From Fauna to Flora

Somehow, the day had past by Ophelia, a few moments ago she was practicing in the area with a total stranger and now it was mid afternoon and she was still wandering about. Ophelia, intending on going to the mess hall, was sidetracked and ended up going to the camp library. To be honest, she had no idea the camp even had a library until she heard some girls from a grey cabin walk out talking about exchanging books from the library; naturally Ophelia followed the two girls and made her way to the old building.

Being a book lover, Ophelia took a deep breath of the old book smell, there was nothing like it in her mind, and she grinned. As soon as she took a second step she realized her sandals were making a loud clicking sound on the floor; looking around for a place to settle before the librarian had her thrown out for causing a disruption, Ophelia took long strides to the carpeted area where the bookshelves stood proudly. She dreaded each echoing step it took to reach the carpet and hoped she hadn't caused too much noise. Her old brown strap-around sandals looked nice with her summery coral blouse with light brown polka dots scattered around, accompanied with her once-white shorts. A morning at the dusty arena left her knee length shorts spotted with red-brown sand stains.

Happy in her new environment Ophelia walked around slowly glancing at the rows of titles. After making a few selections on global herbivores, the same books she had seen before on her father's desk, she took a seat at a wooden table built to seat four and placed her books down quietly. She always smiled when she read, not just because she enjoyed it, she did, but because it reminded her of the times her father would read his college books to her as bedtime stories; now when she reads she hears his voice and giggles at the thought of him making different voices for the different subjects. Just before turning the page to the chapter of herbivores native to North West America, Ophelia heard the door open and a clicking sound that echoed far too familiarly follow.

For a library, they make it very hard to walk in and be quiet.

She looked to her left to see who had entered; a blonde girl, a few years younger than Ophelia with a sad look in her eyes. Even from afar she could tell the stranger had a faded red around her eyes; probably from crying a while ago. Ophelia had a personality that made her very outwardly kind,and sometimes a little nosey, like she always needed to feel needed with others; it was one of her flaws. She tilted her head as the girl walked past and seemed to hide within the bookshelves next to her.

Concerned, and honestly curious Ophelia hoped the blonde haired girl would sit with her, she wanted to help comfort her, she felt it was something she needed to do. Without the sunlight, the slightly dim light that radiated from the bulbs above her head caused her light brown eyeshadow to lack the shimmer they would normally have as she looked up to smile warmly. She closed her book, but not before marking the page with a piece of scrap paper she found was left over on the table and locked eyes with this stranger.

"Hey, you alright? You look like you've had a rough time. This whole table is open if you want to sit down, although I'm not sure how interested you would be in Zoology" Ophelia chuckled a bit at the end of her offer, but she sounded genuine.

Ophelia smiled at the word Agriculture, it greatly reminded her of the way her father spoke, the young girl had spoken softly, it is the library, but the way she said "Agriculture" just left Ophelia with an honest grin. Thinking back to her father she wondered how his research was doing, she remembered their ongoing joke about how the loving botanist was searching for "a link between Pinguicula and Pinguecula" it was a common joke amongst his co-workers. Ophelia's eyes gleamed at the thought of her father and tried not to miss him as much as she did.

Ophelia, now glad to see the girl sit down at the table with her perked her head up a bit and smiled as she spoke.

"I'm Ophelia. It's actually my first day here; so seeing you with all the camp gear makes me feel more hopeful that this place is worth being away from family." She extended her hand over to greet her new acquaintance only to recoil slightly; without realizing she had forgotten to use a softer voice when speaking the librarian gave Ophelia an intentional throat clearing noise followed by a momentary glare and continued stamping books. She re-extended her hand to the blonde haired girl and pressed her lips in a sheepish smile.

Being a new camper, Ophelia was blissfully unaware of just how much this camp has lost over the years and had only witnessed the gains; such as cabins for minor gods. Some losses caused others to grow cold, others just more determined to fight for what they believe in. Ophelia was hoping she could make this fellow camper a little happier today.

"We can talk Agriculture if you'd like, or we can talk about something else, I'm all ears -" Intending on saying the young girls name Ophelia realized she hadn't asked. "I didn't even ask what your name was I'm sorry how impolite. Here, let me start over. Hi, I'm Ophelia; what's your name?" After making a few silly small loops with her fingers to represent rewinding a VCR, she re-enacted her introduction from moments before correctly and with a bright smile.

She looked happily at the girl before her and took notice of her ponytail; that's two people today I've meet with a ponytail, I should really give it a try sometime. Appreciating the girls hair, and being a fan of her own hair Ophelia, she couldn't resist running a hand through her locks. That was when she realized the girl sitting with her had mismatched shoes. Oh, oh my. They don't match. Does she know that? Of course she knows that, she put them on. But they don't match. Ophelia used near all her willpower to resist focusing on someone else's shoes. She wasn't a judgemental person, not in the least, but she abhorred when things didn't have an order. She was a perfectionist and resisted a cringe at the sight of her shoes, a shame because Ophelia was fond of Converse.

She realized that her perfectionism shouldn't derail her from the situation at hand, it would be selfish to say something about her shoes and ignore the fact she may want comforting. Pushing her inner wants aside, she held a positive and nurturing emotion on her face and hoped that whatever facial expression she might have not been able to resist would be overlooked and not hinder her conversation partner from speaking.

She glance up and saw the inscription on the cap, Cabin 4- Δημήτηρ. Ophelia was not able to read ancient greek on the spot but after a few seconds of blinking and focus she was able to understand that it was Demeter. There was never a greek mythology course in her school, but the literature course did include the Epics and in class she figured if she tried hard enough and broke down the words she could get it. That came before her powers, right around the end of seventh grade. Ophelia tried to recall all she could about Demeter when she realized Persephone was a daughter of Demeter.

I wonder if she already knows, like a sense or something, then again I didn't sense anything, I just read a cap.

Realizing once more, this was a topic for another moment, but nearly unable to contain her excitement, Ophelia widened her eyes and tried to keep her attention fully on the acquaintance before her.

Ophelia giggled softly at the sound of Jana's laughter, it made the glance from the librarian worth it. Her laughter rang in Ophelia's ears; a soothing laughter that reminded her of the church bells on a crisp Sunday morning.  She swung her legs back and forth under the chair, something she did out of habit when happy, and proceeded to sway very gently in her seat, she couldn't tell if it was the ADHD and she just couldn't sit still, or if she was genuinely this happy to be sitting in a library with a near stranger.

It didn't feel that way, Ophelia felt she could trust in Jana Kay; unsure if it was because of the relationship between their godly parents or because Jana was genuinely someone you could trust, she was willing to let herself be an open book with the daughter of Demeter at hand.

"Jana Kay Robertson- ooh I like that, it rolls off the tongue" Ophelia smiled and continued thinking to herself; What else did I inherit from my mother? Well, I am terrified of voids, honestly its the idea of being alone. Ophelia deduced that as a daughter of Persephone she was scared of being alone because her mother was taken when she was occupied picking flowers alone in a field. Thoughts back to Jana she wondered what traits she inherited from her mother.  

"Just a question -- who is your god parent, Ophelia?" She stopped swaying, frozen up right, her feet caught hold, toes poking out of her sandals; enough to feel the slightly warm texture of the floor. She perked up, and widened her eyes with an ecstatic grin; She knows! Or at least has an idea.

Unable to calm her grin, allowing it to take control of her cheekbones and leaving small wrinkles around her eyes, Ophelia leaned slightly in to speak.

"My mother's Persephone." Pursing her lips as if she had just gave away a big secret Ophelia leaned back and with with widened eyes locked attention with Jana Kay's eyes. She felt almost silly, it's not like it was rare to be related to someone in camp; in fact, quite the opposite, most every camper was related to another in one way or another. She felt like she was making a big deal of something that to most would seem trivial, but to Ophelia if it could make someone even the slightest bit joyful than it would make her feel exuberant.


Intrigued with Jana Kay, she was dying to know more, about her, about her mother Demeter. She had never met her mother, she had seen only pictures or carvings, while beautiful in their own right Ophelia couldn't help but wonder if she even looked like her mother; a statue often can't tell you hair color or eye color. She felt like it was the first day in school, when everyone would meet new friends and greet old ones warmly. The stage of a relationship where you just wanted to know more and more, the similarities and the differences. Ophelia had meet some people who had some major differences with her and they could still be friends; to her, differences only made the relationship more interesting. She was soft spoken sometimes, this is true, and it probably aided the friendship that she didn't speak up as much as she could have, but she wouldn't have wanted to pick any fights to begin with anyway.

Ophelia took her hand and rose it above her head to the back of her neck and pulled her hair over to one shoulder. Her tassels bounced on her shoulder as she fumbled a second with her hair pin, adjusting them to match the opposite side now that her hair was moved. Satisfied, she tilted her head at Jana, making sure that her hair wouldn't fall out of place, and interlocked her fingers so she could fiddle with her thumbs.

Biting her inner lip slightly, she wanted to restrain herself from giving Jana a big hug. Ophelia learned around middle school that giving hugs to strangers, regardless of how happy you were was not really acceptable in society. It was weird. It came naturally for a girl without want, just the state of happiness was more than enough for her and being around Jana Kay somehow managed to bring out the emotions in her. At first it was concern for her as she entered the library; not new, she felt concern for most people she figured were having a bad time, but it was more intense, as if she just couldn't stand to see her upset; then it was now, knowing that Jana's mother was Ophelia's mother's mother it just blossomed happiness in her.

Don't be weird Ophelia, you just met the girl. I wonder if it would be like this with all the daughters and sons of Demeter. If they are anything like Jana, I'm sure to get along with them.

Returning to her attentive, less distracted state she smiled widely at Jana and reminded herself that this moment, right now took precedence over later.

OOC: SO sorry for the long time no post! I crafted you a short post before taking the plane, I'm really sorry about the length D:

BIC: Jana had had a tough time not laughing at Ophelia's faces; she looked really funny with her wide eyes and pursed lips, and it reminded her of the grimaces Lucy would make to have her laugh. She was damn good at it.

Persephone...

Now Jana Kay understood why she had reminded her of Demeter. Ophelia was like her half-niece or so, being the daughter of Jana's half-sister Persephone.
The young girl smiled widely at her.

"Well, I'm glad to meet another one of my close family!" she said in a chuckle. "You're kind of my half-niece!"

Seeing that Ophelia was quite older than her, the idea of being her half-aunt was just ridiculous and funny. Ophelia seemed so much mature than Jana! And not only because she was older; there was something reasonable about her, but mixed with a kind and gentle attitude... a really caring one. Jana Kay was so happy to have met her! There were loads of nice people at Camp, but people like Lucy or Ophelia just jutted out.
Okay, she knew she had just met her, and thinking that was perhaps a bit too early, but Jana often had a feeling about people, a feeling about who could be friends and who wouldn't care. And with Ophelia, she had a damn good feeling.

Stroking the back of her books with her fingers, she grinned at her niece.

"You said you just arrived.... has somebody showed you round Camp already?" she asked.

If not, Jana could do it, and that would be amazing: first, she would take her to Rachel's cave, in order for her to have a good look at the Camp and perhaps even say Rachel a quick hello before going back down and to the stables -- horse riding, pegasus riding, who hadn't ever dreamed about that? -- then she would lead her to the Lake then to the actual beach, and after that, the strawberry fields!
And why wouldn't they chill out at the Amphitheater? They could... or chill out at her cabin; Demeter cabin was known to be welcoming.
And Jana could take her to the orchard and vegetable garden, she just loved to be under a pear or apple tree, lying in the shadow of it and closing her eyes to relax, a bottle of fresh orange juice next to her.
Yes, that would be awesome!

And perhaps Jana could talk to her about James... she had a feeling Ophelia could really help her out with that.
On the other hand, she didn't want to make her feel like a psychiatrist with her problem.
But hey, she had to let her decide, of course. They could always remain here, but they wouldn't really be reading, now would they?