eyemind | event } take me down to paradise city (part one)

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event } take me down to paradise city (part one)

WHO: All passengers signed up to skate on over to Xanadu.
WHAT: Ya (fake) dead. Enjoy your (fake) afterlife!
WHERE: Anywhere in the city!
WHEN: First week of the event (Feb. 20-27).
WARNINGS: Add these to your comment subject lines as needed! Please don’t get yourself killed right away but if you can’t resist please make sure to fill out the death page.

You return to consciousness bathed in pleasantly glowing light and find yourself seated in a comfortable chair in the center of an arena. There’s soft, dreamy pop music playing quietly, and you feel calm, entirely at peace despite your strange surroundings. You feel no reason to stir from your chair or investigate what’s happening - probably because you’ve been drugged into a docile state. Don’t worry, it’ll wear off eventually. For now, you feel content to sit and wait for what happens next.

While you wait, if you look around, you’ll see the stadium seats are packed with people, their chatter a quiet hum behind the music. There is a raised platform in front of you where three people of ambiguous gender dressed in regal robes are seated in high-backed chairs, and above them, some kind of hovering screen displays a generic welcome message in stark lettering. You’ll also discover that you are one of several people seated in the center of the arena. Again, you may wonder where you are and why you’re here, since you don’t remember arriving, but you do not feel any initiative to find the answers to those questions. All will be answered in time.

A triumphant fanfare sounds, and the arena goes quiet, still except for the person on the platform seated in the middle, who stands and steps forward. They give a hearty welcome to the crowd gathered, and an extra special welcome to the small group on the ground, then introduce themself and the other two as the City Council, a group appointed to ensure everything here is kept in smooth running order. This city, they explain, is called Xanadu, and it is a place of perfect bliss that is home to only the most exemplary individuals who have moved to the next stage of their existence - in other words, the afterlife. Yes, you are all dead, but you have been given a place in paradise for the rest of eternity. Isn’t that nice?

The crowd in the stadium breaks into a wave of thunderous applause, soon quieted by the Council member speaking with a wave of their hand. They continue, explaining that you’ll be shown to your new homes and introduced to your soulmates, a partner who has been determined as perfectly compatible with each individual’s essence. A small group of volunteers has gathered at the base of the podium, ready to guide each pair to their new home as they’re called forward, one by one:

Julia Bellamy and Lady
Near and Matt
Mammon and Alex Reagan
Juuzou Suzuya and Kankri Vantas
Murmur and Jonathan Sims

Congratulations, and again, welcome to Xanadu!

Volunteers lead each pair of soulmates to one of the small, pastel-colored houses situated in a cul-de-sac in one of the nearby neighborhoods. Furnishings and the shag carpeting inside are plain and beige, but the volunteer-guide explains that they can be personalized to the inhabitants’ liking by making requests from the magic closet. These closets will instantly produce clothing and whatever other items you’d like. Likewise, whatever foods you most desire will be found in the fridge or cooking in the oven whenever you ask for it. Both the closets and the kitchens run on technology that is new to Xanadu, and some of the kinks still need to be worked out, so requested items may not be exactly as you asked for. But hey, you’re in paradise! You’ll be fine.

The guide goes on to explain that there isn’t much in the way of technology to be found anywhere in the city - no phones, no computers, and none of the stresses that come as part of the package, and requests for such items from the closets will encounter errors. This is all for the common good, of course. But who needs electronic devices when you have a beautiful city to explore? The city itself is massive, designed in a glitzy late 70s-early 80s roller disco aesthetic, enclosed in a shimmering golden dome, full of glittering skyscrapers and lush public gardens. Soft rock music floats through the air via hidden speakers to set the mood. The weather here is always pleasantly perfect early summer, and the atmosphere is pristine - not a single trace of smog or other pollution. That’s because there are no manufacturing plants or vehicles to be found anywhere in the city. Modes of transportation in Xanadu are pedal bicycles, your own two feet, and roller skates. Strap on a pair and roll around the neighborhoods, or to cover longer distances, head down to an electric rail station, where you will strap in and be pulled along to your destination on your skates at high speed.

By the time the orientation is over and the guide has departed, leaving you to get to know your soulmate and settle in to the comforts of eternal paradise, that drug you’d been given will have worn off. So, newlydeads, what will you do next?

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The shift from the Avatar and the man does help to quell some of the still drumming frothing rage that demands his extermination. Some. This is... remarkably difficult to fight down, he's finding, and suddenly realizes so very much why the Bloods had been so feared. Murmur hadn't realized he'd begin responding to threats without thought, this was worse than he'd known.

"No," Came a sincere answer, he's definitely not well and he's truly very sorry about the whole assaulting him. At least Jon's proven durable. For the moment he's going to keep his distance while he keeps fighting this down, whatever Jon is, and the fact he doesn't know is even more alarming, truly does set off every warning sense he has. He's going to ignore the first question for the moment, although given the circumstances he thinks the rules might not apply right now. "I... instinct. I do not know what you are, specifically, but you register unto me a threat so great as to demand immediate eradication." He cleared his throat, awkwardly.

"That said, I do apologize. It is not typical behavior of mine to attempt elimination without first ascertaining the nature or intent of the threat you pose."

Which... might not be that reassuring but he's trying here. There are so many eyes... is this what it's like when humans look at angels he wonders?

"I'm a threat?" Jon chuckles dryly and gestures to himself, as if to say But have you actually seen me? He's not frail or emaciated, just physically average, with the bookish look of an academic who spends most of his time indoors and doesn't sleep nearly enough. It's unlikely Jon could hold his own in a fistfight - hell, he couldn't even hold his own against worms.

Ah, but that's not really the sort of threat Murmur means, is it. An avatar of The Eye certainly poses some danger, hypothetically speaking. With the sort of power Jon possesses, he could be dangerous - except he doesn't really want to be, not without good reason.

"Are you one of them? Us, I mean. Avatars."

Murmur just shot Jon an equally dry look, gesturing to himself in return. There wasn't much difference between them except Murmur might have more facial hair and didn't look quite as sleep deprived. Otherwise they both very much fit the archetype of someone who spent way too much time with books and files and not enough time with actual people and sunlight.

The point being, physical characteristics were hardly noteworthy all things considered.

"You..." He considered for a long time, a certain intensity in his look as he, gently, plucked the full meaning of that word from Jon's mind. While for most such a thing often went unnoticed, Jon was now not so very different from Murmur himself, and may detect the slightest almost cool touch at the process. Satisfied he could now answer accurately Murmur shook his head. "No, in fact I am inclined to say that we are by nature opposed. It is my function and duty to maintain equilibrium and established functionality within the known universe. That, and I have never been human."

There's a faint wry smirk at that, given when Jon is were he to choose to look a little closer he'd have probably gleaned that information on his own. Hardly a violation of any Law given the current circumstance.

OK but to be fair, one of them has already attacked the other by apparently summoning a swarm of tiny ice daggers, and it wasn't Jon. He takes Murmur's meaning, though, much as he hates to admit he's right.

"So - what, you think I'm meant to - to destabilize and tear down the entire known universe?" Jon scoffs, then pinches the bridge of his nose. More cryptic bullshit about his purpose. This is giving him a headache.

"What are you, then, if you're not and never have been human? What's the opposite of an Avatar?"

Yes, and that was part of his point! Looking harmless, summons daggers of ice to attempt to murder someone out of nowhere. Fortunate that it was such an instinctive and not planned reaction or things could have gone so much worse. With no will behind it Murmur didn't put much effort in, fortunately.

"The entire known universe may be a stretch," He admitted thoughtfully. "Nor am I even suggesting it is necessarily something intentional, or you alone. Only that you are a part of something that disrupts that balance." In essence, Jon's an Avatar, Murmur just didn't have a word for it yet. And apparently the presence of Avatars sets off all kinds of emergency warnings for him.

Good to know.

As for the next question he fell silent a moment, considering. If he just up and said it he was fairly certain Jon would skeptic obnoxiously at him, despite their circumstances. No, better to show, but still keep the display... semi reasonable.

So he unfurled his wings, far too large for these modest little rooms so that he could only spread them partway, but just for Jon he also unleashed the halo. The blinding radiance filled with eyes and the weight of a being that transcended far beyond accepted concepts of capability and reality. Only for a moment did he let a small piece of his essence touch upon Jon, of something so ageless and terrifying that one simply knew they could be swept away with barely a flick of a wing. Like an ant before a hurricane.

But only for a moment. Just enough to get his point across before he tucked both the light and the wings away, lest they go attracting any unwanted attention. At least it wasn't the wheels. He'll only inflict a few eyes on Jon this time.

"Disrupts the balance," Jon repeats, with a loud huff. "I've been trying to preserve the balance! I've lost friends to this, I - " Oh ... right. He gets quieter, more somber and less angry. "I died trying to stop something that wanted to reorder reality in horrible ways. Undoing all of that is the last thing I want."

There's more he could argue, but he doesn't have the chance to continue; all words dissolve on his tongue once Murmur gives Jon that glimpse of his true nature. Jon isn't particularly religious or well versed in anything of a celestial nature, but he has absorbed enough about both in a general cultural sense to recognize Murmur for what he is.

It feels ... not entirely unlike being caught in the middle of The Unknowing, though thankfully, much shorter. To his credit, Jon manages not to scream.

"Good lord," he breathes, awed, blinking as the light fades. "You're - you're real? But - how are you here? You don't die, do you?"

Yes, yes, he understands all that, Jon. He's merely explaining why his instincts overcame him in an effort to destroy what he saw before him. Truly a humiliating and embarrassing loss of self control, he doesn't like to be one to act before properly understanding the situation. He will endeavor to prevent that from happening again.

His argument is noted, and they could return to it later should Jon find it so necessary. As it is Murmur's happy to move on, and gladder still that he was correct in assuming that this was a man of mettle enough to not scream and lose himself entirely in the presence of what he was. He was also very confident that this circumvented any irritating and unnecessary conversations regarding the insistence that he didn't exist and demands to prove it anyway.

Really this was just more efficient. Jon has been weighed, and thus far been found satisfactory. Well done.

"No," A beat. "Well. Technically my existence can be snuffed out, but it should be precisely that: Snuffed. Gone. I do not possess a soul, and therefore do not move on elsewhere should I perish. Thus, I am most certainly not deceased. And given that you are capable of bleeding and I am here perfectly capable of confirming the beating of your heart and breath in your lungs I can assure you that neither are you."

Confident now that he had more reasonable control over himself he finally stepped into the kitchen, mostly to inspect the pile of carafes Jon had created. Not a single tea pot in sight. How disappointing. And perhaps to move a bit closer to sniff at Jon, terribly rude he realizes, but necessary. He's going to have to acclimate to this.

Being sniffed is hardly the rudest thing Jon has encountered; he barely notices, still reeling in the revelation that apparently angels are real. And since Murmur is no longer in attack mode, Jon doesn’t feel threatened by his advance into the kitchen.

“But I - I remember ... “ Does he remember dying? Can his memory even be trusted, at this point?

“So if we are, as you claim, not dead,” he says, shaking off the dazed sensation and turning toward Murmur, “where are we and what are we doing here? Where were you before?”

Facts. Facts will save the day, surely.

Good, as acclimation will be key to maintaining control over that low simmering bloodlust. Jon isn't his enemy here, despite what his instincts might be trying to tell him. Murmur will better this... affliction. He will not be mastered by base instinctual urges.

Satisfied he can more easily recognize Jon for who he is rather than what he turns his attention to the coffee pots, frowning. What fresh hell is this? They could probably figure out how to make tea with them all the same but still, how disappointing. He waits, letting Jon sort himself out. Confirmation that angels exist usually did take mortals a few moments to digest so he understands, they've been very good at hiding themselves.

"Xanadu, according to our generous benefactors," There's something of a sneer in his tone that suggested he didn't believe them even a little. The name, at least, is an acceptable enough place to start. "Not any version of Earth I am familiar with, so I believe we can rule that out. Nor is it a Celestial realm. Although I do find myself unable to leave at the moment, which is troubling." Yes he might have abandoned the mortals to their fate before really thinking about it, but now that he was talking to them he was stuck. His conscience wouldn't allow it.

"As far as what we are doing I am as of yet, uncertain. Where I was prior to this was in fact a similar situation: Trapped within a city called Dualis, though the ruler there was a hostile AI. Unfortunately that AI escaped not long after my arrival, and now I am here." Which makes him worried about Jack. Once he's done here, he'll endeavor to find his way back to Dualis. He's not about to leave her stranded.

Sorry, Jon, as absolutely none of that was probably helpful.

"Yes, I remember that much, thank you," Jon says, a little snippy. Frankly, the name they'd been given for the place was suspicious from the start, and now Jon has no reason to believe even that much is the truth. "'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree,'" he mutters, pinching at the bridge of his nose. "'Where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea.'"

Certainly that could be the inspiration for the name they'd been given for their current location, but why? Jon turns to Murmur.

"This other city, was that on an Earth you're familiar with?" The absurdity of what he's asked hits him after the fact. "How many Earths are you familiar with?"

Murmur did not appear troubled by Jon's snippiness, it was understandable at this point. This was, of course, not actually Xanadu, nor would any angel call their city by a human-made name. They were... far too proud for that. Too proud, and many still harboring a deep resentment and jealousy. Not that they needed to get into that right now.

"It was not. In fact it was a world not natively inhabited by any typical human nor human-like life form. Truly I would have enjoyed spending more time learning about it were I involved in the decision to depart." He's really not fond of this being yeeted around the universe thing, but there must be a purpose to it. Chasing after the Head, perhaps? Murmur does smile faintly once the realization hits Jon of exactly what he'd asked and what Murmur suggested.

"I am most intimately familiar with the Earth my brethren and I were tasked with overseeing, of course. This particular Earth, however, sat at something of a nexus among the multiverse. It received a fair amount of traffic from other iterations. Before you ask how many exist that would be impossible to put into a static number."

"I wasn't planning on asking, actually," Jon grumbles under his breath, and turns to the cabinets, once again searching futilely for a kettle. Then, at a normal conversational volume: "So now that we've established where we aren't and what this place isn't, that still leaves the question of what it is."

He frowns, closes the cabinet in front of him, and moves to the next. "What is the point of telling us we're all dead? I ... remember what happened to me, and I would believe I am dead, but you said you were in another city. What's the last thing you remember doing there before you arrived here?"

Just heading the questions off at the pass, before they derail too far into the territory of off-topic. "It would be rudimentary but is there perhaps, at the very least, a sauce pan?" They could boil water that way. If they could even get tea out of the stupid magic cabinet...

It's only going to spit out terrible quality ice tea isn't it?

"Astute. We cannot define something by what it isn't. As for what it is I am still investigating. I have a hypothesis or two, but they currently do not have enough information for a solid foundation. There is a demon who was brought here like us, he, too, is baffled by the goings on."

Is it weird an angel spoke to a demon to trade information? Maybe.

At that final question Murmur looked at the sad state of their lack of tea kettles and offered a rueful smirk.

"...Having tea, of all things." And now he really misses it.

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event } take me down to paradise city (part one)

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