3. Singularity - Jang Wonyoung

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The moment Wonyoung was crowned in a waterfall of jjajangmyeon and tteokbokki, she swore then and there at the center of the Dining Pavilion that she would win. Jang Wonyoung swore on the River Styx that she would win this year’s Capture the Flag on Friday.

Except there were three problems.

First, Karina, the head counselor of her cabin, was not the best strategist at Camp Half-Blood, and would often choose allies that made her ‘look good’—whatever that meant—instead of allies who could help them win. Second, An Yujin, the head counselor of the Ares Cabin, dominated the games for the past five years through sheer strength alone. Even if Karina drew in the most supporters, Yujin’s elite regiment of Ares kids alone was often enough to overpower more than half the camp. And third, Wonyoung had to be under one of their teams for the games.

Two sides. Two flags. Cross the Zephyros Creek with your opponent’s flag. Those were the rules. But while the smell of two different sauces obstructed her nostrils with a putrid scent, Wonyoung’s vision couldn’t be any clearer—she wanted to win the game against both of them.

Then, there was this.

“I’m talking to you. I said you’ll clean this mess, right? You started it, didn’t you?” Karina demanded. Wonyoung could barely see her through her own lunch, but she knew what Karina was doing. “You’re cleaning up for our cabin, aren’t you? Answer!”

Wonyoung saw it happen like it always did. Karina’s throat glowed red as a string fired from her chest and coiled tightly around Wonyoung’s heart. “Say it. Say you’re sorry for making a mess and for being an embarrassment to our cabin.”

Fingers gripping the white tablecloth, voice straining in her throat, Wonyoung’s eyes bled tears until she succumbed. “S-Sorry … sorry for staining the cabin tables … it’s my fault. I’ll take … r-responsibility.”

The string snapped and Karina stopped glowing, smirking as she dusted her hands off. “Good girl. Get to it.”

Their other half-siblings immediately scrambled out of their seats to follow after Karina, who was pulling Yujin in by the chin with a finger, leaving Wonyoung drenched in a mess that wasn’t hers.

The young girl swiped the gruel off her face and spat. “Just you wait …”

At the crack of dawn on Tuesday, Wonyoung snuck into Cabin Eleven. If anyone had a collection of handy trinkets and tools for Capture the Flag, it would be the children of Hermes. Wonyoung wasn’t the type for underhanded methods, but after the hours she spent yesterday trying to scrub the spicy stench out of the cobblestone floor, she was slowly opening up to it.

“Whatever it takes,” she muttered to herself as she crept through the front door.

Like she expected, the Hermes Cabin was chock full of two things: junk and unclaimed demigods. The latter’s snoring was enough cover for Wonyoung to sift through the mountains of trash they had lying about. She wasn’t sure what to look for exactly—just anything that could help give her the edge in the games.

Just as her fingers hooked themselves underneath a polished oaken drawer, an invisible force blasted her across the hallway, slamming her into the wardrobe behind her. Before she could think, the same force pinned her to the cabin floor and dragged her by her shoulders across it until she was hurled outside.

Landing on her face, she groaned and struggled to get up. Next to her, the culprit warped into existence. “Tsk tsk, thievery is more of our thing~. Hope eating dirt will teach you a lesson.”

Snarling, Wonyoung lifted her chin. “Neat trick. Surely, that’s not a power daddy gave you?”

As if to demonstrate, the other girl placed her baseball cap back on and took it off just as swiftly, making her vanish and reappear. “You bet. The girl I stole it from last year never even noticed~. But you—you’re lucky I’m the one who caught you and not the others.”

“Lucky? So I’ve been told,” Wonyoung sighed, straightening her orange camp shirt. “Could I borrow that? That seems useful.”

The other girl chuckled. “Nope. Not without telling me who you are and what you’ll use it for.”

“Wonyoung. Jang Wonyoung. I need it for the games this Friday,” she bluntly confessed, not wanting to stay here for longer—lest the other Hermes kids wake up. “Look, I promise to return it to you—.”

The other girl put her cap back on and turned invisible again. The sound of gravel and stone circled Wonyoung. “Hmm~? Someone’s trying to overthrow Yujin? It’s pointless, you know? You aren’t the first to try. You won’t be the last to fail. It’s why our cabin sides with her every year.”

“Even if it means being her sacrificial lambs?”

The sound of circling footsteps stopped.

“Everyone knows the Hermes kids are her scouts, and she’s willing to throw you under the bus just to win. Why don’t you help me—side with me? You and your cabin?”

As Wonyoung uttered those words at her unseen companion, a faintly glowing pink string protruded from her chest. But without an active target, it flopped around in the air before petering out and dissipating.

The girl reappeared before her with a mocking laugh. “Haven’t seen charmspeak that weak before~. You’re interesting. I can’t promise you anything, but … maybe this will help you more than the cap.”

She handed Wonyoung a tiger-shaped locket. “It’s not much, but it can be much fun in the right hands. Look at your target, count to eight, and then say their name~. If you want something more useful for Capture the Flag though, you might want to ask Heffy’s kids.”

Wonyoung raised a brow, fitting the locket around her neck. “Heffy—Hephaestus?”

“You’ll find one of the best tinkerers I know there. Tell her Hyunseo sent you.”

Wonyoung wondered if the locket was from Hyunseo herself or if she had stolen it from the Hephaestus cabin, but before the thought could travel to her lips, the young girl was gone.

“Tch, Hermes kids.”

After practicing some light archery at the range, Wonyoung excused herself from the class and snuck away towards Cabin Nine. Compared to the blazing August sun, she knew that the children of Hephaestus preferred the heat of the forge. While the other campers were preoccupied with their afternoon activities and preparations for the game, Wonyoung used this opportunity to snoop around the Hephaestus Cabin.

Before her noodle arms could pathetically attempt to turn the vault door to their cabin open, smoke hissed as gears turned to open the door for one of the campers inside. Wonyoung hid behind the budging door, and when she saw who it was, she whispered into her new locket.

“Five … six … seven … I’m Huh Yunjin.”

Just as the girl in question left for a walk in the woods, Wonyoung’s form shimmered until she assumed her full identity—clothes, tools, and all. Squeezing past the closing door, as soon as she ran into the lobby, she heard a wire snap and immediately fell down a slippery chute.

Crashing into the floor underground, Wonyoung was amazed by what lay before her.

Sweltering heat engulfing her skin as she stood up, the basement of Cabin Nine looked nothing like its above-ground counterpart: power tools whirred, weapons decorated walls like a barracks, workbenches littered with scrap leathers and metals. Their forge thrummed with mechanical life as the children of Hephaestus were immersed in their craft.

Had Wonyoung not assumed one of their appearances, she could have easily reached the end of their working space without being noticed given how engaged they were in their work. But one of them rose from her seat upon seeing her. “Yunjin? Done with your smoke break?”

Wonyoung’s eyes widened. “A-Ah, yeah. Didn’t feel like it anymore. So … what are you working on?”

The girl who beckoned to her stared at her for a moment, the rims and gears of her goggles shifting and clinking in the silence. When she pushed away from her bench, she gestured to it. “Ares cabin weapon request. Like always. Like yours.”

Wonyoung stiffened. “Right … So you—we—make weapons for Yujin?”

The other girl lifted her goggles and peered at Wonyoung, heavy eyebags coming into view. “What’s wrong with you? You were the one who told me our cabin’s been making their gear for years. I’m just following orders.”

“But isn’t it tiring? Don’t you want to … invent for yourself and not for someone else?”

The girl scoffed, putting her goggles back on. “Yeah right. No one wants to take a beating from her or her Cabin Ten mistress. Just help me finish the circuitry on this electric spear, will you?”

“How about you … stop working for them—for her.”

The pink string uncoiled from Wonyoung’s chest and looped around the girl’s torso. It’s thicker than what Wonyoung remembered as it struck itself into the other girl’s chest. “Drop the weapon.”

She dropped it, palms opened wide hovering above the spear. “Ok …”