Elsewhere (and also sort of there, too, though she's not paying it much attention) the Lady 'Ebuette' has... mostly sorted out her feelings. Some of them, anyway. Which is to say: she does in fact want to escape from the Underworld, at some point, but she's not in any sort of rush, and doesn't want to burn that bridge before her work is done down here. And if she does attempt escape, she'll do it in a less direct and breaky way than Zagreus managed it. That seemed like a lot of work, and like it'd actually hurt her more than it does him, in the long term. He died and just got better, she gets her body destroyed and loses ground and resources, some of which she has trouble replacing.

This means it'll probably take her a while to see Zagreus again, but, well. Things were still a little awkward between them. They sort of patched things up before he left? This enforced space might be for the best. She hopes he enjoys it up there, she's glad he's not trapped in an abusive home anymore.

But Zagreus's absence notwithstanding, there is at least one other reliable and reliably friendly (...in his own way) god that shows up in the House of Hades again, every now and then, just staring at the Styx.

And she feels like chatting! And maybe also asking him a question of utmost importance.

"Hey, Than?" she asks, appearing beside him. "Can you pronounce my name."

He looks at her and a teensy, tiny, microscopic smile tugs at the edges of his lips. "Yvette," he says.

“Well, congratulations! You have a mystical power that few others can manage to accomplish!” She huffs, then flops to float dramatically in the air, like she’s lounging. “I keep trying to coach the shades on how to say it, and it’s not going well. Probably I should figure out a Greek name of some sort, but how does one name oneself?”

"I think I have a suggestion."

“Do you? Okay, yes, help please, I really want to stop dying on the inside every time someone butchers my name.”

"Elpis."

“Elpis? That’s… hope?”

He nods. "You."

“Wh. That’s. … I mean, I’m an eldritch goddess from outside of your world entirely, I just wandered in, it doesn’t make sense for me to neatly fit into your, your. Oh gods I’m absolutely the goddess of hope aren’t I.”

"I think you are."

“You’re absolutely right, it feels right in a, a god way. I stave off death, make the afterlife a nice place to go, help people reunite with loved ones… damnation.” Huff. “And you’re very smug about figuring it out before I did, aren’t you.”

He folds his arms and smirks. "They'll know your name, too, now. The mortals. So now they'll be able to say it."

“That’s a yes, you’re absolutely smug. Hm. Yes, all right, since it’s so… accurate. Heh. Hope is an eldritch being from beyond the bounds of the world itself in Greek mythology. Kind of accurate, this whole cosmology loves its tragedies.”

Thanatos opens his mouth to say something but then his attention is immediately grabbed by something else and he literally teleports 180 degrees rather than actually turning so that he can stare at the river Styx while holding the railing between him and it with a (heh) death grip.

"... Hm?" she looks at the Styx, spots what he did, and then grimaces. "Oh, damnation, I just had to go and open my big, stupid mouth."

He spends a while in the blood-red water, just floating there, motionless. Not really like him at all.

But eventually he has had enough of this and gets to his feet to stride towards his father.

Hypnos startles awake. "Hey! You're back! How long's it been, now, a month? And you died of... nothing? Nada? Nothing at all?"

"I can't right now, Hypnos," he says tersely without even slowing down.

She wants to go immediately hug him, right this instant, but, um. He looks like he’s about to go yell at his father? So maybe she should, er. Wait a bit.

Thanatos is also not immediately running but he is floating over to spectate from a distance.

He stops before the desk and says, "You knew."

"What is it you're prattling on about, boy?"

"You knew this would happen. You knew I couldn't stay up there for very long. That even if I escaped I'd end up here again, like I'd never left."