The Mighty Approdite Dating Service

[Thrythlind]

This dating service was the brain child of Aphrodite and created with the aid of some members of the Loa. Outwardly, it appears like so many other dating services though it has an excellent reputation among people looking for various relationships ranging from one-time hook-ups to lasting marriages. Most people will never encounter the supernatural aspects of the service. Aphrodite originally considered it to be a time-saving device for herself to seek out surrogate mothers to do the work of gestating her scions. The process is simple, Aphrodite searches through the list of scheduled dates involving at least one woman and then uses the magic inherent in the service to ride that woman the way a Loa would. The ridden woman might find themselves suddenly wondering at the decisions "they're" making, though the date is almost always incredibly successful, usually involving the best sex they've ever had, and Aphrodite leaves behind "a gift" in the form of leaving her host with child. The gender of the other participant (or participants, Approdite does not discriminate against polyamory) does not matter for the most part as the child is that of the goddess and her ridden host.

Since establishing the service, Aphrodite has offered the use of the service to other gods, mostly goddesses. Depending on the respect said god has for mortals, this might involve less direct mind-control than Aphrodite is prone to use but she does prefer people leave the impression that any decisions made were those of the chosen mortal.

This could be an origin for a scion or it could be something that gets encountered in a story. Also note, that the idea of riding mortals happens once in Greek myth when Poseidon rode King Aegeus so that Theseus ended up with two fathers and one mother.

[Alpharius]

I like the idea though Aphrodite using this as a way to outsource pregnancy feels like in 2e it'll be mooted with incarnations. At least insofar as having an actual need for it. Doesn't mean it can't be something done just to find another expression of her interests and purviews. Great idea with a tiny bit of divine dickery for flavor though.

Now all it needs is an app feature with a free trial period.

[Thrythlind]

To be honest, a couple of gods like Aphrodite would use this just because they think it sounds like a fun joke. Others might use the option as a way to interact even without leaving a child if they feel incapable or isolated otherwise (such as Hel).

[TwitchTheRat]

I know the gods have a long history of very shady behavior, but something about this is sending me warning flags about non-consent. Maybe she uses her empathy to find couples who have had successful relationships thanks to her dating service, and want to have a kid together, then she rides them to ensure conception? Just spitballing here.

[Thrythlind]

It would probably depend on which version of the gods the players wanted to deal with and how dark they wanted to be. I always get mixed up between Hellenic and Classical and which set of myths is which, but one of my disdains for the Greek Gods is that in the oldest versions they were depicted as very callous and cruel for the most part and pretty much didn't take consent into question because they were the gods who could tell them no. If you want to take from the stories of the later period where they were all re-written to be basically benevolent, including Ares, then what she probably does is not take full control but simply tweaks emotions this way and that to make her desired result more likely, or even just find a couple where that's already the plan. Old version Aphrodite would consider it a fine joke to high jack a couple that had no plans to do anything but dinner and a movie, because old version Aphrodite is a psychopath.