The Kid Lich Book 2

The Kid Lich Book 2 6 Will P.

A Change of Plans

Apparently the five of them were all on some of the same unspoken mojo when their meeting adjourned yesterday, because the 4 gods and 1 lich had all either woke up or rocked up between 10:00am and 10:15am. They were all standing around the kitchenette. Sobek was curling a 25 lb dumbbell in one arm and reading the paper with his other.

Artemis was leaning backwards against the countertop cradling her mug with one hand on the handle and the other wrapped around the hotter main ceramic. Billy noticed they all also rocked  up basically in their PJs or whatever each of them did as an equivalent. For Sobek, that was just a white tank top and gym shorts, for Artemis it was some shorts and an oversized T-shirt. For Iris, who was standing at the open end of the kitchen, it was longer pajama pants and a matching pajama set T-shirt. Khonshu was wearing a plain black T-shirt that absolutely reeked of cigarettes, and the shirt had cigarette burns all over it. (Did he put his morning smokes out on that shirt? Thought Billy. It certainly seemed so.) 

Billy himself was in longer baggier gym shorts that reached just bellow the knee but still had a secure elastic waistline, and one of his shirts he'd gotten from when he'd visited New Orleans. 

"Okay, morning everyone, glad to see we are all on the same page, for some reason." Said Billy. "Yeah, how the heck did that happen?" Asked Khonshu. "Thank the gods for small miracles..." Muttered Artemis. 

"Right, right, it's very weird, anyhow I had some stuff I wanted to go over with y'all and I'm hoping we can all split into our final teams, make our initial plans for contact, and get heading out by about 2:00pm today. That sound doable to everyone?" Billy asked. "Yeah." Said Sobek. "Sure, of course." Said Iris. "I see no reason why not." Said Artemis. "Oughta be doable." Said Khonshu. 

"Awesome, then being the great leader I am, I'd like to start with some bad news." Billy tried to deliver the line with half-grin, like he knew it was a bad joke, but he also knew it had to be said. "Which is?" Prompted Khonshu. 

"I think our plans for team compositions yesterday were garbage." Billy delivered it very straightforward and deadpan, possibly not the best  idea, but it was completely unintentional, its just how he was being born of the black. "Wow, well thanks for the vote of confidence, man." Said Sobek with an eye-roll as he crossed  his arms over his chest.

"Garbage, but, I know why, and I have a much better plan, and I can explain the reasoning, and it should be totally doable!" Said Billy with both palms splayed as he patted the air, trying  to put the small metaphorical morale fire out. "Oh, well that's a lot better at least." Said Iris. "Sure is." Said Khonshu. "'Kay, Billy, go ahead." Said Artemis, nodding downward at him while she rolled her hand forward.

"Okay! So the problem was this: I really don't think Khonshu and Sobek can get along well enough for long enough to be an even remotely effective team. In fact, I'm worried they'd fight all the time about their plans, possibly with each trying to execute their own in order to force the other to follow their desired plan, and also I think if you guys tried to negotiate alliances with gods you'd just contradict each other and end up confusing whatever god you're talking to." Billy paused now that he was finished to let the room breathe.

"Hm, yeah, I mean, when you first said that, my first instinct was, 'You know, he's probably right.'" Said Sobek. "I also had a similar instinct, actually." Supplied Khonshu. "Oh, well that went a lot better than I thought it was about to go!" Exclaimed Iris happily. "Tell me about it." Said Artemis. 

"Right, so all that being said then, what do you propose for the new teams then?" Asked Sobek. "Okay, so the new teams will be myself and Khonshu, and then Iris, Artemis, and Sobek. There's a few reasons for this. One, I can improv and save face on the fly if Khonshu ever starts to botch our negotiations with other gods, or even if he just accidentally pisses them off, or accidentally reminds them of a reason they should hate him." Billy still delivered all this very straightforward like a strategist laying out an important game plan. Well, that was what he was doing. "Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, dude." Said Khonshu. "Oh don't give him shit, Khonshu, you know it's completely plausible." Said Artemis, as Billy gave her an appreciative glance. She nodded at him slightly.