Hypnos (laytheedown) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2008-02-23 02:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | dante lot, hades, hypnos |
Who: Hades and Hypnos
What: Java break
Where: Some Starbucks in Miami.
When: Recently?
Warnings: None, minor family-related angst, but it's brief.
Busy!
Busy!
BUSY!
Hypnos couldn't remember the last time he'd been this busy. Oh, yes, it'd been around the Trojan War, hadn't it, when they'd gotten a boom of dead soldiers running around so often, Charon couldn't possibly keep up. He'd charged double during that little spat. But instead of shades, now he was floating along as best he could to serve the living their... coffee. It was different, if not preferrable. But it was a job, and now that he was living with his twin, he had to help somehow. And apparently opium was illegal now... "I have a large espresso here, order 266?" he called amongst the crowd.
Slow.
Slow.
Slow. That's what work was lately for Hades. So slow that he almost looked forward to the crazy idea sessions with his interns. He hated this time of the TV season. All the midseasons were in place and with the strike over, the summer was going to be filled with the regular shows. Not that he especially minded. Hades had made a gold mine this year in America alone, helping the networks fix their schedules and survive the strike, but he was just bored.
Luckily he had a computer now. And then new Ace Attorney game was out in the States… though its name made him sigh. However, he decided today to take his lunch break out to not go stir crazy in his office.
And by lunch, he meant coffee and that was his order. He got up to go to the attendant to fetch it in the crowd and then paused when he saw who was calling his number, "You."
"Me?" Hypnos paused and then smiled from ear to ear. "My--" Wait, whoa. Slow down on the 'my lord' stuff in public. They'd think they were some kind of kinky gay couple. "Um, I mean, Mr. Lot. Here!" He walked around the counter and handed it to him personally, beaming.
"You sellin' coffee is like me sellin' sunshine and lollypops." Not that it stopped Hades from taking the espresso from him and drinking a healthy gulp, before he eyed his former minister. This was all so terribly wrong and surreal. But mostly wrong, "They have you in a silly vest."
"Yeah... I have to work though, no?" He smiled and shrugged. "I make money. The coffee keeps me awake. And my English is getting better!" That was also due to more "Learn English the Easy Way!" tapes than he knew what to do with. "Let me get us a table, sir."
"Yes, get us a table." Keep him awake? Now it was more wrong. Hypnos wanted to be awake and was peddling the means to stay awake to others. Hades considered that maybe he had fallen asleep in his office and this was all a dream. He did enjoy napping… Let him wake up before the nightmares started. "Will follow you."
Hypnos made a grand, if silly, gesture to follow him to a slightly private table cornered in the back of the place. Normally it was holed up by nerds on laptops or tittering couples, so Hypnos seemed to be glad it was open. "I heard about your sons. Congratulations."
"Thank you." Taking a seat, Hades allowed a small, proud smile to cross his features. Even with the happiness in his life now… his wife, his children, his family around him and seemingly wanting him there, he still rarely smiled except in their presence or when doing some horribly cruel action. Smiles of any sort still looked awkward on him even when he was not forcing them. He motioned for Hypnos to sit, unconsciously using the same motion he once would have used when Hypnos and his brother were invited to his grand and lonely dining room. "Did not hear about your new job. Why this?"
Hypnos sighed and shrugged. "I heard about the Egyptians and Subrosa," he whispered quietly. He sat as soon as Hades gestured. Two thousand years had passed, but some things never changed. "I thought to myself, 'where would they expect you to work? Somewhere comfortable.' So I picked the most uncomfortable thing possible. And besides. Coffee is the new opium. And well..." He sighed. "My power is odd now. I can't... can't control my sleep. It is like..." He frowned, unable to think of the word, so he mimicked a light switch being flipped up and down. On and off.
"They call that 'narcolepsy' sometimes." But Hades now understood and it all became less surreal, but somehow more disheartening. One of his ministers had to do this task that was against his nature and for why? Because some blood thirty zombie-esque gods and mortals with tranq guns and helicopters lurked around. It was enough to make his kingly heart be consumed in righteous anger, but he was not a king any longer and there was little he could do alone. "That makes sense your choice. Is there somethin' I can do to help?"
"Nothing I can think of. But if I think of anything, I can give you a call?" The pale god sighed and looked around. "It's so different now... In all my dreams, I never could have imagined this."
With a nod, the death lord sympathized, "Know what you mean. When I really sit back and think, everythin' feels so foreign to me. World moves so fast now. In the last fifty years even… People walked on the moon. And then with us…" Hades sighed now. It was times like this he truly realized that two thousand years ago, he would have been served by countless shades, respected and feared by whole societies… Now he had to wait on line for coffee, "It is best not to think about it. That's what I try to do."
Hypnos nodded. "I was... wondering something..." He swallowed deeply, hoping against hope.
"What is it?" It was a simple and direct response.
"When... you fled our home...?" Oh the hope that flared into the sleep god's face. "Did any of my children go with you? Even just one? My wife?" His voice cracked on the last word as if his heart were breaking with it.
Hades' heart clenched at the question. That pain of loss. He knew that one. He knew it very well and the question washed the death lord with a new shame he had not considered before. When he left, when he choose to try to fade away into nothing… He should have sought out his subjects and rescued them before he left. Closing his eyes, he could remember the Devil and his futile assault on him… so easily being tossed aside overpowered, and seemingly left with no other options. But he should have sought out others… What a poor king he was, he suddenly realized. And in this shame, he slowly shook his head no.
"Ahh..." Hypnos didn't know most of the details of what had happened. For him, it involved alot of running, then hiding. The usual. "I did not expect so."
Hades opened his eyes and played with the napkin that had come with the coffee. Softly, "I'm sorry."
The younger god looked up and immediately recognized the sorrow in his king. Quickly, he reached over to carefully put a hand over Hades'. "No, please, do not be. You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn't bring this on any of us."
Flinching away at the touch, Hades did not lift his eyes, "Should have done more. It was my responsibility to do more."
"You were a victim, [my king]," whispered Hypnos. It hurt him that he'd upset the Rich One. Not that this was terribly hard to do, but... still! Not very good servant-like behavior. "I only asked because I felt bad for not asking."
"Your family may be safer elsewhere anyway." Hades tried to put aside his shame and raise his eyes. Normally, he would have corrected someone and told them he was not a king anymore, but he felt that it would only hurt Hypnos to do so. Let him hold on to something. The Rich One could pretend. "That's a silver lining, right?"
Hypnos smiled in a lopsided manner that always came out of him, mortal guise or not. "Yes... It's comforting. I want to see your own children soon."
"Soon. When they're a little bigger." At the mention of his children, his proud, small smile returned and his shame and sadness put away for now. He released the napkin and went back to drinking his coffee, "They are beautiful boys. They keep snuggling with each other…"
"Aww, children are wonderful. I remember, when Morpheus was born!" Rather than maknig him sad, Hypnos giggled and flushed with insane pride. "He was so perfect. I flew him everywhere, just demanded he be looked at."
"Yes, remember it quite clearly." His proud smile turned into a smirk, though he looked around the coffee shop just in case he could notice anyone taking note at the name the excited god had used. It didn't look like anyone cared, or looked shifty. "Also remembering demanding to hold him."
Hypnos sighed with happy memories. They seemed so far away now... "So precious. I miss him... I think it's why I can't sleep. Never could, after he was born. Like he was born to serve me."
"Want my sons just to have been born to live. Nothing more," That was ironic enough really. Twisting off the cap, Hades set it aside so he could actually drink this without having it be forced to come out a tiny slit in the plastic.
The other god paused to watch. Strange how the little things were absolutely fascinating to him. Had he been born as a mortal in his age, he would've been classified as ADD ages ago. "Is there anything you wish me to do with them? Watch them, bless them?"
"Bless them. Without question. They have gone through enough in their little lives already." The death lord noticed the other god's distraction and in an uncharacteristic, yet also characteristic attempt at humor, turned the cap upside down on the table. With a gentle touch to one of the ledged, it leapt into the air, spun 360 and landed flat down. Sometimes Hades had too much time to learn things on his hands, "If I ever need a babysitter, I'll call you. You know how to deal with multiple children and can keep them quiet."
Laughing, Hypbnos applauded quietly. He didn't like loud noises. Of course. "That I do. Though I will be surprised if you get them from..." He paused. He couldn't remember Hestia's mortal name. "From their mother's hands. Not all women give up as easy as Nyx did." Then again, the goddess of night had never exactly been motherly in the first place. At least not in the huggy, kissy sort of way.
"Should be more surprised to get them from my hands but…" Hades shrugged, amused at Hypnos' applauds and laughter. Sometimes Hypnos could react like a large child himself. "But things can always come up. Good to have someone on stand by."
"I am always at your service, my lord." He bowed slightly, as he always did. "No amount of time and space can ever change that."
"You and your brother really are twins. He said the same thing to me, more or less." Motioning that he could end his bow as was fitting, he took the moment to glance into his coffee cup. His espresso was gone now; the buzz from it would start in a little bit. "Try not to overwork here. Have heard these places can steal your soul…"
Hypnos shivered. "I can only hope it's worth it. Hiding in plain sights, I think is the saying." Or was it 'hiding in the sights of planes'? Wait, that didn't make sense. "I could believe that everyone here is a zombie. Still... I kind of like the coffee. The awakeness is painful, but when it goes away..." Hee hee. "I get a small bit of power from the exhausted people who come in, desperate for another sip. It's the poppy of the new century!"
"It can't really steal your soul," Hades made a point to console the other god, just in case he was taken seriously. It was very possible considering it was a matter of the soul. However, the whole little speech made him smirk again, "But that need for another sip is why I'm here, so…"
The other good stood up. "Would you like another one?" Smirk. "Sir?"
Ah, now it went back to being vaguely surreal, and yet also vaguely familiar. "Yes. Yes, I would."
Summary: Welcome to Starbucks! Can Hypnos, god of sleep and servant to Hades, take your order? Sorry, had to make a joke. Anyway, Hypnos has taken a new job that both pays and may -- he hopes -- keeps him off the radar. Hades bumps into him and the two chat over the fate of the other Cthonians and the weirdness of the 21st century.