video; un: wallofsleep

[cacophonish]

[ Here's a YOUUUUTH, drunk off of moon-themed cocktails, laying back on a park bench, a red cloak spread out beneath him. It's totally at odds with the rest of his outfit: ratty jeans, a Hawaiian shirt, and a leather bomber jacket. But damn it, he's rocking the Lil Red Riding Hood look all the same.

And he's singing, eyes closed, seemingly to himself. Just, y'know, tipsy and enjoying all the celebration and revelry going on. ]

Under blue moon I saw you... So so~ooon you'll take me... up in your arms, too late to beg you, or cancel it though I know it must be: the killing time. [ He smiles dreamily, exhaling. ] Unwillingly mine...

[ Now he opens his eyes. It's harder to seem all chill and laid back when he's actually looking at... whoever the hell this message is for. There's a haunted look in his eyes, and his smile seems forced, almost a grimace. It's the smile of a hostage trying to assure their would-be rescuers that everything's fine! ]

Hey, whoever the werewolf is, can you come and bite me already? [ He makes a face, wrinkling his nose, as if really thinking on it. ] That's how the game's played, right?

Comments

audio: persephone

[threshes]

[Now, she knows that he ain't the poet, but there's something familiar about that haunted look all the same, so she just asks:]

Ya need a drink, brother?

[cacophonish]

Technicallyyyyy... I'm not supposed to.

[ LIKE HE'S NOT DRUNK ALREADY. He lifts a finger to his lips and giggles. ]

Shh. Don't tell my case manager.

[ Which means: yes he needs a drink, bring him one immediately. ]

[threshes]

Why ain’t ya supposed to and what’s a case worker?

[cacophonish]

It's against the rules. And a case manager's liiiiike... a professional babysitter.

[ He seems melancholy for a moment, then shrugs it off. ]

Doesn't matter! I'm here, not there, so I can drink all I fucking want.

[threshes]

Well brother ya sure are talking to the right person then.

[cacophonish]

Yeah? [ GOOD. Cheerful and friendly: ] Who'm I talking to?

[threshes]

Persephone. [It’s said quickly and with an audible grin.]

[cacophonish]

Your parents are hippies, too? My mom almost named me Apollo.

[ Thankfully, his parents went with Jeffrey and spared him a lifetime of Apollo Creed jokes. ]

[threshes]

Nah. My parents were around well before there were hippies. Or humans. I’m the real deal, brother.

[cacophonish]

[ ........................what.

If Jeff weren't Jeff, he'd probably respond with some skepticism. As it is, after the year he's had, he just rolls with it.

Or he tries to.

It's kind of hard to figure out what to say now.

After a bit of a pause, he goes with: ]

Do you really have a three-headed dog?

[threshes]

We did for a while. But he had a mind of his own. Or three minds, I suppose. But he didn't approve of what my husband was doing, so he went to live with his father. Maybe he'll come back.

[cacophonish]

Aw...

What, uh... What did your husband do?

[threshes]

Thought I was gonna leave him for a sunray, so he turned the Underworld into a series of factories and mines filled with fake damned sunshine and warmth.

[cacophonish]

[ Jeff blinks. That's a lot to process. After a moment, he decided to just treat the conversation as he would under less, uh, divine circumstances. ]

I guess he took the wrong lesson from rom coms, huh.

[threshes]

He always takes the wrong lessons. Ya'd think that millions of years of marriage would be enough to convince him I'll always come back, but it's easy to forget that when ya need to spend six months alone in the dark.

[cacophonish]

Men...

[ He's kidding, but now he's wondering if that's, like, even appropriate when speaking with a goddess??? Hopefully she won't smite him. ]

Maybe he needs more friends. Or, uh, a hobby... to make that six months go by.

[threshes]

Men.

[Persephone just sighs in agreement, and there's no sign of smiting, because he's one hundred percent right. Sometimes her husband was such a man there ain't nothing to be done with it.]

He had one: turning the Underworld into Hadestown. Hopefully after the Poet and the Songbird, it's back to normal. Or will be when I get home.

[cacophonish]

Poet and Songbird?

[ That catches his attention, if only because he's been called both of those things before, as a bard. So maybe there's, like, bards in the Underworld?

Well.

Of course there'd be bards there. Bards die like everybody else. ]

[threshes]

Orpheus and Eurydice. They’re a story that keeps retelling itself.

[cacophonish]

[ He makes a thoughtful hm. ]

That was always my favorite story.

[ Duh. Of course he'd be drawn to the tragic romance of a bard. ]

If it keeps repeating... You think he's ever gonna get it right one day?

[threshes]

I do. [Persephone's voice sounds sad but firm.]

He’s gotta get it right so the world goes back into tune. We did our part, now this time he’s got to believe in love so much that he don’t turn around on her.

[cacophonish]

It's... a lot. You know?

[ There's sadness in his own voice as he admits: ]

I don't think I could do it.

[threshes]

[Persephone just sighs too, and her hand twists, summoning a red carnation into it without thinking.]

Do you know why my husband set that task for him, brother?

[cacophonish]

[ Jeff thinks for a moment, then shakes his head. He can't really understand why gods in myths did what they did. The best explanation he always had was "Because they're assholes." ]

No. I don't.

[threshes]

Because he’s scared. That giant old rock of a man is scared. Scared I won’t come home, scared he’d lose me. Scared that that he already had. And he's scared I wouldn't actually follow in the cold and dark.But he thinks that if Orpheus can make it without turning around then he can too.

Don’t rightly know if I could brother. I could follow, but I don't know if I could not look.