#casketdweller

cntd. x @casketdweller

𝔄 momentary grimace that resembled the younger brother's unamused pout. It didn't last long before a mischievous grin tugged at the heir's lips.

@casketdweller asked: Persephone will find a basket of apples, yet when she took a peek, she’d find that someone sneaked some pomegranates in there. To remind you of home, was the letter tucked inside. There was a locket beside the basket as well, blank, but clearly meant for the Queen of the Underworld. For you, my dear. A soul to claim as your own, if you wish.

The tails in the air belonging to the gaggle of swarming cats atop of the stone table was an excellent indicator of what was waiting for the Goddess, who came lumbering soaked from the river with a ginormous clay pot on her shoulder, water tupping over the lip - yet not spilling down, rather falling back in. However, it did go bouncing from the inside as Persephone gave it a hefty drop to the Earth below, making the surrounding grounds shudder as she wiped her hands and started batting at those colorful tails.

"Allll right, allll right, come, come, skitter outta the way or I'll turn ya to cat tails," She ushered, barely making a dent as the felines scuttled around her swats, and some even hopping up her arms to perch upon her head, sticking their paws into her mussed braids and hooking a toe or two in her ears. "Damn you, beasts! Come on!"

There was a moment of Persephone struggling with the flutter of said beasties, ending abruptly when she finally saw reason and summoned hummingbirds to breath in a snap of her fingers, composed of green light. They twittered about, zipped around the cats and caught their attention, and led them off into the rolling vineyards and out of her hair. For the time being.

Slapping her soaked skirt to the warmed stone, Persephone slid atop the table and finally dragged the item of feline adoration into her lap. She ooo'd with curiosity, fingers tickling at the shiny apples and pomegranates with a grin. One of the lovely fruits of betrothal was plucked and tossed up and down, up and down, and sailed up her arm to be bounced at the elbow, and caught in her waiting mouth - canines sunken in and casting rivulets of red to course down her jaw and throat, trickling messily to the clavicle and collar of her low-dipped dress. She chuckled contently at the flavor, peeling open the letter with a smudge of scarlet along the parchment (messy woman), reading it as she swayed side-to-side.

Sweet blood of her blood, her heart felt heavy. Not too much was written, but her eyes followed the path of every letter, her rocking sway easing in its speed. Her exhale fogged the glistening skin of the pomegranate. The paper crinkled as she thumped her forehead to it, muffling a noise of bittersweet. Damn. She stayed like this for a few beats more, and brought the letter back down to read. Her eyes flicked and locked on the locket that was overlooked amongst all the fur and paws. Her head tilted, and she lifted it up, releasing the pomegranate to plop down in her lap as her stained lips twitched into a smile, dangling the locket before her. Twisting it to twirl, more noises emitting, though now more curious, and warm.

"Look at you, sailin' from Hades on the blessin' will of my husband." Persephone grinned, twisting the chain as the locket glinted and gleamed in the moonlight. "You going to keep me company for the Spring and Summer?" Be her constant reminder of Home beneath the ground, that while she has not been gone from for long, certainly felt like it had the traction of half a decade to it. "Well, get out here, and let me see ya."

..

The sky was a shade of lilac when Persephone made her way to the well, the stars blinking sleepily in the sky as the sun stretched its beams behind the horizon, not yet in the sky, but soon to approach.

Her hands crested the unnaturally chilled stone connecting her world and His, Their Worlds. She looked deep into the dark where there was the most distant pulse of blue here and there, and she took her seat and slung her legs over the side.

A flash of green, and Persephone's bouzouki hissed to life in her hands with a chime.

"Listen!" She called down into the well, hoping to be heard. "I got a song just for you, lover. You better listen well before the sun chases you to bed."

The Goddess took her fingers to the strings and melody bellowed down into the depths at a strikingly loud volume, as if to catch the attention of a wandering King who might not be close enough to hear its melody. She would sure of it, for as mighty as she was, so too was the Dread Queen boisterous.

As her fingers danced along the strings almost in a fever, azaleas bloomed from her fingertips and fell down into the well. They rained down and spun, as if riding on the waves of song. Green light sparked and twinkled in the air, and sunk into the sides of the well. They materialized and stretched webs down, down, down... and manifested into a peacock chair, blooming with flowers that faded from the ones you would find up top, to the azaleas born just for the bottom of the Underworld the further it stretched; berries along its twisting music strings that made up the swing. The chair was wide, and its cushion was the biggest azalea one would ever see, orbs of light stemming from its core as it stretched, stretched, and stretched down til it lingered just a few feet above the landing location.

A swinging chair for her lover, where the light from high above in the mortal world would shine down upon him, riddled with song for every stroke he would give the vines of song that supported it. He would hear this same song that she played, while berries grew in thicker clusters as he listened, perpetually blooming to fruition - little lights in their bulbs.

Through the constant weave of song, Persephone hoped he felt her in every stroke of the string, and felt her arms whenever he reclined in the chair. Warmth would crawl around his shoulders and settle there, and it would last until he rose.

How curious. The stranger definitely wasn't a plant, but he didn't seem human either; and to not know what Knives was? Though, he supposed he did appear human enough to most of the creatures.

"No, we only became alerted to it well ... something is wrong with Sküld," she said, walking slowly along the path, her silver gown swirling along her feet, catching the reflection of the flame. "She suddenly woke up one morning, having grown rather quickly, but only in her physical body, and not her powers," she said.

They were all tied together, weren't they? She and her sisters. These doors.

It was not destiny, she was sure, that caused her to fall in love with Azrael. She'd never say they didn't have a choice in the matter. That loving wasn't an act you decided on. But could they have stayed away from one another? That she doubted.

" I would like to compare notes if you are not opposed." Emet stated honestly. This reaper may know a trick to getting hesitant souls to cross that would make his life easier back home.

Elizabeth tilted her head along with the fae, subconsciously mimicking them with blond curls flipping about over their fingers - newly freed from the braid and twisting up naturally. Then, her face blossomed bright into a wide smile that stretched ear-to-ear and eyes that grew big and glimmered!

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” Clapclapclap! “It would be my pleasure! We should have a tea party today, then! I’ll ask Paula to prepare us a wonderful table. Where should we go? My tea parties are often held in the garden, but we could have one somewhere else if you like!” She prepares the tea party, Foghar picks the location! They could work together. That was always a very important part of introduction to new things.

For a moment, it seemed like he wasn’t going to return the hug, which wouldn’t have bothered her too much. But if he pushed her away, that  would be much more embarrassing, in her eyes. 

 ☠  -  The terror began one night, after five suspiciously calm days at sea. They hadn’t even endured a storm. The crew had thought themselves lucky to have lasted so long, perhaps they wouldn’t meet any trouble at all.  Human hope however, it is shattered so quickly.  As the sun went down and the moon began to rise, a fog rolled out over the water and with it came the visual something large int he water, just beneath the surface. The ocean remained quiet, even the seagulls had stopped flying over head, hurrying off faster than normal, as if trying to escape something unseen.

  There were no birds in the sky anymore everything had fallen to a deathly silence aside from the waves lapping the side of ship. The opposing shape was heading right for the ship.

Most of the men that had been asleep were woken up quite abruptly by the captain sounding an alarm on the ship, causing quite the scene with men running around in their night wear.  The shape was suspiciously like a  legend many hard heard before.

  Kraken.

  The men running around in a panic, their yells sudden stopped as a horrible, dreadful noise was heard. It started low and got louder. The men couldn’t be heard anymore, their screams drowned out by the monstrous roaring. Eight, colossal dark red tentacles shot up around the ship.  There was but a second of horrified silence before the men on board started panicking even more. Some of them were jumping overboard, others were trying to fight back as the nightmare appendages slammed down onto the deck, only to be grabbed and flung like sacks of dirt. Men being pulled into the water, thrown back out and then slammed back down again.

  The ship was being destroyed, the nightmare below, roaring in hellish delight as the wood cracked and blood spilled everywhere. Panic and terror, disarray and hopelessness. This ship would join the others and so would it’s crew.  The unseen leviathan below was dragging yet another queen’s ship down to the depths with it, bodies and all.

  The creature didn’t stop, wouldn’t stop until the ship was in shreds, the crew floating in the water dead and just as it had appeared, just as the noise and chaos had started, it was gone. The waters calm, stained with blood, body parts, ship parts and no lives had been spared on that ship.