Chapter 6: Mesopotamia, 4500 – 4250 BCE
[4500 BCE]
It has been almost 500 years since we landed. 500 YEARS!!! And yet, no progress whatsoever!
Ajak still wouldn’t allow us to move to the next area, which is just fucking annoying. That's 500 years! Doing nothing! If I was a normal human, I would probably be insane right now.
I’m not the only one who’s annoyed by the way, Thena is also annoyed by it, during our yearly meeting, she always brings it up, asking why we still haven’t moved yet, and Ajak always said:
"This era is important for humankind. We need to guide them carefully during this time, to make sure that they will develop as they should, and I am sure that they will build wonders. "
I always snorted at that line. "You know that this is not the only human settlement, right?"
And of course, she answered. "Yet this is the most effective place to develop civilizations."
I usually don’t want to argue anymore and just shut up.
Anyway…
In these boring 500 years, I’ve developed some hobbies… I saw humans doing stone sculptures. Some made it for us, but it’s quite inaccurate, but hey, at least they tried.
They didn’t make a sculpture of me though. It’s been 500 years, and it seems the scene of me absorbing the cosmic energy of the deviants still haunts them. They probably told their children about me and said that I would eat them or some shit.
It’s a bit frustrating to be honest… I was once human, yet they feared me. But I have lived for 500 years, my sense of identity as a human is practically non-existent.
After seeing the humans sculpting, I tried it too. It’s really calming, and fun too. I often carved one of my constructs into a stone and made it look more menacing. The biggest one I made is a Ghidorah statue, around 5 meters tall. I made it around a cave near the settlement, and now the humans don’t want to go there anymore.
After that accident, Ajak and Sersi demanded I stop sculpting my constructs, as it scared the humans. At this point, I didn’t want to argue anymore, so I just went along with it, but... I decided to have some fun with it.
"But, each of you will come to me to be sculpted." I said as I grinned at the two eternals.
"Two of us?" Sersi asked, a bit annoyed.
"No, all of you." I said flatly. "If we’re not moving anytime soon, at least you need to satiate my boredom."
Ajak sighed at this. "Alright, I’ll talk to the others, Kingo probably wanted to be sculpted anyway. I’ve seen him around humans, trying to be sculpted."
"Ah yes... Kingo... He’s a bit egocentric now, isn't he? " I mused. "Probably because he’s so bored... he developed an interest in that kind of thing." I continued sarcastically.
Ajak frowned. "Why are you so adamant about moving Pluto?"
I look at her as if she’s insane. "Are you serious right now? I’m bored Ajak, there’s no deviant to absorb and study anymore, I’ve done every combination possible, and most of them are shit, on top of that, Phastos still wouldn’t want to make my weapon, and my body is now numb because of Thena’s beating, I’m craving for something new Ajak, and before you said to get a life and talk to the humans, they fear me remember?"
"Isn’t it your fault that you are feared?" Sersi questioned.
"True, but it wasn’t by choice. They feared me since I absorbed that deviant in front of them. I just went along with it."
"Still your fault."
I sighed. "Look, at least allow me to explore the earth."
"We are a team Pluto, we need to stick together." Ajak continued.
"Then I’ll take some of us with me." I countered. "Thena is bored too. Gilgamesh will probably go along. Makkari and Druig too. In fact, probably only two of you that wanted to stay."
Ajak thought for a while. "I will talk to Arishem about this first."
I groaned at the name. "Are you serious right now? Our progress is too slow, Arishem will probably agree too. "
"I still need to report this to Arishem." Ajak insisted. "I will make a decision. In the meantime, I will tell the others to come to you so you can sculpt them. It’ll be good memorabilia to put in the Domo."
Ajak then left the place, but Sersi stayed. "I’ll go first." She said.
I raised my eyebrow. "You sure?"
"Yeah... why?"
"I could sculpt you and Ikaris together if you want."
"Why Ikaris specifically?" She raised her eyebrow, but I could tell she blushed a bit. I still didn’t know how we could blush.
"I’ve seen how he looks at you." I flatly replied. "If you like him too, you should just talk to him about it. He seems a bit stiff nowadays, and probably needs some love." I continued as I summoned a construct I killed around 200 years ago. I commanded it to pick up some rock so I could sculpt Sersi.
"I- We’re eternals, we can’t reproduce." She stuttered.
"So?" I raised my eyebrow.
"Isn’t that the whole point of it? I’ve seen humans do it. "
"Wow." I chuckled. "You’re watching humans having sex, Sersi?"
"I didn’t do it on purpose." She grumbled.
I sighed. "That’s not the whole point Sersi, sure, reproducing is one of the points, but it’s mostly love."
She hummed as she sat on a wooden stool nearby. "What is love actually?"
"Are you serious?" I questioned "Your thing is literally loving humans, and you don’t know what love is?"
"Loving humans and this is an entirely different thing." She refuted
The bull finally arrived with the rock and put it in front of me, ready to be sculpted. I absorbed it back and started to work. "True, to be honest, I don’t know what that kind of love is too." I stated.
"And you’re advising me about it?" She snorted.
I shrugged. "I observed humans for the past 500 years. That kind of love makes you dumb, so the one who hasn’t experienced it tends to give good advice... probably." I never had a girlfriend, so I don't really know about this...
"So you watch humans have sex too? But the difference between us is that you’re intentional?" She mused.
I laughed. "Of course not, I just watch humans interact with each other. It’s strange really."
"What’s strange?"
"We have already lived here for 500 years, Sersi... I’ve seen a couple of generations of humans die, and frankly, I don’t know their faces anymore." I stated. "And I don’t really have a connection between humans, so now, I see them as more of an interesting subject to watch, I’m not someone who interacts with them almost on a daily basis. I simply view them as, well... a mission objective."
Sersi frowned at my words. "So they don’t mean anything to you?"
"For now? Yes."
"For now?"
"Perception can change." I informed. "That’s why I wanted to quickly move from this place aside from boredom, maybe the humans that lived in the next area we visited will like me, and I can develop a connection between humans."
Sersi hummed. "Perhaps it is a good idea to move after all."
I nodded. "You’re too attached." I continued. "It’ll be hard for you to leave once the time has come." Not that we ever leave anyway.
"I know." She sighed as I finished cutting the rough shape of her. Now for some detailing. "When do you think we’ll finish this mission? "
"With only killing the deviants? Probably around 500 years, but with developing humans? It’ll probably take around 5000 more years."
She sighed again. "Well, it’s still 5000 more years I guess."
"Like I said, you’re too attached Sersi." I stated. "But I won’t stop you from feeling that. Perhaps it is that feeling that will make us free in the future. "
Sersi heard what I said and was confused. "Free?"
I just smiled at her and didn’t answer the question. "Right, can you move your head a bit, I wanted to see your side face."
She did what I asked, and I started working on the details of her face. And a couple of minutes later, Gilgamesh suddenly came to the place.
"Ajak asked me to come here, what’s going on?" He said.
"You’ll be sculpted by Pluto." Sersi answered calmly.
"Sculpted?" he questioned, and he saw the statue. "Oh, I don’t know, man…"
"Come on, Gil, it’s for the décor of the Domo." I mused.
He sighed and sat near me, in front of Sersi. "It’s strange to see you transform from that maniac who smiled when absorbing the deviants in front of humans to this… artist…"
"Probably because of my powers." I shrugged. "I can combine my constructs… and my artistic heart just popped out I guess."
He chuckled and murmured. "Artistic heart..."
"Anyway, after I’m done with Sersi, it’s your turn, but I need to move her statue to the Domo first, so I need your help."
He grimaced at this. "So I’m a hauler now? Because of my big body?"
"You’re the best for the job." I shrugged.
A couple of minutes went by, and I continued to work in silence. Sersi however is uncomfortable with the silence and asks Gilgamesh.
"So how’s mingling with humans treating you, Gil?"
"Not bad." He shrugged. "They’re fun to be around. Their alcohol is quite nice."
I chuckled. "It’s funny that one of the things that Ajak allowed Phastos to teach them is alcohol making."
"Alcohol brings people closer." Sersi added.
"And also make them kill each other." I refuted.
"What is going on with you two?" Gilgamesh asked in amusement. "Since the start you two just didn’t get along, starting from that construct around humans thing."
"Really? We don’t get along? " I asked as I looked at Sersi. "We’re getting along just fine in my opinion, I’m closer to her than the rest of us."
"Speak for yourself." She sighed. "You’re just annoying to be around, acting like a wise man about everything."
"I’m just giving you advice." I pointed out. "And that’s cold from you, Sersi. I thought we were friends." I teased her.
She sighed. "Let’s just get this over with…"
I chuckled. "Fine, Gil is my friend now."
"Eh, I’ll pass." He laughed. "Sersi’s right, you are annoying to be around."
"Damn, fine, I’ll just stay alone for the rest of the mission." I grumbled. "Maybe Thena likes me. She must’ve seen me as a friend, right? She trained me after all..."
Gilgamesh shrugged. "Probably."
Suddenly, Sersi spoke again. "I find it interesting that you are the first to introduce yourself to the rest of us, yet now, you rarely talk to us except at times like these and the yearly meeting. Why is that? "
"Now that I thought about it… yeah… why is that?" Gilgamesh repeated.
I just smiled at the question. "I’m different from you all…"
"Different how?" Sersi raised her eyebrows.
"With all of us, aside from Ajak who’s the prime Eternal, I’m the only one who has a special mission."
"True..." Gilgamesh mumbled. "But it isn’t the only reason, is it?"
I chuckled. "Maybe, maybe not."
"You are the most mysterious out of all of us Pluto…" Sersi said. "And I’ve noticed that you fight a lot with Ajak."
"I fight with you too..."
"Yeah, but with me it was just a bit of banter, but with Ajak, you actually oppose her orders sometimes, like the whole staying in this place thing…"
"I’m just giving my thoughts, that’s all."
Gilgamesh chuckled. "Pluto fighting the others, that’s just normal Sersi. He fights with Phastos too."
"That’s because he still hasn’t finished my weapon yet." I grumbled as I finished the last touches on the sculpture. It looks good.
"Looks okay." Gilgamesh commented.
"What do you mean, okay?! I look horrible! " Sersi complained.
"It’s sculpting Sersi. What more do you want, a perfect replica?" I questioned. "Anyway, let’s take this back to Domo. I’ll do Gilgamesh’s sculpture in the Domo."
The three of us then returned to the Domo, with Sersi’s statue carried by Gilgamesh and placed in the hall.
Right now, the other Eternals are gathering around the statue, ‘admiring’ it.
"It looks horrible." Sprite said with a deadpan expression.
"I think it looks fine." Ikaris shrugged.
"If ‘fine’ in your book means ‘looking like you have been stung by a bee ’ then yeah, it looks fine." Sarcastically, Phastos said.
"It’s sculpting Phastos. What do you expect?" I refuted.
"Can you at least make her more… her? I do not want to be sculpted by you if the result is this. " Phastos continued.
"At least I don’t have a slow work ethic like you." I refuted once again, making him snort and leave the place. "So, after Gilgamesh, who’ll be next?"
"Yeah, I’ll pass, buddy." Sprite left too, while patting my back.
"It’s mandatory Sprite!"
"Don’t care." she said dismissively, and finally left the room.
"Can I be after Gilgamesh?" Kingo asked, rather enthusiastically. "I have a ton of requests!"
"Sure Kingo, whatever you want." I gave a thumbs-up to the man, and finally, I looked at Thena. "What about you, Thena?"
"Why not? It’s not like I have much to do. " She said this while leaving the room.
I nodded and turned to Ikaris. "You?"
"Sure." He shrugged.
"Then that’s good. I’ll pick the stone later. "
After that, I searched for Makkari and Druig, offering my service, and they said yes, but said that they wanted to be sculpted together, I just shrugged and said: "Why not?"
And that day, I became busy again, from experimenting to sculpting statues. At least it’s making me feel not bored, I got to talk to the eternals as well, which is nice.
[4250 BCE]
"I have come to a conclusion." Ajak spoke in the middle of the yearly meeting. "We are moving."
"At long last!" I exclaimed, making the others look at me.
"Yes... calm down, Pluto..." Ajak warned me, so I just shut up. "We are going south, Phastos?"
Phastos began his work, and an earth map appeared. "We are going here." He pointed at a place near the Nile River, so I’m guessing we’re going to Egypt now…
"How many deviants are there?" Thena asked, not bothering to wait.
"A lot." Phastos simply said.
"Good enough for me." She continued.
Phastos then zoomed in on the place. "There is a rather big settlement here, so we could stay there as our next base."
"Once we get there, what are we going to do?" Druig asked. "It’s not like we can appear out of thin air with powers like this, they’ll attack us."
"That’s why we have you, Druig." I said. "Control their minds."
"That is a last resort, Druig." Ajak issued a stern warning. "We will slowly integrate with them and help their society."
I snorted. "And what? It’s not like here Ajak. They don’t know us. For all we know, they will attack us on sight, especially when they see a giant triangle rock floating above their settlement. "
"We will do it slowly, Pluto." Ajak calmly said.
"For once, I agree with Pluto." Sprite added, surprising me a bit. "Even if we do it slowly, they will still not trust us. It’s different from here."
"We will use your skill Sprite." Ajak smiled. "Attract the people of that settlement with your stories and illusions."
"We don’t know their language, remember?" She added.
"Then we’ll learn, we have time." She nodded.
She sighed. "Fine."
"Any other questions?"
"What about the deviants?" Ikaris asked.
"We eliminate them, of course." Ajak said. "You, Pluto, Thena, and Kingo will scour the area for any deviants, while Gilgamesh stays with the rest of us in case they’ve become aggressive."
"Fair enough." I spoke. "Phastos, what about my weapon? It’s about time, don’t you think? "
He groaned. "Find me some good material, then we’ll talk."
"Are you kidding?!" I yelled. "It’s been 750 years, Phastos! And you only tell me now?!"
"I haven’t got time to think about it." He shrugged.
"Fucking piece of shit." I murmured.
"Quite down, you two." Ajak warned. "Phastos, let’s go now."
"Now?" Sersi questioned. "We won’t say goodbye to the humans here?"
"We don’t have to Sersi." Ajak shook her head. "We will leave now."
"But-"
"You are too attached, Sersi." Ajak cut her off.
"That’s the same line that Pluto told me…" She mumbled. "Fine…"
"Good." She nodded. "Phastos?"
Phastos once again nodded, and he began to control the ship. After 750 years, the ship finally moved again, surprising the human population nearby. Sersi just looked at them at the window, and waved her hand, even though they couldn’t see it.
And after a couple of seconds of preparation, the Domo finally flew off to Egypt, to the Nile River.
After a couple of minutes of flying, we’ve finally arrived near the Nile River. Once, I could see the landscape of Africa, and I was baffled at the scene.
What the fuck?! Where is the desert?! Why is the Sahara green?!