ηʹ → ( 𝗏𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗈 ) un; ghostking

[deathkid]

[ 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?

Comments

[alchemyfreak]

[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.

[deathkid]

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

[alchemyfreak]

[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.]

[deathkid]

[ 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.

[alchemyfreak]

[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.]

[deathkid]

[ 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.

[alchemyfreak]

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.

[deathkid]

[ the mention of an abandoned church helps, given nico's explored outside quarantine many times and the church has plenty of restless spirits surrounding it for him to talk to. so he closes the feed and concentrates, finding the strange aura that is ed and once he finds it, he grabs his jacket and slips into the shadows.

only to reemerge a few feet from ed, hands in his pockets. ]

I've been here before.

[alchemyfreak]

[He glances up at the sound of Nico's voice before closing his research with a shrug.]

Not surprising.

[Ed knew Nico was out here more often than most, he remembered that conversation well.]

I come out here to think, sometimes. It reminds me of someone.

[deathkid]

[ an abandoned church that reminds ed of someone? that strikes nico as a bit odd, but he doesn't question it right away. he's focusing on keeping the spirits away from them, shooing them off with a mental threat. when he feels like the air has cleared some more, he steps closer to ed, hands still in his pockets. ]

This place reminds me of my father. Who does it remind you of?

[alchemyfreak]

[Ed's, of course, not aware of what Nico's doing. Those sorts of things don't occur to him, his head tilts curiously at the idea that a church reminded Nico of his father and his mouth opened as if to answer before seeming to think better of it. Abandoned churches reminded Ed of a lot of things, but he liked to ignore most of those in favor of the more positive ones, he didn't need that reminder souring things for him. After a moment he answered almost dismissively.]

A friend... She liked to stay at the church.

[He'd never really thought it was safe, never really liked the idea of staying too long in any of the abandoned buildings in Purg, but try telling that to a stubborn child who found that to be the only comfort in the whole place.]

[deathkid]

[ ed doesn't reveal much, but nico doesn't push. instead, he leans against a broken pew and watches the (sort of) older man with interest, allowing him to continue if he wished. ]

Churches aren't really my thing. The gods don't tend to visit them and so neither do us demigods. [ he explains, gesturing at the gloomy surroundings. perhaps an odd thing for him to say given he looks like he fits right in. ] We try not to question whether there's a god-with-a-capital-G. Not our territory, you know? Makes me wonder if they worshiped that one here, though.

[alchemyfreak]

Churches aren't mine, either.

[There's a hint of irony in his tone there. The whole 'capital G' thing gets a quirked eyebrow but he doesn't question it.]

It's... not exactly an uncommon theme in my life, though. Back on my world we had more than one religion, all with their own god, at least three that I can think of - so it's not surprising to find churches and temples to different gods here, too. Even Purg had that and- well, Purgatorium was a much smaller map, you could walk the whole thing without needing to camp out anywhere.

I never asked Nill if she was there because she worshiped anyone, I didn't think to- probably didn't want to know, either. All I know is it made her happy to be there, so that's where you could find her.

[deathkid]

Sounds like you knew a lot of people in that place. Did you have a lot of friends there?

[ if there's curiosity heard in his tone, it's because he is curious about ed's life in purg. ]

[alchemyfreak]

Yeah, I guess.

[He didn't really think much of it, but that was the luxury of being Edward Elric. Every passing conversation was a friendship in the making, even the people that annoyed the hell out of him were his friends down the road.]

When I got there I started working repairs at the General Store, I kind of inherited the place when my boss left. Which put me in a position of having to deal with a lot of people, so it was easier to make friends that way.

[Nevermind the fact that Greed basically forced employment on him probably for the sake of keeping tabs on him as a familiar face from his home world.]

Like we talked about earlier, you made friends to survive which meant people learned to make friends fast. I was lucky, when I first arrived I already had friends there who knew me. They accepted me right away, so I had help from day one.

[deathkid]

That's lucky. Not many people get connections like that in new places. It took me a while when I got here.

[ kicking at a bit of rubble, he looks up at ed from where he's leaning. ]

Sounds like the place wasn't that bad if you had help. If I'd had help in Tartarus... Well, things would've probably been different.

[alchemyfreak]

I'd already been there before, I guess there was this mentality there that we weren't any different from our previous selves. So even without memories of the place, we were still friends to those who stayed behind. I had a friend from home too, and my brother was there- but he vanished about as soon as I arrived.

[He shifts slightly, watching the kick. One thing Ed did not like talking about regarding Purg was that Al disappeared as soon as he got there, it seemed to only highlight the point that they were just there to suffer all the more.]

If you lived there for years with an entire city of your closest friends? Yeah, probably. Somehow I doubt Tartarus was full of housing and shops to get by that long, though.

[This is said a bit wryly. It was hard to call Purg anything else, though. Even if he had literally hired people just for the sake of babysitting them on more than one occasion.]

I FOUND IT

[deathkid]

No, Tartarus was essentially a giant pit where monsters were born. Everywhere you stepped was dangerous. But I don't like thinking about it if I don't have to.

[ shrugging, though his eyes took on a broken-glass appearance, nico begins wandering around the pews. ]

That place must've changed you a lot. And you've changed again, I can tell. Something happened to you and you died. For real, not like how you talked about in that Purg place. You've been different for a little while now.

[alchemyfreak]

Purgatorium was actually two cities. You could almost say it was relatively safe if you stayed near the residential area, otherwise there were monsters and everything else. Things still happened in the cities but not like the dungeons or the school- or the hospital.

Going into the forest people usually disappeared.

[Basically, don't go anywhere and you're good.]

It did.

[And, of course, Nico's right on that other point as well. Ed shrugs, as if dying wasn't big news.]

You know anything about those memory canisters? I got one of those last month.

[Like that explained everything.]

[deathkid]

There's a forest back home that some people disappear into. Usually they end up getting killed by monsters. We use it to play Capture the Flag.

[ but this is said as a by-the-way because he's more interested about the changes in Ed. when he mentions the memory canisters, nico nods in understanding. he's not the first to receive one. ]

So that's what it is. You experienced your own death from that thing. How did you die? And how are you alive now?

[alchemyfreak]

People didn't die in Purg.

[The reminder was only to point out that disappearing there was a little harder to explain than killed by monsters. It doesn't surprise him that in a world with someone like Nico games were played in dangerous forests.]

I think I told you... Al brought me back.

[He answers that part first, mostly because it's easier. None of this was something he wanted to go into detail about, but he'd probably open up to Nico more about it later when it wasn't still so fresh and baffling to deal with.]

It's pretty complicated, short answer? I was stabbed.

[deathkid]

[ al brought him back... of course, the brothers did seem very close from what nico has observed. not unlike him and bianca. he had tried to bring her back, after all, but unlike with ed, bianca refused to be restored to life. for a moment, nico feels a sliver of envy, but he quickly quashes it in order to ask an important question. ]

How? How did he bring you back?

[alchemyfreak]

By sacrificing himself in the process.

[He could go into further detail, explain that Al had the power of the Stone behind him but he didn't really think someone like Nico would appreciate hearing about what happened to all those souls, either.]

[deathkid]

[ ed's right in his estimation that nico wouldn't appreciate hearing about the stone. it would be a touchy subject for him and one that would undoubtedly distress him. fortunately, it's not mentioned, and really, what ed says is enough to make nico's lower lip tremble a little. apparently alphonse had done what he couldn't, what he didn't have the courage to do, and nico feels an ache in his chest thinking about the last time he spoke to bianca. ]

A soul for a soul. He must really, truly care about you.

[alchemyfreak]

That's an understatement.

[Both of those things, really. Thousands of souls for a soul hardly seemed equivalent, and if only Nico knew the depths of that caring.]