"No! Don't apologize, it's probably me. I'm too cold," they explained. "That's really cool. I don't really do anything - I can find north without thinking about it, whenever," they said, pointing, "but that's really it."
Oh, right, because of their parent! "That's actually really cool," Auden said, "I get lost, really, really easily. But I have an axe, and apparently that makes things better. And thank you. You're cold?" he asked, and he sort of poked at Jack's hand. "Wow."
"Yeah, see what I mean? Wait, how does an axe make things better?" Jack tilted his head and frowned. "That doesn't make sense."
"I don't know. Actually, yeah, that doesn't make sense. What I'm trying to say is I can, in fact, use an axe. Which is something, at least." Auden groaned. "I'm sorry," he said, "I'm really bad at this, apparently."
"It's okay! I don't mind. Do you want to, you know, leave those two to figure themselves out? And go do something?" Jack asked, gesturing at Adara and Larkspur.
"I swear, if they don't go out or something I'll lock them in the Aphrodite cabin," Auden said, hoping Jack would find it funny. "Yeah," he said, "what do you want to do?"
Jack laughed. "I'd help. Hmm, lunch is soon, right? Do you want to eat something and talk? Or just hang out, or...?"
"Eating food and talking and hanging out sounds fun!" Auden said, grinning nervously at Jack. "So what's it like to have the literal wind for your dad, does he show up a lot?"
"Oh, that sounds really cool!! I definitely want to read that," Adara said, noticing Lark's face lighting up as she talked and wow she was even prettier when she was excited about something... "They sound kinda like demigods, in a way, with the cool powers. I mean--I know they aren't, I know that's not what they are, but we have some hella cool powers too, so it just...sounds similar. Yeah."
Jack shrugged. "Not really. One time I hitchhiked up to Canada and he asked how I was doing, but other than that he hasn't really made an effort to talk to me. What about you? Have you met your dad?" Jack started walking away from the others, slowly enough that Auden wouldn't think they were ditching him.
"Uh, sometimes? Mom knew what she was getting into when she had sex with a god, so she's actually pretty chill with him. Honestly great-grandma shows up more often, usually when I'm angrily yelling about writing. She's very unhelpful." He followed them, resisting the urge to start skipping.
"You're a legacy, too? That's so cool!" Jack thought for a moment. "If she shows up when you're writing...one of the muses?"
"Yeah! Clio. She's the muse of history, so not entirely helpful when I'm trying to write fanfic," Auden said. "I write a lot. I only work as a Hephaestus kid if you define "smith" very generously."
"...sometimes, I try to think of who they would have as parents, if they were demigods." Lark felt a little bit embarrassed, admitting that, but hey! Better than admitting she had a half-written self insert fic for the series as well.
"Ooooh, that sounds cool!! I've done that with some of my books that I've read too. We'll have to talk more about which parent we think fits each character once I've read the books!" Adara exclaimed, clapping her hands together. She noticed as she did so that Jack and another kid were leaving the cabin--when had that kid arrived, and who was he? Oh well. "Looks like we're being left behind a bit--do you want to head to lunch with me?"
"That would be awesome!! I can come back here after lunch and you can give me the first one, if that's okay? And all right, cool. We should probably get going, then." Adara headed for the door, slowly enough that Lark could follow along and wouldn't feel she was being left behind. "So...your godly parent's Demeter. What's she like?"
"Sounds fine to me." She followed Adara along. "Demeter's...well, the plant thing is pretty nice, and we're probably never going to run out of food, but other than that? She's...I mean, she's okay, I guess."
Adara frowned slightly as they followed along behind Jack and the other boy. "Sounds like the kind of thing I'd have to say about my dad," she remarked. "And I don't really have good things to say about my dad..." She sighed. "But Demeter doesn't strike me as an absentee parent, so.....overbearing type, maybe?"
