Group RP Ascension of the Eternal - RP thread

Iliad grunted in pain as he slowly opened his eyes. His forehead hurt a little, as though he had fallen face-first onto a hard surface. As he pushed himself upright, he immediately fell back onto his behind. Iliad's thoughts were a mess; one second he was buying himself some ice-cream and the next... He was here. Once he recollected himself a little, Iliad held his hand before his eyes to protect them from the sudden brightness of the building.

"It's so bright in here... Where am I?" he muttered to himself before looking around in a daze. He noticed a tall man with golden blonde hair and bronzed skin standing nearby with a bright smile on his face.

"Oh look, Apollo, he's all confused!" a pale-skinned lady told the blonde smiling man. "Just what I'd expect from your son."

The man apparently named Apollo replied with a cheerful smile: "Well, Artemis, you wouldn't know the joy of reuniting with your children, now would you?". Artemis' eyebrow twitched a little and she responded with a swift kick to Apollo's shins.

Iliad narrowed his eyes. "Son... What on earth...?" he began before noticing that the man held an ice-cream cone in his hand... albeit with a few bites missing. "My minty-chocolate-chip ice-cream!!! Why did you take it?!" Iliad asked with a look of sadness and indignation before approaching Apollo swiftly and snatching his cold treat back.

"Because it looked like it'd taste really good, little one." he said with a serene smile and gently patted Iliad's head a little. "But I left some for you, though."

"Hmmmm..." Iliad muttered as he took a small bite. "Mwell, shince myou weft shome for mwe, I guesh I'll let it shlide thish time..." he continued with a mouthful of ice-cream. After swallowing his bite, he pointed at the others present in the room and asked. "Who are all of you, anyway? Is this some kind of prank? Am I on some hidden camera show on the telly?"

 

"I assure you this is no show." A gruff voice was the first thing Danaus heard as he struggled to his feet, wincing as he gradually opened his eyes to, what seemed to be, blinding light.

"W-where am I?" He murmured out as he began to take notice of his surroundings. Danaus stepped back in alarm as he stared directly into the eyes of a bearded figure who regarded him with disinterested gaze. Suddenly the gruff voice he heard from before spoke out, and it took Danaus a few seconds it was from the man in front of him.

"Where you are, and why you are here, will be explained in due time child." Danaus' nostrils flared in annoyance at the tone the male spoke to him with, leading to him shouting in response. "No! I demand to know now, who are you people and why am I here?" Suddenly Danaus found himself forced to one knee from some unknown pressure as the man from before glared at him, and Danaus could swear he could see just a hint of blue within the otherwise grey eyes,

"You will know, when I deem it time for you to know, boy" Gritting his teeth, Danaus bowed his head in defeat, a small part of him now fearing the figure that held so much power over him.

 

Iliad looked at the imposing man in front of him and -at a loss for words- simply whistled in admiration for being able to bring someone to their knees with what seemed to be a mere stare. He took another lick of his ice-cream cone and looked at the man named Apollo.

"So uh... Is this how things go down most of the time around here?" Iliad asked in a hushed tone. Apollo merely responded by smiling awkwardly and making a gesture that seemed to say 'more or less'. Iliad felt a twinge of worry at this answer and decided not to speak to the bearded man unless he was spoken to.

 

"....how unkind to summon them here like this..."

Some footsteps were approaching as they stopped. More shuffling and a hand was on her shoulder.

"Wake up, child...you are safe now."

"Nnghhh...." Willow groaned as she tried to block out the noise, she opened her eyes to meet a soft expression on a brown haired woman with golden eyes, draped in robes of green and gold. She had knelt by Willow's side. And the surrounding was unfamiliar. White marble columns, and a few others her age also on the ground in various positions, as well as several adults that looked like something out of a movie set.

That was not possible to say the least, since she had been sketching a scenery in the lake gardens one fine morning before she fell asleep on the bench. Lo and behold she ended up here.

"W-W-who are you? What's happened?" She moved away from the gentle woman's touch and stood up. "H-how did I get here---" She was becoming more agitated as she struggled to get up. The attempt failed as she froze in fear at the presence of what felt like a man radiating power, forcing the boy to kneel. Thinking she should do likewise, she squeaked in fear as she was down on both knees, not daring to look at anyone, trembling.

The woman garbed in green seemed to give the bearded man what looked like a very poor attempt of a stern look before she rested both hands on Willow's shoulders.

"Calm down, child. We mean no harm. All will be explained soon."

 

"Gah!" Ben awoke with a start, the images from his dream fresh in his mind. It began innocently enough - he was running in a track event, but as he ran, the dream world warped, and he found himself running in terror from a ghastly visage of an old man formed from mist. Whether the visage caught him, he didn't know, but now he sat on smooth marble, forehead slick with sweat.

Marble? He glanced around the massive chamber he found himself in. The architecture reminded him of the pictures he'd seen in a history textbook he'd barely read. Greek, was it? But why was it so pristine, so shiny? Shouldn't it-

"It's about time you woke up, Benedict."

The young man's snapped to the source of the airy voice. His eyes met the face he'd just seen chasing him in his dream. Ben yelped and scuttled away. Was he still dreaming?

"Calm yourself, child. I imagine you feel overwhelmed at all this." As the old man spoke, puffs of condensation escaped his lips, as if the air around him was frigid cold.

Ben looked the man over. His face reminded him of Scrooge, all crooked and pointy. The tips of his long, snow-white beard were covered in fine frost, as were the tassels of his heavy teal cloak. He looked prepared for a blizzard. His hair and cloak rustled with an invisible breeze, but Ben felt nothing.

"Overwhelmed?" the young man croaked. His breathing had relaxed somewhat, but he still felt uneasy in this strange place. "More like 'confused out of my damn mind'."

The old man looked across the chamber, and Ben followed his eyes. He saw several other youths with more strangely-dressed adults looking over them, some comforting, others scorning. A few of the adults didn't have kids around them. "Once the rest of you arrive," the old man grumbled, "we can get this out of the way."

'The rest of you'? What was this? "Am I still dreaming?" Ben muttered to himself.

The old man gave Ben a grim look. "Unfortunately not, I'm afraid."

 

Slowly recovering from a painful headache, Nyke tried to push himself up off the floor. Once he got up, he immediately regretted his decision of getting up too quickly. The headache only got worse, and his legs began to feel week. But before he mannaged to hit ground, he was cought by a strange looking man.

"Carefull, child, wouldn't want you getting hurt already." Said the man who caught him.

"What?" He muttered to himself. Once the headache became bearable, he decided to look around, starting to notice the unfamiliar location is currently in. He quickly turned around, facing the man who caught him. Nervously, he asked "Where am I... and... who are you?"

"Don't get so nervous, child, you just got here. As for where we are right now, you'll just have to wait for everyone to show up first. I promise, no harm will come to you if you just stay quiet and wait patiently." He responded.

Nyke didn't like that answer, but it's not like he can do anything at the moment. And so, he decided to wait for these so called 'others'.

 

Lucy rubbed her head as she slowly woke up to the cold feeling of stone under her. She had just wrapped her hands up for her boxing class and now as she looked around the cold marble room, she was stunned. She tugged up her tank top and did a mental check of everything, scared she may have been drugged or worse. When everything checked out she stood up and finally noticed a tall and model-like woman staring her down. Lucy moved her fists up quickly and got into a fighting stance, her head was still a little cloudy from waking up.

"It would seem you are quite the little fighter." The woman said in a whimsical tone. Her hands on her curvy hips, the dress, and robe she wore were like gold melting off of her body

Lucy just held her stance, eyes locked on the woman whose lips were the color of ruby rose petals and eyes looked her over with a crystalline stare. "Who are you and where am I?"

The flawless face seemed to hold back a slight chuckle as she offered a hand to Lucy. "I am Aphrodite dear, and you will get a full explanation when the others arrive. For now, let me look you over."

Lucy's hands moved down and she gently took the woman's hand who spun her around and just nodded. "What others? Are you running a kidnapping ring?" Lucy seemed frightened but didn't remove her hand from the woman's gentle grasp.

 

“So what you’re saying is that we’re somehow your children?” Iliad asked slightly cynically, finishing his ice-cream cone and turning towards Apollo. “Well lah-dee-dah, isn’t that just splendid.”

Apollo still sat in his throne and smiled gently at his son. “Yes that would be-“

“And now, more or less two decades later,” Iliad continued, “You decide to poof us to... Wherever this is, and expect us to not only acknowledge this as factual, but also to fight some creature of chaos in your stead?”

Iliad then gazed directly into Apollo’s eyes. “18 years... And you didn’t even visit me...” he said, slightly smiling a little, even though it was obvious that he was struggling to hold back his tears. Iliad took a deep breath, managed to compose himself and walked up to his father’s radiant throne.

Apollo didn’t know how to respond and instead just quietly hugged his son tightly, muttering “I’m so sorry...” over and over again.

His son then gently pushed him away. “It’s... I won’t tell you that I’m not hurt by all of this... And this certainly isn’t the kind of reunion that I’d have liked... But...” Iliad mumbled before putting on the brightest grin he could muster. “Still, having said that, I think it’s pretty neat that my dad’s the effin’ sun!”

Looking at the others, Iliad blushed slightly. “I’m sorry you all had to see that but... I suppose we’re family anyway?” he added with a slight chuckle. “Even if we’re not familiar with one another yet, I hope you’ll treat me well!”

 

"Until you had need of us?" Danaus stared as his father in astonishment. "Are we, your own children, nothing but weapons to you?" He almost shouted. Rising to his feet, his eyes glared into his fathers. "You don't visit or show us any sign of you existing, but now you expect us to fight on your behalf? Why should we?" Suddenly the pressure returned causing Danaus to shake, but now expecting it he was able to show some resistance.

"It appears you do not yet know your place boy. Yes you are weapons, but you are so much more." Zeus boomed down to his child. "As for why you should fight, if you do not the world as you know it be brought to ruin." He stared down at Danaus with a challenging glint in his eyes, a challenge his son met.

"And what can we do, that the gods cannot?" Danaus questioned.

 

Lucy took her hands from the woman she now knew as her mother. "A sex goddess, my mother is meant to have good looks and get laid. What weapon am I to you anyway?" She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow, now looking her over. "No wonder Dad fell for you, I mean, not like you cared." She turned her back on her mother, Aphrodite seeming a little stunned at the shunning her daughter was giving her.

"You got some of my charms, yes, but you have so much of your father as well, I did enjoy his company for those 9 months, Lucille. But my place is not with the mortals." A tender and pale hand was placed on Lucy's shoulder.

"Just Lucy, not like you cared, and you say you want us to fight some organization, yet you call upon the most useless 'demi-god'. I am not flaunting my self like the sex goddess of the heavens for your benefit. If you wanted even a speck of respect, maybe you should have come to a birthday or had dinner with the family once and a while." Lucy shoved the hand off her shoulder, trying to reject her fate much to Aphrodite's dismay.

 

As the last unfortunate youth blinked into existence in the bizarre chamber, it seemed like Ben and the other kids were finally going to get some answers. The old man gave Ben one last look before walking - gliding? - over to sit on his throne. It was adorned with faces billowing clouds and streams of air.

Ben almost scoffed when the imposing man leading the strangely-dressed adults mentioned the state of the world. He heard someone cast a sarcastic remark, which was immediately met by a stormy glare from the imposing man. Were those sparks coming from his eyes? Ben stood a little straighter after that.

The young man only blinked as the revelations struck him: not only were he and the rest of the youths summoned here to fight some "Black Phoenix" - whatever the hell that was - the old man sitting on the cloudy throne was both his father and a Greek god. Did Mom lie to me all this time? Ben shuddered at the thought. Whenever he'd asked about his father, Mom always said he was doing important work overseas, unable to visit for birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas... anything. As far as Ben was concerned, he never had a father.

Until now.

"Tell me this is a dream," Ben muttered, eyeing the man who was apparently his father. "Tell me this is all some twisted, cruel dream."

The man - Boreas, apparently - shook his head. "I already told you, Benedict. This is no dream," he said with a tired sigh.

"You really expect us to believe all this?" Ben said, raising his voice to echo the thoughts stated by Apollo's son. "You expect us to just set throw everything down and obey you?"

"We expect you to-"

"Why us?!" Ben continued, growing flustered. "If you're literal gods, why can't you deal with this? Why drag us into all this?"

Boreas rose to retort, but caught himself. A shouting match between gods and demigods was the last thing the group needed. He sat back down and gave a deferring look to Demeter. She or Zeus would be able to explain it better than he.

 

Daughter of Demeter...? Black Phoenix...? From her knelt position on the floor, her head sank low, her heart racing at the thoughts that flitted past her mind. She was suddenly thrown into a world she didn't know, and to say the least, she felt like she was going to suffocate from all the information thrown at them.

Watching how some of them took their situation. Some were wholly accepting, others less so.

"I had no mother...my mother had left me for good...and what is this Black Phoenix..." She kept on muttering to herself. "What is going on...?"

"I know it is hard to take in, Willow. But I only wished I could do more for you. There is only so much we could do. I watched you grow up from afar, and it pains me that you will have to be subject to this quest too."

Willow looked at the goddess, who was as sorrowful as she was. "...I don't know...I want to believe it, but...maybe you could have left something that could remind me of you...? A picture?...I just...I don't know...I don't know of I am worthy to be a daughter of a...a goddess?" She buried her face in her hands, as she tried to gather her composure.

Demeter was unsure whether to move forward to collect her daughter before she caught the look of what she figured to be Boreas, and spoke to the group of teenagers as a whole. "As of now, we will let the truth sink in for you. I am sure you may not be able to accept it straight away. There is only so much we could do in this matter, in which we are not able to interfere directly."

 

Nyke just stood where he was, not wanting to believe the situation he was in. First, he was apparently kidnapped by the gods, just be a part of some random quest to save the world. And second, his father was apparently the king of the underworld. Normally, he would think this is just some sort of sick dream, but this just felt to real to be one. He turned to face the man who once caugh him, he just wanted to know.

"So wait, does that mean you're...?" He barely mannaged to ask.

"Yes child, I am Hades, your father. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for most of your childhood, none of us could've done much other than watch from a distance."

Nyke stared at the man who was apparently his father, not knowing what to think. Yes, he was slightly mad that his father never really visited, but at the same time, he knew deep down that gods weren't supposed to interfere with the mortal realm very often. He wanted to be angry at his father, but he just couldn't, not for long at least. He's been waiting for his father to come back home ever since he was a kid, now, he finally decided to show up. He wanted to run up to his father and give him a hug, He wasn't gonna do that, he still doesn't forgive him for everything he's done.

He just stood where he was, and waited. Deciding to just let the gods explain the whole situation.

 

Lucy stepped forward and away from her mother. "Alright, so we are all demigods of a sort, that is very interesting but certainly not world ending. I can't say that I am happy to know what 'powers' I could have received, we will be trained for this." She slowly started to undo the bandages around her knuckles, "So how long do we have to train, we are not all trained for fighting I bet." Lucy ran her hands over the dangling heart from her collar like necklace, the smooth surface soothed her.

Aphrodite took a step toward her daughter, eyes in a slight glare. "My powers may not be what you would have wanted, but every demigod has individual powers that are unique to you. While I do use my own to lure out the primal feelings of others, it is just what I do. You can use the power of romance in your own unique ways if you inherited said power or not." Aphrodite placed a gentle kiss on her daughter's forehead, a motion that Lucy didn't seem to mind, her body language show her relaxing. "I am sorry I wasn't there for you, but now the world needs your help and I chose you for this mission because I know you can do wonderful things." With a small smile, she drew herself back to her full height and gave the pink haired teen a little more space to process.