[network] @hexappeal; I promise to depart, just promise one thing... [open] [cw:murder/suicide]

[sleight_of_fate]

Evening, Night 281

89: A two-story A-frame house. The first floor has a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. The second floor has a master bedroom, master bathroom, and balcony. The upstairs master bedroom has been mostly cleared of furniture, which is now scattered around the rest of the house. All that remains is the bed. Blood stains the bed and the corner of the room, and "sorry for the mess, but they won't take us this way" has been written on the wall in marker in that same corner. In low light, an adult's and child's shadowy forms stand silently in the corner and watch the movements of anyone in the room at the time. The pressure in this room is high and often causes general discomfort, nosebleeds, nausea, and ear popping; it's worse the closer to the shadow corner one gets. A bloodstained, rusty butcher's knife rests on the ground in the bloody corner, completely unusable at this point and wrapped up in fabric. "ALPHONSE ELRIC, STEPHANIE BROWN, FREYA CRESCENT, GREED, EDWARD ELRIC, BIFF, ANGEL, RHYS, ZELL DINCHT, DAY FIFTY-THREE, TRAVELLING SOUTH" is carved into the wall. Outside is a shallow, covered grave, perhaps three feet deep, in which the skeletons of an adult and child rest.





[Rhys appears on the screen in the early evening of Day 281, looking weary but intact, with his coat and hat off revealing his bare, scarred brow and earnest blue eyes. His nose has been bleeding and his eyes look bloodshot, but he looks game, and he blinks a few times before he addresses the camera with a clear, confident, but quiet voice.]

Okay, this is for Enoch, but I wanted anyone else who wanted to see it to have a chance. Just in case it was important. This is Rhys and I'm in House 89, and I'm going to hold a mass for the Dead to try and move on the spirits here.

[He takes a deep breath, then lets the air out again in a calming, steadying flow.]

Already did the prep work, to save you the boredom. For those who don't know, I'm a druid, so this is pagan, but I was an exorcist and general all around clergy back home, so, I feel pretty good about doing this.

Also, if anyone wants a wedding, let me know. I can totally hook you up.

[He gives a broad, silly grin, just a flash of who he might have been before the events that landed him here.]

Showtime. Here we go.

[With that, Rhys carefully props up his camera in the corner of the upstairs Master bedroom, where he's already set up a small shrine with carefully gathered and scavenged items: a lit candle, a half a soda can full of something burning, possibly incense, some nails wound into a cross with hemp cord, what looks like a small doll made out of silk ribbon and candy wrappers, and part of a plastic bottle filled with pink water. His nose starts to bleed again as he moves around the room and the video pops and crackles as he works, but most of what's going on is still easy to make out.

He quietly kneels, when he feels ready, and dips his fingers into the pink water to wash his hands, before he raises his head and addresses the spirits directly.]

It's time to go. You don't need to stay here anymore. The Summerlands are waiting: you can rest there, and heal from this place, before you move on. What happened, what you were forced to do, you can let that go. You were protecting your child, but that's all over now. It's time to leave this place behind, and move on to something better.

[The static and distortion intensifies: Rhys shifts as though in pain and then sets his shoulders again, his voice staying strong as he moves each of the items on his altar in turn.]

May the air carry your spirit gently.
May the fire release your soul.
May the water wash you clean of suffering and sorrow.
May the earth receive you.
May the wheel turn again and bring you to rebirth.

[He gets up, with the pink water in hand, and sprinkles it at all the corners of the room.]

...whatever you believed in, I hope it's waiting for you. I hope that there is light and joy for you. Be at peace, and we'll remember your lives and passing here.

[The static is worse now, a full second of the transmission lost here and there, but the candle only flickers a little, and Rhys's voice stays steady and authoritative before he kneels again for a long few minutes, before everything is quiet again. Then, he sits back on his heels and rubs his brow wearily before he picks up the doll and holds it, contemplating, for another long few minutes before getting up and leaving the room.

When he comes back, some time later, he picks up the tablet and peers into it again, drying blood under his nose, looking tired but satisfied.]

I'll check back in later. I also did another small reading by the grave, and a room by room blessing of the house. I don't know if it helped, but...we'll see.

Comments

@guardian; video;

[phaseshifter]

I know you said you don't know if it worked or not for sure, but. Do you think it did? Does it still feel weird there?

[ She's avoided that building since she went through there with Al's group months ago, but still remembers that horrible oppressive feeling. Ugh. ]

[sleight_of_fate]

[When he answers, he looks thoughtful, sipping from a plastic bottle of iced tea and sitting in a corner with his long legs sprawled out.]

I'm still not sure, honestly. If I was braver, I would bury the knife that's here, too, but I don't feel right touching it. Without my powers, I can't really handle a haunting like I normally can and I did a graveside ceremony already.

Also, when I came back in, I found a blanket that wasn't here before. So...I think someone feels I did something right.

[He holds up the corner of the floral-patterned quilt.]

[phaseshifter]

Oh, you got a blanket? Andromeda does that, too!

[ She rummages offscreen for a moment before retrieving her own blanket, patterned with unfamiliar stars. Unfamiliar to people who haven't spent time on Pandora, anyway. ]

Er - although she isn't a ghost. I assume. Since she helped when we were getting you guys rescued. And if she is dead after all, I don't think she'd be a ghost in the traditional sense, being a robot? Not that I'd know for certain, since I know next to nothing about the supernatural. Only a few bits I've picked up from Beckett. And anyway, I'd argue that if humans have souls, robots can too...

[ oh no SHE'S RAMBLING, RUN ]

[sleight_of_fate]

[No problem, Angel. It's cute, and he's learning things.]

I don't know about souls or not, honestly. But if someone noticed, that's good, anyway.

I don't know about this place. I still feel blind half the time, without my powers. Like I've lost an entire sense.

[Which he basically has.]

And that was even before all this tech stuff that I'm absolutely NO good with. So if she's a ghost, or a Ghost In the Machine, or whatever? I'm good with that. Back home, they talked about that, you know. Making computers so smart that they basically became their own person.

[phaseshifter]

Mmmmh. I wouldn't say I feel blind without my siren abilities, but even fter being here so long the feeling of being incomplete hasn't gone away. Sorry, dude.

[ Although she isn't sure if the feeling is just born from frustration, in her case. She'd have loved to be normal back home, while her powers were being exploited. Having them gone here, where she could actually use them to help people? Infuriating. ]

As for computers being people - that was pretty common where I'm from. I had to pretend to be one for a while, and nobody ever questioned it! That common. Rhys has a little robot with him, have you seen him? His name is Dumpy and he's adorable.

[sleight_of_fate]

Part of my power is an actual extra sense, so I guess that's it. It makes me feel a little better that I'm not the only one, though.

Sorry.

[He smiles a little at the returned 'sorry'. Seeing someone else in discomfort isn't something he should be happy about, but at least there's mutual misery to bond over.]

I haven't gotten to meet you guys without, well. You know. It will be nice to catch up with you without the whole kidnapping thing. Be happy to meet pet robots then, sometime. [He grins, shaking his head.] Intelligent computers are just a matter of time in my world, so not surprised at all. That's kind of cool, we're just still on "smart" vacuum cleaners, so we've got a ways to go.

[phaseshifter]

There's no need to be sorry, geez! At least this way being uncomfortable is helping someone else. That kinda takes the sting out. Kinda.

[ Not totally. Because then she wouldn't be helping any more, and that'd make her feel worse and oh god it's a cycle of stupidity. ]

And just eff why eye, Dumpy isn't a pet. Think more along the lines of 'beloved child who can do no wrong despite being cyber-haunted by a genocidal maniac.' He's a very good boy.

@Iwillnot; video

[absentconstellation]

Fine work. I hope that it does work.

[sleight_of_fate]

[Seeing the Cat again automatically brings a smile to his face, even if it's a little sad to see that the poor Cat is just as shorn of hair as Rhys is.

Of course, they couldn't help but leave them that one last humiliation.]

Hey. Thanks. Me, too. There's so much unfinished in this place...I think this is good for us, too. To feel like we're laying ghosts to rest.

I'm glad to see you, by the way. Hope you're doing alright.

[absentconstellation]

[ At least his fur is starting to grow back, and you can't see the scars anymore. They were really upsetting the boys. ]

I am doing quite well, thank you. And I see you are in as good health as can be expected.

It may be that we are beyond the Black God's reach here. Be that as it may, I believe the dead take some comfort in being acknowledged.

[sleight_of_fate]

Yeah, time has made things...better. I think I'm starting to get the hang of things.

[He considers that, framing it in his own world's terms. It does have its own parallels, actually- Egyptian lore has its own Black God in Anubis.]

I don't know what life and death is, here. But I hope it helped, too. It made me feel better than doing nothing, at least. Sometimes, that's all you got, really.

I'm starting to hope when we find the end of this place, it really is the end of this place. Just...bury it for good.

[absentconstellation]

That would be best, I think. If not for the dead, then to keep this travesty from occurring again. Some of what has happened here may leave certain marks behind.

[sleight_of_fate]

I don't think a place like this is ever really clean again, but at least it can be laid to rest.

It's... Definitely a lesson. I don't know that it's one anyone but us will ever see, but it's something. Just to know what led to this.

@Enoch; video

[warriorscribe]

[Enoch smiles, wearily. It's amazing what mindset can do. Where the brainwashed convert was all confidence and utter certainty until the end when the brainwashing began to break down completely, the same expression in the same face is burdened now. This Enoch has the capacity to reflect and doubt, and it changes everything. He'd almost teared up watching that, lending a solemn air to his words.]

Thank you. You did well with the things we could find here. I hope they've moved on. Or...at the very least, I hope they know you want to help, that they felt your good intent as surely as we could from afar.

[sleight_of_fate]

I had things from home, that helped. But...most of it is intent, the rest is just rituals and gestures.

[He smiles faintly. The trappings do help, though. Representation is important to humans, too. Gestures have power, otherwise spells wouldn't work as well as they do.]

Maybe at the end of the maze, whatever the secret of this place is, we'll find a way to set everything free. Wipe it all clean. I think...I think that would be a good goal for being here, too. Maybe even as much as going home.

[warriorscribe]

I don't think I could go home in good conscience if there wasn't a way to do this. Break the cycle. The cycle that keeps this place populated with living bodies likely keeps the native dead here as well.

[It's a tired thought. Saying it because it's all he has left. There might have been conviction in those words once. But "for everyone" is broader than his battered mind can find strength in now, once a goal that kept him moving but now a looming hurdle he dearly hopes he has the strength to clear.]

[sleight_of_fate]

Yeah, exactly. They won't be free until it ends. As long as people keep coming here...

[It's a simple enough thought, as disturbing as it is.

And it leads to other, mournful thoughts that Rhys isn't sure he wants to deal with alone tonight, but sometimes, that's the way it goes.]

I'm trying not to think too much about it, honestly. I mean, getting there is going to be the big thing, first. The cost? That's something for later. No sense stepping too far ahead. No matter how easy this place makes it.

[warriorscribe]

[He'd thought of worse things too. If they're filling their population quota from other worlds, either the rest of this one managed to prevent themselves from being chosen, or the system has bled the planet dry. He'd rather a single dead world than one that drained the life away from all the others by handfuls of people at a time. If they end this, this world may well be left a dead husk.]

I know. ...I hope somewhere out there is a version of this world that succeeded. Everything here could have been so much more.

[sleight_of_fate]

I don't think I've even managed to think that far or wide, honestly. This place died... There's always places that door. There's always places that live. We just don't think quite so much about those, we take them for granted.

Part of me keeps thinking this is some kind of strange Purgatory, honestly."Why me", well, why not me, you know?

@Ecks | audio

[ecks]

[If Ecks were one to express feelings at all in her voice, she'd sound a little confused and worried right about now.]

Is this a typical ritual you perform for the dead? Do the dead normally receive rituals where you are from?

[sleight_of_fate]

Not always the full ritual, but yeah. It's traditional to give the dead some sort of ceremony.

Most spirits of the dead move to the afterlife on their own, but sometimes they need a little help. That's why I spent more time here, talking to them...these spirits seem to be stuck, maybe because of how they died.

[ecks]

Like ghosts. There are many ghosts here. I have talked to ghosts, but I have never done any rituals for ghosts or for any dead people. Where I am from we do not do that.

[sleight_of_fate]

Yeah, Ghosts. Exactly.

Where I'm from, I see them all the time. Some of them talk, some of them don't.

[Some of them try to kill you, but he's not mentioning that.]

It's part of my religion to try and lay the dead to rest if they need it, and honestly, I feel better when I do. I think it's sad for them to be lost, with no one to try and show them the way home.

[ecks]

Oh. I do not like religion.

[Her monotone is no more judgmental than usual, but no more apologetic, either.]

Are you a necromancer? Except that is dead bodies, not dead souls.

[sleight_of_fate]

Not a necromancer, no. But I've learned all sorts of magic, learning to defend against different threats in my world. And because I watch over spirits, I know a little bit more about the dead than most.

[Necromancers are dangerous, and the more you play with that sort of magic, the more it stains you. Rhys only worries about putting things back, not messing with them to begin with.]

I only practice religion when it gives comfort. That's what it should be. And I never force anyone else to believe what I do. Faith should never be used to hurt or control people.