Warren had a faint inkling that this was something special. His horns, his fiery blood... he couldn't be the only one like it. His grades were nothing special, and he never entered in a raffle or academic lottery. He was homeschooled! So, this had to be the government's way of containing people like him, right? Thinking he was the only freak like this out there was too horrible to consider. The police hadn't just black-bagged him too, so either the men in black wanted him on their side, or they were just very humane about containing him.
Either way, Warren entered the room with his hood down, gleaming gold horns on display. He was skinny, with a black hoodie and jeans. He crossed the room, ogling the pillars' frescoes until he arrived at the snack table. Snacks! What the hell was happening here, some kind of mixer? Warren grabbed a handful of crackers and cheese and started munching as he kept an eye out for anyone else entering the room. It was weird to not wear a big heavy hood to hide his horns now; he didn't think he could go back if he kept this up.
Breath of the Sun
Aaron
The second student to arrive was a young man who looked almost normal, except for his size; not only was he a towering 6'6", his body was bulky, his muscles so well-defined they almost looked fake. Combined with his clear Mediterranean heritage - sun-bronzed skin and coarse, dark hair - It was as if the phrase 'body like a greek god' had jumped off a page and come to life.
Aaron strode in with confidence, more annoyed than anything at them having to go through this orientation again. Probably for the newbies he'd heard they were getting. Well, Aaron thought, at least there's still free food.
It was on his way to the snack table that he noticed the scrawny kid with horns. Grinning, Aaron waved as he approached. "Yo, new guy." He stopped by the table to grab himself an energy bar, before offering a handshake. "Name's Aaron. Son of Ares." He glanced at the top of Warren's head. "Nice horns. Part minotaur, I'm guessing?"
Edited by kagescorpionakki on Mar 26th 2021 at 10:43:47 AM
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Amaya didn't look at the other students when she walked in. Her eyes were on the expensive-looking marble floor. She only glanced up at the rest of the room briefly, hoping she wasn't too visibly confused or nervous. There were two of them standing by a snack table with each other, but they both looked much taller and older than her. She hoped they would either ignore her or talk to her first: she'd love to talk to them if they were friendly, but she'd arrived at the school about five minutes ago and barely knew where she was, let alone what the school was like. Maybe they were extremely competitive academics. Or cocky athletes.
For now, she settled for the table of food— there were chips, crackers, cheese, etc., and an extremely pathetic plate of carrots and celery. She took a plastic cup of lemonade and started listening in on the conversation, having completely tuned them out until now. Hopefully more students would arrive soon.
My time zone keeps changing to Los Angeles I’ve never even been to LA. Or the LA time zone
Warren, At the Snack Table
Warren tensed up for a second, skin turning redder as the fire inside him kicked it up a little hotter. This big jacked guy was, for a second, a huge threat. And then he spoke. Warren let out a sigh, and smiled. He was among friends then! He'd had to do a lot of research into different mythologies when his powers started acting up, so he recognized the name.
"Oh, thanks man. I'm Warren." Warren's hand casually reached up and flicked his horn, which emitted a metallic ding. "No relation to the Minotaur though, no." Warren pronounced it differently than this guy though—the opposite of his take on "tore" versus "tarr."
"Have you heard of Moloch?" He asked, as casually as he could mention a god that... maybe ate children? In some texts which could just be early blood libel? "Uh, they also called him Baal. And some bits on Wikipedia associated him with the golden cow statue from the bible too." His hand that had flicked the horn now just came up to rest on it, hanging by a few fingers. "So, basically everywhere in that area but Greece itself, I guess."
Edited by Taco on Mar 26th 2021 at 9:31:31 AM
The Light That Blinds
Juliana Dengra
We're doing this again?
A tan girl with a long black braid and an obsidian dagger at her hip entered the room, took one look at the assembly room, and facepalmed. Did hear we were getting newbies...though why the rest of us are getting dragged into this, I have no clue.
Aaron was already there, as were two new people—a skinny boy with horns and a rather nervous-looking younger girl. Juli's original plan for this assembly had been to just stand off in the corner and mind her own business...but she couldn't help but feel a stab of sympathy for the girl.
Curse her conscience. It only brought about dumb things, like her desire to not kill Hadron.
Juli made her way over to the younger girl, gently tapping her on the shoulder. Best to assume she knows nothing. If she asks, be as gentle as possible. "Hey, I'm Juliana Dengra. Everyone calls me Juli, though. What's your name?"
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Katarina
A young woman... cat... something followed Aaron in, hopping through the doorway on all fours. By now, it was second nature. She was covered in fur from head to toe, tail swishing back and forth as she growled at their surroundings. "This song and dance again? I would have thought they'd have learned their lesson the first time. They had better have some tuna, or I swear I'll leave for good."
She didn't mean that last one, but she couldn't help but be annoyed. She'd spent the whole summer on vacation with Aaron only to come back to the same old routine. But what a summer. If anything made her regret her actions under the gem's influence, it was nearly giving up a hunk of a boyfriend. He was more than that, but there was little point denying the obvious.
Her boyfriend was in the middle of a conversation with what appeared to be a young man with horns? A year ago, she would have called him a freak of nature. But she'd have to call herself one as well, and she certainly wasn't that. She licked her face with her paw before zipping over, sitting up and leaning in on her two hind legs.
"At least yours has respect for their children. Mine stuck a gem on my head and nearly turned me into their faithful servant. Since then, we haven't been on the best of terms."
Edited by kkhohoho on Mar 27th 2021 at 8:26:04 AM
Breath of the Sun
Aaron
"Kinda sounds familiar." Aaron scratched his chin. "He's one of those 'evil' gods that the Hebrew bible talks about, right? I know there's a couple of gods who got shafted by the bible. I mean, I think most of them got shafted by Yahweh in the worship department, but I mean... it's like that thing where '666' is actually a code for Nero, or whatever."
He shrugged, as he lost his train of thought. His lips quirked upward at his lover's entrance. "Hey, Kat. This is Warren. Warren, this is Kat. My girlfriend. No points for guessing which Egyptian goddess she's the daughter of."
Aaron paused a moment, thinking of something. "What's Moloch the god of, anyway? I mean, other than bulls. And gold, I guess."
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
"I'd actually give it a tossup between Bast and Sekhmet." Warren said with a weak smile. "I did a lot of research into Egypt when these things here started coming in, hoping that maybe Ptah or Apis had something to do with fire, or uh, commerce, but no dice." The smile went down into a full grimace. "I'd rather not bring down the vibe talking about Moloch too much. He's basically a god of greed and fortune. Give and take—like feeding fuel to a fire, or money to a corporation. He gives me fire breath and horns, and takes, well..."
Warren rolled his eyes. That wasn't even half of the weird laundry list of shit Moloch had done to his body, literally and maybe metaphorically hollowing him out. "No. Sorry. He took my chance at a normal life and gave me a chance at a much better one here, right?" He shook his head, took a breath, trying to get himself together. This was overwhelming. He was trying to coast straight on past meeting a fellow freak of nature with the cat girl, but it might not've actually worked. But a breakdown over meeting people who were well and truly like him, for the first time, that'd reflect poorly on him. "Uh, thanks though. I really thought I was the only one for the longest time."
Fwomph
Orientation
It was probably easy to overlook a certain student walking around. After all, they seemed pretty normal with a lack of visible weapons or inhuman traits and she was even wearing a school uniform!
... Which is actually a little weird because the Academy doesn't have a uniform. Regardless, this ordinary(/slightly elven-looking) girl decided to wander over to the growing cluster of folks at the snack table.
"Ah, it appears we are all gathered again with some new companions. Welcome to the Academy, it is pleasing to meet you."
The girl in the uniform extended a hand for a handshake.
"It appears you have already become aware of the secret world that you find yourself in, given your talk about gods and also your horns. Wonderful!"
Edited by Pentigan on Mar 27th 2021 at 4:36:16 AM
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
“Oh, hi! I’m Amaya Safinia. Nice to meet you.” She was relieved someone had talked to her. Juliana also looked older than her. Also, she was visibly carrying a sharp, polished black knife. It might have been for hunting or fishing?
“Wow, cool knife. I didn’t bring anything. Well, I did, in my suitcase, but I don’t have any of it with me now.” A thought occurred to her. “Do you have that for self defense? Like, is it dangerous around here?” The school didn’t look dangerous, but not every building had to look like what went on inside. Honestly, the contrast between the students, the ornate meeting hall, and the ordinary snack table and printer paper used to tell them all to talk amongst each each other, she wasn’t sure what her first impression should be.
My time zone keeps changing to Los Angeles I’ve never even been to LA. Or the LA time zone
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
First Day Rewind
Almost identically to her first orientation, Móirín simply burst through into the room without actually stopping to open and close the door.
This time she was also soaking wet and tracking mud and humming a tune to herself. She had her white hair matted to her head but slicked on either side and partly held in check by a silver circlet. Her parted hair helped her show off an eye patch. She wore a simple yellow tunic over slacks. One arm had no sleeve and ten eyes in the arm looked over the room and the people.
As though to compensate for her lack of armor, her shield was strapped to her back. Her sword was never far from her anyway, and she had it slung behind her at an angle. It was almost as tall as she was. She had not been idle during the summer.
Móirín waved at Aaron and looked at Kat and Juli, giving each a nod on her way to the table. For the sake of the others, she waved her hand a little to make it dry-ish before picking at food.
"Kyn!" The right instinct apparently. She found the huntress there though she stood back to let Kyn do her upperclassman thing. "You should have been at the last orientation. Seeing you back here is good too." She added on the heels of the huntress's own introduction.
Edited by CenturyEye on Mar 27th 2021 at 6:13:04 AM
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
The Light That Blinds
Juli
...already asking the awkward questions, huh.
"It's hard to explain," Juli said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "But to put it simply, this isn't exactly your normal gifted and talented program."
Now, how to best go about this? "I can guarantee you're not in danger here, at least." Unless the school is invaded or something. "But there's a reason you're here. A reason you're probably not going to believe."
"Tell me. Have you ever heard of the gods?"
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
"The-the gods? Which ones?" Those were some of the most ominous words she had ever heard. She already had a vague sense of what was going on, especially as she let here eyes drift around the room a little more and saw clearly a girl with an eye patch and elf ears, and a boy with bull horns. The school knew about her healing, then? Why were they all going to orientation? Amaya knew she was nervous, but some faint excitement was starting to rise in the back of her mind.
My time zone keeps changing to Los Angeles I’ve never even been to LA. Or the LA time zone
The Light That Blinds
Juli
"To put it bluntly...all of them. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Thor, Loki, Osiris, Quetzalcoatl...all of them. You probably have some strange ability, something science and rational thinking can't explain. Well...the gods are where those powers come from. They're why we're here."
Juli briefly wondered if she should've been a bit slower about the revelations, but hey, she herself had handled all the big reveals with her mind intact. Probably. "And, in a lot of cases, those same gods are also our relatives."
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Related to a god? She'd never given much thought to where her powers came from, assuming they were just something some people were born with and chose to hide, or if they did tell people, no one believed them. Well, it was still pretty much like that, but being part of something as large as an endless pantheon of gods probably changed things.
Also, Amaya had never heard of most of the gods on that list. "I don't think I'm related to a god. Or if I am, I've never met them. Who are you related to?"
My time zone keeps changing to Los Angeles I’ve never even been to LA. Or the LA time zone
The Light That Blinds
Juli
"Most of us hadn't," Juli said, shrugging. "I didn't know I was a demigod until my dad showed himself. For the first time in fifteen years."
She cleared her throat. "Anyway, yeah, my dad is Tezcatlipoca. Aztec god of magic, night, beauty, storms, jaguars, and a whole host of other stuff."
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
"What's he like?" She was also wondering who her parent was. She had healing powers, and they were based around water, so some kind of ocean god? She could look it up on her phone if she hadn't left it in her suitcase. "Oh, also, do you know any gods of water or healing? Those are my powers. Just as good as controlling jaguars or... the night."
My time zone keeps changing to Los Angeles I’ve never even been to LA. Or the LA time zone
The Light That Blinds
Juli
"...he's not the most...attentive parent...few gods are..."
God. A whole year, and she was still sorting out how she felt about her dad. She didn't hate him anymore, she knew that much. But liking him was stretching it a little.
...okay, a lot.
"As for your thing," Juli said, trying to change the subject, "I haven't heard of a god of both water and healing before. Maybe ask the teachers, they might know something."
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Yeah, gods had a lot to worry about. Spending time with their teenage children probably wasn't a priority. Even Amaya could tell that was an uncomfortable topic for Juli. To be honest, she wasn't that concerned about who her relative was anyway. If they didn't need to know her, she didn't need to know them either.
"Thanks anyway. I'll look it up later. Do you like the teachers here?" She wasn't great with teachers, and wanted to talk to them as little as possible. Then again, this clearly wasn't a normal school. They'd be different than regular school teachers. Obviously, she thought, embarrassed.
My time zone keeps changing to Los Angeles I’ve never even been to LA. Or the LA time zone
Auditorium
The discussions between the students would be quite suddenly interrupted by two figures walking onto the stage, the first being known to the second year students as Aphrodite, their homeroom teacher. The other was the goddess of the hunt Artemis, who had put aside her role in order to act as the headmaster for Solomon Academy. The missing arm and large variety of scars that crisscrossed every inch of her body made her quite the intimating sight.
"Greetings returning and new students of Solomon Academy," Artemis spoke clearly and just loud enough for each student to hear her. "To those of you who don't know me, my name is Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, the moon, and other such things that I'm sure most of you don't care about," she turned her focus to the two new students. "To the two newest students of Solomon Academy the existence of the divine might come as somewhat of a surprise, through the full extent can be discussed during your first class. Regardless the mission statement of this academy is a simple one, to act as the first guard against mankind and beings that exist outside of our home, the Outer Being's. Rouge gods, monsters, and horrors that would gladly destroy all of humanity and reshape it for their own means. For the next three years you will be tasked with pushing back against them, and at the end of your time at the academy you will be offered whatever future you wish. Whether to become rich and never worry about another issue, or even stepping into the realm of the gods and becoming a deity yourself, you will be handsomely rewarded."
Artemis smiled slightly toward the students. "However in this modern world there are those who have never had a reason to fight, whose divine powers still lay dormant," a cold air swept through the room as an ominous chanting began to ring out speaking in a long dead language as it evoked the spirits of the hunt. "To those of you returning, think of this as a warm up from your months of peace and quiet."
A number of odd glowing rifts appeared, and out from them came large humanoid creatures that looked like a cross between men and beasts, their eyes filled with madness and hunger. "These spirits of the hunt will be your prey, but if you should falter you will quickly find yourselves overwhelmed. Fight well and show us your strength."
Aphrodite threw a hand in the air and cheered. "Go Class 2, kick 'em to the curb!"
Katarina
Katarina yawned. This again? She thought they'd have enough decency to not give them the same old song and dance. But it wasn't quite that, was it? Whoever these beings were, they didn't look that different from her. She wondered if there was some connection between her and these Spirits of The Hunt. If whatever these things were and what she was had a common thread.
But she wasn't going to get her knickers in a twist.
She lifted her paw, making it grow immensely as she channelled the power of the Yule Cat. She swiped at the creatures, batting them away and perhaps ripping them to shreds. Her eyes sharpened, and her tail twitched. If nothing else, she too knew the thrill of the hunt.
Warren only froze for a moment. It didn't matter what they asked him to do, he had to succeed. If they needed a fighter... a killer... people like him went through worse for less. As one of the beast creatures approached, Warren hunkered down, took a deep breath, and opened his mouth as wide as it would go. He'd entertained doing this so many times, wondering if that was Moloch's hunger eating at him. A brilliant gout of flame came out of Warren from down in his chest, one that almost hungrily consumed the beast. Warren looked down on the charred thing, and took a deep breath.
"Moloch whose mind is pure machinery!" He yelled out, and raised a fist. He could fight through the shock. That Ginsberg poem helped him feel seen, ah, in more ways than just identifying a modern Moloch, too. It'd become a little comforting, despite everything. "Moloch whose blood is running money!"
Breath of the Sun
Aaron
"Fire breath, huh? Neat." Aaron said. "And I guess there are multiple Egyptian cat goddesses, now that I think of it."
He'd been about to ask Kat if she was sure she was Bast's daughter and not Sekhmet's - because based on Kat's training week with her, Sehkmet was a total bitch, which would explain that gem thing - when Artemis appeared.
Aaron merely cracked his neck as she summoned beast-men for them to fight. Time to show the rookies what it's like here. He grinned savagely. Hope I don't scare 'em off.
With a thought, he summoned twin long swords to his hands. Each was large enough that a normal man would need two hands to wield, but Aaron swung them like nothing as he charged the beastmen, leaping over Kat's paw and following her strike with his own.
Each one of his swings looked effortless, but was more than enough to rend a beastman in half. He moved with practiced ease, reacting to counterattacks almost before they happened, all but dancing in and out of the throng of enemies. It was clear that none of them were fast or skilled enough to land a hit on him.
At the same time, Aaron didn't stray too far from the other students, ready to intercept any beast that tried to attack the new kids. Wouldn't want them to be injured on the first day.
Not that it looked like he'd need to - one approached Warren and got torched for its efforts. Aaron tossed a sword in the air, flashed Warren a thumbs up, then caught it before turning back to the fight.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
What kind of horrors? Typically, Amaya wasn't an anxious person, but her imagination was getting ahead of her, producing vague images of shadows, wide inhuman eyes, and unnaturally long limbs. She was quick to ignore those, however. Not only was she sure that the ridiculous creatures she was coming up with didn't exist, what they would be fighting would be at a skill level more suited to them. They were gods, right? So they'd pretty much be doing grunt work. And being able to be a shield for humanity? That sounded great to her.
The beasts that were unleashed were only slightly nightmarish. Embarrassingly, she was a little frozen and dumbfounded, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. It was hypnotic, like seeing a CGI monster from a movie somehow teleported into reality. Ok, focus. It's real. It's right in front of you.
More helpful than her attempts at concentration were at bringing her back to reality was the fire that shot out closer to her than she would like. In the end her trance only lasted about two seconds. The kid with horns looked terrifying. But the older students seemed sure of themselves, destroying the creatures with practiced ease.
She tried to tackle one of the beast men, going for the shoulders, but its weight was more than she anticipated. It threw her to the ground, but she barely managed to kick it off using both her legs, sending it toward the older boy with the dual swords. There were some scratches on her arm, which she healed immediately. At least that worked. Looking around at the other fighters, she might have felt a little outclassed.
Whatever. If you weren't good enough at something, you just had to train harder. Amaya turned her attention back to the monsters. Just fighting them off and pointing them toward more capable fighters would be good enough for now.
My time zone keeps changing to Los Angeles I’ve never even been to LA. Or the LA time zone
"I'm telling you ma'am, I think a slow introduction to the hidden world is much better then the methods we've employed up to now, not to mention jumping up the students to a higher class will result in them needing more time!" a transiently beautiful woman pleaded in a voice that could drive a person to tears following quickly behind a man who seemed to be her exact opposite.
"Accepted." a shorter woman walking next to her answered in a clipped tone, while no less beautiful then the other woman wounds covered her body from head to toe, one of her sleeves flapping uselessly next to her.
That seemed to steal the reply out of the beautiful womans mouth. "Well, that was unexpected, Hades would normally fight a bit harder on the subject."
The shorter woman laughed and shook her head. "When it comes to the Academy you are still technically my senior, I might not like you outside of the Academy, but for this moment we are meant to be working together."
The two women continued to walk next to each other down the halls in silence.
__________________________________________________________________
Solomon Academy was considered one of the best schools in the entire country, having been started years ago by a wealthy businessmen intent on creating a school which brought together brilliant minds at a young age in order to ensure the future was bright for all people. In accordance with this wish the academy handed out hundreds of scholarships each year to people of all walks of life and gave them every opportunity to achieve possible.
However from this pool of hundreds only a small number received scholarships specifically for the advanced courses, usually only at maximum ten a year were selected seemingly at random from the pools of hundreds, given exclusive lessons by the best of the best and all who graduated went on to do amazing things. Through the students also whispered about the fact the classes were all smaller then those who went in, leading to thoughts that the course work was so grueling it made people leave a one shot ticket to the future from sheer stress.
These individuals were met by staff the moment they entered the Academy grounds, with people taking their belongings to the dorms while they would be brought to an orientation specifically for their class. The staff members weren't particularly strange, except in the fact that the moment the students were lead to a large ornate assembly hall they wouldn't be able to remember a thing about the persons features. It wouldn't seem all to strange, after all they might not have been paying to much attention or simply were cowed by the sheer majesty of the building.
The most eye catching piece in the room were the ornate pillars that connected to the roof, each carved with pictures of various people doing battle with all manner of monsters, each seemingly a master craft without a single flaw. A number of chairs sat before the raised stage, through off to the side was a small table of assorted snacks and a note that 'students could mingle until facility arrived'.
To some students this would be a familiar song and dance, and they would be confused why they ended up in an area that they had already seen before, but to a few specific students this would be their first introduction into a much stranger world then they would have been ready for.
Edited by Kingxana0 on Mar 26th 2021 at 11:13:47 AM