Author's Note: Sorry about the gap between updates. School happened, and it happened really hard. That's why this chapter is a little on the short side, too - I'm trying to build back some of my steam from before. I'm not gonna promise a regular update schedule or anything, but I will try and get in at least a few each week.

Also, I'm glad I've gotten a few followers and favourites on this story. I'd love to get some reviews too, though. Even if they're not glowing, because that still helps me improve!

Rachel sat in the tub as the shower water cascaded over her head. She didn't normally do this, she kept reminding herself, but she figured that by this point she had earned it. A week had passed and two of her best friends had been sentenced to death.

No, she shouldn't think about it like that. She couldn't. Because even after everything, Bragi and Mercedes - and Chang'e - they had a point. They were given gifts and they planned on using them. Rachel was free to mourn them right now if she wanted to, they weren't going to ask her to stop. They understood that it was hard for her. But they also made it clear that acting like they were already dead was a big waste of time.

Slowly, Rachel stood up. She took a breath and turned the water off. Her fingers had gone all prune-y, and bumped over her skin was she brushed her hair out of her face. The mirror had fogged up so much it was pretty much just grey, and even though she knew it would leave streaks she couldn't help but wipe the mist away to look at her face. Fuck. She looked exhausted, which was crazy because she'd spent the last few days hiding in her room and alternating between moping and napping, and only letting Quinn come in.

Quinn seemed like the only friend who hadn't been judging her. Blaine, of course, was totally on board with everything. Sam and Artie had warmed up, too. And judging by Facebook, most of her friends thought that the Recurrence was the best thing since sliced bread. But Quinn...Rachel had no idea where she stood. If she thought it was cool then she didn't let on. She would silently bring Rachel food and ask how she was doing; Rachel often said she was fine without meaning it, and Quinn probably knew that, but she'd accept it regardless.

Rachel plugged in the blowdryer and began getting herself ready. This was ridiculous. It was time for her to get back out in the world. Get back on stage, live her life. Maybe even go to the concert that Chang'e and Bragi were planning together. No matter what had changed about them, be it their wardrobes or their talent or their mortality, they still looked and acted like her friends. What kind of person was she to abandon them now?

She went through her daily routine, picking up speed as she went along. By the time she was finished, she felt like herself again. She realized she was smiling as she exited the bathroom.

Quin and Sam were sitting at the table. Quinn was reading an indie magazine that she must have grabbed from the bodega down the street. Artie was looking at things on the laptop, just like he was every day.

"Do you ever got off that thing Artie?" Rachel asked, causing the two to perk their heads up. They both put on relieved smiles when they saw that she had seemingly gotten over her melancholy.

"Occasionally," he replied, "but I'm trying to keep track of everything. Researching the backstories for the gods, old Recurrences. Stuff like that."

"He's sleuthing," Quinn snarked back as she sipped her coffee.

"I'm not sleuthing," he retorted. "I just like being in the know. Figure out what it is the gods can do. Like, check it." He spun the computer around and showed them a vine. It showed Chang'e walking down the road - no, walking above the road. Her feet never touched the ground. She was saying something, but the cheering around her was too loud for anybody to hear

"Yeah, Chang'e floats," Rachel replied. "I already looked up her story." Artie looked at her in surprise, and she rolled her eyes. "You're not the only one who can google stuff, you know."

Artie scoffed. "Still, you get me, right? They've got powers based off of their myths. They're kinda like superheroes."

Quinn closed the magazine and set it down. "Okay, so then what can Bragi do? Tell poetry really well? I mean, that's kind of what they've all done. Historically, I mean."

Artie nodded. "Yeah, that's a weird one. He's a wisdom god too, but that doesn't seem to extend to anything specific. I looked up knowledge deities and a lot of them double up with other things, like the moon or magic or stuff like that. There are some others that only look after that, but I haven't found any evidence of them appearing in the Recurrence before."

Rachel had moved to the counter and was pouring herself some coffee. "Wait, we have records of the deities that were in previous Recurrences?"

"Sort of," Artie replied. "Partial records. There have been a lot of people claiming to be deities over the centuries, and most of them are fairly...crazy. Anthropologists have had to cross-reference and double-check all sorts of claims to try and figure out where a Recurrence took place and which deities were involved."

Rachel shook her head. "This is all so crazy. A week ago these were just legends, and now -"

"Now we're friends with the moon," Quinn muttered. There was a pause, and then all three of them started to laugh softly.

"We are," Rachel said. "We really are." She took a breath to calm down. "Okay, well, I'm going to go down to the theatre and see what's been going on. I missed a bunch of shows but they understood I was under extreme emotional distress." She grabbed her belongings and began walking out the door, then turned. "Oh, and if another god shows up, text me."

"Will do," Artie called as she shut the door.

It was a half-hour commute from her apartment to the theatre via the subway, which meant Rachel had time to get in some light reading. Before it had been pocket romance novels or the occasional tabloid magazine, but recently her tastes in literature had shifted. She had grabbed a book off of Blaine's shelf months ago because it looked vaguely interesting, but she hadn't cracked it open until a few days ago. It was a book on Greek myths. She scanned the table of contents, then flipped to the appropriate page to begin reading the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.