Dante Lot (unseen_miami) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2009-04-15 22:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | dahlia little, dante lot, hades, persephone |
Who: Hades & Persephone
What: Funny meeting you here
Where: In His Dreams, Literally
When: Recent
Warnings: none
The world had darkened around Hades. Metaphorically, for weeks now, but at this very moment, it was literal, too. The world was actually a realm of darkness for as far as he could see and his superior vision did not help break it. He hadn't understood why either... Just a moment ago he was cleaning Delaney's basement holding room and then...
His eyes widened and he crumbled on the scape of black, clutching his head and tugging his hair, "[Gods, I'm asleep. I thought Provigil wouldn't let me do that. Wake up. I need to wake up before the dreams start... Please, let me wake up...]"
Long white fingers reached forward, pushing away his hands, running smooth lines across his scalp. Persephone's hands slid down his neck, criss -crossing themselves across his chest in an embrace. "[Stop. Please stop. I love you so much, and I'm so sorry, but this is...so much pain.]" She rested her cheek atop his head. "[Stop destroying yourself. Stop hurting our daughter. Hades, I'm here, and I'll always be here if you need me. Stop carrying all these weighty burdens on your own.]"
"[.... Someone wake me up,..]" Hades whimpered at the touch of her hands against his hair, letting his hands fall limp to his side when they rested upon his chest. No one was going to wake him up. Unless he managed to whimper in the waking world, Hestia would let him rest, and he so rarely even stirred no matter how terrible his nightmares were. He took a deep breath and leaned back in Persephone's arms. He could only hope that maybe he was getting a good dream before the nightmare whacked him. Maybe, but doubtful. Very, considering who his guest star currently was. "[And so it begins. Okay, what's the plot? Tell me while I'm still understanding I'm asleep. It'll be novel.]"
"[It isn't a plot Hades,]" Persephone frowned, kneeling behind him so that she could properly cradle his weight. What could she say to make him understand? And did she want him to understand? She didn't need his guilt on top of everything.After all , she'd been the cause of so much of his suffering. Maybe she owed him one good night's rest. She titled her head, pressing her lips to his temple. "[I'm just here.]"
Sure, she was. It had been silly to ask it. Hades might know he was dreaming, but the dreams themselves were rarely truthful. He sighed softly, letting her embrace wrap around him without resisting. "[Are you the wife of my past or the one of my greatestfantasies? Have you found me in the dark to tell me you told your father you wished to stay with me or is it something else?]"
Persephone laughed lightly, resting her chin on his shoulder. "[Believe me, right now, I'd love nothing more than to stay with you for forever and always, but this isn't a fantasy. I'm the wife you have...ex-wife. The idiot who causes you so much pain...]"
Of course. It wouldn't be a nightmare if she the one of his fantasies... Hades frowned deeply, "[Then get your hands off me, you filthy whore.]"
"[Even here you're punishing me...it's bad enough that it's a constant loop of wishing me dead or tortured.]" Despite her words, Persephone did gently unhand him. She rose to her feet only to walk a few feet away before plopping down to the ground. "[Well you'll be happy to know he chose torture.]"
Ah, that was the plot of the dream. To face his action and condemn her personally. Subtle and mentally destructive to the core with loads of emotional trauma. Hades really wished his brain would stop working... He wasn't even the tormentor ofTartarus anymore. But he knew how a nightmare worked. Just fall into step with it. He stood and turned around, staring down at her, "[I'm sure you're about to tell me all about it, so get to it. Lay it on me. Really thick and heavy]"
"[I am not a plot device!]" She screeched, growing impatient with his train of thoughts mingling her own. "[I'm not here for you to work out all the issues you're feeling---if there's even any working through them and---]" She winced, clutching her head. She shuddered, her words dissolving into tears. "[I wanted to be with you but not like this...this is too much.]"
This was... different. Not incredibly different, but different enough for Hades to be very confused by it. Gently he reached out and placed his hand over hers, rubbing her clutching knuckles.
"[Don't touch me...]" She whispered. "[I'm sorry. I know I should be comforting you, but I need...just a second...find my head.]"
Hades shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the formless black that made up the ground. Of course, she did. Even in his dreams, someoneelse's pain came first, but he expected nothing less. He did not expect mercy from himself... even in the guise of Persephone. "[Take your time. No difference to me. I'll ponder the endlessinescapable darkness all around me as a backdrop... Is it emo or a tragically poetic expression of my current situation?]" Heh, he was oddly rational right now.
Persephone took a deep breath, turning to face him. "[Trust me when I tell you, you don't understand what's going on. You're only hearing one side of the story, and I'm hearing both...and it's giving me such a headache.]" She winced again, rubbing her head which seemed an odd thing to her since this was all the realm of the metaphysical. "[And I think...the background is being minimalist.]" She offered him a little smile, reaching out for his hand with hers.
"[You went from knowing nothing to knowing everything?]" Hades didn't pull his hand away, even unconscious and in a dream his body instinctively welcomed her touch... but he looked away from her in disgust. Yet, something felt odd about her hand now that he concentrated on it.
There were holes in her hands, ichor plastered to her skin. They bore the metaphysical marks of her real physical pain. "[Yes,]" she croaked. "[And knowing sucks.]"
"[I'm going crazy, aren't I?]"
"[If you're going crazy then so am I.]"
"[You married the Devil and had his child, passing her off as mine in your final letter to me... so...]" Hades clenched his eyes shut, "[I should just disappear into the wilderness before I hurt my children...]"
"[Delaney is your child. He...did something to her. Branded her with his power, but she's yours.]" Dahlia pulled her hand back to her chest. What was all this suffering for if he didn't believe her? "[I've fought so hard...please don't doubt that she's yours. Don't let him win anymore than he has.]"
Hades turned away from her completely in further disgust, "[She flew and stabbed someone crying out for 'Daddy'...]"
"[He wants you to trust your eyes over what I'm telling you... he's a deceiver. Don't be like me. I learned that lesson too late, and now everything is endless torture,]" Persephone whimpered, examining her hands. "[Please...find a way to save her. I don't care what happens to me, but I love our daughter so much...please.]"
"[He is a deceiver...]" Hades murmured and turned back around to face her. The sight of her with her wounds gave him pause but did not shake him... his nightmares had given him much worse sights before. The situation was the true horror... She was either a tortured aspect of his consciousness cutting through his bullshit to shed some light and reveal to him the grave injustice and horroe he bestowed upon his daughter or an orchestrated vision created by the Devil to tease belief in the former... That is what caused him to shudder.
"[I'm not either!]" She screeched, her sudden movement revealing another gaping hole below her right collarbone. She hadn't wanted to say this to Hades, but he was so...stuck in his own thoughts. "[He punished me for banishing him. He said that he would reunite me and you, and he has. I hear your thoughts all time. No filter. No...I hear everything.]"
If it were truly a dream, his brain deserved an award for a new level of tormenting him. If it was the truth... well, then he supposed the Devil deserved it. Hades reached out, letting his fingers trail along her collarbone and trace the gaping hole. He remembered when she had traced the hole in his torso when she thought he was asleep with such sadness... "[If you are real... Are my thoughts doing this to you?]"
"[No...this is him. He has me impaled on a throne,]" Persephone murmured, fingers tracing her stomach and finding another large hole. "[But this doesn't matter. Help our daughter.]"
His thoughts were fractured even here. One side with the firm belief she deserved to be impaled on a throne and awashed with viscous justice fueled joy, he wished it was his former throne.... But another loud side now held pity for her. No one deserved to have to hear his thoughts or experience his mind. No one. He lowered his eyes from her knowing she knew both and murmured, barely able to be heard at her, "[You're just like the others. Wanting me to do things when you know I can't...]"
"[But you can stop him...I think I know you better than anyone else, and even before I was in your head, I knew you could do this.]" Persephone was desperately trying to hold her mind together, feeling equal parts guilty and pathetic as she heard what he was thinking and feeling. "[But now I'm sure you can....what do you wish for your children? Now, don't answer that now. Don't even think about it...when the time is right, you'll know what the answer is.]"
Hades shook his head. "[You have much more faith in me than I do. You must be real after all. My mind is never reassuring and hopeful.]"
"[I do have faith in you...even if you don't love me anymore, you love Delaney, and I know better than anyone the lengths you'll go to for someone you love,]" Persephone smiled at him, wrapping her arms around herself.
"[I have been terrible to her...]" The words came out of him in a whisper as acceptance washed through him that perhaps the Devil had done something to his precious little girl to convince him otherwise... And it felt much worse than when he had simply thought she was truly the child of Satan. Much worse.
"[She'll forgive you,]" Persephone insisted, glancing at the nothing beneath her feet. "[Just help her...okay?]"
"[I'll try... That's all I can do.]"
"[I know...]" Persephone took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "[Give her a kiss for me.]"
Hades nodded, keeping his eyes to the blackness, "[I was... am so angry at you, but knowing you're here? No one deserves this place...]"
"[Yeah. I know. You thought that already...]" Persephone shrugged, eyes down. "[I hope you wake up soon.]"
"[I'm gonna be thinking it a lot so deal with it...]" Hades shrugged and then sat back down, wrapping his arms around his knees, tucking them to his chest. He wished he would wake up, too. It would be a selfish comfort not to actually see Persephone...
"[You think I want you around either? When you're thinking stuff like that?]" Persephone sighed, walking as far away from him as space would allow.
Hades shook his head. Oh, so little she knew about being inside his brain... He watched as he walked until she disappeared from his sight, but he knew where she was. Right behind him, closer than where she had been when she began to walk away. "[The further you try to get from me, the closer you will be brought... There is no escaping from me here. Ever.]"
"[Then either wake up or turn the loathing down a little,]" Persephone snapped, rubbing her temples.
Hades looked over his shoulder and glared at her, "[I can't and even if I could, I might consider not with that tone.]"
Her head hurt so much. Persephone began to rub at her eyes, body crumbling until she was curled up on her side. It had been easier to keep her head straight with some distance between them. His anger was so potent with the minds so close.
Softly, Hades reached out to his once wife and stroked her hair. "[Pretend you're a dream... Then I will be calmer maybe.]"
It was quite clear at this point that his former wife was crying. She pushed herself up, clinging onto his arm. "[My head...I can't...]"
"[Stop thinking about yourself...]" Hades muttered as he looked away from her once more. He hated watching her cry but he hated even more that even in his head, people couldn't help but put themselves first. It was becoming a pattern in his life he couldn't seem to escape.
"[I'm splitting in two and you have to go and think that!]" She shrieked, falling away from him, pounding balled fists against her skull. "[Can't think...can't...if...it just stopped...one second.]"
"[I tried to help you,]" He muttered, sympathy washing through him once more as he remembered clearly where she could not escape. Reaching out to her, he offered his hand, "[Stop that.]"
Persephone shuddered, taking his hand and clinging to him. Maybe he was right. Maybe the pain of two minds would be easier if she could just play along. "[Let me stay beside you...]"
Maybe if she played along, he could have a single fucking moment of comfort... At least a moment to forget. Anything. Hades clenched his eyes shut with a tremble, squeezing her hand. "[... I have waited for you to say that for a long time. Won't they look for you like they did last time and pull you from me again?]"
"[I don't care.]" Persephone stammered out, her whole body trembling with exertion. "[M-my mother abandoned me, and it's clear that you're the only one who ever really loved me...and I didn't even know what love was until I had you. I won't leave your side for anything.]"
Hades pulled her closer, bringing her close and flush with him before resting his head along her trembling shoulder. "[It has been so very hard... ]"
"[It won't be hard once we stay together,]" Persephone murmured, clinging tightly to him.
Clinging was almost a hug... Hades let out an exhale against her throat. Maybe it could just stay like this until he woke up... Reading lines and acting out scenes from a script to a dream that never came true no matter how much he longed for it. A dream in the middle of this terrible nightmare and reality. With a pause, he let himself try to sink into the moment and not analyze it. "[Then promise you will stay with me...]"
"[I will stay with you,]" Persephone murmured, bringing her fingers up to his hair. "[I will always stay with you...right here, by your side, no matter what.]"
Was this what a moment of peace felt like? It had been so long. Hades didn't reply, except by nodding against her shoulder.
"[I love you so much...]" She whispered against his skin. She would give him something to remember her by. "[That is the complete and honest truth.]"
Summary: Hades doesn't remembering falling asleep, but he did. He doesn't remember leaving one Persephone in his head, but someone did. Time for circular conversations from both of them, but that is how people talk in dreams.