open: now winter nights enlarge the number of their hours

[papadopoulos]

I feel disgusting.
Dark sucks, so do baby germs.
(Sorry to Sunny.)
-———————————

It’s official. Apollo hates Dark and everything associated with it. Yes, he had been warned, but warning isn’t quite the same as living through it. He hasn’t felt this bad since he was Lester, and Lester almost died multiple times. (But did he ever have to put up with a sinus infection? Arguably as bad as almost turning into a vrykolakas.) His head feels like someone is playing timpani on his sinuses, he can hardly breathe–and to make matters worse, there’s a thunderstorm going on.

Every lightning strike makes him tense, every roll of thunder serves to remind him: “Don’t get on the wrong side of my lightning bolts, boy”. His father’s threats loom large in the back of his mind, like they always do when lightning gets too close. But he has duties to attend to; regardless of how he feels. Mousikí and Stíchoi must get their daily visits and cuddles, even if he would much rather be in bed. He does spend an excessive amount of time with them, even so: Stíchoi is nervous about the storm, and so Apollo --well, Lester-- soothes her with a scratchy-voiced song.

Later in the day – if it is day, it’s hard to tell, he might be found in one of the many kitchens, staring grumpily at a cupboard in hopes of getting at least one teabag out of it. Tea with honey would do wonders to make him feel better, but the mansion spirits seem to be as fickle as the Fates during Dark.

Comments

[vineleaves]

Dionysus figured that Dark would be especially hard on his brother, but he somehow didn't anticipate Apollo getting an illness. The god of Healing. It's incredibly worrisome. Of course, Dionysus figured his own powers would be greatly diminished, just as they had been the year prior, and that turned out to be correct this go around as well. It takes way more concentration to make anything using his wine and grape powers, his thyrsus has been barely able to create any honey, and well, he isn't even going to attempt to use any of his mind powers like this (sorry, Grantaire).

At some point when Apollo is back in his room, Dionysus knocks on the door. "Apollo?" he calls. "I've come to check up on--" a loud crash of thunder causes Dionysus to jump. "-- to check up on you, can I come in?"

[temnota]

Whatever hopes that Aleksander had about Dark being less terrible this year were quickly dashed. His room had reverted to the unnecessary grandeur of his room at the Little Palace, the mirror showed him a face bearing dark angry scars that he swore he could almost feel and the strange shadow creatures were once again following him wherever he went. The closet too was giving him trouble - it was slowly but surely replacing his clothes with strange maroon-colored suits. And to top it all of, even the faintest light hurt his eyes.

Today, he had managed to find a kefta that had not been replaced by the bizarre suit so he was wearing that along with a pair of dark sunglasses. It had taken some time but had managed to cajole enough ingredients from the kitchen to make some chicken soup. It wasn't the most flavourable thing in the world what with everything coming out of a can but it was the best he could do for the moment and so he went to find Apollo, doing his best to ignore the jealous whispering of his shadow entourage.