Where's The Princi(ple)?

❝ i didn’t fall from olympus, i stumbled gracefully. ❞

❝ you pray, i manifest. ❞

❝ zeus could never handle my notifications. ❞

❝ i light candles just to feel dramatic, not divine. ❞

❝ do i look mortal to you? ❞

❝ apollo called. he wants his spotlight back. ❞

❝ i don’t need thunder to make an entrance. ❞

❝ poseidon texts in waves. literally. ❞

❝ my therapist says i have ‘too much god complex’. ❞

❝ athena told me to read more. i told her to chill. ❞

❝ i’d smite you, but i’m on break. ❞

❝ nectar? no, that’s just iced coffee. ❞

❝ i heard chaos is hiring again. ❞

❝ i only curse people in lowercase. it’s aesthetic. ❞

❝ hermes ran off with my wi-fi again. ❞

❝ divinity looks better under bad lighting. ❞

❝ you can’t out-petty a goddess. ❞

❝ i flirt like a siren and disappear like hades. ❞

❝ this toga has pockets. your move, mortals. ❞

❝ artemis blocked me for calling her ‘moon girl’. ❞

❝ i whisper prophecies but everyone just hears ✨vibes✨ ❞

❝ being immortal is exhausting. the group chat never dies. ❞

❝ i turned my ex into a constellation. visibility matters. ❞

❝ aphrodite said ‘self-love’, so i took it literally. ❞

❝ zeus has main character syndrome. ❞

❝ don’t tempt fate, she’s already texting me back. ❞

❝ i once cried so hard i made a river. aquarius behavior. ❞

❝ mortals invented taxes. that’s why we stopped helping. ❞

❝ ambrosia tastes like chaos and bad decisions. ❞

❝ i don’t hold grudges. i engrave them in marble. ❞

❝ oracle said ‘touch grass’. rude. ❞

❝ i cursed a guy once. now he’s a motivational speaker. ❞

❝ eternal life, but make it fashion. ❞

❝ medusa wasn’t wrong, just efficient. ❞

❝ i don’t need lightning. i am the flashback. ❞

❝ apollo keeps sending me poems. i keep leaving him on read. ❞

❝ it’s not wrath if it’s deserved. ❞

❝ i miss when offerings were wine, not vibes. ❞

❝ call me delphic, i give mixed signals. ❞

❝ i tried humility once. didn’t suit me. ❞

❝ chaos is my comfort zone. ❞

❝ i don’t answer prayers, i curate them. ❞

❝ you mortals gossip like the fates aren’t listening. ❞

❝ i forgave you centuries ago. still petty, though. ❞

❝ i turn heartbreak into mythology. ❞

❝ my altar has LED lights now. modernization. ❞

❝ i don’t need wings to ascend. just caffeine. ❞

❝ wine first, omens later. ❞

❝ call it divine intervention. i call it multitasking. ❞

"B-But... what if I just.... go back? What if I take too many steps back, and it's like before? It was really hard to get here. I... I don't know if I can do it again and this is... this is what I'm supposed to do now because we're too big to share a room anymore." She hugged the bear closer to her. She felt like crying. The thought of going backwards after trying so hard to get this far? Which really was the smallest step that no one else had to think twice about? Why did it have to be so hard? Why did she have to be so pathetic?

He smiled, waving his hands in front of him in an easy mannered way. "If you don't want to go down this route, Darla, that's completely okay. I'm not here to be angry with you or at you, and I'm certainly not here to tell you what to do. If you feel that this isn't the move, then it isn't the move and we keep brainstorming. It's all part of the process. Just like I hope that you don't push yourself to feeling like you're abandoning your twin just because it's what others 'suppose' of you, I hope that you don't agree with me just because you feel it's what I 'suppose' of you. I don't suppose anything of you. I think you're exactly where you're supposed to be right here, right now."

He quieted down himself as she struggled with the question, noting down the disturbance in his notepad. One sign of faulty memory in an important, interpersonal area. One instance could easily be nothing but nerves, but repeated? They might be looking into the lines of dissociation and personality problems.

Maybe if she was interesting enough he could mention it to Lina. She always loved finding new people to torment and play around with. At worst, she was just someone forgettable. Not even worth snarking about later.

She brought her hand smoothly back to her drink, her cheeks flushed the slightest shade of pink from his kiss. He was just a perfect little charmer, wasn't he? She liked playing with other dolls, it opened a whole other kind of game that she rarely got to play.

Yet, here she was finally wanting to go back home just to confront him. There was no one else to ask for why she was so unlovable, what happened to make her so wrong. Maybe if she just knew she could finally fix what was wrong with her. Ask him what happened to her mom while she was at it.

She buried her face in his shoulder as she cried. His soothing voice and touch calming her some. She felt so stupid for being scared. Stupid for acting like this just at the thought of something she wanted to do. Maybe her brother was right on this being a stupid idea but... she wanted to know. She had to know the answers to the thoughts that plagued her. What did she do so wrong to not be loved by her parents?

Part of her also wanted to know if he even regretted treating her the way he did. He did buy a grave after all. She had been missing for so long it was natural to think she was dead. Would he be happy to see her again?

Eventually, she calms down and the tears stop. She pulls away and sniffs as she whips her face with the back of her hand. Already, she can tell her face is disgusting.

He cupped her face in his hands, gently wiping beneath her eyes to catch any extra dampness that might've been hiding. His poor sister. He couldn't even imagine what she was going through. He was glad he didn't have to confront his dad over anything.

"I think I got some tissues leftover..." He murmured, reaching into the pocket of his flannel and producing a small packet of crumpled Klennex. "They're a bit warm but they ain't been opened, I swear on my... er... I swear on Drew's grave!"

Momento's eyebrows furrowed at Andrew's answer. It didn't feel like he was lying. In fact, maybe the tense atmosphere was adding to making sure that Andrew wouldn't lie to him. Yet, that wasn't the response he had been expecting and one that was hard to make sense of?

He really just thought he was crazy, didn't he? It was taking everything in him to not just spiral. He needed to keep his head. It was too late to take it all back and now the only way out was through.

"Kinda." It's best if he keeps it vague for his sake. After all, the more he knows, the more power he could have over him if he truly believed in him. He wasn't sure which was worse. Being labeled insane or having his complete trust and the power to manipulate his life. The very thought makes his gut twist, and he can feel it gain glee.

"That sounds like a demon alr'ght. I wouldn't keep quiet if I was in your body either. How do ya keep it sedated so it doesn't like... possess ya? Do ya gotta like... drink blood or somethin'? I don't wanna kiss a bloody mouth, that's gross."

Andrew wasn't being very forthcoming about this information but why? What was he so scared of? His nervousness only made him want to know even more.

dialogue prompts from the change: animorphs #13 by k.a. applegate.

i am human. partly.

don't hide stuff from me because you think it'll hurt my feelings, okay?

i can't handle you feeling sorry for me.

you know, how you think of me is sort of important.

are you lost?

have you ever heard the saying, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?

it sounds complicated, but you get used to it.

have i ever mentioned that you are extremely cool?

just keep running this same direction. don't stop.

i remember when you were fun.

i was never fun.

it makes me sick when you take risks i can't take.

i would give anything to go in your place.

you can open your eyes now.

i'm not going to be left out. not this time.

humans invent all sorts of things that are not true.

i guess everyone has problems, right?

you heard me? i was trying to be quiet.

it's good to have someone to talk to.

someone or something is using me, and i don't like it very much.

no one is going to use me.

you don't look like a _____ to me.

why stick me with this job?

what am i, some kind of hero?

i have to go for a while.

i don't even know if anyone looked for me.

what the heck is happening?

oh, man, am i glad to hear your voice.

i'm hungry, and i'm tired, and i'm mad.

you can relax. we're all here to help you now.

i'm not exactly the same as i used to be. i've changed.

come on, you big baby. say it.

you should never be singing anything. i've heard you sing.

i have the feeling we're on our own.

are you going to whine the whole way?

i've had about all the close calls i can stand for one day.

a predator is never angry, just hungry.

any day i stay alive is a good day for me.

this isn't their place. it's ours.

i hope you haven't lost all that anger.

would it be wrong for me to say i love you?

you're lucky i'm in a hurry.

i don't want pity. not even yours.

if somebody's nice to me, i'll totally fall apart.

i'm the same as ever. i really don't want to talk about it.

i'm just feeling sorry for myself.

i just need a good night's sleep. i'll be fine in the morning.

have i kept my promise?

His surprise at seeing her caused him to miss watching where he was going and for a moment when his foot caught under a plank, he found himself flying almost in slow motion. Darla would never let him live this down. She would speak of this for years to come. She would tell his kids how their father had eaten major shit on the beach-

'You should've written a will saying he can't remarry because you don't want him to ever find love again!!! He should be miserable for the rest of time without us!!!'

He was yanked out his woeful thoughts at the feeling of Darla's fingers on his sides and he immediately began to wriggle this way and that, resembling a sandworm as he fought to keep from laughing. Who had told her that he was ticklish?! This was no fair!

"Hey! You're playin' dirty!" He shouted through laughter. "If you can cheat so can I!"

He completely believed that Darla would be the first person to kill Andrew in horrifically brutal and bloody murder if she caught him cheating on his boyfriend. After all, the two of them were inseparable in their own way. He really considered Darla to be the real sister he had never had and he hoped that he was something equally as special to her since the slot of 'brother' was already fulfilled.

It was bullshit, he knew that. Even if the other thought he was human, Hansuke himself knew he would never die. He would never die because he was 'Centrias' now. But then... That, of course, brought in the Ship of Theseus. Was he really still hansuke, now that he had been consumed and assimilated? Harming the first friend he had in a long time, all those years ago... That wasn't something he would have done before. It was something he still regretted. 

Was he really still Hansuke Omori?

.....He was never good with questions like that. Henri was always better with them. So he'd push it out of his mind for now. 

"...I'm not scared of anything." Which was a lie. He knew, rationally, he had no reason to be scared anymore. But rationality didn't help him with anything. 

@tenfaceandthree

"Well, knowledge is power. And there really isn't much I don't know about." 

That wasn't a lie, but it also didn't betray the truth of his own existence. He had hidden it well, even when Interpol was up his ass about his dealings with a certain Horseman. 

...Sometimes, Hansuke wondered how he was, living in that false palace with that false queen. He had long since abandoned his position working under him.  "Why? Aren't you human?"

No. No the other wasn't. If Hansuke couldn't sense it, it would have been obvious from the way he was speaking. 

"Isn't that a beloved quote?" He purred, looking for Hansuke with genuine amusement. "Certainly not wrong either. I doubt there's many who would try to make the argument that it's better to be out of the know than in it. Though, being in the know doesn't fully protect you from the fear does it? Does the woman who knows she's about to plummet to her death get to escape the terror of the lead-up too and subsequent fall just because she had the knowledge of it?"

Noble was silent for a moment, his mind racing with possibilities at how he could snap back at the other.

"Escape? What do you mean escape?" She frowned. "Man, no one wants to have a conversation with me... Is it too much for a girl to ask for?" She seemed disappointed at the notion... Completely skipping over the fact Noble had just admitted he could turn into a frog. 

Softly, she kicked a pebble in front of her. 

"No one understands the exquisite beauty in the warts of a slimy frog."

Tapping back to Entropy, he conjured a toad spirit in his cupped hands, warty, damp, brownish-green and all. Almost immediately after coming to fruition, the amphibian leaped forwards, plopped onto the ground, and began to hop away on the ground.

"If you were a frog and you tried to run, it ain't hard to..." He took only a couple steps forward, then leaned down so his thumb and forefinger could seize the toad at the sides and lift the pathetically splayed creature from the ground. "...be caught."

“Yeah, she really is a pervert. Not only can she never keep her hands off me, she insists on showing off her body to tempt the eyes of men.” Janne did his best to sigh and shake his head. As if he disapproved while putting a hand around her waist and resting his hand in her back pocket.

Really, the two were equally guilty of being touchy with one another. Darla could only giggle at the claim. As if, it was her fault men were perverted. Really, he knew best how much their glares disturbed her.

She didn't doubt for a second that Darla had a hard time keeping her hands to herself, the girl was so affectionate she been touched Noble and that was a feat to most. In a sexual manner though? This was the first time Darla didn't feel like a prude!

"Rub shoulders with the poor?! Does he know that WE are poor?! We have student loans! If Darla and Andrew classify as rich and Andrew isn't helping me get rid of these loans then so help--"

"Don't even say that! We are having a baby one day! I deserve it more than anyone!"

"$5,000?! Whaddaya do for work, Janne? Can Darla even get scraps of clothes for 5 grand or more?!"