Cooling down

Violet was brutally abusing a dummy. She had been for about half an hour now. The gold spearhead that protruded from the staff Ceres gave her was slicing, stabbing and tearing through the wooden statuette relentlessly, and it was a good thing that it was an inanimate object.

Violet wasn't one for throwing tantrums. Faced with infuriating circumstances, the daughter of Ceres often found somewhere that she could be alone, and take her mind off things. The arena was desolate at night. The equipment was all tucked away in the store rooms, save for the single dummy that she'd rolled outside to sit innocently under the moonlight.

Her knuckles were white from the tight grip she had on her weapon. A steely expression had washed itself across her face. Admittedly, the growls that came out of her while she darted around the statue, was feral in nature. Like a predator, finishing off its prey. She wasn't worried about others hearing her, it was well past curfew, and not a whole lot of people bothered sneaking out to train when they should have been sleeping.

After a long day training, Violet had felt defeated, mentally and physically. When she'd arrived back at the barracks, the last thing she needed was being made fun of for the drawings in her precious journal. The journal they'd taken from her dresser. She'd gotten it back, but not without losing her cool a little. She didn't like showing that they got to her. Yet she had. The anger boiling in her gave her a certain degree of energy, which was what brought her here.

Ana had been watching the girl violently striking against the dummy for a while now, a mad grin on her face... and yet, a pained wince that came later on. Because while this girl emitted so much emotions,and it felt like she could stick a straw in there and suck in her Chaos like a sweet treat, she felt her pain. She'd heard of what happened, of course; news traveled fast in the barracks. And so, when she arrived there after a long day being busy stirring people up against each other, the would-be Huntress was angered to hear what had happened. The same could of been done to her, really... since she had her own journal, along with several sketchbooks. She left the barracks in turmoil, having caused chaos among the romanis yet again, but this time, not to satisfy her thirst for disorder, but rather, out of compassion for the then-unknown girl. To hell with Elijah! She didn't care what he thought of her powers. Right now, she felt torn apart, wanting to incite an even greater outburst, and, at the same time, come over and sympathize with this older, and yet quite alike young woman. Taking her bow from her back, she took aim carefully, inhaling deeply as she focused onto her target... before releasing the string, and sending the projectile flying. It whizzed just past Violet to bury itself inside the already-maimed dummy; a smug smirk raised Ana's lips as she walked from her hiding post to the stranger who had somehow piqued her interest.

"Salut!" she said in a rather cheery tone as she approached, her bow still in hands, but lowered, and with no arrows engaged. "I know you must have no idea who the hell I am, but I just wanted to tell you, I'm sorry about what happened to you in the Barracks. I know how it feels."
Stopping barely a meter away from the brown-haired girl, she cocked her head to the side with curiosity. So, she wasn't the only one coming to the Arena in the dead of the night, apparently. The roman punk remembered the times when she vented off in the darkest hour of night in this place, to try and expulse her Chaos on something else than human beings. And oh boy, had she changed.
"I'm Ana, daughter of Discordia and Huntress of Artemis", she said with her trademark mad grin.

"Holy crap!", Violet exclaimed, jolting a few feet away from the dummy as an arrow pierced its head. A fine shot, but if it had been a few inches off, it would have made a shishkebab out of her. In her hasty effort to distance herself from the projectile, she'd nearly fallen off balance, having to right herself with some great effort to avoid falling in a heap.

The girl who had shot the arrow had a unique appearance, one Violet could respect. Spiked blue hair crowned her head, and she'd successfully pulled off a sort of 'punk-rocker' look. She held her bow with a sense of purpose, like the bow was something she'd had for a long time.

Somehow this person had heard of what had happened back at the barracks, though Violet was unsure if this girl was in her cohort. She spent so little time in her barracks, and when she was training, she liked to really focus on what she was doing herself. That said, she was pretty sure she hadn't met this girl before. She introduced herself as a huntress of Artemis. Now that was cool. She'd always wanted to meet a huntress. However, she didn't allow herself to sound impressed as she spoke. "You usually scare the Pluto outta people as a greeting?", she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, thanks and all, for acknowledging what happened back at the barracks, but you seriously caught me off guard there".

They had only exchanged a couple of words, and Ana was already smirking. She liked that girl's attitude. "To be honest? You're the luckiest person so far", she announced as she passed her bow onto her back, the string still holding against her torso. "I mostly mess around with the others, pit them against each other... like the guys from your cohort. I guess karma caught up to them in the end." Going to retrieve her arrow, she placed it back in her quiver, before turning toward the other Romani. "I'm sorry about creeping on you, Violet. And, yeah, I know that saying your name won't help you trust me, but, you know, I'm not the type to lie."
She then fell silent, awkwardly scratching the back of her head. "So, now that I have come to say sorry because I really feel like I relate to you on many levels, and shot a dummy in the head, I do feel kinda stupid."

She turned around and walked back to one of the observation posts, but not before throwing a glance at the other Romani and inviting her to follow with but a quick move of her wrist. Sitting down comfortably, she searched through her trusty backpack (being a Huntress meant she had to learn how to relocate quickly, after all!), pulling out one of her sketchbook, flipping through the pages. Ah, such melancholia! Drawings she did of Gabby, sometimes when she posed, others when she wasn't looking, her own depiction of her mother Discordia, and, most of all, drawings of how she saw herself; lost and broken because of her inner chaos, and, lately, happy and upbeat because of her new consideration toward her powers. "Look, I know this isn't really how people socialize or anything, but, I used to go to the Arena to let things out at night time too. It helps, but it's tiresome and feels lonely." She pulled out a candy cigarette from her pocket, bringing it to her lips, before proposing one to the other girl. "It's just sugar", she said as she raised her brow.

Numerous questions were raised as the girl spoke. How did she know Violet's name? Violet felt like she'd never met this girl, let alone exchanged names. It was all quite unnerving, really. Nevertheless, the daughter of Ceres approached the strange girl, who apologised for 'creeping' on her. Deciding to let it slide for now, she sat next to the archer.

Ana was flicking though a sketchbook, and Violet had to remark, her drawings were quite impressive. If she wasn't mistaken, she caught a glimpse of a portrait of Gabrielle Fontaine, though she might have been wrong. Violet watched the pages as Ana flicked through them, and the huntress explained that she knew how she was feeling. Ana also liked to come to the arena to relieve anger or stress. It seemed they had something in common.

Violet directed her attention towards the girl, who was holding a candy stick between her teeth like a cigarette. "So, you think we have a lot in common, and you know what happened back in the barracks... Care to explain how you know me? 'Cause I'm pretty sure we haven't met before". Violet wanted to keep the annoyance out of her voice, but it was no small feat. Violet was already irritated, now she had some stranger who seemed to know a lot about her showing up out of nowhere and almost killing her accidentally. Violet wanted answers.

"I just told you how I know you, Violet. I spied on you. Why? Because I suck at socializing. Last time I tried, I fell in love. With what could of been my best friend, had things been different." As she spoke bitterly, Ana stopped at one of her drawings, showing the Tease Queen in all her glory, posing with a smug smile onto her face. She sighed and shook her head, her eyes lingering onto the illustration. These were better times... or were they? She itched to talk to the Graeci again, ever since she returned. But she didn't have the guts to do it. Not yet.
"I know it's bad, and I shouldn't have. But I've suffered enough already because of supposed friendship."
She fell silent, munching on the candy stick, losing herself as she stared into the distance. "Look, if you're too angry or creeped out, you can always punch me in the face and be done with it. Right now, all I want is talk, if you're fine with that. Is that acceptable?"

The punk lazily kicked her feet against the stones, as she brutally closed the sketchbook, just as if she was trying to conjure old memories. This time was over; all she wanted was to feel a bit less lonely, something she didn't really manage to do well with her tendency to randomly incite Chaos in people. She realized she had completely consumed the candy stick as she started biting her lower lip, and immediately took another sweet. "So, here it is. You can either tell me to fuck off, or try and see who's Ana Larive, the girl who keeps messing up."

Spying on her. Honestly, it surprised Violet. Thinking herself an observant person, she was puzzled to hear this girl had been watching her in secret. No offence to her or anything, but she did have blue hair. Stuff like that didn't rarely went unnoticed, especially to her. Being an artist, her eyes were colour magnets. The moon emerged from behind a murky cloud, casting a silvery light across their faces. Looking at Ana, Violet saw a girl who wasn't particularly happy. Either that, or she was good at hiding her happiness.

The girl spoke, and as she did, Violet felt herself feeling sorry. From what she could tell, Ana had experienced a failed friendship. That sort of thing tended to hinder people's ability to trust others. She'd felt it well back in Portland. Some of the girls used to talk crap about her behind her back. It hadn't had a huge impact on Violet. She'd had friends to back her up. From the way Ana spoke, she didn't have as much of that luxury.

To be fair, Ana gave her plenty of options. She could keep talking, punch her in the face, or tell her to scram. The legionnaire opted for the former. She didn't want to see Ana alone. She'd felt loneliness when she first came to camp, she knew how it could affect someone. "Okay, I think I've sulked enough for one night", she sighed, leaning back in her seat. "Spill. It seems like you've got something on your mind. We're practically strangers, so you don't have to worry about me telling a bunch of people".

"Thanks", let out the huntress with a small smirk onto her face, closing her eyes and humming to herself as she felt the moon finally coming out, fully revealing the silver aura that emanated from her. "She's glorious", she let out dreamily, her gaze lost above for a moment, staring at the moon. "I wish you'd meet her someday. Greatest godly entity in this world."
She was taken out of her trance as she realised she had left Violet's question unanswered, shaking her head; it was rude of her, especially after she heard the girl's decision to listen to her, despite how awful it was of her to just spy on her out of cowardice.
"I just feel so... alone. But not really at the same time... it's complicated."
The punk flipped another page of her sketchbook, passing her hand onto one of her few, but very precise drawings of the members of the Hunt. "I feel close to them. I really do. They're like a family - my true family, since I never really had one. But at the same time, I don't know much about them - I'd count on them, whatever the situation, but I don't feel like I'm sharing things with them like I would with a friend."
Ana fell silent once more. Oh, how she longed for a friend... and yet, she didn't want something like Gabby's case to happen again. Her mind wouldn't bear it. "So, yeah. I don't have any friends. Last time I tried to make one, it all went down, and now I don't even know how she feels about me. I am at peace with myself... but what use is it if I have to go through this all alone? It doesn't make sense."

Ana looked at the moon for a significant moment. There was a sense of longing in her eyes. Then Violet remembered that the Greek goddess Artemis represented the moon. Violet too looked to the beautiful glowing orb that hung high in the sky; a beacon. Violet nodded in agreement when Ana stated that she wished Violet could meet the goddess someday. If the moon was that beautiful, she couldn't even begin to think how beautiful Artemis herself would be.

The blue-haired girl missed her fellow Huntresses. The Daughter assumed that a certain sense of sisterhood was created between Artemis' followers during The Hunt. For a moment, Violet wondered whether she'd fit in with them, though she quickly diminished the thought. Immortality, constant monster hunting; it all seemed a little too much. She was only nineteen, and already her life was seriously crazy. She didn't need further complications.

Still, she could understand Ana's feelings. They reminded her of how she missed her dad. From what Ana said next however, Violet began to see that the connection wasn't as strong as she'd thought. Ana valued the huntresses like family, sure, but they didn't seem like friends to her. Hearing that hit Violet a little harder than she'd expected. She hated hearing that Ana was alone, despite the fact that she barely knew her. Taking one more glance at the moon, and a deep breath the relieve the last ounces of stress and anger boiling within her, she smiled at the other girl.
"You're wrong, Ana. You aren't alone, you've got me!". she beamed. "Plus, I've got some friends back in my Cohort who I'm sure you'd get along with", she explained, one Izzy Abney coming to mind. She and Izzy also knew what it was like being alone at camp, they'd just been lucky enough to bump into each other pretty early.

"Someday, I'll be up here", she said with an almost childish smile at the thought of her death. "Closer to Lady Artemis than I'll ever be here." She meant it; as a rioter and troublemaker, she was constantly afraid of death. But now that she learned much about greek myths (and, something she judged necessary, but troubled more than one person, the stories of the deaths of the other Huntresses in the last few centuries), she felt slightly more relaxed. Death didn't scare her that much anymore - it was a normal part of a living being's life, ans if she was true to her heart, things could go right for once.
Brushing her fingers against the ink drawing of a certain daughter of Iris, the one Huntress who got her interested in joining in the first place, she let the memory flood her mind once more. The quietness, and that sort of chill, soothing aura that seemed to degage itself from Violet, made her feel so much more comfortable. She could feel a few vibes of chaos in Violet still, but nothing too severe, from what she could tell. And she was damn glad that she accepted to stick around.

However, a faint blush rose onto Ana's face as she heard the other Romani's words, which contrasted heavily with the silver aura that emanated from her softly, marking her as one of Artemis' Huntresses, never to age or die outside of battle. "Thanks", she let out quietly, turning her head away in embarrassment. She wasn't used to such kindness... after all, even Gabby had that type of playful affection, but was much more hyperactive. "I really appreciate that, Violet."