shatterverse | New Underworld Order

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.

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"Badaboom," Hades says, as though he had something to do with it in anything but an indirect sense. "Well, you are dead, and this is the Underworld-- now-- so the shapeshifting rules get a little... different."

Anne looks thoughtful, and snaps her fingers.

A tiny light appears in the air in front of her. She grins at it.

"... So," Hades asks nobody in particular and everyone in general, "How many of you Cooper ladies to I have to hire? I mean, not that that isn't a nice trick, because seriously? Not bad at all-- but a god's gotta have some boundaries."

Definitely needs a Maguffin Of Forgetfulness, before any shades with soul-based powers and a reputation Hades dislikes turn up. Oh yes.

"There are only four of us," Anne points out. "And I'd be happy to help you out in any capacity you can reasonably suggest, of course."

Especially if she gets to be near her sisters.

"For my part, if you've need of an oracle..."

Renee spreads her hands and inclines her head.

"Oracles are very rarely not handy," Hades agrees, briefly folding a hand over Renee's shoulder. Nyah, take that, Mort.

There are many, many more caverns, not all of which have taken full shape yet-- there are doubtless more than one that are now waiting for the Cooper Sisters. At least the already dead ones.

"You, on the other hand," and he's suddenly rather close to Anne-- Alice is probably used to this nonsense by now, "I actually don't know what you do. You sing stuff, I know that, and you roped off Kansas.

"And you make little glowing marbles."

This is a highly unorthodox request for a resume.

She snaps her fingers again, causing the light to dissipate.

"I manipulate the sound that exists beneath matter."

Pause.

"If you don't want the entire obscure physics treatise, just write me off as a very peculiar sorceress and move on."

"Someday when I'm bored, I'll ask," Hades assures her.

Okay, so this is going to work... exactly how...

And he set the three sisters in places of power, the one who burned to guard the gates of the Underworld, the one who saw to sit at his hand and share her visions, and the one who sang to...

Do that thing she did?

Maybe there was a reason the myth-writing was left to priests and philosophers while the gods and heroes went about the myth-making.

"I don't suppose you two'd be into the same deal I offered Miss Alice, here?" Hades asked. "Ability to move around in the mortal world, affect things-- okay, so it's less in a human shape and more in something... like a very distilled version of what you work with, but..."

He's actually not sure it will work, unless their affinites are as strong as Alice's for fire, but it's worth a shot.

Anne frowns thoughtfully.

"Any enhancements you could make to my ability to affect the material world would of course be appreciated, but--"

A skittering burst of sound-that-isn't confirms her theory.

"With Renee and I, our powers are something we do. With Alice and Lucy, it's something they are. If what you gave her depends on the strength of that affinity..."

Shrug.

She can't read narration. She's just good that way.

"And as for me, I'm content to be immaterial. There's no reason I'd want to stray from here for long, and here I can affect all that needs to be affected."

The cryptic is strong with this one.

Hades considers this.

"Within the bounds of the Underworld, then," he suggests. "For now we'll keep things loose. Rework the details as they come up, as we need to. Right now, we'll call everything negotiable."

He needs guardians for the Underworld, the sisters want to work together, it's a start.

"Acceptable."

Renee nods.

There's a sort of throne room slash planning room that will be there by the time they reach it, and Hades gestures in its direction. "Then it sounds like we've got... entrance policy to discuss. At least."

Happily: "You got it, boss!"

New Underworld Order

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