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

Benches

[panikondeima.livejournal.com]

Don't want to dance? We do hope you change your mind, but if not, there's plenty to watch.

[laurales.livejournal.com]

It would be a gross understatement of fact to say that Daphne feels a bit out of place amongst the throngs of revelers and party-goers. In the back of her mind she has a vague memory of what it was like to enjoy such things, to delight in the simplest pleasures of laughter and merriment, and to dance in the shallow waters of her father's river without much care for greater things. But those times are long gone and she has spent the millenia caged within the confines of her own leaden heart.

Still there is some comfort to be found in Arcadia's beauty. The cities of men, she had learned, sprawled far and wide across the earth; to escape to a place of natural beauty did some to quell the uneasiness she felt by being isolated from so many surrounding people.

Quietly, she finds herself a bench and watches the others with detached curiosity. Her hands absently touch the bark of the fallen tree beneath her; its familiarity is a small comfort.

[lovessweetbait.livejournal.com]

She had arrived quietly, skirting the more enthusiastic partygoers and seating herself without fanfare, and Eros had watched her and considered. Daphne may not welcome him - certainly she has more reason than most to shun him - but he slips through the other guests and approaches with a faint smile, offering her a half-bow from the waist.

"Hello, Lady. Will you do me the honor of your company?"

[laurales.livejournal.com]

However she may feel about those who contributed to her long-suffered self-imprisonment, Daphne knows she is simply an immortal who walks among gods. She bows her head in kind as greeting, hands now folded neatly (and perhaps a bit coldly) in her lap.

"I am no lady, Lord Eros," she retorts. A technicality, perhaps, but to Daphne an important one. "But I will not send you away."

[lovessweetbait.livejournal.com]

Eros dips his head in apology. "Simply Daphne, then," he replies. "And please: Eros."

He perches lightly on the bench beside her, watching the festivities. He has no desire to darken the mood by talking of heavy matters, but he cannot help but wonder if she has given thought to his offer to undo what, in his hotheaded youth, he had wrought and strip the lead from her heart.

[laurales.livejournal.com]

She sits behind him silently, hands still folded, her entire body still. It is a bit unnatural for a young woman to move so little, but in Daphne's case old habits (and in this case, tree habits) die hard. "Eros, then," she eventually says, her attention turned towards towards the throngs of people.

At length, she asks him: "Is the party enjoyable? I cannot tell." Weakness, maybe, to admit it but Daphne knows very few would understand the sentiment. He, however, had been the one to bind her heart in the chains that still held it. If there was love to be had for the festivities and the party, Daphne could no feel it. And though she would not admit it, she still mourned the loss.

[lovessweetbait.livejournal.com]

Eros turns to study her, a quiet sadness in his clear blue eyes at the cool question. "It is," he answers slowly, "but I would it were more so. Daphne-" He cuts off, taking a quiet breath. He's already asked her to allow him to undo what he'd done, but the decision was her own. He would not press, no matter how much he wished to see her smile again.

[laurales.livejournal.com]

Daphne would not presume to know the mind of a god, though she is smart enough to hazard a guess at the words cut off from speech. When she looks at him, it is with long-accepted resignation; all that she had become, so far from all that Eros embodied and was.

"Speak your mind. I will not ask you to hold your tongue."

[lovessweetbait.livejournal.com]

Eros looks at her in surprise, but he shouldn't be surprised Daphne is observant. He sighs, glancing down, and he doesn't look at her as he speaks with reluctance. "I wish to undo what's been wrongfully done to you," he says quietly. "I will not press, but my heart aches to see yours so silent."

[lovedoftwogods.livejournal.com]

It is on a bench that Hyacinthe ultimately sat, arriving much more quietly and by subtler means than the gods. He bypassed the bar and the dance floor, his feet now too clumsy for the latter they would only become less certain as the night wore on, particularly if he indulged too heavily in the former. But he could watch and would gladly do so. He was not anti-social but merely...cautious for the moment. He would gauge the tempers of those in attendance, learn how things were balanced among the gods at the moment and then decide with what or whom he would pass his evening.

[panikondeima.livejournal.com]

Pan silently walked up behind Hyacinthe, retrieving a glass of deep red wine and lowering it in front of the boy's blond head. "Hyacinthe," he said simply. "I am glad you could make it." He looked uncomfortable, Pan thought as he sat cross-legged on the bench next to him. He'd see if that could be changed.

[lovedoftwogods.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Hyacinthe's fingers took the wineglass very carefully once his gaze had focused on it, so close to his eyes. He smiled when he saw that its provider was his host.

"It seems that your party has begun well." He remarked. "I am sure there will be many in attendance."

[panikondeima.livejournal.com]

"There are already many in attendance," Pan said with a grin as he poured himself a glass of wine and took a sip. "But they're all quite capable of amusing themselves at this juncture, and I don't want to neglect the new arrivals."

He smiled. "Welcome to Arcadia, Hyacinthe."

[lovedoftwogods.livejournal.com]

"Thank you." Hyacinthe smiled graciously. "I am honored to be here." He said, resting his glass of wine on his thigh. "In such esteemed company." He blushed a little and bowed his head. "I would not like to keep you from your other guests." He said. "I plan to sit here awhile and consider the scene. I must acclimate myself to a multitude of divine presences once more."

[panikondeima.livejournal.com]

Pan tipped his head to one side and considered Hyacinthe for a moment as he sipped his wine. "That might be wise," he finally said as he looked around. "We can be an overwhelming group." He rose gracefully and lifted an eyebrow. "But you should not sit alone all night."

[lovedoftwogods.livejournal.com]

"I am sure I will not be alone all night." Hyacinthe replied, raising his wine glass to Pan. "Inevitably, if all else fails, you will yourself have to come to me, to tell me the party is over and to dismiss me." He murmured. "But that is many hours from now and I am sure I will find diversions between now and then."

[panikondeima.livejournal.com]

Pan grinned. "No, you won't," he said with certainty as he finished his wine and set down his empty glass, leaning in to murmur in his ear. "If I find you so, I shall have to remedy that personally," he said, and then leaned back.

"I'll leave you to god-watching, Hyacinthe," he said. "Have fun." His tone had something of a command to it.

[bringsthelight.livejournal.com]

Well, now. That was definitely a familiar presence, wasn't it? As if caught by an invisible net, Apollo drifted over, half-full glass of Scotch still in hand, and leaned quite casually against a tree trunk next to the lovely boy.

A bit of closer speculation was definitely in order, so the deity examined his quarry a touch more closely, missing nothing. The scar on Hyacinthe's brow cocked a golden eyebrow, but the deity let it pass without comment.

As it was, he merely stood there, wondering how long it would take the other to recognize him.

[lovedoftwogods.livejournal.com]

The sign of recognition came when Hyacinthe finished his wine in one smooth tilt of his head, gently settling the glass down in the softness of the moss, tucked away from even the most wayward feet.

"Hello, Apollo." He said, quietly, gaze turning from the party-goers. "Enjoying yourself? It is really a fantastic party, I think."

[bringsthelight.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Straightening from his lean, Apollo smiled and shrugged a shoulder casually.

"I am, yes." He glanced about and chuckled softly. "Pan's done rather well. I admit I'm impressed."

Turning back to the youth, he once more felt that old familiar stirring, the same emotion which had coiled in his heart when he'd walked through green fields and golden forests with this beloved one in hand.

"And you, dear one?"

[lovedoftwogods.livejournal.com]

"Well enough." Hyacinthe replied, though I have only managed a glass of wine and a brief word with our host. Hyacinthe laughed. "He made me promise to enjoy myself and have some fun, or he would see to it forcibly that I did." He offered a crooked smile. "He takes his revelry quite seriously."

[bringsthelight.livejournal.com]

Apollo chuckled agreement. "That he does. That he does indeed."

Finishing off his Scotch, the deity flourished the glass away to reappear on the bar, he done with alcohol for the time being. He almost negligently procured a cigarette from thin air and lit it, inhaling a lungful of nicotine.

He gazed at Hyacinthe through the misty smoke and asked, "And have you plans for doing such, Hyacinthe?"

[lovedoftwogods.livejournal.com]

The youth shrugged.

"When there was more company, I thought I might join in dancing." He looked sheepish. "But I might need a few more drinks for that. If I am a little intoxicated, it excuses my poor attempts to dance." He chuckled.

[bringsthelight.livejournal.com]

Apollo smiled and held out his hand. "Come, love," he encouraged, "let's get you another drink, hm? What would you like?"

[the_cupbearer]

"You look wary of the company, young prince."

It had been a long time since Ganymede had felt much of anything in the way of emotion around gods; wariness was something he'd worn out of very quickly, truth be told. There was little any of them could do that wouldn't pass as surely as the sun would rise again in the morning, he'd learned.