middleofsomewhere | Conclusion

Thank you.

For those inside the system the voices of the Great-Seasons ring out around them once the red mass has vanished and the blue plinth it was smothering is freed once more. They don't have all that much time to reflect on that before they find themselves waking up once more in their bodies around the tree trunks.

Or at least, around the tube that is the Great-Season they entered through. All illusions have vanished now, all that is left are pipes and metal.

The Great-Seasons allow them passage out from the centre, no sentries or pipes attack them this time. Everything seems to have been put to rights, the walls in the Autumn sector have stopped moving, there is no strange weather effects in the Summer Sector, no engineering problems in Winter and all the camaloid creatures in Spring are calm. Any Helpmates they come across are doing their jobs and no longer malfunctioning.

After a small amount of time, enough to check that all is well, their SCA's light up. All Passengers are to return to the Voidtrecker Express.

Considering the vast distances involved it is probably best that they use the evacuation function to return to the Luggage carriage.

Once all Voidtreckers have returned the train returns to the Void once more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You can do it though. I think you were starting to do it, starting to take a side, make friends, be your own being. It's just taking other steps. You have us. And I'm not your Persephone but that's probably the best right? You wouldn't be your Persephone's friend, probably, but you can be mine." She squeezes him tight, tilting to look at his face.

"You have a chance to step outside of your role, to become yourself. Better late than never, right?" All the big gods get away with murder, with horrible things, but get put in a box against your will and suddenly you're to blame, you're the one who made a terrible mistake, you're the one who has to be iron and steel and above reproach. The fury still simmers in the back of her mind, but she buries it, deep and deeper.

It's called being in a rut, Thanatos, and it's not necessarily a good thing.

Admittedly, not your Persephone throws Ryo a bit - what does that even mean? Is there an entirely different Persephone in Thanatos' world? - but he sets that aside for now. Questions for another conversation.

"You have time here," he says, thinking of Otoha. Gods, but those two have more in common than they'll likely ever know. "And you can figure out what you want. Not what your job requires, or what other gods think you should want, but what Thanatos wants. What you do might be part of who you are, but it's not everything, and now you have a chance to figure out the rest."

Friends.... He has two friends here, right beside him. And he trusts them more than he trusts himself about being a person. They could at least recognize they are friends when Thanatos isn't sure and questions it.

"But what about all the mortals back home? What about Zagreus? I can't... I can't just forget. About him. We..." Thanatos doesn't know how he wants to finish that sentence, and Mort squeaks in sympathy. "Even if I knew it was wrong. Even if I knew I risked everything in doing so, I still wanted to help him. But, now... now what?"

There's a lot in those words. She thinks about how he brightened when he spoke of Zagreus the first time, how he weighs down with the guilt of it all. Persephone won't poke at it but she'll remember this.

"I don't have a good answer honestly. When I think about my mother and Artemis--Hestia, I...I don't have good days when I think too hard about it. So I try not to. There's nothing I can do about it so I do what I can. I work on missions even if I'm hopeless at whatever the objective is, I work in the greenhouse, I cook, I do chores, I keep myself busy. I do the things I can."

She glances at Ryo, got anything better than this sap? She's aware it's not particularly constructive.

He meets Persephone's gaze, then looks up at Thanatos. He has something - at least, he thinks he does - but he doesn't really know how to go about it.

But he has to try. "You don't need to forget about him," he starts. "I don't think you can- I-"

He stops, closes his eyes, nearly winces. No. No, that's not going to help. He should- he needs to-

The only way out of this is through, isn't it. Thanatos may not understand without the full picture, and if that's the only way to help, then he needs to provide it.

He sighs quietly and opens his eyes. "Four years ago, my brother went missing," he starts again, voice quiet. "He left a note, left home - I knew that he was alive, and that was it-" He shakes his head. "And I fell apart. For weeks, all I could think about was that he was gone, that I didn't know if he was okay, and if anything happened to him, I wouldn't be able to help. It...it took me a long time to pull myself together and start living again. I still don't know where he is - I still think about him - but I also know there's very little I can do about it, and what I can do, I've already done." He stops, and swallows back that ever-present homesickness, and keeps going. "Being here is...different, but...you handle it the same way. There's nothing we can do about being here, and we can't force the train to send us home, so...Persephone's right. We do what we can."

He looks up at Thanatos. "You won't forget Zagreus, and you won't forget what you left at home, and that's okay. Missing them hurts, and that's okay too. You just...can't let it stop you completely. Ryoga wouldn't have wanted me to stop living just because he left. I don't know much about Zagreus, but if he cares about you the way you care about him, then I don't think he'd want you to stop either."

They all have people and homes they miss, and once they lay it out like that... Thanatos almost feels guilty. He's not the only one who feels like this, even if his world has the extra complication of Death's absence. Shouldn't a god be able to--

No, that's not what Persephone and Ryo are trying to say. They don't fault him for how he... feels. The two of them tell their experiences not to shame him but to relate.

Thanatos closes his eyes and holds Mort close. What would Zagreus want him to do? What would he do?

Exactly what Persephone and Ryo suggest. Do what he can for the people he comes across while finding a way to escape. That heavy ache in his chest doesn't hide from Thanatos, and the similarities don't go unnoticed. Can Thanatos do that? Can Death truly find a way to live? Despite it all?

"... All I can say is that I'll try."

Maybe for now, that will be enough.

"Trying is exactly what we can do. All we can do."

Persephone is firm with this, but lighter than the rest of this talk. She squeezes his arm and settles back a little, not hugging but just touching arm to arm. If he wants more, she's happy to give more of those hugs away, but she already did plenty without his assent. Even if he really needed it. She takes a sip, glancing over at them again. If he still seems shaky, talks can continue.

"...Oh look, all the talk made the cocoa something you can drink without scalding your mouth."

"That's all you need to do." It's a step forward - the first step, but sometimes the first step is all you need.

He follows Persephone's lead, letting go but not moving away; he stands instead, reaching across the table to retrieve his cocoa before sitting back down. There's comfortable, casual contact here, with Thanatos sandwiched between the two of them - if he wants something more, all he needs to do is ask.

Thanatos nods his head, and with both of them going for their drinks, he follows suit. Mort is placed by his mug, and Thanatos grabs his own. It has cooled a lot. How long had they been talking?

He sips his cocoa, still not entirely certain how he feels about the drink. "... Thanks."

Edited 2021-02-02 07:44 (UTC)

"Of course." Persephone sipped casually, tapping one foot on the ground absently. Then her gaze goes toward Mort's mug. And how the level is lower. Despite them all talking and not drinking for the past few minutes. She tilts her head and finally finally asks.

"So I have to ask, is Mort alive or enchanted or..."

The switch in focus is appreciated. Good job, Mort. Doing his job in unexpected ways.

"Mort is a Chthonic Companion. My mother created him when I was a godling." He pauses a moment trying to classify something he innately knows but never put to words. "I think... enchanted is a better description. Chthonic Companions, they have fables about them, and they're symbolic, meant to be exchanged between close friends."

Or to just keep a young godling company when no one else could.

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