Canon is Olimpos

[rotandriddles]

One god will do as well as another. Tis a nice thought to be "independent" and "unique" but the traits remain the same. (He holds a mouse in his hand, observing it as it struggles.) From this one's point of view, we are a single entity.

Shades, current, rays and clouds notwithstanding.

Comments

[nostride]

...don't toy with it. It would be cruel.

[impartialsky]

[ With his arrival the mouse begins to struggle. Zeus doesn't need to look at it to know it's there, how it reacts. Zeus can watch them at any time.

He watches Hades now.

Zeus knows that many perceive Hades to have the lesser. ]

[rotandriddles]

It follows me. (And, indeed, he opens his hand and the mouse climbs up his arm. Clearly the earlier struggling was so the small creature could be closer to Hades.) I am not the Sun.

[rotandriddles]

(He brings the mouse closer to his chest, letting it hide in his shadows. The struggling ceases and the dark god gives Zeus a slow smile.)

Quite a descent.

[nostride]

You're hardly so foul and ugly.

[rotandriddles]

T'would be the first time I was called neither.

[nostride]

Then... there. The first time's done: you are not so very foul, and you are not so very ugly. I do not think you so. There.

[rotandriddles]

It speaks more of you than of me. (His appearance hardly stays stationary.) Why do I appeal?

[nostride]

No one said you appealed. Only that, in the hierarchy of ugly things, you sit below that wretched creature.

[rotandriddles]

I see. (The mouse peeks out and squeaks at Ganymede.) Have you considered an escape?

[nostride]

[ It is the cuddliest of mice, and it lounges on the least cuddly of supernatural entities. Ganymede doesn't squeak back, because that would be most unprincely, where gaping and pawing emptily in the air are so much more dignified. ]

I've... I want to hold your mouse, if you please. If you'll allow it.

[rotandriddles]

(He finds many mice - and other creatures that prefer the shadows - in his wake. Oftentimes he enjoys their company, marveling over their single-mindedness to eat, procreate and hide.)

Speak naught to me. (Slipping his fingers around the small animal, he lifts it and sets it on Ganymede's shoulder. The mouse soon takes an interest in sniffing the Prince's cheek.)

That one is friendlier than most. He does not bite.

[impartialsky]

[ If it was Zeus pays it no mind. He strays closer, heedless of the mouse. In Hades hand its safe from his brilliance, though who can say for how long. ]

[rotandriddles]

(There is desperation in how the mouse tries to burrow, but Hades does not seem moved to intervene.)

T'is a natural thing. (Even if his pet should fall dead, that is the natural order of things.) What ails you?

[nostride]

[ A hundred-thousand lives ago, he might've winced and scuttled free and called a servant on the tiny thing perching its cold nose beneath his chin. Now, he - wait for it - rubs his cheek on its back, slowly and thoroughly. ]

You would have put it on me, even if it did. You'd have said I asked. I know the way of these things.

[rotandriddles]

A Prince should know the way of wild beasts. (After all, he is conversing with one.) We are not tame.

(None of the gods are, really. They follow their instincts.)

The garden could suit him.

[nostride]

[ The mouse kisses. Ganymede will happily tell anyone so, in between weighing down one oblivious rodent with his projected affection and leaning in to rub his face against the mouse's whiskers.

And then he stills. ]

Could... could it? [ Wait. ] No... it won't be allowed. You know it won't be allowed. It'll be... killed.

[rotandriddles]

(He leans forward, producing a small bite of cheese in the center of his palm.)

He eluded Death until I let him come to me. (Not any mouse can gain the god's affection. Hades admires this one's spirit.) I visit the garden. He will not die.

(Apollo will learn to let his pets be, at least.)

[nostride]

I'm -

[ ...slightly jealous, when the mouse reaches for its dairy bribe. Hardly fair, Hades, hardly fair. ]

I'm giving my permission, then: I'll accept it. In the gardens.

[impartialsky]

[ What could ail the sky?

Zeus lingers just beyond the shadow, where dusk is made. His thoughts had gone to the dark as of late. The realm that wasn't his own.

And here his shadow appears. ]

[rotandriddles]

(Even Underworld mice need to eat.)

Then he too shall feel immortality.

(He tilts his head, horns and all.)

Will it change him?

[rotandriddles]

(Mouse abandoned to find what hole he may, Hades holds out his hands to his younger brother, coaxing.)

Dark dreams deserve comfort.

[impartialsky]

[ Zeus has no trepidation as mortal animals might about his counterpart. Hades lifts his palms and Zeus comes as a bird to a familiar perch. His hand is light when his fingertips brush against Hades own.

He had been reminded of pain, recently. ]

[rotandriddles]

(His fingers curl, gently, carefully, and he draws Zeus nearer, paying no mind to how his shadows scatter and lose their form in the light.)

Immunity to pain does not exist. Allow me to share the sting.

[impartialsky]

[ It doesn't harm him, the memory. He faces it with a kind of nostalgia, a reminder of a time he felt mortality and the slow decay of his body. How fleeting life was for a human. The knowledge of a thing and it's practical application were entirely different. He hadn'the fully understood that at the time.

Zeus does little to stop his light from greedily reaching after the shadow. He blinks slowly at his brother.]