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 looks over his shoulder, missing that he's actually being teased because Mort squeaks his own greeting. Without any input from Thanatos.

"They're poppies. Hypnos and I share it as one of our symbols. Didn't think they'd grow at all." He turns to look back at them. "I told Persephone that I didn't want her blessing. Nothing against her. I just--forget it. The important thing is they actually sprouted."

[subcircuits]

Wait Mort does what-- Devero squints down at the toy, clearly uncertain that he just heard that. Surely... not?

He forces his eyes back to the plants! "It doesn't count as much if the Goddess of Spring helps them grow, right?" Devero says, hazarding a guess. "Who's Hypnos-- another god, I presume?"

[controlsthedie]

Mort seems to be looking at Devero, and Thanatos doesn't seem surprised by the plush mouse squeaking unpromprted.

"Yes, you could say that." That's exactly what he's thinking, though he feels that Persephone would have tried to reassure him otherwise. Or one of the other passengers who frequent the greenhouse. "Hypnos is my twin brother. He's Sleep Incarnate."

[subcircuits]

"You have a twin?" A twin who's Sleep to Thanatos's Death... yeah, that tracks. He bobs his head in acknowledgement. "One of you got off a little lighter when the godly duties were handed out, huh?"

Devero you can't just say things like that to a god what is wrong with you--

He leans in closer to the pot, but it's Mort he's looking at, not the plants. He can't believe he's about to ask this utterly bonkers question, but he's on an interdimensional space train and he's talking to a deity, so carpe diem, Devero. "Is your toy alive?"

[controlsthedie]

"I do. He's technically older than me, but if you saw the two of us, you'd think I was the older." Thanatos doesn't comment on the difference in workload. He's not the jealous type. "He's also working at the House welcoming and signing in the shades."

However, Thanatos is still the busier of the two, and... Thanatos misses Hypnos. He had been trying to repair their relationship and help Hypnos do better at his job before arriving on the train. He hopes his twin is well.

At being called a toy, Mort squeaks FITE ME! as if insulted. Thanatos answers more politely, "Mort is a Chthonic Companion. My mother made him for me when I was a godling. He's a protector to anyone he's given to."

[subcircuits]

"The House?" Devero repeats with a tilt of his head. "That's where you... work?" This may be the first time he's heard Thanatos talk about his role as Death Incarnate as something he does rather than something he is.

Okay, even Devero can hear the affront in that... squeak, and he puts his hands up palms out. "Forgive me!" he tells the mouse. And then to them both, "I thought-- well, why wouldn't a child have a stuffed animal?" And by the same token, why would a full-grown god have one? "I had no idea."

He leans a little closer to peer at the mouse perched on the edge of the pot, as if he might see Mort differently now that he has a better idea what the stuffed mouse actually is.

[controlsthedie]

"Where would I have gotten a toy as a child for a day?"

Mort doesn't squeak or move, perhaps adding to the confusion of whether or not Mort is alive. Thanatos picks him up and places him within his hood where Mort perches just by his neck. He gives the mouse a little pet to the head before returning his attention back to Devero.

"The House of Hades resides in Tartarus. It's where the royal family lives and the day-to-day administration and court are held." He lives there too, although "live" is debatable.

[subcircuits]

"--Good point." Things had certainly been chaotic enough that day that it hadn't even occurred to Devero to wonder where the child god had found a plush toy to carry around.

He watches Thanatos place Mort inside his hood and gives his head a wondering little shake. He doesn't want to be rude, so he makes himself attend Thanatos's words with his full attention.

"I have to admit," he says a little sheepishly, "I never really thought of 'gods' and 'administration' having anything to do with each other, but I guess it makes sense for your kind to be sort of-- Divine Administrators?" (Yeah, the capital 'A' is audible.)

[controlsthedie]

"I'm one of the ones who brings the souls of the dead to the Underworld. We have to keep track who brings them in and when. Check things against the schedule and our assigned tasks. When shades arrive at the House of Hades, Hypnos checks them in and gets them to stand in line before Lord Hades. People's deeds have to be recorded and then judged. The results of that need to be recorded. Where a shade ends up, if there are any punishments involved, if there's any divine lineage or retribution. All done in the correct format and copied... It's a lot."

Thanatos looks over at Devero, and there's something in his expression that says he hasn't even covered the half of it. Hell is parchmentwork, and parchmentwork is hell.

[subcircuits]

Yep, that sounds like Administration, all right. Devero lets out a low, impressed whistle. Like most citizens of Gov, he has a lot of respect for Administrators, the civic leaders who keep all the wheels of their society running smoothly. It's universally understood that Administrators have volunteered for a hell of a job-- and that they ought to be respected and supported for doing so.

"It's time-concealing enough dealing with bureaucracy when a person's alive," he comments. "When they're dead, too?" He gives his head a shake. "I hope you get some good incentives for doing your part in keeping all that running."

[controlsthedie]

"I don't need any incentives. It's what I was born to do." Thanatos does get paid a wage for his work, but he has nothing to really spend it on. He has no need for a number of things because he's so busy with work.

"I suppose helping those who don't know there is an afterlife or releasing people from their pain are incentives. I'm glad to do that for them." He does take pride in his work; he knows how important it is.

[subcircuits]

And as much as a mortal can, Devero seems to understand that? "I'm glad you find your work so fulfilling," he says. "That means you're playing the right part-- doing the job well is incentive enough."

[controlsthedie]

Thanatos nods. Still, there's an illusion of choice. He feels rewarded by his work, but he could never take another, never had the chance to explore other options or learn about himself. It's part of the reason he struggles on the train.

But the poppies sprouting under his own care... that's something he hadn't thought possible. It's something other than death despite it being one of his symbols.

"May I ask what you did back in your world?"

[subcircuits]

"Sure," Devero says. He sits down right there on the path, crossing his legs comfortably. "I was a-- test pilot, of sorts. There are machines on my world, called exos--" He pauses. How to explain an augmentative exoskeleton to someone from, essentially, the Bronze Age?

"Remember when you told me about Talos?" he says finally, after recalling that conversation himself. "Imagine something like that, a being made of metal, but instead of magic animating it, there's a person inside who tells it where to go and what to do. That's-- sssort of-- what I mean. And mine was a model that we would try out new parts or new techniques for operating it, to see if we could make something better than the exos already in production."

[controlsthedie]

Listening, Thanatos connects their conversation from back on the train about who is controlling the train and what an AI is. He comes with a much simpler way of synthesizing what Devero speaks of.

"Like a charioteer testing new designs but in the shape of a human instead of a chariot." Then he stands and balances Mort atop his head. "Or closer to what it might be like if Mort controlled me."

Mort squeaks happily as if he really is the one who controls Death.

[subcircuits]

He watches Thanatos stand and balance the mouse atop his head and grins up at them. "Rather like that, yes!" he says. "Though the scale is not quite so wildly different. My Babysitter could stand upright in the greenhouse here, if it were somehow brought inside. I'm a much more substantial pilot than Mort up there."

[controlsthedie]

"Your... babysitter..." Weren't they talking about something else entirely? Unless Devero pilots his babysitter?

Mort squeaks F I T E at Devero. He can be a substantial Thanatos pilot! Thanatos instead returns Mort to his place in his hood. Calm down emotional support mouse.

[subcircuits]

MORT PLEASE

"--Oh, er, my exo," he says with a sheepish laugh. "That's its callsign, Babysitter. One of my trainees named it that and it stuck." His lips twist a little, wry and amused.

[controlsthedie]

Mort can pilot the Thanatos!

"I see." It's an interesting name for such a machine, but Cerberus is called spotted despite not having spots. Sometimes names don't make sense. "I didn't realize your babysitter could fit in here. I was under the impression it was much larger."