Thalia Grace (wasatree) wrote in welcomenetwork, @ 2013-08-02 22:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | bianca di angelo, thalia grace |
WHO: Bianca & Thalia.
WHERE: The park
WHEN: After Bianca’s arrival
WHAT: There’s a lot of events Thalia needs to catch Bianca up on, including the fact that she’s dead.
RATING: Low; mentions of character death
STATUS: log; complete.
If it weren’t for Luke’s re-emergence from the dead - something Thalia was still struggling to come to grips with - she would’ve been much more shocked at Bianca’s arrival. But it seemed that while Luke had been brought here from Elysium, Bianca had been brought here before she’d died. Which meant that Thalia was going to have to tell her that she was dead - back at their world, at least. She wondered what a Child of Hades thought about death. It could very well be that Bianca wouldn’t care much, knowing that Elysium was waiting for her. She doubted it. Bianca might be headed for Elysium, but she’d left Nico behind, and even in Thalia’s short acquaintance with him, she knew how hard Bianca’s death had been on him. In any case, no matter how Bianca was going to take the news, Thalia was going to have to tell it to her, along with the news of Zoe’s death, Kronos’s defeat, and the new war with Gaia. So much had happened, it was hard to believe it had only been a few years. Upon arriving at the park, Thalia immediately picked out Bianca’s slight frame. She adjusted the silver circlet on her head, the one Zoe used to wear, and approached. “Bianca!” Bianca fidgeted with the end of her braid while she waited for Thalia to come and find her. Her feet barely touched the ground from the bench that she was currently perched on, and she swung them back and forth idly. She’d never been officially diagnosed, so she wasn’t really aware that it was her ADHD that was keeping her from sitting still. All Bianca knew was that she’d always been a little restless. She was pretty sure she was dead. It made sense and she’d known it as she’d made the choice to enter Talos to try and save her friends. It still didn’t make it easy for the twelve year old to accept that she was going to die. That she’d abandoned her baby brother much worse than just joining the Hunt. Nico. Sadness settled in her chest as she thought about her brother and what he would have to go through without her. She was still twisting her braid and lost in her thoughts when she heard Thalia call her name. She looked up, and raised a hand to wave. Thalia had the slight silvery glow of one of the Hunters now. She wondered when that had happened. Thalia had seemed so against all of them. But she was actually a little relieved. She’d only been a member of the Hunters for two days. She barely understood what any of it meant. And Thalia had always seemed like a good leader. She felt better knowing that the other girl was there to help her. She stood up to greet her with a small smile. And that’s when she noticed the circlet on Thalia’s brow. Bianca had only ever seen Zoe wear that, and she tilted her head to the side curiously, but didn’t say anything. She figured Thalia would explain. “Thalia, hi.” "Hey," Thalia responded, smiling warmly at the other girl. "It's good to see you." Thalia had only known Bianca for a few days before she'd died, and it had been a few years since, but she'd always liked the younger girl. Bianca was nice and fun, but she also had a wisdom beyond her years. Maybe because Bianca was actually much older than twelve. "Pretty weird thing we got caught up in, huh?" she continued. It was small talk, yeah, but even Thalia - as direct as she could be - wasn't going to start off telling a dead girl that she'd kicked the bucket. Besides, it was a way to ease into everything that had happened since the junkyard. Thalia couldn't remember if Bianca even knew who her godly parent was. “It’s really good to see you too. I showed up here in the middle of the forest all by myself, and I didn’t know what was going on. It’s crazy here. And considering the last few days I’ve had, I think that’s saying something.” Bianca was still feeling restless, so she pointed to a path that wound it’s way around the park. “Want to walk?” “Yeah, sure,” Thalia said. She’d become much more settled since she’d come back to life - apparently being a tree for several years really slowed you down - but she still liked to keep moving. When it came to the kind of conversation they were going to have, she’d prefer to have something else to focus on anyway. “A lot of things have happened since you got into Talos,” she said to Bianca as they made their way into the park. “You want the info dump version, or the longer version?” She didn’t know Bianca well enough to tell. As much as she’d liked the younger girl, she’d done her best to avoid the Hunters in those days. Back then, she’d thought that she could save Luke and bring him home. The Hunters, led by Zoe, had thought otherwise. Thalia wished she’d taken them more seriously. Bianca put her hands into her pockets and while they walked, she considered Thalia’s question. “Info dump version,” she decided. “Better to rip the band-aid off. Then I can ask you about anything else later if I still have questions.” She turned her brown eyes to look at Thalia. “I didn’t make it out of the desert, did I?” Better to just get that out of the way now. And Bianca didn’t want to have to force the other girl to be the one to say it. "No you didn't," Thalia said. Though the words were forthright, her time was gentle. "You took control of Talos enough to steer him away from us, but you died doing it. You sacrificed yourself for us." Much more had happened after that, and Bianca had asked for an info dump, but Thalia didn't want to go into the rest just yet. She knew if the positions were switched, she'd want a moment to process the news of her death. She'd been there once herself. Bianca breathed in deeply as she absorbed the news. It was one thing to think it to herself, but it was another thing entirely to hear it out loud. She’d become immortal only to die two days later. It was supremely unfair. But she tried not to let it eat at her. “I’m glad you made it out okay. It was my fault.” She hung her head a little at that. “I tried to take something- a figurine for Nico.” Thalia shook her head. While they'd been warned not to take anything from the junkyard, she wasn't about to hold that over Bianca's head. It hadn't mattered that much in the grand scheme if things anyway - although of course for Bianca it changed everything. "I'm pretty sure the deck was stacked against us in the first place," she said. "If it hadn't been you and the figurine, it would've been someone else with something else." Bianca tried to blink away a few tears, but they stubbornly fell anyway. She raised her hand and wiped them away with her fingers. “Sorry,” she mumbled as they continued to walk together. She took a minute to gather her composure up again and then raised her chin. She sniffed only once. With her head raised again, she kept her eyes focused ahead of them. She was quiet while she fit a few of the pieces together for herself. “One shall be lost in the land without rain,” she quoted the prophecy. “That was me. And one shall perish by a parent’s hand. That was Zoe, wasn’t it? The General killed her.” Zoe had confided in Bianca about her father and what it could all mean. And with Thalia wearing Zoe’s circlet, well, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out. “But you found Artemis and saved her in time for the Solstice? And you joined the Hunt.” Thalia kept quiet and her own gaze forward while Bianca gathered herself, giving the other girl some privacy for it. Only when Bianca spoke again did she glance over and speak. "Yeah, Zoe fell by her father's hand," Thalia said softly. Bianca was sharp: she'd surmised all that when she hadn't been there. "We found Artemis and freed her, and then Artemis put Zoe among the stars and later offered her place to me." There was a lot left unspoken there, of why Artemis had been trapped in the first place, and of Thalia's battle with the man who had helped out her there. It was easier just to focus on Zoe and Artemis and the Hunt side of things. Besides, it was what affected Bianca most directly. She glanced over at Bianca and offered an encouraging smile. "We won, in the end. Kronos was defeated, and the Titans sent back to Tartarus. I hear Nico had a hard time after..." Well, there was no sugar coating it "your death, but he's doing better now. Convinced your dad to bring an entire skeleton army to join the last battle, even." Bianca nodded and continued to process things while they walked. She’s always been much more mature than her twelve years. She supposed it came from always having to be a parent to Nico. Bianca had to grow up fast in order to keep him safe. Then she’d finally found someone to help guide her and she was dead now too. She mourned the loss of her new friend, but she also knew that Zoe had lived thousands of years already. And if she had helped save Lady Artemis, she would have died in peace. She tucked her silky dark hair behind her ears and crossed her arms. She’d been about to ask another question when Thalia brought up Nico and their father. She stopped and put a hand on Thalia’s arm. She turned to face the other hunter. “Our dad? Nico- You know who our father is?” Well, that answered the question of whether Bianca knew. Thalia nodded and turned to face the other Hunter. "Hades," she supplied. "You're a child of one of the Big Three." Bianca was honestly stunned. Learning she was a demigod was one thing. But to find out that her father was the ruler of the Underworld? Her mouth dropped open a little bit. “I don’t- I’m not sure what to say.” Thalia didn’t blame her. Most people didn’t know what to think about Hades in general. He was a big jerk most of the time, but there were other times when Thalia almost felt sorry for the guy. And to find out that he was your father? “You don’t have to say anything,” she said gently. “About that, or anything else. I’ve thrown a lot at you, and I don’t blame you if you need some time to process it all.” Bianca nodded slowly as she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that Hades was her father. That’s why she could kill those skeleton warriors when no one else could. She thought about the Hades figurine she had taken that had ultimately ended her life. The irony of it all was incredibly cruel. She folded her arms and hunched her shoulders down as she began to walk down the path again. “Just one last thing for now. You said Nico is okay?” Bianca had a lot on her mind that she needed to work though, but her brother’s safety was the most important. Once she knew he was okay, then she could sort through everything else. “Yeah,” Thalia said quietly, watching the other girl carefully. She looked so lost and confused right now, despite her attempts at staying collected, that Thalia’s Big Sister instincts kicked in. She reached out to put her arm around Bianca’s shoulders - light enough to let Bianca shrug it off if she didn’t like the contact, but steady enough to let her know she didn’t have to do this alone. “I joined the Hunters right after we got Artemis back so I didn’t see Nico for a long time after that,” she continued. “From what I hear, he took the news of your death pretty badly...but he went on to do some amazing things.” Bianca didn’t want to shrug off Thalia’s comforting arm. She needed it, and leaned into the other girl for support. They didn’t know each other incredibly well, but Bianca needed something. She was dead, her father ruled the Underworld, and she’d left her brother all alone. She wanted to cry, but she continued to do her best to keep herself together. “That’s good,” she said thickly after swallowing the lump in her throat. “I knew he’d do amazing things one day.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t think I need to hear anything more for now. Maybe we can just walk for a little while?” “Of course,” Thalia said gently, settling her arm more comfortably around the other Hunter’s shoulders. Bianca had just gotten a lot of bad news at once, and Thalia would do what she could to support her. Even if they weren’t sister Hunters now, she’d be there for her. |