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]

"Oh shut up," she murmurs with a rueful smile, settling back in her seat.

[2020sight]

"Aww, and I was on such a roll, too."

[callipygos]

She huffs, neither confirming nor denying this.

"So-- what exactly are you saying? You think I should go back?"

[2020sight]

"I don't know." He shrugs, finishes off his first beer, and picks up the second. "I'm a hell of a lot better at running away than dealing with shit."

[callipygos]

"Well you sound like you're saying I should go back," she muses.

[2020sight]

"You're not happy here, are you?"

[callipygos]

Aphrodite pauses.

Carefully, she sets her cider on the table.

"No."

[2020sight]

A shrug.

"So go back. Do what you can for them. What's--" He stops, snorts. "I can't believe I'm saying this to you, but what's the worst that could happen?"

[callipygos]

Aphrodite blinks.

Then she bursts into a startled laugh.

"Wait-- are you really asking, or just trying to be motivational?"

[2020sight]

"Both?"

[callipygos]

"Well," she giggles, "the worst thing that could happen is the universe comes crashing to an end."

[2020sight]

He rolls his eyes.

"It's doing that over there anyway. Try again."

[callipygos]

"I guess the worst thing that could really happen," she admits, "is I ruin everything."

She casts a slightly defiant, defensive look in Epimetheus' direction.

[2020sight]

He frowns. "For the mortals you've taken a shine to? Or like, everything everything?"

[callipygos]

"... I think the first one."

[2020sight]

"Well, your track record is mostly pretty okay, right?" he says, diplomatically. "I mean you have your high points. I mean usually, usually the worst that happens to people in love is they get their hearts broken."

. . . That was supposed to end as diplomatically as it began, but he may have missed the mark a tad.

[callipygos]

At that, Aphrodite's eyebrows shoot up incredulously.


"I'm okay?" she says.

[2020sight]

Defensively: "What?"

[callipygos]

"Cousin, I thought you hated my guts."

[2020sight]

He wrinkles his nose.

"Don't get me wrong, Aphrodite, I find many things you've done totally reprehensible. But . . ." He heaves a sigh. "I guess you're technically good at, like, what you do."

[callipygos]

She claps her hands together, smiling. (It's tipsy, but a much better smile than most she's managed this evening.)

"I could carve that in marble."

[2020sight]

Epimetheus groans.

"Please don't."

[callipygos]

"You like me," Aphrodite trills, flinging an arm intimately across the back of her seat.

"You really, really like me."

[2020sight]

"Oh, shut up."

[callipygos]

She luxuriates a moment, but eventually pulls herself together sufficiently to sit straight.

"Well," she says, a little breathless.

"I suppose if even you think I might stand a chance of getting things right, it'd be silly not to try."