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i don't know how much i can say about this, i'm not sure if there's any
reason why i shouldn't write about this... i'll just be vague.
Hephaestus was working in a position of authority. Those over whom he
had charge were a generally likable bunch, and yet, being young, they
sometimes got on Hephaestus' nerves. One day near the end of his scheduled
tenure, Hephaestus became especially annoyed by some of the children of whom
he was in charge. One such person was Pandora, a girl who refused to take
Hephaestus seriously. As Heph sat and spoke with some of the children,
Pandora ran in and snatched a thing of his from the wall. Heph called out to
her to not touch the thing, but 'Dora merely grinned and attempted to break
it. Heph jumped to his feet and snatched the thing from 'Dora's hands and
reprimanded her, telling her that she should not have touched the thing and
that she should never do so again. Heph returned his thing to the wall and
sat back down. Not more than a minute later, 'Dora re-entered the room and
ran up to the wall to snatch the thing once more. Heph yelled at her that
she had better not do it but she just smiled at him and pulled the thing
down from the wall once more. Heph was greatly angered; he yelled at 'Dora
to return the thing to the wall and reprimanded her severely for her lack of
respect for both his property and himself. 'Dora giggled and made a run for
the door. As she ran past him, Heph stretched his arm out and caught her
about the waist. The force of her collision with his arm toppled the both of
them to the floor. Heph rolled under her in an attempt to cushion her fall
and then proceeded to continue yelling at her. 'Dora smiled gleefully and
attempted to crawl away, at which point Heph threw one knee across her waist,
effectively pinning her in place. More yelling by Heph and smiling by 'Dora
followed. Just as Heph was giving up on getting through to 'Dora, she slapped
him and knocked his glasses off. Heph got up and put his glasses back on,
then renewed his yelling efforts. 'Dora tried to slap him again and then once
more but Heph saw it coming both times and blocked. After her second attempt
to slap him, Heph pushed 'Dora backwards so that she fell onto the couch in
seated position. More yelling, more smiling. Heph gave up again and left
the room to consult his co-workers on how to handle the situation.
Mere minutes later, Heph recieved a call that 'Dora was upstairs calling
her parents and tearfully telling them that she has been attacked and wanted
to come home. Heph recruited the aid of a co-worker and went upstairs to
apologize and to try to calm 'Dora down, for Heph realized with chilling
clarity that he had laid a hand on one of the children, a heinous overstepping
of bounds. Heph arrived upstairs to find things much as he had been told they
were, 'Dora crying into the phone while her little 12 year old 'boyfriend',
Ares, comforted her. Realizing that he was the last person she probably
wanted to see at the time, Heph retreated to the office downstairs, whereupon
he recieved a call from his boss that Ares had called the cops and that they
were on their way. Heph explained the situation to his boss and hung up
just as a co-worker came in to inform him that the cops had arrived and were
upstairs speaking with Pandora and Ares. Hephaestus went upstairs and spoke
to the officers; they informed him that he could be charged with assualt, a
felony charge carrying a minimum of 6 months jail time. Hephaestus could
only shake his head numbly at his stupidity and at the rampant exageration of
Pandora and Ares.
Things could have gone worse. In the end, 'Dora father decided not to
press charges, perhaps realizing that his daughter was caught up in the drama
of the entire situation ("Will this be on the news?", she asked. "Did you
know that he was going to try to kill one of us?", she asked. "I'm sorry that
this happened, but at least it brought us closer together baby", Ares said.),
but Hephaestus will never view young children the same way again. He has
trouble keeping in mind that he did not, in fact, try to kill 'Dora, that he
isn't, in reality, a bad person.
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