what if the gods ordered a devastating flood to wipe out humanity but one of them picked you specifically to survive and so you built a boat and brought on a pair of every animal you can think of and wait out the flood and have to face the reality of everything and everyone you've ever loved being gone forever but you get to live, and the gods grant you immortality for your sacrifice so you can never stop mourning everything you've lost
what if i was a shepherd for the dead and had to witness the agony of mortality on a daily basis as their souls transition from the land of the living to the underworld. what if one day it was too much and i stopped in a tavern on the coast of the sea of death to drown my sorrows in a glass but you had already beat me to it. what if i took one look at you and knew who you were, knew what had been placed on your shoulders and what back-handed reward you'd been given even before i felt the waves of anguish rolling off of you
what if i tried to crack your heart back open, tried to get you to crack a smile, tried to get you to drop the weight of the past for two minutes to indulge one of my stupid jokes. what if you snapped at me like a rabid dog, and i didn't leave. what if i kept coming back to the tavern, kept trying, took every biting comment as a win because at least you weren't stewing in silence. what if i gave you a stupid nickname and you hate it but keep indulging me anyway. what if you're a flash of respite from the devastation i see every day. what if you might be the best thing that ever happened to me.
