"No, I doubt it seriously." Kae was quiet for a moment. "I doubt we'll get to go to everything. There will probably be some things with no humans allowed. But Loki mentioned contests and like a more formal dinner/dance thing, right?"

"I remember those being mentioned, yeah," Elaine said. She couldn't help but grin slightly. "I also remember there being parts of mythology that we learned that told us mortals are never supposed to witness godly power, so this might be interesting, depending."

"Oh yeah. I would assume that Loki wouldn't let anything bad happen to us, but it could still be a very interesting few days." Kae couldn't help but grin. Okay, now she was curious.

Elaine was quiet for a moment before she grinned and stood up, straightening her skirt.

"Well, think we should to poke around?" she said. "We can't possibly get lost in a hotel, and I think we both know better than to provoke anyone."

"Sure, might as well." Kae grinned and got up as well, straightening herself out a bit before she headed for the door. Hey, it couldn't hurt to just look around...

Elaine followed her to the door.

"Ten bucks says the first ones we see are either Greek or Roman," she said softly as they stepped into the hallway. "Norse don't count if we see them first."

Kae snickered. "I'm not taking odds against that. Their pantheons were fricken huge." She grinned as she headed down the corridor, peeking around a corner before heading for the staircase.

"India's is bigger," Elaine pointed out as she followed Kae. "So is Japan's." She peeked around the corner, as well, and went down the stairs. When they got to the lobby again, though, she couldn't quite stifle a small gasp when she saw a trio of people, two men and a woman, that she would have sworn under oath that she knew, even though she'd never seen them in her life. They were all rather dark-skinned and the men had their heads shaved. The woman's dark hair was long and braided into tiny braids that each ended in a gold bead. One of the men was younger than the other two, and when they turned, Elaine could see khol outlining all three pairs of eyes. The younger man's eyes were bright gold, while the woman and the older man had dark eyes. They were all dressed in normal, modern clothing, although the woman was in a knee-length cheetah-print dress and had a leather-bound book under one arm, and the older man had a pendant hanging from a silver chain around his neck.

Elaine's heart skipped a beat.

"I know them," she whispered faintly to Kae. One hand went up to touch the little gold pendant she was wearing. "I know them."

"Ah." Kae smiled a little, looking at the trio. "The ones you call yours?" She glanced at Elaine, partially for confirmation and partially to make sure she was okay and not like having a heart attack or anything.

"Yeah," Elaine replied, nodding the slightest bit. "That's them. Some of them."

Kae nodded. "Yeah. I kind of guessed. So, how are you handling it? Okay so far?"

Elaine bit her lip a little, peeked out around the corner again, and then ducked back behind Kae.

"I don't know," she said. "What if they don't like me? What if I'm not good enough to be one of theirs?" Her fingers fiddled with her little gold pendant as she spoke.

"Well, they haven't rejected you," Kae pointed out logically. "I mean, I'm sure they've noticed you, they have few enough followers nowadays as it is. So you're probably okay."

"But how do we know that?" Elaine asked worriedly. "Even mythologically they aren't as easy-going as Thor is or anything, or as hands-on as the Greeks."

"You'll never know if you don't try and find out for yourself." Kae shrugged. "Maybe not right now, but in a bit, perhaps?"

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do," Elaine said. She was quiet for a second. "Damn our textbooks for not teaching us the right things."

Kae snickered. "I'm sure this isn't exactly normal, but now you can write the textbook on how to interact with your gods."

"I'm damn well going to, after this," Elaine said. In spite of her words, though, she didn't come out from hiding behind her friend.

Kae snorted but let Elaine hide behind her. She didn't really mind, after all.

Elaine peeked around the corner one more time, debating with herself, before shrinking back again.

"I can't do this," she said, shaking her head. "I can't."

"So don't. You don't have to do anything today." Kae shrugged. "Tomorrow, maybe."

Elaine bit her lip, but didn't immediately say anything.

"What now, then?" she asked finally.

"Now," Kae said forcefully, "we go downstairs and finish exploring. So I'm going to move, and you better move too."

"But--" Elaine couldn't even protest before Kae stepped away, and Elaine scrambled to keep up. She didn't catch two of the three Egyptians glancing over at them.

Kae just grinned and kept walking over to the staircase, and then down the stairs.

"See? Not so bad, was it?" she teased, grinning at Elaine.