Half-Blood Hill

[ It’s cold as heck today. They’ve been spared from any more snow in their pocket of Long Island, but other areas of the Northeast haven’t been as lucky. But hey, given their luck as of late? Beggars can’t be choosers.

It started out as a joke. Natalie and Enjolras, being good friends and comrades in shooting arrows angrily at things instead of talking about it, decided to surprise that camp with a Very Serious rendition of a popular pop song. What is even more of a surprise is that the two of them, in order to keep things light and actually try to put the camp in brighter spirits, decided to turn this performance into a series. Because why not?

Honestly, the irony of the name Winter Storm Vulcan is enough to sing a commemorative song.

The Iris Message comes when you least expect it, sometime in the late afternoon with the sun still bright in the sky and high winds blowing in from the sea. Natalie sits to one side with a stern expression, a tiny glockenspiel in her lap. Enjolras is on the other side with an equally stern look, a drum by his knee and three children’s blocks in hand. And behind them are a melodica and two maracas from the Apollo cabin, all of which Natalie has actually managed to animate in her spare time.

What comes next is the Oscar-winning tune from the Oscar-winning animated feature, Chilled.

Before anyone can actually respond, they wipe out the IM.

Feel free to find Enjolras or Natalie around camp if you have anything to say about it. Otherwise, it’s business as usual. ]






ooc | feel free to specify which one of them you want to approach, or just react in general under this post.

Hey, guys, so, this is mostly for my cabin mates, but you all should know about this, so yeah.

Chiron asked me, counselor of the snark cabin, to get into the Misty Border Initiative, which is my name and is open to changes. Obviously I've been reinforcing boundaries for a while but thanks to counteracting magic, it got messed up. The end goal is to be able to trap intruders, 'cause that was really just -- so not cool.

[ Understatement of the year. ]

So, we'll be reinforcing everything again, but the hope's to, like, freeze or stun people who aren't supposed to be in here without specific permission from the authorities.

[ What Natalie doesn't say is that this works the same way for those who try to escape because, frankly, this is getting out of control. From her brother's well-intentioned departure to Allison's off-camp cellphone calls, she knows she needs to do this too. (This also goes for any special portals made by any one from any pantheon. It's going to take a lot of work, but Hecate cabin can do it collectively.) And she definitely doesn't add that escapees or intruders will find themselves with S U C K E R tattooed on their foreheads. That's in the beta stages. ]

Oh, and how about those awesome guard shabtis? We've got those dudes on our borders, too. And if the automatons need any special magic reinforcements, like, I can help with that. I'll be working on a bunch of things around camp so just find me if you have questions or whatever.

[ If there's anything Natalie's learned from her mother - Diana, not Hecate - it's that life is full of highs and lows. She simply does not expect the sudden drop today.

She missed something in her last Iris Message to her dad, something he bypassed in their brief talk because she was so busy filling him in on the actual good things in her life recently. Rather, it doesn't hit her until a week later. Something's happening with mom, with both her parents, and it's not very good. Nothing supernatural, even, because she would transport herself there in a heartbeat and fight off whatever was after them. Their problems are most often human, things she doesn't talk about, not even with people she considers her friends.

It's like she's in free fall, leaving her stomach behind for a moment as the rest of her tightens, curling up into a ball of anxiety because, damn it, she had been feeling so good until today. She's just leaving the archery range, sallow-faced and rubbing her aching, slightly bruised arms because she's been there for gods know how long. Though, her battered targets show that she's actually been doing something productive with her time and arrows. ]

[ Did you think you could keep this information from her?

Despite their undetermined status - whether it's known to people in camp or not - Natalie isn't going to let Leo's birthday go uncelebrated. She's been busy, negotiating with the nymphs. It's a simple gift. Well, it's more simple than she originally intended. It isn't Natalie's nature to be ostentatious, even after that glory of her Friday the 13th prank.

So before lunch, a cake is rolled out. A very large, gorgeous cake with moving cogs and bells and whistles where one could potentially fit a person inside. Thankfully there is no person. There is a surprise to be had, however. ]

Valdez! Get out here!

If you need Natalie Goodman, she will be sulking and looking frazzled in front of Cabin 20, with her eye on the magic stone. Her arms are crossed, her hair pulled into a tight ponytail, and her eyes are narrowed; she si thoroughly irritated with the state of things. The ground rumbles ever so slightly under Hecate's rocky cabin and it feels as if it will turn into Stonehenge in a split second.

It's a better situation than sitting inside the cabin. Many campers tend to be wimps about setting foot inside the place (it does look slightly foreboding, she has to admit), but Natalie can assure the next person who asks that entering wouldn't be the best decision. She might be a bit overdramatic about it, though.

After standing for a while, she manages to summon a stone bench forward and sinks onto it, stretching her pale legs out.