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#054357, Interacting with:N/A
"Why aren't you at the party, Little one?" The voice startled Layla into dropping her sword. It clattered to the training floor with a sound that echoed loudly. Layla took a breath as she kneeled down and grabbed the blade, her hands were shaking from overwork."Mother, please don't do that," She said softly. "I appreciate your work ethic, Layla, but if you'll burn yourself out if you continue at this rate." Athena told her, her voice echoing in her mind like the sword's clatter did the room. Layla was used to it though, it had been there her entire life, for the longest though, she thought it was her own voice, an inner voice, or a conscious like Jiminy Cricket, but it had turned out to be her mother, a goddess. Layla wasn't sure about how she truly felt about being left with the family that she was left with, considering that bickered like school children, but her home wasn't a bad one, at least not directly related to her, they loved her for all their faults, but still. They're constant bickering nearly killed her and while she never thought about leaving them for fear that she was the only thing keeping from killing each other, knowing that she had another option, a whole world she didn't know about, she didn't really give it a second thought but that presented new challenges, she wasn't the only one, and she had to be the best of her kind. She still wasn't sure about what this truly was about, beyond Godly pride, which it was most definitely, but there was something else at play here, that the Gods weren't telling them, but her mother seemed to care, since she'd been there her whole life, a face in the crowd, a voice in her head, keeping her safe, from a distance. So she couldn't complain too much. Some of these demi-gods had it much worse.
"Mother," Layla said, unafraid of talking to herself since she was alone in the training hall, what with the school at this party. "Why now?" She asked. Athena was characteristically quiet. "You only chose to make your present known to me, but a year ago, is it truly because of the accident or...is there more?"
"There is more." Athena said. "However, the accident proved motivation, for the both of us." She said and Layla nodded. Her mother never lied to her, not once, but that didn't make her feel better. "You wouldn't have shown yourself to me, otherwise, would you have?" She asked and after a long pause, Athena sighed, which was a strange sound in her head. "Suffice it to say, Little One, I was in a place of indecision, now I am not." She said and Layla nodded. "That's how I feel about this party," Layla said not wanting to think about what would have happened had she not been in the accident. And to think she thought that day was the worst of her lief...now she wasn't so sure. Was it bad luck, or providence?. "Why's that?" Athena asked. "We are expected to party like Dionysius, and then proceed to fight one another, and for what? Your favor, but why do you need to do this for your favor, don’t we already have it?"[/olor] Layla said and Athena chuckled. "You have mine, but this is tradition, moreover, there is the 'more' I referred to, and not so many of the Gods appreciate their children like I do." [/i] She said and Layla nodded, she could hear the smile in her voice. "That's not for you to worry about now, Little one, clean yourself up, dress nicely, and enjoy this time you have as normal teenagers." She said and Layla sighed. That was all she was going to get from that conversation. [color=#054357]"Yes, Mother," She said and with that, she did as she was told, and got cleaned up, and dressed in a lovely little black dress, that hugged her Olympian curves. She had no idea what she was doing here to be entirely honest, parties weren't her scene at all, she didn't listen to this type of music, nor did she appreciate the way that strobe lights and fog laid waste to her vision. She smiled as she entered though. She had to be a normal teenager, that's what her mother wanted, for one night that she was not a demi-goddess, fighting for the right to be beside her mother, but a teenager invited to an unsanctioned, unofficial party for school. "What am I doing here?" She asked herself as she skimmed the crowd for a familiar face.