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Summary: Amelia Babineaux died in a sea of wine, as a daughter of Dionysus she lived again. [SI, Self-Insert/OC-Insert]
Have fun.
Chapter 7
Two Sides Of A Coin
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Of Parental Love
"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."
― Haruki Murakami
There were days during which Diana wondered if her father was truly omnipotent.
As a god, Dionysus possessed more power than a mortal could ever hope to handle, but that did not make him truly invincible either. From what she remembered, immortals truly could not be killed. Such a statement might have seemed unnecessary and blatant, however, not everyone really understood the implications of being immortal. Not everyone understood what living forever truly meant.
Many people wished for an everlasting life. They wished for more time on earth and for more chances to fulfill their biggest dreams.
Yet, none of them understood the curse of an eternal life.
Diana had been sixteen years old when she had died for the first time. Now, she had spent almost a whole year in this new world. She had lived beyond what most would consider normal, but she still could not imagine living interminably.
(...a part of her feared that this rebirth could repeat itself. Diana, although she did not want to die anytime soon, enjoyed being mortal...)
As such, she pitied her father immensely. And it wasn't his immortality that made this pity well inside her chest but the normal life he once had. Diana pitied her father because he was probably the only god that had human origins. The only god that truly knew what it meant to be mortal.
The girl could not even begin to imagine the longing he must have felt for the time when his life was still that of a demigod. It might not have been simple, but it had certainly been easier.
Though, she could also be overthinking the whole matter and Dionysus could actually love his second life more than anything else. Diana could not remember his legend, so she did not quite know how he attained his current power. The whole situation could have been a coincidence or a wish he had made himself.
He would not have been the first mortal to choose power over everything else and certainly not the last.
(...More than once Diana had wondered if her new father ever regretted accepting his godhood...
...and an answering 'yes' was less probable than a 'no'...)
Still, the girl could not claim to understand the mind of a god and quite honestly she did not even want to try doing so. The only thing she wondered was whether her father was all-powerful. Whether he suspected or knew that there was something wrong with his daughter.
Did she have to be more careful with her behavior? Could Dionysus watch her even when they weren't in the same room?
If he could, it would explain why her father always appeared at the seemingly right moment. It would also explain how he knew the exact moment when he had to enter her nursery to witness Diana taking her first step.
She was had been standing on trembling legs inside her crib, her back leaned against the railing. Just as she had been about to move her right foot, the girl had heard the door being opened. Fortunately, she managed to hold her balance by leaning her body slightly backwards.
Dionysus was regarding her intently while entering the room. His eyes did not stray from her form even once as he crossed the distance between them. He stopped moving at the end of her crib and looked at her silently for a second. ''Come here, my dear.''
The soft command spoken in Ancient Greek prompted Diana to take an uncertain step forward. Her left foot moved a few centimeters and was quickly followed by her right one. Diana managed to repeat this twice before she lost her footing.
Flailing her arms, she realized that her body wasn't strong enough to even try catching herself. At that moment Diana immediately came to appreciate her father's intrusion into her nightly lessons.
(...she had planned to learn walking at night and to show him the results during the day...
...
...like this she would not have made a complete idiot out of herself...)
He caught her before her head could collide with the railing. A pair of strong hands took a hold of the girl's waist and raised her into her father's arms. Like always, she was gently cradled against his chest and his slow heartbeat immediately calmed the mild panic she had felt while she was falling.
''You're quite the little troublemaker.'' Dionysus muttered against the crown of her head, cradling a hand through her short hair.
Feeling slightly mischievous, Diana grinned slightly cheekily. ''Yes, Dada.''
And then she just opened her mouth and drooled all over his newest shirt. Although it was childish and fairly disgusting, the girl also thought that it was a fitting punishment for the stalking. Dionysus might have helped her this time, but that did not mean that she wanted him to observe every second of her life.
(...in the future, this close observation would save her from a certain death more than once...)
When she was finished with her childish revenge, the god just waved one hand and all the stains disappeared within an instant.
Diana pouted.
Her hair was colored a shocking platinum blonde.
She found it out one day after she woke up in the morning with a few of its strands obscuring her vision. Before that she had never focused on the way she looked as Diana. There were other, more important, things to think about, so she never truly pondered the her new appearance.
That changed, of course, when she noticed how light her overall coloring was.
Diana had known that she had very fair skin and had attributed its paleness to the lack of sunbathing and time she spent outside. What she had not expected was to have hair that was actually one or two shades lighter than her skin.
Short silvery - almost white - locks of hair that did not even fully cover her ears tickled her face that morning and immediately managed to grab her attention.
Alda had such hair.
The disgust she felt at the thought of that woman was jarring. Alda Einarsdóttir had almost murdered Diana when she was still too fragile and helpless to fight for herself. The Icelandic woman had abandoned her own daughter on the cold streets of Reykjavik, thus almost committing infanticide.
She was the cause of Diana's biggest fear and one of her most traumatizing memories.
In this world there was no one the young girl hated as much as Alda Einarsdóttir.
''What color my eyes?'' The question was a soft and desperate one. Distressed, that was how she was feeling. Her current state of being was most likely caused by either the memories she had been suddenly forced to recall or the almost overwhelming need to be as different as possible from the woman who had given birth to her.
Diana did not want to be anything like that monster.
Ichneutae, her favorite babysitter, turned around abruptly and regarded her with confusion. ''Your eyes? Well, they're very similar to those of your father.''
The satyr jumped down from his perch near the window and walked over to her crib. ''Is everything alright, Diana?''
Normally, a child her age should not have been behaving the way she did. The desperation tinging her voice must have sounded incredibly wrong while coming from the mouth of a toddler, so she wasn't really surprised to see the worry on the male's face.
Feeling the relief slowly welling inside her chest, Diana nodded her head and carefully raised her upper-body. '' 'is alright.''
The fact that she could not properly pronounce an 'r' made most of the things she said either incomprehensible or impossibly adorable, sometimes both.
''Are you sure?'' Questioned the satyr after he picked her up from inside her crib.
In response, Diana touched his stubbly face with her cool fingers and murmured a quiet affirmation. This reassured him enough to settle her down on the plush floor of her room and then leave her to her own devices while he searched his bag for her breakfast.
Dionysus very rarely missed visiting her in the morning. Something important enough for him to feel the need to send Ichneutae in his stead must have happened. Perhaps there was a meeting between the Olympians or it could also have something to do with her siblings. Diana did not know for certain.
Though, she doubted that there was any need for her to worry. Dionysus could take care of himself and was more than qualified to do the same with her.
Diana had never trusted someone as much as she trusted her new father. It might have had to do with the fact that he was her savior, but at the end it did not really matter.
After all, in this world there was no one whom Diana loved as much as she loved her father.