"Nnf."

Bella sighs as well. But then next to a goddess what possible weight could her own melancholy carry? She could sit on the ground next to Hera, but her silly cut up suit will not form an island to match Hera's ocean. Tight fitted and simple fabric that it is, it wouldn't shift enough on her person to make so much as a pebble. She could loose her braids, but the gesture would take her awkward minutes to finish and then what? Half of it was already loose so instead of any dramatic cascade she would at most add a touch of wavy volume to an already loose and tumbled look. Blue hair did not matter in the face of absolute divine sorrow.

The fact is that she's just standing there, having just said something so stupid it might have doomed reality, holding a plate of pancakes with a berry compote slowly seeping into them and ruining their fluffy warmth. She might have been made to be perfect, but perfection meant nothing to a god. Call her what she really is instead: a useless little shit.

Without anything dramatic for her to do, all that's left for her as a response is setting the plate down on a table that both is and is not contained within the depths of Hera's magnificent dress. She picks up a knife and a fork (etiquette above practicality, Bella) and carefully cuts the stack into bite sized pieces. The universe is quiet while she works. There is only the clink of silverware on the surface of a plate and the mixed symphony of two people breathing anywhere in all creation. The gods are quiet. The universe is quiet. 

Bella crosses infinity to be with Hera, and kneels down next to her with the plate balanced delicately on one palm. She jabs the fork into a bite of pancake and holds it in front of the Queen of the Gods' mouth, quiet but insistent. There is nothing to be said, there is nothing that [i]can[/i] be said, until the offering is accepted. 

"Um." she offers at last.

Now she watches Hera chew the food she'd made. If these were Dolce's cooking that might have been enough, but all Bella's gesture buys her is the opportunity to offer another forkful. What the fuck did she expect? They're just pancakes. Even still she offers another bite and then another, a rhythm of fluffy prayer, until the plate is more than half emptied. 

"What good's it doing anyone to just give up?"

Her mouth hangs open in shock. What... did she just say? She almost drops the plate in surprise. When she lifts the fork again, her hand is trembling. She does not dare to watch what happens, in case the audacity of continuing to make her offering is worse than the audacity of cutting it off. What the fuck what the fuck what the [i]fuck[/i] is wrong with her?!

"I just, it's... like you said. Everything is getting worse. Doesn't that mean you're free? You could try, just, just anything at all. It wouldn't even matter how useless or trivial it is. If you can't, erm, have... ch-children then, like, I don't know? You could inspire people to pick up hobbies or just weave stuff yourself or whatever. You could fight another war if that's really what you wanted. You could talk to Lady Demeter or any of your children or siblings or, you know, your wife. Or you just..."

She has to set the fork down on the plate. It takes both hands to hold it in the intense pressure of this moment. Mosaic wouldn't falter like this. Redana wouldn't falter like this. Nobody but Bella would trip here. Why her? Why did she have to be herself?

"It just... doesn't matter. At all. If every stupid little thing turns out to be useless then it's just the same as it is. I just know that if we sit here forever, then we're all gonna wind up dead. And I... used to want that. But I don't now. So I just, I guess, if... if the food meant anything to you just now, then what I'd ask in exchange is that you. That you..."

Her voice falters. But the strain of her muscles, strangely, reminds her how strong they actually are. She didn't mean to arrive here, but Vesper might have. The little heart on the back of the note now tucked into her breast pocket fills her neck with the power to lift up, and sets lantern lights inside her eyes. She dares, from one knee, to behold Queen Hera in this moment. 

"Hope," she finishes in a high and clear voice, "And if I have to pay a higher price for that then just name it. Anything. Everything, ok? There are so many mistakes I need to fix. The only thing I need is a world where I can try."