Notice: Not much happens in this song that would require animation as a reference, but I recommend WolfyTheWitch's animation.

On another note, I might have them react to some songs that didn't make it into the musical, or after the musical, react to other things, like Percy Jackson—there are so many options to show this gang.

Or I could always write another reaction story for a different fandom, but that's a conversation for another day.

The screen remained dark for a few more minutes while Odysseus stayed in his family's embrace. At some point, Ctimene and Polites joined the hug, while Eurylochus stood a little to the side, worried but unsure of what to do. He wasn't great with emotions, and sometimes he ended up saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Odysseus was finishing wiping the last of the tears from his face; a few still slipped out, but he was so relieved that, even after witnessing one of his sins, his family still loved him. He had expected anger, rejection, or at least some distrust, but his fears had been washed away along with his tears.

"Sorry you had to see me like this, and thank you." Odysseus took Penelope's hand and ruffled Telemachus's hair, who smiled at his father.

Athena sat back on her couch next to Hermes, who was floating on his back with a huge smile as he watched her. "What?" Athena asked Hermes, annoyed.

"Nothing, nothing, dear sister," he replied, his tone teasing, and even after sitting back down and returning to his snack, Athena could still see his grin. Her eyebrow twitched.

Hermes was happy; his sister was finally beginning to accept the feelings she'd repressed throughout her life. Athena had always thought they weren't necessary for a god, but Hermes knew better.

Calypso wanted to comfort the man who had come to her island, but too many people were around. The voice had said there would be breaks, so she would try to approach him during one of them.

Once again, the screen began to light up, and the words "Full Speed Ahead" appeared.

Six hundred men
Six hundred men under my command

Odysseus was on his ship, his fleet already at sea, sailing back to his kingdom. He watched his crew.

Penelope looked astonished. "Did all 600 men survive until the end of the war?" With her husband's confirmation, she smiled proudly and said, "That deserves a celebration when you all return," not noticing how Odysseus's expression changed for a moment.

Polites didn't miss his friend's look, wondering what had happened on the journey back to Ithaca.

With only one goal in mind
Make it back alive to our homeland

A vision of Ithaca, the palace, and then Odysseus and Penelope's bedroom appeared.
Odysseus looked at it longingly. Gods, he missed his home. How was Argos doing? Would he make it back in time to see him one last time?
(Attention, poll: Should Argos be added to the story or not? If yes, in which song?)

Six hundred men, six hundred miles of open sea
But the problem's not the distance

"It shouldn't be the distance," Ctimene frowned. "Troy isn't that far from Ithaca. How did you get so lost?" She looked critically at her husband and brother. "Did the years of war ruin your navigation skills?"

"Unfortunately, even the best plans have their problems," Athena called everyone's attention. "For using a horse in his plan to bring down Troy, my uncle was not pleased and decided to prolong his journey home, making it take longer than it should have."

"However, I suppose not even he could have foreseen the events that resulted from that decision," Odysseus joined the conversation, receiving a nod from Athena.

It's what lies in between

"Yes," Odysseus nodded to himself. "What's in the way is the biggest problem. I wonder what changes the voice mentioned."

He shivered as visions of Charybdis, Scylla, and the Cyclops flashed on the screen.

And Ithaca's waiting, Ithaca's waiting
My kingdom is waiting (the kingdom is waiting)
Penelope's waiting for me

Penelope smiled at her husband. "I'll always be waiting." Odysseus smiled and kissed her, much to the discomfort of their son, who was sitting between them.

Polites smiled at the crew. "I thought you'd be repeating the queen's name too, since you were so eager to echo Odysseus's words." Those on the main ship blushed and/or coughed in embarrassment, making the man with glasses laugh a bit more.

So full speed ahead, full speed ahead

"Why do I get the feeling that this part will repeat for a while?" Athena noted.

"It's a good part, but I'm sure it won't repeat that much," Hermes replied to his sister.

"The name that will repeat the most is Penelope," Eurylochus said in a neutral tone. He and Polites had to listen to their friend call for his wife throughout the 10 long years of war.

Penelope laughed discreetly, covering her mouth with her hand.

Captain, Eurylochus

Eurylochus makes his debut.

"The untouchable," Odysseus laughed while teasing his friend.

"But I've touched Eurylochus in a fight. Doesn't seem so untouchable," Polites laughed with his best friend.

Throughout Odysseus's fleet, shouts of "I've hit the untouchable too" and "not-so-untouchable" could be heard.
Eurylochus silently swore to strangle each one of them, along with the one who gave him that nickname, while grumbling with his arms crossed next to his wife.

Ctimene watched her grumpy husband with amusement; her brother had written a letter to her explaining the story behind the nickname, and she found it extremely funny how, whenever someone hit him in a fight, they would say, "I touched the untouchable."

(I don't remember where, but I know I saw somewhere that Eurylochus earned the name "the untouchable" after winning a battle without a scratch during the war. So I'm making this canon in this story because it sounds funny and great for teasing.)

Six hundred men, six hundred men

"At this point, I think we've made that part clear. You're just repeating yourselves," Ctimene teased her husband and, by extension, her brother.

"It's just for emphasis," Eurylochus defended himself, amused by the song.

Six hundred men with big mouths to feed

"Yes, really big," Polites said as he looked at the crew. "How did you manage to stay so big after 10 years of war?" Some men shifted uncomfortably, embarrassed, while others stood firm; they enjoyed food.

And we've run out of supplies to eat
Curse the war, our food store's depleted

"We should have stayed on land a bit longer to stock up on supplies," Eurylochus commented.

Six hundred men (six hundred men)
Six hundred reasons to take what we can

Telemachus frowned. "Why not fish?"

Odysseus also frowned. "Because of certain actions during the war, we were on bad terms with Poseidon. I didn't want to risk angering him further by hunting in his realm," he explained to his son.

"Why would Poseidon be angry with you?" Telemachus was still confused.

"The horse is the sacred animal of the king of the seas. At one point in the war, Poseidon switched sides and allied with the Trojans. My plan with the great horse was designed so that, if they rejected the gift, they might lose Poseidon's favor; they were cornered," Odysseus boasted a bit. "If they refused the gift, they risked angering the lord of the waters, but if they accepted, they risked it being a trap."

Telemachus was impressed, as were a few others.

"Effectively creating a lose-lose situation for the Trojans," Circe had to admit; it was a clever idea.

Athena couldn't have been prouder.

So captain, what's the plan?
Captain, what's the plan?
Watch where the birds fly (watch where the birds fly)
They will lead us to land (they will lead us to land)
There we'll hunt for food, my second in command

"A good plan," Athena nodded to herself.

"You just forgot that certain bird species can fly much farther before reaching land," Hermes laughed as he ate from his seemingly endless bag of snacks.

Now full speed ahead, full speed ahead
We're up, we're off, and away we go
We're up, we're off, and away we go
We're up, we're off, and away we go
Captain

Polites!

Polites officially joins the musical.

"When Eurylochus was announced, the crew noticed him, but it's you announcing Polites? Choosing favorites, husband?" Penelope whispered in Odysseus's ear as she braided his hair.

On another couch, Polites boasted to Eurylochus, thinking the same thing.

Look! There in the distance, I see an island
I see a light that faintly glows
Maybe they're people lighting a fire
Maybe they'll share some food, who knows?

An island was shown in the direction Polites was pointing.

"Too optimistic?" Circe had never seen a man so optimistic before. She didn't remember this Polites when Odysseus and his men were on her island; she could only assume he had been one of Poseidon's victims or another incident later. She had a feeling that if anything went wrong, it would happen to him first.

Something feels off here
I see fire but there's no smoke

"Seems suspicious. I think it would be better to come up with an attack plan," said Eurylochus, with the agreement of some of the crew.

Polites shook his head; his friend still had a war mentality.

I say we strike first

"Attacking at the first opportunity won't solve our problems," Polites frowned at Eurylochus. "Hasn't there already been enough bloodshed?"

"It's just a precaution," Eurylochus defended himself. "We don't know what awaits us; if we strike first, at least we'll have the advantage of surprise."

The two would have continued the discussion if Odysseus hadn't stopped them, but both still thought they were right.

We don't have time to waste
So let's raid the place and
No
Polites gear up, you and I'll go ahead

Penelope hid a smile behind a mask of suspicion. "Just the two of you on an island, huh?" She made the face she always used when Odysseus had done something wrong.

Odysseus was a man of many accomplishments and challenges. He was the man who led 600 men into a 10-year war, and none of them died. He had faced and blinded a Cyclops, shouted in the face of the goddess of wisdom, stranded his ships on the island of the god of wind and asked for his help, faced and escaped Poseidon, defeated the immortal witch Circe, navigated the underworld, slaughtered a group of sirens, sailed and survived the lair of Scylla, stood face-to-face with the king of the gods—twice—remained sane after seven years on the island of the immortal Calypso, and escaped Charybdis.

Odysseus, the man who endured 20 years of trials, immediately crumbled into a stammering mess of excuses under his wife's gaze.

Penelope held her gaze for a few more seconds before turning to Polites.

Polites, a battle-hardened warrior who spent 10 years in war as one of the closest to the Greeks' chief strategist, listening without flinching to all sorts of horrendous strategies some generals wanted to use.

Polites hid behind other crew members, who desperately tried to get out of their queen's line of sight.

Penelope couldn't hold it any longer, bursting into laughter while Odysseus and his men sighed in relief.

Hermes wiped away a tear of pride.
Athena looked at her brother, annoyed.

You and I'll go ahead
We should try to find a way no one ends up dead

"Attacking first may not be the best option, but just the two of you going could be even worse; you don't know what could be on that island," Athena warned Odysseus. At the time, she hadn't warned him of that detail, preferring to discuss other matters.

Penelope agreed with her husband's mentor.

We don't know what's ahead
Give me 'til sunrise, and if we don't return
Then six hundred men can make this whole place burn

Eurylochus didn't seem pleased, but he still accepted his captain's orders.
Polites was satisfied; it wasn't what he preferred, but it was the best he'd get, so he decided to accept it.

Now full speed ahead
Full speed ahead
Full speed ahead
We're up, we're off, and away we go
We're up, we're off, and away we go
Full speed ahead (we're up, we're off, and away we go)
We're up, we're off, and a
Full speed ahead

Circe turned to Odysseus, Eurylochus, Polites, and the crew. "Was it really necessary to repeat the same chorus so many times?"

They all looked at each other, and, although they hadn't sung like in the song, they all exclaimed with an extremely serious face: "Yes."

Circe rolled her eyes.

"It was the name of the song, what did you expect?" Hermes joined in on the joke.

Circe ignored him.

Some timeline context:

Odysseus is from the end of Charybdis.

Calypso is from the beginning of Love in Paradise.

Athena, Hermes, Circe, Penelope, Telemachus, and Ctimene are from the end of Thunder Bringer.

The rest are from the beginning of Full Speed Ahead.