serenesuccessor | Half-Blood Hill App!

CHARACTER

Name: Naomi Mikano

Canon: Original Character

Age: 13

Demigod/Hunter/Satyr/Nymph: Demigod – Daughter of Demeter

Demigod abilities: Since this is her first year she doesn’t have much in the way of abilities but she’ll be trying her hardest to learn chlorokinesis!

Personality:

Naomi is an extremely energetic girl, often bouncing on the balls of her feet while idle. A bright smile is often found on her face, seeming to be her default expression. With her abundance of energy she is always trying to find something to do, whether it’s climbing a tree or making friends. She is also, without a doubt, childish and naïve. There are a lot of things Naomi does not know, and in a lot of ways she doesn’t want to bother knowing. She’s content with her life and really isn’t happy that everything she’s known has been upset. Though she is incredibly curious to meet her birth mother, though incredibly nervous at the same time.

Her brother Kou often likes to say that it’s her childish energy that seems to always get her into some sort of mischief. Naomi will argue that, though it’s very true she can have the tendency into getting into some sort of trouble. One notable instance being when she climbed up a tree, got stuck, and sobbed until her Dad came to get her.

Kou would also point out that she is a crybaby. But that’s something Naomi is 100% aware of and likes to think – in her mind – that sometimes people just need to have a good cry. She’s also aware that perhaps she cries a bit too much. It’s something she can’t really help. When she becomes frightened (which is often) she tears up, when she’s stressed she tears up. It happens. But she’s working on learning how to function through her tears and has the potential to be an individual who is good under pressure. Eventually. Give her a few years.

Family is one of the most important things in Naomi’s life. She was raised in a very loving environment, learning very early on that no matter what happens she will always have the support of her family. As such, she is fiercely loyal and loves them with all her heart and won’t stand to hear people speak negatively of them (though she likes to call Kou ‘buttface’ whenever he annoys her). This is a loyalty that no doubt will follow her to Camp when she meets her half-siblings. At least once she adjusts to the idea of having them.

This love of her family – coupled with her tendency to cry – no doubt means she will not be adjusting to camp very well at first. Once she adjusts however Naomi’s energetic side will return, as will her smiles and need for adventure and perhaps mischief.

In the end though Naomi is a little girl with a large heart and the desire to see everyone happy.

AU History:

It was through childish cruelty that Naomi (at the age of five) learned her Mommy was not actually her Mom – it was her brother Kou (then eight) who had told her so. They were words that her brother almost immediately regretted saying, but little Naomi had just blinked at them and told her brother that he was dumb. Mommy was the one who carried her when her feet got tired, kissed her booboos, tucked her in and read her stories. Mommy was her Mommy, even if she wasn’t really her mother.

And that was that. It was something that Naomi grew up knowing – becoming more aware of what her brothers’ cruel words actually meant as she got older. But they never bothered her, because as Naomi said at age five, Mom was her Mom. The little girl never knew of the strain Dad’s affair put between them until years later, long after they had worked through their problems.

Naomi continued to grow up blissfully unaware of her actual parentage. She was – in many ways – her brother Kou’s little shadow, often to his annoyance. That never failed to make her Mommy and Daddy laugh though when Kou would attempt to leave the house only to hear her tiny pitter pattering feet as she raced to catch up. Kou’s best friend – Taiaco – would laugh as well, often scooping her up whenever he saw her peeking out from behind her brother even if he almost fell over each time.

In their small town it was a common site to see Naomi with the two boys, either on Taiaco’s shoulders or Kou’s back. To her young eyes the two boys were like superheroes, even if her brother was a buttface at times and loved to tease her. It only seemed fitting then that when she learned the truth they were by her side.

It happened at the end of the school year festival that their small town held at the end of May. Naomi, as per usual, had begged for the boys to take her. And like every other year they ended with an exploration of the Fun House (dragging Kou inside against his protests). It was only when they were deep inside the maze of mirrors that they realized something was very wrong.

That something being Naomi witnessing a gorgon turning someone to stone. She had screamed, Taiaco muffling it with his hand. It was on that day that she discovered Taiaco was in fact a satyr sent to watch over her. It was a discovery that Naomi wanted to question, but when she tried Kou shushed her – pointing out that they could grill Taiaco about this revelation after they got away (and she still suspects her brother knew the whole time, though he denies it).

The next hour was perhaps the most intense hour of Naomi’s life – and Naomi still isn’t completely sure what happened. She recalls them using the mirrors to keep an eye on the gorgon hunting them, vines seeming to come out of the ground to protect her and her brother when they were almost caught and she screamed and finally, Taiaco pulling out a pen (“Taiaco what the hell are you going to do with a pen” Kou had asked. “Shhhh, trust the goat man.”). It turned out the pen was a flute in disguise, the gorgon falling to sleep before the three of them rushed out. Naomi isn’t sure what happened to the monster in the end, but Taiaco assured her it would be taken care of.

When they came home, Taiaco explained everything to her family. It was a bit of an awkward sit, and Dad shifted uneasily when the remembrance of the affair came up. It turned out though that her difficulty focusing (they had never tried diagnosing her, just chalked it up to Naomi’s abundance of energy) and dyslexia (which they all thought she had inherited from Dad, who had been working with her about it) were the results of her being a daughter of Demeter. Or well, Taiaco suspected Demeter due to the plants she had summoned, they wouldn’t know until she arrived at camp.

Two weeks later (after a good deal of family discussion) she was standing outside the entrance to Camp Half Blood, holding onto her brothers hand so tightly that her knuckles were white. In the end he managed to free himself from her grip, giving her his magatama as a charm so that she knew she wasn’t alone. Putting on a brave face she said goodbye to her family for the summer, taking Taiaco’s hand in a vice grip and entering the camp where she would later be claimed by Demeter.

Counselor: Demeter’s cabin currently doesn’t seem to have a counselor.

SAMPLES

Iris Message:

<small>[A bright smile might seem a bit foreign to campers, considering Naomi has spent the first month alternating between crying and looking like she’s about to. The bright smile however has returned, stretching across her face. She’s standing in front of the lake, making grand gestures as she speaks.]

Hi everybody! It’s such a nice day I was wondering if anyone wanted to go canoeing or something with me!

<small>[She giggles, moving to clasp her hands behind her back as she rocks forward onto her tiptoes before back onto her heels. She repeats the action as a shyness returns to her expression.]</small>

Or well, if anyone wanted to teach me how to canoe or something. I’ve never done it before… But it seems like so much fun! So c’mon, let’s have some fun!

Third Person Log:

It’s dinnertime, but Naomi finds herself sitting in the empty cabin sitting on an empty bed. Her bed, she reminds herself. She’d arrived earlier that day, clinging to Taiaco’s hand as Chiron showed her around explaining everything to her. She’d been so mesmerized by everything that she hadn’t even thought to cry anymore. There had been more satyrs, nymphs (and they were really pretty!), centaurs, campers doing what looked like magic to her. It was like everything in the books she and Dad would work through together.

But now she was alone. Taiaco had promised to send her an Iris Message at the end of the week, apologizing that he couldn’t stay longer. Now she was sitting in the cabin, the cabin she’d share with her half-siblings (that was so weird). Naomi bit her lip, fiddling with her brother’s necklace to remind herself she really wasn’t alone.

It didn’t work.

Sniffling she tipped herself over until she was lying on her side on the empty bed. She curled up, hugging her knees to her chest as the tears began to fall again.

It was just for the summer, she had to remind herself. Just for the summer.

… The summer was too long.