Freaks and Greeks; [B3 SIBS]

[xander]

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The day wasn’t much different than any other – up at the crack of dawn for breakfast and then the start of training. War games, sword and battle drills etc, that was the life of a Roman Legionnaire. However Xander Lynch wasn’t your typical solider, he was a son of Pluto – one of the three major gods of Olympus. In retrospect you would think that would earn him some respect, dominion over and dead and all. However it was the exact opposite, ever since he had stepped through the Caldecott tunnel twelve years ago he had been labeled as one thing.

Cursed - all because his father was king of the underworld.

He had never even met his father and the man had already been screwing him over by the time he was eight years old. Now twenty years old, Xander was used to the stares and to the glares. Which were now usually met with either a cold shoulder or a dirty look. When pretty much everyone either hated you or were too scared to even talk to you – you have to teach yourself not to give a damn. It was his older sister Erin who had told him ‘If they don’t like you then – well screw them! Give them a real reason to hate you other then who your dad is’. It was this philosophy that helped him become more then cursed, now he was the cursed jerk, asshole, dick ect. He had lost count of how many names he had been called; then again he couldn’t really find the will to care.

Well it was more that if he did find the will to care – then it would only hurt.

Because deep down the fact that everyone hated him and had for most of his life left scars, but that was one thing he didn’t even want to admit to himself. He was performing some swordsmanship drills on a dummy when the alert sounded for lunch.” Finally! I’m starved.” He said rather loudly as he sheathed his sword and headed cross camp towards the mess hall. He always liked to get there as soon as possible because whatever table he sat at was usually labeled the ‘freaks and greeks’ table for that meal – so he at least wanted prime seating. When he finally reached the mess hall he picked out a table near the back and leaned against the polished surface as he waited to be served – his crystal blue eyes scanning the room as more people entered.

Allot of them were shooting him warning or wary stares – mostly because of that damn augur, ever since he had prophesied some bad stuff on the horizon the whole camp had been on high alert. Not to mention looking for someone to blame and by the looks he was getting, quite a few and chosen him. However he just acted like he didn’t care and just smiled sarcastically at them as he sat there in his black jeans and purple t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off.

He hated the god damned shirts – he was used to dark colors so the fact he had to wear bright purple half the time pissed him off. Hence he ripped off the sleeves in an attempt to make himself feel better. When a wind spirit finally brought him his lunch, pizza he mumbled. “About time.” And started on his food.

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[damien]

For all intents and purposes, today was actually a fairly decent day in the eyes of Damien Rodriguez, son of Jupiter and a fearsome warrior. While it had been fairly routine, and everything had gone just as expected, that meant that, so far, the day had been peaceful and without incident - which, to Damien, was pretty rare and appreciated, when days like this actually came around. So when lunch was announced, Damien was only hopeful that the rest of the day would go as smoothly.

He’d woken up, gone out for a run, and had returned to a morning full of training and games, as was customary for any member of the Legion. Today had been a particularly good day in the swordfighting arena - none of his opponents had managed to get the better of him, and Damien currently stood undefeated for the day. Whether or not this streak would keep up was entirely up for question. Though, at times, Damien had to wonder if he was beating some of these other fighters because he was legitimately better than them or if it was because they were simply scared of what would happen if he lost. Not that Damien had anger issues - if anything, that was his brother Xander who often had those kinds of issues. And it had been months since Damien had accidentally zapped a kid, and that time it had been a fluke mostly because the kid had really ticked him off.

Damien had cleaned his sword and put it away while a majority of the other kids dashed off for lunch. He took his sweet time, knowing that there would be a seat for him when he got to the mess hall, because there was always one table that was virtually empty and always had seats open. So he hung his weapon in its rightful place, admiring its deadly gleam for but a moment before he headed off for lunch himself, silently weaving through the throngs of other demigods and legacies to make his way to where he wanted to be.

The table and its single occupant weren’t hard to spot once Damien finally made it inside. Though the place was quickly filling up with hungry Legionnaires, as Damien had predicted, there was still one table that was pretty much empty. At the moment, it only had one occupant, though it would soon have two. Though his shameless walk towards the practically abandoned spot in the mess hall drew the eyes of many suspicious and disapproving teens, Damien ignored them all. As he took a seat across from his brother, watching him eat, Damien snorted and smirked at him, his hazel-green eyes alight with amusement. ”Really, Xander? You always tell me you want a good seat for lunch, but you always pick the hardest table possible to find. In the back? The least you could to make it easier on me is to pick a table closer to the door.”

Almost as soon as he finished, another wind spirit brought him a plate of pizza and Damien grinned at her and thanked her quietly and politely in response. The spirit flushed and hurried off, giggling. Taking a bite from his pizza, he took a bite and looked around, swallowing. ”Have you seen Clare anywhere? I’m pretty sure she’d sit with us if she were here.”

[Deleted]

Another day in paradise. If paradise was taken over by Romans and turned into a military camp for children, teens, and young adults. Yeah well, close enough. Clare had gone about business as usual that morning. Wake up. Jog. Breakfast. Sword fighting. Pool. It wasn’t anything really super exciting, but that was just how things were here. She wouldn’t be very Roman if she expected otherwise. Or did otherwise. Or thought otherwise. All that jazz. On the bright side, breakfast had been really good as usual, even if she’d been running a little late. Sword fighting had gone well. She’d earned a cut on her arm, but that was it, so not too bad at all. And she’d managed to knock the sword out of the other kid’s hands and bring the duel to a clean end when they really didn’t have any choice on what to do. Though it was pretty clear in their eyes they wanted to strangle her really badly. That might have had something to do with being shown up by someone three years younger, but hey, just a guess. And it wasn’t her fault that her brothers gave great one-on-one – or two-on-one? – lessons.

Then, of course, there was the pool. The pool was always fun. It wasn’t as entertaining as the lake, true, because it was nice to catch up with the fish and water spirits and see all the pretty aquatic life. It just felt a lot more homey than the sterile tiles and crystalline water of the pool. But going out to the lake also was a lot further and a lot more time-consuming. Especially when one of the fish was now convinced that every time she came, she had to have some sort of food for him. Preferably a piece of peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Last time she’d gone, he’d followed her around for a full half hour pestering her like a little kid, convinced she simply must have the sandwich really well hidden.

But that aside, it was a rather enjoyable day. Mostly because she’d gotten to squeak in an hour or so of time at the baths before it came to be time for lunch. Well, at least she wasn’t going to be late this time. Even if she was taking her time sort of sight-seeing on her way to the mess hall, at least she would have more than the five minutes of eating time she’d managed to get in this morning. And a table was usually easy to find. A) because she didn’t really mind sitting just about anywhere, and b) she could usually count on a spot at her brothers’ table. Having a ‘cursed’ brother could come in handy sometimes.

And she was right. As she walked into the mess hall, the seats were filling up pretty fast, but there was a table right there back in the back where there were still seats. And it looked like Xander was already three quarters of the way through a slice of pizza and, though his back was to her, it looked like Damien was talking judging from his hand gestures. Either that or an odd game of charades. Which considering this was her brothers she was talking about, and she had not begged them into any such situation, it likely wasn’t a trivial little game.

Clare reached over Damien’s shoulder and snatched a piece of pizza from his plate and hopping back in case he decided to retaliate, a big grin on her face as she took a bite and dropped into the seat next to him. Then again, if he really wanted payback, electricity didn’t really have a hoppable distance limit. A wind spirit swept past and dropped off a plate of pizza for her as well, and a can of Sprite, though it was gone before she could hardly react. So she held up the plate of food to Damien in case he wanted one to make up for his lost piece. “Thank the gods they didn’t think it would be funny to give me anchovies again.” As the last time that had happened, she had sort of freaked out and caused quite a disturbance.

She leaned in on her elbows, her stolen slice of pizza still in hand. “So! How’s it going? Good morning so far?” she asked, looking between them. As strange as the dynamics could be, and even with all the stares and whatnot, meals with her brothers were right up there with water time and getting ice cream at that really good place in New Rome when it came to favorite things to do.

WORD COUNT: 773
TAG: Xander and Damien!

[xander]

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Xander had been vaguely aware that the stares that had been trained on him had now moved else ware and that usually meant only one thing, someone was heading for his table. The only people who ever sat with him were his brother and sister – though there had been Val a few days ago at breakfast but that was really the only other time that his company wasn’t a blood relation. Even his brother Domanic usually found his own seat, or well table. Xander’s blue eyes looked up from his food just in time to meet the green orbs of his brother Damien and smirked. It would never say it out loud but Xander actually liked the fact that his brother and sister often sat with him.

He turned his head to get a better look at his brother as he sat down and smirked.” Oh come on now Ian – if I sat in the front it wouldn’t be as hard for you and what kind of big brother would I be if I didn’t challenge you?” He said as he turned his attention back to his food. He knew his brother spelt his name with an E but Xander didn’t give a crap – though he would have possibly considered stopping calling him Ian if he asked.

When he mentioned their sister Xander shrugged, finishing his first piece of pizza.” I haven’t seen the guppy all morning – she is probably stopping off to feed the fishes or something on the way over.” He sounded sarcastic but he probably wouldn’t have put it past her to do something like that. However it was just then that the spunky blond in question appeared over Damien’s shoulder and Xander couldn’t help but laugh as she took a piece of pizza from their brother.” She didn’t learn that one from me.” He said as he put up his hands defensively but he still couldn’t wipe the smirk from his face at his little sister’s tiny act. Xander started on his second piece before it could be repossessed but when Clare commented about the anchovies he hit the table.

“Damn knew I forgot something.”

But he then flashed them both a quick smile to show he wouldn’t do that to her. He had actually looked for the guy who had done it and he may have a black eye now.” They won’t give you anchovies again..” He said with a shrug. He looked around a moment and noticed that people had become more cautious with their staring – he had noticed that once all three of them were at a table or together at all people became more careful. Oh they still stared he was sure of that, but he had a feeling it was something to do about three big three kids in one place made them feel nervous.

At his sisters question he shrugged.” Same old, same old.” He said as he picked a peperoni off his pizza and ate it.” What about you two? Talked to any interesting fish or blue birds lately?” He said as he looked at the two younger demigods expectantly. Truth was he would rather talk about the two of them then himself.

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