[X][Cabin Ten] Ask her about her cabin.
[X][Concept Imbuing] Offer to teach her. (Willow might learn how to imbue plants with concepts. You stand out more)
[X][KDream] Sorry, Chiron put his trust in me and he swore me to never tell. He was just trying to help I think.
[X][Bodyguard] Let Lily follow you around until people stop talking about you.
[X][Forest Exploration] Introduce yourself to the local Dryads.
[X][Violet] Start over
[X][Chloro-tutoring] Agree to teach Rosie Chlorokinesis (Increased EXP Gain for Chlorokinesis, Reduced EXP Gain for derivative skills)
[X][Offense] Sure, you can try Offense.
[X][Cabin Ten] Ask her about her cabin.
[X][Concept Imbuing] Offer to teach her. (Willow might learn how to imbue plants with concepts. You stand out more)
[X][KDream] Sorry, Chiron put his trust in me and he swore me to never tell. He was just trying to help I think.
[X][Bodyguard] Let Lily follow you around until people stop talking about you.
[X][Forest Exploration] Introduce yourself to the local Dryads.
[X][Violet] Start over
[X][Chloro-tutoring] Agree to teach Rosie Chlorokinesis (Increased EXP Gain for Chlorokinesis, Reduced EXP Gain for derivative skills)
[X][Offense] Sure, you can try Offense.
[X][Cabin Ten] Ask her about her cabin.
[X][Concept Imbuing] Offer to teach her. (Willow might learn how to imbue plants with concepts. You stand out more)
[X][KDream] Sorry, Chiron put his trust in me and he swore me to never tell. He was just trying to help I think.
[X][Bodyguard] Let Lily follow you around until people stop talking about you.
[X][Forest Exploration] Introduce yourself to the local Dryads.
[X][Violet] Start over
[X][Chloro-tutoring] Agree to teach Rosie Chlorokinesis (Increased EXP Gain for Chlorokinesis, Reduced EXP Gain for derivative skills)
[X][Offense] Sure, you can try Offense.
[26][Cabin Ten] Ask her about her cabin.
[28][KDream] Sorry, Chiron put his trust in me and he swore me to never tell. He was just trying to help I think.
[31][Concept Imbuing] Offer to teach her. (Willow might learn how to imbue plants with concepts. You stand out more)
[31][Forest Exploration] Introduce yourself to the local Dryads.
[31][Bodyguard] Let Lily follow you around until people stop talking about you.
[32][Violet] Start over
[31][Chloro-tutoring] Agree to teach Rosie Chlorokinesis (Increased EXP Gain for Chlorokinesis, Reduced EXP Gain for derivative skills)
[32][Offense] Sure, you can try Offense.
"It's the place that I sleep,"
That statement makes you curious, but you can't tell if she's trying to shut down that line of conversation or leave an opening for you to ask questions.
"That bad, huh?"
Blossom looks out into Long Island Sound. With the expression she's wearing and her crutches by her side, she looks so very small and lonely. You scoot closer to her and wrap your arms around her in a hug. You're once again reminded how much smaller you are than you expect to be, but you put that thought aside and focus on hugging Blossom.
She leans her head on your head since she's too tall to put it on your shoulder. "They spend all the time during meals and our activities flirting with each other and discussing love and how attractive other campers are. It's just..." A strangled, frustrated noise comes out of her throat. "I wouldn't mind if they weren't so..." she seems to struggle to put things into words.
"So?" you prompt.
She puts her head in her hands. "One of them called me 'Damaged Goods' and then they all laughed."
You see red.
"You know what, forget that I said anything."
What? Was it something you said or did?
Blossom can't exactly hurry as she leaves, but you can sense the frustration and anger in her movements as she gathers her crutches, stands up, and walks off the beach. Was she crying? Are you supposed to follow her? Do you leave her alone? In your indecision, you find yourself sitting on the beach alone. The waves starting to lap at your shoes.
You don't know what to do about Blossom, but you know that whatever your age, you are going to have words with the rest of the Aphrodite cabin.
"Really?" Willow sounds so disbelieving you're almost offended.
"Of course, you're literally my sister, why wouldn't I teach you?"
Willow leans down and wraps you in a far too tight hug, her hair flowing over yours and covering your face.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
It's the most excited you've ever seen Willow. You have no idea what to do or say, other than attempting to wrap your arms around Willow to return the hug. It's awkward, again because of how much shorter you are than her, but you manage an approximation.
"When do you want to start?"
"Oh," Willow blushes sheepishly, "I kind of promised Lily I'd do stable duty all of next week since I've been skipping."
You decide that the Labyrinth can wait, after all, Luke discovered it at some point before he left camp, you can always just follow him, or if you're friends with the dryads, you can just ask them where he was poking around. You vaguely remember it was at a landmark, but whether that's the creek, the shore, or the pile of rocks called Zeus's Fist, you're not sure.
Besides, you now live right next to a forest, you should at least get to know it's resident nature spirits. It's practically your duty as a child of Demeter. With that in mind, you go looking for them.
It's surprisingly difficult to find any dryads willing to speak with you. You don't know what's been going on here before you came to camp, but the dryads here are very skittish. Every so often, you'll see one peeking out from a tree. It sort of looks like they're hiding behind it, but when they notice that you've caught sight of them, they disappear into the tree. You're pretty sure that trying to get them to come out of their tree is a no-no. You imagine yourself going up to one of them and knocking on the tree saying "anybody home?" You fail to hide a snicker. Still, it takes a while before you find a dryad willing to talk to you. It's probably more accurate to say that the dryad finds you.
"I'm Holly," she says. She's tall, though everyone looks tall from your perspective. She has pale skin, short and spiky green hair, and bright red eyes. "Help out," she... (asks? commands?) you're not sure, but you follow her anyway.
As you walk with her, the volume of dryads peeking out from their trees at you drastically increases. You're pretty sure more than half of the trees in this forest have spirits, which is pretty astonishing. They must outnumber the campers almost two to one. You pass by a holly tree that you're pretty sure belongs to Holly, just from the way that it feels. You wonder if dryads ever get confused because there are so many of them with the same names. Eventually, you come across a young spruce tree. It's rather sickly looking. You expect a dryad to step out of it, but none do. Holly goes and stands next to the tree and crosses her arms.
"Help out," she demands. it's definitely a demand this time.
You're pretty sure she wants you to work your magic, literally, on the tree in front of you, so you... wait. You first go up to the sickly tree and try and project your intentions to it, and ask for permission. It's not something you've done before, but if your guess is correct and this is a fledgling nature spirit, then she'll probably appreciate it. You get a sort of fluttering feeling back. You have no idea how to interpret that, but Holly's gaze is getting sharper, so you decide that it's good enough.
You push magic into the tree, trying to focus on healing whatever is wrong with it, and before your eyes, the tree grows healthier. It doesn't grow taller, but it does grow back the leaves that have fallen off. Then, a dryad pops out. She looks to be roughly 12 or 13 (You're starting to suspect that dryad appearances start at 12 and stop at 24) and has gray-green skin and light brown hair that falls just above her shoulders. She glomps you. As you weren't expecting a projectile nature spirit, you fall over and wind up on your back with the dryad straddling your stomach.
You look up at her. "Hello."
She leans over and points a finger at your face, then... boops you on the nose. She giggles, gets up, and returns to her tree.
This seems to open the proverbial floodgates, and you find yourself inundated with requests from the other dryads to do this or that. Sometimes it's growing a branch or planting a seed somewhere. Other times it's settling disputes between two dryads over "root space" which is pretty self-explanatory. You wander about until you wind up being brought to an argument with a dryad and a fat old satyr. You had honestly forgotten the satyrs were even around. Didn't they have a council or something? Is this one of the council-members?
You decide that this is probably the reason you've been brought over, so you walk over and ask, "Sorry to interrupt, but what is this about? I'm Sam by the way."
The satyr takes one look at you and sneers dismissively. "This is none of your business, child."
The dryad is much more cooperative. She points at the elder satyr and says, "He says I can't stretch over here," petulantly.
You're pretty sure that she doesn't mean stretch in the normal sense of the word, so you glance up. Sure enough, one of her branches is growing over what would otherwise be a perfect circle.
"You see," says the satyr, who has not yet bothered introducing himself, "this is sacred ground. It must be immaculate."
For the briefest moment, you consider playing impartial judge as you have been for however long you've been in the forest. Then, you look back and see the gaggle of dryads who have followed you here peeking from between the trees. There's a range of emotions there, but the most prevalent ones are fear and anger. Yeah, there was only one side you were ever going to take in this situation.
"Just let me keep track of you for a week or two more until things die down. No one will accost you so long as I'm here."
"Ok, it's probably a good thing, actually." Lily breathes a sigh of relief. "But seriously, you could have just told me. I would have understood."
"Yeah, I know, but I didn't want you to think I was babying you or anything. People have reacted badly to that in the past." She sounds like she's speaking from experience. Then again, you've never asked how long she's been a counselor.
"How long have you been a counselor?"
"This will be my third year."
"That's…" you don't have any reference point to evaluate that. Is it a long time? A short time?
"It's a pretty average amount of time, as far as these things go."
"How did you-"
"-know what you were going to ask? You're just like Willow when she showed up, full of questions about everything."
"Really?"
"Yeah, you'll make a great counselor, just like she'll be."
You feel your face heat up. Lily is looking at you like she's desperately holding back from either picking you up and squeezing you like a teddy bear or pinching your cheek. You desperately search for something to change the subject to.
"Can we… start over, pretend like none of this happened?"
"Sure… Um, how do we do this?"
"Well, I guess we introduce ourselves again. I'm Violet. It's nice to meet you."
"Sam. Likewise." You feel ridiculous.
You both stand around awkwardly for a bit. Her eyes find the make-shift war-scythe strapped to your hip.
"I'm not the best there ever was with a sword, but I'm probably the best in the cabin. Would you like me to give you some tips on using that piece of metal on your hip?"
"Definitely."
As it turns out, not everything translates from sword to war-scythe, but your weapon is straight enough that quite a bit does. Once again, it's not as if you magically improve, but you do feel that your ability to use your weapon in a fight has gone up again.
"It's not like it's some big secret that I'm keeping."
"It's not?"
"Did you ever ask any of our other half-sisters to teach you?" you say in exasperation.
She shifts nervously, "No?"
You sigh. "When do you want to start?"
She looks back at the volleyball game that she's abandoned. They've balanced the teams with an extra player, making her suddenly the odd one out. You wonder if that somehow has more meaning than just the volleyball game.
"Yes, I want to see how Sam's plants do on offense. If you're feeling up for it, that is," he says the last bit to you.
"Sure, I can try offense."
"Excellent," Jordan says, before splitting up the offense group into two smaller groups. Apparently, Sean, the captain of the other team, has just placed the flag as far away from the creek as they can get without going out of bounds. According to Jordan, it's not particularly defensible because you don't actually have to stay strictly in-bounds for capture the flag. You can skirt the edges so long as you don't go too far. It generally just makes you a target since visibility is much higher out of the forest than inside.
You wind up in the group that Jordan is leading, along with a daughter of Athena, a son of Hermes, and a daughter of Hephaestus. It's the smaller of the two groups, and you get the feeling that you've somehow become part of Jordan's elite squad.
You position yourselves at one end of the creek, near the edge of the forest, but not so close that the trees start thinning out. Idly, you wonder how the dryads feel about the half-bloods using their forest for capture the flag. You should ask them next time you meet up with them.
When the horn sounds, signaling the start of the game, you creep forward, encountering nobody for the first bit of forest. Then, you feel some people a bit in front of you and towards the inside of the forest. You say as much to Jordan, who eyes you critically but takes your advice. You're pretty sure the Hermes kid, Chris, is also eyeing you up now as if he's trying to figure out how much you would be worth. You don't like that look.
You continue like that, avoiding groups using your plant sense. At one point the Athena kid, Anne, which you only remembered because of its similarity to Annabeth, pulls you aside and asks, "Can all of your cabin-members do that?"
You shrug, "I have no idea," you say honestly. She lets out an exasperated sigh.
"Come on Anne," the Hephaestus girl, Hannah, says, "It's not like you keep tabs on all your cabin members and their abilities."
Anne glares at Hannah, and you half expect her to say "I do, in fact, keep tabs on the abilities of my cabin members," but she doesn't.
The only group that you can't avoid is the one that is guarding the flag. They are standing in a rough, quarter-circle facing the forest and are very easily visible.
"So how do you feel about being the distraction?" Jordan asks you.
You think about it. Capture the flag is probably the best opportunity to get in over your head. The worst that'll happen is that you'll end up a bit bruised, right? You're pretty sure there are rules against dismemberment and killing. "Sure, when do I go?"
"We'll use you as a signal," Anne informs you.
Great. You get ready, trying to silently communicate your intentions to the trees around you. You don't get any meaningful response, so you decide that that has to be permission enough since there's no way you can take on six demigods without the assistance of your plants.
You step out into visibility, war-scythe in hand. The roots of the nearby trees are growing towards the defenders at an alarming pace. You like to think you make for a pretty scary opponent, despite your small stature.
"AAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhh!"
Which is when you're interrupted by the sound of someone screaming and passing over your head. You take a moment to admire the perfect Doppler effect, then try then resume your attack. You catch the defenders off guard, but moments later the horn is blown, signaling the end of capture the flag. For a moment, you think that you may have lost, until you catch sight of just who was flying over the forest.
It's Justin, riding on his griffon, while his two compatriots, who you recognize as another son of Ares and a daughter of Hermes, though you don't know their names. Justin is sitting on the back of the griffon, which is the kind where the front half is fully eagle, talons and everything, while the back half is fully lion. His two partners are hanging from the griffon's claws and screaming.
Eventually, they land, bruised and cut up, but otherwise fine. You can practically hear Lily's exasperated sigh when she finds out that she now needs to stable a griffon with the pegasi.
You have gained 5 EXP Points in Chlorokinesis, 7 in War-Scythe-Wielding, 7 in Archery, 5 in Parkour/Climbing, 5 in Social, 5 in Greek Mythology, 5 in the Concept of Growth, and 2 in Art.
ΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦ
As NeverDies pointed out. I can't really manage these multi=part updates easily. To be honest, I don't think they're the best for large-duration updates like these. That's why I'm changing it up. These votes are for your second (and last) month at camp. I won't try and cover this all in one update, but I'll spread them out over as many as I feel like they deserve.
The first part is picking what you're going to train. Whether or not I portray this in the updates, you can bet it's going on in the intervening time.
Pick 6 Pick 4 from below:
[X][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis with Rosie. (Locked in)
[X][Activities] Learn about the Concept of Growth with Willow (Locked in)
[][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #2
[][Activities] Focus on the Concept of Growth #2
[][Activities] Train with your War-scythe
[][Activities] Train Archery
[][Activities] Train Parkour
[][Activities] Train Art
[][Activities] Learn how to ride a Pegasus
[][Activities] Write-in.
Then, here's my try at another system for things that happen over a long time. Just because you don't pick one of these events doesn't mean it didn't happen. It could still have happened without Sam's presence, or offscreen. Generally, this won't have a mechanical impact, but rather, this is where the meat of the narrative lies.
Pick 4 Events:
[][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
[][Event] Justin learns how to care for a griffon.
[][Event] Lily's true weapon, revealed!
[][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
[][Event] Willow's first concept
[][Event] Kalina and Chiron.
[][Event] Making friends, well, trying to at least.
[][Event] Commissioning a weapon.
[][Event] Monsters attack the borders of camp!
[][Event] Explore the Forest.
-[][Event] Search for the entrance to the Labyrinth
-[][Event] Find some monsters
-[][Event] Search for Magical Plants ΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦ
QM Note:
Some repeat wording, but I think that it helps to ensure that you know which scene goes where. Also, StarchLord, I am actually a big fan of Viva01 and Ninja Ninja Tactics; however, A system like that takes a lot of work to maintain. It's a good system, but I don't have the time to keep up with it. Thus I will continue using my system.
Also, I think the idea that Sam is only good at talking to people if they're dryads is amusing.
You'll get the Imbuing concept at the end of next month.
[X] Plan GROW!
-[X][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #2
-[X][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #3
-[X][Activities] Focus on the Concept of Growth #2
-[X][Activities] Focus on the Concept of Growth #3
-[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
-[X][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
-[X][Event] Willow's first concept
-[X][Event] Monsters attack the borders of camp!
[][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
We focus exclusively on them all horror style. One disappears here one there, one of them (preferably a boy) does that high pitched scream that scares every bird in the camp (griffin is confused by the scream) and when they exit the forest their looks are destroyed: mud everywhere, branches and leaves in the hair, some of them with missing hair (somehow). This has the potential to be glorious.
[][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
We focus exclusively on them all horror style. One disappears here one there, one of them (preferably a boy) does that high pitched scream that scares every bird in the camp (griffin is confused by the scream) and when they exit the forest their looks are destroyed: mud everywhere, branches and leaves in the hair, some of them with missing hair (somehow). This has the potential to be glorious.
[X] Plan GROW!
-[X][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #2
-[X][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #3
-[X][Activities] Focus on the Concept of Growth #2
-[X][Activities] Focus on the Concept of Growth #3
-[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
-[X][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
-[X][Event] Willow's first concept
-[X][Event] Monsters attack the borders of camp!
[X] Plan Preparation
-[X][Activities] Train with your War-scythe
-[X][Activities] Train Archery
-[X][Activities] Train Parkour
-[X][Activities] Learn how to ride a Pegasus
-[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
-[X][Event] Lily's true weapon, revealed!
-[X][Event] Kalina and Chiron.
-[X][Event] Commissioning a weapon.
[X]Plan: Green Thorn
-[X][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #2
-[X][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #3
-[X][Activities] Focus on the Concept of Growth #2
-[X][Activities] Train Archery
-[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
-[X][Event] Willow's first concept
-[X][Event] Monsters attack the borders of camp!
-[X][Event] Explore the Forest.
-[x][Event] Search for Magical Plants
-[X][Activities] Train with your War-scythe
-[X][Activities] Train Archery
-[X][Activities] Train Parkour
-[X][Activities] Learn how to ride a Pegasus
-[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
-[X][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
-[X][Event] Willow's first concept
-[X][Event] Explore the Forest.
-[x][Event] Search for Magical Plants
[X] Plan Preparation
-[X][Activities] Train with your War-scythe
-[X][Activities] Train Archery
-[X][Activities] Train Parkour
-[X][Activities] Learn how to ride a Pegasus
-[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
-[X][Event] Lily's true weapon, revealed!
-[X][Event] Kalina and Chiron.
-[X][Event] Commissioning a weapon.
[X] Plan Plants Combat
-[X][Activities] Train with your War-scythe
-[X][Activities] Train Archery
-[X][Activities] Train Parkour
-[X][Activities] Learn how to ride a Pegasus
-[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
-[X][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
-[X][Event] Willow's first concept
-[X][Event] Monsters attack the borders of camp!
[X][Activities] Train Archery
[X][Activities] Train Parkour
[X][Activities] Train Art
[X][Activities] Learn how to ride a Pegasus
[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
[X][Event] Justin learns how to care for a griffon.
[X][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
[X][Event] Explore the Forest.
-[x][Event] Search for Magical Plants
I really hate plan votes, leads to a lot of bandwagoning.
cmon, we are so close to leveling up both chlorokinesis and with the mandatory teach actions giving us some exp in both cholorokinesis and concept a couple more actions in both should get us to the next level.
@Monk Penguin, are we locked in to plan voting or is it individual and you'll convert plan votes the the equivalent to 8 individual votes?
[x][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #2
[x][Activities] Focus on the Concept of Growth #2
[x][Activities] Train with your War-scythe
[x][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #3
[x][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
[x][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
[x][Event] Commissioning a weapon.
[x][Event] Monsters attack the borders of camp!
[X][Activities] Train with your War-scythe
[X][Activities] Train Archery
[X][Activities] Focus on the Concept of Growth #2
[X][Activities] Train Chlorokinesis #2
[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
[X][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
[X][Event] Willow's first concept
[X][Event] Lily's true weapon, revealed!
-[X][Activities] Train with your War-scythe
-[X][Activities] Train Archery
-[X][Activities] Train Parkour
-[X][Activities] Learn how to ride a Pegasus
-[X][Event] Sam has 'words' with the Aphrodite cabin during capture the flag.
-[X][Event] One of the dryads has something to show you.
-[X][Event] Willow's first concept
-[X][Event] Explore the Forest.
-[x][Event] Search for Magical Plants
