Back at the Start (02)

I take the gum with a grateful smile and unwrap it before popping it in my mouth. "Getting jealous?" I ask. "Speaking of popular, are you coming to Cris's party on Friday?"

Kastor rolls his eyes at Axel's antics, opens his journal, and starts sketching.

"Whoa, hold on, you got Elena to take you to the party?" I ask, surprised. "That's great! I mean...right?"

I glance over at Kastor to find him sketching and the corner of my mouth lifts in a small smile. My quiet, leather-jacketed introvert.

"Mm," I muse softly when he points out his DD status. Then he asks for a dance and I laugh. "Of course. I'd be happy to share a bit of my spotlight with you." I wink, teasing.

I don't want to be the one stuck with doing all the work, so when I see Jenny's in our group, I quickly nominate her to be the scribe. I even flatter her a bit with, "Since you're the writer here," so she feels obligated to do it.

Calliope's direction about narrative writing even being something between fiction and non-fiction gets me thinking. Maybe this is the time to start to bring a little magic into the real world, to get mortals used to thinking about the gods again.

"I'm choosing Zeus," I say. "God of the sky, god of lightning."

I guess even though I'm not his Chosen, I still want to see him restored to his full former glory. ...maybe a little changed for the better.

"On the outside, sometimes, sure," I answer with a casual tone. "But on the inside, there's a lot more going on. That's why I like him so much." I lean forward, getting sucked into this a little bit. "He also cares about his family and Olympus remaining strong. He wants his children to be happy. And, like everyone else, he wants to be seen and known."

I'm glad Axel seems interested, but I wish I had a better answer for him than "personal experience." I don't know if the world is quite ready for that yet. But who knows? Maybe they are.

"I'll have to see if I can find it again," I tell him instead, dodging. "But it's woven into all the stories - the good ones anyway - if you're paying attention. The softer stuff always gets warped by people with their own agendas and opinions. Zeus has really been unfairly represented on the surface, you know?"

Jenny shoots more questions at me than I can handle, but I try to play ball. If I can speak her language, maybe I can get her interested too. "Oh, um. I guess the lie he believes is that...that the only way to protect the place and people he loves is to keep them at arm's length. You know, to make sure they see him as all-powerful and in control at all times. To sometimes draw hard lines just to make sure they know he can. He doesn't know how to be powerful and soft at the same time. He doesn't know how to show his love gently while maintaining his position on the throne, and he feels like he has to choose between those two things." I study her face, then invite her in too with, "What kind of character does that sound like to you?"