Sunrise | Sunset

“The artist’s job is not to succumb to despair , but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.” — Gertrude Stein

[lavinahudson]

dunamais

Rae smiled at L’s cheerful greeting. People being happy to see her was a feeling that never got old. “Me and Hazel drove down here like, just the other day,” She added, “Wyatt’s here too. Oh—” She glanced down at her clothes, remembering why she was here in the first place, “Going to, eventually. I kinda got sucked up in Instagram.” She laughed, “But how are you?”

She grinned widely as she washed the blender out. “Awesome! That means I have to go grab Hazel and shake her for not telling me she was here sooner. How’re you two working as roommates?” She put the blender top back on its stand and started going to the freezer to pull out some fruit. “Gods, I feel that. Sometimes I set my alarm for ten minutes earlier than I have to get up so I can scroll through my phone before getting out of bed.” She let out a laugh and dropped some fruit into the blender before putting it away again. “But good! You know, same-old, same-old around here. How’s... Northeastern is it?” 

[lavinahudson]

dunamais

“I—Yeah, okay.” Nadia couldn’t do much else but nod. Truthfully, she was a little overwhelmed. Avery was this same vein of bubbly and outgoing, but not quite at this speed. It was like she was trying to adjust to a different language. “Um, whatever you think is best,” She smiled at L, “I honestly have no idea. My experience with photography is like, zero.”

L couldn’t help but laugh at Nadia’s expression. “Sorry! That was a bit like ‘blah-la-la-la-la’,” she mimicked herself and rocked back on her heels. “I just get so excited about this stuff, it’s sort of dumb.” She shrugged as she played with her camera. “Well, I have a ton of experience if that helps any.” She let out something between an exhale and a laugh. “Normally it’s easier to get a natural pose from someone when they don’t know you’re taking their picture, but I wanna make sure it’s alright, y’know?”

[lavinahudson]

dunamais

Nadia looked over at L, surprised. She then looked around, thinking maybe she was talking to the person next to her. Some younger camper who’d asked her for help. Nadia felt bad that she didn’t quite remember the kid’s name, but he was sweet. When she realized she wasn’t, she shrugged, waving goodbye to the younger kid as he left, “Uh, yeah, sure. What is it for?”

L grinned as Nadia agreed. “Oh, well, you probably know that I take a lot of pictures, because yeah.” She shrugged. “And so, I’ve gotten really into people lately, because they’re the most interesting things to photograph, because they’re just super interesting in general. But basically I think I’ll know what I’m going to do with it once I take the picture. Probably something with paint, because I really like that mixed media, since it’s pretty weird, but it’s not a figured out photo-shoot or project, you know? But definitely let me know if you’re up for one of those!” She moved her hands and head a lot as she spoke, causing the camera around her neck to bounce against its strap.

[dunamais]

It was early, far too early for most people to be awake. But, here Rae was, up and about the kitchen in full workout gear, gathering some fruit and vegetables from the fridge. She hummed an incoherent tune as she worked, slicing up the colorful variety of items and tossing them into the blender. The loud whirring of the machine caused her to glance around, ensuring no sleepy campers may have been startled awake from the noise.

Minutes later she leaned against the counter, sucking down her finished smoothie and scrolling through Instagram. Her normal, morning routine felt nice, and doing it while at camp felt even nicer—like she was home. Finally, someone walked in, and she was nothing but smiles, “Good Morning,” Rae chirped, looking up from her phone.

[lavinahudson]

L wiped the sleep out of her eyes as she trekked over to the kitchen to make herself breakfast. She began putting her hair up as he pushed the door open but dropped it when she saw Rae. “Hey! Oh my gods, since when are you back?” She looked at Rae in her workout gear and then down at her pajamas, exhaled a laugh, and began washing the blender. “Going to or getting back from a work out?”

[lavinahudson]

L tilted her head and waited for the person she was talking to to finish speaking. “Is it okay if I take a picture of you?”

[lavinahudson]

goldveineds

Caspar smiled back at her, happy that she decided to take a seat with him at the picnic table. He chuckled and lifted his head so that he could non-verbally respond with a lazy shake. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind if you did sing me a lullaby. I wouldn’t stop you,” He explained, still smiling. “Or, you could just sing me your favorite song of the moment?” He pressed. “I promise I’m a great audience.”

L exhaled a laugh and played with her shoelaces. “Do you do this with everyone or just children of Apollo? You do know I'm better at the visual arts, right?” She considered the request, then sucked her cheeks in. “I might be between two. One of them could sorta be a lullaby? It’s kind of soft. But you don’t want one of those anymore, right? What if my favourite song at the moment was a lullaby though?”

[effyeahalexsteele]

[goldveineds-blog]

Sometimes, it was nice to be able to go out in sweatpants and trainers and not have to worry about throwing on something nicer. It was also good to genuinely enjoy his company and not feel like he had to hang on to every little word that was said. Sitting at a picnic table with his head down had seemed like an ideal way to spend his afternoon and even if it’d gone on a little later than Caspar had planned, he still felt light and content and it was probably only partially due to the daydreams he was concocting. “M’not sleeping, just resting,” He finally muttered, rolling his head so he could see who had walked up to him and patting the space beside his. “Come sit, talk. I like your voice.”

[lavinahudson]

L looked down at Caspar before taking a seat and drew her legs up. She’d also found that it was a good day for sweatpants and sneakers, and played with her laces as she smiled at him. “That’s nice. Are you just trying to butter me up so you can coax me into singing you a lullaby?” 

[effyeahalexsteele]

[jacobriveras]

Jacob was, for the first time in a long time, no wearing anything remotely revealing around camp. His closet had recently expanded and he was trying out new clothes– recommendations from Brent, Macey, and a variety of others on what might be good for him. It felt nice to actually be building a sense of style. The child of Nike was busy putting up flyers around camp, trying to make sure they were in a spot that people could see. He was heading back towards his stack when he saw someone standing close by. “Hey,” he calls out with a smile. “You mind handing those to me?”

[lavinahudson]

L wasn’t exactly surprised to see Jacob fully dressed, but did notice that something was different, and happened to be noticing that difference when he turned to face her. She nodded quickly and grabbed up a bunch of the posters to hold them out to Jacob. “Sure thing! What are these for?”

[effyeahalexsteele]

[ichorvcined-blog]

“Would you stay still? I told you it’ll be a little while until you can move again….You shouldn’t of took that break for granted,” Vienna told the other as she dipped the brush into water and swirled it around. Looking over at the other’s back, she studied the artwork she was dong. It will wash off, but she still took pride into her work. She dipped the brush into another color of paint and went back to doing her thing. “Would you rather lay on you stomach instead of sitting?”

[lavinahudson]

L let out a bit of a laugh and tried to stop squirming so much. She shook her head, moving her shoulders back and gripping the seat with her hands in an attempt to sit still, tucking her legs back so that she wouldn’t bounce them. “No, that’ll ruin the vision. I just did this to see what I put other people through. Walk a few miles in everybody else’s shoes.”

[issac-king-deactivated20170805]

Issac looked cautiously at the wound in front of him and inhaled deeply. He pulled out a book of poetry and opened it – or at least tried to because it fell to the ground. His eyes locked onto the person he was supposed to be healing. “Uh– that doesn’t happen often, I promise.” A few seconds passed and he realized he should probably pick the book up and did so. Once he was standing, he inhaled again and just went for it. “From the window,  to the wall, till the sweat drip down my balls.” He looked at the wound and continued forward with the song until it was completely closed. “Alright. There ya go. All healed. That’ll be five dollars.”

[lavinahudson]

L watched carefully as her sibling healed the person across from them. She grinned at the song he chose, then laughed, shaking her head. “Issac, I don’t think you can charge people for healing them.”

[effyeahalexsteele]

[lavinahudson]

alecmasters

Alec blinks. “Yeah! Like, three times. She’s pretty cool. Can I call my mom cool? Is that weird? I think Fizz likes her too.”

L laughs and raises her eyebrows. “Thrice? That’s cool itself!” She laughs again and then nods. “I think my mom is cool, and she’s not even a god, so it’s pretty fine to call her cool, I think. ”

[lavinahudson]

alecmasters

“Maybe! Or maybe my mom just really likes me. She’s always seemed pretty nice.”

L looked a bit excited by this. “You met her long enough to talk to her for?”

[cainespearson]

h o m e

[lavinahudson]

cainespearson

In some ways, Caine was glad he at times looked toward things less than positively at times.  Though, that may have simply been because he managed to not expect the flying ball of L that quickly latched ontop him and all too quickly a warmth seeped into his skin, muscles, and pretty much every fiber of his being as he wrapped his own arms around L, swallowing down any comment he had about how hard she was squeezing him around ribs bruised from an earlier battle.  Everything felt all that much better in that moment with L’s welcome, a warm smile plastered across his face and blue eyes bright his happiness and seeing his closest friend and sister. “There’s my, L.”  He said excitedly while feigning lack of air to tease her, “Be careful… I might think you missed me or something.”  It was weak and obvious teasing as he offered just as tight of a bear hug in return after he leaned in enough so he could lift L with the embrace momentarily before setting her back down and just allowing them to take the moment.

“I’m glad you were here… Last thing I needed was you finding out I didn’t say ‘Hi’ first.”  Caine added warmly, knowing full well L wouldn’t have probably been mad, but as a sibling, it just wouldn’t do to admit just how much he’d missed having his partner in art and fighting imaginary crime.

L wiggled a bit when Caine picked her up, having forgotten how much taller her brother was than her. In her mind, of course Caine took up a lot of space, but quiet people always tended to seem smaller to her, or at least not so broad and able to pick her up. When she was let back down she let go of him, realizing that if he just arrived, squeezing potentially irritated and bruised places probably wasn’t the best idea. She was practically buzzing with excitement, and spoke quickly as she bobbed from one foot to the other.

“Oh man, are you right! If I was so much as the second person you glanced at I’d never speak to you again,” she laughed as she spoke, cheeks hurting from how much she was grinning, voice squeaky from how tight her throat was. “Kidding!” She felt the need to add this, even though it was obvious. “But how are you!? Are you hurt!? If you are and came to me instead of the infirmary I’m gonna be flattered but I’ll also have to beat you up a bit right after I heal you.”