Camping [for Sam]

[lightningthief]

It's been a nice day. But, then again, just about every day in Tabula Rasa looks nice even though I hate it here. But today's not as bad. Sam and I are on the second island on a camping trip. It was his idea. Guess he feels like hanging out with me. I can't really explain why. Maybe I'm interesting and he wants to get to know me more. Or maybe he thought a trip like this would help my mood.

One really good thing about the second island is that there's no Coraline. Ever since that dinner where she appointed herself my personal savior she's been hounding me. She's lucky I haven't run her through! If I had been back home leading our army, I would've sent her to be drakon chow long before this point. Hope is not for the doomed. I'd like to keep all of that off my mind for the next twenty-four hours.

The boat ride was fairly uneventful and quiet. I couldn't help thinking of Poseidon, his son, and Oceanos as the bright blue water goes by. I also remembered all that time I spent on the Princess Andromeda. Having a luxury suite is something I miss. It was much better than the refugee camp that we called Hermes Cabin back at Camp Half-Blood.

Stepping onto the second island, I wonder if I'll ever get over everything going on at home. I doubt it. Things were too intense and too important. I'm really disinterested in living a life here. Kind of a shame given that I'm not going to live all that long once I get back, but that's how it is. I can't pretend everything's okay here or that anything here matters. But I'll try and not be depressing company for Sam.

I lead as we make our way along. I know Sam isn't useless or helpless. He's survived Decepticon attacks. But, I'm the one with the legendary weapon, and the one who's more at comfortable in the wildnerness. After making our way and checking out the ruins of the space station portal, I lead us around a bit more before finding a spot to set up camp. Camp isn't much. Without real tents, it's just some blankets, pillows, and food and stuff. We set about gathering some wood to make a campfire. I spend some time getting it going. I'm not a total expert, but I'm good enough to light it. Finally I sit back and relax a bit more.

"Well, there we go. Fire's going good now."

Comments

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

Sam was glad that Luke had agreed to go camping with him, mostly because Sam really had very little clue on how to camp properly. He could have known to bring a tent, some wood, a blanket, and some food and that was about it. He could have survived, but just barely.

Luke wasn't very talkative, but that was alright, Sam didn't expect him to be and he could generally talk enough for two people minimum.

Once Luke got the fire going though, Sam broke out the food, just some leftovers he had packed from the cafeteria.

"I wish I could have been here when that portal was working."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I've been content to listen to Sam talk and talk over the day. I haven't been silent, but he's been doing most of the talking.

"I would've thought you'd seen enough advanced technology. I didn't go up there. It seemed way to controlled by the ITF, and it just didn't seem like a good idea. It was a spectacular crash, though. I watched the whole thing from under a force field."

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"I guess I never really considered the Autobots technology," Sam admitted. Sure, they were technically robots, but they were alive.

"They were always just living things to me. They had some really advanced technology, but I never really saw it, I just hung out with the Autobots themselves."

He paused a moment before adding, "Did a lot of people get hurt when it fell?"

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I lean back as I answer.

"It crashed into the ocean, so nobody really died or got too hurt during the crash. I heard there were a few from ITF that didn't get out until the last minute. There was some kind of weird computer controlling the place, but it went insane and tried to kill everyone onboard. I don't know the computer counts as a casualty. There was a guy from the island, Duo Maxwell, who died or something while he was up there. He used to run the scrapyard."

Duo wasn't too big of a loss from my viewpoint. The guy was alright, I guess, but on the other hand, he had threatened me with his big wolves.

"But the sight of that whole huge thing coming down towards the island from space? With the heat of re-entry? And with how huge and close it was? Complete and utter destruction. It was a heck of a show."

I won't deny being enthalled with the destruction.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"Is it still down there, in the ocean?" Sam asked.

If that was the case, he might just have to take up scuba diving. Once he learned how to make all the equipment of course, since he didn't think he'd seen any of it around.

"It's impressive that more of the island didn't get destroyed in a shockwave," he added. He wasn't any expert on that sort of thing, but he would have thought something falling from space would create one hell of a wave.

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I nod. "Unless the island magic did something with it."

"Yeah, if there's ever an emergency, I'm headed towards New Atlantis again. The shield thing is nice."

I grab my pack and start digging around for something.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"That would be cool to go see," Sam said. He wondered just how far down it was. Maybe he could get a diving bell? He'd have to talk to Hiccup and see if he could make one. And if anyone knew just what one looked like other than bell shaped.

"Wait, what is New Atlantis?" he said. This was the first time Sam had ever heard of anything like that.

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

"It's one of the groups of huts on the island. There's Bohemia, Green Arrow Estates, Hidden Hamlet, and New Atlantis. Some of the New Atlantis people are from the future and have a shield, just like from a sci fi flick."

With meeting Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Lex Luthor, and finding out Sam hung out with Autobots, the possibility that those people actually were from a sci-fi flick isn't such a big leap.

Then I pull out what I was looking for, a ball of aluminum foil.

"I've got popcorn for later."

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"I didn't know that. That's definitely something that should be on a brochure in case of something like a space station falling from the sky," he said. He wondered if that meant one of the Autobots could actually be here, if technology of that level could exist. The absence of any other robots though made him doubt it.

When the popcorn came out, Sam had to grin.

"Dude, you are the man."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

I smirk.

"I might know a bit about the outdoors, but I'm not intending to eat tree bark and berries all day."

I grab some of the food Sam brought and start eating.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"That is way more fiber than I would want to pass, no matter how hungry I got," Sam said.

He took a cue from Luke and bit into one of the boar meat sandwiches that he had brought. Maybe it was just his imagination, but his wound on his side ached just slightly as he did so.

"So," he said between bites. "What do you do on the island all day?"

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

Tough question there. It's not like I've bothered to join this happy community they have here. I haven't even lifted a finger to help with the work.

"Not much. I take hikes and jogs around the place. My hut's near the beach, so I go swimming. I've been building training equipment in the back of my hut. I've forged a few more weapons."

It's not like I use the training equipment much. Seifer and I mostly just spar. The stuff goes unused.

"I've got a computer with video games too."

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't that get... boring after a while?" Sam asked.

It sounded boring to him, like how the first week or two of summer vacation (before you were old enough to get a job) was just laying around doing as little as possible until you realized that wasn't a lot of fun when you could do it all the time.

"Seems kind of... aimless. Which is fine if that's what you're cool with."

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

"It is," and with that I shrug. Maybe that's why I enjoyed today. It was something different.

"But then again, this whole place is aimless."

I should really cut myself off on the negativity before I go on some kind of rant, so I stop there and take another few bites of food.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"Not to get all Psych 101, but that might just be you projecting," Sam said.

Sure it was different from back home and maybe someone like Luke, who had lived most of his life knowing that there were bigger things out there than most people knew about and being a part of those things, had a hard time getting away from that. Sam had only a taste of that and he struggled with the idea of not being important like he was back home, but he had found ways to make that happen here too.

"People have kids, go to school to better themselves, make friends... how is that aimless?"

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

Projecting? Yeah, I probably am. I cock my head slightly as I smirk.

"That's not aimless, but those things aren't for me."

Kids? Yeah, right. The thought's funny, though.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"I think you should open up a daycare," Sam joked, smirking back at Luke.

The surprising thing was that Sam was willing to bet that Luke would actually be pretty good with kids. Sam had noticed that Luke kind of had to work at being an ass. Sure, he worked at it most of the time, but Sam didn't think it seemed all that natural.

[luke-castellan.livejournal.com]

Nice.

"Yeah, Kronos Kinderkorner. Drop your tikes in our sacrificial pit, and you get hours upon hours of time to yourself, free from the hardships of parenting. The Olympian gods would love it."

Especially my dad. What can I say? I like my sarcasm with a small dose of bitterness.

[not-so-smooth.livejournal.com]

"That... actually sounds like a real place. Maybe in Greece. Just not, you know, the premise, only the name," Sam said.

He remembered a few comments made before by Luke about how the Olympians were absent parents at best. He was tempted to ask about it, but since Luke seemed to be actually relaxing, he didn't want to risk setting him off.

"I bet you would have really weird story times though."