Tartarus High: Orientation Day, Part 1

"Oh, there you are! Come on! You're going to be late for freshman orientation!" My senior guide, Iris Wings, grabbed me by the elbow, and pulled me after her. "We've got to catch up to the group! Hurry!"

She broke into a run, and I kind of stumbled after her, because the wings on her back were helping to propel her, and I was too busy gawking at the place. "Iris, I'm coming! Give me a break!" I mean, I'd seen pictures, of course, but this...this was just...

"WELCOME TO TARTARUS HIGH, FRESHMEN!" a skinny boy in glasses blustered a little too loudly. "HOME OF THE TITANS! GOOOOO TITANS!" he cheered, pumping his fist in the air, and then I thought he was going to do a backflip, but it turned out he had just thrown himself a little off balance. He straightened himself, and continued, "Also the home of the Pantheon Paper, and since this is the home of the Titans, also home of Cerberus the mascot!" Nearby students barked raucously at the mention of Cerberus. "I'm Hermes Caduceus by the way. Any questions before we--"

"Oh… Em… Gee… And… Gee," said a freshman girl in disgust. She wore a dark gray hoodie that was pulled up over her blonde hair, some of which poked out from the front. It cast her face in dark shadow, but she sounded cute. Even when she said, "There's some dork running around campus in a three-headed dog costume?"

Hermes was slightly taken aback. "No. What gave you that idea?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "You just said Cerberus was our mascot." Nearby students barked again.

"Right," said Hermes, his tone cheerfully congratulating her for paying attention.

"Soooo," said the girl, waiting for Hermes to clue in. When he didn't, she prompted, "Cerberus is the mascooot?" Students barked again. "Mascots wear costuuumes?"

"OH! BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Hermes laughed hysterically. Then soberly, he held up a finger, then used it to push his glasses back up his nose, and said, "No. Cerberus is our mascot." Students barked again. "But there's no costume involved."

The girl stared blankly.

Hermes laughed diplomatically. "Uh, hellooo? Tartarus High? Home of the Titans? You took the ferry to get here?"

"That was...?" I interrupted. "He just looked at my student pass before bringing me across."

"Mine too," murmured a few others in the group.

"Special contract," confided Hermes, seemingly proud of the arrangement. Looking back to the girl, he said, "So. Tartarus. Titans. Ferry. Big, furry, three headed mutt guards Tartarus, because the Titans are prisoners here?"

"OH MY GODS AND GODDESSES!" shouted the girl. "THE ACTUAL CERBERUS IS OUR MASCOT? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!" She was so loud that students barked all across the quad.

"Huh," I said. "I thought he was an aardvark."

"Easy mistake," said Hermes, "but the name's different."

I shrugged at the correction. "Okay."

Looking back towards the ferry, the girl yelled, "WE ARE SO GOING TO TALK WHEN I GET HOME, DADDY!" Turning back to the group, she stomped once and fumed, "ARGH!"

Iris started, "Your dad is--"

Then, the freshman's eyes got big, and she said, "Wait. Are we prisoners here?"

"What?" gasped Iris, followed by a laugh.

Hermes laughed too. "BWAH-HA-HA-HA! Oh my gosh, no! That's just the lower levels! HA-HA! Phew." Then he pushed his glasses back up his nose again, and added, "Oh, by the way: never go to the lower levels."

"Is it that bad?" I asked.

Hermes rocked backwards a little as he laughed and clasped his hands in front of him. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's just the Titans- the original Titans- are still prisoners there, and Cerberus--" Students barked. "--He guards them whenever he's not at the games, and he will eat you. We don't like feeding him freshmen." The group giggled, and Hermes said seriously, "It gives him indigestion. You don't want that. Freshmen have cleanup duty." About half of the giggling changed to looks of horrified disgust. Hermes didn't laugh to tell us that it was a joke.

"MOVING ON!" said Hermes.

"Wait a second, Hermes," said Iris. Turning to the girl who freaked out over the mascot, she said, "Your dad is--?"

The girl rolled her eyes, but sighed and raised her hand in front of her, "Yes. Sharon Boatman," she said, pointing to herself. "My dad drives the ferry."

Some of the freshmen were obviously creeped out. I just looked at her, and said, "Cool. Does he still take the... y'know?" I asked, pointing at my eyes.

Sharon smiled, a little embarrassed. "Yeah. He still takes the coins from the dead." She flopped her arms against her sides a couple of times, and said, "I keep trying to get him to roll them and put them in the bank, but he just won't do it. We've got so many plastic jugs full of those things around the house, it's ridiculous."

Everyone was stock still, just staring at her.

"I'm kidding, you guys," she said, shaking her head, and starting out ahead of the group.

I couldn't help laughing.

Hermes shook it off, and ran to get ahead of her again, continuing right where he left off. "You'll notice that the campus is modeled after Olym--"

"HERMES!" yelled a girl from somewhere in a group of sirens approaching us. "TELL THOSE FRESHMEN NOT TO LOOK AT ME! DON'T LOOK AT ME! DON'T EVEN LOOK AT ME!" she ranted as the group brushed by us.

One of the other freshmen turned to watch them go, and Iris quickly cupped a hand over his eyes. "HEY! Weren't you listening? Don't look at her!"

The boy pulled Iris' hand away, and looked at her petulantly. "Perseus Valor looks where he will." The group of sirens stopped and parted as Perseus raised his chin defiantly and looked towards them.

"LOOK AWAY!" shouted Hermes, and we all complied.

All except Perseus. A bit forlornly, the girl in the center of the group said, "You asked for it," and Perseus whimpered before turning to stone. Then the sirens closed around the girl, and their clique moved on.

We were all in shock. We just stared at Perseus. "Oh, Styg'," Iris said a bit sadly. "Help me move him?" she asked me. We stood him next to a tree. Patting Valor's stone cheek, she said, "Maybe next time, you'll listen."

Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

Exception: Cerebus owned by Dave Sim.

Thanks for stopping in! :^D

Thanks for stopping in! :^D

good stuff CB

This is kinda awkward. Like the whole Cerberus bit just kept going. Half of this is just the Cerberus joke. I know who Cerberus is. I dare say most readers know who that is. So this exposition is almost purely for the character. And not even the main character, but this side girl who arguably should know about the school given her father. I just feel not much was set up here.

??Like

@wildvine: A running joke is supposed to go on for a bit. Sharon knows who Cerberus is too , but thought Hermes was talking about your average costumed mascot (evidenced by her assumption that the mascot was some dork in a three-headed dog costume). Her yelling in her dad's direction implies that he may have told her something other than the truth. This is only part one of orientation so more setup is coming.

@oscuro: @galactic_1000: Thanks. :)

Right up my alley.

What is the name "iris wings"? I can only think of an Egyptian parallel.

@spareheadone: check the OC Name Origins in the second comment box. :)

ah persus, always gettin stoned :)

@4donkeyjohnson: Actually, in the myth, he avoided it. ;)

Thinking about this and the new CCC.

I still don't know about "awkward," but this story has been bugging me for awhile. The only way this story really works is if the kids didn't know that they had powers like their parents, and they clearly do. I wrote this on the fly, but clearly didn't think it out all that much. I'd like to rework this at some point.

@cbishop: Hello good sir! I'm present Wv. I represent the commentary office of Wv, Wv and Wv (no relation). First I must apologize for Past Wv. I feel they may have been in a mood that day and the review while being a snapshot in time is not a fair depiction of this story and I say that with confidence because---

I did not remember reading this. I did not notice the date posted. I sincerely thought you wrote this recently. Imagine my surprise seeing my curt review in the comments. How very... awkward. Allow me to correct myself.

I was going to say more but editing with a spoiler block makes my text disappear and my hear rate increase. So addendum.

I still don't know about "awkward," but this story has been bugging me for awhile. The only way this story really works is if the kids didn't know that they had powers like their parents, and they clearly do. I wrote this on the fly, but clearly didn't think it out all that much. I'd like to rework this at some point.

Upon rereading I don't think the kids have to be oblivious about their powers. I think they should be oblivious to the existence of each other. For one reason or another they live sheltered from one another. Maybe figuring out why could even be an underlying mystery for the series, Regardless of what things you rework I think the groundwork here is fine.

@wildvine: Cool. Thanks for that. :)

Thinking about what you said, there's a way I could work it from this to something else. Could be fun. :)

@cbishop: And my spoiler comments disappeared. Oh well. It was all positive

@wildvine: I was wondering what happened with that. I could see the spoiler before, but couldn't get into it.

Nov 24, 2023: Found on Facebook, this reminded me of our girl, Stygio Medusa (and thanks for that character name, Imp'). :)