refusetofight: (Guard duty)
Achilles, Best of the Greeks ([personal profile] refusetofight) wrote2023-11-23 09:22 pm

For @messageforyou

Besides the obvious, there’s one big problem with being dead: it leaves Patroclus with too much time to think. To ruminate. To overanalyze. That was always his tendency, but at least in life, he had Achilles and the war. There was rarely a stretch of stillness that allowed him to wander so deep in the labyrinth of his own thoughts.

Not like Elysium. Patroclus wishes he was more like Ajax, always spoiling for a test of strength against the shades of other legends, or Odysseus, chatting and joking so easily with anyone who will listen. Will they ever tire of it? Meanwhile, Pat still feels like his place here is undeserved. His act of bravery at Troy was a fluke. That wasn’t enough for Elysium; Achilles had to arrange that deal with Hades himself.

And what is he doing with that gift? Whiling it away in a chronically dreadful mood. It’s no surprise Achilles would take another lover. He needs someone more exciting and vibrant. He needs a challenge. Hermes is who he needed from the very start. Powerful, divine, worthy.

Now there’s Lyra, to—a beautiful, perfect child. Hermes can give Achilles anything he wants. What can Patroclus give him? Painful memories. Shame and regret. Achilles never says as much—of course he wouldn’t—but Pat assumes.

He lays sprawled on the spongy ground in the center of a glade, looking up at Ixion and fumbling around the corners of this well-trod maze of thought. Méli has surrounded him in scattered offerings: very fetchable sticks, a sandal, a broken arrow, an old bone. She finally gives up her restless pacing to flop down next to him. She shifts to rest her chin on his chest and sighs emphatically. Her gifts don’t seem to be helping.

“I’m sorry. I’m not good company right now, am I?” he mumbles, stroking her soft ears. He wishes he could be more like her. Living in the moment, not a single worry except what fun will be had next …
messageforyou: (>:))

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-20 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Coyote cocks his head, ears perking and swiveling to face Achilles. Then he throws his head back and laughs. His laugh is canine and high and carries, almost mocking.

"Hermes, what did you tell this poor dead foreigner about me?" Coyote chuckles and taps his paws on the rock cheerfully. "I don't care that you wander the earth, foreigner. Go have fun. Rules are made up by young gods that don't like chaos."

Coyote nudges one of the leather bladders towards Hermes. Hermes picks it up obligingly, opening the seal and giving an appreciative sniff. "And the snake told me about your encounter. She wanted to let me know she has no hard feelings."

"And you're plying us with wine and tobacco because...?" Hermes says, swirling the alcohol in the bladder.

"Because I'm being a good host," Coyote says all too innocently, using his nose to nudge the other bladder close to Achilles. "This is wine, but it's made with raspberries. Not that you know what raspberries are. But I promise it's good, foreigner."
messageforyou: (I tip my hat sir)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-21 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
"But it's made all the sweeter for the effort getting it," Coyote says cheerfully, sitting on his haunches. "And Turtle Island is a big place. There are many places that would rival the lush fields of your home."

Hermes doesn't give the signal that it's safe to partake quite yet, but he shows no hostility either. He smiles mildly at Coyote, offering him the skein of wine. "Host first."

Coyote wrinkles his canine nose. "I'm insulted."

"No, you're not," Hermes says with a wink.

"No, I'm not," Coyote agrees before stretching out his neck, sticking out his long tongue and lapping from the skein. He shows his reddened tongue to Hermes, as if anticipating that he'll need to prove he's really partaken. "Happy?"

"Yes," Hermes says with a smile, nodding to Achilles before taking a swig of the wine. It's bright and tart, full of a flavor entirely foreign to Greece's shores. "Now is there a reason you've brought us a peace pipe?"

"Ohhhh I just thought that it might be nice to make conversation," Coyote says in a tone that strongly implies there's more to it than that. The pipe before him requires hands to operate, but instead of becoming human, he twists strangely. He's still his canine form, but he reaches out a paw and it grasps the pipe like a human hand, and he begins to stuff dried leaves that smell a little like Apollo into the bowl of the pipe. Looking at how his joints and paws twist in very human ways is prone to giving an observer a headache.

"Coyote here is inviting us to partake in a peace pipe," Hermes says, looking to Achilles with a smile. "If we all smoke, we're bound by old magic not to harm each other while we speak. It's an old custom, like swearing on the Styx."
messageforyou: (Smug fucker)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-21 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh no. Word has spread that Zeus is out, and Hermes is too nice to start fights without his father telling him to," Coyote says casually. Hermes keeps his expression carefully in an opaque smirk, not letting on to any feelings he may or may not have about other gods cavalierly discussing his business with his father. "This is purely for Hermes' comfort. Because he knows that I am not nice."

Coyote agitates the leaves in the bowl with his claw, and fire begins to burn there, releasing sweet smoke. He puts the stem of the pipe in his mouth, breathing deep of the smoke, and holding his breath for a while before exhaling again. The smoke exits his mouth, his nose, curling outwards like a dragon, and images linger in the air in the shape of smoke.

"Sounds like you want to talk to me about something," Hermes says mildly, face still opaque as he takes the pipe from Coyote.

Coyote stays sitting on his haunches, swiveling his ears, before he looks to Achilles, deliberately ignoring the implied question in Hermes' statement. "Tell me, foreigner. What do you trust more? A group of people, each of which say they are good at doing one thing? Or a single person, who says they can do everything?"

"Oh, that's what this is about," Hermes says, face breaking for a moment with some exasperation as he takes the pipe in his mouth and breathing in the smoke. He holds it in his lungs as he offers the pipe to Achilles, giving him a rueful smile to signal that it's safe.
messageforyou: (I tip my hat sir)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-21 05:37 am (UTC)(link)
Coyote, as promised, isn't nice. And he laughs heartily at Achilles' coughing fit, tapping his paws in his amused delight before accepting the pipe back. Hermes rolls his eyes at his fellow god before casually resting a hand on Achilles' knee.

"The smoke goes down hard if you're not used to it," Hermes says sympathetically.

But Coyote breezes right by Achilles' discomfort. With the three of them sharing the pipe, the sweet smoke has settled around them, softening the glare of the sun. "Would that more mortals thought like you, foreigner. Perhaps then your gods wouldn't have danger sitting at their door."

"We don't have danger sitting at our door," Hermes cuts in, clearly exasperated. "Don't exaggerate." Hermes looks to Achilles, quick to put any concerns at rest before Coyote works up his beloved. "He's talking about a new god in Africa. It's been causing trouble for gods in Egypt. But if we fretted every time there was trouble with some other gods in another place, we'd never get a wink of sleep."

"It's more than just any god! A god that claims to be a God of Everything, a god who has more power in the heart of Egypt than the court of Osiris!" Coyote said, putting his paws in the air for emphasis. It's not entirely clear if he's taking himself seriously, or if he's playing things up to freak out Achilles. "They say this god was once a normal one, but devoured all its pantheon to gain their powers, and now it seeks to devour all gods!"

"If I knew we were telling scary stories, I'd have started a camp fire," Hermes says dryly.
messageforyou: (Smug fucker with Charon)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-22 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
Hermes gives Coyote a Look. He's easygoing by nature, and always errs towards diplomacy when dealing with gods outside his pantheon, but he's not pleased that Coyote is freaking his lover out with stories Achilles can't do anything about.

"Egypt has a slave class called Hebrews, and they revere this god," Hermes says, staring at Coyote pointedly. "And in exchange for their reverence, this god is causing a ruckus to force Egypt into setting their slaves free. Any stories about cannibalism are just speculated. We've already heard about this, and we're not interfering."

"Isn't it always better to wait for an enemy to gather strength before meddling?" Coyote asks Achilles sweetly, as if he hasn't heard Hermes.

"Coyote, I know you're not fretting over the fate of Olympus. What's this about?" Hermes asks, exasperated.

"Maybe I am fretting," Coyote says, still sounding sweet. He sucks on the pipe, breathing out smoke that makes strange visions of fire falling from the sky and a great river running with blood. "You're too young to know what it's like when change is in the air. You got rid of Zeus, and now gods all over are thinking about changing how things are. You should be more worried about that, I think."
Edited 2024-02-22 05:23 (UTC)
messageforyou: (Little side eye)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-23 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Elder? Ha!" Coyote laughs heartily, and not kindly. Hermes keeps a vaguely exasperated look on his face, although whether that's a front or a genuine reflection on his feelings about Coyote's performance is unclear. "Fetuses! Fetuses advised by babies, who were borne of children! You think that time began when Kronos cut off the sky's balls?"

"Mmmmm," Hermes says in response in the vaguely detached way of someone who's heard this flavor of rant before and is indulging a crazy relative.

"No Titan was born last the Tezcatlipocas exchanged power amongst each other. But I remember. I remember when the dark world as we knew it died, and a new one was created with fire lighting the sky." As Coyote speaks, the patterns in his fur and the smoke shift, showing cataclysmic visions of an unrecognizable world dying, and a new recognizable one being born in its place. "If it happens once more, poof go your humans, and poof go all the human concepts that give you young gods life." Coyote makes a 'poof' noise, waving his paw at Hermes for emphasis. "With no humans to travel, to steal, to trick, to run, you will fade to nothing, not even memory. But I'll remain to see the next world and the strange creatures it brings."

Hermes, despite Coyote's best efforts, does not seem moved by these apocalyptic visions. Maybe it's because he's truly unmoved, and maybe it's because he doesn't want to freak out Achilles. "Forgive me if I'm not staying up at night in fear of four squabbling gods when the rest of us are invested in making sure the world stays as-is."

Coyote smirks, narrowing his eyes. "Are you sure the rest of you are invested in keeping the world like it is?"
messageforyou: (:3)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-24 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
Hermes lays a hand on Achilles' knee. A gentle gesture, intended to calm him. Hermes knows that Achilles doesn't tolerate insults towards those he loves well, but Hermes also knows that Coyote doles out insult like honey cake, and it won't do to rise to his bait.

But Coyote, for his part, laughs once more. He has a canine grin, ears perked and cheerful as he chortles at Achilles' anger. "Maybe an old god doesn't have anything better to do. Have you tried getting old, foreigner? It's boring. What shall Coyote do today? Oh, what he's done every day for the last ten thousand years, probably."

"Oh, no, I don't think you're just amusing yourself." Hermes has a gleam in his eye as he waves the pipe in Coyote's direction. "Something happened. You're rattled, old dog."

"Rattled? Me?" Coyote holds a paw to his chest in a very human gesture of feigning offense. "You think anything out there can still rattle Coyote?"

"You're rattled by geese," Hermes says flatly.

"Because geese are evil," Coyote says, just as deadpan.
messageforyou: (Lotta side eye)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-24 06:21 am (UTC)(link)
Coyote laughs once more. It's like his voice is made for laughter, like the animal he is has laughter constantly trapped in its chest. "You like your ghosts spicy, Hermes."

"I like them honest," Hermes says mildly. "And he sees what I see. Go on and say what you mean, or you won't get anywhere."

Coyote stands up and shakes himself out like a dog, feigning thought as he walks in a circle before settling down again, deliberately making them wait for his answer.

"Old One-Eye sent a boat to my shores," Coyote finally says, voice deliberately airy. But Hermes' wings perk. This is clearly significant news. "Lots of big, strong raiders, ready probe and see if they can spread his influence, help him infringe on my territory. There was a demigod among them."

Hermes leans in, keeping his hand on Achilles' knee but offering the pipe back to Coyote. "I take it that they didn't declare their intentions?"

"Oh no, they just said they were lost. I'm sure they believed they were. But no human could survive that voyage without divine intervention, and they stank of jötunn." Coyote's fur bristles, and the strange visions that ripples on his pelt take more form as he accepts the pipe. The images look like tall, broad, yellow-haired men. "But I showed them a winter on Turtle Island, and let them acquaint themselves with the Wendigo."

Hermes pins his wings hard against his skull. Coyote breathes out a puff of smoke with a cruel, toothy grin, and the smoke makes horrible shapes in the air.

"Do you think One-Eye will want them back?"

"If you help that thing get a foothold on our side of the ocean, Athena will take that as an act of war," Hermes says sharply.
messageforyou: (Desperate)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-25 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
Hermes scowls at Coyote. He really hadn't intended this romantic getaway with his lover to turn into a lesson on the geopolitics of gods. Coyote, for his part, just looks very smug.

"I would never help the Wendigo infect your shores," Coyote says in a tone that doesn't sound reassuring at all. "Just thought you should be on the lookout if One-Eye sends more Vikings, and maybe they come back."

Hermes takes a breath and fluffs up his feathers again. He looks to Achilles, deliberately turning away from Coyote, just to snub him. "Coyote's being insulting. He's referring to Odin, King of the Aesir."

Hermes waves his hands. The smoke around them coalesces to create visions. First is an old man with a spear. He has a somewhat haggard appearance, with a white beard and thin white hair, and a sagging void where his right eye should be. He's draped in the pelt of a white bear, and the decapitated head of a male god hangs from his belt. "The Aesir are a very war-hungry group of gods far to the north of Greece. Odin traded his eye for wisdom, and carries the head of his local god of wisdom and knowledge so he can always consult him." Hermes arches an eyebrow. "In other words, he's a dick."

Coyote laughs loudly, tail wagging in clear agreement.

"This God of Everything--or as they seem to prefer to be called, 'God'--" Hermes says, waving his hand again. A new vision forms, and it's just a shadowy mass. "Showed up in the desert of Egypt and isn't interested in talking to anyone, but has been really toeing the line with acceptable divine intervention. They gave their chosen the ability to turn all the water of the Nile into blood, among other plagues. Like I said, we know the situation, and we're leaving it for Egyptian gods to sort out amongst themselves."

"They emerged when a whole pantheon disappeared," Coyote says sweetly. "And they have no identity, no domain, no name. Probably because it ate up too many gods and too many thoughts rattle around its head."

"And the Wendigo," Hermes says, ignoring Coyote, "is a blight. An evil spirit that possesses humans, makes them near-immortal, and destroys their shades, then sends them off to infect more humans. Worse, even if you destroy all the infected humans, the Wendigo still lingers in the land they died to infect new ones. If there's a way to purge the thing, I don't know it."

"You're not sharing the best part," Coyote sing-songs. The smoke twists around him. Visions of ghastly creatures hunched over a pot. "The Wendigo can't possess just anyone. It can only possess humans when they eat a special meal. Other humans." Coyote snaps his jaws for emphasis. The smoke twists. One blond man, bigger and broader than the others, tearing his teeth into the flesh of one of his comrades-at-arms. "Winters are harsh here, and the Wendigo feasts on lost little foreigners."
messageforyou: (Little side eye)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-25 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
"Impending? The chaos is already here." Coyote stands up, shaking himself out once more like a dog, and pads towards Hermes, sniffing the air with a smile.

"It's not every day a major pantheon overthrows their king and installs a new ruler. If One-Eye dares to sniff at my shores, you can be sure he's sniffing at Olympus'. You're closer, and your recent instability makes you look weak."

Coyote's ears swivel to face Achilles, and he grins, showing his teeth. "And you know how much One-Eye likes big, strong warrior ghosts. You keep them all in one little place for him, don't you?"

"Thank you for your concern, Coyote," Hermes says, still dry as he squeezes Achilles' hand back.

"If you have to go toe to toe with God or One-Eye, beat them extra hard so they don't come bother me, hmm?" Coyote gives Hermes' cheek a lick. Hermes swats his snout, and Coyote dances away with a loud laugh. "Enjoy the desert! Try not to scare the wildlife too much."
messageforyou: (Just trying to think)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-25 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Hermes leans against Achilles' side, eyes following Coyote as he leaves and the smoke clears. Once more, the desert seems empty, save for the few intrepid animals that find food in each other.

"Certainly. I don't think Coyote knows how to not toy with people. But that doesn't mean what he says doesn't have merit."

Now that Hermes isn't keeping a diplomatic facade, his wings pin and he frowns thoughtfully, a furrow growing in his brow.

"He's right that if Odin sent feelers all the way here, he's already sent them to Greece. Maybe mixed them up with the traders that come from the north. Coyote wants us to take that seriously so we can deal with Odin ourselves and spare him the trouble. Strange that he's worked up over what's happening in Egypt, though."

Hermes heaves a sigh, and for a moment, he just looks tired. After two days of some of the most intense personal stress of his life, he really didn't need professional stress added on top, and Coyote implicitly blaming him for it to boot. But that's his own fault for not considering the wider implications of messing with power structures before he did it. Here he thought he'd thought everything through, but really, he'd only thought about how it might affect Greece and the gods and people under Olympus' purview.

He smooths his wings, looking at Achilles and flopping his cheek on his lover's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I don't want to worry you with the machinations of foreign gods. It's all a real headache managing all the competing goals and personalities."
messageforyou: (Divine tenderness)

[personal profile] messageforyou 2024-02-25 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes. I miss home. And I'd like to greet Lyra again, before the day's too late."

Hermes has fondness for Coyote and fellow tricksters like him, but not for how they delight in unkindness, and not for how amusing they find the misfortune of humans who can't defend themselves. Tricksters aren't known for being straightforward and honest, unlike his love.

He wraps his arms around Achilles' waist, fluffing his wings. "Hold tight, darling. And close your eyes."

The pull to Greece is just as disorienting as before. The smells of salt and sea and tree and dust all about them, and then not. And then Hermes curses softly, because as they settle back at the mouth of the Styx, Lyra is there, and she's not alone.

She sits on top of a fallen pillar, swinging her legs as she gently pats the beak of a god. A tall, broad one with the body of a man, covered only by a ornate cloth folded at his waist, and the head of an ibis, beak long and black and delicate with iridescent green feathers about his neck and face. He wears a fancy headdress tipped with gold, and a gold necklace that sits on his chest, and his human skin is the color of wet sand.

"Hi!" Lyra says, waving with her free hand as she pets the god's beak oh-so-gently. "I made a new friend!"

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Wrap up here?

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