DELTARUNE ON 24 JUNE

Chapter 5: One Man's Weakness is his Own Wife

The preparations for the Dionysia was underway; maenads, satyrs and villagers decorate the streets with flowers, purple and gold ribbons. The amphitheater was being prepared for this year's theme of "The Downfall of Troy", a theme that Apollo earlier in the month repeatedly objected towards but Dionysus completely forgotten why Apollo didn't approve of....until the Dionysia.

Dionysus was helping his theater troops with the set. "A LITTLE TO THE LEFT!" Dionysus shouted to two stage hands movie a large crude cut-out of a very angry Zeus, "NO THE OTHER LEFT!" he shouted again.

The stage hands were at this point a little confused on where to go, so the both of them just stand completely still to see if Dionysus actually noticed. Dionysus tilts head head to see if the angle is right and stares at the cut-out. "..... perfect, now all need to do is fix the curtains an-" he suddenly felt a light tap on his shoulder, he turns around and sees Apollo we a stern look on his face with Ariadne next to him with a look of concern.

"Um.... Dionysus....is THAT supposed to be dad?" Apollo questioned as he pointed to what basically was the equivalent of a child's drawing of Zeus with sharp teeth, a unibrow and a few inaccurate details that would be obvious to most people.

"Um yes. Yes it is.", Dionysus defended the depiction with all his heart, "I made it myself....with Kale's help, he's been extremely helpful." He points to Kale, who ironically is the director of the play for Dionysia, helping with choreography with a group of maenads. He turns back to Apollo and Ariadne, he steps past Apollo and goes straight to Ariadne, romancing her with the same vigor as if it was still love at first sight.

"Ah sweet pea, you made it" he gives a small kiss her hand, "-listen I have been dieing to get your opinion on the set up for act 3 ," gives another kiss up her forearm, "-the maenads have helped with casting pretty well so far buuuut I may need-" kisses again up the arm, "-someone to fix the costumes for Ares and Heracles though, mostly because it's a little too small for the both of t-" again Dionysus was interrupted mid sentence with Ariadne placing he finger on his lips. As much as she adored Dionysus's courting and him in general, she also equally adored her subjects as any queen would. She lets out a sigh and gives Dionysus kiss on his nose.

"Dionysus, love, we need to talk.", stated Ariadne, "It's about the festival, we HAVE to call it off and continue on another day." she continued. "Apollo told me everything about what's been going on. If it's not safe for the public to be out as soon as the sun goes down, than we must postpone the festival." she argued.

He couldn't believe his own ears, first his brother and now his own wife attempts to convince him to cancel a celebration. So he attempts to continue his 'counter measure', he continues to woo her. He picks her up in his arms. "Oh don't worry my little pomegranate seed, things aren't THAT bad, it was probably the cats being naughty.", he tried to convince her as he started to nuzzle her neck. His stubble tickled Ariadne, she lets out a few giggles, suddenly the two are now locked into a battle of dodging the topic and inappropriate amounts of "pda". The two went back and forth on topic of canceling the event for the safety of the residence. It was between the traditions to party hardy or to prevent a possible mass animal attack that has yet to be resolved.

Meanwhile Apollo is standing three feet away completely growing tired kf the two's public displays of affection, mostly because he personally feels not only is this a massive waste of time but also it makes him feel internally irritated knowing he doesn't have anyone to do this with at moment... subsequently feeling left out. "You two DO realize it's four hours until sunset, I need to at least know you two will be safe before I leave." He interjected.

The two were currently locking lips with each other, Dionysus knew full well this couldn't go on much longer. Dionysus finished his kiss with Ariadne.

Like most men, he didn't like his mind or his plans changed. "How about....we make it during the day?" he suggested, he reasoned that since the attacks have mostly happened at night that there was plenty of time to celebrate.

Ariadne nodded her head no, "No, Apollo had mentioned some these animals have attacked during the day too. He's seen them occasionally, we have to postpone. Maybe during a day that..." She thought about her request...." No nevermind.", She blurted.

Dionysus was confused, was there truly a way out of this annoying cancelation? "... nevermind what?" He asked.

Ariadne has set her trump card, "oh, maybe...just to make the people feel a little bit safer... invite your father to the Dionysia?", she bashfully asked.

Dionysus stood there with a blank expression, a few seconds later, he started laughing. "Ahahhahaha, oh Ariadne, that's really fucking funny hahaha!" he laughed continuously, he looked up and saw Ariadne's face, she wasn't very happy. "Ohhhh you're serious." He realized what she was suggesting wasn't a joke, but a genuine suggestion. "Look, I'm NOT going to bother my dad to babysit us. Delphi honestly isn't in any danger, and we've had two attacks....in three months!" He argued. The conversation started to get a little more serious.

Ariadne let out a small huff, "I know you want to keep the festival going but the safety of people are a little bit more important than tradition right now. I don't care if it was two, or three or a thousand attacks, you know very well that the festivities will be ruined if someone gets hurt.", she told him. "Please I beg you, not just for my sake but the sake of whomsoever might get hurt. It's either you get your father to come over to make sure nothing bad happens....or no sex....for a year, plus no cuddles either. Seriously Dionysus, if someone gets killed over this I swear I probably won't talk to you afterwards!" She was at her limit, if Dionysus was going to be stubborn about festival, than she was going to be stubborn with him.

Dionysus was at an impasse, he couldn't risk making his ultimate wine-wifu upset and to top it off he could not stand the idea of being ignored by her for such an undisclosed amount of time. He also couldn't just CANCEL one of the most important holidays in Greece, mostly Dionysia was also a performing arts contest, and Delphi has been going strong for several years against Delos and Sparta so his ego was on the line. He turned around and pondered to himself, hoping to figure out a way he could make both parties happy. "What if I raised the defenses around the town?....what if I can make wine bombs....that makes wolves too drunk to attack people?" he suggested,.

Ariadne stood there speechless, trying to decide if she was shocked or not to hear this from Dionysus. She motioned to one of the maenads to hand her a prop. A maenad handed her a peacock feather, mostly she didn't want to be responsible for any injuries the Dionysus could probably sustain from this. Ariadne with a gentle smile, worked with what she got, started whipping him with the feather. "YOU. ARE. SO. DAMN. STUBBORN. WINE. CAN'T. SOLVE. NOT. BEING. ALIVE." She shouted as she 'mercilessly' hit his shoulders and back.

Dionysus couldn't help but defend himself by curling up and blocking his face. At this point, he was already in hot water with Ariadne, so he decides to pretend to actually be hurt and start screaming.

Apollo was now just sitting on a director's chair that was provided but one of the stage hands, in fact the whole amphitheater's staff and volunteers were watching this incredible marital dispute. It was rare to see Dionysus and Ariadne fight, some even started to provide snacks to each other. "HOW ABOUT THIS-" Apollo announced.

Dionysus and Ariadne both stop and looked at Apollo. The two pausing midway through their dramatic theatrics.

Apollo stood up and let out a long sigh, "look, if it makes you feel better Dionysus.....as compensation for losing a day-" he said mid sentence.

"A WEEK" Ariadne shouted, she hoped to at least wait a week to make full sure what ever has been going would be solved within the week.

"NO. THATS TOO LONG!" Dionysus furiously responded but was again getting pelted by Ariadne's peacock feather. "AAAH NO NOT AGAIN!" he shouted.

Apollo continued on, "..... loosing a week of the Dionysia, I will make it sunny....for a whole week....just so that you celebrate...none stop...for a whole week." Apollo knew he was going to make BILLIONS of mortals completely confused, ruin many people's sleep schedule...but all to convince the god of wine to cancel a party.

Ariadne was very happy about the idea but it was something. "DEAL!", she shouted, she stopped whipping Dionysus with the feather. Dionysus stood up, not even feeling anything, with his ego a little bruised having had his will be bent. He begrudgingly decided to the agreement, "Fine. But I better get a summertime blow out during that week dude." He conditioned.

Apollo could breath a sigh of relief, he had at least avoided disaster for the citizens of Delphi. Now it was off to Delos to arrange some defenses around the countryside. Delphi may not have any 'wolves', but he was worried of Delos did. "Well, good to see we're at an accord. Dionysus, please be careful tonight and good luck to you, Lady Ariadne." He waved as he went to find his chariot.

Ariadne and Dionysus waved goodbye to Apollo. Ariadne looked up at Dionysus and tried to tickle him the the peacock feather on his neck. He tried to not crack a smile but he couldn't resist being ticklish let alone be mad at his wife. "Hahahehehe, ok ok, sorry sweetie. I just really hate canceling anything." He apologized.

Ariadne chuckled and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "it's ok, but your brother is right you know." She assured him. "Come on, I'll help you pack a few things up." She went on to help put away some of the decorations. Dionysus turned around, "Ok pack up the small stuff everyone! Dionysia is cancelled for the week!" He announced. The staff and followers were all shocked and some started to comment amongst themselves. "Don't worry, the party will continue next week with a full week of sunshine and hardcore partying. As of tonight...um...just like... don't go out at night. Stay home and get wasted indoors my dudes." He finished off his announcement, turned to went to help with putting away some of the things.

Kale had finally comeback from a 45 minute wine break and was completely confused as to why everyone was putting away everything. "Ok seriously I need to lay off the marlot because WHAT THE FUCK did I just FUCKING nap through the Dionysia?!" He shouted. A satyr walked up to fill Kale in, "um nah brah, Dionysia is cancelled until next week....after that its party time on steroids." Kale at first was frustrated because he worked on the dance routine for the play, until he realized there was a whole week to make some changes. "GASP! I must go, improvement awaits!" He dramatically left to come up with another part of the scene.

Their first foray into the forest together is… quiet. The only sounds are the wind sighing through the branches and the muted rustle of his footfalls as Yuuri leads Vitya through the heavy branches and fallen leaves. The forest’s silence is heavy between them as they move one after the other over the new trodden path, Yuuri stopping often to ensure they’re still on the right track.