#psychoa

It was a week after the Herean games. The two friends were simply chatting over a platter of cheese and fruits. Hippodamia sensed that her friend was carrying a lot in her mind. Psychoa would usually lay and spread her legs on the couch without a care, something funny she had in common with Pelops. But today she was sitting straight.

"You know how lord Dionysus is, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"He is... Unique" Psychoa shruggred. "He's a man, but he enjoys dressing as a woman. He loves the arts, the parties, he engages on the stage while putting on makeup and jewelry. That is... Who he is" She kept fidgeting with the fig, unable to eat it.

"I suppose so, yes" Hippodamia shifted a little on her place, not quite sure of the point Psychoa wanted to make.

"And Ariadne would never tell him to change a thing about himself. He is madness, he is strange... And she has decided to love him as he is. Ain't that lovely? "

"Psychoa, i don't understand where are you going with this?"

The meanad took a deep breath, putting the fig aside.

"I didn't know your husband had his ears pierced"

"Pelops?" Hippodamia was about to take a sip of water from her cup, but she put it aside slowly when Psychoa spoke. "Oh, that... I believe is a tradition from his homeland or something"

"Well, i've never seen him with earrings"

"Oh, he knows... He knows that our customs are not like that. So, he avoids it now"

"Was that a choice he took for himself?" Psychoa raised an eyebrow.

Hippodamia sat straight, looking at her friend with bewilderment. She put a hand on her chest and spoke.

"Are you accusing me of something?" She furrowed her eyebrows

"I am not. I'm just, wondering... Maybe he wasn't that attached to it then, to the customs of his homeland?"

Hippodamia lowered her head. That was just not quite true. She remembered the time where Pelops first met her. He had earrings. He had a different one everyday. He loved his jewelry to bits.

And then one day he just... Stopped. Deep down, she thought it was a shame. He looked so handsome, so happy while wearing those colourful pendants. But maybe it was for the best. Such colours on his ears attracted malicious looks.

Along with the drapping dresses, the girdles, his way of talking and acting... It was for the best that he had changed, right?

"No, he had a huge collection of jewelry. Amazing textiles too. He was always quite fashionable" Hippodamia sighed. "I think i know where this conversation is going"

"Is that so?"

"If you think i have any power over what my husband does or doesn't, you are plenty wrong"

"So you don't think you hold some level of influence over him, none at all?" Psychoa squinted her eyes.

"I doubt that i could have that kind of hold over Pelops. I've never told him he should stop doing certain things, just that he shouldn't do them in public"

"But he doesn't do them with you neither"

Hippodamia froze. She found herself surprised and perplexed. Psychoa's words were true. Pelops had never wore earrings again since years ago, not even in the privacy of their bedroom.

He used to so crass, and quite vulgar. He was bold and couldn't care less about the opinion of others. He was quite like Psychoa is, actually. But now, he was a different man, wasn't he.

Had Hippodamia done that? No. Scratch that.

"I do not like what you are implying about my husband" Hippodamia frowned. "He's not some..."

"So that's what you think of him?" Psychoa said before Hippodamia could find a hurtful word.

"I just-! It is what people outside could think! I don't want the kingdom to laugh at his expense!"

"Or at yours?" It was Psychoa's turn to frown, she was calm on the outside, but livid in the inside. "Let me understand, so you do know what kind of man Pelops is and instead of accepting that you just... Have tried to change and bury everything that made him who he is?"

"Don't paint me as the monster here" Hippodamia stood up. "Anything i've done is to protect my family!"

"Yet Pelops felt so unsafe that he has hidden away all his jewelry"

Hippodamia didn't know how to answer back. She was tempted for a moment, to just command Psychoa to leave, to scatter and never come back. How dare she? Making such assumptions about Pelops? Didn't she knew the types of danger that sort of talk could bring? What if the kingdom felt Pelops was unfit to rule? What if he was forced into going to physicians that would try to fix him? Worse, even jail?

But then Psychoa spoke in a soft voice, the softest voice she had ever used. So uncharasteristic of her, the wild meanad.

"You know why i'm a meanad? Is hard for people like me to feel like they fit anywhere" She sniffed. "Lord Dionysus has made the theater, the parties, into quite the safe space for folk like me. For the strange. It is not perfect, but it is a place where, for a moment, i can feel like myself. Like i don't have to comform to whatever is that higher ups have said i should act like. A place where an unmarried woman like me is not unnatural"

Psychoa sighed. Lowering her head.

"I thought you were the type to understand that sort of thing. With the Herean games, i thought you were creating a safe space, one for maidens like me. But if this is how you treat your husband even after he was the one who saved you then...." A tear escaped Psychoa's eye, and she had a little hiccup that forced her to pause. "Then i'm not safe with you neither, am i?"

Hippodamia couldn't articulate a response. This had to be the first time she had seen Psychoa cry.

Was it true? Was she making her husband and her closest friend feeling unsafe? Like they could not be themselves around her?

Why was that? Was she really afraid of the idea of them getting hurt? Or was she afraid of getting ridiculed along them?

"I can finish this" A voice behind her talked. Psychoa, friend of hers. She walked around with her chest bare and a long colourful skirt of many capes. She was quite non conventional, but much is expected of a meanad.

Hippodamia herself wasn't sure how a friendship came to be. She was never the loud type of girl as Psychoa. Maybe that was why.

"Your little guard dog is outside waiting for you, with those horrid huge horses" Psychoa added while taking the broom from Hippodamia's hands.

"My guard dog?" The queen raised a curious eyebrow, knowing exactly who Psychoa was talking about.

"Your husband" She rolled her eyes.

"Why do you call him that?"

"Perhaps because he is always chasing your tail? He'll probably go mad if something happened to you" Pyschoa poked Hippodamia's side with the broom while smiling. "He even wears a collar already, you just need to get the leash"

"Goodness, don't say that" Hippodamia laughed and blushed at the idea. "Pelops is a respectable man, he doesn't deserve to be talked about in this way"

"In which way?" A new voice entered the conversation. Pelops stood behind the two ladies carrying a wide smile. "I hope you're not saying bad things about me"

Hippodamia's face went red, looking at the state she and Psychoa were. They hadn't had time to change into something more decent, instead they were still dressed on their running clothes. Hippodamia was using but a simple exomis that barely covered her knee.

"Pelops, you shouldn't be here!" She exclaimed as she ran to cover Psychoa's chest.

"Ah, you worry too much" Psychoa rolled her eyes. "The man has seen breasts before, i don't think he'll find anything alluring in mine"

"Psychoa!"

"I mean, he has yours already. And yours are plenty lovely"

"PSYCHOA!"

"Should i leave?" Pelops asked sheepishly.

Before Hippodamia could answer, Psychoa gently pushed her to the side.

"Is alright, king. This one was just about to go change so you can take her home" Psychoa glared at Hippodamia. "Either way, me and the servants can finish with the cleaning"

"Ah, but is a lot of work, are you sure?" Hippodamia wondered.

"Don't worry about me. Besides, your husband seems eager to get you home" Psychoa pointed at Pelops with her eyes.

Pelops just shruggred, unsure of what to say or do. Sheepish smile still on his face. Hippodamia sighed, thinking that it was indeed getting dark. And Pelops surely wanted to get her back to the palace before the night came.

"Very well, i'll go change"

Said and done, Hippodamia retired to the changing quarters, leaving Psychoa and Pelops alone.

The two of them, never quite talked to each other. Psychoa was more a friend of Hippodamia's that of Pelops. So whenever they were left alone nothing but a quiet, uncomfortable silence was left.

Psychoa never cared about making conversation with the man. Why would she? Deep down perhaps she held some kind of resentment, that he was Hippodamia's beloved. And Pelops? The man wasn't very talkative. If anything most people that come to know him always spoke of how quite frightening he could be.

Legend said that he had lived amongst gods for years, learned from them who knows what kinds of magic. That he killed his father in law in cold blood, king Oenamous along with his charioteer when they dared block his path to win Hippodamia's hand. That he was crazy and bloodthristy, and he had cut to pieces a neighbour king. That he had some control over the waters, and he had never met a storm during his voyages, not even during their prime season.

Now, Psychoa didn't cared about that. As a meanad, she knew a thing or two about being crazy and bloodthirsty. To her, Pelops was more a sort of puppy who loved to comply with everything Hippodamia said. Well at least he was kind to her, right?

But that day Pelops did something that left her quite perplexed. He complimented her.

"That's a gorgeous skirt" Pelops thought aloud. "The sticthing of the capes looks inmaculate. Have you done it yourself?"

Psychoa blinked, snapping her head back at Pelops.

"I... I have, yes" Psychoa nodded.

"Cross stitching, right?"

"Yes..."

"It's the best one" Pelops nodded. "The red and blues look marvelous too, and the embrodery is quite gorgeous"

"I... Thank you" Psychoa nodded, feeling confused for the first time in a while. She hardly found herself surprised.

A man like Pelops is not the type of man she would expect would praise something like a dress. Let alone know about stitching and knitting. And to praise it in such specific ways...

"You know a lot about weaving?"

It was Pelops turn to be surprised. He shrank and his eyes went wide, feeling caught.

"I... May be a little familiar" He scratched his neck, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink.

Pyschoa dared to look more closely, and she noticed a detail about Pelops' face that she hadn't before. He had pierced ears!

How strange! Psychoa could swear on the Styx that she hadn't saw Pelops wearing earrings since the day that she met him!

She was about to ask, but Hippodamia appeared. And Pelops, taking her by the arm, quickly led her towards the chariot. Almost as if he was escaping.

Psychoa did a lot of thinking after that night.

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