I'm So Into You

Typically being himself, Susanoo lost track of time while he played in the snow at the beach. 

He had a fun time learning skiing with Skadi’ instruction, and there were quite a few curious residents coming out to watch the phenomenon the goddess had created. When Skadi needed to leave for her next schedule, he chose to stay to build his mini army of snowmen.

When Susanoo finally cared to look around after finishing his tenth snow soldier, the sun had long gone, and there was no one but himself left on the beach. Susanoo opened his phone to check the time, and that was when he remembered the appointment he had that very evening.

Well, it was not exactly an appointment, more like a promise made over sns comments with Invidia - a lovely demigod Susanoo did not remember having a face-to-face conversation with before. 

Yet, he had heard things, about Invidia and the places he was working at. No judgments were made toward the young man, only growing curiosity about what had built up his reputation around town. Plus, Invidia had promised to sing a song for him, saving that until the moment he joined the audience. 

And so the god found himself driving straight from the beach to Honeypot, having no qualms about entering the place with dampened hair and wet boots. His black puffer and waterproof sweatpants helped Susanoo easily blend into the crowd, whose eyes were watching closely the male singer on the restaurant’s small stage. He immediately recognized that was Invidia, so busy hypnotizing people with his honeyed voice and otherworldly beauty.

After making his order (“Anything non-seafood that can warm me up” ), Susanoo took a seat at a vacant table closer to the corner, behind two rows of fully occupied tables, where extra effort may be required to see him clearly from up there on the stage.

  He’s seated on the stage and making a light joke to the crowd about the last song that he had been singing. The ripple of laughter makes him smile and he’s just about to start a new song that would fill the space while he’s waiting when he spots him. Making his way through the back end of the crowd and people leading in for food is the guest he’d been waiting on. He wasn’t even sure that he would come since people make all sorts of promises on social media and often it just falls through. He wouldn’t be bothered if he hadn’t come but the fact that the other does pulls a bright and beautiful smile to the singer’s face.

  A little chuckle can be heard from him over the mic and it seems like he would say something to call the other out, but he doesn’t. He just smiles in that soft and touched way that he does and lets his eyes lower for a few seconds. He’s so happy. It’s amazing what following through with something so simple can do. Clearing his throat a bit Invidia straightens in his chair and readjust the guitar in his hands again.

   “I made a promise to someone that I would sing this song,” he starts and the crowd makes a coo at him. It earns them a laugh from the singer. “Shut up. I’m not sentimental.” And it’s obvious that he is but he doesn’t hide it. He just blushes a bit at his own joy to complete a promise too. “Anyway, losers, I said I would sing this song and it’s kind of amazing that the strange phenomenon of it actually happened here.”

  His nimble fingers test the guitar strings and it sings that it’s ready for their duet. “Hey… you guys ever seen snow at the beach?” His accented voice asks before music flows from the guitar in his hands.

  “‘One night, a few moons ago..’”

    Invidia starts the song, voice weaving feeling into the words of the song that some would recognize. There’s a serenity about him as he passes through the first verse, like he is confiding a beautiful secret location to the listener. There’s an intimacy in the way that he sings to the mic, angled lower than he’s sitting and as his eyes lift to land on Susanoo.

   His face lights up again as he keeps going, claiming that it’s weird but rightfully beautiful to see the natural oddity of another being standing as they are. No filters, no hiding, the rawness of being alive the mystic snow on a beach. The order Susanoo made comes and is set down mid way through the song and by then a few voices join the song as Invidia sings, his happy demeanor inviting the crowd to join in the chorus. 

@mpxinvidia

It's been a long time since Hephaestus saw his friend. He used to see Invidia a lot, but then that just dropped off as Hephaestus found himself busy with managing the store and the unexpected amount of work that came with that. While he'd given his employees the time off to hang out with friends and family once the holiday rush died out, he'd decided to take his own suggestion and catch up with Invidia.

♮

  It’s a busy night at Minx and a myriad of people from the city are visiting the burlesque lounge. All around him people buzz with conversation. It’s a constant and happy sort of atmosphere in the space and were he a little less tired it would be more than welcome that he’s stopped what feels like every few seconds as he walks to greet someone. He likes people. He likes seeing people happy. But underneath the smiles and talks he gives to others, Invidia is secretly the sort to crave the peace of his home. To be curled up in some corner reading a good book or ingesting the social media updates of others he knows and loves deeply.

   Still, he presses on and mingles with people between his performances. He’s wandering through the elevated VIP section when he hears his name. That voice! Though he doesn’t get the time that he used to with this person he’d know the sound of that voice anywhere! Whirling around, his dark lined warm eyes find the face he’s seeking almost instantly. Hephaestus! The god is saying something and over the music and the chatter of others between them Invidia can hardly hear him. Excited he weaves back through the crowd toward the god and instantly pulls him into a hug.

  “You!” He says it with such happiness. His embrace crushes the god to him for a moment before he’s pulling back a bit to look at him. Invidia is dressed tonight in a beautiful dark maroon outfit that drapes him well, his dark hair in the soft waves much like they had been when he and the god first met. “Hephie! You look marvelous! Come, come! Let’s go sit over here and talk!”

They were too close for him to pull away, so Noel stayed still. He could damn well feel Invidia's lips nearly touching his as he spoke, that's how close they were. "Be good?" A small grin drew on his lips while his eyes looked from the sinner's eyes down the curve of his perfect nose and to the lips that kept him from reaching heaven's gates.

Noel enjoyed the tension, basked in it. It was a torturous reminder of the way he was so deep under Invidia's charms. If he ever used his powers on him, Noel honestly didn't care or mind one bit. He'd encourage it, even.

His hand left his lover's and instead went to hold the small of the other's waist. There was no way he would refuse.

   Noel takes his hand from Invidia’s and for a few seconds the sinner holds his breath. He’s not afraid, more curious- how will Noel move? The answer comes in the way that he feels the pressure of that touch at the dip of his waist and how his senses fill with the scents that decorate Noel. They buzz into his nose and down through his skin at the contact point. There’s something in those eyes that he sees before he closes his own— some sin that Noel is begging him to commit.

   It’s gentle as he’s overtaken there on the steps; maybe this is what they mean when they say surrender can be a quiet thing.

   Knowing better is one thing. Acting on that knowledge is a clear other. Invidia sighs in an audible show of happiness as the contact is made, his body relaxing in the hold. He shouldn’t, but he brings his arms up and around Noel’s shoulders, fingers into his hair for just a moment to offer up a return of the action. It deepens the kiss just a bit and presses the sinner closer to him. Chest to chest there’s a steady and calming thudding from Invidia’s side.

  Carefully, slowly and with tenderness Invidia pulls back just enough to breathe again. “You tease me when you do that. Be fair!”

  And laughing he closes the distance again to kiss him once more, the feeling different; it’s a freeing kiss. Some form of joy that only lives inside Invidia is there, making an electric almost feeling liven on their lips. It feels like waking up and knowing you’re going somewhere special, like breathing cool mountain air after a long road trip, bright and out loud in its simplicity and crisp in the way that it’s contagious. He’s smiling when he does it, teeth to lips as it grows.

   Invidia breaks the kiss then and that smile is there in full. Unbridled and unfiltered it puffs up his cheeks and crinkles his eyes as a laugh issues from him. “Okay okay! I have to work! Call you when I’m done, yeah?”

cont. from an sns thread with the same name with @mpxinvidia

Ezra picked up their tote of the floor and went to the front to pay for the books they had picked. Ten pretty hefty ones, sure to keep the literature student entertained for the next couple of weeks.

As they stepped out of the store, ballparking the amount of books scattered around their home, their phone pinged.

Say less, be there in twenty

Remembering the mess that was the poet's entire appartment - books and notebooks scattered everywhere to start - Ezra's eyes widened. They thought the other would come around maybe tomorrow. Or a week from now. The Egyptian demigod quickly assesed the situation mentally, and came to the conclusion they could make their home presentable for guests if they hurried.

Cool, see ya then!

The young student made a quick stop at the grocery store for some snacks and cat food, then rushed home. Instead of just kicking their shoes off and leaving them where they landed, they put the pair of sneakers away on the shoe rack. And picked up one of the many stray books laying around. Eleven.

They made their way to the kitchen, opened a cabinet - twelve, thirteen, fourteen - and put some of the groceries away. Then they turned to the fridge - fifteen?! - to put away the drinks.

Risha greeted her owner with a soft meow, to which Ezra responded with a soft pat on her head. "Yea, yea, food's coming," they chuckled. First filling up the food bowl, then cleaning the cat's litter box.

Since company was coming over soon, the enby demigod left their bedroom for what it was and focused on the living room. Tidying it up generally. Picking up books, both read and unread, and putting them where they should go. The ones they had started - three, making eighteen - they left on the coffee table. The rest went back on the many shelves - twenty, making thirty-eight. Craming those books into the tiniest of empty spaces on their shelves, Ezra realized they probably needed more of them. They looked around trying to figure out where to create more space. But their apartment wasn't infinite...

That was gonna be a problem for future Ezra.

   Invidia sits straight up from the giant lounge cushion he was draped across when he sees the message from Ezra.

   Cool, see ya then!

  WAIT FOR REAL?! He was expecting the other to play it off and say some other day worked better and that was only after the fuller expectation of them to skirt it in a way that implied that it just wouldn’t work really at it. Invidia is not only not home, but he’s not dressed right for the meeting by any means. He starts to stand only for his body to be pulled back down by the arms of others that wish to keep him cuddling on that lounging spot. Carefully, but quickly, he untangles the arms from his person and stands.

  “Let me go you succubus,” he teases playfully to the friends that lay there before he’s running from that lounge and back to his work room. 

   Time is of the essence now and with great haste the sinner flies down the hall and then up the stairs that ascend him to where his room is. Once there he hurries out of his robe, tossing it aimlessly as he reaches for the regular clothes he keeps in the closet. This is one of the moments that Invidia is grateful that his profession allots him the skill to both undress and redress himself quickly. It’s a mere moment before he’s got the ensemble of black trousers, a clean green button down shirt and sharp black shoes. Stopping at the mirror of the vanity he checks his face and hair before switching out the black earrings he had in for a set of emerald set in gold to match his shirt better.

   Then he’s out of the room, down the stairs all the way down before he’s tossing a quick explanation behind him, “Stepping out!” 

   A quick drive in the car -with the GPS on of course- leads him to his friend’s house in just a few more minutes. As he pulls up he’s only two minutes behind the twenty he promised and he is thankful that though he was going just a little fast, he hadn’t been stopped.

Open Starter

Jamison had been rather excited when he heard about a traveling circus coming to island, even more when it was related to the god of wine. From his studies, he knew much about the different pantheon's gods, and if there was any god to devise a fun event, he gave Dionysus credit. So when he arrived to the tents, he did not even have to think of which to go to. Obviously, the only answer was food!

  He’s drunk. Absolutely and completely drunk and he knows it. That’s why he had wandered away from the group he was with in search of Noel. Well, he was in search of Noel but then the smell of food caught him. It’s not like he wanted to eat really- his stomach was a disaster zone- but he knew if he could just get a bit of bread in him at least it would help.

  Invidia makes his way toward the tent where the food smells were coming from. It’s a litany of light, sounds and smells and they should overwhelm the daylights out of him but at the moment it hardly matters. He just needs to sit down. Mercifully, there is a table with some space at the end that he deposits himself at. The people there merely smile at his lucid state of being, some of them right there along with him and the others just amused.

  I’m never pre-gaming a Dionysus rite again, Invidia thinks to himself before he puts his head down on the table. It’s only a minute before someone is trying to talk with him about something. 

   Tiredly and not thinking he murmurs, “I’m not working.” Then seems to realize what he says before lifting his head swiftly to make sure they hadn’t heard it. His head connects with the underside of their very full tray, doing nothing to displace the food on it but everything to clock himself on it.

( Taken by a new friend @mpxinvidia )

High places were difficult to find in town. At least, ones that are easy to get to anyways. It was a night that Dao felt a little out of tune with everything, a side he didn't really want to show to Taavi or Prince. He mused Lio probably could notice, even if he didn't want to show it but he really just wanted to have a little bit to himself.

His energy was a bit low after consistent happiness.

He loved the area, loved the friends he made, loved his reunion with Lio after so long had passed but there were moments where he just needed to be a little quieter. Needed to just... think, reflect. He hadn't really spent any time doing it lately with everything going on. He really wanted a good high place to just sit and watch the sky but given he didn't want Taavi to find him and worry about him, their rooftop hang out area was out of the question.

He hadn't been able to find any other neat high spaces to perch on so for the moment, he'd found a spot to sit on a jungle gym in a park a small ways away from the bakery.

He'd bundled up in his warmest coat and slipped out of the apartment with a note on his door letting Taavi know he was just taking a walk and he'd be back later while urging his friend to not worry. For the moment, he was alone as he wanted while looking up at the stars overhead and letting his thoughts wander.

In the midst of musing over his friends back home, wondering how they were doing and just... thinking, the demigod heard a noise and tilted his head a little bit to peer over his shoulder before looking around until he saw whoever made said noise. Briefly, he mourned the loss of his reflecting time before he spoke up.

    It was one of those nights.

    The thought of hanging out with all his friends at a party was too much even if he loved them dearly. The notion of seeing his lover had merit but he was in the mood to be in his own company for just a bit before surrendering to that. The appeal of going dancing or to a bar was simply not there tonight. His mind was listless as it went over too many things that happened recently and grappled with the feelings that they stirred up. 

    And so, without a word to anyone, he set his phone down at home, grabbed his keys and left. He didn’t bother with the car because it was very much something that would draw attention when he drove it around. Just a light coat over his sweater, his keys and a plan to wander until he found peace is what he took with him.

   Solace came in the form of a jungle gym a good ways away from his place, deeper into the city. It was void of people and with the protection of nightfall around him it’s sort of the perfect place to relinquish the worries of the day. Climbing up the side and then atop of the bars Invidia steadies himself before burying his hands in his pockets and tilting his head up at the stars above.

  Some time passes that he’s out there just thinking to himself before he shifts slightly to lower his head. From out of his pockets his keys fall to the ground. They’re loud in the silence of the night and it’s this commotion that alerts him to the other person approaching the space.