Sup.

I'm back.

Thanks for the reviews and encouragement. They mean a lot to me. And please, keep them coming.

So it has come to my attention that I might accidentally have laid on the shipping vibes a bit too thick, and people are starting to get the wrong idea.

So. Oops.

I guess I should take this moment to say that my plans have not changed, and there will still be no shipping. Aphrodite and Apollo, both very much not asexual or aromantic, simply have some allonormative expectations in mind. I can't really use the term "heteronormative" here, considering that Apollo's canonically not very hetero, so "allonormative" is going to have to do.

Also, Orion is not aro or ace canonically, and Phoebe did mention him developing feelings in The Blood of Olympus, so I do plan on having him fall in love with her. It's not reciprocated, but still. I guess I should have mentioned that before. Oops.

So yeah.

There is discussion of asexuality and aromanticism in this chapter. I do believe this keeps in the spirit of Pride month.

Speaking of which, happy Pride month! I feel like I'm a bit late.

Enjoy!

Annoyance.

This really was getting out of hand.

First Aphrodite, then Apollo. Was the concept of friendship without the romantic bits such a difficult thing to grasp?

Artemis scowled at the ground like it did her a personal wrong. She and Apollo were in Athens, celebrating their birthdays. Artemis didn't particularly like Athens, despite it being under the patronage of her favorite half-sister. Athena might have been prepared to tolerate the notoriously blatant lack of respect towards women because of Athens's status as a center of culture and academia [1], but Artemis was not. But the food was good and the general atmosphere was rather cheerful, so she would let it go for one day. There weren't even human sacrifices to ruin her appetite anymore, after she and Apollo sent a clear message that sacrificing ugly men to them on their birthdays wasn't welcome or appreciated [2].

Seriously, what were they going to do with the dead bodies, anyway? Mortals come up with the strangest things sometimes.

Apollo suddenly grinned. "Sweet, they're playing music."

He turned to her, "Time to dazzle them with my amazing skills. I'll be at the amphitheater." Just like that, he was off, leaving her to her own devices.

That attention hog. She wondered how he could stand having attention on him at all times.

Artemis bought a loaf of fresh white bread. She had disguised herself as a mortal maiden. Lower class, because upper class women had comparatively less freedom, to say the least [3]. The vendor gave her a strange look, clearly not expecting a woman of lower class to buy white bread [4]. A look that she cheerfully ignored in favor of stuffing her face.

Yes, food did always put her in a good mood.

"Artemis," a woman's voice interrupted her thoughts. She startled, turning around.

"Athena," she greeted, "Fancy seeing you here."

The goddess nodded, "Happy birthday."

"Thank you. Might I interest you in some bread? I can see why Thearion is famous [5]. This stuff is good."

"Thank you."

Artemis ripped off a large chunk, handing it to her.

"So what brings you here?" she asked. "Your presence is welcome, of course. I'm simply surprised. You aren't in the habit of attending festivals for other gods."

"I've heard rumors," Athena dropped her voice. "Concerning a certain member of your Hunt."

"You mean Orion," Artemis's irritation flared up again. Honestly, she let one male join her Hunt, and she never heard the end of it. "How many people know?"

Athena shrugged. "There is no confirmation as of yet. Rumors, on the other hand, are widespread."

Artemis resisted the urge to groan. "And now you know it's true."

Athena nodded. "There's something else. There was talk of you...falling for him."

"...Of course there is." Heavens above, she was going to kill Aphrodite.

Or at least make her wish she was dead.

"And is it true? I am asking as a friend and confidant. You know that there would be no judgement from me."

"Of course." Artemis took her time chewing her next bite of bread, thinking.

It had taken a while, but she had certainly come to like Orion. The giant was good at conversation, after he got over his initial terror. He told good stories. She enjoyed his company. She had come to care for him.

Was that romantic attraction? Or even sexual attraction? She didn't know. She had never experienced them before. At any rate, she had never experienced anything that she realized was romantic or sexual love. It was all very confusing.

The truth was, Artemis had always viewed romantic and sexual attraction rather...clinically. She knew they existed. She knew that they happened to most people. She could observe their effects on people (she only needed to look as far as Apollo) as they turned from perfectly rational beings into drooling puddles of goo. Sometimes, it even happened to one of her Hunters, and she knew that once it happened, there wasn't much to be done about it.

She had never felt it, though. It wasn't a matter of finding the right person, though for a long time she thought it was, and she had spent several centuries dreading the day it would come. It wasn't that she valued her freedom too much to give in to such feelings, though she absolutely did value her freedom and would fight whoever was stupid enough to think that they could take it from her.

When she was younger, she had assumed that it had to do with discipline: she never felt anything because she chose not to. She held everyone to the same expectation. She had hurt a lot of her own Hunters that way. A certain Polyphonte [6] came to mind.

She had made mistakes. She wished she could undo them.

Of course, she made sure to say absolutely none of that out loud.

"I need some sort of benchmark," she decided. "It would not suffice for me to simply say if I am in love, if I have no idea what it feels like."

"And how do we establish that?"

"I don't know. I was hoping that you would. You have children. May I assume that you have experienced romantic love before?"

"You may. Though I have been informed that it feels different for everyone."

"Ah. Well, that complicates matters. But we're not going to Aphrodite for advice. She is smug enough as it is."

"Even if she could help?"

"I do have a reputation to upkeep, you know."

"...Very well."

"Is it safe to assume, though, since I have yet to be struck with any desire to break my vows, that I have, indeed, not fallen for Orion?"

"...I suppose this is going to be as accurate of a benchmark as it gets."

"Very well then. You know my answer."

Athena nodded. "Thank you for the bread. Now I should be going. Things to do."

"Must you? It's only the first day of the festival. I'm sure we can find something entertaining to do around here. Sibling bonding experience and all that. And it's your city."

"I suppose I would not be entirely averse to this. What do you propose?"

"...I don't know. I haven't thought that far. More bread?"

So here's Athena. So, considering that Athena canonically has children, but is a virgin goddess, I have a headcanon that she's ace but not aro.

So I feel like this chapter require a bit of an explanation. I did some research, but obviously, I'm not a historian. Feel free to leave constructive criticism in the reviews.

[1] I have mentioned this before. Athens was notorious for their lack of women's rights, at a time where women's rights were already bad. That being said, it is a cultural and academic center.

[2] Thargelia: Festival celebrated by Athens and Ionian Greece on May 24-25, named after the first fruits, or first bread from the new wheat. The festival lasts two days. On the first day, the two ugliest men in the city were selected as scapegoats and sacrificed to the gods via either stoning, burning, or drowning. Now, while there is precedence for gods demanding mortals to be sacrificed (see Agamemnon and Iphigenia), Iphigenia did get mentioned by name in The Dark Prophecy, so I have reason to believe that Artemis doesn't actually want human sacrifice. So she and Apollo would have probably put a stop to it.

[3] Upper class Athenian women weren't supposed to leave the house or interact with men outside the household. Of course, if you're lower class, this is utterly impractical.

[4] White bread is made from wheat flour rather than whole grain, and the Ancient Greeks considered white bread to be of higher quality than whole grain. Now, the Ancient Greeks did gave offerings of bread to the gods, called artos theogonos, but Artemis just wanted to enjoy herself for a day.

[5] Thearion: Best baker in Athens. And possibly all of Ancient Greece. Actually legendary. His name appears in various works of Ancient Greek literature.

[6] Polyphonte: A former hunter. Aphrodite ordered her to marry, she went to Artemis for help. Artemis took her in as a Hunter. Aphrodite, now incredibly salty, made her fall in love with a bear. Artemis found about it, and abandoned her in disgust. Kind of a What the Hell, Hero moment. Her sons, Agrius and Oreius, appeared in the Sea of Monsters on the Princess Andromeda.

So I think that's it for the author's notes. Thanks for reading. Once again, reviews are appreciated. And helps the author work up the motivation to write more. So that's that.

Until next time.