8 Omake Story #2: Leading With Kindness
The sky was cloudless, an ocean of light blue can be seen, the air was fresh, doves were flying in the air, many other birds were singing, no wars waged, no blood spilled, and in this instance, new love was forming.
The marriage of Peleus, king of Phthia, with the sea nymph and leader of all Nereids, Thetis
That was the celebration that was occurring, the Olympian King of the Gods has invited every Deity of the Greek pantheon to this party, the union between these two, the only exception was the Goddess of Quarrel, Eris, in fear that she would ruin the mood of the party.
Which turned out to be an awful decision
Hearing of this decision, Eris, the only goddess not to be invited grew enraged and frustrated and snuck into Hera's Garden of the Hesperides, right past the hundred headed dragon, and picked one of the famous golden apples gifted by Gaia to the Olympian Queen.
And with it, she snuck into the location of the party, turned herself invisible, and made sure to stay as far away from Hades as possible, it being very well known that he will find you no matter how well you hide.
She then discreetly placed the golden apple on the table where the feast and beverages of the highest quality can be found, on top of a piece of paper that had a short sentence written on top of it.
"To the Fairest of them all"
Naturally, this caused the deities' naturally massive, ego-driven minds to fight amongst themselves, there was however three goddess that wanted the apple above all else.
"I honestly don't understand what is so difficult to understand? I am sure if we ask any god in here they would instantly proclaim me as the fairest! Honestly, the one who is the most Beautiful in this world is the one that should receive this Apple,"
"Really, you? The unofficial Chariot of Olympus? The day you are called the fairest will truly be an incredibly dark time in history," retorted another goddess with stunning blonde hair, although at the moment she is apparently into dark brown hair, she had an annoyed pair of grey eyes alongside an aura around her that radiated dignity.
"Ladies, ladies, it is pointless to argue, especially since the apple is obviously from my garden in the first place, so it is obviously me who is the fairest if I have more back there," Hera stated insistently, growing more and more irritated.
They continued to argue more and more, progressively getting more and more louder with every passing moment. This was until one of the gods walked up to them, this god had vibrant blue eyes, and a well kept white beard, despite what the white might imply, he looked quite handsome and was wearing golden armor.
"Aphrodite, Athena, Hera! Can this not wait? This is a time for celebration!, a great union between two people, can we not straighten this out back on Mount Olympus?" He asked, trying to appease his Aunt, Daughter, and Sister/Wife.
The three goddess' turned to glare at Zeus for interrupting such an important task at hand, but when they opened their mouths to tell him, they paused when they realized something and the opportunity this presented.
Immediately, Aphrodite picked up the fruit and placed it in the hands of Zeus, "why shall we wait, oh Lord Zeus of the Thunderbolt, when such a powerful king like you is here, how about it? You as the King of Olympus, with the domain of Law and Order shall choose which of us is the Fairest of them all," smiled the gorgeous goddess of love, as she had one of her hands under her chin and the other under her elbow.
(Fun fact, apparently, Zeus has the domain of Law and Order, ironic considering numerous shit he has done over the myths)
The two other goddesses actually considered this a good idea as their eyes widened, and turned to look at zeus with smiles and with looks of expectations, trusting he knows who is the right choice among the three.
All of a sudden Zeus got all tense and froze with sudden panic with a blank look in his eyes, he had literally placed himself in an awful situation, he started sweating as he looked down at the harmless golden apple.
There…there wasn't a right choice! Picking his wife seemed obvious, but then there was his prideful little girl next to her, and he couldn't disregard Aphrodite, no one wants to be the target of her fury.
Just as he was about to push the choice onto someone else so that he did not have to decide, all of a sudden he heard someone walking by, turning to look, he saw his older brother who seemed to be looking through bottles of wine, probably choosing which one to drink.
Hades has for the past few years been experimenting with all kinds of appearances, the only thing that all of his forms had in common was the fact each and every one of them had black sclera and purple eyes.
It took a lot to get used to for the rest of the gods, since when hades changes forms, he goes beyond simply eye and hair color, as well as age, he at times will change…just about everything but his gender, and that includes clothing styles.
Zeus eyes brightened up, hades was the perfect guy to drop this onto, it was a well known fact that he doesn't typically lie about this sort of thing, brutally honest when asked a serious question and he isn't afraid of any consequence that may arrive from it.
Zeus felt a small bang of jealousy from thinking this, before he numbed himself to it, he was naturally jealous, that was simply in his nature, but he did remember times where hades helped him out, especially during the War of the Titans, pushing him to think of using his Domain in ways he never would've imagined.
There was also the fact Hades wasn't at all interested in ruling the Greek Pantheon, saying if he were to take up the mantle as king, all of a sudden every God's problem was his problem, he was more than happy just having the underworld.
He swiftly went up to hades, grabbed him by the shoulder, before putting on a tooth-filled smile as his older brother looked at him while drinking wine from a golden goblet, "Hades! My brother!, I need your honest opinion here and I believe your honest self will be required,".
Hades deadpanned, seeing through this immediately, but decided to play along, "alright,…what is it?". Zeus motioned with his free hand to the three goddess who stood there with crossed arms.
"We have to three Female Olympians who need help deciding amongst themselves who is worthy of the apple, and after seeing you I couldn't help but think how great of a judge in character you are, and decided, " Zeus patted his brother's shoulder, "there is no one more worthy of the task in hand but you, " before placing the apple on hades' free hand.
Hades was deadpanning, but with a small smirk, "right…," before gripping the apple and walking up to the goddess, "so what is it?" With a raised eyebrow in curiosity.
Athena took a step forward with a serious look in her eyes, "Uncle Hades, the situation is that we have found this apple on the table, but under it it had a note saying that it belongs to whomever here is the fairest one, myself and these two could not decide just who it is, could you perhaps decide who it is for us?".
The God of the Dead blinked a few times, looked down at the apple with a thoughtful glance, before looking back up, and simply asked "Define Fairest,".
They all gave him a blank look, before they gave their answers, "Beautiful" "Benevolent and Kind" "Generous".
Hades, hearing this, looked from Aphrodite to Athena to Hera with a neutral look, in other words, he looked from an emotional manipulator to the one that turns people that displeases her into monsters to the one that actively sends monsters after children that her husband occasionally has.
Nodding at this,…he promptly turned around and walked away, leaving three goddess' gaping at the sheer nerve at what he just pulled, they were about to order him to come back and choose before they noticed that Hades was actually actively looking for someone in the crowd that were all doing their own thing, from eating, drinking, laughing, or speaking.
Following him at his rather quick and thorough search, at first they assumed that he was looking for his own wife, Persephone,…until he passed by her as she was speaking with Demeter, and until he stopped and beelined for a certain person.
All three goddesses simply looked on,…and didn't really know how to feel.
Hades knew that Beautiful is something every deity pretty much had, except Hephaestus, though not that he was ugly, but he was on the lower end on what you can call beautiful on a god, if it was solely based on appearance, Aphrodite would've won.
However, they also said, Benevolent, Kind, and Generous, in his mind, there was one goddess that fit that description pretty well.
At the far corner of the party at the table near a fireplace sat a lone goddess that was drinking from her own cup at her own seat, seemingly satisfied watching everyone else enjoying the party zeus has invited them over.
"Hades, what brings you over at the end of the party, you are enjoying the celebration," smiled Hestia as she looked at her younger sibling.
Hades shrugged, "meh, it's fine, though Seph seems to be having a good time with Demeter, and for what am I here for? Well I was told to give this to whomever," he hands her the golden apple.
Hestia blinked at the apple, "oh? I thank you,…though I can't help noticing that you look annoyed, still upset I gave up my seat?" She smiled at hades.
Hades scowled down at her, though the annoyance wasn't aimed at her, "of course I am,…we gave up the seat of the Goddess of Family who is also the oldest Olympian,…for wine and parties," he says, incredibly annoyed at the figure that is Dionesys.
Hestia sighed at him before giving him a small smile, "brother, I assure you, I wasn't contributing much to the Olympian Council, and if I hadn't done that, civil war was a large possibility,…no matter how you think you can prevent that,…besides, a throne wasn't really my style, I like my hearth a lot more," she says her smile becoming more reassuring.
"If you say so," says a unconvinced Underworld god, before turning around and going back to the crowd waving at Hestia without looking, "hope you enjoy the party, sister,".
She calls back, "to you as well,".
