Off to a good start (Elijah)

As the excitement of the Feast of Fortuna began to fade- only slightly of course, as the goddesses' announcements had thoroughly thrilled everyone- Stephanie, who had been trying unsuccessfully to be a bit less antisocial than usual, began to make her way to linger near the exit until it seemed acceptable to leave. She'd greeted a few people, during the festivities and introduced herself, though she was sure none of those people would remember her at all. Even if she had more in common with the other Romans than with any other group she'd been in, she was still a nobody. Easily forgettable, and being new here didn't help one bit. She was exhausted from all of the craziness that had happened and wanted nothing more than to move her things to her new barracks and find a place to sleep.

Finally some of the seniors started to head off and that was the queue the brunette had been waiting for. Stephanie kept a generally slow pace as she approached the barracks she had been staying in before everyone had been sorted, but when she arrived she made quick work of packing. It wasn't like she had much anyway, the only object she'd kept that wasn't completely necessary was a framed picture of her little family. The thought of it made her wonder how Alistair was doing back with the Christiansens. They were probably spoiling him rotten just like they'd always done before the deerhound had even lived with them. The elderly couple had often babysat Stephanie and the old dog while her mom was working. She needed to write them, Steph decided. Her mother too. They'd all want to hear from her and she felt bad for being too preoccupied to contact them before.

Scooping up her bag, she set off towards third cohort's barracks at a jog, pausing outside to look up at the building and calm herself. She told herself that she needed to make this time different. She wasn't going to make friends if she didn't at least try to leave her comfort zone and she wasn't sure she could stand being so alone here much longer. Now that she had an official group, people she'd be living with and training with every day, She needed to at least try. "come on Steph, you've got this" she told herself, her voice barely audible to even herself, before slipping through the door and taking a look around. It wasn't too different at all from what she was used to, and that was a relief. At least she'd know her way around. There were a few others in view and those who looked up when she walked in received what Steph hoped passed for a warm smile. She was completely torn between excitement and intimidation, and wasn't sure which to act on.

Sitting on his bunk the closest to the door, Elijah was reading his favorite book. It was all about Roman philosophers, in Latin...which was the boy's favorite language. He much preferred it to English. At least when he was reading, the boy was deaf to the world, which was both good and bad. As the Third Cohort's Centurion, Elijah should have been paying more attention to everything that was going on around him, but today, everything seemed pretty calm. So the boy was taking some time to himself, reading and enjoying himself doing so. The son of Discordia had figured out that if he didn't take down time, his anger got worse...if he did take down time, the anger and inner discord wasn't nearly as bad. So Elijah tried to take down time whenever he could...he was a leader now, and certainly couldn't be too quick to anger. Well, at least not as quick to anger as before. But being at Camp Jupiter was a big help...the boy hadn't found anyone nearly as infuriating as people at his old school. In fact, Elijah liked most of his fellow campers. He'd met a few he wasn't crazy about, some Greeks he wasn't fond of (but plenty of Greeks he liked as well), and his sister and him didn't always get along...but the boy hadn't gotten in any fights like he would get into in high school. Which was definitely a plus.

It was odd, but Elijah started thinking about his father and step-mother. Were they glad to have gotten rid of him? His father...always disappointed in him and his actions. His step-mother...always making in clear that she was glad Elijah wasn't her child. If only they could see him now...a centurion, a good fighter (but one who didn't get into amy altercations. Would they be proud of Elijah if they saw him now? Probably not, they would have something to say. His father never talked about the boy's real mother, and Elijah often wondered about what his did was like to warrant a visit from Discordia. Was his dad just as crazy as Elijah was? What was he trying to do to be a semi-Orthodix Jew? And Jody knew that her step-son was born from a Goddess, but she didn't care enough to question which one. Pants, the son of Discordia was pretty sure his father didn't even know. At any rate, Elijah didn't want to think about that, so he shook out his head.

When he heard the door to the barracks open, Elijah looked up. Someone who he was completely unfamiliar with had walked in, looking semi-nervous, but hiding it pretty well. Elijah scrunched is forehead as to who she might be, and a couple of names ran through his head of Third Cohort campers he hadn't seen yet. Finally, his brain landed on Stephanie. He could have been completely off, but the boy was pretty sure he was right. Putting his book to the side and swinging his legs around to get off the bed, the son of Discordia approached the girl with a smile. "Stephanie, right?" he asked, taking his chances. "I'm Elijah, the Third Cohort's Centurion," he held out his hand to shake with the girl, still trying to smile and not give his usual look of...well whatever it was, but River had told him it wasn't pretty and he would never make another friend again with that face. Of course, Elijah had to figure out what that face was, first. At any rate, he watched the girl, who was obviously around his age, trying to analyze her. Elijah liked the Third Cohort...the mix and match of demigods reminded him slightly of the Island of Misfit Toys, or whatever it was called. That movie they were forced to watch in school ever year at Christmas time.

"Let's find you a bunk," Elijah said kindly. He look around the barracks. "These are all taken," he pointed out the taken ones. "You don't want to go anywhere near that one," the boy pointed out his sister's top bunk. Elijah loved his sister very much, but he didn't trust her and didn't want others near her unless it was necessary. "So that leaves those," Elijah pointed. "And the bunk above mine, which you probably want to avoid as well, because I radiate sometimes...it's a long story, has to do with the Discordia thing," realizing he had just given the girl a lot to process. Elijah smiled sheepishly. "But first, why don't you just put your bags down and relax a bit," Elijah wasn't good at this whole, making people comfortable things, though he hoped that he was getting better at it.

The young man speaking to her seemed about her age. His clear blue eyes were the first thing Steph noticed about his face, most likely because of the contrast between them and his otherwise dark features, and, she had to admit, rather attractive. Not her type of guy, but, attractive nonetheless. And he knew her name, which was surprising but she ignored that.

“Yeah, that’s me!” Ouch, that was a little bit too loud, wasn’t it? At least she sounded cheerful enough. She remembered his name, of course, from only hours before but it was good to put a face to her new cohort’s Centurion. “It’s very nice to meet you… uh, sir?” She grimaced. How was one supposed to greet one’s Centurion anyway? Was she supposed to kneel, or at least bow to show her respect? Or was it okay to just talk to him like anyone? Lupa hadn’t mentioned too much about ettiquite upon Stephanie’s arrival. Or, if she had, Steph had missed it while trying to absorb all of the other information she’d been bombarded with that week.

Not that She was at all ungrateful to anyone involved in this camp. No one here had been anything but generous and welcoming to her since her arrival, even if she had shown up during possibly the hardest time the Roman demigods had ever seen. The only negative emotion Steph felt was reserved for her mother. She knew her mom had only done what she thought was best for her by keeping her unaware of her heritage for so long. Apparently Steph had a cousin who had been like her, though her immortal parent was her mother, who had gone to the old Camp Jupiter. She’d died before Stephanie was born, at only seventeen years old. Steph supposed that was why her mom had tried to keep her out of all of this and she couldn’t fully blame her, but if she had been trained before, if she hadn’t been hiding with her mother for all those years… Well she’d most likely be dead, along with countless other Roman soldiers who had fallen with the original Camp Jupiter. At least she would have died with honor that way, instead of now living with the guilt of not being there to support her people. As bitter as she felt about that situation, though, the past was just that and so far no one had blamed her for her absence but herself. Now at least she could be a part of rebuilding and hopefully make up for all that time.

Before Steph had the opportunity to apologize for her possible rudeness, Elijah was on a different subject entirely, pointing out free bunks she could take. She also learned that he was a son of Discordia, which was pretty cool in her opinion. She’d been raised with stories about the Roman gods –at least her mother had done that much right- and finding out that those stories were real and now she had a part in them was one of the most wonderful things about the past few months. Thoughts of the gods made her pause to wonder again who her father could possibly be. Guessing was no use, as the only thing about her she hadn’t obviously gained from her mother’s genes (aside from the typical features of a demigod) was her lack of social skills and that didn’t help at all to narrow down her options.

If Elijah somehow radiate something to do with his immortal parent, Stephanie agreed it would probably not be the best idea to sleep right above him; she was teetering on the edge of insanity lately as it was. She wasn’t particularly excited at the thought of being too far away from the only person in third cohort she knew so far either. She settled on an empty top bunk a just a few beds away and started towards it. “I suppose this one’s just as good as any” her tone was light-hearted and she gave Elijah a smile as she spoke before hanging her backpack on the end of the bed frame. She hesitated about what to say at that point, searching her mind for something that didn’t sound too horribly stupid but that was a bit hard. “Well tonight’s been pretty exciting. How are you feeling about being a centurion?”

It was pretty nerve wracking being the leader of a legion of demigods all around Elijah's age. After all, the boy didn't feel like he was anything special; anyone who looked and acted like him shouldn't be in charge of anything. How often had children of Discordia been Centurions? Probably not very often, not with their chaotic nature and the whole radiating thing. Elijah couldn't even hide his nature, unless one believed thick eye makeup and multiple rings to be a means of hiding that. But the boy thought that only made matters worse. "Oh good," Elijah let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. It would be just like him to get someone's name wrong. "It's nice to meet you, too," the son of Discordia gave a queasy smile as Stephanie called him 'sir'. "The whole 'sir' thing, though...not necessary," he said kindly. It didn't feel right to be called sir...maybe some of the others would like that, but it just made Elijah feel kind of uncomfortable. Leader or not, these were still his peers, and the boy didn't want to make them think that he thought he was better than the rest of them.

Elijah didn't really know what his fellow Centurions were like. He had briefly spoken with Freem, the Centurion of the First Cohort, and she was completely different from him. But the boy hadn't had any interaction with the other two. A slight smile crossed Elijah's face...surely the four of them were chosen because they were completely different from each other, and pretty different from the other Romans. It was a reassuring thought, to be sure. Obviously someone up there thought the son of Discordia would be a good leader, because it was pretty much divine mandate that had gotten him there. Fortuna had read his name, after all. Even though it hadn't been too long before, the Feast of Fortuna felt like it had been ages ago, everything that had happened. The fall of the Augur, the naming of Camp Jupiter's new Praetors and Centurions...it was something of a jumble in Elijah's head, which was just so strange. Not that the boy's head wasn't usually a jumble...he was, after all, a son of the Goddess of discord. Elijah had never quite been able to organize his thoughts. It was probably one of the reasons he had gotten in so much trouble for fighting, even though he was a great student. Before he drifted too far out, Elijah zeroed in on the task at hand again. Realizing he had a severe look of concentration on his face, the boy smiled again.

"Looks like a good choice," Elijah said with a chuckle. He figured the bunk above him would stay empty for a long time...as soon as he mentioned the radiating. But he had a light heart doing so, he didn't want anyone to feel those feelings that he felt. The farther away people stayed from him and Lúth, the better...especially when the two siblings were together and fighting, which happened quite often. Elijah felt it was his obligation to mention the radiating thing, even though he didn't quite understand it. All he knew was that when his emotions ran high, he would have an aura type thing of chaos surrounding him and anyone nearby could feel the chaos or emotion...the boy wasn't sure which. Either way, it had to be kind of scary to anyone experiencing it. It was scary to the son of Discordia, anyway. Feeling the chaos crackling around him like some sort of time bomb...he never knew if it would go off. Of course, the chances of it doing anything tangible was pretty slim...at least, that was what Elijah figured. It was such an intangible thing. The boy knew that his sister thought the opposite...or at least, something of the opposite, but it was an argument that he didn't want to get into with her. Elijah knew she was planning something to test it out, and although he didn't want to be a part of it, the boy knew he didn't have much of a choice. Oh, there he went again getting lost. He barely heard Stephanie's next words.

Piecing together what the girl had said, Elijah smiled, a little queasily. "It's a little nerve wracking," he admitted. "Being a Centurion...a leader and all. I've never really had this kind of responsibility," it probably didn't sound too reassuring, so the boy laughed. A nervous defense. "But someone up there knows I can do it, and I guess that's what matters," he laughed again. "But I know I have it in me, too. It's just all so new," leaning back against a bunk near where Stephanie had laid her bags, Elijah looked the girl over again. She had to be around his age...that in itself was scary. The son of Discordia had never been a leader...not that he had ever been a follower...more of a lone wolf. He had never really worked well with others, especially his peers, but he liked everyone he had met at camp so far. Enough so that he was staying during the school year...and Elijah was very determined not to punch anyone that got to him. No one had gotten to him yet, so that was definitely a plus. "But please, no calling me 'sir'," Elijah reiterated. "And nothing else special. I'm your leader, but I'm really just one of you. And I'm pretty scared just like everyone else."