#because i was both concerned for the crew of the demeter but also worried about the main characters

[senadimell]

It’s been several weeks since I started watching Nosferatu, and I finally picked it up last night since I now have a knitting project suitably mindless that I can do without having to look at it and can watch the movie in peace. I’ve finished the third act, and I have to say, this is honestly really faithful to Dracula. Since it’s never been a secret that Nosferatu is heavily inspired by Dracula (read: an unauthorized adaption), I’m going to assign Dracula names to the roles characters play in the story rather than use their actual names most of the time.

The character combinations are interesting, but make a lot of sense given the large cast of characters in the book. I haven’t gotten far enough for most of the secondary characters to be a major presence, but I’ve read that they’re mostly absent, so the focus remains mostly on the Jonathan and Mina figures.

One of the biggest changes so far is that Mr. Hawkins and Renfield are combined into Knock, a now-malicious solicitor secretly in kahoots with the Count.

Narratively speaking, this actually makes a more of sense than it might sound at first. Mr. Hawkins is mostly a plot device in the original story, not really a character, and given the restraints of a silent film, it would be rather challenging to establish why and how the Count wants to visit England. When you strip down the conversations from the captivity portion of the novel, you’re left with the challenge of how to convey the Count’s desire or to establish how exactly he made arrangements with a foreign solicitor, so giving him an agent abroad is a pretty economical way to convey that. Then, when the Count is travelling, using Knock as a Renfield-figure and thrall of the Count serves to heighten the tension, and while the “the life is in the blood” speeches are a little less mysterious, they do pair very well with the back-and-forth between the not-Demeter and not-Van Helsing teaching a botany class about carnivorous plants. 

The major downside of that choice is that it removes much of the nuance present in the books regarding the characters under the Count’s sway. Renfield and Seward’s back and forth about the nature of sanity is so far completely absent, and I expect this will be the case through the movie, going off of the visual language’s cartoonishly malicious depiction of Knock. Renfield’s humanity is really just not shown, and while Knock’s gleeful manner while eating bugs is quite similar to Renfield’s manner in the book, I highly doubt the element of resistance will show up.

Still, overall, this feels like a simplification rather than a warping of the story. Unfortunately, it’s a simplification that results in a caricature of mental illness, and yet I don’t think it’s a fundamental misreading of the story, unlike Drac/Mina pairings.

The second major change so far is that Mina and Lucy’s role have been combined into one, and given their similar narrative roles as vulnerable and beloved targets, this makes a lot of sense. Now, the Mina-figure is the sleepwalker. There is a slight change in that the prophetic dreams start earlier, but it also serves to emphasize her connection with Jonathan without the letter and journal devices. It also establishes her vulnerability early on, pretty much as soon as we realize that Jonathan is in peril, which is an effective way to convey the peril of Lucy-Mina without diary entries and serves to jump-start the middle act of the story (which I admittedly found rather slow during Dracula Daily)

In a related vein, there’s another convenience change that’s either big or small depending on what you view as an important theme. In Dracula, the Count seems primarily interested in England, and his later vendetta is the result of his predatory nature, not the driving motivation. In Nosferatu, that’s flipped, and his primary motivation to leave his castle is to track down not-Mina. He presumably did first send for a solicitor, though, so the motivation isn’t absent, it’s just less developed.

Apart from character changes, the biggest other change is that the Count spreads plague rather than just killing or turning characters. So far, it doesn’t feel fundamentally different from the book, but I don’t know yet if it will have larger plot implications down the line.

I will say, though, that the time period is always waiting a little bit uncomfortably at the back of my mind. It came out in 1922, and there’s just so much going on in the Weimar Republic at this time. It’s a culturally wild time. I don’t know a lot about this film, or its make, or how it was received, so I’m just left with vague implications about the various changes and how they would be received. What does it suggest that he spreads a plague? What does his increased focus on preying on Mina mean? What are the implications of the fact that he has an apparently willing agent abroad, or that Renfield is only a slavish caricature, totally devoted to the count?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but they’re always looming somewhere as I watch.

[outoftimewriting]

Imagine (Son of Hades! Percy; Godswapped! Big Three's kids (6/7) or (11/12)

House of Hades Pt.2 - In the Argo II

Hello darlings! Before reading this, there's at least other 11 parts - and I almost had to divide this into two - check on the masterpost - but don't be sad is ending :(

First - I have no idea if I'll divide Blood of Olympus in two because I hate the climax Rick wrote - so probably? Also not sure if I'll need an epilogue - we're not delving into TOA, though.

Second - I'll keep writing! I have a handful of ideas that I want to do next - and the next AU will have Female! Percy - so keep logging in!

Check on the warnings before proceeding, and good reading :))

To say that things are tense in the Argo II is downplaying the major depression the ship seemed to be sunk in since Perseus fell.

Leo and, surprisingly, Nico are the only ones who are able to get anything done in the first couple of days, but they aren't fooling anyone - the white eyes of the son of Zeus seem to be every day a little more bloodshot, and more than one fire happens without no explanation.

Annabeth didn't stop crying for a second - even throughout Will's examination of her and her brother - for at least 12 hours. Then she crashed for another 12 hours - and when Annabeth woke up, she was enraged.

She is going to bring the damned statue back to Camp - and then she will kick her mother's ass. That's her best friend, not collateral damage.

And when her dumbass of a best friend comes back, Annabeth is going to kick his ass too. How dare he fall - for her, not even his closest friend - into freaking Tartarus?

Frank is devastated - he and Piper are coping by planning the future - how they can spend the summer at Camp and live in Nova Roma, how they'll visit Perseus if he decides to go to college in the mortal world. It feels a little like denial.

Hazel and Jason are coping in the totally opposite way. Where Leo and Nico are fueling themselves with determination, Annabeth is anger personified and the other two went in the road of negation - they're both in a deep state of panic.

The sea became too dangerous to travel - the tides answering to Jason's turbulent emotions - and any metal on board keeps exploding or becoming so fueled with energy that no one but Nico and Hazel can touch it.

They pray together - for Neptune, Jupiter, Pluto, Letum, any god that Perseus ever helped (a lot of them) - for his protection. Jason holds evening prayers - just like in Nova Roma - and they offer anything, everything, for Percy to be alive. Everyone goes.

Except for Will, who is in a whole other league. The moment that he arrived at Camp, Percy was the one to settle him, and calm him, and take care of him. It was a side of him no other person in this ship had ever seen - Nico got in Camp in the worst timing possible, and all the others were pretty independent when they met Perseus.

But Will remembers - the nights with hot chocolate, Percy's warm sweaters, a pair of blue gloves messing his hair, the anxiety when the boy left for school, just for him to keep IMing Will every evening - and he misses Percy.

After the Labyrinth, the war, the losses, they reconnected - the prejudices against Percy's parentage long gone - and it felt like nothing ever changed.

It was Percy who helped him coming out for his mother. It was Percy that held Will after he lost Sibele - a daughter of Momus - to her injuries. It was Percy, always Percy.

Percy is much more of a father then Apollo - and much better as a brother then some of Will's siblings. So Will just locks himself up in his infirmary - and grieves. It's weird in such a hard mission to remember that Will is just fifteen and that he is a veteran of war.

The mood lingers, even when they start fighting regularly against the Apennines - and isn't this a whole other mess.

The mountain spirits are pissed - because Hades/Pluto and his wife are really pissed. It's Malcolm - the only one with a phone and a good connection to the internet - that tells them that the world started having earthquakes every few days.

The mortals are confused because most of these are not even close to the tectonic plates - and none of those cause turmoil at the sea. It's just Hades - mightly pissed his only son is beyond even his reach.

Three days in fighting the Ourae - who don't like having their mountains shaken over and over again - the sky also starts thundering. Coincidentally, it's July 30th - they've been traveling for twenty-two days - which also marks Thesmophoria - the greek festival of harvest.

But, alas, nothing is blooming. Persephone is as dangerous as her husband - and Demeter seems to follow her daughter's lead. With the Earth corrupted - the crops aren't growing.

Jason doesn't blame his matron - he is not really happy himself. Besides praying for Perseus' safety, he spends most of his days in patrol against boulders and rocks of all things.

Leo barely sleeps - too busy keeping the ship from falling apart - and Nico is, most of the time, right behind him keeping the ship steady. They try using canons and fail miserably. There's no way to fight against mountains - it's like Dom Quixote fighting against the windmills.

The others, even Will, rotate between fighting rocks and sleeping. Four days after Thesmophoria, Leo decides it's enough, turns the ship around, and solves to not cross the Apennines.

He just hopes Perseus can last another seven days.

Hazel - the only one awake, because this is supposed to be her patrol and Leo finds her the most reasonable out of all their friends, who would probably insist on keep fighting the freaking mountains - is praying. Like always.

Leo doesn't know how he feels about praying. His extended family was very catholic - they prayed for a god that they couldn't see or touch. But Leo met the gods - or, if Annabeth is to be believed, one set of them - and he doesn't like them.

They're petty children who have no care for the fate of their children - the ones who fight for them, go on their errands, keep them alive, y'know. Leo doesn't want to praise them. He doesn't think they deserve it.

But Hazel's prayers are answered when her venti, Tempest, appears aboard. Hazel tells Leo to go on without her - she'll be back soon.

He is concerned for her - like always. Of all new people, Leo seems to be the closest to her - his overall cheeriness and electric behavior are endearing to her, a light in these dark times. Sometimes, his smile makes her flush - just like Frank's did and still does.

Hazel mounts Tempest and the venti takes her, through mountains and hills, to a door. There's mist curling at her ankles and a chill in her spine.

She isn't very thrilled by meeting Trivia - Hazel heard stories of her greek son by Perseus, who seemed to hold the guy in high standard, but she knows gods. The goddess of magic wants something.

Trivia is an imposing woman - taller than Hazel, she has the same midnight skin as Perseus, though hers looks purple-ish, and her eyes are entire universes - stars bloom in her irises and twin moons rise in her pupils.

The goddess is fickle - she seems to be there and not, at the same time. Ghostly. There's three of them, then one, then five.

Trivia beacons to the daughter of Jupiter and she follows, the cursed little girl she is. The goddess offers her three options: Perseus, prone in the ground as she, Leo, and Annabeth battle an invisible foe, the two demigod installments at war, or the Argo II.

Hazel chooses the Argo II, but she promises herself, and the goddess, that she will save Perseus, and that no demigod blood will be spilled by other demigod's hand. Not again.

She will learn how to control the Mist. But Trivia is very mistaken if she thinks Hazel is going to become her acolyte. She remembers well what happened last time - she died.

The Argo II is traveling without much hassle - when they're crossing Monte Falterona, in the Campigna National Park, they are attacked by a new mountain spirit - and this one talks.

"Get Pluto his brat back, you useless halflings!"

Like the boulders the immortal is throwing at them will help. Leo screams this back at the mountain, who is not impressed at all.

Their next foe is in San Marino - a chimera. Most popular knowledge is wrong about those monsters: chimeras are not just goat-lion-snake mixes. They are an amalgamation of any three or more animals.

This one, in particular, is a very... candid mix of a Pyrenean chamois, a monk-seal, a mouflon, and a goose. Not very lethal or hazardous - just very angry. It's the first time they hear Annabeth laugh since Perseus fell.

While Malcolm is chasing and being chased around by an evil goat-goose-seal-weirdass deer chimera that he is fending off with an encyclopedia, the others can't even bring themselves to help. It's ridiculous - the thing is not even big. It's just ugly and it sounds like a honking clown.

Eventually, they get around to killing the clown chimera - it honks as it vanishes - and following route to Bologna. Frank tries to mutate to the chimera during the travel - to different levels of failure - which makes everyone laugh.

Thanks to their two encounters, the crew gets to Bologna at two in the afternoon.

Frank can't help counting the days as they pass him by. He is not the only one - he can see Annabeth muttering the time every now and then - but it feels like a countdown. Can Perseus survive one more week in Tartarus?

Even with the pressing worry for his lost friend, he can't stop thinking about Hazel and Leo. The two of them are thick as thieves - and Frank wants in.

But he knows it's wrong - Leo is a boy. Hazel is younger. Leo bares a power that could kill him. Hazel is his best friend. They're two people. - but he sees them flirting and can't keep his eyes to himself.

It's wrong. Soldiers aren't supposed to date men. Men who dated men are prostitutes, entertainers. Less. And two people at the same time? Outside of a bedroom? Preposterous.

Frank wishes he was more like Perseus. Perseus is all about duty: he would eventually marry Reyna. Or Annabeth, or other pretty and intelligent warrior, and have two point five kids with a picket fence.

But no. Here he is - midday, they are stopping for lunch, and he can't keep his eyes off Leo and Hazel - who are quietly chatting in the other end of the long table.

Frank ponders what would they think. Would the two be repulsed? Would they laugh at him? He can deal with laughter. Their disgust, however, would cut his heart in half.

Nico is in a very similar, and yet completely different, situation. He has been in love - or as close as love could be when you never dated the person - with Perseus Jackson.

He knows it's okay to be gay - he is friends with Will and Jake. He lives on CHB since he was a pre-teen. Perseus himself was - is - queer.

But the thing is, he'll never have a chance with him. Not the chance he is longing for gods know how long. He failed Perseus yet again - he let the demigod fall.

Perseus can have anyone. Perfect Annabeth Chase, Shrewd Reyna Arellano, Magic Alabaster Torrington, anyone. And he wouldn't have a problem with that - no. The problem is that he can't make a choice. Because he is in Tartarus.

Because Nico. Let. Him. Fall.

He isn't even sure if he let Perseus fall on purpose. A part of his mind knew someone would have to go. It was always meant to be Perseus. Did he purposefully let him go?

The rational part of his mind knew that if he tried to fly them off, all he would accomplish is falling into Tartarus with Perseus, probably dragging Annabeth with them.

But the guilt creeps into his heart - again, yet again, Perseus suffers for something he did or failed to do. He can't sleep. He doesn't know how anyone can eat.

A rock for him in these difficult times has been Jason. The son of Neptune seems to be as affected as Hazel or Annabeth - but Nico would never be able to rely on them.

Hazel has her own problems - a lot of them since Trivia appeared - and Annabeth is a painful reminder of everything Nico is unable to have.

Jason, however, is different. They had dreams of each other - something about their conquests, Nico didn't pay attention - and that apparently brought them close. Jason, differently from Annabeth, isn't a competition. He isn't vying for Percy's attention and love.

He is just a close friend - like Nico pretends to be most of the time - incredibly worried about the son of Hades. Nico would tell Jason about how he feels - but the militar roman's sensibilities might not be adjusted to the greeks' freedom yet.

Nico, however, is also not the only one with heart problems. Piper finds himself entranced by Annabeth Chase - even when she knows, she knows because of her powers, that Annabeth is painfully straight.

And Piper knows it's not love - it's the heat of the upcoming war and the hormones of being cooped up with just other teenagers for twenty days. She sees the blossoms of young lovers everywhere.

The yearning between Leo, Hazel, and Frank; Nico and Jason unconsciously sharing long-term crushes on Perseus; Will missing Jake and his parental figure;

She wishes she was more like Malcolm. Malcolm is asexual - besides being the only other transexual person on board.

Before this war spiked from nothing, the boy was just back from his mission for Hermaphroditus - a two-month search for a missing choker. He is still adapting to his body - it's bigger and broader and he doesn't have to wear a binder. Piper thinks it's amazing - he tells her it isn't that easy.

It's not a slow transition. One second your body is something - and then it isn't. One morning, the demigod caught him holding a red binder in his hands. Sometimes, she sees a shot of testosterone tucked in his pocket.

One day, he was a boy stuck in a girl's body. Then, he wasn't anymore. He has the body he dreamed of for forever - and it's difficult accepting it. Malcolm tells her is not exactly body dysphoria - is just difficult to conciliate.

Piper thinks after this, she'll get her body. After all of this, she deserves it - her body, all hers, with boobs and a killer jawline. Maybe then, it'll be easier to like girls as well. Maybe then, she'll shave half of her head and get a piercing. And maybe, a couple of tattoos.

But while this doesn't happen, she is whining to her asexual friend about her crush in his sister. Malcolm crushes her with logic - "Annabeth has only shown interest in men. She might be bi or pan or even a lesbian, but the odds aren't on your favor" - and she tries to put the blonde out of her mind.

Lunch, however, is a little ridiculous for her. As a daughter of love herself, that table is such a mess of yearning and pining and infatuations.

Malcolm seems to be the only rational - but even he is a little flushed. Piper totally saw that picture of Mitchell in his drawer last week.

She couldn't blame him really - her brother is hot. All demigods are - in very different ways of course, but their godly blood made them more or less otherworldly compared to mortals. Didn't matter their ethnicity, their gender, if they're disabled or not - they are all hot.

Piper, however, doesn't spend all her time freaking over hot people. She is a teenager with a friend who has a good connection to the internet, so she does that a lot - but most of her time these days is looking at Katoptris.

She's waiting for a vision of Perseus. Anything - just proof that he is alive, that he hasn't curled in a ball on whatever is the ground down there and went mad.

It doesn't come. She is looking at this ridiculous lunch table, eating vegetarian burgers, and waiting. Just as it seems like her dagger starts glowing gold - two monkey twins sweep down and steal it. And Leo's tool belt and Archimedes' Sphere.

Piper is really pissed. She wants this mission to end - she wants to find Perseus and stop Gaea, and that's her magical item. It's important. So she and Leo go after the twin monkeys.

Using one of the armory's javelin - for lack of a better option - they sprint over roofs and marketplaces. Bologna is a beautiful city - but they have no time.

They corner the twin monkeys, get their things back - and some things pertaining to a god of harvest - Triptolemus. Perhaps if they make an offer to him, Demeter and Persephone will be more cooperative. Maybe Persephone will be able to calm her husband.

Piper really doubts it. If she learned anything in the nineteen days she traveled with Perseus, is that he calls Persephone "Kore" or "Mater". The only other person he refers to with such open childish joy is his own mother, Sally.

The guy IMed both of them twice a week - enough that Piper knows their voices. While Hades isn't high in the demigod's list of people, his wife seemed to be at least number #2.

But they go back to the ship and relay their plan anyway. They set route to Venice. In the hour that it takes them to get there, they're delayed twice: once by the personification of River Ádige - which enabled them to pass until Jason helped with a small problem - and then by a couple of ventis - which Hazel sent off.

Frank, Annabeth, Hazel and Nico venture into the drowned city - Piper declines to go, saying that she is waiting for Katoptris to cooperate - being Nico the only one who actually speaks Italian in the ship.

The city is infested with anteater-like herbivorous monsters called katoplebones, which are pointedly not from the Greek pantheon. It's pretty rare for monsters to cross pantheons - and the Egyptians are pretty good in keeping them under lock and key - but sometimes, this happens.

They aren't capacitated to deal with those. Annabeth has half a mind to call the Kanes and demand an explanation. Pretty sure they were possessed by the gods to avoid this kind of situation.

She doesn't have much time to think - Hazel is quickly overwhelmed by the poisonous breath of the cows. Of course - is there anything in Egypt that isn't connected to snakes?

They find Triptolemus - who is not thrilled with their presence. Demeter - his mistress - and her daughter are distraught by Perseus' missing status - and he blames Annabeth and Nico for it.

Annabeth tries to persuade him - after all, they have Jason on board, and he is blessed by Ceres. Triptolemus - a very greek god - is not swayed.

"Your trickster words shall not fool me, daughter of Athena."

That's how Annabeth became a rosemary bush - good for memory and brainpower. Nico, when he tried to fight back, became a corn crop.

Mars is whispering in Frank's mind - he is not really fond of his father but uses his help to kill the evil Egyptian cows and get a python for the god's chariot.

He can't let Hazel die. He can't see the light go off her eyes - to see the same pain reflected in Leo's eyes. But Frank is so using Nico's stunt as a corn plant as blackmail material later. Not with Annabeth thought - she would stab him.

Triptolemus, pleased, turns Nico and Annabeth back to human and heals Hazel. Then, he tells them they have to eat barley cakes - so they can survive the poison needed to enter the house of the dead.

Proceeding south down the Adriatic toward Greece, a journey that should take about half a day, the crew of the Argo II is first accosted in Koper - a city on the coast of Slovenia - by four monocerus in the middle of the night.

Monocerus, in Leo's very succinct explanation, are "evil unicorns with big feet that can't fly and shouldn't be in a flying ship".

Whoever, the monsters apparently don't care where they should or not be - and Annabeth - still reeling for her time as rosemary - takes two of them out, keeping the horns as a prize. Nico takes one, who is so beat that leaves nothing, and Malcolm kills one with a handgun.

It's not the most practical weapon, because celestial bronze is not that easy to fabricate/find/obtain - so to use it in bullets that will explode and render it unusable it's kind of a desperate - but it's the first thing he could get - Malcolm's double tessen was being repaired by Leo.

Because yes - not only was the twenty years old able to fight with normal blades, he also fights with freaking fans made of iron.

After the run-in with the evil unicorns - Annabeth looks really cool covered in gold blood and curved silver horns in her hands - they proceed across Croatia.

It goes well for about thirty minutes - in Zadar, they cross paths with Sciron. Sciron is a bandit and outlaw, who - for some reason, is assisted by a giant predatory sea turtle.

While Hazel tricks him into throwing himself off the cliff using her new-discovered Mist, Jason talks to the turtle. It says its name is Chelone - that it's the turtle who took Aphrodite Ourania from the depths of the sea to the shores of Cythera - when she was still young, with remains of other goddesses in her anima - Innana and Ishtar.

He convinces the turtle to stop killing people - mainly by saying that he should hunt elsewhere, deeper onto the sea. It may become a problem for his father, but Jason has bigger issues right now.

They go to sleep, and Hazel dreams. She expects any god to come - but who comes to her is none other than Pluto and his wife, Proserpina.

Proserpina is shrouded in black, and her eyes are not green - but yellowish, like dead leaves. She talks - and tells Hazel that the Doors of Death are in the bottom of the Necromanteion - her powers over metal energy would guide her - and will be guarded by Pasiphae, vengeful of Pluto - and, by default, Perseus - for the lack of punishment for Minos.

Her husband is a silent presence by her side. He is not in mourning... probably. It's difficult to tell, as he is always in black. But his eyes hold a weight easy for Hazel to understand - he just lost a son to the abyss. No matter that Perseus might be alive - he wouldn't get back whole and safe.

Proserpina ends her dream by telling her to wake up Piper - the goddess is putting all her strength to send a vision of Perseus to Katoptris - they need one much more than her, seeing that they are able to interfere.

What Piper sees don't tell them a lot - Perseus seems mostly okay, with some sort of companion that Nico says it might be Iapetus, a brand new scar over his face and a bad limp.

It's the last they'll see of him until their eventual meeting face to face, but it gives them hope.

Annabeth herself has a dream - a dream that the Romans give the statue to the greeks. She sends an iris message to Rachel - so she can meet personally with Reyna.

Reyna, on the other side of the world, mounts her pegasus, Scipio, and leaves. Not only her co-praetor is in freaking Tartarus, but they are on the verge of two simultaneous wars. They need peace.

As soon as she is out of the roman range, however, she sends an iris message to Jason - telling him to go to their hero's place of rest - she had a vision from Mars. That she will meet them in Greece. Jason tells Leo to set course for Split, in Croatia. There's a roman scepter there.

Of all of them, the most capacitated for this mission are Frank and Jason, who are both educated Romans, and Nico, who can fly - a very good power to have in unstable ruins.

They're confronted by Favonious, who takes them to his master, Cupid, in Dalmatia. Nothing good can come of talking to the personification of love - such an old concept that the god has been reborn twice.

"Well, well, well"

"What do we have here?"

Jason falls onto the ground - "You think you found true love, haven't you? But alas, I was where you last expected me" - and he hates love, for that single moment.

"I shall give you what you want, Romans, if each of you is able to tell me - who do you love the most?"

Nico trembles - guilt is a difficult pill to swallow - and Frank visibly wants to bolt out of there.

"Oh, are you afraid? But there's no hiding in the face of true love"

Jason - always the brave one - gives a look at Frank. His friend never met the greeks. He might hate Jason after this.

But they need this scepter.

"Perseus Jackson"

Two heads whips in his direction - one unbelievingly, and the other distressed.

"Ah, love crafted in dreams - the perfect mix between me and my wife. Tell me, Jason Grace, was it bad when he looked upon you and saw naught but a myth?"

A laugh creeps upon Jason's spine, and he turns around. His blade hits something hard, and he is on the floor again.

"Such luck, to be able to even graze love. Perhaps yours is the purest of all - not yet tainted by failures and mistakes. On that note, why don't you go next, Nico di Angelo?"

Nico shivers - he... they have no time for that. That is unnecessary drama - to cause unnecessary problems.

A memory rushes to the front of Jason's mind - that quick chat with Reyna in Nova Roma. "The blond girl, Di Angelo"

Nico loves Perseus. It rushes to Jason now - the way that the younger boy stared adoringly at the son of Hades. The drunkness of his lovesick gaze. The despair when Perseus fell.

"Tell them Nico di Angelo" Cupid prompts "Tell them all about your guilt, your mistakes, the way you let him down, again and again, and again."

Nico floats a little off the ground. It's years of pain and sorrow that won't bring Perseus back.

"Will you fly off yet again, in the face of rivalry? Will you be my next servant - just like Favonious, consumed by jealousy, Nico di Angelo?"

Jason sees the memories. Nico screaming at Perseus. Grover reluctantly telling him about their adventures. The way he betrayed Percy - and a dozen more scenes he never saw from Nico's perspective, only Percy's, that made him unable to speak.

"It's okay Nico... I.... I get it."

It's painful to utter these words - it's almost like he is giving up Perseus. But they have a war to get through - and then, when the other demigod is back, they can figure this out.

"P-Perseus Jackson"

And then it's Frank's turn. But Frank is as pale as a ghost - he seems to be close to vomiting.

"It's a costly thing isn't it, looking at the true face of love. Now it's the turn of the brave son of Mars. Will you tell your friends easily, or shall you be a coward like the son of Zeus?"

Frank doesn't talk. Jason doesn't understand why - it's Hazel, isn't it? Is it because of Nico? He mentions talking to the son of Zeus, but Di Angelo doesn't look at him - the Cupid knew very well how to play his game.

"Come on. Tell them - tell them of whom you think before you sleep and who dominates your first thoughts every morning."

"You don't scare me"

"Oh, I scare you very, very much. Face me. Be honest."

"H-Hazel. Levesque."

"That's just half my question, little half-blood. If you want to lead the roman legions, you must answer it fully."

"I love H-Hazel. She is the one I think before I sleep and when I wake up."

"Still hiding. You're not strong enough, Frank Zhang."

Frank tries to charge at the wind, but it just mocks him. It's weird seeing Frank crying - it looks like the world is crumbling at his feet.

Jason, yet again, doesn't understand. Nico is also confused - he looks between the Romans as if he never saw any of them before. But then it dawns on the son of Zeus.

"Not only my sister. That's why you keep gazing at them, isn't it?"

All the fighting and denial leave Frank at once. His sword clangs in the ground.

"I love both Hazel and Leo. Together." He spits out, still trembling. "That's the truth. Are you happy now?"

"I wouldn't say Love always makes you happy. It can make you incredibly sad, sometimes. But you have faced it now. It's the only true way to conquer me."

Cupid appears - in a flash of white wings. It might be the god Jason hates the most - his eyes seem to penetrate his very soul. There's a scepter in his hand.

"Only a true child of Mars Ultor can yield it. It's your destiny, Frank Zhang."

Then he promptly disappears. The demigods look at each other - there's a flurry of emotions deep inside their chests. Frank looked at both of them, waiting for an attack, or for them to start fighting.

"No one has to know" He starts "I'm s-so-..."

He doesn't end. There are copious tears rolling through his face - his cheeks are a deep shade of red. A sob escapes his throat.

"P-please, p-pleased-don't t-te-tell anyone." Frank sobs, and it's such a jarring sight that both Nico and Jason rally to reassure him, leaving their own issues aside.

"There's nothing wrong with loving two people at once. No one will have a problem with it, Frank - fuck, this isn't Nova Roma. Most of us are greek."

"Hazel would hate me though. This is unnatural- I- I can't."

"You don't know that. Hazel loves you, Frank"

But the son of Mars just keeps crying until they both promise not to tell another soul what they saw. It's enough for the weird atmosphere to return.

Midway in the trek back to the ship - a six-hour walk - Nico is too riled up to safely fly with two people and none of them being too fond of air right now - Frank summons enough power to ask the question.

"So... uh... hm... Perseus?... like, uh, I can see the appeal-... but... both?... forget I asked, just....uh oh, sorry."

Jason and Nico pointedly avoid looking at each other. It's very bizarre - Jason knows a lot about Perseus, but now he knows Perseus also from Nico's perspective - and this is all messy.

They go back to the ship, relay to Annabeth that they got the scepter, and immediately go back to their cabins - to cry, to scream, to think.

It's been a day and a half - and they're still eleven hours off Epirus. Leo is pissed - because not only their three heavy-hitters are pissed at something and won't communicate, and they're of course.

Emerging from the infirmary for something other than to eat and mend people is finally Will - at least. He takes patrol in place of Nico - the boy quietly mumbled at his friend that they had a run-in with Cupid. Will can imagine how that went.

He doesn't have a clue about Frank - but Jason and Nico? They have the same long-lasting crush on Perseus - everyone on board knows that. Except, apparently, for each other. And Perseus - because his mentor/kind of brother/bother figure is a dumbass.

When they're passing through the coast of Albany, they're attacked by Khione - who is still very pissed her ex-lover's son doesn't want to spend eternity frozen with her. Leo ends up being sent away - for the distress of both Hazel and Frank and the anger of his best friends, Piper and Jason.

Piper ends up stabbing Khione - while Frank transforms into the giant dragon and burns her - making her unable to freeze them. Eventually, she runs away.

Leo, however, wakes up on an island. There's a sad girl at his side - she is using a modern blue dress, and there's a crown of black flowers upon her head.

"You were not the one I was expecting."

The son of Hephaestus wants to scream. Well, he didn't want to be whatever here is either! But her face is so sad - her gaze down to her bare feet. She seemed to be crying. He settles for asking who is her.

"I... I am sorry. My name is Calypso. This is Ogygia."

It startles him. Mainly because he has heard this name before around camp - wasn't she supposed to be freed?

"What happened to you?"

The immortal girl relays her tale - how she got freed for a year, and then the war started. The gods - Zeus - didn't trust her not to turn against them. So they locked her up - she was not the only one. Leto, Themis, Rhea - good titans or their offspring. Locked away.

She, after a year of freedom that Perseus got her, was back into her old shackles. Calypso is waiting for him for months now - but she thinks he forgot her.

So Leo tells her what happened - the bits he knows anyway. Juno/Hera, Nova Roma, the mission. Calypso seems calmer. They stay together for a while - friends it seems.

Calypso tells him about her year - about how she wanted to explore the world. She tells him she wanted to join Artemis' hunt - but, courtesy of Odysseys, she is no maiden.

He tells her about Hazel and Frank, Perseus, and the love hexagons he doesn't even know he is in - omitting the part that he is now in Tartarus. They talk about Festus - Calypso tells him about how his father is good to hear - how he came to visit, sometimes.

A week passes, maybe a week and a half. Leo vows to take Calypso off the island once the war ends, and she believes - once, a hero as brave as Leo made her the same promise, and stuck with it through the end.

In Cancun, Africa, Jason and Nico are having daily audiences with Auster, the Roman god of the south wind, in connection with the Seven being able to proceed on their way to Epirus - seeing that their ship is all broken and they have no Leo.

Auster is indolent and seems increasingly disinclined to cooperate with Jason and Nico: he dislikes the son of Zeus, and the wind never had a good relationship with the sea. Annabeth also tries her hand at it - but it's rebuffed at every turn. Piper is prohibited from entering the palace because of her magic voice.

Jason and Nico - even though they aren't speaking to each other - have for a long time admitted they don't fit completely at either camp. Jason is still too militar for CHB. Nico is too old for CHB. Both are too free with their personal lives for Nova Roma.

Auster agrees to meet with them and tells them to commit to one side - greek or roman. They deny it - they're both. The gods are both, they have been thrust in a war of both sides, they commune with gods on both aspects and they ask them to run errands for both pantheons. They have the right to be both.

Auster is not happy with this - mainly because he believes they should keep the sides separated. But it's the first time Nico and Jason agree on something - and they fight together for it. No god has the right to define those petty things when the demigods are fighting their war.

Auster merges with his greek counterpart Notus - an amalgamation of both his carefree and his militar side - and sends The Seven on their way when coerced by the threat of a hurricane and a typhoon.

He sends them to Valletta, Malta, where they find the Argo II fully repaired and in the harbor. In the port, on a small cafe, there's Leo - sitting and raging internally against the gods, who once again, fucked up something.

They trade stories, and Leo just rages more. He isn't sure how Perseus didn't ally himself with Kronos in the first war if that was the bullshit he had to deal with every day.

First Khione, then Zeus locking Calypso up, then this Notus guy - they are a week and a half late. Is Perseus still alive after nineteen days in the Pit? Is he sane? Did he tried to get out - and they weren't there?

It's with a shocking gasp from Annabeth that they realize that Perseus's birthday is in three days. They have been traveling together for thirty-seven days now - and they have to get Perseus out of Tartarus before the 18th, at least. Is the minimum.

It takes them a day to get to Epirus. There are enough monsters in their way to start a menagerie - Gaea is actively trying to stall them, so there must be a reason. Perseus might be alive.

Arriving at the Necromanteion, which they learn is just a very fancy name for catacombs, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Annabeth, Will, and Piper descend into the ruins, leaving Nico and Jason - who are both completely useless under the earth - behind with Malcolm - who, since Arachne, is pretty much claustrophobic.

They eat the barley cakes to protect themselves against the toxic potion they must drink in order to enter the temple. It's difficult to swallow poison - it burns as it goes down.

The mist tries to confuse them at every turn - Hazel diverts it. Her power over metal energy guides them - she can feel the basis of the building, way down where they are.

Katoptris burns in Piper's hand. It shows her Perseus' face - he looks cadaveric, shrouded in death. Sometimes he flickers, like a ghost - but he is alive, and heading to the Doors just like they are.

It's enough to spur them forward. Perseus is doing the same journey - from a much difficult side. They will meet in the middle.

Earthquakes strike the caverns, making part of the floor collapse. In a side, Piper and Will, surrounded by monsters in all sides. In the other, Frank, Leo, Hazel and Annabeth. The son of Mars doesn't think twice - the scepter.

He uses the Scepter of Diocletian to summon ghostly Roman soldiers, and as a Legatus Legionis, he does have the power to command all of them. It would be more controlled if he was Praetor, but the actual Praetor is Perseus, and so, in his absence, Frank will have to do.

The tunnel collapses. Hazel. Leo. They might be dead - but Frank can't panic right now. They are alive. They will protect each other, they have Annabeth Chase with them. Hazel controls the mist - everything will be just fine.

Anger grew in his chest. Those are his friends, his... his loved ones. This freaking ruin don't get to kill them before Frank summons enough courage to submit himself to the ridiculousness of telling them.

Hazel wants to cry - they left Frank behind. He might be dead - they might be all dead. Leo isn't much better. For all that Zhang seems to hate him, his infatuation with the Canadian never disappeared.

Annabeth however, is practical. She tells them Frank will be fine - the guy can transform into a dragon. Or a chimera. Probably a poisonous one, after the stunt in Venice. He has an army - it's okay.

Pasiphae is a bitch. Leo hates the woman - she reminds him of Aunt Rosa. Or Juno. Or Lady Muddy herself. He and Annabeth let Hazel do the majority of the talking - but both of them bristle as the Doors shake.

An unauthorized presence. Perseus actually did it - they have twelve minutes, in accord to Annabeth - who Leo knows better than to doubt - to open the Doors. Or he is dead, lost forever.

"It's a pity Gaea needs a son of the Earth and a daughter of the Sea... But none of you are children of the Underworld or the ocean, are you? Not even the acolyte of Trivia."

Everything indicates that she'll open the door herself - but Annabeth can't risk she whisking Perseus away to Gaea before they can reach him. So she sneaks past with her cap while they fight.

Pasiphae goes down to Hazel's illusions. Annabeth opens the Doors, before cutting the chains as Hazel and Leo distract Clytius. Perseus stumbles out, a giant tiger in his heels.

Leo didn't think he would ever see a harsher picture. The tall boy was still muscular - but gaunt as if he hadn't eaten since the fall. There were scars everywhere.

He couldn't look more - Clytius is threatening Perseus, but both Annabeth and the tiger stay in his way. Trivia appears - but they aren't truly winning until Piper, Will, and Frank are able to reach them through Hazel's magic.

Will goes immediately to Perseus' side - there's panic in his eyes. Leo can't see much this far - he hopes the son of Hades isn't dead. Piper and Frank fight alongside them. Annabeth is still hovering protectively over her best friend's prone body.

There's not much need for help - between Hazel and Trivia, the bulk of Clytius powers are unusable. The shared power of Piper (love is never where you expect it), Frank (and his undead soldiers), a very angry Annabeth, and Leo is just overkill.

They win. Will is feeding Perseus ambrosia - there's something really wrong because there are tear tracks in the blonde's face. Leo comes closer - their friends follow.

Perseus is destroyed. He looks like he has been through hell - there's a scar crossing his face and his eyes are sunken in. But that's not where it stops.

Leo's gaze goes down, to the ragged clothes that are barely recognizable - the sweatpants he was convinced to wear to go underground, the once-green sweater - and sees what is missing.

Where Perseus' leg once was, there's a metal one. The boy is curled in the fetal position - his metal leg sticks out like a sore thumb, and it looks like he might cry if he wasn't so dehydrated. The tiger nudges its head against the boy's leg and growls at them, but it doesn't attack.

"I... I can't touch him. I touched him and he started panicking... I... We have to take him back to the ship. He is stable, but..."

Frank picks up Perseus in a bride-carry - a month ago, he wouldn't be able to do it. But now, he is stronger - and Perseus must weight ninety pounds wet.

The tiger follows - when they cross to the daylight, they can see it's not a normal tiger. Annabeth - with a distraught look in her face - tells them it's a skeleton tiger. Probably a saber-tooth.

They go back on board - Piper goes up to call Nico, so he can fly Perseus into the ship. He does, but the expression in his face is so crushing Leo almost wishes they had delayed it by destroying property and landing the ship on the street.

The mood of the ship is yet again somber. No one wants to leave the infirmary - but Will forces them to rotate, so as to not overwhelm Perseus. Hypocrite - he is living in there.

Leo, Malcolm, and Piper - the least close to Percy, even though they are friends - let the others take the bulk of the shifts. Annabeth, Nico, and Jason almost get into blows about it - she wins on the fact that she knows Perseus longer.

It's difficult to IM both Rachel - who is a minute away from depression since he fell - and Lady Persephone. It's even harder to tell Sally - they leave the task to Annabeth.

They harbor for two days, waiting for Reyna. She appears from the sky during dinnertime - her horse has to be euthanized almost immediately after a run with the spirit mountains.

They talk - and end up deciding that she will take the statue back to Camp with Malcolm, the most resourceful out of them. Percy would be the logical solution - taking him out of Gaea's reach - but the son of Hades would probably be unable to shadow travel so soon.

While this happens, the others will set course to Athens - to stop Gaea and destroy the Giants. For now, they eat.

Midway through their meal, Will comes into the board - everyone knows what it means. Perseus is awake - on his birthday to boot. They take their food to the infirmary - to see the boy looking at the ceiling.

He gives them a faint smile, but no one misses the way he curls into himself any time there's someone a little too close. Perseus relays his tale - it's heavily edited, Annabeth can tell.

But he tells them about the leg - but not how he lost it - about the tiger - the name is Small Bob, but he doesn't talk about Bob - and about the firewater - but not how he got the injuries.

Small Bob never leaves Perseus's side. The demigod insists that he wants to go outside - he ate enough ambrosia and drank enough nectar that even some of his scars are gone. Not the one in his face though. Will let him go - but Annabeth thinks that he just asked out of courtesy.

He doesn't have green eyes anymore - they darkened to a point they can't distinguish his pupil. They observe as he sits calmly in the deck, metal leg sticking out, and strokes the head of the tiger, who is acting more or less like a giant house cat.

None of them miss the tracks of tears across his face, or the look he gives the night sky - it's bittersweet.

"Bob says hello"

[partyinthemysterymachine]

Macavity almost went to the Heavyside

cracks knuckles

in conjunction with Munkustrap makes the Jellicle Choice, Macavity’s play in all this is as follows:

Macavity was once a Choice that got replaced.

generally if Munkustrap makes a Choice, the intended won’t know it until just before dawn (in a silence you feel you could cut with a knife), because Deut makes that announcement. again, Deut gets the credit for making the decision, and then he summons the way to the Heavyside. (for how he knows who to choose, Deut receives a pulse of the intended’s name in his head; it’s like a disembodied whisper, a voice without any distinguishing qualities; a heartbeat that not only voices the name but shows it in text, so to speak, behind his eyes. now he can pick out the Choice and continue his duties.)

in this instance, Macavity has no relation to Deut, Munkustrap, or Tugger. he was accepted into the fold when he was barely a teenager. he arrived at the Junkyard kind of disoriented and lost. after getting him cleaned up a bit and a hot meal and some water, he mentioned that he was, indeed, lost, but he didn’t know why because he couldn’t remember where he came from.

it was deduced that he was suffering some kind of amnesia or memory blackout due to a traumatic event. the tribe took him in not really knowing if they were going to “keep him” or if they were going to let him wander away when he wanted. a couple scouts were sent out to ask around over the span of a month while other members tried to coax information out of Macavity.

the scouts got a load of nothing so the Jellicles took him in for good once Macavity expressed a desire to stay. he’d be raised amongst other kittens and teens, including Munkustrap, Tugger, Alonzo, Plato, Demeter, etc. 

it’d take some good couple years for not only his new tribe and peers to get used to him, but for Macavity to feel comfortable enough to peek out of his shell. gradually the tribe saw a Macavity that was interested in participating, more talkative, had a dry sense of humor with great comedic timing, initiated conversations and actively tried to make up for lost time and find friends. 

naturally it proved to be difficult to work with that considering the tribe had been dealing with a highly guarded, wary, stoic, and a little skittish kind of guy. for many, it felt like he made what felt like a total 180 overnight. this of course was not the case. little by little he tested the waters until he felt comfortable enough to be more forward. many of his beginning efforts went without being picked up on (i hesitate to say unnoticed; it’s one of those things a part of you absently acknowledges and then doesn’t fully process) by quite a few though naturally he didn’t pass under everyone’s radar.

some of the older and younger crew took note and tried to help him reach out. it was so small and gradual that when he really put himself out there it surprised others.

he’d attended Balls after his first year in the tribe; there were restrictions against it. after that, his presence at the Balls provoked a lot of anxiety at first, but he learned to enjoy them. Munkustrap took to him almost immediately was, for all intents and purposes, his first friend. so when the Ball would take place, he divided his own duties with spending time with Macavity.

Munkustrap didn’t acquire his specific role until he was about 20. however, he was born with his attunement and as he grew up, it’d be acknowledged by Deut and kept a secret between them. and as he aged, so did his powers. according to the strain of magic that he had, some expectations of what would develop when were already lined out. one could say Munkustrap developed early in some of these points, and one of his earliest was perception.

he latched onto Macavity because he felt static from him; weak static, but magical nonetheless. (”magic” doesn’t accurately describe Munkustrap’s abilities but does fit other categories that the cats could possibly possess, for the sake of avoiding too much confusion, it has to persist for now.) so far, no one else in the tribe was also attuned, so he was excited and eager to make a friend that did.

Munkustrap could never really pin the specifics on what Macavity’s powers entailed/what he was capable of. it’s still a mystery. however, what he did notice is that Macavity’s static went from a tremble to something worthy of a boom box. in their adulthood and after Macavity’s leave from the tribe, Munkustrap would come to find that Macavity’s static would steadily climb to a deafening quality.

until then, things went on. Munkustrap had been making the Choice for a handful of years at this point. Macavity had picked up on Something about him, though neither ever broached the topic of being attuned. (they had a hard enough time trying to figure out if the other one was feeling the same way they were. dumb gay problems)

in a rare instance that would only likely repeat itself one or two times thereafter, Munkustrap’s attention was directed to the devastating potential that he’d have to make Macavity a Chosen. while it takes a full year from the end of one Ball to the following year’s announcement to pick a Choice, Munkustrap had to continuously keep tabs on whatever was telling him that Macavity would be in line soon.

after about two years, it was clear that Macavity was next up for the Heavyside, and Munkustrap knew why. one of the burdens to bear of his attunement is that he gets the pinpointed reason why someone is Chosen. the two years leading up to Macavity’s ascension were strange and jumbled while Munkustrap received a whole slew of confusing feelings, perceptions, and inward chatter about him. ofc this impacted his personality and suchlike, and while others expressed concern, he attributed it to this or that and bounced back.

Macavity, on the other hand, refused to be fooled. things were getting much closer between the two and they were teetering right on the edge of going from friends to lovers, and then suddenly Munkustrap was backing off. so there was so much confusion, hurt, tension, awkward dancing around something they couldn’t explain or comprehend, but Munkustrap didn’t want to get (further, irreparably) attached (too late tbh) to Macavity if he was going to have to send him to the Heavyside.

that Ball had a weird vibe for most of them. it wasn’t a severe feeling, but something was just a tiny bit Off; enough to get members a smidge uncomfortable. as the time to announce drew closer, Munkustrap was scrambling to find a replacement, someone else, anybody else, knowing he was being selfish but-- couldn’t he be selfish just for once? 

worse, Macavity picked up on it. Munkustrap was too busy to notice that Macavity had been watching him closely all night (the week leading up to the Ball has been a very suspicious one to him; unfortunately, Munkustrap being so scattered combined with his Perception not being fully developed left him more vulnerable than he would have liked). 

it’s hard to say for certain if that was the night he actually figured out what Munkustrap was in his entirety. Munkustrap had been conducting himself oddly towards Macavity all week and especially that night; his guard was breaking down. he went from delicate and tender to trying to be a tough guy and push down his feelings and swung between those and any middle ground at an exhausting (for both of them) rate. so as they were called to gather around Deut, Macavity caught Munkustrap’s eye and he saw absolute fear, regret, and loss.

 perhaps it was due to the weakened state that Munkustrap had put himself in, or the build-up of Macavity’s set of abilities that allowed him a couple ticks more power to needle past Munkustrap’s barriers (and later Macavity would come to find that containment would be necessary to produce an ideal outcome on a case to case basis, but i digress), but he learned that he was meant to be that year’s Choice.

it scared him too, and also filled him with relief. Munkustrap saw that. Macavity was scared, he was too young for his time to be up, there was too much between them and too much to do, things unsaid-- and he was ready to go. he wanted to go. and Munkustrap was crushed. selfishness (and spite) took over then and was late for the projection to Deuteronomy (causing some awkwardness for how long it was taking) but he sacrificed someone else to keep Macavity on the ground,

that would be his first disobedience to the Heavyside.

this ignited resentment, hate, hurt-- just a slew of emotions that resulted in a fight between them (after, y’know, avoiding each other for a few days and making others worry). 

oh, the fight. the fight would be a surprise debut of what was lurking behind all that static.

[esoanem]

II.

“That’s all I want – to walk away from the sea and find some peace”

Major Content Notes:

Blood: Singleton’s bloody body is seen

Disfigurement: there is a brief shot of a severely disfigured man in the dark, seemingly from tertiary syphilis. It’s played for a jump scare

Wikipedia Synopsis

After Captain Flint reveals Singleton as the thief in front of his crew, he has Gates convince Billy, who knows the truth about his captain, that this is for the good of the crew. Meanwhile, Silver and Max are forced to hide in the brothel when they put themselves in danger as Captain Vane and his partners, Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny, are determined to get a hold of the missing page in the hunt for the Spanish galleon, Urca de Lima. Also, Eleanor is given an ultimatum by Max and has to decide between wealth or love.

So, the last episode put all the pieces on the board, and this episode sets them into motion so let’s dive into it. As before, below the cut are the timestamps of any scenes requiring any of the major content notes, and then the summary 

Timestamps:

All timestamps are from the “Complete Collection” DVDs which includes a Starz logo at the start, as well as a recap. Depending on your source, timestamps may vary a little, which is why I’ve included the timestamp for the opening titles. Timestamps are only given for the start and end of scenes featuring any particularly warning-worthy content

00:57: opening titles

05:57-07:50: Singleton’s bloody body is seen, two pirates urinate on the body

37:14-44:04: a hooded man is turned around, revealing his severely disfigured face, likely as a result of tertiary syphilis. It is a brief shot (42:37-42:40 ), in low light, and is used as a jump scare

Summary:

Eleanor wakes up next to Max. She knows the Scarborough arrived yesterday, but not about the attempted arrest of her father. She goes to the balcony and wonders aloud if the arrival of the Scarborough means the end of their way of life, that the military will return and close down trade, installing her father as governor. Max suggests that that wouldn’t be so bad, that Eleanor could buy the brothel, and they could run it together, as well as commenting that soon she won’t need to worry what Mr Noonan (the proprietor) thinks. Mr Scott calls Eleanor down, but, as she goes to get dressed, Max calls her back to be instead

The crew on the Walrus are already celebrating as if they’d captured the Urca de Lima, as Dufresne tries to persuade them not to spend money they haven’t yet earned. Billy is still in shock, and shows Gates the blank page, wondering if he did the right thing as Flint calls them into the cabin. Randall unnerves Silver by commenting to him in particular that “we don’t like thieves. You shouldn’t steal. That’s what happens”, glancing back to Singleton’s bloody body which is propped against a beam having been pelted with vegetable scraps. As two pirates go to his body to piss on it, Randall reiterates that “you mustn’t steal”. One of the pirates next to Randall (below middle) defends him saying Singleton wasn’t a thief and starts to get up to stop the two pissing on Singleton, when his friend (below right) warns him not to do anything now

Flint tells Billy & Gates that he knows the schedule is still around, because of the feather, proving someone had come back to read the log and work out what it was they actually had, and therefore, somebody on the ship at that moment is the thief. Gates points out that none of their men would have known to look for the schedule, and as he starts saying that the men from the prize were all searched he realises that Silver wasn’t, and that being found in the armoury standing over a dead body he claimed was a suicide is quite suspicious

They leave the cabin to get hold of Silver, but move slowly to avoid arousing the suspicions of the rest of the crew, but Silver, already on edge tries to disembark onto a longboat. He’s informed by Dufresne that they disembark by seniority, at which point, wanting to avoid capture, he jumps off the boat with a big belly flop, before swimming to the longboat which he is helped into. The crew laugh that he “must really want to get laid”

Mr Scott tuts at Eleanor for coming down late. As she comes down, she pays the Madame for Max and notices her cleaning up bruises on one of the prostitutes. She’s told it was the crew of the Ranger (Charles Vane’s ship) & that Mr Noonan won’t do anything because they paid well. Mr Scott also tells Eleanor it was a bad decision to punch Vane, that it accomplished nothing, and that she can no longer afford to provoke his temper

“Eleanor, you can never forget who these men are. They are not our friends, they are not our subjects, they want your father’s business, that is the only reason we do not find their knives at our throats”

Rackham gets 5000 pesos in pearls to buy the schedule, leaving the Ranger with little in the way of reserves. Vane walks in with Anne and tries to dissuade Jack, pointing out that he has no proof the page is genuine, and for such a big price, the seller has every reason to lie. Jack says that the crew will be unlikely to see Vane’s side, as he hasn’t been able to present an opportunity to them for some time, since his falling out with Eleanor

Silver comes ashore and, seeing Flint, Gates, & Billy close behind in another longboat asks several people on the beach for directions, all to different places. When Gates lands and asks where Silver went, they all give different answers

Max is giving a client a handjob. He wants to have sex, but Eleanor pays for Max to only sleep with her. Just as he’s about to cum, Silver bursts in, and refuses to leave, leading the customer storming off. When he tells Max that Flint is on to him she worries that he will soon come after her, saying “when a man is being fucked, he wants to know whose cock is in him”. They decide they need to do the deal immediately, and sail for Port Royal that night although he wonders if there is something else keeping Max in Nassau

A new captain (James Bridge of the Demeter) has arrived at Eleanor’s warehouse, and he is disappointed to be met by a woman rather than Richard Guthrie. When she tells him she’s his daughter, he dismisses both her and Mr Scott making a racist remark. Eleanor blows past it, explaining her terms. Not liking that she’d take 50%, he walks away only to be met by Charles Vane who strongly implies that, if he doesn’t accept her terms, he (Vane) will steal the Demeter’s cargo and sell it to Eleanor anyway. When Bridge finds out who Vane is, he agrees to Eleanor’s terms. making another racist remark about Mr Scott

Vane and Eleanor get down to business in her office. He sits hunched, spinning a coin anxiously, his body language is completely different from every other time we’ve seen him. He nervously asks for her to start giving him information on potential prizes again, saying he believes her decision not to give him such information is personal, but that things are better when they’re on the same side. Eleanor rails against him for the poor discipline of his crew, saying that they cause twice as much damage as they bring in, and as he encourages it, he’s a poor investment, and that he has just last night interfered with her own plans killing one of Flint’s crew to try and depose him

"From where I sit, you coming in here means one of two things: either you’re under the illusion that with Flint gone I have no choice but to give you what you want, or you think that because you and I used to fuck, you can cross me without any consequences. I’m not sure which of the two is more stupid”

As he leaves, Eleanor walks out into the tavern as Flint arrives, still captain, shocking Vane

Billy finds Gates watching Frasier, the appraiser (below left), trying to explain to would-be forger (below right) why his forgery is worthless. He points out that if Silver sells he’ll need to pay to get off the island and, not wanting to arouse suspicions, will need the money to be easily portable e.g. in jewels like pearls, rathe than gold, and so, the appraiser will be called for. Billy wonders if Flint is going too far, and tells Gates what he said about needing a king

The appraiser gets called away to the brothel, and Billy & Gates see him enter a room guarded by Anne Bonny. He inspects the pearls whilst Silver watches from Idelle’s room next door through a peephole 

Flint tells Eleanor about her father’s attempted arrest and, when she & Mr Scott are extremely concerned about their future (this likely meaning they won’t be able to sell their goods), he begins “let me tell you a story, about a Spaniard named Vasquez”

As Frasier seals the pouch of pearls, and the exchange is fixed at the wrecks after sundown, Vane bursts in, having now heard the story that Singleton stole the page and is now dead. He recognises Max as Eleanor’s new girlfriend, and aggressively accuses her of lying. As Max protests that Singleton isn’t the seller he shoves her against the wall. Silver, still watching asks Idelle (below left) for a weapon, suggesting several items that might be improvised as one, and is surprised when she just hands him a machete

Jack realises that she isn’t lying, Flint is

“She isn’t lying Charles, Flint is. He lost the page.

So what does he do?

He bluffs.

He makes Singleton the thief, and kills him to prevent counterargument, putting a tidy end to his mutiny in the process, and hopes he can recover it before anyone’s the wiser.

What is it Charles? Are we to believe that Singleton, whilst conspiring with you to depose Flint was using this whore to try and bilk your crew out of its money?

Say what you want about Singleton, but he was neither that clever nor that dumb.”

Vane still doesn’t believe Max and lifts her off her feet by her neck. As he does so, Max tries to signal to Silver, but Jack spots this, sneaks up to the peephole and stabs it. He runs round to the next door room which is now empty, but returns with a few drops of blood on his knife saying that, unless Singleton has risen from the grave to eavesdrop, this proves she wasn’t lying about Singleton not being the seller. Vane tells Max that if she’s lying she’ll answer to him, then storms off, leaving her gasping for breath on the floor

Flint has finished telling Eleanor & Mr Scott his story. When he dismisses her concerns about how heavily armed the ship is - a floating castle - she asks, why does he need her help, why not just take the money and run?

“What’s coming our way can’t be outrun, but with the money I strip from the hull, we could add 50 guns to the fort, build ships to defend our shores and train new men to sail them, work the land, grow crops, and raise cattle. Then whoever arrives on our shores first, be it England or Spain will be in for a most unwelcome surprise - a nation of thieves”

Mr Scott laughs at this

“If there’s to be a war, that would be Whitehall’s choice. I’d settle for a pardon, title on lands, and a governor that I could trust, and so would most of the men out there. They’re not animals, Mr Scott; they’re men starved of hope. Give that back to them, who’s to say what could happen”

And Eleanor asks why do this, and why in Nassau to which Flint responds

“Odysseus, on this journey home to Ithaca was visited by a ghost. The ghost tells him that once he reaches his home, once he slays all his enemies, and sets his house in order, he must do one last thing before he can rest. The ghost tells him to pick up an oar, and walk inland, and keep walking until somebody mistakes that oar for a shovel. For that would be the place that no man had ever been troubled by the sea. And that’s where he’d find peace. In the end that’s all I want – to walk away from the sea and find some peace”

Then Gates comes in, tells them they know where Silver is, and that he’s selling through a prostitute. At this, Eleanor seems concerned, presumably for Max

Eleanor goes to the brothel, finding Idelle putting ointment on Max’s injuries as Mr Noon (above centre) complains that “she nearly got herself killed by captain Vane”. Once alone, Max lets Eleanor know she’s about to make a lot of money, but Eleanor interrupts, demanding the schedule. They fight about it, Eleanor calls Nassau “all I have” (which Max takes great offence to, saying she loves her, and that “this place, it is just sand, it cannot love you back”. Gates, Flint, & Billy open the door, and Max realises she has little choice

“I want her to say it. I want her to say that she would sit there and watch as you beat the answer out of me to save this place”

Eleanor stands wordlessly, until Max tells them where the exchange will happen (the wrecks after sundown) and is left alone, crying & betrayed

Jack & vane are on the rocks near the wrecks. It is dark and they’re carrying a torch. We see several fires and, whilst Jack seems afraid, he tells us “there’s nothing in there but opium addicts, lunatics, and men who thought themselves too good to wear a condom” (condoms having become popular in the 18th century)

Silver hides among the rocks, but sends one of the men to Vane for the pearls. Vane shouts for Silver to come out and, when he doesn’t, kills the messenger, again shouting for Silver to come out. Silver sends another man out, who briefly glances at the dead body, before asking for the pearls. At this point, Billy drops down in the distance and shoots at Silver who runs off

Billy chases after Silver, as Jack & Vane try to find him, and Flint moves to cut him off. By hiding in a hollow, Silver escapes Billy and emerges by one of the fires. Putting on a blanket to blend in with the men around it (who appear to be in a stupor), takes the page out to read it, and commits it to memory.

Jack sneaks up to one of the fires and turns one of the men in blankets round. Instead of Silver, it is a severely disfigured man, apparently suffering from tertiary syphilis. This is treated as a jump scare and, as Jack stumbles back, he falls into the water, scattering the pearls, before we see him come back up for air

Flint catches Silver, who reveals that he burnt the page after memorising it, and so Flint cannot hurt him. Meanwhile Vane realises he’s lost him and gives up the chase

Max has decided to leave and, though Idelle tries to persuade her that with Mr Noonan & Eleanor’s men on guard Vane can’t hurt her. Max agrees, but says she still needs to go and, with Idelle distracting them, sneaks out, but is spotted by Anne who follows her

Billy & Gates bring Silver into Eleanor’s tavern where they keep him, with them watching guard, against Mr Scott’s disapproval

We a celebration on the beach. Men are dancing around a fire, there is music, and people stripping off to have sex in the water. Flint rides away inland, to a cottage, where a respectably dressed woman, Mrs Barlow (below) playing a harpsichord welcomes him, she tells him to take off his boots and that she’ll boil some water as he collapses against the door exhausted

[itsomgitsgreenblogging]

Break My Heart: Chapter 8 (A Solangelo Fanfic)

It’s finally here, chapter eight of BMH! The long awaited Capture the Flag showdown, and not only that, but romantic progression! Hurray! I wanted to get this done before I go on vacation. Also, side note, we are about half way through the fic now!

Enjoy! 

Read on Tumblr: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7

Read on AO3

Preview:

“If I didn’t hate him, I would understand why you find him attractive,” Drew said with Will with a sidelong look.

“I do not—” Will said with a suck in of air.

“Oh please, Nico di Angelo is hot. Not as hot as me though no one is hotter than me but, he’s hot. If you’re into MySpace circa 2006 aesthetics,” Drew said with a flip of her hair.

“You’ve got blood all over your face,” Will pointed out.

“And I’m still hotter than everyone else here, what’s your point?”

“I’m telling you, all you’ve got to do is let me handle this,” Clarisse said as she stabbed their second map with her second knife. Chiara from Tyche cabin groaned as she went about looking for another one. “Me and my cabin could beat that motley crew in their sleep.”

               “Oh yeah, Clarisse? Really? Is it really that easy for you?” Conner asked her in a sing-songy tone as Cecil and some of his brothers and sisters cackled behind them. That immediately had Sherman Yang and Ellis Wakefield on them.

               “Listen up!” Lou Ellen said as she stepped over Clovis’ sleeping bag from where it jutted out from underneath the table while Julia from Hermes Cabin kept poking him with a yard stick in time with snores. “Demeter, Hecate, and Hypnos cabin are down with the plan that has us creating diversions. But we need to know where we are going to place the bulk of our forces.”  

               “Mashed…potatoes…” Clovis added from his dreams underneath the table.

               “Uh…yeah, what Clovis said,” Miranda said as she cast a helpless look to Katie who was currently face-palming and shaking her head so adamantly that Will was sure he was going to need to check her for a concussion. Will helped spread their third map onto the table with Chiara’s help.

               “The counselors and longtime members of CHB are pretty familiar with all the routes, so we’re going to need to rely heavily on our senior campers,” Will said to the crowd. “Offense teams, no matter what happens, make sure you keep all of the members of your squad together and protect the camper to your left. Violet, what’s the name of this technique?”

               “Phalanx!” Violet chirped. “Like what Chiron taught us!”

               “Good,” Will said. “The other team is big and brash and if we can make them run into us, what do we do?”

               “Fake retreat, regroup, and then ambush!” called back the rest of his cabin, like any proper Grecian chorus.

               “Ambuscade,” Will said before giving a nod of pride. “Good work.”

               “The only problem is what the best routes are going to be,” noted Clarisse gruffly. “We’re going to need to be mostly responding, so it would be good to know what they are planning.”

“As far as I can see there are two main strategies that they could try,” Nico said as he tapped the map thoughtfully. He had been hanging back and observing the controlled chaos, but to Will’s surprise he finally decided to speak up. “They are either going to put Percy on defense and Jason on offense, or use both Percy and Jason on offense”

               “What makes you say that?” Katie asked curiously.

               “Well, they both have the most devastating attacks. But Percy, though he is a great swordsman, is going to be the most powerful by the river. And the river cuts the forest through the middle, so he could theoretically lead the charge to the river or stay there independently as the first line of defense. Jason can fly and is powerful anywhere so he’ll be offense, Annabeth won’t waste that. She might do a number of different other things with her team, but it’ll be based around those two.”

               “Iris cabin,” Lou Ellen suddenly burst out before giving a rueful grin. “They were working on a watch with a prism in it that can put off a rainbow. They can use it for short distance communication.”

               “Jason will fly and scout, and give Annabeth intel so that they can move their team,” Travis said with an appreciative nod. “What do we do in response?”

               The rest of the meeting was spent cobbling together some kind of strategy. It was almost nice, Will thought, as Clarisse threatened Travis’ life with a sharpened #2 pencil. It had been a while since they had a Capture the Flag, and though he knew he might regret it, seeing everyone pumped up for a game was so much nicer then coming up with actual battle strategies (like the ones they had desperately tried to come up with in the face of the insurmountable armies of the Roman Legion). After their planning session everyone went their separate ways, to attempt to get some sleep before the big day.

               “Make sure you get some shut eye,” Cecil told him as he ruffled his hair, ducking away as Well attempted to swat at him.  

               “I’ll try, you too,” Will said before looking to Lou Ellen. “Don’t stay up to late, okay?”

               “We’ll try.”

               Will turned to walk towards his cabin, thinking about strategies and another pressing issue he was having—

               “Will?”

               Will jumped and whirled around, seeing Nico standing behind him. His heart was pounding in his ears and he clutched his chest as he attempted to gather himself.

               “Holy Hera, Nico! Don’t just sneak up behind me,” Will said as he tried to speak over his racing pulse.

               “Sorry, I’ve been told I sort of disappear in the dark,” Nico said absently before shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans and slouching into his black hoodie which was about two sizes too big. “I just wanted to talk to you, about tomorrow?”

               “What about tomorrow?” Will asked him.

               “I want to stay with you—”

               —Will rocked back on his heels. Will’s brain immediately was set to Full Fantasy Frequency and took Nico’s words and applied them ten million different ways including Nico saying that to Will while they were gliding through the sky on a magic carpet singing Disney showtunes—

               “—during the game.” Nico qualified. Will wasn’t sure if felt disappointed or relieved, but definitely only one of those feelings was appropriate for the being-friends situation thing that was currently Will’s problem. Gods knew Will had been trying, but it was hard to know what lines he had to be wary of. He knew he shouldn’t even be wary of lines if Will really thought of Nico as only his friend and he was getting exhausted of it. 

               “Oh? Why?” Will asked, trying to get back on track.

               “Well, all of the Seven who were on the quest besides me who remain at Camp Half-Blood are on Team Aphrodite,” Nico explained, and as he explained Will suddenly felt silly for putting on such a childish filter over his thoughts of him. Standing next to Will, Nico was suddenly gaining a height and purpose he hadn’t seen out of the generally morose Nico since the battle. Here was a prince and a general and a warrior wrapped in one, why would Nico be worried about Will in the way Will was about Nico when he was so obviously out of Will’s league? “Though you’ve seemed to have forgotten, Piper is an accomplished warrior and strategist in her own right. Though Annabeth is surely helping her, Piper will be in charge of this group, and beside her is Drew who has a grudge and charmspeak. There’ll be people after you in this game. It’ll be best if I stay with you.”

               “Even though you can’t use your powers? You still want to guard me?” Will asked, feeling oddly touched by the display of concern.

               “Don’t go mushy on me, Solace. I’m just doing my duty as a member of this team to make sure that we don’t get our collective butts kicked,” Nico said as he waved him off. “Besides, who knows, maybe Percy and Jason will end up fighting each other and won’t even come near you.”

               “Yeah, what is that about? Their bro-ness tends to be off the charts but put them in an arena and they are at each other’s throats.”

               “It’s a Big Three thing,” Nico said vaguely.

               “You don’t ever seem like you want to butt heads with them. Neither does Hazel, if I remember right,” Will pointed out to Nico as they walked together. Nico just heaved a heavy sigh as if he were deep in thought.

               “It’s hard to explain…but sometimes they annoy me so much I want to stab them through the eye socket with an icepick until I can toast their brains en brochette,” Nico said as he swatted at a few stray curls as if they were bothersome thoughts before turning his attention to Will. “Is that normal?”

               “I mean…are you asking me if homicidal tendencies are normal because boy howdy I have something to tell you—“

               “Anyways,” Nico said, cutting him off. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s like, a calling in your blood…deeper than that, like it’s hardwired in your nature. I personally…usually…sometimes have nothing against Percy and Jason, but because of our dads and their histories it’s like written into us to be antagonistic to each other. Usually I can control it, obviously because I’m better then them in every conceivable way, but I’m also used to thinking of my nature as destructive so…”

               “Hey,” Will said, stopping him and grabbing his arm. “Don’t.”

               “What?” Nico asked him, caught off guard, staring between Will and his hand as if he couldn’t quite believe that wither were in front of him.

               “Don’t think of yourself as destructive. You aren’t.”

               “Will, seriously,” Nico asked with a laugh that was hard and bitter, shrugging off Will’s touch easily. “You don’t know the half of it.”

               “Well just know that I don’t think that’s true. I’ll never think that about you,” Will promised him firmly. “No matter what.”

               “I think you are the only person who would ever think that way about a son of Hades,” Nico said he brushed past Will and walked ahead of him. He sounded utterly incredulous, and Will just smiled and knotted his hands behind his head.

               “I don’t mind if I am. I’m contrary like that,” Will said with a smile, that he hoped Nico felt. Will wasn’t sure he did as they walked in their own directions.

               “INCOMING!!”

               Billie Ng managed to get a oak tree to flip up a branch in order to reflect an oncoming cannonball that was filled with Nemesis Cabin specialty Revenge Mix, which was essentially what happened when you put a pungent combination of herbs, rotten eggs, BO, and regret in a blender. All five of their party mostly managed to get out of the way with a well-placed dive, but all of them looked up to the sky as if it held more danger then could be conceivably imagined.

               “What the hell does everyone have against cilantro,” Nico said with a disgusted shake of his head as they walked forward.

               “It taste like dish soap!” Cecil said in reply before groaning and rubbing his shoe into the ground. “I think some of it got on my shoes.”

               Chiara, who of course, luckily was upwind from the scent pressed on muttering things in both English and Italian about the horrible things she was going to do to Damien White when she got her very well-manicured fingers on him. Nico snorted in appreciation of Ciara’s obviously colorful vocabulary.

               The game was mostly at a standstill. Hecate, Demeter, and Hypnos cabin had done a fantastic job of creating a confusing labyrinth of mist and plants for anyone attempting to get their flag. However, it had almost worked too well. According to Travis, who had been set free by Ellis before Ellis had been taken down kicking and screaming by Sebastian with a flame thrower and nail polish remover, they had figured out their regroup-and-proceed strategy and instead decided to pull out Harley’s catapults and begin a siege to wear out the magic users. Percy was guarding the river and was fending off their main forces with Athena and Nike warriors, while Jason was seemingly spotting for the catapults.

               Currently Will and his mishmashed group of demigods were attempting to sneak to the jail where most of the Ares Cabin were now probably seething in captivity. They had unfortunately broken off from formation and gone after Percy full bore, leaving most of them water logged and unarmed. Release Ares, and go for a full attack on the flag was the plan at the moment. It wasn’t necessarily a great plan, but it was a plan nonetheless and they were committed it.

               “I’m really not looking forward to the infirmary after this,” Will muttered mostly to himself as he looked at the general chaos ahead of them. “It’s going to be crazy.”

               “Hey, at least it can’t get any worse. Probably,” Cecil pointed out to him. “And I feel comfortable saying that because Chiara’s here and she’s basically a lucky charm. Except minus the rainbow marshmallows.”

               “Please, spare me. As if I haven’t heard one before,” Chiara grumbled under her breath.

They made it over the ridge and had a fairly decent view of the jail below.  Will couldn’t help but grimace. There was Paolo Montes next to Drew, who was obviously attempt to flirt with Paolo (though who knew how much was getting through the language barrier). Heather from Iris Cabin was playing with a knife and was standing next to Valentina who kept sneaking glances towards Paolo and Drew while Damian seethed and barked responses to the insults that Clarisse and the crew were yelling at him.

“I could pop into the shadow and kill them,” Nico offered.

“No, you don’t,” Will hissed.

“Yeah, dude. You would get no dessert for a whole week,” Cecil said with a shake of his head.

“There’s something wrong with you guys,” Billie said with a groan. Will watched as Damien reached over to wrap his arm around Valentina’s waist--

“DAMIEN YOU SON OF A CYCLOPS GET OVER HERE I’M GOING TO MURDER YOU!” Chiara screamed before sliding down the ridge and running with sword raised. Heather went running. Damien went stark white and Valentina screamed as Ares kids hollered in appreciation of Chiara’s murderous intent.

“IMPROVISE!” Cecil shouted in response, sliding in behind her and throwing a smoke bomb.

“I hate all of your friends!” Nico snapped at Will  as he pulled out the steel sword he was carrying before jumping down to join the fray. Billie’s hand went out and Lacey screamed as suddenly a maple tree decided to grab her by the roots.

Will stood up and aimed his bow, almost at the very moment that Drew whirled around to look at him. Will wasn’t great at the bow, unlike Kayla or some of his older siblings he didn’t have the gift. But there was something to be said about general aiming.  His arrow went flying and hit Drew’s armor with a loud thump, sending her flying back on her butt. Immediately after she was sent toppling over again when Valentina got slapped so hard by Chiara that she went flying and tripping over Drew.

Nico was currently parrying Damien, until suddenly Nico disarmed Damien and sent him flying. Paolo was screaming as a bush began spitting prickers at him while Billie Ng kept Lacy up in the tree, and Cecil reached out his leg to trip him and sent him into a tree trunk.

“Will watch out!” Sherman Yang yelled and Will whirled around only to see Drew lunging at him with a dagger raised--

Nico, in one fluid motion, got in front of Will, pulled back his fist, and punched Drew in the face. There was a crack and Drew’s head snapped back as she fell back on the ground hard. Blood spurted out from Drew’s face as she numbly held up her hand to it.

“He just broke my nose!” Drew screamed. “You just broke my nose!”

“Gods-damned right I did,” Nico told her as he shook out his hand before holding up his fist. “Want to try that sneak attack again? Because trust me, there are plenty of other things I can break in your face and I would be pleased to give you another demonstration.”  

“Damn, di Angelo. Nice work!” Clarisse said as she and the Ares kids got out of the jail. Will bent by Drew with his first aid pack and pulled out a wad of gauze after putting on gloves. Drew glared at him from over watering eyes, and if she could she would have turned her nose up at him.

“Drew, come on,” Will told her, continuing to hold out the gauze.

“He broke my nose.”

“Well, you also tried to stab me.”

“Because you shot an arrow at me!”

“Due to the fact you did something shitty to me by going out with me just to break my heart and we’re in the middle of a CTF match. I think we’re even now,” Will said with a sigh. “Now, will you let me stop the bleeding?”

Drew frowned, but conceded, and staunched the bleeding as Will gently eased bone back and gave a soothing wash of power to begin clotting and healing. Will pulled off his gloves and put them in his little trash bag.

“You’re stupidly nice,” Drew huffed. “To the point that it disgusts me.”

“Someone needs to be,” Will said as he helped Drew up. Will cast a look over to where Ares Cabin was directing some of his group members on how to bring the new prisoners back to their own jail. Nico met Will’s gaze, gave a glare to Drew, before returning to guard the exchange.

“If I didn’t hate him, I would understand why you find him attractive,” Drew said with Will with a sidelong look.

“I do not—” Will said with a suck in of air.

“Oh please, Nico di Angelo is hot. Not as hot as me though no one is hotter than me but, he’s hot. If you’re into MySpace circa 2006 aesthetics,” Drew said with a flip of her hair.

“You’ve got blood all over your face,” Will pointed out.

“And I’m still hotter than everyone else here, what’s your point?”

“Go get checked for a concussion, Drew,” Will told her with a scoff.

“Whatever, Solace, whatever. But take some advice from me? It won’t be long until everyone else realizes that di Angelo’s a little hottie when they stop being spooked by him. You might want to make that move you’ve been wanting to make,” Drew said as she sauntered off to join the other prisoners.

What?

Move? What move? Will wanted to make a move? No he certainly did not want to make a move! Will thought as his mind raced. He didn’t want to make a move. Not when Nico moved in front of him to protect him, not when Nico showed his shy smile, not when he revealed his weird sense of humor, not when the weight of Nico was on top of him the hay pile and the scent of his shampoo was seared in his brain, not when his “I want to stay with you” that made his heart do funny flips.

Aw, Hades! Hades, Hades, Hades! He totally did want to make a move! Will was totally falling in love with Nico like some kind of idiot, even though he already knew it was going to end on a dock in the fall with his heart broken! How could he let that happen—?

“OH MY GODS HELP!” came a scream that sounded very close, as did the sound of lightning striking and a sudden explosion.

“Don’t let her get away!” Annabeth Chase’s voice came.

“Alice!” Cecil gasped and suddenly veered towards the direction of the noise. Everyone was moving before any more questions could be asked, and they burst out on a trail as Alice Miyazawa sprinted with the red flag. Jason was flying above as Annabeth and the main Athena force was shouting and on her tail, along with Nyssa who was on Jake Mason’s back as she kept firing Greek Fire with what looked like a grenade launcher.

“Alice, pass!” Will shouted she slapped the flag in his hand he turn and ran before casting one final glance back. “Clarisse!”

“On it! Ares Cabin, to me! di Angelo, go with Solace!” Clarisse barked out as she held up her spear.

There was the sound of chaos behind them but Will didn’t look as he sprinted ahead. Nico kept up with him mostly, huffing. They tore through the forest together, however when they burst out by the river Will gasped as suddenly Nico pulled him over by the shirt hard. A wave smashed and receded, and Percy Jackson grinned and waved.

“Hey guys! Sorry, but I can’t let you past!” Percy said as he uncapped Riptide and gave a bright excited grin. “Otherwise Annabeth would kill me.”

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll save something for her,” Nico said with a savage looking smirk as he unsheathed his sword. “Will, stay behind me.”

“How about no way,” Will said as he threw a throwing knife he kept in his pack. Will was majorly off, but Percy still yelped and ducked, and Nico charged forward to take advantage of Percy’s surprise. Their swords clashed so hard that sparks bounced across the edge. Percy pushed Nico back on the ground with his superior strength, but before he could jab him Nico rolled and kicked at Percy’s legs. Nico was up to meet, one, two more hits as Will slide across the mud and--

Will yelped as suddenly Nico’s leg roundhouse kicked him. Will was sent sliding across the rocks and half way through the river.  Percy swore and Will felt the water attempt to drag him back, but then suddenly the water let go. Will hurtled over the edge with the momentum, and cleared the side of the water.

Will looked up in shock, as did Nico who was currently pinning Percy underneath him, as he must have slide tackled him. Both of them were covered in mud, and Percy gave a defeated sigh as attempted to shake his mud covered hair out of his face.

“Gods damn it, there goes my blue M&Ms.”  

The horn blew and Chiron appeared and grinned right at Will.  

“Winner, Team Apollo!”

As Will had predicted, the infirmary was full after the rather rough game of Capture the Flag. Paolo needed to get prickers pulled out of a good portion of his skin, Clovis had some major bruising after he had been unceremoniously tossed out of his hammock by the Victor siblings, Pollux who had been with Aphrodite Cabin had gotten pretty badly burned by a splash of fire, Harley had broken his leg after tripping over Clovis and falling down a ditch, Kayla had gotten jabbed in the leg by a spear, and Piper was currently laying in a bed after getting body checked by Clarisse and having her arm and clavicle smashed. And that was all besides the minor bumps, bruises, and scrapes that needed tending.  

“Quite the game,” Piper said, looking uncharacteristically pale. Jason sat by her bed, as immovable as a stone statue as he had been since Will had put the bones back in place.

“If I had been there…” Jason murmured but Piper shook her head gingerly.

“It’s okay, it’s the name of the game,” Piper said before swallowing. “Though I’m certainly not feeling good.”

“Nectar and ambrosia,” Will said as he gave the measured amounts to her. Jason lifted both for her to take sips and bites. “Let me see?”

Piper slowly offered her arm and Will went about his healing as he usually did. He kept it light and brief because he knew he needed to conserve. He helped bones begin to mend alongside the food and the drink of the Gods. After he did so and pulled away, Piper’s face had some color to it and she didn’t look like she was about to vomit.

“I can give you a sling and you can go, or feel free to rest here,” Will told her.

“I’ll take a sling and empty out the bed,” Piper said as Will helped her get into it.

“Is there anything I should do?” Jason asked fretfully.

“Just breathe,” Piper said with an impossibly sweet smile, that seemingly melted Jason like a freezepop in the Texas heat. She took Jason’s hand and Will’s aid, and suddenly leaned over. Piper’s eyes caught his, shifting in a margin between green and grey. “You might want to give Nico some attention, he’s looking kind of lonely.”

Will tried to splutter out a response, but it didn’t come as Piper breezed out with a laugh (followed by a clueless but bemused Jason Grace). Will looked over, his cheeks warm, only to find a freshly bathed Nico standing awkwardly.

“I’m here...since you said you could sometimes use help here, I figured now might be good,” Nico said quietly.

“Now is absolutely good, Nico,” Will told him. “Come with me?”

Nico followed him dutifully to where Kayla was laying on her side, while Violet and Emma snickered over the stitches they were doing. With a flick both of his siblings went to attend to other things, while Kayla just frowned at him.

“I’m fine!” Kayla said and Will just rolled his eyes.

“Nico do me a favor and hold the gauze against where the stitches are so I can wrap this?”

“Sure,” Nico said before doing just as well said, ignoring Kayla’s complaints that his “hands were too cold”. Will worked on wrapping Kayla’s leg with practiced motions.

“I never thanked you, you basically won us the match,” Will pointed out as he saddled next to Nico.

“No, that was you,” Nico said, keeping his gaze down.

If he looks up, I’ll give it a chance, Will promised himself. If there’s really something there worth changing fate about, I’ll try.

Will’s fingers brushed against Nico’s and Nico looked up, eyes wide. Their gazes held and Will swore there was electricity moving in the air between them, so much so that Will had the desire to go ask if Jason was still in the room. Will swallowed heavily around his heart in his throat before saying,

“Uh, move your hand?”

Nico jerked, looking flushed and slightly embarrassed and Will finished up without any of the practiced grace. Will offered Nico a small smile, one that Nico reflected.

“Idiots,” Kayla huffed as she lay down heavily.