May the Gods Be Ever in Your Favour

*Alex’s POV*

I wasn’t exactly sure how this worked. It made sense, but then again, it was so confusing. Real talk: I became a Greek god. Zeus, to be specific, god of the sky and all other gods. The old Zeus brought me up to Olympus and gave me a quick rundown of things, then left me on the tip of an ancient mountain to go down to Elysium while I had to relive pretty much all of his memories and those of his predecessors. According to those, I could pretty much do whatever I wanted and get away with it. I was married to Hera, goddess of goddesses, women, and marriage, although I more often than not slept around with whomever, tree nymph or goddess. I could change that though, as they also gave me some interesting insight. All of us were still our own people, we had our own thoughts, our own memories from our human lives and our own prejudices, which meant, say, if the new Ares didn’t like the new Aphrodite, they could be on the outs for the next five hundred years, and they could be with other people, or rather gods. Supposedly, the cause of a lot of droughts is because Zeus— or I, I guess—was really pissed at Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and a lot of tsunamis and hurricanes were feuds between me and Poseidon. We could fall in love with humans; we could do whatever the hell we wanted, really. There weren’t really any rules, other than to fulfill our duties.

A downside of it though was that it looked as though we carried all of our human traits to this life. Meaning I kept my cool as I tried to bring the meeting to order, but my anxiety was at an all time high.

“My family, it is good to be united,” I said, planning on completely bullshitting the whole thing. “I know that things have been rocky in the past between some of us, or rather all of us at one point or another, but I hope that this regeneration will be just what it is: a new beginning. I believe there are matters to discuss concerning this prophecy. Those in favor of discussion, say ‘aye.’”

There was a general ‘aye,’ so I took that as my cue to continue. “I would like to try to solve this prophecy and carry out the expedition to fulfill it. Do I have any takers?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Who says you get to make all the big decisions here?” Hades countered from his skull chair at the opposite end of the table. He was sprawled out, legs crossed and over one arm of the chair, while he snapped his fingers a couple times, igniting the tips of his fingers with a purple flame.

I shot him a glare. “And your mortal name was…?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your concern now, is it?” He said darkly. He snapped his fingers extra hard, creating a big flame of purple in his hand.

I could almost feel my ichor boil. “IT IS MY CONCERN, YOU DAFT BATBOY! I AM THE GOD OF GODS!”

“Pipe down, brother. I see you still posses that loud mouth. But then again, when haven’t you? Am I right? Am I right?” Hades asked those around us.

I took a deep breath and choked down the bile formed by my anger towards my brother. “Hades, please. Will you just cooperate for once?”

The smile slid off his childish face, and the bright blue of his eyes turned to flames. He stood up from his throne of skulls and walked along behind the others’ chairs, dragging his finger along each seat. “Listen here, brother. This is the first meeting of this regeneration, and you’re already going apeshit about being the boss around here. You’re not even mildly open-minded about what I have to say and you don’t even particularly know me. You’re basing it all on the past generations. It just goes to show that you’re not going to be remotely open to others’ ideas.” He ended his rant when he was right next to me. He had a dangerous look in his eye.

There was a murmur throughout the great room.

Poseidon, on my right, was the one who caught my attention.

“Brother,” he started, “maybe Hades is right. Keep an open mind. I’m sure all of us have ideas as to whether we should or should not take on this journey.”

I took another deep breath. This was going to be a long five hundred years if this was what I had to deal with. “Alright, alright. Those with debates about this, raise your hand.”

About twenty hands made their way into the air, and I closed my eyes and put my hand over my face for a moment. I picked on the god nearest me. “You, there. You can tell me your mortal name, who you are now, and what you have to say.”

He stood up from his glowing golden chair. He was a short little man, most likely Mexican, with shoulder-length wavy brown hair and a toned chest, seems how he wasn’t wearing a shirt. “I, along with my uncle, would like to keep my mortal name to myself until I feel it is the right time to reveal it. But I am Apollo, god of sunlight, music, and medicine. I feel that we should just live out these lives. We were picked for a reason. Plus, how are we to know all the fine print of what will happen afterwards?”

I could see his argument, but a fire of rage burned inside me because he had somewhat out thought me already. This aggravation wasn’t who I am, it wasn’t my personality. I figured it was just the past generations of Zeus getting to me. Most of them were pretty stubborn and didn’t take no for an answer.

I took another breath to calm my nerves and thoughts. “I see where you’re coming from. Anyone else?”

Hands went up and I called on the next one nearest to me. I nodded in her direction.

She had fiery orange hair and perfect hazel eyes. Gods, she was gorgeous. “I’m Hera, your wife,” she said bluntly. My eyes widened. Damn. I get to be a god and I get this chick as a wife? Maybe we shouldn’t go after this prophecy after all. “I say we should go after the prophecy.” Of course. “It says one generation or another is going to complete it anyways, so who’s to say it can’t be us?” Good point.

I nodded. “Thank you, sweetheart,” I said, then added a wink.

She rolled her eyes and started picking at her nails. Well then.

I picked the rest of the gods with something to say, hearing their arguments, and I had to say, we had some real politicians here. Then again, that was kind of crucial when we had a lot of politics to deal with in the first place.

“Okay, let’s have a vote, shall we?” There was a general agreement, so I continued. “Those in favor of fulfilling the prophecy, raise your hand.”

Quite a few hands went up, and I counted them. Hades was amongst those with their hands raised, and I rolled my eyes. Of course he agrees, yet he decides to pick a fight. “And those against?” Other hands went up and I counted those in turn. Naturally, Apollo was against. I totaled everything up, and my chest swelled as I cleared my throat to announce the decision. “Ladies and gentlemen, gods and goddesses, a win of only two votes, it gives me great pleasure to announce that we will be seeking the reward of this prophecy.”