(Afterlife depiction) (Zeno)
“Should we hate each other?”
Zeno looked up from their work to see Givers sitting on an invisible ledge midair, his disembodied tail draped lazily over his lap and xyr legs kicking absentmindedly. They had gotten used to this kind of interruption. He tended to come and go as xe pleased, and never announced himself until xe had gotten quite comfortable on a table, couch, or just floating, and more often than not with a snack that Zeno prayed was not from their food stash. Somehow, he always managed to scare them, no matter how hard they tried.
“What?” Zeno replied, having only been half paying attention.
“Rivers hated you. Or- hated you, and then didn’t anymore- but then you hated him for being part of the empire.” Xe furrowed his brow like xe was focusing on a very difficult math equation, “And people talk about you and him like you’re these- constant forces, where Rivers is the betrayer and you’re the betrayee and it’s just on and on forever-“
Zeno opened their mouth to interrupt but was talked over.
“But I don’t think I hate you? And you don’t seem to have a problem with me being here. Is that- weird?”
The two were silent while they waited for someone who wasn’t them to answer.
“I don’t know.” The one who was planning to die said, “I don’t think you can stay angry forever. Unless some new thing happens to make you angry again it just slowly turns itself into this- empty feeling.” They pulled their arms into themselves like they were shivering, despite the fact the cabin was actually quite humid.
The ghost said in return, “When I first showed up here, I didn’t remember all that stuff about you. Or- I did, but I wasn’t looking at it? At the memories?” He flopped backwards onto xyr back and threw up his hands, “Being a ghost is so fucking confusing!!”
Xe pushed himself back up, “It’s just- Important to me to know that when you first- saw me I wasn’t- coming from anywhere.”
“Okay.” Zeno said.
“Okay.” Givers said, “Are we friends?”
Zeno didn’t answer.