Chapter Text
The first Endless any being encounters is Death. It’s there from the moment you’re born, just as it will be there when your life ends. But because no one ever remembers this first meeting, we’ll come back to it later.
(It doesn’t mind. It has all the time in the world and a fantastic disposition. Everyone is it’s old friend after all.)
It may seem strange, but Destiny is the next Endless any given being encounters. So many children are told within the first few days of life, that they are destined for great happenings. Their parents need to believe such things, for their own comfort. Really, Destiny knows what will happen to everyone and everything, and it is rarely great, but he reads his book of prophecy anyway. In his mind, the world's contentment justifies the lies they must tell to themselves.
Everyone knows Dream. Even if you’ve never seen her preferred form, everyone knows Dream. King of Dreams and Nightmares, Princess of Stories, Lady of the Dreaming and possessor of the largest library that’s never existed, filled with every story told and untold. She is boundlessly creative, and never found without a book in her hand. There’s just so much to uncover, you see. So much to learn about humans.
If we’re unlucky, we get to meet Destruction. The Two-in-One, the slow-and-steady burn and the bright-bomb-blast. Calculated desolation and pure aimless rage. They come after most things, eventually. They are rarely apart, but would not call themselves siblings to each other like they are with the rest of the Endless. They are merely each other, fractured reflections of the same concept.
Delirium is an odd one. He was once Delight, and sometimes still is, but even he is not sure which form of madness haunts him at any given moment. He is always welcome, however. Whether in mistaken revel or simple play, he nearly always means well, even if he can never describe exactly what it is that he means.
The twins feed each other. Desire leads to Despair, Despair leads to Desire. It’s a messy little cycle but they are almost certainly the closest of all the Endless siblings, save perhaps for Dream and Delirium. Desire has her lover, but she’s always left bereft when things don’t go as she expects. Despair adores every tragedy of the universe, but is forever disappointed at how humans still turn the worst things into happy endings.
Death is kind. This may sound trite, but it’s true. It is a being who understands that life is a game, that we are all pretending, and when we are done, it congratulates us on a job well attempted, on a mighty well done performance. It smiles, and lets the adventurous try on it’s hat, and accompanies you to the Sunless Lands like an escort for a Queen. It will come for all of us.
They are Endless. They are everywhere, all the time, occupying their realms in the spaces between stars and simultaneously watching over each of the beings who wander into their realms personally.
They rarely meet up together for family dinners, so when I went looking for them, I had to do it practically one at a time.