Let's not do the time warp again (Private)

Subject: Let's not do the time warp again (Private) Mon Dec 29, 2014 4:00 pm

Daughter of Hecate

"Oh come on, Simon! You can't possibly stay mad at me for ever. You really must lose the downtrodden attitude and just have a spot of fun now and then. It's not like this is too modern for you or anything. They had these sort of games back at the fairs in England, don't you remember?" By this point, Tessa was exasperated with her brother's attitude. His frown coupled with the red blotches that came to his face were definitely not as cute as they were when he was a pudgy toddler. In fact, Tessa had seen this angry appearance so many times that when she saw anything else she was a little bit confused. It wasn't like it was forbidden for Simon to enjoy himself, right? Besides, he had to forgive Tessa at some point.

The winter festival seemed like the ideal opportunity to try to get Simon to warm up to her. The scenery was beautiful, with snow blanketing the ground and reflecting the sun's light. Campers building snowmen in a fenced area. Some were really talented with it, too. The only thing missing would be a few birds singing their tunes off in the distance, but a majority of them had migrated. The wind was definitely frosty, nipping Tessa's cheeks, but she was decently covered. Most of the money she was allowed by the camp to adjust herself to the present day went towards clothes, and a majority of those clothes were summer clothes. However, she had bought a nice pair of blue jeans that fitted her form like nothing she'd would have worn in England. On her feet she had black winter boots that were nice and fuzzy within. Her hands were covered by a pair of black gloves that she retained from her, shall we say, past life. He wore a really nice purple coat that had a couple of big buttons on the abdomen, and the bottom of the coat ended a little lower than her waist.

The two siblings were at the bottle booth, but only one of them was really attempting to knock down the bottles. Tessa had about two shots left and Simon stood with his arms crossed, obviously not participating. She really didn't understand how someone could possibly stay mad at her for so long, even after he had claimed to have forgiven her. He told her that it was okay, and that he wasn't mad, but if there was a more obvious lie in the world, Tessa would be surprised to hear it. He was still rather cold towards her, almost as cold as the air around them. It was just unreasonable to her. She had to lift his spirits. If she couldn't, what kind of big sister was she?

"Here," Tessa said. She grabbed one of the baseball-sized balls from the tray and offered it out in front of him. It was a bit lighter than a baseball, likely to make the game much harder. Carnival games always seemed to be rigged that way. And, no doubt the bottles were extremely heavy and well-stacked. "Take it. Throw it. You have to at least participate," she said. She was trying hard to mend things, and he didn't really seem to be biting.

Created by Blitzy of Caution 2.0

Subject: Re: Let's not do the time warp again (Private) Mon Dec 29, 2014 5:05 pm

Let's not do the time warp again (Private) Tumblr_nbd8agG5qF1r61lyfo1_500

sweet and honorable

Simon was one of the most stubborn, angry, angst filled teens he had the graces to ever meet. He hated most things in this modern day and age, and longed for the rolling, green fields of his farm back in England. He wished that he could just spend one last day with his father fitting horses for shoes and polishing their saddles. He hated the cold here in New York, it was far too freezing and the boy preferred to stay inside now more than ever. That wasn’t the case back in England, as Simon was always outside, and it was a hassle to get him to come in and eat stew and go to bed. It often turned into a fight between father and son or nanny and boy. However, Tessa thought she’d drag him out here so they could both enjoy the festivities together. There was just one little problem concerning his half sister’s idea: Simon hated her too. The grudge he held against her was going on its 100th year and still blazing strong like the sun in the ice-filled sky. She had stopped him from becoming a hero, she had stopped him from making their father proud and she had stopped him from doing his duty for queen and country. Although to most people that didn’t seem like a big thing, it was to Simon. Everyday as a child he dreamt of becoming a leader in the army, having boys look up to him. He’d wanted to become the youngest commander the British army had ever seen, and if that meant faking his birth date than so be it. When Tessa dragged him outside this morning, the demigod glared at her, and when she commented on his grudge for her, he simply replied, “Dulce et decorum est.” It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country. He’d probably never let it go, and a day of knocking down bottles wasn’t going to fix the crack between them.

“Of course I remember.” Simon snapped at his sister, folding his arms and furrowing his brow, watching her toss balls at the bottles and missing horribly. Even as a child, he could tell that Tessa was not terribly athletic; her aim had been off, she could barely catch a ball, and she could barely play futball without tripping and falling. The only thing Tessa had been better at Simon was running, but he hadn’t been the most healthy boy as a child. “But I never went. Surely you remember that as well, sister dear.” His voice was soft and sweet and oh so very British, almost the exact opposite of Americans, whose voices were rough and gravelly against the demigods years. “And do not talk to me about being modern, you’re conforming to their sickening ways enough for the both of us. I do sometimes wonder, Tessa, if you’re going to lose your British accent like you’ve lost your clothes.” There was yet another reason why he despised his sister so. She was losing all of her old ways, all of her culture. That was why Simon wasn’t going to choose to do anything modern anytime soon. In fact, the boy was so adamant on not losing his old english ways that he had never touched a ‘cell phone’, even if it would help him.

“I hate the cold. I hate winter.” He stated to Tessa, pulling his arms closer to his chest in an effort to contain what little warmth he’d kept. He wore brown pants, brown suspenders, and a beige shirt that was starting to fray at the edges. This was his most frequent outfit, devoid of color and outside influences. The colors Tessa chose, the bright pinks and yellows, almost blinded Simon when he saw her. Yet another reason he stayed away from his sister. He had slipped on brown boots as well, and for an overcoat a muted green peacoat, which reminded him of the english army with their green uniforms that were so bright and bold in the sun. “I do wish to participate. This game is for children, Tessa. I am not a child.” Simon stated, though his boyish face and pouting lips said otherwise. Even after he had fully grown, Simon couldn’t shake off the look of childishness.

Despite his protests, his half-sister handed him a ball anyways. It was dirty and an eggshell white. There were virtually no seams anywhere on the sphere, leading the boy to think it was made out of some type of light, airy plastic. He frowned, first at the ball, and then at his sister. “I don’t want to.” Even so, to get Tessa to shut up, Simon threw the ball. It wasn’t to make her happy or make it seem like they were ‘bonding’, as she called it. He threw it to get it done with and to go home. As he turned around on his heel, the was a faint noise of bottles falling, something he hadn’t heard since they began this stupid activity. When the boy turned his head, he found that without even looking he’d knocked down all of them with a light toss. Some would call it magic. Some would call it a miracle. Simon called it pointless and sheer dumb luck. He shrugged, uninterested that he’d won a prize (the prize was a monkey the color of blue cotton candy) and started to walk away.

Daughter of Hecate

Tessa was utterly shocked at what Simon had just said to her. Her eyebrows had shot to the sky and her mouth was open at him, aghast that he would even dare to say such a thing. It was quite unimaginable to Tessa that he would show so much hatred toward her. She did nothing to deserve this. Nothing, except protecting his life in a pointless war. A war which they had won, anyway. There had been no need for Simon to sacrifice his life, why couldn't he see that? Instead, he was just mouthing off to her this way and that.

"How dare you," Tessa said, her cheeks glowing a bright pink, not just from the cold. "How dare you say such a thing. You know what? If you are so set on our old tradition, how come you think it's okay to disrespect your elder, your sister, and a lady in general? Shame on you, Simon Crane. Shame on you," Tessa said, shaking her head. She couldn't believe he would make such a close connection to her and a prostitute.

When Simon was about to throw the ball, Tessa half-wished it would miss for the insanely disrespectful comment he had just made. But, on the other hand, she still wished that he would have at least a little bit of fun with the game and hit the bottles. She had never known him to be particularly athletic, and, in extension, very accurate with any sort of projectile. Taking this into account, when Simon reared back his arm to throw the ball, Tessa's eyes locked onto the orb. She focused her mind on it, bending it's physical nature to her will. Once the ball was launched into the air, Tessa imagined the ball to gain weight and density. She imagined the ball hitting the bottles. And it did.

"Look, Simon, you hit the bottles!" Exclaimed Tessa, looking over at her brother. He seemed so slightly shocked, but then shrugged and began to walk away. The Khione camper running the booth had gotten down a blue plush monkey, but Tessa shook her head that she didn't want it, and quickly speed-walked to catch up with Simon.

"What is with you?" Tessa asked. She sighed, sweeping away a couple of blond locks that had fallen into her face, sticking them behind her ear. She reached out with her hand and grabbed Simon's arm. "Simon stop," She beckoned, not really putting much force on his arm. However, being gentle simply was not working. She yanked on his arm this time. "Simon, stop!" she said loudly. A couple of people looked over at them, but found them uninteresting and kept along with their business. "You need to talk to me. You can't be angry with me forever. You need to tell me what's going on with you, and how I can fix it, because I can't stand the way you are treating me, Simon, I just can't," she pleaded. Her brown eyes were swimming with sadness, and her breathing was a little more shallow than moments ago, when she was calmer.

Created by Blitzy of Caution 2.0

sweet and honorable

Simon had never been particularly close with Tessa. Even as children, they were set apart, and it wasn’t because of the fact that Simon was a boy and Tessa was a girl, so they naturally did other activities and never bonded. No, it was because of their personalities and their heritage. There was no doubt in Simon’s mind that their father loved both of them to death, and would have gone to the ends of the earth to make his only two children happy. Simon was happy with his father, and only aimed to please him. A boy should love and respect their elders, and while he did he didn’t consider Tessa to be his elder. She was just a mere two years older than he, hardly more mature than he was right now. Tessa, in the demigods opinion, had always been and little stuck up and too bossy for his liking. Both of them, actually, were bossy and stubborn, and often butted heads with each other. That was one of the reason why Simon never wanted to please Tessa like he pleased his father. Their personalities just were not compatible, being so alike. Their heritage was also a problem for Simon. No one could blame Benjamin Crane for sleeping with two women; he was a bachelor for his entire life and so he had that right. If a man was married, then that would have been shameful, and everyone in their small village would turn their backs on him. And Simon wasn’t annoyed at his father for doing it either, because then he wouldn’t have been alive today. But Tessa acted so… different because of her mother. She did things Simon couldn’t do, many wonderful things involving the curious practice of science, and he was a little envious. Many times over people had told him that his big sister had the power of old withes flowing through her, but the demigod never believed that. Still, even if he didn’t like his sister and found her to be a bore and gullible, he felt a pang of undeniable guilt, even if it smaller than a walnut. Simon decided to apologise and mean it.

“But you’re not my elder!” Simon fought back, surprised at the words issuing from his mouth. They were not the words ‘I’m sorry’ or anything of the sort. “You’re only two years older, and hardly more mature than I am. An elder is father, far more wise beyond his years than we could ever hope to be. An elder is someone like our teachers at school, who hold authority in their voice. You have nothing of the sort, Tessa.” It was hard to not stamp his feet and raise his voice in a public place such as this, but Simon managed. Red spots began to appear on his neck, blotchy and irritated. They always showed up when the boy was angry and were quite demeaning to his appearance of a solider. “Oh, oh right, shame on me. It’s not always my fault, you know. You’ve got to share the blame because it’s your fault I’m always like this!” Tessa was just trying to get him to feel guilty, and he did, and he wanted to apologise but the words weren’t working, and Simon was getting increasingly more frustrated with himself and his sister. Damn her for making him feel like he had been in the wrong. Damn her for stopping him from fighting. Damn her for locking him in the hen house too many times to count. Damn her for even being born. “I’m sorry. I stepped out of line.” And this time, unlike all the other times, Simon truly was.

When he turned away from the game, Simon exhaled a breath of relief that showed in the form of a white cloud. He just wanted to go home and read. But what was home? Surely he wasn’t referring to his cabin here at camp? That was the farthest thing from being a home to him. Home was in the form of an isolated place, home was a bed that threatened to break under the slightest of pressure, home was white sheets that smelled of lyle and lavender and were starchy and coarse. Home wasn’t here, it wasn’t weapons and blood and pine trees. It wasn’t built off of anger and hate and resentment and confusion. Camp wasn’t home, so it was strange for Simon referred to it as such. But he still wanted to go to his room and forget about today. However, like always, Tessa stopped him. First calmly. “Let go of me.” Simon threatened under his breath, though what exactly he was going to do if she didn’t he wasn’t quite clear on. But it didn’t work; his big sister had never been afraid of him. Then he felt her yank his arm almost out of his socket, which sent the demigod wheeling around to her.

Simon ignored the people starting to stare at him and Tessa, he’d never been self-conscious of anything. “I don’t.” He reminded her and made to walk off again, too annoyed and tired to listen to her lecture him like she always did, but he found her grip to be made of iron and he was stuck. Simon rolled his stormy grey eyes. “I’m not having this conversation with you, Tessa. You want me to forgive you? Fine. Sign me up for war next time one shows it’s face. You want me to talk to you? Well you got your chance because I am, and this is how I talk to you because you ruined my dreams and goals and my only chance to prove to you and father that I am actually worth something to this family!” The last part of the sentence Simon screamed, he couldn’t contain his emotions anymore. He stood his ground, not moving even if he wanted do. It was a challenge to see how his sister would react. Her brown eyes were shining with tears, her breath not made of composure and grace, and Simon didn’t care.

Subject: Re: Let's not do the time warp again (Private) Sat Jan 31, 2015 4:50 pm

Daughter of Hecate

Tessa was continually baffled by Simon's disrespect. She had to admit that she wasn't exactly the definition of an elder, but her father always taught them to be respectful to an elder no matter one year older or fifty. What mattered was that you should kindness and Simon was doing the opposite. Tessa really wished that their father were here. Simon accused Tessa of being too modern, but he was enjoying his freedoms all too much. For something this out of line, the branch of a willow tree might have been the least severe punishment. She shook her head so that her blond curls bounced above her shoulders.

"I'm not signing you up for any war," she hissed at him. "I'm not going to deliberately put your life into danger and risk you getting killed for some silly reason. You don't need to die to probe that you are worth something. That's the opposite of what you should be doing. You should be taking care of yourself, and of me, and you should be aspiring to greater things. Bloody hell, Simon, you are the last man of the family. You need to drop this soldier act and wake up!" She shouted back at him, the volume of her voice raising more near the end as his had. More than sadness, she felt frustration and anger. She had been trying to convince him for so long that he needed to set his sights somewhere besides a sure grave, and he acted as though he had cotton-balls in his ears.

After a few seconds, her voice had stopped ringing through the trees and echoing in her ears, and the sudden silence dulled her tendency toward outburst. She closed her eyes and let out a small breath, bringing her hands to her temples and rubbing gently. She was so tired of this, now. So tired of the bickering, the fighting, and the fruitless attempts to assist her brother. If he was really so set in his ways, she wasn't going to try to stop him anymore.

"Look. I'm just done, alright? If you want to enlist, I don't give a damn. If you want to throw away my efforts and your father's death, be my guest. Take everything your family has done for you in vain. Fine." At this moment, it was hard to tell whether or not she was enacting reverse psychology. But Tessa was completely serious. For the first time, she was going to put the choice in Simon's hands. She was done trying to lead him toward the light. In Dante's Inferno Dante found the light only after traveling through the monster-ridden wood. If Simon had to do the same, so be it. This time, it was Tessa who walked away.

Created by Blitzy of Caution 2.0

Subject: Re: Let's not do the time warp again (Private) Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:14 pm

Let's not do the time warp again (Private) Tumblr_mpw4ldHQoA1r5l9g3o3_250

The early winter sun settled on Simon’s shoulders, the frozen rays melting into his skin, making him shiver with the cold. Even if his clothes were from his preferred time period and he felt comfortable in them, they were absolute rubbish at keeping the warmth in, despite the warm peacock coat. The cold also made him more irritable, as the boy never liked the colder days of the year. Cold days meant less productivity on the farm and the more chance there was for starvation. There had been many a times when Simon had gone to bed without dinner because Benjamin simply couldn’t afford to put food on the table every night. Which was fine, because eventually they overcame those hard times, and as a result of going hungry Simon was always a thin boy. But here at camp, the cold was just a bothersome pest that he loathed, and Simon remembered the warmth of his bed and forgot the coldness of the world around him. The frozen feeling of the air was only multiplied because of Tessa, who was almost fuming ice crystals from her nostrils. To Simon, she looked like the minotaur minus the horns and fur. The demigod wanted to mock her, he really did, because Tessa thought she was entitled to respect when everyone knew you had to earn it. Just because she was his older sister didn’t mean she had her own flaws, flaws that Simon abhorred and as a result refused to give her the respect she thought she needed. The two siblings didn’t respect each other, they were always too clouded by their own misery and bickering to resolve their issues and climb towards what some would call mutual respect.

“Yeah? Good, I’m not asking you too.” Simon snapped at Tessa, happy that he was just tall enough to glare down at her. The boy laughed in his sister’s face. Did she not understand he fought for the glory of it all? He fought so he could say he did something in his short life, he fought so his grandkids could someday go to school and tell their friends how their grandfather fought in a war and helped win against the enemy. Tessa may have not had the same aspirations as him, which was fine, because even if Simon had trouble accepting the fact that they were two different people, he couldn’t exactly deny that not everyone was cut out for the redness of war. Of course he didn’t want to die in war, that would be counterproductive to what he wished to achieve, but if he did it wouldn’t necessarily unwelcome, because if he did die there was always the absence of Tessa’s annoying nagging to look forward to, plus the chance to see his father’s smiling face again. “You don’t need me to take care of you.” His sister was already far more advanced in the ways of the modern world than he. If anything, it was Tessa who needed to take care of Simon, thought he’d never admit it. “This isn’t an act! This isn’t a phase!” Simon nearly screamed at her, hoping to knock some sense into his sister. He had his sights set on fighting in war ever since he was two years old. Everything Tessa said clearly went over his head; the demigod boy wasn’t listening to the meaning of her words. But then again, what teenager listened to authority. especially in this day and age?

“I’ve already signed up for a war, the war against the gods, and I didn’t require your permission or signature.” The words just sort of slipped out of his mouth, like water pouring out of a dam. Simon quickly covered his mouth with his hands, shaking his head in disbelief. He wasn’t going to tell Tessa, he wasn’t supposed to tell Tessa, or anyone for that matter. Working for Kronos came with lots of rules and regulations, and one of the main ones was that under no circumstances were you to tell anyone about your war efforts. Simon’s blue eyes were wide with fear as he looked at his sister, cautiously waiting for her angered reply. At that moment, the soldier demeanor he always wore was stripped away from him, ripped from his skin like a band-aid, and Simon Crane was no longer a general to be feared, he was now a scared little boy, because that slip up would mean his death. But Tessa didn’t say anything to him about his war efforts, instead, she told him she didn’t care and walked away.

And the demigod was frightened. Frightened for his life. What would happen to him next? There had to’ve been spies all around the camp, and they were clever enough to track their own. Certainly one overheard Simon’s angered screams across the frozen sky and tundra, and if they didn’t, Tessa had the information to destroy everything he’d scrambled towards. So the boy sprinted to the girl and grabbed her arm with such strength he was surprised he didn’t break it. “Tess.” Simon used his nickname for her, the one that hadn’t been used since he was a toddler. "Tessa. Promise me you won’t tell anyone I joined Kronos. Please. I’ll say anything, I’ll apologize.” He released his grip on her and ran his fingers through his hair, breathing heavily with paranoia.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

» Lets go to the creek-eek lets go get away?? [private to kendall]
» Time to think! {Private}
» Time to eat [Private]
» Since the First Time I Saw You . . . [Private to Hawk]
» Spending time with my koi (private)