Macaria

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CONTENT WARNINGS: MENTIONS OF PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL & SEXUAL ABUSE

Macaria, mostly referred to by her nickname Maci (pronounced MACK-ee), is the main character of the Elysium'verse... according to her. The daughter of King Hades and Queen Persephone, she is the Crown Princess of the Underworld, and the Goddess of the Elysian Fields. Maci is a short-tempered nymphomaniac brat, admittedly with several tragic backstories, sloooowly but surely becoming a better person over time… millennia… eventually.

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=Appearance= Maci’s physical appearance is that of a young woman in her early twenties despite being over 2,000 years old. She has light pink skin, violet eyes, and very long neon yellow-blonde wavy hair, which reaches down to her ankles when it’s not in her signature ponytail. She has fangs and pointed ears: two traits passed down from her father, while the rest of Maci’s color scheme matches her mother’s look. She is 6’0” tall.

Maci’s typical hairstyle features two face-framing pieces of hair, with the rest pulled back and up. True to the standard of the Underworld, Maci wears goth makeup, e.g. heavy black eyeshadow, exaggerated winged eyeliner, and black lipstick, and she is always dressed in black chitons, which are usually arranged to be extremely low-cut and formfitting.

An important part of Maci’s everyday outfit is her wide black choker necklace, sometimes stylized as a tied black scarf/fabric material. This choker disguises the faded remnants of a scar across her throat from centuries ago and she is rarely seen publicly without it.

Her signature chiton pin is a skull.

Powers & abilities
As a goddess, Maci shares the basic abilities most deities possess, such as full immortality, teleportation, and the ability to summon objects at will.

Maci is pyrokinetic and has the ability to create and manipulate fire, as well as (to a lesser degree) smoke. She is fully flame-proof and heat-proof and is able to completely burst into flame on command, or uncontrollably when emotionally triggered by strong emotion such as anger or fear. When “flaring up,” Maci’s eyes turn fully yellow, her skintone changes to orange, and her hair is overtaken by orange flame.

=Personality= ...Maci is more often than not the absolute worst.

On a surface level, Maci is loud, brash, and aggressively outgoing. She is self-absorbed, always flirtatious, very promiscuous, and has no filter; she will often share her opinions and thoughts regardless of how egregious or offensive they may be. Unfortunately immature, Maci will throw a fit when things don’t go her way, or if she doesn’t get what she wants. She has a short fuse and can blow up (literally) from 0 to 100 in anger on a hairline trigger.

Much of Maci’s aggressively boisterous demeanor has been carefully constructed as a shell after a childhood and past history of neglect and abuse, and beneath that air of stuck-up confidence is a goddess who is insecure and desperate to be loved. She will do literally anything, absolutely anything, to win the fleeting attention of anyone, a ripple effect from being ignored and put down during her formative years. It is difficult to get her to seriously address and process the events of her past, as she would rather deflect into bubbly dismissiveness and humor, or sulky anger.

But Maci’s best and redeeming personality trait is her overwhelming love and loyalty to her friends and her family. She is intensely, fiercely protective of all the people within her bubble and will do anything to keep them safe and at her side – and will raise hell on behalf of anyone who’s been hurt. To be loved by Maci is to be adoringly suffocated.

=Pre-canon events & backstories= This section contains information about Maci from before the canon Elysium’verse began - events that have taken place essentially “offscreen,” but are still canonical to Maci’s history.

Early life & childhood, ages 0 to 10
Macaria is the only child of Hades and Persephone (“Seph”), King and Queen of the Underworld. Though initially reluctant to have a child, Hades conceded at Seph’s insistence, and Maci was born in the fall, several decades after they had first been married. Arrangements were made with Demeter to allow a temporary exception to the Pomegranate Agreement that dictated Seph’s seasonal location, permitting her to remain fulltime with baby Maci and Hades in the Underworld until Maci’s 5th birthday. For 5 years, the three of them were a close-knit family, and the little Princess, first of her title in the kingdom's history, was showered with unbridled love and attention from her parents and their subjects.

When Maci was 5 and this arrangement ended, she began to travel with her mother each spring/summer season to stay with her and Demeter during the traditional six-month span. Persephone and Demeter’s springtime cottage was a very different setting than the gothic kingdom that baby Maci called home – for one thing, each of the nymphs, led by the obnoxious crusade of Demeter herself, tried their hardest to convert Maci into the Olympian light. Already upset at having to leave her regular life and her father behind for no reason, Maci did not take kindly to this. The attempts to turn her against her dad and her home combined with Maci's misery at being uprooted turned the first year of her spring presence into a six-month battle between a loud and moody 5-year-old Underworld Princess and her intensely condescending and toxic Olympian-bred grandmother.

For the next five years, Maci continued to travel with her mother seasonally. Her spring-summer sessions were spent in increasing hostility, a combination of Demeter’s typical nonsense coming up against Maci’s short-tempered predisposition. Armed with the rage of a spoiled princess and actual literal pyrokinetic superpowers, Maci reacted to her grandmother’s mistreatment and the general judgment of the Olympians around her by acting out a reign of terror: picking fights, fighting back, and setting things on fire. Meanwhile, autumn-winter time back home was enjoyed as a life of luxury, doted upon by her reunited parents, and spending time with her closest and only friends, twins Hypnos and Thanatos. When Maci was 10 years old, Seph petitioned Demeter to allow Maci to make an active decision on whether she would prefer to continue travelling seasonally or stay fulltime in the Underworld. Maci chose to remain in the Underworld, where her perfect Princess life and friends were.

Adolescence, ages 10 to 17
By the age of 10, Maci had never actually known her father without her mother at his side. The version of Hades who existed when Seph was home in the fall was Maci’s hero; though always stiff in nature, he held a soft spot for his little daughter next to the spot reserved for his wife. Hades had also, of course, never been responsible for taking care of Maci without Seph there with him. It was easy to bounce Maci’s high-maintenance hyperactivity against Persephone, who was usually mellow, cool, and unshakeable. The disposition of Hades - easily irritable and short-tempered himself - was less equipped to handle Maci’s whims and moods without her there, and in the immediate aftermath of Seph’s first absence from them both, he did not have any interest in learning.

And so, during the first spring that she spent home, Maci was instead confused to suddenly discover that the springtime version of her father was shut down completely, and he had not chosen to invite her in. Rather than bonding to cope with the absence of Persephone from the Underworld together, Hades instead chose to ice Maci out, and retracted himself from her both emotionally and in presence. Daily, Maci found herself mostly alone within the halls of their palace, and her interactions with her father were short and cold. Reeling from this abandonment, Maci found comfort in the arms of Hypnos and Thanatos, who by this point had been her best friends for the past four years of her life...

✧*̥˚A brief interlude: Maci & the twins*̥˚✧

Hypnos and Thanatos, inseparable twin sons of Nyx and Erebus, had met Maci when she, age 6, had found them, age 11, bickering in the Fields of Asphodel. Immediately fascinated by both (and enamored with Thanatos especially), Maci had clung to them, and they had remained friends ever since.

Maci knew them the way everyone did: Hypnos, God of Sleep, a gentle, sweet kid prone to bouts of narcolepsy; and Thanatos, God of Gentle Death, very cool, suave, and charming even with a teenage sneer. But Maci, just like everyone, was oblivious to the truth of the twins’ dynamic: that beneath his carefully charming smile, Thanatos lacked empathy. His only goals were violence and power, and his darkest secrets were stained with blood and ichor even by this young age. Armed with a scythe and relentless cruelty since early in their childhood, Thanatos had already tamed Hypnos to cower behind him in fear, and for these past years while Maci fawned in what she thought was mutual friendship, he envisioned a future in which he could tear her down as well. Thanatos had quickly learned how to blend in by acting perfectly normal, even likeable, and Maci had no way of knowing who her best friend and childhood crush really was on the inside. And so...

✧*̥˚Anyway*̥˚✧

With Hades pulling away during this first year, Maci pushed closer to Thanatos and Hypnos, spending even more time than usual with them at the House of Nyx. Hades grumbled some disapprovals that Maci would interact even tangentially with Nyx’s ridiculous tangle of offspring – but he allowed her to do as she wished without any real interference, perhaps grateful to have her out of the way. His aloofness frustrated Maci to no end, and even more so when Seph returned that autumn like nothing was wrong. Unwilling to “ruin” the somewhat normalcy that had finally come back with her parents reunited, Maci didn’t mention the past six months.

When her mother left again the next year and Hades withdrew once more, Maci’s frustrations skyrocketed within the first few weeks of spring and turned into rage. She quickly realized that Hades noticed her again only when she was acting out, and Thanatos, who had been observing the fracture forming since last spring and sensed an opportunity presenting itself, enthusiastically encouraged Maci to continue picking fights with her father. Attention was attention even if it was reprimanding. Hades was temperamental to begin with, and was growing more irritated with Maci's behavior... personality, and presence, day by day. He fell for the bait she laid each time when she instigated arguments, and by the age of 11, Maci had decided to believe that the best and only way to interact with her father was by provoking him into yelling at her, for otherwise he refused to give her the time of day. Once again, Persephone returned in the fall, and the toxic environment Hades and Maci were constructing together snapped back to the illusion of peace. Hades did not wish to upset his wife - Maci did not really wish to upset her mother - a mutually agreed upon silent decision was made to play nicely together in her presence. Still Maci became a little louder, a little cockier, a little meaner, knowing that Hades would never engage while Seph was home. By the time Seph left again and Maci was 12, the situation continued to worsen. Maci made it a point to be as difficult as possible while interacting with her father, and Hades responded by childishly bickering back.

In the background of Maci's life by this time, she was heartbroken to discover that Thanatos was formally dating his first girlfriend, a timid goddess called Amechania, “Amey.” Unbeknownst to Maci, their relationship behind the scenes was a nightmare, but Maci was oblivious, and only concerned with how her friendship with Thanatos would be affected. In between causing a ruckus in the palace with Hades, she vented constantly to a beleaguered Hypnos about her frustration and jealousy. Hypnos knew about Maci’s crush on Thanatos - he also knew what Thanatos was really like – and as well, he suspected that Thanatos and Amey’s relationship was not as perfect as it seemed. But Hypnos was a victim of Thanatos’ abuse behind his own scenes and was terrified to intervene beyond trying to gently nudge Maci away from him, a hint that she refused to pick up on. When Amey suddenly disappeared within the next year, Maci (now 13) was only relieved that perhaps Thanatos would notice her.

Thanatos, by now 18, was in fact noticing her, just not in the way that she was hoping. He was biding his time until she was older and taking the opportunity in the meantime to continue to groom and manipulate her over her head. Maci and Hades’ relationship continued to worsen. Thanatos and Maci (and Hypnos, third-wheeling in helpless rising horror, usually quietly nursing hidden scythe-wounds) spent more time together as Maci began to avoid being near Hades in the palace. Thanatos agreed wholeheartedly when she stressed that her parents did not care about her, and encouraged her to keep rebelling against them, reminding her that at the end of the day, her real family was found right here – in him, her best friend. While Maci was 13, Thanatos introduced her to his second girlfriend, another shy goddess named Sophrosyne, “Sophie.” Maci, jealous of another potential wedge between her and Thanatos, made it a point not to get along with her. Maci was building quite a reputation for herself within the Underworld as a temperamental terror wielding all the power of a royal title, and Sophie mostly avoided her, cowering strangely at Thanatos’ side instead.

Months later, Maci was irritated to be pulled aside by Sophie urgently, just the two of them for the first time. Sophie was babbling insanity, something weird about being in danger, and Maci being in danger – nonsense about how Thanatos was not what he seemed, and that both of them needed to get away before it was too late. But Thanatos only seemed confused when Maci told him what Sophie had said, and she was smugly delighted when Thanatos agreed that his relationship with Sophie had probably run its course.

Maci never saw her again. He was dating another girl by the next year, Hesychia “Hess,” the mute Goddess of Silence, and soon took residence in one of cave constructed homes of Tartarus, his twin and girlfriend always at his side. Maci resumed anguishing jealously in the background, made all the harder by the fact that she was spending nearly every waking moment with Thanatos and Hypnos (and now Hess, always silent, looking more haunted by the day). Maci, now age 14, could not stand to be in the same room as Hades. The palace shared by just the two of them sat with uncomfortably tense energy thick enough to be cut with a knife, only ever broken by screaming arguments that usually ended in Hades throwing her out of the palace, or Maci storming out of her own accord, ending up at Thanatos’ cave or Nyx's house with the twins either way. She would slink back days later and repeat, all the moodier from Thanatos’ continued relationship with Hess. The following year, with Maci now 15, Seph came home and the simmering tension between her husband and daughter was too great to hide for the first time. She was perturbed by this, though she felt Maci’s outrageous attitude was blatant even to her (and in Seph’s eyes, Hades could do no wrong, despite clearly being in the wrong). Seph was stunned to see this shattered relationship sprung out of, she felt, nowhere. Trying to mediate between both sides without picking a side, Seph orchestrated an offering of peace on hers and Hades’ behalf, authorizing construction on a palace of Maci’s own in the subsection of the Underworld that belonged to Maci herself, the Elysian Fields, land of the blessed dead.

The Elysium palace was completed by Maci’s 16th birthday and presented as a gift to her with Hades’ name on it. It stood tall in the depths of Elysium, a natural safe haven due to the natural magical barrier surrounding Elysium’s outskirts, eternally enchanted to keep out anything evil. But Thanatos (who could not cross the barrier and could not let anyone find this out) pointed out to Maci what a slap in the face this gift was, a clear message that her parents wanted her out of their sight and out of their life. Maci was incensed. She refused to set foot in the palace, lashing out with accusations of the theories Thanatos had placed in her head. Instead of doing anything to reassure her, Hades was instead furious at this most egregious display of disrespect, a last straw among last straws. The fight that followed, and the cruel words that were exchanged, was their worst to date.

Something inside Maci was cracking, or it already had. She was 16 years old and living in active hostility with a father who despised her openly when he wasn't pretending she didn't exist, a mother who was somehow choosing to stay neutral between them – this life now was an echo of the turmoil her grandmother had put her through when she was a young child. Somehow this had become all she had ever known. Part of her yearned to viciously lean into the perception of her created by her own family, and she did do this outwardly when she traipsed the kingdom of the Underworld clutching her title of Princess like an obnoxious shield. But although she had created a bubble where anyone who met her would rather tell her yes than risk her reputation of wrath, there was a part of her inside that was beginning to claw in desperation; a frantic, anxious need to be loved, really loved, and actually seen by someone, anyone. This feeling continued to simmer under her skin. She could not bring herself to enter the Elysium palace even once the dust settled from hers and Hades’ fight, as the thought of its halls suddenly felt too utterly empty for her to bear being alone inside it. Maci began to fear that Hypnos and Thanatos, particularly Thanatos, who she adored more than anyone, would only ever see her as a child tagging after them. When Thanatos and Hess broke up (a relationship longer than his normally were, though she too disappeared after their split) and Maci’s friendship with him only continued the same as ever, her anxieties increased.

She knew she was pretty, and noticed every time she was noticed - she had never dated anyone, but she suspected that the personality she put on within the Underworld was probably what caused most people to recoil from her. But Thanatos knew her like no one else did, and she had always tried to be her most true self around him. If even her true self was unlovable, what then? Hypnos tried to talk sense into her - she was too young, now only just shy of 17 years old, he reminded her, and besides, it was for the best that she stay as far away from Thanatos as possible. Maci only insisted that Thanatos certainly seemed to reciprocate her feelings - and there was no one else that seemed to like her, even platonically. Fueled by anxiety and almost 17 years of emotional betrayal, it dawned on her the circumstances that she had created for herself. The desperate, frantic feeling inside began to overwhelm her.

Ages 17 to 20 onwards... Thanatos.
'ONCE AGAIN, REMEMBER, BUT SPECIFICALLY HERE... CONTENT WARNINGS FOR EMOTIONAL, PHYSICAL & SEXUAL ABUSE. I’M SERIOUS THIS SECTION IS A TOUGH READ' Maci was now 17, and was being eaten alive by gnawing desperation. She had begun to survey within herself what she possibly had to offer to make anyone like her, and circled back to reminding herself well, she was pretty. She was really pretty, actually, judging from the way anyone looked at her when they thought she wouldn't notice before they cowered away from the intimidating Princess, and she realized that this was something about herself that she could cash in on, while she waited for Thanatos to realize she was available.

She did not tell anyone what she was planning, and that winter, with her parents preoccupied with each other and paying no mind to her whereabouts, Maci gathered together an insane sort of press conference in the Underworld to announce to the crowd gathered that she was willing and ready to have sex with anyone who would have her. The crowd of Chthonic entities did not actually seem to mind the thought of taking the virginity of a teenager clearly in the midst of a manic breakdown, but Maci's announcement was at first met with silence and hesitation, for if this was some sort of trap laid by the royal family, surely anyone who touched her would be subject to the wrath of the King and Queen. While they were slowly realizing that Maci was in fact completely serious - though again, clearly, in the midst of some sort of episode - Maci's flirty speech was interrupted by Thanatos.

Thanatos was always discreetly monitoring Maci for his own ulterior motives and he had been in the crowd that had formed. He was horrified at what Maci was doing, but not out of any concern for her well-being. Rather, he was alarmed at the thought of the ultimate prize he had spent so much time carefully shaping and grooming giving herself away to anyone who wasn’t him. Though the circumstances at the moment, he felt, were not exactly ideal – he would have preferred more time, as toying with Maci’s unstable emotions had become one of his favorite hobbies, and besides he had only just very recently disposed of Hesychia – he quickly decided on the spot that he couldn’t risk anything getting in the way of everything he'd planned for years, and he seized the opportunity.

Putting on his best protective gentleman’s face, Thanatos appeared next to Maci and made a show of concerned outrage. Maci complained at him trying to stop her, and a hushed argument between them ensued in front of the grumbling crowd until Thanatos told her that he’d rather keep her safe by sleeping with her himself. Finally stunned into acquiescence, Maci allowed him to teleport her with him back to the palace.

Once they were alone and the shock wore off, she lashed out at Thanatos for making fun of her just to get her away from the crowd. But Thanatos (who knew exactly how to talk to her and what she wanted to hear), assured her that he wasn’t joking. He told her that sure, doing all of this was… unhinged, but who was he to stop her from doing whatever she wanted to do? She was the Princess, after all. And if she was dead-set on sleeping with random people – sure, why not, but also… why not let that first random person be someone she knew and trusted, instead? Tearfully, Maci confessed that she could not possibly allow him to have sex with her out of pity, for she was in love with him, and always had been. And Thanatos, playing her like a fiddle, replied that he’d always loved her too - that was all it took.

Maci and Thanatos were now dating and Maci was thrilled to officially call him her boyfriend. Thanatos had also insisted they continue as an open relationship to allow Maci to meet her initial goals of sleeping with as many people as possible, and over the next few weeks, Maci worked her way through the crowd of perverts who’d been ogling her on the day they'd gotten together, and then on and on. The sex addiction that would follow Maci for the rest of her eternal life well into the present day began here, as she was instantly intoxicated by the rush of endorphins and easy attention. Meanwhile, Hypnos was acting weirder than he ever had now that Maci and Thanatos were together, perhaps, in Maci's opinion, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She chalked it up to jealousy (at Thanatos’ expert assessment) and paid him no mind.

Thanatos hit her for the first time about a month and a half in.

Shocked, furious, when it happened Maci burst into flames and threw him out, to which he retreated to his home in Tartarus. Days later, when Maci could no longer stand being alone, and felt that the string of anonymous sex she was having was no longer a sufficient band-aid, she sought him back out and demanded answers. Thanatos was all apologies, syrup sweet and ashamed of "whatever had come over him," promising it would never happen again. Desperate to bury this and move on, refusing to acknowledge the glowing red flags and with no one else to turn to, Maci had Thanatos swear an unbreakable Stygian oath that he would never hit her again. He did swear this on Styx as asked. This was in fact the only time he would ever hit her through the rest of their relationship.

A few days later, Maci was with Thanatos alone when out of nowhere his mood turned uncharacteristically cruel, and he began to neg her with sharp barbs and personal insults. He was instigating deliberately, and Maci was successfully triggered into anger, her emotion fueled powers setting ablaze again. But this time Thanatos was ready, armed with a theory he had been working his way up to testing: immortal deities did not need oxygen to function – but fire did. He strangled her until the fire went out, and Maci found herself choking literally beneath him, in a state of shock as Thanatos assumed the upper hand. He had always had the upper hand, and as he dropped all his pretenses, Maci finally met the real Thanatos.

The shift happened so fast that over the next few days, weeks, months, Maci’s head stayed spinning, reeling in disbelief and horror, as Thanatos carefully outlined their new dynamic for her. He was in love with her, he explained; he’d always been in love with the blind adoration and worship she held for him, though now he loved the look of fear in her eyes much more. Maci tried to break up with him – he refused. That wasn’t up to her. Still shell-shocked, she sought out Hypnos – he followed her to him with his scythe, and revealed, as Hypnos sobbed and bled, that Hypnos also didn’t make decisions of his own.

Maci’s brain refused to process the events that were taking place, the cruelty that was being inflicted upon her by her best friend, the love of her life, the only fucking person who had ever seemed to care about her. In fact, Thanatos seemed to enjoy reminding her that there was no one else beyond him who cared or could ever care about her – maybe just Hypnos, but Thanatos also seemed to enjoy torturing him in front of her now that they were all openly on the same page. It was springtime by now, and Hades certainly was not about to notice that anything was amiss in Maci's personal life. When Thanatos began to wield his scythe against her too - drawing ichor from cuts first hidden under her chiton before becoming bolder with the injuries he could inflict – Hades did not give a second glance at the gory slashes that Maci was barely hiding, proving Thanatos smugly right.

Somehow, Maci couldn’t bring herself to try to escape from Thanatos. She looped through anxious excuses. If he was terrorizing her now, what would he do to her if she left and he had to drag her back? Where would she even go? If she were to “get away” - then what, she would be alone? That thought was unbearable to her, almost more so than facing her current circumstances. To her absolute horror, Maci knew she was still in love with him. Thanatos still plied her with niceties and the attention she craved, perhaps taking pleasure in the way he could easily dictate the rise and fall of Maci’s hopes, and despite herself she did remain wrapped miserably around his fingers even when his faux kindness turned viciously cruel. So at least he was better than no one, she told herself. He also wasn't actually keeping her prisoner in the formal sense, and the terms of the open relationship he had pressured her into still stood. In her spare time, Maci numbly took solace in endless sexual escapades with anyone who would have her, grasping after any fleeting moments of pleasure and affection that did not exist elsewhere in her life.

This all went on. It was now the next year, Maci age 18. The shock never actually wore off, only dulled to take residence in the back of her brain so that she no longer had it ringing in her ears. Though she still idly wished that one day Thanatos would revert to the mask he’d put on for a decade for her to fall in love with, the adoration had faded. Maci was far from the docile plaything that Thanatos was trying to force her into being, and she found the indignant energy to snap back; verbally, physically. Thanatos could overpower her every time, and it was worse when he was angry, but she felt that it was worth something to piss him off, at least. The gravity of the nightmare she was living in began to sink in whenever Maci was alone with her thoughts, so she did everything she could to avoid ever being alone. When she was not with Thanatos, she distracted herself by seducing anyone who would have her across the Underworld, building a new reputation for herself that she felt vaguely proud of.

She also spent time with Hypnos, though it was harder to catch him alone – Thanatos seemed annoyed when they spent time together, and always seemed to keep tabs on them to interrupt every time. Hypnos had always been a part of Maci’s life as her second best friend, but it was only now that Maci really tried to see him.

=Beginning of canon events=

Palace residents
=Children & step-children=

Relationship with Chal
=Trivia=