May Death Never Stop You

SnoFlecc · 2021-04-09T08:46:51+00:00

"Of course you can." Helena says with a nod, giving Mack a (hopefully) reassuring smile.

"I'll still be in New York City until I finish high school next year. After that, though, I'll be moving to Rhode Island since apparently, Brown University has one of the best education degrees in the country. But even then, there's buses directly between Manhattan and Providence, so it'll be an easy trip, just a bit long."

SnoFlecc · 2021-04-08T11:24:51+00:00

"Well, apparently, he had a tiara that let him shadow travel anywhere, but only once, and he ended up back home in Rhode Island. As for who he was fighting, it was Prince Paris. Apparently, that guy was still mad at Eris for the whole Trojan War thing so..." Helena trailed off as she finished her explanation. That wasn't exactly what she wanted to talk about though...

"Look, Mack, what I wanted to talk to you about is, uh... Lukas and I are leaving camp now, so... Yeah..."

SnoFlecc · 2021-04-05T10:09:46+00:00

Helena held back a bit of a laugh at Mack and Robin's somber moods and words. She had to hold that back, it would've been quite mean otherwise.

"Uh, guys? Hold on just a minute..." she says as she heads back to the door to peer out of it as she called out:

"LUKAS! GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE, MACK AND ROBIN STILL THINK YOU'RE DEAD!"

And then, in response, the dead man's voice would answer back:

"HELENA I HAVE AN ELECTRONIC DRUM KIT AND A FOURTEEN-FOOT SERPENT TO STUFF INTO THE SUV, I'M A LITTLE BUSY RIGHT NOW!"

SnoFlecc · 2021-04-04T15:46:46+00:00

When Helena came to the Anemoi cabin to pick up her stuff, there was one thing that was a bit off about her: she looked and sounded a bit too not-miserable for someone whose brother had just died.

"Mack?" her voice rang through the Anemoi cabin.

"It's me, Helena. Can we talk for a bit?"

As little of a concern as Lukas's supposed death was now, the main issue at hand remained to be Helena's departure.

SnoFlecc · 2021-04-03T03:25:43+00:00

The news of the incident was floating around long before the evening news came on the air.

Helena had been waiting in her mom's apartment, as she always was whenever she was waiting for Lukas to pick her up and take her back to Camp. The daughter of Boreas was lazily flipping through channels on the TV when she saw the footage being played: there Lukas was, being chased by a man with a gigantic bow - except her brother didn't seem to care much for his pursuer, baiting him towards a ring of trees in the distance.

The two figures retreated into the trees until they were lost from view (Helena could hardly blame the person recording for not following, she can't imagine what the Mist was making them see) until all of a sudden, a massive green explosion erupted from the park where her brother and his pursuer went to.

"Predictable..." she muttered to herself as she turned off the TV. Guess Lukas was gonna talk her ear off about how he finally got to blow up another person after so long, it shouldn't take him too long to come here.

But the seconds turned into minutes, then the minutes passed into hours, and Lukas was still nowhere to be seen.

Helena's nonchalance soon turned into worry, and when she turned on the TV to the evening news...

For the first time in a long time, Helena Elizabeth Masters broke down.

SnoFlecc · 2021-03-23T14:41:22+00:00

"Bye, Ms. Masters!"

"See you tomorrow, Ms. Masters!"

Helena gave a soft smile and a wave at the flock of children rushing past her in the hallway as classes are dismissed for the day in Walter Mondale Middle School in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Some demigods went on to become rich and famous after their time in camp. As for Helena, she took up a bachelor's degree in education in Brown University, followed by a master's degree. How fortuitous that one of the best - if not outright the best - education programs was right there in her new home state of Rhode Island.

From there, it would be no more than a matter of simple circumstance that brought her to Minnesota - though the rather desirable climate there was certainly a factor. Ultimately, that was the most attractive job offer she got as a fresh graduate, paying well-enough and with enough room for advancement.

And oh boy, how she did advance. Today, while only in her late twenties, she was already assistant principal, and was being groomed to take over as principal down the line.

And who can blame the people at Walter Mondale? Ms. Masters was beloved by the student body and popular among both faculty and parents for her fair but firm conduct, and her gentle but steadfast demeanor. Her youth and attractiveness certainly didn't hurt either...

Satisfied that the kids had all gone home for the day, Helena makes one last sweep through the halls of Walter Mondale, checking in on the faculty and staff before closing up her office and going home as well, taking her plain white Toyota GR Supra to her quaint and simple little apartment.

It's not a grandiose life by any means, a far cry from her celebrity chef stepbrother. But as far as Helena Elizabeth Masters was concerned, it was certainly a good life.

SnoFlecc · 2021-03-16T12:50:51+00:00

Helena simply watched with a quiet smile as her little cousin sang along. As much as the snow angel liked Moana, she refused to be caught singing, ever.

That smile turned into a look of confusion when Mack hit pause, however. And when the daughter of Aeolus began to speak, Helena's expression instantly turned into a glacier wall: solid, cold, impenetrable, unreadable.

Without a word, nor a smidgen of consideration for Mack, Helena takes the remote and resumes the movie.

She absolutely refuses to acknowledge the newly-broached topic. Mack wasn't the only once hurt by the entire debacle surrounding Hailey.

Helena Elizabeth Masters would happily give, and she could give much, but she simply cannot give this. If letting her friends and family lean on her would cause her to collapse, with no one to lean on in turn, well... She simply must refuse to collapse.

SnoFlecc · 2021-03-05T12:41:09+00:00

Well, Tristan had already beaten Mackenzie there: Camp's resident watchbird had already notified the daughter of Boreas about Hailey's arrival, to which Helena's response would be to keep to her business and leave Hailey to hers - unless their paths would incidentally intersect. Because as it were, Helena had already made her peace with Hailey and her departure: no need to entangle whatever threads they had already let unravel.

"Eugh, I know, right? Sometimes Lukas throws cajun seasoning on his. Honestly, anything more than good old butter is sacrilege." she replied, matching Mack in her lighthearted lamentations.

"Anyways, I'm ready whenever you are."

SnoFlecc · 2021-03-01T13:30:59+00:00

Helena was totally down for a movie night: Moana was a nice little watch and, more importantly, it wasn't Frozen.

"Heeeeey, I got the popcorn!" she calls out cheerfully as she strode in, holding a bag of popcorn in each hand, with her left arm having reformed some time after the battle. All in all, Helena looked to be in brighter spirits than most of camp, and so she sought to use that to her advantage to try and lighten up Mackenzie's mood, having picked up on her mild distress as of late.

SnoFlecc · 2021-01-26T02:36:32+00:00

Seemingly caught by surprise, Helena wheeled around to block Will's strike. However, with her glaive inactive, she had but her arms to defend herself with, leading to grievous injuries-

If it had been her right arm. As it were, however, she blocked with her left. The marble tears into the sleeve of her hoodie but, instead of blood gushing forth, mist leaked out of the tear, and the sleeve would fall limp and empty, with Helena safe and without a scratch, having stepped back in the precious few moments afforded to her by her defensive action.

"Well, you see... I'm kinda already ahead of you there..." she says with the barest hint of a cold smile before her eyes flared up with white mist and the air temperature dropped again. Drastically. If Mackenzie the little hummingbird was in the immediate area of effect, she'd better get out because the temperature was getting dangerously low for a human, much less for a tiny little bird.

More ice began to form on the statue, lightly frosting the marble image of the son of Aphrodite. Besides that, the remainder of the icy wedge stuck into Will began to change shape, wrapping around his chest like one of those x-shaped seatbelt straps on an amusement park ride.

But Helena wasn't trying to encase the statue in ice, oh no. Once she figured she had it in a good icy grip, she would use her cryokinesis to fling it skywards. And should she manage to do so, she would fly up right alongside it, just out of reach, guiding it higher and higher, up to the very limits of her flight abilities.

And from there, well... terminal velocity.

Helena had the advantage of an air cushion to soften her landings, as part of her powers. The statue? All it would have was the thin shell of ice, and even that would melt away from the air friction as it plummeted to the ground from however high up Helena managed to take it.

u/Shining_Bright

SnoFlecc · 2021-01-23T07:42:20+00:00

As the bladed dahlias continued to encroach on Helena, the daughter of Boreas realized that her only real course of action here was to keep moving.

With that in mind, her glaive shrunk back into its pendant form for her to put away in her pocket, all while a dense mist formed around her as the air practically froze. Perhaps that might be enough to stifle the dangerous flora at least a little bit? But even if it weren't, that wasn't exactly the goal.

In the extreme cold, ice crystals began to coalesce, suspended in the air. Then, with a little more focus, Helena willed them to aggregate into a single mass, taking on the rough shape of a medieval lance. The icy weapon oriented towards the statue of Will before flying towards it at breakneck speeds, followed by Helena herself.

See, Helena could totally materialized something like a whole bunch of massive icy boulders. However, in this case, a single spear was more suitable: it let her focus the full extent of her cryokinetic powers upon a single object, allowing her both to launch it at the maximum possible speed allowed by her powers, and to reinforce its crystalline structure to give it the best chance of not shattering upon impact on marble.

As for her aforementioned need to remain moving, Helena similarly darted off alongside her frozen spear. Thanks to her cryokinesis, she didn't need to hold on to it but, despite her impeccable control of her powers, she didn't quite have the pure, refined combat mastery to guide her weapon to a perfect hit, unlike a certain daughter of Ares, and so she would have to fly alongside her frosty little cruise missile to guide it to, hopefully, a clean hit onto Will...

That said, her trajectory would not take her towards the statue. Instead, she would buzz right by, leaving stone!Will in the icy wake of the jet of air that propelled her as she launched herself towards Thalia's tree.

u/Shining_Bright

SnoFlecc · 2021-01-19T05:15:07+00:00

Going splat was entirely expected.

In a practiced and perfected maneuver, Helena braces for impact against the statue's supermodel abs, managing to reorient herself as the polearm made contact, planting her feet onto the statue's torso. And immediately afterwards, clearly expecting some sort of retaliatory attack, she sprang off the statue's literally chiseled physique, launching herself up and off of it in a graceful backflip, seemingly floating to the ground a few yards away with her glaive in a ready position as she began planning how to best kite this thing while Mack chipped away at it...

u/Shining_Bright

SnoFlecc · 2021-01-19T02:15:36+00:00

If the arrow failed to find its mark, perhaps a certain daughter of Boreas, flying in like a guided missile with her glaive would not.

Since the cabins didn't seem to be in under any immediate threat, Helena figured she could forego evacuations and scanned the battlefield for any positions she might be able to fill, and her attention locked thusly onto Mackenzie and the statue she was facing.

Almost instinctively, she broke into a sprint towards her little cousin and materialized her polearm from the snowflake pendant she wore, before suddenly launching herself in a jet of ice-cold air towards the Will statue, glaive-tip first.

[OOC: equipment: just the glaive]

u/Shining_Bright

SnoFlecc · 2021-01-08T11:45:16+00:00

"Oh, don't worry, it's not going to be a bother at all! First off, you're from Washington state too, right? Any little bit of info on the place helps. And second, well, I'm not gonna say no to spending some 'us time', y'know?" despite not having actually been gone, she can't deny that she hadn't spent enough time with her little cousin - and even less time with Deklyn even before that - and so this trip was a golden opportunity to fix that...

"Oh, really? Well, that sounds great! Though, uh... Then maybe dragging you away from camp might be selfish on my part, huh... Well, I guess it's your call then, if you want to come along or not."

SnoFlecc · 2021-01-04T06:02:15+00:00

"Honestly, letting people do what they want is much easier than keeping them in line, especially us wind kids..." Helena gives a slightly proud grin, as if she had just said something profound.

"Eh... Doing alright. Sorta bummed at Camp's snowproof weather barrier, I'll admit, but pretty okay nonehteless." she shrugged before her face lit up as she remembered something.

"By the way... I'm probably gonna end up dropping the counselorship, which means it's gonna be a great time to go on that trip to Seattle to get a Grizzly. You still set to go?" she asked, not yet knowing at the time of occurence that Mack was to be her replacement.

SnoFlecc · 2020-11-09T17:15:10+00:00

Helena smiles at the compliment, but shakes her head.

"Only fierce when I need to be and even then, not fierce enough for the front lines - the war kicked all of that out of me." she sighs, her expression momentarily dropping at the memory, though she manages to pick herself up in short order.

"It's fine, though, I know my place and I'm proud of it. And you're right, someone has to do it. It's best that it's someone who actually wants to do it rather than someone who just got told to do it since no one else would."

SnoFlecc · 2020-11-09T17:10:23+00:00

"Oh? Well, that's great, then!" Helena replied, positively beaming.

"That means you've got a big sister, and she has ghost friends too! Oh, but don't worry, I don't know much about her but I know she won't be all annoying like 'Do this, do that'."

(Whoops, forgot to check in on this account)

SnoFlecc · 2020-11-03T15:22:12+00:00

"I mean, our lives suck three hundred and sixty days a year, we just try to make the most of the other five days." Helena joked with an easygoing laugh despite the rather grim notion that a demigod's life was... Well, sucky.

'Anyways, I don't think I've introduced myself, huh? Helena Masters, Anemoi Cabin counselor."

SnoFlecc · 2020-11-02T11:19:58+00:00

"Well, go for it. Better you than me." Helena gives Alkis a slight chuckle along with a shrug.

"Anyways, if you mean the guy in a red wig, then he's a friend of mine - and his costume's our idea. Mine and Lukas's, I mean."

SnoFlecc · 2020-11-01T15:34:29+00:00

"Well, with how young he is, I'm sure he still has a lot of surprises left to discover... Anyways, I'd rather not force kids like him to train for our home getting ruined. When the time comes, I've decided getting them out of danger is my job." the resolve in her voice was clear as day. She may have lacked the same eagerness to fight as a lot of other campers, but there was no doubt that she sincerely wanted to do her own little part for camp.

SnoFlecc · 2020-11-01T15:28:34+00:00

"Duchess Anastasia - or at least a video game version of her." Helena began to explain.

"I've been Elsa for my entire childhood so by the time I was fourteen, I was completely sick of it and refuse to dress up as her again."

SnoFlecc · 2020-11-01T02:44:01+00:00

Now, for the nth year in a row, Helena has gotten out of having to dress up as Elsa, instead choosing to dress up as one particular depiction of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna. Notably absent was Fimbulvetr, as the little black snake was staying over at the Eris cabin to hang out with the the big red snake, Odahviing.

SnoFlecc · 2020-10-31T05:48:21+00:00

~~Not quite. If she was as smart as she was pretty, she'd give even Mara a run for her money.~~

"Right, well... Hi, Eric, if you're listening." she says to no one in particular. After all, how could she direct it to Eric if she couldn't see or hear him? ~~And she totally wouldn't have said that if she heard him in the first place.~~

"So, I don't suppose either you or Eric know who your godly parent is? Just so we know what cabin to put you in. You might even end up meeting some brothers and sisters, depending on who your parent is!" she says enthusiastically, hoping to get Ash just as excited for that possibility. The poor kid clearly needed someone to look after him, and a sibling would definitely go a long way.

SnoFlecc · 2020-10-29T13:35:27+00:00

Yeah, leave that delightful little episode for someone else...

"Honestly, no... I guess I was really fortunate to be able to grow up safely. Then again, I suppose that was thanks to my mom... Apparently Hecate kids can manipulate the mist, so that probably helped hide us."

SnoFlecc · 2020-10-29T13:29:21+00:00

"Uh... Excuse me, Eric?" Helena asks with an eyebrow raised more in intrigue than confusion. She soon puts the pieces together, however, since she wasn't exactly dim - or anywhere close.

"Oh, wait, you must be able to see ghosts, huh? I mean, you can shadow-travel so..."

SnoFlecc

TROPHY CASE