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

[papadopoulos]

Apollo opens the door and sniffles somewhat miserably. He looks tousled and slightly damp -- he is still running hot, but not as much as he normally is, and the walk to and from the cow barn had been quite wet, to say the least.

"Yeah," he says, the picture of teenage misery, and steps back to gesture Dionysus in. "Ugh. Baby germs. Who invented germs, again?"

[vineleaves]

Dionysus raises an eyebrow. "I don't know, mighty god of Plagues, you tell me." But he's just joking. He's reasonably certain that germs predate both of them. "Get back in bed, I'm going to get a towel to try and dry off your hair."

[papadopoulos]

"Hey, I haven't done any plague arrows in months." But he's not in any mood to argue and drifts back towards the overly-large bed, eyeing the lightning crackling over the horizon somewhat warily.

[vineleaves]

"Please don't do any plague arrows in the future either," Dionysus says as he ducks into Apollo's bathroom to fetch a towel. "It would be nice if this could be a plague-free universe, thank you."

[papadopoulos]

"Well, don't send any giant bronze statues after me and we might have a deal." He sneezes, and curls up in a semi-miserable ball on his bed. "Uggggh, this sucks."

[vineleaves]

"Well darn, there go all of my plans for the giant bronze statue I just ordered," he says, emerging from the bathroom and promptly wrapping Apollo's head up in the towel and rubbing.

[papadopoulos]

"Please don't make me deal with Nero's stupid ugly face again," he says from the depths of the towel. "Even if it was his stupid colossus in the first place."

[vineleaves]

"Don't worry, I'm in no particular rush to see Nero either. Want me to make you some medicine?" And by 'medicine' he, of course, means kykeon. It's... medicinal...

[papadopoulos]

He arches an eyebrow. “Can you even make any right now?”

[vineleaves]

“It’ll take some concentration, but yeah. Last year I spent all of Dark making grapes and wine for everyone.” He’s still making some grapes, so that they have some fresh fruit at least, but he’s making a considerable amount less than last year, because needs are not as great. “Don’t know if I could manage the hallucinogenic kind, but honestly that’s probably for the best. Don’t want you spitting out any prophecies while you’re on your deathbed.”

[papadopoulos]

He sneezes, and promptly winces. "I guess, if you want. Really sucks that I'm not up for healing anyone right now; but I kinda leave that to Will and Asclepius these days."

[vineleaves]

"Oh, speaking of," he says as he starts forming some vines, trying to get a glass of kykeon for Apollo, "D'you think we should try to figure out how to get everyone here vaccinated? Étienne and I were talking about this recentlyish. Obviously not right now, but when Dark is over and we might have a chance at getting the mansion to provide us with... uh... with whatever we'd need for that." Dionysus, being a god with no blood and an inability to get or pass on diseases, has never had a vaccination before. He doesn't really know what all is involved in the process. The closest he has come to being involved was taking Mako to get shots when she was a kid, and that was sort of a 'Show up at the doctor's office and let them handle it from there' situation, obviously.

[papadopoulos]

"I mean. It couldn't hurt, I guess?" He frowns thoughtfully, though his shoulders are incredibly tense thanks to the ongoing storm outside. "I suppose I could try and make some. Though really, if anyone's going to catch anything, you would think they would have already." There's another sniffle to punctuate his sentence.

"Though I guess maybe most people don't have two-year-olds coughing into their mouths regularly."

[vineleaves]

"Are you sure that's where you got it? I don't think Sunny is this sick." Last he saw her she just had a runny nose.

[papadopoulos]

"It's a sinus infection, it's not like I'm dying of influenza. Almost dying feels much different, this feels like there's a marching band playing the drums in my brain."

[vineleaves]

"Well, here," he says, having finally finished the kykeon and handing it over. "It'll help."

[papadopoulos]

He looks mildly dubious, but takes it. "Thanks, bro."

[vineleaves]

"Yeah, no problem. D'you want me to play some music for you or anything?" he asks, looking over at Apollo's piano. He knows music generally helps Apollo feel better, but he doesn't want to make a headache worse or anything like that.

[papadopoulos]

"--Sure. Anything to, uh, drown out the.." --He winces at a particularly loud crack of lightning. "...Well, you know."

[vineleaves]

Dionysus also startles at the thunder. "Yeah, good point." He sighs. "It's not even him, but I still get so... jumpy with it."

[papadopoulos]

"Yeah. Same here."

[vineleaves]

“He’s such a piece of shit,” Dionysus says as he settles at the piano and starts playing Anything Goes.

[papadopoulos]

"Yeah." Apollo takes a meditative sip of his kykeon, wrinkling his nose just slightly. "He always has been, though."

[vineleaves]

"I hope he never shows up here..."

[papadopoulos]

He winces again, nodding. "Me, too. I plan on staying as far from Olympus as I can for a long time."

[vineleaves]

"Well, I've got some good news for you there, buddy. Couldn't even go if you wanted to for some reason."

[papadopoulos]

"...Yeah. I should see if I can get word to Artemis or something at least, though. Or Meg."

[vineleaves]

Dionysus sighs. "Wish I could've sent some letters for you with Ariadne when she came." But that obviously wouldn't have worked, due to the differing dimensions thing.