WHO: Pandora & Prometheus WHEN: Monday afternoon WHERE: An art gallery WHAT: Mr and Mrs Awkward Times.
Pandora was still feeling a little off, and on top of that she kept seeing men who resembled Iapatos and it made her heart feel like it was turning to ice for a moment before she realised it wasn't him. Having now experienced what it was like to be murdered, Pandora was in no hurry to see the situation repeat itself.
Today she'd made her way to a small art gallery doing a showing of sculptures and she'd ended up in front of a piece called Pandora, a young girl of white marble curled tightly and protectively around a stone jar.
(In her bag, the box enjoyed that it was being represented by a proper jar but it disliked that Pandora was currently paying more attention to a fake box than it.)
Pandora sat on the bench against the wall, watching the sculpture.
Prometheus couldn't say why he'd given up his one perfect piece. Maybe the reasonable part of his mind was telling him to let go of some things, but he knew chances were it was just him being his impulsive self. With Epimetheus not talking to him, it was easier to do it.
He'd gotten some offers he'd smiled off, and some compliments. He kept mostly to himself, as without either Jade or Aidan to poke him into social situations he preferred being by himself.
Until he'd seen his model in front of his sculpture. He sighed and cursed before walking towards her, keeping a moderate distance. "Hello."
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 07:20 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select Hearing his voice Pandora looked up, her expression wary and guilty. Then she swallowed and looked back to the art, wringing her hands in her lap. "I was never that young," she told Prometheus.
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 07:29 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select He sighed, feeling guilty himself. "I didn't know what they'd planned. I would have stopped them. I was too late. I am sorry." It was all he could say and he glanced to the sculpture. "Artists interpretation. Youth translates as innocence." Either she had not yet seen his name besides it, or wasn't telling him she'd seen it.
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 07:41 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select Pandora took an unsteady breath and shook her head a little. "Keep thinking he's going to do it again." She cast a quick glance towards the door to satisfy herself that Iapatos wasn't watching them.
"Then they're still wrong," Pandora frowned, looking at the lines of the girl's face. She was beautiful and despite the youth Pandora almost imagined she could see herself in it. "I have no innocence." She dropped her gaze to the hands in her lap. "Sometimes I think about how it could have been different, if they'd given me a chance to be a child. If they hadn't just formed me and thrust me into the world." She sniffed and flicked a tear from beneath her eye. "But it's a stupid thought. I can only ever be what they made me, and they made me to hurt the only person who would love me."
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 07:53 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select "He won't." he tried giving her an encouraging smile, "promise. I won't say I've seen you." It wasn't much, but it was something. And he needed to convince his mother to stop sending his father on assassination missions.
She hadn't seen his name then. As she spoke he took a glass of champagne off a tray and handed it to her. "here. I hear it's good. And the artist intended it to be just what you mentioned. The what if, and the innocence that was, and never could have been. A lost girl, trapped by powers beyond her grasp. Her only comfort a jar that she knew she had to open." He'd just sculpted as he saw her sometimes, and how he wished she could have been. Things would be a whole lot different then.
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 08:07 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select "Thank you," Pandora said, and the relief was obvious in her voice. She took the offered glass and took a sip, listening to him talk.
"I never wanted to hurt him, you know," she told Prometheus. "I thought I could keep pretending that I loved him when I knew I didn't, and I thought that he'd never have to find out that I was unfaithful and... it's complicated." She sighed heavily.
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 08:18 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select He shook his head, "it's nothing." He felt responsible for it all anyway. It wasn't hard to keep her a secret.
He glanced to her and smiled, "we're Greeks. We're built on complicated. He's still not talking to me. I suspect it will be a while before he forgives either of us. Maybe this is better. Maybe it isn't. I can't say. My own perspective on relationships is skewed."
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 08:37 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select "Why isn't he forgiving you?" Pandora asked in surprise, looking at him. "I'm the one who did this - you were just under thrall. And as for me, I don't deserve or desire his forgiveness. It's better he stays hating me."
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 08:42 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select He sighed, "I did sleep with you, and under thrall or not he blames me for it. Not unjustly. I do not like fighting with my counterpart, but he needs time. Soon I will try approaching him again." He missed Epimetheus. "Maybe, but I don't think he'll keep hating you."
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 08:54 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select "I'm sure he'll come around," Pandora said, looking back at the statue. "You two belong together. Even a god-given wife can't get in the middle of that."
"I'm sorry if I hurt you too," she frowned. "If it helps I'm homeless and the police want to question me about some strange woman that got murdered in my apartment."
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 09:00 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select He smiled, "I'm prepared to beg for my brother's forgiveness if it comes to it. We've been counterparts for a long time. If he's near me it's hard to work without him."
He frowned at her, "that doesn't help. Elpis came by to get your box and said you were staying with her but if you need a hand I will offer it. And I'm sure Hermes might too." He may not like the Olympians, but he figured they ought to help their creation.
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 09:49 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select "I'm working up to helping for Hermes' help," Pandora admitted. "And Elpis is letting me stay with her. Right now I just feel adrift though, and I don't think it's just because of that knife I can still feel in my chest."
Then she looked at the statue and asked, "it's yours, isn't it?"
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 09:54 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select He nodded, "well I also offer my aid. It isn't much but it is there." He smiled to her. "I think I know how you feel. It gets better. Give it time."
Then he gave a shy laugh and nodded, "yes. I was wondering if you'd figure that out eventually."
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 09:59 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select "You'd still help me?" Pandora asked him. "Even after everything that's happened? You don't even like me all that much."
She shrugged and considered the sculpture. "I couldn't decide whether it was vanity seeing myself in her face or not. Does that mean you see some sort of innocence in me?" she asked, looking at him seriously.
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 10:08 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select He still smiled at her. "the answer to that question is the same, really. Despite everything you are human ." He tilted his head to her, "And I am always willing to help those of your kind. Simply who I am."
Then he nodded, "yes. I do. Or at least the traces that were there before everything blew up, before you became more then a girl with a jar." He glanced to the sculpture. "some see possession in this piece. Some see regret. The viewer makes of it what they like. I just made a girl with a jar."
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 10:40 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select Pandora considered what the stone-Pandora meant to her. "I see loneliness," she said, not looking at him. "I see a thing built wrong, with too many holes inside that nothing can fill. The girl is as empty as the jar."
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 11:00 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select He gave her a look, unsure on how to really go into that. "The jar's still closed though." He motioned to the piece, and to the lid on the jar. "So maybe not as empty as one may think."
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-02 11:44 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select Pandora turned to give Prometheus a slow, wry smile. "Lucky jar," she said, because they both knew she wasn't talking about his art.
Then she sighed. "I should go," she said. "Your father said he'd kill me if I went near either of you again."
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[info]firestealer 2012-04-02 08:13 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select He shrugged at her. "All a matter of perspective." He frowned but then smiled, "alright. But I won't tell him you know. You stay safe and careful."
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[info]pandoros 2012-04-05 12:25 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select Pandora stood, pulling the strap of her bag over her shoulder and nodding her goodbye to him. She couldn't quite manage a smile.
Without saying anything else she walked past him and to the door of the gallery, ready to go home again and hide.