Collateral Damage
POSTED ON Dec 17, 2013 23:17:57 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2013 23:17:57 GMT -8
half an hour of sleep, six gallons of rum, and a cup of coffee filled with biological contaminants
Laura had a very unhappy aura attempting to gain her attention. It was two hours after dinner, and her bowl of soup - the only thing she had taken - sat stone cold and nearly full. A thick, hearty meal like this barley and kale soup held the promise to fuel little crafters in their endeavors, if only she would eat it. Which, for the record, she hadn't meant to upset the aurae by neglecting her dinner.
Her mind raced with numbers, wires and code coalescing in her brain faster than she could put pencil to paper. She had not set her pencil down since five minutes after beginning dinner, her nose buried in the little notebook she carried. The thing was meant for random inspiration, so she didn't lose an idea before it came to the crafting table. This was a little more complicated than that, and Laura lost count of how many pages she blitzed through. Her handwriting was tiny, precise, and neat, and almost faint enough to be lost, so delicate was her grip on the pencil.
That grip was faltering, though, as her hands shook. Lunch had been spent with her cohort, partly talking shop, but partly also just bonding. Friends fought harder for friends than for strangers or enemies, and that was a well-known fact. The aurae had served a good lunch, and Laura enjoyed the enchiladas on offer. She hadn't eaten much, though, and the aura currently at her shoulder was most unhappy that she was also neglecting dinner. It ruffled her pages, and tried to undo her messy bun to get her attention. The spiral bobby pins holding her curls in place didn't budge.
Laura turned a page, only half-seeing the notes before her in favor of their inspiration. Demigods weren't encouraged to use modern technology (had the tendency to attract monsters), and there couldn't be more than a half-dozen pieces in Camp Jupiter. In New Rome, however, computers and phones were more common, and Laura had a working knowledge of code. To combine the two worlds - the automatons of Vulcan, and the network capabilities of modern computers . . . the possibilities made Laura giddy with delight. The faster this became a possibility, the happier she would be.
If she didn't fall over, first. Fortunately, as a long-standing member of the First Cohort, there were people who would come looking for Laura if she dallied too long. People with the authority and gumption to reprimand her for neglecting herself.
People like the individual fetched by the unhappy aura.
Ensemble
Word Count: 427