BUYING stuff

Meagan raised both her eyebrows at the boy, shrugging in response. "Well, they don't earn much money otherwise. Strawberries and grapes aren't exactly the most rare things on the market -- sorta like tourist shops in Cali or Florida or something, only half this stuff could probably kill you. Guess the gods don't help us much with this place, eh?"

She gave the boy a once-over; he was blond and skinny and around her height. Clearly not a son of Aphrodite -- those guys were pretty damned hot -- but he wasn't totally ugly like some of the jerks in the Ares cabin, so she assumed that that was good. This wasn't Cali, though; there weren't hot surfer guys running around like back home, where she could easily have picked out a guy and gotten him to date her. She glanced back at the counter and found, to her confusion, a cashier standing there behind the counter and next to the now-dirty glass case, counting up the drachmas in the register. Her eyebrow shot up so fast it made her headache worse, so she was forced to lower it and rub her temples, breathing slowly to try relieving the pain in her head. Damned powers took too much out of her -- she didn't understand how David lasted so long making pillars of earth and crap, when she couldn't even roll a few stones without getting a mild headache. Meagan guessed she had low pain tolerance or something, or her powers brought out a new form of headache for demigods. It wouldn't be too difficult to imagine, considering that she'd seen a lot of weird side effects to powers around this place.

Either way, though, she assumed she was crazy. Everybody here was crazy, even if they seemed like perfectly normal kids at a slightly normal summer camp -- that came with being born from crazy gods who didn't know the difference between having kids out of requirement and having kids for mere enjoyment.

Meagan watched the cashier for another moment before letting her eyes wander back to the boy standing there by her, and she just so happened to glance at his hands. His hands looked pretty darned dirty, and the dirt on his jeans didn't really help that image either. Her eyebrow drifted upward again, but she stopped it in time to make it look like an odd eye twitch; she didn't want to weird the kid out already. "I'm pretty sure half this stuff is magical, though. I mean, godly kids -- godly items. Makes sense, right?"

"Meagan," the demi-Titaness replied, shutting her eyes for a long, long moment. The headache was ebbing away now, but it still hurt to think too much; it didn't last as long as her last power-induced headache, which Meagan supposed was good. It probably meant she was getting better at using her powers, if only slightly. She opened her eyes again to look at the boy, replying monotonously: "Daughter of..." She paused for a moment, remembering something that somebody had told her about people in her cabin -- they were usually psychotic or something, or they were just plain-out insane. So, Meagan lied to the best of her ability: "Daughter of Hermes."

And of course, Meagan, being unaccustomed to lying, was fairly bad at it -- as in, an awkward look and a slight shuffling of the feet, fairly obvious signs of sudden discomfort in some or most people. Meagan was used to being extremely truthful, bluntly so, among her friends and classmates back home -- but now she was in an entirely new, magical environment where one wrong or blunt word could mean a fireball to the face. She only lied for extreme emergencies, though whether this were a true emergency or not was debatable. She guessed that fitting in was what mattered at the moment, but she had a nagging feeling that this wasn't the best way to go about it. Why not just be her regular ol' self, instead of murderous psychos like some of her cabin-mates supposedly were? But no, that's cliche.

Sighing heavily, she lowered her hand from her forehead, looking a bit forlorn as she glanced around the shop again. Was it being half-Titan that made some of her cabin-mates so psychotic? She considered for a moment: generally all the gods were sort of crazy, and the Titans weren't really exceptional. Eh. There were a bunch of psychos in camp with or without the Titan kids, no cabin was really exempt from that rule.

Shooting a furtive glance at the now-deserted register, Meagan shrugged in response to the boy's assumption that all the food in the store would taste weird. "I've eaten some stuff from here before -- tasted just fine. You sure there weren't any labels sitting around where you got the apple?"

Meagan casually glanced over at the case of weapons, not long enough to decide whether or not it was the smudged one she'd seen before, but long enough to amuse her. She looked back at the boy with a wry smile, shrugging. "The food and weapons in the store are pretty bad, anyway -- waste of money. The stuff's pretty but they're all pieces of crap. The weapon shed and mess hall stuff are, at least, free, and everybody loves free stuff."

Well, Meagan didn't think the camp t-shirt had been free, but hey, it seemed like everything around here was. It was a bit easy to steal drachmas or things from other people, since the cabins were rarely occupied by people who paid attention -- and since there were only, at most, ten other kids in Meagan's cabin, it would be easy if Meagan hadn't thought herself above stealing and her powers were much more developed in case she had to defend herself. She assumed, judging by what she heard of the other kids, that they were all really strong. She probably would be as strong as them if she'd gone to camp at an earlier age and trained, but instead she'd been living it up in Cali with her dad and friends, blissfully ignorant for the time of her twin brother and her mother's identity.

And then David had arrived. She didn't think that her father and David got along very well, since her father had intentionally abandoned David in Meagan's favor. She felt guilty for that, but it hadn't been her choice; she'd only been a baby. She had, in later years, noticed that whenever she got mad strange things happened -- for example, that time in third grade when Lilian Morgan pulled her ponytail. She ended up tripping over a big rock that had suddenly appeared on the playground and getting a concussion; nobody could make head or tail of the situation, though they did end up later "remembering" that the rock had been moved there the day before. Only, it hadn't -- Meagan knew, all these years later, that it was her own fault. Her powers had sort of done a lot of odd things, but she'd always brushed them off.

She metaphorically waved away the memory to look back at Rai, who seemed to be in a chipper mood. Well, at least this doesn't feel awkward. She liked being able to hold up a conversation with somebody; Meagan felt like the only real conversation she'd had in camp was with Aeron, when they went to New York and fought some griffins a couple months (or weeks?) ago. "So.... who's your god parent?"

Oceanus.... The name rang a bell, but Meagan didn't grasp the meaning of it until after a long, long pause between Rai's joke about being a good healer and the sudden revelation. Titan... Titan of.... Well, duh. The oceans. Oceanus. Oceans. She almost face-palmed, more at how she didn't piece together who Oceanus was from his name than at her memory of myths, but thought better of it and instead shrugged at Rai casually, even though this conversation had suddenly taken an awkward turn for the both of them. After all, she had lied to Rai and now here he was, probably being truthful about his godly parent and all that; she felt a bit ashamed for not being open with him before, but then again, Meagan really didn't want to be associated with any psychos in the Titan cabin. "I, uh.... huh. Oceanus the ocean Titan, huh? Must've been named after them. Well, that's pretty cool. I'm sure you're five times more powerful than any child of Triton, right? Or something, I don't know the demi-Titan to demigod power ratios or whatever."

And she wanted to crawl under a rock and die after that little ramble to nowhere. She hated lying, but Rai seemed to actually believe she was a child of Hermes -- Meagan guessed there wasn't a specific look to a demi-Titan that would make them stand out from other campers. She fidgeted a couple of times, and, cursing herself, she mechanically lifted her hand and rubbed the back of her neck, trying not to look too uncomfortable. And, she thought to herself, what if he took this the wrong way and thought she was scared of him? In truth, the only people she was afraid of were David, and those Chris and Stella kids, from the cabin -- Aeron didn't seem psychotic at all and otherwise, she didn't know of any other demi-Titans lurking around. Rai didn't seem that bad, either, but Meagan hadn't really talked to him often -- and then again, she didn't talk to Aeron often, either. Do I really know anybody in my own cabin?

Meagan decided it might be best to insinuate she was lying; Rai couldn't be that oblivious to hints and maybe a few "slip-ups," right? She hoped not, but knowing how dense some people were in general.... "Not many demi-Titans around, huh? It's weird, I never see anybody in the cabin much. Seems like they're always out and about."

"I, uh.... what?" Meagan blinked, slightly taken aback by the sudden offer for a meet-up -- it had happened to her a few times back home, but here she'd never really expected it to happen. Reflecting on this for a moment, she realized she acted completely different here than she did at home -- she'd fit in perfectly well at home, but now she just felt like a total outsider in a camp full of other outsiders (at least, as far as she's seen). The outsider of outsiders -- what a wonderful concept.

She bit her bottom lip, contemplating the offer for a moment as she looked at Rai. Either it was just her slightly-regretful thinking or her imagination, but Meagan thought the other demi-Titan looked a bit hopeful for her... acceptance? Probably acceptance.

"Well... yeah. Sure. We can meet up sometime. Just tell me when and where." It wasn't like she had anybody else to hang out with, anyway -- most of her cabinmates were psychopaths and Meagan didn't exactly like fraternizing with the other campers. Nothing to do around here, too. Meagan had a lot of trouble trying to entertain herself at camp by practicing her powers or going into the Commons Area, but none of this appealed to her. She just wanted to be home, partying with her friends and forgetting that her mother was trying to destroy the world or something and that she bunked with a bunch of crazies. She added, after another pause, "Pretty sure you're not a time bomb -- you seem too nice for that. Prove to everybody you're not like your cabin mates."

Zeus knows if I can, Meagan thought sullenly. She hated to admit it, but sometimes she'd wandered around camp, listening to people running around, laughing, just being normal teenagers in a totally-abnormal camp -- and she'd feel sick to her stomach that they could feel or even act normal here, even with people just like them. Nobody was normal here, and Meagan was so frustrated that for once she didn't feel normal somewhere, she didn't just blend in with the crowd but instead avoided it because she felt like the crowd was too much for her to handle. She was so frustrated, sometimes, that she even had thoughts of killing people just to relieve herself -- to eliminate the outsiders. But no. She didn't want to become a psychopath like the other DTs, she wouldn't let herself be judged like them. This camp, she reflected, was never a place for new beginnings, even if she agreed with what Rai said; here people were judged for their god parents, their pasts. Things they couldn't help. She was sure she'd be judged for being a child of Gaea.

A week from today? Meagan racked her brains for any plans she could have possibly made within the past two weeks, only to mentally laugh at herself in self-pity at the ridiculous notion -- of course she had no plans, she didn't plan anything with anybody around here. If this guy had asked her back home in California, she was sure her schedule would have been packed for another two and a half weeks if she were being even remotely modest. She'd spent plenty of time hanging out with friends or at some parties thrown by college kids, usually at the cost of her homework and school grades, but she managed to pull all-nighters to finish anything she had to do and keep herself awake in class with coffee at the worst. Meagan's grades were fairly decent compared to most of her friends', but she attributed that to having a fairly good memory for things that had happened within the last two or three months. "Yeah, that sounds fine to me -- around the same time as now, right? If the weather's not nice, we can always just sit in here and criticize the prices." Or something. That sounds worse than being grounded on the day of a concert.

She glanced at an old, dusty clock shaped like an owl hanging over the cash register on the wall -- the time seemed about right, maybe a few minutes off if whoever ran the place had changed the time for Daylights Saving a couple months ago. Meagan never wore watches (and she didn't have any, either, except an old Dora the Explorer watch she'd purposefully left at home) and her phone was back at her cabin, basically obsolete because of the poor service and her, cough, lack of a charger. It wasn't exactly dead, but at ten percent power Meagan was wise enough to leave it off and stow it away in a safe place, both so that nobody would steal it and spam-text her friends and so that she'd be able to find it later, if she ever found the right charger to use.

Since it looked like Rai was about to jet out the door to his meeting with Mr. D, Meagan nodded yes to his last question and gestured for him to go in a "shoo-ing" motion. "Yeah, it's a yes. Now, go to your meeting so Mr. D doesn't turn you into a chipmunk and have the Ares kids run you over with their chariot -- that won't be pretty. Have fun, don't die, send Mr. D my nonexistent regards. I'll be here next week."

In retrospect, Meagan had little regard for the gods -- she'd respect them like any other person if she ever met one face to face, but otherwise, no. They sort of seemed like idiots, having all these kids, abandoning them, and then demanding some pretty damned ridiculous stuff from them (ie: a quest to find your godly mother's lost pair of shoes or something), all while thinking they should be respected and revered by their own children. It was mildly sickening; Meagan was glad she had little chance of meeting Gaea at all.

I walk in and take a granola bar. I go over to the cashier`s counter and lay some drachmas on the table, and leave.

Meagan watched Rai run out of the store for a moment, just standing there in the middle of the store with a sort of wondering look on her face -- this would be entertaining. She sighed and walked out of the store, her hands thrust into her shorts' pockets.

OOC: please don't double post. You can just edit it in the little edit corner of the post.

Ah. Sorry.

Kelsey skipped in, her drachmas jingling in her pocket. "I HAVE COME TO PURCHASE ITEMS." She announced.

Trace walked in after Kelsey, his drachmas heavy in his pocket. "I HAVE ALSO CAME TO PURCHASE ITEMS-" He paused once he realized that no one was in the store. Not even anyone at the counter. "..Did we miss something or.." It seemed like a ghost town, although the items looked in pristine state.

Kelsey peered around. Everything looked to be in its place but the store seemed completely devoid of human life aside from the two. "...Hmmm... well, uh, I guess we're on our own."

"Do we even need to pay then?" Trace asked as he took out a drachma from his pocket and held it up. To steal or not to steal..? He looked at Kelsey questionably, his eyes flickering back to the drachma.

Kelsey stared at Trace for a second, pondering the question. She looked around and bit her lip. That's a tough one. If they took without paying it would be stealing. Stealing is wrong, but at the same time there's not exactly anyone here to really steal from. It'd be like taking water from the ocean. Not really stealing cause it's not really anyone's. Except for maybe the camps. Does the camp use drachmas to pay for things? Is the entire revenue of the camp run by this measly store and fueled by the drachmas of innocent campers? She doubted it, but at the same time it was an intriguing thought. She looked up at Trace again. "Er... well... I... I don't... know..." She stammered. "I mean, I guess, it's not like we would even know the prices without someone here..."

ooc: those are some good questions kelsey. what does the camp even use the drachmas for.

bic: "True..true..I think we should just.." Trace paused for a second. "..I think we can just take it. Besides, we may need these drachmas for something more important?" Trace started to walk around the store, examining the many items on the shelf. Alright, he felt more confident about taking something without paying however the guilt still lied in his stomach. Either way, he still looked around for something to buy..or well, take. He found the regular Orange Camp shirt and scoffed. "Could they have not used a better color?"

ooc: maybe theyre collectable or somethin

bic:
Kelsey nodded in agreement with Trace's decision. "Right, right, something important like McDonalds." She felt slightly better that Trace decided against paying. It was what she was going to choose in the end, but having someone else say it first gave her a little confidence. Something nagged at the back of her mind, though. She pushed it away, to the best of her ability.
Kelsey started looking around the store also, partially to distract herself from her... guilt? Was this feeling guilt? Not exactly, but close. She picked up knick-knacks and looked them over before placing them back on the shelves. She was going to make a point to feel every type of fabric she came across. It was like a petting zoo. Of clothes. Ok, nevermind, that's a really weird comparison, but I think you get my point. She used to wonder why some fabrics with different designs felt the same. Like, shouldn't that make them different?
Kelsey was eyeing a particularly colorful scarf when Trace said something. She looked over to the shirt rack that he was near. She smirked at his comment. "I've always wondered about that myself, they're so bright, it's like we could be used as impromptu traffic cones."