[New Olympus] Wilds

[Bloodedge]

"A fisherman doesn't cast his line repeatedly because the fish want to be caught," the boy said as his head turned away further. He didn't care much for Deianira's reason in hanging around so long, nor did he care that she had been redirecting the wildlife of this location to offer him privacy from the animals. His only concern was solitude, and he could not have a sensation of that while knowing someone knew his location. This made things especially bothersome for the male when he was told he could stay in his parental deity's dedicated location in New Olympus. Athos seemed shocked at first, but this quickly became an expression of disinterest again. "I... can't stay there. It wouldn't be good. I..." He paused, addressing a different subject. He couldn't lie; being in this place alone was hindering his progress. There was another place he would much rather have gone, and he intended to return. On the other hand, he would not be able to do so without meeting a certain requirement. As such, he chose to swallow his inhibitions if only for long enough to seek aide in gaining the thing he required. "... I need a weapon."

[Apollymi]

When the boy finally spoke again, it was a contradictory anecdote about fishing. This statement initially gave Deianira a bit of a pause but when she thought about it more, a giggle escaped her. "If you say so, I am not much of a fisherman myself. I'll take your word for it~" she said seeming to be in good spirits, having managed to get more than a few passing words out of the lad on her first attempt, which is something she wasn't sure was going to work out in the first place. She'd had two weeks to ponder this lad's existence and she still wasn't sure of anything about him, the combination of things he did, made it impossible for her to guess at his parentage and she hadn't been the type to pry about it when speaking to Invi. Thus the young man was shrouded in mystery which only seemed to deepen when his face shifted at the idea of living in his parental deity's home. The disinterest soon returned and the young man actually furthered his explanation.

"Uh...huh... If you say so..." there were a couple of kids who didn't like their parents houses, mostly it was sibling related disputes and the like which made them unhappy, but this one made it sound like it was something else entirely. The next thing he said left the young woman a bit stunned her head leaning ever so slightly to the left. "You..." a pause came. "Need a weapon? I assume you don't just mean a normal one... I'd suggest one of two things, though both are a bit dangerous," she said seeming to think about it a bit more while offering up an honest opinion. "Completing a trial or entering into a pact with a specific god or goddess can grant the person who does it a mythical or powerful weapon. Though, those usually come at a great cost. I got my bow on such an agreement," she said. "Or you could go to Lemnos and roll the dice on finding the Smith God in a good mood. I've heard it's possible to get a weapon directly from him if you get the materials for it and he feels like doing stuff, if you want to try that route." she said coming off the information without much problem as it was one of many things talked about between the children on New Olympus.

[Bloodedge]

Taking the hit to his own methods proved immediately beneficial to Athos. He was given not one, but two methods of obtaining a powerful weapon of some sort. While neither of these options were very appealing to the lad, one involved potentially dealing with multiple individuals, while the other only required him to address one god who'd been virtually shunned by the others. This was the most reasonable route, and with that in mind, he chose to set out immediately. Without speaking another word to the huntress, he readied the satchel granted to him by Hermes, turned away, and began walking out of the wilds of New Olympus.

[Apollymi]

"You're welcome~" she chimed to Athos who'd left without even offering thanks for the information he likely wouldn't have known how to find. Once the young man took his leave of the Wilds Deianira smirked. She had no idea which method he'd choose to use, but she was happy to help unlike most. A yawn would escape the young woman but she moved on from that, dragging along her prey back to the hunting cabin built for her several miles across the forest. Once there she dressed the animal. Skinning it and chopping it up in several different cuts which she wrapped and put into cold storage within the cabin which she intended to present to the masses of New Olympus a bit before dinner time. Soon after she found herself stripping out of her soiled clothing leaving it in random heaps of strips and leather all across the floor taking down her hair pin before settling into the warm silence of this place and taking a rest just as the sun reached its proper crest. A large goblet beside the hammock she intended to sleep in filled at her touch. 'Woo... busy day, but progress~' she thought as she drank to her own successes no matter how minor they were, before climbing into the hammock naked to swing herself into a gentle sleep. She'd sleep here for a great amount of time, unless something happened to wake her.

[Bloodedge]

Roughly 2.5 days after the departure of Athos, the recently disheartened lad came wandering through the wilds once more. He had hopes of receiving a tool from Hephaestus to further his personal goals, but the plan had gone awry due to his inability to properly converse with the god. While this was quite the bane, Athos was only really reduced to the life he'd been living for a couple of weeks now. As such, he made his way toward the lake he'd made a home of, with nothing to show for his efforts.

[Apollymi]

Having already passed the lake for the day, and finding no one there when she did, Deianira instead made her way towards her cabin. This had been several hours before the arrival of the demigod Athos' whose name she still didn't know. She wondered what kind of adventure his trip would have led him on, and wished he was a tiny bit more friendly so she could be entertained by any possible stories he had. While she thought this over, she fell asleep in her hammock in her usual way, waiting for the stars to come out so she could go on her next hunt, as she tended to do when she wasn't partying the night before.

After sleeping she rose, got dressed and headed out again for a night hunt, instead of the party she likely would have thrown normally. As she headed down stream she began walking towards the lake she'd already come by here once today, but... she couldn't help but take a second look today, if only to check on the safety of the lad who presently called it home. She went on to receive visual confirmation of his presence there in the moonlight, and after doing so, simply began to walk away, lest she disturb him in someway. 'Good he's okay~' she thought rather happily.

[Bloodedge]

After a long, slow trek home, Athos finally made it to the lake in which he slept. Upon reaching the large rock at the water's edge, he saw the serpent Invi fast asleep beside it. Athos turned around and dropped himself to the ground, letting his back hit the rock as the muscles of his body lost all tension. Invi stirred, but made no major movements at the moment of the demigod's obvious return. "It didn't work," Athos hissed while pulling his knees into his chest and lowering his chin into the space between his knees. "I guess we're stuck. This really is our home now."

[Apollymi]

Deianira's momentary happiness was brought to a screeching halt. The step she was about to take forward from the lake was stopped mid stride by the hissed words of the boy to his pet snake. Apparently whatever method he'd tried undertaking didn't work and he was now stuck here. And though Deianira didn't wish to pry nor did she want to interfere in whatever this young demigod had going on. 'You shouldn't stop and you know it, keep moving already...' the girl said inside her own head to herself. She was trying to take the next step, but the pang in her chest simply wouldn't allow her to move past a fellow demigod in need. 'Damn it...' she swore in her own head. "You aren't stuck anywhere. I can probably help you out, if you tell me what happened..." the young woman said as she paused on the side of the lake. She'd only come out to do her hunting, she'd only stopped by here, as a reflex to check on the young man who presently called this place his home, if he didn't want to be here, it was the least she could do, to help him get where he wanted to be.

[Bloodedge]

Invi seemed distraught by the information provided by her "brother" as she claimed. Athos, as well, had no idea where to go from here. He had no desire to be part of New Olympus, and had only accepted being brought to this place because there was nowhere left in the mortal realm for him to call home. In the midst of his apparent sulking, the huntress from days prior made herself known by speaking to the lad directly. Immediately, he fell silent once more. This lasted for several seconds before human words left his mouth again. "... Hephaestus. I went to Hephaestus."

[Apollymi]

"Ah... take it he wasn't in the mood to make weapons?" she said moving a tiny bit closer so she was no longer standing across the lake from the lad but instead near the rock on which his 'sister' snake enjoyed basking. She thought about it for several seconds, knowing that the Smith God was a bit of an outcast, and this one didn't seem to have much by way of social skills, she imagined their encounter probably hadn't gotten very far. "Seeing Hephaestus is the option you want to go with? Well, what reason did you give for wanting the weapon?" she asked genuinely interested in helping the lad achieve his goals, without any knowledge of what it was he was trying to do. She'd heard from a few of the other kids around here that the Smith God didn't need that much reason to act, he'd given them errands to run and then made their weapons based on simple ideas like valor or fortune-seeking. Surely then the problem between this lad and Hephaestus was something else.