The Great Eight (Temporary Hiatus)

Man's Worst Enemy

One minute he was running through the woods, hot on Pepe's trail, and the next Herry was putting up missing posters all around the block. Odie, the helpful soul that he was, had volunteered to help Herry out and was currently holding onto the stack of freshly printed paper a few steps behind his giant friend.

"I should have taught him to stay." Herry joked bittersweetly as Odie huffed out a chuckle.

"Looks like your Granny isn't the only one who lost their dog." Odie tilted his head meaningfully at all the other posters decorating nearby street lamps. As it was already, Herry had to crouch down just to find a spot for their poster on this particular lamp post they were at.

"Yeah hope this helps." And just like that, the two teens dropped their conversation and began moving on to the next lamp post.

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In Apollo's parlor, Mel was sitting on some rugs while playing a golden lyre she had found in the room. She had been meaning to get acquainted with her assigned mentor, Dionysus, but as luck would have it the chemically-inclined God was currently, ah, busy tinkering with the results of his fermented solution comprised of water and ethanol. Or more specifically, water and ethyl alcohol. So Mel wisely decided to seek out another voice of reason and ended up in a room full of floor to ceiling nooks and crannies full of musical scrolls all surrounding a seemingly lonely lyre in the center of the space.

She didn't mean to take anything without asking, really! But the urge to touch Aphrodite's harp from before Neil even joined the team had been left to rot and this lyre was so shiny. If anything it was this lyre's fault. So really it was no surprise that she sat there, finally attaining a form of musical relief in a room all to herself. For the most part anyways.

It seemed Apollo had returned some time before Mel even knew he was there and had been hiding himself behind a pillar to listen in on her whimsical tune. And it was all going great until the God accidentally tipped over a precarious scroll with his wayward elbow. Sending it clattering to the floor as its momentum led it to roll down the slight slope of the centralized floor. The poor God could only watch as the scroll came to a stop a few feet away from the teenage mortal with a horrified expression that was ever more present when Apollo's widened eyes landed Mel's pair that were also opened up like saucers back at him.

The teenage girl found it funny, truly, that a God like Apollo would act so mortal-like as she sat there waiting for the God to address the situation first. The humor of the situation was put aside, though, as the noise had startled the teen hero and caused a shameful squeal to erupt from the bowls of her being. Thankfully it seemed like the God was too invested into the scroll to have heard her and she found herself ever so silent as she awaited his response. Hoping beyond hope that the dreadful noise she just conjured up would just go away and never be addressed.

"That was beautiful, until the end." Apollo blurted out, carefully stepping into the open even as his feet made quick work to kick the scroll back the way it came. "I didn't know you could play the lyre, Mel."

"Uh, yeah." Mel hastily got to her feet to shrug. Nearly sighing in relief as the conversation topic had nothing to do with the abominable noise she created.

"Not many can play it so well." The scroll made another appearance as it none too gently tapped back against Apollo's calves. With the way the floor gracefully caved into the central area, the scroll was now rolling up and down the slope since Apollo's nudges weren't powerful enough to send it back onto level ground near the pillars. And it kept doing so since Apollo kept persistently kicking it backwards without enough umph to get it to stay away.

"It's not all that exciting, it's just something I picked up to help keep my baby boy-"

"-Wait until I tell the others-"

"No wait!" Mel suddenly exclaimed, "Don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Why not?"

"Please, Apollo. The guys will never let me live it down." Mel explained, "There's nothing more out-of-date than playing the lyre."

"Ahem." Apollo coughed sarcastically, "I play the lyre, in fact that's my lyre."

"I meant no offense, Apollo! It's just that, well, the others aren't exactly immortal like you guys are and lyres aren't a thing anymore." Mel grimaced as she handed the golden lyre back to the God. And as she was about to nervously ramble on some more, Atlanta decided to pop her head in and announce a proposition.

"Hey! I need a few things. You want to go shopping?"

"Sounds great!" Mel awkwardly skirted around the indignant Apollo with an uneasy smile and headed towards the doors. Just as the shorter girl made it to the doors, Atlanta's eyes landed on Apollo.

"See you later." She waved to the God, but then her eyes happened to also land on his lyre. "A lyre?" With a devious chuckle she tacked on," That's so lame. Come on, Apollo, get with the times." With that Mel practically dashed out of the awkward situation, but not before sending a meaningful stare back at the Sun God as she did so.

Once the two teenagers had left the god alone with his thoughts and feelings on the lyre, Apollo lifted it up to his eye level with a sorrowful pout.

"What's wrong with the lyre? It's beautiful?"