Chapter 14: [13] Eight Hundred Years of Solitude
Calypso sprawled across the couch, knees hooked over one armrest and silver head propped against the other. The bathrobe had slipped open slightly, but she couldn't be bothered to fix it. No one was watching except the TV, and it had seen worse.
"Oh my gods, just tell her you love her already!" She hurled a decorative pillow at the screen where two impossibly attractive humans circled each other emotionally. The pillow passed through the holographic display, hitting the wall with a soft thump. "Mortals waste so much time. You have like, what, eighty years total? And you're spending fifteen episodes on meaningful glances?"
She flicked through channels. Each program offered a window into mortal entertainment—cooking shows where chefs screamed at each other, reality programs featuring people living in the same house (boring, she was doing that right now), and news broadcasts about gate activity around the world.
She paused on that one, pink eyes narrowing at footage of a Tier-3 gate in Argentina. The reporter stood a safe distance away while hunters in corporate-branded gear prepared to enter.
"Amateur hour," she muttered, scrutinizing their formation.
The footage cut to a commercial for crystal-infused energy drinks.
Calypso sighed and let her head fall back against the armrest. This wasn't how she'd planned to spend her evening. Usually by now, she'd be processing at least fifty souls, making life-altering decisions about their next incarnation while simultaneously playing six different gacha games on her divine smartphone.
But this...
She wiggled her toes, watching them move with fascination. Having a physical body that actually obeyed physics was weird. No floating, no reality bending, no conjuring desserts from thin air.
"Actually," she said to the empty room, "this isn't so bad."
Hundreds of years of continuous work without a single vacation. Even gods needed breaks, right? And while being stripped of most of her powers wasn't ideal, there were worse places to be stranded than a modern human city with all its entertainments and curiosities.