So I haven't written anything on these in three years. And I was such a bad writer back then in my opinion, at least when it came to character development, so I'm rewriting a lot of my old stories. It has made me so happy to see this story getting so much love, given that I posted it over two and a half years ago and haven't updated it in two years. Like, it almost puts me in tears to see the "keep going" "keep writing this" comments because I can't. I can't keep writing it the way I used to because I've changed as a writer and I now give a shit about plot and description and good character development and shit, whereas I didn't when I started this story. Also, I may not have the time. I'm going into my junior year of high school, the main thing that's kept me from my fanfiction for the past two years.
This is a Nico/OC story, where the OC is a child of Iris, and yeah…basically a self-insert with a different name, I'm sorry. And for those who haven't read the heroes of Olympus series, please disregard the following section: I know Riordan writes Nico as having a crush on Percy, and that's caused some controversy over his sexuality, but Nico is also shown as being embarrassed by contact with girls. So, I believe he is bisexual, but you can interpret his sexuality however you want.
My character's name is Vanessa Ella Smith. Vanessa because it's a Greek name meaning butterfly, which are typically very colorful; Ella because it means fairy in English and (I think) light or bright in Greek. I am bit tentative on these translations though, so don't quote me. One of my sources also told me that people named Ella tend to be creative and drawn to the arts, which I thought was fitting given that she is a child of Iris, goddess of the rainbow.
The first few chapters will be a bit of an introduction, but Nico will show up eventually. Most of the powers and abilities I'm writing about, come directly from the books or the wiki. Otherwise, they come from headcanons, which, when they come up, will be explained in my author's notes.
So, yeah, enjoy the story, follow and favorite if you like, rates and reviews are welcome. Constructive criticism is most certainly welcome, so thank you in advance.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series, as that belongs to Rick Riordan. Any similarities of my character to a real person is purely coincidental.
~*~ 3rd Person POV ~*~
Vincent Smith stood at an easel, facing the sunrise over the ocean. His feet were covered in sand, his sandals doing nothing to protect them from the gritty substance. His dirty blond hair smoothed back over his head, his wife beater and board shorts showing off his pale skin stretched over his toned body, his green eyes flashing with the excitement of doing what he loves. Vincent Smith was an artist, one of many trying to capture the beauty of the rising sun over the water of New York's beaches.
Unknown to the artist, however, there was another on the beach at this time of day. A woman with warm brown hair and dark eyes stood watching from afar, adorned with a gauzy dress that seemed to shimmer in all the colors of the rainbow. She watched as the man at the easel mixed the colors on his palette as fast as he could, trying to capture the colorful scene in front of him. She thought he would fail, as most artists do, to capture the pure beauty of the sunrise, but as she looked on, she was pleasantly surprised to find that she was incorrect in her judgment.
Deciding to make her presence known, she walked to the man as he was packing his materials up, his painting still upon the easel. "In all my time," the woman began, startling the man, "I've never seen anyone skilled enough to capture the beauty of the sunrise so expertly. You truly are a wonderful artist."
Vincent blushed at the compliment. "Thank you, uh…" The man trailed off, searching for this beautiful woman's name.
"Iris," she supplied.
"Iris," the artist repeated. "That's a lovely name, perfect for a woman as lovely as yourself. My name's Vincent." He stuck out his hand before noticing it was covered in paint splotches. Before he could take his hand back to wipe it off, Iris grabbed his hand and shook it, fully aware of the paint now transferring itself to her own hand.
"It's nice to meet you, Vincent," she said with a warm smile and an amused look in her eyes.
~*~ Time Skip ~*~ 4 years later ~*~
"Daddy, Daddy, look what I made!" were the joyful screams that Vincent Smith heard from his 3-year-old daughter Vanessa as she ran up to him with a piece of paper in her hands. She had her father's green eyes, but her mother's warm brown hair. And even though she was only 3, Vincent could tell she would grow up to look just like the goddess he'd met on the beach. He chuckled as he set down his palette and paintbrush and crouched down to meet his daughter at her level. She shoved the piece of paper in his face with a loud, "Look!"
He gently took the paper from his daughter's hands and inspected the colorful illustration she had made of what appeared to be a woman with brown hair, dark eyes, and colorful clothes. It was by no means the best portrait he'd ever seen, but it was still pretty good for a 3-year-old. "Who's this, sweetie?" he asked, thinking maybe his daughter had drawn Ms. Young from the house next door.
Ms. Young was a kind woman, around Vincent's age, who had a passion for art like he did. They would sometimes be found discussing the pros and cons of certain paint brands over tea. She did dress colorfully, but she had blonde hair and blue eyes, not brown hair and dark eyes, like his daughter had drawn. Perhaps it was Mrs. Green from across the street. Vanessa and Mrs. Green's daughter Acacia were often seen playing and drawing together, even if Acacia was a few years older. Mrs. Green had brown hair, like the picture, but she had green eyes and dressed in shades of brown and green, instead of rainbows, like the woman in the picture apparently did. Vincent was snapped out of his thoughts by his daughter's voice. "That's my mommy," Vanessa said proudly, putting her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her feet.
Vincent looked back down at the drawing and felt tears pricking the back of his eyes. It was. It looked exactly like the goddess he'd met on the beach a few years ago. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat and forced the tears back. He looked back up at his daughter. "Vanessa, sweetie," he started carefully, "you don't have a mommy, remember?"
"But I do," his daughter protested. "She visits me while I'm sleeping and tells me she loves me. She wears pretty clothes and she sparkles, too." Vincent froze. Yep, it was definitely her.
"What do you mean, 'when you're sleeping?'" he asked, hoping she wasn't sneaking into the house or anything.
"She sends me sweet dreams and tells me I'm special," Vanessa said. Okay, false alarm…sorta. There was no intruder, but now Vincent knew that Iris was in contact with their daughter.
"You are, sweetie," Vincent said, hugging his daughter close. "You are very special, my little butterfly."
~*~ Time Skip ~*~ 3 years later ~*~
"Daddy, do you have to go?" whined a 6-year-old Vanessa as she watched her father get ready for his date with Ms. Young. He was finishing buttoning up his shirt and pulled his suspenders up over his shoulders.
"Yes, sweetie," Vincent replied, turning around and bending down to his daughter's level and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "But don't worry. I've hired a very nice girl to watch over you while I'm gone. Her name is Tammi." Just then, the doorbell rang. "That's probably her." He walked Vanessa to the door and opened it to reveal a blonde-haired cheerleader-looking girl with glaring icy blue eyes and a fake smile of pearly, perfect, white teeth.
"Hi, Mr. Smith," she chirped. "I'm Tammi, we spoke over the phone."
"Right, of course, please come in," he replied, waving her in.
She stepped inside and looked around. "What a lovely home you have," she said. "Is all of this artwork yours?"
"Well, some of it," Vincent answered, chuckling a bit. "Others were done by some of my friends." Finally, Tammi noticed little Vanessa hiding behind her father's legs.
"You must be Vanessa," Tammi practically purred, flashing another fake grin. "We are gonna have so much fun tonight."
Vanessa hid behind her father even more and tugged on his shirt. "Dad, I'm scared," she whined. "Why can't I just stay over at Acacia's house?"
"Because Acacia's family is having relatives over and we can't impose on them," her dad replied. "Now stop being silly and say hi to Tammi. You're being really rude right now." She shuffled out of hiding and looked up at Tammi, who was smiling wickedly down at her. "Well, I should get going. My cell number, the pizza place number, and some money is on the counter in the kitchen. Vanessa's favorite is pepperoni and sausage. Please make sure she's in bed by 9. Vanessa, be good for Tammi. No ice cream until after dinner, okay? I love you, I'll see you when I get home." He bent down to give her a kiss on the forehead, grabbed his keys and wallet, and left.
~*~ Time Skip ~*~ 1 hour later ~*~
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Vanessa let out a loud scream as Tammi chased her around the house. This had been going on for the last half an hour. Probably longer because not even half an hour after Vincent had left, Vanessa had seen Tammi change into some type of monster with pale white skin, red eyes, flames for hair, long claws, fangs, and two mismatched legs, one that was an animal leg and the other made of some type of metal. It clunked around as she chased Vanessa up the stairs and into her father's studio. She, like any evil bitch monster would do with flaming hair, had been torching the place, as well, alerting the neighbors that something was wrong, in case the screaming didn't give it away. Sirens in the distance meant the police, the fire brigade, and probably the paramedics were on their way.
While in the studio, there was a loud knocking at the door. "Vanessa!" It was Acacia. "Vanessa!"
"Acacia!" Vanessa screamed, cornered in the small studio, Tammi closing in on her, Vincent's paintings and supplies burning around them. "Acacia, help me!" She managed to duck around Tammi, but not before she raked her claws against Vanessa's side, giving her a deep gash. Vanessa screamed in pain, but she kept running, down the stairs as Acacia was coming up them. Acacia grabbed Vanessa's hand and dragged her down the stairs and out the front door, which had been kicked in. As they made it outside, they collapsed on the grass of Vanessa's front lawn.
It was then that Vanessa noticed Acacia's legs, letting out another scream. "What? What is it?" Acacia asked, looking around in a panic.
"Y-your legs!" Vanessa yelled, pointing at the limbs, which were that of a goat. "Why do you have goat legs?" Just as Acacia was about to answer, they heard the tell-tale clunking of Tammi's metallic leg as she made her way outside.
"I'll explain in a bit, Van," Acacia said in a low voice as she stood up. "For now, lemme take care of Tammi." Vanessa just nodded and moved behind Acacia. What happened next was a blur, literally. Vanessa's vision started to blur together as she collapsed on the lawn, passing out from exhaustion. All she could remember was the sound of metal cutting through flesh and a high-pitched scream.
When she woke up, she was moving, or at least, the ambulance she was in was moving, but of course she was too young to realize that. When she opened her eyes, she saw the doors in the back, lights whizzing past as they drove through traffic. She looked to her right and saw Acacia, nervously chewing her nails, no more goat legs. She looked to her left and saw her dad looking at her worriedly. "Vanessa, can you hear me, sweetheart?"
"Daddy, what's going on?" she asked in a tired voice. "What happened?"
"I'll tell you later, sweetie, but right now, you're in an ambulance. We're on our way to the hospital, where the doctors are gonna ask you a few questions about how you're feeling, okay? For now, just go back to sleep, baby."
Vanessa yawned, "Okay," and shut her eyes, going back to sleep. She woke up again when her dad was carrying her into the hospital.
"Time to wake up now, baby girl," she heard her dad's voice say. "The doctors need to ask you a few questions. He carried her into a room and set her down on the examination chair so she was sitting on the edge. A doctor came in, checked her vital signs, asked her dad a few questions, and left, no questions for Vanessa at all. She caught a few things of what they were saying, something about "diss-lecks-ee-uh" and "ay-dee-aytch-dee" but otherwise, she was too tired to pay attention. She just wanted to go home and sleep some more and see her mommy.
"Daddy, can we go home yet?" she asked in a tired voice, rubbing her eyes. "I'm tired. I wanna see mommy again."
"Don't worry sweetie, we'll go home in a little bit. I'll tell you everything in the morning." As Vanessa started to fall back asleep, Vincent picked her up and walked down to the discharge desk to get her released, Acacia following right behind him.
~*~ Time Skip ~*~ the next morning ~*~
Luckily most of the house and a lot of the things in it had survived the fire. Vincent's studio, however had not. And now there were fire damage marks over the house, a lot of things were scorched, but there were more things that could just be washed and end up fine.
Vanessa woke up that morning very slowly. Thank fully it was already summer break, so she didn't have to worry about school or getting dressed. She walked down the stairs, clutching the handrail with one hand and rubbing her eyes with the other. When she got to the kitchen, she saw that her dad had made pancakes. "Good morning, sweetheart," came her dad's voice. "How did you sleep?"
"Okay," she replied, pulling herself up onto a chair at the table to wait for pancakes. A plate slid in front of her and she immediately dug in. While she was eating, the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it, sweetie," her dad said, patting her head and heading towards the door. He opened it and said, "Oh good morning, Acacia. Would you like to come in for breakfast? I made pancakes."
"Morning, Mr. Smith, and yes, I would love a plate. Thank you." He let Acacia in and she came and took a seat next to Vanessa. A plate was slid in front of Acacia, and she dug in. when the girls had finished their food, Acacia said she had to talk to them about what had happened.
The three of them moved to the living room, and Acacia sat Vanessa and her father on the couch. "Now, Vanessa," she started, "I've already been talking to your dad about this, but you should know: you're not normal." Vanessa nodded with wide eyes as Acacia kept going. "You're half-human, half-god. You're a demigod, Vanessa. All those Greek myths you love reading about, they're real, and you get to be a part of them."
"Wow, really?" Vanessa asked, bouncing with excitement. Acacia nodded with a serious look on her face. Vanessa noticed this and stopped bouncing, but she couldn't contain her grin.
"Yes, Vanessa, really," Acacia continued. "Your mother, from what your father has told me, is Iris, goddess of the rainbow. And I'm a satyr, that's why you saw me with goat legs last night."
"I knew that wasn't a dream," Vanessa whispered to herself seriously.
"No, it wasn't," Acacia chuckled. "And if it's okay with both you and your father, I'd like to take you to a special summer camp for kids like you, a camp for demigods. It's called Camp Half-Blood."
Thus began Vanessa's life as a demigod.
So yeah, hi. This was essentially the new prologue for this story, I'm going to be rewriting the chapters a bit to give better character development and such, not give everything away so quickly, even though I've already stated how this is going to end up. If you've read the Heroes of Olympus series (including Blood of Olympus), then you should know that so have I, and I will try and accommodate that into this story, if only just a little. But there will be some of that while still keeping this relationship…I think.
