Checking weapons (private)

I was sitting in front of the arsenal, oiling my blade. It was in kopis shape currently, the stygian iron so cold it was releasing wisps of eerie white fog into the hot summer air. The blade shone a little in the light, but the shine was too crude, too harsh for a normal metal. Whistling a tune, I rubbed the oil cotton around on the blade, making sure I covered everything. It had a few more scratches than last time, I hoped that could be fixed at some point. I loved my weapon to death and wanted to keep it as long as I could.
Dressed in normal orange camp tee and comfy shorts, I had one headphone in my ear playing some Muse. With my shades on my eyes, my hair down and my sneakers, I was obviously in chill-mode. Maybe I should put on more sunscreen, I thought as I made a few movements with my sword, just to hear the edge hissing through the air.

(OOC: I assume that since this is set in the summer this is in late May/June? I'll start off based on that.)

The northern summer climate was never the kind to forgive, and even with the Long Island Sound at the far end of camp to provide the winds coming from the east (which weren't blowing right now, thanks whoever the eastward-winds god is), Apollo's sun persists to beat down on the mere mortal subjects below, causing them to sweat, blister, and burn. For Ryan the change from " Michigan summer" to "New York summer" wasn't a very hard one, especially compared to his first trip to the mystical camp. A few drops in the degree was alsways something to look forward to, as well as having a beach and lake nearby in the event that the heat was too much to bear remaining dry - or as dry as you can be when soaking in sweat.

Now a graduated man, the son of Ares was able to live at camp full time now, which is why after a few goo yes and packing another bag full of his remaining clothes (he even brought a blazer and some ties along this time; they held several dances here and Ryan figured that something nice to wear for one of them wouldn't hurt to bring) he hit the road for camp.

However, while he was back home, an altercation with a way-out-of-place monster had lead to his new kopis, a product of his own handiwork under the guidance of this Sawyer girl, getting damaged beyond repair. And since going unarmed in this crazy, crazy world is as good as signing your own death certificate, Ryan was in need of a replacement. And for replacement arms, the arsenal was the place to go.

So, clad in a red t-shirt so faded it looked like a darker salmon and a pair of cargo shorts that featured a camouflaged pattern, Ryan made his way to the front steps of the arsenal. And that wouldn't have been noteworthy, had a girl that looked about his age nearly taken his head off.

After quickly stepping aside (thanks demigod ADHD!) from the errant blade, Ryan let out a very loud (but loud out of concern) "Seriously?!", hoping to get the fellow demigod's attention.s

"Wow, holy Poseidon, I'm so sorry!"

A guy had just come around the corner of the arsenal and I had almost cut his leg off with my sword. Looking up, I suddenly recognized him. Short dark hair, muscular, camouflage shorts, some ugly scars here and there. That was Ryan, son of Ares, the maybe date of my sister Salem.

"It's fine;" replied Ryan, still shooken up, "just please watch where you swing that thing. Nobody here has the intention to die young."

"Will do. I thought I was alone," I said with a grin before giving my kopis' handle a little squeeze. Immediately, it changed into a xiphos, and I resumed the oiling. "You're Ryan Michaels, aren't you?" I asked, stretching my legs with a small yawn.

Oh great, thought Ryan, I'm a household name around here. Perfect...

"Yeah, that's me. And you are...?"

"Morgan Landry, Hecate cabin," I said, putting aside the oil to wax the pommel of the xiphos. It was shiny already but I liked taking care of my weapons.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Of course I do. We're quite close as far as the cabin goes," I said. Salem and I were very close, actually, she was my favourite sibling here. Sure I liked Lou, and Josh was super nice, but Salem and I outbalanced each other. Smirking up at Ryan, I added with an amused smile: "Do I need to pass on a message on your behalf?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm planning to tell her that I got back today. I had left for the past month so that I could get the whole high school diploma thing out of the way. Not sure how far it will go now, but I think it's worth having."

"You're probably one of the only Ares kids who bothers with that kind of stuff,"I told him, twisting the xiphos around my wrist before changing it back into a kopis with a snap of my fingers.

Smiling openly, I studied him for a moment. So. This was the guy Salem had fallen for. Interesting. Even though at first I had been pretty sure Salem liked only girls, he did seem her type now that I looked at him.

"Yeah," replied Ryan with a laugh; "I'm pretty sure I'm the only one of the family who cares. But after completing three of the four years, why not go back to graduate?"

So this Morgan seemed nice. Much nicer than Salem actually, which actually made their friendship make sense to him. Salem was, with all due respect, a straight-up b!tch at times whereas Morgan, for this short amount of time, was...not a b!tch.

"You're an intellectual then?" I asked with a casual half-smile, scrubbing some leather wax paste onto the hilt, before examining it in the sunlight. It gleamed rather nicely, but I applied some more just to be sure. I liked a job to be well done. "Science, literature, humanities, ....what's your thing?"

"Language arts and social studies, primarily U.S. History and Government." For once, someone was looking at him as something other than a born solider at this place. "I'm also proficient in a few sciences, but biology was the most interesting one out of those courses. Remember, it's the mitochondria that powers the cell."

I chuckled. "Yeah, we all know about that good old mitochondria." I wasn't much one for science myself, except geology. That didn't mean I wasn't interested in science, no, far from that. I did enjoy lectures about physics and nanotechnology, and loved to read up on the latest astrophysics news, though school labs had definitely discouraged me from ever sticking my hands into it.
But biology, for a son of Ares? That was surprising. Generally it was more of a Demeter or Apollo thing.

However, languages, arts and history, I could relate. Those were definitely my territories, even though I was more of an ancient history person. "Which languages do you like?" I asked.

"English, US variant, but the others aren't too bad until slang get involved. Also fluent in ASL, but to the extent of-" Ryan stopped talking and raised his hand, spelling out "R-Y-A-N" in American Sign Language. "So I'm not really vying for any interpreter jobs."

I watched as he signed his name, my eyebrows shooting up. "Wow, that's actually damn impressive." I stopped waxing the hil. "Me, there's only one thing I know in sign language," I told him, and showed him the middle finger before grinning and resuming my work.

The son of Ares just laugh off the gesture, keeping his own physical insult close at hand. "Hey, Morgan!" When he was sure Morgan's attention was on him, he did another series of signs: he put his hand inside of his right elbow, raising up his forearm to 45 degrees; pointed at Hecate's girl, and finally did an "ok" hand gesture, but with closed fingers and the ring part located on his shirt's collar.

Of course, I didn't understand any of it. "Lemme guess," I said. "I just got insulted."

He nodded and grinned. "Yes, yes you did. Nothing personal, just me showing off some 'extra credit' I gave the teacher that year. Twat deserved it, so the detention was worth it in my eyes."

I grinned at him. Yeah I was starting to see why Salem liked him.

"You thinking of studying in New Rome?" I asked.

Sounded like a fair plan. "So you wanna live in the mortal world, I take it?" I asked him, switching back to xiphos to wax the wooden pommel.

"Yeah, or at least I plan to. I wouldn't be opposed to New Rome if, say, nine out of ten trips to a college had some sort of altercation. Then I'd look deeply into the non-mortal world route."

Then the ADHD kicked in, and Ryan ventured down a new train of thought.

"You know what's funny? The way the word mortal is used. Like, isn't a 'mortal wound' something fatal, which we can still get. Not to mention that while us demigods can get killed by both celestial and 'mortal' weapons, 'mortals' just have to worry about their own killing them; so doesn't that make demigods extra-mortal?"

"Pretty much. But we live in the two worlds, so that makes us extra-mortal and divine." Scrubbing my nails with the flat of my sword, I looked back at Ryan. "What're you doing at the arsenal?"