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Related Legends Reborn

A multi-mythology site, based off of the books by Rick Riordan. Credit to Sienna for the header and who's online picture.
 
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 denouement

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sarenrae
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sarenrae


Posts : 227
Join date : 2017-02-26

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PostSubject: denouement   denouement Icon_minitimeFri Jun 30, 2017 11:46 pm


PART ONE

Rosalind Miller is supposed to be a leader, a great one at that. She is the perfect headline. Daughter of a drug addict rises from nothing to become the leader of a modern day Roman legion. She’s supposed to have the perfect storybook ending. Yet as she leans on an old beat up subaru, looking out onto the canyon by the side of the empty road, she has a feeling this sunrise is going to be her last.

Perhaps she’s getting ahead of herself. After all, three days ago she was living a normal life. Well, as normal as her life can get.

Thursday mornings are always busy for her. She is constantly rushing around camp, trying to get to her next meeting or obligation. She had finally found a spare moment to head back to her office, when she realized her door had been left ajar. Roz is always careful to lock her door when she leaves, and the only other person who has the key is her co-praetor, who was currently halfway across camp. She wishes she had brought her crossbow with her. It’s stupid of her to be unarmed when there was an actual situation going on.

She probably should go and find someone to back her up, but instead she goes forward, ready to wrestle anyone she finds to the floor.

When she enters the room, she sees the last person she ever expects to see. She is a nepali woman, with high cheekbones and a thin nose. Her hair is longer than it was before, and no longer dyed blonde. Her feet are propped up on the desk, and in her hand she holds Roz’s bottle of whiskey.

“Why does every praetor store booze in the same damn drawer?” She asks nonchalantly in her clear Australian accent, taking a long sip of the whiskey.

“What the f*ck Kala?” Roz hisses, she closes the door behind her and takes a seat in a chair on the other side of the desk.

Kala Yadav is one of the first people Roz ever met at camp. She also held the title of praetor for three years before abruptly retiring and disappearing into the mortal world. The move seemed very out of character for Kala, who was known for being rather strict, far more strict than Roz. Still, those who knew her well knew there was a wild side to her. A part of her that was prideful and stubborn and flighty. Maybe it made sense that she’d finally find her way back to her old hunting ground.

“I always knew you’d become praetor. Ever since you made centurion. People like you, you know. Far more than they ever liked me.” She’s adverting the issue, Kala always did that when she was nervous.

“People liked you.” Roz contends, leaning across the desk to take the whiskey from Kala. She takes a sip herself, before going on, “You always knew how to lead, people respected you.”

Kala makes a face that looks like she partially agrees, yet she doesn’t argue.

“So what are you doing back here?” Roz asks, “I’m assuming you didn’t break into my office just so you could have a chat.”

Kala grimaces, like she had forgotten why she was even there in the first place.

“We’ve got an issue.” Kala says, “Pertaining to phantom ranch. It’s back, and we need to stop it”

Roz’s heart skips a beat. She remembers the ranch clearly. It was the quest that earned her position as centurion of the fifth cohort. It was also a place she never wanted to visit again.

Roz remembers the fog in the moonlight, the air growing cold in the summer heat. She remembers Alyssa’s screams and the sick cracking of bone. She remembers Kala calling for Lee to pull himself together. She remembers the taste of vomit and bile in her mouth. She doesn’t want to go back there.

Yet, she knows she needs to.

“Okay.” She says, fighting every urge in her body to just tell Kala to figure it out on her own. Turns out, that quest isn’t over. “Time to get the band back together again.”


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sarenrae
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PostSubject: Re: denouement   denouement Icon_minitimeFri Jun 30, 2017 11:57 pm


PART TWO

The first stop is her own apartment. Not for supplies, no, all of those are kept in her office. Her apartment exists outside her role as praetor. No weapons except for her crossbow, no meetings are to be held within its walls. Back in Camp she might be Rosalind, but here she’s just Roz.

She pushes open the door to be met with the high ceilings and brick walls, with light streaming in through the large windows on the opposite wall. The kitchen and living room are empty, with a couple items left strewn about. She sees books about chemistry and biology left abandoned on the small dining table. An apartment this nice is one of the perks of being praetor.

“Teddy?” She calls into the apartment, “You home?”

Her boyfriend is already done with the legion, and is in his junior year of college. He is pre-med, which meant most of his life is spent with his nose in a textbook. This time, however, he is nowhere to be found.

Roz wanders farther into the apartment, walking past the sliding doors that led off of the living room. In their bed, completely passed out, is a man with sandy blonde hair and a matching beard. Roz can only smile at the sight of Teddy looking so peaceful. Part of her just wants to let him sleep some more, but she knows there isn’t time. She has more people to see.

Roz takes a seat on the bed gently nudging Teddy, “Hey, babe, wake up.”

Teddy stirs and his eyes blink open. His lips curl into a smile, and he props himself up on his elbow to give her a kiss on the forehead.

“You’re home early,” he comments, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you off work before five.” His smile falters though when he sees the look on Rosalind’s face.

“What’s up?” His brow furrows, and Rosalind sees him searching her face for some kind of answer.

Rosalind tells him the situation, and she sees all color leave Teddy’s face. He was there too, he saw what happened. He left that place just as changed as the rest of them. Unlike her, he refused to be promoted to centurion of the fourth cohort. He wasn’t the only one from their group that refused the leadership position that was being offered to them if they succeeded.

“I’ll do it.” He says after a minutes silence, “there’s no sense in sending some poor kid in who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

“Really?” she asks, she was certain everyone was going to refuse. Yet here she sits, watching this man that she loves hold her hand and tell her that he was going to go back into that canyon with her. For a second, this doesn’t seem impossible.

“Yeah.” He says, and he squeezes her hand and gives her a look that reminds her why she fell in love with him in the first place. They could do this.

“Guess you gotta convince the other two now.”

Shit. She almost forgot about that.

Roz bids Teddy goodbye sooner than she really wanted to. She wants to climb back into bed with him and spend the rest of the day just laying there and forgetting about that f*cking canyon. Instead she has to leave him and continue on her recruiting mission.

Her next stop is across town, within the walls of New Rome University. She walks there, so it will take as long as possible for her to have to face another person who was in that canyon that fateful night. She takes her time walking down the main stretch of road, towards the mix and match of old roman buildings with new modern structures. That’s what New Rome is, the old and the new, coming together as one.

She finds her way around as best she can, as she wasn’t too familiar with the grounds. After asking around she finds her way to the education building, walking past classroom doors until she finds the right one. She’s thankful that she stopped by the administration building and asked for a class schedule. She walks in on a medium sized lecture, with about eighty people scattered throughout the seating. There’s a man up front who stops his sentence about essays to stare at Rosalind.

“May I help you?” He asks, with a twinge of annoyance, although he seems to recognize who she is. Roz locks eyes with a girl in the third row. She’s about Roz’s age with short black hair and a look of curiosity.

“I need to speak with Margot Zhang.” Roz announces, and the girl stands up, quickly grabbing her things and jogging to meet her.

The two of them start to walk down the hall, and Margot looks over at Roz with an amused look on her face.

“So what motivates the praetor to march her ass down to NRU and break a poor ex-legionnaire out of her education lecture?” Margot brushes a strand of hair out of her face, turning to look out the windows that ran along the length of the hallway. Like Teddy, Margot had refused the promotion offered to her upon their return from Phantom Ranch. Truthfully, out of all of them, she seemed to be affected the most. It was no surprise that she had walked away from the legion shortly after. Roz figured the only thing keeping her in New Rome was her mother. Mei Zhang was the dean of medicine at Julius Caesar Memorial Hospital, along with being a daughter of Neptune. Margot had big shoes to fill, but it never seemed like she minded. Mother and daughter were thick as thieves, and Roz was a bit jealous.

Roz is quiet for a moment, knowing that whatever reaction Margot gives her, won’t be a good one.

“It’s about Phantom Ranch.” Roz starts, but those four words are enough to get Margot to stop in her tracks. Whatever carefree smile Margot had on her face is gone and replaced by an expression that Roz can only describe as dread.

“I thought it was dead.” Margot says quietly, and Roz can see her replaying that night in her head, just as Roz had hours ago. Every bad memory that had been neatly packed away is back. She starts to regret even showing up here today.

“I don’t know where Kala got her intel, but I trust her. If she says it’s back, then it’s back.”

Margot nods stiffly, and Roz feels a pang of guilt in her stomach.

“Then I’m in.” Those words surprise Roz, especially when said by the woman who’s face looks like she’s watching a funeral pyre. Margot seems to read the surprise on her face, because she goes on, “I’ve spent the last five years making my peace with that place. Maybe it’s time to face my demons and finally put the nail in the coffin.” Resolution. That’s what she’s looking for.

Part of Roz wants to reach out and give her a hug, but the other half would rather just stand there awkwardly. Her second half always wins. In fact, she is fairly certain any nurturing bone in her body was broken by the legion years ago. She isn’t a motherly type. Instead, Roz sticks with a grateful smile, before saying goodbye and leaving Margot standing alone in the empty hallway.

Rosalind’s last stop is a bit farther out. In fact, it isn’t even in New Rome. The city of San Francisco holds many demigods who elected to venture into the mortal world instead of staying within New Rome. They were close enough to flee back home if anything got too dangerous, but still lived in a city with far more employment options along with the opportunity to masquerade as a totally normal human.

She finds herself passing through the heart of downtown San Francisco, and instead on streets surrounded by older stone buildings that reminded her of many of the buildings in New Rome. She parks her car and approaches one of the most ornate buildings in the surrounding area. Two stories tall with a tall domed roof and large marble columns stands the San Francisco City Hall. On the steps she sees a couple, one clad in a white dress while the other wore a black suit. They were having their picture taken with a certificate, one that Roz assumed officiated their union. It was a very nice building to get married in, yet she is there for other reasons.

It’s not easy convincing his secretary to move all of his appointments back, yet once she pulls out the word “sister” and “family emergency” it seems to do the trick, despite the suspicious look she was getting. Chances are he never even mentioned he had a sister. Maybe she is flubbing a bit, she is his half-sister. Yet the jury is still out if omitting the truth is even lying at all.

Rosalind doesn’t even bother to knock when she enters Lee Elswood’s office. It was pretty nice too. Apparently being on the City Council had its perks. It even has a view of the San Francisco skyline. Yet the view that she is most concerned with is the disgruntled face of her dear half brother.

Lee always fit the politician lifestyle, he even looked the part. The gelled back hair, the sharp suit, the clean shaven face, he had looked the same even in the legion, maybe minus the suit. It was no surprise that Lee had taken the offer of becoming the centurion of cohort two. He led with pride, even when he was very obviously passed over for praetor. He did his time and then left New Rome. However, not before his girlfriend abandoned her post as praetor without a word. Lee was bitter, yet he moved past it and found success somewhere else.

“What are you doing here?” He asks, very clearly annoyed at her presence.

“Wow, Lee, thanks for the hospitality.” Rosalind shoots back. Lee might not have been her only half sibling at camp, but everyone else seemed to think they were full siblings. Maybe it was the way that they always seemed to find something to bicker about, no matter the subject.

“Seriously though, I have work to do. If you’re just here for a fun sibling reunion, maybe you should just invite me to dinner instead.”

Rosalind rolls her eyes, “I’m here for a reason, you d*ck. Your girlfriend is back in town.”

“Ex-girlfriend.” He corrects immediately, but then realizes what Rosalind just said, his face turns even more sour, “Why?” No, ‘where has she been’ or ‘why did she leave’ just, ‘Why is she back?’.  His distaste for Kala is evident, she can’t blame him. Kala left him behind, she broke his trust, why should he be jumping for joy that she’s back?

“Turns out we’re not done with Phantom Ranch. It’s back.” Roz studies Lee’s face for any sign of expression change, but none came. Rosalind went on, “We’re rounding everyone up to go back and finish it off. Everyone else is in.”
Lee pauses a moment before saying, “Well, I’m out.”

To be honest, Roz isn’t surprised. Lee only went on that combat mission in the first place to increase his standing in the legion. Currently this mission has no positive effect on his job on city council, so of course he isn’t interest.

“No.” Roz says. “You don’t get to be out. You don’t get to sit there in your tailored suit while the rest of us try to fix this.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe I have more important things to do? I can’t just leave work.”

“You’re not the only politician in this room, Lee Harvey Elswood. Even though you seem to forget that New Rome exists, I still lead it. I’m abandoning my post so I can go make things right, so why can’t you?”

“Okay, first of all.” Lee stands up, “My middle name isn’t Harvey, and don’t act like I don’t know you stole it from Lee Harvey Oswald. Second, its very high and noble of you to go do this, but you can just as easily send a bunch of you greatest warriors, instead of a retired legionnaire. And finally, do you think I want to spend the next how many days driving to the grand f*cking canyon with my ex-girlfriend who ditched me because she got bored?”

“Lee, please,” Rosalind has resorted to begging now, and she dearly hopes nobody but Lee will ever witness her doing so. “This is bigger than us. Who knows how many people it’s killed since that day. We know what’s out there, and no amount of warning and training will prepare anyone else for that thing. We’ve faced it, we can do it again.”

“The last time we faced that thing it broke every bone in Alyssa’s body and we barely escaped with our lives. What makes you think we’ll be so lucky this time?”

“I don’t know. But we’re the best chance we’ve got.”

Lee sighs, running his hand through his gelled hair. For a second, Roz thinks she’s lost him, but then he gives her the look he always gave when he knew she had won.

“Fine.”


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