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deathdiduspartPLAYER
Name: Ryuuto
Personal Journal: restcalm
Plurk: redknightdistrict
Time Zone: EST
Email: flynn dot scifo712 at gmail dot com
Messenger: felledjustice
Previous Characters: N/A
Munhead/Musebox: N/A
CHARACTER
Name: Nico di Angelo
Canon: Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Age: 13 or 14
Demigod/Hunter/Satyr/Nymph: Demigod
Demigod abilities: Nico's powers over the dead are probably his strongest. He can raise zombie warriors, commune with ghosts, and command the undead to do his bidding. He's even been known to silence spirits, and differences in culture doesn't seem to matter since he's done exactly this to the Roman Lares, though he's the son of a Greek god. Nico has to be careful with his emotions as nervousness and anger can cause him to lose control over his abilities. For example, once when he was nervous, he caused the grass around him to wilt and die.
Another ability he has is Shadow Travel, which allows him to travel long distances by using the shadows. It takes a lot of energy from him, more than raising the dead, so he has to make sure he regains his strength between jumps. This form of travel can also be waylaid by the gods, as Persephone has demonstrated once before by taking him from a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana to New York City, New York. It also leaves him vulnerable if it's a long-distance jump, as more distance means more energy sapped from him.
Nico can tell when someone is about to die or if they're in danger. This ability is strong enough to kick in with people he's not close to, but it only works for mortal souls. He can't sense those of nature spirits or monsters because they have a different "shape" or "feel" in comparison.
He does have some power over the earth, able to create fissures and erect walls of stone or obsidian. However, it's clearly not his best skill in comparison to his powers over the dead.
As a child of Hades, Nico can also see the Underworld as it really is, and is implied to see even Tartarus as it truly is.
These are more natural talents of his, but I thought it might be best to include them to be thorough. Nico has sharp eyesight, as has been mentioned on more than one occasion in House of Hades. He's also extremely quiet, able to walk right up to people without noticing him until he speaks or they turn around.
Personality: This guy is, in the wise words of Dionysus, a "troubled young man." Nico is pretty distant to people he doesn't know, and it only lessens slightly to people he does know. He has an easier time talking to the dead than he does to the living. He can be sarcastic and his words can be as sharp as knives. Even his soft side can lead to more sarcasm and sharpness rather than less. Nico comes off as aloof and creepy to many people, if only mostly because he's a son of the Underworld.
He doesn't look like much, but Nico is a tough kid. He's endured pain and loss ever since he was 10 years old, and he's learned to accept that these are part of life. The death of his older sister, Bianca, drives this lesson home to Nico after failing to bring her back to life. Nico is forced to mature and grow up at a young age as a result of this. He even looks older than he should. He can also be tough to read, at least in so far as reading his motives. Nico doesn't let many people know what he's actually thinking or feeling. The only person he confides in other than Bianca di Angelo is his half-sister, Hazel, and even then he doesn't do that very often.
Nico keeps to himself and he prefers it that way. He doesn't feel like he'll ever be accepted by other demigods, something he's mentioned more than once over the course of the series. He knows it's because he's a son of Hades, though it's later revealed that this fear runs even deeper than who his godly parent is. Nico is afraid of rejection, and because of that he hides from everyone, a trait that Jason Grace eventually calls him out on. It's not that he wants to be alone, but loneliness to him is better than having a friend reject him for who he is.
The kid is an incredibly stubborn individual, especially if he really wants something. He adamantly refuses to hear "no" from Hades when he doesn't give up more information about his mother, just for an example. This stubbornness can get him into trouble, like when he hands Percy over to Hades in exchange for information. The trait even extends to how Nico doesn't back down, not to his father and not to anyone else. For example, he doesn't hesitate to backtalk Persephone when he meets her, even if it's not the smartest of choices.
Despite his mistakes and the fact that it's hard to get exceptionally close to him, Nico is fiercely loyal to those friends. His faith in them is also almost unshakable. Percy and Annabeth are perhaps the best examples of this. After the two fall into Tartarus, Nico is positive that the two will make it out of there alive as long as they have each other. His loyalty to them is unswerving, and is what leads him to promising Percy to take the others to the Doors of Death. Nico's strongest ties, though, are to his family. He might stick up for himself when Hades doesn't listen to reason, but that doesn't mean he isn't loyal to his father. He'll do a lot to make his father happy and proud of having Nico as a son. He'll also do everything he can to make sure Hazel stays alive, since she's the only remaining family member he has left.
Nico's fatal flaw is something he shares with all children of Hades. He holds a grudge like no other. It's hard for him to let go. Even if the fate of the whole world is in the balance, if he has a grudge against someone fighting to save it, he might just say, "screw you" and walk off. After The Battle of the Labyrinth, Nico has learned to forgive and tries his best to not let it get the better of him. He tries not to get angry very much, too, especially since strong emotions like anger and nervousness can lead to unfortunate consequences due to his powers.
AU History: Nico's story as he knew it began when he was around 10 years old. He and his older sister, Bianca, had been taken by a lawyer they didn't recognize to go to a private military school. Supposedly, they had a trust fund left behind by their parents to pay for tuition and everything for that school. As far as the siblings remembered, they didn't have parents and had been living in a hotel for a few months. It was at the winter dance that things took a turn for the supernatural and strange, more so than when the lawyer came around.
The two had been led away to somewhere secluded by a manticore in disguise during the dance. They would have been kidnapped by the monster and forced to join Luke and Kronos' cause, but before that could happen, some teenage demigods arrived on the scene led by one Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. A fight broke out between the demigods and the monster, the di Angelo siblings ducking for cover, and Percy's group probably would've lost if it wasn't for the Hunters of Artemis arriving in the nick of time. The manticore fled against those odds, but the downside was that he took Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, with him.
Little Nico, rather than being shell-shocked and horrified like his sister, was absolutely excited to learn that Greek mythology was real. He pelted Percy with questions, mostly pertaining to the card game he was obsessed with called Mythomagic. His spirits sank quite a lot when Bianca told him that she was going to leave him for the Hunters of Artemis. She took an oath to serve as one of Artemis' handmaids, and since Nico wasn't a girl...well, he couldn't go with them. Nico had a hard time understanding why she chose that path, and an even harder time letting her go. Bianca was the only family he had left, as far as he was concerned.
He cheered up a little bit when Artemis called her brother, Apollo, for the group to hitch a ride back to Camp Half-Blood. The Goddess needed to hunt down a monster that she hadn't tracked in millenia, and it troubled her too much to let it lie. As such, she would go off alone to find it and hopefully kill it. Her Hunters didn't think much of the idea. In any event, they were all to go to the Camp, and Nico was to live in the Hermes Cabin since he was Undecided.
It was during Capture the Flag that things got even stranger. The Oracle of Delphi, which was a mummified corpse, decided to take a stroll to see Zoe, Artemis' Lieutenant. She issued a prophecy, and Zoe decided to take Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, Bianca, and a satyr named Grover Underwood on her quest. Nico tried to find a way to sneak out of Camp to follow his sister, but Percy totally busted him. Since Percy was planning on going on the quest without permission, too, Nico made him promise to keep his sister safe. Content and completely assured that Percy would uphold the promise, Nico went about Camp life fairly normally.
Time past, and Percy's group came back from their quest victorious. Yet, when the son of Poseidon took Nico aside and informed him that Bianca had died, he was understandably heartbroken and grieving. Nico lashed out at Percy, angry that he'd broken his promise, and then the undead warriors that had been chasing the son of Poseidon all across the country tried to attack the other demigod. Horrified and unwilling to watch the demigod get hurt, he yelled at the warriors to go away, and opened up a fissure in the ground to swallow them up. Nico fled into the woods, terrified, and escaped into the Labyrinth by stumbling into a secret passage within the Camp.
Eventually, Nico found his way into the Underworld, and a ghost by the name of Minos decided to take him under his wing. He started learning to control his powers as a son of Hades, and at the same time tried to bring his beloved sister back to life. He didn't want to let her go; it just wasn't fair that she had to die so soon. Minos used that as leverage, and told him that there was the possibility of trading a soul for a soul. Not just any soul, but Nico might be able to trade the soul of one who cheated death for Bianca's soul.
Now, Nico di Angelo was many things, but stupid was not one of them. He went and got a second opinion from a different ghost. He summoned the spirit, somewhat ignoring Minos' complaints, and managed to get the ghost of Theseus. Theseus told Nico that it was unwise to bring someone back from the dead, not to mention impossible. Urged by Minos, he asked if the soul trade could work, and Theseus said that it might, though he wasn't completely sure. The conversation was cut short as Kronos was starting to sense Nico's presence as a son of Hades, which would be bad. It was said in a prophecy that a child of the Big Three (Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades) was going to decide the fate of the world at the age of 16 in the upcoming Titan War. If Nico was discovered by Kronos, then he might be used to make the "bad ending" of the prophecy come true.
As it was, he followed Minos' advice to seek counsel with Geryon at Triple G Ranch. Minos said that Geryon would have information to the whereabouts of the soul needed for the exchange. Unfortunately (and fortunately), Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy's cyclops half-brother, Tyson, entered the scene. Nico was forced to join them on an unwanted tour of the ranch, and then the tables turned on the son of Hades. The plan was for Nico to get sold to Kronos' army, but that went awry when Percy stepped in. Percy made a deal with Geryon to release his friends if he succeeded in cleaning the stables of the flesh-eating horses. If Percy failed, then Geryon would get the rest of Percy's friends to sell as well. He did succeed in his task, but naturally he got double-crossed by Geryon. Percy killed the guy and released his friends.
If anybody thought that would make Nico change his mind, they were sadly and quickly mistaken. He still blamed Percy for his sister's death and was still angry at him. The son of the sea god then told him to try asking Bianca's spirit again. Bianca hadn't spoken to Nico ever since her death, no matter how hard he tried summoning her. Nico agreed to try, but it went wrong when Minos answered the summons instead. Percy and Annabeth kept the crowd of spirits at bay while Nico told Minos to take a hike and allow his sister to speak to them.
And Bianca showed up! She told Nico that it hadn't been Percy's fault. Her death had been her choice, and he should stop holding the grudge against him. According to her, the reason he was angry wasn't because of Percy, but because of Bianca herself for abandoning him. She also warned him that the fatal flaw of all children of Hades was holding a grudge. He needed to learn to forgive and let go. Nico refused to accept that he was angry at his late sister, however. He decided to stay at Triple G Ranch until he reached a decision on what he was going to do. Nico needed to think about what his sister had told him.
In about two weeks, he left the Ranch and went into the Labyrinth with Minos. He'd been told by the creep that Percy was in danger, and would need Nico's help. Turned out to be a trap. He was led straight into one of Luke's demon's arms, and then got marched into Daedalus' workshop. It also turned out that Daedalus and Luke had made a deal, but then double-crossed him thanks to Minos. Nico was understandably pissed off. When Percy started the fight, he managed to get out of his shackles and banished Minos right back into the Underworld. Served him right, the creep.
The group escaped the workshop with some wings Daedalus had improved on. After landing in a city in Colorado, Nico informed them that the son of Athena was still alive. As such, the Labyrinth, which was tied to Daedalus' life force, was still operational. They decided to head back to Camp Half-Blood and went to find an entrance into the Labyrinth. While walking through the maze, Nico and Percy had something of an awkward heart-to-heart.
All of a sudden, a new exit appeared, one that led to Mount Othrus, Kronos' stronghold. Percy decided to go scout around alone, but the rest of the party went after him. After all, if Percy had to do something alone, he'd probably mess it up. It was there that they discovered that Kronos' scythe had been re-forged, a deadly weapon that could painfully rip one's soul from their body. As if that wasn't bad enough, Kronos had also taken possession of Luke's body. They fled, and Nico bought them some time by summoning a huge wall of rock to block Kronos and his troops from following them.
Back inside the Labyrinth, the group took a quick respite before continuing on. However, they had to make a detour when Percy saw tracks from Tyson and Grover leading off in another direction. The two had split from the main group to follow a strong lead to the god of the wild, Pan. They rejoined their friends and, amazingly, found Pan. He told them many things, but only acknowledged Nico once and not again. They witnessed Pan's final passing and finally found the exit to New York with heavy hearts.
Once back in the city, Percy called for Blackjack, a black pegasus, and his friends to come pick them up. Nico reluctantly went with them to defend Camp Half-Blood from the impending invasion. It wasn't long after their arrival that the Titan Army attacked. Nico joined the battle, and nearly died as he summoned a legion of undead warriors to protect the Camp from being overrun. He managed to recover after Percy gave him some ambrosia, and told Daedalus (who had decided to join the fight on their side) that he wouldn't need his soul for the exchange. Bianca had passed on, and it was time he accepted that. Instead, Nico released Daedalus' soul to finally rest after 3000 years.
Later that night, Nico told Percy that he was leaving the Camp. He didn't belong there, just like Hades didn't belong on Mount Olympus. Nico also needed to learn more about his forgotten past. He wasn't from their time, but from the era of World War II. The reason he hadn't aged at all was because he and his sister had been in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, a place where time ran slowly in comparison to the outside world. Nico couldn't remember a thing from the time the lawyer took them from the Hotel, and he was determined to find out. He also promised Percy that if he found out anything that could help him win the War, he would go to him with the knowledge.
It was on Percy's birthday that he struck gold. He told Percy that he'd found a way to beat Kronos, and had a strong suspicion that Luke had done the same thing. Nico hounded Percy about it for almost a year, insisting that it was the only way for him to survive his encounter with Kronos.
Following a lead on his family, Nico stopped by Mount Othrus to get a little spying going on. He sent Percy a dream-vision about how Typhon was only a ruse, and urged him to go with the plan. Nico met with Percy in person, but accidentally walked in on a conversation with Grover's girlfriend and a former member of the Cloven Council. Whoops!
Anyway, in this meeting, he'd managed to convince Percy to actually go through with the plan. The first step was to meet with Luke's mother, May. Nico needed to confirm something. They Shadow Traveled to Connecticut, finding themselves on a cliff nearby May's house. The two went up to the house and were greeted by a woman who had clearly been driven to insanity. She told them that she had given Luke her blessing, and had apparently seen what Luke's fate was years ago. That knowledge had driven her insane, and after gaining the information they needed, the two ran like bats out of hell back to the cliff.
Once there, they were met by the goddess of the hearth and home, Hestia. Nico and Hestia knew each other simply because Nico had been one of the very rare people to actually talk to her. Percy made an offering, and in repayment, she transported them back to the Jackson residence. The two told Percy's parents about their plan, and eventually Sally Jackson was persuaded to give Percy her blessing.
After gaining what they needed, Nico led Percy to a secondary entrance to the Underworld for phase two: The Doors of Orpheus. The only way to open the door was to play music. Percy adamantly refused to make music, and instead called for Grover. Grover landed in their midst, and informed them that Morpheus was in the city looking for something. None of them liked that news. In return for the information, the two told Grover about their plans. With great reluctance, Grover agreed to help them by opening the doors with his pipes. After that, he left for Camp Half-Blood.
They entered the Underworld and Nico took him passed the River Styx and into the palace grounds. There, he and Percy were taken by the Furies into Hades' palace. Hades had promised to give Nico information regarding his family only if he could bring Percy to him. He told Nico that the Fury Alecto had been the one to take him out of the Hotel. He also revealed that he'd saved Nico and Bianca because of the Great Prophecy, wanting one of his children to save the day and be the hero. When Nico pressed him for more information, Hades refused to give it to him. He didn't want to say why Nico didn't remember his past or anything. Hades then locked Percy away in a prison cell and sent Nico to his room. What a jerk.
Needless to say, the son of Hades really didn't like that. Nico freed Percy from his prison, putting all of the undead they came across to sleep. Unfortunately, doing that seriously drained him of his energy, and he was half-conscious by the time they reached outside. The alarms rang, and Percy ran with Nico to the River Styx. He fed the kid some ambrosia, restoring enough of his energy so that he could stand on his own.
That was when the ghost of Achilles decided to make an appearance. He warned Percy about the curse and blessing that he would gain, but it was definitely more of the former than the latter. Well, Percy went through with it anyway, and came out of the Styx invincible. Hades decided to show up at that point with an army, and the son of Poseidon single-handedly destroyed the army and had Hades at sword point. The god fled because seriously, who would mess with a guy who could do that?
After all was said and done, Percy told Nico to stay with Hades and try to convince him to join the war on their side. Nico was reluctant, pretty sure that he was only saying that because he didn't trust the son of Hades anymore. He eventually agreed that he would try, and that he would try to get more information about his mother.
Doubting that Hades would tell him no matter how much he asked, he tried to summon the spirit of his mother. Bianca appeared and told him that she was the one spirit he was forbidden to speak to. She tried to protect him, telling him that the knowledge would only hurt him, but Nico forced her away. Instead of summoning a spirit, though, he got a vision.
It was a scene where Hades was trying to convince Maria to move herself and her children to the Underworld for protection. Zeus had demanded that his children go to Camp Half-Blood by the week previous, and Hades refused, knowing that his children would only be watched or imprisoned or even turned against their own father. Maria refused to have her children be raised in the Underworld. She left to grab her purse up in her hotel room. Abruptly, a flash of pure power struck the hotel, and Hades only had enough time to protect Bianca and Nico from vaporization. Poor Maria did not survive. He had Alecto take his children to bathe in the River Lethe, a river that would erase their memories. It then went on that the Oracle paid Hades a visit, and out of anger and grief, he laid a curse on her. This curse was why the Oracle of Delphi hadn't had a mortal host in so long.
That was when Hades interrupted. Nico probably should've been frightened by his father being angry over all of it, but he wasn't. He stood up to his father, confident that Hades wouldn't blast his own son. Eventually, he was able to convince him to join the war on the side of the Olympians, joined by Persephone and Demeter. Hades raised an undead army to battle Kronos' minions.
In the end, the Olympians won and Hades was praised for coming to the rescue. Even Nico was honored. Percy made a deal with the 12 gods of Olympus, forcing them to claim all of their children, and to give the minor gods and goddesses seats in the throne room and cabins of their own at Camp. Hades was to be included in this.
Things were looking pretty awesome, until Nico later informed Percy that Rachel had taken Blackjack the pegasus to Camp Half-Blood. Percy called some hippocampi to give him, Nico, and Annabeth a ride back. When they arrived, Rachel was in the process of accepting the spirit of the Oracle. Percy didn't want her to, but she did it anyway and the process was successful. Hades' curse had been lifted because he and his children would finally be accepted rather than being treated as outcasts. Thus, the Oracle of Delphi finally had a mortal body once more. She also issued another Great Prophecy, something that would turn out to be worse than the Titan War. After that happened, Nico personally built Cabin 13 with the help of some of the undead, and life at Camp was spent rebuilding and expanding. They needed a break before training up for the new prophecy.
It wasn't long before Gaea, the primordial goddess of the earth, started to stir. She took the Doors of Death, preventing monsters from being destroyed for very long. Nico took advantage of this to go to the Underworld and try to find Bianca's soul. He wanted to bring her back with him, but he couldn't find her for she had chosen to be reborn. Instead, in the Fields of Asphodel, Nico found a daughter of Pluto named Hazel, his half-sister. He took her with him to give Hazel a second chance at life, and so that he could have another chance at being a brother. Nico brought her to Camp Jupiter under his father's guidance, and claimed to be an ambassador of Pluto. He didn't reveal the fact that he was Greek since Romans and Greeks didn't really get along very well.
Afterwards, he made trips to Camp Jupiter to check in on Hazel, and tried to gather more information about Gaea and the Giants. As it happened, he was needed more at Camp Half-Blood, so he went back pretty reluctantly.
Counselor: Nico is the counselor for Cabin Thirteen.
SAMPLES
Iris Message:
[This is not a pleased Nico. No, this is a Nico who is pretty annoyed with someone.]
To whoever thought it'd be hilarious to rig Cabin 13 with a motion sensor that will play a random Miley Cyrus song every time I walk inside it? Expect consequences for that. It wasn't funny the first time, and it's definitely not funny after the tenth.
[He rolls his eyes.]
Unfortunately, I can't find the device, so I'm assuming it's someone from Hermes and or Hephaestus' cabins who did it. So...is there anybody who can help me find it and get rid of it before I find the mastermind behind this and make them disable the stupid thing instead? It won't be pretty if I have to find them, believe me.
[Nico swears to Hades if it was Leo, he'll put reanimated rat skeletons in that kid's bed and they won't leave him alone for a week.]
Third Person Log:
If Nico was honest with himself, and he so very rarely was, then he'd have to admit that he was kind of glad to be back at Camp Half-Blood. He'd Shadow Traveled into his cabin and immediately passed out on the floor. He didn't wake up until noon the next day, and even then he felt like he could sleep for another week.
The fact was that he hadn't even been aiming for Camp Half-Blood or New York in general. Either Persephone was messing with him again, or he was needed more in Camp Half-Blood. It didn't really sit well with Nico. He still didn't feel as if he belonged at Camp, despite all his efforts in the Titan War. He'd feel much better going out and doing something about Gaea on his own.
Nico stood up and brushed himself off. He really needed to clean up the cabin a bit, it was getting dusty. The son of Hades walked outside, deciding to take a look around to see what, exactly, had changed in the Camp since he last saw it. Nico knew all about Camp Jupiter's destruction. How could he not? His half-sister, Hazel, had been part of that Camp, and all of the Romans had to move to the Greek Camp. It was their only sanctuary in the world, now.
A sliver of pity for the Romans entered his heart at the thought. Honestly, he could empathize with them. The million drachma question was whether or not the Romans and Greeks were getting along. Holy gods of Olympus he hoped so. They didn't need a civil war on top of a war with Gaea and her Giants.
Name: Ryuuto
Personal Journal: restcalm
Plurk: redknightdistrict
Time Zone: EST
Email: flynn dot scifo712 at gmail dot com
Messenger: felledjustice
Previous Characters: N/A
Munhead/Musebox: N/A
CHARACTER
Name: Nico di Angelo
Canon: Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Age: 13 or 14
Demigod/Hunter/Satyr/Nymph: Demigod
Demigod abilities: Nico's powers over the dead are probably his strongest. He can raise zombie warriors, commune with ghosts, and command the undead to do his bidding. He's even been known to silence spirits, and differences in culture doesn't seem to matter since he's done exactly this to the Roman Lares, though he's the son of a Greek god. Nico has to be careful with his emotions as nervousness and anger can cause him to lose control over his abilities. For example, once when he was nervous, he caused the grass around him to wilt and die.
Another ability he has is Shadow Travel, which allows him to travel long distances by using the shadows. It takes a lot of energy from him, more than raising the dead, so he has to make sure he regains his strength between jumps. This form of travel can also be waylaid by the gods, as Persephone has demonstrated once before by taking him from a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana to New York City, New York. It also leaves him vulnerable if it's a long-distance jump, as more distance means more energy sapped from him.
Nico can tell when someone is about to die or if they're in danger. This ability is strong enough to kick in with people he's not close to, but it only works for mortal souls. He can't sense those of nature spirits or monsters because they have a different "shape" or "feel" in comparison.
He does have some power over the earth, able to create fissures and erect walls of stone or obsidian. However, it's clearly not his best skill in comparison to his powers over the dead.
As a child of Hades, Nico can also see the Underworld as it really is, and is implied to see even Tartarus as it truly is.
These are more natural talents of his, but I thought it might be best to include them to be thorough. Nico has sharp eyesight, as has been mentioned on more than one occasion in House of Hades. He's also extremely quiet, able to walk right up to people without noticing him until he speaks or they turn around.
Personality: This guy is, in the wise words of Dionysus, a "troubled young man." Nico is pretty distant to people he doesn't know, and it only lessens slightly to people he does know. He has an easier time talking to the dead than he does to the living. He can be sarcastic and his words can be as sharp as knives. Even his soft side can lead to more sarcasm and sharpness rather than less. Nico comes off as aloof and creepy to many people, if only mostly because he's a son of the Underworld.
He doesn't look like much, but Nico is a tough kid. He's endured pain and loss ever since he was 10 years old, and he's learned to accept that these are part of life. The death of his older sister, Bianca, drives this lesson home to Nico after failing to bring her back to life. Nico is forced to mature and grow up at a young age as a result of this. He even looks older than he should. He can also be tough to read, at least in so far as reading his motives. Nico doesn't let many people know what he's actually thinking or feeling. The only person he confides in other than Bianca di Angelo is his half-sister, Hazel, and even then he doesn't do that very often.
Nico keeps to himself and he prefers it that way. He doesn't feel like he'll ever be accepted by other demigods, something he's mentioned more than once over the course of the series. He knows it's because he's a son of Hades, though it's later revealed that this fear runs even deeper than who his godly parent is. Nico is afraid of rejection, and because of that he hides from everyone, a trait that Jason Grace eventually calls him out on. It's not that he wants to be alone, but loneliness to him is better than having a friend reject him for who he is.
The kid is an incredibly stubborn individual, especially if he really wants something. He adamantly refuses to hear "no" from Hades when he doesn't give up more information about his mother, just for an example. This stubbornness can get him into trouble, like when he hands Percy over to Hades in exchange for information. The trait even extends to how Nico doesn't back down, not to his father and not to anyone else. For example, he doesn't hesitate to backtalk Persephone when he meets her, even if it's not the smartest of choices.
Despite his mistakes and the fact that it's hard to get exceptionally close to him, Nico is fiercely loyal to those friends. His faith in them is also almost unshakable. Percy and Annabeth are perhaps the best examples of this. After the two fall into Tartarus, Nico is positive that the two will make it out of there alive as long as they have each other. His loyalty to them is unswerving, and is what leads him to promising Percy to take the others to the Doors of Death. Nico's strongest ties, though, are to his family. He might stick up for himself when Hades doesn't listen to reason, but that doesn't mean he isn't loyal to his father. He'll do a lot to make his father happy and proud of having Nico as a son. He'll also do everything he can to make sure Hazel stays alive, since she's the only remaining family member he has left.
Nico's fatal flaw is something he shares with all children of Hades. He holds a grudge like no other. It's hard for him to let go. Even if the fate of the whole world is in the balance, if he has a grudge against someone fighting to save it, he might just say, "screw you" and walk off. After The Battle of the Labyrinth, Nico has learned to forgive and tries his best to not let it get the better of him. He tries not to get angry very much, too, especially since strong emotions like anger and nervousness can lead to unfortunate consequences due to his powers.
AU History: Nico's story as he knew it began when he was around 10 years old. He and his older sister, Bianca, had been taken by a lawyer they didn't recognize to go to a private military school. Supposedly, they had a trust fund left behind by their parents to pay for tuition and everything for that school. As far as the siblings remembered, they didn't have parents and had been living in a hotel for a few months. It was at the winter dance that things took a turn for the supernatural and strange, more so than when the lawyer came around.
The two had been led away to somewhere secluded by a manticore in disguise during the dance. They would have been kidnapped by the monster and forced to join Luke and Kronos' cause, but before that could happen, some teenage demigods arrived on the scene led by one Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. A fight broke out between the demigods and the monster, the di Angelo siblings ducking for cover, and Percy's group probably would've lost if it wasn't for the Hunters of Artemis arriving in the nick of time. The manticore fled against those odds, but the downside was that he took Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, with him.
Little Nico, rather than being shell-shocked and horrified like his sister, was absolutely excited to learn that Greek mythology was real. He pelted Percy with questions, mostly pertaining to the card game he was obsessed with called Mythomagic. His spirits sank quite a lot when Bianca told him that she was going to leave him for the Hunters of Artemis. She took an oath to serve as one of Artemis' handmaids, and since Nico wasn't a girl...well, he couldn't go with them. Nico had a hard time understanding why she chose that path, and an even harder time letting her go. Bianca was the only family he had left, as far as he was concerned.
He cheered up a little bit when Artemis called her brother, Apollo, for the group to hitch a ride back to Camp Half-Blood. The Goddess needed to hunt down a monster that she hadn't tracked in millenia, and it troubled her too much to let it lie. As such, she would go off alone to find it and hopefully kill it. Her Hunters didn't think much of the idea. In any event, they were all to go to the Camp, and Nico was to live in the Hermes Cabin since he was Undecided.
It was during Capture the Flag that things got even stranger. The Oracle of Delphi, which was a mummified corpse, decided to take a stroll to see Zoe, Artemis' Lieutenant. She issued a prophecy, and Zoe decided to take Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, Bianca, and a satyr named Grover Underwood on her quest. Nico tried to find a way to sneak out of Camp to follow his sister, but Percy totally busted him. Since Percy was planning on going on the quest without permission, too, Nico made him promise to keep his sister safe. Content and completely assured that Percy would uphold the promise, Nico went about Camp life fairly normally.
Time past, and Percy's group came back from their quest victorious. Yet, when the son of Poseidon took Nico aside and informed him that Bianca had died, he was understandably heartbroken and grieving. Nico lashed out at Percy, angry that he'd broken his promise, and then the undead warriors that had been chasing the son of Poseidon all across the country tried to attack the other demigod. Horrified and unwilling to watch the demigod get hurt, he yelled at the warriors to go away, and opened up a fissure in the ground to swallow them up. Nico fled into the woods, terrified, and escaped into the Labyrinth by stumbling into a secret passage within the Camp.
Eventually, Nico found his way into the Underworld, and a ghost by the name of Minos decided to take him under his wing. He started learning to control his powers as a son of Hades, and at the same time tried to bring his beloved sister back to life. He didn't want to let her go; it just wasn't fair that she had to die so soon. Minos used that as leverage, and told him that there was the possibility of trading a soul for a soul. Not just any soul, but Nico might be able to trade the soul of one who cheated death for Bianca's soul.
Now, Nico di Angelo was many things, but stupid was not one of them. He went and got a second opinion from a different ghost. He summoned the spirit, somewhat ignoring Minos' complaints, and managed to get the ghost of Theseus. Theseus told Nico that it was unwise to bring someone back from the dead, not to mention impossible. Urged by Minos, he asked if the soul trade could work, and Theseus said that it might, though he wasn't completely sure. The conversation was cut short as Kronos was starting to sense Nico's presence as a son of Hades, which would be bad. It was said in a prophecy that a child of the Big Three (Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades) was going to decide the fate of the world at the age of 16 in the upcoming Titan War. If Nico was discovered by Kronos, then he might be used to make the "bad ending" of the prophecy come true.
As it was, he followed Minos' advice to seek counsel with Geryon at Triple G Ranch. Minos said that Geryon would have information to the whereabouts of the soul needed for the exchange. Unfortunately (and fortunately), Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy's cyclops half-brother, Tyson, entered the scene. Nico was forced to join them on an unwanted tour of the ranch, and then the tables turned on the son of Hades. The plan was for Nico to get sold to Kronos' army, but that went awry when Percy stepped in. Percy made a deal with Geryon to release his friends if he succeeded in cleaning the stables of the flesh-eating horses. If Percy failed, then Geryon would get the rest of Percy's friends to sell as well. He did succeed in his task, but naturally he got double-crossed by Geryon. Percy killed the guy and released his friends.
If anybody thought that would make Nico change his mind, they were sadly and quickly mistaken. He still blamed Percy for his sister's death and was still angry at him. The son of the sea god then told him to try asking Bianca's spirit again. Bianca hadn't spoken to Nico ever since her death, no matter how hard he tried summoning her. Nico agreed to try, but it went wrong when Minos answered the summons instead. Percy and Annabeth kept the crowd of spirits at bay while Nico told Minos to take a hike and allow his sister to speak to them.
And Bianca showed up! She told Nico that it hadn't been Percy's fault. Her death had been her choice, and he should stop holding the grudge against him. According to her, the reason he was angry wasn't because of Percy, but because of Bianca herself for abandoning him. She also warned him that the fatal flaw of all children of Hades was holding a grudge. He needed to learn to forgive and let go. Nico refused to accept that he was angry at his late sister, however. He decided to stay at Triple G Ranch until he reached a decision on what he was going to do. Nico needed to think about what his sister had told him.
In about two weeks, he left the Ranch and went into the Labyrinth with Minos. He'd been told by the creep that Percy was in danger, and would need Nico's help. Turned out to be a trap. He was led straight into one of Luke's demon's arms, and then got marched into Daedalus' workshop. It also turned out that Daedalus and Luke had made a deal, but then double-crossed him thanks to Minos. Nico was understandably pissed off. When Percy started the fight, he managed to get out of his shackles and banished Minos right back into the Underworld. Served him right, the creep.
The group escaped the workshop with some wings Daedalus had improved on. After landing in a city in Colorado, Nico informed them that the son of Athena was still alive. As such, the Labyrinth, which was tied to Daedalus' life force, was still operational. They decided to head back to Camp Half-Blood and went to find an entrance into the Labyrinth. While walking through the maze, Nico and Percy had something of an awkward heart-to-heart.
All of a sudden, a new exit appeared, one that led to Mount Othrus, Kronos' stronghold. Percy decided to go scout around alone, but the rest of the party went after him. After all, if Percy had to do something alone, he'd probably mess it up. It was there that they discovered that Kronos' scythe had been re-forged, a deadly weapon that could painfully rip one's soul from their body. As if that wasn't bad enough, Kronos had also taken possession of Luke's body. They fled, and Nico bought them some time by summoning a huge wall of rock to block Kronos and his troops from following them.
Back inside the Labyrinth, the group took a quick respite before continuing on. However, they had to make a detour when Percy saw tracks from Tyson and Grover leading off in another direction. The two had split from the main group to follow a strong lead to the god of the wild, Pan. They rejoined their friends and, amazingly, found Pan. He told them many things, but only acknowledged Nico once and not again. They witnessed Pan's final passing and finally found the exit to New York with heavy hearts.
Once back in the city, Percy called for Blackjack, a black pegasus, and his friends to come pick them up. Nico reluctantly went with them to defend Camp Half-Blood from the impending invasion. It wasn't long after their arrival that the Titan Army attacked. Nico joined the battle, and nearly died as he summoned a legion of undead warriors to protect the Camp from being overrun. He managed to recover after Percy gave him some ambrosia, and told Daedalus (who had decided to join the fight on their side) that he wouldn't need his soul for the exchange. Bianca had passed on, and it was time he accepted that. Instead, Nico released Daedalus' soul to finally rest after 3000 years.
Later that night, Nico told Percy that he was leaving the Camp. He didn't belong there, just like Hades didn't belong on Mount Olympus. Nico also needed to learn more about his forgotten past. He wasn't from their time, but from the era of World War II. The reason he hadn't aged at all was because he and his sister had been in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, a place where time ran slowly in comparison to the outside world. Nico couldn't remember a thing from the time the lawyer took them from the Hotel, and he was determined to find out. He also promised Percy that if he found out anything that could help him win the War, he would go to him with the knowledge.
It was on Percy's birthday that he struck gold. He told Percy that he'd found a way to beat Kronos, and had a strong suspicion that Luke had done the same thing. Nico hounded Percy about it for almost a year, insisting that it was the only way for him to survive his encounter with Kronos.
Following a lead on his family, Nico stopped by Mount Othrus to get a little spying going on. He sent Percy a dream-vision about how Typhon was only a ruse, and urged him to go with the plan. Nico met with Percy in person, but accidentally walked in on a conversation with Grover's girlfriend and a former member of the Cloven Council. Whoops!
Anyway, in this meeting, he'd managed to convince Percy to actually go through with the plan. The first step was to meet with Luke's mother, May. Nico needed to confirm something. They Shadow Traveled to Connecticut, finding themselves on a cliff nearby May's house. The two went up to the house and were greeted by a woman who had clearly been driven to insanity. She told them that she had given Luke her blessing, and had apparently seen what Luke's fate was years ago. That knowledge had driven her insane, and after gaining the information they needed, the two ran like bats out of hell back to the cliff.
Once there, they were met by the goddess of the hearth and home, Hestia. Nico and Hestia knew each other simply because Nico had been one of the very rare people to actually talk to her. Percy made an offering, and in repayment, she transported them back to the Jackson residence. The two told Percy's parents about their plan, and eventually Sally Jackson was persuaded to give Percy her blessing.
After gaining what they needed, Nico led Percy to a secondary entrance to the Underworld for phase two: The Doors of Orpheus. The only way to open the door was to play music. Percy adamantly refused to make music, and instead called for Grover. Grover landed in their midst, and informed them that Morpheus was in the city looking for something. None of them liked that news. In return for the information, the two told Grover about their plans. With great reluctance, Grover agreed to help them by opening the doors with his pipes. After that, he left for Camp Half-Blood.
They entered the Underworld and Nico took him passed the River Styx and into the palace grounds. There, he and Percy were taken by the Furies into Hades' palace. Hades had promised to give Nico information regarding his family only if he could bring Percy to him. He told Nico that the Fury Alecto had been the one to take him out of the Hotel. He also revealed that he'd saved Nico and Bianca because of the Great Prophecy, wanting one of his children to save the day and be the hero. When Nico pressed him for more information, Hades refused to give it to him. He didn't want to say why Nico didn't remember his past or anything. Hades then locked Percy away in a prison cell and sent Nico to his room. What a jerk.
Needless to say, the son of Hades really didn't like that. Nico freed Percy from his prison, putting all of the undead they came across to sleep. Unfortunately, doing that seriously drained him of his energy, and he was half-conscious by the time they reached outside. The alarms rang, and Percy ran with Nico to the River Styx. He fed the kid some ambrosia, restoring enough of his energy so that he could stand on his own.
That was when the ghost of Achilles decided to make an appearance. He warned Percy about the curse and blessing that he would gain, but it was definitely more of the former than the latter. Well, Percy went through with it anyway, and came out of the Styx invincible. Hades decided to show up at that point with an army, and the son of Poseidon single-handedly destroyed the army and had Hades at sword point. The god fled because seriously, who would mess with a guy who could do that?
After all was said and done, Percy told Nico to stay with Hades and try to convince him to join the war on their side. Nico was reluctant, pretty sure that he was only saying that because he didn't trust the son of Hades anymore. He eventually agreed that he would try, and that he would try to get more information about his mother.
Doubting that Hades would tell him no matter how much he asked, he tried to summon the spirit of his mother. Bianca appeared and told him that she was the one spirit he was forbidden to speak to. She tried to protect him, telling him that the knowledge would only hurt him, but Nico forced her away. Instead of summoning a spirit, though, he got a vision.
It was a scene where Hades was trying to convince Maria to move herself and her children to the Underworld for protection. Zeus had demanded that his children go to Camp Half-Blood by the week previous, and Hades refused, knowing that his children would only be watched or imprisoned or even turned against their own father. Maria refused to have her children be raised in the Underworld. She left to grab her purse up in her hotel room. Abruptly, a flash of pure power struck the hotel, and Hades only had enough time to protect Bianca and Nico from vaporization. Poor Maria did not survive. He had Alecto take his children to bathe in the River Lethe, a river that would erase their memories. It then went on that the Oracle paid Hades a visit, and out of anger and grief, he laid a curse on her. This curse was why the Oracle of Delphi hadn't had a mortal host in so long.
That was when Hades interrupted. Nico probably should've been frightened by his father being angry over all of it, but he wasn't. He stood up to his father, confident that Hades wouldn't blast his own son. Eventually, he was able to convince him to join the war on the side of the Olympians, joined by Persephone and Demeter. Hades raised an undead army to battle Kronos' minions.
In the end, the Olympians won and Hades was praised for coming to the rescue. Even Nico was honored. Percy made a deal with the 12 gods of Olympus, forcing them to claim all of their children, and to give the minor gods and goddesses seats in the throne room and cabins of their own at Camp. Hades was to be included in this.
Things were looking pretty awesome, until Nico later informed Percy that Rachel had taken Blackjack the pegasus to Camp Half-Blood. Percy called some hippocampi to give him, Nico, and Annabeth a ride back. When they arrived, Rachel was in the process of accepting the spirit of the Oracle. Percy didn't want her to, but she did it anyway and the process was successful. Hades' curse had been lifted because he and his children would finally be accepted rather than being treated as outcasts. Thus, the Oracle of Delphi finally had a mortal body once more. She also issued another Great Prophecy, something that would turn out to be worse than the Titan War. After that happened, Nico personally built Cabin 13 with the help of some of the undead, and life at Camp was spent rebuilding and expanding. They needed a break before training up for the new prophecy.
It wasn't long before Gaea, the primordial goddess of the earth, started to stir. She took the Doors of Death, preventing monsters from being destroyed for very long. Nico took advantage of this to go to the Underworld and try to find Bianca's soul. He wanted to bring her back with him, but he couldn't find her for she had chosen to be reborn. Instead, in the Fields of Asphodel, Nico found a daughter of Pluto named Hazel, his half-sister. He took her with him to give Hazel a second chance at life, and so that he could have another chance at being a brother. Nico brought her to Camp Jupiter under his father's guidance, and claimed to be an ambassador of Pluto. He didn't reveal the fact that he was Greek since Romans and Greeks didn't really get along very well.
Afterwards, he made trips to Camp Jupiter to check in on Hazel, and tried to gather more information about Gaea and the Giants. As it happened, he was needed more at Camp Half-Blood, so he went back pretty reluctantly.
Counselor: Nico is the counselor for Cabin Thirteen.
SAMPLES
Iris Message:
[This is not a pleased Nico. No, this is a Nico who is pretty annoyed with someone.]
To whoever thought it'd be hilarious to rig Cabin 13 with a motion sensor that will play a random Miley Cyrus song every time I walk inside it? Expect consequences for that. It wasn't funny the first time, and it's definitely not funny after the tenth.
[He rolls his eyes.]
Unfortunately, I can't find the device, so I'm assuming it's someone from Hermes and or Hephaestus' cabins who did it. So...is there anybody who can help me find it and get rid of it before I find the mastermind behind this and make them disable the stupid thing instead? It won't be pretty if I have to find them, believe me.
[Nico swears to Hades if it was Leo, he'll put reanimated rat skeletons in that kid's bed and they won't leave him alone for a week.]
Third Person Log:
If Nico was honest with himself, and he so very rarely was, then he'd have to admit that he was kind of glad to be back at Camp Half-Blood. He'd Shadow Traveled into his cabin and immediately passed out on the floor. He didn't wake up until noon the next day, and even then he felt like he could sleep for another week.
The fact was that he hadn't even been aiming for Camp Half-Blood or New York in general. Either Persephone was messing with him again, or he was needed more in Camp Half-Blood. It didn't really sit well with Nico. He still didn't feel as if he belonged at Camp, despite all his efforts in the Titan War. He'd feel much better going out and doing something about Gaea on his own.
Nico stood up and brushed himself off. He really needed to clean up the cabin a bit, it was getting dusty. The son of Hades walked outside, deciding to take a look around to see what, exactly, had changed in the Camp since he last saw it. Nico knew all about Camp Jupiter's destruction. How could he not? His half-sister, Hazel, had been part of that Camp, and all of the Romans had to move to the Greek Camp. It was their only sanctuary in the world, now.
A sliver of pity for the Romans entered his heart at the thought. Honestly, he could empathize with them. The million drachma question was whether or not the Romans and Greeks were getting along. Holy gods of Olympus he hoped so. They didn't need a civil war on top of a war with Gaea and her Giants.