I hope everyone else is noticing this pattern here. None of this is coincidence.

These sons of bitches better fucking hide from me.

[It had started like a normal day. Then, oddly, he had gotten a letter at his work office. Not that he never got mail, but this one seemed... different than the usual test results and paperwork ping pong. Opening it, he found the letter was coated with a curious white powder. A few hours later, illness set in, and the doctor became a patient...]

...Watch your mail. I think mine was just poisoned. I'm staying at the hospital until further notice. Good thing this isn't my weekend to have the girls...

A Christian Nation.

That is what the FFCF and it's leader are constantly calling the USA. A Christian Nation. It's figurehead, Mimi Osmond, has been bashing the American public over the head with this message so hard and so often, I wonder if that's how she thinks she'll get people to believe her. And in truth, I think she has the right idea. For an educated populace to suddenly toss out the facts of history, disregarding it completely, brain damage seems like the best method.

The current "Threat To America", the apparent reappearance of Old World gods, has the FFCF and other groups like it, up in a tizzy. The need to reaffirm that this is a Christian Nation has become absolutely vital with their arrival. And that's because we, the American People, have no business believing in "False Gods".

We are a sinful country, and we stray from the right path. But not to worry! We have groups like the FFCF that are around to guide us back to the proper path. Whether we believe in it or not.

Forget Freedom of Religion. Forget that the Founding Father's of our nation explicitly stated that religion has no place in government. After all, who actually read the Treaty of Tripoli? Just because it's archived in D.C. doesn't mean John Adams' statement that "the government of the United States, is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" is something we should pay attention to. And that Thomas Jefferson fellow was probably just having a laugh when he wrote that "our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinion."

To believe this nonsense is just a stretch. Let's look back to the Equinox. If there was a time for "God" to bring down his wrath, don't you think that would have been the time? If it really bothered "God" that all these various deities were popping up, he probably would have done something about it then. Wouldn't he?

Or, perhaps, my free thinkers, the concept of Freedom of Religion was just handed to us on a silver platter. Deities from multiple old religions were revealed. How earth shattering it must be to learn that, as much as you tried to brow beat it in to us that there is only ONE god, you are absolutely wrong. These people are scrambling to pick up the pieces of their cracked glass house.

So when it comes down to it, the FFCF and other groups like it are absolutely terrified of losing their power base. Wouldn't you be too, if every god, but the one you've spent thousands of years forcing people to worship through various methods, suddenly showed up and waved hello? Osmond claims the Wrath of God is upon us. What is really upon us is a revolution of thought. The way we perceive the world is changing. Mystery is coming back into the world. The real question is, how will we approach it; with curiosity or with fear?

All right, my fellow Greeks--or anyone else feeling up to the job. We know we need to head to Rome to find... whatever it is we're supposed to be looking for. So, who is going to go?

I do have to travel to Italy fairly regularly on business, but right now... I'm not certain I would be the best candidate. Not after they took my son as well as the others. If no one else will volunteer, I'm certain I could perform the task required. Otherwise, I would be happy to sponsor someone else going in my place.

Any takers?

Hello, Godlings. Have you all been playing nicely together? I do hope so. You'll need to.

You've done well otherwise so far. Finding your lost treasures. But those won't be enough. There is more to find.

[Filter: Celts]
A secret has been lost in Eire, and it sings where the living voices went silent.

[Filter: Egyptians]
Once your blood ran through the veins of kings, and their power remains there buried. Find it, and it is yours again.

[Filter: Greeks]
Westward where the son of Troy, and the children of Venus and Mars brought forth their power, a piece remains.

[Filter: Hindu]
Far in the East, near where warriors come forth from the earth, a touch of power remains. Its music can make you dance again.

[Filter: Judeo-Christians]
You must seek the song in the wilderness again to find the lost power, far to the Devil's own continent.

[Filter: Norse]
The mountains hold secrets again, high in the clouds, but you must go south to seek the power that was lost. It sings in the shadow of the lost city.

[/filters]

Remember. You must strike while the time is hot. Let it grow cool, and it may slip through your fingers.

I was paid a visit recently. It put some things into a new light, lets say.

Okay, so, everyone who got a strange visitor lately... Show of hands? Tell me it wasn't just me?

School should be over. Which means the brat has gone into reading stupid shit for the summer. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters? She couldn't come up with a worse slap then that? I thought I taught her better than that.

Maybe it is a shame I broke her mother. I had somewhere else to ship her off after school let out.

I don't know how much longer the battery on this thing is going to hold out, and I don't know if the cops are still prowling around here, so I'll try to keep it short. I should have kept going west, not cut south-- did you know there's places around here where you can't get anything stronger than pop? I call that criminal.
I found this out the hard way when I walked into this restaurant and tried to order a beer. The staff pulled all kinds of attitude on me and told me that this was a family establishment and they didn't hold with spirituous liquors and all that-- and that's when things started to go really wrong, because one guy off in the corner started shouting "It's him! I saw him on the news-- the fornication and the drunkenness-- he's one of Them!"
I never heard anyone that was able to capitalize spoken words, especially when yelling them. Cross that one off my bucket list, I guess.
I shit you not, every single person in that restaurant was lined up facing me, shoulder to shoulder like some kind of football line-- or battle line. I tried to calm them down with a joke or something, but I couldn't get a word out before they pushed, literally pushed me back out the front doors and shoved me down in the parking lot. The owner told me I was going to get what was coming to me, "you and all your ungodly friends!" And that's when the police cars showed up, and I ran like hell.
I'm in a ditch and I have no idea where in the name of Uranus' ballsack I am, but I noticed something strange-- every single car in that parking lot had this little sticker on the back bumper or the back window. It looked kind of like a cross with hands and it said "Foundation for

[Your battery is now at 0%. This device is currently saving your post and shutting down. Please plug in your charger to use this device.]

Love, do you have a moment?

Okay, so I want to know who this is and what you want with me. Obviously, you’re some tech-heavy underground group, because I have never seen coding like this before. And I’ve played inside some very intricate software.

So just to be clear, unless you plan on offering me a lot of money, I’m not interested in being recruited to whatever this is. I pick my own career. So if that ruins your plans, then too bad. Stop hounding me.

I see I'm not the only one getting anonymous flowers.

It seems they're messages of some kind? But, are they just individual to us, or pieces to a greater whole?

[Dionysus]

A friend of mine wants your number. Apparently, the two of you didn't exchange info in NYC on the Equinox. The name Raven ring a bell?

[Hades] We need to talk.

[Aphrodite went to the doctor's office on her own that morning, and came back with some interesting news...]

[Filtered to Dionysus, Poseidon and Hades]

Gentlemen, if you can see this, it means we need to have a chat. Get back to me as soon as you're able.

So... things I've learned in the past couple weeks:

It is amazing how many drinks strangers will buy for you when you're dressed up like a Persian courtesan and saying it's part of your birthday celebration.

Also, it only takes fewer than two dozen godlings to catch the attention of the world.

...and that leads me to the last thing... Godlings... we've got a problem. No joking.

Hello, godlings. Have you missed us?

I am pleased at how well your progress is coming along. Some of you know where you must go. Some of you have even acquired your first artifacts. There is more to be done, of course, but I am pleased thus far. Soon, you will not need to hide behind your current shells.

That does, however, beg a question. Can you be trusted to be yourselves again? Can the world be trusted to handle you? There is only one way to find out.

Your test begins at sunrise tomorrow, on the Equinox. It ends at sunrise the next day. We will be watching you.

Today is a sad day for the world of knowledge.

After 244 years, the printed Encyclopedia Britannica will no longer exist. Sure, there will still be the digital editions and all, but it's just not the same experience. Not the smell of the pages, the careful illuminations, the weight of all that information right there in your hands... It was always an investment in learning, solid and dependable. I'm going to miss it.

So, okay, I'm posting this during my planning period (I teach English to high school students), but I did get the email inviting me here.

My name is Alan Cleary--"Big Al," if you like--and, like I said, I'm a teacher. I also have two awesome kids, my son Devin, who is 16 and one of my students, and my daughter Harper, who's 11.

What's this place all about?

[Filtered to Greek Pantheon]
It's been a while since we last had a collective status report. So, how are we coming along with all our clues? What steps are we taking forward?

I can appreciate persistence, but really, spamming my business email is not the best way to get positive attention from me.

But I suppose it's also effective. This is Ebony Duron, how can I help you?