Glory waited for him when he opened his eyes. He'd known it would be there. It always was. In his life, reliability was the flipside of boredom. Hercules, the Son of Zeus, rose from his oversized bed of clouds and stretched his muscular body.
His strength, an inherent facet of his being, had been with him since infancy, as had the golden sheen of an aura that radiated from his flesh. The ichor in his veins pumped full throttle, longing for adventure and a test of his abilities.
Yet, what was there to strive for?
Hercules muddled through his morning routine naked to the sky. It didn't matter. Nobody was around in his corner of Olympus to see. He poured a profuse amount of nectar-infused olive oil over his muscles and then scraped it off with a strigil directly into a jar.
He had once thought it would be interesting to change up the style of chiton he wore, but now he couldn't be bothered. He wore the same plain blue chiton under his ornate golden armor, combed his hair, and then slid on his favorite golden headband. It didn't stop his red-gold curls from flopping over the edge of it, but as long as it was out of his eyes, he couldn't be bothered to change that.
He'd awoken after Apollo began his daily trek across the sky, so he'd just have to wait until evening to see his brother.
Funny, they called him the Son of Zeus, as if his father didn't have many sons. Perhaps they were still calling him by that title as a backhanded reminder he didn't have much of a job. He watched the gates of Olympus, blessed athletes, and sometimes healed them, but even he couldn't muster much interest in his calling.
Despite his manifest uselessness, Hercules remained a favorite on Olympus. He wandered out of the room he'd occupied since he was a baby and found Pegasus already flying circles around it.
"Hey, buddy," he said and raised an arm to flag down the horse.
Pegasus trumpeted a friendly greeting and paused his flight so Hercules could climb on.
"Where should we go today?" he droned to the horse.
Pegasus flapped his wings excitedly.
"I know, anywhere will be fun." Hercules looked around at the gleaming clouds and pillars of his home. There truly was nothing that could top this place. Glorious, untroubled perfection as far as the eye could see. And it was so… empty.
While he drank with Bacchus, sang with Apollo and the Muses, and sometimes helped Hermes with a delivery, Hercules always felt like a marginal addition to whatever company he kept.
Nobody had a problem with him, or at least he was pretty sure they weren't bothered having him around. Still, he had nothing much going on in his own life and no direction to strive for anything better.
"Wanna go see what the earth heroes are doing?" he suggested to Pegasus. "I mean… if they've got any right now."
Hercules was supposedly the god of heroism, but there weren't any heroes to sponsor. Or at least, none of them paid him much attention. He didn't have his own temples, but every Temple of Zeus came with an adjacent sanctuary, and most arenas had a shrine to him. Sports heroes seemed to be this generation's heroes du jour. He would've liked to be active during Perseus's time or when Jason first set off searching for Argo. He would've told the latter not to go. Even if he didn't know where that thing was, there was no way he could help with that helpless search.
Then again, who was he to get in the way of a man pursuing a dream? If he'd ever had a dream, he'd pursue it with the entirety of his being. Yet, there was nothing to strive for in Hercules's life. He knew several things to be true: He was his father's favorite son, everything in his life was perfect, and he would live forever.
Had the other gods never tired of the fact they were born to perfection? He'd had one long conversation with Athena about it, as she was the only deity philosophical enough to entertain his queries. Seemingly, the formula for escaping this boredom was to invest in mortals so that the finite nature of their lives would heighten your own excitement for what they could accomplish while they were alive.
It didn't seem to matter which athlete rose to the top of each heap. Year after year, Hercules would get excited for the victory of some kid who'd asked him to sponsor him, and then that kid would retire with his years' worth of olives and free meals for life and forget to touch base with Hercules ever again.
Seventeen years of that had tarnished those trophies in Hercules's eyes. He'd grant a boon to anyone who asked, but he no longer invested much interest in their success.
Hercules and Pegasus flew over Olympus and caught sight of Zeus and Hera lounging on matching couches. They'd augmented their daily nectar and ambrosia with grapes and cheese, so they may almost look like a normal mortal couple at breakfast.
"Hey, Hercules!" Zeus flagged him down with an oversized orange hand. "Come join us! Your mother and I were just talking about you!"
Hercules glanced at Pegasus, shrugged, and then corkscrewed down to the clouds between his parents. "Morning," he said.
"It's always so good to see you," Hera said.
"You too, Mother," Hercules said. "What are you planning to do today?"
"As the goddess of queenship, I plan to travel around observing all the queens and princesses of Greece. There are some promising young ladies out there." She looked in Zeus's direction, but the king of the gods stuffed most of a bunch of grapes into his mouth as if to avoid commenting. "In any case, I'd like to invite you along."
"Why?" Hercules asked immediately. He was pretty sure it wasn't the polite way to ask, but he was too distracted by his own boredom to keep track of things like etiquette.
"Oh, it's… just that your father used to like talking to them, and we've noticed you… don't talk much to anyone."
His mother was hinting at something else. He wished she wouldn't try so hard to hide her meaning. It was exhausting. "Honestly, I feel like I've said everything there is to say," Hercules said. "Nobody around here seems all that interested."
"Oh, that's not true. You're a wonderful conversationalist!" Hera beamed at him. You're so thoughtful and empathetic, and you always have such keen insight into the deeper meanings of what people have to say. Would you like to come with me when I bless a royal wedding in Crete?"
"No thanks," Hercules sighed.
Thinking of marriage made his stomach churn with jealousy.
It didn't seem to bother his father all that much, but most of the people Hercules knew were his immediate relatives. The dating scene on Olympus was just like everything else: unchanging.
Pegasus flapped his wings impatiently.
Hercules hopped down and got him an apple from the breakfast table, then got a wedge of ambrosia for himself. "I think Pegasus and I are gonna fly around and see if anyone needs help. Someone might today."
"You should check on Thebes!" Zeus said enthusiastically. "They've always got something going on!"
"Zeus!" Hera scolded. "The situation in Thebes is not a mere amusement."
"What's happening in Thebes?" Hercules asked. The Ambrosia melted in his mouth, thick with the soft sweetness of honey harvested from the groves of the golden apples of the Hesperides. Hestia had outdone herself this morning. Nobody could make a fruit cake like the goddess of the hearth, especially not with golden apples at her disposal.
"Oh, the usual family conflicts," Zeus said.
"Which side are we on?" Hercules asked.
"Nobody's," Zeus replied. "Ares forbade us from helping Thebes win any wars at its founding, and the invasion force is dishonorable. We can't support them any more than we could in the city."
"So the city is just… doomed?" Hercules exchanged a skeptical glance with Pegasus. This was, generally speaking, and in his professional opinion, usually the part where a hero was supposed to step in.
"I know it's difficult," Hera said. "Sometimes the mortals damn themselves, and we have to allow it because they have free will."
"That can't be right." Hercules shook his head. "Come on, there's gotta be some other way."
"Let it pass. You'll see that the Fates have a plan," Hera said. "So what else will you do today?"
"I dunno," Hercules sighed. "Maybe I'll go check on some retired heroes and see if they've got anything planned…" He knew retired heroes only ever wanted to talk about their glory days, but at least they wanted to talk.
Apollo was his best friend on Olympus, but his brother's tight schedule kept him occupied all day. Everyone else seemed busy, too, but Hercules had nothing much. Maybe he'd start "guarding" the sanctuaries of the Muses and see if they could teach him an instrument while he sat there.
Of course, Thalia sometimes made him uncomfortable with her aggressive flirting, but at least it was something to pass the time. It was too early to numb his mind with Bacchus. He'd have to try and pretend he had something important to do, or he'd go mad. Bacchus would probably take that as a sign of brotherly affection.
"Well, I hope we get to see you again soon," Hera said.
Hercules mumbled a farewell to his parents and flew off. "I'm probably being ungrateful," he told Pegasus. "I think something's wrong with me. Do you think… maybe I'm not supposed to be here?"
Pegasus made an incredulous noise at him.
"Yeah, I know…" Hercules sighed and bowed his head in defeat. "Well… it's not like I'm going anywhere. Let's try to make the most of it."
As he flew, a growing awareness of a presence in one of his sanctuaries mounted in the back of his mind. He was probably another showboating athlete who wanted to impress his competition.
He ignored the sensation of someone burning incense for him until he recognized it was a feminine scent. Something… floral? He wasn't an expert.
"Mighty Hercules, I know I'm not your usual client," a soft, warm voice called to him. It was a woman's voice. Or, a girl, he wasn't sure about mortal ages. Girls never talked to him. "I don't know if you've heard, or… if this is even your department… But if you could… if you don't mind… Could you please intervene and help the city of Thebes?"
Hercules grimaced.
His parents had already made it clear there was nothing he could do for Thebes. He flew Pegasus higher, away from that voice, but it pulled him in again.
"Please, Son of Zeus. You're the only god nobody has asked… And you are the god of heroes. If we are worth saving, I ask formally, as the Princess of Thebes, for a boon of heroism. May you raise someone from our hopeless city or grant us your favor before we're wiped out. Not that I expect… Sorry, I don't usually pray. Gods tend to ignore us in Thebes. But… I guess that won't be a problem for much longer…"
Hercules's insides twisted. No, his parents didn't mean to intervene, but why shouldn't he? It's not like he had anything better to do that day.
"Excuse me, buddy," he said to Pegasus. "I'll catch up with you later."