#he knows his way around y'know?

[deadpoets]

How much of him is there in me?

[moa-broke-me]

Y'know I'm not as big on machiavellian Nico as you are, but this is all fascinating and awesome!

On the other hand... I have another idea.

What if, hear me out, he dies (and gets deified by his father) because the vote to save him goes the wrong way. Like, Hazel and Percy are still voting yes, but everyone else slowly gets turned against him. It's easy to convince Piper, she loves and trusts Jason and doesn't know Nico at all, so she has no attachment to him or frame of reference for what he's like. If Jason believes Nico to be untrustworthy, then she'll believe him. It's a bit harder for Frank, even though he normally trusts Jason's leadership, because him and Nico knew each other before this, and he just seemed like a quiet, surprisingly nice emo kid.

But I have a theory that the reason Leo didn't want Nico on his ship wasn't just because 'bad vibes' or whatever, it was for the safety of the ship itself; The Argo II was made for the sky and the sea, not the catacombs. Hazel is already on board, they're already pushing their luck with her. And if her brother joins, there's a sizable chance that the whole thing will be struck by lightning or swallowed whole by a kraken. It's the same reason Percy can never board an airplane; The gods can be petty and it's best not to take chances. If the ship goes, the crew goes with it, including Nico. He'll probably die either way, he may as well go out taking one for the team.

Frank is still skeptical, and dislikes Leo anyway. But even he can't argue with that logic. He feels dirty voting in favor of letting Nico die, someone he considered a friend. And going against Hazel's wishes, the girl he loves. In fact, she blows up and goes 'a pox on both your houses' on their asses, calling out every single one of them, going the hardest on Jason because she idolized him, damn it, she wanted to be him! And he's gonna let her brother, a child, die a slow, painful death, afraid and alone in the dark.

And when she feels him die that slow, painful death, it hurts more than anything has before. She's already made a shroud for him, and she burns it with her own matches because Leo doesn't deserve to touch it, to dirty it with the grease under his nails and the cowardice in his heart, and she looks at everyone while she does and tells them that if the fate of the world wasn't in their hands, she would've dropped that match on the ship's wooden floorboards and burned everyone on it alive, including herself.

Nico wakes up in Hades' palace, and he doesn't realize he's a god yet. He thinks Hades just saved him last minute, and took him to his room to recover. He's stronger than he thought he'd be, but he doesn't realize why at first.

It's only when he accidentally cuts his hand on something, and he sees that his blood is now gold. Hades reveals that, yes, he did die. But before he could cross the styx properly, Hades found him and took him in his arms himself. Not before killing Otis and Ephialtes with his bare hands in a fit of rage, of course. He took him down to the palace, and while his soul was sleeping, he was crowned the god of selflessness and sacrifice and devotion.

On the topside, it is now Hazel who is forced to shoulder the burden of the Athena Parthenos. She's stronger, since she's not been through as much, physically speaking. But has less control of her powers. And even she cannot do this alone. She calls upon Hecate for strength, but it's not just her. Nico's listening in, and he's helping too. She doesn't know until she sees him at camp and he tells her everything. He holds her to his chest and lets her cry, telling her only that he loves her before he leaves to face Gaea. While Pipers charmspeaking her, he's pulling from his new strength as a god, putting her to sleep the way he did the skeleton guards when he was breaking Percy out of his father's dungeon.

But he doesn't make himself known to anyone else. He lets Piper believe, lets everyone believe, that she was the one to lay the world to rest.

Oh, but it's not over yet.

Kronos is still lying in wait.

Even gods need to sleep, and even gods dream when they do. And when he does, Kronos appears to him. He's had his eye on Nico since he was alerted to his and his sister's presence, and, ever since his innocence was stolen on the day of Saturn's remembrance, he's had a... Personal investment.

Grudges are his fatal flaw, he's heard it said. But he's already dead. What more could he have to lose, then, if he were to indulge in some good old fashioned revenge?

He could have Percy take his place, if he wished, and he would live. All he has to do is go back in time, which Kronos will gladly help with, being the lord of time and all... And protect himself, from back in the labyrinth.

Edit: I have an ending in mind now!

So the way I think the time travel thing should work is that, rather than a loop, god!Nico stays in the new timeline as the old timeline fades from existence. He's the only relic of that older timeline, everyone else from there is gone, they don't exist anymore. God!Nico is just, like, a different character basically, but with all the same powers, and, for the most part, memories, that mortal!Nico does.

Oh, and what about Hazel? Well, since he's a god now, he doesn't need to sneak her back to the living world, he has the authority to resurrect her properly. At first, he wants her to be deified like him, but she refuses. She doesn't want the responsibility, and she doesn't fear death, since she knows what it's like. She only wishes to live a longer, happier life than what she had before.

So, the ending! Essentially, god!Nico advises mortal!Nico against having Percy take on the Achilles' curse, letting him die at some point in the battle of manhattan. Mortal!Nico is furious, still nursing that old crush of his, but god!Nico insists Percy must die so that he can live, just like Kronos said. He's not sure how that's gonna work, exactly, but...

Oh.

Oh no.

Kronos was just gonna use Nico to kill Percy, or let him die. And probably kill him off too, once he's no use to him anymore.

Well, he can betray too. He can do battle with the one he so foolishly trusted. He's a god now, is he not? He can be any age he chooses to be.

And now, he chooses to be sixteen.

Time-travel AU in which Nico adopts his younger self. Go figure.

[sysig]

Care for your sparring partner (Patreon)

Bonus:

[brown-little-robin]

you restore my faith in humanity. idk you're just so genuine and unobstructed from being yourself and loving everything around you. every time i think the world sucks i think about Robin From Tumblr and i'm like Hm maybe it isn't all bad

AW THANKS <33333 I TRY

[wellhalesbells]

the thing that fucks me up about rereading instructions for dancing is trying to pinpoint when it is that derek becomes obsessed with stiles and realizing the answer seems to be always. from the beginning. the moment they met. that poor bastard. he probably should have tried to be a little nicer about it, though, saved them both some hardship.

I think it slides so quickly from fear and annoyance that Stiles will steal Scott away to 'Oh no, oh fuck,' I'm not even sure Derek knows himself. Poor guy hamstrung himself by starting out with the 'I'm going to scare him away' mentality then wondering where the hell that went and trying to find it again through almost every subsequent interaction (while something so much bigger and so much worse - Derek's Thoughts™ - completely eclipsed it). Meanwhile Stiles also helps cultivate Derek's dickish-ness by assuming that original motivation to be his only interest in him at all, essentially until the moment Derek tells him he's in love with him.

Which is hopefully why it seemingly comes out of left field for Stiles and the reader, because that's what I wanted.

[vulpinesaint]

i don't talk about alucard castlevania very often because the last season of castlevania was so bad to me that i just don't engage with the show anymore like that but make no mistake. i have many thoughts and opinions on that man.

[magentagalaxies]

.

[wander-over-the-words]

"Benny is the only one who gets away with treating Ethan like a short person" btw means that if someone else laid their chin on top of Ethan's head or picked him up Ethan would fuckin *FERAL CAT HISS*

but then Benny does it and Ethan just :3

[skrunksthatwunk]

do you guys know that video of the very very southern man comforting his dog after he threw up in his truck. im not great with accents but i think he's from louisiana bc he sounds a bit like my grandpa. i miss him...

[theconfusedartist]

maybe this is weird (and I do promise I’m dropping the rest of the lore in a hour or so) but

in the rewrite, i always write Altaïr as seeing Desmond as:

Altaïr: this is my little brother, my son, my best friend, and annoying twin that makes all the reckless mistakes i already learned from. i love my boy, but damn if he doesn’t be doing some wild shit

wereas Desmond is like

Desmond: i love Altaïr! he’s my brother, my best friend, one of the few people who I’d happily consider my father, my face twin, and (did I already mention?) best friend! he makes a lot of mistakes, and we disagree about lots of stuff, but i’m so happy he’s in my life

Altaïr in permutation 17: this sucks. Des isn’t even here right now (hist time) and he can’t even hear me when I’m trying to talk to him (in modern time)

Desmond in permutation 17: this sucks. Altaïr isn’t even here right now (modern time) and I’m so fucking lonely !! !! !! now I’ve gotta die to turn on the eye and then what?! no one is coming back for me!! I don’t even know where Alex is, I’m just praying that I’ll survive after dying to get Elijah and keep him safe, but this shit sucks!

[arolesbianism]

Thinking abt my dupe ocs again... Maybe Quinn does have hashtag issues actually

[sleeperagentclone]

Anyway, can't stop think about Fig and Gorgug being childhood friends

[sysig]

I’m just saying I think he has a type (Patreon)

[enbyboiwonder]

Y’know, when Lee came and found me and told me to give over any data disks and especially any weapons I find in the mines for destruction (and of course it was the fucking church who found me first and not the research center. Luckily though I found the research center soon after. The church ain’t getting shit), I thought I’d be finding old nuclear warheads down there or something. The first time I found a glowing purple dot on the scanner, I assumed it was a weapon, and when I pressed A, I thought it had taken me to the entrance or something and I couldn’t mine in that area anymore. I didn’t realize it had taken me to an unused room with a few monsters to kill and a few chests to loot (and I could go right back and keep right on mining), and I also hadn’t uncovered enough to see that it was a pipe. I realized the second time, though.

No, it’s the triple barrel snakebite, a.k.a. the poison blaster, as I like to think of it. The day after I first pieced one together and tried it out, I received a cease and desist letter from the church (and lost nonexistent favorability points w Lee and Nora lmao). lol how ‘bout no.

Anyways, fuck the church.

[pynkhues]

I'm really, really sorry that happened to your friend, anon. I hope they were able to recover and get justice for what happened to them, and that you've been able to work through it too.

Thank you :) I'm not close enough with her to necessarily be privy to all her deepest feelings, but as far as I can tell, she really is fine and has been for a long time. She's a teacher and doing really well.

And yeah, I don't feel that way--like I'm looking through that filter--anymore, and a big part of that (not to overshare, but hey, maybe someone will read this and it will help them?) was getting diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. Since I was a kid I'd felt like violence and death were always lurking, to a degree that was illogical, and then the attack on my friend made that worse because it seemed like oh, I was right to feel that way. But getting worse eventually led to a diagnosis, which has led to getting a lot better! :)

(x)

I'm really glad both you and your friend are doing better and that the diagnosis helped, anon! It's wonderful when diagnoses give us not just a vocabulary and tools for what we experience, but an understanding of ourselves and I guess, context?

Not the same exactly, but my littlest nephew has a severe speech disability which has gone through about five almost-diagnoses and multiple tests which is crazy given he's only 6-years-old. He finally got an actual diagnosis a few months ago (childhood apraxia of speech, or CAS) and while there's complicated feelings involved in knowing talking isn't going to be something that'll ever be easy for him, even just getting to understand it better as a motor disability as opposed to a cognitive one has been extremely useful in helping us to support him in using his voice.

He doesn't really understand what his diagnosis means yet (although he knows people outside of the family struggle to understand him) but it's helped get him into more specific speech therapy and, if my sister wins relocation in family court next month, there's some social groups here in Melbourne where he can hopefully be around kids who are experiencing the same disability (it's a rare one, and there ae just more kids with it in the city) and understand what he's going through as he grows up. So yeah! It's pretty cool when a diagnosis offers not just pathways forwards, but a deeper understanding of self and points of connection too.

[angel---eater]

Don't know why when I switched in I immediately felt like I was dying, but I guess we're back in the fuckin' building again.