Chapter Text
“Alright, let’s check out Cabin Three! It’s Poseidon’s cabin, and the only person who lives there is Dream.” Tommy shoves open the door, which has a cute window that resembles a ship’s window, to show a surprisingly basic interior.
Obviously, there’s shades of blue on the bedsheets, but the actual walls are a mix of wood and cobblestone, making it feel almost like a ship, with all of the windows facing the ocean. It’s nice, but it feels more like somewhere Ranboo would visit rather than live.
There are a couple bunk beds filled with assorted weapons, clothes, books and armor, but one bunk bed looks like it’s been slept in, with the sheets all messy and one of the pillows on the floor. “He always gets a low score on the cabin checks,” Tommy says, seemingly delighted by this fact.
One of the windows is open, letting the sea breeze filter in, and there’s also a small fountain at the very end of the room, spraying water. It’s got a few gold coins at the bottom of it.
Tommy quickly gets bored of this cabin and pulls Ranboo out, marching towards Cabin Four with a mischievous smirk on his face.
The roof is made of grass, and so is the inside, with tons of different plants and leaves everywhere, the sunlight giving it a soft, mystical glow. Vines creep up the walls, and in the center of the cabin, there’s even a large oak tree that pokes out of the roof.
“Wouldn’t there be ants?” Ranboo asks as Tommy steals… something from one of the chests of stuff, tucking it into his pocket before Ranboo can even see what it is.
“Of course not!”
Both Ranboo and Tommy whirl around at the words to see a girl sitting on a branch of the oak tree. She’s wearing a green cardigan and denim shorts, as well as extremely thin sandals, something that Ranboo doesn’t think would be great for training for battle.
Short, dark hair reaches just above her shoulders, and brown eyes sparkle with kindness. She’s beautiful, like some sort of nature fairy, and she hops off the branch to smile at the two of them. “Hey, Shub!” Tommy says weakly, shooting her finger-guns.
“I’m Shubble,” the girl introduces herself, shaking Ranboo’s hand with a grip that finally doesn’t feel like it’s trying to crush his fingers, “senior counselor of the Demeter cabin. The reason we don’t have ants is because we grow rosemary and mint in here, which notoriously repels ants. You’re Ranboo, right?”
Ranboo nods, a little dumbstruck, and the girl tucks her hands in her pockets. “I know you haven’t been claimed yet, but if you’re a son of Demeter, I’m sure you’ll fit right in! We’ll make sure to welcome you with open arms.”
He doesn’t have the heart to tell Shubble that he can barely grow a single potted succulent, much less grow pineapples with a touch of his finger, so Ranboo just nods and thanks her.
“Shubble’s like, one of the nicest people here,” Tommy explains as they leave the cabin, “she’s not really a fighter, though, but she’s an expert on plants! Apparently, Wilbur had, like, a massive crush on her when he first came to camp, but now the two of them are best friends.”
Cabin Five looks… incredibly unfriendly. Tommy explained earlier that every cabin has a basement area that’s about double the size of the actual cabin, but other campers aren’t allowed in them unless explicitly given permission or with a child of that god or goddess.
Apparently, the basement of Cabin Five looks like an apocalyptic warzone. Ranboo wants to argue that the exterior also looks like that.
The paint color is the world’s ugliest red in existence, and there’s a boar head on the front of the roof, with barbed wire laced all around it. There are two spears crossed against each other on the door, and Tommy hesitates.
“Remember how I’m banned from a few cabins?” he asks, and Ranboo nods. “Well, most of them aren’t, like, actual bans, more like a ‘shoo, get out of here’ thing. I am, however, actually banned from this one.”
Ranboo takes a step back, suddenly not wanting to be here anymore when the door bursts open to reveal one of the most and least intimidating people he’s ever seen. All it takes is one glance to know that yeah, this kid is the son of the war god, alright.
Black hair pushed out of his face by a white ribbon, a fiery glint in his brown eyes, a short but muscular figure with a presence that just screamed “come at me, I dare you”. Ranboo can’t possibly fathom who would willingly fight this guy, and when he turns dark eyes to look at him, he represses a squeak.
Rather than punch Ranboo square in the nose, however, the guy simply gives him a lopsided grin, which makes him look a lot less scary. Less like a bloodthirsty warrior and more like a gym rat who gives people free protein powder.
“Hey, you’re the new camper, right? I’m Sapnap, son of Ares! Do you want a tour of the cabin? There’s no one here, sadly, but that shouldn’t be a pain.”
His tone is friendly and welcoming, so unlike the cabin in front of Ranboo and his previous ideas of “war god child”. Ranboo can’t help but give a shaky smile back and nod in agreement, but just as they reach the entrance, Sapnap sends Tommy a withering glare. “Don’t think I forgot, bitch,” he hisses, and Tommy only briefly pouts before Sapnap is shoving Ranboo inside.
Now, with all of the chaos happening, Ranboo doesn’t particularly mind any god that’s supposedly going to be his ‘parent’. They’re all wildly fascinating and equally dangerous, so he’ll be satisfied with pretty much any.
Ares, however?
Every possibly kind of weapon is lined on the walls, with a coppery scent in the air and loud clashing noises resounding from below. Sapnap seems to bask in it, which is a little weird, but Ranboo isn’t really one to judge.
“You don’t exactly look like you could be my brother,” Sapnap remarks, and then mistakes Ranboo’s offended frown for something else, “oh, but don’t worry! Underdogs are just as important! Things like stealth are incredibly valuable in battle, I wouldn’t give up hope just yet! I’d love to have you as my brother and training partner. Who knows, maybe one day you can fight me and win!”
The tour doesn’t take very long before he’s led out, and while Ranboo really doesn’t want this to be his new home, he also finds that Sapnap makes for surprisingly good company, keeping up a conversation and seeming genuinely curious about Ranboo.
Sapnap wishes Ranboo farewell and says to find him if he needs anything, punches Tommy so hard in the arm that the boy stumbles, and then walks back into his cabin. “So, Cabin Five, eh?” Tommy says with a grin, nursing the bruise on his arm.
“Thankfully, I’m only semi-banned from Cabin Six!” he tells Ranboo cheerfully, and then points towards the next one.
This one seems all about practicality, quite unassuming on the outside, but the inside is absolutely fascinating. All of the beds are pushed to one side of the cabin, like sleep is just an afterthought, and most of the cabin is filled with scrolls, books, drawings, blueprints, and everything in between. Like an architect and a mathematician had a horrendous baby.
Ranboo shudders at the thought.
Sitting inside the cabin, reading a book at a desk with glasses perched on the edge of his nose, is none other than Techno himself, the man who helped save Ranboo’s life. “Hullo,” the man says, clearly not interested in conversation.
Tommy groans loudly and theatrically. Is Apollo also the god of dramatics? “Why do you always make things more difficult for me?” the boy whines, but his only response is Techno flipping the page in his book.
“Cabin Six is for children of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war strategy, and yes, shockingly, that includes Blade over here. All these kids are good for is being stuck-up jerks who sometimes have good ideas, and they’re always reading and writing. Boring, if you ask me.”
Personally, Ranboo doesn’t think it seems so bad, especially not with all of the fascinating books everywhere. “You seem like someone who craves knowledge,” Techno muses idly, still reading his book without a care in the world, “you’d fit in well here. I’d be honored to teach you the art of the sword.”
Ranboo decides not to mention that he can’t even trust a coffee pot in his hands, much less a deadly weapon capable of beheading snake-monsters.
Instead, he thanks Techno politely, who shoots him the barest ghost of a smile, and Tommy is giddy with excitement as he drags Ranboo out of the cabin and towards the most horrendously dramatic cabin he’s ever seen.
Thick marble pillars lay down at the edges, with the paint color being a mix of yellow, cream and brown that surprisingly doesn’t look ugly. The bright yellow sun on the door is pretty obvious of whose cabin it—that, and Tommy looks absolutely ecstatic.
“Welcome to Cabin Seven, for children of Apollo! God of the sun, medicine, poetry, music, and so much more!” Tommy cheers, and then he slams open the doors to show a shockingly homey interior.
Flowerpots line the windowsills, and basic beds are all over one part. The walls are filled with musical instruments of any kind, while the other side of the room has tons of medical equipment. There are also a lot of bows, with plenty of different arrows standing up straight in their quivers.
Tommy looks right at home as he sinks into one of the beds, grinning at Ranboo the entire time. In the middle of the cabin is a skylight, where the sun can cast an angelic beam onto the marble floor that lights up the entire room, making it feel almost heavenly.
“This the best cabin! Free medical care, great acoustics, awesome people, and me, obviously. Can you sing?”
Ranboo shakes his head, but Tommy seems undeterred. Once he realizes that Ranboo can’t sing, doesn’t really play instruments besides a basic knowledge of piano, doesn’t know medicine well, and isn’t a huge fan of sitting in the sun or writing poetry, he seems a little sad, but tries not to let it show.
“That’s cool! You don’t have to be a son of Apollo, you know. There’s tons of other super cool ones! Come on, let’s go to Cabin Nine!” he grabs Ranboo’s arm and takes him to the next cabin, completely skipping over a cool silver one by saying that Artemis doesn’t have kids or whatever.
Cabin Nine is the Hephaestus cabin, which is surprisingly empty besides the weird robotic-like beds. Tommy says that there’s a lot of secrets in this cabin, but not even Tubbo will tell him. Ranboo assumes it’s some underground workshop ordeal, but he’s not one to be close-minded.
How could he be close-minded? He’s just been ripped out of everything he’s ever known and is now being toured around a camp for demigods, in which one of these cabins will be representing one of his parents.
Cabin Ten looks like some sort of glorified Barbie Dreamhouse, with pristine white trim, lacey curtains, and the smell of choking perfume inside. There’s lots of cool clothes, which is pretty nice, and all of the beds look like doll beds. “Children of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty,” Tommy grumbles, like he’s a little peeved.
“Seems nice,” Ranboo mumbles, looking at the cool posters all over the walls. It seems like the cabin with the most individual personality, with every bunk having its own set of cool movie posters and makeup sets.
Ranboo remembers, back when he lived in a foggy haze, that he considered trying makeup once, but it was too expensive for an orphan like him to use. His hand rests on an eyeliner pencil, lips quirking up in a smile at seeing all the cool people wearing smudged liner when he was younger.
“A lot of people start out with liner, it’s good for beginners.”
Ranboo yelps and sets down the eyeliner pencil, both him and Tommy turning around to see someone standing at one of the bunks, hands tucked into the pockets of a long green skirt. A white, ruffled shirt is buttoned to the top, and brown curls tumble to their shoulders. This person screams regality, poise, rationality, and everything in between.
Tommy, however, scowls and crosses his arms. “Hello, Eret,” he spits out venomously, and the person, Eret, chuckles.
“Word travels fast of your arrival, Ranboo, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Ringed hands shake Ranboo’s own, and they smile kindly. “I’m Eret, child of Aphrodite. Tommy doesn’t like me all too much, as I betrayed his team during capture the flag once—”
“Bastard—”
“But I assure you, I mean well. You seem like quite the hopeless romantic, and you have very good bone structure… I think it’s entirely possible that you could be a son of Aphrodite, which I would be more than honored to see.”
Ranboo opens his mouth to agree, because Eret seems very cool, when Tommy blows a raspberry at them and stomps out, causing Ranboo to quickly follow behind.
Cabin Eleven is the Hermes cabin, who is apparently the messenger of the gods, and the god of travelers, thieves, merchants, and a lot more. It’s a little confusing, but Tommy promises that he’ll know once he shows up.
It’s definitely a messy cabin, with clutter everywhere, and a lot of campers, so they don’t stay inside for two long, but one person crawls out of a window to meet them.
He’s got hair the color of rust, with odd gray and white streaks, a little bit of scruff on his chin, and foxlike eyes, but he doesn’t seem too bad overall. “What’s up? I’m Fundy, son of Hermes, and the best thief here at camp. You want something stolen, just let me know! I’ll give you a freebie for your first.” Fundy winks at the end and then high-fives Tommy.
Geez, is Tommy sure he’s not a son of Hermes?
“I mean, you seem a little too stuck-up to be one of us, but you’re pretty cool,” Fundy remarks, “but I hope you don’t mind all of your stuff getting stolen.”
Yeah, Ranboo decides to high-tail it out of there pretty fast, not too keen on getting his belt stolen or something.
Cabin Twelve’s exterior is covered in creeping vines, even the columns, but Tommy doesn’t seem too bothered, and he just opens the door straight-up.
The inside looks like some sort of Ancient Greek relaxation room, with bottles of fancy wine all over the shelves, as well as jewelry and fancy items. Vines are creeping up the walls, and there seems to be a large round table, a hot tub in the back, and cold marble floors. The beds are in the back, and they look a little bit bigger than the other ones.
“This is Cabin Twelve, for the children of—”
Tommy doesn’t even finish his sentence before he’s interrupted by a posh voice, and in walks a boy who’s about the same height as Tommy, maybe a bit taller. “Dionysus, god of wine, parties, and… other things. I’m Freddie, it’s nice to meet you.”
The boy seems friendly enough, with dark blue eyes, neatly combed brown hair that looks like it’s been dyed a few times but faded out, and a cool patterned shirt. “I’m afraid I don’t have any cool powers, but it’s not so bad! It’d be nice to have some company, as I’m really the only person in this cabin,” Freddie admits, but he’s still got a small smile on his face.
Ranboo doesn’t exactly think his personality fits wine and parties, but he agrees with Freddie nevertheless, who practically beams in excitement. “I’ve known Tommy since we were seven, you know,” he says with a cheeky grin, and Tommy huffs.
Before Freddie can say any embarrassing stories, Tommy is quick to leave, Ranboo not far behind, and the two of them walk to Cabin Thirteen in surprisingly comfortable silence. “Cabin Thirteen is Hades, god of the Underworld. His children are notoriously few, and they’re apparently terrifying. We only have one, though.”
Ranboo perks up in interest. That’d probably fit his whole “aesthetic”, he supposes, but before he can enter the cabin, the door opens slowly.
A pale, freckled face, with a septum piercing and black hair pushed up by a headband, stares directly at Ranboo with dark brown eyes. “What’d I say about knocking on the gaff while I’m sleeping?” he glares at Tommy, who just shrugs good-naturedly.
“This is Bill, he’s the son of Hades, but, uh… he’s not really around too often.”
Bill raises his hand in a half-hearted wave and tilts his head. “Yeah, gotta go to the Underworld, boring demigod stuff. Pleased to meet you, though! Hopefully you’ll get claimed during capture the flag tomorrow, that’s always a fun one!”
Ranboo doesn’t really think Bill fits the “child of death” narrative, but Tommy’s off to Cabin Fourteen before he can even get a word out.
The rest of the tours go by pretty fast, with Cabin Fourteen having lots of misty fountains and rainbows, being the cabin of Iris, which has a surprisingly large amount of demigods.
Cabin Fifteen is the Hypnos cabin, where Ranboo is introduced to a boy with goggles and a blanket around his shoulders named George, who Tommy describes as “very energetic when you actually wake him up fully”, and he can only last about five minutes in the cabin with it’s sleepy lavender scent, soft beds, and dripping milk of the Lethe branches before he feels like he’s about to collapse.
Tommy says that the trio of Dream, Sapnap and George do a lot of quests together, and have been for years. They’re apparently one of the most iconic and powerful groups in Camp Half-Blood, and when Ranboo asks who the most powerful group is, Tommy hands his head wistfully.
“Well, they call themselves the Sleepy Bois Inc, or SBI, ever since they battled Morpheus and won a few years back. It was Phil, Techno, and Wilbur, and apparently it was one of the coolest battles ever, with Techno summoning Ares’ wrath and Phil gaining the power of both light and—oh, I’m rambling again.”
Tommy then goes on a tangent about how he and Tubbo are going to be the next super-powerful duo, once he manages to either get powers or get super good at something, like Tubbo.
Cabin Sixteen is the Nemesis cabin, which has a Pac-Man symbol at the front for some odd reason, but other than that and a quick greeting from Jack Manifold and a few other campers, it seems relatively normal. They seem nice enough, but Ranboo doesn’t know if he wants to be the son of the goddess of revenge, it seems a bit cruel.
Cabin Seventeen is Nike’s cabin, which Ranboo finds pretty cool, seeming as she’s the goddess of victory, but even after he’s introduced to a laid-back and chill guy named Punz, apparently it’s all just a ruse, because the campers are apparently so incredibly competitive that they were once banned from camp-wide competitions for an entire year.
Cabin Eighteen represents Hebe, the goddess of youth, which has a decent amount of campers. The senior counselor, named Aimsey, is super sweet, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as she talks about how awesome it would be to have Ranboo as another camper.
Ranboo thinks that it’d be nice to have almost eternal youth, but then he remembers that demigods typically don’t live that long, and he swallows a lump in his throat. Maybe he can go past those odds? Who knows, honestly.
He also learns that it’s a dice roll on how many campers are in a cabin. Some of them, like Hermes, Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus, have a decent amount of campers, while the majority lie somewhere in between. But then, there’s odd ones like Dionysus and Hades where there’s only one.
It’d be a little sad to be the only camper in a cabin, so Ranboo silently hopes that he gets put in a medium-sized cabin, like maybe Nike or Aphrodite.
Cabin Nineteen represents Tyche, the goddess of chance and fortune, where apparently two out of three of the cabin members are on a quest. Chance and fortune, huh? That sounds cool. Tommy introduces Ranboo to Purpled, a boy in a purple hoodie who looks fairly normal aside from his purple eyes.
Apparently, Purpled goes on lots of quests, and even though he hasn’t gone on the most quests, he has the highest success rate, having never failed a quest in his entire life. Even so, he doesn’t necessarily seem arrogant, just confident in his abilities, and he tells Ranboo that he has a lot of potential and that they should be friends.
Tyche seems cool, Ranboo thinks, as Tommy starts blabbering about how cool Cabin Twenty is, which apparently belongs to Hecate, the goddess of magic.
Just “magic” seems a little broad, in Ranboo’s opinion, but the aesthetic is pretty cool, with the interior having a dark purple vibe, with floating books, a rack full of magical staffs, and various odd ingredients. It’s like a DND player’s dream room, he thinks with a small smile, and he meets the lone resident of the Hecate cabin, a sweet girl with pink hair named Niki.
She explains that magic can be anything and everything, but a fatal flaw of many past children of Hecate was their ambition, trying and failing to be perfect at everything, so it was best to just focus on one or two things. Apparently, she focuses on restoration and calming magic, which Ranboo finds really cool, but Tommy seems bored, and they leave.
“What’d you think of the cabins?” Tommy asks as they slowly pick their way to a small cabin off to the side, which only looks about big enough for two or three people.
Ranboo thinks for a moment before deciding to go with the truth. “It’s a little overwhelming,” he admits after a moment, to which Tommy gives a surprisingly somber nod to, “but… it’s pretty cool. I just feel like I’ve lived my whole life with a veil over my eyes, separated from my body, and now that I’m finally one hundred percent here, I just feel so overwhelmed.”
Tommy nods in understanding and opens the door of the last cabin. “If you never ever need a break, I’d suggest either taking a nap in the Hypnos cabin, or going to see Niki, she’s a great person to talk to. Some people can be a lot, but we really want to help you, I promise.” His voice is genuine, and he gives Ranboo a small smile.
“Anyways, this is the cabin for unclaimed demigods—it’s just temporary, don’t worry about how small it is.”
It looks like a pretty basic cabin, with two bunk beds, wooden floors and walls, and a single lightbulb at the top. There’s also a large chest for items, and Ranboo’s heart lurches at the fact that he doesn’t have any valuable items.
He’s essentially dropped off the face of the earth, and he doesn’t have a single thing to his name. How sad is that?
Tommy seems to notice Ranboo’s unease, so he shuffles his feet nervously. “Um, with unclaimed campers, we usually try out different training styles to see what works best, then get them fitted with weapons or armor. If they’re not claimed by then, they’ll usually get claimed on Fridays, during capture the flag.”
“Capture the flag?” Ranboo asks.
Tommy nods enthusiastically. “Uh huh! We do weekly capture the flag tournaments, they last for hours. It’s super competitive—oh, don’t be worried about dying, though! Serious injuries aren’t allowed, and we have a team of healers on duty in case something happens.”
Well, Ranboo wasn’t worried about getting stabbed before, but now he definitely is.
Sure, deadly capture the flag with an entire camp full of demigods.
Not like anything will go wrong there, right?