New Underworld Order

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

It came to Hades in a dream...

It's pretty dead out in the New Mexico desert, at least as far as sentient life goes. It's also bright, and hot.

But when a pillar of smoke resolves into a god, the landscape seems to take on some shades of blue and gray to compete with the sand and scrub. "Well. This could just work..." A flick of a hand, a wave of an arm, and the Bat Ampitheatre is suddenly a bit more gothic, a bit more forbidding (not that, in the portable gloom, it wasn't forbidding enough in the first place), the path lit by dimly glowing torches. It is, Hades decides as he majestically descends the stone steps, a very good place for a temple.

The mouth of the cave widens as Hades approaches, stretching into a gaping maw edged in streaks of stone that could look like flames-- or teeth.

It needs a guardian. It needs a lot.

But as Hades descends into the vast cave that will begin this broken world's Underworld, it's with a light heart and blue flame slipping pleasantly down his shoulders.

It will work.

Comments

[foresightalways.livejournal.com]

"Ah," says the shade of Renee Cooper, smiling. "There you are."

[meta-physicist.livejournal.com]

"Didn't you say you expected him next week?" asks Anne, turning to give her sister a questioning look.

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

"I got a little nudge in the right direction," Hades informs the dead chicks, folding his arms. "Sheesh, how far do you have to go around here to avoid getting upstaged?"

Is he entirely displeased?

... well, no. This is, technically, where they belong. But for crying out loud.

[meta-physicist.livejournal.com]

Anne bursts out laughing.

"I'm sorry. She can't help it, really."

Stepping up towards him and bowing formally, "A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Anne Cooper. This is my sister--"

[foresightalways.livejournal.com]

"--Renee."

Friendly smile.

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

"Hades," he informs them both. "Lord of the Underworld you beat me to.

"And your sister's boss, unless I miss my guess. I'm getting the idea 'Cooper' is a pretty common name, but I'm also getting the idea coincidences happen less often than you'd think."

The one who saw knew where she must go, when she died, and brought with her the one who sang, and there they waited for the Lord of the Dead, to welcome him.

Well, it had better be to welcome him.

Around Hades, the caves are... subtly changing. The electric lights are still there, and in fact are flickering back on one at a time, but they're being twisted upward into something more torch-like, burning cold and bright. Yes. This is where the Underworld wants to begin.

[foresightalways.livejournal.com]

"Ah. I was wondering where Alice had got to," Renee admits frankly. "Death has a remarkably adverse effect on my ability. I'm mostly reduced to seeing the larger changes, and I can't predict the arrivals of the transfer points at all."

...which is how she died in the first place, when it comes to it.

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

"Dying has an adverse effect on a lot of things," Hades agrees. The general theme of 'spiked' and 'blueish' shows no signs of ebbing as it reaches farther into the big room, although the more interesting cave formations aren't so much altered as highlighted.

It's rather dramatic, in its way.

"Things'll reach a balance. They always do," he continues, in tones of one who is quite likely to live to see it, no matter how long it takes.

Hm. He's defintely going to need a something of forgetfulness, whether or not it's a river. Though there is a river down in the caves. Probably an archway could be used, too, very symbolic, archways...

[meta-physicist.livejournal.com]

Anne hums thoughtfully.

This isn't remarkable unless you know that the hum is echolocating the precise nature of all the changes being worked on the room.

[foresightalways.livejournal.com]

Renee, on the other hand, offers Hades a bright smile.

"It'll be good to see her again."

...

Having a conversation with a comfortable, relaxed Renee Cooper often involves a distressing amount of logical disconnect.

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

Really, the signal to summon a minion doesn't need to be anything fancy or difficult. It's essentially a subtle sort of 'hey, you, c'mere.' (He just liked to scream for Pain and Panic because it was what worked best when they were within earshot.)

He realizes after he's done signalling for Alice that he started just after Renee started talking.

"... You're the one who sees." It's totally not a question.

As far as what Anne's watching? It's quiet, in its way. As though this is what has always wanted to be here, even if it's... not, quite. It's what needs to be here now, now that all this has happened and somewhere needs to be this way. It's divine and mutable and as though it has always been, even if the changes haven't yet crept across the big room yet, much less into any of the other caves.

They'll get there.

[alyikui.livejournal.com]

There's a puff of flame.

"You beeped, boss?"







"Sis!"

Okay, glomping. Renee first, then Anne.

[foresightalways.livejournal.com]

"Yes," she says to Hades, and "Hello," to her sister.

Following which the Coopers have quite the group hug.

[meta-physicist.livejournal.com]

It's only missing one member, and really, all things considered they'd like to wait a long time to see Lucy again.

Anne lets go first.

"Nice work," she tells Hades, nodding at the caves. "Very cleanly done. I approve."

What? She was big into transmutation when she was alive, even if now her powers are mostly reduced to catching the echoes.

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

"Not nearly finished," Hades says, though mentally he's still working on that myth-- three of the four sisters were reunited in the Underworld, first among the shades. "But hey, gotta get the framework up before I let belief start shaping things, right?"

On the other hand, if peace is being with your loved ones again, it looks like the place came with that factory-installed. "Still needs a couple of things, though."

[father-sky.livejournal.com]

Ouranos and Gaia had been looking for this fellow (http://community.livejournal.com/shatterverse/108161.html) for quite some time, unsure of who it was they were actually looking for - but now, when Ouranos spots the changed landscape from his throne in the clouds, he knows exactly who it is. He's sure Gaia can feel it - feel him - too.



A breeze gusts in through the mouth of the cave and then the Sky is standing there in his human form, arms folded, peering at the sharp sides of the cave with an arched eyebrow.

"Home sweet home, eh?"

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

For the sake of the narration's mere mortal mind coping, the narration assumues Ouranos makes his appearance after the Cooper sisters... go do whatever it is they go do when their conversation with Hades is finished.

It might be difficult for the gods to fool each other with mortal disguises, but it's not impossible-- and Hades didn't even know his Ouranos all that well. Slight conflict of realms. Also of Standards and Practices not finding a way around the planetary name, probably.

Thus, he can tell he's looking at a god (he is in his new-made place of power) but not which god.

"Usually? Only if you're dead."

[father-sky.livejournal.com]

The only giveaway that this is definitely Hades is the whole Underworld thing.

Otherwise, Ouranos recognizes nothing about the man.

So he tilts his head.

"Or if you're their Lord." Pause. "Which you are, right?"

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

"Got it in one.

"Hades, Lord of the Dead, Ruler of the Underworld, Host of... uh, three, right now, but give it time.

"And you are?"

[father-sky.livejournal.com]

And you are?

Oh boy.

Ouranos doesn't know (and he doesn't want to know) how this is even possible, that another version of Hades exists from some other world that he's never seen, and -- if he thinks about it any longer, his head is going to hurt.

"Ouranos."

[iheartalgore.livejournal.com]

"Is this necessary?" intones a voice from somewhere within the cave. Or all over the cave. Maybe it is the cave!

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

Your post is important to us. Please stay on the line, and your post will be answered in the order it was received.

Hades glowers-- more divinity, huh?-- but can't quite tell who (or what, sometimes it's a what) is speaking, only that it's a little perturbing to have his Intuition-sent caverns so suddenly occupied.

Maybe he should get another dog.

"Define 'this,'" Hades tells the voice. "I'll admit the face lift isn't strictly utilitarian, but hey, it helps to be comfortable where you work."

[iheartalgore.livejournal.com]

"You know, the underworld," says the cave.

[aidoneus-rex.livejournal.com]

"Ah, right.

"Yes."

Not what you'd call an in-depth answer, that, but it's a confident one.

[iheartalgore.livejournal.com]

"Aren't you worried your infringing on the territory of whomever's the god of the underworld here?"