Bore Olympus (Aphrodite)

[HEPHAESTUS | VULCAN]

Heph didn't care to go to Olympus those days. He liked his Forge, and liked being in the bowels of the Earth, cozy in one of his volcanoes. Olympus was too bright and cheery and there was too much singing. Not his thing. However, he did have his own place up there, and his own seat in the main throne room. Now and then, he decided to pop in, especially since he and his mother had patched things up over the past several centuries. And it wasn't like he had to stay if he wanted to leave... well unless Zeus decided to hold one of those huge, Earth-shaping meetings. Those could be real snorefests.

Clad in a brown toga, he made his way into the throne room and smiled and nodded at the sight of his personal throne, one he built himself. He was pretty proud of the bronze, mechanical masterpiece. However, as he approached, he looked down at his attire and groaned.

"Why am I wearin' this stupid thing?" he asked. He snapped his fingers and his attire changed into a black Harley Davidson t-shirt, black jeans, and work boots. He smiled. "That's better." He then made his way to the throne, pulled a cigar out of his pocket and lit it with a flame from his thumb.

APHRODITE/VENUS

[APHRODITE/VENUS]

Aphrodite did not frequent the throne room all that often. She usually spent far more of her time on the streets of Olympus, looking for gossip and finding things to do and people to flirt with. The Throne room was usually reserved for holding business type meetings and those were terribly boring. Today she'd woken in a strange bed (again) and had left relatively early. Her company certainly had not been awake yet. Lazy bones.

Her interest was stolen as soon as she noticed her husband making his way to the throne room. Aphrodite was ever the curious and she always secretly hoped and feared that Hephaestus had found somebody else he fancied. Half because she wanted him to be happy despite everything and half because she really just wanted to be free. The part that feared such a thing focussed more on her vanity, wanting to be the most beautiful one. Apart from that she'd never admit it, but she kind of liked how sharp his mind was and the challenges he set her in being able too sneak around with others. It made things a lot more interesting.

So she sneaked in after him, ending up giggling profusely as he got annoyed at his robes and then stepping out into the open, beautiful as ever. "Well, look who came up to Olympus." She said with a devious smile. "Are you working on your throne again or is this a far more casual visit?" She asked as she made her way over to her own throne, which was far more like a mix between a lounge and a love seat. It was a while since she last remembered being alone with the smith like this. They didn't really get along all that well. They were too different, in a way. Maybe one day they'd get along better? There was something to consider, no matter how unlikely it was.

HEPHAESTUS | VULCAN

[HEPHAESTUS | VULCAN]

Aphrodite drove Heph crazy, in both good and bad ways. She was gorgeous, the most beautiful being in existence. Who wouldn't be driven crazy gazing upon her? However, he reminded himself that she was his wife, given to him to keep her out of trouble... like that helped. The two were married, but had never been intimate with one another. Aphrodite flocked to Ares and Heph went his own way. So, she made his immortal heart skip a beat and made him sick at the same time.

"Just wanted a change of scenery and remembered I got my own spot up here, as much as some try to make me feel I don't." Heph wasn't directly accusing Dite of that, but often he felt as if she might have been one of the more beautiful Olympians who didn't want one like Heph among them in a glorious place. He took a big puff of his cigar, and blew it in Dite's direction. The smoke formed what looked like a mechanical heart that quickly broke down. He wondered if his wife would get the message. "So what are you doin' here? The God of War too busy plannin' world class prize fights to spend time with ya these days?"

APHRODITE/VENUS

[APHRODITE/VENUS]

There was a sadness in Hephaestus that always made Aphrodite uncomfortable. It was like the reject from Hera had done something to him. Perhaps he had trouble with self love? That sort of a thing always had been something that Aphrodite found very difficult to understand and it made her truly uncomfortable to be around people that didn't know how to love themselves for who they were. All the creations that Hephaestus made were beautiful and quite clearly made with love. Aphrodite, at times, felt more comfortable around things he made than around him. She frowned, knowing she was immune to developing wrinkles. A true blessing in life. She watched him from her own throne and felt the implied accusation. It wasn't true that she found him too ugly to be on Olympus though, that was Hera's thing. She didn't voice it but merely raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at him. "Ares might not like you but I know he respects your skills as a craftsman. The only two people capable of actually telling you that you don't belong here are you yourself and Zeus." Aphrodite commented dryly. Hera might have thrown him off the mountain but Zeus had not accepted that choice in such a way that he'd expected Hephaestus to stay down. While she carried no romantic love for her husband at all, she did respect him for being able to achieve so much despite where he started.

Aphrodite snorted derisively as he mentioned Ares. She missed him terribly and thought it was highly amusing that Hephaestus was jealous of the god of War. If she'd had a choice in who she was to marry she would have chosen Ares, that much was for sure. He was by far the most interesting in the pantheon and she enjoyed her time with him a lot. Perhaps she could appeal to Zeus for a divorce from Hephaestus now that times were changing? It wasn't like the world needed to know. Maybe that way the two of them could both move on to new and better things. The only reason not to was that she feared for the impact it might have on the smith. "Ares has his entertainments and I have mine. We're not particularly possessive in nature." She said flatly. Maybe Ares was, but Aphrodite didn't mind sharing. Love should be multiplied after all, not contained. She looked at the heart as it broke into pieces. It made perfect sense to her. She was breaking his heart, over and over. She sighed deeply. "You can't fool me Hephaestus." She told him, a tired note in her voice that rarely was present with her. "Even if I were loyal to you, neither of us would be happy. You'd have a marriage void of love and filled with a mutual resentment. It is but a shadow and a thought that you love. Would you truly want for us to try and make this work?" She knew exactly what would happen. She wouldn't be able to love as she desired and her more petty side would take it out on the world. It would get ugly very fast as people would desperately cling to any connection as love where nobody felt it. The world would slowly wither and she would wither along with it, becoming nothing more than a marble statue for people to admire. Love would die, and beauty would be all that was left. The world would crumble, but perhaps this time she had to give him the chance to discover that.

@hephy

[HEPHAESTUS | VULCAN]

Heph listened as Aphrodite tried to reason with him. Ares didn't like him, but respected him. Fine, he respected Ares as well. War was rough and violent, but it did solve some big issues with the mortals at times. And yes, no one could kick him off Olympus except Zeus. He remembered the two occasions Zeus turned his half brother, Apollo, mortal. The last thing Heph wanted was that fate. He only wanted to look like an aging movie actor, not feel like one too.

"I ain't given anyone a reason to kick me off, and I don't plan too, but it ain't like I don't feel the resentment of others when I'm up here, includin' you," he said. "So, if you wanna knock me outta that mindset, how about next time sayin' 'hey Heph, how ya doin'? How's the Forge?' instead of 'What are you doin' up here?'." Okay, Dite hadn't put it just that way, but she might as well have.

Then it came to their marriage. Yeah, it was loveless, and it would NEVER work. Heph wasn't the romantic type. He would never please Aphrodite the way the other gods, or even the mortals she had dated, could. Still, he was a god of honor. He had a server pop in and give him an ice cold bottle of beer. After the server popped the top with a bottle opener and vanished, Heph took a swig.

"I made a promise to Mom," he said. "She picked me to marry you, and I was makin' a strong effort to work things out with Hera, so I told her I'd be loyal to the union. Yeah, me and you went off and did our own thing, dated a few mortals and immortals, but I still stuck to the marriage. I figured if Zeus and Hera could hold it together this long, we could, so... here I am... and here we are. Deal with it."

APHRODITE/VENUS

[APHRODITE/VENUS]

Aphrodite was far too entertained by the towering resentment that dear old Hephy seemed to have against her to feel the sting of his words. His expectations were unrealistic, that much was certain but she figured they were both well aware of that. She grinned and with a sly smile she walked up to him, hips swaying as ever and her beauty clearly on display. She stroked his cheek playfully. "Well you do at least try with the faces recently." She mused, tapping her lips as if thinking it over for a moment. "But I fear I don't feel like pretending to care about your forge. It's dirty and so are you after playing there. You might make some beautiful things in it but I wouldn't want to think of the grime they went through to get where they are." She said, although playful it was clear she had no intention of pretending to care about the forge. "And if I ask about your state of being I risk hearing about the forge as well. My distaste for that doesn't seem to stop you, so why should I be the bigger person first?" It was juvenile, yes, but she had never wanted this even a little bit. He hadn't exactly objected to their marriage. Maybe if he had she would have gotten along with him better.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes when he mentioned his mother. "I can't believe you remain loyal to a woman that threw you off a mountain for being too ugly, married you off out of spite and possibly guilt and now keeps you trapped here despite both of us being miserable." It exasperated her to no end. Hera had been jealous of her beauty and she wasn't sure if Hephaestus had gotten the short end of the stick because she felt vexed towards Zeus, guilty about throwing her son of a cliff (unlikely) or so envious of her for being more beautiful that she'd set up something that she had to know was a recipe for disaster. She was never going to not fight Hephaestus on this one. "You know I never will. Times change, divorce rates are sky high! You mother is stuck in a relationship with an abuser out of honour to her job and the false hope that one day he'll love her like she deserves. Zeus is never going to be able to keep it in his pants and he'll never be loyal and while Hera and I will never properly manage to see eye to eye until I get a free card out of this, she deserves better! We ALL do!" Aphrodite said in a raised voice, annoyed beyond belief that it was once again coming to this. She had wanted a divorce before they'd even gotten married and they were only still going because people expected it. It was high time that they got with the times and started to try and actually find people to connect with. Make some mortal fling of him immortal, whatever. This was some nonsense.

HEPHAESTUS | VULCAN

[HEPHAESTUS | VULCAN]

Heph just rolled his eyes when Aphrodite stroked his cheek and talked about how dirty his Forge was and how dirty he was after he worked there. The lovey-dovey stuff might have worked on him at one time, but it was an old act to him, stale after a few thousand years.

"Thanks for the advice," he said. "I'll have some people come in and clean up my volcano right away. And you think me talkin' about the Forge is borin'? If I hear one more thing about who is datin' who in our world or the mortal one, I might accidentally cause another eruption. The last time was pretty ugly, even made the international news. Don't you have... like... other ladies to talk to, or are Athena and Artemis tired of celebrity gossip as well?"

Aphrodite had to go and remind him of Hera's tossing him off the mountain. Always about the mother/son rivalry!

"For the eighty-three millionth, seven hundred and forty-nine thousandth, five hundred and sixty-third time, I told you we've patched things!" he shouted. When he did, his throne burst into flames. Fortunately, it was fire-proof. He eventually calmed down and swigged his beer. "Look, I let you do what you wanna do. Wanna flirt with Aries or Apollo or heck one of those weird animal-gods from Egypt, go for it! But I'm stickin' to my guns." He then smiled. "Besides, I kinda like arguin' with ya. Nobody does it better."

APHRODITE/VENUS

[APHRODITE/VENUS]

He was doing it on purpose. Of all the people he could have suggested he picked the two most stale goddesses in the pantheon, except perhaps Hestia but she was just a darling. Maiden Goddesses with celebacy vows were not exactly the types that she enjoyed hanging out with. He did it on purpose, that was the only conclusion. She felt the good old temper that she didn't usually try to show bubble up in the pit of her stomach and knew exactly why he was doing this. To spite her. If she had any way to actually get out of this on her own, she would do it in a heart beat. Too bad it took two people to agree a marriage was over and he was far too stubborn. She glared at him momentarily. "I'll pretend you didn't say that." She said loftily.

She rolled her eyes even more obvious and excessively. He patched things with his mother, sure! Stuck in a cycle if nothing else. His temper was showing but Aphrodite merely raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms. "Whatever you say dear." She said dismissively, oozing with arrogant superiority in every syllable. They clearly had no reason to be around each other and if it wasn't for the entire forced marriage thing they wouldn't have interacted at all. She sighed as she sat on her own throne for a moment. "I can always try to appeal to Zeus. I doubt he's man enough to stand up to his wife but maybe he'll let me off the hook since we've had a few centuries to prove that this thing doesn't work. Not to mention that I was very much forced into this against my will." She tapped her lips thoughtfully as she pondered the option. "I can stop by for arguing every once in a while if you're so depraved of proper connection." She said, mostly just to spite him. "But I figured you'd build yourself a companion if you got lonely." She said dismissively. He had skills far greater than any other when it came to creating machines but she didn't care enough. She wanted her freedom and she truly despised being stuck in this marriage. It wasn't his fault, but he didn't make it better either.

HEPHAESTUS | VULCAN

[HEPHAESTUS | VULCAN]

Heph smirked when Dite said that she'd pretend he didn't say what he said. He had toe remember that for next time, or think up some other goddesses that she couldn't stand to be around. Maybe he'd suggest Persephone. She'd no doubt make Dite jealous with how great her love life with Hades was. Yep, he would go that route.

Well, Heph tried to calm the tension with some levity, but it didn't work. Dite was vindictive and was bound and determined to end it all between them. What did it really matter? She could still be her bed-hopping self. He did like the idea of building a companion though.

"I might just go ahead and build someone up," said Heph. "Might make her look just like you, just to drive you crazy. Or better yet... an Aphrodite even more beautiful than Aphrodite herself. Don't think I'm capable of that? Look at who you're talkin' to." And he felt every shred of confidence that he could do it. "Imagine, all the other gods flocking past you to see my gorgeous creation, with it getting all the attention. I could make it more pleasant to be around too. I could make a whole line of Aphrodite Automatons. No one, mortal or immortal, would need you around again." Fire then blazed in Heph's eyes. "Doubt I could pull that off? Try me, baby doll."

APHRODITE/VENUS