a monster born from dusk to dawn -lily-

[Edmund Simons]

Getting into fights and finding trouble came as easily to Edmund as breathing. He had been doing it since he could walk. The former probably came from his temperament and powers of strife, but the latter just came with being a demigod. All demigods found themselves in danger or in trouble at least once a month. Edmund went above and beyond that quota. He usually did it at least once a day: making his life one big thrill of adrenaline highs from training to monster attacks to wars. In other people's eyes, it'd be viewed as reckless, but honestly, living on the edge is what kept him alive. One day he'd fall off or have the ground crumble from beneath him, but that day hadn't come yet. As of now, it was one adventure after another, heart still pumping, anger still flowing, and the itch of a fight still burning.

Today's fight came in the form of monsters. Human or animals... it didn't really matter now, did it? A clean swipe with a sword and they were dead. It didn't matter: animal or human, they all died by the accurate stab of a weapon. Killing monsters was secondary nature to him; he had made the determination to make himself into a war machine: deadly and accurate. Whatever it took to stay alive. Roman side, Greek side. It didn't matter. He'd attack anyone who crossed. And that's exactly what would happen since the two stupid camps decided to join hands and sing kumbaya. Idiots. Edmund wasn't even technically on their turf. He was in monster land, bordering the forest. Then again, he was probably wanted for leaving and attacking both sides during the war. He had honestly attacked anyone: their side didn't matter to him. He wanted out. Still, no man's land or not, it still gave Edmund the possibility of running into monsters. Which he had successfully done. Not the best odds, but he had dealt with worse: people.

OOC: Hope this is okay

IC: 329

Tag: Lily Rose

[Lily Rose]

Sometimes, Lily just wanted to get away. Far away from the noises, arguing and the fighting. The tension that you could cut with a knife, the constant fear. The feeling that anything could happen. If you knew Lily, then you knew that a lot of the time she liked to disappear to a forest. She liked to surround herself with the quiet sounds of nature, the peace. Usually, unless she knew that the person could handle the silence of no words, no one was allowed to go with her. No one loud. Just her and the singing of birds, the wind in her hair.

Her walks and self-time lasted for hours normally, and as she walked further in there seemed to be a multitude of flowers gathering in her hair. It was as if they were attracted to her like metal was attracted to a magnet. She was a flower child-one for more peace and quiet than fighting. Cleaning up wounds and watching over people more than getting into fights. Lily knew that she wasn't a combat person, even though she also knew that if she wanted to survive that would have to change. She wasn't the type of person to pick conflicts, anger or provoke. She wasn't going to pick fights when she knew that she wouldn't stand a chance, so she avoided them whenever she could.

It wasn't too very long-okay, maybe a couple of hours-before the sounds of a fight reached her. Her very first thought was that it wasn't dangerous, it was that there might be someone hurt. Whether it be just a couple of regular humans or a demigod and a monster. Someone like her. And being that it was in her nature to be caring, she started running towards the noises. Normally she would be annoyed, but what if someone needed her? What if when the fight ended, the demigod was really hurt? She quickened her pace, dark hair flying around her head. Someone needed her help.

Edmund Simons

[Edmund Simons]

As a demigod, there was no real way to ever get away. Monsters, wars, and bloodshed followed anywhere they set foot. As a demigod, it would never be over. Their lives would always follow them: doomed to be pawns of their camp and of the gods. Well, not him. Of course he couldn't get away from the monsters, but at least he could escape them and their brainwashed culture. The more he thought about it, the more absurd it became to him. Leaving had been the smart choice. Use them up, get the skills he needed, and then ditch. He took a fair amount of people down with him during the war. He hadn't been discriminatory: he lashed out at Greeks and Romans alike. He wasn't sure if the Greek camp had seen it coming or not, but they should have at least had the inkling that Edmund was by no means on their side. He lived among them and that had been it. He had been there to learn, not to become part of a community. He wasn't interested in fighting for them or helping them in their petty wars made up of stupid Romeo and Juliette cliches. No, he had rinsed himself of them. At least he could live a bit freer. Not free from the monsters, but free from all the idiots at that camp.

His fight was an overall success. Fight, you win. Lose, you die. This principle was quite simple when one lived a life such as his. The war had taught him that lesson very quickly, and he had brought that wisdom over after he had struck out on his own. He had no walls or charms or fleece to keep him safe now. Now, it was his own wits, his own abilities. If he was good enough, he'd make it out alive. If not, he'd die. Simple. He wasn't ready to die, but if he had to, he'd make sure he'd go down kicking and screaming. Not that anyone would care, he no longer had anyone who'd miss him if he dropped off the face of the earth. And that was fine with him. He inspected the damage he had taken after wiping his blade off in the grass. Of course, he had gotten a couple of scratches and some bruises were bound to form, but that was it. Nothing life threatening. Not that he could feel anything on the backs of his legs if he did have a serious injury, but he'd assess that later. Hearing footsteps approaching, Edmund turned on the spot and lifted his blade up again, ready to combat the next threat that dared to show its face to him.

OOC: Sorry for the wait! Band camp and school sadness have stolen away my muse >.<

IC: 451

Tag: Lily Rose

[Lily Rose]

Sometimes she wished that she could be normal, oblivious towards all of this. A normal life without worry. She could open up that flower shop, for people to give to their wives, lovers, or friends. Read without her dyslexia, sit still without feeling restless. But then she wouldn't know her best friend. She wouldn't have that bond, the feeling that someone would always protect her. On the other hand, if she hadn't been born a demigod, she would have a mother. A mother that would have taught her to put makeup on which she learned how to do herself, one that would have tucked her in at night. It wasn't that she was bitter towards Demeter, as she couldn't expect the goddess to be in her life regularly-it would be unfair. But she had to struggle to read to see if anyone had written about what Demeter looked like, since as soon as she was born she was brought to her dad. She had to imagine something. Of course, since everything had gotten worse the notes from her mother were few and far between. It was selfish to wish for more. It was selfish, but she did anyway. There were more important things to think about, like hoping everyone in the joint camp got along. Like hoping everyone would survive.

She tried to protect everyone that she could. There were too many nights during the fighting that she prayed, hoping that she wouldn't fail and let them die. Lily was quick to beat herself up, blame herself if something went wrong. There would be a time where she was too weak, she knew it. Shake and cry too much, break to the point where she wouldn't be able to take care of anyone. You can't break, she told herself. When she got enough sleep, she told herself that she was important. Needed. But in the dark of the night it was pathetic how negative her thoughts got. How pathetic she was sometimes-a small flower child that surprised herself how long she managed to live. She bit her lip, perishing the thoughts. Not now, she couldn't fall back into that now. It didn't take her too long for her to find where the noises came from, and she was relieved to find no body of a demigod. Her eyes quickly scanned the boy, and it relieved her even more to see he wasn't hurt too badly. But she was in for a shock when he turned to meet her, sword in hand and fire in his eyes. "Oh, hey...I'm not here to fight you. I'm here to help." Lily lifted up her hands slowly. "See? No weapons. I don't have any on me." Don't move too quickly, she told herself.

Edmund Simons

[Edmund Simons]

and i'll survive p a r a n o i d 
i have lost the will to change

Edmund existed to make everyone's life hell. That included his own life. He had never been one to make things easy for himself or others; he took the belligerent, frank, and messy way out of things. He directly defied orders, belittled others, and spoke his opinion, no matter how unpopular it was. The demigods had to see how blind they could be. Some thought they could all be little friggin heroes. Well, heroes didn't exist. Just people with their own agendas who were at the right place at the right time and had someone witness it. If you lost, you were called stupid. If you won, you were called a hero. Winning battles took a lot of stupidity sometimes; but in the end, it just mattered if you made it out alive or not. Simple, box thinking. They were just so wrong, all of them. To think they could actually be self sacrificing in a war. They couldn't see that they were just all being used. Instead, they hailed the place as if it was some sort of saving grace: called it home, called the people there family. Their reality was very, very different from Ed's.

"Right," Edmund said flatly, still eyeing her suspiciously. True, she didn't have any weapons on her. So, in all fairness, he lowered his own a bit and gave a shrug. "I'm fine, scratches and cuts but that's to be expected." He gave the girl a long, hard look, as if trying to place her. Greek or Roman, he didn't care. Maybe he knew the face from somewhere. Even though he didn't bother getting to know anyone outside their fighting style, walking around a camp for years without managing to remember a few faces was, regretfully, impossible. Still, he had no idea who the person in front of him was. He had to assume demigod since she had appeared form their side of the border. Maybe someone who worked either in the Big House building or in the infirmary. Those were the places he liked steering clear of. She wasn't of any direct camp authority... if she was, he had probably already butted heads with her and was just having a memory lapse. Those were to be expected from him; lack of sleep was apparently unhealthy. Oh well, eleven years of habit died hard. Or not at all. As of now, Ed was going with the latter.

Out of Character

WORDS: 402

TAG: Lily Rose

CREDIT: AI

[Lily Rose]

When the war broke out, Lily had automatically decided to not take part in the battlefield. The only blood and wounds she saw was in the medic tent, not anything that was caused by her. She was a healer, quick to try to stop an argument or fight rather than fan the flames. It wasn't in her nature. Of course, she would do anything to protect her loved ones. Not for glory, she couldn't care less about glory. Lily did not want to be remembered as a great hero. Just as someone who did the best she could so she could see her friends live another day. Just as someone who survived. The day would come when, of course, she would fail. But until then she would hope for the best. Not so anyone who crossed her path would tell their children stories years long after she was dead. She didn't want that. Heroes only existed in fairy tales and stories, anyway. But whoever won usually got to tell the story. If the demititans won, how would they paint the events? What would they say? Of course, whatever they would shouldn't really matter to her. She would be dead or enslaved. Years from now, everything would be different.

When she wasn't wanting a fight, it was slightly a relief to watch him lower his weapon. She studied him for a moment, debating whether or not it was safe to move forward in order to clean the scratches and cuts at least. "Those could get infected." She gestured to the bag slung over her shoulder, in case things like this happened. "I have wipes and ambrosia in here." Her dark eyebrows furrowed when she realized that this guy was studying her too. Now that she thought about it, he looked vaguely familiar as if she had seen him before. Maybe he had been a part of Camp Halfblood before everything went wrong, and he was one of many of the people that had left. Either to join the formed Renegades, or to take the world on by themselves. It didn't matter-she helped people no matter who they were. Lily bit her lip, trying to think about her next words. "I should probably clean them up. Y'know, if you're comfortable with me doing that." She slipped the bag off of her shoulder, holding it out to him. "If not, everything's in here." There, it wasn't like she was going to get all touchy feely doctor with this guy if he didn't like people touching him. She had no idea who he was. "I'm Lily."

Edmund Simons

[Edmund Simons]

i don't want to change the world
i just want to make it c o l d e r

When a war came along, there hadn't been a question or doubt in Ed's mind as to what he'd do. He'd fight: tooth and nail. He could argue that his entire existence had been a war, so why would he stop fighting just because a war by definition came along? No, he'd fight, just as he had always done, since that was all he knew how to do: fight and forge. Fighting, genetically, was in his blood. Ed had yet to determine whether his out of control strife helped or hurt, but it certainly contributed in some for or another. It probably made it harder on him, since it increased the feelings of anger of the person facing him... Typical, making things harder on himself. Oh well, what was life without the extra bit of challenge. Besides, even if he did go down, it wasn't like anyone would notice or care. They'd probably be relieved to have him out of their lives: no more increased tensions, defied orders, or fights. Down a forger, yes, but he was easily replaceable. He didn't even have the heat resistance, a power which everyone else had. He had learned that the hard way: after his house fire. However, he didn't see it as an anomaly until he came to camp. So, out of everyone he was the least useful. As always.

Edmund's face twisted into a slight smirk as the girl with the bag pointed out the obvious. "Yes." Infections, yes, he knew about those rather well. Take his legs, for example. From his knee down, he didn't have any feeling in them. But that was more because of the burnt away nerves and skin grafts than because of infections. So many things could go wrong with burn victims... especially if their skin burnt in the third or fourth degree. Cover enough skin with third or forth degree burns, and the person would die. Which is what happened with his mother, father, and sister. Since camp, no matter how much fighting was his area, he acknowledged that he did have to take away some knowledge on self wound care. As a result of his prolonged hospital stay as a child, he came out hating the place and anyone (or thing) associated with it: hospitals, infirmaries, ambulances, medics, doctors, needles... the whole nine yards. Fighting and forging became his main learning priority while at camp. His secondary priority was learning how to treat his own injuries because of afore mentioned fighting and forging. All so he could avoid the infirmary and medics. He narrowed his eyes slightly, but then ended up wordlessly taking the extended bag. Edmund gave a slight nod at her name. Ugh, stupid socialization. "Simons, Edmund."

Out of Character

WORDS: 454

TAG: Lily Rose

CREDIT: AI

[Lily Rose]

She didn't want any of it. The fighting, the fear, the nightmares. She wanted as much of a normal life as she could have, or to have been born normal. She wanted to fall in love without fearing for someone's safety every day. Maybe, in another world it would be possible. In another world, this didn't happen. Judging by his sword and how he had greeted her, she guessed that they were practically opposites. He breathed fighting and chaos. He thrived on it. Lily felt like he was a flame that burned brighter and brighter until either it was snuffed out or he burned as many people as he could. She didn't know this boy who didn't seem to be much older than she was, though she wanted to. Lily was a social butterfly, someone who loved to meet new people and form connections. She thrived on it. When no one else cared and noticed, she did. No one was ever truly unimportant or invisible in her eyes, they existed. They were loved and cared about. She wanted to make sure that people knew they were important, strong, and beautiful when she refused whoever said the same to her. When she looked up at the stars and thought "oh, I could fall or explode and the universe wouldn't notice, moving on." But you would have never guessed from her smiles.


His smirk slightly unnerved her, but she stood tall and didn't show any signs of it. Weakness was bad, out here in the open. And he probably needed help. She couldn't just turn and run away because it felt like the monsters from her childhood were real-not the ones from Greek mythology but from childhood nightmares. Because it felt like one was standing in front of her, with blood on his body with a smirk to match. Besides, if he wanted to take care of his wounds by himself she needed to stay to get her bag back. Then there was always the possibility that he didn't know what he was doing. Though, she supposed that because he was a fighter he did need to know how. He wouldn't be able to survive otherwise. So, she gave no sign of leaving. No indication she would bid him a hasty goodbye and hightail it out of there. There would most likely be worse than him in the near future, and she would have to be brave. Small Lily Rose had no place in this world. Please take the bag, she silently pleaded. Lily didn't want to end up with any broken bones by touching this guy. So she was extremely relieved when he grabbed her bag. So he did have a name. "It's nice to meet you." At least, she guessed that it was.

Edmund Simons

[Edmund Simons]

and i'll survive p a r a n o i d 
i have lost the will to change

People from camp proved to be an interesting study. Then again, people in camp could say the same about him. He had never fit in there... he never fit in anywhere, really. At least not into a neat box. He had enjoyed school and learning, but his ADHD and dyslexia proved to be the death of him being able to sit there like everyone else. Plus, moving from school to school didn't really help. With no real sense of belonging besides his family and Felicity... losing them both in the span of four years left a rather permanent scar in him. From there came camp: yet another place he didn't belong; a world of immortal halves who didn't seem to care. A forge full of "siblings" who he had no interest in connecting with. They weren't his family... they never would be. So, he did exactly what he was used to: he stuck it out alone. An asocial person through his own nurture, he avoided everyone. He didn't want to form friendships. He didn't want to become vulnerable. No one and nothing could be used against him now. Fighting became his life; it was all he had ever known really. Rather, he had tried so desperately to build up an image of himself as a fighter so he wouldn't have to deal with the bullies; so he could stand up to them and hold his own. The longer the mask, the better the face, he supposed. It all had to do with practice: fighting, forging, being a monster, being a machine. He hated the nightmares, but it came with the same hate he carried when he found out he had a whole "god side" to him.

Human monsters, mythological monsters. In his world, there was really no difference since he fit either category. He wouldn't blame the girl if she took him for a psychopath. Gods knew he probably looked akin to one straight out of a horror movie. Then again, their lives could be considered a horror movie. If he was unnerving her... he was doing his job well. Nevertheless, she didn't leave. He couldn't it was surprising; she probably wanted her medical bag back after he finished using it. He looked at her with his eyebrows lifted. Nice to meet him? He could have laughed if he remembered how. "I doubt that," he said simply, taking some of the disinfectant out of her bag.

Out of Character

NOTES: sorry, trying to get back in the swing of him again

WORDS: 406

TAG: Lily Rose

CREDIT: AI