boredom (open)

[aiden]

Aiden hated guard duty. It was for hours on end of just standing there doing nothing and trying to look intimidating. She strapped her armor on and then slung her bow and quiver over her shoulder. Aiden sat down, lacing up her boots tightly before tucking the edges of her jeans into the tops of the boots. She grabbed her helmet and put her hair into a braid. She didn’t like having a ponytail or anything like that; it hurt her head when she put the helmet on. At least the braid would lay flat down and not give her a headache before the length of her span of guard duty was done. She hated standing there and watching the cars wiz back and forth. At least it would be giving her enough time to find something to occupy herself with. Last week she ended up playing I-spy with one of the newer legionnaires. At least it was something to pass the time by. She didn’t ever know who she was going to have guard duty with. It seemed to be a surprise every time she turned around. Not that Aiden was against doing her civic duty to the city of New Rome, she just figured that there were some other ways she could serve the legion. Wait, strike that, if she had brought it up to someone like, Remus per say, Aiden knew she would be regretting asking for a different way of mucking out the stables with her bare hands again.

Aiden stopped by the armory to grab a spear and a new gladius. Don’t ask about the last one, she had accidentally snapped off the blade at the hilt while working with training dummies out on the Field of mars a few days ago. It was completely useless but Aiden was happy to just grab a new one instead of waiting around for the Vulcan kids to finish working on it. All she wanted was something that was sharp enough to work. She gave the blade a few swings before sheathing it and strapping it to her side. It clumsily swung at her side, hitting her thigh rather painfully. If she couldn’t buck it down with her bow and arrows then it wasn’t really worth the work of skewering it with a sharp and pointy piece of metal. She knew the basics of the sword; stick them with the pointy end. Or at least that was what the son of Mars told her when she first picked up a sword at the age of ten. So far it seemed to work out pretty well for her. She hadn’t been to the infirmary in what seemed like forever. Aiden was trying to not make a habit of ending up at the mercy of her brother Jason.

Aiden headed to the spot for guard duty and planted her feet into an emotionless stare, relieving one of the guards who looked like he could use a good cup of coffee or an energy drink. She saluted the rather tired looking guard before tapping her fingers on the spear that she held in her hands. It was a simpler rhythm that she had learned back when she first started to play the drums. It was easy to learn and easy to play, she could probably teach just about anyone how to do some drums or something of that nature. But for right now she would have to settle for playing the drums on the spear until she could get to her guitar in the barracks. She hummed to herself, just waiting.

[issac]

Issac hated guard duty but since it had been a while since he had done it and it was time to prove that he could be responsible when he needed to be. Issac walked out of his barracks, dressed in a nice pair of baggy pants that gave him freedom of movement and was big enough to hide anything should he decide that on the way to the guard duty that he would liberate some people of their personal belongings. People often told him that he was not roman enough to be here but Issac didn't care. He was not much of a fighter and enjoyed fun loving pranks. Usually they were not that harmful and people forgot it was him in a couple days or two. The legacy of mercury was living up to the expectations of most mercury children but he also had the genes of Jupiter in him and it meant he had some leadership skills but he was more focused on pranks.

Issac walked to the armory to grab a large sword for he preferred swords over most weapons. Tons of weapons were not lightweight and made it hard for him to be agile but Issac didn't mind because when it came to combat he would either try to be agile or fight his opponent head on. The air felt warm and cool nice spring day. After visiting the armory Issac continued his journey to the guard duty area. The sound of the zooming cars filled his ears as he approached closer sheathing his sword.

As Issac approached he saw a beautiful. The man straightened his hair and made sure his weapon was properly sheathed and that his clothes were neatly in place. The whirl of the traffic would make it harder to communicate but Issac was honored to even try. "Well if it isn't a pretty woman I get to guard camp with. I would be honored to protect our fair camp together. " Issac smirked as he got himself into a defensive stance. One thing the legacy knew what to do is to protect people he cared about. He remembered the war in which he fought valiantly protecting himself, and others from the those would dare to harm the camp. He was not much of a fighter but people had it wrong that he wouldn't' fight when the need arose. "So anything try to cross our borders recently?" Issac inquired in his most business manner. He could be responsible but preferred the pranks and fun loving chores. This was just one of those necessary evils that Issac need to do from time to time. At least this time he had a good looking girl to keep him company, it wouldn't be so boring afterall.

[aiden]

Aiden continued to rub her thumb over the wood of her spear. She had been loaded down with projectiles, since of course being a daughter of Apollo; Projectiles were something that she was good at. If she could throw it, she could hit what she was aiming for. While most days that were spent doing guard duty, she tried to play a game to keep her mind occupied while she was doing her civic duty to New Rome. It was rush hour, so there were a lot of cars whizzing by like bats out of the underside of Lord Pluto’s dungeons of unmentionables. Aiden had been to a birthday party for Mors in the underworld, thanks to that death happy centurion Charlie-Mack Jolly. But of course it was something that she would be able to tell her kids and grandkids about, having cake and a cake fight in the literal Hells kitchen. Of course a few gods showed up, Neptune had put Jason in his place fairly quickly. The sight of her brother in front of his girlfriend’s dad was something that was so priceless that Aiden wished she had a camera or something to capture the moment just so she could torment him later.

Aiden had just started to sing a song in her head as the cars passed by in tune to the music in her mind, but it was interrupted rather quickly by the approaching sound of the other guard. Aiden turned her head to see Issac. She met him a few times before in the common areas and she knew what he was like. He was hot, but he was a flirt and a heart breaker. Not that Aiden really cared; she didn’t put much stock into that whole love concept. She wasn’t a Venus kid so the thought of love honestly was the last thing on her mind. Sure there were guys she thought were hot, but the legacy that stood beside her was probably more into flirting then a meaningful relationship. “Hey Issac.” She commented with a grin as she turned her attention to the cars passing by at such a high velocity. “I didn’t think you did guard duty, I thought you were mostly interested in stealing things and getting your pants pecked off by an evil metal bird.” Aiden had heard about what happened to Issac and to be honest she couldn’t blame the little metal bird for trying to peck the guys pants off since he was always stealing things that didn’t belong to him. Aiden shook her head in response to his question. “Nope, I haven’t seen anything come by. I’ve only been here for like ten minutes. Though it seems like forever. I’m glad to have some company who doesn’t mind having a conversation.” She smirked at him through her helmet.

She regarded the male beside her with a tilted head before watching a red Maserati fly by. The car reminded her of the cars her dad had. Aiden wanted to sneak out and see her parents for a few days before too long. Aiden knew about everything that was going on, she had received detailed letters every week since she had first been here. Mercury must have taken a liking to her since her letters never seemed to go astray. “So what brings you to guard duty? You volunteer or were assigned?” Aiden couldn’t help but ask questions. She could only imagine the conniption fit that her mortal dad would go on having while she was standing alone, without supervision, with an older guy. Aiden really didn’t care. She was at that age that she liked guys, though on more than one occasion she considered joining up with the hunters, but she liked guys too much. Aiden didn’t think Lady Diana would be too thrilled about having a child of Apollo in her group. It was kindda sad that most of her siblings and even her nieces and nephews thought that the light shown out of every orifice of that gods’ body. Apollo was kind of a bad dad. Aiden still resigned herself to the fact that Gage was her dad and she was happy to have him as such. He cared about her and Aiden knew that one day she would find someone just like her dad to be with her. But that wouldn’t be for a good long time.

“So what’s up handsome?” Aiden asked of issac as she ducked a flying cup of coffee that came from the blue SUV suburban that flew past at a rather unsafe speed. “That’s attractive. You know there are perks to this thing being visible to only demi-gods and monsters, other times, like that, it’s a pain in the ass…” She griped as she looked around for something to wipe off the cold smelling coffee from her boots. “San Franciso road rage sucks, but I’ve seen worse.” She rolled her eyes as she pulled a napkin out of her pocket to clean up the mess.

[issac]

Issac noticed that it was his new friend Aiden. The very beautiful daughter of Apollo seemed to be flirting back with him. "Well Hello Aiden it is lovely pleasure to work beside you. I volunteered this time I know I would much rather go pull a prank on someone or to find items. Many people think i am childish and I wanted to prove i could be responsible when the time came." Issac spoke casually when suddenly a blue speeding car, some reason out of gut reaction the legacy of Jupiter unsheathed his sword and swung at the coffee cup as it split in half and the coffee spilled on the ground. "Stupid jerks. San Francisco sucks. Why did the gods set up a camp here?" Issac asked confusedly. Issac smiled when Aiden called him handsome. It was well known his reputation of a flirt because he just found it much more fun to flirt but not commit much. Issac smiled at Aiden remembering that mortal that was considered to be her father was musician and now Issac could see why that she was truly Apollo's daughter. "So is it true that Apollo kids are excellent archers. "Issac smirked trying to make conversation.

The legacy was great at his sword work and so it was part of the reason he swung at the garbage being pelted from the blue car. However there was another part of him that felt the instinctual need to protect those he was with. The legacy didn't think this feeling came from Mercury. All Issac knew about Mercury was that he seemed like a jerk who liked to take his chocolate bars. It didn't help that Issac did piss off the god and was turned into a piglet. It seemed like in camp Issac was good at pissing people off and annoying. It did make sense though because his pranks could be annoying and not everyone appreciated things being taken It reminded him of his encounter with Edmund the bland emotionless son of Vulcan. Issac laughed at the memory which was odd because the encounter was not all that pleasant. If Issac remembered correctly that ISsac had taken Edmund's precious plane, which seemed to piss off Edmund more than Issac realized. The encounter ended with Issac getting a knife in the shoulder. " I seem to annoy people a lot. Personally i do not care because they just don't seem to get what i found fun." Issac smirked resheathing his sword yet again. It would be a long day of guard duty and Issac was not looking forward to San Francisco rush hour traffic. He would probably need to dodge tons of various pieces of grabage today.

[aiden]

The legacy that stood before her, Issac, was handsome. He had a slightly regal composure to him and that’s what Aiden particularly liked about him. “Something about the Roman’s always ruling the west.” She commented when he had asked why the gods had put the camp here of all places. “The east is dangerous, dunno much why, something about greeks or whatever. Just don’t let Remus catch you talking about those things.” Aiden never quite understood why the greeks were such a touchy subject amongst the Romans. She moved under her armor, trying to adjust the straps without having to actually touch them. Aiden ran her fingers over the bowstring that was in her hands. She didn’t know much in the way of actually being a soldier, well she was a girl after all and would be perfectly happy with sitting there and playing her guitar all day long and trying to entice record companies to take her songs and put them in the stores. “Well I can hit a three finger wide mark five hundred yards away in poor wind and visibility, if that’s any account to how awesome Apollo kids are at archery, then pretty good.” Aiden gave Issac a grin from under her helmet. Unfortunately, she had put her hair into a braid so the way her helmet was sitting on her head was rather uncomfortable and it was starting to make her head hurt.

“I grew up in a tour bus with a bunch of other guy who love pranking people.” Aiden confessed to Issac. She didn’t talk much to people about the stuff she remembered from her past. “So it doesn’t bother me to watch you play pranks.” She shrugged her shoulders, they ached from where she had tightened the straps on the plate armor a bit too tightly. “but everyone needs a good sense of humor. Some of these people are just way too uptight for my taste.” Aiden watched another length of cars go by. Most of them were blue cars, for some strange reason today there were a good deal of blue cars that were zooming past. “One of these days, people will recognize the safety we keep in place. Maybe if the gods or whomever decide, we will prove to be better.” Aiden turned her head from side to side, trying to keep her head from overheating. The last thing that she wanted to do was to go back to the showers again. But it seemed that now she smelled like coffee and would have to spend the next couple of hours scrubbing the scent out of her clothes and skin. Maybe she could swipe a few of the good smelling soaps from some of the Venus kids in the barracks. They had too much of that crap anyways and wouldn’t miss it if it were to go missing. Sometimes they would and of course it would appear the next day, but the Venus kids were shallow and if their stuff helped her get the scent of coffee and stale milk out of her pores, then yes, it would be warranted.

“So think we will see anything ferocious or dangerous out here?” Aiden asked with a smile as she watched more cars wiz back and forth. “Other than the occasional dangerous and out of control yuppies that are driving at excessive speeds….” Aiden trailed off as she watched a corvette convertible speed past with the top down. Aiden always loved convertibles and she loved feeling the wind in her hair as she drove at top speeds. It seemed that it had been forever since she had last rode in a car. Now the best thing was sitting in the back of a chariot, horses going all out as she popped off some arrows at targets as they sped by. It wasn’t the same, not to her at least. Aiden missed the rolling highways and the scenery that moved with the land as the tour bus rolled along. “Well I hope whatever we’re guarding against either shows up or doesn’t. I mean I could use some excitement, but I’d prefer to not have issues while pulling guard duty, if you get my drift.” Aiden didn’t do too well of explaining herself to Issac. It wasn’t quite the way she had planned it at any rate.

[issac]

Issac knew that Aiden was correct in that he shouldn't say some of the things he said about the camp, in front of Remus stone. The Praetor was known as a robo cop and Issac wouldn''t outwardly admit it but he was scared of the man. "Yeah trust me, I will not say much to Remus. The man and i don't seem t get along well. I think it has to do with the fact that i find many things that do not rightfully belong to me." Issac spoke softly as he spoke about Remus stone. The legacy of jupiter never really saw eye to eye with Praetor because he just had trouble with Authority figures. It became evident with gods as he seemed to piss them off often. He remembered the time his own grandpa thought it was good punishment and to turn him into a piglet. It was the worst day of his life and to make it worse the god thought it would be fun to send Issac to the underworld to visit Mors. He was not pleased about that in the slightest. Issac still had nightmares about it to this day and would never forget about the fact he almost became food for Cerberus.

It made him scared and he was not a fan of the gods much anymore. Issac leaned on a nearby tree as he watched car after car rushed past. " Yeah this camp is so uptight and it must of been super fun to see all those pranks. I have got to meet your dad! It would be so cool to learn all those pranks."Issac beamed and watched as someone else sent another cup of coffeee flying at him. "Damn it! People of San Francisco are such jerks. I think the most ferocious thing we will see out here is the flying litter. " Issac spoke dodging a flying paper cup being yet again hurled at him. He wa focused on the traffic, that he didn't hear something approaching. There was something approaching closer but Issac was so focused on the traffic he didn't here a twig snap behind him. Then when Issac took time to relax and stop avoiding traffic he heard something coming. The legacy turned on his feet sword redrawn yet again "WHO GOES THERE?! I WARN YOU I WILL NOT HESITATE TO STRIKE! I WILL PROTECT MY PARTNER!" Issac shouted to the impending threat. He had no clue what was coming but his warrior instincts told him to prepare for battle. He was preparing to do just that.He had never felt this kind of rush before except when he was fighting in the battle of Mt. Orhys. This would be cool to get back in the combat spirit. He was just hoping for no casualties.It would be hard to explain to Remus. He would not like having to explain it to the praetor. So now was just time to battle.

[aiden]

There were a good bit of things that Aiden didn’t really understand. One thing was problems with Authority. She was always the good little soldier, Aiden did what she was ordered and tried to get better with the things that she lacked. Though her sword fighting abilities were a bit less then desirable, but being claimed by Apollo had its advantages. But how Issac could be such a problem with authorities was beyond her. “Maybe it is your finding things, I don’t know in particular. I’ve never had a problem or been considered a problem. I’ve always been the good little Roman.” She said the word ‘Roman’ with a snarky snippy edge to it. Whenever Aiden had been called the good little roman, it was always used in a derogatory sense. Aiden was used to being picked on by the older Mars kids. She didn’t care. Aiden had learned how to fight back. While she couldn’t heal other people, she could stick an arrow in their arse from five hundred yards out. Her skin was thicker then when she had come in. Aiden watched Issac with a curious look, he reminded her a bit of her dad and like someone else she knew, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Issac, one day I want you to meet my dad.” Aiden finally decided that she wanted to help Issac. Maybe he really didn’t need help, but Aiden wanted to keep him from trouble within the limits of the Camp. “I don’t know why, but I feel like I have to protect you… not like protecting in fighting for you or things like that….” Aiden didn’t really know much about how to explain herself to this guy. While it seems like she had known issac for many years, it was still hard to explain herself. “I mean… gods why is it so hard to talk to you?” She frowned as once again, she adjusted her helmet, trying to keep her braid from hurting her head. Aiden sighed as she too her helmet off before undoing the braid and a low pony tail. It was enough to keep the hair out of her face but at a point where it wouldn’t hurt her head any more. But it was something that was a small bit of discomfort. She replaced the helmet back on her head. Aiden didn’t want to get caught unarmored and unarmed. Aiden had only been caught like that once before and she wasn’t going to allow something as stupid as that happen again. Oh Aiden remembered the punishment that she had gotten for it. It was something that she carried with her for the longest time.

Aiden opened up her mouth to say something to Issac but she snapped it shut as he put a hand on his sword. In a few seconds, Aiden had an arrow knocked to the bow. Her eyes searched from where she heard the sound that made Issac call out, trying to get someone to show themselves. Aiden’s eyes searched, scowling as she made ready to shoot whomever decided to present themselves. She was on high alert. Some people had commented she looked like a hawk when she was concentrating on shooting things. It was a compliment, though to think that she looked like a bird of prey, it was slightly insulting. But in the thought that she was hawklike, it was supposed to be a compliment. At least that was the way that she took it. Not that she put much into what other people said. “Issac…. On your left.” Aiden hissed under her breath as she caught a shimmer of something. Aiden hadn’t known what to think. After the battle of Mt Orthys, she didn’t know how to thing. She only reacted to things. She pulled the arrow taught and aimed over by issac. She made a small prayer to both Apollo and Diana that she would hit her target. She let the arrow loose, lodging it in the wood a centimeter away from Issac’s left ear where she had seen the shimmer. Aiden swore. “Sweet mother of Gene Simmons.” She growled as she pulled another arrow to her bow. “Issac, on guard.” She said in a low voice, she didn’t want to alert whatever was playing around to know that Issac knew or didn’t know, that something was there. She pointedly stared at issac, praying that he wouldn’t move. There was another shimmer over his right shoulder. Aiden calmly and coolly puller her the arrow back as her eyes searched.