#iod persephone

[isleofdarkness]

Mal; I was at Dad's for his birthday and I heard him say to Seph that he doesn't want to be sixty. And Seph, his beloved wife of literally millions of years, told him "Well, your only alternative is to die." I can't believe how affectionate they are with each other.

Later

Mal; Dad was throwing bits of his napkin through the candle flame trying to catch them on fire, and one of them landed in Seph's soup. She grabbed it with a need for violence in her eyes before putting it down on the table and saying "I will not throw this back at you because I was bought up properly, you were dragged by your hair through the mud," she has been married to this man almost as long as humanity has been a thing. Riah; Welcome to the family, we're all like that.

[isleofdarkness]

Hades met Maria in a graveyard in Italy.

He rarely leaves the Underworld, especially if it isn't business forcing him to do so, but on very rare occasions, he likes a change of scenery. So he'll go up to the mortal world with a book or something and find somewhere nice and quiet to relax for a bit. He tends to gravitate towards graveyards and other places where the dead are kept for obvious reasons. And one time, the graveyard he chose happened to be one in Italy, and a woman named Maria di Angelo happened to be visiting.

Because Hades was relying on the Mist to hide him from mortal eyes, he hadn't bothered to change his appearance. But Maria could see through the mist almost as easily as gods can. And she saw a very tall man, built like a linebacker with so many scars, long, electric blue hair, and yellow eyes, wearing all black with makeup, jewlery, and nail polish. It was a very bold look for 1920s Italy and she wanted to get to know him better. So, she went up to him and asked if she could sit nearby. He said yes, and the two of them just sat there for hours, reading and never saying a word. When she was done with her book, she rose and asked if they could meet again, maybe same time this day next week? Out of curiousity, he said yes.

This mortal woman who saw him through the Mist and yet approached him without fear and offered him friendship intrigued him. So he went down to the Underworld and told Persephone about her. Persephone was thrilled Hades was making a friend, and once he was more comfortable with Maria, Seph wanted to meet her.

Hades and Maria's weekly graveyard book clubs went on for nearly a year before they started having actual conversations. And Hades? Oh, he fell hard and fast (quite literally. Getting hit with Cupid's arrow is not a pleasant experience for gods, it knocked him over.) He discussed it first with Persephone- he would never have acted on it without her consent- and she decided that she had no problem sharing him, but she wanted to meet this woman. So Hades bought her to the next book club. Maria's hot crush bought with him an ever hotter woman who he said was his wife, and now she had a crush on both of them. The concept of nonmonagamy was a bit unheard of for Maria, but she took to the idea rather well. She and Hades started seeing each other. And while originally she was just friends with Persephone, that eventually evolved into a romance as well. Of course, Hades is the only one her family was aware of (and they thought he was a high-ranking member of the mafia,) but she was very much with both. They both absolutely adored her.

[isleofdarkness]

Hades and Persephone kind of wind up becoming the parents of everyone in the polycule. They're Riah's parents, obviously, Claudine was adopted right out the gate at age seven, and Hades is Mal's father which means, as far as Persephone is concerned, Mal is hers, too. And they're the only good parents anyone really has. Jay's father sucks and his mother vanished, Evie's mother sucks and her father is banished into an interdimensional prison, Mal's mother sucks, Carlos's parents both suck- so they're all in the market for good parents. And so Hades and Persephone, being the only good parents anyone has, wind up becoming adopted by everyone else.

And then it starts expanding. Agony has two very good parents, of course, but Hades has been her honorary uncle her entire life since he's good friends with both her dad and her Uncle Gonzalo so that's how she's been unofficially adopted into his family. Malcolm, obviously he needs new parents, so he gets adopted, too. Ace from Jay's QPR gets adopted, and Rose and Andi get adopted with it since the three are a package deal. Then Ben, whose father sucks, gets adopted. Tavasya, Ace's boyfriend, gets adopted even though he already has two great adoptive parents, and his sister Devika gets adopted since the two are a package deal. And so on, and so forth.

Hades is every bit as much of a mother hen as Facilier is, and he and Persephone have an agreement that any children the one has are automatically both of their children regardless of who the actual other parent is, so Seph is a mother hen by association. Demeter winds up with an astronomical amount of grandkids.

[isleofdarkness]

Hades is a very independent person (that's where Riah gets it from,) and beyond that, taking care of himself is important for the health of the Underworld. He knows to take breaks when he needs them, to sleep when he needs to, to eat when he needs to, and all the other basic self-care things, and he can do them himself without needing to be reminded. Is he great at doing this stuff when he doesn't need to but it would still be good for him? No. He's definitely not as receptive to his needs as he should be and does have a habit of pushing himself a little bit farther when he shouldn'y. That's where Persephone, Thanatos, Hecate, and Nyx come in. But he doesn't rely on them to remind him to drink a smoothie while he works. He's an adult, he can keep himself alive without help.

If he wanted a mother, he would have gone to live with Rhea. He wanted a wife, that's why he's got Seph, and he wanted friends, that's why he's got all of the Underworld gods. He's not helpless at taking care of himself. Him knowing how to take care of himself is literally integral to the health of the Underworld.

[isleofdarkness]

Riah, in a jail cell with Mal for destroying hostile architecture; Who should we call? Mal; I'd call Persephone and Demeter but I honestly feel safer in jail.

*After they get bailed out and go home to the Underworld*

Persephone; Try not to wake your fath- Hades, turning around in a chair and turning on the lamp; You two were caught destroying public property and fighting cops? Mal; ... Riah; ... Yeah. Hades; Without me? Mal; Wait. What? Hades; I could have gone with you! It would have been a great bonding experience! I can't believe you two didn't even think to invite me! I would have cleared my schedule-

[isleofdarkness]

Persephone keeps trying to get the gods of the Underworld to unionize. No one is really sure why, since Hades is a great boss, but she's really dedicated to it. They're considering it just for the sake of already having a union if something does happen, but it's not really a priority.

Hades doesn't really care if his employees unionize or not. He knows he's a good manager and that they're happy with their work environment, so he doesn't think there would be any problems if they unionized. And even if there were, it would be because he would be doing something bad and he would want them to call him on it, whether they had a union to do it or not. So sure, y'all can unionize if you want. Have fun.

[isleofdarkness]

Riah, struggling to open a jar; Shitty ass fucking lid- Persephone, glaring at her husband; I wonder where he got that from, my dear. Hades; From the fucking fridge, probably.

[isleofdarkness]

Ben accidentally winds up informing Hades that he and Persephone aren't legally married because interracial marriage was illegal in Auradon for a brief period and all previously-existing interracial marriages had been annulled during this time, so everyone had needed to get remarried. And this included the marriage between Hades and Persephone, since she's Black and he's white.

Hades got so angry he needed to lay down for two whole days. Like, that's my fucking wife! We've been married since the dawn of humanity! How DARE you annul MY MARRIAGE-

(They wound up getting re-married, had a wedding with a cake (It was a cookie cake, Seph likes those more than normal cake) and everything it was a lovely day and they had fun, but FATES was he pissed)