Alohomora

Zachary Coleman ~ Son of Hermes (Mercury) ~ Lycanthrope ~ 3rd Cohort ~ Brother of the Golden Trio ~ "Pizza can’t be shared. It’s like glory. You either have it all, or you don’t get any." — Zachary Coleman

[canem-ne-credite-blog]

        A gentle nod was given in response to the rhetorical question Zach first posed, but a full explanation of that moment would have to wait until she’d revealed to her late brother’s boyfriend the darker truths that she’d been keeping. His tears and unstable demeanor starkly contrasted the serious monotony that dominated her expression. She was temped to offer a hand to his shoulder or back in support, yet refrained, unknowing of what consequences her experience would trigger. “Finan was not a target of the Potens Invictus– I was.” Her words rolled out steadily, but the underlying gravity of what she’d witnessed that night still rang faintly in her tone. “I was intercepted by one of their associates, engaged them in a fight. Finn must have been following me. He’d trusted me with the news about you two, so I’d chosen to trust him with the secret of… who I’d been seeing, but perhaps I shouldn’t have. You know how protective he was, how hopeful.” A short sigh escaped her. “When he found me, he got caught in the crossfire– ended up taking the most of a knockout spell that wasn’t intended for him. By the time I got back on my feet, they were already dragging him off. I tried to pursue, even offered that they take me instead, but they wouldn’t budge. They used some other spell to restrain me and they were long gone when it finally wore off.” 

Adriana paused, biting down into the corner of her lip as she recalled her fruitless attempts to search the streets afterward. “I looked everywhere. I had AJ send out search teams… All that time I spent training him to fight, teaching him to control his powers, all fucking wasted because we had no way of countering one stupid spell.” Her knuckles had gone white from the tight grasp she now had on the seat of the bench, a deep anger boiling within her gaze, which was now straining to lose control under the pressure of her own emotions. “It’s my fault, Zach. I trusted him. I let him trust me, and he sacrificed himself– it should have been the other way around.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

Zach wasn’t sure what he going to hear. He definitely wasn’t prepared for any of it. Any time Finn’s name surfaced, it was like taking off a band-aid to reveal a freshly cut wound. With Gabriel, the stitches were gone and his wound mostly sealed. Finn’s story was far darker, more gruesome, and like Gabriel, undeserving of a hero. Maybe he’d die the same way. Maybe they all would.

Her voice began to become an echo, distant and far off. He guessed that maybe, just maybe Finn died protecting someone. Zach couldn’t fathom why he’d be targeted randomly. Now it . . . now it made more sense. He was protecting Adriana. Zach looked over her. How could she let this happen. How could she, a child of Ares, allow this? Zach’s fingers itched. He felt his claws coming out. With them, the cry to draw blood rang in his head. 

Sometime after she stopped speaking, Zach got control back. His dark glare at her was washed away, and the wolf ceased to come out. His blood-lust would not get the better of him. “You didn’t . . . I am sure you did everything you could, Adriana. Finn . . . Finn was like that. He wanted to protect, to help. I would have done the same thing if it was Tyler or Blink. We can’t blame him, or-or you. This isn’t your fault, it’s theirs. It’s whoever is behind this.” His foot was tapping against the gravel. “I . . . I don’t blame you.” His hands ran along the sides of his head. “I don’t know what to say. Just . . . just don’t blame yourself.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

From One Wolf to Another || Jax & Zach

[jax-karavadra]

Just because he was a Praetor didn’t mean that it would do for Jax to get out of practice, quite the opposite in fact. He had to hold himself to a higher standard that most, as much more was expected from him and he was meant to be somewhat of a model for others. So he had put on at least three hours in the arena today. It was a nice distraction from the knowledge of the full moon, what would be his third as a werewolf. Now that Otto had gone back to the farm he was alone, and part of him wondered if perhaps it was better that way.

This way, he was less of a threat to New Rome’s innocents. But power was Jax’s vice, so the underlying theme of his thoughts was along the lines of building that. Now Zach was in front of him, and the other’s own wolf scent was coming off, the scent of a wolf not from his pack causing the hairs to raise on his arm in instinctual hostility. “Yes, Zach?” he said smugly, He knew what Zach was, that knowledge was something Otto had given him before leaving.

[zacharycolemanrp]

“You smell like you’ve taken a run in the woods.” He wasn’t about to outright claim what he thought Jax to be. Should Zach be wrong, that’d raise suspicion. More than enough people knew his secret, and too many knew about Tyler and Brennan. But with this chance, maybe he could still find out who the alpha was, seeing as how Otto left. 

Zach kept a smile on his face. He was so tired of facades, but as a Hermes kid he could pull one off easily. Zach took a few more deep breaths in, and did well at keeping them unnoticed. He’s a wolf, Zach thought. After all these years, he learned to differentiate between someones natural scent, and an odor they received from someone or somebody else. That smell was Jax. “I think we should talk.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

From One Wolf to Another || Jax & Zach

Zach was playing in the arena, sparring with another demigod who was bigger than him, was faster, and looked a lot meaner. He had to be Mar’s kid. Thankfully Zach knew how to use someones wait against them. Zach dodged one of the guys moves and tipped him over. He helped the man up, happy to have bested him. 

It was when he was putting his gear away and getting ready to shower when Zach smelled something. His senses were on high alert and with it being the full moon, Zach was on edge. He looked around, trying to pinpoint the scent of another wolf. It didn’t smell like his brother, Brennan, Otto or any old-pack members. When he saw Jax, his eyes narrowed. The smell was coming off of him. “Jax?”

[theghostkingnico-blog]

“That’s what you’d like to think. Besides, straight up masturbation is boring. You honestly think I wouldn’t stash a few toys?”

[zacharycolemanrp]

“I hate that we always end up talking about sex. I think we’re cursed, Nico.”

[theghostkingnico-blog]

“You act like I haven’t had bigger things than that in my butt before. Not everyone has a micropenis like you Zach.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

“I thought you never had anything your butt, Nico.”

[tyler-the-greek]

“Really? Half a dozen? That’s awesome!” Tyler said with a grin, getting a bit too excited about all the pranks they could pull. “Yeah, Blink is already small. We could prank Cora and Lucius though. That would be hilarious.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

“Fantastic, let’s go find Cora. Maybe she’s in the cohort.”

[theghostkingnico-blog]

“If we get candy, I’m going to get one of those outrageously sized lollipops to beat the puns out of you.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

“Nico, I’ll take lollipop, point the end of it towards you, bend you over, and it up your butt. Then you’re gonna have to get rushed to the hospital, with Goofy driving with you in the ambulance.” 

[theghostkingnico-blog]

“No, I left it on because I enjoy suffering.”

“They hosed me off in some back sector area. I saw Goofy without his head, and it was rather traumatizing at first.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

Zach busted out laughing. “So, I guess you could say that the guy looked even goofier after the head came off?” He nudged Nico in his ribs. “Well, we could go grab candy?”

[theghostkingnico-blog]

“If you want to know how my day is going, a little kid vomited on the stairs to space mountain, and I slipped in it. Dreams come true my ass.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

“I wished for that.” Zach smiled and chuckled. “Well did you clean it off yet?”

[tyler-the-greek]

“I’m super glad I didn’t drink that. You should be glad too, cause if I did I would have killed you.” He admitted with a light chuckle. “That’s so cool though, that you can do that. I’m proud of you.” Tyler said with a small smile. “Who else could we pick?”

[zacharycolemanrp]

Zach grinned. “Yup, and I got at least half a dozen more we can use.” He opened up his bag to show to Tyler. “Well, what about Blink? Ze is already so small though. If we gave it to zim, ze might not exist anymore. Or Cora, or Lucius.”

[tyler-the-greek]

Tyler raised an eyebrow at his brother as he mentioned leprechauns. Could his potions really shrink people? He watched the girl and within seconds she was starting to shrink, until she was so small she completely fell out of her clothes, her clothes burying her like sand. Tyler bursted out laughing, along with everyone else. “Dude, that’s awesome! How’d you learn how to do that?”

[zacharycolemanrp]

Zach grinned, feeling pretty proud of himself. “Alchemy man; I’m getting really good at it. Aren’t you really glad you didn’t drink that?” He beamed and patted his brothers back. “C’mon, let’s find others to mess with.”

[tyler-the-greek]

Distracting the girl was easy, too easy actually. He talked to her about stupid stuff, anything that would really just keep her distracted. Once he saw Zach nod at him and decided to try and wrap up the conversation, and about a minute or so later he finally met back up with Zach. “So what exactly is in whatever you just put in her drink? What is it gonna do to her?”

[zacharycolemanrp]

Zach grinned. “Well, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s leprechaun-related. You’ll see.” It wasn’t but a few seconds later until she took a sip of her drink. Just seconds later, the girl began to shrink in size. She shrunk until she was about two inches tall. The people around began to fall over laughing as she crawled out from her clothing, using her bra as cover. “That’s what it does.”

[tyler-the-greek]

“You wouldn’t dare. You would feel too bad afterwards.” He teased, laughing. “I don’t remember where I go them though.” Tyler said with a sigh, looking down at the socks as well. “If I remember where I got them, I will get you a pair.” He assured him. “Okay, fine.” Tyler said with an eye roll and started talking to the girl, taking her attention away from her drink.

[zacharycolemanrp]

Zach watched Tyler talk to the other demigod, waiting for the right moment. It was simple enough. Working with Tyler was always simple though. They had learned how to easily work with each other by now. He poured the liquid into her drink and nodded at his brother, then walked away and got behind a large post, waiting for Ty to join him. When his brother came over, he slapped his hand. “Thank you, sir. Now we wait.”

[zacharycolemanrp]

Zach was practically hopping like a bunny. He kept leaning up on the balls of his feet to see how much longer he had in the line for the Indiana Jones Adventure ride. Zach looked around, figuring that if one person slipped further in line, no one would care. Sneaking out of line, Zach moved up further until he saw one of the campers. “Hey! What are you doing up here?” The son of Hermes slipped back into line next to them, quickly covering himself with the other park-goers by using some persuasion.

[zacharycolemanrp]

“Right you are, Tyler. C’mon, I see someone over there. See that girl? She beat me in an arm wrestling contest last week. Let’s get her.” Zach laughed, shaking his head. “Lucky Ryan. He’ll never have to taste the sweet sting of a joke from a child of Hermes.” His gaze flickered down to Tyler’s lower half. “Like I’d ever wanna see that. I will have to see the socks though, for proof. Unless of course you want to get pinched?” A sly grin crossed his face.

[tyler-the-greek]

“She beat you? Wow, you’re just pathetic. You should be stronger than you.” He said, shaking his head. He clearly was only joking around, but it still was a bit sad that Zach had gotten beaten in arm wresting, considering the strength he really had. “Yeah, he never will.” Tyler said with a light chuckle. He held his leg up and pulled his pant leg away, revealing the socks. “See! Aren’t they cool?”

[zacharycolemanrp]

Zach snorted. "Don't make me beat your ass in front of all these campers, Ty." He elbowed his brother, looking down at his socks. "Oh, ya know those are actually pretty cool. Get me a pair next time," Zach said, smiling brightly. "Okay, you distract her while I pour."

[coralynn-macclellan]

Cora’s giggles were joy-filled as Zach spoke. It was impossible to be anything less than happy when at Disneyland. “Zach as a former Disneyland employee, I will have to report you if you do anything illegal.” She was obviously teasing Getting to the front of the line was much more fun than waiting in it. 

[zacharycolemanrp]

“Ya know I’ve actually heard awful things about Disney employees, so I can’t imagine you would have been one of them.” He linked their arms and walked around. “Hey, you want a balloon hat?! Or we could get some cotton candy!”

[zacharycolemanrp]

“Cora,” he wrapped an arm around her. “Today is the day. Today, we leave behind New Rome. We leave behind all the bad shit that’s happened.” He kissed her cheek and grinned. “Cora, my girl, today, we have fun! Luck you, you’re with a son of Hermes, and I will make sure we get to the front of every line.”