Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 26
This account was originally found on Livejournal, I am not the original author—I am just a fan of the journal and have found reading it on livejournal clunky to navigate and rife with errors/instability (such as having to refresh multiple times due to the page in questions becoming unavailable often requiring multiple refreshes. The original post can be found here, published by DJ-Yomi, and was published on June 1st 2008.
Well, we’re off on another mission from the gods. You know, sometimes it feels like we’re in some sort of Mission Impossible movie or something. You know, Odin or Amaterasu or Kalfu or someone shows up and says, “This is your mission, should you choose to accept it,” and we’re off to deal with some other supernatural threat. lol. ^_^
Anyway, this time we’re not really dealing with a supernatural threat, per se. We’re playing the role of diplomats to the Tuatha de Danaan, which suits me fine. Diplomacy’s really what I’m cut out for, after all. I get the feeling, though, that some of my more blunt and direct companions will be better at dealing with the representatives of the Tuatha than I will. We’ve been warned that they like people who lack subtlety. Hopefully I’ll get along well with the fae, at least.
I’ve had a few weeks off since my tour, and Echo and I have been planning a sort of late honeymoon. We’ve been talking about going to Greece, which is somewhere we didn’t really stop during the tour. Keiko’s also planning a vacation. I think she’s heading back to Japan to see Oda and her daughter, Teruko. Oh yeah, did I mention that Keiko has a daughter? She does. And she was there at the temple in Shikoku. I wish I’d known, but no one told me, and Keiko was off in Osaka arranging things for the tour. I would have loved to meet Teruko. I wonder why she didn’t introduce herself?
Anyway, Keiko and Oda have a past, and even though they’re not actually together right now, they’re still rather fond of one another. Apparently Oda “really knows how to treat a lady.” *blush* Teruko is Oda and Keiko’s daughter. She’s a nopperabo like her parents, of course. Next time I’m in Japan, I’ll have to make sure to have Keiko introduce us.
In other news from Japan, Hinako and Sayuri have possibly been having more issues than Echo and I had a few months ago. Quinn has stayed in touch with Sayuri (whom Dahlia keeps calling “the Lamp Oil Pusher” just to annoy Quinn), so she gets constant updates on the drama. Apparently Hinako and Sayuri have become lovers…sort of. Even though they’ve been together off and on for the past several months, Hinako doesn’t seem to be completely comfortable with the relationship. She’s gone off to purify herself a few times and refuses to publicly acknowledge that she and Sayuri are involved. The poor girl sounds totally confused. I think I know how she feels. I’ve kinda been there before. But she doesn’t seem to be handling it well, so both she and Sayuri are having a rough time of it. Quinn says this is why she thinks same-sex relationships are a bad idea.
Okay, with that gossip out of the way, I should get back on track. Our latest “mission” started when I got a call from Adam letting me know that he was going to gather everyone together at my place on Red Mountain so that Odin and Artemis could fill us in on the details of what they wanted us to do. Fair enough. I’d get to introduce everyone to my new shikome and guilt trip Adam, Anna, and Elisa for not showing up at any of my shows during the tour. Pierre showed up the several shows. He’s such a sweetie. And the first I saw of T-Bone since he left us in Japan was when he showed up at a gig in Australia! Dahlia was thrilled to see him again.
I also wanted to see Ray again. I wanted to talk to him and thank him for being such a stand-up guy. He really helped sort out my feelings for Echo, and besides, I still really care for him and want to make sure he’s all right. Even if I have realized who my soul mate is, I still feel a lot for Ray.
Anyway, I had Keiko order some catering and we all pitched in to clean up the house for our guests. Sophie and kept asking if the caterers were part of the menu. That girl has a serious craving for human flesh, so we’ll definitely have to watch her.
We had a little time to hang out and catch up on the past few months before Artemis arrived. Ray and I played some Soul Caliber. It’s so unfair. He kicks my ass in that game every single time. >_< Once Artemis arrived. Odin was supposed to show up too, but he couldn’t make it…for good reasons which I’ll get to later.
Basically, the Aesir and Dodekatheon want us to go and approach the Tuatha de Danaan with overtures of friendship and cooperation. The Tuatha have always kinda kept to themselves. They’re fighting the titans just like we are, but they’re doing so on their own. They’ve never really gotten along with the other pantheons all that well, and have been pretty happy to just do their own thing. The other pantheons think that needs to change, though, and they think our group’s success demonstrates why.
See, the titans tend to focus on their primary enemies—the pantheons that overthrew them and cast them aside. It’s a mistake for us to do the same thing. As our group has shown time and time again, we are far stronger if the agents of the pantheons work together. The Amatsukami can bring strengths and talents to bear that the Aesir cannot, for instance, and vice versa. In other words, by combining our talents, we become more dangerous to the titans.
The other pantheons think it’s time to bring the Tuatha into the fold. The Tuatha are strong, but they can be stronger if they can be convinced to cooperate with the rest of us. And we can definitely use their allegiance in our war against the titans.
So, since our group represents so many different pantheons and has been so incredibly awesome, they’d like us to go and try to bring the Tuatha into the fold. We have to be careful about it, though, because the Tuatha aren’t likely to respond well to a “We need your help, and you need ours” approach. They’re too independent and proud for that. So we’ll have to pitch it to them a bit differently. And that will be challenge. Chances are they’ll find some way to test us, not because they doubt our skills, but because they want some assurance of our sincerity. It’s just the way they do things.
Artemis also had a special quest just for Anna. It’s kinda like the Nemean bear thing at Beaver Creek. She has to hunt some fort of Nemean fae dog—a titanspawn cu sith maybe? Anyway, it sounds bad, and according to Artemis it can’t be killed through conventional means, which means Anna (and the rest of us, by extension) will have to find out how it can be killed. Adam’s good at that sort of thing, right? ^_^
As Artemis concluded her briefing (I so wanted her to say “this message will explode in 10 seconds, but she’s way too serious for that), Odin’s two crows arrived and perched on T-Bone’s shoulders. Why T-Bone? I don’t know. Maybe because he’s so handsome? They were awfully polite. Anyway, they apologized for Odin’s absence, but informed us that the war in the Overworld had reached a crescendo, and the titans were advancing on Bifrost. O_O Not good. Odin had more important things to worry about. Things sound bad… But we can’t really do anything about that right now, so we have to focus on our mission and hope that adding the Tuatha to our line-up will help turn things around.
With that, Artemis left and we began planning. I had Keiko arrange a chartered flight to Reykjavik, where we had been instructed to meet an Alfar named Lucas Carroll. He’s supposed to help put us in touch with Tuatha contacts in Ireland, which is where we’ll head next. Everyone stayed at my place overnight and we left in the next day.
I wanted to find a chance to speak privately with Ray, but he’d already left to…wander the mountain, I guess. I wonder if he was avoiding me? It’s hard to tell with Ray. I still haven’t had a good opportunity to talk to him alone yet. Anyway, his followers headed out awhile later to hunt the zombies that sometimes leak out of the Underworld and roam the abandoned town on Red Mountain. Normally, Tabby and I take the shikome out to deal with them from time to time, but I think Juanita and the others had fun.
Speaking of Red Mountain, Adam said that Artemis and Odin had mentioned that Red Mountain was becoming quite the mystical hot spot. It’s becoming a part of our combined legends, and could even become a sort of terra incognita in time. That’s exciting. ^_^
I did get a chance to speak privately with Anna. I wanted to clear the bad blood between us. We have to rely on each other too much to let antipathy come between us, so I explained to her that yes, I had pursued Adam for awhile, but that I was over him. I now have no designs on him whatsoever, so Anna has nothing to worry about. She seemed dubious, but I think she understood. Hopefully she’ll let the matter go. I don’t expect us to become “friends” again any time soon. She probably doesn’t trust me and she’s really good at holding grudges. And personally, I really don’t think much of her aside from the fact that she’s a wonderfully mindless instrument of blunt trauma. But maybe now we’ll stop antagonizing each other at every opportunity.
Our flight to Reykjavik was uneventful. I brought my entourage with me, minus Echo (I asked Oiwa to look after her while I’m gone). Since she’s pregnant, I didn’t think it was a good idea to bring her with us. Lucas Carroll, a dashing alfar gentleman, met us at the airport. He was surprised by the size of our group, what with my entourage and Ray’s followers, but coped pretty well. We sent our followers off to a nearby hotel while Lucas escorted Adam, Anna, Pierre, Ray, T-bone, me, and Keiko (I gotta keep my personal assistant close ^_^) to his home, which was really swank. He put us up in his guest rooms and we briefly discussed our plans with him.
He’ll be introducing us to our Tuatha contacts within the next day or so. I believe we’ll be meeting members of the Seelie and Unseelie courts, including some bean sidhe! ^_^ I’m really looking forward to it, especially the Unseelie. It should be delicious, and I have a feeling I’ll get along extremely well with them. At least, I will if the legends and lore are in any way accurate. They should be my kind of people.
Lucas also gave us more information on the battles raging between the Aesir and titans. It seems the titans are trying to capture Alfheim, Lucas’s homeland, and they’re doing a damn good job of it. Alfheim isn’t the most strategically important place in the Overworld, but it’s right next door to Valhalla and could be used as a staging ground for future assault. Something has to be done…but again, there’s nothing we can do right now except to convince the Tuatha to cooperate with the rest of the pantheons.
Anyway, it’s summer in Iceland, and the temperature here is actually really nice. I’ve spent most of the afternoon sunbathing on Lucas’s beautiful deck, which overlooks the ocean. It’s gorgeous. I wish Echo were here. I’m sure she’d love it…but it’s better for her to stay at home for the time being. I’ll have to call and check on her once I’m done posting this entry.