Sup, children!

So I've gotten...a nonzero number of requests for a sequel (shout-out to everyone who supported my first story, Inevitability?), and now, I'm like, eff it, let's go.

I'm not going to do a whole nicely aligned chronological plot where everything happens in order like last time because there are going to be some obvious logistical problems with attempting to do that with a backstory fic when said backstory spans about 3000-4000(?) years.

There are going to be huge gaps in history that I'm inevitably (ha, get it? I'll stop now) going to gloss over, and I'm going to remember that something important happened in one of the gaps and be like, "Oh yeah, this happened. Well, what do I do now? I can't put that in anymore: this section's been nicely packaged and shipped off."

And maybe I have some elements of plot that I really would like to see fleshed out, but couldn't for the sake of continuity and canon. What do I do with those?

So, having accepted (seriously, I need to stop) that those are some flaws inherent in the system, I decided to ditch it. I was like, "What if...I have no continuity, the history focuses on whenever and wherever I damn well please, the pieces are short and standalone unless specified otherwise, and I can include stuff like AUs and alternate outcomes whenever I like? It'll be like...like Marvel's What If? series that I'm looking forward to, except with no budget and the author's a college kid whose only source of creative writing experience is Fanfiction!"

One-shots. The term I was looking for was one-shots.

So here you go: the first...is it still called a chapter?

Have fun and enjoy! Leave a review as to what you want to see next.

In his several thousand years of life, Orion had encountered demigods. Some of them tried to run. Some of them tried to attack. A vast majority met their demise at his hands.

But this one, this one baffled him.

The girl was dressed primarily in green, with a beanie covering her pageboy-style hair, her glasses studded with rhinestones. She was perched on top of a concrete structure, legs dangling over the edge, casually chewing gum as if her life wasn't being threatened by a ten-foot-tall giant.

He had been informed that this was the girl who had aided the god Apollo during his time as a mortal (he would have liked to see that but unfortunately, he had been...inconvenicenced by an extended stay in Tartarus). Still, to all appearances, she looked quite ordinary. She didn't have the aura of commanding Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano had. She didn't have the same Persian-princess vibe Zoe Nightshade had. He didn't see what's so special about her, to be honest.

"You don't look like much," he prodded, just to get a rise out of her. "They used to make much sturdier demigods in my day. At least they were a challenge."

The girl, Meg, blew out a bubble and popped it. "Okay, boomer."

Orion had no idea what that meant, which frustrated him. The kid didn't even seem scared. "You do realize I could have killed you any time I want, right?"

The girl shrugged, "you can try." She went back to her gum-chewing with renewed vigor.

"This is a bluff," he decided. "I've killed plenty like you. Girls playing at war, pretending to be equal to-"

"Yeah, yeah," she interrupted. She had fished out a smartphone sometime during the exchange and was fiddling with it. "You gonna kill me or what?"

Orion blinked. It wasn't often that he met someone who actively demanded that he try to kill them. "Fine," he drew his bow and reached for an arrow.

Observation one: his bow was partly made of wood.

Observation two: his arrow shafts are made of wood.

Observation three: the girl was a child of Demeter.

Conclusion: his hands were now hopelessly lashed to his bow and quiver, his arrows were hopelessly entangled in the tendrils of plant matter, and he had no means of freeing himself.

Throughout it all, the girl hadn't looked up from her phone.

Orion struggled, "Listen here, you little sh-"

"Ooh, Cass is gonna to make Jello again," she said, as if he hadn't spoken at all. "Imma go pick him up from therapy."

"Therapy?"

She glanced upwards, as if just remembering he was there. Orion seethed, unable to do much else at the moment. "It's a thing for people with mental health issues."

She leapt down from the structure and started walking away. Orion watched her go with mild disbelief. "You're not even going to fight?"

She turned around, giving his predicament a once-over. "Dunno. Seems kind of unfair."

Orion could feel his right eye glitching.

"Look," she sighed, clearly taking pity on Orion, which was just as well, because Orion's brain had practically short-circuited at that point. "I'm late to pick up Cassius, and Apollo is never on time. So I'll pretend I didn't see you and call it a day, sounds good?"

"Are you going to let me out of these plants?"

"Hm...no."

"Why?" he asked, in a last ditch attempt to taunt her. "Are you afraid I will win in a fair fight?"

She frowned as if puzzled. "Why would I be afraid if I just won?"

Orion opened his mouth, then closed it. Evidently hubris isn't her fatal flaw.

She spat out the wad of gum and tossed it into the nearest trash bin. Taking out a fresh piece, she pulled out a pencil and wrote something on its wrapper and stuck the piece of paper to him deep in his quiver, where it couldn't be dislodged. "It's for therapy. You sound like you need it."

Then she was gone.

It took the better part of several hours to free himself.

Orion scoffed. Therapy. What a weak, mortal need, designed for weak mortals. He was a giant, with far more resilience than them. He was meant to be stronger.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to let go of the piece of paper.

There you have it!

Let me know what you think, and what you want to see next.

Your current choices are

A. Confusion Fu II: Therapy

B. "I was there": Middle Ages

C. Something else (leave a suggestion, I'm kind of wanting for creative prompts right now).