Who: Phobos & Aphrodite What: Another Mother-Son Reunion Where: Aphrodite’s Penthouse When: Monday, September 23rd, 2019 - Afternoon Warnings: TBD
APHRODITE: Aphrodite was so glad to be herself again. And while the trip to France had been necessary for she and Ares (taking Hebe had just been a beautifully added bonus), she had other people she still needed to see and find. Her children, to start with. Between she and Ares, they knew or at least knew of, several of them spread out over the world, but those that didn’t remember them were, well, those were tricky cases. Aphrodite was not above bashing someone to literally knock some sense into them, though even Ares thought perhaps she could try something else at first.
Phobos, though, was wide awake, and on his way over. She lay out a fine spread of his favorite desserts and beers and wines. There were sodas and water, of course, but it sure didn’t seem like he’d be a teetotaller or anything of the sort. Aphrodite wanted him to feel welcome. She wanted him to feel like this could be his home as much as anywhere. She’d even had two of the upper guest rooms converted into more neutral colors and decorations so that whoever wanted to stay there wouldn’t be crashing in a fluffy, pink, down paradise.
When the doorman rang her to announce her son’s arrival, she hurried over to the door and counted to fourteen, the exact number of seconds it took someone to get from the door man to her apartment. She’d done it so many times it was practiced. So he didn’t even have to knock when he got there, the door swung open and there she was in a pure white dress, fitted to her just perfectly and heels. Her own Paris purchases - diamonds - hung delicately from her ears and wrist. “My son!” Before he could answer, she was wrapping him in a hug. “I have gifts!”
PHOBOS: There were a lot of people Phobos would ignore. That list was really long. Deimos and his parents were definitely not on that list, however, so when his mother asked him to come over, of course he was going to go. Despite very heavily favoring his father, he loved his mother and never minded spending time with her.
He stopped by a florist on the way over, picking up a beautiful arrangement of pink lilies and roses in a crystal vase. If nothing else, he could totally be the favorite twin for the next week. The doorman let him up, and he set the vase on the ground before approaching the door, because if he knew Aphrodite at all, she’d sweep out the door before he could even talk.
And he was right, because the door flew open as he took the final step, and then his mother was pulling him into a hug, something Phobos allowed exactly three people to do, and she was one of them. “Hey Mom,” he greeted her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Nice to see you. I got something for you too, once you unlock the hug.”
APHRODITE: She did not unlock the hug right away, thank you very much. It’d been a while since she’d had her son with her and even if he did like Ares a touch better, it didn’t matter. She loved all her children just the same. Finally, though, she broke away and kissed each of his cheeks before spying the flowers. “Oh, Phobos! These are completely absolutely perfect and unless things have changed or you are dating my neighbor, I am going to assume they are for me.” She tended to assume everything was for her anyway. Mostly because if she wanted something, she got it, no matter who it belonged to in the first place (and yes, that had included men in the past).
Taking his hand, she scooped up the flowers in the other, leading him into the elegantly decorated penthouse. There were starting to be touches of Ares here and there. A few of his things scattered about, but it was clear who had lived there first. While some of her kin were having trouble meshing who they’d been with who they were, she’d been fortunate. Arista had been as close to Aphrodite as anyone could be without being the actual goddess. “You look skinny. Doesn’t anyone feed you? I’m going to call someone and have some food sent up. What do you want?” Most mothers would have offered to cook, but you know, Aphrodite wasn’t most mothers.
The flowers were put in a prominent place on a main table and she took him into her living room and nudged him down to the sofa where the sprawl of food and drink was waiting for him to dig into. “Tell me everything. How have you been? How is your brother? Have you been getting up to any shenanigans? And if you haven't, why not? And how do I need to help so you do?” One must always support ones children in their passions, after all.
PHOBOS: Phobos laughed softly as she picked up the flowers. “Yes, Mom, they’re for you. Didn’t want to show up empty-handed, especially since I haven’t seen you for a while.” And since it was usually just easier to let Aphrodite steer him where she wanted, he let her take his hand and lead him inside.
“I feed myself, mostly,” he answered. “Sometimes not a lot. And sometimes it’s not great for me. Most of the time I don’t notice, though. Since I woke up it’s been easier to just kind of...not remember to eat and not let it affect me. Although if you’re gonna have someone send something up, I wouldn’t say no to a steak. And maybe a baked potato. Ooh, and some green beans. I didn’t have lunch today.” He didn’t mind that Aphrodite wasn’t bustling into the kitchen and cooking him a meal. She’d never been that way, and he wouldn’t expect her to change now.
He took a seat next to her on the sofa, helping himself to a glass of wine and a biscotti. “Things are pretty good,” he told her. “I’m working for one of the local crime families, they call me to do things that no one else wants to do. Send the best sort of message, you know? They mutter that I’m crazy when I think I can’t hear them.” He shrugged. “They aren’t wrong, but they’re not totally right, either.”
“I’d tell you about Deimos, but his dumb ass isn’t here,” he muttered. “I’m still looking for him, and stirring up trouble on my own, but it’s not as much fun without him. I started a riot in a grocery store when I woke up. That was fun. But I’m always looking to do it on a more wide-spread scale.”
APHRODITE: As he put in his food order, she picked up her phone and dialed one of the steakhouses in town that she favored and put in his order with a tiny threat at the end. It better be perfect or else. “It’ll be here within the hour. For now, eat what’s here. I’m not that worried about your appetite. You’d eat New York out of food if they let you.” Pouring herself a glass of wine, she sat down next to him and reached out to brush his hair out of his eyes, even though it didn’t really need it. Once a mother, always a mother. She might not be the kind that cooked with her kids, but she did know how to show she cared.
“Not here?” She huffed a little bit and crossed her arms. “I really wish I could put bells on my children so I could keep track of all of them.” Nevermind some of them weren’t awake yet. But she wanted bells on them, too. The annoying ringing might wake them up? “That makes me sad. I was hoping that I’d be able to see him, too. Well, he’ll make his appearance when he wants to. You two never quite did what other people expected of you and that pleases me. I raised you to be strong and independent.” It wasn’t that her children had been babes in arms for that long, but Aphrodite did think she’d had some influence over her children.
“When I… woke up… as you say, it was at a date auction and your father was up for sale. I caused a bit of a scene at the auction, but… Not much sense.” She shrugged a little. “I’ve had moments. I feel like things change and we will regain ourselves in less time than we think. Your father, though,” she sighed. “He’s having trouble, I think, adjusting a little bit. He thinks because he can’t do what he once could, he’s not quite himself. I told him that we couldn’t be ourselves if we didn’t act like ourselves, abilities or not.” Sipping her wine, she got him another biscotti. “If you get tired of working for them, you know you can come work for your father. Or myself. But something tells me my line of work isn’t really what you’re looking for.”
PHOBOS:Phobos laughed as she brushed the hair out of his face. She wasn’t wrong. If he got into the right sort of mood, he’d eat until the only thing left in his house were condiments. Which had happened before, and then he was being forced to go grocery shopping when he got hungry at 3 in the morning. “Sometimes I just forget,” he shrugged. “But it’s fine. At least I can’t starve to death now. There’s just no middle ground with me, you’d know that better than almost anyone.”
“Yeah, that’s about right,” he replied, gesturing to her crossed arms. “And once he shows up, I’m lojacking him. He’s not slipping away from me again. I’m not gonna stop him from getting up to whatever shit he wants to. I just want to know where he is. And then drag him back if he looks like he’s taking off again.” That was normal, right? For their family, anyway.
He took the second biscotti, turning it over and over in his hands as she spoke. “You? Caused a scene? That doesn’t sound like you.” He stuck the biscotti in his mouth so his laughter wouldn’t be too obvious. Finishing his bite, he cocked his head as she explained how Ares was acting. “He’s still Dad, though,” was the reply, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. And to him, it was. “None of us are what we used to be. I’m definitely not. And I’m still me. Just not quite fully realized.” Taking a sip of his wine, he nodded at her remark. “I’d likely stick out like a sore thumb at your job,” he answered. “But yeah, if I ever want to change it up, I’ll probably go work for Dad.”
APHRODITE: “You simply cannot forget to eat. No matter if you can or cannot starve to death. You have to take care of yourself, Phobos. Or you can’t take care of anyone else.” Not that she was envisioning him in a nurse’s outfit, but she imagined he’d need his wits about him if he was out causing shenanigans or working. “Promise me that you won’t forget to eat again.” She looked dead at him and resisted the urge to continue to fuss with his hair or his clothes. But he was her son and they were finally back together as a family, slowly reuniting. She wasn’t going to just let this pass by.
“When you find him, you can lock him away in one of my spare rooms and visit him as if he was in a zoo. I’ll make sure he’s properly fed and watered and let out to place once in a while.” She laughed, but it was quiet. She worried about him being missing. She worried because it wasn’t like the twins to be separated for long periods of time. Then again, it wasn’t like anyone to do anything in this day and age when they were all half asleep and half powerless. “I’m sure he’s fine, darling. You’d know if he wasn’t.” Aphrodite gave his hand a pat.
This time, her laugh was rich and she sounded much more like herself. “I know, I can hardly believe that I caused a scene. I saw him and I came back to myself. It was the first time I used any kind of power in thousands of years, though I’m certain the auction people weren’t that upset. I hear there were some rather odd bidding wars after Ares and I left. And I think that you should consider working for your father. It might do him some good, even if it doesn’t change much of what you do. I’ve been trying to get him to understand that very point. We are ourselves, we just aren’t… fully baked yet. As I said, I think the transition has been hard for him. I am glad to hear it has not been for you.”
PHOBOS:“I-alright, fine. I promise.” Phobos wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep his promise all the time, but for his mother, he would try. And hey, it involved eating, which he did like to do. He just had to make sure that causing mayhem and riots didn’t take up every single hour of the day anymore.
“Well at least he’ll be somewhere someone can keep an eye on him,” Phobos muttered. “I hate not knowing where he is. I mean, you’re right, I’d know if he wasn’t, but I still hate not having him where I can see him. I fucking swear, if he’s like...locked up somewhere, I’m going to be very pissed off. I’d have to enlist Dad to do a breakout or something.”
“I remember the auction,” he answered. “I wasn’t there, but I went to the Gala that it was for. That was alright. I was on my best behavior. Most of the time. You would have been proud. Probably. But I’m glad that you woke up when you were bidding on Dad. He needs you around. We all do. And I’ll think about it. If it looks like things aren’t getting any better for him, I’ll just turn up at the gym and never leave. He’d like that, right?”
APHRODITE: “Thank you. If I find you haven’t been eating, I’ll be very upset..” For two seconds, she looked dangerous. Aphrodite was not a goddess to be crossed. Even the other gods and goddesses knew the reputation of her wrath. But, the look was gone as soon as it was there and she smiled her most brilliant smile. “That wasn’t so hard to do now, was it?” She, again, resisted the urge to fuss with his hair.
When the doorbell rang, she stood up and collected his dinner from the delivery driver, and then took it to the kitchen - still able to see Phobos just fine - and took down proper serving dishes and plated up his meal, carrying it in with fine silverware. “Here you are.” It was set down on the table in front of him and she sat next to him. “Eat up. And, before you say one more word, I am always proud of you. Best behavior, worst behavior, it’s all the same to me, because I am always proud of my son.”
“We will find your brother, all of us, don’t worry. You won’t have to be without him for long.” She knew the ache he felt. It was the same she felt when she was away from Ares for too long. “And yes, I think he would enjoy you showing up and stalking him a great deal. That makes me rather happy to think about. Father and sons working together. It would make me happy, that’s for sure.” Pushing the plate of food towards him, she nodded. “Eat now before you waste away.”
PHOBOS: The look on her face stirred something in the back of Phobos’ brain. People tended to forget that Aphrodite could be as dangerous as anyone else when she was wronged or crossed. Love could be a real bitch, and you didn’t need to look very hard to find headlines about stalkers or love gone wrong resulting in tragedy. He knew, though. He’d always known. And when others underestimated her, he’d laugh and laugh as she reminded them just how wrong they were.
“Thanks Mom.” Phobos reached over and squeezed her hand, a surprisingly soft gesture from him that very few would ever see, and even fewer would experience. “I know you are.” And he did. Ares and Aphrodite were tempestuous at the best of times, but no one could ever accuse them of not loving or encouraging their children. After all, they each had a set of twins who took greatly after one of them.
Phobos laughed softly at the idea of trying to stalk his father into giving him a job. Either Ares would just accept it, or he’d get annoyed and try to punt his son through a wall. Either outcome was fine with him, honestly. “The sooner we do, the better, but in the meantime, I’ll be keeping both of my eyes open,” he answered. “Yes Mom. Thank you, Mom.” He pulled the plate towards him, cutting into the still steaming potato, spreading butter on top before taking a bite.
APHRODITE: Once she’d gotten him settled and his wine glass refilled with something that went better with stake than the dessert wine that had been out. And once he was eating, she was able to relax. Sitting back, she crossed one leg delicately over the other and picked picked at a small petit four and nibbled on it. “You’re welcome, my darling. And now i don’t want to hear another word out of your mouth because you’re eating. And if we’re going to find that wayward brother of yours and if you’re going to do a good job for whoever it is that you end up working with, you’re going to need some meat on those bones.”
Standing up, she walked to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the room and looked out over the skyline of the city. “It should be our temples that I see. Ares tells me all the old festivals are dead. And we are truly barely remembered. But now that Olympus is open to us again, I feel… that this is but temporary. It only takes one person to tell five people who tell five more people… And soon, we will have our true selves back once more.”
Aphrodite looked over her shoulder and her son who was eating and smiled. “Your father told me I had to combine Arista with Aphrodite to live with any kind of success in this world, but I think that he is the one that is struggling to do it more than I am. I wish that I could do something for him. Caleb and Arista are so very different, and we’re struggling to combine two relationships instead of just one. And it’s so tiresome pretending. I want to tell my mortal parents, but what do I say? And is it even worth telling them? Did you struggle so when you first awoke? Was there someone you had to tell?”