"I thought I told you to get rid of the intruder, not bring him back and have a heart to heart". The creature called slenderman continued crossing it's arm and tapping one foot. The static in Nico's head grew. Now he knew what they had meant by his head hurting, it was hard to remain calm as they had instructed though. Nico was glad he hadn't tried to stand up because he was pretty sure he would have fallen again if he had.
"But Slendyyy he's cool! He raised a skeleton while we were fighting. I thought you'd want to meet anyone who could raise the dead, so I brought him back with me. He brought the skeleton too, Hoody saw it too but Nico said it was making him to tired to keep it around so it's a pile of bones in the front yard now."
"Hoody is this true?" Slenderman asked turning to Hoody who nodded silently. "Hmm you may have been correct Toby, the ability to raise the dead is a very interesting power. Child, how did you come by this ability?" The static in Nico's head subsided to a low level of interference as he looked up at Slenderman, getting up slowly.
"My father is Hades, the Greek god of the dead and the underworld. Theoretically I should be able to raise the dead to serve me any time I want, but I only found out about my ability a little while ago so I don't have much practice." Nico was on his feet, though he wasn't sure that it was a good idea since he might fall at any moment if the static started again. He kept his center of gravity low, Slenderman made him feel small and more powerless than any other monster he had faced, he hoped he wouldn't have to fight because he doubted he would even stand a chance.
"Ahhh a demi-god, I've run across a few of your kind in my time, none that could raise the dead though. In fact I don't believe I've met any being that had the power to raise the dead without any sort of ceremony. Do you think you could show me how you do it child, or are you to weak from your earlier excursions?" Nico was about to answer when Toby piped up suddenly.
"What? You knew about these Demi-god things before? Why didn't you tell us about them, they'd be fun to fight! I know Jeff would love a challenge! So would L.J." Nico was pretty sure that Toby would have kept going, but at that point one of Slenderman's tentacles snapped out and wrapped around Toby's waist, lifting him into the air making the rest of his words turn into a not at all scared "WEEEEE!"
"Quiet Toby, I'm trying to speak with your new friend." Toby didn't answer, he was too busy giggling as he swung from Slenderman's tentacle. Slender had obviously known what he was doing, because now Toby seemed to be having too much fun to interrupt. Slender then turned his attention back to Nico.
"I could try." Nico said slowly. "It may not go as I want though, it doesn't work sometimes if I'm tired." It worked almost always when Nico was panicking, but he didn't want to mention that. He was pretty sure Slenderman would have no trouble trying to kill Nico if it would yield the results he wanted.
"Please do give it an attempt." Slenderman said nodding encouragingly and the static faded. Nico wasn't sure if that meant Slender had decided not to kill him, or just didn't want to distract him. Either way Nico was grateful for the quiet inside his head as he reached into the earth with his power feeling for the dead things under him. It wasn't hard to find them, there were plenty of dead under the ground here. Mostly murdered, unsurprisingly around a mansion full of murderers. Nico bit his lip, none of the dead here wanted to answer him.
"You've got a very contrary bunch around here. They're mad, they don't want to do anyone any favors. They're doing their best to ignore me since I don't have an offering." Nico grumbled spreading his fingers, his eyes became unfocused as he ordered the dead to stop ignoring him and answer. There was a slight growl of protest in the earth. It made Hoody stumble but Nico didn't notice, he had found one of the dead willing to answer him. It wasn't human, but he hoped it would be enough. He called again and a small crack opened in the earth, the skeleton of a cat leapt out and the earth closed behind it.
The cat looked over Slenderman with it's empty eye sockets seeming very unimpressed. It gave Hoody and Toby a once over as well before walking over to Nico, rubbing it's bony body against his legs. Nico sighed and reached down to the cat and scooped it up in his arms. The cat began purring and dug its claws into his sleeve. Nico sighed, he had never understood how skeleton cats always seemed able to make noise, none of the other skeletons did. Of course they didn't, they didn't have lungs, neither did the cats.
"Ow!" Nico said wincing as the cat's claws went through his jacket and into his arm. "Couldn't you have left your claws in the grave? You don't have pads to cover them anymore you know, and that hurts." The cat just purred louder and kneaded its claws deeper into his skin. Nico winced and grimaced, if the cat was unimpressed by Slenderman it certainly wasn't going to listen to a skinny kid.
"Interesting." Slenderman said nodding "Yes very interesting. Toby was very right to bring you back. I've never encountered a power that works quite like yours, and I'd like to help you learn more about it. Please stay as long as you like, we have plenty of spare rooms in the house. Toby and Hoody will help you find one to your taste." Slendy put Toby back down and Toby stumbled evidently dizzy from his ride in Slender's tentacles, Hoody nodded.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Slenderman, but I have to warn you I have intention of becoming one of you… creepypastas? I don't like hurting people, and my father would be mad at me if I gave him any extra work to do by killing anyone when it's not completely necessary." Nico said still cradling the cat, now that it was out of the ground it was showing little intention of going back in. For now it was easy enough to keep it around.
"That is fine child." Slenderman answered nodding down at Nico. "However I must warn you there are some here that you will have to show you are not to be trifled with. Hoody and Toby will tell you who to watch for I'm sure." There was another small burst of static and Slenderman was gone.
"So your s-staying?" Hoody asked his covered face angled toward Nico.
"I guess I am." Nico said with a shrug. "I don't have anywhere else to go." He might as well stay, these people were comfortable with him, perfectly at ease with death and he was already starting to like Hoody and Toby. He wondered if the rest would be like them. Or more like Slenderman. Or their own things entirely. He was equally part afraid and excited to meet them.
"Cool!" Toby said doing a funny little twitching dance. Nico was sure that Toby wanted to grab his had and run off again, but couldn't due to the cat in Nico's arms. "Come on then! Lets go find you a room, we should start introducing you to everyone too before dinner so you don't have to meet them all at once."
"Eyeless Jack." Hoody said to Toby, Nico didn't understand what that meant at all but apparently Toby did.
"Oh right, thanks for reminding me! On the topic of dinner you should be warned that Eyeless Jack is a cannibal. So when you see what's on his plate at dinner, try not to freak out too much." Toby had started moving toward the mansion and Nico followed, he felt a little sick when he heard about 'Eyeless Jack', but he had already agreed to stay and there was no backing out now. "He's one of the people Slender meant about 'showing you're not to be trifled with' or whatever. E.J. didn't know about Demi-gods anymore than we did, so he'll probably want to see if you taste any different than normal humans.
"It's not like having to fight him is a unusual thing though. Everyone but Slenderman, Smiling Dog, and Laughing Jack have had to hit E.J. over the head, shouting "No you can't eat me!" at some point or another. Even BEN and I'm pretty sure BEN doesn't even have a real physical form since he spends most of his time in a computer game."
"Okay well that's reassuring." Nico said sarcastically. Hoody gave a small laugh but Toby didn't seem to notice. He was impatient with how slow Nico and Hoody were going. Nico wondered if he might start running in circles around them like a dog. "Who else do I need to look out for?" Nico asked before Toby could get distracted again.
"Jeff." Toby said immediately. "For the first couple months you're here keep your window locked! Door too and put something noisy in front of it, so no one can open it and sneak in." Nico and Hoody sped up a little to accommodate Toby, creating a compromise they could both live with without Nico and Hoody getting out of breath, or Toby going crazy. This speech was not making Nico feel very safe, but he supposed it was better to know so he could avoid these problems.
"D-don't worry." Hoody said softly seeming to notice Nico's unease. "S-Sally, L.J., and M-Mask should be fine with you since S-sir says you're okay. And M-me and Toby l-like you." Nico relaxed a little smiling at Hoody. Nico didn't know if Hoody meant it yet, but it was nice of Hoody to say. By now they had reached the mansion, the front door opened into a big room, with the many smaller hallways branching off of it. Nico got the impression this place would be hard not to get lost in.
"You'll l-learn your way around ev-eventually." Hoody said quietly under Toby's chatter. Toby wasn't saying anything important at the moment, so Nico tuned him out in favor of Hoody's quiet comments. Toby bolted up a staircase. Nico and Hoody followed slowly, Hoody leaning on the banister slightly, Nico walking in the middle still carrying the purring skeleton cat. At the top of the stairs they went down one hall, turned left and down another, at the end of that one they turned right.
"This is the hall where most of us have bedrooms. We don't want them too close to the stairs because sometimes humans stumble in and start opening doors, and that's not nice to wake up to." Toby explained. "This one if Jeff's." Toby pointed at one of the doors at the front of the hall on the right side. "The one at the very end is Sally's room. Hoody and Mask share that one because Hoody doesn't like being alone. Oof." Hoody had elbowed him and then covered his already covered face with gloved hands. Toby just laughed.
"I sleep in the room next to theirs. You should sleep in the one on the other side of Masky and Hoody's, that way Jeff would have to pass our rooms to get to you. ...And it's always good to be close enough to hear each other if we need help." Nico didn't think there was any point in arguing with Toby as he went and opened the door to the room he thought Nico should have. Nico followed Toby in and found it was a nice room, darker than most bedrooms, mostly done in red and black with dark wood and heavier curtains on the window than was normal. But Nico wasn't a fan of being woken up with the sun anyway.
"This will be fine." Nico said nodding approvingly, the bed was big too, a old looking four poster, the desk, chair, and bookshelf against one wall looked old too. Nico wondered how long the mansion and all its furnishings had been here. The cat mewed to be let down and Nico dropped it, even dead cats landed on their feet without hurting themselves. The cat landed on it's paws with a louder noise than was usual for cats since it didn't have any flesh to muffle it's landing. The cat gave a disgruntled mew, then wandered over to the bed, jumping up on it the cat curled into a ball and started purring again.
"You're cat seems to agree." Toby said happily "Good now we should show you around a bit! Let's go." Toby was about to grab Nico's arm and drag him off again, but Hoody put one hand on Toby's arm as he reached, pushing it back down.
"W-we should give him some t-time to settle himself in. W-we can show him around l-later." He told Toby firmly then looked at Nico again. "In an hour?" He asked and Nico nodded, he was glad Hoody had done that. He didn't think he could take in much more information before he had been given time to process what he already had. Hoody nodded as well and then dragged Toby out, Nico could hear Toby protesting all the way down the hall but Nico just went and closed the door after them.
Once that was done Nico went and sat on the bed looking around the room again , it needed to be dusted. He supposed no one had used it for a while but he could do that later. Getting up from the bed (the cat gave a muffled meow of protest at the shifting) Nico crossed to the window and opened the curtain. It was a big window and it would let in plenty of light when Nico wanted it, this room could be as bright or gloomy as he wanted. Nico stood at the window for another moment wondering which one he would choose, then he closed the curtain again with a small smirk.
He went over to the bookshelf and looked at the titles. It was the one thing in the room that didn't seem to need any dusting at all, someone in this house cared for books. Old books, none of which seemed very interesting to Nico until he found one about mythology from around the world. His hand hesitated over it for a moment, he loved mythology, or at least the game he had played about mythology. Maybe it was time to learn more about the myths that game was based on, and the one his life was quickly turning into.
He didn't want to read it right now though, instead he put it on the small table next to the bed after he had wiped the dust off it with his sleeve, to read later when he had more time. Once that was done he sat down on the bed next to the cat again and ran the tips of his fingers over the bumps of the cats spine feeling it vibrate with a purr. Well this had been a very strange day and it was promising to get stranger, Nico thought he might like to keep the cat around for a while. It took much less energy than a human, and with all the craziness that was going on it would be nice to have some sort of comfort. Even if that was a skeleton cat, it still purred and nuzzled his hand with it's nose.
Carefully he moved the cat into his lap, it made a small noise of disgust at being moved. Nico was worried it would get up and leave again right away but after a moment of consideration it laid down on his lap. Smiling Nico kept petting the cat as he ran over what he had been told already, so this house was home to people called Sally, Smiling Dog, Jeff, L.J. and E.J. (he would have a hard time keeping those two names straight) Masky, Hoody, BEN, Toby and Slenderman. If there was anyone else Nico didn't remember them or they hadn't been mentioned yet. Slenderman seemed to be in charge so since Nico was okay with Slender everyone else should be fine with him, although he did need to keep an eye on E.J. and Jeff.
Nico sighed flopping back on the bed and staring at the canopy, this was all a little insane. He supposed it was easier to believe things like these people existed after finding out that all the Greek monsters and gods were real, maybe that's why he was having as little trouble processing it as he was. He half wished that he had lt Toby drag him away to meet the others right away. Now Nico was anxious to see what type of people, or beings they were, but he knew it wouldn't be smart to try and find them on his own so he waited for Toby and Hoody to come back for him.