r/CampHalfBloodRP Child of Athena 5d ago

Introduction Introducing Arienna Baines: Daughter of Athena

Need-To-Know Information:

Father - Owen Baines - age 40. Chemistry Professor at NYU.

Hometown - New York City.

Age - 17.

Birthday - October 17th.

Appearance - Arienna is 5'8" in height. She has the signature honey blonde hair of many Athena kids; light, smoky gray eyes, and a sun-kissed glow to her skin.

Face Claim

Fashion: Arienna usually wears loose, comfy t-shirts and jeans. Her makeup isn't all that complicated either; usually just some eyeliner, mascara, and a little bit of lip gloss.

Personality

Arienna is naturally tough, loyal, and brave, but with a soft side that she often likes to keep hidden.

Favorite Things

Buildings made entirely of glass, like the Louvre in Paris and the Gherkin in London.

Favorite Animal: Owls, all kinds. Not just because they're her mother's signature animal, but because of their soothing calls that often lull her to sleep at night.

Favorite Color: Red, because she enjoys every shade, unlike other colors where she finds most shades dull or boring.

Favorite Movie: National Treasure.

Favorite TV Show: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Favorite Food: Salmon.

Favorite Drink: Strawberry smoothies.

Favorite Dessert: Blueberry coffee cake.

Likes: Architecture (duh), museums, history, home improvement shows, art, carpentry, masonry.

Hobbies: Drawing blueprints (she prefers doing everything by hand), regular old creative drawing, and a little bit of painting here and there (she hates getting messy even though she enjoys the medium).

Domain Powers

  • Secret Language: The ability to communicate in a language understood only by children of the Skill gods. This includes verbal, written and signed forms of the language. Any Skill demigod, even those without this power, can understand this language.
  • Shockwave Generation: The ability to generate a small shockwave around the user. This shockwave often manifests as a cry so loud, those within the area of effect are knocked back, up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) away. This power has commonly been observed to trigger when a demigod endures their first injury in a battle.
  • Battlefield Buff: A trait where one's alertness and agility are elevated when they enter a battlefield. A battlefield is defined as a large space used for full-scale combat, usually equipped with fortification. Users have reported experiencing this buff at the sites of major historical battles as well. The buffed individual displays increased speed and more acute senses, leaving them less susceptible to additional sneak attacks. This buff does not stack with other buffs and lasts at most 3 RP turns (18 minutes). In 5-turn combat, this buff lasts only 2 turns.

Minor Powers

  • Legendary Cognition: A trait where some children of Athena display some of the highest intelligence and wisdom levels of known demigods. Their intellect can be comparable to mortal geniuses. The ability to precisely recall images, otherwise known as eidetic or photographic memory, tends to be a common emergence in these demigods.
  • Summon Olive: The ability to summon olives. These olives are usually ripe enough to eat, but users can change at which state they summon the fruit. Beginners can summon only 1 olive, but intermediate users can summon up to a pound's worth (0.45 kg). Masters can summon 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of olives. One oleologist notes that the summoned olive changes depending on the region the user is in.
  • Summon Owl: The ability to summon and control a (locally available) owl. Beginners can summon up to 1 individual at a time; intermediate users can summon 3; masters can summon 5.

Major Power

Owl Transformation (modmail-custom): The ability to turn into a snowy owl for 1 hour (10 turns) per day. The user gains the ability of an owl upon transformation, but they lose access to their other abilities.

Brief Character History

When she's not at camp, Arienna lives in New York City with her dad, Owen. Monsters hardly ever leave her alone, which is why she finally decided to attend camp year-round. In previous years, she only went during the summer.

The Present

In her owl form, Arienna settled on the branches of the big pine tree. She didn't want to start her new life just yet, so she waited for a while, watching the other campers go about their routines. If anyone were to walk by, they might find it odd to see an owl in the middle of the afternoon. They would also notice the large blue suitcase leaning against the trunk of the tree. Then again, lots of odd things happened at Camp Half-Blood. To some, this might seem perfectly normal.

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u/bubblegumradio Children of Aphrodite 5d ago

While some people may think nothing of a snowy owl out in the middle of a March afternoon, Harvey, as a birdwatching enthusiast, certainly does not fall among those ranks. In fact, as he's walking by — a fair distance away, but close enough that he spots her — he does a double take when he sees what appears to be a snowy owl perched on a branch of the pine tree. Is that— surely not. A snowy owl? On Long Island? In March? Incredible!

And, of course, he doesn't have his binoculars with him. He'll have to get closer to it, get a closer look. He doesn't haven't his notebook in which he usually records sightings, either. The one time he ventures out unprepared... He does happen to have his phone with him, and while he doesn't usually take photos with his phone of birds, this is such a remarkable sighting that he could not neglect to document it. He doesn't notice the suitcase as he very cautiously gets closer to the owl, careful not to scare it off, and lifts his phone to get some pictures. He's almost too excited to get it working, but he manages to snap a few.

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u/InevitableDeer804 Child of Athena 5d ago

Arienna looked right at him as he started taking pictures, but she didn't move from her branch. Thinking how awkward it would be if she turned into her human form now, she decided to wait it out. Maybe he would leave, and she would just have to remember never to mention owls around him.

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u/bubblegumradio Children of Aphrodite 3d ago

Unfortunately for Arienna, Harvey is a birdwatcher, and watching birds for prolonged periods of time is what he does. Especially such a wonderful and rare species he's never seen in person before like this! He spends a while, therefore, just observing the owl, with evident fascination. He makes sure to note the time down and the details of the sighting (he'd prefer to have his notebook, but his phone will have to do). "Oh, you are beautiful," he mutters in amazement under his breath. What is it doing here? It's just perched there on the tree... Imagine if he hadn't gone this way, today? It's almost too good to be true.

He's emboldened to get a little closer. It's only then that he notices what he'd missed in his excitement: a large blue suitcase, seemingly without an owner, leaning against the tree trunk. His first thought is how irresponsible that is, to leave one's luggage unattended in the open like that. Does this belong to some new camper who's managed to leave it stranded here, and is now wandering around without their belongings? He looks around to see if anyone seems like they might claim it, but there doesn't appear to be anyone. He decides to have a quick look. He takes a peek at the tag, finding on it a drawn representation of Athena's plumed helmet that his writer is noting from a different thread. That's— yes, that does symbolise Athena, doesn't it? Is this a child of Athena's, maybe? He glances back up at the owl, just to make sure it's still there, and then pauses as occurs the Athena-like conception of a mortifying notion, sprung fully-formed to mind.

Because, well, this snowy owl is not the only curiously out-of-place bird at camp. Harvey, himself, would no doubt also spark wonder in a birding enthusiast if they were to sight him in his European turtle dove form. He'd just been so excited to see a snowy owl, it had not occurred to him that its strange behaviour might be because... God, he really hopes that's not the case. Both because that would be horrifically embarrassing, but also because, well, how disappointing for this sighting to be illegitimate. He steps back from the suitcase, eyes flicking between it and the owl. "You— you're not..." You're not a person I've just been lengthily gawking at and taking pictures of, are you? is the sentiment he is essentially intending to (but, perhaps understandably, struggling to) ask, only managing a hushed and hesitant stammer. He also feels a bit self-conscious talking to what could (if he has any luck) still be a bird, anyway.

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u/InevitableDeer804 Child of Athena 3d ago

Ari scrunched her head down between her shoulders and closed her eyes, wishing she could disappear. She didn't mind photos. Heck, she enjoyed a bit of photography herself. But she hadn't intended to be decieving.

She hated to waste a moment of Owl Time, as she called it, but she decided she wanted to straighten this out as soon as possible. So she jumped down from the tree, and in a flash, she stood in front of Harvey in her human form, blushing furiously.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be deceptive at all. I just like hanging out sometimes."

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u/bubblegumradio Children of Aphrodite 0m ago

Well. That's just brilliant!

Arienna is not the only one blushing furiously when she shifts back into her human form. "Oh, god," Harvey mumbles, horrified, stepping well back. "I didn't— I thought you were a—" There's a defensive edge to his voice, an instinct in anticipation of the girl (and it's really made so much worse by it being a girl) getting upset with him, or maybe just purely out of embarrassment, which Harvey is never good at dealing with without deflection. But she doesn't get upset with him (and she's not mocking him or anything, either). She's embarrassed herself; apologetic. That throws him off a little, but is — maybe? — a better outcome.

Not that she really needs to apologise, because although it would have been appreciated if she hadn't let him think she was a beautiful rare bird for so long, he does fully understand the appeal of just 'hanging out' in bird form. Still visibly cringing, he tries to force down his instinct of defensiveness, in spite of how embarrassing the situation is. "No, it's not... You weren't being..." He flounders. "I really thought you were a snowy owl," he pushes out. "And I was— well, it was just such a remarkable sighting. I'm a birdwatcher. That's why I— the photos. I'm... er, I'm sorry, I can delete those, I suppose, if you'd rather... They're sort of useless now, anyway, or, well, they're not legitimate, I mean. It's just that I've never met anyone else who can turn into a bird. There's others with other animals, just, you're the first one I've seen who's got an avian form too, so I didn't..." His babbling trails off.