A/N Hey guys! This chapter had a lot of research put into it - and some general knowledge from my Classics background - so reviews would be nice.
The next chapter will probably be Kaiba's point of view and thoughts on things, but this will probably be a one-off, since this is very Jou-centric.
Anyway, Enjoy!
CHAPTER 3.
"This is what is happening, you Jounouchi, will take half the course and I the other. You will be researching the temples, cities and myths of Apollo, and how he influences us today – if your canine brain can take it, that is. I will then research Apollo's powers, appearances/forms, hierarchy and importance within the Gods... Mutt! Are you listening?"
Jou, who had been tapping his pencil and vaguely looking out of the window and longingly over to his friends, jolted out of his seat at Kaiba's shout.
"AH! Yeah! 'Course... Just ... run the last bit by me 'gain?" Jou smiled roguishly to try and win some form of favour, but from the way Kaiba scowled it was obviously not working.
"You know, mutt, I don't know why I even try to speak to you like a human being, so let's try again: You. Do. Half. Work. Here. Is. Sheet."
"Oi! Kaiba, I told ya'! I ain't dumb! You want me ta' do this half – Easy! I could do't in ma sleep!" Jou snatched the paper out of Kaiba's hand and his eyes darted across the written words, "Tch! Easy!"
"Oh really, then put your money where your mouth is, so to speak, and write it down."
"Now?"
"Well, you did say you already knew the answers – go ahead and prove them to me." Jou was then deftly handed a empty sheet of lined paper from suddenly smug Kaiba.
'Does he want to discredit me that badly? Hmm, what to choose... humiliating my 'Jou' persona or one-upping that smug-faced bastard and wiping that expression off his face – permanently...'
There was obviously only one real answer.
And so Jou picked up the pen and started writing. Under the headings of; 1)Myths, 2)Temples, 3)Cities and 4)Influence today, Jou wrote about his family history; his father, his mother, his sister Artemis and brothers Hermes and Dionysus especially as he was closest to them. He wrote about Python very briefly as well. He wrote about Troy and his beloved Trojans, and of that dog-faced coward, Agamemnon, who tried to go against him. He wrote about his lovers– Daphne, Castalia, Hecuba, Cassandra, Hyacinth and Cyparissus in particular (Jou winced at the thought of them, none of his relationships had ever really ended well). He wrote about slaying the Niobids with his sister, and of the Gigantomachy (With no small sense of pride). And lastly he wrote about his children – and his favourites; Asclepius, who was once a God himself and Orpheus.
Feeling that this was enough and slightly depressed from the memories of his long-dead boys, he moved on to the next heading: temples, where he proceeded to quickly list down the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Apollo Epikouros in Bassae, Apollo at Aegina, at Corinth, Portara, Cyrene, Didyma, Syracuse, Apollo Hyperteleatas in Phoiniki and the Sanctuary of Apollo in Hierapolis. That last one was sure to raise to eyebrows of that bastard.
Seeing that his pen was running out of ink, he switched to his pencil – which he saw was blunt. Under the aggravated eyes of Kaiba, he slowly, very, very slowly sharpened it and then resumed writing the last half of his part of the project.
Jou went on to write down his cities; of Delphi and Delos especially, but also of the same places his temples were in and of others like; Abae, Clarus, Segesta, Khyrse, Orophus and even the obscure Labadea and Hieraplois Bambyce. (Jou shocked even himself, by remembering all those places after all this time, and their time out of use.)
So close now to finishing, Jou rushed ahead to the slightly more difficult task of putting onto paper all the things that had taken inspiration from his name. Well, the Apollo Lunar Programme of NASA was a start. Then there were all those paintings and sculptures mortals had made of his 'image' (though none had ever gotten close to depicting his true form – he was so much better looking – and that was not just the vanity of a god talking either) alone that he didn't bother mentioning the ones with all his family or all of them in general – for one he was running out of space on the other side of the paper. Music that had been inspired by him, new and old, came next. As well as the Apollo theatre in London, there were many other buildings – sometimes so random – that had his name on them. Jou only put a few down, he wanted to impress Kaiba, not make him suspicious.
The class bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson, just as Jou finished. He left it there for Kaiba to take, as he went to leave the room for his next lesson: maths.
"Hope that's good 'nuff for ya' Money-bags, I know I got everythin' down."
Kaiba looked suitably gob-smacked. Enough so, that Jou was really starting to think that the day would end better than it began.
With that thought he ran out the classroom.
Jou slammed his apartment door with a bang, threw his shoes somewhere and stalked over to his bedroom.
'Fuck this, I haven't been this pissed since world war two, and that's saying something!'.
His day had not gone better after showing off to Kaiba.
Kaiba had started to shadow him during lunch with incredibly narrowed eyes and a firm frown.
'Geez, you show show intelligence to that man and he automatically believes the apocalypse is coming.'
His mood was little better upon arrival to his room. Still in a funk, Jou flung open his white cupboard doors and reached inside his closet to rummage around for his most prized possession, all the while throwing random objects out, like one old tennis shoe and a broken dual disk. But then there it was. Just as it has always been – sort of. It had been a constant in Apollo's life and now 'Jou''s, but it was also ever changing.
At first it was a simple lyre given to him by his favourite brother, Hermes, made of simple wood and tortoise shell. But as the times changed and instruments changed, so did his lyre. It had been many things like a violin, a viola, a harp, a guitar, a sitar, a banjo, a cello, a fiddle, a diyingehu, a gehu, a gunjac, a haegeum, an igil, a kokyū, an octobass, a tro, a lirone and even a nyckelharpa, but right now it was as close to the original as it had ever been, being a very sleek and classy (if Jou could say so himself) guitar-lyre. Its body and fretboard were a shiny black, and the edges were gilded in gold, with gold volutes. The sound-hole was decorated with even more gold round the edges and had decorative swirls reaching out to the sides of the body – like rays around the sun. But it was within the sound-hole that attracted the most attention. The solid gold crescent moon that hung there, seemingly unsupported, in the darkness with only a small golden globe between its points for company. And finally, at the top of the fretboard, where the headstock would be, was the golden face of his beloved mother. What could Jou say, gold was most definitely his colour.
And it was simple things like these subtle symbols, that reminded him of his family – and kept him from ever doing anything too outrageous. Like off-ing Kaiba Corp's young CEO.
It was also the simple things, like strumming his instrument in a simple rendition of 'Hurrian Hymn No.6 ', that reminded him of who he really was and what he could really do, when he wasn't playing human. When he wasn't pretending to be weak, and mortal, and tolerant, and ... and ...and... It was entirely inappropriate for keeping the Jou persona in place.
Jou stopped the music completely.
He frowned thoughtfully, until determination filled him. Hehad promised himself that he would live like semi-normal human. (Because how normal could you be if you were friends with a resurrected Pharaoh, Tomb raider and random malevolent spirit and played children's card games that just happened to summon dangerous monsters.) And how normal is it being able to play the lyre(guitar-lyre in this case) like a the most talented native?(which he was) Not very.
And so with a heavy heart, Jou slowly stroked his faithful companion, placed it back into the haphazard cupboard, locked its doors and crawled into bed.
Sometimes, Jou thought, this vacation feels like it really isn't worth it.