Monkey Business | open

[Daphne Scotts]

Daphne never asked for a monkey as a pet, but here she was stuck with one. Marius decided that he needed to discover himself, again, after living with that extra voice in his head for so long. And he didn't want Daphne or Shogun to tag along with him, so he left them both at camp. Daphne now had a broken heart and a monkey she could barely take care of. She babysat Shogun once before and the little rascal managed to tear her cabin apart in a few days. So she knew a little bit better than before.

She took Shogun out to the arena where she could hopefully get some training to get her mind off of her ex and Shogun would have plenty of space to run and play. Well... that plan didn't exactly go the way she wanted it to. Shogun kept getting into trouble with knocking over barrels of swords and stuff. Daphne could barely concentrate for a few moments before something bad happened.

And she about lost it after he did it for the fifth time. She screamed in frustration as she threw her sword onto the ground as she kicked at it. "WHY CAN'T YOU BEHAVE!" she screamed at her sword even though it was intended for Marius. She took a deep breath as tears welled up in her eyes and she swiped furiously at them. "Why can't anything go well," she muttered to herself.

[Deleted]

"The only thing yelling gets you is a sore throat," Hitomi said coolly, in the middle of her warm-ups. "And crying just makes your face all blotchy." She twirled the spear around, holding it with both hands, and ended her routine with it behind her back, tip pointing at the ground. Then she put the butt end in the dirt and glared at the thing. "Besides, you should be more considerate of the other campers who are practicing. You shouldn't bring him with you if you know he's only going to cause problems." She didn't admit it to anyone, but being in the foster care system had hardened her a bit. She didn't cry very often anymore, and she didn't like to rely on others. She learned to solve her own problems.

She walked over to one of the few upright barrels and stuck her spear, butt end down, into it. She'd been having issues finding a weapon that suited her. Maybe she'd ask one of the kids in the Apollo cabin to teach her how to use a bow next.

[Daphne Scotts]

Daphne was too wrapped up in her own mind and the fact that the stupid little Capuchin monkey would not behave to notice that there was anyone else in the arena with her. She wiped away her tears and reached down to grab her sword she had thrown when she heard a voice directed towards her. And not a sympathetic voice either. Daphne took a couple of deep breaths as she picked up her sword and whirled around to see who was talking at her.

It was some kid. Anybody that was thirteen years old or younger was still considered a kid to Daphne. She rolled her eyes as she turned on her heels to collect her monkey ward. "I'm guessing you're going through your edgy phase, right? You do know it's okay to scream and cry, even if they does make your face blotchy." Daphne had no interest in picking a fight with a kid when she had a monkey to somehow contain. She stuck an arm for Shogun to jump and crawl up to her shoulder before she sheathed her sword. "Trust me when I say this is him being tame." Daphne rolled her eyes as she walked towards the exit. "Otherwise, he'd be tearing up the cabins and I have no doubt yours would be one of them."

[Deleted]

Edgy phase? Oh, she had no idea. Hitomi's bright blue-green eyes were hard as Daphne spoke to her. She turned away and rifled through one of the other barrels of weapons.

"You think just because you're a girl that someone's going to come running to help when you start crying?" she asked, echoing the words that someone had told her a long time ago. She pulled a short sword out of the barrel and testing it. She made an irritated sound and dropped the sword back into the barrel. The balance was off, it felt clunky in her hand. She withdrew a different short sword and swung it around a bit, this time deciding to keep it. She scoffed softly. "If a monkey tearing up the Poseidon cabin is the worst thing that happens this year, I'll consider it a success," she said, with almost no change in her voice. "After all the monsters that have come after me in the last three years, a monkey is the least of my worries." This she said in an off-handed way, as if it was some inconsequential part of her life.

Why did Chiron let someone bring a monkey to camp anyway? she wondered silently. She sighed and put the sword back into the barrel. For a moment, she wondered if her father was going to give her a magic weapon the way both her new brothers had one. She ended up grabbing another spear, but she hesitated as she was pulling it out. I wonder how everyone's doing at home...? Sarah, and mom and dad... Have they been attacked again?

"Hey, how... how does mail work here?" she asked suddenly. "I... I wanna write a letter to my family." She purposely avoided looking at the other girl, and there was a slight flush to her cheeks, as if she was embarrassed to be asking for help. Even if they weren't home yet, the mail would still take longer to get there, right?

[Daphne Scotts]

"Except I didn't ask for anyone to help me," Daphne said a bit too harshly as she paused for a moment and took a deep breath. For some kid, she definitely knew how to rub her the wrong way. "Trust me," she said in a lower voice. "People leave and you can't depend or trust anyone but yourself." And she nodded her head to agree with herself. She'd been taking care of herself just fine before she met Achilles and Marius and they had to leave her here and heartbroken. Well, that was enough with her. She didn't need stupid boys trying to ruin her life anyway. "Trust me," she almost said with a quick laugh, "with this monkey acts, it may be as worse as a monster attack." The kid was a Poseidon brat. Daphne thought that daughters of the Big Three needed to stick together, but she didn't know if she wanted to be associated with this brat.

And she was about to leave again before the girl spoke to her again, but this time it wasn't harsh. Daphne paused again before she turned around and looked at the girl and for the first time saw her as someone who wasn't going through her edgy phase. She was just a kid who was still getting used to camp and probably missing her old life. Daphne was the same way a few years ago, even if she never really spoke to her mom after she got kicked out of the house because she wasn't an Apollo spawn. "You take the mail to the Big House," Daphne said in a gentler tone than before. "They have a mailbox right on the porch and then inside they have a little basket that holds all the mail they receive."

[Deleted]

She nodded, avoiding Daphne's gaze. "The only one you can trust is yourself..." she said darkly. She shook her head, and when she looked up again she looked normal. She shook her head. "Nothing that monkey can do is as bad as the monster attacks I've dealt with," she promised. She'd had to deal with a canceled show and both her dad and sister in the hospital, then the barn burning down... Yeah, one monkey couldn't be as bad as the monster attacks she'd dealt with.

She nodded in thanks. "I... I'm not used to being away from home on my own, not since I got adopted," she muttered, blushing slightly in embarrassment. She turned her back and started going through a routine with the spear again. Why had she said that? She really shouldn't have said that, not to someone she just met. But it was true. Even when they went to horse shows, all four of them always went together. Being somewhere on her own was a bit scary. Last time she'd gone somewhere on her own, the plane almost got tossed out of the sky.

At least that one made some sense now. Poseidon kids didn't fly.

"You know, he won't listen to you until he knows you're a friend," she said helpfully, her voice a bit softer than it had been yet. She stopped and walked over to the monkey. "I only really know horses, but other animals aren't so different." She stuck her hand into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a bag of dried apple pieces. "Butterscotch loves these," she said, opening the bag and offering one to the monkey. Her face was softer while she was looking at the animal.

"Oh, uh... I'm Hitomi," she finally said. "Um... Sorry about earlier." She looked away then, embarrassed again. Living on the ranch, they hadn't really met any kids near their own age. Sure, they had help with the cattle, but those people never brought their kids.

[Daphne Scotts]

Could Shogun do worse than some monster attacks? Probably not, especially with some of the attacks that Daphne had lived through especially with Marius. But sometimes it felt like he really could after that one time he turned her cabin upside down after that one time she babysat him. But now that he was hers? Daphne didn't know what in the Hades she was going to do with him besides let him wreck havoc on camp.

But once the girl said she wasn't used to being away from home, Daphne nodded her head in understanding. A lot of the kids around here had a problem with homesickness, but the Big Three never had anyone so young in a while. It was understandable. Daphne was the same way when she first joined before she found her little niche at camp.

She raised her eyebrows at the girl when she started talking about animals. Daphne looked up to Shogun who was just sitting contently on her shoulder before he was offered a piece of dried apple. He snatched away the offering before he nommed on it and Daphne giggled slightly. "I think he considers me a friend. I mean he's my..." Boyfriend? Ex? She didn't know what to call Marius and she was at a loss for words trying to find the right ones to describe him. "Best friend's pet. He gave him to me to watch over while he's gone. He likes me and I like him. I don't know why he likes misbehaving so much." She turned back to the girl before she nodded her head. "I'm Daphne. You said you were a Poseidon? I'm just a couple of cabins down in Zeus."

[Deleted]

Hitomi shrugged. "Monkeys are different from horses," she said off-handedly. "Maybe one of the Hecate kids could help? They can talk to animals, right?" She was still trying to understand which cabin had what powers. Sometimes she remembered it well, other times she just couldn't get it right. "But if he wasn't yours, he probably just misses his real owner. My sister said that dogs do that a lot, and I know horses are the same, so maybe monkeys do it too?" She went through the motions again with her spear.

"Zeus. King of the gods, god of lightning. Cabin one," she recited as she moved. Hera, queen of the gods, goddess of marriage. Cabin two. Honorary. Poseidon, god of the seas, cabin three." She shook her head. "Your cabin is right next to mine." She sighed and stuck the spear back in the barrel. "Still can't find one that feels right..." It still bothered her a bit that her brothers had weapons given to them by their shared father, but she didn't. Maybe she just had to prove herself first.

She had learned pretty fast how to handle a spear, but her moves were still very simple. She had been trying to train on her own, but she couldn't say it was going too well. She'd tried to learn to use a sword, but it hadn't gone all that well. Most other weapons were just too heavy for her.

[Daphne Scotts]

“That would make two of us,” Daphne muttered as she reached up to push her hair out of her face as she looked over at Shogun. Maybe that was why he acted out the first time because he missed Marius. Daphne missed him too. Not only was he her best friend, he was also her boyfriend. And now, he was neither. And her and Shogun had to work this out one way or another.

She looked back at Hitomi as she went through the barrel of spears, looking like she was looking for the right weapon. She eyed the barrel before she walked up to one and pulled a spear she'd been eyeing. “Try this one,” she said as she handed it to the girl. “This might be what you're looking for. Have you tried a sword? I can teach you how to use one if you want me to. I'm one of the best sword fighters in camp.”

[Deleted]

She didn't hear what Daphne muttered, her attention focused on the spear barrel. She straightened up when Daphne held a specific spear out to her, taking it. "Hard to fight with a sword from the back of a horse," she explained simply. She went through a few simple moves with the spear Daphne had given her. "Besides, the big ones are still too heavy, and the short ones just feel weird in my hands." She glanced over at the target range, where varied sounds were coming from as arrows hit their targets. "I might see if one of the other campers can teach me to use a bow. Then I can fight from a Pegasus if I have to."

She ran through the motions with the spear, her movements smoother and more fluid this time. She found herself curious about something as she practiced though. Did Daphne have a weapon from her father? Surely Zeus would give his children weapons of their own, the same way her own father had given her brothers unique weapons. But it probably wasn't her place to speak. "The offer is appreciated," she said after a bit. "But would you mind sparring with me? I haven't gotten much actual combat training yet."

[Daphne Scotts]

“Point taken,” Daphne said as she nodded her head as she listened to Hitomi’s reasons for not picking up a sword. “You can also look into it when you're older. They are sometimes a weapon that you need to grow into.” But she looked over to the archery range as a sour look crossed her face for a moment. “You'll need to talk to an Apollo kid or maybe hit up a hunter. I don't do that thing at all.”

But she looked back at Hitomi and raised her eyebrows at her. “You want to spar?” she asked as Shogun hopped off of her shoulders. “I could probably use it just as much as you do,” she said as she rested her hand in the hilt of her sword as she nodded towards an empty area in the arena. “C’mon. Over there is a good place to spar.”