Baths day! (private)

Cameron walked into the first part of the baths, dressed in her olive bikini. The floor was extremely warm underneath her bare feet as she walked in with Ashton and Casey, the two other girls in her friends group. Chris, Dean, Haiden and Gabe had still to get out of the changing rooms.
Chatting, the three girls sat down on one of the marble benches, Cameron retracing the lines of the floor mosaics with her toes. They were talking about different strategies for siege, which ones they thought would work best and why, etc.

After our little trip to San Francisco that left only 2 mortals unconscious, the next time me and Cam would meet was in the baths, a few of our friends from the second and third tagging along as well. Most of the guys who were with us had a few years under their belt (or a few bars on their arms, to be literal), but there were one or two newbies who had recently just hit legionnaire status and were in need of a grand tour. Like Gabe, this 15 year-old Ceres kid out of Kansas who was fumbling around in a stall getting his trunks on.

While "Gabe the Grain" was busy with that, Haiden, Chris, and I were just sitting on a ledge, shooting the crap, waiting for Gabe to get out of the damn stall. "Hurry the f*ck up Gabe! We've got a f*cking hour for this s*it and you've blown like ten-f*cking-minutes of it!" "Calm down man; Aren't you supposed to chill anyway?!" "Shut the f*ck up Gabe, I'll be chill when want to f*cking be chill." "Alright, alright; just..just chill, ok, man?" "Seriously man, calm down. He's probably all jittery around all of us legit legionnaires." That was Chris talking, the son of Bellona giving me a nudge and stood up. "I mean, come on. There's me, an ever so charismatic decurio of the second (don't give yourself too much credit Chris), you, Dean, the faithful and diligent third cohort legionnaire (flattering, but a bit inflated), and then;" he said, walking over to Haiden, "there's this guy - Haiden Lester 'Silentium' Armstrong. Son of Mars, legacy of Pax, and as mute as a damn ficus tree. Isn't that right Hadey?"

My cohortmate didn't respond verbal, just looked up at Chris with a real nasty glare. The kind of glare that said "GTFO a**hat", which I agreed with. Chris was an attention wh0re at heart, and he was using this moment to take the invisible podium. He could be cool, but if he was any higher of a rank he'd make Octavian turn over in his grave with a grin. The whole continental US would be a battlefield and Long Island would be lit up like Hiroshima. Needless to say, our friendship was a rocky one.

He patted Haiden's shoulder, letting out a laughing sigh. "No reply, of course. Typical, typical Haiden. Where would we be without you Hay?" "Dead." He had a point; Haiden was one of the best fighters in the legion. If it weren't for his antisocial nature and lack of ambition to promote, he'd probably be praetor instead of Zhang. But he wasn't, so he kept put as a lowly legionnaire.

Gabe finished up in the stall, and I absolved him for his lack of pace. He didn't say anything about my rather harsh language, but he'd probably let it go over time. Probably. But since he was out, me and Haiden got up and the four of us walked over into the other room.

OOC: Dean is wearing a pair of dark brown surf trunks.

OOC: There are no children of Minerva because she's a virgin goddess and Romans take that seriously. He could be a son of Bellona instead?

BIC: Eventually the boys made it to the tepidarium. Cameron was leaning back on her elbows, a thin film of sweat glistening on her forehead.

"Finally! Fashionably late, as always," she grinned.

Chris walked in with his arms out, as if he owned the place and was some gracious host. "Ladies, ladies; what else were you expecting from this esteemed quartet?" "Probably actually arriving on time, which we would've if Gabe over here knew how to put a pair of board shorts on." "Screw you Dean." "Touché."

I sat down next to Cam, now starting to feel the familiar heat of the baths. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing, we were just talking sh!t behind your back," Cameron replied with wink.

"Actually just going over some battle strategies," Casey rectified. She was a legacy of Victoria and had spent a good amount of time in the libraries of New Rome, studying combat tactics.

The guys sat down with them, enjoying the warmth and high, clear light of the room. The large form of Chris towered above them, whose muscular frame was exceeded only by Haiden. Not that the others weren't toned though. Everyone in the Legion toughened up quite quickly -- aut vincit aut mori.
Cameron wrapped her legs over Ashton's to make some space and resumed the chat about battle strategies.

"But see, you could do the same thing as we did two weeks ago," she was telling Haiden, "except that you put a screen of infantry and archers in front of the centre, so they can keep the enemy distracted while the wings charge. And then you break their battle line."

"Could work. But what we did last week did work." "You realize they've probably taken that whole plan into account and have thought of a way around it?" "Yes. But they're not going to expect us to reuse a tactic that worked as well as that one did." "Y-yeah! Those idiots in the fifth aren't going to think that! You're a genius Haid-"

"Except that they already know of the tactic and have the IQ to counter it, believe it or not Gabe. And because of that, we need to think of something entirely new. Any ideas, ladies?"

OOC: Sorry for it all being dialog, so here's how each character is right now: Dean, Haiden, and Gabe are sitting, Chris is still standing.

"We don't exactly need to think of something entirely new, do we," Cameron said with a smirk, then exchanged a glance with Casey. "We could keep what we did last week as a base tactic, but exchange little bits for others."

"Like a puzzle."

"F*ck them over when they least expect it."

Ashton nodded. "Troll them with onagres and ballistae."

Me and Haiden exchanged looks, silently agreeing on the plan. Gabe was off in his little corner laughing because Ashton used the phrase "troll" whilst trying to make jokes about us corner-camping and teabagging to be even bigger trolls (and failing miserably at it too). And Chris...Chris had a look that really said "it's a good idea, but probably won't get me the praetor seat." "So keep the tactic, but switch out, like, the archers for ballistae? Seems a bit cheap, wouldn't you think?" "All is fair in love and war Chris, and this seems pretty f*cking fair to me." "Agreed; I say we go with that, or something like it." All Gabe had to add was that we should march to "Never Gonna Give You Up" as well to solidify our position as trolls.

"We should go to the caldarium," Casey suggested, and Cameron nodded, standing up.

"Let's see if you boys can handle the heat," Cam grinned, looking at Gabe since he was the new one. Roman baths could be a shock if you were new to them.
The two girls went out of the tepidarium, followed a fresco throughout a long corridor and finally arrived in the first part of the hot baths: the alveus, a steaming pond of water that bubbled like a lava spring. Cameron jumped in. (Good thing they had been in the tepidarium before, otherwise this would probably have burned her skin.)

Gabe started to get down from his laughing fit, now semi-aware of what was going on. "Ah...trolling. So, what was that Cameron?" "She asked if you could take the heat." "Oh. Well, since I'm here and only kind of sweating, yes, I can take this heat." I just looked down and shook my head. Oh how ignorance is bliss. "Alright then, let's go."

We all got up (except for Chris, who kept standing there like he's some general or something) and followed the girls into the alveus, getting into the spring-like pond. Well, all of us except for Gabe. Gabe was just standing here, watching in horror. "Wha- what are you guys doing in boiling water?!?!" "It's called relaxing now get in you scrub!" "No! Why would I jump into boiling water?!"

"Come on, Gabe! Prove you're not a probie anymore!" Casey said.

Cameron laughed and dived down to grab Chris's ankles and lift them up suddenly, causing him to fall backwards.

"Yeah Gabe, prove to your superior that you've actually got a pai- AH!" And that's when Chris went under, causing the water to splash everywhere and everyone to erupt in laughter. Even Gabe laughed, which wasn't the wisest move he's ever made. When Chris surfaced, his face was red from burns and anger, and it didn't take a mind like Minerva's to know he was out for blood. "DAMNIT HARPER! I'm telling the centurions about this little stunt!" "Calm the f*ck down Chris, she's just messing-" The a**hole cut me off, turning to me and stared me down as if he was a hawk and I a mouse. "I DON'T CARE IF SHE'S JUST 'MESSING AROUND'! She insulted my authority and there will be a cost for that!"

Yes; Chris was getting worked up over an innocent off-duty action. Some might say he's a devout Roman soldier who takes rules and honor seriously by that outburst, but I know better. This was just him using his rank for nothing other than de jure superiority, compensating for an inferiority complex. Most other officers would get mad at you like this on duty, but rarely would they invoke their rank while off duty. Those that did - well, let's just say they're not exactly in it for the Senate or the People's sake.

"What authority?" Cameron grinned, coming back to the surface. She loved taking the piss with Chris, as it was very easy (and very rewarding) to tease him.

"My authority as a decurio you little Pax shi-" Chris found himself falling back under the water, though now it was from a fist to the jaw rather than a grab to the ankle. And surprisingly, said attacker was none other than Silentium - aka Haiden, since nobody really used his cognomen anyway.

He pulled Chris back out of the water by his arm, a nice cut now visible along Chris' left jawline once he surfaced. "Insult Cam again and I'll snap your neck you ventose asine. Got it?" With a shocked expression, Bellona's kid managed the sputter out a pathetic "Ye-yes."

After making Chris nearly p*ss himself, Haiden let go and returned to his end of the alveus. Almost everyone was staring at Chris, then at Haiden, then Chris, then Haiden. It was a very uncalled for action by Haiden, even if Chris was overreacting to Cam's dirty little trick. However, the silence was broken after heard Gabe say "You know guys, this pool isn't half bad!"

OOC: Changed the Latin to vocative.This probably made me look super pedantic. Sorry.

BIC: Cam was surprised by how Haiden stood up to Chris for her. It was unusual. Sure, Haiden and her got along very well. But this, she had never seen.
Grateful for Gabe to break the tense silence, she gathered some water in her hand and tossed it at him.

"See. You just have to get over yourself." The daughter of Pax grinned and gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder. "Good job, mate."

OOC: I'm not even mad Morgan, I'm actually quite gladius for that. I just got that from google translate so yeah, you can have a field day on it.

BIC: Gabe just stood there, taking the splashes of water with a stupid grin on his face. Then again, this was probably a big moment in the dorky kid's legionnaire career, or at least a big moment in his eyes. Cam went over to Gabe and congratulated him for getting into the pool, to which he responded "Thanks!" and splashed some water at her.

I then looked over at Chris, noticing him silently exit the alveus with a towel. After what happened here, I'm not surprised by his departure; he was humiliated by two legionnaires and had an inflated ego. Anyone with a mind like his would've left. Getting people's attention to him would've been another way to cut his ego down, but I didn't do it. Everyone was having fun with Gabe, and that's where their focus should've been at that moment.

Cam and Ash took the piss out of Gabe for a few more moments before going back to relaxing in the hot pool of water, chatting about other things like centurions and probatios. They liked give the probies a rank between 1 and 10 and right now most were at about 6 and a half.

"Oi Chris, where do you think you're going?" Cam said as the large legionnaire walked out of the pool. He couldn't be that pissed, right?

"Officers meeting!" Yeah, because you'd definitely waste 20 minutes of prep hanging in the baths before going to an officers meeting. "Oh; can I come?!"
"No Gabe, only officers can sit in on officers' meetings." I wasn't Chris' biggest fan, but as I said before, he had enough for the day. "Oh..."

As Chris turned out of our sights, I headed back over to the remaining five other legionnaires and decided to just relax for a minute with them. The girls were busy rating various legionnaires in terms of, like, I don't know, looks or fighting skills or something, so Haiden and I just started shooting the crap with Gabe, asking how he liked being a legionnaire so far and stuff like that.

Cameron looked at Chris leaving with raised eyebrows. "Well he looks more salty than a Carthage starter pack," she said after he had disappeared behind the corner.

"Forget about Chris" I said, wading over to Cameron's side; "Hasdrubal's just running off to go sulk in the pity of having his head go underwater. Give him an hour and he'll be back to his old self."