Do You Melt or Do I Freeze?

Whelp, it had been a long, long morning for the son of Hephaestus, Malcolm Johnson. He'd worked on a few dozen weapons for his fellow campers and a couple of side projects. The demigod scratched the top of his head, trying to think of what he could do before going out to the mess hall for some food. Perhaps he could play fetch with Soot outside or maybe just read one of his  books on engineering? The six foot, three camper didn't know. He wore a orange camp tank with black gym shorts and his sneakers.

Lakisha walked in, dressed in a navy top and white shorts, a few sophisticated silver bangles on her arm.
Gods, she hated the forge. Too hot, too noisy. Lessons here were a real chore. She wouldn't have come back if she hadn't realized she had forgotten her bag here.

Twisting her auburn hair into a bun, she took her sunglasses off and started looking around carefully, knowing full well how dangerous the projects of cabin #9 could be. After six minutes of meticulous search, she still hadn't found anything, which made her nervous. Her medication was in that bag.

Finally she turned to a tall black guy who was standing in front of a bronze oven. She recognized him - Malcolm, son of Hephaestus. She had heard he might have a thing with one of her brothers though that could've been pure gossip.

"Have you seen a bag, by any chance? It's white. Chanel."

Malcolm jumped a bit when he heard the daughter of Khione speak. He didn't jump because he was scared, but just because he spooked like a horse, "Oh, uh..." He looked around his work bench before getting up and looking for the Chanel bag. "Is this it?" The son of Hephaestus asked, picking up a white bag. "It has a bit of soot up here."

Lakisha glanced at it and shook her head. "That's not it, though it looks like my sister's." Sighing in exasperation, she looked under a workbench, behind the ovens, becoming more and more nervous every second. "It's white, it's a handbag, has a little silver chain," she continued, trying to stay calm.

Malcolm tried to look for this so-called handbag over by the things that campers usually felt here. Perhaps one of his siblings like Adan or Sawyer put it somewhere. "White Chanel handbag with a silver chain? You would think that it would stick out easily in such dank and dark, oh, here it is." Malcolm squatted down to pick up the handbag before getting up and handing it to her. "Is this it?"

"Yes! Thank you." Lakisha quickly took the bag, wiping the sweat from her forehead and opened it. Fumbling past the hand sanitizer, curled headphones and ambrosia box, she finally put her hand on the little container of Risperdal. "Thanks," she said again, sliding it out of her bag.

Malcolm smiled. "You're more than welcome. Anything else you need or are you good?" He asked before gathering his books so that he was ready to head to the mess hall.

"What? No, Im good." The daughter of Khione put a pill in her mouth and shouldered her bag, glad to have found it again. It wasn't like her to be forgetful.

Be careful.

Oh no.

[Laughter] Did you think I had left?

How was it possible? She had literally just taken her medication.

Go away, she managed to think.

Well that's a bit rude. After everything we've done for you? This time it was a different voice, softer, older. Soothing.

Sorry Shawna. But you're just in my imagination.

You ungrateful brat. The first voice was back, but didn't say anything else. Nor did Shawna. Lakisha slowly breathed through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, eyes closed. Her hands were giving little twitches.

Malcolm noticed the twitching of the hand and how nerve she looked. "Are you okay?" He asked cautiously. "Is it the heat of the forge? I know you're a child of Chione so that could be it."

He's talking to you. Watch out.

You should get your dagger out, just in case.

Where's the nearest exit? Back away slowly.

While the voices kept on talking in Swedish, Lakisha stared at the box she held in her hand, wishing the effects would kick in quicker. Her last box had run out three weeks ago but with Sol's return, she hadn't bothered to go buy a new one.

"The heat...yes." Droplets of sweat dripped down her pointed chin. "Where's the exit?

Malcolm knitted his eyebrows together as he tried to think about what was going on. She just stood there, staring at her box. He shifted his weight a bit before saying, "It's...right behind you. Are you okay? Do we need to get you to the infirmary?"

"No," Lakisha immediately said before regaining her composure and repeating with more confidence: "No. I don't need to go to the infirmary." Backing away, she looked for the exit. Her hands were giving little tremors. Pushing the box back into her hand bag, she passed it over her shoulder and aimed for the square of sunlight, almost walking into someone's workbench. Come on. Narrowing her eyes, she forced herself to walk straight.

"Oh...okay. Have a good day, then." With that, Malcolm went back to his metal working.