ɢʜᴏsᴛ ᴋɪɴɢ

It was Nico’s swift removal of his arm from his grasp that woke Daichi up completely. Once he falls back into reality, his body reels to smack against the back of the booth. Apologetically, Daichi looks up to the other teenager before him. “Ah, sorry,” he mutters quietly as he bows his head slightly. 

He should have been more aware of his surroundings, though he isn’t beating himself up too harshly, he was sleepy. Thankfully, the other doesn’t seem to have ill intentions. Daylen has warned him of the cruel people that live here and many of them were equipped with powers. Daichi wasn’t graced with such fortune. 

Examining the expression of the other male, he is reminded of Tsukkishima. The two both wore scowls like an accessory. He is certain neither male always had such a mask, but regardless of how or why, Daichi knows antagonizing will not help. The aggression, the distancing of others, and testy personalities is apart of who they were and they should be appreciated for who they are and not what they should be.

“Hm, nine-thirty. It is pretty early.” Soon after he speaks, his stomach rumbles. It has only been a few hours since he last ate, though it wasn’t the length of time that encourages him to be hungry. He used a lot of energy this morning and he is accustomed to high calorie meals in order to burn it off for strenuous activity. He looks up to Nico with an inviting smile, “It seems as if you already ordered your breakfast. You can sit here and eat if you’d like, I may order something else. Oh, uh, that is if you don’t mind sitting with me; it’s rather busy already and there doesn’t seem to be much space left. My name is Daichi Sawamura, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” In the sea of adults, finding someone close to his age is coming upon gold. When the opportunity arises, he takes action and hopes for the best.

“I don’t like being touched,” He informed for future reference, dark eyes watching the other male closely. He seemed apologetic enough and besides, he wasn’t holding grudges these days so he wouldn’t hold it against him; he wasn’t to know. As far as first impressions went, seemed pretty ordinary to him so the gesture was taken as an innocent mistake. Now that he’d given a reason for his reaction, he decided he wouldn’t dwell on it much longer. 

The low grumble the strangers stomach emits doesn’t go amiss and even though he did state he’d order something else, Nico glanced down at the breakfast muffin he held in his hand and offered it to him. “You can have it if you want. I’m not hungry.” It wasn’t a lie and the coffee was more than enough to get him through the morning. However, the invitation came as a surprise and the demigod didn’t do a very good job masking that. 

Shock, that was probably a normal reaction to this right? Though Zen probably would’ve laughed it off, thanked the other person and offered them an autograph or a photo together. Then again he wasn’t entirely what someone would call… normal. It took a special someone to be quite as… up themselves as Zen could sometimes be. 

They’d come to a stop but now the boy was walking again… and Zen was following. Easily keeping pace with long, overly confident strides as he studied the boy from a slight distance. He couldn’t help but frown as his introduction was ignored, lips pursing momentarily though he reluctantly decided against commenting on it. 

“Why? Why wouldn’t I be,” Zen replied with raised brows, “A character from a play is fictional, it’s strange that I’ve met someone who resembles a fictional character. Though only in appearance apparently.” The last sentence was spoken with a hint of… salt shall we call it, for not returning the introduction as Zen had wanted him to.

He supposed it could be seen as strange though internally he wondered why anyone would want to play a character similar to himself; he knew he wasn’t an easy person to like or to become close to and his identity wasn’t exactly a selling point either. However, as much as he wanted to tell this person to leave him alone, he was also very aware that he had a grand total of, what... two friends in this place after being here for a few months and at the back of his mind he could almost hear Will Solace chiding him for yet again, pushing people away. 

actuallymuffet:

It’s just the way it is.

A short, simple sentence, yet it nearly  broke Muffet’s heart to hear. Not only because it was coming from someone this young, but because she, too, knew a great deal what they meant, from personal experience. It wasn’t a dangerous line of thinking, per-se, but it’s not one someone should come to terms with; something to expect to remain the norm.

“My dear, if everyone subscribed to the mindset of ‘that’s just the way it is,’ I wouldn’t be here today running this bakery. I know what it’s like, believe me.” But she wasn’t trying to make this about her. “Which is why we need to apologize. The last thing I, and my spider friends here, want to do is make someone feel unwelcome or otherwise different from the norm for anything.”

What exactly has this kid gone through, by his age, for him to already be used to that?

Whatever hints of a smile were there, Muffet didn’t notice. The spider on her palm jumped onto the table between them, and took a couple tentative steps forward, towards Nico. It seemed like it was gauging Nico’s reaction, and whether or not it should come closer.

“I had a chat with my spiders, while you were eating. I can be very convincing. Especially when their reaction was purely instinctual by nature… but that doesn’t excuse it nevertheless. They all share the same apology and shame that this little one wanted to bring to you. It’s unfortunate, I feel, that he can’t tell you himself.. but you don’t speak spider, do you?”

Do you? He’d almost asked, however he decided to hold his tongue. She’d been kind enough to him already, he wouldn’t allow himself to poison a potential friendship by voicing his doubts. Instead, he abandoned his cake for the time being as he shrugged lightly, twisting the skull ring upon his finger- a habit he’d developed when he was anxious or agitated or both. “It’s fine, really. You don’t have to apologise,” He insisted, glancing at the second slice of cake and then at the small spider taking slow steps toward him.

“Like you said, it was instinctual. They can’t help it and it’s fine, I get it.” The aura of death surrounding him was enough to put anyone off, he completely understood that. He didn’t need an apology just because they were being cautious. It really was just the way things were, especially with animals. Anyone would be wary of someone so closely associated with one of things people feared most in this world. People liked being alive.

@shadowesqxe

          Amidst the carnage, Viktor and his ever loyal companion manged to gain temporary safety from the drone army inside an abandoned, dilapidated warehouse–Struggling on its last hinges from the damage caused by multiple attacks. 

          They’d not been huddled there long, before Makkachin began sniffing the air in suspicion, prompting his owner to rummage around the piles of crumbled debris for something to protect them both with. His best find, was a piece of jagged glass, which Viktor proceeded to wave around like a knife towards the sounds of recently materialised footsteps.

“Go away! Don’t come any closer!”

Destroying the random army of drones currently attacking the city was not on Nico’s agenda, but as with most things, it ended up there anyway. However, having made little progress with a wooden sword and not much else, he’d retreated from the battleground in order to rethink what he was going to do next. Shadowtravel came in handy at a time like this- quick escapes and all that, however he did not expect to be confronted by a stranger scared out of his mind wildly waving a shard of glass as a makeshift weapon. 

Did he even know what he was doing? And his dog didn’t look to pleased to see him. Great, not that he wasn’t used to it or anything.

  ♆                He almost snapped at the other before registering the comment. What kind of cop out answer was that? Chocolate? This was not the question. Percy drew back with half a scowl, taking his friendly offering back. No one can desecrate the sacredness of his poptarts and still expect to receive one.

“That is not one of the available options. Do not pass Go do not collect two hundred.” Clearly Lance was the only trustworthy one here. First Keith and now this. He needed new friends.

“Don’t look at me like that, you didn’t say I had to choose between those two.” It was true and besides, he might be enjoying this all a little too much.

He watches as the cat began to walk away. Animals are smart and would definitely do their best to heal. He’ll have to make sure to find the cat later to give it some food if it ever has trouble looking for some themselves. Green eyes looks up to look at the other with the aura and then he nods almost in agreement. Not a lot of people would have done it, no matter how hard he wants to believe that it’s not true. This is just the kind of world they live in. A lot of people are just for themselves and no one else. Doesn’t matter if it’s people, animals, or anything else. “Not a lot of people would go out of their way to help an animal who’s been scratching at them either.” He says with a gesture to the scratch markings. “Would you like me to treat that?”

It’d probably be for the best seeing as how the cat is a street cat. Since there’s no vets here, who’s to say what the cat was carrying? No shots to prevent any illness. Oh man. Someone needs to hurry and come up with a hospital for animals, that’s for sure. “

He gave a small shrug; he and animals may not get along all that well (with the exception of the pegasi back at camp of course) but that didn’t mean he was going to leave them hurt like that. He’d done his best and he was thankful for the stranger who finished the job. He glanced down at his hands; scratches littered the pale skin, making the cuts as stark as ever. However he shook his head at the offer. “I’ve had much worse than a few scratches,” He said, absentmindedly rubbing his bicep. “Thanks but I’ll be fine.” Not only that but he wasn’t exactly one for physical contact. With that and his stubbornness, he made things incredibly difficult. Besides, it didn’t hurt much... just a slight sting.

          >> “Thanks, originality doesn’t come cheap these days.” An amused snort rustles to tug the corner of his lips upwards into a LOPSIDED smile as hands scratch at his cheek to match the inquisitive expression. “Is ‘at so? You’re gonna have to be more specific, bud, I hear that left and right.”

Gods, he was annoying and he’d only known him for what, thirty seconds? Maybe twenty-five? But like, he was Leo levels of annoying and that was a hard level to beat. Still, there was something odd about this guy. Something he couldn’t quite place. And as the son of the lord of the underworld, it frustrated him to no end.

@shadowesqxe

     it was almost as if she was in the middle of an ironic happening. nico had heard the store overhead speakers saying that nico needed to go to the front as they had dropped something, and so she sprinted towards that direction, hoping that they had found her ice cream cone (though she knew it was unlikely) but what she found was that she had gotten to the front at the same time as someone else, “nico was told to come to the front? she’s here!”

Why did all the weird shit always happen in grocery stores? Most of his unfortunate events in this stupid city were tied to grocery stores and honestly, if Nico could, he’d probably start avoiding the place. 

Hearing his name over the speakers caused his head to snap up in alarm; he abandoned the packet of gummy bears and headed to the front of the store, patting his pockets as he did so. He didn’t know what he’d dropped, but he supposed he’d find out soon. 

“I was called?” He said to the lady at the front of the store, “What did I-” He was cut short by a stranger zipping past him, claiming she had been told to come to the front of the store, too.

It then dawned on him, the confusion on his face ebbing away slowly as he realised the mix up. 

“Oh.”