younglings (open)

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It was inevitable. There were always these little trips to the Senate building that were inevitable. Not that Charlie really cared most of the time. But right now, she felt she would be happy if she never ever had to go near that place ever again. The last war, well it wasn't so much the war itself that had taken such a toll on her. The trials of the traitors seemed to stretch out forever. She hated to sit there and listen to people whine and complain about how they were deceived and how Saturn promised them this and that, it was all a load of bull in her opinion. She wasn't going to condemn them to death, that was beneath her. Some she felt deserved it, but it wasn't her place to judge as such. That was reserved for the judges in Hell. She wondered who sat upon the seats as judges. She knew of the traditional judges, but she wondered who would sit there at her time to go. The proceedings were such a pain, lots of sitting and not so much actually doing anything. Maybe next meeting she'd sneak in a book or something, though that really wouldn't be becoming of someone in the first cohort. Though she did think that dishonorable discharge was a bit lax. She had to admit that those that betrayed camp should have at least gotten some sort of reprimand. Community service, latrine duty, KP, SOMETHING!!

But she leaned against the columns, watching the three little kids that she had brought up here. Well they wern't exactly little. They were old enough to serve in the legion. They were still young, only had just came to camp after the war. They were lucky. But this was one of those things that as a centurion, was her duty. She had to show the kids in her cohort around New Rome and Camp. One of the stops was the Senate building, then the next thing on their list would be the forum and academia. Then it would be a stop to see Ronan and Nova in the forge. THey would have to get fitted for armor and then to the armory to get them their basic weapons. But the little group of three, well it comprised of a child of Mars, her own sibling, A child of Mercury, and a child of Vulcan. Earlier she had a talk with the little Mercury girl about keeping her hands in her pockets. "This is the Senate building. For the most part, you won't be coming here unless your in serious trouble or your presence has been requested for a meeting." Charlie said as she touched a cool marble column. "The next Senate meeting, however, you will be required to attend because you need to have somewhat of an understanding on how the senate meets, why they meet and what they accomplish." She stated. "Centurions and the praetors make up most of the senate, along with the representatives of New Rome and whatever gods happen to be in New Rome that day. But Lord Mars, Lord Jupiter, Lady Bellona and Lord Quinarius are always present as they are the personified in the Roman State." She said as she motioned to the busts of the gods that adorned the walls.

The children would probably find the senate meetings to be boring. Charlie sure knew that she did when she was that age. Even though more now than forever. She had survived war, but it would seem that her ADHD was worse now than ever before. She would most assuredly rather be out on a field of battle then sitting in a court room, debating politics and listening to the bureaucrats whine and complain. It was the whining and complaining that she hated most about senate debates. To her it was worse than listening to nails on a chalkboard. She would rather be stuck in a room with that creepy boy from fourth, yeah the weird legacy that smelled like a shoe and seemed to be allergic to water, than sit through a senate meeting.

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The senate building was only one of his homes, a place where Jupiter always felt welcomed. It wasn't his palace, but it was a place he was always asked for council, and worshiped for his opinion was necessary here. It was good to see people about, the youngsters learning about the senate and the old farts meandering around talking about rules and regulations. Jupiter liked the word of the law, but much preferred the value behind it. Traitors where put to death for the good of Rome, he was happy that young pregnant woman was not condemned. Of course he knew she was pregnant at the time, his wife had spoken about it. Despite what people thought of him, he listened to what his wife said. He loved her with all his heart. Sure he had fallen for her because she was the most beautiful creature on earth, but it was also her fiery personality that drew him. Like he had to fight for her smile, her laugh. Other woman would smile for his attention, or give him what he wanted because he was king of the gods. For her though, it was an exciting everyday thing to keep her in love with him. Though he knew she would always love him, always be with him no matter what he did.

There was a golden haired beauty, curly hair was the best. He could just bury his face in it. Mars daughter. He gave his chin a scratch, the bread that grew there wasn't quite as long and majestic as his statues would have you believe. It wasn't his style these days. Mars might be angry at him for it, but he couldn't care less about that. This girl was a bombshell. With a debonair smile he walked her way, leaning next to a bust of himself. “They don't really do me any justice, don't you think?” he asked her, tapping the bust. “Charlie Jolly right? Centurion of first cohort, I've seen you at the senate meetings.” Sure he was flirting with her, his smile his gestures. He doubted a child of Mars would be much for keeping around material though, not like Amelia. That sweet girl he'd be with forever, even if his nephew had other things to say about it. Loud annoying, sometimes pointy things to say. With a sword. Okay so he tried to stab Jupiter, but any man who wouldn't put up a fight over their girl wasn't worthy of being called a man.

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Charlie could tell that the kids were getting quite bored. This was the part that she remembered disliking the most when she was younger. Sometimes she hated doing this whole 'tour of new rome' thing. They were starting to get antsy, and as far as she could tell, their attention was starting to dwindle. “Hey, why don't you guys go check out the forum? There's plenty of food vendors and we'll meet in by the fountain in a hour. One hour.” She said, holding up a finger to indicate the number one. It would give those kids enough time to blow off steam and her enough time to get something for her headache. And to top it off, a bit of relief from that little Mercury kid's constant stream of questions. It was as if that kid had never grew out of his 'why' stage. You know, that stage where toddlers ask all sorts of outlandish questions at the rate of a million questions a minute. It took a good deal of self control to not whack that kid across the back of his head. Oh she had been tempted, but resisted. What kind of centurion would she be if she punched the living snot out of a kid outside of the arena or field of Mars? Possibly a human one, though she did chuckle slightly when the Vulcan boy punched the Mercury kid in the ribs.

To say that she was shocked by the sight of Jupiter was an understatement. “This isn't one of those beetlejuice moments is it?” If Charlie remembered correctly, she had only said his name once. But he was the king of the gods. Oh hells bells, she thought, did she do something to offend him? Was he mad that she had named her dad before him? She knew the gods could be so picky about things, but she hoped and prayed that this wasn't a transgression or something. “King Jupiter, it's... it's a honor.” She said as she curtsied. Wow her grandmother would have been real proud of her. She remembered all of those lessons, those etiquette lessons of meeting those who were of a higher station than she was. And if she were to be honest with herself, Jupiter was the highest station as the king of the gods. Though she knew her dad had some choice words about the ruler of the skies and storms. She knew about him and Amelia, hell everyone knew about that. If you didn't know about it, you might as well have been living with your head under a rock. She felt bad for Gabriel and it seemed he had been suffering for it. She knew better than most how temperamental Pluto kids could get. They had a whole lot of temper and a whole lot of mental if Felicity was involved. Charlie regretted loosing that friendship over Mors. She wanted to talk to Felicity, to try to make amends, but it didn't seem like it was in the stars for her.

“It really is an honor, King Jupiter.” She said being truthful. Though seeing him on the field of battle along side of her father and the other gods, it was impressive. It was the stuff that legends were made of. It was the stuff that people had sang about for centuries to come. “Is there anything that I can do for you? Anything that I can assist you with?” Charlie wanted to be of some kind of help to the king of the gods.

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Jupiter couldn't help but chuckle at her comment about Beetlejuice. It was always entertaining to see how people reacted to his presence, and he had to admit this was an interesting meeting already. "Where you talking about me that much? All good things I hope?" he said with a smile, he had heard her speaking about the gods of the Senate. That inevitably included her father, he wasn't fond of Mars getting mentioned before him. It couldn't be helped though, a girl should think of her father first. She should probably be learning things like flower arranging instead of sword fighting, but girls seemed to be getting more rambunctious over the years. Branching out in their interests. Not that they ever could be as good at fighting as a man, perhaps better than some men but the best would always be male. Don't ever tell his daughter that was his opinion, Diana knew way too many ways to skin something. Though she was always his adorable little girl, with her girl scouts.

That was a uniquely girly thing, which he found rather attractive. A curtsy, though he'd rather see her in a skirt doing that. A lovely little dress would do too, short skirt to show off what had to be some great legs. He loved skirts on girls, though not for so savory reasons. "Thank you, it's good to finally meet you in person. I must say seeing you in battle I was far to busy to notice just how beautiful you are." He took her hand and kissed it gently, a smile on his face. He stood up straight, holding her hand lightly so if she wanted she could take her hand away. Not that he expected her to, after all he was King of the gods. He was the most attractive god, and quite a gentleman if he had to say so himself. Any woman would be glad to so much as hold his hand, calloused as it might have been from his Roman nature.

If not for his ego, her stutter might have left doubt in whether she really believed it an honor. Though he knew it was, and he nodded as the golden haired beauty reiterated how much of an honor it was to meet him. "Perhaps after you finish this little tour we could get some coffee?" he asked with a flirtatious smile, taking a step so he might be a bit closer to her. "I don't know if you've been to this place The Crazy Coffee Bean and Tea Brew. Of course I've got some coffee at my place in New Rome as well, and I can promise it'll get your heart pumping."

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Charlie always believed in the gods. Though she might not have always gotten along with her dad, he always preferred his sons over his daughters, she loved her dad. He was the god of war so he couldn't be all lovey dovey like other gods or dads were. There were expectations that came along with being a child of Mars. You were expected to lead, to be strong, to be the rock upon which Rome stood. You had to be unshakeable. Sometimes Charlie loved being strong and being someone that people depended on to make the hard decisions. Being a Leader isn't about being the smartest or the strongest, but being able to make the decisions that no one else could make and live with the consequences. Though to be honest, Charlie didn't envy Remus or Jason at times. The stress would be too much for her, though she would be like every other Jolly out there and suck it up and move on with her life if she had to be in such a position. But one of the responsibilities of the Centurions was to show around the new kids that had managed to not get eaten by Lupa. The She-wolf was strong and vicious, weakness wasn't something one could show. And that meant doing things you didn't want to do. So here she was, taking the new kids for a tour. She knew how much she disliked the clerical and bureaucratic processes that came along with the job, but it was just as important as swinging a sword and training. "Oh don't worry, it's all good things." She said with a toothy grin. Her grandmother always said she had inherited her mother's grin and smile. That the small child with freckles and curly blond hair was the spitting image of her mother.

Charlie had been put through cotillion at her grandmother's request. She knew how to conduct herself in situations that called for etiquette. Charlie didn't act like a girly girl all the time but she knew how to deal with situations that called for such gestures. And if meeting the king of the gods wasn't one of them, well she didn't know what else would. He seemed to have a gentle smile, but Charlie was a bit wary about him. She knew the stories about him and other women, and who hadn't heard about him and Gabriel and Amelia. Her face flushed as she was complimented. She wasn't used to getting compliments off of the battlefield, though Mors seemed to be trying to change it. She smiled fondly at the thought of Mors. He was so lovely. He treated her like a real woman, someone who was important both on and off of the battlefield. "There is a beauty in battle, though there are few that seem to see it." There really was something to it.

"Oh that's Mr. Mercury's place isn't it? His favorite coffee shop?" Mercury certaintly had been opening up a lot of new food places here lately. Charlie had heard of the place, she certaintly had. The tea was excellent, or at least what she had tried the other day was. "The coffee shop sounds like a lovely idea." She said with a smile. "Though I think the little kids have come to the end of their ropes with tours." She gave a small laugh as one of them was trying to fit a bust of one of the roman emperors into their pockets. "Put Caligula down!" She stated as she replaced the bust. Charlie shook her head as she returned to Jupiter. "Emperor Caligula, he was a crazy guy wasn't he? Or at least the history says so. There might be something else to him that doesn't appear in books." After all, Caligula did declare war on Neptune and have his soldiers stab at the water. He was a big nutcase. She would have loved to meet some of the old emperor's. They must have been quite amazing to talk to. Oh how she would love to talk to them, speak to their generals, just to pick their brains for a few minutes.

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New Rome was a place that Jupiter could feel the weight of his power, at home with other immortals it was a bit difficult sometimes. Here there were statues of him, people offering prayers and all kinds of trinkets they believed he might like. The power was intoxicating. The way his children handled it on the other hand, it kept his head from filling up too much. To keep his feet somewhere near the ground instead of high in the air. The way that Mercury took care of these people, beautiful as some of the daughters here might be. Mercury took care of everyone. Businesses where started with his aid, and even more now that he allowed them contact with their children. Talking only, but that was something. They could spend time, though he had seen how it would tax some of the gods. To be in so many places at the same time, business and family. Trying to work everything into their pace. Perhaps his favorite son was the one that had that problem the worst. Mercury was always so quick, he tried to do everything. Perhaps he should help the boy some how. Though he felt the need to help all of his family, and it was a large family. Chris was a good boy, strong and capable leader. Knew the value of the lesser gods.

Jupiter tried to correct himself, they were less than him. Not as widely worshiped perhaps. They did serve their role though. He was finding it difficult to work his way around minor gods having much importance. Since the last war he tried, he really was. It was just so difficult when you had so much power at your disposal, when you got used to things being one way for centuries. Now they wanted equal treatment, and whatever else people wanted. They just weren't as awesome as he was, they didn't have the same power. So what was he to call them? Just other gods? It hardly seemed fair to not give some kind of categorical term to them. Though minor and lesser where a little bad. Mercury would be able to come up with a term for them, maybe.

Why did this beauty have to be a child of that brute Mars? “Battle is something that must be done, maybe in the arc of a sword there is beauty. The tactics you must use to position yourselves just right. Though with everything else that comes with it, beauty is a little hard to see.” He didn't like battles. Well, that wasn’t true. He loved the fight for the good cause. It had a feeling that was unrivaled to fight for what you loved and believed in. Though it also caused loved ones to depart, and Jupiter never ventured to his brothers realm. “Is it? Ah my son has so many fingers in so many businesses.” Though he could assume every business he came across had a piece for Mercury, but then the very same day he started doing that he'd come across the one that didn't. He knew it was coming one day. “People in positions of power often have strange stories curl up around them. I mean who wants to tell boring stories about them? The everyday stories are just too mundane to be passed down and spread around.” honestly the same could have been said about his own stories, though he didn't care too much. Mundane was boring, and he was awesome. Let's his stories tell of that.