The bartender sweeps the floor in the bar at the edge of meaning. It pauses as it sees a mouse run by its feet. Not a mouse of flesh and blood, but one made entirely of broken promises. The bartender shakes its head and continues sweeping. It ignores its patrons beckoning, for their drinks are already poured.

  The god of the material grabs a shot of lies, and the goddess of soul grabs a shot of truth. The goddess nods at her god.

  “The service here is terrible.”

  The god agrees, “Tell me about it.”

  And they take the third shot-

  They slam their glasses on the bar top and the TV switches channels. It seems to be a news channel with the speaker talking in an archaic language. Their meaning is lost, but the information is preserved.

  The TV calls out that the world is doomed.

  The god of the material laughs at the breaking news. “Yeah, sure! It will all end!”

  The goddess of the soul gets only a light chuckle. “They don’t realize that everything will be okay.”

  The god smiles warmly at his goddess and offers her his hand. “How about we dance.”

  The goddess smiles back before placing her hands firmly onto the bar top. “Only after a few more drinks.”

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  He nods and turns back to the bar, taking the rejection rather well. The goddess wraps her hands behind her head and stares up at the ceiling.

  “Hey, when the world does eventually come to an end, what do you think they’ll do?”

  The god scratches his head. “They will live, they will die.”

  The goddess smiles. “They will sing, they will lie.”

  They both know what comes next, “In the end, they will try.”

  The god blinks before sputtering, “J- Jinxs, now you owe me a soda!”

  The goddess chuckles to herself. “How can we both be in debt to each other? That doesn’t make sense!”

  He smiles, ‘You have simply forgotten the meaning behind it.”

  She raises an eyebrow. “Oh. And that meaning is?”

  “That there is no meaning.”

  He reaches behind the bar top, much to the dismay of the bartender, and pulls out a soda. He then hands the soda to her, and she blinks. “Now what?”

  He then holds out his hand and she gives the soda back to him. He cracks it open and drinks from it. “There. Transaction complete.”

  She smiles at her god, “You’re such an idiot.”

  He feigns shock, “How am I an idiot?! Everything I did made perfectly sound sense!”

  “Yes, it did. If, that were a soda, and not a beer.”

  He blinks at his goddess with genuine shock this time, before looking at the can in his hands. “Oh, you’re right.”

  They both laugh at that, and they don’t think any further on the topic of the world ending. It’s a meaningless endeavor from an empty threat.