pick your battles.

Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War City Council Member and archivist at Phoenix Library & Museum; occasional guest lecturer at Phoenix University

[bitchstal]

[exmpxathena]

civil war; 

aresmp​:

Ah shit. Ares knew sooner or later he’d bound to run across the one fucking person (aside from Zeus) that he would really rather not actually want to cross paths with. Why? Simple reason he hated her. But of course Athena would always have her way and even before he could actually study a way to circumvent his path, she was already before him. And hooking him to stop like he was a damn brat trying to sneak off sweats from a party.

“Athena, a bitch as always.” He drawled, keeping his expression as cool as his sister’s, which is rather impressive given how he could already feel a muscle twitch in his jaw. “Did you finally get that stick out of your ass?” He met her gaze with one of his own and he gives his own version of a derisive snort. “Guess not.”

The vessel she chose was as almost as tall as his, which again Ares noted nothing of interest by. He figured she chose tall vessels so she can look her nose down at everybody–which Ares knew she had perfected to an art form.

“Why the fuck are you here?” He demanded without preamble, noting the casually dressed ensemble complete with a coffee cup.

“And you’re charming as always,” Athena commented, wrinkling her nose slightly at his crass comments. He truly had a way with words- in the sense that he somehow still spoke like an uneducated, lowly street thug despite having so many millennia to improve his linguistic skills. But she supposed such a pursuit would take him away from raping and pillaging too long for his liking. And when you had Aphrodite for company, it was probably best to stick to monosyllabic words, anyway.

“I’d think I should be the one asking you that question. You never did well in a group setting, did you?” She commented, raising her eyebrows. She sincerely doubted that he had any desire to connect with his demigod spawn, which she was assumed was the sentimental rationale for a majority of gods choosing to live on the island.

“If you must know, I thought that the library and the city council could use my expertise, and I was curious about this place.” She paused, lips pursing as she raked her gaze over him. “And I suppose I’d forgotten how truly unpleasant it is to run into anyone in this... family.”

[koreanartphotography]

Lee Sung Kyung - Marie Claire Korea (2016) Photographer - AHN JOO YOUNG

[exmpxathena]

top shelf;

@mpxbes

Athena stepped out into the main hall of the library, casting her gaze about to scan the people milling about the stacks. After a moment, her eyes fixed on one of the employees, a demigod of Bastet who she had seen hanging around often when she resurfaced from the dusty archives. He usually seemed to be tucked away in a corner, napping in the sun like a true feline instead of actually working. But for her purposes, he would do.

“You. Tall child,” she called, quietly but authoritatively, beckoning the demigod closer with one crooked finger. “Come with me.” She did not wait to see if he would follow, turning on her heel and leading the way to the cavernous archives room. She did not stop until she reached the shelf she had been sorting through, at which point she pointed at the cluttered top shelf and glanced at him, expectant. “Get those down for me, would you? Apparently the last archivist was freakishly tall, because there are no step-stools or ladders in here.” 

Could she have just borrowed one of those from the public section of the library? Yes. But it seemed beneath her, to have to lug a ladder in for herself. And whoever was in charge of fulfilling department equipment requests seemed to be dragging their feet on the matter.

“Quickly. This place is such a disaster, I really can’t waste a moment.”

[exmpxathena]

civil war;

@aresmp

This was what had kept Athena away from Mount Phoenix for so long. The possibility of running into her family. And in particular, Ares. Her savage, bloodthirsty worse half. Of all the other gods Zeus could have put in charge of war with her, why did it have to be Ares?

She spotted him as she was leaving a cafe, a steaming chai tea latte warming her hands. No matter how long it had been or how much change had occurred in that time, she could always immediately identify the other Greek gods by instinct alone. “Brother,” she called, rather flatly, as she strode forward to catch his arm as he was hurrying past. Maybe he had noticed her too. He had always been a coward, despite all the machismo- or, at least, he had always been just a little scared of her.

“I heard that you own a brothel now. And I thought Aphrodite was supposed to be the whore in your relationship,” she commented; voice clipped, gaze steady and judgmental. But really, she was not surprised. Anything that had to do with carnal pleasure had always been irresistibly enticing to her brother- hence him stealing said whore out from under Hephaestus in the first place.

[danisdramadiary]

Lee Sung Kyung for Chanel in W Magazine Korea September 2021

[exmpxathena]

mpairmid​:

kindred spirits;

her awareness of people arriving up the mountain path is always spot-on, but she can’t always distinguish who it is before she sees them in front of her. when it comes to people she has known as long as athena, however, there is no doubt within her. the goddess has that same steady but strong presence, that iron determination and that complete lack of give in her. their connection has always been one of shared interests and not one where airmid had to somehow heal her friend from wounds inflicted, because athena did not get hurt often - or at all, as far as she knows.

so when her friend pushes open the door to foiseach and steps inside, she breathes out a warm smile. it has been a while now that almost all of the people close to her had left the island, and though she’d managed to keep herself occupied and not to feel too lonely, it is nice to see now that some of her friends are returning. which is why she rounds her counter almost instantly so she can greet her friend with a quick though solid embrace.

“absolutely,” she hums when asked if she missed the greek goddess. “it has been too long once again since we last saw each other. it is good to see you, and looking so well to booth.” she takes a step back to take in this new look of her old friend, and smiles a bit wider yet at the sight of her, fully drinking in this unexpected surprise. “what brings you to mount phoenix, my dear?”

The hug almost surprised Athena, but not enough to wipe the slight smile off her face- on the contrary, it was almost a full smile at that point. An expression only reserved for her few tried and true friends. The last time she had seen Airmid, she had been just about as solemn as Athena herself, and it hadn’t suited the healing goddess. It was a relief to see that she had perked up in the time since their last meeting. 

“Wow, such a warm greeting. I’m glad to see you’ve gotten your zest for life back,” she commented as she gave Airmid a brief squeeze in return, not putting too much weight on the words. The change was worth noting, but she did not want to speak too much of it and remind the woman of the problems that had plagued her in the past. 

“You’re looking well, yourself,” she replied, stepping back to look the other goddess up and down before turning her gaze to the rest of the room. “Ah, nothing in particular. I finished my tenure at France’s National Archives -again- and I heard that some interesting things have been happening on the island, so I figured that I would suffer through the company of my fellow Greeks for a time to sate my curiosity about this place.”

[exmpxathena]

mposiris​:

[ miss shelley ]

...

“do you work at the library here too?” he asks, his expression alight with his happiness at coming across an old, cherished friend again. it clearly doesn’t matter to him that they had both not been exactly what they pretended to be, or that more than a little time has passed since their shared days in england, because he’s beaming at her with that same childlike admiration that he’d shown as the young british boy as well.

“do i call you miss athena now?” he grins even brighter at that second question, endlessly amused and happy both.

Athena nodded, a spark of recognition in her eyes being her only external reaction to his name. “Ah. That makes sense.” Of course, she was very familiar with most other mythologies, and therefore knew exactly who he was. And, hindsight being 20/20, she was actually a little surprised that she hadn’t realized his true identity before. For such an old, respected god, Osiris had played the innocent, precocious child well. Whatever that said about him.

She would have been annoyed by the deception if she had not been so fond of little Warden back in the day.

“Yes. I’ve taken over the archives. There are hundreds of boxes of historic documents in storage there- looks like quite a few gods have dumped everything from sacred texts to their grocery lists on the library’s former archivist. Who was apparently not very thorough. It will be a real mess to sort out properly.” The former archivist really hadn’t done that bad a job, but it certainly was not up to her incredibly high standards- so she would have to reorganize it all into her preferred system.

She scoffed softly at his next question, rolling her eyes. “I think just Athena will do. Maybe we don’t have an age hierarchy like the humans, but you were certainly worshipped long before I was, Osiris.”

[exmpxathena]

mposiris​:

[ miss shelley ]

@mpxathena 

it is a day like any other where he’s quietly walking around the busy city streets to keep an eye on things and make sure everyone is doing alright. he’s gotten some sleep into his system again at least thanks to tohil’s interference, though he’s not sure how happy either of them are with how things evolved between them, but those are worries for a different him. definitely not present day him.

as he glances over at a person passing by him a little end away, a sudden jolt of recognition goes through him, and he instantly stops and turns to get another look at the woman. it has someone walking into him and he quickly helps steady them, uttering quick and heartfelt apologies with a few bows accompanying them before he quickly scurries around them to get closer to the woman again.

she’s tinier than he remembers, but then he’s taller than he used to be once upon a time, so that’s probably how that happened. he realises he’s just following a woman around the street then, and instantly comes to a stop, breathing out a grin as he calls out. “miss shelley?” definitely not her real name, he thinks, but then warden peterson as she used to know him by isn’t his real name either, so who is he to judge?

Athena was anything but stupid, and very alert, so she knew immediately when someone began following her as she was on her way back from doing some shopping. However, given that it was light out and the street was rather busy, she was not very concerned with that fact. Whoever it was would realize that she was not who they thought, or that she was not worth the chase- or, when they reached somewhere a little less crowded, they might find themselves scuttling around the damp ground as a particularly ugly spider.

But then something interesting happened.

Miss Shelley? She stopped very abruptly when she heard the name, an alias from a long time ago. Jane Shelley, librarian and archivist at... ah, The British Library, wasn’t it? If she recalled correctly, there had been a boy there who would constantly pester her for all kinds of books and call her name just like that, always just a little too loud for the tranquil silence of the library.

When she turned toward the voice, she saw someone completely unlike that studious child she remembered; which was not necessarily surprising, since even if he had been a demigod he would have been quite old by now. Older than he currently looked. Maybe even dead. But this man was tall, broad, tanned, just a bit older in appearance than her current vessel. Interesting. She had always gotten the feeling that young boy -Warden, that was his name- wasn’t quite what he seemed. And her intuition had certainly been right about that, as it turned out.

“Athena, actually. And your real name is...?”

[exmpxathena]

kindred spirits;

@mpairmid

There were few gods outside of her own pantheon that Athena was familiar with, and even fewer that she was friendly with; but Airmid was one of them. Ever since their first meeting, pouring over texts on herbs long ago, she had always liked running into the Celtic goddess. They were both quiet, solitary figures. They both appreciated books and nature. There was little more she could ask from a friend.

So, when she was told that Airmid was on the island and lived in a cottage in the mountains, she donned some athletic leggings and hiking boots to make the trek up to see her old friend. She had never been a true nature-lover -hating when it was too hot or too cold and especially hating anything that got her dirty or wet outside of a battle context- but she did enjoy how serene and quiet the mountains were, being just far enough removed from the city they surrounded. She felt rather zen as she approached the quaint cottage. 

And that zen very nearly bordered on joy when she spotted the other goddess through the window. By the time she had knocked and the door had been opened, a smile just barely touched her lips. Which, last she had seen the other woman, that was about as warm as either of them got. 

“Long time no see, Airmid. Did you miss me?”

[army-in-the-stars]

Gorgeous as always 😍