Conspiracy! (Narrative)
She had been sleeping soundly in the extra room that Lottie had told her could be hers here in this wonderful house on this wonderful farm. Sleeping better than she had in a long time, despite her worries about two boys who liked her at the same time.
But Oizys found herself sitting bolt upright suddenly, a score of thoughts running through her head.
"Shit!" The exclamation was soft, but firm.
Things had just occurred to her. Important Things that she should have thought of before. The sorts of Things that she was normally aware of.
Oizys climbed out of bed and paced the floor a little bit. Her bare feet making agitated sounds against the hardwood floor. She pulled on the edge of the big t-shirt she'd been sleeping in. Twisted it around her fingers, distorting the angry cartoon bear that graced the front of it briefly and then smacked her thigh, where similar angry cartoon bears danced all over the matching flannel pants.
"Shit." She said again.
Outside, a banging started. That stupid goat had been sleeping just under her window all night, waiting for her to wake up. Now that she had, he was going to make noise until she came outside to yell at him so he could try to attack her again. She knew this because it had happened once during the night. There was no doubt in her mind that the scenario would repeat itself. She went to the window anyway, opened it up and looked at him.
"I've got bigger problems than you." She told him. "Huge problems. Things you wouldn't even understand, goat. Things that are so huge your tiny little brain wouldn't get them."
It looked up at her with those creepy eyes. There was a certain intelligence in them that made her wince.
"Okay. Maybe you would understand. But I can't trust you just yet." Oizys narrowed her eyes at him. "You could be one of them." he had, after all, been spending all of his time plotting on how to give her bruises. That's what they did. Only on a much bigger scale and involved family.
Oizys shook her head and shut the window.
The first thing she did was pace some more. The ideas rolling through her brain. She needed a chart. She needed to map this all out so that it would be clearer. And so when Lottie got home, it would be easy for her to understand too. Because if Oizys just started babbling at her in the state she was currently in, it would go nowhere.
A marker wasn't hard to find. Once Oizys had rummaged through the whole house in search of one, she remembered she was a goddess and just pulled one from nowhere. A big fat black marker. She then moved the dresser away from the wall in her room and got to work.
Two names were written at the top. Zelos and Philammon. She drew angry lines under both names. Narrowed her eyes at them. Both of them had told her she was beautiful. Both of them had flirted with her, or done something that she had to take as flirting because she'd never really figured out how to do it or how to tell when somebody was doing it to her. They were both handsome, they were both lovely to talk to. They were both fantastically wonderful.
And they were both Olympians.
Oh, sure, Zelos had been born of her sister. He was by blood an Underworlder. But who did he work for? Where did he pledge his allegiance? To Zeus. All of Styx's children worked for Zeus. While they had rooms in her temple, they lived on Olympus. Lived and worked. Spent most of their time. Defended.
Yeah.
Olympians. The both of them.
Phil had been her friend for a very long time, and she had - up until now - excused the fact that he was an Olympian because he wasn't like most of them. He was sweet and kind. He was lovely. He had been very nice to her. They were best friends.
But best friends didn't hit on you.
While she thought, Oizys scribbled things down on the wall. Words, mathematical equations. Graphs. Brainstorming bubbles.
Two Olympians hit on her, and that was most important because right now, the entire Mountain was looking to kill the entire lot of her family. There was a war going on. One that was serious enough to be pitting family member against family member and make everybody Miserable. She knew that for a fact. Nobody was particularly happy right now. All of it was coming at her and every little bit that she came into contact with, she was collecting. It was like a bowling ball in the pit of her stomach. But she didn't want people to have more stress than they needed to. They needed clear heads.
Off track. She was off track.
Why would two Olympians come at her one after another, during a war?
There was a plot. There had to be. They were going to recruit her! No. That was stupid. She wasn't a fighter. She couldn't really do anything during a war but sit there and make people cry. Which wasn't very helpful beyond blurry eyes. They were going to distract her! No. No, that was too simple. Distracting her wouldn't really work for very long, and there was more than a little bit of a chance that one or both boys would be needed at some time, so they'd have to leave her alone, and then she wouldn't be distracted anymore. Oh! They were going to kidnap her! And then take her someplace and use her for ransom! Yes! YES! That was it! If they got her, then they had power. They had a bargaining chip. Lottie, Erebos, Nyx. Deimos probably. Lots of people would do anything to make sure she wasn't harmed.
It was so sly and almost perfect in it's detail and execution.
But who? Who would and could hatch such a devious plot?
Not Aphrodite, though she was most assuredly a party to this. She had to be. She had to give Phil and Zelos the feelings they had so that they could be more realistic in their pursuit of the goal. They had to be convincing. So yes, Aphrodite, the whore, had some dealing in this. But she wasn't the only one.
Who would need to please their King? Who would want to help him win? Who would stop at nothing to make sure that he won?
Hera! That bitch! No! She'd just as soon go against him for her own amusement. Athena! Yes! No! Wait. Oizys didn't know how Athena felt about Zeus, not really. Sure she was all loyal and stuff, but she might not like this war thing very much. She was an odd Greek. Sometimes she did what was expected, sometimes not. Oh, it was Prometheus! Yes! It was him! That damnedable Titan! It was his plot. Though, why, Oizys couldn't come up with immediately. But it had to be him. He was the only one who was really smart enough to organize all of this and who had the skill to pull it off. Yes. Prometheus. It was him.
"OH!" Oizys smacked herself in the head and left a marker streak across her chin. "Deimos!"
How clever! Deimos had been planted as a child to work as a spy for Olympus. It had all come down to this! He had been working secretly for his father, Ares, who was working for Zeus. Deimos and Prometheus were plotting together with Aphrodite and probably Tyche! Oh! What a fucking slut! Of course Fortune played a part here. She had to! She was the key. Oh yes. The key. Zeus' daughter. And attractive. She could manipulate anybody. Oizys hated her so very much. She was the mastermind behind all of this. Not Prometheus. She was just making Prometheus think it was all his idea. Oh, it was devious. Devious! And brilliant! She deserved kudos. Oizys scrawled Tyche and Deimos on the wall as well as Prometheus and Aphrodite. She drew lines between all of them and drew a mad circle around Tyche's name.
The mastermind.
It all led back to Tyche.
Oizys continued to scribble on the wall in black marker, her mind turning and twisting, talking to herself, and occasionally the goat though he wasn't in the room.