[Video | Both Courts] Rule 1

[prissykid]

[Sup, Fairy Land, there's a 15-year-old newbie on the network today. He's regarding the Locket with a cool, vaguely curious expression.]

It's a little too abrupt for my taste, but it has relevance in light of certain events. What sort of afterlife do you think there is? Or, if you don't personally believe in one, then what's one that's common in your world or that you might agree with? On the other hand, which one would you disagree with wholeheartedly as an afterlife?

[Joshua shrugs slightly.]

It's a morbid topic, I grant you, but...well, I can't say that I'm not interested in learning about different beliefs and how other cultures view different things.

[The teenager shifts into a more comfortable position.]

Not to mention, with various worlds comes even more cultures I've never come across. I wouldn't like to squander such a chance.

Comments

video »

[steadfasts]

I don't know if there's one that is wholly agreed upon where I come from. There are lots of different people, and I know in history it generally depended on a persons religion. ( she shrugs, barely. ) I guess... I believe that there's something after this? That there's something more. But I think it's impossible to know what that more is.

video »

[prissykid]

[Oh, he likes that answer.]

Interesting. An all-encompassing, but also non-presumptuous, answer. It's true that on this side of the wall, anyone could be right about the truth of the thing. You'd rather find out when you get there, essentially, though?

video »

[steadfasts]

Yeah. I guess sometimes I think about what might be after the life we have, but I don't think I'd really want to truly know about it until I got there.

What about you?

audio + locked

[zerotohiro]

[...wow, really Joshua? Originally he wasn't going to respond, but that's a pretty heavy question. when the audio feed clicks on it's obvious Hiro's there, thinking of how to phrase the question.]

Of all of the things you could learn about from different cultures, why death and the afterlife?

audio + locked

[prissykid]

[Josh can respect thinking. Mostly.]

Because how you view the afterlife dictates how you'll live your life, for the most part. If it's divided into Heaven and Hell, then you'd be more inclined to live a virtuous life. Or if it's divided into Heaven, Hell, and something in-between, then there isn't as much pressure to be on the path to good. Not everyone can be a hero, after all.

[uneulogized]

I'd say it depends more on the person than the beliefs they carry. What does belief have to do with reality?

[Belief doesn't make him into Lazarus incarnated, after all.

He doesn't know what does, and frankly, he doesn't care. He knows how he's thinking and breathing properly. That was thanks to a whole different kind of Lazarus.

But belief systems? After being buried and digging himself out of a grave, he has a hard time thinking they matter.]

[prissykid]

Absolutely nothing.

[He shrugs. It is how it is.]

But also everything. It always depends on who you ask. We hold onto belief more tightly than we do facts. After all, beliefs are also our values and say much about who we are as individuals.

[selfimage]

Compared to what?

[ in a hub of interdimensional travel, he can't help but ask for clarification. ]

[prissykid]

[Joshua hums as he thinks about it for a moment.]

I'll let you decide on the comparison, as long as I can follow along.

video;

[extramural]

There are theories. In truth, it tends to depend on who you were in life.

video;

[prissykid]

Indeed? So, the afterlife is more flexible, in a way?

video;

[notyetlegend]

We call it th' Otherworld.

[Why hello, Joshua. Yes, this is a topic of interest to her. Merida leans her head against her hand, tilting her head.]

Once souls leave their bodies, they travel to th' Western Sea. They say there's no sickness, old age, or death. Happiness lasts forever, a hundred years last a day. Sídhe hills are supposedly connected to it. [She purses her lips together.] When I arrived here I'd almost thought that this was th' Otherworld. Th' land of th' fae.

video;

[prissykid]

[Awesome, he gets to talk to Merida again!]

I would imagine that the Drabwurld had very quickly debunked that thought. Is the Otherworld indiscriminate in whose souls go there?

[semiurge]

Are you talking beliefs about where you go after you die or is this more an end of days thing?

[ He'll cup his chin, thinking about it. ] Both, maybe?

[prissykid]

That's up to you to decide. I'd be delighted to hear about either or both.

[Joshua is so helpful.]

video;

[aureinsof]

It's not that I don't personally believe in one. I haven't given it much thought. But I...

[He doesn't want to tell a perfect stranger about his situation, so he needs to word it delicately.]

...Only real people have afterlives in the first place don't they? So I wonder what beliefs would include people we don't usually think of. I don't think anything in my world does.

[Totally not suspicious or weird thoughts. Nailed it.]

video;

[prissykid]

There are some beliefs where as long as the person is remembered, they never truly die. Or a variation of it is that their spirit resides in paradise for as long as they're remembered. Some even believe that death is simply life in another state of being.

[Joshua shrugs lightly.]

Real or not, what counts is a soul, or at least that's been the common denominator between the various cultures in my world.

video;

[individualist]

Well...Heaven, Hell, all that. It's totally real.

video;

[prissykid]

Indeed? I'd be curious to hear more about them. I've never had a chance to visit, sadly.

[Definitely going to be interesting to see how different Angels are in other worlds.]

video;

[liven]

I sincerely hope there isn't one.

[ And does she ever sound annoyed about the prospect. ]

video;

[prissykid]

Oh, my. I would assume you have good reason to not want there to be an afterlife?

[Way too many possibilities spring to mind, but at least he's not assuming anything.]

video;

[oblivious_klutz]

The afterlife? I know we have the Church of Martel back home, but...I guess when I think about death, I know my situation back home was--different. Death is scary, I can't say that it isn't but, if I think about my life ending and spreading out to fill the entire world, then it's not so bad.

But you're right, this is a pretty amazing chance to meet so many new friends and hear so many new stories.

video;

[prissykid]

I imagine it's not as scary when you're hitting the end of your years after living a good life. Tell me about the Church of Martel.

Indeed, there's so much to learn in a place where all that information can be centralized. I, for one, want to take full advantage of it.

[NOT SURE about the whole 'new friends' experience, though....]

private. voice.

[vrykolakas]

The dead become stars, or celestial light, that others may see their way by them; or they go down to the depths of the sea, where everything is silent and still because the noise and the rush of the waves is so strong that it comes full circle, and they rest there. Where the pressure of all that water above wears the lines between worlds thin. On my better days, I think that makes the most sense, and feels most proper.

But the stories vary. Some say that sinners go to hell, or a number of hells, or that everyone, regardless of what sin is and whether they've committed it, does the same. That the dead come back as animals and plants and other creatures. That we all go to the big scarab-nest in the sky, or the great compost-heap down in the musty earth, or a heaven of mechanical strictures in which organic consciousness will be obliterated, or we'll be eaten by the great invisible dragons and shat out into a reincarnated form. That we're actually all dead already, and that this is the afterlife. Or that there's nothing. Or else people offer that great universal shrug of hell if I know.

Such a charming question to ask. [His quiet, rasping voice sounds vaguely amused, half-fond.] What about you? What do you believe?

private. voice.

[prissykid]

[Saying what he knows is one thing, but what does he believe. Hm.]

For some, death is a game with the goal of a second chance at life. While it's fact in my world, I do have to wonder: what about those who don't play the Reaper's Game? Where do their souls go? Perhaps the ones who spread nothing but negativity in their lives will become Noise, creatures that feed off of and exacerbate negative emotions. I do like to think that the souls of those who spread positivity and had strong imaginations will continue to inspire others, even if nobody knew who they were.

[They do in a way, but...well. Angels are classified information.]