shouldn't you be working

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

Laurel sat at one of the outdoor tables of the cafe, sipping down an iced latte in the shade of the red umbrella. The forum was bustling with people going from shopping to restaurants, or just chilling in the plaza. She had her feet propped up on the other chair and was reading some boring book her mom had suggested she read. She was about to throw it out and just head back to camp. She was supposed to be back there anyway, she was only over in New Rome to attend a meeting. She was hoping the caffeine in her latte would get her through the rest of the day.

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Sun Dec 24, 2017 1:06 pm

Carter walked up to the cafe, wearing his signature suit and holding a new briefcase, one that didn't have genitalia written all over it. He put the briefcase down as he took a seat next to his fellow Centurion, Laurel. He smiled at her. "Hi, Laurel," he greeted. "So, let's get right to business, shall we?" he opened up his briefcase, and took out a half-burned dagger. "First off, I found this sticking in the side of the male barracks, should we be concerned about it? It might've just been some teens screwing around, but it is technically punishable." He slid the dagger over to her, resting on his chair.

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

Laurel looked up at Carter, putting down her book. She wasn't fazed by his attire, he practically lived in his suit. It was weird. Everyone knew it. She just chose not to acknowledge it. She raised an eyebrow at the singed dagger though.
"What do you suggest we do about it? Get fingerprints from the dagger and then compare it to the fingerprints of everyone at camp? How did it get burned though? Did someone light the dagger on fire and then throw it or was the fire after it was in the wall? Why even set a dagger on fire? It's a very cult-y thing to do. Carter, were we attacked by a cult?" Laurel was struggling to keep a straight face.

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Sun Dec 24, 2017 1:39 pm

"Haha, very funny." Carter rolled his eyes. "I was just making sure that you didn't want to do anything about it before moving on. If this happens again, though, I'm going to be really angry." He put the dagger away. "So, do you think we should host another Mars Games soon?" he asked, as a waitress came over and got Carter's order. He slid the briefcase closer to him. "Did you hear about the praetor?"

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

"Is it our turn to host already?" Laurel asked, taking a sip of her latte. She shouldve added a shot of expresso in there, or maybe two. But then the baristas would look at her weird and silently judge her. It was probably a good thing in the end, since she probably would've overdosed on caffeine.
"Is the praetor part of the order of the flaming dagger?" She asked, "because otherwise, I have not."

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Sun Dec 24, 2017 1:55 pm

"Well, not quite, it's the 5th Cohort's, this Tuesday, but it's always good to plan ahead. Since the Legion in our Cohort is getting so used to how the games work, I think we should switch it up on them. Maybe add a stipulation, or set the track differently." Carter greeted the barista as they gave him his hot tea. He took a sip. "The Praetor is apparently considering retirement, which means that one of us would take over that spot, most likely. Granted, that's up to the rest of the Senate as well, but we have the cohort numbers advantage and the seniority advantage as well."

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

Laurel paused, considering the ideas for the war games. They weren't completely her style. Especially when people got super competitive. After all, they were a legion, they needed to fight well together as a whole, not harbor grudges towards each other. "We could always mix up the groups, no cohort against cohort. Or we could change it into a massive game of dodgeball." Laurel smiled at the mental image of people dodging giant red rubber balls in 70s gym uniforms.
She was silent about the news of the praetor, instead choosing to take a long sip of her latte. It felt weird to think about one of them becoming praetor. There were other centurions, and since it was an election there was no way of telling who would win. Still, it felt like she had just become a centurion. It scared her a little to think of things changing so drastically.

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:17 pm

"Mixing up the groups seems like a good idea, I think the main concern is just about there being enough room to put two full cohorts against each other." He took another drink of his tea, and put a little more sugar in it, swirling it around. "A massive game of dodgeball for demigods would be more like 'dodge the large spikes of fire coming for your head.' We could always play the Greeks, that'd be fun, but not in a competitive way, in the way that we'd completely massacre them." He laughed. "I'm half-joking." He took another drink of his tea, looking out at the streets at the groups of people walking. He looked back at her.

"I sure do hope that at some point, I can be like these people roaming the streets. Feeling at peace, worried about my own life, and my family's. No sense of danger for what's really out there," he said, dragging the spoon around his tea.

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

Laurel shrugged, "The field is pretty big, there shouldn't be an issue. I mean if we have to we can always expand it, but I think that brings up zoning laws, and then bringing in more dirt, probably would take a lot of petitioning to the city council- do we have a city council?" Laurel had to wonder if that's what they did all day if they did exist, talk about zoning and expanding and money. She wasn't cut out for it unless it was like Parks and Recreation. Leslie Knope was her hero.
Laurel looked over at Carter and then back to the Plaza. "Yes, bears. So many bears. I'm glad we're inside these walls."

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:38 pm

"I think the city council is more or less us, or whoever works for the Praetor." Carter put his hands together on the table, looking back from the streets to her with a roll of the eyes. "I didn't mean bears, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the kids walking by had a bear hidden in camp somewhere. I meant the monsters out there, trying to you know, eat us or whatever. Kill us, more so." He sighed, and took another sip of his tea. Carter looked out in the distance, seeing a group of people hurdled up and talking. "That looks awfully suspicious, do you think we should go check it out?"

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

Laurel looked over to the group congregating in the forum. In all honesty, there could be any number of reason for them to meet up. Maybe they were on a field trip, or maybe they were some sort of bird watching club. Maybe they were one of those flash mobs or whatever and they were gonna dance. There was really no indication whether they were good or bad. It was probably best just to watch them for the time being. Still, Laurel couldn't help but whisper frantically, "its the order of the flaming dagger!"

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Sun Dec 24, 2017 3:10 pm

Carter peered at her. "You're hilarious," he said sarcastically, and continued to watch them. "I feel like if it turns out they're just a group of friends, we're going to end up looking like creepy stalkers." He caught one of the girl's sight, and he quickly turned away, drinking his tea again. "Anyway," he continued, and grabbed a graph out of his briefcase. "This is the data collected for the most sold items in camp, divided and color coded by cohorts. Our cohort is the highest with junk food, which is a problem." He looked down at the graph, seeing it was labeled 'Boxtops Sold This Semester.' He blushed and put it away. "Excuse me, this graph is the data collected."

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

Laurel looked Carter in the eye, "I'm going to ignore the first graph cause that's just a cheap shot but what I wanna know is how on earth you got this data. Did the vendors in New Rome just have this data waiting around, ready for you to analyze it? Should we be worried about our campers privacy? I'm serious about the second part though, how is it our business what our legionnaires buy. As long as it isn't booze or weed we can't really stop them. I mean if you wanted we could do a two-hour presentation on healthy eating choices, but I think we'd end up with a flaming dagger to the chest after the first half hour."

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Sun Dec 24, 2017 3:33 pm

"How are boxtops a cheap shot? I'm raising money, okay." Carter smiled. "I think they...I'm not really quite sure. Maybe they just based it off of a survey, or something? Or based off of ID? The important thing is that we get our legionnaires to eat healthy and become stronger, day by day." He shrugged. "You really aren't going to let the flaming dagger thing go, are you? I just wanted to make sure we weren't going to go track down some hooligans." He laid the graph out in front of them. "We need money to buy a new coffee machine in the Senate House, the one in there broke."

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

"I am absolutely not going to let it go." Laurel shot back. She observed the graph again, listening to the tale of the coffee machine. She didn't know how it was possible for them to break a coffee machine, and frankly, she was pretty annoyed about it. She needed her four shots of expresso for her to be able to handle budget meetings. Speaking of which, she flagged down the barista and ordered another latte.
"Hows our budget for the rest of the year looking, we could just take money from the supplies fund. Of course, that would mean buying cheaper staples or like number 1 pencils instead of number 2. I say its worth it."

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Mon Dec 25, 2017 12:17 am

"Well, we've already had to replace the coffee machine once in the past year, so it'll probably be a hefty investment. Maybe I can pay for it straight out of my pocket, instead of making the Senate's budget suffer." He finished drinking his tea, adjusting the tie on his suit a little. "We should probably cut down on the amount we spend on those holiday and meeting dinners. Some of our fellow Centurions expect to eat like pigs at an expensive, classy restaurant, which takes a decent hit to our budget."

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

Laurel nodded, her eyes drifted over to the group still gathering on the other side of the square. They seemed secretive, or concerned about something at the least. Some of them kept looking over to the police station, while others were looking right at them. Laurel sighed, they were going to have to do something now.
"C'mon let's go see what they're doing," Laurel said, dropping the denarii for her coffee on the table and grabbing her iced latte. She took a sip as she walked across the square, passing by the big fountain with the marble Fortuna statue, and approaching the group of teens.
"What's going on guys?" She asked. She recognized most of them from camp, one or two were from the first cohort. It seemed to be a mix of cohorts and ages.

Subject: Re: shouldn't you be working Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:31 pm

Carter was surprised at her sudden urge to check them out, but he didn't deny, of course. He got up, and paid for his drink, before walking over to the group and flashing his Centurion badge. They all just stared at Carter and Laurel for a few seconds, before one boy, a ginger in a purple Camp Jupiter shirt, spoke up.

"Just hanging out," he said in a smartass tone of voice, towards Carter. "Enjoying wrecking other people's fun, Mr. Virgo?"

"Look, I came over here to see what was going on, not get backtalk from a bootleg Ron Weasley," he said, putting his badge away. "Carry on."

The group of friends slowly walked past them. Carter looked at Laurel. "I still don't trust that they are just 'hanging out.'"

ooc: Sorry, I was busy the 25th/26th with family stuff, and forgot yesterday!

**Moderator** Posts : 44 Join date : 2017-12-23 Age : 26

"Neither do I." Laurel paused for a bit before cracking a smile, "bootleg Ron Weasley? Also, when did we get badges? Did you make that yourself or did you get someone else to make it?" Laurel watched as the group walked away.
"So we could follow them. Hard to say if it counts as stalking or if the probable cause justifies it." Laurel put her sunglasses on, fully knowing that it barely concealed her identity. Still, if they followed them far enough away they should be fine anyway.