No Abhorrence of Danger... (Private - Romulus/Leandra)

To say that Leandra did not want to be here was an understatement. In fact, it was probably the understatement of the century. She was pacing back and forth in the training area like a caged animal, nervously holding onto the handle of her gladius like a lifeline. Her other arm was wrapped around her stomach trying to quell the nausea as she focused on breathing enough to not hyperventilate.

Why was she here? Oh, right. Tiberia bullied her. Face her fears. Romulus. Mistiforms. Hellhounds. She wanted to vomit. She wanted to run. She could hear and see the golden hellhound automaton in her mind. Her leg throbbed. She could feel that gripping fear that she was going to die. And she wanted to run. She wanted to cry. She focused on her breathing again. Damnit. This was not where she wanted to be.

Leandra looked up when she heard something approaching. She pulled her gladius instinctively, needing something in her hand to defend her. "Romulus?"

The Field of Mars was usually a place the grandson of said deity felt calm and collected. Sometimes even at ease as he led the 1st Cohort to victory over their enemies. Today however was not one of those days and if the ‘Perfect Roman’ was being totally honest he was a little worried and wondering just how he had gotten talked into doing what he was about to. Sure, he remembered the conversation as clear as ever it wasn’t like he could actually forget it. But, the simple fact that he was going to summon a hell hound, even one just in mist form, was daunting. He would know it was fake, he’d be the one controlling it for Gods sake but that still meant he’d have to be focusing on the thing…pulling from his memories.

The Optio of the First Cohort walked up and stood atop a hill looking down at the field below him and took notice of the young female standing down below, an imperial gold gladius in hand. Most people would start the test now, attempt to scare her into action but not Romulus. Even from this far away he could read her body language and she was already freaking out, practically in tears. He was not cruel or mean and so he walked down the hill over to where she stood making sure to stay out of stabbing range as he made himself know. "Are you ready Leandra?” His voice was emotionless, not sounding forced but as if he himself was attempting to overcome something and in truth he was. It was not a fear he let anyone know of but it was still there and had to be dealt with eventually. He just never assumed it would be so soon.

Was she ready? What kind of question was that? Although, maybe it was just her own nerves, but Romulus' voice sounded peculiar when he asked it. Leandra shook her head violently in response to the question.

"N-no, but I don't have much choice, do I? Gods, Romulus...don't, don't judge me with this, please. I can't, I can't. The... It's like..." Her voice was a higher pitch than usual, and she was talking rapidly as she fidgeted trying to let loose some of the nervous energy that had her literally shivering. Her heart was racing like a chariot, and she could feel it in her chest and neck. The only thing that wasn't actively out of control was her breathing, because she had spent the entire time focusing on not hyperventilating herself into unconsciousness in front of Romulus...again.

"I don't want to do this. I'm scared, Romulus. I'm beyond scared."

She was scared, frightened, intimidated, and emotional. There was no one true word that could be used to describe the daughter of Angerona standing in front of him and he didn’t blame her. Romulus himself was unsure how he was going to get through this and he was the one actually controlling the beast, but he was also unsure if his fear ran as deep as hers. Sure, his most dominate facial feature was the scar running down his face from the bottom of his right eye to the top left side of his lip that he gained from a Hellhound but it was nothing compared to what Leandra had been forced to go through. To make matters worse hers was just recently. You were supposed to face your fears or otherwise you’d never be able to work through them but this? This was madness and he knew it.

There was nothing he could do about it though. Leandra was not in his Cohort and he was doing this as a favor to her superior. The ‘paperwork’ was all done and made up he had no way out, and sadly neither did Leandra. “Then we’ll start out small.” In a metaphorical sense. Closing his eyes he concentrated, thought back to those memories at the wolf house. Eight years seemed oh so long ago especially when trying to recall memories that you had buried deep in your subconscious but when you had an eidetic memory nothing was truly lost forever. First it came back in flashes and then in full force. The entire experience was thrust upon his mind and it was as if he was seven years old living through the experience again.

Quickly shutting down his fears, powering through it he focused on the Hellhound blocking everything else out and opened his eyes. In front of him and Leandra stood a nine foot tall black beast that looked as if it crawled out of the deps of Hades. His very own Devil Dog. Breathing slowly the mist form beast focused out until it looked as if it was real. Romulus’ heart was beating faster, and his breathing was becoming more timed as he attempted to keep his cool. This was to help a friend, a fellow sister in arms and he would not, no, could not show any fear now. He had to keep the beast under wraps. “Whenever you’re ready.” Not the usual perfect Roman voice, but that could be passed off to the fact that he was attempting a ‘solid’ Mist Construct with nothing to form it from but memories and there was no Saytr or soldier to place the template on.

Leandra wasn't ready, wasn't ever going to be ready. Still, if she had been capable of thought she would have been ashamed of the high pitched shriek that left her when the hellhound appeared. She kept trying to tell herself that it wasn't real, trying to get the words out to hear it out loud. "Not...real...not real. Not real. Not real, not realnotrealnotrealnotreal..." She said, though she could hardly hear it over the pounding of her heart as it tried to escape her tightening chest. The girl was frozen, rooted in place, unable to move. She couldn't look away. The hellhound didn't attack, it was still several feet away, but she could hear growls and feel pain as it shot up her leg. The Fields of Mars suddenly smelled like the 3rd Cohort Barracks, blood, fear and RC cola.

Finally, after an eternity and a half, Leandra was able to move her legs in order to try to run. Wait. Romans don't run. Romans don't run. That half thought stopped her, or tripped her, and she fell back onto her podex, still incoherently trying to tell herself that it wasn't real. She wished she could take a deep breath. Or any breath. It felt like she wasn't getting enough oxygen in. Everything but the hellhound seemed far away and blurry, her mind focused solely on her greatest nightmare, and the memories from the past that assaulted her with it.

Colten had been told to stay nearby when Romulus was testing Leandra or making her stronger or whatever torturous things Romans do to each other. He was kind of happy for once that Romulus was the one to do this to Leandra, that way if she got in trouble, he could slash through it and call it a day. Romulus surprised Colten with his abilities. Colten kind of was jealous of Romulus. The only thing he wasn't jealous of is the fact that Romulus was like emotionless to him. Colten couldn't tell if the guy was a..well, guy or some cyborg robot with no heart from the future. Colten sighed, watching Leandra a bit before turning to his phone to play until he was needed.

His attention was turned to them when he was pretty sure that she was going to pass out. Colten decided he shouldn't interfere, she was in no real danger, especially with Mr. Rome..but he had to help...he ran up to her before he knew what he was doing and said, "Leandra! It's me, Colten!" but that's all he could think to say.

Everything that was currently going on was hard to watch and even harder to control but Romulus needed to push through. Closing his eyes and breathing slowly in and out to keep his heart rate as low as possible he concentrated on keeping his mist form Hell Hound in one place. Sure, it was growling, snarling, and just being everything he remembered about the beast but he couldn’t have it lunge at Leandra. Not yet, not when she was on the ground cowering in fear. She needed to stand up to it, or at least stand up and turn and face the beast. Which is why he brought along Colten. Romulus may not understand or agree with the emotion called ‘love’ but loyalty was something he understood and he knew just from the few moments they’ve met that Colten would do anything for Leandra.

Even if that meant staring down a Hell Hounds, albeit one created using the mist, and forcing her to stand up and face her fears. Plus after reading that god awful book, that just happened to turn into his new favorite spear, two times he had an understanding of how the mind worked when presented with this false emotion. Colten would not stop trying until Leandra felt safe, until she believed herself to be secure. Secure enough that she’d stand up and at least attempt to face the beast. Something that hopefully he would be able to do and quickly because Romulus was unsure just how long he was truly able to hold this mist form together. Both because he had never done something like this before and because his own fears were eating away at him, and as strong and stoic as he attempted to portray himself he was sure it wasn’t working very well right now.

Leandra was vaguely aware of someone coming up beside her as she tried to focus on not dying. She sucked in breath like a drowning fish, pulling her knees up to her chest and lowering her head between them to try to get the blood back to her head. Colton was talking to her. What was Colton doing there?

"Colt...Colton. Make it stop. Make it stop. It's too real. It's not real. Can't breathe. Chest...hurts...every...everything. I can see everything. I can't... Can't..." She said, trying to focus and sound coherent. The dark skinned Roman grabbed at her boyfriend, hoping for something solid to hold onto. Something to focus on to calm her down. Rationally she knew the mistiform couldn't hurt her, but she couldn't focus on that. It was every few terrified fleeting thoughts.

Colten felt her grab onto his shirt, and blushed a little. He knew it wasn't the time for stupid blushing, though, so he looked around, catching a glimpse of Romulus and his mist powers. "I- I can't. You have to stand up and face it. I'm only here to calm you, make you feel better." Colten wondered if perhaps acting as if he was attacked by the hellhound would motivate Leandra- but she would probably be mad at him later. Colten smiled at her. "I know you can do this, alright? Just do your best. You're one of the strongest Romans I know."

The pain. Both emotional and physical. But he couldn’t quit now. nunquam redono Roman’s never gave up, they did not fear anything. They were strong and capable, able to power through everything and see whatever task they were sent on through until the very end. For the Glory of Rome! Except…Romulus was unsure if he could do it. Sure, he didn’t just recently develop this irrational fear of Hellhounds like Leandra did. He wasn’t the one who would have to face the beast down. But, he was the one with a deeply rooted childhood fear of these things and he had to create one entirely from memory. Something that was seriously starting to put a mental strain on the ‘Perfect Roman’. The camps very own ‘Superman’ or ‘Super Roman’ and ‘Roman Bat’ as he was called in spite behind his back.

A gasp for breath and if the other two Demi-Gods had been paying attention they would notice not only the look of pain on Romulus’ face and the wavering of concentration but also they wavering of the mistform as it changed. Gone was the normal Hellhound and the entire scenery changed around it, becoming darker and looked like a forest with the guard tower in the distance becoming what looked like an abandoned building or the house all Roman’s went to when dealing with Lupa and her trial. The single Hellhound became two or three each with the trees all around them on fire. All this flashed momentarily before Romulus’ eyes closed harder and it was once more just a single Hellhound and then nothing as Romulus dropped to one knee gasping and out of breath.

He could hold it no longer. “I am sorry. I had never attempted something like that for so long before. I was not sure how long I could hold it up for.” Good, yes chock it up to the inexperience of creating something out of the mist without a placeholder for the thing. Ignoring the not so obvious fact that it was because of his own fright and placing the blame on something else always worked. Accept when it didn’t. Looking at the other two he knew that Leandra had been unable to do what it was she needed to do. “Do not be discouraged. As much as they say otherwise we Romans are not perfect. We all have fears and short comings. It proves we are human. But, not just us. Even the Gods themselves are not perfect. Don’t try and do something if you know you aren’t ready.” Like what he just did.

((Late reply I know, I'm sorry don't kill me))

Leandra took a hard shaky breath, she had seen the mistiform change into a more terrifying, more realistic scene that looked like the scenery from the Wolf House. It had put her over the edge on panic and now she was trying hard not to hyperventilate as she held onto Colton. When Romulus spoke, she shook her head. "I will never be ready, but I must do this. I have to. I cannot live my life cowering in fear." She said, her voice wavering. "I just...I didn't think...and what was that at the end? I...I see barracks and the Caldecott tunnel. I never had trees burning."