[The words are even but firm, they're certain as if he knows. Which, of course, he does know. He's talked to her about it, as much as he and Thessaly ever dived into personal topics. He feels he knows her enough though to know that is true. She might not have been pleased that Death didn't give her immortality, but Thessaly chose sparingly whom she placed under the hate column. She isn't one to let her emotions run away from what serves her best.]
A deal? [That earns the faintest quirk upright on the side of his mouth.] No, sister. I don't make deals of that nature. I've already Hob for that, thanks to you, let's keep in mind.
She and I were... acquaintances, for a time. I suppose I was curious whether you were trying to make that reunion sooner rather than later.
[ He dated the Thessalian. He DATES the THESSALIAN. She's literally not his type. Like, not at all. And Death's known a good number of his past loves.
She hits him with the pillow in his hand. ]
Were you mad? Her? She's not even your type though she kind of passes in the looks department...
[ The Thessalian was definitely pretty in a mousy witch kind of way. But she was also the last of their sort of witches. Death doesn't really have a problem with a lot of witches until they start being rude, and her first impression of the Thessalian was exactly that. ]
I can't believe you dated her!
[ half-heartedly smacking Dream's legs with the pillow in her hand. It doesn't hurt and there's really not a lot of force in it, but it's the thought that counts. ]
[He probably should have anticipated the pillow attack, yet he didn't. The first time at least startles him, the soft fabric hitting him square in the face. He at least makes a half-hearted attempt at blocking her second strike.]
It isn't as if she's a demon. She's quite intelligent, you know. Driven. Passionate about knowledge and learning. [There's a part of him that had rather liked sharing what knowledge he could with her. Although, admittedly, he does know that she enjoyed the knowledge gain as much as, if not more, than his actual company. Still. He didn't think her entirely heartless, even if they had drifted apart once the ember of initial romance cooled.]
[ And she gets one final swat at him. She takes another pillow and hugs it, but she's facing him now. ]
I just told you that she and I do not, as what kids these days say, vibe. The people and beings she's killed have told me as much. She was rude the first time she demanded immortality. And maybe I don't like how she was kinda mean to Wanda. Or that she called the moon down and caused an awful storm in New York.
[ Bad magic, she remembers Maisie telling her. Bad stuff, missy. She sighs. Dream, what are you? Stuck in the Regency era? ]
That's not the point. I just hope you had the presence of mind that absolutely no one sleeping when you two were together saw anything they shouldn't have.
[ Remember more than 10,000 years ago and you and Nada did the horizontal tango and made it everyone's business? ]
I didn't know she was rude to you. Thess can be... direct. I found it refreshing, for a time. She's also helped people from time to time, you know.
[His hands drop the pillow he's pulling back to himself to cover his face in mortification at her last words. Thanks ever so much for reminding him of that, dear sister. He was much younger and had less control back then!]
How did you even know about - nevermind. I most assuredly am not having that conversation. [If he somehow gave his sister sex dreams he's going to kill himself now and walk himself to the Sunless Lands. Or oh gods, did someone die having sex dreams and talk to her about it?]
Thess... aly and I are over, anyway. It doesn't matter.
[ By Creation, he calls her Thess. What the heck. She's gonna find Matthew, Eve, hell, maybe she'll crash one of Abel's or Cain's tea parties (they were a duo act, after all) and bother them because.
What is her brother's taste in women. Well, technically, he's had some decent ones. Killala, she didn't really care for much, but she had been a different person. Nada was lovely, and her brother a giant idiot for sending her to Hell. But at least he's doing right by her. Now Calliope. They had been cute together. She liked the muse a lot, and their work was not the same but at least similar. (And they got married. He chose her! And they had Orpheus, and well, the boy was loved. She loved his nephew.) Titania, if she recalls the rumor mill in the Dreaming, was typical faerie: flighty and mercurial, even more so that she was a monarch herself. ]
I know she helped people. [ For that nastiness with the Cuckoo and George, she had been kind to Wanda. ]
How do you think anybody knew the first time. [ she tells him, flatly. ] You were loud. So I'm asking if you remembered not to project your dalliances to the whole sleeping masses. [ Or else she's going to source of the Dreaming's rumor mill, his staff. And they'll tell her everything (probably). ]
[They might not be mortals, but sometimes the trials that humans fail to overcome mirror that of immortals. He had been happily married to Calliope, once upon a time. Then their child had been gruesomely dismembered. The relationship could not survive that, however strong it had been. It isn't a time he cares to bring to memory, nor that of Nada. Particularly an intimate moment. His eyes narrow and his tone is just as flat.]
I have had several relationships since Nada, and I thank you to realize that has never been an issue with any of them. There is no reason to bring it up now as a risk. [None of them have ever had that happen since 10,000 years ago. None of them have ever been Nada. No love will ever be what hers was. He's accepted that, and that just because he cannot recapture what had once been, he has tried to find happiness in other ways. It just... doesn't work out.]
Was what me or her? The breakup? I fail to see why that matters.
Alright. [ she raises both her hands in surrender, a small smile on her face. ] Just trying to look out for you, little brother.
[ She'll never get the Thessaly side of the breakup but she could probably get her brother's. ] It matters. I think I returned a few books one time and Lucienne told me the cleaning staff had just finished ensuring the courtyards were dry.
[ Considering you flooded one dreamscape when you met your ex-wife again... yeah. It matters. ]
That was... different. [There may have been an overcast misting when Thessaly left, but that breakup could not come close to the painful trauma that happened between himself and Calliope.]
There was nothing left, by the time she left. Embers remained of what fire had once been. That is true on both sides. No relationship is ever the same, sister. I know you withhold yourself from romance, but it is the truth. The start, the middle, the end... they are never interchangeable. They are also not regrettable on my end, for all the regrets I hold from them.
Have you truly never experienced it yourself? A romance.
[ She really should hang with his staff more often. They see things the family never does.
They see her brother. ]
No. I mean, aside from the Rules, there wasn't really an idea of it in me. [ She reckons it has everything to do with her entire self. Death has been impartial and it is true. She does not care for romantic entaglements for herself. She doesn't feel the same all-consuming want and need and love that Dream constantly seeks out. ]
Hazel did tell me she loved me. I told her I knew and she said I love everyone, which is true. Or, well, 99% of the time. [ Obvious with her... it's not disregard for the Thessalian, but it's something. Not like some people she could name, and she did like them once. And well.
Some of them spat in her face, metaphorically and literally. ]
It's not a big deal to me, though. So don't worry about it too much.
[He gives her a wry look at the mention of loving almost everybody but doesn’t start the talk on Thessaly again.]
You deserve love, sister. I’m glad that some like Hazel give it to you.
Perhaps it is less worry and more… wonder. [Neither of his elder siblings seem to have much use for romance personally. He supposes he can somewhat understand why in their cases, but it begs the question why himself and his younger siblings felt such compulsions. Were they simply more disciplined to avoid romantic entanglements? Or had they truly never felt that spark, that want for connection, as he had with his past great loves?
It isn’t a talk he’s comfortable having with anyone, let alone a family member, but the curiosity exists, nonetheless.]
It’s true that one needn’t have romance to be fulfilled. I’ve seen that much. I wonder why any of the Endless are drawn to it at all, I suppose. [Although really, only he’s ever been married and had long term live together romances, near as he can tell.]
I got you, don't I? And Destiny, Desire, Despair, Delirium, and the Prodigal.
[ she moves closer until she's within hugging distance, and leans her head on his bony shoulder. ]
And Hazel, yeah. I got you lot, I think I'm happy with that.
[ Aside from Dream, she knows the only one who would actually go out and date would be... well, Desire's obvious. But Desire doesn't date, in the way mortals think. The other one is Destruction, but that's more of a question of "has he, or has he not?". She remembers him being just as much as his function and purpose.
(And then he left.) ]
You know, I think it's because we're constants in mortal lives. Well, not just mortal, but y'know. Plenty of folx out there, living and dreaming, and we're just there, unseen. That's just a thought though, nothing as confirming as fact.
The Prodigal would have to be here, for that to be true.
[Abandoning one's realm is unfathomable to Dream, and while he still loves his brother, he just can't bring himself to forgive that gross misconduct until he returns and takes measures to set things right.]
Yes, though. You have the rest of us. Only the stars know whether that is for the best, in some cases.
[Family is complicated.]
Mm. Perhaps. I wonder sometimes why none but I have felt certain ways, but I'm sure that we all have areas we believe make us stand out from the rest.
I guess. [ She doesn't mind. In fact, she understands why he even left. And just because he's abandoned his realm doesn't mean she hasn't seen him. Though, half the time, she has work, and she swears Destiny must have done something for the two of them to cross paths a few times. ] I'm okay with it, though, him being not here. That is, I get it, because I felt the same way. I did leave once, but I came back.
[ And it had taken a young person to remind her that she had to go back, that nothing was dying and remained ridiculously stagnant. The Death card in the Major Arcana never really means literal death.
It was all about change. ]
I may or may not have a theory about that, but y'know. Theory. Not to mention, you'll probably disagree with me. But yeah, I definitely agree on that.
[OOC: I should be back on a normal schedule, i.e. not just available on weekends, after this upcoming week. Thanks for your patience!]
[He gives her a look that says he doesn't get it, and that he refuses to do so. The judgement only softens slightly when he hears that she once abandoned her realm as well, though the resentment is replaced with confusion. Oh, he gets being tired and unfulfilled, in wanting something new or other. Yet he cannot imagine actually acting on that feeling. He's always been too grounded in duty and obligation to let himself walk away. Perhaps that's part of why he resents what the Prodigal did, because he somehow could cut those ties without hanging himself in them instead.]
It's good you came back. The galaxy without Death would be even worse off than when it was without me. I told them as much.
It definitely was bad, when I left. [ Nothing changed. And it affected every single thing, from ideas to living, sentient beings, to those on the bridge of death—constantly rotting and decaying but never finding the end. She grabs a random pillow and hugs it like she first did, but tighter. ] I think it's because I'm me. The Prodigal... well. He did care a lot, but I think, he cared too much, then left.
[ Destiny's obviously seen it coming, the departure. Death... well, she didn't, but she understood. In a way, for Destruction, it stopped being about responsibility and more about conscience. ]
You care a lot, too. But it's different for you. [ She told him once that the living... well, every single sentient and breathing being in the universe, rather... were never theirs to manipulate and control. It's still true.
She gives him a small smile at the hope of Destruction returning. ] Maybe. Hope springs eternal, after all.
I still think that excuse doesn't justify his actions.
[He doubted he would change his position on that matter though, so it seemed a moot point. He knew what it was like to care and what it was like to hurt, and he still didn't think any pain was worth abdicating his responsibilities to the wind rather than at least a suitable replacement. He tried not to think on the Prodigal too much though, because he doubted that the Prodigal was thinking much on what he left behind.
He gave a bit of a sideways look when Death declared it different for him.]
Is that so? And why am I so very unique once more?
[ She lets out a snort, but smiles up at him. ] Because you're duty-bound. He was too, for a while, then it was too much. Mortals say there's a limit to these sort of things, and I listen, y'know, because it's only polite, but there really comes a time when it's just too painful for the heart, for anyone, really.
[ All she has is speculations and theories and thoughts. None are confirmed, none are factual, or rooted in facts. She feels like a conversation about responsibility might be too early.
It doesn't feel muddled to me. We are not mortal. Our existence came into being to serve a function, it is tied to our duties in ways that mortals cannot imagine. Not even the gods can. There are ways to handle pain rather than running from it. Especially when doing so causes pain for others.
[He will never simply abandon his realm, no matter the personal cost.]
I doubt we shall agree on this point though, and it matters little with respect to the Prodigal who made his choice.
Tangentially speaking on the matter, I do have work I must attend.
Yeah, you busybody. [ She's one as well, of course, but she's got a... she supposes it's a healthier way of handling everything, but it works in her favor. She sits back up straight and stretches her arms. ] I got some callers on the line myself.
[ She can just blink and put on her boots again like they've been there the entire time but she leans down, puts them on one by one, and ties the strings as comfortably as she can. When she's done, she stands up and stares down at him still seated. ]
Don't be a stranger, little brother. Call me whenever, okay?
[ incoming kiss on the cheek and hair ruffle from big sis. ]
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 07:30 pm (UTC)[The words are even but firm, they're certain as if he knows. Which, of course, he does know. He's talked to her about it, as much as he and Thessaly ever dived into personal topics. He feels he knows her enough though to know that is true. She might not have been pleased that Death didn't give her immortality, but Thessaly chose sparingly whom she placed under the hate column. She isn't one to let her emotions run away from what serves her best.]
A deal? [That earns the faintest quirk upright on the side of his mouth.] No, sister. I don't make deals of that nature. I've already Hob for that, thanks to you, let's keep in mind.
She and I were... acquaintances, for a time. I suppose I was curious whether you were trying to make that reunion sooner rather than later.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 07:41 pm (UTC)Dream. Did you date the Thessalian?
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Date: 2022-10-30 07:47 pm (UTC)Though we have parted ways since.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 07:57 pm (UTC)She hits him with the pillow in his hand. ]
Were you mad? Her? She's not even your type though she kind of passes in the looks department...
[ The Thessalian was definitely pretty in a mousy witch kind of way. But she was also the last of their sort of witches. Death doesn't really have a problem with a lot of witches until they start being rude, and her first impression of the Thessalian was exactly that. ]
I can't believe you dated her!
[ half-heartedly smacking Dream's legs with the pillow in her hand. It doesn't hurt and there's really not a lot of force in it, but it's the thought that counts. ]
LOL
Date: 2022-10-30 08:15 pm (UTC)It isn't as if she's a demon. She's quite intelligent, you know. Driven. Passionate about knowledge and learning. [There's a part of him that had rather liked sharing what knowledge he could with her. Although, admittedly, he does know that she enjoyed the knowledge gain as much as, if not more, than his actual company. Still. He didn't think her entirely heartless, even if they had drifted apart once the ember of initial romance cooled.]
We didn't marry.
GAKSHSK SORRY DREAM
Date: 2022-10-30 08:29 pm (UTC)[ And she gets one final swat at him. She takes another pillow and hugs it, but she's facing him now. ]
I just told you that she and I do not, as what kids these days say, vibe. The people and beings she's killed have told me as much. She was rude the first time she demanded immortality. And maybe I don't like how she was kinda mean to Wanda. Or that she called the moon down and caused an awful storm in New York.
[ Bad magic, she remembers Maisie telling her. Bad stuff, missy. She sighs. Dream, what are you? Stuck in the Regency era? ]
That's not the point. I just hope you had the presence of mind that absolutely no one sleeping when you two were together saw anything they shouldn't have.
[ Remember more than 10,000 years ago and you and Nada did the horizontal tango and made it everyone's business? ]
He can never look her in the eye again, LOL
Date: 2022-10-30 09:00 pm (UTC)[His hands drop the pillow he's pulling back to himself to cover his face in mortification at her last words. Thanks ever so much for reminding him of that, dear sister. He was much younger and had less control back then!]
How did you even know about - nevermind. I most assuredly am not having that conversation. [If he somehow gave his sister sex dreams he's going to kill himself now and walk himself to the Sunless Lands. Or oh gods, did someone die having sex dreams and talk to her about it?]
Thess... aly and I are over, anyway. It doesn't matter.
f in the chat for dream
Date: 2022-10-30 09:19 pm (UTC)What is her brother's taste in women. Well, technically, he's had some decent ones. Killala, she didn't really care for much, but she had been a different person. Nada was lovely, and her brother a giant idiot for sending her to Hell. But at least he's doing right by her. Now Calliope. They had been cute together. She liked the muse a lot, and their work was not the same but at least similar. (And they got married. He chose her! And they had Orpheus, and well, the boy was loved. She loved his nephew.) Titania, if she recalls the rumor mill in the Dreaming, was typical faerie: flighty and mercurial, even more so that she was a monarch herself. ]
I know she helped people. [ For that nastiness with the Cuckoo and George, she had been kind to Wanda. ]
How do you think anybody knew the first time. [ she tells him, flatly. ] You were loud. So I'm asking if you remembered not to project your dalliances to the whole sleeping masses. [ Or else she's going to source of the Dreaming's rumor mill, his staff. And they'll tell her everything (probably). ]
...Was it you or was it her?
ETA: Sorry, talking about his sex life makes him grumpy, LOL
Date: 2022-10-30 09:34 pm (UTC)I have had several relationships since Nada, and I thank you to realize that has never been an issue with any of them. There is no reason to bring it up now as a risk. [None of them have ever had that happen since 10,000 years ago. None of them have ever been Nada. No love will ever be what hers was. He's accepted that, and that just because he cannot recapture what had once been, he has tried to find happiness in other ways. It just... doesn't work out.]
Was what me or her? The breakup? I fail to see why that matters.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:59 pm (UTC)[ She'll never get the Thessaly side of the breakup but she could probably get her brother's. ] It matters. I think I returned a few books one time and Lucienne told me the cleaning staff had just finished ensuring the courtyards were dry.
[ Considering you flooded one dreamscape when you met your ex-wife again... yeah. It matters. ]
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 10:07 pm (UTC)There was nothing left, by the time she left. Embers remained of what fire had once been. That is true on both sides. No relationship is ever the same, sister. I know you withhold yourself from romance, but it is the truth. The start, the middle, the end... they are never interchangeable. They are also not regrettable on my end, for all the regrets I hold from them.
Have you truly never experienced it yourself? A romance.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-31 05:14 am (UTC)They see her brother. ]
No. I mean, aside from the Rules, there wasn't really an idea of it in me. [ She reckons it has everything to do with her entire self. Death has been impartial and it is true. She does not care for romantic entaglements for herself. She doesn't feel the same all-consuming want and need and love that Dream constantly seeks out. ]
Hazel did tell me she loved me. I told her I knew and she said I love everyone, which is true. Or, well, 99% of the time. [ Obvious with her... it's not disregard for the Thessalian, but it's something. Not like some people she could name, and she did like them once. And well.
Some of them spat in her face, metaphorically and literally. ]
It's not a big deal to me, though. So don't worry about it too much.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 10:43 am (UTC)You deserve love, sister. I’m glad that some like Hazel give it to you.
Perhaps it is less worry and more… wonder. [Neither of his elder siblings seem to have much use for romance personally. He supposes he can somewhat understand why in their cases, but it begs the question why himself and his younger siblings felt such compulsions. Were they simply more disciplined to avoid romantic entanglements? Or had they truly never felt that spark, that want for connection, as he had with his past great loves?
It isn’t a talk he’s comfortable having with anyone, let alone a family member, but the curiosity exists, nonetheless.]
It’s true that one needn’t have romance to be fulfilled. I’ve seen that much. I wonder why any of the Endless are drawn to it at all, I suppose. [Although really, only he’s ever been married and had long term live together romances, near as he can tell.]
no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 12:47 pm (UTC)[ she moves closer until she's within hugging distance, and leans her head on his bony shoulder. ]
And Hazel, yeah. I got you lot, I think I'm happy with that.
[ Aside from Dream, she knows the only one who would actually go out and date would be... well, Desire's obvious. But Desire doesn't date, in the way mortals think. The other one is Destruction, but that's more of a question of "has he, or has he not?". She remembers him being just as much as his function and purpose.
(And then he left.) ]
You know, I think it's because we're constants in mortal lives. Well, not just mortal, but y'know. Plenty of folx out there, living and dreaming, and we're just there, unseen. That's just a thought though, nothing as confirming as fact.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 09:10 pm (UTC)[Abandoning one's realm is unfathomable to Dream, and while he still loves his brother, he just can't bring himself to forgive that gross misconduct until he returns and takes measures to set things right.]
Yes, though. You have the rest of us. Only the stars know whether that is for the best, in some cases.
[Family is complicated.]
Mm. Perhaps. I wonder sometimes why none but I have felt certain ways, but I'm sure that we all have areas we believe make us stand out from the rest.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-02 07:52 pm (UTC)[ And it had taken a young person to remind her that she had to go back, that nothing was dying and remained ridiculously stagnant. The Death card in the Major Arcana never really means literal death.
It was all about change. ]
I may or may not have a theory about that, but y'know. Theory. Not to mention, you'll probably disagree with me. But yeah, I definitely agree on that.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-05 02:19 pm (UTC)[He gives her a look that says he doesn't get it, and that he refuses to do so. The judgement only softens slightly when he hears that she once abandoned her realm as well, though the resentment is replaced with confusion. Oh, he gets being tired and unfulfilled, in wanting something new or other. Yet he cannot imagine actually acting on that feeling. He's always been too grounded in duty and obligation to let himself walk away. Perhaps that's part of why he resents what the Prodigal did, because he somehow could cut those ties without hanging himself in them instead.]
It's good you came back. The galaxy without Death would be even worse off than when it was without me. I told them as much.
Perhaps the Prodigal will return eventually.
[No, he definitely is not certain about that.]
no subject
Date: 2022-11-05 06:51 pm (UTC)It definitely was bad, when I left. [ Nothing changed. And it affected every single thing, from ideas to living, sentient beings, to those on the bridge of death—constantly rotting and decaying but never finding the end. She grabs a random pillow and hugs it like she first did, but tighter. ] I think it's because I'm me. The Prodigal... well. He did care a lot, but I think, he cared too much, then left.
[ Destiny's obviously seen it coming, the departure. Death... well, she didn't, but she understood. In a way, for Destruction, it stopped being about responsibility and more about conscience. ]
You care a lot, too. But it's different for you. [ She told him once that the living... well, every single sentient and breathing being in the universe, rather... were never theirs to manipulate and control. It's still true.
She gives him a small smile at the hope of Destruction returning. ] Maybe. Hope springs eternal, after all.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-05 07:23 pm (UTC)[He doubted he would change his position on that matter though, so it seemed a moot point. He knew what it was like to care and what it was like to hurt, and he still didn't think any pain was worth abdicating his responsibilities to the wind rather than at least a suitable replacement. He tried not to think on the Prodigal too much though, because he doubted that the Prodigal was thinking much on what he left behind.
He gave a bit of a sideways look when Death declared it different for him.]
Is that so? And why am I so very unique once more?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-07 08:22 pm (UTC)[ All she has is speculations and theories and thoughts. None are confirmed, none are factual, or rooted in facts. She feels like a conversation about responsibility might be too early.
Whatever, Destiny can tell her off later. ]
It's a little bit muddled, when it comes to us.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-08 05:19 pm (UTC)[He will never simply abandon his realm, no matter the personal cost.]
I doubt we shall agree on this point though, and it matters little with respect to the Prodigal who made his choice.
Tangentially speaking on the matter, I do have work I must attend.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-08 07:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, you busybody. [ She's one as well, of course, but she's got a... she supposes it's a healthier way of handling everything, but it works in her favor. She sits back up straight and stretches her arms. ] I got some callers on the line myself.
[ She can just blink and put on her boots again like they've been there the entire time but she leans down, puts them on one by one, and ties the strings as comfortably as she can. When she's done, she stands up and stares down at him still seated. ]
Don't be a stranger, little brother. Call me whenever, okay?
[ incoming kiss on the cheek and hair ruffle from big sis. ]