War and Light (Mandar)

Valerie sat down on one seats, her mind conjuring up the food and drink which she wished to consume. In this case a nice tall glass of carrot juice and a cheese burger with fries. She shared a few bits of her food with the Gods, the last thing which she wanted was to invoke the wrath of the Gods by forgetting her manners. She already had enough trouble as it was, without the various Greek Gods deciding to get involved more because she mistakenly did something to anger them.
Valerie sometimes found herself feeling a bit lost at Camp Half-blood. This being because of her extended stay in the Lotus Hotel, which resulted in her being trapped there for sixty six years. This however only became apparent when she returned to Camp Half-blood. All of her friends from her old time, well original where gone, either dead, killed or old.

Sometimes it just got to her, when she mention names that her new friends did not know and would at her confused. Valerie missed the old faces, everything was different, like she had gone to a completely different Camp Half-blood. Her hazel brown hair was tied up in a loose bun, though sometimes Valerie had it down so it fell to her neck. Her ice blue eyes were clouded as she remained lost in thought, before she took a sip of her drink. Valerie was a daughter of Apollo, a decent archer if she did say so herself though she needed to use a short bow due to being an unimpressive four foot nine in height.
She wore tight blue jeans, with black trainers, a Camp Half-blood t-shirt which happened to be several sizes too big and a faded combat jacket, a gift from an old friend. Well once they might have been more than friends, if he had lived on the hunt which led to her being trapped in the Lotus Hotel for sixty six years.

Evander was still not used to everyone being spread out instead of cabin specific, but now they had too many cabins to be specific. He looked for a seat near any of his cabinmates, but didn't see any. Didn't see Alice either. The teen shrugged and headed towards a relatively empty spot at a table.

"'Scuse me, this seat open?" He asked genially, looking over the girl. She was short, small. What was the word Alexandra always used? Pet something. Her shirt was too big, and her jacket was... "That a World War II era jacket?"

Valerie looked at the teen who asked the question. "Sure." She answered. "Help yourself." She shuffled up slightly to make more room for him. "Yeah it is." She touched the jacket's left sleeve with her right hand smoothing some of the wrinkles down. The jacket had been a gift from her friend Max, a son of Ares. They had been good friends before he tragically died in battle, he always did say he would.
"Do you like it?" She inquired, wondering why he asked about what era her jacket came from.

Evander sat down and wished for a cranberry juice to drink. He looked at the girl again, especially at the jacket. "Yeah, you don't see that many of them anymore in such good condition. Most you can usually find are replicas or Korean war era. My d- well, er, stepfather I guess? Um, he collects World War II memorabilia. Usually more Marine or Navy related, but hey, Army is cool." He looked down at his plate with food, then back up at her. It felt a little strange talking about his dad's old hobby, but it was something that Evander had always found interesting too.

"Oh, um, hi, I'm Evander Ajax, son of Ares."

Valerie took a sip of her drink and nodded as he spoke. "Ah that explains why you recognise it and yeah I guess they are." She began to guess that he might have been a son of Athena or Ares, until he revealed it himself. "Oh that makes even more sense why you recognised it." She offered him a smile. "I'm Valerie Winters, daughter of Apollo." She put her glass down, eating a couple of fries before revealing. "Not surprised you recognise it... It is a gift from a son of Ares."

"Pleasure to meet you." Evander said before excusing himself a second to give his offerings. He prayed his prayer to Ares, then came back and sat down. "So a gift from another Ares kid, eh? Didn't think anyone else in my cabin collected old war stuff." He said, starting into his food.

Valerie nodded as he went away to offer some of his food to the Gods. She had a small bite from her burger, she swallowed her mouthful as he commented on her last sentence. The much smaller girl looked away, her ice blue eyes glazing over with a painful sadness. "Max collected war stuff but that was sixty six year ago when he stopped because he... Died." Valerie shook her head. "He was a good friend, a great fighter and really funny." She sounded wistful.

Evander felt like a real tool. Although how was he to know? He wasn't used to senior citizens looking his age. It was weird. Like, seriously weird. "Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, you look really nice for being over sixty. Uh...I thought the young and beautiful forever thing belonged to Hunters, but I don't see any silver or fellow Hunters."

Despite everything Valerie couldn't help but smile at his comment, not every Camper here knew her story. She was used to telling it. "Firstly thank you but I am technically fourteen still just that I was trapped in the Lotus Hotel for a long period of time." Valerie when she finally managed to escape, only discovered exactly how long she had been missing once she reached the safety of Camp Half-blood. Her home coming had been one hell of a shock to her. "It is still weird to me being catapulted into this time period." She took a long swig of her drink before saying. "But that's just my path so far in life."

Evander was silent for a few moments, trying to digest that. He vaguely remembered something about a Hotel Lotus being a place that trapped demigods, where time passed in hours and days instead of weeks and years. It didn't really work, imagining what it was like to enter a building and exit it sixty years later. "I bet everything is different now. Especially with the new cabins. All of the minor gods being recognized. I hope some of these changes are at least for the better in your opinion."

The daughter of Apollo smiled, she always liked the Ares kids, they just seemed to have this knack or seeming innate skill at cheering her up. "Yeah some of the improvements are cool like these video game machines you have like PS Box." Valerie was awful at remembering the names of the different consoles and the names of various games. Yet, she happened to be a great shot with a M14 on the Call of Duty Games, so watch out.
"I still have my stuff here too." She found herself laughing. "My half brothers and sisters do not necessarily approve of my records but hey you've gotta love the Ink Spots, Gerhard Trede, Roy Brown, Jack Shaindlin and Cole Porter." She disliked the pop stuff that seemed to be so popular now, that wasn't music but she could appreciate it even if it failed to appeal to her music pallet. "Oh and Allen Grey!" Valerie added quickly. "You would love his song Swing Doors." Her eyes lit up as she spoke about her favourite artists. Though not everyone at Camp, appreciated her music tastes since they were from a long time ago.

Evander chuckled at the term PS box, but didn't correct her. Them she started talking about music, and surprisingly he actually found himself recognizing some of the names. "Ink Spots, they were featured in an Abbott and Costello film at one point. Oh, what was it? See you at the Sarong? Something Sarong. And Allen Grey, wasn't he a composer form film scores back in the 30's and 40's? Mensch one Namem with Borgmann?"

Now that was something he didn't usually think of. His sister loved the old movies, and so had his mom. They had made him suffer through tons of the old movies. Actually, they werent that bad when you got past the idea that they were all ancient. And some of the stunts were unreal. He preferred movies from the late fourties and early fifties. The hard hitting WWII films with grungy heroes and snappy one liners. He would never admit it to anyone in his cabin, who only ever saw him watching modern movies. Actually, he might admit the war movies part. He wouldn't admit he had seen Casablanca seven times.

Valerie's smile grew. "Yeah, that's right." She said, pleased that she had finally found someone here who knew the kind of music which she was on about. He wasn't even that bad on the eye, but she tried her best to shunt such thoughts from her mind, they led to her blushing and going all tongue tied around those people which she thought to be cute.
Valerie enjoyed many of the films from the 1930's through to the 1950's, though she would watch the modern films produced. She was sometimes confused by the plots or the high tech gadgets being shown in some of those films. They where usually the things which bewildered her in normal life, such as mobile phones and Ipods.

"My mom, and ny sister back home, got me hooked on old films. I preferred war movies and things, but even Bob Hope wasn't bad. I mean Pale Face? That is gold standard for comedy. Totally politically incorrect now, except for the strong female lead." Evander said, then looked around. "Don't tell my siblings, they'll think I'm a dork."

She smiled at him. "I am sure they won't think that." Valerie soothed encouragingly. "If you want to watch them you could always watch them with me?" She offered her cheeks flushing with colour.
"I mean if you wanted." Valerie added quickly, feeling a tad embarrassed. She took a sip from her juice, then licked her lips of the remaining juice flavour that remained there. She always possessed a certain friendliness for the children Ares, perhaps it was the muscles? Or their tendency towards honesty? Valerie couldn't point it out if anyone asked her as to what particular reason there was. Assuming she did not get embarrassed and tongue tied about the question.

Evander smiled enthusiastically, "Yeah, that's be great. I would love to. I love movies. Old movies, new movies. I'm also a sucker for cartoons. Looney Tunes, Disney Movies." He said, then stopped, clearing his throat. "But, uh, just like friends. 'Cause I have a girlfriend."

She laughed quietly. "Yeah that it would be I love all of those too, especially the old war flicks." At the mention of his girlfriend, Valerie's cheeks flushed with colour. "Oh... It is okay, I don't mean to make things difficult." She tried not to let herself feel too upset, Valerie wasn't going to try and steal someone's boyfriend that was just wrong.
There happened to be something about the Ares' boys, maybe it was the camo or the muscles, or their preference towards honestly. Valerie could not quite put her finger on it, even though she had never dated an Ares' boy. She might have once but unfortunately that was not going to be case since he kinda died, before any of them could make a move on it.

Evander shifted awkwardly, "It's not difficult, it's just, you know, movies. I wanna make sure there aren't any misunderstandings. Because I seem to be incredibly talented at causing those." He said, looking embarrassed himself. So much for Ares kids being the kings and queens of confidence. He was one awkward fumbling tool.

"I get it don't worry." She replied. "You don't want your girlfriend to think that you are seeing someone else or that someone else to think you are interested in seeing them." Valerie smiled at him. "Don't worry I'm not the kind of girl who would try and steal or wreak things... That is just plain wrong, if you want to hang out that is the word everyone uses right? And see a film as just friends I'm cool with that." Valerie suggested, perhaps she wondered it might be better for them both if they brought more people to it so it wasn't just the two of them alone.
That way no one could take a misunderstanding to it.

"Yeah, hang out as friends. I like friends. I mean, I'm a friendly person." Evander said awkwardly, smiling at her. "We can watch Roy Rogers and John Wayne. Abbott and Costello, if you like comedies."

Valerie smiled back, she quite liked this son of Ares, she did hope that they would become good friends. "Sounds great with me." It would be good to watch a good film again, though to most of the other campers she was certain that they would be deemed as classic or plain old.
To each their own, Valerie still preferred the movies from her own time or rather old time to the stuff of the modern age.

Evander grinned again, relaxing a little. "So what else do you like to do, Valerie? I like to run, and spar, and swim... Not great at the rock wall. Did they have the rock wall when you were first here? I want to know how they control the lava."

"Archery, listen to swing music, go on the lake with Harry, Bernard, Maria and Max." She stopped herself realising that she had just mentioned friends who were long dead or withered from the relentless march of time. Valerie let out a quiet sigh, annoyed that even after being at Camp for a while she still slipped up on the occasion, mentioning the names of those who were no longer at the Camp in this time.
"Sorry... I think it was." She said searching her memory for the rock climbing will. It was sometimes difficult to tell what was a recent addition and what had been a more modern one.

"Archery is cool. I don't know how to swing. Who are Harry, B-oh, oh, nevermind. I like the lake though. It's really pretty. I like to run by the lake. And swim occasionally." Evander said, trying to keep everything up beat. It was difficult when it was hard to tell when she was talking about the present or the past. Of course, that had to be incredibly difficult for her.

"Yeah it is, I quite like being there or swimming in it." She decided to not explain who the other names were. Valerie guessed that he realised that they were people from her past, not from this time. It was complicated being here sometimes being a great challenge as for Valerie, to her mind sixty four years had not past since she last set foot in the camp.