abe no "stripper boots" sousei (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
disilluded) wrote2018-07-11 12:14 pm
disilluded) wrote2018-07-11 12:14 pm
Week 5, Wednesday
[Hi Nico.
It's probably weird but here's Sousei, precariously balanced on a window sill of all things.
Reaching very, very carefully for a fan that is just a tad bit out of reach.
It looks totally stupid, yeah.
Fair's fair for the armor thing.]
It's probably weird but here's Sousei, precariously balanced on a window sill of all things.
Reaching very, very carefully for a fan that is just a tad bit out of reach.
It looks totally stupid, yeah.
Fair's fair for the armor thing.]
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We fell. It was not so far down as to be fatal.
[Also, Sousei is a true karma houdini, thank god that finally catches up to him here.]
And then I shut up that child for a moment while I handled the actual situation. [Like literally just slapped a hand over his mouth.] It's nothing to be too concerned with now.
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[That comes a lot easier than most of the connections he tsuns over!]
He has grown a great deal, but he still has much to learn.
[... Sousei's just glad he's not here, honestly.]
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No wonder you're the way you are. [What the fuck does that mean, Nico.]
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[What does that mean?]
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Your thoughts are not stupid, and you do not have to act as though they are. Though I am afraid I do not understand the distinction you are making still.
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It's also maybe a good thing that the bubble begins to shift again.
Aboard a ship that’s in flight, several teenagers sit on the deck scattered into small groups around the helm. A blonde boy bandages a beautiful girl’s shoulder while three other boys discuss something. Nico’s sprawled in the lap of a young girl who’s feeding him squares of something.
After a while though, the girl speaks up. “Guys. I hate to interrupt your admiration session, but you should hear this.” She helps Nico to his feet, not bringing attention to how pale he was or how sunken his eyes were.
“Thank you,” Nico’s own voice was raspy as he nervously looked around at the group. “I’d given up hope.”
A tall boy (black hair, green eyes) speaks up first like he’s unsure how to reply. “You knew about the two camps all along. You could have told me who I was the first day I arrived at Camp Jupiter, but you didn’t.”
Nico slumps against the helm. “Percy, I’m sorry. I discovered Camp Jupiter last year. My dad led me there, though I wasn’t sure why. He told me the gods had kept the camps separate for centuries and that I couldn’t tell anyone. The time wasn’t right. But he said it would be important for me to know…” A coughing fit interrupts him and the younger girl holds his shoulders until Nico rights himself. “I—I thought Dad meant because of Hazel. I’d need a safe place to take her. But now…I think he wanted me to know about both camps so I’d understand how important your quest was, and so I’d search for the Doors of Death.”
Sparks of electricity started to emit from the blond boy, but he doesn’t speak. “Did you find the doors?” Percy asks. Nico nods.
“I was a fool. I thought I could go anywhere in the Underworld, but I walked right into Gaea’s trap. I might as well have tried running from a black hole.”
“Um…” One of the other boys speaks up. “What kind of black hole are you talking about?”
Nico starts to speak, but he hesitates and eventually goes quiet, too afraid to continue. He turns to the girl who puts a hand on his arm before she takes over.
“Nico told me that the Doors of Death have two sides—one in the mortal world, one in the Underworld. The mortal side of the portal is in Greece. It’s heavily guarded by Gaea’s forces. That’s where they brought Nico back into the upper world. Then they transported him to Rome.”
The girl with the sprained shoulder looks alarmed, and a cornucopia at her side spits out a cheeseburger as she replies. “Where exactly in Greece is this doorway?”
Nico takes a rattling breath. “The House of Hades. It’s an underground temple in Epirus. I can mark it on a map, but—but the mortal side of the portal isn’t the problem. In the Underworld, the Doors of Death are in…in…”
Percy looks horrified. “Tartarus. The deepest part of the Underworld.” he guesses.
“They pulled me into the pit, Percy. The things I saw down there…” Nico’s voice breaks and the girl next to him purses her lips.
“No mortal has ever been to Tartarus. At least, no one has ever gone in and returned alive. It’s the maximum-security prison of Hades, where the old Titans and the other enemies of the gods are bound. It’s where all monsters go when they die on the earth. It’s…well, no one knows exactly what it’s like.” She looks at Nico before handing him the same iron sword he’s been carrying in murder-castle for weeks. He leans on it like a cane for balance.
“Now I understand why Hades hasn’t been able to close the doors,” he says. “Even the gods don’t go into Tartarus. Even the god of death, Thanatos himself, wouldn’t go near that place.”
The boy steering the ship glances over. “So let me guess. We’ll have to go there.”
Nico shakes his head. “It’s impossible. I’m the son of Hades, and even I barely survived. Gaea’s forces overwhelmed me instantly. They’re so powerful down there…no demigod would stand a chance. I almost went insane.”
“Then we’ll sail for Epirus,” Percy says after giving Nico a strange look. “We’ll just close the gates on this side.”
“I wish it were that easy,” Nico replies. “The doors would have to be controlled on both sides to be closed. It’s like a double seal. Maybe, just maybe, all seven of you working together could defeat Gaea’s forces on the mortal side, at the House of Hades. But unless you had a team fighting simultaneously on the Tartarus side, a team powerful enough to defeat a legion of monsters in their home territory—”
“There has to be a way,” the blond boy speaks up. No one else speaks and the the entire ship begins to descend to a place like a palace.
Percy speaks up again. “We’ll figure out the Tartarus problem later. Is that the Emmanuel Building?”
The ship’s captain nods. “Bacchus said something about the parking lot in back? Well, there it is. What now?”
Percy pauses. “We have to get her out,” he says.
“Well, yeah,” the captain agrees. “But, uh…” He seems to change his mind then. “There’s a parking lot in the way.”
Percy looks over and a satyr in a baseball cap comes into view.. “Bacchus said something about breaking through. Coach, you still have ammo for those ballistae?”
The satyr grins almost manically. “I thought you’d never ask.”
And from there the memory fades out leaving Nico to stare at Sousei instead. Well…that’s awkward.]
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Because... that, too, is the sort of person he is...?
Perhaps that is what it is.
Sousei's quiet for a long moment, arms crossed as he processes this, and then he quirks an eyebrow at Nico.]
We do not have to discuss it if you are unwilling to do so. You did not choose to share this.
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...it was about six months ago, sir. [That is to say that they don't have to discuss it since it's the past, but he also wouldn't mind simply to sate curiosity. He asked Sousei enough questions.]
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Then I have only one question for you. You need not answer, if you are uncomfortable doing so.
[...]
If you are surrounded by such people, who believe that the world can change even in circumstances that are grim, do you not believe in their beliefs as well?
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Circumstances were a bit difficult back home. I didn't think they would actually come to save me. [...] But Percy's the strongest demigod I've ever met. I don't think he would have stopped at anything less than fixing the world. It took all of us to take down Gaea though.
[So...] ...I believe it now more than I used to. Knowing we're all on the same side and part of the same team instead. I believe it more some days than others, but there are people that are in my life now that make it easier.
One of them is here. The others aren't.
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I see. That was all I wished to know. I believe I understand a little better now what your stance is.
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Thank you, sir. [Yeah his stance is a Mess but here we are. At least the bubble's gone.] I've thought about what you've said though. I'm trying still.
[Hope has to win out in this case. Even if it's hard to believe some days.]