A little divine counsel (Venus)

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Remus had a lot on his mind. And that was putting it lightly. He was overworked – his own fault – and underslept – also his own fault, which wasn’t making stress management very easy. Sure, taking an unexpected short trip to Disney World with Felicity had been a nice escape, but that was temporary. And actually, it had left him with even more on his mind now than ever. And first and foremost on that list was Felicity herself.

Felicity. Now there was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma if ever there was one. One minute she seemed to want to help people, the next, all she cared about was hurting them for her own cause. A cause that he almost wished he wasn’t privy to. It was hard to ignore her newfound track record of purposefully harming people. And the complaints he was getting left and right about her training habits or her sanity. There were several people wishing she would be removed from her position as a centurion entirely. And he almost sided with them. After all, she was getting rougher and less predictable by the day it seemed, and that was no good for a leader. Fourth or not, she needed to get her act together.

But it wasn’t that easy. He knew how much that would hurt her too. He’d seen it on her face when in a flash of temper, he’d informed her in no uncertain terms what his and the camp’s feelings were at the moment towards her. It was all Saturn’s fault. That damned Titan was after another war, he just knew it. He couldn’t be trusted. And Felicity just continued to follow him like a puppy. Curse her and her blindness! And she blamed him for being a war monger! She wanted the gods to fall and wanted the Titans to rise, but didn’t seem to understand that there was no cut and dry way of doing that which didn’t involve blood and pain.

Though even that wasn’t the worst of his problems in this. He was sworn to protect the camp, both physically and mentally. He wouldn’t have it any other way. But Felicity was headed down a destructive road, and though he tried to hide it, it was killing him to see her do this to herself. To the camp. Why? Because, frankly, he loved her. That was what was making this so hard. How could he stop her when he wanted to help her? Not help her take over the world for those nasty Titans, but help her to get through this trouble spot alive. Especially when she’d made him swear that if she got too out of hand, he would kill her. It was unthinkable. He leaned forward where he sat on the couch in the Praetors’ common room, elbows on his knees and face in his hands. Last he’d checked, Zidane was busy with something or another, so he allowed himself a moment of weakness he would otherwise never show to a soul alive. “I need help. Anyone. I… I can’t do this anymore. I’m killing the whole camp because I can’t do my stupid job. Gods, I’m an idiot!” There was no one there to hear him, after all, so he could say what he wanted, admit what he wanted. This was one of those moments he allowed himself to be the hurt, scared teenager that he so often shoved to the depths of his mind.

Tag: Venus
Word Count: 581
Notes: I had a lot of fun writing that actually. which might be surprising given it's not the happiest post I've written, lol

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The high life was the best kind of life, when Venus could get it. And she never had a problem finagling anything from members of the opposite sex, no matter which species they were. Sometimes even the same sex, if she was honest. Who could resist the promise of love and beauty? Very few people, that was who. And the people who claimed that they could were always liars. But today when the goddess of beauty should have been dropping in on a particular fashion show up in Paris, France, she was busy with her thoughts, which was unusual. What could have been enough to keep her away from kicking it in one of the best fashion districts in the world? Well, the answer was actually pretty simple. Saturn.

For the most part, Venus didn’t really care for war and politics. It was bloody and ugly and the only good things that ever came out of the two things were tragic love stories. The battle against the other titans a few years ago had been harrowing enough for herself and her brothers and sisters, but now it seemed that one last tenacious and very dangerous force was lingering and waking. What fun. But, it irritated Venus how much the advent of the titan coming back to life was threatening her wonderful lifestyle again. And really, some of the nieces and nephews and other sort of familial bonds she shared with the little campers in the Roman conclave she was currently looking down at were ungrateful little crazies. Sure, some of the gods could be mean and neglectful, and Venus had always chided them for it, telling them that they needed to love their children or else their hearts would turn ugly. Studying a perfect pearly nail, Venus thought to herself, bet they wish they’d listened better now.

Relaxing her mind a little bit, Venus decided to listen to the sounds of the children in the camp she was currently watching. She had to admit, most of them sounded like little brats, but there was so much romantic potential here that it was worth it. But she could also use what she knew to benefit the cause of keeping them from chasing after the goals of Saturn. It wasn’t until a little bit later that the goddess heard the pleas from a boy breaking through the low hum of noise. The beseechment was addressed to anyone at all that could help him, and she could hear heartbreak in that voice. Ah, this was certainly worth investigation, she decided. She tracked the voice back to the principia, recognizing it as the praetor of the camp; at least the one who had long written off love before the daughter of Pluto came along.

Knowing this was going to be good, Venus went down to meet the poor boy. Her customary veil of pink smoke began to billow into the common room, drawing her in and helping her appear in front of the blonde boy who’s face was hiding behind his hands. She could feel the heartbreak rolling off of him and was curious to say the least. Once she was fully corporeal in the room, she leaned forward towards Remus. “Call and you shall be answered, child." There was amusement in her voice at that, but then she asked: "What seems to be the problem, dear?”

Tag: Remus
Word Count: 552

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Remus was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the pink smoke gathering in the very same room right in front of him. Tally one for not being alert. He’d push himself harder in training for that one later no doubt. Then again, could anyone know of a god’s, or in this case goddess’, presence beforehand. And what would he have done if he had known?

Then there was the matter of looking up at the sound of a voice and the figure that met his eyes. She was gorgeous. And he felt a little bad for admitting it too. He was with Felicity. So wasn’t he basically supposed to stop thinking women were attractive? And since when did he have a habit of pondering that anyway. For a while in his earlier teens, he’d been questioned if he missed out on the hormone part because he was one of the few who didn’t look at girls as anything but fellow soldiers. Then there were people like Felicity. She was different. She was just as much stubborn as he was, and he found it oddly endearing. That and she had started out as a good friend, someone who didn’t judge him by his reputation while he didn’t judge her by hers. They really worked well for each other. He couldn’t help but picture her, her lovely smile, the way she laughed, that sparkle in her eyes. She was beautiful and he was lucky to have her. He remembered that kiss they had shared in Disney World, in that little imitation France area. It had been the best moment of his life. He-

That was about when he noticed that his every thought had gone from stress to daydreamy about his time with Felicity. Which automatically made him suspicious. He was not one to usually let himself be distracted by things such as that so easily. He looked suspiciously at the woman who had appeared out of the blue. There was something about her. Oh, gods. No, goddess. “You’re Venus, aren’t you?” Of all the gods to help. It just had to be the one who was probably enjoying his predicament. And was no doubt the one causing his mood swing. No, he had to focus. If there was any god to hide his own emotions from, it was Venus. So he cleared his throat and sat up straight. “Lady Venus, it’s a pleasure. I’m glad you could come. I have some grave news that the gods need to be aware of and immediately. It would seem that Saturn is once again trying to make it back to his body and overthrow the gods.” Now best he could do was pray she took him seriously and told the other gods. With Venus, it wasn’t always so sure.

Tag: Venus
Word Count: 468
Notes: sorry it’s short!