InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Nuh uh dunna think so"

Chloe Rose Montgomery // Demeter (_demeter) wrote in greek_swim,
@ 2008-12-22 09:45:00

Entry tags:

demeter, persephone

Demeter/Chloe & Persephone/Anne: Confrontation
Who: Demeter/Chloe & Persephone/Anne:
What: Discussing the previous day's issue
Where: Demeter's suite
When: Evening of Friday, Dec. 12th
Rating: PG
Status: Complete

After Housekeeping left, she's cleaned the room again. Everything dusted off. The bed remade. Flowers rearranged, then again once more. Demeter couldn't sit still; it was worse than the night she waited for Phoebus. Then, there was fear. Now, there was pain - and anger. How long had this been building? Her daughter had no part in the original offense but now, now when there was choice and the chance to start once again, how could she... The blonde goddess didn't want to think of the reasons; she knew them already and was slowly accepting them no matter how painful they were. Her Kore was in love but that made it no easier on her mother. Yes, the talk with Hestia had helped to some degree. Helped her sort out her thoughts and feelings and truthfully only solidified her decision to follow the path she'd set for herself. Now, all she had to do was wait for the younger woman to arrive.

As if on cue, her phone rang, announcing Anne's arrival. "Please, send her up," Demeter told the and after hanging up the receiver, began to smooth the wrinkles from her dress. The simple Greco-roman styled piece was a deep forest green and matched the scarf that covered her head perfectly, accenting her light hazel eyes and golden skin. Though no matter how much she may appear the goddess she'd once been, Demeter hardly felt it as she stood by the door, waiting for Kore's knock.

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_persephone
2008-12-23 12:22 am UTC (link)

Persephone stood at the door for a moment, smoothing her black blouse and jeans and tucking her dark hair back behind her ears, anxious habitual gestures to match the almost nervous feeling about her, holding a bouquet of poppies, golden and scarlet in hue. What would she say? How would she say it? "I have eaten the seeds of the pomegranate, Mother."

The trip over had been practically a blur, so lost in her thoughts had she been. There had been no sign of anything resembling an Italian smokestack of a woman once she'd gotten to the hotel -- a thing for which she was thankful, honestly -- but now that she was in front of her door, it was no easier than when she had departed. In fact, she seemed even more out-of-sorts. What would she say?

She knocked.

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_demeter
2008-12-23 07:51 am UTC (link)

Taking a deep breath, Demeter steeled herself against the flood over emotions threatening to overtake her when the knock sounded. Joy at her daughter's nearness. Anger over what had happened. Confusion. Sadness. Regret. She pushed them all down as she made her way to door, pausing another moment there before opening it.

With chin lifted and spine straight, she exuded the air of a queen; one who demanded respect and radiated power despite her short stature. She gave the younger woman a look over, noting the flowers with a private, internal grin though she showed no sign of it on the stoic mask. "Kore," the blonde woman said softly then stepped back and gestured for her to enter. "Thank you for coming."

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_persephone
2008-12-23 12:26 pm UTC (link)

With the opening of the door, all hints of any out-of-sorts demeanor or state of mind were completely gone, faded in less than an instant behind that perfectly reserved, impassive facade she'd mastered that left not the subtlest cue as to the tumult beneath.

"Hello, mother," she said, offering her the bouquet as she entered, though the likewise stoic demeanor of the blonde goddess did not escape her. "Of course I came. Thank you for having me." She paused, deciding she might as well launch into the conversation herself. "You know, I really didn't mean to leave you there alone with him."

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_demeter
2008-12-23 01:07 pm UTC (link)

She took the flowers with a grateful nod then busied herself with arranging them in an empty vase. "That is besides the point. You shouldn't have invited him along at all." Demeter's eyes remained on the bouquet instead of on her daughter, choosing to focus on the beautiful crimson and gold petals instead of Kore's depthless brown eyes; the latter would most certainly cause tears. "What would possess you to think that having him join us for lunch would possibly do anything to relieve any of my anxiety over seeing Hera?"

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_persephone
2008-12-23 01:25 pm UTC (link)

Persephone bit back a would it really kill either of you to at least attempt to be civil, deciding that might not be the best way to approach the situation. Exacerbate it, rather, was what it would do, and that was not what she was attempting at the moment.

"Well, why not?" she asked, very matter-of-fact, as if it was a perfectly plausible line of inquiry. Admittedly, it had been an impulse decision, and she never claimed to be good at those. The last time-- well, she preferred not to think on it. "All I wanted to do was treat you both to a nice lunch, on me." Wasn't that the type of thing normal people did, all the time?

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_demeter
2008-12-23 01:40 pm UTC (link)

"A nice lunch on you, with you was what I was expecting. Having to come face to face with another of my siblings was something that should have warranted a later date. One in which I'd been informed of beforehand so I could properly prepare myself." Hazel eyes flicked up to the young woman's face, burning with suppressed pain and anger. "I understand that things are different now, that we have choices now that we didn't before and I'm quite well aware that you have made yours. Just as I have made mine." It wasn't merely a threat; she had the tickets to prove it.

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_persephone
2008-12-23 03:25 pm UTC (link)

"How much later? And preparation to what extent? I mean, it's only been, what, a couple of millennia?" she asked, neither anger nor exasperation nor pain coming into her voice, though she was feeling a curious mix of the three, all hidden beneath a facade. She thought it was a fair question; after all, she'd been the rope in their epic little tug-of-war. Exacerbation be damned, however, at her mother's last words.

"Would it really kill either of you to at least attempt to be civil?" she inquired, emotions surfacing in her dark eyes. "Just an attempt, that's all I ask -- for the two people I care most about in the world to at least pretend not to openly despise one another!" The tumult of feelings came forth at her last turn of phrase, and she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, taking a breath, loathing how she sounded.

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_demeter
2008-12-23 03:42 pm UTC (link)

Jaw clenched and hands folded serenely before her, Demeter waited as her daughter ranted. "Are you finished?" she asked simply when it seemed Kore had come to an end though the question hardly mattered as she launched into her own response. "Having just come face to face with the woman who nearly did kill me, I honestly would have thought you'd have better sense than to spring him on me like that. I am finished pretending. I am finished attempting and fighting. You want an end to you, you have it. Zeus is not here; you are free to make your own choice. Live this life with him as I know you wish to." The anger had faded from her voice, replaced instead with sorrow and defeat. "I know you love him; I am neither blind not stupid and if he was what you wish, than he is what you shall have. Entirely. I will be going back home on Sunday - to Anderson, not LA where I am going to spend time with my family and then hopefully start one of my own."

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_persephone
2008-12-24 11:17 am UTC (link)

Persephone was silent for a moment, her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles had turned white, her skin paled a few shades at any conversation involving discussion of any sorts of emotions -- that one, in particular. She studied the far wall for a few seconds before finally speaking.

"Why do you act like I'm wrong for loving him?" she asked, voice soft, an almost pleading, melancholy in it. "Is it wrong, mother?" The question was sincere, no rhetorical trick, an almost confusion about it.

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_demeter
2008-12-24 12:22 pm UTC (link)

"Love cannot be wrong," she answered, biting back everything that wanted to scream 'yes.' He was wrong for her in so many ways but Demeter refused to fight any longer. She was too tired to continue. "But, I cannot love him. There is too much between us. And while he is present in your life, while you choose to keep him there, I cannot be." She'd never given her daughter an ultimatum before, nor was she really this time. Decisions had been made and Demeter had made hers to return back to her mortal life no different than she'd left it. "You are more than welcome to visit whenever you find yourself in Texas or LA but I ask that should that happen you do not bring him along. I'd hate for any of my future children to be dragged into this mess as well."

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_persephone
2008-12-24 01:02 pm UTC (link)

"I never asked you to love him -- I wouldn't expect it in a million years. I'm only asking you not to make me choose between the two people I care about most, because when you love someone, unselfishly love them, you don't make them make that choice," she said. There was no accusation, no raising of her voice, no irony or sarcasm, just quiet, abject despondency. "And maybe I'd hate for any of my future children to miss out on knowing you," she added, unable to hold back.

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_demeter
2008-12-24 02:47 pm UTC (link)

"And yet you expect everything to be perfectly happy with no issues when you invite him to a lunch with no forewarning to me when you knew how incredibly thrown I was from seeing Hera," Demeter bit, her eyes flashing dangerously. She was going to end this now. "I am not making you choose. I am making the choice for you by taking myself out of the equation. As you have said so many times in the past, you are not Kore. You are not my Kore - the little girl who was ripped from my fields, from my arms. My daughter died that day, replaced with his Persephone." The name was spat like a curse and the smaller woman drew closer to the younger one though she took no action against her. Fire coursed through her veins and all the pain, the anger, the loss that had built for years came spilling forth.

"You have no idea what that is like. To have but a shade of the thing you cherished most and to have that shadow turn its back on you after everything you'd done for a coward of a man! Every year no matter how much I rejoiced at your return, I knew there was less and less of you that belonged to me, that if you had your choice it would be to stay in that dark hole with him. So, I am giving you that. Zeus is not with us so I free you of your obligation. Go and be with your husband, you are no longer bound to me, Persephone."

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_persephone
2008-12-24 04:52 pm UTC (link)

Persephone's eyes darkened, her tone icy. "I am neither naive nor foolish," she said, simply.

"I am no one's anything! I am my own person, with my own feelings, my own thoughts, my own needs, and my own wants, not an extension of anyone else, or anyone else's possession or thing." Her voice was clear, arctic, but her tone then began to escalate with each syllable, slowly, gradually. "You sit and criticize one another, but in the end, you are both the same. You would both make my choices for me, just like the father of mine to whom you went back. That's not love. But fine, if you want to remove yourself from my life, then so be it, because I don't sit around and make decisions for others. I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy now! Have a nice flight." She turned on her heel and swung the door open, exiting.

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	_demeter 2008-12-24 05:28 pm UTC (link)
	Heart thumping painfully in her chest, Demeter considered going after Persephone, to call her back and beg her forgiveness but instead merely watched as her daughter walked out the door and quite possibly out of her life. For good. A few silent minutes passed, long and painful before Demeter - no, Chloe - sank into the nearest chair and wept. (Reply to this) (Parent)