Where the Hades am I?

[Guest]

((Okay, so I'm a bit of a noob to role-playing, so I only have my past writing experience to rely on here. Please let me know if there’s too much corniness or melodrama. Also, to avoid confusion, I'll just let you know that right here, Barney has just arrived in the Athenaeum. Before that, he was laying in an infirmary after having been wounded in the Battle Of Stones River, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War. He previously was a flat-out lunatic from the shock, but Dionysus downgraded it to PTSD.))

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"I will bring you someplace better. A good place. It won't always be safe, but I can promise it will be happier, an improvement upon this nasty bloodbath. Go forward and fight for me."

Barney's eyes shot open, those words resonating in his head. Nothing he saw was familiar...the last thing he remembered was speaking to his mother...no a nurse he realized. He had been laying on the hard ground of the makeshift hospital after a battle, waiting for something, though he couldn't remember what. He'd spoken to the nurse, completely convinced she was his mother tending to the burning wound in his arm.

His wound. He glanced down, and sure enough the pain wasn't lying. The grimy, yellowed bandages on his arm were spotted with dark red stains. 'They were going to cut it off,' he though to himself. That's what he'd been waiting for. Not that that was surprising though. He remembered hastily wrapping it in the shirt of a dead man and leaving it that way for the remaining two days of the battle.

Taking another look around, he saw that he was in an infirmary of sorts. Much cleaner and better stocked than the one he'd been in last for sure. There were clean bandages stacked on top of each-other, and small blade-like things, as well as various other doctor's tools he didn't know the names of. But no patients, no doctors, and no nurses to be seen.

Maybe it was all a dream. Or a figment of his imagination. He can't remember acting particularly sane back at the hospital. Now that he though about it, after speaking with the nurse a strange doctor had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and the nurse simply wandered off in a daze. Barney classified him as strange because there wasn't a spot of blood or dirt on his white smock. After a battle like that, even the rats had blood on them. The doctor, he spoke in the most reassuring voice, telling him that he was taking him somewhere. All Barney could assume was that the doctor had been a hallucination, and then he'd passed out and was transferred to this new dream place. That must be it.

But no matter whether this place is true or false. His whole body ached, but the gash in his arm was like a fiery sensation. Whether this was a dream or reality, he just wanted the pain gone.

[Guest]

((No problem, you are probably better at roleplaying than I am... Plus I know nothing about medicine and stuff so...bear with me. And seeing as he just arrived, Iva won't know anything about him...so...this will be interesting.))

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Iva ran the moment a nymph came to her telling her some boy appeared in her Infirmary. The Amazon flung the door open and stared at the inhabitant. She walked towards the boy and then she the problem, the boy's arm.

"Young man. I am Iva, the doctor of the Athenaeum." Iva introduced herself, not sure if the boy had heard her. She had no clue what to do, she knew nothing about the boy or what he had been through.

The Amazon stepped closer to the boy and from the look on his face, he was in a ton of pain because of it. She wanted to take that wretched looking bandage off the cut and get a look at it. "Can I ask for your name?" Iva looked at him, hoping he could hear and would hopefully answer.

((I apologize for not writing much...))

[Guest]

Barney heard footsteps, hoping it was a medic. Even a nurse would be of use at this point. But he was too tired and hurt to bother calling out or even looking. He just waited until the footsteps stopped. Whoever it was had paused beside his bed and said something incomprehensible, sounding as though they were underwater. All he caught was the one word he wanted to hear: doctor.

The visitor spoke a little louder the second time, asking his name in a feminine voice. Barney's eyes opened slowly and wearily and he saw it was indeed a woman. But the strangest woman he'd ever seen. She was scarred, and had strange markings all over her. And the top she wore was hardly decent. Never in his life had he seen someone so scandalously clad.

But a strange dresser or not, this woman had said she was a doctor. And Barney needed one of those desperately.

He cleared his throat and responded. "I'm Barnabas...Barnabas Shepherd."

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((Not a problem. I suppose there's always those times where you really have nothing much to say. Once I don't have Barney's pain to play off of, I'll probably end up having trouble coming up with good responses.))

[Guest]

"Okay Barnabas I'm going to fix that arm or at least try to." Iva told the boy. She left the bedside to gather bandages, clean water, and some herbs. The Amazon returned to his bed and set all of the items on the bedside table.

"Barnabas, I'm going to have to take the bandage of your arm." Iva told him speaking a little bit slower and louder then normal so he could understand. She wanted to take that makeshift bandage off of his arm immediately with his current state but Iva would wait for his consent.

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((Like I said bare with me. I know nothing of medicine...))

[Guest]

"Thank you m'am." Barney dragged his arm closer to the doctor for examination. "I'm sorry for the bandages...they're probably not going to make this any more pleasant."

He bit his lip and paused for several seconds of silence. "May I ask you something?"


((It's fine. He probably just needs disinfectant for the infection and then some stitches. Maybe a laceration if you feel like making it kinda gory...or you can use your magical witch-doctor powers. XD And man, all this referencing to Ivs as "the doctor" is reminding me of Doctor Who. :B ))

[Guest]

Iva nodded as Barnabas spoke. "You can just call me Iva, everyone here at the Athenaeum does so." She told the boy as she opened up a jar of aloe ointment and dipped a clean cloth into it.

The Amazon looked up to see Barnabas biting his lip. "Of course, you can ask me anything." Iva stopped all she was doing and focused on the nervous boy.


(( I might stick with the stitches or witch doctor magic, gory really isn't my forte either XD Haha I never thought of that. Iva you're a timelord without even telling me))

[Guest]

"Yes ma'm- I mean Iva." Barney felt a little bit odd addressing a woman he hardly knew by her name. He'd been raised to show more formal respect to ladies.

He waited a moment before asking the question that was pressing upon his mind. "If it's not too much trouble...could you tell me what this place is?"

[Guest]

"It's not trouble at all. The Athenaeum of War is a place where warriors, like yourself, sponsored by the Greek Gods/Goddesses are brought to train here. You are taught all sorts of important skills in a matter of five years. At the end of your fifth year, you enter the Tournament." Iva paused to make sure Barnabas was still following her explanation. "If you win the Tournament you are given the gift of immortality and if you don't, which I didn't win, you can take up a staff position. Did I explain that okay?" The Amazon asked afterwards.

After her explanation, Iva began to tug on the makeshift bandage and added, "I'm sorry if this hurts. I could give you something to numb the pain if you'd like."

[Guest]

Barnabas was shocked. What kind of idol worshipping place had he been dragged into?

"But that's...that's ridiculous! The greek gods aren't real...they were just ways for ancient men to explain natural things! Like rain, and winter, and..." By now he was sitting up in confusion and trying to drag himself out of bed. But as he leaned over he experienced a rush of vertigo and fell back on the pillow.

((Sorry for the crap response...but I couldn't come up with much else. XP ))

[Guest]

"Please, don't try to get up. Trying to get up in your condition isn't the best." Iva tried to keep Barnabas down as he tried to get out of bed. He ended up falling back onto the cot.

"The Greek Gods are very much alive and every myth you've ever heard is true." Iva stated as simple as possible.

She looked at the makeshift bandage once more. "Barnabas, I'm going to start taking the bandages off. I need to see what this infection looks like so I can determine what I need to do to cure it."

((I'm so so sorry this is incredibly late. I totally lost track of time and then I went on vacation, then I had summer homework to do. Again sorry!))

[Guest]

Barnabas listened to what Iva said. Maybe it was true. Obviously something had happened and someone had brought him here. Whatever. He'd think about it later.

Then Iva stated that she was going to remover the bandages, so he pursed his lips and shifted his arm closer.

((Ha, it's no problem.. I know how it is.))

[Guest]

Iva bit her lip as she started to remove the bandages. They were stuck together with dried blood. She stopped as she came closer to wear the wound came in contact with the material.

"Barnabas would you like something that could maybe numb you or knock you out for a bit?" Iva asked him, she could tell from the expression on his face that when she took those bandages off he was going to be in a lot of pain.

((I know I just felt bad...I apologize a lot...XD))

[Guest]

The bandages tugged painfully at his skin as they were peeled away. They'd been stuck together around the time he'd stopped bleeding and the blood had started scabbing up. Iva kindly offered him some painkillers, and Barney considered refusing until he remembered that they probably had plenty of supplies here. So why not?

"Yes please. If you don't mind."

[Guest]

((You're really awesome at roleplaying Wiz, I think because you're so freaking goo at writing it really helps, especially the first post was brilliant))


Adelphie walked towards the Infirmary with a clear purpose. Ilios, her 7-year-old brother, had a slight fever. It wasn't anything serious or life-threatening, just a slight raise, but when Ilios had fevers he didn't sleep, enn when Ilios didn't sleep her pestered Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne had altogether been too busy to visit the infirmary for some herbs and so she'd asked Adelphie to do so. Now Adelphie was no fan of her mother, and usually wouldn't do such favors for her, but since Ilios was involved, and Adelphie did so love Ilios, she agreed.

And there she was, walking towards the infirmary, when she caught whiff of quite the smell. "Sheesh Iva, what died in here?"She asked as she entered, then catching sight of the occupant Iva was busy tending to. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said quickly. One look at the arm told her it was definitely him, and it had ben his arm that'd been dying. Smooth Adel, smooth.

Another look at him told her that she'd never seen this boy before. He looked odd, out of place, and slightly panicked. A newcomer? It seemed that way, judging by his age as well, and definitely from the human world. Which meant he wouldn't be used to everything. Adelphie subconsciously brushed a bit of quite obviously indigo hair behind her ears, and blinked her yellow eyes. She must look like a complete freak to him. She smiled, trying to do damage control of how strange she must look to him. "Hi, I'm Adelphie, you must be new?"

[Guest]

((Gah thank you! It means a lot. :DDDD ))

Barney looked up at the girl who had just entered. She was adorned with what must be tons of gold jewlery, and she wore a red robe of sorts. She seemed like some sort of Arabian princess. However, he must have been more delirious than he initially thought since her hair seemed to be indigo, and her eyes a luminous yellow.

She said something about a dead smell, apologizing upon the realization that it was him. Barney appreciated the gesture. Then she smiled and introduced herself as Adelphie.

He squirmed with discomfort. He felt absolutely horrible for feeling it, but her exotic colorings would take some some time of getting used to whether or not they be a result of some mind trick. Plenty of people back home were fine with judging people on their colors. Barney had always deviated form that crowd for the most part and was determined to keep it up. So he played it safe and mustered a quiet drawling response.

“H-hello Miss Adelphie. I’m Barnabas Shepherd.”

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