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5 yrs ago
Current Lets change this status for once. Still always down for potter stories, but branching out! Started a new year with a new writing journey. Should be interesting.
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8 yrs ago
I'm sort of an addict for Harry Potter. If you ever want to do an RP... I will be down almost 99% of the time. :D
11 yrs ago
RIP Alan Rickman, best actor for the best character.
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Not everyone is in the Discord quite yet but would anyone want a brother? Early twenties character. Very music oriented. Let me know!


Faceclaim: Jeffrey Dean Morgan // Color Code: 27B09B
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Full Name:
Gideon Hale Mercer


Nickname(s):
The Surveyor, Death Inc, Inevitable


Age:
55


Gender:
Male


Sexuality:
He's been seen with young arm candy of both sexes


Occupation:
Founder & CEO of Mercer Strategic Systems (MSS)
Private military contractor specializing in:

Terrain-based operations

Infrastructure security

“Disaster readiness”

Signal and logistics support

Public-facing role: Defense consultant & infrastructure specialist
Actual role: Power broker with private armed reach


Place of Residence:


Family and Close Connections:
Gideon's family is heavily obscured, but both of his parents came from nothing. Gideon spent a lot of money to erase them. He is currently single and has never been married. His closest connections are to his staff.

  • Butler: Philippe De Lyon || Age 70 || Handles Gideon's day to day, and runs all staff || FC: Charles Dance.
  • Security Team Leader: Joel Hagerty || Age 45 || Leads the Tactical Team near Gideon at all times || FC: Jason Statham.
  • Additional Team Members Liam Hagerty || Jayson 'Deacon' Deeks || Marcel Lafayette || Arthur Hastings
  • Head of MSS Domestic: Andrew Barns || Age 60 || Heads up all Domestic Projects in North America || FC: Iain Glen.
  • Vice-President and Senate Majority Leader: Oliver Steele || Age 57 || Vice-President of MSS, Political Officer, and Face || FC: Sean Bean.




Appearance:
  • Height: 6'2"
  • Hair: Dark Brown Salt and Pepper
  • Eyes: Piercing Green
  • Body Type: Active muscular build, obvious strength training and routine exercise.
  • Clothing Style: Formal, business casual, Expensive Suits, he always looks good.
  • Body Markings: Tattoo of a Skull on his back with the names of his old unit. Various tattoo's on his arms.


Personality:
Gideon Mercer moves through the world with deliberate calm. He speaks evenly, listens without interruption, and rarely raises his voice. Emotion, in others, registers to him as noise, data that signals instability rather than meaning. He is unfailingly polite, careful to acknowledge feelings without ever allowing them to influence outcomes. In conversation, he favors prediction over argument, framing opposition as misunderstanding and resistance as an unfortunate but expected phase of adjustment.

He does not view himself as cruel. He believes morality is contextual, a luxury afforded by stability rather than a guide to creating it. Control, in his mind, is not domination but stewardship. Sacrifice is inevitable; the only question is whether it is managed efficiently or allowed to spiral into chaos. Gideon takes comfort in systems, legal, economic, logistical, because they absolve him of personal responsibility. If the system functions, the cost is justified.

Among peers and superiors, Gideon is deferential in tone and dominant in effect. He allows others to believe decisions were theirs, positioning himself as an advisor rather than an authority. With subordinates, he demands competence, not loyalty. Failure is met with quiet reassignment, success with understated reward. People fear disappointing him more than being punished, unsettled by his composure and the sense that he is always several steps ahead.

Gideon’s greatest blind spot is his inability to understand devotion. He assumes that, when pressured, people will choose survival over sacrifice, efficiency over heritage. Loyalty to land, to community, to memory does not factor into his calculations. He believes people adapt, because they always have. It is a belief that has served him well.

There are exemptions to this. His close staff he considers family and are the only people he trusts, and each of them have been with him for a long time.


History:


Extra Facts // Headcannons:
  • How does your character feel about the expansion/growth of Pines Holler?: He finds it refreshing and considering he's one of the largest reasons for it he finds it to be inevitable.
  • Gideon keeps every map he’s ever worked from. Not digitally, physical copies, annotated in pencil. He believes digital records are too easy to revise, too easy to lie with. Pencil marks are honest; erasures leave scars.
  • He wakes at the same time every day regardless of time zone. Not out of discipline, but control. Disruption irritates him more than exhaustion.
  • Gideon does not decorate his living spaces. Wherever he stays, penthouse, hotel, temporary residence, everything is functional and sparse. He never unpacks fully. Permanence unsettles him. His staff usually will decorate but he usually pays no attention.
  • He has never married and has no children. Not because he dislikes the idea, but because he considers emotional dependency a strategic liability. He has ended relationships the moment he sensed expectations forming.
  • Gideon drinks coffee black, precisely measured, and only in the morning. Alcohol is rare and purely social. He dislikes the loss of precision that comes with intoxication.
  • He has an exceptional memory for faces, but a poor one for names unless they are tied to authority or utility. Locals who confront him are often remembered long after he’s forgotten what they were called.
  • He reads extensively, but almost exclusively nonfiction, history, logistics, political theory, climate modeling. Fiction frustrates him. He dislikes narratives that rely on emotional coincidence.
  • Gideon never raises his voice. On the rare occasions he does, it is not anger, it is calculation. Those moments are deliberate and deeply unsettling to anyone who witnesses them.
  • Despite his detachment, Gideon is deeply order oriented. Disarray, physical or procedural—grates on him. He will straighten a crooked object unconsciously while listening to bad news.
  • He believes strongly in inevitability. When something goes wrong, his first instinct is not blame, but analysis of what made the outcome unavoidable. This is how he justifies nearly everything.
  • Gideon has a quiet, private disdain for politicians who posture publicly and compromise privately. He considers them inefficient and cowardly, but useful.
  • He keeps one personal rule: never lie outright. He misleads, reframes, omits, and redirects, but his statements are technically true. This allows him to maintain a sense of internal integrity.
  • He does not consider himself a villain. In his mind, villains are reckless, emotional, and short-sighted. He believes history will vindicate him, not by name, but by outcome.
  • When alone, Gideon sometimes studies satellite images of the Appalachian region long after work is finished.
  • His greatest fear is not exposure or defeat, it is irrelevance. The idea that the world might move on without needing him unsettles him more than death.
  • He has never once apologized in his adult life. He has expressed regret, acknowledged inconvenience, and offered compensation, but never an apology. To apologize would be to admit moral fault, and Gideon does not believe morality applies to systems.
File me interested and currently aiming for very bad guy, a good guy Doctor, and barely getting by young adult. *tips hat* Last one may get axed



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​𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚆𝚒𝚝𝚑
Legionnaries, Loxias


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​𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗​​​​​
Medical Station, Forum and Coliseum​​


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The festival air felt even warmer once Lucius stepped out of the shaded healer’s alcove behind the training arena. Sweat clung to the back of his neck beneath his curls, and he rolled his shoulders once, the faint ache of power-use lingering in the joints. Working a healing station during Solstice always meant back-to-back patients, bruised ribs, sprains, cuts that wouldn’t clot until he coaxed the warmth of Apollo through his fingertips. Gods knew he didn’t mind doing it; it soothed something in him. But after a few hours of it, he always felt hollowed out, as if some part of his light had been scooped out and used up.

The alcove behind him was already filling with new voices, groans, laughter, the metallic echo of discarded gear hitting the floor. Chandler’s apprentices were sorting tinctures, restocking nectar vials, and shouting over one another about who’d borrowed the last roll of ambrosia-wrap. Lucius offered them a halfhearted wave as he stepped into the open air.

He tugged his messenger-style med bag more securely across his chest and stepped into the main artery of New Rome just as a line of sparring victors limped out past him, slapping his shoulder in passing.

“Thanks, Doc!”
“Lucius, you’re a lifesaver, literally!”
“Come see my next match? I’m defending my bracket!”

Lucius waved them off with an easy, tired grin. “Hydrate, for gods’ sake. And don’t try to show off by fighting again if your knee is still clicking, Phelan, I will drag you to the ER myself.”

Phelan yelped something unintelligible and disappeared into the crowd before Lucius could grab him by the collar.

The Forum stretched ahead in a brilliant sprawl of steam, music, shouting, and color. Silk banners rippled overhead like molten sunlight. The smell of charred meat skewers mixed with sweet fried dough and the sharp herby tang of faun-made ale. Someone had set up a wooden stage for impromptu performances; a few kids were sword-dancing badly on top of it. A street vendor was aggressively waving a tray of 'Solstice Lucky Corncakes' at passerby, promising divine blessings with every bite.

And beneath it all, that thrum.
The heartbeat of Camp Jupiter when everyone celebrated the same thing at once.

Lucius slowed, letting the world fold around him in sound and heat.

He loved this place.
He hated this place.
Or maybe he hated that it still felt like it owned some piece of him.

Not New Rome. Not the people. Just… the weight of what it meant to belong here.

A group of younger legionnaires noticed him lingering, waving him over with frantic energy. Lucius approached before he could talk himself out of it.

“Lucius! You’re back! Are you staying for the champion duel?”
“Is it true you might return to active duty?”
“Sir, I— I mean— Lucius, would you look at this?”

One boy, maybe seventeen, stuck out his forearm. A swelling bruise was spreading under the skin, someone had smashed him with a shield, judging from the oblong shape.

Lucius sighed through his nose. “You tried to block a blunt strike with bare bone.” He took the kid’s forearm gently in both hands. “Let this be a life lesson.”

Golden warmth spread beneath his palms, soft and steady, dissolving the purple blotch. The kid inhaled sharply, relief flooding his face.

“Thanks, sir.”

“Don’t call me sir,” Lucius replied automatically. “I’m retired. For now.”

For now.
The words tasted like denial.

He moved on before they could ask anything else, weaving through the festival crowd. A pair of fauns tried to recruit him into a rigged coin-toss game. A veteran slapped him on the back hard enough to jolt his teeth. A little girl wearing a cardboard gladius pointed at him and yelled, “DOCTOR LUC!” before her mother dragged her away.

Lucius smiled despite the exhaustion.

The Coliseum loomed ahead, massive and sun-drenched, its golden stones gleaming like a beacon. Inside, the roar of spectators crashed like a wave, signaling another bout nearly finished. The vibration ran through the stones under his feet.

He should go in. He wanted to see who made it to the finals. And honestly? He wanted to make sure his stepfather’s medical team wasn’t drowning under an influx of idiots who didn’t know when to quit while they were winning.

But his feet didn’t carry him inside just yet.

Instead, he stopped at the edge of the Forum’s bonfire circle. The fire crackled high in the pit, sending sparks spiraling skyward. Children leapt over the embers, shrieking with laughter. Veterans lounged on benches with tankards, arguing about odds. A group of centurions were making a drinking competition out of speed eating watermelon slices. A faun band was attempting a very off-key rendition of 'Jupiter Triumphant.'

And Lucius stood there, arms folded lightly, watching all of it with that hollow ache still sitting just beneath his ribs.

He remembered summers like this, when he’d worn armor instead of civilian clothes, when duties and destiny had held him tight by the throat. When the Legion felt like the only thing he was built for. When he’d believed his healing was a weapon as sharp and vital as any blade.

Could he really come back to the Legion? Put the red and gold on again? Stand at attention next to the men he would be responsible for? March, command, fight?

Would he even be welcome?
Or would he just be another “what-if” story, the Centurion who wasn’t, the soldier who vanished, the healer who walked away?

Had he stepped too far away? Had retirement become more truth than rest?

Above him, the banners snapped in a warm breeze, and the crowd’s cheer erupted as another duel ended, a massive roar that surged out of the Coliseum and rolled over the city like thunder.

Lucius exhaled slowly. “Yeah,” he murmured to himself. “Not done thinking about it.”

He straightened, adjusted his bag strap, and finally turned toward the Coliseum. The walkway leading toward the main entrance seemed to glow in the setting sun, like a path he’d walked a thousand times before.

Whatever answer he found…
he figured it would meet him somewhere inside that arena.

Lucius barely made it three steps toward the Coliseum’s entrance before someone spoke behind him.

“You walk like a soldier.”

The voice was unfamiliar, smooth, but weathered by long roads and long stories. Lucius turned.

A man stood beside the bonfire circle, leaning casually on a walking stick carved with winged horses spiraling up the length. He wasn’t old, mid-thirties maybe, but there was a gravity to him, the kind travelers carried when they’d seen too many corners of the world. His cloak was deep indigo, clasped with a silver pin shaped like a crescent moon. No legion insignia. No cohort markings. Not a Roman.

Lucius frowned, automatically assessing threat, allegiance, intent. Old instincts rising like a tide.

The stranger raised both hands slightly, palms outward.
“Not here to bother you, Centurion.”

Lucius stiffened. “I’m not—”

“Right,” the man cut in mildly. “You’re ‘retired.’”
He said it with that same tone healers used when humoring a stubborn patient.

Lucius felt his jaw tighten. “You know me?”

The man studied him as if he were examining the grain of a finely made blade. “I know a warrior who hasn’t set down his shield. Even if he thinks he has.”

Lucius huffed a quiet breath through his nose, exasperated. “Look, if you’re here for medical attention—”

“I’m here for perspective,” the stranger said simply. “Yours.”

That stalled Lucius. “Mine?”

The man stepped closer, tapping the staff once on the ground as two children dashed past them in a blur of laughter. The fire crackled at their backs, throwing orange reflections in the stranger’s eyes.

“You’ve been walking the festival like a ghost,” he said. “Hands full of purpose, heart full of hesitation. You keep looking at the Coliseum like it’s a door you’re not sure you’re allowed to open.”

Lucius swallowed, something uncomfortably sharp lodging in his throat. “You psychoanalyze all your conversations with strangers?”

“Only the interesting ones.”

Lucius ran a hand through his curls, shaking off the prickling at the back of his neck. “Look, I don’t know what you think you see, but I’m not- I’m not looking to join anything. Or return to anything.”

“Is that what you tell them?” The man asked softly. Then, “…or is that what you tell yourself?”

Lucius felt his breath hitch in a way he hated.
He didn’t answer.

The crowd roared again from inside the Coliseum. The stranger turned his head slightly, listening.

“You know,” he murmured, “most people hesitate because they’re afraid of failure.” He looked back to Lucius. “But you… you hesitate because you’re afraid you might still succeed.”

Lucius froze.

The words struck bone.

A single memory surfaced unbidden.
His Second Cohort standing at attention in the morning fog.
Forty young faces looking to him for direction.
Forty lives trusting him.
The weight of that.
The honor of that.

The loss of that.

“I left for a reason,” Lucius said, voice low.

“I’m sure you did,” the stranger replied. “But reasons change.”
He tilted his head. “And sometimes… people outgrow their excuses.”

Lucius forced a laugh to hide how much that hit him. “You talk like a prophet.”

“I’m just a wanderer.” The man smiled, a small, calm expression, like he knew a hundred things Lucius didn’t. “But I’ve seen a thousand warriors at crossroads. And the ones who keep walking in circles are always the ones pretending they’re resting.”

Lucius looked away, toward the massive stone arch of the Coliseum’s entrance.

The stranger followed his gaze. “If you want to go in,” he murmured, “go in with intention. Not fear. Not guilt. Not nostalgia. Just… choice.”

Lucius’s pulse thudded once, hard.

“What’s your name?” he asked quietly.

The stranger considered him for a long moment, then offered a slow, respectful nod.

“Call me Loxias.”

“Greek?” Lucius guessed.

Loxias' smile broadened but didn’t confirm anything. “Call me what you like.”
Then, with a curious finality:
“We’ll speak again, Lucius Crassus.”

And with that, Loxias pushed off with his walking stick and melted into the crowd, not vanishing, not magically disappearing, just, slipping away as if the festival parted around him to let him pass.

Lucius stood rooted to the spot.

Hands warm.
Heart unsteady.
Chest tight with something he hadn’t wanted to name.

His feet shifted, once, twice, and then he found himself walking.

Toward the entrance.
Toward the roar.
Toward whatever answer waited inside the golden arches of the Coliseum.

And for the first time all afternoon.

He didn’t feel hollow.
He felt awake.



Location: New Rome Bazaar, and outside the Coliseum







Camilla slipped away from the stands before the last echoes of the previous match fully faded, her steps carrying her toward the wide outer ring of the Coliseum. The sun had begun its slow descent, gilding the stone archways in molten light and scorching the air until it shimmered. The heat didn’t bother her; storms lived under her skin. Sweat evaporated before it could form.

The Solstice crowds were at their thickest now, laughter spilling into the open streets, music rising from the Forum, food vendors wheeling their carts closer for the evening rush. The air smelled of roasted meat, citrus wine, and sweet pastries dusted in powdered ambrosia. Babies cried, dogs barked, someone shouted about a lost sandal, and somewhere in the distance a faun played a slightly out-of-tune pan flute in exchange for tips. It was chaotic, alive, and exactly what New Rome looked like when it was happiest.

Along the perimeter, the younger Legionnaires stood at their posts, some tall with pride, others trying to appear braver than they felt. A few tapped their fingers nervously against the hilts of their weapons; others stiffened when a spark of festival fireworks whistled overhead. It was their first major holiday patrol, an honor, and a pressure cooker.

Camilla’s presence had a way of straightening spines.

She approached the first checkpoint: two Third Cohort campers stationed near the eastern arch. They snapped to attention the moment they spotted the purple of her cloak and the gleam of her Praetor insignia.

“At ease,” she said gently, a hand raised in dismissal of their rigidity. “Long day?”

One of them—an anxious fifteen-year-old with a gladius too big for his belt—nodded, cheeks pink. “Yes, Praetor. I mean—no. I mean—yes, ma’am, but we’re handling it.”

Camilla bit back a smile.

“You’re doing more than handling it. This is the cleanest perimeter sweep I’ve seen from Third Cohort in weeks.” She rested her hand briefly on the boy’s shoulder, grounding him. “Trust yourself. You train for a reason.”

The praise hit him like a lightning strike. His chest straightened. His partner beamed, whispering a stunned, “Told you she’d say something like that,” under his breath.

Camilla continued onward.

She moved with the kind of quiet gravity that commanded respect without demanding it. Legionnaires called out greetings as she passed; some straightened their armor, wiping sweat from their brows as if she might inspect them. Others merely relaxed when her shadow crossed theirs. Having a Praetor walk the perimeter wasn’t protocol, it was reassurance.

Every checkpoint she reached, she offered the same blend of precision and warmth, the rare balance only she could manage. A daughter of Jupiter, but not distant. A Praetor, but not untouchable. She knew every name she passed, every cohort assignment, every strength she’d seen in the training arenas and every flaw she was helping them carve into steel.

“Keep those eyes scanning the rooftops. That’s your blind angle.”

“Relax your grip, you’ll cramp before sundown.”

“Don’t forget to hydrate. Even a demigod passes out if they’re stubborn enough.”

She paused at one post where a pair of Second Cohort girls were quietly bickering over their formation spacing. When they noticed her, both froze.

Camilla simply pointed at the gap between them.
“If something slipped between you two in a real breach, you’d both have explaining to do.”
They scrambled closer, embarrassed.
“Better,” she said, then softened. “You’ve got good instincts. Don’t doubt them.”

They looked as though Jupiter himself had descended to pat their heads.

A pair of First Cohort veterans were stationed near the main entrance. Older, calmer, more seasoned, but still visibly relieved when Camilla approached.

“Everything holding steady out here?” she asked.

“So far,” one answered. “Crowd’s getting restless. Betting stalls are overflowing.”

“Well,” Camilla said, her lips curving with dry humor, “it wouldn’t be a Roman festival if someone didn’t bet their entire month’s stipend on a duel they didn’t watch.”

That earned a round of chuckles, that low, respectful kind that rolled out naturally in her presence.

As she walked, a soft breeze curled around her, stirring the edges of her cloak. The atmosphere shifted with her mood, it always did. The sky brightened just a little when she passed. The air grew steadier, calmer, like the world itself aligned out of obligation.

She didn’t consciously summon it. But nature always seemed to move around her rather than through her.

A few younger campers peeked out from their posts as she passed, whispering to each other with awestruck excitement:

“That’s her—”
“The lightning girl.”
“She took down a drakon last year on her own.”
“She’s barely even served before getting promoted.”

Camilla pretended not to hear, though her heart tightened with something warm and complicated. Admiration was a gift, but it was also heavy. She carried it like she carried everything else: straight-backed, steady, and silently.

By the time she reached the western edge looking out over the Forum where crowds were thickening in waves, she stopped. Hands behind her back. Shoulders square. Watching over her city.

From here she could see nearly everything: the flash of vendors’ gold bangles reflecting sunlight, the swirl of purple silk banners overhead, the ever-growing line of spectators pressing toward the Coliseum’s entrance as the final duels approached. Children darted between stalls carrying sweet drinks, while veterans argued loudly over which champion would take the title.

Cassian was somewhere inside preparing for the next round of duels. She could already feel the shift in the crowd as excitement swelled, the subtle change in atmospheric pressure that accompanied anticipation. Soon she’d return, take her seat at the front, and lead with poise beside him, letting him shoulder the spotlight as they’d agreed.

Her strength was presence. His was visibility. Together, they worked.

But for now?

Her place was here.
With her Legion.
With the pulse of New Rome.
With the thunder she carried quietly in her bloodstream.

“Keep your heads up,” she called to the nearest watch group, her voice carrying like a clear note of command. “It’s Solstice. That means anything can happen.”



Location: Medical Station, and Coliseum







The scent of sunlight and smoke hung thick over New Rome.

By the time the final duels began, the Solstice Festival had reached its golden peak, laughter spilling from the Forum, strings and flutes winding together into a melody that carried all the way to the Coliseum’s open gates. Lucius Cassius Crassus stood just beyond them, sleeves rolled to his forearms, hands already stained faintly with the shimmer of divine gold. The battlefield he might be retired from, but the work, the quiet, unending work of mending others, never left him.

“Hold still,” he murmured, voice low and even as his fingers brushed across a legionnaire’s bruised shoulder. A warm pulse of light followed his touch, flowing from palm to skin like liquid dawn. The soldier exhaled, the kind of breath that trembled with relief. Lucius caught a glimpse and held back a wince, a newer Legionnaire, just a child, with the insignia of the second cohort on his armor. “Better?” Lucius asked, and the 'boy' nodded, wonder and gratitude flickering in his eyes.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t thank me,” Lucius replied, wiping his hand on a cloth as the glow faded. “Thank your training. You held your stance even when your arm gave out, that saved you more than I did.”

He said it with a faint smile, the kind that hinted at warmth beneath restraint. His tone was clipped but kind, steady as the hum of the earth beneath the city’s marble bones. Around him, the medics’ alcove buzzed with soft chaos, healers moving briskly between cots, pitchers of nectar clinking, the smell of crushed herbs and burnt ozone from spent ambrosia wafers.

Lucius moved through it all like a conductor among strings, efficient, deliberate, carrying the calm of someone who’d seen far too much of war and had learned to master his pulse against it.

It should have been easy, this, healing, tending, advising. The life of a retired soldier turned physician. Chandler Sumpter’s hospital had given him peace, purpose. The steady rhythm of the ward, the bright laughter of his younger half-siblings echoing through the courtyard, the absence of blood-soaked sand under his boots.

And yet...

His gaze drifted toward the arena’s bright mouth, where cheers erupted in a fresh surge. The air was electric, the kind of energy that made the hairs on his arms rise. The Coliseum sang with the heartbeat of battle.

He remembered that sound. The way it used to vibrate through his chest when he stood in the sand, bow drawn, eyes locked on the enemy line. The precision of it. The clarity.

Lucius tightened the strap on his bracer, an old habit, then sighed and reached for another vial of nectar. The movement was practical, but his thoughts lingered.

The Legion was trying to call him back, his men constantly asking if he'd come back and run the second with Lucius' own protégé. They would again, ceaseless in their efforts. He could already feel the whisper of it at the edge of the festival’s laughter, the sense that peace, for someone like him, was only ever borrowed.

“Lucius.”

He looked up as Camilla approached, her silhouette sharp against the torchlight, cloak gleaming violet in the dusk. Even without her armor, she carried the weight of command like a mantle carved into her very bones.

“Praetor.” His tone softened slightly, though habit still bent it toward formality. “You’re missing your celebration.”

She glanced toward the healers’ alcove, toward the row of patched-up fighters and the faint smell of burned ambrosia. “Someone has to make sure they live to see the next one.”

Lucius’s mouth curved. “And you thought I’d forgotten how to do that?”

“I thought you might need reminding,” she said simply, and there was humor in it, quiet, but familiar.

For a moment, they stood in silence, the noise of the arena a distant roar. Camilla’s gaze lingered on him, the steady hands, the worn bracers, the eyes that had seen too much to be at ease for long.

“You’re thinking about coming back,” she said finally, though it wasn’t a question.

Lucius didn’t answer right away. He poured the last of the nectar into a fresh cup and set it beside the cot of a sleeping recruit. The faint light from the liquid reflected in his eyes, gold threaded with shadow.

“I’m thinking,” he said at last, “about whether I’m still the kind of man who belongs on a battlefield.”

Camilla regarded him quietly, then inclined her head, not in command, but understanding. “The battlefield remembers you, Lucius. Whether you remember it or not. Your men loved, and continue to love you, and I can see your soul still longs for the Legion. You've simply stopped listening to your heart and are instead thinking with your head. It's something you Minerva Legacies have in common, and while it served you well in training, you have to master yourself Lucius Crassus. Consider this my permission to rejoin if you decide to re-enlist.”

Then she turned, the folds of her cloak whispering across the marble as she strode back toward the light.

Lucius watched her go, the noise of the crowd swelling as Cassian’s victory was announced, the cheer of a thousand voices calling a name that once might have been his. He knew there were other bouts left but Lucius sighed and went to look into the sky.

The sky above the city burned gold and crimson, and the first stars began to spark through.

Lucius stood there a moment longer, surrounded by the scent of ozone, herbs, and the faint metallic tang of healing, caught between the life he’d built and the one that refused to release him.



Location: New Rome Bazaar, and Coliseum







The Summer Solstice made New Rome shimmer.

By late afternoon, the whole city felt drenched in gold, streets glinting beneath the sun, marble facades glowing as if they themselves had been blessed. From her perch at the Forum’s edge, Camilla Julia Asper watched it all unfold with the faint smile of someone who knew both the beauty and the burden of what she saw. Below, the avenues thrummed with life: music spilling from every corner, laughter rippling over the chatter of markets and the cry of vendors, a thousand small moments of joy woven into one brilliant day.

It was strange, sometimes, to see Camp Jupiter like this, unguarded. For all its discipline and order, the legion still had heart, and on the solstice that heart beat wild and free. Camilla let her gaze wander across the crowd: the dancing children encircling the bonfire, the fauns weaving through the forum with wine jugs and mischief, the veterans swapping stories under the silk-draped columns. Every scent and sound spoke of summer, roasting meat, citrus wine, the hum of life at peace.

She rested her hands along the cool marble railing, her posture statuesque yet unpretentious. A low vibration stirred beneath her fingertips, subtle but familiar. Her father’s presence, as constant as breath. Jupiter often spoke to her directly, but today his guidance came in silence, in intuition, in the electric weight that settled in her bones when storms gathered. And as she closed her eyes, the air itself seemed to hum in acknowledgment.

You’re watching, aren’t you? she thought, tilting her face toward the light. The faintest breeze brushed against her cheek, and the corner of her mouth curved. She took it as an answer. You can literally speak in my head and you're going to use the weather to communicate. So dramatic on the solstice.

“Praetor Asper!” a young legionnaire called from behind, breaking her reverie.

Camilla turned, braid swaying across her shoulder, the sunlight glinting off the golden clasp at its end. “Report.”

“The final duel is nearly ready to begin, ma’am. The crowd’s already gathering.”

“Good,” she said evenly. “Ensure the perimeter is secure and the vendors stay within the lower Forum. No incidents like last year’s firecracker debacle.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The legionnaire saluted and hurried off.

Camilla lingered for a moment longer, taking in the sight of her people, laughing, careless, alive. She had learned long ago that joy was as necessary to order as discipline. The legion could not survive on duty alone; it needed days like this, bursts of celebration to remind them what they fought to protect.

Still, she never let herself relax too fully. Her eyes moved constantly, sweeping the crowd for disturbances even as she descended the steps toward the Coliseum. The familiar click of her boots echoed against the stone as she passed through streets lined with purple and gold silks. Every few paces, someone called her name, “Praetor Asper!”, to offer a toast, a greeting, a salute. She returned each one with measured warmth, the kind that carried both authority and affection.

By the time she reached the Coliseum, the air was thick with anticipation. The great arena pulsed with life, torches lit along the stands, fauns selling roasted nuts and wine, and the thunderous cheers of demigods waiting for the evening’s final bout. Camilla made her way to the praetorial dais, high above the sand, her purple cloak catching the last light of day.

The match was already underway: Cassian Murphy, her co-Praetor, stood in the ring against one of the morning’s champions, Alex Rhea, both armored and gleaming beneath the setting sun. Cassian was everything the crowd loved, charismatic, loud, fearless. His laughter echoed across the arena as he deflected a strike and countered with a sweep that sent his opponent sprawling. Camilla watched, expression unreadable, though there was an unmistakable glint of pride in her eyes.

They had long ago made their unspoken pact: she would lead from the shadows, the strategist, the judge, the lightning in reserve, and Cassian would be the visible face of power, the sun that rallied their people. It was balance, like day and storm. They had a close relationship, some would say they should end up together but Camilla had never had time for true relationships and besides, Cassian was far closer than that, a brother. They spent many hours meeting about the Legion, sparring, or just talking and he was one of three that Camilla could actually count on.

As the final exchange rang out, Cassian’s blade disarming his opponent with a clang that reverberated off the stone, the crowd erupted. Applause thundered through the arena, and the setting sun split through the arches, casting both Praetors in molten gold.

Camilla rose as the victor saluted her. Cassian’s grin was wide, sweat streaking his face, triumph lighting his eyes. She inclined her head in return, a silent acknowledgment between equals, between friends.

“Well fought,” she murmured under her breath, her voice barely audible over the din.

Thunder rumbled faintly in the distance.

The day’s last light caught her hair like fire as she turned from the arena, cloak brushing the marble steps. Around her, the festival continued, laughter, song, life. And overhead, the sky began to deepen from gold to indigo, a thousand unseen stars waiting to burn through.

The Solstice belonged to light and to victory. But tomorrow, she knew, the storms would return, and when they did, she would meet them head-on.

For now, though, Camilla let herself smile as the crowd chanted Cassian’s name. Balance was kept. Order held. And the daughter of Jupiter stood at the heart of it all, the calm within the tempest.
Annnnnnnd, final one.

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