Percy Jackson {Περσεύς} Does Not Gawk (sonof_) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-12-12 21:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, nico di angelo, percy jackson |
Who: Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo
What: Running into Each Other
When: Backdated: End of September
Where: GameStop
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly
Status: Complete!
After everything that had happened over the last few weeks, Percy was hoping that the dreams would refrain from turning anymore of his friends into foliage. Now that Thalia was no longer a tree, he knew that, Annabeth was much less stressed and he was grateful for that. He hadn’t liked seeing her so worked up and worried about Thalia. Of course he could only venture a guess as to what was going to happen next in the waking world as a result of their dreams. They clearly weren’t over, now that they knew exactly what Luke was trying to do.
He was trying not to think about the dreams though and instead focus on his schoolwork. It was hard enough for him with his dyslexia and ADHD that he didn’t need the dreams getting in the way too.
In an attempt to get his mind to focus, he’d decided to stop by the nearest GameStop; not that Percy needed any more video games, but considering he was majoring in video game development, he was able to use that as an excuse.
***
Nico had come by GameStop to trade in some games that he’d already beaten and to pick up some new ones. And preorder the new Pokemon games that were coming out in November. He could take them with him when he went to see his mom for Thanksgiving Break, play in the airport if he had a layover between here and Italy. He was turning around to ask the clerk if they had a game that he was looking for but then he saw Annabeth’s friend Percy come in. He’d met him at the Fourth of July thing Annabeth had put together and they’d talked on the network a few times since then. He liked him well enough and this seemed like a good time to get to know him better. Annabeth seemed to really like him and Nico was also worried about Annabeth. She’d seemed so stressed lately.
He shifted his games in one arm and walked over to the other boy. “Hi Percy.”
***
Percy had been looking at the new releases when he heard someone say his name, which caused him to look up as Nico appeared beside him, “Hey. How’s it going?” Percy and Nico had met on the Fourth of July at the beach, but hadn’t actually seen each other since. “Not hanging out with any pirates today?” He smirked, recalling the conversation they’d had on the net recently about Nico’s bucket list.
***
Nico couldn’t help but grin at Percy’s question. “Not today. Figured I’d be better off making that an occasional thing. Preserve my liver.” He hadn’t drunk a lot at Killian’s party but he still wanted to be smart about it when he drank. Especially considering he technically wasn’t old enough to drink at all in California. It was one of the things he preferred back home - he could legally drink in Italy.
“I’m good. Settled back in the dorm which is nice. What about you? How’ve you been?” he asked, curiosity and manners both prompting the question.
***
Percy had never actually drank before, considering he was also underage and he’d never felt comfortable at any of the dorm parties to stick around long enough to drink anything. “I’m sure your liver will thank you someday.” Percy smirked, crossing his arms over his chest, “I’ve been good. Especially now that Thalia isn’t a tree anymore. That was really weird.” While they’d yet to actually use the Fleece in the dreams, it hadn’t been a stretch of the imagination to know what to do with it once it had shown up in his room. After all, they had gone looking for the Fleece in order to save Thalia’s tree.
***
Nico knew that his confusion had to be evident on his face. “What? Someone got turned into a tree? How did I miss that?” He knew he’d been kind of distracted with things but he didn’t realize he’d been that distracted until Percy mentioned that. “How’d they get turned back?”
***
“You remember Thalia? From the beach on Fourth of July?” Percy had been just as shocked as Nico when Annabeth had told him about Thalia, “It was dream related. She was dying and Zeus turned her into a tree to save her. Don’t think it was Zeus who turned her into a tree here though.” Percy still had no idea what caused the things that happened in Orange County, “And we turned her back with the Golden Fleece.”
***
Nico had to think for a minute about the Fourth of July picnic on the beach before nodding. “Vaguely. I didn’t talk to her very much.” He said with a half shrug. “Everything weird that happens here is dream related I think. One way or another. If he could turn her into a tree to save her, why didn’t he just save her?” He asked, thinking out loud mostly. He’d already given up on dream logic ever making sense.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that the Golden Fleece worked here and there.”
***
Percy nodded, “Yeah, it worked. Thank god. I don’t know what we would have done if it hadn’t.” Percy didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Thalia was stuck as a tree forever. He was curious, however, about whether or not she would have turned back on her own eventually, but he had no idea if she had still been dreaming while she was a tree.
***
“Is it a good thing or a bad thing that I’ve gotten used to hearing about things like this happening?” Nico said only half joking. “I’m glad it worked. Because I have no clue how you would even take care of a person turned into a tree. And if somebody were to carve their initials into the tree - would they show up as a scar on the person when they turned back into a person?” He asked, a rare grin showing up on his face to show he was joking.
***
Percy thought for a moment then shrugged, “Honestly, I’m not really sure. We probably shouldn’t be used to hearing about stuff like this, but at the same time it kind of makes sense.” It really was an odd situation, all things considered, but Percy supposed if he dreamt about being a Greek demigod then nothing else should surprise him, “Ya know, I have no idea. That’s a really good question.”
***
“Good thing for where we live maybe?” Nico said, turning his attention to a game that caught his eye and picking it up to read the back. He set it back down, it didn’t interest him enough to pick it up today but maybe in a couple weeks. “Somehow not curious enough to try it and find out though.”
***
Percy nodded, “Yeah, probably not a good idea to try and turn anyone else into a tree to find out.” Not that Percy knew how to turn anyone into a tree if they hadn’t dreamt of it. “Guess that’s just one thing we’ll never know the answer to.” Then again with the nature of their dreams and the things that happened in Orange County, it was entirely possible that somewhere down the line, they could find out the answer to that question.
***
“Plus if it does scar - they might get pretty pissed about it.” Nico said with a smile. “So other than dreams and tree people - what’s been going on?” He asked, turning away from the games to look at the other young man while they talked.
***
Percy chuckled and nodded again, “Yeah, just a little bit.” He was just glad that no one had tried to test these theories with Thalia as a tree, because he really didn’t want her to come after him if something had gone wrong. “Not much really. Just getting back into school and setting up the new house.” Percy was still extremely happy that his mother and Paul had decided to move out to California, because he’d missed his mother a lot over the last year.
***
Nico’s timer went off and he cursed quietly in Italian as he pulled out of his phone to mute it. “Sorry Percy. I didn’t realize how late it was. I’m supposed to be back on campus for a meeting with one of my professors. But maybe we could talk again sometime?”
***
“No problem. My mom is probably gonna be looking for me soon too. Still helping her and my stepdad get the house in order.” Percy was surprised just how many boxes his mother and Paul had brought over from New York, considering their apartment hadn’t been that big, but he was happy to help them with the unpacking, “Yeah, we should definitely get together again.”