Name: Rumination/Rumi

Pronouns: he/him

Age: 17

Appearance: messy brown hair, dark eyes, green beanie

Personality, including quirks: he's super loyal, he's like a big brother to all my AEs (he's always there (emotionally) for anyone who needs it), and he's like a mix of practical and goofy :P he's not at all strict. He also likes to do his own thing.

How do you want to be seen? As someone you can count on?

Eggs or bacon?: both!

Glitzy glamor, or earthy honesty?: earthy honesty :)

Favorite number: 17

Favorite prank: the bucket of water on the door prank :D

Hyperfixations, obsessions, and interests: hmm. Lots of things? Sci-fi and pranks :D

What kind of a rulebreaker are you?: a master rulebreaker >:)

What role do you usually play (eg., trickster, peacemaker)?: support :P

What excites you most?: adventure!

Packing list: necessities, etc.

Would you rather sail the sea in a star, or zoom down the road of life in an Olympus Motorcycle?: sail the sea in a star probably!

Favorite Greek god:

Preferred food: uhh idk. Taiwanese shaved ice? Oh wait uh what's that called... not tang yuan, but... hmm. Or maybe that hot almond soup!! SOO good... no wait wait probably che ba mau!!! I can totally see him loving that!!!

Other: he's a tImE tRaVeLeR~  :DD

Day 1, Part 2

Dear me. We are very sorry for the interruption - nearly two weeks since our last post? This is terrible. But, you see, a terrible lot has happened, and we are only just now able to provide Updates.

A-HEM. To begin. It was on a Monday morning -

"The gasman came to call! The gastap wouldn't turn! I wasn't getting gas at all! He tore out all the skirting boards to try and find the maiiiin... And I HAD to call a CARPENTER to PUT them BACK aGAIN!" 

That was Agent 58. Well, much as we may seem like it, the two of us are not Flanders and Swann and this ski lodge is not a rendition of "The Gas Man Cometh," so, begging your pardons for the interruption (again), I shall not bother to take down any more of what Agent 58 says (or sings).

Oh yes. A note, before I go any further. You may wonder why we refer to each other as 58 and 59. The most important reason is that it upholds the Dignity of the Agency.  The Dignity of the Agency is vital to all of us. Nothing, nothing must come before the Dignity of the Agency. The Dignity of the Agency --

***

Agent 58 here, 59 was going on so much about the DotA that I decided to take over. Howsoever, why we are called 58 and 59 is because really, we are under aliases. We are actually a pair well-known to many, but we have, through slyness and subterfuge, escaped fame and become incognito, living a happy life in the Agency - all through the power of NUMBERS. This is why you must learn your math in school, children.

I expect you want the real ski lodge, don't you? Very well. Here it is.

The AEs trudged down the path, bickering amongst themselves. The Greek sun beat down on them. They wanted nothing more than to take a bath and rest. They weren't used to being pitched onto Mount Olympus by a temperamental airplane, and then toiling up its slopes when they really just wanted to sit down.

At the turn of the path up ahead, I saw a young man in black shorts and a black baggy T-shirt that read "Take Back the Night." He was rather pallid under his natural tan, and he had a hunched posture that gave off nervous energy vibes. He had headphones on, and you could just hear heavy metal music emerging, contrasting almost hilariously with the plash of the fountain, the sigh of the light breeze in the leaves, and the clear song of the birds.

I went up and tapped him on the shoulder. The guy jumped and pulled off his headphones. You could hear the music much more clearly now. I winced.

"Hi, Hades here," said the guy in a deep voice, surveying me apprehensively. "Whaddaya want?"

"Can you be any ruder?" asked Oriole sarcastically.

"I probably could."

Hades. Good gracious. I would never have thought it. Last time we met he was going in for the punk look and had spiky hair and any number of bracelets. There had always been something a little alternative about Hades.

We all surveyed him.

"We do need directions to the hotel somehow," said Izzy practically.

"But will he be able to give them to us correctly?" wondered Juniper.

"This would never have happened if you hadn't lost the map!" muttered Alyssa.

(Did I mention that Agent 59 had, indeed, lost the map and that was why we were toiling all over the mountain?)

"Well," said 59 brightly, "let's just forge on, shall we?"

So we did.

About five minutes later, we rounded a path. Up ahead was the hotel, a large building surrounded by olive groves, with a sweeping view of the sparkling ocean. Oh, hurray! I gave a sigh of relief. 

But what was this? Music was throbbing through the door, which had been left wide open. The entire area resounded to the noise of vintage rock.

"IT WAS THE SUMMER OF '69-" shouted a voice, accompanied by frenzied electronic guitar.

"Standin' on your mama's porch-"

I hurried over to the door. The sensation was that of being a bobbing piece of flotsam in a sea of music. In the glittering lobby, which had a red carpet, richly carved wood furniture, and mirrors everywhere, a makeshift stage had been set up. Striding around on it was a boy of about twenty. His golden hair was sculpted into essy spikes, some of which fell over his brow. He wore a shiny black leather jacket and the skinniest of jeans, and his face was in a sulky, arrogant smirk. Behind him stood another guy, a little older but not as tall, and by his side was a pretty girl with brown hair in a long braid and a short silvery dress, who chimed in on the choruses.

In front of the stage, nearly filling the entire lobby, were rows of chairs, and every chair had an occupant. There were a few boys, but they appeared to be mainly the local nymphs and dryads, all shrieking and adding to the general uproar. To one corner was a man with a baseball cap and an expensive-looking watch, filming the entire scene. His shirt read OLYMPIA TV. The event must be being broadcasted live.

The event that was happening in our hotel.

The singer saw us in the doorway and smiled, a smile as friendly as a kindred spirit's, as warm as the sun, and it transformed his face entirely.

"Come on in!" he exclaimed, waving his arm. "Welcome to the concert!"

The camera swung around to focus on a crowd of exhausted, dusty, and bedraggled AEs, all with expressions of complete daze on their faces.

No one moved.

His smile increased. "Just sit down anywhere and sing along! It was THE SUMMER OF-"

"SIXTY NINE," chanted about fifty female voices.

"I love you, Apollo!" shrieked someone.

Apollo. Apollo. That was who had invaded the hotel for his own personal concert space. I should have known.

The god of music had become the local rock star.

"Might as well," said Ariella, sitting down, already fascinated.

Oh dear. Apollo always did have a way with him.

Most of the AEs, however, weren't so amused. They were tired and jittery and miffed at finding their hotel turned over to a concert. And if there's one thing you don't want, it's a crowd of irritated AEs...

Here again! How nice it is to see that people like my writing so much. I am terribly talented, aren't I? As to who I am - well, I'm Agent 59, and Agent 58 is a nuisance even if he is my right-hand man, and that's all you'll know for now.

On with the ski lodge, then!

Day 1, Part 3

Time went on for a bit, as it so often does, and Apollo finished up his concert - which I didn't enjoy at all, by the way, I'm more of a classical music man myself - and  the lobby became quiet again. Izzy gave a sigh of relief, as did Orion, who had not been at all happy at being eclipsed by the handsome Apollo. Kauri and Ariella, on the other hand, were terribly wound up, and continued to sing together "Summer of '69" until Melon told them frankly that they sounded awful. At which Rumi leapt to Ariella's defense, and Typhoon opined that they didn't sound any worse than Apollo had, anyway, and Alyssa sarcastically asked if Melon would like to try singing it herself. Then Astra suggested that they should stop arguing and go upstairs to rest.

Then it turned out that they had to check in. At this point half of the AEs realized that they had forgotten to bring the check-in tickets that they'd been provided with at the start of the plane ride, while the other half claimed that they had already checked in while the concert was going on, and it ended in everybody going upstairs while the check-in lady, who was Hestia doing some community service, just sighed.

Upstairs, they all wandered through their bedrooms. The rooms were beautiful. Each one had a comfortable white bed with loads of pillows, and paintings on the wall, and scarlet geraniums in vases. Trays of refreshments and glasses of clear, cool water had been set by each bedside. Ramya wandered into her bedroom, delighted by the cool breeze that blew through the open window. Sitting on her soft bed, she discovered a plate of red grapes, slices of cheese, and a piece of baguette. It looked so delicious that she ate it at once.

The room was very quiet and peaceful, and the air smelled of the sea. Ramya realized how tired she was. After the excitement of the morning, it felt heavenly to sit and rest. She lay down against the cool plump pillows, and in no time she was asleep.

I met Agent 58 in the hotel kitchen, where he was refreshing himself with peanuts eaten straight out of the bag. No sense of dignity. I mean to say, a man must have some sort of self-respect.

"it all went off splendidly, didn't it?" he said.

Such optimism. "Considering it's AEs we're talking about, i suppose it didn't go too badly," I conceded.

"We must plan for the next day's outing," I added. "Shall we take them to the gods' palace? It would be a spectacular starting point. And as they're going to be coexisting with the gods for some time, we might as well let them get to know each other." 

We settled down to our plans, little knowing that the AEs were going to invade the palace on their own initiative... very soon indeed.

Thank you, thank you, to all who commented :D

Day 2, Part 1

I woke up the next morning and had a lovely leisurely breakfast. I'm sure you'll want to know what I ate. I had two waffles, with maple syrup, an egg, a bowl of orange slices, and, of course, a newspaper. Oh dear, that didn't sound at all the way I meant it to. I didn't eat the newspaper, I read it for breakfast. I mean, I read it. It was The Ski Lodge Times. Very interesting - apparently someone called The Prince is getting up a new ski lodge, though I really don't know why he should. Mine is much superior, I'm sure. And too many ski lodges spoil the broth. Or rather, the pudding. As in, the Pudding's Place.

Anyhow, what did I do after that? Excuse me while I think.

Oh yes, I met up with Agent 58. I could get on without him, of course, but he's rather useful for clearing up the little odd jobs. He wrote a few ski lodge parts for me. Oh dear, I shouldn't have mentioned that. I'll have to go back and take it out. 

He's saying that if it wasn't for him, I'd be a cotton-candy seller. Simply not true. If it weren't for me, anyway, he'd be a janitor, I expect. Or something equally janitorlike.

Anyhow again, we met up and assembled the AEs, who, for once, were fairly easy to assemble.

"We're going," I said portentously, "to meet the gods of Olympus."

"Oh, we already met them," said Alyssa, ruffling her hair and smirking at something that I for one couldn't see. "Yesterday."

"It was really great!" said CeCe excitedly. "We met all of them, except for Poseidon. Hermes calls him Uncle Siedie, I thought that was so funny. Uncle Seidie sounds like an old man with spectacles. And Poseidon looks like this varsity dude. Only a sixty-year-old varsity dude. And Hermes was really fun - we played tricks on everyone. He says when he was a baby he stole his brother's cows. I don't know how he did it if he was a baby. And we ate all the sugar!"

"No, you ate all the sugar," said Hemlock. "Hermes just took a grain or two."

"I wonder if he has a sugar intolerance," said CeCe puzzledly. "Why would anyone not want to eat sugar?"

"You went to the palace without telling us?!" I exclaimed.

"Oh yes," said Astra cheerfully. "It was Orion's idea. And we all thought it was really good, so we got Ganymede to give us directions, and we found our way in without any problems. The guards were asleep, anyway. And then Hermes showed us around. It was nice."

58 and I looked at each other.

"Well, then, we're going again," I said with authority. "It will be nice for you to have a Formal Outing."

A Formal Outing sounded very impressive, so everyone nodded. Fifteen minutes later, we were all queing up outside the palace. 

In mythology, the palace is always described as a splendid place. And it really was. The entire thing was painted a very screechy neon pink, and a poster was hanging along one wall, declaring, "BAND TOGETHER FOR FEMINISM! PARADE TOMORROW, SIX OCLOCK". Then there were little curlicues and sickeningly ornate jewel decorations all along the roof - it was all very overdone. 

A girl was up a ladder, putting the finishing touches to the pink paint. She was pretty and determined-looking, her brown hair in a braid, with a rather majestic air, and she wore overalls. She jumped down when she saw us. 

"Hello! I'm Athena." She shook hands all around. "I'm the social justice warrior of Mount Olympus.  Good to see you. You've come to take the tour? Would you be interested in joining the Feminism Parade? You get free stickers!"

I cleared my throat. "We're in a bit of a hurry. My fellow tour guide and I want to show the AEs the palace." 

"Of course! Go right ahead. And don't forget about the parade! And please volunteer to help make the palace pink! It's an irreversible statement for Olympian feminism. Even five minutes of your time is appreciated!"

We entered the palace. It was very quiet. The gods were probably taking a leisurely morning on their own affairs. Except for Ganymede, bearing a cup somewhere and grumbling, "Gee, a guy can't get a moment's peace with all these girls shrieking at him," the entry hall was empty.