⁽ MIGHTY HADES ! ⁾

Persephone: Hermes, tell Hades that he’s an idiot, but I still love him.

Hermes: Gross. Tell him yourself.

Persephone: We’re in a fight.

HAS HE? WHAT A SURPRISE.    Christine looked up at her walking companion — the unlikely friend, the shaped in plaster of paris !   eyes escaping the lonely violinist in the corner  ❪   figure of a ghost  ❫ ;  whose hat was on the floor,  with only a few coins inside. personal experience whispered the truth.   the poor man would spend those alms in either shelter or food — never both.   ❝  is it,  Henry?   ❞  asked with childlike curiosity.   well,  even if a newfound cohort,   he was but a stranger.   she was aware of a loving marriage with great difficulty.   strong as iron,  shining as silver,  if anything   ! knew he was a judge, and possessor of great reaches.   but besides those small facts,  frustratingly,  nothing else.   ❝   it is a haunting melody.  you must enjoy music quite a bit to be familiar with it.   people usually avoid the sadder afflections.   ❞

a step forward;  pockets of the gown were soon empty.   the francs given would definitely allow him a night of comfort.   if only her father had been shown the same courtesy,  kindness,  more often !  Christine breathed in, before hurriedly returning her attention to the ebony figure beside her.  for she couldn’t answer his question but…      ❝   childhood maybe?  I mean,  it is a foreign folk song.  and you never really told me where you came from… ❞ ah, fishing behavior !  more information was requested.

                  “NOTHING to forgive, honestly.” She knows there’s a DIVIDE nowadays; not everyone in their situation has been able to transition smoothly ( if at all; how many of their kind have already faded away? ). “I’m making my own way, and I’m not ALONE. I consider it a blessing in a way.” Maybe she is adapting better than she thought she was. His offer to help is appreciated; so much so it finally gets a smile out of her. “Can you HELP? Not unless you’ll let me borrow those gates of yours one of these days and let me have a crack at my old job.”

“   I am…   “     He answers very simply at the question, it’s hard to embellish anything   ——  not that Arthur was one for such unnecessary courtesies  ——  but no matter how much you don’t care for gods, once they appear they are beings of great power and when you stand in front of the King of the Underworld who is calling desperately for his brother, you tend to get a bit nervous about what sort of threat can shake an immortal of his stature.     “   WILL YOU SHARE   then with me what exactly is the   reason   of your haste? If it threatens the people of Atlantis   I WANT TO KNOW.   “

( @asphdel )

               ‘GENERALLY, WHEN ONE IS  invited in for tea,’   she remarks, voice stern but eyes merry as she leans over to pour the steaming liquid into the delicate porcelain cup that sits before her guest,   ‘there is some conversation involved, or at least expected …’

     Of course, she is not one to talk – there have been plenty of times when she has proved uncommunicative in this house. She had done her best to tidy up, but with such short notice, there are some aspects of cleanliness she had had to overlook in her preparations. There are a few webs up in the corners because she has not yet had the time to remove their owners to the garden outside, & there are a few dirtied dishes because she has not yet had the time to throw them in a bucket of soapy water …  Other than that, there is the usual clutter of magical paraphernalia.  

     Calcifer roars gently at the fire on the other side of the room, & has of yet neglected to introduce himself. With strangers, he generally prefers a more dramatic introduction – Sophie suspects that he is waiting for the opportune moment, & since she had accidentally poured a few drops of water on him yesterday, she is not going to go out of her way to ruin his fun.

     ‘I suppose this is a strange house,’   she continues, sitting down opposite after her own tea has been poured,   ‘so perhaps there is much that is drawing your eye & taming your tongue.’

               a rare thing, to see a god looking sheepish, but sophie has the good fortune of witnessing exactly that.   ❝  FORGIVE ME,  ❞   hades murmurs, forcing his gaze up from his tea for the first time since he had taken his seat  ---  truly wonderful tea, at that, some of the best he has ever had, though the delicate porcelain feels out of place in his pale, bony hands.   much too lovely, much too fragile to be trusted to the likes of him.   but wasn’t that always the way ?    ❝  it has been some time since I’ve spoken to anyone  ...  living.   I am out of practice, I’m afraid.  ❞   another sip, to fill the awkward space between words, before he adds,   ❝  not that I was ever truly good at it, even when I wasn’t.  ❞   a rueful, self - deprecating smile tugs at pale lips.    ❝  people don’t make a habit of inviting me into their homes.   what sort of things does one say ?   ‘ your home is lovely ‘ ?   ‘ how is your family ‘ ?  ❞   these are sincere questions.   he wants to learn.

  ELECTRICITY IN THE AIR: nature warping and bending itself to accommodate the UNNATURAL; what should not have been, yet what was. She - SHADE, monster; warped as a reflection in a shattered mirror - she, NAMELESS and cold; she, filled with a RAGE that none could SATISFY. Was it not fitting that she create others like her? CHILDREN to follow her, to obey her; something she’d never possessed in life ( DEAD / ALIVE: THIS WASN’T RIGHT ! ); yet another presence entered the arena: not bastard and escort, not girl and scoundrel: but something older, INFINITE, exuding far more power than she.   For a brief moment, her long dead heart SHUDDERED to life; a firm THUD-THUD within chest; a wheeze of air. Amelia. AMELIA. Who was Amelia? Not she, not anyone; not the statues at the tomb nor the coffin which had once held a girl’s corpse. NOT RIGHT, NOT RIGHT, NOT RIGHT: a scream ripped through the air like a BULLET: echoed off the walls of a burning, ruined city.                                                   “You have no dominion here.” 

a mobile.   that’s what persephone  ---  POPPY !  ---  had called it.   she’d tried to teach him how to use it, too  ...  tried, being the operative word.   he scowls at the phone, just as he would at a foe with whom he is about to do battle, cursing under his breath as he presses button after button on the brightly - coloured screen to no avail.   at last, he turns, desperate, to the stranger standing next to him, who is also paying his respects.   ❝   —————  you wouldn’t happen to know how to use one of these dreadful things, would you ?  ❞

                     ❝       NOTHING  I do is in her name .     ❞      each word he pronounces with utter gravity .      ❝      my heart is far too  blackened  , yet you suggest I’d willingly pollute  hers  too .   no .      ❞      a dark chuckle , as three corpse - fingers tap nervously on the rung of his cup , a distant look alighting the flickering orbs which reflect the very distance he maintains ,   must maintain  , to separate himself from the life he’s taken .      ❝      her light is so strong  my sins cannot pollute it .    she knows .   THAT  is my regret !    that she’s seen .   &&   I would kill even so , to keep from draining her life away with that knowledge .    now isn't  that  a paradox ?     ❞      aspiring to win her heart was  FUTILITY  , but threatening a god was perhaps even more so .   therefore the truth was begrudgingly admitted to the other , that which any mortal man would  never be granted .

                night descends upon the quaint, water - side town, and it is only then, under cover of darkness, that HADES, lord of the dead, steps out into the moonlight.   it is the most his earth - brown eyes, so used to the dimness of the underworld, can bear.   there has been a funeral in town today, and his feet, as though answering to a mind of their own, carry him over to stand before the fresh mound of earth, the newly - placed headstone.   ❝  a friend of yours ?  ❞   his voice, when he addresses the woman standing half - hidden in the shadows of the cemetery trees, is soft, raspy from disuse. 

      “  his younger sister, yes !  ”  by most accounts, verona is  the opposite of her older twin siblings. while they’ve carved their paths into the criminal lifestyle, she has chosen to live her life more honestly.  for that matter, they try to keep what they do separate from her life, mutual respect and loyalty between siblings. not only that,  the younger hadlock is… infinitely more  cheerier and agreeable than  the  other two. very few individuals made the connection that the twins and her were related so closely.     sometimes, however, paths could not help but cross. 

       “     he  should know better than to  steal  from the  dead.  i  could try to help you.  but,   i   really try  not to  get  involved in what demetrius  does.  ”

Nico grins in response to his father’s enthusiasm, taking a step toward the lord of the Underworld before he fully processes what he said. But then realization pulls him up short and his expressions falters slightly. “I–oh, is it a short joke? I really should be getting back to my work.”

                ❝  miss granger ?  ❞   aldric calls upon the eager student as the rest of her cohort eagerly flees the ghoul studies classroom, having just been dismissed.   ❝  I won’t be returning the assignments until next lecture, but I just wanted to let you know that your essay on ghost rites of passage was exemplary.   sir nicholas throws a wonderful DEATH DAY party, doesn’t he ?  ❞  

                    ❝  it is not about   power ,  hades !  ❞    persephone   snarls   her words , jaw clenched , gaze hardening.   she is a reasonable queen   ;   but it is the mortals    (  those foolish creatures !  )    who try her patience once again.    ❝  you ,   will be powerful for eternity  ————————  it  is  about  respect !    THEY  NEED  TO  BE  PUNISHED !  ❞

               ❝  niece  ...  ❞   hades does his best to be diplomatic, not wishing to offend the GODDESS OF THE HUNT, and his own kin, in denying her request.   ❝  are you certain it is wise to allow your hounds  &&  mine to play together ?   I understand that socialization is an important part of training beasts, but  ---  cerberus is a fair bit larger than your hounds  ...  ❞  

              st. mungo’s hospital for magical maladies and injuries is a deeply unsettling place, even for a wizard who spends most of his days in the company of ghosts  &&  ghouls.   as a gifted legilimens, henry aldric is so familiar with the power, the intricacies of the human mind that there is little more terrifying than the idea of living inside of a broken one, even for the briefest of moments.  ❝  GILDEROY ?  ❞   he greets the patient in soft, soothing tones, wary of alarming him.   ❝  my name is henry.   the nursing staff, they tell me that lately you’ve been feeling as though you might not be alone in your hospital room ?  ❞