Philotes, Goddess of Friendship & Affection (philotes) wrote in history_dot_com, @ 2012-07-09 16:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | ~hades, ~philotes |
Learning Curve [right after Hades becomes king] (tag: Hades)
Change was never easy. It should be, Friendship reflected. Because it was one of those things that was a constant in life. Nothing ever stayed the same, so a body should get used to things changing, but whenever it happened, it always seemed there were those that had a hard time dealing with it. And not just with the unhappy changes, which were inevitable too, but even with the normal or joyful changes. Some people just didn't want things to be different.
But they were now, and there was no getting around that fact. All because of the war. Not that Philotes would ever argue that war was a good thing, but she could say that good things came about because of wars. Sometimes. Even for her own patronage, lifelong friendships could be formed between soldiers. But in a broader sense, sometimes a fight was necessary to right wrongs, or make things better, or to stop somebody from hurting others. When she looked at war from that angle, she could see how it was needed, and occasionally beneficial. But the fighting itself? Not so great.
The Titanomachy had affected her directly, because it had affected her family. It had taken precious things away from her. Lottie's nieces and nephews were no longer in the Underworld, but now living with the new ruler of Olympus. She wasn't sure how that was going to go, it was so bright up there, and they didn't know anybody but each other, and she wasn't certain she'd be allowed to visit them. Which didn't mean she wasn't going to try, she just had to think of the best way to make it happen. Philotes could understand why Styx had done it, especially because Palas was on the losing side of the war; her sister had protected her family. Not just her children, but her siblings too in a way. It didn't change the fact that people Lottie loved were no longer here.
Change was hard, even if it was inevitable. It could be painful. But Philotes felt that if she moped about it, that was only going to make things worse. Besides, there was another change in her life, and this one didn't deal with loss. Yet. Exactly. She wasn't sure, really, just what it meant, because he hadn't been here that long and she hadn't spoken to him yet.
But she had a king now. Brother to the king on the mountain and the king in the sea. Another son that had overthrown his father, but Philotes didn't think that Kronos had very good parenting skills, so that was sort of understandable. Thus far, however, that's all that she knew about this newcomer. He was in the war, he won, now he was here and they were all supposed to... She didn't know exactly. She'd never really thought about having a king before. She had a parents, and it was to them that she gave her loyalty and honor, as well as her love. What did a person do with a king? What would he expect?
And another question kept bubbling up to the surface of her brain: how was he handling this change? This had to be very different for him. Not just from the way things were up above, but from the way he'd lived. He'd been stuck inside his father's stomach for how long? And what had he done when he got out, before they started the war? Was there anything in his life other than fighting? Did he think he was going to have to fight down here too? True, Underworlders were a more independent and strong-minded lot, but they were good people. Mostly. Mostly good, and mostly people. There were some exceptions to both of those, but the sentiment was sound.
The question poked at her and poked at her and poked at her until Friendship could no longer stand the not-knowing. That was one of the worst parts of change, the not-knowing until things got settled again. And once it did, there was more change. But she could do something about this immediate problem with only a little effort. After all, she was Friendship and he'd probably need some right now. Besides, it would give him a good impression of those that he was now king of. So she set out to find him.
When she did though, her first words weren't the warm greeting she'd been formulating in her mind. Because she found the new resident of the Underworld leaning over Lethe's river, and out of fear she cried out rather sharply, “Don't do that!”
Then she rushed forward to save him from himself.