Tartarus and Beyond - Thursday Night
The pit of souls, green and swirling with the spirits of the dead, saw nothing beyond the endless spiral they were destined to circle for eternity. They had no solace in death, no safety and peace in the Elysian Fields where it was dreamed during their lives that they would one day rest. Endless torment and anguish made up their entire existence in the afterlife. Some had experienced this for mere seconds, their corpse still warm up on the surface, while others had experienced this for centuries upon centuries. No one, not even those in the pit, could tell the difference between seconds and centuries. There was nothing but the spiral and the whimpering, faded cries of their companions.
Within a split second, that all changed. The empty eyes of the spirits looked upward. They had never had reason to before, but something had changed. There was a crack in the seal that kept them subdued, kept them from reaching out beyond the pit. The crack was widening with each passing moment, only slightly, subtly, but widening nonetheless. The crack called to them, or sucked them in, the spirits couldn't tell the difference. All they knew was that this was something new, something they could feel.
The first spirits, those closest to the crack, drifted up out of the pit, gasping fresh air into non-existent lungs that they didn't realize had left them with their physical body. All they knew as they were sucked into the crack to Elsewhere (a word murmured and groaned throughout the pit before even the first had left) was that this was as close to freedom as they would ever come.
***
Hades watched as the first wisps of what used to be human trickled through the crack that would become so much more. A little nudging here, persuading there, perhaps some human sacrifice and they'd have themselves a fully fledged portal to the Underworld. Or, more accurately, a bridge between the old Underworld and the new. The new had better scenery, more fresh air, a chance to connect to worlds with an endless amount of souls and drinks with little umbrellas.
The only thing standing in his way was the pest problem. The humans had to go. But hey, Hades was a fair businessman, or so he liked to think. They would get one warning to get lost, then all bets were off and Fandom's previous tenants would be evicted for good.
A sharp-toothed smile split Hades' face into a grotesque expression of glee. He placed a hand on Andrew's shoulder as he stood beside him, party to breaking the barrier between worlds. "Good job, kid. I'm impressed." He leaned down and lowered his voice. "Now let's see how wide we can open this thing."
[NFI, NFB, OOC welcome. Thanks to wannabe_pan for letting me mod Andrew. The first spirits will be now appearing in Fandom, say from around 10pm onwards. More tomorrow!]
Within a split second, that all changed. The empty eyes of the spirits looked upward. They had never had reason to before, but something had changed. There was a crack in the seal that kept them subdued, kept them from reaching out beyond the pit. The crack was widening with each passing moment, only slightly, subtly, but widening nonetheless. The crack called to them, or sucked them in, the spirits couldn't tell the difference. All they knew was that this was something new, something they could feel.
The first spirits, those closest to the crack, drifted up out of the pit, gasping fresh air into non-existent lungs that they didn't realize had left them with their physical body. All they knew as they were sucked into the crack to Elsewhere (a word murmured and groaned throughout the pit before even the first had left) was that this was as close to freedom as they would ever come.
***
Hades watched as the first wisps of what used to be human trickled through the crack that would become so much more. A little nudging here, persuading there, perhaps some human sacrifice and they'd have themselves a fully fledged portal to the Underworld. Or, more accurately, a bridge between the old Underworld and the new. The new had better scenery, more fresh air, a chance to connect to worlds with an endless amount of souls and drinks with little umbrellas.
The only thing standing in his way was the pest problem. The humans had to go. But hey, Hades was a fair businessman, or so he liked to think. They would get one warning to get lost, then all bets were off and Fandom's previous tenants would be evicted for good.
A sharp-toothed smile split Hades' face into a grotesque expression of glee. He placed a hand on Andrew's shoulder as he stood beside him, party to breaking the barrier between worlds. "Good job, kid. I'm impressed." He leaned down and lowered his voice. "Now let's see how wide we can open this thing."
[NFI, NFB, OOC welcome. Thanks to wannabe_pan for letting me mod Andrew. The first spirits will be now appearing in Fandom, say from around 10pm onwards. More tomorrow!]