if i just lay here {marcus}

[Victoria Bennett]

The weather wasn't as pleasant as Vicky would have wished for, but then the weather had never stood in the way of what she wanted to do with her day. Once she made a plan, she stuck to it, regardless of whether or not the roads were covered in ice and there was a blizzard on the way. Icy roads wouldn't exactly prevent her from walking into the grounds of the university but that wasn't the point. While the conditions outside were suitable for those less tolerant of the weather, Victoria decided to head out into the grounds in the hope that she'd find someone to make conversation with. Unlike some of the others gods, Demeter didn't seem to have been up to as much in terms of having children or dishing out powers, thus resulting in fewer people with whom she had something in common.

Pulling a cardigan over her t-shirt, Vicky walked out of her room in the Demeter wing and made her way to the main entrance, though in her case it was now an exit. Pushing the door open and moving through the gap, she started towards the quad. There would possibly be people playing football there, or at least attempting to, but there were normally more than enough people that didn't want to get trampled, resulting in a greatly reduced pitch size. Victoria certainly didn't want to get trampled or have to defend herself from the ball but that was no reason to stay away from the quad. It was for everyone's use and something as sily as sport wasn't going to make her forget that.

While there weren't as many people in the grounds as there usually was, there were still a fair few in the quad. There was a group of boys playing football, as usual, and Vicky would have sworn she could see two girls playing along as well. Good on them, but she wouldn't be getting involved. Not today or any day soon for that matter. She sat down on the grass, closer to the edge of the quad so as to keep her distance from the ball. It would probably have been a better idea to bring a book out with her, but since her memory had failed her once more, she resorted to growing several daisies in front of her and making them grow and shrink at different times as if they were alive in the same sense as animals rather than being plants.

This post was written by Vicky as Victoria Amanda Bennett. The lyrics are from Chasing Cars by Natasha Bedingfield (originally Snow Patrol) and the images are of Amber Heard. The post was written for Marcus Valentine and is 413 words long. Vicky is wearing these clothes and I'd just like to add that I hate colds. Whoever invented them needs a slap.

[Marcus Valentine]

Please God... or... Gods I guess.... shoot me now...

Marcus made an audible groan, letting his head fall back and his eyes drift towards the ceiling. The pint-sized man infront of him seemed oblivious to Marcus' very apparent boredom, and instead continued to ramble about the history of the school and the different wings, and what God slept with who on the last episode of Jerry Springer of Olympus. He hadn't even been allowed to see his room yet, though he'd already been given the number and his things had been taken there for him, the people handling his enrollment thought it necessary to sentence him to this sadistic form of mental torture.

"...after he carved the statuette with his last chisel, Hephaestus approved of the man's work and decided to...." Marcus zoned out again, his eyes drifting to the moving objects in his peripheral vision. Just birds... He noticed, hoping that it was instead some kind of mythological beast that was here to end his miserable existence being entertained by a man with the vocal range of Ben Stein, but sadly that was not the case.

"...you'll look at the architecture in the upper pillar there, you'll notice the symmetry between the two layers of designs, marvelous technique really.... scholars date the origins of these designs somewhere between..."

"But what about the leafy designs on that one right there?" He asked with feigned interest, indicating to a sculpture behind the man. As soon as the man turned to look at the sculpture, already launching into a speech that could make a tweaker fall asleep, Marcus bolted in the other direction. He'd already put up with this tour for a good half hour, he was only one man and he could only handle so much boredom.

Marcus quickly rounded the next turn and he was gone, he could barely hear the faint yells of anger in the background. He was surprised, he thought the man giving him the tour was only capable of speaking in monotone, guess you learn something new every day.

Eventually he managed to wander out to the quad, noticing that there were already a good number of people out here. Without pause he walked into their midst, already beginning to feel the presence of his eyes upon his form. He knew how it went when a new person was introduced to the herd, everyone was instantly sizing him up, judging their first impressions of him. Most people would feel tense and nervous in this situation, but Marcus wasn't most people, and the smirk that played across his lips made it clear that his confidence couldn't be faded.

Normally he would launch into meeting every single person he could, simply because he was a social person and loved talking to new people, however right now he was on an important mission. He was deep within hostile territory and must under no circumstances be detected by the evil Terrorist Librarian.

Movement caught his eyes again and he noticed a girl staring intently at a spot in the grass infront of her as a small plant grew upwards like those time-lapse videos they would show in science classes. He watched for a few moments, transfixed by the way she seemed to be controlling the growth and size of the daisies seemingly without effort. He was definately impressed, not to mention the fact that she was definately cute. "Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'watching grass grow'..." He said with a smile, so she would know he wasn't making fun of her, just being humorous.

"That's pretty cool though, if you were a pothead your life would be set..." He said with a small laugh. "I'm Marcus.." He said, taking a seat next to her on the grass to become an audience member in her floral exhibition.

[Victoria Bennett]

Everyone seemed to slow down in what they were doing, something that Vicky assumed was down to the arrival of another person in the quad. Considering she didn't feel comfortable when she entered a room and everyone stared at her, she wouldn't inflict that on anyone else, instead continuing with her pointless daisy growing. For some reason unknown to her, the person seemed to be heading her way. Unless he sought her attention she would stay in her own little world. Apparently he did want her attention and so Victoria permitted herself to look up from the ground.

He was taller than her, even if only by a few inches or so. Then again, she was sitting down. His eyes were a brilliant blue and he seemed to look straight through her. There was definitely some sort of aura to him; he seemed to radiate confidence and she doubted that the other people in the quad had affected him at all. They had all since resumed their activities. A laugh escaped her lips as he commented on watching grass grow. "Company is always appreciated," Victoria replied with a smile.

"Well I'll bear that in mind if I get short of money, she told him, though it had never been something she'd considered before. Druggies would probably worship her for her talents but it wouldn't have surprised her if Demeter took her powers away. She wasn't sure if they could do that, but she was a goddess and Vicky wouldn't underestimate her. Besides, drugs weren't something she would touch, whether producing them for others or taking them herself. He introduced himself as Marcus, to which she responded with another smile, "I'm Vicky." She was tempted to ask him about whether he was gifted or an actual demigod and what god or goddess he had a link to but that could wait.

This post was written by Vicky as Victoria Amanda Bennett. The lyrics are from Chasing Cars by Natasha Bedingfield (originally Snow Patrol) and the images are of Amber Heard. The post was written for Marcus Valentine and is 308 words long. Vicky is wearing these clothes and I'd just like to add that ---.

[Marcus Valentine]

He had to admit that he liked her laugh, there was something comforting about it, and the following smile that she displayed only added to the comfort level. There was a kind of innocence about her that seemed nice, a change from the type of women he'd grown up around in back in Compton, they were an entirely different breed of evil altogether. The innocence theory was only confirmed by her reply to his joke, he could tell by her tone that she hadn't dabbled in that area of lifestyles. Wow could it be? A legit good girl..? I thought they died out with the Do-Do Bird... He thought to himself.

Drugs were something Marcus had been exposed to on a daily basis growing up, it was just something you grew up around if you lived in that area. He'd never personally gotten involved into anything harder than pot though, he'd seen the effects of other drugs on his mom and didn't want to end up having the same thing happen to himself. He didn't want to end up just another burned out crackhead on the block. Oh yeah... cuz a street-brawler who can't control himself is soooo much better. He thought to himself, deciding to take his focus off of his thoughts and onto the pretty girl talking to him.

"So... if I call you Victoria are you going to get pissed and beat me up? Cuz honestly you look pretty tough and I really don't want to mess with you..." He said in a teasing tone, breaking out into a grin. He was already starting to feel a little better about his sentence to Charles Xavier's School for Freaks and Greek God Prom Babies, it seemed that he'd made a good choice in his first acquaintance aside from the walking Encyclopedia with angry short man syndrome that was still probably cursing his name somewhere in the school building.

[Victoria Bennett]

Her friends had always teased her about her insistence of behaving properly. As far as she was concerned, you should only do thing that would benefit either yourself or somebody else. Drinking ridiculous amounts of alcohol to result in a state of mind where you can't remember who you are or what you're doing there doesn't benefit anyone. It was these conclusions that allowed Vicky to say she had been clean of drugs and alcohol for her entire life. She could also say that when she had a good time, she could remember what had happened which hadn't been possible for some of her friends. They made their own decisions about drinking and Victoria made hers.

"No, I'm a pacifist." From watching and reading certain films and books, she knew that people had a habit of underestimating those that preferred not to fight. They got the idea in their head that because they didn't want to fight it meant that they couldn't fight which was not strictly true. Someone that didn't want to eat meat could still eat meat if they wanted to, they just chose not to. The same principle applied to Victoria - she would only fight if her life depended on it but she would always try to run first. Others might call her a coward but she called herself smart.

"Don't think for one second that I couldn't put you in hospital though." Marcus seemed like a nice enough guy and even though they'd only met a short while ago, she knew they'd grow to be friends. First impressions meant everything to her and her first impression of Marcus had been very good. The only problem was that guys with looks like him seemed to get any girl that took their fancy and there were generally a lot of girls they liked the look of. She didn't want to apply stereotypes to people she'd just met but she would be careful. A broken heart was the last thing she wanted.

This post was written by Vicky as Victoria Amanda Bennett. The lyrics are from Chasing Cars by Natasha Bedingfield (originally Snow Patrol) and the images are of Amber Heard. The post was written for Marcus Valentine and is 332 words long. Vicky is wearing these clothes and I'd just like to add that ---.

[Marcus Valentine]

From the way she responded, he wasn't necessarily sure if she had caught the humor in his words or not. It almost seemed as if she'd taken slight offense to his teasing statement, even though it had been only in jest. Then again she could be the type of her person that her sarcasm was so smooth, even he couldn't detect it, he'd been wrong before....like maybe twice, so it was possible it could happen again. "Not that I doubt your complete and total badassery miss Vicky, but I highly doubt you could land me in the hospital.." He said with a smile, his words didn't sound arrogant or conceited, just confident in his abilities.

He noticed her studying him, he could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. He knew what she was thinking, it was the same thing most girls thought when he first started talking to him, is he a player? The answer was a yes and no, he wasn't a player in the traditional sense that he would hook up with a girl and intentionally blow them off, no he wasn't an asshole. Marcus was just a flirtatious person and grew bored easily, so he liked to stay available for the most part. However no matter how many times he'd explained his thoughts to a girl beforehand, and even during the pseudo-relationship, they still seemed surprised when he would tell them he didn't want to go exclusive.

He knew one day he'd find a girl that would blow his mind and make him forget about the others, who knows it could be the girl that he's talking to right now, but until that day came he wasn't going to fall in love with every girl he came across, he was going to enjoy himself. "I'm not boyfriend material if that's what you're wondering..." He said with another smile, his icy blues looking towards her, knowing that she would probably find it odd that he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. Marcus wasn't the most intelligent person on the planet, nor was he psychic, but he knew people and he knew how their mind worked. He'd had an interesting conversation once with a Psych major from one of the colleges in L.A., she'd been blown away by the fact that he'd never had a single psychology lesson but seemed to know more about the subject than she did.

[Victoria Bennett]

Victoria laughed as Marcus voiced his doubt that she could hospitalise him. "Hemlock, nightshade, aconite, ivy, privet, yew, so many choices with so many side effects." She had never tried to grow a poisonous plant before though she'd heard somewhere that apple seeds contained a form of poison, in which case she had grown poison. "Just don't accept an edible gift from a child of Demeter that you've annoyed, chances are you'll end up in a coma." While she doubted that any demigod children of Demeter that she knew would go to the extreme of poisoning someone, there were always people that would surprise you.

Vicky wouldn't have been at all surprised if he thought she was plotting to kill everyone. She knew the theory from the back of her hand, it was just putting it into practice that she sometimes had difficulty with. She could tell someone the rules of a sport and how to go about winning the game but she couldn't play the game herself. "I'm not a psychotic murderer or anything, just so you know." It was often difficult to convince people that you weren't going to use the knowledge you had. For example, if someone had done a hell of a lot of research on the White House and spouted out an easy way to get in and kill the President as easily as taking two from four, they'd probably have been locked up for the rest of their life. Maybe a little dramatic, but then Victoria didn't know the American law system very well. She was British after all.

"Gifted by Athena? Or are you just very good at reading people?" she asked with a raised eyebrow as he mentioned not being boyfriend material, reacting to his comment without replying directly to it. Either he was telepathic or had a good idea of what people thought of him. Come to think of it, she hadn't explicitly thought about boyfriends, she'd only been thinking about the habits that he'd have if he fitted the stereotype. Now that the idea was in her head, she was having difficulty getting it out. Everyone liked to think they could be the one to change the manwhore, not that she thought that Marcus was like that, but what if she really could? That wasn't something she needed to worry about right now though. Education had always been a priority and that wasn't going to change. Not today.

This post was written by Vicky as Victoria Amanda Bennett. The lyrics are from Chasing Cars by Natasha Bedingfield (originally Snow Patrol) and the images are of Amber Heard. The post was written for Marcus Valentine and is 406 words long. Vicky is wearing these clothes and I'd just like to add that ---.

[Marcus Valentine]

He listened to her response, remaining silent for a few moments as he thought it over. With an impressed nod he looked at her, "Touche' ma'am....." Oddly enough, poison was something he thought of often. Stab wounds he could handle, and even gunshot wounds seemed to damage him less than the average person, and growing up in Compton had given him the opportunity to learn exactly what getting shot in the stomach feels like......it feels like getting shot in the freaking stomach. However poison was something he'd never really faced before, and he was wondering how it would effect him, considering he still got sick like everyone else and still caught the same viruses that everyone else did. He imagined that poison must work roughly in the same manner, and decided to take her advice and not piss off anyone with Demeter affiliation.

He shook his head and laughed at her words, "Don't worry aboout it, I wasn't throwing any judgement your way. Actually to be quite honest, you're the complete opposite of the girls I grew up around... they were legit pyscho murderers..." He said with a laugh, though his smile fading slightly as a single thought ransacked its way through his mind. You're a psychotic murderer though, aren't you Marcus? You killed that man in a fit of rage.... sounds pretty psychotic to me. He pushed the thoughts aside and listened to her next statement, which was loosely mixed with a question he was guessing had probably been on her mind the entire time.

He chuckled slightly at the mention of being gifted by Athena. "I wish... nope unfortunately I have the God of War himself as my father, Ares. Such a comforting and loving fatherly type.... we talk walks in the park together, play catch, go to baseball games...." He said, the last part obviously sarcasm as he broke out into a small laugh. Though obviously choosing to skip around answering her question directly, how he had known what she was thinking. But of course the only reason he didn't tell her flat out was to create the sense of mystery that would probably only further her attraction. Even when his subconscious was running the show, he was still flirtatious.

"What about you? I'm guessing you have to be Aphrodite's kid." He said with a smile, obviously meaning it as a compliment. Oh...My... God...... I've just discovered the best pickup line to use in this place....I am all that is man.

(OOC: Some of the really conceited stuff that he thinks aren't necessarily to be taken in that context lol. The majority of the time he's just joking with himself, just lettin' ya know so you don't think he's a complete ass lol.)

[Victoria Bennett]

Victoria had never given much thought to defending herself before. Though she believed in not wanting to do something not meaning you couldn't do it, she greatly doubted her fighting skill. Putting herself forward to help with healing the injured was all well and good for something helpful to do during a battle but that wouldn't help if somebody stabbed her with a sword. Perhaps a little time to at least practice growing plants that could defend her was required but she couldn't let anyone else find out. It probably wouldn't have gone down too well for her to say she was a pacifist and then go and produce things capable of hurting people.

"Wow, that must have been..." What? For her, it would have been scary, but he didn't look the type to get scared easily. His attention seemed to wander momentarily elsewhere but Victoria wouldn't intrude. She knew how awkward it was when you were deep in thought and somebody dragged you out of it and demanded to know what you were thinking about. Most of the time it wasn't something she wanted to share, otherwise she'd have said it out loud for them to hear. She laughed as he said that Ares wasn't the fatherly type, an opinion probably shared by the majority of demigods both at the school and outside of it.

"I'd say he's probably busy but there's no rush to do anything when you're immortal." Demeter on the other hand, not that she meant to have a 'better' god or anything, had to make sure that crops grew. If she didn't, they'd die and there would be a shortage of breakfast cereals and pasta. She wasn't her mother but she did feel a connection to her seeing as she gifted her, even if the reasons behind it weren't particularly clear. Another laugh escaped her lips as she suggested Aphrodite being her mother. It was clearly intended to be a compliment though she began to wonder if it was meant to mean a bit more than that.

"Thanks, but it's Demeter actually." She'd have thought that it would have been obvious considering she'd been playing with daisies and suggesting the growth of toxic plants but he'd probably made that connection. "And I'm not a demigod either. Just gifted." It seemed a little sad to put herself down for not being the actual child of the goddess, her best friend thought that gifted mortals were actually better because the god or goddess had chosen to give them gift instead of just having a child. Even so, relation to an Olympian was an enviable trait.

This post was written by Vicky as Victoria Amanda Bennett. The lyrics are from Chasing Cars by Natasha Bedingfield (originally Snow Patrol) and the images are of Amber Heard. The post was written for Marcus Valentine and is 435 words long. Vicky is wearing these clothes and I'd just like to add that ---.

[Marcus Valentine]

He shrugged his shoulders at her words. He knew she was only trying to make him feel better about the situation, or she simply didn't know much about Greek mythology, though he doubted that. "If only that were the case..." He said with a light chuckle, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck absent-mindedly as he picked at his next set of words carefully, not really wanting to draw any anger from his father until he was ready to handle him. "Ares... isn't a nice guy, let's just put it that way, even the rest of the Gods don't like him.....well except Aphrodite naturally..." He said, though all of this was simply stuff he'd remembered from school, considering he'd never actually met the man. However after what his mom had told him, and what Ares had done to her life, Marcus didn't need to know him, he already hated him.

Demeter....Demeter....oh yeah the nature Goddess chick... That made more sense now that he'd thought on it, considering her plant-charming skills, it should have been a dead giveaway, but honestly Marcus had been an adolescent male in the classroom learning about the Gods, naturally the only one's he'd really remember were the 'awesome' ones with firepower that could cause some damage, nature wasn't really a subject that had caught young Marcus' interest at the time.

So she had normal parents, or atleast more normal than his own, he had always wondered what it was like to have legitimate parents as opposed to the burned-out crackhead and dead-beat God of War he'd been handed. What can you do, right? "So... she just decided to give you some extra abilities one day? Did you break a record for planting trees or something?" He said with a smile, though he was curious as to how a regular person earned favor with a Goddess that barely anyone knew about these or days, and even few believed in. For the hundredth time that day, he thought about how crazy all of this was, how absolutely insane it would have sounded to him only a few weeks before. So much for it being a small world after all...

[Victoria Bennett]

To have the rest of the gods dislike you was quite an achievement when you took into consideration how many children they'd had with each other. The Greek gods weren't particularly fussy it seemed, though Vicky thought it rather sickening. Zeus and Demeter had Persephone and then she married slash got kidnapped by Hades. At one point she'd attempted to draw out a family tree but it soon got far too complicated for her once she hit the fifty women that Heracles slept with and had a son with each. Whore. "Aphrodite likes anyone that calls her pretty. She'd probably even fall for Hades if he gave her his last Rolo." Exactly why Hades would be eating chocolates in the first place she didn't know, it was even more unlikely that he'd share them with anyone else, goddess or otherwise.

"Err... I dunno really, she just... did. My mum has a garden center that I helped out with after school so that probably had something to do with it." It was as close as she'd ever come to an explanation for her gifts and it satisfied her curiosity to an extent. What had she really done to attract the attention of a goddess? Taken the initiative to water the geraniums when her mother had forgotten? "So how did you find out Ares was your dad?"

This post was written by Vicky as Victoria Amanda Bennett. The lyrics are from Chasing Cars by Natasha Bedingfield (originally Snow Patrol) and the images are of Amber Heard. The post was written for Marcus Valentine and is 224 words long. Vicky is wearing these clothes and I'd just like to add that I'm sorry it's a bit short.