Seasons don't fear the reaper

[controlsthedie]

Who: Thanatos & OTA
Where: sleeper/passenger car hallways, greenhouse, training gym
When: Kazoo, Day 2 or 3 (after Jack's "Musical" Mayhem, before dance)
What: Death is being a dork: chores, flower growing, sword practice
Warnings: none

Chores: Death approaches the dust

[ A new month means a new type of chore assignment, apparently. At least this one doesn't need someone coaching Thanatos on what to do. He takes to the passenger area first, dressed in the train's standard blue hoodie and cargo pants to keep his own stuff clean. (Zagreus wanted to wear red not blue, so Thanatos just gave him the spare red hoodie he had.) Floating towards the ceiling with a feather duster in his hand, Thanatos gets to work.

Thanatos may not have paid much attention to Dusa while she worked (or at all really...), but he knows that she was always up high dusting the rafters. Sorry if he startles anyone going through a door to see legs dangling down. He's dusting the top of the door frame. ]

Greenhouse: Thanatos's Poppy Pot has sprouted!

[ Done with chores for the time being, Thanatos has returned to his usual way of dressing (chthonic death god style) and is crouched low to the floor. Mort is perched at the edge of a pot. They stare at nine tiny points of green pushing out of the soil. Thanatos is smiling, awestruck. (An expression that wasn't as rare when he was a godling days ago.) ]

They sprouted… they actually sprouted....

[ Thanatos speaks softly as if he fears being too loud would bring destruction upon them. Green. Growth. Life. He thought they would never sprout. They would never grow. Yet, here they were. Poppies, his and Hypnos's shared symbol, growing in this pot. Nurtured by Death of all people. ]

What do you think, Mort? Do they need more water?

Training gym: Trying not to float like a butterfly

[ There should be a mission coming up soon, and Thanatos is determined not to have a repeat of the last time. He had lost his powers, his divinity, and had become useless. He would have been a liability if other passengers hadn't come to his aid.

Gods, if Thanatos froze like that while Zagreus needed his help.... No. That's not going to happen. He's going to make sure that he can still fight, still protect… well, more than just Zagreus. It's still strange to think that he's developing a new role for himself on this train.

He summons his sword, not his scythe, and sets his feet upon the ground. Thanatos starts with a few basic motions when he notices he has company. ]

Pardon me. I'm not taking too much space, am I?

Comments

[controlsthedie]

...

[ Thanatos's brows furrow. Put that way, it is different. The Three Fates have their ways, and there are times he's afraid to invoke them and cause something to inadvertently happen. He's only asked them one thing, dedicating an act in their names in hopes of a favor. But that's about it. ]

No, then it's different, but we are gods. When the alternative is being at each other's throats, it's well enough.

[irrationally]

[ Alice pauses.

She stares at the flowers around them, but then turns her gaze towards him, finally moving to properly sit down on the ground rather than awkwardly squatting. It's hurting her legs at this point. ]

Are you saying gods don't want anyone to care for them? [ After all, Alice is pretty sure all humans desire that to some extent. They're not meant to be solitary creatures, even when Alice very much likes to pretend she is. ]

[controlsthedie]

No, not exactly.

[ He looks at Mort as if the small mouse could help him explain what he knows but never had to put into words exactly. Mortals knew the stories, knew about the gods' wrath. It was never his job to explain. ]

With gods, especially those on Olympus, power and pride can put them at odds with another. There have been different sets of deities ruling the world, each having overthrown the last, their parents. Chthonic gods, gods who live in the Underworld opposed to Olympus, don't seem to have the same sorts of problems with each other.

[ Zagreus and his father excluded, of course. ]

[irrationally]

Those gods sound an awful lot like humans.

[ After all, don't those do the same? Constantly overthrowing each other, trying to get one up on each other. Humans constantly treat each other in that same awful way. Gods not being much different than that would explain why not a single one of them ever bothers to help out some humans. ]

Then again, it sure makes it sound like you're just settling for having that kind of relationship with your siblings. [ In that 'it could be worse' sort of way. ] That doesn't exactly sound ideal still.

[controlsthedie]

[ Thanatos hasn't had a lot of occasion to really think or experience his world differently. The catalyst for change was Zagreus flipping the Underworld upside-down, forcing something different to happen. Then Thanatos arrived here. And people treated him like a person, talked about how the life he "lived" was unfair to him. Still, it's the only life he's ever known. ]

Before I was taken here, I was... trying to help my twin keep his job.

[ Zagreus had convinced him to try to repair his relationship with Hypnos, to be nicer to him, and Thanatos was making an honest attempt. He didn't want to leave every talk with his twin feeling horrible. ]

[irrationally]

[ She's quiet for a moment, almost as if she expects this story to go on.

But it doesn't. Yet Alice is curious enough to just plainly ask: ]

And how was that going so far?

[controlsthedie]

Not well. I couldn't get through to him, couldn't make him understand that he risked losing his job. And now...? There's nothing I can do about it here.

[ Thanatos was trying, and he has nothing to show for it. Does Hypnos even have his job still? If he can't make it back home at the point he left it, is that another thing he's ruined? ]

[irrationally]

.. well, I do suppose a sibling relationship isn't going to be fixed that easily.

[ Especially not when it's as strange as Thanatos' apparent relationship with his siblings. It sounds like there was hardly any there at all, of course it's going to be rough if he has to build it all the way from the ground up.

She pauses, then slowly exhales. ]

But you should see him again once you return home, right? It's not as if this is the end of it.

[controlsthedie]

If I can make it back home at the same time I left it, then I can continue. However, he may have already lost his job by now, and I don't know where I'd find him if he's not at the House of Hades.

[ Hypnos could just fall asleep in some corner of the world, and Thanatos wouldn't be able to see during the brief times he's at the House. Would Hypnos be allowed to stay at the House even if he didn't work there? Their mother has an influence, but she's been distancing herself from Hypnos.... Could he stay in Thanatos's room? It's not like he uses it. ]

[irrationally]

[ At the same time as he left it, huh.. Signs have been pointing towards the fact that time most likely is moving on back home while they're here, so Alice knows she can't offer him much consolation when it comes to that. They'll have to come to terms with a changed world when they go home.

But.. ]

You couldn't just.. call him?

[ She's not even implying a phone call, mind you. Alice is from a world that's firmly before those kinds of things were normal. ]

Or are you trying to tell me it's impossible for gods to get in touch with each other any other way than just randomly bumping into each other?

[controlsthedie]

[ For Thanatos, he must find a way back to the time he left. He is Death. Without him, no one dies. One month caused disaster in an already winter ravaged world. Longer... there won't be much of a world to return to. ]

Maybe if I were to ask Hermes to deliver him a message, but otherwise, I don't have a way to contact him.

[irrationally]

...

[ She stares at him for another moment, but then only seems to arrive at one conclusion, apparently. One she doesn't bother to hold back. ]

Gods are strange. [ But at the very least she doesn't keep it at just that, adding only a moment later: ] .. no offense.

[ Look, she's trying. Being away from society for over ten years hasn't really taught her manners. ]

I hope you somehow manage to patch things up with your brother though. It's important to cherish your siblings while they're still around. I think even gods could find themselves enjoying being close with their siblings if they tried it out.

[controlsthedie]

I've heard worse. Don't worry about it.

[ The gods are strange. It's telling when the Chthonic gods seem to have better relationships with each other, and yet, it's still that. Thanatos looks at the poppy spouts again. ]

But... I hope I'm able to fix things between us. He's my brother, but I haven't always acted like one.

[ Thanatos has been missing him more than he thought he would on this train. ]

[irrationally]

I think you can.

[ Fix things, that is. Or act like a brother. ]

I mean, sure, you seem odd. [ THANKS ALICE.. It's a good thing that he's heard worse, huh, considering how blunt she can be about her opinions. ] But I don't think you seem unkind. If you put effort into it, I'm sure you could be a proper brother to him.

[ And him being willing to actually do so, to try and fix things between them, is already saying a lot in Alice's opinion. She knows most people back home would have been okay with just letting that relationship sour forever if it meant they could keep their own dumb pride. ]

[controlsthedie]

[ There are a number of his siblings who Thanatos has no desire to reach out towards. Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, Nemesis, and Eris... they either never cross paths or their temperaments differ too much. ]

Thank you. I appreciate the vote of confidence.

[ And Thanatos means it. He's not sure if he can, but he still plans on making the effort. ]