[ the start to the conversation is easy enough and nico can't express how grateful he is that she's not jumping right into the topic that lingers like shadows between them. it gives him time and space to just breathe as well as think without feeling anxious. his hands drop to their sides and then slip into his pockets. this way, with shoulders slumped, he looks a bit more like she'd first seen him, though not nearly so young.
his body has aged, after all. in eudio, it's been as if they needed to make sure his age isn't questioned, and though he's somewhere around 87 years old or so, he looks all the world like a typical teenager, broody and introspective. it's just his eyes that betray his true age: the eyes of a boy who'd been put aside for nearly a decade only to be drawn out again and thrust into a war in which he never wanted to fight. eyes of a boy who'd walked through tartarus and saw its horrors unmasked. a boy who clung to life, pomegrante seed by pomegrante seed.
said eyes are settled now on annabeth. as he'd expect, she seems calm and collected. but he remembers. percy and annabeth clinging desperately as he reached for them. wishing there was some way he could save them from the horrors he'd experienced. but he'd been too weak and he hates himself for that.
the one you care for most... plunged into tartarus, and you still will not allow the truth?
nico almost winces as the memory surfaces. it would be too easy to sink back into that despair again and even as they walk, a bit of the grass at his feet wilts. he swallows, not wanting to let this get to him, but being strong has always been hard for him when it comes to his emotions.
because maybe that's how the fatal flaw of a child of hades works. holding grudges can be dangerous. especially when one holds a grudge against himself. it's taken nico a long time to accept himself, but there are still moments when that same cold feeling seeps into him and threatens to drag him under.
and it's not like he blames annabeth. once more, it's that grudge making him angry with himself, making him blame himself. he kicks at a dying tuft of grass and shrugs. ]
Six months or so. I arrived... shortly before Percy.
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his body has aged, after all. in eudio, it's been as if they needed to make sure his age isn't questioned, and though he's somewhere around 87 years old or so, he looks all the world like a typical teenager, broody and introspective. it's just his eyes that betray his true age: the eyes of a boy who'd been put aside for nearly a decade only to be drawn out again and thrust into a war in which he never wanted to fight. eyes of a boy who'd walked through tartarus and saw its horrors unmasked. a boy who clung to life, pomegrante seed by pomegrante seed.
said eyes are settled now on annabeth. as he'd expect, she seems calm and collected. but he remembers. percy and annabeth clinging desperately as he reached for them. wishing there was some way he could save them from the horrors he'd experienced. but he'd been too weak and he hates himself for that.
the one you care for most... plunged into tartarus, and you still will not allow the truth?
nico almost winces as the memory surfaces. it would be too easy to sink back into that despair again and even as they walk, a bit of the grass at his feet wilts. he swallows, not wanting to let this get to him, but being strong has always been hard for him when it comes to his emotions.
because maybe that's how the fatal flaw of a child of hades works. holding grudges can be dangerous. especially when one holds a grudge against himself. it's taken nico a long time to accept himself, but there are still moments when that same cold feeling seeps into him and threatens to drag him under.
and it's not like he blames annabeth. once more, it's that grudge making him angry with himself, making him blame himself. he kicks at a dying tuft of grass and shrugs. ]
Six months or so. I arrived... shortly before Percy.