You're guaranteed to run this town

“Flowers can not feel all the emotions we do, but they feel somethings to an extent. People like me, children of Demeter and even other people have known for centuries that flowers are more than just living greens to be eaten by cattle. That’s why it’s so popular to sing to them. Singing raises their spirits. They can even feel ill if not cared for.” Donna looked around at the grass. “Though grass is much more … simple thing. I’d worry more if you were laying on roses or lily’s.”

"Hm, I suppose that makes sense,” Marlow tilted her head to the side. Sure the other woman still seemed flighty, but that didn’t mean she was wrong. After all, she knew people that could almost mind control others. “Do people really sing to flowers? I haven’t heard of that.” Marlow could barely stand talking to other people sometimes, let alone singing to flowers. “More simple? You mean I shouldn’t be expecting to see you singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow to the grass anytime soon?” Marlow joked.

          sliding her sunnies onto the bridge of her nose, drew spared the brunette a sideways glance. “well, sweetums, it’s cute what you do for the attention, but mom really needs to go now, she has places to be.” by this point, drew wasn’t annoyed, not really. she was used to bickering with her siblings back when she was still at camp half-blood, and many of her conversations often still went sideways like this—immortal huntress or not. for some reason, some of her older campmates assumed that she would lose her teeth after staying celibate for two years. honestly, as if. she deserved a little more credit. with a slight smile, drew flicked her hair over her shoulder and walked away.

After her initial outburst of sass, the girl’s more agreeable reaction wasn’t exactly what Theo had been expecting, nonetheless the laugh that had come from her. Imagine how taken aback he was when she winked at him. Apparently he’d said something right…for once in his life. “Well that depends, If I’m supposed to call you ‘your majesty’ don’t you need a realm to rule over?” He didn’t get the particular feeling that this woman was all that kind, but he wasn’t one to pick fights either.

Marlow almost laughed and called the man cute. It was almost like he didn’t know that she was the queen bee. Placing a hand over her heart, Marlow couldn’t keep the smirk from creeping onto her face. "Oh, darling. New Rome is pretty much my realm. I’m the queen bee, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But if you don’t want to call me your majesty, then I suppose Marlow will do. It is my name, after all.”

The thermae were one of the few places Valentina could come to relax without any disturbance. Of course, most people went to the baths to actually bathe undisturbed, which obviously helped her achieve the zen-mood in which nothing bothered her. That day, however, the baths had been filled with kids from the city, who splashed around and generally annoyed her. She tried charmspeaking them, but their own lively energy and general unwillingness to listen made it too tiring and draining for Valentina to succeed in her persuasion. She’d moved from bath to bath, but they had been everywhere.

So she’d exited, determined to spend her free hours somewhere else. The rink, perhaps, or her barracks. She could shoo the other legionnaires out. Her plans, however, were messed with as soon as she stopped dead in her tracks to avoid running into her best friend. “ Marlow! Of course I’m not avoiding you, how could you even think that? ” Luckily, Valentina had tied her hair into a ponytail before entering the thermae, so she wasn’t wet at all. Marlow wouldn’t have appreciated a wet hug, and neither would she herself. “ Are you going to the baths? Don’t. It’s filled with children, ” she said, a disgusted expression on her face as she emphasized her final word.

Marlow had been itching to get out of New Rome since more people had started filtering in. People who hadn’t grown up in such a contained environment and came in acting like they owned the place. Marlow knew she could be rude, but this was a whole different kind of rudeness that she wasn’t ready to tolerate.

Still, a bright grin was on Marlow’s face as she saw the other girl. "Oh, I don’t know. Anything could be a reason for not seeing someone for a while. Sometimes I forget that you work!” Marlow wrinkled her nose a little as she mentioned it. She was thrilled that her mom still made enough money to support her even though she wasn’t living at home. The older girl let out an annoyed groan. “Oh gods, is it really? I wanted to relax today but that’s impossible to do with fucking children around. Where are you headed to then?”

What was it with all the irritable girls running around New Rome lately? Thankfully, Theo had the patience of a saint. Though that didn’t mean he was above some teasing. Besides, it wasn’t his fault godly genes tended to make one rather tall and able to block the sun. “Oh of course, your majesty. My mistake. Let me just go over to the plebeians breathing area. Or would you rather I just stop breathing all together ? Would that be better? Obviously my only wish is to serve you.”

This guy was rather interesting already and Marlow took the opportunity to sit up, perched her sunglasses on top of her head, and squinted at him. She shocked herself almost when a short laugh escaped her before she could stop herself. "Oh yes, the plebeians breathing area. It’s right over there,” she smirked and pointed off somewhere in the distance. “I don’t know, but if you keep calling me your majesty then your wished actually might come true,” Marlow winked. Sometimes she just couldn’t help herself.

          the girl physically looked older than she did, but in reality they would have been around the same age. drew had taken care to keep her skin young and clear when she was still mortal, and times like these she wished she looked older—she didn’t even look twenty-one in all honesty. “you could have just let me walk free and grit your teeth for the two seconds it would have taken for my shadow to pass over you, and now you’ve wasted both my time and yours. funny how life works, no?” she lingered there for another two seconds, just to tick off the brunette, and then turned to leave. 

Marlow could appreciate a challenge and this girl seemed like the perfect one. There was no fun in picking at weaklings who would probably cry or just leave when they got too worked up. Getting under people’s skin was one of her favorite past times, after all. "Oh but that’s two seconds of my very valuable life that I’ll never get back. I wish I could say the same for you, sweetie.” She couldn’t keep the smirk from her face as she watched the woman, waiting for a reaction.

Donna laughed softly and threw his hand. “Dear, of course they do. Flowers definitely have feelings and they feel happiness all the time.” She looked around, breathing in the fresh air. “It’s no wonder they’re happy, it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

Marlow raised an eyebrow at the other woman. Was she crazy? No use making an enemy with a crazy woman. "Where do they get the capacity to think and feel though? I’m just curious?” She tilted her head and raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun even more. “Yes, what a beautiful day indeed. No wonder the flowers are so happy?”

As the woman turned to look at him, he knew he made the wrong choice of asking her. She didn’t seem like the type to brush his request off if she wasn’t feeling it but she was the type to bitch about it. Her words made him pout and even as he felt attacked he had already decided not to cry about it. “If you don’t have anything nice to say, I will go now. Thank you for your time.” He told the other, trying his best to walk away from the other.

"Wow, I’m sorry, did I hurt your feelings,” Marlow rolled her eyes and waved her coffee around. The lid was the only thing keeping it from flying all over at this point, but she didn’t really care. “Why don’t you just steal the stupid pillows from your cohort if you need them so much?”

Marlow Acerbi was always one to be outspoken and a little bit of a social climber. No one would be shocked to find out that she would be friends with someone like Valentina. If anything, they would be shocked to learn that Marlow had offered to be a mentor to anyone in the first place. With her bad reputation for being self-centered and an outright bitch most of the time, she shocked even herself by offering to take the younger woman under her wing when she’d first gotten to camp. She’d even had a part in getting her into the fourth cohort but, of course, Marlow always had a plan and a reason for everything she did.

 It had been a while since she’d seen her younger friend, after all she was done with her years of service now and there was nothing to keep her in Camp Jupiter. The brunette saw the looks that people gave her when she walked past them. She wasn’t stupid at all. Still, she was a little shocked when she showed up to the Thermae and almost ran face first into someone. "Valentina! It’s been too long! If I didn’t know any better, I would think we were avoiding each other!”

Donna looked down at the woman and gave her a soft smile. “If I remember, tonight I’ll pray to Zeus that he separates the molecules in the air so you have your own personal cloud to breathe from. But before I do that, I just wanted to tell you how lovely the grass looks. Who takes care of it?” Donna looked around and noticed a few flowers here and there. “Flowers look well too. They seem happy.” For once, Donna wasn’t on the defense right away from the tone of the girl.

Marlow knew the woman was being sarcastic but she couldn’t keep the smirk from her face. "Oh, one could only hope that Jupiter would be so kind as to give me my own bubble.” She quirked a dark eyebrow at the woman and scoffed, “I don’t know. A groundskeeper maybe? I don’t really care about that kind of stuff.” She shrugged and rested her hands on her knees as she took a moment to stretch. “I mean, I don’t think flowers can feel happiness but sure if you say so.”

          drew stopped in her tracks, turning towards the offending brunette’s voice. “sorry did i disturb your cancer nap? did i ruin your plans to roll in the dirt undisturbed?”

"Actually you did. So if you wouldn’t mind moving along,” Marlow waved a dismissive hand at the woman. “It’s not affecting you anyway as far as I can tell.”

Collin’s big pillow fort party was coming up soon. The amount of pillows around his cohort wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the amount the people who would be arriving (Ira, Aurel, Kennedy, Maya, Theo, and Aurel did mention that he had invited Basil). He did hope they would come or else his expedition of searching for pillows would be for naught. But the more pillows the better, right? “Excuse me, is it alright if I could borrow some pillows this weekend?” He had asked the first person who had passed by him.

Marlow sipped her coffee as she stared down the boy in front of her. What the hell kind of question was that? "Excuse me? You just walk up to someone and ask to borrow pillows? Who taught you how to interact socially so that I can punch them in the throat.” She took another sip of her coffee as she rolled her eyes.

“Did you think I was him?” The question was asked in as polite a tone as he could muster, but Basil was hurt by the possibility of anyone taking him for Octavian, even from afar. Sure, he was wearing the same toga the former augur had, and maybe the way they held themselves was similar, but every Roman soldier should have impeccable posture.

“I’m sorry if I startled you.” He walked closer to the entrance of Jupiter’s temple, where he had been praying until then. “If you wish to be alone here for a while, I’ll be happy to wait outside until you are done. If you were looking for counsel however, may I offer my services ?”

If there was one thing Marlow hated, it was showing any kind of weakness. Still, she liked to go and pray to Venus every once and a while just for the hell of it. The words of the individual snapped her out of her thoughts. Eyeing him up and down, she rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, you two were practically twins. I was distracted, not blind.” 

“You didn’t startle me. It takes more than that to scare someone with 10 years under their belt,” she raised an eyebrow. “What kind of services can you possibly offer to me?”