When we began, there were thirteen glasses, one of which was poisoned. -Ah, yes. 'Burnt Toast' by Mack Reynolds. One of Hades' favourites. He may be a god with responsibilities, but he's still able to work around his duties to create time spent for just himself.
Sitting in his throne, glasses for the hell of it, his favourite story right in front of him and a worm juice martini. If he had only replaced his current seat with a hot tub, this would be the afterlife. No tasks, no meetings, no distractions- "Mission complete, oh great one!" A chubby, red shape-shifting demon shouts. Running after him is a much smaller, green shape-shifter, forcing a very broad grin, "we did it! We did what you asked!"
Hades takes a small breath and stops his already interrupted reading time, not even lowering the book to speak. "That's nice," he says monotonously before getting back into the story.
"We did good," the red imp assures him, having the green one be quick to nod in agreement. "And we didn't screw up this time! So what's next, boss?"
Hades is in a charitable mood and, despite the original lack of his capacity to wait, his patience seems to have extended. All because of this decent mood.
"I think we can handle something big this time," says the skinny one, confident and smug. "Like deal with heroes!" His friend nodded up until this point, giving his opposite a rough elbowing as he whispered in fear, "shh! We're not that good!"
Tick tock, the time is ticking and Hades' me-time is running out. Realizing this, his blue, fiery 'hair' suddenly grows rapidly into vicious orange and yellow flames. "PAIN," he grips the red imp's neck. "PANIC," and then the green. "The reason behind my ordering you to collect one thousand worms in one place was to simply GET RID OF YOU." Breathing deeply, he roughly tosses his two minions to the side and calms almost immediately. "I'm in the middle of something here, alright? So both you little bastards should, you know, leave and don't come back. Unless I give you permission to."
Afraid and in slight pain, the two little trolls hurry off into a far place they hadn't quite thought through, for if Hades were to want them present, they would not be able to hear his voice.