Light At The End Of The Tunnel (open)

[haley]

New Rome. The grand city that had been built and populated by Roman demigods and legacies for so many decades. It really was an impressive sight. Some said that parts of it were even modeled after the real ancient Rome. How they could be sure of that one, Haley wasn’t entirely sure. Nor did she care a whole lot. What she did care about was the fact that she had a mere seven months and she would be finished with her required service and, possibly, finished being the oddball mouthy girl with the funny accent. No more silly stares and bothersome being treated differently. The question now was, what to do?

Haley had gone to great lengths to get the things she needed. Set up a P.O. Box in San Francisco, what with outside mail not really getting into New Rome, sent out for information packets from a handful of colleges. She could always say she was homeschooled as a reason to not have a paper high school diploma. Since Camp Jupiter didn’t really plan things out for those who didn’t want to live here all their lives. Nice right little trap they had going here.

But she’d humour them. So today, she had gone to New Rome with the intent of seeing what their precious little Academia was all about. Of course, she’d carried her bag of other college information for cross-checking sake. That was what brought her to the Forum, sitting on the edge of the fountain with a coffee next to her and a few brochures on hand and lap. Okay, so the Academia didn’t look so bad. The program listings were a little shy of things that could be that useful outside of this place. And the idea of another four years here to get a degree that no one else on the outside would even recognize? She pursed her lips and set down the brochure. Academia was looking worse and worse the more she thought on it. So she picked up the next: King’s College London. Now there was an impressive list of degrees! Not that she had any idea what she was looking for, but still. She leafed through the packet until she got to the application form. Well, she knew what she’d be doing tonight. Never hurt to apply right? Then there was Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina, back where her dad had been working the last time she’d seen him. Might pay to see if he was still there before going to the trouble of going to a college in the town she’d hated when she was little. Alright, so that school was on the backburner for now. She continued her flipping.

WORD COUNT: 452

[rowan]

New Rome was one of Rowan’s favorite places to visit. The buildings were part of it for certain; he often liked to examine the architecture and placement of the buildings, tracing back the city planning to the strategic placement of the buildings and businesses which were founded on the ancient Roman concepts which had inspired the city. He liked that there were all the things demi-gods needed to subsist on available to them easily from the camp just across the way, like the cup of coffee that he clutched in his left hand as he glanced around the relatively empty streets, noting that it was still time for work and university to be in session. But most of all, he liked that his family was so close. He was very close to his mother and father who lived in the town. He’d actually just finished paying them a visit a little while ago, and the contact had refreshed him

Now he was leaving the university library with a bag full of books. He visited the library fairly often to get books and such about plant biology and botany to keep himself busy when he wasn’t being asked to perform military drills and lay out strategies. Plants were his passion, much like his father, and he worked hard on becoming as knowledgeable as he was on them. Of course, his father was one of the authorities of plant life within the university so it wasn’t hard for him to have access to the knowledge he wanted, but he was independent in that he wanted to gather his knowledge himself. Besides, what else did he have to do with his free time? He had some friends in camp, but he was generally by himself often, quietly studying scenarios and his personal garden outside of the barrack he lived. It wasn’t that he didn’t like people, he was just generally private.

However, as Rowan was walking down the sidewalk away from the university towards the fountain in the center of the forum with the intention of sitting a moment and flipping through the volumes he’d chosen, he noticed that a girl from camp Jupiter was sitting there already, flipping through what looked to be college brochures. Some semblance of a social impulse sparked in him. He had to admit that he was a little curious, especially when he recognized her as the rebellious Haley Campbell with the interesting accent that everyone always commented on. He hadn’t really spoken much to her before, but he had no problem with her, recognizing her trademark attitude as a reasonable reaction to the way most of camp had treated her.

She seemed nice enough if one didn’t antagonize her. As he walked over to the fountain and took a seat about a yard away from her, it was with the intention of making pleasant small talk, perhaps to learn a little bit more about her. “I didn’t expect to see another camper anywhere near the university,” he began pleasantly. “Not many camper Romans come around here at this time. Something special bring you out?” he gazed over at her with a mildly curious expression, taking a sip of the coffee he was still clutching.

Word Count: 526
Tag: Haley
Notes: .oO( Hope this is okay! Sorry about the tiny Gif.. the amount he has is actually pretty dismal. >< )

[haley]

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This was all really kind of frustrating. Haley really had no reason to want to stay here, but admittedly the university here would be a lot easier to sort out. All these other schools wanted high school transcripts. And, well, she’d never exactly set foot in a high school. Nor did she even have a full regular high school education. Math and science and more current history weren’t really all that useful here, so they really weren’t worried about too much. And SAT scores? Forget it. Perhaps she could get a hold of her dad and see if he could help her out with actually getting schools to look at her at all.

Oh gods, then there were the bills. Another thing that this dismal place lacked: real jobs that paid in real, useful money. Not a single dollar or pound or euro to be found here. All these wonderfully single-purpose-only denarii. What kind of place not still stuck in the bronze age accepted that anyway!? Another poor planning job at work. She dropped her pamphlets on her lap and took another sip of her coffee and pondered the great question of exactly how she was going to get on in the real world. Odd though it sounded, coffee actually helped calm her down a bit. Like a reverse-caffeine jag. Maybe it was a weird ADHD demigod thing. Or maybe it was just her. Either way, it was working splendidly.

She set her coffee back down and was prepping to go back to her pondering, perhaps on jobs this time and put the schooling on the backburner, when she noticed someone approaching out of the corner of her eye. Since there weren’t a lot of people out and about at this time of day, he was hard to miss. She didn’t pay him much heed though. Knowing the usual trends, he was either coming to make her day miserable or only appeared to be approaching while on his way somewhere else.

So, needless to say, it was very strange when he actually sat down not that far from her and struck up conversation. Last she checked, she was the only one here, so unless he was talking to a pigeon. She glanced up at him and gave him a quick once-over, finally noticing who it was she was dealing with here. His name completely escaped her, but she recognized the face. Kind of a boyishly-cute face, that, if she wasn’t mistaken, was usually hidden in a book or working in his garden or the like. He was one of those ridiculously smart people, not that she grudged him for it. He was also one of those people who didn’t seem to find any entertainment in harassing other people. She’d had a training hour with him a couple years ago and the guy was a lot better with a weapon than he looked like he ought to be. So, all in all, not the worst person to have an afternoon chat with.

Haley held up the pamphlets to show what she’d been up to. “School shopping. Get out of here in a handful of months and could use a plan for it. Though this place’s lack of any sort of government-recognized primary education is making it a bit challenging.” She dropped the pamphlets back on her lap and looked at him a little more proper. “And what about you? Also, you’re going to have to forgive me because I haven’t the foggiest what your name is. I recognize you though,” she added to try and make up for the previous statement. “You’re the one with that little garden outside the barracks, eh? Can tell you put a lot of work into it.”

WORD COUNT: 622
TAG: Rowan!

[rowan]

Rowan was uncommonly interested in Haley’s quest to find a college to attend after camp for several reasons. Firstly, many of the campers simply resigned to going to the university in New Rome, or they often discounted the idea of school entirely. It wasn’t difficult to see why though, since Monster Hunting 101 and Intro to War Games were not really transferrable skills to the outside world if one was seeking a sense of normalcy. Sometimes they had footholds with parents or family members who loved and cared about them, but often it was an “every man for himself” kind of world outside of New Rome. I should know, he thought with some derision.

Leaving New Rome for his parents to strike their fortune together by themselves had nearly ended in disaster when he was five and the memory of the event still bothered him at times, though he knew that as he was now he had a better chance of handling things. Perhaps in pairs, or a single a demi-god or legacy who wasn’t prone to showing up on monster radars much, had a chance of being okay in the normal world. But for him, he’d rather stay in safer areas unless he had a good reason for leaving. However, he couldn’t begrudge the girl sitting next to him staring at the pamphlets for other universities for wanting to try her hand at life outside of New Rome. From the things he knew about her around camp, people hadn’t been particularly kind to her, which would hardly foster nostalgia for a place. Still, he privately wondered how she would fare.

He took in her own assessment of him as she’d finally looked over and noticed he was speaking to her. He hoped that his intrusion wouldn’t be taken as offensive to her and have to plan for a confrontation, but it turned out that his mild wariness was unnecessary for the moment. His mouth turned up half-heartedly as she’d stated her business, the previous thoughts returning to his mind. He bit back his biased opinion on the matter, however. “ It’s nice to see someone strategizing. I sometimes look at some of the campers and fear for them once they reach the end of their military term. I see what you mean though, about New Rome trapping you. If I may be so bold, I might recommend really considering what you want and what you can manage, however. It can be dangerous out there for any of us. If you decide you’d really like to leave, my parents may be able to help you, though. They lived outside once and were fairly successful for a time.”

Rowan’s expression was patient as she tried to work out who he was. He realized that his disposition didn’t lend itself to having much widely known about him, so it wasn’t a surprise that she wasn’t sure. “Rowan Northwood, at your service. You have the right person, though. The garden is mine; I cultivate it for studying and lack of anything better to do, I suppose. Which ties into what I’m doing here, actually. I was just checking out some botany text books. I’m afraid that sounds terribly boring of me, though…” He trailed off, smiling faintly. “If you don't mind my curiosity, what field of work and study are you interested in pursuing?”

Word count: 555
Tag: Haley
Notes: .oO( :D Woo hoo!)

[haley]

She never would have seen herself having this conversation with anyone, much less another camper. It seemed more and more that people here really had no intention of leaving. Sure, they had a decent life available here, and there was the whole thing about monsters not being able to get in – which admittedly was rather convenient - but that was assuming it was what you wanted. Which did not hold true for Haley. She was more the get away from a load of complete assbutts type.

The person sitting next to her, however, did not fit the ‘assbutt’ description. In fact, so far the talk was going surprisingly well. Sure, he seemed to have a little bit of the brainiac air about him, but no harm in that. After all, she usually carried a complete arrogant jerk air about her, so she was hardly one to comment on anyone else. Not that that usually stopped her, but there you had it. In front of this guy, nice as he was being, she really didn’t have reason to pick on him. So, instead, she actually smiled, an authentic smile and not the usual sneer that she graced people with. “Yeah, well, seems awful stupid not to have any sort of plan, but you don’t really see a lot of people thinking about it. Can’t keep beating the tar out of each other until we’re too old to lift a sword.”

She paused at the idea of putting more consideration into things, though. “Well, I’m definitely keen on getting out of here, that’s certain there. The more I think on it, though, not sure how to fund any sort of college. I don’t think they accept denarii.” She pondered him for a moment when he suggested going to him parents. For a minute, it sounded downright odd to say something like that, but after a second she remembered he was a legacy, which meant, yes, he actually did know how parents a mite better than the average citizen. What gave her even more pause was the fact that he’d lived outside the camp. That one was news to her. “You did? Hmm…” She picked up her coffee cup and considered the lid for a moment like it was imparting on her the answers to life. Finally, she looked back to him. “You know, I might take you up on that. So long as your folks don’t mind. Might be nice to get a different perspective on what on earth is out there. I think I can make it though. I don’t really lose easily. Which sounds completely arrogant, but mum’s Victoria, so sort of just happens most of the time. Then again, may not hurt to be cautious.”

Haley smiled when he introduced himself and held a hand out to him. “Pleasure, Rowan. Haley Campbell. Can totally sympathize nothing better to do. Not a lot offered here if you’re not up for fighting people or, well, fighting people.” She smirked a little at his own assessment of his activities. Terribly boring did sound about right. “For me, most likely. But hey, if that’s your thing, not going to knock you for it. Find what you were looking for?” At his question, though, she chewed on her lip for a second. “Yeah, see… that’s sort of one of the issues. I have no clue. Guess I’d best to go with the idea of working for a bit and trying to sort out what on earth I’m doing.” Yeah, so that was sort of a lame admission, but hey. He didn’t seem the type to begrudge her for not have planned that much. No one had all the answers, after all.

WORD COUNT: 617
TAG: Rowan!

[rowan]

It was certainly true that New Rome was like the smaller towns in rural areas that the residents hardly ever left for much and most people knew everyone else. It was something like the demi-god and legacy black hole: once you get pulled in, you’d probably never get out. But the thing was, it was really by choice. People relished in the safety of the boundaries, the self-sustaining community, the common ground they all had in knowing that the world could be a hostile place. But Rowan wasn’t convinced that New Rome was the only place of its kind, though he had never found any information indicating otherwise. He wondered what people were like at those ones, if they had colleges or information for people who might want to leave for reasons of their own. In fact, he wondered how his own parents had done it. It wasn’t something they’d really discussed, especially after the incident that had pushed them to return prematurely. But he hoped that they might be willing to share with Haley, if she so chose to ask.

Interestingly enough, he was finding the assessments made by many of the other campers about her to be only half the truth. He thought he could vaguely detect where the air of off-putting combatitiveness would stem from if provoked, but he also realized that it would take a match to light that fuse, however short. He supposed it was lucky for him that he kept inflammatory conversation to a minimum, especially when it was unwarranted, because it meant he got times like this to look past the cloud of social perception and formulate his own opinions and theories. He was, after all, definitely about the theory. It was a treat currently to see a real smile cross the lips of one of the alleged social pariahs of camp, and it made him make note that it was worth it to pursue this sort of social interaction so far. In return, a slight smile played across his own lips at her observation. “I’d say that’s an astute observation, and one that the campers don’t often make, as much as they might dream of growing old and brawling on. What a thought.” He chuckled slightly at the vision of it.

He listened to her muse on a little bit, nodding at her assessment of Denarii not being much help outside of camp. “Although, I believe that there are some gods that might be willing to make an exchange with you for usable currency outside of here, and retaining some Denarii can be more useful than you might think, especially if you find yourself in a pinch. There’s always loans as well, though unfavorable.” At the mention of his parents he saw her look change to confusion, then to realization, and his own expression was patient as it came together. Indeed he was a Legacy, so he had a somewhat rare vantage of having an ongoing relationship with his parents. “I did. It was nice I suppose, but they aren’t lying when they say it’s incredibly dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. And even still…” He trailed off on his warning, giving a small shrug as punctuation as she continued. “I really don’t think Mom and Dad would mind though. Mom would be sympathetic, she’s the daughter of Quirinus, who associates with your mother. And indeed, I can see the correlation. Perhaps your mother will bless you with the luck amd skills to get by without a scratch, but I implore you to be sure about it, nonetheless. Please don’t think I’m trying to ask you to endure more than you have though. I’m sure you have valid reasons for wanting to go.”

Rowan smiled earnestly in return to Haley’s and shook her hand softly but firmly. “The pleasure is mine, Haley Campbell. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t think of fighting all the time.” His smile widened a fraction as he realized she agreed with his assessment of his activities, but he’d expected it all the same. “I appreciate you indulging me in my boring interests. I think I found some of what I was looking for, at least. I can use the information for learning how to utilize the specimens I have better in battle, and for the healing children. But that’s more boring information for the moment than I’m sure you’d care to hear.” His smile turned sympathetic at her admission of not knowing what to do. “I really meant more career wise than trying to pay your way out. I’m certain there’s a way for you. What are your interests? Perhaps I might help you think on it, if you’d like. And besides, sometimes it takes a while for the answer to find you.”

Word Count: 798
Tag: Haley

[haley]

He seemed to think a lot. Just judging from his expression, the look in his eyes that said his mind was seriously working on something. Or at least she guessed. The people that Haley hung out with didn’t really get that expression too often. Mostly because she only hung out with maybe two people in this entire camp, and one of them was more of a forced-you-to-put-up-with-my-presence kind of hanging out, so that may not have counted. Ah, well. And then there was the way he talked. She had to actually focus a good deal more than normal to sort out what in general he was saying. Astute? She wasn’t even entirely sure what that meant. Then again, he seemed pretty nice and honest, so she had a feeling it wasn’t like cursing her out or something. Besides, his smile was actually rather pleasant. And she had to smirk at his comment. “Which would actually be pretty funny, you know. The all new Ludii specially for seniors. No one under the age of eighty. Old guy sitting at a grinding wheel sharpening his cane to a fine edge,” she said with a laugh. There was a decent chance that some people would not be pleased with her joking about things like battle and the greatly-respected elders in New Rome. Well, she was never one for formalities like proper Roman etiquette. Though if he knew anything about her, that probably wasn’t a surprise.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Gods willing to exchange with me? Oh? But yeah, I think keeping a bit on hand can’t hurt. Never know when you might need something or wanna IM someone. But yeah, not a snowball’s chance I’m taking out a loan.” When he talked about living on the outside, she couldn’t help but pay him the utmost attention. Two demigods – or she assumed his parents were both full half bloods – and a young legacy, living out in the real world. It was something you really didn’t hear about happening a lot. But it was encouraging. If they could do it, why not her? After all, it was just going to be her on her own, and one demigod didn’t attract a lot of unwanted attention unless they were like ridiculously powerful. And no offense to her mom or anything, but she wasn’t. “Yeah, I don’t doubt it’s dangerous. But hey, some things are worth the risk.” After all, she was Haley Campbell! She was nothing if not a sucker for a challenge.

Quirinus? She felt a little bad that she didn’t recognize the name right off the bad. Then again, she was never one for paying all that much attention to the stuff they attempted to teach here. Unless it sounded interesting. Which wasn’t often. But hey, if the god hung out with her mom, couldn’t be that bad right? She nodded slightly at the idea that her mom might help her out. That would be nice. “Oh, I’m sure. Spent nine years pondering it. No offense, since I know it’s not really a popular opinion,” and the fact that, for once, she actually minded if she offended this guy. Well, that was new. “But there’s really no reason for me to want to stay here. I know you’re not trying to convince me to, don’t worry. You seem like a genuinely nice guy.”

She shook his hand and offered a smile. This was definitely turning into a strange day. And strange more by the fact that she found someone (or someone found her) that she actually liked talking to. “No, you’re definitely not the only one. Well, there are at least two of us. Don’t know about the rest of the crackpots here.” She frowned when he started talking about what he was working on, and rested forward, her elbows on her knees. “No, no, seriously, not boring. How on earth do you use plants for battle? I mean, I’ve heard of medicine, but I thought that was just, like, plants you found in the rainforest or something. And we’re a bit shy on rainforests here.”

Talking with Rowan was actually proving to be possibly the most rewarding and interesting thing to happen all week. Not that that was saying much as prior to that it was likely her kicking that Mars kid’s butt on the battlefield, which admittedly had been a huge personal victory. Though this, on the other hand, was making her step back and think. “Interests? Hmm. Probably sounds dumb, but never actually thought about it. Um… ha, I like competition? Card games, board games, races, you name it.” She paused for a long moment. “Psychology.” She laughed as though the idea sounded silly even to her. “Guess I’ve always been a bit interested in how people think. What makes them tick. Why people act the way they do. Albeit never done much with it here. And history. Another thing that doesn’t get a lot of use here. But I like reading books about it. Does that count? Probably not much good for a career though.”

WORD COUNT: 854