(Public Channel; Day 60)

[haides]

(Not many will have their voice accompanied by mouse squeaks. Hades is special.)

Do not fear the Darkness. All begin within it and all reenter it upon death.

(Is this in bad taste? If only he cared about such mortal conventions.)

Therein lies my domain and thus... (He shifts his mouse friend to his other hand.) I would know it best.

(Then there is a sudden shift in subject.)

Who is Papyrus?

Comments

[scientificist]

A skeletal member of the Carnival--are you offering a solution or writing poetry?

[haides]

Skeletal, you say? (Right up his alley.) My solution is to move when your hand is forced, but otherwise stand still. They say things disappear in the Dark, but that is not so.

[spaghettimonster]

[A minute or two after Herbert's answer, another voice chimes in.]

Ahem! Herbert speaks truths. Papyrus is a skeleton...

[He draws the sound out just a little too long for suspense.]

A skeleton who is me! Hello, stranger voice! Are you looking for me?

[haides]

(A talking skeleton. Papyrus might be Hades's favorite.)

I am. We are to reside together. (Along with some happy rodents.) Are you frightened of mice or rats?

[spaghettimonster]

[Papyrus would love to hear that, and yet, if Hades hasn't met Sans yet, there's still cause for anticipation: which of the two skeletons would be his most favorite? (Papyrus, of course, but one never knows until they know.)]

Oho. A new roomie, with an intriguing question... No, no, they're fine. Maybe they startle me when they appear out of nowhere, but that's nothing to do with being mice or rats.

[haides]

(He has a big enough heart for both, Papyrus need not fear!)

That could be said for anything. (There is a small squeak of assent. The mice would be scared too in that situation!) I like their company.

[spaghettimonster]

[He hums agreement to that first point - anybody appearing out of nowhere is startling, even when you've lived with somebody who teleports.]

I'm sure I will too! And, is that them I hear with you?

[haides]

(The gods can teleport, obviously, so Hades is not startled in the same way. Actually, nothing seems to faze him.)

Yes. They slumber in my fur.

[spaghettimonster]

So we won't need a second pet bed... That's convenient. Everybody might be too busy to make one.

[Carly's been organizing a rescue mission, and probably nobody else in that crew has the time right now.]

Uhh, and you already know I'm a skeleton... Are there any other things we need to discuss? Like, do you dislike mirrors??

[haides]

I have never needed such. (Besides, he trusts his pets to find their favored places to sleep on their own. The rats are a mixture of tame and wild in that sense. He will never cage them.)

Mirrors? I cannot say I have gazed into them much. Why do you ask?

[spaghettimonster]

My first roommate here... didn't care for mirrors. They never did a thing for him. [They typically don't, for some types of vampires.] And I didn't need them, so, we just didn't have any. Things like that! Little quirks and preferences.

[haides]

I wonder what I would see in them. (Is Death afraid of himself? Or will he see his truest form?) We do not need them. I am fine without gazing at myself.

(He is no vain Apollo.)

[spaghettimonster]

Okay! I won't go looking for any. [He'll figure out some other kind of welcome basket. A nice house plant, some more firecrackers...] If you ever change your mind...

Well, I don't advise the mirror maze. Those mirrors... exaggerate. [Distorted reflections full of peoples' fears. A nice place to feel bad about oneself.]

[haides]

You would be better occupied searching for cheese. (For the rats. Hades doesn't really need to eat, but he likes watching the little creatures enjoy a meal.)

My form shifts in the eyes of those who look upon me. I am perhaps always in a mirror maze.

[spaghettimonster]

Cheese, right... [He could set out another pet food bowl for them, easy enough to be hospitable like that. Maybe no hotdog slice supplements, rodents like those are almost as small as hotdogs...

But he's distracted from that question by the notion of an ever-shifting form.]

That sounds... inconvenient? Does your voice stay the same?

[haides]

(Rats have a wide appetite, but Hades does not wish to see them in distress from eating poorly. All the animals in his various caverns and caves are well-nourished if he has any say about it.)

No. I can seem like anyone or anything. However I do not lie, Papyrus. (That last bit is a promise.) I have discovered I can, but I will not.

[spaghettimonster]

[Most of the time, it's for the best that Papyrus wasn't assigned to the cookhouse. Monster food is made of all manner of things, and his own culinary experience was questionable at best. But maybe he'd know a little more about this sort of thing if it'd had more experience with them.]

So, if I ask if it's you, you'll always answer...! A good fallback if I'm confused.