OPEN POST: Zagreus - Hades

[hellescape]

OPEN POST you know the drill! Leave me a starter, toss in a meme or picture prompt, or ask for a starter and I'll write you one.

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throwing this at the wall

[standingonmyneck]

To anyone in our mortal coil, how we understand death is superficial. We are inclined to see it as final, while others means another chance to be reborn again.

Phooey, Daria thought to herself as she threw another draft in her wastebasket. When asked to write a special assignment for her advanced writing course, it felt too personal for her to say "no" to. In the end of the day, all she found herself doing was wandering around campus in the wee hours of the fall morning. Taking in the heavy and comforting fog, which was about as accurate as it could be to describe her own brain. This was a personal topic, what did "mortality" really mean to her? A professional challenge, no doubt. That was how this class seemed to like to challenge her: knowing her talents and macabre interests and turn it into something extra productive.

Truly evil of a plan, Daria muttered to herself. But as a junior now, she couldn't find herself rejecting it either. She had grown enough since her teen years. Enough to be a snarky young adult rebel from a snarky teen "rebel".

But everything was going for a loop, ever since the weirdest thing happened. A demigod arrived, coming from the very gated doors of the underworld to knock on the dim dingy door to what Daria thought was reality. "Death" had a whole new meaning now, so words became harder for her to come by. She wasn't even sure where to take herself at this point, instead wander and hope inspiration came. Or perhaps a voice of some insight.

Since meeting the snarky demigod, life just seemed to...change so much. Maybe that meant she actively sought him out, maybe she didn't really know.

[hellescape]

Compared to her preoccupation with her assignment, Zagreus was less interested in the subject of death and more with life. Having been mostly surrounded by chthonic gods or shades his entire existence, he had a constant, nagging feeling that he didn't quite belong. Up here on the surface, though, when mortal lives are so brief and a single death is the first and last, he's not sure he fits in here, either.

It's so bright, everyone is always so busy, days speed by faster than he can keep up, and the surface in general is much, much more frantic and less orderly than how he'd grown to resent his father's carefully managed domain, which is a blessing, but also terribly confusing. More than that, there's a lot to learn, so he'd enrolled at this 'college' thing he'd heard about, where he'd met Daria.

The early hours of the morning are one of his favourite times of day, and he gets to campus early to pick a bench to read and watch Eos throw open her gates for Helios. Or, as the mortals would now call it-- dawn. When he spots a familiar face headed his way, though, he bookmarks his page before waving at her.

"Daria! Over here."

[standingonmyneck]

There was so much Daria wanted to know. For nothing more than her own safe understanding. Which wasn't all that fair to Zagreus. After all, he had his own feelings too. Probably of the exact opposite. Being in the mortal world for some time, and trying to get used to life here, he probably had just as many questions about the mortal coil as she did.

She did truly think about this too. It was just so weird because Daria always felt safest in her own element, with her own sense of knowledge. It made her maybe a bit uneasy to know that her own view of the afterlife was shaken so much.

So...would his place be where she went if she died?

-

Ah, he noticed. She adjusted her hoodie out of habit and walked on over with a faster stride. She was an early riser too, all the better to talk about this kind of thing without the annoying prying eyes of classmates.

"Hey," she said, softly. "Morning...What are you reading?"

[hellescape]

"Literature. I'm told some of the more recent storytellers here on the surface tell tales just as impressive as the ancient bards and poets," Zagreus says, picking up the book to show her the cover. It's an anthology of the works of Shakespeare, so his idea of 'recent' is... a little skewed, even if it's not inaccurate.

"And you? I didn't expect you to be here this early."

[standingonmyneck]

"Recent, huh? I should buy some velvet and taffeta then, what do you think?"

Jokes aside, she welcomed herself down and decided that it was a bit too early to joke around...too much. But she hoped it was a little funny to him, at least in tone. She knew he was from an era waaaaaay before hers, but it was a funny idea to consider that her time compared to Shakespeare WAS recent. In her head, it was true and she knew it. It was wild to think hard on it.

"I grew up reading Shakespeare plays. People called me weird for it. They said I must be boring because I liked 'boring books'."

She shrugged, "Good thing I never wanted them to think I was interesting."