Reunion

An icy gust of wind hissed through the air. The darkness around them deepened, cold, void-like, before spitting two silhouettes out onto the grass.
The first one, dressed in flashy colours and asymmetric clothes, was holding her stomach as if she was about to vomit. "Urgh, I hate shadow-traveling," she said in a quivering voice.

"Sorry, but it was the quickest and safest way," the second figure said. Dressed in a mixture of Roman and modern clothing, she had a satchel on one shoulder and a stack of books under her arm. Holding out a hand, she helped the other girl to her feet before looking around.

"Looks like we're not alone, Maddy," she grinned, catching sight of the two guys.

"David? ... Jeremy?"

OOC: It's Morgan, daughter of Hekate, and Maddy, daughter of Dionysus

Kate had walked out of her cabin, not regarding the curfew anymore. The times she had been in trouble for being out past hadn't stopped her, the punishments weren't the worst and she just needed to eat most of the time she was out past the curfew. As was the case this evening, she had done school work through dinner time and now was too hungry to sleep. Kate had come out of the cabin just in time to see the two girls pop in from shadow traveling. She also saw the noticed the two instructors hanging out in the middle of the courtyard. The teen shrugged to herself and figured she would join them, "Hey y'all!" She greeted, smiling as she joined the group.

Things had definitely not gone his way tonight. Covered in ash all over himself except for his eyes where the goggles were, Rick stumbled out of the lightly smoking workshop he had just contributed to destroying for the third time this month. He was always a tinkerer, moreso when he was still an aggressive teen high on sugar and probably opium, but now he would call himself “washed” as the cool kids say, and his declining technical competence has shown again. Unfortunately for him, his twin sister left Camp as soon as she turned 18 nearly two years ago, leaving him alone as one of the adult instructors by the Athena cabin, meaning he would have to clean up the mess he just made by himself.

Rick picked up a clean towel from the top of his bunk in the room adjacent to the workshop, wiping the filth so that at least he was recognisable. Not wanting to make his room filthy, he rushed outside to the Courtyard, his next destination probably being the showers; however, he can’t help but notice a group of campers gathering in the middle of it all.

“It’s okay, everyone!” Rick called out, pointing to the thin trail of smoke rising from the workshop next to the Athena cabin. “That’s just a minor experiment gone wrong, you don’t need to call Chiron in, nor the fire department, I’m getting it fixed. Please bury this under the rug, Jeremy.” He winked at the fellow instructor, hoping he’d turn a blind eye this time.

“Say, you two seem awfully familiar and a bit old for campers?” His observation wasn’t that on point, even 30 year olds can look like teens, but he was sure he knew these ones. The Camp had remained quite empty for a hot minute, so he’d have no issue knowing who was or wasn’t a camper. “Do I know you from somewhere or vice versa say three to four years ago? I’m Rick, professional troublemaker as a product of Athena’s upbringing, just in case you don’t recognise my name.”

There was something surreal about being back at camp for Franklin. On the one hand, this place had taken him in when he'd most needed a home, but on the other hand it had nearly killed him. In the years since he'd last set foot in this courtyard,  he'd bounced in and out of treatment and through nearly everything therapist in New York. It had taken awhile, but he figured he was ready to come back and make peace with the place that had raised him for so many years.

He had been hoping to make a midnight round of camp in peace after spending some time in his (still deserted, as always) cabin, but the sounds of an explosion reminded him that "peace" and "camp" never really went together. The teenage trauma tour would have to wait until after he confirmed that no one was actively dying.

He poked his head out of the front door and noticed the group of (former? Most of them looked too old to be current, and it was past curfew anyway) campers by cabin 6. Some of them looked vaguely familiar, like he might have seen them around meals (when he had bothered to go, anyway), but none of them had really been his friends (not that he'd had too many of those during his time here anyway).

"Everyone alright?" He asked cautiously as he came up to them. "... And is your cabin meant to be smoking like that?"

Kate smiled and waved politely at David, it had been years since she had seen her brother. Last she had heard he was going to Uni in New Rome, this was definitely a happy surprise to see him here. She had a passing knowledge of Morgan and Maddy as Kate had met each of them a handful of times around camp, but she had never met Jeremy.

The blonde girl flinched and ducked a little when the loud noise tore through the night. A light blush of embarrassment covered her cheeks as she looked over her shoulder to see the source of the noise was Rick. After rolling her eyes, knowing one of his experiments had gone wrong again. She looked over at the young man who had come to check on the group, "Yeah, Rick's experiments usually turn out that way."


Kate looked at the group again, after Jeremey's question, before realizing she was probably the only one here the curfew applied to. The teen silently hoped one of them would at least take her to get some food before making her go back to Cabin #6, if any of them were going to enforce the rule anyway.

Morgan was busy supporting a still shivering Maddy. The usually upbeat and chatty daughter of Dionysus looked depleted - she had gotten skinnier, her face was emaciated. Morgan remembered finding her at the entrance of Caldecott Tunnel, nothing but a bag on her shoulders and a look of utter exhaustion on her face. She had housed her in her student flat and taken care of her until she was fit enough to find herself a job in one of the numerous bars of New Rome. But although she had recuperated, she wasn't back to normal just yet. Which was why the two had decided to come back to Camp Half-Blood, in the hopes that her health would improve here. Who knows, maybe her godly father could do something for her.
Morgan also felt like a stay in the Greek camp would be welcome. Although she had fallen head over heels for New Rome, Camp Half-Blood would always be her first (mythological) home. And right now, with the pandemic going on and the world generally going to sh!t, it was refreshing to be back here.... where the adventure had started.

Maddy finally found her footing. Mouthing thanks to Morgan, she blew into her hands to warm herself. Although she forced small smiles at the growing group of demigods, her eyes kept straying to the Dionysus cabin. She just wanted to be in bed, pull the blanket over her head and sleep in till noon. But would she get nightmares again? They had receded a little bit in New Rome, but sometimes they came back in full swing, like they did back when she was in LA.
Rubbing her hands together for warmth, she glanced around at the people. David, Kate, Rick, Franklin,... and Jeremy. He had changed, she could see. Whereas she had gotten skinnier and grown bags under her eyes, he seemed in full health. She hadn't really talked to him in years - ever since she had left camp to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. Maybe a catch-up would be in order, sometime later.

Rick understood his two half-siblings' concern. He never knew David very well in person but he knew every one of his siblings; nonetheless, since David mentioned having been absent from Camp in the last three years, one would expect he'd have no idea how chaotic the cabin would be with Rick's weekly endeavours.

"No, you got it wrong: I try to do stuff for the cabin, but because science is just unreliable considering our own heritage and the world we're associated with, it often leads to, let's say, unfortunate outcomes." Rick turned to David, nodding his head at the fire being quickly put out by his other half-siblings with minimal effort. "Like that. On the other hand, the sciency thingies always just work more often than they fail so I haven't lost my job here. Yet."

"Kate!" he spun around to his other half-sibling, the one he knows is aware of the weekly mess he leaves behind. "I'd ask you to pretend you saw nothing, like the rest of our cabin agrees to every week and not let Chiron find out, but because it's routine I guess you know what to do. Point is, David here would understand what I mean with that. Right?" Rick gave the kid a wink, not even bothering to wait for an answer before an attempt to change the discussion was made.

The son of Athena looked at the little crowd that was gathering. He doesn't know any of them except for Kate and David, but from their age, he could deduct that they came back for old times' sake. "I know that there's a curfew law in place, but I honestly can't recall who was the person that asked," he said, shifting his gaze to Jeremy, "so let's just say I pretended to neglected my duty as one of the instructors to force you back to your cabins or to the Big House and I'll get a free slap on the wrist for this little reunion, how does that sound, Morgan?"

He didn't exactly need an introduction, Morgan and Maddy were well-known way back, even if Rick never got to meet them, but he figured after 5-ish something years, it would be interesting; the experience would be like never getting to know someone in high school, then meeting them when they already became adults. "I'm Rick." he extended his hand, but pulled it back once he realised it was still filthy from the mess he made from the workshop, as well as the fact that Morgan was still supporting her friend. "Actually we can skip formalities, does your friend Maddy need any extra help? I'm supposed to be doing my job, which includes stuff like this."

OOC: sometimes I'll type with colours when I can get on the PC :D

Shaking her head Kate glanced as the other campers from the Athena Cabin put out the fire quickly and went back to bed after the initial shock and excitement died down. She understood David's concerns and surprise at the normality of the unfortunate outcome, as Rick had put it. Her heart had never really been in Rick's science lessons but they were fun from time to time, especially when she was younger and some of them had unfortunate outcomes.

Kate nodded at Rick, the two of them had this conversation so many times already that she definitely knew what needed to be done. "He should, if not I'll help him understand." She said trying to be polite, but giving David a look trying to convey that they would talk about it later.

Turning her gaze to Morgan and Maddy with some concern as the latter blew into her hands for warmth and rubbed them together after she had finally found her footing. She looked different than the last time Kate had seen her at camp. Kate quickly took off her gloves and offered them to her, "You can have these if you need them." The younger girl offered kindly, "I can get you a coat from my bunk too if you need one."

Maddy hadn't really been listening to the cabin #6 feud but perked up when Kate gave her gloves. "Oh thank you, sweetheart" she said with a shiver, slipping them on. "I don't remember the last time Camp Half-Blood was this cold."

"It's not that cold, you've just been starving," Morgan said. She nodded at Rick in greeting before checking back in with Maddy. "You feeling okay?"

"I'm alright for now," the daughter of Dionysus nodded. "Thanks guys."

Morgan let her go and took a moment to properly look at the little group of demigods. The only persons she really interacted with back in her teen years were David, Franklin and Jeremy. Rick and Kate were younger and although she remembered seeing them around camp, she had never properly spoken to either.

"Well, I've got to say it's nice to be back. Apart from the Athena cabin's explosion hazard, has anything interested happened here lately?"

Kate smiled softly, sliding her hands into the pocket of her hoodie. "Anytime!" She said kindly thinking that it had been a little more chilly around camp recently, there wasn't any snow on the ground anymore but it wasn't yet spring. She watched as Morgan let Maddy stand unassisted for the first time since they had appeared, still a little wary that something might happen.

David had a point that we should probably care more about the safety protocols, and they were in place, some people just ignored them anyway. Rick among the worst offenders. Kate shook her head to answer Morgan's question, she hadn't been out of her cabin much.

OOC: sorry for switching to third person randomly, i'm going to edit my last posts to match