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In Metropolis, there is a man in a dark suit. He's of a sort of non-descript middle age, not specifically young but nowhere near old.

As for what he's doing?

He's looking around. Learning. Absorbing local color. Picking up the lingo (which isn't as hard as it should be) and the customs. Occasionally having a meal somewhere and libating to that ever so beneficent monarch of the dead, Hades, just so he can explain the custom to curious onlookers. Carefully working minor miracles wherever it'll do the most good-- and once again, advertizing for the once and future Lord of the Underworld. Looking at maps, trying to figure out where he can start an underworld on this continent.

It's not his world. There's a lot to learn.

Good thing he got the brains in the family.

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"We can visit any of the rest." In a voice laden with sarcasm, "If we're very, very good." She drops back to a more normal tone. "Or rich as shit. Either way."

"Not something that happened where I'm from," Hades tells her. "Couple ways out, but nothing like that."

He does not question wealth in the afterlife. He's seen what Osiris's Underworld looks like, after all.

Sometimes they got together with Hel and Morrigan and play bridge.

"Yeah. Most livelings don't quite get how things'll go until they've already gone, so to speak." With a small smile, "Anybody who spread stories, the system'd come down on them like a ton of bricks."

She's seen a few contracts served for people who hinted a little too clearly. Particularly nasty contracts.

"Pretty standard practice to let 'em know what they can expect-- reward, punishment, fading away, having their souls devoured by a crocodile-headed lion if they'e got sins on their heart--" He swears Anubis was drunk when he came up with that-- "Sort of a scare tactic, but an honest one."

"Yeah. Not so much the way Kiazhriel ran things. From what I hear she had a falling-out with her boyfriend a long-ass time ago and bitchslapped him right out of the afterlife; maybe that has somethin' to do with it. All I know is livelings generally hear the reward-punishment story, but they don't get the crucial details until they're getting handed some papers by a snippy bitch in a robe."

A cynical, vulgar summation of Downside's system, but an accurate one.

"You know, I did consider making Tartarus a bureaucracy," Hades admits, and hey, he can guarantee nobody overheard that. "Turns out I'm not good at being as bored as I'd need to be to make the system work."

Slight shudder.

"If I may offer some advice? Don't. Downside works, but barely. I'm pretty sure the gal upstairs was on something when she had the bright idea to turn the judging over to the mortals. If some smart cookie hadn't come along and founded the Crescent we'd all be up shit creek without a paddle."

Hades pulls a face. "Yeah, generally eternity isn't best left to people who live, what, a hundred years tops?"

So no worries on that count, really.

"Oh, no, she had enough sense to put the girls in charge after they died. Still. Can't say I find the results ideal."

"It's a mindset thing. Most mortals take a few centuries to get used to being able to think about centuries. Can't they're more impulsive than immortals, though."

"Before I got nabbed by the flashbangs I had... lost track, actually. Call it fifty years, but an interesting fifty years. I'm pretty sure I can deal with time in great big heaps if I need to."

The Crescent is like that.

"I knew some people who'd hit their fourth thousands and still had trouble with the idea, though. Some minds bend quicker'n others." Shrug.

"That's true. I mean, I know a lot of gods who aren't quite over the whole 'eat drink and screw anything that moves' thing. So it's not like there's no variation.

"So.

"Which is more interesting, here or back there?" It's an idle question, almost.

"More interesting? Back there. If you're asking which I like better, I'm all for this place."

Anna nibbles her lip for a moment, then continues. "There's a couple people I miss, and I sometimes get nostalgic for the job, but walking around under the sun like a liveling? Can't beat it."

And, you know, the lack of torturers is a plus.

"Be handy to have the infrastructure I used to," Hades agrees, though he doesn't admit to missing anyone. "But this place...

"This feels like getting in on the ground floor, you know? 'Once there was a golden age, and then the monsters came...'"

"Yeah, I hear you."

Who'd've thought she'd have this much in common with a god?

There may be a reluctantly awed smile spreading across Anna's face. Hey, she's sitting around over an empty cup of coffee chatting about eternity with the fucking Lord of the Underworld. It's kinda awesome.

"Little hard to complain. Even if I really need to find a spot for that first entrance."

That possibly did not follow, if you don't know what Hades's assorted projects are.

And indeed: "Okay, gotta admit you lost me on that one."

"Ah-- sorry.

"I'm rebuilding. This world needs an Underworld, and as far as I can tell there's nothing started, or it got screwed up when the dungheap hit the windmill."

So it's possible the shop talk has a point to it.

"Right."

Her smile turns thoughtful.

"So you're looking for someplace suitably... underworldy?"

Alas that she can't think of anything offhand.

"When I find the place, I'll know it," Hades assures her. "I haven't looked everywhere yet-- been doing the cultural immersion thing.

"Although when I find it, I'll probably have to set my minion up on gatekeeper duties," Hades muses, although it's a waste of a perfectly good Alice. "Never thought I'd miss that big idiot mutt."

"Where by big idiot mutt you mean Cerberus, right?"

Granted the part of Anna's classical education that stuck was acquired after she died and mostly consisted of Sappho, but she knows the gist.

There's a little nostalgia in her voice.

"Try heading up to Canada," she suggests after a moment. "We've got some gorgeous landscapes, though I wouldn't know about caves. Can't hurt to take a look around and see if something strikes your fancy, eh?"

"That's where I came in, I think. I'll head back up and have a look," he agrees.

He's going to look everywhere, trusting that the right location will jump out at him rather than him having to scour the continent for it.

"Good."

Because while talking to a god is awesome, having him set up shop in her home country is extra awesome.

Bonus points if he finds someplace suitable in Montreal.

Speaking of which, "You showed up in Canada? Where?"

She might know the place! And be vaguely interested in how it's doing.

"Ottawa, I think it's called. Still intact in places.

"... Kind of a melted swath, however."

Yeah, yoinked out of his own univers plus Hades? That was made of fire. Like that picture up there, because using the Mortal Guise icon all the time is boring!

Pause.

"Ah," she says, nodding.

"It happens."

Smooth recovery there, Anna.