[color=Goldenrod][center][h1]Alan Carpenter[/h1]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/dXhVyDQ.gif[/img]
[b]Location:[/b] The Basketball Court; Camp Half-Blood.
[sup][b]Interacting With:[/b] Others around him.[/sup][/center]

Taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow with the forefront of his hand, Alan cleared his nose, trying to get in a good breath. Although the basketball court was a fair distance away from the obstacle tower, the sound of it all reached his ears just as if he were sitting in the stands with the majority of the other campers. He had attempted the tower a good handful of times since being at camp. Hell, he had gotten close to winning a few times when Ky' vie wasn't playing for some reason. It was just... too much. The noise, the spectators, the pressure... 

Alan preferred a much more laid back approach to things - things on a smaller scale that didn't have so much showboating. Alan didn't need all that to know that he was a good athlete, or to prove that he was any better than someone else. He knew who he was in his heart, and that was okay by him. Once he had tried using his shoes to just fly to the top of the tower and retrieve the ring - Mr. D. didn't think it was too funny.

So since then, Alan made an effort to stick to the sidelines, or away from the tower altogether and work on other things. He shared the same sentiment with a few others in camp - enough to make a three on three men's basketball team. Shirts vs. skins, the teams changed all the time. But it was here that Alan could just have fun for having fun's sake. Here, he didn't have to worry about anything other than maybe a cute little wager made at the beginning of the game every so often. Boys will be boys.

Alan's attention went from trying to catch his breath to looking over his shoulder, back at the obstacal tower. Something big must have happened, because the noise had doubled tenfold, almost making him raise his hands to his ears to save them from rupturing. Though curious as he was, Alan was perfectly content playing a friendly ball game with his friends, and getting in some good exercise to boot.

These little games that the camp had going - the obstacle tower for instance - always showed favor to one house, one way or another. The obstacle tower was designed for the physically fit and cunning of mind. Ares, Hephaestus, Artemis, Tyche (by an unfair default) and hell, maybe sometimes the Eris cabin would excel greatly at it, leaving the other cabins such as Iris and Demeter who had nothing physically or exceptionally calculating going for them. There was capture the flag, which let some of the "littler" guys do some shining, but again, it always seemed to boil down to brute strength. Deon was a perfect example of that. He had more wins than anyone else in camp - then again, he had also been in camp the longest. Chariot races were fun, but again, not for everyone. 

Perhaps the most fair activity that showed no favoritism towards any certain cabin was the trial of dreams. Though it didn't happen very often, it was perhaps the one activity Alan made sure he was a part of every chance he got. There was just something about it - the fairness, the unknown, the entirely whimsical aspect of it all... Syleste was an excellent camper to help run the exercise. Perhaps the most disadvantaged of them all given her blindness, she yet still found a way to become something within the camp. Really, a lot of people needed to give her more credit than she was given. Over a hundred campers, and Syleste was hands down the bravest one he had ever met.

Well... "met" wasn't exactly the best word to describe it. He had been at camp for a handful of years now, summers mostly, and he still hadn't been able to actually speak with her. It wasn't that he wasn't given the opportunity, he just felt sort of... intimidated by her. He'd never admit it to anyone, if asked - he knew the kind of flack he'd get for something so stupid. But there was just something about her that made him pause (not to mention make his cheeks turn a soft shade of pink).

Brought out of his thoughts by the ball getting passed over to him to start a new game, Alan shook his head and smiled to his friends, finding his two fellow shirtless teammates and began the game. He was fast, the fastest in the camp to his knowledge thanks to the ability of speed handed down to him by his father. But just like in the games, rules about "no flying shoes" and "no going supersonic" were implied, so he played as anyone else would. In hindsight, the whole thing was rather unfair. In capture the flag, it was perfectly okay for someone like Deon to use their birth-given abilities to manipulate weapons or use their battle prowess to help them get the edge - but Zeus forbid he use his shoes to fly to the top of an obstacle tower.

He was so ready for the next trial of dreams.
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