These are non-canon stories for Favor of Athena

The sunlight poured into the coffee shop, painting a warm glow across the worn wooden tables and mismatched chairs. A soft hum of conversation mixed with the grinding of beans and the hiss of steaming milk. Athena cradled her cup, glancing at the clock.

“Liam,” she said, her brow slightly furrowed. “It’s already past ten. Did you even check your phone this morning?”

Liam, slouched in his seat with a poetry book propped open, looked up, startled. “Oh, that? I turned it off to tune out the world.” He smiled, his eyes crinkling. “Good excuse, right?”

“Some excuse,” she teased, shaking her head. “You’re going to miss your meeting—again.”

Around the table, Gertrude laughed softly, her knitting needles clicking together like the beats of an off-kilter rhythm. “Let him be. The world’s not going anywhere, and this coffee isn’t going to drink itself.”

“Besides,” said Grant, leaning in with mock seriousness, “poets aren’t meant for boardrooms—I believe there’s a poetic form that disallows pants.”

Salem interjected, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Let’s not bring back the pants debate.” But his grin betrayed him. They all remembered that last summer, the failed beach trip where Liam had insisted on wearing shorts, despite a mix-up with the weather forecast.

Paige walked in just then, tousled and breathless, her hair framing her face like a chaotic halo. “Sorry, sorry! Did I miss everything? I promise I’m here now, ready to be part of this epic saga of… whatever this is.”

“Epic collection of procrastination is what it is,” Emaj quipped, sipping her caramel macchiato. “But that’s nothing new!”

Athena rolled her eyes, a smile creeping onto her lips. “Somebody should chronicle our morning madness. I bet Riverfront Park would love our antics.”

“Really? You want to drag our chaos outside? With bees?” Liam grimaced.

“No bees are going to stop me from enjoying a slice of life,” Gertrude declared, half-serious, half-joking. “Nature has its ways of unsettling us, but I’m not postponing my knitting for that.”

“And I’m certainly going to sit out the bees,” Grant added, raising his cup in an exaggerated toast. “To indoor chaos, I say!”

“Indoor chaos sounds like a sitcom waiting to happen,” Salem chuckled as he fiddled with his phone, the morning light catching the glass surface. Then, suddenly serious, he looked up, scanning the table. “Look, whatever we do, let’s make it memorable. You know, in case the world is really ending.”

“Dramatic,” Emaj said, her tone flat but her teasing smile evident. “Just a regular Wednesday, don’t you all think?”

But deep down, as sunlight warmed their cheeks, they understood the weight of Salem’s words. The laughter, the back-and-forth banter, and the shared postponements of life’s important plans—they were memories in the making.

“If we’re making memories,” said Paige, sitting down with a flourish, “I declare we go to Riverfront Park. We can make a day of it while keeping the bees at bay.”

“I can always divert them with my poetry,” Liam smirked, earning a playful punch from Athena.

The group rose, a chaotic symphony of excited chatters and scattered laughter, only to find that outside, Columbia’s world had opened its doors wide.

As they moved towards the park, the river sparkled in the distance like a promise. Unplanned; imperfect; perhaps a little bit silly—it was just another morning that had spun itself into a day of unexpected joys.

And together, they meandered into the embrace of the sunlight, creating memories that would meld with the laughter, the debates, the fleeting moments they shared, reminding them once again that life, in all its twists and turns, was beautiful in its own chaotic way.