"Appa!"
"Daddy!" was the last thing Ares heard before a white rocket glomped Ares right in the chest. Perhaps the softest missile ever, Appa had latched onto Ares and was giving him a big hug after not having seen him in a long while. She wasn't as dependent on him as she used to be, and didn't need a clone around twenty-four seven to feel comfortable in his absence, but having him around was definitely a better feeling than not or just having a fake. Pure happiness was what Appa was feeling right now that her father had returned form his trip. The Grecian Lands were a fun excursion, there were many nice people there who thought Appa was adorable and gave her hugs and head pats, but Ares was still the 'bestest' and his hugs still the warmest.
Ah bliss. Soft, adorable, heavenly bliss. How could Ares not smile when cuteness incarnate was being firmly held in his embrace? "Guess who has gifts for his precious daughter!?"
"Gifts!? Gifts! Yay!" Appa wriggled out of Ares' grasp, did a small three-hundred and sixty degree twirl, and sat down on the floor like a good shade and waited for her presents.
"I'll say this now, the biggest present isn't here right now. I know where it is but I still need to go and get it." Ares was referring to the cores of transforming monsters that would enable Appa to become a human if it wanted to. An ability like that came with many benefits and Ares was determined to make sure Appa could use it freely whenever it wanted but, first, he had to send a minion to Bhorashka in search of the required cores which could then be given to Allie to further enhance their effects. There was no guarantee this process wouldn't take a while, and necessitate the slaughter of thousands of monsters, but there ought to be some progress made by the time Bhorashka had been ransacked at least. "Still, I do have two other presents for you." Technically three depending on Appa's response to the third 'gift'. Ares had the house Appa's 'grandparents', that was what Ares decided to refer to them as, lived in as well as their diary containing notes about Appa's early life. it would be a pretty terrible gift if it made Appa upset so Ares was going to hold off on handing that over for a day or two. No sense in ruining this joyous reunion. At worst, everyone here felt miserable after Appa stormed off, at best nothing happened. There was no need to risk it right now! As such, Ares had but a mere two gifts to give which was somewhat lacklustre compared to what everyone else had gotten. Still, the second gift, something Ares stumbled across on his way back home from Isaz, wasn't completely terrible! "The first gift... Well it's not something you haven't ever had before but I know you like it so I stopped off and bought some..." Ares pulled out multiple sheets of bubble wrap and Appa gleefully took all of them and began popping, giggling every single time without fail. Bubbling wrap was truly Appa's favourite toy of all time and Ares was pretty sure she'd never grow tired of it no matter how old she got.
"Bubble bubble bubble..." Appa murmured as she poked away at the bubble wrap, almost completely forgetting there was another present.
"I also got you this new toy!"
"Ares that is not a toy!" Enyo stood up and rushed over before Ares could hand over a massive sword to Appa. Appa had been floating towards it with a glint in her eye socket but Enyo wasn't having any of it!
"Hehehehe, c'mon. Appa's a cultivator too and this is a treasure well suited to ice aspect affiliated individuals. There's nobody better to give this too so why not?" Ares had indeed found a snowy sword in Isaz before leaving. This thing, the 'Excalibrrr', more than likely belonged to the leader of the Nu Kings before he was blown sky high. This treasure was his weapon and took about an hour to fall back down to earth after the Viking was made mincemeat of. Ares just so happened to find it buried in the snow as he was on his way out of the country and pocketed it as a gift for Appa. It wasn't the greatest treasure ever but an ice related treasure was an ice related treasure! As far as Ares knew, Appa didn't have any treasures so this was a perfect chance to finally acquire one! And yet here his wife was, being a fuddy duddy and ruining it all!
Enyo belatedly realised Ares wasn't wrong, and that Appa, sweet as she was, was still a cultivator too... Also Appa was practically begging as she stared up at Enyo with sad eyes while tugging on her leg with her rope. Enyo could do little when faced with such sweet persuasiveness so she caved an handed the sword to Appa who swished it through the air a couple times and stored it inside herself for a rainy day. Appa didn't know how to use a sword but Ares could teach her and then she'd slice up all the baddies! Appa was definitely pleased with her gifts but there was something about Ares that felt slightly different to Appa and she hadn't been sure what it was this whole time exactly. Appa floated on over and narrowed her eye sockets at Ares, 'hmmm-ing' in his general direction as she tried to place this strangely familiar feeling. "You feel like home!"
Ares liked this particular compliment but he had a feeling Appa meant it more literally than he understood. He took a while to think about it and eventually realised Appa was referring to the Moongate Mountain! Appa was born of frosty mana in the Isaz region as well as Mental magic emanating from the Celestial Cluster treasure! The Moongate was a major reason Appa was even here today so Ares now how had an even deeper connection with his daughter than previously and he almost didn't even realise it! Also, it was interesting that Appa could recognise 'home' as it meat the Moongate probably played a pretty large part in Appa's birth more so than the ice aspect mana hovering around in Isaz. Appa was still predominantly using ice magic but maybe she'd see better improvement if she worked on mental magic instead? It didn't matter much to Ares, he was never going to rely on Appa for anything because he would consider himself a failure of a father if he had to drag her into his messes. Appa should still cultivate for her own good but Ares wanted to make sure he fostered an environment that was safe enough to make her efforts irrelevant. The less danger he exposed Appa to the better and cultivating should be something she did for fun and worst possible case scenarios, nothing else. Ares might offer some advice about this matter, and encourage her to check out mental magic more than she already had, but he wasn't going to push for it, it being full cultivation independence, like he did with Aejaz. Aejaz was a grown man with his own family so Ares was not going to show him leniency! As for the Moongate, Ares decided to tell Appa about it while he was also already informing it about the diary and hut as it was all connected one way or another. For now, Ares turned his attention to Allie instead. "I also have a gift for you though I'm not really sure how useful it's going to be. If there's nothing you want it for you can just auction it for stardust or whatever."
Allie received the dead parasite Ares killed and a small ball of light regarding his encounter with it. As this wasn't his memories of his entire trip from start to finish it only took a few seconds to go over in full. Allie very quickly lost in her own little world as she contemplated all the different avenues but the end result was almost definitely going to be a Mini Pillie of some new variety. Even still, her old habit of entering la la land in her own head and becoming unresponsive to the outside world had resurfaced and alchemy was the only thing on her brain. She would need to do a whole bunch of testing with this thing to understand its properties and so her mind raced with possibilities while Ares was left high and dry without so much as a thanks. She'd come to eventually, and be appreciative of the gift, but for now Ares could only hold back his fake crocodile tears and walk away. Que sera sera. At least Trixie would probably be more grateful! Ares hadn't really gotten her anything specific, and if he was being honest he almost completely forgot about her, but he did have something he could give her and it was no skin off his back... Though it was some blood out of his veins... "Here's a bunch of my blood..." Ares handed over a spatial ring filled with golden blood and explained "it has traces of my destruction pillar in it. You can create some rather flashy bombs with that I imagine but it's up to you." Trixie's specialty magic, hiding bombs on other people, could wind up being rather lethal when combined with Ares' magic so this was a very functional gift. Also, as with Allie's gift, it could be sold for a hefty sum at an auction that properly understood its value. Either way, Ares was just finally happy to hear the words 'thank you' again so he was satisfied and moved on to the real discussion. He'd given away all his gifts now so there was nothing left but to chat with the partners about his trip... And there were mixed feelings being directed at him from across the room!
Bellona not so much, she was in a good mood now that Ares was back, she didn't much care about the potential of new women joining the harem, and was excited to start playing around with Ares new magic. There was a sparkle in her eyes that said 'I want to double an Armillary as soon as possible!' Such a thing was highly dangerous but Ares could maybe take her to an isolated space somewhere and let loose to satisfy her cravings. Generally speaking, Bellona couldn't be in a better mood than she was today because everything had lined up perfectly for her so Ares faced no pressure from her whatsoever... Then there was Enyo. Hooboy did she have a long list of things to discuss with this carefree man of hers! In his defence, most of her talking points were relatively positive, but there were a few that weren't and needed to be addressed! And finally, there was Sandy who also seemed to be huffing and puffing a little. Ares decided to start with her then move on to Enyo whose list was far longer, no doubt. "Sandy... You good?" Ares wasn't sure what her problem was at all! He left her in Xasca and she was perfectly fine with him then! Even after returning their didn't seem to be any issues so something in Ares' memories, since he entered Isaz, was causing problems!
"... Playboy..." Sandy, grumpy as an agitated rhino, turned her head to the side and pouted... Ares was bewildered! She was bothered by the other women Ares and his pagoda clone were interacting with! Hypocrite! If it weren't for the fact that Ares was a 'playboy' she wouldn't even be here! Ah well, Ares was lucky so far in that none of his partners, so Enyo and Bellona basically, minded the whole harem thing. There was always going to be one or two that weren't keen on it so Sandy having mixed feelings was understandable. Plus Ares had only been gone for, what, less than a week? And he already found another woman in Mimi from the time he left Xasca / Sandy behind... It wasn't good optics, that was for sure! To make matters worse, Enyo was nodding her head along with Sandy and so too was Bellona. Apparently there was an agreement that Ares had been too speedy in picking up other women after the previous and so he was being remonstrated on behalf of the new addition... He couldn't argue his way out of this so he merely accepted the label and didn't refute it. For what it was worth, Sandy seemed to be getting along with the wives, she'd already brought them over to her side and they were all in sync when it came to pointing out Ares' faults... But all that meant was that Ares was surrounded! He was outnumbered three to one! No contest! Oh well, Sandy's issue was fair but not the end of the world and Ares wouldn't be held too too accountable for it. She knew what she signed up for when becoming a part of the harem, having complaints now was fine but she wasn't going to push it too far because this was how it was always going to be. Also also, it's not like another new woman was brought home alongside Sandy or anything, Mimi was a future addition and a way aways yet. Sandy would have to tolerate harem happenings and this situation was definitely quite tolerable compared to what it could have been so she'd be happy again when the food, AKA bribes, was ready.
Then there was Enyo and her laundry list of matters to discuss... It was better to just let her go through them one by one and so Ares gave up centre stage and let her start ranting... "Ok, first of all, and this is a minor matter, but stop mistreating your brother!"
"Yeah!" Aejaz piped up for the first time since being berated over the succubus incident. "Although I wouldn't call it a minor matter..." Having his woes be belittled, even if that was the price to pay for having them be addressed in the first place, made him want to shed a tear.
"Yes Aejaz is a wimp..." Enyo continued. "... Yes he needs to improve as a cultivator, and yes you were mostly there alongside him to make sure nothing went wrong, but throwing him to the undead dolphins was far too reckless!" Aejaz nodded fiercely in the background but he would soon be deflated. "Still, you got your act together towards the end of Xasca and didn't involve him in anything outright dangerous, namely the stepper incident, so I can give you a pass for that. Again, it's a minor matter and you don't exactly have it easy working Aejaz into shape. Seriously you lazy bum, go work for Hans again! You haven't done anything since you've come back!" Aejaz had been betrayed and outed for the layabout he truly was. Ares' grinned menacingly at Aejaz for failing to do any work, even with the Nyxian Prowler by his side, and maybe a private word and training session was needed to whip him back into shape! Enyo moved on to the next problem before Ares could speak, though. "Speaking of recklessness, it seems you still haven't learnt your lesson about taking fights seriously..." Enyo's gaze was piercing as she glared at Ares for real this time. "Using tough fights as a way of improving parts of you that are underdeveloped is clever but suicidal and there were many occasions in which you came close to death or injury because of your own stupidity and stubbornness! It always worked out for you but that doesn't meant it always will. Your bad habit of practicing random crap in the middle of life or death scenarios, playing around while the thing or person opposite you wants you dead, needs to be locked away forever more. Bad Ares! There was no redemption with this matter either so I'll be drilling it into you from now on not to act this way!"
Ares could only smile wryly as Enyo had hit the nail on the head with this one. Practicing his scythe mastery at weird times, messing around in front of the Anubis to enter a state of serenity, and generally making fights that shouldn't be close at all far too close for comfort. The fight with Fin on the Federation, for instance, was nonsensical in hindsight and shouldn't have gone down that way if Ares really put his mind to the battle. There weren't really any extremely deadly situations but there would be in the future and getting rid of his bad habits now was probably for the best... Though that didn't mean he would give up on practicing under harsh conditions! He would jsut have to start ascertaining whether the situation could be taken lightly or not instead of just doing whatever he pleased, whenever he pleased. Judgement, that was the skill he needed to develop and Enyo wasn't wrong so he meekly nodded like a good boy and kept listening. "Then there was the mutant stepper incident that you handled poorly. Not in the moment, I think you did everything you could, but afterwards I mean. You should have been more honest about how much it bothered you when you mentioned it in the letters. I'll give you some slack, because it was hard to manage everything at the time, but it's the thing I'm most annoyed about personally. Don't hide things from us." Again, Ares could only nod in defeat. He sort of brushed the original matter under the rug because he knew that he'd be over it fully by the time he returned form his trip. The stepper incident was behind him now, so he was right, but Enyo wasn't ok with how it all played out and how long it took Ares to finally mention it. He didn't remove it from his memories, so he was honest, but he delayed talking about it and that was no good. Bellona and Sandy might be content to let Ares get over things in his own way but Enyo was putting her foot down here because she cared about Ares' well being and felt this wasn't the right way to handle it.
"Sandy already mentioned it but you are a playboy! A heart stealer running around and tempting women! We'll discuss them individually later but for now learn to keep it in your pants! When you left there was only really one harem candidate, Candy. Now there's suddenly five more out of nowhere!"
Ayane Ensemble, Kya, Havannah, Mimi...
...
...
Five? Ares counted and recounted but there was no way he could make the number add up to five... Did Enyo see something in his own memories that Ares didn't?! Before he could ask, however, Enyo was already continuing from where she left off.
"I know I told you not to worry about the prophecy, and I know you hesitated with Sandy because of it, but you should have been more thoughtful about it anyway! Your clone got lucky and seemingly found other prophesised wives but you? After holding back with Sandy you went full throttle with Mimi and disregarded it entirely didn't you?"
"Uh... By the way, what was the consensus with the whole prophecy thing anyway?" Ares hadn't asked yet but Sandy was still clearly here and he didn't know how or why. He was glad but also curious because the prophecy was still breathing down his neck and he didn't know how to circumnavigate it.
"Concubines. Not Wives." Enyo responded sharply, not letting the conversation drift off into other territory to let Ares off the hook. Ares, though, was stunned!
"That... That sounds like a technicality at best!"
"Do you have any better ideas?"
"Uh, no..."
"There you have it!" Enyo seemed oddly proud about her roundabout solution and Ares could do naught but go along with it. He really didn't have any other solutions and if this one worked then why throw a wrench into it for no reason? It's not like he'd treat Sandy worse than a wife or anything so this was acceptable and she herself was ok with it. "Where was I..."
"In the middle of explaining what you meant when you said 'five' partners?" Ares wasn't going to let this point go either! He still had no clue who Enyo was taking about!
"I'll get onto them later." Enyo had already said this but Ares was practically dying to know here! "For now, we need to discuss your rapidly improving charm, the fact you need to be careful with it, and then, most importantly of all..." Ares' eyes widened as Enyo stared breathing heavily and fidgeting. "... Most importantly of all... That mark..."
Ah. The Redhome mark. The one Ares left on Mimi... Yeah, it made sense Enyo would want it... Ares' dressing down still had a ways to go yet and he wasn't out of the woods for now... Silver lining, though, by the time this talk was done with the food would be ready at least!... That was something...