the autumn wind carries all of the ghosts Who: Obed [Hades] & Isobel [Persephone]. What: Mothers in law can be difficult. Where: a dream shared across floors When: Shortly after Isobel moves out of D3.
It had been some time since Hades' host had last slept. He moved the moment exhaustion took the vessel, only slightly perturbed by the undignified pose in which the body had been left: slumped on the sofa, nestled back against the armrest as if such a thing might mimic the warm embrace he had lost. Hades paid him no more mind than this. Instead he moved deeper into the pits of his vessel's subconscious, finding within the folds of grey matter the portal to his beloved realm. He found it soon enough, the grey meadow of asphodel, where stood his better half. With the first sight of her all thought of the mortal and his foolish problems bled away.
"Persephone."
He fell into step alongside her. The flowers bent in her wake, bowing their heads in deference to their queen. The path moved upward, a cavern that opened onto a frozen field. Hades laced his fingers through hers, and together they stepped out onto the snow. A wry smile twisted one corner of his mouth.
"I see your mother is taking this about as well as we expected."
Cold cut through her to the bone, and she stuck close to Hades' side as her eyes took in the sight of her field, now barren, her heart aching for the lost flowers and greens that had grown there so abundantly before; a long black dress dragged in the show, though it exposed her shoulders. Tiny stones embedded in the cloth winked in the dying light of the day throughout her form. Persephone knew that her mother would not respond well to her betrothal, and thus they'd kept it a secret; but now, seeing this devastation was so much more severe than knowing. Her hand clutched at his.
"This is...worse," she said, clearly upset. She turned, glancing at him, her eyes widening yet again to see amusement written on his face. "This amuses you?"
"Of course it does," he answered. "How could it not, that she, so concerned with propriety and appearance, should throw such a childish tantrum as this?" He shook his head, his cold gaze returning to the peaceful, pristine snow. It was beautiful in its way, harsh and unforgiving, much like the mother who mourned the loss of her daughter. Much like the god to whom she had lost her. "As tantrums go, it is lovelier than most. But still unbecoming of a goddess."
Persephone did not release her hand from Hades' hold, but she did take a step away from him, pausing their walk.
"People will die, Hades, if we do not act. I thought she would be upset, but this..." She looked back around, at a loss. Her husband was not wrong; this complaint was surprising in all its facets. It seemed her mother had not lost a child but a treasured thing, and Persephone had never marked herself so valuable.
"We have to do something, explain to her... There will be nothing left, if we don't!" Tears pricked at her eyes as she turned to her husband, her other hand rising to lightly brush fingertips against his chest. "Should I go back? I don't think I can abide all those lives on my conscience!"
"Do you not?" Hades' brow was sharply arched; he regarded her carefully, weighing her sincerity. "Do not forget, our kingdom is built on death. If your mother chooses to enlarge your estate, is that something to be concerned about?" He shrugged. "They will all die, regardless of your actions. Why should we be unhappy to sate Demeter's spite?"
Her mouth cut into a thin line, her form standing tall in response to his words; her own were not as steel-hard, but they were equally weighted. "This is an unnatural death, Hades; a cruel death, visited on all. Unwarranted, through our actions. Your kingdom would grow larger regardless, but this... If this does not end, it could destroy everything. I will not sacrifice thousands of lives because my mother cannot handle that I am not a child." Anger underlined her grief, and she pulled her hand away from his, finally, her fingers wrapping around her upper arm as the chill began to take its pound of flesh.
"Without the living world, your kingdom might inflate, but what then?" Her shoulders sagged, snowflakes lining her lashes and her dark hair as she shivered. Sadness cloaked her gaze as she studied his face in turn. "Are you content to watch it wither and die, in much the same way as this world? Don't be so shortsighted, my love."
Hades frowned. Already it seemed the bright bloom of her cheeks had begun to fade, stolen away by the frigid air around them. Her words moved him: Not to care for the living or for the suffering they had unwittingly inflicted upon them, but for her, and for the guilt she would bear in the wake of this destruction. His own anger burned within him, directed solidly at Demeter. His jaw drew tight, a black slash beneath the shadowed planes of his face.
"And what would you have us do?" he asked. "Would you sacrifice our kingdom for her ire? What do you suppose will happen when others learn that Theon Chthonius can be effectively blackmailed?"
Her arms wrapped tighter around herself for a moment, before Persephone forced them to her sides.
"I go back," she said, her words stated simply. "What my mother is doing is extreme; no one else would attempt such a feat. And I assume Zeus has been unable to placate her; if he cannot, no one can. Blackmailing you, of all people, requires a high cost, Hades; I doubt another would attempt the same." Despite her attempt at a brave face, her arms shook as her muscles spasmed from the cold. Her face looked grim, her white skin paling even further in the wintery scene. "Then instead of thousands, only one has to suffer."
"Two," Hades said. He drew closer to her; the thick black shadow of his robes coiled first around her feet, then enveloped her like a living thing. But there was no more real warmth in Hades' cloak than in the one who wore it, and less with every moment he spent contemplating her unwelcome words.
"I will not lose you forever, Persephone. So far as she knows I took you once. I will do so again, and in earnest, if I must."
"I know," she replied, every inch of her body aching for her to say that she did not want to go; a small voice in the back of her mind urged her to tell him damn the rest of everything to the underworld and beyond. They were immortals, were they not? And surely they'd find other entertainment once all mortal life had been extinguished. But the larger part of her, the part made of warm sun and rich earth and everything alive would not allow her such a transgression. Instead, she reached for him, taking thick handfuls of the cloth over his chest, seeking the flesh beneath; the touch laid claim to what was hers, what she thought she would soon lose. Nothing about him warmed her, except the sight of him, her face betraying her words.
"But you can't. This would just happen again, and again, and again; it's not worth it. Would you drive me mad simply because you want what you can't have?"
He did not move except to lean closer to her, to press the frigid lines of his body into her tight grip. He frowned, and the air around him seemed to grow colder still. "Would you drive us both mad to satisfy her? There must be another way, Daeira. Some middle ground, perhaps, that Zeus has not found. We both know subtlety and nuance are not his strengths."
Discontent drew itself across her face, and she withdrew her touch since she was not granted the comfort she sought. Instead, loose fists fell by her sides, but she did not move away from his close form; instead, she met his gaze levelly, even though she had to tilt her head up to do so.
"My mother does not deal in middle ground or half measures, Necrodegmon," she replied, her warm breath making a cloud in the freezing air. "And seeing as neither do you, it surprises me that you two do not see eye to eye more often.
"She will not be placated until she has what she wants, and clearly neither will you, so perhaps the two of you should just sunder me in half and have done with it, hm? This is my fault, after all; I should not have started this without realizing what would happen. We should have realized this could never be."
"I do not accept that." Hades' voice was soft but implacable; his eyes flashed with cold fire. Somehow he rose to a still greater height. His shadow was a fathomless void, stretching far across the powdery snow. "You are not some mere mortal, subject to her suffocating demands. You are queen of a realm she cannot touch, goddess of a host whose size she cannot comprehend. You are not helpless, Persephone, nor are you without a choice. So choose."
"Then I choose neither," she spat back at him, finally taking a step back but not looking away for an instant. Anger radiated from her as thick as her clouded breath, her limbs tension-wrought as fists were held tightly at her sides. "Clearly I have chosen poorly for a husband who provides no other aid than to force the whole of a solution on me," she continued. After no more than a minute, her arms were wrapped around her torso, her shaking figure a mixture of ire and discontent.
"I will find some place to make my own, and leave the both of you to dig your heels into the dirt over this ridiculous argument." Without waiting for a reply, Persephone was there one moment and gone the next; despite her words, she'd gone back into the comfort of the underworld, a place now more familiar to her than her own meadow.
She eschewed all other comfort, supplicants and servants alike ignored, her gown unfurling behind her as she made her way toward the kingdom gates and its guardian; at least Cerebus could not speak, but the three-headed animal was a far better companion in that moment due to its lack of words. It rose up on all legs, barely kept from bouncing in excitement at its mistress' appearance.
Persephone reached out, touching the left head with the palm of her hand pressed to its massive forehead; her other went under the chin of the right.
"If only Hades were as well behaved as you, my pet," she murmured to the middle head, who solely wagged a tongue in reply as the other two's eyes were scrunched tight in pleasure at the attention.