Warning: Sharp Objects [Ryan, Open]

Charlie looked up from where he was hiding only when he heard the voice. There was someone else here. Which meant that if he wasn’t careful, he could really hurt him. So he had to be brave, if for no other reason, than to make this craziness stop. Things went magically crazy around him a lot given his unstable moods, so he was a little more used to this than he liked to admit. But that also meant he had a better idea how to stop it. The trick was usually just not getting caught up in the madness enough to actually employ the method. But now there was someone else to worry about, snapping him back to reality, it was a bit easier. He focused on something, anything. Right now, it was a long dagger that had fallen just outside his shield, on the way the hilt was wrapped. It took a minute, but finally it calmed things down.

With a loud clatter, everything piece of weaponry fell motionless to the ground. He kept his shield up, though, more for his personal insecurity than anything else, and looked to the older boy. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean too! I wasn’t trying to, I swear!” He stayed crouched where he was, as nervous of the other camper as he was of the flying weaponry. He’d seen this boy before and he had been being mean to someone at the time. And now he thought that Charlie was trying to kill him! Charlie was set on the idea that the older boy was likely furious with him and, at the very least, would yell at him for a long time for making such a horrible mess.

That was about when Charlie’s ADHD kicked in and the image of the dagger he’d focused on came back to him out of the blue. There had been something really different about that knife, and now that he wasn’t panicking, he realized what it was. The weapon was buried under two spears, five arrows, and a couple of swords now, though, which made it hard for the young demigod to break it free. He was in no hurry to use magic around weaponry at the moment after what had just happened, so even a simple levitation seemed out of the question. But he had to see that dagger. After a minute, he managed to get it free and looked it over in more detail with utter awe. Where he had just thought it was an interestingly carved hilt, he now saw that the carvings were all along the blade too. Line after line after line of intricate letters. No, not letters. Runes. The dagger was enchanted.

Charlie started at it like all his dreams were resting on his small palms. One of his past brothers or sisters had made this. He just knew it. It was like it was meant for him. He looked up and noticed the area for daggers and knives, as well as the area for special weapons, were both decently far from where he was. Yet this had ended up right beside him. He looked down at where it had been resting. It had been at least partially inside his shield… Excitement bubbled up in him and he held what he was sure was his new dagger. Then he remembered the other camper who he was also sure wanted to do him harm.

He hurriedly set the dagger down next to him and fixed his bright blue eyes on the older boy. “I really am sorry! I didn’t mean for that to happen! I wasn’t trying to hurt you! Please don’t be mad at me.”

Charlie normally liked playing in the rain, even if his cat, Bruno, was not such a fan. But when it was raining really pointy, sharp things, he was having less than a fun time. He knew that the older boy was asking him things and part of him recognized that he didn’t seem that mad, but he was in too much of a panic to pay it much attention. And even when the initial panic settled, he was absorbed with the panic of the other boy being mad at him, and then with the dagger. He was so excited about that dagger. He’d be taking it back to his cabin for sure! And there were several big thick books on runes already in the Hecate cabin library. Maybe he could figure out what these said and what sort of enchantment it was.

He glanced up when he noticed finally that, beneath the quiet, the other boy had asked him something. What had he been looking for. “Oh, um… just… this…” He felt a little silly talking like that, but still. He felt like he would sound even more silly actually confessing what it was and why it was looking for it. At the sight of the older boy cleaning up after Charlie’s mess, he was stabbed with guilt yet again. Grabbing the dagger, he scrambled to his feet, stammering out an apology yet again.

He found a sheath for his new dagger and put it one before he set to trying to help out. He didn’t want to lose it, after all. Charlie decided the arrows were his best bet for things he could clean up without risking not being able to lift them or sending them flying or anything of the sort. He glanced over at the older boy as he gathered a handful. “Really? Even though I made a mess? And you could have gotten hurt? You’re still not mad?” He dropped the arrows into a quiver and turned around at the question. He wasn’t used to really thinking about magic as being unusual, so the fact that the boy had to ask struck him as odd. “It was magic,” he said, trying to keep his confusion out of his tone. “Like this.”

Okay, so he had told himself a few minutes ago that he wouldn’t do magic around the weapons again, but a simple levitation spell wouldn’t hurt right? And he was pretty good at those. So he concentrated on a particularly large, lethal-looking crossbow. As though it was suddenly an oddly shaped helium balloon, it started floating gently upward, twisting as it went. Charlie angled it just right and then lightly hooked it back on the wall before dropping his concentration and looking back to the older camper. “Sometimes I just lose control, like what happened before. I’m working on it though, really. I’m getting better.” He really felt like he should be explaining himself to this boy, trying to make himself seem a little less hopeless.

Word Count: 501
Tag: Ryan!

Charlie set some more arrows back before he heard the older demigod mention something about figures on the ground. He wasn’t really aware that had happened, so he walked over to see. “Ooh, I guess so! That’s a good idea! I never tried that before.” Smiling to himself as he entertained the idea of all the amazing drawings he could enchant different things to make, he went back over to the place where the arrows were kept and resumed picking them up. Finding the dagger and this older demigod being nice to him were both contributing greatly to his mood. He was getting cheerier by the minute.

Quietly he started humming to himself as he put a couple more arrows back, though it didn’t take him long to get distracted again, this time in the form of getting to show off what magic he was capable of to someone who didn’t seem to know he was capable of it at all. What small amount of magic he could do, he was always eager to show off, and the idea of a new audience here was too much to pass up. He especially liked people like this older camper, who seemed utterly mystified when Charlie turned back to smile at him. “It’s fun!” He was about to get back to picking things up when he noticed the older boy pick up a sword and seem to ponder it a second before putting it back. He frowned. “What are you doing?” He walked over and looked closer at the sword the other camper had just put back as if expecting it to show some sign of why he had rejected it, but no such luck.

Though the topic changing took his attention away from the sword easily. A bright smile spread across his face. “You think so? Oh, I hope so. Some of the other, older people in my cabin are really good at magic and I want to be just as good as them, but I’m still a lot younger. I hope you’re right though! I’m the only one who gets mood swings and it makes it really hard. I’m Charlie, by the way.” The thing other than magic that Charlie specialized in: babble.

Charlie smiled away as he looked over the doodles on the ground. Yes, this was one power he was going to have a LOT of fun with! He wondered what other things he could enchant to do stuff for him. This would be so much fun! He could be just like Mickey Mouse! Well, except the scary almost drowning part and the old man getting mad at him. Charlie tried to think if there was an old man at Camp Half-Blood. The answer to that would probably be no. Oh well. Old man or not, Charlie didn’t like it when anyone was mad at him. His mind was going off in half a dozen to a quarter dozen different directions, roughly, as it usually did, when Ryan’s question reminded him that he was, in fact, not the only one here. And that he had a cool new dagger!

He pulled it out of his haphazard sheath. “See? I found it! It’s like it was meant for me! Lookie!” He held it out enthusiastically so that Ryan could see the markings both on the handle and blade. It seemed highly unlikely that his smile could have gotten much bigger. “They’re runes! The language of magic! Who knows what sort of spells have been placed on this! But I’m going to find out! All by myself! There are books back in the Hecate cabin that will help, I know it. And I guess I could ask my older siblings, but I want to figure it out myself. Besides, they might want to take it, and I just know I found it for a reason. Like it wanted me! You know?” He beamed like this was the best day of his life – and it could very well have been – and carefully put the dagger back in its sheath like it was a living creature – which it possibly may as well have been given the heavy enchantments on it. The Hecate cabin itself could be considered to have a mood in itself with the enchanted stonework that had even once turned someone’s skin bright indigo for a full day when they’d sneezed too close to it. Thankfully it had not been a child of Aphrodite or it may have very well been declared a state of national emergency.

Noticing the unusual attention on a sword, Charlie went over to join Ryan once more. “Suits you? What do you mean?” He’d never heard of a weapon…suiting someone. Whatever that meant. “Oh, you lost it? Have you tried lost and found?” It seemed like a valid question. They had all sorts of lost stuff. Hence the name, right? The topic shifted again and Charlie grinned at the idea that he could be an accomplished magician someday, which, of course, spurred a nice long ramble on his part. That tended to happen when he got excited. That aside, he was really liking this guy already! “Thanks!” His smile never once wavered. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ryan!” He bounced on his heels for a second, then the need to full the quiet void with chatter struck again. “Thanks for helping me clean up. I promise I’m not always like this. Usually it’s quite controlled. Were you coming to the armory for anything else? Oh! Right! The sword! How do you know if it… um, what you said before?”

Charlie beamed at the idea that this older camper that he already believed to be a pretty cool guy thought that such an important – at least in Charlie’s eyes – role as being the owner of an enchanted dagger was something Charlie could do. The right hands! Though the question made him giggle. “No, silly. You can’t talk in runes. It’s only written. These days one can just speak English, or whatever language. It’s the intent and force behind it that makes the difference. The magic. You can say the same words and do nothing. Or say no words at all. It’s fun!” Charlie grinned and rocked a little on his heels.

And on top of encouraging him with the dagger, Ryan was supporting him in his efforts to decipher it on his own. Charlie decided then and there that Ryan was a good friend. Content with the knowledge that he had a new friend, he picked up a couple of pieces of weaponry, paused to find where they went, and put them back accordingly. That only lasted a minute or so before the new interest of his new friend’s fascination with the sword ‘suiting’ him took over. Weight. Okay, that one made sense. When Charlie had picked up that sword before, it definitely wasn’t the right weight for him. Considering he dropped it. And half the armory. Details. And holding it, yeah, that did sound rather important. Dropping your weapon during like a game of Capture the Flag would probably be bad. Or a real battle. And all in all knowing how to use it made sense too. Okay, so this suiting thing made sense.

Charlie frowned a moment. Oh. Well, if he did lose them outside of camp, then they probably wouldn’t be in the camp’s lost and found. “Well… then retrace your steps! I can help! I’m good at finding things!” As far as Charlie knew, leaving camp generally consisted of maybe going to Manhattan to the candy store! He went there once. That was fun!

He finally fell silent and listened for a change. Not that he didn’t listen to people, just he wasn’t good at the silent part. “I agree, doing nothing isn’t any fun. But you mean, like, I’m not the only one who does stuff like this?” he looked around what remained of the mess – a few weapons still scattered and a lot of scratches on various surfaces, and of course the doodles. If he wasn’t alone in losing it like this occasionally, he didn’t feel so bad. Well, except for the fact that it had been with sharp objects and there was someone else present. Charlie looked curiously at the sword Ryan had put back, and all the ones next to it. That was a lot of looking if you had to find it yourself. “Does it take a long time?”

It wasn’t that he wasn’t interesting. Just that he had focusing problems. Like the typical demigod ADHD on steroids type of focusing problems. He didn’t even really notice his own abrupt topic change, though it was thanks to these that talking to him usually gave more collected campers a case of mental whiplash. “You’re really nice. Do you wanna be friends? What sort of stuff do you like to do for fun?” As was fairly custom for him, he’d launched into pop quiz someone you met less than five minutes prior mode. It was his opinion of the best way to get to know people.