Early Morning - {Thalia}

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YOU'DFLYUPACROSSTHESKY

JUST TO PROVE YOUR POINT NOW WOULDN'T YOU?

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IT WAS turning out to be one of those mornings; Zoey couldn't going back to sleep because her need to move was too great. This was common for her, and it was the reason most days she ran on about four or five hours of sleep. She got dressed as quietly as she was able to, and grabbed her bag before leaving her bunk in one of the third cohort's buildings. As she stepped out into the dim sunlight, she gazed up at the sky; her hand constantly messing with the strap of her bag. It wasn't too long after sunrise, and it wasn't likely too many others would be up at this time. Normally she would have started to head towards the blacksmith, eager to make some progress on her latest project, but today felt different. She turned herself down the path heading away from the city, and towards an open field instead. No one was really around, at least, she hadn't seen anyone, so she decided she would dare some practice. At least, she would until it seemed the other campers were awakening.

Being a child of Vulcan, it's assumed that they would fight with what they create. Yes, there are few that fight with blades or spears, but most preferred to stay behind the scenes. Making the blades, or creating traps and other gadgets. Zoey was among those that liked to make things rather than fight, but it was a little known fact that she did have some skill with weapons. Swords, shields and spears weren't her thing, which was what most Romans used. She, on the other hand, was skilled with bows and daggers. Zoey could easily connect the two. Bows required patience and accuracy, both she picked up while crafting. Daggers were small blades that, when used correctly, were extremely dangerous. Since Zoey often worked with small pieces, she had a grip on that. Her dagger skills were still not as good as they could be, however, and that's what she was here to work on. Except, she didn't exactly have hand-to-hand combat in mind. As she left the path to walk into the empty field, a small smile grew on her lips. She was going to practice throwing daggers. It required good accuracy like bows do, but a little more finesse.

Once she was a reasonable distant into the field and away from the path, she dropped her bag with a quiet huff. Zoey bent down to kneel next to it just long enough to open the bag and retrieve a metal box from within. Balancing the box on one hand while the other tapped a random beat on her jean shorts, she walked up a bit further and set the box down. She opened a side panel and flipped the switch that was behind it before taking a few steps back. The box sprung open on its own, and from the center a metal dummy frame set itself up. Zoey always smiled when setting these up. She couldn't remember who cam up with the idea for a portable dummy, but she had helped build it. It was convenient, and pretty easy to use. Heading back to her bag, she pulled out a cloth shirt and threw it onto the metal frame. Then she pulled out a belt and kicked the now empty bag aside. She fastened the belt around her waist, and made sure that every slot properly held each dagger. Carefully breathing as she stretched her arms, she lifted the first dagger out of the belt. Aiming carefully, she whipped her hand and arm forward, sending the dagger flying towards – and successfully into the dummy. This was going to be a good morning.

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WORDS! six-three-three [633]
TAGS! Open!
CREDIT! lyrics from "Strong Enough" by Tal Bachmen, template by zee of caution

[thalia grace]

DON'T LOSE IT ALL IN A BLUR OF THE STARS SEEING IS DECEIVING DREAMING IS BELIEVING
IT'S OKAY NOT TO BE OKAY SOMETIMES IT'S HARD TO FOLLOW

She had seen many times on the clock come and go as she laid in her bunk in the Argo II. She'd seen twelve. She'd seen one oh four, two thirteen, three fourty seven, and when she saw four fifty three, she had decided enough was enough. She knew, this time around, why she couldn't sleep. Not that she'd admit that was why she couldn't sleep. She'd blame it on being away from the Hunters, she'd blame it on Annabeth's snoring about two in the morning that had strangely only lasted for about an hour and a half before she rolled over audibly and the silence had come back, or maybe she'd blame it on being in the Roman camp which was so much different than the Greek camp. She had a million excuses that she could use, and she was sure that everyone but Annabeth would believe them, if she was ever required to explain her actions - thank the gods Annabeth would be the only one asking, and she just had to leave before the girl woke up. She was up and moving, even if it was really early, but she had nothing better to do, and was avoiding interrogation. It seemed like a good plan.

She was ready to go, circlet in her hair and silver Hunter's camo on for the day. When she felt trapped in one place too long, she threw on her uniform, and it made her feel just a little bit better. After all, Hunters did what they wanted to do, and lived without care or rules or responsibility except for what they hunted and their loyalty to the group, and Lady Artemis. For Thalia, she wore her uniform half of the time. Being herself, she would wear her style of clothing the other half of the time - she would never fit in anywhere normally, and at a technical age of twenty four years, she had learned in those twenty four years that it really didn't matter to her how people saw her or what they thought of her. She did what she wanted to do - end of story. Her circlet, though, always sat atop her head, whether her hair was out, pony-tailed or braided, it would always remain there. If it didn't, it was disrespectful not only to herself, but to her position, the Hunters, and Lady Artemis herself. Thalia would never do that. She was too smart for that, too loyal for that. She wore her circlet with pride, even when Phoebe glared at her in jealousy because Phoebe had been the one in line when Zoe had died, until Thalia had come along and stolen the position right out from under her.

She was walking down a pathway after coming off the Argo II, because really, the only thing Camp Jupiter had that extremely interested her was the open space. The Fields of Mars weren't the only fields that the camp had - there were pathways that led to the middle of fields that were only filled with grass and empty land space. She found it peaceful, and was sure that some of their campers had come here just to lay in the grass and look up at the sky, maybe even the stars at night. She would have to do that at some point, she was sure that even though there wouldn't be too many stars shown, since it was a city area and light pollution blocked a lot of the view, there would be more here than she could ever see in New York. She shook her head as the pathway winded into a field, one of the many fields, and she spotted a head of dirty blonde hair and what looked like a dummy a good distance away from her. Thalia kept enough distance between her and the girl, curious and wanting to observe. Maybe this was Camp Jupiter's version of an Ares kid.

TAGGED ?! zoey~
WORD COUNT ?! six seventy one
MUSE ?! boss for noontime. xD
NOTES ?! she thinks zo is a mars kid. xDD she has a dummy, and she has a weapon. wonder what she'll think when she gets told that zoey's a vulcan, and that she made the weapon. oh so amusing. x3
CREDITS ?! credit to HAY ALISON?! of caution two point oh for the graphics. credit to jessie j with her song who you are for the lyrics.

[skygrey]

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YOU'DFLYUPACROSSTHESKY

JUST TO PROVE YOUR POINT NOW WOULDN'T YOU?

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WHENEVER a dagger would successfully land in one of the dummy's weak points, Zoey's smile got a bit brighter. It always made her happy to see that – despite her obvious talent in the forges – she still had ability to hit a ranged target. Every so often she hated having to hide her combat ability. It was something she found necessary, because she saw how little the Romans respected archers, and since she was as good with a bow and arrow as she was with throwing daggers, she would probably never let it out. Even with Alexandre; she would subtly hint about it, but never outright admitted it. It wasn't as if she would deny it completely, but that would require someone to ask. Therefore she always got crafty when the topic of combat abilities came up. Zoey always started talking about how she was going about making something whenever someone brought up abilities, and it slowly became known not to do so around her unless you'd like to hear her rant. Normally she would've hated people avoiding her on something, but this way she wouldn't have people look down on her; not that she really cared either way.

When her hand reached down to grab the next dagger from its holster, all it managed to get was air. Zoey glanced down with a frown to discover that she had already thrown then all. With a small sigh she walked towards the dummy to retrieve the blades. She hated disrupting a good throwing streak, and running out of daggers had done just that. Either way, this morning had felt like a good morning, and she hadn't been doing as horribly as she had expected, so she held out hope for the rest of the day. She stopped just short of the dummy, carefully pulling the blades free from the dummy's body and putting them back in their holsters on her belt. Pausing at one of the daggers, she studied its tip and made a mental note to sharpen it later, and continued. When she held the last two in her hand, she turned around and put one back in the belt. As she began to walk back, she looked up and stopped suddenly, a quiet 'eep' escaping her. The last dagger fumbled between her hands and she ended up dropping it, jumping back just in time for the blade to sink into the ground right where her foot had just been.

A blush spread across her cheeks as she quickly bent down to pull the dagger out of the ground and properly place it back in her belt. Not only had she jumped when she noticed the presence of another person, but she had made a slight fool of herself. Glancing towards her observer, she realized that she didn't recognize her and came to the conclusion that she must be a Greek demi god. Clearing her throat, she smiled a bright friendly smile and started to make her way over. A quick glance back to the dummy, and she told herself that she could get that later. If she attended to putting the dummy away now, she might come off as the typical arrogant Roman, and she wasn't like that at all. So Zoey got closer to the other girl, while her hands constantly moved around the other, or momentarily linking. She was nervous, that was clear enough. It didn't matter, she still maintained her smile. “Hey, could not sleep?”

[/color] She couldn't think of any other reason someone would be out here at this hour. Then again, she could also think of about five different things that would make her seem way less pushy. She was starting to rethink the whole 'good-day' thing.[/blockquote]

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WORDS! six-three-six [636]
TAGS! Thalia~
CREDIT! lyrics from "Strong Enough" by Tal Bachmen, template by zee of caution

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[thalia grace]

DON'T LOSE IT ALL IN A BLUR OF THE STARS SEEING IS DECEIVING DREAMING IS BELIEVING
IT'S OKAY NOT TO BE OKAY SOMETIMES IT'S HARD TO FOLLOW

Thalia would never understand why the Romans looked down on Archers. The only ones that were excused, really, were the children of Apollo - and it was only because it was in their blood. Thalia, being a Hunter, was skilled with a bow and Arrow - to the level of Artemis, Apollo, and their children. All Hunters were - it was something that came with the title, something that came with the territory. She was sure that, if she wasn't as good with a sword, as good as a spear, as she was with her bow and arrow, she would get no respect from the Romans. Then again, she was a daughter of Zeus - Jupiter, in their terms - and they seemed to get an almost automatic respect in this camp. Maybe it was because that was who the camp was named after. Maybe it was because Jason, such a great leader, was a son of Jupiter - and her brother. She didn't know. She didn't think she wanted to know. That being said, all she'd be using in this camp? Would be anything but her bow and arrow. Artemis would understand - it was something that needed to be done to make sure she got where she needed to be. If she needed to be respected, and Artemis knew her need for respect, then it would be no problem if she was a Hunter using something else besides a bow. After all, you didn't need to use a bow to be a Hunter - not in her books.

Demigods, Roman or Greek, seemed to be exactly the same. They had the same skills, if they were from the same parent. They had the same reflexes, the same types of thoughts, and the same behavior - maybe the Romans were more disciplined, and more harsh, but that was about the on;y difference. Thalia had known this, as it had been said by quite a few of the leaders of the two groups, but that didn't mean that she had believed it. They were from two different nations, they were two different sets of people - and maybe they had the same goal, but that didn't mean that they were any more similar than that. They were of the same species, that too, but that didn't mean anything else. The same species with the same goals - it didn't seem like they had any more than that. However, her opinion had changed when she saw the blonde jump back when she had dropped her dagger, reflexes coming into play. The belief had been cemented by that little sight - maybe it wasn't much, but for Thalia, it certainly changed her point of view - something that was really hard to do.

The blue eyed girl raised an eyebrow at her friendly tone. Children of Ares - Mars, whatever - were anything but friendly. She was confused ... but then again, th girl didn't have to be a daughter of Mars. She could've been the daughter of anyone, really. Maybe she was a daughter of Apollo - she had a bow, didn't she? Even if she wasn't using arrows, it was apparent that she was an archer. Maybe she was one of the Amazons - the ones that Thalia tried to tolerate with everything in her, but really couldn't because their values made her wantwantwant them so badly, but she couldn't have them. So she hated them out of envy - she allowed herself, this once, to acknowledge something so completely insane, but then pushed it back down and nodded at the girl who asked her the question. "Yeah. Insomnia - total pain in the butt," she said with a smirk. "Same for you, I'm guessing?" Thalia asked. She said nothing about what the girl had been doing, practicing or working on her skill or whatever she'd been doing, and rather let her speak.

TAGGED ?! zoey x3
WORD COUNT ?! six fifty two
MUSE ?! could be better, for sure
NOTES ?! sorry this took so long. >.<' but yeahh, thalia was all rambly and crappy and ... just another apology. *flail*
CREDITS ?! credit to HAY ALISON?! of caution two point oh for the graphics. credit to jessie j with her song who you are for the lyrics.