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[banished-to.livejournal.com]

It has been...a time, since last she entered. As the mortals count it that time may have been long. It is a blink of her bad eye, in a way. For her, it is easier to stay outside, to walk with Baldur the Beautiful as the season turns from warmth and light to the bone-aching chill of winter.

She ducks as she enters from the lakeside door, golden-blond braids scraping the floor and skirts tangling around the left leg, which fails to step cleanly or easily counter time with the right.

She has, again, fallen out of the habit of speaking much; only to Baldur and only when they remember to. For her the fact that he is there is enough, and Hel has never been grand with words.

She straightens, and allows the living eye to skip across the patrons. Fifteen feet tall, this half-dead goddess, and like a willow-tree battered by the ages; the one side slender and supple, the other side withered and rough.

Her left hand, gloved, she trails over Bar and in return a mug of appropriate size filled with a spicy scented cocoa appears. She nods, slightly, in thanks and then makes her way to a spot near the fire with rolling, mis-matched steps.

Comments

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Holy crap, you're tall."

Steph is all :o! at her.

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

Hel's first reaction is best explained as "..." and after some few seconds she says,

"Yes. I am."

Mortals. Go figure.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"No, like, seriously tall," Steph says, gesturing with her hands to emphasise. "I mean, wow. Tall." She grins. "I mean, just in case you didn't notice."

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"I am half a giant."

Her voice is faintly slurred by the fact that the left side of her face is mummified and does not move correctly,

"It could be as well said that you are tiny."

Because, really. Everyone is.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Well, I know that," Steph says, grinning. "I mean, I'm shorter than, like, everyone. Half a giant? That's totally awesome! How come?"

She's just politely ignoring the dead half. She's lived at Milliways for over a year: she's seen weirder.

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"Because my mother was a giant."

Hel has never, even at Milliways, talked to someone quite like Stephanie. She is a goddess of the dead (although Steph? Definitely not one of her kind of dead. By definition Hel doesn't get Heroes), but she's never met one so...effervescent.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"I figured that. Well, I mean, not necessarily your mom, but one of them. But, like." Again with the gesturing arms. "I mean, how tall is a giant? So, like, your dad and your mom... how did they even meet? I've never met a giant."

Steph's all bubbly enthusiasm, even when she's as tactful as a falling anvil.

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"Father is a god."

It explains a lot, don't you think?

"And was a giant before he became a god. Unlike me. I was born a goddess."

He'ls expression is still fairly bemused (although only on the right side).

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Really? That's really cool!" Steph beams. "I've never met a goddess before. Well, not unless you count the one with the corkscrews and stuff, she was awesome, but she wasn't, like, huge like you. What are you god of?"

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"I am Hel."

It sounds exactly like hell,

"I am goddess of the unworthy dead, those that the gods of Man choose to banish and forsake."

She says it without any form of emotional overtones; she neither hates it nor loves it. She is what she was born to be,

[alwaysroomforhope]

"...oh."

Blink. Several blinks, actually.

"...huh. ... is that good?"

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"According to the Eddas I am a being of evil."

Ask her opinion of good and evil, just ask her,

"But the winners are always painted as good, are they not? I take those who would otherwise suffer alone and love them until the mists of Niflheim steal their minds."

And then she just cares for them.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Oh."

Steph's looking at her a bit warily, now. She doesn't classify herself as a hero, so much. 'Unworthy dead' sounds like it'd fit her right down to the toes.

... la la, conversation-killer. Steph makes an effort. "That's really nice of you. I mean, at least that way they're not alone."

[prone-to-panic.livejournal.com]

Archie is one that's delighted to see her, he beams up at her.

"Greetings dear Hel, it's been too long."

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"Greetings, Helgi."

She's given up trying to remember his current name, he'll just have to deal with it,

"I have been outside."

For the last...five months. Or so.

[prone-to-panic.livejournal.com]

He's used to it. It would be strange now for him to hear her call him anything else.

"I've missed you."

An odd thing for a Hero to say to her perhaps, but it is true. It will be getting cool again soon, perhaps she'll be in more often then.

"Somehow I don't blame you."

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"Oh."

Somehow it never occured to her that she would be missed, and this shows on her face as she considers it. Long moments, because Hel thinks greatly before she speaks,

"I am sorry."

[prone-to-panic.livejournal.com]

"Don't be sorry, you needn't apologize to me. I'm just glad you're here now."

He ponders telling her about Svava's condition, knowing of the complicated past the two of them share.

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"I haven't really been gone."

She points out in her turn,

"But the woods are lovely, and it is nice to not need to duck."

[prone-to-panic.livejournal.com]

"The woods are a big place, as often as I was out there, I never saw you, so though you were not precisely away, you were not here, and so you were missed.

He grins again.

"I can imagine that would be a definate lure for a lady such as yourself."

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

She shrugs, a little bit awkwardly, and nods once,

"I was not here. Baldur was there, as well. It was good."

Far, far better than Men and their oddities.

[prone-to-panic.livejournal.com]

"I spoke with your Baldur some time ago."

Idly, they'd gotten along quite well enough.

"It is odd the things I can remember, and then the things I've forgotten entirely."

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"Men are only supposed to remember one life."

And most gods only have one to remember.

[prone-to-panic.livejournal.com]

"I suppose that's it then. I should count myself fortunate that I can remember any of it."

He really, really doesn't want to think about her not having another, simply ceasing to exist. He'll hold on to hope for as long as he can.

[banished-to.livejournal.com]

"Yes."

She agrees after a while, and then shrugs,

"Do you want some chocolate?"