#something something who is permitted to divest and does that divestment actually serve you and loss of selfhood in service of a cause

[stellerssong]

had a dream last night about a post-canon hadestown au where orpheus, deranged with grief, begs hades to eternal sunshine of the spotless mind him because he can't live with the guilt of his twofold betrayal of eurydice (he let her go. he failed to bring her back.) so hades strips him of his memory and transforms him into a black dog—one of his personal hunting pack, his errand-dogs and message-runners and border patrol. obviously a bad fit for orpheus, but without love or memory or anywhere else to go he has no choice but to fall in line and do his worst

meanwhile, eurydice is making ends meet as best she can in a hadestown struggling to return to the status quo after her failed escape—working during the day, plotting a rebellion at night on the sly with her fellow workers, and fighting to retain her memory and her selfhood and her very name as they all slip away under the underground's influence

scene opens on a workers' bar after hours, eurydice gathered with a few compatriots sharing drinks and talking strategy, when the door opens and a small crowd of silent, black-uniformed men and women with amber eyes and too-sharp teeth file in—

(does eurydice recognize the last man in line, his eyes too bright in his thin, gentle face and his hands awkward on his glass as he turns it around and around on the bar but doesn't drink? does he recognize her?)

(is it too late?)