Heathens

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Why did it seem he always found himself in Philadelphia? It wasn't even his favorite city. He had had the pleasure of watching most of the East Coast cities rise from the ground over the years. From the first lonely settlement of Jamestown to the now sprawling metropolis of New York. He did like New York. It was busy, filled with people and possibilities. There was always something for him to do. Philadelphia, on the other hand, was just lukewarm.

At least it's not Detroit or, Helheim forbid... Anywhere in New Jersey.

The small black cat shivered at the very thought. Fjorlagg, The Lord of Death, the New God who's very name means "Death", padded along a concrete walk way, his small paws barely making a sound as he walked along. His whiskers twitched a bit and he sniffed the air. He was getting hungry. Where was he exactly. He looked around and recognized a few buildings. He couldn't miss the young ones walking all around him with their bags on their backs. Some seemed happy, others depressed, still others simply absorbed in there books.

Ah yes, college. Not quite what the Greeks had in mind, I think, but it does the job.

Continuing to follow his nose, Fjor wandered about the campus. The smell was getting stronger. It smelled like... No... Could it be? He sniffed again. Yes! It was tuna! Wonderful, wonderful tuna! Fjor absolutely hated it when his form's urges overtook him like this, butting could not be helped. He began to sprint towards the intoxicating smell.

He approached a large, square building with many windows, still following his nose, he hopped up on a window ledge and there it was. Sitting inside some young girls bag was a beautiful tuna sandwich. Fjor licked his lips. He stared at the girl as he plotted a way to get his lunch, his black tail swaying slowly back and forth.

And Syrian had thought nothing would surprise her more than the girl using telepathic powers. She'd been bracing herself for something like 'psychic' or 'superhero.' Heck, she'd even half-way considered the idea of an angel. But this. This was something else. A... a god? Well, goddess in this case. Unless it was a male god masquerading as a female for some reason. Well, being a female was pretty awesome, so maybe male gods knew that. But she was getting off-track.

And not just any god. A god of growth, re-production, longevity, and... life. Life. LIFE. The word kept repeating through Syrian's head now. Did this god have the ability to bring her sister back to life? Was it possible? Surely it was possible! Syrian's heart burst into a sudden, desperate hope. Her prayers had been answered!

"You... heard.. I, I mean... Did you -you heard my prayers, didn't you?" Syrian asked in a hushed tone, a desperate light entering her eyes as she fell to her knees before the girl. It didn't even occur to her that the girl may be falsifying her story -she was too desperate to doubt the answer to her prayers.

Well this was a sight Rhea had certainly missed, though the conditions prevented her from enjoying this. Someone on their knees before her, as if worshiping, though the human was likely just in awe or even despair and their knees collapsed. Rhea merely nodded, leaving out the fact that it seemed like her prayers would have never silenced themselves and how she was kind of surprised that no other gods had stuffed some kind of fortune down her throat to get her to shut up already.

The child spoke up, "Yes, every single one of them."

Rhea could already see the question forming on the child's expression. Could she bring the sister back to life? She would have to break the news of faint hope, but she would have to pull the 'not everything is free' card. Even if she could, what was she a charity worker? As much as Rhea hated death and the thought of the life created being brought to an end, it certainly wasn't worthless, for death made room for new life along with feeding and continuing the still-living.

This was all of course ignoring the fact that Rhea likely would have revived a life or twenty hundred that had an obscenely unfair life if she had the time.

"I'm not quite at my full power though," Rhea was swift to add on and remind the woman before she brought up the question of her sister.

"I'd need a bit of help even with my full power, but if you help me with my problem then I will do all I can to help with yours," She spoke, feeling a bit dirty about using a life to get what she wanted. Though she reasoned with herself that it was quite a fair trade. Go through hell and back and bring someone to life! Eurydice had done it, so why not this girl?

"Oh, certainly. First we'll need to find the others and then we'll be leaving the country. But, that's all in the future. For now, we need to worry about the present."

His tone had turned serious and business like again. Things were finally moving. It was exciting. Refreshing, even. Perhaps, soon he would be free!

Mira asked about his imprisonment and suddenly touched his paw. He flinched and pulled his paw back. He shook his whiskers and gave the best scowl his furry little face could manage.

"Because gods aren't perfect like you humans often seem to think. We'll humans nowadays, anyway. Jealousy is a vice even the divine share. And in my case, foolishness. I let my guard down. We were tricked and betrayed. I was made to be humiliated, as you can see. They took over, and we were left in the wake of history, wandering the planet and being slowly picked off, one by one."

He hopped off the table and padded over to the middle of the room. Then he swirled around and faced the girl.

"That, however, is neither here nor there now. Like I said before, we need to focus on the present. Now, come over here. I need to show you something very important. Bring some of your left-overs as well."

A figure walked down the sidewalks of Ashtown, Ohio, with his hands in his pockets and a wide grin on his face as he glanced about the main streets of the town. He looked around at the various small buildings on the sides of the road, and the cars zooming past. Edan couldn't help but feel amazed at how much humans had advanced in their technology over the years. Of course, the gods(or God, he never did know too much on the subject) had given them the resources and put them in place, but after such a long time of what Edan had viewed as relative inactivity, the humans had made all sorts of amazing advances in medicine, technology, knowledge, and more. He figured that it was possible it wasn't entirely humanity that did it, maybe some other divine force had helped, but since he didn't know any better at the moment, he liked to think that it was the humans, if for no other reason than to spite the current monotheistic religions.

Making his way down the street, the teenage-looking male stepped into the parking lot of one of his favorite kinds of places: a dollar store. Perfectly good stuff, even if it was a little lower in quality, at way better prices. That was something he could get behind. He walked into the store through the front doors and took a look at the area, taking notice of the people and things that surrounded him. At the moment, all he really wanted was a quick snack.

"Excuse me," He began to ask fairly cheerfully, catching the attention of a nearby cashier. "Could you please point me in the direction of the food section?" The cashier, seeming a bit preoccupied at the moment, simply pointed towards the back of the store. With that in mind, he smiled and nodded at the cashier, as if to say thanks before he wandered down the aisles, searching for the section he was looking for. Peering around at the various food items and assorted knickknacks that the store seemed to offer on his way there, he didn't quite pay enough attention to notice that he was walking towards a bit of a collision course with a taller looking woman, holding a few bags of chips and a two liter.

Syrian's face crumpled with exhaustion as the girl -no, goddess- before her revealed that, yes, her prayers had been heard and answered.

It had paid off. Her attempts had finally brought forth some results. The enormity of the situation hit the young woman like a ton of bricks. Here, before her, was a goddess! An honest-to-g... well, honest-to-Rhea, apparently, goddess.

Then the goddess spoke again, revealing that she was not at her full power, and that Rhea would need her help before the goddess could help her. Which was reasonable. No-one did something for nothing, especially a boon such as this.

"I'll do anything you want," Syrian pledged, completely serious. "I would scale Mt. Olympus or swim in the fiery depths of Hell and back; kill anyone or anything -or die trying- just to see my sister again..."

Syrian rose her eyes to Rhea's, and hoped that the goddess would see her sincerity and believe her.

The woman mumbled to herself grumpily, still going on about the simple facts in the world, or the ones she considers simple, and lamenting the fact that she isn't back in Canada getting a real job like she was planing too before she traveled over to good ol America. God she hates doing nothing productive, all of this traveling on the road was fun at first, yeah she had her good times seeing new places, but dammit she was getting homesick and bored! The blond huffed lightly, Maybe I should just start selling the crap I keep picking up off the street, probably would make a good profit to the right people. she thought, not really paying any attention to where she was walking. That was going to bite her in the butt.

"Oof!" Lexia smacked right into the young man who happened to be walking right at her. She stumbled back two steps, shaking her head lightly. In her wake to get a damn hold of herself, she dropped the things she was carrying on the ground. She groaned at the sight, "Aw fudge nuggets, say good bye to that pop." She scratched her head lightly, looking up- scratch that, down at the younger looking guy she bumped into. 

She smiled sheepishly at him, "Ah, sorry about that man. Wasn't really paying attention to where I was going. You okay?" She asked, before squatting down and picking up her chips, which happened to fall out of the green basket she was carrying. She grimaced at the two litter, it didn't bust, but she definitely going to go replace it with a different one.

Rhea seemed to flinch as the girl spoke, the mentioning of having her kill anyone and anything causing Rhea to rethink her decision for the thousandth time over since traveling here. She was a goddess of life, who in their right mind would kill for a goddess of life if not to save hers? That would be making a very large and daunting request or favor and cancelling it when it's about to be finished. The girl's eagerness to kill was a bit questionable, though Rhea figured that she was more bark than bite, most humans usually were.

"While I certainly hope that we wont need to kill anyone or anything, this likely will put quite a dent into your personal life. There's a high chance this is going to take a bit more than a day or two considering I can't just teleport us to where we need to be, you cannot tell anyone about who I am unless I approve and for now," Rhea spoke.

She would have liked to question where the girl had gotten Mt. Olympus into her mind from, but decided against it. She would simply let this girl guess her origin.

"Could you please get up?" she questioned, "Could you also please point me to the shower in this place? I haven't had a proper shower or clean clothes for a good week...or two."

Great, the worst part was over with. Hopefully they could get a move on as quickly as possible. Though Rhea certainly would have liked to clean herself up. They were likely going to have to pretend that Syrian was some kind of relative taking care of her, maybe sister? No, they look too different. Cousin? That would probably work better. Hopefully they would not need to contact her 'parents' anytime soon. That'd be quite difficult considering their corpses were likely rotting away in Tartarus.

Syrian nodded in response to Rhea's words, blushing a little. "Errr, right. Not that I, uh, want to kill anyone... just, I'd do that, or worse, just to see my sister, y-you know?" she stuttered, realizing that perhaps it hadn't been the best hyperbole to use for a goddess of life.

The goddess' next words caused Syrian to scramble to her feet, nodding and eager to please. "Of course; yes.. Here, I'll show you to the shower -you can use my shampoo and stuff; it's all labeled with my name."

She led Rhea down the hallway to a door across from her roommate's bedroom, opening it to a modest bathroom with a bathtub/shower combination, a toilet, and a sink. "I'll just wait in the kitchen -is there anything you'd like me to get you?" Syrian asked.

"Some decent food would be nice, you might want to start thinking about what to pack though and what to tell your friends. I'll also have to tell you the gist of what happened, and we'll have to set things up so you don't just disappear of the face of the earth and end up as a missing person," Rhea explained.

That would be the last thing Rhea would want to happen, her partner showing up on the news with bawling families wishing for their baby to come home or at least send a letter saying she's ok or something. Rhea wondered what happened to the families she spent some nights with centuries ago, they all seemed like nice folk save for the occasional dysfunctional wreck she came across sometimes.

Rhea closed the door behind her without waiting for Syrian's response, instead leaving her to decide on what kind of cuisine or meal rather than being told what to make. A bit rude most likely, but she was not exactly the god of manners anyways. She washed herself up, however had to remain in the filthy and torn clothes since it wasn't like people carried around clothes for 10 year olds every day.

Syrian blinked as the door closed in her face. Yeah... she hadn't thought of those things. What the hell was she going to tell her parents? If she disappeared off the face of the earth, they would go nuts. All media and news outlets would be notified; police would be looking for her -the entire world would know that the daughter of the renowned Roanes was missing. And Syrian was pretty sure that Rhea would not appreciate the attention.

Syrian wandered down the hall into the kitchen, where she absentmindedly started making chicken parmesan -she wasn't sure what kinds of foods Rhea liked, but it was better than ordering another pizza, especially after the goddess' request for 'decent' food.

While she busied her hands with the food, her thoughts were on what to do about her parents. She couldn't just tell them that she was going on an extended vacation and to "f-off". For one, they'd totally freak and cut her off from any money; and for another, they'd insist upon knowing everything about everything -where she was going, who she was with, insisting on contact all the time.

She would have to get clever about it. Perhaps after discussing a little more with Rhea about where exactly the goddess planned to take her, she could think of something better.

Just as she was putting the chicken in the oven, a pot of water beginning to boil on the stove, the front door of the apartment slammed open. The voices of Katlyn and her boyfriend, Steve, filled the air. They were arguing about one thing or another -typical of the couple.

They entered the kitchen, still bantering back-and-forth, when Katlyn caught sight of Syrian standing in front of the stove.

"Syrian!!! Are you making chicken parmesan again?! ooooh that's my favorite; save me some, will ya? I'm starving, girl! But first I need to take a shower, it's been a horrid day!" Katlyn exclaimed quickly and excitedly -the girl slowed down her speech for no-one.

Syrian's eyes widened and she left the stove to stop her roommate, but she was too late as the girl slammed into the locked door of the bathroom, clearly not expecting the bathroom to be occupied and thus barred from entry.

"Uh... Yeah... Someone's in there," Syrian said faintly as Steve rushed to help his girlfriend up.

"Who the hell is in there?" Katlyn asked, looking at Syrian with wide eyes -Syrian had never had anyone over in the entire time they'd been roommates.

"Uhhh, my, uh... cousin?" Syrian said, the statement sounding more like a question. "Uh, yeah, my cousin, uh, Rhe- Renae," she corrected herself, hiding the goddess' identity, "...is staying with me for a few days while her parents are out of town. She needed a shower too, so, uh, she's in there using it."

Rhea was startled as she heard voices followed by sudden rattling of the door. Rhea, who had been just finished dressing once more, stared at the door as they talked.

...should she come out? Stay in? Do what? She guessed she could come out...

Her hand reached for the door, unlocking it and turning the knob before pulling it open slightly. Her timid act was back on while these two were around. She spotted the two just outside of her door. The male seemed to be rather large and buff, similar to that of a jock and gave off the stereotypical 'High school Quarterback' vibe to Rhea. The girl seemed to indulge herself in quite a bit of makeup, the strawberry blonde hair reached her lower back though it was a bit messy and wavy as if it had just been released from a pony tail or a bun.

Rhea stared at them from behind the crack of the door, not smiling but merely staring as if she were uneasy about these two new people. The woman stared at her for a moment after the man had finished helping her up.

"Like oh my god! She's so adorable!" the woman practically screeched, throwing her arms into the crack and flinging the door open while grabbing Rhea. The woman was smothering Rhea as she hugged the child, dragging her into the kitchen as if to show Syrian the new puppy she had found, "Where can I get one?" she teased.

"Unhand me..." Rhea growled, her face diverting away from shyness to extreme displeasure, although it seemed that the woman was oblivious to her woes.

The young man let out an involuntary gasp as he staggered back from the impact with the woman, moving a couple of steps before falling onto the ground in a seated position. Glancing up at the person he had bumped into, he blinked for a moment, looking her over. She definitely seemed different from some of the others, especially in her clothing...maybe she had a special job or something that required it? He still wasn't too clear on clothing customs or things like that, but he did know that sometimes people had to wear uniforms for things that might look different.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine! Don't worry about it, really, it's alright." He quickly responded, chuckling as he stood back up and rubbed the back of his head, giving the woman a smile as she seemed to finish picking up what she had dropped.
"I'm sorry about that, I probably should have been paying better attention to where I was going...do you, uh, need help getting anything or picking anything up? It's probably the least I can do, all things considered." He continued, standing by the aisles as he smirked up at Lexia. It didn't really register to him that maybe he should introduce himself, or ask who the woman was.

Lexia placed her hand on her hips and consdered what the younger looking man had asked her. So he wants to help me eh? I suppose there is no harm in it for now. She looked the teenager up and down slowly, taking in his lanky form and features. He seemed honest enough, but you can never tell with these young types, who knows, maybe he is trying to trick her or something. Lexia sighed at the path her mind took, it really wasn't something against young guys, but this world is just dangerous.

She looked back down at him, having averted her eyes to the ceiling while she was in her thoughts, and grinned. "Well aren't you a gentleman? Eat your hearts out young ladies they still exist. Hehe, I'll take you up on your offer, why don't you take this pop, " She gestured to the two litter still laying on the ground after it fell. " And go replace it with the same type. This one isn't going to work for me after that fall." She mumbled the last part, shaking her head slightly.

She thought for a moment, before grinning again. "I'd like it if you helped me get some other stuff too," She paused to think, "And if you want man, I'll buy something for you. Just as long as it doesn't break my pocket or happens to be illegal." She joked. She stepped forward and offered her hand to him, "Anyways, I'm Lexia, you?

The young man blinked for a moment, confused as she gestured towards the two litter of soda on the ground, not having realized that she hadn't picked it up yet. Catching sight of it, though, his eyes widened slightly as he crouched down and picked it up quickly, holding onto it and glancing over it, spinning the bottle around slowly in his hands as he read the labels on it.
"Oh! Right, uh...yeah, sorry about that. Didn't mean to ruin your pop or anything." He started to stammer out slightly, giving a sheepish chuckle as he seemed to ignore the first part of what she had said.

"Yeah, sure! I'll help you pick some stuff up. And really, I'm fine! I might grab a snack or something, but you don't have to get me anything." Edan quickly rushed in to assure the woman, looking up at her and nodding, before holding his hand out and grasping hers with a firm shake.
"Dan, it's nice to meet you." He responded, being sure to stick with the name 'Dan'. After all, it seemed to be a much more common name than Edan was, and it was even in his original name. It seemed like a perfect alternative to him.

"So, uh, do you come here often?" He turned away and started to walk over towards the section that seemed to have most of the drinks available as he asked, stepping down the aisle and looking over the various selections of cans and bottles, making his way towards the two liters and glancing them over, searching for the kind that matched up with the bottle he was currently holding.