Yep my mc can’t ever look both of his “brothers” in the eye, which stings since it means our demigod body still makes us the runt of the “family”. 
I’m the runt of the family IRL as well. I’m not even 163cm, guys.
My ten year old sister comes up to my chin, nearly to my cheekbones.
Ten. Years old.
So it’s not that surprising that I’d be the runt of the family in a game as well snerk
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Oh god. My mom luuuuvs them. But ever since I took time to study they features, the Hemsworth brothers just look like poor Brad Pitt knock-offs to me.
But then again, my asexuality is a pretty extreme/peculiar case so I have no confidence in my opinion of these matters. 
Some of you guys seem familiar with K-entertainment so I’m really surprised that no one has suggested Song Hye Kyo as Aphrodite (at least I haven’t seen it, forgive me if I’m mistaken).
Same here. 
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Yeah, I wouldn’t know about that. The runt of my family is 175cm and she’s 14. Hehehe.
To me, it’s just aesthetic appreciation as opposed to anything else. I don’t find them sexually attractive, but I can see why others do; they have quite a few features of physical attractiveness. That’s what I go off of.
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Obviously I can’t speak on behalf of your MC, but my strength-tertiary mage MC has had a quite different experience. If we forget about all the seekers she defeated by quick-thinking and some help from magic items, and focus only one what has happened after she got to Olympus and got her new body, she has been in a total of five physical confrontations:
First was the meeting with Sage, where she got beat pretty hard, which I blame on being completely unprepared for Sage’s supernatural demigod speed.
Second was the altercation with the seeker, after she snuck off from class, which, if memory serves me, was a fairly even fight with my MC eventually getting the upper hand until the seeker killed himself.
Third was the sparring match with Calypso. While Calypso did end up winning, I think my MC managed to hold herself fairly well for someone without really any combat training.
Fourth was the training fight with some random class mate, which unlike you, I recall as, after a bit of waiting and careful calculation, a swift decisive takedown and humiliation of her enemy.
Fifth was her second confrontation with Sage at the beginning of the trial. This time being prepared and knowing about Sage’s speed, my MC managed to dodge her and take her down with relative ease. (Of note about this last one, there doesn’t seem to be any stat checks involved, meaning any MC could potentially take down Sage.)
Some of these fights are optional encounters, but my impression is that, for someone without combat training, who has traditionally gotten by using magic and being sneaky to avoiding open combat, a mage MC can potentially hold themself remarkably well in a fight.
Personally, I don’t think mage!MC’s skills and training are pathetic, but I can certainly understand why you might get that impression, and can’t really point to any canon to dispute you. The problem, I think, with the game as it is now (which I know is going through a rewrite), is that while mage!MC occasionally displays knowledge of magic, they don’t really cast much magic. Perhaps the game could be improved by giving the mage!MC some more opportunities to actually use their magic and display what they can do? Do they know any offensive magic? If so, perhaps they could occasionally use that in combat (especially the real fights that are not explicitly training sessions)?
On a slightly tangential note, I’d like to make a comment in regards to the lock breaking, which I saw was discussed some time ago. I think there’s a pretty simple explanation for that: All their life, mage!MC has been using magic books to learn. They have been casting spells, not realizing that rather than propper magic, they were subconsciously harnessing their essence power. The reason they never destroyed locks like that on the run was that they didn’t know any spell to do that.
For the first time, Lavei is learning to use their raw power, unconstrained by their preconceptions of spells. Since they have never done this before, it will obviously be cruder and less refined than the neat little spells they are used, but is potentially much more flexible in application. Compare a wizard in D&D casting spells with highly specific descriptions and rules for what they can and cannot do, to an energy-manipulating super hero like green-lantern who can manifest their power in pretty much any way they want, constrained only by their will and imagination.
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Lucky bastards, all of you. While I am an only child, I did live with my uncle and his family for a couple of years and among the boys at least I was the runt. The only one close in height to me (176 cm) is my oldest cousin, but since he was eight years older and already at university he was the one I had next to no contact with. The other two are 179 and the tallest 185 cm.
But yeah young people are the tallest my youngest cousin is the tallest of the whole family by far.
I think you need strength to get the upper hand there, my mc didn’t succeed here, obviously.
Yeah, defeat in two seconds flat, ouch.
I think there is a strength check in there that determines whether the eventual takedown is swift or a struggle, despite the careful calculation. Did the teacher scold you about taking your sweet time afterwards?
Yep, and this is compounded by the fact that our mage mc literally tells Aeson that they cannot do magic like he does, whether offensive, defensive or just conjuring up a breeze to shake leaves out of a tree.
Again the problem seems to be that mage mc has a theoretical understanding of magic but only seems to rely on magical items to do all the real work, we must even resort to killing the seeker with a dagger rather than magic in the intro, since the essence ex-machina only reinforces our shield charm magical item. It seems that mage mc has never had either the time or skill to cast offensive spells.
Likely true, but that means, again, that even their knowledge of “magic” is rather spotty.
Yes, but that first time comes rather (too)late to be of any actual use in those trials and doesn’t give me much confidence in “mage” mc’s untrained abilities against those of his trained killer “peers” who seem to have an actual idea of what they’re doing. Compounded by that fact that, other than looking like crap and feeling alien, neither “daddy” nor Aeson ever deigns to inform us of what our demigod powers are even supposed to be, let alone teach us how to use them, meaning that body horror potion was all for nothing.
Which we cannot cast anyway, maybe we never could, or else we likely can’t because we lack our material components, since Saint left them along with our magical items.
Yes, potentially as in “figure it out on your own while facing off against a bunch of trained killers.” the elites of Olympus this time, who have all been training for this for more then a decade. Even if we’re a very quick learner, those do not seem like good odds to me, nor to my mc.
We also seem constrained by the fact that we barely have any power (which may be why we couldn’t even cast normal spells before) until our stupid birthday and to get their we must first survive these deathtraps where we’re up against trained killers.
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I felt like you our mages are totally underpowered Emo Mara knows perfectly that in a fair fight she would be dead in five seconds. However She won’t fight Fair. She would manipulate, poison, sabotage, cheat and con art everyone until she had power enough to her revenge. The beautiful cheerleader will have her revenge whatever the cost . Your Mc is always crying Bua WHY AM I SO SHORT SO UGLY SO … MARA ADVICE IS STOPPING BEING AN EMMA AND START USE YOUR MIND IN HOW KILLING THE ASSHOLES THAT DESTROYED YOUR LIFE.
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I might be remembering that encounter wrong, been a while since I played through the entire game from start to finish. I think he had upper hand at first, but my MC eventually got the better of him, at which point he gave up and bit the pill.
If I recall, she said I could have been quicker, but was pleased with my performance. In my opinion, while combat itself took a little time, that was just because I spent time dodging and studying her before making my move.
Well, this is simply a point where we’ll have to disagree. My MC is significantly more confident in her abilities than yours. Whether that confidence is misplaced we’ll see…
Well, I feel my MC has shown that she can somewhat hold herself in a fair fight, however:
Here I am all with you. Avoid fair fights whenever possible and keep watch for opportune moments to cripple our opposition. Everyone standing in our way will be calculatedly and ruthlessly destroyed! 
On that note though, I am very curious to see the gods’ reactions as I advance through the trials. If it wasn’t already apparent, surely they must sooner or later realize that my bearer is completely unsuited for anything that could possibly be considered heroic?
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Actually, while I’m sure it won’t please Zeus, Athena, and (probably) Hades, I get the feeling that Ares might be kinda impressed (so, pretty much win-win for your MC).
Forgot all that HOLLYWOOD CRAP ABOUT HEROES. ALLdamn greek heroes are liars killers and bad people that do whatever they need to win. Including rape ransom poisoning bang all creatures not tied and some tied. Con art people and steal. Cheat your wife several times and then abandon her and her children to a certain death is completely normal I am looking at you Jason. So no modern concepts of heroes have nothing to do with this. HEROES ARE PEOPLE WHO WIN and that’s it whatever methods are fair. Read the odisey lol is a guy cheating and lying all the damn book he never win fair lol
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It’s also completely imbalanced. Odysseus is a hero for sleeping with every woman he meets; Penelope is a good wife for not sleeping with any other men. (To be fair, my headcanon is that Penelope thought Odysseus was already dead, but was pretending she though he was alive so that she could continue to be the queen without having to remarry. Well, she got twenty years out of it before he turned up again, at least.)
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True, cheat cheat cheat and then cheat some more for good measure. To do that however they need to stop wasting our time with highschool crap and we need to figure out more ways to get away from our “chaperones” in order to pull a Kirk. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a computer we can reprogram to give us a path to victory here.
Never having to see or be bothered by them again would be enough for my mc, particularly since he’d like to figure out a way of how to get there that does not rely on his very unreliable and extremely limited essence “powers”.
My mc just wants to get away from Olympus, even stuck in the horrible, alien body he is now, asap.
It’s unfortunate that the Gods seem to transport us magically and without equipment to those trial grounds, otherwise we could get better opportunities to actually use our wits by casing the joint in advance and maybe hide some items at select locations.
It’s also a pity that we don’t actually get to use our wits in awesome yet nerdy ways, a re-programmed robot lawn mower, with its sharp blades and surprising speed and agility could make a potentially useful ally with the proper upgrades. We could also probably make smoke, stun or even real grenades if we can "liberate’ some supplies from the chemistry lab.
So it’s not like my mc is against using his wits to save himself, it’s just that we get next to no opportunities to actually think and plan or gather information, since nobody wants to tell us anything on their own accord.
The only thing my mc has any confidence in is his intellect, but whether that alone is good enough to save him, I have my doubts since we really haven’t gotten any opportunities to use it to go off the beaten track, so to speak. Something my mc really needs to start doing and fast, if he’s going to survive it means finding a way to even the odds in his favour by essentially rigging the game since he just plain isn’t going to beat this with his combat “skills” or supposed “powers”.
For that to even have a chance to happen we need a whole lot more information than we now have, for starters.
A good starting point for that would be for him being able to skip his highschool classes and snoop around on his own.
Well another reason for my mc to not want to be a hero then, unless it’s really just sleeping of course. 
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I’m more going for a Diomedes approach. Maybe married to a woman back home for political reasons, yes, but spends the vast majority of time hanging out with his very close male “friends”. EDIT: And when his wife does end up in the arms of another man, he basically just shrugs and leaves.
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That’s an interesting point. I really hope we will get to see how the reactions of the 12 change over the course of the story. I can imagine (depending on how the MC acts) several of them reconsidering and wondering if they were wrong about them, while others are going “I told you so!”.
I’d also love a scene eventually where Athena and Hades sits down with my MC to have a serious talk with her about how disappointed they are about her behavior and asking what’s wrong with her, while giving her an opportunity to fully vent her emotions at them. (I like drama 
)
Really? That’s interesting, I’ve never actually read the original stories, so I wouldn’t know. So certainly more antiheroes than heroes then, if even that?
Aeson’s persona though seems to indicate that the gods these days are looking for more heroic heroes in the modern sense of the word. Though like @ParrotWatcher pointed out, some of the gods might actually prefer a more, by modern standards, unconventional hero.
No really no Aeson is a normal ancient heroe. All Heroes WERE MORE OBSESSED WITH PHYSICAL LOOKING AND FAME THAT ALL THOSE MODELS AND DIVAS. Jason Hercules Adonis Hector Odiseus Ajax… LOVED GO SEXY ARMOURED AND OILED WITH FLOWERS IN THEIR HAIR SAYING “I WILL PROTECTING YOU X REALM I WILL BE YOUR SHIELD IN NAME Y GOD MY DADDY. AND NOW BRING ME ALL YOUR MALE AND FEMALE VIRGIN TO BANG ALSO ANY MAGE OR SLAVE OR EVERYTHING REALLY.”
These are all vastly different characters. I’d say that Aeson fits Hector quite well, but he was Trojan, not Greek. Jason was a leader, but he wasn’t really much on his own (and he was sexist, even besides his adultery). Herakles was very strong, but not exactly the smartest (“smarter than Atlas” isn’t exactly a compliment). The original Adonis was a good hunter and a pretty face, but mainly existed as the pawn of the goddesses (thus reversing the typical gender roles). Odysseus was hyper-intelligent, but also very untrustworthy (he’d stab his comrades in the back if it would benefit him). And Ajax was either a berserking brute or a rapist, depending on which one you’re talking about.
Could be Achilles, this one (although it was his mother that was a god, not his father, and he did spend more time moping around feeling sorry for himself than actually fighting).
Yeah, I know but all had in common that fame seeking like groupies. Aeson Has that too all that heroic Halo all that fake pose ALL I WILL YOUR SHIELD . IT’S classic heroic mumbo yumbo. I agree with You in your opinions I think Aeson is Aquiles in mind but with the schemes and that of Odiseus. I don’t know i my least favourite heror is Jason or Ajax. Jason is as brute and rapist as Ajax he just is clever enough to hide it from public view. Ajax is not clever but same time he doesn’t cheat he is what you see .
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I don’t really see it, I’m afraid. Achilles, maybe. He’s certainly got quite a few similarities, although I don’t think Aeson will be quite as sulky as Achilles. Odysseus, on the other hand, was one of those schemers whose schemes would almost invariably backfire on him, mainly due to his own incomparable hubris (I am quite convinced that had Odysseus been alone in the Trojan horse, he would have got out early just to show the Trojans how smart he was). Aeson is probably not quite as smart as Odysseus in terms of raw intellect, but he’s also far less likely to ruin his own schemes out of arrogance.
I agree about little!Ajax, whose sole redeeming quality is that he died the most ironic death ever. Jason at least has some “good” qualities (his personality is not one of them), and he’s probably got quite a few contenders for that vaunted second place. Big!Ajax is mostly reasonable (despite the fact that he’s liable to murder everyone in a drunken rage), and certainly doesn’t pretend to be anything he’s not.
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I’d argue that the best hero is probably Diomedes hands-down.
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I have to say I love it. But I must ask when will there be more or when it’s finished?.. Oh and is the spartan adviser story going to continue? Cause that was a really nice touch.
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