Food, Food, Food...and Food

Darren had just gotten done with a training exercise over at the arena, had to stay sharp and all that you know? When he decided for his ‘free period’ he would be spending it taking a shower and then getting something to eat, having already taken said shower only moments ago he was now walking into the Mess Hall area drying his hair with the towel, before shaking his head and letting the hair fall back down into whatever messy un-kept place it wanted to. Placing the towel around his neck he let it hang there holding both ‘ends’ with both his left and right hands as he walked up over to where the trays were, placing his utensils, a plate, a napkin, and a cup on it before heading over to the offering pyre.

As he got there his plate had already been filled up with his favorite food. Cheesy bread, a 24 ounce sir loin steak, garlic bread, some crab legs, some pieces of broccoli, and a couple more random assortment of bread with his drink of course being milk. Sure, you could take the little thief off the streets of Australia but you couldn’t take the thief out of him and after years of living on the streets stealing to survive bread had become his ‘favorite’ food, it reminded him of where he came from and to him it meant life or death. Pushing some broccoli, a piece of the steak, and a couple pieces of bread into the pyre he spoke. “Hey thanks….Mom” he stopped here, the boy who would never shut up always seemed to be quiet when it came to anything to do with his Godly Mother.

She was the woman who birthed him, who gave her up to his mortal father who didn’t want him. She was the reason he never had a real life, a real family…But she was also the reason he met His family and Lauren, she was the reason he had been able to make it to Camp and become part of a new family when his last one had been killed. So he thanked her for that because as much as it seemed like she was never truly watching over him he knew she had to of been. No one was as lucky as he was and didn’t have the Goddess of Victory on their side. Nodding his head he spun around on the heels of his toes and walked over to some random table and sat down. “Ahhh food! Food food food. Hmmm.” He muttered as he took a bite out of his cheesy bread.

Darren continued to munch on his bread, happy and content with where he was now and had no intention of moving from where he was seated until he was done with his meal. Until of course someone spoke up and…well ruined it. “Sitting at the wrong table?” He looked around and noticed that there was practically no one else even in the mess hall besides the few people at the table he was sitting at and a couple others at one or two tables. “Mmm I don’t think it much matters it isn’t even a real meal time, I mean I could see your point if it was say breakfast, lunch, or dinner but its snack time. Or rather it’s most people’s free time in between each ‘event’ and I chose food, which is why I’m here obviously and…” and he was getting off topic again, or was he Darren scratched his head with one hand while the other picked up a piece of broccoli and ate said broccoli.

“I guess I can move if you want, but I mean come on my table is alllllll the way over there.” He sighed pointing to the one that he assumed was the Nike table, sure he was the eldest member of the Nike children still currently residing at Camp Half-Blood and was in a good position to make Cabin Leader this year, but that didn’t mean he had to remember which table they were supposed to eat at, yet anyway. “Besides, it’s not like I’m hurting anyone eating over here, and I swear I don’t bite unless you’re made out of food. You aren’t made out of food are you? Not that I’d eat you though, just because that would be funny.” He said as his boyish grin made its way onto his face.

After finishing another one of his pieces of bread, having cut the steak while talking to her, he whipped his hands on a napkin and stuck his right hand out to the girl across from him. “The name’s Darren, Darren Cross son of Nike, and you are?” Finally getting a good look at the girl Darren’s heart sort of skipped a beat, he was glad he had said all of that without looking at her too much, or it would have come out all stuttered, slurred, or completely and utterly random and off topic. She was gorgeous, and he was an absolute wimp when it came to talking to pretty girls. Give him a sword and throw him in against the Minotaur any day and he’d come out on top, but pretty girls? No thanks.

"Montoya, Carmen. Carmen Montoya." Darren said with a grin nodding his head in approval as they 'finished' their handshake. "Nice to meet you and I'm oh so glad you have not only graced me with your presence but allowed me to continue to sit at your table." The Australian said picking up a pice of steak with his fork and eating said steak after finishing his sentence, quickly washing it down with some milk. "So, what table am I sitting at if you don't mind me asking? As it obviously is not the Nike table, or one of the 'big twelve'." Upon saying big twelve he uses his hands to make quotation marks. Sure, the Olympians were the big bad, the original twelve or thirteen if you counted Hades; but that sure as hell didn't make them or their kids better than anyone else. Darren knew for a fact he could take on anyone in a one time no one fight, or maybe two or one, or even three on one as long as he had his trusty sword. Blinking he realized she had probably just answered his question and he had completely zoned out in to his own little world. [color=yellow]"Sorry, I missed everything you just said...what table we at?"[/color=yellow]It hadn't dawned on him yet she hasn't even told him her God parent.

((I've been gone for quite some time and for that I am sorry , if you chose not to continue this topic I will understand. Sorry for my absence and terrible post))

When she smiled and laughed Darren could only grin and quickly look down at his food picking up and eating one of his pieces of broccoli. When she stopped he ate a piece of his steak and looked back up, noticing she wasn't smiling anymore and instead seemed to be back to her normal stoney exterior. Which although made him a little disappointed he could understand, some people just weren't as awesomely peppy and smily as he was. "Egyptian eh? Haven't met very many Egyptian Demi-Gods!" The son of the goddess of victory exclaimed with a boyish grin that seemed to be plastered to his face.

"So misses Egyptian Princess who is your Godly parent then if you don't mind me asking? Also, you might want to explain what it is said parent does because I don't know much about the Egyptian pantheon." Darren said with a chuckle before he scratched the top and of his head. "Actually if we're being completely honest I don't know much about a lot of things but the things I do know I'm totally amazing at, like sword fighting for example. I'm totally the best sword fighter in the entire camp, also could probably steal from the Hermes Cabin and get away with it." Nodding his head he blinked looking at her voice faltering a little, "you aren't going to tell them that are you? Because they would totally take that as a challenge and I don't like challenges; because I don't lose." He rambled on, not realizing it all. Completing forgetting how he even got to where he was, as he popped a small piece of bread in his mouth.

“Chaos huh? Like the big black hole thing that created the world? Or no, that’s Greek mythology, or I guess it would be roman as well, but obviously not Egyptian or you’d be like the most powerful freaking Demi-God here wouldn’t you?” He rambled off a little bit laughing at the thought taking a big bite out of one of garlic breads before pointing it up in the air as if it was a sword, then lowering it to take another bite. “My name is Inigo Montoya Ju killed my fatha prepare to die!” He grinned looking over at her hoping she got his little joke before adding on at the end “As much as I’d love for the Hermes campers to try and steal from me I don’t have much to steal anywho, buuut I do have to ask. Do people say that line to you a lot because I know I would.”

Sure, he was a spaz, off topic a lot, and my god was she beautiful. Darren completely forgot what he was about to say or think or do, a peace of steak hung out of his mouth making him look like a complete doof. But he could not care less, in fact the only thing running through his mind was well…actually nothing ran through his mind but that wasn’t the point. She was a pretty girl, Darren wasn’t very good around pretty girls and it surprised him he lasted this long before freezing up; but freeze up he did and there was no coming out of this one for a while. “Uh…”

Darren was out of it, completely and totally out of it and the only thing he was looking at was WOA was that a butterfly? He blinked realizing that okay maybe it wasn't a butterfly that he saw and was instead just his imagination and that she was waving her hand in front of his face. Blinking Darren grabbed the piece of steak that was hanging from his mouth and pushed it back into his mouth before trying to remember if he heard anything she just said. That or even what her name was, Montoya something or another and well okay so maybe that was all he remembered because of the Princesses Bride.

"Alright? Me! Well I couldn't be better! Unless of course I was on some island full of well actually not sure what it would be full of but that doesn't matter." He explained, or rather didn't, waving off the topic or rather statement made by her that by rambling he could have carried off into his very own conversation. Which of course brought him running back on past words and spoken topics to try and figure out just what it was that she had said to him while he was out of it. Something about a bad joke and OH! He laughed and rubbed the back of his head with one hand while the other took a sip of his drink. "Yea okay so the joke wasn't to great but I mean that movie is hilarious, you have seen it right? As for the powers thing sounds amazing. Bet you'd have a hard time making me go crazy or crazier then normal at least."

Which of course gave him an idea, a terrible idea that could only be thought up by Darren and his blue eyed brown haired self. "So, give it a whirl, show me what cha got." The odd son of Nike exclaimed standing up after wiping his face off of any crumbs or dirt left over from the food. Sure, he had absolutely no idea what she could do and what it would do to him but he didn't care; it sounded like a challenge and nobody loved a good challenge more than probably his own mother. Which he wasn't exactly too sure about because he had never met the woman...but! No matter it was time to get down to business. "Ready when you are Miss Chaos."Yay more nicknames.

Blah, blah, blah, Spanish, Spanish, Spanish...Oh! Hey look English! He knew how to speak English, well mostly. Sadly because he could understand her it meant she wasn't using her chaos, crazy making powers. Flashing one of his (in)famous boyish grins he shrugged "Maybe it's because I like crazy. I'm not insane, in fact I prefer the term mentally unstable but hey you know." He bet she didn't know, but that wasn't going to stop him from being, well him. Waving off her attempts at scaring him off with visiting his nightmare and feeling helpless and other stuff he didn't listen to Darren just moved his hands in a sort of come on fashion.

He had to live with the fact of knowing that he was a failure for the rest of his life anyway. Had to constantly be reminded that it was his fault his 'family' died, that he was the reason Lauren got raped and if he had just been a little bit faster or a little bit stronger he could have saved them. It was why he put on the aura of being the jokester, the fun loving crazy kid and why he trained as hard as he did, pushed himself further than most people could. It was his bodies way of dealing with how helpless he felt; his own little form of PTSD. So maybe, just maybe, subconsciously he thought that if he could handle whatever her little power threw at him he could handle anything. Blinking he shook his head 'Woa...deep, maybe I can get some chocolate later.'he thought to himself. "It may be my funeral but I'm sure I can take it beautiful." He grinned waiting.

At first he didn’t feel anything, he was too distracted by just how close their faces were. Like really, she cupped his face and was looking into his eyes with her swirling mix of blue and grey gorgeous eyes. So, yes the shirtless blue eyed brown haired Australian was perplexed, taken a back, stunned, whatever you want to call it he was damn sure he was it at that moment. Except the moment only lasted a little bit before the true sensation hit. A twitch of his eye and his fingers tightening before quickly unclenching twice were the only signs physically that anything at all had happened. Whatever the hell her power was supposed to do he was pretty sure it was working.

Or, rather he would have if he was fully aware of what was going on anymore instead of losing balance in his legs, faltering as if he had locked his knees. Thankfully she was there for him to sort of fall into or he would have ended up on the ground and that probably would have made things more embarrassing than anything. All the memories came flooding back as if a damn was broken in his mind, the orphanage, the life on the streets and worst of all….“Lauren.” The one word escaped his lips as his eyes as well as his ears twitched, his mind reeling from the emotional shock; unsure if his body would be able to take the pain it shut down momentarily.

Heart beat slowing down to around forty beats per minute , about what a in shape runner’s would be at rest, it would seem he fell asleep. At least momentarily the shirtless Jokster Son of Nike was silenced or so it seemed. “Lauren…No…” He whispered out unaware .

“Ugh…” The word, because it is totally a word, slithered out of Darren’s mouth as he ‘regained’ consciousness. Shaking his head his eyes opened and closed a couple of times before he realized what was going on and where he was. Which of course made him push himself away from Carmen and up into a more comfortable standing position; one in which he was standing up straight by his shirtless self and not leaning up against a person, a girl at that, he just met. “Okay? ‘Course I’m okay, absolutely nothing happened anyway; I mean sure I passed out for a couple of seconds there but I don’t quite think your power thingy mabob worked like it was supposed to. No crazy darkness or ebil stuff went on in my head so you might want to get that checked out.”

Sure, he was totally lying but in all honesty he could not remember what had happened, he just knew it wasn’t good. More than likely it had something to do with his brain not allowing him to remember what her power had made him remember, like a repressed memory. That of course didn’t mean Darren was going to tell her that, she didn’t need to know that. In his mind all she needed to know was that he was totally awesome and could take anything she or anyone else threw at him because he was totally going to save the world or something one day. “So, what else you got?”

“Blowing up the mess hall!?” He gasped sound generally hurt and surprised “Why on earth would anyone want a power to do that? Jeez, food is like life man, don’t go breaking my he-mess hall.” Laughing at his own little joke that hopefully she’d get but it was so obscure and not even fully played out that she probably would in no way shape or form get it. Even if she did he had a feeling she would not find it as funny as he himself did. Scoffing at her implying he was not okay though was something he didn’t exactly find funny, and whipped the smile off his face. He wasn’t frowning or scowling or anything like that of course but just not smiling. “Me not okay? Miss Montoya I do believe you need to get your retinals checked. For I feel perfectly fine.”

That was the truth too, he couldn’t feel better. Well okay, maybe if he was sword fighting or doing something else he could probably feel better. But that wasn’t the point, the point was he didn’t feel bad, he wasn’t experiencing any side effects. The kid was perfectly fine in every sense of the word, at least until his stomach growled reminding him that he was in fact however hungry. “However I do seem to be still hungry.” So of course he plopped back down on his chair and took a bite out of his steak looking back up at her with an innocent smile on his face.

Darren could only shrug as she said she was surprised that he was still hungry after all he had eaten, mainly because he had food in his mouth at that point in time. So when his mouth was empty of food, washing it down with milk and a boyish grin. “What can I say a man’s gota eat.” Cue the continuation of Darren digging into his food, he wasn’t exactly ignoring her right now more so instead trying to keep from looking like even more of a complete and total idiot in front of her and when she got up to leave he actually didn’t even notice until he came up to breathe. A funny one liner on his mind and a piece of broccoli in his hand he opened his mouth only to notice Carmen was no longer there.

In fact, no one else was in the Mess Hall anymore. Dropping the uneaten piece of broccoli on his place he sighed. “Well bye then.” He muttered to the empty Mess Hall, stood up and made his way over to the offering pyre. Scooping in what was left of his meal and offering it up to his mother the shirtless Australian made his way out into the rest of camp. It was getting close to three which meant he had to be somewhere with his Cabin for something…if only he could remember what.

((I agree, another interaction between the shirtless australian and the anti-social daughter of Set would be amusing.))

((Sounds like a fun time.))