Dr. Lance Sweets (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lifetothefullest) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hadriel2017-06-15 03:22 pm
lifetothefullest) wrote in hadriel2017-06-15 03:22 pm
Entry tags:
003 [Video]
[For those familiar with Clinic, it can be recognized to be the backdrop for this broadcast; it's also probably easy enough to guess that Lance has just arrived there, because he's obviously drenched. It doesn't seem to bother him any, though, except for that his slightly ridiculous hair is now definitely long enough to fall into his eyes when wet, so he has to shove some of it out of the way before he can actually see the screen.
Despite being soaked he looks a little more vibrant and relaxed than usual, although in contrast his tone is quiet and sedate for the most part.]
Is the 'raining underground' thing strange even for here, or...?
[Because he hasn't been here that long and he's heard that it's snowed before, so maybe not? But the rain is totally not the point of this post, so he continues.]
But rain aside, I'd actually wanted to ask about the caves that branch off from the main cavern. I know they're supposedly difficult to navigate and filled with monsters, but have there been any coordinated efforts to explore them? And what sort of monsters exist in them?
[He does remember Maketh telling them there are paper records on some of the monsters at the Guard post, but as far as he's concerned that's really not too helpful. Besides, he'd rather hear that the general populace has to say, and talk to them individually on this.]
Despite being soaked he looks a little more vibrant and relaxed than usual, although in contrast his tone is quiet and sedate for the most part.]
Is the 'raining underground' thing strange even for here, or...?
[Because he hasn't been here that long and he's heard that it's snowed before, so maybe not? But the rain is totally not the point of this post, so he continues.]
But rain aside, I'd actually wanted to ask about the caves that branch off from the main cavern. I know they're supposedly difficult to navigate and filled with monsters, but have there been any coordinated efforts to explore them? And what sort of monsters exist in them?
[He does remember Maketh telling them there are paper records on some of the monsters at the Guard post, but as far as he's concerned that's really not too helpful. Besides, he'd rather hear that the general populace has to say, and talk to them individually on this.]
[video/action--private]
He's also slightly suspicious that Will might be purposefully manipulating him--even if what he's saying is factually true--mostly because Lance used that tactic frequently as a child and teenager, and still does every so often. The way Will worded his response is mostly what makes Lance wonder, but he can't tell for certain.
So after a moment he gives a very neutral answer, because he thinks that's the best idea for now.]
If I consider going into the caves in the future, we'll revisit this conversation.
[It's as much of a concession as he's willing to make, because as Lance had told Rosen he's still really not in any condition to go exploring now anyway and so this is not a decision that needs to be made now. Besides, more time will also give him a better sense of both the situation and Will himself.]
Re: [video/action--private]
That works for me.
[That also meant he wouldn't go off exploring them without talking to him first. So at least Will would have some warning. He glanced down to check the video, which was still running and turned it off.]
No monsters yet. Maybe you were right.
[action]
Or they don't like the rain.
[Also, he feels like he should make a comment about how if Will's test did indeed draw monsters the Clinic probably isn't the best place to have conducted it, but he won't. He's really sure there won't be any monsters showing up.]
Re: [action]
I suppose that could be it.
[Don't worry, he'd keep the clinic safe. It probably wasn't the best test in the world, but at least he grabbed a weapon from Rage's armory.]
Thanks for helping me test it.
[action]
[He smiles, genuinely meaning it despite his reservations about conducting the test here; no harm done, and it's definitely for the best if Will isn't afraid to use the phones.]
How have you been settling in here?
Re: [action]
I guess alright. It's a little weird. I'm used to living with my siblings--Cabin Seven, the Apollo Cabin, is usually pretty full. Even during the rest of the year when everyone else goes home, it's still me and my brother and sister.
It's different.
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It's a lot quieter living alone. I don't have any siblings, but I did have roommates in college.
[And he's living with his girlfriend now, but talking about Daisy is sometimes difficult and he doesn't want to go down that road right now.]
Is it bad different, or better different? Or just different?
[Lance has found he prefers living alone for the most part, for several reasons, although there are definitely some benefits to having other people around depending on who they are.]
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It's definitely a lot quieter living alone. There's no one wanting to show you a new song they composed or go catch a movie. There's only one bed, not a cabin full. It's different. Not good, or bad yet I think.
I used to have my own room, until you find out that you're actually not crazy, monsters are real and your life changes. And then suddenly your bunking with a bunch of strangers who say they're you're siblings in a weird camp that has a climbing wall with lava running down it if you don't get up fast enough.
I'm just going to go with different.
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[Especially when put that way, and Lance also feels the sudden urge to ask how--and why--such a climbing wall would work, but he decides not to. Instead, he has a different question he probably should've asked by now, and feels even more relevant after their earlier conversation.]
How old are you, Will? If you don't mind me asking.
[He's has his guess of mid-teens, especially since Will had talked about whether he'd make it to med school, but there's still some room in there to be later teens instead. Lance can't judge very well himself, having never really looked his age and spending very little time actually around high-school age teens.]
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[Will could try and explain the climbing wall, but mechanics was not his thing. Besides, it probably had a magical component to it. Someone like an Athena or Hephestus kid would probably have better luck, maybe even Hecate kid.]
There are kids at Camp at all ages. The youngest I think we have right now is Harley, he's a son of Hephestus, he's eight. He's kind of the Camp mascot at the moment. He's adorable, but kind of psycho.
[Because anyone who could engineer exploding chainsaw frisbees and think they were fun was, well.....an eight year old Hephestus boy.]
The oldest ones? Clarisse is a daughter of Ares, she's eighteen and just went off to college this year.
[She was probably enjoying the monster attacks. He idly wondered what she was going to major in. Maiming wasn't your typical college major.]
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Eight-year-olds haven't really finished forming their senses of right and wrong, so they do tend to be a little...
[He wouldn't use the word 'psycho' considering he's a psychologist, but as far as colloquialisms go he supposes it's fair enough.
He has kind of a more important question to focus on, though.]
Do you get to choose if you attend the camp?
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[Will thought cute and psycho described Harley perfectly. Although, that description could probably be applied to other Campers too. People did tend to think of kids as 'cute', even when they were trained warriors.]
I wouldn't say it's a choice. It's the only safe place for a greek demigod to train to defend themselves. Without it, kids ended up being eaten by monsters before they found out who they are--or die trying to cross the boundary line into Camp. No one's going to force you, but it's not exactly a choice. If you don't, it wont end well. Besides, who wouldn't want to find out if you had half-brothers or sisters. Most of the cabins do.
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Will's phrasing makes Lance curious about something though; he's not sure if there's anything to it, but he has to ask.]
Are there other kinds of demigods than Greek?
[He shrugs a little at the last comments.]
I guess so.
[If he had any half-siblings he thinks he'd want to meet them, although he isn't entirely sure. With how complicated things were in his early life, it's hard to say exactly how he'd feel if he suddenly found out he had a half-sibling; it's not like biological relation means a whole lot to him, but at the same time he's not sure he could ignore the curiosity.]
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There's a Roman camp in California. Just found out about it last year. Turns out, during the Civil War, there was a big battle between the Greek and Roman demigod camps. It didn't go so well. Ever since then, the Gods have been forcibly separating us and wiping our memories when we bumped into each other.
That's all pretty much fixed now though. Things were hairy there for a while though. There could be other camps for other kinds of demigods out there that we don't know about too though.
[Will fidgeted absently, not an unusual trait for him, and played with a bandage]
I grew up thinking I was an only child. Without Camp, I wouldn't have found out who I was, or that I had a whole bunch of brothers and sisters out there. It's weird at first, but then things start to make sense--things about yourself that you never thought you'd see in another person. Although that goes for a lot of people at camp, not just your siblings.
I'm guessing you're an only child?
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He realizes he's not exactly sure who that might be, although he's going to guess it's either adult demigods or the gods themselves.]
Who is in charge of the different camps?
[He notes the fidgeting, nodding a little as Will speaks, even if he's still not sure he agrees; there's no right or wrong on that particular subject, and he can understand why Will would be glad to have met his siblings and other campers.]
That makes sense, especially considering how unique your situation is compared to most people you would meet.
[In other words, the whole 'not being entirely human' part, although there's no way to say that which isn't insensitive.]
Yes, I am. No cousins or anything either.
[He doesn't feel like mentioning that he was adopted, so he leaves that out, but it's probably pretty obvious he grew up very much an only child even in terms of extended family so it's no real issue confirming that.]
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I'm not really sure about the Roman Camps, there were a couple of Campers who got to go as part of a quest, but I wasn't one of them. I've never been and only got a little glimpse when they were attacking us. I think they're run by Praetors though, I guess they're demigods, but I'm not entirely sure. They have a whole society up there, with a university and even housing where you can stay and live and have children. They even take legacies--kids of other demigods or someone whose ancestors were demigods.
But Camp Half Blood is run by Mr. D, uh, Dionysus. He's our Director, he got in trouble with Zeus about fifty years ago for going after an off limits wood nymph. He's got 50 years more with us I think. Chiron is the Activities Director, he does most of the work I think.
[Will paused for a moment in his explanation, toying with the bandage with his fingers. Someone should give this kid a fidget spinner.]
And yeah, that Chiron.
[Will listened as Lance answered his question, sharing but not quite sharing. That was okay. He didn't have to. It was hard to talk about, he knew, and he'd already figured out that both Rosen and Sweets liked to keep things more professional. ]
I can't pretend to know what it's like to have such a small family like that, except, I bet seating arrangements at holidays must be a lot easier. But, I guess maybe my perspective is like you said, a little unique. Being a half-blood and all.
[It was okay to mention the not human thing. Will was over it. For a new camper, yeah, it was probably a little delicate, but he wasn't new anymore. He'd been giving the talk to other new campers.]
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Wait, so there's a society set up for demigods to live relatively normally in, and yet there's still a need for the camp?
[Why don't those people, he doesn't know, maybe just handle protecting the kids themselves in whatever community they have set up already? Maybe there's something he's missing here, but the way things seem to work doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
As far as seating arrangements, yes. Very much so. Lance is not a huge fan of the holidays now, for several reasons, but when he'd celebrated them with his parents they'd been nice but very small affairs. His mom had often joked about how the upside of having such a small family was that everyone else was always running around stressed while planning, and she only had to make a meal for three people and buy presents for two.]
They definitely were.
[And Will mentioning that makes him curious, because... You know. The whole demigods thing makes the idea of celebrating a lot of the popular holidays maybe a little stranger, so he's wondering--]
Do you celebrate any holidays at the camp with your siblings?
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Well, Camp Jupiter is for Roman demigods--and the Roman forms of the Gods are different than their Greek forms. Sometimes very different. And...just because we all have an truce now and aren't at war, doesn't mean we're ready to move in together. Plus, the Romans and the Greeks? We do things very differently. We're also taught different skills. Greek demigods are taught the skills they need to survive if they get chosen for quests and to help them survive in the mortal world.
The Romans are a lot more militaristic than we are and.....a lot more organized but that doesn't mean that we Greeks don't get things done. It's just different. Do I wish that Camp Half-Blood had something like Camp Jupiter does? Sure. Maybe now we'll be inspired to create something like it though.
Plus, I hear there's some sort of test that Roman demigods have to go through before you get accepted into camp, and if you fail, you die. Maybe we can leave that part out.
[Personally he thought that was kind of harsh. But maybe they thought the same thing about the Greek's way of 'run for your life!' Will watched him, hoping he explained it well enough.]
Honestly, I don't know as much as some of the others would about it. My boyfriend Nico would know more, or Annabeth or Percy. All of them either lived with Camp Jupiter for a time or went to visit.
[Will would have smiled at the holidays Lance had growing up. They sounded lovely. No constant assigned seating by divine parent(otherwise fights broke out, demigods also inherited rivalries as well as powers), no, 'well we can't seat the Ares cabin next to the Apollo cabin, they cursed the Ares cabin last week and the Ares campers are still talking in rhyming couplets'.]
Your holidays sound calmer than mine. There are some holidays at Camp. Sometimes, besides the ones we celebrate, a Camper will get a dream or something from a parent, wanting a festival that used to be celebrated in ancient greece. But you should see July Fourth, and the way the fireworks look across the canoe lake.
no subject
Lance is aware he's probably projecting a little, however, his own experiences making the--surely still objectively terrible--situation sound even worse, and it's not Will's job to justify or explain any of it. So he backs off immediately, mentally taking a few moments to recenter himself and deciding the subject of holiday celebrations is a lot safer to discuss for now.]
Are a lot of those at the camp American?
[If they celebrate July 4th that actively.]
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Some of them but not all. Paolo Montes, he's a son of Hebe, is from Brazil. The Camp and Olympus move with the heart of the West. Olympus is currently on top of the Empire State Building, so the Camp is close by.
[Will tried to let himself relax more, although he was pretty relaxed. He reached out to put a hand on Lance's shoulder for a moment.] I've done this a million times. Feel free to ask all the questions you have. I'm happy to answer them as best I can. Although you probably don't need the whole 'your parents aren't who you think they are, but that's okay!' speech.
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He doesn't exactly expect the pat on the shoulder but allows it, even if he doesn't react; it's not a gesture he's really used to but it's not unwelcome either, and he offers a small huff of laughter.]
That'd be a difficult speech to give.
[In general, but also to Lance specifically; it'd be hard to tell him his biological parents aren't who he thinks they are, considering he doesn't know them at all.
But although Will is willing to answer questions about his world that doesn't mean Lance feels he should ask them, at least not right now. So instead he switches topics to something more immediate.]
Did you ever figure out the appliances?
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It's a little tough, but not as bad as you'd think. The really tough part comes if the parent's lied to the kid, like they've been adopted by their step father and never told until they get to Camp. That makes it more difficult for them to accept sometimes. Sometimes the mortal parent doesn't even know, the gods don't always reveal themselves. It's not my favorite talk to give, but it means that another demigod's made it over the camp line and that they're safe.
It could have been worse though. Now all the gods have to claim their kids by a certain age. Before, we had campers waiting for a sign that would never come. They knew they were a demigod but had no clue who their parent was.
[They hadn't cared enough. Or they hadn't remembered. Or they felt guilty about their 'slip up', or a dozen of other excuses. Will was one of the lucky ones to be claimed back then. ]
I did actually! It's a little different than regular microwave and stove and stuff. Unless people have done some serious inventing since I've been at Camp. Want me to stop on by and label yours?