( audio | un: warlock )

[necromantiae]

Indulge my curiosity for a moment, would you?

( could you deny a face like his? could you? you couldn't. which is good because he's going to ask a somewhat morbid question. )

We're all, apparently, dead. But some of us have died again and been returned via the church. Some of us have disappeared or died and not been returned. Are they still here somewhere? Or have they been sent back to where they came from?

Those are hypothetical questions, by the way. Feel free to try and answer but I think it's going to be a lot of time that could be spent on something more fruitful.

My actual question: could the the way of dying a second time crucial to who stays and who goes? Or did those of us that have been lost end somewhere in this place that we've yet to find?

( he knows that it's not necessarily a fun thing to think about but he recalls the resurrection of his aunt hilda after her many deaths at the hands of his other aunt versus how harvey's brother had come back. two dead people returned to the land of the living but only one went on to live a relatively normal life.

ambrose knows that might be because hilda is a witch herself and tommy was a normal human. but his curiosity still stands. )

Do we need to institute the buddy system to make sure no one else wanders off and doesn't come back?

( he's joking. mostly. )

Comments

Voice

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Is there a way to, uhm-- hello? Is there a way to make a list? Of who died, how and where? It seems like something we should make a list of, and it-- it would make it easier to, like, avoid the places that killed the most? And also, has someone made a list of all of us? On-- on maybe we should look at how he all died the first time? Maybe that's something that's important?

[necromantiae]

There might already be a list. Have you gone back through the weekly bulletins that appear on the network? I know they do keep a tally of those who die there.

( what a morbid conversation this was going to be. )

I haven't kept a personal tally, though. But your last two suggestions have some merit. I know there was a...situation where people were able to see how others died. I don't think many of us were taking notes.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

I haven't, no? [But he's going to, as soon as he gets back to the A-frame and thinks on this for a while and finds some way to keep track of everything. Binders were just so much better than just a tablet.]

What? Someone saw how others died? Died to, uh, to get here, right? Not, how they were going to die. Here. Some day?

[necromantiae]

Yeah, they saw how they died to get here. Not everyone made the choice to look but those that did saw exactly what happened.

( he still feels for those that saw how he died. )

There were tombstones and those tombstones seemed to insert someone into that memory. You were there, watching death in living color and unable to do anything about it. You were a spectator to the worst time in someone's life.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

[Not going to agree on dying being the worst thing to ever happen to a person, but okay. It's information and it's better than what he was working on so far, because he was still stuck on the notion that there had to be a book, a guide, a something that explained the rules and set it all up. Not all of this not-knowing and no guidance what so ever.]

Is that, like, something that happens? A lot? Graves? I haven't seen any when I was walking around, but it's really dark out? And I wasn't really looking for any.

[necromantiae]

It's only happened the one time but I've only been here a little while. As far as I know, I was in the first group that showed up here.

( but he knows there were others like winters and robin and the like who'd seemed like this wasn't too surprising a predicament. now, not all of them were alive but at least one of them was. )

Most people might be forthcoming about their deaths if you ask nicely, though.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

There's a town meeting coming up, right? Maybe I could-- right, thank you? I don't really know what else to ask at this point, but if I make a list can I text you later? And uhm, if you want to know how I died, to compare or whatever, just-- it's fine to just ask?

audio | @kol

[unpredict]

[ all interesting questions, and ones kol has had himself in his long, long lifetime. to ask them in another place… it's all part of the experience, isn't it? what happens when a new orleans witch's soul is destroyed in the ancestral realm? what happens if people die here, over and over? clearly beacon isn't the be all end all of death, just like the other side and ancestral realm. ]

A buddy system wouldn't be awful.

[ he's also sort of joking, even though the only person he cares about is his buddy. ]

As friendly as some of the spirits here are, there's a lot more at play than a peaceful afterlife. I don't know enough about this place to be able to answer you, but from experience… when the world around those who have died dies, there's no place else. If you die... who knows where you end up. [ musingly, ] Is there death beyond death?

[necromantiae]

Very well.

( since he was being given permission and all. )

How did you die?

[necromantiae]

You and I, we'll spearhead this initiative, then.

( still half joking, there. he doubts a buddy system would truly work or be embraced but he is a proponent of not venturing out alone all things considered. people had done that and hadn't come back. )

There is something beyond death, though, because people have died here. Not many but they have died and then they've reappeared in the church. Fitting, isn't it?

[moderatelymaladjusted]

I was destroyed by magic in the Mirror world? Uhm, it was a minor mending spell, but-- you know, you're not really supposed to use any magic in there, because, uhm, it always goes wrong? But. We needed it and I did it, and it killed me. So. That's how I woke up in the elevator in the Underworld.

[necromantiae]

Well, that is...an interesting way to die. If you're expecting me to know what the Mirror world is, you will be upset because I don't know what that is.

( he can guess by the name, at least, but if one exists in his world, he hasn't been. )

Do you remember much about it? Your death?

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Uhm. So, do you know the story about Alice in Wonderland? There's another one, Through the Looking glass, where she goes through a mirror? It's like that, only everything in the Mirror World is dead. Really dead, and strange. And you can, like, get trapped there? Because there's a seam between worlds in there? Yeah, so that's where I died.

Yeah? I remember everything. Don't you?

[necromantiae]

Oh, I do. I remember every painful detail of how I died. I don't necessarily like remembering it but it is one of my more vivid memories.

( he'd cried. it hadn't been a very strong moment. )

But, I haven't ever dealt with something like you're describing. Are you human? Forgive me if that's a strange question but most humans don't deal with occurrences like that.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Well, it did just happen. Right? Of course you remember.

[Quentin died for his friends, he saved his best friends from being used as flesh puppets for evil and he's not sorry about his choices. Much.]

Uhm, yes? I'm human. I'm a magician, but-- I'm still just human. With magic.

[necromantiae]

It's been a little while now. I've been here for a few weeks now so it might be further away for me than it has been for you.

( he still hasn't really dealt with it, processed it, accepted it, but time had passed. )

Were you born with magic?

[moderatelymaladjusted]

I'm not sorry I died, so maybe that's the difference? Yeah, all magicians are. Some are better at it, than others? But, we were all born this way. Like having freckles? Or-- wait, no, are you born with those? Maybe it's like the color of your eyes or something?

[unpredict]

[ kol??? running something similar to bumble??? is this the bad place? ambrose, don't ruin his anti-people reputation he's been building on and off for years!

although he can't see it, kol shrugs playfully. ] A little predictable. Randomly dropping into a kitchen would be a lot more fun.

[ into a cake, into a roast dinner — he enjoys creating mayhem, even if it sometimes doesn't make sense. being resurrected in a church of all places makes a lot of sense to kol, given the sacred nature of their grounds and often the power housed there.

a little more seriously, though: ] All the people who have died since arriving here have been resurrected in the church? Each and every time?

voice; un: mollymauk

[mollymocked]

I am absolutely down for a buddy system.

[For five reasons, but he makes it sound vaguely flirty... That's also just how he talks, to be honest. It's the bad Irish accent. it makes everything lilty.]

[necromantiae]

That could be a factor. I haven't actually spoken with anyone about how they feel about their deaths. I was very sorry to die especially in the way that it happened.

( witch hunters. how cliche. )

Well, I was born with magic as well but I am not called a magician hence my questions.

[necromantiae]

As far as I'm aware, that's what I've heard. But, I've never actually tried to die a second time myself to see if that's true.

( who wants to go through that pain and that ruination of his clothing just to prove a point? )

The first time was enough.

[necromantiae]

Are you now?

And why would that be?

[unpredict]

[ as someone who has died three times now, kol vehemently agrees. death in this place will no doubt be as hellish as the deaths that brought them here in the first place. ]

It could be that the church ground is consecrated. [ it's fun to muse and to compare his experiences in the other side and the ancestral realm with the little bits of information he's gathering about beacon. it all seems the same, in the end. each realm has been created for a different purpose, but they could easily be mistaken for one another with how their universal rules are set up. ] Perhaps it's made of a different kind of energy, maybe a little stronger than the ferry that we all arrive on first. Souls who have died are simply pulled there.

[ it's a leap, but it's one that makes a little sense to him. hopefully team bumble will be able to find some more information on it without having to die first. ]

It isn't uncommon for a spirit realm to still have death lurking in its corners.

[mollymocked]

Because, quite frankly, being alone is fucking awful and I don't recommend it, and if you die here and no one's around to do anything about it, that's just awful. We're better off sticking together.

[So basically practical, not sexual, but the flirtiness stands.]

[necromantiae]

What an incredibly comforting thought. ( he does not mean that at all. ) I find myself wondering if the manner of death is what marks people for being here.

Because, I have seen many people die and, as long as they haven't been resurrected, I haven't seen any of them here. So, where did they go? Are there other versions of this place?

( was tommy kinkle in some other weird version of beacon? did hilda ever end up here briefly when zelda killed her? )

I haven't quite decided if I think this is a true spirit realm just yet.