ᴾʰᵒᵇᵒᵖʰᵒᵇⁱᵃ [ᴶᵃˢᵒⁿ ᴳʳᵃᶜᵉ]

θ.

Scopophobia - fear of being seen or stared at 

Annabeth led the way back down towards camp, filled with a newfound confidence after letting her emotions show themselves. She marched down towards the central green with a purpose only a child of Athena could match; Aza tried to conceal a smile as she watched Annabeth's curly blonde hair bounce up and down each time the girl's dirty black converse pounded upon the earth, as if the girl were taking all her frustrations out on it. Piper nudged Aza from their place behind the daughter of Athena and whispered, "She certainly looks better."

Aza nodded, a soft smile tugging itself at her mouth. "Sometimes she just... buries her emotions so deeply that it tortures her, and once she lets them out she feels much better."

Piper nodded, tearing her eyes from the blonde in front of them to look at Aza. She chewed her lip, jaw clenching slightly like she was trying to bite her tongue and hold back her words. Aza glanced at her, noting the small flinch that Piper's muscles involuntarily made, and quickly tore them away to find the back of Annabeth's hair very interesting. "What's up," Aza questioned, sighing slightly - she could only expect a question from Piper about her eyes, or her powers, or really anything that Aza wouldn't want to answer.

"Maybe you could..." Piper trailed off, unsure of how to finish. "learn something from Annabeth. Y'know, talk to someone or release your emotions somehow."

A small, sad smile painted its way across Aza's face, and she shook her head, causing her deep brunette waves to lightly hit her pale skin. Piper instantly regretted what she said when she saw the pain that somehow shone through the small smile, and spared a glance at Aza's eyes to see deep pools of russet sadness that shone with vicious images of her greatest fears. "Piper," Aza began, wetting her lips gently. "For some people, like Annabeth, that works great. For others, like me... not so great. Other people's fears are my burden, Piper; mine are not theirs." Piper frowned, her perfectly shaped brows almost touching the bridge of her nose, but she nodded. "And your eyes?" She questioned, her voice growing quiet and raspy as she added, "Y'know, since we're talking about the deep stuff now."

Aza nodded, eyebrows raising slightly. "My eyes are... well, it's a long story."

"It's a long walk," Piper countered, motioning towards the long pathway that stretched ahead of them as they trapeezed the trail down from the oracle's cave. Aza nodded, her lips tugging into a smirk. "Fair point. My eyes are... okay, so my grandfather is Ares, the god of war and bloodshed and all that good stuff, and everyone who meets him have said that his eyes are the most terrifying part of him - and that includes his human-skin motorcycle and his propensity for threatening waitresses with knives. His eyes are pure fire, filled with pure rage - you can see scenes of war, death and blood in them, sort of like a projector. My father, his son, is Phobos. God of fear. So his eyes are sort of the same, but they show people's worst fears, different for every person, and my eyes are the same. When people see my eyes, they see there worst fears, the things that haunt them. What happened earlier, at Leo's claiming, that was what happens when my burden becomes too much for me, however momentarily. It was scenes of the camper's greatest fears - the war."

Piper fell silent, and Aza knew she didn't know the bast way to answer. Luckily, to avoid an awkward prompt from Aza, or an assurance that it was all okay when really it wasn't, the three girls passed a group of campers playing basketball and Piper stopped in her tracks, staring at them.

There were five of them - all were tall and tanned, with bouncy blonde hair that sparkled in even the limited amount of sunlight that shown upon the camp, a trait they inherited from their father. A friend of hers had once compared all of them - and their father - to a bronzed Baywatch lifeguard, and it was the most accurate description Aza could think of. Like their father, each of them had impeccable aim - no shots bounced off the backboard r even came close to missing; instead, each shot went straight through the hoop and barely even touched the net, even when Austin Lake shoved Kayla Gold to the ground as she lined up for her shot.