Thallo Eirene

It's always something with the Luthors in this town, Eirene has decided. She doesn't mind that her shop is a (very) modest success, being next door to the most popular coffee shop in town, and she's found an assistant who can pick up the slack if world events force the boss to 'run some errands' now and then.

But when the area's bad boy is trapped in tunnels he may not escape from, his father in critical condition, and his wife doing a credible imitation of the fictional Lady Macbeth, Eirene finds that she's inserted herself into the cultural landscape more deeply than she realized, and ends up taking help a few other local residents take refreshments and first aid supplies to everyone out at the site.

She's barely there more than twenty minutes, talking to local officials and handing out some of her not-completely-inedible cooking efforts, when two figures emerge from an access tunnel and collapse moments before another explosion, dropping her to her knees when pain radiates through Gaia. At least it only lasts a few minutes, although when she witnesses what appears to be a very tender moment between the current Mrs. Luthor and Eirene's favorite boyscout, she's chagrined to realize that she's unaccountably jealous.

It's been a very long time since she felt this strongly about anyone, at least a few centuries, distracting her from noticing that Lana ends up with her husband, and Clark is looking in her direction. Or, well, moving in her direction, until he's halfway there and she's not what to do. The last time she saw him, things went from interesting to heated to an extremely embarrassing party crash. If she's lucky, he's forgotten almost being seduced. If she's not -- Hawaii is always nice this time of year.

Dike's recent suggestion to stick around for a while and keep an eye on the happenings in Smallville is a good one. Eirene bought a flower shop near the Talon from one of the local residents, and in just a few weeks, she's made a small success of it. So much so that she's supplying the floral decoration for the rehearsal dinner at the Luthor mansion.

Apparently Lex Luthor likes contributing to the local economy, so that's where she's been most of the morning, going over what's been delivered, and what still needs to. He's even given her an RSVP to attend the evening's festivities, with some very smooth words about the elegance of her business.

However, by mid afternoon, Eirene finds herself in Metropolis, delivering a bouquet of roses to Clark Kent's best friend Chloe, from her boyfriend in honor of Valentine's Day. In fact, she's standing near an old style phone booth with Jimmy Olsen, discussing ways he can attempt to keep plants alive in his apartment when she sees Clark come in looking worried. She waves absently, and returns to her conversation, figuring to find the tall farmboy later and say hello. Since he seems to be avoiding her shop.

Sadly, Eirene isn't really paying much attention to anything other than writing down a list of plants for him to try to not kill when Clark comes past a short while later, tugged into the phone booth by a young woman that she only remembers seeing occasionally.

Kansas sure is interesting when you actually live there.

One doesn't normally expect to get attacked in Seattle, even on the docks. Certainly not from a being that seems to embody malevolence to the point where it makes Eirene feel nauseated just being in his presence. She's been making sure the arrival of cherry trees from Japan has gone according to schedule, another errand for a family member, but once the sudden, desperate cries coming from the cargo ship had caught her attention -- and the pain was wrenching -- the goddess goes to investigate.

What she finds is that terrible creature, one that makes her experience with Zod seem like a walk in the park. Eirene thought she could endure pain before, trapped for so long inside a burial crypt, but when the thing tries to remove her spine, it's not a matter of holding back the screams anymore, but trying to get away to stop the pain.

Then something barrels into her tormentor, and a voice "Run!" which seems the sanest course of action. It is what she attempts, though the dark thing finds her easily again at the edge of a wharf, and, after another excruciating attempt to rip her apart, he--it-- he casually tosses her through two buildings and against the side of a third.

His essence moving towards her is the last thing she remembers before blacking out.

It happens so quickly that most are taken by surprise. Not Ares, he lives in anticipation of this. Not Ouranos, he sees everything. Eirene is one of the many, woken abruptly from a post-Darfur nap, and rushing out to the balcony of her father's temple to see what's going on. Night is rapidly descending and underneath her dark cloak, panic is erupting in the streets of Metropolis. New York. Los Angeles. Seattle. DC. London. By the time the blackout reaches Madrid, she's already flying towards Metropolis and looking for answers. As Eirene passes over the city, her shadow falls on groups of rioters here and there, causing them to break off from random destruction and turning to help the police they were just beating.

She has no time to go down amongst them and try to restore sanity; there is a signal emanating from one of the buildings that confuses her. Like Clark, but contained in what seems like a human body. She does not understand this, nor does she like the implications inherent within - a human with Clark's powers would be tempted to set themselves up as a god.

An average human wouldn't be able to resist that temptation.

So Eirene intercedes, blurring to the roof of LuthorCorp in time to hear the being introduce themselves to a girl she's seen occasionally around Smallville, of all places. When this Zod steps forward, and oh boy does that look like the man she rescued a year or more back from the plane, the goddess inserts herself between the human and the possessed man, allowing the brunette a chance to escape, and finds herself imprisoned in an iron grip. He moves more quickly than she thought possible, though accustomed as she is to speedy travel, it doesn't phase her as much as it should have. They stop briefly in a plane hanger, where Eirene is confronted by an utterly alien craft, and some sort of scan, one that puts a note of interest in Zod's gaze.

From the hanger they travel to Smallville, a place she hasn't been in six months, where the alien conversationally explains that a being of her beauty and inner strength will give him equally impressive sons, and together they will rule this planet and the weak natives. Eirene is less than thrilled with this idea and attempts escape; but, as with Clark, she can't run far from a man of the same race. For her impudence, Zod impales her on a lance 'for safekeeping'. Unable to touch a weapon, she remains where he left her, but the pain doesn't start until the surface of Gaia begins changing, radiating agony through the ground right into her captive form.

Through the haze, she's aware of Clark's arrival and subsequent depature with Zod, caught up in trying to escape without touching the weapon.

Help me. Please.

One month turns into two, two to three, and so on until almost two seasons have past since Eirene last saw her home. The goddess is a little quieter (though that doesn't always preclude getting into trouble), wanders further over the terrain outside the city by herself, and managed to talk several Houses into a bi-weekly crafts class inside one of the arboriums for their children.

It's mostly what she did outside of her formal duties at home, except that no one on Krypton seems willing to place her in any particular category. Eirene is too bold to be an adult, too solemn to be completely childish, too short to be taken seriously, and it's left her in a category all by herself. Which makes for a pretty lonely existence.

Of course, up until five minutes ago she was happily asking questions of Sila's grandfather Zor-El, until he decided she wasn't taking the science seriously enough, which leaves the blonde standing outside the residence of one of Krypton's greatest scientific minds (though privately Eirene thinks Kal's father is a LOT saner, and smarter) with a whole block of time on her hands.

This could get dangerous.

"You realize I will make you pay for this, right?" Eirene finishes staring at herself in the mirror and turns to glare at the god beside her.

"No, you won't. Revenge isn't in your nature. Besides, you lost." Thanatos casually pushes himself up from the chair and gives her a smirky once-over. "I've got a ten car pileup outside of Toronto to deal with. Have fun."

The blonde makes a face as he disappears, knowing there isn't a way to back out of this without breaking her word, and she just doesn't do that. This is why you shouldn't play cards with deities. They cheat. Though why he chose Metropolis as her punishment city is beyond her.

Eirene walks out of the costume shop near the University about ten minutes later, thanking Tyche repeatedly that no one she knows is around to see the (very) tiny, revealing, dark Girlscout costume.

Halloween is going to suck this year.

Water-guns are totally awesome. No bullets, no pain, no blood. Just you and your play partner. Of course, if said partner cheats and increases the size of his water-gun, knocking the other player right out of the sky, well, that calls for one goddess of peace dropping right down into the middle of Metropolis, Kansas with a yelp.

And landing on her back not too far from the football stadium, the wind knocked right out of her.

"Ow."

Clouds are awesome. They're high above the earth, bothered only occasionally by birds and other winged-creatures, and Eirene can hold errant conversations with her grandfather while lying on one. While is what she's in the middle of doing (ie; sprawled on a cloud and listing off the best things about the arctic circle) when, from nowhere someone shoots through the clouds past her and vanishes beneath them.

This dislodges the goddess from her perch, and almost knocks her completely off the construct itself, if it weren't for Father Sky solidifying enough to lend a helping hand.

"Wanna take it, or should I?"

"I will, Grandfather. Ta!"

She dives into the wild blue yonder, falling directionlessly until she spots the dark-clothed man ripping open the side of an airplane and stepping into the interior. He's back out just a few minutes later, holding something in his hand, but Eirene recognizes the stance and face in a quarter of a heartbeat.

He's gone before she can even think to form a query, leaving a plane in distress.

Clearly, there is only one course of action, and that's to save the flying machine. Clark will be dealt with later. Adjusting her trajectory, the goddess moves quickly enough to position herself right in front of the plane's nose, and begins a very slow descent towards the ground far below - completely ignoring the shocked pilots in the cockpit.

She's never done this before, so it takes almost half an hour of mortal time to guide the plane, crew and passengers onto the nearest airport strip she can locate, unsure even of the country they're all being plunked in. It doesn't matter - what does is saving these people from being ripped apart by the forces of Air - and it is an objective she accomplishes when everyone is safe on the ground.

Eirene even hangs around long enough to make sure the victims aren't in danger of having strokes, taking little notice of the bald man's demands in regards to her name and place of origin, and then vanishes in a burst of light.

She has a farmboy to track down and yell at. It will be extremely satisfying.

It's getting ridiculous.

Like clockwork, every three or four months, Eirene finds herself back in Kansas. Thanatos is to blame for this visit, stupid Death and his promise of chocolate milkshakes and fries and hamburgers.

She hasn't gotten any of them yet, just done a round in the children's ward as a volunteer before slipping down to the intensive care unit and checking to see who she could heal without arousing too much suspicion.

Which is when it goes wrong. Again. So Eirene acts on instinct and presses the intercom button.

"Code blue. Room 247. Code blue. Room 247."

When other nurses and a doctor rush in, then two young men soon after, she eases against the wall and waits for an opportunity to flee, saved only by the fact she's in scrubs, having spent years around hospitals, and able to hand various items to the professionals who bark for them.

In fact, it takes everything she has not to wrap her arms around the moredistraught of the civilians and shoulder some of the agony radiating outward from his soul, eventually slipping past everyone into the hallway.

Stopped very briefly by a strong, familiar hand. Green eyes. She'd forgotten about that. Eirene shakes her head, nods toward his friend, and gently extracts herself from the situation.

One of the terminal cancer patients makes a startling recovery half an hour later.

Back again to this ordinary section of Kansas. This one isn't her fault, really, only that Nomi passed through several weeks back and wanted Eirene to drop in and take a look at the local nursery.

Which has now been accomplished and, aside from traces of unusual green rocks studded throughout the area, including the nursery, Eirene really doesn't see why she was directed all the way back to Middle America.

Well, not until someone tries to rob a jewelry store right across the street.

By the time she dodges cars and pedestrians to get inside, someone's already called for the cops and an ambulance, allowing her to slip through the crowd and into the store, where the sight of a young man hunkered down on his knees is enough for her to keep going, until she's crouched next to him. He isn't holding his face anymore, but he seems dazed and disoriented.

"Are you all right?"

"Lana?"

"Eirene. Sorry to disappoint."

Pause.

"Eirene, it's my eyes. I can't see."

She stays where she is, as Clark continues blinks frantically, until the medics arrive, squeezing his shoulder once before vanishing back into the crowd. There are slightly more urgent matters to attend to, but she'll be back to check on him.

The boy with two names.

Eirene is now enamoured with the inhabitants of the fledging country America (when you're older than civilization itself, 300 years is fledging), so much that she's just now entering the second week of her first modern job -- a bar maid. Or, as they call them now, waitress. It's a role she's occasionally stepped into over the centuries, and while the mode of dress and dialect change, the duties never do.

She's run into the plaid-wearing farmboy again, several times, but he's dressed different now and seems more aggressive. More --dare she say it-- like her own male relatives. Of course, she's a nominal member of the staff and not one of the other patrons, so falls beneath notice except for when she brings him drinks should he appear during her shift.

"Hey! What's up, Kal?"

A friendly smile offered, and one received from him, before he pushes through the crowd with a petite brunette near her own height, and Eirene continues on course to deliver the round of drinks to a bachelor party near the back of Atlantis. There's the usual avoidance of being pinched and denial of offers for her phone number, though the blonde is tempted to give them Than's cell just to find out what would happen to a bunch of businessmen interupting Death's nap schedule, and back across the crowded floor.

Seriously not easy to do in heels, which Eirene dislikes anyway. She's bumped into by one of the dancing patrons, and would have wound up on the floor with a bruised chin if not for the hand steadying her arm.

"Careful."

"Thanks, Kal."

"Welcome."

Then he's vanished into the mob, while Eirene glances down and idly rubs at the place his fingers wrapped around so briefly. Strong enough to catch a car, yes, but gentle enough not to leave marks on Titan-descended skin.

At least he didn't recognize her this time. Feeling marginally better about the world in general and chivalry in particular, the goddess resumes wench duty, this time with a spark to her step.

Eirene carefully eases inside the crumpled Corolla, ignoring pesky things like seats and steering wheels now in the trunk. Or where the trunk was. The college student is dying, she can feel his heartbeat slowing with each raspy breath, but she's here now, and Than will arrive shortly to offer the poor boy's soul a lift to the boatman.

Am I dying?

"Yes, I'm sorry."

It's not going to be a pleasant death, either, not with that unearthly insect eating its way out of his neck. But at least she can lesson his pain. And feel ill at the images and sensations she gets from his fading mind; a party, a bite, and the urge to fly.

Who are you?

"Eirene. Just rest. My partner will be here soon to take you to the Fields."

There's a long silence while his heart continues slowing down, but at least he keeps a hold on her hand. And then nothing - she can feel the faint passing of his soul, and Than's arrival to collect the first generation Greek-American and take him to his ancestors.

Somewhere in this area are a collection of caves she needs to explore, Eirene decides, and finishes grinding the parasite corpse into dust with her hands, grateful it died just after the student did.

* * *

No one knows anything about the bugs. Not her family, not the scientists in the cave, not the tall boy that's been hanging around when no one else is. For a few moments, she was sure the kid in the plaid could sense her, but the blonde girl tugged him out before Eirene could make sure.

"Why don't you just give up and come home with me?" Than's pacing along the cliff edge, watching the line of trees across the gorge.

"Because I think I might be needed here."

"Suit yourself." He's gone in a single breath, off to collect more souls on his way back to Tartarus.

Eirene turns back at the sound of a car approaching, and watches sadly, in disbelief, as it backs up and then speeds right off the edge into the air, only to be caught by the boy in the plaid shirt before they touch dirt.

And then he turns, once the car is on the ground, to look straight at her. He can see her. She fully materializes in shock and doesn't even run when he appears in front of her.

"Who are you?"

"A friend. Those people, they need help."

When he looks back, Eirene takes the opportunity to disappear. Than is right, she can come back another time and find out why a mortal farmboy can see her when he shouldn't be able to.

She's never been to this medical center before. It's small, befitting the name of the town it serves as well. Thanatos is calmly watching the doctors perform another checkup on the boy they are there to see, though Eirene studiously watches nurses and other personnel move past them in the hallway.

She hates needles.

"Why does antiseptic smell so awful?" That's a rhetorical question to her current charge. He's cute, this Ryan. And he knows she's there, seated in the chair next to his cot, but doesn't say anything until the doctors leave again to notify next of kin.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Peace."

"Who's he?"

"Death. Please don't be scared, we're not here to hurt you."

"I know. Is there an afterlife?"

"Yes. If it's any consolation, the Fields are beautiful."

"Why me?"

"Why not you? Don't you deserve an existence free from pain and strife too?"

"Seriously."

"I am being serious. You're one of mine. We have a little while, is there anything you want to do?"

"Clark already did it."

"Who's Clark?"