where first [open]

[Eris]

xxx

Eris had just moved in. She had been really excited all through the moving process. She'd always liked moving. It was kind of a weird thing to like, but it always felt freeing to her. And now she felt extra free, to be away from Olympia. It had put her in an exceptionally good mood. And after everything was exactly in the place she'd wanted it to be, she sat for a moment, staring into space, and the full weight of what she'd done finally hit her. She'd moved to a new place. She didn't know anyone. Sure, she was free, but... was this the best decision? But Eris shook off those thoughts. If she had been deep enough to have a motto, it would be "don't look back." Or something along those lines.

Now she didn't know what to do. She'd packed up a few of her things, thrown out the rest, and moved. Now that the thrill of moving was over, she had to deal with making new friends. She wasn't shy, not really, except sometimes around the Gods. But even then, it was more like she was tactfully remaining quiet than being too nervous to speak. But now... Eris, the Goddess of Strife, was feeling nervous. In a brief moment of self-reflection, she mused that it might be because she really wanted this to work out, wanted it more than she'd ever wanted any petty Olympian thing or dirty earth-dwelling desire. She had barely even left her new temple and yet she felt... at home.

And she felt tired. But Eris was far too excited to sleep, so she decided to wander around the streets until she found a coffee place. The streets had been a curious mix of ordinary and just slightly off. And everything looked picturesque. She wished she knew the first thing about cameras, so that she could take a picture of the buzzing, brimming life of the city. She had always liked seeing pictures of people, instead of generic sunsets or birds. But Eris could barely operate her human friends' cameraphones.

After a while of pleasantly meandering, she finally found a cozy little tucked-away coffee shop, dubbed Cupiditas Capulus. She stepped up and through the doorway, inhaling the familiar and comforting scents of espresso. The place was a comfortable temperature, cold but with some unknown heat source. Definitely not too hot for the navy-blue-and-white long-sleeved knit blouse and bootcut jeans she was wearing. She stepped up to the counter and ordered a flavored brew from the perky barista. To her surprise, it came in a mug and not a paper cup. Eris paid in cash and looked for a place to sit down.

She spotted a tucked-away table with a soft, comfy-looking chair where she figured she could survey the whole shop. That way, she could figure out if someone would be worth talking to before approaching them. As she was walking towards the table, though, her foot caught on the unseen leg of a table and she tripped, thankfully catching herself before she fell. Eris was relieved to see she hadn't spilled her coffee all over... the stranger sitting at the table. Oh, great. Just a great first impression. Who said Goddesses were graceful?

[Victor Nikolai]

XXThe day had been long, cold and very uncomfortable. Victor knew that someone in town knew his secret and hoped that they kept it to themselves. He never used to care, back in his old life. He didn’t care about anything but getting his next drink, conquest, adventure. He used to be an adrenaline junky and would be the first to admit it. He had jumped from airplanes, climbed mountains and swam with sharks. He spent his nights in raves and clubs while his days were spent in bed with whatever woman he had picked up from the club. He loved that life and never thought that he would even decide to stop. So little excited gods and demigods in their long lives that they had to think of something themselves.
XX That all changed when Dion, the son of Dionysus, decided to play a little prank of Vic and the Siren that he was sleeping with. He didn’t know her and didn’t really care about her past or future. She was gorgeous and willing to sleep with him. He knew he was very handsome and charming. He liked a challenge. He didn’t realize that Dion had put a fertility spell on her. Everything was fine after they lost contact and both moved on. He didn’t know she was pregnant and truly wouldn’t have cared. He probably had children scattered throughout the world. The difference happened 9 months later when a baby showed up on his doorstep with a note stating how the Siren died in childbirth. He couldn’t believe this little angel that looked up at him with perfect unconditional love that only a child could have. He wanted to find someone else to take care of the girl. He didn’t know anything about raising a child. He spent his days with people who were dangerous and therefore wouldn’t be good for the baby.
XXHe had asked the man who brought the child if there was anyone else that could take care of her and was told the horrors of foster families. It was then that he decided that he needed to change his life in order to make sure this child was raised right. He read all the books and looked up all the information but still wasn’t sure what he was doing. After a while though, he realized how amazing Angie was. She was the most beautiful, innocent thing in his life and soon became everything to him. He wanted to protect her from his past and future. That was why he decided to move here. Maybe they would think twice about her unusual powers.
XX He hoped that none of them would know about his powers either. He was the demigod of Victory. If someone offered a challenge, he couldn’t turn it down. He also had to win it. If he didn’t do those things, than he would be in severe pain that crippled him and made him pass out. That was what happened the other day. Someone here knew about him and he needed to find out who. That was why he was here, to listen and find information. He sat in this coffee shop and listened to people. He noticed that a woman tripped over his feet and moved in order help her if she needed it. He smiled at her, in sympathy. He used to be quite clumsy. “Are you alright?” he asked, noticing that she was a god. He could tell by her energy.

[Eris]

xxx

Eris looked at the stranger. He was a very attractive male demi-god. The first two she could tell by looking at him, the last she could sense. But the important thing was she didn't recognize him. That was good. Hopefully he hadn't heard of the Trojan War thing. A lot of people still hated her for starting that war. But that's what you fucking get, Eris thought. Maybe next time they'd think before refusing to invite her to a wedding.

She realized that the guy had asked her something. She hadn't been paying attention, though, so she settled for apologizing. "Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Yeah, a Goddess saying oh my god. Ha ha, yeah, very funny and all. "I wasn't looking, god I'm such a klutz. Are you okay?" She smiled back at him, somewhat apologetically. Hopefully her constant apologies made her seem like less of a fool... although, they might have had the opposite effect.

Now that she'd spoken enough to appear marginally eloquent, Eris was able to evaluate the demigod. He was attractive, as she mentioned before, with blond hair, blue eyes, and a nice build. She still didn't know who she was, but then again, she didn't know a lot of Gods and demigods. She hoped that would change, coming here, and hopefully they would be less arrogant and self-involved than the Olympians, who she had much distaste for.

"I'm Eris," she announced. Eris would've prayed that he hadn't heard of the Trojan War thing, if she hadn't been a Goddess herself. But unfortunately, she couldn't change around demigods' memories. So she just had to hope that the people here wouldn't have preconceived ideas of her. It wasn't even that big of a deal anyway. They hadn't invited her to a wedding, so, in a total Eris-esque move, she threw an apple in labeled "to the fairest one," expecting goddesses to fight over who the apple belonged to. She didn't know that they would involve a human mortal, and that Aphrodite would bribe him. And how could she have possibly known that the vain Goddess would offer him the hand of a married woman? So it was really Aphrodite's fault that the ex-husband responded so badly.

Besides, it was over now. Eris didn't look back. She was a very future-oriented person. And although she may have regretted it a little, she had promised herself earlier that she wasn't going to stress over it if someone recognized her name or face. So she wasn't going to. She took a deep breath and smiled at him again. "What's your name?" she asked, her confidence temporarily back in place.

[Victor Nikolai]

XXVictor smiled at the girl again. She didn’t seem to hear him ask her if she was alright, but that was alright. He assumed that she was just embarrassed. “I’m alright. You didn’t spill anything on me. Are you alright?” He asked, wondering if she had hurt herself tripping. “I’m sorry for having my leg in your way. They make tables so small in these little shops, it’s impossible to fit grownup male legs under the table. Someone should tell the manager because it’s a tripping hazard, as you alright know.” He smiled and laughed a little, saying it as a joke so that she didn’t feel so bad for tripping. He used to be clumsy when he was younger. When he grew up his god blood wanted to make him an adult quickly but his human blood tried to slow it down. He ended up quite tall and skinny, his body weight not quite catching up. He spent many years hitting his head on small greek doorways and smashing his legs off of stuff. He used to be embarrassed about it, but as he got a little older, he filled out and then no one questioned him.
XX He motioned for her to sit across from him. He didn’t know her but that was alright. He was responsible for half of the trouble. He wondered who she was. She was quite pretty. Her hair was rich and dark and her eyes were enchanting. He knew a few gods and goddesses and knew that they were all quite attractive. He didn’t know why that was but guessed that whoever made them to be perfect, missed their personalities. They might all look amazing, but most of them were jerks. Zeus raped his sister so that she would marry him. He constantly cheats on her and gets mad at her when she gets mad at him. His wife also cheats but she has more of a right. Aphrodite was vain and would hurt anyone who claimed they were prettier. She too cheats on her husband because he is disfigured. Ares is the god of war, but is quite cool. His daughter, Alexa, who Victor was sure was in town, liked to kill people. Artemis might be the biggest bitch of all. She acted all sweet but hunts people like animals if they piss her off even a little. Apollo was the biggest closet manwhore of all the gods. He liked appearances but was willing to hurt anyone to get what he wants.
XX Victor’s mother was nice to him. She often went to battle with Ares and Vic want with her often. He didn’t think of her as a caring, doting mother but none of the gods were quite parental. Victor wanted to change that with his own daughter. He was going to make sure she had the best life possible. He had no idea who this goddess was. She could be anyone and he needed to figure it out before he told her too much. His only goal was to make sure his daughter was safe and didn’t want anyone to hurt her. If this woman was bad and found out about Angie’s powers, she might want to use them against people. He didn’t want anyone to find out about his own powers either.
XX “I’m Victor Nikolai.” He told her, not going into detail about his powers or what he was the demigod of. She didn’t need that information right now. “I notice that you’re a goddess. Would you mind telling me of what? I’m always curious and since you seem to be new in town, I was wondering.” He didn’t offer to show her around like he knew he should. He didn’t want to make any promises that he might not be able to keep.

[Eris]

xxx

Eris smiled at his joking banter. He seemed nice enough, so she sat down where he indicated. She was glad he didn't seem too mad about her tripping over him. In Olympia, she used to get made fun of for her occasionally tripping. She didn't think of herself as a clumsy person, but compared to the perfection of the Twelve... well, she got ridiculed for it often. It was one of the many reasons why she left. Everything was too perfect there, too harmonious. And Strife meant lack of agreement or harmony.

Which also meant she often got into fights. Not to mention she had a huge temper. She even had a bit of a reputation for a crazy bitch who delighted in bloodshed, which was mostly false. (Again, she just had a temper.) She blamed her birthright. But she was also kind of proud, and so she announced her title as such. "I'm the Goddess of Strife," she related. "And yes, I'm new here." She smiled crookedly at him.

"What about you?" she asked politely. "I mean, what are you the demigod of?" Something about her sentence didn't seem grammatically correct, and she mentally reviewed it in her head for a second. Oh, the preposition at the end of the sentence. Oh, well, that rule is almost as ancient as she was. She went back to studying him, wondering idly why demigods always seemed to be so heavily muscled. Maybe it was just because she didn't know too many demigods.

Eris sipped calmly at her coffee. Also, why did demigods like to fight so much? The only ones she'd known before had been children of Zeus, and they'd been testosterone-infused, overly-tanned bags of muscle. They'd always seemed like the divine Jersey Shore to her, but maybe she was stereotyping. Maybe the only reason she disliked demigods was because she'd never met one not caught up in the whole Olympia thing. In fact, she didn't really like any Olympians, except for Ares, who was basically her best friend. God, she missed Ares. She wondered what he was doing right now. Would he be in his chariot at this hour? She loved riding in his chariot, haunting the battlefields and fueling rivalries. It was the only place she could let her... divinely disagreeable side show through.

[Victor Nikolai]

XXVictor didn’t spend too much time with the Olympians. He loved his mom but her people were always bitchy. They were spoiled and often ridiculed anything that wasn’t exactly like them. He remembered the stories Zeus throwing his own son off the mountain because of a disfigurement, or maybe that caused his disfigurement. He never really knew which story was true but he did know that people were not very nice to him. He didn’t want anything to do with all those people who thought they were the best. He preferred to hang out with the demigods and the human druggies. Of course that was before the child. Now, he tried to spend time with Angie as much as possible. He felt bad that he couldn’t tell her anything about her mother. He hadn’t known the woman. He say her, liked her, bedded her and left her. That was the way of things back then. He didn’t care about their feelings or what happened to them after. He didn’t want to know about their childhood. Nothing mattered except the fun and pleasure. Now he didn’t even think about women that way. Of course he knew that when his daughter was older he would kill any man who wanted to treat her like Victor treated her mother. He thought of women differently.
XX The one who sat before him seemed nice. Of course he knew that looks could be deceiving. The god’s are examples of that. She could be manipulative and stuck-up just like the rest of the gods. She could be trying to get information like him. She could be here to try to get weapons for a God-war, like the gods were afraid of when they made this town. She could be here for any reason and He didn’t want to help her if she had bad motives. He decided that he was going to feel her out without telling her anything about himself. That way he would get maximum information without anyone knowing more about him.
XX He remembered hearing many thing about the goddess of strife. She didn’t know if any of it was true, but if she was the same person, he needed to watch out for her. She could be dangerous. “Oh, strife? Is any of it true?” he asked, knowing that she would know what he was talking about. She might pretend otherwise so that he would need to tell what he knew first. He often used that way of gathering information. He didn’t know how to answer her question without telling her about what he was exactly. Sighing slightly, he shrugged. “I’m one of the minor war-ish demigods. I help people get victory, mostly in battle. My mother’s Nike.” He told her the truth, leaving out the parts that he didn’t want her to know. His mother had many children, as most of the gods did. He didn’t know all his brothers and sisters but some of them had the same roles. Of course he was the one who often went to war with his mother. He would do anything to win, so he didn’t have to feel the horrendous pain, and that type of motivation was dangerous for the enemy.
XXHe smiled at her and sipped his coffee. He wasn’t trying to be rude but knew that thinking of her as the enemy was not very polite. He hoped that she wasn’t going to be a problem later on. He didn’t think his daughter deserved anymore enemies. He knew that the family of Angie’s mother was looking for the child. They heard about her death in childbirth and knew that she was into demigods. If the family realized how special that made Angie, they would want her. He wanted to make sure that she would stay with him. He didn’t know much about the siren’s family but he knew that no one could love Angie as much as Victor did. “so why did you come here?” he asked.