America

Audrey's apartment

The lights had been turned off in the apartment that once held the two Rhodes women. Audrey sat on the couch with empty alcohol glasses scattered all over the living room. The Mitts’ “One More Day” played on her phone; listening to music was the only thing that gave her mind ease. The melodic guitar, the introspective tongue and cheek lyrics.

After she had brutalized the mirror in the hospital bathroom, she needed to get treatment for the damage on her fists. The bill the hospital gave her for the treatment and the mirror brutalized her bank account. In one day, her life shattered like the mirror, and any hope she had for the future was dashed like the shards of glass that fell on the bathroom floor.

No job, no money, no Allie. She didn’t just go back to zero. To her it felt like her life went all the way down to negative numbers. Even if she could climb up and take care of the new debts she accumulated, it wouldn’t bring back the old days of being with her sister.

It wouldn’t bring back the dreams they shared; they had been working towards opening a bakery. Allie found solace in baking and creating sweets and used that as a coping mechanism, with music, to get through the abuse she face with her mother and the world around her.

Audrey was working two to three jobs saving every check, every penny so that she could be the one to help her older sister’s dream of owning her own bakery, a possibility. They were so close… so so close and then Allie got sick and the tumor in her brain reared its ugly, disgusting head into their lives. She raised the glass bottle and chugged down a large gulp.

“This sucks.”

She tossed the glass to the ground. The music suddenly stopped playing from her phone. Someone was calling her. She picked up the call and put it on speaker, so that she could just let the phone lay on her chest.

“Hey, Rey.”

“Hey, Beth, what do you want?” Audrey replied.

“Can you please come down to the Sumner? All the regulars are here. They are asking if you are okay.”

The Sumner was a bar Beth was co-owner of. It was Allie and Audrey's favorite location to just unwind, hang out, and listen to live music from the in-house band. Many of the songs they played were from many of the bands they loved. “I don’t really feel lik—” Audrey couldn’t even finish her sentence as many voices came out of the phone to interrupt her.

“Come out, Rey, we got a little billiards battle going on! I need the beat down queen as my partner!” one of the voices said.

“Girl, drinks are on Mike, so shadupp and get here,” a feminine voice said.

“What! I can’t pay for every drink! Especially since you drink gallons every night!” a masculine voice she knew to be Mike shouted.

“Yeah, Rey the band is going to be playing a bunch of Joy Disorder, Depeche Module, and The Cured songs today.”

Audrey looked up at the ceiling of her apartment listening to the voices of the people she and Allie met at the Sumner. Some of them were friends from college, with a few from high school. Others were regulars who looked and acted like Audrey did, delinquents with chips on their shoulders but with hearts of gold… ride or die people, as the humans would say. She smiled. “Alright, alright, I’ll be right there damn it. Tell Gerry to have the band wait for till I get there!”

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These were all people touched by Allie who only wanted to be there for Audrey in their own way. How could she possibly refuse them?

“Thanks, Rey! Let’s have fun tonight,” Beth said.

“Yeah… for Allie,” Audrey replied.

///

Elysium

Tuatha Dé Danann

The Tuatha Dé Danann was the name of the Celtic territory in Elysium. Nuada was appointed king of the Celtic territory by God. While he had the title of King and even a shiny cool crown to go with it, Nuada didn’t really govern. If anything, he was like a Celtic HR representative, listening to the mundane reports of his fellow Celtics, their worries or petty squabbles.

Most thought he would be taking responsibility for the errors that his kin would commit and try to fix them as quickly as possible. Much like he was doing with Joáo in the third Tryfing. As he entered the main hall of the Tuatha Dé Danann, that held the Armoy and treasury, he was greeted by the Celtic deity that was currently on receptionist duty.

“Oh, Nuada, how’s the king on this fine day?” The Celtic deity was tall and thin and had the markings that all Celtic had on their faces. He was Dian Cécht, the legendary Celtic physician, the deity that crafted Nuada’s silver arm with God’s help.

“Like I woke up from a deep sleep,” Nuada said as he placed a key on the desk. “ I’m here to grab my godsends.”

Dian raised his eyebrow at Nuada. “But last we spoke you were going to borrow godsends from the other celtics.” Nuada had locked away two of personal godsends, the crown of the Tuatha Dé Danann and his sword of light, claimh solais. During the Great rebellion, one of the Nephilim, Balor (III) defeated Nuada and cut his left arm off. This caused Nuada to retire from the war prematurely, only returning after Brigid’s death and Dian handing him the silver arm.

He returned to battle and had his rematch with Balor, pushing the Nephilim back. Lucifer appeared and used his abilities to subdue Nuada and allowed Balor to rip the silver arm off him.

Balor repeatedly beat Nuada with his giant fists, and used his one eye laser ability point blank to kill Nuada, trying to melt his face or behead him. As death approached Nuada, it was the sounds and colors of lighting and thunder that erupted smashing into Balor's face.

“Athibar!”

After the phase was said, the lightning bolt returned in the direction it was thrown. Its form took that of a spear once it was caught in the hands of Lugh. It was Lugh, who in Elysium lore was written down as the one to defeat Balor and save Nuada.

Even though technically Nuada reclaimed his honor and beat Balor, it was Lugh who claimed the title of savior. Just another reason for Nuada to dislike the young Celtic.

This was when Nuada felt like the biggest failure in deity hood and stopped acting like a king. Who was he to hold two of the Celtic’s beloved treasures? When he needed Lugh to save him, even if it was because Lucifer intervened. He always thought that it should have been Cu to lead the others and the events that happened in the Great Rebellion solidified that thought.

“I don’t have to tell you… you know I been running away from my duty. Well, that stops now.” Nuada’s resolve was burning, to the point that Dian was feeling Nuada ather seep from the words he spoke.

“The king is back,” Dian said with smile. He took the key and placed it into a lock in the desk. This opened the stone wall behind the receptionist desk. Nuada quickly went in and saw his crown and sword.

Placing the crown on his head, he could feel the energy of the crown flow through his body. It felt like God’s ather; as if a Father was welcoming back a wayward son into his life. He next grabbed the claimh solais and placed it onto his hip.

“That crown definitely fits you Nuada.” Dian walked up to Nuada holding a regal axe. The axe only had one blade and was shaped like a tomahawk. Just looking at the axe made Nuada question himself.

When the humans were recreated after the Great Rebellion some of the legends and lore of the deities got jumbled in the process or lost in translation. Many of the Celtic weapons they used were wrongly recorded. Many of them were falsely labeled as swords or spears, Cu Chulainn had four legendary weapons.

His spear Gáe Bulg remained intact in history but one claim that was wrong was that he had three other weapons that were all swords or spears. When Cu won the first Tryfing he took his favorite godsend, Gáe Bulg and left his other godsends with his fellow Celtics for any to use.

Nuada had locked these away so they wouldn't be misused and for respect to Cu. Yet here right now Dian held Cu’s Axe, Cruaidín Catutchenn. “Cu left this for the King to use.” Dian pushed the Axe to Nuada who in turn grabbed the gold and silver handle.

He knew he needed Cu’s gift for João to win. As the two deities left the secret room the sound of a heavy object getting dragged on the floor echoed around them.

“Oh, fancy meeting you here, Nuada.”

As Nuada turned his head down the hall, he saw the form of a teenager wearing a strange looking hood. He was dragging a small wooden boat that had many objects in it, one of the objects started to move around and a yelp was heard. Nuada's face was stone serious as the figure got closer to them, the sound of the dragging was getting louder and more annoying every second. As if the figure was doing it on purpose.

“Lugh,” Nuada said, staring down at the young deity who in return, gave him a big mischievous grin.

3rd Tryfing

Official judge: Heroic Greek deity, Achilles.

Support judge: Angel, Damaris.

Chosen deities:

Ra: Demi-God: Darren Donaldson

Lugh: Knight: Ariel Morales

Zhong Kui: Exorcist

Inari: Polymath: Kento Sanosuke

Freya: Assassin: Charlie Wilson

Nuada: Conqueror: João Machado

Minerva: Tactician ???

Team Arc-Angel: Hero Luther Satenly

Fantasia world: The world known as Helioan

Starting year: not yet decided.

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