action ❁ nov 9

[perenials]

[ She misses them.

Most days she’s perfectly fine, spending time in the strawberry fields or listening to music from her friends in Apollo cabin. But some days, she wanders off to be by herself, spending time with her thoughts instead.

Once she’s reached the lake, Anna dangles her feet over the dock, daring herself to even get the roles of her ballet flats wet. She thinks of Wendla and Ilse and Martha and everyone else and wonders if they think of her, and what they might think of her sudden disappearance from their group. She doesn’t want to admit that she wishes to be missed. And now that she no longer has the option of returning home -- well, she has to ask herself, what good will that do? Does she risk putting her friends and family in danger? What will they think of her now, investing time and belief into what they consider pagan rituals and mythologies?

Anna says nothing, instead plucking out the flower resting behind her ear and tossing the daisy, the last of the flowers, into the water, watching it float over the placid surface. ]

Comments

[perenials]

Oh, dear.

[ Drawing herself out of her thoughts, Anna curls her feet in an attempt to keep her shoes on as she pulls her legs up, hugging her knees to her chest. ]

Can't have waterlogged shoes now.

[toeverywhere]

And it's getting cold, [Elizabeth reminded her with a soft smile.]

Hey, I don't mean to interrupt you, but- are you doing okay? You looked pretty lost in thought. I just thought, if you needed to talk or something... [Please don't think this was a recruitment thing, please please please don't.]

[perenials]

You've not interrupted anything, I ensure you.

[ Anna looks up and scoots over on the dock to give Elizabeth room if she would like to join her. If this were a recruitment session, well, Anna would be flattered to even be asked, though she would rather not live an eternity as a young girl. ] Please, sit, if you'd like.

[toeverywhere]

If you say so. [With a smile, Liz takes a seat next to her on the dock.] It's so beautiful out here. I always forget just how much until I come back to camp.

[perenials]

It is lovely, isn't it? I don't think I have ever been much of a city person, having grown up on the countryside and all.

[toeverywhere]

That makes sense. I don't mind cities- I've always liked being around people. I grew up in a small town outside of Boston... But anything that wasn't Boston was pretty much the country then. You're from... Germany, right?

[perenials]

Indeed! [ She perks up at the mention of her birthplace. ] How long has it been since you have seen Boston as it was when you were a child?

[toeverywhere]

I've been to Germany before. [Not during it's best times, unfortunately. But she'd seen it since, and it really was a beautiful country.] It was lovely.

As it was? Y'know, I never even got to see Boston until after I joined the Hunt. So it's been 90-some years since I saw it like it was. It just keeps changing. But so does the world.

[perenials]

How simply fascinating. [ Anna sighs dreamily, bringing her knees closer to her chest. She wishes she could even watch a stop motion film tracking even the way her little town changed over the centuries, since it seems impossible for her to experience it herself. ]

I expect that you have seen many changes in this camp alone.

[toeverywhere]

You bet. The scenery stays the same, but the campers come and go. There are so many more cabins now- I'm sure more will be built, too. Gotta say, I like it. When I was here, I stayed in Hermes' cabin- Eris, my mother, doesn't have her own cabin, which, to be fair, is pretty in-character for the goddess of discord.

[Elizabeth pauses, for a moment, then holds out her hand.] I'm Elizabeth, by the way.

[perenials]

Anna. It's a pleasure. [ She politely shakes her hand, smiling brightly. ]

It does not bother you that your mother does not have her own cabin? The others here seem to be quite content to be sharing spaces with non-siblings, but I think there are some naysayers around who would like spaces of their own.

[toeverywhere]

Well, I'm kind of an unusual sort in that respect, I guess. When I first came here, before I joined the Hunt, yeah. I didn't really like having to share a cabin with all of the Hermes campers, all of the others who had been unclaimed, or just didn't have another cabin to go to. But I wasn't used to living with people, either. And the more I learned about Eris, the more it made sense that she shouldn't have her own cabin. She goes in, makes a mess, and leaves someone else to clean it. [A wry smile.]

Now, since I joined the Hunt, Artemis is both my Lady and my mother, of sorts. [Elizabeth had a complicated history of mothers.] And I've got a pretty cool cabin.

[perenials]

Two mothers - that is not always a bad thing, is it? I do feel much closer to the woman who raised me. I'm much more comfortable referring to her as my Mater. [ She shrugs a little bit. ] Demeter seems like a distant figure, even now.

[toeverywhere]

Three, I suppose. I never got to know Eris. I think she's disappointed that I joined the Hunters, but it was my own decision. I never knew the woman I thought was my mother, either. [She'd died early on in Elizabeth's life.]

It's sad, though.

I wish you felt closer to her.