[voice] open to both courts

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[voice] open to both courts

[Orlando had turned on the video first, finding the idea more natural, even if he's using his real (real?) body instead of speaking through a sim. But the idea of talking about this face-to-face, face-to-face with strangers, made him freeze up. Death is a pretty personal thing, especially your own. So he switched to voice, trying to give himself a layer of distance. Personal as it may be, he'd still like some answers on this.]

So... [There's a pause as he takes in a deep breath and lets it out as a sigh. So much for a strong start.]

How many of you are dead? I mean, died in your world, but...came back here?

It can't just be me, right? [He tries to make that last part sound like a joke. It doesn't really work.]

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[Funny that that'd be on another's mind at this time - lifts brow. Switches on, responds promptly, if reservedly. Uncertainly. Indeed, he's not approaching the subject at all in a way that allows for picking up on that last part as jokey.]

-- Hail.

Er - no. [Not a neat transition but alas - ] Far from.

[And that was impulsive, since he doesn't know how "far from" rare it actually is. Again however for the moment alas...]

Before I found myself here, I should've been over a thousand years dead.

[And apparently not all of the dead brought here are fully "brought back", depending on circumstances, but that's hardly for him to bring up...]

Edited 2014-08-23 04:45 (UTC)

It's not just you.

[ but it's clear she doesn't like talking about it. or even thinking about it. at all. ]

Why?

[While he does sound a bit somber, Elliot otherwise doesn't seem to be having too much trouble talking about it.]

No. I am, too. I wasn't even sure I had died at first because I was here. Surviving wouldn't have made much more sense than this.

[Well that's...more than he was expecting.]

That's, uh, a long time.

[He spent most of his life trying not to talk about his own death. For all the uncertainty in this situation, he feels a little of that freedom that had come with actually telling people he was dying. Except, of course, now he's dead.]

It doesn't really make sense, does it?

I mean, why would we have shards at all?

I thought about that too, but there's no way I'm not. [He actually sounds pretty matter-of-fact about it. He actually feels that way. He'd been heading to death for a long time, and he couldn't regret his choices.]

Are you...different here? Than you were before?

[A kind of cringe into a - sheepish? Wry? - smile, has no idea if this is the place for one - ]

It uh - was a harrowing thousand years. [Said as politely-lightly as anyone can say something like that; it isn't really difficult to talk about, now that the worst of it's long-since over...]

I had -- been wondering the same. That is - how, uh - how common it is among us to have been brought from the dead.

[That certainly sounds like a story. But the man seems hesitant enough- Orlando won't push him for details.]

It sounds like there are a few of us.

Um, which Court are you in?

["Lad"'s more accurate than "man", really, but nevertheless - another prompt, reserved answer:]

Seelie. -- Why do you ask?

[No suspicion, simple claritative inquiry.]

In my case, I guess I should say- I was about to die. Maybe I did die, because it felt kind of like a hallucination. I made a decision that got me killed. The fairies showing up and asking me to come with them was a way out. Sort of. [ she feels a little crazy, talking about this. people shouldn't be able to try and rationalize their own death, after the fact ] They might have saved us before our shards were broken, or taken from us. Maybe? I haven't really thought about it.

[He'd been too (even if he hadn't realized it till just before the end), and his own regrets were few since changing the past was out of the question.]

No. ...Actually, I guess I should say not in any ways I didn't expect. Why, are you?

I was wondering if it's happened in both Courts or not.

I'm Seelie too.

[He nods, before remembering that he's using voice.]

Yeah. I was...sick, before. Really sick. Now I'm not.

[Which is a good thing, of course. But it's taken some adjusting.]

[Bit of a slanted smile, a little of a lifted "huh - " in his tone.]

Then I make that no clearer, umm. Apologies. [Polite conversational self-deprecation - obviously it's nothing serious!] -- I have heard of others. Or, um. Spoken to at least one other, but I - seldom ask for Courts.

[Otherwise he'd confirm that right here and now.]

-- How-however I do not see why it wouldn't have... [Trailed in a faint high creak. Depending on interpretation of how or why, bringing back the dead could be sold as suiting either Court's apparent sensibilities.]

I'm sure I died. [As sure as he can be. He'd been nearly that close before, but that had been it. It had been...final.]

I guess I don't really know much about the shards, though. [Actually, have those been confirmed as real?]

Yeah, I don't see why it wouldn't, either. But it seemed worth checking.

[Raising the dead is usually pretty morally questionable at least, right? Knowing the Courts' stance on it might make some things clearer.

He tries a laugh.] It's not something I'm used to, after all.

[While an amount of seriousness still holds he feels a bit freer to conscientiously let the smile set in at the attempted laugh, lose some of its slant.]

No experience with magic -- in the world from which you came?

Neither do I. I only know what little I've been told, which is that people are willing to kill to both protect them, and to steal them. Which doesn't mean anything really, I know.

That's it? If they can control death, I don't think curing any illnesses is out of the question. And that sounds less troubling than the first part.

Death does not seem to be a barrier here. As far as I know I am still alive back home, though unsure of my fate. But there is another from my home here whose death sparked a war, and yet he is alive here. [And in a different manner than what she's used to.]

Not all men stay dead where I'm from.

[ That's... not a question you hear every day. ]

I was fine. But I did know people who died but continued existing back home.

[ If there is a way to private this, Oscar is doing so as this news is something he's not told those from his own world just yet (and hopefully never will). ]

I'm afraid I was dead by mere minutes when I was led here. At the least, I hope you had a peaceful death.

[ but he felt sadness saying that, because in one so young sounding, death was still a tragedy. ]

Sorry to be one of the many voices to break it to you, but you're not the only one. [ the special snowflake award doesn't go to you, friend, sorry. but luke doesn't sound too broken up about it. he's dead. big deal. lets move on. ]

[ except this stranger is the second person he's actually admitted it to aloud. there's something wrong if he doesn't shout it to the heavens every day, isn't there? ] I feel like we should be singing a song. The Sound of Silence is usually the most appropriate pick.

It didn't exist, unless you count slight of hand and stuff like that.

[Or unless you count vast rpg experience, but Orlando had always favored warrior class characters]

["That's it?" Yes. Of course it wasn't as big a deal as raising the dead. But it felt as big.]

...Do you know anything about genetics?

Well, it means we should probably take some self-defense classes. [speak for yourself, nerd]

Which Court are you in, by the way?

They do where I'm from.

But...shardbearers don't come back to life if they're killed here, do they?

"Continued existing"? [That's a specific way to put it.] Do you mean ghosts or something like that?

[Orlando laughs, he can't help it. But it's not a bitter sound; it's a release.]

No, I managed to avoid that.

[Orlando's had enough of being a special snowflake to last a lifetime. A nearly fifteen-year lifetime, to be precise.]

Really? I don't know that one. It's looking like there should be enough of us to do a "Requiem."

... In a manner of speaking.

There was one man whose spirit remained even after his body had died, and he'd split his time between a girl and stuffed doll so he didn't get permanently bound to either. There were also two men who died, but their will to protect their loved ones was too strong for them to pass on, so they were reincarnated into pixies instead. Plus another who was resurrected with some kind of mysterious drug just as he was about to die.

[ basically he's seen some really weird stuff ]

Or it didn't exist in - any form which people knew.

[It's an idle, soft add-on statement. Little knit of the brow and angle of the head - and apologetic pull of the mouth, it was just a statement, he didn't mean to imply anything in case it came off as such.]

It -- seems uncommon. Among us. ...Not to - not to have familiarity with - magic in a mortal realm.

[He was working on having a less black-and-white view of the world when he died. He didn't quite get there.]

I don't think I've heard of that. What is it?

[ she huffs a laugh ] Yeah, I guess you're right. [ far be it from her to bring up ..any of the grueling details of her world if she doesn't have to ]

I'm Seelie. You?

I know an Unseelie traded his shard for something that a Seelie had. I believe he is still here, but now he is one of them, trapped here. But this is all secondhand information, so I am not sure how accurate that is.

[ ah, sneaky fellow! But he can't begrudge the man when he laughs so openly, relief tinging his voice as Orlando speaks. ]

You must have had quite the scare then. I'm glad for your life, but what trouble did you get into that made you think you nearly died?

[ because the way the boy had spoken, it was a much closer encounter to death then most. ]

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