son_of_counsel (son_of_counsel) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2011-04-03 20:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | cato jube, polyhymnia, shiri eneas |
Who: Shiri and Cato
What: Sibling bonding amongst homework
Where: Cato's dorm room
When: BACKDATED to March 25th.
Warnings: None
There was many things Shiri was never surprised about after four years of modern American liberal arts education. The first was that professors never grew wearied of giving out assignments that they found interesting but every student in the class could not care less about. The second was that all students, herself included, would wait until the last possibility moment to do those assignments. The third was that a dorm full of men were more than happy to open their doors to some woman at their doorstep, let her eat their snacks and then wait for their roommates in his bedroom.
While she had assumed that last fact had been exclusively due to who Adam’s roommate had been when he had met him... as she stretched out in Cato’s bed, she realized it wasn’t an exclusive trait.
But he was taking forever to arrive.
Shiri yawned and put her notebook on the floor beside the bed and curled up. She’d be annoyed by his tardiness if she didn’t know that he had no idea she was waiting for him. Idly, she looked at her phone atop her notebook and then shrugged and closed her eyes.
Why text when she could doze? He’d come back eventually and she had no classes today.
Ah, but no time for that either; almost as soon as her eyelids had shut, the door opened up. A stack of books appeared, apparently being carried by someone, their face obscured by the pile. They were set down on the desk and a few moments before Cato even noticed the pale-haired woman on his bed. Once he did, he smiled widely. “Sister! Hey, how’d you get in?”
No one ever let her doze. Shiri opened her eyes slowly and met his. Just the same, it was probably better this way. She had come for a reason and not for a nap. She had her own house and bed to nap in. That didn’t mean she stopped being curled up in his bed though. Not when she had just gotten comfortable. “Your roommates were very helpful. You are also out of pizza rolls.”
Cato hissed with displeasure even as he smirked, sitting down at the foot of the bed and tugging at her exposed toes. “Those jerks, I was saving those.”
Oops. His roommates were clever with their food, feeding her their absent roomie’s food. Clever and tricky... But now she pulled her knees to her chest to free her toes from his grasp and pulled his bed sheet over her entirely. Over feet and head.
He chuckled and tugged at the sheets but only half-heartedly, not even managing to get them away from her face. “So what brings you here. Besides my pizza rolls.”
Shiri giggled under the sheet. Well, at least he knew she was guilty of the pizza roll genocide, so she didn’t have to hide her shame and herself under his sheet anymore but she also didn’t especially want to come back out. The sheet was thin enough to see him well enough... It was kinda nice. “I need to use you for a class project.”
“Is it for that nude modelling again?” he replied with an exasperated little sigh. “That’d be the third time just this month, you know.”
Now she peeked out, “You have been used for nude modeling twice before and I did not have to fight some woman out of this bed for my almost nap?”
The younger sibling blushed. “Well, it was a guy who asked me for one. At least the first time. I guess word got around and--” He waved his hands, cutting himself off. “Wait a minute, you didn’t say what project.”
“Woman, man... no difference. The fact that someone is not keeping your bed warm for you after nude modeling...” Shiri sat up as he waved his hands, wrapping the sheet around her shoulders like a mantle cape, “I have to interview a freshman and you are my freshman.”
To Cato’s credit, at least he’d caught her jape. Still blushing from ear to ear, he asked, “Oh, what sort of interview?”
And Shiri wanted to answer his question, she really did, but his blushing just made her giggle too much. She pulled the sheet over her head to form a hood, as if the shadow it cast would hide her giggling, “You are so bashful...”
“Says the [sister] hiding from me,” he teased with a crooked smile. “Since you’re clearly dying to know, no, no one’s been in the bed. Do I get to know what it’s about now, or are you going to keep teasing me about my lack in sexy co-ed adventures?”
“I am not teasing, I am just confused. I was having sexy adventures two months after admission just because I had not had good sex in years. Now if I had spent my whole existence...” Shiri’s eyes then grew wide as she caught up with her own words. Cato had spent his whole life trapped in Zeus’s head and he was only like a year old! The sheet was whipped away from as she launched over to him, draping herself over one of his shoulders, “I did not mean to tease or be confused... honest. I just did not consider that maybe you... wanted to wait or have it be right or...” Now she blushed.
Face still red as a beet, Cato still laughed a little, though he returned the half-hug. “It’s all right. It’s not... ah... for lack of wanting. Just, no opportunity has presented itself. I suppose.”
Shiri gave him a bit of a squeeze and then plopped to her side beside him. “No opportunities? I do not understand this campus. I just do not. When I found Adam, he was single...Well, single enough and you are still a virgin. What is wrong with this campus’ women? It is like they are all blind, deaf and stupid.”
“It probably doesn’t help that I’ve been trying really hard to study,” he pointed out, jerking a thumb back in the direction of his materials. “I’m not giving them much of a chance. And well, to be honest, I think I’ve got enough memories of Dad and his... well... being Dad... to fill my head for a lifetime. Heh.”
Shiri shrugged. She almost understood. When one had a memories of courting women under the guise of a swan and impregnating them as a golden shower, she supposed sleeping with some average co-ed or closeted frat boy was something he could put off until his finals were done. Though she was certain that if it was truly her father before her, there would be epidemic of single pregnant women on campus. Her eyes shifted to his work, “Either you are doing school wrong or I am. What major did you take?”
“Classics, at the moment... I’m still not quite sure about it yet. I feel like I have a lot of interests in other majors too. Robert, one of my roommates, is in Political Science and I like to read his textbooks. It’s really interesting! Though I suppose I could easily do French or Spanish; I’m a little rusty, but [Father] knew how to speak both, I must have a good head start, right?”
“And you live in Miami, so you can practice Spanish easily...” Shiri shifted on his bed and rested her head on one of his knees to look up at him as she continued to speak, “You could always double major. Classics is probably incredibly easy for you, though I do suggest that if you double major, do it soon. Advisers just lose their minds and begin to speak to you very slowly like you do not understand English if you decide in your junior year...”
Cato chuckled and reached down to brush his fingertips along her hair. “Maybe. I don’t know. I have to admit, I really envy you, [sister].”
“You envy me?” Shiri would have scratched her head to further convey her curious confusion but that would get in the way of his brushing of her hair. Maybe he was envious of her silky hair. “Why?”
“You know what you want to do, and what your purpose is. You are who you are, and you’re so confident in it,” he replied. “It must be nice.”
Shiri closed her eyes, “How much do you remember from Daddy? Everything? I assumed it was everything...”
“Most everything, I guess, at least what he remembered...”
She didn’t open her eyes, “And you still envy me?”
Cato blinked at her, his face smooth of expression. “Yes. Maybe not... other things I know you probably don’t want to talk about. But I envy your role in life. You’re a Muse. You have that purpose. You’ll never have to doubt what you are for.”
Shiri opened her eyes once more with a soft thoughtful giggle, “You are not the first to question your purpose. I have many times because... well... you can guess, but what you count as my ‘role’, I just consider my ‘nature’. You have your own nature, but you are also only a year old...”
“What’s my nature, though,” he prodded. “Muses inspire. Demeter tends to the earth.” He paused, considering his words. “I suppose I could be the god of Underfed And Unsure College Students?”
Lazily, she reached up and brushed his cheek with the back of her fingers, “Your nature is probably tied to your divinity and power. Mine is as is Demeter’s after all...”
Closing his eyes, he leaned into the touch contentedly. “What’s your guess, then?”
“Hmm, well, if I had to guess to develop some kind of story or hymn about you to teach the mortals...” Shiri murmured as she continued to caress his cheek, subconsciously encouraged as he leaned into her touch. Her eyes slipped shut as she thought out loud “You were purposely confined and then found life in your escape... so I would probably frame you as a god of freedom. If you had or have wings like Daddy did then that would only help my symbolism for it. And as much as I loved Daddy, he was a tyrant by definition, so I would also cast you as a god of liberty... perhaps of democracy as you were born into a country that took up democracy and freedom from a king before anyone else. Twin of Athena, I would probably play with that, too, but as she sat at Daddy’s right hand as a steward of authority and law, I would have you counter that -- not to oppose laws per se, but to question them, to ensure they are just and if they are not, to be rid of them. If you had power over weather, I would definitely use that as a metaphor for it -- the storms of change...”
Her eyes then opened, “But that is just off the top of my head...” So, said the muse of sacred matters.
Cato blinked, but smirked with amusement, giving her a playful poke on the nose. “Well. I can’t be the god of creativity... I never considered any of those. Heh.” He paused a moment then asked quietly, “Do you... do you think I’d be any good at any of those things?”
She drew back her hand and rolled to her side to protect herself from his poking in the same playful manner, scurrying back under the sheet like a shield or possibly a Cato-forcefield. But after a moment, she peeked out with a giggle, “There is some debate... or was, my sisters and I debated about things a lot... about the nature of our divinity. If it was fated and hence given or acquired and bestowed. We never came up with an answer. Because yes, us muses... there was never a question of our role and nature. Nor with those like Hermes or Hephaestus who were born and then almost instantly began in their unique roles even as babes.”
She paused only to shrug, “But then there are the three kings themselves. Was it fate that drove the dice? Did Poseidon have his powers latent in his being and then they awoke when he won the sea or was it because he won the sea? What if Daddy had picked it as he had won first? He would have been a terrible sea god but maybe if he had chosen it, his powers would have grown into it...”
With a giggle, she finally sat up once more, wrapping the sheet around herself, “I could go on. My own divine path is just weird and complicated but what I am saying is... If you wish it to be, try it out. If it is or becomes your path, you will be good at it.”
“You prove a good point, one I’ve been thinking about myself,” he mused, shifting to place his back against the wall now that she was no longer leaning her weight on him. “I just worry about it too much, I think. Or maybe not enough. I’ll just have to sort it out.”
“Cato, you have only walked the earth for one year,” Shiri reminded him as she decided to mimic him, scooting to sit beside him against the wall. In the close proximity, she leaned over to whisper, as if sharing a secret -- regardless of the fact that with Zeus’ memories, he would already know it, “I had not even spoke a single word yet within my first year.”
Cato’s eyes crinkled as he smiled nostalgically. “Yes. I... I remember. I remember how excited everyone was to hear you too. Your mother was so happy.”
Shiri nodded, “I think Mommy may have begun to believe her ninth little girl was never going to speak with how I took my sweet time to actually do so.” She rested her head against his shoulder, “So you should not worry about not having it all figured it out just yet...”
“You’re wiser than me, [sister].” He returned the touch, letting his head rest on top of hers gently and closing his eyes. It was nice to relax after a hard day of studying and teachers and wondering exactly what place you had in the universe. “Thank you.”
“You are...” Shiri could not get through the stock return phrase without suddenly giggling. His compliment had reached her ears already but it had taken a moment for her to have a flash of Natal calling her ‘Wisdom’ as a name. She resisted commenting. Cato wouldn’t get the in-joke. She simply began again, “You are welcome. Do me a favor?”
“But of course.”
That forced her to get up but such was her life, always having to get up when she found a good spot to sit or lie down. But she didn’t move very far, just to the edge of the bed and grabbed her notebook. She handed it to him with a smile, “Just fill out the answers. Last time I did an interview I proceeded to ask almost none of the questions required of me and then had to make stuff up because I ran away so... “
“Good thing you planned ahead then!” he laughed and, picking up a pencil, examined the paper. “Let’s see... oh, the cafeteria food. It’s...” The younger god considered. “Is there a better word than ‘ew’?”
“As a muse that speaks dozens of languages, I assure you the answer is no. That is the best word,” Shiri nodded with emphasis as she laid back down on his bed, putting his pillows nicely under her head, “I was lucky when I found myself with a boyfriend with a kitchen in my first year.”
“I don’t joke when I say that half the reason I’m still alive is thanks to Hestia. I think if she set foot in the place, her hair would light on fire from sheer rage.” For lack of a better word for that, he let the ‘ew’ stand and continued to go down the list. “Satisfaction... Hm. That’s such a hard one to place. Satisfaction with myself? With the building? The teachers? Hm.”
Shiri shrugged and then sought for the sheet again to pull over herself, “I do not know. I did not write the questions. My whole class was just handed the handout.”
He studied the paper a little and, shrugging with apathy, put down a ‘well enough’. He followed along with the rest of the questions, answering as honestly as he could, until it was filled up. “There. All done.”
Shiri couldn’t help but let out a soft whine even as she yawned and looked over at him. “You finish too fast. I was hoping for a quick nap. You keep preventing me right when I am at the edge of sleep and that is just not polite. I do not do that to you...”
“You can nap here for a while, if you like,” he offered. “I don’t mind.”
“It is not the same if I am not waiting for something... I think,” Not that Shiri moved or even pushed the sheet from herself again. She could perfectly see him from where she lied all curled up, “I mean, I could nap in my own house... right?”
“But you’d have to ride your bike all the way to your house, and you’d be wide awake by the time you got there. And sweaty,” pointed out the little brother sagely.
Shiri nodded, “I named you appropriately, Cato. That is very true but I would still be napping in your bed for no good reason. I could always take a nice warm bath when I got home and fix both those wide awake and sweaty problems...” Still she stretched out, only to curl back up again. And then she giggled, “I know! Go make me something as a snack! Then I would have to wait for it!”
Appropriately-named Cato laughed and reached over the covers to give her hair a pat. “I’ve got girl scout cookies... thin mints?”
“Ooh, those sound good,” she nuzzled into the touch at her hair and then fixed his pillow beneath her head, “If you have ice cream, put some of it between them. That will take time. Time I could be napping through.”
“Now you’re just asking for pampering! No ice cream, but the cookies I’ll bring.” He stood up and gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead before heading out of the room to fetch said treats. It was almost a reflex; something Zeus would have done, and had often done, for decades upon decades. But it felt good to bond with his sister.
Shiri shouted after him, “You do not know what you are missing! It is delicious!” But once he had left her sight, she touched her forehead where he had kissed her with a small smile and then pulled his sheet right up to her shoulders. Time to doze off before he got back. Only then could she get to nap. After all, he had filled out her questionnaire. Once she had those snacks, it would be time to go home.
Summary: Shiri needs some help with a class assignment, and Cato could use some family company. It all works out!