#Erebyx

[takaraphoenix]

Hades Headcanons

So I did the mythological headcanons, right? And since I’m currently trying to befriend Photoshop (we do NOT get along, never did. But I figured I’d try to fix our relationship?), I thought I’d try it with some mythological headcanons centered around my favorite god - Hades!

1. Before Hades, Erebus/Nyx ruled the underworld and when Hades moved down there, they taught him how things worked

It just makes a lot of sense to me that Erebyx ruled the underworld before Hadephone did. And, I mean, while Zeus got their sisters upstairs to help him figure out how things worked, who exactly did that for Hades? (For Poseidon, I headcanon that he learned from Hydrus and Thalassa)

Hades braced himself as he entered the depth of the underworld. Why had he even agreed to make it all a gamble? He had never been good at those. Hera and Demeter used to beat him all the time at all their games.

And he was still sure that Zeus had cheated. Oh, what a coincident, the new kid came in as the dashing hero and ended up becoming the king of Olympus. Like that was in any way or shape legit.

Gritting his teeth and balling his fists at the sides of his body, he took a farther step into the scary, endless depth of the underworld.

It just wasn’t fair. Zeus got to hang out in the fancy, pretty palace upstairs - with all their sisters! - while Hades was basically sent into the next dark stomach. He had a little sympathy with Poseidon, because his baby brother was also sent away to rule on his own.

“Hey, there, kiddo. What brings you down here?”

Hades was proud to say he did not squeak like a little girl. Only Poseidon did that. Frowning, Hades turned to look at the man who had just spoken. His hair was dark and his skin pale as though he had never seen the light of day before. Lanky and tall, but something about him was kind of creepy. He had one arm wrapped around a beautiful woman with dark skin and even darker eyes. She offered Hades a gentle smile as she tilted her head.

“I am Nyx, the Lady Night, and this is my husband Erebus, the Lord of Darkness”, introduced the woman softly. “Now, who are you?”

“I’m... Hades”, replied the boy, shifting a little nervously. “I’m... I guess I’m the Lord of Death now? My siblings and I drew straws and you could say I got the short end of the deal...”

“Ah”, grunted Erebus, a calculating frown on his face. “I heard about that. Kronos didn’t last that long, did he?”

“Sorry, but who are you exactly? I’m a little... out of touch. Spent my life kind of inside my father’s stomach”, grunted Hades, not too excited about sharing his new realm with those total strangers.

“We’re the king and queen of the underworld”, chuckled Nyx. “When this world was created, Mother put us in charge of the underworld and our siblings Aether and Hemera in charge of Olympus. Our siblings were replaced by their children Uranus and Gaia, who then were replaced by their children Kronos and Rhea and now by... well, your siblings, I assume.”

“Ri--ight. So, this just got awkward”, grunted Hades, arms crossed in front of his chest in a defensive way. “Basically, I’m here to take over your job, huh?”

“Oh, you can have that!”, laughed Nyx and shook her head. “We’re overdue for retirement anyway. Got a nice, cozy castle in the depth of Tartarus.”

“...Ah”, nodded Hades, carefully looking around.

He shifted from one leg to the other. He was nervous. He had never been on his own before. All his life, he had spent with Demeter, Hestia, Hera and Poseidon. There wasn’t much to do in their father’s stomach, but at least they had each other. Always. At least until Zeus came in to save the day, forcing them all to join in on a revolution. They were just kids.

And Hades really didn’t want to be alone. He wanted to go home, to his siblings. Only... that this was now his home, apparently. An entire, dark, creepy kingdom all to himself.

“You know”, drawled Erebus thoughtfully, eyeing Hades. “We’re not much in a hurry. You want us to stick around for a bit? Show you how everything works down here? Where everything is?”

“Uh, sure. I don’t care”, shrugged Hades indifferently, even though on the inside he felt immensely relieved.

He hoped ‘a bit’ would last a while.

2. Erebus/Nyx basically adopted Hades and they gave their boy a puppy

I headcanon Hades as a real family person and a god who actually has a lot of love to give. Both, inside Kronos’ stomach with Poseidon and their sisters, as well as afterward. So when Erebyx took him in to show him how things worked down there, they basically adopted him. Hades grew up with Hecate, Eris, Thanatos, Morpheus, Hypnos, Nemesis, Eros and the other kids of Erebyx. Which makes sense considering most of Erebyx’s kids are marked as underworldly gods (and which makes me headcanon them as the underworld council of Hades to counter the Olympian council).

Hades was just taking a stroll through the underworld. He did that, sometimes. After all, there was still much to explore that he hadn’t seen yet. He was very grateful to Erebus and Nyx for the guidance they have been providing so far, but at times he still felt very lost.

Coming to terms with his powers and trying to be the king of his own realm were... not exactly easy tasks. And that Zeus was flaunting around how good he was doing was so not helping. Honestly, Hades really didn’t like the guy.

Hades was suddenly ripped out of his thoughts as he was tackled to the ground by a black mass. The black mass growled and yelped. When things around him slowly came into focus again, he knew he must have hit his head, because he was seeing not just drouble but triple. One dog, but three heads.

Blinking a couple of times, he waited for his vision to go back to normal again. Only then, the three heads started sniffing him and licking his face. Separately. Huh. Okay. Three-headed dog, it is. He watched the creature for a long moment, but when the puppy wagged his tail excitedly and tried to get Hades into playing with him, Hades found it oddly impossible to deny the creature.

After a few rounds of fetch with the thigh-bone of a close-by skeleton, the three-headed puppy tackled Hades again. He yelped and squeaked happily as he licked Hades’ face and neck, tail wagging in excitement.

The poor thing acted as attention-starved as Hades sometimes felt. Frowning, Hades looked around, trying to find the puppy’s mother. But judging by the state the puppy was in, Hades doubted he’d find anyone.

His frown morphed into utter determination as he gathered the creature up in his arms and returned to the palace. Gathering the puppy up some closer, he leaned in to whisper.

“Okay, boys, listen up. You gotta put on the most convincing puppy-pout ever, you hear me? Mom and dad are not gonna be amused, I think”, whispered Hades.

Squaring his shoulders, Hades continued on to the throne-room where he found Nyx and Erebus. Both primordeal gods looked at him curiously.

“I found a puppy”, declared Hades. “Can... I keep him? Please?”

Erebus and Nyx exchanged an amused look as they were confronted by four matching puppy-pouts. “Of course you can. You’re the king, my boy.”

“What do you want to call him? Them?”, asked Nyx curiously.

“Mh... I thought maybe... Zerberus?”, mused Hades thoughtfully.

The three heads all yelped in agreement, trying to lick Hades’ face. He was so going to take good care of them and not abandon them, because that was just not what family did.

3. Hades/Persephone are happy and in love

Yes, he kidnapped her. But so did the Beast with Belle and that’s a great love-story repeatedly retold. Who’s to say she didn’t also fall in love with him? I just think that Hades is... Very Bad at expressing his feelings. That was the only problem there, really.

When Hades first saw her, he ran into a solid marble-wall.

He had been on one of the semi-regular meeting him and his brothers had, on Olympus. And as always, Zeus had been a smug pain. So nursing a headache the size of Tartarus, Hades just wanted to get back home. But that was when he saw her. She was easily the most beautiful creature Hades had ever laid eyes on, as young and lovely as a delicate blossom. He had been so awed that he craned his neck and tried to watch her for as long as possible, losing focus and kind of accidentally missing a wall.

The Muses were going to make fun of him for that for the next five centuries, because they were his only witnesses.

When he got home, with an even bigger headache than before, he decided to do what he did best: Mope. He had no idea what to do. Feelings weren’t exactly his thing.

All his siblings aside from Hestia were married. Some very happily, like Demeter with Karmanor - nice fella, bit dull and way too in love with his garden, but quite the perfect match for Demeter, really - or moderately happy as Poseidon with Amphitrite - a bit cold, but that came probably with the whole half-fish-deal - or, well, the unhappy ones; Zeus and Hera. The point was, they all had a love-life going on. Had gotten married. Hades had never even looked at a woman like that before. He had always simply rationalized that he had no interest in those sort of things.

Only. Only now he kind of really had? But what did one do when they felt this way? Frowning, he decided to ask the one man Hades definitely knew was absolutely happy with his wife.

“Erebus, how... did you make Nyx fall in love with you?”, asked Hades uncomfortably as he approached the God of Darkness.

“Oh, don’t ask me, boy”, laughed Erebus and shook his head. “Mother sent us both down here into the cave and then it just... happened. Why do you ask?”

“No... reason”, replied Hades and left.

So Erebus and Nyx were just down here and then it happened? That sounded doable, right?

“EREBUS! Did you tell Hades to abduct a girl?!”

Erebus fell off his throne as his wife stormed in, furious and wild. He normally liked that look on her, but not so much when it was aimed at him. Shifting nervously, he tried to figure out what he had done wrong.

“No? Why do you think that, love of my life?”, asked Erebus cautiously.

“Oh no, do not sweet-talk me, mister”, huffed Nyx, glaring at him. “There’s a girl in our palace who has no idea what she’s doing here and Hades is having a mental melt-down about it! Apparently, you gave him ‘great advise with women’. That resulted in him abducting Zeus’ daughter.”

“...Oh. Oh no. I didn’t... I mean...”, grunted Erebus, unsure how to even respond to that.

“Well-”, started Nyx displeased.

“Nyx? What... What do you give a woman to say’ I’m sorry I abducted you, I just don’t know how to talk to women?’“, interrupted Hades as he entered their chambers. “Because she looks really pissed.”

“Flowers”, suggested Nyx after a long moment, massaging her temples. “Try with a lot of flowers. And words. Like, actually articulated words that express your feelings and thoughts. No more caveman behavior, young man, you’re not a mortal! And if the flowers fail, try to woo her with exotic food.”

“Flowers and food. Got it”, nodded Hades, determination written all over his face.

He went to the upper world to pick all the flowers he could find. Gathering all his courage, he went to the chambers where he had left Persephone and he prayed she didn’t have her mother’s temper.

“H--Hello”, started Hades awkwardly, shuffling around as he tried to hide all the flowers behind his back.

Persephone looked not the least bit impressed as she stood before him with her hip cocked and her arms crossed over her chest. “You know, I thought you looked like a bad boy, but I didn’t think you’d be... that bad at everything you do.”

Hades sputtered a little, his cheeks flushing. “I... I brought you flowers. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to abduct you. I mean, I meant to abduct you, I didn’t accidentally abduct you, but what I mean is... I don’t know what I mean...”

“You’re a mess”, sighed Persephone and shook her head as she looked at the blushing boy. “But you’re lucky you’re a cute mess.”

Hades’ blush significantly lit up even brighter.

[philomythiapod]

Erebyx Kuruma [Eric]; ‘Forged In Blood’ Campaign