eyemind | event } you can jive

Entry tags:

event } you can jive

WHO: Open to all passengers!
WHAT: A visit to New Ecrillion, and all the music your ears can handle. Plus, bonus new partners!
WHERE: Anywhere in the city of New Ecrillion, or Navi.
WHEN: June 19 through July 10
WARNINGS: Add these to your comment subject lines as needed! And if you end up partying literally to death, please record it on the death page.

Hello, passengers! Hope you're all ready for an announcement, 'cause Navi's voice is getting beamed into your head right about ... now:

Attention, passengers.
We'll be docking soon at the city of New Ecrillion, on the planet Zegnolia, where we will remain for approximately three weeks, local time.
Please stand by.

From the announcement until landing, to help everyone adjust to the new environment, Navi will gift all passengers with a a faint hummed melody.

Upon docking and disembarking, passengers will find a bank counter just past the terminal, where your new windfall of Navigems can be exchanged for credits (the universal currency). Try not to spend it all in one place!

Now, go get your groove on! Just remember to take breaks to hydrate.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is a reasonable concern. There's a very real risk of being labeled a fraud or a lunatic and ending up in a facility somewhere stripped of autonomy and personhood. Richard could just ask his little shadowy friend Simon about all of that. And, of course, there was always the risk of genuinely losing his sanity...

But then Richard was too reasonable to let that happen, wasn't he?

Murmur snorted out an amused sound. "Of course you are." Flippantly, like it's a Tuesday. "The obsession with the end times never ceases to amaze," And he dug into his burger. Pausing to look delighted. "Now this! Why did no one tell me food was this delightful?" Apparently the angel has never bothered to stop and eat junk food. "This," He points a fry at Strand. "Is what people should really focus on. The arts. Not all of this foolish apocalypse business. Even when they do happen mortals are never satisfied."

That's an odd statement. Alright, once he was done being way too excited, for Murmur, about a burger he did manage to pull himself together long enough regard Richard soberly. "She had just as much choice in the matter as you did. Is wallowing in guilt that isn't yours really productive?"

Richard should totally get a burger.

Richard raises an eyebrow because this is confusing. There's something off about Mur, at least to him. He seems much more cavalier.

"I try and avoid heavy carbohydrates." He points, "Is this the first time you've eaten?"

Let's just. Shuffle all of the rest of it aside.

Lucifer got him drunk and now he's decided that maybe relaxing a little bit won't cause his wings to spontaneously combust. That, and now that most of the mortals on board are aware of what he is there's far less reason to persist in trying to play at being human. He never was very good at it anyway. It did also help that Richard had come to him for help, and was no longer positioned as someone hostile.

"Yes!" Honestly he's astonished no one noticed. Then again they did all keep rather different schedules so it wasn't that difficult to hide the fact he never actually ate. "I do not require it to maintain myself, so I hadn't thought to bother trying until now."

Oh he will absolutely get back to this doomsday thing shortly don't think you can completely derail him. In the meantime he's almost willing to take back every disparaging thought he's had about humanity now that he's discovered flavor.

"Why avoid carbohydrates? They taste phenomenal." Human explain.

"Most humans adopt a sedentary lifestyle. If we don't burn off energy carbohydrates create energy and without it our bodies store it. Store too much and it stays in our bodies as fat."

Staring down at himself he frowns. He's fit, at least he thinks he's fit, but he's less toned then he was and he frowns at the thought. Is he softer? Too much drinking.

"It's not healthy for us. It can lead to disease. It's also not considered aesthetically desirable despite human beings having different body types."

"Well, you are predatory mammals." Obviously they adopt sedentary lifestyles that's what mammals do. Moving around all the time is for fish, and even they rest. "So that's how some of you become fluffy, interesting." Not that he entirely noticed the difference, they don't all look that different to him. Alien eldritch horror beast and all that, Murmur didn't exactly see the way humans did.

"These heavy vessels do require an unreasonable amount of upkeep and maintenance don't they?" It's easy enough for him to just not bother with the inconvenient parts of it all. But on the other hand he has to try very hard not to pulverize his own bones, so there's that. "So delicate. Anyway, do tell me more about this apocalypse and your alleged part to play in it?"

Can't they go back to discussing food? Richard sighs.

"We get by. Evolution helped."

There's an edge to that but then he sighs, "I am apparently the recipent of something in my genetic make-up that a corporation wants to use to unlock the secrets of the end of the world."

"Oh yes, you certainly do. Blight the Earth and seas in the process. Still waiting to see when your species decides to get a handle on that." A pause, with a thoughtful noise, before he shrugged and went back to the topic at hand.

The world changed in the blink of an eye, it was just how it went.

A pause and he chews thoughtfully. After swallowing something of a faint smirk touched his features. "Ah... yes. There has always been power in blood. Some more than others." Another half-hearted shrug. "Of course the odds of them unlocking that are rather slim. How concerned are you?"

"I'm not concerned. I'm not letting them get me for one. For another, using genetics in some kind of a ritual?"

He scoffs, staring at the burger, before he flags down a waiter and orders a steak and sauteed mushrooms. They look at him oddly and produce something steak-like and something mushroom like before he sniffs at it. Dinner is essential.

"Ridiculous. I am more concerned about Alex and Nic."

"Science and what your kind calls the supernatural are not so distantly related," He mused lightly, staring off into nothing as though listening to far more than just Richard speak. Which was true, but that didn't mean Richard didn't have his full attention.

Well, Richard and this delightful burger he'd mopped up rather quickly. Perhaps he was feeling low on energy after that trip to Xanadu after all. He did glance over out of the corner of his eye and faintly raise an eyebrow at the order. Well, it wasn't exactly a high class establishment now was it?

"Yes, Alex in particular has been suffering rather heavily from her involvement in all of that. Fortunately I believe she has finally been getting more sleep. Who is this Nic you speak of?"

It's a good steak at least. Richard sighs, "Her producer. Though it's Alex I worry the most about. She cares so much. She's so focused on peeling things back it's borderline annoying but it's..."

"Endearing."

He spears a piece of meat and sighs, "She cares so much about me. I know why it..."

Steak. Steak helps.

Well at least it tasted better than it looked, because it certainly didn't look especially edible. It's a good thing Richard chose to eat, especially if he intended to go forward with as much drinking as he'd been initially considering.

"Hers is a soul ever seeking answers, not unlike yours Doctor Strand." He points out, that eyebrow still quirked in amusement.

"Go on. Finish the thought." It helps to say these things out loud you know.

"She likes puzzles." He almost says hopeless causes but Alex is rationale, logical, and thoughtful to a fault normally. When it comes to him however he's not stupid. She sees him as a puzzle. She sees him and wants to understand him.

He had done his research too. There was also the most obvious. She liked him. She found him attractive and he...

"I would not be lying if I said there was some...attraction there." But on her side or his side?

She had startling eyes and she had an absolutely fantastic set of breasts and her ass-

He inhales.

"Apparently we went to a hotel together."

"She does. She's very good at them," He states, a faintly pleased hint to his usual monotone. He'd dropped hints for her and she picked up on what he was remarkably fast! One of the first to guess without supernatural assistance, in fact. Alex really did have a talent for it.

Ah, there's the faintest hint of a smirk as Murmur only looks at Richard out of the corner of his eye slyly. Yes he can pick up on where his mind's going even if he's not quite speaking it out loud. There's certainly something there, something the man has been pushing down for a while now.

"You would be lying if you said there wasn't." Both, Richard, don't think you can fool Murmur with unclear wording. He is the master.

"Did you? And?" It's a memory Richard doesn't have so it's not a memory Murmur can pry out. Only the faintest hint there's more to the story.

It was the hotel he went to on his honeymoon with his then wife, he adored her, he would have done anything for her, and she slid a secret clue behind a painting she despised to try and contact him.

"And nothing. We were there on a case."

That's a terrible place for a date, Richard. Murmur's a billions of years old virgin and even he could tell that would be an awful idea for a date.

He let a puff of air out through his nose, unnecessary given he doesn't actually need to breathe but the exasperation was clear even through his nigh-emotionless demeanor.

"Perhaps I have missed something. Was there a point to this segue?" Richard did seem to have trouble with keeping the subject of his conversations consistent.

Edited 2021-07-08 11:22 (UTC)

"Are you all right?" This is not the Mur he recalled - even in his headache induced horrors he recalled this, "You seem a little brisk, and eating food is very much...I did not know you did that."

He settles, staring back down at his own plates.

Come now, Richard! Don't judge him too harshly for trying to come out of his shell a little bit. "Dodging the question?" He looks very faintly amused. "I suppose I am feeling a little shall I say... liberated? Did Alex speak to you of Xanadu at all?" He gestured vaguely at the meal, adding: "I don't. Normally. But I also didn't realize just how remarkable the sensation of flavor is. Your species is born like this?"

Richard instantly tenses at that. Yes. She'd died. She was bloody and she'd had bad things happened to her at that.

"Yes. Is that the source of your liberation?"

He's not focusing on other questions. His face has gone calm and he starts talking calmly. Like a therapist.

"Xanadu?"

Oh, is Richard going to therapist at him? Well, he's certainly welcome to try, although Murmur isn't convinced such things would be particularly effective on something like him. Either way, he did pick up on that stiffening and reaction from Richard when he brought up Xanadu.

"A terrible place, that. A world inhabited by Infernals playing Heaven, while conspiring to torment whatever souls they managed to capture. Only for them to prove to be wholly unimaginative in their effort. You are a religious scholar, Richard, what role do we of the Holy Choirs play?"

Edited (wording) 2021-07-25 16:55 (UTC)

"In regards to a world overtaken by ...what? Darkness?" His first response is harsh, Nothing because it's meaningless. but this is the sort of thing that someone needs to be calmed about.

"...I need more information before I can make a decision." He pulls himself forward and gestures, "You're not giving me enough to work with. Did you battle these infernal hordes to save people? Or to save yourself?"

"Forget the hypotheticals for a moment. In your texts, according to your doctrines, what do we do?" Nothing has meaning without meaning prescribed to it, Richard, you should know that. But this wasn't a philosophical discussion at the moment, even if that was Murmur's favorite topic.

That second question earned a sound almost like a laugh, harmonic and musical, but it lacked any joy or mirth. Rueful, might be the closest descriptor, or perhaps... bitter.

"Myself? Why would I care to do such a thing? No, Richard, think," It's almost almost a hissed whisper. "I am a creation, a tool, what purpose do I serve?"

For a man threatened with having an actual purpose this is a tough question. They're on two sides of a coin, completely different from each other. He sighs, a long sad sigh, before he presses his lips together and drums his fingers on the table.

"You're asking about free will. How human beings navigate free will. At the heart of it that's what you're asking because most people, trust me most people unfortunately would love to be in your situation."

However...this appeals. An angel that is questioning their purpose. From a God that has left humans to their own devices, punishing them as needed.

He sighs again.

"What would you like to do. That's where it comes in. What would you like to do?" He gestures, "If you assume my ancestor." It's hard to keep the derision out of his voice, "Eve, at the apple she ate it because it was whispered to her she could do it if she wanted to. Let's start there. Tell me. If you could do anything outside of your programming what would you do?"

"They might think that. Believing that it's simple: Follow orders, do as you're instructed, absolved of personal accountability because you aren't a person. And, perhaps, for a time, it was like that. When it was us and the stars. But then there was life, then there was man and things suddenly became... complicated."

What Richard didn't know is they, too, had been left to their own devices for a long, long time. Pushed aside in favor of mankind, the very mortals that angels were set upon to oversee and to punish as necessary. In an environment like that strife was inevitable.

"I remember a time before free will. Before the Rebellion, before the Fall. If He needed a message sent, it would be sent. If He desired the mortals be punished it would be so. But then some of our brothers grew close to mortals, too close. They lay with them, they bore children, and those abominations had to be destroyed. I assisted in caging my own brothers, for eternity, that they should watch helpless and despair as we would drown those that they loved." He drummed his clawed rings thoughtfully on the counter, staring off into nothing as he thought. All of this spoken in that quiet, strangely emotionless tone of his.

"I think that was the first time I realized things were changing." He did smirk very faintly at the mention of Eve, just a brief flash of teeth. "Humans certainly do come up with creative stories, do they not?" Ah, the derision did ever amuse. Nuggets of truth buried with in ages upon ages of mythology. Delightful.

He was quiet for a time, thoughtful. "That is the question, isn't it? What do I do? I have been a loyal servant my entire existence. And now I find myself without a direction. Without the Word. And no matter how hard I listen... He has granted me only silence."

"To make a decision, to make a good decision." Richard folds his hands, "You need to know yourself. Which I suppose-" He gestures at the burger with a look of confusion, "You're doing. Just - to do so safely. You may need a partner or a friend to help you but that is what will help you make those decisions."

His voice gentles, "...My mother used to say that God was less silence and more about quiet voice inside of you. That your actions were his work. So...he wanted you to relax and eat a burger."

Pause, "He. She. They."

He does continue eating, because for all he's not accustomed to such actions he does know it's rude to waste food. An animal died for this, and while mortal lives may mean very little to most of his kin Murmur had always been fond of them. From the smallest crawling insects to great towering giants, all were fascinating to him. But humans, most of all, held a special place in his heart.

"How familiar are you with the Hierarchy of angels?" He asks idly between a mouthful of burger. "And do you have a suggestion? I am not accustomed to working in tandem with another. My duties require a certain degree of... discretion. Such that I have found it more beneficial to function alone." For a very, very long time.

An amused huff. "It's true, we don't have gender the way you think of it," If Strand thought to insult him by not using the common nomenclature he will be quite disappointed. "Your mother is on to something. For humans." But for angels... it's always been different for angels.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject