Sun's out, guns out (Flashback RP, Private for Ryger and myself)

If someone was to ask, "Where can I find Eric Miller?" Anyone who knew him would immediately point to the Arena. Eric was just the sort of people that spent any free time in the Arena. Whether it was playing sports or working out, he was there giving it his all. Eric had just finished his last set of jumping lunges and was done for now. Throwing the four 50 pound sandbags off his back, he grabbed his shirt and wiped off some sweat. Working out shirtless was something he picked up his summer of varsity football back in Florida. It didn't help his popularity that he had more muscles than some of the seniors on the team.

Eric picked up two of the sandbags in each hand and returned them to the pile near the door. He returned to his bag, took a long drink from his water bottle, then repacked his stuff. With his shirt and bag both on his shoulder, Eric began to head somewhere else, quite possibly the basketball court. He was so focused on deciding what to do, he didn't see the short, redheaded girl until he almost trucked her.

"Watch it." Eric began then recognized her. Chiara from Ares cabin. He didn't know her that well but heard she could be troublesome. He didn't expect troublesome to be her asking him for fight. Was she right in the head? He looked her up and down. "Are you serious?" Not that a fight would be a bad thing. Fighting technically classes as a sport and Eric loves sports. But still. "I think you may be out of your league on this one."

That may have come out a bit harsher than Eric intended. It wasn't that she was a girl or anything like that. He had yet to find some one who could give him a worthy fight. There had been some close ones, one with an Ares kid, another with one of the older Hephaestus kids. But he had the advantage of being the god of strength, meaning he could hit a little (maybe a lot) harder. He always wanted to fight a cyclops but there were none at camp.

Chiara still wanted to fight him and he might of pushed her to far with his comments. She quickly changed into some fighting gear. She looked really serious. Eric sighed. "I guess if you really want to." Part of him was excited to get a fight in. "Just give me a second."

Eric dug through his bag until he found his athletic tape. He quickly wrapped his hands. He has torn them up too many times in fights. He threw the small roll back into his bag then returned to Chiara. "If you're ready we can start."

OOC: I'll just go ahead and do the skip.

BIC: Eric gingerly sat down on the bench, his legs protesting the whole time. He held an ice bag to his nose from which blood was flowing freely. It was probably broken. That was no problem though. It wasn't it's first break. Eric should of been more cautious in the fight. As a daughter of Ares, Chiara was bound to be good. Eric underestimated her.

She was quicker than he was and harder to land a hit on. Her hits may not of done as much damage as some of the others than Eric had fought but she landed more than anyone else ever had. And now he was paying for it. Eric's forearms were already a purplish almost black color. His ribs felt like he had been tossed in a cement mixer. In summary, he hurt everywhere.

Eric removed the ice bag from his nose. He spat a mouthful blood onto the floor. He grinned at Chiara, "That was one hell of fight."

One, two, three. A small jerk and a loud crack and Eric's nose was back in place. It hurt a lot less than a lot of Chiara's punches. He blew and spit out more blood onto the floor. His nose finally cleared cleared and he could smell again, although he wished he couldn't. But still, the smell of sweat and blood was Eric's scent of home.

He leaned back, his muscles in complete agony. He was going to need an ice bath after this. Or maybe a dozen. Sure he could take ambrosia and be back in no time. But after a good fight, he liked to heal normally. It reminded him of playing football back in Florida. Sore body for day, there was nothing better than that.

"I'm a sports nut," Eric answered. "I've basically been doing every sport since I was born." That was pretty much true. If there was a sport Eric hadn't played, it must of just been invented. "Wrestling though, I only did for a summer. I believe it was a couple of years ago." He had dominated his weight group so much it was almost a bore. But still it was a sport.

Whats wrong with golf? Eric wondered. He played it most weekends back in Florida. One of his friend from one of the private schools had actually got them a round at Atlantis Country Club. Maybe Chiara wasn't a fan of the calmer sports. Eric mentally began counting, then realized he didn't want to count that high.

"I've played near every sport there is, I doubt I can count that high though." Eric laugh at his own expense. "Never got a chance to get in the martial arts though. A shame, I think I would of been a prodigy." Eric learned all his fighting techniques in school fights, which he got in a lot.

"I've fought and beaten kids who have had martial arts training." Eric answered quickly. He even beat up the captain of the Karate club at one of his schools (not his fault). Talking made his nose hurt. Actually, any movement made his nose hurt. That thing was sore.

He sat in silence as Chiara described the list of sports that she enjoyed. It was quite an impressive list, with some things Eric never really classified as sports being said. He dug a rag out of his bag, dumped some water on it from his wattle bottle, then wiped down his face. Eric obviously couldn't see his face, but he knew it was covered in blood. Broken noses tended to bleed a lot. After he felt like he cleaned up enough, he threw the rag aside and chugged down a few gulps of water.

He offered the bottle to Chiara,"Impressive list you've got there. Even though I played a lot of sports, the only one I really got addicted too was football. Of course, I was a natural for it. But it's been a bit rough trying to play since coming here." Being a year rounder definitely had it's downers.

Eric took another swig of water then dumped the rest over his head. It cooled him down a little (and hopefully washed off the rest of the blood). He ran a hand through his wet hair.

"I tend to forget that football means something else for the rest of the world," He spat out what should hopefully be the last of the blood. "American Football is a full contact, exhilarating, exhausting sport." Eric loved talking about football, well American football. He grinned at Chiara, "I think you would be a natural at it."

OOC: Hi, I apologize for the delay getting back at you!

BIC: "I gotta try it out some time," Chiara promised. "Too bad there's no team here at Camp Half-Blood though."

She didn't really know if there was anything like it in Corsica -- at least, she hadn't heard of anything. In any case, if she ever got the chance to play it when she wasn't, you know, chased by monsters or fighting for her life, she would definitely look into it. It seemed a lot like rugby and Chiara loves rugby.

"Hey, dude, I'm gonna go take a shower, meet you outside?" she asked, standing up. Her body still ached and hurt as if a team of hockey players had taken a jog across it, but she needed some cold water.

A shower. Now that sounded nice, he could at least get the blood off his face. Eric's ribs felt like someone had taken a meat tenderizer to them, they hurt the worst. Of course his nose still hurt but that would ache for a while. He stretched his legs and instantly regretted it. They knotted up and didn't want to do anything. Everywhere was going to need recovery time.

"Sounds good. I think I need an ice bath." Eric struggled as he stood up. Sitting down was a very bad idea. "I guess I'll see you outside. Give me half an hour." Time to soak and shower.

The ice bath had done wonders to Eric's body. It hadn't been enjoyable to take, freezing and uncomfortable, but Eric had taken plenty to know the end result were worth it. His muscles weren't as sore, he could actually move with only the slightest discomfort. He washed his face off and got rid of the leftover blood that he missed. When he looked in the mirror, his nose was still swollen but that would eventually shrink back to normal given time. The mirror really made those bruises on his ribs look really bad, which they were, and like they would hurt a lot, which they did. At least he could still walk.

Eric had learned early on in his life to always bring a spare set of clothes anytime you go to the gym. He had changed into a tight Nike Just do it shirt which he had torn the sleeves off forever ago. It was summer so he was wearing a black pair of cargo shorts. It might seem weird but when Eric wasn't doing sports or lifting he preferred jeans or nicer shorts. Some people teased him but that was just what he liked.

He came out of the arena shaking his hair, which was still wet. Chiara was leaning against a wall smoking. It looked like she had been waiting a bit. Eric ran a hand through his hair, rubbing some water out, "Sorry about the wait. I kinda needed a long soak after the beating you gave me."

"Yeah, yeah. You're a good fighter, I'll give you that. You might the the first to hold their own against me." Eric admitted. It might seem a little cocky but Eric was sure the if he went full out she wouldn't stand a chance. It wouldn't just be her though, there probably wasn't anyone at camp that could take one of his full hits. Only one person had ever been hit by Eric's full strength and the last Eric heard that guy was still on life support. At the time he freaked, having no clue why that hit had been so damaging. It wasn't until he got to camp and learned about his dad that he understood. He hasn't gone 100% in a fight sense. But that doesn't mean he didn't exert himself, Eric still gives a ton of effort.

They walked together back towards the cabins as Eric remembered that guy. Trash talk after fights seem to make him remember that sh!t. "What?" He asked, as second before he mind caught up. "I've been here about a year now, I think." He rubbed his tattooed shoulder. His buddies older brother did it about a week before he left for camp. Eric easily remembered the date he got it done. "Yeah, it's been a year. You've been here a while, right? I know I've seen you around." She had at least been here as long as he had. Eric knew that much

Eric looked at the beads that hung on Chiara's necklace, rubbing his thumb on his single one. Eric kept his necklace wrapped around his wrist instead of his neck. It just felt more comfortable there.

"So you're an old fart then," He joked. Eric did the math in his head and knew he was older than her, but teasing didn't mean anything.

He frowned slightly when Chiara threw down her cigarette butt. The nymphs where very ornery about littering. Eric had heard stories about kids throwing stuff in the forest then waking up in a mud puddle. Chiara didn't seem to mind when a nymph actually showed up, she just flipped it off and continued on. Eric did an awkward scoop-and-pocket-the-butt motion, gave the nymph an apologetic smile, then caught up to Chiara.

"Do you just live to piss people off?" Eric asked, a smile on his face.

"Nah, it's the other way round. They're the ones spending their time pissing me off," she replied, though grinned a bit. She took Eric's comment like a compliment. Other people were into things like random acts of kindness, cookie-baking and other altruistic stuff. She'd rather hit things.

OOC: Sorry, short post, I'll do better next time

OOC: Sorry for the late response, work has been killer.

BIC: Eric scowled, confused, but it was only for a second. He was pretty sure flipping people off, throwing trash at nymph were thing to piss people off. But Chiara had a different look on life. Her attitude was different than a lot of others Eric knew. Not that having an attitude was bad thing, Eric actually liked an aggressive attitude. It was interesting to meet someone with that, all his friends were pretty laid back.

Eric kicked a rock that had been lying in front of him. It flew off the the side but left a dirt mark on his shoes. That was the problem with wearing white shoes, they get dirty easily. He would just have to clean it later. "How exactly do people piss you off? Does their existence just make you want to punch them? Or do they actually have to say something? For that matter, do I piss you off?" Eric had an unfortunate knack of making kids mad and eventually getting in a fight. He did piss people off quite easily.

"Pretty much. They exist, and that pisses me off," she grinned. If people would just, get the fck out of her way, stop messing with her life, now that'd be great. Teachers got on her nerves more than anyone, their way of looking down at her and telling her in that falsely understanding voice that she'd never make it.

"If you were pissing me off, I wouldn't be talkin' to you. Gum?" Chiara reached her gum pack over, cocking an eyebrow.