After some time had passed, Alex and Amirilia let go of each other. Hermes and other gods cleaned up the body, with Anubis insisting they should mummify it.
"Are you going to be ok?" Alex said.
"Yes. I think so," Amirilia said. "I just needed a moment. I'm a big girl. I can handle myself." She flexed her undeveloped biceps in a classic bodybuilder pose.
"I believe you," Alex said, lightly squeezing her puny biceps.
"What do we do now?" Amirilia said.
"We check in on Ludos and Morcai," Alex said.
"Who are they?" Amirilia said.
"My boss and my friend who not so secretly likes me," Alex said.
"Oh," Amirilia said, a little shocked at his frankness. "Let's go meet them then I guess."
"Yes, let's," Alex said. He started walking towards Ludos' corner, and Amirilia followed.
"Are you two able to handle yourselves from here?" Alex said back at Chet and Fairglo who had been standing by them the whole time.
"Yeah, we'll be fine. We were just worried about you," Chet said.
"Are you going to be ok, Amirilia?" Fairglo said. They'd known each other for a while. They weren't exactly peers because of the age difference, but they were well acquainted.
"I'll be ok, Fairglo. You go settle in," Amirilia shouted back at her.
"Ok," Fairglo said.
Chet and Fairglo went to wherever Chet lived in this place. Alex didn't know. His team members and him never interacted much outside of missions. At least, so far. Maybe he would change that.
Ludos was playing a racing game. She had the entire setup. She had the racing chair, the racing stick, the racing wheel, and the racing pedals. She had it all.
She was even wearing racing clothes and a helmet. Her racing chair was designed to look like an actual race car. Who knows, maybe it was an actual race car. It had brand deal labels and icons all over it.
She had the Red Bovine energy drinks logo on the front. The MacRonalds fast food logo on the side and even the Amazoom delivery services logo on the back.
Alex wasn't sure if Amazoom even sponsored racing, but who was he to argue with her style. She was in first place by a mile. No, she literally was over a mile ahead of the other drivers.
She ended up passing through the finish line before the other drivers started their last lap. It was a sad day for her competitors. She waited until the other drivers finished the race.
"This is my favorite part," she said as she pulled out a bag of popcorn.
One of the racers broke down crying on the ground and got into the fetal position. One of them threw his helmet on the ground.
A few of them even got into a fist fight, trying to pull Ludos's character out of the car. They were fighting over who got to beat her up.
"So realistic." Ludos said. "Popcorn?" She offered some to Alex and Amirilia.
"No thanks," Alex said.
"Sure! What is it?" Amirilia said.
"Popped corn," Ludos said. "You dry up the kernels, and then you heat them up until they explode and the inside becomes the outside."
"Why is it so small?" Amirilia said as she ate some of the popcorn.
"What do you mean?" Ludos said.
"Well, a single kernel of corn is about this big." Amirilia made hand gestures that implied the dimensions were about the size of someone's head.
"What the hell?" Ludos said.
"She comes from a place where the plant life is about a thousand times bigger than it is here. And some of the insects too, but mammals are still normal size for some reason," Alex said.
"Oh. Huh," Ludos said, eating more popcorn.
The drivers in the video game had joined forces and were now kicking the crap out of Ludos' character.
"Hi! My name is Amirilia," Amirilia said as she put her hand out.
Ludos shook it. "Ludos, Goddess of Games."
"Nice to meet you," Amirilia said.
"Nice to meet you too," Ludos said. "So Alex, what can I do for you?"
"Can you give her a place to stay?" Alex said.
"Am I going to have to give all your girlfriends a place to stay?" Ludos said.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" Amirilia said.
"No. She's just joking," Alex said.
"Oh. I like jokes," Amirilia said.
"Clearly, since you like this guy," Ludos gestured at Alex and laughed.
"Very funny," Alex said. "Can you do it or not?"
"Fine. I'll do it," Ludos said, getting up. "I'll show her to her room. You go talk to Morcai. It wants to debrief you and talk about mission stuff."
"Ok," Alex said. He walked back to the military strategy room he'd seen Morcai in before.
Alex approached Morcai as it was talking to some of the gods and chosen. "Let's discuss this later. I need to speak with this one."
The gods and chosen walked away.
"So I hear you have a girlfriend now," Morcai said, tension apparent in its voice.
"No. Who did you hear that from?" Alex said.
"I made a sacrifice for you, and this is how you treat me?" Morcai said, trembling.
"I thought you joined forces with us to survive. Not for me," Alex said.
"That's not what I'm talking about!" Morcai said.
"Then what are you talking about?" Alex said.
Morcai leaned in close and whispered to Alex, "You know how I said, I could change my sex for you? Well, I did."
"If it's a sacrifice, then change back," Alex said.
"I can't!" She shouted.
"Oh shit. So you're stuck as a woman now?" Alex said.
"Yes," Morcai said.
"For me?" Alex said.
"Yes. I thought you felt the same way I did. I was going to surprise you when you got back from your mission," Morcai said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I do feel the same way. I couldnt stop thinking about you on the mission," Alex said.
"Actually?" Morcai said.
"Yes," Alex said.