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]

"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."

[callipygos]

She makes a face at him.

"I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later."

[2020sight]

"Inevitabilities aren't my strong suit."

He hunches his shoulders, not quite a shrug. "What am I not entirely wrong about?"

[callipygos]

"That I'm tired."

She hasn't moved.

"And I feel-- I don't know. I want to blame that rotten bar." She clarifies: "'That bar' being the one at the end of the universe."

[2020sight]

His eyebrows shoot up.

"What, Milliways?"

[callipygos]

"Mmhmm."

She glances off to the side, as though bored of her own assertion.

[2020sight]

Epimetheus blinks for a moment or two.

Then--

"There's this bar up the hill where we won't get kicked out for conversing, if you want."

[callipygos]

"You want to talk to me."

This contains slightly too much doubt to count as flat or snarky.

[2020sight]

"It's totally selfish. I get nervous when your family's upset. Shit happens."

[callipygos]

--And at that, to her own surprise, Aphrodite finds her lips curving into a small smile.

"Well," she murmurs.

"So long as it's selfish ...

What kind of bar up the hill is this exactly?"

[2020sight]

He grins. "It's great. It's got pinball."

[callipygos]

Aphrodite's expression quickly becomes a highly suspicious variety of blank.



As it turns out, she is not required to play pinball (which is great, because pinball is a lot less sexy than pool), and some of the hipster gamers here are pretty cute, and there is exactly one out-of-the-way table that's somewhat conducive to talking.

Aphrodite gets comfortable with an abysmal cider.

[2020sight]

Epimetheus casts a longing glance at the old-school Capcom machine, but joins her, two bottles of beer in hand. (Yes, they're both for him. Buying Aphrodite another drink now seems . . . ill-advised.)

"Much better." He stretches his legs out beneath the table.

"Soooo the end of the universe is bumming you out."

[callipygos]

She smiles faintly, holding the bottle of cider in delicate fingers.

"A little," she says.

"I couldn't even tell you why, it's just-- it's so small in there. And everyone's awfully interesting."

[2020sight]

"Everywhere's small," he says absently, picking up his beer. "Small and fast."

A drink. "But yeah, plenty of fun people."

[callipygos]

"Well--"

The exhalation falls on a soft, intimate note, like the sigh of a disappointed dove.

"In there it's small and fast and ... enclosed. And those interesting people seem so much harder to ignore than they do out here."

She takes a drink.

"Even when I'd really like to."

[2020sight]

He blinks at her.

"Like how? Harder to ignore how?"

[callipygos]

She shrugs.

"Oh, you know, they'll have incredible gifts, or looks, or some really tragic history, or some amazing romance, and-- in the end they're still mortal, aren't they?"

[2020sight]

"Generally, yep."

And this is why he already has two bottles of beer to hand.