IM/Can Be Action

[sometimesinsufferable]

[This is Hermione. This is Hermione looking a tad nervous to be asking the question she's about to ask, but she's been weighing on it for some time now. Especially after what happened with the Red Room…and now knowing that everyone's staying at Camp…it wasn't something she wanted to ignore any longer.

Anyone looking at the IM will see that she's sitting out by her usual lake, occasionally casting spells to change colors of stones nearby. It's a mindless incantation that she likes to do when she's focused on something else.]

I'm sure there will be some people that might be offended by this question, but I'm curious. Who do you tend to value more, your friends or your family? [She's being careful not to look at the camera as she changes another stone from blue to pink to green. She'd had a fight with Ron about it, of course, and she still wasn't entirely sure how she felt.] Demigod siblings don't count, by the way. I mean our actual families that we live with outside of camp. I realize that they're two entirely different spectrums, but…let's pretend we had a choice this year. Which of you would return, and which of you would stay to protect them?

[And then suddenly she's giving a light smile as she moves on to her next, and last, point..] Anyway, I think I'll be in the Arena later today if anyone needs me. [And she cuts the connection.]

Comments

[sometimesinsufferable]

[...well that's unfortunate, and it's clear that she thinks so seeing how she pauses.] ...I'm sorry. [A beat.] And I'm assuming your friends haven't?

[commandertoolbelt]

[ He hesitates. ]

Not yet.

[sometimesinsufferable]

...that doesn't sound very assuring, Leo.

[commandertoolbelt]

[ Shrug. ]

You asked.

[sometimesinsufferable]

Oh I know. I mean the "yet" tacked on to the end of that sentence.

[commandertoolbelt]

[ It's hard to imagine anything without a "yet." When you're family's turned on you, and you've run away from six foster homes, you start to assume everything is temporary. Leo's kind of worried about the day all of this ends - this time here at camp, with friends and siblings and the best workshop he could ever ask for.

He forces a bright, cheerful grin. ]

It's nothing. What's this about, anyway?

[sometimesinsufferable]

[He gives him a measuring look. Really, you think that's going to work, Mr. Valdez?]

Now what makes you think that you can play the "nothing" card and I can't do the same?

[commandertoolbelt]

Hey, I never said you couldn't. If you don't want to explain, I won't ask again.

[sometimesinsufferable]

[There has to be a vague way to explain, doesn't there?]

Well...it's nothing, really. It's just something a friend brought up and I became curious about what everyone else would do in such a situation. [You know, after they had a fight at the Apollo Dance and refused to speak to each other for weeks after that and then Red Room happened and now everyone was stuck at camp anyway. Totally normal.]

[commandertoolbelt]

...Right.

[ It's not hard to guess who that "friend" is, given he's talking to Hermione. But you know what? Leo's not touching that with a fifty foot pole. ]

And you would pick...?

[sometimesinsufferable]

Friends of course. Without a second thought. [...well no, there'd be a little thought. But that's her story and she's sticking to it.]