Apollo and Khione... wait what?

Khione kids were running the carnival, simply because they had power over snow. Sure, he could understand how that might be important for the snowball field or ice skating rink, but the carnival? Why was he stuck here? It was the biggest attraction of the festival, of course, which meant it was filled with campers. Kids laughed and yelled and tossed snow playfully at each other. Everything was happy and the atmosphere was bright.

But Landon wanted none of it. Being the recluse that he was, he'd give anything at the moment to curl up on his cabin bunk and just stare at a wall or read comics or something. Hell, he'd give anything to be anywhere else. Well, maybe not anywhere else....He wasn't fond of being in the institution, but pretty much every other place.

It was just so crowded and people were so... so social with one another. Landon didn't even talk to his siblings. They weren't worth the effort. All they thought of him was that he was a freaky, quiet kid who hoarded broken shell bits under his bunk. He had a few screws loose, and was best to be avoided.

Well, good. He didn't really want to talk to others anyway. He was silently moody, critical of others as a defense mechanism. They were thinking badly of him, he knew it. And he'd do it right back. He wanted no part of anyone or anything. Especially not this dumb, joyous festival.

He rubbed the back of his neck with his sleeve, being sure to keep his fingers tucked away and out of sight, before glancing up from the cart he sat on. It was a snow cone machine, and sitting on it wasn't a problem seeing as nobody wanted a snow cone in the middle of winter. And he couldn't blame them. Even for Khione kid standards it was chilly. But seriously, whose idea was it to put a snow cone machine in a winter festival? It wasn't charming or cute or funny. It wasn't going to be used. Just a waste of electricity and energy, Landon thought with a sigh.

Damn, Landon was being particularly gloomy today.

He glanced up as a crowd began to move towards him. When they passed without even looking at him, he let out a cautious exhale. But someone behind them caught his eye. A girl in a very strange outfit sat on a bench, and, if he wasn't mistaken, she was watching him.

After rubbing his eyes, Landon took another look. Still there. She couldn't be a hallucination, then. Unless she was just a really strong hallucination. Had the institution made him go insane or something? ...No, he didn't often hallucinate; he only had vivid dreams. So she really was there. In that flamboyant, ridiculous outfit. What the hell was she doing?

Landon blinked, then pulled back when she came over. She looked furious. And still weird. It was...honestly, kind of nightmare-ish. He slid back on the cart but misjudged the distance his butt still had to go before there was no surface, and ended up falling backwards off of it, smacking the back of his head on the ground with the rest of his body coming shortly after. I probably would've hurt much more had he not been cushioned by the snow.

He shivered and swing his legs in the air, trying to position himself upright. When he managed to do so, he shivered, and shook his head violently to get the snow off face and out of his hair. His cheeks quickly grew pink from the cold, and he drew himself up onto his knees, poking his head above the cart to see if she was still there. What the hell was she? Was she even human?

Her outfit was ridiculous. It said, I-am-a-cheesy-superhero, but her body language screamed I-am-the-monster-from-your-closet-here-to-curb-stomp-your-face-into-the-ground. His heart pounded in his chest and throat closed. His breaths became quick as he anxiously inched himself back away from the lunatic.

By the time the girl had returned, Landon had collected himself and returned to his seat on the useless snow cone cart. And of course, she had returned with all of her fury. And of course, he had no idea what to do about it. He glanced around nervously, to see if anybody would come to his aid.

Of course they wouldn't, he thought. They're too busy having a good time.

She looked somewhat normal now but still incredibly pissed. There was an aura of hatred around her, as she crossed her stood in front of him demanding an answer.

But if an answer was what she wanted, she wouldn't get it. Landon didn't talk to many people. And he sure as hell wasn't going to talk to such a scary girl. Instead, he just stared blankly at her, trying to figure out why she had come back. He wasn't the only one to stare at her, he was sure. So why was she targeting him? He scoured through his memories and tried to draw up any past event she might have been a part of with him. Like seeing her at dinner or something, but nothing rang a bell. This was definitely the first time of him seeing her around ever, he was positive of that. He'd remember someone who wore freakish costumes around camp, definitely. So who was she, and why was she giving him such a hard time?

Landon watched her leave with a look of sorrow on her face. Her expression showed pain, and he felt, well, almost bad for her. Sure, she'd scared the crap out of him and made him fall off the cart without so much of an apology until she ran home and changed out of her weird outfit, but still. Something in him wanted to reach out to her. He was the one who was meant to suffer. Not others. He didn't like seeing others hurting.

So, he did what only Landon would do to someone crying and leaving. He slid off the accursed machine and bent over, picking up a handful of snow. He shaped it into a ball--or at least, as close as he could get it to a ball--and retracted his arm, before throwing it forward towards her backside.

If she wanted to yell at him, that was okay. Well, not really. It sucked, actually, but it was better than her bottling it up. If she didn't let it out, she'd learn not to. And if she learned not to, then she'd become afraid of speaking. And if she became afraid to speak, she'd become a recluse. And if she became a recluse? Well, Landon didn't want to see somebody else because a recluse, too. So, he chucked a snowball at her. It would give her something to be furious about. Something that would make her explode, whether at him or the snow or the sky or her pillow, he didn't know. But it would get the rage out before it could fester inside. Before the damage could become un-repairable.

Landon blinked. ...welp. That wasn't what he had thought would happen. A pang of guilt enveloped his heart, squeezed it painfully and rapped on the inside of his ribs with an empty echo. You idiot! Look what you've done!

Okay, so, that totally wasn't supposed to be the outcome. I-It was just a snowball, though. Not really a big deal... He sighed, running a hand through his hair and stopping at the back of his head to scratch it. Crap, now what?

The few campers still around seemed to be going out of their way to avoid the girl screaming on the ground, and honestly, he didn't blame them. He blamed himself, as was usually the drill. But this time, it actually was his fault. So he should probably fix it. A task that would prove to be incredibly difficult.

He trudged through the snow, his expression vacant. He was careful not to allow any emotion to escape. Any hint of the intense regret he felt, the pity or the sorrow. Not the fear of having to actually address the girl, either. Those particularly good at reading micro-expressions may have seen the slight pronunciation between his eyebrows, barely visible even to the trained eye, that represented worry for the girl's well-being. Otherwise, he was as good as emotionless. Completely stoic to the situation.

He made his way over, crunching through the snow toward her, looming above her for a moment to try to figure the girl out. She was crying, hysterically now. Screaming and rocking, something not unusual for him to see. It was a common sight at the institution, which wasn't a shock. Most of what he learned of human behavior he learned there. His views of people warped while he was there, but he grew rather tuned to human psychology. Or, his pessimistic version of it, at least. Half of the thoughts he assumed belonged to others, he couldn't tell if they were his own. He could've been making them up for all he knew. The girl might not be sad at all. Maybe he just thought she was--

Over-analysing again. He blinked rapidly and shook his head slightly, trying to snap himself out of his conscience and mind, and back into reality.

Landon. But I don't trust you with that information. He kept his mouth shut, and shrugged, as if his name didn't matter. He reached out a hand towards her, as an offer to help her up off the ground. If need be, he'd carry her back to her cabin, or the infirmary, or the bathroom, or wherever it is she wanted to go to not have a total freak-out again. The point was to get her angry so she'd calm down. Not cry. But hey, maybe that helped relieve some stress? Who knew. Landon certainly didn't.

Landon raised an eyebrow, then let his arm drop limp to his side. Of course she wouldn't want help. What was he thinking? In the safety of his mind he cursed himself out. This had been a bad idea. He should've just packed up and gone back to Khione cabin and looked at the shells or something. Named them, stroked them, anything that didn't involve having this girl follow him around.

She asked his name, which made him nervous. What, was she going to tattle to Chiron that he threw a snowball at her? Was she going to send her cabin furiously to rip him apart? He replayed the scenario of him giving out his name a million times in his head, each ending with his metal, physical, or emotional demise. Each new scenario worse than the last. After a moment of thinking about it, he shook his head no. It was best not to let this girl know his name. It would probably be to his benefit to not let her even hear his voice.

Instead, he glanced around. The moon had risen and the sky had darkened. Most people were away in their cabins by now, and with the exception of some stragglers and a few Khione kids cleaning up, it was just the two of them. He looked back at all the cabins, and pointed outward, doing a horizontal, panoramic shift of his arm so that he pointed at all of the cabins. Then he looked back at her and waited for to tell him which one was hers so that he could walk her back and get the night over with.

Landon stared at her for a moment, his deep blue eyes locked with hers. Then he pulled away, satisfied with her new status as not-completey-broken-down, and headed towards the Khione cabin. The cart could stay until tomorrow; he'd just have to move it back to the same place, anyway.

He moved with light, soft steps through the snow, the icy wind blowing through his hair as he made his way out of the rapidly dropping temperature and toward the Khione cabin, where it was even colder. It was a little too much for him to take, honestly, but that's what the absurd amount of blankets on his bed were for. If you could survive a winter night in the Khione cabin, you could survive anything, including a psychopath demigod following you.

Strange, she was actually holding out on her promise. Does this count as stalking? Was Landon being stalked? She wasn't crying anymore...She was okay now. So.. why? He stopped walking and glanced over his shoulder at the girl, stretching out his arm and poking her forehead with one finger. No, stay. The gesture, as well as his unamused facial expression seemed to say. Bringing shells to the Khione cabin was bad enough. Bringing a girl would probably get him kicked out.

Landon rolled his eyes and stopped walking. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth, soundlessly. No words came out for a moment as he hesitated. Finally, he exhaled, his breath visible in the cold night air, and turned around to face her. Deep blue eyes locking with hers. "My name..." He started, just above a whisper, "Is Landon. Landon Greene. Okay?"

Landon shrugged. "You're not an idiot based on what you wear. It's just... out of the usual." Not like he could talk. Landon was a freak. A crazy. He had no place to judge. But she went out into the street without a care in the world of what people thought of what she wore and did. And him, well he thought everyone judged his actions at every given moment. "You're crazy, not an idiot."

Landon raised an eyebrow skeptical, the rest of his face keeping a natural, unchanged position. He didn't frown or smile. He just kept a steady gaze. "An explanation would be nice." This girl seemed to be having trouble with her words. And, according to her reactions to everything he had done up until that point, trouble with her life. Landon had an eye for such things. He seemed to be a disaster magnet.