perfect_wife (perfect_wife) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2011-03-09 19:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | dante lot, hades, hera, june marris |
Who: Hades & Hera (mostly)
What: Consultation
Where: Hades’ Office
When: Monday, Feb 21, 2011. 8:30ish PM
Warnings: None that I can think of.
“[Aidoneus, on a night like this, I miss being able to truly see you...” Her gentle words echoing in his soul made Hades instantly cease his idle brushing of her recovered leaves. Even his inattentive peering out his office windows at the Miami night-scape ceased with a sigh as he glanced down at her, nestled in the MacDonald’s supersized cup.
He shook his head, “[If I didn’t already feel guilty about you, you saying things like that would ensure I didn’t rethink talking to my sister about you...]”
If the plant could shrug, he was certain she would have. Certain. “[It’s just that I can feel that it’s evening and its such a crisp coolness in here. It’s like... like when you would lay beside the Lethe and I would sneak over to you... You’ve so rarely been around me during the evening... always with that overworld sun up and it’s never been so cool... It feels like home to me...]”
Hades’ eyes slipped shut. It wasn’t the springs and summers when Persephone would leave him and the nymph would find him in his solitude that he thought about to.... even though those springs and summers still felt so close. The temporal dissonance of when his memories returned to him hadn’t gone away as he had hoped but time since then had eased much of the surreality. Still.
It wasn’t any particular memory that had consumed his thoughts, it was a general sensation. It was simply the sensation of home and the Underworld. The Underworld had been just as much of a prison for him as it was a home but... it was still a home. His fingers returned to her leaves, “[I know you miss it. You always loved it there.]”
Hades sighed again when he realized he had returned to brushing her soft leaves. He put his hands on the arms of his leather chair. “[I wish Hera would get here. I need to talk to her now. I feel like I’m committed adultery, even if it isn’t physical.]”
“[Maybe you are. It doesn’t have to be physical.]”
Hades was saved from making a response to the comment, by a text message coming in from his younger sister. -- The doors are locked. --
Any reply he would have given to the plant in his desk drawer was silenced upon his lips at the sound of the familiar Metal Gear Solid Codec Alert sound issuing from his iPhone. He had a text message from his sister and it made him frown.
The door was locked? It had been a while since he had been in his office this late that he had forgotten the main door to the building was actually locked with the new owner. As he rose to his feet, he wondered why he hadn’t bought the building himself. It didn’t matter. “[Be good. I’ll be right back. She’s here.]”
“[Good. I’m glad you’re asking for advise. About time you asked someone whom you would listen to.]”
He then wondered if he would ever stop sighing tonight as he left his office proper and rode the elevator down the four floors to the main lobby to open the door, “Sorry about that.”
Looking up from her own phone at Dante’s arrival, June merely lifted an eyebrow, then moved to slip inside the building. “It is fine. I had merely not expected to encounter the problem.” She turns to face her brother more directly, and quickly looks him over. “How are you?”
He let the door close behind her and heard the distinctive locking sound as he motioned to the elevator. How was he? That shouldn’t be such a difficult question but it always was. “Don’t know. Honestly don’t.”
She smiled as she followed him to the elevators. “You never seem to entirely know, [Brother],” she remarked. “I assume that is part of while you asked me to come?” She glanced sideways at him. In the past he’d called with difficulties with Hestia, and occasionally other issues. Since the two seemed on good terms, she wondered if it was possible he was having difficulties with his wife, or if it was something else completely.
“Yes. This has...” As the elevator shut, Hades sought for the proper words. End? Change? Be understood? What was he supposed to do with this former mistress in his desk? Keeping her hidden there seemed like a guilty lie but was he to tell Persephone? That sounded like a poor solution and the fact that thought sounded like a poor solution sounded terrible. He leaned against the wall of the elevator. “[I just don’t know. I just don’t.]”
Hera continued to watch her brother as they traveled up the elevator, considering him and his mood. “[That is why you asked to speak with me, Brother, though I trust you wished the conversation to begin in private?]” She smirked slightly. “[I doubt you would have chosen your office otherwise.]”
Hades nodded as the elevator pinged and the doors opened, “[Yes. That and there’s something I want to show you. The main topic of the conversation most likely.]” One of these days, he would learn how to just say things and not lead into them in dramatic, possibly ominous fashions. Today was not that day.
She quirked an eyebrow at that, and followed her brother. "[Something to show me?]" Well, that would certainly lead to another twist of things. She tried to recall if his previous visits had ever really included a show and tell or sorts.
“[Yes. I’ve been keeping something from everyone...]” Hades continued to explain as he led her into his private office. The mild chill in the air was noticeable in contrast with the outside, elevator and hallway but it wasn’t terribly uncomfortable. “[I need your advice.]” The carefully, he lifted the MacDonald’s cup out from the bottom desk drawer and put it atop his desk for her to see.
Following her brother into his office, the difference in temperature was instantly noted. Briefly she thought of her wife, and the constant heat that was their house, before her attention was pulled back by Hades words. She looked down to the cup on the desk, then up to her brother. Slowly, she shut the door behind her, and drew closer to the desk for a better look. She lifted an eyebrow as she peered to her brother. "[And what do you need my advice on?]" she asked.
Hades peered at his sister, suppressing the incredulous expression that wished to appear on his face. No, he understood what was going on. Hera wasn’t Persephone. She wouldn’t just correctly assume some random mint plant he pulled out onto his desk would be a polymorphed nymph from his past. He’d have to fill in the gap for the mental leap. “[This isn’t some normal mint plant, Hera.]”
"[Oh?]" She continued to watch him, not looking down to the cup on the desk again, and linked her hands before her as she stood near the desk. She didn't need to look down again to know what she would see, and her curiosity was far more to her brother's answers. "[And what is special about it?]"
He half-collapsed in his leather office chair and let out a long breath at her question. And what was so special about it? Hades was a man that learned half the knowledge he had about his family from university classes for his master’s degree but still. This was a common story. But maybe this was part of Hera’s methods. He understood the need to ask questions even though one already knew the answer. He had done it a number of times. “[It’s the original mint plant, out from the Underworld. Minthe.]”
That comment did seem to bring a reaction from the youngest of the sisters, and both of her eyebrows arched up. She peered down at the cup once more, studying it, before returning her gaze to her brother as he fell into his chair. She stayed quiet as she considered a range of answers, her eyes searching him, before she finally spoke. "[And if I were to ask you how you know that, Brother?]"
His eyes narrowed in confusion, “[What do you mean how do I know that? How could I not know it?]”
"[Then you would be able to prove it, and tell me how you know,]" she retorted back.
Hades straightened up in his chair as his eyes remained narrowed but no longer in confusion. Well, not completely. Annoyance was setting into his frame, but again, he tried -- intellectually -- to understand that she was simply using questions to better understand the situation herself. “[Unless she talks to you, I can’t prove it, but she’s spoken to me and more importantly, I would know her in a heartbeat. That’s why I brought her here and not into my house.]”
"[Ah,]" she said, and nodded at him. Now it made sense. Hera moved away from the desk and lowered herself into one of the seats. She crossed her legs and rested her hands in lap, a slow frown coming to her lips. "[So you have been having conversations with your past mistress...]"
“[And now you know why you’re here...]” Hades reached out and pulled the MacDonald’s cup closer to him. “[I didn’t know what to do then and I still don’t. I have to be a good husband but if someone undamned manages to escape Hell... I won’t bring her into the house. Neither Minthe nor Persephone would approve of that but what am I supposed to do?]”
"[You know that I can not approve of you tending to a mistress while you are married, Brother. But my concern is far more to how you came to find her, and when she began to speak with you.]" She watched as he drew the cup closer to him, eyeing his treatment of it and the care he gave to his 'plant'. She would address that issue in a moment though, her thoughts far more to what had brought this about.
“[I know. I don’t especially approve of it either, if it helps.]” Hades put his hands once more on the arms of his leather chair. He knew better than to play with the cup overly in front of Hera. It would give false impressions; he had only pulled the cup closer to make sure his sister didn’t do anything violent. Violence was usually this family’s first suggestion to any problem; a trait he was equally guilty of at times. “[I didn’t seek her out, Sister, and while she was seeking me, she happened to get lucky in a manner and find Persephone’s flowerbeds outside the house when she escaped from Hell. She had been scared and desperate. That was the first time she spoke to me. Her speech had been returned to her for some terrible reason... ]”
He had not been mistaken in his thoughts that she might go for violence against a mistress, the urge to say 'kill her' rather strong. But considering the situation it hardly seemed fitting to make such a request of him. "[And how big was she when you saw her first?]"
Tapping the arms of his chair in thought, he was going to make the safe assumption that Hera meant when he had seen the nymph-turned-plant upon the surface recently when she said ‘first’. Otherwise, her question was bizarre. “[She was the same size as she is now. She hasn’t grown any. Recovered but not grown. Why?]”
For a long moment, Hera sat quietly and contemplated her brother. She did not move or twitch as she did so, then finally spoke. "[Because I see nothing within your cup besides soil.]"
Hades blinked. “[You don’t see a mint plant coming out of that cup?]”
She shook her head slowly, watching him. "[No, I do not.]"
Hades eyed her suspiciously and then lowered his gaze to the cup. What Hera was saying didn’t make sense. He could see the mint plant as clearly as he could see her. But her denying that fact made less sense to him. Carefully, he pushed the cup back to the middle of the desk. “[Slowly, lower your hand over the cup until you reach the rim or I tell you to stop.]”
Hera shifted and moved forward in her seat. She saw no plant, but she also was not one who could see ghosts. While she would not say the thought aloud, she wondered if it were possible that it was the spirit of the woman. She moved her eyes back to her brother, and began to slowly lower her hand as he directed her to.
When he watched his sister’s hand go through the plant’s leafy top, he stood up and moved away from the desk in full, frustrated pace. “[It won’t matter if you stop or not. Nothing will stop you if you haven’t felt anything yet.]” His words dripped in equal parts confusion and despair before he laid himself down on his couch.
Her hand continued down until it rested fully on the rim of the cup, relaxing there as if it were an arm rest, her attention however moved with her brother. She tracked him as he started to pace, and considered a variety of responses. “[What conversations have you been having, Brother?]” she finally asked.
“[Troubling ones as I have clearly been hallucinating...]” Hades clenched his eyes shut. There was no doubt in his mind about it. Hallucinating.
Hera shook her head slightly and removed her hand, settling it back in her lap. “[They have been conversations with yourself then. I am curious what brought them about, and if there is anything else that is out of place.]
His eyes opened as he turned to look at his sister. Thoughts raced in his mind as memories played and turned in an attempt to focus on truth beyond the hallucinations. “[Anything else that is out of place? What do you mean?]”
Lifting her shoulders in a shrug, she continued to watch her brother. “[Merely asking to see if there is something of late that has been odd, perhaps something else that is not real,]” she answered bluntly.
“[I just figured out she--- it,]” Hades corrected himself. Hallucinations don’t get gender pronouns. He took a deep breath as he ran his hands over his face and then let both of them rest atop his head. “[... I don’t know. Nothing seemed odd but when you think you’re hiding your former mistress in your desk...]”
Hera nodded. If you do not know that you are dreaming, how do you know what parts are real or false? “[You had difficulties enough with her presence that you decided to speak with me. Perhaps if you would tell me what the two of you spoke of, I will understand in part why you believed to see her,]” she suggested calmly.
Hades nodded as he let his hands fall away from his head and he rolled to his side on the couch. His voice hushed, “[Come here. I don’t want to have this discussion with you sitting in front of my desk and me on this couch.]”
A small smirk, and Hera stood to comply with her brother’s request. She looked over her choices, before simply sitting on the ground near his head, with her back to another chair for support. She lifted her eyebrow to him, amused and curious if he accepted her change of position. “[Does this suit your request?]”
He nodded again. His eyes slipped shut again but he knew his sister was so close right now. Close enough that he could whisper what he trusted wouldn’t leave this room unless he wished it to. “[She would ask about my children... my life. It felt like catching up... It sounded right from a woman who spent so long being a mindless plant and then time being tortured in hell with returned thought...]”
She nodded slightly, then shifted to stretch her legs before her as she rested her hands in her lap once more. “[Did she ask anything of you? Or seem to favor one topic?]
“[The Underworld,]” he replied immediately. As he thought about to each hallucinated conversation he had had with the imagined plant-nymph, the conversations did always turn or comment upon his former realm. He kept speaking, “[She always ended up speaking about home...]”
“[And what did she have to say of it?]” she continued to question, watching him as he spoke. The reply did not seem to surprise her though, and her face remained calm.
“[She wondered why I kept avoiding it... kept asking what was keeping me here... how I could forget it and put it aside...]” The words came easily from Hades, perhaps too easily. While they were honest, he stared to the ceiling of his office. Hera may have been trying to find the truth and cause of his actions from his words, he tried to find the same from his own memories. Perhaps his temporal dissonance would be helpful for once.
Hera lifted an eyebrow, and echoed his own hallucinations words back to him. The question was a valid one, after all. “[And why are you avoiding it?]” she asked.
His response left his lips as he had said it a hundred times. A thousand times even and that was because it had. He had said it to himself, in his imagined conversations with the nymph... whenever the topic came up, “[I’m powerless to help them.]”
For a long moment, the goddess sat quietly and watched her brother, considering his words and thinking through the answers to her questions. “[As you are powerless to help Minthe...]” she commented softly. She waited, seeing if he was making the same connection she was, to why he might have been seeing and hearing the nymph turned plant.
Hades’ eyes narrowed his minor confusion. As he was powerless to help Minthe.... Technically, he supposed. She would be one of “them”... He wouldn’t deny it was nice as it was complicating when he had thought she had escaped. But he wondered, “[You’re not implying that I finally got around to being upset she was taken from my power so many years ago, are you?]”
Hera quirked an eyebrow. “[No, I was not, but it is interesting that that is the conclusion that you draw, instead that the Underworld itself is reaching out to you, and using her to do so.]” She shifted in her seat slightly as she continued to peer at him. “[What if you are right however, and I am mistaken. What would you make of that then?]”
“[But I was mistaken about what you meant...]” Which meant explaining what he thought about her mistake was a moot point in his mind. Besides, Hades could feel in his very heart -- in his heart of hearts -- she was much closer to the terrible truth with her initial comments. It was a nagging fear that surrounded an ever-growing guilt and it went on for months. If he didn’t clear out his AIM and text message stores religiously, he was certain he could even find written proof of the lingering guilt toward his former home. His eyes slipped shut again, and then clenched shut in some unconscious desire and irrational belief that if he did so hard enough all of it would go away, “[Maybe I reached my own conclusion because I feared yours.]”
She watched him, noting the way his eyes closed firmly, as though willing a truth away. She nodded to herself. “[A fitting possibility, though it does little against your difficulty.]” Hera’s voice was mellow and neutral as she spoke, though her thoughts were turning over different ideas and facts. “[Has anything that you normally do that connects you with the Underworld become harder?]”
“[No. The Underworld has never been safer or more welcoming me to me since it was under my control...]” Hades opened his eyes again and then quickly looked away from her. He was being watched. And he didn’t especially want to meet her eyes. “[But it hasn’t been the same for it.]”
And what else was she supposed to be watching? She would have shaken her head at him had she heard his thoughts. Instead, the goddess managed to turn her gaze down to her hands and inspect her nails from a distance. “[In some ways I am impressed on your ability to turn your back on your domain, Brother. Though I would begin to fear what effect that is having on you.]”
Hades flinched at her choice of words. Turned his back... It cut him deep in his soul. He could almost hear the cries of the damned, in his mind’s eye he could see the young confused child he had dreamt of for a while only to realize it had been a representative of the Underworld... “[I told Mel once that I couldn’t outrun my guilt. Maybe I was more right than I thought.]”
“[You are expecting to be able to ignore your realm?]” she questioned. “[Would you then ask that our brother ignore the sea, or my wife to ignore the hearth?]” Drawing her legs in, Hera tucked them to her side and arranged her skirt over them as she turned her attention once more to Hades. “[If you can move away from your domain, I will find it rather remarkable..]”
“[There’s a difference, Sister,]” Hades began with a sigh, “[The sea was never taken from that bastard, nor the hearth from Hestia. Mine was. Mine was taken and my subjects pay the price for it.]”
“[And you will continue to have them pay that price, or you believe this is better for them?]” she retorted rather quickly, before tilting her head to the side. “[I can not say myself, as it is not an area I am familiar with, but perhaps that is why you are having the conversations that you are having, because of the attention to a part of yourself that is not being paid.]”
“[This isn’t better for them. This is the worst it has ever been for them....]” He couldn’t prevent his anger from flaring up and soaking into his words but it wasn’t directed at Hera. It was directed at his former subjects’ misery. They suffered more than ever and he had been their king. Taking another deep breath, he tried to calm himself, “[What you’re saying makes sense. But what am I supposed to do?]”
Hera lifted an eyebrow to her brother, a small hint of surprise marking her face. “[What do you need to be able to do?]” she returned.
His voice hushed, “[I need to save them.]”
She nodded slightly. “[And how do you do that?]” she persisted, calmly.
Any calmness was gone from him, however. If Hades had something to throw in his frustration he would have, but instead he flung himself back to sitting. “[I don’t know.]” The words came from his lips soaked in desperation, which was only emphasized as he put his head in his hands, “[I don’t know. If I did I would have done it. I would have done it when I dreamt of the Underworld as child. I would have done it when Persephone and I went down there to see how the Devil had disappeared from it. I would have done it but I don’t know how... So, here I am, hallucinating.]”
Hera pushed herself to her feet and moved over toward her brother, crouching to be more at his level. “[Then perhaps it would be best to ask your hallucination,]” she offered. Did the idea sound slightly crazy? If it did, she made no show of it in voice or face. If the plant had been a way to reach out to him, then perhaps this was always a way to reach back. There were worse ways of making such an attempt.
A soft laughter escaped Hades at Hera’s suggestion but not at the suggestion itself, but it was only when he stifled it, that he could even begin to explain. No, it was a sad laughter, “[You know, she’s done this once before... not with the plant part but.... not her. My mind, you know what I mean...]”
The goddess smirked faintly at the laughter from Hades, before it smoothed away once more. “[As you have said. Were answers given then?]” she asks.
“[No. When I dreamt of her, she told me off and started giving advice based on an Alice in Chains song...]” Hades rubbed his eyes. The song had given him advice he wasn’t sure he could ever accept. It was his decision... He shouldn’t let his fear rule him.... How could he manage it? He laughed again, “[Ironic, it was almost a year ago today when I had that dream...]”
“[Perhaps there is a message in that as well,]” she offered, before she once more settled to her knees. She arranged her skirts, and continued to watch him.
“[Do you think my mind is tired of being ignored? Tired enough that it will make me hallucinate now?]” Hades asked in complete earnest as he looked to his sister again, a hope flickering in his black eyes that somehow Hera would say just the right words not only to make this make sense, but make all of this be okay and go away. Part of him knew it was a vain hope but still, another part of him held onto it.
Hera met her brothers eyes as he peered at her, and held the gaze for a moment as she considered her response. There were a few to choose from, though many would be less helpful then the others. “[Your mind, the Underworld, or even where they are linked, I believe that yes, there is a calling for attention... And if you continue to ignore it, it may find another way to try to reach you.]” She did not know if that was the answer he wished, though she seemed confident in her reply.
That was the exact opposite answer he had wished. What he almost desired was her telling him that this may have just been some sort of delayed reaction to all his drug abuse many months ago or perhaps something to do with having been shot in the head not long ago, but he knew this was the truth. He desired her telling him the truth more than pleasantly deceiving him even if he didn’t like what he heard. “[Sister... I don’t see this ending well.]”
Slowly, so he hopefully would not be surprised by the action, she reached forward toward his face to brush a hand back through his hair. “[And how is that, Brother?]” she asked softly. He never seemed to see things involving himself as ending well, though she would at least wait and consider if his words had merit.
Her slow, gentle approach was enough for him not flinch away startled. Instead, Hades leaned into her touch. He had his sister listening to him confidentially, or so he believed, so he felt no need to be strong right now. He could take a moment and be vulnerable, soaking in her minor comforts. Later, later he would have to be strong.
“[How could it end well? Either I continue to ignore it and possibly lose my mind -- something my family have had to deal with once before and I never want to put them through again or...]” Hades caught the fact that he had slipped and said ‘family’ while speaking to technical family; he simply hoped Hera would understand he meant Hestia, Persephone and his children -- his most immediate family. He hoped it because he wasn’t going back to explain, “[Or I dedicate myself to my crisis with the Underworld and possibly disappear from their lives and yours....]”
Her only reaction to his slip was a slight raise of the eyebrow, a mild question that she did not stop him to ask. She listened, continuing to stroke at his hair slowly, as he soaked in the attention. “[You have others you can call upon to aid you in the Underworld. You have your children to help bring you back out to this world.]” She lets out a slow breath. “[You do not have to master it all in one night, Hades. But if doing nothing is not an option, and doing everything is not an option, you need to create a third option.]”
The mention of his children made his heart ache. When he had near unlimited power over his realm, he had had been just as much of a prisoner within it due to his duties toward guarding the Titans. Now the realm was chaotic, filled with hostile creatures and he lacked that sort of power... Hades shuddered a little at the realization but tried to take further comfort in his sister’s presence and her words. It was so strange to imagine being able to call for him.... “[I don’t even especially know how to do the second option... creating a third option is beyond me. I just hope you’re right about me not having to master it all in one night...]”
Hera gave a small confident smile. She did not doubt her brother’s abilities within his own domain any further than she doubted herself in her own. “[Then wade in first and see why they are crying for your attention now. Stand on the edge with someone strong at your side, then step back and see what other ideas or plans come to you. If you need to rebuild your kingdom once more, then you will have to start with the base.]”
“[I know why they cry out. They're in Hell...]" Hades murmured and then took a breath. Mourning his former subjects' fate and how their positive judgments had been reversed when he fell from power wouldn't help anyone Not them and definitely not him. Which could actually be even more detrimental to them. He met her eyes again, “[But I suppose I could do some recon when I calm down... Look around....]” Something she said then struck him, “[What do you mean ‘start with the base’?]”
The goddess lifted her eyebrows a small amount at the question. “[If you are building something, you must start with the base; you can not start at the top. Did you believe I meant something else?]” she asked as she kept her eyes to his.
“[Baby Sis...]” He broke her gaze only to look over at his desk, “[I called you over after hallucinating for weeks. I just need things to be very clear...]”
“[As you wish Elder Brother.]” She shifted her hand away to not poke him when he turned to the desk, and the cup that she knew still sat there. “[I will then state bluntly that if you need my aid in any way with your task, you need to only ask for it, and it will be offered to you.]”
“[Thank you,]” he replied softly but his whole heart was behind it. It felt so recently the memories of the centuries of despair when he had thought his family had forgotten and abandoned him to his duties below the surface of the earth even since his memories had returned to him completely. The family and inclusion he found in Miami tempered those memories, but Hera making such an offer warmed his heart in a way mere tempering couldn’t.
Turning back to her, he smiled slightly, “[Thank you.... Do you think I should tell anyone else about my hallucinating, especially since you’re kinda bound to keep it secret?]”
“[You are welcome,]” she answered back, her own seriousness and sincerity heavy in the response. She resumed her touch to his hair, then paused in thought at his query to her. He had kept it a secret long enough, however... “[It would seem odd for you to decide without cause to go forward on this errand. I believe you should reveal something of it, if carefully, before you proceed, at least to those you wish to know of the task you are preparing to take.]”
Placing a hand over hers as she paused in her thought, he couldn’t help but smirk, “[Eventually, I will have tell whatever plan I decide upon. Especially to Persephone, but do you think it’s advisable to reveal my hallucinations as well?]”
Hera shifted her hand to clasp her brother’s, and squeezed his hand lightly. “[It will be a fine line to walk. To tell your wife you were speaking to Minthe would hurt her, however, keeping a truth from her may be more hurtful. I would not tell someone to lie to their spouse on such a matter. You will need to decide how, and when, you reveal things to her.]” It was as close to saying ‘do not lie, tell a modified truth’, as she could get without saying such outright. There was no easy path, and she did not trust Persephone to see the hallucination rationally for what it was. His mind and the Underworld reaching to him in a form he would listen to. That the form was a past lover would signal that he could not trust it to his wife, but that he could not hallucinate his own wife as a way to draw him to the Underworld would most likely be completely missed.
Hades nodded. He heard what she didn’t say. So often he meant what was left between the lines of his own speech, that he could easily hear the suggestion that his sister could not outright say. “[I’ll say that I’ve been thinking a lot of the Underworld... that I couldn’t stop it from intruding on my thoughts.]” Details wouldn’t help anyone.
He squeezed his sister’s hand in return and then pulled it away from and rose to his feet to approach his desk. The cup still sat there and he still saw a plant growing out from it. A frown immediately took hold of his features as he stared down at it and he sighed. Fine. He would finish playing out this game with his own mind. “[Minthe, I’ve heard your appeal. Now you’re dismissed. Not to the flames of Hell but from my presence. Go, I’ve taken your witness into account.]”
She nodded slightly to him at his words, and moved away from the couch as he stood, standing herself. She watched him, arms crossed over her chest, as he spoke once more to the plant that only he could see. It would have been interesting to hear both sides of the conversation, but as it were, Hera kept her peace. He would tend to this on his own.
Hades could hear a gentle, pleased laugh softly in his soul. A whispered “[Yes, my dread lord]” right upon the laughter’s heels and then the plant disappeared from his sight. He was more disconcerted that his mind felt the need for her to reply but he supposed his entire being was playing along in the final moments of this little sick game. With a swift swipe of his hand, he knocked the empty cup of soil right into the rubbish bin beside his desk.
His hallucination was over. Not that he had any peace.
Hera carefully moved closer until she stood by her brother’s side and dropped her arms to lock her fingers together before her. She stood quiet for a moment, before looking to her brother. “[How do you feel now, Hades?]”
“[Like one burden has been lifted from my shoulders, only to be replaced by another,]” he replied softly in reply as he squeezed his sister’s hand once more.
She squeezed the hand back. “[Then we shall see to tending to the second.]”
“[Easier said than done.]” Part of him almost wished he was still hallucinating but clearly his mind... his soul... his guilt was done with him and his rational campaign to ignore what had been stole away from him. He couldn’t help but wonder if he would even get to see his children grow up now... or would he be trapped tending the Underworld or worse killed and trapped within it. He shut his eyes when he felt them growing wet and turned from his sister, feigning frustrated anger.
At least it wasn’t hard to feign being frustrated and angry.
Hera relaxed her hands, choosing to let him respond to the situation as he needed. She watched him, considering. “Would you like to get drunk?” she asked simply. “Or would it be better for me to leave.”
Drinking. His old friend. Mr. Jack Daniels was always on his side. But Hades didn’t turn to look at her. Not yet. “[Getting drunk probably wouldn’t help either of us as we both have wives waiting for us at home but...]” He shrugged a little as he opened his eyes and looked out his darkened windows toward the outside world, “[We could drink a little, take some of the edge off. That could be good.]”
“[I also can tell my wife that I will see her tomorrow as my brother needs me this evening,]” Hera pointed out. “[She has lived without me to guide her well enough and can tend to herself and her children.]” She saw no reason that she could not offer her brother the comfort of drinking if that was to his tastes. Rarely did she do so herself. For her brother, she would at least make the offer.
“[I know Hestia can take care of herself and the boys for the night but if you don’t come home tonight and come home in the morning, she’ll worry about why. She’ll know it was about me. Then she’ll worry about me. I’ve worried her enough...]” Hades’ fists clenched momentarily as his words trailed off. He suddenly flashed back to when he had been abusing pills when he couldn’t handle his powerlessness at Persephone’s bondage in Hell and his wife’s betrayal of him. Hestia had watched him in her own powerlessness in his own bondage in a personal hell... and then had to suffer through his detox. Her reward for it all was him leaving for the woman who had set off the downward cycle in the first place.
No, he would do his best not to worry Hestia more than he needed to.
But his moment of anger returned control over his emotions and he was able to turn to his sister finally, “[But drinking a little. Moderately... That could be something that won’t concern our wives.]”
Hers lifted her shoulders in a small shrug. “[Then we shall only drink moderately and each see ourselves to taxis or home as needed,]” she agreed. It was all to what he needed. And if keeping Hestia from being concerned would be a part of that, then she would not argue.
Hades was certain he would be concerning and worrying the women in his life plenty soon enough. There was no need to rush it. He nodded again and returned to his desk, throwing open the bottom drawer opposite to where he once believed he hid a former mistress and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels. “[This is all I have in the office.]”
Hera clearly eyed the bottle, before she shifted her glance to her brother. While not above drinking whiskey, she questioned the amount that was in it. “[I have some in my car, if you would like me to get it,]” she offered, and smirked just a hint. Yes, Hera had prepared for this, with a few choice drinks waiting in the vehicle below.
Hades caught her smirk but wondered about it, even as he put the bottle of whiskey on his desk with a couple of shot glasses. She had alcohol in her car? That sounded like an odd place for it. “[Having just revealed my own disturbing secret to you, I feel free to ask this... did you guess I may have wanted to drink or are you keeping your own secret where you need to have alcohol in your car?]”
The goddess smiled as she watched him set the glasses on the desk, preparing the drinks. “[I placed it there with consideration to how we may feel at the end of out evening, not knowing what the topic might be. It seemed a simple enough task.]”
“[You make me wonder about what your normal counseling sessions are like now...]” he said, shaking his head and pouring them both shots, “[But go get it anyway. Might as well have a selection...]” Putting down the bottle, he then hushed his tone to continue, “[And thank you.]”
“[My normal sessions involved incompatible husbands and wives, or those who needed to look beyond themselves in a manner other than stepping on someone else,]” she remarked, then nodded to her brother. “[You are welcome.]” She then turned to leave the office and seek the items within her car, a small smirk forming on her lips. Even if they were meeting due to less then perfect reasons, she would enjoy the time with her brother, and sharing a drink in his company.
Summary: Hera shows up as asked to discuss something with Hades and give her opinions on the matter. Even if they are not what he was hoping for.