So what are you going to do today? Death asked.

  Ever shrugged and exhaled. *First, I’m going to get out of the city. I don’t like the smells.*

  What? You don’t like toxic car fumes?

  *It’s not just that.* Ever stood up from the bench that he’d been sitting at for the last half hour or so. It was in front of a shop that had been shuttered with a big ‘For Lease’ sticker out the front. *It just doesn’t feel… alive.*

  He started walking, following one of the tram lines that eventually went out of the Central Business District towards a university.

  Gaia visits you for one afternoon then look at you, talking like a hippy.

  *What’s a hippy?*

  A nature-loving, free-thinking person.

  *It sounds like it’s nice to be a hippy.*

  Ever kept walking, opening up his senses. The good thing about following the tram line was that cars weren’t allowed to drive along it, which meant less fumes. This in turn meant that as he walked down the street, far more pleasant smells wafted through: Japanese curries mixing with freshly fried pork katsu, hearty gyros with the lovely umami scent of taramosalata and woven amongst it all the aroma of coffee from the various cafes on every second street.

  Hippies don’t work.

  Ever paused, looking both ways before crossing the road. *So what do they do all day?*

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  They love nature and they think about whatever they want.

  He kept walking. The further out he went, the fewer people he saw. There was also a distinct shift towards younger people. He could see them with backpacks and some carrying books.

  *Gaia is another one of Chaos’ daughters, just like Nyx, your mother.* Somehow, Ever could feel his mentor cringe through his mind.

  Yes, your point being?

  *Does that also make Gaia your aunt?*

  In a way, yes. In another way, no. While I was born from Nyx, I never considered her my mother. Similarly, she never ‘mothered’ me. She and Gaia are born from Chaos and while he may refer to them as daughters, he definitely wasn’t a father figure.

  Ever let his mind wander. He thought of the oak tree that he slept in, imagining Chaos at the top and branches coming down for Nyx and Gaia, with a smaller one branching off from Nyx to where Death sat.

  *Do you think Nyx wanted to be a mother to you?*

  Death sighed, rubbing the sides of his skull with his fingers. What sort of question is that?

  *It’s just that, you have told me that I’m here to learn about humanity but not to live it. Chaos told me that I’ll never be a human and to stop pretending to be one. Yet what I’m seeing is that you along with the other primordial beings are mimicking humans without even knowing it.*

  Death was silent; Ever took his chance.

  *Nyx berated you at the ice cream shop for considering that it was time to move on from your role as reaper, saying that spending too much time around humans made you think like this. Chaos considers humans as his entertainment, yet he’s happily working a human job and eating human desserts. And me. You sent me here to learn from humans to be a better reaper. All I’m saying is that humans respect us, but maybe we should all be learning from and respecting them--*

  And all I’m saying is be careful how far you take your charade. There is a reason why we exist and why they exist.

  With that, Death withdrew from his mind. Ever blinked and looked around. He had been so focused on his train of thought that he didn’t realize where he’d ended up walking to.