Stomp On the Ground

[arrowtotheheal]

Who: Will Solace, Nico di Angelo, and Annabeth Chase
When: The day after the Tarot card effects wear off.
Where: Will's living quarters
What: It's a demigod meeting at Will's place!
Rating/Warning: Gen / the sass war continues between Will and Nico, most likely spoilers for Blood of Olympus

After checking in with Annabeth and making sure she wasn't going to spontaneously hug him every moment she saw him, Will figured it'd be a good time to have a little meet-up. Well, he couldn't really take the credit for that idea. Annabeth thought of it first, and Will had offered his place as the location for their meeting. Then it took a little bit of finagling to pick a time when Annabeth and Nico could come over, and give Will a bit of time to pick up more groceries to feed two more people. Priorities!

He got junk food, of course. One couldn't have a meeting between demigods without that. There wasn't a whole lot of it, since he wasn't sure if they were sticking around for an actual meal, but it was certainly enough for a snack. Will also picked up some cans of soda. He felt they needed something that was somewhat normal after everything that had happened.

As the three of them sat around the dining room table, Will wasn't exactly sure how to feel about how they were the only ones here. While it was certainly comforting to have two very capable friends in this place, he couldn't help thinking about the others who weren't there. He wondered if they were okay, or as okay as they could be given the circumstances.

...On the other hand, perhaps it was okay that Cecil and Lou Ellen weren't here. Will had an awful feeling that they would tease him from now to the end of time about his current occupation as weatherman.

"So," Will said, breaking the silence and glancing at Annabeth. "I say we completely forget what just happened over the past two days. Honestly, Annabeth, I thought that last hug would lead me to being hospitalized for a concussion."

Who knew Athena children could rugby tackle people out of aggressive affection like a professional?

{OOC: Action or prose, I'll follow you guys!}

Comments

[chryselephantine]

[the junk food is pretty reassuring, even if she doesn't recognize any of the brands they sell here. she's gotten used to that anyway. traveling to the ancient lands via part-time flying greek triremes means you have to be willing to try new things and hope they taste as good as they look. today, she snags a can of soda and bag of chips to idly munch on, enjoying the feeling of being normal. even though hanging out with will and nico isn't something she's as used to as percy, or piper, or rachel, or grover, being around them helps her relax — especially since she knew them both before the prophecy of the seven ever happened, or even the titan war. the number of people who've reliably been in her life are pretty few and far between, with the exception of those two and some of the others at camp. plus, the people who came later tend to look at her and see all the beads on her necklace and her status as head counselor. it's not like she minds being a leader, but it's kind of nice to know she won't be expected to have any answers she doesn't have.

that doesn't mean not having the answers doesn't bother her. but at least she doesn't have to keep telling people about it.

she grimaces when will brings up what happened over the past few days, trying not to scowl too hard though her eyes turn pretty thunderstorm dark. it's not will's or nico's fault she acted like a complete lunatic.]

Definitely forget about all weird behavior and any accidental almost-concussions. I'm glad you're okay, by the way.

[zombiedude]

[Nico had been having similar thoughts to Will, wondering about the other people they were friends with and what had happened to them, if they would see them again and if they were alright. He sits leaning back in a chair, leaving the junk food untouched with a frown on his face.

He, too, is very glad Annabeth is back to normal. It'd been beyond weird dealing with her due to whatever had been going on. ... He can't say he's upset about having not received any tackle hugs like Will had though. He liked and respected Annabeth well enough, but hugging? No thanks.

He's quiet for now, letting Annabeth and Will talk until he decides to interject, looking half lost in thought due to the situation they've found themselves in.]

[arrowtotheheal]

So am I, and I'm lucky that you don't tackle as hard as certain daughters of Ares I could mention.

[Is he talking about himself or seeing the aftermath with other people or both? It's a mystery.]

Moving on, anybody find out any information? The only thing I've been able to see was that this didn't seem like the first time something odd like that's happened.

[chryselephantine]

[annabeth frowns, and takes a quick drink of soda before she speaks up. potentially choking on a chip is really not the note she wants to start this talk off on.]

You remember all those computer games CERES wanted us to test when we got here? It was them — one of them, anyway. All of the unaffected people I met either didn't play...or didn't play all of them. [she's not 100% sure, but it seems most likely. also:] At least one person was really interested in what games I played. I think he was trying to figure out what was going on.

[zombiedude]

[Nico does not look entirely convinced, interjecting skeptically.] You're saying a computer game made your personality change.

[He's also heard that odd things aren't uncommon here, and to that he says:] Will. Look at where we are. This whole thing is odd.

[arrowtotheheal]

[Will rests his chin on his hand as he thinks.]

Feels like we fell down a rabbit hole. Or pulled something from Tron or the Matrix. Let's say we buy this whole 'living code' story. It'd make sense if some sort of game affected us. It's, like, rewriting our code, right? Kinda like how DNA can be rewritten over time in certain conditions?

[He shrugs with one of his shoulders.]

Although, I know zilch about computer code, so I might be wrong. Either way, how much of this story do we even buy? I can accept that these people might need our help and that our home's in trouble, but....

[What about the rest of it?]

[chryselephantine]

[annabeth addresses nico first, her voice level.]

I'm saying weirder things have happened to all of us. I'm not ruling anything out.

[then she hears will out patiently, waiting until she's sure he's done to reply.]

It's possible. I don't believe our world is gone for a second, but that doesn't mean everything else they've told us is a lie, either. We can't make any judgments until we have hard evidence for anything.

[or they can, but it'd be unwise.]

Right now, we're CERES's guests. That means we're at their mercy. What we've got to do is investigate, but carefully.

[zombiedude]

[Down the rabbit role, he gets, but what the heck is Tron and the Matrix? He just looks blankly at Will when the other demigod makes those references before looking back at Annabeth.]

I probably know less about computers than either of you. You're probably our best bet with that. I don't... know a lot about science either. [He stopped going to school in the fifth grade, and looks a little embarrassed about it now.] But I'm with you on our world not being gone. [No way can he just accept that.] So... what's the first thing we investigate? And how?