>>@SGT | TO: @ALL.

[byhand]

I usually reserve these communications for private networks, but it seems necessity has hastened our meeting. For the safety of myself and my family, I would be of no uncertain gratefulness if you would refer to me as Sargent, and little else. Though I am sure, with time, some of you will come up with more colorful nicknames.

Pleasantries aside; welcome, new faces and old, and I must ask this with all seriousness and kindness: What have you done?

Things are moving at the wrong speed. The prognosticators were not expecting to compensate for such a load. Several droids have begun misfiring, our protochron readouts are gaining sentience, a prophet is missing, and the birds are growing increasingly agitated. This is not the series of events your ancestors knew, much less my progeny.

To put it simply: things are not moving apace. I cannot say for sure if this is your influence, or the influence of an outside power, or perhaps both. And yet:

Mary Wollstonecraft, who was not supposed to enter Paris until next month, is already here.

The King's Trial has not even been proposed by the revolutionary government.

Mirabeau sleeps still in a place of honor.

I will put more work into discovering the source of this snarl in history. But you must be warned: every action you have here changes the lives of untold million not yet born. Tread carefully, for as the poets say: you walk upon dreams.

Comments

[chariotry]

I may be unimpressed, but that doesn't mean you don't have any information that might be of importance to me.

If it was you who brought me here, that'd make you my Master. So I sure hope it wasn't you.

[byhand]

If so, I should hope whoever trained you did a better job of teaching you to leverage such information from others.

Man is born free, but all the world around he is chained. I can call no one of will or pride my servant, and I am no master.

[chariotry]

[ This would be endearing if not for the fact that Achilles is an asshole. He likes that answer, even if it's poses as an inconvenience for him. ]

What a Master and Servant is in relation to what I am has nothing to do with the kind you're speaking of. But that still gives me the answer I was looking for.

Don't insult my teacher. He's around here, you know. And if he isn't up to defending his own honour, then I will for him.

[byhand]

[too late hes already endeared 2 u]

Happy to serve, my boy.

Oh? And what lengths would you take to defend a man who left you poorly suited for your task?

[chariotry]

[ NO I MEAN... HE'D BE ENDEARED TO THIS OLD MAN but he's going to be stubborn. He's wary of leaders since Agamemnon okay.

Also insert joke here about Achilles' answer being that he'll have a temper tantrum and sit out on all his given missions. ]

The easy answer would be I'd kill you.

But hopefully I won't have to go that far. For your sake you should settle for a spear tip aimed at your face and apologize.

[byhand]

[I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN....... Sarge just don't care ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

I'd like to see you try. If your teacher was so poor a hand at every other aspect of your education, he must have left much to be desired in the realm of combat. Regrettably, I will not be able to meet you in person for some weeks. I await your acquaintance, and, I suppose, your honor in combat.

[chariotry]

Some weeks? And why is that, Sargent? Are you unfit to come out here on the front lines with us?

Typical.

I expect you'll be watching me fight anyway. Then you'll eat your words about my teacher.

[byhand]

Yes, that is precisely why. I am unfit. An old injury, among other things.

But I have never lost a battle to a son of Thetis, and I doubt I ever shall.

[chariotry]

[ Oh.... no.

Achilles' blood thunders in his ears. There's that familiar rush, the need to act, but there's no one in front of him to lash out at. ]

Explain yourself.

[byhand]

It was not an insult, my boy. You were always too quick to anger.

I was a friend of brave Thetis, long ago. It's time passed far from the memory of man; I shouldn't have brought it up, if it troubles you.

[chariotry]

You said you wanted to hide your identity for the sake of your family’s safety and then tell me you know my mother?

What are your intentions and who are you, really?

[ He is wary, but for good reason. Though the thought of having someone familiar around, even through his mother, sounds ideal. He’s eager to know.

He noticed the implication that he knows him as well. He wonders if he’d recognize him if he met him in person. ]

[byhand]

Your mother, much like yourself, is a universal constant. My descendants are not so storied, though I suspect you could name at least one.

My intentions are not so nefarious as you seem to suspect. It is chance that you and I are here at crossed paths. I do not regret it. It is always a pleasure to converse with you, even if it is in anger and challenge.

PRIVATE

[chariotry]

If you know my mother... Am I speaking to a God? You must be.

You speak as if you know me, or have known me. Please tell me your name.

PRIVATE.

[byhand]

I am no god, though I have known my share. I am simply a very old man. The gods largely fell on the other side of this war. It is why I joined, in part. It is why my contributions have been considered valuable.

You already know my name. When we meet-- and, apparently, battle-- I'm sure it will spark your memory.

PRIVATE.

[chariotry]

[ He stews a little on this, having to reflect on his own hazy memories of his childhood. His mother, though married to a human, had always disliked humanity and looked down on it. If this man says he knows her, it's likely he isn't human even if he isn't a God. ]

Very well, Uncle. I'll respect your wish to keep your identity a secret, but eventually I will discover who you are.

It's reassuring to know that Olympus is watching over us through this war, though. So I'll thank you for that.

I still think you owe my teacher an apology.

[byhand]

Eventually, I promise, I will tell you. Though I imagine, when we meet, it will become rather obvious.

Olympus... the Gods took the side of the Regency, in many cases. Not all, of course; they never could all agree on one thing. You'll be happy to know the Nereids, however, fight alongside us. I've always considered their judgement more clear than that of ambrosia drinkers.

I only apologies for falsehoods, my boy.

[chariotry]

The Gods fight us?

It wouldn't be the first time I've been opposed by a God. Which Gods are our enemy and why have they chosen the side of the Regency?

But my mother... If she fights alongside us, why hasn't she contacted me at all? [ He's such a momma's boy, so now he's hyper-focused on this detail. ]

[byhand]

There are multiple versions of creation, my boy, different expressions of history and fact. You are Achilles, but you are not the one I've known. Your mother and the woman I speak of are the same, and yet different.

...In my memory, the Achilles I knew is quite dead, and has been for some millennia.

Hera and Zeus, and most of their children. Hades hangs back in an effort to be contrary, but he's hardly chosen a side. Persephone is fond of her cause for her own reasons, though she only offers aid when she can. Artemis stays neutral for she thinks it is her right. Athena aids COST to spite Neptune. It is as ever the prerogative of Olympus to be petty and spiteful, especially now.

Thetis has always been a strict woman with an eye for detail. As far as she's concerned, any living boy cannot be her son, no matter the pedigree or resemblance. For myself, I never regret spending more time with a fallen friend, even if in a different mode.

[chariotry]

You're saying that she doesn't believe me to be her true son?

I never even claimed to be a living man, but that doesn't make me an entirely different man. My soul is still that of Ἀχιλλεύς.

There's no way she'd reject me as her flesh and blood.

[ But he isn't flesh and blood. He only exists by the thin threads of mana tying him to the material world. Thinking about it in that sense, would she look down on him or see him as lesser?

Is he barely even a fragment of who he once was? ]

... Whether she'll ever see me as her son or not, I'm a hero.

So I'll fight anyone, God or man.

[byhand]

It is not rejection, lad. It's not wanting to get too close, only to lose her son once more. She isn't the woman you are remembering, either. When we burned your funeral pyre... It was a terrible day, one she has not forgotten, even thousands of years hence. You must understand that.

You are always the hero, yes. I've never any doubt in that.

[chariotry]

If I were to say I wanted to see her, would she refuse?

[byhand]

The first time, yes.

But the twentieth time? Who knows.

I have never met an Achilles lacking in stubbornness.

[chariotry]

[ A-am I the most handsome of all Achilles... ]

Then I'll call to her, myself.

... How many versions of me have you met, exactly?

[byhand]

Let me know if you want me to put in a good word.

Six. You're the seventh, counting the first, the man whose funeral I trekked all the way to burning Troy to attend. It's different every time, and often fairly... painful, to see men dead walk again. But that is the way of the world, now. One must adjust.

[chariotry]

No, I'll earn her trust myself. No son of Thetis would depend on others for her favour.

You're making me curious now. Though, like you said, I should know who you are once we meet.

And when that happens I'm sure it will be a joyous occasion rather than a sorrowful one.

I'll bring my teacher with me.