floriography [ stories five ]

carnation || camp half-blood au

[ carnation (greek) - flower of the gods
song - nico's lullaby by paola bennett (i think??)

this is literally me revisiting my writing roots with a set of decent characters yeet

⚠️- language, a bit of violence

lewis' pov

stay safe,
lew. ]

———————

Looking out over the valley, I felt like I shouldn't be here.

Up until five days ago, I thought I was a normal teenager. Sure, I couldn't remember the last time I saw my mom, and there were definitely odd occurrences that scared me, but didn't that happen to everyone?

I glanced to my left. The satyr that brought me here was practically tugging me down the hill, but i stopped him just shy of crossing the crest of the hill. "I wanna go home," I told him softly, expecting to get a little bit of sympathy.

Instead, I got a strangely goat-like bleat and and impatient, "I'm not missing any more camp dinners for you, hurry up." He pulled me along, towards the big farmhouse, with surprising strength and speed for a dude that until five days ago used crutches to move around school.

We stood on the porch, where there were a couple more satyrs, and two kinda normal guys, until you looked closer. One of them was in a wheelchair, while the other seemed annoyed at my presence and downed the rest of his Diet Coke.

Wheelchair guy offered a smile, and in that moment, he seemed ancient. The look in his eyes told me that there had been probably millions of teens in my place over the years, and not all of them had happy lives.

"It's wonderful you've made it safely," he told me. Then, to the satyr, he said, "Find Logan and Harry. They can show him around."

The satyr nodded, and I was so glad to see him go. He'd been an annoying little thorn in my side ever since we crossed over the West Virginia state line.

A soft cough brought my attention back, as the men in front of me began to explain what exactly was going on.

——

Surely, it couldn't have been more than ten minutes before two more teenage guys showed up, but the information overload was making my head spin. I almost thought I was hallucinating the spring flowers that appeared in the air around my head, but of course, I couldn't be that lucky. Add that in with the image of a pomegranate, and I had a pretty good guess of who my mother was.

"You've been claimed by Lady Persephone, goddess of springtime," Chiron, formerly labeled wheelchair guy, announced, but gosh, it really didn't make me feel at ease, all the attention on me.

"You're the new kid," one of the guys said, as if it wasn't obvious. His dark hair was messy, and his eyes had some sort of soft backlit glow to them. He looked... well... like a Greek god, almost. He was hot, and somehow, I knew I'd make a fool of myself before we parted ways for the night. The other guy had to be his boyfriend or something, from the way they were holding hands. Which, was kinda disappointing.

The blush across my face was was involuntary as I nodded and walked down the steps. Mr D, short for Dionysus, waved us on, while Chiron told the other kids, "Take him to the Demeter Cabin, since we haven't gotten that far building new ones yet."

I didn't realize I'd zoned out until the first guy elbowed me. "Tell us about yourself," he requested, and with the smile on his face, I didn't want to refuse.

"My name's Lewis, I'm turning seventeen this August, and uh, I'm from West Virginia. I like flowers, and I guess it's obvious why now, isn't it?" I murmured, shoving my hands in my (surprise!) floral hoodie.

"I'm Logan, son of Apollo and distantly related to Zeus, and I'm sixteen," he replied, glancing over at his friend. "We've been coming here for... what, three years now, babe?"

"Yeah. I'm Harry, I'm fifteen, son of Aphrodite and one of the only distant relatives of Hera," he rattled off, not sounding very into it. I got the feeling he wasn't that fond of me already.

It took me a few moments to think over what I was going to say next. "It's nice to meet you guys. I... um, apologize if I'm not that interesting to talk to, I have pretty bad anxiety and being in a new place just... makes it worse."

"You'll be okay. There's always someone around to talk to, and maybe some training will make you feel better," Logan said rather cheerfully, patting my shoulder.

Which wasn't really a good idea. I flinched, even though I knew he wasn't going to hurt me. Just a dumb reflex from school, I guess. I didn't say anything, just blushed harder and glanced the other direction.

Somehow that didn't deter Logan at all, because I heard him say to Harry, "Do you think he could be a legacy of your mom? I mean, he's cute—"

"No." And then a dull thud, like Harry decided to smack Logan's chest or something.

Finally, though, they stopped in front of a cabin that had a grass roof, and flowers and plants growing all over. Logan grinned and made some sort of sweeping gesture with the hand he wasn't using to hold on to Harry. "This is the Demeter Cabin, where everyone here would technically be your aunt or uncle. We'll let you get settled in, then you can come find us. We'll be at my cabin, it's the one that literally glows, so you can't miss it."

——

But, surprisingly, I got settled in easy, and made friends so much quicker than I ever did before. Within a week, some of Logan's friends accepted me easily into their group.

There was Ronnie, who lived in the Aphrodite Cabin with Harry, but was also a legacy of Athena, which was a fancy way of saying he had beauty and brains, and wasn't afraid to use either to get his way. He was such a sweetheart, though, but I got the feeling that I never wanted to be on the opposing side.

Chase, a legacy of both Phobos and Deimos, aka fear and terror, actually wasn't that bad once you got to know her. The most terrifying thing about her was the glare she'd give you if you woke her up.

Ezra, however, scared the Hades out of me. A son of Ares, he was violent and bloodthirsty and— I might be exaggerating. He was about five or six inches taller than me, and just radiated a 'don't fuck with me' vibe. But somehow, he and Ronnie were close, so Ezra stuck around.

Bailey was the complete opposite. Son of Hebe (goddess of youth) and grandson of Iris (goddess of the rainbow), the kid was a hyperactive blur of colors and laughter. He was a sweetheart too, but I got the feeling that he shouldn't be left by himself for too long. Luckily, he had a decent best friend in Chase, who kept a watchful eye out for him.

There were a few other campers that I was on friendly terms with, like Sierra and Nix, daughter of Hecate and son of Khione respectively. They tended to stay out of the way, because they really didn't have a good grip on their abilities, but hey, as long as they didn't freeze me or hex me, I was good.

All in all, I really started to enjoy camp, despite the homesickness I felt towards my brother and his girlfriend. But, of course, I can't have nice things for long, so something had to change.

The Oracle, to the best of my understanding, was someone who occasionally spat green smoke and gave out prophecies. And of course, I got sucked into the bullshit before I could really get into the routine of camp, because nothing in my life could be easy.

The prophecy, a short, poetic thing, had been issued to Logan, and for some reason, before I even knew what was happening, he named me and Harry as his companions on the journey. Heck, he hadn't even told me what the prophecy was, but he was telling me to get my stuff packed for an adventure.

And like an idiot, I listened.

——————

[ kinda iffy on this but i think?? it's okay?? i haven't written pjo fic since 2016 ]