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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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?

Just that you and your sister were orphans.

[not the most uncommon story among demigods, unfortunately. but percy had never said more than that and jason had never asked, not sure if he wanted to push for information about a woman that had attracted the god of death. the gods certainly have types, after all.]

What I know of her is what my dad has told me, and when I saw a vision of how she died after I tried summoning her spirit to talk to her.

[Nico absently twists his skull ring.]

Her dad was a diplomat in DC. Her name was Maria. She stayed in Venice until World War II, then brought my sister and I to America to escape it. I saw her only in a vision that explained the circumstances of her death, and why the two of us were in the Lotus Hotel to begin with. Mostly, I remember that she and Bianca shared the same smile, and I inherited her eye color.

[He winces as he digs the metal too hard into his skin, and lets his hands drop on either side to grip the branch.]

We were in a hotel in the capitol. Hades tried to convince her to move to the Underworld because Zeus had given him an ultimatum. Surrender his children to the Lord of the Sky or put them in Camp Half-Blood. He refused to even give Zeus an answer. Mom didn't want us raised in the Underworld, and she didn't want us in the Lotus Hotel when he offered that, either. She just couldn't believe that Zeus would kill children.

[The son of Hades frowned.]

We might have been going out for dinner or something, I don't know. All I know is, mom went back to the hotel room to get her purse, and that's when lightning struck. Hades...dad...only had time to shield Bianca and I from the blast, but he wasn't fast enough to save our mom. He sent us to the Lotus Hotel after ordering one of the Furies to bathe us in the Lethe to forget that night.

[There's something of a grim smile on his face.]

The other reason he put us there was so that one of us could fulfill the prophecy. The one that said a demigod of one of the Big Three would survive to sixteen. He wanted me or Bianca to be the one, so that his children would be the heroes for once instead of another child of Poseidon or Zeus.

[the shock that nico's actually voluntarily talking about himself is pretty evident on jason's face, however controlled he usually tries to be. and that lack of control holds up until a few paragraphs in, at which point his expression turns stricken and distressed.

for a few moments he only manages to gape, but the words come out eventually.]

I...I'm sorry. Nico, I'm so sorry, I--

[he'll be the first person to argue that demigods are not their parents, that you shouldn't judge them by what their respective god has done, but all that sorta flies out of his head in this case. because if it weren't for his dad, then nico would still have a mom, so how can he just brush that off so easily? nico has every reason in the world to hate him.

and it's bad enough learning that his own mother was an unstable alcoholic. that his father, at least a symbol of honor and justice even if he was totally absent, could be this cruel...fuck.]

Don't.

[That comes out harshly even by Nico's standards. He'll try that again.]

Don't, okay? That prophecy scared literally all of the gods, and my dad isn't blameless, either. He cursed the Oracle of Delphi because he couldn't do it to Zeus. I don't blame anyone for it, and least of all do I blame Zeus' children.

[Which is why Luke's mom is currently insane, the poor woman.]

[surprising absolutely no one, he doesn't look too convinced.]

Still...

Didn't you already tell me that feeling guilty for a mistake you didn't commit is ridiculous and that you shouldn't do it?

[it doesn't do much to soothe jason, but the fight just leaks out of him even still til he's slumped on his branch, frowning unhappily at the ground.]

...I'm sorry, still. For your loss, at least.

And now you know all about me. Besides...no matter what happened, she would've died anyway.

[Literally everything, and Nico isn't sure how to feel about it. He's quiet for a moment.]

You know, only one of us should be depressed, and it might as well be me.

[It's an attempt at cheering Jason up without actually cheering him up.]

[literally everything, and jason knows exactly how much that means. nico is endlessly secretive and aloof. telling anyone anything is big. telling one person everything is just unimaginable.

and he may be distressed, but he wouldn't say he's the one who needs cheering up.]

...I tried to eat a stapler when I was two.

[That surprises Nico. Legitimately surprises him. What surprises him only slightly more is that he's able to stay balanced on the tree branch after this revelation.]

...You're not serious.

That's how I got this. [he gestures at that mysterious little scar at the corner of his mouth, managing a faint smile.] Sorry, I don't have a lot of secrets to share in return.

[If Jason has been hoping to make Nico laugh, it works. He gets a chuckle for his efforts.]

And here I was thinking it was some scar you got from a monster or something.

That's what I'd thought too, up until Thalia told me. The truth's way less cool.

[even at his own expense, he gets a small swell of pride for getting at least that much out of nico. he'll have to deal with his own daddy issues on his own, later, but for now it's much more satisfying to keep the younger demigod a bit happier.]

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