Despite not wanting an 8:00 am class, especially not a biology class, I did want to arrive on time because Dr. Lord is teaching that class. I tried to make sure none of us Scions would be late for our first class, but it seems like the self-centered Sadie escaped my notice and arrived late...probably because she was too busy texting someone on her phone to notice the time.
Fortunately I was early enough to get a chance to introduce myself to Liam. Unfortunately I really had no time today to get a chance to learn more about him - except he apparently went to the same high school as Gabby. I wonder what the odds of that are?
Gabby, Jahiera, Liam, and I basically sat together, but surprisingly Ren didn't sit with us. Dave didn't either, but he was sitting with one of his followers who was also taking the class. But Ren didn't seem to know any of the people he was sitting with, so I was wondering if maybe he was upset with me still, or something. As with Liam, I unfortunately didn't really have any opportunity to discuss this with Ren today, but I will make sure to do so ASAP.
Not even 10 minutes into the class, and Dave goes and ask if we can have a break to get a drink. At that point I was kind of glad Dave was sitting with his follower and not with us as that was probably the most asinine question I ever heard in a class. It's just a little after 8:00 am, class barely started, Dave's drinking from his Relic mug that is full of ale, and he asks for a break to get a drink? I almost thought he was trying to get kicked out of class, which part of me thinks would be kind of a good idea. And I might even try that if it wasn't for Dr. Lord is our advisor as well as our teacher and that our lab work in the class is apparently going to be oriented heavily towards stuff we Scions need to know. But for Dave, I recalled he was planning on majoring in microbiology. Getting kicked out of this biology class would surely mess that up. I seriously don't understand what he was thinking when he asked that question. I am going to try to forget about it, too bad it wasn't something less memorable.
And here's when things start getting weirder and weirder. Dr. Lord starts off by showing us slides. They're pretty amazing slides too, but the most amazing aspect about them is the subject matter. I see what looks like a reincarnation of Saint Francis of Assisi riding a giant grizzly bear while fighting off a fire giant. The next slide had zombies being punched out by a bare-knuckled boxer and being sliced up by a machete wielded by our teacher. Then we were shown a slide of a Mardi Gras parade - but this parade had a giant earthworm that tunneled up from the ground, and that was being fought off by Dr. Lord and a black woman with a giant snake. The next slide was of a basilisk staring down Dr. Lord and a young woman sporting elk antlers who was carrying javelins in both of her hands while in the middle of some desert. Next was a slide showing a young man in insect themed armor kicking away a griffin as Dr. Lord tended to a woman turning into stone...which for some reason caused Ren to chuckle. I should try to remember to ask Ren what was funny about that. The next slide was of the jackal-headed Anubis towering above Dr. Lord and a man dressed in an Incan poncho and wearing a golden sun mask. There was also a giant puma next to Ix Chel in this slide, possibly there is some sort of relationship between these animals? Next was a picture of Dr. Lord bleeding from several wounds while holding hands with a beautiful Mediterranean woman. The background of this picture had many shadowy ninja like figures in the background - my guess is they are what wounded Dr. Lord - and these shadowy ninjas having bright lights shining from them. I wonder if light shining from the shadowy ninjas has some special meaning? The final slide is a celebration with Dr. Lord and the others - I guess they are his Scion Bandmates - from the previous photos in what appears to be a small restaurant.
As the lecture hall seated 60 and was mostly full, while only 12 of us attending were Scions, the above series of photos seemed extremely strange to be shown. But I glanced around at the mortals sitting next to me and read what I could of their notes. It seems the mortals were all seeing things like slides of the rain forest and other mundane things. But we Scions all saw the set of slides with Dr. Lord on some of his adventures. As I expect we will be tested on both what we saw and what the mortals saw, I hope I can acquire a copy of the notes from some mortal. I also wonder if all the lectures are going to be like this, I mean with us Scions seeing one thing while the mortals see something else. If so, then I will need a regular source for the mortal notes of what occurs in class.
After the slide show was over, Gabby had another vision. We obviously weren't in a good position to discuss things then, and about all I had a chance to learn of it was something about Dr. Lord's Bandmates that we saw in the slides, and that it didn't seem to be very urgent (and maybe not too important?).
At that point a quiz was handed out to the class. Of course it wasn't normal either. Shortly after I received my copy, the words on it all changed. This was not some general pop quiz, these questions were tough biology questions. At that point I regretted not having taking any formal biology classes before. After we all turned in our papers, Dr. Lord said he'd have them graded and ready to be returned by our next session. Of course that's not what happened for us Scions, somehow our papers were magically graded and returned to us on the spot. This whole class today was really one surprise after another. But despite my lack of formal training, I still got a B...which, while not my normal A, was still something of a relief considering how ill prepared I felt. Though I guess my general reading on topics like genetic engineering and bionics helped, and especially my more recent intense study of medicine I had been making.
Finally the bell rang and class was over, but all of a sudden I felt refreshed. Apparently Dr. Lord used some sort of speechifying knack to do something to us. Not sure what it was, but it definitely felt good.
Before he left class, I asked Dr. Lord about mortals hearing us talk during class. He said that their hearing was unaffected, that stuff that was special to us Scions would normally be communicated in slides.
I probably also should have asked him what he did to make us all feel good. As well as if slides like these were going to be common in our lectures. Too bad I didn't think about those questions until tonight.
Also, Bob the-archer-guy-that-looks-like-the-guy-that-played-Legolas-in-the-movies is in our biology class. Fate? Coincidence? Something more?
After that, the rest of my classes were quite normal. But I went to Dr. Lord for some special tutoring in Medicine and Brawling later that day. Fortunately Dr. Lord had time for me, but his training was quite grueling. I felt battered and bruised both physically and mentally by the time I was done. Nothing serious, but Dr. Lord really worked me over good and he knew just what my limits were. And that is definitely past tense as he pushed me farther than I thought I could go.
After the brutal training session with Dr. Lord, I was surprised to find that our "missing" Scion, Sean, had arrived. What with the email and all, I expected him to be more than a day late for classes. While I was too tired to talk much with Sean, he seemed pretty nice. He even brought me a gift from Ireland! It was a set of Uilleann Pipes, similar to the bagpipes, but softer - and hopefully less annoying to my fellow Scions when I try to learn to play. It was a truly thoughtful gift. I just hope I can learn how to play them without driving the others insane.
I'm not really up to much thinking now, but I still wonder about that first class with Dr. Lord. Thinking back on it, it was a LOT of showing off. There was really no need to have separate slides or magically changing/graded tests for us Scions. Everything could have been handled in a mundane fashion, even if it maybe waited a day. So why did Dr. Lord do this? Showing off...or demonstrating demi-godly talents? Or something else. I'll think about this later, after a good night's sleep.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Absent Mindedness
Yeah, absent minded, that subject describes me sometimes. This time. After writing down the important events of the day, more occurred. But I forgot to update my file that night. I guess it really doesn't matter when I update this file though. I just expected I'd be a bit more organized about these notes...which I guess is becoming something of a journal. Maybe I should wait until right before I go to sleep before updating this file next time? I guess it's too much to expect that after having dinner and getting settled in my room for the evening, that nothing important would happen.
Dwarfs have often been noted in stories for their craftsmanship, but usually it was because the made something with skill beyond that of humans or something magical. Apparently they can also work very fast too. In what must have been at most 24 hours, the dwarfs turned parts of that dead Nemean Bear into potent weapons and armor. And Coach MacLaggin apparently can see our invisible elevator as he came up to our special floor that Tuesday night and came bearing the results of the dwarfs labor. I wonder if all dwarfs can see our elevator, or if it's something else about MacLaggin that allows him to see it?
The dwarfs made the Nemean Bear skin into a cloak that will act as armor similar to the Nemean Lion skin cloak worn by Heracles. They also made a set of 20 arrows with Nemean Bear claw tips. Plus a set of "brass knuckles" made from the Nemean Bear's teeth. Pretty impressive work and in such a short period of time! Considering Jahiera was the only archer among those of us that fought the Nemean Bear, she naturally got the arrows. The rest of the Band agreed that Dave should have the cloak. There was a bit more discussion about the "brass knuckles," they really aren't suited for any of the Band. Dave is more a wrestler and for weapons generally would grab whatever is at hand. I already have something similar, but better - well better against non Nemean beasties. The rest of the group didn't normally even fight in that range. At first Dave took them, but then later he and I talked about it and he gave them to me. I'm not sure that I want to keep them, but I am probably the one of us that can make best use of them with which to kill Nemean beasties. But I'll think about that later.
Talking with MacLaggin seemed to bring forth a sense of urgency amongst us Scions, and those with animal companions decided to do something about it. Gabby's Tepini, Jahiera's Miyet, Ren's Rizal, and Cory's Buddy were all sent on a mission to scout the forest and track down the Nemean Bears. Even though Cory, Hank, and Sonia hadn't been with us when we met the Coach and fought the first Nemean Bear, they volunteered to help take on the other bears. That was a pleasant surprise.
The other noteworthy event that occurred Tuesday night was that our dorm floor changed and a new room was added - because we got one more Scion added at the last minute to our roster! The new guy's name is Liam O'Doherty, and he's Tuatha dé Danann. Which is the pantheon our "missing" Scion is from. This is the only pantheon with two Scions in our group, and both late - I wonder if there is some meaning there? He arrived pretty late though, and I think all of us turned in that night without actually meeting him.
Dwarfs have often been noted in stories for their craftsmanship, but usually it was because the made something with skill beyond that of humans or something magical. Apparently they can also work very fast too. In what must have been at most 24 hours, the dwarfs turned parts of that dead Nemean Bear into potent weapons and armor. And Coach MacLaggin apparently can see our invisible elevator as he came up to our special floor that Tuesday night and came bearing the results of the dwarfs labor. I wonder if all dwarfs can see our elevator, or if it's something else about MacLaggin that allows him to see it?
The dwarfs made the Nemean Bear skin into a cloak that will act as armor similar to the Nemean Lion skin cloak worn by Heracles. They also made a set of 20 arrows with Nemean Bear claw tips. Plus a set of "brass knuckles" made from the Nemean Bear's teeth. Pretty impressive work and in such a short period of time! Considering Jahiera was the only archer among those of us that fought the Nemean Bear, she naturally got the arrows. The rest of the Band agreed that Dave should have the cloak. There was a bit more discussion about the "brass knuckles," they really aren't suited for any of the Band. Dave is more a wrestler and for weapons generally would grab whatever is at hand. I already have something similar, but better - well better against non Nemean beasties. The rest of the group didn't normally even fight in that range. At first Dave took them, but then later he and I talked about it and he gave them to me. I'm not sure that I want to keep them, but I am probably the one of us that can make best use of them with which to kill Nemean beasties. But I'll think about that later.
Talking with MacLaggin seemed to bring forth a sense of urgency amongst us Scions, and those with animal companions decided to do something about it. Gabby's Tepini, Jahiera's Miyet, Ren's Rizal, and Cory's Buddy were all sent on a mission to scout the forest and track down the Nemean Bears. Even though Cory, Hank, and Sonia hadn't been with us when we met the Coach and fought the first Nemean Bear, they volunteered to help take on the other bears. That was a pleasant surprise.
The other noteworthy event that occurred Tuesday night was that our dorm floor changed and a new room was added - because we got one more Scion added at the last minute to our roster! The new guy's name is Liam O'Doherty, and he's Tuatha dé Danann. Which is the pantheon our "missing" Scion is from. This is the only pantheon with two Scions in our group, and both late - I wonder if there is some meaning there? He arrived pretty late though, and I think all of us turned in that night without actually meeting him.
Monday, December 6, 2010
A Day Off
Nothing was scheduled for today, except for Dr. Lord giving us some extra office hours so we could talk to him. I did, but as I had come to expect as the day progressed, he had no easy answers. But I am getting ahead of myself here. Let's see, things of note that happened...
I forgot to mention earlier that we received an email from our missing Scion. He's apparently having an interesting sort of last minute education from his divine father before he will make it here. His name is Sean Regan, and from the email he seems like a nice guy. But until I know him better, he's mostly a mystery.
I talked to Jahiera today about maybe establishing a secret language for the group. Of course we'd have to check to see if the others are interested, but Jahiera seemed intrigued with the idea. She was thinking of a dead language like Minoan, though I was thinking more of a rare one like Chickasaw or maybe an entirely made up language. Anyway, Jahiera understands languages better than I do, so I'll let her think of what might work best. Though now I probably should survey my fellow Scions and see which ones, if any besides Jahiera and I, like the idea of having a secret language.
I also talked to Dave more today, he's interested in all of us working together with his bikers on all of their bikes. I am definitely looking forward to this! We also talked about adding "extras" to the bikes. Dave was thinking that being able to shoot out cables like in that Batman movie would be useful. Based on the movie, I'd hope he doesn't plan to use it like that as that sort of maneuvering seems beyond the skill of real life bikers. Still, the idea does have merit and may be able to pin down a large vehicle or a large creature. I'll have to start crunching numbers on that and see how feasible it is.
My people skills suck, but at least I am sure I did the right thing when I took a walk with Gabby and Jahiera this morning. I was there with about half the other Scions, all gathered around for breakfast. I was explaining my confusion about things, or I guess really I was explaining how narrow minded and naive I had been. At any rate, Gabby sort of dropped a bombshell on me when she responded to my ramblings by mentioning how she had tried to kill herself at least three times. I'm dense at people stuff, but I figured that was important and had to mean something, even though it's hours later and I'm still not quite sure why she said that to all of us.
Anyway, I guess Jahiera and I were both concerned about Gabby, and we decided to take the conversation elsewhere. Fortunately, Gabby isn't suicidal anymore. Her childhood sounds pretty rough, but I think it's also why she ended up as strong as she is. Still, I wish I understood people better. Based on the psych stuff I've read, she pretty much can't be mentally healthy. Except of course she's a Scion, and mortal rules don't exactly apply to us. I'll just have to save this for a later day, both for when I understand human nature better and know more about Gabby. For now though, I think the best thing I can do for her is be her friend, so I'll focus on that. That should be pretty easy, as I already like her.
We talked more about my problems too, but, well, I don't know why I was so naive about this issue. It's something I'll just have to resolve in time, which is pretty much the advice everyone - including Dr. Lord - gave me. Though Dr. Lord did suggest delving into all mythology texts I can get my hands on, plus to pay attention in his labs. Like I would do other than pay attention, sheesh!
Getting back to our forest talk, one really great thing happened with the three of us! I was telling the ladies how there are legends of martial art styles and techniques being developed from animals, and that I hoped they'd let me practice with their big kitty cats so we could learn from each other. Both the ladies were quite enthusiastic about this, and Jahiera wants to join in as well. This sounds so fun! Of course I hope their kitties will want to do it as much as the rest of us. But Gabby says Tepini doesn't get enough exercise, and I think Miyet likes me already (or at least she likes me petting her). For now, we probably can practice in the woods, but it would be nice to have a special room for ourselves. And that makes me think what else we could do and who else would like to participate. Maybe I could set up something like the early versions of the Danger Room in the X-Men comics. That would be totally awesome!
Unfortunately Jahiera had to dash off, because she was late for some archery practice. But Gabby and I chatted a little bit longer before returning to the dorm. Gabby demonstrated her gymnastics ability, she looks quite amazing. We also found out we're both interested in flying. Someday...
OK, only one more things to note. When I tried to talk to Dr. Lord about Bob the archer, Dr. Lord said he had NO idea who that guy is. That makes a lot of sense since Dr. Lord is new and Bob is - as far as we know - just a popular mortal on campus. But part of me found that strange since Dr. Lord seems to know everything that is going on with us and with Jahiera and her thing of archery - well, I think Bob and Jahiera will be spending a lot of time together. Plus Bob might have insulted Ren. So part of me was puzzled that he never heard of the guy. So I found Gabby later that evening and explained my suspicions to her. I feel like I am acting paranoid, but this just seems a little too weird to me. Gabby said she'd look into him, and I doubt Bob will be able to hide anything from Gabby, and I have to admit I am relieved now that I know Gabby is on the case.
I forgot to mention earlier that we received an email from our missing Scion. He's apparently having an interesting sort of last minute education from his divine father before he will make it here. His name is Sean Regan, and from the email he seems like a nice guy. But until I know him better, he's mostly a mystery.
I talked to Jahiera today about maybe establishing a secret language for the group. Of course we'd have to check to see if the others are interested, but Jahiera seemed intrigued with the idea. She was thinking of a dead language like Minoan, though I was thinking more of a rare one like Chickasaw or maybe an entirely made up language. Anyway, Jahiera understands languages better than I do, so I'll let her think of what might work best. Though now I probably should survey my fellow Scions and see which ones, if any besides Jahiera and I, like the idea of having a secret language.
I also talked to Dave more today, he's interested in all of us working together with his bikers on all of their bikes. I am definitely looking forward to this! We also talked about adding "extras" to the bikes. Dave was thinking that being able to shoot out cables like in that Batman movie would be useful. Based on the movie, I'd hope he doesn't plan to use it like that as that sort of maneuvering seems beyond the skill of real life bikers. Still, the idea does have merit and may be able to pin down a large vehicle or a large creature. I'll have to start crunching numbers on that and see how feasible it is.
My people skills suck, but at least I am sure I did the right thing when I took a walk with Gabby and Jahiera this morning. I was there with about half the other Scions, all gathered around for breakfast. I was explaining my confusion about things, or I guess really I was explaining how narrow minded and naive I had been. At any rate, Gabby sort of dropped a bombshell on me when she responded to my ramblings by mentioning how she had tried to kill herself at least three times. I'm dense at people stuff, but I figured that was important and had to mean something, even though it's hours later and I'm still not quite sure why she said that to all of us.
Anyway, I guess Jahiera and I were both concerned about Gabby, and we decided to take the conversation elsewhere. Fortunately, Gabby isn't suicidal anymore. Her childhood sounds pretty rough, but I think it's also why she ended up as strong as she is. Still, I wish I understood people better. Based on the psych stuff I've read, she pretty much can't be mentally healthy. Except of course she's a Scion, and mortal rules don't exactly apply to us. I'll just have to save this for a later day, both for when I understand human nature better and know more about Gabby. For now though, I think the best thing I can do for her is be her friend, so I'll focus on that. That should be pretty easy, as I already like her.
We talked more about my problems too, but, well, I don't know why I was so naive about this issue. It's something I'll just have to resolve in time, which is pretty much the advice everyone - including Dr. Lord - gave me. Though Dr. Lord did suggest delving into all mythology texts I can get my hands on, plus to pay attention in his labs. Like I would do other than pay attention, sheesh!
Getting back to our forest talk, one really great thing happened with the three of us! I was telling the ladies how there are legends of martial art styles and techniques being developed from animals, and that I hoped they'd let me practice with their big kitty cats so we could learn from each other. Both the ladies were quite enthusiastic about this, and Jahiera wants to join in as well. This sounds so fun! Of course I hope their kitties will want to do it as much as the rest of us. But Gabby says Tepini doesn't get enough exercise, and I think Miyet likes me already (or at least she likes me petting her). For now, we probably can practice in the woods, but it would be nice to have a special room for ourselves. And that makes me think what else we could do and who else would like to participate. Maybe I could set up something like the early versions of the Danger Room in the X-Men comics. That would be totally awesome!
Unfortunately Jahiera had to dash off, because she was late for some archery practice. But Gabby and I chatted a little bit longer before returning to the dorm. Gabby demonstrated her gymnastics ability, she looks quite amazing. We also found out we're both interested in flying. Someday...
OK, only one more things to note. When I tried to talk to Dr. Lord about Bob the archer, Dr. Lord said he had NO idea who that guy is. That makes a lot of sense since Dr. Lord is new and Bob is - as far as we know - just a popular mortal on campus. But part of me found that strange since Dr. Lord seems to know everything that is going on with us and with Jahiera and her thing of archery - well, I think Bob and Jahiera will be spending a lot of time together. Plus Bob might have insulted Ren. So part of me was puzzled that he never heard of the guy. So I found Gabby later that evening and explained my suspicions to her. I feel like I am acting paranoid, but this just seems a little too weird to me. Gabby said she'd look into him, and I doubt Bob will be able to hide anything from Gabby, and I have to admit I am relieved now that I know Gabby is on the case.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Activities Day - Oh What a Day!
Nothing much worth noting has happened between my arrival and today. I did notice that I accidentally (?) bump into Gabriella, Jahiera, and Ren more than the other Scions. Excepting our latest arrival, Dave (more on him shortly). Dave is another Scion with which I feel some sort of connection. I wish I understood more about Fate. More importantly though, is I am not a lot more confused about Titanspawn. This thing is giving me a big headache, and the first chance I get I simply must talk with Dr. Lord about this.
Dave Jones. Above average height and musculature, and like me, he's obviously going to be leading the way when it comes to knocking the heads of Titans and their spawn. I also had some first hand experience that he has some skills in increasing the overall combat effectiveness of our Band. I've got a feeling Dave and I are going to be good friends. Outside of fighting, Dave seems to have one other love - alcohol, especially beer. He's planning on setting up his own microbrewery in our dorm too. This definitely has some possibilities. I'm not one to go get drunk for no reason, but my stepdad normally let me have a beer when he had one at home, and the family often allowed all of us to have some wine at dinner, so I think it will be very convenient to have a ready supply of beer. It's a pity Dave thinks wine is a girly drink. Actually, one of the strangest things was when I was talking with him and coming up with an idea that was meant as an alcoholic drink for the big kitty cats in our group. I suggested Kumis, it's an alcoholic drink made from fermented mare's milk, sometimes mixed with blood, and was the drink of choice of Attila the Huns' mongol hordes. Despite that, the fact it is low in alcohol content made Dave say it was a girly drink. I like Dave, but I am sure I'll never understand him. I'm also not sure if I'd want him as a roommate. Though that really depends on if he can get his microbrewery set up in his room or if it takes up too much space and needs to go somewhere else on our floor. I plan on studying and sleeping, even if I may not need a lot of both, and I don't want to be in a room that's a 24 hour bar. One of the other interesting things about Dave is that he's a biker, which is cool, I'd love to have a motorcycle too. Dave's also got something like a gang of biker friends of his that are attending college with us (though they aren't on our special dorm floor). Hopefully Dave and his gang will let me hang out with them and work on their bikes. I've worked on cars and all kinds of miscellaneous mechanical devices, but bikes are new to me. Still, I have skills, and maybe I could teach them a trick or two just as they can hopefully teach me a trick or two. This would be a lot of fun! But maybe even more fun, since mortals seem to be a lot less able in combat that Scions, I am thinking I could do some modifications to their bikes. Just imagine, rocket launchers, machine guns, and lasers! Or maybe cool tricks like Q always has for vehicles that James Bond used. This would be just awesome. I sure hope Dave and his friends are interested as this would be a ton of fun!
Again Fate seemed to be driving things, as when we went to go see what clubs and stuff were here at Harmon, the five of us that I think all feel some sort of connection went out together. We drifted apart as we went along, but got back together too. And I don't ever remember seeing any of the other six Scions at any of the same places we were.
One of the first things I noticed was Gabriella running away from us, back towards our dorm. This had me worried for at first, but it turns out she had rushed off to get some of her writing samples she needed to get on the school newspaper.
Most of us drifted over towards a place where there were a bunch of mats set up for a variety of sports that use them. Wrestling was center stage at the time and Dave and I both indicated we were interested. Gabriella started having some sort of vision or something while we were there. Like last time, she looks like she got a little sick, but then recovered. She warned us about not fighting some short guy. I was definitely planning on heeding that advice, unless I thought doing so might put someone's life at risk. But at this time, the guy running the wrestling demo asked me to wrestle their star wrestler. Since this guy was tall, I had no objections. He was a pretty good wrestler, but I still managed to win.
While a couple of the group wandered off to the archery group during my match, I was quite pleased to find Gabriella and Dave still around. It makes me feel like I have friends who will watch my back, and my impression of both of them went up a notch.
While wrestling, I missed what went on with Jahiera and Ren at the archery club, but I heard about it later. Part of it puzzles me and I am not sure if I should be annoyed or not. Apparently one of the better archers here is a pretty-boy that looks something like that movie star Orlando Bloom, and he apparently has a a bunch of female fans. The thing that puzzles/bothers me though is that when Jahiera and Ren walked up to this dude, he calls out a greeting to the "ladies." Now almost all the people gathered around there were women, and I know I think Ren looks a bit on the effeminate side. Side thought, maybe I should talk to Gabriella about Ren, Gabriella seems to have a great sense of style and maybe could help Ren to find a style that's less unisex but still him. Back on track, anyway it could have been an accident or a simple oversight. On the other hand, maybe this Bloom look alike was deliberately trying to put down Ren. If that's the case, maybe I will have to have a talk with our comedian Cory. I am sure Cory could come up with something suitable to cut down this guy a little. But of course I still have to figure out if it was an honest mistake or if the dude is a jerk that needs a lesson. I'll keep an eye on him, but with my poor people skills, maybe I better ask Gabriella if she can help on this. I really don't like the idea of some snob picking on Ren. I'll hope it's just an accident though.
Oh, and Jahiera apparently is very impressive with the bow as she thunked several arrows into the center of the target in rapid succession.
Another point of interest is that Ren met a girl who is also a computer geek while watching the archery. My hunch is this is Fate at work again, but Ren seems so shy I don't know if he'll follow up with her about her informal computer club. Maybe I can prod him some way. Too bad I have all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Looks like Gabriella might be able to help out here, but I don't want to bother her all the time. She's really cool and I don't want her to think of me as a pest. Maybe Dr. Lord can help me out on this one. Life is complicated sometimes.
But over at the mats, things rapidly went strange. A short guy - really, really short guy - came up to us. He wasn't just short though, he was a dwarf, like in mythology or fantasy novels. Apparently this was Coach Angus MacLaggin and he seemed to want to wrestle Dave and/or me. After what Gabriella had said, I had no interest in such a contest. But Dave seemed to want to mix it up. Dave didn't know about Gabriella's oracular powers, and I didn't think it was a good time to explain (though I did explain once we were back in our dorm and others couldn't overhear). Gabriella kept trying to tell him not to, and I told Dave to listen to Gabriella. I guess that sunk in a bit, and with some effort, Dave refused the challenge. I was glad as apparently it wasn't going to be a fair fight on the part of the dwarf (based on what Gabriella somehow just "knew"). Still, if Dave had accepted and looked like he was getting seriously hurt, I was quite prepared to jump in and see if two to one odds might even out with whatever magic the dwarf had on his side.
Apparently the MacLaggin was just testing us, he wanted our help and he needed to make sure of us first. But at that moment, everone's least favorite Scion, Barry, stumbled onto the scene. He looked pretty badly hurt, and mentioned something about bears before collapsing into unconsciousness. MacLaggin then said the short version of the help he wanted was that Nemean bears were attacking his colony of dwarfs. Then he suggested we go handle whatever was chasing Barry while he took care of Barry.
All of us were together at that point, and we were all ready to rumble. I did a quick transformation to have my Relic Cestus take on its form for lethal damage. I hoped mortals wouldn't notice as it wouldn't be a big, obvious thing. But then Dave magically summoned his motorcycle. A cool trick, but it shocked me a lot as I didn't think we were supposed to show off like that in front of mortals that didn't know about us. The next part is a bit blurry in my memory. We went off in the direction that Barry came from, the jaguar Tepini appeared, the cat Miyet changed into the lioness Miyet, Ren's bird appeared (well, that one wouldn't shock anyone), I had my armor form around me, Dave's biker gang showed up all of a sudden, and my Bandmates seemed to have various weapons appearing out of nowhere. Hopefully this stuff took place far enough away from the school that mortals didn't notice, but I am just not sure.
Dave offered a ride to anyone, and I accepted. Normally I would have insisted one of our ladies be allowed the convenience, but in this case I thought it best that Dave and I met the danger first as I think we were the best prepared for physical violence. But the forest wasn't really the best place to get speed out of a motorcycle and all of the Band ended up reaching the Nemean bear at roughly the same time.
I made an extra effort and used one of my knacks to make sure I went first in the combat. I figured the best thing to do would be to hit it hard and see if just pounding away would work or not. I delivered a wicked blow, it probably would have knocked out a horse. Unfortunately it only seemed to surprise the beastie for a moment, and I knew this was not going to be an easy battle. I figured my next move would be to immobilize it, but while debating which way I should do that, Dave jumped in and grappled the monster. Meanwhile, Gabriella had maneuvered herself into a nearby tree and planned to shoot from there, though since bears climb pretty well, I am not sure how much good that would have done her if the bear had gone after her. At the same time, Jahiera had darted behind a nearby bush to keep out of the bear's sight.
Dave's clinching of the bear did some damage, but the big cats were having no luck - about the same as me. I did so poorly that I fear any of my martial arts instructors would have hung their head in shame if they had seen me. The rest of our Band was taking their time attacking, waiting for the perfect moment to hit a weak spot on the bear. The only weakness I recalled was the Nemean's skin was susceptible to its claws/fangs - and I was too busy fighting to see how I could use that to my advantage.
Feisty little Ren aimed a blow at an eye, that while not causing major trauma, seemed to blind the beast in that eye. That seemed like it should make battling the beastie easier. The bear writhed in pain at this and tried to escape from Dave's clinch, but somehow Dave kept control over the monster. Then Jahiera showed off her archery skill and nailed the critter in its open mouth, wounding it severely. Next Gabriella followed Ren's example and shot out the bear's other eye. I didn't think it was going to last much longer with the awesome teamwork the Band was displaying.
I was next to attack, and finally I dealt a blow worthy of my teachers. I pounded the bear's skull so hard I swear I heard it's skull crack. It was the last straw for the beast, and it collapsed at our feet. It was a tough battle, but I have to say I was really proud of the Band, everyone pulled together and helped to take it down. As my stepdad might say, my Bandmates are outstanding!
Dave decided he needed a drink and pulled out his magic everfull glass. Which was when we were all surprised by a slow clapping coming out of nowhere. I figured it was MacLaggin checking up on us, but it turned out to be Dr. Lord. How did he know where we were? The clapping implied he was there long enough to see at least part of the fight, how did he know he should be with us then? I know magic can do stuff like that, but I am going to buy a bug detector, or parts to make one, and sweep myself and my fellow Bandmates. I dislike the idea of being spied upon. I know he's supposed to look out for us, but now I wonder exactly how closely he does that.
Since there are supposed to be more bears around, I mentioned to Gabriella about finding out their location and numbers. By that I had meant to ask if she could get anything with her oracular powers, but she talked about sending her kitty cat as a scout. My people skills are rather embarrassing at times, my attempt at subtlety was completely misunderstood by the most people savvy of our Band members. I was a bit too flustered at the moment to explain it to her at that time, so I decided to talk to her about it later.
Meanwhile, Dave did some sort of Norse blessing or something on his glass and passed it around. Fighting works up a sweat, so I quickly knocked back the contents of the glass...which was still full after I thought I should have drained it. Most of the rest of the Band had a drink too, except for Gabriella. Gabriella is a party girl and from things she's said I know she likes to drink, so it was kind of surprising to me that she refused. But then after she refused, Dave tried to push her into at least drinking a little. I didn't like that because the way I was raised, when a girl says no then she means no. This seems to have caused some tension between Gabriella and Dave, I hope it doesn't snowball. It also made me a bit suspicious of the drink I took out of Dave's glass. But as I write this entry it's several hours later and I don't really feel any bad effects from it, so I don't know what to think.
But then I get real confused. Or at least lost. Ren is obviously an animal lover, which I think is a good thing as I like animals too. But Ren starts going on like these Nemean bears might be good guys, and the victims of the dwarfs. I'm afraid I lost it here, I had a quick flashback of Alicia's broken body at the party and started yelling at Ren telling him how I know Titanspawn and that they are all evil, etc. But I guess my naivete of the supernatural had me sticking my foot in my mouth as apparently not all Titanspawn are evil. Coach MacLaggin, who had arrived in the meantime, even said that dwarfs were Titanspawn. I mean I know from the stories that dwarfs tend to be neutral, though some are kind of good while others are more evil. But this was the first I heard that dwarfs were Titanspawn. And Dr. Lord was there when MacLaggin arrived and didn't give any sign that dwarfs were evil. I really don't know what to think about this anymore. My dad only told me a little about the Titans and their spawn, and this was the first time I had ever heard that Titanspawn might not be evil. I guess it makes sense though, as Zeus and others are technically Titanspawn. But now I feel like I need a score card or something to know who's on which side of the war. I'm making it my number one priority tomorrow to talk to Dr. Lord and see if he can give me a list or refer me to a book or something to give me a better idea of what's what in this war.
Getting back to the aftermath of the battle, Gabriella stepped in front of me and calmed me down. I don't think I would have gone berserk on Ren like at that party, but Gabriella's presence certainly helped me calm down fast. They say that "music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," but I say music has nothing on Gabriella. That Gabriella is one special woman. I apologized to Ren, but after I get a better explanation of Titanspawn and the war from Dr. Lord, I think I should make a better apology to Ren. I'm just so confused now.
One more strange thing that happened is Dr. Lord hurried off shortly after MacLaggin arrived. It looks like they don't get along, but I am pretty sure Dr. Lord could have squashed MacLaggin, so I am puzzled why he left so fast.
MacLaggin asked me about my divine parent, and when I told him I was the son of Hephaestus, he said the two of us needed to talk. I don't know if it was because of my ignorance about Titanspawn, if Hephaestus has some special significance to MacLaggin, or maybe he realized that I probably have something in common with dwarfs since we like - and are good at - making things. Or maybe its something else. I have enough on my mind right now that I can't be bothered to worry about this this for the time being.
MacLaggin also offered to make some armor and/or weapons out of the Nemean bear for our band. Considering what I recall about the Nemean lion, this should help out our group. I don't see much that I would benefit from this stuff, but maybe after the others get something, if there is a left over claw or fang big enoough to make into a knife that would be a fine souvenir. I think more important though is making armor for my Bandmates, looks like most of them have no armor at all! If Dave's biker leathers don't have some magic in them, I'll vote he should be the first one equipped with Nemean bear armor as I expect he and I will be in the forefront of most battles. But from what was said, there are other bears, so maybe the rest of the Band might end up with Nemean bear armor too. Though I wonder if Gabriella is too fashion conscious to wear that sort of thing. In the meantime, I'll add talking to my bandmates and seeing about getting them all at least bulletproof vests. Those are light and affordable, and certainly better than the nothing they're running around in. Also, as there is at least one place I know of that does custom work on this, we probably can special order something that Gabriella wouldn't object to - though if she's interested in that, it's a good thing she has a trust fund.
That's all I can think of for now, but I'm so confused I have no idea if I left out anything important. I simply MUST talk to Dr. Lord tomorrow before my head explodes.
Dave Jones. Above average height and musculature, and like me, he's obviously going to be leading the way when it comes to knocking the heads of Titans and their spawn. I also had some first hand experience that he has some skills in increasing the overall combat effectiveness of our Band. I've got a feeling Dave and I are going to be good friends. Outside of fighting, Dave seems to have one other love - alcohol, especially beer. He's planning on setting up his own microbrewery in our dorm too. This definitely has some possibilities. I'm not one to go get drunk for no reason, but my stepdad normally let me have a beer when he had one at home, and the family often allowed all of us to have some wine at dinner, so I think it will be very convenient to have a ready supply of beer. It's a pity Dave thinks wine is a girly drink. Actually, one of the strangest things was when I was talking with him and coming up with an idea that was meant as an alcoholic drink for the big kitty cats in our group. I suggested Kumis, it's an alcoholic drink made from fermented mare's milk, sometimes mixed with blood, and was the drink of choice of Attila the Huns' mongol hordes. Despite that, the fact it is low in alcohol content made Dave say it was a girly drink. I like Dave, but I am sure I'll never understand him. I'm also not sure if I'd want him as a roommate. Though that really depends on if he can get his microbrewery set up in his room or if it takes up too much space and needs to go somewhere else on our floor. I plan on studying and sleeping, even if I may not need a lot of both, and I don't want to be in a room that's a 24 hour bar. One of the other interesting things about Dave is that he's a biker, which is cool, I'd love to have a motorcycle too. Dave's also got something like a gang of biker friends of his that are attending college with us (though they aren't on our special dorm floor). Hopefully Dave and his gang will let me hang out with them and work on their bikes. I've worked on cars and all kinds of miscellaneous mechanical devices, but bikes are new to me. Still, I have skills, and maybe I could teach them a trick or two just as they can hopefully teach me a trick or two. This would be a lot of fun! But maybe even more fun, since mortals seem to be a lot less able in combat that Scions, I am thinking I could do some modifications to their bikes. Just imagine, rocket launchers, machine guns, and lasers! Or maybe cool tricks like Q always has for vehicles that James Bond used. This would be just awesome. I sure hope Dave and his friends are interested as this would be a ton of fun!
Again Fate seemed to be driving things, as when we went to go see what clubs and stuff were here at Harmon, the five of us that I think all feel some sort of connection went out together. We drifted apart as we went along, but got back together too. And I don't ever remember seeing any of the other six Scions at any of the same places we were.
One of the first things I noticed was Gabriella running away from us, back towards our dorm. This had me worried for at first, but it turns out she had rushed off to get some of her writing samples she needed to get on the school newspaper.
Most of us drifted over towards a place where there were a bunch of mats set up for a variety of sports that use them. Wrestling was center stage at the time and Dave and I both indicated we were interested. Gabriella started having some sort of vision or something while we were there. Like last time, she looks like she got a little sick, but then recovered. She warned us about not fighting some short guy. I was definitely planning on heeding that advice, unless I thought doing so might put someone's life at risk. But at this time, the guy running the wrestling demo asked me to wrestle their star wrestler. Since this guy was tall, I had no objections. He was a pretty good wrestler, but I still managed to win.
While a couple of the group wandered off to the archery group during my match, I was quite pleased to find Gabriella and Dave still around. It makes me feel like I have friends who will watch my back, and my impression of both of them went up a notch.
While wrestling, I missed what went on with Jahiera and Ren at the archery club, but I heard about it later. Part of it puzzles me and I am not sure if I should be annoyed or not. Apparently one of the better archers here is a pretty-boy that looks something like that movie star Orlando Bloom, and he apparently has a a bunch of female fans. The thing that puzzles/bothers me though is that when Jahiera and Ren walked up to this dude, he calls out a greeting to the "ladies." Now almost all the people gathered around there were women, and I know I think Ren looks a bit on the effeminate side. Side thought, maybe I should talk to Gabriella about Ren, Gabriella seems to have a great sense of style and maybe could help Ren to find a style that's less unisex but still him. Back on track, anyway it could have been an accident or a simple oversight. On the other hand, maybe this Bloom look alike was deliberately trying to put down Ren. If that's the case, maybe I will have to have a talk with our comedian Cory. I am sure Cory could come up with something suitable to cut down this guy a little. But of course I still have to figure out if it was an honest mistake or if the dude is a jerk that needs a lesson. I'll keep an eye on him, but with my poor people skills, maybe I better ask Gabriella if she can help on this. I really don't like the idea of some snob picking on Ren. I'll hope it's just an accident though.
Oh, and Jahiera apparently is very impressive with the bow as she thunked several arrows into the center of the target in rapid succession.
Another point of interest is that Ren met a girl who is also a computer geek while watching the archery. My hunch is this is Fate at work again, but Ren seems so shy I don't know if he'll follow up with her about her informal computer club. Maybe I can prod him some way. Too bad I have all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Looks like Gabriella might be able to help out here, but I don't want to bother her all the time. She's really cool and I don't want her to think of me as a pest. Maybe Dr. Lord can help me out on this one. Life is complicated sometimes.
But over at the mats, things rapidly went strange. A short guy - really, really short guy - came up to us. He wasn't just short though, he was a dwarf, like in mythology or fantasy novels. Apparently this was Coach Angus MacLaggin and he seemed to want to wrestle Dave and/or me. After what Gabriella had said, I had no interest in such a contest. But Dave seemed to want to mix it up. Dave didn't know about Gabriella's oracular powers, and I didn't think it was a good time to explain (though I did explain once we were back in our dorm and others couldn't overhear). Gabriella kept trying to tell him not to, and I told Dave to listen to Gabriella. I guess that sunk in a bit, and with some effort, Dave refused the challenge. I was glad as apparently it wasn't going to be a fair fight on the part of the dwarf (based on what Gabriella somehow just "knew"). Still, if Dave had accepted and looked like he was getting seriously hurt, I was quite prepared to jump in and see if two to one odds might even out with whatever magic the dwarf had on his side.
Apparently the MacLaggin was just testing us, he wanted our help and he needed to make sure of us first. But at that moment, everone's least favorite Scion, Barry, stumbled onto the scene. He looked pretty badly hurt, and mentioned something about bears before collapsing into unconsciousness. MacLaggin then said the short version of the help he wanted was that Nemean bears were attacking his colony of dwarfs. Then he suggested we go handle whatever was chasing Barry while he took care of Barry.
All of us were together at that point, and we were all ready to rumble. I did a quick transformation to have my Relic Cestus take on its form for lethal damage. I hoped mortals wouldn't notice as it wouldn't be a big, obvious thing. But then Dave magically summoned his motorcycle. A cool trick, but it shocked me a lot as I didn't think we were supposed to show off like that in front of mortals that didn't know about us. The next part is a bit blurry in my memory. We went off in the direction that Barry came from, the jaguar Tepini appeared, the cat Miyet changed into the lioness Miyet, Ren's bird appeared (well, that one wouldn't shock anyone), I had my armor form around me, Dave's biker gang showed up all of a sudden, and my Bandmates seemed to have various weapons appearing out of nowhere. Hopefully this stuff took place far enough away from the school that mortals didn't notice, but I am just not sure.
Dave offered a ride to anyone, and I accepted. Normally I would have insisted one of our ladies be allowed the convenience, but in this case I thought it best that Dave and I met the danger first as I think we were the best prepared for physical violence. But the forest wasn't really the best place to get speed out of a motorcycle and all of the Band ended up reaching the Nemean bear at roughly the same time.
I made an extra effort and used one of my knacks to make sure I went first in the combat. I figured the best thing to do would be to hit it hard and see if just pounding away would work or not. I delivered a wicked blow, it probably would have knocked out a horse. Unfortunately it only seemed to surprise the beastie for a moment, and I knew this was not going to be an easy battle. I figured my next move would be to immobilize it, but while debating which way I should do that, Dave jumped in and grappled the monster. Meanwhile, Gabriella had maneuvered herself into a nearby tree and planned to shoot from there, though since bears climb pretty well, I am not sure how much good that would have done her if the bear had gone after her. At the same time, Jahiera had darted behind a nearby bush to keep out of the bear's sight.
Dave's clinching of the bear did some damage, but the big cats were having no luck - about the same as me. I did so poorly that I fear any of my martial arts instructors would have hung their head in shame if they had seen me. The rest of our Band was taking their time attacking, waiting for the perfect moment to hit a weak spot on the bear. The only weakness I recalled was the Nemean's skin was susceptible to its claws/fangs - and I was too busy fighting to see how I could use that to my advantage.
Feisty little Ren aimed a blow at an eye, that while not causing major trauma, seemed to blind the beast in that eye. That seemed like it should make battling the beastie easier. The bear writhed in pain at this and tried to escape from Dave's clinch, but somehow Dave kept control over the monster. Then Jahiera showed off her archery skill and nailed the critter in its open mouth, wounding it severely. Next Gabriella followed Ren's example and shot out the bear's other eye. I didn't think it was going to last much longer with the awesome teamwork the Band was displaying.
I was next to attack, and finally I dealt a blow worthy of my teachers. I pounded the bear's skull so hard I swear I heard it's skull crack. It was the last straw for the beast, and it collapsed at our feet. It was a tough battle, but I have to say I was really proud of the Band, everyone pulled together and helped to take it down. As my stepdad might say, my Bandmates are outstanding!
Dave decided he needed a drink and pulled out his magic everfull glass. Which was when we were all surprised by a slow clapping coming out of nowhere. I figured it was MacLaggin checking up on us, but it turned out to be Dr. Lord. How did he know where we were? The clapping implied he was there long enough to see at least part of the fight, how did he know he should be with us then? I know magic can do stuff like that, but I am going to buy a bug detector, or parts to make one, and sweep myself and my fellow Bandmates. I dislike the idea of being spied upon. I know he's supposed to look out for us, but now I wonder exactly how closely he does that.
Since there are supposed to be more bears around, I mentioned to Gabriella about finding out their location and numbers. By that I had meant to ask if she could get anything with her oracular powers, but she talked about sending her kitty cat as a scout. My people skills are rather embarrassing at times, my attempt at subtlety was completely misunderstood by the most people savvy of our Band members. I was a bit too flustered at the moment to explain it to her at that time, so I decided to talk to her about it later.
Meanwhile, Dave did some sort of Norse blessing or something on his glass and passed it around. Fighting works up a sweat, so I quickly knocked back the contents of the glass...which was still full after I thought I should have drained it. Most of the rest of the Band had a drink too, except for Gabriella. Gabriella is a party girl and from things she's said I know she likes to drink, so it was kind of surprising to me that she refused. But then after she refused, Dave tried to push her into at least drinking a little. I didn't like that because the way I was raised, when a girl says no then she means no. This seems to have caused some tension between Gabriella and Dave, I hope it doesn't snowball. It also made me a bit suspicious of the drink I took out of Dave's glass. But as I write this entry it's several hours later and I don't really feel any bad effects from it, so I don't know what to think.
But then I get real confused. Or at least lost. Ren is obviously an animal lover, which I think is a good thing as I like animals too. But Ren starts going on like these Nemean bears might be good guys, and the victims of the dwarfs. I'm afraid I lost it here, I had a quick flashback of Alicia's broken body at the party and started yelling at Ren telling him how I know Titanspawn and that they are all evil, etc. But I guess my naivete of the supernatural had me sticking my foot in my mouth as apparently not all Titanspawn are evil. Coach MacLaggin, who had arrived in the meantime, even said that dwarfs were Titanspawn. I mean I know from the stories that dwarfs tend to be neutral, though some are kind of good while others are more evil. But this was the first I heard that dwarfs were Titanspawn. And Dr. Lord was there when MacLaggin arrived and didn't give any sign that dwarfs were evil. I really don't know what to think about this anymore. My dad only told me a little about the Titans and their spawn, and this was the first time I had ever heard that Titanspawn might not be evil. I guess it makes sense though, as Zeus and others are technically Titanspawn. But now I feel like I need a score card or something to know who's on which side of the war. I'm making it my number one priority tomorrow to talk to Dr. Lord and see if he can give me a list or refer me to a book or something to give me a better idea of what's what in this war.
Getting back to the aftermath of the battle, Gabriella stepped in front of me and calmed me down. I don't think I would have gone berserk on Ren like at that party, but Gabriella's presence certainly helped me calm down fast. They say that "music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," but I say music has nothing on Gabriella. That Gabriella is one special woman. I apologized to Ren, but after I get a better explanation of Titanspawn and the war from Dr. Lord, I think I should make a better apology to Ren. I'm just so confused now.
One more strange thing that happened is Dr. Lord hurried off shortly after MacLaggin arrived. It looks like they don't get along, but I am pretty sure Dr. Lord could have squashed MacLaggin, so I am puzzled why he left so fast.
MacLaggin asked me about my divine parent, and when I told him I was the son of Hephaestus, he said the two of us needed to talk. I don't know if it was because of my ignorance about Titanspawn, if Hephaestus has some special significance to MacLaggin, or maybe he realized that I probably have something in common with dwarfs since we like - and are good at - making things. Or maybe its something else. I have enough on my mind right now that I can't be bothered to worry about this this for the time being.
MacLaggin also offered to make some armor and/or weapons out of the Nemean bear for our band. Considering what I recall about the Nemean lion, this should help out our group. I don't see much that I would benefit from this stuff, but maybe after the others get something, if there is a left over claw or fang big enoough to make into a knife that would be a fine souvenir. I think more important though is making armor for my Bandmates, looks like most of them have no armor at all! If Dave's biker leathers don't have some magic in them, I'll vote he should be the first one equipped with Nemean bear armor as I expect he and I will be in the forefront of most battles. But from what was said, there are other bears, so maybe the rest of the Band might end up with Nemean bear armor too. Though I wonder if Gabriella is too fashion conscious to wear that sort of thing. In the meantime, I'll add talking to my bandmates and seeing about getting them all at least bulletproof vests. Those are light and affordable, and certainly better than the nothing they're running around in. Also, as there is at least one place I know of that does custom work on this, we probably can special order something that Gabriella wouldn't object to - though if she's interested in that, it's a good thing she has a trust fund.
That's all I can think of for now, but I'm so confused I have no idea if I left out anything important. I simply MUST talk to Dr. Lord tomorrow before my head explodes.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
First Day Thoughts and Impressions
Fate. Physics does tell us that simultaneity is just an illusion as it depends upon one's frame of reference. But for practical purposes four of us Scions did arrive simultaneously at the same place at Harmon University just as our advisor came out to greet us. As we all used different means of transportation, the odds of something like this must be astronomical - worse than getting a royal fizzbin. It has to be what my real dad must have meant when he talked about Fate. Just think if we could channel that, winning the lottery would be a breeze, breaking a casino could be done on a whim, and on the quantum mechanical level you could probably use such things to teleport large objects. I must take time to research this effect more in the future.
Dr. Alan Lord. He's our advisor, a demigod Scion - but very little like the stories of the well known Heracles. For some unknown reason I get the impression that appearances are deceiving when I look at him. Like we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. He also seems conflicted about us. He seems resentful at having to teach us anything, and even more resentful that he has no control over it or the scheduling. At the same time, he seems like a man that tries to be fair. Plus even though it's not a task he'd have chosen to give himself I get the impression he will do his best to teach us because anything he does, he aims to do well. He's also got a huge jaguar which, interestingly enough, apparently is invisible to mortals. I wondered how that works, and later Dr. Lord explained that his kitty cat was in a ghost form and that allowed us Scions to see but not mortals. Being invisible, if only to mortals, is a trick I'd like to learn...but the idea of a ghost form makes me wonder how practical that would be. Still, could come in very handy as I think were supposed to keep the mortals in the dark about us and what's really going on.
Gabriella Velas. She's one of the four of us that arrived together. Strange, I seem to feel a connection between the four of us that I don't feel with the other Scions I met later that day. Anyway, she's hot. Like supermodel hot. Or possibly it would be more accurate to say that Gabriella has the kind of beauty that most top models only wish they had. Even better, she seems pretty nice - not like some of the stuck up, brainless girls that used to chase me in high school. But what seems the most amazing to me is that she has some sort of divine power like the Oracle at Delphi (but without breathing in any strange fumes, speaking in tongues, or the like). With a gift like that, I will definitely be listening to whatever she has to say. Hmm, I wonder if she can use that talent to see what the questions are on upcoming tests? And how does that prophetic ability work? Sight, sound, both, more? A single "vision" that always comes true? Or maybe possible futures? If she saw possible futures that might be support for M-theory. I wonder if she'd be willing to talk to me about this, or if it's too personal a topic. She seems pretty understanding, so I think I'll just try to ask her if we're ever alone some time. And mustn't forget she's got a cute pet jaguar, Tepini. I wonder if Tepini would like to wrestle with me? It's said that many martial arts techniques were taken from watching animals. So maybe I could learn to fight better by watching or rough housing with her big kitty.
Jahiera Saladin. Another of the four of us that arrived together. She's tiny, more than two feet shorter than me, about 5' tall and looks like she'd weigh about 100 lb. soaking wet. She's quite pretty too. But perhaps unfortunately for her, I bet a lot of guys won't even notice her if she's hanging out with Gabriella. If I understood her correctly, this is Jahiera's first time going to school. She had some sort of home schooling, but she seems smart as a whip. Is a whip actually smart? Whatever. I know my IQ is in the range that the psychologists say make it difficult to accurately measure, but Jahiera seems like she might be even smarter than me. That's certainly impressive. She's Egyptian, but she also speaks Italian like I do, a pity she doesn't know Greek. But she speaks Hebrew like Kobi and his family, so maybe she can help me keep in practice. Jahi also has a pet cat named Miyet. Or maybe she has a lioness named Miyet. They seem to be the same creature...or something like that. If this is some sort of shape change, I wonder which form is the natural/real one? If Tepini wouldn't want to rough house with me, maybe Miyet would. Or maybe the three of us could work out together. That sure would be cool!
Ren Panganiban. The last to be mentioned of the four of us that arrived together. (Ladies first, sorry Ren.) Ren is kind of feminine looking and the shortest of us guy Scions, about five and a half feet tall. But he's another really smart one. He and Jaheira make me think of that old expression, "the smaller, the smarter." He seems nice, but kind of shy. He's a computer geek, so I bet he'll be cool to hang out with. Maybe later on when we know more stuff, I can build a miniature super computer and he could program some AI into it - that would be freaking awesome! Apparently he's got a cousin that's a Scion too, but he's somewhere out on the left coast. Breaking the pattern of large cats, but not of having animal companions, Ren has a pet bird. I figure it's something special, but he hasn't talked about it much yet and I haven't asked either...though he did caution us about bleeding near it. Seems like I am the odd man out as of us new arrivals I was the only one without a pet. Though how well a bird will survive with all these large kitty cats might be problematic. Hmmm, and maybe with a little more know how I can build something for his bird. Maybe some laser, or better yet a taser, it can shoot to discourage the cats. I wonder if Ren would have a problem with that. I wonder if the bird would object. Well it's moot for now, but it's something to keep in mind for the future. But if I make something for his bird, maybe I should make something for the kitties. Cybernetic arms so they could open doors or use guns might be useful. I wonder if anyone will be interested in this. I mean we could have stuff better than "sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their frickin' heads" like Dr. Evil wanted!
Sonia Wu. Another short girl, but taller than Jahiera. Kind of average looking, but some nice musculature. The muscles are no doubt earned from her martial arts workouts. She's apparently really into martial arts, though more the artsy stuff than the practical stuff. Still, Jet Li trained a lot that way and he's pretty amazing with or without wires. Plus I have a hunch that some of the old legends that made this artsy, sorta fake, wuxia stuff were probably based on Scions who were martial artists. So those artsy skills may be some pretty potent combat skills - at least for us Scions. Hopefully she'll be interested in training together. I had several good partners and teachers back in Dale City, but so far she's the only one here I have seen that shares this sort of interest with me. Plus I hear she's got a good DVD collection of her wuxia stuff, so maybe she'd like to watch some of those movies together or at least let me borrow them so I can watch them. She also has an animal, but it apparently it's not a pet but somehow her half-brother. It's a monkey, which makes sense because of her father is Sun Wukong - though I doubt the movie The Forbidden Kingdom portrayed him accurately. But I wonder if half-brother is literal in this case, or more in keeping with the brother/sister way of speaking that I've seen in chinese martial arts flicks. I wonder if it would be rude to ask her about that. But I do need to talk to her about her half-brother, I need to make sure he won't wander into my room when I'm not around and play with my shotgun. Hopefully I'll get a chance to talk to her about this tomorrow.
Sadie Parr. The last of our female Scions - and the least. The first three all seem cool, but this girl is a female dog (OOC note to readers, I do hope you all know the proper name for a female dog). She's about average height for a girl, and I would have said she was - unbelievable as it may seem - hotter than Gabriella. Then Sadie opened her mouth. No amount of outer beauty can possibly hide that inner ugliness. I mean if attitude was ichor, she'd be a goddess - and not just any goddess but like the queen of all the pantheons. As it is, I feel sorry for poor Jahiera who got stuck with Sadie as a roommate. Sadie has money too, so that probably only makes her attitude worse. I will definitely avoid her. Though I do wonder how someone about two feet shorter than me can so effortlessly look down her nose at me. But I sure as hell don't wonder enough about that to spend any more time with her than is absolutely necessary.
Lionel Applegate. My roommate, unfortunately. Tall, thin, and ugly. I mean ugly like someone beat him with with the ugly stick - repeatedly. This wouldn't be a problem, if it wasn't for the fact I am also getting bad vibes off of him. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I keep thinking "I've got a bad feeling about this" whenever I see him. He doesn't want me messing with his stuff, which I can respect, mostly. But he's already got padlocks on a bunch of his stuff. Besides, I looked up his divine dad on the internet earlier this evening, and Lionel seems to share some interests. The one that worries me most is that he looks the type that will get into biological warfare. Which means I sure as hell won't be touching his stuff, not unless I have a hazmat suit or something. Plus he's got a weird stone statue. Every time I went out to do something and then came back, it was in a different position than when I left. And this even happened when Lionel wasn't in the room! Sometimes I think its eyes are following me. Again, I don't know how much is my imagination, but Lionel and his statue give me the creeps. If I get a chance before school starts, I will see if I can find some place to buy some miniature cameras and motion detectors. Or buy the parts needed to make 'em, whatever. Then I can set them up and maybe find out how that statue is moving. I think I normally am pretty open minded, but I'm already thinking about trying to change roommates. Ren would be my first choice so far, if it was just my pick, but Hank (next entry) seems pretty compatible to me too. Oh, and Lionel doesn't seem to wash his hair. I wonder how he'd take it if I bought a large bottle of shampoo and just left it on his bed when he wasn't around.
Hank Owens. Average height, maybe a little taller, but muscular. I don't know much about him, but he's ROTC and is thinking about the Marines. Since my stepdad is a Marine, I know a lot about them and respect them too. So I figure Hank's probably an OK guy. I do kind of wonder how he would handle a full time career as a Marine with whatever sort of duties we Scions are supposed to be handling in the war against the Titans. I mean even an average job would allow a lot more flexibility in scheduling that being in the military. Hopefully I'll get a chance to hang out with him more and get to know him better. It's strange though, despite liking Sonia and Hank from the very first, I don't seem drawn to them the same way as I do to Gabriella, Jahiera, and Ren. I guess this is all part of the way Fate hits us Scions, but I sure wish I understood it better. Also, perhaps strangely, the first six to arrive here don't seem to have the same connection with any of the others like the four of us that arrived together. I wonder if that means anything.
Cory Jackson. He's ... interesting ... sort of ... but I'm glad I'm not his roommate. His dad is Coyote and he wants some sort of career in comedy. He'll probably be great at parties, but I'm really glad I am not his roommate and hence a likely target for trying out his practical jokes. He's got an animal, a coyote of course, but like Sonia he says it's his half-brother. Despite my curiosity, I will not ask. I figure the less he notices me, the less frequently I'll be the victim of some untimely practical joke. Not that I figure we won't all be targeted as time goes on, but why give him extra reasons to choose me?
Barry Winston. The last male Scion here, and like Sadie, probably the least. This idiot redneck is some sort of bigoted Christian that mistook his divine father (who is some sort of Persian god) as a Christian angel. He thinks were all a bunch of pagan idiots who are acting stupid because we believe what our divine parents told us. I really wanted to educate him. Specifically I was thinking of starting by teaching him first hand the meaning of the word "defenestration." His brain is so dense a new thought probably takes years to surface. As the saying goes, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?" Dr. Lord did basically say we were allowed to handle him as roughly as necessary, with the proviso that we were not to kill him. I guess the war against the Titans takes all kinds, or makes for strange bedfellows, or whatever. Dr. Lord did try to set Barry straight, but I doubt much of it will stick. Dr. Lord also teleported him out to somewhere in the woods for awhile, so at least he won't be bothering us while we get settled in. Though maybe I am being too hard as Barry does have a dog. I've noticed most dog owners have some redeeming qualities. Too bad none of us realized the dog was there until after Dr. Lord left, because it would be a shame to let him starve or poop in the room while Barry's away. I guess I'll take care of the cute doggie until Barry comes back. But I'll check around with the others to see if anyone else is willing to or wants to share the chores.
Besides the Scions I met today, our dorm itself is worth mentioning. All of us Scions have a floor to ourselves, the 11th floor, but the building we're in only has 10 floors. It's apparently some sort of special place made by some god or gods. Dr. Lord didn't really explain much. But no sense in asking questions now because I think I just know too little to understand something like this. But if it's anything like the TARDIS, I will definitely make the effort to learn how to create something like this. The potential uses are mind boggling. Another unique thing about our dorm is that we access our floor via an elevator that is apparently invisible to mortals but not us Scions. I doubt it's a ghost form, like Dr. Lord's kitty cat used, so once I better understand science and the supernatural I will have to look into that as well.
That's all I can think of for my first day here. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
Dr. Alan Lord. He's our advisor, a demigod Scion - but very little like the stories of the well known Heracles. For some unknown reason I get the impression that appearances are deceiving when I look at him. Like we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. He also seems conflicted about us. He seems resentful at having to teach us anything, and even more resentful that he has no control over it or the scheduling. At the same time, he seems like a man that tries to be fair. Plus even though it's not a task he'd have chosen to give himself I get the impression he will do his best to teach us because anything he does, he aims to do well. He's also got a huge jaguar which, interestingly enough, apparently is invisible to mortals. I wondered how that works, and later Dr. Lord explained that his kitty cat was in a ghost form and that allowed us Scions to see but not mortals. Being invisible, if only to mortals, is a trick I'd like to learn...but the idea of a ghost form makes me wonder how practical that would be. Still, could come in very handy as I think were supposed to keep the mortals in the dark about us and what's really going on.
Gabriella Velas. She's one of the four of us that arrived together. Strange, I seem to feel a connection between the four of us that I don't feel with the other Scions I met later that day. Anyway, she's hot. Like supermodel hot. Or possibly it would be more accurate to say that Gabriella has the kind of beauty that most top models only wish they had. Even better, she seems pretty nice - not like some of the stuck up, brainless girls that used to chase me in high school. But what seems the most amazing to me is that she has some sort of divine power like the Oracle at Delphi (but without breathing in any strange fumes, speaking in tongues, or the like). With a gift like that, I will definitely be listening to whatever she has to say. Hmm, I wonder if she can use that talent to see what the questions are on upcoming tests? And how does that prophetic ability work? Sight, sound, both, more? A single "vision" that always comes true? Or maybe possible futures? If she saw possible futures that might be support for M-theory. I wonder if she'd be willing to talk to me about this, or if it's too personal a topic. She seems pretty understanding, so I think I'll just try to ask her if we're ever alone some time. And mustn't forget she's got a cute pet jaguar, Tepini. I wonder if Tepini would like to wrestle with me? It's said that many martial arts techniques were taken from watching animals. So maybe I could learn to fight better by watching or rough housing with her big kitty.
Jahiera Saladin. Another of the four of us that arrived together. She's tiny, more than two feet shorter than me, about 5' tall and looks like she'd weigh about 100 lb. soaking wet. She's quite pretty too. But perhaps unfortunately for her, I bet a lot of guys won't even notice her if she's hanging out with Gabriella. If I understood her correctly, this is Jahiera's first time going to school. She had some sort of home schooling, but she seems smart as a whip. Is a whip actually smart? Whatever. I know my IQ is in the range that the psychologists say make it difficult to accurately measure, but Jahiera seems like she might be even smarter than me. That's certainly impressive. She's Egyptian, but she also speaks Italian like I do, a pity she doesn't know Greek. But she speaks Hebrew like Kobi and his family, so maybe she can help me keep in practice. Jahi also has a pet cat named Miyet. Or maybe she has a lioness named Miyet. They seem to be the same creature...or something like that. If this is some sort of shape change, I wonder which form is the natural/real one? If Tepini wouldn't want to rough house with me, maybe Miyet would. Or maybe the three of us could work out together. That sure would be cool!
Ren Panganiban. The last to be mentioned of the four of us that arrived together. (Ladies first, sorry Ren.) Ren is kind of feminine looking and the shortest of us guy Scions, about five and a half feet tall. But he's another really smart one. He and Jaheira make me think of that old expression, "the smaller, the smarter." He seems nice, but kind of shy. He's a computer geek, so I bet he'll be cool to hang out with. Maybe later on when we know more stuff, I can build a miniature super computer and he could program some AI into it - that would be freaking awesome! Apparently he's got a cousin that's a Scion too, but he's somewhere out on the left coast. Breaking the pattern of large cats, but not of having animal companions, Ren has a pet bird. I figure it's something special, but he hasn't talked about it much yet and I haven't asked either...though he did caution us about bleeding near it. Seems like I am the odd man out as of us new arrivals I was the only one without a pet. Though how well a bird will survive with all these large kitty cats might be problematic. Hmmm, and maybe with a little more know how I can build something for his bird. Maybe some laser, or better yet a taser, it can shoot to discourage the cats. I wonder if Ren would have a problem with that. I wonder if the bird would object. Well it's moot for now, but it's something to keep in mind for the future. But if I make something for his bird, maybe I should make something for the kitties. Cybernetic arms so they could open doors or use guns might be useful. I wonder if anyone will be interested in this. I mean we could have stuff better than "sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their frickin' heads" like Dr. Evil wanted!
Sonia Wu. Another short girl, but taller than Jahiera. Kind of average looking, but some nice musculature. The muscles are no doubt earned from her martial arts workouts. She's apparently really into martial arts, though more the artsy stuff than the practical stuff. Still, Jet Li trained a lot that way and he's pretty amazing with or without wires. Plus I have a hunch that some of the old legends that made this artsy, sorta fake, wuxia stuff were probably based on Scions who were martial artists. So those artsy skills may be some pretty potent combat skills - at least for us Scions. Hopefully she'll be interested in training together. I had several good partners and teachers back in Dale City, but so far she's the only one here I have seen that shares this sort of interest with me. Plus I hear she's got a good DVD collection of her wuxia stuff, so maybe she'd like to watch some of those movies together or at least let me borrow them so I can watch them. She also has an animal, but it apparently it's not a pet but somehow her half-brother. It's a monkey, which makes sense because of her father is Sun Wukong - though I doubt the movie The Forbidden Kingdom portrayed him accurately. But I wonder if half-brother is literal in this case, or more in keeping with the brother/sister way of speaking that I've seen in chinese martial arts flicks. I wonder if it would be rude to ask her about that. But I do need to talk to her about her half-brother, I need to make sure he won't wander into my room when I'm not around and play with my shotgun. Hopefully I'll get a chance to talk to her about this tomorrow.
Sadie Parr. The last of our female Scions - and the least. The first three all seem cool, but this girl is a female dog (OOC note to readers, I do hope you all know the proper name for a female dog). She's about average height for a girl, and I would have said she was - unbelievable as it may seem - hotter than Gabriella. Then Sadie opened her mouth. No amount of outer beauty can possibly hide that inner ugliness. I mean if attitude was ichor, she'd be a goddess - and not just any goddess but like the queen of all the pantheons. As it is, I feel sorry for poor Jahiera who got stuck with Sadie as a roommate. Sadie has money too, so that probably only makes her attitude worse. I will definitely avoid her. Though I do wonder how someone about two feet shorter than me can so effortlessly look down her nose at me. But I sure as hell don't wonder enough about that to spend any more time with her than is absolutely necessary.
Lionel Applegate. My roommate, unfortunately. Tall, thin, and ugly. I mean ugly like someone beat him with with the ugly stick - repeatedly. This wouldn't be a problem, if it wasn't for the fact I am also getting bad vibes off of him. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I keep thinking "I've got a bad feeling about this" whenever I see him. He doesn't want me messing with his stuff, which I can respect, mostly. But he's already got padlocks on a bunch of his stuff. Besides, I looked up his divine dad on the internet earlier this evening, and Lionel seems to share some interests. The one that worries me most is that he looks the type that will get into biological warfare. Which means I sure as hell won't be touching his stuff, not unless I have a hazmat suit or something. Plus he's got a weird stone statue. Every time I went out to do something and then came back, it was in a different position than when I left. And this even happened when Lionel wasn't in the room! Sometimes I think its eyes are following me. Again, I don't know how much is my imagination, but Lionel and his statue give me the creeps. If I get a chance before school starts, I will see if I can find some place to buy some miniature cameras and motion detectors. Or buy the parts needed to make 'em, whatever. Then I can set them up and maybe find out how that statue is moving. I think I normally am pretty open minded, but I'm already thinking about trying to change roommates. Ren would be my first choice so far, if it was just my pick, but Hank (next entry) seems pretty compatible to me too. Oh, and Lionel doesn't seem to wash his hair. I wonder how he'd take it if I bought a large bottle of shampoo and just left it on his bed when he wasn't around.
Hank Owens. Average height, maybe a little taller, but muscular. I don't know much about him, but he's ROTC and is thinking about the Marines. Since my stepdad is a Marine, I know a lot about them and respect them too. So I figure Hank's probably an OK guy. I do kind of wonder how he would handle a full time career as a Marine with whatever sort of duties we Scions are supposed to be handling in the war against the Titans. I mean even an average job would allow a lot more flexibility in scheduling that being in the military. Hopefully I'll get a chance to hang out with him more and get to know him better. It's strange though, despite liking Sonia and Hank from the very first, I don't seem drawn to them the same way as I do to Gabriella, Jahiera, and Ren. I guess this is all part of the way Fate hits us Scions, but I sure wish I understood it better. Also, perhaps strangely, the first six to arrive here don't seem to have the same connection with any of the others like the four of us that arrived together. I wonder if that means anything.
Cory Jackson. He's ... interesting ... sort of ... but I'm glad I'm not his roommate. His dad is Coyote and he wants some sort of career in comedy. He'll probably be great at parties, but I'm really glad I am not his roommate and hence a likely target for trying out his practical jokes. He's got an animal, a coyote of course, but like Sonia he says it's his half-brother. Despite my curiosity, I will not ask. I figure the less he notices me, the less frequently I'll be the victim of some untimely practical joke. Not that I figure we won't all be targeted as time goes on, but why give him extra reasons to choose me?
Barry Winston. The last male Scion here, and like Sadie, probably the least. This idiot redneck is some sort of bigoted Christian that mistook his divine father (who is some sort of Persian god) as a Christian angel. He thinks were all a bunch of pagan idiots who are acting stupid because we believe what our divine parents told us. I really wanted to educate him. Specifically I was thinking of starting by teaching him first hand the meaning of the word "defenestration." His brain is so dense a new thought probably takes years to surface. As the saying goes, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?" Dr. Lord did basically say we were allowed to handle him as roughly as necessary, with the proviso that we were not to kill him. I guess the war against the Titans takes all kinds, or makes for strange bedfellows, or whatever. Dr. Lord did try to set Barry straight, but I doubt much of it will stick. Dr. Lord also teleported him out to somewhere in the woods for awhile, so at least he won't be bothering us while we get settled in. Though maybe I am being too hard as Barry does have a dog. I've noticed most dog owners have some redeeming qualities. Too bad none of us realized the dog was there until after Dr. Lord left, because it would be a shame to let him starve or poop in the room while Barry's away. I guess I'll take care of the cute doggie until Barry comes back. But I'll check around with the others to see if anyone else is willing to or wants to share the chores.
Besides the Scions I met today, our dorm itself is worth mentioning. All of us Scions have a floor to ourselves, the 11th floor, but the building we're in only has 10 floors. It's apparently some sort of special place made by some god or gods. Dr. Lord didn't really explain much. But no sense in asking questions now because I think I just know too little to understand something like this. But if it's anything like the TARDIS, I will definitely make the effort to learn how to create something like this. The potential uses are mind boggling. Another unique thing about our dorm is that we access our floor via an elevator that is apparently invisible to mortals but not us Scions. I doubt it's a ghost form, like Dr. Lord's kitty cat used, so once I better understand science and the supernatural I will have to look into that as well.
That's all I can think of for my first day here. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Start Reading Here
Welcome to this gaming blog. For those of you that randomly wound up here while crawling the web, this is a blog about a fictional character I invented for a role playing game called Scion that is published by White Wolf. They have some pretty cool ideas about games, and they're easy to find on the net. Scion is a game based in part on mythology, or perhaps better to say several mythologies. They've got like a dozen or so historical mythologies that they have tweaked (or sometimes majorly altered) to fit into this game universe. Which means though Scion may make mythology fun, it is definitely NOT faithful to existing mythologies. Typically it's a contemporary fantasy (meaning a fantasy set in a world similar to our real world at this point in time), where the fantastic elements are drawn as much as possible from mythology. It can be played other ways, after all it's just a game.
For those of you who came here knowing about Scion, then I really have nothing special you need to hear. Unless of course the you are a player of one of my fellow Band members. For my fellow Band members, you should know that in the game that this the blog data is an encrypted file...and it's written in Greek (though Google Translate should get you by that hurdle). As the computer is also password protected (with a different password), your character probably can't read the blog - unless your character is Ren or is being assisted by Ren. A final word of warning, Alex's thought processes are a strange mixture of normal and bizarre, so reading this may have an impact on how you role play with my odd but mostly likable Alex.
Before getting to his blogs, a bit about Alexander Efasteyo...
Alex is the son of Hephaestus and a mortal woman (originally from Greece, but living in the US). He grew up in a loving family. He has two half-sisters, but he never even thinks of the "half" - they're just his baby sisters whom he loves. He had a fairly normal, happy life growing up. However, he was always large for his age - finally stopping growing when he hit 7'3" (and he's also a light 295 pounds at the start of the game, but if Griff allows, I'd like him to gain 5 lb. each time he picks up a new dot of Strength and/or Epic Strength). He's also something of a genius, though that's mostly channeled into inventing things or fixing things. His deep thinking is usually not very fast thinking, and that combined with his absent mindedness tend to mask his intelligence. While it was never a secret that his stepdad was not his dad, he had never met his biological father and had been told that his father was a visiting professor who seemingly vanished off the face of the earth a week or two after Alex was conceived.
Despite a more or less normal life at first, things went very strange for him not long after his 17th birthday. Alex was at a Halloween costume party/dance with his girl friend, and after excusing himself to use the restroom, he got a very strange visit by a guy that claimed to be his father. The strange parts being the two golden robots that accompanied the man, and the fact the man said that the Greek gods (and other pantheons) are real and that they are fighting an ongoing battle against Titans. The attack by several cyclopes that occurred shortly after hearing this tended to help convince Alex of the reality of the situation. Unfortunately several students were killed or seriously injured during this attack, and Alex's girl friend was among the first to be killed. The sight of her broken body caused Alex to go berserk and charge the one eyed monstrosities. Eventually all the cyclopes were killed. But the price was heavy and left Alex with a burning hate for Titans and their spawn.
Time passed, but the tragedy from that party left the whole student body mostly depressed that year. Summer finally helped restore Alex to a more normal mood, and he was looking forward to going to the special university that Hephaestus had selected for him. With lots of hugs, kisses, and more than a few tears, he finally said his good byes and drove out to his new school.
After getting a brief introduction to other special students (all Scions, though all from different pantheons), Alex started moving his stuff into his half of a dorm room. A general description follows...
Alex's shelves contain his text books and several supplemental books for classes he's currently taking - mostly appropriate books from the Schaum's Outline Series. Plus he has a few other personal books, notably: The Art of War by Sun Tzu, A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, the 91st editition of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and Bulfinch's Mythology. The rest of the shelves have various mechanical or electrical parts, loosely grouped together based on his latest tinkering. He has some no name computer system (tower configuration, and actually something he put together himself after buying the components separately) under his desk - though of course the monitor, keyboard, etc. rest on top of the desk. (For those who care, his computer is password protected.) Some of his clothes are hung in the closet, but most are in the chest of drawers. Also in the top drawer of his chest of drawers is "hidden" his shotgun, extra ammo, and gun cleaning kit. In this case hidden merely means it is under some clean rags made from old clothes making the shotgun not so terribly obvious. (If small children should ever come visit the floor, Alex will permanently move the shotgun to the top shelf of the closet, making such a shelf if one does not already exist. The shotgun is also kept loaded, so hopefully Sonia's half brother doesn't like playing with guns.) Alex has a couple of small tool boxes, actually small tackle boxes, which he stores under his bed if he's not using them or carrying them around in his backpack. Alex has a handful of posters. They look something like this: Bruce Lee, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and MacGyver - though the last one has duct tape listed as also being needed. On top of his chest of drawers, he has a picture of his mother, one of his stepfather, one each of his two (half) sisters, and a picture of himself with his best friend Kobi plus some others dressed in gis wearing newly earned black belts. On his desk he has a picture of his entire family (including himself), a picture of his deceased girl friend Alicia (if anyone looks at the back of this picture there is written in black felt pen "I will NEVER forget"), and a picture of his two sisters together. He also has a miniature refrigerator, and while it is not working at the moment, he does keep a chemistry set (one of the more elaborate kits made for kids) in the refrigerator when he's not playing around with it. Perhaps the only other thing worth noting in his room is his "Girls of Harmon U" calendar.
For those of you who came here knowing about Scion, then I really have nothing special you need to hear. Unless of course the you are a player of one of my fellow Band members. For my fellow Band members, you should know that in the game that this the blog data is an encrypted file...and it's written in Greek (though Google Translate should get you by that hurdle). As the computer is also password protected (with a different password), your character probably can't read the blog - unless your character is Ren or is being assisted by Ren. A final word of warning, Alex's thought processes are a strange mixture of normal and bizarre, so reading this may have an impact on how you role play with my odd but mostly likable Alex.
Before getting to his blogs, a bit about Alexander Efasteyo...
Alex is the son of Hephaestus and a mortal woman (originally from Greece, but living in the US). He grew up in a loving family. He has two half-sisters, but he never even thinks of the "half" - they're just his baby sisters whom he loves. He had a fairly normal, happy life growing up. However, he was always large for his age - finally stopping growing when he hit 7'3" (and he's also a light 295 pounds at the start of the game, but if Griff allows, I'd like him to gain 5 lb. each time he picks up a new dot of Strength and/or Epic Strength). He's also something of a genius, though that's mostly channeled into inventing things or fixing things. His deep thinking is usually not very fast thinking, and that combined with his absent mindedness tend to mask his intelligence. While it was never a secret that his stepdad was not his dad, he had never met his biological father and had been told that his father was a visiting professor who seemingly vanished off the face of the earth a week or two after Alex was conceived.
Despite a more or less normal life at first, things went very strange for him not long after his 17th birthday. Alex was at a Halloween costume party/dance with his girl friend, and after excusing himself to use the restroom, he got a very strange visit by a guy that claimed to be his father. The strange parts being the two golden robots that accompanied the man, and the fact the man said that the Greek gods (and other pantheons) are real and that they are fighting an ongoing battle against Titans. The attack by several cyclopes that occurred shortly after hearing this tended to help convince Alex of the reality of the situation. Unfortunately several students were killed or seriously injured during this attack, and Alex's girl friend was among the first to be killed. The sight of her broken body caused Alex to go berserk and charge the one eyed monstrosities. Eventually all the cyclopes were killed. But the price was heavy and left Alex with a burning hate for Titans and their spawn.
Time passed, but the tragedy from that party left the whole student body mostly depressed that year. Summer finally helped restore Alex to a more normal mood, and he was looking forward to going to the special university that Hephaestus had selected for him. With lots of hugs, kisses, and more than a few tears, he finally said his good byes and drove out to his new school.
After getting a brief introduction to other special students (all Scions, though all from different pantheons), Alex started moving his stuff into his half of a dorm room. A general description follows...
Alex's shelves contain his text books and several supplemental books for classes he's currently taking - mostly appropriate books from the Schaum's Outline Series. Plus he has a few other personal books, notably: The Art of War by Sun Tzu, A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, the 91st editition of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and Bulfinch's Mythology. The rest of the shelves have various mechanical or electrical parts, loosely grouped together based on his latest tinkering. He has some no name computer system (tower configuration, and actually something he put together himself after buying the components separately) under his desk - though of course the monitor, keyboard, etc. rest on top of the desk. (For those who care, his computer is password protected.) Some of his clothes are hung in the closet, but most are in the chest of drawers. Also in the top drawer of his chest of drawers is "hidden" his shotgun, extra ammo, and gun cleaning kit. In this case hidden merely means it is under some clean rags made from old clothes making the shotgun not so terribly obvious. (If small children should ever come visit the floor, Alex will permanently move the shotgun to the top shelf of the closet, making such a shelf if one does not already exist. The shotgun is also kept loaded, so hopefully Sonia's half brother doesn't like playing with guns.) Alex has a couple of small tool boxes, actually small tackle boxes, which he stores under his bed if he's not using them or carrying them around in his backpack. Alex has a handful of posters. They look something like this: Bruce Lee, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and MacGyver - though the last one has duct tape listed as also being needed. On top of his chest of drawers, he has a picture of his mother, one of his stepfather, one each of his two (half) sisters, and a picture of himself with his best friend Kobi plus some others dressed in gis wearing newly earned black belts. On his desk he has a picture of his entire family (including himself), a picture of his deceased girl friend Alicia (if anyone looks at the back of this picture there is written in black felt pen "I will NEVER forget"), and a picture of his two sisters together. He also has a miniature refrigerator, and while it is not working at the moment, he does keep a chemistry set (one of the more elaborate kits made for kids) in the refrigerator when he's not playing around with it. Perhaps the only other thing worth noting in his room is his "Girls of Harmon U" calendar.
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