Who: Alana and Hephaestus What: Revelations Where: Stately Lugosi Manor When: BACKDATED 9/13, 2-ish Warnings: None, except one or two slips in Alana's language.
She'd been expecting a big house. The guy was rich, and she was getting rather first hand experience in how the rich gods could spend their money. All the same, when first approaching the address that she'd been given, Alana couldn't help but slow and stop her truck to take a serious look at the building before her. And part of her itched to know how it was built. She'd blame the recent work she'd been doing.
Going through the front gate that opened wide to admit her, she drove her truck along the drive and to the front doors. If she needed to move it, she'd deal with that after she said her hellos. The music inside the cab went from near blasting to silent as the engine went off, and Alana climbed out. Even up close, the house seemed huge. Was there any real point to having that many rooms? Maybe he had a lot of guests...
Self-consciously, she wiped her hands on her jeans to get off any of the work dust, before stepping up to the doors and glancing about. Now, was it door bell, or knock? Smirking, she wondered if a good yell would work. Best to start with a simple knock for the moment. She'd try door bell next.
Hephaestus had been standing in the foyer waiting for Alana's arrival for a few minutes before he heard the Alana's knock. Otherwise, he never would have heard the small sound. He doubted it carried as far as the hallway. Waving away Jarella as she moved habitually to answer the door, Hephaestus opened it himself. Alana deserved the personal touch.
"Hello, Alana," Hephaestus said politely, stamping down on a sudden twinge of nerves, "Please, come in."
She greeted him with a grin and rested her hands in her back pockets. "Hey, hey. Long time no see. How goes it all?" Stepping inside, she glanced around at the space, nodding slightly to herself. Right. Rich gods. She might get used to that after a few more visits with them.
Hephaestus considered her question seriously for a moment.
"It all goes pretty much normally," he replied evenly, "But things seem to have become more interesting for you." Hephaestus grinned, but inside he considered Alana mirthlessly. He knew there was a good possibility his plan for Atlas would blow up in his face, and he wondered if he was looking at the lit fuse.
The mortal shrugged, looking back at him. "I think things got more interestin' the first time I stepped into the Jube hotel and ended up meetin' the owner. I keep thinking the smart thing to do would be simply get out of town." And away from all the chaos that was the immortals. Because running away solved all problems. Uh huh.
"It is the smart thing to do." Hephaestus shrugged. "I did it for centuries and it worked wonderfully. There are days I consider it even now." Being away from his family had done a lot more to improve his relationship with them than being near them had.
"Now," Hephaestus said, changing subjects, "Would you like a tour, or would you like to get down to business?" He assumed Alana would want answers immediately, but this whole encounter was already not going as he had assumed.
"Feel like doin' both? Because I can already tell ya that my meeting with the Wall yesterday wasn't exactly how I was expectin' my errands to go." She raised her eyebrows, picking up the seriousness of the changed subjects.
"I expect it was not. So, tour then answers," Hephaestus asked, "Or tour and answers?" Hephaestus took one more mental run through of his Atlas plans, and another mental run through of his house. He didn't use most of the aboveground levels. He didn't usually have to think of them.
"Walk and talk. Dante's got me workin' on a house for his kids, and I'm still wonderin' if there's something else I should have thought about." Another shrug. She could talk about two topics at once, and would probably pause them in whatever room they were standing in if something important demanded full attention. Most likely, that would happen soon.
A house for his children? Extravagant. Hephaestus put thoughts of his uncle's home owning children out of his mind and turned so he faced the front door of his house.
"Very well. We'll start here." Hephaestus gestured to the room around him. "This is the foyer. The floors are white Italian marble. There are two grand staircases behind me lead to the second floors of the two wings of the house. Beneath the staircase to my left are the stairs to the basement levels. There is a closet beneath the stairs to my right. If you look up--" Hephaestus looked up himself. "--You will see the chandelier, constructed of silica crystals with silicon highlights, a nod to the most recent way I have made my fortune. Behind me is the door to the kitchen and dining areas, and to the left and right are the doors to the first floors of the two wings of the house. To the left are my personal quarters--" Which I do not often use, Hephaestus added silently. "--And to the right are the guest quarters." His description done, Hephaestus waited for Alana to take the initiative.
A smirk grew on her face as she tried not to snicker at the whole speech. "Gee, don't have that near practiced or anythin'," she mentioned. But she'd followed each of his directions in the descriptions, and while personal quarters could be most interesting, she'd wait for a moment before asking about them. "Start with the kitchen to get somethin' to drink?"
Hephaestus matched Alana's smirk. He had figured she'd want refreshments first.
"Follow me," he replied simply. He turned and walked through the door behind him. As he passed through the short hallway, he paused. "To the left is the kitchen, to the right, a bathroom, one of 8 in the house, and straight ahead is the main dining hall. This hallway also uses white marble, and the art selected for the walls is, I'm told, both avant-garde and highly valuable." Hephaestus continued moving and headed through the left door. "And here we are in the kitchen. The kitchen is designed to be functional, with easy to clean grey terrazzo floors, stainless steel fixtures with a brushed nickel finish, and high-density concrete counters in black. Help yourself to whatever you would like in the fridge. I think I even have some wine hidden in the cabinets." Hephaestus maneuvered himself behind on of the counters and leaned on it, waiting for Alana to drop the hammer on her questions. She was much more casual about it than he expected.
She'd had a day to get over some of the 'holy fuck!' shock. Walking to the fridge, she opened the door and began to dig around. Hmm, beer? "Sound almost like you're tryin' ta sell me the place," she teased lightly. "I can tell ya now, I can't afford it." But, he would have known that. It wasn't like she was the one with the technology companies. Finding something suitable to her tastes, she grabbed one of the beers that she'd seen, but never tried, and closed the fridge. "So what happened after ya grabbed the Wall from the back alley brawl?"
Hephaestus shrugged. "You wanted a tour, so I'm giving you a tour. I just happen to be very detail oriented." Standing straighter, Hephaestus prepared to explain why Atlas was out in the wild instead of under lock and key. "What happened was that I tried to be nice to him. Atlas spent quite a bit of time unconscious even after his wounds had healed. He was dealing with some deep seated psychological trauma. When he awoke, he seemed to have once again become the docile Natal Maltose. He had no memory of the attack on Herakles, and when I pressed him about it, he became agitated. My theory is that something caused Atlas' mind to fracture into at least two distinct personae. There's Natal Maltose, the childlike persona you named Wall, and Atlas, the asshole Titan my family knows and hates."
"My plan," Hephaestus continued with a heavy breath, "was to convince Natal that I was his friend, and thereby gain a powerful ally for the family and possible leverage against the other Titans." Hephaestus would leave his future plans for the Titans unsaid. "However, Natal proved to be unpredictable, unreasonable, and destructive. His mind adhered to a rationale I could not decipher. He was an incomplete being. I could not predict what he would do, and that troubled me. So, I decided to prod the Atlas persona to the fore, a calculated risk. I figured the devil I know would be preferable to the devil I don't. And I was right. Atlas, for all his bluster, reacts with the same drives and instincts most beings have. When I revealed that I had placed a bomb in his brain that would explode if he broke the rules, I found that his behavior improved considerably." Hephaestus considered taking a beer for himself. He could use a stiff drink after laying his plan out.
Alana listened the rational laid out with a very interested and curious look on her face. Using the edge of her shirt, she twisted off the top of her drink, waiting to hear him out completely before she even took a drink. "Makes sense... Wall was kinda like a little kid, tryin' ta get him ta understand what was goin' on. He seemed to know some rules about fighting or boxing or whatever from what he said, and like he wanted a good fight, but..." she shrugged. "Kinda like a simpleton in a way. Compared to who I met by the gym yesterday...." She shook her head. Vast difference there.
She started to raise the beer to her lips, when she realized that he didn't have a drink in front of him. Alana gestured over her shoulder to the fridge. "Did you want me ta grab ya anythin'?"
Hephaestus thought for a moment, then nodded. "Sure, grab me a beer." As he waited for his drink, he elaborated a bit further, though continued to omit how his anger over Jarella and Caiera's injury had played a part in his decision. "I just feel that Atlas is too valuable a resource to simply dispose of, but I fear my family won't share that view. However, given how Atlas acted before he left, I can imagine how... disturbing it must have been for you." Atlas, for all his purported ignorance, could be a cunning opponent.
"Normally I don't fear that I'm gonna find my head bashed in if I decide ta blow a guy off and consider kickin' him in the groin," she offered bluntly, turning to grab him a beer as well, then bringing it over to the counter where she could stand opposite of him. "Seems like he's been having some fun without much concern for us wee mortals. Somethin' 'bout how there's always more..." She took another drink, and tilted her head some. "What rules have ya put on him?"
"I would avoid kicking him in the groin," Hephaestus said as he popped the beer open. "His body density is very high, you could hurt yourself." Hephaestus took a draught from his beer. "The only hard and fast rule programmed into the bombs is that he cannot attack another deity unprovoked. It's the only one I could apply with the space restrictions inside his skull. But," Hephaestus held up a finger, "He doesn't know that. So, he has to act under the assumption that his next move could be his last. And to that end, he hasn't killed a single mortal or done anything to one against their will." Not 100% true, but those thugs had a beating coming, anyway. "And, as a final safeguard, I am able to monitor his behavior through a transmitter attached to the bombs in his brain. Also, there is more than one bomb in his body, another fact he's unaware of." Hephaestus took another drink from his beer. It all made sense to him, even now. But he had always had a problem predicting how others would react.
She frowned slightly, thinking things over. "Where are the other bombs in his body, and what type of behavior can you monitor? Like, can you know what he's saying, who he's talking to, things like that?" Where he was would be a simple enough thing to find out. If they can tag animals, she had no doubt the techie god would be able to put some kind of tracker into the other god. Though, that did raise another brief question to her mind. Hmm.
"I can see what he sees and hear what he hears." Hephaestus took another drink. "It wasn't that hard, really. I have to wear my monitoring glasses to do so, but he's asleep now. I'll be notified when he awakes." Hephaestus was a master of prosthetics. Hijacking Atlas' optic nerve and using his jawbone as a microphone were child's play.
"So he can't arrange for someone else ta do the dirty work." That'd be far too easy of an out. "And whatever ya used for the bombs, somethin' that ichor can't corrode or whatever... Can ichor corrode basic metals or plastics?" It was a reasonable question. Especially if she was going to be exposed to it or risk having her truck around it.
Hephaestus paused for a moment. Alana had said something he hadn't considered.
"If Atlas started building a criminal organization, I'd detonate immediately. Fortunately, Atlas is very much a hands-on individual, and the likelihood of that is low." Hephaestus took another drink of his beer, finishing it. Calculated risk. "And, madam," Hephaestus said with mock hurt, "I am a master metallurgist. I'm not going to overlook something as simple as ichor corrosion. And, before you ask, there's no risk of a detonation spraying innocent children and puppies with deadly ichor. The blasts will be contained within Atlas' body." Atlas' skin was tough enough to contain a bunker buster, but Hephaestus didn't need anything that dramatic to turn Atlas into a waterbed.
"Well, I was hopin' you'd taken such simple precautions into consideration. Either that, or you value mortals as much as he seems to." Something she might consider with Ares, and maybe a few others, but was less inclined to believe with Hephaestus. "Though with the metal I was thinkin' also about transport of the injured type. I'd rather not have to get a new truck." Taking another drink, mentally she went over what she'd heard about everything. Another concern came up, and this one made Alana cringe to even ask it. "Excuse me if this goes inta the 'too much information' category, but... any fear of him makin' off spring? He seemed more than a little pleased with the fact that he could get women based on his sheer body build, and like he wasn't afraid ta take advantage of it either."
"Alana," Hephaestus let true insult into his voice this time, "No one, with the possible exception of Athena, values mortals than I do, and I hope you never doubt that." Hephaestus got up and headed to the fridge for another beer. Now he definitely needed a drink and a chance to calm himself. Heading back to the counter, he opened the beer and took a long drink. Calmed, he continued. "Your truck should be fine as long as you cleaned it properly. And I'm not so much worried about Atlas having children as I am your taking what he says at face value. Atlas is a braggart." He took another drink to prepare for what he would say next. "He exaggerates his exploits. And if he does have any children, they will be mortal, and therefore much less dangerous than their sire." Mortals had enough contraceptives available to them that Hephaestus felt the chance of an Atlas-sired child were slim.
She put her hands up in the typical surrender gesture. "Hey, I'm just mentionin' to be clear. And while I trust you more than some of the gods around, and there's at least one I wouldn't mind seein' a baseball bat taken to for -- a whole other story that's prob'ly best left alone. So!" Grabbing her bottle, she took a long drink, and leaned back on the counter. "Jackass braggin' Atlas is just like any other bar freak who can't separate his fantasy from his reality. I can't really beat the crap outta him for obvious reasons, so, what would ya call the best plan should I happen ta run inta him again? Dodge and run, or assume that he won't do half what he threatens and treat him like any other male who needs an ego bashing?" Hopefully she hadn't rambled her words together too much to not be understood.
Hephaestus would just assume the god in need of a baseball batting was Apollo and say nothing about it.
"Just remember that I am always watching what Atlas is doing, my finger on the button that will turn him into an ichor balloon. Don't let what he says get to you and give back as good as you get. If he lays a hand on you, it will be the last thing he ever does." Hephaestus took a sip of his beer. "Just don't tell him that I'm watching, if you would. I want him to know there are consequences to his actions, but not that I'm monitoring him at all times. I know it's a lot to ask." And Hephaestus did. He had considered it highly unlikely that Atlas would encounter a member of the family or the mortals who associated with them in Miami, a city of millions, but long odds had an odd way of coming through.
"No worries. I ain't about to give away the ace up the sleeve." She lifted her bottle and finished off the last bit before setting it aside and stretching. Right. Well, that meant fewer worries there at least. "Anythin' else I should be aware of or any other questions I should be askin'?" There had to be something. Things were never as simple as they first appeared.
Hephaestus considered saying that she seemed to have her bases covered. Atlas couldn't really hurt her and, yes, Hephaestus did seem to know what he was doing. However, he couldn't in good conscious neglect to mention the one question she hadn't asked.
"The question I would ask in your position is 'Who can I tell?" Hephaestus began slowly, almost reluctantly. "But I'm not going to tell you who you can and cannot tell. I trust your judgment on the matter. If you tell someone who wants to take it up with me, I'll take responsibility for my actions." After saying it, Hephaestus realized that that had been the part he had been dreading the most. Now that it was over, he felt much relieved.
"I think in that case, it's easier if I just play the no tell game and leave each ta fend for themselves. Not exactly like you're gonna be bringin' him back ta where ever you were holdin' him just to take the bombs out unless you have some other plan in mind." She'd worry about the moral implications of such a thing later. As it was, it wasn't exactly like she could do anything about what he'd done. The battle of the gods was for the gods. Not one little mortal getting caught in the cross fire. " ... Though, I now have the messed up image from the shows or books or whatever with the 'behavior modification' through tiny zaps and what not when someone did what they weren't supposed to do..." Too much late night TV anyone?
"I am trying to modify his behavior, pure and simple," Hephaestus admitted. "I am trying to mold him form a vengeful force of destruction to something resembling a civilized being." He finished off his second beer. "However, I do feel that, even with the bombs and threat of imminent death, I am giving Atlas a fairer chance than other members of my family. Recent events have shown me that we are not always as safe and secure as we think we are, and we can't afford to just throw away opportunities for alliances and shared strength." That's what it boiled down to. It wasn't worth killing Atlas for something petty if he could help them down the line.
She tilted her head to the side, then pushed from the counter to go to the fridge. Second beer for herself or not? Choices, choices... "What kinds of things with the family?" She glanced to him and arched her eyebrows. "Or am I not allowed ta know?"
Hephaestus sighed. "It's just that we're not the only former godheads out there, and not all of them are as friendly as the Aesir." Hephaestus didn't feel like getting into their run ins with the Egyptians and The Devil. He didn't even have the full stories if he wanted to tell. "We've had some problems with other pantheons. We've handled them, for now, but I'm looking ahead to the future." That was true enough.. If she wanted more specific details, she could speak to Hades. Hephaestus figured he had the full scoop.
She shook her head. "Just give me a warning if I ever should be leavin' the town at full speed due to some godly battle about to break out around me. I can hold me own, but I'm kinda useless if the immortal blood is flyin' about. Speaking of flying..." She decided she might as well grab a second beer for herself, then held up one of the others in silent question if he wanted another. "You still up on that travel offer you made a while back?"
"Fortunately, all the big battles seem to have been settled for now." Hephaestus waved off Alana's offer of another beer. The need to drink had passed. "Of course I remember the offer. I told you I was serious at the time." He would need time to clear out his schedule, but he remembered that Alana had to build Hades a house, so he waited to see what time she would suggest for departure.
She set the drink back inside, then popped her own second open as she walked back toward the counter. "Sure, but I never know what comes up in your world ta know if the offer was still good or if there was some sudden fear or planes or whatever," she offered, giving him a clear chance to back as possible. "But, if you're up for it, I was thinking... I don't know, November or something. Either before Thanksgiving and all that travel, or after the winter break for all the colleges..."
"That's plenty of time to clear my schedule, and I'm not likely to develop a fear of aerospace technology any time soon." Not that Hephaestus couldn't clear his schedule whenever he wanted, but it was easier on him when he had advanced notice. "We can go to Lemnos and gorge ourselves in the American tradition." It had been a while since Hephaestus had been to his true home. He missed it.
As long as it didn't involve getting godly drugged? Alana was game. She raised her bottle in half salute. "Sounds good to me. We'll just need ta pick the dates for travel and all, so I can make sure the boss isn't going to try and prevent me from going, and to get tickets or whatever. I figure by then I'll be ready for it to keep from tellin' some guest to shove it." And, while possibly humorous, that was not good costumer service. She'd rather not get fired, even if she could probably blackmail Zeus.
Hephaestus furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Tickets? You honestly don't expect to fly commercial, do you? I have my own plane." He could hardly avoid having one. He was rich enough to buy one and smart enough to build one. It was an inevitability. No, his biggest concern would be Atlas, as usual, but he had time to come up with a plan for him. "You decide when you want to go and we'll go. Simple as that." Being obscenely rich had its perks.
"Ah, right, the offices all over the world, right?" She chuckled. "Hey, don't blame me for tryin' to be polite and not assume someone else was flipping the bill. Which I appreciate, by the way, on the flight costs. I still don't think I've fully accepted the idea that I've got millionaires around me that I can speak with like normal people." Prior to Miami, she'd learned the idea of living not so much pay check to paycheck, but tip to tip and job to job. Having money as she did was a novelty. Having friends who had more was an even greater one.
"You speak frequently with beings that used to be gods and it's the money that bothers you?" Hephaestus asked wryly. "Sometimes I feel I'll never understand mortals." Hephaestus chuckled a bit before speaking again. "Don't worry about the money. Sometimes I think I have more than I could spend in my lifetime, which is saying something. It's good to finally be in a society that gives scientists and technology the appreciation they deserve." After centuries of being shunned and persecuted, modern society was a welcome change for the smith god.
"Well, ya know, since I work daily with one and give him as much shit as I do anyone else, that lets me forget that he's got a weird blood type." Almost snickering, she brought the bottle close to her lips, letting it partly hide her next comments. "But if the money ain't a worry, then you're covering food and lodging as well, right?" It was a joke, and she quickly took a drink of her beer after saying so before speaking again. "A friend of mine once pointed out how the geeks used to be the ones always criticized in schools, and now it's the ones who are the geeks that girls tend to find hot. ... But, I suspect you'd have more first hand experience with that then I would."
Hephaestus considered her words about Zeus. They made a certain amount of sense.
"As I have a mansion with a kitchen stocked with food, yes, I assumed I'd take care of food and lodging." Hephaestus thought it was understood he would cover these things. He had nice things. He might as well share them with someone who enjoys them. Her last comment made him frown, however. "I'm married. And very busy. I don't have a lot of time for... dalliances." His frown deepened. "And I know the danger of a pretty smile that can be bought with presents firsthand." His first marriage had seen to that.
Alana had meant the comment to be good-natured, and she frowned slightly at his reaction. "Sorry, wasn't thinkin' things through." She took another swig of her beer and set the bottle to the side. "Mainly I was thinking of the girls who are willing to flirt and stalk and so on thinking that they're some kind of magical gift to the world of men and just need a prince to see it." ... Which he was probably also familiar with. "And now that I've thoroughly put my foot in my mouth, how 'bout you show the rest of this building off? You've already got me realizing how incredibly little I know 'bout buildings, despite how much fun they can be to work in."
Hephaestus considered telling Alana that she had described easily a third of the women in his family, but she seemed to realize that, so he kept his peace.
"Then let's continue the tour." Hephaestus straightened up and headed out of the kitchen. He showed Alana the bathroom across the hall and commented on sound plumbing strategies. He moved into the dining room with its large central table, large windows, and room for roughly two dozen diners. Hephaestus pointed out that dining rooms had to be built around their tables, and that making the room too small or the table too big could be disastrous. Moving into the guest wing, he explained how much room and how many bathrooms people needed to feel comfortable. In the master wing, Hephaestus showed off his library, media room, and game room. He explained the special fire precautions that needed to be taken in a room that held shelves full of books. In the media and game rooms, Hephaestus pointed out how to arrange the wall studs to make wiring entertainment systems less of a complete headache. In his master bedroom, Hephaestus pointed out what arrangements were preferred for master suites, as people could be very particular about them. He even took her down into the first basement for a primer on how utilities were often arranged in such spaces and how to build a basement that won't sink, crack, leak, or collapse. The tour ended where it had begun, in the foyer. "I hope that satisfies your curiosity about how the super rich build their houses." Not that Hephaestus used much of the mansion for himself. He was more comfortable in the sub-basement levels that he felt more comfortable keeping secret. For security and safety reasons.
"States it, as least for the moment. I don't know how much you talk with Dante, but I might suggest to him he chats with you about some of the things to do with the house he's got me workin' on now, trustin' you're fine with that. Right now it's all just kid proofing and adding in some fun touches. Sadly, the slide down the stair got vetoed until they get older." She smirked, clearly not that bothered by it, even if she had thought the idea fun. Fun and practical were by far two different things in many cases. "But thanks for the tour, and beer, and answers and everything."
Hephaestus chuckled. "I talk to him often enough. He seems to have learned that I don't mind building him things if he asks nicely." Hephaestus had just built him a Zeus detector and a roboduckling, after all. "If he needs any help on the house, I'm sure I can wrangle some time to give it. And you're welcome. I don't have guests often, but I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad thing." In moderation, at least. He didn't need any wild parties running through his house, thank you.
If he wanted that, he probably knew who to call. She smiled and hooked her thumbs in her pockets. "Glad ta be of help, and hopefully represent the proper house guest well." A minor half bow as she said this, before straightening and taking a few steps back toward the door. "We'll have to decide what dates we want, how long a trip and all that kinda shit out." A pause, as she realized she also now had a dog to consider. Eh, the Giant could watch him for as long as the trip took. He owed her a favor or twenty. She gave her head a slight shake, unconcerned with the issue for now, and grinned once more. "Hopefully with somethin' semi-planned I won't take so long to chat with you again. Nice talking to someone who doesn't fall into a coma when I start pondering building design."
Hephaestus smiled. "You picked the right person to talk to about it. Building design is one of my favorite subjects." Even the mundane aspects of creation were a joy for him. It was the core of his being. He moved to the door and held it open for Alana. "I'll be sure not to let so much time pass before we speak again. Have a good day, Alana." He had gone into this conversation full of dread, but it had turned out very well.
"Have a good one yourself," she answered as she slipped out the door and gave him a wave, then headed down to her truck. Sooner or later, all of it would sink in. For now, building designs danced through her head, and an eagerness to get back to her own work.
Hephaestus closed the door behind Alana. As he did, a chime sounded throughout the house. Atlas was awake, it seemed, and it was time for Hephaestus to resume his vigil.
Summary: Alana, as planned, shows up at Hephaestus'. She gets beer, a tour, and some answers about Atlas. As well as a few other perks.