extinguished light, burning shadows

What if this isn’t Melinoës first try?

What if the first time Chronos took over the House/Underworld, Hypnos hadn’t been asleep yet beforehand and was able to flee with Hecate and baby Melinoë? And was still awake often enough to help look after Melinoë (maybe so much that they developed some sort of parental/guardian/mentor (because goddess of nightmares and incarnation of sleep idk) relationship).

And then Melinoë starts her runs and tries to fight Chronos.

But things don’t work out and she can’t slay him no matter what she does, can’t win against him. And Olympus is next on his list and once again she isn‘t good enough. Nothing anybody did was good enough.

So Hypnos offers her a restart. To start anew. Told her to rest, sleep over it. And if she wanted to, he could make her start all over again.

And Melinoë accepted. And the next time she awoke, she went out again for the first time once more.

She doesn‘t remember her old nights, all the times she failed. For her, and for everyone else, this is the first time she left the Crossroads to fight against Chronos.

Because Hypnos didn’t just put her to sleep, but the rest of the Crossroads too probably. As well as Chronos and Typhon so that nobody could attack while Melinoë was asleep. Hell, the rest of Olympus and the entire world is probably put under a currently never-ending slumber. All so that nobody would know that this wasn‘t the first try.

So Melinoë tries again.

And it doesn‘t work again.

So Hypnos offers another start.

And another.

And another.

And another.

And it goes on and on until he‘s so tired of constantly putting mortals and gods and titans and incarnations and anything to sleep within their dreams of dreams where they already are asleep in sleep a thousand times over.

But if it helps Melinoë it’s all worth it.

Nobody would argue with him if he‘d just take a quick nap, no? Just to gather his strength again. Just until Melinoë needs him again, to restart again.

Because that’s all he’s good for anymore anyways.

A failsafe.

So Hypnos is exhausted and can’t wake up anymore due to the thousand of lifetimes he has to keep asleep because if even ONE person wakes up ANYWHERE and ANYTIME, everyone is doomed.

And he has to make sure that doesn’t happen but he’s so deep in his realm he can‘t crawl his way out anymore, nor can anyone else find him. But that’s a good thing anyway, he should stay there and make sure nobody wakes up.

And who knows, maybe every new lifetime needs a sacrifice to start over which is why so many of the inhabitants of the House and co are in one way or another in the clutches of Chronos. But Hypnos makes sure they‘re all safe and asleep, as we don’t actually know their fates.

And he has to either alter or create new memories for every single being. Needs to find reasons why people are disappearing. There‘s a reason why Hecate was at the House at the right time.

And as he is sleep incarnate nobody would expect him NOT to sleep. So what if he can’t wake up anymore? What’s one more lie told? Nobody can know what he’s actually doing anyway. Isn‘t it easier to just say that he‘s always been asleep?

But it’s a lonely state of being and he misses everybody so much. So maybe, maybe he can let a little something slide, no? Nobody remembers the old lifetimes but maybe Melinoë can remember just enough to know that there WAS something between her and Hypnos. That he WAS someone she could look up to and feel safe around.

Hypnos sleeps because he is exhausted. In the dreamscape, in Hypnos’ own realm, he is at his strongest. He is all-seeing, all-knowing. He can figure out a thousand and one ways to fight against Chronos and Typhon and slay them once more, but they never stay down. They always come back.

But in this dream of a lifetime, it’s different.

This time it’s working.

Somewhat. Melinoë gets farther than ever before.

She keeps winning but she never prevails.

And Hypnos keeps sleeping because by the gods he just wants his family back and little Melinoë to not have the weight of the world on her shoulders anymore. He doesn’t wanna be so damn exhausted all the time, just wants it all to be over. Because Hypnos is so damn exhausted.

He’s so tired. But if he’s the failsafe that will make everything come to an end, then so be it.

He‘ll make sure Melinoë knows that she can always tell him when it’s too much, to start anew. In whatever way he can. Restart. Back from 0.

He‘ll rewind time. Just for her.

He‘ll use time against Chronos.