Styx had the slightest hint of a smile tugging at one corner of her mouth, but not much. The shift in conversation indicated that the girl was very uncomfortable with speaking of the situation with her father. Which was probably the bulk of that underlying pulse of deep, dark, emotional turmoil she had sensed upon first meeting the Nord at her parent's dinner.
She would have been happier if it had just been a pantheon issue. Family was so important. It really didn't sound like Hel had much to turn to in terms of family and the relationship between fathers and their daughters was especially important. Nike and Pallas had been so close. Styx, for hersefl, would feel the sting of her father's disappointment far harder than her mother's. Oh, she loved Nyx, but it was a different dynamic.
“Of course,” though Hate only actually agreed with a portion of what Hel had said. Lovely and mysterious, yes. Cold ad barren, well, she couldn't speak for the latter but Styx would never make the mistake of calling or thinking of Hel as cold. Quite the opposite. Perhaps because she had the skill to feel some of the darker emotion flowing under the surface of people. No, Styx suspected the opposite was quite true: that Hel actually felt everything strongly and with a passion to it, her self-referral as cold was an attempt to protect herself from further emotional injury.
Such a shame.
“But... a bit of advice... not as a mother,” she clarified right away to make that distinction. “As a friend,” even though they barely knew each other, but it seemed fair. It also seemed fair to assume that Styx would be seeing Hel rather often since the Nord was on friendly terms with Hades and the protogenoi appear to have semi-adopted her. So, Hate added, “and perhaps, if Lottie's loitering in the shadows waiting for the right opportunity and permission to pounce and hug you doesn't have you running screaming back for your own realm,” the smile there was a tease against Lottie, Styx loved her family very much, “from an older, wiser, somewhat more abrasive when-it-suits-her, sister; who happens to specialize in some of these things...”
Styx's face took on a more serious note, the same one she frequently gave her siblings when the situation called for it, the very same one she often gave Nike when explaining, again, that just because she was practically the Goddess of Win didn't mean she should go easy on her siblings and let them win because they'll know she did it and in the long run would make them feel worse. “While I'm sure I only know a small sliver of what has happened, if you haven't done so, you need to tell him how you feel about all of this. If there is one thing my parents believe and have hammered into all of us through the ages is how important family is. If you don't, be warned that the hot, acrid feeling you have when you think about any of it... It will become the default.” She did not specify if that was something Hel might be feeling toward a person, a group of persons, an event in particular or just a situation. That was for Hel to decide.
“But, even in that form... it is as corrosive as it is when it forms into a purely liquid essence and loops the our Underworld. It will consume you entirely, from the inside and work its way out, until you are nothing more than a shell of who you once were.”