vatheon | Heroes and gods (Open)

Entry tags:

Heroes and gods (Open)

Who: Mr. D (grumpy wine god) and anyone who wants to pester him
When: daytime, current day.
Where: the Plaza but possibly anywhere else in the city, too.
Style: action brackets or prose. Whichever.
Status: Ongoing and open

The longer he was here, and he obviously hadn't been here long, the more Dionysus was convinced that this was his own little pocket of Tartarus. He couldn't remember off-hand how he could possibly have pissed off the Big Three enough to deserve this. Not recently anyway. And never all of them in conjunction. Even drunken gods have a sense of self-preservation.

And yet here he was. Alone. Separated from his wife, his wine, his son(s)... even his overbearing father. He was still somehow in charge of looking after ungrateful half-bloods, and this time there was no Pac-Man to distract him. Even a normal deck of cards eluded him. If this wasn't the eternal torment of the most grievous of sinner, Mr D didn't know what was. Give him a rock to push up a hill any day.

So the displaced wine god did whatever a normal person did in times of great strife... he sought religion. Or whatever passed for religion in this place. He'd heard talk of Lamufao, and it was really only proper for Dionysus to present himself.

(...He hoped Lamufao wouldn't think he was being inconsiderate for visiting while dressed in dark purple sweatpants, purple running shoes, and a leopard-print shirt. And for getting a little lost along the way.)

((ooc: Feel free to approach him in any stage of his "going to see Lamufao" excursion. Open to all!))

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"Why would you involve anyone else? People that's what everyone does. They can't help themselves but whine when things start to get out of their control. And who better than a god when a quick and easy fix is what they want rather than doing the hard parts themselves like they were meant to?" Mr. D scowled and mumbled, "They call me lazy when they won't take responsibility for the consequences of their own actions."

He then considered the man in front of him again. A purple flame seemed to burn in his eyes, promising violence that he was all too willing to deliver. "Darling? Mind your tongue, and don't be too familiar. I can't speak for any God, capital G, but the devout followers of the gods are rewarded if I have anything to do with it. But some matters simply belong to Fate and are out of the gods' hands. Not that I should have to explain all this to you or anyone. What kind of an education have you had?" Without thinking, he summoned a can of Diet Coke and popped it open, internally cursing colourfully all the while.

There was no doubt in his mind that this man was indeed a god from some pantheon but he found himself really not caring. This man or god or whatever was rubbing him the exact wrong way and it was all too easy to focus his culminating frustrations into a religious and philosophical argument full of grievances he hadn't even shared with Jacob.

"The kind of education that seven centuries of observation bring. The kind of education that comes from living the life of a knight of the Crusades and earning the title of 'Priest' for a God that does not hear the prayers or desires of the Damned. I have known countless men who lived and died for a God or gods that never seemed to hear them when they needed them most, all for the hope that there was something looking out for them." The vampire stood, gold eyes flashing in his simmering anger as he absently shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I'm not going to argue that people don't take advantage, of course there are those that think they deserve an easy fix instead of looking for their own way out, but that hardly makes God or gods exempt of blame. Humans may need to keep in mind why they have such a beautiful world to look at, they may need to pay more respect to those that give them life, but that doesn't mean they deserve to be ignored or taken advantage of. As long as all humans are unfairly being painted with the same brush that marks them as lazy in your mind, those that made them in their image should be as well, unfairly or otherwise."

The stranger was still being insolent, and Dionysus had driven some to madness for less than simply that tone of voice. Maybe he was getting soft the longer he was separated from the intoxicating effects of his precious wine. For whatever the reason, the fire in his eyes extinguished at hearing the list of grievances from the man.

There was no denying that the gods (and presumably God) sometimes used mortals and heroes for their own convoluted, ill-explained purposes. The Greco-Roman deities had gotten slightly better about it as the centuries progressed, but there was a time when they wouldn't even claim their own children, let alone come to the personal aid of devotees. Even with the shift in power into monotheism, their attitudes hadn't changed much. Exempt of blame? Hardly.

Dionysus was a god, and he wouldn't be explaining himself or his actions to anyone other than Father Zeus himself. However, he turned to give this 700-year old creature beside him a look that wasn't pity... maybe sympathy? He was bad at this.

"Look. I cannot and will not speak on behalf of another god. Least of all your God." He made a point to pronounce the capital letter. "I personally had nothing to do with the creation of the world of the creatures on it, but within my baliwick, I try to reward the truly faithful." For some reason, the god remembered Prosymnus, and the smile nearly touched his lips for it.

"Damned one, tell me your name."

And just like that, the spark was gone and he could feel himself calming at an exponential rate. He had a point, it wasn't this god that had both the vampire's life-long devotion and resentful ire; he didn't deserve to have it all thrown at him simply for being cut from the same cloth. That would be no better than someone blaming Johnny for their life's sufferings all because some vampire had killed their family ages ago. "You're right. I'm sorry."

A fraction of his usual smile replaced the bitter one that had been there moments before at the new and old title. "Johnny Rayflo."

"Of course I'm right." The apology temporarily soothed the rest of his anger. He would remember the disrespect he was given, for gods hold long grudges, but for the moment, he was permitting this vent of frustration. He'd heard it before from devout followers of many faiths throughout the years. So long as they were blaming the correct deity, Dionysus felt they might even be justified in their complaints. But each divine being operated in their own way, and the wine god was content to just stick to what he did best rather than arguing metaphysics. It wasn't his business to watch what other gods did any more than it was the mortals business to know what he did.

Mr. D needed a stronger drink than Diet Coke for this conversation, and he had a feeling Johnny might, too. Glancing at the coral, he wondered if he could get away with it as a gift for someone else. That wasn't strictly against the rules although perhaps not in the spirit of them. Better not risk it yet. However, he still asked the blunt question.

"For what reason are you Damned, Johnny Rayflo? 700 years is long-lived for a mortal."

He couldn't help but chuckle at the god's lack of humility, but he was hardly surprised by it; he would have been more surprised by it's presence. He distantly wondered which god this was but he figured it ultimately didn't matter, he would learn his name at some point.

He hesitated, not because he was concerned about saying what he was, he'd long since gotten over that and learned that the people here really didn't think it all that concerning. No, it was more a matter of how much to say. Seeing as this god was from some pantheon, the matters of demons probably didn't concern him.

"For being a vampire. Worse, because I accepted the change from the hand of a demon. It's ancient history now, but I'm afraid it's something my God does not forget nor forgive, no matter how much or little devotion I offer." This was a depressing topic, it was hard to reconcile the new and strengthening opinion that he wasn't some monster unworthy of the things he wanted when one of the things he wanted was actively against him at every turn.

He sighed and shook his head bemusedly. "I don't know about you, but I need a drink."

Mr. D raised an eyebrow at Johnny's hesitation then crossed his arms as he listened to the explanation. Deals with demons certainly didn't concern him, but he'd heard tales similar to the vampire's before. It was not unusual for gods to be as unforgiving as his God appeared to be.

"Maybe He'll see your devotion and come around one day. Maybe not. Depends on his mood, I guess. I'm sure He has his reasons for holding a grudge, but I don't personally have anything against vampires." Not that he'd spent any time around one. Creatures by that name didn't show up until way after Dionysus stopped caring about the actions of monsters outside of the reoccurring Greek ones. However, formerly human ones had his (approximation of) sympathy.

Glancing at the coral again and without a word, Mr. D stepped over to touch it. Whatever sensation the god felt from the coral deity, it didn't show on his face. He gave a nod of thanks then turned back to Johnny.

"How about let's just keep this between you and me?" Dionysus turned his palm upright, and a cup appeared in it which promptly filled itself with red wine. From somewhere afar, thunder seemed to rumble. Mr. D turned a look up to the 'sky' and muttered, "It's not for me," and handed it off to Johnny.

Johnny gave an amused smirk at the man, but accepted the cup. "Are you not supposed to do that? You know, I have a bar of my own that's fully stocked, we could easily just go there. No magic necessary."

He took a sip from the cup and gave an appreciative hum. That was enough to warrant a bit of a guessing game for him. It was obvious this was a god, and he combed through all of the mythology he'd learned over the centuries to find the names of the ones attributed to wine, or even just alcohol. Of course, Crowley had been a regular demon and he'd been able to do something similar without it being his key power, so Johnny knew he could be way off, but that wasn't going to stop him from asking.

"Yi-ti, Sucellus,Tezcatzontecatl, Teshub, Osiris, Ægir,Dionysus, or perhaps Bacchus, if you prefer...do any of those names happen to apply to you? Assuming, of course, the goddesses not mentioned were actually female and couldn't be you."

With his lip curling into an unamused sneer, Mr. D turned a look vaguely skyward. "It's not the magic. I can have all the magic I need. It's the alcohol that's been denied to me. My father's orders. Too harsh a punishment, I say, denying myself and others of what it is I do best." The wine god was also very good at driving people crazy. At least he still had that without restriction.

Something seemed to tug uncomfortably at Mr. D's mind as Johnny rattled off his list of names. He raised an eyebrow at the vampire. Most of those names even he hadn't heard in a while. The Greeks sometimes didn't socialize well.

"I am indeed male." He barely resisted the urge to make a crude gesture. Call it 'too much time hanging out with old satyrs.' "And yes, few of those names may perhaps be relevant, but di immortales be more careful. Names have power. Even more so the names of powerful gods."

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Heroes and gods (Open)

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