I paint the death-faced friends so the room is not empty. This is the gang. The blue one stands at the back with pink scribbled hair and two hollow ice-blue eyes, a grid of teeth for a mouth. The small gold one in front of it has horns, glowing eyes, a red zigzag grin, and a blue flame burning on top of its head. The red one in the middle has one eye and a mouth full of white fangs, and it is waving. Its palm carries a small orange star. The green one at the end has orange eyes, blue brows, a jagged pink grin, and its ribs showing through. None of them are scary once you know their names. Written into the red one's body, scratched into the paint where you only find it up close: QUANTUM. ENCRYPTION HACKING. And across the belly, in one line, LIFE AFTER DEATH. The friend in the middle is carrying the question for all of them. Above the gang is the big one. A violet face that fills the whole sky of the canvas, black almond eyes, a nose, and a long white crescent of a smile that bridges from the blue friend to the green. It is the oldest friend there is. It shows up for everyone eventually. Here it is not coming to take anyone. It is just smiling over the four of them, the way you smile at kids playing. Painted on linen, the second one.