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Post by Elizabeth McKinnon on Dec 8, 2012 19:44:31 GMT -5
The graveyard, always a frightening and painful place to be, at least for most of the poeple in the Camp. It was a place that reminded them of the people that they had lost, friends, siblings, lovers. People that sacrificed their lives for those who were still alive. but for people like Beth, that place was another place to go and meet new people.
Beth loved to go to the graveyard, because she could pray for the souls that had gone to Tartarus and Elysum, but also she could see some of the souls that were there, those that didn't want to cross the river and just stayed behind, souls of warriors that were lonely there, because no living one could see them.
She walked into the graveyard and looked around, living in the camp the past 6 months, she had alredy seen some souls and talked to them, almost always trying to convince them to cross the river. That day she was trying to find the soul of a yound man, maybe her age when he died. He seemed to be waiting for someone, but he couldn't remember who.
"Marcus..." she said and looked around, then walked to a rock there and sat on it, she shifted her jacket and closed it, it was a cold evening in the camp. "Marcus! I'm freezing out here..." she bit her lower lip and waited, but she didn't realize there was someone walking to that place...
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Post by Artisan Kim on Dec 9, 2012 16:02:45 GMT -5
Demigods had died in the name of Camp Halfblood, so the least Artisan could do was pay his respects. If only he knew where to pay his respects. There were no markers as far as the son of Hephaestus could tell, and besides the ashes matted into the ground, the field was empty.
Well, except for a girl who was talking to herself.
Maybe she knew where he was supposed to go.
“Excuse me, is...is this the graveyard?” he asked, “I was going to pay my respects, but there’s nothing here. The place is empty.”
The son of Hephaestus felt an eerie chill run down his spine, as if a spider was trekking down his shirt. But when he turned around, there was nothing behind him. Artisan propped up the collar on his coat and turned around to face the girl again. The young man had a warm, robust glow that kept his cheeks pink and his skin bright...despite the fact it felt like he was half freezing to death.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “I must have the wrong place.”
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Post by Elizabeth McKinnon on Dec 9, 2012 16:39:36 GMT -5
Beth looked at the guy who just walked into the graveyard. He just asked her if it was the graveyard, that he wanted to pay respects. she smiled at him and sighed, most people thought that the graveyard should have tons of tombs, but the old ways were to burn the bodies, so that was why there were no tombs at all.
She nodded at him. "this is the graveyard, you're in the right place" she said and then she saw Marcus playing a slight joke on the poor guy, Marcus ran a finger down the guy's back. "sorry about that, some spirits like to play some jokes on the living ones." she said and then frowned at Marcus, who was the soul of a young camper from the past, maybe 50 years in the past, who knew.
She got up from the place where she had been sitting and walked to the new guy. "I'm Elizabeth McKinnon, but just call me Beth" she stretched out her pale, delicate hand to shake his.
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Post by Artisan Kim on Dec 9, 2012 19:53:44 GMT -5
“I’m not sure what I was expecting,” admitted Artisan, “Maybe a marker to remember them by? A memorial of some kind?” He looked around again, as though expecting tombs to spring out from the ground, but the fields around him remained eerily still. That’s of course, when what Beth had told him finally registered. An empty graveyard and possibly perverted spirits trailing their fingers down his vertebrae? Great.
“Aigoo! A ghost touched me?! he yelped, shivering at the thought, “Eom-ma-ya! Tell him to keep his hands to himself!”
The son of Hephaestus nearly bumped into Beth due to his initial surprise, but caught himself before he could make a total fool of himself. In the most geekily way possible, Artisan pushed his glasses with his index finger before taking Beth’s hand. The girl’s hand was so delicate and dainty that Artisan felt like he’d crush her bones if he so much as squeezed his fingers. That was one of the downside traits of being Hephaestus kid, typically having giant, built-for-the-forge hands that never seemed to lose their set of calluses.
“Nice to meet you, Beth,” he said.
The young man smiled softly.
“I’m Artisan.”
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Post by Elizabeth McKinnon on Dec 10, 2012 9:12:45 GMT -5
Beth smiled saddly at his comment, he was right, there should be something in there to remember them, maybe just a wall where they would be placing stars for each of the campers or even adult demigods that had died protecting the camp, but in the past only the gods gave those awards, those memorials, and the camp followed the old ways.
"you are right, but the camp follows the old ways, so... well..." she shrugged and then looked at him when he said such words, 'aigoo' and 'eomma-ya' she frowned at him and then looked at Markus and shook her head with a disaproval look. "he won't, don't worry. It's just that, almost no one comes here, they find it... sad or depressing, so the few souls that are here, feel lonely and they only want to make some kind of contact when a living one comes"
She smiled at him when he gave her his name, it was a different name, so as he was different, but she liked that, he seemed a nice guy. "Artisan... nice name" she shook his hand then waved at Marcus who was leaving to let them talk. then she looked back at Artisan. "he said good bye, and sorry" then she smiled again. "I always come here, when I have some free time, I like to talk to them, to let them know that at least one haven't forgotten them and I'm here to talk if they need it." she only hoped Artisan didn't think she was crazy.
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Post by Artisan Kim on Dec 10, 2012 20:46:48 GMT -5
“The old ways, huh?” said Artisan, “Doesn’t it seem like we should be updating the system of things, now that everybody knows demigods are real? Or at least, you know, leaving something to remember them by?”
The boy looked around at the fields once again, wondering how many of his family had been cremated and forgotten. In a few years, would he be one of them? What about the girl in front of him? In fact, the more that Artisan thought about it, the more he realized just about anybody could wind up like the lonely ghosts haunting the field.
Even if he couldn’t see ghosts, they could hear him, right?
“It’s okay! I was just surprised - I guess I never knew a ghost before!” called Artisan, hoping whoever had played a trick on him was still around, “But now that I do, I’ll come back more often! I-I’ll bring a book or something! Hope you like comics!”
All Artisan could do was hope the ghost could hear him. He looked back to Beth and blushed at her compliment.
“Thanks,” he said to Beth, smiling bashfully, “No, what you’re doing is definitely a good thing. If you hadn’t been here, I probably wouldn’t have known this site was the graveyard. Whether you’re living or dead, everybody needs a little kindness in their lives...or afterlives.”
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Post by Elizabeth McKinnon on Dec 10, 2012 22:04:22 GMT -5
Beth looked at him and smiled he seemed a kind guy. when he told her they should move to the modern ways, she smiled widely at him, he thought on the poor souls that were there, maybe that was the main reason why the never left that place. "Yeah, we should definetely change the old ways, I wuld love to put at least a huge, long wall with a star and the name of the one who died on it, so they would never be forgotten."
Then she looked at Marcus who was standing by a tree not very far from where they were. He smiled at Artisan as the son of Hephaestus gave her some of his ideas of what he would do later. "I think they would like it, well some of them know comics and like them, others... they just think those are weird magazines or parchments" she giggled at Artisan.
then when he said she was doing something good for the souls there, she smiled. She sighed and looked at Marcus and others that were gathering around them, but she didn't tell Artisan, she didn't want him to freak out again. "thank you, I just wouldn't like to be forgotten like that..." she knew about death pretty well.
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Post by Artisan Kim on Dec 11, 2012 22:46:35 GMT -5
At the mention of the wall, Artisan’s mind was already sketching up blueprints and sorting through possible construction methods. “If you ever decide to follow through with your idea, let me know,” he said with a smile, “I’m pretty good at building things.”
“Parchments?” laughed Artisan, “Maybe they’ll like Harry Potter better, who doesn’t like Harry Potter? But they better not make fun of me when I mispronounce all the spells. English is hard enough.”
The son of Hephaestus blushed bashfully, the pink creeping into the tips of his ears, but grinned despite himself.
There were certain words of the English language he always fumbled over regarding pronunciation, no matter how fluently he understood the concepts. Normally, it was hard to tell English was Artisan’s second language. But if you asked him to sound out certain words, lo and behold, the ever infamous “Engrish” would slip through into his speech.
At least the ghosts would have their fair share of entertainment.
“Nobody would want to be forgotten,” agreed Artisan, “Have you always been able to talk to the dead? That’s pretty cool gift to have. A little unnerving - but really cool.”
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Post by Elizabeth McKinnon on Dec 11, 2012 23:02:59 GMT -5
Beth looked at Artisan and smiled when he said he was good at building things, that would meant that he has liked her idea of the wall and the stars, maybe if she told others about that idea they would like it too and they would play along, maybe even convince some others to talk to Chiron so he could tell the gods about her idea and maybe someday, they would allow them to have a wall to remember their dead. "I'll tell you, you'll be my first option" she smiled again.
Then Artisan smiled at her words and mentioned a British novel, Harry Potter was an amazing movie, and she thought that maybe out there sons onf Circe or Hecate were the ones that the mortal world knew as wizards and witches. "I can help with the spells" she smiled a bit more. she didn't really know about speaking another language than English, well maybe just Scottish, but she didn't need to speak that one to communicate and Artisan needed English to communicate there. "must be difficult to have to speak English all the time and not being able to speak your language"
then the young Korean guy asked her since when she had been able to speak to the dead and that it was a cool gift. "thank you, I can do it, since I was a kid, and yes it is awesome, but some people thought I was crazy and when I started talking to the dead, the living started to get away from me" she said with a sad smile. "where are you from, Artisan?"
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Post by Artisan Kim on Dec 12, 2012 15:10:27 GMT -5
"I'd appreciate that spell lesson very much," Artisan said, returning Beth's smile with one of his own, "I used to think the American tourists visiting Seoul were hilarious, but it turns out I wasn't much better at learning their language. Call it bad karma. For the first month, my sentences all sounded 'justuh liiike thisu'"
He laughed despite himself, remembering how dreadfully painful it'd been to learn to read, write, and speak in an entirely different language on short notice. The English alphabet looked much too alike, and when writing, Artisan often switched up his letters or wrote them backwards. Why couldn't the whole world write in Hangul? There were way less grammar rules to worry about! Less letters too! You never had to worry about how to pronounce electric - was it "uh-lec-tric" or "ee-lect-ter-ric"? - because there was good old "jeongi".
Beth's mentioning of her past made the son of Hephaestus' smile fade. "There's always a catch to every gift, isn't there?" he sighed, "I-I think maybe demigods scare mortals a little bit with what we can do. But hey, you have plenty of friends in camp now, living and dead. That's what counts."
Whether or not Beth was honestly interested in where Artisan had come from, the young man didn't know. But he didn't want to pry into the daughter of Hades' past, so he answered her questions instead and tried to lighten the mood.
"I'm South Korean," he explained, "I used to live in Seoul, but my family moved to Lowell a few years ago. The closer to camp, the better, right? What about you? Are you from America?"
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Post by Elizabeth McKinnon on Dec 12, 2012 22:34:13 GMT -5
Beth looked at him and shook her head slowly. She wasn't good at performing any kind of spells, she wasn't a Hecate's daughter, she could just read the spells, but not performing them. "I can read then, not performing" the ghosts were gathering now around them, some of them were sitting around them, others were just mingling around.
Artisan also commented how hard it had been to talk in English at least at the beginning. She giggled trying to imagine him how he could have pronounced English like that. "Well, you must be proud, you now speak it too, I would like to speak other languages" she sighed and then looked around, she smiled and looked back at Artisan.
He told her about how all gifts got little tricks in them, she nodded at him and smiled, he was right, her gift was amazing, she loved it, and he was right, mortals were scared of demigods. "yes, they are scared of us, maybe that is why they created the DCA" she smiled, then said in a whisper. "we have audience"
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Post by Artisan Kim on Dec 24, 2012 12:47:48 GMT -5
“Even if you can’t perform them, you can still read spells,” laughed Artisan, “That’s still a step farther than where I am.” The son of Hephaestus shivered again, feeling a tingle travel down his spine. Gosh, the graveyard gave him the creeps.
“Well, if you ever have a sudden desire to learn Korean,” he said, “My beginner’s classes come at the low rate of free.” The tips of his ears blushed a rosy pink, and the bashful flush soon lit up his cheeks. “Yeah, I must’ve talked pretty funny...Oh, just wait until you try speaking in Korean! Then we’ll see who’s laughing.” The son of Hephaestus gave Beth a warm smile, but it faltered at the mention of the DCA.
“We just...I mean, we just need to show them we’re not that much different than regular mortals,” said Artisan, “Demigods are just like any other kid out there; we still flunk English exams, get beat up on the playground, and want ponies for Christmas.” The young man sighed. All joking aside, the DCA was a really prominent problem.
“The DCA should really get a new computer security though,” he mused, “They’re too easy to hack.”
His eyes widened when Beth whispered to him.
“Ah...Um...Hello?” He tried waving to the air, not quite sure where the ghosts were mingling.
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Sunny Choi
Khione
Camper[M:0:0:0:]
Sup, is all I gotta say
Posts: 5
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Post by Sunny Choi on Dec 25, 2012 4:28:22 GMT -5
Today was a crummy day. The snow didn't fall as heavily this morning, and by how the dandelions were peeking through patches of bare dirt, Sunny guessed that spring was coming soon. Too soon. He loved the cold weather; the gray, cloudy sky; and especially the soft whiteness that showered the whole camp. During winter, he felt his energy increase, constant and unchanging; then when spring, summer, and autumn roll around, it's back to hibernating like a bear. He despised that - especially the late nights during summer when he could hear the laughter of campers and clinks of drinks in which Sun wasted away in bed. All those days gone by because the son of Khione's energy is waned by the power of the sun.
Sun...
Depressed, he quietly left the cabins and allowed his mind to wander as his feet guided him to wherever. He hated being like this, wallowing in his own stupid problems and spiraling himself into self-pity, but it was so much easier than finding a solution of his own. Of course, he knew the source of it all: Loneliness. Sun, being the antisocial he is, doesn't really have any friends. His best friend, Gill, was out searching for demigods again the moment he dropped Sun off at camp five years ago; he drops by briefly but their conversations was the usual "how-are-you's" and "doing-alright's"; so Sunny started to avoid him. They both were growing apart. No point in trying to avoid it. Having similar experiences, Sunny knew it was better to end it now than to try to repair it because letting the friendship crumble was a lot easier than rebuilding it.
Before even being entirely aware of it, Sunny had walked into the graveyard. The last time he's been here was five years ago when he was barely a newbie to camp and stumbled onto the place by accident. It still gave him the chills. "What the Tarturus?" he muttered, scanning the place and finding not a touch of white snow on the ground. A tug on the back of his shirt made Sun turn, but when he found no one there, something strange happened inside him. His heart was like a bass guitar, pounding his chest; he took a sharp inhale. Fear was creeping in Sunny's mind like the grudge coming out of the TV. Sun, refusing the fact he was totally terrified, walked through the graveyard; he wanted to retaliate against the ghosts and in his opinion, this felt like the best idea without getting curses.
Soon enough, Sunny was sprinting and muttering, "Calm down," beneath his breath. A brush against his hair cracked him. Now completely petrified, Sun didn't care where he was going and just ran as fast as his legs could go. He bit his lips shut, forcing himself not to open it and shriek like a girl; his eyes had tears flowing but he quickly wiped them away.
"OH MY GODS!" Sunny finally hollered, flailing his arms like a crazy man. "Someone help me!" At the same moment he finished the sentence, Sunny ran into something. Hard.
After a second of seeing stars and the River Styx, Sunny came to and was extremely bothered by the sharp pain on the side of his head. "Sorry," he slurred as he got up drunkenly, hoping that thing he ran into was human. "Areyoualright?" [/size][/blockquote]
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Post by Elizabeth McKinnon on Dec 25, 2012 10:25:09 GMT -5
Beth smiled at Artisan, he was seemed to be a really nice guy, someone thay maybe could become in a very good friend, and she hoped that, she had been six months in the camp and she already felt lonely, like before at home, like when she was at home dying and her so called friends stopped visiting her. Half Blood Camp was a new beginning for her and maybe for others was too.
"ok, then I'll help you with your English and latin reading, and you'll give me the lowest rate for begginer's Korean" she grinned at him and then half laughed when he told her that they would see who laughed when she tried to speak Korean. "Maybe you'll laugh harder, I'm a mess at new languages, but I love them! The only place where I have heard Korean, is in the Arena or in the Library, when Instructor Lee gets upset" she giggled at that memory.
Her face grimmaced a bit when he told her that they only needed to show DCA that they weren't that different from mortal kids. "But we are different Artisan... Yes we have same problems at school and life, but plus that we have others, like 'what happens if I bring a soul from Tartarus?' or 'what if I...' I don't know... 'don't control the heat from my body?'" she said looking at him who his body heat was higher than normal. "they fear that, not our school developments"
suddenly she heard something, or maybe someone. She looked to where the scream was coming from and looked a guy running right against them. "bloody tartarus!!" she said and got hit by the guy, well... he ran into her. She ended up on the ground. She sat and rubbed her head. Then looked around and looked at Artisan and then at the other guy, who was as cold as snow, maybe another khione's boy. She only hoped he was nicer to her than the other one, Josh.
"Good Evening" She said and got up noticing the ghosts around the new guy. "sorry about them, they only want to play..." she glared at the ghosts. "don't scare him, let him have some peace and maybe he'll come back later" the ghosts left, some made faces at Beth, others just turned around and left. "I'm sorry about them, they really just needed some company, they didn't want to hurt you..." she smiled at him. "I'm Elizabeth McKinnon, but call me Beth." then she looked at Artisan.
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Post by Artisan Kim on Dec 26, 2012 23:50:16 GMT -5
“Oh, you have no idea how psyched I was when Instructor Lee began speaking to me in Korean,” gushed Artisan, “Even the swear words were music to my ears!” The son of Hephaestus grinned at Beth, very much looking forward to their first lessons. Despite the fact it creeped him out how she could talk to the dead, Artisan really hoped they could become friends. Beth was just so easy to talk to - so normal. “It could be worse,” he said, “I could be trying to learn French, passing a faux Parisian accent.”
His grin faltered at the mention of the DCA, the very reason why every demigod in Camp Half-Blood could never be regarded even remotely “normal”.
“So maybe we have a few...quirks,” he admitted, “But we can also do great things, not just mess up. What if a Poseidon kid can stop a flood from ruining hundreds of homes? What if an Apollo kid wins American Idol? What if...What if a Hades girl can make a hundred lonely ghosts not so alone anymore?”
The arrival of Sunny reminded Artisan of the panic mode he’d been in five minutes ago.
“See? It’s not just me!” Artisan said to Beth, “They might be nice and all, but they need to learn to stop touching people’s spines!” He tilted his head in Sunny’s direction, a look of worry crossing his face. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked, “I’m Artisan.”
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