The Persephone Problem
(AKA: Why Sunny has such an issue with Persephone, and why they probably won’t ever get along}
It’s fairly obvious to all that Sunny had a rather odd experience as far as motherly/maternal people in her life went—her birth mother, Liliana, isn’t even a fuzzy memory, she’s nothing but a name, Sunny doesn’t even know what she looked like, as Oz was in the midst of a Civil War at the time of her birth, records were not well kept, and even those that were tended to be destroyed or lost.
Luce, however loving she may have been, was a startling, and abrupt sort of person. She did love Elois and her brother, quite a lot more than she thought she would, because despite popular claims, she was actually capable of it, because she did actually have a soul at the time. However, her near commando like parenting was incredibly jarring (Even if, in the long run, it ended up being fairly necessary for their continued survival).
Of course, then there was Antheia, who didn’t really start the maternal nonsense until after the two had known each other for quite a while—and despite all that, half the time, the woman does not come off as particularly motherly in the slightest. She was a friend first, before she became a surrogate mother figure.
Sunny is constantly at odds with Persephone for two main reasons, the first being that she’s had a rather odd sort of run when it comes to motherly people—despite being rather motherly herself—she’s fairly defensive about the entire thing too, especially given that she feels she’s spent her entire, rather long, life in the shadow cast by Luce, whether that be as an aspiration, or as a dark cloud hanging over her. Persephone is incredibly outwardly maternal, and it more or less scares Sunny off a little bit.
However, the main reason is something entirely different, that has less to do with Persephone herself, as opposed to the people around the queen. It’s blatantly obvious that Sunny is incredibly close with Hades—at least as close as one can be, given his general grumpy and discontent demeanour—and Hades’ main priority is always Persephone, above all else. As such, the moment Persephone returns to Elysium during the year, the two of them tend to exist almost solely in their own little world—others quite clearly aren’t welcome, or at least Sunny feels as much, so she tends to avoid the place whenever they’re both there, because she feels unwelcome. Having done it for so long, it’s created an odd association in her mind, one that she should avoid Persephone whenever possible. The woman has an instant connotation to her of ‘unwelcome, unwanted, should be elsewhere’.
It certainly doesn’t help that Persephone is, in her own right, incredibly powerful, and heavily associated with water. A powerful, very ancient being with intense magic abilities with a focus on water, that makes her feel unwelcome while simultaneously exuding maternal vibes? Is it really any wonder Sunny is utterly terrified and uneasy around the woman?