seattle, wa - 2013

[callipygos]

There's a chill seeping into the air, and a fog drifting down from the mountains, and everywhere in this city, people look out at the damp streets and roll their eyes over the sudden absence of summer.

On this particular night, at a lone stool in a darkened bar, there sits a woman with hair as golden as a sunrise.

Her drink is mostly water by this time. People turn to look at her, men and women both, but even the men seem to know not to speak to her. There is a stage taking up one end of the space, on which a girl in blood-soaked white is doing a slow striptease.

The burlesque is pretty good tonight. With Stephen King as source material, Aphrodite wasn't quite sure what to expect, but she thinks the girl dancing Carrie is doing a lovely job. It's hard to be sexy when covered in pig's blood.


... At least, unless your significant other is into that.

Meanwhile, the ice in her glass continues to melt.

Comments

[2020sight]

Epimetheus props his chin on his hand and frowns at her.

There is a silence that goes on juuuuust a little long.





"You seem tired."

[callipygos]

Her back goes a little straighter, and she casts him a sidelong glance.

"Gee, Eppy." In this light, her sea-blue eyes are an uncertain blueish-gray. "Make a girl feel special, why don't you."

[2020sight]

"You tired is special." He shrugs. "Unusual, anyway."

[callipygos]

She smiles narrowly.

"What makes you say so, anyway?"

[2020sight]

"Because it's weird."

He drums his fingers on his cheek. "You're not being bitchy enough."

[callipygos]

Aphrodite laughs, soft and contemptuous.

"Maybe I'm trying to turn over a new leaf."

[2020sight]

... Epimetheus keeps frowning at her.

[callipygos]

She rolls her eyes.

"You know that's a terribly insulting line of logic, cousin."

[2020sight]

"What, the 'you seem tired because you're not being bitchy' line?"

[callipygos]

"Mmhmm," she confirms primly.

[2020sight]

"Well, at least I'm being consistent."

[callipygos]

Aphrodite snorts, angling to face him with her fingertips draped lightly on the counter. The other hand has not let go of her glass.

"So," she murmurs with a smile, "you'd like it better if I made a few choice remarks and you could go on feeling righteous about hating me? That does sound fun."

[2020sight]

Epimetheus blinks.

"Whoa, now. Is that what I said?"

[callipygos]

"Unless you're admitting that bitchiness does it for you ..."

She takes a sip of her drink.

"Which I admit, I've wondered about."

[2020sight]

"You're not my type, if . . . that's what you're implying . . . because that'd be weird."

[callipygos]

Aphrodite rolls her eyes again.

"So if it doesn't do anything for you," she explains patiently, "then you just want to see me bitchy so you can get angry and we can fight, and I don't particularly feel like singing that song at the moment."

[2020sight]

"Who's fighting?" He holds up his hands. "I bought you a drink!"

[callipygos]

At this point, people are starting to grumble passive-aggressively un their direction again.

"What do you care," she demands, gesticulating with said drink, "if I look tired?"

[2020sight]

"Uh, because you're family?"

[callipygos]

Aphrodite looks, for a moment, angry enough to light up the bar via divine incandescence alone.

"Hey," John says, "either you two calm down--"

Without a word, Aphrodite rises and strides for the door, out into the damp night.

[2020sight]

Oh shit.

Alarmed, Epimetheus drops a $20 on the bar and stands to follow her, abandoning his drink.

If there's one guiding principle Epimetheus has tried to live by, it's don't piss off the Olympians. It literally never ends well. So what does he go and do?

Shit shit shit.

[callipygos]

The goddess of beauty has not gone very far. She's leaning against the building's brick, like someone catching their breath; when she sees Epimetheus, she favors him with a glower of resignation.



"It's quiet up here," she says, in a softer tone than before.

"Even the ocean behaves itself a little better. I thought I'd have the place to myself until spring."

[2020sight]

He stands there blinking at her for moment, uncertain, then stuffs his hands in his pockets.

"I didn't come here to bother anyone," he says carefully.

[callipygos]

The trouble is, she realizes, that she would like to talk to someone. It's just that she hadn't yet worked her way up to thinking of asking Artemis.


What if Zeus runs into her while she feels like this?



Her arms folded over her chest, Aphrodite says ruefully, "Well. Maybe you weren't entirely wrong, is all."

[2020sight]

His eyebrows go up.

"That's a new sentiment."