Bonus Content - Hermes & Hekate

Hey everyone!

I'm currently just starting with a bonus content series that involves taking a look at one character from the perspective of another, usually with some reference to a PC in there somewhere. Last month, we had Hades's POV on Hekate just before her version of the fruit scene. This month, we have Hekate's POV on (childhood friend) Hermes, shortly before the PC arrives in the Underworld.

I hope you enjoy it!

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“So this friend of yours. Dionysus. What’s he like?” Hekate frowns down at the diagram she’s working on. Something’s a little bit off…

Hermes, lounging sideways on one of the library’s couches, flips a page in his book, though she’s not entirely sure he’s reading it. “Well, what about him?” he asks, a hint of cheek in his tone.

Hekate rolls her eyes. He’s absolutely insufferable when he’s in the rare position of knowing more than her about something. Still, the twinge of amusement she feels softens any possible annoyance.

“What do you mean ‘what about him’? You know good and well that the answer to that is always everything.” A smile pulls at the corner of her mouth, and she moves a finger, erasing a few lines from the diagram.

Hermes laughs, setting the book on the nearby table, quickly closing it when she frowns at him for leaving it open facedown. “I can’t tell you everything, Hekate. The guy’s got to have some things to tell you himself, you know? Let yourself be surprised for once in your life. If you can’t, do the… the star thing.”

“You know it’s called divination, Hermes. You’ve done it with me, before.”

“Yeah, yeah. My point is, you only get a certain number of details about Sunshine. So… three questions. Choose carefully.”

Sunshine, huh? Hermes does have a proclivity for nicknames, ranging from the endearing to the obnoxious, and something like that could be either one quite easily.

Still, she supposes imposing some limits here is reasonable. It wouldn’t be too kind to go into future events knowing much more about Dionysus than he does about them. Not that fairness really comes into this anywhere. This is the person who’s going to be coming to the Underworld to marry Hades, after all. Hekate doesn’t find it unreasonable to want to be prepared for such a situation.

But… if Hermes is treating it this lightly, that’s probably most of what she needs to know, anyway. If this person were dangerous, or even just entitled in the way Olympians can so often be, he wouldn’t be teasing her with the promise of information. He’d just be providing it.

“How much like Demeter is he?” Not that she really knows much about Demeter, but Hermes likes to talk, so if she gives him a decent prompt like a comparison, she might end up learning more about both of them.

He laughs again, and when she looks over, something in his eyes has softened. “I guess I’d say… the powers are pretty similar, but that’s basically where the comparison ends. He’s a riot, Sunshine. Sharp as a knife, almost as charming as me, and has his head in the clouds about twenty two hours every day.”

“You’re so arrogant,” Hekate says with a soft snort. “’Almost’ as charming as you? I suspect you’re underestimating him, if you say something like that. Or just overestimating yourself.”

“Of course not. That’s a very serious assessment of the situation, Hekate. Using a very precise gauge of charming-ness that you couldn’t possibly understand, due to having all the charm of a heap of nettles.”

“Oh look, he has jokes. Who’d have guessed?” She rolls her eyes, still smiling. “All right. How long have you known him, then?”

“Since we were both kids.” Hermes flashes a grin at her, but then the expression fades into something more relaxed. He rolls onto his side to face her at her work, shrugging the shoulder he’s not leaning on. “What good is a question like that?”

“Quite a lot. You wouldn’t hang around someone that long unless you either had to or you really liked them. Given that it’s unlikely you were forced to get close to the child of your father’s political opponent, I surmise you did so voluntarily.”

“...Yeah.” Hermes clears his throat uncharacteristically, but when she looks back up, his face is smooth, betraying no hint of why he’d been so reserved for just that moment. “We’re friends. He’s a good guy. I think you’ll like him.”

“Mhm.” Her eyes narrow over at him. “How much do you like him?”

The question is pointed, but Hermes doesn’t act like it, stretching his hands over his head and humming as if in thought. “Well, I just said we were friends, right? That’s kind of a lot, for me. I don’t have so many real ones.”

It’s not quite an answer, but his affected nonchalance is an interesting observation on its own. Hekate pauses in her work, considering for a long moment before she nods to herself.

Perhaps it would behoove her to keep an eye on things. Just in case.