Arcadian Forest Party

[askmenosecrets]

This was more work that he usually bothered to put in, Pan thought, especially here, at home, but everything was set.




At first glance, it appeared to be a forest clearing, beautiful and wild but nothing different than a hundred other clearings spread throughout the woods of the Arcadian mountains. But when you looked again, Pan thought, you saw something quite different. Hidden in the trees were a series of structures suspended in air, hung with ivy and dew, and through the mist-shrouded branches you could see the faint glow of light, and you could smell the scent of fire and food. There was the fire pit, a circle suspended in the arms of a large oak with a crackling golden fire, a roast, and bowls of marshmallows, chocolate and crackers waiting. There was the bar, stocked with a rich variety of wines and alcohols and staffed by two of the satyrs. And then there was the forest floor itself, bare now, but waiting for the dancing. On all sides of the floor, there were cushions on the low branches and benches of fallen logs, each accompanied with wooden buckets full of wine and beer bottles and glassed suspended with vine.

"Well," he said to Zaffre, currently wrapped around his neck, "I think we're ready." Pan flicked a leaf off his forest green turtleneck and looked around with approval before pausing. "We're almost ready," he corrected, and pulled his pan flute up to his lips.

The forest filled with music as he played, music that began as the mystical songs of the flute, but transformed as he let the instrument fall to his side - transformed into thrumming, sensual rhythms and intricate guitars that would encourage the party-goers to...well, Pan thought with a sharp grin, to be bad. Very bad.

"Let the games begin," Pan said.

[Notes: Everyone in fortuna_invicta is invited, the more the merrier in Pan's opinion. If anyone needs directions to the right section of the forest, let Pan know on the SWS post. Mingle! Get drunk! Stuff your face! Find a secluded tree and do naughty things! Pan approves highly of all these pursuits. Format = narrative third person, if you please!]

Comments

[trojan-hero.livejournal.com]

"Good evening," Aeneas says, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "It's quite the party."

[the_cupbearer]

"That it is, nephew," he says. "Olympians rarely do things by halves."

He uses the intimate address so casually it might honestly be a mistake to hear it slipping off the boy's tongue. But it's not.

[trojan-hero.livejournal.com]

He's had enough experience with Olympians to last him several lifetimes. Which is why he tends to stay away from them now. "I don't think it's in their nature."

He almost misses it, but the word does eventually make its way into his mind. "I thought I knew all of my uncles." Though perhaps not. There are a lot of them.

[the_cupbearer]

"To be frank, we are several generations removed, but to put it succinctly your father's father is my brother's son."

This exchange could almost be comical if it weren't true. "Or are you not Aeneas, son of Anchises?"

[trojan-hero.livejournal.com]

"I am," he says. Even now there are people who know him when he has no idea who they are. Probably because he stays away from them as much as possible. "Right. Distant. My grandfather's uncle. Technically." He pauses for a moment. "Gods really are related to everybody."

[the_cupbearer]

He chuckles, and shakes his head. "I am no god. My name is Ganymede, I am merely immortal."

Merely and immortal really don't sound like they should go together, but in this crowd it's not a major standing. Being the gods' cupbearer is, but he is trying to reconcile that as past, with more or less success.

[trojan-hero.livejournal.com]

"You're Ganymede? I've heard your story. I just never thought I'd meet you one day."

'Merely immortal' doesn't seem that much less than someone who never acts like the god that he is. Especially for someone who seems to a largely-forgotten member of the pantheon with no particular domain.

[the_cupbearer]

"I am, yes."

He smiles openly, invitingly.

[trojan-hero.livejournal.com]

He sits on the ground, cross-legged, near the fire but not close enough to be burned by it. "So I suppose you remember Troy then."

[the_cupbearer]

"I do," he answers a little sadly. "Most of my memory of it is a little distant, but yes."

[trojan-hero.livejournal.com]

"Mine too," he says. "Although yours is probably more distant even than mine." He shifts a bit before speaking again. "Did you see it fall?"

[the_cupbearer]

"I did."

[trojan-hero.livejournal.com]

"I think that's the one thing I'll never forget. The things that happened that night..."