Simon let his eyes fall upon each of them in turn as they expressed their opinions on the whole debacle, chuckling along with Adrian, but also nodding sagely at Michael as he spoke his piece. Team work had to flourish if they hoped to hold together in such troubling times, and as Johnny chimed in, it became increasingly clear that the looming war was definitely on their minds, troubling to all.

"Personally I think the whole thing was some amorous plot between the two, you know they say opposites attract." He said with a suggestive grin, throwing the thought out there to derail their conversations path. War led to death, death was somber, and such sorrowful topics didn't sit right with him, he'd much rather just shoot the shit this early in the morning.

"Me mum's Rhiannon," he replied, warmly taking the young boy's hand and shaking firmly. "Not really a secret thing, but she ain't really the most famous of people ya know?"

Even as he did greet Rayon, however, the Briton was also surreptitiously gazing down at the strange scar marks on the kid's arm. He wasn't a guy with any great medical knowledge by any means, but he'd seen what a burn looked like before when his little sister had accidentally spilled boiling water on herself, and Rhodri was pretty sure those were burn scars.

But why did a kid like this have so many?

"Say," he queried. "How old are you, mate? "

Rayon nodded. He'd been told before that most people here were children of obscure or unknown gods or goddesses, so he assumed that most of them didn't want to talk about it. Seeing how easily Rhodri did, however, he supposed he'd have to change his initial assessment. "Oh, well in that case, my dad's called Medjed, which means the destroyer or something; I don't think it fits though. He's some old Egyptian god, and I guess he isn't really that known either . . . but you know I always wondered if he was fine with that?" he cupped his chin in one hand, rubbing it as he thought. "Being 'unseen' and stuff is his hobby, so I dunno if . . . ah, I guess I can think about it later."

With a casual dismissal of that thought, Rayon's full focus was back on Rhodri. "How old am I? Well, I'd guess about . . . seven or eight? I'm not too sure, I never really had the chance to mark my birthdays. I bet my dad could tell you though, he knows a lot of things, like how to get to the camp! It's thanks to him that I was able to make it here alive!" Rayon's manner of speech was cheerful - too cheerful, in contrast with his words. The things coming out from his mouth did not come close to matching with the emotions he displayed. Either he was a very skilled actor, or he was truly oblivious to the tragedy he had subtly injected into his answer.

In any case, Rayon was still smiling.

"Fair enough, but I still have trouble trusting someone who will resort to violence so quickly when provoked by such materialistic attachment to a weapon, family heirloom or not. Sure wounds can be healed, but healing magic won't repair the bonds of trust if they become broken enough" he replied to Johnny. Michael also heard Simon make the suggestion that the whole thing was a plot and he looked at the demigod with a confused facial expression.

"I fail to see how those two could be attracted to one another. They both need to have a personality check and fix it quickly otherwise more trouble will arise" Michael said to Simon. Seeing that they had been on this conversation for a while, Michael thought of something else to talk about.

"I don't think my father will be getting involved in this whole conflict. He chooses to observe and make sure creation stays in balance after the war" he said to the others.

"Huh."

To be perfectly frank, the teenaged Briton had no idea how to react to the kid's intensely innocent revelation. To be at risk of dying so young, to not even know one's own age ... that just wasn't right at all. Rhodri didn't want to, but he was already assuming the worst of Rayon's family. A seven/eight year old kid, somebody his own siblings' age, somebody who hadn't even reached puberty ... they shouldn't have the wounds that he could see right in front of him!

"Your dad sounds like a cool bloke," said the Welshman awkwardly, thoughts somewhat preoccupied with the revelation. "What about your mum then? What's she like?"

Johnny couldn't help but laugh heartily at Simon's suggestion. Far as he was concerned it was a great joke.

"A shot in the foot is the demigod's equivalent of pulling somebody's hair." He said still chuckling before calming down and responding to Michael still having to hold himself back from laughing.

"You can't expect trust where respect doesn't come before. Even if they didn't openly fight, their disrespect and mistrust would fester in silence. Exploding in a far worse display than what we saw today. Better to let them fight in ways that are smaller so that they at least know where they stand with one another in my opinion. If nothing else so we know who not to team together. There are plenty of demigods here. As for parental involvement, mine won't become directly involved until either they or Japan itself are forced to become involved. Every one of the shinto gods and their children, myself included, would be perfectly happy to remain at home if we could. But both I and my father realize the conflict will inevitably involve us, I am to try and contain the situation. By whatever means are necessary."

Chewed on a pear as he thought on a way to explain to Michael that he hadn't be serious in the slightest, scrunching up his face as he looked at him through a squint, trying to now decide whether Michael did understand and was merely toying with. Swallowing the last of his pear, he unsteadily rose to his feet, stretching out the cramps in his legs as he let out a sigh.

"Couples therapy then." He said, giving Michael one last look of bewilderment, before shaking his head and returning to his usual complacent smile.

"Welp, I'll catch you fellas later." He added, giving Adrian a slap on the back before striding out of the grove, deciding to seek out Ephraim to determine whether or not he could ask a favor. He had been chatting with a recently deceased spirit, one who had passed way before his time and had just been looking for someone to chat. Apparently the afterlife could get lonely. However, Simon had learned that the next book in a series he was reading had just been published, and he was dying to get his hands on it and perhaps get out of the camp for a bit. A change of scenery was always pleasant too.

Making his way past the shooting range he stopped to hail some of the stragglers that had remained behind after the practice, sticking his thumbs in the pocket of his waistcoat as he puffed up his chest to bellow at them.

"Yo! Any of you seen Ephraim? Serious bloke, looks constipated or in pain most of time, about ye big." He shouted, holding out an arm to gauge the demigods height as best he could.

"Yeah, dad is pretty awesome. Just wished he'd change how he looks; have you seen him? He looks like a flying bed-sheet with legs," said Rayon with a snicker, although there was a hint of exasperation as well.

Just as Rhodri brought up his mother, he froze. His facial expression seemed to morph, distorting it drastically - anger, fear, sadness, pain, and myriad of others flitted on his face in a split second. As if in accordance with his emotions, Rayon's powers began cycling through him has well. His body vanished over and over again, and the ground seemed to be cracking as one foot began digging into it. Heat poured out from his eyes, distorting the air in a straight line and struck wherever Rayon was looking - unfortunately, Rayon made the mistake of looking at Rhodri's shoulder. The beam itself traveled at speed was almost impossible to evade, however it wasn't very strong - at the very most, it felt like having a lit cigarette pressed on to your skin.

"Alright Sy, see ya around." Adrian smirked as the demigod took his leave. After a beat, the child of Agni rose to his feet. "And I think that's my cue to mosey on out. I'm getting behind on my meditating schedule. And no offense to you Mike, but I wasn't expecting to show up just now. And having too much people around me makes it hard to concentrate when i'm trying to reflect." He made for the exit, discarding what waste resulted from the offering. "I'm gonna go find a nice shady tree to sit under, here in the grove. Thanks again for the breakfast, Johnny! See you guys later!" He said, exiting.

Wonderful. He made his way through the grove, distancing himself as far as he could from the shrine. Once the sounds of the camp grew faint, he slowed his gait to a halt. He stopped at a plum tree and sat at its trunk. The tranquility of the area accented the warmth of the season amazingly. With only the natural ambiance of the grove to accompany him, Adrian took off his flip flops, crossed his legs, and began his mantra.

@Athoriel

The assembled demigods shook their heads. No one had seen Ephraim since archery practice. "Jake might know where he is." A demigod piped up helpfully. "Or Nycteris. They know Ephraim best."

Rhodri recoiled, moving himself out of the path of the heat wave a mere second after it collided with his garbed shoulder. There was no damage whatsoever, but the sudden jolt of pain was utterly unexpected. It stung at him, the lance of heat stimulating the nerves at that point with surprising intensity.

"Ouch," he bit out, frantically grabbing at his shoulder. "Ow ow ow."

The pain though, disappeared almost immediately. Which allowed the Briton to return his attentions to the more important matter; the emotionally turbulent kid before him. The comment about Rayon's mother had obviously struck a nerve, and at this moment he wanted nothing but to find the kid's mum and shout at her for even daring to hurt this cute little guy. But ... He couldn't do anything.

And the kid was hurt.

"Hey ..." he spoke up softly, "you okay?"

Meditation is an practice of relaxation used across many religions, said to train the mind against many things. To steel the mind against much stronger forces. Adrian made use of this technique to mull over the happenings (and eventual happenings) of the day, regulate his heartbeat, find a temporary moment of peace and quiet, and to keep his urges at bay. Said urges usually stayed silent during the day, but loved coming out to play during meditation, where Adrian was most vulnerable. Sometimes, they had a tendency to rise to the surface in attempts to entice their host.

"Tell me a story, runt." The urges growled. "The one about boy who reduced the world to cinders. I've always love that one." Adrian was usually sure to not humor it. For the moment, he kept quiet, and focused on his meditation. It was all part of the process. The rumbling voice of his urges never took too kindly to being ignored. "I must say, I am quite surprised we haven't burned this place to the ground yet. How long has it been? Three years? Four? I'm surprised we haven't killed them all and moved on already. Cuz that's what you do, right? You move on." The urges let out a low, rolling chuckle. It wasn't anything new, nothing he hasn't heard before.

"You sound like a broken record." Adrian thought back. "Find some new material." His urges laughed back, much harder than before. "Fair enough. Tell me, why haven't you taken any of these arrogant kids down a peg? Or rather, taken any of them down permanently? These children could never take us. Could never take me." Adrian scoffed. "I'm sure they can, actually." He replied, aloud. "It's why i'm here in the first place. They keep me from turning into you. Well...some of them...at least." His urges would smirk if they had a physical face.

"Y'know what? You're right. Don't let any of these kids get under your skin, Adrian. I can come out for more than just a forest fire~" They warned. "And then, we can show them the true power of fire." Adrian decided to end his meditation on that note. He rose to his feet, smiling along the way. "Welp, i'll just be sure to never have that happen, then." He began on his way, pondering on what to do with the rest of his day. "Wonder when sparring'll start. Doubt Ephraim only had target practice planned for the day. Wonder who'll be leading the class today..." He thought, proceeding out of the grove.

"That's the best I can do." Jake stepped back, looking over Ephraim's back critically. The once-gaping wounds had been reduced to scars, but those scars would likely never fade.

"You do like getting in trouble, Ephraim." Ephidel's eyes were cool, impersonal; Gaea's son had the perfect poker face. "I sometimes wonder if you've been cursed."

Ephraim chuckled, the sound dry and humorless. "Me, too." It was hardly ever that he kept his shirt off for longer than necessary to shower, and he made a point of not looking. Here, in the healer's cabin, was the only place he allowed himself to actually see himself.
Most people assumed that he insisted on teaching the old ways of combat because of his mother. That was part of it, but not the only reason. Of all the many wounds he had received over the years, only three of his scars were made by bullets. There were far more from bladed weapons, and four from arrows. Quite a few were from monster attacks, when he couldn't handle something and went to the woods for release.
Standing, Ephraim took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Once again, he counted all his visible scars, adding the three new ones to the already substantial total. It was a depressingly high number.

Johhny nodded and said goodbye as his guests left. Leaving him to finish his breakfast in peace. After making an offering to his godly family he got up to walk around the series of smaller groves to talk with the children of the various nature gods and spirits. He found it handy to speak with them often to see how things were going and if they perhaps had anything they wanted to rework. A few wanted to expand their gardens but he advised against it without similar growth for all the other areas. He didn't want any particular set of demigods to feel greater or lesser than another.

In the meantime, Adrian meandered his way back towards the residential portion of the campgrounds, where he, alongside some of the other older demigods, had their own personalized living spaces. Upon first getting to the refuge all those moons ago, he learned that there was a spot already there waiting for him. It resembled a small rustic praying temple, commissioned by an "unknown benefactor". "God works in mysterious fucking ways, doesn't he?!" He exclaimed that day, furiously looking to get the place redone. (Adrian was a bit of a spoiled asshole his youth, mind you. He's done much to grow into a more humble individual, and now favors to keep his spiting subdued and subtle.)

Nowadays, his pad resembles something closer to a brownstone snatched straight out of Bed-Stuy. A replica much smaller than its counterparts, as it's missing a third floor, and a basement. Shorter than the main Victorian and the tree line. It was definitely a nice place to stay, just not one to find peace and quiet at. Around this time of the day, younger demigods from the surrounding houses would come out and play and frolic in the grass, making it a chore to concentrate.

Jake frowned thoughtfully as he looked at Ephraim. As a healer, he looked out for the mental state of his patients, as well as their physical health. Ephraim needed to loosen up a bit, maybe make more friends. At the very least, he needed someone other than Nycteris - who tried her best, but couldn't always help - Ephidel - who was only around after Ephraim went on a monster-killing spree - and himself - who couldn't get through to him - who understood just why he took everything so seriously. With that in mind, the healer slipped out of the cabin, searching for someone whom he felt could help.
The first person Jake came across was Adrian. Deciding that he would work, the healer walked past him, talking quietly. "Do me a favor and visit the healer's cabin." That said, he went on his way.

Ephraim declined to put his shirt on again, wanting to relax a bit before he went back out to continue training. He talked quietly with Ephidel, mainly about the threats that faced them.

"Hey hey, be careful you two!" Adrian called out, currently wasting time by looking over some of the kids playing in the residential courtyard. He sat at the steps of his apartment, lazily lounging on the stone. He couldn't help but make another silent mention of the comfortable weather they were experiencing on the day. Seemed like it was becoming a pretty simple day, all things considered. Or, at least, so far. It was nice out, the kids were playing, and a training class went off (mostly) without a hitch. Adrian just hoped there wouldn't be any more altercations today. But, knowing some of the egos and opinions of some of the more..."passionate" campers, he knew that might've been asking for too much.

"Well, if anything, I hope there aren't any more altercations that I get caught in the middle of." He wished. As he looked up from his thoughts, he could see the familiar healer Jake making his rounds through the courtyard. Looked like the child of Airmed was heading towards him. "Hey Jay, what's up?" He greeted as the healer approached, sitting up at his perch. "Do me a favor and visit the healer's cabin." He replied simply, not really stopping for a conversation. "Aight, sure." Adrian replied simply, groaning as he got to his feet. "Wasn't doing anything here anyway..." He started off in the direction Jake came from.

It wasn't too much of a trek from the houses to the cabin, and Adrian was courteous enough to knock on the door before entering. Coming in, he was quick to spot the two familiar faces inhabiting the cabin. One face (understandably) was less familiar than the other. "Ephidel? Usually don't see you hanging about, did Ephraim get banged up again?" He didn't even need to answer, as Adrian already began examining the new scars Ephraim was sporting. Some of which made him wince in reaction.

"Jesus, Free, you don't think some of your forest adventures might be a little self-destructive?" Adrian showed some concern for his friend, using the nickname he was sure Ephraim only barely tolerated. "Didja at least say 'thank you' to Jake after he patched you up?" He chided playfully as he continued his examination.

"Of course he did." Ephidel let an amused smirk break his poker face. "Do you think I would show myself for anything less?"
"He left before I could." Ephraim's lips curved into an annoyed frown. He didn't like anyone seeing his scars, and Adrian's nickname was... irritating. "I'm the son of Anuke. Fighting makes me feel alive. It's a release for me." Only here, in the healer's cabin, did he let his iron-strong facade drop. Only here did he show his true feelings.
A hint of concern reached Ephidel's eyes. "There are safer ways to vent, you know."
"If I took out my anger and frustration on the other demigods, I'd probably kill them by accident." Ephraim replied bluntly.

Adrian sighed as Ephraim conversed with Ephidel, the son of Anuke's comment easily paralleling his own internal problems. "Preachin' to the choir, Free. You know that." It was why he considered Ephraim a friend, after all. "Ever tried meditating?" He perked up, adding to Ephidel's mention. "Y'know, something to keep your mind from that buzz. Helps me keep those same urges low. Might you the same for you, you'll never know." Adrian gave brief thought to Ephraim's usual less than cheery disposition. "...That, and being a little friendly doesn't hurt either." He explained with a welcome grin, giving Ephraim's shoulder a light pat. "S'not something i'm trying to force, just a simple suggestion." Thinking a bit on the situation, he couldn't help but chuckle at himself.

"Well, if anything, at least you have a release. Me releasing would kinda just..." He looked around. "...Burn everything down." He gestured wildly, flailing his arms a bit. He chuckled again and grinned, thinking light of the seven armed monster he had to keep down. "Also, you could just spar with me! I was literally just thinking about a sparring session earlier (had half a thought, if Nyct was gonna lead it today, but she's probably still doing her tracking class...anyway!). I sincerely doubt you'd kill me by accident." He added with a smirk.

"I'll have to take you up on that sometimes." Ephraim smiled slightly. "Should be fun. As for the meditating thing, it's not really my style. Doubt I have the patience for it."
"A match between you two?" Ephidel chuckled lightly. "Now, that's a battle I'd loathe to miss. Do tell me before you start."