THE GHOST KING

NI.CO di ANGELO from Rick Riordan's P.ercy J.ackson and the Olympians and sequels. Private. Selective. This blog runs primarily off of a Queue due to a busy schedule. If you would rather I post our thread directly, please tell me! WRITTEN BY : нιℓαяү  (  30+, she/her, UTC-5 )

Note: For anyone new to the pjo fandom, this blog does contain spoilers for later series so tread with caution

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I'm sort of surprised that I haven't written a headcanon about this and basically what Nico went through prior to the B.attle of the Lab.yrinth, so I'm going to try to get some things down now. Thoughts are pretty scattered so please accept the bullet points while I feel it out

Nico was most likely 11-12 during most of this, still doesn't have any memories of who he was before the Lo.tus Ho.tel, angry and on his own

(that feels like it's worth saying because it still blows my mind)

I think Nico must have reached out to Hades in some way (unless Hades contacted him), which is how he got a Little bit of filling in on some key lore points; and tbh I wouldn't be surprised if Nico didn't ask Hades directly if he could bring Bianca back, which I'm sure was a conversation that went over well

I think this is also likely when Minos saw/met Nico and decided to take advantage of the situation -- either Hades didn't know or didn't care?? Minos probably overheard Nico asking about bringing Bianca back or just ending up asking him on his own, and then the partnership bloomed from there

So on the one hand, Nico thought that he and Minos were equals, working together towards a common goal, but I also think he recognized in some regard that Minos was using him and Nico thought he could basically manipulate/use Minos in return (he could not)

->Minos definitely fed into Nico's anger against Percy, and also more subtly pushed at Nico's anger with Bianca

->sewed distrust of basically everyone accept Minos. And Nico did recognize it happening to some extent, but he was also so isolated at that point, that he didn't really have anyone else to turn to

I do think Minos taught Nico a lot about the ritual summoning of connecting with ghosts, just the practical bit of what was needed in terms of supplies and then the appropriate chants

Nico also probably learned about Kronos stirring from Minos and who's to say how accurate or not that was

obviously this does a number on who Nico feels like he can trust after being under the tutelage of this ghost for 6 months or so

->partially why it's so impressive to me that he does shift back to Percy and co so quickly-- I think Nico does have generally good instincts about who is trustworthy and that's why he didn't fully trust Minos, even though that wasn't enough for him to not try

->truly Nico's desire to be wanted vs. trusting his innate instincts

anyway, even if Minos is gone, Nico still has nightmares about him

"Would you take voice of reason? I don't think I have much optimism in me," Nico says, watching as Scott slowly seems to unravel into the table. He's seen this kind of thing happen before. Will could be like this sometimes too--optimistic until it maybe kills you, although hopefully it doesn't kill you. Just some people keep getting the hits and yet they keep on going with a smile. Nico doesn't get that bit. He'll keep going alright, but he's definitely not going to be smiling about it. He'll complain every step of the way.

But the people who keep going, keep smiling, they're necessary too. People gravitate towards them, and Nico is convinced none of them would keep going without those sunny few.