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happilyeverbeginning2017-03-07 06:16 pm
melplayspersonal) wrote in happilyeverbeginning2017-03-07 06:16 pm
Entry tags:
Preview of LLL 7
You know how dull Mount Olympus is. I was bored to tears, but I couldn't leave my mother's side. Then one day, she got this crazy notion that if I married one of the gods up there, I'd always be safe even when we wouldn't be together. I hated the idea, but my opinion meant squat. But it was also a blessing in disguise, because while she was interviewing other gods to see who was worthy enough for my hand, it meant a chance to escape. So I headed right for the mortal plane, and just like you I went wherever I felt like, learning everything I could.
Eventually I found that exact same shore you and I were just on. I saw this boat, and I thought it was absolute junk. I would have moved on, but that's when I saw what I thought was a mortal– a good looking guy wrestling with the sailing rope, unable to undo a knot. Being the generous soul that I am, I offered to help him.
~*~
“HAHAHAHAHA! WHAT KIND OF MORON DOESN'T KNOW HOW UNDO A KNOT?!” Daisy “forgot” to mention that being under Demeter's demented eye left her a tad spoiled. So her snotty superior attitude had her howling in laughter at Donald's failed attempt, and doubly so when Donald was so startled he fell into the water.
If he wasn't flapping around in the water, Donald would have unwillingly poofed into his smoky form, but for now his temper wasn't as hot as it could have been. “Who're you calling a moron! I bet you don't know anything about sailing!”
“I'm pretty sure the first rule is not to go into the water!” Daisy cackled, holding her stomach due to how hard she was laughing.
“Why you doggone stubborn little...” Donald marched out of the water, squeezing what he could out of his robes. “I only have so much free time today, and I ain't gunna waste it listening to you giggling like a hyena! Sailing comes with all kinds of different knots! Why, I bet you don't even know what that is!” He indignatly pointed at what Daisy thought was just the boat itself.
“It's a boat, duh.” Daisy snorted as she tried to catch her breath.
“Name that part of the boat.” Donald demanded, still pointing, water dripping from his beak. For the record, it was the rudder.
“It's...the...boat part.” Oh, what did she care what some foolish mortal thought of her? She was born better than him anyway. “Whatever it is! It's a hideous thing anyway.”
“HEY! Nobody insults my baby and gets away with it!”
“I JUST DID!”
“YOU THINK YOU'RE SO SMART?!” He was seconds away from poofing at this point, but a wicked idea saved him from unknowingly revealing himself. Donald was also under the impression that this was a mortal woman, and while he didn't care about the rules of superiority and inferiority, he did care when people of any race dared to abuse his pride and joy. He suddenly scooped Daisy up into his arms – ignoring her shrieks and kicks – and tossed her into the boat. “There, let's see you sail!”
Daisy was on her feet in seconds, snapping venus fly traps curling in her hair. Donald might've taken notice if he wasn't so pleased by her furious reply. “How dare you – do you have any idea who I am?!”
“Nope! Couldn't care less!” Donald grinned devilishly as he began to push the boat onto the water. “Go ahead, toots, try and make me pay for it – if you can get back here!”
“I – I will! And you'll be sorry!” Logically she could have teleported to his side and given him the whalloping of a lifetime, but her dignity would be gone forever. How hard could sailing be? But now she was in the boat and actually looking at all the handles and pulleys and ropes, it was like staring into the jaws of a wild animal. She stuttered at a loss, aimlessly trying everything and getting nowhere fast. She wound up smacking herself with the boom, and getting tangled in the sails. “Get over here and help meee!” She whined, flailing her arms in a pathetic motion to free herself.
“Apologize to my baby and I'll help you!”
“I AM NOT APOLOGIZING TO YOUR CRUDDY UGLY BOAT!”
“THEN STAY IN THERE FOREVER, SEE IF I CARE!”
~*~
We didn't get off to a great start.
I got fed up and vanished back onto Mount Olympus. I told myself that being bored there was far better than dealing with a cranky, violent mortal. Mother hadn't noticed I was gone, though her candidates for marriage had narrowed down. As I stayed there, stewing over what had happened, I told myself that I could learn more about boats and prove myself better than that silly man with a weird voice. That was about the time I learned how to use a Viewing Mirror, and I had to admit, mortals could be really interesting. I told myself I was only looking to upset that man, and once I had accomplished my task, I'd never look again. But let's face it, compared to the same old parties up there, the eternally changing mortal plane was a book you could never put down.
The next time around I pushed my mother to distraction, asking her to make positively sure that Apollo was a worthy man for me. She was so delighted by me faking interest that she didn't even question it. So I headed back down to the same shore, but while the boat was there, he wasn't. Donald can't come up whenever he feels like it, he has to schedule time in advance. While I waited for him to make an appearance, I tried to test my newfound knowledge on his boat. But seeing someone else do it is worlds different than trying it for myself, and I wound up a mess all over again. Even worse, he never showed up that day.
Day after day I waited for him, telling Mother about different gods that could be good protectors, even demi-gods from below or children Zeus had fathered. It was weeks before I finally saw him again, and I thought I was ready to show off my new skills.
~*~
“You didn't attach the tack to its shackle.”
“SHUT UP! I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!”
“Well, whenever you get done with that, you have to pull the outhaul-”
“I'LL GET TO IT WHEN I GET TO IT!”
“I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU!”
“WHO ASKED FOR YOUR HELP!”
~*~
By then we were kinda sure each other was a god and goddess, otherwise we wouldn't have survived the bruising we gave one another. It made me feel a touch better knowing that I wasn't losing to a mortal, but it still stung all the same. I wanted him to know how great I was, to acknowledge me as his better. Each time I would return to Mount Olympus, I would get praised on how pretty I was, but it felt...hollow. Like I hadn't done anything worthy of their compliments except exist. They couldn't praise my powers, since they were obviously weaker than my mother's, so my looks were all I had. Yeah, you know how that feels, don't you, Minnie?
But I wasn't totally hopeless, and I did manage to get better.
~*~
“Watch your telltales. You're wasting energy like this, just let out the sail.”
“But if I do that, I'll have to let go, and you said to keep my hand steady!”
“I know what I said! Just – here, let me show you.”
“No! No! I can do it! I know I can do it.”
~*~
We wouldn't try to go anywhere in particular. Sometimes we'd just drift out onto the ocean and see the sun set. Other times we'd pass by mortal villages and watch fishermen take in their haul. Donald knew a lot of them by name, mostly because he knew their dead relatives, but I still didn't know “who” he was. It didn't really seem to matter. But in his head, he had his reasons not to tell me. If I'd known on day one that he was Hades, I would have run away screaming and never turned back. I told him easily enough that I was Persephone, that I was Daisy, that I was a useless daughter with no ambition save for a wedding ring.
~*~
After he heard that, Donald had taken her hand and turned the palm up. “It's a shame about the ambrosia.” He had said, tsking. “Heals all of our wounds instantly, so you can't have the tough callouses the mortals have. They'd be proof enough that you've got more ambition than any of those lazy vagabonds up on the mountain.”
“Does that include all the bumps on my head I should've gotten every time the boom hit me? At that rate, I should've been the demi-goddess of concussions.” A tiny chuckle.
“C'mon, I mean it. There's nothing wrong with not having an exact goal right now.” The boat was smoothly passing between two cliffs, a creaky bridge far above them. The night was approaching and glitters of stars dotted the sky. The wind was dying down for now, and they felt safe enough to sit. “One man might think he'll grow up to be a farmer, and becomes a soldier instead. Even gods and goddess should have the opportunity to at least look for what they want.”
Opportunity – what a foreign word. Daisy had thought that because she had the blood of a goddess flowing through her, that this was enough to justify her existence. But now she wasn't sure of a lot of things. She wanted worth in a different form, she wanted equality, and so many other things she never even knew existed before meeting Donald. She was quiet for a while. “...I don't want to be like my mother, deciding things for someone else and being afraid of things we can't control.”
“Then don't be like her. Be yourself. It's not as hard as you think it is. If nobody else likes you as yourself, it doesn't matter as long as you like yourself.”
She glanced up at that. “Do you like yourself?”
“You're darn right I do.” He grinned in that egotistical way she'd come to find entertaining. “I do my job and I do it well, and I'm the best sailor in the whole wide world. And if someone doesn't like me, then they're not worth my time. It takes effort to know people, and laziness just to guess and dislike without a chance. And you, little lady, are not lazy.”
“... Donald?”
“Yeah?”
“You're still holding my hand.”
So he was. “Uh.” So he was still was. “Uhhh.” Still holding it. “I was – just – um – I was going to – to help you practice rigging the preventer!” This involved nearly squishing Daisy's hand to the boom and tying yet another intricate knot. As the blushing ducks debated whether to speak of whatever happened between them, peeking at each other and then pretending they hadn't, Donald made a deep decision. How was she to like him if he didn't tell her who he was? “Daisy, I'm not sure how to put this.”
“Hm.” Daisy was no longer naive about the world, including the many interests of men, and she wasn't exactly objecting to the idea of being Donald's interest. With the knot completed, she rolled her shoulders, coyly fluttering her eyelashes. “I'm listening.” As she began to twirl hair around her finger, a red rose dropping petals tangled in her hands, she expected a confession of how jaw-droppingly gorgeous he found her and he needed her every night and day. She was still a bit spoiled.
But instead of satiating Daisy's fantastic ego, Donald rubbed his knuckles, avoiding her intense gaze. “What do you know about the god Hades?”
Daisy blinked slowly, the candle of lust promptly snuffed out. How disappointing. “That he's some creep who rules the Underworld and kills little children because their mother's cry is music to his ears?”
“Oh, come on.” Donald slapped an open hand to his face, pulling it down hard.
“So what?” Daisy was about to drop her sleeve in an attempt for Donald to focus on something far more gratifying. “What does that monster have to do with you and me right now? It's got nothing to - ” But for all of Daisy's faults, and there were a great number of them, stupidity wasn't among them. Her hand froze as she understood exactly why he asked, and why he now looked so crestfallen, his entire body sagging. In that moment Daisy recalled every horrifying story she'd ever been told about Hades, most of them by her devastated mother. A beast, a merciless creature, a demon who relished in pain and suffering.
But a demon who relished in pain and suffering wouldn't have held her hand so tenderly.
“I don't – I don't care.” She blurted out, rising to her feet so fast that the boat began to wobble.
“Daisy, be careful!”
“I don't care!” She shouted louder this time, hands rolled into fists, her eyes feeling hot. “I don't care what they say about you on Mount Olympus, because – because it can't be true, none of it's true! I know who you are, they don't!”
Color flooded Donald's white cheeks, but he tried to hold off her compassion, his hands out and ready to steady her if she tipped over. “It's more than that, Daisy! Once your mother and everyone finds out I've been with you, they'll treat you like dirt too!”
“I don't care!”
“They'll say bad things about you too, and they'll trample all over you!”
“I don't care!”
“Daisy, you don't understand, they-”
“I SAID I DON'T CARE, YOU MORON, ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!”
“I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU OUT, YOU OBNOXIOUS BRAT!”
~*~
And that was the first time we made out. It was totally worth falling out of the boat.
Eventually I found that exact same shore you and I were just on. I saw this boat, and I thought it was absolute junk. I would have moved on, but that's when I saw what I thought was a mortal– a good looking guy wrestling with the sailing rope, unable to undo a knot. Being the generous soul that I am, I offered to help him.
~*~
“HAHAHAHAHA! WHAT KIND OF MORON DOESN'T KNOW HOW UNDO A KNOT?!” Daisy “forgot” to mention that being under Demeter's demented eye left her a tad spoiled. So her snotty superior attitude had her howling in laughter at Donald's failed attempt, and doubly so when Donald was so startled he fell into the water.
If he wasn't flapping around in the water, Donald would have unwillingly poofed into his smoky form, but for now his temper wasn't as hot as it could have been. “Who're you calling a moron! I bet you don't know anything about sailing!”
“I'm pretty sure the first rule is not to go into the water!” Daisy cackled, holding her stomach due to how hard she was laughing.
“Why you doggone stubborn little...” Donald marched out of the water, squeezing what he could out of his robes. “I only have so much free time today, and I ain't gunna waste it listening to you giggling like a hyena! Sailing comes with all kinds of different knots! Why, I bet you don't even know what that is!” He indignatly pointed at what Daisy thought was just the boat itself.
“It's a boat, duh.” Daisy snorted as she tried to catch her breath.
“Name that part of the boat.” Donald demanded, still pointing, water dripping from his beak. For the record, it was the rudder.
“It's...the...boat part.” Oh, what did she care what some foolish mortal thought of her? She was born better than him anyway. “Whatever it is! It's a hideous thing anyway.”
“HEY! Nobody insults my baby and gets away with it!”
“I JUST DID!”
“YOU THINK YOU'RE SO SMART?!” He was seconds away from poofing at this point, but a wicked idea saved him from unknowingly revealing himself. Donald was also under the impression that this was a mortal woman, and while he didn't care about the rules of superiority and inferiority, he did care when people of any race dared to abuse his pride and joy. He suddenly scooped Daisy up into his arms – ignoring her shrieks and kicks – and tossed her into the boat. “There, let's see you sail!”
Daisy was on her feet in seconds, snapping venus fly traps curling in her hair. Donald might've taken notice if he wasn't so pleased by her furious reply. “How dare you – do you have any idea who I am?!”
“Nope! Couldn't care less!” Donald grinned devilishly as he began to push the boat onto the water. “Go ahead, toots, try and make me pay for it – if you can get back here!”
“I – I will! And you'll be sorry!” Logically she could have teleported to his side and given him the whalloping of a lifetime, but her dignity would be gone forever. How hard could sailing be? But now she was in the boat and actually looking at all the handles and pulleys and ropes, it was like staring into the jaws of a wild animal. She stuttered at a loss, aimlessly trying everything and getting nowhere fast. She wound up smacking herself with the boom, and getting tangled in the sails. “Get over here and help meee!” She whined, flailing her arms in a pathetic motion to free herself.
“Apologize to my baby and I'll help you!”
“I AM NOT APOLOGIZING TO YOUR CRUDDY UGLY BOAT!”
“THEN STAY IN THERE FOREVER, SEE IF I CARE!”
~*~
We didn't get off to a great start.
I got fed up and vanished back onto Mount Olympus. I told myself that being bored there was far better than dealing with a cranky, violent mortal. Mother hadn't noticed I was gone, though her candidates for marriage had narrowed down. As I stayed there, stewing over what had happened, I told myself that I could learn more about boats and prove myself better than that silly man with a weird voice. That was about the time I learned how to use a Viewing Mirror, and I had to admit, mortals could be really interesting. I told myself I was only looking to upset that man, and once I had accomplished my task, I'd never look again. But let's face it, compared to the same old parties up there, the eternally changing mortal plane was a book you could never put down.
The next time around I pushed my mother to distraction, asking her to make positively sure that Apollo was a worthy man for me. She was so delighted by me faking interest that she didn't even question it. So I headed back down to the same shore, but while the boat was there, he wasn't. Donald can't come up whenever he feels like it, he has to schedule time in advance. While I waited for him to make an appearance, I tried to test my newfound knowledge on his boat. But seeing someone else do it is worlds different than trying it for myself, and I wound up a mess all over again. Even worse, he never showed up that day.
Day after day I waited for him, telling Mother about different gods that could be good protectors, even demi-gods from below or children Zeus had fathered. It was weeks before I finally saw him again, and I thought I was ready to show off my new skills.
~*~
“You didn't attach the tack to its shackle.”
“SHUT UP! I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!”
“Well, whenever you get done with that, you have to pull the outhaul-”
“I'LL GET TO IT WHEN I GET TO IT!”
“I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU!”
“WHO ASKED FOR YOUR HELP!”
~*~
By then we were kinda sure each other was a god and goddess, otherwise we wouldn't have survived the bruising we gave one another. It made me feel a touch better knowing that I wasn't losing to a mortal, but it still stung all the same. I wanted him to know how great I was, to acknowledge me as his better. Each time I would return to Mount Olympus, I would get praised on how pretty I was, but it felt...hollow. Like I hadn't done anything worthy of their compliments except exist. They couldn't praise my powers, since they were obviously weaker than my mother's, so my looks were all I had. Yeah, you know how that feels, don't you, Minnie?
But I wasn't totally hopeless, and I did manage to get better.
~*~
“Watch your telltales. You're wasting energy like this, just let out the sail.”
“But if I do that, I'll have to let go, and you said to keep my hand steady!”
“I know what I said! Just – here, let me show you.”
“No! No! I can do it! I know I can do it.”
~*~
We wouldn't try to go anywhere in particular. Sometimes we'd just drift out onto the ocean and see the sun set. Other times we'd pass by mortal villages and watch fishermen take in their haul. Donald knew a lot of them by name, mostly because he knew their dead relatives, but I still didn't know “who” he was. It didn't really seem to matter. But in his head, he had his reasons not to tell me. If I'd known on day one that he was Hades, I would have run away screaming and never turned back. I told him easily enough that I was Persephone, that I was Daisy, that I was a useless daughter with no ambition save for a wedding ring.
~*~
After he heard that, Donald had taken her hand and turned the palm up. “It's a shame about the ambrosia.” He had said, tsking. “Heals all of our wounds instantly, so you can't have the tough callouses the mortals have. They'd be proof enough that you've got more ambition than any of those lazy vagabonds up on the mountain.”
“Does that include all the bumps on my head I should've gotten every time the boom hit me? At that rate, I should've been the demi-goddess of concussions.” A tiny chuckle.
“C'mon, I mean it. There's nothing wrong with not having an exact goal right now.” The boat was smoothly passing between two cliffs, a creaky bridge far above them. The night was approaching and glitters of stars dotted the sky. The wind was dying down for now, and they felt safe enough to sit. “One man might think he'll grow up to be a farmer, and becomes a soldier instead. Even gods and goddess should have the opportunity to at least look for what they want.”
Opportunity – what a foreign word. Daisy had thought that because she had the blood of a goddess flowing through her, that this was enough to justify her existence. But now she wasn't sure of a lot of things. She wanted worth in a different form, she wanted equality, and so many other things she never even knew existed before meeting Donald. She was quiet for a while. “...I don't want to be like my mother, deciding things for someone else and being afraid of things we can't control.”
“Then don't be like her. Be yourself. It's not as hard as you think it is. If nobody else likes you as yourself, it doesn't matter as long as you like yourself.”
She glanced up at that. “Do you like yourself?”
“You're darn right I do.” He grinned in that egotistical way she'd come to find entertaining. “I do my job and I do it well, and I'm the best sailor in the whole wide world. And if someone doesn't like me, then they're not worth my time. It takes effort to know people, and laziness just to guess and dislike without a chance. And you, little lady, are not lazy.”
“... Donald?”
“Yeah?”
“You're still holding my hand.”
So he was. “Uh.” So he was still was. “Uhhh.” Still holding it. “I was – just – um – I was going to – to help you practice rigging the preventer!” This involved nearly squishing Daisy's hand to the boom and tying yet another intricate knot. As the blushing ducks debated whether to speak of whatever happened between them, peeking at each other and then pretending they hadn't, Donald made a deep decision. How was she to like him if he didn't tell her who he was? “Daisy, I'm not sure how to put this.”
“Hm.” Daisy was no longer naive about the world, including the many interests of men, and she wasn't exactly objecting to the idea of being Donald's interest. With the knot completed, she rolled her shoulders, coyly fluttering her eyelashes. “I'm listening.” As she began to twirl hair around her finger, a red rose dropping petals tangled in her hands, she expected a confession of how jaw-droppingly gorgeous he found her and he needed her every night and day. She was still a bit spoiled.
But instead of satiating Daisy's fantastic ego, Donald rubbed his knuckles, avoiding her intense gaze. “What do you know about the god Hades?”
Daisy blinked slowly, the candle of lust promptly snuffed out. How disappointing. “That he's some creep who rules the Underworld and kills little children because their mother's cry is music to his ears?”
“Oh, come on.” Donald slapped an open hand to his face, pulling it down hard.
“So what?” Daisy was about to drop her sleeve in an attempt for Donald to focus on something far more gratifying. “What does that monster have to do with you and me right now? It's got nothing to - ” But for all of Daisy's faults, and there were a great number of them, stupidity wasn't among them. Her hand froze as she understood exactly why he asked, and why he now looked so crestfallen, his entire body sagging. In that moment Daisy recalled every horrifying story she'd ever been told about Hades, most of them by her devastated mother. A beast, a merciless creature, a demon who relished in pain and suffering.
But a demon who relished in pain and suffering wouldn't have held her hand so tenderly.
“I don't – I don't care.” She blurted out, rising to her feet so fast that the boat began to wobble.
“Daisy, be careful!”
“I don't care!” She shouted louder this time, hands rolled into fists, her eyes feeling hot. “I don't care what they say about you on Mount Olympus, because – because it can't be true, none of it's true! I know who you are, they don't!”
Color flooded Donald's white cheeks, but he tried to hold off her compassion, his hands out and ready to steady her if she tipped over. “It's more than that, Daisy! Once your mother and everyone finds out I've been with you, they'll treat you like dirt too!”
“I don't care!”
“They'll say bad things about you too, and they'll trample all over you!”
“I don't care!”
“Daisy, you don't understand, they-”
“I SAID I DON'T CARE, YOU MORON, ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!”
“I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU OUT, YOU OBNOXIOUS BRAT!”
~*~
And that was the first time we made out. It was totally worth falling out of the boat.