thethirdwonder | Homplot Wake Up Post

Homplot Wake Up Post

Normally, Cassie wasn't one to spend a lot of time in bed. But lately, or really the last two days, it had taken everything she had to get out of bed in the morning. Someone people might have been excited to find out the king of the Greek gods was their father but for Cassie, it just made her miserable. The powers she'd felt she'd earned for her bravery now felt cheapened. It just...it just wasn't fair.

And because she'd spent more time in bed, she knew instantly when she woke up that she wasn't on the island. After the events in the Fire Nation the month before, Cassie woke up quickly and sat up at the ready, wanting to be prepared for wherever she'd found herself. It was with a small sigh of relief when she realized that she was asleep on the couch of Young Justice headquarters. She took a deep breath and made herself float for the first time in years. Even through her depression, she couldn't help a small smile.

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I'm used to being ready for an attack at any moment. The strange thing is that I don't think I'm a monster magnet in this world. I guess I'll find out, but if there's no Mist...

"If the others here know who you are, and you get along with them, they'll watch out for you. They don't exactly like me, but I can take care of myself."

"They'd take care of you anyways," Sam said after a moment's silence to concentrate on the game. Cissie, Kon, Bart, and Cassie were good people, the type of people that would look out for someone they didn't really like.

"So where did you learn to use a sword? Or is that something you got on the island?"

I let out a bit of a bitter huff when Sam says they'd take care of me anyways. I guess it all depends on what you mean by 'take care of me.' What they'd like to do is lock me up when I haven't done anything, so this is the next best thing. 'Watching me.' If we're here for good, that'll end quick.

"Started self-teaching myself when I was nine years old. I had an instructor later on. My sword's named Backbiter. I didn't have it with me when I came to the island, but it just showed up one day."

Sam doubted that Luke had started self-teaching himself because he thought it would be cool. From what he understood about a lot of people on the island, a good number of them took up various martial arts in order to protect themselves as others.

"So how did you get the sword back in your world?" Sam asked. The weapon looked real, like the sort of thing you'd actually use in a battle. He doubted that those types of weapons were easy to come by.

I really break out into a grin at that question. He doesn't really want to know the details. Not those kind of details.

"I got it when I chose sides in a war. The lord of the titans, Kronos, gave it to me. It's a bit... legendary, actually."

I shrug as if to say it's not really a big deal. We're just two normal guys hanging out, right? Right.

"Isn't that the dude that castrated his own father, and then ate his own kids?" Sam asked. Personally, he probably wouldn't be bragging that a guy like that gave him a sword. In fact, he would have really been keeping that bit on the down-low.

"That's the one."

Can't do much with the grin on my face. It's not that I'm happy. It's the fact that I'm putting all the bare facts right on the table.

"I'm impressed, Sam. Most people don't know too much about Greek mythology. But I'm not so sure about the whole castration thing. The story I learned is that Kronos just chopped Ouranos into pieces. It's not the kind of detail I really want to ask him about. The scythe he used to do it got reforged into a sword. That sword's sitting right next to me."

I turn my head and give him a serious look as if to say I'm not kidding at all.

"What can I say? Disney's Hercules kindled a desire to study Greek mythology in me," Sam said.

He could tell that Luke was waiting to see if Sam would be impressed. Sam had no reason to doubt that the guy was telling him the truth, but the matter of fact, no big deal way he was telling Sam made Sam want to kind of just shrug it off. Maybe he was being a bit of a jerk in that aspect, but he couldn't help it. Or maybe he just didn't want to help it.

"So you could be running around holding the part of the sword that was used to cut off the junk of Uranus."

I'm not looking for Sam to be impressed. I just want to make sure he knows I'm serious and not just making this stuff up. I'm not looking for recruits or anything. I've already had rooms full of demigods and monsters banging swords on their shields calling out their leader's name. Glory is nice, but I'm just hanging out here.

"I'm sure the hilt was nowhere near Ouranos' junk," I reply, but I'm smiling and shaking my head. Sam's comment's funny, what can I say? I notice he's using the Roman name, but I prefer the Greek ones. My father is Hermes, not Mercury, even though he's the one-and-the-same jerk. I found out there's a difference, but it doesn't matter much for this conversation.

"And, seriously, Disney's Hercules? I don't even know how I made it through that one. It was so bad. Really, really, bad. And you don't know how many times I had to see Clash of the Titans."

"Dude, catchy tunes and a guy that goes from no one to super famous, how is that not at least a little bit interesting?" Sam asked. He wouldn't go so far as to say it was good, but it had gotten him interested enough to read a few things.

"And isn't that the one with all the claymation stuff? Are you from 1970 or something?"

The grin I had is fading already.

"No, not interesting at all. I'm kind of sick of the son-of-the-gods hero story. Real sick, in fact. I'm from the 2000's. My mom has some old VHS movies she made me watch."

There were days when she'd play it four times in a row. Those days weren't too bad though. I'd just go outside and play, and she'd have a hard time putting together what was going on. I don't like thinking of heroism or my mom.

"Who said son-of-the-gods?" Sam asked. "I didn't say son-of-the-gods, you brought up son of the gods. I was just talking about being no one and then being someone. Like Frodo, only with more muscles and less hairy feet."

Sam could tell that this wasn't really the sort of thing that Luke wanted to talk about though. Obviously he had some issues with gods. From what he remembered though, the gods were kind of dicks and not really any wiser than humans.

"But if you're from the 2000s, you know that vampires are in now. Not surprisingly though, they have yet to invade the video game market."

Yeah, sometimes I forget that mortals don't have that as their number-one thing they know about Hercules. If you're a half-blood, that's all they tell you about. See what Hercules and Perseus and Theseus did? They get you into hero-worship right along with god-worship. Then all you do is train and worship.

And...

"...vampires?"

I sigh and shake my head. Gods, this guy's such a total mortal!

"Have you ever stopped to think of what vampires actually do to people? What that would look like?"

I saw what Kelli did to that boy from Seattle and I'll never, ever forget it.

"Dude, I've read Dracula, okay? I know that vampires kill people," Sam said.

He was starting to see why the others might not like Luke so much. From what Sam could see he seemed to jump to conclusions in a way that put people in a negative light. Or at least his tone seemed to suggest that. Maybe Sam was misreading the tone.

"I also know that draining blood from people is pretty nasty. Just because vampires are in doesn't mean I'm in their corner, rooting them on."

Sam's response reminds me how bad I've been snapping at people lately. It's because I've been depressed.

"Sorry, I saw something like that for real. Shook me up a bit, I guess. There's a couple former vampires on the island."

"It's cool. I know I can sometimes give of the pre-teen girl vibe that so often finds vampires hot," Sam said. If look was willing to apologize then it really wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, it was pretty cool of him to apologize.

"I guess in a world like mine where all of that is fiction, it's hard to separate how real the horror would be. And yeah, I've heard some of them live in the basement of the Compound or something."

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Homplot Wake Up Post

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