Maneki Whati? (Mercury)

[Deleted]

Ethan wanted to get something special for Lilith. Christmas was coming. And he wanted to do something entirely different. Which was why he was in an alleyway in Tokyo passed out inside a dumpster. Let’s just say his aim wasn’t perfect. He’d been there for 16 hours after teleporting the last leg of the journey. He woke suddenly when a rat bit his nose. He sat up, throwing it off and looked around, just a bit dizzy still, and hoping he would not get an infection in his shnoz. He listened closely. Traffic, but not a lot of super-nearby talking. So five minutes of that later and he felt safe enough to climb out of the dumpster and not be robbed. He brushed the trash off his loud purple camp shirt and jeans, zipping his jacket all the way up to ensure the Mist didn’t have to do too much to hide that fact his shirt said “SPQR” which was internationally recognized from what he knew. And with that, he walked out of the alleyway, hands in his pockets, and observed the life of midday Tokyo. He couldn’t read a dang thing unless it was in English, which most was not. But land, was it colorful. Especially the girl who passed him in the brilliant pink frilly dress and high top shoes. He did a double take there until he was able to just set himself to the fact that this was Japan and the culture was hella different. By the time he passed the group of high schoolers (judging from their uniforms) with seriously every color hair so they looked like a human-sized Crayola box… well, he was doing pretty good. Trouble was, literally anything could be a monster and he wouldn’t know it, so he would have to make this fast.

Present time! He walked through the merchant district. Fish? No. Bad Christmas present. Whatever the heck that was? Looked edible and not made from something that Americans or Romans usually thought of as being edible. The whole city was looking like Times Square on New Years. How on earth was he going to find a good present here? He stopped at one shop window, but it wasn’t the wares he was looking at, it was the lucky cat. Yes, he needed one of these, but even he would not sink so low as to steal one. They were lucky, so he thought stealing would undo the luck. But that big fat smile on a very fat cat was just too freaking cute. Lilith needed one of these. He had his heart set on it. Time to find somewhere to respectfully purchase one.

TAG: @mercury
WORDS: 445
NOTES: Oh merchant god? How bout a shopping trip with your ickle grandson?

[Deleted]

Mercury had felt his teleportaion wavelengths rustled. While he couldn't exactly place who had actually done the teleporting, he could at least know where they ended up and when the jump was made from New Rome to Japan, well it was easy to say that the god was curious. Mercury had a curiosity that was rarely sated, he always wanted to poke and prod and ask way too many questions. So when he popped over to find out who was doing such a big jump, it was obvious to him. Ethan stood out from the crowd like a sore thumb. Every monster in a few mile radius had pinged him on the radar. He watched Ethan as he felt the presence of a monster slink away once Mercury had put his eye on it. Tangling with a demi-god was easy picking, but this monster didn't want to mess with a full blow deity. Mercury, while he was one of the easiest of gods to get along with, he was still not one to be messed with. The worst part about his revenge was that he was impulsive and patient. He could easily lie in wait to spring something. It would be years, decades even before he would spring things.

"You stick out like a sore thumb." Mercury stated as he slid up behind Ethan, draping his large leather jacket around his boy's shoulders to cover up the majority of the bright purple shirt that screamed he was a Roman. Mercury's eyes were caught by the manekineko that Ethan was eyeing. Maybe it was a present for someone, probably his girlfriend. "That one is too over priced, I totally know a guy...." Mercury said with a sly look in his eye. Of course he knew a guy, he was a god of merchants. Not only did he know a guy, he knew ten guys who sold the product, three of which would give it for free if he asked, and the other seven would compete for the lowest price. Sure he had Roman kids all around the world, not to mention that he was really good at bartering and haggling. it was easy. "What are you doing all the way out here Ethan?" Mercury was curious as to what his grandson was doing all the way out here. Probably without permission too. Not that him and his kids were known for explicitly following the rules.

words: 405
Tags: Ethan Hunter
notes; shopping trip with ickle ethan

[Deleted]

Ethan was mildly hoping there weren't any Roman monsters in Japan. Seemed odd there might be. Maybe like dragons or... Godzilla. But the Roman stuff didn't fit. Either way, he had a knife. It was just that this place was so crowded. He didn't want to hurt anyone but the monster, and he had a feeling that might be hard. Monstershad no qualms about putting mortals in danger. It was just how they were. Wonderful things, right?

Then a jacket came upon his shoulders abruptly and his first thought was crap, they found me! Then he heard a familiar voice. He spun on the spot to confirm and grinned. "Pops!" He would have hugged him if it weren't for the fact that he smelled like garbage and did not wish that on the god. His excitement was visible enough. And then his pops looked over to the cat thing in the window and informed Ethan that a better price could be found elsewhere, there being individuals he knew. No big surprise there. God of merchants probably knew all the trade secrets. Still, Ethan was tickled pink. "That would be awesome! Count me in!"

He zipped up the jacket to hide his SPQR shirt and beaned. Then Mercury asked what he was doing here. Ethan sighed. "Lilith is really sick. I'm worried about her. I left a ton on Apollo's altar, just asking for healing for her. So far nothing, so I figured the least I could do is try to make her happy. Japan is known for cute stuff, so I came here. And I think I've seen that cat thing before. Someone called it a lucky cat. And, well, she could use some luck in her life. Especially cute luck."