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It’d been two weeks since the incident, and Apollo was still adjusting to the new routine. It used to wake up at about 7 AM each day, sit at the dining table for breakfast, and if no one were there, he’d wake up the other thirds himself.
Now, Mind wakes up at 4 AM Tuesdays through Fridays and sleeps in up to 11 AM on the weekends. He keeps himself working and being efficient whenever it can, to distract himself from the uncomfortable silence of the house.
Since the event, Atlas has stayed in his room, and Heart has gotten away from the house. Apollo would never admit it, but it missed Artemis’ presence in the house. He typically tries to ignore it though. In its mind, it isn’t very logical to grieve someone not dead, especially when you could be using the time to do things such as building and writing.
This morning the feeling is worse though. He can’t find the motivation to do anything, so Mr. Sun decides to take a walk through the house instead, just as a short break.
He sits up from his desk and adjusts his necklace. He’ll get back to work as soon as he’s over this feeling. It steps out of its room and into the hallway.
At the end of the hallway is Artemis’ room, and next to his is Atlas’ own, and across from that is the bathroom. Mr. Sun doesn’t feel like using the bathroom or talking to Atlas just yet, so it instead takes a visit to the room at the end of the hallway. Artemis won’t be there, but he supposes that maybe looking at something else other than his work will help.
When Apollo opens the door though, he is reminded of someone else he’s completely forgotten about. There’s the back of someone’s poofy-haired head on the floor - Eris. That’s another new thing it hasn’t adjusted to yet; Eris lives here. They’re laid flat on their stomach, kicking their feet in the air as they do their own thing.
Apollo clears his throat to let them know he’s here. They perk up and look at him. “Why are you in Artemis’ room?” he asks skeptically. Apollo doesn’t know Entropy very well yet, so it feels almost awkward to be talking with them now. Eris doesn’t seem nearly as uncomfortable though. They turn their head back to the floor, and they respond, “Waitin’ for her to come back.”
That causes Mind to cringe. From what he’s seen, Artemis hasn’t been in the house since the day she left. There’s no reason to believe he’d come back. “And what are you doing ‘till then?” he questions. Discord, in response, childishly exclaims “Drawing!”
Mind thinks it’s illogical, considering how the activity could take up to weeks, since they've decided ‘until Mr. Moon is back’. Still, it can’t help but be curious about how much they’ve gotten done since then. He takes a seat next to them on the floor, looking at the paper they’re drawing on with just crayons.
“Is that supposed to be me?” asks Apollo, pointing at the figure drawn with blue crayon. Entropy hums an ‘mhm’ as they continue to color. It should be creepy since he’s hardly talked to them before, but Apollo takes it as endearing. It’s probably innocent, seeing as they have the mindset of a 10-year-old for the majority of the time.
“You should try shading it; light strokes for the body, but then add pressure on the crayon for finer details,” suggests Apollo, looking closely at the paper as if analyzing every single molecule. Entropy halts all drawing and looks back at him with a perplexed expression like it’d just spoken a completely different language.
He sighs. “I’ll show you,” Mr. Sun says somewhat annoyed, but he still kindly and gently takes Eris’ hand, guiding it across the paper to show what he means. This leads to the two drawing together for hours on the carpeted floor of someone else’s room.
Of course it contradicts Apollo’s plan to only take a short break from work, but it was needed. For the first time in a stressful couple of weeks, Mind’s happy. Discord took a bite of only one crayon, and it considers that an accomplishment. Maybe the recent changes aren’t so bad after all.