voidtreckerexpress | Death Just Needs A Little Conversation [Open]

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Death Just Needs A Little Conversation [Open]

Who: Ryo and Open (angled towards those with death powers/connections)
Where: ICP/Garden Car
When: Nebula 3
What: Ryo is coming to terms with the fact that he's kept his death-related Diagad powers, so now he's asking for help with them. (They're not what he's afraid they are, but he doesn't know that yet.)
Warnings: Probably a lot of death talk, but we'll go from there.
Notes: It starts as an ICP post, but he won't be replying on the network, only in person. Anyone is welcome to join in; he's just angling for people with Insight Into Death. (I'll also match prose or brackets.)

[Ryo looks...uncertain at best, but much closer to 'worried but trying not to show it' as the ICP flickers on.]

If anyone is connected to death, or has death-related powers, I could use your help.

[-wait that sounds bad-]

It's nothing crazy - I just have...questions.

[He can't quite bring himself to say what he's actually worried about, so instead it's just:]

I'll be in the garden car, if you wouldn't mind coming to see me.

[And the ICP flickers off. He's not planning on having this conversation in front of the train and everyone, so in-person it is. True to his word, he's sitting on one of the benches in the garden car with Lagos in his lap, holding the plush bird and trying not to let his fears run away with him. He may not be entirely succeeding. It may be obvious.]

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Maybe? My Sense shouldn't be picking up dead people, though - only the living, and only those that think for themselves. It's all just...weird.

[His life on the train, summarized in a single sentence.]

I don't either, but I don't think it's connected to my healing? I'm just...worried about having the wrong power at hand. Trying to heal someone and hurting them instead.

[It's the fear that's been eating at him ever since he realized that he's likely kept his Diagad powers, and it's the reason he asked for help. He needs to figure this out.]

[Lagos warbles at Mort - quietly, though his definition of quiet is still a little louder than most people's. Wait, you can hold things now?]

You know what healing feels like. You can see it happen before you. Even if you somehow touch upon that again, you'll know and can break the connection or reverse things before lasting harm is done. You may be reckless and inattentive with yourself, but you wouldn't do that to your patient.

If you could take life away from the living, you'd be sensing something from them and not those already connected to death, accurate?

[ Thanatos may have trouble trusting his own feelings, may not know what role he plays anymore, but he knows death. It's life he has trouble with.

Mort just opens and closes his little paws. One can almost imagine Mort smiling smugly at Lagos despite him not saying anything. ]

[He feels like he should argue the reckless and inattentive with yourself bit, but...he honestly can't, can he. The application of cold, hard logic to his problem should probably sting a little, but actually, it helps. Thanatos is right: he knows his healing, how it works and what it feels like, well enough to put a stop to anything that feels wrong. He'd been able to do that with the Sali-]

[-and it had hurt them anyway.]

[Gods, now there's a path he doesn't want to go down, and he tries to yank his thoughts back from it.]

You don't need powers to take life away from the living.

[...okay, dark if still true, and it also tells him that he's still not quite back on track. He takes a breath and sighs, trying to center himself, at least a little.]

But...I guess? I don't know. I could already Sense the living, but picking up on people connected to death...what do you even do with that? Or do you think I'd be Sensing the living differently if I'd kept my Diagad powers exactly as they were?

[He's less afraid now than he is confused, which is an improvement over how he'd been when he'd asked for help.]

[Lagos does not miss Mort displaying his brand new kung fu grip, and he rattles excitedly. Since when? Since when?]

[ Thanatos stares blankly at Ryo. Out of anyone, Thanatos would know that it doesn't take powers to kill someone. The ways mortals can die are vast, and they seem to keep inventing new ways to do so. ]

If you could do something to the living with whatever you think you have, then you would be Sensing something with the living. Your Sense towards them hasn't changed. As for what you do when Sensing the dead, I usually cut their thread and bring them to the Underworld. But I'm not on assignment. The pull isn't there.

[ Was Ryo asking him what to do? He's not sure because whatever Thanatos could give him for that wouldn't necessarily be what Ryo could do.

Mort flicks an ear in thought. He can't place an exact date, but it doesn't matter. This is something Mort can do and not Lagos. He opens his paws in his best "I don't know" gesture. ]

[Ryo just stares back for a few moments. (Excuse you, Thanatos, but just because edgy is your default setting doesn't mean you're the only one allowed to do it.)]

[But he does listen, turning Thanatos's words over in his head. He can't exactly take souls to an underworld - there isn't one here, and he's not a god, so that's out. But Thanatos is right that his Sense hasn't changed around the living, and it hasn't changed around the dead either - only the living connected with death. He knows his healing stops at a certain point, when someone is too far gone to save; could the change in his Sense mean that his Diagad powers pick up where his healing leaves off?]

[But...that would require his powers have changed from what they were on Diagad, wouldn't it? Is that even possible?]

[He doesn't know, but that little bit of hope is the best he's felt all day and is well worth pursuing.]

Maybe...do you think that our new powers could have changed? After Diagad?

[Lagos is definitely a bit louder in his appreciation this time. That's so cool!]

I don't have any new powers. I am not like Death. With her power also of Life. Likely whatever has caused this couldn't alter my nature.

[ To Thanatos's mind, that's the truth. He's not trying to lie to comfort Ryo. He truly believes that he doesn't have those life powers he had in Jinnjar, and he doesn't. It hasn't manifested in Thanatos proper in that manner. ]

The only way I can heal is to use something outside of who I am.

[ Again, Zagreus is the exception. ]

[The thing is, now that he's got that little bit of hope, not only is Ryo not letting go of it, but he's also starting to reframe things through that lens. His Sense had been altered, and...had anything changed with Thanatos?]

[Lagos takes that moment to speak up - do it again! do the grippy thing again! - and Ryo's gaze snaps to Mort. That's it.]

I don't think that's true.

[He speaks slowly, still feeling his way through the words.]

I think you kept your life powers, and...I think they might've gone into Mort. How else could he be moving?

[There's a beat, and then Lagos rattles loudly. Holy shit.]

[ Mort grips Thanatos's finger again as Thanatos looks at Ryo. Him, still have the powers of Life? That... that can't be.... Could it? ]

I've been just been giving Mort ambrosia and trying to imbue him with more of my power like I've done with the keepsakes and Companions I've made. I'm not healing him with whatever threads those were then.

[ But if Ryo doesn't have that death power.... Thanatos looks at Mort who flicks his ear with a squeak. ]

I don't know. I'm Death Incarnate. I can't heal or strengthen anyone with my own power. I need...

[ An item.... ]

You couldn't with the powers you had before, and I couldn't sense people's connections with death before, but here we are.

[If it was possible for his Diagad power to change, there's no reason it shouldn't be possible for Thanatos.]

And you gave Lagos your power, and that didn't make him move.

[Lagos rattles at that. Yeah, and he's kind of jealous, not gonna lie.]

[(Cerbie is an outlier and should not be counted.)]

Perhaps, but I created Lagos before I started giving Mort ambrosia. And I wasn't even sure if I could create a Chthonic Companion, much less if I could give one to a mortal and have the bond form and work.

[ He's not trying to argue, but he's also taking in everything he knows is different. It's not as conclusive as not sensing death upon Ryo. ]

I've not felt anyone using the keepsakes or calling upon my power, so maybe I'm unable to make one to the standard of my mother.

[ He pauses and brings Mort to eye level. ]

... There's also the possibility that Mort has gained a new power from that place. He was more mobile then.

[ Leave it to Thanatos to believe that it's more likely for Mort to develop a new power than himself. ]

[There's something to be said for his first point, but Thanatos moves on before Ryo can suggest an experiment, or asking Zagreus more about Cerbie's ability to move on his own.]

[There's less of one to be made for his second point, and Ryo is about to argue that they've been fortunate enough not tno need them yet, not that Lagos has even told him what that power is-]

[But then Thanatos gets to his third point, and Ryo just stares at him. Really. Really.]

Thanatos. Mort didn't get a new power on Diagad. You did. You know it, and I know it. A lot of people kept theirs - why is it so hard to believe you didn't keep yours, and that it's affecting Mort?

[He's got some idea - he's got what's probably a very good idea, with Thanatos's world missing a god of life and Thanatos missing said nonexistent god like a hole in his heart - but he needs Thanatos to say it. Hell, Thanatos may need Thanatos to say it.]

How would you know? Your sense has never worked fully around me because I'm a god. A god born to be Death Incarnate, specifically.

[ Thanatos sighs. He didn't come here to talk about why Mort has started moving. He came here to help Ryo who requested to talk to those related to death. ]

Does your belief that you will not cause others' deaths hinge on me believing I have another power? I don't like to lie, and if I had any kind of power of life, I wouldn't feel as incomplete or broken.

[ Which is nothing new with how Thanatos has talked about himself for months now. ]

[He's set to keep arguing - his Sense may have changed but he still knows it better than Thanatos; quit avoiding his point - when Thanatos's next question stops him dead in his tracks. He's...he's pushing again. He's pushing, because while he does think there's something there, he's also hanging on to hope, and it's a lot easier to do that if someone else is there with him, going through the same thing.]

[But does he need that?]

[He falls silent, turning the question over in his mind, giving it the consideration it deserves, because it's also what Thanatos deserves.]

[It takes some time, but what he finally settles on is:]

No.

[His voice is quiet as he continues, words slow and halting, like he's still thinking them over even as he says them, because he is.]

It's...it's easier to have that hope, when I'm not the only one whose power might have changed, but...no.

[He wants to feel better - he wants to stop being afraid - but he's not going to bend Thanatos over backwards to do it.]

[ He feels like he has failed Ryo, but this may be the limit of what he can do for him. ]

I can't give that to you. Other mortals might. However.

[ Because no matter how human he may look or act, it's important to remember that he is still a god. ]

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Death Just Needs A Little Conversation [Open]

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