U Got The Look! Meme

L.G. Keltner of Writing Off the Edge tagged me with the "U Got The Look!" meme. It doesn't have a pic associated with it, but I found this one and it just felt "right," you know? ;-)

Anyway—here's whatcha gots to do: go to your current WIP, find the word "look," and post the section which includes it, as well as the surrounding paragraphs. Then tag 5 other poor bastards with the meme.

So I give you an excerpt from my as-yet-unpublished Greek mythological romance, That Fatal Kiss. It's from a section at the very beginning, in which Hades, Lord of the Underworld coerces asks Zeus, King of the Gods, to help him snatch up the lovely immortal goddess, Persephone.

*       *       *

Hades sat back in his throne.  "Will you aid me in this endeavor?" 

Cagily playing for time, Zeus asked, "Why her?  Why the daughter of Demeter?" 

"Why not?” Hades snapped back.  “Look about you, Zeus; do you not see the darkness that pervades my kingdom?  Do you think it a pleasure to rule these fluttering shades, which have barely more substance than the air the mortals breathe above?"  Hades turned his face from the Olympian’s suddenly penetrating stare as he added, "Try mating with them." 

At that, Zeus' laugh shook through the glistening walls of the throne room once again. "Forgive me, Hades, I was not thinking of that."

Hades' face darkened with contempt.  "For an unprecedented change."

The Thunderer bristled at the continued insolence.  “Is that all you want her for, then? For the purpose of assuaging your lust?  Is a daughter of mine to serve merely as your receptacle, is she to be nothing more than your concubine?” he cried indignantly.

“I do not want her for my concubine, but for my lawful wife!”

“Your wife!”

“Yes, confound you, my wife!”

"But why her?"

“Are you blind, too, that you have to ask?"

Under different circumstances, and with another god, Zeus might have chuckled with appreciation.  But he could not afford to laugh now, the situation as volatile as it was. 

“Of course you want Persephone.”  He thought for a moment before asking, “But what if she does not want you?”

Hades’ lips twisted and he turned away from Zeus.  “Since when did a female’s wishes ever matter?  You know the customs.  If you, as her father, give her to me, then she is lawfully mine.”

“But why do you not court her properly, ask her if she would be your queen?”

The sullen god’s eyes flickered back to the Cloud Gatherer.  “Court her?  The way you courted your bride?  Did you prostrate yourself before Hera, begging her to have you?  No; you wanted her, Cronus was in no position to challenge you, and so you took her.”

“I had Rhea’s consent.”

“And I would have yours.  What is your point?”

"My point is that Demeter will not be pleased to lose her only child to the Lord of the Dead," said Zeus, getting to the true crux of the matter, as he saw it.  That ought to put a stop to things before they progressed any further.

Hades shrugged.  "She is herself a goddess of the Earth, a prolific creator.  Surely she can have another."

*       *       *

And I hereby tag:

Georgina Morales at the newly revamped Epitaphs and Headstones

Chris Fries at A Writer's Expanding and Slightly-Warped Universe

Damon Peter Rallis at The Six-Fingered Monkey

Elizabeth Twist, Writer, Plague Enthusiast

Steampunk Princess

Rock and roll it, kids.