Young Writers Society

Flynn shifted uneasily in his combat boots, trying to figure out the most polite thing to say to the god in front of him. Pan could start causing a lot of trouble if Flynn accidentally insulted him with the explanations of how the Greek gods lost their powers. How they got over taken by the Christians and how there were massacres and how's there's all sorts of terrible parts...

"Pagan is a relatively modern term to refer to polytheism. You, a member of the Greek family, should know that polytheism is the worship of multiple Gods. And I'm not sure if you're aware of the Hebrews or not, but they eventually become something more."

His look turned more puzzling as Pan's head tilted to the side.

"Your power is supported by the people who worship you and when they move to new beliefs, your power falls. And some are very desperate for human sacrifice."

The last word barely came off his lips, and Flynn prepared to flee the scene.



Carter maintained his position in the sand, listening to all of the occurrences around him, and taking in the energy that ran through the island.

There was a lot to take in.

Flynn almost made it sound like he was from the future. While Pan wasn’t opposed to the idea of time travel - it had to be possible somewhere - he was opposed to the idea that the gods lost their power. Magic didn’t work like that; a god’s power was written into their soul the moment they were created, and anyone who ever dealt with souls could say that souls weren’t easily malleable.

And human sacrifice definitely wouldn’t solve a problem like that, if it could even exist in the first place.

“Gods don’t work like that,” Pan slowly said. “We don’t lose our power just because people don’t believe in us anymore - it stays the same. It’s been documented countless times before. I don’t doubt that my religion will eventually fall, but, when it does, we’ll just follow what the gods before us have done: mope around in our domains or chill with humans.”

"Respectfully to you and your honor, that might be how gods work on your world but that's not how the system of power works on my world."

Flynn shuffled his boots more in the sand, wondering what the nicest wording to say this was. Pan had taken the concept of his religion eventually falling very well, a slight smirk when talking about moping around when it was all done. But Flynn could feel the sadness in his movements and pressed a few finger's to the god's palms.

"On my world, a monotheistic religion gains notoriety and a form of it comes under practice of much of the population. The polytheistic gods of my world depend on the praise they get from humans, the presence of their very faith and one way of showing such a presence is human sacrifice. if they are willing to give up a human life, which in every religion is the most cherished thing, then they are willing to serve their gods."

It was still hard to fathom what was being said. Part of him wanted to not believe it - the idea of another world where religions functioned like that seemed impossible. But he remembered overhearing Hecate mention the idea of alternate worlds before when Poseidon had been visiting Hades in the underworld, and she was generally pretty knowledgeable on what was possible through magic.

"I couldn't imagine what a monotheistic religion would be like," he finally said, wisely switching the topic of the conversation. The thought of human sacrifice left a disgusted feeling in his chest - even if he did have his qualms about humans from time to time, something like that just wasn't right. "It's a thing we've theorized about in the past, but it's never happened before. What was that god like?"

"What was that god like?"

Oh god.

"They were not particularly great, caused a lot of problems for the development of society, and I really don't think that you want to hear about the rest of this story."

Flynn looked over at Carter laying in the sand, wondering if he might get off his lazy ass to come help with explanation. But no help came so Flynn stood steady in addressing Pan once again in saying, "Monotheism is very complicated and multi-faceted, and continually a manipulation of public opinion. Not that the Greek pantheon would be familiar with that at all..."

"Well, I won't disagree with that," Pan said, giving him a small smile. He still couldn't ignore the feeling that Flynn seemed to be talking about a future. Maybe not theirs, but a future of a world like theirs all the same. There was nothing to say that a monotheistic god couldn't arise, and nothing to say that the same catastrophic events that Flynn was avoiding a discussion about would still happen. Maybe not the human sacrifice, but for someone to hold all that power...

...It was a very, very terrifying thing to think about.

"We should head to where the others are," he said. He would have to keep an eye out for the arrival of a new religion, just to make sure that the future deity didn't mess things up. "Poseidon's going to start getting impatient if I don't come back soon."

Ugh, this conversation was going on way too slow for Kai's liking.

Pulling away from Niwa, Kai walked over to Poseidon and Icarus. "What's the deal with the mermen?" Kai said, poking Poseidon in the back. "Pan talked about them, but what makes them so different?"

Flynn was so thankful when Pan offered to let the conversation go and prompted they should join in with the others. If this truly was a desert island survival scenario, there would need to be honest communication between the three teams. And right now there was barely even a recognition of existence.

The sight of Flynn and Pan walking to wear Icarus stood with Poseidon wasn't quite enough to rouse Carter from the sand. He was perfectly occupied in his thoughts of replenishing energy from the surface of the island. But his ears perked up at the sound of Kai's voice asking about mermen.

He jumped from the sand, running to cling to Flynn's side, and quietly whispered in his ear, "So did you ask goat boy out on a date?"

Flynn, being absolutely Flynn, ignored him, and then sent a boot heel onto Carter's toes. Flynn did the quick zip your lips and throw away the key sign as they focused on Poseidon's presence.

Poseidon spun around when he was poked, trident nearly whacking Icarus in the face in the process. "I don't know," he said. He looked like he was seriously considering poking Kai back - potentially with the trident. Icarus should have been worried for Kai's safety, but the god was giving him mixed feelings right now.

"They're just different," Poseidon added, an almost grumpy tone to his voice.

"What'd I miss?" Pan suddenly interrupted as he approached. Icarus stiffened, remembering what Poseidon had said about the other god, but found it difficult to stay terrified. He just seemed so...casual.

"...Icarus and I talked," Poseidon said, gaze dropping once more to the sand.

"What's so different about them?" Kai said. He could hear Niwa walking up behind him, and could probably guess the expression on Niwa's face, but Kai was genuinely curious. What kind of creatures had the god been raised by to make him act like this?

"I don't know," Poseidon repeated, irritation lacing his voice. He looked up to see Pan giving him a raised eyebrow, and he quickly looked back down. "...I guess they're more direct. You can tell what mermen are thinking. I can't tell that with other mortals and gods."

"I like the sound of those mermen," Kai said, ignoring Niwa tugging at his shoulder. "Trying to figure people out sucks. I know my boyfriend well enough, but people in general are so weird."

He nodded, raising his head to reveal a slight, hesitant smile. Icarus felt an unfamiliar feeling in his chest at the sight - something about it made his heart want to sore.

Kai could almost see Icarus's face light up when Poseidon smiled. Nodding back at Poseidon, Kai looked over at Icarus and said, "What? It's just a smile."

Carter had drifted in his position from Flynn. While the partner had stayed to listen to the mermen information, he had moved to the edge of the ocean. Carter lit a new cigarette from the slightly crumpled back, taking a drag once again, and flicking the ashes into the water.
And following the actual action in far too loud voice he said, “Eat me if you have an issue, Poseidon.”