SHOTGUN.

      so, it wasn’t his brightest idea, really. a statement that could easily be said about most of minsoo’s ideas, in actuality. but he’d easily argue that adrenaline for defeating this BEAST was pushing him to take immediate action. and, of course, by defeating, he actually meant staring in awe from an incredibly safe (and hopefully) unnoticeable distance. his escape plan was… admittedly flawed, seeing as, upon further thought, it wasn’t even NEEDED, given his current (and bizarre) status as the ra for the hermes house.       but minsoo was never actually known for his intelligence, surprisingly enough.       which was why, beyond all reason, he was currently hanging out of his bedroom window. and well, most definitely, stuck. not really in the traditional sense of actually being stuck in a window, but like… there was no way he could safely jump down without breaking one of his (incredibly weak) ankles. he realized he could easily just head downstairs and walk out the front door at this point, but he was too dedicated to the task at hand. “psst,” he whispers to the other delinquent passing by. “i’ll give you ten bucks to catch me,” he offers, waggling his eyebrows obnoxiously.

        she’s sent her ( ill advised, badly thought out ) text to as many demigods as she could, and freddie’s hauling her reluctant self to the weaponry instead of doing the sensible thing and just waiting indoors. still, there’s one silver lining to this entire situation — her abilities have been surprisingly stable for the past few hours since the announcement. she hopes it’s more attributable towards the whole ‘performing well under pressure’ thing, and not of the ‘children of ares thrive in dangerous situations’ sort. she’s not sure she wants to find out which it is, but she’ll take the advantage either way.

        though, going back to sensible things...

        minsoo is just hanging out of the hermes house. which is neither sensible nor logical; he’s skinny enough to just back up and leave through the front door, she’d guess. and yet almost all of his torso is just jammed through his window, like an assistant in an ill fitting magicians box. she spots him about the same time as he spots her, and their eye contact makes her snort an unexpected laugh. trust him to get up to his antics while the rest of the campus is in a frenzy.

        many demigods are, for known reasons, eternally restless. a message obviously meant to settle them does nothing at best, and could only spur the rest of the students, many of whom are used to quests and battles, into action. that is, there are probably some kids dumb enough to try taking on the drakon, eonia advisory be damned. she’s pretty sure half of them are going to be from her cabin, and the other half might end up just going solo. all of them stupid as fuck, but so is she, so.

[ text → broadcast ] meet inside weaponry if ur gonna fight the drakon

        she considers a second, i’ll feed u to the drakon if u snitch warning, but decides against it. better not be an asshole to people who might need help and vice versa. freddie hasn’t done this in a while, just messing around in battle classes with the handful of skills she’d picked up as a child. she’d definitely rather not do this, avoid accomplishing acts that would make ares proud, but it’s safer if she manages to gather all the would-be heroes ( victims ) of the drakon. strength in numbers, after all.

        opening the doors to the weaponry, she heads straight to her long unused broadswords. they’re still well-balanced and familiar to the touch; whoever’s in charge of the upkeep of the weapons has maintained them in excellent condition. despite her absolute lack of practice, her dual broadswords return to her hands like old friends; freddie tosses the one in her left hand and catches it easily.

when freddie texted her about learning how to meditate, jia almost laughed out loud when she read it. after all, she wasn’t really someone who liked to sit still when she could spend her time online shopping or making something. but because she was such a good friend, maybe they could do this together and maybe they’d both learn something out of this. because of freddie, she had downloaded a few meditation apps that might work, and brought a few of the candles from her room ( she usually lights some vanilla or lavender candles because they smell good and help her concentrate with homework ).

after preparing herself with some google searches and her supplies, jia was ready to go over to the ares cabin. she’d been there a couple of times before to visit and hang out with freddie, so she knew about how loud and noisy the ares kids could be. sitting beside freddie after lighting one of her candles, she answered, “of course it has to be on the floor. it’s rigid, firm, and it’ll help you focus. yes freddie, close your eyes, don’t sleep, and focus on your breathing.”

scrolling on her phone, she read out what the instructions were saying and set the timer. “so i’m going to put the time for 30 minutes, okay? not sure if you could sit through that long but we’ll see…”

        she snorts when jia refutes her suggestion and climbs up on her bed anyway. “yeah, of course it has to be on the floor, eh?” the daughter of aphrodite had been the most obvious choice, with the two opposing forces of their parents’ domains, but considering said parents’ histories together... maybe she was a little off base. also, jia’s obviously reading off an hastily googled article on meditation.

        at least she has nice candles. freddie leans over to take in a bit of the lavender one, then leans back and nods like she knows what’s going on. “smells good,” she approves, then compliantly slides off her bed and onto the floor, resuming the same position. “please, i could.” what’s thirty minutes to her? she’s trained for hours longer than that. she’s sat ( slept ) through boring three hour long lectures. meditation is going to be a piece of cake.

        ...or not.

Great, Joon Woo thought themself, another Bad Day.

The demigod was running on fumes after spending three nights studying for their calculus-based physics test. Seriously, who assigns a test right at the beginning of the semester? It didn’t really matter, though, since Joon Woo received the results today and the grade sent his already crappy mood plummeting further. The combination of exhaustion and stress was making it hard to contain his hydrogenesis.

The rain around him was coming down—hard. It didn’t hit Joon Woo (perks of being Poseidon’s kid), but watching how the raindrops ricocheted off the concrete path told him the water was slamming down like bullets.

That can’t be good, Joon Woo distantly thought to themself.

Suddenly, a loud crash resounded from above him. Joon Woo’s head shot up, gaze landing on a window, glass shattered and rain forcing its way inside. The power-summoned storm seems to have gotten a bit out of hand. But that isn’t what makes Joon Woo’s blood turn cold.

That’s the Ares House.

Oh gods, that can’t be good.

        it’s been a shit day.

        never the fuck mind some snooty athena prof looking down his nose at freddie for being a child of ares, like she didn’t get to law school on her own ( and not her damn dad’s! ) merit, or the forgotten joint that, more than just going to waste, completely failed to help her rein in her anger, or one of the kids stinking up the entire place and then getting into trouble for training with a weapon that shouldn’t even have been on campus grounds with no RA in sight, leaving freddie to deal with the situation herself. the worst, most heinous fucking thing to be happening right now? it’s raining in the cabin. on her goddamn laptop. 

        her fucking money.

        not that she doesn’t have any, gods know her mum could easily spring for another one, but her hard drive is definitely fucked and she didn’t have the discipline to regularly back that shit up. maybe one of the hephaestus kids could help, but gods. it’s obviously some dumb kid’s idea of a prank, one she could probably knock some sense into with a few foul words and genetically ingrained bitch face. she’s pissed, sure, but she isn’t going to go bang heads over something like that, as much as she’s itching to. forget disappointing herself, she’d probably make ares proud, which is a whole different level of horrifying. that’s not happening.

        then someone screams, and it’s far too close for comfort, too close to following the sound of breaking glass that she immediately knows one of her kids is hurt before the rest come running. calla practically breaks the door down, small lacerations across her forearm where she must have tried to shield her face. she’s equal parts furious and terrified, and freddie follows the younger girl out without a word. most of the ares cabin managed to avoid the damage on instinct, but a couple of them have pieces of broken window shrapnel stuck in them. “calm down, hey! bring them to the fucking med centre, dumbasses!” her siblings are pissed but more protective of their own, and they move quickly.

        it’s 2am. or midnight. possibly four in the morning. her phone died a little after eleven and she can’t be fucked to get up and charge it when that would waste a precious two minutes that she could spend memorising a couple of pages of this shitty textbook written in the ‘70s. freddie goes down head first into the pages of her textbook. “gods, kill me,” she mutters.

        she raises her head to glare at the equally frantic, far more productive hanbyeol across the table. their only saving grace is that they’re studying completely different subjects and thus could never be each other’s competition; her genetically unnecessary need to win would never be able to stand studying with the other boy otherwise. she’ll still bet her ass it’s the fact that he’s drunk twice the amount of redbull than she has that keeps him alive and debatably sane. if she could, she’d chug another can, but her stomach’s fighting with her head for most overworked organ and puking her guts out should be kept for after finals, preferably in a house party and not an unknown corner of the eonia library. gods save her. gods kill her. either one is fine. why did she figure out the academia thing right before graduation?

        and she’s wasting time wallowing in her misery, but this is the fourth time freddie’s gone over the textbook and she could probably recite the entirety of chapter eight ( it’s a short one, a little over thirty pages ), so maybe she could take a break? sike, it’s less than ( unknown due to dead phone ) number of hours to her finals and she hasn’t even started on those damned practice papers. speaking of—

(...)

even though she never really talked to freddie pan, are’s daughter had a reputation that preceded her. at all those summers at camp half-blood when they were younger, jia had watched as freddie was the typical embodiment of an ares child, a walking storm that tore apart people everywhere she went. jia had heard rumors that freddie pan had mellowed out, but she didn’t want to deal with the consequences if she was wrong. as she spotted the other girl, jia didn’t realize she was staring a second too long until she realized that their eyes met. immediately looking away, she quickly took a seat in the front, making sure she was as far away from freddie as possible.

fast forward to three minutes later, and jia found herself moving in the direction of the one person she didn’t want to work with in the entire class. of all the people she could have worked with, it just had to be HER. maybe it would be okay, jia thought, she could just do the whole entire project by herself and they would just meet for a few minutes and get something out. sitting down next to freddie, she quickly said her piece before she could receive any of the expected fire. “- look, i can do the entire project by myself, so we don’t have to do anything together. the dish is due next week, so it’s plenty of time for me to make it. got it?” 

        she’s well aware of her reputation. there’s a good section of eonia’s student body that saw her through her teenage angst and anger, and a subsequent number of those who are absolutely terrified of her. freddie isn’t the same trigger happy, off the rails person she was as a teen, but a giant slacker who’s just somewhat passing her classes is only a marginally better thing to be known for. it’s not like she’s discouraging it with her actions; she turned up to this class halfway through to catch the tail end of the coursework, when the food was almost done. ( thank you, wonderful classmate who lets her sponge off her delicious creations. )

        “‘s good as hell,” she’s saying, and the prof is discussing something she can’t quite hear over the sounds of her own chewing. anissa elbows her, whispers, “actually pay attention, fred, this project’s like 30% of our grade.” freddie just takes another obnoxiously big bite of the savoury pie, but she does straightens up to sort of listen. she catches someone’s eye as she does, but the other girl quickly turns away and freddie’s too occupied with trying to steal one more slice of anissa’s pie for dinner to worry about it.

        it’s no big deal — she did take intro to culinary arts just for the free food, and the assignment’s just to whip up a dish that manages to incorporate the basics of whatever they’ve learnt. the more things they stick into it, the better, which sounds like a recipe for disaster if freddie’s honest. the only problem is that it’s a group project, which means freddie can’t just throw together the world’s worst tasting meal to hit all of those skills and get herself a C. she’s not that much of an asshole that she’d let someone just drown by themselves for their grades, though that seems to be what her new partner seems to think she’s gonna do.

        it’s friday and the day is winding down, readying itself for the weekend. freddie is tucked away in one of the alcoves in the communal area, tired and content and buzzed just enough to not want to fight anyone. there’s a six pack of beer at her feet open for anyone who wants one, as per her irregular, somewhat weekly routine. though, there’s an empty one crushed on her left and a newly opened one in her hand so not everyone’s gonna manage to get a free beer.

        there’s a familiar lilt to one of the voices floating around her and freddie looks up, raising an eyebrow in greeting when the other girl makes to sit. seungah’s not exactly an old friend, but a familiar one — they’ve got more similarities than she cares for in the form of shit dads and needlessly competitive personalities, two things that freddie tries to smother over. still, her company is comfortable and her rants entertaining and relatable. she’s not the sort of friend freddie would be terribly protective of, but she’s certainly one she’d seek out if she needs to cuss her dad out, which is a whole different level of friendship too.

        the tiles of the cabin’s roof are still warm to the touch, leftover heat from midday radiating through thin cotton that’s meant to be cooling but is currently doing a bang up job of making her too damn warm. freddie takes a drag off the joint, smoke washing over the minor grievances that’ve been plaguing her through the day. the music is muffled but still audible from inside the cabin itself, some kind of indie frat house music mash-up, unfortunately. at least up here there’s no one to really disturb her peace — the crush of bodies against hers can be distracting in tempting ways, but she’s still partial to being left the hell alone.

        or not; someone’s head pops up, cheeks flushed with inebriation. “freddie!” ( she doesn’t recognise them. ) “we’ve been waiting for you!” ( who’s we? ) “can i join you?”

        “eh, sure,” she calls; they’ve got a redeeming feature in the bottle of rum they’ve brought up with them. she still doesn’t recognise them, but it’s not like she owns this particular roof. freddie uses the joint to direct them to her left, then holds it out when they settle in. “wanna trade?” they look way too young, probably a freshman who’s taken her wonky reputation a little too seriously, from the way they’re sneaking nervous little looks at her. “chill, it’s fine,” she tells them, which doesn’t seem to help at all, but at least they accept her offer.

        freddie tips the bottle up for a couple of mouthfuls, passes it back to the kid next to her. it takes barely a moment for the alcohol to mix with the rest of it in her system. good shit. her vision goes blurry and bright, everything slowing down. “hey,” she tilts towards them and unbalances herself, “watch this—”

        she must be really high if she feels like she’s flying right now. falling right now?

(...)

Tonight, Mae found herself in Eonia’s stables again. It was a little too early to bug Chiron about how her equine friends back at Camp were doing, so she took solace in the company of her new friends. Though they were not the horses who carried her and her friends through quests and battle, she’d known them well enough by now to fall back into an old routine, serenading them through a (mostly) nightly grooming session.

Mae knew she couldn’t get away with it forever  — there were no curfews or harpies keeping everyone in their beds — but even that foresight didn’t prepare her for the sudden sound of footsteps cutting her song short. It was too late to slip into one of the stables and hide; she’d been too distracted, too caught up in the moment, to notice someone was coming. With an inhale, exhale, Mae turns away from the horse persistently nuzzling her hair to acknowledge the demigod with a nod, the curt gesture communicating a silent plea to pretend that they heard nothing.

        there are still reminders of her parentage that creep up over her, a restlessness that settles in even after a long gym session that’s supposed to tire her out completely. freddie finds herself gravitating towards the demeter dorms as usual, when she needs something, someone to ground her, but mae isn’t around. maybe they’re getting old and predictable; the demeter kid who sees her come in barely flinches, just shrugs and tells her that their cabin’s resident advisor isn’t around, and freddie immediately knows where her friend is. to be fair, no one in the demeter cabin’s going to be too scared of someone they see every other day, likely just passed out in their RA’s room — the kid waves at her when she leaves, even, unbothered that she’s off to find their older half-sister. freddie squints at them and decides its probably not worth it to terrorise them.

        ( spite and spite alone keeps her a decent person, really. )

        she hears mae before she sees her, and that’s a compliment she wouldn’t bestow on the menaces that are the children of apollo. the stables are a familiar haunt, one where she knows her friend feels the most at ease; for freddie, it’s slowly becoming wherever mae is, so she guesses she better get used to the smell of the stables. though, with the grumpy, annoyed state she’s in, freddie’s more likely to spook the horses than calm them. she hesitates — she doesn’t really want to ruin mae’s peace. but one of the mares snorts at her and mae stops singing, so freddie just has to grump her way out of hiding.

        she’s not sure she should be subjecting jia to the entirety of the ares cabin ( no matter how empty it’s been lately ), but freddie’s hoping something about the calm, peaceful scents and sounds that’ll be emanating from her room soon will help the rest of her siblings to chill out a little. getting everyone to relax isn’t likely, but not having a shouting and/or shoving match with the neighbouring cabins every few hours sounds like a good compromise. plus, she’s the one who brought it up, anyway; it’s only fair that they use her room.

        not that she knows anything concrete about meditation, other than nice smelling shit and lofi music. it just seems like a better, more long term method of handling her emotions than throwing various substances to mask them, and she’s got a fairly reliable teacher in jia. so, everything added up, meditation ( or what she thinks it is ) should be somewhat successful.

ok first off i didn’t remember anything about ares other than big sunglasses bigger douchebag & the pjo wiki just kinda confirmed that so idk

her mama is a prolific family lawyer who deals w stuff like divorce & inheritance rights bc ares loved family feuds HAH she’s not an annoying military brat, she’s an annoying lawyers kid! now studying law so the annoyance is doubled!

anyw rough timeline/tldr goes: put in camp halfblood at age 9 bc mama was paranoid, unclaimed until about 12 when ares was like hahA sucker if i claim her she can’t get away (+ she was starting to grow into some attractive powers yikes), tbh an awful lil terror while she was eager to get her dad’s praise/attention but as she got older she got a lot more disillusioned w how the gods treated their children and less interested in ‘supporting’ her father, now she’s just chilling and making sure her siblings r gonna b ok and not subjected to the same shitty upbringing

a side effect of her odikinesis is that she’s just Very Angry All The Time, which is why she was so awful when she was younger and she cancels it out rn with anything that dulls the senses (weed, usually, but alcohol/nicotine works too)

that’s it tbh she’s just a reformed ares kid!

plots

chaotic gang of ‘black sheep’ kids, occasionally plotting ways to terrorise their parents, optional support group for my parent is an asshole :(

idk which cabin would be the fun weed cabin but someone b her supplier lmao

camp halfblood friends who used to be terrified of her OR proud of her growth OR still terrified of her OR fellow unclaimed kids who stuck together OR any other possible connection u could want heh

ride or die/partner in crime yknow (probably around her age! also prob needs a lil bit of plotting)

she still has some easy triggers for her anger & congrats! one of them is you!

maybe someone who wants to learn combat from her? she’s def dicking around in easy peasy sword fighting 1 classes so she’s all set up to tutor someone w no experience

can someone teach her mediation or something : ) anger management pls

nuts to say this but she’s actually a good mediator now that her ability’s focused on decreasing instead of increasing hatred! so maybe someone she helps calm down (and vice versa rls r a two way street!)

fake roommates aka she just crashes in ur room when the ares kids get on her nerves too much & vice versa (i’m just sad i can’t have oh my god they were roommates)

some friends pls :(

something based on any of these songs/vibes: pink lemonade (unresolved feelings/exes), summertime magic (a fling!), do better (slacker buds), me and my friends are lonely (emo buds), alright (rebel/reformed kids), get better (wholesome friends motivating each other to be better), lit anything by jacob banks for some angst, california friends (frenemies ig?), pink in the night (fumbled first love), 红衣女孩 (something fierce & terrifying?)