I'll never be who you think I am

— backdated to the a couple nights after the portals opened

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Hades stared at the skies with a blank look. Whatever was happening, he knew that the rest of The Pantheon had no ideas past what they'd seen before - and the only person who's opinion he hadn't heard. He and Persephone hadn't exactly seen eye to on on the matter of Minthe. While @Persephone hadn't told him to send her off she also hadn't seen the point of keeping Minthe captive. Despite the fact that Minthe had goaded him into it, and then refused the terms that Hades had laid out, and Hades couldn't allow her to walk over him. He tore his gaze from the skies and then returned to the Underworld he knew so well.

“@Minthe” He said her name gruffly, not bothering to check if she was awake or not in her little cage. “You need to see this - I want to know your impressions.” He hadn't lead her up from the depths of Tartarus since she had been imprisoned there, and leading her up was a careful maneuver. “A few seasons ago a figure appeared, none of us knew what it was or anything about it. And now - now there are more.” He tried to speak as calmly as he could. It wasn't exactly a social call, he didn't know how she'd respond or if she'd even care. But he'd never known her to ignore her curiosities and he was betting on that.

Once they were back on the forest grounds Hades took in a deep breath, the storm brewing far off almost tasting heavy on his tongue. “The mortals here don't seem to have any inkling of other worlds - but none of us could figure it out.” Which disappointed the King utterly. It bothered him to no end to not know what was the reason behind it all.

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 She heard the storms, muffled as they were underground. From her place beneath Winterheart Forest, Minthe stewed. She'd been here for some time now. The crimson she-wolf had underestimated Hades' commitment to this existential experiment. 

 Lifting her head when she heard her name, Minthe looked at her captor and huffed out a laugh. He wanted her opinion now. Opening her mouth, she brandished her silver-sharp tongue before thinking better of it. 

 He wanted her to see the sky. He wanted to take her out.

 She rose immediately and followed him, shoulder brushing his flank as they wove through the maze of tunnels. The earth opened to reveal the forest once more. Above the canopy of branches, there were figures in the sky, the edges of their forms encrusted with stars. Minthe stared. 


 “I guess you aren't a god anymore.”

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^^

He wasn't exactly expecting Minthe to have an opinion one way or the other. She was insightful, cunning, and quick-witted. What he needed was another view; he needed something he hadn't thought of already. He glanced back to her at the brief touch, but she didn't speak, and he was fine without the back and forth. He simply lacked the will for it, not when he grew so tired of the day in and day out.

He was growing more bitter the longer time went by. @??? was mostly with @Persephone, and though they had at least grown closer, it was still the Queen that the child favored. She wouldn't be considered a child much longer, and he rarely saw anyone else among his ranks. The Kingdom he thought he was making was just as lonely as the one that he had left behind, and somehow he still missed it.

The venom of her barb set his teeth on edge, grinding them for a moment before he answered her. “They do not see me as such here anyway. The mortals are as ignorant as they always have been - but I am not asking about me Minthe.” He clarified. “Unless you think that they are the Gods here.” Which he might have considered, but, to his knowledge, they had done nothing - so why show themselves? ^^

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 “Oh well gee, I don't know, Hades. What do massive enigmatic beings in the sky give off to you? Maybe they're accountants.”

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^^Rhea help him.

His icey gaze shot to her, staring down the Nymph. “Things are different here - and everything that we have seen in our home might suggest we'd have a better understanding than the mortals around us.” He said briskly. He couldn't even catch himself from saying home - where he'd tried so hard to make Winterheart a home and more than he had in the Underworld. He had to face the music. This was just what he deserved. Loneliness and solitude.

“Maybe I overestimated you.” He said simply. He looked to the far off figures, his gaze flicking back towards the opening of Tartarus where they had just emerged from. No one else before had offered very much of a suggestion, and it ate at him to know that twice now this figures had emerged in the sky, and he had no explanations or ideas for them. How could that be?

If she didn't have anything better than a quick jab, it was worthless to have brought her up at all.
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 Minthe scoffed, her lips twisting in a snarl ugly enough to hide the brief look of hurt that flashed across her face. 

 “You're right. I don't have answers, Hades. I can't make this make sense. But I'm done being your captive.” She replied, the reality of her life the last handful of weeks hitting her, sudden and blindsiding. In all her time in that cave only one other wolf had come to visit her. And now, right in the heart of their territory she smelled...nothing. The forest. The sweet earthy damp. But not a pack. 

 Minthe lifted her muzzle, disgusted. “I'm not going to let my presence make your home inhospitable to you just so you can get the courage to leave a dying dream.”

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^^
Her snarl didn't phase him. Call it a downswing. Hades didn't exactly care. If she had attacked him he would defend himself but he woudn't have fought against her the way she probably longed for him to. “Oh are you?” He countered, taking a few steps closer to her as he stared her down. She had never had any issues standing up to him, after all, but they had learned so long ago the perfect notes to play a cacophony of pain. What else could he expect other than their participation in the only dance they had known?

“You give yourself too much credit, Minthe. I don't need you to make my life hell. I am quite good at it myself, aren't I?” He shot back. She was trying to needle her way under his skin, and for the moment he was able to withstand it. “I can put you right back in the tunnels and have @Cerberus keep an eye on you if you'd prefer?” He looked to the skies again, for a moment trusting that she wasn't that stupid to try and attack him right then. “I want to see if I can find where they are coming from.” If they had earthly bodies he could ask for information - and if they belonged to another Pantheon, ask how they hell they retained any of their abilities here.

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 She began walking before he could make good on his threat, knowing now that they weren't often empty. 

 Heading in the general direction of the gargantuan figure, Minthe paused, looking over her shoulder at him. “Are you coming or do you want to wait for all your friends?”

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^^He didn’t move to stop her once he realized where she was headed. It made more sense to him that they try to understand than continue on blindly. It hadn’t proven to be helpful in the slightest bit to him after everything that had transpired since the last time he'd seen one of the figures. He hated that he didn't know what to call them, either. It seemed rude if they were also immortal of some type, and if they were deities of some variation, they should have had some designation.

His gaze fell to Minthe as she looked over her shoulder at him, and he shook his head. He wasn't waiting. He did pause to spare a glance towards the heart of the packlands, but he didn't think he'd be gone that long. “Did you see it last time one was in the sky?” Hades asked as he caught up to her with a few quick steps. It wasn't unheard of for them to have traveled together - he'd taken her numerous times to the Mortal Realm after all. This was just...different. And they'd be back before dawn.

Still, as they crossed the threshold between his land and the wilds it felt wrong. He'd never really shaken the feeling of how uneasy it made him being elsewhere.

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 It felt good to move. Begrudgingly, Minthe admitted to herself how much better she felt. Hades was a painstakingly compassionate captor when it came to her physical health (sans the initial blow to get her down there). He'd fed her well and she'd filled back into her slender curves. 

 “Vaguely. They don't seem to do much if they do lord over this place.” Though for all she knew perhaps these astral beings were the reason all of them were here. There was so little to be surmised from this realm of nature and primal brutality. “Come on, Blue Balls. Keep up.”

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^^
While he knew that her captivity wasn't exactly right he also felt like he'd done the necessary things to take care of her. He brought her food, she had plenty of water, she could move about some even within the confines of the tunnels and their twisting mazes. Still, it wasn't in his nature to keep the living confined that way. It reeked of his brother's rage and hubris, and frankly, it was unnatural to him given that she wasn't a shade.

Her words gave him pause, and then Hades sighed, feeling the pressure of the unknown weighing down on him heavily. “They've done nothing that I can tell - although the storms have been stronger lately. Makes me think of Zeus.” Hades admitted. “He was here, just briefly, shockingly with another woman.” His words were dripping with sarcasm then. “ I don't even know if Hera found him, but she and Hebe vanished too.” And ultimately he just hoped that they were safe. As much as the rejection stung him, Hades priority was their safety first and foremost.

He nipped at her hip when she called him blue balls, his longer legs making it easy to match her stride. “Careful, Tadpole.” He warned, blue eyes narrowing for a moment as a gust of wind swept his fur about. It gave him the same almost feral look that his anger did at home - but this wasn't full of divine fury. “It looks like they're west some.” He said, tracking their position a bit. He nudged her shoulder this time with his own, turning their course more gently than if he'd just left her alone. “I think this way.”

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 She let herself be steered, side-stepping to put some distance between them when he felt the brush of his fur against hers. Silent for a while, she finally turned to look his way. 

 “You're not responsible for them, you know. You don't have to take care of everyone.” Certainly no one was taking care of him.

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^^The more distance they put between his pack lands and the borders of Elkshire, the more he let himself release the tension he had held so permanently in his shoulders. Her words made his attention snap to her, a frown on his face. “You know that isn’t true. ” So Zeus had freed him, that was all well and good. It was still Hades who kept Kronos in check, who ensured that they had enough safety that the realms could be at relative peace.

“I don’t rule As King of Kings by choice. I wouldn’t trust Zeus with Kronos, and I wouldn’t ask that of Poseidon. My responsibility is to everyone, Minthe.” It could be argued that the Mad Titan wasn’t his responsibility anymore since he was here like the rest of them but it was a thought still. “They're my family, still.”^^

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 “Some family.” 

 She huffed. “Even if that was the case then it isn't the case now. If there's one good thing to come of all this furry fuckery it's the fact that you don't have to be that person anymore.” 

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^^He didn’t stop walking, choosing to be in motion rather than stuck in his mind and body. “What would I do then, Minthe? If I’m not me, then who am I?” Because to Hades the thought of that unknown burned him more than bearing the weight of all his responsibilities.^^

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