icarus · ellis merchant

Megaera and Theo travel the world, battling monsters, and take Ellis with them. After all, where would he be safer than with his parents? Firm believers that knowledge was power, they never shielded him from the truth of his world. They tried their best to train him from a young age, so he would be able to defend himself even before he went to camp.

Shortly before his seventh birthday, however, Megaera was killed, battling (who???why??) in service of Athena. Theo was crushed, and moved himself and his young son back to the United States. His father was still consumed by grief, so Ellis ended up at camp much sooner than anyone had anticipated.

Growing up, it was hard to escape the legend he’d been born into. There were few other young children around for him to play with when they were always on the move, so camp was really his first opportunity to interact with kids his own age. But he swiftly realized that was going to be more difficult than anticipated. He was put into a cabin with other children of Apollo, but it quickly became apparent that there was too much of his mother in him to fully embrace it---the other demigods were technically more like uncles to him, but many of them also had less training than Ellis had even as a young child, both facts making him feel like more of an outsider, an anomaly. The news that his mother had only just died also made him a source of pity for some of the other campers. They didn’t know how to relate to this strange and serious child, or he to them. He found it was actually easier to interact with the older trainers and camp staff than the other campers. 

Between his two lineages, any number of paths should’ve been open to Ellis to pursue, and he ought to have been adept at so many things---after all, he was the product of two renowned and dramatically different skill sets, and had been immersed in this world of miracles, heroes, and demigods since he was born. But it seemed that much of the light of his father and the shadow of his mother didn’t propel him down any one path, they only muddied his direction, despite how much potential everyone expected him to have. He was often frustrated, experiencing massive mood swings. When his gifts were combined it was either underwhelming, or explosive, and Ellis had little way of predicting which it would be at any given time. 

Most notably when he was twelve years old, he attempted to manipulate shadows and sunlight, what resulted in front of his trainers was fifteen minutes of patchy, wavering gloom, followed by a flash bright enough that he temporarily blinded everyone in the vicinity, and then ten minutes of complete darkness that returned stubbornly each time it was dispelled. He began to feel like a failure, like he would never achieve anything at all, let alone honour his mother’s legacy. 

For a while he was so defeated and despondent that he refused to train at all. It was during this time that he found his real love---books, especially those to do with the outside world. Having had such little exposure to it, he began to romanticize everything about it, and for a while he fantasized about running away, living a normal existence, even though he knew it was impossible. A mundane fate seemed better than none at all.

After a while, people changed their approach towards Ellis. They no longer seemed intrigued by anything he did, or expectant of something impressive. He began to fade to the background of people’s notice, and gradually he began to expect less of himself as well. He did manage to make a few friends, in his later years at Camp, mostly other outsiders who didn’t seem to fit the mold that they’d been pressed into by their parents. He began to grow more comfortable with knowing he wouldn’t live up to the legacy, though there would always be a kernel of disappointment that he kept buried deep beneath the surface.

(Age 19? or when the helm is stolen)

Having given up on actually having his powers work, he encounters a dangerous situation. He was protected and trained for most of his life but he’s rarely been in actual danger.

He stops trying to balance the light and dark at all, and asks Nyx for help. She removes the restraint and his dark-aligned powers take over, but HEY it’s still power, it still technically works, right? So who cares if he can’t do soft shit like cast light, he can cast shadow so it’s good enough. Maybe this was in exchange for taking a side? Maybe his father didn’t want him involved at all (Apollo is neutral, Nyx is unlisted). 

After this, he focuses solely on training.

His parents sided with Athena in most conflicts (??), so it seems natural to Ellis to do the same, but he can’t help but wonder if he is only hearing half the story. No one aligned with Athena could ever possibly say a bad word about it in front of him---his mother died in service to her, after all.