(Untitled)

[aidoneus_rex]

Once, there was a pleasant city here. But that was before Ottawa suffered the usual statue-rampage... and something large that looked like it tried to kind of a lot of buildings as furniture before heading further north. Most residents are dead or fled, though there are a few squatters still hoping to get by on scavenged food and shelter

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[alyikui]

How's this for flame-retardant?

Alice Cooper is a) dead and b) fire.

No, really. It's a thing.

So there's one ghost, entirely incapable of interaction with the physical world, staring at Hades with a look on her face that says, more or less: I can't decide whether I should be giving you a scolding or a standing ovation.

What she does give him is this:

"...dude, that brought me here all the way from fuckin' Kansas. What are you?"

[aidoneus_rex]

Whoa, what the-- he sees dead people.

Which wouldn't be so weird if he were, you know.

HOME.

But hey, dead people, he can handle. In complete violation of several laws of physics, the flames cool as they pale down to gaslight-blue.

"What am I? A god. Of the Underworld, which unless I miss my guess, is where you should be. You know. With the whole shade thing you've got going on there.

"Hey, way to retain coloration, though, that's a neat trick."

[alyikui]

"Yeah, it's-- I-- what? Hi. Uh. Nice to meet you. I'm Alice, and you..."

Anne was big into the myths and stuff. Alice, on the other hand, was big into... well, Disney.

"...you are Hades."

Blink.

"Okay, this is officially weirder than the fucking Apocalypse."

[aidoneus_rex]

"Color throw you off? It happens. You get a couple mosaics, a few bas-reliefs doing the whole blue thing, people tend to forget fire comes in decorator colors." He shrugs. But hey, wait a second-- "Apocalypse? ... Yeah, that'd explain the generalized rubble."

You know. The stuff he didn't just melt into slag.

[alyikui]

"Yeah, Apocalypse. Uh, the world kinda... broke a few months ago."

She tilts her head, looking at what for lack of a better phrase we will call his hair.

"I know fire." Waving a hand at the aforementioned, "Seeing it without feeling it is, uh, weird."

[aidoneus_rex]

Hades gives her a Look. (Ignore the icon keyword, it's just a measuring look.) "Yeah. Unfortunately, being dead tends to do that to people." It gives him a bargaining chip, of course-- he doesn't feel particularly drained or de-powered, after all, just a little disoriented. Now, whether or not it's something Alice here would go for remains to be seen. "It's not what you'd call a really interactive state."

[alyikui]

She snorts. "No, no. Like this." Snapping her fingers: "I know fire." The gesture produces a puff of tiny phantom sparks, and she shakes out her hand, grimacing. "Yours is different. Probably 'cause of that whole death god thing. It doesn't, uh..." How to explain this in a way that makes sense and sounds minimally nutty? "...it's like it ain't there. Only it is."

Which, she's well aware, is utterly nonsensical.

[aidoneus_rex]

"Ah, gotcha, right. Yeah, kinda divine, the hair, not so good for roasting marshmallows." Unless he decides it should be, in which case it's also good for incinerating cities. And smoking minions. Million and one uses, really.

If he's impressed by her conjuration, he doesn't much show it. Interested, sure-- that's not a usual talent for a mortal, much less a mortal shade.

"Also, it's God of the Underworld, Lord of the Dead. God of Death's somebody else; I run the place, not do the footwork." This is perhaps a rather oversimplified explanation of his duties-- and of Thanatos's duties. "So. What's a nice shade like you doing in a place like this? By which I mean are you a ghost looking for an Underworld or just a, uh, moth drawn to the flame?"

[alyikui]

"...more the second than the first."

Hmm.

"Though I'm really really fucking bored of not being able to touch anything, so if your Underworld's gonna fix that..."

Pretty please with sugar on top?

[aidoneus_rex]

"I get the feeling this place much needs one." Which is a Hades way of saying he doesn't have anything set up just yet.

Which brings him to his next point. "Alice, right? Can I be honest here, Alice? I just got yoinked out of my own comfortable if slightly stifling place in a well-ordered cosmos and dropped in the middle of a world in chaos that, hey, I don't get.

"Yet." Give him more than, like, fifteen minutes. He's already appreciating the roads. Much nicer than dirt or cobblestones. The architecture, well. He'll reserve judgement until he sees some more of it intact.

"You, if I am not mistaken, are a local."

[alyikui]

"Yeah, I am that."

Small, slightly rueful smile.

"Sorry, man."

And hey, if she weren't way too short, she'd totally pat him on the shoulder.

"If I can help you out somehow..." PLEASE IN THE NAME OF... SOMETHING... GIVE HER SOMETHING TO DO. :D?

[aidoneus_rex]

He's getting to that point.

No, really!

"I could definitely use a hand," Hades agrees, hey, was he that close to her before? "Somebody who knows the culture, the geography, the locals, maybe some of the details of what went down. Couple of decent defensive skills wouldn't hurt." Maybe where to find someplace to set up a decent temple or a population in search of something to believe in. It's not like he doesn't deliver.

"And of course somebody who could do all that would need. You know. A body to do it in." This is said in tones of 'it could be arranged.'

[alyikui]

"--I'm likin' this idea," she says, nodding and grinning a little. "Keep talking."

[aidoneus_rex]

Hades can keep talking. He's really quite good at it.

"Ordinarily, it's kind of important to actually have the body..." Not that he releases shades to the upper world often. For one thing, it tends to get a little... shall we say... costly. Hades is Host of Many, after all, and trafficking in the dead would make him Host of Slightly Less Than Many. "You know, patch it up, settle the shade back where it's supposed to be. Any god could do it, if I were the kind of Lord of the Underworld who let any old schmuck waltz in and saunter out with shades." Strictly speaking, a body could be created out of dust or what have you, too, but that's a lot harder than just fixing what's broken.

"But I've never seen a shade hang on to their living powers before. I think can work with that.

"Fire, huh?"

Wheels are turning.

[alyikui]

"Fire," she confirms. "I... am it? Drink it? Breathe it? All of the above? Never had to explain it before. But something like that. And yeah, considering my body's a bunch of ash under a rock back home..." Shrug. "Not much goin' on there."

[aidoneus_rex]

... Whoa, hey, she's half there already. "Yeah. Doable. Completely doable, here. Okay, so. I can't assure a mortal form up in this world, at least not until I get a decent Underworld going, maybe arrange some worship, couple of temples, that kind of thing.

"But fire, now. Fire? I can do."

Details, though. Details were important. "So. Here's the deal. You get a physical body, something that can interact with the world, something... comparable to if not exactly your old abilities. Fire-based. I," hey, sould he be able to touch a ghost? Apparently he can, one large hand on her shoulder, whether or not she can particularly feel it, "get you. Native guide, so to speak. Local help. I'd call it 'general minioning,' but that doesn't look so good on the resume