the unseen one

She felt ashamed of letting her time spent with her mother, every six months, cloud her mind to the woes that mortals faced in the modern era. When she was in the world above, she was kept so busy that she never had the time to venture out on her own much and everything regarding mortals at all was heavily exaggerated and painted mortals as stupid and incapable of much of anything. As she sat and reflected on what she had overheard from other Olympians she came to the realization that to an immortal being the finite lives of mortals would seem trivial when so far removed from the toils and stresses that plagued humanity. “I wish I….” she trailed off, at a loss for words to express how she felt.

She wished she did not live a life of duality, that her choice had been given more weight. She almost felt envious of her husband, never having to navigate the politics and gossip of Olympus. Never being so far removed from the very beings that worshiped them that everything their devotees did was a trivial game. Here Hades could be himself without feeling like he had something to prove or preening and posturing so that no one doubted his power or position. He was sure of himself, and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he was indeed the ruler of the Underworld. “I wish I could have been the goddess I wanted to be instead of the role that was forced upon me.”

            Hades was aware that when she was with her mother that she did not necessarily have the chance to see the world as he does when the souls come into his domain. There was no golden light down here to blind him from the truths of the goings on in the world. The hurt people had and how much suffering was caused by mortal ignorance and arrogance thinking they were something more than they were. He does not blame his wife however, Persephone did not spend all her time in the dark as he did, with the blinders pulled back as to see the world as black and white.

She nodded her head. “You did tell me, but to see just how many souls are there is a bit staggering.” She looked through a few more pages. “It seems more and more souls are entering because of a lifetime of trauma.” She thought back over the last several years and realized that she’d lost touch with the mortal realm. When with her mother she spent most of her time in the fields or running the flower shop and when she was here, she was busy with her husband or tending to the grove that she’d been able to cultivate in the courtyard outside her wing of the palace.

“I think I’ve been around the Olympians too long. I feel like I’ve completely lost touch with the mortals.” She massaged her temples. “Have you noticed any changes like that when you’ve been writing it down?”  

                Hades tilts his head curiously as she speaks, wondering when she had become so unaware of the constant changes in the mortal realm. “Hm....the gods in Olympus tend to ignore the woes of man...and I am here, dealing with the fallout when the souls find their way here.” He says softly, then he shakes his head a bit. “The records show that they have been that way for quite some time. Now I remember each name I wrote in those books from when I started writing them to now and I know the world above has changed vastly over time, there are more reasons it seems for these souls to feel this way.” He waves his hand a bit, not wishing to get further into that matter, he was not trying to guilt his wife about not noticing these things before.

She nodded, still focused on the name. “Not all of them worry me. Just…just one, and it’s not so much worry as brings up bad memories.” She points to Sisyphus’ name in the book. “How could I have been so foolish as to believe his lies?” She carefully closed the book and set it on the coffee table. “I was so naïve…”  She took a few calming breaths to clear her head. There was no use dwelling on the past. She’d made a mistake, one that Hades had to fix once everything was said and done and for that she had felt so guilty. He shouldn’t have had to clean up her mess.

She picked up the book again and looked over a few more pages, noting all of the different places a soul could be sent and how many times each place appeared on any given page. “There are a lot of people in the river Lethe.”

              His gaze moves to the name as she points it out, this look of calm anger came over his features as he reads it. His expression relaxes as he turns his gaze back to his wife, his brows furrowed a little bit. He shakes his head a bit, “he took advantage of your good heart, it’s not your fault.” He sighs a bit. He was still angry about that situation but he doesn’t blame Persephone or anyone else involved. He looks at the book for a moment, ”it doesn’t matter now.” He says after a few moments and he ran his hand through his hair.

She carefully took the book from him, opening to a random page to look over the information that was recorded in the heavy tome. “Mortals use this program for more than record keeping in this fashion. Many also use it to keep financial records.” The pages of the book were laid out very similar to what was displayed on the screen. There were rows and columns, and each was dedicated to a resident of one of the many afterlifes in the Underworld. The first column contained the names, the second contained how they died, the third contained whether Charon had been paid to ferry them across, and the last two columns contained the information the judges needed to determine which afterlife best suited how they had lived their life and where that soul was to reside for eternity.

“And you are the one who puts it all down in these at the end of every day?” She flipped through a few more pages, looking over the many names, several of them catching her eye as she recognized several, she had been in the Underworld to see. One name in particular sent shivers down her spine. “I remember some of these names.”

                     Hades nods in understanding, it made sense that they used a program like this for any sort of record keeping. He shifts the way he was seated to be able to do what was needed, “I see...it makes sense, it must be far easier than writing it all by hand...” He chuckles. He looks over at her as she takes the book from him, to let her see how he had it set out. There was a lot of names, some dating rather far back, of course he had chosen a random book from the shelf, since he didn’t want to misplace the one he’d currently been using, though he supposed he wouldn’t be needed it with the new computer system in place, now it was just a matter of making sure everyone else could figure out the system.

She set her laptop aside and slid a bit closer to him. “Well, it sounds like you need a spreadsheet system. There is a program already installed that you might find useful for that purpose.” She points on the screen where he can find the program, allowing him to do all the work so as to familiarize himself with the process. “The program is called Excel. It should be able to do everything you need, as far as record keeping goes. You can have a column for names, age they died, how they died, and what afterlife they are destined for based on their life’s work.” She typed in an example for him. “Though it has been a long time since I last looked at the records. It wouldn’t hurt to look.”

After looking at her example she wondered how she would automate the system. She then realized that she couldn’t remember how the current system worked. “I feel embarrassed to ask this question, but how does the current system work? Is there a record keeper at the entrance or does the ferryman gather the information?” She agreed that going through and creating digital copies of all the current records would take as long to convert as it did to create them. “We can just move to digital with all the new souls. Our other records should be sufficient for reference when needed.”

            He looks at what she does as she opens the program on the computer and shows him how Excel works, it seemed easy enough to him, he was sure he would learn it himself quickly. “Humans use this to categorise things?” He asks, he was quite impressed with how easy it seemed to be, it made him feel a little silly for not upgrading the Underworld sooner. “I will go get one of the books, it may help make this easier for us.” He says with a smile, moving to get up, taking a moment because he was a little stiff from sitting down too long, he had to laugh at himself then.

She took a deep calming breath to re-center herself. “So, what needs to be done regarding the souls? If you tell me what you have in mind, I can start pointing you in the right direction.”  Once she had an idea of what he wanted she could set to work on finding the right software or teaching him how to use some of the preinstalled software that would be up to whatever tasks he needed to accomplish. “If we don’t have what you need, I could put in a call to Hephaestus, He has become quite the skilled programmer on top of his other duties.”

She thought hard about what more she’d need to bring the entire Underworld up to date before opening a word document on her own laptop to start creating a list of things she’d need brought to her so that she could at least get the internet running throughout the realm. Once that was done, she would feel comfortable about putting off the rest until she returned with the rest to finish up and get everything running the way it should. Hermes was going to be very busy for the next little while.

            “Well,” Hades began, knowing she’d seen him do it before, but with the archaic way they were trying to update from, “I need a program that helps me sort the souls, or at least know where they are going in their afterlife once they’re across the river. To neatly file them, should their name need to be found for whatever reason and to keep track should someone manage an ill fated escape attempt.” The god sighs, wondering if he should go and get one of the old books he’d been using. “I can get what we currently use if it will help. I just don’t want to misplace it in our attempt at getting this sorted.” He gestures to his own laptop.

She nodded. “So, making sure souls are going where they are supposed to, in regard to their specific afterlife?” She thought for a minute. This was going to be a tremendously huge project and was now going to require more than just updating and modernizing the palace. Their entire domain was going to need to be brought up to speed and this was indeed going to take longer than her six months.

“Well, if I’m being honest, I’m suddenly realizing this is going to require we bring this entire realm into the modern era. It’s going to require setting up systems that will monitor all the different realms as well as the entrance and the rivers.” I may need to enlist some help if it’s to be done before I return to the surface.“

             Hades nods his head, “yes, that and a few other things, but I’m sure I can handle that once I figure out how to organise things.” He chuckles softly. He did realize that this was going to be quite the task to take on. “But we’ll start with the souls...” He looks at her and he smiles a little, shrugging his shoulders a bit as she speaks again.

She sighed, shaking her head. “You are not incompetent. All of this is new to you, and it’ll take time to figure it all out. If I’m being completely honest, I struggled with it too at first and there are some Olympians who are still uncomfortable and lack the skills to use all of this. One of which is the one who insisted on getting with the times, His wife manages all his stuff for him…” She purposefully didn’t use names, figuring he would know who she was talking about. Those of her generation, while they had struggled at first, took to all the technology very quickly and were often called on to assist their sires with mundane tasks.

She didn’t see helping her husband navigate this new stuff as a burden like the others. She saw it as an opportunity to bring him up to speed with how things had changed and there were ulterior motives behind this much needed update. It would allow her to remain close with her husband even while she was living with her mother in the spring and summer months. “Well, what needs to be organized? If you tell me, I will be able to point you in the right direction as to which program would work best.”

                 Hades couldn’t help but roll his eyes at her comment of one god in particular handing off all his technical things to his wife. He knew exactly who it was and Persephone didn’t even have to tell him. “Well, I’d never do that. As much as I am struggling, I will learn, even if it frustrates me, I am not passing off my responsibilities.” He shakes his head, sitting back slightly, sighing, leaving that particular matter behind now, he was focused more on learning how to use the new laptop and updating the way things were handled in his domain, at least the things he personally resided over as king of the dead for now.

She finished with her bookkeeping and set her laptop down on the coffee table in front of her. “It only looks easy because I’ve had a few years practice.” She ran her hands through her hair before turning towards him. “Because Mother insists on living among the mortals, I have had a lot of exposure to these devices.” She looks at his desktop and is glad to see that he managed to navigate everything. She had a feeling that he’d do just fine on his own in six months when she returned to the surface, but she would make sure that he got plenty of practice with his new devices before that time came.

“So now that you have all this up and running, what would you like to do first?” She brushed a strand of his dark hair away from his eye, admiring the contours and angles of his face. He was the only man she had ever loved and ever would love. He was everything to her and she knew deep down that everything she was doing was the best she could do to feel close to him and make their time apart far more bearable.

                Hades smiles at her, “I know it’ll take some practise, but...I can’t help but feel a little incompetent about my lack of skills with technology.” He knew he’d get a better grasp on it eventually and not have to type or whatever looking down at the keyboard rather than the screen at some point, but for now he was slow, just trying to understand how it worked and what not.

She pulled the laptop and it’s charging cable out of the box. She plugged the cable into the wall before plugging the other end into its correct port on the laptop. “Alright, just open the lid and press the power button.” She smiled at him and slid the laptop across the table to sit in front of him. “It should walk you through the process of setting it up.” She sat back on the couch and continued working on her own laptop, pulling up spreadsheets and going over the final numbers for the flower shop.

She typed away furiously as she went over the profits for that season and reviewing all the orders for when she returned. Spring was always the busiest for her with all the different festivals and feasts that took place, and it was always this that prevented her from dwelling on how much she missed her husband and her home in the Underworld.

                Hades watches as the device is slid across to him, watching it intently and he moves to do as she instructed, making sure he opened it the right way and didn’t damage it, it took him a second to figure out where the power button was and was a little surprised when it lit up, laughing at himself. He reads the prompts as they come up, confused as to how to follow them, though he works some of it out, it’s clear he’s thinking a little bit too hard about what some of the prompts were and confusing himself. Though he stubbornly doesn’t ask for help when he does get stuck as he was trying to familiarise himself with the laptop without relying too much on his wife for help, that and he felt a little embarrassed about it, given how easily she used hers.

She smiled. “I’m glad you agree with my choice. I thought it was very fitting.” She had forgotten how much he hated her cracking her knuckles. It was a habit she had gotten into when she took over the bookkeeping and records for the flower shop. It had become a coping mechanism for the added stress that came with running a business on her own. She loved having the shop all to herself and running it on her own, it had given her the much-needed independence that she craved when she was with her mother.

She pulled out a small notepad and pen from her laptop bag and wrote down the password for him, knowing that he would need it later. “Alright, now that that’s done, shall we get your laptop set up?” She reached over and grabbed the box that contained his new laptop and began to open it.

                 It wasn’t as much as he wouldn’t remember it, but he figured with everything new he was learning about these devices that it wouldn’t hurt to have it written down, which was why he had asked for it to be jotted down somewhere. Hades sighs softly, trying not to show that he was overly bothered by her cracking her knuckles, knowing that it was a habit she felt was necessary whilst in the world above, he had grown a little used to it, but it still made him cringe when he wasn’t expecting it.

Her fingers sat, poised, over the keys. “Well, you could give me suggestions and I could show you how to turn it into a password that is strong and hard to guess.” She looked over at him. “Say we use Cerberus, if we tweaked it a bit and changed a few letters to use numbers and special characters…” She started to type it out. “ Capitalize the C, e, r, change the B to a 6, e, r, change the U to an *, s. And there you have a strong password.” She looked over at him for his opinion on what she’d chosen.  

“I figure, since he is the guardian of our realm, His name could guard access to our internet connection.” She took her fingers off the keys and cracked the knuckles individually. She stretched her arms above her head and moved from side to side to stretch her back. “What do you think?”

             He gets this thoughtful little look on his face when she speaks, just trying to think of something, a word they could use. “I’m not sure...” He says and he looks at her when she explains how to turn Cerberus’ name into a password that could be used and not easy to guess right away. “Replacing letters with numbers and symbols? That’s confusing, but I guess that’s the point, it’s not suppose to be easy...” He chuckles, he smiles at her. “It’s a good choice I think, having him be a way of guarding out internet.”

She giggled at his comment. “I live among them for a good chunk of the year, I’ve witnessed just how clever they are. Always finding new ways to make every task easier…”  The laptop runs through its normal boot up processes until it reaches the log in screen. Persephone types in her password and continues to the desktop. “Mother can be quite meddlesome. Sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.” She waited a few more seconds before clicking on an icon that looked like a multicolored circle.  

A window opened and she immediately began clicking and typing, filling out digital forms in order to set up and secure the new internet connection. She followed the on-screen prompts until it came time to choose the password that would grant access to their connection to anyone who wished, with both of their permission of course. “All that’s left is to create a password.”

                  “Sometimes I think they’re too clever for their own good.” Hades huffs gently, chuckling. He shakes his head, watching what she was doing as she types in the password to the computer, he remembered each letter and number she pressed to get it to the desktop. He sighs when she mentions her mother, he’d give anything not to have to deal with Demeter ever again. “It baffles me why she can’t see you as anything more than a bratty child she needs to hover over.” He grumbles, though he immediately dismissed the subject, there was a time and place for all of that and now wasn’t one of those times.

She looked up at him as she plugged the last cable into its correct port. “Well, once the router has established a connection to the internet through this cable.” She points to the cable that goes from the router up through the ceiling and connects to the main cable.  " it will start broadcasting a wireless signal that our phones and laptops can connect to in order to access the information found on the internet.“  

She pats the spot on the couch next to her as she pulls out her laptop. "Come sit with me and you can watch me set it all up.” She pressed the power button and waited patiently for it to boot up.

                Hades listens intently as she explains to him what it does, he didn’t entirely understand it, but he understood it enough to have a basic grasp on how it functioned, he figured if he really wanted to know more about it he could research it and learn once he knew how to use these devices enough that he didn’t need her help figuring it out. “I sometimes forget how crafty the mortals can get...” He says softly, more to himself than to his wife.