>>@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]

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.

[byhand]

If you wish it. You did challenge me a duel for the fool's honor, remember?

...

[chariotry]

The only fool is you if you don't yield an apology.

Re: ...

[byhand]

As I said, my boy, I don't apologize for truths. He was a poor teacher, and it lead you to ruin.

[chariotry]

Don't place blame on my teacher for my mistakes.

Don't act as if you know me so intimately when you don't know anything.

My ruin was fated. And I was the one who chose that fate.

[byhand]

Nothing is fated. All make their destiny. Those who say otherwise are fools. I have met the Delphine, and she is a caged woman kept drugged in secrecy and malice. Believe you me: the future is unwritten.