time5kip | INBOX

[ he doesn't like hearing any of that. ]

You're not a monster. And it's not wrong for you to want to see those you love again.

Regardless of what it costs.

[He smiles but has no response. He is just going to drape his arm over his face and try not to cry again as he thinks of a topic that does not make him want to die quite so much.]

I liked your dream, by the way. For all the little imperfections it was truly warm.

Well. At least you had a happy ending somewhere.

Kind of funny that my father was dead in my perfect world as well, though. I suppose my mind could pretend he cared only if he wasn't actually present.

To be honest imagining him warm and loving is almost terrifying.

Terrifying in what way?

[His voice is gentle but not judgemental.]

In the if I ever saw it I'd imagine he was replaced by a demon sense.

[He snorts a soft laugh.]

A demon might have been warmer.

But part of you still wishes he had been so. That is not odd.

Maybe, but reality was what it was.

[ he sighs ]

And all I'm left with is the knowledge he was right and I was too arrogant to listen.

Is that really all you are left with? I grant you, you lack closure.

Well.

I can also distinctly hear his voice in my head telling me "I told you so".

Even if he weren't dead I'm not entirely sure how I would face him. And it doesn't matter anyway, because he'd hardly care.

It matters to you, to resolve your feelings on the man. I do not think the matter of having a bastard of a father ever really leaves someone, but it is common enough many have found ways and methods to come to some inner peace with it.

I thought I already had.

[ but evidently he was wrong. ]

But I don't really want to talk about this particular topic right now. Another time, maybe.

Very well.

There are plenty of other things that are tiring or emotionally exhausting or otherwise unpleasant to discuss. Which would you like to choose from next?

[He is joking, sort of.]

We could put suggestions in a bowl and then just draw them randomly at this point.

[ There's a pause, and then he adds ]

You know I've killed more people than I can count too. And I wasn't tempered.

[He sighs.]

I did not mean to imply you were a monster Five.

You do labor to end the apocalypse but in your world nothing comes after, no new life, no hope. The deaths you have caused are, as I can tell, calculated--a grisly math but still a logical one.

You have not lived beside and shared the lives and hopes and dreams and loves and art and triumph and tragedy of the people that followed you, and decided still to slaughter them wholesale, just to see your family again.

Mayhaps you will claim you would anyway, but given the gentleness of your heart I wonder if sentiment would not sway you to accept people instead. Neither of us will really know.

I know. I was just going to say that I would have no room to judge you, but I won't deny that putting it like that does make my actions feel irrelevant.

[He snorts a little and reaches up to put his hand on Five's head.]

Not wholly. We both understand each other far too well. Our perspectives align and out logic.

But I am afraid, as in all things, I am quite ahead of you in scope and scale of transgressions. I do hope you never attempt to catch up.

Not if I can help it.

[ he won't voice that he would if he thought it necessary, however ]

We could talk about how you clearly need more sleep next, though.

[He smiles you don't need to voice it Five he knows. But he does wonder if Five really could.]

We could, but I am afraid my mind is much too active. Only Hades's soothing kept me in dreams.

I can afford to lose sleep now and then. Especially now.

Then you can pick whatever else you'd like to discuss. If you're mind is too active we can put it to use.

Apprise me of the latest gossip of your life then. We need not stick to the heavy topics.

Well. Right now the hottest gossip is the matter of my marriage during that game, which I'm already being teased about at length.

But I'd rather not discuss that one either.

[ a pause, then he adds ]

Fox is learning how to make tattoos. Hades is getting one.

[He sits up a little, propping his chin on his hand.]

To match yours?

[ he nods ]

I asked him.

It's all I could think of that would match the significance of the mask he gave me. And I would like him to have a reminder.

Good. I am glad. He will be happy for it, I think, though I doubt he's made that a mystery at this point.

Especially now.

[ considering the mess with everyone else he trusted ]

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early

Re: Day 272 early