'Cause I found what I was missing

[iguanasolution]

Characters: Frank Zhang and OPEN
Date: A day or two after his intro
Location: On the way to the turtle's head
Situation: Frank practicing archery and shapeshifting a bit (with different threads), because it's been a while and it's a good way to get his head to stop spinning after so much information dumped on him. 
Warnings/Rating: None, will add if needed

Frank Zhang didn't consider himself useless, despite what others might say about his self esteem. He simply knew what he was good at, and the things he... wasn't. There was nothing bad in being realistic about your own abilities, or so he kept telling himself. 

And he was aware that this was way beyond him. Being somehow 'teleported' into this world- if not outright cloned- when everything was in chaos, the war that they were supposed to be fighting against an enemy so powerful they couldn't even pronounce their name, the way his friends had reacted to the arrival of a demigod he hadn't even heard about, the fact that he could maybe never get back home... 

'Beyond him' was putting it lightly. He had never felt more like a burden to his friends, more unable to do anything to help them out. So he did what he did best in this kind of situations.

Train his abilities until he could become useful. He was the son of Mars, and as much as that had made him feel awkward it was who he was. And a son of Mars never ran from a battle.

Comments

Practicing Archery

[iguanasolution]

Working a bow and arrows was to Frank one of those things that simply came natural. He'd been able to tense the first bow he'd ever gotten without a problem, and after a couple of months of training he was already not too bad when it came to hitting the target. After knowing about his father he'd considered if it'd apply to other weapons, but he hadn't dared to try. The bow just felt... cleaner, somehow. Calmer. Probably the reason the Romans disliked it.

So he'd gotten himself some wood, painted a target with pretty bright colors and walked to a point where he thought would be left alone to train. Not too far away at first, but he kept adding a couple foot every time he hit the straight center of the target twice.

Tense. Look. Breathe.

Shoot.

[wintershepherd]

Jack watches for a while, unobtrusive and silent so as not to distract the shooter and only once an arrow is released and before another one is drawn does he speak from his perch.

"You make it look easy."

[iguanasolution]

Frank is startled into pointing his bow to where the voice comes from as he reaches to get another arrow, but he soon lowers it with a sheepish smile. He gets too into it sometimes, but the guy doesn't seem dangerous.

Because yes, when the god of war is your father and you're dating a daughter of Pluto you bet you believe in the winter spirit.

"Thank you, I guess. I have been doing this for years, so I have practice."

[wintershepherd]

Jack doesn't react much at having the arrow pointed at him, but the breeze picks up for a moment before going slack.

"You can practice anything but people always seem better at what they do when they enjoy it," Jack commented.

[iguanasolution]

A little laugh.

"Well, I do enjoy it. When I tense the bow it's... like having a second arm."

[wintershepherd]

Jack dangled one leg off the perch, running his hand over the ancient wood of his staff. "I know how that is," he said sincerely. "Did you have someone to teach you?"

Then he seems to realize something. "Oh, sorry, I should introduce myself: Jack Frost."

[sophos]

For whatever perfectly logical reason makes sense in this context, Annabeth stumbles across Frank's archery set up in her wanderings. She looks it over curiously, watching him practice; near her all the while, a mechanical seagull flies and hovers.

He was good. But really, Frank was a son of Mars, so skills with any kind of weaponry wasn't that surprising; she had her own affinities as the daughter of the war goddess. She doesn't want to interrupt and ruin his concentration though, so she's okay with just waiting till she's noticed.

[iguanasolution]

And it's the sound of the seagull that makes Frank turns his head between shooting an arrow and reaching for one.

When he sees who it is he smiles sheepishly at her, lowering his arms and letting his bow rest.

"Hey, Annabeth."

[sophos]

She gives a small wave and a grin for her own hello. The seagull squeaks its wings a little closer, as if curious over who Frank is, but it stays within an arm's length of Annabeth herself. "Getting in some practice?"

[iguanasolution]

He nods. "Yeah, haven't been using it much lately- don't want to rely on my shapeshifting too much.

Is that- did you make that?" He motions at the seagull with his chin.

[sophos]

She nods back, in appreciation. "It's always better to have a backup plan, especially one that doesn't necessarily rely on extra abilities. You know they drain when you leave the turtle, right?"

A pause, as she looks up at it. "No, Leo did. This is Asty, and there's another one named Chelona. They're both Percy's, a sort of birthday present."

Shape-shifting (Eagle)

[iguanasolution]

This is probably the first time there's been an eagle around the turtle in... forever. It's kind of weird, when Frank stops to think about it. But the eagle reminded him of his cohort, of New Rome and Camp Jupiter and all the people they had left behind (and wanting to kill them, thanks Leo).

So you'll find an eagle soaring around the sky, but probably way less high than where you'd usually find a normal eagle. He doesn't want to hurt himself if he falls from too high after all.

[fatedchaos]

It's honestly not the fact that an eagle is flying much lower than it should be that gets Vanessa's attention. What does she know about the behavior of birds? Very little, actually.

No, what actually gets her attention is the fact that there's an eagle on Tu Vishan. Not that she knows everything about this place, but she's been here long enough to know that none of the animals are exactly like their Earth counterparts, and most of the birds on the turtle are, well. Not as cool as an eagle.

She stops walking, using her hand to shield her eyes as she looks up at it. This is weird, right?

[iguanasolution]

And Frank is so immersed on his flying around (which isn't as easy as it seems even if you've got the wings, let him tell you) he doesn't even realize he's being stared at. He simply soars around, feeling the wind on his feathers... until he begins to feel the kind of tiredness that comes from adopting an animal form for too long.

So he lands on the ground, not far from where Vanessa is and... begins to change his shape to an Asian kid. That should be fun to see.

[fatedchaos]

The funny thing is, this should be surprising. Honest to God surprising, the kind of thing that would have had her freaking out back home, but there's a weird sort of resignation when the eagle lands and begins turning into a boy. Seriously, why not. She can break apart molecules, she's seen Leo catch on fire, and there's some ancient evil creature masquerading as who only knows on the back of a giant, dying turtle.

Yeah.

Her reality has expanded to allow eagle boys in it.

She walks over to him slowly, just in case. Not everyone here is friendly, after all. "Am I hallucinating, or are you a shapeshifter?"

[iguanasolution]

"Uh."

Smart answer as he turns around to face her, but to be fair she had kind of caught him by surprise. He glances at her but no, he doesn't remember meeting her. But she does seem friendly.

"It would be silly to deny it right now huh? Yeah, I am. A shapeshifter, I mean."

[fotia]

Now Leo doesn't really know how high exactly an eagle can fly, but it's clearly not that low. He could simply dismiss it as a shape-shifting kedan on a hangover, or he could try his luck at guessing. Now his luck's never been really great (a demigod's never is), but at least that also means he can't make it any worse.

"Yo, Zhang!" And he cups one hand over his mouth as he calls out to the eagle. "Come on, man, never seen an eagle fly before? Or don't you have those in Canada?"

[iguanasolution]

And Frank just starts soaring around Leo in the air, not even going to dignify that with shifting to his natural form. Which is obviously an Eagle's way to say 'I'm ignoring you bro'.

So to everyone else it looks like Leo is yelling at an Eagle. Have fun with that.











But actually he only does that for a couple of minutes, just to make Leo wonder if he's gotten the wrong shape shiffter. And when he's doing being immature he lands, changing to himself on the way so when he lands, he does it on his feet.

"There's a barrier, in case you hadn't noticed. I fly too high and I hit it, and I would rather not."

[fotia]

And Leo does start to wonder whether he really is screaming at a random kedan, but he fights off his embarrassment by assuring himself that if the kedan really is hungover then they wouldn't remember him acting stupid, anyway.

But then Frank shape shifts back, and Leo is like Oooh you annoying overgrown manbaby, but then he's grinning in what he hopes is a super irritating, punch-on-the-nose-worthy manner.

"If there's a will, there's a way, man. Besides, you're a demigod; we live life on the edge! YOLO, and all that."

[iguanasolution]

Frank raises an eyebrow as he looks at Leo, shaking his arms to get used to his human body again. It's not easy as it seems.

"Yolo? What does that even mean?" He wasn't a cool kid, you can tell. "I'm not going to crash into the barrier when I know it's there. And I didn't want to grow too tired to keep the eagle form when I was flying high up."

CLOSED to Percy

[iguanasolution]

"This isn't really necessary..."

It wasn't that he didn't feel grateful Percy was willing to show him around, but he didn't want his friend to feel guilty for reacting that way to the son of Hermes and shutting himself down.

Frank didn't really know what had happened, but he could tell there was history there. And not the good kind.

Re: CLOSED to Percy

[kelpful]

The worst part is that, while Percy feels bad about disappearing on Frank, he doesn't feel that bad. Which makes him feel worse, because she should feel bad. It's all very convoluted in Percy's brain right now. He needed that afternoon to just retreat with Annabeth and pretend like everything could be okay for a while, but he feels like a jerk for needing it.

"Uh. Yes it is." Percy bumps shoulders with his friend. There's a small part of him that is making sure it's really Frank and he's really here. "Trust me, you do not want to get lost in gang central or something. Or the red light district." He grins.

[iguanasolution]

To be honest Frank- well, he couldn't understand because he didn't really know what had happened but he could understand someone from the past twisting your life upside down.

"To be honest I haven't left my house much..." A glance "Are gangs really that dangerous over here?"

[kelpful]

Percy thinks about that for a moment. "Honestly, probably not for us. But in general? They don't make things easy, especially not with rationing going on." He pauses for a second before a kind of worried look comes over his face, glancing at Frank. "I guess I forgot how weird this place is when you first arrive. How're you holding up with - everything?" Being on a turtle, being away from Hazel, being away from what Hazel carries around with her, take your pick.

[iguanasolution]

"I'm doing... better than I thought I would? But that's not saying much." An awkward laugh as he runs a hand on the back on his neck. Being away from Hazel was hard but he would deal with it. He'd seen Percy and Annabeth reunite, he knew pairings didn't just break down because of distance.

And even though not having a certain piece of wood around made him nervous he had trusted Hazel with it, multiverse or not.

"I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we... can't go home. Not yet anyway."