kaisou | Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep.....

WHO: Morpheus and YOU, one closed prompt for Thanatos
WHERE: The streets around Brick Alley, and then a coffee shop IN Brick Alley!
WHEN: 1/2, midday to evening.
WHAT: Reality is changing in this world, and Morpheus is just trying to cling to some sort of normalcy by sketching in a coffee shop. It isn't working very well.
WARNINGS: Mild body horror in the closed prompt, otherwise just a Grumpy Man under duress.

Down This River, Every Turn - CLOSED to Thanatos

[It was meant to be like any other day.

New Year's Day had come and gone, bringing with it a marked strangeness - but Morpheus is now doing his level best to get back to his life (such as it is) without thinking too much about it. Currently, he strides down the street with his leather messenger bag, dark coat billowing behind him in the winter wind. It's not an unfamiliar path. He spends a great deal of time in this district. But today he has been feeling...strange, in a way he can't quite quantify.

It's in the middle of crossing a street that he hears a call from above - "Hello, bread-bringer!" - and he is so startled by it that he drops his sketchbook, loose papers inserted between the pages falling out onto the ground. The crow flutters away, leaving him puzzled as he stoops down to gather things up before the light turns again.

Impossible. I'm hearing things. I - hhhh-!

His own musings are cut suddenly short by a lance of pain deep in his eyes; he drops everything again to clasp both hands over them, senseless with the shock...and momentarily heedless of the fact that the light has just turned.

And here comes a truck.]

Hope is Our Four Letter Word - OTA

[After all that, Morpheus made his coffee as big and strong as they would allow him to obtain. Even knowing that not everyone can see the change that's taken place, he is still self-conscious of it - and so he's taken up a dark and remote table in a corner, spreading his pencils and inks and sketchpads out in front of him.

Practice waits for no situation, and so he sketches random people as they move in and out with their drinks. If you happen to catch his gaze, you will no doubt notice two things -

One is that he appears to be studying you.

The other is that where his pupils should be, his quicksilver eyes now glow from within as if there are two small stars set in his head.

Once he realizes he's been spotted, he ducks his head back down again, twining a hand in his wild black hair.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He's still having to get used to all of this. The sunlight, the walking, the humans being around him at all times of the day when he hasn't retreated to the small space in this large, busy city that he can call his own. Thanatos would begrudgingly admit that the experience has awoken a curiosity in him that he had thought long dead, and he sometimes finds himself simply wandering around taking in the sights and watching the people milling about.

This curiosity is how he comes to be standing at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. An interesting invention. In front of him is a young man in a dark coat, carrying a messenger bag, and as the small crowd gathered at the side of the road begins to move off he keeps pace behind him--

The bag drops. Loose papers slide across the ground and there, really, ought to have been where he moved on. What he does instead is quietly crouch and gather up a few of the stray sheets, ready to hand them over. The muttered words catch his attention, and then everything happens all at once.

Apparently immobilised, the man is crouched low in the path of an approaching truck which shows little sign of stopping. Thanatos drops the papers in his hand in favour of grabbing hold of the back of the stranger's collar, and in a split second the two of them are at the side of the road and he's swiftly hauling Morpheus away from the kerb edge.]

Are you trying to get yourself killed.

[Everything DOES happen at once - before he fully knows what is happening, he's being yanked by the collar of his coat, the world whirling around him while he can't even see it. He would be more indignant about it all if it weren't for the white-hot searing sensation in his eyes throwing off all other thought.

When he comes to a stop, he's still sucking panicked breaths through gritted teeth - he doesn't know the voice speaking to him, but...well, he at least has to assume it's someone well-meaning.

Or he hopes so, anyway.]

No, I-

Something - something is - wrong with my eyes-!

[For a mercy, Thanatos does not try to drag him to his feet while he's crumpled by the side of the road. The death god does have some heart, even if he doesn't often show it in ways that most people understand, and instead he crouches down beside the distressed man. Anyone gawping at the scene unfolding gets a cold glare that quickly sends them on their way.]

Let me see.

[It doesn't occur to him yet that this man could be another of the app-users. Admittedly he hasn't spent much time thinking about who is and who isn't, outside of knowing Zagreus is here and... someone carrying the name of his twin (a situation he has not yet tried to approach).

Gently, he places his hand on Morpheus' wrist.]

You'll be all right.

Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep.....

o/

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