Mistaken Identity - Tumblr Posts

Jasico Week 2024 - Day 4

Words: 1,859 Rating: General Audiences Type: Oneshot

Description: 3 times Jason Grace thought Nico Di Angelo was a god, and the 1 time he realized he wasn't.

Sidenote: This fic was written for @jasico-challenges Jasico week 2024 event!

Full fic under the cut!

Jason Grace had only met a few gods in his life. Though, he could say with utmost certainty that Nico Di Angelo was a unique one. 

Nico had blown into camp one day with no real explanation. He just showed up with Lupa’s blessing, got his branding like it was no big deal, and went on his merry way. He introduced himself as the Ambassador of Pluto, as if that made any sense of it all, and blatantly ignored most of his Camp Jupiter responsibilities with no real repercussions. 

Jason was convinced he was a minor god of sorts. He could almost feel Nico watching from over his shoulder like he was keeping an eye on things. 

Jason remembered the first time they met. He remembered how everyone seemed to walk a wide circle around him, but Nico didn’t act bothered in the slightest. 

It had been a normal day. Jason was going about his business when Reyna came to inform him of a senate meeting regarding a new ambassador. Of course, he got there as fast as he could, but Nico had beat the two of them to it. 

He remembered walking into the senate building and seeing him standing there. He was ghostly pale but in a porcelain kind of way. Thick black hair sat in perfect ringlets around his face, curling up like the camp’s statue’s wings. A blank expression cast on his face, and Jason couldn’t help but notice how the shadows in the room almost seemed to lean towards him. 

Jason stepped forward to introduce himself, taking notice of Nico’s robes. He held out a hand. “Jason Grace, praetor.”

Nico looked him up and down sideways before taking the handshake. “Nico Di Angelo, ambassador of Pluto.” His hand was deathly cold but oddly soft. 

Jason tried to distract himself by thinking about literally anything else. No matter what, his mind wandered to Nico. 

The meeting began, and Nico immediately the main topic of discussion. He was asked to walk to the stand and explain himself, which he did without complaint. 

He stood behind the stand, robes hanging off him a little too perfectly in Jason’s opinion. He elbowed Reyna. “Do you think he’s a demigod?” he whispered. 

She elbowed him back. “If you would shut up and listen, maybe we’d know.”

Nico’s eyes flicked to the two of them before focusing back on the rest of the faces in the room. “My name is Nico Di Angelo,” he said for the millionth time. “I was asked by Pluto to represent him and his children here at Camp Jupiter.”

He paused, looking around at the uneasy faces. A ghost raised his hand. Jason attempted to pay a normal amount of attention to the way the light caught Nico’s dark eyes as they flicked over to him, but he found himself staring for a second too long. 

“How do we know we can trust you?” The ghost asked rather unceremoniously. Nico shrugged. Reyna decided that was not helping his case, and stood to give him a hand. 

“Pluto has given us express confirmation that he would like Nico to represent him. Unless, of course, you’d like to challenge a god?” she said, putting on her ‘praetor voice.’

Nico didn’t seem too bothered by the whole thing, standing there with the light shining in from the columns. The shadows in the room gave away his underlying emotions, as tendrils of smoky darkness played nervously in the corners. Nico noticed Jason looking and quickly unclenched his jaw, the shadows falling flat. 

This kid had to be a god. Jason was sure of it. 

A few days later, Jason was determined to prove his theory. He stood in the Principia, talking with Reyna as if they weren’t in a giant, ornate room. Jason wasn’t sure when he got so used to the elaborate structures all around him, but they seemed so normal now. 

“So,” Jason started, studying her face. “What do you think of the new ambassador?” 

Reyna looked over, brow furrowed. “He’s fine.”

Jason crossed his arms. “Right.”

Reyna snickered. “What?”

“I was just asking your opinion. What, I can’t get my fellow praetor’s opinion?” he defended, waving his hands around a little more than necessary. 

She raised her eyebrows. “Right. What do you think about him.”

Jason crossed his arms again, looking everywhere but at Reyna. What did he think of Nico?

“Isn’t he…I don’t know,” Jason raised his shoulders. “Doesn’t he feel like he’s different from us somehow?”

Reyna shrugged. “He’s just not a legionnaire. It’s fine.”

Jason groaned. “No, he’s different.”

She raised her eyebrows. A smile played on her usually straight lips. Jason groaned again. 

“How so?” Reyna asked. 

“He’s just too…you know.”

“I don’t know.”

Jason sighed loudly. He decided he’d just come right out and say what he was thinking. 

“Do you think he’s a god?” Jason asked bluntly. 

Reyna sputtered. “No? Why would you think that?”

Jason began his wild hand motions again. “I don’t know! He just looks too…godly.”

Reyna snickered. Jason felt his face heat up. He wasn’t used to the feeling and decided he wasn’t fond of it. 

“Well, he’s sparring down in the coliseum,” Reyna said. “You can go be a creep and stalk him if you want, but I have some actual work to do.”

She turned on her heel, walking away and chuckling to herself the whole time. Jason wasn’t sure what was so funny to her, but he did know he was about to go find out more about this guy. 

Jason stood on the edge of the coliseum’s training area. His eyes followed Nico as he sparred with his sister, Hazel. While it obviously wasn’t a fair fight, considering Hazel had just come to camp, it was an interesting one. 

Nico was clearly trying to teach her something, as he stopped every few seconds to share some information with her. However, his fighting style was still clear through the watered-down movements. 

Jason had never seen anything like him before. He weaved in and out of the shadows, allowing Hazel to block his attacks. He made a mental note to tell Hazel she had improved a lot later, but for now, settled his eyes back on the ambassador he was investigating. 

Nico looked impossibly more divine when he battled, like something right out of an old painting. His hair was pulled up off his face with a hair tie, but some still hung in whispers around his neck and face. He had hardly broken a sweat, but the sun still glimmered off him radiantly. Jason was about to lose his mind. 

Nico had to be a god. There was no reason for any mortal to look that way, Jason had never even seen somebody quite like him. 

The shadows clearly belonged to him. They trailed behind him as he jumped and ran through them like smoke. They seemed to cling to him as if they knew him as an old friend, hanging off his clothing and mingling with his hair. He sliced his black sword, clearly not aiming to hurt his sister but still putting up a challenge for her. 

Nico deemed her as successful in whatever task he was presenting and stopped his onslaught of slashes to let her catch her breath. He said something briefly, then turned and began his walk to Pluto’s temple on Temple Hill. 

Jason considered following him but noticed a few people staring and decided to instead go clap Hazel on the shoulder and tell her good job. 

Jason wasn’t done speculating, though. 

A few days later, after a senate meeting, he watched as people filed out of the senate building, one of which being Nico. He looked over to make sure Reyna wasn’t watching and ducked out of the building himself. 

Jason was a bit ashamed to admit to himself that he was currently following Nico, and in a rather stalking manner at that. However, the man was curious and that just couldn’t be helped. 

He watched how Nico walked, soft footsteps hardly making a sound against the pavement. His robes, as always, fit him way too well. 

Jason was walking quite a ways behind him, but decided he had a question to ask and picked up his speed. 

Just as he was right behind Nico, hand outstretched to put on his shoulder, Nico checked beside him for people watching. He managed to not see Jason and turned the corner just behind a tree. 

Jason reached out, but his hand didn’t hit anything. He looked behind the tree, and Nico was nowhere to be found. 

The shadows looked oddly ruffled but settled back into place under Jason’s examination. 

He stood there, dumbfounded, before concluding that Nico had used whatever godly powers he had to zap himself right back to the underworld. 

Jason knew he was a god now. He had to be. No other demigod was capable of doing that, not even a child of the big three gods. He had to be a god, and Jason was sure of it. 

Days passed, and Nico became the only thing he ever thought about. 

He walked through the Forum, mulling over his thoughts. Reyna didn’t believe him and seemed thoroughly amused by his notions. So, Jason decided to keep his ideas to himself about Nico’s divinity. 

He ducked into the library, deciding to read through every single book about the gods they had and see if he could find any hints as to what Nico was, and ended up finding the biggest hint of all. The man himself. 

Nico stood beside a particularly large bookshelf, hand on his hip as he stared up at the tallest shelf. He jumped, but couldn’t reach the book he was aiming for, hand brushing it desperately. 

Jason bit back a laugh and walked over to assist like the Good Samaritan he was. 

He leaned over Nico, who turned around to face him. “Praetor,” Nico greeted. 

“Ambassador,” Jason tipped his head. “Need help?”

Nico’s eyes flicked back to the bookshelf. He looked embarrassed. “That would be appreciated.”

Jason reached up and pulled the book down, offering it to him. Nico took it, studying it in his hands. 

Nico looked back up at him. “Thanks.” 

“Are you a god?” Jason blurted out, unable to stop himself. 

Nico’s face changed from embarrassed to confused. He raised an eyebrow, holding the book in one arm. “No?” 

Jason looked him over for hints of a lie. He didn’t find any. “Oh. Are you sure?”

Nico snickered semi-discreetly. “Pretty sure.”

Jason leaned forward slightly, inspecting the face he deemed too perfect to be human. “Really?” Jason could feel his cheeks burning. 

“On the river Styx. Just a regular demigod like you.”

Jason nodded, embarrassment matching Nico’s. 

“Well then. Enjoy your afternoon, ambassador.” Jason turned on his heel, deciding that if he walked fast enough back to his bed he could bury his face in his pillow and scream the memory away. 

He left a very confused demigod in his wake and realized as he walked back that Nico wasn’t a god. He was just pretty.

Whumptober Day 9: Mistaken Identity

Fandom: Star Wars The Clone Wars

Warning: Character Death

Summary: While sitting with a dying soldier, Fives gets mistaken for one of his batch mates.

  Fives had known that being mistaken for one of his brothers was possible. He never expected to happen in this way. The man looked at the clone. A piece of shrapnel had caught him in the side. It had gone clean though his armor. He held pressure around the wound, unsure of what to do with the debris.

    "You're going to be okay" he tried to comfort him. The soldier kept grabbing at him, panic filling him. Fives held one of his hands with the one he wasn't using to keep him alive.

    The wounded raised the hand, trying to pull Fives closer. It was cold but the sun was peaking out of the clouds. The wind blew harshly, knocking orange, yellow, and red leaves into the gunfire. They sprinkled to the ground, a red one landing next to the dying man.

    "Rocky, I don't wanna go" he said.

    Fives didn't expect to be called Rocky. He hid his confusion, "you're going to be okay."

    "Rocky" he grabbed his shoulder and pulled him closer. "I'm scared."

    "You'll be okay." Fives knew what was happening. He wasn't going to be okay. All he could do was pretend to be this guy he didn't even know. He couldn't leave him and he wasn't going to let him know he was going to die with a random stranger.

    He was delusional. He couldn't see. He didn't know what was going on. He just cried as the world he knew came to a close. "Rocky, tell-" his words became quiet whispers and Fives couldn't understand him. He felt his body go limp and he laid him back down to the ground.

    The red leaf blew away. It fled into the wind.

    Fives sighed. Too many of his brothers met an end like this. After the battle he became obsessed with finding Rocky. He didn't know anything about the man he had been mistaken for. All he knew was a name. But he had to know. He needed to at least meet the man he pretended to be for a dying brother.

    He asked everyone. He searched the 501st for him. Finally someone had an answer for him. "I think he's over there. He and his buddy are looking for their batch." 

    Fives walked over. "You Rocky?"

    "If I am?"

    'He's Rocky alright" Fives thought.

    "I wanted to talk to you. I was with a friend of yours. I never got his name."

    The man next to Rocky has a terrified look on his face.

    "I was with him, when he died."

    "Died?" Rocky asked. "what do you mean, died?" He started to raise his voice.

    "He was calling me by your name. Seemed like you were close."

    Rocky's tough exterior started to crack. His eyes started to water. "Did his armor have leaves on them? One really messed up one on the chest plate?" Every bit of spite and anger that had been in his voice slipped away.

    The man next to him placed a hand on his shoulder.

    "Yeah."

    Rocky shook. He turned to his friend, years in his eyes, and hugged him. The man looked surprised but held him.

    The role Fives had played was bigger than he thought. He knew how Rocky felt. Or maybe he didn't. Maybe he understood as much as he could understand. He probably felt the same pain as when he had lost Echo.

    "I'm sorry for your loss. If you want to talk about him-?"

    "Thank you." The other man spoke up. "Maybe we'll come find you later."

    "Okay." Fives started to walk away.

    "Did he say anything?"

    Fives stopped. He turned around. Rocky wasn't standing too far from him and his friend wasn't far from him. "He wanted you to tell something to someone. He- wasn't able to say a name or what."

    "Okay."

    "Are you two gonna be okay?"

    "Yeah, we'll be fine."

    "Okay. Come find me if you need anything okay? Literally anything."

    "Thank you."

“It’s a case of mistaken identity,” Gary told me. “Well, kind of. I did it, but I didn’t know what I was doing; guy said he’d gimme money to sing a song a certain way so I do and next thing I know I’m on the ground tackled and the Feds’re accusing me of belonging to a terrorist faction. I never even got paid!” While the charges of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act were eventually dropped, Gary was still sentenced to twenty years imprisonment at Hua Mei Ornithopenitentiary for materially aiding a terrorist organization.

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I didn't know for a second which Harry you where talking about, One Direction or Harry Potter, till the next post.

sometimes i forget that harry’s a 20 year old millionaire

Expectations  Rating: G, Words: 407 for the @drarrymicrofic prompt pensive 

Harry is cleaning their study when he comes across the small silver vial. The label is written in Draco’s tight font: Lucius Malfoy Casts Love Curse on H. Potter and D. Malfoy, Security Camera Footage. Harry stands for a second looking at it with a fond smirk. They’d never caught Lucius so they didn’t know what he’d been aiming for with the curse but Harry is sure it wasn’t this.

“Draco!” He calls as he climbs the stairs to their bedroom. “Look what I’ve found.” He tosses the bottle at Draco who’s curled up fast asleep across the bright white sheets.

 “Harryyyy.” Draco whines squirming a little as he tries to bury his head under the pillow. 

Harry gazes at him. Weak sunlight drifts through the curtains and falls across his pale skin. He looks so relaxed, so at home that Harry’s heart squeezes. He’ll never get tired of looking at him. 

“No seriously Draco get up. I need someone to reminisce with.” He grabs the bottle off the bed and wiggles it in Draco's face. Draco groans and props himself up in a sitting position brushing his long blonde hair out of his eyes. He squints at the bottle for a second. 

“Is this what I think it is? The beginning of our fated romance?” His tone rings of poorly concealed hilarity. 

“Yes,” Harry responds grinning. “I thought we could watch it together. You know. For nostalgia.” 

“Fine alright. I can’t believe you woke me up for this,” Draco complains as he gazes at Harry fondly. 

Harry perches on the bed beside him and accio’s the pensive over. Carefully he upends the swirling silver vial and reaches over to catch Draco’s hand in his own. Together they press their faces into the cool liquid.

Harry’s the first to rip himself from the memory. Eyes wide and hands shaking he waits for Draco to emerge. He stares at Draco’s pale large hands, at his aristocratic posture. He thinks about the way Draco looks in his formal robes, how hard Harry had to work to convince him to grow his hair out because he was worried he would look like his father.

 Harry takes a deep breath as everything clicks into place.

When Draco finally straightens up out of the pensive Harry sees his shock mirrored in Draco’s grey eyes.

“Well,” Draco says slowly, looking at him wryly. “I guess we need to get our hands on a time turner.”

Legacy of Chronos: Daughter of the Unknown God

Through her travels around the world/Infinite Realms, Ellie stumbles on Camp Halfblood and is mistaken for a demigod. She is determined to be a legacy of Cronus (Clockwork) and the child of an unknown god with a DP symbol (Danny).

Cue everyone mistaking Chronos for Kronos and thinking that the mystery god is a child of Kronos born sometime while he was in Tartarus. This misunderstanding is not helped by the fact that the Underworld is part of the Infinite Realms and portals to the Ghost Zone where often mistaken for portals to Tartarus.

Now Zeus is freaking out and wants to use Ellie as leverage against her father who obviously wants to take over Olympus. Percy/Thalia/Nico/Lester/whoever is now trying to keep Ellie out of Zeus’s paranoid clutches and get her back to Tartarus before her father goes looking for her.

(Ellie is so happy she made new friends, they’re even going to take her on a road trip to LA. Sure they seemed really nervous when she mentioned Danny would come looking for her if she didn’t check in soon, how was she supposed to know Hellhounds are cellphones anyway)

Who, me?

This week’s six sentence story is based on the word of the week YELLOWBELLY, which I managed to shoehorn into these six sentences twice.  This one is about our narrator trying to talk their way out of a sticky situation, which is a complete misunderstanding and doing whatever it take to escape.  I hope you enjoy, and that you get the reference inside. Also PRIDE MONTH STARTS TOMORROW!!! If you…

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polaroid / mistaken identity / you're a liar (learning everything ain’t what it seems, that’s the thing about these days.)

"Listen, I don't know who you're talking about. Now leave me alone, will ya?" The woman glared at Ed as she tried to swiftly walk away.

But the hacker was not about to be dissuaded from her goal, nor convinced of a simple case of mistaken identity. There was no mistake. Ed was confident of that.

"You're a liar." She told the older one in a clear, loud voice.

The woman's shoulders hunched in as if she was trying to withdraw into herself as she glanced around furtively at the crowd of people around them - none of whom were paying the pair of women any mind.

"What's it going to take to get you to shut up and go away?!" The woman hissed. Her brown eyes flashed with anger and, perhaps not surprisingly, fear.

Ed indicated a nearby cafe with a tilt of her chin and marched alongside the woman as they made their way to the section of outside seating. A waiter hurried over as they sat and Ed ordered an espresso while the woman, after a long pause, decided on a chai.

Silence lingered even after the waiter deposited their beverages on the table and took his leave. Ed had no problem with silence, though. She'd lived on her own for most of her twenty-four years of life, after all. The woman, however, took to tapping a nail on the tabletop or shifting restlessly on the seat, or running a hand through her shoulder length dark black hair.

Eventually Ed took pity on her.

"Lenses, yeah? Easy fix. Kinda interesting you chose that specific shade of russet. And with your color I understand why you had to go dark with the hair. Can't change your height though, or the way you walk down a road. The pantsuit is a nice touch. I always thought the vinyl looked uncomfortable even if you were awfully sexy in it." She hid a grin at the startled expression on the woman's face. "Oh, sorry, should I have not found you attractive? I was just getting into my teens and all the hassle of hormones. I always knew I wasn't gonna be endowed like you... maybe that's what made you even more appealing." She shrugged.

The woman took a deep breath, distracted herself momentarily by taking a sip of her tea and peering suspiciously around at the street, then finally regarded Ed again.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know who you're talking about. I don't know why you're talking to me at all." She uttered tiredly.

"Once upon a time, Ed wanted to go everywhere. Learn everything. Meet everyone worth meeting. A child's dreams." She sighed and sipped at her espresso. Caffeine was her favorite drug. "I've grown up since then unfortunately. Learning everything ain't what it seems, that's the thing about these days."

The woman snorted but said nothing.

"Did you choose his eyes on purpose? Does it make you feel like he's looking at you when you gaze into a mirror? Is it a comfort thing or something to make you feel less alone?"

The woman looked stricken and took another hasty sip of her tea.

"I saw it on the news, you know. Not immediately of course - it was months later when I decided I should check in on you all. Ein was right... leaving was a bad idea. But some things are inevitable. Jet though? That was a surprise. He always seemed so solid. Dependable. Thought he'd live forever. Think it probably hurt him to lose Spike. Probably hurt him more when you bailed too. Lonely people don't do well at saving themselves. That's the point of having friends and backup in this job." She kept her voice level, her eyes cool. The rage that she'd felt on hearing about Jet's death had had years to go from an inferno to a smolder.

It wouldn't help anything to hold Faye responsible anyway. Done was done, dead was dead. Spike, Ein, Jet... well, nobody gets out of life alive.

"What do you want?" The woman's voice was a whisper, laced with guilt and regret. Her eyes shone wetly with unshed tears and her hand, reaching for her tea, had an unmistakable tremor to it.

Ed almost felt bad. Almost.

"You're wanted for theft, scamming, cheating, and so much more. That's just on the casino's side of things. Those collection agencies you used to worry about? Definitely still want that fine ass. Don't get me wrong, you made a good run of it. Enough years to be really impressive, enough enemies to be well and truly fucked no matter where you showed your face. The law's got long arms, Faye-Faye. And the bounties you got jailed? They've got long memories."

The woman's next words came out through clenched teeth, her eyes flicking anxiously over Ed's shoulders as if expecting to see officers or worse. Silly Faye-Faye... Ed herself was the worst.

"What. Do. You. Want."

Ed slapped a Polaroid onto the table between them, making the other woman flinch. A lifetime of being chased had left her jumpy and anxious - traits the Faye Ed remembered hadn't had. Being on the Bebop had likely been the safest Faye had ever been. And now, after nearly a decade of having her guard up... with vultures circling in...

The polaroid image made the woman frown. It had been snapped shortly before Ed approached her in the first place. Puzzled brown eyes - both the same shade, which was the biggest difference between her colored contacts and the ghost they were no doubt meant to represent - became confused.

"I don't understand." Her voice was still hushed. She twitched in her chair like a rabbit about to bolt. Ed saw her rub at her wrist absently as if searching for the bracelet remote she used to have for her ship.

"I could arrest you or kill you. Either way I'd get paid for a job well done. I've got dozens of employers - can't live without a slew of jobs these days."

The woman seemed to collect herself at last. Her hands came to rest on the table and her body grew still. The eyes that dipped down to the picture and then rose to meet Ed's gaze were finally full of calm and a casual disregard for her future fate. It was the closest to the Faye of old that Ed had seen yet.

"I've no doubt you're one of the best at what you do." The woman said then. "You were always the smartest of us."

Ed tipped her head a fraction in acceptance of the compliment. "Damn straight. You know, you'd have made it a lot further with Ed's help. Maybe even been able to get some of those nasty debt records erased."

With exaggerated movements she reached out to pick up the polaroid and gave it a considering glance before deliberately tearing it into pieces.

"Let's start with the fact that no one else after you has any idea of your current face. Not that you changed enough to avoid future notice, mind you. You didn't even retire your alias! It's like you wanted to be caught."

Faye sighed. "Maybe I did. Choosing solitude seemed like the right move but who can care about themselves when there is no one else?" Pain flashed through her eyes and Ed knew she must be remembering Jet and Ed's own words about the ex-cop.

"Being alone by choice is only enjoyable when it's actually by choice and not due to lack of other options." Ed told her plainly. "Today is your lucky day. You still believe in luck, yes? Ed has another option for you..."