Archived:Cecilio Presa

History
<!-- Dominic Presa liked the stars, and he always sat on a particular park bench in the evening as he waited for the stars to come out. He lived in the New York suburbs and was the head chef at a very popular restaurant in town. Every night, he came back to his house in exhaustion, and usually fell asleep as soon as he brushed his teeth and read a little from a random Harry Potter or Redwall book, but this time he'd drunk some coffee and come to his favorite park bench to look at the stars and relax. The bench had a plate on it dedicating it to some dead woman called Cassida Meia, but he didn't care as he looked for constellations such as Orion's belt. He, of course, did not like how bright it was even at night, and how he could see a few stars and the occasional plane. At that thought, though, a beautiful woman sat next to him out of the blue.

Dominic, being the friendly guy he was, asked the pretty woman immediately if she liked the stars. She replied that yes, she did like the stars, but she wished that you could see all of the stars at night, including the Milky Way. Dominic strongly agreed, and they talked for hours on end about his job, urban legends, the weather, opinions on debates, and the stars. Once it was late, though, Dominic asked the woman where she lived and her phone number. The woman replied that she didn't have a phone and that she was staying at a hotel nearby as she was a traveling businesswoman, and she would be okay with staying at his house. Eager to finally have somebody else in the house besides his cat, Stew, he accepted her request, and they walked to his house in a friendly holding of hands.

They lived together for a happy two and a half months, talking in a loving embrace on the couch, watching soap operas, eating food that Dominic cooked up, driving into the city to go up to the top of the Empire State Building and imagine that they were floating high above New York, and especially watching the stars twinkle on Dominic's porch. But one night, when they were in bed talking, Dominic asked the woman who she was. She broke down and told him that she was really Asteria, the Greek goddess of stars, and that she hadn't meant to lie to him in the first place about who she was. She also said that she was pregnant, and that she'd have to leave soon, but she would send their child back to him once their child was born. However, Dominic wasn't surprised that much, as he was a son of Demeter and was a demigod trying to live a normal life in the mortal world, so he understood the world of gods. He asked Asteria if his powers would be passed down to their child, but Asteria said it was incredibly rare that that happened and that she was sure it wouldn't happen this time. She gave him a Celestial Bronze sword that was incredibly long but not as long as a lance, with a chip of opal set in the hilt, and an amulet that looked sorta like an astrolabe, sorta like a compass.. Dominic reluctantly accepted that he would never see Asteria again, and went to bed. The next day, Asteria was gone.

Four months later, he recieved a cradle on the doorstep with a bunch of blankets that had stars on them and a little baby with adorable brown eyes and black hair. He took the baby in, and named the baby Cecilio, an Italian boy name, as Dominic was Italian. He cared for Cecilio, and Cecilio grew up to become a fine baby. As a toddler, Cecilio would join his father on stargazing sessions, and was Dominic's trusted taste-tester for his new creations. Cecilio was surrounded by pots and pans, and on more than one occasion whipped up some creations of his own (oftentimes much smellier than his dad's creations), but his dad never got mad at him, as he appreciated that his demigod son was trying his hand at cooking. Cecilio eventually grew out of making horrid food and began to bake and fry very well, and when he was in kindergarten he knew how to make a stew with a little help from his dad. He made friends quickly with his easy personality and delicious food, but eventually showed his hot temper when somebody didn't like his gingerbread cookies, throwing a pan at his friend and getting in trouble, with his teacher conferencing with his father later that week.

However, Cecilio eventually was able to grow calmer over the course of time, and was already a calm person when he started to show signs of ADHD. He didn't pay attention much in class, gazing out the window at the sun, looking at the class hamster run on his wheel, or going over recipes and thinking about what cookies his father would like for dessert that afternoon. His grades eventually dropped, and he was diagnosed with ADHD at age 8. However, he was not diagnosed with dyslexia for some reason, which both Cecilio and his father still puzzle over to this day. Cecilio started to try to overcome his ADHD, and studied more. Whenever he got distracted, he tossed almost everything out of his room and pulled the curtains over his windows, and studied hard. Eventually, Cecilio's grades went up, and his life resumed its normal pace.

Some weird things happened to Cecilio, though, when he was in elementary school. For one thing, he asked his father if he could have a cell phone, but his father always said that money was tight in the family and that he didn't want Cecilio using any electronics at his friends' houses, either. Cecilio was frustrated, but didn't like defying his father, and obeyed. He also had once been walking in the park one day when he was 11, and a strange looking pigeon had attacked him with claws out, but Cecilio had managed to run away and get inside the house. His father had charged out with a pen and notepad as soon as he saw the really angry pigeon, then returned in after a few minutes with a few pigeon feathers on his shirt and his pen slightly scratched. (He would later be told it had been a Stymphalian Bird, however its spelled, that had attacked him.) Cecilio didn't think much of it, although he always wondered what his father had been doing. And his father had a strict curfew of seven at night, and never budged even when Cecilio offered up straight "A"s for a whole semester.

When he was 13, though, Cecilio had his second monster attack. He was walking alone along a road lined with shops and restaurants when a Cyclops attacked him! The Cyclops was dressed in a McDonalds uniform, but Cecilio's vision broke through the Mist as it attacked him. Cecilio, embarassingly for him, screamed like a little girl and dashed for a nearby Subway. He went inside and tried to get help to kill the one-eyed monster attacking him, but nobody was inside. He was being backed up against a table as the Cyclops began to roar in triumph, and Cecilio thought of how good it would be to summon some beam made of plasma to fry the monster... and it worked. An intense beam of plasma came out from Cecilio's palm as he held it up to the Cyclops despite how scared he was, and burned the Cyclops's chest. The Cyclops roared, and from behind it his father stabbed the Cyclops in the back with his own Celestial Bronze sword. Dominic had also been wandering along the street, although Cecilio hadn't realized it, and had noticed the Cyclops attacking his son and had only run in with his celestial bronze sword and shield (pen and notepad) when Cecilio had blasted the Cyclops. Cecilio watched the Cyclops crumble into a golden pile of dust, then looked up at his father with sudden weariness and demanded answers.

Dominic walked his son home cautiously, explaining everything as he went, such as how his family was originally from Italy, where the grand empire of Rome used to be, and that they had many demigods in their lineage as a result. For example, his mother had been Demeter, and his grandfather had been a son of Hades. He also told Cecilio some of the kinks of the world of demigods like how Lamia cursed all demigods, how the Mist seperated the world of demigods and mortals, and how there was a Camp Half-Blood for his kind but that Dominic had left years ago when he'd outgrown the camp and that he didn't want Cecilio to go quite yet. When they got home, Dominic gave Cecilio the celestial bronze sword that his mother had wanted him to have, and from that day on they began to train in sword-fighting.

Cecilio went back to school, but he acted differently from that point on, being more serious yet a tad edgy. When his friends asked why, he said that he'd gotten in trouble over the weekend and he didn't want to get in trouble again, or that he'd ruined a pan trying to make pancakes and that his father had yelled at him, or both. He was attacked again a few times as he transitioned from middle school to high school, once by a Stymphalian bird that had been his homeroom teacher's canary that he'd barely managed to hack to pieces with his sword, another time by a hellhound that was a german shepherd that had followed him home but had taken both Cecilio and Dominic to defeat. But every afternoon, once his homework was finished, Cecilio would train sword to sword with his father in their basement, learning techniques like the riposte and slash from his father and eventually using the sword well enough that Dominic said that he was ready to leave. While Cecilio's father was sad that his son would be staying year-round from now on and could only visit a few times a year if he wanted to, he knew that if he kept his son around for too long he would endanger both of them. So, on a cool summer afternoon right after school had ended, when Cecilio was fifteen, Dominic helped his son pack a few things including his long sword and toiletries into the car, then drove off to Long Island.

A few hours later, when they were nearing Half-Blood Hill, the car was attacked by a flaming horse that had been grazing in a field nearby. It rammed the car several times, and almost set the car on fire alongside that, but Cecilio rolled down the window and did his best to stab the flaming horse in the neck, then rolled it back up and had his father step on the gas. Cecilio arrived a few minutes later, and stumbled over the hill to the camp beyond. -->

Powers

 * Children of Asteria have the ability to summon miniature stars which can be thrown like a weapon; the stars, however, dissipate quickly.
 * Children of Asteria have the ability to focus an intense beam of plasma which will burn anything it touches.
 * Children of Asteria have the ability to summon a cluster of miniature stars directly in front of them which can be used to block incoming attacks; the stars, however, dissipate quickly.
 * Children of Asteria have the ability to conjure a mock shield, made of very small stars, which can be used to defend from attacks; prolonged use may burn the conjurer.
 * Children of Asteria can see perfectly in the night as if it were day.
 * When the stars are out, children of Asteria always know their location.
 * Children of Asteria have the ability to create temporary light sources, similar to concept of a flare, which will light an area for a short time.
 * Children of Asteria have the ability to commune with the dead.