Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Packing Peanuts II: Who's Who?

For background on the Packing Peanuts Posts, go here. Today’s nuts are brought to you by Sleepy Joe’s challenge to expound somehow on a myth. This is one of my favorites, and I’ve purposely used more ambiguous names of the two main characters. Can you guess who’s who?
 
                                         Fruit Offering

Aidoneus stood again, hands clasped behind his muscled back, black eyes focused down. The blue-green glow of fungi sprawling up walls in the dark, underground room lit his pacing. 

          From the direction of a couch came Hermes’ bark of laughter. He shook his head as he picked at the fruit spread overflowing a low table. “Relax. She’ll come,” he said through a mouthful of grapes. “You know that.”

“I don’t know anything.”

“You say that every autumn but she always comes.”

“Which isn’t a guarantee she’ll continue.”

“But your brother promised…”

Aidoneus snorted. “That doesn’t guarantee anything either.”

“Well then. She’ll come because she loves you.”

“Does she?” 

Aidoneus slumped into an overstuffed chair, pulling at his recently trimmed beard. Everything about Aidoneus and his underworld palace had been recently groomed, cleaned, set into order. Even the three-headed hound had learned some new tricks.

Glancing around the dim space, he eyed the candles and oil lamps with a sigh. They wreaked havoc on his retinas but Kore would need them until her vision adjusted. The bioluminescent flora here was impressive, but nothing to the lighting she was used to above. 

Nothing here was like above.

“This place has to be Tartarus for her,” Aidoneus said, feeling his inadequacy deep. 

“My Lord,” a messenger’s head poked through the door. “She approaches.”

Aidoneus nodded, starting up. The messenger disappeared.

“Well if it’s not you she loves,” Hermes stood, lobbing a crimson orb Aidoneus easily caught, “it’s your pomegranates. I told you she’d come.”

Then Hermes too disappeared and Aidoneus was left alone to watch a soft flickering down the hall slowly approach. Kore held only a single flame, yet her image still made his eyes water. He bowed deep, offering the fruit. 

She took it. But her lips searched for something more.


link to original here


So what are some of your favorite myths, and how would you change/expound on them? Why have they made an impact on you -- Why are they your packing peanuts?

7 comments:

  1. I love myths. Today I saw something on Pinterest that said, "Today's prompt: Write about the dragon who rescued the princess from the knight." I repinned it because I think I want to when my writing schedule is a little less hectic.

    Anyway, I don't know if that's what you were looking for, Z, but I loved your story! See you on Thursday!

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    1. Um, apparently I shouldn't comment after 2am after writing all night. Because you are not Z, you're Deb. Sorry!

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    2. Ha! I know, and I understood. But I love myths too, and twisting them around in ways that your prompt suggests is very interesting because HOW we choose to twist them says a lot about them/us too.

      You should definitely write the princess/knight/dragon story. But yes, you should definitely wait til your writing schedule is a little less hectic :)

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  2. Loved this, I don't know what I would do there are so many, maybe a short story on Odin and Freyja.

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    1. Ooo, Odin and Freyja would surely be interesting. I'm intrigued already. If/when you write that short I'd love to read it.

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  3. <3 <3 <3 I am no good with either expounding on nor adding any intelligent discourse to a discussion re: Packing Peanuts but I sure enjoyed these Peanuts of yours. They're not the stark styrofoam-y kind, but rather made of marshmallows I can put in my cocoa.

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