Mythomagic Cards ((Open))

[Nico Di Angelo]

Nico was sitting outside the Hades cabin, his favorite place in the camp. He remembered the cramped, chaotic Hermes cabin and thanked the gods he wasn’t stuck in there anymore. Now, the children of the minor gods were given some respect. Not that his father was a minor god in any way. Hades was one of the Big 3, after all. He just wished Bianca were still here. He was two years older than she would ever be, which didn’t seem fair. Of course, as a Hunter, Bianca would have stayed a twelve-year-old forever anyway, but she would still be alive. Nico had mostly gotten over his sister’s death. He accepted that she was gone and there was no way to bring her back, and at least he knew she was in Elysium. Sometimes, though, he still felt that she had abandoned him.

Nico stood up abruptly. He needed to go somewhere, do something, to clear his head. He didn’t want to think about his sister’s death. He certainly didn’t want to feel resentful toward her, although it was hard for him not to. She had once told him that holding grudges is the fatal flaw of the children of Hades, and he knew she was right.

He wandered away from the cabins and into the woods. The trees partially blocked out the sun, creating a dark, creepy effect that Nico thought was kind of cool. He smiled and pulled a few mythomagic cards out of his pocket. Glancing at them, he recognized them as Artemis, Hades, and Mr. D. He hadn’t told anyone he had started playing the game again because he was a little embarrassed. It was a kids’ game, after all, and he was a teenager now. He had stopped for a while, but no matter how hard he tried, Nico kept coming back to the cards and figurines that represented gods he now knew were real.

[Katie Gardner]

Katie Gardner knelt in a dirt patch next to the Demeter Cabin. Her long, wavy brown hair was pulled up into a plait and her face was covered in dirt and sweat. In front of her was a newly planted moonlace, one that she had planted herself. "Please let this plant live for many years, mother" she thought, wiping the earthy soil on her jeans. She stood up, smiling at her handiwork and with that, she made her way back toward the Demeter Cabin.

After she had changed into her orange Camp t-shirt and extra pair of jeans, she wandered aimlessly around Camp. She didn't bother to do anything with her hair or face because why should she? Like any other daughter of Demeter, the majority of her time was spent gardening and working with other plants. If she washed her face and fixed her hair every time she was working with soil then she'd be doing that a million times a day! It was rare for her to have nothing to do, especially when there was a lot of space for planting but she had gotten done early with planting her moonlace and she had nothing planned for the rest of the day.

Katie noticed a lonely boy sitting and she decided to stop and talk. She immediatly recognized the boy Nico di Angelo, son of Hades and she tried her hardest to put a smile on her face. After all, Nico had basically saved them all when he had conviced Hades to fight in the war. Besides, it was rude to be mean to him because of his parentage. "Hi" she said brightly, sitting beside him. "Mind if we talk?"

She frowned, wondering about what to say to a child of Hades. She didn't think he'd like to hear about plants, which was the topic she knew most about. Katie noticed a deck of cards in his hand and she decided to start a conversation about that. "What game is that? Can you teach me?" she asked. "I'm Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter" she added proudly as she waited for a response.

[Nico Di Angelo]

Nico was lost in thought when he heard the girl's voice. He looked up, startled, and hastily stuffed the mythomagic cards in his pocket. He loved the game, but he was embarassed by it. "Uh ... Katie! Hi!" he said. "Yeah, I remember you. I'm Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, but you probably know that." Most people knew who he was, being a big 3 child and all. Nico knew that a lot of people felt uncomfortable with him being a child of Hades, but he was determined not to care.

"It's nothing, really," he said, refering to mythomagic. "Just a card game I play sometimes. Well, cards and figurines. It's actually kind of silly." He didn't really think mythomagic was silly, but he didn't want her to think he was childish. He kind of wished she had just left him alone. He didn't really want to discuss mythomagic. Anyway, Demeter's kids were all into plants, which he wasn't. Living, growing things were definitely not his field of expertise. His father was the god of the dead, after all! He looked away and said, "You probably wouldn't like it."

[Katie Gardner]

Katie rolled her eyes once he started talking about his card game. "It doesn't look like nothing" she said. She normally would have insisted on him showing her the game and probably would have gone about how you shouldn't say it's "nothing" when it's clearly not but she didn't. Nico looked kind of embarrassed about the game and now that she thought about it, she would too. She would be even more embarrassed if someone had made her talk about the card game, like she had been about to do.

"Yeah, I've heard of you, too" she said. Katie had started to become uncomfortable when talking to Nico. It wasn't him, it was just the way he was and his dark, gloomy personality. "What's your favorite plant" she asked. She frowned, knowing that it wasn't the best question to ask someone who probably didn't know anything about flowers or gardening. "My favorite is moonlace" she went on. "I've always liked moonlace because it is silvery and graceful" she added, waiting for Nico to say something.

[Nico Di Angelo]

Nico frowned. "No offense, but I don't really like plants," he said. "Especially flowers. They remind me of Persephone." He scowled as he mentioned his father's immortal wife. He knew she had never liked him, and the feeling was mutual. How could he like someone when you knew that if she had her way, he and his sister would never have been born? His father had been disloyal to the Queen of the Underworld by being with his mother, and he knew she wasn't happy about that. "Queen of the Underworld, you know? We don't really get along."

Nico remembered that Katie's mother was Demeter, which made her Persephone's half-sister. That was really weird to think about. The god side of their families didn't really count, but it was still a little strange. It also meant something else, something that he envied. "You're lucky," he said. "Demeter doesn't have an immortal husband, does she?" Nico had heard myths in which Demeter was pursued by Zeus and Poseidon, but he didn't remember her having a consort.

[Katie Gardner]

Katie Gardner hadn't expected a different answer from Nico. Most didn't care about plants, unless they were in the Demeter Cabin. She watched Nico as his expression turned from OK and kind of normal for a son of Hades to anger. She knew that she had asked the wrong question. "Don't like Hades" she guessed, remembering about her own family. Her father, Xavier Gardner had found a wife when she had turned seven and forgot all about Demeter. They had two kids and her Step-mom had hated her. She hasn't been home eversince.

Katie shook her head as he asked his second question. "Not that I know of" she replied. "I mean, that doesn't say much but I know that she married Zues and Posiedon at one point." She had remembered how hard it was to realize that your dad was not going to contact you again, especially at a young age and she suddenly grew sad. Her eyes lit up as she remembered who she was talking to. After all, she wasn't going to completely forget about her dad and pretend she didn't have one.

"Umm... Nico" she began, instantly growing uncomfortable at the thought of speaking to the dead. "My dad.... well.... I don't know if he's dead or not" she stammered. "I was wondering is you could say I'm sorry for everything if he is...." Her voice trailed off and she gave Nico a pleading look. "His name is Xavier Gardner" she added, waiting for his respose.

[Nico Di Angelo]

Nico hesitated. "I can contact the dead," he said. "I'm not sure ... you say you don't know if your dad's dead?" He could probably find out whether he was, because he could sense death, being a son of Hades. He remembered when he had lost Bianca. He had wanted more than anything to be able to talk to her again. Then he remembered King Minos. "Sometimes it's not necessarily good for you to see dead people. I'm pretty sure I could find out if he's dead, and I could summon him, but ... look, some of the dead are creepy. They have their own agendas and use the living for their own purposes. Not all, but some. Are you sure you really want to try?"

[Katie Gardner]

Katie Gardner started to wonder if talking to the dead was such a good idea. Part of her thought that this was unnatural and the dead should stay with the dead, even if talking to her dad lasted two seconds. Even though she had thought everything through, like she always did she still felt curious and kind of upset at the thought of losing her dad forever. "I'm sure" she said, slightly shuddering at the thought of her dad being dead.

"My dad really is nice" she assured him, wondering if he thought that her dad might be otherwise. "In fact, he helps Global Warming by going to rallies and teach about the effects of pollution at different schools acrossed the Globe"