Alexandra is seen twirling a sword around as Dionysus enters the area. She can hear the clicking of his boots against the rocks, scattered on the forest floor. On the throne sat Jonathan Sanders, a black crown atop his head. She doesn't stop training, but then turns around, lobbing the head off a scarecrow, before walking over towards the throne. She buries the point of the sword in the dirt by the throne before leaning on the arm of it, smirking at Jonathan.
"How about a little story time from your Queen my love? Would that help to assuage your mind? Before you watch me destroy the vile betrayer."He nods and she slips into his lap, he pulls her close and looks up at her. She smirks and holds him close against her, beginning to tell her little story.
"There is an old ode, it goes as such;
I call upon Melinoë, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth,
whom revered Persephone bore by the mouth of the Kokytos river
upon the sacred bed of Zeus.
In the guise of Hades, Zeus tricked Persephone and through wiley plots bedded her;
a two-bodied specter sprang forth from Persephone's fury.
This specter drives mortals to madness with her airy apparitions
as she appears in weird shapes and strange forms,
now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness—
all this in unnerving attacks in the gloom of night.
O goddess, O queen of those below, I beseech you
to banish the soul's frenzy to the ends of the earth,
show to the initiates a kindly and holy face."
She paused and looked at him, her fingers threaded through her King's hair. She knew how the betrayal of one Tyson Sykes, had ripped a hole in her husbands heart. Such as it were, Anti-Thesis was a family.
"Melinoë was a frightful, underworld goddess who presided over propitiations offered to the ghosts of the dead. At night she wandered the earth with her train of ghosts, striking fear into the hearts of men. The very image of these beings would strike fear into the hearts of men and women alike, bringing about Nightmares. Thus earning Melinoë the moniker, the Goddess of Nightmare's."She thought on this for a few moments, before continuing her little tale. There was many similarities between Melinoë and Alexandra. The Raven hair, the tormentor of those who's paths she crossed. Alexandra had once been a feared competitor, then people stopped believing in her and her power faded. Until he came along, until her beloved dark reflection. A man who could see the real her and accepted her. He even made her his wife, the two of them linked together forever, bound together in eyes of the darkness.
"Orpheus wrote many tales of our fair Melinoë. In all of the Orphic Hymns, only the goddesses Melinoë and Hecate are mentioned which shows the importance of Melinoë in the mythology. One of the sections of the poem says Melinoë and her story while referencing Zeus, Persephone, and Hades. Melinoë is mentioned as clad in saffron which is an epithet for the moon goddess. The purpose of Orpheus singing about Melinoë in his hymn is very interesting. As Melinoë is the bearer of bad news, dark times, and nightmares, Orpheus acknowledges her and seeks refuge from her. He sings her glory and at the same time asks her not to come in his sleep and to spare him of all of the misery and darkness. That is why this particular hymn is very famous as other people also sing it to save themselves from the terror of Melinoë."She stroked his hair once more, before cupping his face in her hands. In a way, Tyson would be her Orpheus. Years from now, when people told her story, they would hear how he fled from her. How he tried to run, yet her denizens of the darkness found him, dragging his worthless heap of flesh back to her court, so that he could be tried for his crimes.
"You know my love, it is said that Melinoë, was bewitchingly beautiful. So beautiful, in fact that it was through her natural ability to be beautiful, that she could captivate people. She was a shapeshifter. Her power was to come into people’s dreams and scare them. In doing this, she often took shapes of the things that scared the people most."Jonathan looked up at her, his steel-grey eyes, focused on her icy blue ones.
HIS DARK BEAUTY, HIS QUEEN, HIS PERFECT MATCH. He reached up, running a hand along her hair. Knowing that she was as focused in her anger and revenge as Melinoë had. Melinoë's anger with Zeus, flowed trough the veins of his beloved Queen. And she would see to the destruction of Tyson Sykes.
"And I know what it is that Tyson Sykes fears the most. I will be the harbinger of that fear tonight. The living embodiment of all that scares him, will reside within me. Tyson Sykes, will pay the ultimate price for his betrayal of our bond. He made his choice, I have made mine. Blood will be spilled for his crimes. Blood for Blood. Blood for the King of Nightmares, served to him by his Queen."She smirked, giving him a flash of her darkness, reserved at this moment, yes. Before them, knelt a scarecrow, made to look like Tyson Sykes. Her eyes zeroed in on it as she rose to her feet from his lap, before she turned back to look at The Lost Cause, where he sat on the throne. He gave her the thumbs down, signaling for the end of Tyson Sykes, she nodded, pulling the sword from where she had buried it in the dirt of the forest floor. She walked towards the figure of Tyson Sykes, the sun shining down upon him. Dionysus and Lyons held the scarecrows arms, as if they were holding Tyson himself down.
"Tyson Sykes, for your betrayal upon this family, for the treasonous actions you have committed against the King, your King, OUR KING, your sentence is a blood letting, followed by your total destruction. That sentence shall be carried out by me. The Queen of Anti-Thesis. Destruction shall come upon swift winds, raining discourse and madness upon you for the remainder of your days. As you have been found guilty, your sentence shall not be swift, but painful and long lasting. As above..." Alexandra raised the sword above the kneeling scarecrows head. She took a moment to look to their King, who nodded his approval of her actions.
"So below.."Swiftly and with great accuracy, she brought the sword down upon the neck of the scarecrow, it's head rolled towards the foot of the throne. Sanders rose, crown tilted slightly upon his head, he stepped down onto the pumpkin head, crushing it beneath his foot, signaling the end of Tyson Sykes, as the members of Anti-Thesis stood around him, his arm slipping around his Queen.
Sanders Hotel Room Balcony
2/19/23A sharp chill pierced the steadily-blackening English night, bringing with it a blanket of thick fog which lent a particularly Victorian air to the surroundings. Jonathan inhaled deeply of the frigid air and let his steel-grey eyes flutter closed; his head was bowed in contemplation, hair falling loosely over his face as his hands - fingernails painted in the deepest black, as always - clasped betwixt his knees. The self-appointed "Lost Cause" held this pensive pose for several moments; a stoic, silent sentinel, juxtaposed against the chorus of the bustling city night below. He allowed himself, ever-so-briefly, to relax. Exhale. To take in the darkness and the cold; the familiar, comforting sensations of human desperation. He had felt these same sensations many times before. He welcomed them, now, reveled in them. Where others would seek warmth, comfort, conversation with a loved one or a friend - the Snake of Eden sought out solitude. Coldness. Unease. They kept him on his guard - alert, against the violent, gnashing fangs of the gaping, hungry void. They kept him in his thoughts. His pain. His resentment and disdain - the fossil fuels deposited deep within the bedrock of his soul so long ago, which he could use to light the flame that would engulf this broken world.
Inhale.He became aware of her before his senses told him anything - even before he heard the clicking of her heels on the balcony, the gentle sliding of the glass door along its aging, tired track - he knew that she had joined him. Something deep and primal in his being had reached out - some unseen, eldritch thing, which linked their fates together, had told him she was near. He did not move his head.
"Alexandra..."Without speaking she looked at him, her eyes fixed on him. Without a hesitation, she spoke.
"I am here, my love."Jonathan simply nodded, then let his head slowly rise to face her, his steel-grey eyes flicking open.
"Any word, as yet, on our Dark Princess? Have you learned her whereabouts?"She nodded her head, looking into his steel-grey eyes. With a breath she spoke once more.
"Yes, her whereabouts are known to me now. I could dispatch a legion to go and fetch our dear Princess. However.."She handed him a piece of paper.
"I thought that you.. would take some pleasure in destroying them.. yourself.."Jonathan's lips curled into an all-too-familiar wicked grin as he took hold of the paper, leveling his glinting, malevolent eyes upon its contents.
"Oh, yes... I should very much enjoy that indeed, my Queen."She gave him the same wicked grin bringing her hand up to lightly land upon his cheek.
"Then do as my King should. Go dispatch them, send them to their maker, and bring home our young Princess. It has been far too long without her here. I dare say I cannot go on without her here for much longer."Jonathan placed his hand on top of hers, rising to his feet as his gaze locked with her own. The chill of night suddenly felt far more invigorating. The breeze called him to act.
"Of course, my darling. I shall show them what happens to those who act against our union - who act against US - and I shall make them truly understand why death can be a mercy..."She felt his hand against her own as he rose to his feet in front of her. She looked on him, with the eyes of a mother in torment, but the voice that sprang forth from her was that of the hardened and violent Queen she had become.
"And likewise, I shall do the same to our enemy, the one that is known as one Tyson Sykes. I have.. involved myself in our families dealings with him and now I shall dispatch him, as it has been foretold, you, my king, shall deal his final blow."The grin merely widened.
"Then do it, my beloved. Rain fire and Hell and torment upon Tyson for his treachery - SHOW HIM what we mean when we warn of 'Scorched Earth consequences'... and I shall be awaiting with our princess upon your return."She smiled looking into the steel-grey eyes of her dark beloved. She knew that Jonathan would keep his word. When her match was over, when it was done with, her daughter would be home safe with them. Her Lost Cause, would never betray her as Tyson Sykes had betrayed her family. Maybe they weren't her blood family, but they were the closest thing she had to a family here.
"You have my word, my dark love, that I shall show him, I will show EVERYONE what happens when you betray our family. I will see to it that blood pours from him. As the doctors of old would once do.. there shall be a blood letting, perhaps it will help him see the errors of his momentary insanity. Perhaps bleeding him out, will show him that WE are not to be trifled with."Jonathan simply nodded at her words, then locked his eyes with hers again. Something about his gaze told her exactly what was about to happen. When he looked at her like that, she knew what his desire was. He wanted the Dark Queen to return once more unto the fold. Not that she had not been that all this time. She had released that darkness and so would not be returning to the woman she had once been.
"Good... let the Dark Queen awaken once again."Her eyes closed as if she was going into a trance-like state, when she opened them, her eyes focused on his.
"As you will it my king.."She pulled him into a heated kiss.