Chapter Text
Bluey could hear her dad walking down the hall towards them. She slid the book down under the covers with a giggle just as he walked in.
"Alright you two, did you brush your teeth? Bingo, say ah."
"ahhhhh..." Bingo said open as she opened her mouth. Bandit inspected it and saw no signs of the shrimp scampi they all had for dinner.
"Good job, Bingo!" Bandit said with a smile, before turning to his other girl with playful skepticism. "Okay Bluey... your turn. Show me those pearlies..."
"Ahhhh!" Bluey said loudly as she leaned over in her bed, opening her mouth wide. Bandit inspected her mouth as well, finding it surprisingly clean given her track record.
"Looks good!" Bandit said, prompting Bluey to beam with a wag. "Alright Bluey, what'd you pick out for the bedtime story tonight?"
Bluey slid the book out from the blanket and pushed it up with some struggle from the weight, trying to put on her best smile.
"Greek Mythology??" Bandit vocalized his confusion after reading the golden lettering. "Bluey, you know the books in mine and your mum's room are for grown ups..."
"Bluey, I don't like scary stories..." Bingo wiggled down into the covers.
"Don't worry Bingo, Calypso told us all about this stuff!" Bluey reassured her.
"Oh she did, did she?" Bandit inquired with an amused smile.
"Yeah! Judo asked and she told me and her about Apollo and Aphrodite and Artemis!"
No doubt she left out all the weird and creepy details that would've scared you... like the cannibalism... and torture by crows... and how all the people were weird creatures that evolved from apes...
Bandit's eyes lit up... if Calypso found a way to tell them about this stuff safely, so could he...
"Dad!"
Bandit looked to Bluey.
"You said it yourself, I'm tough!" Bluey made a muscle and patted it with her opposite paw.
Bandit laughed. If he wasn't sold before, he was sold now.
"Okay, but we don't need this book." He said while sitting at the bottom of the bed, leaning over to take the tome swiftly. The sooner he got rid of it the better. Even the pictures that were in it would give her nightmares.
"Are they really scary?" Bingo was hiding behind Floppy now.
"Ahhh, no." Bandit said, softly waving the thought away. "They're exciting!" The way I'll tell them will be at least. "Okay, you girls ready?"
Both his daughters nodded eagerly.
Can't start this from the Chronos story, there's no sugarcoating that one...
Bandit took a second to think.
"Alright, here we go...
Once upon a time, a father and a mother walked their three sons along a path out of a forest, to a beach. The mother could hardly contain her tears.
"Oh my sweet little pups" her blue fur reflected her downtrodden mood as she pulled her youngest into her arms and started kissing his cheeks and forehead, as the youngest son obviously leaned in.
The eldest son with yellow fur at the top of his body and blue fur at the bottom rolled his eyes as the middle son, who had a tan snout and tummy, laughed quietly to himself.
The father growled in frustration. "Alright alright, that's enough Christas, he's a grown dog now and he's got a job to do."
"Oh love, don't be so cruel." The mother said in her old, shaky voice. "Just a little longer?"
"No my dear." He said with some softness. "Son, come here." He said with more sterness than ever.
The youngest dog, just as much blue as his mother but with a brown stripe along his eye and lighter blue stripes along his belly and ankles, reluctantly pulled away and nervously stood to the right of the middle child, who was still snickering.
The eldest nudged the middle harshly to his left, prompting the middle brother to clear his throat, even as he continued smiling.
The dad looked at him sternly, and he immediately made his expression neutral with a blink.
The father dog took a step back and raised his paw to the sky, and in response from the cloudless sky, a lightning bolt struck his paw. He suddenly held a sharp rod that zagged down then up three times into another sharp end.
"Many many many eons ago, I made this universe and condensed all it's energy into this lightning bolt, and earned the title of King of Olympus. Through those eons I used the bolt to control the universe and guided the finite-lifes and the lesser gods with a steady paw."
The eldest son took a deep, shaky breath as quietly as he could.
"Now I pass it onto you, my boy." He firmly held the lightning bolt out to his son from the top. "My eldest son. Zeus. Will you in your great power, cause law and justice and mercy to be executed in all judgements among both gods and finite-lifes as King of Olympus for all of eternity?"
Zeus respectfully took the bolt from the middle "I solemnly swear so to do... D-Dad."
And with those words, the older dog became visibly worn and gray as Zeus suddenly wore a white himation, his entire being glowing gold and his fur shortly raised in static before falling back down.
"Great." The older dog in a completely relaxed tone, before letting go and wiping his handpaws. "Make me proud, son."
Zeus blinked in disbelief, looking to his father. "Wh... that's it??"
"Hell if I know, I made it up... now one last thing." He looked at the two younger sons. "I've brought you three here to a crossroad of land and sea for this coronation, because you two will now be god of the lands of the dead and god of the sea."
Both brothers looked at him in surprise, then to each other.
"Which one of us will be which??" The middle child said.
The old dog walked away towards his wife. "That's for your new king to decide." he said, taking her paw.
"W-Well what will you call yourself now??" The youngest dog said.
"I don't know. Bob." he said on a whim, paw in paw with his wife as they walked away "Call me Bob now."
"Where are you going!?" The middle son called out to his father.
"There's a wedding on Skopelos, we're going to that." Bob called back to them. "Bye!"
The three watched as the their parents disappeared in the distance.
Zeus stared down at the lightning bolt in his paws, feeling the power course through every fiber of his being.
He looked up at his brothers who stared at him expectantly.
Zeus cleared his throat, trying to speak as clearly and confidently as possible. "Okay.... So... here's how we're going to do this..."
Zeus raised his paw and felt the lighting strike it harmlessly, taking the bolt with it.
He pointed to his middle brother with his now free right paw. "Since you're older Hades, you'll be getting the choice between the underworld and the sea." Zeus explained.
"What?? But that's not fair!" The youngest started.
"Poseidon, stop." Zeus demanded, placing his paws on his hips. "It's perfectly fair. Hades has been around for far more centuries than you. Dad taught him more."
Poseidon fumed quietly, crossing his arms. Hades was meanwhile lost in thought, looking between the woods and sea.
"Uhhh..."
The sea was much more wild, especially compared to the dead... Poseidon could easily handle shades, it would be easier for him...
Buuuuut.... all the things those old bones in the ground could tell him... all the stories those shades could probably tell about when they were finites....
"Hades, come on. You've been anticipating this since we were kids! I need a decision from you!" Zeus said, annoyed.
"Yeah, well, I thought you were gonna make the decision!" Hades complained.
Zeus growled in frustration. "Fine! Hades, you're god of the underworld. Poseidon, you're god of the seas. There, happy?"
Both brothers looked down to see that they were suddenly wearing himations like Zeus, but while his was a plain white, Hades' was black and covered in bronze bones and Poseidon's was a gradient of blue and green.
"You didn't even give me a chance to pick!" Poseidon whined, looking up from his clothes.
"You would've taken forever too! I'm going back to Olympus. You both know the way to your throne rooms." Zeus walked off in a huff back into the forest, in the direction of a massive mountain in the distance. "Go there, meet your subjects, get things situated, then meet me back here at sunrise tomorrow."
Poseidon walked off into the ocean, grumbling to himself.
Hades meanwhile, started walking into the thick of the forest unsure how to feel. He-
Bandit stopped himself out of worry. He looked to Bingo, who was out cold, snuggling Floppy like she was holding on for dear life.
"Dad, keep going!" Bandit looked to his older daughter, seeing that she had scooted closer to her dad and was staring at him with eager eyes.
Poseidon cont-
"Noooo!" Bluey said in a whine, still quiet. Bandit looked at her in confusion. "Tell me more about Hades!"
Bandit was only more confused. "Bluey, I think that's a little too intense for you..."
"But he's my favorite!" Bluey said quietly, but with enthusiasm.
"Really??"
Bluey nodded.
Bandit was skeptical, though impressed. "Huh..." He pressed on. "Okay...