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[ But, ultimately. He can’t help it. He brings a hand up to his mouth to stifle his very genuine laughter. ]

I- No, I’m sorry, and I truly don’t want to burst your bubble, but—

[ He doesn’t even get that it’s an anagram. He’s far too caught up on her first name, but at least unlike another blonde troublemaker in another dimension, he wouldn’t let her just go with it. ]

“Geek” is… Well. It’s already a word, my dear, and I don’t know if you’d want that association!

[ T-That's not the reaction she'd been expecting! She'd imagined he would be in awe and clap at her most clever anagram. But no, he is... Laughing? He's trying not to, but it couldn't be any more obvious. ]

Heh?

[ Disappointed goddess is disappointed. And also surprised! She'd never heard of this word before, she'd not even suspected "geek" existed as a word! It's not exactly in the kind of books she reads. ]

W-What is the meaning of that word?

Well, it’s nothing terrible or inappropriate, to be clear, but… How to put this.

[ He really has to think it over for a moment, since from what they’ve talked about, he gets the sense that what comes to mind first wouldn’t make any sense to her either… How do you explain “fandom” to a shut-in goddess? These are questions he never thought he’d have to answer. ]

It’s being very into something, like obsessively so? It has a negative connotation, to be sure. All of the really old high school movies tend to have a plotline about geeks getting terribly bullied!

I see... This does sound most inappropriate... [Isn't that called a "Yandere" in her beloved little grape's language?] Though this is no reason to bully children.

[ Imagine being bullied just for that! Humans are really terrible sometimes. ]

It will only cause them to shut in on themselves and grow even more obsessed as a way to compensate.

[ Also she feels like if she had been a human and had gone through high school, she would definitely have been on the side of the bullied. Sniff. ]

Ah, take it as a story more than anything else! Admittedly, I don’t have any personal experience with things like that since my upbringing was… Well, I’ll just say atypical.

[ Awful and isolated, he means. The Ravenlocks had enough children that they simply hired private tutors and taught them all together, so. The schooling experience that he’d seen in movies was just as foreign to him as it was to her, really. ]

But if that’s how it works, that does explain Vivian’s obsessions, admittedly

[ He laughs pleasantly, and with a sweeping gesture first, he starts to lead the way further into the gallery. The front may be more of a work in progress, but towards the back is more finished, and on this floor, it’s mostly sculpture. ]

We can workshop a pseudonym, though. I’d just hate for you to start our your secret career with people teasing you about the name, you know?

[ He's right, she would take it super poorly if people teased her about her alias. She'd start by panicking, then get angry and lash out, only to isolate herself even more as she'd feel inadequate and like a failure. ]

W-Well, this was an anagram... It's the most pleasant-sounding one I could think of.

[ There are others, but they sound weird. Maybe she just hasn't come up with the right combination. She follows him still, looking at the sculpture. Mhm... They're not bad, but she preferred the paintings.

There's something he said though... ]

But... Your sister. Do you mean to say she was bullied?

Ah, was it? My apologies for missing the cleverness, then! Though if that’s the best… Well.

[ He chuckles lightly as he shrugs. Maybe an anagram isn’t meant to be the solution, alas… Though he also wouldn’t really recommend that either, since if someone has the inkling that’s the case, they’d solve it. At least it’s a moot point, so he doesn’t explain it further. ]

Mm, but yes, she was. “Bullying” is putting it lightly, honestly, but my dear Vivian is an unlucky girl.

[ His smile does turn a little sad as he explains, but it’s still warm. It’s clear that he adores her, but it’s easiest to tell when he shares the story of her misfortune. ]

She was born with a cruel power to see the future, but only when it’s disasters and the like. She wasn’t quite Cassandra, since as she tells it, sometimes people would heed her warnings… But more often than not, they didn’t. So, she was blamed for causing them. [ He huffs out a humorless laugh. ] We humans aren’t exactly rational when we’re scared, are we?

[ He glances back to Ereshkigal, since he does feel like the story needs the happy “ending” even if it does sound a little self-aggrandizing when he thinks about it… He hopes she doesn’t take it that way. ]

So, when we met not long after her family kicked her out, I took her in. We’re not related by blood at all, you see, and it was just coincidence that we met. But I love her like I’ve always been her older brother.

[ Ah. She looks down to the ground for a moment. ]

This is a most unusual form of clairvoyance. [Most typical is just being able to see the future, period. There are those who can see everything that happens in the present, or the past... But being able to see only future disasters? It sounds perfect in theory, but when you take into account human nature:] A cruel one.

[ The poor girl. No human should ever hold such a power - let alone suffer the injustice that comes with it. Those she knows who hold this power... They're not entirely humans, if at all. And the weight of that power has affected their lives in many ways, none of which are pleasant. ]

Humans fear death more than anything. They would rather detest, vilify and discard that which reminds them of it, rather than acknowledge them and prepare for it.

[ She speaks from experience here, but... She imagines it's a near universal experience for those who remind humans of their mortality. And she absolutely doesn't think his conclusion sounds self-aggrandizing. Happy endings are nice sometimes, even when they are so uncommon. ]

She is fortunate to have you.

[ Hugo listens to her words with a thoughtful expression, because immediately… He thinks that her words are wise. Perhaps that’s to be expected of a goddess of death, and perhaps she’s better acquainted with that loathing than most. No wonder she reminds him of Vivian, probably. They’re both unlucky in how people must view them.

…Because he’s the perfect example of what she means, isn’t he? He detests this new body of his. He hates looking at his ghastly bones, hates feeling that eternal heaviness of water in his chest. It’s why he’s a coward that wears his glamor so stubbornly. So, her words aren’t likely to leave his mind any time soon. But even thinking that she’s probably right that it would be best to just acknowledge what he is?

He won’t be able to stop rejecting it.

It’s a good thing this a conversation about Vivian. Not him. ]

Ah, you’ll make me blush with praise like that~.

[ He’s more light-hearted in his presentation than he feels, but the more he talks, the easier it is to push down. ]

Thank you, I mean. I’m just as fortunate to have her too. Well. Have had, maybe? I certainly don’t want her showing up here… [ he would, frankly, lose his shit, ] But I think the two of you would get along very well. I think she’d be enchanted to talk to a goddess, in fact.

Maybe we'll meet in a more auspicious world.

[ She most certainly wouldn't wish for anyone she knows to be summoned in this world, not even Ishtar. Especially not Ishtar. Well, except maybe Gilgamesh. Not only he could use the humbling, but he would also be a huge help in getting something done against Patho-Gen. ]

That I can be summoned against my will now that I have a vessel is pretty novel, but I suspect this may be a more common occurrence than any of us realize. [She smiles.] If so, surely our paths and any others will cross in the future.

[ The only question being whether it'd be the current them or different them. Hopefully current, because other incarnations of her would possibly put his sister in a cage to protect her, based on his description.

... They may also put him in a cage, but that's another matter. ]

Have you thought about making a painting or statue representing her? She matters a lot to you, and perhaps this could help you to materialize those feelings in an artistic way.

Mm… That would be nice. In fact, if you happen to be looking over ours, I’m sure an assist for the Hollows would be appreciated~!

[ He’s joking, though. Ironic as it may be when he’s literally standing in front of a goddess and happily chatting away like she’s a normal girl, he’d still call himself an atheist… When it comes to his world, at least. It’s not even the normal lamentations of how gods could let cruel things happen in the world (to him), but rather, it feels more solidly practical.

Surely, if they existed, they would have at least made themselves known, right? His world stands on the razor’s edge of total extinction. Even callous gods would have to care about that.

When she asks about a representation of Vivian, he stops walking. ]

Ah, but I’m a step ahead of you there… I have drawn her, actually. It’s my most painstaking work, and thus, it’s in a private gallery.

[ He turns to walk back towards the way they’d entered. ]

By which I mean it’s in my home. I live on the fourth floor here, since why not? [ No reason to pay rent twice… ] We can make a little detour to see it, if you’d like.

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