Adrift (tag: Asklepios & Philammon)
Lottie had waited for her. Sitting on the porch swing, watching Zed put yet another dent in his truck, Friendship sat waiting for Oizys, certain her sister would come to her. After all, not only had she bailed after the closet-makeover mess, Lottie was absolutely certain she must be tugging at her sister pretty hard. She was miserable.
Then again, a lot of other people probably were right now too. It was selfish of her to expect Oi to come just to her, even though it would have made Lottie feel better to see her. Which, logically, sounded backwards, wanting to see Misery in order to feel better, but it was the truth. It had nothing to do with what Oizys did, but with what she was.
She was her sister.
And Lottie sort of needed to talk to somebody right now. Her last conversation with a sibling had left her confused and disturbed. Nemesis had turned her attention to something that she had perhaps deliberately glossed over, not wishing to address it. Or maybe she really hadn’t seen it until Retribution pointed it out. But now that she’d been made aware of it, she couldn’t get it out of her head. It had been rolling around in her mind since she’d left Nem’s, and it was bothering Lottie. She hadn’t slept, she’d barely eaten, and all she could do was go in circles.
Moros and Akheron were going to hurt her friends. Moros had already hurt some of her friends. As the goddess of friendship and affection, how was she to handle that? How could she simply step aside and let her brothers hurt those who were important to her not only as a person, but as a deity? She was not, in general, a protective goddess, but she did consider those who fell into her bailiwick to be hers to care for. Certainly those she called friend, who returned the sentiment, were deserving of whatever safeguarding she could offer. But that would mean opposing Moros and Akheron, and any others that may fight with them, and that presented another problem.
As the daughter of Night and Darkness, how could she turn her back on her brothers, even with what they were doing? Family was paramount. Family. Was. Paramount. To stand against Moros and Akheron, when they were fighting in defense of the family, was almost unthinkable. Almost.
Despite already having let her father down once, letting her faith in him falter after the last family meeting, Lottie could not stop the thoughts swirling through her mind. Daddy would not be pleased that she would even consider choosing friends over family, but Lottie had never felt that blood was the only thing that defined family. What about Peitho, who was her dearest and best friend, so close she was almost a sister? What about Persephone, who was sister, aunt and surrogate mother all rolled into one? What about… what about… there were too many she cared for too deeply.
Philotes couldn’t prevent her thoughts from lingering on those she wanted to protect. She couldn’t halt the doubts about her brother’s actions. And she couldn’t help feeling that no matter what she decided to do, she was going to be on the wrong side. Maybe Deimos had been right to lock her in the closet. Maybe she ought to go back in there until everything was done.
Which brought her back to thinking about Oizys and wondering where she was. Where had she gone after she bolted from Nem’s closet? Had she gone home? Perhaps instead of waiting for her sister to come to her, Philotes should go to her sister. In a way, she was loathe to leave the farm. At the moment, it seemed to be an oasis, a place apart from the conflict and confusion, though Friendship knew that was an illusion. She was no more protected here than she’d been in her sister’s closet, than she would be if she went to the apartment where Oizys had been staying. So… why not?
Philotes did not bother to change out of the rumpled Bad Religion t-shirt and torn and stained blue jeans, nor did she give a thought to her tousled hair. After passing a mirror earlier, she knew that her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, her cheeks blotchy from crying, but Lottie didn’t care. She was only going to see Oi, and if anybody would understand her upset, it would be Misery. Pushing herself up out of the porch swing, Friendship took a step off of her porch, through Concept, and ended up in front of a door in Fort Worth, Texas. It seemed like an odd place to find this particular sister, but this was where she’d been staying, so this was where Lottie would look for her first. With a deep breath, she raised her hand to knock.