Dante Lot (unseen_miami) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2011-01-05 20:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | dante lot, hades, npc |
Who: Hades & Guest
What: Look Who’s Talking
Where: His and Persephone’s yard
When: Recent
Warning: Bold indicates words spoken into a person’s soul. You’ll see.
Very little could drive Hades from beside his sleeping wife’s side or from his house where his children slept into the dark of the night dressed only in a pair of sweatpants and cloaked in the invisibility of his helm. Very little could, except, of course, Hades’ own mind.
Even in the heavy dark of the evening, even digging his fingers into the rich soil of the yard – things that should have at least helped his divine soul – did nothing. Even the cool breeze did little to ease his soul or calm his racing breath. He clenched his eyes shut, clenched them as tightly as he could so the illusion of a white light would appear in his vision.
It did little to drive away the hellish images of his nightmare that had driven him from his home into the dead of the night either.
No. White light or not, those images – for now, at least – were ingrained into his very sight.
And the illusion of that white light wouldn’t do anything to dull the screams of agony that echoed in his ears and vibrated in his soul anyway.
No. Little helped him tonight. While Hades was accustomed to nightmares, he wasn’t accustomed to ones that felt more like experiencing a score of them at once. Even the scent of sulfur remained with his senses.
“Om Mani Padme Hum,” he intoned lightly, reaching toward Buddhist mantras in desperation to regain some sense of composure.
“Om Mani Padme Hum.” Anything to not focus on the horrors his mind had produced and presented to him. Horrors he was more or less certain managed to be worse than those of reality. Somehow.
“Om Mani Padme Hum.” The beauty of Buddhism, the reason he clung to it so, was that it was an exercise in emptying the self. Emptying thought, the will, the self – all conspirators against him. Especially tonight.
“Om Mani Padme Hum.” The images finally began to fade. His eyes unclenched.
“Om Mani Padme Hum.” Then the screams lightened until they too disappeared.
“Om Mani Padme Hum.” The scent of sulfur, however, only faded. It lingered and remained…
“Om Mani Padme Hum.” Buddhism was a exercise in emptying of the self but it often failed when curiosity wrestled control of the mind.
Curiosity created the thought of “why?” and that armed the will to act to appease the self which was both the root and end destination of that curiosity in the first place.
Hades opened his eyes. Why did he still smell sulfur? It was as if it were really… That thought immediately eradicated any tiniest bit of calmness he had managed to regain.
If the sulfur were real…
He looked around himself slowly, the dark of night hiding nothing from his eyes but there was nothing to see. Nothing infernal loomed around him, ready to pounce him from the shadows.
Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves once again, his gaze drifted to the ground. Only then did they widen because half concealed by the leaves of other plants, he could just make out a half burnt leaf of a mint plant.
The sight sent him into full scramble toward the flower bed. He knew Persephone had not planted any mint plants in this flower bed but he also knew what he had seen. Carefully, he pushed aside the leaves of the other plants only to freeze at what was before him.
A mature mint plant, some of its leaves singed and all of them covered with soil as if it had broken through the flower bed fully formed.
More importantly, Hades knew it wasn’t some random mint plant.
It was The Mint Plant.
“[Minthe…]” He murmured unknowingly as he touched one of the singed leaves.
”[… ake it stop… Make it stop…. If I can get to… Aidoneus ? M’lord!]”
Hades instantly pulled his hand back as the nymph’s former voice echoed in his soul. Even though he was invisible, he stilled looked around before whispering in reply very lightly, “[Minthe? How are you here? Why can you talk? You could never do that before.]”
“[It-it hurt so much, my-my dread one. I had to try-try to escape… to try to… I knew that if could find you… even if it hurt forever, it would be…]”
The nymph/plant’s pained voice ached Hades’ heart more than he was prepared for. In spite of himself, he reached out and gently caressed one of her singed leaves again. “[So that’s why you’re like this, but why can you speak, even in this way?]”
“[Suddenly I could…]”
Hades hadn’t realized he had growled when she “spoke” those words. There were few reasons to return speech to a nymph-turned-plant in the world she had left. It was one thing when Persephone had punished her… But his flash of rage was consumed in another bout of anxious concern as he looked over either shoulder again, “[You can’t stay here.]”
“[Please! Don’t send me --!]”
“[No.]” He was quick to rebuke her firmly, “[I won’t send you back there but you can’t stay here in Persephone’s flower beds…]”
“[Is that where I am?]”
Her voice was beginning to calm, which only let him hear the touch of disgust that graced her words as she considered her location. Some things never changed, he supposed. “[Be quiet. I’ll be right back.]”
Hiding her back beneath the leaves of the other plants, he went to his SUV and rummaged around until he could find a discarded, forgotten McDonald’s cup that he clearly had left there despite his own car rules about garbage. With it in hand, he returned to where she was. “[I won’t take you inside.]” He had no doubt that even as a plant, Minthe had not learned to abide Persephone’s presence, and more importantly, he had an irrational fear that Persephone would know the instant he walked her through the front door.
No. She would not be going inside their house.
Carefully, he dug his fingers around her to remove her from the flower bed, but was forced to pause when he could hear her again in his very soul. Forced to pause and glare at the little plant, “[Stop that.]”
Her voice managed to sound bashful, “[I can’t help it, Aidoneus, Your fingers feel so nice against the roots I was cursed with.]”
“[Can’t help yourself but make this awkward, can you?]” he muttered under his breath.
“[You’re completely under my roots now…]”
At least this time she was being helpful. Gently, he scooped her up, placed her into the McDonald’s cup and then layered a little more soil around her roots to cover them. “[Now, shhh, I’m going to take you to work with me tomorrow. You’ll have to deal with being hidden in my truck tonight.]”
“[Truck? Is that like a chariot?]”
“[More like a wagon,]” he softly corrected as he brought her to said truck, stashed her in a corner and then surrounded her with newspapers that also broke his garbage in the car rules. “[Now, be quiet. Rest. Talk only to me and only when I tell you you can. It’s --]”
“[Like the games we used to play?]”
Hades sighed. He wanted to say “no”. The truth was “no” but he knew “yes” would not only be easier but get her to listen. “[In a way. It’s also very important. I can’t keep you safe if you act on your own accord.]”
The plant was silent for a moment but then she “whispered”, “[Thank you, Aidoneus. Thank you for saving me. Not leaving me…]”
He brushed his fingers over one of her singed leaves one more time before murmuring in reply, “[What was I going to do? There was nothing else to be done. Now, shh and rest.]” Carefully, he pulled the newspaper half over her and closed the truck.
With another heavy sigh, he walked back to the house. He had to wash his hands from the dirt, he had to shower from the scent of slight scent of sulfur and mint and then he had to ask himself that question again.
What was he going to do?
Summary: Hades went outside to calm down from a nightmare that had woken him from his sleep, only to find a plant in the flower beds that shouldn’t have been there. At all.