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]

There's two and risking a third?

[ He shakes his head. Lord Ares, that is too much death. Did he hear about Hypnos's absurd idea to kill all the mortals at once, so they could spend time together? That was the worst idea then, and it's still one of the worst ideas he's heard now. ]

There are wars happening in my world, but they are localized, on a smaller scale. I don't think mortals can yet reach other mortals on the other side of the world without divine help.

[firewalled]

Sounds like you come from a world where technology isn't as common then. When we learn how to fly, wars came pretty quickly after all that.

[He raises a bit of an eyebrow, though, as he realizes something else this stranger said.]

Wait, so you're not a mortal?

[controlsthedie]

[ A flying machine, besides a godly chariot, that would be one of Daedalus's wax flying experiments which tended to end... poorly. ]

That's correct. I'm a god. My name is Thanatos.

[ And now to await if there is any name recognition and subsequent panic. ]

[firewalled]

Thanatos like... god of death Thanatos?

[There's recognition, certainly, but Rich doesn't look that panicked. Maybe slightly unsettled, but... well, he's faced death before and come out of it fine, right?]

Always had seemed like a pretty bunk job to me, handling people's souls. Probably makes it a bit of a relief people can't die for good here, right?

[controlsthedie]

[ "Pretty bunk job" ... Thanatos doesn't know if that is a positive description or a negative one, so he'll concentrate on what he does understand. ]

I am the same. Thanatos, Death Incarnate, son of Nyx, and houseservant to the House of Hades. And to answer your last question, people's relationship with death here is... odd and varied.

[ He's still getting used to the idea even if he has just given up trying to understand. ]