Playing Hookie (Open)

Pierre sat in the court-yard of the cabins, holding Gus in a tight swaddle as he held a bottle of milk up to the giant badger cub. He was humming gently Au Claire De La Luna, a French lullabye that his father had always sung to him. Gus was wiggling in his swaddle trying to get more of the milk as the large child of Epione hummed and kept a tight hold.

It had been a few weeks since he had gotten to camp, and Gus was almost big enough that he wasn’t able to hold the little guy, but still needed to be bottle fed most of the time. It was one of the most relaxing things that Pierre found about this rather violent camp that he had ended up in. He wasn’t a fighter. He was a pacifist. And everything about the camp involved teaching how to fight. Capture the flag. Sword fighting practice. A rock wall that spat lava. It was all rather violent. Pierre had liked arts and crafts, which was cool, but had gotten in trouble for not wanting to do do anything with the sword fighting arena. In fact, he was suppose to be in sword fighting right now, but it was time for Gus to be fed, and to him that was much more important. He wasn’t a fighter.

Giselle had spent most of her morning training. She worked on her agility, and climbing skills for the most part as well as trying to work with her magic more. Being the daughter of Circe had its perks and disadvantages. A con just so happened having to practice over and over but the easiest way to learn something was through repetition. Knowing this first hand from learning English awhile back when she was younger. Although due to a young mind it was a lot easier to pick up. With a small sigh she was looking forward to getting back to the cabin and having some down time to just relax near the water. The sun wasn't that good for tanning anymore and it was a bit too chilly for it regardless.

Coming up into the cabin courtyard, she heard a familiar tune. It took her a minute to recognize that it was French and she smiled, as a form of nostalgia came flooding back into her memory. As she got closer to the sound she found the source of it. She knew this guy, he was new to her cabin and a friendly smile was placed on her face. This was Pierre a new camper who owned an interesting pet to say the least. Giselle would be lying if she said it didn't slightly terrify her, she didn't know if it had any diseases she could pick up or not.

"Salut, Pierre!" Giselle said with a smile on her face, as she sat near him and looked at him. Giselle didn't plan to talk to him in full on French but she decided it would be nice to hear something familiar and have that sort of connection. "No training today?" She questioned with her eyebrow raising up a little. Surely he had something he needed to attend.

Pierre was honestly surprised to hear someone speak to him in French, naturally. He must have jumped about three feet, and looked to see Giselle, one of the older cabinmates. He smiled, shifting Gus in his arms again. "S-salut, Giselle. C-C-Comment ça va?" He said, though he stuttered and blushed. "How're you? And...I d-d- merdé, I hate sword fighting. I don't hurt people."

He shifted, looking at the girl. They were about the same age, she might be older. She was pretty, and very proper with everything. His mind wandered briefly to his his grandmother would appreciate that. That would normally be incentive enough to dislike someone, but it was just nice to have someone who understood French, though he rarely spoke it.

"ça va tres bien!" Giselle said with a smile on her face. She had noticed from the start when she first welcomed Pierre to the cabin that he had a stutter. Really he seemed like a giant marshmellow but that made Giselle have a slight soft spot for the son of Epione. She saw the animal that Pierre held, it was sort of cute, but Giselle was still afraid to touch the pet or even be that close to it.

Hearing he didn't like sword fighting because he didn't like to hurt people put a sad smile on the daughter of Circe's face. "No one gets hurt when you practice and it could be a good skill to practice and pick up. When you're in danger outside of camp you may need it. I'm not going to tell you what you should and shouldn't do, but I'll put the facts out there for you."

Pierre put the empty bottle down and coo'd at Gus softly for a moment. "'S a good boy. Good boy." He said quietly, giving the cub a finger to gently nip on. The sharp teeth stung a little, but not bad. He looked back up at Giselle. "I d-don't want to hurt monsters either. I feel awful having killed Gus' mother."

He looked down and away, not meeting her eyes as he blushed with shame. He hasn't meant to kill the beast, and everyone hailed him as a hero, but he felt like a monster for doing it. The badger hadn't been malicious, she was just being a badger.

Giselle sighed softly sort of understanding what he meant and she was trying to think of a way to put that wouldn't be harming anyone. She wondered if he may be more into archery and in that way she had an idea and offered a friendly smile. "Pierre have you ever thought about archery instead of sword fighting? It is less violent and you can just do it for sport, while developing a skill the camp would like you to have. You just shoot at targets and practice your aim, do you think you'd like that?" She asked him in a curious tone.

Pierre shrugged. "I have not tried archery, but I don't like the idea of being...aggressive." He explained, surprisingly not stuttering. He stroked Gus' chin, savoring the soft fur. "I bet no one's ever actually tried to be nice to the monsters."

"You're probably right on that one, but I think you should think of taking something, we can work that out later though." Giselle said to the boy, how was much bigger than her in size but she was still older. Watching demigods walk in and out of the cabins she looked over to Pierre again.

"How do you think monsters would respond if you tried to be nice to them?" She asked posing a question she was truly curious about, just to see his response.

Pierre was silent for nearly a minute before he shrugged. "It d-d-depends on the monsters, I guess. Gus here is like a wild animal. Non-sentient. There is no malice." He replied slowly, still petting Gus. "Other, sentient monsters, you would have to get p-past millennia of hatred, b-but I would like to think...I would like to think we can b-br-br, we can end this p-perpetual violence."

Giselle nodded and decided not to continue with the topic too much longer. He seemed a little uncomfortable and she looked over to him again, "So, how has camp been so far for you besides the things you don't want to do? Make any friends, meet any girls you like?" She said the last part in a joking manner with a playful wink.

Pierre blushed deeply, looking down at the ground. "Well, uh, I met, um, I have met one lady, Olivia... I, uh. Not many other people. One boy c-called me a c-cat b-because I don't want to fight." He said, shrugging a little. He had never really been a popular person, and here seemed to be no different. But Olivia was nice.

Upon hearing the whole cat deal, her eyebrow raised up in questioning. She decided she'd ask about it later though, and just put matters on Olivia. She didn't want to get too serious around Pierre and just wanted to have a nicer conversation. "What are your thoughts on this lady named Olivia? Is she nice? "

Pierre blushed again, looking anywhere but at Giselle. "I really like Olivia. She's very nice, and very pretty." He said very quietly, though he didn't stutter. He hasn't ever really liked anyone like that before and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

Giselle thought for a moment, "Did you want to pursue any type of relationship with her? Via friendship and such on." She asked Pierre, she really did dislike to pester him but at the same time she didn't know what else to say, but didn't want to be rude and just leave.

"I..." Pierre started, then stopped, focusing on Gus again before he spoke. "I've never tried to have a relationship with a girl before. Never thought ab-about it. D-don't know where to begin, or if she would like me that way." He said self consciously.