going to be able to do this forever," Lu commented, gesturing at the three of them. "Once summer sets in for real, it's going to be too hot in here."
"Sorry, I'll leave," Robin quipped. Lu rolled his eyes but didn't bother to suppress his grin.
"Don't count on it," Jules said. "It's been pretty cold recently. Not that you'd know it, looking at you," he jerked his chin at Robin, who was, characteristically, shirtless. Robin, unfazed, just threw him a grin and continued sorting through the small mountain of arrows balanced precariously next to him.
"I'm not sure what this means for the strawberry patches. At least the grapes are doing okay," Jules continued with obvious relief.
"I don't think those grapes could die if they tried, not with you around," said Lu. "Speaking of, pass some over, will you?"
He dropped the cloth he was using to polish the sword in his lap to extend his hand out to Jules. Jules ignored it completely and instead plucked a handful of plump grapes from the bunch he'd been picking away at and threw one in a high arc in the air.
Lu let out a yelp of surprise and snatched it out of the air almost reflexively before popping it into his mouth, where it burst pleasantly. Juicy, a little sour, almost as if it was meant for wine. Knowing Jules, it probably was.
"You were supposed to catch it in your mouth," Jules complained, his mouth pursed petulantly.
"God of thieves, remember?" Lu defended himself, settling back onto his perch next to the swords. "I'm good with my hands and not much else."
"Best swordsman in hundreds of years," Robin singsonged, pointing an arrow in Lu's direction.
"Yeah, and swords are used with hands. Like most weapons," Lu said. "And I'm not sure if that title is worth being the designated swordsmanship instructor." He picked up a sword from his pile and frowned at his warped reflection in the dented celestial bronze. He had to squint to do it. There was no real lighting in the weapons shed because there was only one very tiny window in the door. The feeble light that filtered through it made the blades glint dully, along with Robin's golden curls. It made for an ideal place to hang out undetected.
"You're telling me," Robin sighed, running his fingers over the bent feathers on the arrows he had in his hand with a forlorn expression on his face. "I can't count how many times I've been shot in the foot while teaching archery. The only good thing is that there's not usually enough power behind the arrows to do any damage. Still, I'm not sure how the newbies manage to screw up this hard."
"I'm pretty sure we were supposed to show some of them around, like, now," Jules said, looking around the shed for a clock. There wasn't one.
"Hey, well, it's not like we aren't keeping busy," Lu argued. Sort of. Robin was sorting through arrow shafts that needed maintenance, Lu was polishing swords, and Jules...well, Jules was eating grapes.
"Yeah, you're gonna be real busy soon," said Robin, waving a hand at Lu. "It's your turn to take the new batch of kids out on their first field trip."
Lu cursed. "Forgot about that."
"Well, you've got a few days to prepare," Jules said. He threw another grape in Lu's direction, but Robin snatched it out of the air before Lu had time to blink. Lu made a noise of protest that turned into indignant surprise when Robin dropped the grape unexpectedly into his open mouth.
Lu couldn't really remember the specifics of his outing, but then again, it had been seven years. He'd only been ten at the time, and it had mostly passed in a blur of adrenaline. He vaguely remembered a crashed car and an angry alley cat - he still had scars - but not much else. It was a rite of passage for all campers to be taken out into the city with an experienced demigod so that they could put the skills they learned at camp to some practical use. The duty always fell to him, Jules, or Robin, probably because they were the only ones at camp that knew how to drive.
"I'd rather be doing labour than counseling the kids through more personal crises, though," Robin said. "We don't get paid enough for this."
"We don't get paid at all," said Lu.
"I mean, yeah, but even if we did, it wouldn't be enough."
Jules shrugged. "I don't really mind. Mostly the kids just want to know where to buy alcohol, and I'm not allowed to tell them that anyway."
"Yeah, well," Robin folded his arms behind his head and leaned back, stretching out his legs as much as he could in the cramped shed. Lu shifted over as much as he could without falling off the table where the weapons were laid out, but even so, his thigh was pressed against Robin's. "You get all the kids who want to live out there full time. Lu just has to give the sex talk over and over again. I'm the one that gets all the weird existential questions. I'd trade with any of you."
"I think they only go to me for advice because I'm the oldest," Jules mused. "Also, you know, the alcohol thing."
"They only go to me for the sexuality questions because you're usually the one that's making them question their sexuality," Lu snorted. "Or awakening it. I get a lot of girls asking if you're single."
"And what do you tell them?"
"That you've been deeply committed to a relationship with me and Jules for three years."
"Oh." Robin contemplated Lu's words for a few seconds. "All right, I'm fine with that. Explains some things, actually. Like why nobody believed me when I said that I got all those bruises from a sparring session with you. Word spreads, I guess."
"Grapevine," Jules said sagely, popping three more grapes into his mouth. "Wonder how Apollo feels about it," he said with his mouth full.
"Proud, probably." Robin waved his hand carelessly. "Probably just assumes I take after him. There's a reason why Apollo's cabin has the most members. Well, except for the Hermes cabin."
Lu grinned. "What can I say, Dad gets around."
They settled into companionable silence, with only the soft thwick of Robin running his fingers across shafts and faint metallic clinks as Lu exchanged polished swords for rusty ones. There was something easy and carefree about this, the three of them in the darkness of the shed together without their responsibilities weighing heavy on them. As the three demigods who were the oldest, most experienced, and had been at camp the longest, they more or less ran the camp alongside their activities director, Chiron the centaur. It was rare that they were able to just hang out without their responsibilities getting in the way.
"Actually," Robin spoke up suddenly, his voice no longer light and teasing, which was a small shock in and of itself. "Have any of you heard from your godly parent lately?"
Lu frowned. Jules' eyebrows were drawn together as he seemed to think.
"Well," Jules said slowly. "Dionysus doesn't usually visit anyway. But now that you mention it, I haven't seen any other gods recently. It could just be a coincidence though. The summer solstice is coming up, after all."
"Hermes is kind of hit or miss," Lu admitted. "Wanderers, right? Apollo's really the only one that visits regularly. Him and some of the more minor gods and goddesses."
"Yeah," Robin said. He looked uneasy which - well, Robin always looked like he'd stepped off of a magazine cover for male swimsuit models, but the fact that he was missing his usual easy grin was making Lu uncomfortable. "I guess. It's just that a couple of the other Apollo kids have been having some...weird, premonitions, I guess. Disjointed dreams, and none of them know what to make of it. I don't know what to make of them either. I was kind of hoping that Apollo might have some answers, I guess."
Lu cast his thoughts back. Now that he thought about it, a couple of kids had approached him with odd dreams in the past few weeks but he usually just directed them towards Robin.
"I sent a few kids with dreams your way," Jules admitted, and Lu mumbled his agreement a little guiltily. "I thought, you know, Apollo, prophecies."
"Well, I didn't get any part of the prophecy gene," Robin snorted. "I got his good looks and the ability to piss straight, but I'm no use at deciphering cryptic messages."
"More than I've got," Lu said, trying to lighten the mood a little. "All I've got is pretty good stamina. And a good sense of direction, I guess. At least something about me is straight."
"You didn't even get Hermes' looks," Robin agreed, grinning. "Not sure how a Greek god produced a very Asian baby."
Lu fought the urge to stick out his tongue and Robin and settled for making a face at him. Robin reached over and flicked Lu's dark braid over his shoulder so that it smacked him in the face, eliciting a sound of protest from Lu.
"It's not like I look much like Dionysus, either," Jules pointed out.
"Well, yeah, thank the gods for that," Robin muttered.
"You never know, maybe Dionysus was attractive in his youth," Lu teased. "You might grow up to look just like him."
"Please don't joke about that," Jules said, reaching his hands up to touch his face in mild distress. Privately, Lu didn't think Jules had much to worry about. He had nearly as many kids coming up to him waxing poetic about Jules' dreamy violet eyes as those swooning over Robin's...well, everything.
"I guess it's not much to worry about," Robin said absently. "I'll ask Apollo about it when he swings around, sooner or later, and until then we'll just wait it out. Pass me a grape, Jules?"
"Catch," Jules said, and threw a grape in Robin's direction. Robin lunged for it and Lu let out a shout of surprise as Robin went sprawling across his lap, flailing out his arms and managing to prop himself up on his elbows. The grape landed neatly in Robin's open mouth.
"Ow," Lu complained, sitting up and rubbing his right elbow.
"Gotta brush up on your reflexes," said Robin with a grin, still half in Lu's lap. Lu shoved his face away but couldn't help laughing. "Best swordsman in hundreds of years my ass."
"Where was I supposed to use my reflexes?" Lu retorted, gesturing around himself and sending a sword clattering to the ground.
"Excuses won't help you during Capture the Flag."
Capture the Flag wasn't exactly the best method to train teens in the art of open combat, but that never stopped Chiron from scheduling it anyway. It did stop Lu from having a relaxing evening, though. And also probably granted him an arrow in the ass, seeing how the Apollo and Hermes cabins were on opposite sides this time.
"And now that you mention it," Jules said, glancing outside the tiny window. "It looks like it's about time to start setting up for that anyway."
"Well, let's go, I guess," said Robin with a theatrical sigh. He half-rolled off Lu's lap and somehow still managed to land on his feet, looking attractively disheveled.
Lu slipped off the table, wincing at the ache in his knees after being in the same position for too long. Jules popped the last of the bunch of grapes in his mouth and somehow managed to vanish the stems.
"Come on, what are you waiting for?" Robin said, slinging one arm around Jules' shoulders and snaking the other around Lu's waist. "We've got some children to beat up."
General rules:
Please use the form on my profile.
There will be three main cast characters for each side (Greek/Roman) so please limit yourself to only one main cast submission.
You can submit as many background characters as you want, just make it clear in your submission whether the character is intended to be main cast or background cast (note: background characters may not appear until much further in with the story, but I will do my best to include them).
A brief context summary (in case it wasn't clear):
If your character is Roman, they are a fairly junior member of the fourth cohort going on a scouting mission led by Elisa to investigate the augur's omens.
If your character is Greek, they are a recently arrived camper who is being taken on a routine expedition for all new campers supervised by Lu.
The two groups will start with no contact with each other but will end up meeting.
Rules for creating a character:
I'll have a list of the accepted main characters on my bio. I'm aiming for an even mix of male/female characters.
Please no primordial deities (such as titans, figures like Gaia and Thanatos, try to limit yourselves to the 'gods'). You can PM me if you're uncertain!
The characters should all be relatively new to camp.
The main cast characters should also be 17 or under, in keeping with the Roman legion (where demigods graduate from the legion at 18) and the fact that the three oldest Greek campers are 17/18.
If you have read all the rules, please put 'spooky' in addition to anything else you may have written in the 'other' section of the form.