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lifeofroos · 3 years

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Part 35: Alright, you might notice I made some things up,,,

In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. In this chapter, Nico has had a bad dream. The rest of my story can be found on AO3 and FanFiction.net! Also in tumblr tags like Dionysus, Nico di Angelo, pjo etc.

This Might Be Crazy: Chapter 35: Hypnos’ sleepy tea

I woke up with a loud gasp. I clutched my blanket and only let go once my breathing slowed down a little. By accident, I dropped my blanket, so that a wave of cold hit me. I cringed and tried to take a deep breath.

I wanted to tell myself that it was just a dream, but I could not believe it. After a few minutes of staring off into darkness, I groaned and slowly got out of bed. The floor felt cold to my feet. I found my aviator jacket on the floor near my half-built IKEA cabinet. While I was putting it on, I stumbled to my closet. Even though I had been fully aware of my cold feet the entire time, I only noticed I wasn’t wearing any socks after I had shadowtravelled to the big house.

Dionysus was sitting in the living room, facing the fireplace. While I walked into the room, he turned his head around. ‘Nico?’

‘Yes.’

He turned to the fireplace again. At once, it lit up. ‘Why aren’t you asleep?’

‘I had a nightmare.’ I slowly padded closer to the couch.

‘Sit down.’ I did.

A cup of tea appeared on the coffee table. ‘Here, tea, it has a formula that will help you sleep...’

‘Chamomile?’

‘No. Or well, maybe. It was made by Hypnos.’ He looked at me for a second.

I picked up the cup and took a sip. It tasted like regular chamomile.

‘But, you said you had a nightmare.’

‘Yes. And I have two things to say about that. First, I think it has to mean something, because of course it does. The second thing is that tonight, I don’t really want to think about it. I just want to calm down enough so that I can go back to sleep and then analyse it some other time.’

‘The tea will get you to sleep alright. Or so I think.’ Dionysus gestured at my cup. ‘But I understand you want to talk about it. And I am awake anyway, so go ahead.’

I wondered what he had been up for. Oh well.

I sighed. ‘First, I was walking through a random street. There were some people there, and cats, lots of cats. I think some people were actually cats as well. Yetm slowly, the living things start to dissappear. No more cats, no more anything. It became dark and the pavement stopped. I walked straight into the darkness. When I turned around, there was nothing behind me, only black, until the only place that had anything else than black was the tile I was standing on.’

The fire popped. I stopped talking and looked at it for a second, before turning back to Dionysus. ‘Go on. The fire won’t hurt you.’

‘Of course not!’ I adjusted my jacket. ‘But, uh, in my dream, stuff began to rain down on me. In my dream, it was death. I don’t remember what it looked like, but… you know what I mean!’

He got a sly smile on his face. ‘I think I do.’

‘Hm. So, anyway, I was standing there in this rain of death and I began hearing the voices. They were very loud and told me… no, they begged me to come to Tartarus. Something about awakening and saving them and that I am so close already.’ I shrugged. ‘I saw a face with horns, vampire teeth and eyes the colour of blood, a few snakes dropped from the sky and then I woke up.’ I took a sip of tea and yawned. ‘It was so weird.’

‘...yeah, it’s strange.’ Dionysus shifted around for a bit. With a snap of his fingers, a second cup appeared. He picked it up and took a sip.

‘Sorry if I begin to analyse it too much,’ he said, ‘But it seems as if certain parts have a clear meaning. I think the voices mean exactly what they are saying.’

‘Yes. I don’t really worry about those voices, actually, they have been there longer.’

‘Which is not something you should just accept as reality when we may be able to do something about it.’

I shrugged and looked at my tea. ‘True. But, I worry more about the… death shower. Because it makes me feel like something bad is about to happen if I don’t act on what the voices tell me to do soon.’

Dionysus took another sip. The flames created weird patterns on his face.

‘Do you hear the voices right now?’

‘Well, no. As soon as I woke up, my head went quiet.’ I took a sip of Hypnos’ tea, even though I already felt like I could fall asleep at any moment. ‘I think that is good. But, on the other hand, why did they go quiet? I…’ I yawned. ‘I guess the deathshower is making me paranoid.’

‘Hm.’ Dionysus stared at my cup. ‘What I think is the wise thing to do is to see what happens next. If it becomes a recurring dream, we need to take action. If it is something for just this one night, or the last few nights perhaps, it might be nothing more than a manifestation of your fears.’ He sighed.

My eyelids were so heavy. I stared into the fire, hoping that the light could help keep my eyes open.

‘Nico? Nico, Can you still hear me?’

‘Hmmyes. I do.’

‘Going to Tartarus, which you already did once…’ he fell silent for a second. I looked over at him with as much strength as I still had. He looked horrified, the way you do when you remember something you forgot. ‘...is something you should not do again. The voices might keep begging you. If that happens, you come to me and then we’ll find a way out. A way that does not involve going to Tartarus. You might get irreversibly scared if you go there again.’

‘I… I get that,’ I mumbled. My limbs were heavy now too. ‘I… I don’t want to go to Tartarus.’ Did I just say its name? Darn, I think I did.

‘Of course not.’

‘Do you want to talk about your first experience in Tartarus soon? And sorry if I am randomly dropping things on you at the moment. This needs to be said before that stuff...’ He waved at my cup with a disgusted expression, ‘...knocks you out.

I tried to think as well as I could. ‘Yes… yes. I think that it is a logical…’ I yawned. ‘...Next step.’

Dionysus sighed. ‘Alright, I am never using that tea again. Hypnos must have changed the formula.’

‘Ah. I think I’ll sleep soundly now, that’s nice.’

‘It is not supposed to drug you.’ He sighed deeply. ‘Thanks for telling me all of this, Nico. Now, you should go back to your cabin. Immediately. No, wait, I'm bringing you.’

He got up from the couch and helped me do the same thing. We teleported to my cabin, I fell onto my bed and I was gone.

‘Hypnos, you total imbecile,’ Dionysus cursed. He looked at Nico, who was fast asleep. At least he looked like he was at peace now.

The god did not like what Nico had told him. A face with pointy teeth, snakes, horns, voices… It sounded an awful lot as if the Elder Gods had gotten themselves into trouble again. With a deep sigh, he teleported back to the Big House.

With a deep sigh, he sat back down on the couch.

Suddenly, he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. ‘Ari…’

‘Dio, I sensed something was wrong,’ she said, way to excited for those words. ‘Not that I am happy with that, but I sensed it. The bond is healing.’

That was good. But that was weird. Gods, what did it matter at the moment.

Ariadne sat down on the couch next to him. Oh, it probably meant something. But if it waited this long, it could wait just a little longer.

A/N: I have the entire arc for Nico written out. Strap yourselves in, kids, we are getting off canon (Mostly because R.R. did not provide any canon).

This is a little clungy first new-arc chapter, because I wasn’t entirely sure yet where I wanted it to go when I wrote it. Now I do and the next chapters will be nicer.

Talking about the next chapter, it is not really about the new arc, but godsdammit did I have a good time writing it.

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lifeofroos · 3 years

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Part 42. I like kids, kids are fun.

In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. In this chapter, Nico sees a young new camper in distress. The rest of the story can be found on AO3 and FanFiction.net! And also in Tumblr tags like Nico di Angelo, Dionysus, therapy etc.

This might be crazy: Chapter 42: Rivella When I walked past the arena, I saw a little girl training all by herself. After a moment of thinking, I decide to walk up to her.

‘Hey.’

She looked up. A lock of hair fell out of her ponytail and in front of her eyes. ‘Hello.’

I looked around. ‘Do you know where your cabinmates are?’

She shrugged. ‘Yeah, they are at the climbing wall.’ I narrowed my eyes. Wait. I knew which cabin had climbing wall training on friday afternoon.

‘Are you a daughter of Ares?’

She grinned when she heard the name. ‘Yes, that’s my dad,’ she proudly declared. ‘And my name is Anya.’

‘Anya. That is a nice name.’

‘Now you must tell me yours.’

‘Yes. I am Nico.’

Her eyes lit up. ‘Then your dad is Hades! That’s so cool!’

It made me smile that she thought of it that way. ‘Thanks. You are very sweet.’

‘No, I am vicious.’ She pointed her wooden sword at me.

I nodded. ‘Of course. But can you tell me why you are here, instead of with your siblings?’

She swung the sword around a little. ‘Because I need to train. They are all big and strong and I want to be like them.’

‘Okay.’ I thought for a second. ‘Do you have trouble using your sword?’

‘No!’ She moved to the tip of her toes. ‘I think I am way better than you!’

‘I believe you…’

‘No, you don’t.’ She lowered her weapon and stood back on her feet. ‘They all say that, but they don’t mean it. Sherman is way better than me.’

‘Yes, but Sherman is already fifteen. How old are you?’

‘Seven.’

‘Then he has been training for eight years longer than you have. Imagine how good you will be when you are fifteen! I am sure you will be able to beat me by then. Ares kids are better with weapons than Hades kids.’

She shrugged. ‘I want to be good today.’

‘You know what is an important part of becoming stronger? Resting. If you don’t take a break, your muscles cannot build, because all their energy goes to training more.’ See, I listened to what Will tells me.

She pouted. ‘Sherman says the same thing. But he keeps training all day long!’ She sighed. It looked as if the weight of the world rested on her shoulders.

‘Sherman eats and drinks a lot as well, doesn’t he? You need a break to drink.’ I pulled a bottle of Rivella out of my pocket, which I had gotten from Will an hour before. ‘How about you and l take a break right now?’

She dropped her sword and sat down in the sand, with a pouty lip and her arms crossed. I sat down next to her.

For a few minutes, we were quiet. I offered her my bottle of Rivella and she ended up drinking the entire thing. ‘I just think it is so unfair. They are way older than I am and I can never catch up.’

‘Isn’t there a class just for younger campers?’

She looked at me. ‘Chiron did not tell me. Is there?’

Apparently not. Godsdammit Chiron. I’d tell him that we needed a class for small kids when I saw him again. ‘Ah. Maybe you can ask him if he can let you train with kids your own age? I think Harley, Susan and Elsie would like to train with someone their age, too.’

‘But I want to train with Sherman.’

‘Oh.’ Something in her tone told me that she just wanted to talk.

Anya looked at me. Her shoulders relaxed a little. ‘They are really mean to me sometimes. They call me small and a baby. They think I can’t fight and most of them don’t even want to train with me. Sherman is the only one who sometimes helps me.’ She pulled her knees closer to her chest. ‘But I don’t want them to think that I am a baby. Because I can fight too and I could be really good if they helped me. It is so unfair!’

I nodded. ‘That is not very nice of them.’

‘No!’

‘However, it is nice that Sherman sometimes teaches you. What does he tell you? Do you train with just the two of you, or with the others as well?’

The girl looked at her sword. ‘He tells me that I should keep my sword lower and that I should slash instead of chop. We train with all the others and he never has longer than a few minutes for me.’

‘Hm. Chop?’

‘Yes.’

Nico looked at the straw doll the girl had been training with. ‘Who told you you need to use a sword?’

She shrugged. ‘Chiron gave it to me.’

I looked at her. ‘What if we go have a talk with Sherman together? I think he will listen to me.’

She stared at me like that was a new idea. ‘He might listen to you. Because Hades is your dad.’

If that is the affirmation you need, Anya, it is okay.

‘Sherman?’

He had just climbed to the highest level of the climbing wall. With a summersault, he jumped off and landed in front of us. Show off. ‘Nico. Have you decided to train with us again? We are with way less after all!’ He gave me a mean grin.

I gestured at Anya, who was standing next to me. ‘No, it’s about Anya. Chiron gave her a wooden sword to train with, but we think an axe might suit her better.’

Anya gave me a surprised look. Sherman put a finger on his chin, deep in thought for a moment. ‘I’ll come with you for a second.’

‘You were right. This does work better for her.’ We looked at Anya, while she chopped the arm of a strawman off. I took a deep breath, before I smacked Sherman against the back of his head.

He jumped and put his hand on the place where I hit him. ‘Hey! What was that for?’

‘Look after your little sister better from now on, idiot! She wants your attention and she wants you to train with her. She looks up to you, even. And why did you just leave her here in the arena, all alone? She is seven, she could have hurt herself.’

Usually, Sherman had a tendency to be a little arrogant, but I could not see that in his expression now. ‘Eh, I did not realise she stayed behind. I was paying more attention to the rest, I guess.’

‘Ah-ha. All the other three.’

‘Eh… sorry?’ I sighed.

‘Just help her next time, okay? Privately.’

He fiddled with his sleeve. ‘I think I will. Anya?’

She walked over to us, with her wooden axe. ‘How about we train extra tomorrow? Just us, so I can show how to use the axe properly?’ Sherman asked.

Her eyes lit up. ‘Yes!’ She lifted the axe above her head. ‘I’ll be the best!’

Sherman grinned. ‘I am sure you will. Now will you come to the climbing wall with me? A warrior needs to train more than just her fighting!’

She immediately listened to him. She dropped her axe to the floor and ran ahead of us, to the climbing wall. Sherman looked at me. ‘Like that?’

I nodded. ‘Yes, very good.’

‘Not that I need your approval.’

‘Of course not.’

‘Not so cocky now, di Angelo. That will…’

‘Nico!’

We both looked around. Dionysus was standing on the field, his arms crossed, with a concerned look in his eyes. ‘Sorry to bother you, but we need to talk.’

He was serious. With open mouth, I turned to Sherman. ‘Eh, bye,’ I muttered.

Sherman toyed with his sleeve again. ‘Good luck, dude. It looks like this will be difficult.’

‘Thanks. You never know with that guy,’ I said, before I walked over to Dionysus.

A/N: Something cute before we have a big storm comin’.

Come on Chiron take some care of the small kids.

Also, the Ares campers are with way less because it is autumn instead of summer, not because of some deep dark reason don’t worry guys.

(That being said, I keep forgetting that it is winter and I keep writing scenes with quite a lot of campers. Hm).

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