bakerstreet | Away from the sun

Hades & Persephone.

Persephone was gathering flowers with the Oceanids along with Artemis and Athena—the Homeric Hymn says—in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, searched for her all over the earth with torches. In most versions she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and in the depth of her despair she causes nothing to grow. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered the place of her abode. Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. Hades indeed complied with the request, but first he tricked her, giving her some pomegranate seeds to eat. Persephone was released by Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, but because she had tasted food in the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above.

but even that hardest of hearts unhardened suddenly when he saw her there: persephone in her mother’s garden, sun on her shoulders, wind in her hair, the smell of flowers she held in her hand and the pollen that fell from her fingertips. and suddenly, hades was only a man with a taste of nectar upon his lips

To live your life in darkness is no easy task. Evil may be just a point of view - one you may not ascribe to yourself - but a black heart or a ruthless mind is hardly quieted. While you don't regret what you've done, at least not outwardly, you do wonder if there isn't something more. Grey morality has discolored your world.

That is, until you see them.

They are beautiful, pure, good: everything that you are not. You should be annoyed or at least ambivalent to their presence; after all, they serve you no purpose, promise you no gain. But oddly enough, you are drawn to them, and not even in hopes to destroy or corrupt. No, you want to have them, to keep them with you. What to do with this newfound feeling?

Act on it, of course. You've never let anything stop you before. What you don't realize (or perhaps do, you just don't exactly care) is that the object of your...affection may not be too keen on being taken what they see as a prisoner. Yet you only have their best interests at heart! Still, you do care for them, in your own fashion, more than almost anyone else, so surely a deal can be struck...

You just couldn't bear to lose them.

This meme, obviously, is inspired by the myth of Hades and Persephone. Feel free to be as literal or as loose with your interpretations as you'd like.
Comment with your character, canon, preferences, and what role you'd like your character to play.
Reply to others.
Play anything and any scenario that fits within the theme.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Cheery as she is and known to enjoy an occasional drink, Persephone seems like the default role for her.

However, she's practical about death, unmarried, alone ... queen of the morgue and known to pine from afar - there's an argument for the Hades role as well. Depending on the pairing that might be the more interesting writing challenge for me.

Fan of giving Persephone a bit more agency than being kidnapped and tricked.

P.S. I'm almost certainly influenced by Hadestown lyrics]

[ Persephone ]

[ Either a misunderstood Hades or an even more misunderstood Persephone. ]

( ooc: she's a reincarnation of persephone (so 100% the persephone). currently working in a dive bar in a logging town where she lives with her mother demeter ~~who is in a coma~~. doesn't know she's a goddess yet but her powers are starting to manifest and she's scared and confused and wants nothing to do with this okay. )