Thanatos instantly felt like holding his breath. Discomfort crawled through his veins, replacing his blood and clogging up his heart as it tried to pump. Whenever Philotes was sad, it felt like life should come to a grinding halt. Though he failed to understand how something so bright and sweet had ended up in the Underworld, he knew she belonged. This was her home. She was a ray of sunshine, and Thanatos truly believed she was necessary. But when that light dimmed, it was terrible. It was worse than anybody's sadness had any right to be. She was so bright so much of the time, and when that stopped being the case, Thanatos truly couldn't stand it.
The quiver might as well have been an earthquake. Thanatos sighed softly, then found himself rather awkwardly reaching forward to tap Lottie's little chin with two fingers. "Chin up, Lottie. There's no reason to cry," Than said, trying to sound as kind as possible. He really needed to come up with a nickname for her, something that would make her feel special even when he was busy trying to abandon her to her own devices. But Thanatos wasn't any good with nicknames. He didn't want to call her Sunshine or Dewdrop or anything similarly trite. Lottie had too much life for a stale nickname.
Than just stuck to her name. It was for the best.
His hand dropped back down just as awkwardly as it had touched her chin. Philotes wanted to come with him? That was...surprising. It was very, very unexpected. Thanatos really didn't know how to respond, so he sputtered silently for a moment before finally finding a few words to string together. "You...want to help me collect souls? Lottie...it isn't very fun. It's not like mudpies, not even a little bit."
She couldn't be serious. The mental image of Philotes trailing after Thanatos as he collected souls just didn't make any sense to him.