Ok, it's been a while, but I wasn't truly sure about the direction I wanted to take for this next few chapters, but I'm kind of hyped, and I have the feeling that I've learned something in the meantime about the building of a character and the weaving of lore into a story, instead of having a single chapter dedicated to 'power-exploration'.
In case you've forgotten, Icarus (who is dying slowly because of the mysterious 'Names have Power' thing that I'm unveiling bit to bit) is leading the Adamas into the Sea of Monsters looking for the Golden Fleece to bring Thalia back into human form, since she ended up as a tree.
Besides the adventures and pieces of information that I've more or less freely shared up to this point by writing a few reaction-perspectives, Icarus ended up shoring up his ship and his people on the Lotus Island, and just as Circe had both a modern SPA and a bucolic island, he reasoned that from the island, he can walk into the Lotus Club, grab Bianca (powerful demigoddess that casually dropped her brother to have some eternal fun with Artemis' bunch) and return to his search for the Golden Fleece.
Friendly Exchange
The vast room had its ceiling completely covered in mirrors, with cracks in them that let in blazing, colorful lights that shone over the dancing crowd beneath them. The speakers rose in a chaotic pattern along the walls that were covered with great plasma TVs, each giving life to a stroboscopic display that the mortals barely noticed.
There were stairs on each side of the strangely shaped room that perfectly contained the ever-changing number of dancing people inside, and a twisting corridor that led to another area of the 'Hotel'.
The Lotus Casino, because Casino was a much more exact term to refer to that place, was without a doubt the most lavish place any mortal could ever step foot in: from the videogames to the pools to the food, it was made to thoroughly entertain, to make the mortals slide slowly into a state of being that was close to merely 'existing' than to truly 'living'.
Each mortal walking in was given a card to 'pay' for whatever they wished inside, was fed a lotus petal under the form of a 'snack', and then left to their own devices. After that, a mortal generally was led to visit the room assigned to the newcomers, which was used more as an excuse to abandon everything they had with them than for anything else, since when tiredness overcame someone, he or she simply collapsed on a random couch or armchair that allowed them to rest without ever leaving the 'fun'.
Hermes, god of the Travelers, walked in the place with resigned distaste: some humans were tangentially aware that they were being left behind, that they were crystallized in a single instant of bliss while the world had long since forgotten them, and that was the only thing they truly sought. Escapism at its most extreme: laughter and music loud enough to drown the thoughts resilient enough to poke through the leaden dullness that the lotus petals were capable of inducing.
All those souls, souls that could have burned so brightly, either in joy or in anguish, were simply there. And consciously or not, they had forsaken the struggle implicit in their every breath, they lacked that awareness of themselves that pushed mankind towards greater and greater heights.
There were no thieves here, no warriors, no explorers, no dreamers, simply souls that were content with their meaninglessness. Something that was accepted as the better alternative. There were only people who had stopped caring a long time before, awaiting to die without a single thought spared for the value of their lives.
The god sighed sadly as he walked unseen, his steps perfectly quiet even if the blaring of the music would have covered a tank vomiting an endless stream of artillery shots, until he spotted his target, and a genuine smile flashed over his lips.
Purposeful. That was a word that well described the bright existence of Icarus: the demigod appeared tired, even with no bags under his eyes, and wasn't the presence of two of them a surprise? Even if the mechanical one was dim when compared to the lone organic eye the demigod was left with.
He looks terrible. The thought rose unbidden to the forefront of the god's mind: Icarus' cheeks were just a bit sunk in, his steps wavered just a little, not something that any mortal could perceive, even as his weight rested heavily on his crutch as he walked, the crowd parting around him instinctively.
An impish grin appeared on Hermes features, who finally assumed a defined shape: curly blond hair that reached just beyond his ears, striking blue eyes, a slightly upturned nose, and round, broad shoulders.
Before he could engage and start to talk with the demigod that had managed to hop from smack middle of the Sea of Monsters into Las Vegas' most infamous trap for mortals, Hermes paused, and truly looked.
Besides the new burn scar that covered the area surrounding the mechanical eye of the demigod, with the Mist doing a wonderful job of keeping his appearance from scaring the mortals around, the tall, bladed staff that he relied on at each step was heavy to Hermes senses in a way few things could be, and instinctively, the god stopped in his advance: while the metal part of the weapon looked like your usual Celestial Bronze, on side of it was... dangerous.
It was as if the blade of a straight sword had been roughly snapped in half along its length, leaving behind a jagged wound, which for some reason was far more deadly than the proper edge of bronze. There was a faint shimmer to it, as if the blood of the favorite daughter of Tartarus was only waiting to lash out, to sear and tear.
Then the Mist quivered back into place, and Icarus was relying once more on a simple aluminum crutch.
It was little wonder that Athena wanted Icarus gone: besides the open disrespect of not asking nor sacrificing anything to her when he decided of building an entire city, that weapon held a potential that few others ever did. It didn't help that the haft of the tool used to kill Kampê was made from a branch of Hera's Golden Tree.
At the memory of how the demigod in question had managed to so easily outdo Herakles by relying on Hermes' talents, the god of thieves barely held back a delighted bout of laughter.
The attention of the God of Trade returned to the demigod, who kept moving across the crowd, his eyes roaming over people he quickly dismissed, pausing only to accept with a smile every Lotus Petal that he was given, only to store them into his pockets.
But the true focus of the god remained on the traveler's eyes: in particular to the only organic one he was left with, which almost seemed to shine. And around it, visible only to those that had golden ichor in their veins, Hermes noted the infinitesimal cracks of golden light burning through the skin of the demigod, as if his body could barely contain what was inside.
A twinge of sadness returned to color the god's thoughts when he put together what the mortal had accomplished thus far with his defiant attitude: truly, there weren't other paths for him to take, he would either manage to find a new balance, and die right after because of the stress, or shatter, his soul scattered and for the Furies to collect separately.
Still, Hermes had a message to give, and cloaked as he was as a random mortal, he could complete his task despite Zeus' orders, especially in the Lotus Casino, which couldn't be observed from afar.
Almost suddenly, Icarus stopped in his prowling across the halls of the Lotus Casino, and an eager smile appeared on his face: something that resembled a baring of teeth to the world just a bit too much to be described in any way that wasn't 'feral'.
With a new certainty to his step, the demigod dove into the crowd, and he quickly found himself smiling and chatting with an apparently random girl. She had olive skin with just a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose, while her silky, dark hair covered her shoulders.
Even when everything about Icarus appeared clear, even when his immediate future was obvious to any god with half a brain to spare, the demigod managed to intrigue and to entertain. And the best part was that he wasnìt even remotely aware of it!
Hermes took a couple of steps closer, weaving into the crowd with the expert grace that only he possessed, and felt the anticipation of the event he was witnessing grow with each passing moment. What did Icarus have in common with the girl? Had he been looking for her specifically? If yes, why?
In a matter of minutes, Icarus had led the smiling girl to a small table in a more or less secluded area of the Lotus Casino, where the music that still persisted didn't manage to cover his words: enough for Hermes to listen in by casually lounging on a more or less nearby couch.
"...ren't you bored?" Icarus voice was somewhat ragged, as if it carrying with it an echo of the weariness that must have been weighing on his mortal body, "You've played everything that there was to play here, tasted everything they could offer, over and over by now... would you like instead to try something new?"
And there it was. Hermes smiled when he heard those words, something that had nothing to do with charisma seeping into them as the demigod skillfully manipulated the Mist around the little table he was sharing with the younger girl, his voice trailing off into sounds that couldn't have escaped a human mouth: the rolling of waves rose steadily, warcries chorused in the background, roars and the cracking of stone tinkered right under the table, and even thunder echoed in a controlled manner, only audible to Icarus, the dark-haired child in front of him, and the eavesdropping Hermes.
The confused girl looked around with glazed eyes, the oblivion of the Lotus' charm waning ever so slightly as something wild was shown to her by the demigod's words
Hermes smiled as the words of Icarus transitioned smoothly into Greek, the Mist being skillfully manipulated to build images after the impossibilities that left his lips: the blue of the deepest sea was brought forth, an unbearably grey sky was shown as if it was a column, giants were shown bleeding out on the ground, and flames appeared as seen from far above while they devoured some establishment reletlessly.
It was clear that Icarus was leveraging all he had to perform a fascinating recruitment drive: but the question in Hermes' mind could only grow more prominent and heavy: why did the demigod wish to recruit the apparently random girl? Why did he want her so much? What did she have of unique, and how could Icarus know something that escaped the careful eye of the God of Thieves?
Finally, it was with wide eyes that Hermes observed Icarus extend an indulgent finger towards the girl he was seated with: in the moment his finger touched her forehead, her glassy look disappeared, and she clasped hard at the edge of the table, breath suddenly leaving her in ragged gasps, as if the world had suddenly swapped up and down.
It was then that a part of the truth was revealed to the god spying on the unlikely duo: the girl was demigod too.
That only exacerbated the curiosity of the God of Trade: it wasn't unheard of that powerful demigods were granted glimpses of Fate's Tapestry in their dreams, but something as random as the revealing of a demigod that had clearly been hidden purposefully was far too specific, and it didn't have the right kind of weight to echo into the uncaring minds of other mortals.
"What... what have you done?" the girl's voice was surprisingly steady as her dark eyes flashed imperiously at the older demigod, who smiled widely as an answer, before shrugging uncaringly.
"You almost managed to free yourself on your own, I barely had to nudge you right there..." the scarred demigod hunched forward expectantly, his only organic eye flashing with anticipation while his teeth remained bared: "To long for freedom and adventure to the point that you'd be able to cut through the Lotus' influence on your own, even when so young and unaware."
Icarus' delight was plain to see, even if he didn't laugh thunderously as Hermes would have expected: "You've seen a small part of what I usually get up to, wouldn't you like to join? Let's say temporarily, if it turns out that gallivanting freely isn't your cup of tea, I'll return you here, to the company of your brother."
"My brother!" the girls' head turned suddenly as if she wished to summon him with her mere eyes, but her shoulders remained turned in the direction of Icarus, and then she parsed through what she had been told: "Wait... I still want to know why you'd offer me a place on your adventures... why haven't I heard about your game before? And why can't Nico come with?"
Hermes blinked from his hidden position, his confusion lasting an instant before he put together the puzzle: the girl didn't know she was a demigod! And while Icarus clearly knew that, and likely much more, he had decided to keep that truth under silence for the time being, perhaps wisely, as the reaction of the girl was not easy to predict: it was much easier to present himself as someone offering a new option sponsored by the Lotus Casino, and only if the dark-haired child accepted he'd reveal some of the critical information he so closely guarded.
"Too young, too boring, too needy... take your pick, my game isn't the kind in which we can hold your hand for too long." Icarus answered honestly, "Besides, would you really enjoy yourself if you had to look after the brat?"
She was a demigod, but one too unaware of herself and her own nature to be anything more than the smallest blip on Hermes' radar. And yet, the mere fact that Icarus had apparently been seeking her out rose her importance significantly, as well as how cleary sheer longing could be seen in her dark eyes, which were nailed on the older demigod's form... oh, how interesting was that combination of events!
How could Icarus know exactly what buttons to push to entice her so? To any observer, and in truth to more or less anybody else, the vague descriptions given by the scarred demigod would be off-putting, to say the least.
Instead, this particular girl seemed to be thirsty exactly for what the undisputed captain of the Adamas had offered, vagueness included.
"I... I need to think about it." the dark-haired youth was frowning heavily, her eyes seemed even darker than before, cast in shadows as they were.
Icarus accepted readily the wavering answer of the girl, likely knowing that she had already made her decision, and she only asked for time to rationalize what to her should have logically been the most foolhardy thing ever: a perfect stranger offers to let you in in a 'Game' that would let you leave for a few days? And only promise to bring you back if you don't like it?
"I'll wait for you here... for a while." Icarus nodded magnanimously, "But don't take too long, ok?"
After exchanging an intense look between them, the girl rose from her seat and walked away, her arms crossed, almost as if she was hugging herself.
And nobody ever accused Hermes to miss his cue when it was so readily given: without making a sound, the God of Thieves slipped in the vacant space the girl had left behind
"It's me! Your friend Joe!" he boisterously stated, "And I have a message or two for you!"
"Hermes." the demigod immediately accused him, receiving only a fake confused expression in turn.
"Who?" the god of thieves grinned mischievously, "I'm Joe! Gods are no longer allowed to take a direct stand into your roaming, not after the Last Great Fire of San Francisco."
"How did you find... nevermind.", the unflippable, dying demigod got the gist of Hermes' paper-thin defense, and nodded thoughtfully: "You spoke about messages?"
"A couple... and maybe something else." the god of trade smiled, putting all of his charms in the way his teeth flashed, inciting the mortal, letting him glimpse just a bit of an intention that could or could not be there, "If you're willing to trade for it, of course."
A tired sigh from the demigod had Hermes tone down his natural tendency towards annoying the one he was talking with: "A certain huntress accepts that you've held up your end of the deal, so she'll do the same... said between us, without her, I wouldn't have managed to track you down for these messages."
Grief flashed briefly behind the God of Thieves' eyes, peeking through just enough to have the one he was speaking with a frown: "I had forgotten how Pan came to be." Icarus spoke quietly, "My condolences."
A slow nod was all that Hermes answered with, turning his attention to the exchange he had been thinking about in the past days: "Luke didn't deserve to be left behind."
Icarus' only organic eye flashed with understanding before he answered, his posture stiffening slightly as he pressed his palms against the table, as if ready to push himself away: "Maybe, but this is my adventure, you see? My life, or as I've told the girl, my Game. That particular choice was mine alone to make, besides, the less prophecies I play next to, the better."
"You consider the events that cost so much to you and yours a mere game?" the bright blue eyes that Hermes had donned for the occasion darkened slightly, his opinion of Icarus becoming just a bit more exact, "You've been lucky, but given some of your choices, I'm not the only one to think that you know just a bit too much... I must wonder now, with this... what is it? Fear of irrelevance?"
The stoic silence offered by the demigod simply pushed Hermes to smile widely, and if the hunch of his shoulders spoke of a genuine threat, his voice remained steady: "You could have recruited some people with the purpose of making your travel easier..."
"That would have defeated the whole point of sailing from Half-Blood Camp." the curt reply made the God of Thieves frown lightly, and maybe for the first time, he started to consider whether Athena was right in wanting this one gone.
"You left Luke behind, with the protections around the Camp weaker than they've ever been since Zeus couldn't use the sacrifice of her daughter to bolster them, as he planned." the God of Thieves didn't bother with mincing words, aware that Icarus was capable enough to turn any speech in a useless loop.
"He planned for his daughter to sacrifice herself?" the dying demigod's dry tone expressed clearly what he thought of that particular bit of information, which coupled with his lack of surprise, did nothing but strengthen the general suspicion that he knew more than what was opportune for a mere demigod.
"Only temporarily." the winning grin Hermes failed to entice a similar answer out of Icarus, "He would have engineered a way to let her roam again when an opportunity arose."
"An opportunity for who?"
"By now, everyone is an old hand at the game." Hermes smirked, ignoring the question as there wasn't a truly dignified answer to give "Only because we cannot interfere against Prophecy, it doesn't mean that we can't take steps to ensure one of our children would be in the running."
"I thought that my actions would grab enough attentions." Icarus tried to deflect the previous accusation of the god he was talking with, but it was to no avail.
Hermes' frown made his opinion on the matter known, even as his eyes darted to the side, spotting the young demigoddess that had apparently just been recruited on the Adamas, "Luke deserves a chance at being part of... whatever you're building."
The tone of the god had turned into something eerily calm, and had Icarus not known better, he would have said that the God of Thieves was asking for a favor: "I think you're underestimating the kind of impact being part of the Adamas has on people." the demigod replied stiffly, "And while I can understand why... a certain someone that I shall not name charged Luke with the retrieval of a Golden Apple, it doesn't mean that..."
Hermes' hand smacked on the table, and the cover he was wearing as 'Joe' had never been so thin.
"You're asking for a favor, and not one I'm inclined to give, considering the magnitude of the clusterfuck we're talking about." Icarus spoke calmly, unimpressed by the brief attempt at seizing control of the conversation on the god's part, "But Hermes is one of my favorite Olympians, so I guess... that I could ask you to deliver a message to him, one that says that I'll give Luke a chance at being part of something great once we're back with the Fleece."
"In exchange for something." Hermes' voice returned once more to the one belonging to 'Joe', and a softer smile opened on his features, "Exchanges are at the base of friendly relationships." he spoke merrily.
"Friendly exchanges are what keep everyone around to play." Icarus nodded smartly, tilting his head just enough to indicate a form of respect for the god in disguise, even if his arms retreated from the table in order to be crossed, as if to place a barrier between the demigod and Hermes.
"I'll... give that message." the God of Trade and Travellers grinned openly even as he rose from his seated position, "As for his part of this trade... Well, a certain someone with seaweed in his beard might have set his daughter against the Adamas."
Icarus' tone became frosty while he spotted Bianca finally returning from her brief 'thinking-retreat': "It hardly sounds like information that I wouldn't have discovered on my own."
"Ah, but that was only the first half of what I was about to say." the god in disguise hunched forward, his hands briefly landing on the demigods' shoulders as he lowered his voice, enough that it could barely be heard as a whisper: "Many dislike what you're doing because you do it with no care for any of the Twelve, and there is little space in the hearts of those you've chosen for any of the Olympians."
The blue eyes of Hermes' chosen form met the ones of his interlocutor, which were one mechanical and an oddly shining one: "None of us want to be Forgotten, but that fear is even greater in those that do not seat in the Council: and you're founding a city, a temple would be lofty bribery, even without dedicating the city to a single deity."
Hermes strode away with purpose just in time for Bianca to return to the table, her eyes fixed on the retreating form of the god in disguise: "Who was that?"
My eyes went from him to the target of my whole visit at the Lotus Casino while I rose to my feet, leaning a bit on my weapon to decrease the weight on my not-so-steady legs: "A messenger."
The curt reply didn't seem to make the unknowing daughter of Hades any less willing of lancing that particular boil: "And you didn't like the message?"
Do you dislike lancing boils on your ass with a rusted spear? I held back an annoyed snarl as I parsed through everything that went between me and Hermes, my head turning to briefly glance at the much shorter girl while I started to make my way back to the older side of the Casino, to the set of rooms with rich decor that turned into an exposition of greek treasures before becoming a strange sort of inner pool, which was instead inside of the natural caver I had used to access Las Vegas.
"I dislike the implication that it was so easy for me to be found." I settled on that mostly honest answer as I walked, Bianca basically glued to my side.
Her voice promised to become annoying in the immediate future as she spoke once more:"Are you running away from someone?"
"You have never wished to stay alone?" I pointedly looked at her, summoning Nico to the forefront of her mind with nothing more than a raised eyebrow.
Satisfaction at the lack of her endless stream of questions made me take a deep breath: That shut her up.
For about five seconds: "Don't you want to know if I've accepted your invitation?"
I kept walking in silence, the starting of a migraine making itself known as we passed the Greek section of the building and finally found the descending stairs that led to the cavern that acted as a midpoint between Las Vegas and the Sea of Monsters.
Even the changing environment didn't manage to stop Biance from talking: "So... I forgot to do so before, but my name is Bianca Di Angelo."
"I wouldn't have cared to know your name if you hadn't decided to join." I shrugged uncaringly at her vaguely offended expression as the stone steps led us to familiar white sand, which temporarily attracted the girl's attention.
"And I was kind of waiting to reach the others before making the proper introductions." I spoke when I noticed that she was about to
The polished floors of the Lotus Casino had long since left space to the sand, and when the cave finally gave way to the open sky, and the boundless sea, I saw that Bianca had stopped, her mouth hanging open as she took in the extreme change in environment; "What...?"
I kept walking without bothering to hide the smile that I felt mounting on my features. Surprise is the only way to shut her up then, good to know.
Soon enough we reached the Adamas, the sight of which stopped Bianca from resuming her relentless verbal assault. Some vague screams of cheers echoed from the deck of the Adamas, and the rope ladder that was thrown off the side allowed me to climb quickly, followed by a still gobsmacked Bianca Di Angelo.
When I surpassed the bulwark, slightly winded by the climb and uncomfortably aware of the way in which my muscles uncomfortably pulled on my bones, Annabeth came forward, in all of her diminutive wrath.
Closed punches held against her hips, she assaulted me: "Where have you been?! We've been waiting for two days!"
At that moment, with Bianca's endless stream of questions jerkily starting up once more from behind me, and Annabeth's attempts at properly reprimanding me with just the acute tone needed to worsen my migraine, I had a realization.
The pieces fell together as if for an act of God, as if Athena herself had taken residence, for a single instant, into my head. Is this how mathematicians feel when they solve something impossible?
Problem A, meet Problem B. Solve each other. I smiled widely at Annabeth, who must have caught something in my expression because she took a step backwards, paling instinctively, but it was already too late: "Annabeth, this is Bianca, you're in charge of her training."
"My what?!" the gobsmacked question of the daughter of Hades, coupled with the witless expression of the daughter of Athena instantly healed me of my migraine.
AN
Okay! It's been a while! But I want to introduce Bianca and properly set up the ending for this 'Odyssey' Arc, so this chapter was kind of mandatory.
For the ones who haven't particularly enjoyed this apparently aimless sequence of adventures, I can only say that every piece will be exploited later to enrich the story.
I know that Icarus isn't very much relatable up to this point: but he kind of bonded only with Luke and Thalia (somewhat with Annabeth), so he recruited useful people that he could use for his own gains. That they were people with particular skills and whatnot was merely to keep in mind that each of them is a fucking demigod, and thusly capable of becoming a major player, as you'll be seeing relatively soon.