early morning wanderings (kate)

[Deleted]

New Rome. The place seemed more peaceful then usual. But then again it always seemed that way in the aftermath of war. There was a still quietness about the place, something that was almost picturesque and tranquil. But with the sunrising, it looked as if it was meant for a postcard. He had been back to Rome, the real Rome. While the original Rome had a powerful feel to it, New Rome had a sense of youth and vigor to it. Mars felt his children, his heart, it was all here. Fighting alongside his Romans in the peak of battle, It was a moment that the poet children of Apollo would sing about for centuries. He was proud of his son, Remus. Praetor of the twelfth legion. He was proud of his daughter, Charlie, first cohort centurion. He was proud of his grandsons, both Nick and Joshua. The latter even helping Mercury in an attempt to free Neptune. There was much pride to go around. But to say that everything was alright, well it would be a lie. The city lay in a state of unrest as the Senate debated the traitor trials. It would be that way for at least another month or so. Then things would go back to their pre-war places and life would go on.

Mars stood at the top of temple hill, wearing the traditional roman garb of a soldier. The only thing that was out of place, well, that was the pair of wrap around sunglasses. HE looked over the horizon, it looked like Apollo had started his journey across the sky once more. Mars crossed his arms as he surveyed that which was New Rome. He couldn't help but smile as the day was just getting started. The bakers, merchants and shop owners were placing their wears outside of the shops. They were placing them in bins and pulling out stalls. Maybe he would go later on and purchase some flowers for Venus, the gardens here were so nice and he figured she liked that sort of sugary girly crap. He hated being roped into that stuff. But if it made the women in his life happy, well he would suffer on occasion. Then afterwords, he'd go blow something up. Blowing things up was his specialty after all. Some Fruit for a snack, maybe some of the nice bread. He felt himself taking in a deep breath of the freshly baked bread that was wafting up from the forum.

Mars gave into the human feeling of hunger. So he waltzed down to the formu, changing his apperance as he walked. He now stood as a normal man, or what passed for normal anyways, camo pants, boots and a tight fitting black shirt. The shades still remained the same as he walked into the forum. Families were out early, buying fruits and vegetables from the open air market that was off to the side of the fountain. A little legacy girl ran, scattering pigeons as she stomped into puddles. He cracked a small smile as he stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around and watching the people that were starting to come out of their homes and apartments. Though if he looked at any clock, he could gaurentee that the camp had already started waking up about three hours ago. Four hours if you were in first cohort. But the morning air was wonderful and he purchased a coffee from a vendor before turning around to take a seat and watch the people go by.

[Deleted]

Ever since the war ended, Katie realized that most of the centurions had become a bit more lenient. Optional training, even from the first cohort! Caitlyn remembered. It had been like this after the first war. So many shell shocked soldiers. She had been one of them. All the nightmares, scares, and skittishness that followed. Some people still weren't over it. Heck, she wasn't exactly sure if she would ever entirely be over it. Still not fully recovered form the first war... and then to have a second so soon? What had they done this decade to tick Saturn off so much? How much power did the ancient titan have to have (or how many powerful demigods on his side did he have to have) in order to be resurrected, not once, but twice, within the past three years? It must have taken a lot... so many lives lost: including her brother and her mother's. She was all that was left... if she could even include her father. He had decided to spend the rest of his days in New Rome, buddying with alcohol a bit too much. Not that she blamed him... okay, maybe she did... a little. Since when were the ending stories of Romans who saw multiple wars happy? From what she had seen, few and far between, but they could happen. Maybe one day it would happen to her. Until that day though, she'd stay: fighting for her home and friends.

Katie had decided to venture into New Rome that day. Her training had let out early: as in... they had only trained for a half an hour. Everyone still looked so tired, even though the war ended weeks ago. Ten straight days of fighting would do that to a person... even if they did manage to sneak in cat naps. No one could go on forever, even if they wanted to. Instead of collapsing in her barrack like she usually did, Kate had decided to try to ease some nerves. So, after her daily visit to Nova in the forge, Kate had grabbed her guitar and had headed to New Rome. Maybe she could relax herself by playing alongside the forum or something. True, she could do it along one of the roads at Camp, but right now, she needed out. She wanted somewhere familiar, and she knew her mother had done it with her oboe. Sometimes, Kate would see an older boy playing an Eastern sounding instrument. She did a duet on the guitar with him once... forgot what his name was. Something with an R? Double Rs. He had been really nice. Had even grown her some flowers to take to her Dad... and had given her some for herself. She hadn't seen him since the war. Hopefully he was okay... just recovering like the other third of the camp.

She watched a well dressed man order coffee and then sit down before sitting in a patch of grass herself. It was nice to be in a more familiar setting. Her mom and dad would take her and her brother here... to play. They'd rough house, play sports, play instruments... She wished it was still like that, but of course it wasn't. With that thought in mind, Katie looked down at her guitar, put it across her lap, and started to strum a few notes. She didn't know what song she was going to play... yet.

OOC: Merp! Sorry for the wait. Welcome to 2 wks + of awkwardness

IC: 573

[Deleted]

Mars knew that there were things that some soldiers just couldn't get past. There were soldiers that felt guilty about what they had done, they were the ones that screamed the loudest at night when they were asleep. They were the ones who looked empty and distant, the ones that suffered the most and had lost the most. To say that this god of war had come out unscathed from the weeks of battle that they fought, well it was a lie. He had lost children, grandchildren, people he had loved. This time it had been different, he had always fought alongside his Romans but this time he was there. He was fully there. If anyone had cared to look across the world there had been a week or so of peace. No where else were shots fired or people killed, his sole attention was focused here on camp. And at Camp half-blood of course. He couldn't let his greeks down either. So much death and destruction, wanton destruction was a horrible thing. So many needlessly lost lives. So much suffering. He had gained a good bit of souls for servitude, mostly his children, but there were others. He always gained a portion of souls that died in battle.

But his attention turned to the little girl that was hanging out beside him in the grass with a guitar in her lap. She was a Roman from camp. HE could tell. He also knew that she had been effected by the war. Everyone around here had whether they were willing to say it or not. "Play me something nice." he said with a wink to her. Though it was hard to tell it was a wink with the sunglasses wrapped around his face. He was feeling uncharacteristically nice this morning and was feeling generous too. Not like he was going to smite this little girl for not know that he was the amazing god of war and patron of rome. That she was sitting by the only god that mattered in Rome. Screw Jupiter, that pretentious bastard. He deserved to have that lightening bolt shoved so far up his arse.... well that was how he felt on any other given day. But he looked at the young girl expectantly, waiting for her to start playing. If she waited any longer, though, his good mood was going to evaporate and he was going to start blasting people in that small radius that was the grass.

Mars took a deep breath and gave her a smile. He didn't want her to think that he was just some creepy guy. Though that sort of thing wasn't much commonplace in New Rome. It had some crime, mostly petty thievery thanks to the Mercury kids. But the whole murder and rape and homicide thing was low to nonexistent. "come on Miss Ashika don't keep a good roman waiting." He said with a grin and another wink. Oh he knew the names of all the romans that passed through his camp. but it did sound weird. "you dont want to keep Mars waiting do you?"

[Deleted]

Kate couldn't really feel guilty about anything she'd done. Of course, this came from a child who had been born and raised in the walls of New Rome. Her parents had always talked about the honor of being a solider of the Legion. Doing what you had to do to protect the people inside the boundaries. Protecting Roman values. Protecting their way of life. She hadn't killed. And if she had, it had been unintentionally. She aimed to incapacitate people. They were still people. They still had families. Still had friends. And Kate knew what it felt like to lose both. Traitor or Legionnaire, it didn't mask the fact that they were all fighting for something they believed in. Of course, in her opinion, fighting for Saturn had been wrong, but to other people... not so much. So, instead of going for the muscle memorized fatal blow, she stopped herself. The Legion had taken mercy on traitors who had thought they were in the right before. They would again this time around. A part of Kate wanted to see them alive enough to take that chance. She took out their sword arm. Knocked them unconscious. Monsters though, actual monster monsters, she didn't have any regrets. Non-human animals who existed only to hurt them. She hated them, she did. Monsters were bad guys. Sure, traitors were too, but one was human, and another wasn't.

At least she had woken up this time to not find her only other family member dead. He probably didn't even know what had happened. He'd think it was a slight disturbance... holed up in his little apartment while the world came crashing down around the other Romans's heads. Afterwards, she had searched for Mattie, Nova, and the others of her cohort. Nova and Tessa seemed thoroughly incapacitated, but after a while, they made it through. Mattie.... was Mattie, as always. Tough little spit fire. Thought of with love, of course. She did feel the loss of those who had perished though, at the pyre burning. History repeating itself. Anyone could go: traitor, Legionnaire. A mass pyre burning to commemorate those who had fallen in battle. Caitlyn had been lucky this time. A couple of people she knew of, but wasn't particularly close to. Still though, there had been people with close relations to others. Maybe they could do a memorial service or something in the future....

Then the man who had brought the coffee spoke to her. Play? Well... this wasn't shady at all. Still though, if this was just a rough looking Roman (and let's face it, who didn't look like a tough Roman around here?) who wanted to hear music, who was she to deny him. The poor guy could be having a rough day.... but that still didn't lessen the creepy factor. "Sure..." she said quietly. "Of course not," she said, offering a quick, semi nervous smile. He knew her name too. Definitely not creepy. Her mind drew a blank on what to play. Stupid tip of the tongue thing. Asked to play or do anything specifically or on the spot, it magically disappeared. And then he introduced himself. "Oh... um, good afternoon, Lord Mars." Finally she settled on playing one of the songs she had been working on before the war, "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper. It was almost too easy... slipping back into memorized chords. She didn't have to think... and it almost felt like she was there. No war... yet.

OOC: *hides in shame* ._.
IC: 580