pip, pip --- [open]

Ooc: ((Hey, may I? I miss this site so much. If you do want to rp, which of my characters do you want me to use?))

(you may! i don't mind, whichever you have muse for! hope you're doing well.)

"Relax, gorgeous, I'm on duty with you tonight," Val replied as he finally got up the hill. He readjusted his glasses and inspected the girl he was supposed to be with that night. It annoyed him that he flirted constantly, but it had become a clutch for him over the last few years that he couldn't help it. Honestly, he did think everyone he flirted with was as beautiful as he said they were, but he hated that he flirted with them so much that he annoyed them.

"They switched me a little bit ago, so, I'll be here with you tonight. Please tell me you're pretty good at fighting because I'm new and I don't know what I'm doing," he explained, reaching out to hold her hand.

((I've been been good! Val has a habit of rubbing people the wrong way.))

"Thank God! Ah- I mean, thank the gods. That's what you say here, right? Jeez, this place is weird sometimes. And, I mean, I can fight, but that's all been fist fights with humans and doesn't mean much compared to monsters. Oh! The name's Val by the way, son of Aphrodite. I'm not all vain like my siblings though," Val replied, shoving his hands in his pockets.

He did definitely have a 'devil may care' air to him, his windswept hair, his jeans, white shirt, plaid, and leather jacket. Obviously he didn't spend a lot of time in front of the mirror but still managed to look put together and handsome. Val was very particular about that sort of thing. In the morning he just pulled on the clothes over his pajamas, not particularly caring about it, but the few clothes he had were all the right colors so they matched when he threw them on.

Val cursed loudly at himself, hitting his head with his fist. Why was he like this! Stupid stupid stupid! He was so angry at himself for being like this, hated that he couldn't help but flirt and that it pushed everyone away. Val kicked a rock as far as he could, trying to get out some of his frustration. Why couldn't he be normal?!

His flirting had sprouted up as a coping mechanism and a way to get attention back in middle school. Because he grew up in foster care, he never quite got as much as he needed, and he'd found that flirting got him positive attention that his trouble causing ways hadn't, which had caused him to take to flirting more. Once he got older he realized his playboy antics were causing people to dislike him and began to hate it, but he has been unsuccessful in stopping.

Once he calmed down he ran a hand through his hair and tried to decide what to do. On one hand, he could try to do the job alone and possibly be killed because he wasn't so good with a sword. On the other, he could follow her and try his best not to annoy her further, so she wouldn't threaten him. After much debate, he ran to catch up with her. He stayed a few steps behind her quietly for a moment before finally, quickly saying, "I'm sorry."

Val bit his lip to stop himself from talking and making things worse. He had never been on guard duty before and he was, quite frankly, terrified, but outwardly he was as chill as always. The last thing he wanted was for her to ditch him and leave him alone. Val was a survivor, and knew if he was attacked by himself, he wouldn't survive.

It didn't take too long after arriving for him to realize each cabin had stereotypes. He soon realized that his siblings' reputation wasn't the best, and that, in some ways, he fit right in, but in others he didn't. What aggravated him was what he was grouped in them like his own personality meant nothing. He didn't mind a fight. He didn't stare at himself in the mirror for long periods of time. He didn't try to use it to get his way like his siblings seemed to. Val honestly didn't care about just about anything. The fact that people assumed those things about him wasn't cool though.

To be fair, he did have record of dating girls then soon dumping them and moving on, but Val chose not to count that because it had more to do with his emotional issues than purely not caring about their feelings. He had been avoiding dating since he got  to camp, not wanting to be hated or start dreams, feeling like he should try to work out his issues instead of putting them on other people and ditching them.

Val walked in silence for a while, staying behind her and out of her way, not wanting her to get annoyed with him. He didn't know if they were supposed to talk on guard duty either or not.

((Sorry about rambling about him. I can tone it down if you want. I think I got most of it out of my system.))

The son of Aphrodite merely nodded, knowing everything would start going downhill again if he spoke. His words had a habit of getting away from him and he said things without thinking, which had had some nasty consequences in the past. He'd found for a while now that keeping his feelings hidden protected him the most and that letting his mask do the talking wasn't a very good alternative but was the best he had. He wasn't a bad guy deep down, just a guy who had been burned too many times to allow himself the opportunity to get close to anyone. Perhaps his socially self destructive tendencies were his subconscious's way of keeping people away so they couldn't hurt him.

Val had never really attached to anyone, never really felt he would be able to. Foster care meant that even if he had nice parents, he wouldn't have them for long because they rarely kept him around for more than a few months because of his behavioral issues. Now that he was older, he realized he was afraid of getting close to people, afraid of being hurt by them leaving, but longed for attention he didn't get as a child. He wanted to fix it, he wanted to try, but the moment he opened his mouth how words pushed people away. Val was too flirty. Val was too rebellious. Val didn't care enough. Val wasn't like his siblings. No one stuck around long enough for him to try to fix himself.

Val scrambled behind her at the sight of the eyes, fumbling to pull out his dagger. He didn't quite know how to use the thing but he had it and knew he had to try his best to protect himself. Praying to the gods he wouldn't have to try to use the dagger, he stood behind her totally stricken by terror. Frankly, he'd never been a fan of dogs.

In one of his foster homes, they had a viscous dog, who would bite at him and growl any time he went downstairs. The foster parents would always blame Val for the whole thing, telling him it was his fault the dog hated him. He was thankful when he was finally moved to a new home, glad to get away from that dog.

Now there he was, in front of a monster that could actually rip him to shreds, and the fear returned, but he knew he couldn't let this kill him. He refused to die that night. With that thought in mind, he changed his hold on his dagger, trying to look less scared.

Val took off in the direction they came, trusting her  to know it was best to run. He didn't want to leave her behind, even though there was nothing he could do to fight the monster. It would be so cool if he, someone no one thought could protect himself, could kill the hound, but Val knew that was just a fantasy and that it was unlikely he would be able to do that.

They crashed through the forest, dodging the trees and trying not to slip. As someone who had never really spent any time in the woods, Val had absolutely no experience with running with somany obstacles and kept tripping. Finally, his foot got caught on a root and it sent him falling to the ground.

Val's ankle gave a painful throb as he scrambled to retrieve his dagger from where it had fallen. He held it up fearfully once he found it, not thinking it would do much good but it was better than nothing. His ankle didn't feel broken, but he felt like he'd twisted it as he took his misstep. They wouldn't be able to outrun this thing injured.

The hound's eyes were attracted to the moving thing, though it kept looking over at the fallen member, knowing he was a far easier target than the moving one. It crouched down, ready to pounce. Either target would do. The moving one was irritating and in the way anyway, so whichever it hit first was good enough in its book.

((Sorry it took so long! My phone kept freaking out about this site.))

Val was frantic to help. He couldn't let this thing rip apart this girl! That would be terrible! Standing up by himself would be hard enough, but trying to attack a monster was was definitely going to be much faster than him was a very bad idea. That didn't stop him though. Val had always made stupid decisions in times of trouble, which was one thing that had gotten him in so much trouble growing up. His willingness to punch people for attempting to hurt someone was irritating at times and downright stupid in others. Like right now. Very stupid decision.

Val struggled but managed to stand, not putting much pressure on the wound. He wasn't the scared new kid he'd been before. Now he was mad. It wasn't hard to get him mad, of course but how he was very, very mad. This monster wasn't going to hurt them anymore. "HEY, UGLY!" Val shouted. The beast looked over at the weaker target and bolted towards him. Val put his crazy plan into action, holding his dagger to the level the hound be at when it landed on him and braced for impact. The hound pounced on him, getting stabbed close to the heart as they landed back on the ground. Nothing happened for a moment before it gave a mini explosion of gold dust.

((Sorry! If you had a plan we can change what happened. It just kind of felt like neither of us knew what to do and I'd thought of this before.))

The son of Aphrodite was in shock that he wasn't dead, and that his plan had worked. He was an idiot. A totally, foolish idiot. But it worked! He saved the day! What the Hades? Val wasn't a hero! He was like kind who was supposed to get squished like a bug by a demon dog! How'd he manage to kill it? The thought that he'd managed to do something right was crazy.

When he noticed that Pippa had spoken he silently cursed. "Yeah, I'm gonna need some help too, gorgeous," he muttered, not meaning anything by the 'gorgeous' at the end. His chest hurt from the impact of the huge hound, and it was difficult to put pressure on his ankle so getting a girl losing a lot of blood anywhere was going to be super fun. With effort, he managed to sit up and crawled his way over to her to keep from having to put pressure on his ankle. He looked at the wound for a moment before ripping some cloth from his shirt and wrapping it around the wound. "That should help, right? Okay, you owe me a new shirt after this," he joked, giving her a bit of a smile as he tried to figure out how to get them back.