Wandering around the Library

Zex waved and left after her.

ooc: roleplay w/ stella?

ooc; Sorry, I'm waiting for someone to post :/

Erin's face was set in a frown of contemplation as she hurried along the well-worn trek to the library. There was no real path or walkway that lead up to the doors, but there was a pretty traditional route that the campers took to get there. Where hundreds of campers before here had walked, the grass was worn away and the dark earth beneath it smooth and packed. What leaves came to rest there usually either blew away, or became part of the ground within a few days.

Her long, warm brown hair fell slightly into her face and she made no move to brush it away. She felt safer when she was protected behind her hair, though why she would never be able to explain. Dark eyes fixed on the ground and hands deep in her tattered jean's pockets, she walked with the hesitant gait of one who had no real goal in mind. Wandering just for the sake of it, she mentally blocked out all but the sight of her own feet moving steadily forward.

She was dressed in worn light blue sneakers with white laces that were tied in a single knot, though a double would have been more effective in keeping them knotted, seeing as her left shoe was slightly lose. The jeans she was dressed in were a size to big and had several grass stains and a slight rip around the right knee that she had gotten one time when she lost her balance while crossing the creep. The frayed threads hung limply, dejectedly. On top, she wore a black t-shirt with a purple penguin sitting on the words 'The Downtown Fiction' printed on it in large lettering. The penguin was wearing geeky glasses. She felt extremely insecure without her brother's jacket, but though she looked slightly anxious, nothing else gave that away.

There wasn't any reason that could be justified, but she was simply caught up in her thoughts and tuning things out as she walked along that she didn't see the boy walking towards her. If she had, she probably would have run in the opposite direction. She and guys did not mix well... and she had Pothos to blame for that. Stupid aura of attraction... It was killing her life. Anyway, she didn't see him until too late to avoid him.

At the last minute, she heard the approaching footsteps and looked up, letting out a soft exclamation of shock, before running smack into him.

Erin's amazing t-shirt that I envy with a passion:

ooc: And here I am! Sorry that took so long! :D
>Cue the dramatic drum roll!

The first thing that Erin noticed was that he had a truly enormous book in his hands that he had clearly been reading as he walked down from the library. The second thing she noticed was his appearance. His hair was a dark shade of brown and curly, which she usually didn't find appealing, but it went well with his well chiseled features and aristocratic face. His smile looked forced, but she didn't comment. What caught her were his eyes. She couldn't tell if they were an icy blue, pearly gray, or pale gray. What really struck her was that they were calm and calculating, as if they were trying to analyze her. His voice was a low, deep rumble and seem to come from deep inside his chest.

"My fault," Erin murmured, as her mental defenses kicked in and a wary glint lit her dark eyes. "I should have watched were I was going."


ooc: Sorry if that seemed like power play when she ran into him, but I figured that the limitations of humans would prevent either of them from avoiding it... :D

Erin automatically shook his hand, but there was a hesitant quality nevertheless. She was afraid to touch him, afraid that he would be affected like all the others, afraid that he would grow to hate her for her uncontrollable power. She didn't want to make him hate her, but she also was wearily of her voluntary solitude. After several years, she had gotten used to it, but humans weren't wired to be continually alone. Stupid social genes. Maybe he would be different... but could she take that risk?

"Name's Erin Elizabeth," she said, not telling him her last name. She hated the way that it tied her to the mother that had abandoned her. After a brief hesitation, she told him her father's name. It was better to just say it and get it over with. Hiding what she was wouldn't do the slightest good; just the opposite. "Daughter of Pothos." Well, at least most people didn't know who that god was or what he stood for.

No, she didn't like it and that was a severe understatement. It got under her skin, the way it warped the way other people saw her and even responded to her presence. She wasn't like the Aphrodite girls, who would probably do anything for a little 'fun'. If Erin ever found someone, she wanted someone who wouldn't want her for her body or who wasn't attracted to her because of her stupid dad. She wanted mutual understanding and respect in a relationship, not the reverse.

"How did you become an 'asexual idiot monster'?" Erin asked him with faint amusement. "I knew Aphrodite was low on brains, but that's an all time low."

She had made a band reference, but didn't expect him to understand it. Benjamin didn't exactly look like a guy who could be found listening to alternative bands. Reading was more like it, judging from the enormity of the volume in his hands.

Erin had been about to smile at his explanation of being an asexual idiot monster, but then he asked about her brother and she suddenly grew wary. How had he known she had a brother? And not quite as important, how did he know that she was missing his blue windbreaker? It meant the world to her, but she hadn't mentioned anything about it or William yet. In fact, she had never even intended to. So who was this guy who seemed to know her without having to ask? Some sort of teenage Sherlock? Well, at least his last name fit the bill.

"William is serving overseas in Iraq," Erin murmured, meeting Benjamin's eyes with a brief flash of pride.

She was proud of her brother for even daring to enlist, but privately, she was always worried that she was going to receive a letter sooner or later telling of his death. And what then? Will was just about the only person in the world to genuinely care about her and they still tried to get messages to each other, despite the oceans between them.

Erin was starting to get used to the way that he seemed to be able to read her mind... though his methods reminded her largely of Vezzini from the book The Princess Bride. The way Vezzini seemed to almost be able to read minds was through a simple process of logic and deduction, and since Ben's mother was Athena, she guessed that he was using similar tactics to guess her thoughts. Well, at least she felt a little bit safer, having figured that part out.

Walk with him? To where? Eh, it didn't matter and he had aroused her interest by this point. At at least he had said 'please', which was more than most teenagers she knew would bother to do. However, it wasn't like she knew many teenagers; she just tended to observe them from the shadows, out of sight and out of mind. With a quick nod, she changed course to walk next to him, matching her pace to his. His legs were longer than hers, but she had no difficulty keeping up with his longer stride. She was naturally fast, despite her relatively short height.

"Do you like Sherlock Holmes any?" Erin asked him curiously. For one who had to be constantly compared to the famous detective, she was interested to see what his answer would be. Would he admire him and be proud to be in association with the fictional character, or would he resent the constant comparison?

ooc: No worries!

Erin wondered if she should be suspicious and withdraw from the situation while she still could, or just go with the flow. After a moment of anxious deliberation, she decided to heck with caution. Ben seemed nice so far, and he didn't act like the type to do anything horrible. Of course, he was an unfamiliar demigod and there was no real guarantee that she could trust him, but she'd go nowhere in life if she constantly hid from her problems. It just wasn't a good solution.

Instead of making up a hasty excuse, she smiled at him. "Sounds like a plan," she said. Her smile was the uncertain, shy smile of one who didn't smile much and had trouble really remembering how. But it was natural, and her first real smile of a long time.

"Head out now or later?" she asked him. She kinda wanted to leave sooner rather than later, because delay would give her time to really think this through and get herself worked up into a state of nerves, which was not generally a good thing.

ooc: Ugh, you too? No worries! I totally understand and I wouldn't have been able to reply anyway.

Erin's tentative smile widened at the faint whine to his voice. He looked to old to still have that childish whine, but guys rarely seemed to really grow up. And anyway, she still had some old kiddy habits. Age didn't really matter in the situation; personality did.

When he took off from the cabin circle, she followed him with a faint: "Hey!" of surprise. Was he going to leave her? Had he just been mocking her or something? But no... Ben wasn't like that. She could easily have caught up to him, running being her strength, but made herself stay just behind him so as not to damage his little masculine ego.

ooc: Got it.

ooc: I'll remember that. :D
I saw it, no worries. I was almost done posting when my danged computer screen froze. Talk about frustration. Anywhop, just finishing it.