STAR-SPLITTER.

   ❛     Y’KNOW,  YOU’VE  BEEN  PLAYIN’  THAT  THING  FOR,  LIKE  —  EVER.  your  fingers  are  gonna  fall  right  off  if  you  don’t  hurry  up  ‘n’  give  it  a  rest  already.     ❜     the  entirety  of  her  frame  hangs  entirely  from  the  back  of  their  seat  by  the  iron  grip  of  her  hands,  hanging  low  as  if  she’s  preparing  to  throw  herself  to  the  ground  and  spark  up  a  tantrum.

   ❛     c’mon,  we  were  supposed  to  leave  ‘n’  go  get  food  a  whole  hour  ago  !  you’re  starving  me  !  and  i  know  you  haven’t  eaten  yet  either  —  you’re  really  on  a  one - way  trip  to  putting  yourself  straight  out  of  commission  —  who’ll  be  my  accompanist  then,  huh  ?     ❜  

LIGHTLY,   THE  FINGERS  LIFT  FROM  THE  KEYS.   a single note,   at the half-way point of the piece,   floats through the air like a petal.   it leaves a ringing in their ears,   abandoning their work so abruptly,   but there was no appeasing the impatience of marceline d’amours.    ❛   i have to practice.   i just do.   i still can’t        ❜     thana’s words choke at the back of their throat.   coughing lightly into their left hand,   they clean up the music sheets and set the piano cover back over the keys with the softest thud.     ❛   you don’t need to stick with me,   as your accompanist.   someone else would do a much better job.   ❜

thana’s favorite color is mint green. they’re not sure why, (it reminds them of fresh forests and a cold winter’s bite) but they have a tendency to buy little trinkets in that color.

1.     thana is ambidextrous,   but inherently left-handed.   it’s only obvious if you catch them reading      they turn pages with their left.

2.     thana can’t ride a horse.   not at all.   they’ve tried so,   so many times in the thousands of years they’ve existed,   but they can’t figure it out.

3.     thana’s hair was black as a baby.   it turns permanently white when they’re around seven years old.

BITTERNESS  MANIFESTED,   they look forward with a polished impassivity.     ❛   because there’s no emotion as powerful as happiness at the expense of others.   ❜     the tone of voice is beyond their years,   as though they’ve switched places with someone much wiser.   (indeed      that’s what they are.   a child in an adult’s purgatory.)   there’s no anger in their eyes,   not today.   they avoid looking at shōto for fear of him noticing the melancholy-stained eyelashes.   it occurs to them,   suddenly,   that his question might have been rhetorical;   that they’ve revealed too much about their own self.   a moment passes,   and they backtrack.

❛   i don’t know.   ❜

caela stellae phanes!   the mother of our fave, thanatos efrem stellae.   she’s 6′8″, strong as all hell, and quite literally the nicest person you could hope to meet!   i love her.

since writing about her with no limits would take hours, i’ll only talk about two things: her name’s meaning, and how caela’s kindness is perceived by her children.

caela stellae phanes translates to, roughly, “the sky’s stars shine”.   the name has multiple layers.   caela was the first to be born from the star that would later be the kingdom of lucent, so she is the sky.   her skin glows and is tinted various colors, marked with freckles in the design of constellations.   her stars literally shine.   but the name is also a prophecy of sorts; caela’s stars shine.   her children, thanatos and anima, are her stars.   she believed, with her entire heart, that her children would reach heights she could never imagine.

next on the list is caela’s kindness.   as a ruler, caela was benevolent and fair.   when warring against humans, she often took mercy on them and refused to cause more damage than good.   the greeks often compared her to athena, both due to her strategist prowess and goodwill towards the enemy.   even when she died, impaled by thanatos’ sword, she told her child to not be afraid; she’d watch over them no matter what.

this final message has two different effects.   for thanatos, in their mind, it cemented their mother as a legendary figure with unflinching compassion and empathy.   for anima, it morphed her perception of their mother into one where she believes that caela was a naive fool with no understanding of reality.   it’s why thana strives to be like their mother, but anima strives to be anything but.   (there’s also the matter of anima believing thana’s idolization of caela to be compensation for their guilt over her death, but that’s a completely different post.)