( video )

[heelies]

[The video feed begins on a close view of a face, revealing a stern set of eyes and a curve of nose but little more. Then the picture shakes as a new perspective is gained. The man who comes into view posesses a princely bearing and wears well the mantle of importance. His voice belongs to one who is accustomed to being listened to.]

I am told that this is the way that men call others to counsel in this land, and so as strange as it seems to me to address those whom I see not, I shall follow the local custom. I am Achilles, son of Peleus — Peleus who rules the fertile plains of Phthia, and who claims for his own worthy father Aeacus, judge of the House of Hades. New as I am to this land, which is farther from my dear native land than even the windy plains of Ilios, I bear many questions, but the first in my heart is this.

What deathless gods watch over the city of Lunatia? I have seen no temples built to honor Zeus who bears the aegis, nor bright-eyed Athena, nor Phoebus Apollo. Where are the priests who aid in the rituals of sacrifice, the seers who interpret the will of the gods in bird-signs? Surely, a city so rich as this, with precious silver trimming its houses, and all manner of riches I have never before seen — surely its people have the benison of the gods. Yet I see no practices that would suggest such reverence. Tell me, therefore, the ways to honor these gods who to me are so mysterious.

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[hagrides]

[Vessel is slightly more literal in this case, but that's probably the easiest way to think about it.]

Perhaps Fate has brought you and I, and he. Perhaps we are merely ignorant as to greater forces at play. Regardless, there are no gods commonly worshipped in this land.

[heelies]

Well do I know what Fate has in store for me, and this is not it! My mother, silver-footed Thetis, told me that should I slay murderous Hector, he who sent down to the house of death my dearest companion, Menoetius' gallant son Patroclus, then closely should my own death follow. Slay the son of Priam is what I did, and in doing so my Fate was sealed. I have chosen my path.

Yet now I have been taken from Dardanus' land, upon whose shores I have waged war for nine years at the behest of the sons of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus. This was not meant to be.

[hagrides]

And you will return to fulfill that prophecy. But fate takes many turns, and only fools believe they completely understand a soothsayer's words.

'A death that closely follows' may mean an hour, a day, a year. Ten years, for those of us who live long enough that such a span of time seems brief.

[heelies]

There is reason in what you say, servant of the Nightmare King. Yet that is just one prophecy I have heard — so too do I know from my mother that I shall never see my fatherland again, my journey home traded for the glory I have won in war. Moreover, from the seer Calchas I know that in the tenth year of fighting, Troy shall fall. All told, Fate would have me fall on the windy plains of Ilios before the year is out. Then when cools my pyre, my bones shall be placed in the golden urn which holds the precious bones of my dear companion, whom I shall join on the Acheron's far shore.

I cannot see what Fate has in store for me in this land.

[hagrides]

Nor I. But be assured that this too is part of your fate.

[Pause, as Grimm weighs whether or not to say something a bit more personal than all this talk of fate and gods.]

...I am sorry to hear of what has befallen your companion.

[heelies]

Very well. I shall bide my time until the day comes I must go to fulfill Fate and my promise both.

As was I. Great-hearted Patroclus was the bravest of the Myrmidons, destined to fall while I still lived. I loved him as I love my own life. I have done all that I could for him, reaping revenge from murderous Hector with my spear and honoring him with the most splendid funeral man has ever seen. Hundreds of armored men bore his body unto his pyre on the headland overlooking the Hellespont, and on those timbers spilled the blood of a dozen long-horned oxen in blessing.

[Just Ancient Greek things.]

[hagrides]

A funeral worthy of your beloved.

[He has no idea what an oxen is, but he does understand animal sacrifice and assumes it's something like that.]

To tear you to a strange place in the midst of your grief is truly cruel.

[heelies]

It would have been crueler to tear me from the shores of Dardanus' land before I could put my dear friend to rest, before the fury that blackened my heart could be put to rest.

[You wouldn't like him when he's angry.]

[hagrides]

A crueler possibility does not make the current state of affairs kind.

[heelies]

You are gentler of word than one might expect from a servant of a Nightmare King.

[hagrides]

As a farmer burns his field before planting new crops, the Nightmare King clears what remains of old kingdoms so that life can start anew. It is not the kindest of roles, but neither is it done with ill intent.

Besides - while I am certainly a vessel of the Nightmare King, I am still a man like any other. I have loved ones of my own.

[He is a father, and a friend, and has been many things to many people over the years.]

what the heck he's so cute

[heelies]

Then he is a god of death and life whom you serve, not so unlike Dionysus, god of the vine, who was torn apart by Titans at the behest of Zeus' jealous queen Hera and then born anew from his deathless father's flesh — just as each winter the vines must die only to grow anew in the spring, that they might bear another year's crop of grapes.

How true, that even the deathless gods know what it is to love. Mine own mother is a daughter of Nereus, the old man who dwells in the sea.

the only good dad in his canon tbh

[hagrides]

I have a child of my own, far from here. How dearly I miss them.

[There isn't much he can do about that, but it's in the nature of a parent to wish to return to their young child's side.]

wish i could say the same for achilles but...hand gestures

[heelies]

Then we have this in common, for I too have a son, my Neoptolemus, whom I have not seen in some ten years while my spear rages across the Dardanian plains. I hope that you will be allowed to return to your child, as I never shall.

no one is good at anything in greek myth besides murder

[hagrides]

I shall keep your child in my thoughts, and hope for his good health.

[Grimm knows he won't see his child after his fated death - not long after he returns home, most likely - but that's simply how things are for the vessels of the Nightmare King. Burn the father, feed the child.]

true...odysseus might win for trying so hard to get back to his kid...and then teaching him MURDER

[heelies]

I am honored to receive your blessing, Grimm who serves the Nightmare King.

As we speak, my Neoptolemus remains in the care of his grandfather Lycomedes, he whom I consider a father third after Peleus and wise Chiron, but soon he shall be on the cusp of manhood, ready to wield spear and sword in battle. If I have any reason left to live, it would be to behold him thus.

he's so proud

[hagrides]

Perhaps you wil see him again, if only in your dreams. ...Though I have no power to grant pleasant ones, sadly.

[heelies]

Indeed, as only in memories and dreams can I ever see him, the fruit of my loins. Although even there, I cannot know how he looks in truth, for in my thoughts he is forever a babe, just as a flower plucked and dried shall grow no more.

Moreover, is it true, then, that you pour nightmares into the ears of the sleeping?

[hagrides]

I could, if I chose to. But I do not. You have more to fear from a goddess's sweet dreams than you have to fear from the realm of nightmare.

[heelies]

In your land do there dwell laughter-loving goddesses who beguile men with their charms? How true that fair features often conceal troubles unending, as it was with white-armed Helen, whose beauty and treachery are one and the same — whose visage launched the thousand ships gathered by the sons of Atreus.

[hagrides]

...I don't recall ever hearing the Radiance laugh. She's more the type to spread an all-consuming plague through dream.

[heelies]

True it is that the gods speak through the dreams that visit us in slumber, and sometimes these dreams reveal truths, and sometimes they are naught but lies. However, never have I heard of a pestilence that might be carried upon the soft mists of dreams!

[hagrides]

Consider yourself fortunate. The kingdom that earned her wrath and garnered her plague has been brought to ruin.

[heelies]

So it is when one of the deathless gods is slighted. Is there no way to supplicate this Radiance?

[hagrides]

Not in the slightest. She holds grudges longer than a kingdom's rise and fall. Even another god would have no power to sway her.