[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ongIcUu.png[/img][/center]

-Collab with [@Hound55]

[quote]

[color=Gold]"Watch your tone, Hephaestus,"[/color] I say with a fair amount of indignance. [color=Gold]"I am no hireling to act at your beck and call. And I am in no mood for nonsense."[/color]

[color=goldenrod]"Hey, I'm just asking you to help me de-escalate a situation here,"[/color] the deformed weapon-smith says, putting his hands up in mock innocence. [color=goldenrod]"And I was just thinkin you might be willing to do me a solid since, y'know, I made pretty much your whole kit--"[/color]

[color=Gold]"I seem to recall more than one of my enemies wielding weapons that bear your signature as well,"[/color] I glare at him. [color=Gold]"Still, I will speak with this visitor. If his reasons for coming here are more just than yours for calling upon me, then you and I will have words."[/color]

Hephaestus backs away, knowing better than to prod at me too much. Then I turn to see his visitor.

The first glance tells me he has a similar arsenal of divine weapons, though they appear to be of Roman make rather than Greek. He wears the garb of a centurion, a worshipper of Mars. The Roman iteration of Ares.

Given my past experiences with Ares and his various incarnations, challenging me to a fight would be a spectacularly poor decision, even were I in a better humor.

[color=Gold]"Now then,"[/color] I address the stranger, my left hand resting on the Lasso at my hip, my right hand slowly reaching for the pommel of my sword, [color=Gold]"I would recommend you explain your reason for being here, and I would [i]very[/i] strongly advise you speak only the truth."[/color]
[/quote]

Never a backward step.

The gods had strange ideas of what makes a mortal worthy.  It molded Jonny's movements and decisions for the common good.

"An ironic compromise of the self".  Was how Question had described it.  Trust him to find some kind of dark amusement to it, even if he noted it with such a flat delivery.

In order for him to be seen as worthy of the gods, he had to front up to every challenge.  And that show of strength was often not the best approach for negotiating common ground, when met with other... strong confident types.

Right now he was face to face with one who personified such traits.

This was a delicate situation to the point of being downright precarious.

He had only a few things in his favour.  Diana's empathy for his own situation, and sympathy for the plight of women.

He'd been sent here by an aggrieved Aphrodite, eager to distance herself from the husband she'd long ago been arranged to marry.  And if anyone could understand the situation of a... questionably mortal person getting trapped in the machinations of the gods, he was looking right at her.

But this still had to be conveyed from a position of strength.  From one that Jupiter and the gods would deem as "worthy" of their favour.

[color=chocolate]"I was sent here to deliver a message from this one's wife, who wishes to be left alone."[/color]

Jonny stepped forward, gesturing to Hephaestus.

[color=chocolate]"If you choose to blindly take up arms for his cause, I would be disappointed but nonetheless would be forced to match your mettle."[/color]

He deliberately kept his hand clear of his hilt.  Potentially a fatal error with one such as whom he found himself face-to-face.  But whilst he must project forward to be worthy, he sought to keep threatening gestures to a minimum.

[color=chocolate]"But I must confess, when I found myself charged with delivering this message I was unaware I would once again find myself in the affairs of the immortals."[/color]

[hr]

[color=Gold]"'Blindly' take up arms for Hephaestus?"[/color] I question him, stepping forward, an eyebrow raised. [color=Gold]"Know this: one does not survive long in the dealings of Olympians by entering anything 'blindly.' Nor does one survive long by insulting an Amazon."[/color]

In truth, it's likely he means no insult, but his very presence here is an act of intimidation. Aphrodite chose someone from outside her own pantheon to act as a messenger. Not only that, but she chose an agent of the Roman gods, styled after a worshipper of Mars. The Romans' image of Venus and Mars as an idealized couple-- the poetic union of Love and War-- was far simpler, less scandalous, than Aphrodite's torrid affairs with Ares.

[color=Gold]"You have found yourself embroiled in troubles that were old when your gods were new,"[/color] I tell him. [color=Gold]"I do not know what Aphrodite has told you, but her role in this is far from innocent. This is a goddess, after all, whose whims and fancies have doomed entire kingdoms. Now she wishes to intimidate and insult her husband, by sending an agent of her adulterous lover."[/color]

[color=Goldenrod]"That's right!"[/color] Hephaestus declares, his courage doubling now that he's safe behind me. [color=Goldenrod]"You tell her I'm not backin' down 'til I get what's mine. An' the next time she sends some gladius-swingin' knock-off around, I'll--"[/color]

[color=Gold]"You're no helpless victim in this either, Hephaestus,"[/color] I cut him off, not taking my eyes off the armored newcomer. [color=Gold]"For all you have bemoaned your wife's unfaithfulness, you have had more than your share of dalliances as well. I am sure the Graces and the sea nymphs would tell quite a different tale from yours."[/color]

[color=Goldenrod]"Hey, that was only [i]after[/i] she started foolin' around with Ares, not--"[/color]

[color=Gold]"And I am certain Athena has not forgotten your attempt to force yourself upon her."[/color]

[color=Goldenrod]"....look, that was a different time back then, okay? Zeus had set the precedent, and the rest of us kinda--"[/color]

[color=Gold]"Enough,"[/color] I say with cold disgust, [color=Gold]"before I let the newcomer 'test his mettle' on you. I am only here because it is mortals who suffer most when the gods begin to bicker. It will be to everyone's best interest to quell this dispute before it flares up again."[/color]

Turning my attention fully to the centurion, I move my hands away from my weapons, folding my arms across my chest.

[color=Gold]"Now then,"[/color] I address him, [color=Gold]"Aphrodite sent you to deliver a message, did she not? And that message has been delivered. Unless there is other business you wish to attend to here, I suggest you take your leave."[/color]