delosacademy

[delosacademy]

Day Two

Being woken up by an uncapped water bottle falling from the sky was not how Apollo expected to wake up on his first Sunday morning back in the dorms. However, that's what happened thanks to his grumpy roommate, or in other words, his late night out and obnoxious alarm. When his alarm went off at 8am, a single hand shot out from under his comforter and hit the snooze button. Ten minutes later, the scene replayed. After the fifth time of the first ten notes of The Final Countdown, Tyche, Apollo's roommate, decided he would make sure Apollo got out of bed. He launched the water grenade towards the other side of their shared dorm. Apollo was up in a matter of moments after that. His blankets went flying and suddenly he was on his feet, sort of. He didn't really stay on his feet. Instead, he hit the ground with the blankets wrapped around his legs and body, tangling him up into a mess. Tyche wasn’t surprised but he still rolled his eyes, groaning when Apollo continued to make a commotion, taking some dramatic amount time struggling his way free of of the blankets. When he finally found his way to his feet for good. Apollo threw off his soaking wet pajama shirt and then finally stopped moving. This was nearly an hour after the alarm had gone off the first time and woken up Tyche. "Ahh! Now I'm all wet! Why would you do that?!" Despite the fact that this had happened before, Apollo sounded shocked and betrayed. School hadn't even officially started and it was Tyche's first morning back. How could he already be this agitated? "Shut up, Apollo!" Tyche rolled over and pulled his blankets all the way over him. Apollo huffed. He understood that his roommate had a long trip the day before, but seriously? A water bomb? On the first morning? That was a little bit over dramatic… Not that Apollo was ever over dramatic. "Fine, fine." Apollo grabbed some clothes and changed quickly. He was running quite a bit late for his breakfast meeting. Regardless, before leaving the room, he rolled Tyche's wheelchair up to the side of the bed. He had started to feel bad about waking him up and he figured a kind gesture might improve Tyche's mood. Apollo knew that having the wheelchair bedside, as opposed to the foot of the bed, made it easier for Tyche. However, Tyche had insisted that the wheelchair be kept out of the way after Apollo had tripped over it… three times… In one week… Tyche’s first week as a freshman. Once the wheelchair was in a convenient place, Apollo left for breakfast. ~~~ As soon as Apollo was close enough to the cafeteria table that his sister was sure he would be able to hear her, Artemis was scolding him. "You were supposed to be here forty minutes ago! We need to move on to get ready for today!" Cassie glanced up from what was left of her scrambled eggs. She had been poking at them with her fork, looking somewhat agitated, but she let Artemis handle the speaking. Apollo could never decide whether he'd rather have Cassie yell at him when she was mad at him or not. He could imagine that it would be pretty scary if she ever yelled. Her annoyed look was scary enough without a voice. "I'll eat fast." He promised as soon as his tray touched the table. He sat down between Aether and Zeus, deciding that it was the safest place at the moment. Artemis sighed. "Well, we already got the rest of the names on the clothespins this morning." Apollo reached over, grabbing Cassie’s plate and scooping her leftover eggs onto his own plate. He was effectively the trash can at their table. He nodded to show he was listening as he also forked Zeus’s leftover piece of french toast. They were preparing for the annual school wide game of Paranoid. Basically, they all snuck around attaching clothespins to each other's shirts. As the dorm leaders, Cassie, Zeus, and the twins were effectively the student senate and activities committee as well. They often got additional help for other events but they were expected to take charge. The planning this year hadn’t been as thorough as normal. The group hadn't been all together until the previous day, which wasn’t normal. The year before they had met up and hung out half way through the summer, but with it being Cassie and the twins’ senior year, they were pretty busyduring the summer. No one had even thought about it until Zeus brought it up to Cassie two days before everyone arrived. This left a lot of the grunt work to be done the morning of. Thankfully, they had been able to get some work done ahead of time. Cassie made and printed the signs to mark safe zones and list rules while the rest of them had gotten some of the clothespins done ahead of time. That morning at 8 they were supposed to finish up the last 200 clothespins before the rest of set up, but, obviously, Apollo had missed that. "After you're done eating all we have left to do is hanging the signs up for safe zones and quiet zones." "And put out the clothespins." Zeus pointed out. Artemis nodded. "Right, duh. That's a given." Zeus didn't respond, he gave Aether an amused smile and received a sigh. Apollo didn't understand how they did that. Even though Aether couldn't see Zeus, he always responded to his roommate's antics fittingly. Regardless, Apollo held back a laugh in order to get the last bite of toast shoved into his mouth. He appreciated Zeus's ability to remain unaffected by his sister's mood swings. Zeus was able to push buttons in any circumstance and didn't ever seem to legitimately bother or be bothered. Apollo chewed his last bite and washed it down with a carton of milk. "Oka-" He was cut off by his own burp. He chuckled a bit, "-ay, let's get moving." Artemis's jaw practically hit the table before the empty milk carton that had been on the table was suddenly shoved into his gut. "Oof… What's up with people and throwing liquid containers this morning?" Apollo said in a tight voice as he caught his breath. She had really put some force behind that one. "So that's why your hair is damp? I'll have to thank Tyche later." She pushed herself up from her seat and grabbed her food tray. The others did the same, leaving Apollo to sigh and then follow suit. The girls headed towards the nearest trash bin with Aether following closely behind. Zeus stayed back, chuckling at Apollo. "Dude, they left the clothespins…" Apollo looked at the table. "Well, I ain't saying anything." "Give them a second…" Zeus stood beside Apollo, waiting and watching. The girls made it to the trash, dumped their trays, quite obviously stuck in whatever conversation they had picked up in their short trip to the edge of the cafeteria. "Three… Two… One…" Zeus pointed at them at the exact moment their heads both snapped back to the table. He winked at the two of them, smirking just slightly. "A given, right?!" He had to be pretty loud to be heard from they were, but his arm wave at the clothespins was enough to get the point across. Artemis said something back but Apollo couldn't make out what she was saying. By the wince on Aether's face though, it wasn't nice. Apollo looked at Zeus, "I don't know how it is that I'm the one only one who gets hit with inanimate objects." "I'm more charming." Zeus laughed, winking at him too. "And I'm always on time." He spun on his heel to clear his plate at a trash bin in the opposite direction of the girls. Apollo decided to follow him for the his own sake. Artemis, like Apollo, wasn't a morning person. Normally, she was able to cover that with quite a bit of coffee, but apparently, ‘quite a bit’ hadn't been reached yet. After clearing their trays the boys returned to the table and helped organize the clothespins into bags. Each bag had clothespins for a different dorm floor. Once they were all sorted, each of them took the correct bag to their dorm hall to attach the clothespins to the door nametags. Thirty minutes later every student had a clothespin attached to their door and the dorm leaders were onto their next task, hanging the signs. Apollo and Zeus covered the main school building, and Cassie and Aether got the Nike center (the athletic center), while Artemis covered the cafeteria, commons, and Muses Hall (the arts wing). The bathrooms, the pool, and the weight room were always safe zones and classrooms were safe zones during school hours. The entirety of the library was a quiet zone, so you could play but if and attacker or attackee were too loud, both of them were out, the same thing went for first floor of Muses Hall and the dorms between 11pm and 7am. By the time they all met up again it was almost 11am. The game was to start at noon when lunch started which gave them plenty of time for pre-game announcements and straightening out any missing clothespin fiascos. The announcement was made from the main office over the school wide PA system. Convincing Mr. Brontes that he should let them use the PA system hadn't been too difficult, but convincing Ms. Ambrosia had been another story. They had to convince her that Apollo wouldn't cause trouble this year. The previous year Apollo had spontaneously decided to rap the rules, not particularly well. The rap alone wasn’t the problem, but the act had been cut short by Artemis which resulted in the microphone being more or less destroyed so this year they promised someone else would do the announcement. It was the only way Ambrosia would let them use the PA system again. Despite this agreement, it wasn’t really surprising when they arrived in the administration office and Apollo went straight for the microphone. "I know what you’re thinking, guys. I'll admit, last year's rhymes weren't amazing. But I rewrote them, it'll be good this time. I swear. And plus, if Artemis doesn’t attack me like last year, we won’t blow a fuse! Or the microphone." Before anyone had a chance to respond, he switched on the microphone. Luckily, Zeus was fast and expecting Apollo to try this. He jumped forward to save the day, or at least, the PA system. Apollo hadn't been expecting Zeus to be the one to come at him which resulted in surprise as he was easily knocked to the side by his friend despite having quite a few inches on him. Zeus took the microphone and started talking before Apollo could grab it back. "Heeeeellllllloooooo fellow students of Delos! This is your favorite dorm leader, Zeus, speaking! How are you doing today?” The pause was very short, not wanting to give Apollo a chance to talk. “Well, you're about to be doing better. Our annual game of Paranoid is about to start. Now, freshmen and new students, I realize you may not know what this means. Allow me to explain. Every year we play this little game, this is how it works. Each student is given a clothespin. They're placed on the name tags on your dorm doors already. Warning, if you steal someone else's clothespin we will find you and you will be disqualified. Trust Apollo, he knows." "They aren't kidding, they'll find you." Apollo chimed in from behind Zeus. Artemis was holding him a few feet away with an invisible force. Apollo had stopped struggling against it after a stern look from Cassie. "See. But anyway. The goal of this game is to collect the most of these clothespins from your fellow students by way of clipping your clothespin onto a fellow student without them noticing you. If you get your clothespin clipped to an article of their clothing and let go completely without them noticing, then you get all the clothespins in their possession. The first student to collect one hundred clothespins, wins! Now, please note, the bathrooms, the pool, and the weight room are always safe zones. You aren't allowed to play in those areas for obvious reasons. Also, no playing during class. We allow you to play in the library, however, this space is a quiet zone! You can play there but if either the attacker or attackee is too loud, both of them will be disqualified. This also goes for the dorms between 11pm and 7am, only the dorm leaders get to be the enforcers. Also, roommates… Remember, you will be living with this person for the rest of the semester. I suggest playing fairly with them and not taking their clothespins in their sleep. Just saying. But that's just a friendly piece of advice from your friendly dorm leader." Zeus took a breath and looked at his friends. "Am I missing anything?" He asked them, not caring if the rest of the school could hear him as well. Artemis and Cassie shook their heads and Apollo shrugged in response. Zeus smiled. "Awesome, I believe that is all. The rules will be posted in length in the hallways in case there are any questions. Good luck. Have fun. Don't die. Let the game begin!" He clicked off the speaker and turned to his friends. "Are you ready for this?" Artemis shook her head. "You make it sound so dramatic, it's just a game." Cassie scoffed, earning a look from Artemis. Zeus pointed at Cassie, "Even Cassie thinks that's a ridiculous statement coming from your mouth." "Cassie!" Artemis looked betrayed. "You're the one who almost burnt down the school sophomore year." Cassie said indifferently. "That was Apollo's fault!" "HEY! Was not!" Apollo yelled, drawing attention to himself as he was trying to clip his clothespin to Cassie's shirt. "Was too!" Artemis argued back. Cassie rolled her eyes and looked at Zeus as the twins continued to bicker back and forth. She received a chuckle in response. "Where'd Aether go?" Zeus asked, just now realizing his roommate had disappeared. "Hiding in his room. He didn't want to be around Apollo and a microphone. Nice save, by the way." Zeus shrugged. "If I didn't save it I figured Artemis would, which never goes well." He glanced over at the twins who were still arguing over the Disaster of Sophomore Year. Both of them sighed at the arguing twins and at the memory. "We should get them out of this office before they break something." Cassie said. "Nose goes." Zeus touched his nose quickly. She rolled her eyes and whistled at the twins. "Apollo, don't you need to go steal Tyche's clothespin before someone else does?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah. See you guys!" He dashed out the door. He always got his roommate's clothespin. Tyche didn't play the game so whoever was the first person to clothespin him, got his clothespin. There were quite a few students in the school who played that way. There were students who got almost ten clothespins just from knowing which students didn’t like playing. For the first few hours of the game, the halls were absolute chaos. Alliances and traps were set up, clothespins switched hands so frequently it was impossible to tell who was winning. By the time dinner came around, things were settled some. The cafeteria continued to be chaotic, however, with so many people in one place, many students took that as their chance to collect some more clothespins. Apollo showed up to dinner a little earlier than usual. He was one of the first people in line. He glanced around a lot, taking in the lay of the land. This was his last year at Delos and he was determined to win. The previous year he had gotten too sick to play effectively and the year before that had been the year Zeus won after he and Artemis almost burnt down the school. Freshman year he had been close, but he was caught stealing and was therefore disqualified. This year though, it was only the first evening and he already had seventeen clothespins. He was ready to collect some more now. He chose a table in the corner instead of the usual table that he and his friends ate at, that way he could eat without having to watch his back. He ate in peace, watching the cafeteria fill up as people arrived for dinner. At the time they usually ate Zeus and Artemis showed up. They joined Apollo at the table with their trays of food. Their usual table was still empty but they knew Apollo wouldn't move to sit with them and they really weren't that attached to their spot. They only sat there out of habit. Zeus sat down first. "How's it going, Apollo?" He looked amused by the look of concentration on his face. "Seventeen." Apollo replied. His plate was already empty. He was just preparing his attack now. "I meant like, how was your day? How was your dinner?" Zeus chuckled. Apollo blinked. "Wait, what?" He looked at Zeus. "Oh, hi. Where's Cassie?" Usually Cassie came to dinner with either Artemis or Zeus and with both of them present without her, he asked to make sure she was okay. "She went to eat with Aether by the pool." Artemis answered before Zeus could. She was sure his response would contain some sort of joke about the two of them. "Ooh, finally. Nice going, Aether." Apollo smirked. Artemis rolled her eyes while Zeus covered a laugh by taking a bite of his hamburger. "They were just making some microwave meals in their dorms and taking them there in order to avoid the game." They all overlooked the fact that there wasn't food allowed in the pool area. "Uh huh, that's what they said anyway." Zeus said before taking a sip of water. Artemis sighed. "Stop talking and finish your dinner before I scatter it, Zeus." Zeus smirked at her in response but gave in. "Okay, okay." He turned his focus completely to his food. Apollo went back to scanning the cafeteria for victims. Since he sat down he had witnessed several people attempting to steal other people's clothespins. Only a couple had succeeded. He was trying to keep track of who had the most clothespins now. When he found his target, a student with nine pins, Apollo started power searching. By now, Apollo knew most of the upperclassmen's powers. He spent a lot of time reaching out, getting a feel for their powers, and testing them out little by little. Apollo liked trying new powers though. He went for the fresh meat rather than the same old, same old. He could reach out, feel their powers, and get a general sense for the type of power someone had, but he couldn't tell you all the quirks and details that usually were learned by actually using it for a bit. With Artemis next to him he could always use her invisibility but by the time he got to the student across the cafeteria, her power would run thin on him. He didn't want to get out of range and lose it. Instead, about half way between himself and his target, he found a freshman whose power felt like Artemis's. He tapped into it, just a bit and watched as his hand disappeared. He let it go. That would work. "See you, guys." He nodded to Zeus and Artemis before getting up and walking towards his target. He stuck to the wall and didn't use the invisibility yet. He didn't want to turn invisible and have someone run into him. That would cause quite a commotion and his plan would be ruined. He got five or so tables away from the other student before taking the invisibility power he had found. Quickly, all of him disappeared from plain sight. The next step he took boomed over the noise of the full cafeteria. His eyes went wide and he looked around quickly. Was that really him? He realized his breathing was louder too. There were several students at the surrounding tables glancing towards him now. Of course, they couldn't see him, but they had heard him. There were many furrowed brows as they couldn’t see the source of the noise. Apollo would've sworn but if his breathing was this loud, he didn't want to hear his voice. Not while he was trying to hide anyway. He couldn't very well reappear now, everyone would notice. This usually wouldn't have mattered, nobody blinks an eye at people using their powers in the cafeteria, but everyone included the student with the nine clothespins he was after. Instead, of reappearing or trying to take another step, he glanced around, looking for another power he could use to finish the job. A table away he noticed one of the juniors, Rhea. He could still make this work. Rhea was the lead dancer of the dance team. Very cute if you asked Apollo. Sadly, she had a boyfriend. Apollo would've sighed thinking about it if he hadn't caught himself. No noise. More importantly at this point in time was her power, anyway. She was elastic. Apollo tapped into her power, concentrating to not let go of the other student's power as well while he did. Very slowly and very carefully he reached his hand out, stretching his arm towards his target. Luckily for him, no one tried to walk through him or his arm. He clipped the clothespin onto his target's t-shirt and then retracted his arm. The boy didn’t suspect a thing. “Aha! Got you!” Apollo whooped as he let go of both let go of both the powers he had stolen, causing him to reappear. Everyone turned towards Apollo. The student he clipped looked at his shirt sleeve in disappointment, swearing under his breath. When he looked back up at Apollo his frown turned into a slight smirk. “Apollo. You should really be paying more attention while you’re on the attack.” Artemis smirked from behind him. She had pinned all six of her clothespins on him while he had been problem solving. “I believe that means I get both of your clothespins.” She said to both Apollo and his target. Apollo turned to his twin, jaw dropped, eyes wide, in disbelief. “I can’t believe you!!!”

[delosacademy]

Day One

In the seven hours Cassiopeia had been awake, the population of Delos had more than tripled. To make things even 'better', there were still people arriving. The thought had Cassie sighing at the end of her thirty second overview of their math and technology department.

It was move in day at Delos Boarding Academy for everyone, except for those who didn't go home for the summer. Under 100 students and faculty stayed on campus for various reasons during break, after everyone moved in, there would be about 500 people on campus. 

Not just 'normal' people either. This school was about to be home to about 500 super powered human beings. From the cliche fire wielders, telekinetics, and super speeders, to some odd ones, such as, super eaters with ability to eat literally anything or organ rearrangers, which should be pretty self explanatory. These powers usually came with a downside. Whether it be as simple as constantly running a fever or always being hungry.

Now, at noon, Cassiopeia, known as Cassie by most, was helping with the new students by giving campus tours. As one of the female dorm leaders (there were two) this was one of her many jobs. 

She couldn't say she hated it, but it wasn't something she looked forward to. After having a ghost town campus for a couple months, it wasn't easy getting used to the crowd. With this job, she wasn't given much time for adjustment.

Even with these sentiments, she had been asked to be dorm leader, which if she was honest with herself, made sense. She was usually level headed, responsible, and she knew the school better than most. Plus, in most cases she figured that giving the job to someone who was indifferent about it was better than giving it to someone who was begging for it.

However, when for the sixth time in three hours she found herself saying, "...and this is our last stop, the Commons. You guys can hang out here, elsewhere, or your dorms. Just make sure you make it to the auditorium by 1 o'clock, that's one hour from now, for the welcome ceremony, and yes, we will notice if you don't show up. Enjoy." she started to regret her agreement to do the job.

She watched as the eager freshman scattered to join the others who had already arrived. The majority spread out between different TV areas for movies or gaming, a few made their way to the board and card games, and the smallest group was the one Cassie related to, the ones who left the common area, most likely heading back to their rooms. That sounded really nice... Her quiet and calm dorm room. 

After watching people for a couple moments, her phone rang. She sighed before answering, not because of who was calling but because she knew what she was calling about, "Hey, Artemis, I'm on my way right now. I'm not even late yet. I have two minutes."

Cassie turned and headed to the stairs that led down to the cafeteria that was right below the commons. Her friend and fellow dorm leader waited for her with another group of freshmen ready for their tour. 

"Yeah, well, have you seen Apollo? Because he's not here so you have a double sized group. I'm about to make Zeus do tours and call Aether down here to help me instead."

With Cassie and Artemis there were two others helping with new student check-in: Artemis's twin, Apollo, and another individual, Zeus, who were leaders over the boys' dorms. 

"Have you tried calling him?" Cassie picked up her pace down the steps. Aether would not do well in this crowd if he had to come down and help. Aether was Zeus's roommate. He was just as good as Zeus from a responsibility perspective but Aether's power caused an aversion to just about everything that makes up the freshman class. Loud noise, strong smells, and bold flavors. The last one wasn't really a concern in this situation, but the first two were. 

"Of course, I tried calling him! The idiot isn't picking up his phone!" As Apollo's twin, Artemis was allowed to call him that, but so was everyone else. Even though Apollo was a dorm leader, he wasn't always the most reliable person. 

Cassie reached the bottom of the stairs and spotted Artemis so she didn't bother responding into the phone. Instead she hung up and jogged to her red-headed friend. "Artemis, don't call Aether, the welcome ceremony is just an hour away so this is probably the last big group. Check-in is supposed to end in half an hour so hopefully this is pretty much everyone." 

As she approached, she glanced around, "Uh, Zeus... I'm definitely not taking this group by myself." There were at least 25 freshman standing around, waiting.

Zeus was standing with a polka dotted clipboard at the door. "Kind of busy..." He called over his shoulder. There was still a line of students waiting to be checked in. It appeared that Zeus had taken over all the jobs while Artemis was trying to get ahold of Apollo. 

Cassie ran her right hand through her short blonde hair. It was a sign of a level of stress that she rarely found herself in. "Alright, Artemis, let's all three of us do check-in till 12:30 and then we'll close up and take out three different tour groups. They'll be fine to hang out here for a little longer. They've got people to talk to."

Artemis nodded, returning to Zeus and taking back her clipboard. "Sounds good. I got check-in, Cassie double check luggage, Zeus... You pile up the luggage by dorm floor."

Hermes was another student helping with check-in. He was a teleporter so he was taking the luggage to dorms. 

So the process went like this: Artemis got the names and confirmed room numbers of students, Cassie made sure the students belongings were properly tagged with the correct room number, Zeus pushed the luggage into a piles, and Hermes took it to the correct room.

By the time 12:30 came around, they were all exhausted and ready for lunch, but unfortunately, they weren't finished yet. They split the students up into three groups and took them on tours.

At the end of the tours the three dorm leaders met up in the auditorium. Since the Delos campus was so big it took almost the full half hour to finish the tours. 1 o'clock was minutes away. They let their freshmen find seats before picking a couple chairs in the back row, finally getting a break. 

"Anybody find Apollo?" Zeus asked after a few moments of silence and relaxation. 

Artemis groaned. "I don't know where the idiot could've run off to. I have the keys so it's not like he could go for a grocery run or something stupid like that."

Artemis and Apollo shared a car. Even though Apollo is the one who usually drove them to the school, Artemis kept the keys. Everything they needed was right there on campus so it was better if Apollo didn't have the freedom to leave whenever he chose to. 

Cassie sighed. "He'll probably show up whenever the cheerleaders do." 

The cheerleaders were part of the New Student Welcome that was about to start. They offered 'energy' and encouraged 'excitement' according to, well, Cassie wasn't really sure who wrote that into Brontes's speech. Whoever it was must've been really grasping for straws. 

Having cheers yelled at you, while you weren't at a sporting event, just seemed wrong.

Artemis scoffed. "Of course that's when he'll show up, and I bet it'll be a coincidence to. Whatever he happened to be doing, that was oh, so, important, got over at just the right time!"

Cassie did a half smirk, half laugh sort of thing. Artemis and Apollo's relationship was hard to define. They were twins, and they knew pretty much everything about each other. They bickered constantly, but at the same time they seemed to depend each other's company. When one of them was out the other one for more than a couple days you could feel the dip in the personality. It was like their outspokenness thrived off the other's.

The lights in the auditorium dimmed so they stop talking. Cassie fidgeted in her seat to get comfortable.

This 'welcome convocation', as it was very rarely called even though that was technically its proper name, lasted close to an hour.

"Cassie?" A quiet voice came from behind her.

Cassie tensed up, surprised. There was a hand on her shoulder almost instantly.

"It's just me, Aether." He said quickly. A startled Cassie was never good. Her power was an automatic defense that she had trouble controlling. While Cassie was a super healer, her healing powers could all incapacitate the person she used them on. The power worked the same way pain killers did. Overdoses and all.

"Hey..." Cassie turned to Aether, thankful that she her powers hadn't acted up. She bumped Artemis to her right and Artemis looked over.

"Huh? Oh, hi Aether." Artemis then bumped Zeus who had already seen Aether by now and was moving down a seat. Artemis and Cassie both moved down as well so Aether could have the aisle seat.

As Cassie reached over to help Aether find his seat she heard Zeus chuckle a bit.

"Hey, Aether, watch your step." He continued to chuckle until Cassie heard a thud. "Hey, ouch. You've not even been here for 6 hours and you're already hitting me."

"I didn't hit you… not physically anyway." Artemis said in a voice that implied anything but innocence.

"You know what I meant."

Artemis had control over what they had decided to call invisible forces. She could wave her hand towards an object and it was like she was moving it herself, even if she was across the room from it.

By now Aether had made it into his seat and he turned his head to look in the general direction of Zeus. "And I've only been here 4 hours and you've already made 3 blind puns."

"I didn't see you all summer, I have to make up for almost three months of no puns."

Cassie looked down the row at Zeus. "Not true." Just the day before she and Zeus had sat down for lunch, they were all year residents, and he said, 'I really love brunch... it's... eggcellent.' Cassie had then stolen his omelet and not given it back.

On stage, their principal, Mr. Brontes, was giving his introductory speech. Right on cue, he said, "...and now I realize it's already been a long day for all you incoming students, so here are our cheerleaders to get you pumped back up with energy and excitement."

Cassie groaned inwardly. It was the same line, every year. She wished she had ear plugs as the cheerleaders bounded onto stage, ruffling pompoms and making high pitched 'woo's as the captain of the gaggle encouraged the freshmen to their feet.

Aether groaned out loud and covered his ears. "I should've come after this part." He wasn't being rude, per say, with his senses amplified as much as they were, squealing cheerleaders were pretty hard on his ears.

"What? But it's the best part!" Another voice appeared beside them. "OOF!"

Apollo, who had finally decided to join them, stumbled back a step. "Artemis! Why?"

"You called it." Artemis looked at Cassie, ignoring her twin's question.

Zeus shook his head. "You're in trouble now." He looked up at the other red head, obviously trying not to laugh.

"What'd I do?" Apollo pushed into the row, pass Aether, pass Cassie, Artemis, and Zeus, and plopped down into a seat.

"You forgot your last tour! We had people hanging out in the cafeteria for like an hour!" They weren't whispering anymore but they didn't really need to be. The cheerleaders had everyone doing a cheer with them, at least they were trying to.

"I got distracted! I was helping the new kid on our list that was a junior."

"You spent an hour... helping one person? Why didn't you bring them to registration."

"He was a mind reader!" Apollo's pale blue eyes seemed to light up in excitement like this statement explained everything.

All four of his peers just stared at him blankly, waiting for more information.

"It was so cool! I was walking down the hall and I was suddenly reading everyone's mind and then I looked at him and he seemed like he was lost, so I went over to help him and there's something weird about his power. When I use it, it just feels so different than when I use other people's. It was, uhm, just different, like it wasn't natural I guess. I can't describe it." He talked pretty fast but they were all used to it enough that they understood what he was saying.

As a group, they called Apollo three different things, Apollo, Idiot, or Thief. His super ability was the ability to mimic other people's powers. If you were close enough, he could use your power. When he did though, both he and the user had to share the power, so depending on how much Apollo wanted of the power, he could use just a little bit of it, up to 75% of it.

Cassie was less than appreciative of this ability of his, causing her to roll her eyes. "Apollo, don't hijack random people's powers." They had had more than one accident thanks to his joy-walks, in fact, that's how he ended up here. Cassie was one of the few people who knew this story though due to her close friendship with Artemis.

"I wasn't taking that much. I was just testing out the new people." As usual, he came up with an excuse.

She didn't bother arguing back. Cassie didn't bicker, she found it pointless.

Artemis on the other hand had no problem with bickering. "You know better than that. You could cause another disaster."

By now the cheerleaders had stopped and Brontes had introduced their Academic Director, a title the school had made up for their language teacher who basically did everything their principal was supposed to do but didn't. Ms. Ambrosia didn't cause nearly as big of a ruckus as the cheerleaders so the five's conversation had had to volume down to violent whispers.

"I haven't caused a disaster for months!" Apollo argued.

"We weren't here! And that's not true. When we came for a visit 6 weeks ago and you managed to accidentally teleport into the girls' bathroom."

Cassie's eyes shifted back and forth between the two, they went back and forth for the next ten minutes until the subject had changed so far that when Zeus finally interjected, it was about Cassie and the twins' freshman year, the year before Zeus and Aether joined them. His interjection wasn't about disasters caused by Apollo's power but rather, which of the twins had a higher archery score that year.

"So, you guys are saying... that you two tied for second. What's it matter which person did better if someone from Salus beat you two even with you using your power to sabotage her?" Zeus pointed first at Apollo and then at Artemis as he spoke.

Cassie shook her head and she heard Aether sigh beside her. "Here we go." Aether mumbled.

This was a sore subject for the two of them.  Their rival school, Salus Prepatory, usually had a top notch archery team but generally, Artemis and Apollo brought the Delos team to victory. Except for their freshman year, that year hadn't gone nearly as well for them.

The twins spent the last 40 minutes of the convocation defending their abilities and attacking the abilities of the Salus girl.

Cassie tuned out all the noise around her and allowed herself to fall into that state between sleep and consciousness for awhile.

When the event was finally over Cassie and the other dorm leads went back to helping the incoming students in the dorms. Aether, on the other hand, went to the library since it was the quietest place on campus that day.

By the time dinner rolled around nobody was in the mood for the cafeteria so they crashed Cassie's room for dinner; microwaved mini frozen pizzas, popcorn, and cookies made by Artemis before she left home.

The dorm rooms were already large but Cassie had been fortunate enough to have a room to herself most of her time at Delos so she had plenty of space for everyone to sit down. They had space at her desk, the extra desk, her bed, the extra bed, plus the floor. The place was near spotless with very few customizations for someone who never left the school. When she had come to the school she hadn't brought much with her, almost nothing, and she kept things that way since. She had bought clothes and other necessities but the only personal things in her room were a couple of her favorite books, a picture frame that Artemis had given her, and her laptop. Everything else was generic school supplies, textbooks, and school provided amenities.

Delos allowed the students to customize their room as much as that wanted as long as they didn't permanently damage anything. Most people at least painted their walls something other than a boring white, but Cassie never bothered. She liked the white. It was nice and clean.

Objects couldn't make the place feel like home anyway. Her friends, whom she was closer to than her actual family, were finally back for her last year at Delos. As it was senior year for her and the twins, they'd all have to move on and leave the other two behind at the end of it. She wouldn't say it out loud, but she didn't think she'd ever be ready for that.

Zeus poked her bringing her back to the present moment. "Are you planning on taking that pizza out of the microwave or should I?" The timer must've been going off for a little while because everyone seemed to have noticed her spacey look.

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Cassie, maybe you should just go to bed."

Apollo laughed. "The freshmen weren't that exhausting. You have a long year ahead of you if you're already that tired."

Everyone gave Apollo a look.

"Dude. You abandoned us for the hardest part of the day." Zeus clicked his tongue and shook his head.

"Oh, get over it. They were probably fine. You give off the strongest wifi signal ever. They couldn't have been bored."

Zeus was a human electric signal, producing wifi, cellular, and radio signals whenever he was awake.

This, of course, set off another debate. Cassie turned and grabbed the pizza from her microwave and sat down on the floor beside Aether, offering him a piece and then taking one herself. If this year turned out to be a long year, she was pretty sure she wouldn't mind.

[delosacademy]

(I started a ‘spin-off’ blog too guysssss.... probatio-penne.tumblr.com)

Delos Reboot Preview (Okay, really, this is just what I had up on my computer and I needed a test post)

(Psst. This actually canonically belongs over over here if you want to read more.)

Cassiopeia had been up since 5am. That had been 7 hours ago and since that time the population of Delos had more than tripled. To make things better, there were still people arriving.

It was move in day at Delos Boarding Academy for new students and the students who had gone home for summer break, which was most of them. Under 200 students and faculty stayed on campus for various reasons during break, after everyone moved in, there would be over 800 people on campus.

Not just normal people either. This school was about to be home to over 800 powered human beings. From the cliche fire wielders, telekinetics, and super speeders, to some odd ones, such as, super eaters with ability to eat literally anything or organ rearrangers, which should be pretty self explanatory. Unlike many of those in fiction writing though, these powers usually came with a downside.

Now, at noon, Cassiopeia, known as Cassie by her friends, was was helping with the new students by giving campus tours. As one of the female dorm leaders (there were two) this was one of her many jobs.

She couldn’t say she hated it, but it wasn’t something she had been jumping up and down to do. After having a ghost town campus for a couple months, it wasn’t usually easy to get used to the crowd. With this job, she wasn’t given much of a chance to adjust.

Even with these feelings, she had been asked to be dorm leader, which if she was honest with herself, made sense. She was usually pretty level headed and responsible. She supposed giving the job to someone who was indifferent about it was better than giving it to someone who really wanted it in most cases.

However, it got somewhat old when for the sixth time in three hours she found herself saying, “…and this is our last stop, the Commons. You guys can hang out here, elsewhere, or your dorms. Just make sure you make it to the auditorium by 1 o'clock, that’s one hour from now, for the welcome ceremony, and yes, we will notice if you don’t show up. Enjoy.”

She watched at the eager freshman scattered to join the others who had already arrived. The majority spread out between different TV areas for movies or gaming, a few made their way to the board and card games, and the smallest group was the one Cassie related to, the ones who left the common area, most likely heading back to their rooms. That sounded really nice… Her dorm room.

After watching people for a couple moments, her phone rang. She sighed before answering, not because who was calling but because she knew what she was calling about, “Hey, Artemis, I’m on my way right now. I’m not even late yet. I have two minutes.”

Cassie turned and headed to the stairs that led down. Right below the Commons was the cafeteria, where her friend and fellow dorm leader waited for her with another group of freshmen ready for their tour.

“Yeah, well, have you seen Apollo? Because he’s not here so you have a double sized group. I’m about to make Zeus do tours and call Aether down here to help me!”

With Cassie and Artemis there were two others helping with freshmen check-in: Artemis’s twin, Apollo, and another individual, Zeus. They were heads over the boys’ dorms.

“Have you tried calling him?” Cassie picked up her pace down the steps. Aether would not do well in this crowd if he had to come down and help. Aether was Zeus’s roommate and was just as good as Zeus in a responsibility perspective. Aether’s powers however gave him rather big aversions to just about everything that is the freshman class. Loud noise, bright colors, strong smells, and bold flavors. The last one wasn’t really a concern in this situation, but the first three were.

“Of course, I tried calling him! The idiot isn’t picking up his phone!” Artemis was Apollo’s twin. She was allowed to call him that, and so was everyone else. Even though Apollo was a dorm leader, he wasn’t always the most reliable person.

Cassie reached the bottom of the stairs and spotted Artemis so she didn’t bother responding into the phone. Instead she hung up and ran to her red-headed friend. “Artemis, don’t call Aether, the welcome ceremony is in an hour anyway so this is probably the last big group. Check-in is supposed to end at 12:30 so hopefully this is pretty much everyone.”

As she approached Cassie she glanced around, “Uh, Zeus… I’m definitely not taking this group by myself.” There were at least 25 freshman standing around, waiting.

Zeus was standing with a polka dotted clipboard at the door. “Kind of busy…” He called over his shoulder. There was still a line of students waiting to be checked in. It appeared that Zeus had taken over all the jobs while Artemis was trying to get ahold of Apollo.

Cassie sighed. “Alright, Artemis, let’s all three of us do check-in till 12:30 and then we’ll close up and take out three different tour groups. They’ll be fine to hang out here for a little longer. They’ve got people to talk to.”

Artemis nodded, returning to Zeus and taking back her clipboard. “Sounds good, let’s get this moving. I got check-in, Cassie mark luggage, Zeus… You get to be entertainment, take the luggage to Hermes.”

Hermes was another student helping with check-in. He had super speed so he was taking the luggage to rooms.

So this process went like this: Artemis got the names and confirmed room numbers of students, Zeus got the luggage out of the entry area and all into a pile, Cassie properly tagged all of the students belongings with the correct room number, Hermes took it to the correct room.

By the time 12:30 came around, they were all exhausted and ready for lunch, but unfortunately, they weren’t finished yet. They split the students up into three groups and took them on tours.

At the end of the tours the three dorm leaders met up in the auditorium since the Delos campus was so big that it took almost a full half hour to finish a tour. They let their freshmen find seats before picking a couple in the back next to each other, finally getting a break.

“Anybody find Apollo?” Zeus asked after a few minutes of silence and relaxation.

Artemis groaned. “I don’t know where the idiot could’ve run off to. I have the keys so it’s not like he could go for a grocery run or something stupid like that.”

Artemis and Apollo shared a car. Even though Apollo is the one who usually drove them to the school, Artemis kept the keys. Everything they needed was right there on campus, it was better if Apollo didn’t have the freedom to leave whenever he chose to.

Cassie sighed. “He’ll probably show up whenever the cheerleaders do.”

The cheerleaders were part of the New Student Welcome that was about to start. They offered ‘energy’ and encouraged ‘excitement’ according to, well, Cassie wasn’t really sure who wrote that into Brontes’s speech. Whoever it was must’ve been really grasping for straws.

[delosacademy]

Reboot!

Alright, Delos is getting a reboot. All the originals have gone down and are moving over to a different page. (Check my Extra Links over on the left). Yay for organization! Hopefully with this reboot, things won’t get so messy. I will be tweaking characters, back stories, the school, and then starting back up again. Wish me luck xD

[delosacademy]

Delos & Dragons (Day 1)

MORNING

Apollo woke up to the sound of his phone ringing. He groaned as he fumbled for it, not willing to get out of bed when it’s… God, what time was it? It was Saturday for sure.

The phone rang some more as he fumbled for it some more, then it stopped, going to voicemail.

“That’s on you, phone.” Apollo mumbled as he turned over to the other side.

No more than five seconds later, his phone rang again. This time, Apollo found the phone and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Apollo!” Said the voice on the other end. It was Mark, his friend back at home.

“Hey Mark.” He tried waking himself up then realized that this was a very specific Saturday. “Whoa, wait, is it today?!”

“It’s today.” Mark confirmed. “I’ll be arriving at Delos in a few hours. I’ve got character sheets for everyone you said were going to play and dice. It’s up to you guys for the snacks.”

Apollo pulled the phone from his ear real quick to look at the time. It was noon. He put the phone back and said, “Alright. Dude, I’m so excited. I’m sure Zeus and Aether would like it.”

“Yeah,” Mark said, “But I’m surprised you got a lot more than those two to agree with playing. Like Eris? Tyche? They didn’t sound like type.”

“Maybe they’re bored.” Apollo suggested. “Sure, Eris is a jerk to everyone, but even people like him need entertainment.”

Mark laughed on the other end. “Dude, this is biggest D&D group I’ve lead. Also the most interesting campaign.”

“Can’t wait!” Apollo yawned and stretched. “Call me when you’re close by so I can guide you and all that.”

“Will do. See you later.”

“Bye.”

Apollo hung up and got ready for the day.

3PM

Mark ended up arriving fifteen minutes early and, at exactly three o'clock, Everyone was sitting at a table in the cafeteria for a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

Mark, being the dungeon master for this campaign, pulled up a chair to sit at the head of the table. To his right were the guys: Apollo, Zeus, Aether, Thanatos, Tyche, and Eris. To Mark’s left were the girls: Iris, Artemis, Cassiopeia, and Rhea. Mark was sure everyone was confused by the who was actually willing to play this game.

After passing out character sheets and dice, Mark stood at the head of the table and got everyone’s attention.

“Hey everybody!” He started. “As some of you know, I’m Mark, a friend of Apollo’s, and today we’re going to be starting a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons! Or, according to the campaign, Delos and Dragons!”

“This ought to be fun.” Said Zeus.

Aether just silently sorted his dice.

Eris scoffed. “I’m only here because Rhea’s playing.”

Rhea gave Eris a glance. “It’s fun, Eris. Trust me.”

“I’d still like some idea of what all this stuff is for.” Said Iris, inspecting a 20-sided die.

“I’m sure Mark will explain.” Artemis said.

“I want to start.” Cassiopeia said.

Tyche and Thanatos remained quiet as Mark continued.

“Okay, I’ll go over the rules as we play along. Once we play for a while, you’ll get the hang of it. Basically, I’m in charge of the setting, plot, and all that and you guys control your characters, having them do whatever the heck you want.”

“So,” Eris leaned forward, “If I wanted to slap someone up the head…”

“You just roll your dice to see if you’re successful in doing so.” Mark explained.

Eris smiled. “This game might not be so bad after all.”

“See?” Rhea teased.

“Now,” Mark said, “time for backstory.”

He cleared his throat and continued. “You guys are fictional versions of yourselves. I did my best with getting you and your characters the same powers from what Apollo told me. Anyways, this campaign takes place here in Delos academy, where you all will wake up and find the rest of the school empty. You guys will have to figure out what happened.”

“That…” Aether started, “sounds like one heck of an opening.”

“What’s this?” Iris asked, holding up a small pyramid with a number on each of the four points.

“That’s a d4.” Zeus answered.

“A four-sided die, in other words.” Aether explained.

“Don’t worry,” said Mark, “I know about your laser powers and that d4 might be something you’d use pretty often.”

“Let’s just get started!” Artemis said.

“Okay.” Mark paused for a moment, the room falling into a deep silence. “You all wake up one morning and head into the cafeteria, finding it empty. What do you do?”

There was a pause.

Then, Zeus spoke first. “I look in the fridge for food.”

“Me too.” Aether, Apollo, Artemis, and Rhea say at once.

“Make that spot check.” Mark said.

The five of them rolled their 20-sided dice then checked their Spot modifiers.

Mark rolled his die five times, the results hidden from the rest of the group, then looked at each one of them as he spoke. “Zeus, with your Spot check of a natural 20, you find a glorious breakfast that will last you two days. Aether, with your check of a total of 22 when you include the +4 modifier, you find a ham and cheese sandwich. Apollo, you find a soda, Artemis a melted popsicle, and Rhea a moldy slice of cheese.”

Everyone but Artemis and Rhea wrote their findings into the inventory of their character sheets.

Mark looked at everyone else. “Well, as those five are raiding the fridge, what do the rest of you do?”

“I slap Thanatos upside the head.” Said Eris.

“Of course.” Thanatos muttered.

“Roll for initiative you two!” Mark said. “It’s the 20-sided one you roll.”

Eris rolled his eagerly as Thanatos rolled his with a sigh. Eris rolled a natural 1 and Thanatos rolled a natural 20.

“Well,” Mark said, out of his seat and peering over the two’s shoulders. “It seems Thanatos has successfully dodged your attack, Eris.”

“Fudge.” Eris didn’t say.

A smile crept onto Thanatos’s face. Maybe this was actually going to be fun.

“Thanatos, want to fight back?” Asked Mark.

“No thanks.” He answered. “I guess I’ll just…” He looked around the cafeteria, spotting the vending machine. If this game took place in Delos…

“I want to search the vending machine for either money or food.”

“Make that search check.” Mark answered as he walked back to his seat.

Thanatos rolled the d20 again and, again, got a natural 20.

Mark let out a low whistle and rolled his own die. “Thanatos, my man, you manage to find a hundred-dollar bill AND two Kit-Kats!”

As Aether showed Thanatos how to put stuff in his inventory, Mark looked at Iris. “Any idea of what you want to do?”

“I’m just still confused.” Iris said, beginning to pout. “I mean, it’s just so weird and unlike a normal game.”

“That’s the point.” Apollo grinned.

Iris let out a sigh. “I guess I will… go use the bathroom?”

Mark shrugged. “I’m not going to stop you. So you go into the ladies room and find it normal, but empty. Anything else?”

“Well, I’m going to USE the bathroom, I suppose.” Iris answered.

“You don’t have to.” Artemis said. “I mean, Mark isn’t THAT strict about role-playing.”

Mark shrugged again. “Hey, if she wants her character to do so, then so be it. Tyche!”

Tyche snapped out of his trance and looked at Mark glumly. “What?”

“You’re in the cafeteria, seeing five people going for the fridge, Thanatos at the vending machine, and Iris is going to the bathroom. What do you do?”

“Leave.” Tyche said without hesitation. And, with that, he rolled himself out of the cafeteria.

“Okay…” Mark said after an awkward silence. “Uh, Cassie.”

“Cassiopeia.” She corrected.

“Cassie,” Mark said again, “So, like I said, people are raiding the fridge, Thanatos is at the vending machine, Iris went to the bathroom, and Tyche just vanished into thin air. Eris is still in a state of disappointment at his failed attempt to knock someone upside the head. What do you do?”

Cassiopeia thought about it for a moment. “Can I… try to get everyone together to talk about the empty school?”

8PM

The rest of the day went like this: Zeus, Aether, Apollo, Artemis, and Rhea tried to raid every fridge they could find, Thanatos stayed by the sidelines and explored random things, Eris kept trying to wreck stuff but kept rolling 1’s (which resulted in a loss of 25 hit points), Iris tried her best to make sense of the game, and Cassiopeia was actually making progress in the plot Mark planned for them.

Cassiopeia’s character went to the women’s bathroom to find Iris, only to discover writing on the wall Iris had missed which read INTO THE DEPTHS OR TARTARUS YOU MUST GO/FIND KRONOS AND KILL HIM SLOW. This lead to Eris’s knowledge of Greek mythology leading the way (“It was the only class that wasn’t [fudging] boring!”).

Tartarus, Artemis put together, lied in the underworld, so maybe in-game Tartarus was in the basement of Delos?

As it turned out, that’s exactly where they needed to go. Someone had taped a sheet of paper with TARTARUS written in Sharpie on the basement door. The group went inside, the lightning from Eris’s character illuminating their path.

They explored the basement a bit, finding nothing in particular, until Apollo’s character actived a secret door, opening up another corridor with shrieking echoing from the other end. As the party stared at the opening, strings of shadows began to leak out into the room, bringing it to complete and utter darkness as a voice whispered to all: “Free at last.”

“And that’s where we must end it tonight.” Mark said as he began to collect character sheets.

“WHAT?!” Eris jumped out of his seat, a thunder cloud starting to form over his head. “You can’t end it there!”

“Have to.” Mark replied. “It’s eight o'clock and I’ve got a one-hour drive ahead of me.”

“Whoa, what?” Iris looked at the clock in the cafeteria. “Wow.”

“Time flies when you’re having fun.” Artemis winked at Iris, playfully nudging her with her elbow.

“Dude,” Apollo said, holding his head in his hands in what seemed to be in shock, “That was amazing.”

“I second that.” Zeus added.

“Thanks.” Mark said.

“Can we do it next week?” Cassiopeia asked.

“Next week?!” Eris said. “I can’t wait that long!”

“Whoa, dude,” Mark closed his folder. “You’re going to make it rain if you don’t calm down, and I mean that literally.”

Eris sighed and the cloud above him dissipated.

Rhea went up to him and gave him a hug. “Pretty fun, wasn’t it?”

Eris finally retained his composure. “Uh, well, it was interesting. Still nerdy.” And with that, he walked off with Rhea.

Everyone had their final words with Mark, praising him for his campaign, glad to have met him, and thanking him for coming over.

“It’s nice to see Apollo having real friends.” Artemis said to Mark once Apollo had walked off to his dorm.

“Well, he’s a great guy.” Mark answered. “Everyone needs a little Apollo in their lives.”

10:30PM

Apollo laid in his, Tyche already fast asleep in the other. Apollo’s phone chirped, indicating a text.

It was from Mark, telling him that he made it home safe, then asking whether they should do it again next week. “Same-Mark time, same-Mark channel.”

Apollos response? “ABSOLUTELY!”

[delosacademy]

Neighbor AU because I can

Featuring my precious bae Archer and Echoink’s character Tyche 

“Hey, wheels.”

Tyche sighed. There was only one person who called him that, and oddly enough, it wasn’t Apollo.

“Archer.” Tyche acknowledged.

Tyche had moved into the apartment building two months ago. He quickly met his next door neighbor - a tall, chubby guy who’s cooking always made the hallway smell less like cigarette smoke and more like cookies and grilled chicken.

The giant was just leaving his apartment as Tyche was arriving, “Oh, hey, I have something for you,” he disappeared into his door and came out with a plastic bag.

Tyche looked at it curiously before accepting it, “What is this?”

“Medicine, snacks … Oh, I made some soup.”

He opened his mouth to say something, maybe like “why”, but he closed it just as quick.

“Well,  heard you coughing up your lungs last night so …” he trailed off, shrugging.

Damn thin walls, Tyche thought with a sigh. That building was so ancient.

“Anyway, my soup is pretty damn amazing.”

“I’m sure.” Tyche replied with a raised eyebrow. He may not have looked impressed (okay, definitely) but he admired his neighbor’s kindness, as unnecessary as it was. Archer gave a charming grin before he waved goodbye.

“I should go. I’m supposed to meet my sister for coffee. Feel better.” For a guy who didn’t look like he did anything fast … ever, Archer had jogged out the door at an alarming speed. Tyche was left in the hallway with a bag of God knows what in his lap.

As he rolled into his apartment, he threw his things onto a nearby chair and dug into the bag. Archer hadn’t lied about the contents, it seemed. As promised, there was a container at the bottom of the bag, full of still-warm soup. He considered eating it right away or saving for later, and then he grabbed a spoon and went at it.