Me, Thanatos, and Stefan were sitting on the edge of one of Tech Duinn's many courtyards on my isle between the worlds of 'life' and 'death'; as most knew it. We were in a covered patio area, because those everpresent Irish rains were coming down at a nice moderate pace. The winds were low, and being we'd decided to go temperature sensitive; we were pleased to find it wasn't that cold.

We were at a round stone table, seated on a four part split circle stone bench. We were actually all on seperate benches, as opposed to being snuggled on one. In the centre of the table was a pot of East Indian chi, complete with ghee, honey, and cream. The pot would never run out, like the Undry Cauldron of my grandfather (Eochaid Ollathair). We often came here to hold pointless philosophical discussions for Stefan's sake, being he still liked to be reassured on things he knew damned well; but at the same time, couldn't quite 'grok' in their entirety. Neither I nor Thanatos minded. At times we found it entertaining, for Stefan could occassionally be quite amusing with his proverbial one-liners.

"I can't believe how stupid I was, or how pissed I still am at Chaos, Source, Whatever." said Stefan

"Dude! How many times have we been over this?" I asked.

"I lost count after 5,000, but I can't believe something as crass as the Physical Realm could have been invented; and I can't believe how many lives I asked to live. I'd like to take a flame thrower to my past selves for being so brainless."

"Hey!" I objected. "Even I lived as a mortal."

"Thrice!" said Stefan. "Me, on the other hand; had to live a few hundred lives before I got life out of my system. And you know something Donn? I'm not sure I'd be through with it now if you hadn't met me that time I tried to kill myself."

"Oh, I'm sure you would have. All you did during your last life was bitch about what a bitch life was." I had a sip of that delicious chi.

"Well, with the animal abuse, environmental abuse and general inequalities of everyone and everything, how can I not? And why the fuck did Source not make the genders more equitable in physical stature and power?"

Thanatos said, "I don't think the population would have gotten much more than a half a billion if that were the case, and the eras would have had to have been a hell of a lot longer for all those idiots, as you call them; addicted to 'The Fall' to get over it."

'The Fall', as Thanatos had called it, was the voluntary coming to the Physical Realm of the more curious particles of Source which took the form of everything Physical that was. Plants, animals, gases, rocks. . .everything. That same everything was sentient to a degree. All that existed was made of the same thing, though some things vibrated at slower rates than others; and were incorrectly deemed soulless by humanity.

This was not so. All was composed of atoms, and though things were put together differently; everything was equally part of The Source, equally 'alive', and equally aware. There were cultures cognisant of this, including mine. The Tuatha de Dannan. The Jains are another. Not only do the true followers of the Jain religion not harm animals, but they don't harm plants; either. If a fruit fell from a tree, one may eat it; but one may not pluck the fruit from the tree, nor uproot a carrot, nor risk causing pain to a plant in any way.

Of course the Tuatha were not necessarily so highly concerned about inconveniencing the life forms they considered edible, or otherwise. I personally stopped eating meat in my days on Earth, but vegetarianism was not the general Tuatha way. If something tasted good, it was eaten with gusto. The Tuatha were generally a hedonistic, sensualistic tribe. The hell with causing pain on Earth. Pain happened. The pain free way was for the Afterlife. All of existence was a party, and nothing was going to stop your typical Tuatha lad or lady from enjoying anything and everything to the hilt; though the 'to be eaten' animals were well treated before slaughter, and the slaughter was done as quickly and humanely as possible; which was a somewhat redeeming trait in my opinion.

Though the Tuatha knew everything equal, it was hard to tell by our actions. We didn't treat everything equally. We treated some animals better than others; especially the horses. They were highly valued, and it showed. We were also rather charitable, and if a stranger came to the door, they would most likely be fed. When we had a town party, those who had more; provided more.

We were also a fiery lot. We fought each other, we killed each other over insipid insults, yet we knew death was not an end; but a passage to somewhere else where we may be reborn if we so chose. We didn't take it too hard, generally.

On the other hand, being killed was the only way for my kind to 'die'. We were naturally immortal, a magical lot, and stopped aging when we hit our prime; or when we chose. Most of us were eventually killed in a fight, but that was par for the course. I wasn't one of them. I just faded from the Physical Realm into the Low Etheric into my job as a 'Gate Keeper' because I knew how to do it. I was personally repulsed by violence, but that was just me. I was an odd one, here.

"Half a billion," said Stefan. "That's the ideal number on the Georgia Guidestones. The world would have been much closer to paradise if what was on those stones could have been the way life was, but so many condemned the message."

"Considering there were so many people over that half billion when they were erected, you could understand that. . .if only you weren't such a misanthrope," said Thanatos.

Stefan raised his teacup in a salute to Thanatos. "From what all I know and remember, how can I not be one; despite the fact all that was no longer has an effect on my existence."

"Other than clinging to your memories like a barnacle to a shipwreck." said Thanatos.

After emptying his cup, Stefan said, "You two are so different from me."

I said, "Makes for interesting times, no?"

"Donn, you coerced me into ghostwriting your autobiography; I have read it so many times, and I just can't see why something like you would put so much interest in a mortal."

"Can I make a confession to you?" I asked.

"Sure."

"It was your nose. I fell in love with your glorious nose."

"I knew it! So why don't you pet it more?"

I looked down, and shook my head. "Stefan, get off of it. You know the truth. Pragmatism pays no role in love. Granted, you drove me absolutely nuts sometimes; as I drove you to distraction as well, but what about you and Percy? How much did you unconditionally give of yourself to that cat, though I'm glad you did?"

"Cats are gods. And do you know how many times he got me to work on time when I forgot to set my alarm?"

I chuckled. "Dude! He had an alterior motive. You were late with his food, but you two always did have one of the most cool interspecies relationships possible. Not much different from me and Hesper."

"Hesper is a divine pony." said Stefan. "There's nothing like him."

Hesper! The present to me from Thanatos. Conjured, not born. One of my best friends in eternity. The golden palomino beauty beyond perfection. My source of sanity in my later years on Earth.

Thanatos said, "And Percy is a divine cat. He's virtually made himself into a deity with your encouragement."

"I think the mental merging of that cat and our dear Andre had more to do with that that I." said Stefan.

(Andre was adopted by us, and if you read my autobiography; you can find out about him. He is quite a gentleman of French, Sudanese and Navajo ancestry. He will be with us forever, along with his wife; Tonya.)

Thanatos said, "Percy became a full time shapeshifter because of Andre. He's fancied himself a god while he still lived on Earth from the way you spoiled him and managed to communicate with him. He truly was the head of household. It was more than you just joking about it."

Stefan shrugged. "Well, it did get to the point where he used to bite me when I didn't give him what he wanted. Glad he doesn't do that now."

I chuckled. "With those sabre fangs? So am I. That would get messy."

"Not that Percy ever bit me very hard. Just enough to let me know he wasn't happy with his underperforming slave." said Stefan. "I wish all people would recognise the intelligence and personal sovereignty of all animals."

"Huh! They don't even recognise the personal sovereignty of each other." said Thanatos.

"Tell me about it," said Stefan. "Ego strikes again, huh?"

"Aye." I said. "I've had enough of a problem myself with ego.

"So have I," said Thanatos. "Remember what happened before I realised who I really was, and then right after I found out?"

"Hm hm."

Thanatos added, "So we are all the same. We came from the same place, and we're going to end up in that same place after we are done doing what we are doing before we get there. Just because some of us have separated further from Source than others doesn't make them any lesser. In fact, perhaps it makes them a bit braver."

Stefan smiled. "There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity."

"Why was I expecting you to say that?" I asked.

"Because you know me better than I know myself."

"No I don't," I said. "I just have a more detached perspective."

"My revulsion of the Physical Realm. I can't understand myself on why I was so drawn to it for so long. I can't stand the concept of polarity or duality. For me, it's Utopia and perfection; or bust. I have no clue on why I'm like that," said Stefan.

"Now I have a confession to make," said Thanatos. "Neither do I."

"I thought you knew everything," said Stefan.

"Except that, and why they call 'em tailors when they don't install tails."

Stefan chuckled. "Cut me off at the pass, huh?"

Thanatos stood up, reached over, and petted Stefan's nose. "Yeah! No need to go into that pointless conversation again."

"But being telepaths, aren't all our conversations pointless, and just force of habit?" asked Stefan.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," said Thanatos.

The rains started coming down harder, and a lightshow was appearing in the West. "It's going to get hard to hear each other pretty soon, from the looks of it," I said.

"So we have three options," said Thanatos. "Go to the Akashic Library and find out why Stefan is so unaccepting about polarity and all, switch to nonverbal communication, or shut the fuck up as we enjoy a couple more gallons of this delicious tea with no despotic bladders to hold us hostage for service."

"But if we go to the Akashic Library and discover why I'm so unaccepting of polarity and all, then we couldn't continue to have all these pointless conversations rehashing the same thing over and over again in different ways; and we couldn't have that, could we?" asked Stefan.

"Oh, of course not," I said.

"Do I materialise a Bataca or a rolled up newspaper to swat you both with for that?" asked Thanatos.

Stefan stood up. "First you have to catch us!"

I was right behind him. "Yeah!"

Me and Stefan took off as fast as we could, leaving our half empty cups and eternal teapot behind.

Thanatos cleaned up by dematerialising everything, and he went after us.

Of course, with Thanatos being a taller and faster runner; me and Stef lost the game of tag, but no; we didn't get swatted with newspaper or Bataca.

Some Gatekeepers just wanna have fun.