July 4th 2025
"You know, this is not what I thought Chiron had in mind," Nico said. He wasn't exactly disappointed either. He wondered if he should open one and then did it anyway.
It was a letter to Demeter. There was a famine in Nepal but he sensed the writer was from Colombia even if she lived in cabin 22. As badly as he wanted to write her back himself, he slid the paper back into the envelope.
Dancing Bears/Painted Wings/Things I almost remember/And a song someone sings
"Let me see," Will said. Nico had no more compunctions and pulled off his shirt. He couldn't see them but he definitely felt them. The metal frame screeched on the stone floor as Will moved the mirror so Nico could see things better.
Two massive puncture wounds were painfully visible on his back; the bite of an unfathomable serpent. One was on his right shoulder, the other was on his left side just above his belt.
Someone holds me safe and warm/Horses prance through a silver storm/Figures dancing gracefully across my memory.
Nico couldn't forget how the scars started to form on that day on the beach when he rejected Hades. They were retroactive but that didn't make them less painful.
He remembered returning to Camp Half-blood as a legacy of Apollo after six months had passed. He also remembered that in the Hades cabin there was a letter that Maria had written to her parents over a hundred years ago.
And he knew that the oracle had been hidden in this room for decades. But it wasn't exactly the same room anymore either.
Someone holds me safe and warm/Horses prance through a silver storm/Figures dancing gracefully across my memory.
"Worth it," Will said kissing the one on his shoulder. "You're doing it, Nico. This is beautiful. I love you." Nico turned his head and they shared a long kiss.
The moment faded and they both began filling the bag with letters the demigods had written the Olympians. Some of them had written every single day of summer camp.
Far away/Long ago/Glowing dim as an ember/Things my heart/Used to know/Things it yearns to remember/And a song someone sings/Once upon a December
Nico wondered how the rest of his day would turn out now that he was actually taking these to Olympus.
Credits : Pilgrim's Progress, The Bronte sisters, Hades lord of the dead, Batman, Douglas Adams, Brad Pitt/Morgan Freeman/ Gwyneth Paltrow, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Magicians tv series, Superman, Stephen King, L. Frank Baum, Gregory Maguire, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith, Apollo, Galadriel/Eowyn/Gollum, Terry Goodkind, Delight/Delirium, Neil Gaiman, Nero, Weird Al/Miley Cyrus, Nothing Else Matters performed by Shakira and Metallica, Taika Watiti, Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls, Deana Carter and the movie Anastasia, Kronos, Luke Castellan, Ethan Nakamura, Uncle Rick's collected works.
We don't talk about Python.