Seeking Something [Jaime]

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Resting on a log, Desdemona turned her head slightly to see if anyone was watching before she closed her eyes and fell back onto the grass. Her sprawled body rested on the ground, ankles laying on the top of the log as her black hair spread over the green grass to soak up whatever moisture was there. Yawning, her black eyes studied the chariot of the sun as it slowly made its way across the blue sky. The forest above her provided a shade against the bright lights that continued to be the bane of her existence, but not so much shade as would obscure her view.

Getting up slowly, she made her way through the forest to find somewhere to linger. Coming across a small stream of water, she bent down to capture some of the cold water in her hands and raised them to her lips. Sucking the moisture, she dusted her hands off and then turned as she thought she heard something. Her white neck curved elegantly, swanlike, as her black clad body stood out like a bull in a china shop.

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Truthfully, the son of Hephaestus didn't expect to actually see anybody in the forest when he scanned through it. It took him by surprise when he actually found a large group of people actually. Each person was just spread out far enough that they couldn't see each other through the foliage or hear one another over the sounds of everything else in the forest. Almost everyone was dealing with personal problems. Everyone at the camp seemed rather full of themselves, and that made his life incredibly easy. Well, everyone except for one. One person he saw didn't seem to look troubled, angry or sad. Just...there. It was interesting.

Without making a sound, he walked closer, keeping an eye on her and the floor as he moved. After a couple moments he was only a few yards away from her as she bent over to get a drink. Like any man would, he turned awkwardly to stare as she bent forward at the spring. His lips parted slightly as he soaked up the sight of her before picked up a rock and straightened back up. With a silent exhale, he lifted his hand into the air and dropped the rock, letting it hit the ground with a thud.

He didn't bother to hide his stare as he looked her over again like a hawk eyeing its next meal when she turned to look in his direction. Quietly he leaned against the closest tree and stuffed his hands into the pockets on his blue jeans. His regular grey hoodie had its sleeves rolled up to his elbows, with the hood pulled back. Naturally, out in the cool air he had the jacket zipped up to warm himself, even if he didn't need it. "Think the water is safe to drink?" He cocked an eyebrow at her as pools of brown eyes came back up to stare at her black eyes.

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Desdemona studied the man in front of her, black eyes glowing in the shadowy atmosphere. They could never been described as 'sparkling' or 'comely' eyes, too dark and intense for that. Instead, they projected out a sense that she was reading his soul from the inside out. That she could see into his deepest darkest crevices and read his every thought, before they dropped becomingly. The tiniest hint of a pale blush rippled across her pale white flesh, a shy smile threatening to break the illusion before she spoke in her typical whispering voice.

"Well, unless somebody poisoned it since yesterday, I would say yes."

Bringing up a slim, ladylike hand to brush away any ferns or bracken that may have gotten tangled in her long black hair when she bent over, she hid a smile and then turned back to him. "And what are you doing in the forest, pray? Not many people like to wander this far in, for fear of coming across one of the monsters lurking around."

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"And poison isn't a distinct possibility?" He cocked an eyebrow at her when she stared back at him. Her black eyes intrigued him, he had never seen such a dark color in a persons iris. It was bizarre, and at the same time, a nice sight. He didn't pick up the normal feeling one would get under her penetrating stare. If he had faced it a couple years earlier, then perhaps he would have gotten the aching feeling that she could read him like everyone else. Instead he just made the assumption that she was trying to read him because that's what it looked like in his eyes. Okay. He was fine with her picking up her own ideas about him. It was better than any truth that would be given. "The stream does belong to someone right?" He smirked slightly.

The combination of her slight blush and the drop of her eyes gave him incentive to push off from the tree and enter the shady clearing that was around her. Black seemed to be a common color when it came to her, he noted as he got closer. But he stopped when she bent over and ran a hand through her hair to clear the stuff that it had caught when she had lain across the ground. He hid his own expression at this, a frown. The shrubbery that had gathered in her hair sort of outlined her features, but when she came back up he still couldn't complain. Nor could he decide whether or not he liked her more without the outline. A decision he could make at another time.

"Prey?" He scoffed. The word that hit his ears was only partially different to the one that left her clever lips. "What makes you so sure I'm the one being hunted?" He raised another eyebrow in her direction. "Or perhaps you meant pray." The words that escaped his parted mouth didn't sound like a guess. "To whom should I give praise?" Rhetorical. Just an attempt to make her think further. Most of his questions were Rhetorical, but he did like when someone answered. It spoke about the person. The rest of her sentence was what stuck out at him. "And are you afraid?" He closed some of the distance between them with a step. "Even with the possibility one of us might have just found a monster?" He was simply avoiding her question, and perhaps making an attempt to answer a few of his own.

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She raised a hand to cover a giggle at his words, her face remaining otherwise impassive. “Oh dear…” she mused softly. “I do so hope that I have not been drinking something like water mixed with the excretions of a Minotaur or Harpy. I would feel so embarrassed if it was true. And with this place, I am afraid that you can never quite cross the possibility of poison off the list. All manner of secret vendettas and family feuds are commonplace here. I would not put it past someone to attempt to do away with others.” Her tone was light as she teased him, although she wasn’t completely being false. This place was a hotbed of rumour and emotions, more so now that there was a faction actively trying to destroy the fragile peace between the Olympians and the Primordials.

Her initial reading of the man in front of her was that he was older than he looked and had encountered a lot. There was a certain aura around many people who had been ‘put through the ringer’ and this man had it, the picture becoming stronger as he approached her. Her eyes pondered whether he was trustworthy or not, or whether the pleasant looks were a façade, while her lips smiled demurely in his direction. Tilting her head slightly to the side as he attempted to word play with her, she smiled but the smile sharpened the tiniest amount.

“Oh, everyone here is hunted by someone or something,” she airily continued. “Whether it is the past or a creature, or a fellow camp member. We are all of us both the hunted and the hunter. An interesting contrast, no? And praise whoever you wish to. I myself prefer the older ones to any Olympian figure but I do not look down on those who prefer the Gods of Olympus.”

Resting her hands against her chest, she watched him as he took a step closer to her and his scent wafted across her nose. It was a pleasant change from the more subtle scents around them. Closing the gap further with a step of her own, her willowy body of over six feet stood becomingly. “Am I afraid?” she whispered. “Sometimes I am. But am I afraid of you? Should I be? The tales tell us of all those who meet their destruction in the shape of someone fair. Is that what it is for us now? Are you my…doom?”

The last word lingered in the air between them.

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He let out a small laugh at her words. Silently, he stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and turned his head ever so slightly to look past her and collect a glance of the stream. "You never know..." He gave her a mocking smile and directed his eyes back to the Onyx pools that had been inspecting him. The cold air that filled his lungs felt nice. The sting in his chest from it gave him a fresh burst of energy. It wasn't something he could always enjoy. "When you gotta go, you gotta go. I'm guessing Minotaurs and Harpies are just the same."

Jaime didn't really have an idea of what this porcelain doll was like. He could have put together a rather accurate guess if he had wanted to, but he held off. The playful manner she was giving had left him in a state of study, instead of inspection and then alone with a box of darts and a mental dartboard. "I do hope you have not gotten stuck in the middle of a family feud or become wrapped up in some 'personal vendetta.' That'd be too bad." Her smile may not have been going for attention but that is precisely what it got from him. His eyes dropped from hers to catch her lips with his stare. She seemed to be enjoying this so far. He certainly was.

"Perhaps a while ago maybe. But by now, seconds after you've mentioned it, the contrast seems rather small. Look past that. Instead of the mere circle of a wolf and its quarry, look instead at the sphere of it all. What sort of contrast does it become when you try to account for the spectators...or the anti-predators? Those who don't fight to feed, but simply defend to survive? Does it even stay a contrast or does one need a new word for the additions added to the cycle?" His hands and arms flexed beneath the fabric of his jacket before he pulled them out from the pockets he had placed them in. "I prefer to not offer praise to anyone or anything."

The change in the scents around him had an interesting touch to the situation. He was almost surprised by the level of consciousness when she closed more of the gap between them. His senses were raised but was this something that happened whenever he just got close to another person? Did he simply get cautious? He could not discern the difference at the moment. Perhaps later if he had another person, then he could test for a change. "Oh? Is my shape fair?" He gave her a small smirk and looked her over again, his eyes trying to linger more this time around. He could not stare though when she finished the last sentence. Instead his pupils snapped up to meet those Onyx pools yet again.

"Is that what you want me to be? Your doom?" He slowly lifted a hand and gave her form a simple wave of his hand, almost as if he was drawing a line. "Or would you prefer something else? Something not so sudden?"

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"No praise to anyone?" she echoed. "Why, that seems a little sad to my ears. To never commune with your divine parent or offer a silent thanks for the good weather to whoever may be listening? It seems a little lonesome. But I am a more retrospective thinker, I suppose. I have great respect for the forces that had shaped this world, whether they be around now or had ceased to exist a long time ago." A winsome smile replaced the bright smile of earlier, black eyes softening.

Watching his hand trace a shape in front of her, Desdemona studied it with barely veiled interest. "I don't often get what I want here at the Camp," she softly spoke, a hand brushing away some hair from her eyes that was threatening to annoy her. "The spirit of fate often has a trick up her sleeve waiting to drop into my life, but I wouldn't believe that you were my doom. No, my doom will come in a far less fair visage than yours. I've seen my doom many times in the distance and one day, it and I will be standing exactly where you and I are right now, staring into each others eyes just like we are doing. Only that time we will not eventually walk away from each other."

She looked down at her feet softly. "Forgive me my morbid tone. I'm afraid that I often lean towards the negative side of things, it is a side effect of my divine lineage, I suppose. I have darkness in my blood, from my mother. Perhaps I am the monster you shouldn't be seeking out after all, then. Or the decoy, perhaps."

A black pupil slowly looked up at him from under her jet black lashes.

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"I'm afraid not." He mumbled softly as she went on. The weather? He scoffed. "It's been far too long since I've ever actually had a true moment to stop and enjoy the weather. I'm not one to stop and give thanks to those behind my lack of time." He stopped talking for a moment to put a foot behind him in case he needed to step backwards. "Lonesome...?" He paused again and exhaled softly. "Perhaps at one point, I felt lonely or abandoned but that has passed. Instead I feel them to be selfish. The only motive I can ever see for their selfish moves is greed. I suppose I'm no longer lonely...but blind."

He couldn't help but watch as she watched his hand with wondrous eyes and spoke. The spirit of fate often has a trick up her sleeve waiting to drop into her life? He let a smile split his lips as she continued. Slowly he opened his mouth to reply, his smile widened slightly. "I find it a bit easier if you force fate to wear something sleeveless." His smile quickly turned into a grin at his own words until he heard her speak about his fairness, silently he let her finish. "Has this all been a sly way to say I'm handsome? And who says we have to walk away from each other?" He cocked an eyebrow down at her, his hand slowly lifting to brush away her hair again for her.

"Should I forgive you?" He asked her softly and lowered his hand to the crook in her neck. "Fortunately for me, I've seen my monster too, the one I should be looking for, and you are not he..." He stopped to look her over again. His eyes lingering as long as he could manage before he looked back into her black pupils. "Unfortunately, for me, if you are the decoy of my monster, then you are definitely one that would manage to ensnare me." His grin slowly disappeared, only to leave his face blank. It was certainly a conversation he wanted to last.

"Are you my decoy?" He purposefully let the last word linger in the air between them, just like she had.

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"I suppose," she drew out softly after a while, "you could look upon our divine parents as selfish. But they are not always like that. I mean, Poseidon for example has never failed to claim a child belonging to his blood. Even my mother, who I might add is not a kind spirit at heart, has aided me when I needed her nor punished me for staying neutral in the recent war. But perhaps it is just semantics. I prefer to think of their aloofness as a...desire not to curse their offspring with duties beyond their know or ability."

The touch of his hand against her skin made her blush but she refused to step away or raise a hand to push his off. Maybe she was letting him take too many liberties in the middle of the forest by allowing him to touch her skin, but the sensation was new to her and to be honest, it felt...not uncomfortable. "Ah, you men," she teased lightly. "Always trying to bring the conversation back to your appearance. Although, I will not deny that it is pleasant enough to gaze upon. But I am sure that every Eros-struck girl has said that to you since your arrival here. A visage so...fair....would certainly not be suffering from lack of admiration."

As his hand slipped down to her neck, she closed her eyes for a second then opened them to look back into his own.

"Am I your decoy?" she echoed. "I...I don't know. I've never been in such a situation before, I wouldn't know how to tell if I was. But I don't mean to be. I have no wish to be a toy of Eros to tangle you in his schemes."

Slowly, her white hand reached up to hesitantly touch his own as it rested against the crook of her neck.

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"Perhaps if I had been born under Poseidon then I might be different." The blush that rose on her cheeks was nice. It added a great tint of red to her pale skin that would've forced any man to such a level of desperation to see more that they would have killed, anything. Aphrodite was not unkind when it came to other women. "If only I could see things through your eyes. Perhaps I would see aloofness too in place of abandonment..." He exhaled slowly again and carefully nipped at her alabaster skin with his thumb and forefinger. She was smooth beneath his touch, almost like when one touches marble, only much softer.

"Oh believe me..." He paused as his hand dipped down to her neck and he inhaled deeply at the sight of her closing her eyes. He slowly trailed his hand up and down her neck until she opened her eyes and he paused to stare back into hers. "It has been suffering from such a lack but..." He raised his other hand to her waist and pulled her closer enough so they were just barely touching. "I would much rather have this conversation move onto the beauty of another."

He tilted his head to the side ever so slightly as she repeated his question. "Hell...even if you were..." He stopped as she reached up and stopped, then moved in to touch his hand. He slowly moved his hand to try and hook some of his fingers with hers. "...Eros wouldn't have much luck trying to capture me. I'm not one to respond well to threats and tricks." He slowly pulled his hand from her neck, taking hers with it to bring her hand to his lips.

"So what is your wish?" He asked before bringing his lips to her hand again, his eyes on locked on her while he did.

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"You might not like what you see if you could look through my eyes," she softly warned him.  "You would only see dark things, things of terror and discord. It would drive you mad if it could." A tiny smile sat on her lips, giving a softness to her face that was not expected. It was a far cry from the smiles of other women in Camp Half-Blood; neither teasing or scornful, sharp nor predatory. It softened her harsh gothic look, adding a little colour and gentleness. Moreover, a little sweetness.

The move closer together made her lips part in a small 'o' of surprise, but she made no move to create distance between the two bodies again. The idea that he found her fair was hilarious to her, and out of the slight besotted feelings flowing through her body came suspicion and wariness, although she made no outward sign that she was thinking about his words. How could he think her so fair upon just meeting, unless he had a ulterior motive? Could he be trying to flatter her to get something out of her, or worse, her mother? The Usurpers were still around and not dead yet, so he could be one. Male attention had never been something she had been comfortable with, not since late childhood. Her eyes sharpened the tiniest amount, but it was hard to tell in her face what it was for. The smile still remained, however, the soft and warm gesture hiding a concealed wariness.

Letting him hook his fingers around hers, she extended her arm so he could bring her hand to his lips. "Do you think I am beautiful?" she queried him shyly. "That is not what I've heard whispered at camp, not for the 13 years I have called this place home. I hear all sorts of rumor and whispers but they have never claimed me as beautiful, nor even fair."

"And I suppose my wish is...to hear your wish," she hedged teasingly.

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Her words made him smile. The way she constantly danced around each topic like everything that was said was dangerous, it was amusing. Then again she wasn't the only. With a deep breath, he shifted on one foot to try and look over her in a different perspective. He didn't want to look at the world through her eyes? He had already seen so much through his own. Still, there was one thing she was right about. "Yeah...there is definitely a chance I wouldn't like what you see." He paused to shift back to his original position. "Besides that, I like what I see right now."

The small look that passed over her delicate features made him smile, and his smile widened when she didn't bother to pull away from him. He did have an ulterior motive, multiple actually. Nearly every move he made had an ulterior motive. It was...his way of doing things. But not every motive was bad for those around him. Most of it was simply manipulation towards what ever he needed but there was usually no knowing unless he said it. Did he know that she thought something was off? No. Safe to assume? Everything was, but nothing was safe to say and he had gotten used to that. It was his life.

Slowly, he pulled her hand just an inch away from his lips before lightly began to nuzzle the back of her hand with his cheek. Just for a moment before he loosened what couldn't even be called a grip so she wouldn't feel the need to be lending him her hand. "You are very beautiful." He stated firmly. It was ridiculous for anyone to think otherwise. "Even if I had been here for the past thirteen years, I do not believe I could say anything different." Again he stated his words firmly, putting as much emotion behind his words as he could manage.

"My wish?" He cocked an eyebrow at her and lightly tried to press her against him. "I have far too many wishes." He smiled softly as he barely teased back. "The biggest one though...would have to be more." He lightly rubbed his hand over the spot on her waist that he had used to pull her closer. "I have this need...for more of everything." He lingered longingly on that last word.

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She didn’t normally flatter and dance around what topics people were talking about, but some small warning sense made her want to act this way with the young man in front of her. Perhaps the fact that they were conversing in private like this made her a little wary, or maybe there was an element of suspicion in her own nature, since she was related to the goddess who personified it. Or maybe she just didn’t trust him, because he was a man, and because they were alone. “I’m glad you think so,” she softly demurred.

“You flatter me,” she shyly replied as his words complimenting her alleged beauty came out. She watched him nuzzle her hand with his cheek, thinking fleetingly that the movement was strange, even for someone trying to be gallant. “It is not something I’ve heard much before, if ever. Forgive me if it takes a little getting used to before I accept your words. But they were kind words, even so.” A smile was sent to reassure him of how much she appreciated his sentiments, even if she was still suspicious.

Letting him press her to his chest, Desdemona smiled and let his hand drift along her waist without separating herself from him. "To have more? That is a interesting wish to have," she softly teased him. "I suppose I should name my wish then. I would wish...to know the truth behind what other people were saying. I could unleash fear and paranoia if I wanted to, but I would dearly love to be able to discern the truth as well."

She deftly slipped out of his grasp so that they were separate again. "After all, in this day and age, truth is the rarest currency. Were your words truth before, Master Demi-God? Or just a play?"

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The tone in her voice didn't leave Jaime sitting right. His attempt to compliment her had left her feeling doubtful? That was not what he wanted. Something was off and he had to fix it. With a deep breath, he smiled at her again as she pushed his affection away. She did not want anything this way? Had he been wrong at first sight? It was a possibility, but it was rare. If so, it was an easy fix. "But not the right words..." He picked up her sentence as she moved to finish. "Do you not like the focus to be cast upon you?" Even if she deserved it? His gaze softened further.

The way she moved from topic to topic was rather interesting. She did it freely, and easily, as if none of them had been her abode in the first place. The tease came quickly and passed just as quickly. An interesting wish to have? Just like that, she left it there and he smiled softly at it. She was really focused on keeping a specific distance away. He wondered if it was just from him or from everyone. "Oh if only there were a way for one to read translate the words that leave ones lips." He teased back, fully ready for her to drop another topic, but she didn't. The threat of fear and paranoia failed to faze the son of Hephaestus.

The movement away from him left Jaime with an apologetic glint in his eyes, but he let her go. Master demi-god? His face stayed blank. Was she trying to make a play on his ego, or referring to him with another simple teasing title? "In this day and age..." He paused to rid himself of that apologetic glint, and left his expression bleak. "...all words are a play." He paused to glance away from her for a moment. "I suppose though, I will try my best to grant your wish..." He sighed loudly and turned his brown eyes back to her. "Every word I have spoken thus far has been truth." He nodded in her direction before he bunched his hands together and glanced around them again.

"You're wrong, you know?" His vision stopped on the stream she had sipped from. "You can learn as much as you want from others, but almost everything they will say is wrong. You will never learn as much from them as you could from yourself. Words of truth are no longer the rarest currency...Words unspoken are." He looked away from the stream again to stare at her. "Words that are never said can never lie..."

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"No," she replied softly to his first question. "I don't like the spotlight being thrust on me. I don't think I ever have. People generally leave me alone because they're scared of me, or scared of my mother, especially when I was growing up. I'm a child of darkness and darkness recedes when light is thrust upon it. Being noticed makes me...uncomfortable. I would much rather people didn't drag me to the front of things. Even someone who I would count as a friend. I would prefer not to be noticed, allowed to do my thing."

Smoothing down her skirts self-consciously, she studied him with her head tilted to the side. Slowly, she took a few steps towards where he was standing so they could both look into the stream. Her black eyes studied his reflection and hers, the contrast between her simple palette of shades and his more vibrant look. As he cast his eyes up to look back in her face, she stared back at him with a neutral expression that betrayed none of what she was thinking. "But how can one understand words if they are not spoken?" came her soft reply, open curiosity in her tone. "Surely unspoken words are better not to be spoken at all? They would lose any value they had, once they're uttered."

She looked down at her bare feet for a few seconds. "It occurs to me that I don't think I know your name. We've been discoursing on philosophy and ethics without exchanging identification."

Gently, she held out her hand, palm side up for him to touch if he wanted.