riverview | ηʹ → ( 𝗏𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗈 ) un; ghostking

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ηʹ → ( 𝗏𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗈 ) un; ghostking

[ sitting in his room in marco's mansion with a record player belting out blitzkrieg bop. not so loud that he can't be heard, but it's clearly cranked up a little. nico, meanwhile, is sharpening his sword and looking a little put out. after having his memories shared with multiple people, he's not feeling too sociable. but he can hear jason grace in his head telling him he needs to get out of the house and talk to people. ]

Eight months. I've been here eight months and there's still no way to get back to camp. Back... home.

[ the fact he calls camp home now truly reveals just how much he misses his friends and family. ]

This place isn't too bad, but being the only demigod around here kind of sucks. I don't know how many people around here get homesick, but I would certainly accept even some of the gods, Greek gods showing up. No offense to you Norse types.

[ he picks up his sword and sets his thumb against the edge, cheering up a little as it nicks the skin, causing blood to well to the surface. sucking on his thumb, he sets the sword aside. ]

Whatever. Anyone want to go outside quarantine and kill some stuff?

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[Home. That was a word that caught Ed's attention a lot, lately. It was the way Nico said it that made it hang in the air, though. Eight months didn't mean anything to him, he was in Attollo longer than that and it still barely felt like any time at all but that focus on home-]

For fun or something..?

[He's not going to comment on the rest of the broadcast, Nico's familiarity with gods was too far out of his comfort zone to really discuss. If he'd be happier with gods here, Ed supposed it was like anyone else hoping to see a familiar face. He couldn't comment on the home thing, either. Not when his own thoughts were so twisted on the subject that he hesitated to use the word at all, anymore. Edward tends to keep his communicator so that surroundings are not so clearly displayed, one might catch a wall behind him if he's inside or notice plant life and indication he's definitely outside.]

I'm already out here, if you want to meet up. I was looking into a few places.

[It's dark, probably an abandoned building, nothing too specific is visible.]

Edited 2017-11-24 06:34 (UTC)

For something to do, at least.

[ his eyes narrow as he tries to decipher where ed's at and when it's clear he's not in the store he shares with his brother, nico merely nods. he can't decipher the location, but that's fine. where ever ed hangs out is his business. ]

Sure, that sounds fun. Looking for pleasure or trying to figure some stuff out?

Exploring out here is kind of part of my job.

[Which is a convenient enough excuse to go out beyond the wall without needing to come up with a reason. 'It's work related' is generally handy.]

If I happen to find something while I'm out here, I find something. If not, at least I can expand on some maps and other info we might not have yet about the abandoned city.

[If anything dangerous happens to show up, so be it. He's kind of avoiding the question about pleasure, but after a moment he switches to private with a shrug.]

Guess it's just nostalgia for a place I feel like I belong.

[Not going to use the word 'home', especially because Purg wasn't, not the way people used it here anyway.]

Ah... that's right.

[ a low hum as he regards ed, dark eyes darting over the feed. what ed says about searching for things makes sense, but it's when the feed goes private that nico narrows his eyes, his brows beetling.

most people don't realize it, few dare to look for it, but nico is perceptive. and what ed says strikes a chord with nico, though probably not in the way intended. ]

You miss it. That place. But what about your brother?

[He glances away when Nico says it, outright. It was difficult, he did miss it. He openly talked about missing it, but it wasn't the place, it was the people there, the sense of community - the same things he was trying to recreate here. It was hard to talk about because most people didn't get it. All of those people were gone now anyway, so there was no sense putting too much weight into it.

Golden eyes snap up at the question, tone almost defensive - that clearly struck a nerve.]

What about my brother?

Well, he's here with you, and back there was pretty much like hell, wasn't it? That was the place that made you kill him.

[ nico recalls the conversation over beers at trixie and how ed had lamented what that place had done to him. ]

I don't understand how you could miss it. It's like me missing Tartarus.

[Okay, everything Nico's saying is completely lost on him because 'that was the place that made you kill him' kind of sticks out more than anything else and his brain comes to a complete halt at those words.]

That could have happened anywhere!

[He seems to realize he snapped, wincing almost apologetically before looking away, again.]

The person responsible for that... Could come through that portal tomorrow. With no reason for anyone to believe he's evil, but my word. He could do it here, too. It wasn't Purg-

[He blinks a few times, pausing as if to compose himself before continuing, softly.]

It wasn't Purg that made me kill him.

Besides, did you spend three years living in Tartarus with your closest friends? Living in that sort of hell alone is one thing, trust me. I know. Being there with a community- does things to people... It brings them together. There's a difference, I'm only here now because I've lived both.

[ nico doesn't wince when ed snaps at him, rather, his expression turns blank, cold. without emotion. a defensive reaction to the anger thrown his way. but then ed turns out to be the one who winces, giving an apologetic look that softens nico's expression by a little. still, he isn't sure what to make of what ed is saying. he could withstand hell for the sake of the people that lived there with him? nico's never experienced that kind of camaraderie. never had friends who have gone through hell like that, with him. sure, percy and annabeth had gone through tartarus too, but they had each other while nico had had no one. what does it mean to have a kinship so close that hell is tolerable?

the blankness in nico's eyes becomes more like shattered glass and he looks away, brows still furrowed. ]

You miss the people you had there. That makes sense.

It's the only time I've had something like that.

[He shrugs, as if the whole thing was no big deal.]

Before that it was always just me and Al.

[Ed pauses before speaking again, haltingly as if unsure he should say the next part.]

Something like that- it really messes you up. It's hell, and you know you should hate it. I know it doesn't make sense to anyone else, that's why I don't- talk about it... but I can't pretend like none of it ever happened. You couldn't not get involved, you had to in order to survive, the gods made sure of it. You made friends or you didn't make it, I've been on a lot of worlds and I've never seen anything like it before.

I think I understand. Quests are kind of like that. They force people to work together even if they don't want to. You could die at any moment, but you have these people with you who are trying to protect you, even if they don't have a reason to.

[ his own shoulders lift and fall, much like ed's as he shifts his gaze away. ]

Percy... he was always there to protect and save me even though I was always rude to him. He was even there to save me from the giants' jar. If I hadn't had him and the others... I don't know where I'd be, if I'd even be alive at all.

[He considers what Nico says.]

Which is why you get attached. Even if you don't expect to, or want to. It's not much different here, people show up kicking and screaming to go home, but eventually they start to get comfortable. It's easier here, it happens quicker... It's nicer here, that's all. The concept is the same, we find reasons to tie ourselves down. Whatever those reasons are, there's less suffering here, the people are better - the government... There are no gods controlling things. Everyone has their own reasons to find a place better or worse than where they were before.

[But he's getting off topic, he glances down as if just remembering what he was working on before this conversation started.]

Quests are like that too, you never knew when you were going to die. You had people with you, you worked together. It was the same thing in Purg, we formed bonds, we had to get along to survive- that's the part we get attached to, the people we came to care about. Saving people, being saved by people... That's what brings us together.

[At the mention of Percy Ed goes quiet for a moment, glancing up with a soft sigh.]

Sometimes the people we get close to are unexpected. We can't really predict how those things are going to go...

[The people who save vs. the people who betray, and sometimes those are the same people, all in one.]

You know the person I wound up closest to in that place, before everything went to hell anyway. He was from my home world, tried to kill me a bunch of times, probably blamed me for ruining his life... He was- really convinced the woman I killed was his mother. I guess it's kind of the opposite, I'm responsible for someone that he cared about dying...

[It wasn't really the same thing, Percy's situation was an accident, an inability to save. Not an intent to murder. He could go on about that, but he doubted it was a topic Nico really wanted to continue with.]

What's the giant's jar?

[ ed talks a lot. it's something nico's noticed over time. it's a lot more than he does, but he's always been more quiet and withdrawn. at least since bianca died. and ed still has his brother, friends, people to whom he's close. so ed's been able to be a lot more open than nico has been. still, what ed says reflects how nico feels and he nods along with what the older boy is saying until the question comes up. nico winces in memory of the jar and the sighs before explaining. ]

Giants. There were two of them. I got captured in Tartarus by monsters working for an enemy god. They forced me into a celestial bronze jar. Celestial Bronze is the only kind of metal that can really hurt a god or demigod, so I couldn't escape. I had no food, no water, and no air. So I was forced to eat special pomegranate seeds that put me in a trance called a Death Trance. It allowed me to survive almost a week before I was saved.

Combined with the lack of food in Tartarus—all there was to drink was flaming water from the Phlegethon—I was very weak coming out of the jar. I couldn't fight.

Edited 2017-11-26 14:24 (UTC)

[Purg changes people, any of these worlds where someone gets torn from their home changes people, and Ed was no exception. To Nico he talked a lot, but to a lot of other people he never really said much of anything, Nico just had the burden of being someone Ed talked to, which wasn't just anyone anymore. In fact, before Riverview it wasn't anyone at all.]

No air?!

[Yeah, that's all he's getting out of this. He's dealt with the whole no food, no water thing before. He's dealt with eating special food to survive, or food itself having nothing to do with survival. Even Purg had air, and Attollo had never been so cruel to deprive them of that to get what they wanted.]

[ there's not much nico can say except nod glumly. the jar had been a trial as much as tartarus had been. ]

I think they made it that way because they knew I could survive at least a little while.

I guess that's like Purg. We shouldn't have survived those conditions either, but something about that place...

[He shakes his head.]

How did they know you'd survive?

I'm not entirely sure how they knew. They just did. Maybe because I'm the son of Hades, or because I'm a demigod. I'm not sure. I do know if it had been someone else, they wouldn't have lasted as long as I did.

[Ed's wondering if it was intentional at all, or Nico was just lucky he happened to survive but he doesn't point that out. If anyone else would have died, maybe they did it assuming he would have died too.]

What was the point of putting you in there anyway? At least where I was - after Purg - they had reasons for starving us and not letting us sleep, or whatever.

I was bait for my friends. And since I was the only one who could navigate the House of Hades, to get to the Doors of Death, they needed to save me.

[You live a pretty fucked up life, kid. Nico says 'friends' but...]

Sounds like you don't think they would have tried to save you, anyway.

At the time... I didn't really think they were my friends. I didn't think I had anyone. Sometimes I still wonder...

[He's just going to glare at that, because Nico must have some pretty fucked up friends if he can't even trust that they are his friends. He's figured out where that protective side of him gets with the kid though, so not going to comment on that thought, instead he shrugs.]

I can't say anything for your situation back home, but we're friends and that's not going to change.

[There might be a hint of whether you like it or not there, Nico.]

[ nico's eyes widen a fraction, revealing his surprise at the comment. it's not that he doesn't appreciate it, only that so often he's been labeled creepy or weird that he's always assumed people wouldn't like him. this was beginning to change with will solace and jason grace's influence, but without them around to ensure he had friends, it's made nico doubt things... ]

...Thanks. You're my friend too. I really mean that.

[He watches the reaction curiously before nodding, after all if Nico says it Ed has no reason to doubt him.]

So, did you still want to meet up? I can always find something else to look into out here.

[He's good with whatever, any distraction. It's the familiarity of it that works for him.]

[ meeting up sounds good to him. he likes ed quite a bit and enjoys when they talk. maybe seeing ed in action would be interesting. ]

Sure. I can shadow over to where you're at, if you want. Should only take a second for me to determine your aura.

Sure.

[He motions somewhat vaguely to the darkness. Ed doesn't really get how Nico's whole thing works, but if he's confident about finding him that easy, he believes it.]

It's just some abandoned church, I'm sure you can figure it out.

[video | un: edward.elric]

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