#july171224

[happyk44]

What powers would you give to a child of Thanatos?

I've actually thought about this a lot! Naturally there's some overlap between Thanatos and Hades, but I like to expand it out a little bit to include some extras - such as Hypnos and Thanatos being twins, so some like dream travel would be neat because you just know Hypnos accidentally made Than pass out a lot in their childhood, and Thanatos being Erebus's son so I love the idea of them being granted some shadows/darkness powers as well.

Death touch: being able to kill someone with just a touch

Shadow-travel: bonus from grandpa and grandma

Being able to manipulate darkness/blend into darkness: another bonus from grandpa and grandma, as well as the fact that repears are invisible to the living

Seeing/touching ghosts: obvious, lol, shared with Hermes' kids as a pyschopomp thing

Seeing/sensing morality, aka how close someone is to death, as well as when death occurs

Being able to travel through dreams (albeit with some limitations and struggle)

WINGS!

Look

Maybe not all of them have wings, but some of them do because I would like some of them to be little angels of death like their dad, like maybe it's not a physical limb and it's more of a darkness, shadow thing, but look.

Wings

I would like them to have wings, please, thank you

Remove pain from a person dying - as part of Thanatos oft being considered a personification of peaceful death (compared to the Keres, who represent violent death)

Invoking a fear of death onto other people

Being able to know how or when you will die - as part of Thanatos being loosely associated with Atropos, the member of the Fates who cuts the threads of people's lives: this would be limited in people who are not close to death, as there's always a possiblity that things will change over time, your death will shift, etc, etc, etc

And then ofc there's stuff that, regarding the relationship to death and death-related powers, separates them from children of Hades. Than's kids cannot or have a hard time committing necromancy (bringing people back from the dead, as in skeletons from the ground or summoning ghosts from the underworld) - death is death, bringing things back from the dead, even if those things are still technically dead, doesn't really align. If they can do it, I imagine Hades' kids usually have to teach them how to, which is cute because I like to imagine Hades taught Thanatos similar things.

They cannot see living souls, and cannot manipulate any kind of soul, living or dead (eg. they can't force a ghost who is being a dick to stop being a dick, lol)

While I like to HC both kids as being aware and selfless regarding their own mortality, I think Than's kids have a harder time with the sense of caring for their own mortality because death is something they lowkey crave, in the same way many kids seek out their parents element, and what better way to achieve it then to die.

It's not suicidal, it's just a general passivity to life in general. Again, something Hades' kids and their various cousins help them work through, it usually improves as they grow older and gain more connections to life through other people, experiences, but ages three to seven are very iffy and Thanatos checks in often to make sure they know to not just stand there when a monster is charging at them, or to make one of Hades' kids babysit his little angel and teach them the meaning of "please for the love of all that is holy and unholy, don't stand in the middle of a busy road" and other such important things.

Similarly, it's harder for them to stop an impending death - say, if someone is being attacked and they could, theorectically, stop it from happening while remaining safe themselves, it requires far more mental effort to get into action. It's less that they don't care about the other person, and more that, like their father, they feel beholden to the timing of death. For this, they're not well liked by other demigods, something that Hades' kids intervene on frequently to take on that dislike/disapproval when they can so that their little underlings remain safe from other people's harm/judgment.

There's probably a lot of other potential as well, but I am. Stalling mentally lol, so here we are. I think a big importance, for me anyway, when thinking about Thanatos vs Hades and the related powers between their kids is to consider Thanatos' standing as a personification of death vs a god of death, as well as Hades being the king of the underworld and god of the dead. Hades's kids, theorectically, should have more power/capabilities related to the dead and afterlife, whereas Than's kids should be limited to death. Additionally, viewing Than as more of a reaper can create additional limitations for his kids, either in personality and how they perceive their powers or in the actual powers themselves.

Ofc, other people can have their own opinions and nothing is set in stone, lol. I might change up my opinion on some of this depending on whatever story is pulsating through my brain at any given time. I mean the wings things, lol, I've always been into it, but in the same breath my OC from the jealous!Percy story does not have wings because it slipped my mind as I was writing it 😂😂

Oh! Before I forget, with the Death Touch power - I'm sometimes flippy-floppy on this one depending on the story, but ultimately I think of this as requiring more effort than it would with a child of Hades, or the kids being more resilient to the idea of a single murderous touch because "it's not their time yet", because I interpret Thanatos being a personification god vs a god god as meaning he's more beholden to the timing of death versus being the full causation of it. He doesn't kill people himself, they just die because he's vibing around unchained, ya know?

Non-humans, like plants or monsters, may be easier because those aren't a type of death that Thanatos deals with, you know? He's people only, lol, but, yeah, typically I look at Than's kids as being like "well, yeah, I could kill this guy threatening my life by holding his wrist for a couple of minutes and putting in some efffort, but, eh, it's not his time and it's not like dad goes around stabbing people before their time, so i don't know..."

(Meanwhile the child of Hades that has adopted them is full on freaking out becuase dear gods, stop being so cavilier with your own life, you're not even doing it in a cool way like cliff diving")

[happyk44]

Do you have any thoughts on what powers the children of Persephone would have?

Yeah - so Persephone is the goddess of springtime and nature, and queen of the underworld. The springtime/agricultural aspect should always be more prominent than the underworld aspect, which, imo, should become more powerful during the months Persephone is at home in the underworld, but never more powerful than her flower powers.

There should be a great deal of overlap between this kids and their aunts/uncles/piblings (parents' siblings, lol, not a common term but I read it once a billion years ago and I still love it 😂 niblings is the niece/nephew equivalent). Demeter's kids should have stronger control over the earth and agricultural nature (grains and other plants typically used as crops). Persephone's kids, in my opinion, either should have no control of the earth or very minimal geokinetic abilities, unrelated to plants.

Because she is often described as queen of the underworld versus god of, as Hades is, and the underworld does not share its name with her, as it does with Hades, there should be much larger limitations between the overlap of Hades' children's powers and the powers of her kids when it comes to the dark and spooky. Nonetheless, her kids should feel just as comfortable in the shadows as they do in the sunlight. They are likely strongest during the spring months - but as springtime varies between calendars and hemispheres, maybe it's up to their perception of spring or it's strictly related to what the ancient Greeks would have thought of as spring.

So first and foremost, the springtime!

Inducement of spring, obviously. It's varies from creating spring because they can only induce spring-like nature within the realms of the area they're in. So they can't make Bermuda-like spring weather in Iceland.

They can grow and manipulate nature, especially with flowers. I headcanon Persephone to be wild and experimental. Where Demeter is the clean lines of agricultural and crops, Persephone is the vines reclaiming abandoned cars and houses. So this power is very easy for them to go overboard with; requires practice to keep it mitigated and small. This power is reliant on pre-existing plant life, so the kids will often carry packets of seeds (and maybe dirt) with them in the event they end up without direct access to nature.

They can grow plants in non-native, undesirable, or out of season areas, like a tree from a crack in the sidewalk. However, without prolonged assistance, that plant may shrivel up and die, like a water-heavy plant in the desert will dry up once the kid stops manipulating it, but in the moment, they can drop a seed, plant it and have it spring forth fully grown and whatnot.

This does in fact mean they could shove a seed or plant into a human body and have it root and grow out of that person. Like. For anyone who wants a little bloody bloody speculation 👀 (Fun fact: I like to think this was one of Demeter's combat moves during the Titan War, shoot an arrow and grow plants from the body of enemies that get hit 👍)

Rain! With spring comes rain, so I think they can manifest small drizzles of rain when needed. It's nothing particularly fantastic, but it can be useful.

They can revive dead plants, fortify them, and even mutate DNA in certain plants (though this is a tougher power to execute and requires both a lot of practice and mental effort). Mutation may not work out if the goal is to combine two plants with features that are not compatible - but crossbreeding unrelated plants is possible through them

Sunlight! Springtime is associated with the emergence of the sun and longer hours of daylight. This power, like with rain, is very minimal. Most kids are able to create a gentle low light with only their hands that they typically use on their indoor plants. It will never be as bright or powerful as, say, the Apollo, or even Zeus, kids (Zeus is god of the sky, the sun is in the sky, yes, I think they can glow)

With enough practice some kids are able to manifest small orbs of light, but it requires a lot of effort and is not as sustainable. Luckily they have good night vision (underworld bonus) so it's not as necessary, but still

They can physically connect to nature, which allows them to "see" areas that are otherwise out of sight (eg, enemies hiding in the trees or bushes, waiting for an ambush). Downside of this power is that damage to the plant life around them can cause physical pain and incapacitate them.

Similar to my headcanon that Nico is instinctively attuned to souls at a greater sense than would be natural to his siblings, some of Persephone's kids have an instinctive connection to nature and often bogged down by physical and mental health issues as a result due to pollution, poor or minimal conditions of the nature around them (like living in the city where nature is not as extensive as it would be I'm the countryside), parasite/pest infestations in gardens, crops, and such, etc.

Like with Nico and souls, it requires effort and practice to disconnect from nature enough to function daily. Persephone provides medication, disability aids, extremely healthy plants to invigorate them as needed, and frequently checks up on her kids with this issue, especially these days when nature is at its most pained.

Springtime is associated with rebirth and renewal, so they can utilize the life and energy of the plants around them to energize, heal and/or revive themselves or people. It takes a lot of effort and requires a lot of energy. Hades' children can do this as well. Both instances will kill the plant(s) used, but the flower power kids can revive the plant(s) afterwards - so long as the plant(s) in question haven't crumbled to ashes or, it's not, say, like an entire forest, because that might require a little bit more energy than they can extend. Persephone's kids can also use this power to stop someone from entering the underworld, so long as a) their soul has not been collected, b) their body is still in good condition (not decayed, rotted, etc), and c) an extensive period of time hasn't passed

Example One: I'm stabbed and I die. They exchange the life of a nearby tree for mine only a few seconds later and I'm revived.

Example Two: I'm stabbed and I die. They come across my corpse several hours/a couple days later. My soul still hasn't been collected because Hermes and Thanatos are still busy. Depending on the strength of the kid, they may be able to revive me fully BUT at the expense of more than one tree.

Example Three: I'm stabbed and I die. Hermes immediately collects my soul. I'm not in the underworld yet, just his shoulder bag with other souls. They cannot revive me.

Example Four: I have been dead for decades. My soul is still wandering because I am an atheist and refuse to go any underworld and also I bit several psychopomps when they tried so now they ignore me. The kid cannot revive me.

Example Five: I was burned to death. They find me immediately and revive me, but because the extent of my injuries exceed what they can heal via life exchange, I die again in agony and mentally curse them out for bringing me back to suffer once more.

👍👍👍

Now for the underworld powers!

Death sense, although it is weak and if the corpse in question is dead underground or has been dead for a very long time, they may not notice as quickly as Thanatos' and Hades' children would. Hermes' kids have the same issue with their death sense.

Ability to summon, see, and touch ghosts. While they can manipulate or control various spirits as children of Hades can, it requires a lot more effort to do so, especially during the months Persephone is topside, so her kids often don't bother with trying it on stray/uncollected souls (easier to use on summoned souls)

Necromancy, of course. It's easier for them to control corpses or bones. They have a harder time control large groups. Implications that would occur with a child of Hades summoning a dead body are often missed by children of Persephone, typically requiring verbal orders for the corpse to get shit done

Example: Nico senses a corpse underground and summons it. The implication along with his summoning is to be quiet as it digs its way out of the ground in order to catch Nico's captor by surprise. His step-sibling senses a corpse underground and summons it. The corpse in question may not catch the implication applied to its awakening and just continues to lay where it was buried until it receives clearer orders from the child that summoned it. They have an easier time resurrecting dead bodies and getting across the unspoken implications of the resurrection with physical touch

Corpses that spoke a different language in life, were deaf or hard or hearing, or anything else I'm missing that relates to verbally and/or audibly understanding another person, may be harder to control, especially if that mental connection (idk how else to phrase it) between them and the corpse(s) is lacking

Side note: this is just to display another example of how the overlap of powers between both step-siblings differs, it's not the holy grail, practice makes perfect and they could get on the level of their step-siblings over time, and honestly I'll probably ignore/forget the distinction myself at times, lol

They can understand skeletal chatter and ghostly whispers that would otherwise be incomprehensible to other people (Thanatos' and Hermes' kids can also understand ghostly whispers. However, skeletal chatter is usually not comprehensible to them)

Instinctive underground senses - like with Hazel in SoN, being able to walk around the tunnels without a map

Some darkness manipulation - not enough for shadow-traveling by themselves (solo travel is typically only possible via VERY short distances, a group of them working together may be able to go longer); enough to be able to blend into shadows and hide themselves, or utilize darkness to defend

Traveling through dreams (I like to think Hypnos gifts this to a lot of the Underworld kids as a little bonus, save for Hades' kids where the power is innate due to Hypnos being part of the Underworld)

Human life exchange, aka taking the life/health from one person to give it someone else. Children of Hades can do this as well, and have a far easier time with it. It costs them a lot of energy and effort, so Persephone's kids typically use it in tandem with taking life from the nature around them. Rebirth is both an underworld thing and associated with springtime, so it works.

Although similar to the above, they cannot, or struggle, do a flat death touch. If they want to kill someone with a touch, the life they're taking has to go somewhere.

And I think that's a good amount of stuff. Of course there's always more that that's possible, and again, these are just my thoughts - anyone else is welcome to come up with their own ideas. If you have thoughts on their powers, even if they contradict my own, feel free to add them or hmu about them! Love to hear other people's ideas 😊

Oh! Lol, headcanon that the seed packets the kids like to keep on hand for emergencies are mint 😂