Just another year older (OPEN TO ALL)

[Hermes]

As far as Hermes was concerned, this was just another day. what was so special about a birthday anyway? He pretty much got his way all the time without the extra excuse, he was worshiped all year round, and those who did sacrificed food and other such goods and gifts to him on a regular basis. Anything that made a birthday special to any mere mortal, hardly changed anything in Hermes day-to-day life. Not to mention the fact that, after you've had a few million, the idea of growing a year older meant little to nothing to him. In all honesty, Hermes wasn't even aware of the fact that today was, in fact, his day of birth long ago in that cave to his lovely nymph mother. Today was another day of being awesome, another day of causing alarm and having fun, another day of living with the grief, and another day of delivering the mail.

It would seem that even an all power god cannot slack on his duties without conscience. Though he was, in fact, the god of liars, trickery, and thievery (that side of him was well exercised), he was first and foremost, the messenger of the gods. Apparently the universe doesn't stand still to let Hermes have a little fun. Annoying. So now, here he sat, in an empty classroom, trying to get himself back on schedule. To be completely honest, which wasn't something Hermes was very practiced at being, he'd had enough 'fun' to last him at least a few days. The evening of the Halloween party still left a sore spot in his heart. Really, for most gods, what he'd done would have been the equivalent of a rough night out once you've had too much to drink. Killed a few mortals? Awkward, but nothing to get extremely worked up about, but Hermes didn't much like death, let alone causing it. He'd seen to many people die, known too many mortals too well, to know better than to think it was only a mild inconvenience. He felt embarrassed to have succumbed to this Norse gods will. He may not be under the curse any longer, but Loki was still next on his hit list.

Hermes sigh as he realized he'd ground the pencil he was holding into dust upon thinking about Halloween. The cell phone in his pocket kept repeating a small section of St. Jimmy as call came in at a rapid pace. His two, large, green snakes circled his desk, swimming through piles of papers, letters, and packages. Martha, the more business oriented of the two, hissed voicemails in his head, while George wondered aloud if rats that live in the sewers tasted better than rats that live in houses. Hermes glanced up at the messages in all forms he had magically circling around his head and began gracefully waving his hands about, sending them on their way to the proper owners. He willed the phone out of his pocket and morphed it into a large telephone switchboard. Martha perked up, clearly she enjoyed using the operator's board. Hermes smiled fondly at her and nodded, every single light on the board flashing. The green snake slithered up the desk and began using her tail to push buttons as she whispered into a headset laying in front of her. You've reached Hermes' message services, Martha speaking, please hold. You've reached Hermes' message services, no you cannot ship the north winds without proper packaging, You've reached Hermes's message ser- ....Hermes?

Martha, blinked her big yellow eye at Hermes, who was busy writing out records and taking his own calls, but glanced in her direction when she beaconed for him. A couple is calling to rent you out for their anniversary Hermes paused for a moment, then grinned well what do they look like? Hermes! ahh right right, 'we're a mail service, not a brothel...well at least tell them maybe, you know how i hate disappointing people, Martha, we sh-what? ohno, sorry, Iris only handles those type of messages Said Hermes, now returning to his call. He continued to wave his hands and a seemingly never ending supply of mail, sending it into oblivion and on its way. It was going to be a very very long day.

[Deleted]

Halloween had been a horrible experience. Plum still shuddered at the memory of being Hellgut. The fact that she hadn’t cared that people were dying around her made her violently ill. Clearly it had been magic, but she hadn’t cared about the lives of other people. She couldn’t seem to forgive herself for that. She might in time, but not yet. That was still unforgivable. Completely and totally unforgivable. There would never be a time in her life where she didn’t about the welfare of others. And she would never be that selfish to think only of herself. And she had terrified poor Roger as well.

The night had been a disaster to say the least, but the week following had been worse. She could hardly live with herself and she hadn’t been sleeping either. She couldn’t sleep without hearing Hellgut’s cackling in her ear and that was terrifying. To distract herself she had done both school work and other paperwork and things from home. However, she was now quite a bit ahead in everything and still needed other distractions. So she’d taken up a rather rigorous dance schedule.

Honestly, she hadn’t stuck much to her routine since she had been here at Tintagel and she’d gained a bit of weight from it. Not that that was a horrible thing of course, but it did mean that she was not sticking to her demanding routine. It had felt good to throw on her pointe shoes and do show barre work and floor exercises and routines and it felt good. She felt like her life was in order when she danced. There was structure and routine and she could deal with things. And that was good because Christmas was coming and she had quite a bit of work to do to get ready for the holidays back home.

The holidays were her favorite time of the year. She loved giving gifts and having guests come. She loved the parties and balls. But most especially she loved sitting around an open fire. And eating candy canes. Candy canes were the best. There were her most favorite candy of all!

Speaking of candy, she was at this very moment putting together a small basket of candy and other sweet things. It was actually a birthday gift for Hermes. Why she was giving him a gift on his birthday was beyond her. She knew that he had only used her and yes it had been a lovely time together and perhaps she wasn’t being entirely truthful to herself, but birthdays were meant to be celebrated. Tucking in a little tin box of ginger snaps she was almost done. There was one last item she needed to add; a tiny little nutcracker. She tied a ribbon around the handle and then it was finished.

Then she went to deliver it. She knocked first then entered without waiting for an answer, a smile plastered on her face. “I hope you don’t mind the intrusion,” she said coming into the room. “If you’re busy I’ll go, I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday and give you this.” She set the basket on the table in front of her. It was almost overfilling with all kinds of goodies and treats. “I hope you like sweets.”