Claiming:Camp/Althea "Thea" Anggraini Jansen

General Profile
Name: Althea ‘Thea’ Anggraini Jansen

Gender: Female

God Parent: Athena, Apollo, Ares

Species: Demigod

Current Age: 17

Mortal Parent: (If Athena was chosen) Richard Santoso Jansen, (If Apollo or Ares was chosen) Annie Margaret Jansen

Appearance
Thea is a tall young woman with an athletic, lithe build. Being of Dutch-Indonesian descent, she has long, graceful, and highly trained limbs, lined with faint muscles, and dainty fingers to move with the grace of a dancer and wield any weapon with ease; especially bows and arrows, and any kind of blade. Her movements are quick, accurate, efficient and strong. Her body is her ultimate weapon; it can take any kind of hit and hit back twice as hard. Thea loves a good fight, and a good challenge. She focuses on quick, agile movements that throw off an opponent, and takes them down the first chance she gets. On the rare occasion that she is amused by the fight, she would purposely stretch it and savour it.

Her eyes are an ashy-grey colour, often never fully open which gives off a dreamy, sleepy feeling. They are chestnut-shaped, framed with long, thick eyelashes, and full of thought. During the rare moments she’s wide ‘awake’, her eyes give an entirely different feeling. Instead of the usual look of a dreamer in them, they are instead full of childlike wonder and curiosity. A soft smile is always ever present on her glossy pink lips. Neat rows of pearly teeth glisten like sunlight whenever she grins. Thea’s skin is slightly tan, from her grandmother, and gives off a dreamy glow, even when the sun is not present.

On the contrary, her hair is black as midnight; long, straight and soft as wet silk. It drapes over her shoulders and down her back. Her bangs are equal length with the rest of her hair, and it often drapes over her face. Thea is not very fond of it however, as it is so soft that it barely stays in any shape (and she does not believe in hair spray) and gets in her way a lot. So she often has her bangs side-swept and braided, while the rest of her hair is allowed free. Occasionally she would have it in a loose, messy bun or tied in a ponytail. One trait of her’s however, is that her eyebrows are always knitted in thought. No matter where she is, or what she is doing.

Thea does not care much for her physical appearance, thus, she often settles with anything she is comfortable with. However, she absolutely refuses to wear shorts or short skirts, as she was brought up in a very conservative household; therefore she would usually be seen with cargo or camo pants, used sneakers, or sandals. Her top varies from plain t-shirts, tank tops, or turtlenecks of any colour, but usually nothing too bright or eye-catching (very distracting, she says). Her athletic prowess does not come easy, however, and she can often be seen wearing training gauntlets or a belt equipped with weapons, if not a bow and arrow strapped onto her back.

Personality

At first glance, Thea comes across as an extremely quiet and thoughtful young woman. She seems to have a million thoughts racing through her head and would often be caught daydreaming and/or staring off into space like a mentally ill person. She is, however, rather fidgety, and would often be tapping her foot or finger while in her thoughts. She has a tendency to wander while deep in thought, and then she’d be surprised to find herself to be somewhere she didn’t remember walking to. Thea doesn’t really care about what people think to her, however. She’s a very confident person and a whiz with words and solving problems. She’s very smooth and laid back most of the time, but when you have her attention; Thea is one heck of a rambler. You’ll be hearing her ask odd and quirky questions, and comment on things from a not-so-normal perspective.

Thea is an extremely intellectual person; her mind is her only friend, which is why you would often see her smiling to herself. She is a very independent person, and tends to not want to be reliant on other people. However, she has no problems for other people to be reliant on her, and would help out on problems most of the time. Despite being friendly, she does not deem anyone to be close friends of her’s, contrary to what they may think. Her intellect often causes her to be manipulative, and she would play people like chess pieces without hesitation to achieve her goals, which often means well but practically, not so much. However, she does also have a soft spot for music, and finds music in many different things; laughter, babbling brooks, and even rustling leaves. She believes music has a direct connection to her soul, as much as brilliant ideas do, which is why she can be found around children of Hephaestus, Apollo, and Zeus.

However, Thea is also quite an athlete, and is a perfectionist to her performance. This often causes her to train for many hours to perfect her skill, occasionally to drown unpleasant thoughts or insights. She minds her movements and is always quick to react, never out of energy. Thea often incorporates her intelligence into her athletic skills, and is very resourceful. Unfortunately, she is often very judgemental to other people’s performance too, and is extremely intolerant to mistakes when working in groups. This is why she resorts to manipulation to get people to do as she wishes. When her patience is thin, however, Thea is brutally honest, and is not afraid to hurt people’s feelings. Occasionally this brings her amusement, to see people hurt. Thus, making her morally twisted.

However deep down, Thea is just desperately lonely, but is too proud to ever admit it or to reach out to other people.

History
Heart of Minds <p class="MsoNormal">Papers, pens, books, and late nights. Airplanes, empty streets, and everything in between.

<p class="MsoNormal">Richard Santoso Jansen was always known to be a hard worker. He often forgot to eat, sleep, or rest, just to finish the work he started. The only thing on his mind? Perfection. Richard was a professor in Cambridge, specializing in Civil Engineering. He worked day and night to create designs, propose new patents for the engineering world, and build. Oh, how he loved to build. Behind his glasses and unruly mess of black hair, was a handsome, ambitious young man with the brightest smile in the town of Cambridge. His hair was wavy and black as night, eyes the lightest shade of ghostly blue. His designs and ideas earned him many titles and acknowledgements, and even reached the ears of Athena. Out of curiosity, the goddess decided to disguise herself and watch how he worked.

<p class="MsoNormal">She was awed by his intelligence, his determination, and the smile he bared whenever he taught his class. Naturally, Athena became his best pupil, and he slowly began to fall in love with her and her mind. After a year or two of dating, Athena finally revealed herself to him, and disappeared not long after only to send him a golden cradle which held a beautiful baby girl six months later. Heartbroken and torn, he could never bring himself to look at Althea, who was the constant reminder of her mother. Thus, he entrusted his Indonesian nanny to bring her back to Indonesia with to be raised by his sister, knowing he could never raise her properly himself, Richard once again drowned himself in his work. <h3 class="MsoNormal">Early Childhood

<p class="MsoNormal">Thea spent her early childhood in the outskirts of Bandung, with her aunt; Melati Santoso, who owns a nature school/cultural centre in the village they lived in. Being the tightly-knight community it is, Thea was raised by everyone in the village. By the age of two, Thea was enrolled in her aunt’s nature school, where she learned a lot of her Indonesian heritage, such as its general history, its many native languages and songs, and even learning to do several traditional dances and playing several traditional instruments from all over the archipelago. She was raised with Indonesian as her mother language, later mastering several local languages such as Sundanese and Javanese, picking up other native languages during trips with her aunt to other islands for cultural performances, and some Dutch from her aunt and mortal grandparents whenever he visited. By the age of five, along with all her other classmates they were enrolled in a pencak silat course. Surprisingly, Thea managed to surpass all expectations and even excel in her class, managing to do complex moves and learn every technique with ease.

<p class="MsoNormal">However, several weeks before her sixth birthday, while she and her aunt were driving home from another silat practice, it began to hail heavily. It’d been gloomy that day, and everyone had expected it to hail eventually. The roads in the village were small, and left and right, there was nothing but green; paddy fields and vegetable crops. But something odd happened that day, as they climbed on an uphill slope when they noticed a large snake-like figure charge at their slow-moving car in high speed. It crashed into the side of their car and threw them off the road, rolling down the hill and crashing into an electric pole which fell over and crushed the car. Melati, even though she was pinned in to the steering wheel and door, noticed this, and told Thea to slip on her rubber sandals and get out. The young child cried, as she saw Melati to be her mother, and did not want to leave her. However, there was no choice when the snake-like creature ripped her door open. A gorgon. Running on adrenaline, Thea scrammed to the backseat and ran out the door, the gorgon entering the car in hot pursuit. But it did not manage to exit, as Thea slammed the door in its face, and ran.

<p class="MsoNormal">Just as the electric sparks ignited the fuel tank.

<p class="MsoNormal">The villagers believed that it was a freak accident. But some had seen the gorgon, and believed it had been a ‘jin’, a mischievious, occasionally evil, spirit. With her guardian gone, Thea was sent back to Cambridge to be reunited with her father. She greeted this idea happily, excited to finally meet the man she had heard so much about from her aunt. Unfortunately, she did not receive the greeting she expected to get upon arrival. He shook her hand and gave her a nod. And that was it. <h3 class="MsoNormal">Return to Cambridge

<p class="MsoNormal">Richard never did step up to his position as a father. He did not care for the many impressive poems Thea made for him, or for the many feats of athleticism she tried to show off. All she wanted was his love. So when Thea started elementary school, she made a vow to be the best of everything and finally earn that love. She learned English rather quickly, studied hard and practiced hard, for she inherited her father’s determination, and consistently earned first rank in all her classes, including P.E. and Gym. Her teachers were impressed, but her father never even blinked. One day, upon seeing her report card, Richard told her, “The next generation should always be better than the one before. And you, my dear Althea, you are still young. Learn as much as you can, while you can.”

<p class="MsoNormal">And Thea smiled, but her father never saw because he never even looked up from his work.

<p class="MsoNormal">The rest of her childhood was filled with study and clubs. She won many competitions; mostly sports, and academic (Richard always told her that a healthy body harbours a healthy mind, thus she joined as many sports as she could). But she had absolutely no friends. A drop in score or achievement what was Thea feared most. Her already high-achieving father would look at her, with a look that she swore was of utter disappointment and frustration before the scolding started, clawing and tearing at her on the inside until she could cry no more. Her father would quickly apologize after each outburst, hug her and whisper comforting words. But by the age of eight, she stopped hugging back.

<p class="MsoNormal">Thea had grown emotionally hollow, and she began to miss her childhood in Indonesia. Her father never cared for her smiles, so she stopped smiling. Lonely and starved of affection, Thea began to recede deeper and deeper into her mind, asking questions to which she’d make up an answer for. Creating a world she could escape to. She especially liked to do this under the sunlight, where it felt like she was embraced in her mother’s arms, but not really her either. One day, after asking a question, something else asked back. It wasn’t her. It was an odd, new voice that gave her new questions she never thought of. Due to this, Thea became a quiet observer. Watching, thinking. She then uses this to predict things that will happen around her before they happen. Through logic, analytical thinking, and at first, simple math calculations she could guess people, their actions and the things that would happen to them. However, when a pencak silat class opened in her school (and she did join it in a heartbeat), she felt as if she’d regained an old friend, and once again became the star of her class. <h3 class="MsoNormal">The Child of Athena

<p class="MsoNormal">This was around the time her first monster attack occurred. A substitute teacher who was filling in for Thea’s science teacher during last period. She was an odd woman, the young demigod thought. And for some reason, she kept on imagining a demonic face with unblinking eyes. And she saw blood. Blood, and blood. She ended up staring at the substitute in an entranced manner until the end of class. Until all the children left and went home. The substitute walked over to the door and locked in, and only until the ‘click’ was heard did Thea snap back to attention. But by then, the teacher had begun to transform. Legs grew into a long, snake tail, fangs jutted from her mouth, and her stench, it made her gag. A lamia. But the little girl was not as helpless as she looked. This creature was not smart. She was smarter. So she used the knowledge she had learned in school. She wasn’t strong enough to attack the massive creature, but she was fast enough. Discreetly she opened the storage unit of her pencil sharpener, and when the lamia charged, she threw the pencil shavings into its eyes. Everything moved in slow motion as it screeched and grabbed its eyes, Thea bolted to the laboratory, locked the door, and began working.

<p class="MsoNormal">She dressed the skeleton in her shoes and jacket, threw a black rag over its head and closed all the curtains. The memory of her aunt’s death flashed through her mind, and she rummaged through the supply closet for the largest generator she could find. The lamia began pounding on the door. She connected the generator to the metal pole that kept the skeleton upright, and she knew what it was plaster. It should conduct electricity. Then, she threw water onto the floor from the sink before grabbing a bottle of powdered sulphur and doused it on herself. She switched off the lights. Thea hid under the desk just as the lamia broke the door down. It sniffed about, but the smell of sulphur was sharp and distracted it enough to spot the decoy in the corner. It slipped and rolled about in the soaked floor and when it grabbed the skeleton, it was shocked to death.

<p class="MsoNormal">That day she told Richard that she killed a snake. She got in a lot of trouble.

<p class="MsoNormal">Entering the fifth grade, Thea had become the school’s star athlete, often working herself relentlessly to her coaches’ worries. She trained to drown her troubles, the memories of the monster attacks when she was young, and the voices inside her head when they grew too overwhelming. Aside from pencak silat, she especially also excelled in archery, fencing, and obstacle races. She was probably seen to be one of the most popular kids in school. All the girls acted like they were her friend, and all the boys looked at her with awestruck eyes. And she would smile in knowing that they would lie down on their stomachs without hesitation if she asked. This was when her manipulative trait developed, getting people to do what she wanted during group assignments, and set them an impossibly high standard. They’d whine and complain, but once it was done, they’d always get the highest marks.

<p class="MsoNormal">And even with all the achievements and appreciation, Thea felt like she was nothing more than a hollow shell.

<p class="MsoNormal">This all changed when she turned eleven. Thea had gone to see her father at his class after school, but on her way to campus, she was ambushed by a manticore. The beast roared and bared its fangs. So unfitting, she thought. For a human to have teeth such as that. However, it wasn’t unfamiliar either. The manticore opened its wings and began to charge, everything once again moved in slow motion, and Thea crossed her arms before her chest. There was a dull thud, and her form flew back to the lonely streets of Cambridge. She began to open her eyes, and what she saw shocked her. A giant spider web, out of nowhere, entangling the manticore as it violently ripped the weave apart with its claws. She tried to escape it by running into alleyways and crowded streets. Until she found a dead end. The manticore gallivanted, tail reared, and her hands found a plank of wood. The spikes flew, and her arm swung. It hit a spike and sent it hurdling back, hitting the beast’s eye. Blood spurted and it screeched, causing her ears to ring. It retreated.

<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, her father didn’t believe that either. <h3 class="MsoNormal">Rebirth

<p class="MsoNormal">But since that day, Thea began to suspect something. From her studies at school she had known what demigods were. They were a big part of Greek mythology. She just never thought that they were real. And that she was one. Despite her usual contempt towards her father, her curiosity could take no more, and she finally confronted him. Through much convincing, yelling, counters, and unpleasant memories, Richard finally cracked and told her everything of his experience with Athena, and the rule the gods had established in order to care for demigods. It was like a session of therapy for him, and he finally grew to accept reality as it is after eleven years. Unfortunately, Thea saw this as an act of betrayal, but once again managed to lock her emotions away to let reason shine through. Their relationship had finally improved.

<p class="MsoNormal">At the age of fourteen, she went with Richard to America so that he may attend a conference. She was left alone at the hotel that night, when she heard the sound of a scuff happening outside. The young demigod peeked out through her room curtains just in time to see a satyr stumble out of an alley. In hot pursuit behind him; a manticore with one missing eye. The very same one who attacked her three years ago, out causing mayhem again. Without hesitation, Thea rushed out and pursued the two mystical creatures, bringing only her cell phone and a keris from her pencak silat training.

<p class="MsoNormal">She followed them to the outskirts where she reached a forest. It had an odd energy to it… But something told her that this was where she belonged. Thea was side tracked by the enchanting energy the forest held, but this cost the satyr dearly. It ended up being a prey to the manticore, and now, it had smelled her. It charged with a vengeance, but Thea was stronger now. She dodged its lunge with a quick side-step, and saw its weak point. A pressure point. Her hand pulled the keris from its sheath and stabbed it into the manticore’s side, ripping along its body as gravity worked its magic on the beast. Its tail swung at her and released its spikes, and in a split second, her keris left the manticore’s body as she swung it with high accuracy to deflect each incoming spike. With her free hand she managed to grab one in mid-air, and that spike she used to impale the manticore’s heart.

<p class="MsoNormal">She felt no grief, discomfort, or fear. She didn’t know why. It felt… Natural. As if it was how things were. Thea approached the satyr’s corpse in curiosity, and noticed the shirt he wore; Camp Half-Blood. The flicker of torches in the dark caught her attention, and she lift her head to see the gates of the camp. Haven. It was the first word that came to mind. And she didn’t even know how, or why. But for now, this was her place. Just for now.

<p class="MsoNormal">So Thea pulled out her phone and dialled Richard’s number. He didn’t answer, but that was to be expected, so she left him a voicemail;

<p class="MsoNormal">“Father? I wanted to tell you I found the camp. I’m sure you know what I mean. It’s… Time we part ways for a while. I’m sure you’ve known this too. I finally understand now. You’ve kept me away, because you were always afraid of losing me too. But I’ll come back one day, I promise. I love you, dad.”

Possessions/Preferred Weapons
<p class="MsoNormal">Colors-of-Fire (talk) 17:29, March 6, 2015 (UTC)
 * Keris: With Indonesia being a big part of her early childhood, and considering the weapon she arrived in Camp Half-Blood with was a keris. A simple weapon. It was eventually upgraded to be able to lengthen to the size of a sword.
 * Customized Machiara: An ancient Greek weapon that resembles a machete. It was the first Greek weapon she’d been interested in upon arrival at Camp Half-Blood and reminded her of a badik, which is another Indonesian blade she was familiarized with in her previous silat classes. Thus she requested one to be crafted by the Hephaestus cabin to be able to change shape into other traditional Indonesian weapons she is familiar with. It has a switch below its sheath with certain settings that allow it to change according to her needs. In return, she gave them a new forge design.
 * Bow and Arrow: Another weapon she received upon arrival in Camp Half-Blood. Being an archery star previously, it was a weapon she was confident in wielding.
 * Silver Teardrop: A necklace she received from Athena before being sent to Richard. A locket of pure silver with her name carved into it. It seems to have been blessed, as she can harness power from it to increase stamina and focus. It is apparently also where she locks all of her emotions away to, and may be the source of the other voices in her head.