AMBROSIA — P

[mercy]

my heart, like a broken
cassette, echoes in my chest we're getting close

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If it weren't for how Ares kids aren't afraid of pulling hair and going for the eyes, maybe Mercy would be elsewhere - amid a sea of shouts made indistinct by the blood rushing through her ears, sweat beading at her temples, the hard shocks of the ground pushing back up at her as she bulldozes through five people over the bootleg court, playing to win - except, well, they really aren't. Hence she isn't. Good for her hair, she guesses. And her eyes.

- but it's not bad. She doesn't have to constantly reenact High School Musical to have a good time. Slumping down next to new kids in the Hermes cabin is enough, handing them a towel and a toothbrush and a wide, open grin; rubbing her hands together before dinner like she's trying to kindle a fire. The sort of boredom you get in Camp Half-Blood is a noisy, paradoxical kind; the more bored people you get in the same radius, the livelier it gets.

There's just not much to see in a strawberry patch other than strawberries, as one would figure; very red, very large strawberries, maybe Sandy trying to blow gum, et cetera. Mercy's scuffing her shoe on the dirt from her perch leaning against some big green wheelbarrow, swinging her foot back and forth as she nods along to whatever - only half-listening, really - and as she sifts through a bundle of envelopes. "Someone help me," Mercy pipes up, because she's already sorted these love letters by cabin but now she's going to make it alphabetical by cabin, "what letter comes after M--"

And Pen's right, because Mercy stuffs the letters (carefully, like a veteran) in her bag a mere second before she throws her whole body towards the cookies. Only when they're in her hands and the lid is half-opened does she hear the first part. "Where to now?" she says, discreetly waving the others over with the tin. They've gotta eat. "The supermarket?"

[valentina]

you say, come over baby
i think you're pretty
i'm okay, i'm not your baby

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"What do you mean, what letter comes after M? We need to install some kind of school system here or something, you're obviously losing it."

Valentina glances up from where she's laying across Alessandra's lap to give Mercedes an incredulous look, but her next insult is cut off when Penelope appears down the path. She's up almost as fast as Mercedes is, strawberry stems falling down her shirt, accidentally elbowing Sandy (or maybe not accidentally; she has to get to those cookies first), and stumbling a few steps before she finally reaches Penelope. The perfect image of a child of Apollo - always graceful. Laugh track.

Like the picky eater she is, she gives the tin of cookies a good twenty seconds of consideration before she picks one up. "What kind of cookies are these? Do they have nuts?" It has been a rule since Valentina was three years old that she would not eat any kind of baked good with nuts, and the choices get narrower from there. It's better to just not offer her anything at all. After another moment of thought, she reaches behind her and offers Alessandra the cookie, a silent request for her to try it before she did.

Next thing on the list, Penelope's mention of the quest. It should be noted that the four girls have never been on an actual quest - Chiron didn't trust them that much. Mostly their 'quests' consisted of Penelope waking Valentina up at three o'clock in the morning to go to the super market for six hours and Mercedes and Sandy having to come pick them up when they realized they didn't bring enough money to buy a bus ticket home.

"If it's the super market, I don't wanna go. I signed up for archery training and if I skip again for you losers, team captain will have my head." She gripes, more annoyed with the fact that she can't get out of training than her friends. She eventually backs away from the cookies, no longer interested, shoving her hands into her pockets. "So, how was your visit with your dad, anyways? You usually don't come back with cookies and a quest."

[alessandra]

don't worry, babe, i got you
and if you really, really want it
you gotta be iconic

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Something about the way Alessandra goes about doing anything at camp makes the air around her reek of "hey, this girl doesn't know what in the fresh hell she's doing here". Devil children. Mailmen prodigies. Archery practice. This place is like Jesus camp on acid. (Not that she's ever had that experience, of course.)

It takes a solid 15 seconds for the recent events to process in Sandy's mind. She blinks absently. If you stare into her eyes too long, you'll swear you can see the back of her skull with no obstructions. "After M is O, silly." Tsk tsk. C'mon Mercy. "Are there any letters for me? Wait. Is it like...incest for god kids to like-like each other? Or is inbreeding not a thing for us? Does having godly genes, like, purify the lobster hands and tiny heads?" What is that tiny head condition called again? She thinks for a second. "Y'know, the cephalopod thing." They'll know what she means.

Eagerly reaching out to accept the cookie from her ex lap warmer, Sandy takes a bite, contemplates it, then offers it back to Valentina. Not unlike a doting mother, she practically has her friend's entire palette down by now. A lightbulb flickers on in her head. "I wouldn't mind going on a supermarket quest. I want those little Jell-O cups 'cos whoever is working the kitchen here thinks sugar-free is the way to go and I'm not on the same page."

It's safe to say she doesn't understand the concept of a quest quite yet.

[CATHERYN]

maybe, you're gonna be
the one that saves me, and
after all, you're my wonderwall

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"If it's to the supermarket, I wouldn't have asked," Pen says, rolling her eyes at Mercy, though the action is softened by the blinding grin she's wearing. Their trips to the local store have become semi-regular now that Pen has perfected her shadow-travel, since there's no longer any risk of spontaneously appearing in the middle of the street somewhere and suddenly becoming the unwilling instigator of a car accident. At the moment, Pen can only bring one passenger along with her, but that has yet to be a problem, since these trips usually happen at three in the morning, and the only other person awake at that time who's willing to sneak out of bed to go to the supermarket is Val.

Speaking of which, Pen elects to ignore Val's first question in order to answer her second. "Dad was fine, he just told me about how one of his dudes got kidnapped, and now we have to go get him back." Pen crosses her arms, humming thoughtfully. "I guess it's not an official quest, since we didn't get a prophecy, but he said it was important." She has a feeling Chiron won't be too happy if they just disappear in the middle of the day, but if he has any grievances he can just bring it up with Hades instead of sternly reprimanding them, because Chiron never shouts, which is always a good thing to remember.

"We can stop at a supermarket on the way there, if you all really want to go." Pen turns to Less, one hand flying to her hip. "I don't actually know where to start looking for the guy, but Dad said to head east, so I guess it's time to finally use the Compass app on your iPhone."

---

Strangely enough, Pen hadn't anticipated that they would run into any monsters during their pseudo-quest, but she supposes she should've seen it coming. As it stands, there are three trolls, each armed with a club, blocking their path. "Ugh, this is the most annoying thing I've ever had to do," she grumbles, reaching for the bracelet around her right wrist and giving it a good spin. The accessory stretches into a scythe, landing neatly in her hands, and Pen points it at the trolls. "Listen up you tiny bastards, I'm tired, and hungry, and really want a burger, so die quickly."

[mercy]

my heart, like a broken
cassette, echoes in my chest we're getting close

[div style="width: 240px; height: 170px; overflow: auto; padding-right:15px;"]"Dyslexia," Mercy says, lacking much concern about the alphabet slipping further from her with every given second, and gnaws on a cookie. Her third one. "Thanks, Sandy." Does Mercy believe her unconditionally? Yes. She doesn't even know what the cookie is, which Val's question makes her stop and realise - she just knows they're tasty. Mmmm. Ash from the Underworld. And in the middle of passing Sandy about six of her love letters, Mercy stops chewing again to think about inbreeding, frowning hard into the distance because, huh. Well.

None of them had the money to fund their weekly trips to the supermarket, which means their weekly trips make Very Little Sense, but that's just how things are sometimes. Mercy pulling out a bunch of vouchers from Hermes to get two packs of soap for the price of one, Sandy digging in her pockets for spare change she doesn't have, both of them trying to rake up enough to cover the cost of Val and Pen's selection of snacks they're going to share anyway. Still, being collectively very bad at controlling their impulses doesn't mean they enjoy 24/7. They're good, Pen.

After a sympathetic grimace at Val for her suffering (so maybe Mercy's the vice captain of the volleyball court! Maybe she is!!), Mercy finally registers that this is going to be a real quest, and hence almost drops the cookies.

---

Her shout is covered almost by the thunderous clap of Mercy's messenger bag like something metal meeting one of the troll's heads, swung mercilessly from beside while it shoots Pen dead eyes filled with rage. She shoots out of reach, the wings on her heels doing their best against gravity. The messenger bag is scruffy, fraying and dirty, but the seams are interspersed with enough of the hurty kind of celestial bronze that the troll staggers.

"I've got this one," she calls to the others casually, mostly to Pen because Sandy just might be standing to the side frantically dabbing at her foundation. Mercy dives to hit it again with her bag, twice as hard, and does a nice little loop to nail the troll with her foot. "Ladies, how are we looking!"

Somehow monsters can just smell demigods, but she has reason to suspect that these trolls weren't lured in their direction by blood or anything. Given they had dropped by the supermarket before they properly embarked on their very serious adventure, these things had probably been lured by all their snacks.

[valentina]

you say, come over baby
i think you're pretty
i'm okay, i'm not your baby

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After M is O, silly. Valentina has to stop a smart-ass remark from slipping out, tongue poking out like she was halfway from forming a word. She might have said something if it was Mercy or even Penelope, but, well. If Apollo wasn't her father, Valentina would have though Alessandra hung the sun in the sky. Instead, she goes for a playful punch at her shoulder, smiling and shaking her head.

She tunes out talk of Godly bloodlines and lobster hands to listen to Pen talk about her visit with Hades, cocking a brow at her explanation of their new quest. So, this was an actual thing they were doing. Not some stupid attempt at curing their boredom by calling visits to the supermarket quests. That's kind of cool. What's even cooler is that they're going behind Chiron's back for the quest. Gods know he would never let them go on an official one. Sweet teenage rebellion.

--

Good thing their time at Camp Half-Blood is used training for battles against monsters. Valentina can imagine this situation turning out badly if they had headed out on their first quest and were faced with their first monsters with no experience. As it was, she has complete faith in Mercedes and her metal messenger bag. 

She feels adrenaline spike in her veins when a troll swings his club at Mercy and barely misses, hand shooting to the dagger hidden under the strap of her backpack. Valentina was never much of a fighter; preferred using her healing powers after the battle much more, but - no one messed with her girls. She would stab her dagger straight through a troll's skull for Mercy, or any of the girls, really.

Ladies, how are we looking! Valentina can't help but grin, relieved that her friend can joke around even when she's knocking out trolls left and right. She glances at Pen and then at Sandy, stepping closer when she notices that some of her mascara had smeared beneath her eye. "We're doing just swell. Pen's almost done with her word puzzle, so you better hurry up." She calls back, looking over her shoulder to flash Penelope a teasing grin. Come on, she knows word puzzles are for losers, and Pen is not a loser. "Need any help, Mercy?"

[alessandra]

don't worry, babe, i got you
and if you really, really want it
you gotta be iconic

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"Yes to the supermarket please! I need my Jell-o!" Sandy cries, thrusting her fist into the air. If they're out of blue raspberry, so help her God. Gods? She'll never get the hang of that. Is it bad to use Greek gods' names in vain? Hopefully her mom won't disown her over this. The girl can't think straight without her sweets.

Rubbing her fatally wounded shoulder, Sandy gives Val a lighthearted bap on the back of the head. Her hair is so soft, she remarks to herself. In a friendly way of course. "This is so exciting. You better not be leading us into a death trap, though, that's a little less exciting." She kids. It's still exciting. A kid as new as her getting a full fledged quest presented by the spawn of Satan? That's big league stuff.

--

When you look at this child of Aphrodite, if you assume she's preppy, ditzy, and can't hold her own in battle, you'd be dead on. Most of the time. Sandy fishes in her purse for a certain tube of mascara as the enemies draw near, but she's panicking and grabs the wrong one. It does't turn into something dangerous when she uncaps it, and the frustration almost drives her to smash it into the concrete.

She doesn't. Instead she lifts the brush to her eye for a quick touch up. Act like it's intentional, right, and nobody will notice! That could've worked if she didn't stab herself in the eye in the process. "Damn it! Where's my mirror?" the elegant warrior screeches, throwing the mascara to the ground after all to fish through her purse some more. It shatters on the ground. Thirty four dollars down the drain.

Her sweaty hand bumps something cold and she cries out a victory "Whoop whoop! Here we go!" A pale pink mascara and a matching mirror compact. Opening the compact like a flip phone and the tube with her teeth, Sandy assumes battle stance, for her mascara has transformed into a spiked metal flail, and the compact a shining dented shield. (They're hand-me-downs but they hit just as hard.)

In response to the other girls, Sandy laughs, "Lookin' great!" It is at this time she raises her mighty shield and charges one of the trolls, shattering his skull with the wrecking ball at the end of her weapon. Every dungeon crawling team needs their clueless tank.

Leeroy, bitches.

[CATHERYN]

maybe, you're gonna be
the one that saves me, and
after all, you're my wonderwall

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The biggest issue with their current predicament is that none of them has actually been in a fight before. A real fight, that is, not some brawl with the wooden dummies in the training arena back at camp. Those things can't hit back, but these trolls certainly can, and Pen is learning that the hard way, especially when one comes barrelling toward her, club first.

"With our eyes," she calls back sarcastically, in response to Mercy's question. Pen then spins her scythe around and jabs it, hard, in the direction of one of the ghoulish creatures. It rockets backward with a strangled cry and smacks into a tree, out for the moment. She frowns, then swipes at the fallen body instinctively with the pointy end of her weapon. It dissolves into dust and she jumps back automatically, arm flying up to cover her nose.

"Ugh, okay. Newsflash, guys! They're made out of cocaine!"

And not even the good kind ... not that Pen is a drug dealer of any sort. She's an alright kid, maybe a little chaotic at times, but mostly well-behaved. Chiron would probably vouch for her, as long as he's forgotten about the incident with the cyclops. Immortals have horrible memories, she knows this because her dad still thinks she's into jellyfish, even though she's long since gotten over that obsession.

Pen turns around to Mercy, Val and Less dispatching the other trolls, and when she sees that they have everything under control, spins her scythe back into a bracelet. "I don't know about you," she starts, kicking irritably at one of the dust piles and jumping back when it poofs into the air. "But I'm starving, is there a diner around here? Less, look it up on your Google Maps, I'll hold your bag."

[mercy]

my heart, like a broken
cassette, echoes in my chest we're getting close

[div style="width: 240px; height: 170px; overflow: auto; padding-right:15px;"]If there’s anything that a few odd years in the camp will teach demigod kids, it’s how to make a really big mess. This life skill finds itself essential when one is confronted with a bunch of monsters, which will happen given that someone has even a single drop of not-human in their blood. Organised chaos. It’s what they’re all good at; a lot of yelling, random slashing, running every which way just to confuse the monsters coming after you.

A huge wooden club misses Mercy by a hair, but she doesn’t so much as flinch while sliding out of the way - only rides the gust of wind it cleaves in her direction, spinning her messenger bag above her head like a lasso. You know, like, yeehaw. “I’ll get this done in five minutes, tops,” Mercy declares to Val, tossing the troll a grin. “Leave it to me!”

Not even a second later she hurls the whole bag at its head with enough force to leave it staggering, and after a few lovely minutes of continuing to batter the troll with the dexterity of a fully fledged yoyo master - Less in the background unleashing her patented battle cry like the little queen she is, Pen doing her thing - it can’t stand all the pressure and finally bursts into another wave of dust.

Mercy meets the cocaine head-on before she can dodge, and sneezes so loudly she probably disturbs the earth’s axis. “Yuck, yuck, yuck!” The undisputed answer to whether she wants to think about probably inhaling a bit of troll (or like, the sparkles they leave in their stead, as all beings do) is very much no. It’s a no from her.

When they finally manage to get it over, Mercy slumps down onto the ground, gravel scrunching under the jean jacket tied by the sleeves around her waist, and kicks out her feet. The wings have folded back, apparently also exhausted. “We just ate,” she teases as if she isn’t also hungry. She digs out a pack of wet wipes from her messenger bag, beside the bundle of letters that have managed to remain entirely undamaged, and hands it out to the others before she sticks a wet wipe across her forehead. “We don’t have money either. Oh, but I have like, fifteen drachmas.”

Iris and Mercy's dad Hermes being in something of the same trade, she and Mercy have crossed many times incidentally; not in situations anywhere near consistent, but that’s how deities are. She asks Mercy about how her delivery service is going, and this one time gave her this sick celestial bronze letter opener that Mercy’s yet to master using. Point being, Iris even gave her the drachmas, in a nod from one messenger to another. What an icon.

[CATHERYN]

maybe, you're gonna be
the one that saves me, and
after all, you're my wonderwall

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Pen tends to visit her dad once a fortnight. It's not exactly routine, she can't think of any other demigod who sees their godly parent semi-regularly, but Hades always has some new gossip to share, and she likes talking to him, so it's become part of her schedule. What isn't part of her schedule is walking into the throne room, ready to demolish a cup of tea and a dozen cookies, and instead being sent on a secret quest to rescue some random guy she's never even heard of.

She complains about it for about seven minutes before grudgingly accepting the mission, rolling her eyes when Hades pats her gingerly on the head and gives her a whole tin of butter cookies to bring back to Camp Half-Blood and use to bribe people into going on the quest with her.

Pen tucks the tin under one arm and gives him a quick hug before taking a step back and melting into the shadows, emerging at the edge of the forest that borders the camp. She gives all her limbs a shake, checking to see that everything is still functioning normally, before setting off down the path. She's already gone through a good bit of the cookies by the time she makes it back, but Pen feels like she deserves it, after the afternoon she's had.

The strawberry fields are usually deserted at this time of day, but at this particular moment, there are three other girls there, probably kicking up a fuss about something non-consequential, like they always do. "Alright girls, pick up your tits. We're going on a quest." Pen throws the tin of cookies at them, knowing that Mercy will lunge to catch it regardless of what she's currently holding. "Also, here's some food."