#electra barca

When Pax grows up, he is his mother’s height at most. Very tall for a Red but short for a non-Bronzie Gold. Sevro is in denial that Pax is taller than him until the difference is too much to ignore.

Electra on the other hand is Victra’s height and bullies Pax mercilessly about it. She’ll lean her elbow on his head, look around in mock bewilderment like she can’t see him, that sort of thing.

Calypso is the opposite. She is her father’s height but has her mother’s looks. She enjoys teaming up with Electra against Pax even though he is taller than her.

Diana-Selene is an enigma. She looks related to her sisters but isn’t obviously Barca or Julii either way. She’s bubbly and excitable. No one understands where she came from. Still, in some ways, she scares Pax more than Electra does.

Pax has a celebrity crush on Cassius. Cassius is the only major Rising figure he has never met, so there is a certain mystique about him. On rare occasions, Darrow would talk about him with a weird mix of fondness and wistfulness. So Pax associates Cassius with good things. Pax knows the bad things Cassius did but he can’t help the positive association through his father. (Virginia talks about Cassius even less and is strictly neutral and guarded.) Talking about Cassius agitates Electra, though, so Pax keeps this all to himself.

Cassius and Julian met Apollonius several times growing up since he and Karnus were drinking partners. Apple’s personality stressed Julian out but Cassius, like Darrow, was fascinated by his flamboyancy.

Before the Institute, for a year or two, Julian was obsessed with Rim culture. He even studied Japanese since it’s still commonly spoken there. This baffled Cassius but it made Julian happy so he endured the obsession. Cassius still understands some Japanese to this day but can’t speak or read it. Karnus made sure to crush Julian’s spirit about liking Moonie stuff at every chance because he hated anything Julian liked on principle.

Pytha has known Cassius since he was born. They obviously weren’t close at the time, but she crossed paths with the Bellona kids often enough for Cassius to know her name. He is grateful for their serendipitous reunion after the Rising. It is comforting to have even a small piece of House Bellona with him. Still, he was a bit startled by how fast she adjusted to calling him by his first name rather than dominus, even though he insisted on it.

Pytha loved to blast loud techno in the Archi. Lysander always hated it. Cassius did at first too but he grew fond of it over time. He’ll never admit it though.

After living on the Archi for so long, Cassius is used to living in cramped spaces, and fighting space pirates in tight corridors. Wide open areas make him nervous. Sort of the opposite of Darrow’s claustrophobia, but it’s not a full blown PTSD symptom in this case.

Cassius enjoys playing Karachi. Lysander hates it because it relies on reading people rather than strict game logic. (I’m pretty sure that was stated somewhere in Iron Gold, actually, but I can’t find it.) Diomedes is weirdly good at the game, like to a scary degree. Ajax hates card and board games in general. He only ever played them with his mother because she never judged him harshly for making bad moves.

“War,” Freihild says. “Sons of Ares released achlys-9 years ago. Left the ship to drift in the Ink. Scavengers, looters, thieves, all come in seasons. Time passes. Servants of our Queen found and put to purpose for tribe.”

“Sounds more like Gorgons than the Sons of Ares,” Electra says.

Freihild shrugs. “All trees bear bad seeds, some bloody in bloom.”

“The Red Hand,” Pax clarifies. “Or its early form. Harmony, one of Ares’s more violent agents, composed it from radicalized Sons who believed Ares’s Gold origins was my mother’s propaganda. They claim her brother killed Ares. And that Ares’s true identity was Narol, my father’s uncle, instead of Electra’s grandfather.”

“You have a fucked-up family,” I say.

He frowns. “Yes.”

(Dark Age, 317)