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[center][color=#0054A6]Ｆ[/color][color=#0B5AA3]ａ[/color][color=#1761A0]ｔ[/color][color=#22679D]ｈ[/color][color=#2E6E9A]ｅ[/color][color=#3A7497]ｒ[/color] [color=#518191]Ｄ[/color][color=#5D888E]ａ[/color][color=#688E8B]ｕ[/color][color=#749588]ｇ[/color][color=#809B85]ｈ[/color][color=#8BA282]ｔ[/color][color=#97A87F]ｅ[/color][color=#A3AF7C]ｒ[/color] [color=#BABC76]Ｔ[/color][color=#C6C273]ｉ[/color][color=#D1C970]ｍ[/color][color=#DDCF6D]ｅ[/color][/center]
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[right][sub][color=gray]𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. [color=#0054A6]Hades’ house[/color]
𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. [color=#0054A6]Hades[/color] & [color=e9d66b]Melinoë[/color] | [@KZOMBI3]
𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. Phobos. The Acropolis Crew. Mac & Zag. Persephone
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Time ceased to exist. At least that’s what it felt like. As if the day continued on and on for months already. Long conversations, short ones. It went by too slowly, or all at once, never seeming to make up its mind as if her [i]beloved[/i] grandfather still had a modicum of power and was seeing fit to torment her as well as the others.

[color=e9d66b]“Why did it have to be [i]them[/i]. They were just coming back to us, to everyone…”[/color] the running question of the day. Well, the most important one at least. Melinoë was doing everything in her power to focus on anything but whatever was going on between her and Phobos. The best answer she came up with of course was the deaths of her siblings. [color=e9d66b]“Another reason for mother and father to fret about,”[/color] the laugh that left her lips was gargled, smelling of whatever expensive liquor she was able to swipe from the Acropolis before storming off the grounds and aimlessly making her way through dark streets.

It was comforting. Truly. Something so akin to natural that she could come close to all these millennia later. Wandering through fog, surrounded by her retinue of spirits, searching for those who needed atonement the most and in the worst kind of way. A shiver ran up her spine at the memories. Instead, as she turned this way and that, the Bringer of Nightmares found herself alone. Quietly, drunk and utterly alone. Not something she wanted even if that was the aura she exuded.

With her continued stumbling and mumbling to herself Melinoë looked up to find herself standing at the foot of a pathway leading up to the large estate before her. Shrouded in shadows that didn’t stem from the night surrounding it. It was a familiar place, screaming of warmth and reaching out to try to pull her into an embrace. She just scowled at it instead. The neglected half truths of her own mind pushed her back into movement, urging her feet towards the back of the home where a fence stood. With all the grace of drunken swan, the daughter of Death effectively made it over the barricade, bottle still in hand, and plopped herself in one of the many seats there on the patio.

Relaxing back into the seat, bottle hanging from a loose grip, time continued on. She wasn’t sure how long she was there for, mind wandering and racing, taking trips through memories long since passed. Zagreus, so charming and free. Melinoë remembered him as the Golden Child, he who could do no wrong. When he was born it was as if wars ceased and everyone came to bestow boons and gifts and favors to him in the hopes that his powers of rebirth would look on them favorably. A scoff escaped her before she tipped the liquor bottle to her lips and drank once more. [color=e9d66b]“You were well loved by all, to have tortured you so…”[/color] She sniffed, a bite to her lip, tongue flicking out across to whet them, [color=e9d66b]“They were never forgiven, I never forgot, she won’t go unpunished either.”[/color] Macaria though, she was more timid of the spotlight on her. While Zag basked in it, Mac was natural with it all. Whether she did something worth praising or not, there she was, standing in the light, soaking it in, smiling her shy, radiant smile. Blessed Death was better than the alternative and there was no one more fitting for the role than Macaria. [color=e9d66b]“Taking on the sins of the world was too heavy for your delicate heart sister.”[/color] She was always so tender-hearted towards everyone. Mel felt that most didn’t deserve her sister’s sympathy.

Melinoë didn’t even hear the sliding of the door, the well designed shoes on concrete padding towards her. If she did she made no move to indicate so. In that moment, with everything that had happened she didn’t care for self preservation. At least that’s what she [i]wanted[/i] to feel; her internal desires did not outweigh her hardwired nature. Madness seeping out of her inebriated form completely on its own accord, tendrils whirring about seeking a target lest they turn on her. And who was to say they hadn’t? Not until she heard [i]him[/i], sensed that the threat wasn’t a threat but just him, did the madness dissipate back into the shadows.

Hades made his way around to the front of the second patio chair taking a seat next to his daughter, placing two coffee cups down on the small table between them.  [color=#0054A6]“This might help a bit.”[/color]  He turned his gaze towards the large garden that took up most of the backyard to their home.  While Roses populated the majority of the garden, the massive maze of flora was home to just about every form of plant life one could imagine.  It had become a sort of tradition of sorts that every house they would move to Hades would move the heavens and the very earth itself to ensure Persephone had her garden just as they did before.  Though he had no actual talent for the skill of gardening he did enjoy the view that it produced, it was a nice change from the usual dark and drab that he so often surrounded himself with.

[color=#0054A6]“You know, you're welcome to use the front door next time.”[/color]  As he finished speaking he lifted the mug up to face hiding the soft smile that was plastered across it.  [color=#0054A6]“Unless of course you enjoy hopping fences with such grace.”[/color] 

She couldn’t help grinning herself, releasing a bark like laugh, short and sweet, into the silence of the world around them. [color=e9d66b]“Oh, it was graceful was it?”[/color] Where most children would have been mortified to know that their father had not only caught them sneaking onto their property but to witness their less than flattering attempt to hop a fence, Melinoë just nestled further into her seat bottle of booze emptied and tossed off to the side. Taking the warm mug between her hands she muttered a small [sub][i]“thank you”[/i][/sub] before sipping the bitter drink.

Silence encased them once more. Just the two of them watching as the world came to life once more, as it did every day the sun rose and bathed the earth in its light. It was… different, being here with him after so long. It wasn’t like the two spent an absorbent amount of time with one another. Not like they used to. Nothing was like it was before, more so now that Mac and Zag were gone. Physically shaking the thoughts away from her mind Melinoë spoke softly cutting into the disappearing fog. [color=e9d66b]“Remember–,”[/color] she stumbled over just the words, a stinging pain prickling behind her eyes but a broken laugh on her lips, [color=e9d66b]“Remember when Macaria was crying because her flower didn’t look like mama’s?”[/color] her quiet tears were choked into another laugh.

[color=#0054A6]“Oh I remember alright.  Her crying echoed off the walls for the whole of the underworld to hear.”[/color]  Hades smiled as he reminisced on the old memory of his children and wife.  [color=#0054A6]“Poor thing wouldn't accept that she had a different flower then her mother.”[/color]  He let a small laugh escape his lips as he thought about the argument he had with a child over why the flower looked different.  [color=#0054A6]“She got so mad at me she stormed off with a pout and stomped her little feet with every step.  She only got about 15 feet before she realized she wasn't allowed out of my sight and so she just sat down and continued to pout.”[/color]

Hades turned his head over to his daughter and offered a smile as he continued.  [color=#0054A6]“I'd say that might have been one of the hardest springs the underworld ever had.  You kids nearly drove your old man mad before Persephone was able to return.  Lord of the underworld and god of the dead, but you little titans only listened to your mother half the time.”[/color]  

She laughed once more at the memory.  [color=e9d66b]“It wasn’t hard,”[/color] a cheeky smile graced her features.  [color=e9d66b]“It was just… different.”[/color] Silence once more enveloped them for a time. The world around them came to life with the dawn of a new day; it was serene. Almost peaceful. Macaria was definitely with them at the moment. Words wanting to be spoken aloud though she couldn’t find them. How was she supposed to offer comfort to her father? He wasn’t a mere mortal or a lesser god and therefore Melinoë was at a complete loss for how to handle the situation. 

A melancholy swept over her once again,  [color=e9d66b]“Had I been more present in their lives maybe this wouldn’t have happened…”[/color] The words were spoken though not intentionally. It wasn't in her repertoire to speak such weak thoughts into existence; only made her look useless in her eyes.

Hades instinctually snapped his head to the side grabbing his daughter's hand squeezing it before speaking.  [color=#0054A6]“Don't ever say that.”[/color]  He spoke firmly but filled with the love only a parent could have.  [color=#0054A6]“Don't ever blame yourself for what happened to them.  It wasn't your fault in any sense of the word.  Look at me.  Your siblings loved you very much just as I know you did for them.  You all had your own ways of showing it, but of course you didn't really have the greatest role model in that regard.”[/color]  Hades thought of his own relationship with his brother before looking deep into the now teary eyes of his daughter and could see the pain and guilt she was holding within.  [color=#0054A6]“You are strong beyond words Melinoë.  And I know right now it feels like the pain and sorrow will never go away.  And it probably won't, but tomorrow it will get a little easier to muscle through it.  Then a little easier the next day and the next after that and so on.  But for right now let out all those emotions you have bottled up in.  I wont think you are weak and no one else will see beside us two.  I'll even leave and order no one back here if that would make it easier.”[/color]  As Hades finished he continued to look Mel in the eyes doing his best to comfort and reassure her.  

Here she was, a daughter of Death - [i]the last child[/i] - goddess of madness; overcome by grief and sobbing into her father’s arms. She didn’t know when she had gotten out of her chair but she had, throwing herself to her knees to just cry into his embrace. Screams of anguish muffled, refusing to disturb the beautiful new morning dawning. Melinoë would allow herself this comfort. She would release it all out now, like he suggested. For when her tears dried and the screams were all but echoes on the wind she would rise and bring forth all the madness in the world onto her siblings’ killers.       

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