#athenianwit [011]

[sweatforged]

at  this  point,  silas  had  a  little  zoo  at  his  cabin  &  truth  be  told  -  he  didn't  want  it  any  other  way.  silas  felt  much  more  comfortable  in  the  company  of  animals  rather  than  people.  when  he  got  back  to  his  cabin  &  curious  eyes  greeted  him  by  the  door,  life  was  good.  not  that  life  wasn't  good  in  general,  but  ..yeah.  it  was  better  like  this.  he  adored  them  all.  dante  was  a  irreplaceable  addition  to  that  zoo;  made  from  his  heart's  plea  &  sent  to  aid  him  (maybe  heal  his  bleeding  heart,  too).  silas  couldn't  say  if  it  worked  yet,  but  he  would  die  for  the  cub  (both  his  cubs)  -  no  questions  asked.

seeing  others  with  their  own  little  miracles  brought  a  warmth  to  his  heart.  an  owlett  seemed  perfect  for  atticus.  "hello  archimedes."  he  offered  a  little  smile,  tempted  to  offer  some  of  his  food  as  well  -  he  ...was  soft  for  animals,  what  could  he  say?  but  this  wasn't  his  pet  to  spoil,  so  he'd  behave.  for  now.  "guess  i'm  lucky  my  hair's  too  short  for  a  nest."  brushing  a  hand  through  said  hair  to  ensure  it  felt  too  short  indeed,  he  couldn't  help  a  little  chuckle.  he  thought  dante  demanding  to  sleep  in  his  bed  every  night  was  a  hassle,  though...  it  really  wasn't.

otherwise  he  was  well-behaved  ..for  a  bear  cub.  hand  on  its  head,  scritching  gently  until  the  little  cub  raised  its  head  to  offer  its  chin,  "meet  dante."  nobody  in  camp  knew  the  meaning  of  that  name  for  him;  what  the  cub  stood  for,  maybe  one  day  he'd  share.  "dante,  that's  atticus."  leaning  over  to  put  his  forehead  against  the  cub's,  'we  like  him  a  lot.  be  nice, don't eat the bird, okay?'

archimedes wasn't the first animal atticus had but this was so much more difficult than owning a pet. he was fiercly independent and far more adventurous than atticus would have liked, boldly approaching strangers to interact with them and atticus had to get onto him constantly to respect boundaries. olympia, his crupp pup, was far more timid and anxious than archimedes and was well behaved. still, atticus understood the difference. the owl was a companion, someone who had a psychic link to him.

just as he was about to continue scolding archimedes for acting in such a way like this, silas and what appeared to be a giant bear approached them. it didn't take a genius to figure out that this had to be his companion, it made sense considering silas was a fighter and who his father was. a bear was perfect for him, actually. "of course." he said as the child of kratos sat across from him and the young cub sat on the floor at the end of the table, relaxed now that it had the meat silas gave it. "silas, this is archimedes." he introduced the two, his owls eyes widened at the sight of the other demigod and extended its head to get a closer look. "you're lucky, this is him behaving. he tried making a nest out of a nymph's hair this morning."

[sweatforged]

silas  might've  wished  for  a  different  animal  companion,  but  the  second  their  eyes  met,  he'd  been  smitten  nonetheless.  he'd  been  keeping  his  kitten  mostly  at  home  due  to  the  majority  of  camp's  inhabitants  regularly  showing  fear  at  the  sight  of  little  sindra.  silas  didn't  like  it;  he  whole-heartedly  believed  that  nobody  was  born  a  monster.  but,  he  knew  what  rejection  felt  like,  so  he'd  not  been  exposing  the  little  kitten  to  it  anymore  &  left  it  home  with  taj  &  evil  overlord  when  it  wasn't  in  the  egg.

his  cub,  though,  went  where  he  went.  he  couldn't  stop  it  if  he  tried,  so...  he  didn't.  maybe  he  shouldn't  enforce  bad  behavior,  but  was  it  bad  behavior  when  the  culprit's  only  offense  was  being  utterly  adorable...?  no  way.  he  didn't  see  reason  to  fight  it;  little  dante  was  a  godsent  &  he  embraced  it,  wholly.  scritches  here,  rubs  there  &  soft  cooing  when  nobody  else  was  close  by  to  hear  him.

with  the  new  living  arrangements,  though,  silas  was  eating  at  the  dining  hall  a  little  more  frequently,  just  ...while  he  got  used  to  the  changes,  which  was  why  he  got  to  witness  atticus  struggling  with  his  little  friend.  "c'mon,  let's  go  say  hi.  don't  eat  it,  though.  it's  a  friend,  okay?"  just  ..  in  case.  silas  grabbed  his  bag,  plate  &  the  little  treat  box  he  brought  for  dante  &  headed  over,  grinning  sheepishly  as  he  approached,  "got  room  for  one  an'  a  half  more?"  setting  his  plate  down  while  he  waited  for  atticus'  decision,  he  popped  a  chunk  of  meat  at  dante,  who  caught  it  easily  &  then  somewhat  flopped  back  to  sit  down  &  wait. 

open to anyone location the dining hall

When he did the prayer for his companion, Atticus had a few guesses of what it might be. An owl was one of them, or some kind of variant of an owl. He was right about it, though he didn't think it would be an owlet. When his new friend appeared in the library, Atticus quickly regretted it as the young bird immediately flew up to one of the higher floors of his library and it took the son of Athena over an hour to find him. He was trying to make a nest in the biographical section. 

A few days later and he found a space for his young companion, things seemed to be on the up and up but Archimedes wanted to follow Atticus everywhere he went. It wasn't as much of a problem when they were contained to his cabin but the baby owl seemed to find a way out every time Atticus left and found him within minutes. Today, Atticus was trying to eat some dinner at the dining hall when he heard the flapping of wings and Archie flew in through an open window and landed on his shoulder. "We talked about this, Archimedes." he scolded his owl who was interested in the godlings plate. "I made you an extremely healthy and delicious meal not even an hour ago, sir." he moved the plate away so one of the carrots wouldn't get in Archie's beak. "You do not need eat again."