employeelounge | pregame | i really hope we actually planned to have a cemetery and i didn't just imagine this

...I'll admit the way they've left it makes me think this is definitely haunted, but...

[she makes a face.]

The dead still deserve better than this, so if I've got the ability to help, I should.

[...fair enough. there's a nod of understanding and he jumps off of the grave he was seated upon, gesturing for sei to follow him.]

We'll start from the back and work our way forward. The further you go, the more likely it's messed up.

[and then, idly:] You're not afraid of ghosts, are you?

[she nods, and starts to follow him to the back of the cemetery. this should be fine! it's less scary to be working on this with someone than it would be alone! they're going to clean this up and it's going to freak her out much less whenever she has to come here for whatever reason.

and then he asks about ghosts.]

G-ghosts? [her voice definitely went up an octave.] I'm... I'm not scared of anything! Besides, no one's even here yet. It's just us eight! So there's no ghosts for me to be afraid of!

[oh.

this is funny, suddenly. he hears his voice go up an octave and for a moment nico only offers a glance from the corner of his eye before he shrugs almost nonchalantly.]

Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't here yet. [just saying!] But good. Being scared just makes them angrier.

[is this a test? is it the truth? it's hard to say because as they approach the last rows of graves he steps forward. the earth around the tombstones begins to shift, dirt flattening in piles and rocks whittling down and changing shape to something more presentable.]

[

just. staring at the earth as it moves.]

Are, um, are you also seeing that... Am I going crazy...?! Th-they're not angry already, are they? Why is it doing that?!

[sei. buddy. also that's me looking at nico's list of abilities. still, he doesn't seem too perturbed and glances at him again.]

We're cleaning up, aren't we?

...right! Right, so that's you. Okay. It's fine. It's fine.

[

she's just going to get right to work scrubbing some of the blood off of gravestones. to her credit, she is very thorough and good at cleaning.]

[at least the blood should be reasonably easy? good lord what the hell were the other npcs doing prior to their arrival? but he's busy taking care of the landscaping and fixing up some of the gravestones to reshape them and fix whatever's crumbling.]

You're...from somewhere without powers. [this isn't a question. normally he wouldn't use his abilities around mortals, but the eight of them had some time to at least establish they exist. he's not great at small talk, but he thinks about the castle, too.]

Your game didn't have them either?

[it's not a question, but she nods to confirm it anyway. it's confirmation for his actual question, too, and she answers as she scrubs stains out of the gravestones and also pulls weeds around them so they look nicer.

maybe she should get some incense later...]

Right, it didn't. [she wrinkles her nose.] Or at least, none that we could use. There was definitely something weird about the Sheriff, though.

[strange. it would mean they were a little more vulnerable in that town, but that's also not really his business. for whatever his powers don't impact, he's using a shovel he procured from somewhere to dig and fill holes to even it out. it would suck for people to trip on the path.]

What Sheriff?

The jerk who was in charge of things there. Although, I'm not really sure if he was more like what we're supposed to be, or like the Nightman...

[read: i wasn't active enough to have sei find out if he was a pawn or if he was actually in charge.

she'll keep working. manual labor doesn't make her miss a beat; she's used to this.]

There was someone who looked just like him and had the same name where we all ended up when we died, but he was called the Bartender there.

Oh. [very confusing, very glad he wasn't there actually. manual labor is good for both of them. it's something sei is used to and something to keep nico occupied.]

The Sheriff and the Bartender. [blankly. like a "of course that's what it was." though...]

So you died in your game. How? [you can't just ask people how they died, nico.]

[

she's grumpily scrubbing a gravestone because she doesn't want to talk about murdeer.]

Well, we all did, actually. It was a "last man standing" kind of game, so you could say the game killed me.

[sei your murdeer???]

Sounds counterproductive. [at least the crafters made some sense with the balancing act they had going for themselves.] Did you ever find out why? What happened to the last man standing?

That's what I thought at first, too, but we ended up on a train after we died, and that's what took us home. Dying was the only way to board it.

[...]

Percy-san ended up dying, too, at the very end. After he used what he got for winning to make sure we'd all be taken back. That's a choice only the winner got to make, so a lot of people ended up working together to make sure it was him.

[i'll say it here too instead of just in dms: the honorifics kill me, but i'm in the middle of a reread and it feels wrong not to have sei using honorifics because she's such a stickler for them in canon.]

...I suppose that isn't so strange. It isn't uncommon for sacrifice to be required for success. [he hates that, actually.

also, other things he hates! that! he's kind of hoping sei is far enough away that he doesn't feel the slight drop in temperature as nico hears that and immediately frowns at the gravestone in front of him. there's...no. just because it's a name he's familiar with doesn't mean it's the same person. of course, it's not impossible either and that's the worst part of it.]

...sounds like he was a good choice to win. He must have been someone people trusted.

[he's going to go home, go to california, and bury percy jackson in the dirt where he belongs. but it's also a baiting question to see if sei explains. maybe it's a totally different percy.]

[i flipped a coin and it decided that the gravestone she's working on is far enough away that she doesn't catch the drop in temperature. so, you know, small blessings for nico there.

this also means she doesn't clue in that this is a sensitive topic. she'd get it if she was looking at him, but right now, her attention is on the job at hand.]

He was. And he was actually worthy of that trust, too, which is rare. We were lucky to have him there, but I always felt badly that it had to be him... he had a really hard time.

[a beat.]

...he asked for a lot of things at the end, actually. That we'd all go home and that none of us would be subjected to this sort of game ever again. We definitely made it home thanks to him, but I guess keeping us out of the clutches of other games wasn't something the Sheriff could guarantee.

[small victories for goths. he's still working, but now he's busy thinking about this and trying to rationalize what the hell happened there.]

Different pantheons have different rules. It's possible to change some rules, but it depends what they are. [he's busy thinking about how things ended during the titan war and the things that were changed after that.]

...most people would have a hard time in situations like ours, wouldn't they? [he could outright just ask what happened, but...admittedly, he's also just curious what happened in that town with or without percy's involvement.]

Well, yeah, it would... But the weight of so many people's well-being isn't light.

[a beat. she frowns, finishing up with her current gravestone and moving on to the next.]

He seemed used to it. ...here's to hoping he doesn't wind up stuck here, though, because he shouldn't have to be.

It isn't, no. [the earth shifts beneath their feet and a few gravestones straighten out.]

I get the feeling a lot of people shouldn't have to be here. [lightly, because it's true. it's not like people deserve these things. he's busy thinking of people like reyna, like magnus, kyouka...people who deserved better. percy was in that same category, too, and it's why after a moment he says:]

What did you say his name was?

You're right... they shouldn't. No one should have to.

[well

maybe she wouldn't shed too many tears if a certain handful of people ended up in a place like this, but generally speaking, she's opposed to the idea. they're not likely to disagree on this - that's why they're here, after all.

he pauses, and then asks his question, and something in the way he asks it gets her to look over. carefully, she says:]

...Percy-san. Ah, his full name was Percy Jackson.

[okay but mood? mood. some people just deserve things to happen to them and you can't help that. but overall it isn't right and so they're here cleaning up a graveyard.

he's not looking at her because he's moving along a path, little patches of grass and weeds dying under his feet without notice as slopes in the cemetery start to even out a little.]

I see. [...yeah that tracks. the worst, maybe, is that this isn't so surprising.] I suppose you're right. Good people like that are rare.

[a skeletal hand starts to crawl its way out of the dirt, but nico gently paps it back down with his shovel. no. stay there. you're not invited yet.]

If he was the last person alive, how did he die?

...

[ah. well, the way he's not looking at her is pretty telling. she'll do him the courtesy of returning her attention to the gravestone she's cleaning up (which spares her from noticing the skeletal hand popping out of the dirt like a daisy, which is probably the better option for the both of them; this isn't the time for her to freak out about skeletons).]

He... killed himself. So that he could get onto the train.

[that also isn't surprising. demigods die young all the time and often in self-sacrificing ways to save other people. so he debates what to say even if it's pretty obvious he's angry about it, but in the end he nods.]

But because of that, everyone was revived and you were able to go home. [...] Where I'm from it's a little more complicated to bring people back from the dead.

...where I come from, once you're dead... that's it. It's all over.

[nico probably already knew that, though, given that he's figured out she came from a world without magic.]

How do you bring people back where you're from?

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cw: suicide mention

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