video | 01

[pharmaka]

[ For a brief moment after the camera flickers on, Circe appears uncertain, and then her expression at once resolves into a calm, unstirred facade, cool as a plane of water. She has unglamorous auburn hair set back in a tousled braid, eyes of an odd, subtly gold sheen, and a plain, even voice. ]

Well. I do not know whether it is for the better that most of the plants and animals and the like are familiar to me here. It would surely be a better preoccupation than what I was assigned, to acquaint myself with the local wildlife, so perhaps I will do it nonetheless. It has been made clear to me that there is an almost impossibly large amount of land to be seen.

Given I am unfamiliar with travel and with this country, I thought I would seek suggestions. In particular... [ a short pause ] I find I miss the sea. I had heard of deserts, but they are not so lovely a place to live as they are to hear tales of. And the same can be said of cities of men.

[ That is it. She says nothing about the confusion, the mingled hope and fear, that all this freedom and newness has set about in her. She is quite possibly the only divine being here. It is impossible to tell. Is that her father, keeping eye on her in the sky? If it is, she doubts he is about to say hello. In some respects she is as alone as she ever was.

In others... There are more people, more mortals, and more land than she has ever given thought to in her long life. It is thrilling and terrifying at the same time, and Circe dares to betray as little of it as she can manage. ]

Comments

[notgood]

Depends on what you consider a god, I suppose.

There's houses on the beach, but not away from people. There's also houses in the woods, you're a little better off there if you want to avoid "men." As you've been told, De Chima for the woods, maybe even Heropa for the beach if you go far enough.

[pharmaka]

[ The whole notion of questioning her family, much less an Olympian, on what is considered a god is so absurd that Circe suppresses a laugh by pressing her lips into a terse, humorous line. ] There is no consideration about it. Gods are born divine.

[ She does not say this in any particularly respectful way. Circe sounds as matter-of-fact as if she is describing how one dyes wool. ]

I do not wish to avoid them in perpetuity. But it would be nice to reassure myself the rocks and the stars and the leaves have not changed while all else around me is different, like a fish plucked from the sea and put into a mountain spring.

[notgood]

You are aware there are gods here, right?

[He gets it. She's Olde School. He's seen it enough by now he knows what it looks like, when someone considers the gods as immortal and powerful as the weather and the tides of waves.]

Then De Chima would be your better bet. A house on loan from the government with no other roommates is the closest you'll get to the privacy you want. No beach in Florida is going to reassure you of anything other than you'll never want to live in Florida again.

[pharmaka]

[ Well that gets her attention. ] Is that so? Who would that be, and where might I find them?

[ So she can avoid them assiduously. Circe had been cast out by her family and she has zero intention of crawling back to anyone divine. She spends more time loathing her divinity than rejoicing in it. ]

Thank you, I will look into it. Nevada has been an interesting place to see, but I cannot fathom how strewn gravel is meant to be an adequate replacement for grass. [ She really was not impressed with Florida so she can't help but agree with that one. ]

[notgood]

Lachesis. She's the one who brought you here, but she also isn't... conscious right now. Apparently something happened before I arrived here and she's been in sleep mode ever since. But still a presence here, and strong enough to pull someone from their own reality to this one, even without a conscious effort.

If that doesn't make her a goddess, I don't know what does.

[He smiles as he says it, and although it's not so plainly conveyed, he's also relieved at this fact. The less gods in his life, the better.]

It isn't. But they'll sell you that idea until you start buying it for yourself. Welcome to America.

[pharmaka]

Of course she is a goddess. Where are Clotho and Atropos? [ Now that is the strangest thing Circe has heard since coming here, bar none. One of the Three Fates? Just one? ] Now it makes significantly more sense that those of us brought here are unable to stay dead, or to arrive naturally through birth. Lachesis alone cannot determine those aspects of life. Even what she has been doing must exhaust her.

[ Circe is frowning in thought. But she has had no direct connection to the Fates, has never met them. They rarely make themselves known, and certainly not to an ignoble little nymph like herself.

She completely forgets about this whole 'finding where she wants to live' conversation, distracted by learning there is, in fact, an actual god here. And not one she would have expected. No wonder she hasn't seen trace of divinity anywhere. ]

[notgood]

I don't know, and I don't exactly keep track of this. Atropos I think showed up a while ago, again, before me. All I know is she's not a fan of us, like Lachesis is. I haven't heard Clotho mentioned except in the context of the other two.

[pharmaka]

Then it is all hearsay. And it is all incredibly strange. I am not sure I would say the Moirai are fans of anyone, anywhere. They can be extremely whimsical and cruel, individually and together.

[ To say the least. Circe spends another few moments processing it, and then catches herself, and offers, ] Thank you for the information, and the suggestions. I am called Circe.

[notgood]

I'm Chauncy. And you're... Circe. Of...

[The myth. He got a good roll, so he actually realizes where he knows the name from.]

Oh. You aren't that Circe, are you?

[pharmaka]

Circe of Aiaia, [ she answers, for this is a normal question in ancient Greece. That second one is not normal.

She gives him a somewhat skeptical look. ] I have no renown that I am aware of. That would be a considerable feat for a recluse. [ She doesn't need to admit to her shame, that she's an exile, so readily. It had lost its sting some years into her solitude, but she finds it wakes up at inopportune moments on those rare occasions when she is speaking to others. Which she is going to be doing considerably more of. ]

[notgood]

[He knows the assertion of location, that's very typical for an ancient greek. But with the name, that old tradition, the mention of gods- there's no other likelihood.]

You are renowned. Not for your... reclusive nature, but because of your encounter with a man. Odysseus. If you are the Circe I'm thinking of.

[pharmaka]

[ She makes a bit of a face before she can stop herself. Ugh. Fame. Not something she has ever wanted.

Still, she puts her mind to contemplating this and finally says, ] I have not met him yet, but Hermes told me that a famed oracle prophesied that I would meet one of his line. She foresaw nothing else about it, but I imagine if I have a fate set for me, that is what I would be renowned for. Is this Odysseus one of Hermes?

[notgood]

How is it possible it hasn't happened yet for you...

[He knows intellectually that everyone can be displaced in time. But her- she's a legend. She's ancient. How can even she be displaced?]

I don't remember. I don't know him, or those of the Greek pantheon at all. But it was part of a story, which is practically required reading, where I'm from. It follows the story of that man, Odysseus, and his travels. He comes to your island.

[pharmaka]

[ Meanwhile, Circe thinks of herself as an unimportant nymph essentially forgotten by the world. She might be ancient, but she can't even conceive of herself as a legend. She's been displaced in so many ways already -- why not displaced in time? ]

It seems quite possible, [ she says with some amusement. ] I have no notion how old I am to start with. Measuring time is a matter that chiefly mortals are concerned with. But-- I cannot imagine how I could become 'required reading'.

[ She does in fact seem baffled, and covers it with sarcasm. ] Somehow I feel I do not give him a warm reception. I do not invite my visitors.

[notgood]

[A bark of a laugh at that, but otherwise he keeps his humor to himself.]

Well, you are a witch, aren't you? You practice magic.

Let's say you receive them as any reclusive witch would.

[pharmaka]

So you have read the story, and still you laugh? Are you given to laughing at the ill fate of others, or just vile men in particular?

[ She can well enough guess what she must have done to cause him to laugh there. Circe has already done it a hundred times with other crews. There's no reason to think she'd have changed her process for Odysseus, great-grandson of Hermes or not. ]

[notgood]

I've defended vile men for a living. I've also been given an ill fate myself. I laugh, because it hasn't happened to me. Yet.

[pharmaka]

Defended them, how so? As a guardsman?

[ Circe doesn't really laugh at bad fates. From the moment she'd learned what would happen to Prometheus, she had been torn and stricken. Even the vile men who deserve it, she does not laugh over: she turns them to her pen with the same grim workday attitude she turns toward any arduous chore. There is some satisfaction in it, some bitter schadenfreude, but she is prone to being a humorless sort. ]

[notgood]

As a lawyer.

[Something that may not... exactly be a thing, back in that time.]

As their... counsel and representative in law.

[pharmaka]

[ It definitely was not a thing in her time. Circe attempts to piece this together. ]

A sort of learned orator in the courts? Then you must be persuasive.

[notgood]

Something like that.

In the time I'm from, we judge crimes and dole their punishments based on an elaborate system of checks and balances. A representative is brought for each side. I am that representative. It's to help keep the balance.

I'm sure the courts are much different, in your time.

[pharmaka]

Courts are most commonly used to settle disputes, not enforce the law. Such enforcing is left up to those in power.

[ She should know, considering she was summarily handed judgment without a single person even considering defending her. What mercy she was shown was purely to salve her father's pride about his lineage being punished for being too powerful.

Circe is quiet a long moment, before finishing, ] Vile men or not, I can see no bad thing in more balance. As a child, I witnessed Prometheus's torture in my father's halls, and there was not a word said on his behalf, by anyone. Those who are reviled should still be considered for mercy.

[ Not that she shows much mercy herself, sometimes, but this is also a tiredness in her beneath the bitterness, that she should be expected to hold herself to a higher standard than all those around her. If they seek to assault her, she will do the same right back. Such a man's wife weeping and asking for mercy would possibly be able to move her heart, but Circe has never been presented with that, and has never had to find out. What a mess it all is. It makes her weary and sick of the world to think on it. ]

[notgood]

And if those in power make arbitrary decisions based on bias?

[Of course, he knows she wouldn't disagree. Of those in Greek history, myth or not, god-like or not, it was rarely the women who would argue for intentional injustice.]

You... saw Prometheus's torture?

[He shifts in his seat, only visible because the video feature.]

Is it true? What happens to him?

[pharmaka]

If? [ She laughs briefly, an exhale of dark humor. ] More like when. I do not say I prefer it, only that I am subjected to it.

I saw him while his punishment was being decided upon and he was in holding, tortured even then. It is true. Most likely he is there as we speak, in my home realm. I cannot believe Zeus would ever relent; Olympians think nothing of those they have discarded. [ Circe lets out a different breath, one of suppressed sorrow. She once tried to convince Hermes to visit him and give him a cup of water, but he thought the idea so outlandish, he laughed. And she had pretended she was a hard-hearted cold woman, out of self-defense. ]

[notgood]

Yes, fine, not if but when.

[He'll roll his eyes here because semantics.]

My point is that we combat that as best with can, with the balance we try to have.

[He listens to her talk of Prometheus, and it... pains him, but he knows she's right. Even to this day, he is likely tortured for daring to give humanity knowledge. Those who go up against Gods... pay for it.

He remembers Zeus' laughter at his sarcastic remarks to Odin. How easily, Zeus and Odin both could have struck him down in that moment.]

It isn't only Olympians. It's all of them.