Saltwater Thief

Neo Sorairo

Looks fun. I'll mark my interest and then get to brainstorming a character idea.

Heroes of Olympus: the Next Age of Heroes

Ericka Yumia

Location: Camp Half Blood, Armory

Ericka looked up breifly as Alannah walked in, then quickly turned her attention back to cleaning the two swords that had been on the counter when she got in. They weren't all that dirty or bruised, so it wouldn't take much, but it still needed to be done. "Yeah," she replied to her Cabin Head's question, "Old Gregory there that just left. Was cursing at the lock when I walked in, so I showed him the door."

The first sword was done by then, so she put it into its scabbard, added it back to the rack, and then took the rag to the second one along with a bit of oil. "I wish I knew who put him up it though," she added, almost absentmindedly, "Gregory's not smart enough to think of something like that of his own accord, so someone from the Ares Cabin probably told him to do it. Or maybe not, who knows."

Still, it was something worth thinking about. Someone had wanted the Stygian weapons- who? And for what reason? The game that evening came to mind, of course, but surely nobody in their right mind would take Capture the Flag that seriously. Given that they'd thought to try and go around the normal rental process, it was probably a safe bet that they wanted it for some purpose they knew wasn't okay with the Camp.

Ericka shook her head. Worrying about such things wouldn't get her any closer to solving them. And, now that she was in for the day, it was unlikely anybody would try again. "Do you happen to know the yard schedule for today off the top of your head, Alannah?" she asked, "I thought I remember somebody wanting a bulk rental, but I can't seem to find the book around here..."

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

"Power's on the fritz," Alexander said through the crack in the door, "Eleanor sent me down here to grab some candles and put 'em in the rooms, seeing as the backup generator's not the most reliable sort."

Almost on cue a bolt of lightning with its accompanying thunder blast rang through the walls. Hopefully it served as reinforcement that he was telling the truth, if nothing else. "She also said to see if you'd give me a hand with it. You mind?"

Heroes of Olympus: the Next Age of Heroes

Ericka Yumia

Location: Camp Half Blood, Mess Hall ---> Armory

It didn't take long for the hungry bunching of fellow campers to keep walking toward the dining hall. Ericka bid them a brief farewell and then resumed her walk. There was work to be done after all. Along the way she saw Ryland, also headed in to eat, and from a distance he gave her a wave and a smile. Not a genuine smile, it seemed, but rather his typical 'I'm okay, don't worry' smile. Something was up with him. Again. But, with the time she'd already spent, Ericka had little chance to approach him about it. Whatever it was that was eating at Ry would have to wait. So, with a reciprocated wave and smile, Ericka kept on her way to the Armory.

Which already had an occupant, judging from the noise.

"Stupid thing! Why is there a lock here?!"

A very irate occupant at that. She stepped inside, and saw one of the older campers crouched in front of what was unmistakably the Stygian locker. Based on the sound of his voice, and the very short list of campers stupid enough to try what he was, this could only be...

"May I help you with anything, Gregory?" she asked seethingly.

Gregory Samsor, Son of Ares, immediately rose to his feet in a fighting stance out of alarm. He quickly regained his composure upon seeing Ericka however, either out of relief or perhaps arrogance. "Ericka," he said with a slight snarl, "What are you doing here?"

He was a brute of a man, even by Ares standards. Average height but quite broad shouldered, and always easily seen on the practice field doing drills. He never was the brightest, however; the Ares cabin primarily used him as dumb muscle.

"I'm here to do my job, Gregory. As for why you're here, based on what I heard and saw coming in I can only assume you were looking to rent one of the Stygian Iron weapons. Unfortunately, given your conduct just now, I'm afraid I can't allow that."

"It's open rent on the weapons, you can't stop me," Gregory said in what Ericka guessed was supposed to be smugness, "I know the rules."

"I'm sure you do, seeing as they're not particularly complicated," she replied, "However, the two Stygian weapons are under lock and key, as you discovered, so without me or one of my sibling's assistance, you will not be using either of them."

"And why the hell are they locked up?" Gregory bellowed.

"Because they're Stygian Iron, Gregory," Ericka responded with a sharpness to match his volume, "They're capable of causing drastically more harm than anything else in this building, so the task falls to me and mine to make sure that they are used with responsibility and care. Two concepts I have zero reason to believe you have even a basic grasp of at this point."

"But the two Hades brats can swing theirs around at will?!"

"Ash and Arthur's Irons are their personal weapons, and are outside of my authority. If you'd like to get technical beyond that, if an incident occurred with Stygian Iron involved, as long as the sword and dagger in that locker are accounted for that rather narrows it down to one of the two of them, not that I believe for a moment either one would actually do something so stupid. On the other hand, if the rentals could be grabbed from in here at will, all someone would have to do is take them at a point where the Armory is empty, disregard the sign-out sheet completely, and we would have no way of knowing who it was. Which, I'm sure, was the idea of whomever put you up to this."

"Now then," she continued, brushing a lock of her hair out of her face, "If you have no further business in here, I'm going to ask that you leave. I have things to do, after all."

With that she walked past him and set her backpack down at the desk. Gregory did not move except to turn and continue facing her, however.

"And what if I pummel you and take the key?" he asked menacingly.

"A poor strategy, I suggest you abandon it immediately." Ericka was far from impressed.

"OH YEAH?" The boy yelled as he took a lumbering step forward.

In a flash Ericka had grabbed a recently returned bronze sword off of the desk and whipped around, leveling the tip at Gregory's nose without batting an eyelash. That stopped him rather quickly.

"Gregory, I'd already sorted out nine different methods to put a new dent in the floor using your thick skull by the time I started moving," she said, very matter-of-factually but with plenty of venom dripping from the words, "Now I'm up to about thirteen, and the longer you stand here the more I'm going to find. Turn around, and walk out the door. Now."

Gregory seemed to stand there in stunned silence for a moment, until a flick of the sword's tip in his general direction spurred him to action and sent him backing up and then stomping out of the Armory. "Good riddance," Ericka said as she put the sword down and went to inspect the Stygian locker to make sure there had been no damage. Thankfully it seemed there hadn't been, so she was able to sit down behind the desk and get right to work.

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

"I'll get right on that," Alexander said, glad of having something to do. It would take his mind off things, even if he wasn't all that fond of going down to the basement. Being underground wasn't his thing. In fact it was the opposite of his thing, in all technicality. But, the house was in need. And when the people he lived with were in need, there wasn't any time for waffling about things he didn't like; he sucked it up and took care of what he needed to. So, with a nod of his head to Eleanor, he turned around a couple of times to orient himself, and then started walking toward Christopher's room.

Alexander rarely spoke to Christopher, unless Hannah and Sumi dragged them both to the same table. And even then there wasn't much interaction. There also wasn't any animosity, at least not that Alexander knew of, so that was nice at least. It mostly just came down to being from different Doors and having little common ground. Like it usually was for Eleanor's wayward children, or so it seemed to the lost sky pirate.

Also, the candy skull thing was a little bizarre. Odd thing to think for someone who knew the skull and crossbones well, but it was still truthful.

"Hey Christopher," Alexander called as he knocked on the door, "You down here mate?"

Heroes of Olympus: the Next Age of Heroes

Ericka Yumia

Location: Camp Half Blood, Mess Hall
Interaction with @rivaan@Bee@Tonks@KazAlkemi

The rush came and went while Ericka sat eating. Nobody had really bothered her, all of them being too engrossed in their food, but it was certainly quite noisy as the hall filled up. Eventually she decided to pack in the maps and plotting until later and folded her things back into her backpack. As she looked around she didn't manage to see any familiar faces; a pity, really, eating with friends and family was always a highlight of the day. But, she had things to get done at the armory and didn't have the luxury of loitering about waiting.

As a pleasant surprise, however, it seemed she wouldn't have to. As she cleaned up her dishes and walked out the door, she noticed a small gathering of people she knew just outside- including Zoey and a blonde girl with Brynn's face. When on earth had she done that? It hadn't been that way the day before... Ericka shook her head slowly. Yet another sister going the way of the sunshine head. Soon she'd be the only one left without it, probably. A quick look at her phone told Ericka that she had some time still, so she sauntered over just as Zoey mentioned tackling Ryland regardless of his team.

"Well you'll have to do that after we win," she said as she walked up, "He's with us tonight and we're going to need him uninjured."

"And just when did you sneak off to do this?" She asked Brynn as she reached out and ran her hand down one of the newly blonde tresses, "My goodness it's going to be all of you before the summer's out!"

It was shortly thereafter that Zeke approached and started making his usual ruckus. Ericka never had much of a taste for the Apollo child... but now was hardly a time for hostilities. So she settled for a brief disapproving glance as response to his question's phrasing and nothing more.

Heroes of Olympus: the Next Age of Heroes

Would like to note that Wednesday or Thursday I will be posting for Ericka. In said post she will be moving from the Dining Hall to the Armory unless she becomes occupied before then, so if anybody wants to interact with her at the Dining Hall they should make it happen shortly.

Heroes of Olympus: the Next Age of Heroes

Ericka Yumia

Location: Camp Half Blood, Mess Hall

It was going to be an exceptionally busy day.

When it came to Camp, few things boiled the half-deity blood of all the campers to a higher temperature than Capture the Flag night. And to call the game's ruleset "full contact" was an understatement; most campers treated it like a small war. But, since weapons training never really took a day off, that made the day leading up to the contest one of the busiest days of the week in the Armory. Ericka had hung a sign on the door the night before that read "All weapons MUST be returned by 3:30 pm" just so she and anyone who was up for helping would have time to run last second inventory and maintenance before the game. After all, if a critical engagement was lost because a Nike daughter, or gods forbid an Ares son had their rental weapon break they'd spend the following week raising hell about it.

"To say nothing of the grief they're entirely likely to dredge up about the arrangements regardless," she sighed to herself over a bowl of cereal. There would almost certainly be at least one group that got vocal about her trying to rig the game with the weapon rentals. There usually was. Nevermind that she had done nothing of the sort in three years. Nevermind that most of the ones who complained had their own personal weapons anyway. Nevermind that she actively invited whoever was concerned to help and see for themselves that nothing untoward occurred, yet was mysteriously never taken up on it. It was honestly such a headache.

But, Ericka mused as she studied a map of the campgrounds, it did also provide ample motivation to simply hand them all their rear ends in spectacular fashion. She paused to take a bite of cereal, then turned her attention back toward the CTF area. This week's game was going to be a difficult one; the cabins had been divided in somewhat uneven fashion. Assuming everyone showed up, her team would be looking at numbers of 78 versus 119. Even the Aphrodite cabin had been pulled off the sidelines to keep it from being almost two to one. Numbers weren't the end-all be-all of course- the games against the Huntresses proved that in spades- but they did still merit significant strategic weight. And, she reminded herself, she didn't have the Huntresses to work with. They DID have Ry, Kiera, Ash, and Arthur, each of whom was a boon in and of themselves, but they would have to be used carefully. A thousand thoughts turned in her head as she sat with her breakfast, mulling over as many strategies and plans as she could in the time that she had, barely taking notice of anybody else entering the hall for the morning...

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

Alexander didn't say anything further. What on earth could he say? That he could sympathize? That he knew what Astrid was going through? That he did almost the exact same thing the first time he heard the sound of a bird larger than a pigeon outside? Such things wouldn't help right now. No, he reasoned with himself, he had nothing that could be said about that. So, when she walked past shivering in the rain, he almost absentmindedly shed his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.

"I'd like it back, when you think of it," he said to her, "No rush." And with that he was walking back inside. All of today's events had him in various degrees of unsettlement; he needed to spend a little time holding onto his knife.

Leviathan Fang

Should be nice, neat, and ready for review.

Annabeth

_{#Dialogue Colour | D |18 | Female}

Annabeth Velori
_{D
^{About a month of actual exposure}}

Magic Abilities

It's a little unusual, I'll give you that. My magic is a... sort of contract I have with a shadow spirit. His real name isn't really pronounceable, so I call him Orpheus. Anyway, he and I have a deal; I give him a little bit of my magical energy, and in return he does what I ask him to. Usually that means he manifests part of himself out of a nearby shadow, like his claws, his wings, or his mouth. It's not really a free pass for me though; Orpheus doesn't exist in our world except for where I open a gate for him, and being a from a world of blackness he has no eyes anyway, so he depends on mental instructions from me to actually do anything. Furthermore, he won't come if I can't muster or spare the magic to feed him. It's my understanding there's more I can do with him, as well as other spirits I could contract at the same time, but until I have more magical energy and better control over it I won't know what those are.

Skills and Work Experience

I had a fairly good upbringing. My family is a very minor offshoot of a noble family toward the east, so we did have some money but not much. Mostly I was taught to be a proper lady, whatever that means, but it did include some cooking and sewing. I'm not keen on becoming the full-time chef or seamstress for the Guild, but I'm happy to do my share!

Combat Experience

Well, I have been on one Mage Job before. It consisted of dealing with a couple of thugs that were... I believe "shaking down" was the term, any traders that passed along a popular road into the town in question. It was meant to be a tame, not even D-Rank mission. Unfortunately, that didn't quite hold out, and I had to try and defend myself against the leader brute who had somehow gotten himself a very simple but very potent magic. I didn't really do much except dodge and block and get batted around, but at least I can say I've experienced a live-fire situation!

I'm also decent with a sword, my father really wanted me to pick that up...

Reasons for Applying

Well... I've always wanted to be in a Mage Guild. My parents never really approved of me learning magic, so I did it in secret, and then when I turned 18 there wasn't really much they could do to stop me from bounding out the door to join one. The thing is... the first one I joined was a pretty well established one, and initially I assumed it would go well. Suffice to say it didn't. That job I mentioned above? It was under that guild. Again, supposed to be very light, something they said even a D-Rank could handle easily. They still had one of the B Ranks accompany me at a distance, for insurance mostly. Well, that was needed when it became clear I couldn't handle the leader myself, and he stepped in. But, when we got back to the Guild, he and the Guild leaders stiffed me all of the reward on the grounds that "You didn't deal with the threat, so why should you get the reward?" The nerve! As if the whole thing wasn't a direct result of THEIR lack of intel. Well, suffice to say, I washed my hands of them, and set out to find another Guild. Lo and behold that I should find one just starting out, which theoretically guarantees that there won't be any hierarchy shenanigans or pre-formed cliques to contend with this time around. Plus the name is just my style.

Why Should We Pick You?

Because if you say no I'll have Orpheus bite your ankles. I jest, of course, the decision is entirely yours.