Work Text:
Melinoë
I skidded in an attempt to slow my momentum and failed. I stumbled and found myself thrown against the concrete side of a parking deck, fresh bruises already forming beneath my pale skin.
On top of the others from last night, and the night before... I thought grimly. I spit Ichor pooling in my mouth and nursed my broken lip. In the distance, my assailant howled with what felt like righteous vindication. With my tail between my legs, I reluctantly recognized the fight was lost. As it has been every night since our uninvited guest arrived. I took a deep breath and performed the rite to return to shadow now, the surrounding hollowed out innards of skyscrapers and rusting cars giving way to blissful darkness.
Several weeks ago, a restless shade had arisen from beneath the construction of a banking building over in the corporate district. Although it was never confirmed, I suspect the workers must have accidentally disturbed the resting place of some spirit from the old world and roused it from its dreamless slumber. I remember the night it awakened because I could hear its screams from the apartment where Dora, Eris, and I resided, despite said domicile being on the opposite side of town. I had been indulging shots of nectar with Dora that evening when the first howl shook the building like an earthquake. Unperturbed, she opened the window and leaned out street side to get a better view. There wasn't one, at least, not from this vantage point. She shook her ghostly head and lamented, "looks like I've got competition in the haunting department. This will never do. MEL! Sick em'!"
She commanded in her best impression of a nightmarish shade. I rolled my eyes at her but despite myself my green lips folded gently into a loving smirk.
Dora noticed this and continued her ribbing.
"C'mon c'mon c'mon go get your cute Chthonic butt out there and wreck this thing so that we can finish this bottle tonight! And maybe each other later, if her highness is so willing..."
I blushed and told myself it was because of the nectar as to playfully deprive her the satisfaction. I forced myself up off the couch and did some stretches while teasing Dora,
"I suppose. If you so insist, your frightfulness. But not because you told me to."
I winked at her as I summoned Lim and Oros from off their dedicated wall mounts and felt their familiar weight and power in my hands. Another distant roar shook the premises.
I saluted to Dora as I opened a gateway to the rooftop across the street to begin another "night on the town" as Eris had eloquently put it. As I turned to leave, she cheered me on,
"Knock em dead babe! Or, knock em around anyhow? Since, ya know, they're already dead? Regardless, you got this Princess!!!"
I did not, in fact, got this.
I had subdued stronger foes before, or, so I had thought. This one hit different. "Quite literally" Dora had belittled me that first night I returned home battered, wounded, and exhausted. The shade itself was unlike anything I'd ever faced. Twisted steal beams of nearby structures were repurposed as a makeshift skeleton. Although it was neither a bipedal creature nor quadrupedal in life as the shape its skeleton formed frankly baffled the senses. The following night, Eris had attempted to waylay the thing herself only to have gotten swatted out of the sky like an insignificant gnat. She described it "like a gum wrapper someone chewed up and spit out again but made out of rebar!" Its "flesh" was this oozing volatile substance that glowed distressingly in the gloom of night. This substance ate through metal and dissolved asphalt and burned through just about everything when the creature wanted it to. Frustratingly, as I discovered the hard way, neither the ooze nor the skeleton housed the spirit of the virulent shade itself. Meaning there was no way for me to hit it if there was nothing to hit.
In describing the wretch to Dora in detail the look on her face worried me. "What?" I asked, annoyed.
"Would" she replied with her prize winning patented snarkiness.
I groaned and threw my arms up in frustration and lay back onto the carpet of the floor I had been sitting on so that I didn't bleed all over the couch or bed.
Weeks of unsuccessful attempts meant each evening our troublesome urbanite took more and more of the city devouring it and getting stronger and more resilient with every city block consumed.
One night Dora and I sat together on the roof of our apartment watching Eris try her best to pester the thing in an attempt to uncover some hidden weakness we could exploit. Something she usually excelled at. The hours wore on before Eris relented and flew back to us while the beast turned away from her uninterested and continued its glacial march.
She collapsed down onto her knees next to me, fresh gouges and a black eye and several broken bones apparent as she shook sobbing despite herself. She looked about as good as I felt, having come home in almost the same condition the evening prior. Ignoring her yowling I grabbed her and pulled her close to me and held her while she cried into my shoulder.
"This thing needs to fucking leave, Trouble" she choked. The frustration now affected all of us. Even Dora failed to make a quip, which was how I knew we were in dire straights.
I realized after weeks of not making a dent it was time to call in a favor. The next evening instead of facing the beast I chose a different path. I chose to stay in and try to sleep to let my body recover and while asleep I reached for my brother while dreaming...
Across the familiar void I found his spirit twinkling against Nyx's embrace easily enough. I waved to get his attention, but he balked at my approach.
"Mel, you.. Erm... You're uh... Naked. Mel."
I flushed embarrassed remembering I only thought to contact him after I'd fallen asleep. And neither listless shade nor strife incarnate nor myself partake in bodily adornments when we sleep together. Or rather "jammies" as Dora had taken to calling them. She's said such things were "for suckers" and while I wasn't sure exactly what she meant by that, I agreed I slept more comfortably that way.
I wrapped some of the void around me as if to cover myself and waved frantically "ignore that, that's not while I'm here!" desperation creeping into my voice. My eldest sibling raised an eyebrow. He had chosen to reside out in the countryside with Megera and Thanatos while I had opted to stay in the city. I hastily explained to him my problem with the shade, and he laughed initially.
"You mean to say you finally found someone... you -the Goddess of Ghosts, could not tame?" He glibbed, smiling.
I bit my lip in silence by way of reply. His features softened.
"You're serious? How bad is it?"
I explained what I could remember trying to piece together what little details Eris and I had been able to glean from our nocturnal assaults.
Zagreus, impeccable and stubborn as always, promised to arrive the following night.
"We'll kick this thing's ass, Mel. Assuming it has one. You'll see!" He said with fire in twinkling in his eyes. I dropped the "modesty curtain" I'd been holding and ran up to him and glomped him. He held me and buried his face in my neck and chuckled.
"See to it that you're dressed tomorrow though. Wouldn't want to give anyone the wrong impression..." He said but his lips curled into a smirk I now realize we both inherited from our mother. I stood up on my toes and ruffled his dark hair.
"If you insist, bonehead" I teased, kissing him on the cheek before turning to return to my own dream.
That night I slept better than I had since the first night our problem shade presented itself...
Zagreus
Melinoë wasn't fucking around, I realized, seeing her city of the dead in shambles. I shook my head and made a mental note to rib her for not calling me sooner when all this was over. She's always running off trying to do everything on her own and much like father often refuses to ask for help even when she needs it.
The plan as we had drafted was for her and Eris to confront the skeleton destroying the city so that separately I might hunt down the shade that was piloting or controlling it. Sounds easy enough on paper, I thought jumping down onto the abandoned street below. The shades who lived here had evacuated that first week save for the crazy ones like Mel and Eris. Not that I'm any different in that regard, I mused.
Reportedly, Mel and Eris had already attempted this before. Several times as a matter of fact. One of them gets washed up by Mr Scary Glowstick while the other scoured the city in vain searching for this violent restless shade.
I had my doubts, but Mel has always has a knack for shades. She just knew things about the dead in a way the living or pretty much anyone else didn't, so I shouldn't put it past her.
Minutes Later...
I really shouldn't put it past her.
It wasn't long before I found several green eyestalks with glowing yellow eyes staring at me from behind a cologne billboard. Followed by more eye stalks. Followed by green tentacles. Followed by a mass of slimey flesh that made a splat sound when it hit the parking lot below.
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about Mr Urban Planning over there would you, Pal? Sounds like a lot of redecorating has been going on."
The mound of wet writhing flesh screeched in reply. It seemed very territorial on the subject.
"I see... Well, look, how about we broker a deal, you see, oof"
One of the tentacles as wide as a tree trunk and just has heavy hit me and flung me through the nearest building. I peeled myself off from the rubble, growling. Why can't we do sibling's night like normal people? I thought disparagingly. I summoned "Stigy" as Dora had taken to calling my blade and decided I'd craft my reply with deadly strokes instead of words.
After much trial and error I managed to corner Ms Chewed Gum Wad into a corner between a dumpster and the edge of a building. She (although I had no actual way or telling what flavor of being this shade might have been) fought to the tooth and tentacle to keep me at a safe distance. Oh, did I mention it had teeth? Yeah. I'm into getting bit as much as the next fella, but not like this. I wailed on it for what felt like an eternity. I absentmindedly wondered if my arms would give out before this thing did as I cut through tentacles and dodged its attacks as best I could. Finally, I plunged my crimson blade as far deep into its flesh as I could muster almost up to the hilt. It wailed and then faded into glowing particles the way some shades tend to do. I fell to my knees panting.
In the distance, the echoes of Mr. Ghost of Urban Planning's Nightmare suddenly reverberated and undulated before the city itself shook. Its towering form melted above the skyline and dematerialized. Its "bones" collapsing with a resounding clang onto the pavement below.
I'm not sure how but I could have sworn I heard whoops and cheering and screams of relief from the two Goddesses several city blocks opposite. I chuckled under my breath, wondering what I was ever going to do with those two. And morbidly wondered what they'd have ever done without me.
To my surprise, both my ghastly sister and her devious consort were covered in what looked like rust from head to toe. I myself was drenched in slime, my toga turning an odd shade in the scattered lighting of the few bent lampposts that dared to keep burning amidst the carnage. Mel dashed up and hugged me burying her face in my chest, deliriously laughing and almost sobbing.
She looked up at me with tears streaming from her eyes grinning.
"We did it! We fucking did it! We couldn't have done it without you, Zag."
I don't think I'd ever seen her so happy to see me and said as much. I brushed some of the dirt from her hair that so reminded me of our mother's. "Well, no offense to her, but I don't foresee Dora taking up fencing anytime soon. I'm glad you called."
At this, Eris cackled only a few steps behind Mel. One hand on her cocked hip I saw her eyeing the Princess' ass like a cat eyeing something they wanted to knock off the counter. She leaned down and smacked Melinoë once on her rear which elicited a shriek of surprise and pain from the Princess. Heated, Mel whirled around and cursed at Eris in the language of the dead, pointing Lim (or was it Oros?) at her unruly heartthrob.
"I'm going to have a bruise there!" She snarled, shoving Eris by way of showing derision.
Eris giggled delightedly. "Oh I know babe, I was there. You really got walloped that time didn't you?"
Mel growled but didn't press further and Eris smirked in such a way that made me momentarily envious of Mel. Momentarily.
Mel rubbed her now sore dairy aire and suggested we begin the hike back home. "We shouldn't leave Dora unattended for much longer. Who knows what she's done with the place?"
To Mel's delight her apartment still stood same as we had left it. Save for a banner that said "Good Job Team!" that now hung beneath the entryway courtesy of her listless shade. What followed was an evening of revelry, of stories and laughter and flirting over some of the best Ambrosia I'd ever had. "You're really holding out on me, Mel" I teased her when I realized she'd been hoarding bottles of liquid divinity in a bottle I was convinced Eris pilfered from Hera's personal stash. Mel's normally pale cheeks were flushed rosy accompanying a Cheshire like mischievous grin so vexatious Eris declared it "unbecoming of a woman of her station." Mel stuck her tongue out at Eris playfully in retort.
"You should come by more often," she said, smiling at me, her recently cleaned saffron dress already in some manner of disarray. "Preferably not just to slay more monsters, although that helps and is always welcome. I might actually be able to sleep tonight."
Behind me, Dora hiccupped before brazenly adding, "you could slay me anytime, hero! Happy to be your big bad monster of the week you just say the word, handsome! hic"
This spurred a fresh round of laughter from all of us as we toasted to another forlorn spirit put to rest and better times to be had moving forward.