Ἀ●π●ό●λ●λ●ω●Ν

i. athena dresses in cool, slick suits for office hours, and then after she clocks out, she beats her knuckles in on other people’s jawbones. the fight clubs are her temples. ii. apollo shoots deer down with guns with his sister, then plays in the local late-night rock band, so that he can shoot up heroin after the show. nobody ever specified what music meant to him. iii. artemis takes anti-depressants to live, after actaeon raped her, and if she didn’t then she’d never be able to hunt with her brother. sometimes strong people don’t fight back. iv. zeus is a corporate ceo of human services, making storms in other people’s lives, and he’s fucking his assistant, ganymede, in the bathroom stalls. the storm-master needs a little lightning of his own. v. hera marries zeus, sipping cool red wine out of a long-stemmed glass, that she throws on him when she finds out. she stays because as a marriage counselor, you have to take your own advice. vi. aphrodite is a senior in high school, the school slut, with a thing for ares, who‘s four years older. chain-smoking tastes like 50’s perfume if you try hard enough. vii. poseidon goes to trial for the rape of medusa, committed in the back room of athena’s fight club, demeter testifies against him, too. the father of two burned out his secrets. viii. ares fights at athena’s ring, beats up the douche who hits his girlfriend on the street, a raging feminist ally who bluffs his way through immorality. his motorcycle is the loudest noise in the city that never sleeps. ix. hades is a nice guy, his fingers flash with jeweled rings when he waves them, dealing drugs out of his pocket. sweet girls with bloody teeth are his favorite dessert. x. persephone crunches diamonds between her teeth, she sucks the rings off of hades’s finger, and decorates his house with floral arrangements and nonconformity. there’s only one queen of the underworld. xi. demeter rubs lotion over her dark skin at the flower shop, she does her best to teach her daughter, that laying down flat is for doormats. queens raise queens. xii. dionysus spends his nights drinking jack and smoking weed, long since dead to the concept of balance, balance is for the weak. who doesn’t want to live in extremes? xiii. hermes is a sweet-talker with great legs, his affections fleeting and wild, as he swings around the pole at the all-opportunities club. his life is flashing lights and nights in jail for petty theft. xiv. hephaestus is dedicated to work as well as his wife, let’s be honest, algaea is as much work as the metal craft he does in their garage. rough hands build things that endure. xv. hestia is a young girl, a freshman in high school, but her eyes are burning with fire as she protects what is hers. she was taught young to strike first and you will always be safe. in this world that kills beauty, even gods cannot survive the fall. modern gods were not made for this place.

She thought she had seen the weirdest things but this stranger beats everything on her list. Why does he have such bright lighting? Why does he look like a CEO? Yet here he is in the middle of the street in sunglasses. Was he on acid? There were so many questions in her head.

She thought that visiting Hongdae would be a good idea but now that she was  seeing what was happening right in front of her. She wasn’t entirely sure as how she should react to it. 

        The trip to the pet shop went smoother than she expected but then again nothing these days ever went as she had planned. The situation back at her apartment was proof of it; with her and Apollo somehow managing to revert back into a semblance of how they used to be but the peripheries were never solid foundations for lasting relationships. Apollo needed to know that if he was still willing to be with her then her forgiveness and her heart were still his for the taking. 

Normality: now there was a concept Apollo was unfamiliar with. This mortal form felt old, used, and he was an advocate of new beginnings, clear of the burdens of the past. But nothing would change, he figured, and he’d been sitting outside just observing the little humans, and almost admiring them for their blissful ignorance. The sight made him sick to the stomach, and he went home – or where home was here, on Earth – with a sketchbook already full of art and hands stained with charcoal.

How much had she missed this? More tears spilled onto her cheeks and just like this, when he held her in his arms just like this, it was so easy to forgive him as it was so easy to push him away and tell him goodbye. Her return back to Earth was for the sole purpose of saying goodbye; she’d had enough and her siblings, Helios especially, had enough of seeing her lose herself to sadness. But they never could understand that the source of her very broken heart was also the sole cure to it. 

He only came back for her, and although saying goodbye would be to render his efforts null and void, he also knew that there was a chance that things just had to be as they were. In this body his capabilities were limited, the human shell meant for little use of godly abilities – such were the terms of his father upon granting him passage. He would’ve asked Athena to ask for intercession in his stead, yet she had her hands full; there were too many wars, and too many humans in them. He’d seen many of them die, and tried to save who he could, and that, too, was part of the reason why he’d lingered so long away from her side.

Of course, there it was again, the only reason that wedged both of them apart but the one they had refused to acknowledge in their togetherness. Family was the only thing stronger than their love and the only thing that ever really stood in the way of their happiness. But she thought that maybe this time, he would have trusted her enough to let her in. She believed that perhaps this time he understood that she never wanted to take him away from them and that she was content with whatever part of himself he would save for her. . 

Was it truly a matter of trust? Hard as it was to admit it, he simply hadn’t been sure that she would understand. There were various roles they all had to fill and to try and understand his position might as well be looking into another world, and as he’d learned from past experience that never resulted in anything good. Books would say that he pursued women relentlessly; rather, it was their kindness that fooled him into thinking that he could trust them, and instead he was portrayed a villain for driving them into away (and, often, to unfortunate deaths).