Week 3 Story: Cupid and Psych

(Found on Google Images, painting of Cupid and Psyche)

 This is the story of a beautiful fortune teller by the name of Psych. All of the people within the town knew of Psych as the young woman with a beauty incomparable to that of the most delicate and intricate carving or statue. Her looks rivaled none, but a charm such as this intimidated any potential suitors for Psych. So instead, she just stayed to herself, working quietly and diligently at her fortune telling shop.

Along with Psych's perfect looks, she also had a personality that could win anyone over. With her power to see other's futures, she knew how to make people feel comfortable and at ease with themselves. All that Psych was was perfect - which caused a rather large amount of jealousy.

Next door to Psych's office for fortune telling was a match-making company ran by a mother and son, Venus and Cupid. Venus had always been jealous of Psych because her beauty rivaled that of her own, and she couldn't imagine sharing the label of "most beautiful" with anyone else. Because of this jealousy, Cupid never interacted with Psych, for fear that his mother would kick him out of the family business.

One day, both Psych and Venus and Cupid had late nights at the office, and Venus watched through the window as Psych cleaned up from the day. Venus was finally fed up of being surrounded by Psych's beauty. She ordered Cupid to go next door and convince Psych that she was destined to fall in love with the most hideous person he could think of. Cupid abided by his mother's desire, and went on his way to ruin Psych's love life. Venus watched through the window, seeing that Psych was seemingly overcome with a sense of realization. Being pleased with her evil plan, Venus went back to her office to lock up for the night and return home, knowing that she had regained power in the town.

The next day, Psych didn't show up for work, which caused dismay throughout the town. Venus questioned what exactly it was that Cupid said to her, and he responded that he simply presented her with an offer she couldn't refuse. He assured his mother that the reason she was gone was because she was married earlier that morning, already infatuated with the person he set her up with. Venus was pleased with this news and didn't think anything of it for the next several months.

However, behind Venus' back, Cupid was in fact the one that had married Psych. When he went to her store that night, it was an immediate connection, and he fell hard for her. They talked all throughout the night and Psych said she could see their future together. As they talked, Cupid was showing Psych how he was so successful at match-making, and his skills caused her to fall in love with him immediately. They were married in secret as to avoid making matters worse with the jealous Venus, moving away to a mountain that was out of sight of everyone from the town. Psych and Cupid lived a great life together, giving each other things that the other never knew they needed. 

This marriage was great until one day when Cupid didn't show up to work. Venus had him tracked down, and Cupid and Psych's secret life was revealed. Venus ripped Cupid out of Psych's grasp immediately, and pulled Psych out of bed and took her all the way back to the match-making office. Here, she kept Psych in the basement as she came up with a task to have Psych perform to prove she wasn't a phony. Venus demanded that Psych tell Venus her future, but Psych insisted it didn't work that way.

"I can't just come up with your whole future like that, Venus," Psych pleaded.

"Then what can you do? Or are you truly just another pretty face?" Venus questioned back.

Psych was left alone in the basement again when she was overcome with a vision. She saw Venus and Cupid getting into a massive fight, resulting in Cupid running away from home for good. Knowing that losing her son would be Venus' greatest pain, she pleaded to have Venus return to her.

Psych explained this vision to Venus, but of course Venus was skeptical. 

"What was this so called fight over?" Venus investigated.

"Cupid doesn't truly trust you. You have been keeping business secrets from him his whole life, and he's finally fed up with it," Psych answered.

This paralyzed Venus, realizing there was no way Psych would know that was a problem between her and her son unless she truly was a fortune teller. Fearful that Psych would reveal other secrets, Venus released her as prisoner and allowed her and Cupid to be married publicly at once.

Venus knew that her son meant more to her in her life than out of it, so whatever she needed to do to keep him around she would comply. This didn't mean Venus lost her envy of Psych, but instead learned to tolerate that what they had was unstoppable.

Author's Note: Story manipulated from the original "Cupid and Psyche" by Apuleius. I changed quite a bit from the original story, but found my inspiration from the title itself. In the original, the Psych character is named "Psyche," and her character does have incredible beauty and that's the reason why Venus dislikes her, but she doesn't have any fortune telling power. I just added the detail to match my twist of the name from Psyche to Psych. The Venus and Cupid characters are similar to the original though, with the biggest change being that they don't own a match-making business in the original. Also, in the original, Cupid does have wings and a bow and arrow, but I left that out for my version of the story. I also left out Psyche's family in my retelling because if I had included their part of the story, my rendition would've been too long. The way that Psych and Cupid fall in love is similar to the original, but what makes Psyche fall in love with Cupid is she cuts herself on one of his love arrows. The rest of the story is pretty similar to the original; Venus does capture Psyche and force her to fulfill tasks to prove she is worthy, and when she does complete all the tasks, Venus grants her to reunite with Cupid to avoid losing him. I essentially just modernized the story in a way and added the "Psych" detailing to match the storyline I was going for, and also removed characters and shortened the plot for simplicity.