Claiming:Camp/Robyn Baas

Name: Robyn Baas

Gender: Female

Current Age: 14

God Parent: Cybele

Mortal Parent: Robert Baas

Appearance: Dark brown hair with blonde highlights. Looks like she’s wearing makeup but it’s natural. Almost always has a whimsical smile on her face, but when annoyed has a very sarcastic look.

Personality: Mostly an outgoing, happy girl and laughs in the face of danger and bullies. Witty and venomous when it comes to dealing with people she doesn’t like or treat her badly. She’s never afraid to speak her mind and unfortunately most of the time when she does, it’s bad. She’s painfully oblivious to the bad things she says, but she means no harm.

History:

Robert Baas was an explorer. He loved to travel the world and visit forests, jungles, and all those tree filled places of wonder. Before he had left for one of his journeys in Chile, he had bought a stunningly beautiful woman a drink. They laughed about affectionate nothings. When they finished, she had wished him luck on his adventuring. So of course, he drunkenly stumbled into the forest, determined to prove to his beautiful mystery woman that he could trek through the forest and come back. He had planned to just walk to one of the waterfalls that was nearby and make his way out from there, but he became dehydrated and he began to drunkenly daydream about the woman before. He was drunk as well, but it was mostly the dehydration that caused him to think he was hallucinating because there was the woman right there in front of him.

He woke up with his cheek on one of the bar tables and drool on his chin. He felt some relief and some disappointment that his dream of sexy times with the mystery woman was a dream.

A few months later, to his surprise, a baby wrapped in a leaf green blanket showed up on his doorstep in Holland. A picture of the woman was tucked into one of the folds of the blanket as well as a note on the back explaining who she was, the powers the baby would grow to have, and where to take the child once danger arrived. It was signed with the name “Cybele.”

Robert named his child Robyn because he thought he was a clever bastard naming his daughter something that sounded like his own. He became a bit more responsible as most people do when they have children. They went on camping trips together which mainly included a campfire and many s'mores. It surprised Robert when he found out that his daughter enjoyed his scary stories about monsters and ghosts. She even giggled during some of them. He asked her why and her being a little girl replied with, “They sound funny.”

He let her attend school until fifth grade when he deemed her old enough to accompany him to the great outdoors. Once Robyn was old enough, Robert brought his daughter on his explorer adventures but turned down the danger levels a bit. He home schooled her then until she was eleven, but it stopped when he told his daughter who her mother was. Albeit, eleven might not be a good age to tell someone that they might be in perpetual danger, but Robyn took it rather well. She was frightened, almost terrified, but the truth sent a wave of excitement through her body. She thought she could be a superhero like in the movies.

Robyn almost immediately went to her backyard to try to see if her powers had “activated” yet, but they didn’t. She was too young, but she was undeterred. She tried everyday for the next year and there was never even a small sign that her powers were coming. Robyn was ecstatic when she managed to move one pebble in her backyard on a spring day on August 22, her twelfth birthday.

She practiced every day and her powers grew stronger bit by bit. Robyn reported to her father on her own account. She was so radiant whenever she told him about her progress. One month after Robyn’s birthday, Robert decided to take her on a hiking trip.

They were three days into the trip when Robyn woke up extremely early, so she decided to explore. She originally planned to stay around the camp, but she wandered off. Just like the day Robert had met Cybele. Then there was a loud noise. By instinct, Robyn dove behind a bush and waited for the sound of movement. There was the flapping of wings, amplified probably by size, about a dozen of them from the sound of it. Robyn took a quick peek around the bush and her eyes widened. There was a deer in the middle of a clearing surrounded by-

A hand went around Robyn’s mouth that yanked her and she was about to scream when the owner of the hand spoke “Shush.” It was her dad. “Those things are Stymphalian birds. If they find us, we’re skinned fish.” Robert removed his hand from her mouth and she breathed in relief. He had done his own research on his lover’s world.

Robyn began to pray that that the deer would be safe and that the birds would leave the animal away despite how hungry they looked. Thanks for the warning. I’ll distract them and you can run. So long, kiddo. Robyn yelped in surprise when she heard the almost male voice in her head. Bad move. The birds whipped their head towards the sound and were about to make their way toward the bush that they were hiding behind, but the deer began to take off. The Stymphalian birds’ attention went after the deer instead.

“This is our chance to escape.” Robert turned to his daughter desperately, but Robyn wasn’t scared. No, she was grinning. Robyn explained to her dad at lightning speed how the deer had spoken to her and that this was her chance to use her powers for something good. “If it wasn’t for that dear, we’d be dead. Besides, if we tried to run now, they’d just catch us, right?”

In the next ten seconds, Robert became internally conflicted about whether or not he should put his daughter in danger or die altogether. Probably the former choice. He sighed and pushed Robyn to the ground so she was laying flat on the ground. “Don’t make a sound. I’m going to get us some weapons.”

Robert dashed off to the camp to grab weapons given by Cybele the day after Robyn was delivered. The note said only to use in times of extreme danger. Robyn saw her father with a quiver strapped onto his back, a bow in one hand, and a belt with a whip attached to it in the other. He had practiced with the bow and arrow in his free time while Robyn was away at school which was plenty of time.

“These weapons are embedded with Celestial Bronze. One of the metals that can kill monsters like these. I know you’re not well-trained, but I believe we can do this together,” Robert said to his daughter.

Robyn nodded curtly and took the proffered belt from her father and put it around her waist. She noticed that the whip was braided dirt. Robyn frowned and removed the whip from her belt. It was surprisingly light for compacted dirt. She laid it out along the forest floor, still in her hiding place with her father. Then something clicked in her head. Robyn wrapped her hand around the handle and grinned. The dirt on the whip had moved the center, revealing that it was only the top layer of the real whip. Underneath was sharpened and braided celestial bronze. This way, with the dirt lining the edges of the metal, she could control the edge’s density. “Let’s do this.”

Come back, come back. We have a plan. She sent these thoughts to the deer, wherever it was. Robyn turned to her dad and nodded once, who nodded back. They waited quietly, silently. A few tense minutes later, the distant sound of hooves and wings flapping resonated throughout the forest. Robyn sprung to his feet and effortlessly climbed a nearby tree. Robert on the other hand went to stand behind an adjacent tree.

I’m here. The deer ran along the path and made a sharp turn to hide behind the tree Robyn was on. Robyn blinked and a flash of bronze flew across her field of vision. Then there was a shriek of pain and a large thump. Robyn watched through the thick branches how the arrow pierced the center of one of the birds’ foreheads.

She gasped softly and thought, ‘This is my chance.’ The Stymphalian birds had just huddled around their fallen brethren when another arrow hit the same spot of a different bird. By now, the creatures noticed where the arrows had come from. They started to make their way toward Robert and his hiding spot when Robyn yelled from her spot, high in the trees.

“Hey!” She whipped her arm down, removing the dirt layer at the last moment and decapitating one of the poor birds. That makes three down, three to go. Oh, four down. Robyn’s dad had just took down another. She confused them by making them think that they were stuck to the floor. She had learned this when she had accidentally done this to her dad when he told her to stop staying out so late to train.

Robert grinned at his daughter. “That’s my girl.” Robyn grinned back and decapitated another. In that short moment of eye contact, Robyn lost her concentration on the birds’ minds, and the remaining Stymphalian bird darted to Robert and grabbed him by his leg, tearing a great part of his flesh off.

Robyn screamed, diverting the bird’s attention to her. It screeched at her, causing her to drop her whip and cover her ears, and flew at her. She became scared at that moment, her father could be dead and she was about to die. “ROBYN!” She looked up in surprise just in time to see a bronze arrow pierce the bird’s wing, causing it to fall. “NOW!” By instinct, Robyn picked her whip back up and sliced the bird’s head off. She panted heavily and looked over to her father.

Robert was on his back, his bow in hand and very pale. Robyn sprinted over to him and knelt by his side. She was shaking and afraid, but Robert was completely calm. He was breathless as he spoke to his daughter. “I’ll survive. There’s a walkie talkie in the tent. It connects to the ranger station that we passed on our way to the camping site, remember that?” Robyn nodded, tears in her eyes. “Tell them to call the ambulance and that it was a bear attack but it had to go back to its cubs, that’s why it left me here. I’ll probably pass out from the blood loss, but it’s okay. It’s just my leg. Don’t look at it. Now, go.” Robyn nodded once more before dashing off to follow her father’s instructions.

During his days at the hospital, Robert had explained to Robyn who her mother was. Cybele had left Robyn on his doorstep one faithful night with a note about a camp where Robyn could go to for kids like her. Fortunately, everything went smoothly and in a few months, Robert was up and running again. He was sad to see how much his daughter wanted to go, but understood her urge to go and train with people like her and seek danger. So for the next two years, until Robyn turned fourteen, she learned just enough English to survive the airport and arrive at Camp Half-Blood safe and sound.

Weapons: Earth whip braided with Celestial Bronze

Lumosknight (talk) 23:04, July 18, 2015 (UTC)