Just a Little Game| Deacon

Melanie stopped to ponder Deacon's suggestion. The Climbing Wall had been her favorite part of camp, but she wasn't sure what they had done to this new one. This could be either interesting or a disaster, but she was at least slightly interested in figuring out which it would be. "You're on Jacoby." She stated simply, walking towards the general direction of the wall. Deciding to warm up a little bit before the wall and stretch her legs, Melanie started to jog and then to run until she was finally within sight of the wall.

From where she stood, it looked like it had been toned down into just a regular wall, but she couldn't be certain. The lava was nowhere to be seen, and the all over menacing quality it had once possessed seemed to have disappeared. Why would they be interested in this? Looking around to see if this was some sort of joke, she realized that there was a small control panel on the ground. After flipping a large switch to the on position, she could hear a series of noises come from the inside of the wall. Turning to Deacon, she asked "Do you know what's up with this thing?" before turning back to watch the interesting contraption.



@deacon

Something about the plain jane wall was more menacing than he had imagined. It looked so bland that you almost assumed it had some horrible trap hidden on it, like maybe arsenic or little needles all up and down it. But when Melanie started messing with a control panel, Deacon realized that it must have different level settings, "Not a single clue." He said, hovering over her shoulder so he could look down at the screen with her. He reached over her shoulder and punched the screen where it said LEVEL 10 in large red letters, "Go big or go home." He said.

A cool female voice echoed down the wall from speakers he couldn't see, "Demi-Gods take your positions." The pegs lit up in strips of color, each color identifying where each Demi-God was meant to climb. Deacon moved so he had one hand rest on a green peg and looked to Melanie, waiting to make sure she was ready. The cool voice started again, "Three...Two...One..." The moment she said the word one Deacon pulled himself off the ground and started following up the red path, disappointed by how easy it was to actually get off the ground.

@accaila

The wall seemed fairly easy in the beginning. Deciding not to pay any attention to what Deacon was doing and focus on her own climbing, Melanie made her way up the red path. Everything was fine until she hit a tricky hold and stayed in one spot for too long. One moment she was assessing the manuever she needed to make to continue her climb, the next fire was pouring out just above where her hand rested. Barely dodging the flames, she swung backwards in time for another one to open up. Who had thought of this travesty? "Deacon, heads up!" She shouted as she righted herself. She wasn't quite sure where he was, but she knew he hadn't hit anything like that just yet, or she would've heard it.

This was going to be a long climb.

When Deacon heard his name from below, he could help but stop and look down. Something like fire looked like it was spewing from some invisible hole in the wall. Before he could even begin to wonder what had caused the fire to attack Melanie, he felt his hand move close to something warm, "Ahh!" He let go of the pegs and started to fall. It was lucky that he had frequented the wall back at camp half blood because he was able to reach up and grab one of the spikes that had protruded from the wall. He used it to pull himself back up and start his climb again, trying to make sure he didn't sit still for too long again. That is when the entire wall started to spin. It was an almost mechanical sound, slow at first and then gaining speed with ever turn. It took almost everything Deacon had to stay attached to the wall as it spun making him completely forget the fire that was sure to start threatening the safety of his fingers.

@accaila

Melanie didn't have time to react to Deacon's fall, barely noticing that he had caught himself before the entire structure started moving while she climbed. So now, not only were the pegs catching fire, but the wall was spinning as well. Swearing, Melanie decided to pick up her pace in order to make it to the top. That was the only way to get off of this thing. One of them would have to beat it or fall, which sounded relatively painful considering how high up they already were.

A few more steady steps lead her to another conundrum- Melanie would have to touch a peg of another color to make it up to her next hold. On a normal wall, this wouldn't bother her. This one on the other hand was proving to be full of surprises. Her suspicions were proved correct when the spikes started punching out around her, cutting her side and left shoulder as she hung on for dear life. Yes, they had definitely out done themselves this time around.

Deacon was finally on the moved again, remembering where a few of the holes for spikes were simply because he had noticed them before. He pulled himself up and up, hoping that he wouldn't be thrown off by the spinning. In the end, it wasn't the spinning that caught him off guard. Suddenly, the wall stopped spinning was a loud buzz. It sounded like an alarm or something.

Continuing to climb as to avoid the fire, Deacon tried to look around best he could. Something at the top of the wall was rising up and hovering over their heads, "What is that?" He yelled, hoping to catch his companion's opinion before whatever was going to happen happened. Unfortunately he was not able to see if he had caught her attention. A large door slid open above him and released what he assumed was water down upon him.

"Oh sh-" He pulled himself close to the wall and ignored the chance that the fire would burn his fingers. The flames were snuffed out by the water that suddenly fell over his head. The liquid was cold and had chunks of ice in it, making it hurt as it rained down on him for what seemed like longer than really necessary.

Melanie had barely made her way back on to her own path and out of the danger zone when she heard Deacon's shout, looking up just in time to brace herself against the tidal wave of ice water. Deacon seemed to have caught the brunt of it, but she was having a hard time holding on. The water was cold and her arms were getting sore. It felt like the water poured for an eternity before finally stopping. When it was finally over, she glanced down to see what had happened below her. The water had formed into a moat at the bottom of the wall, giving them a slightly softer yet slightly more terrifying place to land.

"Well, at least I won't die if I fall" she mumbled to herself as she hoisted herself up to the next hold. She briefly checked to see whether or not Deacon had started moving again before continuing on, trying to remember if this had always been that hard

If didn't take Deaocn long to get moving again after he gave himself ample time to shiver off the cold feeling that seemed to crawl it's way down his spine. He didn't bother looking up to see where Melanie had ended up, instead his just forced himself to keep climbing, making sure he stayed well within his color group. He didn't even want to risk the insanity of whatever that had in store for him, especially not when he was so close...

Just as Deacon reached his hand up to pressed the button that (he hoped) would shut the machine down and name him the victor, the button disappeared into a trap door of the wall. It was quickly replaced with a screen that said REPELL. With a groan, Deacon pushed off the wall and started his descent, noticing that the fire was released at random once he start going down.

a few feet later, Melanie had decided that the wall was definitely harder than it used to be. That or she was getting old, but at 20 she refused to believe that that could be true. She was close to the top when she grabbed a hold that was left slick from the water, causing her to slip. Dangling by one arm, Melanie struggled to get her grip back. The wall was too wet, however, and after one more attempt to grab her hold, she fell after her last grip burst in to flames. She braced herself for impact, and then hit the icy water with a hard splash.

Deacon couldn't decide if the sound of Melanie slipping was satisfying or terrifying. He knew she was a talented agent and that she must have run into something terrible for it to cause her to actually fall from the wall. As he tried to climb down, a rouge flame crept passed his hand leaving a large, red welt on the tops of his fingers, "Shit!" He groaned, released the hand from the peg that was causing the torment.

He tried to grab ahold of another peg to keep himself from falling but it was took late. His fingers slipped over nothing as the peg retracted into the wall. As Deacon fell, he wondered if there was some satyr hiding behind the wall laughing at him.

As his back hit the icy water with a burning clap, he couldn't help but take in a deep breath. This caused him to choke on the water that was suddenly surrounding him. He clawed his way to the surface of the moat that was much deeper than he had anticipated and looked around for Melanie as he tried to catch his breath.

Melanie had hoped that the water would be decently shallow, but once again her hopes had been dashed as she realized that the bottom of the moat was nowhere in sight. The impact had knocked the air out of her lungs instantly, and she knew she would need to breathe soon to prevent passing out. Her clothes were wet and heavy, and not for the first time she wished that she was wearing something more appropriate.

Go big or go home he says. He does not get to make the decisions anymore. Melanie thought to herself as she struggled to get back to the surface, deciding that if Deacon lived through this, she would kill him. 

Deacon pulled himself out of the moat an onto the sandy land that faced the climbing wall. He could feel the dirt sticking to his wet arms and hands but ignored them to spin around and help Melanie form the water. He was laughing as he pulled her ashore, "That was awesome."  He chuckled, pulling his shirt over his head and tossing it in the dirt at his feet, "Let's work our way up to level ten next time." He suggested, grimacing as he remembered the blisters were forming across his fingers where he was burned.

He looked over his shoulder and saw two of the Venus girls sitting at a picnic table and laughing. So they had put on a good show? He turned back to Melanie, ignoring the girls as they elbowed each other and whispered, he assumed about him. What else do those girls talk about besides boys?

"So, since you fell first," Deacon started, cocking an eyebrow in her direction, "I assume I win?"

"Gee, you think?" Melanie said as she stood, her shoulder and side throbbing from where the spikes caught her. When Deacon suggested that he had won, she could have turned and hit him, but found the strength to restrain herself at the last moment. Instead she waited until he turned to show off for the Venus girls again, and moved to the exact right position to push him back into the freezing water. That was significantly more satisfying.

Without waiting for Deacon to resurface, Melanie took off in the direction of the House of Hades. She needed a shower and a fresh change of clothes, and maybe some new acquaintances while she was at it.