Flying Pinecones

For once, Vivian was nowhere near open water. Maybe that's why she felt so agitated, kicking the nearest pinecone so hard it bounced off the nearest pinetree. The other reason she was in such a bad mood, was due to a letter she got earlier. A letter from her mother begging her to come back home. Vivian could almost laugh. Go back to her abusive step-father and ignorant mother? Please. Vivian would rather eat dirt.

The worst part was that the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. This time Vivian picked up another pinecone and chucked it as hard as she could, into the surrounding wood. Muttering curse words under her breath as she kicked around dirt. Vivian wasn't sure why it bothered her so much, it's not like her mother was coming up to camp and marching her home. Her mother didn't even know that she dated a wind god. Though, she had tried for the past ten years to push the memories out of her head.

As Liam Spencer wheels his way into the forest, he smiles; and for the first time in his life, the smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. The leaves are changing. There's no denying it any longer: fall is here. The paraplegic teen loves fall. It's his favorite season. But this year, he can't seem to find beauty in the dying earth. He swears he can hear Demeter's sobbing as Persephone is forced back to the underworld.

Let's get one thing straight, shall we? Liam Spencer is happy person. He is not angry, not depressed, he carries an optimistic outlook on life. But today, he is melancholy. An odd sight, really; To see Liam so sad. But he has good right to be. His legs itch to get up and run- no they don't. They don't itch. They don't twitch. They are completely devoid of life. Normally, this wouldn't bother Liam. It'd been ten months since the accident that robbed him of the use of his legs, and he'd been coping just fine. He'd gotten past the depression. He was happy as a clam, now! But then again, it wasn't his paralyzed limbs that were bothering him...

It has been ten months since the accident that robbed him of the use of his legs- but only two weeks since the incident that robbed him of a close friend. Dealing with the death of a loved one was never easy; it wasn't supposed to be easy. And yes, life would go on, but Liam couldn't deny the ache in his chest that made it hard to breathe sometimes.

And so, Liam made his way to the forest, trying to cheer himself up. He never did like being sad.

Vivian was kicking the dirt once more, until she heard something. The crunching of leaves that was a scarce sound in the tropics. Of course the first thing that comes to Vivian's head is monster. Feeling her heart racing at the prospective of getting mauled to death, Vivian froze in her tracks. Slowly, her fingers inched toward the bow that she shamefully abandoned on the ground. She notched an arrow, now feeling her heart rise to her throat and surveyed the surrounding forest.

"Who's there?" She called. Granted, it was a stupid move. Now a monster would certainly maul her.

"Only me..." Came Liam's half-hearted response only a short moment later. It didn't occur to him that this person could be dangerous. True, he didn't recognize the voice, but he didn't think it mattered. Unlike many campers here, he wasn't of the impression that all human beings were inherently evil.

Vivian still didn't put her bow down, and instead focused her aim in the direction the voice was coming from. "It'd be nice to know who "me" is. I'm guessing it's not your given name" She shot back. Vivian had learned to be careful after four years at camp. Knowing her luck could be dealing with some dragon capable of human speech. Vivian concluded that she absolutely hated the woods, give her a sea-monster any day.

Liam found himself chuckling at her caution. "Liam Spencer. Son of Aphrodite," He said, his voice lacking the usual energetic tones. "Hair color, brown. Eye color... Hazel last I checked. Long-sleeved red shirt, jeans, white... erm, white-sh sneakers. Wheel-chair. Y'know," He said with a shrug. He was tired and he found his mind wandering; That was the only reason he was describing himself, really.

Vivian sighed and put the arrow back in her quiver. "I didn't need a full description" she grumbled, her bad mood coming back. "Though, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting a boy in a wheelchair." Vivian was like that, always getting straight to the point. Honestly, she found it stupid that people tried to avoid the obvious.

Liam smirked. "Nobody does, I suppose," He smirked. "come out here to enjoy fall? Or just avoiding people?" He asked.

OOC Sorry, crappy post :P

Vivian shrugged, "The latter, I guess." she decided not to mention her problems with her Mother. After all, what was she supposed to say? 'I'm out here because my horrible parents want me back'? No thank you. Vivian looked back at her acquaintance,"What about you?" she asked.

Liam shrugged. "Dunno. I guess a combination of both," he said with a chuckle. He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. But cracked them open, he smiled. "I told you my name, now you tell me yours. That's how it works, right?"

Vivian crossed her arms, silent. She looked around for a way out, where she didn't have to answer a pointless question that she was ,for some reason, afraid to answer. Then she remembered that the guy was in a wheel chair and she could easily just jog a couple hundred feet and she'd be free. But Vivian didn't budge. "Vivian" She finally responded after what seemed like days.

Liam didn't seem aware of the long pause- he was always the patient sort. Although he found himself feeling rather happy when she finally responded- have knowledge of her name gave him a bit a familiarity; made him feel a little less lonely. "Vivian..." He muttered softly. "'S a pretty name. Sounds like viva, the Spanish word for life..." He rambled. But that's what sleep deprivation does to you: it makes you ramble. Suddenly he looked up and the sky and then at her. "It's getting pretty dark out. You're not scared of ghosts are you? It is close to halloween after all," he asked, a half-hearted smile ghosting his lips.

Vivian couldn't help but laugh, "Like ghosts are the least of my problems." Then, she realized what she was doing, opening herself up for questions.She had learned not to tell anyone about her past life, much less her parents. Then people looked at you in a different way, with pity. Vivian didn't need pity. "What about you?" Vivian asked quickly, hoping Liam didn't take much notice into her earlier comment, "Are you afraid of the dark?" Vivian started to lose her defensive pose, opting instead to lean against a tree trunk.

"No," he said bluntly. "What reason have I to fear the dark?" He snorted and then heaved a sigh. "Anywho, I know how you feel. Ghosts aren't really anybody's primary concern here. Here, it's either monsters of other campers- which is what I don't understand. I don't understand why everybody hates everybody else. I mean, not everybody here is inherently evil. I mean, why can't people just trust other people, y'know?"

Vivian diverted her eyes. "Maybe they've been given a reason." It could've just been a coincidence, what he said, or maybe he was appealing directly to her. So what, if Vivian didn't trust anyone? She had locked her heart away a long time ago, and put on a new persona. So what if she had become moody and frustrated lately? That wasn't anyone's concern. Vivian looked back at Liam, and changed the subject."Anyways, Halloween is coming closer. Personally, I think it's silly. It's just become a holiday devoted to selling candy."

"Oi!" He snapped impatiently. "Halloween isn't about selling candy! It's about fear! Scary stuff! It's not silly, it's FANTASTIC!" He defended the holiday with great devotion. He shrugged a little bit and smiled. "Although, I suppose I'm just biased; Halloween is my favorite holiday, after all,"

Vivian abandoned her earlier thoughts and smirked, "Touche. Personally I enjoy the Crucian Christmas Festival. There's great music, food, and all sorts of fun parties. It trumps any American mainland holidays." Vivian shook her head, "No matter what you say, the Festival is the best. It usually lasts longer than a month, and afterwards it takes forever to shed the pounds."

Liam shook his head. "Nope. Nope. Halloween beats all. On Halloween, I can be anybody I want to. Christmas? Not so much. Besides, I don't have to talk to any weird aunts or something during Halloween- not that I have any weird aunts or anything,"

Vivian laughed, "Sure, I guess there are no crazy aunts at halloween. But I'm guessing you haven't seen what people wear for the festival. Headdresses and all that sort of thing. It's pretty scary if you asked me. Freaked me out when I was little."

He shuddered a little bit. "Yeah, fancy clothes are pretty scare," he said. "Especially when I'm the one who has to wear them," he made a face and stuck out his tongue a little. "Never liked having to dress up- dress fancy I mean,"

Vivian nodded, 'Yeah. Fancy clothes aren't my thing, 'specially if it's one of those long dresses. It's impossible to walk, much less sail, when you have all of the extra fabric and stuff at your heels. Believe me, I've tried. You see, I had to go to this wedding, and it was right before this junior sailing competition, so I didn't have anytime to change.You should've seen everyone's face when some girl pulled in with a full length dress. Priceless" Vivian laughed. She found it easy to smile when she talked about sailing. It was her life, and it gave her drive.

Liam laughed as well. "Oh believe me. I know. Dresses are ridiculously hard to deal with! I don't know how you girls do it!" He exclaimed. Then he blushed in embarrassment and chuckled a little. "Before you ask, no I'm not a cross-dresser. It was for a school play. It was NOT FUN." He said, theatrically over dramatic.

"My god. I'm not sure how they do it either. I mean, it's just not practical. You can't swim, climb, sail or run in dresses. That basically makes it impossible for me to do anything. Except act 'Ladylike' and 'Dignified'," Vivian picked apart a random pine cone while she said this, "which is just a bunch of crap anyways. I am so glad I live in the 21st century." Vivian rested her hands on top of her head, and looked at Liam, "So, what else do you like to do? Other than dressing as a girl for theater, of course."

"I know! As a man with experience wearing a dress I can personally attest to the lack of places to hide a weapon," Liam said with a slight nod. He then blinked and proceeded to answer her next question. "Well, back when I was living in Florida -and I kid you not- I used to wrestle alligators. Well, I mean, just the little ones. See, I used to work with my old man at this wild life sanctuary down near Tampa, and we'd work to remove safely alligators from public places and return them back to the wild without hurting 'em," Liam coughed a little bit. "I used to be quite good at soccer, too. But, now?" He glanced down at his immobile legs. "Eh... Not so much," he said with a chuckle, his old humor returning once again. "Although, now I usually play basket ball with the other guys down at the physically therapy clinic," he said with a grin. "What about yourself?"

"Well, I used to swim and sail, though there's not much opportunity up here. 'specially because it's so cold, and I have no intention on swimming in the water here. It's just so polluted. The air, water, everything is filled with trash. Though, I'm not actually sure if it's like this all over mainland america." Vivian shrugged, "I guess I just don't do much anymore. Other than wander around forests and talk to everyone I happen to bump into."