Yessss I'm back :)
Thanks to my reviewers: jadegurl2, Ins913, Athenyx, Jane Odair, Ryromaniac, Darkmaster of the arts, life is elsewhere, and CheriEstella.
"Hello! Hello? Bell, focus!" His sister was snapping her fingers in his face in the most obnoxious way she could possibly imagine. He snapped from his reverie, glaring hard at her.
"It's a little difficult, you know?" He snorted, crossing his arms. She stood, hands on her hips and clicked her tongue.
"You're distracted.' She observed, as though it wasn't obvious. He glanced at her, in her braided hair and pelted clothes that half looked like a grounder, and frowned. She'd been dressing more and more like that, hadn't she lately? Then again, she never really was a Sky Person, always excluded by being a second child, so it was natural she found more of a footing here. Yet, since Lexa was gone indefinably, she wasn't a grounder either. Her and Lincoln were some strange in between right now. It was just another thing to add to his list of unending thoughts.
"No shit, O." He said, staring at the ground, "And how can I?" He gave a pointed look. If his sister were at all sympathetic, she'd drop her drill-instructor persona. She knew as well as he did how hard life had been in the past two and a half months. Winter had come harshly, coating the entire world in white. And they'd just lost many people just because they were unprepared. People didn't know snow could freeze you so fast, they didn't have good enough supplies for food, people caught and spread diseases and colds so much faster when they were all stuffed together...it seemed sometimes that this would be what would kill them all when they'd gotten through so much already. The number of children and elderly that had passed killed him, if he could die that is, and that wasn't all. There had been casualties among people in between that bracket to, the most difficult one of the camp being Wick's death. He'd fallen through the ice and no matter how hard Clarke tried to resuscitate him, it had been too long that he'd been desperately clawing the frozen lake to try to get out. Raven hadn't spoken to anyone since that had happened two weeks ago.
And not only was Bellamy constantly plagued by trying to save his people above ground, he was also trying to manage the people below ground. Imagine Wick's surprise when he'd waltzed up and apologized, less than a day after his death? He was glad he could comfort the man at least a tiny bit. But he couldn't tell Raven anything, and seeing her blank expression was hard.
Between trying to spend his time at both places without casting suspicion, his mind was always at the other, leaving him tired and cranky. If he were mortal, he probably wouldn't survive long.
"Well, that's your problem!" Octavia said loudly, and he glanced up at her with long eyes, "It says right here 'clear your mind'." She pushed the book up in his face.
"Yes, yes. I've read the book." He said, snatching it back from her and slamming it with an audible clap. He tucked it inside his jacket, his frustration mounting. Octavia had taken it upon herself to be his helper on this side of the world, sort of like Finn, in the way that she had devoured his handbook and practically committed it to memory. She helped him make excuses and handle his workload. Currently, they were practicing shadow-walking.
"You know you have to get this." For the first time that day, her voice softened. He grimaced.
"I know, I know."
It was a tool that most Hades perfected within the first couple years of their reign. He was attempting to do it in the first couple months. It gave him the ability to transfer himself wherever a shadow lay; theoretically, he could go all the way around the world. Some Hades had used this method to collect the souls personally, assuring people on their deathbeds it would all be okay.
He personally needed to just use it to get between one colony to the other.
"It's far too long to walk nearly like an hour to get there." Octavia continued, stating things he knew to be true, "I'm running out of excuses." She frowned.
"Yeah, I know." He agreed, his voice breaking into anger. She blinked at him, and looked at the sun. Luckily, as the day shortened they'd only have more shadows to practice with, so time wasn't of the essence unless you counted the fact that he needed to learn it soon. When they could learn it was luckily easy to find time during the winter.
"Perhaps we should break…" Octavia said quietly, "And get food. You still eat, right?" He wasn't sure if she was teasing or not.
"Yes, O." He rolled his eyes, "I still eat. You read just like I did that most gods don't lose their hunger until a centaury in the job. My stomach is growling." He said, mouth watering just thinking of food.
"Just making sure." Octavia shrugged, "You know, more for me if you didn't." She sighed. Rations were heavy as of now, because although they'd been good and made a smokehouse early a month and a half ago, it was hard to find food enough to fill everyone's stomachs. The stockpile within Mount Weather had been devoured by the previous inhabitants, and while they had farms down there, it had taken a toll too since the door had opened.
Back at camp, people slowly moved about, hands shoved into long jackets and furs wrapped around their faces. It was an odd mishmash of clothes from the Ark, clothes from Mount Weather, and skins from animals they'd found. They shuffled into the food line, Octavia shivering into her rabbit fur gloves.
"Aren't you freezing, Blake?" Miller asked incredulously, and Bellamy realized he'd left winter jacket back where he'd been practicing with Octavia. One perk of being a god, thus so far, is that he wasn't bothered by these temperatures. Slightly below thirty, a cracked thermometer told them. He still got cold, just not like everyone else anymore.
"Uh, left my jacket out there. O and I were sparring. Got sweaty, you know?" He lied quickly and Miller just gave a slow shake of his head.
"You're crazy, man." He laughed.
"It's only going to get colder." Lincoln said, also wearing little jackets. For him, apparently, this wasn't the worst of it, "Another ten or so degrees drop and then you'll appreciate how the cold can be." He came up and kissed Octavia on the head. She swatted him away.
"Yo, you got food yet?" She asked.
"If you're asking for my portion, you're asking the wrong person." He rolled his eyes.
"But you love me." She whined.
"And I'm hungry too. I've been hunting all day." He said. Octavia's ears perked up.
"Any luck?"
"A couple rabbits," Lincoln answered distastefully, "A sparrow or two. I don't understand why this winter is so much worse than others. Birds are sad catching."
"It wasn't like this before?" Miller questioned, frowning.
"No, usually we can find enough game to sustain us without growing too hungry. And our numbers tripled yours." Lincoln's face contorted into deep lines.
"Do you think…the other grounders are back?" Bellamy wondered, although all the grounders that had come through claimed to be gone to better weather, migrant and continually on the move. They could be lying though, although in death he didn't think their honor meant too much anymore.
"No." Lincoln said, "You might be able to tell, but I would."
They reached the front of the line, and when they were handed their stews, Monroe- the person dolling it out- handed Bellamy a second one.
"What do I gotta do to get that kind of service?" Octavia asked, looking at it longingly.
"It's for Clarke." Monroe said, looking at Bellamy, "She's been holed up in her bed all day with a cold. I was going to bring her some after, but now that you're here I'm sure you just can."
Anyone in this line could have brought Clarke soup, but Bellamy didn't miss the meaning behind Monroe apparently deciding it could be him. It warmed him, but then his mind processed that she was sick. He stiffened, fear clutching him.
"Is she okay?"
"Yeah, just a cold, Abby says. Everyone get them."
"You go find her. We'll finish our practice later." Octavia said, poking her brother in the arm. He nodded absently, and used his shoulder to brush back the heavy carpets being used as doorways for the wigwam. There were a few people snoozing inside, the enclosure dim without fires dotting the area. Clarke had a tiny candle going next to hers, and she had about five blankets on top of herself. She was completely rolled in them, so just her nose and above was visible.
He breathed out, setting the soup down and carefully touching a hand to her forehead. She was indeed burning up, but not near death, as he quickly surmised. He was still learning out how to control this power as well, most he could tell was when someone was hours away from death. Clarke was giving him that sort of signal at all.
Deep down, he knew he shouldn't be so worried. Yes, everyone got colds. He'd even gotten one, and he didn't know gods of death could get the sniffles (apparently, yes). But the idea that she could be sick, it could have been something more, made his entire body panic at the thought.
"Clarke." He shook her awake. She blinked blearily at him, glaring for a moment before realizing whom it was.
"Oh," Her throat sounded raw and her nose congested so all her words came out funny, "What are you doing here?"
"Dinner." He held up the soup, "Some vegetable and…" He sniffed it, "Lots of garlic with…that might be the rest of that deer."
"Oh, well, not the worst." Clarke said, sitting up. He glanced at her cautiously.
"How do you feel?" He questioned.
"Awful." She moaned, "Hot and cold at the same time, my arms feel like jelly, and I can't really breathe."
Bellamy suppressed a quiet laugh. "Did you never get colds on the Ark, Princess?"
"Not really." She muttered, "It was just cleaner and more segregated. Harder to come in contact with it." She sighed.
"You're around dying people all the time. I'm surprised you didn't get it sooner." He watched her sip at her soup slowly, and although once again he knew she was fine, he couldn't not watch her.
"Yeah, I guess." She muttered, and shivered.
"Don't you have better things to be doing today than bring me soup? It's your day off." Clarke realized suddenly, scrutinizing him.
"No, 'course not. I'm just wandering around the forest anyway." He shrugged, "Exploring a bit. It's not really pressing."
"You're being careful though, right? You don't know what's out there in winter. You could get hurt." Clarke said and Bellamy resisted the urge to scoff. Of course she didn't know little at all could hurt him, but nevertheless her worry warmed him. They'd been dancing around their feelings for what seemed like eons now, and as much as he wanted to lean forward and kiss her, damn her sickness, he hesitated. He was already failing trying just to balance the two worlds he so precariously startled now. To bring her into this when he didn't quite know how to figure things out himself yet? No, he couldn't.
So, instead he leaned back as not to tempt himself and stood up. "I'm careful, as always."
"Good. You have to come back to me. I don't know what I'd do without you." She chuckled, looking at her soup, "Wouldn't get fed, for one." She teased. He bit his lip hard. It was the closet either of them had come yet, and he wondered if Clarke was gathering courage or she was waiting for him. Either way, she looked down- perhaps feeling stupid for saying something or content in just saying that- and yawned.
"You sleep. I'll be back tonight, of course." He nodded and she set her bowl beside her bed before falling back asleep.
He found Octavia cheering on Jasper and Monty who were currently playing a one-on-one game of soccer on a patch of ice near the edge of camp.
"They're going to break their legs." Bellamy huffed, "And Clarke isn't well enough to do it. Abby will be pissed." He said, shaking his head. Clarke often quickly stitched up their friends before the adults caught wind of it.
"Shit, I forgot." Octavia frowned, "Eh…they'll be fine."
"I want to continue practicing." Bellamy said, and Octavia stood immediately. He felt re-energized, motivated. If he could just get a handle on being a leader in one of these realms, he could try to get somewhere with Clarke. Although he wasn't sure he even liked being Hades, at least he wasn't constantly being undermined there by other leaders. He made all the rules down there.
They went back to the same place they'd been before. It was darker now, the shadows were more pronounced. Octavia watched him with excited eyes.
"We're gunna get it. I feel it! Now, focus." She said.
Bellamy didn't have to be told twice. He stepped into the shadows and closed his eyes, focusing hard. The book did a shoddy way of trying to explain the whole affair, but then again, it was hard for him to describe himself now that he sort of knew what to do. It was more an instinct than a learned skill, though.
He could feel his body stretching out, connecting with the individual particles in the darkness, touching matter around him. It was a strange concept, like sticking your hand in water that was exactly the same temperature as you were…that's how he felt. It was in this moment he was very aware that there was always air around him, like water, except they could breathe it.
He imagined a dark shadow underneath a pillar in his house in the Underworld, reaching out to the matter there, trying to grasp water in his bare hands. Then, as though someone had flipped a switch, he could touch it. Not grab it, not really touch it, but he felt the darkness around him bending to his will. He faintly heard his sister's concerned voice above him.
"Bell? My god, are you okay?" She said, reaching out to grab his hand. There was a tone of terror in her voice, and he grasped it to tell her he was fine, "You're flick-,"
He blinked open and found himself standing at the base of that pillar.
"-ering." Octavia finished her thought. She hadn't ever stopped, though. The movement was instantaneous. He didn't feel himself being thrown from one place on the world to another. How peculiar.
"Oh god, O." He said, realizing he'd accidentally brought along a passenger. It didn't say anywhere he could do that, unless he was collecting souls, "I didn't mean to bring you back here." He said, wincing. She had decided about a week ago she didn't want to return to the Underworld even if she could come and go, for obvious reasons.
"Whoa." Her eyes widened and he wondered if she hadn't fully realized what had happened to them until now, "Bell! You did it!" She threw her arms around him.
"Yeah." He said and realized he felt winded. Then came the nausea, "Damn, I don't think I'll be able to do it back."
"You do look a little green." Octavia agreed, "Actually," She revised, "A little transparent…"
"How are you? You're…mortal."
"I feel fine. I mean, it sort of feels like my skin is crawling with ants, but I mean, none of my limbs are attached in strange places, so that's a plus, right?" Bellamy gave her a scathing look.
"Be serious."
"Look, the other Hades brought nearly dead people that way often. I'm sure I'm okay." She seemed brazen even though it could have had altering side-affects, "Hey, I'm gunna explore. Didn't get a chance to do it last time. We'll walk back when you're feeling better." She said.
"O!" He called after her retreating figure, gnashing his teeth, "Just…don't eat anything!"
"I'm not stupid!" She called back.
He sighed, and decided that while he was here he might as well check up on things, get some work done.
Finn frowned when he appeared. "I didn't think you were coming in today." He said.
"Neither did I." Bellamy answered, and Finn gave him a strange look but Bellamy didn't want to take the time to elaborate.
"Hey! Good news, we're all set for the first set of people to go across." Finn said, his expression brightening. Bellamy smiled.
"That is good news. Can we do it today, since I'm here?" He questioned.
"Well, of course. It's not like we're doing anything but waiting for you." If it wasn't a stupid question Bellamy had asked, he might have elbowed Finn for his sass. Instead, Bellamy winced when he realized that indeed dumb questions did exist and he had just asked one.
"Good point."
"I'll get it together, tell the first couple people. I'm sure they'll want to say goodbye. Should I come find you in your house when it's ready?"
"Yeah, I'll just be in my office. Send Maya. She won't-,"
"Get blood everywhere." Finn finished with an eye roll.
They parted ways and Bellamy had just sat down at a very old and very expensive desk to start organizing some of the paperwork his workers had been collecting when Octavia screamed. He leapt up in an instant, stumbling from the office and rounding the corner. He found her standing in the room that was his bedroom, wide-eyed.
"Octavia!" He said, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around. When he found no wounds on her, he looked around the room.
"What are you doing?" Octavia asked.
"What's wrong? You screamed! I thought you'd been killed." He said, slowly realizing that perhaps that wasn't what had had happened. Octavia frowned.
"What could kill me here?" She asked.
"Uhh?" Bellamy stepped aside from where he blocked the door to show her an artful display of axes and other fun weapons on the wall. Octavia waved a hand.
"Okay, there's those."
"Not just those." Bellamy let out a low groan and pressed his hands together and at his nose, "Octavia…this place was built on the concept of death. It was built to be an awful place for all those nasty mortals. It was built to be home to a god that was an outcast and a weirdo and spent all his time around the dead. Let's just assume safely that everything here could probably kill you." He growled.
"Well, could I die her?" Octavia wondered out loud, "Or would I just-,"
"What? Yes, of course you could die here, just like anywhere else! You'd just have a shorter trip down there." He pointed toward the direction of the waiting area. Seeing Octavia's dubious face, he sighed, "What made you scream?" He asked, although he knew he was probably going to regret it.
"This!" Octavia squealed, throwing open two large doors he hadn't really noticed until now. He'd never stayed the night here so he had no reason to really spend time in his bedchambers.
"A closet." He groaned with a disgusted shake of his head, "Girls…"
"Oh, come on!" Octavia said, sashaying into the largest closet he'd ever seen, "I think there's stuff in here even you'd like. Like don't tell me that you aren't going to nerd out over something like this?" She said, taking off one of the outfits from the hanger, and Bellamy nearly had a heart attack.
"That is a very delicate and likely century old piece of cloth! You can't just touch it!" He managed to gasp out, surging forward and grabbing the hanger away from her hands and gently setting the authentic Greek robes back where they'd been situated.
"Told you you'd be interested." She said. He stepped back and hated admitting she was right. Even if he didn't care much about what he wore day to day, like everywhere else in this palace, there was clothing from every decade, every significant event, hanging here. History, preserved in every form of these halls. World War II uniforms of both sides, Egyptian silk a pharaoh probably wore, an authentic flapper dress, grand ball-gowns, full chainmail outfits…Plus a plethora of just more 'everyday' sort of things that took up the other side of closet, which Octavia was more interested in. One side was historical, one side was practical. He couldn't meet his predecessor but Bellamy liked him immensely and his sense of organization.
In the middle of the room was a singular outfit put on a mannequin. Bellamy and Octavia migrated toward it at the same time.
They were both in awe. It was the most beautiful clothing Bellamy had ever seen, and Octavia felt the same. They both couldn't put that into words, but it was.
"I think…" Bellamy frowned, "The first Hades, the god, this was what he wore." Bellamy murmured, like it was his own memory but at the same time not. He just knew, not just a guess, but as a certainty. He stepped forward, reaching out toward it.
"Its not just going to 'poof' into dust when you touch it, is it?" Octavia gnawed on her lip.
"It was made by gods. It's meant to withstand…forever." He realized and his fingers touched the softest most luxurious fabric he'd ever felt. It was incredible. He ran his fingers all up it with a smile.
"Well, now you have to put it on." Octavia said with a wicked grin.
"What? No." Bellamy stepped back.
"C'moooon!" She whined, "This is your outfit."
It didn't take much convincing. It was calling to him…almost. The outfit itself was made of all black. It was a pair of slacks- which he didn't think would have been something they would have worn way back, but here they were- a simple top and a robe. The robe itself was a masterpiece. It had a fur lining up near where he put it on, the fuzziest thing he could imagine, and the entirety of it was impeccable and impossibly embroidered story of Hades in silver thread that shimmered like stars when he moved. The outfit itself was a strange experience to wear. It wasn't hot or cold. It wasn't lightweight or heavy. It wasn't itchy. It just…was…honestly, it felt like a second skin.
There were other items on the stand too; a belt filled with little pockets of things he didn't understand and didn't dare open all the way, a baldric and sword with a sheath that was perfectly balanced in his hands, and finally a grand staff. It was interwoven with blackened wood in a way that he didn't think could be done with wood (but clearly here it was) and carved all the way up it were skulls. When he touched it, it took his breath away.
"What?" Octavia demanded.
"I don't…know." He flexed his fingers around the staff's handle. He felt a rush of power. He knew it was magical, and he knew it was meant for him.
"I'm going to have to look up all this in the journal." He murmured, because he had no idea how to control this staff or what was in his pockets.
He stepped back, digging the staff into the carpet and Octavia gave a wide smile.
"You look…awesome." She said, "Honest to god…well, like a god."
Bellamy rolled his eyes, despite how good he felt in it, and turned to look at himself in the mirror. He tried to suppress his gasp of surprise. In these clothes…something about him, he didn't look himself. It was him, on some level, but it also wasn't. It was a better, perfect…dare he say it, godly version of himself. He was an Adonis, the sculpted David by Michelangelo, the most powerful being to walk the earth. He was infinitely old and young and timeless all at once. He couldn't stop staring.
Behind him, Octavia giggled. "You know, if Clarke saw you in that, I think she'd pounce you and do you right here." She teased.
Bellamy spun, glaring. But, he hated to admit that he wanted that to happen. Not down here. He didn't intend to bring Clarke down here, if he could help it.
"Bellamy, we're ready." Maya knocked on the door, and then saw what he was wearing, "Oh. That looks…that looks good on you." She said after a long moment.
"What's ready?" Octavia asked.
"If it's okay with you, we're doing the first round of people to the other side today." Bellamy said, "Probably only five will be able to go, Greg's working on making another boat, and this is just a test run." He said.
"It's your world. Do what you need to do. I will be trying on every single one of these ah-mazing dresses." She said, already back to sifting through the yards of fabric on hangers.
"Should I…change?" he asked unsurely, looking down at his clothes sitting on a chair compared to what he was wearing now.
"It's up to you." Octavia looked up, "I guess it's sorta like your uniform, like your guard's uniform or whatever. For a job." She said. Bellamy winced. He would rather not remember his ill-fated days as a guard, or compare this job to them.
"I think you look the part in it." Maya supplied helpfully.
He gave a careful grin. "I suppose that settles it." He said, "Shall we?" He asked Maya. She nodded, and he took her arm and walked through the palace. Finn was waiting for him at the foot of the entrance. His eyebrows rose at Bellamy's look, but he didn't say anything on it.
"The first five in line are ready." He announced, "And our boat driver is too."
The boat driver- the new Charon- was a kind looking old lady that would be the sort to give you cookies or keep secrets for you from your parents. She was one of the oldest inhabitants, dying only a couple months after the nuclear fallout. She had been, in her first life, a 'bus driver', whatever that was, and she felt it was her duty to do this now.
"Good. We'll go down to the place now, and we'll see how this goes." Bellamy said, nodding to his two other judges standing next to Finn. He couldn't help but feel really excited and had a little bounce to his step as he motioned for Wells and the other judge to come forward.
They walked through the palace to the short-cut to the judging place, for obviously Hades couldn't be expected to spend all that time sitting on a boat with plebian dead souls. No one but he could go through there, unless they were the other judges, as Finn had tested when they'd found it and had been promptly shoved back onto his butt when he tried. He didn't know if there was some ceremony to make these two magical enough to go through, the best he'd come up with was writing 'RHADAMANTHUS' and 'AEACUS' on pieces of duct tape and now handed it to each of them, motioning for them to put it on.
"We'll see if this works." He said, stepping through first. Next came Wells, with zero problems. Then came his second judge- 'Aeacus' just as easily. He let out a sigh of relief.
"This is your uniforms for now. Obviously, don't let anyone else wear that." He said.
Wells scoffed. The second judge, a grounder girl who had been killed about twenty years back nodded solemnly. Her name was Cove and she was only slightly older than both Bellamy and Wells, but she'd already been married and a mother by the time she perished. Bellamy thought it was probably important to have a women, mother, and grounder perspective upon certain matters, because while obviously to him and Wells killing was a capital crime, killing in certain grounder communities were merely a rite of passage and celebrated, so how could they tell someone their entire religion was wrong?
Cove was much like Clarke in many ways, she was a natural leader and healer. She had many grounders down here looking up to her, even though some were older than her by decades. The way she commanded and managed to speak to people was inspiring to watch. From the moment she'd sat down with him, he'd known she would be the perfect choice for this.
They reached the small area where the souls would come through, a place with rough rock structures towering above them. There were three paths ways- one to Tartarus, one to the Fields, and one to Elysium. Tartarus was dark and gave Bellamy, the god of Death, the heebie-jeebies. The Fields looked plain enough, and that was all he could really find to explain it…plain. Elysium shone with a light as bright and as happy and it brought forth Bellamy's favorite memories.
There was a theory that all Hades went there, after they finished their self-decided terms. A gift in thanks for their service. That all gods and goddesses ended up there. Of course, no one had come back to tell the tale and if they did they were reincarnated, and thusly it was only a theory.
"You ready?" Bellamy asked, spinning to Cove and Wells. He could see the boat approaching. They both nodded.
The first person off the boat, the first man to perish after the old Hades shot himself in the head (Bellamy got glimpses of his other lives sometimes, this one had been vivid) was a thirty-something year-old former lawyer named Christian. As he approached, Bellamy wondered how this worked. There was little about it in the Hades Manual, and after a second, it became apparent why.
As soon as Christian stepped onto a white stone in front of them, it was like he was paused and his whole life was thrown out in front of them. It was like they were watching a screen of his life, but a thousand screens at once. Bellamy found it less confusing to focus on all of them at once than he thought it would be. His brain instinctively knew what to scan for, and it seemed that he could will certain tapes to play forward or back again. They were his biggest moments in his life- good or bad. There was a clip of him donating a huge sack of gifts to a women's abuse shelter, yet there was a clip of him also cheating on his BAR entrance exam.
Beside him, Cove and Wells seemed to know what to do too. They were picking out memories like they were apples, weighing them against each other. He wondered if their duct-tape sticker uniforms were telling them what to do or if maybe they were just always meant for this job, in a fated sort of way.
Bellamy began to do that too. He used his gut for a lot of things. Obviously, throwing a wrapper out of a car window was not as heinous a crime as others and the fact that he often waived fees for underprivileged people wasn't brought down by a couple hamburger wrappers on the side of the road.
It wasn't as exhausting as Bellamy thought it was either. It didn't take long for Bellamy to reach his consensus that although he wasn't a perfect person, he was pretty okay. And okay people went to the Fields. He was almost at Elysium but there were moments where Bellamy could see his motivations were more selfish than caring and that didn't sit well with him. Only the best of the best went to Elysium.
He turned, seeing that Cove and Wells were similarly finished rating.
"Fields," Cove said after a quiet moment and Wells nodded in agreement. If they had disagreed, Bellamy would have been the deciding factor. He wondered what happened if all three of them decided on different places? He doubted that came up often enough to be concerned about it.
The screen vanished, Christopher moved again, and the middle path lit up for him. He followed without a question.
"One done, thousands more to go." Wells said with a dry tone. Bellamy sighed. The old Hades, his most recent predecessor, had this down to an art. He figured a lot of judging people was practice and after doing it for decades he's almost just know when he looked at someone. But his predecessor also had so much more technology, so much more figured out in the 21st centaury age he lived in that was now just…gone. On one hand, he had much more to deal with. Someone, usually two people, died every second in his reign. Here, they had at least one person every hour appearing. It was a big difference, but that were still- at the minimum- 24 new people onto the list everyday.
But this didn't bother Bellamy, instead, it gave him hope.
People appeared from all over the globe; Egypt, Russia, Thailand…everywhere, or what was left of places. He tried to get as much information about the world at large as he could. It was nice to know that they weren't alone here, that other societies made it out too and were even thriving in some places. Ethiopia, of all places, seemed to be one of the better off places. He wished he could tell someone his discoveries- besides Octavia- but it would cause more trouble than it was worth.
Still, they weren't alone in this world and that was something.
The other three passed through taking about the same amount of time as Christopher. They all led simple fair lives and went to the Fields. None of them had put them in a moral quandary or done anything extraordinary with their lives. He had a feeling most would be like this.
Even though he didn't think he could stay any longer, and he knew that he'd only started the process in the smallest way, as Bellamy left with his sister he couldn't help but feel that for the first time in a very long time he'd done something right and good. That had to count for something, didn't it?
THE SEASON 4 TRAILER GAVE ME SO MANY BELLARKE FEELS I JUST HAD TO UPDATE THIS. HAVE YOU SEEN IT? GOD ALL MY BABIES. Especially my trash baby Murphy :3
So yep, I killed off Wick. He's an awful person IRL and I'm glad he's off the show and I couldn't rightly have him on here. I don't even feel bad about it.
In other news, awhile back I made a PE Moodboard/Aesthetics board. I put it on the newest chapter of this story on the A03 account if you wanna see it, it's pretty dope :)
Also, because I'm literally obsessed with Hades and Persephone for my college creative writing course I wrote a 30 pg short story about the idea that if there myth was reversed and there were 6 months out of the year where no one died. I'm pretty proud of it and if anyone is interested in seeing my original work I'll post it somewhere and let you guys know for the next chapter.
Speaking of chapters; (besides Bellarke getting together) do y'all have any little requests of people or moment's you'd like to see? I have some free space in my outline and I thought I might like to see what you all are interested in happening, with any character or any thing.
Hope you enjoy this!
