Soft Spot

[Cleo Price]

Sentiment was never one of Cleo's strong spots. She had left with the idea of never coming back. She was a adult after all, she could take care of herself and do what she wanted with a bit of freedom. She had that freedom all her life, as a kid she could come and go as she pleased and really lacked and restraint. Troublemaker was synonym for her name at this point. However as much as she thought it was behind her, her past defined her.

When she made it back to New York, the priestess that took care of her as a kid once again found her, no doubt knowing how to find her easily after years and years following her when she snuck out. Cleo ignored all warnings of danger, she just wanted to move on. She got a part time job at a bookstore, she flopped from place to place staying where she could. Some of her godly siblings that had left to live with her now husband, others, old friends and new. However as time went on she grew comfortable and that was her mistake.

All of her training had gone to waste when she was attacked. She was helpless. It had been in a dark alley and before she could react a hell hound had her pinned down and was trying to rip out her throat. She screamed and shook and nothing changed, she would have died had it not been for a lone demigod that had saved her. She doesn't remember much afterwords. They had walked her back, and she began to cry she remembered. Arrogant arrogant girl. She left for camp the next day.

And now she sat here, in the mess a day of food in front of her that was untouched. She needed training. She needed help. She never wanted to feel that weak again.

Atalanta Nikolaou

[Atalanta Nikolaou]

❝

Come, surf the clouds, Race the dark, It feeds from the runs undone, Meet me where the cliff greets the sea Do you think you can keep up?

❞

She had been late, she had been lectured and she had been sent off to take care of her dog. In a rebelious strike however, Atalanta ignored the part in which she was told to return as soon as Lycaon was locked in Ares' Cabin in order to not run off again. Who says she needed Ancient Greek anyway? Greek are her mother tongue, been hearing and speaking it with her mother since she was a toddler. Ancient Greek were not that difficult for her and they came natural because of that divine blood of hers. She still had a hard time believing she was anything special. So here she was, making her way to the mess so she could grab some food for her and Lycaon. The black pup was walking so close to her feet that Atalanta had to almost dance her way over to the Ares' table. Not to mention that she had to keep the celestial bronze sword, which she had currently claimed as her own, away from the German Shepherd's playful bites.

It seemed she was not alone in the mess hall. She noticed another girl sitting on one of the other tables, but Atalanta ignored her and grabbed a plate. Yet Lycaon did pay attention to the girl and he bounded over to her, barking happily and tail swishing wildly from excitement. He got on his back feet, as if trying to hug the girl, until Atalanta saw what was happening and whistled sharply. This caused the pup to sit down and turn his focus on Atalanta. She made her way over to the girl with an apologetic expression and a plate filled with food. "Lycaon lie down." She said sternly and the pup obeyed with a whine. "I'm really sorry about this. He has been very excited today and his little escapeed in the Woods doesn't seem to have calmed him down in the slightest." She said to the girl, ignoring Lycaon for a little bit. She wanted to see if the girl infront of her was alright, seeing how many people disliked or feared dogs even when they were friendly pups.

I went on and assumed it was a late breakfast or something like that

deltra of gangnam style

[Cleo Price]

Cleo toyed with her food, the late breakfast not really seeming to catch her eye yet. She had only been back but she missed outside world food. She had convinced herself it was for the best. That kid had saved her life, she'd be dead without him. Didn't mean she was happy about it.

It had to be a dog. It had to be. A cat? She could stand. A lizard? Even better. A dog ran up to her. Her entire body shut down as the only thing she could do was freeze. Her bones and brain turned to mush as it ran up to her, almost in slow motion. All breath and thought of breathing was gone as it bounded to her. Past snarls rang her ears like it was happening that second and deep grows echoed in her mind Jaw locked yet her eyes were as wide as the bagel on her plate. It stood on its back legs as she heard the owner say something, whatever it was didn't matter.

She screamed.

Quite dramatically actually, enough for her entire body to host the scream and cause her to fall backwards from her bench and onto the ground, scrambling to pick herself up. It was clearly trained cause the next time her eyes landed on the beast was sitting and looking at the owner. What a fool she had to look like. Even if she got her breathing steady, which she didn't, her mouth felt like the Sahara and all her muscles tense. "I-Its fine. Sorry I don't normally.. I mean he didn't scare me.. I just" she jumbled out, slowly picking herself back up to her seat as she ran through her thoughts, bringing her back to the girl that knew psychology like the back of her hand. "I had a run in with something and have a acute case of PTSD. It just startled me." she said, calming her mind. She didn't want to reveal so much but, she did just make a fool of herself.

[Atalanta Nikolaou]

❝

Come, surf the clouds, Race the dark, It feeds from the runs undone, Meet me where the cliff greets the sea Do you think you can keep up?

❞

The girl's reaction was extreme and Atalanta had moved in to check her when she had fallen down. It seemed however that she was alright. Well as alright as she could be, considering she had just screamed over an excited puppy coming over to her. The girl got back on her seat just as Atalanta was moving Lycaon back to Ares' table and told him to stay, placing a plate of food down for him to munch. She listened in on the explanation and she shook her head. It all made sense now. Poor Lycaon had probably sensed the girl was feeling down and had tried to cheer her up, just like he did whenever Atalanta was feeling down. Which happened a lot lately because of the whole demigod ordeal. "Post traumatic stress..." She mused as she sat down across the still-shaken girl. "No wonder he came over to you then. he was trying to cheer you up." She wondered if the other was new to Camp as well. Maybe she could help her out somehow. Atalanta still had a lot to learn about how Camp and the demigod world worked, but she had learned a few things.

"So you were attacked by Cerberus?"It made sense to her. Lycaon was black and a dog. The only monster she could think of from the top of her head was Cerberus, the Guard of the Underworld gates. "Oh! and don't worry about looking weird. I would've reacted similarly if I suddenly saw a bull's head out of the blue." She added after a brief momment of thought. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't entirely tru either. The Minotaur was the monster hat almost killed her, but instead of screaming and falling back, she would've lashed out and punched someone. The bull to be exact.

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[Cleo Price]

Cleo slowly gathered her own emotions as the girl seemed to make connections onto the event that just happened. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face while she finished calming down. Trying to cheer her up? She didn't know that ESA dogs were allowed in camp but she pulled back from the dog. She wasn't taking any chances today, she was having a hard enough time not going into a panic at this time. "Thanks but no thanks. I don't need cheering up." she hated that stereotype, that they just needed to be magically healed and it'll go away. The only thing that will make it go away is her being able to feel safe. To fight. She needed to be able to feel stronger.

"Cerberus?" she questioned at the girl, shaking her head. "No. A hell hound." she said simply, correcting the girl. She had to be new,
just judging by the way she processed the information. She listened to her commentary on her own matters and tilted her head. Must have had a run in with a minotaur. "I...guess." she said questionable, curious as to the girls motives for talking to her. "The likely hood of that is extremely low though. Dogs on the other hand are very common."

[Atalanta Nikolaou]

❝

Come, surf the clouds, Race the dark, It feeds from the runs undone, Meet me where the cliff greets the sea Do you think you can keep up?

❞

Atalanta took shrugged and took a bite from her food. "Maybe. But until last month The chances of ever having to punch a Cyclops in the eye or almost being killed by a Minotaur were non-existent. I wouldn't be surprised to see a bull on the loose." She commented on the girl's talk about chances and continued with her food, eyeing Lycaon from time to time to make sure the pup behaved. "So... the demonic black dogs from Hell are real huh? I didn't run into them, but I see why Lycaon's attempt to take your mind off the stress was... unfortunate." She said between bites.

"You may say you don't need cheering up, but you need to relax a bit. As far as I was told, there's no way monsters can reach us here." It might be strange that she was able to talk about monsters and near-death experiences so calmly but, in all honesty, Atalanta was beginning to accept the fact she would have to fight on the outside world. She knew the fight would've been such one way or another. Now that she was a demigod it was a litteral fight to the death.

"Anyway, I'm Atalanta, Daughter of Ares. Nice to meet you, even if the first impression was awful on our part." She introduced herself with a grin and pointed at herself and Lycaon during the last part.

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[Cleo Price]

Unfortunate was a way to phrase her reaction, but Cleo also knew she needed to pull herself together. She had been weak and frightened and couldn't let that happen again. She shook her head calmly at the girl. No monsters could get in here? "You clearly are new then and didn't hear about the attack if you think we are completely safe here. Truth is this is as safe as we can be, but we will never been truly safe" and the pessimist was out and about. "We are always targets for no other reason than being born. Relaxing is fine and all but don't fool yourself into thinking we are safe." she said, holding up to her pessimistic ways of seeing the world, but it was all true. They had no safe place, only training, something she well lacked.

Daughter of Ares? "Ares huh? See you'll be fine, you are a natural fighter chance are yes? You can feel safe cause you can protect yourself. I don't have such a safety net, I have barley any training or skills when it comes to fighting and staying alive." she more mumbled to herself than spoke at the girl, but none the less it was out there for her to hear. She puffed slightly, letting the last of her emotions get over her before nodding at the girl "It's nice to met you though. Don't worry about impressions, I'm not the kind to hold a grudge like that. Besides the dog didn't do anything wrong." she said looking at in, not flinching away like last time. She wouldn't touch it still, but she knew for now it wouldn't hurt her.

[Atalanta Nikolaou]

❝

Come, surf the clouds, Race the dark, It feeds from the runs undone, Meet me where the cliff greets the sea Do you think you can keep up?

❞

An attack would explain perfectly why a lot of people were being so on edge. But the comment on herself being a natural fighter warranting her right to relax just made her laugh. "Tell that to the Minotaur who almost did me." She snickered a little, but her face grew serious soon after. "I didn't have a safety net. I had no means to kill the monsters that came after me. So I just... ran." The thought clearly bothered her. The more she thought about that month, the more she felt like a coward and her spirit rebelled against the mere notion. She realised she was frowning at her plate, so she quickly looked up again, smirking a little.

However she had to ask as the girl repeated the words of a certain Apollo guy. "So is pessimism a demigod trait too? I've been properly introduced to the whole concept about.... two weeks ago." The question was half-honest, half-teasing. Was she really supposed to develop some kind of morbid attitude towards life and she didn't know it yet? "You see those words are exactly the same with the ones a guy from Apollo cabin told me. Except you agreed on being fine to relax. He didn't seem to like the very idea of relaxing." She said as she was steadily devouring her food. "But, in case you don't want to relax just yet, I'll be heading over to the Arena to get some practise done. You can come with me and start working on that safety net of yours if you want Miss Nowhere-is-safe." She proposed with an inviting tone.

"Or do you want me to call you something else?" While she had introduced herself, the girl had failed to do so. That's why Atalanta was going to call her Miss Pessimist until she got another name to call her by.

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