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[ The room is pink. Pink, gold, and are those fluffy, clever bunnies-the-size-of-imps running around adjusting the statues? Might be. ]

Hey! Goddess of Love speaking! Pay attention. [ She's curvaceous, tall, and dressed in enough chiffon that you'd think physics would keep her covered up, and yet. ] Hi-iiii. My name is Aphrodite, you might know me by a bunch of other things.

Obviously this place is like Ares's wet dream with all the war biz going on, but that's not my jam. Love would be the name of my game. Problem is, I don't have anywhere for mortals to leave messages for me when I'm busy and I am so not answering calls for help on this locket indefinitely because, uh, I have a life, so here's the deal; build me a temple near the edge of Dorchadas and I'll give you a freebie. That babe you've had your eye on? I'll make them fall in love with you! Are you ugly as a toad? I'll give you a permanent make-over! This is a one-time thing because I'm feeling generous ... and clearly don't have any offerings coming in, ugh. Speaking of, if you want to leave cute shoes as a gift, I'm a size six.

So yeah! Get in touch.

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They don't waste gods on matters of love where I come from. They usually leave that up to people to handle for themselves. Why don't you do the same? [Her eyes roll. She ignores the remark about her hair ... and her attitude.]

Look, kid, why do any of us get shafted with the role we have? All I know is that sometimes mortals have no idea how to handle affairs of the heart, then they need my help and I give it to them.

[ Usually. If she can be bothered. ]

What are the gods like where you come from? I've known a few pantheons in my time.

[Kid. Her eyebrows raise the moment that word comes out. Great.]

It's a long story. But from the sound of it, you aren't that different. [Though she probably actually has emotions.] I'm pretty sure mortals can handle all the matters of their hearts all on their own.

They don't need your intervention. And right now? You're trying to force it on them.

Well, that's egotistical. Sometimes people need help, they cry out for it, and me? I'm their outreach program. [ Antsy at being condescended to, she snaps. ] I asked for a temple, not followers. Learn the difference before you get on your high and skanky horse to mouth off, missy.

And why do you deserve a temple? Why don't you handle building it yourself? [After a beat, she adds:] And they're only crying out for you because they don't know any better. It's a system they've been made to rely on. And a bad one.

People don't have anyone but the gods to ask for help, I'm not going to stand by while some guy is crying about his girlfriend getting sacrificed to a troll! [ Huffing. ] I am a good person, I do — I do good things, okay! What have you ever done that's so great?

It's not a matter of doing something great. It's about doing what needs to be done. I've helped the people of my world find freedom outside of the reaches of gods like yourself. They do have someone else to call for help. They have each other.

I believe that.

Edited 2015-06-04 18:19 (UTC)

Believe what you want, not everybody deserves to be held to your high standards. Trying to stop others from helping themselves by belittling their choices, whatever they may be and whoever they go to, that's the real tragedy.

The only choice I'm seeing here is your own. You talk of a world where people have no hope, so they turn to you to give them some false sense of it. They don't even believe in themselves. Here, you want to do the same. You believe that's your duty in life.

Well, you're wrong. Don't force your favors on people. Don't give empty promises because you believe that you're what people need.

They don't. And telling them otherwise is just telling them a lie.

I give them the courage to believe in themselves — and that's my family you're trash-talking! Do you think Ares doesn't help his followers? Or Hercules hasn't changed, like, a million lives for the better? Maybe people who are cold and mean and think the world of themselves like you don't want help, but you're not the spokesperson of all humanity. You just want a reason to think you're superior to everyone else!

[ Taste the frustrationnn. ]

How up yourself are you, seriously?

I don't know the meaning of any of those names, beyond what you've said here today. You're assuming that I'll care about them now that you're saying something. I won't. It's good that there are gods that do good. But that's nothing new, and in the long run, if people aren't making their own choices, what does it matter?

[That's truly what matters to her the most. Of course, Lightning is judging this woman, but everything Aphrodite's said about her role with humanity has put Lightning on edge. It doesn't make sense that people would call upon a god to help them make decisions on something as insignificant as love. Another person can be called in, to be sure, but a god? That's just involving them in too many affairs.]

In the end, it sounds like the only good you want to do is something that people can handle themselves. I don't think I'm superior to anyone. And I've made a lot of mistakes.

But I won't stand for you forcing your intervention on people's lives. They don't need it.

You don't have the right to tell anyone else what they need! Is this not sinking in? Do you have selective hearing?

[ If she still had a father to call on for help, she would. Give me strength to deal with crazy women, Zeus. This is, after all, one of the most touchy subjects that ran throughout the recent Twilight of the Gods with the God of Eli giving Xena the power to exterminate them. God of Love Aphrodite's ass, he doesn't know the meaning of the word. ]

Let me tell you something. I was mortal recently and it sucked, but worse than that was how with me gone? Love went out of the world. That meant suffering and hate multiplied overnight. So people do need me, no matter what you say. I have a purpose.

[ And just to reiterate against any surfacing doubts, she repeats firmly, ] I have a purpose.

You are telling people what they need. If people don't know that they can love without you, then they won't. But I'd be willing to bet that they do just fine here. [Then again, she understands what this woman goes on to say, about love being gone from the world. That had happened with Etro's complete demise. It wasn't love that was lost, no, but life and death. Though no one died from old age, they couldn't have children. Boys remained boys forever. She's not surprised by the impact of it.

But it does make her worry about giving this woman more influence, so that she might be able to affect things so much.]

You're just gonna have to accept that things don't work the same way here. And can't you tell that it's a bad idea to make things so reliant on you? What if someone takes your shard, and you're left without your power and connection to home? Then all of that will be gone—all because you wanted to assert your power and purpose.

I have no idea what any of that even means! What are you talking about? What does that stupid shard they said is inside of me have to do with leaving?

[ That would be a kitten-heel stomping loudly enough to crack her stone floor. ]

I don't want to be here, I was finally going back to Olympus when those little goblins dragged me away. I want my family and I want to go home, now, but I'm doing the best I can because people here seem miserable and you're being horrible to me!

[ Someone's upset. ]

If they're miserable, the last thing they need is a god meddling in their lives. [It's bad enough that Morla and Reul apparently have the powers of a god. In fact, she has her hunches when it comes to that.]

You should look into why we're here instead of looking for worship. You'll be better off. [Her tone is less chastising here, but there is still a hint of it. Lightning understands making do with what's there, but she doesn't feel too much sympathy about a god being in this situation.]

Meddling? Why are you so harsh? You don't know anything about me or what I've done, only the gods in your world. I have feelings too, you know.

[ That would be a genuine, exasperated sigh. ]

I know what you've said here today. None of it is good. You might be different, but that doesn't make people any less reliant on you. And you're so used to it that you're setting it up again.

If you can't understand why that's a bad thing, then feel free to do what you want. But if I come across one of your shrines, don't expect me to pay my respects.

Don't give yourself that much credit, I wouldn't want your offerings.

Of course you wouldn't.

Think twice before you make this world need you. And learn about what happens when you lose your shard. You won't like what you'll hear. And from the sound of it, it can happen to just about anyone. [If anything, Lightning wants to meet the god of death to understand why he revives people so many times. She believes that hope can come in those second chances, even if someone's death has led to the loss of their world. But she wonders, too, about the process of it all.

Having been ready to take that seat herself, it's partly curiosity, and partly wondering what she can do for the souls of this world if the Unseelie lose.

Or even if they win, what with the Seelie all being at stake, and the souls in those worlds, too.

In that way, people can't help but be at least tangentially connected to the cycle of life and death. But love? They should be handling that themselves. That's a matter of free will and choice. No one should be involving a "greater" power in that. And Aphrodite's inability to understand Lightning's judgment of that particular cycle just seems to reinforce her thoughts.]

You don't get it, that much is obvious. I am love, I couldn't be the god of it if I wasn't, just like my son and his son are. I know my family is worth something, and not you or anyone else will convince me otherwise.

[ Like the God of Eli. Him and his vicious angels can eat fireballs before they come after her family again, through Xena or anyone else; enough Olympians died during the Twilight and Aphrodite mourns them still. Even the ones whose deaths she backhandedly caused in helping Gabrielle. ]

Go ahead and hate me, you're only hurting yourself.

[ Annnd she snaps her locket shut, off to stomp around for a few hours and maybe zap some imps in the castle. ]

[Lightning would ask her a question: Does she truly think people failed to love in this world until she arrived? But the conversation is ended, so she saves it.

And from how she's seeing others handle this ... goddess, she's going to have more work to do than just keeping people from killing each other for this misguided war.

It's a dying world, and there's a lot that's wrong with it. This woman's arrival is a signal of bad things in Lightning's eyes, or a way for her to understand how bad they really are.]

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i love them so much oh no

:) poor aphrodite

NAH she deserves it sometimes

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