Water toes (open)

[alistair]

The place was quiet. But Alistair had found that none the less it was peaceful. It wasn’t like being on a boat, but the sound of water rushing by was soothing. There had been a lot of chaos in the past. It was insane the type of neglect that he had experienced at the hands of others. Alistair drew up his knees to his chest as he pulled his feet out of the cold and refreshing water. It hurt sometimes that there were always the whispers behind his back. He hated it, Alistair hated being that kid. Well he hadn’t been a kid for a while. Alistair was a man in the eyes of the Romans. He had responsibilities to himself, to the Legion, to New Rome and to his little sister Clare. It was still strange that he actually had a few friends here. His teachers always told him that he was a hopeless case and would end up in prison or working some dead end job after he dropped out of school. To a degree they were right. He hadn’t finished school, but he was doing something that even his teachers wouldn’t understand. Alistair had one of the best jobs in the world. He worked in the infirmary, making people better than what they were when they came in. Not only that, but he was combat trained. If he was to live in the outside world, he would be a Navy Seal, but it would be a high risk job for sure.

He ignored the lare that had started to lecture him. Titus was insufferable sometimes. He always lectured about how he was a son of Neptune and he led the roman navy to victory and blah blah blah. Alistair rolled his eyes. He found himself alone again. Alistair felt the warm sun on his face as he dipped his feet back into the water. He watched the people pass back and forth. He enjoyed watching people. Most of them were idiots to be sure. He really disliked the fact that most of them whispered behind his back. At least he wasn’t Felicity. She was pretty disliked after that greek army fiasco. The girl seemed nice the few times he had spoken to her. Alistair didn’t judge people. Except for the ones that said stupid stuff right out of the gate. Those were the ones that Alistair didn’t like and they were the ones that had a harder time working their way out of the pits of Alistair’s dislike.

It was just past lunch time when Alistair had arrived here. He probably was supposed to be doing something with his cohort, Alistair didn’t care and he needed a break. People would probably come asking him why he hadn’t show up for training. Every so often even a Roman needed a break. Alistair rubbed the back of his head with a hand, running his fingers through his dark hair. Even though he was every bit Irish, Alistair looked every bit like a Roman. Even right now he was dressed up like a Roman. He was dressed in his armor and his scabbard was empty. Alistair had surrendered his sword to Terminus about two hours earlier. Alistair had always favored having a weapon on him and it was uncomfortable that he had no way of defending himself if someone decided to stick a weapon in his back. Alistair was sure that he had made a few of him in his ten years here. Maybe not enough to the point there were people that wanted to kill him, but he was sure there was someone out there that wanted to take down one of the big three for bragging rights.

[Deleted]

The woods were so peaceful at lunch hour. there was no one out there, just the wandering ghosts. But they never judge her or talk about her on her back, they always respected her and enjoyed her songs and that she would spend some of her free time out there being with them.
"Well, I need to go, but I'll come back as soon as I can." She smiled at the ghosts looking at her and then walked back to the Camp. She looked up to the sky and saw the hundreds of branches over her head, she smiled at the sight. It looked as if the spaces between leaves were morning stars.

She walked to the closest road and remembered that she needed to go to New Rome and get a new set of combat boots. She could get them in the camp, but her mother used to buy her boots in that store and as soon as she could go to New rome again, she started buying her clothes and shoes there. She sighed and walked to New Rome, training would have to wait, if she didn't get those boots, she would slip on the mud next time in Mars fields. She didn't want to do that, if she fell in a hand to hand combat training once more, her instructor would sent her to get a physical punishment and she knew it wouldn't be fun at all.

She handed her sword, arrows and bow to the guard at the entrance to New Rome. She hated to leave her quiver and bow, those were her grandfather's gifts! But she respected New Rome's laws better than the Camp laws. She had lived in New rome before and she knew she would live there again after she finished her 10 years of service. It had bad memories from her childhood, but also the best when her parents were still alive.

She was half way the show shop when she saw a guy sitting by the aqueduct. She had seen him before, but where was the right question to ask to her mind. He seemed to be sad or in a deep thinking. She sighed and walked to where he was. She remembered that she had seen him with Ryan. "Hi..." she said in a very low voice, she didn't want to bother him. "Excuse me..." she said and then sighed knowing she would have to speak a bit louder. "Are you ok?"

[alistair]

Alistair held his hands out and pulled a stream of water, about three feet long, and turned it into the image of a snake. The snake flowed around his waist, down his arms and around his neck. Alistair’s brow furrowed and the snake’s tongue flickered. It would leave a trail of water across his shirt and pants, but the wet lines dried up almost instantly. HE was mesmerized by his water manipulation. But at least with his toes in the water, his waning energy was quickly replenishing itself. Alistair never really knew his dad, but sometimes he felt his presence, mainly when he was close to the water. The water snake wrapped its tail around Alistair’s arm before then wrapping its head close to alistair’s chin and resting in a peaceful manner. Titus remarked something, but Alistair wasn’t paying him much attention. “You know Titus, sometimes you can be a pain in the arse, but other times I enjoy having someone to talk to. You’re a good friend, you know that right?” The lare’s face supposedly had a pair of rolling eyes. Whoever said that the ghosts hadn’t much of a sense of humor never spoke to Titus.

Alistair had been a bit startled. His hand automatically flew to his hip where his scabbard resided on any other day, but his hilt wasn’t there. Then he remembered he had to cough up his sword with Terminus. Alistair looked up and it was a girl. Lilith if he remembered correctly. He dropped the water snake he had been playing with before looking up over his shoulder to see Lilith. “Sorry Miss, I just… Titus here was keeping my attention.” He said as the Lare gave him a grin before shimmering and vanishing. Damn that ghost. Alistair thought. He wasn’t quite sure what to say to the girl who had come in. “I’m fine. Just been thinking about a few things.” He admitted before turning his attention back to the water in front of him. His reflection undulated with the water. A breeze blew by, mussing up what little hair he had. His reflection betrayed a look of a dirty looking roman. There had been a bit of blood on his face and a bit of dirt and grime from his earlier training. Alistair grabbed a few handfuls of water and tried to scrub his face clean. It worked to a degree. But he still felt dirty. He made a mental note to head to the showers later.

“Sorry about that.” Alistair said, his face felt raw and cold now.

[Deleted]

Lilith noticed that someone was talking to Alistair, but she didn't know, in fact wasn't sure of what was it, it seemed to be from the water, but it wasn't really a triton or a naide, so he should be a ghost, but she hadn't remember to see them in the water. Then she sighed and remembered that she tried to stay away from the water, she had always been afraid of it. Something in the water always scared her, so maybe that was why she had never seen ghosts in the water.

Alistair greeted her and then the ghost left, he just shimmered and left. She nodded at the ghosts before he left and then looked at Alistair. "I didn't know you could speak with spirits, I thought only me and a few other in Camp, but all related to Mors or Pluto." She said and felt the soft breeze blowing through her long messy hair, she smiled and closed her eyes for a moment, she loved whan that happened, she felt almost free from her curse and destiny. She opened her eyes and looked back at Alistair.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted you from you chat and thinking" she said and smiled in the most sweet way. She wasn't as beautiful as Venus or Cupid daughters, in fact even when Apollo's blood ran through her veins, you could mostly see the shades of Mors in her figures. But she had a sweet smile, Apollo's sun warmth could be seen and sometimes felt in it. Then she noticed how he looked in the water reflection and tried to clean his face from all the blood, dirt and sweat. He used some water to clean his face, but he didn't clean all of it, it still had some remains of dirt on his beautiful tan skin.

Lilith squated right next to alistair and took a small handkerchief from her back pocket. He looked at her and apologized, but she didn't know if he had been talking about the dirt, the ghost or not being able to clean his whole face. "No need to apologize, working roman, will never be neat as a crystal, but maybe you would... right?" she asked realizing that he had just manipulated water, he should have been Neptune's son. She placed her handketchief on his temple trying to clean a stain of blood and mud that he had on it. "allow me..."

[alistair]

Alistair didn’t much understand why people thought it was such a surprise for someone other than Felicity to talk to the dead. He knew quite a bunch of people who talked to them on a regular basis and wasn’t all too weirded out by the thought of talking to some sort of Roman dead guy. Well it was more probable for Alistair to talk to Titus, the previously deceased son of Neptune, then the Naiads. Those things were more like what Alistair imagined to be like if his dad, Neptune, had kids with Venus. Though in all honesty, he probably wasn’t too far off the mark. It had been known to happen every so often. Like if you believed the old Greek tales, two gods produced a Pegasus, which was the first actual contact that the son of Neptune had with the mythological world. He remembered the storm grey Pegasus that had rescued him all those years ago. The nightmares plagued him, but it was always the Pegasus that gave him a bit of comfort. At least he could totally talk to Titus about his dreams and the Lare totally didn’t judge the new-er member to the American Roman society. Alistair had never really gotten the hang of being an American. He was truly Irish to the core.

“I talk to Titus all the time, but not many people take the time to stop and listen to what the Lares have to say. They’re totally everywhere if you know where to look.” Alistair stated, coming off slightly gruff and a little bit irritated. “Sorry… I just…” Alistair shook his head as he tried and failed at giving an apology. He felt especially bad considering Lilith was rather nice and hadn’t really done anything mean or insulting to receive Alistair’s gruff and antisocial demeanor. For the most part Alistair tried to be sociable and not revert back to his ‘kiss my ass’ attitude. It was the stereotypical drunken Irishman that he managed to perfect. Surly and pissed off at least a good bit of the time. He was depressed a good deal of the time but he tried to not let it get him down. “I’m still not used to people.” That was the only thing that Alistair could say without being mean or acting like a jerk. He couldn’t exactly figure out what was making him irritated. It could be one thing, two things or a million things all at once. He let a lot of things bug him. Maybe that was a bad idea.

“Oh…thanks.” Alistair blushed as Lilith reached up to touch his cut on his forehead. He had felt the blood trickle down his face but the cut really hadn’t started to bother him till he decided to make himself a bit more presentable. “But you don’t have to. Watch this…” Alistair maneuvered some water over his hand and he concentrated on the cool liquid. It became ice cold and he placed it to the cut on his forehead. He felt the water in the skin and the blood. His eyebrows furrowed and he knitted the skin and blood together to form a covering over the cut. It was white and looked like a fresh scar, but it would go back to looking normal over time. “see? All better”

[Deleted]

Lilith wasn't very sociable. Even when her parents took her away from New Rome and the Camp when she was eight years old, so everyone forgot about how her best friend died and how everyone blamed her for that. Still people in the camp and in New Rome remembered that she was blamed for killing her best friend at the age of eight with Hellhound saliva. She hadn't done that, not that she remembered at least, still people blamed her for that, so she kept herself away from other campers as much as she could. If they talked to Lares or not, she wasn't really sure about it, she hadn't spent enough time with others to notice if they could or couldn't.

So when she asked Alistair in such surprised voice if he could speak to spirits too, it was a genuine question, not something to annoy him, which obviously had done. When he replied to her she could feel in his voice and body motions that she had asked something wrong, that he was trully annoyed at her innocent question. when he told her that he could and that it was something normal to do, she bit her lower lip and frowned all worried. She knew what was to be like a Lare, she knew what was to be ignored by everyone. "I know they are all over the Camp, I talk to them all the time, I even sing to them. I hate to see how lonely they get sometimes... no one should feel like that."

No one should be so lonely, no one should be forgotten like they were. Maybe that was why she sang to them more than she sang to the living ones. Most of them had given their lives to keep Camp safe, campers forgot that almost all the time. She breathed deeply, her hands were trembling. She got kind of scared when she noticed how upset alistair was, she didn't want to bother him and she didn't want him to put all of that annoyance on her. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that or bothered you..." she said when he tried to apologize.

She was trying to clean the blood from his eyebrow, but he also seemed to feel that kind of awkward. then he told her to watch at something. He put some water on his eyebrow and turning it into ice he healed himself with the water. She smiled and then grinned at him. "that is so cool! I wish I could do something like that!" she said and then looked at the spot next to him. Would he mind if she took a seat next to him? "son of Neptune, water is your element, I should have known better." she poked her head.

[alistair]

Alistair knew he should have spoken so curtly on a honest question that had been asked to him. He hated people who assumed things were for one particular god or another. Just because he wasn’t a Pluto kid he couldn’t talk to the Lares or because he wasn’t an Apollo kid, the infirmary was off limits. Those were stupid stereotypes. Alistair felt like he had a good bit in common with the lares. They had a lot in common, people tended to stay away from them and they liked to keep to themselves, not bother anyone or be bothered by people. Alistair didn’t know what his problem was, some days he liked people. He wanted to be around them and wanted their attention. But days like today, he wanted to be alone, he didn’t want to see anyone or really talk to anyone. But of course Alistair knew that standard social protocol stated that he should be nice and make small talk. He didn’t want to be the social misanthrope; no Edmund had that spot taken. He really didn’t mind talking to Titus. Any day of the week he could go to the Lare and have a decent conversation. The ghost was like a brother that he never got the chance to have. He was understood by Titus. He really didn’t much expect Lilith to understand his position.

“I don’t like that they are always misunderstood or neglected, it’s not right.” Alistair said in a flat sort of voice. He didn’t want to push her away. Something pulled in his gut every time he talked to this girl, he couldn’t figure out what the feeling meant. Indifferent for the time being, he supposed. Alistair had a rather singular train of thought, the gods, New Rome, Legion and then to himself, that was where his loyalties lay. He’d hate to have to kill someone that he cared for. “I don’t really like people at a time or two. I want to be around them sometimes other times I don’t mind people. I really just am not a fan of humanity at this particular point in time.” Alistair shook his head. There was no real reason for him to be snippy or pissed off, he was just in a rather foul mood. “Sorry again. My behavior is in excusable.” His face remained in a neutral position. He didn’t want to really feel as if he was apologizing or was a sorry excuse for a piece of seaweed.

Alistair just shrugged at the compliment. “It’s natural I guess…” His voice trailed off and still remained neutral in tone. “It’s really nothing compared to what other useful demi-gods can do.” Alistair’s own self-defeating attitude was starting to get on his nerves right now. Yes, he was self-hating on his own attitude. Maybe one of these days he’d just pick up and drink himself into a stupor. “What I can do is not cooler then Felicity’s shadow travel or Cassie’s command of lightening. It’s down right ridiculous what they can do. I’m just a second rate soldier.”

[Deleted]

Lilith listened to him talking about the Lares and his words made her smile. He must have a golden heart if he cared that much for those that were forgotten most of the times by other campers. Then he told her that he wasn't fond of humanity, that he sometimes didn't like to be surrounded by people, so maybe that was her cue to leave him there, maybe she should just get up and walk away, go to the shoe store and get her boots, but for some reason she couldn't move, she just stood there looking at him.

Someone should have suffered very much in its life to feel like that. She looked at the water and sighed thinking or better said, trying to imagine alistair's life. He was son of Neptune, that meant a lot of monsters and beasts hunting him down, not only that but also his father's brothers who for sure wanted him dead! with all of that maybe even his mortal family didn't like him to be around. She had heard some stories from some of the Lares, that when they were alive, sometimes their families didn't want them around, they feared them and wanted them to go away from them. Maybe thatwas also Alistair's case.

She remained silent looking at the water when he apologized for his way of speaking. "It's ok... sometimes people can be really hurtful... they speak when they don't know a pebble of the person in front of them. I'm glad there is someone that treats them with respect." she said and then half smiled in a very sad way. She looked at him, her already pale skin got a ghostly shine when the water reflected the light at it. she looked half human half lare in that moment which wasn't the best if you wanted to like to the other person, just in the common friendly way.

When he talked about how common he was, she frowned and then shook her head, she sat next to him being careful not to put her feet in the water, then she looked at her reflection in the water. She knew Cassie and Felicity. both of them were amazing, Felicity with her shadow traveling, how she rised corpses and controled armies of dead ones. Then Cassie with her lightning control, even when it was a curse, the electricity all over her skin... she smiled thinking about them and knew they were simply amazing. Then she thought of Alistair and knew that he was amazing too. "You are amazing, water should only heal you, but you focused your power to control it and heal others, I've seen you healing other campers too. No rate soldier do that."

Then she smiled at him and then looked back at the water. She saw her relflection again and frowned, she really looked like a ghost, so pale... Maybe it was because Mors was getting deeper and deeper into her mind withing each day that passed. She sighed and continued. "Not Even Felicity or Cassie with their amazing powers, can compare to yours, you can heal... which they can't..."

She said not looking at him, she thought about her powers. talking and seeing at Lares, ghosts, spirits, corpses, zombies... great! In the mortal world she would be better than that girl in the TV show... Ghost Whisperer... but in the legion... well even in that world she was creepy. Then on the other hand she was a very good archer, handy in battle. She could also use her voice to lift other's spirits, ease their mind and soul pains, but also... thanking to the mix with Mors powers, she could make them feel depressed or anxious. "Rate soldier... leave that nickname to me and other few in the camp" she said and then smiled again at him, she would love to sing to him, try to lift his spirit, soar it and ease his pains, but... would he let her do it? would her power work on the son of Neptune, one of the big three?

[alistair]

Alistair was a strong person. But he knew that there was only a short amount of time that there would be monsters that he couldn't beat. There would be someone better, someone stronger, just waiting to displace him from the world. Many people continuously tried to challenge him, to proclaim that they beat the son of Neptune who disliked fighting with an intensity. Alistair was a healer, someone who tried his hardest to help people, not to tear them down like many other people tried to do. His sword arm was strong, not like a Jupiter kid or a Mars kid, but Alistair was strong with a spear and a trident. "Titus is a good friend. You want to say hello to Lilith Titus?" Alistair asked the water. His expression softened up as the lare rose from the water to greet Lilith. As was his usual, the ghost was dressed in the ancient Roman armor with a sword and a shield. But he held his head and helmet under his arm. Titus had been decapitated when his warship had been taken over by pirates. The lare gave a sweeping bow to Lilith, the Legacy of Mors and Apollo. Titus was always such a show off at times. But Alistair was grateful for the ghost. He always had a kind word, some advice or a proverbial ear to listen.


"I'm not that great. I'm not very Roman. I'm a healer, something reserved by the Apollo kids. I'm a son of Neptune, no one wants us in the Legion." Alistair shook his head and looked up at Titus, not to Lilith. He didn't want her to see the hurt in his eyes. "Come now boy," Titus said as he put a translucent hand on Alistair's shoulder. "We are stronger then those Jupiter brats." Titus nodded his head under his own left arm. "We can make through disheartened time better then they can. They are over pampered prats." Alistair let out a snort of derision. "Not all of the Jupiter kids are that bad. It's only their dad that's out to get me. Cassie is fine and she's sweet." Alistair could feel his ears burning. He liked to think about Cassie. She was cursed, not in the same way that he was, but he felt like they were one in the same. "you're good with a bow at least Lilith. I can't pick up a sword and every time I look at it, I feel sick." Alistair shook his head. He could see in his mind all of the dead people around him. The thought made him shudder.


"So...." Alistair struggled with the right sentence. "What brings you up here? Not too many people come here." His tone was blunt, but he was trying his hardest to be nice. He wasn't in the mood to play the niceties and technicalities. After getting a rock thrown at him earlier, he just wasn't much for people. Even the kids that worked with him in the infirmary treated him like he was a bit of a curse. There was so much he wanted to ask his dad. How was it that the Neptune family got such a bad rep? But it's not like anyone around here would talk to Alistair about it.

[Deleted]

Lilith looked at Alistair and then at the surface of the water that was in front of her. She saw how Titus showed up again and smiled at her. Lilith smiled widely at him and by the time he bowed at her, she nodded her head at him. It was a honor to meet another Lar and someone as old as Titus seemed to be. His armor was from the ancient rome and also his sword and shield. She didn't flinch when she saw his head under his arm, it wasn't that it didn't look horrible, like in a mortal horror movie, it was more that Lilith was used to see all kind of stuff like that in real life and in her dreams.

Since she was a little girl she could see ghosts and talk to lares, so she had seen the horrors that war had done to most of the ones that she had met. so she knew that acting awkward around them wasn't the best idea, some of them even felt offended or sad, last thing she wanted to do was to make Titus sad or upset at her. "It is my pleasure to meet you Titus" she smiled a but more and remembered of someone, Julia Aurora, she was a beautiful roman girl daughter of Mors, she used to be alive by Titus time for sure, maybe they even met, at that time... in fact it would be nice to know more about their ancient time. "I hope you can talk to me about your time, I'm deeply interested on it."

Then Alistair talked to her again, she frowned and hen sighed. How could she make him understand that not everyone in the camp hated the Neptune offsprings and that a healer was as important as a warrior in time of war!? "Alistair... healers are incredibly important in the field, without you the warriors would just die there..." she bit her lower lip and then after a short sigh she was about to continue but titus talked to Alistair, he told him about his assets and also how they were better than Jupiter kids, she totally agreed with him, but then she half lost her smile and looked back to the water when Alistair complimented Cassie's actions.

Yes, he was right! She wasn't a common Jupiter girl, but maybe it was only because she was cursed, then Alistair talked to her again and she smiled earnestly at him, not a shade of hurt or pain in her eyes or smile, she decided to hide that from him. She loved Alstair and if he was happy with Cassie, then she would accept it and give them her humble blessings. "yeah, I'm fine with a bow..." she nodded then shrugged. "but not everything is war in this world, there is much more of it out there even in here..." she said and breathed deeply, she looked at titus and smiled then back at Alistair.

"Talking like that, is like the people that curse and hate me, just because I'm Mors' legacy... I can do many other thing than just being... a Death's ambassador, leave the fightings skills on a side... I can sing, I can soar the spirit of a person, lar, creature, etc. I can make them feel... good, fine, alive!" she smiled at him not telling him that she could also supress that feeling, she could also make them feel dead inside with that same beautiful voice. "you must remember that all the skills and abilities are important, no matter how insignificant you think they are. And believe me... yours are incredible."

Then he asked her what she was doing there, she smiled a bit differently and showed him her old boots. "I ordered a new pair, these ones are... really worn out so... I don't want to have an accident tomorrow in training." she grinned at him. "and you? just... trying to be as far as you could from other, exept Titus?" she smiled at him and then looked up at titus and smiled at him again.