“Who are you?” Nico prompts again, but the spirit only shoots him a fearful expression as it sneaks a nugget out of the roiling soda.
The dead are like this. They can be helpful, they can be annoyingly un-present. Worse, they can be vicious and insidious. Nico has so much to maintain: the summoning ritual, strengthening the the boy’s ghost, holding back the others. He still hasn’t learned how to not draw so many extra wraiths. It makes him grumpy and short, and the demigod barks an order in Greek. “Speak.”
The room explodes in chittering. Gods, it’s like being in a traffic jam in the Fields of Asphodel. He can barely hear the boy answer over drone of vocalisations devoid of meanings or memories. “Andrew.”
Nico glares around the room, wherever he can feel a presence. Outside of the green glow, the dark warehouse is darker still. The shades are nigh invisible to him. “The rest of you shut up.”
But - wait, there’s something else. Some one else. And unlike everyone else other presence in the warehouse, they’re not dead. Only a little dead-ish. Mortals shouldn’t see this. The reality of the afterlife doesn’t fit the popular belief systems. It’s horrifying, really, and they’re better off scared away. “Who else is here? Find them.”
Compelled by the ghost king, the bigger shades begin to search the warehouse. Nico goes visibly paler with the effort.
no subject
The dead are like this. They can be helpful, they can be annoyingly un-present. Worse, they can be vicious and insidious. Nico has so much to maintain: the summoning ritual, strengthening the the boy’s ghost, holding back the others. He still hasn’t learned how to not draw so many extra wraiths. It makes him grumpy and short, and the demigod barks an order in Greek. “Speak.”
The room explodes in chittering. Gods, it’s like being in a traffic jam in the Fields of Asphodel. He can barely hear the boy answer over drone of vocalisations devoid of meanings or memories. “Andrew.”
Nico glares around the room, wherever he can feel a presence. Outside of the green glow, the dark warehouse is darker still. The shades are nigh invisible to him. “The rest of you shut up.”
But - wait, there’s something else. Some one else. And unlike everyone else other presence in the warehouse, they’re not dead. Only a little dead-ish. Mortals shouldn’t see this. The reality of the afterlife doesn’t fit the popular belief systems. It’s horrifying, really, and they’re better off scared away. “Who else is here? Find them.”
Compelled by the ghost king, the bigger shades begin to search the warehouse. Nico goes visibly paler with the effort.