2019-03-24 - Olympus

Mount Olympus.

Yep. That's really tall. As Cassie is let off the boat, Charon accepts his two cents, grumbling all the way about lack of meeting inflation and how he's being run into the ground with tax rates these aeons. He's really not the kind of guy you invite to parties, but then there's the guilt trip.

Whelp. Time to get walking. Zeus' invitation in hand, delivered by Hermes himself! 'Come up, I need something of ye.' It was terse, but then he is the king of Gods. He's allowed. Ahead is the mountain itself. Sorry, no escalator here.

Wonder Girl is totally, totally semi terrified when it coes to being summoned to see 'Dad'. She's always wary of being brought up to her father, particularly wtih little notice. Without Diana or her mother there, she feels vulnerable in his presence. So, there's a sense of caution as she arrives at the Gates of Mount Olympus, head cocked and alert just in case that there's something amiss.

She looks up, and then takes out a breath. STairs or flight, stairs or flight. Stairs or.. Definitely stairs. So, time to take the long way up.

Cassie smartly takes the long way up, not knowing but apparently somehow aware that it would have cost more to have cheated by flying. Good for her! As the harpies fly over, just in case she'd tried to get past, they nod to her. She's scored a point! Or...you know, whatever's going on.

Walking up the stairs, which are exactly the right size for her steps as a reward, she comes upon two things. En empty path, through brambles and thorns to the right. To the left, a path of solid gold! It actually looks easy to walk, with a slight downslope that suggests it'll help her to get along faster.

There's even an emoticon on the first step. It's a smiley. :)

Wonder Girl just stares over at this. "Oh Hera." As she goes to look up and over at it. Then she looks up and over at the doors. Then at the entryway. Then up ahead. What in the name of Athena is going on? She has the self control to not bury her face in her hands.

But now she strides forwards, resisting the urge to go 'Daaadd' and fly in as she does so. Taking deep, relaxed breaths. Amazon calming mantra, amazon calming mantra.. Wait, dad is inviting her in with smilie face.. Amazon calming mantras failing..

Aah. Wonder Girl has chosen the harder path. She must fight her way past immortal brambles, that regrow when she harms them. This is a challenge indeed! The only way is to uproot them entirely, ripping the plants out by the roots. Which hurts the hands, they are sharp!

Emerging on the other side, a girl with a cloth over her eyes waits. She holds out a white cloth to Cassie from a bowl of water. "To wash with," she suggests in a warm voice. Which is nice, given the blood. Brambles suck!

Wonder Girl has small scores over her body where the brambles had hit, the girl going to whack them along. They might not quite pierce her skin, but the barbs had dug into her body as she moved so they had still left welts along it. She goes to look at the girl as she has blood going down her.

"And who ar eyou, if you do not mind me asking?" Always be wary when one is given something free by one that one does not know. The young lady bows, clearly blind from the cloth over her eyes. "I am Epistia," she says. "The offer. Will you wash away your wounds, great warrior?" How does she know there are wounds, when she is clearly blind? She offers the cloth again. It does look inviting, and the water is warm.

"You do not have to. It is merely a cloth. A minor thing in such a long journey." She looks like she's staring at Cassie without eyes. Waiting.

Wonder Girl gives a bow, "I am no great warrior, but thank you. I follow in the footsteps of one." She offers carefully, "So, might I inquire as to why you are here to greet me then and send me on my way?" She goes to at this point take the cloth then to dab at herself.

Curious, but at least a bit more relaxed. After all, one does not meet the root of knowing often

Epistia waits, listening until Cassie is finished. She apparently takes her time, thinking it through before answering. In all things, always.

"I had no question until now. You've taken the harder route though. Twice thus far. Do you know why? I assume you have theories, but do you know?" It's a very 'her' way of thinking of things. Also she clearly has a good idea what's happened thus far.

The cloth feels WOUNDROUS also. Like liquid love, healing all wounds that have been caused and relieving both tension and stress.

Wonder Girl goes to watch over then and she goes, "To paraphrase Robert Frost, I went the route less traveled by. And that has made the difference." She intones over even wtih her not quite accurate phrasing. "I took the harder path because the easier way often merely seems that way. And there is often some sort of reason why it is easy. The route does not always end in something simple."

Pain is easy. Caution is easy. "So what then, pray Hera, might you give me for advise on my presumptions for reasoning?" She wiped her face and relaxed.

The girl pauses. Always the pauses, always thought. She turns away, looking up at the top of Olympus meaningfully. Then, "Consider the source," she offers. "When you ask that question, you always gain insight."

Then she's simply gone. The cloth remains. Why? There's no purpose in asking where she went. This is Olympus, the seat of power. She simply is, or is not.

And the path awaits, stretching on.

Wonder Girl glances at it and lets out a sigh, "Well, Father is always one to summon someone for something specific." She goes to close her eyes. "Athena, give me the inspiration to find Wisdom to answer my questions." She does not ask the Goddess directly - why should Athena grant something that has not beenearned nor attempted.

"Thank you." She offers gently to Epistia and gives a bow, taking her two bracers together in a salute. Then, forwards once more.

Ahead, a giant sits. Aside the path to the right, he sits. Waiting, he sits. Naked as the day he was born, he sits, a gigantic club in his lap. Waiting. The eye looks at all things, waiting. The path goes right beneath his gaze. There is no way to pass on the path, without being seen.

One could of course simply walk behind him.

Wonder Girl glances up at the cyclops. Then she gives a bow of her head. "Do I have your permission to pass along?" Always better to be careful and not rush. And be polite when one is not hostile. And that means being diplomatic, as Diana would put it. "And do you guard this pathway for a reason?"

The large head turns. It inhales, taking in air. For an attack? No, it seems from the available data, to simply speak. To ask. To question.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

His voice is the mountain. It offers no conversation. Simply an implacable question. Which must be answered, to his satisfaction one would guess.

Wonder Girl glances up at the Cyclops. "I am Cassandra Sandsmark. Daughter of Zeus Cronus and Helena Sandsmark. My mentor is Diana of Themyscira. I aim to follow in her footsteps sa a patron of the Amazons and that of her protege, Donna Troy." She does not shake - but she holds up her bracers in a salute.

The eye looks downward, waiting. Without judgement, it seems to consider the answer. But that could be just reading into it; the thing just is NOT human. It might be thinking not at all. Because a moment later, it asks.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

...again. Is that a failure? Or ...something else?

Wonder Girl watches up and cocks her head, "I am myself. I am my own being. I cannot claim to be more than that beyond attempting to take those whom have taught me and given me an example of which to follow and instruction and hold myself sa best as I can to their ideal."

Not so easy, it seems. Because a moment later, that monstrous voice comes again. "WHO ARE YOU?" it asks. It does not move anything but its head. It waits. It is the mountain, asking. The voice sounds like gravel, like time and like forever. Like...it speaks with the voice of a mountain. And mountains take time to do anything. Epistia said...consider the source.

It's asking slowly. Does it think slowly as well? How to deal with this challenge?

Wonder Girl gives a bow, "I am one birthed from clay, formed. One who must learn and understand. From others, and from herself. The rocks are formed from pressure, from the river, from the sky. I am one made by my parents, by those who have trained me, and by my experiences. I am the sum total of what has made me and what has forgedme."

The cyclops who is the mountain waits. This time it does not ask again. Instead it simply waits, the path below him open.

There is no grand concession, no gift of approval. But mountains do not do these things, and it would be silly to expect a mountain to answer. So it becomes a question of its own.

Walk under his gaze, and his ready weapon? Or not? Bravery...was always the choice of heroes.

Wonder Girl gives a bow then as at least the nothignness came back. "Then, Cyclops, I shall take this as your assent." She gives a bow to him with her bracers once more, and goes to head along cautiously. Not sure if this is the wisdom of the gods given in a sort of veiled phrase.. Or simply something borne of a bad hangover the likes of which even the rocks are veiled by inebriation.

And she goes forwards.

He's not there. It's simply a hill, with a tree growing out of it. He was never there, or he was. It's not worth asking, and the gods aren't telling. What's next, what is waiting?

A body. A corpse, laying on the ground. Birds of carrion fly away at Cassie's approach. It's a man, or it was. The birds have picked at him, and he's laying there on the side of the path. Out of the way, you can simply walk past him. In fact, the gates is visible ahead.

He's dead, not like you can do much anyway. He actually stinks a little bit, and his wounds look many. It looks as if he's drawn himself out of a bush of brambles and died, much like the ones which Cassie passed through earlier.

Wonder Girl goes to watch through quietly. Seeing the body of the man. Picked by carrion. A frown on her face. She quickly looks for chains. Seeing none ten and going to look down at him. "What did you do to earn such wrath?" Someone at Olympus itself dead and being picked on by carrion would have done something dire. To have earned the personal emnity to have done such a thing. This has her attention.

What had her journey bring her success as opposed tot his man that was fallen by it? To what malaise had done him in? Exploration? Envy? Enmity? She bos her head. T aking in the scene and seeing if she can try and see more of it.

The body has nothing to say. Simply the last question in a line of questions. Where will you go? Which path will you choose? Will you take the cloth? Who are you? What question is this dead man asking? It would be foolish to assume that he's there for no reason, not after all of this.

The brambles may be a clue. Or the cloth, still damp after all this time. Or the sky, or the...anything. The gate to Olympus awaits.

Like washing away chalk on a board, the cloth works miracles. Wisdom turns to action, and shortly afterwards the man is opening his eyes, his wounds gone from the world. The cloth vanishes too, when its purpose is served. And the man asks a question. The last question, his voice grateful.

"Why?"

Clearly the one question that Cassie hasn't answered. Well, it's that one's turn.

Wonder Girl goes to glance down at the man and considers. Then answers, "Because if I were in the position you were, I would hope that it would be done for me. Because how can one expect aid if it is not given? No matter how desperate the circumstances." She offers.

He smiles. Then he says, "We each have our own why. I am why, but you have a greater one that you keep waiting. Step into Olympus, warrior." Then he turns to dust, slipping away without pain. And the gate seems to wait.

Wonder Girl gives a light bow, "Peace to you on your journey. I hope to be a warrior. Or not. Where my path leads." She offers to him and then watches him fade. "May Charon take you on the river to peace." And she is going towards the gates. Zeus awaits.

The entire place is gold. The sky is gold, somehow, while still being blue. Hermes applauds from a cloud, clearly content with Cassie's performance. Athena watches quietly. She was always harder to impress though. But something in her mein suggests 'adequate'.

Zeus awaits ahead though. He leans over a table, tapping something. A chess piece? Or a winged unicorn? It's definitely got wings.

Has Zeus impregnated the table? Has he impregnated the table as a unicorn? Was he the table and impregnated something else? Cassandra does not want to ask those questions. But given her father, she has to keep them in the back of her mind.

As she enters, she bows her head, "Father. Why have you requested my presence?" She does not call it summoned. She respects her father, even as she is aware of his sense of whimsy.

And, at the end of this quest, Zeus looks down. He waves his hand and Cassie is larger, large enough to see what he's doing. "What took you? I expected you to fly," he says, looking distracted. As Hermes and Athena watch, smiling in the background. And one slips the other a gold piece under the table.

"Nevermind that, see here? Can you tell me how to find my purchases? This website is horribly confusing," Zeus, king of the Gods, asks his daughter. For help with the internet.

Son of a bitch.