Inspired by Community S3E14: "Pillows and Blankets."
Nico POV [Documentary]
Our documentary starts with an extreme close-up of one Nico di Angelo, the school's token Italian who's been relatively absent this season other than making an appearance at a climate change protest, testing negative for COVID-19, and getting stepped on in the library amid Piper's romantic affair with a corpohumanoid.
Nico means to film the scene before him, but he accidentally has the front-facing camera on. Is it obvious he's an amateur filmmaker yet?
He flips the image around so that now the viewer can see Dean D's office, where Annabeth is mediating a meeting between Frank and Leo, who are both wearing pajamas.
Today, Nico was asked to film Frank and Leo's fort getting into the Guinness Book of World Records. Now, he's documenting an all-out war in which he won't take a side. Neither can handle his overwhelming common sense.
At this point, he still thinks that this budding war is ridiculous. He makes the bold assumption that even he is above this. On the surface, it may seem childish, but let it be known that pillows and blankets are the weapons of the future, and they're only growing stronger by the day.
"I, Annabeth Chase, now call this meeting to discuss the peace treaty between Frank Zhang's Blanketsburg and Leo Valdez's... I can't think of a good name... Pillowtown?" Annabeth offers the camera—and the unfortunate guy behind it—a sympathetic glance. She too is under the impression that this is just a conflict between friends.
"Nico, are you filming?" Leo asks.
"Yeah," Frank agrees. "We want to have this for a 20/20 style episode of Frank and Leo in the Morning."
"Aww, you didn't sing it," Nico jokes.
Leo frowns. "There's no time for cheesy jingles. This is war."
"What?" Annabeth asks. "No, it isn't!" She waves around her notebook, showing the parties her plans for peace.
"Prepare your forces, Zhang," Leo says. "C'mon, Annabeth."
"Wait, who said I'm on your side?"
Frank sticks his hands in his sweatshirt pocket and sighs. "Leo's right, Annabeth. You should be on his side. It'll make the teams even and all."
"No it won't," Annabeth says. "We're not having a war."
"She said incorrectly," Nico narrates.
"Shut up, Nico," Leo says.
Nico decides to shut up because this whole conversation is stupid.
"Please just negotiate this so I can go back to my corner of the pillow fort and work on my biology paper," Annabeth says.
"Oh, so now you're okay with being on his side?" Frank accuses.
Annabeth takes a step back. "No, I'm just saying-"
"Are you trying to take our best strategist away?" Leo asks. "That's it. I'm declaring war. Annabeth!"
She rolls her eyes. "Remember when I said I didn't want anything to do with this stupid fight?"
"That doesn't matter," Leo says. "To the ballistae!"
Frank and Leo exit the room and part ways, leaving Nico alone with Annabeth, who looks completely dead inside. Nico zooms in on her.
"All this and they're making you use a cellphone camera?" she asks.
"Yeah, pretty much," Nico says. "I guess it'll look like one of those apocalypse videos this way."
"Uh-huh..."
"I suppose I should ask you for an interview."
"It's what Leo would want," Annabeth agrees.
Nico clears his throat. He's never actually conducted an interview before. What's he supposed to ask her? He just learned how to adjust the lighting on his phone camera a couple of hours ago when this was still about breaking a world record.
"So uh, how'd you get into this mess?" Nico grumbles.
"WiFi in my apartment went out, so I have to work on my biology paper here at school. I figured since Leo has a literal pillow fort, I might as well make myself at home. I didn't realize Frank has a blanket fort. I didn't mean to take sides or anything."
"When do you think this will end?"
Annabeth scoffs. "Hopefully never. The dean canceled classes when the world record officials were here. I guess he's trying to encourage school spirit."
"Anything to get New Rome on the map," Nico adds.
"Bingo."
Classes are canceled as long as the Pillows and Blankets war continues, and Nico di Angelo is the only person with access to both fortresses, and thus, the only person who can confer with leaders from both parties. Nico very well might have the power to elongate this war.
He finds a cushy corner in the pillow fort against a pillow with armrests. It's a little chilly, but he won't dare bring a blanket from enemy grounds.
He records himself through his front-facing camera.
"I'm taking cover in Leo Valdez's pillow fort where his team is prepping for an attack against Frank's blanket fort." Nico gives all the information he knows to the viewers. He pours his heart out because this documentary is the fastest way to stir the pot and draw this war out. "Friends are turning against each other. For example, on this team, Leo is building all sorts of crazy contraptions. Then you've got Frank and Hazel on the other team, which is expected, and Jason joined them too surprisingly. I think he might have felt bad when Percy joined Leo's team. Piper and Annabeth are on Team Pillows too, except they've been kind of quiet."
You know what can stir this pot? Theories. "I have a couple of guesses as to what they might be doing," Nico says. "None of them are good though. Annabeth's the smartest strategist of the New Rome Seven, and Piper's got a way with words. The combination of the two could be disastrous."
Although the angle is unflattering, Nico continues to film as he crawls through the pillow fort.
"Right now I'm looking for a section of the pillow fort Leo calls Bunker Nine. There, he's working on a weapon of mass destruction," he narrates.
Aha! There he is, along with Coach Hedge, the billiards instructor.
Nico turns the camera around so it faces Leo. "Can you tell us about the weapon you're working on?"
"Just that she's a killing machine!" Coach Hedge shouts.
"Okay, so what does it do?" Nico asks. He'd like to get straight to the point.
Leo cuts a strip of duct take and wraps it around a throw pillow. "We can't disclose that kind of information. Obviously, we trust you, but we don't trust that the Blankets won't hack into your phone."
Nico wants to say that he's taken preventative measures so nobody breaks into his phone, but he decides against it, instead asking, "Is there a person under all those pillows?"
A muffled voice speaks, but Nico can't make out what they're saying beneath all the pillows.
Coach Hedge punches a Squishmallow octopus and says, "Absolutely not. Why do you ask?"
The camera cuts to Nico crawling through the blanket fort. He passes many familiar faces including Dakota, whose lips are red with Kool-Aid, Mike the football player, and Leila, that girl who tried to get Nico to join her 4-H club that still doesn't exist. Nico doesn't have enough space in his apartment to raise a cow. He doesn't even have enough space for the mastiff he just submitted an adoption application for, yet here he is thinking of names for her as he crawls across the suspicious New Rome carpet.
"Ah, Frank!" he calls.
Frank whips around, almost getting tangled up in the purple blanket he's wearing as a cape. "Welcome to our humble abode, di Angelo! Care to help us make blanket slingshots?"
Part of Nico wants to ask what they plan on slingshotting since they don't have access to any pillows, but an even larger part of him wants to know if Frank and his team have heard of the threat of mass destruction coming from the pillow fort.
"We've heard," Frank says. "Come inside the meeting room. We're coming up with a solution now." He lifts a blanket for Nico to crawl under. Hazel, Reyna, and Jason are playing a game of Kings in the Corner.
"It's your turn, Frank," Reyna mutters.
Frank drops the eight of spades atop a red nine and then moves a pile starting with the seven of hearts on top of that pile. Then, he drops a king into a corner.
"It's all you, Hazel."
"Oh, that's nice!" Hazel drops her last card, the queen of diamonds, on top of Frank's king. "I win!"
"Great, congrats," Jason quips, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Can we get back to war strategy? What about this weapon Leo's coming up with?"
Octavian pokes through the blanket door, his hair standing up from the static electricity and his security guard uniform covered in lint, hair, and whatever else is stuck to the carpet. "I might just have a solution for that!"
"Were you listening to our conversation?" Reyna asks.
"Perhaps..."
Jason raises an eyebrow. "I mean, if you weren't, you wouldn't have offered to help."
Reyna crosses her arms over her blanket toga. "What do you want, Octavian?"
"An alliance," he sneers. "You see, I've recently enlisted the help of a powerful force to aid in strengthening campus security. You need us."
"What kind of powerful force?" Hazel asks.
Octavian laughs. "Wouldn't you like to know, sandwich girl?"
"I... I would like to know..."
Frank balls his hands into fists. "You'll tell us or we'll have our forces escort you out of this blanket fort."
"My team consists of a fearsome squad of middle schoolers."
Everyone winces at that. Nobody hits harder than a middle schooler. Nobody can throw salt on your deepest insecurities the way a middle schooler can.
"What kind of middle schoolers?" Frank asks.
"What kind do you want?" Octavian asks. "I've got kids with daddy issues, kids with mommy issues, kids that sneak vodka into their water bottles, emos for every color of the rainbow, popular girls with pointy nails, junior varsity lacrosse players... Take your pick!"
Frank turns to his council. "What do you guys think?"
"There's always a catch," Jason says.
Frank turns around to face Octavian. "What's the catch?"
"No catch! Just don't blame me if they start roasting your Canadian heritage!"
Hazel raises an eyebrow. "So they're like, prejudiced middle schoolers? I don't like the sound of that."
Reyna nods in agreement.
"No! God, no!" Octavian waves his hands as high as they can go in a blanket fort, which isn't that high. "They're just judgy. They'll pick on you for being Canadian, liking Ed Sheeran, following Andrew Tate—the kind of stuff you get canceled for—but they're not racist or anything like that!"
"What do you think, Frank?" Reyna asks.
Frank shrugs. "I think middle schoolers are pretty woke and pretty scary. Hazel, hide your Lisa Frank stationary, and Jason... don't tell anyone you play MythoMagic."
"But the movie trailer could drop any minute!" Jason complains.
"We have a war to win," Frank says. "Octavian, we accept your help."
Octavian and Frank shake hands.
As Octavian crawls out of the meeting room to assemble his team, Frank applies some of Hazel's cinnamon bun hand sanitizer and addresses his council. "Well team, this is the best shot we've got. Tell your cohorts to prepare for battle."
Nico is still in the blanket fort when Leo and the forces behind the pillow fort attack. It starts with the ballistae, firing tiny Squishmallow pillows into the blanket ceilings.
Jason is hit in the face by a hippopotamus. Reyna takes a bumblebee to the gut. Immediately distracted by the stuffed animal frenzy, Hazel scoops up a pile of Squishmallows and squishes them against her body, enjoying the childhood thrill only stuffed animals can provide.
"Nico!" Frank yells. "Are you getting this?"
"Yep!" Although Nico isn't quite sure what to make of the ballistae. They're certainly not the weapon Leo and Hedge were working on in Bunker Nine.
"Agh!" Jason shouts. He takes his hand away from his forehead to reveal... blood? What kind of a Squishmallow could do that kind of damage?
Then, Nico zooms in on the brick weighing down his blanket toga.
"Not again..." Jason groans.
Nobody's noticed the accident, so Nico has to interfere with the story a little bit more than he would normally have liked. "I've got you," he says as he grabs Jason from under the arms and drags him out of the fort.
The fresh air is overwhelming, but it's not the most shocking part of the battlefield by a long shot.
Octavian grins evilly and hoists his weed wacker into the air like a caveman who just killed a mammoth with a big pointy stick. Stuffing and down from Leo's pillows flutter through the air like snow.
"Okay, Jason, watch out—we're going to go fast," Nico warns his friend before draping his arm around his shoulder.
Nico and Jason weave around middle schoolers attempting to strangle people with blankets.
"Can you make it to the health center or do I need to call 911?" he asks.
Jason points a shaky finger at the information desk. "There's a battlefield medic in there..."
There's nobody behind the info desk, but Nico drags Jason over there just to be nice. "Jason, I'm not seeing-"
"Well, hello, folks!" greets an all-too-cheerful Will Solace. "What seems to be the problem?" He gasps when he sees the gash on Jason's forehead. "That must have been some pillow!"
"It was a brick," Nico corrects.
Will opens a drawer and starts unraveling some bandages. "I always liked my pillow a little on the firm side, but that's a little excessive." He gets to work, cleaning the wound and wrapping it.
"Thanks," Jason groans. He tries to stand up, but then he stumbles. In a panic, he latches on to the armrest of Will's swivel chair for support, but alas, it is on wheels. The chair slips out from underneath Jason and sends him onto the floor.
"Are you alright?" Will asks, helping Jason to his feet.
Jason nods. "Just a little dizzy." He hoists himself onto his knees and clutches the desk to aid him in getting back on his feet, except this time, he trips on his blanket toga a little. It's a miracle he hasn't lost the thing altogether.
"Oh, no you don't!" Will scolds. "You are sitting this war out."
"But-"
"I've got MythoMagic cards. We can play while we wait for more idiots with head injuries that need patching up."
Jason groans. "Fine." He takes a seat in the wheelie chair as Will starts to shuffle the cards.
"Are you playing, Nico?" Will asks.
Nico wants to play. He wants to play this stupid game and maybe even let Will win because he likes that boy so freakin' much. "No thanks," he says. "I've got to draw this war out so we don't have to go to classes tomorrow."
"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Will asks. "I mean, look at Jason."
Jason gives Nico a thumbs up.
Nico decides to continue stirring this pot for the sake of further cancellation of classes. Who needs biology? Certainly not Nico. Besides, it's time he pays another visit to Leo and his team in the pillow fort.
While Leo and Coach Hedge work on the weapon of mass destruction, Annabeth and Percy draft a plan to take down the team at the blanket fort.
"Annabeth, are you even listening to me?" Percy asks.
Annabeth eats another cheeseball and grumbles something that sounds close to a yes.
"I'm serious, 'Beth!"
"You're not allowed to call me that since you dumped me!"
"Oh, so now we can talk about it? Can I have my sweatshirt back?"
"No!" Annabeth barks before going back to her studies.
Percy looks into Nico's cellphone camera and sighs in exasperation. "Fine. I guess I'll map out the strategy all by myself."
When Annabeth doesn't respond, he adds, "Just me making plans. Alone. Without any help."
Nico can't take this anymore. "I can't decide if your fighting is more annoying than your flirting."
Annabeth looks up from her textbook. "Excuse you. We never flirted."
"I sat behind you guys at the campus security lecture last month," Nico says. "What do you call that?"
"Uh, Seaweed Brain trying to step on my feet. Those were new sneakers!"
"New sneakers from Poshmark!"
"You scuffed the toe!"
"It was already scuffed!"
"You were playing footsies and giggling!" Nico yells. "Now quit fighting and give me something interesting for Frank and Leo's morning show."
Annabeth takes the Expo marker from Percy and starts a list. "It's best to assess your enemy so your plan isn't worthless," she explains to him. "Like if I were fighting the Spartan city state, I'd know to utilize my navy because their navy was super weak."
"Annabeth?" Percy asks.
"What?"
"We don't have a navy."
Annabeth facepalms. "I know, it was just—ugh—what are the blanket fort's weaknesses?"
"I mean, it's made out of blankets," Percy says.
She writes that down on the whiteboard, along with "CHINESE FINGER TRAPS."
Nico zooms in on this absolute trainwreck of a strategy.
By the time Annabeth's handwriting looks like a football playbook, she declares the brainstorming session over. "I think that accounts for everything except Octavian's weed wacker."
"I don't want to take any major risks, but isn't that what Leo's secret weapon is for?" Percy asks.
Annabeth types something out on her laptop and with a whoosh, an email is sent. "It better be. The attack plan I sent to the rest of the camp doesn't include it."
Nico points the camera at himself again as he tunnels through the blanket fort. Many people don't realize this, but you can actually exit either fort by gently removing the wall, stepping—or crawling—out into the real world, and then standing up. Be sure to stand up carefully and attend to any brush burns you may have gotten on your knees while dragging them across the nubby carpeting.
But now he's back on his hands and knees, which are getting sore from all the crawling around, but this is a desperate attempt to elongate the war. Annabeth's plan was good. Really good. She's about to secure a win for Leo and the inhabitants of the pillow fort whether she realizes it or not. Someone has to warn Frank and his council. Otherwise, his team will be slaughtered, and Nico sincerely doubts that Dean D can handle a lawsuit from the middle schoolers' parents.
"Frank!" Nico calls as he tears into the council's meeting room.
Hazel, Reyna, Frank, and Octavian are playing Kings in the Corner around a citronella candle. Do they know how to play any other games? They do know they can play poker with candy instead of money, right?
Reyna puts a king in the corner and then passes the game off to Hazel.
"We just started," Frank says. "Would you like us to deal you in?"
"No thank you," Nico says.
"Is this council business?" Hazel asks.
Reyna pops her pink bubblegum. "Is Jason okay?"
Nico can't handle so many questions. "Jason's fine; he's in the infirmary with Will. Doctor's orders. And yes, I suppose this is council business."
Frank adjusts his blanket cape while the others tie their blanket togas around their shoulders.
"The council acknowledges Nico di Angelo," Frank says.
"No need for formalities," says Nico.
Octavian leans forward. He's way too close for Nico's comfort. His entire hand of cards is exposed: two twos—a red and a black—a five, a king, and three aces. That's a rough hand if Nico ever did see one.
"There's always a need for formalities in the council," Octavian sneers.
Nico raises an eyebrow and looks at Reyna and Hazel. "I thought this guy was just an ally."
"We told him he could sub for Jason to get his middle schoolers to stop Rickrolling through our walkie-talkies," Hazel explains.
That's fair, but Nico isn't going to admit that aloud. "Whatever. I just need Frank to check his email."
Frank furrows his eyebrows and pulls out his phone.
He looks at Nico with wide eyes and then down at his phone. "Is this real?" he gapes.
Reyna looks over his shoulder to read the forwarded email.
"It's real," Nico confirms. "I was there when she wrote it."
"I can't believe it... the Chinese finger trap incident was supposed to stay between her and me," Frank says.
"We'll get them," Hazel says. "I promise. We won't let them get away with these... these personal attacks."
Reyna pats Frank on the back. "You're an awesome leader, Frank. The pillow fort has no organization whatsoever. Our victory is inevitable."
Everyone looks at Octavian because he's the only member of the council that hasn't spoken.
He rolls his eyes and says, "We'll kill those guys" while bending his playing cards.
"Play my hand," Frank says as he drops his cards in front of Nico. "I have an email to draft. He reaches into his backpack and retrieves his laptop.
Nico places a ten on top of Hazel's Jack of diamonds and declares it Octavian's turn.
All the while, Frank furiously types away. It's rather irksome, but Nico does tend to overreact when it comes to obnoxious noises, so it's best to pretend the hair on his arms is standing up from static electricity.
"There," Frank says. He turns the laptop around for Nico's camera to see.
Nico zooms in.
Leo and crew,
I hope this email does not find you well. My reason for contacting you is to propose higher stakes for this war since you clearly do not understand how you are detrimental to the study group. If we win the war, all rights to Frank and Leo in the Morning, including casting and content decisions, and crew services, shall be under the direction of solely myself (Frank Zhang). If by some odd chance we lose, you (Leo Valdez) may have the same rights and I (Frank Zhang) will sign over my rights peacefully, and I (Frank Zhang) don't expect this to happen without any struggles because you lack organization and formality.
Sincerely,
Frank Zhang.
"Gee, do you think you should sign your name twice so he knows it's from you?" Nico quips.
Hazel squeezes one of the leftover Squishmallows from the pillow fortress team's earlier attack. "I don't really like seeing you attacking him personally. I mean, these are our-"
"Yes, Frank!" Octavian says, pumping his fist in the air. "Show 'em who's boss!"
Hazel looks at Nico. Do something, she mouths.
"Reyna?" Nico asks.
Reyna looks up from her phone. "Piper hasn't taken her turn on Words with Friends. Do you think something's wrong?"
Octavian rolls his eyes. "Can you engage? Nobody gives a shit about that pillow girl!"
"I mean, I kind of do. She's my friend and she hasn't played her word since this morning before the war started. I'm worried about her," Reyna says.
Octavian unplugs his fully-charged weed wacker from the wall. "I say we lead them out into the dining hall."
"What?" Hazel asks.
"I can't believe I agree with you," Frank says. "Let's do it. Let's draw them out of the fort."
"Reyna?" Frank asks.
"I'd like to play 'zebra' but I just don't know if Piper is going to use that A... That is if she ever takes her turn."
"Can you come up with a plan?" Frank asks.
Reyna rolls her eyes and without looking up from her game, says, "Have you considered self-destructing our fort as a distraction so we can flatten theirs and just hash it out in here?"
"She's no Annabeth, but that's pretty good," Frank says to the camera.
"I wish Jason was here," Hazel mutters.
Frank picks up a walkie-talkie, which begs the question: why does everyone have walkie-talkies and cell phones? Isn't a text message more efficient and secure?
Frank pushes the button and says through the static, "Dakota? It's time."
The walkie-talkie buzzes back. "Dakota to Frank. Uh, what? Over."
"Put the evacuation plan into motion and pull the cord," Frank says. "We're standing up."
And it's at that moment that the pillow fort starts firing more Squishmallows at the blanket fort. Nico wishes he were over there, not because he's afraid of being pelted with stuffed animals, but because he wants to know if they have slingshots or catapults, or if fighters are throwing the toys out the windows.
"Duck and cover!" Hazel yells.
"No!" says Frank. "We need to evacuate. Time to stand, people."
Everyone stands up on wobbly legs as the blanket fort collapses around them. People-shaped mounds scramble underneath the blankets, desperately searching for an exit.
The Squishmallow raid pauses as Leo and the others look out the windows.
"Octavian?" Frank asks. "You know what to do."
"Middle schoolers! Attack!" Octavian says, pointing to the pillow fort.
The middle schoolers ambush the pillow fort, beating on the sides with their backpacks. A thirteen-year-old wearing an orange fox tail and matching ears has her shoes tied together like nunchucks.
A boy with fire engine red hair shouts, "Hey, pillow fort people! How did you end up here? Because I want to know what not to do!"
Thalia Grace, the fearsome leader of the Hunters screams and falls on her roller skates as a blonde middle schooler with too much purple eyeshadow berates her for having a side part.
Nico takes in the commotion as he takes cover in one of the pillow trenches next to Percy and Annabeth. "So do you guys have a defense plan?"
"We're supposed to just trust that Leo and Hedge's secret weapon can take out Octavian's weed wacker, but we have a plan to take down the middle schoolers," Annabeth says. "Pull the trigger, Seaweed Brain."
"Nice to be your frenemy again," he says before shouting into a walkie-talkie. Again, what is it with these people and walkie-talkies? That's got to be why this war has been at such a stalemate until now. "Send in the dual-enrollment students."
Nico stares helplessly as the guinea pigs for New Rome's new dual enrollment program with the local high school jump out from behind a barricade. He's seen Meg and Lester around before. Meg's the girl who dresses like a traffic light and carries around an emotional support dog named Peaches. Lester never seems to be without his ukulele strung over his back. They're kind of obnoxious, but they don't show up to any campus activities since they do that stuff at their high school, so they're not bothering anyone. At least, they weren't bothering anyone until now.
"That's a really good strategy, Annabeth," Nico says.
"It gets better."
"We hate middle schoolers!" Meg shouts whilst taking out four kids with her heavy backpack.
Peaches the emotional support dog pounces on an emo kid and starts licking their face.
Perhaps worst of all, Lester whips out his ukulele and plays a cringe-worthy rendition of "Riptide" by Vance Joy. If there's one song Nico doesn't want to hear on the ukulele, it's that.
"Piper?" Reyna calls, adjusting her toga. "You still haven't taken your turn! Piper, where are you?"
"Somebody has to take down Reyna. She's a good commander," Percy says.
"Percy, no-"
"Somebody has to, Annabeth."
"But-"
Percy cuts her off with a kiss long enough to make Nico feel uncomfortable, and then he jumps out of the trench to ambush Reyna, hitting her over the head repeatedly with a pillow.
"Lady, running down to the riptide..." Lester continues to sing, warding off enemies from the pillow fort.
Annabeth clears her throat. "I was going to tell him that Reyna's not a threat since she's so worried about Piper, but that works too."
"I thought you were-"
"I'm not sure, Nico."
Whatever. Annabeth and Percy can do whatever they want, even if Annabeth is running for treasurer of the GSA.
"Hey, uh, real talk here," Nico says. "Where's Piper? She was here this morning, right?" The more he thinks about it, the more concerning Piper's disappearance is. She wouldn't miss out on this for anything except COVID, and she's technically still in her immunity period.
Annabeth looks at Nico wide wide eyes. "Oh my god. The secret weapon."
"What?"
Vroom, VROOM!
Octavian laughs maniacally as he revs up his weed wacker. "You're going down, losers!"
"Is he wearing a blanket toga on top of his security guard uniform?" Annabeth asks.
"It's best not to ask these kinds of questions," Nico says.
Octavian slices pillows open, sending down and stuffing fluttering all over the place. A mutilated Squishmallow ricochets off the wall and falls into Nico's lap.
"Agh!" he shouts, flinging the toy over to Annabeth.
"I don't want this!" she shouts, throwing the toy back to Nico hot potato-style.
They go back and forth like that until Lester sings the line, "And they come unstuck." The music stops, but instead of continuing into the chorus, Lester lets out a shrill scream.
Nico and Annabeth abandon the Squishmallow and peer over the pillow barricade as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man rises.
It's not exactly the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, but the body covered in pillows and duct tape confronting Octavian's weed wacker sure looks like a scene from Ghostbusters.
Octavian backs away as the pillow person gets closer.
Is this the secret weapon? It just ran into a wall.
"She can't see," Annabeth says. "Piper, I'm coming!" She grabs a pillow weapon and a pillow shield and then climbs over the barricade to meet her friend.
Thankful that Annabeth didn't feel the need to give Nico a good luck kiss, he hops the barricade and follows for the sake of his documentary.
In a fit of rage, Pillow Piper throws middle schoolers over her shoulder in hot pursuit of Octavian.
"Where is he?" she shouts, her voice muffled by the pillows.
"Over here!" says Annabeth. "Follow my voice... Follow my voice!"
Piper stumbles after her, almost tripping over a wad of blankets.
Octavian saws pillows and blankets alike out of his way as he runs through the student union.
Meanwhile, Reyna attempts to tie Percy up in blankets while he hits her repeatedly with a couch cushion.
Hazel leads a team of middle schoolers to scour the debris, kicking over pillow tower after pillow tower.
The Stoll brothers scavenge the self-destructed blanket fort for supplies.
Frank and Leo are in an all-out one-on-one battle while Coach Hedge offers martial arts advice to the two of them.
It's only now that Nico realizes this war is a little too personal, and maybe he should just catch up on his computer science readings instead of contributing to the drama going on in Hazel's study group.
If only there was some kind of distraction that would end this altogether.
Nico continues to film helplessly because that's what happens when you're on the production side of things.
"Nico!" Will rushes into the room, pushing Jason along in a wheelie chair.
"I'm okay!" Jason gives a thumbs up.
Nico meets his friends in the doorway. "What's going on?"
"Jason and I were playing MythoMagic... and... Oh, god, Nico, do you think you can get everyone's attention?" Will asks.
Nico stands on an armchair that's been stripped of its cushions and says the first thing he can think of. "Hey! Everyone stop fighting!"
And it works. That actually works. People freeze in their tracks. Piper pulls the pillow off her face so she can see.
He still has to shout to be heard over the purring of Octavian's weed wacker. "Will and Jason have something to say."
Jason stands up, eliciting many gasps from the crowd. "I got a mild concussion, not paralysis. Calm down. Geez..."
Will cuts him off to share the urgent news. "Everyone get on Twitter! The trailer for MythoMagic: The Movie dropped!"
And that's what does it. Who knew ADHD college students could be distracted so easily? Will Solace knew.
Enemies become friends again as they share the joy of MythoMagic.
"I told you MythoMagic heals," Will says to Jason.
"Good one, man," says Jason. The guys fistbump.
Nico ends the recording because the war is over. There's nothing left to say. "Anybody feeling up for some Jamba Juice?" he asks.
"Only if you guys can push me in this chair," Jason says as he sits back down. "I'm injured. Remember?"
Will rolls his eyes and grabs Nico's hand in his own. Normally, the touch would bother Nico, but he and Will have been doing this stuff for weeks now. It's far past time for them to ask the question: Are we dating?
"Are we finally going to have that conversation?" Nico asks.
"Which one?" Will asks. "Are you breaking up with me?"
Nico knits his eyebrows. "I was actually going to ask if we're boyfriends."
Will laughs. "Oh! I was wondering why you missed our one-month anniversary. Yeah, we've been dating since we went to student organization leader training together."
"Cool," says Nico. "So I guess you don't mind buying my smoothie then?"
"Not at all."
Hand in hand, the boyfriends—Nico's going to have to get used to that word—leave Jason at the battle scene and head off to get some much-deserved Jamba Juice.
The camera fades in on another episode of Frank and Leo in the Morning. The production team and its co-hosts are back together and ready to film another episode, but they need your help. Today, they are running a telethon.
A phone number and Leo Valdez's Venmo username flash across the bottom of the screen. The co-hosts look into the camera with serious and compassionate expressions.
"Our channel works incredibly hard to bring you content like that last clip," Frank says.
Leo chimes in with a tacky, "But none of that would be possible without the help of viewers like you."
"Chip in any amount today at the Venmo below or with the phone number to help. Our volunteers are standing by, ready to collect much-needed funds," says Frank.
"Right ladies?" Leo asks.
The camera pans over to Reyna, Piper, and Annabeth. Each has her own old-timey phone with a rotary dial. Piper finally sends her turn to Reyna on Words with Friends. They all look dead inside.
Annabeth's phone rings. "Yes?" she asks. "No, this isn't Crusty's Waterbed Palace. Have a nice day."