Why Hello There (Erich)

[Deleted]

He’d been at the trials, of course. Decisions like that? Of course he was there. Two traitors – well, sort of one and a half, seeing as Edmund Simons was more of a secret agent for camp that the camp didn’t even know about. Details. Janus had witnessed all the trials, the silent watcher. Though he wasn’t alone, as he’d seen pretty much half of those with the heightened ability to be sneaky doing just that. Janus, though, he had gone completely unseen, preferring no one to know of his presence unless he directly told them. And that might start right now. With one of the sneakers. He watched the young man from the corner of his eyes – all four of them – as he did whatever he was doing in the apothecary. Yes, that was him alright. Erich Wiess. Son of Trivia. Ah yes, dear Trivia. She was a fun one to hang out with, but he hadn’t seen her far too long. He’d have to change that. Her children were a fascination to say the least. Rhiannon Warlow, er, Rogers had been a handful. He’d spent a lot of time watching her unseen, though that had been tricky because he hadn’t wanted to enter Mount Orthys. While he usually got along with Saturn, being caught by the Titan didn’t sound particularly appealing at the time. Not that he would have been punished. In the first war three years ago, he had sided with Saturn/Kronos out of pure desire for respect among the Greeks. Foolish children; never did accept him. However, this more recent war was mainly against the Romans, and he did have a particular fondness for the Romans. They were the only ones of the ancient world who worshipped him, after all. Camp Jupiter even had a small temple to him for making big decisions and the like, even if it had an old none-too-flattering statue in it. Yes, he had grown out of the bearded look thankfully. Not his style anymore.

But back to business. Business being young Mr. Wiess. He let the Mist dissolve around him, making him visible for a change. He felt like a nice chat with the young man, and he had a feeling he wouldn’t appreciate being looked at funny for talking to himself. Then again, were people ever truly alone? Maybe the instinct to talk aloud when alone wasn’t so random after all. He smirked on his dual faces. Yes, he knew that sometimes people had near constant companions? Why? Because he was one of them.

He walked up behind Erich and examined the items on sale. Herbs, dried this and that, all sorts of things. Magic had never been Janus’ thing, so naturally he didn’t really understand the usefulness of what he was looking at. Leave that to Trivia and her descendants. One of which was the topic of his interest at the moment. “Interesting assortment,” his right face said kindly. “Though it seems a bit haphazard to me,” his left face finished indifferently. Both faces smiled simultaneously, the right showing some sign of good will, the left had a sparkle to his eyes that betrayed his dangerous curiosity.

[Deleted]

Erich had to get a few components. They were written down in his ever trusty notebook. He would also have to make a note that he would need to get another one as this one was almost filled. The first page was always the same in his notebooks, the gods only knew that he had filled nearly twenty with observations and calculations. This one would make twenty-one. A good odd number. Not too many people liked odd numbers other than three and even in some cultures four was considered a death number. He ran his fingers over the well thumbed page as he concentrated on the laws that were written there. They were old laws of magic, most of those that wielded spells were ignorant of them. His mentor and half brother Anders had made sure that he was well familiar with the laws. He had done his research, most of the laws were created to protect the spell casters and to some extent, other people. Erich muttered them to himself as a well spoken mantra, something he used to center himself. It was odd, but it helped him concentrate his mind. "No outright killing of humans with magic, No shape-shifting other beings of human origin, No forcible violation of a person's mind, no enthrallment of beings from beyond, no bringing back the dead, no attempting to change the past through temporal distortion, and no dealing with beings from alternate universes or outside dimensions" He held on to these laws desperately. The first law was hard in war, no killing of humans outright with magic. It killed him that the residual volcanic lightening went astray and killed three people on the titan's side.

Erich regularly thought about his sister. But he wasn't so sure if it was the right thing to do. He knew, as a good Roman knew, that she should have been publicly executed, her head shoved on a pike or being drawn and quartered and drug by a chariot through the streets. He didn't pretend to know what was going on in her mind. He never felt any reason to try. She never liked him before. Rhiannon had spent many years purposely ignoring him. But he cared about her because his good friend was married to her. Josh had always been willing to go on one of his adventures or to share in the fruits of a new spell he had learned. She made him happy, for some odd reason. He regularly felt as if his friend could do better. That oddball harpy belonged at the bottom of a river. But he couldn't condemn a niece or nephew to death just because their mother was a crazy moron. Yes he had snuck in to see the trials. He went there to support his friends, both Josh and Chris were important to him.

Erich shook his head as he then flipped through the pages of the notebook. Some parts were written in Latin, but mostly it was in German. Austria, his homeland, the native language was German. It was only fitting, an Austrian of German descent that wrote in German. It was nice that if someone were to get a hold of his notebooks wouldn't have been able to read it much anyways. He didn't know many people beyond the children of Mercury that spoke the language. His brother and wife owned this apothecary shop, his sister-in-law being a daughter of mercury and able to procure some rather hard to get items. But he quickly scribbled down what he needed. "Redwood, six feet in length. Edelweiss, fresh cut. everburning ash, green. Lightening in a jar...." Erich bit his lip as he spoke and wrote ferociously at the same time. "Yeah, that's all I need. Gotta have it by middle of next week at the latest." He said as he handed the scrap paper over to his brother and then nodded.

Erich jumped slightly at the sound of a voice. He frowned briefly before the dawn of realization crossed his face. He had been taught about most of the minor gods by his brother and mentor. Janus, the god of decisions, beginnings and transitions. "Lord Janus." he said in a salute with his hand at the breast. "The items, they all have a place. Something of a project that I have been working on for weeks. The reagents are needed for the creation of a focus rod." He said. He saw no reason to lie to a god. While the god was strange, Erich had seen some pretty unbelievable stuff in his time at camp and before. He was a kid who could do magic, something that under any other sort of circumstances would have had him committed to the local asylum. He had gone to jail for his powers after all, even if the evidence was circumstantial. "Sir might I say, I did love you in the Shakespeare play Othello, though I believe that they make many inferences between you and Iago." Oh yes Erich was well read, there had to be some sort of fun to be had while staying up in the mountain cabin. Not to mention the downtime between training and getting personal lessons from Chris. He was not about to get caught unaware again and with his focus staff on the decline, he had better get used to using the sword more than his magic.

[Deleted]

Janus liked attention. Well, didn’t all gods? Maybe not Pluto, but he was weird anyway. He didn’t count. They were all on a sort of scale, really. With Jupiter and Saturn at the tippy top, Victoria up there too (gods that woman was maniacal), and on the list went. Janus considered himself somewhere around the middle. A “minor” god (psha, he was more important than most to his four eyes) with a big appetite. And not for food (though he did enjoy lasagna…) but for notoriety. He was important. Very important. In the ancient days, he had his own cult even. His statue was all over the place. Usually a little funny looking, but those were the old days and, well, he had to cater to the audience. They liked beards, so a beard it was. At least, on one face. The old and the young. Yes, they’d liked that then. But now he was the same on both sides. Sometimes he changed it up, but all the same, he was too used to this new look to go with the scratchy facial hair again. He figured he looked wise (for the times) and a tad stylish now. So he stuck with it.

But back on topic. Both faces continued to smile as the young man greeted and even went as far as to salute him. Good man. There was some proper Roman respect to a proper Roman god. None of this namby pamby having a Greek and Roman side. Janus was pure Roman, and proud of it. Sure, he meddled with the Greek demigods too, but he didn’t have a cabin at Camp Half-Blood. His and his children’s place was here. Except Michael. That kid was spastic. Michael had been a lesson in how to ignore Jupiter and come in contact with his children more often, considering he’d left that boy be and, while he did pretty well for himself, he ended up losing the fight with his split personality disorder. He’d make sure Marie didn’t end up in that boat too.

He did his best to stop his minds from wandering and actually pay attention to the young man in front of him. A long project, good, good, kept him off out of trouble. A focus rod? Must be a magical thing, knowing Erich’s lineage. Trivia’s kids used all sorts of different methods to stir up trouble (and he meant that in the nicest way). He did like Trivia. She was just the right level of crazy that he got along with her. Usually. Not many gods or mortals alike could say they got along with Janus. And he was okay with that. He liked being him. “I see. Interesting little project you’ve got going. Care to fill me in?” His left face rolled his eyes, obviously not interested. Thankfully, the right face did not see this, or the left would have earned some harsh words and gods know the last thing Erich needed was to see Janus breaking into yet another fight with himself. Othello, Othello. Right, he was mentioned in that, wasn’t he? He’d never actually read it though. Considering his left face was bored to death with it and his right face was actually interested in it. All both faces knew was that he got a little shout-out in it and that was good enough for him. He nodded. “That man was wonderfully insane.” “Genius.” “Both,” his faces agreed in unison. Both smiled. “But he did well with his short years. I must say, it’s unusual for someone here to be so knowledgeable about even a demigod so well-known as Shakespeare.”

[Deleted]

Erich was fairly taken aback by the sight of Janus. While he did know that the gods could change their apperances at their own will, seeing something that wasn't like one of the statues that he knew to be plotted around New Rome. The Artist had taken some artistic liberties. Okay, a lot of artistic liberties. The statues looked nothing like the god that now stood before him. And while Erich did love his history, he felt that the Janus that stood before him, well was much more impressive than his statues. There was that one statue that was off near some apartments that made Janus look like some kind of frail old man. This guy was not frail by any means. But past his own mother, he hadn't met any of the gods. Though from the stories that he had heard from his friends, mostly those in first cohort, and Lance, they were much more impressive than what their statues would lead them to believe.

Wait. Erich's ever moving mind came to a complete stop, complete with squealing breaks and the heels digging in. A god was interested in a project that Erich was making? That was a first. Erich felt a little flattered though he didn't let it show. He would have to wait to see what the project finished entailing before he felt accomplished by the project. "It's not like my solar system in a jar project." Erich started off. He had been so proud of that enchanted object. Anders had assigned it to him to show him how much work went into enchanting. The choosing of the right materials, proper preparation, things of that nature. Erich had learned quickly that Enchantment was never his forte, but he could do basic things, things he had learned from the primer spell book. Again, he would have to request that Anders send him a copy of the Incantus. "It's actually a for a friend, a birthday present of sorts." There were things that he knew for a fact. Since his enchantments were pretty sucky, they wouldn't last too long. But what Erich had in mind wasn't something permanent. He intended to make it with charges. "It's for my best buddy Chris, something for him if he ever was stuck in a bad situation." He said.

Janus seemed, in Erich's opinion, a bit shocked about his knowledge of Shakespeare. "Well my brother was a large fan of him. Other kids get fairy stories, I got Midsummer Night's Dream." He couldn't help but laugh. From what he understood, children like him, kids of Trivia, were intelligent with a huge thirst to learn. "There's so much to learn out there and Shakespeares's writing is nothing short of amazing. The second best thing in the world is to read if you want to learn. The first best thing is to do it yourself." Erich said. He loved to learn by doing things. "But it seems that there aren't much people who are interested in reading. At least not in camp at any rate."

[Deleted]

Janus watched the young man carefully. That was, after all, one of his fortes. True, he rather enjoyed participating and getting his hands (or his words) dirty, but more often than not, he was the unseen observer. However, young mister Erich was not facing any especially large decisions right this moment, and Janus was curious to learn more about him, so here they were. Now Erich was pretty good at hiding things from his facial expressions, yes, but it should be noted that Janus was not particularly concerned at the moment with not being nosy. That was to say, the sudden, if small, conflict in the young man was readily there for any deity in tune with that sort. Left pounced on it, but not before the Right jumped in to stop the possible rude behavior. "Of course! Some time I should like to see this solar system project. Is it modeled after a real solar system then? Silly me, of course it is. I would expect nothing less from Trivia'so ever so detail-oriented children." Left grumbled, but thankfully said nothing.

Right smiled kindly. Left chimed in this time. "A birthday gift! Quite a grand one too. Must be someone important." Then Erich continued, and for amoment, both of Janus' faces were in agreement, seeing as both adopted a somewhat mixed expression. One part curiosity, one part devious intent. "Ah,Christopher Ashby." "Oh yes, we certainly know him. Though he doesn't know us. Yet." "So you two are close friends then, eh? Well that does make things interesting. That aside though. So do tell me more about this project of yours. I can't say I know much about magical items aside from my own little trinket, but you have my interest.

Janus had to chuckle at the idea of giving a youth Shakespeare but at the same time he had seen stranger. "Good man, taking learning seriously. And you're right, books are an excellent source. I do, though, think doing is much better. Or observing in my case. But both have their benefits." "We could team up, you know? Ever been curious to see something firsthand? Albeit, I don't have a TARDIS, so not really open to non-current things. Or if you need an ingredient for your project the adventurous way." "Don't listen to him. Well, you could listen to him technically, but he usually spouts nonsense. Except right now, which proves the existence of miracles. He has a point though. You seem a good young man, so I see no reason why not. Up to you though."