Dante Lot (unseen_miami) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2011-03-21 21:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | dante lot, hades, npc |
Who: Hades & Hela (NPC)
What: Negotiations
Where: Hell
When: Recent. Clearly after his scene with Dasha
Warnings: None
It was a moment of surreality. Stolen from time.
Deep beneath the surface of the world and yet deeper still, in a dimension that quaked the hearts of mortals, a lone figured walked along the glistening bronze wall that dominated the landscape and reflected the crimson and azure flames that erupted from the parched and cracked landscape below and around it. Even with the flames and their intense feet, the top of the wall was covered in thick patches of ice. A huge portion of the wall had been blown apart, icicles as sharp of the sharpest sword ever forged by man hung perilously from its wrecked edges.
Shhh, I am here to speak about you. If I can bring you comfort and comfort to the souls once subject to me, I will. It seems, I must, but shhh... Hades knew the Underworld would hear his thoughts. He could feel its tender, eager presence in his very soul. It almost trembled inside of him in anxious delight and reminded him of an unfaithful wife clutching at her husband with the promise that she was forgiven and they could try to learn to rebuild.
He walked alone along the bronze wall, even with the ice beneath his feet, his footing never slipped. His casual black business suit was juxtaposed by his true appearance, the hellish flames made the few black curls that escaped his steel helm and his dark beard glimmer like diamonds in their light. As he turned and paced in the opposite direction, the treaded upon ice rose in a mist and rested upon his head, shoulders and back; the flames reached out for him and wrapped around him as a cloak.
Why are you silent?
The flames and the ice... a literal embrace from the Underworld. Hades sighed, I came to speak about you, not to you. Shhh.... Here she comes. My guest.
He was no longer alone on the bronze wall of Tartarus. In the distance, a tall dark haired woman approached and her head cocked at the sight of him. He could see her shoulders rise and fall in a shrug and then the woman grow to tower of him. Her off-putting features in her glamoured form fell away from her, replaced a more disturbing one – a gorgeous woman with long sable hair on one side and a rotting corpse of one on the other.
Hades wasn't concerned about her appearance; it wasn't a surprise to him. “Hail, Hela,” he greeted her in Ancient Norse.
She halted ten feet from him, her head continued to be cocked. “[Hail, Hades. Always so formal. Always so dramatic, even without a palace to welcome me in and a dining hall invite me to.]”
He glanced down at his hands and the flames that danced along his arms and shook his head, “[The Underworld has it own demands sometimes, but this is not a social meeting anyhow.]”
As she stared down at him, she let out a hearty laugh and clapped her hands that created a echo not just in the semi-enclosure of Tartarus to their one side but throughout the whole realm – for a moment the moans of the damned went unheard. “[Dark rose cut away from the bush and thrown down in the shadows, social never meets for you. Even when a whole court circles around you, bustling and gabbing with an incessant sound that never allows silence to settle, social does not find you. Only solitude... Somehow. A curse must rest upon you.]”
Dark rose cut away from the bush... Hades had almost forgotten about her bouts of madness, but he hadn't forgotten how to handle them. Simply ignore and not address them. To do so was to allow her the illusion of sanity that she had never been allowed. But some things needed to be addressed, “[Don't clap. You'll bring attention to us and we need to speak. Not to battle for our lives.]”
The giantess folded her hands in front of her with another laugh, “[Need? Perhaps not, but it is tempting. However, I will refrain because I am curious. What brings this need to converse? We have not spoken since your brother-king died and only about his corpse. Has something happened to his corpse? Do you not need it any longer, because I will take it from you.]”
Even though Hades took great effort to hold his expression neutral in every way, internally he frowned. He knew that was her in her sanity. Every word spoken with complete lucidity, he could hear it in her tone that the madness that permeating in her soul was not in her response this time and yet? But he had come to accept that necromantic conversations always verged on the odd. He dismissed it, “[No. I still require the body and nothing has happened to it. Your preserving coffin holds. This is not about Zeus. This is about this realm. I have considered reclaiming some of --]”
“[You were right to tell me not to clap. No, clapping is unsuitable. I should stomp and find large bones to strike this wall. Cause the whole realm to echo in a battle din so loud no enemy would ignore it!]” Her voice boomed even as she looked around the wall as if some stray bone would be atop it to carry out her threat. “[Consider? What delays you? What holds you still? I see flames and ice on you but I don't see chains and shackles... Are they invisible? Can they only be seen by the light of the full moon? Or by the pure of heart? Or by the newborn babe? Or by the--]”
Hades lifted his hand to catch her attention away from her litany but his voice remained soft. He felt no need to shout. He wasn't caught up in excitement and he had never been one to raise his voice with her. “[Hela...]” He paused a moment further to ensure that she wouldn't continue on and then answered her question, “[No one should go to war without a strategy. And no strategy can be made without knowing what resources are at hand.]”
“[Chains and shackles...]” Hela repeated, quieting but only for a moment. She laughed again and extended her living hand to him. Around her wrist appeared a shackle made of silver that a matching silver chain hung from it. It extended from her wrist to his in an identical shackle. “[For the cycles of Ragnarok, I delivered to my own realm without consulting another soul. To ensure them and their ease, to reclaim even a fraction of this realm, I deliver my kin to your cause without their consultation once more. As we are chained in covenant, they are chained to its effects. They cannot even refuse. They were delivered to you for this when we forged this chain between us.]” A grin stretched across her half beautiful and half grotesque face, “[Of course, you knew this already. You merely wished to hear it from my lips. Moreover, you wanted it definite and did not wish to negotiate with the All-Father and the Council through the alliance forged by those dwellers of the living worlds.]”
Hades lowered his eyes to the silver chain. The chain was so ancient. Older than Persephone even. Older than almost everyone in his family beyond his own generation, forged in secret without anyone's permission or advice. It had been no one's business but his own but as the years went on, he had realized his own youthful emotions in the giantess' presence had given him the raw end of the deal... The prestige and power of expansion and greater populations under his authority wore thin but now he could enjoy some practicality of it as she always had “[Do you blame me?]” He then met her gaze again, “[Why should I go through the new alliance when we have a covenant that, as you said, your kin cannot refuse?]”
“[No. Let the dwellers in the living lands have their debates and alliances,]” Hela clenched her hand shut and the chain disappeared. Her grin transformed into a somber frown, “[I envy your ability not to have to speak to him and when you finally do, on your own terms. I will enjoy watching them shed their blood and striving to fight back the monsters of this realm... a realm the All-Father disposed me in. But I have one condition...]”
Conditions? Hades couldn't help but curious, especially in light of the fact that she had already said they were delivered to him already and they could not refuse. But in spite of himself, he couldn't help but allow her the condition, “[Speak it.]”
A small smile once more appeared on her face, “[I do not care why you invited me here, nor do I care why we are meeting under these appearances. All I care about is restoration. When you have secured your position here and been restored to some degree... I wish my chicken to be found..]”
Her chicken... When last he saw that chicken it sat beneath his throne, assuredly also simultaneously hovering over the Norse dead, when Satan came to tell him that he belonged the fallen angel and everything he had ever own. Her chicken had been the least of his concerns and no where in his thoughts then... Persephone and his subjects had been all he could consider. Hades nodded, “[That is fair, Hela. If your chicken is aliv--]”
“[Our beasts always return from the dead.]”
Hades nodded again, “[Understood. We can find it after I have some sense of restoration. I can return it to under my throne where it belongs... ]” A chill suddenly erupted from deep in his core and he turned his eyes from the giantess to the landscape around them. He saw nothing approaching but at the same time... At the same time, the tender embrace of the Underworld in its seeming despraration to convince him to stay true to his word to it was clearly warning him of something, “[We should leave now. The ogres and demons may loathe Tartarus but something is coming...]”
Again, the giantess shrugged again and this time shrunk back down, her beauty and horror hidden once more beneath the guise of a disheveled, unattractive tall dark haired woman. “[Again tempting but you have promised a greater battle than some monster that draws too close to negotiations. I still don't know why you wished to have this meeting here.]”
Taking the adementine key from around his neck, Hades turned it slowly and the rattling gates that would open to the living world appeared. He wouldn't explain that simply wanted to be able to negotiate and meet in his former realm as he once had. He wouldn't explain he wanted to extend such a privilege to her as well. Nor would he explain, he would certain no meddlesome mortals or hostile gods would likely overhear their conversation nor would their respective families. It would be secret and hidden. It was his turn to shrug as he reclaimed his own glamour, the fire and the ice that cloaked him remained for now, “[I thought you said you didn't care.]”
“[I don't.]” It was all she said as she turned from him and walked away in the opposite direction where she had came from.
Clearly, as she had her own way to reach here, she had her own way to return. Hades didn't ask how or what it was. It didn't matter for now. Instead, he turned to his own gate. “[Farewell, Hela. Until our paths cross once more...]” He didn't wait for a response. He simply left then, the gates closing behind him .
It was only in the confines of the shadows of his own basement did he pat down his shoulders and arms to smother the flames of Hell that were already dying away.
One more possibility. One more resource.
He could deal with surreality and insanity if it meant hope.
Summary: Hades preliminary planning for a possible attempt to reclaim a portion of the Underworld for the sake of souls and for his own personal sanity continues. This time he speaks to Hela of the Aesir, former queen of the forgotten dead. People who say they will help him continue to expand.