- i keep on forgetting to mention! but I got the inspo for nico getting his arm burnt by leo from an adorable fic called embers in the dark, which is on orphan_account. you guys should check it out!
- the blood pact is not an actual greek ritual! just an idea i had and wanted to play around with.
- damasen canonically had a lot of mortal friends, so it would make sense that he would bring gifts and belongings from them down to the underworld. and damasen is here! and bob! and small bob!
- nico and leo's exchange is more exposition for each other than comfort and emotion, as that will be the premise for the next chapter. more information will be shed as well in the next update!
please go check out my beta-reader poisontown on tumblr. do it right now. :/
phantom limb syndrome .
a term that leo had heard once or twice in the past from the infirmary back at camp. after the amputation of a limb, from a finger to an entire leg, a person can feel pain as if it was still attached to them, as if what was lost still existed and begged to come back. leo never really understood why that happened, or even understood any of the effects of losing a part of oneself — yet now he sat on damasen's bed that was ten times his size, thumbing the nub that was now his arm; it felt as if his eyes were opened, and he did not like what he was seeing.
the kindly giant, bob's friend damasen, had to amputate it while he was asleep, administering some milk-like substance to leo to keep him from waking up. he had said that the burning was incurable, hardly reacting to any of his ointments and growing closer and closer to his heart. it would have killed him. it was the only way , damasen had told him with sympathetic eyes. his irises were not full of pity. they were full of understanding. leo continued to trace the empty air, his arm ending abruptly underneath the shoulder blade in a clean cut. and he felt pain. not enough to make him shriek like he had first done when he had received the curse of khione, but enough to make him feel uncomfortable. not... right.
leo was staring at nico di angelo. every time he turned away, he found his eyes trailing back towards the raven-haired boy. he felt a wrenching ache in his chest, but he could not stop looking at the guy's state. nico had gone against the arai alone while leo was incapacitated. he had received thousands upon thousands of curses, his body smoking and barely visible by the time leo had been cured by bob with a touch to the forehead, snapping him out of his infliction of loneliness. leo didn't register it as he was trying to wake nico up, his almost lifeless form sprawled out on the ground, but now he realized that he had been crying. he was so scared of losing nico, screaming for him to wake up, ignoring the aching pain all over him, and begging bob to take them to a safe place as the titan could not cure the stacks of curses on him. bob did, without any hesitance, and brought them to damasen, the bane of ares.
nico's head was comforted by a large white pillow, his olive-skin a little more healthy and colorful than its stark paleness after killing all the arai at the cliff. his body, however, was littered with scars. his arms were decorated with slashes and claw marks, his face was bludgeoned by a cut diagonal across the nose, and on his shirtless chest leo could see a large, dark veined spot. a wound as if his soul had been forcefully removed from his ribcage. leo hoped that wasn't the case. without meaning to, he moved a little closer and brushed a long strand of black hair from nico's face.
nico didn't react.
"he'll come to," damasen spoke, stirring a bubbling liquid inside a metal pot. leo knew it was from the drakon he had killed outside. damasen said he'll reveal his story to both of them when nico awakens, though he had spilled that the drakon in this swampy habitat was a curse placed on him by the earth mother herself, and needed to be killed every day. as if tartarus couldn't get enough of curses. the giant, being the prime adversary to the war god, had a nurturing and gentle aura, not hosting a want to kill for pleasure unlike ares. "for now, we just have to be patient. how's the arm?"
