After months lost in the odd one-shot islands of The Odd Sea, Medusa, Sisyphus, Echo, and Argos dock at the edge of a small town. That's where a local caped shirtless man with a spear confronts them. They don't know where they are, so he pauses and relishes the chance to declare: "This Is Sparta!" (Medusa's gotta be really covering up her snakes and scales; maybe full-on hijab and gloves, maybe tan dust rubbed onto her face so it looks like she just did her foundation badly and has eczema.)

  Walking through town & stopping to eat and stock up on food (if they can afford it), mostly taking it all in, not attracting attention. SIgns and merch everywhere remind them that this is Sparta. People starting barfights and brawls over the littlest things. First one, then several pits for kicking people into, that also doubles as a trash collector / compost bucket.

  (Sprinkled in are ultra-masculine comments they overhear Spartans making. Vocally scoffing at softness, weakness, intellectuals, sheltered rich people, etc. Guy mentions he helps his wife w the kids? “Simp!” You wanna grow up to become a doctor? “Weak!” You put dry rub on your squash so you can eat less meat? “Hippie!” Studying or reading…anything? “Nerd!”

  But Spear Hockey is where they really shine. The crew watches one match, 3-0n-3, at the mountain pass of Thermoplyae. It is...pretty wide honestly; there may have to be a wall, or people would just toss the puck over it. Maybe they have to have the puck with them when it gets in. They don't watch much before someone scores the opening point. (Varmint, Ornery, & Cantankerous? As with most henchmen groups, it's big guy, a roguish rascal, and a regular-looking guy.

  After the match, there's an open call for anyone in the audience to play them - for a cash reward (a dozen drachma?) and a chance to meet Ares/Aries tomorrow at his weekend boot camp. Sis jumps at the chance - he's a Spartan-fanboy, and would have wanted to play anyway. Medusa & Argos just want a chance to meet the god. So they agree. Medusa's been reading the room, and decided she could show her scales to these guys - sleeveless and a skort wrap. The crowd's impressed. She just avoids looking right at them. Keep your eye on the ball. There's some in-game smack-talk, and the Spartans are pumped to go up against such a reptilian monster. But, as is sports movie tradition, Medusa's Crew - the Mythfits - wins by a nose.

  After Spear Hockey, people see Medusa - snakes, claws, and all - and decide that she is Badass, the Beast, the ...Croc Queen? Of course they invite her to a tavern and gather round while she shows off what she can do. They treat her like one of the guys, coaxing her to show off, getting competitive, She initially carries herself like a lady, but soon realizes she can be more of a jock around these guys. It comes surprisingly naturally - like hanging out with Sis but louder.

  Meudsa does start hearing some Sexist Comments in general. Now that she's gotten some local street cred, she feels she can nudge in and comment on those conversations. They look anywhere from bewildered by the revelation, to dismissive, to annoyed by her nerve.

  They're staying at the house of the man who found them & called dibs - then he dumps them on his Wife and immediately heads back out. She's a Stay-at-home Mom whose husband is a mercenary whose rarely home, He comes in, tells grand stories to the kids around the fire, then goes out again to a soldier networking event. He says housekeeping and childrearing isn't that hard, but also that he doesn't know how to do it. She's begrudging, but he's openly dismissive about her emotional language or complaining about the problems. Medusa & crew give her a bit of a pep talk.

  "The next day, they're called out into the woods, where Aries is giving a class of 7-year-olds, and a few lucky adults, the Bully Awards, followed by a pep talk on manliness. Might makes right! Carpe diem! History is written by the winners! How can you know you're on top without putting another down? Or know you're strong without proving someone's weaker?

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  “This week’s Alpha Award goes to Samsonsonson! Oh, I see here - Samson the 3rd. Exchange student, eh? Well, it looks like you fit right in here - says here you got enough other kids’ lunch money to pay a kid to do your work, bribe the referee, and pay for 3 dates? Do they know about each oth– oh my wife’s gonna get a kick out of this. …There’s a note here that I wasn’t supposed to read all that out loud. Well, Samsonsonson, you probably just lost a few people’s respect, but you’ve earned something even greater - mine. Let’s hear it for hustle!” “And for the women’s category…” (something socially savage more than physically?)"

  He goes on to show off survival camping skills with his bare hands. He punches a tree until it knocks a block clear out of it. Shows real quick how to whittle a spear out of a sapling. Emphasizes that everything can be a weapon if you try hard enough. Better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. Today we'll be beating ploughshares back into swords.

  That night, survival camping around the campfire, the Crew meets Aries alone. Not sure what the vibe will be. Game recognizes game? Keep in mind Argos knows best how many lives Aries has taken or endorsed the taking of, and has probably mentioned that to the crew beforehand. Aries: violence would exist without me, but this time-honored tradition of people banding together against a common enemy? Nothing forges a people together like a fight to the death! He's encouraged war for its own sake. The ultimate measure of a man.

  The Crew is... not doing masculine bravado posturing, but actually opening up. That sets Aries at ease enough to open up: he takes off his helmet. He's cleanshaven under his mustache - just fixed a beard-wig to the outside to keep up appearances. (Or he can retract his beard by force.) He talks about how being married to Aphrodite has changed him, given him appreciation for the gentler things in life. She's really selling him on open communication instead of partners fighting for dominance. He just can't afford to talk that way around the guys. He's got an image to keep.

  He mentions that Spartans often take work gigs as mercenaries for other places, and try to evangelize (emangelize) to all those softie cultures. They call it “Mission: Aries.” which already sounded like mercenaries anyway. But that's when Argos hints that he's recruiting for something big happening up the coast (Athens). Wherever they're going to go, he's game.

  But they have to have a reason to fight. The war thing doesn't seem like specific enough a reason...

  >Maybe it's Medusa making comments on sexism, rubbing people the wrong way. In town and in camp.

  >Maybe it's that they're escaped convicts from death. Aries loves death. War would just be a sport without it. It really raises the stakes. So, on principle, he takes it on himself to put them back down.

  I bet Sis could step in and let them know, he's plenty guy-ish, but it's your kind of guy-ish that causes a lot of damage, and is too proud to see that's a problem. It's the need to feel strong by hurting yourself or someone else, or defending it if you do, even if it's on accident. It's people both insisting they're right, and too proud to admit or even see when the other guy's got a point. …After the speech, there's a bit of talk like they might think he has a point, but, nope, torches & pitchforks. Or Aries is the one to rally against them.

  Aries has the strength of ten men, and can use any object, door, wagon, or donkey (not just the jawbone) as an improvised weapon. He's got hundreds of dragon teeth that turn into soldiers (not that he'd use them all, unless this dragon is alive and well somewhere getting its teeth harvested, either by beating it up or collecting them when they drop out). Guerrilla tactics he can ambush them with. Fighting or blocking or pinning a different one of them with each limb.

  They're in over their heads. But at one point, right in the middle of town, with hundreds watching, they decide to let him win to save face. They let down their guards for a second and he kicks them into the Spartan pit. Not the worst fall they've had. Then they wait for nightfall and crawl back out, and get outta town.

  At the end, whether or not the crew is there to hear it, the Stay-at-Home Mom speaks to her husband as a fellow warrior: she has subdued the children, arming them with skills for life, scrubbed away the filth like Hercules cleaned the stables. Makes it seem like work he could respect.