Correct me if I'm wrong (Zidane)

[Deleted]

The minute hand ticked heavily on the clock against the wall, but Remus ignored it. So many nights, he’d gone through this routine. Midnight, one am, two am, three am, and now four am. They all passed in the same unhelpful monotony. There was something wrong at Camp Jupiter. His beloved home was in danger. That much was certain. And Remus Stone didn’t like to rest until he knew how to fix it. Which wasn’t entirely possible because it had been weeks of this searching, and come to find depriving himself of sleep started to result in more crashing in his bed in his own room in the principia than he usually intended. So it went from a constant struggle to more of a once or twice a week thing. And this was one of those times.

He had spent the evening dragging out old records he hadn’t looked through yet, and the night had been devoted to scanning every page of every document for anything that could help them. And considering their careful documentation of the camp, from members to events, to everything in between, went back several centuries, it was no small task. And it didn’t help that he didn’t even know what exactly he was looking for. The auguries regarding this issue, and the information they had gotten from the titan Prometheus regarding his expectations for them were all so vague. There was always something going on here. Whether it be just arguments and fights or a full out war like two years ago.

Remus hadn’t thought a lot about it at the time, since he was only a centurion during the time before and during the Battle of Orthys. At the time, he worried, yes, and worked hard, and he trained hard, and he did all the necessary emergency and standard Senate meetings, but from this point of view, things were different. They didn’t know what they were up against, nor where it would be. They had no historical information on how to beat this because they couldn’t even know where to start looking. And this time around, Remus felt the weight on his shoulders to find it, to answer the questions, to take the worry from his fellow Legionnaires. And the whole deal was quite nearly killing him.

He pushed aside the last file and grabbed the next on the pile, stifling a yawn in the process. One glance at the tab of this folder made him groan. ‘Fall/Winter 1847-1848’ it read in neatly written letters. He was nowhere near the modern day, which only made him all the more frustrated. But there was also the fact that it meant he still had a lot of material to go through, which, while it partially bit, also meant there was still a chance of finding what he needed. He paused a moment to push his fingers through his hair and unintentionally mess it up all the more, then opened the folder. Each page at a time, he sifted through the events of fall and winter in 1847 and 1848. The only time he dared to pause in his determined search was when his eyes started burning too bad to read properly, at which point he would rest his head in his hands and let his eyes close for a few minutes. Rest his brain and his eyes, and pray that he didn’t fall asleep, so he kept reviewing things in his head to keep from nodding off.

Tag: Zidane
Word Count: 581
Outfit: worn out t-shirt, jeans, sandals
Location: the big two-seat desk in the main room of the principia
Notes: the many hidden sides of Remus Stone lol

[zidane]

Bolting straight up in his amazingly comfy Praetor-edition bed he’d come to get used to over the past month, Zidane looked around wild-eyed as he began digging around his sleeping area, sliding out from beneath the warm covers to search for something. His hands tearing at the pillows and the bedside table, and the drawers in his dresser, he finally leaned back against said furniture and pressed his palms to his eyelids with a groan. He’d almost been asleep after a long time lying awake and pondering his life up to this point and how on earth he’d ended up in the position he was in when it suddenly occurred to him: He’d left his prized swords back at the Principia building earlier that day.

One of Zidane’s many quirks was the fact that he doted on his swords as if they were beloved pets, or something of equal sentimental value. He’d even gone so far as to name them. The one with the bright silver pommel and the red jewel at the end was his Garnet, and Alexandros was the darker of the two with obsidian in the handle instead. He couldn’t believe he’d be so incredibly distracted as to leave his two most prized possessions in a public building, even if it was mostly off limits, but he knew he’d never get any shut-eye if they weren’t safely within proximity of him.

With yawn that was accompanied by another groan, the blonde boy went to his closet and pulled out his fuzzy dark blue robe and tied it on over his tank top and pajama pants. He didn’t even bother to look at his hair, which was a little disarrayed as one might expect from tossing and turning for some of the night but at this point he was very tired and was solely focused on the mission of rescuing his Garnet and Alexandros. He slipped on his sandals and shuffled out of the living-quarters, distinctly under the impression that his fellow Praetor Remus had gone to bed a long time ago like perfect praetors should. So as he shuffled across camp and came to the Principia entrance, he was a little puzzled by the fact that there seemed to be light in the building. Maybe someone had forgotten to turn something off.

With a shrug, Zidane pulled the door open and trudged inside, seeing that light was coming from the room he was headed for, and mentally went over who the last person was to leave earlier this evening so that he could inform them that leaving lights on was not environmentally friendly. However, while he had stopped short of the door to unleash a very unattractive yawn, his eyes adjusted and he realized that Remus was sitting behind the desk, rummaging through what looked like towers of paperwork. What…? “Remus? What are you still doing here? I thought you went to bed ages ago.”

Surprise was written all over his face at the tiredness that was evident in the other boy’s expression, followed by a flicker of pity as he realized that this must have been why Remus had seemed to out of it the past few days, sporting the dark circles under his eyes and being shorter and less responsive than Zidane had really thought possible. Now that he was here though, his eyes wandered away from Remus for a moment, searching the room for his original targets.
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Tag: Remus
Word count: 574
Outfit: Black tank top, Plaid blue pajama pants, dark blue robe, worn out beach sandals
Notes: xD I just love Zidane... Poor Remus though!

[Deleted]

It was quiet enough in the principia that he could almost swear he could hear Argentum and Aurum snoring. Which was odd enough, as he was pretty sure neither of them did. They were automatons. All they did was go into a hibernate state like a computer might, ready to start back up if needed, but otherwise conserving energy. So Remus concluded he was losing it. Not unlikely. He glanced over an incident report from November 14, 1847. Apparently people could be just as big of idiots in 1847 as they were in 2013. From what he could tell, the praetor at the time who had written this report up had been a lot more generous than himself and tried to put a kinder spin on accidentally falling off a bridge into the Little Tiber. Remus, personally, would have been more tempted to comment on the fact that the fourteen year old in question was stupid to have been walking on the bridge’s sidewalls in the first place.

He put the page aside. People showing off and paying a price for it was hardly something he would consider evidence that any sort of threat had ever before descended upon Camp Jupiter. Unless stupidity was considered a threat, but that one was hardly new. On to the next one, which showed a little promise at first. After all, it wasn’t every day that a young Cyclops got lose in the forum. However, upon further reading, come to find it had been invited in as a prank. Idiots. Though he had to commend them for their means of luring it out of the city so that Terminus wouldn’t throw a fit, with only two recorded injuries.

Just as Remus was setting that one aside, the two greyhounds – or would they be considered gold- and silverhounds? – came to life and watched the door carefully, Argentum letting out a low rumble of a growl. Though both of them went back to ease when none other than a fuzzy robe clad Zidane Quinn opened the door. And displaying the grace and charm of the usual Mercury group with his mouth hanging open and his beach sandals worn out to the point that they seemed to be crying out for mercy. Yawn passed, he seemed to finally notice the room was occupied, as Argentum, the nearest to the door, set out to more or less say hello and Aurum decided to lay back down.

At his question, Remus glanced at the clock. A little after four ten. He looked back to Zidane and had to hold his breath a moment to keep from yawning himself. Curse those things for being contagious. “Research.” It was a simple, straightforward answer that didn’t give a whole lot away, nor required much effort or thought. It was four am after all. Unnecessary thought at this point was not something he enjoyed. Thankfully, he looked back down to a form of Senate meeting minutes and missed the brief look of pity on his peer’s face. Pity was not something he allowed himself the convenience of. Because, at least in his head, that meant he was letting someone down. And he would sooner take after the idiot in 1847 who more or less jumped into the quick current of the Little Tiber before he let this camp or his father down. After a moment, he remembered himself and looked up to Zidane, who now appeared to be on the search for something. “And yourself? Can’t say I expected to see you before breakfast… What are you looking for?”

Tag: Zidane
Word Count: 596
Notes: These two are pretty much the most unlikely duo in all of Camp Jupiter, lol

[zidane]

The absurd quietness that settled over the camp during the hours that the campers… soldiers… whichever, were supposed to be sleeping was profound to Zidane. Being half-asleep himself as he strode along in his fuzzy robe, the sounds of nature had seemed more punctuated to him when there were no shouts of angry Romans trying to beat the snot out of each other and he could actually distantly hear the roar of the Little Tiber. All at once, even being a little less mentally sharp than he would have been at peak form, he realized that this version of camp could have almost reminded him of his previous home with his family away from this mess of portents of supernatural trouble that the camp was expected to face down and vanquish. It shot him through with a sense of nostalgia that was almost painful.

It seemed odd to him now that the nighttime seemed like a stranger when he had been taught to live as a night owl until he was eight years old, always performing illegal activities in the dead of night with his family of criminals that he had truly loved more than anyone. Except maybe Val, who was quickly overtaking them in place within his heart. But still, they had nurtured him as no one else would, and sometimes it was still hard for him to forget that Kleptomania was not a disposition he could afford to entertain as a praetor. Once more, the pang of loss he had been feeling before resounded inside of him as he realized how much everything about him had become something he wasn’t always sure he recognized.

However, the feeling had fled in the face of mild shock when he had seen the lights on in the Principia. As he had stolen away down the hallway towards the illuminated main office, the growls of the automaton dogs had honestly made him jump and his muscles tensed to run until he realized it was only the resident pets of the praetors alerting to his presence. When they had mutually relaxed at seeing each other, he gestured to Argentum, who was the nearest to him, to give the great metal dog a pat behind the ears. His tired mind vaguely wondered if that gave a robot dog any pleasure, but perhaps it was more of a gesture to calm himself.

Also glancing at the clock after questioning his fellow Praetor for being here at this time, his eyebrows crept upwards as the expectedly brusque reply from the other boy contained an unexpected motive. “Sorry, Research? At this time of morning? That can’t be healthy. Please at least tell me you just got up early to do research…” He knew by the bags beneat h Remus' eyes that he hadn't been to bed. Although Zidane found Remus difficult to fathom beyond his customary impression of the hulk, he worried about the guy as a person. He had become acutely aware during his time at camp that the camp was more or less Remus’ baby (as weird a visual as that elicited) and he would do anything to protect it under threat, but with so little to go on right at the moment, Remus must’ve been beside himself with concern. Of course Zidane naturally wanted to do something to dissuade the guy from making himself sick over it, but he really had no idea how to go about it.

To give himself a moment to think, Zidane went back to his original purpose, which he shared with Remus since he’d asked. “I left my swords hear earlier before I went home, ,and I… I um…Don’t sleep well when I don’t have my weapons near me. They’re pretty much the most valuable things I own, not to mention sentimental value and all that…” He realized he was rambling in his combined tiredness and concern, but he shuffled over to the second desk and searched around, finding his precious objects leaned up against the inner part of the desk where his legs would have gone had he been sitting there. He breathed a sigh of relief just then.
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Word Count: 676
Tag: Remus
Notes: For real! I like them though.

[Deleted]

Remus was not in the mood to entertain company. In fact, he was hardly able to pay attention to what he was doing and had on a good dozen occasions by now had to reread a paper at least three times before he remembered what he was reading. To most that might be an indicator to stop the forced work, but not to Remus. The time that he would stop working would either be when it was time to go to breakfast or when he literally passed out here. The latter, which had actually happened once, but thankfully he’d woken before anyone noticed. That might have been embarrassing. Even if the only one who would have had the chance to notice would be Zidane, due thankfully to the restricted access to the Prinicipia policies in place.

He was losing himself slowly back to the stupor of too-long applying his mind to the same tedious task, when none other than Zidane Quinn, the other praetor and, he had to admit, the saner of the two of them, walked in. He really hadn’t meant to be so terse with his reply, but he just came out that way anyhow. He blamed his tiredness, though the fact of the matter was, he was too used to playing the angry, intimidating guy, which probably didn’t help. He didn’t let people near him and preferred people live under the idea that he wasn’t capable of emotions. “Yeah, not really, no. I…” He tapped his fingers on the desk for a moment before continuing. “Wednesday. That was when I last slept. I think. I don’t remember now.” Ignoring the fact that Wednesday was two days ago. Yeah, so he might have a bit of an unhealthy determination.

He watched Zidane search around and listened to his words with a slight nod. “No harm in keeping weapons nearby. Can’t say I don’t do the same.” In fact, he still had his imperial gold gladius strapped to his side as he spoke. Though that was more that he felt comfortable with its weight there and also plain old forgot about it for a while. It was four in the morning, after all. He sort of earned a little slack in the thinking properly department. He momentarily considered coffee, then decided against it. When Zidane found his weaponry, Remus had to stifle a yawn to say anything. “So back to bed then?” He glanced over as Aurum padded – or clinked? – up to him and looked up at him with those glowing red eyes. He could certainly understand why some people thought the automatons to be a bit intimidating, but Remus had a fondness for them. In his mind, at least, they were close friends. Maybe that only added to his insanity qualifications, but he wasn’t about to argue it.

Tag: Zidane!
Word Count: 470
Notes It's so short and poorly written! I am so sorry! Teach me for posting this late...

[zidane]

As much as Zidane tended to harbor mixed feelings about his fellow praetor, and feelings that were often expressed behind his back, right now as he was standing around in his night clothes in their shared office looking at Remus, he genuinely felt bad. He knew that there were insidious threads of rumors going around camp of a threat to them all, which had been vaguely confirmed by Prometheus, just a little while before Zidane was voted into the position he was in now. As a centurion, he’d heard the news and shrugged it off, thinking he would take action when it was asked of him. In the meantime, he’d simply upped the ante a little with is cohort and made them train a little harder. But not enough to make him seem to strict and uncool.

But now, he was truly in the midst of things, along with Remus as the leaders of the camp, the ones who would potentially pilot their troops to success or destruction. The thought sent a shiver down his spine and his gaze was cast down. That was a heavy burden to bear. And here, clearly in front of him, it was likely eating at Remus even more. He was built for duty and the need to be a good leader. It was hard-wired in Mars kids, among other things, but this at least was incredibly admirable. But the fact that this was why Remus had seemed so tired for a while now made sense in a way that made Zidane even more sad. Or maybe nighttime just made him more maudlin, but either way, it wasn’t pleasant to feel.

The terseness of Remus’ previous reply rolled off of him like water off a ducks back (like most things in Zidane’s life) but a low whistle escaped his teeth before he could stop it when Remus admitted the last time he’d slept. “Whoa. Remus, that’s not healthy man. I know we have more stamina than regular human beings and all, but even for you that’s bad. You need to get some rest. The files’ll be here tomorrow, right?” his tone was a little pleading, but he didn’t bother to correct it. Clutching his swords closer to him, his eyebrows furrowed a bit as Remus asked him if he was going back to bed. “ I think we both should. If you don’t, you’re going to start slipping on other duties. You can’t think straight with that little sleep, you know?” He knew he was making a gamble with that comment, so he straightened up in case Remus didn’t take it well. In this case, he was up for a little argument.

Word Count: 460
Notes: Welcome back!

[Deleted]

Remus was not exactly pleased, probably because he was hardly ever pleased and was also ridiculously tired. He looked back down at the report and sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, Zidane was right. Maybe this did qualify him for the loony bin, but if it helped the camp. He yawned involuntarily. Yeah, maybe Zidane was right. “Yeah, I know it isn’t. But I just… this is the best way I feel like I’m being proactive about helping this camp.” Whoa, where did that come from? Remus was not the type for random heart to hearts. Or anything that revealed that he was anything more than the ‘robo-cop’ Felicity had said he was often times likened too.

In order to avoid the reaction, or at least having to witness it, from his fellow praetor, he looked down to aurum and rubbed a little behind its ears as though it were a real dog. He sometimes wondered if they could actually feel that or not. With Vulcan technology the way it was, there really was no telling. And the fact that the personalities these greyhounds had were so near a regular dog – that he knew of – or even a human that it was eerie at times.

There was that odd thing about Zidane again, though. If he wasn’t much mistaken, he would almost swear that sometimes this guy actually gave a darn what happened to his colleague, which was basically unheard of at this camp, so to say he wasn’t at least mildly surprised would be lying. “Yeah, I know they will be, but… days are so busy. And besides, coffee does wonders. And, well, best to get this done sometime, right?”

As much as he hated to admit it – again! – Zidane was right. Though Remus would never willingly fess up to it, he was exhausted. He looked down again at the report in front of him. 1847 was a long way from 2013, and he was tempted to do something like fake going to bed and then just come back out, but at the same time, he felt like he was ready to pass out. And as much as he hated to say it, like really really hated to say it, he had been slipping in his other duties due to being tired lately. He’d snapped at twice as many people and nearly missed training due to dozing off. So it was true that he was not at all in good shape. He pushed his seat back, startling Aurum, and stood. “Alright, fine, tomorrow it is then.” Right about now his bed was sounding pretty wonderful actually.

Tag: Zidane
Word Count: 440
Notes: short, but here. Sorry for the wait!