Selling his armor was enough to get him by for now, but it was clear Lancelot needed a job and soon. Surely there was some way he could put his skills to use in this world. He didn't like the look of the Underworld from the moment he walked in. The place was crawling with bad vibes, and there were any number of ruffians slumped about. He couldn't afford to be picky right now though, and anyway, if it were a reputable place, it probably wouldn't need his kind of help. He schooled his expression and approached the bar and the man behind it with a nod that passed for a greeting. "I'm looking for work. Is there someone I can speak to about that?"
After a few days without word from Killian, she figured the deed was done. The Jolly Roger would either end up under new management or be closed forever. Either way, she needed a new job. Walking into Underworld, she tried to remain stoic but confident. She had more experience now as a dancer, but if she looked sad or scared or anything less than what she knew she was capable of on stage, she would have to look elsewhere for a job. Chances were if it came to that, she would not be able to go to nursing school. She made her way to the bar and called out to a man nearby, asking, “Excuse me. Do you know where the owner or manager is?”
Brief Summery: Nikos does Hades’ bidding of revenge by screwing all of Zeus’ windows shut and painting them black.
It was a simple task certainly simpler than going through the portal, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t as risky. As far as Nikos was concerned it was at the very least on the same level of danger if not more. Zeus was not someone who he wanted to deal with and Hera? Well Hera was just as terrifying and though she wasn’t his target he doubted she would understand and be forgiving. Still, as much as crossing the other gods was horrifying crossing Hades was more so. Nikos needed to wait for the perfect time when both Zeus and Hera were out of the house, not to mention he needed to wait for a time that no neighbors would see him and call the cops. Thankfully, Zeus lived up on a hill away from people. What was with the living up on hills and mountains?
Nikos sat parked in a white van outside of Megalos’ residence for hours watching and waiting till the opportune moment. There was no empty house during the day and besides Nikos got the clear impression that Hades wanted Zeus to wake up to the darkness. So once he was certain that Mr. and Mrs. Megalos were asleep Nikos began his task. Armed with two gallons of black paint, a drill, 4 inch screws, and a ladder Nikos made his way up the hill dressed all in black and with baseball cap on for protection. Just standing in the King of the gods’ driveway was enough of a trigger to cause Nikos to light up a cigarette and to make his hands fidget.
“Okay, first screw the windows closed… all of the damn windows.” He thought to himself as he began to count all the large windows.
It was a good thing that he did bring a ladder because he was going to need it and Po, but Po was busy not getting into a possible near-death experience. Lucky bastard. Nikos started from the bottom and worked his way to the top, being careful to save the bedroom for last. To say it was a graceful job or a smooth sailing one was a drastic understatement because more than once Nikos managed to injured himself by either burning his hand on falling ash from his cigarette or stabbed his lip with a screw from holding the extras in his mouth. Of course there was the time the ladder fell over and broke some branches off the hedges it landed on causing Nikos to freeze like he was a deer caught in headlights and hope that no one heard the clang. It took two and a half hours to screw all the windows shut and another hour and a half to paint them black.
Painting was considerably easier, but it was messier leaving Nikos’ hands just as black as the windows. After he was done every window (including the doors) were painted with thick black paint and each window was screwed shut to the point that even Zeus would have a hard time opening them, probably even Hercules. Okay, not Hercules. Zeus’ yard was a bit of a mess as an extra bonus too. The once perfect grass now had little divots from the ladder and various cigarette butts could be found in the hedges. Of course there was the spilled paint on the driveway and the paint that had dripped from the windows down the siding as well.
All in all though Nikos considered it a success since neither Zeus nor Hera woke up and flambéed him. It didn’t even matter too much to Nikos that he tapped Zeus’s mailbox when he was backing out of the driveway causing it to tilt. It didn’t matter because Nikos was done and Zeus was none the wiser, that didn’t mean that he didn’t speed away though.
After making Lana skitter away when he stormed through his building earlier, Hades stalked his way through the Underworld, feeling more miffed than normal. Immediately, he sent his bartender home and decided to work it himself, keeping an eye out for some unfortunate soul who needed a deal. Leaning on the bar, he looked at the patron in front of him, “What can I do for you?”
Morticia found herself a seat at the bar and waited patiently for Hades' attention. She was a Hecate woman, herself, but since her goddess didn’t serve drinks in Olympus, she’d settle for the Lord of the Underworld. She tsked lightly and shook her head. "Open-ended offers can be so precarious. But I suppose I'll have my usual."
Hades nodded towards her and simply went about making her drink before setting it in front of Morticia. “Open-ended offers can often be closed in one’s favor, if you know how to do it,” he pointed out with a smug smirk.
"You are so wily, I have no trouble believing that every deal comes out in your favor." She smiled, lifting the drink to her lips. "How is your life? For lack of a better word." Alive was a somewhat slippery term here.
“Most of them, yes, that’s just good business for someone like me,” he pointed out with a slight chuckle. “Ah, it’s… interesting. Nothing like being home, but there are enough similarities to keep me sane. How are you finding Fableton life?”
"And bad business for everyone else," she observed, but not with criticism. She arched an interested eyebrow when he mentioned similarities to home but didn't press for details. "Fableton life is much like any other. I brought everything important with me." The change hadn't really fazed them. As long as she had Gomez and their family, she was certain they could get by anywhere.
“Only sometimes,” he shrugged. It was normally only when they didn’t uphold their end of a deal that they had an issue, after all. He chuckled a bit, thinking of Nico and Meg and knew it was at least somewhat the same for him. “Then at least you know exactly where you stand.”
"Every woman should." She smiled. She set her drink aside and pulled a slip of paper from her purse, sliding it across the bar to him. "I came to invite you to my party. You're welcome to bring your family."
He took the invitation with a curious lift of his eyebrow. “I will see. At the very least, I am sure that I can pop by for at least a moment.” An event at the Addams manor would provide entertainment, if not opportunity, at the very least.
"It would be terribly rude not to," she agreed with a small smirk. It was unlikely she'd hold a grudge for something so small. "You know Sally, don't you?"
“I’m familiar with her, yes,” he inclined his head once. He knew the woman through his fellow councilman and had taken note of the behavior between the two.
"She's a very dear friend. Likewise, her party should be something... extraordinary." She absently ran her finger around the edge of her glass. She could tell by Hades's expression that he knew what she knew, which was what Sally really wanted for her birthday. Morticia had a lot of talents at her disposal, but not one that could yet sway a Pumpkin King.
Hades tipped his head at the expression on the woman’s face. He was hard-pressed to deny someone with a connection to Hecate, and therefore in extension, his domain, much of anything. “And if I could provide her a gift to assist in that?”
"Why, I might find that I owe you favor." She smiled slowly. She didn't offer something so open-ended lightly, not even to the king of the underworld, but Sally's happiness was certainly worth that much to her. She had a gift of her own in the works, but she liked the odds of the two of them working toward the same goal.
Hades could feel the feather light strings of a deal of favors stretching between them, ever so slight, and nowhere near as binding as a full contract. It was a nearly flimsy thing, but still tangible to him on some level, even here. “A gift for her for a favor from you, seems fair enough,” he mused, “I will see her on the big day, then.”
Morticia preferred not to leave debts hanging like this, but for Sally, she would make an exception. Hades' talents were considerably different from her own. Whatever he was planning, she doubted it was something she could accomplish by herself. It may not have been a contract sealed in blood, but it might as well have been. She kept her bargains. Her smile widened slightly as she raised her glass in return. "I'm looking forward to it."
There was one really important rule with working for Hades: Do not under any circumstances fail him and get him in a sticky situation. It was sheer luck that Nikos had avoided breaking that rule when everything went silent and he was stuck shape shifting through various demonic forms. Then there was issue when he ran into Hercules and accidentally came off stalkerish to him. Nevermind all the the run ins with Hera. Every day Nikos went into work he expected to find Hades flaming in both rage and literally.
So when Nikos was once again having trouble changing back into his human form while in Fableton he was panicking. Ducking into alleys and hiding behind trees, doing everything he could think to avoid being seen. It helped that it was late and dark out, but there was still a risk. A risk that became actuality when he bumped right into someone, claws and all. Nikos froze and stared at the blonde as he struggled to get his brain to think of a solution that didn’t get him killed or worse his brother.
“Please, don’t scream.” He begged with a low growl. If he had stayed in his demon form it would have been okay, he could have passed it off as a Fableton quirk. But as he started backing away he began to shift to his human form. The girl had seen his face, his human face. He knew there was only one option now and that was to bring her to Hades. Nikos couldn’t just kidnap her and keep her in his closet. He didn’t know the first thing about having a girl in his apartment anyway. Nikos also wasn’t one for murder, hence Hercules still being alive. Hades on the other hand... Hades would know how to handle this. “Shit...” Nikos mumbled as he looked down at his human hands and felt his teeth change from the jagged fangs.
The bouquet was large and sat awkwardly in her arms, but she’d made it most of the way through the clearly rather popular bar without incident so she was feeling pretty confident. She scanned over the tops of the bright yellow and white flowers looking for a place to set them down or at least someone that looked like they worked there that could hopefully point her in the right direction. She managed to elbow her way through until she was standing face to face with a man standing behind the bar. “Excuse me, do you know where I could find Hades Drakos? These are for him.” She glanced down at the bouquet in her arms and smiled politely.
