#❪ ⠀ ✦ ⠀ ─── ⠀ persephone / au × riordanverse ⠀﹕ ⠀i believe the world can change. ⠀ ❫

[missallanea-a]

@mvndrvke : ❝ there are better hills to die on but i find this one quite comfortable. ❞ nico to persephone

"It's a nice 'nough hill, I'll give you that."

She knows he isn't speaking so literally, but would it have killed him to pick a hill to die on that wasn't such a walk? Lowering herself with a soft noise of effort, Persephone sits beside her son, taking a moment to just enjoy the silence with him. "Don't know if I'd say comfortable. Could use a blanket if'n you're planning to sit up here long."

Scarred fingers stroke through the green grass, which only seems to rise to greet her in turn, the dry and withering bits of plant life under the summer sun soon turning lush from so little attention. If only she could do the same for her children, make them bloom with a wave of her hand.

Children were never as easy as plants. Mama always told her that much.

"...You're gonna get hungry, too, y'know. Didn't much think 'bout that before running off, did you?"

a few various sentence starters

[missallanea-a]

"I know. Oh, I know, baby, but I care what it does to you. Don't like seeing you fading away right in front of my eyes." I can't keep losing people. The sentiment was echoed in her heart, but she doesn't bring it to her lips. First, they'd lost Bianca. That was a wound still festering, untouched and untreated. She can't lose Nico, too. Thinks it would be the thing that finally tore this kingdom down.

But that was too much pressure to put on a boy still so young, still fighting with his own guilt.

As he lays against her shoulder, her fingers continue to stroke through his hair, resting her cheek against his head. There were words to be had with Hades, things she'll tell him later. How it was mighty rich, him lecturing anyone about overextending themselves. "You know there ain't no answer to that, Nico... Atropos makes her decisions, and the chips fall where they fall. Don't make it fair. And it comes for everyone... even if it ain't when we want it."

Persephone turned, pressing her lips to his temple. "I know, Nico... but now, you gotta keep going for him, for everyone you've lost. You know that's what they'd want."

Nico leans a little into Persephone's reassuring touch, though it's her words that bring him more comfort than the gesture. "I don't care what it does to me," he whispers, voice strained. "It doesn't matter what it does to me. It matters what it did to him. I can't keep losing people. I can't."

He looks at her uncertainly, and hesitates before he leans against Persephone, resting his head on her shoulder. "Dad's pissed that I overextended myself more than actually getting rid of her," he mumbles. "He thinks it wasn't worth it. But it was to me." He sniffs. "Why him? Of anyone, why did it have to be him? It feels like when Bianca died all over again-- they didn't deserve it. They were just trying to be brave. Stupid, but brave." He huffs, wiping away the tears that have started to fall. "I miss him, Mama."

[missallanea-a]

Oh? Getting right into it, then. Gently, carefully, her hands leave the grass to move to his head, stroking along his hair in the same motherly nature as her own mother when she'd been a girl. Perhaps a bit more out of practice, but no less sincere.

"...I don't care 'bout you killin' her, baby." A smile curves at her lips, out of place given the discussion at hand, perhaps. She should care, she knows that... but she can't bring herself to be so upset. Why should she cry when a weed is plucked from a flourishing garden? "What I worry 'bout, is what it does to you. You say she deserved it for what she done, then I believe you... but Nico, if you go down a path like this one, I don't know what's gonna happen to you. That's what scares me."

Having said her piece, Persephone drops her hand back to the grass, leaning back and putting her gaze to that same spot on the horizon that he had so focused on. "I won't speak for your father. You and I both know, no point in trying to change his mind, stubborn fool... but me? Oh, Nico... nothin' you could do to disappoint me. Certainly not that. Never that."

Nico keeps looking at the skyline in the distance rather than at Persephone. The strawberry fields are nice enough to sit in, but Nico decided to keep himself a short distance away from it, lest someone come up there and find him. Persephone had found him anyway, though. She had a talent for it, really.

"I don't care if you and Dad don't approve of revenge," he says quietly. "I don't care if you think it's wrong, Mama. My friend's gone. He's gone and it's not fair and Lamia deserved exactly what she got. Cecil was good. He worked so fucking hard to be better and kinder and make amends for his mistakes. I know killing Lamia doesn't bring him back. But it means she can't take anyone away again. She can't hurt us again." He hadn't used his powers like that in a long time, not since he'd turned Bryce into nothing. Nico had nearly turned to shadows and dust this time, overextended past the point he could return from, but it had been worth it. His anger had demanded it. Lamia would never return from Tartarus-- he'd made sure of that. He shakes his head, looking down at his hands. "I'd do it again. You and Dad can be as mad at me as you want, but I'd do it again."