demi-god deep diving (open)

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It was dark, the stars were shining brightly over head, twinkling. It had been a while since Charlie had taken time to just sit and watch the stars. Or even just notice them. As she sat atop the roof of the barracks, she looked at the stars. Her whole body felt tired, it was as if all the years of pushing and hard work was finally catching up to her. She thought about a lot of things here lately, there was a heavy realization that war was upon them. Charlie remembered the previous war vividly. Her mother must have been so strong to be able to go over seas and fight for her country before returning home to take care of her. Sometimes she had nightmares about the war, but it wasn't something that was enough to stop her life. She had to keep going, she had to keep pushing, there were people she had to keep safe. She thought about Mors, the god of Death. Charlie never feared death, it was just another great adventure to her, another part of the whole circle of life thing. Eventually the handsome god would find another mortal woman to woo and their relationship would be over. It was only a matter of time before the god found someone else to peruse. Charlie was worried about Remus, her brother needed to take time off and sleep. Pot calling the kettle black? Well at least recently she hadn't been pushing as hard. Maybe she should go back to pushing as if was was on the horizon. It was and she of all people knew that war waited for no one, it wasn't in her father's nature. Charlie worried about Edmund, Rhiannon, Nick, even the little Jeremy boy that she hadn't ever had time to work with. She worried about her father, her paternal grandmother, all of the gods, what would this entail if they lost. What would happen to her family? This place was always a safe haven for the demi-gods and legacies. She really didn't want to think of anything other than victory because losing this war, well it wasn't an option.

Charlie gave a sigh of exasperation as she hopped off the roof, easily landing on the balls of her feet to absorb the shock. It was quiet in the small hours of the morning. By her watch, it was just past 1 in the morning. She couldn't sleep, she could do with out sleep. No sleep meant that she didn't have those dreams, those wonderful dreams that just filled her with hope. She didn't need that sort of distraction. But she stood in the doorway of the barracks of her cohort. Everyone seemed to be sleeping peacefully, well the beds that were full at any rate. She didn't really care what people did during lights out. That was their time and if they would rather be off doing stuff other then resting, well that was on them. If they lagged behind during training, she would push them all the harder. She watched the silhouette of one of the boys in her cohort, returning from a date if the kiss he had given the other shadow against the window was any indication. That was nice to see other people having a social life. Charlie grabbed her mesh bag filled with her bath stuff before turning on heel to exit the barracks. She knew what she would do, what she could occupy her mind with for the time being. Her mother had been on the swim team in high school, and it was safe to say that Charlie had inherited her love of the water. No she wasn't a child of the water, she as a child of war. Swimming just brought back better memories and it was something that could distract her while she tried to clear her head.

Charlie could instantly smell the chlorine as she entered into the female changing room. She slipped into her bathing suit. She pulled her curly blond hair back into a tight pony tail before grabbing her towel and a small box. Charlie stepped into the pool area. The surface of the water was nearly smooth, the glint of the moon shimmered atop the water. Charlie took in a deep breath before she set her fluffy green towel on one of the pegs. She opened up the box and pulled out some diving sticks. She threw the colored plastic sticks into the water, the sound of twenty splashes marking the twenty objects she had thrown into the deepest part of the pool. Ten feet deep. The object would be to see how many she could get in a single breath. Charlie once again took in a deep breath as she positioned herself at the edge of the pool. She poised her self perfectly, her finger tips barely touching her toes as she did a mental count down. She dove into the water and swam as quickly as she could to the bottom. She skimmed along the cement bottom, darting back and forth as she tried to get as many sticks as she could before her lungs felt like they were going to bust. Charlie kicked off the bottom of the pool and rocketed towards the surface. She busted through the surface, inhaling deeply as she placed the sticks on the edge of the pool while she tread water. Thirteen, that was how many she was able to retrieve out of the twenty. It still wasn't beating her record of seventeen, but it was average for her. "oh blast it." She growled in frustration.

[Deleted]

Tag: Charlie

Word: 482

Notes: Hope she doesn't startle a lot. XD

Camp Jupiter was a place where all the demigods and legacies should be in peace, should know that it was home and that no one would really hurt them in there. Yes they were romans, so a hard, demanding training was requested and each one of them had to prove that were strong enough to be considered a roman. some of them were strong in body, others were strong in mind or even in soul, but the moment they showed their fellow ones that they were like that, in that moment they were considered romans and with all the rights and obligations that the title carried with it.


Apollo knew very well about it, he had a lot of kids in camp to know it. But even when he had delayed a lot in meeting each of them in person, that didn't mean that he didn't care for each of them. Each of them were a part of his infinite soul and when each of them suffered, he suffered with them, when they had a glory, a success he felt joy and enjoyed their moment of glory, and when they irremediably had to die, that part of his soul died with them. Each of them was unique for him.


But it wasn't only with his own flesh and blood, he cared about the other campers too, he knew that each of them were an example of Rome, from those who were the glory, the warriors, to those who were the humble and powerless ones. He was proud of all of them and he also felt pain for those who had decided to leave the empire and work for is Grandfather.
That day, he had visited some of his children, he had even visited Tessa in the infirmary and had realized why Jason, his son, had decided to leave her as head of infirmary, she was an amazing medic, and he was really proud of her. After that, he decided to walk around, check around for the others who were not his kin.

He walked to the cohorts, he wasn't really thinking on his steps, but on the people, he wanted to see his Adsila, mortal girl that had stolen his heart, or at least part of it. But for some reason he ended up walking into the Baths. He looked around at the moment the Chlorine sting his nose, then he focused on the blond girl. He knew her. Charlie, daughter of Mars, dating Mors, what a couple... war and death. He was about to turn and leave, but then he felt it, he had walked there because of a need of healing, she was injured, inside, not physically but... well in her soul.

He looked at her and waited till she counted her sticks, then he decided to speak. "more than half, that is a good number." He smiled at her.

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As Charlie gripped the edge of the pool, she thought about the last time she had seen her own mother. It was summer, they were at the pool on base. It was a memory she hadn't thought about since she had come to camp, something she had repressed for the longest time. She didn't know why she suddenly thought about it, it just bubbled to her mind, just under the surface.

“Charlie, you know I'm going to miss you right?” The little nine year old girl looked up at her mother, her curly head starting to friz out from the humidity. “I know mommy. But you always come back.” She said, giving her mother a toothy grin as she smiled. “Just remember, it's not good bye, it's a see you later.” “I love you mommy, here, you can take my ice cream with you.” The small child offered her mother the ice cream she was currently licking on. “No you get to keep it.”

There was a knock on the door, her grandfather frowned as he looked up from his own John Wayne movie on the TV. Charlie sat at the kitchen table working on a book report for school. She sat there, her gym bag waiting for her so they could go to kung fu later that night. She couldn't hear the words her grandfather was speaking with whomever was at the door. Her grandmother came in and looked over her shoulder before gently chiding her for making a spelling mistake as she toted a basket of laundry out to the garage for washing as she then walked to the front door. Charlie frowned, the mood wasn't right. Something was wrong. There was a crashing sound and a muffeled scream followed by sobbing. Charlie started up, running to where her grandparents were standing. There was a man, a marine chaplain standing at the door, talking fast on his phone as he tried to help her grandfather who had fallen to the floor. Her grandmother was sobbing. “Stay here Charlie, your uncle will be here soon.” Her grandmother sobbed at her. There was the screaming sound of the ambulance pulling into the street in front of her house as she was pushed aside by the EMTs.

She laid down in the dark, it had to be late, she wasn't supposed to be up this late with school the next day. She couldn't sleep. But as she laid there tossing and turning, she heard her door click open and she heard the light click on. She sat up, rubbing her eyes as the light assaulted them, making her blink away the dark spots. Her grandmother was standing at the edge of her bed, a dark male figure standing in the door way. He nodded to her grandmother before turning and disappearing down the hall. “Charlotte... I have something important I need to talk to you about.... Your mother won't be coming home. Her convoy hit an IED while they were under fire and....” Charlie bit her lip as her grandmother once more dissolved into tears. “And your... Gampa had a heart attack. He didn't make it. They both... they both are gone.” Charlie just sat there, immobilized. She didn't know what to think, she couldn't be alone. They had to be coming back, they just had to. Marines didn't die. “No!” Charlie screamed as she ran off down the hall. Tears stung her eyes, rendering her vision next to useless as she ran into a solid figure. It was the man from the door way. He was dressed in camos, a short cropped hair cut and wrap around sunglasses. He was tall, massively built, to anyone else, he would have scared the living day lights out of them. Charlie was angry. This man was blocking the way, he was keeping her from being where she wanted to be. “Go Away!” She screamed at the top of her lungs as she swung out at the man with a force that would have knocked a regular grown man off of his feet, but the man stood there as stone, unmoving and unwavering. Charlie screamed again, tears cascading down her face as she cried in frustration and anger, she swung again. The man caught her fist easily, batting it aside as he knelt down, dwarfing the young child. He pulled her into a hug, tight and encasing her in his arms. She felt protected, secure, she melted, sobbing hard. “Remember, it's not good bye, it's a see you later.” the man said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “I will always watch over you.” he said before standing up and then vanishing, leaving a smoking column where he once stood.

Charlie felt her eyes sting, it wasn't from the chlorine. She felt sobs shake her body as she started to cry. It wasn't very roman like. For the first time, thinking about the memory, she realized that the man she had hit, the man she had hugged, it was her father. No matter what people said about her dad, he had always been there for her. It was her first memory of her father she realized. Her throat hurt, the chlorine burned. At least she was soaking wet from the water so no one could tell she was crying. She couldn't let people know that she cried. She was a soldier and she had to be strong. Emotions got in the way and there was no place for anything other than rage and vengence. She didn't know how her mother could do it. She knew it was only a matter of time before Mors would find another woman and when he did, she would be left alone again. She was always meant to be alone. She must have done something in a previous life to deserve such punishment. Her lungs hurt from the sobbing, the air moist and thick as she tried to breathe, almost gasping for air.

She sniffed as she counted the sticks, remembering this as something she used to do with her mom. A voice spoke. Charlie put a stone face on as she jumped, instinctively pulling a knife that you wouldn't want to know where she kept hidden. Her heartbeat quickened and she tightened her grip around the long knife. She looked up at whomever decided to talk to her. Any other time, she wouldn't have a reason to be so paranoid, but with the way things were going lately, the way people were being attacked and killed, she wasn't going to take any chances on her life. But she froze when she saw who it was. “Lord Apollo!” He looked just like her good friend August. The resemblance was uncanny. “I'm so sorry sir! I didn't mean... I hope... I didn't mean to pull my knife on you.... but with as dangerous as things are.... I'm so so sorry.” She made a mental note that if she lived through this night, she was going to leave the biggest offering on his alter for her being such an idiot. “I'm so sorry sir.” She said, sniffing and hiccuping at the same time. She was still trying to get her breathing under control from where she was crying previously.

((so sorry lilith, charlie was like “this is what you're going to write and you're gonna do it now”))

[Deleted]

Tag: Charlie

Word: 430

Notes: Apollo hates to see cry any damsel.

The heart of the human being was so complicated, they could behold so many feelings and emotions in it. It was incredible that they could do that even more than the gods, They could hold happiness, and sourness, also sadness and joyful moments. It was simply amazing the way they had all of that in them and they didn't explode! At least gods had an infinite energy and being to handle several emotions, but humans, in their limited body and mind... apollo always found them to be fascinating at all points. even when they were driven mad and they couldn't really control their emotions, they still were able to at a point, be stable enough to keep living.

When Charlie turned at him holding that long knife at him, Apollo couldn't do other thing than smile at her.  He knew how dangerous it was in that moment to be alone in camp or New rome, he still remember the name of those kids that had died in a horrible way and all because of the fear, the strife... how gods and even campers among the shadows were trying to drive those loyal campers into an abyss of desperation and hate, which would end up breaking the thin links that were still there among campers and gods. So when Charlie threatened him with that knife he was glad she could do that. He only hoped his Cadence, his Tessa and his Lilith were capable of that.

"Please, don't be sorry about that Charlie, I'm glad to see that you are not defenseless. I would even dare to ask you to show some of that to my children, specially my girls." he smiled then walked closer to where Charlie was. He noticed with his eyes of a god that tears were running down her face, which was extremely weird in her, he couldn't recall a time where he had seen her crying before. He squatted on the edge of the pool and looked down right at her face.  "Charlie... I know this is non of my business, but I would like to know what is shading your soul in such way that you had poured some precious tears over it?" He wanted to help her, maybe he couldn't help others, maybe he wasn't the god of the soul, in fact that was Cupid's wife.  But stil he wanted to help her, a broken heart led to many other stuff that weren't needed in that moment, and he didn't want any of his fellow gods found out that Charlie was in such state.

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Charlie thought about the day after her mom's funeral. How her grandmother had tried her hardest to get the small child to come out of her room. She didn't know how to deal with emotions and she still figured she had never really learned. Some of them like anger, rage, frustration, she knew how to channel that energy, the broken bits of furniture that had laid strewn across the floor of her bedroom. Charlie's fist ached with the memory of having to pull the long splinters of wood from her broken and bloodied knuckles. But on the plus side, she had finally gotten the hang of breaking boards from her martial arts class. She hadn't seen her teacher in years and with the war coming up, she didn't know if she would make it to retirement so she could go back to the outside world. Charlie wanted to go back to her home town, but why would she want to leave the safety of New Rome? This place was her home and she'd keep going till they didn't need her any more and were going to force her into retirement. That had been the plan all along. She was going to be a soldier just like her mother. It was a different army but an army none the less. Charlie hoped that her own mother would be proud of her daughter, she wanted her Dad to know that she was doing the best she possibly could to be a Roman worthy of the Mars bloodline. Right now, disappointing her father by being weak was a great possibility. Romans knew how to master their emotions and hearts, she was doing quite a miserable job of it right now.

She pulled her self out of the water, sitting down on the edge of the pool a few feet away from Apollo. She didn't want to be the kid that got the sun god's shoes wet. She felt bad for pulling the knife on him, but she couldn't bring herself to be unarmed at any particular situation. Not that she was ever unarmed, she was trained in Martial Arts. She was never really unarmed, and she could quite possibly be more vicious without weapons. But she placed her head in her hands as Apollo spoke to her. She could never lie to Apollo. He was, after all, partially the god of truth. He was probably like Mr. Mercury and could tell she was lying. Though the thought to lie to a god never crossed her mind to begin with. “Tessa and lilith are strong willed. Tessa is more then capeable of taking care of herself. Though I think Gunnar will take care of them both. But I can try.” She said. Tessa was a great archer and strong, Lilith, not so much but she tried. Trying counted greatly in Charlie's book, you were only a failure if you didn't put forth the effort to try to be better then what you were. She really thought Lilith had found a particular niche by being in the infirmary. Healers would be greatly needed in this upcoming war, Charlie could feel it in her gut. This war was sure to be more brutal and vicious then the last.

Lord Apollo asked her what was bothering her so much that she was crying. Blast it, she thought. She had hoped the pool water would have hid that. “I was just thinking about my mom.” Charlie started in a shaky voice, trying to bring fresh air into her lungs. The amount of chlorine was still pretty heavy in the air. “She was a soldier too, not a roman soldier, but a Marine. She was so strong to be able to go off and fight and come home as if nothing bothered her. I can't be as strong as her. I'm a disappointment to my father, to Rome. And I'm quite sure that Mors will find someone else to woo and I'll be alone again.” Charlie drew in another shaky breath before continuing. “I'm scared that this time, the war will be different, that we won't win. That the people I love will be hurt because I'm incompetent. I don't want anything to happen to my brother, or Jason, or August, or any of my friends. I don't want to fail and be kicked out.” She started breathing heavily. She had said that last bit rather fast and in a single breath. “I don't want this to be a dream. I don't want to loose everything.”

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Tag: Charlie

Word: 422

Notes: "I'm not flirting with her..." Apollo to Mors.

Apollo looked at Charlie and the moment she got out of the pool, he decided to wear something more... apropriate to be in the baths near the pool. in less than a second his clothes changed to be a long boxer and a towel on his shoulders, nothing more, not even sandals. Then he walked closer and sat on the edge of the pool. He looked at Charlie and then smiled at her words about his granddaughters. She was right about them, Tessa... his Tessa was so strong, so calm, but at the same time like a young lioness when attack... he was proud of her not only for her medical skills. Then there was Lilith, that tender girl... she was always thinking on the others, thinking that she would never be able to be as important as other demigod, sacrificing herself, well that should have to end soon, she had sacrificed enough and Apollo had enough of his children and grandchildren sacrificing all the time. "thank you, that would be kind of you." He thanked her, after all she would be at somepoint checking on them.

Then he listened to the reason she had been crying, and well... he had to admit that the reason that made her cry was one of the most valid in the universe. "a mother is always a reasonable and justified reason to cry." He told her looking at her, she was such a delicate flower, why he had never seen that? Maybe he spent too much time watching her as a roman soldier than as a normal teenager. then she told him how strong her mother was and smiled. "Yes, she was an amazing woman Charlie, She was an amazing warrior, I'm pretty sorry for your loss." He wasn't lying there and he hoped she knew he wasn't. Then he recognized her mother in her eyes and in her inner strength. That's which when she mentioned that she would be a disapointment and Mors would leave her to go woo someone else, he found it irrational and a moment of slight weakness of the mind, because of the upcoming war.

"Sweet, fearless child... Why is that all pretty girls worry about the very same things?" He said and got into the water leaving his white towel on the edge. He swam to the other side with grace, but strong firm movements. then on the other side of the pool, he looked at her and spoke getnly. "Why do you think that he would do that?"