Ficlets: from the 100 prompts (078)
stories about the gods, who care less about things that none ever imagined:
We had once #34, or how the Cloths came to be, and why Athena protects the Earth
And then #76 blabbed about why the Cycle of Wars started
More on them immortals follows here (with footnotes and all). The gods have moved, and nobody seems to be happy about it.
I dont like it much, but got no time to review it or anything, so please no produce
Title: (078) where?
word count ~1300 (how is that for short)
whos: golds
disclaimer: at this point, there is so little to resemble StS that if I claimed it as my own, I might not end with my bones in jail. But truth remains, Kurumada created StS and its universe and Toei owns.
(078) - Where
It was the house of the gods, unequaled by no place mortals ever saw or imagined. On top of the majestic mountains, the eternal breezes of time flew past the golden abide of the eternal ones. It was also awfully small.
Such was the common opinion shared by all the gods, from the small whose name nobody remembered to the highest of them minus one. That one being Zeus, father, ruler and in general the one who had the last word in everything, including silences.
Athena tiptoed along in the marble corridor to see her father, hoping this time to meet no other god or goddess. Hades kept on giving her dark looks, she had been hit by the arrows of Diana, stung by something crawly and wet that Poseidon had dropped down her tunic, bitten by Ares’ dog, slapped twice by Apollo and Artemis, Aphrodite’s dove had shitted on her newly washed hair, Hermes had tripped her up at the top of the staircase and Hephaestus had dropped his hammer right on her toes at least twice this week. She had thought hard about the possible meaning of so much misfortune and being the goddess of wisdom it had downed on her, the other gods didn’t like her -but why? With some more pondering, it had nooned on her that they held her responsible for the move. By the evening, it had evened on her… well, she had figured it out all out.
When Zeus had given her Earth, he hadn’t really expected his daughter to like it so much. Certainly, it had never crossed his mind that she may insist on them all moving there. He had resisted, of course, but Athena was smart and had used the only argument he could not refute “but you made it, daddy. That makes it the best possible place to live in!” that simple sentence, accompanied with two full days of non-stop crying and stomping around had convinced Zeus.
Zeus’ rage and overall bad temper was well known, so all the gods took a look at the place and when asked they had no complaints about it or the place Athena had chosen as the House of Gods. Actually, they were all praises to the father of gods, who was the yielder of thunder and had a marvelous taste to combine colors in a way that were pretty to the eye.
And by the time they were all uncomfortably installed, Zeus was as able to tell the truth and confess Chaos and Uranus were behind all the handywork as Athena had of actually telling the difference between a tree and a lake. She liked her world, but had little real interest for it.
Luckily for Athena, all the dislikes the immortal ones had against her were currently with their owners, who were at the time at Dyonisus’. As it happens with every group of malcontent tourists, the guy with the seemingly never -ending supply of alcohol had quickly risen in popularity.
All immortals except for two. Hades’ fury was so dry that it actually absorbed all the alcohol in the parties, so he had quickly been excluded from the round of messages that Hermes carried announcing the time and place of the bacchanals.
On the other hand, Poseidon’s juicy jokes and character tended to water down the drinks, so Hermes had quickly started to deliver the invitations to Poseidon first, always taking care to deliver last time’s message.
And so it was by the time she made it to her father’s chambers, she had nothing to cry over except a new bruise on her leg, but that was just her tripping on her toga. This tricky gravity would take a while adjusting to.
She didn’t bother knocking. Daddy would be happy to see her, in fact he would be grateful for the rest. He always worked so hard.
-This seems hardly fair.
Poseidon pushed his chair back and reached for the bottle of tequila.
- Hades, shut up. It was as fair as fair ever goes. You got the underworld, now suck it up. Or down. I guess it will all be down for you now.
Poseidon laughed and patted his brother on the back, shuffling the cards again. So ohZeusleaderofthegods! now that we’ve settled the division of the world among ourselves, what else should we play for?
- FATHER!
The three gods jumped on their chairs, Athena’s high pitch was difficult to ignore.
- Father, how can you? This is my world, you gave it to me and I’m not sharing it with anyone. NOONE! It’s mine!
- Athena, child, please be reasonable. We’ve moved here because you liked the color of the ball, you said it matched your eyes, and some pretty eyes those are. But my brothers cannot live like college students crammed in a dorm*, you must understand.
* It was never explained how Zeus knew how dorms would look like when humans were still climbing up and down trees, but it could be due to either an acute case of godism or the first example of reverse causality ever recorded.
- But father…
- Now, now. Don’t be upset. You can still take care of the world, like you said you would. It’ll just be that Poseidon will rule that bluethingthatswingsupanddown -by the way, brother, you need to think for a shorthand for it, that name is too long; your uncle Hades will rule the Underworld and I’ll take care of the skies.
- But you can’t split up my world just drawing lots! And what’s left for me, then?
Zeus looked sincerely puzzled. That was exactly the method that had made him supreme ruler of the gods and he didn’t find any problems with it. But the kid had a point. Something had to be done about it.
- Don’t you think your 88 toys will keep you busy, Athena? What would you like a piece of this world for?
- My toys are boring; sure they fly around and sparkle a lot. But they’re not very interactive once you’ve played around with them for a bit.
The great Zeus pondered for a second. Now, the amount of pondering that went on in his brain in that small fraction of time is difficult to imagine. His beard served as bouncing mat for the neurons in his head, accelerating thoughts by a factor of millions**.
** It’s rumored that this is the reason why thinkers very often let their beards grow long. Especially because the contending opinion (that beards are just a disguise for their permanent expressions of perplexed ignorance) was not welcome among thinkers. And since for a long time they were the only ones who could write, they decided to eliminate the theory from circulation. This kind of thing still happens all the time in present-time academia.
- What would you say if I make your toys more fun? Let’s say I put in these things that move around. A kind of add-on for the toy, if you may. You can then use them interchangeably, comb their hair, have them perform and all sorts of things.
Hades had been silent through the conversation, and the silence had built up to dangerous levels. When he requested he had something of the sort for his toys as well, the level of silenceness in his voice had reached such highs that not even Athena dared complain.
By the time the other gods left Dyonisus’ room, some quite unstable and all very drunk, the configuration of the world that sprawled lazily all over their backyard had changed dramatically. It was all the same, but now there were invisible lines painted all over it. And a relatively small spot set aside, with nice weather, fine-sand beaches, blue skies and no significant record of natural disasters. The big pink A signaled it as Athena’s playground.
A new creature had also been created, and the world was complete. Only that Athena changed her mind and it was destroyed. And then again, and again, and … again. After a few agains and moreovers, Zeus grew tired and threatened with getting her nothing at all. And so Athena settled for a curious brand of hairless monkeys. Following Aphrodite’s advice, she requested they came in different sizes and colors and started considering ways in which she could play with the new add-ons to the Cloths.
We had once #34, or how the Cloths came to be, and why Athena protects the Earth
And then #76 blabbed about why the Cycle of Wars started
More on them immortals follows here (with footnotes and all). The gods have moved, and nobody seems to be happy about it.
I dont like it much, but got no time to review it or anything, so please no produce
Title: (078) where?
word count ~1300 (how is that for short)
whos: golds
disclaimer: at this point, there is so little to resemble StS that if I claimed it as my own, I might not end with my bones in jail. But truth remains, Kurumada created StS and its universe and Toei owns.
(078) - Where
It was the house of the gods, unequaled by no place mortals ever saw or imagined. On top of the majestic mountains, the eternal breezes of time flew past the golden abide of the eternal ones. It was also awfully small.
Such was the common opinion shared by all the gods, from the small whose name nobody remembered to the highest of them minus one. That one being Zeus, father, ruler and in general the one who had the last word in everything, including silences.
Athena tiptoed along in the marble corridor to see her father, hoping this time to meet no other god or goddess. Hades kept on giving her dark looks, she had been hit by the arrows of Diana, stung by something crawly and wet that Poseidon had dropped down her tunic, bitten by Ares’ dog, slapped twice by Apollo and Artemis, Aphrodite’s dove had shitted on her newly washed hair, Hermes had tripped her up at the top of the staircase and Hephaestus had dropped his hammer right on her toes at least twice this week. She had thought hard about the possible meaning of so much misfortune and being the goddess of wisdom it had downed on her, the other gods didn’t like her -but why? With some more pondering, it had nooned on her that they held her responsible for the move. By the evening, it had evened on her… well, she had figured it out all out.
When Zeus had given her Earth, he hadn’t really expected his daughter to like it so much. Certainly, it had never crossed his mind that she may insist on them all moving there. He had resisted, of course, but Athena was smart and had used the only argument he could not refute “but you made it, daddy. That makes it the best possible place to live in!” that simple sentence, accompanied with two full days of non-stop crying and stomping around had convinced Zeus.
Zeus’ rage and overall bad temper was well known, so all the gods took a look at the place and when asked they had no complaints about it or the place Athena had chosen as the House of Gods. Actually, they were all praises to the father of gods, who was the yielder of thunder and had a marvelous taste to combine colors in a way that were pretty to the eye.
And by the time they were all uncomfortably installed, Zeus was as able to tell the truth and confess Chaos and Uranus were behind all the handywork as Athena had of actually telling the difference between a tree and a lake. She liked her world, but had little real interest for it.
Luckily for Athena, all the dislikes the immortal ones had against her were currently with their owners, who were at the time at Dyonisus’. As it happens with every group of malcontent tourists, the guy with the seemingly never -ending supply of alcohol had quickly risen in popularity.
All immortals except for two. Hades’ fury was so dry that it actually absorbed all the alcohol in the parties, so he had quickly been excluded from the round of messages that Hermes carried announcing the time and place of the bacchanals.
On the other hand, Poseidon’s juicy jokes and character tended to water down the drinks, so Hermes had quickly started to deliver the invitations to Poseidon first, always taking care to deliver last time’s message.
And so it was by the time she made it to her father’s chambers, she had nothing to cry over except a new bruise on her leg, but that was just her tripping on her toga. This tricky gravity would take a while adjusting to.
She didn’t bother knocking. Daddy would be happy to see her, in fact he would be grateful for the rest. He always worked so hard.
-This seems hardly fair.
Poseidon pushed his chair back and reached for the bottle of tequila.
- Hades, shut up. It was as fair as fair ever goes. You got the underworld, now suck it up. Or down. I guess it will all be down for you now.
Poseidon laughed and patted his brother on the back, shuffling the cards again. So ohZeusleaderofthegods! now that we’ve settled the division of the world among ourselves, what else should we play for?
- FATHER!
The three gods jumped on their chairs, Athena’s high pitch was difficult to ignore.
- Father, how can you? This is my world, you gave it to me and I’m not sharing it with anyone. NOONE! It’s mine!
- Athena, child, please be reasonable. We’ve moved here because you liked the color of the ball, you said it matched your eyes, and some pretty eyes those are. But my brothers cannot live like college students crammed in a dorm*, you must understand.
* It was never explained how Zeus knew how dorms would look like when humans were still climbing up and down trees, but it could be due to either an acute case of godism or the first example of reverse causality ever recorded.
- But father…
- Now, now. Don’t be upset. You can still take care of the world, like you said you would. It’ll just be that Poseidon will rule that bluethingthatswingsupanddown -by the way, brother, you need to think for a shorthand for it, that name is too long; your uncle Hades will rule the Underworld and I’ll take care of the skies.
- But you can’t split up my world just drawing lots! And what’s left for me, then?
Zeus looked sincerely puzzled. That was exactly the method that had made him supreme ruler of the gods and he didn’t find any problems with it. But the kid had a point. Something had to be done about it.
- Don’t you think your 88 toys will keep you busy, Athena? What would you like a piece of this world for?
- My toys are boring; sure they fly around and sparkle a lot. But they’re not very interactive once you’ve played around with them for a bit.
The great Zeus pondered for a second. Now, the amount of pondering that went on in his brain in that small fraction of time is difficult to imagine. His beard served as bouncing mat for the neurons in his head, accelerating thoughts by a factor of millions**.
** It’s rumored that this is the reason why thinkers very often let their beards grow long. Especially because the contending opinion (that beards are just a disguise for their permanent expressions of perplexed ignorance) was not welcome among thinkers. And since for a long time they were the only ones who could write, they decided to eliminate the theory from circulation. This kind of thing still happens all the time in present-time academia.
- What would you say if I make your toys more fun? Let’s say I put in these things that move around. A kind of add-on for the toy, if you may. You can then use them interchangeably, comb their hair, have them perform and all sorts of things.
Hades had been silent through the conversation, and the silence had built up to dangerous levels. When he requested he had something of the sort for his toys as well, the level of silenceness in his voice had reached such highs that not even Athena dared complain.
By the time the other gods left Dyonisus’ room, some quite unstable and all very drunk, the configuration of the world that sprawled lazily all over their backyard had changed dramatically. It was all the same, but now there were invisible lines painted all over it. And a relatively small spot set aside, with nice weather, fine-sand beaches, blue skies and no significant record of natural disasters. The big pink A signaled it as Athena’s playground.
A new creature had also been created, and the world was complete. Only that Athena changed her mind and it was destroyed. And then again, and again, and … again. After a few agains and moreovers, Zeus grew tired and threatened with getting her nothing at all. And so Athena settled for a curious brand of hairless monkeys. Following Aphrodite’s advice, she requested they came in different sizes and colors and started considering ways in which she could play with the new add-ons to the Cloths.