& * 𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐄 !

The thing about Viktor’s temper was that, while explosive, it was also short-lived. He wasn’t the type to hold grudges, so when Genaro approached him, he didn’t show nearly as much animosity as he had during their first encounter. The Russian wasn’t sure what that was on the plate, but he did recognize the alcohol and went straight for it without any preamble, his fist closed around the neck. His back leaned flat against the tree behind him, and he shrugged. “I don’t have any bucket.” Why would he need a list for more of them? 

The scratch of the other’s nails down his back came like streaks of lightning. Credence, shocked, let out another cry that definitely echoed in a rich quiver throughout the entire library.

Well, he can’t help it now, can he? Gritting his teeth, he looked down at the sight below him and marveled. Genaro, lips stretched and glistening around his cock, was a painting of lust. “Fuck, you’re so beautiful.” Credence tautened his hold on those dark locks and bucked his hips up again – hard, rough, enough to coax a sound from the other. The pleasure was dizzying. He may had been gentle before but they’d left gentleness behind, hadn’t they? It was all fire now, all storm. When the pleasure ebbed back like a tide, Credence clenched his teeth and pulled on the other’s hair once more, carrying himself further in. This time, he intended to sheathe the entirety of his cock within that velvety heat.

For a brief moment Genaro thought about using magic to muffle Credence’s mouth without having to reach up and grab him. That only lasted a moment thought since the more he thought about it, the more he enjoyed the risk.

With the added force from Credence’s hands and the push and pull of his body, Genaro gagged around the cock while it hit the base of his throat and his lips made contact with the base. He looked up with a wink as he did so, as a way to say that he was enjoying even losing some of the control. His tongue swirled around the man’s shaft as his head twisted around it. Muffled moans ended up escaping before he placed a hand on Cred’s torso, pushing him back on the aisle. It was far enough for him to push away as well, tongue licking up the head as a final attempt to please him. “Enough, I’m in control here, remember?” 

“oh, no. the guys who held the big challenge were over two hundred years old, i think? they didn’t look it in the least bit but yeah. if i need to leave the camp for anythin’, i should probably head back there and see what they’re up to. maybe see if they can teach me some more stuff….” who better to learn from than the disciples themselves? he was sure they had plenty more to teach him, especially since they’d been doing the whole ‘challenge at the coliseum’ thing. it was definitely something to put some serious thought into. he liked those guys and he was pretty sure those guys liked him. “oh, yeah, there’s always somethin’ to get into around this place. you just have to keep lookin’. i’m sure there’s stuff here that guys like me who’ve been here the longest haven’t even found yet.”

“ some legends say that after you die you end up being frozen either at the time of death or your prime state. then again, our parents are probably thousands of years old and they don’t look it either. there’s much to learn from two sides of the same coin. i’m sure they have some interesting techniques. “ especially if they were around for hundreds of years before keaton. it was interesting to see that there were places, even outside of mount olympus, that gathered around the different heirs. genaro pondered if there were other locations where specific legacies felt drawn to. less of a melting pot and more of a litter. “ the mysteries of the undiscovered is sometimes what makes people the most excited. there’s always a chance of bumping into something new, even if you’ve walked the same path several times. i’m quite excited for it. “ 

“ I mean, it’s a thought. ” He granted Genaro the blessing of not breaking down and having a panic attack at this moment but it’d be something he’d certainly chew on moving forward. Nervous that there was a potential that he was not of his family, an identity he had only recently shed for something so hollow and frail.

“ I’ve noticed that too for myself. I have fairly decent vision in the dark, but not much else yet in terms of power. ” Genaro seemed so intrigued about the powers, the endless possibilities of what it meant to be a demigod. “ Houses? Like Harry Potter? ” 

“ There’s going to be too many questions to answer right away. “ Even though he was still fairly new around Mount Olympus, Genaro knew that much. If he gave into his thoughts twenty-four seven, then he didn’t know just how useful he would end up being to the rest of the demigods. Even now he found his mind slipping about other people’s powers, the way that their magic worked.

“ I guess it’s different for every person. There are now four of us that are connected to the night all through our mothers, yet no one is quite the same. “ He shrugged his shoulders, not expecting to get too deep into it for Antonio’s sake. “ If you want to view it like that, sure. Each house seems to stand for a role, but the personalities are all so different in each one. “ 

𝐎𝐇, 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃. the first thing kite notices are the bags beneath genaro’s eyes - but the last thing the son of hephaestus was about to do was cast stones from his glass house. 

instead, his eyes move down to the paper slid to him, eyebrows creasing in thought. 

“hmm… to blend technology and magick… a taboo that has crumbled entire empires.” his teeth flash in a crooked smile, “is this because of that door in the lake? i admit, the thought of something so vast emptying right out under our noses does not sit well with me, either…”

𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒, 𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐎 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐃. although that could have been the fact that genaro had been trying his best to connect as many thoughts as he could when it came to how powers worked.

was he really the one to make sure that kite was eating a couple of days ago? hysterical. 

Yves recalls the night of the casino a year ago, or was it longer? Time was hard to tell at this point. “Sort of. Wasn’t worth the money though. I usually donate most of mine, have nothing else to hoarde them for, but the natives here have some uses.Like, they finally managed to get some electricity in here.” Yves comes closer, leaning against the fence right alongside Genaro. “You’re that bored, huh?”

"Not even some of the items that the allies seem to sell?” Genaro perked his brows as he looked over at Yves. While he knew that he wasn’t going to do anything again, he had to wonder how they were in the past. “That’s definitely something I’m going to look into though. The more money they have, the more resources for everyone, right?“ It was just like politics or any other cooperation. Money made the world go round. “Just trying to see how all of the systems work. I guess it’s boredom mixed with an inquisitive mind.“

   Mystery was enticing to anyone but with Wren the journey of discovery for him was what he relished; which with Genaro that was the case too. The son of Hecate was a lot of things on the surface. Clearly handsome, a silver tongue which Wren accounted to the silver spoon he was born with, and the deepest of eyes that would swallow him if he met them for long. Genaro was another run of the mill boy who enchanted him, yet he wasn’t like any mortal and that part of him lent to his mystery; his possibilities. Like a hook curled in his cheek, Wren shyly dips his chin down to conceal a smirk at how good he felt right now—”Not hard time but maybe an apathetic one?” it was the first word that pressed against his tongue. “Everyone has been here for so long, that I’m not sure how to find my space there yet—” speaking of space, he perked up having a thought pop in his head. “Remind me to take you to the planetarium sometime. That’s pretty much the coolest place in Mageia.” if not the whole camp.

   “Don’t feel bad, anything that’s survived for decades has a chance of becoming redundant of itself. Stereotypes don’t just fall out of the sky.” they are made, hearing his mother’s voice speaking to him; Amelia had opinions of frat boys Wren had dated in the past…”Thank you.” accepting Genaro’s offer, taking his bite and tilting back not to let any of it fall. Licking his lips from the sweetest his just took, Wren followed up with a rolled piece of prosciutto to offer the demigod. His eyes flit to Genaro’s mouth before speaking, “I do have a few songs on spotify but it’s nothing crazy.” he was being modest, music reflected as much pride in Wren as it did vulnerability, “—I’m a bit sad I had to walk way from it, the music…university…I had planned to become a child therapist, sing at a coffee shop, and marry young but.” looking around, where he was, he playfully shrugged, “I guess I’m on a new path now.” and it was one he was beginning to accept. 

   So far Wren was proving to be many things and for someone that enjoyed figuring people out, connecting the dots, Genaro was tapping into more of that every day. The first day they met he saw the wide eyed Wren, the one that enjoyed the idea of simply being able to perform magic and was excited by it, drawn to it. Then on the night of the yule ball he saw another version of him, one that was fun on the dance floor and wanted to let loose. Now, he was getting more into who Wren was in the past, like people in his college, but also how that connected to who he was at Mount Olympus. “If there’s not space already set aside for you, then you make one yourself.” Genaro moved his left hand to rest on the man’s knee, taking a break from the food that was spread out for them. “Don’t let others push you into a corner when the whole sky is yours. you’re going to be a constellation one day, soaring high and free.” A soft smile spread onto his lips. “That sounds amazing. If you think it’s the coolest place, then I’m sure that there are a lot of beauties within it.” 

“Sure, there’s plenty of offline games for it. Plus if I need a wifi connection for any reason, I just go to Oslo for a few hours and use it there. There’s a nice cafe in town that does grey coffee and they have free wifi.” Grey explained with a casual shrug. He didn’t know if getting an internet connection at camp was possible, but he just liked being able to charge his electrical devices without issue. Had Grey done his best? Well since then he believed he had but during that invasion of camp he knew he hadn’t. He’d been a coward who’d missed the whole fight after getting hit hard. Since then he’d grown however and wouldn’t let himself be like that again. “It’s definitely tough and I still feel there’s a lot to learn from each quest we go one.” Grey nodded. “I love animals, always have.” He smiled. 

“Oh that actually does make a lot of sense! Plus, seeing people outside of just those here at camp can always be a relaxing thing.“ Although that might have only been for Genaro. Studying people was as informative as studying a book. “That’s good that you get a chance to play again though. You’ve must have been without it for a long time.” Everyone needed their own form of escape for being at Mount Olympus, at least for what the young demigod had seen. He wondered if everyone’s distraction was as simple as getting the chance to play video games. “Yeah, I can definitely see where you’re coming from. You don’t really know how you’ll act until you’re staring something straight down in the face.” Genaro had realized that he liked to push himself too far, so he tried to shrug that off. “The camp could always use some more cute animals too. Although every animal is cute in my opinion.” 

He hadn’t even considered that the family he was with, wasn’t truly his own. “ I… uh. ” Antonio stumbled at the thought of his life being a lie. “ I mean, I look very much like my Dad. It could just be a damn coincidence though but I think i’m at least his. ” He would really never know now, unless he could ask the goddess of the moon herself. 

“Is there now, like what? ” Call Antonio intrigued but his little smoke display wouldn’t be enough to have him interested. If he really was the son of the moon, he was expecting powers to mimic. “ So far all I got is nebula smokes. ” The mead still sat in his stomach, ambrosia rumbling itself for the most miserable day that Ant wasn’t really expecting. 

Genaro bit down on the tip of his tongue when he realized that the question he posed was too pensive for someone who just got to camp. He shook his head slightly and tried his best to undo any headaches he could have caused. “ A lot of people stayed with their other birth parent! Maybe something about him gravitationally pulled your mother. ” Sometimes he wondered what Hecate saw in his own father.

“ Depends on the person, I guess. I know that I can still see out in the darkness and see glimpses of the future if I focus hard enough. “ His eyes followed the trail of smoke produced by Antonio, as easy as breathing. “ Maybe the demigods descended from night goddesses are able to do combo moves? I think there’s almost one of us in every house. “ 

The other’s words sat hollow against his bones, the wane and wax of his powers would follow the moon’s trajectory. “ i’m sure it is. ” antonio nods as he finds himself closer to the lake of lost souls, his eyes curiously spanning the length of the pool curious if he may be able to pull the tides as his godly parent did on her axis.

Antonio let out an irritating burst of laughter, the type that is uncouth for a young man of his stature. With a last name like Luna, it only had been fitting for all of this to be directly in front of his face without it hitting him directly from the coincidences. “ Well, considering my name is Antonio Luna, I suppose there really isn’t much doubt that i’m a child of the night, huh. ” He sighs, the realization would perhaps feel better at another time. 

A part of Genaro knew that exploring your powers could get tricky. One of the ones that he wished he never connected with, at least not so headfirst, was the part of magic that connected him tot he afterlife. Some questions were better left unanswered. For now, he’d try his best to focus his energy outwardly. 

The laugh brought a soft smile to his face, at least Antonio didn’t seem like he hated everything about this yet. “ It really was under your nose this whole entire time. Do you think the family you were placed with knew about what was going on then? ” He didn’t know if Selene was the type to specifically go for people with a lineage close to the moon, but he wouldn’t put anything passed these gods. “ There are a lot of cool pros about being connected to the night around here. ” 

“you know what,” he called out over the music before using the grip he had on the other to pull him even closer. their bodies were almost flushed against each other as they continued to dance to the music and ender was still slowly losing himself to the feeling of it all. the music, the booze, the drugs, the company… “let’s not talk about that.” his eyes glanced over the other’s face as he smiled at him with a smile that was perhaps a bit too lose and intoxicated. “i’d much rather be here with you and not think about anything right now. just–” he paused to gather his words. “i just want to feel.”

for someone who hid a lot of things in his life, at least when he was back in new york, he knew what that looked like. although ender was a grown man though and he wasn’t going to pry. this wasn’t really something that he pictured himself doing after getting to camp, but he wasn’t going to complain. there wasn’t going to be a politician mother looking at all of his actions or cameras flashing in his face. “are we not going to talk at all then?” he asked before he continued to dance along with ender, moving his hands up to rest on the man’s shoulders. could this man get drunk?

“Crazy right? It was definitely an adjustment for most of us, me especially. I practically survived on my laptop and switch before coming here.” Grey chuckled, aware that he’d been addicted to those things likely an unhealthy amount but he’d gotten quite some perspective since being forced to live without for so long. Now he didn’t take for granted the fact he got to enjoy both again. “Yeah, I thought I would honestly when I first got here and you get told all about questing and battles and stuff. And I did have an incident where I froze in battle…Not my shining moment.” Grey admitted, rubbing the scar that ran from his neck down across his shoulder and pec where the ogre had cut into him with its huge axe when the camp had been attacked. It was the closest Greyson had ever been to dying, that and the ballet dancer wraith who had decomposed him. The son of Apollo shook off the memories so as not to get bothered by them before smiling once more, a little fainter than previously. “Yeah, I don’t know where I’d be without either of them, they’ve both helped me so much.”

“Do you get a chance to go on it now? I know that electricity doesn’t exactly mean that there’s WIFI around here, but I also don’t know if some of the games on switch can be played without a connection.“ Genaro thought about how he couldn’t really use his phone much. Sure, he got a chance to charge it, but with the outside world forgetting him it wasn’t like he had a data plan or internet to go off of. Even though it wasn’t supposed to be funny, there was a small smile that formed on his face when Greyson said he had a moment that wasn’t so shining. For the son of Apollo, that was hard to believe in more ways than one. “I’m sure that you did the best that you could though and that’s what matters, right? Things around here get extremely hectic very quickly. There was one time where I got really distracted on the outside.” Although it mainly just came in the form that he forgot everything about the mission and just started to dance. That was something that was engraved into his memory and one of the things pushing him to focus. “It shows that you care about them too! You’re real good with them.”