March open

[inthenameofhades]

Who: Zagreus and you!
When: After the Eplum event
Where: Horizon (& Zagreus's Domain specifically)
What: Zagreus finally visits Horizon
Warnings: NA

Immediately upon his arrival to Horizon, Zagreus's appearance had altered to align much more closely to how he appeared at home: red and black exomis adorned with three canine skulls on one shoulder, a belt made of more skulls, arms adorned with golden bands. And around his head a crown of fiery, ever-burning laurels. The only difference was the now the symbol of the Chariot had been etched into the metal greaves he wore above his fiery feet.

Driven by the compulsion to create, he had also swiftly begun construction of his Domain: a space for which the most immediately notable feature was the river of blood surrounding it. Perhaps you will dare to attempt to cross it.

[[ooc: Starters will be in the comments below! And if you would like a custom prompt, feel free to poke me at blueflowers!]]

Comments

[inthenameofhades]

Good thing Zagreus's realm was surrounded by the River Styx, and not the River Phlegethon - otherwise it would be made of lava. But you're in luck, Will - no need to potentially take a dip in magma today!

"Thank you!" Zagreus says, beaming. "I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. And the ghostly hands reaching out from it really adds to the vibe, I think."

Sure enough, if Will takes another look - he'll realise that there are large spectral hands emerging from the river. Just in case he needed more clues.

[sonofacesius]

According to Nico you could actually drink from the Phlegethon, but Will still wasn't willing to try. Will arched an eyebrow at the large spectral hands emerging from the river. Nice creepy factor, although he was quite sure Zagreus' did not see it that way. Like Hades and Nico, they all saw death as simply a part of life, not something to escape or fix. How had Persephone put it? Those who are surrounded by death seem to appreciate life more than anyone else? That quite fit with his understanding of Zagreus. And Nico. He figured Persephone knew what she was talking about.

"Are they actual souls?" Like fragments from the Acheron or something?

[inthenameofhades]

"Yes, I...wait." Zagreus frowns, eyebrows furred in faint confusion as what instinctively feels like the answer clashes with the fact that he knows those ghostly hands were created not that long ago.

"But...I had the Contractor make them. I suppose they can't really be souls, if that's the case..."

Perhaps these are questions Will might get a better answer to later, when Zagreus can actually remember the answer for the real House of Hades.

[sonofacesius]

Yeah maybe they should have this conversation later. When Zagreus was more himself.

"You know what? It's not really important. You like the aesthetic?" He got that. 100%. His boyfriend walked around in skull tee-shirts and kept bones in his pockets. He probably had literal skeletons in his closet. Will should check on that actually.

Personally, Will found it creepy as...well, Hades. But, he was trying. And it was a part of Zagreus.

[inthenameofhades]

"Of course!" Zagreus says, as if everyone should just naturally appreciate the aesthetic appeal of blood, skulls, and creepy spectral hands. "Do you like it?"

He is most definitely Nico's brother.

[sonofacesius]

Yup. Zagreus was totally related to Nico. There was no denying it. It was weird, it was creepy, and it was totally weirdly reassuring. But, you know, still incredibly creepy. Which Will made a note not to say when he eventually met Hades. 'Nice to meet you and all, dating your son, what's with the creepy factor'. No that would not go well.

"It reminds me a bit of home. What part here is your favorite?"

[inthenameofhades]

"My favourite part? Well mate, that would be...right over here!"

At this point, Zagreus dashes into the West Wing. And by 'dashes', he effectively seems to perform a strange combination of teleporting and phasing through the air, red light streaking behind him as he moves through the space.

Once in the West Wing, Zagreus leads him to a gallery of portraits. Except all of the portraits are utterly incomprehensible. Any faces visible are blank, and potential distinguishing features are not present. It's like a gallery of people created by an artist who cannot remember what anyone looks like.

[sonofacesius]

Will watched as Zagreus rushed to the West Wing, wondering if that movement was a weird sort of shadow travel? But it didn't look anything like what Nico did. Maybe it was something Hades could do? Will does the only thing he can do, he runs after him. Good thing he's really good at running. One of the only things he was good at really, besides running and whistling really badly. And being a demigod nightlight.

He eyed the portraits, thinking he'd better come back later when Zagreus was.....better. But if Will had to guess, he assumed they would be familiar faces. Hades, Persephone, Charon, Nyx. Zagreus' underworld family?

"It's lovely. What about it makes it special here? Does it feel like family?"

[inthenameofhades]

Zagreus pauses, a faint frown on his face. "I...don't know?" he says. He'd known immediately that this was the place he liked the most. But why exactly seemed to be something beyond him at the moment.

"I'm not sure what family feels like. I don't remember having one." He didn't remember having much of anything, come to think of it. Only this space, and what he had created in it. "I suppose it feels...familiar? Comforting? I don't know why, but...it's important to me."

[sonofacesius]

"Maybe that's something to talk about later." Like when he was himself again. "You have one. And I could be wrong, but I'd bet these pictures are of them. And you have one here too. We're family.....Granted our family is extremely weird and kind of psychotic but, it's ours." Not to mention weirdly incestuous but we weren't saying the quiet parts out loud right?

"If this is important to you it's important to me. And I'd like to visit it again, next time. "

[inthenameofhades]

"We are?" Zagreus says, blinking - before bursting into a wide grin. "That's wonderful, mate!"

He hadn't even known he had a family to meet, but...now one was here for him to meet!

"And of course, you can visit whenever you like! I would like to show you everything when it's done."

[sonofacesius]

Wow if Will didn't know any better he would have asked if Zagreus was on drugs. Talking to him like this with little memory was hysterical. He'd definitely see Zagreus here again, especially if things continued to be volatile with Nocwich, it might be the only way for the long term.

Will tried not to think about that, about what they might have unleashed and how nobody wanted to listen that destroying the thing was the better option. And now? Now they had to live with their choices. He just hoped everyone would live.

Will arrived back in Zagreus' domain about a week later, deciding to poke his head in and check in on him during a quick break. The weather outside the Free Cities was abysmal. Were they having sand storms in Solvunn too?

"Zagreus?"

[inthenameofhades]

“Will, mate!” Zagreus says, with a friendly grin. “It’s nice to remember your name, this time.”

As opposed to the last - where he, embarrassingly, did not.

[sonofacesius]

"Don't worry about it, it's apparently normal. Although I'm not entirely sure why. Probably have to ask someone smarter than me. Like an Athena or Hecate kid maybe? Have you made any more improvements since I was here? Maybe put faces on the paintings?"

He joked, but it was unnerving, he knew. Not remembering important people in your life. He wondered why that was such a steadfast companion on his journey. Someone he interacted with always had memory issues. Weird right?

[inthenameofhades]

"I have! No one needs to take a dip in the River Styx to get here anymore, for one," he says, gesturing towards the new stepping stones that cross the river. "And yes, the portraits have faces now. They were a bit unsettling to come back to."

Especially since Zagreus knew who they were all meant to be. He hoped he never had to suffer a similar bount of amnesia again.

"Would you like to take a look? I confess I'm curious to see how similar they are to the gods you know."

[sonofacesius]

"Yeah I think swimming in the Styx is probably best to be avoided by most people. I'm sure everyone appreciates not having to take a giant leap anymore. I for one do, thank you." Will looked around, trying to gauge any other changes in the immediate vicinity besides the stones, before nodding to Zagreus.

"I'd love to take a look at the gallery again."

[inthenameofhades]

"You know, while I didn't have my memories it didn't even occur to me that it wasn't something other people would want to do," Zagreus admits. "But...I suppose I was drawing upon what I'm used to. Emerging from the Styx is how I usually enter the House."

As they walk through to the portrait gallery, the main difference Will will notice is that there's more. More skulls, more lush rugs and atmospheric candles, more decorations. Evidently the Underworld - and Zagreus - doesn't go for minimalism. Zagreus has apparently spent his time just creating more and more stuff.

The real difference comes when they reach the portrait gallery, however. Because now there's a very notable change, as all those blank faces have now been replaced with a series of detailed, beautiful portraits.

[sonofacesius]

Will studied the portraits, seeing differences and similarities between the Olympians and gods Zagreus knew and the ones he did. It was clear they were family, just, slightly different.

"It's a little weird. I can see similarities, Hades, Zeus, Hermes. My Dionysus does not look like that but...that's more his own choosing." Mr. D was a toddler reacting when his father told him he couldn't have any more goldfish crackers as snacks. "And Artemis definitely does not look like that. At least when and where I'm from. But it's lovely to see them. Thank you."

[inthenameofhades]

"Really? How are Dionysus and Artemis different?" Zagreus asks. He's only ever known them exactly as they are; it's hard to picture them as anything else.

The portraits perhaps also make Zagreus's own familiar resemblances all the more clear - the large family portrait of the Underworld royal family shows just how much he takes after his father. The flaming feet are, apparently, an inherited trait.

"Also - who do you know? Obviously you've met most of the Olympians, but...I imagine many of the Chthonic deities and other residents of the Underworld are less so," he says, gesturing towards some of the other portraits.

[sonofacesius]

"Well....Artemis usually appears as a 12 year old girl. And Dionysis...Mr. D? Well, Mr. D usually appears as a middle aged balding man with a beer belly, but that's because Zeus grounded him and instead of appearing ...Olympian, he's being a child."

Zagreus definitely took after Hades, it was a trait he recognized, and saw it so much in Nico as well. And well, the flaming feet were a bit obvious?

"Nyx you know I've met, we had that rather...unfortunate crossing. Gorgyria, if you know her. She a naiad over by the Acheron. Nico knows a lot more, obviously." Will tried to think, but it wasn't t he best memories to think of. "Menoetes....Oh, Bob. Or rather Iapetus. He tends to prefer Bob now."

[inthenameofhades]

Zagreus looks from the portrait of Dionysus - luscious hair flowing, beautiful muscles on display, incredibly attractive - and then back to Will, with a look of intense dismay on his face. "Dionysus, mate, how could you let yourself go like that?"

The gods of Will's world are a sad, sorry lot indeed, if that was what Lord Dionysus had been reduced to.

"I haven't had the chance to meet Gorgyria or Menoetes personally. And I don't think I've heard of a Iapetus, though that name seems familiar..." Zagreus frowns, as he searches his memories. Where has he heard those names before?

Then, his eyes go wide.

"Wait, you mean Iapetus the Titan?!"

[sonofacesius]

Yeah, they all had that look when they saw Mr. D. Dismay, annoyance, the wonder if this time they would end up a bottle of merlot. "My recommendation? Don't go after dryad's Zeus has claimed as his. It's a bad idea. Now he plays pinochle with Chiron and gets to be in charge of all the demigods. He wishes we'd all die regularly." Talking about Mr. D made Will positively cheerful!

"And yeah, Iapetus, the Titan. Otherwise known as Bob." Normal, this was totally normal right?

[inthenameofhades]

"Bob's a rather strange name, but...nevermind that. What is a Titan doing wondering around anywhere?" Zagreus says. "As far as I know, Father and his brothers cut them all up into pieces. The whole point of which was to make sure they couldn't reform."

And Zagreus might not have ever met a Titan himself, but...from what he'd heard, their return was something no one wanted to see.

[sonofacesius]

" Ahhh." Will saw where the problem was! "Monsters can reform in Tartarus. He reformed. And took a little dip in the Lethe and long story short, now he prefers Bob to Iapetus and spent a little bit working for Hades. Now? I'm actually not sure where he is. But he's nice now, I promise! I wouldn't have gone to rescue him if he wasn't."

[inthenameofhades]

"A dip in the Lethe? That's rather drastic. Usually only the Shades of Elysium want to do that." And that was so they wouldn't have to worry about remembering all their mortal worries while they endlessly battled each other for honour and glory for all eternity.

"But I suppose that's not entirely different from how things work back home, yes," he says. "Gods will reform, of course - and Titans. That's why they needed to take steps to prevent that. And Shades are dead, so they can't really be killed. They just...dissipate, for a little while. But nothing that is dead leaves the Underworld. There Is No Escape, after all."