warrior ( RACHEL ELIZABETH DARE. )

xiv. CRUSH

Ingrid observed it all, smiling at every suggestion. Despite the serious situation, her siblings still somehow made it ridiculous as ever.

LATER THAT DAY, the Ares cabin made their way to the Argo II as promised. Leo saw them approaching, and scurried down the boat to welcome them. On his way down the exit ramp, he tripped, just barely catching himself before falling. He dusted off his hands, pushing them through his unruly hair. Leo stopped at the foot of the ramp, a grin on his face and his hands on his hips.

"Welcome to my soon to be humble abode! Ready for a tour?" He said, and the Ares cabin grumbled. "I'll take that as a yes. Also fair warning, it's not totally done yet, so save all of your judgments for another time."

He begins walking them through the ship, pointing things out as they go. Ingrid stayed at the back of the group, admiring from afar. She tends to pay better attention when she's on her own, for she can form her own opinions without someone else's input. Casey on the other hand was right at the front, occasionally laughing a little too hard at what Leo was saying.

   Ingrid didn't think much of it. Casey had always been the flirtatious one; he was love crazy. He had gone through various significant others, but none of them ever stuck. Whether he initiated the break or not, Casey always ended up in Ingrid's arms afterward.

   This time seemed different though. There was an innocence surrounding Casey and Leo. Something she had never seen before. Casey was always confident and cocky, but today he seemed nervous. Nervous to be around Leo, nervous to impress him. It was almost nice to see, for it seemed like Casey was taking love seriously for once. Ingrid can usually tell when he's in it for love or in it for fun; today he was in it for love.

   The mini tour wrapped up after what seemed like ages, and the group ended on the main deck. The walls of the deck weren't built yet, leaving the deck just a flat floor. Ingrid stood close to the ledge, daring to look down. She knew the Argo II was massive when first approaching it, but it looked larger when atop it.

"Alright, so, now that you've seen everything, next comes where I need your help. As you can see, the boat is not finished up here, but I'm not exactly sure what's missing." Leo said, scratching the side of his head absentmindedly.

"Walls. You need walls." Ellis said, and the group roared with laughter. Leo smiled, but clearly wasn't amused.

"Right, so, the debate we are having is what we want to do with the walls. Obviously we can just build them with a protective armor on the outside, which would be a wise, but super lame option. Or, we can add some kind of weapon. Some previously said ideas are catapults, emergency weapon storage..." Leo says, and Casey pops in.

"Archery mounts. Think about it, there could be various mounts on each side, allowing a surprise attack against any oncoming threats." He says, and Leo looks at him and nods thoroughly, his hands fidgeting into his tool belt across his waist.

"That's... Yes that could work... Give me a second..." Leo said, pulling out a notepad and pencil, sitting down on the floor, scribbling away.

Ingrid found it odd that he would do so when talking to a mass of people, but she didn't judge. She respected it if anything. If it were anybody else, they would be cowering and talked over. Leo didn't care about their reputation; his ignorance to everyone's annoyance was apparent, yet no one said a word. Ingrid was surprised, for normally Clarisse would have thrown a fit by now. But she stood amidst the group, staring intently at Leo with her arms crossed. Ingrid could see the intrigue in her eyes, something you could only see if you knew her.