Sorry for not updating, I got lost while Pokémon Go, and spent several nights in a ditch. Unfortunately for me, and I suppose fortunately for you, because I'm now finished for the summer, I no longer have an excuse not to update.
"A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother."
~Bob Hope
Perseus
Perseus all but skipped down the gangplank, feeling nothing but jubilation at being free from the bondage the ship had instilled upon him. His euphoria was short lived, however, when he paused on the dock to take in the area. He was left feeling idiotic when he noticed that Rome was a dump. Everywhere he looked, there were dirtied and dishevelled people, going about their business, and seemingly unaware of the state they were in. There were flocks of sheep and goats too, no doubt being led to their undoing, leaving a trail of mess in their wake. There was a certain stink to the place too. One that could be partly explained by said livestock, and partly explained by the sewer flowing directly into the Tiber, where several children bathed nearby. A few beggars lounged against buildings, some fortunate enough to wear anything other than ripped, dirt ridden rags, while 'shady' looking characters subtly searched through the crowds for their next target. The place was wholly depressing.
Mercifully, it was at least marginally cooler than what it was in Greece, but the solace found in that fact was completely lost in the vast heap of dismal sights, sounds and smells that could be experienced in the 'Hades on earth'. He was suddenly glad he had not spent the majority of his youth in an urban environment, if the view in front of him was universally applicable to every city in the known world.
A hand rested on his shoulder, but he couldn't wretch his eyes away from the sorry sight, his face contorted into a tight grimace.
"I've seen worse," Pholus said, suddenly appearing at his side.
Perseus scoffed at the thought of there being some place worse than what he was now. "Well I haven't. It's not too late to go back, is it?"
"The place has…a certain charm to it," the trainer said, though Perseus knew he wasn't mad enough to think the place had anything resembling charm.
"Charm? That's a funny way of saying repulsive in every way."
"Oh stop your moaning, unless you'd rather be at sea again, Perseus?" the titan's daughter teased. Perseus rolled his eyes. He hated boats, not the sea.
"I don't mind the sea, the sea is very nice, the sea is very pleasant. That boat, on the other hand…"
Pholus clapped his hands together, trying to appear enthusiastic. The sore sight in front of them, however, installed anything but enthusiasm in them. "Well, we're here. We might as well do what we came here to do."
They took a few steps towards the bowels of the city, before Perseus noticed Zoë's absence from their little group. He turned, and saw her staring up at the relatively tall, imposing buildings.
"What's the matter, Zoë?" he asked slowly. She jumped slightly, as if she had been broken out of a daydream.
She didn't reply for a few seconds, seemingly lost in her own thought train. "Nothing…It's just…I can't believe how far we've come, how far we are from home. When I was little, I remember questioning if there was a world outside of the garden. Now here I am, in a world outside the world that the garden is in. It makes you think…" she pondered, turning her thoughts into words.
He nodded absentmindedly. He understood where she was coming from, and the same thoughts had drifted through his mind once or twice before. The world certainly was big. He then smirked, realising he could have fun with her strangely evocative words.
"How poetic," he laughed. "Are you sure you're the Titan of Strength's daughter?"
She punched him in usual fashion, though seeing how her eyebrows furrowed in annoyance at his childish antics made it completely worth it.
"Oh, I'm quite sure," she said, with a devilish smirk of her own that put his to shame.
He rubbed his arm, her punch all the proof he needed to know it was true. "Come on, Chiron awaits!" he bubbled, before grabbing her hand and running off into the city.
They spent hours wandering through the city, taking in the sights, avoiding trouble, and generally absorbing the city atmosphere. The narrow, winding streets seemed to never end, and Perseus thought it possible that there really was no end to the city. Rome was certainly an experience. Positive, or negative, he couldn't decide. There was widespread poverty, for sure. The docks only a small example of some of the squalor people conducted their daily business within. But the fact that it existed in the first place, the vastness, the aliveness of it; that made it an accomplishment in its own right.
His eyes kept darting to Zoë during their unguided, undirected tour. Her eyes were constantly wide at the array of spectacles on show. He would have laughed at her intrigue, had he not been in the same boat himself. He too had a light skip to his step, but while he may have considered himself secluded from the urban world, he knew it was nothing compared to the isolation Zoë had grown up in. Indeed, it must have been a massive culture shock when the largest thing she grew up with was a tree that had a serpent wrapped around its trunk.
They paused besides an elegant fountain that lay in the middle of an enclosed square. On three sides stood the usual sand coloured houses they had come to recognise, their red-brown roofs a common sight elsewhere. On the fourth side, however, were marble steps leading up to a temple of sorts. Several priests and temple goers lingered outside, the sun brightening up the whitened building considerably. Several merchants peddled their goods in the square, while relatively well dressed residents went about their business. All in all, and in contrast to the majority of places they had visited, it was rather pleasant. The steady sound of running water, coupled with the sun's heat provided a peaceful setting, one that Perseus felt himself enjoying.
He turned to Pholus with a content puff of air, a small smile gracing his lips.
"So, when do we meet Chiron, O' mighty and wise trainer?"
"Whenever you want. You're the one leading here," the man shrugged and in an instant, Perseus's smile fell.
"I don't know where he lives, though," he confessed.
The trainer whipped his head around to face him, turning serious. "I don't know where he lives either."
It was now Perseus's turn to whip his head around, his mouth ajar, and heat in his face rising. "I thought you knew where he lived!" he exclaimed.
"I thought you knew where he lived!"
"You're the one in charge here! We're both following you!"
"I thought you were in charge here! This is your bloody quest! We were both following you, right Zoë?" Both turned their heads to stare at Zoë, who stood awkawardly off to one side, one hand holding her arm.
"I'm not getting involved…" she muttered after a few seconds, before turning and walking away from the trivial argument.
The two didn't speak for several moments, Perseus feeling slightly betrayed, though he would concede that it was technically his quest. He wouldn't back down, though, and rather embarssingly, the arguments got a bit childish.
"You're a lot older than me, therefore, you outrank me!" he said, turning his head back towards the man who reciprocated.
"I outrank you on a lot of things. Strength, intelligence, good looks, to name a few, but navigation is not one of them," the 'adult' stated matter-of-factly.
Silence followed, Perseus, petty as he was, not wanting to go lower than the supposed adult of the trio. He turned, staring at the water that rushed out of the ornate fountain head.
"What now, then? We're completely lost with nowhere to go," he said, almost to himself.
"Didn't that father of yours tell you where Chiron lived?" the adult asked, joining him in looking at the strangely captivating sight of jetting water.
The boy rolled his eyes at the nonchalant way of referring to his father, as ironic as that was coming from someone who wasn't exactly the most respectful of authority figures. "That father of mine is Poseidon, God of the Sea's, and no, he told me where he used to live, not where he currently lives."
"And why didn't you ask him for directions?"
"I dunno. A lot was weighing on my mind. I had just found out my mother was an all-powerful titaness, and my father the sea God, I think I can be excused for neglecting to ask about a precise location."
Again, the atmosphere reverted into a deafening silence, this time uncomfortable, at the mention of his mother.
"Well, where did he used to live? Surely Poseidon gave you some clue as to his whereabouts," Pholus persisted.
"He said that he resided on Mount Pelion, and we would find him in Rome. That's it."
"Chiron is a centaur, is he not? It is doubtful he'd take up residence in the middle of this mess."
Perseus agreed. Unless Chiron had some magical way of hiding his lower body, there was no way in Hades he would stay in a massive city like Rome.
"If he lived on a mountain before, perhaps he would live on one again."
"I know some of these buildings are pretty tall, but I think we would have noticed a mountain in the middle of the city."
In spite of himself, Perseus couldn't help but snort in amusment at the terrible joke. Pholus really was the opposite of bombastic. For all his jokes about his own superior intellect, the man really acted like he was 20 years younger than he actually was. Perseus still didn't know anything about him.
"The outskirts then. They still count as 'Rome', right? Perhaps we can ask the locals for any clues. Do you speak errr…whatever it is that they speak over here?" the boy asked, already knowing what the answer was.
"Nope. Do you?"
"Nope…Perhaps we should have prepared better…"
Zoë chose that moment to rejoin them, kicking off with a characteristic swipe about his matureness. "Seaweed Brain actually preparing for something? That will be day."
"Hey! I'll have you know I'm quite an organised person when I want to be," he said, though in actuality, he would freely admit he was not an organised person at all. Zoë had to remind him to retrieve his bow from his hiding spot several times, before he actually went and did it.
"Sureee. I bet you used to run outside with no clothes on because you forgot normal human beings actually cover themselves up," the black haired teen quipped, causing Perseus to turn red at her 'more accurate than he would've liked' statement.
"In case you haven't noticed, Nightshade, I'm not exactly a normal human being…And anyway, I used to forget shoes, not all of my clothes, thank you very much. Now, as much as I would love to discuss my very interesting childhood, we should get moving, and unless Captain Foresight over there has any of the local currency, it looks like we'll be camping under the stars," he quickly digressed, knowing that an argument with Zoë was an exercise in futility. She simply had the bigger vocabulary.
"I do not. Judging from the stares and dirty looks we've been receiving, I don't think we'd be welcome in any inn's anyway."
"Stars are better anyway," he deadpanned, before making off in what he hoped was the right direction, not bothering to check if the other two were following.
The 'outskirts' weren't really outskirts, as it turned out. It took the trio the best part of the next day to get to the mountainous area to the east of Rome. The walk was relatively pleasant, at least. There was a slight breeze blowing in from the south-west that made the hot weather bearable. For the most part, they walked in comfortable silence, taking in the new scenery, and occasionally pushing Pholus into the undergrowth when he wasn't paying attention. However, the further they walked, the more apprehensive and nervous Perseus felt.
His father had told him he would have to prove himself, something that he had technically failed in doing. Yes, he had the apple, and Poseidon knew it, but he hadn't exactly acquired it in the fashion in which he was asked to, a fact which didn't make him feel particularly bad. His father had given him a quest that was nigh on impossible even to the most experienced of people. Indeed, the thought that his father had even given him a quest that could quite easily have killed him didn't make him feel too much either. He was alive, and if he had died, well, he wouldn't be able to complain anyway.
He could simply hand the apple over to Chrion and no-one would be the wiser, but he reconciled that the Trainer of Heroes might have ways of seeing through his trickery, plus he wasn't exactly one to shy away from his failings. Above all, it was the aura that emanated from the apple itself. He remembered the rush, and the temptation he had experienced when he first touched it. It was almost overpowering, and he had been very close to taking a bite, sorely tempted to experience the one thing people craved most.
He hadn't though, and the more looked at it, the more he left the warm heat of his bedspread at night to hold the golden fruit, the more he realised it wasn't meant for consuming, or at least not for a long while. It had an aura, a hum of power that, rather than making him want to eat it, it whispered to him 'not now' every time his fingers went near it, over and over, until Perseus was sure it had a special purpose in life, other than giving a truly treasured gift. Thus, his reluctance to hand the apple over, and explain how he came to possess it.
The hours dragged on, the trio aimlessly roaming the valleys and hills, searching for any clues as to Chiron's whereabouts.
By a stroke of luck they chanced upon a remote commune, nested between valley walls, well hidden from any prying eyes. It was an off the grid type place, several red roofed buildings lining a single dirt street that wound up the valley wall, straight to a larger, more important looking building overlooking the rest. Trees of a vibrant, deep green covered almost every space that didn't contain a house, the only flat space in the form of a large, rectangular clearing that looked suspiciously like the training field back home.
Immediately, Perseus knew they were in the right place, and the large, hand-painted warning signs that lead to the little hamlet all but confirmed it. They entered, vaguely aware of the eyes following from the shadows. The place wasn't deserted, that was for sure. Laundry hung from windows, while a shallow basin filled with what looked to be blue paint sat idly in the middle of the street, the building walls half covered with blue splotches, some of which dripped and ran.
The wind stilled, and the birds stopped singing in the distance. His chest tightened, in response. Again, the feeling that the whole place wasn't right, that he wasn't meant to be here, filled him, like it had done on the boat. Something, or someone was watching them, he was sure. At one point, he thought he saw a shadow dart across his peripheral vision, but when he turned there was nothing. He kept himself tense, his fingers occasionally brushing the knife he kept in his belt in an act of self-reassurance.
They paused for a second in the middle of the street, Pholus tapping him on the shoulder and putting his mouth near the boy's ear. "I think we're being watched, Perseus," the man whispered, and Perseus had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.
"Of course we're be-," he began to reply, but his words were drowned out by the explosion of activity. Shutters flew open, figures appearing the windows with bows drawn, all pointing at them. The trio immediately began to ran for it down one of the side passages, but in an instant, several more figures appeared, this time on roofs, surrounding them on all sides. There was no escape, and Perseus knew it. He silently berated himself for falling into such an obvious trap. They hadn't even had the time to draw their weapons.
He raised his hands in surrender, slowly and carefully walking back to the street centre so they were in plain sight. He peered up at their ambushes and took a brief second to look them over. They were in a poor state, that much was clear. Dirt caked their faces, most of them wearing clothes that were either ripped, or were 3 sizes too big. They were young too, some several years his junior, which further added to Perseus's embarrassment.
A shout was resonated across the still, and silent village, and 3 more figures appeared, this time on street level. Unlike the rest, they were actually relatively well dressed, wearing familiar, ornate greek cuirass and Corinth-style helmets that covered almost all of their facial features.
The middle of the three took several steps forward, bronze spear levelled at their chests, and then spoke in a clear, commanding tone that made it clear who was in charge of this outfit. Unfortunately, Perseus had no idea what she, for it was a woman that spoke, was saying. She talked in the local language, that while he could pick up some similarities with his own, her sentences were completely indiscernible.
"I'm sorry, we don't know what you're saying," he said in reply. Immediately, the archers on the roofs lowered their bows.
"They're greek!" one shouted, in said language.
The girl in charge raised her spear, leaning on it slightly with one hand, while the other removed her helmet. Perseus then found himself staring at a rather pretty girl of about his age with stormy gray eyes that stared back at him with intense fervour. Her face remained stoic, but her tense and rigid body gave off a feeling of unwarranted hostility.
"I think Chiron would like a word with you," was all she said, with the same emotionless she held on her face, before promptly turning on her heel, and walking towards the house on the hill, leaving no room for argument.
If any of you agree with me that Zoë is a bit stale, then I'd love to hear your thoughts. She's completely OOC, which is by design, but that's no excuse. Hit me.
GraphiicChaos – Thanks. I sometimes look backwards, but that's only because I have this fear that a knife-wielding psychopath is going to stab me.
Twilfitt77 – Thanks, that's high praise indeed. I shall endeavour to be consistent, though I will likely fail in that regard.
dizzydaisy37 – I dunno…I mean, compared to the opening scene of Up?
Kinjaz01 – For the most part, the Roman aspects will not remember much, other than having an inkling of what happened before. Artemis/Diana is an exception to the rule. They regain their memories after the flame moves again.
NONAME2002 – Nah, nothing like that. It was the chemtrails, man.
Guest – Thanks.
Shigure Toshiro – In hindsight, I should have dragged it on.