your heart broke when the party died

[pummelgranite]

WHO: Persephone and anyone
WHERE: Hades
WHEN: Post Shamtheon
WHAT: moping
WARNINGS: general wicdiv warnings for self-destruction, mental illness, ED, drugs, etc


Hades is a fucking mess. The first blow had been struck by Luci- a fiery tantrum against Laura's disappearance. But the real damage had been Apep's floodwater, drained down to help the city that still blamed her. (Were they really that wrong?) the water had washed away every piece of the bar. Her throne is now a sad frame of vines with just a few scraps of petals still clinging to it. The vines and blossoms that lit the space are all but destroyed as well, dropping the cave into near total darkness. In the time between the event and when she felt the floodwater finally drain, several graffitiers had been through. Most simply left their tags, but huge letters scrawl across her stage reading "IMPORTS FUCK OFF."

Laura doesn't want to be a mess herself. She's got shit to do. She needs to clean up. She needs to issue a statement. She needs to check on friends. She needs to, needs to, needs to. But just looking at the mess, just smelling the stink of dirty water and the mildew had taken all the will for productivity out of her. It took all the will for anything out of her. The downswing hit her like an almost physical force- her body was suddenly heavy, her mind exhausted.

She needed to sit down, but every couch she checked was still damp with floodwater and sewage. She didn't even have the will to make herself somewhere to sit. Instead she just went over to the couch that used to be her favorite, and lays down next to it. After a few minutes, she curls in on herself a little more, but other than that she doesn't move.

She needs to get up.

She needs to clean.

This is stupid, she wasn't hurt or brainwashed or in danger. She needs to get up.

Comments

[queenofseers]

Cassandra sure feels like lying on the ground right now, and may or may not have spent more time than she prefers to lying in bed this morning. But fuck it- she feels like trash if she's not doing something, even if something is seeing what an absolute fucking shitshow Hades is. She almost doesn't expect Laura to be here- but where else would the girl be?

She wants to yell at her for lying on the ground like that, covered in fucking moldy watery bullshit, but for once she doesn't have it in her. What she does have is an extra iced coffee, so she puts the drink down on the ground next to Laura and starts drinking her own.

"Go on," she says. "It even has a straw, if you want to keep lying there."

[stylistic_disloyalty]

What a bloody mess.

Luci sloshes her way through Hades, her shoes in her hand, lip curled up in clear disgust. She may be one of the Underground kids, but sewers are not her thing. She could cheerfully kill Apep or whoeverthefuck trashed Hades, but part of her is a little glad she hadn't started the contractors just yet. The job just got bigger, that should make them happy-- right?

But the most important person isn't happy, as Luci realizes as she approaches Laura, laying in literal sewage. The exact situation isn't familiar, but Luci knows what this is-- and she nearly freezes up again. The reminder that she's terrible with things like this flashes like a warning light on the dashboard of her brain, but she keeps driving. All the way to laying down next to Laura and spooning her firmly. Her suit is definitely ruined.

"Come live with me while I sort this, hm?"

[pummelgranite]

Laura stares up at that iced coffee with such earnest yearning. Like the I ced coffee could fix her home. Like the iced coffee could fix her. She looks at the iced coffee the way she used to look at gods.

“Thank you,” she all but whispers from the (at least raised enough to not be actively in the water) ground. With steady motion, she pushes herself up to sitting and hold out her hands to accept this caffeine communion.

[pummelgranite]

Listen she's not in the sewage, exactly, though close enough that the suit is absolutely ruined.

This isn't fair, the way her body and heart react to Luci. One minute she's wallowing comfortably in numb exhaustion, then just as suddenly she's wide awake and feeling. Her eyes were already watering, but now her lips are quivering too. God damn it. Still, she reaches up one hand to hold onto Luci's arm- not clinging, exactly, more a small reciprocation of contact so there can be no confusion on how much she wants exactly this. She nods.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Good," she says softly, nosing aside some of Laura's mane to put a kiss behind her ear. "My queen needs her castle, and she'll get it. Exactly how it was. I remember well enough."

Sort of. She'll probably have to look up some BluTube to get everything right, but it's the thought that counts. Isn't it?

"Until then, you'll sleep in my bed, I'll get that disgusting ice cream you like, we'll see each other all the time. That will be nice, won't it?"

[pummelgranite]

She's had a million people call her a goddess, but for some reason it can't compare to one person calling her queen. It warms her and sooths her, and paradoxically lets a few tears fall. She sighs at Luci's kiss.

"Double Dulce isn't gross," comes out a little wearier and less petulant than she'd hoped. Whatever.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"It is too gross. Anything that basically translates to 'double sugar' is going to make my teeth fall out. Can you imagine what that would be like? Me with no teeth?"

To demonstrate, Luci pulls her lips over her teeth and starts mouthing at Laura's neck. Quality distraction.

[pummelgranite]

She stiffens immediately, and then shudders, "Luci what the shite."

Well done.

[queenofseers]

This is something that Cassandra will actually acknowledge as a miracle, albeit a non-magical one. The look on Laura's face is almost endearing; she recognizes it, from a long time ago, and like hell if it doesn't make all this seem simple for a split second.

"This place looks like hell. Uh, not in the way you want," she says, mostly because she feels like she has to say it. "What the fuck was up with that Majority Report, by the way? What did they think you were doing?"

[pummelgranite]

Hold on, Cassandra, she needs to drain half of this in one go before she can say anything else. Once satisfied, there's a little huff.

"I dunno. Guess everyone just hates us finally."

[queenofseers]

Honestly? Relatable. She doesn't even blink at that, when normally she would.

"You know, it took them long enough. Considering the amount of bullshittery that exists around us." She takes her own sip of coffee, eyeing some particularly bad spots of the room. "You're not going to try to explain yourself? Go on and embrace the persona?"

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Ah-ah, this is the life you've chosen, Laura Wilson," Luci grins, squeezing the squirming Laura to her front and continuing the weird attack on her neck. "Life with a toothless serpent. It's wild and weird, no takebacks now."

[pummelgranite]

"I did no such thing! Luci." She's making an attempt to wriggle out of her grip, but not much of one. (Truth be told, it's a nice excuse to appreciate Luci grip on her.) But she DOES manage to twist around enough to shove a hand into her face.

[pummelgranite]

She ponders the question for a moment, then pulls her straw out to lick at some whipped cream and caramel sauce before plunging it back into the cup and stirring it up. A shrug.

"Why bother? Everyone saw what they saw, and they'll think what they want to think." You will be love. You will be hated. You will be brilliant. None of those were really new experiences.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Oh yes you did-- oi!" Luci laughs, turning her head so Laura gets more cheek than her entire face, but the push does pretty much demand that Luci let go and grab Laura's wrist. The soft kisses she starts laying on the inside of Laura's arm don't match the mischievous smirk that preceded them, but it feels right.

"See?" she says between kisses. "No teeth left at all."

[granddevil]

Of course the week didn't go unnoticed by Satan, though cares little about the causalities. Humans hardly make his list of things to worry about, but to be fair, some crazy imPort with godliness inflating his head doesn't either.

Though, he knows said imPort is from Persephone's world and knows Woden is not really one all the others would consider a friend. So, eventually, Satan decides to check on her, to see how she's doing and chat for a bit if she wants to, but once he teleports to Hades and sees the damage, he knows she won't feel like chatting.

he finds her near a couch curled up, and for a second he says nothing. When he does, his voice is soft.

"It has been a rough month." and it just started.

[pummelgranite]

Her head ducks, letting her hair fall over part of her face, but she can't hide the way her look goes soft and unguarded. It feels like Luci plucked the heart from her chest and is holing it in her hands, fluttering but intact. God, she's been ruined.

"Gross."

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"I know. Why you're still even interested, I'll never understand."

Luci pauses in her worship of Laura's arm, internally cringing. That just popped out unbidden, no doubt laying in wait since the last time Luci had to shove down the urge to make it all about her failings and focus on Laura's freakout. Mentally, she scrambles to come up with something to follow that with, a rug to sweep that under so Laura can't analyze it too hard if she's even capable of that right now. She doesn't need another thing.

"I guess I can still do this--" She skips the rest of Laura's arm and shifts back to her neck, applying a generous amount of tongue to one of the tendons there. "--without teeth. That seems pretty worth it."

[pummelgranite]

She can feel when he arrives. In the still air of the Underground, even a little disturbance is noticeable, and he is no little disturbance. There's a flare of shame in her chest- what will he think? Mr Millions of Years In Hell, with her wallowing in her tiny mortal misery. But she's too tired to put up a front. Let Satan figure out how pathetic and fake she really is, she thinks, after all, everyone else has.

"Satan . . . ?"

[pummelgranite]

There's a huff. She turns her head to let Luci at her neck, but her hearts not really into it.

"Gonna start using that line back on you someday, you know."

[stylistic_disloyalty]

...well heck.

Luci can obviously tell that Laura isn't into it, and she probably should have guessed that she wouldn't be right now. But apparently even though she did an okay job last time, she couldn't totally avoid mis-stepping. There's a beat where Luci takes in what Laura said, and then she presses her forehead into Laura's neck and squeezes her.

"...alright message received." She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "You should never doubt for longer than two seconds that I love you, Laura. And if I ever do, you have my permission to kill my doppelganger for me."

[pummelgranite]

Her chin comes down on Luci's head gently. This is fine, this is enough. All she really wants is to feel her arms around her.

"Nah. I can think of much better things to do with a second Luci." It's not quite as much of a come-on as it could be, but come on. It was right there. "And I don't. Not anymore. So try trusting you're the most amazing thing that's ever happen to me too, yeah?"

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Yeah alright," she nods into Laura's neck. "I can do that."

Luci clears her throat and lets the air hang open for a moment, debating on whether to elaborate for a good ten seconds. Eventually, she does.

"After Inanna, and Sakhmet, I figured I was out of time."

[queenofseers]

Even Cass can't tell her that's a little gross. She very much wants to do that right now. Perhaps this chaos has had one good result for Persephone: Cass is, for once, too tired to judge her properly.

"If you say so. I'd rather not let people think I was purposefully trying to open up sinkholes under their feet, but it's your life."

She rubs her forehead. "How much of everyone else have you seen? Any more minor chaos I need to know about?"

[pummelgranite]

"Sounds lonely." Not that Laura Wilson knows anything about loneliness. No ma'am.