The Voicemail

You voted, and TRADE won. You told him to take the video down, and he did. November seventh, 6 a.m., Zeus's Hall of the Ranking: overnight, the last line climbed. Hermes is last again, by one follower. One follower, my son, Zeus says. On day thirty, one is enough.

At 7 a.m., in Apollo's recording studio, Hermes deletes his best video: two million views, gone. On the console, a little red flag still stands. No video, no report, Hermes laughs. Play it, brother. Thirteen seconds. A voice he knows better than anyone's: his own. Report it at midnight, the voicemail says. He'll trade his best video for this. Who called? Apollo smiles. You did, little brother.

Under the voice, a dog barks three times, all at once. So who has his voice? At 4 p.m., a notification: a Community Guidelines strike, on the video he deleted. Two weeks without posting, and he has nine days left. Here is the trap: on YouTube, deleting your content doesn't remove a strike, and YouTube may even issue a strike on deleted content. His first strike, from day nine, still counts.

Then Aphrodite calls. Athena's note sends all Olympus to my live, darling. Frozen? Climb on my channel. Bring your mother. But posting content from a creator under a channel restriction is circumvention, and the channel that posts it can be penalized too.

Now the choice: join, and he climbs on her channel, and both can burn. Descend, and he opens his mother's back door to find his voice. And at midnight, Apollo posts the voicemail. Olympus thinks Hermes staged it all.