Re: [In between: Sif and Hel]
Speak for yourself, dearest, because Hel was determined to break the cycle. Or, rather, she was determined to create her own cycle. She was dreadfully determined, even if she appeared anything but. Well, that wasn't true either, was it? She carried herself like a goddess who knew her effect upon her world, and so she did. But there was laziness in her movements as she sat there. She was comfortable in her sprawl and with the pipe between her lips. This was no spring child who required petting. She knew what was expected of her, and she knew what she expected of herself.
She smoked a moment, listening. She found she rather liked Sif's directness, and perhaps that had to do with so many months surrounded by secretive bitches like herself. It got rather old, talking in circles and saying nothing at all. No one trusted anyone, and she certainly trusted no one save her siblings, but it did get dull to have conversations that were regurgitated nothings. "I'll leave the push and pull of motherhood to you, dearest. It all feels rather messy to me." And it did. For all her desire to escape her fate, she'd never wanted to craft herself a world with a mate and children. "I would be bored to tears. Is that better?" There was no aggression in the asking. Hel did not rise to ire quickly, and there was nothing but calm on her pale features. "I appreciate that you champion your particular arena, but that fate is not mine. Like marriage, I find the concept like a prison."
Hel required freedom. She'd no interest in house and family. She was no Hades to fall in love and turn the seasons upside down to claim her desire. She quite liked her life. She flew out to do photoshoots weekly, and she saw beautiful places and met beautiful people. She was well fed, and no one expected anything of her. Well, no one but her denizens, and those were well taken care of, if not by her.
She'd no interest in ranking the gods and goddesses in Repose. She'd every certainty she could win a battle, should it be required, but she'd no need to cock measure. Everyone wielded different weapons, and their place in a battle varied to match their strengths. Sif didn't concern her. Odin concerned her and, Sif, being wedded to Thor, was the sort of concern that came at the end of a string. She was not a concern in and of itself, but she was rather inexorably tied to a concern.
"Does this visitation indicate you'll be joining him? I know he has rather a fecund wife, but this is all I know," she said, and Sif would need to decide if that was true or not. In truth, Hel's strength did not come from falsehoods. She was not her father's daughter in every respect.