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ARIADNE HAD A LOT OF fun on Olympus as Ampelos the satyr. She had a lot of fun back in the mortal realm, too, reveling in wearing her own skin under the heat of the sun. She took to going topless, with only her loose hair covering her breasts. It drew less glances than she feared, the festivals always seeming to have people in various states of undress.
Her lover frequently eschewed clothes entirely and the ones he wore slipped and slid, showing more than they concealed. The only exception was when he dressed as a woman, like the first day they had met.
It was wild, freeing and when not exhilarating, oddly relaxing. The dancing and drinking, laughing and singing was fun. But so were the long slow treks from place to place, winding flowers in everyone’s hair, and chatting idly with people as they pass through.
Ariadne looked, but didn’t find anyone who appealed to her to take as a lover besides the one she already had. It would be smart to plan for the future when she wouldn’t be favored by Dionysus. To take a lover and avoid the pain of being alone.
But Ariadne’s brain dribbled right out of her ears without fail when she made eye contact with Dionysus. Giving up before she even tried to find a mortal lover, she settled into watching Dionysus seduce those who caught his eye. She found she rather liked watching, with the way his eyes flicked up, found her watching and gave her a secret smile.
He always took her back with him to Olympus when he left the mortal realm, even if they hadn’t been lovers in weeks. She’d ask why but it was obvious at that point he was frequently lonely in the realm of the gods. His sleeping grip tightened to the point of painful when they were there. She suspected being there either brought up bad memories or there were people there that had hurt him. Ariadne wasn’t sure what she could do besides be there for him.
They were sitting outside under the low hanging canopy of a fig tree that shielded them from the hot summer sun. Ariadne finally decided to ask him,“Why don’t you have sex with people here?”
Dionysus took her as a lover in the mortal world infrequently, but on Olympus they were lovers only rarely. He touched very few people at all in Olympus.
Dionysus cracked open an eye from where he was using her lap as a pillow. “What brings this on?”
“You don’t seem very happy here. Not like your usual self. Repressed.” She frowned down at him and used her finger to fix his smudged eyeliner. He allowed it, closing his eyes under her ministrations.
“There’s not much here I find joy in.” He didn’t open his eyes.
“Can you make a party?” She suggested, hesitant and sure it was a bad idea to suggest but not sure why.
“They would love that.” Her lover said bitterly. “They always love my parties.”
Ariadne caught the strange inflection. “You don’t think they love you.”
Dionysus opened both eyes and looked at her, silent. She sighed and stroked his cheek and pinched the tip of his nose. “I can’t fix that. Give me a problem I can fix.” She mock scowled at him.
His smile is mocking and strange. “You don’t want to love me enough for all of them?”
“I grew up with a family that didn’t care for me either. Even you can’t make that pain any less. I doubt that I have that ability for you either.” Ariadne admitted, staring at his nose to avoid the intensity of his gaze. With his powers rippling underneath his skin like lightning, his glowing green eyes were eerie. “I try.” She admitted and closed her eyes, feeling foolish.
He was her lover, but he was also a god. She wasn’t anyone special to him and he held powers that would likely kill her if she even saw them unveiled, much like how his mother had died. The legend of Semele, the woman who bore a god and looked at the true form of another was a quiet one. But within the following of Dionysus it was a frequently told tale.
She swallowed and tried something dangerous. “Your birth mother... have you ever went to the Underworld and spoken to her?”
When she opened her eyes, he was looking at her like she slapped him with a live fish. She pulled her hands back from him and looked away. “I don’t mean to upset you.”
Dionysus pulled himself upright and gripped her hands, “No, no, no. Don’t do that. Don’t be afraid of me.” Ariadne looked at him. He demanded worship and respect as a god but also wanted to be treated as man. She wasn’t sure he realized those things were mutually exclusive of each other. “Please.” His voice cracked.
Ariadne rested her forehead against his. Dionysus surged up and rubbed his cheek against hers like the large cats he sometimes took the form of. “I won’t hurt you.” He promised. “Not you. Never you.”
“Oh.” Ariadne managed, stunned by his fervor.
“Do you,” He began when he was satisfied she wasn’t flinching. “Do you think it would help? To talk to her. My mother, Semele.”
Ariadne realized he was asking her this. He was seriously asking her if talking to his dead mother would make his struggle with loneliness and being accepted the other gods easier. She mentally flailed.
“I think,” She licked her lips. “That talking to her would give you closure. Possibly blackmail, depending if she remembers what your father’s true form looked like.” She added thoughtfully, hoping that bit didn’t get her in trouble down the line. His father was the King of the Gods. But Zeus had also shown his very pregnant lover his true form as a god and killed her instantly, so screw it.
Technically, only three gods went to the Underworld and came back. Hecate was a goddess with powers over the lingering dead. Hermes did as well, but more as a god who also occasionally delivered lost souls. Persephone was the Queen of the Underworld. But before that, she had been associated with her mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest and food crops.
“Your powers are strong with plants, so going to the Underworld in the winter wouldn’t be completely unheard of.” She added extremely hesitantly.
Dionysus expression gleamed with a manic excitement. “Blackmail huh?” He kissed her cheek and bit her illusory horse ear playfully, cackling at her yelp. “What would I do without you?” He told her with a cheerful grin, melancholy mood gone like a cloud over the sun.
Ariadne wasn’t sure what she would do without him either. It was probably something she should be more worried about.
* * *
ARIADNE wasn’t entirely shocked when Dionysus went to the Underworld. It surprised her that he took her advice, but not too much. He clearly had a lot of unresolved feelings that had been with him a long while. Since childhood, she was assuming.
What did shock her into confusion was when he dropped her off with the goddess Demeter while he went on his quest. Dionysus didn’t stay long enough to explain, hurrying off to catch a ride with a patiently waiting Persephone. The air was already loosing heat and they had only left minutes ago.
Ariadne turned from staring at the stubbornly empty horizon to the harvest goddess standing next to her. “I have no idea why I am here.” She admitted.
Demeter snorted. “You sure about that?” She continued watching where the chariot had faded into the distance as the darkness of night swallowed it. “You don’t strike me as the stupid type.”
Ariadne tried to figure that out and then gave it up as a lost cause. “I know that I’m relatively favored as Dionysus’s lover, but I thought he was going to leave me with the traveling bands or even at one of his temples. I have no idea why he left me here.” She repeated with a bit more explanation, hoping to get one in turn.
“Relatively favored? Girl, you convinced a god of the vibrancy of life to go the realm of the dead willingly. Not even my Persephone did that before her marriage.” Demeter told her flatly.
Ariadne was shaking her head before Demeter was finished. “Dionysus wanted to meet his mother.” She corrected but quietly because she was arguing with a goddess. Ariadne tried not to focus too much about the fact Demeter had seen no problem with killing all of humanity at one point. “I think he had forgotten that he could, since he was accepted as a god.”
Demeter finally looked away from the horizon and gave her a measuring look. “I suppose there is that.”
But she didn’t tell Ariadne why she was there.
* * *