Be Still (Open)

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie liked being in the art cabin in the late afternoons and evenings. Nobody was usually in the building around that time since they were usually in the mess hall or the amphitheatre. Charlie skipped campfire sessions and ate dinner later, which was okay by him. Besides, he liked the light the setting sun provided for his plants.

On this day, he was by his favorite window that faced the trees. He had his easel and canvas set up in front of him with his paints to his side. He would glance around the easel to check on the trees as he painted them. It was a challenge to him. He challenged himself to paint the trees as they were before the light changed too much on them.

A small smile crept onto Charlie’s face as he painted those trees onto his canvas. He was in his own little world at that moment, completely oblivious to anyone to happened to join him in the 

[Deleted]

All Mae could do was hope her evening would be better than her morning. She'd spent nearly half an hour scrubbing away purple from her arms, since her mood had been so terrible an entire grape vine had pretty much exploded on her. There were still some splotches of skin that were purple, but thankfully those were covered up by the hoodie she wore. Of course, it was one of John's older ones, like most of her clothes were lately, so she practically swam in it, but it was warm and that was what mattered. While she was cleaning up, she was still pretty miserable, so she figured she'd go back to an old haunt of hers. The art building. She loved seeing the work people did. There was one Iris girl who always drew the most beautiful scenes, complete with rainbows. She may have been down in the dumps for a while and pretty moody, but rainbows and bright colors were still a thing she loved.

She pulled the hoodie tighter around her as the wind picked up, picking up her pace until she got to the door. It was already cracked open a bit, so she slid in, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw someone was there. "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know anyone was in here. I can, uh...Come back later." She wrung her hands in the long sleeves nervously. She knew that people didn't like to be disturbed when they were in here, and she'd been oddly uncomfortable around people lately, ever since her medicine seemed to stop working.

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie was focused on shading the trees in his painting along with getting the little bit of the highlights from the setting sun. He was tediously mixing colors and putting them on the right spots. He didn't hear anyone walk into the building and he was about to put a leaf on a tree when he heard the voice.

He jumped a bit as his stroke missed and went off to the side. Charlie took a deep breath as he analyzed the painting and decided that it would be ruined with that one little blot. He put down his painting supplies down as he turned around to see who joined him. "No... no," he said quietly as he shook his head at the girl. "You can join me... I don't mind..."

[Deleted]

Mae couldn't help but wince when she saw him jump, effectively causing him to mess up. "Sorry..." She mumbled out, wringing her hands even more before staring down at the floor. She'd expected yelling of some sort, not him agreeing to let her stay in there for a while. She only gave a tiny nod as she slipped further into the room, sticking to the walls to try and stay as invisible as possible. She didn't want to bother him any more than she already had. She fiddled with the sleeves of the hoodie before she finally pulled the hood down, rearranging the backwards hat on her head before going back to the sleeves. Her hair tickled her chin as she skulked around, and the growing urge to cut it again filled her. Of course, she wouldn't do that. Her siblings had been furious when she'd cut it off the first time, and Rhys had always told her he liked it long.

She winced at the simple memory of her only friend. She hadn't seen him in months. She didn't even know if he was still alive. He'd just up and left one day. Left the camp, left Ariel, left Mae. She shook her head slightly, trying to force the thoughts out of her head as she kept walking. She tried to stay as quiet as possible, but it wasn't working. The floor creaked when she moved, she kept bumping into things. Any noise that could be made, was made. Every sound made her wince until she finally decided to just stand still. She kept her eyes on the walls, scanning the paintings there, until they landed on one that punched her in the heart. It was all reds and black with just a splash of blue. A blonde girl being tormented in a castle in the pits of Hell. The picture made her frown, but she couldn't take her eyes off of it. "That poor girl..." She hadn't even known she'd spoken. She was too focused on the dark painting before her.

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie watched the girl as she decided to skirt around the outside edges of the room for a little bit. He studied her a bit and noticed how skiddish she seemed to be acting. After a couple of moments of observing her, he turned back to his painting and tried to do a little bit of recovery work on that dab on astray. He hurried on mixing colors so he could cover it up. He didn't allow himself to get into his own little world again, since he knew that girl was still in the cabin based on the pat-pattering of her feet.

He fixed the spot and put down his brush just in time for the girl to say something else. He turned back around to the girl to see her standing by what he considered morbid paintings. "You know," he said quietly as took his eyes off the painting and put them on the girl, "they say the first rule of painting is to paint what you see or what you know." He nodded his head towards the painting. "I feel sorry for her that she went through something like that."

[Deleted]

She jumped a bit at the sound of the male's voice, almost forgetting that he was in the building as well. At his words, though, she felt her face fall even more. She was finally able to pull her eyes away from the painting, taking a few steps back. She didn't want to be near it. That was just...Awful. "It's horrible." She whispered as she brushed her bangs back, trying to fix them so they were under her hat. It wasn't working very well. She moved further away from the dark painting, trying to get it out of her mind as she plopped down on a stool at one of the tables.

"Sorry about your painting." She said again. She hated when she messed someone up. Painting meant the world to some of the kids here. There was one who'd even thrown a dagger at her because Mae had accidentally bumped a table. On the table in front of her was a spool of yarn, and she bit the inside of her cheek, debating on if she wanted to attempt anything. She could always use another scarf, it would be colder, soon, and John had stolen her last one. The diva.

[Charlie Webster]

"I heard that girl used to be a servant of Nyx and got tortured by Hades or something along those lines," Charlie said quietly with a bit of a shrug. "I don't know if it's true or not, since you know how rumors go around here." He sighed as he shook his head. "It's just sad she went through something like that. Feeling like you're trapped." I know exactly how she feels. he mentally added as he looked at the girl as she sat down at one of the tables.

He chuckled a bit as he looked back at his painting. The mistake was only noticeable if someone was really looking for it. "It's alright," he said with another shrug before he looked back at the girl. "It's not like I'm gonna be famous with my paintings or whatever. I'm not a Monet or a van Gogh. I'm just Charlie. I doubt he'll get famous for painting trees."

[Deleted]

The words from the boy made MJ's heart break just a little more. That poor girl. She was a servant of Nyx? Didn't you have to like...Sell your soul for that? Maerin understood that much. If John was in some sort of trouble with the Gods, MJ would give herself up without question. John was all she had. Sure, she had plenty of other siblings, but none of them knew her like John did. None of them had woken up in the middle of the night and held the young girl until she stopped crying from her latest nightmare. Trapped. "I know how she feels..." She whispered the words, even though she wanted to keep them inside of her head. People weren't supposed to know she was feeling weak. Then again, she was pretty much a whole person, finally, did that mean she could show the weakness if she really wanted to?

Before he started talking again, she finally decided to start tugging at the yarn. A scarf would do her some good, and it was thick enough that she could get the infinity scarf to work. She started wrapping the yarn around her wrist, weaving it through and wrapping some more. "You never know. There's a guy who's famous for painting animals. Why can't you be famous for trees?" She raised an eyebrow, though she didn't turn away her eyes from her task. "At least you could be remembered for something more than just being Mae, the girl with one arm."

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie gave a slightly sad smile as the girl murmured that she knew how the subject in the painting felt. Maybe it was just a rite of demigods to feel trapped at one point or another. With him it happened to be with his step-family. That girl was one of Hades and Nyx. This girl in front of him... he didn't know what troubles she had faced, but he really didn't want to know at the same time.

"Why let your disability define you?" Charlie asked the girl as he stared at her. She was busying doing arm knitting or whatever with the yarn, but Charlie didn't care at that moment. "I mean, demigods are diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, but didn't stop some of the greats like Achilles, Hercules, and Percy." He shrugged a bit with a slight smirk on his face. "And Stephen Hawking was in a wheelchair, but he was known as one of the greatest minds. Something can't define you unless you let it."

[Deleted]

"It's others that do the defining." She whispered to her hands, which were still skillfully wrapping and twisting the yarn. The braids were already coming together. She was glad that the scarf didn't take very long to make, what she didn't like were the thoughts running through her head. "I went for six years kicking the crap out of people. They looked down on me for having one arm. Now, with this new thing, I can't swing a sword to save my life, and it's like the world is ending." She let out a sigh and shook her head a bit, pulling the yarn off of her hands before tying the ends together skillfully. When it was finished, she slid the finished scarf aside and started on another one. She might as well make one for John. Anything to keep her brain busy.

"I'm MJ." She spoke once again to her hands, but she figured it would at least be polite to properly introduce herself. Well, as proper as she saw fit. People hadn't really been her thing lately, so she didn't really care. What she did care about, though, was John getting angry for her forgetting her manners.

[Charlie Webster]

"And you listen to them?" Charlie said with a slight frown. He really shouldn't have been talking. People tried to define him by his father, even though he knew he was nothing like him. However, that didn't stop his classmates or his step-family to subjecting him to their torment. He listened to her story about her disability and he couldn't help but relate to it a bit.

"I... I get where you're coming from," he muttered as he looked down at his hands and clasped them together. "I mean... not the arm thing... but people using something you can't control against you... It sucks..." He sighed as he glanced over at his painting as he frowned a bit. It had gotten too dark outside for him to use the same lighting. He swiveled on his stool back to his painting and started putting stuff away before glancing over his shoulder. "I'm Charlie," he said quietly before turning back to cleaning up. He never used his last name to introduce himself in case someone made the connection.

[Deleted]

She only winced slightly when he called her out for listening to the opinion of others. She never used to do it. She never really gave a crap about what they said, but then her medicine seemed to stop working, and everything began spiraling downwards.

When he spoke again, the corners of her mouth lifted in a small attempt at a smile. At least someone in this place knew what was going on. As he introduced himself, she finally perked her head back up. "If it's easier, you can just call me, Mae." Her smile grew a little bit, but it was mostly out of pride. She hadn't introduced herself as Mae in months, and she was actually openly talking in front of someone. It was a pretty big deal in her books. But this kid knew where she was coming from, and obviously didn't look down on her like the other idiots in the camp did. She tied off the knots to the scarf for John before she hesitantly looked up at Charlie. "Um...Do you-uh...Want one?" Her words were sheepish as she motioned to the scarf. While she was here, she might as well try to be friendly. John would be proud of her.

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie had no clue where this conversation was going, since he was done with painting for the day. There was really no reason for him to stay in the arts building, but this MJ person intrigued him. Someone he could slightly relate to... that was a really refreshing change. He put his paints away and tucked it away so nobody could knock it over or try to steal it. Practically everyone that visited the arts cabin frequently knew that this was Charlie's window. It had the best view out of all of them.

He swung back around on his stool to face MJ just as she gave him a different name to use. "Mae is a little bit easier," he said with a slight smirk. "Doesn't sound as... harsh." After a moment or two of debating, he decided to go join Mae at the table. He kept a reasonable distance from her as he sat down and clasped his hands on the table in front of him. He observed her a bit before she offered to make him a scarf. He shrugged his shoulders. "Sure. Why not. I probably need a good scarf."

[Deleted]

When he sat next to her, Mae tensed a little bit. She wasn't used to people being so close to her nowadays. "Well...When you're me, you have to be a little harsh to keep people off of your back." She smirked a little, actually enjoying the company of the random male she'd walked in on. He was like her, and it was nice. She had to attempt to keep the grin off of her face when he accepted her offer of a scarf. She started right in on another one, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she attempted to concentrate. She'd gotten the hang of it ages ago, so now it only took her about ten minutes to make one.

"Um...Thanks, by the way. For letting me stay. I don't get much time in here anymore." She mumbled as her eyes stayed glued to the task at hand. Most of her free time was taken up by training. She needed to get used to the new arm. Sure, she was left handed and everything, but knowing how to use both hands for sword work was critical for a Demigod. You had to know how to switch it up in case of an injury or something.

[Charlie Webster]

Charlie shrugged as he made himself a little bit more comfortable in his new spot. "I guess it would be a natural form of defense. Animals have claws, spikes, and stuff, but we don't. Humans just have their words and names... I guess I would be more intimidating if I was a Chuck or more sophisticated if I was Charles, but I'm not. I'm just Charlie." He shrugged as he contently watched her make a scarf.

"You're welcome, I guess," he said as he shrugged again. "I don't really see that many people here this late at night. It's kind of nice to have someone here. It can get really lonely, you know?" He watched her make the scarf and noticed how fast she was gong. "You really have practiced making these, have you?"