the beast is ugly. (( OPEN ))

[Joel Harbor]

Just what Joel needed, a game to take his mind off the problems with Phobos and Julia. He still had large amount of guilt swimming around inside of him but he wasn’t going to let that lose him the game. Joel had it in his head that he would be the one to make it to the Red Teams flag. He was going raise it high and then everyone would know who he was and the son of Triton would be more respected than the one of Poseidon.

Okay. Joel was over thinking everything. A single victorious game would not put him on top. It was amazing at how Joel’s jealous of Percy and craving to be the best blinded him. With everything going on with Phobos and Julia one would think Joel would just stop, but he couldn’t. He joined Phobos not only because he was holding Maggie against him but because of that need to prove himself to others and definitely to his father.

Twirling a six-foot tall trident, only a few inches shorter than him, Joel tracked through the woods. The trident, a recent acquirement, had a wooden handle with the average demigod celestial bronze at the top. With him, Joel carried a jug of water strapped to his back. The sounds of battle were further to the east and Joel was alone. He had an idea to go around the center of the battle before the rest had a chance to spread out. Joel didn’t work well with others so when his team mates on the Blue Team told him to go one way, he headed in the opposite direction.

“Stop right there!” a voice called from behind. Joel froze and turned to glance over his shoulder. A boy about fourteen stood with a sword and shield. Joel couldn’t tell what cabin for certain the kid was from, but if he had to guess Joel was willing to say Hermes. Joel sneered at the boy. The boy put on a brave front his chest puffed out to look intimidating. But the kid had to be no taller than 5’5” while Joel stood 6’2”.

“Really?” Joel scoffed. The boy didn’t back down. Joel beckoned for the kid to come at him. After a moments hesitation the boy charged his sword raised and bellowing a battle cry.

Rolling his eyes Joel sidestepped and stuck the butt of his trident out. The boy’s foot caught on it and he was sent tumbling feet overhead to the forest ground. The sword and shield fell from his grasp leaving him defenseless. Joel stood over the boy with his crooked smile. “Sorry, did my trident jump out and trip you? It has a habit of doing that.”

The boy stayed down for a moment before rolling over to where his sword was leaping to his feet. He swung wildly at Joel. Joel jumped back avoiding the blade. He twirled his trident deflecting the blade. The boy was surprisingly persistent. Joel jumped further away and although he was out of sword reach his trident was long enough. He swung horizontally at the Hermes boy catching him across the cheek with the tip leaving behind a five inch cut. It didn’t go deep but enough to produce a fair amount of blood. The Hermes boy glared and charged once more.

Swinging the jug of water to the front Joel took the cap off quickly, and with his abilities as a kid of Triton Joel sent the contents at the boy but not only that Joel bended the water around the boys head so that the boy appeared to be underwater. Joel smirked. The Hermes boy panicked. His swatted at the water trying to get it away, he moved about trying to escape it. After a few moments when the boy’s struggling became less Joel stopped. The water lost its form and it ran over the boy’s body soaking him. He coughed and sputtered dropping to his hands and knees gasping for air.

Terrified about what he almost done Joel took his trident and ran off further into the forest. He stopped when he was sure to be away from the Hermes kid and leaned back against a tree. What the name of Hades was that about? For a second Joel thought he wouldn’t have stopped until the kid was dead. That wasn’t Joel. The worst part was that Joel thought he had enjoyed seeing the boy struggle. He shut his eyes breathing heavily resting against the tree.

NOTES::just a little scary when he fights o.o
WORD COUNT::752

[Julia Porter]

Julia had everything under control. Yes. Things were going absolutely perfectly. Until they actually had to meet as a team and have a strategy for this whole thing. Julia didn’t know the first thing about being captain. She was lucky she had the Athena cabin with her and had been able to pull a group of them aside before word got out that she had no idea what she was doing. They got a nice strategy going and no one but them had to know that she hadn’t planned anything ahead of time. She had been a little preoccupied with the whole Phobos thing to do much more than sit in her cabin and worry about what was going to happen.

But now here she was, playing defense and wielding a celestial bronze sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Her dagger was tucked, in nail file form, in the back pocket of her jeans as a second-to-last defense. The last being Charmspeak, of course. Even if someone managed to disarm her they couldn’t gag her. She hadn’t seen anyone from the opposing Blue Team yet, but there was really only one member of that team she didn’t want to see, mainly because she wasn’t sure what she would do. With everything else going on between them they just had to be on opposing teams, didn’t they?

She heard a familiar voice and groaned. He was taunting one of her team members and if someone found out she had been there and done nothing… Gods, people got far too into this stupid game. She took off at a dead sprint towards the voices and the sounds of a fight, but came skidding to a halt when she saw what was down the hill from her. What was Joel doing?! He was going to kill the kid! Just when she was sure the Hermes kid was going to drop from lack of oxygen the water just splattered around him and he dropped to his knees. Joel took off and Julia ran down the hill towards the young boy. ”Are you alright?” She asked, only waiting long enough for him to say something about how psychotic her boyfriend was before she decided to leave. Yeah, he would be just fine.

Making as little noise as possible she continued through the forest to find Joel. She slipped the sword back into its sheath as she moved, instead pulling out her nail file and transforming it into a dagger. She finally spotted him leaning against a tree a little bit away and stormed over, punching him in the shoulder. ”What in Hades’ name was that, Joel?!” She demanded. ”I know this game can get intense but almost drowning a kid?”

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[Joel Harbor]

Joel tried to clear his mind of what had just occurred. He almost killed the Hermes kid and it was because he couldn’t stop himself. It was like he wanted to drown the kid. That was a scary thought. Joel had used his abilities countless times in being a “hero” and even in training around camp but he had never gotten to the point where murder was a viable option. He enjoyed it for a moment and Joel wondered if it had to do with Phobos. Maybe working for Phobos and Deimos started to rub off on Joel. What if he was becoming…like them.

Joel was ready to move on and forget the entire thing when he saw his girlfriend, Julia walking in his direction. His eyes grew to the size of walnuts. By the look on her face she had seen what had happened. Joel tried not to look surprised or scared but in that moment it was difficult and near impossible. Had it been anyone else Joel would have been able to play it cool and turn on his charm and be able to talk his way out. But Julia was the only person Joel was completely and utterly afraid of seeing him like this. It terrfied him to know she had witnessed him lose control. He swallowed and didn’t make an attempt to get away. Though in hind sight he probably should have moved before she punched him in the arm.

He rubbed his shoulder adverting his gaze from Julia’s accusing and disappointed eyes. Oh those eyes of hers. He loved looking into them but right now they were a source of guilt for Joel. He swallowed past the lump in his throat and he forced himself to appear nonchalant about everything. It wasn’t very convincing.

“What’s it to you? I got a little carried away that’s all.” He said defensive and a little more harsh than he had meant it. “I stopped didn’t I? He’s fine and walking and breathing, so just forget it.” Joel pushed past her eyeing the dagger in her hand for a moment. Was she going to try and fight them? The two were on opposing teams so it would make sense, but would she be fighting for personal reasons now? Joel breathed through his nose and spun back around to Julia placing the best smile he could muster. “Well, come on then Princess, let’s fight.”

He was avoiding the topic though in the back of his mind there was a voice that told Joel he was a foolish for thinking Julia would just drop the subject so easily. Joel stared at her and waited trying not to let his smile waver.

NOTES::denial isn’t just a river in Egypt
WORD COUNT::450

[Julia Porter]

Joel’s that were mirrored in Julia’s fears; that he had become just like her brothers and actually took pleasure in nearly drowning the Hermes kid, having control over whether someone lived or died and leaning towards the dying side. Demigods were supposed to use their abilities to help people, not to hurt them; which seemed to be exactly what her brothers wanted to force demigods to do. She was still trying to figure out a way to protect Joel without hurting anyone, which was proving to be quite difficult.

She noticed the widening of his eyes. Good. He deserved to be nervous. She was furious at him! It wasn’t like he couldn’t have beaten the other camper without trying to kill him! She was pretty sure Joel could have taken him down without even using the water. In a way she was glad to be the first person to get to him after the incident. No doubt the kid would be spreading what had happened around and then people would be angry. He might have been able to charm and talk his way out of trouble, but he wasn’t going to get off as easily with her. At least she could tell her team that she had taken care of it and try to calm them down as well.

Oh, so he was going to just not look at her? Avert his eyes and pretend that everything was just peachy? No. That was not going to fly. He couldn’t just attack someone like that and act like things were fine. Especially since she could tell that he wasn’t fine with that he had done.

The tone of his voice set her off slightly. He hadn’t ever spoken harshly to her before now. ”A little carried away?!” She retorted, her jaw dropping. ”Almost drowning a kid is not just getting carried away, Joel. I’m just looking out for my teammates. You had, like, a foot on him. You didn’t need to attack him with the water.” He pushed past her but she just continued turning until she was facing him again. She caught his eyes on her dagger and nearly laughed. Really? Did he really want to just continue on with the game? Julia would take the challenge if he presented it. They would have plenty of time to talk about what had just happened once she got him in jail.

Part of her considered just doing this the easy way and Charmspeaking him into putting down his weapon and letting her take him, but she had always told herself she wouldn’t mess with his emotions like that. ”Don’t think that I’m going to forget that we need to have a conversation.” Her grip on the dagger shifted slightly before she leapt towards him, one foot aiming for the hand that held his trident.

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[Joel Harbor]

She pissed at him. Joel knew she would be, he was angry with himself. Joel had never killed anyone before and just a few minutes ago he came damn near close. He never wanted to become this kind of person. Maggie always saw him as a superhero and superheroes didn’t loose control and kill others. That was left for the supervillains. Then again, siding with Phobos put him in that category regardless. The only person he wanted to see hurt or dead was Percy. And even now, Joel was starting to have second guesses about that.

He rolled his eyes at Julia still trying to pass off the topic as a no big deal. Joel shrugged his shoulders, “I’m a son of Triton, water is kind of my thing. No one ever says anything about Percy when he uses his Poseidon crap. Besides isn’t it the rules of the game. Win anyway you can?” those were the rules of Phobos and his equally twisted brother. Joel didn’t like seeing Julia this angry with him but if she was going to be with him, then maybe she needed to see that he wasn’t exactly the hero in all of this. He had a dark side as much as Joel was afraid of it.

Joel didn’t plan on hurting Julia in this little battle and actually he didn’t want to raise a weapon against her ever. Why couldn’t they have been on the same team? He hid all of this from his face but there was still regret in his eyes. His smile remained as Julia came at him.

He let out a small laugh and jumped backward avoiding her dagger and pulling his hand away before she could knock his trident aside. She was hot when she was angry and trying to cut him to pieces. Was it weird that he was turned on by this anger she had toward him, or was it weird that he thought it was weird? Joel realized he was in his head too much and nearly stumbled over a log.

“I don’t know what conversation you’re talking about.” he said with a broad grin. Joel spun his trident in his hand and made a jab at Julia aiming for her stomach, of course he wasn’t aiming to kill. He just wanted to graze her or tear her cloths. Though of course if he succeeded she would probably be even more cross with him for ruining a perfectly good shirt.

“Anyone tell you that you’re kind of cute when you have battle on your mind. Kind of a turn on.” He remarked hoping to get her a little more upset so she would make a mistake. Though he was telling the truth.