[Log - Who's there?]

[lastnightmare]

Angelo closed his eyes and concentrated as the magic bloomed and wove it's way from his concentration into reality. His bookshelves often became damaged by the heavy volumes containing memories of nightmares which had habit of sinking into the wood. Library maintenance was not his favourite thing, in fact it was exasperating and exhausting both but that was the last of it over with. He sighed as the cool breeze from the night outdoors blew in through the window and tussled his hair and blew out several of his candles. It felt like somebody was in the room along with that breeze but the Memory Keeper didn't look around. He was calmer these days about intruders, being that it was usually the Reaper. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

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[Death log]

[creeping_death]

The Reaper was indeed a presence in the library at that moment, although he had been there long before the breeze. Silent and tall, unmissable as he was in everyone's life. His aura blended well with the negative emotions in the Nightmare Keeper's library.

He watched Angelo shifting the library, remembering well when the Memory Keeper's powers had grown and shifted. When Angelo's library had shifted uncontrollably just because the man had blinked, when the walls cracked simply because he had passed. Now though Angelo seemed so tiredly at home with his powers; Death was well familiar with that feeling.

He stepped with silent steps across the library floor, his excellent leather shoes making not even a whisper as he did. He said nothing to call Angelo's attention to him, never needed to. It was rude to interrupt a man at work, after all. Better to wait to be noticed.

[lastnightmare]

"Are you trying to sneak up on me, Death?" Angelo turned and smiled in recognition when he realised it was indeed the Reaper coming home.

"I may not be able to read souls but I can certainly feel a morbid chill in the air as well as the next person."

[creeping_death]

"Sneak is quite an ugly word," Death commented dryly. "I merely did not wish for you to be interrupted mid-shelf."

[lastnightmare]

"Hmn, I suppose that would have been a problem. I might have ended up with your face in my woodwork."

Angelo gave a small smile and approached the Force with an almost meek look up at him.

"Of course, you have art of me. It might be a good idea for me to get you back."

[creeping_death]

"I doubt you wish for a wood carving of me," Death commented. "It would anger you to see the face of a man you dislike for vehemently, and then you would hurt your knuckles punching it."

Death's tone was dry and emotionless, but the conversation made him uncomfortable and he was happy to shift it as soon as possible from the subject he despised - himself - to one he was more content with - his lover.

His hand cupped Angelo's jawline, his thumb skirting along the bone, judging the sense of power beneath Angelo's skin.

"And I do not wish to cause you excessive pain."

[lastnightmare]

Angelo smiled, lowering his eyes to the Reapers chest and fixing on his tie. Black, as usual. It would seem their daughter was unable to persuade daddy into wearing a green one today.

"Is that so?" He placed his foot between Death's stance, situating himself all the closer to the tall man. "Well... The feeling is mutual. Pain is such an ugly emotion. Discomfort is more my forte."

[Charon log]

[charon_rakke]

A sound of a body hitting the side of a shelf might well have made that small smile all the wider.

"Ow," complained a not-actually-that-pained voice. "That wasn't there last time."

Angelo's youngest brother gave the shifted bookcase an accusatory look as he stepped around it, leather pants glinting and knee high books clicking loudly with his every step.

"Hey," Charon greeted - a word he doubtless picked up from their unshared parentage.

[lastnightmare]

"Oh, it's you." Angelo sighed, putting on his most well practised uninterested tone.

"What in all the realms are you wearing, you strange little man?"

[charon_rakke]

"Clothes. You know, fashion. A sense of style," Charon grinned and gave Angelo a wink. "Something that I know Memory Keepers are grossly misunderstanding of. Seriously, still in robes? I suppose at least yours have pants... But its not that much improvement."

[lastnightmare]

"I don't like change." Angelo admitted, giving his brother a light push on the shoulder. "Like when you came along, that was a change I didn't approve of. You make the place look untidy."

[charon_rakke]

"Wasn't much of a change for you, you don't live with dad," Charon waved his hand glibly, before hooking his thumbs into his waistline.

The younger man ran his finger along a shelf which was sagging down and cracking as the books on it tried to push themselves towards the ground.

"None of you guys like change, you'd think you'd been around long enough to get used to the idea."

[lastnightmare]

"Excuse me," Angelo took a particular tone, the kind that sounded as if he was quite offended. "I'll have you know the change was enormous."

He sighed.

"For one thing I have cocoa growing in my garden."

[Pain Thread]

[to_the_pain]

"My, my, my."

The voice was certainly that of a Force, but far from the one Angelo had been half-expecting.

Pain brushed his hair over his shoulder, giving a glance to the moving shelves. "I'm quite surprised Angelo, I was expecting a gauntlet of trials to get in here. Instead I merely... opened the door. Getting comfortable, are we?"

[lastnightmare]

The blatant and painful truth? That serpentine voice? It could only have been one being, the man he loathed more than any other. Once that role had been filled by Thanatos, his own father, but no longer. Pain had long since replaced the target Angelo directed all of his hatred toward.

Since that Nightmare and Last Night had become part of his conciousness as well as his unconscious he was a vast amount braver when it came to confrontation. Even so, he had never been good at controlling his temper. Nowadays with all three separate parts of himself working in unison he should have had a better grasp of his emotions, but it just wasn't so for him.

He turned quickly, summoning his scythe to appear in his hand as he narrowed his eyes on the Force.

[to_the_pain]

Pain smirked openly, half amusement and half disbelief. "Really now. Do think, Angelo. If I wanted to pick a fight with you, would I have come to your own private domain?"

The blue-skinned Force held out his arms, palms upwards and empty. No weapons on him, but his own tongue, it seemed.

"In all honesty, does that sound like me?"

[lastnightmare]

"What you want doesn't concern me, Force Pain. I want you out of here." Angelo bit, trying hard to swallow his rage and curiosity both concerning his unwanted guest.

[to_the_pain]

"Of course it does. If I'm here, in a room with you, then what I want concerns us both."

Pain tilted his head back, looking down his cheekbones at Angelo lazily. "Besides which, you and I both know that much as you want me to leave, you want me to leave bruised, bloody and not least, having quelled your sudden interest in what I might have to say.

"I'd really think about seeing someone about those deep set anger issues, Angelo."

[lastnightmare]

Angelo wasn't as angry as he could have been, not really. He could have been off balance with his fury but from the way he ran at the Force it was clear he was on form. He picked up speed as he dashed forward, swinging his scythe around in a large crescent arc aiming to cut the man in to halves if he hadn't know for a fact the being would dodge or block.

He wasn't aiming to kill him, not yet anyway. He just wanted him to leave. Perhaps the threat of an angry Memory Keeper inside his own domain would be enough to prove to the Force that Angelo was in no mood to play games. As Pain himself has said, it was foolish to fight with the balance tipped so drastically in his foes favour.

[Evil thread]

[lesser_of]

"Don' go somewhere in a few years and it changes on ya," Evil commented, gazing at the shelves with dull brown eyes. "... Right in front of ya, even."

Evil's eyes wandered around the library, resting on Angelo for a moment, "Oh. And; Hey dude."

[Evil thread] [1/2]

[lastnightmare]

"Evil!" Angelo turned and smiled openly. He usually hid his happiness when it involved other people, disguising it as sarcasm or dislike, but for reasons unknown to the Force Angelo had always been especially close to him. He wondered briefly what the Force was doing there, but then he answered himself. He must have come looking for Death.

[Evil thread] [2/2]

[lastnightmare]

"Are you all right?"

[lesser_of]

"Yeah," Evil replied, flashing a wide grin that looked perfectly natural. "What could be wrong?"

His eyes started to wander, as they often did. He found it hard not to just let his eyes dance around most places, finding it hard to ground himself in the outside world and the one inside his head.

"Jus' kinda thought its been a while since I like... checked on how shit was goin' your end, ya know?"

[lastnightmare]

"You... Came to visit me?" Angelo confirmed, pleasantly touched. Of course Evil's smile was the professional kind that didn't cause him concern, but there was something in the Force's tone that gave Angelo pause. He would attempt to be tentative though, Evil was his friend after all, he deserved the best treatment.

"I'm very happy to see you."

[lesser_of]

"Oh yeah?" Evil looked back to Angelo and grinned, "Not often people are, ya know?"

His hands squirmed into his pockets and Evil's eyes shifted back across the bookcases. A deeper version of his own voice sounded off in his head, [I must star in so many of those wonderful tomes.]

Evil shook his head, "So, yeah. Figured like... I should make sure ya okay though. Cos like... eternity drags on, ya know? Specially when you lose things." He bit down on his lip, hating the awkwardness but unable to make his words smoother.

[lastnightmare]

"Ah..." Angelo gave a slow and understanding nod. "Has it really been that long since we last saw each other?" He shook his head slowly. Had evil even met Death and he's daughter? He felt quite guilty for that, but he took solace in the fact that the time was multiplied more than sixty times over for him. It had been less time for Evil than it had for Angelo.

"You've been without my vegetable garden all this time as well. I suppose you're hungry?"