tushanshu_logs | 'Cause I found what I was missing

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.

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Somewhat nonchalantly: "You're welcome."

Annabeth on the other hand never says no to a compliment, even if she knows she doesn't need them, exactly. She gets a vaguely smug but pleased look on her face before she replies to him though. "A weapon's only as good as the mind using it." She pauses, and if it were anyone else but Frank, she might not add it on, but the self-appreciation dissipates with it. "I've probably been doing this a lot longer than you have, though."

"You definitely have."

Frank chuckles a bit, looking down to his bow. He had always thought himself good with the bow, that and reading were the only things no one could take away from him. But when it was reveled the source of his ability with the bow partly came because of his heritage he lost a lot of confidence in it.

"Don't you feel like it's cheating sometimes?"

Annabeth catches the way Frank looks down at this bow, and she's not all that surprised by what he follows the gesture up with.

"No. Not really," but there's something in her tone that suggests she's considered the same question herself. "We all have natural affinities because of our parents. If that's cheating, then everyone's a cheater. We still grow into them in our own ways, but it's still ours. I'm good with my knife because of me, because of what I put into it."

He sighs, as if that was the answer he was expecting but not one that completely erased his doubts about it.

"It still feels unfair to those who aren't demigods like us. But I guess that's not really our fault, or something we can do anything about."

She kind of gets that feeling, from the sigh alone. "But you can't really compare what we can do as demigods to mortals' abilities or lackthereof. If we didn't have any sort of edge from our parents, we'd have an even higher mortality rate than we already do."

A pause. "Besides, we all train with weapons, not just the children of war. We might have an advantage, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't know how to use it."

He gives her a little 'humm'. Now that's something he hand't considered. It's true all demigods must train to survive no matter the camps, and no matter who their godly parent was. Sons and daughters of the war simply had... a little more affinity for it.

"And it's not like I don't train." He gives her a smile, thankful for her support.

Annabeth goes for a grin in return, but it's more of a smile than she intends; it's just something about talking with Frank. "Exactly. All of us do. And we have more people to practice with now."

She'd been kind of hesitant in going up against people who weren't demigods, but training? As far as she's concerned, there's no such thing as too much.

Frank's smile is way more sheepish, but it's there. He admires Annabeth, and it's always had to be completely natural around someone he admires. It was the same with Percy until he became a friend rather than a heroic stranger.

"Is that a suggestion? Because I'm getting kind of rusty with the sword..."

She can't help the way her grin turns into the smallest of smirks. "If you want it to be one. Do you have a sword with you here?"

He shakes his head, looking around. "No, but we could use sticks?"

Her face gets disappointed and disgruntled for a moment, because sticks. Where's the fun in that??

"They'd be an okay substitute, if they were strong enough, but you should look into getting a sword here anyway." Especially with the potential to need to rely on weapons above anything else. "Leo might be able to make you one, or there's a handful of decent blacksmiths on the turtle. I got a shield from one, just after I arrived."

He's not too proud to not see no one could be better at this kind of thing than a son of Hephaestus. But said son happens to be someone who loves making fun of Frank...

"Could you ask Leo, maybe?"

Annabeth raises an eyebrow. "He's not that intimidating," is her first remark, even if she knows what Frank asks it of her. She blows a tuft of hair out of her face. "If you avoid him, it's not going to make things any better between you. Especially having me ask a favor like that in your stead."

Frank tries to pull the thought 'yeah right' cool guy act but it doesn't really work when he's reaching to scratch his arm nervously as well.

"It seems a little childish, I know. But he's just so-" He rolls his eyes, a little loss of words because really, anyone who's met Leo is hard to describe. "If I ask him a sword he will give me... I don't know, a toy one. Or one that looks like chopsticks or something like that. He's always making fun of me that way.

But he wouldn't do that if you asked." He's still a kid, even if they sometimes forget in the middle of saving the world.

She shakes her head, if only because she does know exactly what Frank's getting at, and she can picture Leo reacting just as Frank describes.

Leo'd been like that since she first met him, though she's come to trust and get along with him at a surprising level thanks to being on turtleback. But maybe she'd just managed to find a way around all that, beyond just being the 'scary blonde.'

"You can tell him I sent you. And no funny business. That might work." And she sort of thinks it might, with how much she's been working with Leo lately. "Or I can come with you, but I won't do the asking for you."

Frank opens his mouth, then closes it. She's right, like she always is but still he wishes there was a better way to simply get Leo to stop laughing at him.

"Alright then, I'll tell him you said that. And then we get to spar some?"

She smiles a little, glad he's agreed to what she's said, even if she can tell he's not all that happy with it.

"Works for me."

'Cause I found what I was missing

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