Being A Sibling ((Lúthien Anárion))

Although he knew it wasn't a very traditional way for a Roman to fight, Elijah had come to love using daggers. Maybe it had to do with being closer to your enemy, something the boy had always loved about fist fighting, but it was far more lethal than a fist. Not that Elijah would ever march into his old high school and attack someone with a dagger, but there were certain bullies that the son of Discordia imagined as he faced down the dummies (generously donated by Camp Half-Blood) in the arena. It was something new for Elijah to be this active, in his "former life", the boy didn't do much physical activity aside from fighting, which just came naturally to him. Now he was running and practicing with his daggers daily, and the boy was learning what it meant to be to truly be in fighting shape. If Elijah were to march into his old high school, he could probably knock someone cold with a single punch (not that that hadn't happened in the past, but it would be a lot more likely). The boy was even more dangerous than before, and he didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.

Right now, Elijah was doing more than just training...he was venting out his frustrations and fears. As he whirled about and slashed at dummies, the boy let out his emotions. And most of it had to go with him being named the replacement Praetor. There was no way Elijah could get around the fact that he was scared. And he was even more scared about what he had to do today. Tell his sister. The two children of Discordia were pretty different as things went. And Elijah had the feeling that Lúth wasn't going to be too happy about him being a Praetor. It wasn't like the two were incredibly close...really, they spent most of their time fighting, but at the same time, Elijah enjoyed having someone there like that. His father and step-mother never had children, so he had been an only child for as long as he could remember. To suddenly have a sister (okay, half-sister) had been pretty surprising, but at the same time, the boy knew he could hardly be Discordia's only child. And he had to have Greek siblings too, but that was kind of an ongoing project.

Elijah was losing his concentration. He slashed at a dummie's face with Potentia and finished by making an 'x' mark with Ferocimus (Power and Ferocity, he had named his blades, Ferocimus being from his own claiming). The boy had instructed Lúth to meet him there, even though it probably wasn't the best place to meet someone. But the son of Discordia wanted to train some, and it just worked into his schedule. Above all, Elijah had to talk to his sister about everything that was going on. And he was sure she would get angry, and they would fight, and the air around them would cackle as if it was a living entity. The boy figured he should put Potentia and Ferocimus away before facing Lúth...things with the two of them could get really ugly, really fast. Looking at the dummies he had slashed to pieces, Elijah took a deep breath, sliding the daggers into their leather sheaths he kept tied to his waist. He had to prepare, not just physically but mentally. This wasn't going to be fun, but it was something he had to do. Either way, Lúth would hear...and Elijah would rather it come from himself rather than someone else...someone who didn't know how to deal with his sister as well.

The practice dummies were easy, but Elijah couldn't help but wonder how he'd be in an actual fight. Well, an actual fight with his daggers. He was no child of Mars, but he had a ferocious, chaotic streak of anger in him...that had been proved a long time ago. That went with the whole son of Discordia thing, anyway. The boy definitely had the anger bit down, though he was sure he could cause some more damage with other emotions. Anger was just...his specialty. Breathing heavily from his workout, Elijah grabbed his water bottle and took some deep drinks from it, enjoying the still cool water. Checking his watch, the boy saw he still had a bit of time before Lúth was coming, if she did come at the time he requested, so he sat down in the dirt, really not caring if his jeans got dusty. With a soft sigh, Elijah looked over the dummies he had destroyed again. The built up anger and frustration and fear was getting worse now that he wasn't letting it out, and he could feel that aura coming back...the radiating thing. It wasn't harmful or anything, just a type of shield that made Elijah's mind kind of fuzzy and kept people away from him. Hearing something behind him, Elijah jumped up, hands on either side to grab his daggers before seeing it was just his sister. "Make yourself known next time, okay?" Elijah asked crabbily. Lúth may be his sister, but that just made her dangerous too. Children of Discordia were a class of their own.

Lúthien did not want to go and talk to her brother. Lúthien wanted to sneak away from everything and play. Just the thought of being summoned somewhere made her blood boil and her hair stand up. It was exactly like her brother had summoned her but she knew something was going on and he didn't leave showing up as an open invitation. She had to show up, point blank. There was but a single positive thing about the place he'd asked her to show up, she could finally get in the swing of things with her weapon. Lúthien had a tiny weapon arsenal stacked in the bunk below her own. Naturally, it was empty. The third cohort wasn't that big after all and nobody would want to sleep near such negative energy as Lúthien prided herself on being able to bring on. People were rarely ever at ease near the daughter of Discordia. On some points, Lúthien considered her brother to have some very large problems. For one, he seemed unhappy about her radiation from time to time. Secondly, he had managed to get himself in a terrible jam, getting elected Centurion. Lúthien despised the idea of somebody leading her, or her leading anybody. Relationships are ropes, love is a noose. To be a leader was to have relationships that tied you up. You were left with responsibility and your freedom got terribly limited. Freedeom was everything. Now, Lúthien knew next to nothing about love but she could believe love would be a noose to freedom. You were supposed to bind yourself to someobdy or something. Not her kind of thing.

What Lúthien didn't realise was that such a bond was desired and wanted when one was in love. Just like most people didn't realise that handling Lúthien was really a piece of cake. She wasn't as troublesome as she seemed to be. Passion ran deep in the girl and those who managed to uncover her passions could twist and turn them to have Lúthien cooperating. Lúthien was free and when caged, she would do anything to break free and revel in the chaos such a break would cause. She followed her brother because he usually didn't get on her nerves too much and didn't ask or demand things she didn't agree with. He knew that around her, anything could turn explosive within a matter of seconds. It was usually Lúthien, staying perfectly still and calm while she radiated chaos in a way that most people couldn't handle. Lúthien wasn't a fighter type, she was the type that made people fight.

Lúthien stood in front of her own top bunk and the one below it. She pulled away the sheets to display the few weapons she'd collected during her stay. Her bow which was starting to get into disuse, the few golden arrows she had left from her journey to camp. They had been a gift so Lúthien tried to use them sparingly. Her gladius, which bored Lúthien. She'd even named it Boredom. The small dagger she'd found in the woods once. She'd named it Silence as it's previous owner had not been asking around for it. Which meant the person didn't want the dagger, or he/she had fallen into silence. Last her eyes went to the masterpiece, her favoured weapon. The cruel lochaber axe that had found her in the armory. Long had she been searching for a name but in the end, she had managed to find one. Herald of Chaos was it's full name now, although she usually just called it Herald. She picked up Herald and started heading toward the Arena.

Lúthien could be silent if she wished and she was being silent as she walked into the arena. She looked around at the trainsdummies, which had already been severely mutilated. No doubt Elijah had done some of that. She spotted her brother and started walking towards him. He didn't really notice her untill she was pretty close and at that she noticed his hands going to his daggers. Lúthien had already readied Herald at that point and her face was expressionless as he told her to make herself be known next time. "It's not exactly my fault you weren't paying attention. If people wish to be ignorant of their surroundings, I'm not going to break their little bubbles." Lúthien said in a flat tone. "Now what is it you want to tell me? Because I actually have plans for the day, believe it or not." Lúthien said with that deadly calm that one could hear when Lúthien was starting to get really irritated. Lúthien wondered if her brother even noticed that though.

It was getting to be that time and Elijah was lost in his thoughts. That tended to happen to him a lot, his thoughts got jumbly and he had to sort them out somehow. Staring at the practice dummies, the boy was just about dead to the world. How was he going to break this all to Lúth. There had to be an easier way than, I'm a stand in Praetor, yes...no? Elijah would have to carefully ease into it. And the son of Discordia started thinking about that. He started planning everything in his head, but the boy knew perfectly well when he went to say it, it just wouldn't come out right. After all, Elijah was much better at improvisation than anything else. But he at least wanted points laid out in his head to hit. The important things. Taking out Potentia and Ferocimus again, Elijah threw Potentia at one of the dummies. The dagger imbedded itself in the dummies forehead...well, at least Elijah was getting better at this throwing thing. Not that he would want to throw his weapons around in a fight...but it was something...a last resort, if you would.

Facing Lúth with a little bit of confidence was something new for Elijah. Usually he just faced her with annoyance and an urge to punch her. That wasn't the case now. "Maybe if you were completely silent," Elijah snapped. "What am I supposed to do, grow eyes on the back of my head?" okay, maybe a little annoyance and an urge to punch her. But just a little this time. Because the boy had to talk to her, talk to her about something important. She was his (half) sister, and Elijah believed that in the end, all you really had were your siblings. But maybe that wasn't the case here, only because Lúth was so...well, anyway...maybe the son of Discordia wouldn't have his sister forever, but in the meantime, she was there. And she needed to know the important things. And better Lúth heard this from him than hearing it down the grapevine later on. Or something like that. Because that would be even worse. Either way, Elijah knew his sister wasn't going to like it. And would probably get rather angry. Because really, that was what the daughter of Discordia did. She was already getting irritated, Elijah could see it on her face...that deadly calm mask. As someone who was prone to showing every emotion, Lúth's blankness made Elijah quite uncomfortable.

Elijah raised his eyebrow. "You have plans?" Well that was something new. The boy wasn't sure he wanted to know what these plans were. "Fine, I'll do this as quickly as possible, then," rolling his eyes, Elijah took a deep breath, going over the points in his head. His hands went to Potentia and Ferocimus, just in case he needed to pull them out if things went sour. "Rychard left for a bit," Elijah started simply, hitting his first point. "Obviously, they needed someone to stand in as Praetor for him while he's away," second point. "And I'm that person," third point. "So yeah, I'm a Praetor now," reiterating third point. "Stephanie is the new Third Cohort Centurion...she just got claimed by Apollo, you know, cool, huh?" fourth point hit, as well as a little extra information that probably wasn't needed. There, Elijah had done it. Given the information in a productive way. Not too simple, not too complicated. Just perfect. At least in the son of Discordia's mind. Hands still resting on his daggers, Elijah tried to see what was going on in Lúth's head. She certainly didn't make it easy. Of course, she never had, and she probably never would. That was just how his sister was.

"You're radiating," Elijah said blandly. He was pretty sure he could feel the chaos rolling off of his sister in waves. Or maybe that was just him. Or maybe it was both of them. And Elijah wondered why their experiment hadn't worked. But that was besides the point. The boy stared at his sister, that mask on her face...hopefully she would do something, say something, anything about the news her brother had just given. It was intense, it was...something. Something that would probably pull even something little from Elijah's cold, stone faced sister. With a deep breath, the son of Discordia waited for a response. He faced Lúth calmly, confidently...although part of him still wanted to punch her. The boy had a feeling this would never go away, which was unfortunate. Even though he would never actually do it. "Quit it with the 'I'm really angry' thing," Elijah said in a scary for him calm. "No one likes someone who's angry all the time. Seriously, Lúth, make a friend or two," Elijah knew how it was to be angry all the time, and how much having a friend helped. But he wasn't here to give advice right now. "Lúth...just...let's just get this over with."

"Nobody alive can be completely silent." Lúthien chided. "Besides, monsters won't be silent, even if you ask them nicely." Lúthien said with a disgustingly sweet undertone in her voice. To say that she was being mean would be an understatement. Revulsion was bright and clear at that point. If he couldn't even tell she was approaching, it was his task to sharpen his senses, not her task to make more noise. She suspected he considered her additude destructive but she considered that remark to be of a level of blunt-headedness that would get him killed way to easy. They both had their issues. Lúthien stood there in front of him with her lochaber at the ready. Sometimes it was just too tempting to take a swing and see how well he'd handle that. He'd probably get mad though, and start stripping her alive. Not a very pleasant option. Lúthien rolled her eyes and swung her axe at one of the training dummies.

As it's arm was sliced right off, Lúthien got a slightly deranged smile on her face. "Just perfect." She whispered softly. Her brother interrupted, doubting the fact she had plans. "Shut it Elijah. I have plans every once in a while. In case you can't contain your curiosity, I intend to visit our Greek neighbours. I have a little something I require off one of them. It has to do with Herald here." She said, twirling the blade around. No doubt her brother would see that as her searching trouble with the Greeks. She wasn't going to do that though, no matter how tempting it was. Her intentions weren't as clear as she made them look. Then he started making his point. Which took long. Longer than needed. "Yes, blah blah blah. I know Rychard left and I figured somebody was bound to replace him. I just didn't think they'd pick a hothead such as yourself." Lúthien said with an air of boredom. The comment on her new Centurion had Lúthien raising an eyebrow though. "Stephanie? She's a softy. Nice enough girl but she lacks backbone." Lúthien said. It was true to her. She had no objections against Stephanie but she honestly didn't see why that girl got picked as a leader. Probably by lack of a better choice.

"I always radiate Elijah. Ask anyone we know. We both know how Mom views me and maybe I'm just not in the mood to prove her wrong today." Lúthien said harshly, starting to cut up the training dummy. Mentioning her radiation probably hadn't been the best move. It made Lúthien angry and increased the Chaos. Yet it also brought out the bitterness and resentment she felt towards her mother and her past and that was never ever a good thing. Strange things happened when Lúthien got in that state of mind and things usually ended up broken. She wanted to get her bow and get out to the forest and hunt stuff down. It had been a long time since she'd been this angry, not even her claiming had this big of an effect on her. Radiation increased by a thousand, her body went completely still and her eyes burned with an angry fire. "I don't need friends Elijah. I have allies, which is sufficient." Her voice was a deadly calm and her grip on the weapon was loose. People who weren't aware could never guess the problems that were just around the corner.

Lúthien looked at her brother. "Yes, let's." She said and waited calmly even though she was more than ready to leave or start with a full blown attack. Lúthien was really angry. Yet at the same time, she was really upset and ready to run into a corner and start crying. She reached for the flute she had in her pocket and carelessly dropped her axe. She needed to get herself together and so she played a short little tune, as void of emotions as she seemed to be. Yet she relaxed a tiny little bit and was no longer on the way to trying to gut her brother, which was a good thing. She put the flute away again and picked the axe up. "Anything else you need to tell me or are we done?" She asked as she studied the blade of the axe. Calm emotions, remaining cool calm and collected and not harming your brother with words or chopping him in half with a blade. Good girl. Now just try to find a way out before he asks to be decapitated. Her concious was whispering to her, softly but urgently. Lúthien needed to calm down or get away. NOW.

Rolling his eyes, Elijah snorted. "Fine, my fault, happy?" the boy shook his head. He wasn't sure why Lúth got to him so much...probably a combination of things. His sister was pretty antagonistic by nature, the two of them were like a ticking time bomb while together...both things that both the children of Discordia knew. But there was one other thing that Lúth didn't know about Elijah. It was simple really, he just wanted to be her friend. He just wanted them to get along more than the few moments they did, and he was slightly jealous of the people she spent more time with. "I'm aware of the fact that monsters won't be silent," Elijah said dryly, thinking of the Swiss Army Knife sitting on his bedside table. He hadn't needed to use it since getting Potentia and Ferocimus, but he remembered his long trip from Maine to upstate New York, fighting as much as he could with the thing. It hadn't been easy, but it was all Elijah had and he had obviously made it to camp alive. A born fighter. But Elijah was getting a bit better. He hadn't punched anyone or broken anyone's bones since being at camp. Although he was sure it would happen eventually, the son of Discordia was learning some amount of self control.

Shaking his head in slight disgust as Lúth sliced off a dummy's arm with her war axe and got a pretty sick smile on her face, Elijah sighed softly. The boy knew that he and Lúth would never get along the way he wanted them to. "Don't tell me to 'shut it'," Elijah responded hotly, feeling the radiating begin. "I'm just surprised you're coming out of your hidey-hole," he snorted. Business with the Greeks. The son of Discordia didn't have a problem with that, he was all for the Romans and Greeks to just get along, it was how his sister put it. Business. Dear Gods, this girl was an antagonistic, vague nutcase. Of course, Elijah wasn't much different. The siblings were more alike than either of them would care to admit. "I didn't think they'd pick a hothead such as myself either," the boy admitted. But who else was there? And Elijah was a good leader, he knew that and Lúth probably did too, although she'd never say so. Elijah chuckled under his breath. Only in his wildest dreams. "And Stephanie is a good leader," the boy snapped. He didn't think Stephanie was a softy at all, and the Third Cohort hadn't fallen apart under her watch. "Besides, who else would they pick...you?" Elijah was getting angry now, he could feel himself gripping his daggers tighter. Lúth had no right.

"You can't always radiate," Elijah rolled his eyes. "You'd lose it. That much chaos can't be good, even for us," the boy snorted softly. "I don't care how mom views you, you do this to yourself," he snapped. Watching Lúth was a study unto itself. She did radiate a lot...but then again, so did Elijah. It was something the boy was trying to get under control, though he doubted his sister was making the same attempts. After all, the son of Discordia didn't want to go through life pushing people away, unlike Lúth. And their radiating definitely pushed people away. The feeling of pure chaos couldn't be one that was friendly to come across. That was something Elijah had already experienced. Feeling his own radiating get worse at his sister's words, Elijah could feel the flames going through his body, chaos dancing in his bright blue eyes. "Allies are not sufficient as friends," he said in a rather nasty tone of voice. "Maybe if you made a friend or two, you wouldn't radiate all the time. And maybe if we got along better, you'd be better off. I am your brother, after all," there he went, expressing one of his secret desires...to get along better with his sister. But Elijah had a feeling things with him and Lúth would always be the same. An on again, off again relationship. Because there were times the two got along...even if they weren't too frequent.

When Lúth pulled out a flute and played a short tune, Elijah looked on in surprise. "I had no idea you had musical talent..." he mumbled, not even sure if his sister could hear him. As she put it away, just as quickly as she had pulled it out, the boy continued to look on in shock. "Almost done," he said, not even sure if he should ask his next question. That axe looked pretty scary at the moment, even though Elijah was pretty adept with his daggers and could probably get away with not being decapitated. "What else are you hiding?" the boy asked curiously, thinking about the flute. "Music seems to calm you down," he reasoned. Lúth seemed to be radiating less. "Anything else? And is there anything I can do to help? You know...I am your brother and all," Elijah didn't really want to start anything with Lúth, but he also wanted to show her that he was there for her. The two known children of Discordia that didn't get along at all. In fact, they were nearly explosive when put next to each other (although that experiment had failed). The funny thing was just that Elijah wanted a good relationship with his sister. He had always wanted siblings, and now that he had one, everything was ridiculously messy. "Lúthien..." the boy said softly. "Why won't you let me in? Just a little..." the son of Discordia sighed softly, feeling he was already making himself too vulnerable.

((Please be wary in reading this (to stalkers) it's a weee bit... extreme-ish))

"Yess..." Lúthien hissed at Elijah when he asked if she was happy now. Her eyes burned and chaos was wrapping around her like a sufficating blanket, whirling about her like a tornado. His comment on monsters not being silent made her smile a tiny little pshycotic smile. "Well what makes you think I'm any better than a monster in the eyes of humanity? I know what people think of me Elijah." She said and casually swung her lochaber about, now almost shaking with anger. She was losing the carefull control at an agonisingly slow pace. She was trying to recover it, trying to recover herself. She shot Elijah a look, murder in her eyes. "I'd watch your words little brother. I think we both know one of us will be dead before dawn if we start a fight. What would camp say if you killed your own bloody sister? I know I'd be an outcast again but I've been outcast for longer than I remember. Can you live with my blood on your hands, dear brother?" She said, mocking him, taunting him, challenging him. She had nothing to lose, he was at home here and finally found his place. Lúthien was already sick of camp anyway and she was used to signing in her own destruction. This wouldn't be any different to her.

As he suggested, no matter how insultively and obviously not serious, that she could have been centurion, Lúthien completely lost it. "Nothing between the heavens and hell would make a leader of me. Unlike you, little brother, I can be happy being free. I would have deserted before the end of the week. I will not be contained because my freedom is everything I have!" She shouted although the implication was obvious. Everything I have left. Lúthien was now shaking, breathing hard and clutching her lochaber. "I would rather die than give up my freedom." She said and completely failed to listen about his little radiation speech. Radiation was a part of her she could accept without a moment of hesitation. It was something Lúthien was actually happy about. Constant chaos helped to remember who she was. How she had become that way. She could feel the chaos around her right now and she clung to it like it was her salvation. Like that chaos she radiated could somehow save her.

"Friends." Lúthien said, beyond enraged now, beyond any type of emotion. She looked at Elijah and her eyes were empty without a flicker of anything. No matter how dead they had been before, this was worse, this was nothing but a gaping void extending as you searched. "I used to have those. Leigh, Emma, Jane and Rick. They were wonderful friends. Always laughed and had fun. They found out I was adopted and they laughed. They mocked me constantly. 'Your parents didn't love you! Why else would they leave you.' Leigh stated. 'You were never conceived in love, or they would have kept you.' Emma told me. 'They only adopted you because they couldn't have any children of their own.' Jane reminded me. 'No matter how much you try, you will never truly be their daughter.' Rick assured me. They comforted me and made me realised how lucky I was to have them. Leigh moved away and Jane and Rick started dating. After a large fight with Emma, I never saw them again. Emma left me because I just wasn't the same as Leigh. I couldn't find a new group, I was just the adopted kid. I was worthless to them and they teased me and bullied me untill I swore I would never know friendship again. They forgot about me in less than a week. I wasn't even important enough to bully." Lúthien said, her voice cold and icy.

"No matter what happens, I'll be better off without friends. If I have nothing to lose I can't be hurt. Friends, family. They are all just people who are looking for the perfect time to leave. Nobody is born ruined, it is our lives that make it so. But once we are, there is no hope that we'll ever be repaired. I think it would be best for both of us if you stopped trying. I'll never be.... anything... worthwhile." Lúthien said. She took a breath and took out the flute again, studying it. "I never told you. Freedom and music, they are all I have left. I'm not going to share them just so people can ruin them for me. This is why I won't let anybody in. All love ever does is break and burn and end. I've had more than I can handle and if I lost you, I wouldn't be able to bear it. Nothing good will come from friendship. That has long since been wasted on me." Lúthien said and an angry sadness and despise was in her voice. She turned and walked toward the exit. Her anger grew but she was no longer in control of her emotions. After throwing down a rack of shields, Lúthien ran away as fast as she could, out of the arena, out of camp Jupiter and into the woods, where she found a very high tree to hide in and play her flute and cry untill the night had fallen.