Personal Effects (Private Flashback with Manda)

OOC: This is taking place during Ryan's first full day, so the beginning of last summer. Say..June 24th or something.

IC: About a day ago, or two, or three, or however long ago he departed from Troy, Ryan had his summer planned. The late days would've been filled with either work or friends or some rec-league lacrosse, the nights spent around a pool or something; sleep wouldn't come till three and day wouldn't show until one. Maybe he'd go up Port Huron or the U.P. or somewhere to keep things interesting. He'd more than likely go fishing, and he'd certainly be gaming at some point.

But that was before Darren, on Ryan's first day out of jail for "borrowing" a car that wasn't in his name, pestered him to take him to Long Island. And now Darren - who wasn't even human - was dead, hit in the head by some unidentified debris or something. And now Ryan was a thousand miles from home, baking in the summer sun, surrounded by horse and goat people, and apparently was the son of an ancient dieity. And he also reeked of raw sewage and stale urine, courtesy of his supposed siblings.

Today, Ryan was assigned to get any of his "personal effects" from his car, located a ways down the state byway lying outside of this "camp". Alongside him, a brother of his - "Evander" was his name - was assigned to make sure that he would be protected in case of any attacks. Awhile ago, Ryan had an idea of what summer had in store for him. Today, only hours after the death of his best friend, Ryan was taking the walk of shame back to his car, his long lost brother beside him, and the smell of old toilets being amplified in the late June heat.

"You're lucky we were able to come do this. When I came to camp, getting the stuff from the truck was out of the question." Evander said to Ryan, the newest Ares kid, as they walked. He had wished that Ryan had taken a shower before leaving, but could stand the smell if he stood just a little bit away. The veteran son of Ares felt like his head was on a swivel stick for how many times he had looked around in every direction to make sure there wasn't anyone coming. Monsters being one thing, but the bigger fear in his mind being police officers. He was a wanted man in Missouri, and talking to police officers might bring that up.

Evander looked back to the car as they walked towards it. "Two backpacks going to do it?"

"One probably will cut it." Replied Ryan, a sigh escaping before he spoke in a hollow, woeful voice. "I got the main bag on my way in, so all there's left is the glove box and maybe some loose items."

"Ah, so, anything in the trunk you need? Toolkit? Bug out back? Case of water and MREs?" Evander asked, mentally going over what normal people kept in their drinks. "Any weapons? Because, ah, I don't exactly have a carry permit and would rather not meet any police officers if you have weapons." Evander said, shrugging a little.

His dad always kept a 1911 under the floorboard of his truck, in case of emergencies. Evander had forgotten about it when fighting the giants, but he doubted it would have done anything but piss them off. He vaguely wondered if the police had secured that firearm after he abandoned the truck. No use in regretting it now, though. That was long since over with.

"Case of water and MREs?" That got a small smile and laugh out of Ryan. Who on earth would want to keep MREs with them? He never had one before, but the consensus pointed towards that being a good thing. "Nah, probably just a pocket knife and some hot sauce packets. And a bow, so we'll see if that's still there."

Evander shrugged half heaetedly at the quizzical response to MREs and water. "Dad always kept 72 hours worth of MREs and water for 2 people, in case of getting stranded. Toilet paper too, but that's not something you take back to camp with you. Always thought it was kind of normal.

Evander lowered his head a little as they finally got to the car. "Trunk doesn't look jimmied, so that bow is probably still in there. I think this might be your lucky day."

"Nah man; nobody keeps MREs on them. Where do you get those things anyway?"

The two brothers had reached Ryan's car, a 1960s Bronco. While the outside of the old truck, as Evander pointed out, looked not too damaged, Ryan knew that the car itself was a lost cause. The blown engine the night before made the thing a two-ton paperweight, and he was sure the counselors wouldn't advocate keeping it either.

Ryan walked over to the trunk, looking the hitch over. "For costing me a month's salary, it better still be in there." But before they could find out, they'd have to open the trunk first. "Do you have a phone on you by any chance? Because we need to get a tow truck over here and send this thing to a yard."

"Surplus stores, Amazon, places like that. Not as good as the real GI ones, though." Evander explained before Ryan asked if he had a cellphone. The tall demigod's normally ruddy complexion blanched white and he shook his head almost violently.

"Are you stuck on stupid?! You want every monster in a fifty mile radius to know exactly where we are?! Damnit, Ryan, it's a damn good thing you don't have one, or you would have used it and we'd be in a world of pain right now! Just take your identifiable information out of the vehicle and leave it be."

Wait...what? He didn't get what Evander was saying, the whole anti-cell phone thing. "What does using a cell phone have anything to do with monsters?" Maybe he was just one of those people who hated phones and needed a relevant excuse for not having one.

Evander sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Cellphone signals light you up like a Krispy Kreme 'Hot Now' sign for monsters. It's like doing the sending up signal flares to make sure they know where you are. For crying out loud, man, last time I used a cellphone I got attacked by three huge giants and nearly died. It's only luck that the teacher I called was a satyr."

Evander shuddered slightly, remembering that event a few years ago. The solid weight of the iron bar in his hand, the burning in his thigh from the stab wound, the fear and confusion and an absurd belief that he had hallucinated things into reality. Then hooves and goat legs and his old teacher explaining things on a drive to camp in a different car. He did not want a repeat.

Ah. So basically it was like lighting up a road flare in the middle of the night in a monster infested woods. Ryan was curious as to how centuries old monsters could detect relatively new cellular signals or why they didn't attack everyone who used a phone, but those were questions for another time; Evander didn't look like he was willing to get into the details of this.

"Alright, alright, we'll leave the car to rust then." But he needed to get into the trunk still, and the only way to do that was with the key, which Ryan had left in the car - the locked car. "Hey, Evander; do you mind handing me your sword or a rock or something?"

Evander cocked his head for a second, then withdrew his sword from its scabbard and handed it to his half-brother. "If you're going to use the hilt to break a window, you might want to wrap your hand in your shirt first. Or my shirt, and I can stand back a ways."

He paused for a few seconds, then realized just exactly how awkward that sounded. "No homo."

"Uh huhhhh..." Yeah...that wasn't awkward at all. "I'll just break the window my way." Ryan took the sword and walked over to the driver's side door, taking a few steps away from the piece of frail non-saftey glass.

In a swift motion, Ryan took Evander's sword and swung it - not busting the glass with the hilt, as the more experienced demigod suggested - and broke the window with the blade. After running the blade along the bottom frame, clearing away excess glass, Ryan reached in to unlock the door, then getting in to retrieve the key.