learn to fly

excited at the prospect of finding a new nanny, phoebe rocks back onto the heel of her shoes and tucks her hands in her pockets. hubris colours her features in how she tilts her chin to the air and holds her head high for the rest of the park to admire. she even shakes her head to loosen the waves of hair down her back - perfume filtered through each motion as she smiles, like a queen observing over her lands. “as many as you can do, she is a quiet child despite her fast feet…” deciding not to tell the woman of her unemployment or her own free schedule she turns towards her and offers her a lop-sided smirk that’d fit someone of a higher station. “my father christian faithfull will foot the bill, have you heard of him? he’s an accountant for high-profile individuals of new york city,” she tells the stranger as if she had asked that very question. “i’m phoebe - she is iris!” 

Milly kept a polite smile on her face, nodding encouragingly as the woman spoke. The conversation left her a little off-balance but it wasn’t a terrible thing. She had not heard of Christian Faithfull, but didn’t feel that was a necessary addition to the conversation; aside from him paying, she didn’t think that interacting with him would happen often. This mother seemed far too involved for that. “Well, I do have the other children but if you have no objections, I could take Iris in addition to them. I’ve done that before with the family and I don’t think they’ll have any problems - I’ll check with them to be sure, of course, but I don’t anticipate any issues.”

“You’d be surprised at the level of rudeness this city holds,” she said, her smile faltering but only for a moment, “Nice to meet someone who is a decent human. I’m–,” at that she stopped.

It would be odd to introduce herself as someone she had likely never heard of. Assuming that this girl was not among those who were in her predicament since she had used a mortalesque name. Oizys drew in a sharp breath before continuing, taking the girl’s hand in her own.

“Norah,” she said after a beat, “Sorry, the cold air tends to get to me sometimes.” 

This, at least, wasn’t a lie. New York’s cold and sometimes frigid air did get to her at times. Making it somewhat hard for her to breathe. Why whoever had trapped her in this mortal shell had chosen this location to put them in was beyond her. Why couldn’t it be somewhere warm? Oizys was cold enough as it with the lack of circulation.

“Oh,” she said, running her thumb over the front of the book, “just sketches and stuff. Some finished, others aren’t. I’m a tattoo artist and come up with my own designs most of the time.”

That was probably true; Milly couldn’t argue that a lot of people were rude these days. She’d seen it a lot more than she’d seen people being polite or kind. But she tried to be optimistic about others, and hope for the best. Not even the sheer amount of rudeness she’d seen could quite squelch her belief in the innate goodness of people. Some people, anyway. The hesitation did strike her as a bit odd, but she had heard stranger things than the cold air bothering a person - which honestly, she could believe. “It’s always a little unexpected to me still. I’m not really overly fond of the cold honestly.” It certainly helped with Christmas spirit, and Milly loved hot drinks, but she would be quite happy when spring came and warmed everything up again.

The explanation of the notebook was quite possibly the most interesting thing she’d heard all day - which didn’t really mean much, when she spent most of her day with children. “That sounds fascinating! What sort of things do you draw?”

It didn’t take long for her to notice that her bag felt unusually light. Oizys closed her eyes, sticking her hand into the largest compartment. Of which she hadn’t fully zipped closed. A sigh passed through her lips as she ran her hands through her thick dark hair. Though her mission to retrieve it was short lived when she heard a voice call to her. Or at least she thought it was to her. Oizys turned around, her crystal like eyes lazily finding their target.

There stood another girl who held her notebook. A small smile lifted the corners of her mouth. Oizys took the couple steps back towards where she had previously been standing. She nodded, making a curtain of her dark hair to cascade in front of her pale face. One hand looping her hair behind her ear while the other reached for her notebook. There wasn’t anything of real importance in the pages. Mere sketches of designs she had started and others she had finished; complete with color.

“That it would be,” she said, taking the notebook from her, “Thanks, I would have been pretty screwed if you hadn’t of found it.”

There was a moment of worry before the girl turned around; Milly would hate to interrupt someone for no reason - both because she didn’t want to cause problems for someone else, and just because it was awkward to stop a complete stranger in the middle of the road. But there was no need to worry, because the girl took the notebook and Milly smiled as she relinquished it. “Oh, it’s no problem. I’m sure anyone else would have done the same.” 

After a quick glance back to ensure her charge hadn’t run off, Milly held her hand out. “I’m Milly. Do you mind if I ask what’s in it?” It could be any number of things, any number of reasons as to why the notebook was so important. Milly had her planner, which was important to her because she needed to keep track of what the kids were doing each day.

“Mostly with different legal firms around the city - right now my boss deals with environmental reform, which is really interesting and really important.” Orelia paused, knowing that if she didn’t stop herself soon she’d get on one of her tangents. She offered a sheepish grin before looking down. “Sorry,” she shook her head and looked back up at the other woman, smiling a bit at her answer. “The park is lovely. And can still be extremely exciting, if you know where to look,” she laughed a bit as she thought of all the oddities she’d seen. The mortals were certainly different than what she remembered. “But the peace is nice too.”

“That sounds like it would be both - interesting and important.” Milly probably hadn’t paid as much attention to environmental issues as she should have, but she knew it was a big deal. And she knew that there ought to be a change. Still, she wasn’t overly sad that Orelia didn’t seem inclined to elaborate; Milly wasn’t sure she had the brain capacity to focus on something so serious right now. “Well, that’s true too. We’ve had some adventures there.” Chuckling, she ran her hands over her arms. “I like my share of both, but I think with a touch more for peace, all things considered. What do you do for fun? Or do you not have time for fun right now?”

To outsiders, she must have looked like she had lost her mind. Idly standing in Central Park, just watching everyone walk by. Perhaps she really had lost her mind. Her jaw was set and clenched, eyes steely as she watched the mortals with a pity that filled them. Black backpack filled with her sketches for work tossed on the ground. Norah would have been appalled with tossing her beloved work on the cold, harsh concrete. But since her memories had came flooding back she was no longer a meek little girl just longing to be liked. She was no longer a simple tattoo artist.

Oizys was so much more than that. Even as her mortal Norah she felt as though she was overlooked and stepped over. Much the way that she had been in Olympus. Maybe this mortal shell would give her an opportunity to prove that she was much more than a minor being. Oizys wasn’t focused on that at the moment. Right now she was assessing her peers. Carefully watching them in the way they walked and carried themselves. None of them knowing how truly fragile they really were.

Mindlessly, she brought her hands to her arms. Her fingertips skimming over the fabric of the charcoal colored shirt she wore. Trying to feel the smooth skin underneath. At least Norah had kept her skin moisturized. Oizys hardly had the energy to get out of bed most days. She supposed that much had carried on in her life as Norah. She picked up the bag at her feet, swiftly swinging it over her shoulder as she began to journey to the studio for her shift. She still had a life to carry on, she supposed. By now others were beginning to stare anyways.

Milly had promised the little one an outing and mostly didn’t regret that. At least she could entertain herself for the most part, and Milly just needed to chase after her occasionally. So when the girl occupied herself by chasing after birds, Milly took advantage of the break to catch her breath. Her attention was caught by the girl standing in the middle of the sidewalk. She nearly approached her - it seemed pretty obvious that she was upset or something, and Milly had never liked seeing people upset or in pain. But she hesitated a minute too long and the girl started to move. 

It took another minute before she made up her mind to follow - the girl hadn’t made much progress and with Milly’s little charge still occupied with the birds, she could take a few steps without worrying too much. There was a small notebook on the ground near where the girl had been, and Milly snatched it up, jogging a few steps. “Excuse me - sorry, is this yours?”

“My entire family is blonde, so they really didn’t have to do much guessing on how I’d turn out.” She grinned, though Astraea supposed that wasn’t entirely true. Genetics worked a little differently on Mount Olympus. Still, Orelia’s mortal family had always told her the story growing up, so she stuck with it.

“Oh! I’m sure South Carolina is much calmer than the city.” Although anywhere seemed calmer than the chaos that was where they were really both from. Epione seemed content as Milly, though, and Astraea was not going to be the one to burst that bubble. At the question of school, she grinned. “I wanted to get experience before relegating myself to a classroom again. I’m interning for now.” Being a law student and dealing with whatever had brought them all here would have been quite an undertaking, and Astraea found herself thankful for Orelia’s decision to postpone her continued education. “What’s your favorite thing to do here?”

“Well, our town was.” They had lived in a small town that had absolutely nothing going on and it had been very nice. But she did enjoy being here in the city where something was always going on. Orelia’s explanation made sense, and it was probably a good idea to have some real world experience rather than just classroom experience. “Where are you interning?” She paused, considering Orelia’s question and wondering if it was cheating to say something that she did with the kids. “Honestly, I like going to the park.” She laughed sheepishly. “Which I suppose sounds silly, since I was just talking about how exciting the city is.”

“Oh, thank you. My parents say it means golden, and I guess it works with the hair.” Orelia grinned as she motioned to her own messy blonde waves. They had never quite behaved the way she wanted them too, even when she was in her divine form. Epione was sweet even in mortal form, she noted, though she supposed this particular goddess could never truly be mean spirited.

“Oh, that’s fun!” She perked up as she leaned in. “Where were you originally?” It was interesting, how they all ended up here. Something was pulling them in, making them all near enough to one another that something had to be coming. “I moved here for law school. I’m not quite there yet, but someday soon.”

“How perfect for you!” Names were funny like that, Milly often found. She liked names that had specific meanings that were important, although it could be hard to pick a name like that for a baby when there was an entire life ahead of them. It had worked out for Orelia though. 

“My family is from South Carolina. I miss it sometimes but it’s very energetic here, and I’ve enjoyed that so far.” She mostly missed her family. Milly had never been one for traveling, and this type of separation was difficult. “Law school? Wow, that would be really exciting. What’s holding you back?”

As far as Laurel was concerned, Milly was just about the perfect housemate. She paid her rent, she helped to clean, and they could be quietly comfortable sharing the common spaces together. 

“I don’t know. It’s certainly not pretty,” she peered at the phone screen again before she shut the app and locked the screen. “They could at least offer some sort of warning so you know to brace yourself.”

“I don’t think I’ll reply. I don’t think I could date someone who would expose themselves like that so what would be the point? Do you think I should reply?”

“Are any of them pretty?” Milly wrinkled her nose; she didn’t get many of that sort of message - thank god - but from what she had seen, it hardly seemed likely that any of the sort would be pleasant to receive under most circumstances. “A warning would be courteous, if nothing else, but I don’t think it’ll happen any time soon.” 

She hadn’t expected the question to be turned back on her, but quickly shook her head. “I think replying to him would just encourage him anyway and you certainly don’t want to do that. It’s probably better to just leave it alone and hope he gets the message.”

“oh! you’re a nanny!” it’s excitement that follows her expression, allowing iris to run after a group of young girls now that she was engrossed with the new subject. after all, childcare was a hardship to find in the city as of late, and almost couldn’t bare to work with phoebe who was both over-protective and careless in the same moment. “oh, oh no thank goodness… one is quite enough for me; i couldn’t imagine having another, not when it’s hard enough to not sneeze and piss at the same time as it is!” she forces a laugh that seems too high-pitched before readjusting her composure, a smile on her face as she begins her semi-approach of hiring her. “actually, it seems to be my lucky day. you said you’re a nanny, correct? do you have time on your schedule for one more? iris is young, seven in fact. she’d barely fill a large chunk of your time…”

Milly felt a moment of alarm at the exclamation, not sure if she should take it as excitement or disdain; she wouldn’t be surprised for either, coming from this particular woman. She could sympathize with the lack of privacy, because she had experienced the same with just the kids she watched. But still, she thought she would prefer to have several children herself, if the time came. Before she could comment, however, the topic of conversation changed. “Oh, yes -” She glanced in the direction that Iris had gone; it was both true and false that a seven year old wouldn’t add much work. If she took Iris along with her other charges, it shouldn’t be a problem in the slightest, but some parents preferred their children to be the only one. “What did you have in mind exactly - what time frame, how many days?”

Running into other gods had always been a delicate matter for Astraea. After spending millennia together, most gods were able to recognize each other after regaining their memories. She, however, was left in an awkward middle ground - between her time with the mortals, and her time in the stars, she hadn’t actually spent much time on Olympus. Determining if another diety didn’t have their memories, or simply didn’t know who she was, had presented a challenge.

Epione seemed to truly believe she was Milly, and so, Orelia went along. Closing her book, she shook her head. “Oh no, you’re fine. I should be getting in soon anyway.” She squinted a bit as the other woman moved away, before smiling. “It’s nice to meet you Milly. I’m Orelia.” Her eyes followed the direction of Milly’s hand, landing on the skyline, and she nodded. “New York is beautiful in the fall,” turning, she faced the other once more, “Have you always lived here?”

It was getting late, and Milly herself shouldn’t be out that much later - her dad worried about her, and she didn’t like to think about him worrying. But it was worth it if she got to meet a new friend. “Lovely to meet you too, Orelia. That’s such a pretty name.” She had never liked Mildred much but Milly was an acceptable nickname for it, and one that she liked. She thought she loved New York in any season, really; she had enjoyed her time here immensely, at any rate, but there was something special about the fall. 

“Oh, no, I moved here a few years ago. I’m a nanny and I came with the family.” Sometimes it felt like she had been here for much longer, but she knew it hadn’t been that long. “What about you?”