Myth-take Challenge #9

[Villamvihar]

Myths and legends could be said to be the prototypes of modern novels. They are stories in their own right, tales that were passed on for generations. Even today, some elements from the old myths remain in our stories and occasionally, they serve as inspiration.

This week's mythical element is: Cerberus

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In Greek Mythology, Cerberus is the guardian of the Underworld, responsible for keeping souls from leaving their realm. Often depicted as a three-headed dog, Cerberus was Hades' loyal watchdog, whose three heads supposedly saw past, present and future respectively. According other sources, the three heads represent different stages in life: birth, youth and old age. The most famous appearance of Cerberus in Greek Mythology is connected to Heracles: As his twelfth labour, Heracles was asked to bring Cerberus before king Eurystheus.

Your challenge is to write a story that incorporates your own take on this mythical element. The genre and setting of the story does not matter as long as the element remains recognisable.Myths and legends could be said to be the prototypes of modern novels. They are stories in their own right, tales that were passed on for generations. Even today, some elements from the old myths remain in our stories and occasionally, they serve as inspiration.

 

[MagiKin]

Do we write them here? If not, where do we post them?
Just curious because i am a huge fan of greek mythology...well, mythology in general really.

 

[Villamvihar]

Yes, you post your replies in this thread!

 

[MagiKin]

Yes, you post your replies in this thread!

ok, thanks! Hope that wasn't too much of a "DUH" question. XD

 

[HappyJinglez]

I'm sorry, but when do they need to be up? I'm sorta kinda new (again) and I'm not entirely sure where the basic information for this is?

 

[Villamvihar]

You can post your reply to a challange at any time!

 

[Raven]

Cerberus
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I live in a realm of darkness. Why am I here? I don't know but the master does. I'm not aloud to leave and there is a friend of the master's who makes sure this. My name is Alice. Where I live has many names. The one who always keeps an eye on me is my master's three headed dog named Cerberus. He can make himself into three dogs not just one. I have tried to escape but can't. Now I have to learn how to befriend this dog to do more of the master's bidding. His bedding is to gather more souls than our rivals. Why we have rivals ask the ancient ones. Who are the ancient ones ask the humans and who there many different gods are. Cerberus will one day become the guard of these souls and when that time comes I will have to help him gain more.

 

[Lovie the OG]

They say that Hades is the ruler of the Underworld, that he is the emperor of the afterlife. They say Hades is all powerful in the realm of the dead. Yet, this saying about Hades is all wrong. It is an unrealistic myth that Hades rules the dead. In fact, Hades is but a mere tool used by the true ruler of this dreadful place. In the midst of the volcanic choas that enslaves three-quarters of the Underworld, in the ashes of skeletons and unwanted souls, and in the caves of skulls that belonged to beings much larger than this one, there lies, in a slumber with the sound of recognizable dominance, a three-headed beast much unlike any other. This beast, morphed together by souls and bones, by rotting flesh and dreams left forgotten, is the true ruler.
It goes by the name of Cerberus, and this Cerberus is what beckons the dead to the Underworld. It is the center and the mind of the dead, it is the all-seeing of all who passes through. This Cerberus beast is a ruthless slayer of useless souls, but is also the protector of the ones it deems worthy.

Thus, it must be said, that whenever one must die, one must be wise and praise Cerberus as their soul passes through the world of the living and into the hot mists of the Underworld. And as the soul enters the world of the nonliving, it will meet the heads of Cerberus, and will face a diligence of tests, ones that will prove whether Cerberus deems the soul a worthy addition to it's realm. With this knowledge, may people understand, may they begin to work toward worthiness of this beast, as to be protected from the torments that the Underworld can establish onto the useless. May we all be friends of Cerberus, and may we use this time in the living realm to test ourselves to be able to pass the ones that Cerberus may lie unto us.

 

[Poetic Justice]

I can tell you the true meaning of Cerberus. ..
It all started when a young lady in teenager years was peer pressured by her "friends" to do something wickedly untold.
The betrayal from her "friends" costed her the rest of her life, her soul. Since that day she was never the same. Branded as an outcast by her entire school teachers an all, alcoholic parents who disowned her and threatened to cast her off to another land yet she had no understanding of what she did wrong. No one to talk too or confide in. At a young age she felt her soul twisted and tortured with no one to guide her out of this abyss.
As she grew older she became wiser of trusting those who could say they'd love for she knew better. Growing up in a violent home and finding a way to get out no matter what it'd cost her soul...
She left her homeland and learned to survive as she always had at a young age.No one was ever home so she learned to cook to not starve and now she works to survive to not starve.
She falls in love when her guard was down and has a baby.She dedicates her life to this baby as she watches the father walk out the door. Soul torn again by not planning to have this baby suffer fatherless. She stood her ground now full adult and looks at her now older son and says" I love you more than life itself for I'll sacrifice my soul. I will show you how a kid like you should enjoy a life carefree and joy. I will listen to you and sympathy your thoughts. I will show you how to laugh and smile and always tell you life will get better. Because I've been their. Since I was a child I been through abandonment, exiled, loneliness, scared, heart broken and I've cried.
As your mother and father, you can always trust and relate openly to me. I've lived past, present and the future will only change if you make it too. "
This is just life and how you decide to live it.
This is Cerberus to me.

 

[Betelgeuse]

You will never leave this place.

This place of concrete, one story buildings, this place of broken streetlamps and potholes, yet absent of graffiti and garbage. Rundown and poor, yet as well-kept as the hard-working citizens could keep it. There was one small grocery store and one gas station and one liquor store.

The bell on the gas station door jingled as a blonde girl with greasy hair and too much mascara left, and hopped into her twenty-year old truck with a rusted bumper.

It was sunrise.

All she had was a change of clothes, twenty dollars, and her guitar.
--

"Where the hell are you going to go?" Her mother had shouted from across this dining room table.

"Anywhere. Anywhere but here."

"How the hell are you going to get there? You're sure as hell not taking the car."

"I bought Jeremy's old beater."

"That old thing? You'll be lucky if you make it fifty miles."

"I'll make it."

She stood up from the table and headed towards the door. On the threshold, she turned back to her parents. "I'll call you when I get somewhere. I love you. But I can't stay here and waste my life i--"

She fell silent. Waste her life in this soulless town, was what she'd been about to say. She shook her head and left.

Just as she slammed the door of the truck and started the engine, her father ran out of the house and stood in front of the car, the headlights bleaching him until he was a paper-white ghost.

"You can't do this!"

Watch me.

Even a few months ago, her parents' words had kept her caged in this small town. But something had snapped, and she had realized that if the only thing keeping her here was her own willingness to believe that this was all she'd ever be.


--

After sleeping in the old rusted truck in a ditch just outside of town, she fueled up her car at the 24-hour gas station.

And then she drove into the rising sun, praying that whatever lay ahead of her was better than what she'd left behind.

 

[Ner0]

Project Cerberus:


Location: Siberia, unmarked underground facility

Date: April 3rd, 2017

"The subject is ready to see you Marshal"

The doctor turned his head from his papers, the artificial light from the overhead added a head ache inducing glow to the already, too white for its own good, room. The Marshal rubbed his temples with his fore finger's in an effort either provide breathing space to the bridge of his nose, which his glasses had rested on for quite a while now, or communicate his current stress levels to his assistant. He let out a loose sigh, glancing momentarily at the pile of unorganized documents and needless miscellaneous files that had found their way to his desk. He then raised his eyes to his assistant, she was pretty enough. He hoped that she would last longer than the last few he had been paired with.

"Thank you miss, umm- it was Crowley right?"

"Yes Marshal Adams'; My name is Ms. Sarah Crowley, I-"

The doctor waved his hand in her direction, effectively shutting her up.

"Get past the first week, then I may care about your full name."

The doctor pushed his seat back from the desk and rose, turning his body as he did so. With a step and a half he passed uncomfortably close to his new assistant. He made sure to give her a dark stare as he did so. It was her first day after all, no use making her feel comfortable, he had stopped believing in easing them into it long ago.

After a few minutes of walking they arrived, there wasn't much to say about the facility, it had white walls, with white artificial lights, white walls, white ceiling, and white floor.

"Fucking head ache inducing"

"Excuse me sir?"

"Nothing, just complaining about an old pain.."

"We are here sir, if you wou-"

"I know, just let me do the talking alright?"

"As you wish"


He opened the door slowly, a slight whoosh sounded as the air pressure balanced itself out. The Marshal entered first, his posture was the opposite of professional, one hand in his pocket and the other grasping the door knob as though it was a source of light, he peered into the room. A man sat in a steel chair placed in the center of the otherwise empty room. To the Marshal's dismay, they had painted the chair white.

"I liked the old one's"

He grumbled as he recalled the old, non painted chairs they had used a couple month's ago.


"W-who..? Who is it!?"

the blindfold and handcuffed man suddenly became alert, swinging his head back and forth whilst he attempted to see what was going on. The Marshal chuckled at the spectacle as the man demand.

"Do you mean me?"

The Marshal dawned a coy smile, these little mind games really did help him through the day.

"Yes I meant you! Now, who the hell are you and where the hell-"

The man cut off as he slowly became limp and his sentence faded into nothingness. The Marshal's assistant stood behind the subject, she held a now empty needle to his left bicep.

"Bah"

The Marshal threw his hand in the air, frustrated with his newest assistant.

"You are no fun."

He turned to leave, and as he did so instructed his new assistant on something they both knew had to be done.

"Get him prepped for testing, and don't get blood on my nice new carpet"

"of course sir."

The Marshal cursed the woman once he was out of earshot.


The Cerberus testing facility was an interesting place, the goal was simple. Some company wanted to test prison designs. The best were sent in, some willingly, others... not so much.. and they were given one task. Get out alive, and live in society for three months without being recaptured. Easy right?

Not so much.

The Marshal had been out 37 times now, only problem was that he couldn't stay out. No one could. They had a tracking device, it couldn't be removed and it couldn't be intercepted. It lived within you, removing it would spell death, everyone in the Cerberus compound was given poison on a regular basis, no one knew when, but it happened. The Marshall assumed it was in the air, it had always tasted, different...

The tracking device gave you the antidote, the device had enough in it to last you a year, but it took three months of antidote without exposure to the poison to fully cure you. So at three months you were home free, take off the device and go to wherever it was your home was. No one ever made it three months, hell the most he had ever made it was five days.

Fall asleep and you were screwed, unless you could somehow scramble the signal, which was a little more than challenging. Even if you managed that, they would eventually unscramble it, and then Cerberus would come. Always in three's. White suits, big guys, great guns. The whole shabam. After breaking out so many times, they had offered him this position. Basically, in exchange for freedom in five years, he had to introduce newbies to the system. Calm them down, make sure they didn't stain the walls with bodily fluids, and if they did... The MArshal was known to shaft clean up duty to his assistants, usually why they didn't last to long.

"He's ready for you now Marshal,"

"Yeh, yeh, I'm on my way.."

He offhandedly gestured to his newest assistant as she pulled him from his thoughts.

 

[Whisper]

Cerberus

It's cold and dark as the heavy shackles are bound to my small ankles and wrists weighing my frail and slowly decaying body down. In this small tight corner I have nothing but the bonds between myself and the brick walls, the cold cement floor by which I am seated on, and the darkness for not even a little sliver of light reaches my eyes as my body shivers through the icy night. My scarlet hair is disarrayed over my head with its short hair cut. They have yet to know my true identity and figure out what exactly I am. As I stare at the stone wall before me the metal door creaks open as a guard strolls in and roughly leads me out of this prison. Light shines into my eyes blinding me and causing me to stumble and fall to the ground as my blood spilled out onto the jagged rocks my bare feet had walked among once before. How long ago had it been since I last saw sunlight? How long has it been since I was no longer forced to suffocate and choke upon the stale air of that dungeon? How long have I been locked away? The large guard commands me to stand, and as I follow his orders as the slave I was tears streamed down my face as he lead me elsewhere. To a new room I was lead to and left to dress myself in amour. Was there a war? Or was I going to fight in order to survive as all the Romans do? Were the Greeks going to follow the ways of the Romans now? I wonder and question as I pull off the ragged cloth they dared to say was clothing and replaced it with whatever was provided for me to wear. I called out to the guard notifying him that I was dressed before being lead out to an iron gate. The gate rose up allowing sand and dirt to dance freely through the air as I was pushed into the arena against my will. I peered up and around me seeing a enormous crowd gathered within the large structure. The next thing I knew the gates of the opposing side were lifted as well and the three-headed beast of Hades appeared, Cerberus is it's species. I felt my hands begin to shake from fear so I closed my stone grey eyes and took a deep breath in as memories of my hometown flooded my mind. When I opened my eyes I felt renewed for I remembered something I had forgotten so long ago, I am the modern Nike as the people of my hometown use to tell me. I am victorious and I shall win this battle and survive. I clenched the large heavy sword that was in my right hand as I shielded myself with the shield that was provided for me to wear upon my left arm I yelled and dove straight into battle as the beast lurched forward in an attempt to eat me. I remember the battle tactics father taught me and along with the flips and stunts my mother taught me. My grandmother taught me how to allow wisdom guide me down the path of freedom, strength, and victory. I shall win this war for I believe in myself and I shall fight for my family and for the gods above to restore my powers. I strike the middle head of the beast within its eye as it lifts one of its massive paws and swipes at me as I flip backwards in order to evade from the monsters attack. A pool of blood begins to flow from its eye as confidence within me boosts. I am going to get rid of its eyes so it would be unable to see. After deciding this I run back into battle...

It was a long battle and by the time I finally was able to end it I was bruised and battered and a bone within my left arm was fractured. The beast laid in the center of the arena unmoving as exit the place not a soul cheered for they found out my identity after the beast tore my amour away from me leaving a large tear upon the cloth I wore beneath the amour revealing some of my chest. My bandages that were wrapped around my chest have way and my identity was discovered. They were speechless to the fact that I a woman beat the beast even after being starved and beat for days while men who were treated the same as I lost not only their dignity but their life. I walked back in through the gate and not even a single guard dared to touch me. I remembered how I was dragged in here and I knew my way to the exit. So I let my bare feet lead the way through the dimly lit corridor until I reached the outside. The outdoors were breath taking but I have no time to admire the outdoors for I was only a single step forward towards reaching home. Strands of my short red hair billowed through the wind as I supported myself within a chariot and decided to use this contraction to take me home. I couldn't wait to see mamma and papa again. As a crowd formed outside the arena hades led them and simply asks me who I was so I replied,

"I am a woman born here in Greece raised by the love and close bonds of my family. I am a angel for my wings were torn from my back when I arrived here and was stripped of my dignity, by which I have regained. I am the definition of victorious for strength wisdom and power are a few characteristics of myself. I am a descendent of Nike I never allow myself to fail I strive to succeed. I am Angelique a woman who is all of those things and by whom is a legend of her own."

With that said I took off with the chariot and headed home but something magical happened. I was dressed in a silk ivory gown and golden sandals my left arm was able to move and a pair of white wings sprouted from my back as my originally long red hair restored it's self as it blew gracefully behind me. I was no ordinary woman but officially a goddess. A shield and sword lay by my feet as I ride on within this chariot and a soft smile appears on my face as my mysterious grew eyes glow brightly. As I ride on I removed the beast and think of my past, present, and future as I wonder what will become of me. I shake of my other thoughts and focus on Home, for I am coming Home...

 

[Victor Markov]

A young gunsmith was approached by a Man in a long red coat many years ago. "Leon Wolf?" The man asked
"Depends on who's asking." The gunsmith replied
"Well, I'm looking for a man to make a custom gun for me. Heard Lone Wolf Leon was the right man." The stranger replied
"Then you heard right. What kind of gun do you need?" Leon replied as he turned around
"A revolver." Victor Markov replied. He was also known as hell's Marksman. No matter what the job was, he never used a scope. But he always hit his target.
"Come back in about month. I'll have the piece you are looking for." Leon said.
A month went by and the stranger returned .
"How's that gun coming?" Victor asked
"Just finished it yesterday." Leon said as he pulled out the gun. The revolver had three barrels, cylinders, and hammers. Leon also put three dog heads on the front of the barrels, replacing the front iron sights. "I call it Cerberus. Named after the guard dog of Hades from Greek mythology. Shoots a total of eighteen .45 magnum rounds three at a time."
"Good work." Victor said as he put a duffle bag down next to Leon filed with nothing but one hundred dollar bills.
"That gun has a break loading system. Just to let you know. Take good care of that gun and if you need anything else, you know where to find me."
"Right. See you around." Victor said