Grecian Urn...

Apollo watched Hermes from a distance for a long time, gazing as the god wordless walked among the mortal statues. It was a somber sight, the world frozen and silent, devoid of everything that gave them their greatest strength. Hermes’ face betrayed his concern, and dislike for the situation.

“Are you going to stand there watching all day?” Hermes called out finally, looking back at Apollo with a dark expression lit in his eyes.

“You seemed to be entranced….”

Hermes was beside him in a flash, the god of speed looking more like himself than he had since the fall of Zeus. It was that realization that made Apollo cringe slightly, casting his eyes away as he licked his lips.

“You wanted to talk, I assume…” Hermes commented, his arms crossing over his chest in an annoyed air. “So talk…”

“There isn’t any reason not to be civil…”

“I’m being perfectly civil. Civil does not require me to be kind, however, to a brother who betrayed the whole of his people.” Hermes scoffed, turning to step past Apollo. He had no intentions of listening to his brother it seemed.

“Hermes, wait…”

“Why should I?” Hermes snapped, “You! You are the reason everything is like this. How long do you think our world can survive like this? In a world that doesn’t move? People give us our power, their knowledge of us keeps us here. Their buying, their selling, their movies and music, their love, their wars, everything they do keeps us here! Look at them!” His voice echoed like thunder in the stillness, motionless people vibrating with the sheer power behind Hermes’ anger.

“I am sorry….” Closing his eyes, Apollo looked away before he knelt slowly before his brother. “I do not deserve your forgiveness, but I beg for it none the less, my brother. I have been selfish…reckless. Of that I cannot be absolved, I know…”

“Forgive you?” Hermes’ voice sounded hurt more than taken aback. “You want me to forgive you? Why should I? You would have fed me to the wolves!”

“Please!” Apollo cried, looking up at Hermes, “for my crimes I cannot repent enough. Tell me what task you would ask of me, and I would do it…”

“Your fate isn’t in my hands…” Hermes snarled, turning away angrily. His shoulders were tense, and his head was bowed in an uncharacteristic manner.

“Hermes…”

“Just stop! By Zeus, just….just stop.” Hermes glanced over his shoulder at Apollo, eying him cautiously. “Why did you do it?”

“It was meant only to affect Aphrodite, Ares and Hephaestus. I did not intend for the whole pantheon to crumble. “

“Well bravo, brother, because you fucking set us all on our asses. Thank you, it was an excellent experience. We’ll have to do it again sometime.”

“I did not…”

“You did not, you did not, not, not, not. I got it! Congratulations, you fucked up something you didn’t intend to fuck up. You played with fire, and we all were burned. I’m unbelievably proud. Now go away….”

“Hermes….”

“Go away! Just go. Go apologize to your muses, to your counterpart and the whole mountain. Bleed for them, and then maybe I’ll be ready to give you. Maybe.”

Gaping a little, Apollo sighed and stood. There was little point in trying to argue forgiveness out of Hermes. But…but at least he had tried. It as a start of a long list.

He had, through the grape vine, learned that first Andy and now Hedy was on the mount. Generally he would have been the first to find the kid, give him a noogie, and jested...

But then again, Hermes was generally more lively than he had been lately. There was a talk with Apollo, as brief as he could make it, about why his brother had been doing as he had done. It had, really, accomplished nothing but make the messenger moodier than he was, but at least he had tried. And for a moment he had considered dropping in to poke fun at Ares, only to discard the idea.

There was plenty of time to poke fun later. In more healthy manners.

So he was in Dite's temple, smiling at the attendants as he walked in and asked that one of them tell Dite he was there before he started off to find Hedy. And of course, what he found was a sleeping child.

Smiling, he found a place to sit and watch...

And relax

( Read more... )

Hermes awoke with a start, Peitho stirring a little beside him as the Messenger god frowned. There was something in the air that he had not expected, but he could not name it either. It was...discomforting though. Sliding out of his bed, he felt more refreshed, but still slow. How could a god be turned on his head like that? Heh. Hekate, he imagined, had leant her hand to the who mess in some fashion or another, though he was not the one to go pointing fingers.

Dressing, he moved out into the cool night air and sat on his temple steps. So quiet, so different. In all his life he had never thought to unseat his father from his kingdom, but now he sat in a world he had, truly, helped change. And while the idea of change should have hardly been regretted by him, a god who stood at the very forefront of change itself, he was plagued deep within by private misgivings. A private guilt.

His father was gone, and his mother was still as private as ever. His brother was insane, Ares was...Ares, and his other siblings were simply...not themselves, or not there. There was a loneliness that settled about the messenger god, one that made him grieve for a father he had turned his back against.

Was loyal to a fault ever really loyal to begin with? And Apollo had done the very thing that Hermes himself should have done, they should have been reversed in their places.

Or maybe he was letting the recent events just get to him far too much.

As soon as the last of the others left, Aphrodite brought the staff of the trident down on the marble floor of the temple, creating a thick wall of water that rose up and surrounded the room. She wanted no interruptions. Satisfied no one would be able to enter or leave without her leave, she leveled her glance firmly at Apollo.

"You're just so proud of yourself, aren't you."

(Continue the meeting here. )

(Note: This takes place after whatever happens in the next round of reps in the meeting... Dite will still reply to those before dragging Hermes away. But since she's doing that regardless...)

Keeping her hand firmly on Hermes' arm, she left the main chamber filled with other deities and entered a small salon to the side (the temple was riddled with small rooms for tete-a-tetes and quiet conversation...) and closed the door before releasing her grip. Her arms crossed over her chest as she studied him for a moment, then sighed, stance relaxing slightly.

"Care to explain why you're offering an admission of guilt, Hermes? I can't imagine being War has screwed my intuition so completely. Tell me what's going on."

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."

Hermes appearing before him was not a complete surprise. The two brothers standing at odds with each other, while still completely at easy in the other’s company was the strangest of sights, and yet… The silence was like a blanket laid over them, and the whole temple. The usual glow of light was dark, and even the open spaces seemed to have settled with an unearthly gloom.

“What did you do?” Hermes asked boldly, breaking the silence of the dark audience chamber.

“Do?” Apollo raised a darkened brow, shaking his head slowly as he stood from his throne and stepped out into the open space. His arms were thrown wide, and his blonde curls much more manageable than Hermes’, clear of his eyes as he regarded his brother. “Hermes, whatever are you talking about?”

( I'm talking about... )

Iris had felt it, hell she was pretty certain that one would have to be nonexistent not to have felt it. The big question was what exactly was it? Iris, peered out the window of her small humble home curiously trying to see what was going on but unfortunately all she saw nothing really out the ordinary. Everything looks the same as it did when she arrived.

With a loud audible sigh, Iris steps away from the window and head back toward her sitting room, wondering if perhaps she should return to her little town in Oklahoma again, until this most recent of events has blown over. Then something happened, almost as if a little switch was thrown and before she could question what she was doing all of her colorful decorating schemes are changed to various shades of black and white.

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...

Peitho’s finely craft Dolce heels clicked against the floor as she crossed the marble of Hermes’ temple. It really did lack the fine touches of a woman, but she’d been on a mission to change that. Slowly. Hermes, for all his craftiness, said little about the changes when they came in changes of ones and twos and a month at a time. Smiling, she flopped her bag on a chaise, and started to peel her Gabanna jacket off as she spied her slumbering husband.

He looked quite handsome like that, stretched out like a cat in the warmth of the sun. It was hard to imagine that at one time he was harder to pin down than the wind. And yet now, since Aphrodite and the other two had taken over, he’d been much easier to pin down.

“Hermes,” she purred, slipping out of her shoes, hands sliding over his chest. His eyes perked open a bit, a smile creeping over his face as he laughed. “Hey baby….”

“Hey,” he smiled as he bit his lip and laughed a little, “you’re back early.”

“What? And miss all the action up here? Mm, what do you take me for?” A fool obviously. It wasn’t that she cared that her husband found others in his bed from time to time, Hera knew she did too. “Why are you sleeping like this? Wind is going to win that race today at this rate.”

He scrunched his nose before shifting and shitting up a little, fingers playfully dancing over the fabric of her dress. “No, I guess not.” And then he laughed, kissing her lips softly before settling back.

“Hermes,” Peitho cooed, settling down in the space between his arm and side, an arm reaching up and around to curl fingers in her husbands golden locks. “What do you think happened to all Zeus’ powers? And the others?”

“It went too Dite, Ares, and Heph.” He raised a brow through, looking down at the wide, innocent eyes that peeked up at her innocently. “Why?”

“Oh, I was just…curious. I mean…that is pretty important question…”

“Yeah, if you were one of those three.”

“I was just curious!” She huffed as she settled down again, tucking her chin in and her head pillowed on Hermes’ chest. He could be so, so stubbornly questiony…whatever! “Nevermind.”

He made a noise, almost an assent or a question, but he never said anything afterward. It made her sigh inwardly, wishing he wouldn’t be so difficult. No matter, she’d just ask him again later, maybe after he’d hung out with Dio a bit. He wouldn’t be paying as much attention then.

He hadn’t been hiding, but Apollo had been no where near eager to face his brother or Aphrodite. Zeus help him, but a month ago he would have gladly torn into them, rash and boldly…

And promptly joined his father in whatever dark hell he occupied. Apollo, the lord of balance and light, and everything that seemed to fall under that branch and train of thought, was well aware that alone he was no match for Ares. At least, not in the sense of strength. There would be a certain amount of secrecy needed, and there were truly very on the mount that could so underhandedly manipulate others…

As luck would have, one was his dear sweet brother.

“Hermes,” Apollo called out, hidden from prying eyes behind wards and shadows, his dim glow smothered so that it simmered in a pale rage. “Brother, have you never learned to come when called?”

When Hermes did appear, though, the younger god was giving him a look of untrust, eyes narrowed as he walked slowly toward the golden one. “So, you speak again…I’m surprised…”

“Shut up,” Apollo snapped, eyes flashing with a golden brilliance. “You, you I wanted to speak with because you destroyed this pantheon.”

Hermes held up his arms, dancing back quickly as his eyes narrowed and his lips grew tight. “Woah, no. I didn’t do anything, Golden Boy. I might have made a mistake, but I didn’t drop the ax ok?”

“Might as well have,” Apollo said moodily, his hands clasped at the small of his back as he flexed his fingers. He had been neglecting his duties in favor of brooding, and it was time to find a new outlet. “And now…now you will help me restore order.”

“Has it occurred to you that maybe what this pantheon needs is a bit of stability.”

“So you sided with him? With Ares!”

“More like I sided with her, and say fuck him.”

Apollo scowled, before advancing Hermes with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Hermes,” he scowled as his younger brother rolled his eyes. “You ow—“

“I do not owe you anything, Apollo. I do not owe this pantheon anything. If you recall, you tried to kill me the same day. So don’t give me the ‘you owe me’ speech. You, you of all of us knows what it means to oppose Zeus. You tried and failed years ago, and now your pissed because Ares did what you couldn’t!”

“He had no right!”

“Well neither do you!”

They stood there, glaring at each other for a long time. Apollo slightly taller, and heavier than Hermes, but never doubting that the slighter god could hold his own in a fight if need be. Hermes always seemed to have a trick up his sleeve…

“They have too much power, Hermes. Power they do not have a right to.”

“Oh yeah? Well who has that power if they don’t? Who do you trust to rule?...Athena? Art? Yourself? Heh, I don’t want it…I’m not that stupid, and you shouldn’t be either, Apollo.”

“Hermes…”

“What? What do you want? You want me to…tell you, ‘sure kill them all! No big!’ what? Sorry, bro, no can do. See, Ares? He is half dense, but he isn’t very trusting right now. And top that off, no one here deserves as much power as you are suggesting one god takes over. If you want Ares and dumple-boy out of power, you’d do best to bide your time. But Dite….Dite’s off limit, Apollo. She’s more on your side than you might expect…” At least, for now.

“I need help, Hermes…I need help to be rid of Ares and Hephaestus.”

“No…No! I’ve had my hand in the cookie jar too much of late. I’m not ready too stick my neck out again…”

“I never took you for a coward, Hermes.”

“News flash, bud, I’m not the bravest…”

Apollo growled, hand snaking out to grab a hold of his brother firmly and shake him a little. Eyes wide and perhaps a bit dangerous. “Did you loyalty to our faith mean nothing to you?”

“Hey!” Hermes hissed a little, eyes narrowing as Apollo pulled the guilt card, making him scoff. “Of course it did, asshole. But kids grow up, Apollo. Eventually we all learn to move on. Like you should be doing…”

“Hermes!”

“What?!”

“Swear to me….Swear to me, Hermes, that you won’t stand in my way when I seek vengeance for our father…Swear it!” Apollo’s grip was like in iron vice, Hermes eyes wide as he hissed.

“I swear it!”

“On the Styx, Hermes, swear it on the Styx…”

“I swear it, in the name of Styx…I won’t stand in your way of vengeance against Ares and Heph!”

Apollo pushed him away before disappearing, leaving Hermes standing alone and frowning with no small amount of concern…

Apollo, in his professional opinion, had lost it.

( The Meeting. )

Death sat on a squeaky swing that was fixed to a high branch of an old oak after the meeting.

Hermes stared off toward the ocean, watching the waves crash against the cost in a quiet silence. He was, in a way, in the middle of a rat's nest. He'd betrayed so many, destroyed their hard won faith in him. Apollo, for his part, was avoiding him. Athena would gladly have locked him away with the Titans...

Ares, well, Ares claimed to hold a leash. Heh.

So, Hermes left to wonder. For the first time in a long time he thought antics could truly go too far. But he could imagine much worse as well. Mm. But moping was for the dull, drool. He'd just have to find a way to good graces, and as much as he'd like to start with Iris, he imagined he'd just be slapped. So that left him with Ares, Aphrodite, and Iron-boy.

Dite, by far, was the idle choice to schmooze.

Standing, the opportunist of Olympus brushed himself off before vanishing from Earth. When he reappeared it was outside the Temple of love, with an sad little pout on his lips as he quietly called out to his one time lover.

"Love, would you speak with me?"