#crumble the dark gaia
Text
evil twin (not identical)
51 notes
·
View notes
Note
Cloud tells his mom about Sephiroth locking himself in the basement and he hasn't eaten in days. She figures that is just NOT GOOD and makes him a home cooked meal and a jug of lemonade and determinedly goes to the mansion to deliver it...
Heck yeah! Them maternal instincts kicking IN! ❤️
Claudia is not at all unnerved by the ambience of the manor. Not in the slightest. She has the rawest of Nibelheim hearts, desensitized to anything and everything the town has to throw at her. Cobwebs? Nah. Creaky stairs? Please! She’s wrapped her delivery in layers upon layers of tinfoil so a speck of dust can’t so much as LOOK in the direction of her food. It was for the sad, confused military man!
Sephiroth is as oblivious as ever as she reaches the room, his nose buried in a book and about half of the library’s arsenal scattered around him.
“Excuse me… Sir?”
Sephiroth stiffens, and his world blips. It isn’t that fuzzy shape’s voice that he heard just then, pleading for him to come back, pleading for the 100th time. It’s… different. Completely different. Satiny, almost. Velvety.
Loving,
Is this—
Sephiroth’s voice leaves him in a crack. “…Mother?”
Claudia, standing by the door, is very confused. But it’s an amused confusion that flashes across her face.
“You can say that, dear. I’m Cloud’s mother. He came here with you on the mission.” She smiles. “He’s told me a lot about you.”
Sephiroth turns around then. The names don’t click in his mind, almost ricocheting. The only thing that truly sticks—that matters—is the fact that she is NOT his mother. She is no one then. Irrelevant.
“Get out,” Sephiroth snarls, that previous awe draining from his eyes. “Now.”
Claudia, though, is not deterred. Not in the slightest. She sees his eyes, and sees the ink splotched all around them. Clear as daylight, dark as bruises. Dark as the ones her poor Cloud used to come home with. These books—they are bullies. That’s what they are. They are hurting him. He needs to get out of here.
And by Gaia, he is so thin. So pale. He needs to eat!
Sephiroth takes a step back as Claudia steps forward, the unearthly shape of his eyes quivering. But them maternal instincts are already activated. She carefully unwraps the big, delicious grilled Chocobo and hands it out to him, her voice soft and gentle, channeling all the nights and tears and solaces ribboned between the very essence of her motherly soul.
“Would you like to talk about it?”
Maybe it’s the way she said it. Maybe it was the way she looked while saying it. Maybe it was how good the Chocobo smelled in that dusty library. Something in Sephiroth splinters then—a toxic, steely fortress mortared with instinct and vulnerability cracking from her presence. And a fortress can’t stand with one crack; so it crumbles entirely.
They sit together on the floor, and Sephiroth tells her everything. He breaks into a sob, telling of his friends, how he can’t let go of their betrayal, how it still stings. He tells her of the revelations in the Reactor, of what flowed through his veins and the lies he was built around.
And Claudia listens. She listens, and she tells him that it’s okay. Over and over and over. That it’s not his fault. That nothing is. That he’s…
“Dear…” Claudia takes her plate back, only shiny white bones remaining. “You are not a monster.”
There’s something about the way she says it—the kindness in her voice, the tenderness in her eyes, the warmth of her aura… Sephiroth brushes his hair aside, sniveling.
He thinks he believes her.
They leave the manor that very night, Claudia’s love squeezing through his plated shoulder as they return to the surface of the town. Zack pulls Sephiroth into a hug and thanks Claudia profusely for bringing him back, and as Sephiroth hugs him back, as he starts to cry, Cloud watches the scene unfold with a whole spectrum damn full of questions. He goes to stand beside his mother.
“Wow, Ma. What did you do to get the general back?”
Claudia only smiles. “Just what every mother knows best.”
And all of a sudden there’s a giant silver-haired man guy thing towering over Cloud in the family photo. Yippie-do!
#ffvii#crisis core#sephiroth#claudia strife#I think that’s her name lol I actually didn’t check xD#asks#ty!!!#nibelheim#good vibes only!#weenie hut jrs#cloud strife#sephiroth and a healthy mother figure
118 notes
·
View notes
Text
Here's that Werehog Sonadow one shot that I mentioned last night
Also you can read it on my ao3 if you'd like
_____________
It had been quite a while since the Dark Gaia incident. Sonic was glad to be over with all of that. Although he had gotten used to his werehog form, he’d be lying if he said he was upset to lose it. Only thing is, Sonic eventually learned that it wasn’t entirely gone.
It happened one night. The sun was beginning to set, but Sonic was still out running. He decided to stop for a bit and take in the view. Sonic was still getting used to being able to enjoy the sunset. When he still had to deal with his werehog form, he had begun to dread the sun going down. Even if he eventually accepted his new form, it was still a pain each night having to transform into the beast. And he was never too fond of people seeing him like that. But now Sonic didn’t have to worry about that. At least, that’s what he thought.
Sonic smiled as he saw the sun go down. The sky started to grow darker as the moon started to rise up. Sonic’s body started to get a little shaky, but he didn’t seem to notice at first. It wasn’t until the moon became more visible that Sonic realized something was wrong. He felt a sharp, familiar pain rush through his body. Sonic crumbled onto the ground, his body shaking much more now. His gloves ripped apart as his claws tore through them. His fur turned a dark blue and grew longer, his whole body growing slightly larger as well. Sonic let out a painful howl as the transformation finished.
Sonic took some deep breaths as he slowly stood back up. He stared at himself in shock.
“I thought I was done with this,” he commented.
Sonic’s mind started racing as he questioned why this happened. Dark Gaia took back the energy that caused him to transform. Why was this happening to him again? He was fine before, why is he only now changing back?
Sonic looked around at his surroundings, trying to figure out what to do next. Tails’ place should be nearby, Sonic thought. Maybe he’ll have an idea what’s going on.
Sonic started running as fast as he could towards Tails’ place, though it was nowhere near as fast as his usual speed. He tried his best not to freak out, wanting to try and keep a level head, but he admitted that he was worried.
Tails was busy working on one of his latest gadgets when he heard a knock on his door.
“Hang on!” Tails called as he finished tightening the screw.
He heard another knock, this one much louder than the last one.
“I’m coming!” Tails replied, trying not to sound annoyed. He walked up to the door to see Sonic standing there in his werehog form, his face full of distress. Tails’ eyes widened as he saw his brother in this thought to be gone form.
“Sonic?”
“Tails, I need help,” Sonic said, walking inside.
“Sonic, what happened to you?” Tails asked. “I thought your werehog form was gone!”
“I thought so too!” Sonic replied. “But I was just out running around like usual, and then when it became night, I turned into this!”
Tails could tell that Sonic was panicked. He couldn’t blame him at all, he’d probably have the same reaction if he were in his situation.
“Sonic, sit down and try to relax, ok?” Tails instructed. “We’ll figure this out.”
Sonic nodded and walked over to the couch, trying to calm down. Tails went to the other room to grab some equipment. He dragged it all into the main room and started setting some of it up.
“Hopefully with some of this, we can figure out exactly what’s going on with you,” Tails said.
“Ok,” Sonic replied, though he seemed a little unsure.
“Don’t worry Sonic, I’m a genius. If anyone can figure out what’s going on here, it’s me.”
Sonic chuckled. “Yeah yeah, I get it,” he said. “Don’t worry Tails, I trust you.”
Tails gave Sonic a smile before finishing setting up the equipment. He had to hook up some stuff to Sonic before starting the different tests.
It took a while for Tails to gather enough data and do enough research to come to a final conclusion. Sonic was starting to get more anxious the longer it took for Tails to find an answer, but he kept assuring himself that Tails knew what he was doing. But eventually, Tails did come up with a theory.
“I think I’ve got it,” he said. “From what I can see, Dark Gaia’s energy didn’t entirely leave your body. There’s still very small traces of it left behind, probably due to it being there for so long.”
“But why didn’t I change at all any other night?” Sonic asked.
“I’m getting to that,” Tails explained. “You see, tonight is a full moon. Dark Gaia’s power is directly linked to the night, and I believe that Dark Gaia’s influence becomes stronger with the full moon.”
“So the power of the full moon is what brought out the tiny bit of dark energy I have left,” Sonic said.
“Exactly,” Tails agreed. “So it seems that you’ll only have to deal with this on the full moon.”
Sonic felt slightly relieved, but at the same time he was still upset. “So… any way to get rid of this?” he asked.
“Hmm…” Tails thought, looking back at the data he collected. “I’m not sure. The only way would be to remove the Dark Gaia energy, but I don’t know how we would do that. And there’s so little of it that I don’t even know if we’d be able to get rid of it.”
Sonic’s ears lowered in disappointment. Tails took notice and placed his hand on his brother’s back.
“It’s gonna be ok, Sonic,” he assured. “You’ll only have to worry about it about once a month. Every other night you’ll be the same speedy hedgehog as usual.”
“I know,” Sonic replied. “It’s just…” Sonic stared down at his claws before clenching them into fists.
“Why don’t you go lay down,” Tails suggested. “Just because you’re a werehog doesn’t mean you can’t get a good night’s sleep.”
Sonic nodded. “Yeah, maybe I just need some sleep.”
______________________________________________
Sonic continued life as normal after that. He had to be mindful of the moon phases, but other than that, he was the same hedgehog as before. It had been a few months since that night, and Tails was still the only one who knew. The fox tried to assure Sonic that it wasn’t a big deal and he shouldn’t be afraid to tell his other friends, but Sonic was still hesitant. He had thought back to how people had reacted in the past. Even if they would come to understand, the first impression would still hurt.
Sonic was good at hiding that side of himself anyway. He had gotten good at getting out of group outings when it was getting late. After all, he could always just use the excuse of he’s Sonic and can’t stay put for too long. His other friends didn’t seem to take much notice. He was still acting like the normal Sonic they all knew, so in their eyes, they didn’t see anything wrong, even if Tails had shown signs of worry.
It was another day like any other. Sonic was out running, making the most of the day since he knew it was going to be a full moon tonight. He got interrupted as he got a call from Tails.
“Hey buddy, what’s going on?” Sonic asked.
“Sonic! Eggman’s robots are attacking the city!” Tails informed. “I don’t think I can get there fast enough so-”
“So you need me to go handle it?” Sonic interrupted.
“Well don’t put it like that,” Tails replied.
“I’m just messing with you,” Sonic said. “Don’t worry, I’m on my way!”
Sonic sprinted off towards the coordinates Tails had sent him. When he got to the city, it seemed that most of the people had already evacuated. Sonic smirked.
“Great, we can just jump straight to the action!”
Sonic curled into a ball and spin dashed into the nearest robots, destroying three of them in an instant. He took a moment to congratulate himself before hitting another one with a homing attack. Sonic landed back on the ground and was about to go in for another attack, but stopped as he noticed a missile heading towards him. Sonic turned around, ready to dodge the attack, but was stopped as the missile was hit by something else, sending it flying towards a different robot. Sonic looked over and saw a familiar black hedgehog landing on the ground.
“You almost got blown up,” Shadow commented.
“Shadow! Nice to see you too,” Sonic greeted. “And I would’ve dodged it. I am the fastest thing alive after all.”
“Hmph. We don’t have time for banter. Eggman is sending more robots as we speak. We need to take these ones out before we get overwhelmed.”
Sonic nodded. “Let’s get to it then.”
The two hedgehogs quickly got to work destroying each of the robots terrorizing the city. The two of them were able to make quick work of them. These clearly weren’t the doctor’s best models. They finally destroyed every single robot in the area and Sonic did a little stretch after finishing up.
“Woo! That was a pretty good workout, don’t you think?” Sonic asked.
“It’s not over yet,” Shadow reminded, pointing to the second army of robots heading their way.
“Aw, I guess I sort of forgot,” Sonic replied. He looked at the sky real quick, checking to see how late it was getting. Shadow looked over at the blue hedgehog, raising an eyebrow as he saw him just staring up at the sky.
“What are you doing?” Shadow asked. “We’ve got robots to deal with.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sonic replied. We’ve got plenty of time, he decided.
Sonic quickly readied a spin dash as the robots got closer. Shadow followed, spin dashing at the robots as well. They continued the fight, destroying every robot in their way. It had seemed that they had finally finished fighting all of them after a long battle.
“Whew! Eggman’s making it hard on us this time,” Sonic commented.
“Nothing that we can’t handle,” Shadow said with a smirk.
Sonic smiled. “Aw, there’s that smile,” he said. “You know, sometimes I forget that you know how to smile.”
Shadow rolled his eyes. “And sometimes I forget that you actually know how to stop talking every once in a while.”
Sonic let out a laugh. Shadow smiled at him, but stopped as he noticed one last robot they had missed. It was much larger than the rest of them and readied a shot aimed for the hedgehogs.
Sonic stopped laughing and noticed the robot as well, but he was a little late as it already launched its attack. Shadow quickly teleported away, not even thinking to grab Sonic. Sonic tried to jump out of the way, but was unable to get away in time. The blast knocked him into a nearby building and was strong enough to knock the hedgehog out. Shadow reappeared and looked around, quickly realizing his mistake as he saw Sonic’s unconscious body laying on the ground.
“Sonic!” Shadow shouted.
He turned back to the robot who was reading another attack. Shadow glared at it and dashed forward. He could feel the chaos energy sparking through his body as his rage grew. As he approached the robot, he jumped into the air. His body started to glow a bright red.
“Chaos… BLAST!” Shadow shouted as the chaos energy exploded from his body, completely obliterating the robot. Shadow landed back on the ground and stood back up. He took a moment to catch his breath before turning towards Sonic and running over to him. He picked up his body, shaking him slightly to try and wake him up, but the blue hedgehog was completely knocked out.
“Crap,” Shadow mumbled under his breath. He looked around. It would be getting late soon and Shadow had used a lot of his energy to destroy that robot. He wouldn’t be able to get Sonic to G.U.N. HQ quick enough to have him rest there. Even then, he didn’t know if he’d trust the other agents enough to let Sonic rest there. Shadow figured it would be best to find a nearby inn to stay for the night.
Although the city they were currently in had evacuated, Shadow could still get Sonic to a different city nearby. So he carried Sonic and ran as fast as he could to the nearest inn that he could find. He quickly checked in, not bothering to answer any extra questions the people were asking like ‘Are you Shadow the Hedgehog?’ or ‘Is that Sonic? What happened to him?’
Shadow didn’t even realize that he had gone to one of the fancier places at first until he entered the room and realized that the main bedroom was separated from the rest of the place. Shadow quickly set Sonic on the bed, making sure to cover him up. He even grabbed the pillow and fluffed it up, not trusting the inn staff to do a good enough job for Sonic. After giving Sonic a gentle touch on the forehead, he finally decided to leave him be. He turned the light off before leaving Sonic alone.
Some time had passed and Sonic slowly opened his eyes. He sat up quickly as he realized he was laying in a bed. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was. He noticed the door and slowly opened it to try and see if he could figure anything out. Sonic started to get shaky and quickly closed the door as he realized what was about to happen.
“No no no…” Sonic started to panic. He ran over to the window and saw the full moon starting to appear. “No no no!” Sonic backed up and fell to the ground as the pain started. “AGH!” he screamed. He bumped into the night stand, knocking the lamp onto the ground.
Shadow was in the other room on the couch, reading through different pamphlets that were left in the room. Shadow blinked as he heard the commotion coming from the bedroom. He initially thought Sonic had simply gotten up and knocked something over due to his clumsiness. He decided not to bother him until he heard a loud, grumbling scream. Shadow quickly stood up and walked over to the bedroom.
He opened the door and looked around. The light was still off, so it was hard to make anything out, but he could see a large figure sitting in the corner of the room. There was a quiet growling noise coming from the creature. The beast turned to Shadow, staring at him with bright green eyes.
“Chaos-” Shadow began to prepare an attack.
“No no! Shadow it’s me!” The creature stood up, panicked.
Shadow stepped back slightly before turning on the light. The beast was larger than he was and had dark blue fur. He had large claws and large fangs. Shadow just stared at him in shock.
“Sonic?” he questioned.
Sonic lowered his ears and nodded. “Y-yeah…”
“What the hell is going on here?” Shadow asked.
“It’s… it’s a long story,” Sonic explained. “I didn’t want you to see me like this! Why did you have to bring me here?”
“You were unconscious! What was I supposed to do, leave you alone in the city?”
“I don’t know, maybe!” Sonic replied. “Just-” Sonic sat back down, curled up. “This wasn’t supposed to happen…”
Shadow stared at Sonic. Despite the hedgehog’s larger build, he had never seen Sonic look so weak before. He walked up to him.
“What’s going on?” he asked again, his voice much more calm this time.
“It… happened during the Dark Gaia incident,” Sonic explained. “I absorbed some of Dark Gaia’s energy and turned into… this thing. But after we defeated Dark Gaia, I figured this form would be gone forever, but…” Sonic let out a sigh. “Now whenever the full moon comes out, I turn back into the werehog.”
Shadow looked out the window, noticing the full moon on display. He then looked back at Sonic who still seemed very upset. Shadow sat down next to him.
“How come you never told me about this?” he asked.
Sonic looked over at Shadow before looking away again. “I was scared,” he admitted. “I… don’t like other people seeing me like this. Tails… is the only other one who knows about this.”
“Were you scared I’d see you as a monster?” Shadow questioned.
“You literally tried to chaos spear me as soon as you saw me,” Sonic reminded.
“It was a moment of weakness,” Shadow admitted. “I’m sorry that I scared you like that.” He placed his hand on Sonic, somewhat surprised at how soft his fur was.
Sonic sighed again. “That’s pretty much everyone’s first impression. They think I look like a monster.”
“Well you’re not a monster,” Shadow assured. “So if that’s what you were thinking, then you can stop.”
Sonic looked at Shadow again, but he still wasn’t smiling.
“Look, I get what it’s like,” Shadow continued. “There’s still people who are afraid of me. And… it does hurt sometimes. But you can’t let those thoughts drag you down. The only one who decides who you are is you.”
Sonic seemed to lighten up slightly. He thought about Shadow’s words for a bit.
“Sonic, don’t let this get you down, ok?” Shadow said. “It’s not a good look for you to be this sad about something.”
Sonic chuckled. “Right. That’s your job.”
Shadow shoved Sonic slightly.
“Hey, I see that smile,” Sonic pointed out.
“I’m only smiling because you’re smiling.”
Sonic laughed again. Even with his gruffer voice, Sonic’s laugh was still nice to hear.
“Good, I got you laughing again,” Shadow said, standing up. “Feeling better?”
“Yeah,” Sonic admitted, standing up to join Shadow. He looked down at the lamp he had broken earlier. “Huh. Guess we’ll have to pay for that.”
“We’ll deal with it later,” Shadow assured. “We’ve had a long day. We need some rest.”
Sonic nodded. “Yeah. I think I could go for some rest.”
28 notes
·
View notes
Text
Awakening - Oneshot
A oneshot I began a long time ago which I decided to edit a bit and post because why not.
Based on my True Gaia AU which I decided to merge into another AU that I've yet to give a proper name. I'm calling it Old Man Sonic AU as a placeholder until I figure out some more details.
Summary: Chip reawakens, but things are very different now.
Words: 2,839
The sun shone above in the clear blue sky, casting warm rays of light down on the forest canopy and trickling down to the forest's floor.
… …
A creature lies on a soft bed of grass, perfectly still. Sound failed to reach their ears and their eyes refused to open.
… … …?
Voiceless thoughts came up in its mind. Confusion, mostly. Anger as well…? But why?
… … …
The creature's mind remained blank. Its head hurt.
…
… Wh...
… What… happened…?
Where… am I…?
The creature found an inner voice. It's thoughts were beginning to have more meaning than just vague feelings, vague emotions it didn't know why it felt. Consciousness was just within its grasp.
Their eyes slowly inch open, letting in the warm morning light and the splashes of green from the forest they slumbered in. Their ears pick up the sound of a gentle wind flowing through the leaves of the trees above, the sound of birds chirping and singing. They felt the grass beneath their body, the fresh breeze on their fur.
His eyes slowly close again, the creature barely having the energy to keep them open. Everything seemed far too bright for their tired eyes. Moving was too much of a bother.
The creature began to recall, memories that seemed distant appearing in his mind's eye. Long periods of silence, of nothing. Then there would be destruction like no other. He saw a lush, beautiful world crumble over and over after so long of seeing nothing but void. He saw entire civilizations crumble, the extinction of all life. The memories terrified him, but his body refused to move, to let him wake from this seemingly neverending nightmare. He could only whimper in silence.
It remembered two beings, one a gigantic, lizard-like abomination, the other a small, fairy-like canine. It saw the destruction from both sides, from the side of the monster, and the side of the little fairy. They clashed millions of times, each cycle followed by a long period of slumber, until…
One memory returns to them, a recent one. They wake up to the grizzly sight of a beast, covered in shaggy blue fur and spines, sharp, green eyes staring right at them. A few moments later, the beast's form was engulfed in a bright light and dissipated into purple smoke, revealing a young blue hedgehog. They eventually became friends.
The hedgehog's name escaped them. It started with an 'S'...?
He couldn't think too long about that. More memories came back to him, of monsters appearing in the night, of painfully grasping at what energy he had left to free himself from his prison, of another battle between the two strange creatures, of winning, of losing.
Then there was a bittersweet goodbye, before everything returned to void again. Though something changed. It didn't want to slumber anymore. It held on to the memory of the friend it had made, until it could see him again. It watched as he went from one adventure to the next, cheering him on silently. It remembered its rage rising with every one of his victories until it exploded.
It's becoming hard to tell which memory belonged to which creature.
At some point, in the void, the rage became too much to handle for both creatures. There was a wish from the small fairy, to stop the clashes, the needless fighting. And the monster, for once, listened. Perhaps they, too, were tired of all their battles. Perhaps they were touched by the hedgehog's kindness as well. The feelings were too muddled to tell.
But there was one thing they knew for certain. They both wanted to let this go.
Then, there was and embrace. The darkness no longer felt as cold as it did once before. After that, silence.
Now he's here, barely keeping himself awake and going through his memories in his head, trying to remember what led him here. He couldn't find an answer, but at least he remembered the blue hedgehog's name.
'Sonic'.
The hedgehog had given it a name too. 'Chip', named after its favorite food. It never knew it had a favorite food until it met him. Turns out it really liked chocolate.
It was called two other names, too. 'Light Gaia'. 'Dark Gaia'. They belonged to the two creatures it used to be.
They are one now. It felt strange, confusing. There was a flurry of memories, memories from both sides over billions of years. Yet it felt somewhat natural. Perhaps they were always meant to become one god. Maybe they were one in the first place. They couldn't remember that far back.
He opened his eyes again, reminding himself that, yes, he was physically on Mobius now. The time he spent recalling all those memories felt like hours. It might've been. He couldn't really tell.
It pushed itself up weakly, groaning, but it managed to sit up and look at its surroundings. Its eyes took some time to adjust to the light, but after a moment it could see everything clearly. There were trees as far as they eye could see.
They slowly push themself up to stand, legs trembling slightly. They weren't used to walking, neither of their past forms ever did it much. Their wings fluttered as they looked over their new form. It was quite similar to that of a mobian's, though noticeably different from an average one. The fur on most of their body was maroon, with an off white patch on their chest and belly. They had four arms instead of the usual two, their forearms and hands covered in dark purple scales and tipped with bright cyan claws. Their feet were similar to their hands too, starting with fur then changing to scales down the lower leg.
He turned his head to see a long tail, tipped with a long tuft of fur the same color as the patch on his chest, fading into purple at the ends. He pulled his tail up and began to gently brush its soft fur with his claws. He raised his free set of hands to his face, feeling the short fur on his muzzle, then moving on to his forehead, feeling the sharp horns on top. Then he felt long, hair-like fur, and gently pulled a few strands into view. Just like the tuft on his tail, it was off white and faded into purple.
It blinked, trying to process what was happening, and all the new sensations it felt.
I'm… alive? How did I…?
Its head began to hurt again.
The creature looked up at the sky, clear blue obscured by green foliage. Then it looked at the rest of their surroundings, forest mostly cast in shadow, save for the bands of light that leaked in between the leaves. Mushrooms and moss rested on tree bark, almost blue in color. It was… pretty. It didn't have any other words to describe what it saw. It was just pretty.
The dazed being stood there, taking in the sight. They felt tired. A bit… empty. Something was missing, but they didn't know what. And, frankly, they were too tired to try and search for that missing piece now, whatever it was.
A gust of wind blows by. He feels something… strange. A trace of energy, Chaos Energy. And something else. Something familiar.
Something dark.
He turned in the direction the wind blew, taking a clumsy step. He trips, falling back down on the grass with a thump.
He groaned as he tried to push himself up into a sitting position. Perhaps walking wasn't a good idea.
Its wings fluttered, buzzing as they lifted it off the ground. It swayed slightly, but eventually found balance. Flying felt much more natural than walking.
So, after that small misstep, the creature floated off into the dark shadows of the forest, following the wind and the small traces of energy it left behind.
-
They wandered for what felt like hours, alternating between walking and flying. The forest was seemingly endless, nothing but trees and strange fungi for miles. Though, to their relief, they eventually find a pond, its crystal clear water glistening in the sunlight.
The being stumbled to its edge, almost falling in. He stared at his reflection in the water's distorted mirror. Eyes like emeralds stared back, five of them, two of a normal size, two smaller ones right next to them, and one on his forehead, decorating his face like gemstones. The larger two had golden irises surrounding slit pupils, shrunken by the light on his face.
… Is that… really me?
It lowered a clawed hand down into the water, touching the reflection and watching it twist with the rippling water.
I look so… different from what I remember…
It continued to pass its hand through the water, feeling it flow through their fingers and watching the ripples on its surface. It began to feel… disconnected. Untethered to the world. Sounds began to fade, unheard in the creature's ears. Its surroundings turned hazy. Everything felt like a dream. Maybe it was dreaming, still slumbering, trapped in the planet's core. It couldn't tell.
A sudden sound breaks them out of their daze, a gentle sound, yet unlike anything they had heard in the woods so far. The plucking of strings, one after another, soft yet stronger than the sounds of the forest. They sounded off a gentle melody, carried by the wind to where they sat. It was lovely and… familiar, somehow. It reminded them of a time long past, of a friendship come and gone.
He stood up, ears turned in the direction of the music, and he began walking towards its source. It grew louder and louder as he approached, the traces of energy he felt becoming stronger and more unified, until he saw it. Sitting upon a stone, a blue hedgehog wearing an old cloak played a red guitar to the beat of his tapping foot, a soft smile on his face.
He took a step forward, accidentally stepping on a twig and snapping it in half.
The hedgehog suddenly stops at the sound. He turns his head towards the being, emerald eyes meeting his own.
He looked like someone it used to know. A dear friend. It reached out to him hesitantly as it began to call his name.
"So…"
And in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
"... nic."
Couldn't even say his name before he disappeared.
"Mm…" I must be seeing things…
It sat down next to the stone, using it as a backrest and closing its eyes. It was tired, all that walking drained what little energy it had. It leaned back on the rock as it was slowly dragged into unconsciousness once more.
I guess… it was nice to be awake… just for a little while…
-
…
The creature awoke, finding themself somewhere new, surrounded by something soft and warm, a nest of blankets and pillows. They saw a ceiling of stone above them. Rain poured outside, its sound accompanied by guitar music. The blue hedgehog sat before them, no longer wearing the cloak, happily playing his old guitar in front of a crackling campfire. The calming tune almost lulled them to sleep again.
"Mornin', stranger," the hedgehog says just as the music stops.
"Mn… morning…?" they mumble as they sit up and rub their hazy head, "W-where am I?"
The hedgehog looked back at him, smiling, "Just one of my little burrows. I couldn't just leave you out in the rain to catch a cold."
The creature took a good look at the hedgehog's face. He looked older, possibly around middle-age, late-thirties at least. His green eyes were kind and almost glowing in the shadows. His long, cobalt blue spines were tipped in a light, off white color. His smile was so soft, so kind, there was no doubt in his mind, that was Sonic sitting right before him.
"Sonic…?"
The hedgehog seemed surprised to hear that name, but his smile didn't falter.
"Oh, have we met before? Sorry, my memory's been a bit, ah… faulty, lately," he said, scratching the back of his head with his left hand. Around his wrist rested a bracelet, a bit worn with time, but still well taken care of. A green gem glistened, reflecting the light of the fire.
"You don't… recognize me?" the being muttered, clutching the blankets wrapped around him with his claws.
The hedgehog remained silent for a moment, thinking.
"Y'know… Now that you mention it, you do look kinda familiar," he said, giving him a strange look, "Nah, you couldn't be…" He stood from his spot, stepping in closer to him, eyeing him.
It should tell him, but what name would it give? It had three, and the people associated with them had become muddled into one. Though one of the names was given to it by Sonic, so maybe…
"Chip. It's me… Chip."
It came out almost instinctively, that precious name Sonic had assigned to them. When he heard it, his eyes grew wide and he tackled them into a hug with such force and speed he knocked them to the ground. They gasped as strong arms wrapped around them, nearly crushing their ribs.
Sonic laughed. "Chip! Oh Chaos, I missed you so much!"
Chip smiled, returning the embrace, "I… missed you too."
"You look so different now! What happened?" he asked, pulling away from the hug and giving Chip space to breathe.
"I'm… not sure."
"Wait, if you're back, then that means Dark Gaia might be out there somewhere too," Sonic said as he began pacing around, distressed by the thought, "The world's been at peace for a long time. We can't have it causing any trouble."
"I… Well, you're kinda right, but…"
Sonic tilted his head, confused, "... 'But' what?"
"I…" they hesitate, looking down at their claws, "I'm… Chip. But I'm also Dark Gaia."
"... What?"
"I'm Chip and Dark Gaia."
They stared at each other, one with a blank face and the other with a perplexed expression.
"Wait, so… you two fused together or something?"
"I think so?" Chip replied, before sighing and laying themself back down, "Honestly, I'm too tired to think about that too much right now… I know for sure it won't be causing any more apocalypses now, though."
"... I see."
"You don't… hate me, do you?" Chip blurted out.
Sonic's quills raised, seemingly surprised by the question. "What? No! Why would I?"
"Because…" Chip tried to think, trying to put his racing thoughts into words, "Because, well… Dark Gaia and I are one and the same now. I remember everything it did… I remember wanting to destroy everything… wanting to hurt you…"
"Chip, that wasn't you."
"But it was!" He suddenly sat back up again, agitated "... Wasn't it?"
Chip could feel warm tears begin to well in its eyes, its chest becoming heavy with the weight of guilt.
Sonic pulled it into his arms, embracing it once more, but this time, he was much more gentle. He began rubbing circles on its back. Tears began to fall, slipping down Chip's cheeks.
"Look, Chip," Sonic began, "I think you're just confused by all of this. I don't blame you, I don't really understand what's going on, either. But you'll always be Chip in my eyes, whether you're fused with Dark Gaia or not."
Chip closed their eyes, wrapping their arms around Sonic and hugging him tight. They felt a weight being lifted by his words.
"We'll figure this out together, okay?"
"... Okay."
They remained in each other's arms for a while, sitting in a somber, yet oddly comfortable silence as Chip let themself cry in Sonic's shoulder. The hedgehog held them until the tears stopped falling. Eventually, they felt Sonic lower them back onto the soft pillows and blankets, lying them down with care.
"You look really tired. Being awakened early and all that must've taken its toll, huh?" he said.
"Mhm…"
Sonic got up, grabbing his guitar before sitting back down next to Chip. A hand landed on their head, wearing a white fingerless glove. The exposed fingers were slightly fuzzy, pale blue and tipped with sharp claws. They didn't remember Sonic's hands being like this, not in this form, anyway, though they supposed he had just changed over time. He did look a lot older, after all.
Then again, he didn't remember ever seeing his hands without gloves in the first place, except after transforming into that beast…
That doesn't really matter now, does it?
Sonic gently rubbed the fur on his head. "Sleep as much as you need to, pal. You're gonna need the energy now that you're free."
With rain still pouring down outside the burrow, Chip felt his eyelids grow heavy, and he slowly drifted to sleep once more. But before everything faded to darkness, he heard Sonic whispering something to him as he began to play another tune on his guitar.
"We've got two hundred years of catching up to do, kid."
#sonic the hedgehog#chip the light gaia#light gaia#dark gaia#sonic au#sonic fanfic#sonic fanfiction#oneshot#☆my writing☆#i'm not gonna make a tag for a specific au bc. it's a mess rn#i mostly wrote this for fun and to play around a bit with the concepts#so it's possible things may get retconned here and there as time goes on#i don't feel like there'd be much to retcon here tho so. idk#um anyways enjoy!
39 notes
·
View notes
Note
"If I'm not a bad person, then why does everyone tell me that I am? Why does everyone treat me like I am? Why do they all hate me so much?!" / for cyrillo, from gaia -- oof... gaia's probably having a rlly bad day ;;
a novel i'll never publish | @metrictita approaches cyrillo!
how his heart breaks as he watches gaia's expression crumble, listens to her voice waver and crack; how quickly he reaches out, a gloved hand brushing away tears she refuses to let fall, the stubborn woman. " oh, tesoro, " cyrillo murmurs. " i've known plenty of bad people in my lifetime. you are not one of them. "
it's laughable to think of gaia as anything but good. a bad person does not put their life in danger for the sake of others. a bad person does not hold someone's hand as they are haunted by their past. a bad person does not care and care deeply and easily and---
who made her believe she is anything but good? cyrillo would make them regret it if he could. if anyone might be bad, it's him, as wrathful as he can be.
" kaiya thinks the world of you, " the vampire begins, fingers carding through gaia's hair. " you are the reason she kept going all this time, you know. she believed in you, believes in you still. she wouldn't be here if not for the impact you had on her.
" rin holds the weight of the world on her shoulders, but do you realize she doesn't seem quite so weary when you're around? you're one of the few people i've seen her so... natural with. "
cyrillo pulls back just enough to meet gaia's gaze, gentle as he cradles her cheek, brushes a thumb just under her eye. " you've never flinched away from me despite what i am. you have seen me covered in blood, often not my own, and still you would let me hold you. still you would comfort me when melancholy strikes. " adoration glows in the darkness of cyrillo's eyes, and he smiles. he smiles and feels the warmth that consumes him inside and out. he smiles and knows he can't possibly hide how deeply he's come to feel for the mage in his arms. he doesn't really care to.
" can you really tell me that you're a bad person with all you've done for us? how could we ever hate you, gaia? "
#metrictita#hi this grabbed me and shook me around and threw me on the floor and i'm just ;;;;;;;;;; over gaia and over the way cyrillo sees her#he could never think she's a bad person and will literally fight whoever made her believe that#heck i would too >:(#interactions | cyrillo#the night has a thousand eyes | main | cyrillo
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Pinky Unleashed Ch 11
AN: I like angst and werewolf Pinky too much, okay?
AO3 Link
Ch 11: Surface Pressure
“Sacrilege! You dare bring a servant of Dark Gaia to my domain? He is not welcome here!”
Pinky whimpered, shrinking away from the bull statue’s fiery glare as it blamed him for something beyond his control. He tucked his claws out of sight, in the vain hope that hiding them would make the statue less furious at his presence.
Brain’s fists clenched at the pitiful sight. Pinky was many things, including every synonym for idiot in the thesaurus, but he was definitely not helping an evil entity rain destruction upon the planet.
He didn't care if this bull statue was some all-powerful artifact, deity, or spirit from ancient times. Nobody was allowed to accuse Pinky of committing such awful acts.
"Pinky serves me, you glorified tin can! He's not affiliated with Dark Gaia, so cut your ridiculous claims before you say something you'll regret!" Brain shouted.
"Um, Brain?" Chip said meekly. "Maybe we shouldn't make the very scary statue-"
The statue's eyes flared a bright, dangerous red as the entire temple quaked.
"-angry," Chip squeaked, huddling beside a wide-eyed, frightened Pinky.
Whether he was afraid of the sudden quake, or the statue's accusations was uncertain. Despite his fear, he had enough awareness to snake his long tail around Brain's waist and drag him to safety in his large shadow as the ground trembled from some unseen power.
Though Brain's first instinct was to disentangle himself, Pinky's tail provided the only stability he had in this disaster-stricken world. It had a practical purpose, so he grudgingly allowed it.
Only until the earthquake ended though. He had a reputation to maintain.
Stop shaking, he scolded his traitorous hands, which tightly gripped the pink skin of Pinky's tail as the ground continued to rattle.
"FOOLS! YOU DARE INSULT ME WHEN YOU BRING THAT CREATURE INTO MY TEMPLE, IGNORANT OF THE DESTRUCTION IT WILL WROUGHT? DON'T ATTEMPT TO DECEIVE ME, I KNOW YOU'RE ALL ALLIED WITH DARK GAIA!"
Brain gritted his teeth, wanting to shout that the statue needed to quit making ridiculous assumptions, but Pinky’s tailtip was coiled around his mouth.
“However, it has been millennia since I was last…entertained.”
The fearsome glow in the statue’s blazing eyes dimmed, the earthquake finally ceasing. Once the ground was steady underfoot, Brain broke free from Pinky’s tight grip.
"Enter my labyrinth. I will dispose of you personally to ensure the protection of the earth. Make your way to the end…if you dare."
A jagged crack appeared in the bull statue’s snout, quickly spreading over its head, chest, and back before it crumbled into lifeless bronze shards. Everyone silently stared at the remains, unwilling to move or say anything in case the statue pierced itself back together.
Among the rubble was an opening in the floor that had been previously covered up by the statue. Peering in, Brain could only see three stone steps, the rest of the staircase blocked by a wall of darkness.
Then Chip bravely crept out of Pinky’s shadow. Slowly reaching out with one finger, he poked at a fragment that used to be a hoof. He yelped, leaping back when the fragment fell over.
But nothing else happened.
Brain counted to ten before finally deeming it safe to come out from underneath Pinky.
“We are not your entertainment, you barbaric bovine,” Brain snapped as he picked up a bronze shard and hurled it at the statue’s face for good measure.
It harshly struck the statue's snout, bouncing off with a metallic clang.
Don't ever insinuate that Pinky is capable of destroying the world in my presence again.
If it weren't such a horrifying concept, he might've laughed at just how ludicrous it was.
Behind him, Pinky whimpered faintly, lying despondently on his stomach and trying to hide his paws from view.
Though Brain tried to focus his thoughts on making it through the temple alive, the sad, pathetic sight felt like a knife to the chest, and Brain found it impossible to ignore the sensation no matter how much he tried to focus on logic.
Steeling himself for the physical contact, Brain placed a hand on Pinky's muzzle, the soft fur brushing against his palm. "Ignore every filthy statement that moronic bull spewed out of his cud-chewing mouth, Pinky. It's nothing but…well, bull."
Pinky just stared at him with big, watery blue eyes.
Brain looked away. Pinky had a wide spectrum of aggravating, ever-shifting emotions. Sadness was always the worst of the bunch.
Brain's vast intellect wasn't useful when Pinky cried. All logic failed when he tried to stop the tears and bring back that stupid little smile.
All he could do was stand nearby, feeling dumb and helpless, and wait for the crying to cease.
Though his mind screamed that they didn't have all the time in the world, that they needed to get through the temple, something else deep within told him to make sure Pinky was…able to properly assist him.
It would be so much easier to concentrate on the temple if Pinky would cease his crying! But ordering him to stop never worked, as he learned from unfortunate experience.
The only thing he could do was keep his hand pressed against Pinky's muzzle and hope that by some miracle Pinky would get that disturbing legend and vessel nonsense out of his head in the next five minutes so Brain could concentrate on getting everybody through the temple in one piece.
Then Pinky jerked away with a whine. The sudden movement startled Brain, and he could only stare at Pinky as he slowly stood up. It was a pale shadow of Pinky’s usually peppy and excitable demeanor.
Brain’s hand pushed against empty air, only the fleeting memory of soft fur against his fingertips left behind.
Since when did Pinky shy away from physical touch? Normally, it took all of Brain’s strength to pry him off because he was clingy and irritating when he needed physical stimulation.
Or was this about his arm? Because it didn’t trouble him anymore. Chip’s strange healing ability had cleared away the pain and bleeding. It wasn’t even scarred.
“Nothing to worry about, Pinky,” Brain tried, holding out his healed arm for Pinky to see. “It’s healed now. We can move on.”
But Pinky turned and walked away, tail dragging along the floor. He wasn’t going to let it go that easily.
This matter would have to wait, Brain tried to tell himself. So why was it so difficult to turn his attention to navigating the temple?
Oblivious to the tension, Chip’s head popped out from behind a large bronze fragment that used to be part of the statue’s head.
“Hey, I think I’ve found something!” he called. “Take a look at this!”
Even if it wasn’t necessarily helpful, Brain seized advantage of the distraction and climbed over the rubble until he reached Chip, who was standing in front of a strange inscription that appeared to be written in the same language as the Gaia Manuscripts.
Pinky stood close enough to listen in, though he still kept his distance.
Brain resisted the urge to look at him, knowing that Pinky’s melancholy would only creep into his mind and make it difficult to focus on anything else.
Though he tried to make sense of the inscription, he never had the chance to ask the professor for the key on deciphering the ancient language. There wasn’t exactly a Rosetta Stone available to use as a guide.
Chip placed his finger on a symbol, the green bauble on his neck shining faintly. “This says ‘Teros the Bull, Temple Guardian of Earth’.”
It was hard enough to process that Chip had somehow opened the passage into the temple. And now he had the ability to read this mysterious language too?
“How are you able to read this?” Brain asked. Even the professor didn’t have it all translated, and Snowball was reliant on other sources for his information.
Chip’s wings fluttered nervously. “I really don’t know! I just can, I guess!”
Despite his bewilderment, Brain couldn’t deny that it was a useful ability. It would certainly save a lot of time.
There was a piece of the puzzle he was missing.
It couldn't be a coincidence that Chip had the ability to open Gaia Temples and read ancient engravings.
Trust Pinky to befriend someone with the exact sort of powers we need.
Something to ponder for later.
"Temple Guardian of Earth…" Brain murmured to himself as he took in his surroundings.
The soil material that made up the ceiling, somehow holding together without burying them alive. The depictions of farmers tilling their fields with bulls on yokes, the earthquake that occurred when Teros' anger flared…
Brain's eyes widened, his ears falling limply against his back as he came to a sudden realization.
"He can control the earth," Brain whispered. A dreadful feeling washed over him.
As if they weren't in over their head already.
In a place where soil, metal, and stone was everywhere, the Temple Guardian wielded complete power over them.
How are we supposed to contend with that?
There was a light tap on his shoulder. "Brain, are you okay?" Chip asked in worry. "You look kinda pale."
Pinky let out a soft 'aroo'.
They were waiting on him, no, relying on him to make the plan and lead them through the temple.
I don't have a…no! They can't know that I don't have enough reliable information, oh what am I saying? I'm the Brain! Of course I have a plan! I always have a plan!
"No need for concern," Brain said brusquely, quickly straightening his posture and lifting his ears so that his body language wouldn't betray him. "I was merely coming up with a plan to get through this labyrinth. That's all."
Even though he didn't know what to expect within the labyrinth. Teros' threat loomed heavily over him. He made it sound like it wouldn't just be a maze that was challenging but doable.
"What's a labyrinth?" Chip asked.
It was incredibly relieving to have a question where he could confidently give an answer.
"In classical mythology, it was an underground dungeon built to hold a vicious half-man, half-bull creature. It was impossible to navigate unless one had a special thread to guide the way, and it was filled with lethal traps and hostile creatures," Brain explained, grateful for his literary expertise. "But the term can be applied to any challenging maze."
Pinky pretended to apply eyeliner.
"No, Pinky. The chances of running into David Bowie in tight pants here are miniscule to zero."
Pinky wiped his forehead in relief.
Chip twitched nervously. “So will this labyrinth be challenging?”
“An absurd question,” Brain said. “I’ve had plenty of experience navigating through insipid mazes at the lab. Even if this labyrinth is more complex and layered than the standard fare, I shall have it figured out in no time. All you need to do is follow my lead and don’t wander off. That goes double for you, Pinky.”
With his bold assertion, Chip and Pinky perked up, completely believing that all they had to do was follow Brain’s instructions and they’d make it through the dungeon just fine.
Brain wished he could feel the same, as much as he wanted to believe in his own claims.
The lab rarely created new mazes, usually running their mice through the same setup each time. The repetitive nature had long sunk into Brain’s mind, and muscle memory guided him while he focused on dissuading Pinky from taking random turns on a whim.
But this labyrinth was unfamiliar. It would take time to work out a pattern while trying to stay alive.
“Before we forge onwards, I’m laying out some ground rules,” Brain declared. “The most important of these is that both of you will follow my instructions to the letter. If I say turn left, we turn left. If I say straight, we head straight. And we remain in each other’s sight at all times. There will be no wandering, lagging behind, or fooling around. Understand?”
Pinky and Chip nodded.
Well, Pinky would likely get distracted at some point. Though Brain knew that Pinky didn’t do it on purpose, it was still an irritating quirk. But he was expecting it.
“Chip, you’ll be our scout,” Brain added. “Fly overhead and report any paths, traps, or anything unusual you see.”
Chip’s wings fluttered. “Right. I can do that!” he exclaimed.
Then Brain turned to Pinky. He’d thought long and hard over what task to assign Pinky, knowing that he would function better if he had something to keep him occupied.
“Pinky, keep your ears pricked for danger. If you hear anything suspicious, let me know immediately. If we run into anything hostile, our first action is retreat. We will only engage if escape isn’t an option.”
The fact remained that Pinky was the only one in their ragtag group who could potentially ward off threats. Chip clearly wasn’t a fighter and Brain didn’t have any weaponry apart from his sharp mind.
But since the present danger was growing with every passing second, that would have to change in the future. He didn’t want to feel completely unprepared anymore.
Pinky shuffled his paws, an anxious growl coming from deep within his throat.
He was the reason why Brain wanted to retreat instead of fighting back as their first action. He couldn’t gauge how much self-control Pinky had in battle, nor did he want Pinky to fight alone without reliable backup.
“Just do as I say, Pinky, and you won’t have to worry about fighting anything,” Brain said, turning on his flashlight as he approached the mysterious staircase. He wasn’t sure how far down it went, only that it was underground, dark, and cold. “Now come. We’ve dawdled here long enough.”
Chip’s orb glowed as they began their descent, casting an eerie green shimmer on the rocky walls.
Any amount of light helped.
But it was disconcerting to observe Pinky’s dark fur blending in seamlessly with the pitch-black labyrinth. His blue eyes glowed brightly, and though their situation was bleak, somehow the shine provided a faint glimmer of hope.
Brain tumbled off the last step, not expecting the drop to be so steep, or for the ground to change from relatively smooth to rough and gritty.
He quickly stood up and dusted himself off, waving away Pinky's soft whine and Chip's attempt to aid him.
Just because he wasn't enormous like Pinky or had wings like Chip didn't mean he was vulnerable.
"I'm fine," he said, waving his flashlight around so he could get a better idea of his surroundings.
The walls were made up of the same rough, rocky material as the floor, but as he trailed his flashlight towards the ceiling, his heart sank as he spotted their first problem.
The stalactite-covered ceiling hung low, the sloped walls curving to form a tunnel that seemed to stretch on forever.
Brain wasn't claustrophobic. He lived in a cage, he walked through mazes all the time, he'd navigated plenty of narrow crawlspaces on the quest to world domination.
So why did it feel so cramped here? He could've sworn
He didn't dare send Chip to scout ahead by himself, lest he and Pinky lose sight of him.
"Let's keep moving," Brain said, cursing himself for his hesitation. "Chip, stay low for now. Perhaps the ceiling will rise later and we can better map our route."
Chip nodded, sticking close to Pinky,
As they traversed the tunnel, Brain could feel Pinky's eyes on his back, watching him closely.
Dim as he was, Pinky had always been great at sensing Brain's moods. He got the odd sense that Pinky could see right through his confident leader facade, though he couldn't say it aloud.
Brain just wanted to keep his pride and dignity intact for as long as he could.
There was a chill in the air, water dripping from somewhere above them. A musty scent clogged Brain's nose, and he blamed the effort it took just to breathe on the stench rather than his nerves.
The tunnel finally opened into a T-shaped split path. Unfortunately, the ceiling was still too low for Chip to fly.
Two options. One could lead to the end of the maze, or to certain doom. Or they were both terrible choices, and Brain could only hope he was choosing the less painful demise.
"Hear anything, Pinky?" Brain asked.
Pinky's ears twitched constantly as he listened for any noise. He moved towards the path leading right, only for his hackles to rise, his fur bristling as he nervously growled.
Chip gulped. "That doesn't sound good…"
"Try the left path," Brain said. Pinky's violent reaction told him all he needed to know.
But that didn't mean the opposite direction was any safer.
Pinky tilted his head to the left, ears still twitching. Brain tried not to stomp his foot and shout at Pinky to hurry up.
If there was truly something else lurking within the labyrinth, he didn't want to risk discovery.
Then Pinky's tail wagged. Based on his lack of negative reaction, the left path was definitely the better option.
"This way," Brain declared. He never thought he'd see the day where he'd be relying on Pinky of all mice to navigate a maze. The world had truly turned upside down.
But they'd only traveled for a short distance when the left fork opened into a large cave with seven different caverns to choose from.
Brain pointed his flashlight down each pathway, though the beam didn’t help him see what was potentially inside each cavern. Could be a trap, or a dead end, or something truly horrific. The possibilities were endless, and each scenario only became more worrisome than the last.
His flashlight was trained on the last pathway. When he started to move the beam away, something glittered from within the cavern, though he couldn’t determine the source.
Perhaps it was just his imagination, hoping to see something that wasn’t rooted in reality.
Then Pinky, who honed in on anything sparkly and glittering like a moth to a flame, let out an excited howl and bounded into the cavern before Brain could stop him.
“Hey, wait for me!” Chip shouted, zooming into the cavern after Pinky. “We aren’t supposed to split up, you know!”
In his hasty pursuit of Pinky, he’d forgotten to pick up Brain entirely.
"You can't just select a path because you spotted something shiny!" Brain snapped as he ran after them. He wasn't nearly as fast as they were, lacking Chip's flight and Pinky's speed. He reminded himself to bop them both for their sheer stupidity and lack of foresight. "It takes cold deduction and cognitive reasoning, traits that both of you are sorely-"
The cavern was full of glowing, colorful crystals of all shapes and sizes, stunning Brain into silence. They jutted out from every surface, breaking through the rocks with their beautiful, ethereal light.
"-lacking," Brain finished lamely, breaking off a nearby crystal fragment for further examination. Since there was enough light here to see by, Brain turned off his flashlight to conserve battery.
The fragment in his hands was a pale lavender, but as he rolled it in his hands, it changed colors from bright pink to turquoise to mint.
It was a mesmerizing effect.
He wondered what sort of chemical properties the crystal contained that allowed for such luminescence. Fluorite? Selenite? Phosphorus? A previously undiscovered substance?
It was tempting to pocket the crystal so he could run experiments with it at the lab, perhaps inject a hypnotic substance into lab-grown crystals with the same properties as the original. Then he would market them as holistic new age self-healing crystals, come up with a marketing strategy to sell them to the masses, and take over the world once everyone realized that he, the Brain, would truly create a new, glorious age in recorded history!
He could always incorporate the crystals into a chandelier for his future luxurious palace too…
But the sight of Pinky in his transformed state brought him back to sobering reality.
Hesitation crept up on him, but Brain dropped the crystal. World domination was not an option in this near apocalyptic climate.
Pinky and Chip were making ridiculous faces in a large, reflective crystalline formation, their tongues hanging out grotesquely as they pulled and stretched their faces, laughing the entire time.
Brain could just hear the excited 'it's so shiny and shimmery and splendid, Brain!' in Pinky's happy yaps.
Though he was irritated by the delay in favor of simple amusement, he supposed that it was better for Pinky to joyfully wag his tail while making stupid faces with his reflection instead of shivering with fear at the sight of his fangs.
Pinky had been so somber since this entire ordeal began, even when he had his moments where everything seemed perfectly normal.
Finding enjoyment in the simplest things, even if they were rather frivolous…that was how Pinky was supposed to be.
But couldn’t he wait until they were out of mortal peril first?
“Alright, you’ve had your amusement,” Brain declared, throwing crystals at his wayward companions to get their attention. “Now come. We need to find a way out of the labyrinth, and we can’t do that if you insist on running o—Pinky, cease your consumption of strange crystals at once!”
Pinky hid the chewed up golden crystal behind his back, giving Brain an apologetic smile with crystal shards between his fangs.
“Do they taste good?” Chip asked eagerly, grabbing the structure he’d been making ridiculous faces in before.
Before Brain could warn him that he shouldn’t attempt to consume everything Pinky ate, Chip bit down on the crystals and immediately screamed in pain, flying in circles as he clutched his mouth.
“You’re a terrible influence on your amnesiac friend,” Brain sighed.
Pinky only shrugged, the insult bouncing off him like usual.
They’d wasted enough time here. It was time to leave.
The crystal cavern stretched out beyond what he could see. Perhaps there was a pathway in the back?
Brain had only taken a few steps forward when the ground shook violently.
The cavern rumbled, vibrating painfully in Brain’s ears. Pinky growled, his jovial demeanor vanishing, his ears pricking in alarm. Chip instantly latched onto Pinky’s neck, his fur puffing out as dust, rocks, and crystals tumbled from the ceiling.
“It’s a trap! We have to get-nyah!”
A crystalline spear burst from the ground, missing Brain by mere inches. His heart raced from the realization that he could’ve been impaled so easily.
He barely had time to process the first attack before another crystal suddenly protruded from the wall, nearly slamming into Pinky’s head, though he crouched just in time.
“Back to the entrance! Quickly!” Brain shouted, running as fast as he could from the crystals that glowed a frightening, demonic crimson, as if the entire cavern had come straight from hell.
Chip clung to Pinky’s neck, screaming as the transformed mouse swiftly dodged the crystals attempting to impale him. But instead of a hasty retreat out of the cavern, Pinky barreled straight towards Brain.
The slam of Pinky’s heavy paw against the ground tripped Brain as he fled, but he never hit the ground. Just when he thought he was going to be another horror movie side character who died because they tripped at a horribly inconvenient time, Pinky snatched him up. Brain let out an embarrassing squeak as Pinky roughly clutched him against his warm chest, his gait lopsided as he sprinted on three limbs.
Despite the initial roughness, Pinky’s sharp claws never pricked him. Instead, he was cradled within Pinky’s palm and pressed against fluffy fur.
But now wasn’t the time to be lulled into security, not when they were in hostile territory!
Brain quickly climbed onto Pinky’s shoulder, gripping velvety, dark fur in his hands as he climbed onto Pinky’s head so he could better guide them to safety and free all of Pinky’s limbs so he could run more efficiently.
The delay cost them dearly. A crystalline wall blocked off the entrance, so Brain yanked on the untamable fur tuft on Pinky’s head to quickly turn him around.
“Don’t stop!” Brain shouted as Pinky hastily changed direction. “Keep going!”
Chip squeezed his eyes shut, too frightened to speak.
It was difficult to think properly while being flung around in every direction as Pinky maneuvered around the relentless crystals, but Brain had no choice.
“Left, Pinky!” Brain ordered, and Pinky swerved as a thick, enormous crystal plunged down from the ceiling, splitting the rocky ground where it struck.
How far did this cavern extend? Surely they had to be almost to the end by now!
There were crystals on each side of Pinky, behind them, and attempting to cut off their escape route in front. The ground they were able to traverse became narrower, nor could they pick a different direction due to the crystals blocking the rest of the cavern.
Brain clutched Pinky’s long fur to his chest. It was the only thing that kept his mind from being completely overridden by fear.
Then he saw an opening in the cave wall ahead of them. There were no more crystals growing past that point!
“We’re almost there, Pinky! Just a little farther!” Brain shouted, urging Pinky to sprint even faster.
But he spoke too soon.
The crystals’ growth accelerated, a wall of thick crimson covering up their escape route. They were trapped on all sides, only a tiny, circular patch where Pinky stood had gone untouched.
But it wouldn’t last.
“Pinky?” Brain whispered, and the werewolf’s ears swiveled to better listen to Brain. Brain gripped Pinky’s fur, heart pounding as the spear-like crystals drew ever nearer. “If we don’t make it out of here, my friend…I-I just wanted you to know that I’ve always sort of…um, tolerated you more than I’ve ever tolerated anyone else.”
His words would die with him, buried beneath the earth alongside his impaled corpse in this crystal tomb.
Then Pinky made a soft, barely perceptible noise.
I’m sorry.
Pinky’s whine increased in volume as he rose onto his hind legs, until it turned into a deafening, otherworldly howl. Chip shrieked, the howl startling him so badly that he nearly fell off. Brain’s ears flattened, and he tried to cover them as much as he could without letting go of Pinky’s fur.
Pinky was hunched over, panting heavily with his tongue lolling out. His body was stiff, chest heaving with panic as he struggled to breathe. High-pitched whimpers mixed with predatory growls, the terrifying symphony echoing all around them.
“Pinky, what are you-”
The words died in Brain’s throat as Pinky’s fur darkened and bristled in his hands, emitting an ominous mist which spread until his entire body was pitch-black.
No…please, not again…
With a single blow of his heavy paw, Pinky shattered the crystal barrier, and Brain covered his face to protect himself against the tiny fragments that flew everywhere.
It was such a loud, violent attack for the simple, kindhearted mouse.
The fear he’d felt when Pinky’s shadowed form destroyed Dark Gaia’s minions returned, paralyzing him with doubts over Pinky’s self-control in this state, alongside worry over the devastation he’d see in Pinky’s blue eyes when he came to his senses.
How he’d lie down and try to seem nonthreatening, the crying and melancholic whimpering that seemed to stretch on forever, the way he still carried on despite shouldering the pain all by himself…
Pinky launched himself through the cave opening on all fours, and the crystal barrier closed behind them.
Chip opened one eye, still shivering from fear. “A-are we dead yet?” he asked meekly.
“...don’t ask ridiculous questions, Chip,” Brain said, but his voice came out weak and trembling, and he wasn’t sure if he believed himself.
They’d plunged into darkness again, with no glowing crystals to guide their path anymore.
Brain had dropped his flashlight somewhere in the cavern, making it impossible to discern their surroundings.
If it weren’t for the frightening growls and the fur in his hands, Brain would’ve assumed Pinky wasn’t present at all. He was camouflaged perfectly within the labyrinth, easily fitting in with the mysterious and hostile nature of whatever currently resided within these walls.
Brain couldn’t see anything clearly enough to give directions, but Pinky seemed to navigate well enough without bumping into any walls.
But he still hadn’t come out of his trance.
“We left those crystals behind,” Chip said, his orb emitting a weak green light. “How come he’s still acting funny?”
Pinky gave no indication that he’d heard Chip.
Brain pondered the last two times he’d seen Pinky in his shadowed form. Surely there had to be a connecting point somewhere.
“Pinky battled the Dark Gaia rats in his current state,” Brain mused. “Then he broke out of it once the action was over. And it occurred again when the ravens ambushed us in the catacomb. So it must be triggered when Dark Gaia is in close proximity.”
“Hmmm,” Chip murmured, sounding rather uncertain. “But there weren’t any Dark Gaia creatures in the cave. It was just the three of us and a whole bunch of pretty killer crystals.”
Well, Brain was sure they all counted as Dark Gaia creatures from Teros’ perspective.
But Chip had a point. The third time was an outlier, and Brain despised outliers. They always broke or contradicted an established pattern, forcing him to come up with a new explanation.
There had to be another commonality somewhere.
"So we were attacked twice, though Pinky didn't stay in this form for nearly as long," Brain said, mostly talking out loud to fill in the silence that Pinky's babbling should've occupied. "And we barely escaped the crystals. All three were high-stress, dangerous situations where we could've been seriously injured or killed."
Pinky's steps faltered, his ears falling. But he was silent as the grave, a trait that shouldn't be possible for Pinky.
Maybe he was finally coming out of his trance?
"But…there isn't anything attacking us now, and we aren't fleeing for our lives either," Chip said, though he sounded unsure. "Are we still in danger?"
“Yes, we are, and we always will be. It’s a dangerous world, Chip. The planet doesn't need to be split to accomplish that. It’s not all chocolate and cannolis out there,” Brain said, and for once, he was grateful for the darkness that hid his face from view. “There’s always something lurking in the shadows, waiting to take advantage of any vulnerability. Domination, saving the world, mere existence alone…there’s always a perilous element involved. And the only time you’re truly safe is…is when…”
The needle slid into his abdomen, piercing through fur and flesh. Brain barely had a chance to scream before the syringe plunged down, injecting a sickly yellow liquid into his body.
"Hold still!" the careless scientist who restrained him shouted. Brain struggled to breathe as rough, leather-clad fingers tightened around him like a vise.
Biting was his only defense, but it was rendered useless on leather gloves.
Only sheer willpower and the knowledge that he would one day rule the world kept the Brain from passing out, the agony in his stomach overwhelming his analytical mind.
Surely the needle didn't need to be embedded this long? Was this moron trying to poke a hole in a vital organ?
It took an eternity, but the needle finally came out with a sickening pop.
The scientist chucked him back into the cage, unconcerned by the pain he'd inflicted on his test subject.
It was humiliating that he couldn't stand without a bout of dizziness overtaking him, but he managed to half-crawl, half-limp to his straw bed and collapse upon the straw that really should've been replaced a week ago.
He would allow himself a fifteen-minute rest period to let the pain subside, then he'd get started on his plans. And if the pain was still there, well, he'd just have to work through it.
Just fifteen minutes of peace and quiet…
"Hiya, best friend! Good to see ya back! Me and Clippy were just talking about you!" a too-cheerful voice exclaimed.
…that were instantly shattered by his dimwitted cagemate who couldn't find his way out of a paper bag.
And Brain used to believe it was just a turn of phrase until he had to free that idiot from a paper bag after he'd gorged on an intern's ham and cheese sandwich.
Apparently, Pinky's latest inanimate friend was Clippy the paper clip.
"For the last time, sharing a cage doesn't make us best friends," Brain snapped. His first and last best friend hated him now. He wasn't keen on making any new ones.
All they did was cause heartache.
Brain turned away from Pinky, the sudden movement sending flashes of pain through his abdomen.
The only reason he even had that name was because he was too stupid to realize that Brain was insulting the so-called scientists of ACME Labs. Unfortunately, that little incident had led Pinky to believe they were truly fun fun silly-willy bestest friends and buddies and chums forever and ever and ever, or something as inane as that.
They weren’t friends when they met, they weren’t friends now, and they never will be in the future.
He didn’t need friends. He was the Brain, a future world leader renowned far and wide for his superior mind.
Yet his stomach churned as if the needle was still inside him. The pain wasn’t going away. It never did.
“Brain, are you okay?” Pinky sounded worried, but Brain knew better than to fall for his false concern. He was a liar, just like everyone else.
There was a warm hand on his shoulder, scorching Brain’s fur where it touched. He slapped it away, not needing the extra pain that always came with physical contact.
“Go away,” Brain gasped, clutching his stomach as another wave of agony rippled through him. “Leave me alone.”
“Poit…” Pinky whispered, and somehow that sad, pathetic word triggered an entirely new ache in Brain’s chest.
Was the effect of that strange liquid spreading through his bloodstream?
The lab was silent after that. The scientists had all moved onto another section of the lab, the mice completely forgotten.
And Pinky was…well, he wasn’t sure what Pinky was doing, nor did he care to know.
Pain was caused by chemical pathways along the nervous system. All he needed to do was focus on obstructing the path, and the pain would cease. Then he could finally complete his plan for world domination.
But that was easier said than done. It was impossible to concentrate.
All he could do was lay in the straw, weak and helpless and vulnerable. There was no safety to be found anywhere. He could be scooped up at any time, injected with substances and forced to cater to the humans’ whims in the name of science.
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nowhere to be safe.
That’s why he needed to rule the world…so nothing would never hurt him again.
Suddenly, his ears pricked in alarm at the sound of approaching footsteps. Was another scientist coming to take him out of the cage? Were they trying to inject more unknown liquids in him?
He was out in the open, too vulnerable and easy to grab. Though he tried to stand and relocate to the farthest corner of the cage, a stabbing pain shot through his body, and he collapsed onto the straw.
Closing his eyes, he braced himself for the inevitable.
Yet instead of a latex-gloved hand clamping tightly around his body, something warm and fuzzy was draped over his shoulders, a gentle pair of hands brushing Brain’s fur.
And Brain blinked up at Pinky, who smiled in reassurance as he wrapped a purple blanket around Brain’s body.
Though Brain was too old for a security blanket, a new, pleasant sensation overtook him. Though it didn’t completely chase away the pain, it still felt…nice.
“Me and Blankie will keep you safe from those mean needles, Brain. I promise.”
There was nothing but sincerity behind those simple, yet inviting blue gaze. Maybe it was okay to believe him, even if Brain didn’t understand why he was the recipient of such a kind gesture.
Brain hadn’t realized how much of Pinky’s fur he’d gathered into his hands during his recollection, or that his face was pushed against the fluff at all, Pinky’s familiar scent teasing his nose. His face was damp, and he quickly scrubbed it away with the dark fur.
Regardless of the color, the texture was still undoubtedly Pinky’s.
“...never mind,” he choked out, wishing Pinky would say something. He’d give the world to hear any of Pinky’s familiar, inane verbal tics again.
“But you never finished your-” Chip protested, but Brain cut him off.
“Forget I said anything!” Brain snapped, his voice reverberating loudly throughout the chamber.
Too loudly, he realized his mistake too late. He’d just given away their location to every hostile denizen.
A low, menacing growl built up in Pinky’s throat, his ears shooting up in alarm.
Heavy, creaking footsteps thundered towards them like an army marching to battle, several pairs of blazing red eyes shining out from the darkness.
They were surrounded on all sides. There was no escape.
End AN: I knew I wanted the first Temple Guardian to be a bull cause I wanted to homage classical mythology in some way, namely the Minotaur myth. Draft names for Teros were Brutus and Clay.
I have never actually watched Labyrinth, nor do I need to see David Bowie’s tight pants.
If you have ever watched Pokemon Spell of the Unown, I like to think the crystals trying to kill the protags in this story look similar to the crystals in this movie.
Ha, near-death love confession! I hope y’all are happy!
Poor Brain is really struggling with his leader role in the group, managing Pinky’s werewolf angst, and trying to keep them all alive cause he’s the only one with a sense of self-preservation. He acts like he knows what he’s doing, but he’s out of his depth and knows it, though he’ll never admit it.
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Chapter 14: I HAVE A DAM PROBLEM
The countless victims of the oceans waters slowly vanished one by one as Nico got his breathing back under control and went lax, blinking slowly, feeling how tight every muscle was as he slowly unwound, but more surprised than anything Oceanus wasn't back in here to yell at him for blowing up his kingdom the second time in one day.
Nico felt light, almost light headed as he coughed and leaned back from the warm embrace just to sit up.
Will sat all the way back though, still watching him with those open blue eyes of concern, but a faint blush on his cheeks again. Nico felt almost unreasonably warm around the collar, which was strange as he usually felt cold flashes after using his powers in such abundance. He hoped Will hadn't hurt himself by trying to heal him.
Nico coughed into his sleeve one more time and looked away at the others. Two things he'd been holding onto so tightly in here were just out in the open now. It was still an odd revelation to him, trying to find peace with his sister's death rather than hyper focusing on some new task.
He'd never felt so vulnerable, sitting there waiting for all of them to scream like a phantom had just crawled out of his skin, he'd felt the ghosts he'd summoned fading back away. There was no hiding it now, and he was just content to not want to, whatever their reaction.
"Nico," Percy spoke up first, the weight of his own guilt now back full force. Nico still looked at him, his hero, and knew what he was going to say next. The same thing he'd said to him that cold December day he'd come back from his quest with Annabeth safely home. He was going to justify her death by promising it had saved the quest.
He knew that now, he swallowed and accepted it, but it didn't mean he had to like it as he walked out of the room.
He didn't know where he was going, he never had the moment he left that pavilion. He'd wanted his sister back, and Minos had manipulated him while Bianca and his own mother never answered him. He'd wanted control over his powers, and still as he'd just proven he was useless at that too.
Jason didn't need his help, he could have anyone take him to that other camp, someone like the Son of Poseidon or the Daughter of Zeus who would be welcomed with open arms rather than the mistrusted son of Hades.
Going down into Tartarus had to be the answer. He'd find a weakness of Gaia, something irrefutably good.
"Nico?" Will's gentle voice surprised him. He jumped and missed a step, he hadn't even meant to go up to the roof. Now he found himself nearly falling into a dark abyss of a whole chunk of stairs missing before a hand snatched out and caught his wrist, supporting his balance before he could topple to the crumbling bottom of the ocean.
"Sorry," Will said, instantly dropping his hand. The warmth had once again seeped right through Nico's jacket, and he was starting to feel paranoid why Will kept constantly trying to heal him. "I just wanted to ask if you wanted a break for the day, get some sleep? I'll go, if you want to be alone."
Nobody had ever come after him before. Bianca, Percy, he'd been abandoned by everyone he ever would have wished to be right here except this strange guy from camp he'd spoken to maybe a dozen times before they were thrown into this place.
"I don't know what I want," he admitted. He still didn't seem aware his own shadow was overlapping him more than his jacket, as if some part of him were still trapped in them trying to draw him into safety. Away. That he couldn't reach right now by the Titan's power Nico and Percy together seemed determined to press to its limits.
Will nodded and seemed to take that as an answer as he slowly began backing away. Nico watched for a few steps before he quietly admitted, "I like talking to you. It's, distracting."
Will's smile lit the stairwell as he gestured to himself. "Medic's 101, how to keep someone distracted."
Nico gazed blearily down at him. "You're not going to pretend to count to three and poke me with a needle on two are you?"
"No," Will laughed lightly. "I'm just trying to help."
"Why?" He couldn't help but ask again. The first answer still made no sense. "What do you want from me?"
"Nothing," Will said again with the same firm conviction he had the first time, but he stayed on his step and didn't come closer. "Just for you to know you have a friend if you want one, everybody deserves that."
There was no pity in his voice, no hint of a lie, but there was something he still wasn't saying. It was an inherent part of his life, nobody could deceive death.
Will understood that too. Nico could see it in the way that smile didn't quite reach his eyes. How he spoke about his brothers with a haze of understanding many people lacked even years after a death of someone they cared about. Bianca had never been a camper, there were countless kids before her sacrifice that could be found in a list somewhere in Hades's palace to do with Kronos's war.
All he could see in his mind was Percy's sorrowful attempts to explain what had happened to Bianca. He now had the vivid description burned into his mind he'd never asked for. And here Will was still offering to be around him, when death haunted anyone associated with him. It was a good thing Percy would never be what he wanted, or he'd be next. Will didn't seem to understand that...but it was Will Solace who hadn't even flinched among the ghostly spirits in the ocean surrounding them.
"I'll go tell the others it's enough for today," Will promised again as he backed down another step.
"Don't," Nico choked out. "Just keep reading without me." Will hesitated, he looked unsure rather than relieved despite the welcoming Nico would get if he went back in. "I don't want to be tied up in the corner just to hear the rest," he waved off.
"Nobody would do that," Will looked offended now, at him, for an absurdly wrong reason. "If that was an option we'd have locked Percy in the bathroom the first day."
Just because nobody had blamed Percy's outbursts didn't mean they wouldn't turn on him. Will should know that better than anyone from camp.
"If you don't want to listen to the rest nobody is going to make you," Will got that stubborn look in his eyes that so fascinated Nico. He'd find a way to take on both children of the Big Three to stop them if they cared enough to try. "I just thought you'd want a break before hearing the rest of this quest, what your sister started."
Bianca had never finished anything she'd started. She left him, the Hunters, life.
"It just gets worse from here," Nico promised, he could feel the dread like a tidal of magma Percy would deliver onto him when he remembered the rest. "Just because they know who my dad is now doesn't mean they grasp, everything I've done."
"I'll leave if you don't want me to hear it," Will reminded of his promise, "because your past is your business, but they're going to hear it anyways. You have a right to defend yourself Nico, and Percy does trust you. You've always been welcomed at camp no matter what happened."
Nico couldn't help a wet scoff. Percy didn't shun him outright, but he'd never been first pick on any games, nobody offered to trade chores with cabin 13, he was avoided outright if not whispered as he walked past. Not being outcast didn't mean he was welcomed.
"Percy's only shared the truth of his stories over the campfire," Will wheedled, taking a cautious step closer with a stubborn smile to win that dismissal. "You're a hero to our home Nico, twice over. Whatever you did to get there, I know the last page."
Nico tapped the pommel of his sword in growing frustration why this guy wouldn't just leave him alone like everybody else did when the story was over. He was lucky to get a pat on the back before somebody flinched away, Will just kept staring at him.
He was right about one thing though, they were stuck down here until all the books were done. Just because he wasn't in the room for Percy to decapitate him, didn't mean there were a lot of places to avoid him down here. If he ever did get his wish of Percy chasing after him, it would likely end in his death he doubted Thalia would try to stop, and Will would get hurt trying. Maybe the healer would fix himself, but he didn't want to be the cause of that.
He still couldn't figure out what Will got out of it.
He wouldn't have to care about this enigma of a person anymore when they got out of this and he went to Tartarus. He'd find the answers to what Gaia had stirred and be a hero. He'd be able to give Percy, Will, and the entire camp something good then.
"I'll come back," he shifted restlessly on the spot as he glared at the missing gap somebody was probably going to break their neck on when they came up these stairs next and blame that on him.
"Take your time," Will said gently as he still watched him patiently even as he went down a step again. "If you change your mind let me know and we can pick this up later when everyone's ready."
Nico swallowed and took that step with him, but had to jump to avoid the gap, so now they were as close as they were on the couch. That Will had never seemed to be uncomfortable about, being so close to him.
He knew if he didn't go back now he never would as he finished walking down the stairs silently beside him.
Will hopped off the last step with the same spring in his heel, even in flipflops. He wasn't even glancing over his shoulder to make sure Nico was following, just content to go at his heel dragging pace despite Will's longer legs.
Outside of the door, Will did pause to look at him and say with a different sort of smile than his usual one, "I like talking to you too."
Nico couldn't think of anything to say to that. Nobody had ever said that to him before. Was thank you the right response?
"My siblings all roll their eyes and walk away when I try talking about movies that came out any longer than a few months ago. Trapped at camp during the blockbuster season always annoys them, they want to see the new thing," he gestured broadly as if to take in a huge cinema screen Nico had only been inside of once. They were so loud and crowded though he'd abandoned the lone adventure before the first commercial had started. "I like hearing about your game, I always wanted to collect something, and old bandaids didn't seem sanitary."
Nico felt a little laugh bubble out, and Will's smile grew. There was even a hint of a blush on his face for some reason again, though Nico couldn't imagine why he'd be embarrassed sharing that. Nico's own past had shown far more humiliating things already about his youth Will had helped him brush off.
"How about," Nico licked his lips nervously, but forced himself to plow on before he chickened out, "we play a round tonight, after this book." The last thing he was going to want tonight was to be alone, with Percy one room away loudly reminiscing without a care in the world about how Annabeth was safe while he'd slip into memories of those first nights in the Labyrinth, dreading the next book where Percy thought he was out to kill him while Nico had blundered through Minos's lies trying to get his sister back...
"Okay," Will agreed at once without a hint of hesitation.
"It's a, long game," Nico cautioned. "I don't know how much sleep you wanted, but the others will probably get annoyed if we don't wake up when they do."
Will waved his hand with a 'pssht,' noise. The blush was still lingering on his cheeks but his smile hadn't vanished. It was still different from his casual sunny attitude and Nico couldn't place why. "Do you know how many times I've looked out the window to see the sun up and gone about my day after a night of studying? You can sleep as long as you want when we're done and I will drug anyone into a coma if they try to wake you after the day you've had."
This guy got stranger by the minute, but Nico had his own tentative smile on his face as he edged back into the room.
Will followed with pride he'd gotten another laugh out of Nico, and he'd get the chance all night to listen to it if he played his cards right.
They both froze to see Percy doubled over, panting in pain. His hands were fisted in his hair, and he was muttering to himself, "Hades? They're children of Hades!"
He'd created a funnel around himself, a shield of water Thalia couldn't beat her way through, and it was slowly growing. Already she couldn't get within arms reach of him, and her boots were scraping on the cracked floor causing her to stagger as he tried so hard not to blast them all. What he might do next is dry up the ocean.
"Percy!" Nico jumped forward, drawing his sword on instinct. The curved, black blade had never met an obstacle it couldn't break, even the force of the ocean. He only meant to break the barrier to get through to him before he really hurt himself as his broken voice kept trying to run with this little glimpse forward, what Percy had no choice but to piece together, Percy was looking right at him and whispering the name Minos-
They were all sitting in their seats.
Oceanus stood before them in a bright pink towel. Suds were still dripping off of a few of his pincers that were trying to scrape at barnacle around his belly button...and why would a titan even have one of those?
Silence swelled in the room like a restraint all its own. It was the only force needed to keep them frozen in place as he held his towel in place and turned slowly in a circle to give a silent, deadly stare at each of them.
His eyes landed on Rachel, and he said, "you have clearly been of no use."
A snap, and she was gone.
"No!" Thalia, Percy, Will and Nico were on their feet before the bubbles had settled, but he vanished back out of the room in the same quick breath of silence he'd entered.
Shaking, hardly daring to breathe, they all exchanged terrified looks.
Then Percy's frown lingered on Nico, and he asked, "were you about to stab me?"
"No!" Nico yelped, quickly putting his sword back away. "I, I was just going to, pop your bubble and," he stammered himself into silence as the churning black water around them left an echoing impression of where Rachel's red hair had once been.
"We have to get her back," Percy turned away from Nico, again, to address Thalia. It still broke a little piece of his heart even as he sighed in relief.
"I know that Percy, but I'm not seeing any new options," she gestured to where the book lay where it had been dropped at Will's feet.
Percy slashed his sword at nothing but air. He wanted to scream in frustration, draw that pompous Titan back in here, and fight him to win.
Sheer skill wasn't going to get Rachel back here, or Annabeth, or him anywhere he wanted to go. Magnus was swallowing convulsively and wringing his hands, just like Annabeth did when she was stressed as his grey eyes once again darted nervously around where his own friend could be.
His green eyes landed on the book with deep loathing and regret, and then he winced and whirled back around to the present Di Angelo kid. "Bianca," he murmured as he stared at her little brother with ghosts of his own past clouding the color. "You, your dad-" he winced and Riptide vanished from his grasp again as his hands bawled in pain in his hair.
"Don't force it Percy," Nico said calmly while Thalia stepped up beside him again, squeezing his shoulder and trying to pull him to his seat.
"Don't force it Perce," Will gently agreed. "Nico couldn't tell you, for obvious reasons."
"I, I'm so-" but Percy stopped again with a pained gasp, his vision trying to de-age Nico to that snowy pavilion as the skeletons fell through the earth. His mind rattled like a caged animal in fury to be released-
"Percy!" Jason was on his other side, giving him a vigorous shake. "Racing your mind to the end doesn't help, trust me. You're lucky to get right back to it, don't make it harder."
"Lucky, right," Percy panted, but his knees were shaking, and he finally allowed himself to be steered into a seat and collapsed.
Jason looked over at Nico with intrigue, but whatever a Roman's impression of him should be, those blue eyes only held the same curiosity on him as they had everything in his path.
Nico still braced himself for the worst of it from at least Magnus, who had freaked out over everything in here, he'd probably shriek so loud Oceanus would come back and stuff seaweed in every orifice of theirs.
"You good?" Magnus asked gently.
Nico blinked slowly like he was trying to interpret his silent language instead.
"I know it happened a while ago to you," Alex brushed her hand uneasily through her hair, "but wow, that couldn't have been easy to hear."
Their condolence left a surprising warmth in him like Will was trying to heal him again. The son of Apollo shifted his weight beside him, but most definitely wasn't touching.
"You're not, scared?" Nico had to triple-check. The, of me, was on the tip of his tongue before he bit it off, he didn't think he could stand to see them lying.
"Why would you think that?" Alex scoffed. She hadn't told anyone Loki was her mom yet and didn't intend to, but not for fear of retaliation. She didn't care who mistrusted her because of it. She just denied everything about that side of her and regretted none of the rewards.
"If you were going to kill us I'd think you would already," Magnus agreed with a casual shrug. He didn't understand why he would be. Nico was the same kind of strange as any kid at that camp to him. So long as he didn't casually have ghosts appear, he'd adjust. He hadn't even screamed that loud when it was happening.
Nico couldn't help his eyes jumping to Will quickly, trying to catch him possibly considering the question.
"Why would ghosts scare me?" Will asked in surprise, with one of those tired smiles that made his eyes dim. "I see them every day, in the faces of my siblings. In my head when I close my eyes, all the campers I couldn't save. I imagine you've seen even more, you're not afraid of them are you?"
Jason made a content noise of agreement. He had a strange feeling ghostly forms would be the most normal thing down the street, if he could ever remember what street he'd ever walked down. He studied his hands curiously for a moment, maybe he was a child of Pluto too if that was his first thought?
Nico couldn't quite believe his ears at this lackluster response from them while Jason swallowed and very carefully, minding his every step in fear the slightest echo off the wall would draw their prison guard back, picked up the book and crept back to his spot by Percy, who now sat between him and Thalia and looked so miserably anxious he could have turned every errant thought that was giving him a headache into a new facet in a kaleidoscope.
Nico still hovered, waiting for some reaction, but he wasn't sure what anymore. Thalia was rubbing a soothing hand on Percy's back, steady as the Earth, while shooting him miserable looks. There was a look of gentle understanding in her blue eyes, she truly knew what he was feeling, and the idea of that lodged in his throat with shock.
It was helpfully distracting, as usual, when he saw everyone around him get a somehow subdued, but a genuine all the same laugh at the new chapter title.
"Language Percy, your mother would not approve," Alex teased.
"It's dam like the beaver," Jason corrected after his own ghost of a smile faded back.
"Much less fun and cussing involved, now we will dread the monster water rats arriving," Alex sighed.
"You remind me of someone," Percy said as he gazed at her a few extra moments. "I just don't know who." He rubbed absently at his nose again
"Well you let me know when you figure that out," Alex shrugged without concern as Jason started. Nico was finally the last to sit down in his seat, strangely feeling more connected down here than ever before. He had no more clue what was coming except the last battle with a titan, he and Percy were in the same boat once more...and yet it was so easy to brush aside any lingering hope it would get attention from the star. He just listened to the words trundling along like everyone else.
... full tank of gas, so we decided to borrow it.
A shiver passed around the room, jumping from one person to the next as they all imagined Talos's revenge, chasing them across the country; or worse, if only they'd found such a thing before Bianca's demise. Nico could see it in his mind, that old cab wouldn't manage to out speed some rusty old automaton, but just a few more bolts from Thalia managing to make it fall with more maneuverability while nobody was inside this time-
Will watched the anger quickly kindle to life, and try to burn out just as fast as Nico straightened himself out. The shadows gave just the smallest flicker on the wall again, and he decided right then he'd need to have another talk about how much Nico considered intervening. Later.
"Nico you-"
"Oceanus wouldn't like it if I had it out with Percy and Thalia over my every little thought," Jason startled as Nico snapped. Nico was lying anyways, and just knew this was a universally good reason. "Move this along!"
"Screw that titan," Will snapped, making all of them jump. Magnus swallowed nervously and looked around, but everybody had a grim look of acceptance on their face, and the skittish guy didn't do anything to deter them. "He can't lock us up in here and demand how we act about this!"
Will really looked at him too, the purple fire in those eyes, and didn't flinch away. The stubborn set of his mouth said it for him, he'd known Nico was lying again too.
Nico's hand twitched in frustration, he wanted to shove his statue into Will's mouth. Nico glanced at Percy, his rough voice hissing with guilt in every syllable as Nico answered Will while he was now so obviously talking about Percy. Thalia might gutter stomp him with those boots. "Bianca told me to stop holding grudges about this, I'm trying to let it go!"
"By not feeling anything?" Will challenged. He always managed to make his retort sound like the reasonable solution somehow, even whispering back. "You're only hurting yourself."
Nico wanted to storm out of the room again to get away from this. He wanted to hack down every brick of this place and risk the titan's wrath, possibly sending everybody to Timbuktu without care. They'd be free, wherever they were sent, and everybody would figure out how to move on with their life. Percy might actually thank him.
"Nico."
He closed his eyes and swallowed a jolting fear he hadn't felt all day before forcing himself to look at Percy. It was still there as those sea green eyes looked right at him, that Percy would see him, really see him, and then gag in disgust. His heart still skipped a beat in betrayal at that tousled black hair and quick smile while he clenched his hands to stop himself fidgeting like a child.
Percy wasn't fazed at the scowl he got for interrupting them clearly talking about him. "We're not on a time limit to get out of here, and I get it if you need a break. My memories don't get better or worse just because they're not coming from my mouth," he paused with a smirk at Jason, "or this guy still pronouncing his alphabet."
"I'm going to swap your sword with a real pen, see how threatening you are then," Jason rolled his eyes.
Nico shrunk into his seat and crossed his arms, muttering and still waving them on while kicking himself. Of course Percy would refuse to leave without all his memories, finding out what happened to Annabeth.
Will was still watching him as Jason hesitantly began again, and Nico was going to give himself a mental bruise as he sarcastically congratulated himself the son of Apollo was probably going to take back that whole enjoyed talking to him thing now too. He'd already found a knack for ruining everything in record time.
Thalia drove. She didn't seem as stunned as Zoe or Grover or me.
Thalia shelved her instinctive reaction to keep this to herself, like she was at Bianca's wake and trying to explain to her only family left standing why she wasn't crying. "I had to learn at a young age when it was convenient to break down. That wasn't it." The monsters that chased her across the country never cared when she cried.
Nico didn't know what she was talking about, but there was a disturbing flare of curiosity in him to ask about that. He didn't, but it was more for the befuddling feeling lately he could have and someone might answer him around here. He'd felt more involved in this room than he ever had in camp, and he wondered if he was getting one of those Stockholm syndromes for constantly finding more reasons he didn't want to leave even with this fresh torture on the book's display.
..."The skeletons are still out there, we need to keep moving."
Percy felt a whole new column of guilt and anger boil around him at the reminder of those. He should have insisted everybody run while he kept Talos distracted, no matter who his target was. Those zombies would have come for him eventually, he'd have that stupid tin man so angry and distracted he might have been able to use the two against each other and everybody would have been safe.
His eyes flickered to Rachel's empty seat, and the insane plan instead gave him a wrong kind of sense. What had Annabeth called it, not hummus? Hubris! That he could have survived something doubly dangerous Bianca hadn't. His mortal friend had constantly laughed along and rolled her eyes at everything she saw through her strangely clear sight, and she'd have probably died at the first hint of trouble being mixed into their world. He certainly didn't want to ever start thinking of himself as cleverer than somebody who had saved his life like Bianca had.
...the nice weather just seemed like an insult after losing Bianca.
"Which is why you should always carry around a black umbrella with you," Alex nodded. "When you need that aesthetic."
In anybody else's mouth that would have sounded mocking, but Alex really sounded like she meant she'd go craft one right now if it would help anybody's mood.
...couldn't even tell what god it was supposed to be.
Percy moaned in pain, his temple throbbing as the answer sat like a weight on the tip of his tongue ready to be barfed out, again. He should know the answer to that, the answer was staring him in the face just like those ghosts the son of Hades had summoned-
Thalia punched him in the gut. He felt the rush of water move around him more than that and only figured out what happened when he opened his eyes and saw her shaking out her fist with a disgruntled look on her face. Why she'd only mock-punched him and was exaggerating he couldn't guess. "Don't push it, right," he muttered in sullen agreement.
Nico bit back the very confused comment of who else it could have been. None of them even looked alike! The only one he could vaguely resemble was Ares, who also had a helmet, but that was it. His came in a war chariot with a spear, his cape blood red- he stopped the thought cold and rolled his eyes at himself hard. What a stupid detail to blather on about.
...Oh, gods, what was I going to tell Nico?
A horribly sarcastic laugh was his answer in here, and Percy winced. He didn't need an ugly hiss from his brain to know that must not have gone well. His broken promise was in every hurt crack of Bianca's little brother's voice.
Nico watched Percy, who fidgeted with his pen and chewed on the cap for a moment rather than trying to say anything now. He felt a vindictive need to defend his reaction and turned on Will instead and mockingly demanded, "well, you wanted me to emote?"
Will's smile was, of all things, strangely sympathetic?! "Yeah," he agreed calmly. He even gave Percy a guilty look, something in the way he looked between them made Nico confident Will was more sorry he was encouraging Nico to let it out more than the son of the sea having to hear it.
Percy didn't do a thing to stop any angry retort though. Nobody in here even hinted like they were going to shush him despite the obvious danger of even laughing to loudly now.
What the hell did it take to make these guys wince and politely lie they had to excuse themselves like every other kid at camp had?
...I should've gone into the giant."
Nico didn't give a nasty retort to that. Percy winced but forced himself to look over so the kid could at least give him a scowl again.
Instead the anger had vanished right out of him, he just looked tired as he rubbed his face with that skull ring digging in.
The silence lingered for an extra beat as Jason watched Thalia give Percy a dirty look, a snappy retort clearly on her lips what she thought of any other sacrifice, but Nico beat her to the punch, sounding exhausted, but sincere. "That's not true Percy. It, it was her choice."
He finally drew the statue from his pocket, but left it clenched tight in his hand as he studied the details. In her botched attempt to give him something, (An apology? A last gift before she departed on grand adventures never to return to camp?) Whatever this little thing had been, it connected to him. Even at his worst moments, Nico had never been able to wish Percy dead, no matter how he felt about his sister's choices.
Percy tried to find some resolution in that too, that he had to keep going on this quest to find that monster, rescue Annabeth and Artemis. It didn't make it feel better Bianca should have done all of that with them, but these books had never cared about what should have happened according to them.
... "Do you think anybody else would be my best friend?"
"I volunteer," Magnus offered helpfully.
"Should I be worried he's going to kill me just to get that honor?" Percy eyed Annabeth's cousin a little to wearily to mean that as a joke.
"Eh," Thalia shrugged without concern. "I don't think he'd do a decent enough job replacing you long enough for it to be a problem. He knows the capital of the state he lives in."
"I told you I was joking when I said that!" Percy groaned, a rather forced smile appearing for a second before vanishing just as quickly, but it had still been there as surely as Thalia's sincere attempt.
... I was afraid to talk to him, he might start bawling.
Will sighed and pinched his nose rather than cracking the book over Percy's head. "Would that be such a bad thing?"
Percy still looked rather panicked, like he'd actually run from the room and take an hour to find a box of tissues.
"I take it back Nico, we should have locked him in a bathroom," Will gave him a hopeful nudge.
Nico snorted in surprise and felt a flickering smile for a moment while Percy asked, "how often do you guys talk about me?" Like that was the concern more than the silly threat.
"Everybody talks about you nonstop around here Percy, surely you've at least noticed that," Thalia rolled her eyes.
"It's like we're reading a book about your life or something," Alex added helpfully.
Everybody did chuckle along at the light teasing this time.
... I wondered what she and Zoe were talking about in the truck.
Thalia didn't hesitate to answer this time, "future strategies," but there was something dark in her stiff smile that set them on edge. Zoe had confided about the Titan they were heading off to face. Atlas had no idea the force of rage that was coming for him as Thalia gently helped steer Zoe into revenge of why they were out doing this rather than letting the girl dwell on her regrets of bringing Bianca along. Word had even been brought up again of Thalia's own future status, and she'd shocked Zoe with her answer so much her tears had almost dried up.
...Thalia got out and slammed the door. Immediately, one of the tires blew.
"Just for that extra kick in the rear you needed right then," Alex sighed.
...The rock cliffs dropped away below us.
"That's not the Grand Canyon is it?" Jason asked in surprise.
"If it was, it didn't deserve the title," Percy shrugged without much care. "I'd have called it the Dinky Canyon."
"Which is why you're not allowed to name things," Thalia snorted.
"There's a path," Grover said. "We could get to the river."
Thalia wouldn't, Jason instantly knew. The height hadn't been stated, but he bristled and was already mentally threatening to challenge anyone who thought they could mock or force her down any feet she didn't want even before he looked around and started seeing her get just a few shades paler already.
She met his eyes, a question on her lips, a hesitancy as she sought something in him which in itself was strange; but what she saw got him a look of stark relief that could only mean, thank you.
..."We can make it," Grover said. "I think."
"Not unless he gave us all goaty back rides," Thalia said through clenched teeth. She probably would have accidentally strangled him if that had been what happened.
... "I, uh, think we should go farther upstream."
Thalia was blushing quite vividly in here, finally chasing away that look of cold, goddess-gifted tight focus.
...I glanced at Thalia. Her eyes said a quick Thank you.
You're welcome, Percy mouthed back, headache finally easing off a pain level of excruciating as they exchanged grins.
...I was worried about how bad she sounded, like somebody with the flu.
Nico was surprised at the anxious feeling that bubbled up in him. Not anger or resentment, just a pit of unease as he imagined Zoe trying to explain what happened to Bianca instead of Percy. He didn't really think that conversation would have gone well either, but there was a tinge of regret he'd never gotten the chance to talk to someone who had clearly loved his sister.
..."Leave that to me," I said. We put the canoes in the water.
"There has been a surprising lack of you throwing water around ever since you nearly killed Thalia with that creek," Alex nodded in surprise.
"If only we'd been so lucky," Magnus muttered.
"I'm sorry I couldn't make the kitty upset by giving him a bath, or that pig," Percy rolled his eyes.
...Usually I'm good with water."
"Usually," Thalia repeated in an almost passable attempt at not mocking. She'd had other things on her mind at the time to indulge.
"Do you want to go again Pine Cone face?" Percy asked cheerfully.
"Not now," she shushed him and waved Jason on without concern.
Nico watched them go back to bantering while biting his lip. There was something forced in both of their deliveries, they were both clearly stressed about Rachel being gone now, and his unhelpful reaction upon just hearing of what happened to his sister probably still had nothing on the hours of terror living through it and looking for her had caused them.
He was just different from them. He felt Will's eyes still watching him carefully and looked around at him with words tugging at his mind, a feeling he'd never been able to really have before he suddenly knew. Will would listen. It felt like ever since Bianca left, every part of his life had been alien from everyone around him, only Hestia in her kindly silence before had ever made him feel heard; and she was a god. There would always be a disconnect there her warm embers just couldn't coax out.
"Would you take Zoe?" she asked. "I think, ah, maybe you can talk to her."
Alex had a really grim comment on her tongue to ask Thalia if she was already trying to axe off yet another member of this quest putting those two together, but it was in poor taste and wouldn't make anybody laugh, so she didn't volunteer it.
... she's starting to worry me."
Thalia may or may not have been considering dumping her in the river and holding her down until she fought to come back up, put some life back in that girl. Percy was her gentle approach.
..."One and a half," Thalia said.
"And I will be collecting," Percy grinned.
"Pssh, more like you owe me fifty by this point," she said confidently, and with all the smugness he couldn't remember for all of those that made him roll his eyes.
... I actually liked her when she wasn't yelling at me.
"Could have fooled me," Jason grinned, "even when you two get along it's mostly death threats and one-upping each other."
"What do other best friends do?" Percy asked without real concern.
Jason couldn't answer, and the blank space in his mind made him flinch more for himself. Did he have a best friend? If so, what were they like to each other?
Percy knew his reaction was a return of a headache, he lived that feeling constantly. Still, he went right back to fidgeting with his pen in guilt for his mouth.
...They looked like regular girls you'd see in any mall, except, they were underwater.
"Which is just awesome for their pours I bet, all that fresh water," Magnus said with no idea what he was talking about, but he was proud of himself for finally just accepting that was something he might see one day himself and wouldn't scream over.
... may have been giggling. I wasn't sure. I had a hard time understanding naiads.
"Or any woman," Thalia rolled her eyes affectionately. Annabeth, Aphrodite. Apparently the only girl he could figure out was her, and she snorted to herself it was just that idiot's luck. "Maybe you should spend a summer with the Hunters and get some practice," she happily snarked.
"You'd start a hunt to kill me," Percy said wisely.
"And you'd learn all kinds of important things about girls," she cackled.
...Grover fell into his canoe with his hooves sticking up in the air.
They all got a soft little laugh out of that, especially Nico's least begrudging of all. Instead of tall, strong, unbreakable Percy at the helm of that tiny canoe like a hero at the prow of a ship controlling the sea, his mind still flickered to the image of guinea-pig-Percy actually falling in and swimming before being scooped out.
"I hate naiads," Zoe grumbled.
"I'm beginning to think she hates everything," Will said sadly. She really needed the support of her other Hunters around her right now and was probably homesick.
A stream of water squirted up from the back of the boat and hit Zoe in the face.
"Does she at least appreciate the nice aim?" Jason snorted.
"No," Percy smirked, because he had.
..."Cursed water spirits. They've never forgiven me."
"She really just hates literally everything associated with you," Alex said in awe. "Teach me your ways."
"If ever I figure out how I managed that," Percy said with his own confusion.
"Forgiven you for what?"... "It was a long time ago. Never mind."
"Wasn't her mom mentioned to be a water spirit though," Jason recalled. "I'd have thought that was finally something you two could at least not kill each other over."
"She didn't answer me what that was about," Percy waved at the book in Jason's hand, "otherwise I'd agree."
... an excuse to start yelling at me. That might shake her out of feeling depressed.
Thalia face palmed and cussed. Why had she thought he would make her feel better?
"Tried the same thing huh?" Percy easily guessed.
"In so many words," she agreed with a sigh.
Instead, her shoulders slumped. "I pushed her into going on the quest.
Nico had already known that back at the table when this shit-show had started. He'd wanted to hate her then, but he couldn't for the same reason he didn't now.
If Bianca had refused, really asked Zoe not to make her do this, he knew she wouldn't have forced her into this. Zoe did care about the girls in her crew, and Bianca had come as much to get away from him as to make her new favorite sibling happy.
Will watched this turbulent back and forth play across Nico's face and was already deciding he might have to be terrible at this mythomagic game. It would take several rounds to even get the premise, the longer he stretched out Nico's hyperactive smile explaining it the better.
... I thought she would be the next lieutenant."
Percy twitched uncomfortably at the way she'd said that. To confident, but her old frostiness was still lacking. Just an acceptance it was needed, for an immortal being?
"That's, strange," Magnus said with an uneasy look between Nico and Thalia. "Why would she pick someone brand new for that?"
"I couldn't say," Thalia's voice was drawn and tight with her own world-weary similar decision she'd been putting off. The lieutenant always had a second they confided in, and she'd been putting off choosing one of her own. She'd have to get on that when she went back, especially as she was now hesitantly considering how Artemis might feel if she waged war against which god or goddess had taken Jason away all this time. Zeus himself? Hera the ever-meddling poster child of jealousy? Hades? Some other deity who simply realized what had happened and sought to separate them for the wrongness they represented? The possibilities plagued her if she thought about it to long, and she was encouraging this telling of Percy's life as much for her own sanity as his. She wouldn't find a concrete answer until they got out of here.
"But you're the lieutenant." ... "Nothing can last forever, Percy.
Percy had a bad feeling about those words, especially as the age of the gods was currently in question by him and Thalia. A decision that could end Olympus rested on his shoulders, and he couldn't even save an innocent girl from his crazy plans or keep a promise to a kid who'd only asked for one thing before helping him. He felt they like they were all pretty doomed at that moment, why would Thalia pick him to try and lighten up somebody right now?
"Hey," Thalia nudged his leg with her own. "Are you paying attention? I know a food court is always in a mall Percy, but you don't have to start drooling over every connection to pizza you can think of."
"I'm totally listening, I'm hanging on every word- oh hey, you mentioned pizza?" Percy grinned.
Thalia sighed and resisted the urge to figure out how to drown him.
...There's nothing you could have done." Zoe didn't answer.
They'd had this exact discussion in the cab, her and Zoe, and Thalia was no more convinced now than she had been then Atlas would have taken his daughter the lieutenant and left the goddess behind. There was nothing Zoe could have done, and Thalia sighed in relief at least Percy was repeating that and not getting stabbed in the throat for it like Zoe had clearly wanted to do to her. Maybe it was sinking in.
...Zoe looked at the pen, her expression was pained.
"Now you're just antagonizing her," Magnus groaned.
"Best ways to get answers out of somebody, remember? A little down time during exhaustion, a little anger," Percy said with a wistful smile for better times when he'd usually gotten Annabeth to open up to him like this too. He winced at his own thought though and begged of the gods nobody else would have to die to stop hating him.
... I was sure she was going to call me crazy,
"Why?" Jason asked in surprise. "We already know she has dreams like yours, and she's not even a half-blood."
"I'd call somebody crazy if they told me they were having dreams about me out of the blue," Percy insisted. Strange-overlapping-whatever Thalia had called it or not, that was still a part of this he wasn't looking forward to getting back to.
..."I am sure you do, hero. Don't all you boys want to be like him?"
"Not all of them," Will muttered. When it was his turn to tell a story around the campfire, he always made sure it was an example kids should want to follow.
"Err," Percy cast his mind around sheepishly. He'd been in that guy's head for a brief moment and really couldn't recall a name that should pop into his head.
"I can't even laugh at you for not trying to figure that one out," Alex frowned. "Who were you going to ask, Thalia? She'd punch you. Zoe? She'd stab you. Grover would be your best bet, and this is the first chance you've got but you're not even in the same canoe with him."
The obvious answer hung in the air as Percy closed his eyes to another burning trace of longing passing through him. He'd have asked Annabeth.
Her voice was so bitter, I decided not to ask what she meant.
"So you do have a sense of self-preservation," Will said in fascination. "I question that quite a lot."
"We all do," Magnus raised his hand in agreement.
Percy couldn't even think of how to argue the point since he was still glumly going in circles in his head about how he should have been in Talos, and nobody seemed to blame it on him, let alone agree.
I looked down at Riptide, and for the first time, I wondered if it was cursed.
"Well it's a pretty chill curse if so," Alex shrugged. "Hasn't done you any harm, still comes back every time."
"Maybe it's just waiting for me to gain its trust," Percy joked, sort of.
... With the golden apple tree and a dragon guarding it."
Magnus swallowed his usual dread at a dragon being casually mentioned, though it made sense that would be a myth Percy might actually remember.
"I will take your apologies one at a time please," Percy threw back his shoulders proudly.
"You will get no such thing," Thalia snorted.
"Congratulations though," Jason told him, actually sounding like he meant it, complimenting him remembering any myth.
... I was exiled. Forgotten. Blotted out as if I never existed."
Any icy chill traced them all, and it had nothing to do with Nico or Percy. The victors always wrote history, and they couldn't begin to imagine how Zoe felt about being blotted out entirely. That question Chiron had asked Percy his very first day there echoed back now, "how would you like being called a myth, an old story ..." Here was an answer. A harsh, proud warrior whom nobody but her patron believed existed. If Artemis hadn't taken her in after all that happened, would Zoe have simply faded away long before Percy could annoy her in a canoe?
... I gave him the idea of how to steal the apples, but he took all the credit."
"Yeesh," Alex wasn't the only one who winced, but she elaborated, "I'd have grown pretty damn angry over that happening to me too."
"Almost makes me want to take back the ice princess comment, I always hated those kids in class," Percy nodded. "Let alone, this," he gestured to the book, the world at large falling on Zoe.
..."Hoover Dam," Thalia said. "It's huge."
Percy at least now got a very fully enveloped distraction in his mind of Annabeth hitting him with each of these books, several times, when she found out about this.
... it was obvious they hated this dam blocking up their nice river.
Thalia sighed for them and twisted her bracelet about without a good answer. It was a monument to human architecture, and yet a blight on nature. It seemed impossible the two worlds she straddled were able to coexist, but she and her sister were sure to find a way someday.
...Zoe stared at us. "How do you know all that?"
"Annabeth," everybody in the room said at once without surprise the moment Percy had spouted the first fun fact.
...one of Annabeth's personal favorites, and she wasn't here to see it.
Magnus looked on at the book with a now familiar sense of guilt. He kept looking from Rachel's missing seat to Hearth's, he couldn't believe how selfish he'd been to stay behind just to get a chance to meet his cousin, and now she seemed even farther away than ever. He was still only getting hints of her life through a book he didn't feel worthy to be prying into. He wanted her to tell him her favorite monuments.
"Take a picture," Nico offered in an only slightly jilted voice as he looked at Percy and Thalia's strained faces once more. "She sent you one of the Lincoln Memorial, tell her this is revenge for going without you."
Percy got a good chuckle out of that while Thalia's halfhearted grin clearly said she was considering it.
"I'll bet Percy's banned from going there for some reason before they leave," Alex said quietly with that crooked smile. "Maybe you two could go there."
"Mm, family vacation to a dam," Magnus agreed noncommittally. What was he supposed to tell her, that he'd be lucky to have the luxury of someone missing him if he never came back? He wasn't even sure his cousin still remembered he existed, let alone had the means to offer to do anything with her except show her the good garbage bins to find thrown-away food.
"We should go up there, for her sake." "You are mad," Zoe decided.
"Like Ares going after Aphrodite," Percy agreed shamelessly.
"I'm kind of worried if this girl ever knows how to have fun," Will frowned she found this idea so crazy. It was no secret why Percy was along, Zoe herself had accused him of only being there for Annabeth.
"But that's where the road is... so, sightseeing it is."
"We are at the dam," Jason needlessly announced. "Not getting the problem yet."
"We get there when we get there," Magnus frowned at him for wanting to bring the monsters on.
"Oh, we get there," Thalia sighed.
...Thalia walked in the middle of the road, far away from the edges.
"Yeah, that would give anyone a little vertigo," Nico agreed. It was a good thing he'd never really been afraid of heights, as often as his shadow traveling in the beginning had led him to falling for quite a bit. Sometimes he was lucky enough to have ambrosia to heal when he landed, but most often he just walked it off and kept practicing.
Grover kept sniffing the wind, looking nervous...I knew he smelled monsters.
Jason felt a twinge of jealousy as he read that. It was an old feeling by now, one nearly constantly around he didn't give much thought to. Percy out on a quest with his best friend, this satyr being really useful and a great companion. The annoyed little tick linked easily with all his other constant missing gaps of where it should be connecting in his mind to his own travels.
...it's coming from several directions. I don't like that."
The skeletons, they all vividly remembered. Now here, in a place where the group could easily be pinned in, they all found themselves twitching with stress, Percy's chest tightened painfully as the thought sprang to mind and he was so sure he was right. His head hurt but his gut knew- "Duddett!" Alex had decided to jump on the stop letting Percy dwell on bad things train in her own way as the water pulsed around them. "We have very pressing dam matters to discuss!"
"And you told me to watch my mouth," Percy gave her a little grin despite his trembling jaw.
"Do as I say, not as I do," she shrugged while Jason hastily kept going.
... we still had a long way to go. We didn't need any more monsters.
"Which means that's exactly what you're going to get," Will groaned, especially because they still hadn't come close to finding Nereid yet like his dad recommended.
"There's that helpful Apollo wisdom," Percy huffed.
"There's a snack bar in the visitor center," Thalia said.
If she'd closed her eyes to long, she could still feel Luke beside her too. So close he could breathe down her neck while he watched her back, that endearing smile that never made a security guard question why two raggedy kids clearly on no tour group were there alone. He'd never said a word, waiting patiently all day standing there while she waited for a sign that had clearly not been coming.
She felt eyes on her, too real, and she jerked. Her breath rattled loose, like she'd forgotten to breathe, still waiting atop that cold windy place, only to see Percy looking at her now. She'd been doing it again, that too still tree joke.
He didn't pester her to keep moving on. She was starting to feel like a rotten friend to him, everybody else having to jump in lately and help him to stay focused while she kept drifting around in thought, but he never seemed to blame her for that. Percy never blamed problems on anyone but himself.
... looked kind of like Oscar statues with wings.
"Only you Percy," Thalia chuckled, chasing away her demon for now.
... dedicated to Zeus when the dam was built," Thalia said. "A gift from Athena."
"Why was anybody gifting Zeus statues about a river?" Magnus asked in fascination. "Even Poseidon is a loose but weird connection."
"Does he just have to have an award when anything exists or he gets an attitude?" Alex rolled her eyes.
"The Winged Figures of the Republic," Percy quoted with an absent minded smile. "I couldn't begin to pretend I paid attention to every word, but Annabeth said something about their influence with eagles, or maybe aliens, and they symbolize the readiness for defense of an intrusion or something."
"Sounds Zeusy and Athena-ish to me," Magnus shrugged in agreement, though he still didn't get how mortals from the 1930's had agreed, but that was probably that whole gods taking influence and visa versa thing he still had trouble wrapping his head around.
Thalia was looking on in fascination at Annabeth's cousin. It was a week after this had happened the two of them had found themselves in a particular alleyway. She'd always thought this time with Percy had been the very first her dad had ever actually answered her prayer...and yet her wish for guidance all those years ago might very well have thrown a certain pajama wearing, hammer wielding, daughter of Athena right into their path.
... They don't know the statues are sacred, they just know they're special."
"Sounds kind of nice," Will grinned. "I've heard of lots of stories like that, the idea of friendly spirits and spiritual places to them. Like they want to be more connected to our world."
Nico studied him for a few moments curiously. It was so rare to hear anybody talk about spirits and nice in the same sentence.
...They don't do anything. They're just big metal statues."
Percy's mind gave him a thwack, like that was a lie. He rubbed his temple and frowned accusingly from the book to Thalia in confusion while she bit her lip. She almost wanted to laugh, she'd never been so glad to be wrong, even if it had resulted in the worst dam rescue of her life.
...the last metal statue we'd run into. That hadn't gone well. I decided not to bring it up.
Nico flinched and wished Percy hadn't thought it either!
To his astonishment, Percy gave him a guilty look! Like he'd been thinking the exact same thing.
It had finally happened. There was no doubt about it. Nico waited for something to follow. An explosion of butterflies, the feeling of fireworks? The guilt he had a crush on the guy who had failed to protect his sister to finally vanish?
He just stayed blank, like he was in shock. Percy finally hesitated before turning back to watch Jason read, regrets clearly still on his lips he was holding in. He had the Son of the Sea god's full attention. Nico gave him a hesitant smile because he didn't blame Percy, he never had. Guilt was the only thing still clear as day on Percy's face before he shut his mouth and turned back away. Nico watched, just like always. Percy still wanted to apologize, he obviously still wanted to explain himself.
Gods, what would happen if Nico finally just heard him out? There were the butterflies, but he was positive they were all noxious orange as uneasy as he suddenly felt. The last time he'd tried that, Percy had almost convinced him he could be accepted at camp. It had been a lie, but the closest to happy he'd been since his sister died as he attempted to make it work around those other kids constantly staring and whispering.
"Let us find the dam snack bar," Zoe said.
"Language!" Alex repeated in an exasperated tease.
"Oh, you're not going to like this page," Thalia's smile was twitching along happily while Jason was already snickering at poor Zoe's use of phrasing.
... "And I need to use the dam restroom."
"Sorry, it just slipped out," Thalia smirked among all of them getting a good laugh out of it now. There was an edge of unease to it, like they were all aware if they lost themselves in amusement again that might annoy their Titan capture too, but it didn't stop them.
...I busted up, and I probably would've kept laughing all day,
Percy rubbed at the corner of his eye now, like he should have still felt the edge of tears, his smile finally felt a kind of strained like it hurt because he'd been holding it so long instead of faking it, his breath caught because he'd just been laughing too hard. A feeling he hadn't quite been convinced he'd feel again there for a time.
Nico watched as he and Thalia were still giggling hardest of all, the book was more crooked in Jason's hands than anything had probably ever been as he kept trying to laugh and hold it steady before Thalia reached over and mock covered his eyes, scolding, "hey that's not a word you should be remembering!"
He shoved her away while Magnus cheerfully taught Alex both signs for dam and damn.
Nico watched with his usual feeling of disconnect. Bianca probably would have wanted him to laugh more, or probably told him to leave the room so he didn't get any crazy ideas about using any other foul words.
He found himself glancing at Will, to check how hard he was laughing, maybe he should at least fake it? Will had an indulgent smile on his face, lounging in his seat as calmly as ever, but he wasn't busting a gut.
Will seemed to feel his stare, he looked around with that cheerful smile. "Guess it's just one of those 'you had to be there' things," he shrugged as he gestured at Percy and Thalia. It's not like he didn't get the joke, obviously.
Nico felt that flush of warmth again, he was starting to get concerningly used to that when he talked to him as Jason finally batted Thalia away enough he could try to keep going.
but then I heard a noise: "Moooo."
"Like the cow?" Alex and Magnus asked together in the exact same tone, then busted out laughing as hard as Thalia and Percy just were.
"To each their own," Will chuckled along just for seeing them leaning against each other like that, while Nico looked on in clear confusion for definitely not getting that joke. "I bet they wouldn't get it if I asked for a dam buffet," Will added just for him.
Nico gave him a rare smile, the kind that wasn't all hyper because something he actually liked was mentioned, or some snide joke. Just a quirk of the mouth as he nodded, his hair falling into his eyes for a moment before he brushed it aside and looked away. Will's breath caught, and it wasn't on a laugh.
The smile melted off my face. I wondered if the noise was just in my head,
"If you hear cows in your head then I would agree you've lost a screw," Thalia snorted. Annabeth had told her of the time Hera's cows followed her around leaving patties, and it would be just like the cosmic universe for Percy to have at one point been haunted by the same beasts.
... He was looking around, confused. "Did I just hear a cow?"
"Does he hear cows?" Magnus asked in fascination. "Or does he just hear what they're saying with a cow accent?"
"Now I want to know what a cow accent sounds like," Jason said in the exact same tone.
"I'm going to lock you both in a room with Grover when this is done so you three can have this out," Percy sighed.
"A dam cow?" Thalia laughed.
"Head in the game Thalia," Jason snorted.
"My brain cells were all that was holding this group together, I'd shared to much with them," she scoffed.
...Thalia was looking at me. "Percy, are you okay?"
She'd been worried he'd been having minotaur flashbacks or something, he'd looked really freaked out when she hadn't heard a thing.
... I just need a minute. To think."
Thalia shook her head at herself for falling for that one and leaving him alone. She must have really been exhausted. She should have known better. Percy was sharp, and had a knack for never letting things get past him.
But that boy did not sit around and think.
... they finally went into the visitor center without me.
Magnus was surprised Grover hadn't tried to stay behind, or that Percy hadn't tried to ask him to. Not only if his best friend was feeling a little off, but because the satyr was the first person who came to his mind to want around if he was starting to hear an animal.
Thalia just swallowed yet another loaf of guilt as she'd spent the time in line for food whispering to Zoe about how he still must be stuck on thinking of Annabeth and wanted that time alone. Annabeth would have known what a load of crap that was and that he was hiding something. She could only hope when she did get Percy back to his girlfriend she didn't find out how badly Thalia was letting their friend down repeatedly.
...my friend from Long Island Sound, Bessie the cow serpent.
"Huh," Jason grunted in surprise.
"Obviously she was a magical cow serpent," Alex said quizzically, "is she going to follow you around now and warn you of danger?"
"Apparently only if there's water around," Percy nodded, his heart already thumping with the echoes of adrenaline, a much more familiar set of unease that made his mouth tense into a tight line once more.
... A lot of senior citizens, some families. Nobody was paying Bessie any attention.
"I wonder what they would see," Will grinned. "You couldn't dismiss the Mist on sea life like otters and dolphins splashing in the water out there could you?"
"Maybe just a stray cow swimming around," Alex shrugged, "let Bessie just be chilling."
"Hopefully with her heard," Magnus agreed, it's where he'd been hoping she'd gone off to.
"What are you doing here?" I asked her. "Moo!"
"I don't suppose that translates to she wanted a dam t-shirt?" Percy groaned.
"When is your luck ever that good?" Jason rolled his eyes.
...no way she could've swum all the way here. Yet, here she was.
"Her traveling anywhere she wants wasn't my highest concern," Magnus admitted. "Snakes can travel easily between land and sea, I just sort of assumed she could too."
"Would have been nice if we could all hitch a ride on her that first day then," Percy frowned thoughtfully for only a moment if he'd somehow accidentally rescued a super fast friendly creature that had nothing to do with a boar's bristly hide giving him a ride, but the thought ended abruptly with a familiar but never less dull pain for trying to think how Bessie connected to anything.
She wanted me to come with her... "My friends are inside."
Percy sat tense in his seat, indecision written all over his face. The skeletons were after him, if it was them he should go with her.
What if it was some other monster though? Grover hadn't been sure. He'd never forgive himself if he ran and could have possibly helped. At the very worst, if it was the zombies, he couldn't just disappear on them without warning what was coming. He had no choice, but every decision felt wrong.
...They wore gray camouflage outfits that flickered over skeletal bodies.
Percy's eyes flashed to Nico again, a horrible well of familiarity trying to drag him back into the pits of his mind with Bianca still fresh in his memory, telling this kid what happened to her.
Nico gave him a grim look. The exact same that had been on Bianca's face when she'd stabbed the one that went up in flames. A sort of detachment that could have been on a serial killer's face while the victim screamed.
Percy quickly looked back away, his eyes scrunched shut once more as he now had a vague idea he couldn't bear to have confirmed lest the pain somehow get worse of how Bianca had been the lone one to kill it that time.
... his face changing momentarily into a skull. "Ah!" the kids yelled.
"Nightmares," Magnus said confidently. "That kid will be having nightmares and possibly therapy the rest of his adolescent life."
"Sucks, I love Halloween," Alex said in genuine sympathy.
... a van swerved to a stop in the middle of the road, nearly plowing into some old people.
"Damn, who's next, a couple on their honeymoon?" Thalia huffed for the most mild of distractions these tourists couldn't catch a break no matter where Percy went. She just hoped that family from the Gateway Arch wasn't somehow around to mistake these ghosts for another doggie.
... The security guard yelled, "Hey, kid!" But I didn't stop.
"I bet he doesn't get that a lot," Will chuckled at that. "Kids running into this, most are probably trying to flee."
"I'm just full of surprises," Percy agreed, though that pretty much went without saying after spending five minutes with him.
... I couldn't see them anywhere. Where was the dam snack bar?
Percy wished he could pull that Nemon Lion coat closer for a moment, but the weight of that impenetrable fur wasn't going to protect him from the onslaught on all sides. He had to warn them, get them out. They still didn't know how to kill these things, nobody had managed it except Bianca, and her ghost wasn't exactly going to appear and help him out of this.
Thalia instantly saw he was fighting with himself again and laughed aloud to tease, "just follow the dam signs like we did. I don't think even Grover saved you hot sauce this time." She almost felt bad, that was twice he'd missed out on a chance at a good meal. It was no wonder he was in such a grumpy mood lately.
Percy at least gave her a look of exasperation again so she didn't feel to bad.
...There was no place to go but into an elevator with the tour group.
"I guess Annabeth's favorite place must be rubbing off on you," Magnus chuckled. "Hiding in a tour group, that's so, easy. And smart. I never would have thought it of you."
"It was that or Paris, I went with the better option," Percy shrugged. He didn't really think his impulse of one answer was that great, but he had a funny feeling about this tour group. Maybe he'd come back to Annabeth with a new fun fact.
... "Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen, the elevator hardly ever breaks."
"Hardly ever," Alex repeated for good measure.
"Now we know it's going to just because Percy's in there," Jason frowned.
"Your confidence is instilling," Percy sighed, and he couldn't say he thought they were wrong.
..."Does this go to the snack bar?" I asked her. A few people chuckled.
"Don't we all wish every room came with a snack bar," Thalia agreed.
..."Weren't you listening to my fascinating presentation upstairs?"
"About as well as he listens to anything," Will cheerfully agreed.
"I have a short attention span for thinking of to much at once," Percy grinned, "people who concentrate don't think as fast as I do."
"Right, I'm sure that's won so many arguments with Annabeth," Will snorted.
... The doors closed with the tour guide still inside, leaving me alone.
And a few mouths hanging open in here.
"Was that-"
"Yep," Percy said with confidence. It didn't even give him a headache to agree with Jason, he was that sure he was right, which meant he'd been just as confident back then.
"Huh," Jason muttered. It was the least strange way a god had yet appeared, and yet getting even a glimpse of Minerva still set him back a bit.
Which had nothing on Alex and Magnus exchanging discouraged looks. If that had been Annabeth's mom, she'd sure waited her time to give even a hint of help, and it felt like something Percy could have gotten from a fortune cookie.
... unless I wanted to jump into the turbines and get churned up to make electricity.
"I never thought I'd find a combination of you and Thalia's powers," Magnus said, his voice trying to edge into that curious fascination of their two opposites combing for the power of good.
"Yeah, this place is full of combine harvesting," Thalia frowned. She wished Percy would have chucked those skeletons in there, it might have taken them more than a few seconds to come back, but she had no idea how he could have done that without also grabbing up half the mortals in a horrible toilet bowl like massacre of churning water.
I didn't.
"Take notes Thalia," Percy poked her shoulder.
"Don't throw you into a turbine, yes, got that. Are you implying I can't just turn you into electricity? Because that sounds like a challenge where your lightbulb doesn't ever turn off," she scoffed.
Percy flopped back into his seat and huffed, "I hope you didn't get a single bite of that food."
She looked at him in betrayal and gasped, "I've never wished such a horrible curse on you!"
"Then you're clearly not as creative as I am," he smirked.
"You're going to regret that Jackson," she frowned, and Percy certainly didn't have that self-preservation he'd just been praised for because he shrugged without concern.
...I prayed that Thalia, Zoe, and Grover were okay.
"To which god?" Jason fished for specifics like that would help.
"Whoever wanted to help," Percy rolled his eyes. "To bad Bessie doesn't count, I was thinking of her and hoping she at least got away."
They might already be captured,
"Would the skeletons capture them?" Magnus asked uneasily. "They're after you, how strategic are these things?" He didn't know if he should ask Nico directly or not. Was that rude? He wouldn't feel like it was rude to ask Percy something about sharks, but this still felt more personal.
Will had his chin raised, a distinctly bodyguard kind of look to his face as Nico uneasily cleared his throat. Percy looked at the pair in confusion, somehow them being friends made even less sense the longer he watched and he was really hoping there was a whole chapter not about him in these books explaining how this had happened.
"They're, um, wicked smart actually," Nico spoke confidently, but there was still a hint of unease in his voice, like he was waiting for someone to scream in terror just because he was talking. "Think CIA with all their resources and they're that much better. It's completely possible they'd take hostages if they thought for a second it would draw Percy out."
"Creepy," Magnus said in a thank you kind of tone for answering and still shivering in disgust all at once.
Percy's flesh crawled as well as he wondered how he'd ever survived with these things on the loose. Would they come after his mom? Was one on its way now while the rest kept track on them?
Jason kept reading when nobody else had anything to offer and Percy bit his tongue to hold in a scream of mounting stress.
... I had trapped myself in a hole hundreds of feet below the surface.
"Honestly, that's some kind of talent for managing a whole new way to get caught, trapping yourself. If only all bad guys were as helpful as you," Alex said in her usual unhelpful tone.
"Maybe Luke will take notes," Percy scowled, the only good he could imagine coming of this.
... right behind me I heard a sharp Chhh! like the voice of a skeleton.
Percy startled out of his seat and uncapped his sword, looking at the book in Jason's hands like it was about to bite his fingers off.
...The girl I'd just tried to slice in half yelped and dropped her Kleenex.
Riptide fell from his numb hand as he stood there with his mouth hanging open, the most perfect picture of dumbstruck they all took a mental snap-shot of.
Rachel was going to be so pissed she missed this, Thalia alone could smirk.
..."Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?"
"Not in recent times," Magnus offered.
"Thank gods, or I'd have to ban him from the infirmary," Will grinned, "a place he visits far to often."
Percy was still imitating a tree of his own, a bird was likely to pop out of his mouth before he closed it.
... It had passed clean through her body. "You're mortal!"
"That's why!" Percy yelped, finally coming to life as he looked again where Rachel had once been.
The others were torn between watching Percy acting like a bigger lunatic than usual and Thalia biting her lip hard to stop from laughing. "Should we be concerned about Percy traumatizing some kid about this?" Magnus asked.
"Would the Mist make her forget once he ran off, or should the Hoover Dam start passing out therapy cards?" Will said, not entirely kidding.
"Just keep going," Thalia encouraged as Jason tried to keep watching Percy like he'd ever give a useful answer.
... Of course I'm mortal! How did you get that sword past security?"
"It's Rachel!" Percy finally came to enough to blurt out. Now everybody looked like he had a few seconds ago and it was pretty satisfying as his sword still sat innocently at his feet like it hadn't been found out.
"Wait, what?" Magnus couldn't seem to believe his own ears, again. Maybe they should start signing everything to him. "But, wait, she was mortal, and," he waved about the room intensely.
"She's a very special friend," was all Thalia seemed prepared to answer.
"Huh," Jason said in fascination as he looked from where she'd been to him. "You just cannot meet people the normal way."
"Falling out of a tree isn't that unusual," Thalia frowned.
"He does nearly kill everybody he meets though, without exception," Alex sided with Jason.
Percy opened his mouth to protest, and then found his mind completely blank how to do that as Jason kept reading.
... like she spent her free time poking them with a fork.
"Don't let Tethys hear that," Will frowned, "I don't need her coming in next with a lecture about what pants have to do with our cholesterol."
"And here I thought you'd welcome a visit from her," Nico admitted.
"I have not hidden a bag of marshmallows in my cabin and you cannot prove otherwise," Will said in the picture-perfect way he would to Chiron.
"Well, it's either a sword or the biggest toothpick in the world," she said.
"She really did fit right in here," Alex said.
"Shame she was booted into worlds unknown," Magnus muttered uneasily, his mind still on Hearth and hoping Blitz wasn't freaking out to bad.
...She asked so much so fast, it was like she was throwing rocks at me. I couldn't think.
Percy still looked like his mind was buffering in here, he'd sat back down with a truly blank look on his face as he lagged behind several sentences.
...if my pelt had changed back to fur, but it still looked like a brown coat to me.
"That's really creepy she can see what you can't," Jason said. He was glad he'd met her now, surely if there had been something hidden in the stitching of his purple shirt she'd have noticed.
"They say fashion is in the eye of the beholder and you never see yourself properly in a mirror," Thalia snorted.
...Thalia had done to fool the teachers. Maybe I could manipulate the Mist.
Thalia started laughing so hard it sounded painful. She was slumped over her seat in moments and trying to ask him while gasping, "you- you tried to- oh my-" and continued flailing her hand in Percy's face.
Who finally snapped back to here and now to frown at her for the display while the others got a good laugh as well. "Chiron owes me a world of apologies for this," was all he could sigh, fighting off a cringe at how he guessed this was going to go if Jason would stop snickering and get it out.
...She blinked. "Um, no. It's a sword, weirdo."
Thalia was barely starting to recover and wiping tears out of her eyes. "I'd have given anything to be there and see that," she managed breathlessly.
"I should have thrown you in the turbines," Percy sighed.
...are you going to answer my questions or should I scream for security?"
"I am disappointed that crossed her mind," Alex huffed, "why is she not stealing your sword from you and demanding to be kidnapped onto this quest."
"Alex, no," Magnus said in a tone of defeat, already knowing he was saying fruitlessly.
"Rachel!" Percy repeated, unprompted to anyone else but his own trail of thought that finally reconnected as he smacked his hand against the side of his head and stared at Alex. They definitely had the same vibe of being a terrifying force of nature right from the first meeting, but in a more chaotic way than Thalia had ever given off.
"It's okay Percy, she only called security on you once, and those guys only scolded you for trying to lick the statue," Thalia said without thinking, what she'd thought his exclamation had been about.
Percy shuddered though, like acid being poured into his ears once more of being reminded of something he had no memory of. Thalia put an apologetic hand on his shoulder and waved Jason on who did so without protest.
..."In a hurry or in trouble?"
"Usually it's both," Nico said from experience.
"Um, sort of both."
Percy grinned over at Nico, already soothed back into that casual attitude again as he called, "hah, echo high-five!" And held up his hand once more.
It drooped and Percy turned away with a sigh when Nico did not return the gesture, again. The guy was probably holding a massive grudge against him for getting his sister killed. He wouldn't blame Nico if he did summon more ghosts to attack him next time.
She looked over my shoulder and her eyes widened. "Bathroom!"
"Was the poor girl looking for that this whole time?" Magnus asked.
"Probably not anymore," Jason muttered. Any mortal would piss themselves if a sword was swung in their face.
"It's always the last place on the tour," Percy repeated, silently hoping he didn't try a crazy stunt of dousing any of those zombies in one. It probably wouldn't work as well as it once had on Clarisse.
... I slipped inside the boys' bathroom and left Rachel Elizabeth Dare standing outside.
"At least she wasn't just randomly announcing where the bathrooms were, or I'd be confused why she stopped doing that," Alex waved to the doorway where they were located in here.
Percy didn't feel any better about her telling him to hide than if she'd dragged him in there to keep throwing questions at him as he sunk farther into his chair. That little rodent part of him on full display for everyone to see what a coward he was, hiding behind a mortal.
Later, that seemed cowardly to me. I'm also pretty sure it saved my life.
"Look at those impulses being put to good use," Will applauded.
"It's on record as the least craziest way you've ever gotten out of a situation," Thalia agreed.
"And the third book in a row you've involuntarily been in a bathroom," Jason muttered.
Percy gave a reluctant chuckle for all of them not even batting an eye at that. Alex and Magnus were snickering as he showed her the sign for bathroom. Only Nico looked unimpressed he needed somebody's help, and that guy looked like he'd rather swallow nails than look at him again.
... What was I thinking? I'd left a mortal girl out there to die.
Jason kept reading unfazed at that thought. Those skeletons didn't know Percy well enough to guess he'd charge out there to save this random mortal girl, so they wouldn't attack her. Meanwhile Thalia had Percy's wrist and was hissing at him to put the sword away or she'd use it as a toothpick on him as he kept reading.
... I think he went over the side or something. Maybe he fell."
"This girl!" Alex fanned her face in awe. "I suspected she had a knack for lying and I'm so disappointed I didn't get to see it in action."
"She'll be around Camp plenty when we get back," Thalia promised while Magnus swallowed a tiny hint of jealousy.
...She looked shaken. Her face was gray and sweaty.
Percy's hands twitched, his wish to comfort her instinctive. Her first glimpse into the world of gods and monsters had not been a kind one...or was it? Another blank space where a memory should be, like he'd somehow actually know what her real first look at anything unnatural would be?
Regardless, he owed Rachel much more than the brief time he'd spent with her in here as the instant friend she'd been to him. He had probably been the first person who hadn't ever called her crazy for the things she saw, while she rocked his world sideways being the first mortal to help him survive, aside from his mom.
..."Do yourself a favor," I said. "Forget it. Forget you ever saw me."
"I don't think that worked out to well for her," Jason said astutely.
"It's a favor I don't even think Zeus could grant," Thalia snorted.
"Are you saying I'm to memorable to forget?" Percy grinned.
"She's saying your too much trouble to forget," Alex snorted.
"Forget you tried to kill me?" "Yeah. That, too."
"She actually constantly reminds you of that while you go fetch her breakfast in bed on some days," Thalia smirked.
Percy wasn't sure how much she was joking, but at this point he believed her.
..."What kind of name is Percy Gotta-go?"
"A name worthy of his Bathroom Royalties," Jason said with a straight face.
"My mom would cry if I tried to change my last name from hers," Percy said back, obviously unphased by such a compelling argument.
...The cafe was packed with kids enjoying the best part of the tour—the dam lunch.
"I really hope they sent the cool chaperone who laughed at that joke," Will grinned.
"I'm now grateful we didn't get a chaperone," Percy frowned, imagining Chiron in here coaching them on better strategies, or worse, Oceanus in here constantly trying to talk about the gods point of view over their measly mortal lives.
..."But we just got our burritos!" Thalia said.
"I should have known better," Thalia flicked her own forehead. "When as he ever tried to rush away from food?"
"Besides, it's not like you would have shared with me," Percy gave her a tragic look that, indeed, not one extra wrap seemed to have been there for him.
Zoe stood up. "He's right! Look."
"Ha!" Percy gave an almost authentic cheer Zoe had said that for him. It was marred just slightly by the annoying fact nobody had yet acknowledged that for him in here.
...a beautiful panoramic view of the skeletal army that had come to kill us.
"And they say nothing's better than dinner and a show," Nico muttered, his stomach twisting up at the idea of all those kids in that line of fire. He hadn't even been there and it was still all to easy to imagine he and Bianca in the crowd instead, living an actual normal life as she tried to caution him about to much hot sauce while he ignored her and regretted it on the first bite.
... All of them were armed with batons and pistols.
"I'd never seen a more terrifying border patrol, and I've dealt with Clarisse," Percy groaned.
...We were completely surrounded.
Percy's heart jolted in his chest. A part of him was grateful his terrible idea hadn't come true and his mom was safe, he was still their focus. The rest of him wanted to make that whole exploding buildings problem he seemed to have to activate, and yet he couldn't possibly hope for that with so many civilians and his friends in the center. There seemed no out. He wanted Annabeth here, to tell her how much he missed her as she came up with a brilliant solution out of this. His only play so far had been to hide in the bathroom, and he didn't think that would stop these guys again.
...In terms of deadly projectiles, a flying burrito is up there with grenades and cannonballs.
"No contest, Grover's the new master of chaos," Alex looked rather offended and like she'd be battling the satyr to the death soon for that title.
"I just heard a lot of sacrilege, those perfectly good burritos," Jason frowned.
"A few Guacamole Grande's aren't worth my life?" Percy asked, looking around at him.
"Ehh," Jason waved his hand about like he was still thinking about it, and Thalia cleared her throat loudly to stop the two drawing their own deadly projectiles on each other before that escalated. Whether it be swords or burritos, she still didn't want to know.
Grover's lunch hit the skeleton and knocked his skull clean off his shoulders.
"Cool!" Nico yelped.
Percy smiled, finally some of that little kid he'd rescued on the cliff coming back to life in here. He just hoped that wasn't a Mythomagic trap card or Nico would never leave him alone.
Will bit back a totally platonic and not at all ulterior motive of the fond idea in starting a food fight back at camp just to have an excuse to dump pudding all over Nico. He was pretty sure nobody's head would come off, but Nico might still get some fun out of it.
... the other kids in the café went crazy and started throwing theirs, shrieking.
"Your reign as the best man on how to make an exit continues unthwarted," Alex was mock rummaging in her pockets for notes.
"I think Grover outshined me for that," Percy shook his head modestly.
"You were still present and the cause of said Burrito War, you get at least half credit," Thalia rolled her eyes.
... Bodies and food and drinks were flying everywhere.
"I think one burrito was even on fire." Thalia grinned. The general laughter that flowed easily around the room now held a hint unease like it hadn't before, there was still to much of a chance somebody could get hurt in this, but man was that a precious mental image not to ever want gone.
...We ran to the bronze statues, but that just put our backs to the mountain.
Percy's gut was trying to tighten in answer. He felt the power of the ocean around him, wanting to protect him in his domain, but it would do him no good there unless he wanted to try collapsing the whole dam. Earth shaker, one of his father's other titles. He could have brought that mountain down around them if he'd tried hard enough, but he didn't think it would have gotten them out of there, and he sat there horrified at his own uselessness again.
... Two had burritos lodged in their rib cages. They didn't look happy about it.
"I can't imagine why," Magnus said with a completely straight face. Looks like somebody was getting over his zombie issues. "That's some high-quality food they get to easily pack."
Alex looked rather pleased and the others looked on in slight fear if she was rubbing off on him and what kind of chaos that was going to bring.
..."Whoa," I said. "Their toes really are bright."
Nico faced palmed while Will sighed so hard it looked like it hurt.
"You are like a whole new brand of ADHD," Thalia happily informed him, and she knew it paid off.
"Those attention deficiencies are supposed to help you survive, not, whatever your brain is," Jason agreed.
Percy didn't have a dignified response to that so he just flipped them off with a feeling of confidence Thalia had to admire. It's what she would have done too if she didn't want to hurl at what this had led to.
"Percy!" Thalia said. "This isn't the time."
"You are so lucky I had better things to do then than smack you," Thalia informed.
"A day I thought would never come," Percy grinned.
...There is always a way for those clever enough to find it.
Magnus leaned forward in his seat, his gray eyes giving them all a spectacular view of the calculating, pissed-off look that might have been on Annabeth's face had she been here to asses the same problem. Percy grinned from him to Thalia with renewed confidence he'd get his old life back and they'd all laugh about this one day.
...Thalia scowled like she was sure I'd gone crazy.
"I still think that, and now I know you're right," she grumbled for herself. Percy was still smirking like an idiot while their doom approached and Jason was jiggling his leg in some combination of anticipation and anxiety for how the fight was going to go while muttering in between breaths different strategies and she wanted to knock their heads together.
... Her lips moved in a silent prayer. I put in my own prayer to Annabeth's mom,
Percy glanced guiltily at the cracks in the floor and away as a new stray thought occurred he didn't know how to feel about. If Annabeth had never been taken, Athena might not have shown up when she did. He didn't know if they'd have gotten out of this without her being gone, Thalia and Grover might not have made it back from this quest if things hadn't fallen into place like they had.
...that she was trying to help us save her daughter.
Will hoped he wasn't alone in the flash of warmth that chased through him. No matter how they'd gotten to this point, he wished he could hand this chapter out in flyers around camp to remind any kid who ever questioned if their parents cared about them. Even the most logical and distant gods up there at the top had a hand in the lives of this quest.
And nothing happened.
There was something about the way Percy was watching the book now. Like he was just daring it to prove him wrong. And nothing ever won a dare against him.
...Zoe pushed Grover behind her and aimed an arrow at a skeleton's head.
"All that gawking finally paid off," Percy snorted with a lack of fear in his voice. He'd already been wishing for Bianca back before her godly given talent to vanquish these. He wished he could throw his lion coat over all of them as a giant shield while he could use Riptide to slash away every bullet. It was going to take all of them though.
A shadow fell over me. I thought maybe it was the shadow of death.
Nico's mouth thinned into a fine line. He still waited for somebody in the room to turn to him and make a gratuitous joke if he was about to show up.
Percy did look at him and then away with a flinch, but there was something in it Nico let himself really look at as he studied those green eyes, that familiar face he hated to think of for to long. Percy had connected to Bianca on that line, just like him, still mourning her death and wondering if anybody else was going to die even in the face of his confidence. Nico gripped his statue tight for a moment in agreement with that feeling and wished he knew how to say what that meant to him to someone he never could.
...The bronze angels stepped in front of us and folded their wings like shields.
Thalia's limbs curled in painfully tight to her at just the mention of those wings, remembering in too vivid detail what was coming for her, like her body was trying to assume the fetal position before she hissed and commanded her muscles to act right but it wasn't working as the trembling increased-
"What ho Thalia!" Percy linked their arms together in a merry display, quoting old Mr. Bruner with that same poised phrase that had gotten him through so many of his classes.
"You are such a dork," she gave him a shaky laugh some part of her meant her clumsy mouth didn't convey.
"People keep calling me that, but you know I've never looked up what it meant," Percy nodded to himself calmly. "So I'm just going to go on thinking you're all calling me awesome."
"I'm calling you something all right," her next laugh sounded just a smidge better than the last.
... Both angels slashed outward, and the skeletons went flying across the road.
"Most dam satisfying moment yet," Jason grinned.
"And that's saying a lot," Percy nodded in savage agreement.
... like he hadn't had a drink since he'd been built.
"I wasn't expecting them to talk," Alex seemed even more invested in meeting them now. All the questions she could ask, all the tourists freaking out in the background of the aliens descending.
... "Holy Zeus, what were those tourists thinking?"
"Hope," Will grinned. He didn't care how cheesy it was, the mortal endurance to find joy in small silly little things like rubbing a statue and feeling connected to a world they were apart from fascinated him. Maybe he shouldn't ever leave camp, he'd get distracted by everything they came across too.
..."Could I get a please, Miss Zeus's Kid?" an angel asked.
Any other anything that ever called her that would have gotten a thousand-watt punch to the face. Desperate times and all that had barely made her register it as she'd leapt into these flying automatons' arms while she huffed in here.
... one of them grabbed Thalia and me, the other grabbed Zoe and Grover,
Nico couldn't help but wince again, his mind trying to insert his sister into this still. Would she have gotten scooped up with Zoe, or had another fantastic conversation with Percy about what a burden he was on the trip? Would the angels have left her behind if she'd somehow been trying to hold them off alone?
His mind was spiraling with anger and bitter to much again to sense the icy water starting to freeze around him until there was a gentle tap on the couch behind him. He felt the small vibration it caused without having to deal with the uncomfortable sensation that usually came with someone trying to touch him. Will was watching him, as was usual now, and had somehow found a perfect way to distract him from his thoughts. Nico had no idea what he'd done to get such a good friend.
... the skeletons shrinking to tiny specks below.
Magnus couldn't quite believe that was over as Jason looked around and shut it to indicate so. He was still expecting a few more insane things to happen, but at this point was that even possible?
PJOPJOPJO
I live for irony. Yes I took Rachel out as she was finally about to appear. I feel bad, I barely got time to explore her character, I just finally decided to stop forcing an eighth person who I wasn't getting any traction out of when I like the seven, it's a better symbolic number to the last set of books anyways.
#pjo#Percy Jackson#reading the books#fanfiction#Thalia Grace#Jason Grace#alex fierro#Magnus Chase#fierrochase#percabeth#will solace#nico di angelo#solangelo#titan's curse#HDYSG
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Steampunk Pirate AU Lore Time!! I'm so sorry it took me so long to make my brain is made of mashed bananas but I have done it,and it got very long!!!! Oh and @writersblog1987 asked me to tag 'em! So I hope you all enjoy this and feel free to ask questions I don't mind answering them the best I can (I also had a lot of inspo from Storm Hawks((good show i HIGHLY reccomend it)),Sonic Underground and Abney Park)
The Land Below:Mobius was a peaceful planet until the earthquakes began, the earth beneath the peoples feets began to crack,crumble and the ground gave way into terrorfyingly deep chasms where the bottom could never be seen,The oceans swelled and large waves crashed against cities and forests alike it was a mad dash trying to find any place safe but this was only the beginning. Soon dark beasts only spoken of in ancient legends began to crawl out of the gashes left in the disasters wake and began to hunt and kill any of the survivors they could find. It seemed like all hope was lost until A hero finally arrived and made it his quest to stop the devistation in it's tracks.
The Legend of Ventari:Enter Ventari a 15 year old Dark ashy blue Hedgehog with green eyes a cocky attitude and the power of wind on his side. By his side was his closest friend 16 year old Patchamarus(Patcha for short) an Echidna with deep red clay coloring and gentle yet fierce purple eyes who was tasked by his tribe to help see the hero through his quest to save the world. With the guidance of the elders of Patcha's tribe the two set out to find the chaos emeralds which wouldn't be an easy task. The two had to brave monstrous creatures,destroyed cities and towns, corrupted titan like Automatons who were once used to help build the now lost cites,desperate survivors and their final challenge the source of the deadly seas and colossal earthquakes Dark Chaos Gaia a horrible fusion of Dark Gaia and Chaos who had corrupted and poisoned most of the planets surface thanks to their combined powers.With the Chaos Emeralds and his power over wind in hand Ventari and Patcha fight and eventually defeat Dark Chaos Gaia but the land was too devastated and damaged to be habitable again so with the last of his power Ventari sent the surviving colonies up into the skies leaving only the wandering Echidna tribe and a handful of other mobians to try to revive the barren land themselves. While Patcha took on the role of guarding the Master Emerald. But rumors say that Dark Chaos casted a curse upon the two heroes which turned them semi-immortal and that the spilling of their blood could grant life and rejuvenation.
The Skies Above and the Familes that shaped them:Sensing opportunity three different families began to build large expansive cities for everyone to rebuild their lives in on the floating colonies and within a few years the bustling sky cities were born. The Robotnik's and Zobotniks built the cities,the industries,the roads and the law and order of these sky cities. The Kintobors however built massive gardens,entertainment centers,Schools and homes within these cities and for a time the three families were at war trying their best to out do the others. Then over the years the two of the families mergered into one the Zobotniks and Robotniks. The Kintobors however started to mysteriously disappear one by one until only a young Julian Kintobor was left and was adopted into the family with Ivo and Zardell as his older brothers.
The Tyrannical Brothers:When Ivo and Zardell were younger they along side Julian were always inventing things together which their parents deeply encouraged. The three brothers from then on when they weren't in school they were in the family's many labs working away on project after project. The trio's mother encouraged Ivo with his skills in making automatons better and more obedient than they ever were in the past,While the trio's father was more particular to Zardell who made the control collars and various other devices that could keep the riff raff in line. Julian however was often ignored by his parents and left to his own devices as well as outlet for his older brothers to vent their frustrations onto.When Ivo and Zardell came of age the two took over their mother and father's businesses and quickly made them into their own. They began to rule the cities under their families control with iron fists, only the upper classes were able to handle this change while the poorer people turned to either lives of crime or cruel unyielding employment until the brothers' rule. Many poor families who were unable to take this quickly jumped ship as soon as they could and eventually ended up in the Pirate ran cities where there was a better chance of a better life.
The Pirate Cities:The Pirate cities were a beacon of hope for a lot of mobians even though they were filled to the brim with pirates and crime ran rampant through the streets they were the only cities free from the rule of the Robotniks and Zobotniks. Once the mobians who were seeking new lives started moving in though the pirates and ordinary citizens were at each other's throats, as neither side really knew what to do to keep the peace until Ventari now looking to be in his late 20s (though in actuality he was already at least over a hundred at this point) came to smooth things over and proposed a plan. Two chosen citizens and pirates would become their city's leaders and together they would make improvements to their cites, and while it was rocky and risky at first the plan worked out surprisingly well with the first major pirate city to fully adopt this plan was Sanctuary. Sanctuary is a perfect blend of a pirate's paradise and a mobian's safe haven. The ports were guarded by Pirate and Citizen alike nothing could come or go without going through them, trade between the two groups was open and varied and while crimes did still happen they were significantly less frequent than they used to be.
Chaos Energy and Crystals: Chaos energy flows through every corner of Mobius and it is basically the magic of this world it's what makes the cities float(alongside specially made propellers as a safety precaution),automatons move,grants special abilities and powers and much more. Crystals are holders and crystallizations of chaos energy but depending on how and where they grew will grant them powers. Like crystals grown near lava would be able to channel and cast fire, Crystals found near water could channel and cast water, etc.
Automatons: The last bit of lore is the Automatons who fall into two categories Dolls and the Industri. Workers are your standard every day robot and are most often seen in factories and doing jobs that most other people don't really want to do. They are obedient to whoever they're working for but if there is a malfunction,a breakdown or a robot gains better sentience they are sent back to Robotnik's lair and destroyed then recycled into new workers However, if either a Doll or a Industri is beyond repair they are tossed down into the world below never to be seen again. The Industri also cannot speak all they can do to communicate is beeps,boops,chirps and chimes.The Dolls on the other hand look like well normal mobians but you can obviously tell that they're dolls by their joints as well as glowing eyes in dark places. Dolls are used for many things like being Caregivers,helping store owners by restocking their shelves,make deliveries for their owners and many other tasks but the dolls are most famous especially around pirates for being dancers and other forms of "entertainment" to put it lightly. Dolls are slightly more aware of their surroundings than their Industri brethren as they need to be for the rolls they play however their AI can only go so far. Dolls also can understand the Industri clear as day and tend to speak to them as a normal mobian would to another mobian.
4 notes
·
View notes
Note
Been awhile since I’ve read your blog, but I gotta say despite that joke off-panel about Dark Gaia having an equivalent cutesy form to Chip….i would 100% be down with that if they ever used the Gaias in another adaptation of Sonic. Like imagine Dark Gaia has a fairy form but looking shadowy and glowing like his minions, and him bouncing off Chip in a manner akin to the classic Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic (or to compare to Dragon Ball, like Beerus and Champa). What if for the hell of it they gave Dark Gaia a nickname based on dessert but he didn’t want to be called anything “sissy” so they settle on a name like Crumble (like cookie crumble)? A golden opportunity for a fun story that, unfortunately, I doubt SEGA would allow.
That would be super cool a concept! I think I recall Cylent-Nite on DA drawing an idea like that, but Dark Gaia!Chip had like devil horns it was so cool.
Psst you should totally check out his art, by the by.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Void is a strange place.
That’s become incredibly apparent at this point. It’s not an afterlife, and it’s not a place that harbors the right conditions for any life outside of the Stygian race and Vyz. It doesn’t exist, and yet can somehow exist anywhere Vyz wills it to be. Recall that he was able to pull Straus and Koto into it easily, but it also couldn’t connect to one of their Worlds without him hijacking it, and them, first. This “Voidverse” is an absolute anomaly, much like Vyz himself. Someone who claims to have borne witness to the wrongs of Jupiter’s rule, but didn’t take any direct action until she was gone. Maybe he was influencing outcomes without anyone knowing? And why is he so obsessed with Straus in the first place? Why ask him of all people to join in his cause? Perhaps…perhaps some mysteries in the Multiverse aren’t so easily solved. Only time will tell, one can suppose.
Vyz stands at the precipice of his realm, overlooking the writhing masses of lesser beings below him. Although his posture would read as confident, he finds himself still winded from his tussle with Straus.
“hhh…Well. That was…different.”
A slightly more sentient Stygian hobbles up to Vyz and asks, “What do we do now, Master?”
“Eventually, they’re going to make their way here. And we can’t have that… we need to expand our realm further than our current location to throw them off the path…we need to overtake the Kingdom Jupiter once held…We’ve lost some a large number of assets in that battle but give it time…we will allow our realm to expand…past Jupiter…past Feros…”
“Of course, Master.”
Vyz outstretches his hands and pushes them forward. As he does, a flood of Stygians begins to stampede from all corners of the land. And with them, Voidverse begins to claim new territory. It’s not apparent at first, but soon, several areas across the Multiverse begin to witness the same sight: an oncoming darkness with a sense of dread and hopelessness, accompanied by a dark purple sky, and bright purple cracks striking through the ground, making it crumble and shift in unnatural ways.
“Gotta admit, sister,”, says Venus, taking in the sights of Gaia’s castle, “it must’ve been nice having your own palace for all these years.” “It was certainly…quiet.”, chuckles Gaia, not wanting to admit how lonely she had felt. Crescent, standing at a window, gets their attention, “Sisters…what is that?”
It came suddenly. Even Royal Creators were unable to sense it before it was too late.
“Huh-?”, Gaia looks outside and is shocked to see her home being torn asunder by such power. Venus, not wanting to see what happens next, grabs her sisters’ hands and gets them all through a portal just as the castle’s foundation begins to fall apart.
Elsewhere, Saturn watches the same thing begin to happen outside the abode his spouse once held dominion over. “I dreaded this day would come around…”, he sighs, watching the masses begin to panic and scatter.
It seemed like the end of days.
“Straus!”, calls out Ajax, coming in from patrol. “What’s up, Ajax?”, asks Koto, concerned considering she’s never seen him this rattled. “The age of darkness has come, apparently!” Straus, Koto, and Red join him in looking outside. “Oh…it’s dankness.”, states Straus, nonchalantly. Koto frowns, “Gee, I wonder who could’ve done this?” “No doubt, it’s him. Just when I thought we could all rest for a minute.” “Is this the thing you two saw during our little… Feros expedition?”, Red wonders. “Could very well be…it looks the same to me.”, observes Koto, “…What’re we supposed to do?” “It’s hard to tell.”, Ajax sneers, “It’s like everything around us has been overtaken by some psychedelic subspace.” “Then we’ll have to reach the source.”, Straus concludes, “This fight has literally moved onto our home now.” Koto shudders, “We’d just have to make sure he doesn’t put us in that trance again. Who knows what’d happen…” “It won’t happen.”, Straus declares, leading the others back inside.
All of the usual suspects are summoned to the Space. A nervous chatter from everyone resounds throughout. No one foresaw something like this happening, at least not so soon after Straus dealt such a heavy blow to Vyz (and his ego).
“What’s been happening here?”
“It’s a war, it’s serious!”
“And here I thought the Followers were bad.”
“Gotta agree on that.”
“This is nothing to me.”
“Everyone, let’s focus.”, Koto announces, trying to get everybody to settle. “Vyz is a powerful entity that will not listen to reason. This fight will be the most challenging one for any of us.” “What else is new?”, Red shrugs.
“Straus?”, Castor pipes in, “This…is your home, right?”
“Well-…it’s seen better days… Also- where’s DarkClaw?”
“He’s taking time to heal. I’m here in his stead. And he…looked like he needed it, to be honest with you.”
“You understand what we’re getting into, right?”
“I do. And I’m not backing down now. I’m doing this for Delta, and to keep all of us safe.”
“…Ok.”
It’s then that Gaia, Venus, and Crescent arrive. Saturn sighs with relief upon seeing them. “Ah… everyone’s here.”, Gaia breathes, “That tells me you all already know what’s going on.” “Yeah, are you all ok?”, Koto inquires. “We’re fine.”, grumbles Venus, “Whatever this is you’re dealing with, you’re going to need our assistance.” Crescent nods in agreeance. Koto smiles at the sisters, “Thank you.” “Appreciated.”, Straus adds.
“We shouldn’t delay further, guys.”, Ex chimes. “You guys ready?”, Koto asks. Uriel nods, “Always.” Zeus holds Pandora’s hand and says to Straus, “We’ll help get people to safety while we’re ahead. Just be safe, son.” Straus gives a thumbs up to his parents and mentors, then faces his friends, “Let’s get going.”
On the way out, Gaia gives a glace to Red, who awkwardly looks away before joining the others.
#creators#digital art#creators novel#original story#creators-novel.tumblr.com#my art#original character#original fiction#novel#void#chapter 61
1 note
·
View note
Note
i guess you can say… that’s the way the cookie crumbles
#its bc chip is based on 'chocolate chip'#so chocolate crumble#also it makes sense for dark gaia lol#crumble the dark gaia#ask#not art
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
Normally I'd rant on Reddit, or on my IG stories, or even on some random Chatterbox thread on Gaia Online so that I could scream into the void without actually bothering anyone. But I ran away from the former two and I've been trying to use Tumblr more since the Reddit migration, so I guess I'll rant here for a bit and delete it afterwards.
So... 2023 was one of the worst years of my life, a solid runner up for the top spot, in fact. I think it barely edges out the former champion of 2014 to take the podium, and that's because this year my grandma died.
Between getting fired from a decently enjoyable job, to landing on several other horrible jobs, lack of money due to my time unemployed in between said horrible jobs, having had to move back with my family because they needed someone to take care of my grandpa (poor man had a stroke and I was the only one who could drive him daily to the hospital), and having to deal with all this while people were still treating me like a child with no agency of her own... Well, shit got bad, and my head went to some very dark places. I got a bit better, but then my grandma died and I got very sick physically, so I've spent most of December and a good chunk of January on a fever-fueled daze.
In so far, this has been mostly rationalized already and I'm ok with it. Well, it's not like I'm really ok with it, you know, but I've gotta keep rolling with the punches and all that. I know sometimes life sucks, shit's whack, and you gotta play with the cards you've been dealt. Been doing that for a long time now, but there were certain things that never changed and I relied heavily on them to trudge along everyday.
It's always the little things, though, that drive me over the edge and into a puddle of despair. And it's today that I noticed something these little things seem to have in common lately, and why they hurt so much.
A bunch of YouTubers I follow have either given up and disappeared quietly, or they've announced that they're quitting due to burnout/wanting to take their lives back from YT/etc. I am incredibly happy for them and wish them the best, but I sadly spend a lot of time alone and relied a lot on other people's content to make my life less monotonous. It's not a worrying parasocial relationship, but they do feel like friendly familiar faces and knowing they're not going to stick around any longer kinda hurts a little.
In fact, it hurts just as much as when I got kicked out of Reddit. Deapite being mostly a lurker I was active on a few communities there, and I even managed to make a few friends. But I never really felt like part of the community, and after the whole API thing I felt pushed out even more than usual. I don't want to go back, things have changed quite a lot since my days, but I miss being able to talk about stuff with random people and get memes or advice in return. For some reason I'm not managing to do the same here on Tumblr. :(
And in the end, I think that's what's going on here. I feel incredibly lonely in my life these days. I can't reconnect with my friends because my life has spun out of control and I'm ashamed of it (plus, adulting makes it much more difficult). I can't connect with people online because I'm a terminal lurker and have trouble adapting to digital environments, and the few pillars of stability in my life seem to be twisting or crumbling right in front of me. And due to my new job I work as a retail clerk alone most of the time. No connections here either.
I'm scared, Tumblr. I still have friends and a partner, but I feel so alone. I am trying to fight against the existential dread that hunts me down relentlessly, but I am losing this fight. :(
0 notes
Text
❛ @vonerde said . . . [ bullet ] sender takes a bullet for receiver // for ghost 👁️ ❜
𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆. no one had asked her to do such a thing, certainly not him. everything happened so fast. bringing a knife to a gunfight is ghost's first mistake. it's not the first time a victim's family or friends seek revenge. he'd caught ghost and gaia off guard, standing only a few feet away with the gun pointed straight at his chest. but ghost hadn't bothered to make a move, calm as ever. death wasn't something that necessarily scared ghost but he wasn't exactly running toward it either.
then she'd moved. without much warning or even a chance to stop her gaia is standing in front of him one moment and crumbling to the ground the next. ghost's usually stoic expression falters, dark eyes widening as he comes to the realization of what she's done. and without thinking he moved to, falling forward to catch her in his arms. his expression is . . . confused more than anything else. but, gaia was immortal right ? why did he give a shit to begin with ? removing his gaze from her he looks up toward the perp. ghost can only surmise the look he's giving is chilling because the man shakily drops the gun, booking it out of the alley. a hand moves to press against her wound, his expression once again calm, stoic as always.
it's clear he's not in a rush or panicked. no . . . he didn't ask her to do this. and she had no reason to. yet . . . he can't help the anger settling deep within toward the man who'd gotten away.
non - verbal prompts. ― accepting.
#vonerde#〈 answered ask. ★ 〉#〈 ghost reply. ★ 〉#〈 what's your favorite scary move? / main verse. ★ 〉
1 note
·
View note
Text
Meeting the team part 1
As You ran through the Dense woods running from the furthering explosions Eggman was back on his plans again. As you try to escape it would seem there was a flanking fleet from Eggman to stop others from escaping. You fall back at the sight of the now starting to close the gap.
Before they could grab you a large wild cat Manecoon cross breed smashes through the robot stopping in front of you and keeping his eyes on the robots ahead. You were both relieved but started at this new person crashing in like this and not even a hello!? What kind of person!!?
"get on before the others get here," the gruffed-looking man said though to you he didn't look like he can even see anything com- before your thought can finish the man slams his Sheild down holding his mace in the sky as a bigger egg man robot came closer now blocking the path to safety.
"Dark Gaia Give me strength!" he shouted as he seem to have gathered what he needed to fully counter the robot's winding incoming attack pushing the robotic beast crumbling back onto the others.
"tch, let's head to base some can get others out," he said with no hesitation grabbing you and heading back to this supposed base.
For a big fat cat, he was pretty fast and agile. Not long you both arrive seeing a group just setting up camp to start their operation. The cat put you down as he relaxed a bit as he turned his has to a sound
[C]"Deh bring them here!" a woman called out as the feline nodded and grabbed you again and headed over.
To be continued....
1 note
·
View note
Text
"What are your plans for the prisoner?" Infinite asks, curious.
Eggman glances away from the security monitor to look at him. Infinite keeps his back straight, but there’s something about that look on his face that makes him feel meek. Infinite has the power of a god, but that power means nothing to the man who can’t be affected by it.
“Why do you care?” He counters. He appears a bit perturbed at being questioned, though Infinite is certain this prompt for a monologue is actually what he was looking for. “I thought Shadow the Hedgehog was your priority.”
“He certainly is. I’m simply curious, considering how… dangerous you believe him to be.”
“Believe?” Eggman repeats, his eyes narrowing. Infinite ought to be more careful about his word choice. “Believe?”
“I don’t mean to doubt you, Doctor,” Infinite begins, cautiously. “But, well. I know you saw the fight between me and Sonic. The victor was clear. It was an easy defeat. I suppose I’m curious as to why you believe him to be such a threat, and what your plans are related to him, considering he’s an alleged threat.”
Honestly, defeating Sonic the Hedgehog, the alleged world class hero, had been infuriatingly boring. It was by far the most anticlimactic fight Infinite ever had the displeasure of being a part of. Eggman was certain that he was the biggest threat to his dreams of conquest, however, and thus had been the biggest priority out of everyone. Infinite doesn't really see the hype.
"You are lucky," Eggman chides. "You managed to catch him by surprise. I need you to understand that that is the only reason why you were able to win against him. If there is ever a rematch, you will, undeniably, end up as the loser."
Infinite frowns behind his mask, a bit chuffed. He doesn’t like the implications of being weak. "You can't be serious. The power of the Phantom Ruby is immense, you've told me this yourself.”
"Sonic is not to be underestimated." His voice brokers no argument. It is the only time Infinite has ever heard his voice so stern. "That is the one lesson you must learn. There is a reason that child has been a thorn in my side for years. He's stupidly strong, and while he might not be near as intelligent as his fox friend, he isn't the dullest tool in the shed. He knows how to fight, and he knows how to learn from his mistakes. He learns, Infinite, and he learns quickly."
He sighs. "This kid has fought gods before, need I remind you. The flooding of Station Square because of Chaos? He was the one to take down Chaos, all by himself. He defeated the Time Eater. He fought Dark Gaia. He is equal in power to Shadow, the man who ruined everything for you. There's plenty of other examples. You can knock him down, but if you give him an inch, he will get back up, and he will not fall again."
"If he's so dangerous," Infinite begins, cautiously, "then why didn’t you have me simply off him? It would have been very easy for me to kill him in our first fight. Why take him prisoner?”
"I will kill that miserable rat, but not until I've conquered every square inch of this planet. Call me foolish and egotistical, but this is a moment I've dreamed of for years. I want him to watch the world crumble before his eyes, after all the suffering he's caused me."
Infinite thinks there's another reason. Eggman always seems to go a bit heavy handed against military institutions. He's not afraid to get his hands dirty, and has no qualms spilling a bit of blood. But he always seems to be a bit more hesitant in ending the lives of those pesky children. Infinite has a feeling he has a begrudging soft spot for them, though as soft as one can be when it's with your mortal enemy.
He doesn’t dare accuse him of that. Instead, he decides to switch topics. “I suppose I understand. I would love to force Shadow to watch the world crumble, just as he did to me. But this still begs the question, if I may ask: what do you plan to do with Sonic?”
“Solitary confinement.” Eggman glances at the security feed. Sonic is in his prison cell, currently still unconscious from his encounter with Infinite.
“That’s…. all?”
Eggman laughs. “Trust me, solitary confinement is practically torture for him. And I can’t exactly have him wander around with other prisoners- he’d stage a riot within ten minutes of being near them. He has to be kept separate from everyone.”
Eggman glances at Infinite and taps the ruby on his chest, causing Infinite to flinch. “You can spin illusions with your ruby and make people believe in whatever you want. Sonic, however, is a charmer. All he needs is his voice and some ears for people to believe in what he says. He’s not just dangerous on the battlefield.”
Eggman crosses his arms and sighs. “I don’t want you engaging with him, understand? He is of no use to you, anyway. The only person he will come in contact with is me.”
“I understand, Doctor.”
“Good.” Eggman glances towards the doorway. “Now, I think we’re in order to celebrate! It’s a wonderful victory, seeing one’s worst enemy a prisoner. Orbot! Cubot! Pop some champagne! Get out the cake!”
Eggman hesitates, then pats the top of Infinite’s head. “When you get your hands on Shadow, we’ll celebrate that, too.”
He then walks off, badgering Cubot to hurry. Infinite lingers in the security room, staring at the image of Sonic.
He exits the room.
#sonic the hedgehog#infinite the jackal#sonic forces#sega official speaks#from a wip i won’t continue but i liked this scene….#something something idk i just like it when people acknowledge how stupidly strong sonic is. and his resilience.#fic posting
25 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
stvrfirex
ℐ.
bigfatguys
BIG FAT GUYS
turquoisegirl35
turquoisegirl35
greenmermaidhair-blog
GreenBraces&Hair