"Steven? We can drop the subject if you'd rather, Jack."

"Oh, no, I love talking about Steven," Jack groans, muffled. Alex pats him on the back again.

"Steven was the former sixth member of our group," Sheila explains. "Called himself Strongarm. He was an asshole, but we put up with him for... complicated reasons. Then he started dating Jack. Nem-Shar didn't like that, because, as previously mentioned, Steven's an asshole, so when Steven decided it was time to claim Jack's virginity, Nem-Shar did something... complicated. Which neatly removed the complicated reasons we had for putting up with him. Now Steven's ugly as well as being an asshole, Jack has his powers and his place on the team, and Alex is dating Jack, which is an improvement on all counts."

"Okay, okay. That sounds messy enough and... might play badly with the demonic part of my magic that it sounds better to just drop it."

"And speaking of team. What are your team of?"

Sandy speaks up. "A team is kind of like a clique, except you fight people together. It's very Whateley."

"We're planning on becoming an actual superhero team when we graduate, though," Sheila adds, "it's not just a friendship thing."

"So... are you like a soldier squad still in training? Except, you are more of a militia or something. I don't think the superhero and supervillain was explained properly."

Sheila shrugs. "You're not far wrong. Supervillains try to disrupt the fabric of society for their own gain, superheroes try to stop them."

"And you get to pick your teammates which is nice. By the way, is the name 'the half-gods' meant to be literal?"

"No." "Yes."

Jack and Sandy glare at each other across the table.

"It's a point of contention," Kostas says.

Herod blinks. "Sensitive topic?"

"We are literally gods, Jack," Sandy says patiently. "I acknowledge your lack of faith, but-"

"That's insane! Look, I know we're all in high school and some pretension is to be expected-"

Alex rolls his eyes. "It's not pretension, Jack, it's-"

Gavriil waves a hand, and strips of duct tape appear over the mouths of those involved in the argument.

"Sensitive topic," the twins say in unison.

Herod looks between Sandy and Jack and their duct taped mouths. He looks at Gavriil and nods.

"So," Herod nods, "what other options are out there besides being a superhero?"

"Or supervillain."

The tape dissipates. Sandy clears her throat. "It depends on your power set. As a psychic, I could probably work as a therapist or mediator, as long as I went to school for basic psychology. Sheila could sell her devises pretty easily. As a high-grade shifter, Jack could do modeling or special effects. Alex, as a mage, would have various options; selling enchanted items is always popular, as is freelance divination. Gavriil could do special effects for movies with his ectoplasm manifestation, and he's a psychic like me, so my options apply for him too. Kostas is a Siren, so he could always go into sound design, or if he got really lucky he could become a singer."

"Except that all of those options would be boring as shit," Gavriil concludes. "Except maybe Kostas being a pop star. But, seriously, special effects? Psychotherapy? Bleh."

"I am not sure if excitement is for us. Since we have enough of it for a couple of lifetimes. But I am hardly going to criticize the vocation. Do non-mutant mages still make money? We are wiz-0 parenthesis Tartarus and I am hoping combining the different kinds of magic is going to be useful."

Alex shrugs. "Depends on how useful your kind of magic is. But yeah, typically you can find something to do if you're good at it."

"The two of us can work as a roundabout healer. He has regeneration, I have wound transfer. And some minor spellwords ...What would be really useful if it was possible to steal spellbooks from my world."

Alex taps his fingers on the table thoughtfully. "Possible, but very expensive. Contacting other dimensions is tricky as hell. But if you manage to get it set up, you don't have to steal the books, you can just copy them. Unless they're inherently magical, I guess."

"I mean, some definitely are, but the part I want isn't. I technically still count that as stealing, I'm just deciding not to feel bad about it since I am hardly going to be competition. Being in another world and all."

"Oh, intellectual theft," Alex scoffs. "Fuck that."

"Alex has a personal vendetta against intellectual property laws," Kostas stage-whispers.

"Not all intellectual property laws! Just the ones that aren't serving their intended purpose! Which these ones certainly wouldn't be."

Herod grins. "Is there a story behind that?"

"The Mouse must die," Alex mutters darkly.

"He's not going to have any idea what you're talking about, hon," Jack says.

"Oh. Um, there's a company called Disney - sometimes metonymously called 'the Mouse' - that keeps getting the copyright laws extended so they can maintain a stranglehold on all their characters. They're evil. And the laws are completely broken, and - it's just generally fucked up."

"Indeed, death to the Mouse!" Gavriel says equally dark.

"May it find misery, suffering and brevity in all it's next lives," Herod recites raising his fist dramatically.

Jack snickers.

Sandy looks up from her book. "You've got me curious. What can your magic accomplish, given the powers of intellectual property theft?"