Noel frowned, if what he said was true, then the things she did in her past meant she’d always been a terrible person. “Guess I’m lucky I don’t have powers then,” she lied. She had no idea if her siblings could guess she was lying, but she would continue to deny it all the same. “Anyone can have an accident.”
“ i know that --- ” lawrence has been well versed in ACCIDENTS long before he knew he had powers ( concussions and broken bones and paralyzations from the neck down ). he’s also well versed in the fact that GOOD PEOPLE can cause accidents. “ --- i just mean, it’s not so black and white. it’s like --- you have a power, it’s part of you and what you do with it is ultimately your choice. ” he casts a sidelong glance at her --- his half-sister, still weird to think about. it’s no secret noel’s dislike for the powers her siblings have, and it makes him wonder but certainly not ask. “ an accident doesn’t have to make anyone or any power good or bad. ”
Ellie watched green eyes widen with interest as the contents of the cup began to solidify. “That is really cool,”she told the other, the smile never once leaving her lips. “I can only really put people to sleep right now…my dream walking is still iffy..oh I can always hypnotize people sometimes..I just always end up feeling bad when I do it. I hate taking advantage of people with my powers,”she admitted with a shrug. Of course, there was the memory manipulation, but that was a skill Ellie was more afraid of than proud. She only told the closest to her about the skill. “Sounds like you’ll be stuck here the rest of the night,”she observed. “Do you wanna dance or me to sneak you some booze in or something? Being hear all night doesn’t seem like the most exciting thing.”
“ for all my coordination, not too much of a DANCER --- gotta admit, ” lawrence says lightly. a long time ago, or at least what feels like a long time ago, someone had told him hockey was just like a different kind of dancing ( and maybe they’d been right --- damn figure skaters and their pristine edges ), but you don’t skate on land and sometimes lawrence can feel every bit of wrongness here. like everything has been shifted slightly off. she is right, though. standing in one place sounds like even less fun. “ but --- ” he continues, shifting so he’s no longer leaning against the wall, “ we can still find something to do that isn’t standing here. i’m not quite tied to the spot either. ”
“It’s probably the thing I miss most about Canada,” Noel nodded. Especially her city, it was known for having harsh winters. “It would be only fair, since we have to suffer through the heat. But the powers people in our cabin can have…they’re not to be played with,” she added with a darkened expression.
“ yeah well, it’s easy to miss a lot of things --- ” lawrence mutters, only just managing to press the wistfulness in his voice into neutral dissonance. one of the ice snowflake decorations looks like it’s starting to noticeably melt, he elects to ignore it for the moment, gaze shifting to noel. “ our cabin, every cabin, ” lawrence shrugs, “ it’s not about the power; it’s about the people, y’know. ”
“I got that from my mom….she was always a summery person,”she explained, a fond smile playing at her lips as she remembered her mother. “Exactly…we don’t really have as cool powers as most demigods but at least we can always get a good night’s sleep,”she told him, a soft laugh slipping out. Other demigods’ powers always amazed her. They created beautiful things or were helpful in battle. Sure, she could hypnotize someone but that was more of a cool party trick in her opinion. “What all can you do? If you don’t mind me asking…I just think the whole powers thing is really cool.”
there’s a faint quirk of a smile on lawrence’s face as his thinks of his own father ( how much of his blood runs in his veins, non-magical but just as POTENT ). “ don’t underestimate the power of a good night’s sleep, ” he says, half a joke, half not. “ i’m sure you know plenty of people who would kill for that. ” he raises his half-empty cup of punch to her eye level, frost creeping up its edges and turning the liquid inside solid ( a bit more concentration keeping the ice from expanding outward to crack the fragile plastic ). “ freeze stuff, control it sometimes, make it snow if there’s enough humidity in the air. ” there’s the other things too, accidentally giving someone frostbite, feeling itchy and uncomfortable in any temperature above freezing, the eyebrow raising that comes with the name khione. those aren’t as fun though. “ don’t get all that much use of it here though --- except to keep winter ball decorations from melting, i guess. ”
Ellie watched as the glass changed before her very eyes. She was always amazed by other camper’s abilities. She often hid most of her abilities from other campers, leaving her slightly jealous of those that could so easily show off their own. The mention of her cabin made the blonde bite into her bottom lip to suppress a laugh. “Most people would guess those..but no. I’m all the way in cabin fifteen,” she told the other with a slight shrug of her shoulders. “My father is Hypnos,”she clarified since most people didn’t pay much attention to what Godly parent the cabins honored after the first ten cabins.
“ yeah you give off a bit of a summer vibe. ” lawrence turns to help himself to some of the punch, plastic cup in hand turning frosty as he gets it to a drinkable temperature ( in his opinion anyway ). “ huh --- so sleep, dreams, the like? ” tone a carefully practiced curiosity. dreams are funny things --- he remembers growing up with them so easily, surrounded by peers that had all dreamt the same one. he still dreams now, of course, but only when he’s asleep.
The moment he mentioned making sure the decorations didn’t melt, she realized what cabin he belonged to. “Oh…so you must love winter,”she commented as she looked up at the falling snow. “I was born down south so I never got to experience snow….so I guess this isn’t all that bad,”she attempted to backtrack on her words, not wanting to insult the other. “I am guessing you’re a child of Khione..”
“ YEAH --- grew up in winnipeg so i didn’t have much of a choice --- lived and breathed cold and snow. ” he glances over at her, gives another shrug ( he seems to be giving a lot of those lately ). “ and you’d be right; gave it right away, didn’t i. ” fingers tap along the rim of the punch bowl as if to make a point, ice crystals shimmying down the glass and spreading across the blue drink’s surface. “ ---- and what cabin are you? four? seven? ”
“I could so do without this snow though…I honestly hate winter. Give me the heat any day..”Ellie commented with a sigh as she looked up. “I’m Ellie by the way….and you look about as thrilled as I am to be here…”she commented, trying to remember if they had ever met before. She was constantly forgetting anyone she had met, her memory not being the best.
lawrence disagrees, obviously. must be NICE then --- to enjoy living in a stifling greenhouse like this. he holds his tongue on the matter however, even if the snowflakes start to fall just a TAD faster; one hand pushing one of his falling sleeves back up his arm. “ lawrence --- ” he says, instead. tone polite, the same one he’d started to employ when talking to the media a year ago, just a good canadian boy. shoulders rise in a nonchalant shrug, a half-agreement. “ could think of better places to be. got roped into making sure the decorations didn’t MELT, though. ”
“I get one chance to be around snow again,” Noel said bluntly, her eyes sparkling a bit as she looked at the falling flakes. “I’m not passing that up just because I hate everyone here.”
“ what --- making snow angels on our roof isn’t good enough? ” it’s a joke, clearly, one corner of lawrence’s mouth quirking upwards as he stares out into the crowd, arms crossed. “ they really should let us make it winter in here for a week or something, eh? seriously, you can tell people who don’t experience four seasons are like that. ”
“This whole dance thing is dumb,” Noel sighed to herself, but loud enough for the person next to her to hear. “Do they have booze at this thing?”
“ you could’ve stayed behind, y’know. ” lawrence sounds more resigned himself --- not actually any more pleased then her to be here, but trying to make the best of it all the same. “ at least there’s SOME potential for prime entertainment here.”
Going to parties was not something the Ellie would usually do. Her quiet, reserved nature kept the blonde from interacting with many campers. So, she was not surprised when she arrived that she barley knew anyone. Making her way to the snack area, she grabbed a glass of punch and allowed her eyes to glance around the room. “The party planners did an amazing job,”she commented out loud.
he lingers on the edges of the party, within close reach of the food but far enough to avoid major engagements. it’s weird almost. lawrence has been to his fair share of parties ( after parties and victory parties and house parties ) but this feels far more different than any of them, just slightly wrong and not because of the snowflakes drifting down slowly despite the warm temps. “ yeah ---- ” lawrence agrees unenthusiastically, hands stuffed into suit pant pockets. the sleeves of his light blue button down have already been pushed up past his elbows, suit jacket nowhere in sight ( most likely left completely in his cabin --- why too hot to be wearing a suit jacket too ). “ ---- guess so. ”
hey fam!! i’m ollie and i love bringing back old muses of mine... sry if this intro gets a little a lot long...
++ Who’s that running into Camp Half-Blood? Oh, it’s the [OC] demigod [LAWRENCE HEARTHSTONE]! They really look like [CODY SAINTGNUE]. Rumour is this [NINETEEN] year old [CLAIMED] [SON] of [KHIONE] is very [QUIET & CLOSED-OFF], but at least they’re also [ADAPTABLE & GROUNDED]. Hopefully the monsters won’t get them. {ollie, 20, she/her, est}
THE STORY:
opposites attract, but they never ensure true love.
jason hearthstone is a kind man with a warm heart who lived for a game played on the ice --- and maybe that’s why khione was drawn to him in the first place; not for the game he played, but the fact that the prettiest lights are the best to snuff out.
lawrence is born ice cold on the coldest day of the year, the product of a drunken one night stand between a pretty girl and a guy fresh off a win. he never gets told all the details, but what lawrence know is this:
--- he was not meant to be
--- that does not mean his father loves him any less
( despite the hectic schedule of an nhler. )
( despite the fact he sees his aunt
more than his father sometimes. )
in the end, it’s no surprise he follows in his father’s footsteps, into a world of skates and sticks and pucks and ice --- and maybe with her blood in his veins too, it was never meant to be anything else.
the truth hits like a snow storm.
it’s february in winnipeg and the temperature is dropping to that point where it’s almost too cold to snow. the winters are harsh here, harsh enough to turn lakes into hard glass ( but harsh winters bear the toughest people ). jason hearthstone laughs at his son –newly turned twelve– who begs him to let him play shinny on the frozen pond in the woods behind their house. he lets him go after bundling lawrence in clothing with a stern reminder to be back for dinner to which the child enthusiastically nods.
there are some days that jason hearthstone sees so much of himself in his son.
( there are other days that he’s reminded of her, though –from cold eyes to cold hands. perhaps he had always known that was going to be more than a one night stand ).
on a frozen pond, lawrence hearthstone practices his skating and shoots pucks into a net. these are the drills he’s known forever now –from watching is father, from the little leagues, to elementary school. but pond ice is not perfect. it’s shaped by the elements, rough and imperfect. lawrence’s skate blade catches in a flaw and he twists his ankle as he goes down.
lawrence falls to the ice, to cradle his leg, gritting his teeth against the pain. a few tears escape as he tries to stand again only to fall back down. the snow seems to fall more thickly, and when lawrence looks up, she is there.
“ my dear— ” her hand is cold on his skin.
the khione lawrence sees is young, barely looking past twenty one, probably the same she looked to his father all those years ago. “ —any child of mine knows to be wary of tears for they can freeze. ” with his face in her hands teardrops freeze in their tracks. “ do you know who i am? ”
lawrence blinks back, silent.
“ i suppose your father never would tell you about me— he never had a reason to. ”
and that’s “ —-mom? ”
her laugh is like icicles rattling together, bell-like but a touch too sharp. “ most know me as khione —but you’re not wrong. i trust you will do me well. ”
she says very little after that, disappearing in a burst of snow that drifts slowly down with the rest of the flakes. jason hearthstone would find his son hours later, half buried —and he would know that the truth was out.
three weeks later, lawrence freezes his waterbottle solid in the middle of practice. he thinks he can almost hear her laughing in his ear.
it all starts to snowball after that. it’s perhaps a mixed blessing that he spends so much time at the rink --- ice disguising ice and snow well.
and his cyrokinesis isn’t the only thing that gets better.
it’s like a switch gets flipped in him, an extra sense he can feel all ends of the ice when he’s on it, feels slightly off when he’s not. he gets better and better and better and his father is delighted --- his laugh never seems to quite meet his eyes, though, like he’s waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.
for a while it’s easy. easy to play hockey, easy to catch the eyes of scouts already, easy to wipe away a sheen of frost, easy to disguise a few snowflakes.
lawrence turns sixteen and things stop being so easy.
he’s locked into a playoff game when the puck drops --- along with the other shoe.
it’s all a blur, monsters, a whirlwind of action. breaking his stick across the nose of something. a satyr --one of the team’s trainers-- finds him, and takes him where things will never be the same.
it’s snowing when lawrence crosses the boarder by thalia’s tree for the first time. one minute his boots are in a foot of snow and the next they’re on grass and the sun is shining above. almost immediately, he starts sweating in his jacket.
ryan –his satyr– guides him to the big house while lawrence remains in a stupor —still rattled from the attack and exhausted from the plane ride from winnipeg to new york. he never needs to be claimed with a glowing symbol. they ask him that first night and he says “khione” as snowflakes drift above his head.
he stays the summer and learns how to protect himself –learns the details of greek myth and all the things his father had half hinted at but never really told. but he wants to go back home –he has a future built on ice, but not the kind his mother gave him. the future he wants is the same as his father’s ( sweat and ice and skates and goals and team ), but his mother’s blood in him has other ideas.
lawrence goes home and learns the hard way that once things go bad there’s no returning to the past.
the gorgon severely injures his best friend josh as it and its cohort attack the team in an attempt to get to him. lawrence still doesn’t know what nightmares they saw in those moments manipulated by the mist. his best friend out for an entire season, his team in shambles —only then did lawrence see.
( maybe he’d always known --- dating back to a frozen lake in winnipeg, his mother warning him of the dangers of crying as tears froze on his face ).
it’s snowing when lawrence crosses the boarder for the second time, alone and unsure.
HEADCANONS:
the one time lawrence has left camp boundaries was at the beck of hestia who no doubt found his last name to her amusement. her cat had escaped and found itself literally on thin ice and lawrence was recruited to retrieve it. honestly, he’s not even sure if this counts as a quest.
ironically, lawrence’s most prominent scar has nothing to do with his demigod genes. under his left eye there’s the remains of a nearly two-inch scar slightly paler than the rest of his skin from a wayward puck while he was playing shinny. he has other very small and various scars from accidents, pre-chb and post.
when it happened, he had planned to have his draft day tattooed on him, but that passed six months ago. he doesn’t think there’s any chance of that ever happening now.
lawrence is always extremely cold to the touch. his hands are freezing and his skin never warms even if he’s sweating. he functions much better in cold temperatures and thinks CHB is too hot literally all the time. if it’s above freezing, it’s too hot.
the water nymphs HATE him because he always wants to freeze the lake to skate.
lawrence is VERY competitive. boy may not be the happiest here, but bet he goes HARD in capture the flag.
lawrence is very aware of what khione had done and her role in the fall of olympus –obvious he does not condone it, but he’s not ashamed of the power he has either. you cannot help who your parentage is –but you can decide what to do with the power you’re given
personality-wise, lawrence is very loyal and down to earth --- but he is very good at hiding his emotions and intentions, and that he did not get from his father.
CONNECTIONS
i’m too terrible at this to really list random ones. but come to me or give this a like or something and i’ll read ur chara’s intro and i’m sure we can rustle some fun things up !!
Children of the Gods: Khione, Greek goddess of snow
The beautiful snow goddess whose realm belongs to winter. Her children carry snowflakes on their lashes and leave frost in their wake. They are winter’s helpers; as breathtaking as the first snow fall, as dangerous as a coming storm.
