Take a Break ~Open~

[Celeste Lydia Rose]

All of the cabins was supposed to be helping pick strawberries to either sell to the towns or have for dinner, and, being Head of Hades, Celeste was joining them per usual. Celeste she got along well enough with some of the other campers, she didn’t really follow their example, especially when it came to picking the strawberries. And she was growing tired from bending over so much and the sunshine beating down. Sure, the breeze was not bad, but still. It was also an excuse to take a break.

Shouting and Commanding the younger ones, had started to take its toll on her voice, when a silly little girl decided to throw a strawberry at Celeste, who had been yelling at her moments before, about being a slacker. It had been about 2 hours now, if the sun was keeping track, but she would doubt that it was in perfect time, maybe it had been a little longer than 2 hours. Celeste couldn’t believe the cheek of this insolent child, pulling out her little knife “Rise!” she hissed rising her hands from the ground to the sky, summoning a dozen Skeletons in front of the girl. The girl shrieked in terror, and bolted in the other direction 6 of the skeletons following suit. Celeste beamed at this little show of power, and made her other six disappear again, watching the reactions of all the other cabins. That’ll show them, do not mess with a child of Hades

Celeste carefully set down the two baskets full of strawberries down on the grass and slowly sat down, making sure she could still see everyone. One of the other Heads glanced over at her, but didn’t dispute her need for a rest. After all, she had been picking for well over 2 hours straight, and she had just summoned a bunch of skeletons. Celeste tugged on one of her hidden knifes, making sure it was in place, her blue eyes scanning out over the strawberry field, making sure that her skeletons weren’t doing any real harm.

[Alice Markus Connor]

"Impressive, completely unecicary, but impressive." Alice commented. The Daughter of Zeus was crouched next to a patch of strawberry plants on the other side of the field. Blood was streaming down her knuckles as she used her teeth to pull the thorns out of her hands. While it was true that Strawberry plants didn't actually have thorns, it was also true that this was camp half-blood and you never knew when you'd find the remnaints of a spell gone wrong. "And there ends my strawberry picking for the day..." She stood up abruptly, drawing looks from the campers around her. "Bad strawberries." She announced, stepped over an Apollo kid, and headed out of the sun.

Alice wandered along the edge of the field, absently wiping her bleeding fingers on her sweaty tank top and leaving blood smears. She was daughter of the sky god, which didn't really give her either an advantage or a disadvantage in the sun. But Alice had lived here for along time, and she was used to all kinds of extreme weather. Her pale skin was slightly burned, but aside from that she didn't react to the sun. Walking over to Celeste, Alice leaned up against a tree, nodding at the other girl. "You know exesive use of power for no reasons don't actually get you out of work, they just get you more."

[Celeste Lydia Rose]

Picking out a strawberry, Celeste ran her finger down it, making sure it was ripe, before she bit into it. Juice dripped down her lips, the fusion of sweet and sour made her shudder a tad bit. Celeste pulled the leaf out, and back into the basket, wiping it off her lips and face. The sun was beating down harder; the reflection of the metal buckets stung her eyes a little, so she turned her gaze up a little, so she still had everyone in sight. Celeste could still see her skeleton warriors chasing after the girl, dirt and mud had splattered all over her dress. At least she wasn’t shrieking anymore, that was a pretty big plus.

A voice interrupted her thoughts, and Celeste looked up for a moment, saw who it was, and then looked back at the field again. “It may, but this is too much fun. It just goes to show, that a little scary power here and there makes the work go faster. Have a look.” Celeste pointed to a group of girls, who were now rushing to grab every strawberry in sight. It put a grin on Celeste’s face, to see how a couple of animated skeletons could strike such fear into people. “Just a tip, use a cloth to pick the strawberry, that way you can’t get hurt.” Celeste added, when she saw all the blood stains on Alice’s top.

[Alice Markus Connor]

Alice raised her eyebrows. Using one hand to shade her eyes as she looked out and watched the dead guys chase the little girl around. Alice couldn't help but feel a little bad for the kid, everything was already completely overwhelming for the newbies without having reanimated corpses chasing after them. Although Alice also had the attitude that if you couldn't protect yourself then you needed to learn. Certainly no one had ever chased Alice around with skeletons... Becides, Alice was just as bored as Celeste. She nodded, "True. It does." She raised her hand and pointed at the lead skeleton. There was a crack of thunder, almost at the same time as a bright flash of lightning streaked from the clouds and and hit the lead skeleton, making it turn to dust. "You're right, it really does." Alice commented, straight-faced, as she walked over and sat down next to Celeste.

Celeste had been at camp about as long as Alice had. They'd never really been close, but Alice had nothing against the other girl either. The two of them were both part of the small group of half-bloods who were children of the big-three. Which had caused some friction over the years, but had also made power practice fun. Alice ran a hand through her black hair, pulling the static electricity caused by her lightning bolt out of her hair so that she didn't look like she'd just stuck her finger in a outlit. Eating a couple strawberries to get the taste of ozone out of her mouth, Alice shrugged and looked at her bloody hands again. "Yeah, when will I learn... satyrs never clean up after their battle... piping." She said sarcastically, sucking on one of her fingers then making a face at the combined tastes of blood and strawberry juice.

[Celeste Lydia Rose]

Celeste could feel the smile twitch at her lips, threatening to complete her face. At least the happiness of the Skeletons could be seen if you looked at her eyes close enough to see some change. Let off a little scaring here and there and Celeste’s reputation would blossom into a chaotic mess of fun. How this day couldn’t get any better, the sun was shining down, all the kids were picking strawberries, and she was just sitting down to watch. Celeste looked up at the darkened cloud, and watched as her main skeleton turned into ash at its comrade’s feet. Her face remained blank, but her eyes showed fury, the only reaction she showed on her body at this motion. “Chase who-ever isn’t working.” she hissed in their language, her knife glowing slightly before dimming. “What does it feel like, to electrocute things?” Celeste asked after a moment, her gaze going to the sky for a long moment. It was a curious thing, how the whole world feared Zeus’ power, more than her Father or Uncle.

Blood is thicker than water.... Celeste had to keep telling herself that, at every moment she was near one of her cousins. It was hard not to instantly hate some of them, too sugary sweet for her liking. But Celeste straggled on, knowing that sometimes people had to give in to get back. So Alice wasn’t hated, but she wasn’t a best friend either, to Celeste, family meant alot and so she valued her slight friendship with her cousin. Watching her out of the corner of her eyes, Celeste bit her lip a little; maybe things would change soon, all this friction would go away, and they’d be cousins... Yeah, and Hades controlled the sky. Celeste shook her head slightly, and smiled a little at Alice’s sarcasm. “Practice makes perfect, I would know firsthand, being here nearly a decade. Hmm, they do tend to slack off quite a bit, maybe a little lightening could liven them up?” Celeste put a slight smile on her face.

[Alice Markus Connor]

Noticing her cousin's well-hidden anger Alice watched her wearily as Celeste hissed something at the rest of her undead warriors, cautiously eyeing her blade as it began to glow. In Alice's experiance, glowing wasn't a good thing. Unless it was her own weapon. Glad that Celeste was changing the subject, she considered the other girl's question while watching a leftover spark jump between her fingers. Closing her hand and making the spark hiss softly before it died, Alice irritably blew her hair out of her face. "I don't know... I guess it's like a mix between sticking your finger in an electrical outlit and wearing fuzzy pajamas... fuzzy pajamas with thorns stuck in them." Alice though for a moment, tipping her head to one side. "But I don't really notice how it feels anymore. It's like a scar. It still sort of hurts but you don't notice." She started to smile, going off on another track. "Becides, it's sort of like sticking your finger in a socket in that it's amazingly fun." She grinned, slightly maniacly. Alice had never said she wasn't an adreniline junkie. It sort of just went with being a Zeus kid- the ability to try to get yourself killed daily and want more.

Alice had known Celeste for her entire life, at least her entire life at camp. And really, that was all Alice counted anyways. Unlike most half-bloods, Alice didn't find Hades kids morbid. Death was an accepted, normal part of life. Her early life spent at survivor camps in a no man's land had impressed that apon her. So she identified with her cousins, but naturally wasn't like them. Alice knew the tough side of life, and enjoyed being able to not think about it much. Leaning back on her elbows, Alice squinted up at the sky. The silence was semi-awkward and sort of stormy. But Alice liked storms, she was good at storms. Becides, eventually the two of them would have to settle their differences, right? Alice laughed at Celeste's next comment, grinning lopsidedly. "Yes, yes it does." Craning her neck to get a better view, Alice looked out at the people still working. 'Hmm... they do seem to be slacking." Wolf-grinning now, she sat up again and raised her hand. Consentrating on not frying anyone, Alice send several bolts of lightning down on the field, narrowly avoiding at least one camper. Aside from the several Aphrodite kids who stopped to yell at Alice because she'd messed up their hair, work ethic did seem to improve. Alice made a face and played with the leftover electricity on her hands. "You know, I think you're right."