Chapter 7 - A make-believe cupid?
Something tickled her nose. She wrinkled her nose to get it away. With a faint complaint, she attempted to swat it away. Her hand hit something hard and hairy.
“Mmm,” a voice muttered. Her eyes shot open. She was snuggling close against Sion. Panic followed as she attempted to put distance between them. Her hands slapped against his face and torso until; finally, she fell down from the bed.
"Ouch." Pain erupted in her head. She groaned. Yuck. A sour taste lingered in her mouth, and her head dunked. Was she going to feel like this every morning?
“What are you doing?” Sion was leaning over the edge of the bed, watching her with an amused expression.
“My head hurts.”
“Yeah. Minor side effect of the drink… Roseanne did tell me about that." He rolled away from her view for a brief second. "Apparently, it might help to drink more."
Unique surveyed the bottle he was holding. No way. She wasn't going to go near that vile drink again.
With her lips planted firmly together in a straight line, she rose from the floor. The spinning had stopped at least. She walked to the bathroom, supporting herself against the wall.
As she washed her face, she remembered what Sion had told her last night. He’d mentioned something about saints… They should find out more about these saints and, perhaps, more about human beliefs too. Great. More time alone with Sion. She pouted at the mirror. Had her father noticed she was gone yet? She didn't think so, time moved different down here. She couldn't explain it. But the hours they've spent on earth, were probably only minutes in Haims.
The water helped tremendously on both her head and the taste in her mouth. She looked down at her clothes. Her dress was slightly wrinkled, but nothing else seemed to be wrong. Well, apart from the fact she showed a whopping amount of all her assets. But Unique didn’t think she could do so much about that.
The book! She needed to look in Sion’s book about human beliefs. She hurried out to him. “Sion, I need that thing.”
“Sorry, my thing is tired…” he replied with his eyes closed.
She swatted at him. “Sion! I need the book.”
“Ugh!” He groaned and turned away. She hit him again. “Go get it yourself. It’s in the bag.” He buried his face in the pillow.
She stuck her tongue out at him, before getting the book. There was no place to sit, so she slid down on the floor with the book in her lap. Flipping through it, she started to read.
It was astonishing how close the humans were to the truth, and yet still so far. The Gods and Goddesses of every mythology were similar to Haims. Only one belief was slightly off.
She read with fascination about the religion with only one God – the almighty Jehovah. In a way, she could see the sense in the faith of only one God above all—it was close to what Goddess Lif was in Haims. However, Grandmother Lif had created all of the other Gods to help with the universe, and because she was lonely. Not to mention that the infinite universe was a pretty sizeable mouthful if you wanted to do your job properly.
Perhaps that was the function of the Angels in that belief. Unique flipped another page. On the other hand, maybe it was just easier to believe that one sentient possessed all the power in the world. She knew from herself, that remembering all the Gods of Emotion could be quite difficult.
Out of all the Gods, she was most fascinated by all the different explanations of what the Goddess of Love. Amora would be highly amused if she read all the ridiculous names they had given her.
Greek mythology called her Aphrodite, Roman mythology referred to her as Venus, Egyptians worshipped an Isis, and in Norse mythology, she was Freyja.
Another oddity was that the beliefs often featured a male counterpart. Eros, Cupid, Bes, or Freyr was the names of the phallic embodiments of love. She scoffed. Amora would laugh at this. The thought made Unique smile. She could almost hear the Goddess’ speech about how it takes a certain amount of ‘natural feminine love’ not to succumb to the temptation of lust and other physical desires.
“What’s so funny?” Sion interrupted her thoughts.
Unique looked up to see Sion watching her. She pointed to the book. “This would make Amora seethe in anger. The amount of people worshipping a phallus is insane.”
“Well. Perhaps there’s something about it.” Sion flexed his muscles. “Everybody knows that males do all the hard work while females are only supposed to sit around and be pretty.”
“Just stop talking, please?” Unique turned the page. “Your inflated ego is disturbing my reading.”
“Have you found anything of interest then?” He left the bed and walked over to sit on the floor beside her.
Unique found the Roman mythology. “Well, this idea might work.”
She pointed at the picture of Cupid, a little chubby boy with blonde curls and a diaper. He was smiling brightly while holding a bow and an arrow with a heart-shaped head.
“I was thinking,” Unique turned to look him in the eyes. “That we could do something similar, perhaps.”
“I wonder what spurred this?”
She looked down, heat blazing to her cheeks. “Well. I was thinking about what you said about being good, and the saints and such.”
“Yeah?”
“And I figured that we should try to catch Amora’s attention since she’s the one who looks at earth the most.” Unique wet her lips. “We could do so, by making humans fall in love, and give them a chance to honor her power.”
Sion looked at the book and then back to her. “So you want us to set up humans?”
“Yes, like a make-believe Cupid.”
“Hmm. A make believe Cupid, you say?” Sion scratched his chin. “That’s sort of gross.”
Unique simply stared at him.
“Sweet lovin’ shouldn’t involve a naked kid in a diaper!”
“You know that wasn’t what I meant at all!” She closed the book. “Cupid shot people to make them fall in love. The baby is just a cuter image of it.”
“It’s disturbing, that’s what it is.”
“And that should come from you?” Unique sneered.
“You know… I am feeling a sort of resistance from you. It’s almost as if you don’t like me.” Sion pushed himself off the floor. “How do you figure we do this then?”
“Well. With my retro cognition and your passion, we can set up people that fit together.” Unique bit her bottom lip. “At least, I think I can access that part of them. And you can perhaps make them more willing to give it a chance.”
“Hmm.” Sion started to pace. “It could work.”
“Great! Let’s get to it then!” She stood up and walked to the door.
“What, now?”
She peered back over her shoulder. “If not now, then when do you want to start? I don’t know about you, but I want to get back to Haims as fast as possible.”
“Wait a minute.” Sion narrowed his eyes. “Do you think that I actually want to stay here?”
Unique shrugged. “Seems like it.”
“Unbelievable!” Sion strolled past her with a huff. She rolled her eyes and walked after him.
The sun was high above them. All that light was irritating Unique’s eyes, and when she looked around, she saw scantily clad humans all walking around with some sort of shield on their eyes.
“Just for the record,” Sion added. “This is the last time I’m helping out with ideas.”
She ignored him. His tantrums were nothing new, and she knew that it would ride off eventually. He was only being childish now.
“Oh, my god! Is it, like, really you?” a high-pitched voice called. “Look Bianca, it’s her—the magic woman from the news.”
Unique stopped and looked around. What an awful voice. How could anyone stand to live with that? The two girls were staring at her and Sion. The stares made her oddly self-conscious. Did she have something in her hair?
“Can I, like, get your autograph?” A petite little blonde girl rushed over to her.
“My what?”
“Can I have your name, on my arm?” The girl held out a pen, with an excited expression.
Unique was confused; she glanced back at Sion who shrugged. She cleared her throat. “I like my name, so therefore, I will not give it you.”
She had no idea why the girl wanted her name. For her, it was an odd thing to ask for. Perhaps humans had a tendency to give each other names. It wouldn’t surprise her.
“No, no. Can I get you to write your name on my arm? I want to show it as proof that I met you.” The girl didn’t stop. “The others ain’t gonna believe me when I tell them about this.”
With hesitance, Unique took the pen. The lid was already off, and she scribbled something on the girl’s arm. She smiled and turned away from Unique.
“What was that about?” Sion asked.
She shrugged. Honestly, she had no idea.
“Where do we start looking for people to set up?” She changed the topic; Now more than ever, she wanted to go home.
“Well. I’d suggest somewhere crowded. More people, more opportunities.”
“Wouldn’t it be hard to control then?”
“Pssh. Come on, Unique. I saw you the other day, I’m sure you can control a few humans.”
“I wasn’t talking about me…” she muttered, but he didn’t seem to listen.
“How about the square?”
Unique didn’t particularly want to go back there. “I don’t—“
She walked past a large window, with little boxes inside. That wasn’t what caught her attention, but in the little boxes, her own face stared back at her. In moving pictures, she could see her work on the passion infested people.
“Sion…” she called. “Wait a second.”
“What’s that?” He popped up beside her.
She didn’t know. The picture was in a poor quality, but she could recognize her own white hair. She was wandering between people, making them remember who they truly were. More often than not, the people left with serene looks on their face. It was beautiful.
“I guess that’s a TV,” Sion said and turned away. Unique followed him. She couldn’t exactly determine whether this was a good or bad thing.
“There she is!” a voice called as they turned the corner. What is it with people and their shouting at her?
“Excuse me, Miss. But could you please help us?” A couple came over.
“I don’t know. What do you need?”
“Well. Me and the Missus saw what you did on the TV,” the man started to speak. “And we thought it was incredible. So we wanna ask if you’d be able to do it again?”
“Do what exactly?” Unique narrowed her eyes. What did they think she did? Had they discovered her powers?
“Well… You know…” The woman smiled and leaned in closer. “We saw how you helped all those people rekindle their passion and love for each other.”
“I did what?” Unique’s mouth dropped open, and she looked over at Sion. He was leaning against the wall with a smirk.
“Yeah. You did something magical or something psychologist like.”
“I guess I can try?” Unique had barely spoken the words before the woman dragged away with her in tow. Sion followed silently, but she didn’t miss the flash of a grin. Their eyes met.
“You’re going to pay for this,” she mouthed.
He stuck his tongue out at her before mouthing, “I know…”
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A/N: I apologize for the sudden spur in authors notes. I hope they don't annoy you too much. I wanted to tell you guys that I've started naming the chapters. In case you haven't noticed it, then feel free to go back and take a look -- I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you have any other suggestions to what the chapters could be called, then I'm all ears.
I really hope that enjoy this, and once again I'm sorry if there's grammar an spelling mistakes.
On an additional note, I'd like to make if very clear, that I am not trying to offend any religion. This is fiction, and since Unique is a made up God, she will of course make fun of other religions. Please don't hate me.