DOOP
Nico follows Toriel and is happy to see a small house nestled at the back of the cave. How he missed it before, he doesn't know. Maybe finally seeing a tree distracted him? Oh well, he'd here now, and he can finally get some sleep. He follows Toriel inside, where his nose catches a wonderful scent of home baked goods. His mouth waters, he had that tastey green carrot earlier, but he's hungry again.
"Do you smell that? Surprise! It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time while living here."
A wave of uneasiness washes of Nico, leaving a pit in his stomach. Despite her kind tone, the specific wording leaves him feeling the urge to run.
Toriel continues, unaware of Nico's silent distress, "So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight. Here, I have another surprise for you."
She turns and walks down the hall to Nico's right. Nico hesitates for a half a moment, then follows her.
"This is it..." Toriel gently pulls him forward by the hand, "A room of your own. I hope you like it!"
She ruffles his hair again. Nico genuinely hopes that Toriel doesn't really think he'd going to stay here indefinitely, but that kind of seems like where her thoughts are headed. She takes her hand off his head, and sniffs the air.
"Is something burning...? Um, make yourself at home!"
With that, she hurries off back down the hall. Nico takes a couple calming breathes in and out, then pulls open the door to the room he'll be staying in. It's obviously a room for a child younger than himself, but it definitely has a homey feeling. It's got toys, a closet, some spare shoes, but most importantly, a soft looking bed. Nico almost falls into on the spot, but he remembers his tiny friend resting on his shoulder. He drops his blanket from his cabin back at camp on the ground, and makes a makeshift nest for the spider in the folds. He pokes the spider awake, and it drowsily stumbles down his arm and into the blanket. Nico chuckles quietly, then pulls off his shoes, lining them up by the end of the bed. His crawls under the covers and is out before his head hits the pillows.
When he wakes, the room is a lot darker than he remembers. He peaks out from under the covers, and realizes he had forgotten to turn the light out before he fell asleep. It was out now, so Toriel must have come in a checked on him at some point. He rubs the sleep out of his eyes and climbs out of bed. He almost steps on the piece of pie sitting on the middle of the floor. At the rumbling of his stomach, Nico picks up the fork and starts eating it. It's delicious, to say the least. He'd never had thought that butterscotch and cinnamon would go together, but they did. Nico carefully left a small piece from one of the top corners for his still sleeping spider friend. He left it by the blankets, then quietly crept out the door.
His sock clad feet didn't make a sound as he walked down the hall. He stuck is hands in his pockets, and his fingers brushed cold metal. He pulls out a drachma, and remembers his idea for trying to Iris Message someone at camp. Continues down the hall, past the staircase. He'd have to ask Toriel if there was a sink or something he could make a rainbow with. He finds her sitting in a plush armchair, glasses perched on her nose as she reads a book. She looks up as he comes in, her hearing must be amazing.
"Hello my child, did you sleep well?" Nico nods, "Um, I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here. There are so many old books I want to share. I want to show you my favorite bug hunting spot. I've also prepared a curriculum for your education. This may come as a surprise to you... But I've always wanted to be a teacher."
The pit in Nico's stomach had intensified, but surprisingly enough, he didn't really feel afraid. It's more towards he was dreading the time he would tell her he wasn't staying. She seemed pretty lonely here, in this empty but warm house in the empty but cold ruins.
Nico smiles in spite of himself as Toriel continues, "... actually perhaps it isn't very surprising," her face changes for an instant, sort of like it did when she was scaring off the froggit, "STILL."
Nico laughs quietly.
"I am glad to have you living here."
Aaaaand there's the pit back in his stomach. He had to tell her, the sooner, the better. He couldn't stay here, for the first time Nico felt like there were people waiting for him to come back. He didn't want to be forgotten, not anymore.
Toriel gives him the perfect opportunity, "Oh, did you want something? What is it?"
Nico musters up as much courage as he can, and takes a deep breath in, "Toriel, you do know I can't stay here too long, right?"
He feels horrible, Toriel's face saddens almost instantly. Her eyebrows crease, and she looks away from him.
He continues on, "I'm sorry, I really am. You seem like a wonderful and caring person. But I have people waiting for me, probably panicking because I haven't tried to contact them. Toriel, if they don't think I'm dead now, they will soon. The way I got here, it was dangerous for me to do that at the time. I've been doing it way too much lately. They might start thinking I faded away because of it, if I don't get back soon."
Toriel looks back up at him, and tears have made the fur under her eyes damp, "I'm sorry, my child, you are right. I have no right to keep you here when you have a family to get back to."
Nico smiles softly. He didn't feel that particular way about the majority of the camps, but there were the select few that did. Like Hazel, Renya, and maybe even Jason. So he didn't correct her.
"I'd like to try something, is there some place I can make a rainbow?"
She looks confused, but points to the doorway behind her. Nico smiles and nods his thanks, then walks into the cozy little kitchen. He strolls over to the sink and turn it one high. He presses his thumb to the tap and makes a fine spray aimed at the back of the basin. The light in the kitchen is enough to make a faint rainbow. He Pulls one of his drachmas out of his coat pocket. He pauses for a moment to decide who to call, and tosses it into the colorful patch.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Will Solace."
Nico's heart drops when the coin clinks against the sink. Whatever was blocking cell signals and keeping from shadow traveling must be blocking IMs too. Nico turns the tap back off and pockets the drachma. He doesn't know how long he's been down here, but it's probably getting close to twenty-four hours. They're all probably out hunting him down. The thought of them worrying like that makes his stomach twist. He walks back into the previous room and sits down cross legged on the floor in front of where Toriel is still sitting. She looks up from her book again.
"Did the sink work?" she asks.
"Kind of. I got a rainbow, but the IM didn't go through. Something's blocking it," he replies.
"IM?" she asks.
"Iris message," he clarifies.
He waits for a moment, to see if there's any sort of recognition on her face. There is none, instead, she furrows her brows in confusion.
"Like the flower? Why would you need a rainbow for a message sent by a flower?"
Nico smiles softly, "Not an iris, the Iris. With a capital 'I'. She's the greek goddess of the rainbow. She'll make a connection with pretty much whoever you like if you give her an offering."
Toriel's frown deepens, "A goddess? Really?"
Nico nods, "Yeah. I'm actually a demigod. I'm guessing you haven't heard of those?"
Toriel shakes her head, "No, I can't say I have. Maybe you should start from the beginning?"
"This is going to be kind of hard to explain... Are you sure? It will take a while..." he trails off.
"Yes, I think I'd like that. I can tell you my story next, if you like."
Nico nods and smiles again. He takes a moment to gather his thoughts, trying to decide where to start. Might as well ask Toriel, seeing as he's impartial and she's going to have to suffer through his rambling.
"Which beginning do you want? There's the start of the gods, the start with my mother, or the start of when I first found out I'm a demigod."
Toriel cocks her head to the side, "The last one, I think. I think I'd like learning it in the order you did."
"Alright then. Well, when I was around 10, my older sister and I were attending a school called Westover Hall. One day, during a school dance, on of the teachers there tried to kidnap us. Turns out he wasn't human, but the manticore I mention earlier." Nico pauses, checking to make sure Toriel remembered.
Once she nods, he continues, "He was very set on eating us and getting respect from the titans. The titans, they're not exactly good guys. A group of kids a bit older than my sister, Bianca, tried to fight it off. One of them, a girl named Annabeth, got knocked off a cliff in the struggle. Another group of kids came to the rescue, the hunters of Artemis. She's another goddess. The kids from before, or the three that were still left, told us that we were demigods. They wanted us to come back to their training camp of sorts, called Camp Half Blood."
Toriel raises her hand, much to Nico's amusement. He nods, pausing for her question.
"What is a demigod? You never did say."
"Oh, sorry. They're the half human kids of the gods. I'll get to my parentage later," Toriel nods in understanding and Nico continues, "Anyway, the kids that killed the manticore wanted Bianca to join their hunt. It's a girls only thing, and they have to swear off dating boys and stuff. They become immortal, so long as they aren't killed in battle. They don't age and they get to hang out with Artemis all the time, so I can get the appeal. I get why she joined up now, but at the time, I felt angry and betrayed. Especially because I wasn't exactly the easiest kid to like," Nico scrunches up his nose a little, "I... I was annoying and clingy. I didn't understand which questions were okay to ask and which ones crossed the line. It made me hard to be around. I get that now, but again, it just made me even angrier with Bianca for leaving me alone when I didn't have any friends at camp."
Nico pauses for a moment, thinking up more details he might have left out that where important, "So the kids that took me to camp where Percy, a son of Poseidon-the god of the sea; Thalia daughter of Zeus, the god of the sky; Annabeth, the chick who fell of the cliff, was a daughter of Athena, who's the goddess of wisdom and battle tactics; and Grover, who's a satyr. They're these woodland monsters that have the torso of a man, and the pelvis down of a goat. Anyway, once we all made it to camp, and some drama between the hunters and the campers, they set up a quest to find Artemis and Annabeth. Bianca gave me this," Nico holds up his hand so Toriel could see the skull shaped ring on his finger, "before she left with the other hunters, though I didn't know she was going with them at that point. I overheard her and one of the other hunters talking about it a bit later. I made Percy promise to keep her safe, since he was going too so he could look for Annabeth. Demigods die on quests a lot, and I was worried, but it wasn't really fair of me to make him promise..." Nico rubs the back of his neck a little, looking at the floor, "She... She didn't come back. Percy was the one that told me. She saved everyone from this giant sentry robot thing. Being the angry little kid I was, I over reacted. It wasn't his fault, but I told him I hated him, and how I could feel her soul being judged down in the Underworld."
Toriel looks confused again, so Nico elaborated again, "The Underworld is this place, deep underground, where all the souls of the dead go. It's where all the different afterlife places are. Some are nice, others are not so great, painful even. Most anyone who goes down there while still alive don't come back. It's the land of the dead, so the living don't like the atmosphere, it doesn't feel right. It's ruled over by Hades. Along with Zeus and Poseidon, he's one of the most powerful gods. They're usually referred to as "the big three" but it's not official or anything."
Toriel nods in understanding, but still looks confused, "Is it a demigod ability to feel the souls of others being judged? Or is it just siblings?"
"This is actually the part of the story where my parentage was revealed. I was so upset, that I accidentally summoned four skeletal warriors. I didn't really want them to hurt Percy, so I ended up sending them back to the underworld just as fast as I summoned them, but the scar on the ground is still there, at camp. My father is Hades."
Toriel nods again, the confusion gone, "Is that why you're familiar enough with the feel of the Underworld to know that the Underground isn't the same place?"
Nico nods, "Yeah, I've spent a lot of time down there, helping my dad when I can and stuff. Any way, long story short, I disappeared into the Labyrinth, this ever changing gigantic maze under the crust of the earth, where I met this awful ghost named Minos. He convinced me to listen to his instructions, and he taught me how to use my powers. By the time the others found me, he had fed me a LOT of lies. I ended up banishing him, and earned the title, "Ghost King." Very pompous, I know."
Toriel laughs, and Nico smiles at the sound, glad he'd moved past most of the heavy stuff.
"There's not really much else that's really important. I mean, they DID find Artemis and Annabeth. There was a war, and I convinced my dad to fight in it with the other gods. It was quiet for all of three months before Percy got himself kidnapped by Hera, Zeus's wife and goddess of marriage. I found him in this Roman camp, he'd lost his memory."
Toriel raised her hand again, "Roman? Didn't you say it was Greek gods?"
Nico smiles, "Yeah. The Romans adopted pretty much any religion of whoever they took over. Made the people more willing to go quietly, if that makes sense. The Romans did that with the greeks too. They tweaked their legends, mostly names and appearances, but it mostly stayed the same. So the greek gods were influenced by this, and gained this sort of bipolar disorder. Whenever they're around a lot of roman stuff, or there kids, they take on their roman form. Same with the greeks. It's weird, but it also makes sense. I mean, I already knew that the gods could manifest in more than one place at once. So why not be able to change a bit and appear as two different people? It's not that big of a stretch..."
Nico sighs, "It's strange that it makes sense to me, why is my life so weird."
Toriel laughs louder this time, and after she quiets down a bit, Nico continues.
"Anyway, so while Percy was at Camp Jupiter, the roman camp, this kid named Jason was being toted off to Camp Half Blood. He's a son of Jupiter, who's Zeus's equivalent. The camp's name makes sense now, right? Hera had heard this prophecy and decided she knew what it was supposed to mean. But nobody really knows that, they're confusing and vague. It worked out in the end, we stopped a civil war and made a bunch of new friends. I..." Nico trails off, wondering where his ADHD brain was going with this, "I finally feel like camp is home. Both of them. It's a nice change."
Toriel smiles and asks, "I said earlier that you had a family to get back to, and you didn't correct me. Am I right in assuming that you feel like you have family there?"
Nico nods, a small smile slipping onto his face, "Yeah, Jason is actually one of them. We ended up becoming good friends during a quest a while after the mix up between Jason and Percy was straightened out. He's like an overly supportive older brother, really. Other than him, there's my half sister Hazel. She's a daughter of Pluto, Hades's equivalent. I found her in the underworld when I was looking for Bianca. I couldn't find her, but decided that Hazel deserved a second chance. I brought her to Camp Jupiter. She was on that quest with Jason too, along with Percy, Annabeth, the two greek demigods that were with Jason when he was first taken by Hera, and Hazel's boyfriend. The two that came with Jason are Piper and Leo. I'm not particular close with either of them, but they seem nice enough. Piper's a daughter of Aphrodite, who's the goddess of love and beauty, and Leo's a son of Hephaestus, god of forges. Hazel's boyfriend, Frank, is a son of Mars. He's the roman god of war, but Frank's a big softie. He takes good care of Hazel, and she really cares about him. Plus he likes mythomagic, so maybe we could be friends, you know, if I had some time to actually talk to him now that the quest is over."
Toriel asks, "How long have you been back? I'm assuming that you're referring to the same quest that all these people were on..."
Nico blinks, "Oh, no, not really. We got back the day before I first fell down here. I've fallen asleep around three times since then, but I'm not sure how long it's actually been. I used up a lot of magic, I almost faded into shadows at some point."
Toriel looks alarmed, but Nico waves her off, completely unworried, "Don't make that face, I'm fine now. Solace stuffed some Ambrosia down my throat once he got a moment and rushed me off to bed. I've slept enough not to fade away, but using my powers sounds like a bad idea right now. At least, not until I get another couple full nights of rest."
The stiffness in his legs reminds him of how long he's been talking, and he feels a wave of embarrassment. He scratches the back of his head sheepishly.
"I've been talking about a lot of random stuff for a few hours now, haven't I?"
Toriel laughs again and nods, "Yes, but I don't mind, my child. You strike me as someone who needs to talk more than they normally do."
Nico feels the barest hints of a blush dust his cheeks, "Should I keep going then?"
Toriel nods, another warm smile painting her face, "If you would."
Nico smiles softly again, he seems to be doing a lot of that around this kind monster.
"Well, other than Hazel and Jason, there's one other person I feel like is close enough to me to be considered family. That's the roman praetor Reyna. She went with me and the satyr, coach Hedge, to take this gigantic statue of Athena back to Camp Half Blood from Greece. Note that that was literally halfway around the world at the time. Also the only form of transportation we had at the time was one of my powers, called shadow travel. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like, I use shadows to sort of teleport. The only reason I had enough strength to keep jumping from place to place with that much cargo is because Reyna was using one of her powers. She's a daughter of Bellona, one of the few roman gods that doesn't have a greek equivalent. She can lend her strength and feelings to others, which is super useful as a leader. She could use it to inspire a crowd or take away the panic of her army. She only uses it in emergencies, though, most of her amazing leadership skills are all her own, not a gift from her mother. One reason is whenever she uses it, it's like a two way thing. She gives them some of her strength and feelings, and they give her some of their's. She's maybe the only person in the world that really understands what I'm feeling, and vice versa."
Toriel smiles at him again, nodding in understanding. "You sound like really good friends," her grin suddenly turn mischievous, "but there's one kind of relationship I've yet to hear about from you."
Nico understands what she's implying, and the tips of his ears turn a bit pink. He hides his face in his hands, and groans.
"Why do you want to know about that?" he says.
"Because I'm a nosey old lady who worries too much," she nods, like that's the best reason in the world for wanting to know about his love life.
"Fine, but only a little bit."
Toriel cheers, and Nico rolls his eyes, an exasperated smile on his face.
"Do you remember me mentioning a Solace?"
Torial nods, and leans forward, all of her attention solely focused on him.
"Well, his first name is Will, he's a son of Apollo, god of the sun. I only really met him a couple days ago, but I swear whenever he smiles, it... it's like I can't breath and an explosion of butterflies erupts in my stomach."
Nico crosses his arms and closes his eyes, nodding slightly. He wasn't going to say anymore than that. He cracks one eye open when Toriel makes a small squeal noise. She's sitting up really straight, leaning away from the back of her chair. She hands are bunched together and hiding her mouth, but he can see she's smiling. She starts bouncing a bit in place, and Nico laughs quietly.
Toriel asks, "Do you think he likes you back?"
Nico shrugs, "I haven't known him very long, remember? I think he at least wants to get to know me, or make sure I'm healthy or something. He was pretty insistent on me getting three day of solid rest when he saw my foot fall through the ground. He's one of the reasons why I want to get back quickly. Percy and Jason played a prank on me, I was sleeping and they flipped my mattress. I panicked and shadow traveled without a destination in mind. Whenever I do that, I end up in a random place. This time I appeared above a mountain, and fell down here. So, if I don't contact them or find a way home quickly..."
Toriel finishes for him, "They might think you disappeared for good this time."
Nico nods, a worried from on his face. There's a lull in the conversation, then Nico speaks again.
"I tried to shadow travel back up before you found me. I had fallen asleep almost as soon and I first landed, and when I woke up, I felt well enough to at least get myself onto the mountain side. When I tried... I hit something. How can you run into something when you don't have a physical form?" he asks.
Toriel sighs, and places a paw to her chin.
"You must have hit the barrier. I guess this is a good place to start my story. Did you have anything more you wanted to tell me?"
Nico felt like he'd said enough about the past today, maybe he'd tell her more another time, but for now he shakes his head.
"All right then. Well, I guess I should start with why the monsters are down here. A long time ago, the monsters and the humans both lived on the surface, but it could not last. The humans, with souls so powerful that they would last after death, were afraid of the monsters. Because the monsters could absorb their souls, and gain amazing strength from doing so. There was a war, and the humans won. They drove all of the monsters under a Mount Ebbott, and put a seal around the cavern so living things could only go in, not out. It would take the power of one human and one monster soul to go through the barrier, and seven human souls to break it. You could take all the monster souls in all of the underground and only have the power of one human soul. I think I might actually have a book with more details, over on the shelf behind you, if you're interested."
Nico nods, storing the idea away for later, when he could take as much time as he needed.
"Next I should probably tell you my status. I'm the queen of the monsters in the underground."
Nico raises his eyebrows, but the rest of his face stays neutral.
"This is actually the royal crest on my dress, it's called the Delta Rune. But that's besides the point, why would a queen hide away from her people?"
Nico shrugs, waiting for Toriel to explain.
"Because she was disgusted with the choices of her king. Before I hid away, before these were ruins, I lived happily with my husband, Asgore, and my son, Asriel. One day, Asriel went out to where I found you to play. He came back with a human child, a little younger than you are now. Their name was Chara. They where hurt from the fall, but we healed them. They became fast friends with Asriel, and soon we adopted them. We were happy."
Nico whispers, "I'm sensing a 'but'."
Toriel nods, then says, "One day, Chara fell very ill. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, we'd heal them with magic, and they'd get a bit better. The next day, they would be worse than before. They died, and the entire kingdom wept. Their dying wish was to see the golden flowers that grew in their village, back on the surface. Asriel absorbed their soul, and with that power, went through the barrier with Chara's body. When he came back, he was covered in wounds and blood. He died in the garden, and golden flowers have bloomed there ever since. That was in the new castle, where Asgore undoubtedly lives."
Toriel had started crying at some point in her story, and once she is finished talking, Nico stands and walks over to her chair.
"I'm sorry," he says, "I lost my mom when I was very young. Any memories I had of her were wiped by my dad. I guess he thought it would be easier for Bianca and I that way. That doesn't really compare to losing two kids in one night, but I probably understand better than most."
Toriel's tears slow a little, and she gently pulled him into a hug.
"Thank you, Nico. I will do my best to help you get out of here. The ruins start to feel small once you get used to them, it wouldn't be fair to try to keep you here, even if you can't find a way to leave."
Nico buries his face into her warm and soft shoulder. He didn't know how he would do it, but he would make it out of the Underground. At the very least, he would find a way to get word out that he was alive and well.
Just like when he met Napstablook, Nico felt a swell of determination.
