The Irony.

[Septima Severa]

Severa was pacing furiously in a small enclosure in the garden. She was hoping to find some peace of mind away from the others, and the almost maze-like collection of paths surrounded by trees and flowers was perfect for it. The only thing they couldn't do was soothe her.

She'd just gotten the knowledge of her part, the part of Medea of the play of the same name. Was it some sort of sick twist of fate? A coincidence that she got a part so very similar to her own? Her part in the thread of history? She could almost laugh at the irony if she weren't so close to crying.

She started pacing even more angrily, almost crushing the Medea scroll in her fist. She resisted the urge to throw the script as far as she could, and it took even more energy to resist the urge to scream in frustration. Had Mars been a part of this? Was it his doing that she got cast as a child murderess? Had it been him?!

She saw it all in front of her eyes again, the hurt, the pain. Her pain. Her daughter's pain. She'd have her baby by now, Livia would have been two years old. She herself would probably be pregnant with a baby boy she would never be allowed to have alive. She could feel everything, memories so strong she sometimes had troubles distinguishing them as memories that never happened. That was Mars' magic she supposed. He showed her her future, but not just as if it were a play. No he had her live it, feel what she would feel, see what she would see, have it imprinted in her brain like memories, but the presence was more powerful. Everyday it felt like it had happened yesterday. Her daughter, oh her beautiful Livia!

She threw the script to the ground and fell down herself, clasping her hands over her ears trying to shut out the images. Tears escaped her eyes and after the first one flowed down almost violently. She took one fist and bit down on it to stop from crying out as she sat in her pitiful breakdown, not even having the energy to feel embarrassed about it, to pull herself together as the images kept going. Her baby boy, dead in her arms. The satisfactory feeling of the knife slicing through Marcus' chest. The cries of Livia as the blood flowed from her open wrists. The centurion taking her away. Entering the Colosseum, the slice of the blade as she was executed while most of the Colosseum's visitors went to the concession as not even they wanted to see the brutal execution of criminals...

[Guest]

While on a stroll through the gardens, Morpheus spied a young woman, a Warrior most likely, pacing back and forth. He debated whether he should interfere in her angry pacing (he realized that sometimes it's best if moods are worked out on their own).

He came to a conclusion, and parted the nearby shrubs to walk to the young woman.

"My dear, is everything alright?," he said in a concerned tone as he approached her, "Is there anything you wish to talk about? I promise that I won't tell anyone, and as a Mentor I must keep that promise."

[Septima Severa]

Severa looked up through her tears to see the blurry form of a Satyr she knew, he'd been her teacher for the last few years, the little Morpheus. She could just make out his bowtie through the blur. It looked real, but the images also looked real, and they felt real. She pinched herself, and cried out at the sharp pain that was a direct result of said pinching. Yes, this was real, Haven was real, not Rome. Rome was not real as of now. Haven was. Gods were. The Athenaeum.

There were times where she really thought she was going crazy, that the Athenaeum was just a hallucination created by her mind to take her away from the traumatic events she had witnessed. But she felt pain, so it must be real. Wasn't that how you distinguished dream from reality?

She brushed her tears away, including the new ones that were already forming and flowing from her eyes, and sniffed loudly. She felt like the little girl of 15, being married to the soldier in his 30s. She shook her head trying to get the image out of her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to be crying," she told Morpheus. "Everything is just fine, you can go now," she lied, continually brushing away tears.

[Guest]

Morpheus crossed his arms and sighed.

"You don't really expect me to believe that everything is fine, do you? I may not be an expect on the female gender, but I do know that young women do not cry for no reason. If you really don't want to talk about it, I'll leave, but sometimes it helps to vent out negative emotions to those who will listen and give support."

He moved his hands in an odd way, and hankerchief appeared out of nowhere. As a master of unorthodox weapons, summoning small objects was a specialty of his.

He offered Severa the hankerchief to dry her tears.

[Septima Severa]

Severa smiled half-heartedly. "Well it was worth a try," she commented, regained a hint of her usual sarcasm. "It's so... so... ironic!" she cried out in a half-dilerious state, motioning violently to the script in front of her. "I mean, she kills her own children, I kill my own children, isn't that just perfect?!" She laughed crudely and dryly.

"Sounds like a match made in Olympus doesn't it? I think I'd like a drink by now." That said something, since Severa tended to avoid alcohol like the plague. "Really, I would."

((She's not really... stable right now D8 ))

[Guest]

"Oh dear..."

Morpheus did the hand motion again, this time summoning a bottle of wine and some small cups. He sat down on a nearby bench and motioned for Severa to do the same.

[Septima Severa]

"Perfect!" Severa cried and joined him on the bench, reaching for the bottle instead of the glasses and taking a swig. She grimaced," Ugh, this is nasty," but took another drink nevertheless. "You're good with that, the little out-of-thin-air trick, I suppose being of Dionysus helps with this one doesn't it?"

She sighed. "I suppose you know about my other life? You mentors always have a way of knowing things that might best be left unknown."

[Guest]

"Erm, I'd rather not talk about my sponsor right now. He.. tends to.. well.. eavesdrop on conversations involving him, but then again quite a few of the Gods and Goddesses do that."

He summoned a cup of tea for himself (seeing as the bottle of wine was already taken), and sipped at it.

"We know what we need to know. And yes, I know about your other life, though only the basics of it. Is that what's bothering you my dear?"

[Septima Severa]

"True!" Severa said with another swing of the bottle. "I'm sure Mars is laughing his ass of right now!" She was starting to feel lightheaded already, but it was a welcome feeling. Any feeling as of now was a welcome feeling.

"I figured you would, yes it is what is bothering me. I'm not sure if you know, but I've been given the part of Medea, isn't that nice?"

[Guest]

"Maybe you should slow down with the alcohol..."

Morpheus paused a moment, and then continued.

"I'm sure Miss Mnemosyne had a good reason in mind when she assigned you that part. I know she wouldn't give a student a certain role just to mess with them. She might have felt that you, out of all our Warriors, would best connect with the role because of your other life."

((I've not read Medea, um, what's it about? : D, ))

[Septima Severa]

((It's about Medea, after the whole Argonautica where she helped Jason, fell in love with him, and more or less married him. Then Jason, in the play, has left her beause he got offered a princess and would be king, and she, with his children, is left in the kingdom being infuriated by the whole thing. She turns into a scheming terrible hurt woman and the current king and father of the princess banishes her from his kingdom because he's afraid she'll do something terrible to his daughter. She begs him to stay but he says no and she begs some more and he gives her a few days to get her things and leave. She then contracts the king of Athens and he'll let her live in his kingdom if she can get there herself. She then devises this scheme and sends her son to deliver golden robes for the wedding of the princess and Jason. the robes are poisoned and as soon as the rbide put in on she was more or less burnt alive, and so was her father who tried to save her. That's not enough of a revenge to Medea so she murders her own children in order to hurt Jason the most. He comes to her and they have this thrilling conclusion with Medea in a chariot pulled by dragons with the bodies of her children next to her and she departs to Athens, leaving a mentally broken Jason behind. *breaths* Happy, no? Euripides at his best.))

Severa looked at the bottle, and put it down next to her. "And why on earth would I want to connect with that part of me? It's something I've spent how long trying to stuff as far away inside me as possible, only to have to dig it back up for a play?! You see what it does to me, Gods, I don't even know what's real and what's not anymore!"

She took up the bottle once more and took another, slightly smaller, swig of the bottle. "You want my theory? I think Mars is behind this, his reminder of what's at stake, probably just wants to give me more motivation. Or just wants to see me break, he'd get a thrill from that, asshole."

[Guest]

((That sounds familar, I might have read about it, but I've not read it.))

"Miss Severa, I know that your other life was... well... less than glamorous, but you can't just metaphorically stuff in it in the back of your mind and wish for it to go away. It is a part of you, and so it will always be even if you win the tournament and stay here for the rest of your life. Quite a few people at the Athenaeum have less than glamorous pasts, including myself. It is my belief that you shouldn't always judge a person by their past, but from their actions in the present and in the future."

Morpheus took a deep sip of his tea, and continued.

"Let me put it this way. The very fact that you're affected by your past is a sign of your worth. Did you know that there is another female Warrior who has killed many more children and grown men than you, and wasn't affected at all by it?"

[Septima Severa]

((It's good, you should read it if you have about 1.3 hour to spare, the link's in Mnem's lesson plan))

"Really? You have a dark past?" Severa looked at him with disbelieving eyes. "Maybe I should put the bottle down for I think I'm hearing things... You, you! You can't have a bad past you're just... just too..." she motioned wildly at him trying to find the word. "Too... ah blast it too Morpheus!"

She sighed and did indeed put the bottle down on the ground. "Really?" She asked in a small voice in response to what he said. "But how could being afflicted past madness be any better than swallowing what happened and moving on, like that woman might have done?"

[Guest]

((I didn't forget about this, I've just been busy lol. I'll continue it when I finish the tut I'm working on.))

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