chiseler | Day One;

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Day One;

[He's already been here longer than he would like and it hasn't been that long. Still, demigods never do well being trapped and while he ponders on an escape plan he finds himself filled with a bunch of pent-up energy.

As it turns out, the best way to use that energy is to run laps around a track. On occasion he'll sprint, leap over invisible targets and change his direction entirely. Overall it probably looks a little strange and more like he's running from something. But that doesn't matter. It keeps him busy for about an hour and a half before he finds that he's a little worn out. Constantly being on the move like that isn't something he's used to anymore.

The other thing he finds is that he's kind of gross and sweaty now which really doesn't help the situation. He sighs to himself, running a hand through his hair before disappearing from the gym all together. He's not aware of anyone who might be watching and maybe he doesn't even care. Instead, he heads back to his apartment for a change of clothes before ducking into the bathroom.

The bathroom at this hour seems blissfully empty, so he doesn't bother hurrying through anything. Why? They have all the time in the world here, it seems, and he's out of his sweat-drenched clothes shortly after before wrapping a towel around his waist to grab soap/shampoo/etc.

The broken shower door gets his attention though and he's eyeing it curiously, fingering at the hinges before laughing to himself. This is what he finds himself doing when he suddenly hears footsteps behind him and he turns his head a fraction. Upon seeing who it is though, he only gives a tiny smirk in response.]

You know…we should probably stop meeting like this.

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[ Adam is good at keeping to himself and remaining invisible and the newest room is an easy way to do it. Working out is a non-social thing, people don't really want to be bothered and people don't bother him. He'll hear others come in and out but he rarely glances in their direction, focused on lifting weights.

There's a tug at his attention when one person comes in, and Adam watches for a moment because he's good at watching without being caught. Sometimes when Luke goes by his eyesight, Adam will see him running strangely and he wonders if it's a demigod thing. He wouldn't have expected demigods to even need to work out, honestly. At some point, he stops paying attention because lifting weights is difficult when you're only eating one can of food a day out of paranoia and he's also thinking about the things on Luke's profile.

When he sits himself up, exhausted, Luke isn't there anymore. He glances around but there's no one left in the gym, and he decides he really needs a shower.

Somehow, he doesn't think they'll have the same idea. He stops in surprise when he sees Luke in his towel, giving him a once-over, eyes lingering on the bracelet that's still attached to his ankle. He swallows, then rolls his eyes and goes over to grab toiletries for himself. ]

You don't like it? I see you haven't managed to escape yet. But you haven't gotten desperate enough to cut off your foot. So you're doing well?

[He doesn't bother hiding or anything when Adam looks at him, rather tilting his head just slightly in a way that invites him to look as much as he wants. Luke is, unfortunately, too comfortable with himself at this point.

He also turns his head to watch Adam walk away, though the question gives him a moment's pause.]

I never said I didn't like it. Could be worse. [Just saying.] I don't think I'll ever be desperate enough to cut off my own foot but "well" seems subjective. Canned food, curfews, and people breaking stuff already? I kinda thought I left stuff like this behind.

[ He is not going to look as much as he wants. He has to shower. He puts a towel over his shoulder and fills his arms with shampoo and soap. When he turns back around, he stops in front of the broken stall along with Luke. ]

So you're saying you like it. [ Let him have some fun. ] And this is what camp is like? [ He looks just as interested as he was before. ] I figured it out, by the way. Why you thought you could fly. It's the shoes, right? Hermes always wears those winged sandals. But you're too cool for sandals I guess.

[Well that's certainly unfair. Luke's examining the shower and he chooses not to answer yet. Two can play that game. Instead, he chuckles a little at all of that information and sidesteps the questions.]

Cute and clever. I'm surprised. Or maybe I shouldn't be surprised someone with genius intellect did his research.

[He absolutely looked at all of the profiles the moment he could, memorizing everything possible. He knocks on the wall of the broken shower stall, pushing himself to an upright position and stretching his arms over his head.] Adam I have a very important question for you. Where do you think my camp is? Just out of curiosity.

[ Adam thinks he could probably fix the shower if he felt like it, but he's certainly not going to do maintenance on a place he didn't choose to be. The 'cute' comment brings him out of his head and he startles, looking at Luke like he must have misheard. But then his face becomes more flushed than his workout made it and he frowns back at the shower.

If they're going to make comments about each other's profiles, he has some things to say too. ] ... Athens? Or is that too crowded? Somewhere more isolated, deep in a forest or up in some mountains where you can fight dragons?

[He doesn't seem to notice that Adam's blushing, but he's absolutely aware of what he's doing. His moves are calculated and executed well enough to make Adam question his motives…and also maybe just enjoy himself. He has nothing else to do, so why not? What's it going to hurt? He's opening one of the other shower stalls and with a flick of the wrist he turns on the shower to let the water warm up. Adam can keep gawking at the broken one, but Luke's on a mission.

And maybe seeing just how far he can push him.]

You're thinking a little too far east. Try Long Island. [What's it matter? He can tell Adam the location of camp all he wants. It's not like he's ever going to return there…and who cares? If it gets destroyed then easier for him.] The woods aren't really that well equip for dragons…and I don't even know what that means. I didn't kill the dumb thing. Just beat it up a little. [You know. For fun.]

Edited 2016-10-04 00:17 (UTC)

[ Adam tries not to think about it too much or really even look at Luke, at least until he's going into a shower. He watches for a moment and then makes a noise of annoyance, going into the stall next to him because they still have some talking to do. And it's probably better if he doesn't have to look at him. ]

Long Island? Why would it be there? [ He places his towel over the door and undresses, then turns his own shower on.

... This is maybe weirder than he thought it would be. ] With your fencing skills? [ Sarcasm. ] Where was the dragon hiding out then? Did you beat it up with your scorpions?

[And once Adam disappears into a stall Luke does the same, throwing the towel over the door. He was never under the impression that they would be doing this in silence. Instead, he's busy sticking his head under the spray to rinse his hair first.]

The gods follow western civilization. Olympus is in Manhattan, so that's why Camp Half-Blood's in Long Island. [He picks up on the sarcasm but he chooses not to acknowledge it for the time being.] The dragon was in the Garden of the Hesperides where it belongs. And I didn't beat it with a scorpion. Pit scorpions are dangerous but even they might have trouble with a dragon. [He pauses then.] Just what are you so mad about anyway?

[ He thinks about saying something about that but he really can't. It's so strange. Why is Olympus in Manhattan? How? It takes him some time to properly respond. ]

I'm not mad. I'm curious. How has no one noticed Olympus being in Manhattan? It's kind of a busy city. [ It's not like he doesn't believe this (because what a weird thing to lie about?) but he needs some answers to make it logically work in his head. Plus the question gives him time to think about what the Garden of the Hesperides is... It sounds familiar. ] That's with the apples, right? Eris?

Mortals see what they want to see and they perceive everything in a way that makes sense to them. So. Why can't people see that Olympus is on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building? Because the Mist warps what they're seeing.

[Give him a moment to scrub out his hair...] The apples though, yeah. You know mythology. [He sounds a little intrigued by that fact.] Went in to steal an apple, Ladon was not that happy to see me.

Wh—hm. [ He thinks about questioning the 600th floor of the Empire State Building but. Sure. It's best that normal people don't work out magic. He remembers the way people choose to explain away supernatural occurrences, so it makes sense. A little.

He assumes Ladon is the dragon and is trying too hard to sound knowledgeable to ask. He scrubs at his face and then spits out some water. ] Did you only read the intellect part of my profile? I take Latin. It's a lot of the same stuff with different names. So how did you take on the dragon? Did you trick it?

Oh no, I read your entire profile. But I don't know much about Latin. I know the gods went Roman before settling in America but I don't know much about them beyond that. [There's a little bit of silence as water beats down to the floor of the shower.]

Sort of. What do you think the shoes were for? Present for my quest. I just got to keep them after that.

But you know a lot about the Greek ones. [ He doesn't really know what the difference is. ] So you flew around it.

[ The story sounds vaguely familiar to him. Not the flying bit but he's pretty sure the dragon was there for a reason. ] Didn't Hercules do something with the apples? How did he get around it?

Of course I know a lot about the Greek ones. It's kind of family history...I learned about a lot of things as soon as I learned I was a demigod. [He doesn't confirm nor deny if that's what he did though...but Adam's suddenly met with a very frosty silence.

Hercules? Who the fuck knows.] Who cares? What does it matter how he did it? That was exactly why I didn't care about the quest in the first place, because Hercules did it first. Why send someone on a quest to do something that's already been done? [He snarls out the words and shuts up again, mumbling under his breath.] There's no point.

[ Adam has no idea he's said anything wrong until Luke starts talking and he looks at the stall wall like it's going to help figure out what the problem is. But Luke explains it fast enough. He pauses in his movements for a moment.

Part of him feels like this isn't bad at all. For once, Luke isn't being smarmy or maybe telling Adam what he wants to hear. This is some genuine emotion. ] I didn't mean to... It doesn't matter. I just thought you would know. [ He frowns to himself and then grabs the soap. ] Why did you do it then if you didn't want to?

[Silence. He doesn't say anything and seems to just be showering and giving Adam the silence treatment. He's already said too much and he doesn't know if he wants to try and elaborate at all. Adam's right. It's genuine emotion he didn't want to give and so he's going back on lockdown.

Try again, Parrish.]

[ There's a sigh. He honestly thinks Luke is overreacting. ] Luke. I'm sorry, okay? I won't ask about it again.

Tell me about other things you've done. Just you. [ It's an ego thing, right? ]

[You try getting a giant facial scar and then we'll talk about overreacting, Adam. There's still silence like Luke's going to ignore the request before he slowly scratches at his scalp.]

No. [It's calm, almost challenging.] I think we're done talking about me. This isn't a one-way ride, Parrish. You've gotta own up to some stuff, too. What connection do you really have with your magic earth lines?

[ Well, at least Luke is talking. But he's not telling Adam what he wants to hear. There's silence on his part. He's not sure how secret what Luke's been telling him is. He doesn't want a raw deal. ]

They're called leylines, first of all. And I don't know. I told you, they were weak. [ There's a pause and a sigh. ] I might have short-circuited them. I started—working for them, in a way. I gave myself to them.

... But I don't think they're related to what's going on here anymore. Even when they were weak, they kept trying to communicate with me. Now I'm getting nothing.

[Yeah okay none of that entirely makes sense but he can draw some parallels and conclusions from that.]

You sacrificed yourself to the leylines why, exactly? Even if it's not related that means there's something bigger here taking away our powers don't you think?

I had to. [ That comes out a little sharper than he intends. It's not something he's happy about right now. ] There was no other choice. If it wasn't me, someone else would have taken control of them.

[ Adam is used to taking short showers but this is nice because he doesn't have to worry about the water bill, so he's just going to stand under the spray of the water idly. ] Stronger than gods and the magical energy of the world? I don't know... is there anything inherent in your genetics that you still have? You can't still summon scorpions, can you?

And so now you're under someone else's control. Or something else's, I guess. I'm gonna guess there's no way to reverse the effects either is there...?

[He sounds genuinely curious now and maybe a little concerned? But it's a control issue, it's not so much concern for Adam specifically. He doesn't seem to mind that they're wasting time and wasting water because he's hooked onto the conversation.]

...the scorpion thing isn't exactly something from my dad, but no. I don't have anything I don't think except for knowing that I'm half-god. I haven't tried everything yet but I'm working on it. [A pause.] With you being tied up in leylines...what can you really do?

[ Suddenly, the water in Adam's stall stops. He turns it off and there's a long pause. ] Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. I'm still in control.

[ ... but he sounds vaguely nervous about it. At least it's something he doesn't have to worry about here. Somehow that's even more concerning though. ] Then where are you getting the scorpion thing from? [ He grabs his towel from the door to start drying off. ]

I don't know. I haven't done anything yet. It's just... in my head. Showing me things.

[He'll just stay in the shower, mostly taking his time and also just to see what Adam does next.] Are you? [He sounds a little disbelieving, like he's not sure if it's appropriate to laugh or point out the truth.

He's caught onto that nervousness, too.] I really have to wonder about that. And you're asking me like I actually wrote the dumb thing. [Yeah, he's assuming Adam's just harping about his profile.] What's it matter? I can't summon anything here yet.

[...though he pauses heavily. Showing things in his head, huh? That...sounds vaguely familiar.] ...what kind of things have you seen in your head then?

Of course I am. [ Now he just sounds angry, rage filling him up the way that's been happening so much lately. He's shaking in an attempt to control it because he won't be out of control. ] I'm here, aren't I? I'm not possessed or talking to you in Latin, I'm still me.

[ He rubs at his face, miserable. He kind of just wants to stay in the shower forever because at least it's isolation. ] Ghosts. Apparitions. Whispers and... Whatever, it doesn't matter. I haven't seen anything here. [ A pause. ] Alright. How about the breaking hearts part?

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