#she was under way too much stress even if they both lived together at chb

[arch-dieangelo]

I KNOW IT’S SELFISH, BUT I WANTED MY OWN LIFE

¹ the ti.tan’s curse, rick r.iordan   ² the bad beginning, lemony snicket   ³ the ti.tan’s curse, r.ick ri.ordan   ⁴ jane mersky leder   ⁵ the battle of the labyr.inth, ri.ck rio.rdan   ⁶ always gold, radical face

[mvndrvke-archive]

ON NICO’S CANON DIVERGENCE....

so while writing up nico’s bio and about page, i realized how much i changed around in his life and personality from the books, etc. when it comes to little things that at least in my interpretation significantly shape nico as a person. SO this is basically a list of things that i’ve changed or brought more attention to. feel free to read it if you’d like, i’m going to link this on his about page for reference, but it’s also terrifyingly long so by no means feel obligated to read it. it’s split into five sections-- nico’s timeline, nico’s motivations, nico’s fears, nico’s powers, and the rules of mythomagic.  see tags for triggers. 

i’ve also put it under a read more because it’s so freakin long. oops. 

NICO’S NEGLECTED TIMELINE.

i. CHILDHOOD IN ITALY and AMERICA : nico is italian. he grew up in italy. his first language is italian. until he was about nine years old, he lived in italy with his mother and bianca, and hades was actually a semi-present person in his life in his very young years at least. he gets his memories wiped in the river lethe, though some things seem to have remained. the fact that hades has nico and bianca’s memories wiped really, REALLY upsets nico when he finds out what’s happened, and threatens his relationship to hades severely. especially when he finds out what happened to maria ( aka zeus killed her when he was trying to kill bianca and nico, and hades was unable to save both maria and his children ), it becomes incredibly important to him to find a way to remember as much as he can about his history, or at least learn about it. hades fills in some of the gaps, and a fair chunk of his memories are restored, and the rest is partially filled in by doing old fashioned research. discovering more about his family and reconnecting himself to his italian roots is incredibly important to nico-- he’s lost his mother and bianca already at this point, so this is the closest he can get to feeling close to them again. 

ii. TIME IN THE LABYRINTH : nico learns a lot in the labyrinth from king minos, and that’s kind of the problem. nico is a really, really young kid at this point ( bianca died at i think 12 years old, so nico is probably in the 10-11 years old range at the time. rick’s given some conflicting reports about nico’s specific age, which makes it really hard to figure out exactly how old he is. we just know he’s the same age as will solace in modern time-- in my canon, nico is 12ish. see my post about his timeline here. ) and all of a sudden he finds himself lost in the labyrinth where his only guide is minos. that’s it. no one else. minos teaches him how to shadow travel, and nico’s pretty much locked in the labyrinth with nothing else to do but work on understanding and strengthening his powers. by the time he’s reunited with percy in daedalus’ workshop, his powers are pretty strong. he’s able to create enough of a distraction that they can escape kronos briefly, so he’s pretty powerful even for a kid his age. 

the time in the labyrinth is critical to his growth, but also really disturbing. minos encourages nico’s obsession with strengthening his powers, and that mentality really sticks with nico for an uncomfortably long time after he’s left the labyrinth. he then makes the choice to go back into the labyrinth multiple times. the fact that he’s more comfortable wandering around the labyrinth than staying at camp speaks volumes about who nico is as a person, and can’t be emphasized enough in its importance when it comes to the growth of nico’s powers and the increase in his desire for isolation. 

iii. TIME IN TARTARUS : long story short, nico’s time in tartarus fucks him up. a constant barrage of psychological, mental, and emotional torment knocks him back to a point where he’s just about lost his mind completely by the time he’s captured and removed from tartarus. in my version of nico, at least, he’s barely got a grasp on who he is by the time gaea’s forces catch him. his time in tartarus drags all of his bad memories and losses right up to the front of his mind, and he really goes above and beyond the extreme to stay alive. the greatly debated timeline of events for the pjo/hoo series says that nico is in tartarus for about twelve days before being put in the jar for three. however, i disagree with this estimate strongly. percy and annabeth are trapped in tartarus for eighteen days according to the timeline, and while yes, them being in tartarus together rather than alone allows them to keep their sanity longer than it would if they were just on their own, it’s stated that as a child of hades, nico is probably more resilient when it comes to the effects of tartarus. we also know from his interaction with akhlys that some of tartarus’ “foes” don’t have as much of an effect on nico as they do on others. akhlys says there’s not much she can do to him when she meets him, because he’s already so miserable, her powers are limited in their usefulness. so my guess is that nico was in there for about a month or so before being removed by gaea’s sons and placed in the bronze jar. but point is that nico’s time in tartarus is wildly disturbing and contributes to a lot of his fears, which are touched on below. nico’s time in tartarus is central to who he is as a character the way i write him, and while he hates talking about it, it’s something he thinks about a lot everyday. 

NICO’S MOTIVATIONS.

i. TRAUMA OVER LOSING BIANCA : i haven’t changed much from canon for this but i will say this one thing-- bianca was the last person for years to say that she loved nico. no one told him, no one said anything, no one expressed that they really truly cared about him for a disturbingly long time. i touch on how this impacts nico’s feelings towards percy below but in my interpretation, nico kind of just.... forgets that people can/do love him. at least in my verse of things, probably the first person that’s told him that they love him since before bianca died was will solace, and the realization that since bianca, there hasn’t been a single person alive that loved him really seriously rattles and damages him. it’s bittersweet being told that people love him, because while it’s important to him, it’s also jarring to look back and think that for a long time, no one did at all. 

ii. FEELINGS FOR PERCY : yes, a lot of nico’s actions are driven by his complicated feelings for percy. rick definitely touched on that a lot more in the later books after we find out that nico is gay, and we saw a lot of reasoning for nico’s actions come into focus in this new lens when it came to looking at who nico is as a person. there’s the really great ( for showing nico’s feelings, the scene itself is horrific and terrible ) scene in house of hades that i’m gonna quote even though it’s long, but--

     Images flashed through [ Jason’s ] mind. He saw Nico and his sister on a snowy cliff in Maine, Percy Jackson protecting them from a manticore. Percy’s sword gleamed in the dark. He’d been the first demigod Nico had ever seen in action.       Later, at Camp Half-Blood, Percy took Nico by the arm, promising to keep his sister Bianca safe. Nico believed him. Nico looked into his sea-green eyes and thought, How can he possibly fail? This is a real hero. He was Nico’s favorite game, Mythomagic, brought to life.       Jason saw the moment when Percy returned and told Nico that Bianca was dead. Nico had screamed and called him a liar. He’d felt betrayed, but still... when the skeleton warriors attacked, he couldn’t let them harm Percy. Nico had called on the earth to swallow them up, and then he’d run away-- terrified of his own powers, and his own emotions.

- The House of Hades

we can see really clearly nico’s crush on percy forming during even his earliest interactions with percy, and while i strongly disagree that nico understood his feelings when he first ran from camp ( see below section about nico’s sexuality ), he does come to understand them later on, and responds to those feelings by avoiding getting emotionally attached or reliant on anyone, including the rest of campers at chb, the main gang, etc. it’s true that his feelings for percy dictate a lot of his actions, both in service of percy’s causes and in relation to how he acts around percy and those close to him ( like annabeth ). however, i cannot stress enough that NONE OF NICO’S ACTIONS IN MY VERSION OF HIM ARE DRIVEN BY HIS DESIRE TO GET PERCY TO LOVE HIM BACK. canon says these are his motivations outright with the quote : 

“An idea came to him-- possibly the stupidest, craziest idea he’d had since he thought, hey, I’ll get Percy to swim in the River Styx! He’ll love me for that!” 

- The Blood of Olympus

i think this does nico a huge disservice. while yes, i maintain that nico’s feelings for percy influenced a lot of his behavior and played a major role in his actions, none of the things he did were done with the hopes of getting percy to love him back. nico is mad at percy and blames him for bianca’s death-- he’s not going to be trying to show percy that he’s worth loving. he’s got nothing to make up for or prove. him trying to show off repeatedly by nearly killing himself on multiple occasions overexerting himself while using his powers to help or protect percy-- getting percy to bathe in the river styx, coming to his aid at multiple battles, trying to save him from falling into tartarus-- don’t scream “please love me back” to me. 

in fact, i think it’s really fucked up to put that on nico and his relationship to percy. i’ll probably do a whole meta on this at some point too because i’m really mad about this in the books but the way that rick set up nico’s relation to percy with him trying to get percy to love him back is so wildly unhealthy that it’s disturbing. no. it weakens nico as a person and as a character and makes him seem pathetic, just sadly trailing along after percy and doing whatever percy wants / needs because he just wants him to like him back. nope. i ain’t playin this shit, and let me tell you what the better narrative is-- 

people do crazy things to protect the people that they love, and nico’s reasoning for all of the crazy stuff he did to protect percy was based on his feelings for him and wanting to keep him safe, even if he is with someone else. that doesn’t stop him from being jealous and even a little resentful of percy’s relationship with annabeth, but he’s not running around trying to get rid of annabeth so he can win percy. that’s not who he is, and that’s never been who he is. so again, i’m gonna stress that nico is NOT motivated by his desire to get percy to love him back, but rather by the fact that he loves percy enough to put his life and safety on the line for him. 

iii. ANXIETY : my version of nico focuses A LOT on anxiety. nico’s life has, to put it simply, been a nightmare and a half, which ultimately leads to him having a lot of issues with things like self image, his ability to connect with other people, etc. so my version of nico really runs with that, especially in just his day-to-day life. 

now, he’s clearly fucking around in this scene, but--

     “Nico,” I said at last, “shouldn’t you be sitting at the Hades table?”      He shrugged. “Technically, yes. But if I sit alone at my table, strange things happen. Cracks open in the floor. Zombies crawl out and start roaming around. It’s a mood disorder. I can’t control it. That’s what I told Chiron.”      “And is it true?” I asked.       Nico smiled thinly. “I have a note from my doctor.”       Will raised his hand. “I’m his doctor.”

- The Hidden Oracle

now this is a cute giggle scene that i’ll call back to in the next section for other reasons, but nico has up to this point been a hardcore loner. being at camp and around other campers has consistently made him uncomfortable up until blood of olympus, so him making not just a little effort but a whole thing out of it so he doesn’t have to sit alone is what i’m focused on, and why the thought of people disliking him, etc. fuels a lot of his behavior. he’s working on getting over it in the hidden oracle, but he’s still got a long way to go. 

in my version of nico, his anxiety is more heavily connected to his phobikinesis, aka his ability to radiate the feelings of fear and death, which is something he inherited from hades. nico frequently uses this in battle as we see, but in just normal life, it shows up a lot more. one of nico’s powers basically lets him kill plant life around him, but when he is especially anxious, angry, or upset, the same happens. a large chunk of people being freaked out by him in the earlier days is because he’s, well, the son of hades, but it’s also his own anxieties getting literally projected onto other people, who then show the same discomfort he’s afraid of them showing. while he’s clearly using this as an excuse to get what he wants in the hidden oracle segment, it is a genuine problem for him, and i don’t think chiron would’ve allowed it if he thought nico was just fucking around. there’s something real behind it that i don’t think we should ignore, so for my version of nico, at least, it’s very real and has seriously changed his life because of how people see him and behave around him. 

nico’s anxiety plays into some of his other powers as well. i touch on this later with nico’s “mood disorder”, as he calls it, which he uses to get it so chiron will let him sit at the apollo table during meals, but nico is able to kill things around him with pure anxiety. in house of hades--

     Nico braced himself against a column, his legs trembling visibly.      “Hey, man...” Jason stepped toward him, but Nico waved him off.      At Nico’s feet, the grass turned brown and wilted. The dead patch spread outward, as if poison were seeping from the soles of his shoes.

- The House of Hades

i talk more about this scene later on when it comes to nico’s fears, but nico’s nervousness, shame, sadness, anger, and fear are all connected to how this power manifests itself, and it’s a serious problem for him that he’s never really had to get under control until he starts spending time with more people, i.e. after blood of olympus.

iv. JEALOUSY : i’m not going to expand on this much but nico is a wildly jealous person, which we see multiple times throughout the series. he’s petty and jealous, that’s about it. i don’t think it gets emphasized enough that he feels these emotions, especially as strongly as he does.

NICO’S WORST FEARS.

i. THE DARK : nico spent a disturbingly long amount of time in tartarus. as a child of hades, he claims that darkness never bothered him before-- 

“I am the son of Hades. I go where I wish. The darkness is my birthright.”

- The Blood of Olympus

--but i disagree when he says this doesn’t bother him at all. not only is nico an incredibly proud individual, he’s kind of an Extra kid that puts on a tough face whenever he feels even vaguely doubted or threatened. he could easily just be bullshitting here so he can do what he wants rather than admitting he’s afraid. my interpretation of nico’s fear of the dark comes initially from the lines--

This did not seem to reassure Nico.  “I don’t like being in the dark,” he muttered.  An odd complaint for a child of Hades, but I understood...

- The Hidden Oracle

while he’s admittedly not talking specifically about nico’s fear of the dark, the fact that apollo finds it weird for a child of hades to complain about the dark when nico said literally one book ago that the darkness is his “birthright” sparked the idea. especially when it comes to not just nico’s time in tartarus, but the time he was trapped in the jar by gaea’s sons, it’s not an illogical conclusion to say that he has at least an acute phobia of the dark. 

ii. CONFINED SPACES : like his fear of the dark, nico’s fear of confined spaces comes from his time in the bronze jar. once he’s captured by gaea’s forces, they drop him in the jar and take him out of tartarus. he’s got limited oxygen in there and needs to go into a death trance just to keep himself alive. at this point, he’s been in the dark for so long, being trapped in pretty much complete darkness in a closed space where he’s slowly running out of oxygen isn’t exactly relaxing, especially after he’s been stumbling around in tartarus and then captured. this basically just means that he gets antsy in closed spaces and big crowds where he doesn’t have his own personal space. he likes hades cabin because he’s usually the only one there, and he can keep it however he wants. i fully believe that after returning to and deciding to officially stay at camp, he gets a little more light in there, changes up his little coffin bed, and keeps lights on at pretty much all times, even if it’s just greek fire or something. complete darkness is something nico only does when it comes to shadow travel. 

iii. HIS SEXUALITY / BEING OUTED : cupid pretty much making nico admit that he’s gay in front of jason nearly breaks nico. we see him when he’s trying to still keep his feelings for percy private, he goes so far to try and keep that to himself. we also need to consider how angry/upset nico gets when cupid tries to out him. i mentioned him killing the grass in my section about nico’s anxiety, but nico shows off the full force of his power. i’m gonna quote a few chunks of this part from house of hades, but--

     “Nico,” [ Jason ] called, “what does this guy want from you?”      ‘Tell him, Nico di Angelo,’ Cupid said. ‘Tell him the real reason you ran from Camp Half-Blood, and why you are always alone.’      Nico let loose a guttural scream. The ground at his feet split open and skeletons crawled forth-- dead Romans with missing hands and caved-in skulls, cracked ribs, and jaws unhinged [ ... ]      ‘Will you hide among the dead, as you always do?’ Cupid taunted.       Waves of darkness rolled off the son of Hades. When they hit Jason, he almost lost consciousness-- overwhelmed by hatred and fear and shame...

- House of Hades

nico legit summons a mini army of the dead to attack cupid so he can try to avoid admitting he’s in love with percy ( or was, he claims that he’s over it later in the chapter, but personally i don’t think it is ), and if that ain’t an overreaction to someone trying to get you to admit you’ve got a crush, i don’t know what is. then, when we get to the part where nico ACTUALLY admits it, he’s overwhelmed with a wide variety of negative emotions. one more time--

     'Stop hiding,’ Cupid said [ ... ] ‘You do not have the strength.’      “Nico,” Jason managed to say, “it’s okay. I get it.”      Nico glanced over, pain and misery washing across his face.      “No, you don’t,” he said. “There’s no way you can understand.”      ‘And so you run away again,’ Cupid chihded. ‘From your friends, from yourself.’      “I don’t have friends!” Nico yelled. “I left Camp Half-Blood because I didn’t belong! I’ll never belong!”

[ ... ] Nico’s voice was like broken glass. “I--I wasn’t in love with Annabeth.”      “You were jealous of her,” Jason said. “That’s why you didn’t want to be around her. Especially why you didn’t want to be around... him. It makes total sense.”      All the fight and denial seemed to go out of Nico at once. The darkness subsided. The Roman dead collapsed into bones and crumbled to dust.      “I hated myself,” Nico said. “I hated Percy Jackson.”

[ ... ]

“I had a crush on Percy,” Nico spat. “That’s the truth. That’s the big secret.”  He glared at Cupid. “Happy now?”

- The House of Hades

he’s embarrassed, and ashamed, and when jason tells him it’s fine, he snaps at him-- 

"Just who I am... Easy for you to say. [ ... ] The only person who ever accepted me was Bianca, and she died! I didn't choose any of this. My father, my feelings..."

i fully believe that part of nico’s fear of coming out is based on the era he was raised in as a child. it’s not clear ( though it’s at least somewhat implied in the above lines ) that he ever got a chance to come out to bianca, but i don’t think he did. while nico’s friends are all cool with it when he does come out to them, the 1930s-1940s were a tense time with the rise of italian fascism and the lead up to world war ii, but all in all, it didn’t create a super safe environment for nico to even consider his sexuality in. especially once italy allied itself with nazi germany, nico’s sexuality would’ve been not only something he considered shameful, but something that he could’ve gotten killed for under the mussolini regime in italy. though he and his family left italy in the 1940s and came to america, at that point, the mentality had sunk in. not everyone struggling with understanding their sexuality knows from a very young age that they’re not straight, and i think that nico would be discouraged from even beginning to understand that side of himself until after bianca died. having missed that opportunity to come out to his family ( with the exception of hades, who’s just kinda “i’m fine with it as long as you stop talking to me about percy jackson and how cool he is” about it ) made him reluctant to share his secret with anyone else, especially when he’s been raised in an environment where that was shameful. one more quote from house of hades, but-- 

     Nico [ ... ] regarded Jason, as if waiting for an attack. “If the others found out--”      “If the others found out,” Jason said, “you’d have that many more people to back you up [ ... ].”      Nico scowled. Jason still felt the resentment and anger rippling off of him.  [ ... ]      “I don’t feel that way anymore,” Nico muttered. “I mean, I gave up on Percy. I was young and impressionable, and I-- I don’t...”      His voice cracked, and Jason could tell the guy was about to get teary-eyed. Whether Nico had really given up on Percy or not, Jason couldn’t imagine what it had been like for Nico all those years, keeping a secret that would’ve been unthinkable to share in the 1940s, denying who he was, feeling completely alone-- even more isolated than other demigods.

- The House of Hades

nico panics and almost bursts into tears at the thought of jason telling anyone. jason ultimately keeps his secret until nico’s ready to come out ( though it’s my firm belief that nico doesn’t come out to more than a few people; see below ), but nico lives in constant fear of being outed until, at least, he admits to percy that he had a crush on him, which he eventually does in blood of olympus. ( you can read my full analysis of this scene here )

but that’s a huge detour from why i’m talking about this. my main point is that nico’s fear of coming out is centered widely around his own self-consciousness when it comes to the subject and the mindset in which he was raised. it’s not until jason supporting him ( and keeping his secret until he was ready to talk about it to others ) and meeting will solace that he actually becomes more secure with this part of his identity, though he’s still not entirely comfortable with it. i’ve harped on this a lot, and i’ll move on soon, but nico’s discomfort-- 

     Will turned to me. “I apologize for my boyfriend.”      Nico rolled his eyes. “Could you not--”      “Would you prefer special guy?” Will asked. “Or significant other?”      “Significant annoyance, in your case,” Nico grumbled.      “Oh, I’ll get you for that.”      Meg wiped her dripping nose. “You guys fight a lot.”

- The Hidden Oracle

yes, this is kinda just passed off as a funny little exchange between the two of them, and part of their relationship. nico and will exchange witty banter through a lot of the book, and i’ll point to another little exchange not long after--

     “In the meantime, no one else should roam the camp alone. Use the buddy system.”      “Understood.” Will looked at Nico. “Will you be my buddy?”      “You are a dork,” Nico announced.      The two of them strolled off bickering.

- The Hidden Oracle

will and nico are clearly affectionate towards each other throughout the book, and nico is a lot more relaxed around will later on,  like when they’re all eating dinner together at apollo’s table ( see the “I have a note from my doctor.” exchange ), but immediately gets cranky when will starts calling him by romantic partner nicknames. it’s not just friendly bickering, it’s discomfort, especially in front of will’s father ( shoutout to apollo ) who could EASILY disapprove of him as will’s partner.

NICO’S POWERS. 

there’s a full list of all of nico’s powers and abilities on his about page (here), i’m just going to toss in here that a lot of the specifics fo his abilities i’ve taken some creative liberties with. since he’s got so many and they’re not all touched on that much except for once or twice, i’ve made the executive decision to make my own rules a bit. 

feel free to ask questions about this if you’ve got any, he’s got a lot of powers and it gets confusing easily. 

MYTHOMAGIC. 

this section isn’t anything important it’s more just a disclaimer that i’ve made up all the rules for mythomagic because there are no rules in canon. i’m bullshitting my way through that game and everyone should know it. i’ve based my concept on it on the game stratego, and morphed it into kind of a weird combo of that and d&d. personally i’ve never been part of a d&d campaign, but i’m a champion at stratego, so that’s why i picked that game as the basis for my mythomagic rules. 

if you’ve read through to the end honestly congrats i’m impressed. please accept this gif of nico giggling like a moron as your prize

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[oveliagirlhaditright]

Author’s Note: “There’s a legend about humans. Legend says that originally people were born four arms, four legs, and a head with two faces. The gods feared their power, and thus split them in half, so they were two separate entities. And so their lives began, an endless search to find their other halves, that could only end in tragedy.” – the “Twisted Lore” Kingdom Hearts fanfiction by aradian nights.

This Is Twice Now Sora’s PoV

It would be when Sora was in the Final World the second time—trying to save Kairi this time—that he would marvel at how she had stopped him and Aqua from doing something crazy, in trying to take care of the Demon Tide themselves. So that meant that Kairi had saved him not once, but twice here. And what had Sora done? He’d let her meet the worst end he ever could have! …It was hard not to cry for that, as he was now presented with her splintered astral body in front of his form. There were also… truths to this world. And all around him, for whatever reason, Sora was hearing a legend he’d learned on Destiny Islands: that man and woman had once been one, but the gods had separated them in fearing their power and that was why man spent eternity trying to find their other half. While Sora had absolutely no doubt that Kairi was his other half, he didn’t really know what that had to do with their situation now… unless the fates were now telling him he’d lost his chance to be with his other side forever, if he didn’t do something about it. Walking closer to where Kairi was, Sora ran a hand through her lovely red hair and found himself speaking to anyone who would listen. "She saved me... in every way a person can be saved. And now it's my turn to do the same for her, so please let me…" And something out there must have listened, because Sora was now able to begin sewing her back together when he’d been unable to do so before… but as price for this, he himself was already beginning to fade. And though Sora didn’t want to admit it, it scared him. Was he doing the wrong thing and making it so Kairi would just have to lead a life without him instead of the other way around? Well, if that was the case, he was going to fight it with every fiber of his being. So speaking to just Kairi now, as he angled his lips by her ear… he told her to look for him in some version of the soulmate story they’d first heard about on Destiny Islands and now here. And then they both faded. A Few Months Later Sora’s PoV Despite Sora's best laid plans, he didn't get to be with Kairi soon after he fixed her. At all. Rather, he had died saving her like he knew he would, and he'd then played something called the "Reapers' Game" for another chance at life. He’d won that, but had now been pulled into another adventure against his will. But maybe this world his Keyblade had pulled him into wasn't completely without relevance to Kairi. Because in this place that reminded Sora a bit of the Coliseum, there was a man with the body of a horse... and it made Sora think of what he'd learned about Somebodies once being born with four legs for the soul mate reason. And maybe in thinking that this would finally be his answer to getting home to Kairi, the Keyblade wielder found himself bellowing, "Does anyone else here believe soulmates were originally one entity?!" Most everyone ignored Sora. They were too busy with chariot races, climbing walls, and planting in some cases... All but one kid—maybe about Sora's age?—with black hair and green eyes, who was wearing an orange shirt with the letters "CHB" on it. And turning his sword into some sort of pen that he stuffed in his pocket, the boy came and sat beside Sora. "I could buy it, man. The way that Annabeth and I so perfectly finish each other... it can really only be that way. Even if I'm not really one for religion, and don't believe everything about Greek and Roman mythology. Anyway, I'm Mister Pereeercy Jackson! Who are you? A new demigod?"

Sora laughed at this guy’s easygoing nature. Somehow, it reminded him a lot of himself and was exactly what he’d needed after this rough journey. Also, that term “demigod” piqued Sora's interest, because again: hadn't Herc been called that in his world? But Sora pushed that thought aside, as he instead focused on something else. "Oh… uhh, I’m Sora. But I hafta say I'm surprised you're focusing on the demigod thing, and not me being a Keyblade wielder. Seems like everyone knows about them these days, or has their own, or knows about me and mine." And to demonstrate this point, because Sora had long ago given up on this part of the World Order, he summoned Kingdom Key to hand. "Wow, is that some level of Daedalus technology that you have there!” Percy exclaimed before whistling at the sight. But seeming to realize that Sora had no clue what that last comment meant, Percy swiftly changed his tactics: something Sora could appreciate, because he’d often had to stay on his toes himself. “So what sort of quest are you on? I can tell you’ve got experience with that weapon, so you can’t be a new kid on the block… Y’know, I thought there was only Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. But you know what? At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more half-blood Camps. I know you’re not a Camp Half-Blood, and you’re not attacking me so you can’t be Camp Jupiter. What is your deal?” There was a strong part of Sora that wanted to deny he was camp anything—because he hated lying—but at the same time, he knew he had to at least hide the fact that he was from another world, and Sora’s new friend Percy had just given him the perfect excuse for being… different. In the end, Sora just decided to ignore camp talk altogether—and pray that Percy thinking he wasn’t saying anything about it meant he wasn’t agreeing he was from one—and to instead speak of Kairi and the Master of Masters. Sighing heavily—as he ran a hand through his hair and noted a red-haired girl leading people on the battlements, it now looked like?—Sora admitted, “I- I died, after my last quest. And after some impossible work, I was able to come back… But the worst part about it all, is I left my girlfriend behind when I passed. And right when we finally got together, too! And now that I am back… I can’t reach her. I know she’s out there and alive, but it’s like the fates are always against us or something… That’s why I’m trying to find things pertaining to the old myth of man and woman once being one, but the gods splitting us up because they feared our power… it’s my only lead on how I might find her, because I told her to meet me there as I just knew this “being separated thing” would happen. “And on top of that, there’s either someone who’s an idiot, or far too clever, who’s trying to destroy the world that I now have to deal with. And I dunno what to put first. I should save the world. But being too good all the time is sort of how I took my girlfriend for granted before, and never got to spend any time with her. It’s all so confusing.” Before Sora had finished this spiel, Percy had begun stress eating from his jean pockets and put a hand on Sora’s shoulder—something Sora greatly relished and leaned into, because he needed some emotional support right now. And as Percy fumbled with the beads on his necklace in what looked like deep thought, he told Sora his own story. “I get it, man. I do. It’s no easy thing being a hero, huh? And it’s not like any of us chose this… And I do admit there’s a lot I regret when it comes to Annabeth and me. But at the same time, there’s so much I’d do again and again in a heartbeat because it made us stronger… I just wish she hadn’t had to suffer so much…. But I guess it’s all water under the bridge, and what’s done is done and all that. “…Right now, six of my friends and I are involved in some stupid prophecy to save the world, too. And while I want to remain optimistic… it’s seeming like one of us will die. So we’re looking for a Physician’s Cure: something that’s supposed to save one of us from death… We’ve finally pinpointed the location of it, but just doing that was like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s exhausting. So I wanted to come here before we go get it and partake in anything else crazy. And really, my friends and I shouldn’t secretly be here—the Romans would be happy to blow us to smithereens if they knew—but sometimes you just need home, right? “…So, what are you going to do, Sora? Do you think here has your answer? I know here has mine and Annabeth’s: Camp’s the good things in life we need to hold onto—and not let go of, even though it would be all too easy to do since we were in Tartarus…” Tartarus! Sora had heard of that place before: in Olympus, it was true, but even in his own world there were stories of Tartarus. It was the deepest dungeon of the Underworld or Hell, that only the really evil things lived in. If Percy and his Annabeth had really survived that, then Sora’s heart went out to them. And Sora wanted to tell his friend that this place was his answer—because Percy’s talks of it and Annabeth reminded Sora of how Destiny Islands and Kairi were his home… and if this was a place that those who had been in Tartarus could find peace in, it had to be good—but he knew that it wasn’t… and Sora told Percy just that. But found a way to ignite hope in their hearts even then. “No… this isn’t the place I’ll find Kairi, but I’m sure it’s a step in the right direction! And as hard as it is to hold off on seeing her even more, it’ll make our reunion all the sweeter when it finally happens: like how when you and Annabeth finally do get the normal lives you deserve, that’ll be the same for you.” And smiling and pointing finger guns at Sora of all things, Percy gave Sora a notebook—perhaps seeming to think that he and Kairi needed to find some normalcy, too—and Sora gave Percy a potion, hoping that maybe it could aid him in his time of need. But now… Now Sora was going to go to Halloween Town. He was sure that Jack might scare someone from being behind them… And if someone looked at it the right way in that moment, it could look like two people as one… There was also the chance that someone in Halloween Town would dress as one body with two heads. So off to Halloween Town Sora went—using his Keyblade to make a Corridor of Light and leave New York before he got there. And Sore somehow wasn’t surprised that Percy’s girlfriend showed up during the light show to look like an angel with all the yellow. Kairi was his angel, after all, so why should it be any different for Percy with Annabeth? Kairi’s PoV Kairi—since she was getting better at this world hopping stuff—kind of knew from the get-go that this "Kuzco" wouldn't have the answer she was looking for: just because his kingdom had some mural of people with two arms on each side of their body didn't mean that these people would hold true to Sora's idea, and that she'd find him that way... but she still had to try. And that's how Kairi awkwardly found herself in a meeting with the world's emperor—while he was in another meeting with another person—and she got the sense that said ruler was only tolerating her presence because she was “pretty”. But Kairi was so desperate for leads at this point, she'd do what she could for them. "Uhh, no, pretty one," Emperor Kuzco answered Kairi's question surprisingly politely, but also not so at the same time. "There is no person with four arms here. And no spiky-haired youth looking for such a person, either. But if you help me build my ultimate summer getaway, I'll make you look like you have four arms, by pushing mine out from behind you before pushing you in my pool. What do you say?" Kairi knew it was insane to think that if she agreed to this, Sora would magically know what was happening and teleport to her. But she had to try. Which is how she ended up in a long, ridiculous story with a now redeemed emperor—who she liked quite a bit at this point—and a brave commoner who she’d loved through and through. …It had  turned out that Kuzco’s “ultimate summer getaway” was going to come at the expense of the nice guy, Pacha’s, entire village. So when Pacha rightfully resented him there, Kairi hadn’t been able to blame him. Especially when she’d even tried to tell Kuzco that he didn’t have to heed her request if that was the price, but had paid her no mind. Sometime after that, one of Kuzco’s former employees had tried to kill him (though Kuzco, Pacha, and Kairi hadn’t known this at the time, but that had somehow backfired and he’d instead become something called a “llama”. This had led Kairi and Pacha down the insane path of trying to get Kuzco back home and return him back to normal, and it was no easy thing. At first, Kairi thought Kuzco and Pacha might kill each other before anyone or anything else would. And even with how good she’d gotten with the Keyblade, Kairi hadn’t known if she could stop them from doing so… much like she’d been the bystander to much of Riku and Sora’s bloodlust for each other in the past. Fortunately, they didn’t really harm each other—but just barely… and maybe it had something to do with Kairi mentioning how she’d felt jealous of Naminé when she’d heard he had taken Sora away from her for a short time, but now they were best friends. That was when Kuzco and Pacha’s bond had become so strong, that they could try and climb up a cliff they’d just fallen down together, back-to-back (Kairi just used an Aeroga to get herself to the top of the mountain again. But unfortunately, she hadn’t been skilled enough with the spell to lift both Kuzco and Pacha’s weight). And as they’d maneuvered that way for a second, they had looked like one being and Kairi had thought she’d found her key to Sora! …But it didn’t happen. Kairi had looked this way and that, but there had no glimpse of Sora and she had had to resist the urge to cry. Kuzco and Pacha had finally made their way up the earth again… But only for it to begin to crumble just as Pacha’s feet touched the end of it! Kuzco, with his teeth, snatched Pacha from the end of it, and Kairi had stretched her body out so Pacha would have something to stand on a bit longer: before Kuzco had grabbed him, that was. This had signified a new beginning for Kuzco, and even Pacha. And as sad as Kairi was that she’d maybe been misled that this would lead her to Sora, she was glad she’d come along to help these companions. They deserved this happiness. Then, it had been days since they’d eaten, and they were starving. They’d found a diner… with some questionable food choices. But Kairi was smart and chose a salad, while the boys seemed to be eating bugs? Yuck! Because he was eating bugs, Kuzco had gone to have a word with the chef and noticed his former servants from the palace were there?! Kuzco had meant to use them to get home… but before this plan had even left his mouth, Pacha had related to Kairi that the man with the…—vizier? Was that the position Kuzco had said she’d had?—was the man he’d seen trying to dispose of Kuzco’s “body” before! And Kairi, despite herself—despite how positive she usually was—hadn’t been able to deny that the two probably had tried to kill Kuzco. Murders were extremely rare on Destiny Islands, thank the gods, but when they happened, they usually always happened via a situation at home. The duo had tried to warn Kuzco of this… but he didn’t believe Pacha, at least, thinking this had all been a trap of his to keep him from making that Kuzcotopia. So the gang split up there. Pacha headed back home, Kuzco, tried to find Yzma and… Kronk? And Kairi opted to discreetly follow Kuzco to make sure he was safe. When the two finally reached Yzma and Kronk, they repeated the words that Pacha and Kairi had already suspected. And Kuzco, looking heartbroken—and Kairi’s heart went out to him; she tried to comfort him by letting him know she was by his side, but he ran past her without even seeing her—went straight back to Pacha’s home. And then, as a trio, the three had run back to the palace together… thwarted Yzma’s attempts to kill Kuzco once again (almost getting a new ally in Kronk along the way?)… won back the kingdom for Kuzco and turned him back! A few weeks later—and wow, did it surprise Kairi that it only took Kuzco a few weeks to build so much, but power was power she supposed—Kuzco built his pool house in a village near Pacha’s that was abandoned, and invited him, his family, and Kairi along. Kuzco kept his promise to Kairi—the promise to pick her up and throw her into the pool: so that she could look like she had four arms—but there was still nothing there. But for a time: as she saw the sky before she fell into the water, she thought she saw Sora within it and that was all that mattered. And after saying goodbye to her new friends—though she’d allowed herself to swim a few times for fun first, like she’d used to on the Islands—she continued her journey. And now she was thinking of hitting up… Halloween Town? Roxas had mentioned that the residents there had made a scarecrow based on him once. So maybe if she found it, and took Roxas there with her, Sora could see them both from wherever he was and think there were “two Roxases”. It seemed silly to try and “trick” Sora this way, but people did crazy things when they were in love. A Few Days Later Kairi’s PoV “…I’m sorry, Kairi. As much as I love you and Sora, I’m not posing with this scarecrow of me. That’s somehow just asking Lock, Shock, and Barrell to come bother me again, and I’m not dealing with that.” Before Kairi could try to change Roxas’ mind about this, the boy in the Organization suit was already getting onto the little elevator that would take him to the curly hill… Apparently Roxas was going to see if the Trinity Sora, Donald, and Goofy had missed a long time ago was still around, and to see if he could access it with his connection to Sora, Ventus, and himself. Kairi sighed gravely, thinking her best chance at finding Sora had probably disappeared yet again. She thought about posing with the Roxas figure herself—and nearly did—but she didn’t want anyone thinking that she was saying Roxas was her soulmate or anything like that. But apparently holding the scarecrow in her hands for just a hot second there had done the trick, because Kairi soon heard the voice of someone she’d never forget and began sobbing because of it. “I dunno, Kairi. Lock, Shock, and Barrell are pretty easy to beat in a fight. I think Roxas is just being a baby, what do you think?” Coming into the graveyard now—looking like the hottest vampire she’d ever seen, and Kairi could only pray her own witch outfit was up to par—was Sora. And running to him fast, much like she had once done at the Castle That Never Was, Kairi soon found herself in her boyfriend’s arms and him spinning her around. “Sora!” the princess cheered so loudly, she was certain she was making people around here deaf and she felt horrible for it… and yet, she also really didn’t. “You came! We’ve all been looking everywhere for you! We saw how you faced the Master of Masters in the world with the two bats, evil sorcerer, and amnesic princess who’s a bit like me… Though I guess we shouldn’t really be talking about the Master of Masters now, huh? We should be enjoying this.” It was after Kairi had rambled a bit that Sora put her down and looked her over the way she was now checking him out. He’d certainly gotten more muscular while he’d been away… and his hair was a bit darker and longer. There were fewer clumps of spikes now, too—and bangs. There were just a few long strands there—so his locks now really reminded Kairi of Terra’s. Sora’s eyes also looked positively tired at this point—and she wished she could take it in to herself and bear it so he wouldn’t have to—but  all-in-all it was still the same Sora Kairi loved, that she was now seeing… And maybe she was now more attracted to him than ever before... Kairi was just praying that Sora would be okay with her having a buzz cut on one side and long hair on the other side of her face now, and her rocking magenta clothes (again) and red eyeshadow. “Of course I met you here, Kairi…” Sora said now, with his forehead against hers and his breath tickling her face. Kairi giggled. “How could I not, after you saved me at the Keyblade Graveyard twice. And after I gave you this longshot riddle to find me again… Sorry about that. It wasa longshot. But I didn’t know what else to do. But now- now it’s all worked out. Yay!” Kairi very much wanted to rib Sora for putting so much stake in a freaking old myth, and making it a thing for them… but she didn’t, when she realized Sora was still on about her saving him in the Tunnel of Light… and apparently another time? Shouldn’t he have been focusing on his own sacrifice to save her, that had cost him his so much? “Sora… I don’t know why you think it’s a big deal. Especially since you’re the one who had to save me in the end, and you gave up everything to do it...” Sora opened his mouth once. And the way that his eyebrows furrowed, Kairi could tell—just as the air got colder around them—that Sora had been about to argue her waving away the “her being his light” thing. But he must have thought better of it, and that their being reunited was more important than anything else, because grinning at her rather stupidly, he seemed to settle on, “And I’d do it for you again in a heartbeat. The way Percy—a guy I just met—would go to Tartarus for his girlfriend again that fast!” Jack’s dog Zero had come to circle around the pair now… And Kairi guessed that he was trying to tell them that they should just give it up and finally kiss—something Kairi definitely wanted to do—but she couldn’t help telling Sora a little about her own adventures first. It was important to Kairi that she do this, because she knew she and Sora were finally equals… that she would never let anything like what had recently happened to him transpire again, and that they’d earned this moment. “I get you, Sora. Even though Pacha somewhat hated Kuzco at first, he didn’t let anything happen to him. And I won’t let anything happen to you, either!” Sora gasped; mock offended, as he gave Kairi a look and shoved her arm playfully. “Are you saying that you hate me?” And Kairi—now seeing out of the corner of her eye that Roxas was making his way back to them with a treasure chest in hand, and now gaping as he took them in—played with Sora the way she would have when they were children, and teased: “Well, you can be a lazy bu-“ But Sora didn’t let Kairi finish that sentence. He locked lips with her the way she’d been dreaming of for so long—and yes, her foot did pop for it—and if anyone had been drawing these two in the notebook Percy had been so kind to give Sora (that would get used by the future artists), they would have made them look like one kissing entity.

Author’s Note: Started before the Re:Mind DLC second trailer came out.

Percy Jackson could totally be in Kingdom Hearts, since the books are owned by Disney and so are the films… And how I pray it will be someday (the books). You’ll notice that the two new worlds in this are something out there, like Percy Jackson (because I imagine they’ll be a KHIV plot point where they find a new solar system, where crazy new Disney properties are available), and one  traditional: Emperor’s New Groove. Kairi also talks about how both she and Sora were in the Anastasia world (since Disney now owns Fox). But that one’s only eluded to, because it’s not proper Disney, and I already used my one non-proper Disney franchise in this fic (and Kairi only being in Anastasia a short time after Sora was already there also hints of how they were kept apart: and that Sora’s in a non-traditional Disney world and Kairi’s in a traditional one). I would have liked to do one more world(s) before they found each other, maybe, but I didn’t have time. Oh well. I still think it works fine. Oh! And you can decide for yourself if this is an AU, where the potion Sora gave Percy is what saves Leo at the end of the Blood of Olympus… or if the potion will come in handy in a Percy Jackson thing we haven’t seen yet.