神々の悪戯
Loki, finding himself outnumbered by the Greeks, had decided to bow out 'gracefully', (more like with a puff of acrid pink smoke), leaving Darcy, Dionysus and Apollo standing in a small cluster, Apollo clearly having noticed how Dionysus was 'protecting' her from Loki, judging from the small grin he was giving the redhead.
"Uwah! Making a new friend, Dee-Dee?" The scoff at hearing that nickname is starting to become reflex. So, it seems, is the faint blush on the wine-god's face.
"Shut. Up. Apollo." Then he sighs deeply. "Obviously, it isn't just me and Darcy that have been brought here then, if you and Loki are also here." He ignores Apollo's "Did you want it to be just the two of you?" with a straighter face than she'd probably have been capable of.
"Soooo…." It attracts both of their attention. "Just the Nordic and Attic pantheons, or…."
"Very good question…"
"I just met what looked like a mortal." Seriously, did everyone like just speaking out of nowhere? The latest newcomer seems a bit gloomy, with almost shoulder length dark hair and…pointed ears? Yep, those're pointed ears. Hang on, is this the heaven from Lord of the Rings? Lord, does she need a drink! Preferably alcoholic. Can she even get drunk? Is there even any alcohol here?
"Ah, Uncle! Do you know what's going on?" An uncle of Apollo, and possibly of Dionysus, (who knows with these Greek family trees?), who is slightly depressed lookin-
"Is this your Uncle Hades then?"
"How is it you get his name right away, but not mine?" The end comes out with a bit of a flirtatious whine, if such a thing exists.
"It's relatively simple when you have a few details to start with. I knew nothing about you, but when you combine your name, Apollo's, the title of 'Uncle', and, please forgive me, a somewhat foreboding gentleman appearing from the shadows, there are only a few names that spring to mind."
"Dee-Dee, who's your new friend? She's so smart!" Cue scoff and blush.
神々の悪戯
"Maybe we should split up and look to see if there's anyone else here?" It's Apollo who seems to be the only one that's vaguely happy at the moment, although Hades seems to be in a perpetually melancholy state. Hades walks off, leaving Apollo to chase after him, the pair swiftly disappearing around the corner of a nearby building.
"Apparently we've split up into pairs then."
Dionysus looks at her with a glimmer of lust in his emerald green eyes, and grabs her by her hand, weaving their fingers together.
"Then that makes us partners." He squeezes her fingers.
"Partners." Because arguing with you is more than likely just me arguing with myself, even if it's a very, very attractive part of myself.
神々の悪戯
Meanwhile, elsewhere…
"I just ran into the Greeks." The red head whisper into the blond's ear. "This place seems to have been set up by someone."
神々の悪戯
Dionysus and Darcy don't get very far in their walking, or rather, they seem to just be going in circles; she's certain she's seen that pillar and that exact formation of ivy three times already. Just when they're about to pass it a fourth, she is surprised, when she is spun around slightly, and pressed back against a pillar.
He reaches to just by her shoulder, and as she turns her head to see what he's doing, she sees the ivy grow and extend away from the pillar towards his hand, before he directs it towards her shoulder. Entranced, she watches as it grows at a phenomenal rate, coiling its way about the sleeve of her coat, before the end of the vine reaches the tip of her middle finger.
It takes less than a second, but the vine suddenly blurs into a snake, and her heart rate feels like it triples, even as she moves her arm away from her body. Breathing heavily, she shoots a quick glare at Dionysus, who is not perturbed by her look in the slightest. (Why would her brain have him summon up a snake? To remind her that looks could be deceiving?)
Another vine grows over the opposite shoulder, and she's somewhat apprehensive about this one also turning into a serpent, but instead, watches bunches of dark purple grapes rapidly grow. Plucking one out of the closest bunch with her free hand, (the other still occupied with the head of the snake, who seems to be liking the warmth of her palm and is content to not move an inch), she slides it into her mouth, and it bursts onto her tongue. It makes her tongue tingle with the tantalising flavours, and she reaches out for a second, popping it into her mouth before, whilst still eating her second, she teases a third from the bunch and slides it into Dionysus' mouth, letting her fingertip drag against his lower lip.
Looking at her, he thinks if her hair were a bit wilder, if she looked like she'd been running through a forest, she'd be the spitting image of one of his favoured maenads of old, what with her bearing his signatures of ivy and a snake, eating grapes and feeding them to him.
They don't know how much time passes as they slide grapes into each other's mouths, the amount of available grapes never seeming to decrease.
It's not until a cough comes from …somewhere, that the atmosphere around the two seems to fade, and they come back to their senses.
"Nephew." Hades is currently ten feet away from the pair, but he's the closest by a long shot.
"Uncle." He pulls away from where he's got her pressed up against a pillar, and notices that they're inside now, in a relatively large room near a red carpeted staircase. Looking around, he discovers they've manages to catch the attention of everyone, from Loki (and presumably some of the other Norse gods up on the balcony; he thinks he recognises Balder, but there are so many Norse gods with his shade of golden hair), to what feels like a pair of the Japanese gods near the bottom of the staircase. If this is everyone, the only one missing is-
"Well," Darcy begins, as she follows his gaze about the room, focusing on the two she knows, before looking at the others inquisitively, "this certainly spoils things a bit." A few of them blush at the tone in her voice.
Her attention is caught by something flying past one of the upper windows. Her eyes open wide, something that catches Dionysus' eyes.
"Is something wrong?"
"I…I could swear….I just saw….." She rubs her eyes, thinking as to what she thinks she just saw. "I could swear I just saw Apollo on a Pegasus." The disbelief in her voice is clearly evident.
"I saw him on it earlier." The long haired blond from the Norse contingent calls down from the balcony, before being pulled back by Loki.
"Apollo….." It's groaned out by Dionysus, who is thinking as to what an attention whore his half-brother is.
Less than a minute later, they hear footsteps echoing down the hall leading to the room. The odd echo makes it sound like more than one person though.
神々の悪戯
"It appears everyone has arrived." Zeus, with his staff, suddenly appears on the red carpeted stairs as the pair walks in. "Welcome to my garden, to my academy….my beloved students."
"Cut the crap! You're behind all this?" The blue-haired, green-jacketed, (and she presumes god), immediately yells out.
"Japanese god of the sea, Susanoo. Japanese god of the moon, Tsukuyomi. Norse god of light, Balder. God of fire, Loki. God of thunder, Thor. Greek god of the underworld, Hades. God of fertility, Dionysus. And god of the sun, Apollo." Well, at least now she has names and pantheons to match their current physical appearances. She thinks 'current' because, she's presuming as gods, they could change their appearance to look like…whatever they wanted to look like. "You will all learn about humans in order to revive the ancient link between the gods and humanity." It was Zeus who'd, according to mythology, changed himself to look like a swan, correct?
Loki turns his head around, back to the stairs as he leans on the balcony. "Do you really think we'll just do as you say?" He lifts his hand, fingers curled.
The one she thinks Zeus called Susanoo is the next to speak. "Return my brother and me to our world. Or else…" A blue spiral of energy forms around him; water, if he is the god of the sea.
Loki continues the thought with "…There will be hell to pay." Fire forms at the ends of his fingers, before he pulls his hand back slightly, and they form into a perfect sphere of red and orange flames. That's…..actually rather impressive. (Who knew her brain could imagine things like this?)
Loki leaps over the balcony from behind Zeus, whilst Susanoo jumps up from the bottom of the stairs, both intent on attacking the King of the Greek gods. Zeus taps his staff on the stair, and lightning bolts shoot down from the ceiling, disrupting the path of the two attacking gods and tossing them aside. (Belay her previous thought; this is way more impressive!)
Loki adroitly lands on his feet, but Susanoo slams onto his arse. (Is this indicative of the way she feels sometimes; she can land on her feet (luckily) or on her arse (unluckily)?)
Zeus, who looks nothing like the old-man versions she's used to seeing on tv and in movies, speaks again, in the gravel-like voice. "If you use your divine powers indiscriminately, this academy will be destroyed. Therefore…" He lifts the staff, a golden globe of energy forming at the end before rays of light extend out, separating from the staff and swerving about the large room to touch each god.
The light strands form something on each god, but she's not close enough to any except Dionysus to see the result; the red head has….a drop earring?
Still seated on the floor, Loki is straining at something around his neck; a necklace maybe? "What is this? I can't get it off!"
The girl calls out in a weak, inquisitive tone, "Apollo-san…" Maybe this is supposed to be the 'Perfect Version' of herself? Cute, pretty, small, meek…..no, she thinks in horror, this isn't the 'Perfect Version'; it's the 'Child Version' of herself, the 'Inner Weakling'.
This isn't a dream. It's a nightmare.
The god in question turns to her. "He's right. It won't come off."
Zeus, (inner father figure?), addresses them again, (her need/desire to be in charge?) "These shackles seal your divine powers. No one can defy me here. Those shackles are the proof!"
"That's enough!" Loki cries out; could he be her inner prankster? He attempts to form another fireball, but can only get the faintest of flames to form at his fingertips before they die out. (An indication that her inner prankster has 'died'?) "What's happening?" He stares at his hand in shock/horror. Susanoo's attempt at summoning his water splashes out quickly.
"Same with me." (So not just her 'inner prankster' but her…what would water represent?)
Her inner father seems to like talking, because he just keeps doing it. "You will study here. When you earn the right to graduate, your shackles will remove themselves." Yui looks down at the necklace around her neck; had her 'Inner Weakling' version been shackled also, just like the gods? "Come!" His lifts his staff up, pointing to the ceiling, and pulses of circular light ring out from the tip. A hole opens from the ceiling, showing…(a galaxy, maybe?) before an glass orb with ornate golden decorations floats down. Around it, eight golden (pill shaped) objects float around it. (One for each god?)
The 'King of the (Greek) gods keeps on talking. "Once you understand the human heart, this container will be filled. You have one year. In other words, if you cannot fill it within a year, you will all be trapped in this garden….forever."
Cue the complaints; "This isn't funny!" comes from the water god.
The one with the lightning bolt shorn into his turquoise hair says "Are you serious?" She doesn't quite know what to call his tone of voice; it's not a bellow, or a roar, or a calm statement. It's….something…..
From where he's holding the pillar up, Hades calls out, "Zeus, that's tyrannical!" Yes, it is tyrannical, but from what she remembers learning, (which was enough to melt her brains on some days), Zeus was a tyrannical god, and when things weren't going his way, he made them go his way.
"I shall not entertain protests." (Her inner male adult really doesn't like people talking back.) It has already been decided. Thoth…" ((It sounds like To-To when Zeus says it, but that just makes her think of a little dog) walks in from the opposite side of the staircase to the Greeks and herself. He has relatively short silvery/gold hair, with one long section pulled forward over his shoulder, gems holding it together. He has a tauk around his neck, with a snake-like shape over his collarbone. A purple/blue version of the school jacket is draped over his shoulders, and he stands with his arms crossed as he looks at them. The eyeglass on his right eye makes her think back to all those black-and-white films she watched in English class, where either the really smart detective or the slightly-less-smart villain had a monocle. Judging by his jewellery, he seems to really like gold, blue and green.) "…This man will be your instructor."
"I am the Egyptian god of knowledge, Thoth." Maybe her mind just likes her repeating things, to make sure she can't forget it. Not the condition of Palilalia, but something similar maybe….palilogia? Maybe just plain repetition?
Old inner man speaking again; "Your classmates will be…" He taps the ground with his staff, (emphatic gesture to indicate something's coming?) and balls of pale yellowy/gold light form, before turning into people, dressed in the school uniform, talking away to one another or observing their surroundings. "…these many spirits."
"So many, in an instant….Amazing." Her Inner Weakling seems to like stating the obvious.
"Kusanagi Yui."
"Yes!" But why would she give her other-self such a foreign name? Did she want to be foreign herself? Maybe it was the thought of being different?
"Your responsibility is to lead the gods to graduation. Is that clear?" And apparently even her Weakling version is a bit angry at her Inner Male Adult version, because she doesn't answer, only pursing her lips.
"Tomorrow morning," the brains of the operation states, "you will gather in the auditorium to prepare for the afternoon's entrance ceremony. That is all. You are dismissed for today. Kusanagi…Come with me."
"Y-yes!" and said version of herself follows him out. She wonders to herself if she'll get updates of what that version experiences; maybe when they 'sleep' (is it possible to sleep in dreams/comas?) their lives will sync up?
"Lord Zeus!" Wait is…is that her voice crying out? The gods around the room freeze that someone is willing to speak to the one in question, especially after what he's just done. Zeus himself pauses on his way back up the stairs, and turns his head slightly to look at her, eyebrow raised. She takes the silence to mean he wants her to continue talking. "A moment of your time, please?"
His head tilts as he thinks, faster than the speed of light. He hadn't been expecting a second human to be brought here, and her presence is a bit surprising. But nothing happened without the Fates knowledge…..Yes, he would speak with her. Besides, she was being rather well mannered. His free hand comes up, and he gestures with his first two fingers for her to approach.
His son immediately grabs her by the hand as she starts to move away, and he watches as she squeezes his fingers to provide some modicum of comfort before letting go and running up the stairs, leaving Dionysus' hand to fall back to his side as he shoots a glare up the stairs at him.
Is this what his pantheon has become, where his son worries that his father wants his interest? He thinks back over the past several millennia…perhaps the boy has a point. Still, his prankster sons get the ability from somewhere, and it certainly isn't their mothers.
She rests her hand on top of his raised arm, just like the ladies of old, and he'd pat it if he wasn't holding his staff. The staff is important. The staff is a power symbol. He's not expecting the words she leans in close to whisper.
"It's your son I want to sleep with, not you."
神々の悪戯
Dionysus' last sight of the pair, before they disappear in a golden glow, is his father bellowing with laughter at whatever Darcy's just said to him.
Apollo's brotherly clasp on his shoulder does nothing to relieve his growing feelings on the matter.
神々の悪戯
Author's Note: Because it seems like the first chapter garnered such an amazing reaction so rapidly, (it felt like my email was being filled with reviews, fav's and follows; thanks to everyone who has done so!), I kicked my own butt into action and managed to get this for you guys and gals, way sooner than the month I was thinking it would take to write chapter two. This is probably going to be my last story/chapter posted before the New Year, so I hope you all enjoy it.
As always, please send me ConCrit or Flames about what you liked and what you didn't like; I like to get feedback on what you all feel is working or what isn't.
See you in the New Year, hopefully with chapter three!