( a. ) [ for a demigod, a somewhat prophetic dream is nothing new, nor is the looming sense of impending doom — and so when leo wakes, it is with the singular, clear thought of, well, this is not ideal.

as soon as his eyes adjust to being open, and as soon as he registers the presence of another person, and the weapon he is holding, the thought changes from not ideal to almost definitely screwed. ]

Have you never heard of an alarm clock? [ his mind flits through his options: running, not good. fighting, plausible. he's pretty sure his hammer is deadly enough, and assuming this assassin dude isn't immune to fire, some nice balls of fire could be made too, if it wasn't for the flammability of everything nearby. which leaves — ]

That's a pretty cool gun, what kind of ammo does it use? You don't see a gun like that every day, trust me, I've gotta see — [ he moves closer, puts his hand over the barrel. mutters, just gonna fix you a bit, buddy.

twists his fingers.

the Hunter presses the trigger; the gun fires. backwards. ] Right, that's my cue, nice to meet you! [ excuse him as he hightails it the hell out of that room. maybe you stand outside and hear him, or maybe he just barrels right into you instead. sorry about that. ]

( b. ) [ eventually, leo makes it into the dining hall, stepping through the green shield with some awe. it's like camp half-blood, sort of, isn't it? the shield that only lets certain people through.

instead of talking to people, leo wanders between them, listening to the chatter, and upon overhearing some of the conversations, he runs his hand through his hair and sighs. ] Assassins and a fire in town? Sounds fantastic. Totally up for some more fighting and saving people and stuff. [ #sarcasm, but then, what is a demigod's life if not fighting and saving people and stuff? ]

[ it's a fire — of course he's going. it sort of feels like cheating, even thinking of staying away when he's guaranteed to be unharmed by the flames. when just his presence can lessen the flames and give people a chance to get out. ]

( a. ) Whoa, hey, I'm here to help! [ he yells in one of the houses, to a family that's trapped in one of the back rooms. leo steps forward, and the flames are drawn to him, dying out around him. he spreads his arms like, see, it's fine, it's safe.

and yet, the family — an older man and his daughter — don't move. leo groans. ] Seriously? Am I gonna have to carry you guys out of here? [ the man looks at him, in all his scrawny, short glory, and lifts an eyebrow. you and what muscles, he seems to ask. and okay, yeah, so he has a point. some assistance, maybe? ]

( b. ) [ and just as monsters are drawn to half-bloods, so do the hunters seem to be drawn to the strangers. it's outside a recently collapsed building that one of the assassins comes face to face with leo, whose arms and head are still smoking from all the heat, and it's rather obvious he's not there as one who is escaping the houses.

what I wouldn't give for my hammer right now, he thinks, before grinning brightly at the assassin. ] Sup, dude! You ever heard of negotiations? You know, the type where people talk before burning houses and murdering others? I think you could really use some of th —

[ whoa, okay, so that was definitely the dude going for some rather aggressive negotiations right there, and it's only leo's reflexes that get him to dodge in time. this is going just great. ]

[ it is a very exhausted leo valdez that comes back to the queen's residence in the wee hours of the morning... also a leo valdez whose shirt and pant legs have totally burned off. unfortunately, when the fireproof-level of your clothes depends on your concentration, accidents are bound to happen.

he stumbles to the nearest unoccupied place, whether it's a chair, a table, or just the corner of a hall, and promptly falls asleep. sorry, was it on top of your things? was it where you'd been sitting? oops. wake him up if you feel like it.

and later, when he's woken up from his nap and found some new clothes, he decided that some food might be a good idea — only, heading to the dining hall means also heading to where loren and allairavar are having their conversation, and it's one that kind of leaves him without much of an appetite. ]

Well, that's not ominous at all, [ he mutters, and maybe, if you too heard it all, you agree. ]

[ if we talked about teaming up for a job thing, feel free to wildcard that, or poke me for a starter either by PM or on plurk @ celen! or feel free to hit up leo for any other things in-between any of the prompts above! will match format. ]