WILL

[foreverphantom]

Comments

w0, monday

[foreverphantom]

[ danny is at the racetrack! just kind of lookin at all the cars from behind an audience barrier or whatever ]

I wonder what happens if someone crashes one of these.

[stunwhistle]

It's like NASCAR, right? They probably have people with fire extinguishers ready...

week 1, thursday

[stunwhistle]

[


im ngl i dont know how will and nico are split up rn but ty and i were both like "well we have individual pcs" so! here they are! what's the status of danny and his paint, does he still need an assist getting rid of some of it]

...hey, Danny. You holding up okay after... uh, whatever that was? [a beat.] Seemed like a really bad road trip.

[foreverphantom]

[ he is mostly clean!! he's got orange paint still in some crevices--around his ears, a few chunks of it clumped together in his hair, under his nails--but he's mostly clean and changed now

with the paint gone though you can tell his nose looks a little bruised. and the knuckles on one hand are lookin kinda red. ]

The worst.

...Nico said you do healing stuff?

w2, thursday

[foreverphantom]

[ i'm at the phoenix dorm, you're at the phoenix dorm, we're at the combination phoenix dorm phoenix dorm ]

...so you got kidnapped now too, I guess.

You healed yourself, right?

[stunwhistle]

[nico is asleep nearby. will is sitting next to him, keeping a protective watch, but he doesn't mind talking as long as they keep their voices down.]

Jolyne and Hung let me use some Remedies. And I used my power a few times, yeah. It'll take a bit, but I should be good as new if I use it steadily over the next couple of days.

week 2, saturday

[stunwhistle]

[the park... will is here for some fresh air and spots danny up ahead. after seeing him at the end of trial, he thinks he kind of gets why he's here.]

...hey. Needed to let off some steam?

[foreverphantom]

[ specifically, danny is in the park punching trees!! one of his hands is already bloody and broken, but the other one is still going strong. he pauses mid-punch when he spots will ]

Oh.

Uh.

...yeah.

week 3, monday

[stunwhistle]

[coming to check on danny after the dust around the catfight has settled! where are you danny]

...hey. You feeling any better, man?

[foreverphantom]

[ He is...sitting inside of a bush in the park, foliage curling up around him. ]

I'm...fine.

w3, wednesday

[foreverphantom]

[ well you asked for it. after minievent danny stumbles around until he finds will ]

So, about that first aid kit...

[stunwhistle]

[oh dear. he will immediately pull it out and start rooting through his supplies.]

What happened? Did one of the clones get you?

week 3, saturday

[stunwhistle]

[well.



that was a lot. he waves tiredly when he spots danny after the trial.]

Hey, man.

[foreverphantom]

Hey. Good to see you made it out of that whole mess okay.

week 4, tuesday

[stunwhistle]

[this whole thing with the animated comic book panels would actually be pretty cool if it wasn't so invasive. will is not really a fan of seeing the events of his life play out for everyone to see in full color and high definition - but there's no stopping it.

when he raises a hand to wave to danny, a set of panels pops up.]

Nico noticed a tint to the darkness below – something between red and black. It grew and, as it did, so did the heat.

At first, he found it welcome – like the warmth of a spring day.

Then it felt like the dead of summer.

Then like a furnace, a pit of lava, the middle of the sun.

He had a silly fleeting thought: Maybe this will recharge Will!

But the only thing the heat seemed to recharge was Will's need to scream.

Will began to float off their bench... upward? Sideways? Nico wasn't quite sure because the boat was twisting and spinning through the void, and his sense of orientation had gone haywire.

The oars forgotten, Nico grabbed Will and held him tight, his legs straining to stay anchored under the thwart beam.

"I'm here!" Nico told him. "I've got you!"

"But that!" Will yelled, his eyes fixed on something below them. "What about that?"

Nico followed his gaze, and he absolutely hated what he saw.

The red-tinted darkness had now resolved into deep ruby sky, punctuated with menacing darker clouds of... Oh. As their boat punched through one, Nico realized the vapour droplets were blood. Great. On top of all its other selling points, Tartarus had blood clouds. Nico didn't recall those from his last trip.

And below the clouds was the rapidly approaching terrain – which they were moments away from smashing into.

"I don't know what to do." Nico said it softly at first, to himself; then he looked at Will. "I don't know how we survive this."

The wind blew through Will's bushy hair. In the fiery light of Tartarus, his bronze skin seemed to glow again, each whisker on his cheeks a filament of gold. Nico found it completely unfair that, even as they dropped to their deaths, Will still looked stunning.

"Nico," Will said, his tone suddenly confident, infused with sincerity, "if anyone can save us from this, it's you."

And in that moment Nico pushed aside his panic and his fear, because...

Well, Will Solace believed in him.

The voices of the Acheron had dispersed as the waterfall broke into a loose funnel cloud of rain, but their words still rang in Nico's head: So cavalier with life. You distribute death like a badge of pride.

A solution sprouted in his mind.

He was in Tartarus. Death was all around him.

It was time to use that to his favour.

"Will, hold on to my feet."

"What?"

"Just do it!"

Will grabbed him by the ankles. Nico spread out flat with his belly pressed against the bow of the boat, his head sticking over the prow like he was sledding in the Winter Olympics, skeleton-style... which only seemed appropriate. The ground kept rushing up to meet them – a depressingly familiar terrain of jagged hills; fleshy, pockmarked plains; and bubbling, poisonous swamps. From the base of the waterfall, the Acheron snaked away through a deep canyon, but Nico had no faith they would hit the water, if that was even a survivable option.

He had to make his plan work.

Nico opened his mouth and screamed – unleashing all his power, his desperation, his will to live. Far below, the ground splintered in a web of fissures. Skeletons began clawing their way out of the soil – thousands of human, animal, giant and monster bones cobbling themselves together, climbing atop one another to form an ever-growing scaffold of undeath.

Nico commanded them into the shape he needed, and the skeletons complied.

When the boat hit the top of the bone ramp, Will screamed, but he kept his grip on Nico's ankles. Their canoe skittered down the slope perilously fast and bumpy at first, but the bones reshaped around their hull, slowing and guiding their descent. Moments later, the boat skidded to a gentle halt on the banks of the Acheron.

Nico rolled out of the boat and collapsed on his back, gazing up at the blood-red clouds in Tartarus's sky.

That's when he heard the laughter.

Nico sat upright, worried that some horrible demon had already found them. But it was Will, sitting in the dirt, hugging his belly as tears streamed down his face.

His giddiness was infectious. Nico couldn't help it. The enormity of what they'd just survived hit him, and the only thing he could do was laugh.

"Nico, you –" Will dissolved into giggling. "You just built a halfpipe of the dead."

"I'd like to thank Tony Hawk," he said, "and all the dead who made this moment possible."

Right on cue, the towering slope of skeletons collapsed into a lifeless mountain of bones.

Nico crawled over to Will and rested his head on Will's thigh.

"Welcome to Tartarus," Nico said. Then he passed out.

[will sighs.]

Hey, Danny.

[foreverphantom]

[ these bitches gay! good for them!

anyway danny blinks as the comic panels disappear and he sees will standing behind them. ]

Hi, Will.

...a nice field trip you went on, I take it?

week 4, saturday

[stunwhistle]

I meant it, when I said it didn't feel like something you would do.

How are you holding up?

[foreverphantom]

thanks
i'm
well i'm alive and not in jail so. that's about as good as it can get right now i think

week 5, tuesday

[stunwhistle]

[pops up out of nowhere at some point after danny's finished working on the treehouse for the day because he lacks impulse control now apparently]

You had the chance to visit the hot spring yet?

[foreverphantom]

[ SPARKLES IN SURPRISE as will pops up ]

Oh, uh--no, actually, not really.

w6, wednesday

[foreverphantom]

meet me at the park

[stunwhistle]

?
Yeah sure but is everything OK?

[anyway he goes to the park]

week 7, tuesday

[stunwhistle]

[do you ever think about how like a day after danny and will had that conversation in the park danny died and will went full puzzle psychopath and committed a murder because i've been thinking about that all week.

anyway. danny is back, and he is no longer a prinny, which is a relief.

will smiles when he sees him, although he, uh, feels a little awkward (which danny will be able to feel) given the whole... puzzle murder thing. but he's still also very relieved to see him, and it's obvious.]

Hey, Danny. Welcome back.

[foreverphantom]

[ well Danny doesn't know even like half of his puzzle psycopath details so he just finds the awkwardness kind of confusing. ]

Hey, Will.

...are you good?

week 7, saturday

[stunwhistle]

[well, that's over and done with. maybe it will be better for them to talk somewhere away from the crowd of junior heroes and whichever citizens had not bothered evacuating despite the moon drama.]

...hey. How are you feeling after all of that?

[foreverphantom]

I got to smash two different moon men apart with a nailbat. So, you know, it's been a pretty good day in my books.

...with the changes we're writing in, things might actually be...looking up for me, for once.