Paying Respect (OPEN)

[Athena]

Having a family as large and diverse as the gods, it would always be good to keep in touch with everyone, including the God of the Underworld. While Athena would not travel to the Underworld with out permission, she could contact Hades and Persephone using an Isis Message. By keeping in contact with everyone, Athena hoped to avoid any rifts among the gods. It had been something that she had been doing for a while, the Trojan War, described in the Iliad was one of the larger conflicts between the gods, and although Hades had remained out of this conflict, like Zeus who had remained neutral, Athena would not neglect the possibility that a conflict would be between anyone.

Asking Iris for a message to Hades, Athena waited to see if he would answer, or if his consort, Persephone would pick it up. It was also possible that one of the Furies or shades might pick up the message before going to find their lord. One of Athena's owls stood on the ground beside the standing grey eyed goddess; the bird pecking at some grass. It was looking forward to night when it would be able to hunt. But for now, it stayed by her side, every now and again looking up at her with its large amber eyes, or moving to stand on her foot and give her sandal an affectionate nip.

Still waiting, Athena knew that later she would need to pay her respects to Poseidon as well. Although most of the Big Three remained out of human conflicts, there was always possible rivalry between them. Poseidon, like Athena, had sided with the Greeks during the Tojan War, but before that they had had conflict over Athens. Still, the whole idea of communicating with the others was to divert conflict, which could have serious affects on the mortal relm as well. And still, the demigods in the mortal relm also needed to be watched. Athena's attention had never left the Iris message while she thought and the grey eyed goddess was considering the possibility that Hades did not want any communications today.

[Hades]

Hades was pacing, decided where to put what and all that since his wife was just as busy as him-no-maybe even busier than him. It was early for the goddess to take her leave from the Underworld, but some rotten idiot had managed to frolic in her garden and ruin a favorite bush of hers. It was destroyed to the point where the goddess of springtime herself couldn't restore it. For all he knew, that was pretty bad. The matter gave him a god-sized headache, and it just grew when she asked permission for the one being that could heal the bush to visit-Demeter.

Hades had to admit he didn't hate his sister. She just downright annoyed him. She knew which buttons to push, and she loved setting him off like it was her hobby. That never put him in a good mood. What was worse was, whenever she visited, she co plainer about every single thing. Even after remaking the throne room and using more fire to light up the place, she still droned on and on about how gloomy it was. This was the Underworld! It wasn't like she was taking a trip to a botanical garden in that silly mortal movie with something about a Willie and a Wonka. No matter what he did to his palace, it would always be dreary.

Hades was in the middle of contemplating where to place the gargoyle statue that the goddess of Harvest absolutely loathed. He was about to tell the servants to place it at the door to greet Demeter when she walked in as a joke when the air before him shimmered iridescently. Iris messages, what a weird way to go. Through rainbows, too. Rainbows were so cliche.

Letting out a sigh of annoyance from being interrupted, the god stepped in front of the image as it cleared. He blinked his hard black eyes as the image of Athena appeared. "Hello, little niece, dropping by to chat?" His voice was sarcastic, stating clearly that he didn't have the time. All the iris messages he got these days were from her. He didn't know her objective of talking so much, but he was sure it wasn't because he was her favorite uncle.

[Athena]

The form of Hades appeared in the Iris message and Athena's grey eyes fixed on the form of her Uncle. As always, Hades did not appear to be in a good mood, but possibly more so today. It was possible that Demeter was visiting, from Athena's observations, the two siblings didn't completely see eye to eye, and Demeter often wanted to see her daughter. Being called 'little' was not something that Athena enjoyed, but she disregarded that, it wasn't of any importance and she was communicating to make sure that the peace between the gods was maintained.

"Yes, Uncle," Athena replied, her owl remained silent, its orange eyes briefly turning to the Iris message before it continued to wait for the night to come. "I trust I find you in good health." The Goddess said politely, formalities were important, and making sure that someone felt fine was generally what was expected, even if it were uncommon for the subjects of the speech to be anything but perfectly healthy.

The gloomey throne room of the Underworld did not bother Athena as it might do other Gods, she more frequently spoke to Hades than most others, and there was no reason to be bothered by the darkness. Yes, it was probably not the first place of choice of many og the gods, but it was like that and nothing could change. "How has existance treated you since the last time we spoke?" Athena asked, still more formalties, although she expected that the reply would be negative, considering Hades' earlier sarcastic tone of voice.

Maybe the best option would be to offer assistance, being friendly, rather than polite was generally more sucessful at avoiding conflict, although there was probably very little that the grey eyed goddess could help with. "Do you need help with anything?" She asked, deciding that it may be good to venture down the path of friendly or helpful in the effort to maintain universal peace between the Gods. It was more likely that Hades would deny needing any help, and the question was open, so she had not commited herself to any action either.

[Hades]

Hades kept his straight expression as solid hard as ever. He obviously wasn't in the best of moves, and he was positive that Athena had noticed. The goddess did have her realm over wisdom, after all. He couldn't help but scoff at her way of speech. She always talked to him this way. So formal. He felt old-well, he was...but still-and superior to her. He would rather not grow an excessive pride that his annoying brother, the Lord of the Sky, harbored.

"It's been fine." The god grunted in reply, trying his best not to seethe. After all, Athena hadn't done anything wrong. She had just dropped in at the wrong time. The gods weren't known to have decent control over their vast tempers, though, so the face he was making right now was a cross between stony hard with narrowed eyes and an attempt at looking loose. He gave up and just resumed his usual frown.

"You don't have to speak so formally. We're all gods here." The God of the Underworld shifted at her offer. "Besides getting medicine for headaches that really work and keeping Demeter away from me, nothing really." Carrying a conversation with Athena wasn't on his list of things to do, but he decided to comply this once just to satisfy her plan of keeping the gods together kind of thing.

[Athena]

Watching her Uncle through the image in the rainbow, Athena's grey eyes easily picked up the features that betrayed how Hades was actually feeling. Most of the gods didn't bother hidding their emotions and so when they did need to, it was never was good as possible. Despite his straight expression, the Godess of wisdom could tell that he was not in the best of moods, he was just trying to appear relaxed. But there was no sign on the goddess' face that she had picked up on Hades' mood. He probably would be able to guess that she would know about his mood. There was really no reason to try and hide it.

The reply Hades gave did not complete satisfy Athena, she knew that Hades felt like he had the worst of the deal that had been made so long ago. However, the three realms had needed to be divided and that had been that. As Hades went back to his usual frown, Athena guessed he had given up on the expression side of things. Generally remaining neutral was a good idea when in regards to expressions. At least he hadn't lost his temper. Decidedly, Athena did not comment on his words about how life had been treating him. It was plainly closed and not a subject that should be broached.

"I always find its better to be polite." Athena replied, although she did consider speaking less formally, it would probably help ease the situation. "But I will try and be less formal" She said after ony a little thought. It did make sense, as long as one had been through the correct procedures of greeting the other. Head ache? That was never too common among the gods. Zeus had a headache and they had cut his head open and then Athena had been created, or born, whatever way you chose to look at it.

"I could always ask Apollo, but generally its best to identify the cause of the head aches." Apollo was the god of medicine and he may have a cure. But Athena always maintained that identifying the cause and working with that helped. Once you found the source, you could figure a way around it. But there wasn't much that she could do about Demeter. The Goddess of the Harvest was usually considered to be very kind. "And Demeter is not really a problem. Having a change of company is good. You just have to look at the whole idea diplomatically and then any problems don't appear so bad." She advised. Advise was something she could manage as giving help.

[Hades]

Hades wondered how Athena managed to keep her face so expressionless all the time. The rational goddes sometimes amused him in how reserved she was sometimes. He shrugged, understanding how she had picked up the habit of formal speech. After all, whenever she spoke to him or the other gods, she always spoke in proper context. She was trying for him, which he appreciated. He had picked up the more casual way of talk. Usually the gods adopted fast like that. He gave her a coy smile, understanding that she was going to have difficulty adjusting.

The mention of Apollo made the god's headache get a little worse. They were getting more and more common for him these days. It wasn't bad to the point where he would have a child spring from his splitting skull, Olympus forbid that happen to him. He wasn't fond of the god of the sun either. The younger Apollo was always trying for those horrible poems and always shining his annoying light everywhere. He waved his hand in dismissal to show he had been joking in his odd way. He didn't really want Athena to genuinely try to solve these two growing problems of his.

"She is a problem." Hades tried not to groan at her words. "Diplomatic approaches are your solutions. I don't use them." He sighed with a shaking of his head. "Persephone wanted a bush fixed, and she said that Demeter could heal it. Some imbecile had decided to go and.." He topped himself, throwing his hands up in exasperation. He had just figured out another problem he had forgotten earlier, find the culprit. He hated playing the ct and mouse game.

[Athena]

Talking through Iris messages was bothering, they were incredibly useful. Although at times, Athena's owls did not totally understand about them, and the one that had been at her feet flew onto her shoulder and looked through the message and gave a small hoot on confusion, before flying behind the rainbow to see if someone was actually there. It was not easy to ignore the birds when they decided that something was confusing to them and Athena gave a small sigh. The owl flew back and she stroked the birds head. For a few seconds, it sat on her arm before glidding back down to the ground.

During the owl's actions, Athena's attention had barely left the message and she got the impression that Hades did not like the idea of getting Apollo involved. "Maybe you have a headache because you are overworried about Demeter visiting." The goddess said after a pause. Stress was often the cause behind headaches. Unless you had a child maturing inside your skull. But that was almost definitely not the case with Hades. Athena doubted her Uncle had eaten anyone of late.

As Hades shrugged off her idea about a diplomatic solution, Athena wondered what else there was. But Demeter was a force of nature and nothing would keep her from her daughter, Persephone. As Hades continued, Athena gave a small frown. This was an interesting problem. Not many would dare to destroy a plant grown in Persephone's garden. "Have you considered that this could be the cause behind your headache? You want to find whoever did this and you don't have enough to go on. So you are worried and stressed, thus resulting in a headache." Athena suggested.

[Hades]

Hades stared at the owl, wondering why Athena had chosen them as her trademark animal. They had their smart areas, but right now, he highly doubted they had any wisdom, trying to figure out the iris message with their oddly though out solutions. Owls weren't that smart anyway as they were, but other animals could be worse. Those viral videos Persephone had been chatting about on cute little kittens or whatever sounded plenty silly to him. The goddess like to stay updated about what was so important in the mortal world. He, however, didn't care.

"No really?" Hades actually growled this time, failing at his attempt to stay calm. He had known that stress from all his piling problems along with the paperwork that he was going to have by the time that this conversation was over was giving him a headache. And he had actually told Persephone that he was going to help her fix the garden! Ugh, he had too many things to do. He rubbed his temples.

"Abandon this whole thought of my headache, Athena. Just....just stop trying to figure out the cause because I think I have a pretty good idea of where it came from. Leave it alone. How have you been doing yourself?" He asked his niece, thinking about how he was going to catch the idiot that had sabotaged his wife's garden. Whoever did it had guts, he had to admit, but it did far from satisfying him,

[Athena]

It was very clear that Hades was not in a good mood, his words were growled when he spoke and it would be a wise idea to drop that topic. The aim of this conversation was to keep peace, not to destroy it. Athena's owl ruffled its feathers at the angry voice of Hades. It evidentally did not like the sound and was not going to disappear until night arrived. Headaches would not be mad better by getting angrier, either, so dropping the topic would probably help. Taking one's mind off headaches had prooved to work for mortals. It could apply to gods.

Hades' words backed up Athena's ideas to drop the subject. Athena hoped that the headache didn't get worse for Hades. Angry gods with heacaches were never the best combination. And in gods it was always harder to stop headaches than it was in mortals. They simple had to deal with a dilation or contraction of the blood vesels around their heads, usually directly caused by something that would be easy to remove the person from. It was not so with gods.

The question towards her own well being was a suprise, although Athena did not show it. "I have been fine. Human progress isn't what it used to be, but the literature has been rapidly growing and knowledge of the past is being returned to mortals. In England they have recently found a large amount of Mercian gold, which the archeologists are currently working on, trying to figure out how it got there and what its for. Itas based of the local Pagan gods on Ancient Britain and Christianity, found just off a main road. It is a monumental discovery for British history. It is being considered as important as Sutton Hoo's burrial mound being discovered." Athena was planning on taking a visit to view the find. It should proove interesting.

[Hades]

Hades stared at Athena with something like a mix of perplexity and annoyance. The owl clearly didn't like him. He couldn't say that he liked the owl either. He wasn't born to be fond with the creatures. Besides, ruling the realm he did, animals returned the disliking favor anyway. He wondered when the headache was going to clear up. He didn't have the patience to wait for it to disappear. Honestly, why did time had to be the "cure" for nearly everything?

Hades tried his best not to zone out as Athena went on about her day. It was getting increasingly difficult to carry a conversation with the goddess of wisdom. Her speech was growing more and more complicated. Why did he happens to have to be talking to such an educated goddess? He was trying to decipher and sort out her words through his pounding head.

The god waved his hand in irritation. "Yes, yes. That's wonderful. I'm assuming that you're going to go visit?" He asked, guessing from her enthusiasm right away. Honestly, she was so readable when it came to these things.

[Athena]

From Hades expression, Athena percieved that he was not exactly enjoying the talk. The owl looked from Athena to the Iris message and then back. Bending down for a second, Athena held out her arm and the owl hoped onto it. Looking at her with amber, eyes, Athena spoke to the owl and it gave a small hoot. it didn't want to leave. Polietely, Athena asked the owl to wait on a nearby tree, and the creature thought on that for a second, before flying to perch on a branch. "I'm sorry about that. The owls tend to get bored when dusk is approaching, and then they tend to seek my company." The Goddess explained. The owl gave a hoot in response.

After her talk about the recent discovery of Mercian gold, Athena realised that maybe she had spoken too much about it. Sometimes it was easy to forget that others were not as interested in the topic. Still, barely half a year after the discovery the BBC had produced an hour long documentary on the theories behind the Mercian gold. The documentary had outlined the main theories about the gold and all the mysteries behind it. "It is an important topic. It made the news and even a one hour long documentary was produced about it." She said softly, knowing that it was unlikely that this would persuade her Uncle that it was an important subject. But it was a way of being less formal.

As Hades waved his hand in irritation, Athena wondered how one could easily disregard such an interesting topic. The Mercian artifcats had been mainly compossed of gold and hades was also considered the God of Wealth. Also, one of the theories was that the gold had been lost after a battle. or that a theif had stolen it and was trying to escape, but had to drop the loot. "Yes, I am." Athena said, before pausing. It would be polite to invite Hades and his consort. "You and Persephone are welcome to join me if you have the time." She said after a pause.

[Hades]

Hades watched Athena have her little conversation with the bird. He wasn't the least bit interested in the gold story, really. Even if it made the mortal news, it wasn't news to him. Honestly, he knew it was there. He kept a tab on all the wealth in his realm, even the one's imbedded in the Earth. The mortals were always so busy digging in his territory, pulling out his riches and harvesting them. He didn't even care anymore. Sometimes, something extra special to him was taken, and that's where all the mysterious curses from touching a jewel came from. Deaths, sicknesses, yadda yadda. The Lord of the Underworld was pretty good at delivering misfortunes. That bit of gold from the Mercian civilization that he had watched fall wasn't too important to him. It had been buried under the ground, becoming his property. Now it was simply being returned to the mortal race.

"Yes, and I'll be interested if they spent the whole day yammering about it." The god muttered under his breath. He didn't really mind if she heard because he wasn't known to be one that spared feelings anyway. He blinked her sudden invitation. His black eyes reflecting surprise for a moment. He didn't know if he wanted to go. He had business to take care of. He would have to ask his wife, though. She probably would want the temporary vacation from the dreary underworld. Something about it not serving well to her skin complexion. "I'll ask Persephone, or I could get Alecto to find her right now."

[Athena]

It did not appear that Hades was as interested in the Mercian gold as Athena was. In the knowledge of the world, it was a step forward, although it would not be as important outside Britain. Most news was never seen outside its own country as important. "The humans find it useful as it shows a merging of two beliefs and the change of Britian, that then went to become a powerful nation, despite its small size." She said, trying to explain that it wasn't just the find of some more items, but instead knowledge.

Suprise was not an expression Athena had expected to see on her Uncle's face, it differed from his usually annoyed or unhappy face. It wasn't an expression one would expect to be on his face. Then again, it was not often that Athena invited others such as Hades to come with her to view such items. As Hades replied, it was not suprising, Athena had expected something like that. "You do not need to rush her, she'll be able to contact me by Iris message." Athena said. Persephone was a nice character and Athena prefered not to rush her fellow goddess.

[Hades]

Hades shrugged, of course, still not convinced in the slightest bit. "I tend not to mix my interests in with the mortals," he stated simply. It wasn't like he could be expected to be fond of them. He listened to their ghostly complaints all day. It wasn't just that he wasn't fond of them, but he looked down on them as well. Gaining knowledge indeed. Expand anymore, and Pan would not be the only god disappearing.

The Lord of the Underworld let out a small sigh, turning away to check that his lazy assistants were still working while he was chatting. They all jolted at his glaring black gaze, trying to look busy again. He rolled his eyes, knowing that the remodeling was going to take a while. Curse Demeter and her high maintenance. He was going to be so very busy. He decided that he probably wasn't going to go on the trip. Persephone had time on her hands, though, so he would be lenient. Besides, it was Athena she was going with. He could trust her to keep his wife from wandering off.

"Well, I'll be sure to inform her of your...generous invitation. I have to go now. I have more paperwork." Hades threw a loathsome glare at the stack a ghost was holding for him. A list of the authorized dead. Who was going where and whether he approved and other things.

[Athena]

Mixing with mortals, it was a thing that not many did. Athena herself took an interest in them and other gods often did. Some fathered or mothered many children. Aphrodite herself took an interest in the love between mortals and demigods. But everything mortal came to Hades realm in the end. Mortality had a limit. It was quite likely that the Lord of the Dead had already had enough of humans and their problems. Still, Athena would imagine that it would be pretty tedious just remaining down in the Underworld. Often it was mortals and the heros that caused change.

As Hades turned to look at the workers, Athena wondered how troublesom rulling an area could be. Zeus and Poseidon generally seemed perfectly content which differed dramatically compared to Hades, who's kingdom was the growing one. Although there were too many factors to be considered to identify what was the cause. Poseidon and Zeus did not seem to have the same problems with mother-in-laws that Hades had. Nodding as Hades replied, Athena's grey eyes flickered across the area that she could see in the Iris message.

"Good luck with your paperwork." Athena said politely, wondering whether she was going to have company on her visit to England to view the Mercian gold. Company was often welcomed.