eachdraidh | [Video: Seelie] 01 Shadow

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[Video: Seelie] 01 Shadow

[Nico doesn't trust the Unseelie side. In fairness, he doesn't exactly trust the Seelie side, either. Of the two, he can at least trust that the Seelie side won't stab him in the back while he's asleep. He expects them to do it during the daytime.

At any rate, he decides to let his...allies (?) know at least one of his abilities. Two at most. The rest are best used as aces in his sleeves or whenever it actually comes up.

So, when the video feed comes on, Nico looks like he's up in a tree. He is because, man, he doesn't want his conversation jacked by Luke like in Jason's.]

My name is Nico di Angelo. The topic of transportation has come up a few times, and if the worms are any indication, then I expect that they're just the start of whatever we're going to be facing in this world. That's not even including the fact that we're most likely going to do battle with other people.

[A flicker of distaste crosses his face. Being a civilian in one war between mortals and a soldier in a war between demigods is just...not his idea of a fun time. Still, it needs to be said.]

I have abilities that don't include being good with a sword. I'm only comfortable with talking about two of them at this time. One is called shadow travel. It's best used at night, but the basics of this power is that I can go from one shadow to another no matter where it is. Distance and the amount of people I take with me have a very important factor in how much of an energy toll I get. Over seven thousand miles on my own will probably knock me out for a straight week, just to give an example. Even short jumps could leave me exhausted. I'm best used for emergency back up or just for emergency transportation if someone gets badly injured.

[Nico pauses, thinking about how to phrase the other one.]

The second ability...I'm able to affect the dead. I don't need anything special, it's just something that's natural for me. From spirits to the walking dead, I can either kill or banish them. Talk to them, too, in the case of ghosts.

[Okay, yeah, that's a lot of information, and hopefully it's useful.]

That's about it.

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And nobody will blame you for not wanting to.

[If they do, then Nico will treat them to his scorn. Plus, killing innocents tends to damn your soul to the River Acheron. He chooses not to comment on the "us" thing.]

But we can't just pretend it's not going to happen. Sooner or later, this war is going to make itself known.

We'll fight if we have to. But we don't have to be heartless.

[some of the romans might be disappointed in him, getting all greek and soft on them. but harshness has never jived well with jason.]

You did all kinds of research before we left, didn't you? The Seelie are supposed to be the good guys and stand for love and justice and all that. Do they believe in mercy, too?

[Nico nods.]

Mercy, yes, but that doesn't mean that the people brought to the Seelie side will believe in it, too.

I haven't heard of anyone here yet that seems that bad. Except maybe that guy that was claiming to be a son of Hades and Medusa, but I'm pretty sure he was just drunk.

I've never been more thankful to not be related to someone. Still, you might believe in everything that the Seelie stand for, but someone else might just stand for only one thing, like justice, and ignore the rest. We don't know these people or how far they're willing to go.

You don't think the Seelie had more sense than to bring in anyone like that?

["anyone like octavian" is what he was originally gonna say, but he doesn't think the seelie would even find one redeemable trait in that guy.]

They have sense, but it's more whether or not they're desperate enough to draft that kind of person into their war for survival.

[Nico will bet ten drachma that Octavian will be on the Unseelie side.]

Besides, they brought me here, and I'm questionable just on looks alone. What does that tell you about the kind of people they might bring in?

[well, if he wasn't trying to be serious before, he certainly is now.]

You're not questionable at all. You're a good guy, Nico.

[Nico snorts derisively.]

Would you have believed it before Croatia? Would you have seriously believed I would've been part of this group and not the Unseelie?

[at least jason has the decency to look properly guilty about that.]

I didn't...look, I know I wasn't any better than the rest of the group before, but that doesn't mean I was right. You avoid everyone and push others away so that they have nothing to go on but first impressions and dumb rumors, but even if it's half your own doing, that doesn't make it okay. You are a good guy. I mean it.

No, I'm just a guy people are better off avoiding. You've seen my track record with people I get close to.

[Still a bit bitter about Jason seeing his memories, but also bitter because of the losses.]

Who exactly have you gotten close to and hurt? Bianca wasn't your fault. And even if it had been -- and it wasn't -- one mistake isn't a "track record". It's all in your head.

[Gods damn it, he didn't mean for that to slip out.]

Let's just say that even Pan wanted nothing to do with me.

Am I supposed to care what one of the gods thought? We've all had enough dealings with them to know what they're like. And of all of them...I mean, it's Pan. He's the god of nature, and I've seen what you can do to nearby plant-life when you're upset. If he doesn't really like you, I don't think it has anything to do with what kind of a person you are.

[he's trying to keep patient and calm here, mostly because...well, you're in a tree, and that's probably a bad position to be in if you get upset like that again.]

[Hey, Nico respects the dryads too much to even tamper with a regular tree. Probably the one plant he can reliably keep his power in check because of.

This doesn't save Jason from how much frustration Nico feels toward him.]

For Elysium's sake, why do you care?

[you're frustrated? you're the one that's too dense to get it.]

Because we're friends.

[He's so ready to pull his own hair out.]

Why? Just because of Croatia? Because you feel sorry for me?

Gods, Nico, it's not pity.

[not that you're not extremely pitiable sometimes, especially when you get like this.]

We're on the same side, we're comrades. I just don't want you to be unhappy. Do I need a reason to be friends with someone?

[hedoesn'twantyourpity

He's quiet, looking like he's very suspicious of what Jason's said. He has a hard time trusting someone who went from distrusting him to all of a sudden wanting to be his friend. Yet, after a moment, the son of Hades gives a little.]

You're going to regret it.

[for a moment he looks like he wants to argue that. but no, this is a victory enough, and he leans back comfortably on his branch with a little smile.]

We'll see.

[It's about as much ascent as Jason's going to get from Nico at the moment. He hesitates again, and then decides to go for it. He's been wondering ever since Jason brought it up in Split.]

Just so I'm clear on the matter, what did Percy actually tell you about me?

[aaand the smile quickly drops away.]

Just...the basics, I guess. The whole thing with the Lotus Casino, and Bianca...

[jason has had the very odd privilege of hearing percy's rundown of the nico situation and then seeing many of those stories from nico's point of view. and while percy had been the one to know the younger demigod longest and the one of the ones dead-set on rescuing him, his focus had been more on the negative -- he'd mentioned the incident at hades' palace where nico betrayed him, for instance, but not the part where nico had argued with hades not to hurt percy and then disobeyed his father to rescue him.]

I figured he told you that, but what else?

[There's a small, grim smile on his face.]

You got a lot from me, Grace, and it's not going to upset me to know about whatever he said. Even I'm not blind enough to know that Percy tends to tunnel vision on one thing that happens and not on the rest.

[Like the betrayal, though he'll admit that he'd been naive to think that his father would honor the promise without forcing him to swear on the Styx. Plus, he can't blame Percy for it since Luke did it once before.]

[even if they're not his own words, he still looks fairly guilty having to explain them. he glances back down to the ground, not very comfortable with a smile that cynical.]

Stuff from the labyrinth and Hades' palace and all that. He just made things sound pretty bad. [worse than he knows they actually were.] I don't want to just push all the blame on him, but between the stories he'd told us and learning you'd known about both camps long before the rest of us, it was kind of hard to not be suspicious back then.

[Nico nods, and true to his word doesn't seem all that upset by it. If anything, he looks like he's expected that.]

Plus, the twin Giants had laid a pretty obvious trap. Why wouldn't you be suspicious?

[He pauses and rubs his face with one hand. There's literally only one thing that Jason doesn't know about him. And now Nico's just going to throw it in his face. Well, and Jason had told him how his mother had died and all.]

Did he say anything about my mother?

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