Another Day In Paradise.. {OPEN}

The shadows around the female seemed a bit darker than normal.
The shadows on the female seemed a bit darker than normal.
Hell, even the light that dared to fall upon the girl seemed darker than normal.

Destiny Grimm was in a terrible mood.

"Freaking Dominic and his freaking quest," the daughter of dark muttered to herself. Her boyfriend had been charged with a series of tasks, a gauntlet, and she was sitting alone on the beach in a sullen mood. Her hair was normally down her back in its straight, black silk sheet. Now, it was hastily thrown into a bun, her fringe sweeping cleanly over her left eye. Her violet eyes were shining behind her black, hipster glasses, an addition she had gotten during her stay in the mortal world. The violet was the only colour on the girl, luminescent from her pale, white face. Her attire was as it most commonly was: a black v-neck shirt with small white "CHB" letters on her left chest, black shorts, and black Docker shoes on her feet. On her neck sat her scythe-pendant necklace, the silver having a dark gleam to it. Raising a finger to run over the the bottom of the scar that jutted from her left eyebrow through her eye down to her left jaw line, Destiny sighed lightly. On her hands were a pair of fingerless gloves, the colour matching her usual attire. But something stood out.

On her right wrist, Destiny had a small, silver arm gauntlet. Engraved on the cool metal was a sun, a tribute to Apollo, the father of her boyfriend. The sun had been tainted yellow and orange, and the bright colours seemed completely out of place on the girl.

She was now a moody, 17 year old with too much on her mind for her health. From her left pocket, she pulled out the grey paper that she had found on her bed that morning. It was the main reason she was there.

As another frown tugged at the lips of the dark child, the dark circles beneath her eyes seemed to darken even more as she looked out over the water.

"Dom, where are you now? I could really use a bit of help.. If not help, I could at least use a friend.." she whispered to the air. Of course, she knew he was fighting for his life, and she wanted to be along side him. Whenever one of them were going to do something potentially fatal, the other was right with them. But he wouldn't allow her to go with him. And now, Destiny needed him to hold her close and tell her everything was going to be okay.

Instead, Destiny Grimm continued to sit alone on the beach, the daughter of darkness staring out into the water that was too calm for her troubled mind.

Lottie grinned as she saw the beautiful ocean, it seemed to gleam in the sunshine. She stared at it in awe- she had never been lucky enough to go to the seaside as a child and this was the first time she'd ever seen it other than on television- as she watched the waves rhythmically go in then out in then out. It was hypnotizing and she stood there for a few seconds, her purple eyes fixed on the wonder before her, but then out of the corner of her eye she saw something belonging to the perfect picture that almost seemed to ruin it. There was a girl sitting by the shore. Her dark hair had been made into a bun but parts of it were falling out, like she had done it in a hurry, all of her clothes were dark shades and made the strange gauntlet on her right wrist look strange- but any type of armor looks weird when worn with modern clothes anyway- the girl seemed to be in her late teens and Lottie found it quite worrying that where the girl was sitting there were shadows, like she attracted dark energy or something.

She was surprised at how her own clothes differed from the girl's - but maybe it was just the age difference- today she had decided she would do a bit more exploring around this camp, it was very interesting and had lots of space. So she put on some green cargo pants, accompanied with a plain white tank top and a red pair of converse that were quite beaten up but they were suitable for exploration and that was all that mattered. Lottie had also tied her straight black hair into a simple ponytail with a bobble that was close to breaking, she had a slight tan too from many hours of tending the plants at her house and her old school.

As Lottie examined the girl from afar she realised something: why was a girl, that looked like she should be in a goth bar, sitting on the beach?

While she had never been to the beach herself when she saw it on television the girls were usually wearing bikini's and swimsuits or at least clothes with bright colours and everybody there looked happy, but this girl looked upset about something. She knew that she should go over to the girl and try to comfort her but Lottie felt that if she did then the girl would get annoyed at her, anyway that darkness around her made Lottie feel uncomfortable. She wrestled with the idea of walking over to comfort the girl or to walk away, her nice side won.

She walked casually over to the older girl from her right side, feeling quite anxious, but she quickly calmed herself as she sat down next to her and stared out into the open sea. After all what was the worst that could happen?

As they younger girl sat down next to her, all of the shadows on Destiny's right side moved to her left. The natural shadows caused by the sun stayed where they were, but her left side became burdened with a plethora of darkness. It looked as if she was sitting half in a shadow, half out. Even her own bodily shadow, naturally cast to the right, moved to the left, standing up and crossing its arms at the new arrival, even as Destiny stay seated. The darkness behaved differently around her.

She didn't look over at the newcomer, didn't have to. Her shadow shifted, turning into a 3d model of herself, a shadow person. It bent and whispered in her ear, "...girl... 13.. 14... looks like you... means no harm..." With that, it moved away from her shifting back into a normal shadow and taking its proper position, only on the opposite side. Destiny didn't think anything of it. She was used to the way shadows behaved around her. It was just another day to her. It was true, though. The girl sat beside her did have black hair and violet eyes as well, but she was not a daughter of Erebus like Destiny was. Her father would've told her if she had a carbon copy sister.

It was beautiful out on the beach. Peaceful. Serene. And Destiny wanted so badly to ruin everything. She wanted to wreak havoc and destroy whatever she could get her hands on. But the girl had changed that. Destiny absolutely hated losing control around others, especially younger others. Not because she thought they were too young to handle it, but because she didn't want them to get the idea that it only got worse the older you got, the more you played the gods' game.

"Have you ever been out in surf collecting seashells?" Destiny asked, finally addressing the girl. She remembered a time when she and her father had gone on vacation to the beach. It was one of the few times she saw him as a child, but it was one of her favourite memories. There was nothing better during a trip to the beach than standing where the tide came in and picking up the colourful little shells. It had brought her happiness then, and she figured it could bring happiness now.

After all, all Destiny needed right now was a bit of happiness.

Lottie looked over at the older girl as she asked "Have you ever been out in surf collecting seashells?" and stared at her in shock as she noticed that the girl's eyes were identical to her own. She quickly looked away from the girl, amazed that she had found somebody that looked so similar to herself and hardly daring to believe it, she turned her head to look at her again and carefully examined her eyes, trying to convince herself that this wasn't a hallucination. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a brief second, telling herself that this was real. When she opened her eyes again she glanced at the older girl and smiled to herself, glad that her brain didn't seem to be playing tricks on her.

She suddenly remembered that she had said something before she had got so worked up about the girl looking so alike to her. In her mind she went back to the moment when she had first seen the girl and replayed everything that had happened since that moment up to the point where the older girl had said something, after all it was better to give her a delayed answer than asking her to repeat the question, that would be humiliating. But because of her surprise at seeing the familiar violet eyes all she could remember was that it was something to do with going to the sea, so she decided to go with that and hope that her answer would make sense to the girl.

She barely had to think about what she was going to say, she had been thinking about the sea the whole time she'd been walking down the shore, up until she'd seen the girl that is. Lottie answered slowly "No, I've never even been to the beach before" She lifted her gaze slightly, looking out at the variety of different shades in an ocean that stretched out for miles, "This is the first time I've even seen it in real life." She looked down at the sand again, remembering how almost every year she had begged her mum to take her to the beach just for one day and every time she refused, claiming that she had to work and that they didn't have enough money, and every time Lottie ran to her room and wouldn't talk to her mum for hours. She wished she could have stopped herself from getting upset at such a small thing, she felt tears falling from her eyes as she thought of her mother. Every time she thought of her mother now she felt like she'd been stabbed with a knife. It hadn't been long since it had happened and this had been the first time that she'd cried about it. She quickly wiped away her tears and glared at the sand, annoyed at herself for getting so upset in the company of a stranger, hoping that she hadn't noticed.

Lottie tried to think of something else, anything else and found herself wondering what the sea was like and why so many different people liked it, maybe the older girl knew. But if Lottie was planning on having a proper conversation with her then she was really going to have to get over their similarities, she looked over at the girl - completly prepared to have a proper conversation- forgetting that the evidence of crying lasted far longer than the tears themselves.

"Never been to the beach?" Her lips let the words leave in a small whisper, but Destiny wasn't really focused on them. She was more intensely staring at the girl. What were the odds that she could find another just like her yet not at all? She had absolutely no idea who this girl was, but one glance would show that they had nearly nothing in common. That made her all the more interested in her.

"How do you like the beach now that you're here?" She asked her. "Meet your expectations?" For some reason, the daughter of Darkness, literally and not just in the emo-phase terms, wanted this girl to be happy. Mainly because she reminded Destiny of herself in a time before it all went to hell. A time when she could simply enjoy the beach without worrying about big water serpents. The memory caused a smile to tug at the corner of her lips as that was one of the first adventures she and Dominic had been on. It was their fault, of course, but she had enjoyed the time anyways.

Looking out over the water, memories of the times she had spent with her friends in that exact spot played in front of her like ghosts. Their laughter and voices echoed in her mind, driving her to nearly laugh. There was she and Estelle, walking along the shore, running sticks through the wet sand to write words. She and Jerry, one of the sons of Apollo, collecting seaweed for a prank for his brothers. Her eyes narrowed as she watched herself and Dom get into a canoe, speeding off over the water.

Abruptly standing up, Destiny realised it would seem odd, her sudden behaviour towards, seemingly, nothing. She cleared her throat as she glanced down at the girl, "Come on. Let's go find some seashells." She didn't wait for her reply on her previous questions, entrusting she would answer them on the walk, and Destiny Grimm held a hand out to the girl, fingerless gloves covering most of it. She nodded with a tilt of her head, motioning to the water, as she finally let her smile grow on her lips.

As she tucked the grey paper into her left, back pocket, it fell to the sand without her notice.

Lottie smiled up at the older girl and took her hand. "It seems amazing but I'm not sure about it yet, maybe collecting seashells will improve my opinion." She stood up next to her, wondering why she was acting so strange but Lottie knew that she was hardly one to judge. She breathed in the air and her grin widened, the smell of the sea was awesome and she now realised why the Poseidon kids loved the ocean so much, if she wasn't already sure about her parentage then her father would definetly have been the sea god. Her eyes lingered on the sand as she quickly looked over a piece of grey paper that had just touched the ground, had the girl dropped it or had it fallen out of her own pocket? Well she definetly hadn't had any paper in her pockets for weeks so it was probably the girl's but if she intentionally dropped it and Lottie pointed it out then it could make things awkward between them so she glanced away from the paper, trying to distract herself from wanting to pick it up.

"Seashells are Poseidon's way of saying, "Yo, sorry 'bout all this water. Imma give you som'in cool to look at. Pretty yet hardcore at the same time, ya feel me? So, here's some pretty, colourful, awesome shells that are, like, super fragile and ish, but at the same time, supports a life." And I think that's rather sweet of him," Destiny said with a smile. Of course, her impersonation of Poseidon was probably way off, but she could always poke fun at it. Thinking twice about pissing off the Sea god, she leaned slightly to the younger girl and whispered, "Don't tell him I did that. I don't want to be a fish." Straightening up, she tugged lightly on her hand to pull her toward the surf.

As she walked slowly, the dark daughter kicked off her shoes, letting the soft sand seep between her toes. She smiled and embraced the warmth. It was always nice to feel it. Despite having a nature of coldness, darkness, and basically sheltering from the sun, Destiny was the oddest of the odd offspring of Erebus. She liked the sun, she liked the warmth, and she liked being outside. This was mainly due to Dominic. However, his outgoing, fun-loving personality rubbed off on her. She wanted to show this girl a fun time at the beach, show her that everything will be fine, that there is serenity in the midst of chaos.

As they approached the water's edge, she looked at the girl with a slight smile, "I just realised... I didn't introduce myself." Destiny dropped the girl's hand and cleared her throat, turning to face her full on. "I," she said laying her right hand above her heart, "am a small-town girl living in a lonely world." With a pause, she grinned and waved that comment away. "Only joking. I'm Destiny Grimm, daughter of Erebus, primordial god of Darkness. Uncle Tartarus describes him as the less BA, more moody, very quiet older brother of the 5." She shrugged and stuck her unnaturally cold hand out with a smile, though the fingerless gloves would help cover most of the chilled skin, "I'm the more BA, more moody, much louder daughter."

She wasn't always loud. She had once been as quiet as the shadows that occupied her life. But that changed when she came here. She met Autumn, then Dominic, then Estelle, and then loads of others in a wave of people. It made her social, which was completely out of her nature. Dom and Estelle had done their best to shape her into a more out-going version of herself, and they had succeeded. She was glad, too. Destiny wanted to befriend the girl in front of her, not scare her away with moving shadows and creepy coldness.

Lottie giggled at Destiny's Poseidon imitation, imagining how funny it would be if the sea god sounded like that. She knew that she probably shouldn't be laughing at a joke made about a powerful god that could destroy her in seconds but she couldn't help it.Despite how depressed Destiny had seemed earlier she had transformed in a matter of minutes into the person people called "the class joker" maybe she was just trying to ease the tension and be friendly, was that something children of Erebus usually did? She frowned slightly after learning Destiny was the daughter of the god of darkness, she wasn't a big fan of the Hades kids and aren't death and darkness quite similar? Maybe she should make an excuse to leave so that she wouldn't have to talk to her anymore, but she knew she couldn't avoid the children of darkness and death forever, she wasn't particularly fond of them but she was determined to get to know more about this girl and she seemed nice so why not?

"Well, Destiny, nice to meet you. I'm Lottie Ephen, daughter of...." She hesitated, she knew who her dad was but he hadn't exactly claimed her. But it still counted, didn't it? She might aswell say it, it wasn't like her parentage was going to change anything, "Dionysus." She finished, smiling at the older girl, trying to act like it wasn't a big deal for her to say that out loud.

She hadn't really told anybody that Dionysus was her dad, she still thought it was strange that you weren't technically someone's child unless they claimed you, but really what kind of parent doesn't acknowledge their kid's existence? Apparently the gods.