Here we go again.
3
Hermes POV
Hermes groaned as the green haired woman who'd traveled with them started bustling about his room.
"Wakey-wakey! Rise and shine! It's going to be a busy day!" The woman said with a stretched out smile. Hermes was done with these games already, he had barely managed keeping his ungodly hours (no pun intended) when he had god strength coffee to keep him going. Now he actually had to sleep and he didn't like it at all. The feeling of waking up after never really sleeping for millennia had given him a sort of sleeping beauty syndrome.
Minus the beauty that is.
Not really awake enough to listen the bimbo capital person, he only caught a few key details about the day's events.
Training.
Meeting with the other tributes.
Lunch.
Hermes was most excited about the lunch part.
After shoving down several pounds of grains and dairies, Hermes and his district partner, Hestia were corralled down to the basement. When they reached the entrance to the, uh, training, uh, place, a couple of guards shooed their escorts away.
"You will not speak or interact with tributes from other districts as if you had met them before. Understood?" One of the guards said. So some of the guys are in on it, and some aren't, he thought, glancing at Hestia and seeing that she had come to the same conclusion. Half of the others were already there when they walked in, and it was all Hermes could do not to go fist bump Apollo, slap Hephaestus on the back and catch up, but honestly he was a little afraid for his life. In a room full of deadly weapons, any regular mortal would be at least a little terrified right?
Throughout the morning they trained in absolute silence. The trainers at the different stations actually seemed to think it was strange that no one was talking. Hermes thought some of the gods were happy to have an excuse not to talk to each other. Hades for example, Artemis, Hecate, and Dionysus seemed content. Hermes wanted to hope this would turn into a happy family reunion, but he wasn't that naive.
Finally they were herded into a room for lunch. They were left alone, no guards in the room. The last one to exit said, "Now you may talk." Before leaving them to mingle. Hermes immediately went over to Hephaestus and slapped him on the back.
"Good to see you buddy." He said. Hephaestus gave him a grotesque grin. Being turned into a mortal had not done anything good for his facial features, if anything, his disfigurement was worse.
"Hermes, I didn't hear you come up, how have you been faring?"
"Well enough, mortal life has not hindered my... Craft, so i've been just fine."
Hephaestus laughed. "Of course the threat of being killed if you're caught wouldn't stop you from thieving."
"Not a chance."
Hermes glanced around to see most of the other gods interacting similarly, a couple stayed off to the side, primarily Nyx. Even Hades wasn't left out. After a tearful reunion with her mother, Persephone actually embraced her old husband, and he was no less surprised than anyone else.
"Hermes?" Hephaestus said, waving a hand in front of Hermes's face. The former god startled back to attention. "As I was saying, what are we going to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"How do we survive this?"
"Oh. I don't know."
"No ideas?"
"Nah, I was trying not to think about the whole murder and dying thing."
"Gods, you're nearly as bad as Apollo!"
"I heard that!" The aforementioned god shouted across the room.
"He's not wrong." Artemis muttered.
Apollo gave Artemis a sour look that was part teasing but also filled with genuine sorrow.
Hermes was about to speak when all conversation in the room was interrupted by Zeus.
"Brothers, Sisters, children, and other relations, let us gather and have council on this predicament."
Several of the gods rolled their eyes, but listening to the king of the gods was still ingrained, so everyone gathered around the largest table.
When everyone was settled Zeus cleared his throat and began the opening remarks. "I know our mortal flesh binds us to laws we are not used to obeying, but before we resign ourselves to this bloodbath does anyone have ideas on getting out of this situation entirely?"
Ares was quick to speak. "We revolt against them, take em out, right here, right now."
There were a few snickers and shakings of heads.
Zeus sighed. "Ordinarily I would agree with you my son, but an army of 24 youths is unlikely to find any success in a revolution."
"We could sneak out." Hermes put in with a smirk. He was fairly certain he could outrun everyone here if they made a break for it.
"The place is too well guarded." Athena replied in a straightforward manner. "Even the roof has an electrical force field."
"So we're stuck." Hades surmised.
The ex-immortal beings looked at each other.
"We've no choice but to play their game." A light feminine voice said. It was one of the minor goddesses. Hermes couldn't quite remember her name. Black hair… paperwhite skin… oh! Khione, the snow goddess. She used to spend her time a little north of the god's territory, Hermes assumed she had faded before the last war like most of the minor gods and titans, but obviously not.
"May the best god win." Hephaestus said. Hermes looked at his old friend. His young decrepit face so resigned. Hermes put a hand on his shoulder.
"I believe the saying here is: May the odds be ever in your favor." He replied in a fake booming voice.
That got a few laughs.
"Is there any chance we can stop pretending like we don't know each other?" Apollo asked. "What are they going to do, kill us?"
There were murmurs of assent.
Zeus raised a hand for silence. "Final agreement says: we play the game, every man for himself and we assume natural familiarity. All opposed?" There was no response. "Council adjourned."
Much longer and much better, am I right? Please comment all thoughts and criticism, it's what writers live on.
