Side Trip (Tag: Susa-no-O, Amaterasu, Uzume)
Helios, return to your duties.
The time isn't right yet.
Zeus' words. Two were slain, another injured, and two more deserted. If not now, when?
No, that was an unfair stance to take against Zeus. If any supported the wisdom of the king it was Helios, through just as many difficult times as they shared good, but the sun god couldn't deny the fury seething within at the gall of the Underworlders, the Chthonians who felt they held claim to the sky. They need only line up, they who would stand against Olympus, they who would stand against the sun, and he would burn them to cinders one at a time. Akheron. Phlegethon. Nyx. Moros, but that last one would be left alive. His would be Apollo's judgment to pass.
But the time was not yet right, according to Zeus. Perhaps. There was truth in that, Helios knew, but that did nothing to subside the rage. That didn't make it an easy thing to accept. It could be an hour. It could be a day, a week or even a month. There was no telling. What Helios did know was that he needed something, something to take his mind from it all while one eye remained in the sky. Something to distract him, lest a good man go mad with anticipation.
What he needed right now, he felt, was to relax. The first hour around his palace secluded in the Aegean Sea saw a multitude of tasks and means of entertainment, but through it all Helios' mind was only on one thing - war. Violence. Fighting. He disliked fighting greatly, but now, pushed to that edge, he was the last that would back down from such a thing. Let them come, and let them fall. The second hour didn't prove much better, he not even shedding his heavy golden armor for a moment, in case Zeus' call was sooner rather than later.
Mad. He'd go mad should this go on for a third hour. Helios sighed, sinking down against his couch. Sponge Bob was on, but it could have just as easily been anything. His mind wasn't on it, on the TV or on anywhere else that would help him right now. He needed to relax, to get his mind off of things until there were some new developments to report, or... or something. Something important. Hephaestus? Maybe, but considering their past they'd probably just start talking about the war, though the current or the original Helios didn't know. Eos? Maybe, but Helios felt like he needed an outside opinion. Well, not an outside opinion so much as an outside deity, one whose face wouldn't remind him of Olympus or the Greeks in general for awhile.
Susa-no-O was the first person that came to mind, and with it Helios bore a small smirk at the edge of his lips. A bit of relaxation, a friendly chat amidst the refreshing sea breeze and more sake and wine than either could ever hope to drink. Well, sake and wine for Susa. Helios was on call, so he couldn't drink. He couldn't drink more than a few drops. Maybe a sip or two, but that was it. Maybe a few mouthfuls, but really, no more than that. Helios was well aware of how much he could handle, and he would stick to it.
Within eight minutes the beautiful golden ship crafted by Hephaestus' hands was loaded with two-dozen casks of wine, some of the finest from Dionysos' stock that was often gifted to him. Within ten the brilliantly shining ship had left Helios' oceanic temple with the sun god standing at the bow, and within eleven he was calling out to Poseidon and several gods of wind for swift passage. The Sea of Japan, by divine aid, was reached in barely one day.
However, in the course of that day Helios had found need to entertain himself. He'd had a bit of the wine to pass the time, but only a small amount. Only a few drops. Just enough to wet his throat, really. A few drinks from one of the casks, which was fine because he really didn't feel anything.
By the time he entered the Sea of Japan Helios was drunk and naked, armor shed and piled in a corner of the deck.