me and my brother

by localcryptidlivinlife

Summary:

"Well, the music's a bit fuckass, so we should not have that. And the rest is just practice and a teensy-weensy bit of luck."

"I have no luck; I fear Tyche does not take to loss gracefully."

Apollo raises an eyebrow. "Oh? Unlike yourself?"

[OR: the spirtual succesor to 'she cookie on my kingdom till i run' where apollo helps athena at rhythm workshop]

Notes:

• Inspired by [Restricted Work] by localcryptidlivinlife (Log in to access.)

lol guys i hate (love) this cookie game and love toa. these guys can never leave me for long, i have been thoroughly brainrotted by them. not complaing tho.

It started with Apollo, because Athena can trace several lines of bullshit back to him. When she can't do that, she can trace it to Hermes, and sometimes the occasional Ares. She should give an honourable mention to her "darling" sister Artemis who once let several wolves into her place of residence because she'd thought the number of owls in there was harmful to Olympus's natural ecosystem.

She misses Apollo's Knowledge. Misses it with every thread that was woven to make her what she is, there's something there that wasn't there before and Athena's not good enough with emotions to understand why. She needs him to balance out the lack of braincells her other siblings hold.

It being this dastardly game by the name of Cookie Run: Kingdom that he had introduced to them all. It enrages her for many reasons, one being that Tyche was still angry at her for that game of 5d chess she'd lost in (the sore loser) so her pulls were horrible, another being that she does not understand it's mathematical values. Why does her beloved Olive Cookie, despite having a greater power in terms of numbers, lose consistently to Financier Cookie? They are of the same classification so they must have similar power levels, and yet.

The mini games also infuriate her. She liked the wedding cake decoration one as well as the bingo despite her less than stellar luck, Berry Jump was infuriating but rewarding in its difficulty, so she did not mind it much (it had been her favourite game) but the detested Rhythm Workshop truly got on her nerves. It did not follow the rules of rhythm games because of the mere fact that there were no detectable rhythm. Athena should have no problem with such things as she was a higher being, but she never managed to reign supreme, nor was she being beaten by her siblings. No, she was being crushed by mortals. A thoroughly embarrassing endeavour.

Apollo had been the one to show the game to her, had come to her yapping nonsensically about it. She abhors nonsense so it was prudent for her to understand it, yet it seemed to become harder in terms of perfection the more she learned about it. She had liked the stories it told and the same could be said for the character designs of the Cookies, but the game's mechanics are her beloathed things.

"Darling sister!" The mentioned brother comes trilling as she once again fails to get more than four digits in the rhythm game. "What are you doing now?" He tilts his head like Olden Time does when she is watching her prey, looking for an optimal moment to strike.

"I am attempting Rhythm Workshop. It is failing most horribly." She replies, there is one more attempt for today until she has to forcibly remove herself from playing this mini game. She could pay for it, but it goes against all that she is to win in such an underhanded manner, if you cannot win through raw skill alone, then you do not deserve to win at all. It is why despite their many, many, many arguments she will hold a respect for Ares that you will have to carve out of her. Similarly, it is why despite her trying for her daughter's sake to like Perseus Jackson, her hatred of his slimy father clouds her judgement.

"Yeah, I've just been praying Tyche takes mercy on me for that." Apollo takes a seat on the floor a couple yards from her, after moving her long abandoned tapestry to clear a sport for himself. He extends a hand towards her, and she hands him the electronic device. He gestures for her to come near, and she makes a pathway for herself so that now they sit shoulder to shoulder. Her brother is warm, being a thing made of pure light and heat like the sun. It is one of her favourite things about him.

Apollo clicks the practice mode button, lowers the volume to a void, and manages to get a decent 54,800. It irks her in the way that he always does when he does something and it is done better than when she does the same thing.

"How?" She angrily demands of him. At first, he smiles with all his teeth in his mouth, with a couple more to show his lighthearted positive emotion, and then he shifts to look she'd thought lost to Time. It's a more contemplative, philosophical look, the type he'd had when teaching Chiron all of the things that he knew. When Apollo teaches, he is in his most natural form. There is no strain within him when he offers to help someone. She knows that she is similar. She is best when she guides, when she has champions, she's not good in a lot of other scenarios.

"Well, the music's a bit fuckass, so we should not have that. And the rest is just practice and a teensy-weensy bit of luck."

"I have no luck; I fear Tyche does not take to loss gracefully."

Apollo raises an eyebrow. "Oh? Unlike yourself?"

"Your mockery is deeply unhelpful brother. Much like your favourite Pure Vanilla." Athena actually quite likes the Healer Cookie; he is her favourite healer and a staple in her Arena Team even if he is not her favourite Ancient. However, she is also mean which counts for something as Apollo's face twists in an outrageously upset expression.

"He's an amazing Cookie! In terms of CRK lore, he's the reason we have the Ancients still alive. And in terms of other things, he's a damn good healer and if you have him ascended you can apply additional buffs towards the other Cookies in your team. His design is also PEAK." Her brother's voice gains in pitch until he finishes his passionate rant on the good qualities of Pure Vanilla Cookie. Athena's windows have cracked a little from how high his voice had gone but she does not mind. It is a nice show of emotion, honest and raw in a way that she rarely sees from him.

"Hm. I suppose he does have merits." She tells him. "Now, onto the game? A strategy that isn't just 'luck' please." He sighs. Hems and haws too, but (somehow) scooches closer to her.

"You do the practice mode till you can reliably get what you want. You know that."

"Obviously."

"Right. So, you do the practice with no music since it throws you off kilter and you switch between the two. Since it's coming at you slowly, you know the order of the hammer and the claw hammer, so you know how it's meant to go. Then the practice part comes with the timing of the thing." Apollo finishes, he had been playing the game the whole time and this time, he'd left himself with 63,200 points. Athena hums to show that she has acknowledged his words and grabs her device from his hands.

While his advice has not yielded results as glorious as his, she has been upgraded to five digits which she counts as a win. She'll do more on the practice mode, then when she tries it for real, she will crush all those mortals who dared be better than her.

"Thank you." She whispers as Apollo leaves. He stills, but other than that does not give anything to know that he has heard her gratitude at all. There are always eyes watching them, privacy on Olympus is practically non-existent after all.

Notes:

to the people who like crk and toa. this for you <3 and my fellow athena enjoyers lol