#i didn't initially intend for Jason to open for us

[writtenjewels]

Mirage part 5

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four

Jason did have a few things in the cabin to entertain himself. He had no radio, but he did have a boombox and music CDs. Salim looked through them, partly wanting to find something to listen to and partly curious about Jason's musical taste. The bands he recognized were rock and roll, and Salim could only assume the rest were the same. Some of the covers suggested something even more extreme. Metal, according to Jason.

“Like they make music using metal objects?” Salim asked.

“It's like rock, but louder,” Jason explained. Salim was intrigued by this description. He picked one of the CDs and put it in. “I donno if you'll like it,” Jason warned.

The first few notes were a blast of noise. Salim listened, fascinated by the sounds. Then the guitar kicked in, filling the song with energy. Drums joined in to set a rising tempo. It made Salim's heart beat faster. He wanted to move, to fight something, to run outside, to dance. It got even faster and the vocals finally kicked in. Salim couldn't understand a word they were saying.

“I like the music!” he shouted to Jason over the noise. “But not... that.” He didn't think he could call the speaking words singing.

“Wait, this is the best part!” Jason shouted back. The guitars and drums had taken over the song. It sounded like pure chaos. There was no rhythm as far as Salim could tell. It was like the climax of a storm put to music. What a shame that it died down.

“Amazing!” Salim beamed. He caught Jason's eye and the other man smiled at him. The song had filled Salim with too much energy to keep sitting down. He rose to his feet, swaying a little under the weak limbs. Jason moved to support him.

“Heavy metal gave ya a little boost. That's cute.”

“Cute?” Salim echoed. The word caused fresh butterflies to explode in his stomach.

“How 'bout we take a stroll around the room while you're feelin' up to it?” Jason suggested.

Salim agreed and the two made a slow circuit around the room. The CD had moved onto the next song. It was just as energized and loud as the previous one. It was strange having such different sensations: the wild energy of the music, and the nervous fluttering being so close to Jason. They finished the walk and Salim sank back down to the floor. He was a little tired, though that was likely due to going days without activity.

“What is this band, anyway?” Salim wondered.

“They're called Slayer. I got some other ones if you wanna try them.”

“No, thank you. One is more than enough.” Salim noticed that Jason still had an arm around him, but said nothing in hopes that the man would stay close. To his disappointment, Jason pulled away to turn down the music.

“I haven't done anything like this in a long time,” Jason spoke up.

“You used to rescue people in the desert more often?” Salim teased.

“Don't be a smart-ass,” Jason scolded, though there was no bite to his tone. “I mean hangin' out and listenin' to music. It's nice.”

“Circumstances aside, I'm glad to be here,” Salim told him. He slid across the floor to get a little closer to Jason. “I'm glad it was you who found me, Jason.”

“Me too. I mean,” Jason clarified, “I'm glad I was around.”

Salim moved a bit closer. He wanted to feel Jason's touch so badly. He raised a hand, intending to initiate the contact. At the last moment his uncertainty took over and he placed his hand on the boombox instead. Even quieted, the music was powerful enough to make the machine pulse. Salim closed his eyes so he could focus on it.

“You tired?” Jason asked him. His hand touched Salim's shoulder and Salim opened his eyes again, tilting his head in Jason's direction.

“It's been a long day. I think. I'm not sure of the time.”

“It's late,” Jason supplied, He reached over to turn off the boombox without releasing his hold on Salim. “I'll help you to bed.”

“Bed?” Salim repeated. “You mean this whole time I could've been sleeping in a bed instead of on the floor?”

“You just can't stop bein' a smart-ass, can you?” Jason snorted in amusement.

“It's a gift.” Salim's eyes were starting to droop. “Will you stay until I fall asleep?"

“Sure I will.” Jason's words had gone soft. Salim thought he felt the man's lips brush against his ear. “I ain't goin' nowhere.”

[duskyashe]

NaNoWriMo Day #14

[masterlist] [part one]

Trigger warning: depiction of a dissociative episode, misconception concerning the sentience and sapience of a being. Warning for Jason's language and use is Zalgo text

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Jason was... Well, he was a lot of things, but terrified was near the top of the list. He'd seen and experienced a lot of crazy shit since trying to steal the tires off the batmobile, including his own death and revival, but having control of his body forcefully taken from him by what he could only assume was the Lazarus Pit was by far the most insane and terrifying thing he'd ever experienced. Not even the Joker had made him feel this hopeless, he'd still been able to run his mouth then, but this? This was like sitting in the driver's seat of a high-tech hyper realistic RC car, frantically stepping on all the pedals, pressing all the buttons, flicking all the switches, and trying with all your might to crank the steering wheel, and all of it doing jack shit. You're stuck watching out the windshield as the car goes flying across the haphazard track, your seatbelt is locked, the doors don't even open from the inside, and nothing you do makes a damn difference as someone else takes you for a joyride.

Of course, he's the fucking Red Hood, he wasn't gonna let the Pit just do whatever the fuck it wants, hell no! He'd successfully fought the thing off during the height of his pit madness and homicidal tendencies, there was no fucking way he was gonna let the Pit use him to murder a kid!

"W̸e̷ ̴d̷o̴ ̵n̵o̵t̷ ̵m̸u̵r̷d̴e̵r̶ ̵c̵h̴i̸l̸d̶r̷e̵n̶!̷" Came a voice from inside his head. It was unlike anything he'd ever heard, like a gestalt of different voices from all different walks of life. Time seemed to be endlessly slow as he/it/they screeched a war cry and took off.

"Oh yeah? Why the fuck are we charging the kid, then?!" Jason yelled back. It was weird, his voice was both echoey and soundless at the same time. He didn't like it.

"H̸e̶ ̴i̵s̶ ̴c̶h̴i̷l̷d̶/̸i̶n̶f̴a̸n̴t̵/̵l̸o̴n̴e̷l̴y̷/̴k̷i̸n̸g̷.̵ ̵H̴e̴ ̶i̷s̴ ̶U̸n̵C̸l̶a̵i̸m̸e̶d̶.̶ ̵H̴e̶ ̸i̶s̶ ̵O̶u̵r̷s̷ ̸n̵o̷w̴.̴" As the Pit said that, Jason watched through green tinted vision as the Pit disarmed the goon, extracted the kid, and outright threw the goon into the wall to the side of them. As soon as the goon was out of the way, the Pit adjusted the kid so they were cradling him, and suddenly Jason was drowning in overwhelmingly foreign feelings of comfort/safety/claimed/calm/peace/safe as distinctly nonhuman sounds came from their mouth.

He'd like to say he'd managed to claw his way out from under the flood of emotion by himself, but that'd be a lie, and he tried not to lie to himself too often. It was the sound of a sudden, sharp, almost adorable little frustrated chirp the kid let out that let him breach the surface and actually think again. "What the hell was that?" Jason asked. If his consciousness needed to breathe, he'd be gasping right about then.

"H̴e̷ ̸w̵a̶s̷ ̵p̶a̵n̵i̷c̵k̶i̷n̵g̵.̶ ̵W̵e̸ ̴r̶e̸s̵p̵o̷n̵d̶e̸d̴ ̴a̵p̶p̶r̶o̶p̴r̸i̶a̷t̵e̷l̵y̵.̸ ̷W̸e̷ ̸a̸p̷o̶l̸o̶g̵i̶z̶e̴ ̶f̷o̵r̷ ̷s̸m̴o̴t̴h̸e̵r̵i̷n̷g̸ ̴a̶ ̶p̴a̷r̸t̷ ̵o̸f̴ ̸U̴s̷.̵" The Pit sounded genuinely apologetic, but he wasn't sure he trusted it. Their head turned and Jason saw the rest of the Bats arrayed in wary stances, with Damian taking the lead. He said something about wanting to check on the kid in their arms, but that they could keep hold of him. He could see how much B wanted to protest that, but a sharp gesture from the kid silenced that Bat. "W̴e̴ ̵d̸o̵ ̷n̶o̶t̶ ̷k̷n̵o̷w̷ ̶t̵h̸e̸ ̶o̷n̷e̶s̵ ̶b̵e̶h̶i̴n̶d̷ ̴u̵s̵.̴ ̸A̸ ̶p̵a̶r̵t̴ ̷o̸f̴ ̶U̴s̸ ̵d̷o̵e̴s̶.̸ ̷C̶a̷n̷ ̷W̴e̷ ̷t̸r̶u̶s̵t̸ ̴O̵u̶r̷s̶ ̴w̵i̴t̸h̵ ̴t̸h̵e̴m̵?̸"

Jason thought about the question for a bit. He was fairly certain, as long as Damian was the one taking the lead, they'd be fine. Since Bruce was letting the kid take point, Tim was more likely to follow along, and Dick would only jump the gun if the kid looked injured or terrified out of his mind, which he was neither. In fact, the kid was making some of the cutest fucking noises he'd ever heard, nevermind they didn't have any right coming from a very human looking kid. "We should be good, so long as the baby bird is in control, he seems to grasp the situation better than the rest," he finally replied.

"V̶e̸r̴y̸ ̵w̵e̴l̸l̶.̸ ̸W̶e̸ ̸w̷i̶l̴l̷ ̴t̵r̵u̷s̶t̷ ̷t̷h̵e̵ ̶B̸a̴b̵y̶ ̶B̵i̶r̶d̵,̵ ̶a̸s̷ ̴p̶a̶r̵t̵ ̷o̶f̷ ̸U̶s̴ ̵c̶a̸l̴l̴s̵ ̶H̷i̵m̶.̸" They slowly turned around, the kid held protectively within their arms, though visible enough for the Bats to be able to determine he was okay.

They all stared at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. Jason was getting ready to make a sarcastic comment about the stalemate when the kid spoke up. "Hey, so, uh, I'm Danny, it's nice to meet you all."

Oh shit. How could a teenager be so adorable? "I have never thought of a kid as adorable, what the fuck?"

"H̴e̴ ̷i̵s̷ ̸O̵u̶r̸s̵.̵ ̶H̵e̴ ̶i̸s̶ ̶C̶l̷a̶i̴m̶e̵d̷ ̷b̵y̸ ̵U̴s̶.̴ ̵H̵e̶ ̶w̶i̴l̸l̶ ̶a̶l̷w̸a̷y̸s̶ ̶b̸e̴ ̷a̴d̶o̴r̷a̶b̸l̵e̵ ̷t̵o̶ ̶U̸s̴,̸ ̵e̴v̴e̵n̷ ̶t̶o̶ ̴a̷ ̵p̴a̶r̸t̸ ̷o̷f̴ ̵U̸s̸ ̵t̸h̵a̵t̸ ̸i̷s̶ ̷n̵o̶t̴ ̶o̷f̷ ̶U̶s̴.̴"

Wait. "Did you adopt him? What if he has parents! We can't just adopt random kids!"

"W̴e̶ ̵d̶i̴d̴ ̶n̴o̶t̶ ̷s̴e̵e̸ ̷a̸n̴y̷ ̴P̶a̴r̶e̶n̷t̸s̴.̴ ̷W̴e̵ ̸o̸n̷l̷y̷ ̴s̵a̷w̷ ̷H̶i̸m̴.̶ ̶H̵e̶ ̴w̴a̴s̴ ̴U̵n̴C̷l̸a̷i̸m̵e̴d̸,̵ ̷n̷o̷w̵ ̶H̸e̵ ̷i̶s̵ ̸C̶l̷a̴i̷m̸e̸d̶.̷ ̶I̷t̵ ̵i̵s̷ ̴f̴a̴i̵r̶.̶" The Pit was being far too cheeky. It was like the Pit was saying "finders keepers losers weepers". Jason... Wasn't sure how he felt about that, honestly. "A̷n̷d̸ ̷H̸e̵ ̷i̸s̷ ̴n̵o̴t̴ ̴r̷a̴n̶d̶o̴m̴.̸ ̶H̴e̷ ̷i̶s̵ ̸k̸i̸n̷g̵.̶"

Wait, wait, nope, he had to have heard that wrong. "Hold the fucking phone, are you saying he's some kind of royalty? Of what government? His accent sounds Midwestern!"

"H̸e̵ ̷i̴s̴ ̶H̷i̶g̷h̵ ̴K̷i̴n̸g̶ ̸o̶f̷ ̵t̶h̸e̶ ̴I̴n̶f̷i̶n̵i̶t̷e̴ ̶R̴e̶a̸l̶m̸s̷.̵ ̶H̷e̷ ̸i̵s̵ ̴G̵h̵o̴s̵t̸ ̸K̴i̶n̴g̴.̶" The tone with which the Pit spoke of Danny was complicated, though pride and seriousness were prominent. "H̵e̸ ̴i̵s̷ ̴O̶u̵r̶s̶ ̷a̵s̶ ̸W̷e̸ ̴a̴r̴e̷ ̸H̶i̶s̷.̸"

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"Hey, so, uh, I'm Danny, it's nice to meet you all."

The teen in Jason's the Pit creature's arms was remarkably calm, in Damian's opinion. He'd seen many people bathe in the Lazarus Pit come back not right, not themselves, enough to have an idea of how to handle this thing that took his brother's body as its own. Admittedly, this creature was among the most tame he'd ever seen or heard of, though, he never thought someone could become a Pit creature years after bathing in the Pit's waters, either, so perhaps that wasn't saying much.

Damian refocused and gave the older teen a small smile. "Hello, Danny, are you alright? You've had a rather stressful day, haven't you?" He needed to figure out a way to get Danny away from the Pit creature without provoking it. He had no idea how long it would stay reasonable and he didn't want to chance Danny getting hurt by what was once his brother.

Danny let out a snort. That... Wasn't the response he was expecting. "Honestly, the past week was significantly worse, this was nothing. This was almost expected, honestly. No, yeah, I'm doing pretty well now that Goony McGoonface over there isn't trying to use me as a meat shield anymore." The creature let out a short screech, and Danny glanced up at it, face contemplative, almost confused for a second, before understanding flashed across his features. He then let out a few chirps that, to Damian, sounded almost like he was asking for clarification for something. The creature responded with a trill and a few chirps of its own. Danny nodded and turned to look back at Damian with a slightly apologetic expression. "Um, he said you can come closer, Robin. He trusts you not to hurt me, but the others will have to stay back for now. Something about you being vouched for? I guess?"

He wasn't sure what to make of that, but Damian could work with this. He nodded before either of his brothers could argue, silently grateful his father was following his lead like he'd asked. "Thank you for passing along the message, I will gladly take you up on that. How close may I get?"

Danny turned to the creature again as it tilted its head in thought before chirping something at Danny that caused his eyes to widen. Danny trilled a question back, the mental impression of a disbelieving, "Really?" strong enough Damian could have sworn he'd actually heard it instead of imagining it. The creature repeated the trill back with a few chirps at the end and Danny's eyes widened further as he turned to look back at Damian. "You, uh, you can get as close as you'd like, he says he remembers you, now. You must have made a good impression, I wouldn't have thought he'd let anyone near me for the next hour, at least."

Well then. That was significantly closer than Damian had expected based on previous experiences with Pit creatures. What did Danny mean, the creature remembered him, though? How could it remember him? "Thank you again, both of you," Damian said as he started forward, being careful not to move too quickly or make any sudden movements. The closer he got to the two of them, the more he started to notice a deep rumble and slightly higher purr coming from the two he was approaching. They seemed to resonate within his own chest, touching at something he'd never noticed was tense and on constant alert until it started relaxing at the interaction. It made him just the slightest bit less hesitant at getting closer to the two of them.

It was only when he was within reach of the creature that he realized that something in his chest had started buzzing, an answering purr that startled him enough for him to pause in his tracks. That... He'd never... What? His purr hitched at his disjointed thoughts. The Pit creature slowly sat down, shifted a suddenly worried looking Danny to sit on its lap, and carefully extended an arm in Damian's direction. His purring hitched again at the movement, and the rumbling shifted in tone slightly. Somehow, the rumble seemed to draw his purr into harmony with it and the other purr, which Damian was starting to suspect was Danny's. The Pit creature chirped softly, and somehow, Damian understood it this time. "Baby bird. It's okay. You're okay. You're safe."

It—the Pit—Jason—Damian took a quick moment to sign back to his father that he had a plan he didn't, he didn't need one, either before diving into the being's arms. He'd been wrong, this wasn't a Pit creature like he'd assumed, and he could only be glad he'd said nothing about his previous assumptions aloud.

He'd only ever heard hushed rumors about it, but once, a long time ago, near the beginning of his grandfather's reign as the Demon's Head, there had been a being who'd bathed in the Lazarus Waters and came out not less than they had been, but more. They had still been themselves, they had still been healed like others before them, they'd just also become the avatar of the Waters in the process. They'd been honored by many, hailed as a great protector and given many titles as thanks, though his grandfather had apparently taken exception to someone else having such an elevated position. His grandfather had killed the being and destroyed all mentions of them as he could, even going so far as to ban talk of them. But thoughts and ideas cannot be bound, and there were those who still revered the being more than his grandfather, even within his own League.

Somehow, Jason, his brother, had become the next Avatar of the Waters. His brother was still there. His brother wasn't dead again. He held back his sobs as he let out his own quiet trill. "You're still here."

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WOW. Didn't expect I'd be able to write this sequel any time soon! Well, surprise, dp×dc week has provided the prompts I needed to write a number of my more requested sequels! ✧⁠\⁠(⁠>⁠o⁠<⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠✧

Good news, I'm feeling better today than I have this entire week lol hopefully this continues through the rest of the week, right? (⁠^⁠～⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ

If anyone thinks I missed a trigger warning for this ficlet, PLEASE let me know! I've tried my best to cover all the ones I thought might be an issue, but I'm not the most knowledgeable on what topics can be triggering yet (⁠´⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠`⁠；⁠) I want my readers to know what they're getting into before they get into it, y'know?

Thank you all so much for your patience! I've got some people who asked to be tagged when I wrote the sequel, so hopefully I got them all! @stealingyourbones, @ghoststoneguard, @meira-3919, @onyxlightdragon, @gatorgoose, @rainbowbunny0159, @jarlyd, here's the update y'all asked to be tagged in! Hope you liked it ಡ⁠ ͜⁠ ⁠ʖ⁠ ⁠ಡ

[crossdressingdeath]

izumiijeevas

I’m not saying that; I’m saying that we briefly saw how Nico truly feels, and about this subject, we saw more about Nico from other people's pov, and all of them have something to be distrustful of. That made them good, absolutely not. I’m looking to see what’s Will pov, and I would adore it if they showed us how Will thought about Nico while Kronos and how they became lovers because I hate to think that they just implied Nico felt like an outcast but never was, like made that up out of nowhere

So... you're saying that yes, the Seven largely dislike Nico because Percy told disturbing stories about him...? As was part of my initial reasoning for why there was a good chance that Nico thought literally everyone hated him despite ToA proving that that's not actually true because he only hung out with Percy's friends at camp? Because that's... literally the only thing any of them actually have to distrust him about, given everything else just boils down to "Wow, this traumatized child who had to walk through hell alone and then was left to slowly suffocate to death sure is quiet and doesn't want to deal with people and isn't eating or sleeping, how spooky", which... I certainly hope you didn't intend to imply is at all a decent reason to distrust someone. Hazel doesn't distrust him, she's insecure about her place in his life; that's not the same thing. Jason and Leo have understandable concerns about him knowing about both camps which a) doesn't actually translate to them wanting to leave him to die (why does no one ever actually read that dialogue? They're suggesting caution, not complete abandonment!) and b) would be easily cleared up if the two people literally in the room who know everything Nico's done for the camps and Olympus would say a damn word in his defence instead of at least one of them actively making things worse. It's stupid that everyone blames Leo and Jason for that scene and never mentions that Percy and Annabeth both know better and say nothing.

Hell, even Percy doesn't actually have any reason to distrust Nico! Read that passage from TLO you so helpfully stuck in there again. Nico swears on the River Styx that he had no idea what his father was planning. There is literally no way for Percy to argue that Nico intended anything other than what Hades told him would happen: a brief chat, and then Percy would be free to go. If Nico had had any clue that he was leading Percy into a trap... he'd be dead. Oaths on the River Styx are not a thing made lightly. Percy's only justification is that Nico "know[s] what [his] dad is like", which... come on, like Percy wouldn't have done the exact same thing if it had been him and Poseidon instead of Nico and Hades, and Nico has as much reason to trust Hades as Percy does to trust Poseidon. (Note that this also means that when Percy told the Seven that Nico led him into a trap, which we know he did based on Jason saying so at the start of the Split section, he was if we're being generous being incredibly misleading and if we're not being generous outright lying to make his supposed friend look bad while they were en route to rescue him.) At most Percy could worry that Nico's loyalty might blind him to people's faults, which... I don't think I need to say that that's not likely to be an issue in this case. None of these characters actually have any reason to distrust Nico that wouldn't be easily sorted if Percy Jackson opened his damn mouth and told the whole truth! So we have circled back to my original point: there's a fair chance that the main reason Nico is convinced everyone at camp hates him is that he spent all his time at camp around Percy and his friends, people who didn't like him and weren't good for him, instead of getting to know people who actually did want to get to know him and did care for him.

I am once again asking Rick to confirm in TSatS that the reason why Nico thought no one at Camp Half-Blood wanted him around was that he exclusively spent time with Percy's friend group while he was there.

Like... ToA confirms that Will's claim that people would be Nico's friends if he talked to them is accurate (I can't think of any non-villain character in ToA who responds to him with worse than neutrality, and he's clearly become very close with the whole Apollo cabin, not just Will). So does Will, Cecil and Lou Ellen's reaction to him running into them during their recon mission; all three of them are as friendly and pleased to see him and work with him as you could expect under the circumstances. But we also know that Nico is right about people not wanting him around, because the Seven (minus Hazel and later Jason) are about a step removed from openly hostile towards him in their POVs the whole way through HoH and only interact with him when they have to to the point where they barely seem to remember how he literally had to walk through Tartarus alone like a week before they rescued him from the jar where he had been locked up to slowly suffocate to death. And we can confirm that Percy was basically gossiping about Nico on the way to Rome (and we can assume that Annabeth, who would also have been one of the people Nico spent time with at camp, either didn't know or didn't try to do anything about it) and that that did play a part in the Seven's dislike of him based on Jason's POV in the Split section. And if Nico's only been spending time at camp with that group...

Basically Percy's friend group are fine on their own, but they do seem to be pretty insular (Percy says he has other friends at camp, but aside from Annabeth, Grover and Tyson they seem to be more like school/work friends than close friends; he gets on with them okay, but he doesn't seem to really interact with them except when they're put in proximity to each other by the structure they're part of) and they clearly don't particularly like Nico specifically. Both Percy and Annabeth are pretty open about being uncomfortable around him in their POV, and while Tyson's his usual friendly self when he runs into Nico in BoO he and Grover tend to take their cue from Percy and Annabeth in a lot of things. Nico clearly picks up on that (his bitterness when he tells Jason that he's sure Percy told the Seven all about him really does speak volumes), and he never really sticks around at camp long enough to interact with other people (and even when he is around he's definitely not the most sociable of people, and while people are clearly perfectly happy to be his friend there probably is a sense of intimidation from his death powers and general Big Three energy that means people are a little nervous about approaching him first; I suspect part of the flashbacks in TSatS will feature Hazel, Jason, Reyna and Will dragging him into socialization). It would make sense for him to conclude that no one at camp wants him around when all the people he actively talks to don't really want him around!

And also like... just in general it's the only way I can really think of to reconcile Will's claim that Nico could very easily have friends at camp if he talked to people (and how that's backed up by ToA) with how Nico has never felt welcome at camp and how the Seven's POVs (minus Hazel's and later Jason's) show that he's right to feel that way based on how they think of him. At least the only way that wouldn't feel like a copout. And that's one of the things that really bothers me about Nico's situation, because almost all the POVs in HoO prove his view of the situation right... but then he does seem to have made friends pretty easily between HoO and ToA, and it just doesn't line up.