A Little Help Here?

Esperanza smiled.

"See? At least there's some good come out of this whole situation."

She sighed and sat back down.

"I just worry that I'm going to hurt someone..." she said, then immediately thought of what had happened to Steve.

"...who doesn't deserve it."

Nils nodded. "I can't really see you having any kind of power that would do that, Esperanza. You're not really that kind of person. I mean, you're such an all around nice person. You can't control what you're given, of course, but as far as hero tales go, people's abilities usually have some correlation to their personality. If this were a story, you'd probably be a healer or somesuch."
He paused. "Wait. In the car, with Steve. He got a bit better. You were sitting back there with him. Do you think you did that?"

Esperanza shrugged and sighed.

"Maybe. I don't even know anymore. It's... it's been a rough week all around, I think."

Nils nodded his agreement. "That it has. And unfortunately, I don't imagine it's going to get any easier anytime soon."
He sighed. "You know, I used to idolize the heroes in mythology, I used to think it would be so cool to be one. Mary and I used to imagine what we would do if we were." He shook his head. "It never occurred to us the difficulties involved. I wish I could spare Mary this madness, but under the circumstances, it seems unlikely."

Esperanza considered this for a moment.

"Wow... I hadn't even thought about her. But at least she has you. Someone who's been thorugh it before, you know?"

Nils smiled wryly. "If we're very very lucky, she'll have a brother who knows exactly what he's doing because he's had years practice." He sat down heavily in the chair. "She's never had the troubles I've had, since she's just telekinetic. Sure, she accidentally throws the occasional fruit, but luckily she's never had to deal with my sort of trouble."
He shrugged. "And hopefully things will go a little smoother with some warning. She's better able to defend herself than I am, I'm sure everything will be alright."

Ronnie sighed.

"You gonna tell her? The truth, I mean? About the gods and the tianspawn and everything?"

Nils blushed a little. "I... I called Mum earlier." He admitted, "I've always been really close to them, and I was a little thrown by the idea that Dad isn't really my dad. I... might have mentioned Loki."
He looked away, embarrassed. "Mum was... concerned about what was going on. When she, Dad, and Mary are all free, they're going to call back so we can discuss it. I want her to know what's going on, even if they do end up thinking me mad. They'll come around, I mean, it's really no less far fetched than the psychometry, and they accepted that and the telekinesis."

Ronnie nodded.

"That's good. Honesty is good. At least whatever happens, they'll still be your family."

She was trying hard not to think about what her own mother might say were she to tell her the truth. It seemed to her that the very best possible outcome would be that she would end up trying to have Esperanza committed. At worst she might call her a lying heathen and never speak to her again after trying to exorcise the demons from her soul.

"Family's important..." she said.

He nodded. "Yeah, although I have to feel bad for Mum and Dad. Before they had me, they were quiet, conservative, devotedly Christian. Now, they have a gay, psychic son who is apparently Loki's son too. I can't imagine how hard it was for them to be accepting. I do have to wonder if this might be the last straw."
He glanced over at Esperanza and gave her a hug. "At least we have each other, no matter what."

Esperanza smiled and hugged him back gently.

"Don't worry." she said, "I'm not going anywhere."

Nils nodded. "Neither am I, Esperanza. How are you doing with all of this?"
Now that he'd gotten enough of his own fear out of the way, and he had less alcohol in his system than he'd had in a week or two, he realized that he was being a little selfish, and she probably needed some help too. Her complete worldview had been reversed, after all.

Esperanza smiled.

"I'm... okay." she said, "Losing Chrys was rough. And then this... these powers... but I'll live."

She nodded to herself, as though assuring herself that she was, in fact, fine. Truth be told she honestly wasn't sure. Things were happening so fast. She didn't know who she was anymore. She didn't know WHAT she was anymore. Everything seemed to be spiralling faster and faster out of control. She was afraid that if things didn't stop soon....

But it didn't matter. She couldn't fall to pieces now. Her friends needed her. She had to be strong for them.

"Yeah... I'm okay." she said, managing a smile.

Nils shook his head. "Don't hide from me. You need someone to talk to just like everyone else. I know this can't have been easy for you." His hand twitched almost imperceptably back towards his jacket, but he shook it off. Esperanza was his dear friend, her entire world had been turned upside down. He'd put her through enough grief lately, he wanted to help her. Drinking in front of her would just make everything worse.
"Please don't keep it to yourself just to try to spare my feelings."

Ronnie smiled and brushed a lock of hair back from her face.

"No, seriously. I'll be okay. It just... it's gonna take some getting used to, you know? This whole god thing. I mean a week ago I was just some dumb kid trying to finish grad school and now... I don't know what I am."

She sighed.

"I just need some time to process all this. Unfortunately, that seems to be the one thing we don't have right at the moment."

Nils nodded sympathetically. "Oh, but the question of who we are is an ever changing one. I'm not sure it's ever really-" He cut himself off with a wry smile. "Sorry. I'll stop."
He reached for the abandoned glass of water. "I know. At some point there's got to be a lull, surely. Hopefully it will be soon. I imagine we could all use the time, not to mention all the more mundane things that have been getting pushed aside for this."

Ronnie grimaced at Nils' comment.

"Oh god... speaking of mundane stuff, I have a test in my Psychology of Religion class today. I've been so busy with all this stuff I haven't even had time to study. Heh... I suppose I could always just write an essay about the last week."

She laughed, somewhat bitterly and hugged her pillow.

"I... god, I may have to quit school if this keeps up."

Nils winced in sympathy. "Ouch. Do you need me to go so you can get in some studying before class?"
He shook his head. "But you've worked so hard to get here. It's going to be tough to juggle, I know, it will be for all of us, but I don't know that it's a good idea to ditch our normal lives." At least for now, he thought, but didn't mention. If this were anything like the hero stories he'd read growing up and during his research, the odds were good they wouldn't be able to just do the one thing and get back to their lives, not with divine blood.
He would just avoid mentioning that. Hope was something precious under the circumstances.

"Well... it's not exactly something I want to do. I mean, Everything is riding on me graduating. I just.. This whole business with the... gods... it's not exactly something we can just let slide either."

Ronnie was trying very hard not to cry at the moment. Nils didn't need her tears, he needed a friend. She tried forcing a smile.

"But hey... at least I got a great new outfit out of it, right?"

Nils took one look at the expression on Esperanza's face and gave her a huge hug. "Oh, it's gonna turn out alright." He told her, "We'll figure out something. It's not like we're going to be constantly busy once this initial fuss is over."

Esperanza sighed.

"God, I hope so. I just want things to be normal again."

Nils sighed. "Yeah. Unfortunately, I think we're just going to have to find a new definition of 'normal'. The old one doesn't really apply anymore."
He thought furiously, looking for a bright side to cheer his friend up. "On the other hand, at least now we finally know what it's like to be PCs."

Ronnie laughed.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. I just kinda wish it could've been a different game. Or at least a less sadistic player."

Nils laughed and nodded. "Kind of makes you want to be nicer to our characters in the future, doesn't it?"
He paused. "God, can you imagine? All this divine stuff is quite bad enough."
It was then that he noticed that she was still in her rather scant nightclothes. "I am sorry I barged in on you so early in the morning."

((Okay, so I was really tempted to crack a joke about the players from their point of view, but I couldn't quite make it fit. Honestly, if Nils met me, he'd probably beat the crap out of me. Poor guy.))