Shake the dust

[umbraportation]

WHO: Nico di Angelo and you
WHERE: Various
WHEN: September
WHAT: Quests, open prompts, Nico tries to raise some ghosts from the dead
WARNINGS: Probably none

i. Honey Bee Good

[ Quests. Quests are something Nico is extremely used to doing even if he's never actually been around when a prophecy was told at Camp Half-Blood. Most of those are cryptic and deciphering it can be extremely dangerous on top of headache-inducing. The ones he's found on the forum are pretty straight-forward.

Nico might have been around for a little over a week but hasn't yet dared to use the computer found at "his" house. Demigods and technology don't tend to get along so he hasn't risked using it except to check out other people's posts.

One quest in particular sounded pretty easy but of course Nico is absolutely expecting something to go wrong. Maybe the bees are huge or are just extremely aggressive. Whatever the case may be, he's taking along his stygian sword just in case he has to cut them down.

While he may not have purposely partnered up with anyone, there might already be someone hanging around trying to do the same quest. Perhaps someone who doesn't quite fit the red color requirement. If that's the case then they're in luck because Nico can make it successful.

So here he is, standing far away from the hive staring in at the bees who are buzzing about. ]

They're the size of a large dog. [ Because of course they are. ] I'll fight them and you get the honey?

[ Nico pulls his sword from his belt with his right hand as the left holds out a jar. ]

ii. All Bonds Are New Bonds (When You Just Got Here)

[ For the most part, Nico tends to spend his days wandering around town just checking it out. Exploring each district until he has it memorized and could walk around them in the dark. He's heard that the forest is dangerous and while that's pretty normal, avoids going out there alone as much as possible. The teen shares a house in the Ruga District with someone but Nico hasn't really gone out of his way to meet the guy yet. Probably because he doesn't leave the house until mid-day after waking up and doesn't return until late night. Just having someone else around is a nice feeling considering the Hades Cabin at Camp only ever has his half-sister Hazel living there on rare occasions.

But really, he just walks around town. Wandering up side streets or going into buildings that look like they don't appear to be lived in or are communal spaces. So he can be seen checking out Town Hall or going through books at the Library or even lingering by the cemetary-less Church.

One place he only looks at from a distance is the Garden so Nico's abilities don't accidentally kill all of the plants inside.

No matter where he can be found, if someone decides to approach they'll find this pale-skinned, black-clothed wearing teen looking over at them with dark brown eyes. An eyebrow raised curiously. ]

Can I help you?

iii. In the Dark of the Night

[ One might think that with the way the color is drained from a great portion of the town that people would stay indoors come nighttime. Unfortunately, Nico is not one of those people. Usually his nighttime strolls are pretty aimless but not tonight - tonight he's moving about with purpose.

In fact he's got an old, beat-up shovel resting over one of his shoulders and what looks to be a sack hanging from the end as he strides through the streets. Should someone join him, they'll find that Nico doesn't slow down. He only glances over his shoulder and keeps going. ]

What?

iv. Wildcard

[ OOC: For anything that doesn't fit anywhere above. Go crazy! ]

Comments

i

[promissum]

[The beehive is awfully convenient here, isn't it? The size of a large dog just makes him think of the Mothman class demons.

It doesn't matter to him which one of them does the fighting but he looks up at the beehive. He'll take the jar and frown at it.]

How do you collect honey from a hive?

[umbraportation]

[ Truthfully, it reminds him of the anthill that exists in the woods beyond Camp. The bugs there are huge too.

Though at the question Val puts to him, Nico frowns too. ]

I'm not really sure. Scrape it into the jar?

[promissum]

[Distantly he wonders if these bees can transform into guns, but that's neither here nor there.]

Very well. Are you going to lure the bees out first?

[umbraportation]

[ Now that would be a new trick but he nods in response. ]

I'll draw them out and while I've got them occupied, you get in and get the honey. If things get hairy, leave and I'll meet you back in town.

[promissum]

[Mothmen turn into guns. He misses them.]

I'm ready whenever you are.

[There are ways his side of things could go poorly, but Nico's going to be the one with bees chasing after him. That seems more dangerous than simply scraping out honey.]

[umbraportation]

[ They've got enough problems without throwing in extra monsters from home. ]

Let's do this.

[ With that he strolls forward into the relatively docile swarm of bees to get near the hive. It's only when Nico disturbs the hive with his sword that the bees become agitated and Nico draws every single one towards him - including a bunch that were in the hive. He moves back several paces, never turning his back to the creatures and has his sword held up to parry or block any attack the bees may throw at him.

Nico doesn't allow himself much distraction, doesn't let his gaze drift away from the creatures but he can handle being one against many for a while. It's clear that he has practice using his weapon and is quite skilled with it but now isn't really the time to stand around watching. ]

Go now!

[promissum]

[Just as soon as Nico has the bees out of the hive, Val is up the tree and next to the hive. There's no real way he can get his sword to get all the way into the hive without breaking it-- so he moves the jar to the hive and starts trying to scrape it out with a finger.

It's not as effective as it could be, but then again he's not a beekeeper by trade. Still, the jar is slowly collecting honey, bit by little bit.]

[umbraportation]

[ While Val is scurrying up the tree to get the honey, Nico keeps the attention of the bees on him - darting around so none of their stingers manage to snag him because that would hurt like hell. He doesn't seem interested in full-out attacking the creatures or striking them down but he will if it comes down to it.

At one point, Val may look over and see that Nico does slash one of the bees. Then it seems as if the black blade absorbs the overly large insect entirely. ]

[promissum]

[ It's pretty mindless to collect the honey when the bees aren't stinging him. So dividing his attention between his task and Nico's isn't particularly awful. It's interesting, seeing somebody try to avoid getting hit instead of taking the much easier route of just killing them.

That's an interesting sword. He can't place it at all, but considering all the different worlds that are out there, he shouldn't be surprised. Where does it go?]

iii

[hydrokinetics]

[How very much like Nico to show up out of nowhere without warning. Percy had been out checking on Mrs. O'Leary and walking through the town when he spotted someone familiar. He doesn't announce himself, stepping between shadows to keep an eye on the younger boy until he was ready to be noticed.

He has a lot of questions, but he falls into step with him and keeps his hands in his pockets, staring at the path ahead and idly wondering what other surprises he'll get in the next few days.]

I'm pretty sure I should be asking you the same thing. [Hi Nico.]

[umbraportation]

[ Whenever someone like Percy arrives somewhere, it tends to involve a whole lot of chaos (and potentially danger) but Nico is absolutely the sort who managed to sneak in without being noticed. Apparently that also extends to arriving to a different world. Some part of Nico isn't surprised to learn that Percy is here too but he's sure that the older teen hadn't been in the well with the last group. Meaning the other demigod has been here a while.

Percy just invites himself to walk alongside him and that's fine. It doesn't deter him from what Nico's set out to do tonight. They probably have a lot to talk about. ]

I'm going ghost hunting. [ More like ghost raising... ] You coming?

[ Hey Percy. ]

[hydrokinetics]

[Despite the fact that Nico can definitely take care of himself and sometimes still has creepy hobbies such as ghost hunting and summoning, Percy does in fact just invite himself along because he figures he should debrief the guy. He's already given a rundown for Sadie, so it only made sense.

He nods and continues walking.]

Yeah. Might be useful to see what we can find out there. I don't think anybody else has tried yet. [At least not with summoning or anything like that.]

[umbraportation]

[ Even though Percy is not Nico's first choice of familiar faces (sorry, but Will and Hazel is top of the list), he is glad to see someone he knows around here. And he supposes that if he has to face fairytale monsters, the more experienced demigod is a pretty good option. As they walk, he sort of eyes Percy to make sure that he's not suddenly missing any limbs or sporting new wounds.

Finding none that are obvious, he keeps heading towards the church. ]

Pretty sure this place doesn't need a bunch of people raising the dead. [ This seems like a somewhat bad idea even to Nico but the knowledge that another demigod is around to help is enough to keep him going forward. Especially considering Percy has experience with ghosts. ]

How long have you been stuck here?

[hydrokinetics]

[Luckily Nico missed all of that and Percy's in good shape. No new marks, all limbs in tact, he's doing a good job by himself here. The church is a familiar path to him since he's been wandering the town recently, but he says nothing about it. Let Nico do his dead guy thing.]

This place doesn't need a lot of things, but we've got 'em. [He's not entirely happy with the town, but it's not as bad as it was prior. That's not his favorite question though and he gives an irritated huff in response.]

If I'm counting right, it's been about four months.

[umbraportation]

[ Having been here a week, Nico knows that there's no graveyard at the church but he has to start somewhere and it seems a lot safer to start in town than wander the forest at night. Here's hoping they don't accidentally unleash a hoard of ghosts on the people. ]

So I've heard. [ Now when Nico looks over at Percy, it's in slight surprise because there's no way the other demigod has really been missing for that long back home. He may not be attending Camp but after the last time both Percy and Jason had gone missing nearly everyone knew about it. ]

Time between here and home must be weird because no one's heard about you being gone even with communications down. [ Surely Annabeth would have raised a fuss by actually coming to Camp. ] This place isn't secretly the Labyrinth, right?

[hydrokinetics]

It's not a Labyrinth as far as I know but if you go out into the forest you'll find some hidden areas that appear on their own and disappear when they're not needed. That's how we found the Pit. [The forest is kind of a pain in the ass, but whatever. He doesn't address the time thing just yet, but he asks Nico a question that's relevant to that.]

Nico, what's the last thing you remember? What's going on at home? [There's a sort of edge to his tone, but he'll explain...maybe soonish.]

[umbraportation]

[ He figured not but it was worth a try. In some aspects it does seem similar to the Labyrinth so Nico at least accepts the oddness about this place without issue. Others might have a harder time though. ] The Pit?

[ Does he want to know about the Pit? ]

Apollo's human and it's been a couple of days since he left Camp after receiving a prophecy from the Grove of Dodona. [ Nico hears it. ] We haven't heard anything from them since then but they've probably been busy. You know how it is for demigods to cross the country even if they were flying.

ii

[glaciers]

[Shouto's out and about in the middle of the day. And the middle of the day is usually when he can be found in the garden with a box of whatever happens to be ripe, enough for two people.]

You're just standing over here. If you're hungry, you can take some.

[umbraportation]

[ That is some wild hair. Nico may have gotten caught up in looking at Shouto's hair for a hot minute instead of checking over the garden. Yet he somehow manages to be surprised when the very guy calls out to him. ]

I'm just looking. Checking out the town. [ He risks moving a few steps closer. ] Looks like you guys have got a good garden growing.

[glaciers]

[It's not his fault his hair is like this.]

So you're new?

Yeah. I think Dave started it with his time powers. It's our main source of food.

[umbraportation]

[ He's got nothing against it, he finds it interesting. Nico is not a kid of Aphrodite who worries about what's "in" or not. His all black wardrobe screams unfashionable. ]

Guess so. I washed up in the well with the last group of new arrivals. [ "Washed up", heh. ]

The bulletin board mentioned someone using their abilities to fast-forward plants. Figured I'd come check out the garden for myself.

[glaciers]

[It may or may not be unfashionable but all it screams to Shouto is "Tokoyami type". Somewhere in the back of his head he has to wonder if Nico keeps a bunch of skulls in his room.]

It'd be nice if it wasn't the only way people showed up.

[Because damn, what a pain.]

The guy's pretty cool, if you see him. He wears sunglasses and a lot of red. ... Really hard to miss him.

[umbraportation]

[ Not even the son of Hades wants to have a bunch of skulls in his room. Even if they were just animal skulls. He gets enough time hanging with the dead that Nico doesn't need to have them living with him too. ]

You guys try putting a ladder down there so those without powers could get out?

[ The experience was wet but it could have been worse. At least it seems to be water and not something more grotesque. ]

Are we talking him wearing as much red as I am black because that might be overdoing it. [ It's fine to wear all black, but not that much of an eye-piercing color. ]

[glaciers]

I don't know how to build a ladder. I don't know if anybody here knows that.

[He... doesn't really know how to build a lot of things.]

Yeah. I think so. At least he's easy to spot. [Dave's clothes sure are.... really red. Hard to miss.]

[umbraportation]

It can't really be that hard. And if a ladder's too hard, you could get a rope and put some knots in it for those who need a little help. Plus it could be taken out of the well when not needed.

[ Kids these days... Though really Nico just thinks of these sorts of things because Camp Half-Blood teaches them a lot of various skills to surviving. ]

Maybe I'll talk to him if I see him. [ Nico does have something Dave could help him grow. ]