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

[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.

[callipygos]

"They don't know who we are," she continues, "they think we're something out of a storybook, like they do here. Or they do know who we are, and somehow ... that's worse."

[2020sight]

"Is it."

[callipygos]

Aphrodite takes another, slightly longer drink.

"Because they don't really know who we are.

They know who we were."

[2020sight]

". . . Ah."

Well.

He blows out a breath and leans forward, elbows on the table.

"Hm. And, uh, how does that make you feel?"

[callipygos]

She glances directly at him for the first time in a little while-- certainly the first time since they got here.

"Not wonderful, that's for sure."

Her smile is a small, bitter quirk of lovely lips.

"You remember the way we used to be, Epimetheus. What we used to be."

[2020sight]

". . . Aphrodite, you don't want to talk to me about the way we used to be."

You could call that tone "wry."

[callipygos]

"The big picture, then." She drinks. "Skip on some of the specifics."

[2020sight]

He blows out a long breath.

"The way we used to be? When we ran roughshod over the mortals and the monsters and each other? Yeah, I remember that." He gives her a sidelong look. "Probably very differently than you do."

[callipygos]

"As if we don't anymore," she says wryly.

"Walk all over each other, that is."

[2020sight]

"Helps when we're not all in one place."

[callipygos]

She huffs a soft laugh.

"Does it? Or does it just make it easier to forget?"