Bonus Content - RO Scenarios

Hello everyone,

This month's what-if/maybe-happened side story features Charon angst and a good-natured Dionysus with a pretty obvious crush. I hope you enjoy it!

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Charon sighs almost under their breath, running their fingertips along the deep purple bark of a petrified tree. The grove of them has always been soothing, for some reason, perhaps because of its origins. But it may also be because there is a stillness here, the sort of quiet that is lacking in any mortal world forest, or any place at all on Olympus.

This is something they have always held dear about the Underworld. Sometimes, the presence of death is a good thing, because when it pervades a place there is something gentle in the repose, at least here. He would never have learned that, if not for his exile, because prior to meeting Hades and walking his realm, their only familiarity with death was with something violent, chaotic, terrible.

It is through his time here that he has finally come to understand that this is not an inherent property of death, but an inherent property of something else. And he is glad to be rid of the burden of interacting with the something else, hopefully for the rest of eternity. In the end, that will put all such troubles far and diminished in his past, indeed, and he hopes for it like he has never hoped for anything else.

His fingertips draw down the length of the bark, and he hums quietly to himself, running them along a small fissure where the color brightens into something almost pink. He smiles, just a little, and drops his hand away. They’d have preferred to come here with Hades, as there are some things they’ve been meaning to ask him, but of course duty takes precedence for now, and the Lord of the Dead has plenty of them to attend to, certainly.

Winding his way through the lifeless forest, he meanders without any haste. They know where they’re going, and have no particular need to get there quickly. In fact, given the fact that they can sense someone else already at their intended destination, they might prefer to go quite slowly.

It isn’t that they have no desire to see Dionysus. Rather, it is perhaps that they desire to see him too much, and this is not an impulse they feel they should indulge. Being around the young god is… something of a challenge, in many ways, and one Charon is reluctant to handle, not because there’s anything wrong with him, but because there’s plenty wrong with them.

They need the quiet and stillness of dead things. And yet they are inexplicably drawn to someone who is neither quiet nor still, whose chaotic essence of life all but overflows from him, poorly-contained and bleeding out into the atmosphere. It is, in so many ways, a poor match, even for something as simple as a warm acquaintance, and yet…

Charon has no idea how Hades has noticed. It’s not like him to notice that sort of thing unless explicitly told of its presence. And yet perhaps the degree to which the two of them know each other—a friendship that transcends the ordinary boundaries of such things, the ordinary significance—perhaps this has granted him insight. Or perhaps Hekate has. She was always the sort to meddle, if she thought it was for the best.

I don’t need to tell you that there’s nothing to worry about on my end, of course. And I don’t want to interfere. But… He’d trailed off in that distinct way where it was obvious that more was coming, but that he was doing them the courtesy of giving them a chance to figure out what it was and brace for it first, red eyes expectant.

I think it might be all right for you to allow yourself to explore it. I think he is waiting for that.

The thing is, Charon knows he isn’t wrong. They haven’t missed the way Dionysus looks at them, when he thinks no one is paying attention. It is not lost on him what it means, that the youth seeks his company more often than that of anyone else, even Pyri and Hermes, with whom he gets along so well.

And it isn’t one-sided, either. Charon has felt a powerful attraction to him for quite some time. Perhaps in truth one that began to grow not long after they met. It feels inevitable. Like something they have no control over, and yet they are not so fool as to deny their own agency in the whole thing. They could have refused his company. They could have deflected, been ‘busy,’ made sure there were always third parties involved. But selfishly, he hadn’t. And now he was paying for it.

Before they know it, their feet have brought them to the lake, and they clear their throat to alert Dionysus to their presence. At first it isn’t obvious where he is, actually, and their brows furrow—until with a familiar rushing noise, he appears from beneath the water, slicking dark brown curls back from his face and clearing water away from his eyes.

The original warning would not likely have been audible, but before Charon can make another, Dionysus turns, offering a bright, broad smile in his direction.

“Charon!”

Water runs still down the sides of his face, into the hollow of his throat, giving the rich brown of his skin a shine in the dim light. His eyes, black as the furthest reaches of the ocean, are narrow with his mirth. His happiness, to see them of all people.

He’s absolutely beautiful.

It is devastating.

Charon’s chest tightens, and he isn’t honestly certain if he manages the same sort of placid smile he usually wears, though he does try for it. “Hello, Dionysus. I was not aware you had ventured out here, today.” True enough, at least until he’d already begun to approach and it felt too late to resist seeing him.

The softly-glowing fish, echoes of their idea of a lake, dart and drift and lazily revolve around the god of spring. There’s no reason to suppose they would be attracted by his presence in particular, and yet of course they are. Of course they would be.

“I… yeah.” Dionysus’s smile fades a little, he comes a little closer so his feet hit the bottom and he can stand, chest-deep in the clear depths.

Charon observes no particular taboo around the idea of nudity; why would they? Virtually no one does. But still he keeps his eyes pointedly fixed on Dionysus’s face. It isn’t too difficult, if only because the younger god’s tone has drawn his attention instead.

“Is something the matter?”

It’s a bit sheepishly that he lifts a hand to rub at his hooked nose. “Well, not really. I just feel a little guilty. I’m, uh… I’m here because it was my best guess about where you might be, today. I didn’t want to ask Erebus, because then it would have felt… bad. But I did sort of try to run into you anyway.”

He’s so perfectly earnest, so charming in the simplicity and plainness of his affection, and inwardly, Charon rages against it. Against themself, for being completely unable to handle this in the way it deserves.

Why must you be like this? Do you not understand that I half-love you already? That if you continue like this I will never be able to let you go?

It’s a terrible thought, the last. A thought that a better person would not have. But Charon, for all their attempts, is not yet a good enough person to handle something like this in the right way. Not yet a good enough person to gently turn this aside, to reject with grace and tenderness, but firmly enough that Dionysus can close off the possibility in his mind.

Perhaps he will never be good enough to do something like that, because even in his mind it sounds completely impossible.

They have evidently been silent too long, because Dionysus clears his throat. “I’m… I’m sorry. That was out of line. I can go—please just give me a moment and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“No.” The word comes out without Charon willing it. Or maybe just without him being willing to admit he wills it. “Stay, please. I was… surprised, but I have no objection to your presence here.” They pull in a deep, quiet breath. “In fact I am glad of it. If you are not averse, I will… swim with you.”

The smile blooms over his face again, and as always inevitably happens, Charon feels some part of themself give in. Yield to the bright softness of Dionysus’s regard.

Someday soon, there will be no turning back.

Maybe there already isn’t.