Hallie was going to die.

Yes, again. And this time not of stage fright. Say what you want, but Thanátos is not repetitive.

Hallie ran unnoticed through the streets, careful not to run into anyone. If they wouldn't look out for her, she would have to do that herself. She was not arriving at her first day of work looking like someone shoved her onto the ground as though she was worth nothing. She was also not going to be pushed to the ground and die of blood loss, hence why she was going to die.

I would recommend getting there a good half to a full hour early. I heard the times the stage director shows up is erratic. And he doesn't like to wait.

Kirphis may be in the most looked-down-upon social class and have a suspiciously nice living space, but he knew things. And thank the gods he did; there was no way she was arriving late on her first day on the job, even if she technically wasn't late.

Once the crowds thinned, the people divided around her, much like how the city itself was divided. Hallie prided herself on her internal political burns. They went their separate ways, deeming anyone and everyone else unimportant.

After too long for comfort, she found the amphitheater Kirphis showed her yesterday.

Hallie stopped, stuffed some bread down her throat to compensate for the excess loss of adipocytes, and walked down the steps.

The steps were made of marble and polished until they shone in the early morning light. Hallie felt self-conscious every time she set her foot on a step, wondering just how dirty the undersides of her sandals were. She would not be the one to ruin the cleanliness of the steps. Nope, not her.

Before she knew it, she reached the bottom. In front of her was a small crowd of people. About a third was thin to the bone, Sómata. The other two-thirds looked like they could eat more, but not to the point where they were going to collapse should a breeze come through, Taktikoí. The ratio of one to two was surprising. Usually, it was Sómata who got jobs involving physical activity.

One of the Taktikoí noticed her. "Hey, you can't be down here if you're not a part of the cast."

Hallie shrank under their stare. Their tone wasn't unkind, just blunt and informative. They must amaze while playing emotional characters.

One of their friends - Hallie assumed the two were friends - swatted their arm. "Doriskos! Be nice! It might be the new girl Charax was talking about."

The friend turned to smile at Hallie. "Sorry about him. He forgets things a lot."

Doriskos glared at his friend. "I do not!"

They stood their ground and fixed him with a steely gaze. "The Frogs."

Doriskos stared at them as his face flushed a deep crimson. "That was once, and you know it, Niobe!"

Niobe cocked their head to the side. "Nothing else smart?"

"Anyway!" Doriskos turned to Hallie, trying and failing to conceal his flushed face.

"Come now, that comical joke?" someone shouted from the other side of the amphitheater.

Doriskos whipped around. "And vow that you've a belly-ache!" he roared.

At that, everyone - excluding Doriskos and Hallie - almost died of laughter.

"O-Okay, we'll s-stop t-teasing you." Niobe got out between fits of laughter.

"Thank you." The excess color left Doriskos's face. "So, new girl, what's your name? Charax didn't specify."

It took a while for Hallie to realize he was talking to her.

"O-Oh! My name is Hallie Nephus. I-It's nice to meet you." Hallie tugged on her hair until she thought it might snap off.

"It's nice to meet you too, Hallie. As you may have guessed, my name is Niobe! Niobe Ariti!" Niobe flipped her hair over her shoulder in an over-the-top, dramatic way. "Please refer to me with she/her pronouns."

"And this," She pointed at Doriskos. "is Doriskos Karino."

Doriskos lifted a hand.

Niobe then studied Hallie longer than mortals said Nárkissos used to stare at his reflection. "If we ask you to, will you quote and/or reference The Frogs at any random point or points during the day?"

"Niobe!"

"Gods, I was just asking." Niobe's smirk betrayed the innocence she was half-trying to maintain.

Hallie bit her tongue. Did the question still stand even though Niobe was "just asking"? If so, what did Hallie say? She didn't want to annoy anyone, but she did want to fit in. So, at what point did she draw the line?

A Somá separated themself from the crowd. Thankful for the distraction, Hallie gave them her attention. The Somá cleared their throat, and Niobe and Doriskos stopped arguing.

"Niobe," The Somá put their hands on their hips in a mock-annoyed stance. "you can't just go around asking people if they'll recite The Frogs on command." Their eyes lit up with mischief and fire. "See if they have it memorized first!"

Niobe jumped up and down, clapping. "Ah, of course! Thank you for correcting me, my dear Cois."

Cois winked suggestively. "Anything for you, darling."

Niobe giggled as Doriskos rolled his eyes. Hallie couldn't help but stare.

From the looks of it, Niobe and Cois were dating. Dating. As in, may-get-married -one-day dating. A Taktikós and a Somá. Call Hallie Krónos and give her a harpē if you must, but that never happens. She, herself, found nothing wrong with it, but she was in Kardiá for gods' sake! One of the most ability-diverse, and therefore one of the most hateful, cities in Synoliká. Any random passersby would be horrified by such a prospect.

"Niobe. Cois. We get it. You're a straight boy. You're a Biromantic girl," a voice drawled. "Ask each other out already."

Oh. So, they weren't dating. Fun.

Cois choked, and Niobe turned redder than Doriskos a few minutes earlier, earning a smirk from the said Taktikós.

Someone in the crowd snickered. "Nice, Nikas."

A very done looking mortal stepped forward and raised their eyebrows at the pair of mortals they easily dumbfounded. "Well?"

"I-I" It seemed Cois could, in fact, be dethroned from his aura of charm and charisma. "Well, do you?" he sputtered, whipping around to face Hallie.

Nikas rolled their eyes. "A change of subject. How clever."

Hallie didn't know what to do about Nikas, and besides, she had bigger things to worry about. Like what in the gods' name Cois meant by "Well, do you?"

"D-Do I what?" She rocked from foot to foot.

Niobe, still red, answered her question an octave higher than her normal voice. "Do you have The Frogs memorized?!" You would think flirts like them wouldn't get this embarrassed.

Ah, the line. The line was redrawing itself, bringing back its ethical dilemma with it.

"U-Um, maybe?"

Niobe and Cois perked up considerably. Doriskos noticeably deflated.

"Really?" Niobe was squealing.

"Go on!" Cois was beaming.

Hallie looked at Doriskos. He motioned for her to get on with it; he accepted his fate.

She bit her lip. Was it too early to show she memorized a comedy? So much was implied by that. For instance, how much time she had on her hands to memorize random plays.

It only got more problematic the more she dwelled on it.

One of the many themes of the play was tradition. "Tradition" included maintaining order.

Ironic considering Synoliká's city-states jumped from ruler to ruler once a newer, younger tyrant decided they wanted power.

That was beside the point. If she had time to memorize long pieces of text, then she didn't have the order in her life, giving her jobs to do throughout the day, such as cooking or handling finances. Implying a lack of order while quoting a play whose writing loves the idea of order would be hypocritical of her.

What's worse, many found The Frogs to be controversial and even offensive. The Frogs was written during a time when two competing tyrants were battling over the rule of Kardiá. Through this and the plot of The Frogs, the author implies Kardiá needs the help of outside citizens to overcome its disputes, no matter how petty. Implying Hallie agreed Kardiá needed help while quoting a play whose writing loves the idea of outside help would be treasonous of her. Joking about the tyrannical succession - or lack thereof - would also be treasonous of her. Good thing she didn't do that.

But then again, another theme was the value of comedy.

Gods, she needed to stop spiraling and overthinking the themes of an old comedic play. But like that was going to happen. Her brain was created for overthinking.

By not quoting The Frogs, a comedy whose writing loves the idea of comedy, Hallie would imply she didn't care for comedy. That would be a lie. Comedy got her through her childhood. And to lie would be to defy her moral code, aka her morality. Another theme of The Frogs.

Thankfully, she had more themes for her to consider while she pondered over what the right thing to do in this situation was, like ambition, identity, the value of poe-

"Hey, Hallie, you good?" Niobe snapped her fingers in front of Hallie's face, breaking her connection with Kólfa. "You spaced out for a bit. I think you were mumbling something about poetry a few seconds ago. Weird since we're talking about a play here."

Hallie blinked. "Y-Yeah. I'm good."

Niobe's concern turned into excitement, followed by a grin. She trusted Hallie too much. One was never "good" after they finished spiraling about the themes of a play. "So, are you going to show us?"

Why.

Once more, Hallie looked to Doriskos for help. He still seemed resigned to his fate. Nikas, her back-up helper, proved to be just as useful, staring with their head cocked to one side.

Hallie inhaled, only to exhale and inhale again. Stalling wouldn't help.

"Shall I crack any of those old jokes, master, at which the audience never fail to laugh?"

Niobe and Cois doubled over with laughter, using each other as support.

Doriskos sighed as if he was at a play that was trying way too hard to be funny. "I'm sick of that already."

Niobe and Cois stopped laughing, staring at Doriskos with shining, adoring eyes.

"Are you two quoting The Frogs again?"

The lights went out of Niobe and Cois's eyes, and everyone else visibly tensed. They went back to their conversations, even Doriskos roped Niobe and Cois into talking about the new modifications made to the nation's aqueduct systems.

Hallie didn't want to turn around, much less see the new arrival, but the said new arrival decided they didn't want to wait for Hallie to muster up the courage to turn around. Soon, Hallie was face to face with an annoyed Somá.

For a Somá, they looked well-fed. But not so well-fed Hallie couldn't tell they was a Somá. They was also glaring at her with an intensity only ever found on the face of one of the old gods.

The Somá looked Hallie up and down. She never felt so self-conscious. And that was saying something. "Who are you?"

"H-Hallie Nephus. I-I'm the new performer."

Satisfied with that, the Somá smiled. Hallie was still terrified.

"My name's Hero. My brother makes the best Tháleia and Melopénio masks, so Charax requires all his performers to get their masks from him."

Hallie both admired and feared how Hero cut to the chase.

Hero looked at Hallie as if to confirm a suspicion. "So, I'd say black and silver masks." They beamed at her, something akin to smug superiority showing through their friendly demeanor.

"A-Actually," Hallie coughed. Why, oh why, did theater rely so heavily on social status? "black and gold. Please," she added as a much-needed afterthought.

Hero's smile dropped a bit.

"Gold?!"

Eavesdropping must be a modification made in the nation's aqueduct systems.

Everyone stared at her. Saying gold was a good way to get a mortal's attention, but in this context, it turned heads.

Hero looked ready to explode. "Only Kardinás wear gold."

Niobe ran up to Hallie, eyes wide and terrified, the threat that was Hero forgotten. "You're Kardián?"

"U-Um, yeah?" Gods, why. She knew she already asked why - a couple times, actually - but why.

Hero was horrified. "So... So, you're also Kardián..."

Also?

No wonder everyone feared Hero, anything she said to them was law. If Hallie were them, she would avoid her too. A swell plan she intended to go through with, anyway.

"B-But you're from out of town," Cois sputtered. "Your birthplace has to be Kardiá, and your parents must be at least Mitecs for you to be considered Kardián."

Hallie slung her bag off her back. "I-I have my birth certificate if you need proof-"

Hero snatched the parchment from her hands and brought it up to their nose, their mouth thin when they looked back at Hallie. "You were born here."

Silence. On a normal day, silence would be welcome, but not today. Definitely not today.

Why?