this is war [brenny]

Toby crossed his Hecate cabin room. It wasn't as spacious as some other cabins, but on the bright side, it wasn't very populous. Only a couple campers had signed up per room, to give themselves more space. Toby had claimed a far corner of the room and the space opposite it. Although he only used one corner, most of his belongings occupied the other space. Including his owl, which hooted a warning at him as he grabbed his wand. "Whatever," he replied, ignoring the bird. He had on winter clothes that he had convinced his sibling to enchant to make water proof. This was ideal, because Toby had fully planned to spend the day in the snow. He stuck his wand in his sleeve, put on a gray beanie and headed outside, shutting the stone door behind him. He looked at the magic symbols etched into it for a minute before shivering and walking away. He crossed the camp, trudging through thick snow and past various interesting snowmen. Not necessarily snowmen, however. Some were, but others were what appeared to be very badly represented satyrs and centaurs. Toby chuckled inwardly, and kept walking. Finally, he arrived at the snowball arena. Campers were using all sorts of powers, especially khione, in order to make snow. Tobias was not very learned in any magic besides necromancy, only very basic spells, none pertaining to snow. So, he found himself a safe area and stooped down. He picked up a handfull of snow and began to mold it into a ball. Once done, he got on his knees and set it aside. He continued this until he had a reasonable pile of snow. He got out his wand, because he did in fact know defensive spells, and looked around for someone he knew to bombard. This plan didn't exactly go...well, according to plan. Not seeing a snowball hurtling at him, it smacked him in the shoulder. "What the-" Toby looked towards the direction from which the snowball had come. It was Finnegan, smiling like a goof. Toby narrowed his eyes and picked up a snowball of his own. He stood and wound up like he was playing baseball, and then let the snowball shoot.

Toby narrowed his eyes to see past the crowd of campers and snowballs in front of him. He was able to discern his opposition picking up snowballs. How many? Four? Five? Toby gulped, Finnegan was like a machine. Toby raised his wand as a snowball came in his direction. As it neared, Toby tightened his grip. When it was within range, Toby used a protective charm. The snowball hit something like an invisible wall in front of him and just exploded in a puff. However, let his guard drop when he saw this puff, and bursting through it came four other snowballs. Toby ducked, narrowly missing one, but got pelted by another two. One hit his side, the other hit the top of his head. Toby stood back up to look at Finnegan, but the tall figure was no longer standing where he used to be. He had fallen. Toby laughed, quickly grabbing his own volley of snowballs and firing them. A couple managed to make contact before he saw Finnegan disappear behind a snow fort. Toby bit his bottom lip, contemplating on what next action to take. He bent low to avoid being an easy target as he scanned the grounds, trying to think of something.

Toby saw Finnegan's head pop out and he made eye contact. Toby knew what was coming. Finnegan had spent some time making snowballs behind the frozen fortress and was now ready to fire. Toby raised his wand in defense, readying himself. Suddenly, there was a cry behind him, and turning his head, an Ares camper came raging from behind a small barricade. Who this person was, he didn't know, but she was definitely coming at him. His eyes widened, and before he could get hit by Finnegan's attack, the child of Ares pelted him with a snowball, causing him to fall down. Unfortunately for her, when he fell and she advanced, she was precisely in the line of fire of Finnegan's snow. Toby chuckled as she was attacked by ball after ball. Although, now that he fell, he knew how Finnegan had felt, aka really cold. Once the attack was over, the Ares camper had retreated. Toby shivered and stood, turning to look at Finnegan and giving a small thumbs up. The kid was alright. Toby hadn't really made very good friends with him really, but knew him probably as well as Finnegan knew Toby. He didn't usually let on much information about himself to strangers. He was glad he had a new friend, though. Toby didn't have many of those, people tend to think him clingy. Sighing, letting out a hot stream of air, Toby decided to call it a day, feeling no further desire to be hit by snowballs.

Toby began to walk towards the exit of the snowball arena, dodging the occasional projectile, hopefully mistakenly aimed towards him. Hearing snow crunching under boots, Toby turned. Expecting to see the Ares camper, or someone else ready to attack, his hand moved to his wand. Thankfully, it was Finnegan, snow still in his hair. Toby himself probably looked pretty similar. "Hey," Toby greeted, ducking from a stray snowball, before giving Finnegan his attention. Examining the boy in front of him, it had seemed Finnegan had not changed a bit since the last time they had spoken. Finnegan's hair was quite similar to Toby's, only maybe a bit longer. Their eyes were also very closely the same color, although Toby couldn't completely tell, because he had never really gotten close enough to see. The one very noticeable difference between the two boys was probably their build. Finnegan was an inch or two taller than Toby, and much skinnier. Toby wasn't really fat, but a fair amount of muscle made the boys distinctly difference. In short, if Finnegan was here to shove snow in Toby's face, well, it would be the other way around. Only, Finnegan seemed uninterested in continuing their snowball fight. His remark about himself being to pretty made Toby chuckle and almost say yeah, but realizing how gay that sounded, he decided not to and simply shrugged. There was sort of an awkward silence between them, although more of a pause because people around the field were shouting and laughing. Then, Toby's eyes met with Finnegan's, still too far to tell exactly their shade, and Finnegan spoke. Toby bit his lip. "Sure. I could use some warming up. Er, wanna find some place out of camp?" he asked. He wasn't sure if Finnegan was the rebellious type, but Toby for sure didn't enjoy being cooped up in this place.

Toby watches the boy in front of him run his tongue over his lips, making him twitch a bit though he didn't know why. Wondering why not Starbucks, Toby agreed anyway and began to lead the way. There were plenty of small coffee shops in New York. ~time skip~ Toby scratched his squared jaw as he waited for his hot chocolate, unwrapping the scarf from around his neck. As he looked around the shop to the neon coffee sign hanging in the glass windows, Toby was reminded of the last time he had gone away from camp. Although he was alone last time, it was pretty close. He had gotten something at Starbucks and then went out shopping. He didn't buy anything, as he had little money, but still enjoyed going through individual shops. He had met a couple new friends there, but didn't get too attached, since he wouldn't see them ever again anyway. Perhaps this memory floated to him once again because of the smell of coffee, or Finnegan. Toby's brown eyes moved to the boy, distracted by his too-hot chocolate. Perhaps Finnegan was a friend that Toby would not be friends with for long. Or, perhaps, they would be best mates. Toby turned as they said his name, and he collected his drink, joining the Athena camper at a small table away from the shop windows. Hopefully the smell of coffee would be enough to mask them from monsters. Pulling out a chair, Toby sat across from Finnegan and smiled. He set down his drink and shrugged off his coat. As he observed from Finnegan's previous behavior, the drink was too hot to put to his lips just yet. "I dunno, haven't had it yet. And yours?" he asked, sort of awkwardly. Toby's eyes looked at Finnegan's as he spoke. For the first time, Toby saw his eyes and they were actually really pretty. Very much a close shade to Toby's. Looking down at his drink quickly, he took a drink. Distracted with his own confused thoughts, he almost missed what Finnegan said. "Wh- oh, yeah. Sure," he said, cooly. He didn't ask at first, but then he began to think, what was it for? He wouldn't judge if Finnegan enjoyed comics, but the way he worded it, it didn't seem like it was for himself. Christmas present? That was likely. Toby's eyes looked around the table examining the tiles as he thought. For who? Friend? Special friend? Toby twitched. All these paranoid thoughts running through his head, he just looked up and blurted, "What for who why?" Having said this, and not able to take it back, Toby all too quickly put his hot chocolate to his mouth and started drinking, acting casual but coming off a bit crazy.