The goddess of love and beauty:Aphrodite's cognitive warfare
catgenius
Summary:
· A headcanon of mine that you can probably see as a pre-heaven chapter's filler, The beginning of the story's timeline was set before Pope issued the assassination order. I don't know how far it goes, so I'll lay out the draft summary on the first page before the actual first chapter comes in, just in case I can't finish the story but my ideas still remain, I suggest you finished read it before you start the first chapter, but you can still skip it if you don't want me to spoil it at first. It will be focused on dialogue-intensive than fighting scenes to dominate.
· my worldbuilding sets Cold War as background to increase the richness of the work's plot, so you could see political ideals that might be offended some people. If you do, please take it as part of the character design as the perspective and experiences of the character who explains his point of view but not that I advocate and promote a particular ideology myself
1：Athena was a child prodigy who got her PhD at the age of 17 also got superpower by making her stepfather's dream comes true(to have his kids, yes he couldn't in his early year before he adopted Athena), some control viewing abilities(but still have to develop it bit more in the future)
In her spare time, she is a Military enthusiast who can disassemble and reinstall any gun proficiently or rest her mind by solving complex equations. She rescued Seiya when the two of them fell off the cliff together, She showed her extremely excellent wild survival skills and well-trained first aid skills to Seiya, and Seiya also saw her pretty face without the glasses on that time (yes, she wore glasses)made Seiya start to have a good impression of her(i always thought you are a spoiled brat lady). Unlike the original work, Athena was not interested in any romantic. I won't say it never happened later, but at least at the beginning of the episode, she won't. She'd rather play with her machine guns or aircraft and tank models for a whole day.
Except for the goddess uniform in the sanctuary or when she attends events, she usually wears a suit and will not wear the pink dress like in the original manga.
2:My original character is Aphrodite, who is the Opposite of Athena. Every time she showed up was like the lady from fashion and styles shows, not those characters who usually keep wearing the same outfit in the original anime. She likes to drive around with her fancy car during the daytime and hang in the bars at night, but the Goddess of love and beauty, who aren't so good at fighting yet very smart, only sneak into the enemy's camp and use cognitive warfare to disrupt their minds. She also has a task of selecting the reincarnated parents(who have to be pretty, physically strong, talented, smart with a pure soul) of mortal heroes who died in the age of mythology to make their parents nowadays attracted to each other(but in most of the case those couples will end up breaking up tragically), then make sure that they are successfully conceived and born(Toma and they differ because he was born without this process). The Goddess of love could guide them to become angels and return to heaven. She and Hera，Athena have disliked each other since ancient times. During the Trojan War, They were on their supporting forces, and the Trojans were defeated. Still, Aphrodite protected their descendants from extinction, escaped and integrated into the Latin tribe. They finally successfully counterattacked Greece, but this time, she stood on the side of the Olympus gods and only dealt with Athena, who would fight against the gods in the future. Athena secretly recruited some born-to-be angels and became saints without them knowing it, even one of them is a leading bronze. He has discovered his true power in Heaven's chapter. Those two goddesses are headhunters competing for their human resources, more like a battle and people's election between intelligence, hope or attraction, and desires.
3: Even if deities exist, not only their own will determines their power but also the consequences of common karma that comes from human beings. If there is Slow erosion, or the overall morality of human society is sinking will weaken the power of Athena and Sanctuary (let's say 1% of the population controls more than 30% of resources, widening the gap between rich and poor, which makes Social class solidification and, for every economic crisis was solved by quantitative easing and plundering other countries' assets that make the society development model is unsustainable, pollution went worse, wars broke out, bioweapons polluted etc.) It's better to say that the circle of human history itself causes them to repeat their destiny and make the same mistakes where makes those evil God gains their power from and keeps coming out at a particular stage of human history, having their plan to clean out or to reset the earth, Rather than saying that the so-called evil gods went there from time to time is merely just by their evil will but of course, if mortals can break repetitive law of Historic recurrence, they will not need them Powerful Deities anymore
4: I have aged up Gold Saints and Athena(10for golds and 4 for Athena probably), and the absolute secrecy identity of the saints like what in the G series, But the ages of bronze has not been increased, what I planned to increase the age gap between gold and bronze to highlights the huge contradictories of ideas between those hot-headed young teenagers and experienced adults, to increase the conflicts of the plot bronzes' storylines and points of views are more like what they were in the original manga as a group of shounen kids' whereas gold's world is darker and complicated that filled with desires and temptations, that's why they could lose the battle due to the power Aphrodite has was more challenging for them to handle than the other evil deities, I don't know mix those two elements will be a good idea, but maybe it's the reason Athena prefers young kids to fight for her more than experienced men at some point? They are easier to control too.
5:in my headcanon, there are some cold war-related scenes, so Aquarius Camus plays a significant role because I took into account his personal experience, such as living in the Soviet Union for a long time, he had a good time once in Artek Young Pioneers Camp, where he met Hyona's mom, a Bolshoi Academy student. His experience could probably made him an anti-capitalism that gains hatred towards the Graude Foundation overtime which is trying to control the Sanctuary financially, and even gets very disappointed about the world they have living in at that moment, so he ended up freezing his apprentice in ice-coffin thought that him better off just living in a better future world after The Great Reset.
6: The primary industry of the Graude Foundation is biotechnology as they developed the test-tube babies technology before 1978, but they did not announce it to the outside world. That's how these 100 candidates were born. They named their plan"Project Prometheus"
Goddess Aphrodite cursed Kido to lose his desire towards women except to her sculpture by offending her, that's why he continued his plan of developing a technology to get kids but skipped sexual intercourse under Athena's help, it's more like Exchange of interests as kido wants offspring, reputation and Athena needs her saints.
7. All the young saints are raised in Sanctuary before they claim their clothes except Camus and Shaka, who have been home-educated by their rich and powerful family.
8: Hyoga's Mom, Natassia, is the spitting image of Goddess Aphrodite on earth(with a much slimmer ballet body, and she doesn't care much about fashion). Her body won't decompose after death because the Deities appreciate her Aphrodite-like appearance. She was a former Bolshoi ballerina, a daughter of proletariats discovered from a far-off town by Screening committees who used travel around the Soviet Union in search of gifted children, whom they duly found in all corners of the country. Still, she was never technically the best dancer and has only been asked to play most of the leading roles incompetently by her heavenly beauty, which was suitable for building the Nation's image under Brezhnev's rule (apart from Swan Lake, which she was good at).Natassia was also a tough girl with enthusiastic and cheerful traits that could drink a group of men under the table without becoming extraordinarily drunk. But sadly, she became one of the secret bargaining chips used as bribes between governors and business people which was also the early sign of her country's collapse. She was forced to be a target for those Western (including Kido ) rich men and corrupt officials of the Soviet bid for sugaring against her will, But because of an unexpected unmarried pregnancy, Natassia was dismissed by the theatre that she used to work for. Even though she got pregnant, many men were still scrambling to take her over.She passively learned secrets she shouldn't know because of connecting to these people.
Therefore, she received constant death threats,she cuts off contact with people to protect her family and friends. Later on, Kido offered Hyoga the best education to become a saint, So Natassia quietly avoided taking flight and went out of the country on a small fishing boat to meet him at night. Unfortunately, she was still murdered. Of course, hyoga knew nothing about these, and no one ever told him (Camus knew everything but never told him). When he knew the truth one day, he rebelled against humans and Sanctuary. And this has even become one of the reasons that Poseidon flooded the world like he did last time during the mythology era. Natassia took over part of Aphrodite's job to expose the ugliest sides of upper-class males in human society in the sights of deities that give them one more legitimate reason to destroy the human breed again.They used Canon's hand to release Poseidon, but realistically, Canon couldn't destroy the world just by himself.
9: there is absolute secrecy identity of the saints, like what's in the G series, The venue where Athena held the Gaxy war is a secretly internal meeting place, and the audience seats were top officials and business owners,those who had power that could determine the fate of humankind. Why is it different from the original work? Because the Shielder of Sanctuary has a protective function of being invisible to other deities, even all of the saints or trainees, including Athena herself's Identities, are encrypted like blurred points on the GPS under the gods' view. The life of every person on earth they have been through is recorded by the Moirai when the deities ask them about a person's past, They must be required for a valid reason to be able to view, so Athena did not want to make this matter public at that time yet, but only attempted to show human elites the best successful showcase of project Prometheus they had selected and cultivated to gain supports from those people without being breached by other deities, later on, she has the plan to attack and occupy the Sanctuary by those selected antagonists secretly.
10:Shiryu, Dohko and Shunrei all practice Taoism（Zhengyi sect of Taoism）. During the days, they should all be dressed and tied up their hair like Taoism monks because during the Qing dynasty, by the time Dohko was young, China was ruled by nomads, so if men weren't Taoist monks, they all had to shave their hair off, Dohko was a taoist monk that he doesn't have to shave his hair like that,when in the episodes of 12 house battle, Deathmask try to attack Shunrei because her praying, but she wasn't just praying, more like she was doing a Taoism ritual to helped Shiryu out, also Deathmask had been going through a heartbroken break up with his girlfriend that time, so he got jealous of Shiryu badly.
11：Camus had been secretly hired by Saga as a finance minister apart from his Saint's duty since Sanctuary's tax money received from United Nations had been drastically reduced quickly. He can't handle the situation with the sudden shortage of funds. Although he came from an elite family with an investing vision and is also good at marketing, he has always been a well-informed data analyst and a venture capitalist. It was also he to refused to sign financial cooperation agreements with a group of Oligarchs all around the world, especially those from North America; he knew if they accepted the demands agreements of these people is like they would take the fact that the Sanctuary would gradually be controlled by them(most of them have connections with Graude Foundation so Camus always assumed it was just one of them), besides, most of those funders had or planned to having affairs with Hyoga's mom Natassia. The Soviet ballerina was Best known for her beauty.
He cut off some of the Sanctuary's budget, such as servants and workers' positions mentioned in the LC and G series; that's why we see relatively empty 12th houses in the original series; this has also caused some of the workers and their family unsatisfied with the arrangement so they started protesting and the situation became more and more serious (some actions gained support from outside the Sanctuary), even women and children were arranged to lead the protesting groups, later on, some people secretly sold formula of showing Sanctuary's entry to some outsiders who always wanted to explore here, so Saga asked deathmask for help to suppress these people and the local rising, which was the reason why so many deads' face was everywhere, women and children were seen in Cancer's house.
12: Camus felt panicking about what he's been through, but he never talked about these to his two apprentices, Including his elite family with many senior Freemasons. He hoped they would only know a little about the dark side of the world but focus on improving their fighting skills without anything that could distract them. But he realized he regretted to did so later on. Apparently, those two children saw things more in black and white. Once they know the truth, their worldview will suddenly collapse. This is why both Hyoga and Issac have had similar experiences of being renegades
13: After Athena took over her power, she declared Sanctuary was fully funded by the Graude Foundation and did not allow other capital to intervene. Therefore they have no responsibility to participate in any human twars or disaster relief in the future, allowing human beings to decide their own destiny.
14：The time Kido went to Greece to adopt Athena was not an accident, but he's been taught by the best astrologers and psychics that he paid lots of money to hire who guide him to do so, and the purpose was to get ways to have his children.
15：Bronze was assigned to the training place not by lottery but by Athena holding their hands and seeing through them decide where they should go from her remote viewing. She felt the specific hades Cosmos in Shun's body, but couldn't address it, so she planned to send him to Death Queen Island at first. But later on, Ikki accidentally stopped the plan. She didn't stick to her opinion because She seemed to think that Ikki's decision was not wrong.
Chapter 1: Uninvited Guest
Summary:
The life of gold saints outside of their battlefield
When the darkness of Saturday evening engulfs the last ray of sunset, busy Aegean seaside streets are brightly lit, and the nightclubs on the roadside start running for their business. Then you can see many International tourists from around the world flocking here. Different languages make different noises, and everyone celebrates their last moments in daylight before the night comes for good.
The atmosphere of this place was different from Sanctuary. It seems like the smell of wine, the scent of perfume, and the smoke of cigarettes mixed in the air could easily create chemistry also drama.
''Jo, please don't go, just listen to me..."Before Deathmask started explaining himself, he received a big slap from a brunette lady who was just about to stand in front of him, and a glass of whiskey splashed all over his face. The woman has left angrily, making everyone around them watch, and the poor guy is just standing there alone at a loss, reeking of alcohol.
"You should sort out your life, Cancer; if your mental state continues to be such a mess, you may lose your qualification as a gold saint. '' Shura, who was not far away from him, lowered his voice and reminded him carefully, while Deathmask looked at the Pisces knight Aphrodite, who was sitting alone and tasting his wine peacefully on the other side but kept being approached by bunches of women around him.
Even if most of the gold saints are much stronger than ordinary people in every way, they are still just normal human beings with men's desires, so Sanctuary adopts an attitude of turning a blind eye to such things while some of them hang out and get laid from time to time, which is relatively easy for them. Still, no one dares to reveal their true identity to the girls they met unexpectedly from bars or to commit to anyone of them. However, The Sanctuary does not explicitly prohibit marriage and relationships among saints, they also strongly discouraged it due to the sole reason for their existence: to protect the peace of this world and to devote their mind and body to Athena, especially those golden saints with the highest rank and most arduous tasks.
Except for the Sagittarius, Gemini warriors who passed away or disappeared, also Mu and Dohko, who stayed away from the Sanctuary most of the time, Shaka, who practised asceticism, and Aiolia, who was pretty much hot-headed, the rest of the Knights were regular visitors of different degrees for this street, but Camus is not here for fun. He never liked to join in the noisy crowd but rather be a bystander as a way to relax his tense nerves quietly or occasionally Discuss with his friend Milo about the playing levels of the singers and small bands that participated in each open mic night, such as which interesting chord substitution they played, which classic song was re-arranged in an impressive specific way, or which drummer they could play Air-drums together try to imitate that wonderful off-beat drum-beat, besides this bar is also invested by Sanctuary, it is very natural for him to come and help out sometimes.
Nevertheless, they were still waiting to find out how many sunrises they could still be seen the next day, they've got no choice but to live in the moment, as some gold saints who live far away have begun to be called by Sanctuary more frequently recently. Everyone is enjoying their last calm, having fun, drinking and partying before the coming storm.
Accompanied by the sound of some rusty acoustic guitar strings, Aldebaran's bright and breathtaking voice came from the small open mic night stage. He is about to sing Elvis Presley's classical tune, "I can't help falling in love with you." Like the previous Taurus warriors, he also has a good singing voice, which makes the crowds of ladies scream, and a girl Standing under the stage still fixedly presents flowers for him.
Camus leaned on the bartender's table and listened calmly, sometimes humming harmonize softly along with aldebaran's singing.
"Excuse me, do you speak English? "
A dark-haired woman with smoky-eye makeup sat at the seat closest to Camus at the bar table.
"Yes. What can I get ya?"
"Great. So, If you were an alcohol, what would you be? Just hit me with your best shot if I want anything you give me."
The girl was just about to hold an unlit cigarette between her fingertips and looked at him with interest.
"Oh well, I'd say ICE BREAKER if you don't mind ".Camus respond.
"To be honest, you are attractive, And I see you don't have a ring on your finger. So, can I have your number,please?''
"I'm sincerely flattered, but..." After hearing this, Camus stopped all the works, resting his hands on the table and raised his head to face the woman, refused in a solemn manner:
"It was our policy in-house that no private information be shared with patrons, and I enforced it strictly."
"At what time do you get off?"
" I have to work until close at around 2:00 am and then spend an hour restocking, counting my till, and cleaning. "
"It doesn't bother me since I used to stay awake the whole night till morning. What will you do after work tonight? Let's get some time...for a hangout, then.
"Sorry, ma'am, I'm a busy single parent trying to work hard just for a living. And I don't have any plans to make time for dates yet."
''I don't mind..."The woman stood up slightly to get closer to Camus and said softly:
"I can make just a one-night stand at my place.and I get everything prepared... "
"Can I buy you a drink? "
Before Camus started talking, Milo suddenly appeared beside the Girl: "How about Martini?"
The woman looked at Milo and responded: "Yep, can do that. "
"How was your day been?"
"Not bad. I'm here for tourism. Just get out of the hotel and have a look around. "
"So what should I call you? "
"Emily."
"How coincidence, I'm Emilio. It looks like our names make a perfect pair. Nice to meet you, Emilie." Milo shook the woman's hand and finished introducing himself
''Nice to meet you too, Emilio, by the way. Are you all locals? You don't sound like locals at all. '' the woman asked
''I am. After all, there are so many overseas tourists around in a place like this. How can you make a living if you don't speak good English? Right, where are you from, Emily?''
Milo took the glass from Camus and handed it to Emily, also picking up a drink himself.
''United States."
"Where about's? ''
''Melbourne, Florida.''
''Isn't that where Jim Morrison came from? That's cool. ''
''Yeah, do you like Jimmie? ''
''Oh Yes, I'm a fan of The Doors. ''
''No wonder your hairstyle looks so much like you're one of those nasty rock stars. ''
''Wow!I take that as a compliment!"
The two of them shared a drink and had a good time, even raising their glasses together and jumping onto the dance floor until Milo escorted the drunk Emily out of the club, hailing a cab and letting her kissed hugged him before he managed to drop her off to finally get back to the bar table.
''had fun? '' Camus looked at Milo and said jokingly.
''Well, well, well, I managed to get rid of an annoying customer for you without making her complain, and not only were you not being grateful, but you made fun of me instead.''
"Really? More like I might be a pretty awesome wingman. "
"You're such a wingman that you almost made me hangover for the night. "
"Why do I feel that I'm the one who should apologize to you for not being conscientious enough as a proper wingman. I can tell she is your type. If it wasn't for that I'm still standing here. I'm afraid you would have already gone to her hotel room, happy ever after. "
"Anyway, nothing more to say since I didn't go with her. But seriously, how come such a hot chick hit on you, but you were being indifferent? Funny how you've been receiving a bunch of numbers every day but never seen you bring any girl home."
"I was too busy, that's why."
" Oh yeah? Busy for what? Babysitting?"
" Work, of course. What else could it be."
"Well, I just assumed You're in the same abstinence program as that Virgo guy I heard of. Or are you so involved in training the cute little apprentice that made you think you're actually a babysitter already? A busy single Dad. What kind of excuse is that to turn down a woman?Unless, Oh my gosh, could that be you are secretly gay? You should told me that if it's the ca..."
"Hey shut up, Milo.I suggest giving you a glass of iced water to sober you up. ''
''Actually, I'm not 100 per cent talking nonsense. I care about you as a friend and colleague. Just think about it,It won't do any good if you suppress yourself like this.''
"Thanks for the care but I didn't suppress myself that much. More like there were too many things to deal with, and I didn't want anything that distracted me from setting my priorities at this moment.''
''Are you sure you're alright?" Milo asked with concern at this time ''By the way, I've noticed that you don't look well for a while, look at the dark circles under your eyes, I really don't know what you've been doing, but maybe you need a break."
"I literally have rest right now. Working here from time to time is like taking breaks from duties, Don't worry about it. You know me, if I'm doing nothing and don't keep busy, I can't help but go woolgathering, which makes everything worse.''
''Having a Break is not for doing nothing, but doing something else you don't usually do to distract yourself from the stresses. ''
''I know that for sure, but I couldn't find anything to distract myself from at the moment, so I simply stopped looking for it.''
"It sounds like OCD symptoms or Anxiety for me."
"It probably is."
"Have you ever tried Speaking to therapists or something?"
"I don't need to. I am too familiar with their diagnostic procedures. It will be ended up with nothing more than given prescriptions. I'd go to talk to the Pope if there are problems. I'd be fine"
" Ok, I hope so. how's your apprentices been doing now by the way? Has he been a good boy?"
"He is about in his rebellious period of youth, but I have no problem with him, at least most of the time...most of..."
Unexpected，Camus felt that strange but familiar cosmos once again. It was closer this time, unprecedentedly close to him. It's not the first time he felt it since he was called by Sanctuary to come here to work part-time. He only thought it was an illusion or hallucination the first few times. After all, he always thought the atmosphere of a nightclub was supposed to make him feel like this, but it keeps happened constantly and gradually became more and more frequent as time went by. He began to suspect that it was definitely not a coincidence or illusion. It was not like the cosmos of ordinary saints or any human antagonists, more like non-human, maybe from some kind of deities, because it doesn't feel particularly evil and even makes him think a comfortable bit more sometimes. Still, it might not be the same as the goddess from the Sanctuary, and it definitely not belongs to their side either. He had always wanted to find the culprit, but he had never been able to locate it successfully. His curiosity and vigilance were intensely aroused now that he was close at hand. He struggled to lock target on a woman with wavy blonde hair in the farthest corner from his bar table. She was fashionably dressed and had a graceful silhouette. The bar lights were not bright enough, and the lady lowered her peaked cap so that her face could not be seen clearly.
She was sitting there alone, and it took less than a while until some guys in the bar started passing drinks to her, but Camus didn't intend to start a fight right now.
"Can you feel it? '' Camus whispered to Milo.
"Feel What? "
"The Cosmo that I suspect it could be an intruder nearby. "
"Is it possible for an intruder to come to a place like this? I don't feel it. Can you rule out any possibility of hallucinations due to your mental stress? "
"I can't. But this has happened more than once, so I strongly doubt it."
Suddenly the woman left her seat and took off her black leather jacket, revealing the low-cut tight camisole with a bohemian-style dropped necklace on top that clearly set off her unbelievably curvaceous figure. Afterwhile, she walked into the crowd of people, stepped onto the dance floor to move her alluring body and grinding on the guys that kept coming around her. Then she shook her shining blonde hair through the music as she showed off and squandered her beauty recklessly. Apparently, this woman was the one who quickly got attention from all the guys in the room.
When she got closer until Camus could see a bit clearer, His eyes widened in wonder as he saw:
"Na...Natassia?"
Although her face was covered by heavy makeup, and there were differences in body shape, dressing style and demeanour, he could still tell their appearance and hair were the same.
How could it be her? Isn't she already died years ago and sank into the cold deep water of Siberia??? Could it be that he is about to see a ghost???
He quickly walked towards the mysterious woman to get a better look, but she left the bar in a hurry.
"damn it! ''
Camus ran to the street after passing through the bar crowd to find out the woman had disappeared without a trace. He doesn't know what to do next but looks around and finds a woman with a similar view of her back. Camus walked up to recognize her rashly, only to discover it was not her. He had to prevaricate by admitting he had mistaken the lady for someone else, but suddenly he seemed to realize something.
"I finally get it's not that you don't have desires for women, but you set your standards too high. That chick is way more than 10/10. "Milo slowly came after him and communicated with his seventh sense.
Camus turned around, kept a distance from Milo as much as possible and warned in a lower voice.
"Hey, you should stay away from me while im here in the future, Milo. I may have been exposed to potential enemies and be targeted. If I didn't wear my gold cloth, I'd better only go here. Now I can't let you be exposed. Don't let other deities discover and break through the invisible barrier that sanctuary creates,just in case."
"We should heading back to the bar first then we talk about it,but seriously if she is the Enemy,its not that bad if i died in her hand."