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Thalia's number!
It was one of the many numbers that were on the fridge, coupled with a few takeout and delivery numbers that the two teens used on a daily basis. This time, Skye was the one who made the call, ordering enough on the menu to break the bank and leave her wanting for the rest of the week, until a check was cut for her many services with SHIELD that could hold her over for a little while. With the food ordered, Skye called Thalia over for dinner, with express hopes that she'd come. And just in time? The food arrived at the doorstep and money was exchanged hands.
It'll be a happy thing for Alex to see his aunt and girlfriend getting along! At least that's what Skye was thinking, but there was no one else she could really turn to, and she was in desperate need of a word vomit. With Alex himself gone for the moment, Skye made sure to decorate the table with all of the food that she had bought.
Shrimp Fried Rice. Fried boneless chicken. Sesame chicken. Mugu gai pan, something called a poo poo platter with a crap ton of eggrolls and breaded pork with sweet and sour sauce. Let's just say, Skye went all out.
And so she waited, occasionally fixing things here and there upon the table, taking to a pace upon the floor as she lets out a little huff of a sigh and a tug of her jeans upward to ensure their fit.
*
It was certainly an unexpected call, to say the least. The last person, after their first encounter, that Thalia expected to call her was Skye. But she has a saying, 'When inspiration calls, you gotta answer.' Which is exactly why she agreed to come on out. Besides, she was so worried that she'd scared the young lady off during their first meeting, she wasn't sure she was going to get another chance to make things right. At least from her perspective.
Heels click-clacking against the floor of the hallway while she hums a nameless tune, the Greek Muse walks to the apartment door. Smoothing out her dress and jacket, ever so slightly, she puts on a smile, lifts her hand, and knocks on the door.
*
The knock at the door ease a little bit of her nerves, that means that Thalia was right on time and the food was still steaming hot. She immediately runs to the door, stopping just to tug her plain ol' shirt down, fix her hair, then quickly unlock and pull the door open to present herself to the Greek Goddess with a brilliant smile. It was.. near delirious! Their last encounter.. well. Skye got up and ran. This one? She was going to make sure a connection was made, because she surely needed help. Muses helped with dream interpretation, right?
"Miss Thalia!" And.. what.. in the world does she say now? Does she give her a hug? Does she ask how her day was? Good ol' Daisy, Agent of SHIELD sucked at social situations and cues to the point that it just made everything painfully awkward.
"Uh.. Oh! Come in! Come in! I'm sorry!" She takes a step aside, gesturing towards the apartment as a whole. "I hope you don't mind the mess and all, I've cleaned up a bit to .. uh.. you know. I mean it's not perfection. But it's close enough right?"
*
"Miss Skye, how nice it is to see you again!" Thalia truly sounds like she means it, too. "I must admit, I was surprised by your call." She says as she enters the apartment. "But it was a pleasant surprise." With ease, she lets her jacket fall off her shoulders and down her arms, and over the arm of a couch with a quick flick. "My jacket fine there, or is there somewhere else I should be putting it?" She doesn't want to be rude and presumptuous, after all.
She chuckles at the mention of the place being a mess. "Child, a little mess ain't never hurt a soul. In fact, I say that some mess usually does a person a bit of good. After all, the world ain't perfect, why should the home be any different?" She smiles kindly. Tilting her head slightly, she sniffs the air a little. "Chinese food? Mmhmm. Smells delicious!"
*
Oh, that was such a relief to hear her say it, Skye's shoulders slump in a moment of relaxation as she closes the door to lock it once more. "I.. I know. I'm sorry I bailed like I did. It's really hard to fight embarrasment. I made a right ass of myself, and I really wanted to say sorry." The flick of the coat was watched with a bit of wonder, she does it gracefully, much more grace than Skye could ever have. In fact, Skye probably would have just left her own coat in the middle of the floor, thankfully she tidied up before she invited Thalia over. "Ah, it's fine there." She waves her hand at the coat, but positively beams about her attitude. It was great.
"I like your style Miss Thalia." Skye says, moving into the kitchen after. The apartment itself was small enough that everything was in plain view! "It's not Wing Sing, but really.. the egg rolls are -divine-!" She pulls out a chair for Thalia to take a seat, the other one saved for herself as she plops down upon it with a slight grump. "Alex should be home in a little while, but.. since he's not here, can we…?" She gestures at herself, then to the Goddess. It.. was a little strange and intimidating to be one on one with a muse.
*
"Hey now. I didn't exactly make things easy. I don't think. I mean, I'm sure it was hard enough knowing that Alexander's a god. But then to meet one of his many relatives?" Thalia shakes her head and clucks her tongue. "That takes things to a whole other level. I really am glad that I'm one of the human lookin' ones, though. If you had to meet one of us who don't look completely human, it probably would've been worse." She chuckles softly. "But as is, you got nothing to apologize for."
Sitting herself at the table, she looks over the food. "Delicious! Delicious, delicious, delicious! There's not a thing in this world that can quite compare to a table full of good food served up with some good company!" She looks at Skye curiously. "Can we…write play? Oh! I know. You want to be a comedian and you want some advice." She gives the girl a little wink. "Whatever's on your mind, you can talk to me."
*
Skye breaks out into a little laughter, leaning forward to begin to pile the food upon the plates. But the mention of not looking human causes Skye herself to pause, then continue on with the doling out of food in generous amounts. The fact that they could pile the food on and have enough for Alex to eat later was something else. But go big or go home, Skye had to impress.
Even as Thalia recounts how delicious the food is, each statement has Skye's head bobbing. It was a feast of the Gods! "Thank you Thalia, I really mean that.." She says quietly. But, that was a thought. Maybe Skye could try her hand at writing later on in life.. but for now! What was on her mind! Gods!
"Well.. I wanted to ask something personal. Your boyfriend.. or husband.. or.. friend that you've had all of your children with, was he human?" And here goes the long, long list of questions she had for her. This night was going to be long for poor Thalia!
*
Piling food onto her own plate, Thalia starts diging into the foods rather quickly. "Mmm, this food is delicious. I haven't actually had Chinese food in a while!" She continues to eat as she listens intently to Skye. The question of children, however, has her very curious.
"The man I had my children with, he was another Olympian. Another god, I suppose you could say. But it's not uncommon for our kind to have children with humans. Quite a few have had children with humans." After a moment, she furrows her brow. "Why?" It's asked slowly, drawn out. "Are you…are the two of you thinking of having children?" Suddenly her eyes go wide, "Are you already pregnant?!" She clears her throat. "I'm sorry. That's prying. I promised myself I wouldn't pry too much."
*
Skye scoops a bit of rice into her mouth as her eyes lift to the ceiling, savoring the taste for a moment before she actually swallows it down, beginning to eat like a woman on a mission, her cheeks bunched up as she bobs her head eagerly at Thalia's excitement. It was a good thing she was actively swallowing the food down as she listens, her brows lower then snap right up, her cheeks immediately flushing red as the fork that she held clatters right upon the plate.
"No!" It was like she was scolding someone! "Oh sweet potatoes no! No kids! Nuh uh! Like maybe in the future after marriage and I retire we can have them but goooodnnesss no!" She shakes her head vehemently. Absolutely -not-! "And it's okay to pry.." She slowly relaxes. "I'm prying, right? So one good turn deserve another, or maybe three more.." She shifts a little in her seat, then clears her throat. "Like.. when you slept together. Not sex. But.. actual sleep.. have you two.. you know.. shared dreams?" She leans forward a little bit to explain. "I remember most of my dreams. Especially the really vivid ones. The other night, I dreamt that we were meeting myself in my dream. And older version of me. And it took a while to get there. Because the older me was in a tree." Her lips purse as she tries to figure out the best way to explain.
"I can't remember what older me said.. but.. she was afraid of Alex. And she wanted me to kill him and I did. And when he was gone, she showed me.. I guess they were our kids. And they were eating human guts and drinking bloody ice water.." But now that it was out of the way. "Some of the stuff in my dream, was in Alex's dream. Like, can Gods do that? Can we share the same dream with Gods if we're too close to them?"
*
Laughing softly, Thalia grins and shakes her head. "All right. No children right now, then. I bet they'd be adorable kids, though. I'm just sayin'!" She chuckles again, continuing to eat some of her food. "Shared dreams?" She thinks on the matter for a few minutes, idly eating while she does so.
"This is getting into some very tricky territory." She chews on the inside of her cheek, pondering. "It…sounds almost like there was a psychic link between you. It's certainly possible to share thoughts and dreams." She stares across the table at Skye, almost seeming hesitant to say what she's about to suggest. "It's possible that this could even have been some sort of…I don't know, a possible future interpreted through a dreamstate." There's a shrug as she pops a piece of chicken into her mouth. "Or it could just be a shared subconcious fear about the future manifesting itself through a shared dream."
*
Skye grins, then picks up a piece of fried pork. "I thought about it.. I think we would have great kids.." Though, the dream itself was still scary, Skye.. no. No. She wasn't willing. Not that she'd tell Thalia.
But as the conversation grows serious, Skye stops eating in favor of listening, a little frown curling her lips. The plate was soon pushed forward, and an uncomfortable shift in her seat is displayed as she drops her hands into her lap. "I.. huh." She says quietly. There was a silent thanks to herself for keeping her shit together, mostly because it was all making sense. "So.. a shared fear, you think?" She asks quietly, her brows lifting. "I mean.. me and Alex didn't have the child talk yet. Maybe he's afraid of an accident?" Her hand presses against her cheek, which was soon scratched. "That's an easy enough fix, if that's what it is. I'll just get on birth control, right?" Yes, ignore that it could be a possible future.
"But, has that happened to you and your boyfriend? I mean, your childrens father? Your husband?"
*
"I'm sure your kids would be amazing! And hey, some of them might be mortal! And if they're not, they might not all turn out to have powers that have to do with negative emotions." Thalia explains. "If you have more than one, that is. I mean…if you have any at all." She clears her throat. "But, back to the matter at hand."
She nods ever so slightly, her wavy hair bobbing up and down a little bit. "Certainly could be a shared fear. I mean, the whole thing about the kids eating human guts? Probably his fear that they'll end up a more vicious version of himself or Ares. And an older you being in a tree, that there is a difficult one." She scrunches up her face a little bit in concentration as she thinks about it. "Trees are big, strong. A sign of life. But you were hiding. If anything, I'd say it probably has something to do with a desire to foster life, while at the same time being afraid of consequences of bringing that life into the world." Once again, she shrugs. "I mean, I'm not a complete expert on dreams, but if I had to wager a few guesses, that's what I'd think about it."
She smiles softly, shaking her head. "Me and the father of my children…we didn't really spend that much time sleeping side by side. But an Olympian and a human constantly sleeping next to each other might have different consequences than two Olympians sleeping constantly next to one another."
*
That was interesting! "Some of them? I don't know if Alex is or not, his mother was mortal.." Her voice trails off. "Are any of your kids mortal?"
But she listens to Thalia's guesses, her own guesses as to her being in a tree causes her to frown. "I think it was probably because I was stuck in a goddamned cocoon for a week.." She mutters quietly to herself. That one she'll explain in a moment. "I don't know, Thalia. You're being really helpful right now and I'm feeling alright about everything. I know what we need to do and.." She shrugs her shoulders with a smile.
"So tell me about him. The father of your children. What was his name? What did he do? Is he like.. the God of Comedy and you were his partner in crime, the Goddess of Muses?" She grins with a wrinkle of her nose, wriggling in her seat at the prospect of a story.
*
"Oh yes, some of them are mortal. Mortal and without any kind of ability." Thalia smiles. "I can't say whether or not Alexander is mortal, but I'm sure he knows his way around those lil powers of his…though that's just a guess. But any child of my brother…" The sentence trails off leaving it as is.
"A cocoon? Lady friend, you know that humans ain't supposed to be in cocoons, right? It ain't like ya'll are gonna turn into butterflies or somethin'!" She lets out a little snort and a laugh. Butterflies! She's gonna have to right that one down for later! She blinks, realizing how serious Skye is, however. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make light of what was probably a very frightening situation."
She smiles once more. "I'm glad to be helpful. Really, making people laugh and helping them, it's what I live for!" She says happily, digging into her food some more.
"Oh, the father of my children. He's something, all right!" She giggles softly. "He was, is, quite the talented man. But it was his gift of song and poetry that caught me. You see, I love music, and I gots me a thing about poetry. And he uh…he may occasionally lead we, the Muses, in our daily giving of inspiration. On occasion. Anyway," she grins, "he game up to me one day and he says, and I ain't kidding, he says, 'You are more beautiful than Great Grandmother Gaia'. And that just had me bursting out laughing. I mean, who compares anyone to Gaia? Really? But hey, he caught my attention."
*
"I .. don't think he is, to be honest.." Skye comments quietly. The plate of food was drug back, the fork picked up, and now she was just picking among the remains, half thinking to save her own plate for Alex for when he returns. But the mention of her cocoon, it has her cringing. Even the joke to go along with it! She was glad that she didn't turn out like.. something weird when she popped out, but still inwardly? She felt like a monster. Eventually she'll let it go. "It's.. It's okay. It's nothing." Skye puts on a brave face in the form of a smile, but really.. it was the love story that she truly wanted.
She listens then, one hand resting beneath her chin as she sways a little in her chair, her nose wrinkling in a slight cutesy way, then laughing completely. Not at him, or her! But the story itself was just joyful noise that she needed to hear at the moment.
"I'd catch mine!" Skye says eagerly. "It's a beautiful way to say that he likes you. Maybe he really meant it, you really are gorgeous." She nods faintly. "Did you two dance after? Did he sweep you off of your feet?" Oh.. she could say she wished her and Alex were like that, too bad he called her something akin to a crazy girl when they first met.
*
"No…I can tell it's not something you're comfortable with. And it's not a joking matter. Sometimes I can take my craft a little too far, and you shouldn't be afraid to call me on it." Thalia says softly. "Besides butterfly or not, you've got something about you that's just…it's hard to explain. But you're something else, that's for sure! And that's a good thing."
She chuckles. "Young one, you are much too kind." She leans back and grins at the questions. "Let me put it this way: Once upon a time, there was a god and a muse. They'd spent so much time together, helping to bring beauty to this world. One day, when they were helping this wonderful old man write his last poem about a simple farming life lived well, they gazed into each other's eyes. There were sparks. 'Twas as if Zeus himself had shot lightening betwixt them. They spent many nights laying in open fields, counting the stars in the sky, and they spent their days riding the breeze, laughing and running and enjoying just being with each other. A great fondness was born in them. When they spoke to each other, they spoke in verse. They did not care to get married, for just being with one another was enough. When they had children, they taught those children to dance. And while they eventually grew apart, they would always be glad for the time they had together."
*
"I'm an Inhuman.." She blurts out. "..I'm not.. even a real person. I'm this.. thing that when you mix -me- with some green booger mist, I get wrapped up into some sort of cocoon and then I hatch with powers." If she could fling a piece of food without being seen as rude, then she would. But that was the third time she was open about it, and it never really had gotten easier. "I was supposed to die that day." She says quietly. "If I would have listened to Alex when he said I'd change, I would have fucking stayed home." She leans back in a little tiff, her arms folding about her chest. There was Thalia's explanation. "I'm not even a real person. I'm, just not."
But, as her head shakes and the story was told, her features lighten completely. The story that was told was beautiful enough to make her cheeks burn red, her eyes water with wonder and thought. To compare experiences would be foolish, they were gods! They've probably lived such a very, very long time. Skye and Alex just started their lives. So experiences like that would definitely come. She had hope. "I.. that's.." Just wow. She was enamored into silence.
*
Thalia says, "Inhuman? That makes it sound like you're something not quite right!" Thalia shivers slightly at the thought. "But whatever you are, it don't mean you ain't a real person. Being a real person ain't marked by whether you're completely human. I'm person and I certainly am not a human." She speaks softly, calmly, and kindly. "No matter what happened to you, no matter how you changed, you're still a person with so much to offer. So please, please don't beat yourself up because you think you're something you shouldn't be." The pleading in her voice is matched with the sympathy written over her face. "Whoever you are, whatever you've become, you are perfect the way you are."
The rest of the dinner is spent between Thalia telling more stories, both of a comedic variety and of the poetic, gentle-spirited variety, and between her asking Skye about her own life, whatever is willing to be shared. It's a time spent eating, drinking, laughing, and, overall, being merry."
*