<image source="https://static.wikiforge.net/elysiumwikitide/9/93/Maci.png">

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.

Why the flames, then? Hades, her father, has powers which are based in smoke, and as his offspring, this perhaps was the natural progression. Moreso however, at the time of Maci's birth, there also was no deity presiding over Tartartus, the pits of "hell" and hellfire of the Land of the Dead. This connection thusly appeared in Maci, as the child of the two rulers of the kingdom itself.

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, about a century 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 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.

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 decided 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...

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 to make it worse, encouraged Maci to continue picking fights with her father to get the attention she craved. 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 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, when Persephone returned in the fall, the toxic environment Hades and Maci were constructing together snapped back to the illusion of peace. A silent decision was made to play nicely together in Seph's presence, but still Maci became a little louder, a little cockier, a little meaner, knowing that Hades would never engage while his wife 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 never questioned why, only bickered immaturely back.

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 with her in one of the cave constructed homes of [[Tartarus]]. 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 silence, 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, either way ending up with the twins in Nyx's house or at [[Thanatos’ cave]].[[File:Hessthanmaci.png||thumb|link=https://64.media.tumblr.com/675d1dfba5e50d7bedaf42041cdc1e13/bd2beba9260775ea-86/s1280x1920/fb63723d25c7a1302a8b88053e816ea12bba5dfd.png|Hess & Thanatos, both age 19, and Maci, age 14.]] She would slink back days later and repeat, even moodier from Thanatos’ continued relationship with Hess. The following year, with Maci now 15, Seph came home and for the first time, the simmering tension between her husband and daughter was too great to hide. 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), she was overall disturbed and stunned by this shattered relationship coming out of 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. It had been long proven that giving Maci presents usually kept her satisfied.

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. 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. Part of her yearned to viciously lean into the perception of her created by her own family, and she did this when she traipsed the kingdom of the Underworld clutching her title of Princess like an obnoxious shield. But there was a part of her inside that was beginning to claw in desperation with 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.

==Ages 17 to 20... Thanatos. ==

Maci was now 17, and was being eaten alive by gnawing desperation, but she’d circled back to reminding herself that at least she was pretty. She realized that this was something 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, 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 middle 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 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 and quickly decided on the spot that he couldn’t risk anything getting in the way of everything he'd planned for years, seizing the opportunity.

Maci and Thanatos began to date, and Thanatos insisted they continue as an open relationship to allow Maci to meet her goal of sleeping with as many people as possible. 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 acted 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.

A few days later, Maci was with Thanatos when out of nowhere his mood turned uncharacteristically cruel, and he began to neg her with sharp barbs and personal insults. 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. As he finally dropped all his pretenses, Maci at last met the real Thanatos.

Maci couldn’t process 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. It was springtime by now, and Hades was not about to notice that anything was amiss in Maci's personal life. When Thanatos began to wield his scythe against her too, Hades did not give a second glance at the gory slashes Maci barely hid, proving Thanatos smugly right.

But though she was horrified to admit it, Maci was still in love with Thanatos, and she also couldn't stomach the thought of solitude. She was crippled by a fear of abandonment that had festered and grown by this time in her life. Thanatos plied her with niceties and the attention she craved, taking pleasure in the way he could easily dictate the rise and fall of Maci’s hopes, and she remained wrapped miserably around his fingers even when his faux kindness turned viciously cruel. She told herself over and over that at least he was better than no one. He also wasn't actually keeping her prisoner in the formal sense, and the terms of their open relationship still stood. Publicly, Thanatos still acted as the Underworld's darling, and they both knew no one would believe her if she tried to tell anyone what was happening. In her spare time, Maci numbly took solace in endless random sexual escapades, grasping after any fleeting moments of pleasure and affection that she could manifest.

This all went on and by the next year, Maci age 18, her adoration for Thanatos had at least finally faded. Maci was far from the docile plaything that he 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 him, she distracted herself by seducing anyone across the Underworld, building a new reputation for herself that she felt vaguely proud of. She spent all of her time in random beds or with Thanatos and was rarely at her home palace - and whether or not her parents noticed that she was a touch more withdrawn, a touch angrier, a touch cagier; whether they had heard the rumors about her activities; Maci never knew, as neither of them ever addressed her about it.

She also spent more time with Hypnos. He had always been a part of Maci’s life as her second best friend, but it was only now with the first spot open that Maci really started to notice him. Eventually at Maci’s insistence, Hypnos admitted to her the scale of which Thanatos had been terrorizing him for their entire lives. He also confessed that he’d suspected Thanatos’ plans for her and regretted that he hadn’t tried harder to get her (or anyone prior) away from him before it was too late. Maci was stricken with the realization that Hypnos had been truly at her side while she had taken him for granted. Bonding through their mutual abuse, they began to lean on each other more and more when Thanatos was not looming over their heads. Eventually, Maci pushed their deeply trauma-bonded friendship into something more, and Maci and Hypnos began to date, secretly, behind Thanatos' back.

Gods cannot die, and even what would normally be considered a grievous injury could eventually knit back together in some way over time. In unimaginable pain, barely even able to speak, Maci ''was'' now left as prisoner tossed within Thanatos’ Tartarus cave, though he did not come or go and had whisked Hypnos away with him. Maci’s worst fear was to be alone, after all, and this was a punishment. The wound Thanatos had slashed into her healed tortuously slowly - when it was eventually “healed” enough for Maci to collect herself and leave, she disguised the horrific injury with a scrap of black fabric torn from her own chiton, tied around her throat like a choker. This black choker accessory would become part of her signature look forever, even long after the scar on her neck had faded from time.

Hypnos had never stood up to Thanatos before, but he knew that he could not let ''this'' happen. As Thanatos cornered Maci alone to insist that she drink the glass he’d prepared for her, both Maci ''and'' Thanatos were equally shocked when Hypnos burst between them and shattered the poison in the nick of time. While Thanatos was frozen in disbelief, Hypnos breathlessly explained what had almost just happened to her... and Maci's state of disassociation flickered. No deity had ever ''died'' before. The sheer, insane, terrifying gravity of the Fate that Maci had missed by mere seconds crashed upon her as a weight heavy enough to launch her back into her senses. Then Thanatos snapped back into his senses, too.

He descended into an unhinged frenzy of rage and lunged for Hypnos, who was instantly overtaken. Screaming obscenities as he summoned his scythe from the ether, Thanatos hacked at him violently and at first, Maci was too shocked to act, the scene unfolding before her in slow motion. Slowly it dawned on her what was happening and had happened; what Thanatos was doing to Hypnos; what Thanatos had just tried to do to her; ''everything that Thanatos HAD done to her''; again she was snapped back to sudden reality. Maci, shoving down the fear that had consumed her for the past three years, forced herself between the twins and exploded.

All of Thanatos' usually careful calculated graces and techniques were out the window. He was in such an uncharacteristic state of madness that instead of trying to extinguish her, he only redirected his scythe wildly as Hypnos stumbled out of reach. But Maci was now fueled by more than three years of her own stifled fury, and she fended him and his scythe off as a blazing inferno. The feeling of resigned acceptance she'd felt she had no choice but to settle into was gone; the opportunity to escape was here and now, otherwise she and Hypnos would both perish. Successfully forcing Thanatos back, Maci urged Hypnos to flee to the palace and bring back help. He returned with Persephone, who only understood what Hypnos had been trying to frantically explain in the throne room once she saw the scene of violence still unfolding. Infuriated, she peeled Thanatos off her daughter with an endless cascade of vines summoned from the underearth. The veneer of normalcy Thanatos always put on in front of everyone was ''shattered,'' completely gone even in front of the Queen herself, and he howled and fought as he was restrained. Restraining Hypnos too for good measure, Seph rushed to Maci, who now extinguished and collapsed.

Maci chafed at the fact that her word alone was not enough for her father to unconditionally support her, but by the end of this conference, it was still clear that something needed to be done, and all eyes turned to Lord Hades to announce the punishment that Thanatos should face. But Hades suddenly seemed troubled in a different way, and after a period of terse silence, he unexpectedly requested to speak to Maci alone. He sent everyone out of the throne room and Maci, with some anxiety, faced her father one on one.

The absolute minimal level of care was provided to her; they were unable to take revenge on Zeus directly and retaliated against him by dealing with Melinoe in a cold, neglectful way. It was uncharacteristically cruel of Seph, but with the wrath of a slighted goddess she could not bring herself to care. These actions however were more in line with Hades’ typical way of being, and he insisted that Seph withdraw and allow him to be Melinoe’s primary caretaker (or lack thereof). Hades kept her in the Underworld year-round as Seph resumed her seasonal travels. Meanwhile Maci watched the neglect of her baby sister unfolding, but she too did not bat an eye. Firstly Maci, quick to anger anyway, was holding a grudge against Olympus along with her parents, and, like them, was projecting upon the baby. Second of all, Maci’s memory of her own childhood was of being kept at emotional arms-length anyway (her earliest years of normalcy were forgotten and buried under the abuse she’d suffered), and she felt that well, Melinoe was not being ''harmed'' – just not ''loved.''

Hades watched Maci suspiciously, unbeknownst to her. ''He'' knew that how he was choosing to handle Melinoe was wrong – but he didn’t know if Maci would realize it, as she was recovering from the Thanatos debacle and still on edge from being deprived of all socialization. He feared that if Maci decided that she could connect with Melinoe over their shared mistreatment ''by him'' that they could unite against him. He had not shared with Maci the details of Melinoe’s mysterious prophecy, either – the gist of which stated that Melinoe would grow to become either the embodiment of all goodness, or the manifestation of all evil, but just one, and only time would tell which. As Melinoe grew into toddlerhood Hades bit back bile and extended an olive branch to Maci, softening his demeanor to her completely - Maci by this point was so fragile that she did not think twice, and leapt at the opportunity to finally warmly reunite with her dad.

Hades’ course of action was to make Maci complicit in Melinoe’s neglectful abuse. Melinoe was a bizarre child. Even as a newborn, she never cried and hardly slept, and as she got older, she never spoke; she just stared all day at her caretakers with her huge blue eyes. Even though Melinoe was inoffensive, Hades encouraged Maci to be cruel to her. Maci did not want to lose her father’s sudden approval, and gleefully participated as her kid sister’s bully. When Melinoe learned how to walk, she took to following Maci or Hades all around, and their actions escalated from shooing her away to even locking her out of sight within the palace. Sure, Maci should have known better, and… she kind of did; but she told that voice in the back of her head to shut up. The unhappiness of Zeus’ bastard child came second to Maci finally at long last getting to bond with her father and experience his remorse after all that he had subjected her to. She convinced herself it was a necessary sacrifice to make.

For a total of eight years, Maci and Hades primarily were responsible for “raising” Melinoe – Seph wanted absolutely no part of her life, and refused to even interact with her. Through these eight years, Maci remained isolated from the world outside the palace with her father as her only companion, and through these years, Melinoe was consistently mistreated, but Maci and Hades' relationship seemed great. And then… that prophecy… [[File:origimelmel.png|thumb|left|link=https://64.media.tumblr.com/05e508736bc80d97a817a9d9996614cc/5049951510780ed6-d5/s1280x1920/c57f391dcef3fa8511476a657d682eed0b755ec9.png|Melinoe once the evil half of herself had taken over, the incarnation known colloquially out of universe as "OrigiMel."]]

Melinoe, a whole new person, addressed Maci - oh, she could talk now. She spoke with a giggle, the smile of a child plastered upon her face, and with her eight year old voice, she informed her that she was now leaving to wreak violence and bloodshed upon the mortal world. She would never forgive Maci, or Hades and Persephone, for what they had done to her. When Maci moved to stop her, the sheer force of the power that Melinoe now wielded sent her nearly flying across the room. She ''left'' and would begin her role as Goddess of Ghosts, Evil Incarnate – for the millennia that followed, she frequently pursued minor revenges upon Maci and the King and Queen, violences and horrors while using helpless mortals as pawns and props. Melinoe would actively re-enter Maci’s life after about 2,000 years had passed, now within the narrative of Elysium’s canon storyline.

One of the first things Maci did was reunite with Hypnos. He was overjoyed to see her, and that she seemed like she was doing okay. She too, was relieved to find Hypnos in one piece. He shared that Thanatos was unfortunately still around, and still lurked at Hypnos’ side, but now with the truth of him exposed, he had at least thankfully dialed back the abuse. Maci shared that for the past eight years she’d been raising her secret half-sister who had been born [[double-souled]] and was now running rampant within the mortal world as the embodiment of evil that Hades had forced out of her. (Surely Hades hadn’t expected her to ''actually'' keep that a secret). Catching up on all that they had missed since they had been separated, their meeting ended with an assessment of where ''they'' stood, as a couple and as friends.

They mutually agreed that their romantic relationship needed to end. That romance had been born from a place of trauma and they both unequivocally felt that even the mere thought of having sex with the other again would be too triggering. But they had been through too much together and known each other for so long that neither could bear the thought of losing the other permanently, especially not because of Thanatos and Hades. Maci and Hypnos agreed to remain best friends, and they did ever after.

Maci, though stifling the litany of trauma deep within herself, now considered herself to be fully free.

Two thousand years of Maci reestablishing her libido and reputation in her kingdom, dating many other random shitty people including the [[Lampad]] [[nymph]] [[Leuke]], and just generally becoming more ''Maci'' with time, would pass. And then... at long last.

====Pasi (& Hypnos, again)====

====Glaukos, then Oiolyka====

====Jesse====

====Laphi====

====Eury & Epi====

This section details the second "big" storyline that took place within the early Elysium'verse. At this point, Maci and Tory were the only real main characters of the Elysium'verse, with everyone else just existing to support them, but following the events of this section, an informal shift took place to include and centralize many of the other characters and their own storylines. Of course, Maci would remain as a central figure to basically every plotline that would arise, but her own page here is restricted to things she has been more directly featured in.

The events of this section "conclude" the beginning era of the early Elysium'verse as a good cut-off point, and to create an entirely new heading to follow for this Wiki's purposes, as the threads involved with this plot were the final big events to take place before any of Maci's children were born. For now, the following headings detail Maci's involvement in [[Melinoe]]'s personal larger arc...

But as that word spread, it eventually reached the recesses of Tartarus' jail section, where Melinoe learned what Tory had done to support his wife. Thanatos was an ally to her, plus she despised Tory and Maci, and so on his behalf Melinoe was offended. Unbeknownst to Maci and Tory themselves, Tory's newfound powers were no actual match to the sheer force of evil ability that Melinoe contained within her. Truth be told, tiny little Melinoe was in actuality one of the strongest, most powerful entities in the entire Underworld... and though it was the King and Queen's order that had placed her in Tartarus, she remained there simply because she ''chose to be.'' Summoning all of her abilities, Melinoe walked straight out of her prison. She was the Goddess of Ghosts - the jail of the ghostly kingdom could not possibly contain her.

Maci discovered Melinoe's escape only when Seph approached her and Tory in a panic. There was an influx of shades pouring into the Underworld well beyond the rates that were intended, and each of them were injured in the exact same way: the way Tory had attacked Thanatos. Melinoe was loose in the mortal world and was on an uncontrollable murder spree. Tory insisted on going after her himself. She remained the only goddess he was still afraid of, but newly deathless, he was certain he could defeat her too, and absorb his hatred of her into his own realm of power like he'd done with Thanatos. It was a revenge he'd been long craving. Worriedly, Maci let him go, and she stayed back with Seph, meeting with Glaukos around the [[River Styx]] to try and sort through the pile of shades that were pouring in.

Tory returned to Maci following the confrontation, believing himself to be victorious. With the help of Epi, Tory had gone up against Melinoe and left her subdued, plagued with [[nightmares]] that Epi had lent out to his Prince. Now, in the quiet of their palace, the emotional aftershock from the battle hit him - Maci helped him process this face off, and they believed at last another enemy had been defeated. But again - Melinoe was powerful, more so than anyone could anticipate. Though she did suffer under the curse Tory had inflicted upon her, she ''was'' able to break free from the nightmares feeding from her within a mere month. She'd been angry to start with; now she was furious. The first thing she did was arrange for Thanatos to be healed, knowing this too would piss off the Princess and Prince.

Next slipping back to the mortal world for preparation, soon Melinoe summoned Tory for round two. Maci allowed him to go again, but not without a great deal of concern for both his physical and mental well-being. Tory was tough shells upon tough shells yet Maci knew he was more fragile than he let on, especially considering his history with Melinoe. Still, he was adamant, and adamant on leaving her behind to protect her. As it turned out, this time Maci's concern was warranted.

During a moment when Maci was awake, she and Tory asked Nyx what she knew about this strange effect and what it could mean. With a degree of shock, Nyx shared that throughout her hundreds of pregnancies with hundreds of children over the millennia, this death-like trance had only ever occured during the pregnancies for just two gods: Thanatos, Gentle Death – but also Violent Death [[Ker]], one of Nyx’s first born. The symptom was indicative of a special power called the Touch of Death: the extremely rare and exclusive ability to instantly stop the heart of any mortal by mere contact. The only two deities that had ever had this power, in all eternity and existence, ''were'' Thanatos and Ker, and after consulting anxiously with [[the Fates]] their growing hypothesis was confirmed. Baby Neona was going to be a Death goddess. Maci was carrying Thanatos' own replacement. [[File:Neofam.png|thumb|link=https://64.media.tumblr.com/3e706a83240badc147450a8e189d41f4/5c24e846ed33c169-b9/s1280x1920/7d6ae39332094b3f50152021a0e5576f5fe94426.png|Baby Neo and her parents, Tory and Maci.]]

Always the center of attention even unintentionally, Maci went into labor with Neo in the middle of her uncle [[Plutus]]’ wedding to [[Medusa]], giving birth to Neo that night shortly after midnight on July 31st. Baby Neo was perfect. Maci and Tory were immediately in love with her. Introducing her to the rest of their palace family (with the advanced notice of Neo’s Touch of Death, they’d apotheosized their now-former-mortal friend Jesse to prevent any accidental untimely deaths), everyone else who met her was in love, too.

As Maci and Tory nearly panic-incinerated Nyx's entire home, she went on to elaborate that somehow, against all odds, this child was not an infant - he'd brought his son to her home to gloat, revealing that despite being born mere months ago, they'd supernaturally aged him up to be about 11 years old. For the first time, Nyx had seen Thanatos for the maniac he was - this visit had been so off the rails, Thanatos' usual disguise of charm fizzled fully away even before his mother - and when they left, she had instinctively called for Maci to report this news. The child's name was [[Chalasmos]], and though Chal's appearance was ashen and bloodshot, he seemed to be every bit as evil as his father. Chal had the power of a triggerable basilisk-like stare, able to "freeze" a person in helpless place with a mere glare.

''(An addendum - as Maci rushed to find Neo, Tory stayed back with Jesse cradled in his arms and before he could do a single thing about Jesse's injuries, the two of them watched together in utter shock as his wounds knitted back together seamlessly. As it turned out, Jesse's newfound divinity came with a special new power of healing and regeneration, both for him and - absorbing of course Jesse's own magically healing ichor in utero - his unborn baby. A completely horrific way to discover this ability! But Jesse (and baby [[Lenore]]) was fine.)''

Neo's kidnapping had been more traumatizing for Maci and Tory than it had been for Neo, who grew up to forget that this had ever happened in her infancy. For several months after the event, both Maci and Tory struggled to take their eyes off of Neo ''ever'', nor let her out of their arms. Time went on - they did both eventually recover, though the memory of the event, particularly the horrible monologue Maci had heard from Thanatos before Tory had come, the echoes of Thanatos' words, would haunt and effect Maci well beyond the worry of her daughter's safety. ''This is an important fact for much later - particularly in reference to the resurfacing of one specific [[Chalasmos|godling]]...''

====Neo's scythe====

Neo continued to grow up. By the time Neo was ten, many things had changed in their family - for one, the palace residents had expanded, now including many other children, many other adults, and even new siblings of Neo's: her little brother [[Rasmus]], and half-siblings [[Eisa]] and [[Einmyria]] <small>(all of which are discussed, as they pertain to Maci, in the following sections)</small>. Chal had also, by this time, resurfaced and been captured by the palace in an off-site Elysium location in an unfolding project to turn Chal to the "good" side. Maci's emotions surrounding Neo's future realm had already started to bubble thanks to her annoyance and disapproval about what was going on with Chal. Then, the day after Neo's 10th birthday, Maci and Tory were approached by Nyx, who requested that they come to her home urgently. Violent Death Ker - the now officially singular Death, as one of the things that had changed in a decade included the actual real ''death'' of Thanatos at [[Loki]]'s hands - was demanding to meet Neona now that she had come of age. Retorting that she had absolutely ''not'' come of age, and that Neo's training would begin at the age of 15 and not ''10'', Maci and Tory insisted on a compromise, allowing Ker to meet and speak with Neo just briefly, under supervision. Maci and Tory brought her there. For a short moment in the form of an out-of-body psychic link, Ker did speak to her, and then promptly vanished by dissolving into a puddle of blood.

This was the beginning in canon of Maci's carefully teetering tower of stifled, buried, compartmentalized trauma stretching back from many hundreds of years in the past, finally beginning to disintegrate. Neo was elated to have her scythe, something that she recognized intrinsically as a birthright - even as Maci visibly shrank back from it, and visibly pulled away from Neo herself. Logically, Maci knew that a simple symbolic weapon, the daughter she loved and cherished, and the specter of the villain who had tormented her, were three entirely separate things that had little to do with each other. But Maci was not thinking rationally. She was so distressed ''anyway'' by the rehabilitation project of Chal, that the presence of Neo's scythe was too much for her to bear. During this time, Maci's psyche crumbled. The collapse had been coming for ''millennia.''

====Maci gets therapy====