Kathleen
Beneath the cerulean dome where the sky kissed the sea, a quarrel had shaken the halls of the throne room. Triton, the son of Poseidon, heir to the aquatic throne and guardian of the deep, now stood tall upon a jagged precipice. His muscles, honed by centuries of battling the ocean's wrath, tensed under the weight of his fury. His eyes, the color of storm-churned waves, raged with indignation as he reflected upon his fight with Poseidon. His father, the formidable earth-shaker himself, remained as immovable as the bedrock beneath the sea. 

Triton bore the temperament of the ocean he governed: usually calm and serene. Yet, like the ocean, when his temper flared, it was a tempest unleashed. Literally. The altercation with Poseidon had escalated, their voices thundering like clashing waves, until Triton, with the fire of his convictions burning bright, had stormed away. The sea, sensing the mood of its master, retreated into an ominous calm, the prelude to the tempest about to be unleashed. Standing now at the edge of his domain, his chest heaved as though he bore the weight of the ocean itself. His tangled mane of hair, the color of dark seaweed, was pulled back, exposing a face that bore a rugged handsomeness, etched with the wisdom of the ages. A single, heavy silver chain adorned his neck, a gift from the Nereids, glimmering like captured moonlight. He was bare, a testament to his unbridled nature, his skin kissed by the salt and the sun.

In his hands, he clutched his most potent instrument—the conch shell, fabled and feared, its spirals echoing the depths from which it came. It was more than a symbol; it was a vessel of his wrath. In a fit of anger, he brought the shell to his lips, his breath a gale force of divine fury. The sound that emerged was primal and unearthly, a sonic embodiment of the raw power of the oceans. It resonated across the Aegean, a clarion call that struck fear into the hearts of all creatures, mortal and divine.

The effect was immediate. The sea responded to its master's call, its surface convulsing into towering waves that marched forward like an army of watery titans. The sky darkened as if mourning the peace that had been, and the winds howled in a frenzied chorus. Fishes darted into the abyss, and seagulls scattered into the wind, their cries lost amidst the cacophony.

Triton's heart thundered in his chest, each beat in time with the crashing of the waves. The fight with Poseidon had kindled a fire in his soul, a passion for doing what he thought was right, regardless of ambition or tradition. This storm, this chaos—it was a message, a declaration that he would not stand idly by.

In the midst of this tempest, a mortal champion of Persephone, queen of the underworld, was caught on the water unawares. His vessel, a mere plaything in the face of such divine wrath, was overwhelmed. As the ship succumbed to the rage of the sea, Triton watched with cold detachment as the man was pulled beneath the ways, drowning. 

As the storm raged, Triton's fury began to subside. The sea gradually calmed, the waves diminishing into gentle swells. Triton remained a sentinel upon his rocky outpost, the echoes of the conch shell reverberating within him. He had challenged the will of Poseidon, and though it brought destruction, it also brought a renewed understanding of his own power—and its consequences. 

With the sun slowly sinking at his back, he took one last hard stare over the horizon before finally descending that jagged ledge. It had felt good to make his fury known, but he knew his problems still awaited him no matter how much he raged. 

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Craig
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She had felt it almost instantly. The life that she had connected herself to falling and fading, a heartbeat no longer and a soul for the Underworld to process anew. Her champion. Her chosen. Cast within the depths by a God who dared to challenge the wrath of she who shall not be named, the cursebringer, and Queen of the Underworld. Her rage and fury could be felt almost instantly. Darkness surging at her fingertips as she appeared to Triton with a blinding light that betrayed what lay beneath. 

In that moment of seething wrath, her presence eclipsed the tranquility of the sea. Triton, the mighty god of the ocean, stood before her and Persephone looked upon him with a gaze of contempt. He had dared to interfere, to pluck from her grasp the one demigod she had chosen to champion her cause. A demigod that had been promised her own protection. A promise she did not break lightly. 
_ _

"Son of Poseidon." Her head cocked in curiosity as she approached him with a natural grace. A gown of changing flames moving behind her. Flames that contrasted against the sea and hissed as droplets brushed against. "Do you know whose life you just claimed?" Her voice was not her own. No longer did the light melodic tone of the Goddess of Spring speak forth, but the eerie thunder of Hades' queen, ice and malice in her voice and on her tongue. 

"A fate that was my own, a champion that was mine to decide, and you challenge my will. Why?" This was the darkness that made those who found themselves within her wrath tremble in fear. The rarity of a side held hidden beneath her light. The goddess of darkness, a woman that held death within her hand and warmed his heart, but not without carving her own to him. Not without him coaxing her own darkness from her, presenting the power she was capable of so that no God may see themselves above her again. 
_ _

With a simple wave of her hand, the waters around them seemed to churn and darken, shadows swirling and coalescing into twisted forms that writhed and dove within the depths. Her whispers made them dance along the sea he commanded, a power forming around them that seemed to choke the very life from the misted air. With each ripple of dark energy she commanded, Persephone felt the raw power coursing through her veins, a reminder of her dominion over the shadows that lurked beneath the surface. She had spent millennia in the shadow of her husband, Hades, ruler of the Underworld, but now she stood as a force to be reckoned with in her own right. So many underestimated her still, forever the weakling of the Gods that remained sheltered within Demeter's fields. 
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𝙋𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙎:
Kathleen
Triton shielded his eyes and stumbled back at the burst of light that announced Persephone's arrival. In the presence of such palpable wrath emanating from her, he stepped back, a discernible shift in his demeanor. Despite his earlier display of anger, power and, defiance, there was now a flicker of recognition in his eyes that acknowledged the gravity of his actions. In his blind fury he had gone too far. Triton, who had always commanded the seas with unchallenged might, found himself at an impasse, confronting a power that rivaled, if not surpassed, his own. The wind whipped against his face and the ocean roared as the two Gods faced off.

Triton's voice, when he finally spoke, carried the weight of the ocean's depths, "It was not my intention to challenge your will, Persephone," He countered, yet with an undertone of respect, a recognition of the power Persephone wielded. "The sea, like the realms of the dead, has its laws and champions. In my fervor and rage against my father, I have trespassed against you." The acknowledgement from Triton did little to quell the storm brewing within Persephone; the very air seemed to crackle around her, and even the water itself seemed to obey her dark will. Triton's stance, though unyielding as the rocky precipice he stood upon, suggested a willingness to navigate the treacherous waters of divine politics and personal vendettas. As Persephone's power swirled around them, manifesting shadows that danced upon the sea's surface, Triton's gaze remained locked with hers. The sea around them, usually his to command, now seemed to heed the call of another.

"I did not know it was your champion who sailed across my seas, nor did I intend to kill him. I see now the depth of my error," Triton conceded. "I cannot undo what has been done, but I offer to make amends for this grievance. Tell me how I may right this wrong, how I can restore the balance I have so carelessly disrupted. I am in your debt." Amid the delicate balance of apology and the offering to make amends, Triton's voice took on a firmer edge, reflecting the sovereignty and power he wielded over the seas. "But I say this: be reasonable in your demands. Should you refuse, and seek retribution beyond what is just, it will force my hand. For just as my anger blinded me to its consequences, so too will yours."
Craig
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There was a moment within his pleas that Persephone softened. A mind that gave benefit of the doubt speaking to her, screaming at her subconscious thoughts to calm themselves, and for the rage to quell against the ravenous waves of the sea. Yet any sense of that pity washed away in an instant, the instant his lips warned her of reason. A smirk playing across her lips as her feet touched the boat and weeds took form in every inch of the woodwork. "Be reasonable?" Her voice was cold, a burst of ice over the skin, a tongue sharp like a wielded sword as it lashed towards him. "Be reasonable?" Heightened were her words, an anger to its edge as she approached him with black shading at the hazel of her normally emerald gaze.

"You must be joking. To request of me reason, when my champion lays dead upon your ocean floor because of *You*. To cause me pain because of your selfish antics, for what? A boy rebelling against his father? Where was your reason, son of Poseidon? Where was your logic? Your control? A god of great power and responsibility, yet you acted a fool." Head cocked sideways, she studied the face made chiseled of Amphitrite and Poseidon's finest features. A man of blessed looks, and a stance that spoke to a confidence beyond his rising.

"Do you know what it was that drew me to the Underworld?" The gown simmered and her feet traced a circle around him in graceful steps. She was a lioness playing with her prey, her gaze running over his body as if to study every inch of the man whose fate she held within her fingertips. "There is a balance there. The Gods of Olympus find themselves above all, above life, death, mortals, demigods, all that is within the earth and its soil, but not Hades, not those within the Underworld. For every life dragged down into judgment, another is born. For every eye taken, every gluttonous decision, there is just punishment. A delicate balance that keeps life and death in awe-inspiring companionship." 

She stood before him now, her fingers curling around his jaw in gentle force, as she pulled his gaze to her own. "What is yours, Triton? What is the just punishment in which you deserve?" Dropping her fingers to her side, her touch was replaced with vines spreading across his body. A trap of his own making within Persephone's wrath. "What do you wish of me? If not to leave you beneath the ocean floor yourself? To send you back to Poseidon with breath taken from your lungs- or better yet, to let you live your days swaying with the fish you command. The mercy of you remaining beautiful and tall, as a mangrove for your mother to visit upon." 
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𝙋𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙎:
Kathleen
Triton stood before her proud, cerulean eyes unwavering in their gazing upon her. Hades in his wisdom chose a fine partner in life, that was plain to see. Triton had not been so lucky; the boy prince of the sea often a victim of his own folly, in love and in life. Angry waves crashed against the stony crag of their meeting place, casting a salty spray into the air as seabirds flew overhead to some unknown destination. He had the awareness that some formative moment in his life was about to take place, but he did not yet know what. Instinctively he reached for his trident. Forged in the heart of a dying star and cooled in the deepest abyss of the Mariana Trench, its handle was crafted from the purest silver, mined from the sacred lunar craters by forgotten celestial beings. The metal, imbued with the luminescent glow of moonlight, shimmered with an ethereal light, its surface adorned with intricate engravings that depicted the ebb and flow of tides. The trident's three prongs were sharper than the fangs of the mightiest sea monster, each one gleaming with an inner light that mirrors the stars themselves. At the junction where the prongs meet the shaft, a sapphire of the deepest blue is set. This was the weapon now pointed at his foe.

"Enough!" He said sharply. "What is one mortal's blood in the scope of history? The irony of this coming from the Queen of the Underworld—do you not oversee the souls of the dead? Can you not grant this man some comfort in his eternal dwelling? How many lives have you or your husband claimed, I wonder? I am a **God**, and the sea is my domain. *You* Should have protected your champion better. It is known the sea can turn deadly in the blink of an eye." He followed her as she circled, his muscles tense and his reflexes on alert. "Ah, is that it, Persephone? How self-righteous. How above it all. If only the rest of us unenlightened gods could strive for the balance you've attained. Have you ever considered holding a workshop? 'How to be an insufferable snob in ten easy steps.'" 

Triton slowly lowered his weapon as she stood before him, holding his chin delicately in her grasp. For a moment it felt tender, almost motherly. His defensiveness and vitriol momentarily receded. "Persephone..." He said, pausing to look deeply into her eyes. "Take a step back. Do not make an enemy of me. It won't bring your champion back." He gasped then as the vines coiled around, forcing him to drop his trident with a clang. His jaw tightened and his resolve hardened. He did not resist, but instead stared straight at her in open defiance. "Do as you will, Queen of the Underworld. I do not fear you."
Craig
The depth of her wrath surged like a tempest within her, a storm brewing in the very depths of her soul. The irony that he only proved her point upon his statement was not lost on her. *What was one mere mortal?* A flash of fire and brimstone in her glare as she thought of what that mortal meant to her. She, unlike others, did not simply cast her champions aside. They were a part of her, tethered to her in ways that made her feel what eternity threatened to take away as an immortal being. She could feel his pain within his lungs as he was sent to the bottom. His pleas and begging an echo within her head, banging against the cage she kept her rage inside. He was hers to protect, and Persephone did not take this lightly. 

She ignored his mocking, ignored the consequences of toying with Poseidon's son. She would face all of it on the morrow, for now vengeance was the only thing that spoke clearly. The only thing she could hear through the ringing in her ears. 

*"I do not fear you."*
_ _

A smile spread across her lips, sweet and tempered as she brought her face so close to his own that she nearly sealed his curse with a kiss. Instead her silken words of honey purred from them as hazel eyes met his own. She was a cat playing with the mouse, her vines tightening in response as they moved further across the God's body. "You will." 

In this moment it was decided, a humbling for the man that kneeled before her in forced submission was due. "You will find yourself in lonesome agony as all those whom once found love for you will no longer find your company tolerable. Silence, soon an unwelcome companion in your life, my darling Triton." Her hand dropped from his chin as she backed away from her victim. "When you are humbled, you will beg at my feet. Beg for the forgiveness in which you do not deserve, for the life you took and mocked as if he was but a speck of sand on your ocean floor. He was *My* Fate to decide, not yours." The words were hissed with the venom she kept leashed. Vines coiling further, until his very life essence threatened to stop pumping through his veins. 

"Mine!" There it was, the Queen of the Underworld's flames as her dress flickered and expanded until heat caressed both their cheeks with a tinted rouge. And so the incantation continued, as Triton knelt before her, defiance flickering in his eyes, she reveled in the power she held over him. Each word dripped with a potent mix of anger and sorrow, a symphony of vengeance conducted by her fingertips as they looked dipped in crimson. With every syllable uttered, his fate wove tighter around him, ensnaring him in a web of his own making. Persephone's wrath a rarity, but an unyielding one in the way it followed and coiled around the very throat of her victims of vengeance like a collar. 

He would yield to her, or spend eternity in misery. It mattered not, as long as he felt what it was to cross the Queen of the damned and dead.
_ _
Kathleen
On that craggy outcrop overlooking the vast expanse of the Aegean Sea, the wind howled Triton's baleful dirge for her fallen champion. The tempest he;d caused had receded, leaving the once furious waves eerily calm, yet dark, brooding clouds lingered above, mirroring the mood below. Here, Triton, the mighty god of the sea, found himself ensnared by creeping vines that wrapped tightly around his muscular limbs, binding him to the jagged rocks. No amount of struggle could free him from their magic-infused embrace. Triton was renowned for the command he held over all aquatic elements. His usual bearing of unchallenged authority was now being challenged, his trident laying discarded a few paces away, gleaming dimly under the shadowed sky. No one had ever brought him to his knees as Persephone had. But despite his predicament, a fire blazed in his sea-blue eyes. Her haughty arrogance rubbed him the wrong way. Yes, he was on his knees, not by choice but by force, and that was an important difference. Persephone's very presence commanded attention his attention and exuded an air of inescapable power. Her hair flowed like a river of night, and her eyes, cold and unyielding, bore into Triton's with an intensity that made him uncomfortable. She was every bit the Queen of the underworld.

As the vines held Triton captive, Persephone spoke, her voice resonating with a chilling finality that even the clouds seemed to pause and listen. With each word she uttered, the air grew colder, and the vines tightened their grip, as if feeding off her energy. She was casting a curse, one that would alter the course of Triton's existence forever. **"You will find yourself in lonesome agony as all those whom once found love for you will no longer find your company tolerable. Silence, soon an unwelcome companion in your life, my darling Triton." Her hand dropped from his chin as she backed away from her victim. "When you are humbled, you will beg at my feet. Beg for the forgiveness in which you do not deserve, for the life you took and mocked as if he was but a speck of sand on your ocean floor. He was my fate to decide, not yours."** Triton groaned as the vines tightened further, becoming painful. She wanted his submission, and she wanted him humbled. He felt a strange darkness wash over and into him, her words seeping into his very soul, binding his fate to her will.

"I will never submit to you, Persephone. The sea does not bow to the dead." His statement rang across the cliffs, a declaration of resistance against the inevitable. Yet, beneath this facade of rebellion, a kernel of fear took root within his heart. Persephone was more powerful than him, and resisting could only lead to his own downfall... But the god of the sea's heart had hardened, his pride unyielding. How long he would wear this collar at the end of her leash was unknown—for all eternity or until he broke, whichever came first. For now the only thing certain was the body of her champion lay at the bottom of the ocean, fish food.
Craig
❝ ⌜Who said you can't wear a flower crown and still be a fearsome thing.⎯ ✶⌝ ❞
 
Title. [Pandora](
Setting. Amongst the Oceans 
Characters. ⁠Persephone , Triton
Pings/Mentions. Triton
Notes: End of scene
 
⋆.˚ ☪︎ ִ ࣪ .𖥔˚.
 
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Persephone's eyes glinted with a smug sense of satisfaction as she beheld the sight before her. Triton, the mighty son of Poseidon, knelt before her, his muscles straining with the effort of resisting her power. The strain etched across his face only fueled her sense of triumph. It was enough for her.

As the final syllables of her command left her lips, the vines that had ensnared Triton began to recede, releasing him from their grasp. Yet, even as the physical bindings loosened, a subtle mark remained behind his ear—a delicate rendering of the leaves that had held him captive. To most, it would go unnoticed, but not to Persephone. Not when her magic pulsed within it like a hidden beacon.

"I will never submit to you, Persephone," Triton declared defiantly, his voice laced with the pride of the sea. "The sea does not bow to the dead."
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A scoff escaped Persephone's lips as she regarded him with thinly veiled contempt. "We will see, love," She retorted, her tone dripping with disdain. There was no use in arguing further with the stubbornness of a man who had yet to learn his place. His humbling had only just begun, and there were many lessons yet for him to endure.

His life was hers to manipulate, to unravel and piece back together at her whim. As an immortal, he had the luxury of time—a luxury she intended to exploit fully. He would learn, one way or another. He would beg. Persephone was nothing if not a patient queen, well-versed in the art of wielding power over those who dared to challenge her authority.

"Until next time, Prince of the Sea," She said with a coy smile, her voice laced with teasing laughter. With a graceful gesture, she summoned the billowing darkness that surrounded her, beckoning her back to her realm. Back to the Underworld. Back to Hades.
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It was a place not even the gods dared to touch with force, for Hades did not need to consume you whole when he had the damned souls of the rivers to do his bidding. Persephone disappeared into the swirling shadows, leaving Triton to contemplate the weight of his defiance in the echoing silence of the mortal world.
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