artemis ;

Her lips press together and she knows Artemis is trying to do what she believes is right for her Valkyries, a gang of women who have always followed the goddess of the moon and the wild. They are huntresses and hunting is the only thing that makes her feel sane at times, the cool feeling of blade within her palm makes her breath fall steady and her mind to clear. She only finds sincerity like that on the battlefield or at the bottom of the sea. "If you insist." A slanted smile and it's like needing to listen to her basketball coach when an order is given.

"Perhaps the Fey Forest," she considered. "It's conveniently closer than any nature reserve" The Valkyries would have known Artemis enjoyed all the wilds - from the most arid deserts and tropic rainforests to the temperate woods and wild, grassy plains. It was unlike the huntresses to be near a city so often, but the Fey Forest was a perfect in-between. "I will have a campground unlike any other we've ever had built in the space between seasons... We can work on it together. In the meantime, you have The Pyramid and our sisters have their own homes." She smiled conspiratorially and leaned forward.

Paloma had been to many places like this before because, well, she had a lot of escapades in her spare time. She wasn't about to be a prude like a lot of other people she had run into. Not that it was a bad thing. It just wasn't her vibe. She related to her fellow Valkyries like Meera in that regard. Anyway, the point of all of that was to say that Artemis' wonder about everything they were seeing in this shop tickled her endlessly. She didn't outwardly laugh, but there was a hint of a smile on her face as the goddess walked around and started picking something up. "Toy fruit?" Well, now she did laugh, but only for a second. "It's a sex toy. You know, you just..." She made buzzing sounds and made a motion with her fingers back and forth and then kept buzzing. "It's just one of those things you'd have to figure out. Sometimes it's more entertaining to do shit on your own."

Diana's eyes narrowed as she was slow on the uptake of this new information, trying to gauge what her Valkyrie was explaining with subtle gestures instead of words. Sex toy. Intimacy or gender? Was it taboo? Or was she being disrespectful to a culture? The goddess looked down between the toy and Paloma, considering all the possibilities. Eventually, she gave the entire store a quick once-over with her eyes, doing a double take on a steamy poster. Oh. She looked down at the toy, then back up. Ooh. Diana's lips parted as she lifted the toy again and made it buzz. "Interesting..." Pensive. Then she nodded. "Interesting." More genuine. Diana nodded again. "I am glad our fellow women are seeking to pleasure themselves in more creative ways without the contribution of men..."

The words easily earned themselves a pointed roll of his eyes, for Caio knew the difference between what she said and what she meant. Their value only extended to how useful their bodies could be for the gods. For those that sought to possess them so that they could remain within the realms. It was laughable, for he wondered what fear would strike Artemis if she ever found herself at a loss for another host. Maybe he'd offer her some luck if the moment ever came. Though, he'd apologize profusely for only providing her with an ugly one. "Perhaps you couldn't, but then again, my parents never intended to gobble me up," the smile was bright still on his lips, even as she patted his cheek. Maybe he had simply been glad that she would be leaving, a fact that kept him from wrinkling his nose at her touch. Though, a brow peaked all the same, as her unsolicited advice was bestowed upon him. "Oh, I understand. But you'll have to forgive me that I won't be taking your word at face value," for there surely was always an ulterior motive when it came to Artemis. Her interest in his wellbeing could certainly only come down to his value to her.

Her cool, calm and collected exterior fell away from the single beat of a heart, betraying a bit of indignant shock. Ulthar made no mistakes; he probably had a very good reason for gobbling up the Blessed seraphim, even if she didn't see it yet. Even if it saddened her a bit. But he wouldn't gobble her or Apollo up, his divine children by blood and love. How ignorant of this avariel to suggest as much, ignorant enough she decided to be the mature one and not humour such a thing. It definitely wasn't that Diana couldn't honestly say with 100% certainty that he was wrong.

The two of them had bonded so much while travelling the Otherworld together, Ganymede was very glad he'd bumped into Diana when she'd been on her way out. It wasn't as if the Goddess had invited him along, but once Ganymede had asked if he could come she had obviously said that was more than fine. "That's such a beautiful story, I've always loved your connection with nature. I was good friends with the Oreads near my father's palace many years ago." Hopefully they weren't all dead now, he didn't have much connection to his old life after he was spirited away.

"Oh, of course," she agreed. Even now in the modern era, Diana saw so much appreciation among the mortals for her divinity and all the she represented. Clearly, the goddess continued to be beloved. And what did her divine family have to dislike when all she did was for them? If she wasn't loved, well, they were just ignorant and they would eventually learn. Especially now that the turn of the Gods was arriving once more with her family turning their faces to the mortal realm. Diana smiled pensively.

"According to my son I cook like a mom in an anime," Meera didn't know what that meant but Nirvaan seemed to enjoy it because he was constantly stuffing his face at a comical rate until he gave himself a stomach ache. "When he was a baby he used to eat so quickly he'd end up with gas," Meera giggled a bit to herself, "I used to have to peddle his little legs to get all the gas out and he'd laugh and laugh." She loved telling that story. "Oh, haven't you heard? He will be Hokage someday, my son, The Hero of Frozenfar. Hokage doesn't have time to fold his laundry, apparently." Meera knew very well what it meant to live a life of adventure, the perils and the tribulations that went alongside it. She knew that they'd all nearly died on that damn expedition, and she also knew a warder's job was to put his own life second to the life of their chancellor. There was a brief pause where her expression faltered before it returned to the fries before her. She took another bite, eager for a distraction. "Tell me something else, something new; I heard you left and went into the Otherworld recently, what happened? Where did you go?"

A mom in an anime. Diana's expression was blank, if only because she had no idea what that meant. But the story was... admittedly cute, and her smile was crooked. It was nice to hear about children because they were so innocent, like wild animals. No capacity for cruelty, just basic survival needs. But they were annoying. Diana was glad just to hear of them. “Hmm. Where?” Her attention turned back to Meera and than her face lit up with the question. Gods, how she adored speaking about hunting. “Oh, so many places, my dearest. How I wish you would have seen them. Most unnamed, you know how vast the Otherworld is... One of the Valkyries named this little abyssal place 'Purple Anus,'” she recounted fondly.

"No no I can cook now I swear - you never believe me!" Meera couldn't lie and still Diana was still sitting there in disbelief, it had been nearly two thousand years since the fish fiasco and Diana was still not letting her live it down. "Besides, what better things do you have to do?" In case it wasn't obvious, Meera was phishing, she'd put her entire life on hold for the last four hundred years, and now Nirvaan was grown. He'd always be her baby but she'd had her life of adventure, then she'd had her life of motherhood, so what came next for her? What was Meera's next great adventure? She had lived such a wonderful life and she owed Diana a good deal for that. Meera's phone buzzed and she looked to see a message from Nirvaan, it was another TikTok so immediately she opened it and laughed before she leaned over to Diana. "Look at what my son sent me," it was another fail compilation video of cats missing jumps.

"Oh, I believe you believe it!" She said, chuckling heartedly. Diana wasn't against the ins and outs of the modern era, the only thing that truly irked her about this day and age it was the lack of true warfare. What was glorious or honorable about bombs and drones? Funny cat videos though... Diana had always loved her animals. She managed to actually grin at the videos, genuinely amused that anyone was affectionately recording the antics of their feline friends. However, she had no idea what Tiktok was. "They say he's a funny one... Clearly they were right. How many cats does your little one have? Reminds me of Thanatos. And how he has the time to care for so many and video them with all his new responsibilities... A Warder and work among the Giants?"

Ganymede had always been more modest than most, sometimes he showed his arms, but that was only because shirts were often too tight in this era. He'd seen a nice assortment of caftans down at the local thrift store though and had made a mental note to peruse them the next time he was nearby. "Melody, what a nice name." Ganymede praised, "Did you choose it for her or did she tell you?" He wasn't quite sure how Diana's connection was with her pegasi, but his daughter was both brilliant and powerful so one could never be sure. Her mind. "Thank Zeus for that." Ganymede said with a sigh, "Don't get met wrong, people are welcome to wear whatever they want and show as much as they want, who am I to judge? It's just not for me." Last thing Dad wanted was to sound like an old fuddy duddy.

"Melody was but a sweet little foul when we met," Diana reminisced happily. "Through the years I softened her up to a variety of names that would suit her and, eventually, it is what she chose among them." She turned her attention to the growing crowds as the two of them furthered into more of the center of the celebrations. Now, the mind of the huntress was primed on the potential fun of witnessing a bit of savagery. They were all beneath her when it came to competition, of course, except perhaps one or two of the divinely-touched beings that had lowered themselves to this. But Diana loved watching a good rumble and choosing her favorites among them.

@divinitydiana location: Lupercal notes: valkyrie mommy

She was a God, but she was no mother. Diana knew what godmother meant, but, thank the Fates, Meera's wailing baby boy had grown up and was way past the age where he'd need to be raised by someone else. And thank the Fates Meera hadn't passed because Diana wasn't sure she would have been able to deal with putting a booster seat on a pegasus. She probably would have handed him over to some nymphs. She only smiled indulgently at the mention of such a title. That little man was another woman's responsibility now, another blessed fortune.

@divinitydiana location: Lupercalia notes: favourite daughter

She'd had so many pegasi over the centuries but this one she'd raised while missing Harlow. Her name was simple, but maybe precisely because it wasn't an ancient tongue did her step-father have so much difficulty with it. "Melody," she replied, annoyed at first when he asked again. But affection was bright on the goddess' smiling face as the pegasi accepted a gentle pat to her neck. Melody took that as her cue to leave and took off, eager to spend some more time roaming about the Fey Forest.

Um... What?

Diana's smile only seemed to grow a fraction, her brows raising as she recognized that look of a cornered creature on his face. A huntress was nothing if not capable of telling when prey was scared or worried. A test then. The Orion she knew would not run or leave an 'unstable' woman behind. He remained and she let out a little sigh of contentment. Thank the Fates. The goddess wasn't sure she would have wanted to stick around with him if the modern era had changed her best friend's fundamentals.

"Thanks," Ian knew how surly some people could be about their space and while this woman had a definitive air about her that said get too close and you might lose a limb, she was nice enough to give up the spare seat. The weather outside was too miserable to walk around in, at least here in the cafe he could enjoy his drink without worrying about it getting cold before he even got as far as home. Ian could vaguely feel her staring what felt like daggers into him so he tried not to look at her as she scrutinized before finally addressing the elephant that sat between them. "No..." Ian trailed off as he brought his eyes back towards her. Again, he felt there was something distinctly familiar about her, kind of like they might have met before but he couldn't place it. "Sorry, have we? It feels like we have but I just can't place it."

Diana did not feel the need to conceal much of her wondrous herstory. Even if these humans looked past their willful ignorance and blindness, she had the magic to make them forget or someone else would. Eventually, this city would be for the Gods. With so many arriving, it only stood to reason there would be a day when Diana no longer had to pretend that she was anything but the divine creature she was.

"I am sure that is true," Iphigenia nods sagely, eyes dipping and weaving through her surroundings, expression gentle and welcoming despite the intense desire to call the other's bullshit. Perhaps Diana was telling the truth, but frankly with the rumors regarding Ulthar and his cruelty so prevalent lately, she doubts the Goddess' business wasn't licking her wounds. Prying any further is not on her books, though, when she is trying to strike a balance between the anger she feels at the goddess and the gratefulness that remains. She has never figured if she should love or hate the Goddess of the Hunt, when she had doomed and saved her on the same breath. "The line between prey and predator is dangerously thin, yes, we better watch out," she offers finally, raising her drink to her lips to avoid further comment. Telling the goddess that she should never say never is not the smartest choice, despite it being true. "What, with the countless new visitors at the doors of the realm."

Diana had spent a couple weeks being sour over her father's mental breakdown while on the road with Ganymede, huffing and puffing and only calming down when the Aspect got close enough that it was impossible not to feel his radiating positivity. Now the goddess made to look past it, as she only could for her father. To focus on the faults on her family was untoward for one who loved nothing more than her divine family. Grateful not to need to analyze her emotions on the matter, Diana continued to smile at the party and trailed her thoughts back to Harlow and how her girlfriend might've been doing.