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Nathan didn't just train himself when he came here. He also trained others- or rather as the case was that day, another. In Fourth Cohorts barracks was a smaller kid who was being constantly picked on for being so small. Nathan had noticed this and it didn't sit right with him. No sir- it did not. He also knew he couldn't do much about this. For one thing, it was a Forth Cohort matter and by rights the older kids should have stop it- or at least their Centurion should have. Being a Roman was hard- even brutal at times and the kid had to learn to toughen up if he was to survive. Also if he did intervene, the kid would just get it worse when he wasn't around. That would not do at all...

Therefore, he had to do something about it in secret. And he did. One day during a field exercise Third and Fourth Cohort were both on, Nathan had spoken to the kid in private. Not an easy thing to do- for one thing Nathan towered over the kid, was older than him, which naturally made him a little scary to smaller kid. Nathan's smile and what he had to say eventually won the kid over. He liked the idea of being taught to wrestle, so he could hold his own in his barrack room. Yes, he was smaller than  Nathan, but there were a couple of other kids that Nathan coached closer to his size. It wasn't easy for the kid- but he took the bumps and bruises in his stride. What was more, he made a couple of friends. Nathan heard the other day that a couple of them had cornered one of the barrack bullies and threatened to stick a ferret down his leg if he messed with Max again. He wasn't sure if that was going to work, but at least he knew that Max had a couple of little buddies watching his back.

Nathan had just finished teaching Max a couple of new holds and throws, letting him practice on him, and was heading back to his barracks, when he noticed someone. It was a girl he hadn't seen around camp before. Was she one of the newly arrived Greeks? He didn't k"now. It seemed like he was lost in here and had no idea what she was to. Not everyone he knew in camp worked out. That was fine. Some people had no need to. But often someone would come in here to work out and not know what the first thing to do was. On occasions it often fell to one of the regulars in there to help them, if one of the trainers weren't around.
"Hey...you ah, lost or are you just looking for someone?" the son of Bacchus asked, hoping he could help her.

[attr="class","THREAD1TAG"] WORDS (optional) Deaspro E. Harper e. harper

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Last thing that Nathan wanted was to startle the strange girl he spoke to. No one would really want to do that and what would it achieve? Nothing if you asked Nathan. However, she wasn’t the only one startled that day. The world seemed to slow down around him as Deaspro turned her head in his direction. A cascading river of dark hair seemed to swirl around her face as Nathan suddenly found himself locked into the gaze of a pair of the bluest pair of eyes he had seen in a long time. His own toffee brown eyes found themselves gazing (so it seemed to him) deep inside of them, the sensation like being slapped in the face with a frozen porterhouse steak. He was pretty much stunned by the sight he saw. This girl was really, really pretty it seemed to him…

When she finally spoke, Nathan blinked out of their mutual stunned state. “Oh- right…yeah, that’s okay. Uhh…there is a lot of stuff here, so…yeah. I guess it is only natural someone would be curious” the son of Bacchus said, even though his brains were still a little scrambled from what had happened before. It was true though. Even he was often curious when a new piece of machinery turned up here. Anything that would make his workouts more efficient or enhance the results of his workouts were of interest to him. “If…there is any questions you want to ask, I could answer them for you…maybe” he added. Nathan didn’t know everything about working out, but was pretty sure he had a pretty good idea about what might be useful to know by someone wanting to work out.

”Deaspro…nice to meet you” Nathan replied with a smile that covered his face, now that his brain cells had suddenly stuck themselves together again. “I’m Nathan” he said giving his own name in turn. For his part Nathan had no idea whether Deaspro was a Greek and Roman, or even who her godly parent was. Too many times he had tried to do that and ended up embarrassingly wrong. A lot of people judged his godly parent too. Some thought he was a son of Vulcan- because he was so big. Others thought he was a son of Mars (if they saw him wrestling in the Palestrae) or a son of Venus because he flirted so often with pretty girls. When told he was a son of Bacchus, the reason was usually a knowing nod of their head. He really was a party animal at times…<br>

[attr="class","THREAD1TAG"] WORDS (optional) Deaspro E. Harper e. harper

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“Oh. You were unwell?” he asked with genuine interest. People could not enjoy parties if they were sick. That was a given. Certainly he couldn’t, that was for sure and surely the gods on high wept when that happened. As it was the new girl- Deaspro as it were, was well enough to be up and about, as well as explore the camp.

Clearly this Roman kid- Nathan, was one to work out. After all, why would he be here- to mop the floor? He was tall and had the athletically muscled body of a high school athlete. Wide at the shoulders and chest, tapered at the waist and with strong toned looking arms, it was a certainly that he spent a lot of time in this place.

There was no way of knowing- at the moment, that Nathan was indeed someone that Deaspro could call upon to become acquainted with whatever party was in the offing. Nathan’s affinity for being at- or even being party of the running of a party, was not for merely hedonistic pleasure. More than once he had taken part in the counselling of campers in need of help. One of the rare powers he inherited from his father- Bacchus, was that allowed to relieve as well as inflict, insanity in others. Not that any of the other campers in Camp Jupitar were crazy. Oh no. It meant that some of them could get kind of stressed and needed a little help to feel like their normal self. Yes it was true that Nathan flirted with pretty girls on occasion, but he also talked to them at length and found ways to make them feel good inside about themselves. It was just that no one really noticed this side of him…

A broad smile crossed his face at her request. It was a smile one would think was sunny and suit his light tanned skin face or terrified you because it looked like he could eat you whole. It was just in one’s perspective. “Sure- I am finished here for the day” he replied, “Is there any particular place in camp you want to see?” he asked. For all he knew she might be a child of Apollo who might be interested in the infirmary or a chid of Vulcan that might want to see the forge. Of course, the truth of that matter would be revealed once they got to talking.

[attr="class","THREAD1TAG"] WORDS (optional) Deaspro E. Harper . e harper

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Nathan's hand flew to his mouth and covered it. "Oh...you're one of the Greek kids" he said in a manner as if he had just announced a discovery of great magnitude that would rock the foundations of Mount Olympus itself. He had heard about what had happened at Camp Half Blood and the epic trek cross country that they made to get here. Deaspro was not the first Greek kid he had meet here by any stretch of the imagination, but she was the first one to actually tell him about it in person.
Her admission of taking a risk with something that allowed her and some friends to get here safely did intrigue him. "Really?" he said with genuine interest, "Well whatever it was, it certainly worked" the son of Bacchus answered.

Nathan face was crested by a big smile at what she said about this being the first place she visited. "Weird..." he chuckled in a good natured manner that he did so well, "Most kids that are new here usually look for the Mess Hall first". Knowing where to eat was often one of the first places that kids looked for on arrival here (after where their barracks were). In fact one could not miss it- you just had to use your nose and follow the aroma of food being cooked. Considering the size Nathan was, it was probably a good guess that he knew where the Mess Hall was, to be as big as he was. "After that, it is often- not always, the Infirmary" he added as he nodded in the direction of the Infirmary as he rested his hands on his hips.

"Hmm....good question" the Roman kid mused as he ran a hand through his wavy raven black hair as he pondered the question. "What does this place have to offer...? I guess it depends on what you are after" he suggested. "Like...we got this area with all the free-weights and machines if you want to work out to stay in shape". It was pretty obvious he certainly spent a lot of time in this part of the place. "We got a number of punching bags- they got for working of the stress and tension you might have, instead of punching some kid out" he smiled, having seen a few kids going medieval on the row of punching bag as a way to vent their anger. "Over by the Tepidarium, we have the wrestling area where some of the kid around train as well". Nathan hoped that he would see some of the Greek guys there. He had heard that some of them were pretty good wrestlers and looked forward to testing himself against them in a formal wrestling match.

[attr="class","THREAD1TAG"] Deaspro E. Harper e. harper

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“Cool…” the son of Bacchus with the body of a teenage gladiator nodded, when Deaspro revealed who her godly parent was. It was true that many kids like them had a negative reaction to the children of Hades (or Pluto). Certainly Nathan had in the past in all honesty. But at his base, Nathan believed that every kid couldn’t help who their parents were. So as best he could (being 99% of the time) he treated every demigod kid he meet the way he wanted to be treated.

“I don’t know much about the whole Shadow Traveling thing that the Pluto- uhh…I mean Hades, kid do, but it sounds like you all need to do more stamina training” he said by way of understanding it all. “Not that I am saying it would help…just seems like it is something that MIGHT work…or not”. Sometimes Nathan felt as if he should just keep his mouth shut. But it seemed a good idea to his mind.



“No it isn’t…” he agreed with a playful chuckle. Every morning you could smell the aroma of the Mess Hall on the morning air after you left your barrack room or were coming in off guard duty on the camp perimeter. There was always an underlying smell of freshly cooked bacon that made one’s mouth water (unless you were a vegetarian in which case it probably smelt gross). “Good to know” he said with a nod. “Hate for you to get lost- it would really suck if you did and you needed to get somewhere in a hurry. I know it was a pain when I first got here. Got lost a few times and was punished for being late” Nathan remembered. It still happened- only now if a new kid in Third Cohort was late anywhere, the whole cohort got punished. It wasn’t so bad for Nathan when they had to push-ups as a penalty, because he was in such good shape, but it wasn’t easy for the others.



“What else has this camp have to offer…?” Nathan mused. He thought for a moment, exhaling as he did so. “Never actually been there, but from what I have heard of Camp Half Blood, it is kind of the same. There is an infirmary for the Apollo kids. The Vulcan kids have the forge that they bang on metal all day in and Jupiter kids have their temples”. He shrugged. “I guess it isn’t all that much different from that…just has a Roman flavor to it. Were you looking for anything in particular?” the son of Bacchus asked, hoping he was being helpful here.

[attr="class","THREAD1TAG"] Deaspro E. Harper e. harper

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“Well- yeah…sure” the son of Bacchus agreed with a smile. He was often called on by others in the Palastrae to help others with their work outs. Sometimes it was on how to get the most out of their work out and sometimes it was to assist them with their work out- like lifting heavy weights bars off guys who were lifting way too much to impress girls. Of course, there were trainers around, but they were often busy training other kids or doing necessary jobs. “Any time you want- I am here pretty often during the day if I am nor doing something elsewhere” he said. Subconsciously he didn’t want to sound as if he spent his entire life there- even though it probably did. He had others things to do during the day such as being on inspection parades, training with his cohort or, tending to his grape vine in the Garden of Bacchus.



Nathan was well aware that the transition to life in Camp Jupiter for the Greek kid had been…difficult. More than once he had seen Greeks chaff against the regimentity of the Roman ways and more than once had almost come to blows…or said something they really shouldn’t. But no one said this whole situation was going to be easy. It was true he did find something to be sloppy, as organized as a bath of drunk cats and lacking in martial spirit, but on the whole they were the same as him when it came down to it.



A nod answered Deaspro comment as she reaffirmed all that he had been thinking. “Pretty much the way things are around here- guess you could say it was the way we were raised” he said. Hard to believe he used to be a wiry chatterbox who was always looking for fun to be had when he should be paying attention to what he was doing in the Lupa House.

And look at him now…tall, body like a (to think of a better word) young Greek god and had a ambition in life to work towards as a Aquilifer.

“Oh- New Rome” the son of Bacchus smiled. “Mostly it is for older kids who are, well- retired, from being legionnaires or are ex-Senators. Often it is the way point for those going off to college. Pretty sure at Camp Half Blood had a place like that- you know, New Athens”. He had little knowledge of what Camp Jupiter was really like, never been there, but surely it wasn’t that much different.

“Hmm…what do we do around here for fun?” he mused as he rested his chin in the cleft of his hand. “Depends on what you like doing- we have a lake to swim in, then there is the Equitus I Romani if you like horses and my favorite- the Garden of Bacchus. Sometimes we even have parties that out Centurions don’t know about”. Oh yes…he knew all about the secret parties.

[attr="class","THREAD1TAG"] Deaspro E. Harper e. harper

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Some times it did feel like he lived in the Palastrae. Maybe it was true- he did spend a lot of time there. Certainly it did feel like a second home to him. It was also evident from the way he looked that he did spend a long time there.

He just tried not to advertise the fact too much. Even if most people already thought that and he saw no reason to no reason to change that stereotypical view of him. After all, no one was getting hurt by it, right? “Well…like I said- offer there any time” he smiled as he shrugged on a nonchalant manner. “If you like, you could always just bring a friend along if you want. I mean I know Camp Half Blood people who liked to work out, if you know someone who does”. Nathan wanted to feel comfortable training with someone she trusted or knew from Camp Half Blood, if he was engaged in his own training or training Max and his little buddies. After all, she did hardly know who Nathan was.



It had been a while since he had been back to Colorado. No small guess that he missed it. His family, the familiar environment of the family vineyard, hiking in the hills and of course playing football or football with other kids. Like many Roman kids, he had dreams of what could have been, if they hadn’t ended up in Camp Jupiter. A long time ago, he had learned that it didn’t do to fixate on what could have been and to focus on what was going on now.

Was he happy where he was now? Yes. Yes he was happy in Camp Jupiter.



“Really?” the son of Bacchus said. Truly- this was a surprise to Nathan. He had always assumed that Camp Half Blood was set up the same as Camp Jupiter- after all, Ancient Greece had a culture on par with Ancient Rome’s. It was inconceivable that Camp Half Blood didn’t have a New Rome (or New Athens, as the case maybe) or a college. It just showed how little he did actually know about the place.

“Wow…you could actually get to leave there- and then come back?” he said. Nathan would have signed up for that chance if he could have. He did nod though. Nathan was well aware of how monster scoped in on demigods like heat-seeking missiles. Probably that was the real reason he couldn’t go home like he often dreamed of on occasion.

[attr="class","THREAD1TAG"] Deaspro E. Harper e. harper