phantasmalrift | IC INTRO

Sometime after the group all heads back down the mountain, comes another mass text from home base -

Hey guys? We started getting some weird readings overnight... It might be good if you started heading back this way? We're not sure what the Fissure is doing right now. (,,꒪꒫꒪,,)

So back you had better come! Along with that new friend of yours, who surely won't raise questions...

With the time issue being what it is, it's over the course of a day or two that people actually get back to the Station. Thus, there is no single feast set up like usual; instead, there are lots of hot drinks and various pots of soup made up throughout the two days that people trickle back to base. It's warm and filling, can't ask for much more.

The Station you return to hasn't changed that much from the one you left, though all your left behind pets are very glad to see you. It's now January and frost is on the ground, though not snow, at least for now. There is an air of emptiness around the Station that the first group of arrivals - the few of you who remain - will likely find familiar, though the murder sign has been updated while you were away as usual.

The androids, for their part, are very glad to see everyone (or at least, most everyone) returned safe and sound. (Though certain injured parties are destined for the medbay and Strange's fussing before they even get a chance to settle on rooms of their own.) In particular, Muon - now in a bright yellow vest instead of her previous scarf - spends a lot of time hanging out in the glider bay to welcome everyone back, both new faces and old.

TRADING POST - STRANGE - MUON - SIGNAGE CATCHALL - And don't forget to get on the housing post!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, most certainly. I've no intention of going back to Eos if I can help it, though, living or dead - my adopted younger brother is a psychopomp of some stripe, I'd already toyed with the idea of talking to his people.

Is he, now? He around?

Probably somewhere - if you can tell what I am, I doubt you'll have any problems picking Kurama out. We usually trade shifts explaining the signage to new arrivals.

Oh, god. I'm hoping to start my own afterlife, and it probably wouldn't hurt to talk to someone else about it. Someone from a different world - everyone else from mine is apparently an asshole.

I think they do have a system of some sort, but I don't know too much about it, honestly.

...Keep me updated? And let me know if you need anyone to serve as grease in the wheels - I'm assuming that I don't need to submit a political resume in this case, but the fiddly paperwork parts are what I'm actually good at.

It's all in the theoretical stages at the moment. My friends and I don't have the power to maintain something that large-scale on our own, but I have a few leads on people who could help. Everything else comes after making sure it's possible, but...something needs to change.

Seeing that something needs to change is a good first step for any reform, even if you're not immediately sure how to pull it off.

[You've got reasonably good instincts there, Michael, demon or not.]

[Michael...does not seem certain of what to do with that.]

Well...yeah. I think most immortals aren't good at seeing when the old ways aren't good enough anymore. Or caring about humans in general.

I'll drink to that.

[After his experiences with the Astrals, which apparently don't need further explanation? Yeah, he'll definitely drink to that.]

Humans are both present and mutable in ways that I think most immortals can't grasp. They're stuck with what they've got, so they have to change themselves to deal with new situations, rather than having the power to change the situation.

Man, I used to think I knew everything about humans. I was the only demon who was interested in them, so I figured I was the expert. Mostly just liked to watch their TV shows and watch them go at each other.

Well, television is entertainment. Even unscripted television is edited for effect and delivery.

[And that is all we're going to say on the subject of unscripted television.]

It cuts out the boring parts. Which, if you ask me, are as fundamental to understanding humans as the interesting parts. If humans didn't have to eat and sleep and breathe and all the unpleasant business, they wouldn't be human, any more than they would be without emotions or aspirations or ingenuity.

You can't really get to know anything about humans unless you hang out with them, I think. [.....] Though I never sat around watching them sleep.

[That's creepy]

You're not missing much, most of the time dreams are an internal experience.

[Izunia's threshold for creepy is possibly slightly different from most people's. Possibly not a model human, here.]

A hell of a lot of being human in general is an internal experience, really, but getting down in the mud - so to speak - is more than a lot of immortals are willing to consider, at least in my experience.

Dreams are the worst.

[Wow someone's got opinions]

I had one good dream once, but only because a dream god felt bad that her friend the nightmare god was torturing us.

Gods are the worst, dreams are fine. ... Usually. Unless you have extensive trauma or anxiety.

Well, I've only ever had three, and two of them sucked.

I like...two of the gods we met. But we met way more than two, and I'm honestly not even sure one of the ones I'm friends with is god of anything in particular.

Virtually all of my experiences with gods have been bad in the long run.

[Which he apparently doesn't have to explain in detail, great.]

Dreams, on the other hand... Well, I'm a more nightmare-inclined sort, but on the whole I like them well enough.

Guess you'd just have to get used to it.

[Humans.]

We don't have gods, where I'm from. I don't know why everyone thinks it's so strange to have demons and angels without gods.

Probably something to do with their homeworld mythology. I don't know, I've no idea what an angel is in this context.

Supposed to be the good equivalent of a demon. From what I've seen, they're mostly just not actively cruel. There's something to be said for the evils of inaction.

Oh, aye. I've been guilty of that one a fair few times myself.

[Still, best explanation he's gotten so far. Thanks, Michael.]

IC INTRO - JAN 2019

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