Grecian Urn...

He knew the minute the powers shifted again. Power rushed through him and the piddly love he'd endured for what seemed like forever, rushed right back out. Ares flexed his biceps and might even have leaned down to give one a kiss as he rejoiced in the return of War. He was not meant for love, and he'd made an emo, annoying love god. But no more. Once again he was himself and it felt wonderful!

For a moment, he considered finding his woman and throwing her against a wall somewhere, but then he remembered she didn't love him at the moment. Pesky, that. It would have to be dealt with at some point; he couldn't have her not loving him, but not right now. Right now? He really wanted either sex or death and since sex was out of the question at the moment?

Death it was.

He stalked out his room and contemplated just were he was going to go and who he wanted to kill.

She stepped out of the temple on Othrys and began walking up a path ignoring the lovely scenery that had sprung up into bloom since her last visit. The path was probably quite lovely if one was meandering along on a nice sunny day... Aphrodite, however, was more akin to being on a war path. She walked in silence, Deimos beside her as she made her way over once-familiar paths until she stood in front of the largest temple, hands sinking to her hips as she glared for a moment, before calling out.

"Cronus!"

New moon or not, she was prepared. She had gathered the materials she needed, Helios had been sent a message not to fly, Deimos had been warned not to do anything but watch, the scroll had been retrieved from Cronus...All that was left was execution. She still had her wirroes about trusting Cronus with something of such importm but his knowledge of spells far outstripped her own, and she gathered that of Hades and Ares as well.

She was on Cyprus, near a temple dedicated to her birth, having choses it as a place of hopefully neutral ground. She stood skyclad in front of a marble column, a copper bowl perched on top of it, a scroll hanging in the air beside her. She had taken the things she brought with her and situated them around the column - earth from Olympus, Stygian ore from Hades, Water from the sea, fire from the eternal flame kept at Hestia's hearth.

She lifted her arms to the moonless sky, witnessed only by the stars and her son, the words she chanted that of a greek considered ancient even to those on Olympus. One by one, in turn, she added the various elemental samples to the bowl... first earth, then sea, then underworld, then fire, bending lightly to blow on the mixture, adding air, the breath of the gods.

The words spoke of balance, of putting things to rights... they spoke of all three realms the gods had seperated into, and the world as a whole. The spoke of those chosen, youngest in each realm, symbols of those who would choose those who would lead. It spoke of ancient ideals, held high even now.

And as she spoke the air around her moved, the dark sky offering a strange glow, the waves of the sea crashing high on the nearby rocks.

There was no guess as to when the change happened - the earth lurched, and suddenly everything was calm - sea, earth, and sky.

The world of the gods had been put to right.

But for mortals, Time stood still.

She had collected just about everything she needed, save the last key ingredient... and it had to be easier than the last. Really, who thought a bunch of virgin temple attendants could be so bitchy? She hadn't really liked pulling the seniority card on them, but it had gotten her what she needed. The last bit she could get from her own temple, and she was in the garden, carefully using a hand spade to gather dirt, moving it onto a linen napkin sitting on the ground beside her.... a few more moments, and she'd be able to get out undisturbed, and get this over with...

She shouldn't feel guilty... She had left a note. Sure, he couldn't read it... But she knew Selene would be able to. And chances were good she'd be back before sunrise, anyhow. She just needed to go... out. Be with people. Problem was... none of her usual haunts would work. But comedy.... comedy would work.

She slipped into the comedy club rather unobtrusively, eying the stage as she waited for the next act and finding a place at a table. She took a seat, waiting for a bit while waiting for the waitress to come by. She wasn't sure how long she'd be able to handle this, really... but at least there were people to inspire...

Apollo pushed past him, his arms around Eris as he laughed at Hermes. They all left him in the entry way alone, Dite's voice in his head as he tried to make sense...

Everything felt wrong. His hands were shaking as he reached out for the the door, only to pull back a moment later and look away.

It is all wrong Dite, he said softly, Apollo...

He drifted, stumbling back as groaned. It was wrong. It was all wrong. He moved from the entry way, and through Dite's more private quarters. A servant came running toward him, and Hermes jerked away, surprised and startled as he pushed her away.

"I know you were behind it, just fix it all." The girl hissed it at him as he back away, "Die...Die....Poor little Hermes."

"Get away from me!"

She stopped looking at him Maliciously (or that was what he saw) before she turned an ran out of the room, Hermes falling to the floor and crawling into a corner where he hide, curled into a ball and rockin'.

Its all wrong...I didn't do it....I...

Only he wasn't so sure anymore.

Chin up and full of confidence, she walked out of her salon into the main audience chamber, escorted by Deimos. She paused once inside, taking a quick inventory of those there... some were expected of course, and others posed quite the surprise. She pat Deimos arm lightly and released it with a smile.

"I'm going to make the rounds... if you'd like to rejoin your brother, that'd be fine."

If he wished to go with her he was of course welcome, but she doubted he was really in the mood. Seeing as how she already felt a pang of guilt for what she'd asked of him, she saw no need to torture him further. She decided to start at the back, moving to each group of individuals quickly, greeting each deity in turn, offering each a welcome of some sort, stopping only for a moment with each.

"Iris, thank you for coming."

"Anteros, please stop scowling... it's hardly flattering."

"...Flidais. What a surprise.. welcome to my home."

"Artemis. It's good to see you. Thank you for getting the ball rolling with the refreshments... There may have been riots. It's appreciated."

"Hephaestus..." To him she said nothing, just smiled as patted his cheek lightly, thumbing away the lipstick mark left by Artemis' kiss.

She moved closer to where the bulk of her children were gathered, and a small stand off seemed to be happening.

"Harmonia.. Do sit up straight, please.:

"Strife" She offered him a wink. "You're still here and sitting still? Wonders may never cease."

"Ate - It's been a very long time since you've graced my temple."

"Elpis. Welcome."

"Zelos... You already know I'm glad to see you."

"Limos.... my, you've grown up quite handsome, haven't you?"

"Lethe, a pleasure."

She bent down to kiss Phobos,the only one of her children present she'd not seen recently, on the cheek lightly. "You're plotting something, darling... I hope it waits till we're done here."

She straightened and smiled at everyone again, surprised at hose she noticed were missing.. Hermes, most obviously, and Thanatos - though she expected he'd return. Hermes, though - one could never be sure about. He could be dealt with later, though.

"Thank you all for coming. I do appreciate your patience. I wanted to say first that I realize everyone is being affected by this... and I kno no one is very happy. I do not know what has happened - but I plan on working hard to find out what it is, and restore everyone to their rightful selves. I know we're all anxious for answers, and while I can't promise any today, I do hope that maybe collectively we can perhaps pool our knowledge, and see if together we might be able to discover anything."

Dite blinked a bit in surprise as Psyche kissed her before entering into the room, thinking a headache was not the only way the girl seemed to be affected by the troubles. With a light shake of her head, Dite slipped into her temple and spoke quietly to an attendant, before stepping into one of the small salons to the side of the temple, still out of sight of her guests.

Mentally, she reached out for her son Deimos, tugging lightly... She wanted to talk to him, before this meeting.. She needed a favour she didn't feel the need to share with the others.

Knowing well enough he'd be by soon, She took a seat on one of the sofas, propping her elbow on the arm of the sofa, dropping her head onto her hand.

Limos didn’t leave his mother’s home, not when the other’s had. Instead he read, and ate. Mostly read, though. Lethe’s world tumbled out before him, with the eloquence that could have only come from the tongue of a muse, the emotional drive to give the emotion backing to her words. As though she would forget again.

But then, he supposed she would, much like he would stop sprouting trees and flowers. Much like any of their siblings would return to normal. (Such as Hori-Boy, who had returned from his trip and promptly tumbled over into his bed, as though nothing in the world could bother him.) Only the idea of her forgetting brought the idea of her being abused by themselves all over again. And they had, hadn’t they?

He looked at the page again forlornly, wondering when they had all become so selfish that they didn’t treat Lethe as a sister any longer, but rather as a quirk in nature that none wanted to deal with. Except Hori, it seemed, who dealt with all their siblings (save Lies and Falsehood) with equal pleasure.

And so he read more, engrossed and then…

It took every fiber in his body to hold the journal steady, though rage began to build. He had taken the news of Elpis with grace, having no real care either way. But this…this was worse than any hatred a sibling could have for another. This was a crime against his blood…a repeated crime!

Ate…. he almost screamed for her, but did not. Instead he stood in one flood motion. The book closed and politely stashed to out of the way of anyone who could stumble upon it and read. No one else needed to know. He and Ate could deal with the crimes…

Would.

Eyes narrowing, Limos left his mother’s home and stalked across the greens to Aphrodite’s palace. No scenes. That would be what Ate would say…

When he entered Love’s Temple, though, he ignored the glances of his sister’s, his eyes searching out the two beings he loathed the most in that moment, surpassing his hatred for Demeter herself.

He didn’t even wonder about what he could really do to them. He didn’t care. Son’s of war or not, the would pay.

As they sat, she could hear something in the hallway just outside the chamber, and frowned in the general direction, only lifting a brow as an attendant approached her.

"We are unable to locate Lady Aphrodite... and she has many guests."

"So... you're going to make them wait in the hall? My mother will be back eventually.. Let them all in already... "

Gods... sure they were cute, but they weren't all always very bright... She waved a hand dismissing the cabana-boy-esque doorman, and offered a somewat forced smile to the three gods already there.

"And... it looks like it's about to begin. I'm offering 5-2 odds there's a fight somewhere before Mother comes back... do I have any takers?"

She glanced from them to the door was opening, rather surprised atthe number of people now entering the room.

After Deimos and Phobos went rampant on a filthy run down hotel's patrons it was time to return to Mount Olympus to await whatever was in store.

Phobos sighed as if the very life force that animated his body was being sucked out as he looked on the face of his Mother's temple. He wished that they could be meeting at his Father's temple instead. Deimos and himself could at least occupy their own rooms and the rooms of the dungeon that they had turned into their own personal lounge and rumpus room if the meeting became drawn out and stale.

She glanced over her three very different offspring, and wasted at least a moment wondering how they al managed to be born of the same union. As they each spoke her expression shifted from annoyed, to confused, to bemused, and she finally offered a wry smile.

"How nice to see you're all getting along as well as ever..."

She stepped into the room fully, slowly moving towards the end of the bed, capturing Anteros' hand in hers as she passed. She'd brushed him off when he first entered, and she felt badly... he didn't like to admit he ever needed anything from her. She motioned for him to sit, then kissed his brow lightly before taking a seat behind him, her hand lightly stroking his back as she watched all of them.

"So what have we come up with? I think it's obvious we've got something amiss here... Hermes doesn't think he has a change, but so far he's the only one we've seen unchanged. I plan on gathering at least a far group of representatives to find a solution... but I'm curious as to what you guys think... both on possible causes and answers."

As if life could get any worse? It always managed to get worse before it got better, but then Anteros seemed to be more cyncial then he had been these days.

Everyone who ever visited Sway was always smitten with the place upon entry. With just his mere presence, Anteros doused the place each evening with his love deity pheromones, so that just visiting the place was like being under the influence of unadulterated ecstasy. His guests were always content and always left satisfied with the exception of himself who never seemed to be very content or very satisfied.

But something was cosmically amiss and Anteros recognized it for what it was when things began going abnormally wrong...

Tonight had started out like any other night. People arrived. People were having the time of their lives, with the exception of himself who was just plagued with boredom and had been thinking of dropping in on his Santa Monica home to spend some time with his dog Adonis and his housemate Ate if she were around.

But then he'd heard crashes and bangs and people shouting. People started turning on each other as if the intoxicating bliss that infused his club had been sucked out by something and replaced with something else. Most people were turned off and left, feeling uneasy and unwelcome to be there. It was as if someone had left the door open for hate to enter, as if he'd made an enemy out of Styx herself and she had decided to bring Strife and Ate along to make a mess out of his nightclub.

Only he knew better.

He didn't understand any of it, but he knew none of this was Ate's doing. They were friends and had worked together before. She wouldn't do this to him and Styx had no reason. Strife...

It could have been one of Strife's pranks...

There was only one thing for him to do. He had to leave and find out what was going on and he hated that he had to do go up there to find out anything but he couldn't very well allow people in his nightclub to kill each other.

He instructed his employees to shut down the club for the night and for everyone to take the night off.

Minutes later he arrived on Mount Olympus and noticed the Moon was not the Moon he knew but the Sun? Was everything topsy turvy? This was not Strife's doing. This was something...bigger than Strife.

If the world was flipped upside down? Did this mean that instead of being a deity of mutual love and the avenger of unrequited love, that he was a deity of hate?

Someone had fucked up good.

He decided that he might find answers at his Mother's...If his Mother's temple had not been passed off to Himeros or Cupid since she'd became Queen of the Sea.

Entering the Temple of Love he was almost surprised to see that it hadn't gathered any dust, "Mum? Anyone here?"

Her bath was not nearly as relaxing as she thought it should be. She was scowling lightly as she idly moved hills of bubbles around with her foot, wishing the hot water would do it's job and release the tension that insisted on clinging to her muscles. There seemed to be no way to ignore the arduous tasks that required accomplishment, not if she ever wanted to not be stressed for all eternity.

What she needed... was a list. A nice organized list to work off of, so that she could keep track of what precisely needed to be done, and who stood where. She hated making lists. However... there was a resource that she now had available to her... and she planned on putting it immediately to work.

"Hermes..."

She wouldn't even have to get out of the bath...