Prometheus

### Realationships

Brothers: Atlas, Menoetius, and EpimetheusCousins: Hestia, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter and Zeus, in that order.

### Face Claim

Michiel Huisman

Prometheus is a Titan, Nephew of Cronos and Rhea, cousin to the Olympians, who created Humanity and gave them their gifts of cleverness and wit.

### Introduction

[INT, DAY: A door slams open, revealing a young man in his late twenties, standing half-hunched over a table full of books. He looks up, startled.] [record scratch] Yeah, that's me. I bet you're wondering how I got here.(edited)

[tape rewinds; mostly silent flashback with voiceover] So first, there was the family. Mom, Dad, me and my brothers Menoetius, Epimetheus, and the one you've probably heard of, Atlas. Things were fine until my uncle Cronus and his kids decided to pick a fight. I saw the writing on the wall with this one, so I sided with the kids. I usually call that the First Mistake.

Spoiler alert: we won. My brother and I got jobs out of the whole mess; we got to populate the world and give all the creatures gifts. Epimetheus made dozens of animals, giving them each their own thing -- strength, claws, wings, and so on. Me, I stuck with my one careful creation -- something on two feet, carved out of clay. I spent a lot of time creating the little buggers, perfecting an almost infinite variety -- but by the time I finished, there were no gifts left to give them. That felt unfair, so I put something together for them, something totally new -- I gave them cleverness, and watched them climb to the top of the food chain with it. (That may have been my Second Mistake. I'm not entirely sure.) Giving the humans their cleverness was not the *worst* received thing I've ever done, but it was close. I mostly dodged the criticism by going out to live among them for a while -- the people, not the critics -- and working to a better future for all of them. It was obvious from the outset that life among humans was lacking a few things; most of all, they needed heat, fire, a spark to drive invention and warmth to build their homes around.

So I returned up the Mount to gather what I needed to give another gift to humanity, but I made the mistake of asking permission instead of forgiveness; I suppose that was my Third Mistake. Zeus, for reasons you'd have to ask him about, said no. Something about gaining powers and rising up to overthrow the gods themselves, I think -- I wasn't really listening. I was already working through my other options. I stayed away from prying eyes and asked a few more people to help with my plan. Eventually, I found someone willing to help on the down low -- Hestia offered me the light of the Hearth to carry down the mountain. I kept that particular detail out of the story when I shared the light. Not to steal the glory, of course, just to keep the wrath of He Who Said No off her back and on mine, once he noticed what I'd done.

Rumor has it he's Noticed -- the people below took the gift and spread it across the continent, just as intended, so it'd be hard to not notice. I have to imagine he's not happy about it, so I'm doing my best to just stay out of arms reach for now. Eventually payment will be due for my Fourth Mistake (and Second Rebellion, now that I think about it). One of these days, someone is going to kick in the door and drag me off to Zeus only knows what kind of punishment -- but until then I'm going to keep my head down and avoid it for as long as I can. [End flashback, cut to Prometheus shoving all his books in a bag and legging it out the back door just ahead of a lightning strike]

[scribbled on the back of this script in green marker] Note: you may be reading this and saying 'that hasn't happened!'.  As the patron of foresight: trust me.  Four mistakes and two rebellions and something terrible after that.  It's coming.

### Titanomachy Scenes

Prometheus comes to Hestia with a brilliant idea: since Zeus won't let him have a lightning bolt to help the humans, he should take a spark of her hearthfire to earth and show them how to tend it [#the-hearth-closed] [Completed]

Prometheus interrupts Athena at work to ask if she'll help him cover up Hestia's involvement in giving the mortals their fire. [#athenas-gynaikon-closed] [Ongoing]

### The Roaring 20s

Name: Alexandre Rocher

Profession: Weapons dealer

Apparent Age: 30s

Prometheus woke up when the mortals finally decided that fire safety codes should be enshrined into law -- not long after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. He woke up fuzzy and numb. The Greeks believed the liver was the seat of emotions; maybe he didn't have his at the time. He existed in a low-level malaise, fell in with some fellows he thought were around his age, and built some kind of a life for himself.

He felt deeply, intensely protective of his friends, so much so that when the war came around he enlisted with them and spent a couple of long, dark years staying alive, working mostly as an ordinance officer, keeping his people equipped with all the firepower they needed. Most of the men in his unit did not come home, but by some miracle he did.

He stayed connected to the other ordinance officers, and at first he tried to stay legit in the field; he worked with engineers and reputable manufacturers trying to make the weapons more safe. But the war had affected him deeply, and his mood and drinking habits were both not particularly conducive to any kind of regular, gainful employment. It took nearly no time for him to be selling things out the back door of whatever company he worked for; in short order he found himself maintaining weapons for a number of individuals in the City, people who needed off-the-books work sourcing what they need.

The money was good, and he was clever; it didn't take long to earn enough and set things up as a proper business. It also didn't take long for his little business to gain some notice; a law enforcement officer named Andor Ozian quickly learned what Rocher was doing. He's gotten blackmail on him, and from time to time he still comes to ask Rocher for help, convincing him to inform on a few people in exchange for not being picked up.

He's gotten more careful since then, taking on the street name of Le Pendu. Most who have dealt with him believe they've never seen his face; he uses a rotating set of trusted lieutenants and lovers to act as his face but he's usually in the room, acting as his own muscle.

The name lets him not only hide his face from the law, but also hide his other bad habit from view. From time to time people come to him, or to someone in his organization, desperate, broke, and in deep need of help. The distance from his name lets him sneak into those people's lives and offer them help without tainting Le Pendu's reputation with something so dangerous as compassion. He tries not to get personally involved, and just help with money and things, but it rarely works.