Dusa is a shade in the form of a floating, disembodied Gorgon's head. She works as a maid in the House of Hades under Nyx, constantly floating around and cleaning, and after a time is promoted to the House's Head Custodian.
Characteristics and Personality
Dusa is the severed head of a Gorgon who works as a suffering maid for the House of Hades. She appears very optimistic, cheerful, extremely hardworking and is one of the best persons Zagreus could ever meet, but always seems doomed to do everything on her own.
Dusa is friendly, shy, playful, a great company and likes to share gossip in their free time. She has a painfully obvious crush on Zagreus (you can even hear some sighs), but she is never able to express her feelings due to her strong social anxiety and, more importantly, her never-ending cleaning tasks.
However, Dusa doesn't like pity eyes, as she is seen as the "Cinderella." Sometimes the residents of the House sympathize with her and offer their help, but she shows her fangs and refuses any assistance, insisting on doing everything on her own. She is a victim of her workload, especially under Nyx's supervision, and gets skittish with anyone she wants to avoid.
Dusa is not good at hiding things and can speak without filters. In a conversation with Zagreus, she confesses that she has fantasized about Zagreus and Thanatos in her mind when they are alone, which makes her run away in embarrassment.
In the end of her romance arc she rejects him, when Zagreus invites her to go out, she realizes that she loves him and admits that he is one of the coolest people in the House of Hades, but she simply doesn't feel attracted him in a romantic way. She asks to remain friends for eternity.
Physical description
Dusa is a small Gorgon, and her body remains unknown. She has light green skin with freckles and large yellow eyes, giving her a positive expression. One of her serpentine locks always holds a duster, and she ties the emblem of the House of Hades around her forehead.
History
Before Hades
Little is known about Dusa's past, as she doesn't talk much about it. She does mention that she thought anyone could turn others into stone by just looking, like she did.
Her cause of death was decapitation, the preferable method to kill gorgons.
Hades
Dusa is a maid in the House of Hades. She's tasked with feeding Cerberus and cleaning the House, occasionally checking on other workers as well. She constantly overworks herself, which often worry those around her. Even if they try to help, she'll just hiss at them and deny their offer.
As prince Zagreus starts to talk more frequently to her and building a friendship, Nyx grows weary of this, and in what she sees as an act of compassion for the gorgon, fires her. Zagreus doesn't take the news well, and neither does Megaera, so after a little convincing from the prince, Nyx re-hires Dusa, warning her to not overwork herself so much, and promotes her to Head Custodian.
Epilogue
She keeps on working for House, now taking better care of herself.
Affinity
If given Nectar, Dusa will give you the Harpy Feather Duster.
After being given 6 bottles of Nectar, further gifts will be locked until her favor is completed.
Completing the favor and gifting her a bottle of Ambrosia will have her give you Companion Fidi in return.
Dusa's affinity gauge is maxed out at 10 hearts, requiring the gifting of 6 Nectar and 10 Ambrosia, differing from other romanceable characters. Further information detailed in Romance.
Favor
Dusa's favor involves the lounge renovations, which she has fallen behind on doing. Zagreus must help her bring the lounge up to Nyx's standards by using the House Contractor to complete a minimum of 12 Lounge-focused renovations, which must include at least one rug for the area as well as cleaning up Cerberus's fur and the scratches he left in the floor. After doing this, talking to Dusa will complete the A Place of Revelry prophecy and unlock the ability to give Ambrosia to her.
Romance?
Dusa's romance differs from the other options in that each successive gift of Ambrosia requires an increased number of bottles; while her first only requires 1, subsequent gifts require 2, then 3, until her final gift is given as 4 bottles.
After giving Dusa the tenth gift, she and Zagreus will have a conversation where Dusa explains that she has come to realise she isn't looking for an intimate relationship, and isn't attracted to him in that way. They agree to remain "friends for all eternity" instead, though as Zagreus points out, that in itself can be its own form of love.
Some time after the final romance conversation, Dusa will offer to return all the Ambrosia she has been given; Zagreus may take them back or persuade her to keep them as the gift they were intended as, with no negative repercussions for either choice.
Dusa can be romanced at the same time as Megaera and/or Thanatos with no drawbacks.
Codex entry
Trivia
- Dusa's position as a maid in the House of Hades is a play on the name Medusa - she is Maid Dusa.
- The secrecy around Dusa's former life and her claims that she was a very different person when she had a body imply that she might very well be the head of the infamous Medusa. Another hint is that if summoned via her Companion, Dusa gets very nervous seeing Athena when her Greater Call is invoked, as Athena is the one who punished Medusa in many versions of the myth.
- She seems to have a crush on Zagreus, emitting a gasp and several hearts whenever he gets close. Her conversations are short and flustered, and she often flees into the rafters afterwards. As of the Long Winter update, this relationship can be explored in further detail.
- Since she rejects Zagreus, realizing she only sees him as a very good friend, the fandom often considers Dusa to be an asexual and/or aromantic character. This hasn't been officially confirmed, however.
- Nyx disapproves of Dusa for her tendency to overwork herself and associating with Zagreus. She eventually removes Dusa from her job without warning. It is when Zagreus intervenes that Nyx is persuaded to allow Dusa to work in the House again, although not without "certain stipulations".
Additional notes
For additional information on Medusa that does not pertain to Hades, see Wikipedia's article: Medusa
| |||||||||||||||||