Blitzkrieg [Maci, Hades, Seph, Meli]

[Macaria]

Macaria hadn't meant to eavesdrop.

Warren was speaking in another language, though, to whoever was on the phone, and it was one not on her small palate of languages. Still, Macaria, leaning against the wall next to the door of her room, had heard Warren's tear-filled words to his mother on the phone - even if she didn't necessarily understand those words.

The goddess sighed. She had stayed on her bed quietly, lying on her back and staring at the black ceiling, thinking miserable thoughts about Melinoe and Hades, and then she had heard Warren's voice in the quiet, on the other side of the door. Her palace was silent except for them, and since she wasn't speaking, Warren was the loudest thing here and it was quite easy to hear. Macaria listened quietly for a moment, feeling herself come near tears as he did the same, and then she rose and crossed the room. Maci had stood by the wall, listening to him, crying silently as Warren devolved into a little kid again.

Stupid Melinoe.

Soon, he silenced and Maci heard a little noise; his phone had hit the floor. She waited a few moments, wiping away her own tears, and then walked out of her room. The goddess dropped to her knees besides him, her blonde hair falling around her body like a curtain. Macaria pushed it away from her eyes and face, and inched herself closer to Warren, wrapping him in her arms again.

"It's okay," she whispered to him, "It'll all get better. It's alright." Maci hugged him tightly, closing her eyes and kissing him gently.

"You can cry if you want to," Macaria told him, "Please don't bottle anything up."

[Warren Peace]

It didn't matter if she spoke to him in person or used her powers; his mother always brought his emotions to the surface. It was a two-edged sword of sorts- Joy Peace understood her son beyond the normal teenage anxiety. She was alternately a mother and a psycological counselor to Warren, and one of the few people Warren knew with whom he could entrust his thoughts and feelings, not because he couldn't hide them from her, but because she understood and loved him.

Warren hated that he couldn't give her the same kind of love. He'd lost track of all the times he'd wished he'd inherited his mother's powers, rather than Baron's flashy, distinctive, and loud ones. He felt that his existance betrayed her: she was one of the most calm-minded and ethical people on the planet, while despite growing up with her positive influence, he was a moody, rage-fueled near-psycho that intimidated everyone and refused to be sociable.

Her silky, golden cascade brushed his cheek, and he buried his features in her hair. The touch was soothing and gentle against him, his face flushed red and irritated from rubbing away his tears. His mother was right - he did love her. He was addicted to her presence.

Warren shook in her arms, clinging to her and sobbing as he let her hold him. He sniffed and whimpered at her voice, comparable to an angel's. That voice couldn't lie to him. As long as she told him so, it would be all right, it was okay.

Minutes passed, and so did the crying spell. "Maci... can I... can I stay a night?" he croaked somewhat timidly. Warren sniffed and hugged her tighter. "I can't go back. She can find me there. She knows where I live..." His stomach twisted into a knot as he fearfully wondered if he could ever return to his own house. He shuddered and hugged her closer. "Please don't make me leave. Please."

[Macaria]

(( gahaha, your avatar is so pretty *pets it* :3 ......and don't fireball me for saying that. ; ))


Macaria held him tightly as he cried into her hair, cuddling him gently and letting Warren sob.

"It's okay," she whispered to him again. Macaria was repeating herself, but what else could she say? "I'm here as long as you need me," she told him softly, and hugged him tighter. After a few moments, he stopped crying and had settled for quiet sniffling. Maci continued to hold her boyfriend, and she opened her previously closed eyes as he spoke, his voice uneasy.

"Aw, Warren, of course you can," she told him, her voice soft and gentle, "You can stay as long as you have to. I'm happy to have you." She snuggled him, and then reached a hand up to his face, her palm on his cheek and her fingers twirling in his dark hair. Macaria smiled.

"I've got a guest room," she said, standing up, taking his hands and pulling him up with her. "Will that be okay?"

[Warren Peace]

He felt like the clock had been turned back on him. Each tear that fell seemed to take away time and age, leaving him as a child again. He felt small and scared, lost. Warren missed the innocence... A child's emotions never hurt this badly, and he wished he still had the ignorance of not knowing true melancholia. His childhood had been much too fleeting.

Warren's eyes slowly closed as she touched her hand to his face, a few lonely teardrops streaming down over over his cheekbone to her palm from painfully red eyes. He placed his own hand over hers and his face relaxed for a moment, sniffling and pocketing his phone as they stood. The poor pyro nodded his answer, releasing her hand for a moment to wipe the tears away.

"I'm sorry..." he murmured, still choked up. "I can't stop crying..." Warren sniffed again and grasped her hands tighter, trying to feel their gentle warmth. He felt cold.

"B-but the guest room's fine." he whispered. "I'd like that."

[Macaria]

Macaria nodded, smiling at him again. The goddess hugged him and then she pulled him back into her room.

Maci went over to the wall, and pulled open a door that had suddenly appeared in the wall - upon opening, it revealed to be a cabinet of sorts, filled with shelves and drawers that contained a multitude of unusual things (if you looked carefully, you could see what was possibly a human skull in one of the depths of the shelves). Macaria ran her finger down the row until she had to get onto her knees to see, and then she plucked something from one of the bottom areas, and stood up with the object dangling between her fingers. It was a little key.

"Do you need, like, pajamas or something?" she asked him hesitantly, closing her pink hands around the metal key, "I don't...I mean, I probably can find a spare chiton or toga or something, if you want, but..." She shrugged - there were a few modern things in the Underworld (like cellphone reception, for one), but 21st century American pajamas (or 21st century American clothes in general) were nonexistant in the Underworld, unless you counted some of the souls.

[Warren Peace]

He rubbed his eyes and sniffed once as she hugged him, his eyes softening at her smile. His own lips twitched with the ghost of his own shy grin as he followed her back into the bedroom.

Warren sat on the bed and took his leather jacket from the post, absently wringing it in his hands. He fished around in his pockets for a moment before finding, to his comfort, a travel pack of tissues. The pyro unsuccessfully tried to quietly blow his nose, then cremated the tissue.

"Oh... I'm fine." he answered her, then pulled another tissue out of his pack and set it on fire. Warren idly watched the flames curl along the gossamer-thin paper, twisting and blackening it until nothing but a pinch of ash remained. "I can sleep in my clothes. No big deal."

The room faded into a rather awkward silence. He looked back to Macaria, who faced a cluttered closet that he didn't remember seeing before.

"...On the phone, I... that language, that was Mandarin Chinese. I was just talking with my mom. I worry about her sometimes." he sighed softly as he heasitantly broke the quiet atmosphere. "I don't think I've ever told you much about my parents, have I?"

[Macaria]

"Okay," said Macaria brightly, turning from her closet after a moments pause, and closing the door to it. It shimmered, and then vanished, leaving only a solid wall behind.

"Whatever you want. I just want you to be comfortable." The goddess smiled at him, and then vanished herself, reappearing in smoke next to him on the bed. Why walk when you could poof?

There was silence in the room, and then Warren broke it. Macaria nodded. "Oh...it's not one of the languages I know...I only know a few; Mandarin Chinese isn't one of them. You're pretty fluent in it," she tilted her head and looked at him, "Is it your second language, or is it your first and English is your second...?" She silenced herself as he brought up the topic of his parents.

She knew pretty much nothing about them. He had never spoke about them, and she had never asked. Macaria shook her head 'no' tentatively, then bit her lower lip.

"You've never told me anything," she confirmed quietly, then told him, "You...you don't have to if you don't want to...I'm curious, of course, but don't feel obliged or anything..."

[Warren Peace]

"No, English is my first, sort of. My mom's Chinese, I lived in Beijing for a good nine years of my life... I spoke English at home and at school, and then Mandarin everywhere else."

He glanced at her, then at the floor, leaning forward with his forearms on his knees. "I don't really like talking about them much." he remarked quietly. "But, um... I'm a little worried about a few things..." Warren shrugged. "I thought my parents seemed a bit like yours. My opinion, at least."

He scowled at the floor for a moment, then closed his eyes as his expression returned to its usual sad one. "You know how I'm going to school to be a superhero? My parents also have powers, like me, and they used to do hero work. But my dad, ah... he's not... He went psycho when I was thirteen. Like, he stole stuff, killed people, tried to take over northern China, that kind of psycho. He's locked up now, so..."

Warren sighed, propping his elbows on his knees and taking his face in his hands. "Things fell apart for my mom and I after Dad got taken away. Mom's still... sane, I guess... She's an empath - she can control emotions, so she can tell what you're feeling and manipulate it to what she wants you to feel. My dad's powers and mine are pretty much the same, human flamethrowers. I always thought hers were tons more useful than mine, though.

"Mom's still a superhero, but... she didn't take things so well with Dad gone. She's sort of like a weeping flower now. I worry about her a lot."

He swallowed and looked at Macaria a bit apologetically. "I think part of the reason I wanted to tell you... I don't really care too much about what your dad, um, did to me. My dad, he was actually sucessful with killing people, but... he's still my dad. And Hades, he didn't know who I was or anything, I was just in his way."

Warren dropped his gaze back to the floor. "I don't want you to worry about that bothering me. It doesn't. I don't forgive him or anything, but... I don't think I'm that afraid of your dad. Just wary."

[Macaria]

"Ah," said Macaria, nodding, "English is my second...um, no, it's my third, actually. I learned Latin before learning English." She shrugged. "Greek, Latin, and English are the requirements for gods and goddesses. Whatever else you learn is an extra." She shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "I'm lazy, though; I only know the three."

But Macaria stopped talking as Warren went into a brief summary of her parents. Her eyes widened as he disclosed that his father was a supervillain with his powers - Just another thing we have in common, she mused silently - and then she blinked as he described the powers of his mother. Maci supposed that there had to be some god or goddess somewhere with that power, but she couldn't remember any - it was certainly a unique thing, and Macaria couldn't deny that controlling emotions was probably much more useful then setting stuff on fire. But still....

"If you had gotten her powers, you wouldn't be with me," Macaria pointed out, "We really only met and connected because of your powers at first - if you had told me that you were an empath instead of a pyro way back when, I wouldn't have stuck around and gotten to know you." Macaria leaned over and snuggled him, her chin resting on his shoulder. "So pyrokinesis has its perks." She found his hand and took it in hers, the pink becoming enveloped in scarlet flames that washed over both of their hands. Macaria smiled and let him continue.

Her smile became more sympathetic as he went slowly on. She had known he had been through his share of rough spots, but...Macaria hadn't known just what Warren had gone through - having a psychopathic villain for a father ended up badly for that psychopathic villain's friends and family, and she knew that from experience. At least Warren was lucky enough to have the anguish and annoyance stopped - his dad had been caught. Hers was still at large, and no-one cared enough to hunt him down and arrest him. Besides....who would run the Underworld? Greece's opinion of women wasn't a very nice one. A Queen and a Princess wouldn't be allowed to run the place by themselves.

"Don't you dare forgive him," she told Warren, her expression darkening a little as she threw a light pink arm around his shoulders, "He doesn't deserve to be forgiven." Macaria sighed. "I am glad that he didn't specifically target you..."

Her voice trailed off and she glanced almost awkwardly at the floor.

"Dad has a habit of doing whatever he wants to get whatever he wants, no matter what he has to do to get there." She scowled. "That's what happened with my mom, you know. He wanted her, he got her, end of story - she happened to not want him back at the time, and so he kidnapped her. The end."

Macaria shrugged. "Same thing with Hercules. He wanted to rule the world, Hercules was gonna be in the way, he sent Pain and Panic out to murder him." She sighed, her elbow resting on her leg and her chin in her hand.

"You're lucky," she voiced her earlier thought flatly, sighing again, "Your dad got caught. Mine's still at large." She closed her eyes and made a face, removing her arm from Warren's shoulders and folding them stubbornly over her chest.

[Warren Peace]

He nodded, somewhat unconvinced. "Yeah... it's safer for everyone if Dad's put away, but..." Warren sighed. "I mean... I still miss him. Yeah, he killed people, but he's also the same guy that I practiced Little League with. It's confusing." He slowly shook his head, falling silent while staring at the floor.

There was another awkward silence before he spoke again. "Um, I just wanted to make sure that you knew... I don't want my dad to know about what happened to me. He's... he's crazy. So I don't know how he would react, and um, I figured it's safer this way." Warren shrugged again, trying to appear nonchalant.

"With mom... it's pointless to hide anything from her at all, and god knows I need her advice on this... I just don't want her involved too much." His worried look seemed to be drilling a hole into the floor. "Mom... she isn't that strong anymore." he said quietly. "If Melinoe wanted t-to... she'd be easiest to--" Warren cut off, unable to say the worst.

The pyro covered his face in his hands for a few moments, massaging his temples. "I can't handle her getting hurt." he whispered. "She's all the family I've got left, and there's no f***ing way I can deal with all the stupid issues in my head if she's gone. If… if anyone back on Earth got hurt because Melinoe associated them with me, I don’t- I couldn’t…” Warren moved his hands over his mouth, looking as if he was about to burst into tears.

Warren stood from the bed and nervously folded his arms over his stomach. “… The guest room?” he said, reticently changing the subject.

[Macaria]

"I wouldn't mind so much if my dad got put away," she mumbled, not sure if Warren was hearing her or not, "All we do is yell at each other now. It's not the same as it was when I was little." She cast a bitter glance at the floor and sighed. The two fell into silence again.

But Warren broke it, his voice slow and hesitant as he told her that he'd rather keep his father in the dark about what had happened. Macaria nodded, understanding completely. He spoke again, his sentence ending abruptly. Maci winced, and inched closer to him, her hand resting lightly on his shoulder for some sort of comfort.

"Warren, don't...don't think things like that," she said quietly, "Stay positive. Melinoe's not..." She bit her lip, then said in a lower tone, a slight flush coming to her cheeks, "She won't do anything, I...I think she's done p-playing with you now." Macaria glanced shyly at the floor; she wished she could have worded that differently, but...it was true. Melinoe tormented then went away. She didn't keep going. She was eight - she had a short attention span and didn't linger on one subject for too long.

She hugged her boyfriend tightly, squeezing her eyes shut. Everything was going to be okay. They'd get through this, they would. They'd have a happy ending...

"Of course. Right." She stood up, and smoothed out her chiton with a little sigh. Maci reached over and took his hand, squeezing it tightly and smiling at him. She picked up the key she had lain on her bed with her other hand, and led him out of the room, leaving the door open behind her.

Macaria walked down the hall to another room, and stuck the key in the lock.

"For your information," she turned to him, the metal key still sticking out of the iron lock, "My guest room's enchanted. It shifts around and redesigns itself to fit the person it's housing."

She grinned. "Just a heads-up." And Macaria unlocked the door.

The room was completely bare, all plain black walls and plain black floors. There were no windows, no bed, nothing. She lightly pushed Warren into the room and leaned against the wall.

"It takes a moment," Macaria said, and stayed to see what the room would change into.

[Warren Peace]

He nodded and followed her, still anxious as he folded his jacket under his arm. Macaria's words were true, but disturbing. To Melinoe, he was only a toy, a puppet for her to manipulate and twist, playing as rough as she wanted. She was as unconcerned for his feelings and sanity as if he was a wooden marionette. It made his stomach churn and his face redden. Even if he was weak, surely he was still a person? Warren could only hope that she acted in accord with Macaria's suspicions.

He brightened marginally, curiousity replacing a bit of his sorrow with a welcoming change of pace. Warren heasitantly stepped in as Macaria touched her hand to his back in a gentle push, glancing around at the empty room. "How does it change to--"

His question was interrupted and simultaneously answered. The room seemed to tremble for a moment, struck by a small earthquake. Warren instinctively flinced as the walls and floor slid away to new ones, furniture melting out of the walls in fractions of a second.

Everything was still as quickly as it had changed. Warren relaxed and looked wide-eyed at the room. Windows covered a whole wall, streaming in the evening light over the Elysian Fields. Fully-stocked bookshelves covered two more walls, the room resembling a library with a desk and chair pushed in a corner.

Yet it definitely wasn't a library, for another corner of the room seemed to be dominated by music. Warren's acoustic had somehow appeared, along with his sunburst Firebird and amp that he'd given up for lost back at the palace in Macaria's charred room. There wasn't a scratch on the vintage guitar. Warren would have smiled, but the instrument next to the guitars had him spellbound. He cautiously paced towards it reaching out a hand to touch the glossy black mahogany, making sure that it was truly there. His fingers dropped down to the keys and he struck a quiet arpeggio, smiling. The baby-grand was in perfect tune.

He returned to his girlfriend and gave her his shy, thankful smile, taking her hand and walking over to the black bed. Warren's footfalls were muffled by the ebony carpet, the bed low enough for his feet to touch the ground as he sat on the covers. His dark eyes looked at the wall above, dominated by a Chinese screen painting, twisting dragons playing with a phoenix through swirling clouds over mountains. A door that probably led to a bathroom or a closet interrupted the scene, a nightstand with candles between it and the bed.

He instintively snapped his fingers, a flame on his index finger that he lit the candles with. Warren let his hand extinguish itself, then drew himself up to Maci and gently kissed her on the cheek. "It's great."

[Macaria]

Macaria gazed at her....his guestroom as it changed to suit him, and she grinned as she took everything in. It was gorgeous. Lots of light, lots of books, pleasantly black...there was a guitar and piano in the corner, too. Macaria's gaze drifted over to Warren as he tapped out a few notes on the small piano, and her smile stretched.

"Nice," she commented. Quite a few people had been in this room and it was always interesting to see what the place morphed into. Many Underworldians were quite disturbed, and the room usually ended up as some kind of....torture chamber or whatever. She was glad to see Warren wasn't like that, although, really, she had already known he wasn't.

He took her hand and led her over to his bed, and she sat on the edge as he lit the candles strewn about the room with a finger.

"Yeah, it really is," she said happily, and she smiled at him when he kissed her cheek. Macaria squeezed his hand and smiled wider at him, her head falling to the side and resting on his shoulder.

"So you'll be okay here?" She broke the silence after a few moments, and moved her and his entwined hands to her lap, stroking the skin on his knuckles with her fingers, "I'm just down the hall if you need anything, okay? Don't hesitate to wake me up if it's really bad." She cast him a little smirk, although there was sadness behind it. The last thing they needed was an emergency. Not now.

"And you're sure you're alright with sleeping in your clothes?" she asked again, standing up from the bed, and shrugging a shoulder as she released his hand, "Because, really, I could find something for you, I don't want you to be uncomfortable." She was standing, but was still close to him, and Macaria extended an arm and ran her fingers through his dark hair with a little half-smile, her palm brushing his cheek. Her arm dropped back to her side and then she folded her arms and shifted her weight from one leg to the other.

[Warren Peace]

“Seriously, I’m fine.” he insisted and touched his cheek to her head, idly watching the flickering flames on the candles. The spontaneous dance of the glowing lights was comforting, along with the small clouds of warmth emanating from them. He lightly squeezed her hand, pink and glowing, tanned skin gloved in black leather.

Warren looked up as she got off the bed, his eyes softening when she played with his hair. It felt nice, being petted like a kitten, Macaria sheltering him and caring for him. “I’ll just strip down to my boxers. It’s nothing, really.” He shrugged. “I don’t feel much like wearing a dress, either… or toga, chiton, whatever the hell it’s called.” He smirked half-heartedly.

He shifted and leaned against the headboard, lifting his feet on the bed. “I’ll be fine. Just… I think I just wanna be alone for now. I need to think about some stuff.” Warren looked at his shoes, then back up at Maci. “I… I’ll come get you if anything’s wrong.”

[Macaria]

"Alright, alright...your call," her lips stretched in a slow smile and she clasped her hands behind her back, "And, Warren, they're not dresses; dresses are for women, togas and chitons can be for whoever." She tilted her head, "Um, maybe not so much togas, they're kinda...one-sex, but...you get the point." She scowled at her boyfriend, then smirked - she was just playing with him.

The goddess came closer to him as he told her he needed some time alone, told her that if anything went wrong he'd come get her. She hoped desperately nothing went wrong. He wouldn't be able to take it. She wouldn't be able to take it, seeing him under more pain then he was.

"Okay," said Macaria, smiling, then moved a little closer to him and kissed his forehead, her fingertips on his shoulders. She pulled away, turned, started to walk, then turned right back around and returned to Warren, kissing his lips and practically frenching him, her arms around his waist. Macaria finally pulled away and straightened up, smirking.

"How's that for a good night kiss?" she smirked wider, blew another kiss, and then she had disappeared back to her room, leaving only a little swirl of fading smoke behind - and even that quickly faded.