his kiss, the riot [introduction]

[comehomewithme]

She's gone.

That was what Orpheus thought, no, what he knew to be true. He had lost Eurydice, again, and it was all his fault -- again. He looked down at the ground, then fell upon it, weeping.

The world was so cruel, he thought. He knew so little of it, but he knew that much to be true. He would never see his love again. He sobbed and sobbed, tears streaking down his face.

"Why...?! Why?!" he cried out, his voice echoing and then getting swallowed by the howling wind.

He pounded the cold ground, as if that action could somehow bring her back. He had finished his song, but now she was gone, and Orpheus felt lost forever.

Eventually, his sobbing subsided, and he slowly rose to his feet. When he blinked back the last of his tears, he was struck by how...different the world looked. In fact, it looked so different that he wasn't sure where exactly he was. He picked up a small pamphlet on a nearby bench and flipped through it. A meeting-place of worlds...unusual. Was this Hermes' doing, somehow?

Orpheus began walking, his lyre strapped to his back. He looked around at various strange-looking people and creatures, all of whom seemed non-threatening, but still very, very odd.

Well, he thought, if you can't beat them, might as well join them.

"Does...does anyone want to hear a song? I've been working on one."

Comments

[desertpowered]

Paul knows loss when he sees it, and it's something he respects. He's familiar enough with losing people he cares about. He gives the stranger a look that he hopes is sympathetic without seeming condescending. He also appreciates music, and in fact part of him is thinking about someone he knew once and may well know again in time. But there's no need to bring up your own traumas in the face of someone else's recent pain.

But the sight of a string instrument softens Paul's heart and prompts him to dig in his pocket for several gold coins. It's tradition to pay a musician, whichever world you come from. Or planet, for that matter. He offers them to the stranger.

"Yes, please. I'd be happy to hear anything you've come up with."

[comehomewithme]

Orpheus offered the young man a weak smile.

"Thank you," he said, and grabbed his lyre from off his back and began to strum its strings. He cleared his throat before beginning his song, and when he sang, it was in a lilting falsetto. It was a song about the king of the Underworld, Lord Hades, and how he came to fall in love with his wife, Persephone.

When he finished, Orpheus looked down, then back up at the young man.

"It's actually...it's finished," he admitted. "I just can't think of anything else to write."