( 'cause all your heads are gonna roll, i've made your misery my goal )

[ripstides]

Who: Mirror!Percy (retroact), Percy (ripstides) & YOU!
Where: Various locations, real and mirror side.
When: 9/16 after the queen's announcement for the duration of the event.
Rating: PG-13, potentially higher with mirror shenanigans. Will edit accordingly.
Summary: Mirror!Percy has had about enough of this whole watching and waiting business so naturally, he goes with the flow of things at the Queen's command. Of course he has ulterior motives that just happen to align with hers. Unfortunately, Percy's stuck on the mirror side.
The Story:

( MIRROR PERCY » real side )

[ lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'entrate. the only inscription around the mirror he pushes against are the ones that he and others like him have carved into the walls while they were waiting for the chance to put their palms against the glass and push. entering the real side of Wonderland isn't the same as prying open the gates of hell ( abandon all hope, ye who enter here ) but the almost paralyzing thrill instantly greets him, easily mistaken for fear by those that don't know what to do with themselves. he imagines that's what his Real is feeling behind him, not that he spares that miserable excuse for a demigod a glance over his shoulder. goodbye and good riddance. he's been waiting for this chance for months. the opportunity to let the counterparts of Percy Jackson's friends rip him apart, piece by pathetic piece, while Mercy works at tearing down as many of Percy's real friends on this side as he can.

because this is what it is to watch; to be powerless to do anything except watch, to bear witness to the terrors the world has to offer. the two of them aren't so different. he isn't better than Mercy, he simply hasn't lost as much.

( he's about to. )

the desire to shatter the mirror is just barely contained with the need not to raise any more red flags than there already are flapping in the wind. the Queen's message hadn't been subtle. crystal clear and still ringing in his ears because a sword powerful enough to defeat the Jabberwock was a sword he could use against his Real, against the Queen herself, against anyone. unlike most of the others, he isn't eager to run prey down in plain sight. he chooses to be a wolf in sheep's skin for as long as he can possibly get away with it. being a complete moron is about as easy as it looks. once he steps out of the bathroom Percy shares with Annabeth and changes into something more presentable, he can be found in the usual haunts, searching for Percy's friends. the same bedroom he's in now, the library, the pool or the beach, the gardens. even in the halls. ]

( PERCY » mirror side )

[ if Mercy is the representation of the calm before the storm, of quiet dark waters with something brewing beneath the surface, then Percy is the crashing waves. the frenzied hurricane. the panic in the heart of every sailor when they realize they're going to go down with their ship and their captain, like it or not. crash landing on the ground in the middle of brushing your teeth is a) disorientating, b) painful, and c) not how he plans on spending his day. as he realizes his surroundings are not as they should be ( reversed ) a nagging suspicion makes him hurl his toothbrush away from him forcibly to get back to his feet. he spits into the sink and wipes his mouth. he can't believe his eyes. that's-- it's him. as someone that's never had the pleasure of talking to his own mirror, he suddenly gets goosebumps on the back of his neck due to how familiar the guy walking away from him looks.

when the shock fades, he pounds his fists against the back side of the mirror until the sides of his hands are numb and red, threatening to bruise and he has to force himself to spin away from it. think, Percy! as much as he wants to kick over the clothes hamper and shout, he has to pull it together for Annabeth. she's the one stuck with that freak! what would she do? ...she would think ahead. that's it! he looks around for a marker, or some chalk, and ends up dashing into the bedroom and scattering things out of the drawers in the desk until he finds a marker he thinks he can get a message across to her with. ]


as long as we're together
i said that and i meant it
but WE aren't TOGETHER

[ he hopes with everything else going on that it gets to her, that she comes back from the library and sees the message on the mirror and can interpret it for what it is. a cruel message on the surface but obvious to them. but he can't wait around for that. he has to keep moving. he has to find a way out. Percy has to get to his friends and it's for that reason, that drive, that he doesn't see Mercy come back into the bathroom in his favorite sweatshirt and smudge the writing away with his fingers. ]

Comments

[shadowtravel]

[ Nico's been weaving in and out of shadows since he first realized that he'd switched with his mirror; he'd not interacted with him before, didn't know if anyone had, but in knowing how all the other mirrors are, it leaves him feeling beyond unsettled. thinking that his mirror side is near Hazel? around Percy or Annabeth or Rachel, could talk to Mary Margaret or Derek-

so he shadow travels, thinks that maybe if he does it enough, he might be able to step back across. because it's now he got to Wonderland in the first place, isn't it? coming out of a shadow. so maybe he can get back over in doing the same thing, without having to force his way back through the mirror.

but he can feel the exhaustion settling in from using the ability so much, can feel it draining every ounce of energy that he has. the next time he steps out of one shadow, he readies himself to run for another, but all he manages to do is sag against the nearest wall, rubbing a hand across his face to try and clear his head, to keep going-

when he spots Percy, he freezes, because- because he can't be sure. because maybe it wasn't only him that switched, but it's just as likely that it's Percy as it is to be his mirror. he knows what he should do, has every instinct screaming to run!

instead, he pushes himself to stand, does his best to gather up whatever energy he has left, and starts towards him. because even if it is Percy's mirror, he might at least have some answers. ]

Percy?

[ripstides]

[ splitting up had been a terrible idea but after agreeing on a place to meet up if they found any of the others, it had seemed okay ( for an hour or two ) to leave Hazel's side. they both knew how to be cautious and take care of themselves; Percy had to trust her and himself to cover more ground this way and meet up again in one piece. he warned her to keep her eyes open for Frank's mirror because he was around somewhere and he wasn't easy to shake off. he hasn't seen Annabeth, Clarisse, Rachel, or Nico yet. it's starting to freak him out. it isn't only their mirrors that he has to worry about. there are a lot of different sorts of people in Wonderland and he doesn't want to imagine what their mirrors are like.

there are others to look for too, like Isaac and Quinn, maybe Finnick if he can find the kid. when he stumbles across a boy doused in shadows, recovering against a wall, his stomach drops. no. he has Riptide out because he isn't taking any chances. he doesn't want to kill anyone because he doesn't know what that could do, if it'll affect his friends, but he's also not going to let anyone get the better of him.

still, it pulls at his heart to see Nico - or someone that looks like him - about to pass out like that. he pushes himself off the wall and starts towards him, so he must have something left in him. Percy makes himself stand taller, to face this, whatever happens. ]

That's close enough, Nico. [ three feet is closer than he wants anyone's mirror to be towards him. ] How do I know it's really you?

[shadowtravel]

[ he stops as soon as Percy tells him so, shuffles to the side to lean his weight into the wall since that's far easier than standing there on his own. because while shadow traveling was getting easier, doing it so much in quick succession still wasn't exactly something high on his list of capabilities.

Nico closes his eyes for a second, as though really thinking about what Percy had just asked, and huffs out a bit of a sigh. because really, he should have been expecting the question -- he was about to ask a similar one. ]

Doesn't that depend on which of me you're looking for? The real side or the mirror?

[ripstides]

[ that would be like Percy trying to whip up hurricane after hurricane from his own body without any other water source in sight. he's stopped carrying ambrosia on him in a sandwich bag, stopped asking the closet for it because it's become clear that he doesn't need it. even if he had kept it on him, he wouldn't have tucked it into a pocket yet this morning. he doesn't know why it matters so much, he still hasn't had any proof that this is the actual Nico di Angelo, so that should mean the guy has to fend for himself and figure it out. ]

The real one. [ duh. ] What difference does that make? How are you going to prove that you're the right one?

[shadowtravel]

[ how?

Nico stays quiet, doesn't answer him for a while. mostly because he's wracking his brain for anything but what he's coming up with. but he can't. because sure, he has what memories were there back home, but wasn't it just as easy for mirror Nico to have passably similar enough ones to list off things that happened? after all, he doesn't know what they had in common or not.

he can feel his chest tighten at the memory, because he wants to keep it there. he wants to keep it in the back of his mind where it can't be ruined by this or anything else. but he doesn't know what else to reach for, what else could have happened where mirrors would never see. ]

When we were in the high school with fake memories. [ he pauses, hesitating. ] One more. I asked you for one more.

[ripstides]

[ he waits. all he can do is wait and watch for any sudden movements. he counts his heartbeats and his breaths to try and keep as calm as possible. there has to be something in there that resonates with both of them, that only they would be able to pick that might never have happened to their mirrors and even if it had, would still hold weight to them. his grip on his sword slackens and he almost drops it when he hears high school as if those two words are enough to trip him up ( they are ). Percy has had his distance from that event but it still crops up every once in awhile; a simple reminder, a foggy dream, something Nico's said to him after.

Percy taps the cap to the end of his sword and pockets the pen, quietly accepting that this is the real Nico and in order for him to feel the same about Percy, he has to answer, no matter how uncomfortable it makes him.

( but that tension is for different reasons than a certain son of Hades might think. ) ]

And I messed it up on purpose because I didn't want to stop kissing you. [ Percy, the word kiss would have sufficed. ]

[shadowtravel]

Yeah. [ great. now that it's been brought up, Nico's even more eager to try and get out of there, but at least he knows if he runs into Percy, it's the real him, not the mirror.

there are some things he'd rather never speak about again, and their time at the high school had been one of them. it was difficult enough to say what he did, but to hear Percy talk about it- it was almost harder. ]

I should- Go. I need to go, I'm trying to see if I can shadow travel back over since that's how I came to Wonderland in the first place.

[ripstides]

[ Nico's only getting stronger with time. the older he gets, the more practice, but Percy knows what he looked like after the Labyrinth and the Battle of Manhattan, after they rescued him from that jar and he knows that being a son of one of the Big Three doesn't make them invincible - that power has to come from somewhere and it takes as much out of them as they use. he's getting real sick of Nico running away from him and it would be one thing if he could without injuring himself but he's leaning on a wall even now. ]

Is that what you've been doing since you got here? Because if you keep at it, being stuck on this side is going to be at the bottom of your list of problems. [ isn't he the one that told Percy creatures or people that have the ability need rest after??? ]