We know the Way || Open

[Addison Mortive]

Addison had been at Camp Jupiter for about a year, and yet she was still never use to how it felt to be in New Rome. The sights, the sounds, they all seemed to fill something in her that she had always been missing. A place she belonged at, but it was never that simple for demigods. Safety didn't come from a place but from yourself is what they had told her. That you had to know yourself to feel safe, maybe thats why Addison never did feel safe. Not as long as she had her powers out of control. She practiced as much as she could between drills and time with her brother. Emotions were key to it all, being able to read others and her own, morphing them into what she needed. Chaos and emotions, hardly a skill set of a legionnaire.

The practice grounds today were the gardens. The usually peaceful place offered little negative emotions that could send her powers in a direction that she couldn't handle. The battle with the kraken had lets her powers fried with that much chaos around her. She did her best to help her legion but found it more useful to keep her powers from going out of control than to fight in the front lines. The energy was calm now as she found herself a seat along a wall of vines deep in the gardens. She propped herself across the stone bench and leaned against the wall, letting herself feel the emotions around her. Mostly calm, a few stressed auras but hers was the most chaotic of them all. Controlling her own inner chaos was key to controlling others. Anyone that was by could probably feel the sense of panic that radiated from the girl when she used her powers. Bacchus had control of madness, but madness and chaos were two different things. Anxiety, panic, fear, they were all parts of chaos. A part of her. She sighed as she concentrated with her eyes close, blocking out the world around her to focus on that energy. She wanted to feel safe in her own skin.

[Alexander Rossi]

Alex walked along the streets of New Rome rubbing his temples and trying to erase the memories of the last hour from his aching head. It wasn't an easy task. He had just finished up another family dinner and it had gone about how he had expected it to. When you got a bunch of old famous Roman demigods together all of whom were trying to one up each other it was only natural to come away feeling a little put out when they all started questioning your own accomplishments. The worst of it was that his mom had come to visit and as usual he found out that he wasn't quite living up to the standards she had come to expect of him. That had led to another fight and thus here he was walking the streets with a pounding head.

He didn't know why he should expect any different. To hear his mom tell it he had never been able to live up to the family's standards so why should he change that now? He didn't know but this time she had really gotten under his skin and that had been bad. He had lost his cool with all his family around and now he really needed some time to cool off. A little walk would do him some good so that's what he was doing at least until his distracted wanderings brought him to the middle of the gardens.

He didn't know why he had come to this place. It wasn't particularly special to him and he wasn't known for his late night wanderings. Still, whatever had brought him hear caused him to stop and when he did he glanced around and spotted a girl. Was she sleeping? He didn't know but the sight did cause a twinge of concern in that deeply doctor part of him that he couldn't quite ignore so he spoke up. "You know, even here in New Rome it's not exactly the best idea to sleep outside."

[Addison Mortive]

Control meant having a steady head in Addison's life. Her powers thrived off of instability. Meditating was one of many things that would help her do this. She could feel her powers building inside her as she considerate, it felt like trying to hold water in your hand. It seeped through her fingers, out of her grasp. She just wished it could pull herself in more. Tighten her grip and keep it from seeping out. Control and Chaos. They went hand and hand. If she could just tighten them and hold them better, if she could cont-

She jumped at the noise and rolled over to the side, finding her shoulder making contact with the ground. She squeezed everything shut, her eyes, her mouth, her entire body. She knew what would happen if she didn't. She took a deep breath, suppressing the energy in her the best she could but she could feel it leaking out. Right between her fingers. She slowly sat up, looking at the guy who had startled her a little confused before dusting off her hands. "Who said anything about sleeping out here?" she asked before raising a eyebrow at the boy. "Besides haven't you heard the saying about waking a sleeping bear or something." she said, rubbing her hands off. "Whats so wrong with sleeping outside anyways?"

[Alexander Rossi]

Alex watched as the girl jumped and pitched sideways out of her seat to land on her shoulder. He winced a little for her as he saw the impact and hoped she was alright. He hadn't meant to scare her into hurting herself after all he had just been curious. In hindsight perhaps it would have been better to announce himself. Unfortunately there was no going back now.

"I've heard it." He said in response to her question. "But you didn't look like a sleeping bear to me." Granted appearances could be deceiving with demigods and in his experience the more innocent something looked then the more dangerous it actually turned out to be but he couldn't just leave her out here even if she wasn’t sleeping. "And I don't suppose anything is wrong with sleeping outside just that it's a good idea to be aware of your surroundings." He shook his head a little and focused his attention back on the situation at hand. "Look, I didn't mean to startle you. Are you okay? It looked like you took a pretty good fall there."

[Addison Mortive]

Addison saw his wince at her fall and just dusted off her legs. No harm no foul anyways, and at least her powers hadn't erupted. That could have been the disaster. She chuckled lightly when he said she didn't look like a bear. With her powers? Might as well be. "Didn't anyone ever tell you to not to judge a book by its cover?" She said and raised a eyebrow at his words.

"Meditation." she said simply before clarifying "Meditation not sleeping. and thats kinda the point of it is to block out your surroundings and focus on your inner thoughts and that mumbo jumbo." she said finally picking herself up off the ground. "Besides the only threat I've ever faced was falling on my over myself." she said jokingly "I'm fine, just a little dirt nothing broken or bruised."

[Alexander Rossi]

“Touché.” He said with a smirk. “But sleeping bear or not I just wanted to make sure you were alright. It’s not every day I see someone out here alone, meditating.” Alex gave the girl a curious look. Meditation wasn’t something he usually associated with people their age. From a medical standpoint he could appreciate it for the psychological benefits it provided but he couldn’t see what the girl would need to be meditating about. He supposed she probably had her reasons but still, it was definitely an interesting sight.

“Meditation huh? I’ve never been able to get into it myself. Too much going on in my head I suppose.” He chuckled realizing he didn’t even know the girl’s name yet and here he was talking to her about meditation habits. “Guess I should introduce myself. I’m Alex and for what it’s worth I’m glad you weren’t hurt and that you didn’t turn out to be a sleeping bear.”

[Addison Mortive]

Surprises never stopped for this girl, Addison cocked a eyebrow at the boy who was...checking on her? Addison hadn't exactly been the most warmly received person in Camp Jupiter but the idea of this kid coming and checking on her was nice, unnecessary but nice. Not everyday you meet a girl that could cause you to try to claw out your own brain either yet here she was. "Yeah it was...recommended by some officials." Willingly? Not so much. "I always have too much going on in my head thats the point, learning to weave out what I do and don't need. Being able to clear my mind in a moments notice and all that mumbo gumbo." That was the goal after all, they said it was something that could save her one day, to be able to switch it on and off. Honestly though she wasn't to command override it and shut it down forever.

She nodded, pushing away any self thoughts as he introduced himself. "I'm Addison." a simple response for a simple girl. Yeah right. "For what its worth I still have declared if I am a bear or not." she joked lightly, finishing kicking all the dirt off herself. "Though I wouldn't make a habit on scaring people around her, that would be more dangerous than the bear."

[Alexander Rossi]

“Heh. I guess you’re right.” He said with a chuckle but he still couldn’t see why the meditation was so necessary to her. That said he had never been one to second guess someone else’s diagnosis until he knew more about the situation. She probably had her reasons and it wasn’t really his place to pry. Instead he decided to take a step back before he put his foot in his mouth by saying something he shouldn't. “You’ll have to tell me if it works or not. I could use a way to get rid of the things I don’t need.”

Alex ran a hand through his hair as his thoughts turned back to the family dinner. That was something he would have cut out for sure. He had more important things to worry about than what his mother thought of his accomplishments. Still, it was nice to realize that he hadn’t been thinking about it as much since he had started talking to the girl. “It’s nice to meet you Addison and I wouldn’t be too worried about me. Sneaking up on girls is pretty low on my list of ways to have a good time. I just try to look out for people when I can. I’ve found it saves me more trouble in the long run even for the ones who have a tendency to bite.”

[Addison Mortive]

Alex seemed nice, in a scare you kind of way. Addison laughed a little as their bear joke continued and had a small smirk. She found what he was saying to be interesting, the way he ran his hand through made her question for a second, but letting it slide. "Looking out for people huh? That sounds rather noble" she said, wondering what this guy was leading on about. Looking out for others, save him trouble. Either he was a leader or some sort of care giver. Praetors? Centurion? Possibly, he did give off a that vibe. That authority of caring over people. It interested her greatly. "Saves you more trouble? Sounds like you deal with a lot of bite and bark." she said sitting back down on the bench she had been resting on before. "Lots on your mind? I don't know about your problems but I know it helps mind. I could coach you through it if you want to try. I'm still a novice at it"

[Alexander Rossi]

Alex waved his hand in the air as she mentioned him being noble. He didn't see it like that. It wasn't something he did to seem noble it was just who he was. There was no need to attach any more adjectives to it than that. "I work in the infirmary." He said by way of explanation. He hooped that would clear up a little of the confusion but just to be sure he added "I see a lot of people on their worst days so I can't really blame them...well, most of them anyways."

He watched the girl for a moment as he considered what she was saying. She seemed amused and a little curious about him which was different. Not that he minded but he was so used to speeding around from emergency to emergency that he rarely took the time to just slow down and really talk with someone for a while. It was nice. "Are you sure the bear should be doing the teaching?" He said in a teasing manner as he gave the bear joke one more go. "Maybe you're just luring me in to try and eat me." He smiled at her to show he wasn't being serious and then gave her a nod as he took a few short steps closer. "Alright, you have me curious. Addison, you have your first student. I’ll try not to be too disruptive."

[Addison Mortive]

Well that made a lot made sense, Alex was a infirmary worker, so it made sense why he didn't want others to be hurt. Addison could never work that, she would only make things worst, far worst. She was destructive, she didn't have a healing bone in her body. Seeing people at their worst? Hopefully he would never see hers or the result of hers. "And some you can blame, even if you dont want to." Her tone was joking but she meant the words. She was always told it wasnt her fault, that she was learning but she knew better.

She laughed as their joke seemed never ending. She squinted her eyes playfully and looked at the boy "trust me if I was luring you to eat you you would know." She watched as he agreed and her smile softened. She got the feeling he didn't do this much, take a step back. "Well then welcome to my class" she joked, patting the sit next to her for him to join. "Just sit however your comfortable." She said positioning herself so she sitting criss cross on the bench.

[Alexander Rossi]

Alex didn’t know what to make of her statement about having people to blame even if he didn’t want to but he decided to shrug it off as she seemed to be joking with him. He was finding that she had a good sense of humor and they had been joking around with each other anyways so it wasn’t like he had any reason to be suspicious of her. Instead he walked over beside her and sat down in the spot that she had indicated even mimicking her crisscross sitting style.

He wasn’t so sure about this meditation thing but he was willing to give it a shot. The girl seemed nice enough and besides it was an easy distraction from his problems. If it went well who knew, he might even start trying it at home as a way to deal with stressful conversations with his mother.

“Oh wise Swami Addison.” He said as he got himself situated. “I have come to you seeking the secret of life.” Smiling as he got comfortable he looked back to the girl to get his next instructions. He promised himself he would take this seriously for the girl's sake once they got started but for now he couldn’t resist. “So what’s the next step oh meditation master?”

[Addison Mortive]

Addi let out a little laugh when he called her Swami, copying her motions on the bench. He was a joker that was for sure, it wasn't unwelcomed though. A joke here and now always brightened up the world it seemed. Plus she couldn't help but play along as well. She sat straight up and closed her eyes, unable to keep her smile off her face. "Alright young pupil. If the answers to life you are seeking, inside must you look." she couldn't keep a straight face, cracking a few giggles under her breath as she took a deep breath to steady herself.

"For real this time." she said, readjusting herself slightly before taking another deep breath. "The next step isn't so much a step as a process. Basically you have to let your emotions out but in a controlled way. Its not so much detaching from the world like movies make you think. First just close your eyes." she said, her own being shut as instructed "You have to make sure that nothing distracts you, so keeping your breathing steady helps. Then once you feel relaxed and in control of your own mind, you let everything you've been holding inside out. Not too much to where its overwhelming, but facing it all one at a time." Her own thoughts were hard to put through this process, to keep her powers in and let her emotions out. It wasn't as easy as she made it all sound, after all facing your own demons were the worst things a person could do.

[Alexander Rossi]

His Swami apparently did a pretty good Yoda impression when she started reversing words around on him. However, he may have pushed his funniness quota to the max today as it took a while for her to recover from a fit of the giggles. He didn’t want to mess up her meditation when they were supposed to be serious so he decided to cut out the jokes for the moment. Still, he had to admit that she had a pretty infectious smile and that was good because she looked like she could use a few smiles and laughs. He didn’t know how he knew that but they did say laughter was the best medicine. Even a son of Aesculapius could appreciate that.

As she got settled down Alex turned his attention to the task at hand. There were times when one needed to be serious and right now he focused in on the moment and on Addison’s instructions. He watched as she closed her eyes and followed suit when she asked him. He focused, steadied his breathing and tried to find his center like he would imagine some Buddhist monk doing. The only problem was that he wasn’t a Buddhist monk and for a guy so skilled at medicine he couldn’t seem to slow his mind down.

“What happens if you let everything out all at once?” He asked clearly having trouble with the idea of eliminating distractions. “Seems like that would be the easiest way of getting rid of your problems.” For the son of Aesculapius the quickest solution to your problems was usually the best. When you were thrown into a trauma situation and had injured people in need of help you didn’t have time to take things one step at a time. Maybe that’s why he was having so much trouble with this now.