Feeding Peleus

With her snake curled around her forearm and hissing furiously, Benji made her way towards Thalia's Tree from the forest, still whistling from her little journey through the forest and trying to ignore her snake's incessant ranting, which had started as soon as Benji mentioned brooms in reference to her attempt to clean up her cabin's floor, which was a poor attempt at conversation:

And could you believe it? Those humanssss tried to hit me with a broom. Like, come on, call an exxxterminator or pessst control or sssomething -- but hitting with your broom is a ssstupid idea, they didn't .

When Terron got mad, whatever he said to her (telepathically, of course) began to sound like a stereotypical portrayal of a talking snake: drawling on the letters S and X. It got annoying and Benji noticed that tuning it out by whistling was a swell idea. She patted his head absentmindedly as she continued on her merry way to the tree, which loomed high and proud in the distance. At the base of the hill, she looked up and noticed that there was a girl standing a couple of feet from Peleus himself, just sort of... standing there. Benji stopped and frowned at the girl, wondering what she was doing -- staring at Peleus wasn't the best idea.

"You okay up there?" Benji called, putting one foot forward in case the girl needed help -- either she was frightened, curious, or just sort of... absent-minded. There were few legitimate reasons to stare at the dragon guarding the Fleece, and those were the top three that came to mind.

Benji looked down at Terron, frowning slightly; how the girl thought he was beautiful, she couldn't even guess. Maybe being around him so much dulled her sense of admiration for the whiny reptile, since he'd whittled away at her patience for a really long time, he knew it, and and he still tried to do it even if she had a weapon in hand.

"He's a...." Benji frowned for a moment, trying to remember what Terron had told her about where he came from: California or something. Talking to snakes had given her a bit of knowledge about some of the breeds lurking around camp, and she could faintly recall something about the color red concerning her own snake. Red rattlesnake? Diamond. Red diamond. Oh yeah.... "Red diamond rattlesnake. From California."

Ya got that right, sssisster. Good to know you still care about me to remember my home ssstate. Terron tilted his head, examining the girl as his forked tongue flicked in and out, slowly, from his mouth. Addressing the girl, he gripped my arm and uncoiled so he could get a closer look at her: Have you ever thought of throwing the meat to Peleus? He doesn't bite much.

For a moment, rather than answer the girl immediately, Benji watched Peleus devour the piece of meat thrown at him, wondering how often he was fed based on the vicious delight he seemed to have tearing into the... beef? Pork? Lamb? She hadn't identified the meat the girl had thrown in the first minute or so of their conversation, instead being more interested in why she'd been frozen staring at the large bronze dragon. The thing was being annoyingly loud with his meal, anyway, maybe that was why there seemed to be such long intervals between his feeding times -- he could probably wake up an entire town if he was given enough food to do so. A truckload, maybe, he'd probably be able to finish it pretty fast and still have a bit of room for dessert.

Turning back to the girl, Benji shrugged and, gently pulling Terron away from the girl, replied, "My name's Benji, the snake here is Terron. And yours?"

If snakes could roll their eyes, Terron would have done so; instead, he had to accept that the sole thing he could do aside from harming his owner was give her a sassy reply: I would like to be presented as 'Terron the Beautiful and Majestic,' not just 'Terron.' You give me no credit and make me feel inadequate; I've done so much for you since the day we met, don't you appreciate tha--

Rolling her eyes, Benji hissed out of the corner of her mouth: "Not now, you twit, can't you leave me alone for two seconds?"

That sounds too difficult.

You hear that, Benny? You hear that? She said I'm beautiful! Terron was overly excited about this for some reason -- perhaps because Benji had apparently insulted him by not using his 'proper title,' and had thus decided to annoy the hell out of her by over-exaggerating the effect of her compliment. For the moment, though, she tried to ignore his excited fangirling to answer Celine's question -- and unfortunately, when Benji opened her mouth to respond, he also decided to loosen his grip on her arm and almost fall off twice, forcing the annoyed Egyptian demigod to grab him and hold him there in her left hand.

It was an odd question she'd been asked -- of course Benji was American, but with the sudden influx of demigods from other countries she supposed that it was logical to ask. It was probably because of her name; Benji's grandmother had apparently picked it out and her mother agreed that it was a nice name, so here was Benji Du Franson (what kind of last name was that?). The alternates had been Madeleine and Bernadette; Benji shuddered inwardly at the memory and silently praised her mother for picking the only good name there. Raising her free hand and shaking Celine's, Benji replied with her eyes on their hands: "Terron heard you already, there's no need for me to tell him. As you can tell by his almost falling, he liked what you said." She pulled her hand away from the girl's and, thinking for a moment, told her, "My grandparents were immigrants from Italy and France; my grandma picked my name for me and my mom liked it. I thought it was sorta stupid, but it beats some of the other names I've heard around here. More realistic."

Benji had only a few foggy memories about her mother, mainly concerning her love for snakes and frogs and singing -- boy, could her mother sing. She'd stopped singing by the time Benji was three -- because she had fallen ill for some reason or another -- and had died by the time she was four or five; her uncle Fred had taken her in instead of her aunt Velanna, who already had one daughter (maybe two, Benji couldn't remember when her second cousin was born). It was depressing, but Benji couldn't say she missed her mother dearly; she could barely remember her, even with the few fond memories she had tucked away.

There was an awkward pause in the conversation, but Terron decided to fill Benji's head with his fan-girling to keep the conversation "going" in his own funny way: Oh, my Ra, you should be friends with this girl. She loves me. She loves me more than you love me. She thinks I'm pretty -- but why don't you think I'm pretty? Don't you love me anymore? Where has our love gone, Benji, where has it gone?

Benji frowned down at Terron as he wrapped his tail around her wrist, wondering whether the last vestiges of the snake's sanity had gone out the window the moment they approached the girl. He normally didn't act like this; any past compliments were accompanied by a few moments of ecstatic hissing from him and then it would drop off, like nothing had happened at all. She clucked her tongue and patted his scaly little head: "Calm down, you. You're being annoying again."

How? I'm asking a legitimate question here.

"I'm too used to you, that's why." Briefly, the demigoddess wondered if Celine thought she were a bit insane, talking to a snake that was hissing enthusiastically and swaying dangerously. Then again, though, talking to animals (or a certain type) was a fairly common power around camp. In a poor effort to continue the conversation with the daughter of Athena, Benji scratched her head with her free hand and tried: "So.... Celine. How's your day been so far?"

Benji turned her head back to Celine and raised her eyebrows at her suggestion (or request, more accurately) -- Terron didn't necessarily hate her, but it did seem the snake liked the child of Athena more than his owner at the moment. Wordlessly, she held out Terron to the girl, thinking it better to amuse him for a bit than to withhold him and listen to his "snake prejudice" rants for another few minutes; she wouldn't have wished those on her worst enemies.

Oh my Ra oh my Ra oh my Ra this is so exciting! Finally, somebody who won't hit me with a broom or scream and run away -- it's a miracle, I tell you, Benny. Maybe I should stay with this girl instead of you, hmm? She seems to like me more than you like me. Terron slithered out of Benji's hand and onto Celine's arm, curling his tail around her wrist and forearm and looking back at his owner with an almost sassy look, as if to say, "Look at me now."

Benji sighed and shook her head at the snake, wondering if what'd she just done was a good idea at all. He'd let it go to his head and try his little 'snake rebellion' thing again -- inspired by that recent movie about a French revolution or something. She didn't want him screaming "VIVE LA REVOLUTION!"  and catapulting himself at her head in an attempt to attain his liberty from the "tall dark tyrant." It was stupid and over-dramatic and no wonder why Benji didn't like that movie at all. "Don't get too comfy, Terron, we're gonna leave soon."

ooc: It's fine, feel free to take your time.

Benji just looked at the other demigod for a moment, trying to figure out whether or not this girl was serious about buying Terron somewhere. Clearly not, they didn't sell venomous snakes in stores anywhere (except maybe the black market or people in foreign places to zoos) and even if they did, the snake curled around Celine's arm was too vain to be anything but some sort of godly gift to Benji. She supposed it was the heightened sense of power he had being sent from Kuk himself to his daughter, but to be honest she felt like he would act this way even if he hadn't been a gift from her father; vanity didn't always come from the gods.

"Godly gift? Well, yeah, I guess you could call him that. Bit annoying, but he saved my life on my dad's orders so I guess that I had to keep him." She half-shrugged at the girl, watching her snake slither further up Celine's arm and tighten his scaly grip on it. Benji hated to admit it, but she loved the snake to death; he'd been her only friend for about a year in this stupid camp and had lightened up her day (barely) by being a sassy jerk, so yeah, he did a lot for her.

You bet your butt that I did -- and you still owe me a hundred rats for that.

Benji shrugged slightly, indicated by a slight upward twitching of the shoulders; she wasn't much in the mood to glorify Terron, as much as she owed him. "I try to be but sometimes he's a bit too obnoxious -- I mean, I can still respect him for saving me but not stand for him being such a snob to me, right? He's sort of like an annoying younger brother, I love him but sometimes throwing him off a cliff looks pretty good. My dad's sorta the same way, I respect him but still want to strangle him for abandoning me."

That was the case with all demigods, really; no god parent could stay around thanks to Zeus's golden rule book or whatever it was that kept them away. It was a disappointing policy, but Benji could understand why it was in place and still hold a grudge against her father for not being there for her, especially after her mother's death. It was irrational, maybe, but having a scapegoat was always an appetizing prospect.

"I, uh...." Benji was taken aback by the sudden outpouring of this girl's life -- orphaned at a young age and left to the mercy of a over-complicated and often poorly put-together orphanage system without knowing her parents. Her own backstory -- her mother dying when she was four or five and being raised by her uncle Fred wasn't much compared to Celine's. At least Benji had had a fairly comfortable childhood in Florida, where she and her uncle would hang around in their backyard catching frogs and maybe the occasional snake in their little garden of flowers and vegetables. It was pretty cheerful compared to Celine's childhood, even though Benji had found her own a bit boring.

Terron, too, seemed to develop a sudden awkwardness at the onrush of information, characterized by a sudden silence in Benji's connection to him. He still retained his occasional hisses and tight grip on the other demigod's arm, although Benji could tell he was trying to think of something to say -- with pity for Celine, perhaps.

Forcing a weak, awkward smile, Benji ran a hand through her hair and shrugged. "Well, mine's nothing special. Ordinary for this place, nothing too tragic -- no abuse, no major deaths except for my mom's, no major events until I had to get to camp. I guess I might be one of the lucky ones?"

OOC: Sorry, this time I was the one who forgot. I'm going into more exams and a school travel, so I shall be inactive again, for the next 100 years. We can assume this rp is over, if you prefer.

ooc: I'm willing to wait, if you want to continue this.