seeingyou: (Default)
eyeminders. ([personal profile] seeingyou) wrote in [community profile] eyemind2021-02-20 08:23 pm

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?
crossxstitch: (pout)

cw: bug killing / ota

[personal profile] crossxstitch 2021-02-21 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
There didn't seem to be a thought behind the boy's eyes. Even with whatever drug that he and the crowd of strangers had been exposed to out of his system, Juuzou still seemed dazed. He hadn't even passed the threshold of his new house, or introduced himself to his soul mate; he had spun on his heel and wandered back outside with wide, teetering strides. He didn't know what to think of this, and so was opting not to think of much at all.

The asphalt of the cul-de-sac's road was warm and felt soothing against his cheek by the time he had lowered himself down onto his stomach. Sprawling on the ground out in the open seemed to be the most natural thing in the world to him.

Juuzou walked two fingers of his left hand over to a nearby crack in the road where a colony of ants were busying themselves in and out of their hide. Whenever one dared to wander close enough, he pressed down upon their chitinous little heads until they popped beneath the pressure of his ruby painted fingernails. This would be a good way to spend his time whilst he struggled to wrap his head around the whole 'death' situation.
smokingguns: (Default)

Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.

[personal profile] smokingguns 2021-02-21 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Alright, so all of that shit was fucked up. Matt would like to think if he died, and he hadn't that he remembered, that he would have at least ended up in a paradise that wasn't hell. He was, apparently, soul-married to Near, who had also died? Right in front of Mello's salad for that matter. On top of all of it, there was nothing that even remotely felt like this was paradise for exemplary people. Sure, ask Matt, putting up with all the shit he had, he felt exemplary. Anything else? None of the three of them at least were.

He supposed it didn't matter. Instead taking a tool around the neighbourhood either inhabited or uninhabited homes to look around from the front and sometimes traverse into the yards seemed a good way to start this. Also a good way to just get some distance from all the sneaking suspicions. Considering he came here with a knife he had no knowledge of ever owning, he would have put a bet on that suspicion if he had anything he remembered in his pockets at all. Why take his money and his smokes, but heaven was going to give him a knife? Was that to tease him when he had to live in a world without advanced gaming systems? Probably. This was probably hell is what.

Find him skulking around, looking in uninhabited windows or poking around yards and objects just to see if there was going to be a tear in the Matrix he could find. Maybe a black cat he could see twice, anything. For once he was out detecting, taking it upon himself. Because let him face it a little bit, something wasn't right in paradise.
red6l99d: (007)

RUDE you can't just kill bugs

[personal profile] red6l99d 2021-02-21 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Really, Kankri had better things to do in his death and with the last time he died? This wasn't anything like being dead. He already knew what it was like to be dead and this wasn't it. So then what was it? A dream bubble, probably, someone playing an elaborate trick or even something more sinister. The fight that he had been participating in wasn't exactly going to make the world around him more stable.

No use in mulling it over too hard. He was here and, from what he understood, bonded in some human terminology to a human. This part of it wasn't acceptable. He wouldn't be thrown into a quadrant he didn't know the other participant of and he certainly wouldn't be tied down to anyone. Not again and not anymore. That gave him some time to himself when his arranged soul-marriage wandered out of the house. That suited him fine until it didn't and he simply decided it wasn't going to work out, that the best way to confront this was head on.

That found him standing around with his mouth lightly agape at why the young man who might very well be a Strider-affiliate had been walking his fingers along. "You don't have to kill them. With all of us dead, you really should value life a little longer. Or maybe they're dead ants and they don't need a re-education in what it was to likely die in the same manner they ended up here. Then again maybe it was frost? Sometimes frost. That aside, if you'd stop your extremely sluggish and unnecessary genocide, I'd like to speak with you on a personal level."
relance: (Do not even think about it.)

[personal profile] relance 2021-02-21 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, Julia Bellamy doesn't believe in any of this bullshit. She's not the sort of girl who goes to heaven, and besides she's already died once so if any of this was real and she was someone who was worthy of whatever the fuck this was, then it would have been when she was a kid. When you add in the fact that she told a god of the Underworld to stop being such a fucking dick to the point where it attacked you with an undead sphinx not that long ago, there's no way in fucking hell. When one adds in the soulmate who's not the one person that Julia would have expected to be (David, who had died years ago now) the eighties bullshit and the fact that every single fucking outfit that Julia has tried to get out of the closet isn't right--look on no planet is fucking black ever going to be baby pink. Fuck that--she's not trusting any of this as far as she can throw it.

It's only because her body has been craving nicotine (which it's probably not even her body if she's dead) that Julia has managed to smoke half of the putrid thing that had come out when she'd requested djarum blacks: Virginia Slims standing on the front lawn of the house she's been assigned too. Her voice is low and harsh and angry and she doesn't give a fuck who hears it. "It's official. I'm in fucking hell."
crossxstitch: (..?)

🐜👌

[personal profile] crossxstitch 2021-02-22 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
The sound of feet against the road and how they faded louder the closer they got was noted, but not paid any mind to. Juuzou was aware that someone was approaching him but until he was addressed he didn't so much as glance Kankri's way.

But, the moment he heard the strange creature's voice, he slowly raised his head to stare at the troll with wide, attentive eyes. "Oh, you're my room mate... Hello." Soulmate, not room mate. Juuzou didn't bother to correct himself. "So, how did you die? Do you know?" He only paid half attention to what Kankri was saying. He heard him loud and clear but wasn't interested in addressing everything that he had been told or asked.

"Ah, I wonder what happens when they die..?" Juuzou mused aloud. He pursed his lips and turned his attention back to the bugs weaving and skittering around his fingers. "If they're already dead, where do they go now..? They're just bugs anyway, so I don't think they should be here..."
Edited 2021-02-22 01:12 (UTC)
albatrossomen: (Default)

Murmur | OTA

[personal profile] albatrossomen 2021-02-22 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
This was wrong.

Everything about this was wrong.

Despite the rather severe drugging they'd inflicted on him, no amount of sedation had quite managed to wipe the rather permanent look of faint disgust from Murmur's face. The place absolutely stank of the infernal. They probably thought they were funny, pulling this off, somehow managing to actually sedate an angel. His safety mechanisms had kicked in, the various wards written into his vessel activating to lock down his power while he recuperated so that he wouldn't appear as more of a threat than a mere fledgling. It was useful for flying under the radar, and preventing a pre-emptive extermination.

But back to it being wrong. First being the fact they even could sedate him, that was worrying. Then following it up with all this afterlife nonsense. They weren't dead, Murmur couldn't die, and the other mortals weren't deceased either. He kept his mouth shut during the entire bullshit tour, his scowl uninhibited as he stared down their tour guide who just ignored him.

Once they were left to their own devices he was free to ignore his intended domicile for later and attempt to make some sense of their surroundings. Looking like a skittish, angry cat wasn't Murmur's usual demeanor but he sure was wearing it well right now as he prowled around trying to find anyone to talk to that wasn't from around there. This whole place had him on edge.
betterhavemammoney: (02)

Mammon | OTA

[personal profile] betterhavemammoney 2021-02-22 05:24 am (UTC)(link)
Not one bit of this made sense. The arena, the countless "people" in it (who did not look like people to him, more like fleshy mannequins) watching the "people" onstage (mostly mortals, aside from him, an angel, and one he-isn't-sure), the explanation and the compliments -- none of them made sense. His brothers would often say he was the dumbest of them all, but even he's not dim enough to miss how bizarre this was.

The Celestial Realm didn't work like this, and he'd know. Neither the Devildom, and as far as he knew those were the only options available for someone who'd died. Some demons had shown up in the Celestial Realm after they were killed, but he was certain he'd never be allowed back in after his rebellion against his Father. The words he heard during the orientation just couldn't be true, and Mammon bristles visibly.

When he was called forward he raised his hand and asked "Uhh, did you guys make a mistake?" The resulting answer was vague and unsatisfactory. No, this wouldn't do. He didn't remember dying, nor did he remember being in immediate danger, and he knows none of the three worlds work exactly like this. He needed to talk to his "soul" mate (he didn't even have a soul!), that angel, his neighbors.

"HEY! YOU!" he yelled out, advancing on the stranger in the residential cul-de-sac. "I need to talk to you!"
11calls: why is it always fucking demons?! (demons)

[personal profile] 11calls 2021-02-24 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
Alex isn't surprised that she died. She's not at all surprised that she died because of what Simon had said about how she's caused the end of the world and everything else but she does think that it's weird that doing something like that would somehow manage to send her to 'paradise' or whatever this is. It's unsettling, and Alex is definitely used to being unsettled after spending the last year in an increasingly large amount of demon-related bullshit. So, right now she's just feeling guilty because she's here and it doesn't look like anyone else that she knows is. If she's here, then Nic definitely should be because he's a better person than she is and this wasn't even his fault.

Also as someone who spends a fair amount of time on the internet, and who records her show on a digital device, she really doesn't know how she feels about technology being stuck where it is wherever it is. And as a hipster, she's definitely not thrilled with spending the rest of eternity in this sort of aesthetic.

So she's definitely surprised when someone just yells 'hey you' at her, even though Alex is aware that she's got a soul mate here which isn't even something that she believes in thank you very much. For a moment, she just makes the very comical looking movement of twisting her head around to glance behind her and see if there was someone else that the man could be talking to. "Who me?" She says after a moment, the confusion evident in those Canadian tones.
betterhavemammoney: (08)

[personal profile] betterhavemammoney 2021-02-24 08:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah you!" Mammon advances on her angrily, pausing just in front of her. "It's Alex, right? You're the one I'm stuck with?" The anger isn't directed at her in particular, more at the general affront of assigning him to hang out with some random mortal in some very weird environment. Tacky as Mammon's tastes can run, even he admits that pastel and neon are supposed to be a trend in t-shirts, not home decor.

"Didya really die where you came from?" He frowns, hands on his hips. "You don't look that dead to me, you look like you're fine." This whole thing is very weird.
smokingguns: (Default)

[personal profile] smokingguns 2021-02-24 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)
This was the same outlook that he was sure he should have. That something was wrong and the first indicator wasn't even that it was for specifically great people. It was definitely because no one would put him in a heaven linked to Near in front of Mello with no technology or games to dick around with that were worth his time. No one but fictitious, evil overlords. Maybe he should've listened to that one teacher.

Detective-ing goes a long way when someone's obvious about their body language and dismay. He didn't even have to be a super-brain to understand it. "You alright?" in the classic meaning wherein he was sure the man was alright, just not alright.
albatrossomen: (Study time)

[personal profile] albatrossomen 2021-02-25 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Unwilling to risk broadening the target on his back Murmur had decided to wait and watch for a little while, to see if he couldn't discern the intent of their captors and this strange situation. That didn't, however, mean that he couldn't ask the others who arrived alongside him how they felt about the whole situation...

Conveniently here was one now!

"Not particularly," His response in a flat monotone that didn't exactly match his rather tense body language. "What do you make of all this?"
smokingguns: (pic#14420176)

[personal profile] smokingguns 2021-02-26 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
The rhetorical part of that question was normally meant for a nod, but hearing that someone actually wasn't alright put him on his own higher alert. Alright, so he wasn't the only one that felt this way. The tense stance didn't inspire confidence, but Matt had been given a weapon at least. Which again was pretty fucked up for Heaven standards. "I wasn't born even remotely in the eighties, so this is all pretty cool I guess. Technology is shit so I'm not sure who budget cut heaven but..."

He knew that wasn't what had been meant, but he came the few more steps closer to talk. "There's some cuties around so I guess it'll be alright." With a pause he tilted his head, more letting Murmur lead the conversation, which was a better way to find out what was in someone's head for those of them without cool abilities. Matt definitely had more to say about the place, but gathering information was his job.
11calls: I haven't slept in a year (I'm just so tired)

[personal profile] 11calls 2021-02-27 06:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, I'm Alex." 'Stuck with me' definitely isn't something that sounds exceptionally promising when it comes to having a soulmate, that's for damned sure and she just frowns for a moment, remembering what they'd said and that this man was named 'Mammon' and was supposed her be a soulmate that Alex doesn't really believe in. He definitely doesn't seem like anything close to what she would have chosen to date never mind to spend the rest of eternity with. God, forever feels like a very long time when he puts his hands on his hip and Alex rubs her face for a moment.

"I don't remember dying." It's easy for her to say, because she doesn't but then again, "would we really look like we did when we had died if this was supposed to be like heaven? I don't know about you but if I went in some terribly gory way" which seems likely considering how people had been killed back home, and what was purported to happen when the Mysterium was played at the Axis Mundi. Being replaced by shadow people doesn't sound like it would have been a particularly easy death, even if she was the one who had caused it. "then I definitely wouldn't want to have that reminder. Maybe that's why we can't remember how we died? Like trauma or whatever? I don't think they seem to have a lot of therapists around here or whatever."
sinkthe8ball: (you don't say)

[personal profile] sinkthe8ball 2021-03-04 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
"That makes two of us in that case." Lady hasn't said much to the woman that is her "soulmate" since they were escorted there. Keeping out of her way seemed like the best idea especially considering she wanted largely to be left to her own devices as well. She shouldn't have to explain why she keeps shrugging her shoulder like she's adjusting something that isn't there. And right now with the strange woman she's definitely missing the familiar weight of her rocket launcher, which should be there. As should her shotgun for that matter and her other pistol. She'd been armed to the teeth before her supposed death. And if she had one pistol and her knife she should in theory have the spare ammo, the grenades, all her god damn guns too.

And if she's honest if this were really the afterlife it's missing a few people to be believable. Leaning back against the house she waits a moment before continuing. "So do you think we're actually dead?"
albatrossomen: (Eyewheels)

[personal profile] albatrossomen 2021-03-04 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
Sometimes Murmur slipped up and said the quiet part out loud. He was mostly familiar with mortal speaking conventions but some of their more subtle rules eluded him. He wouldn't wish to be dishonest after all. Murmur was likely tense for a very different reason than the human, but that didn't mean the man shouldn't be on his guard as well.

"Does it not strike you as odd that Heaven would be so... limited?"

Outright insane is the word he'd like to use, but he'd rather not cause too much panic. As for the comment about cuties Murmur just shot him a clearly perplexed look as though he had absolutely no idea what the guy was talking about or why. Sorry, Matt, he's very clueless in that department. Murmur was pretty bad at leading as he did much the same as Matt, even if he did have sneaky cool abilities that allowed him to cheat. "Cuties aside, something isn't quite right about this situation. Don't you agree?"

Granted he knows it's off but he's not sure he can just come out and say 'this definitely isn't Heaven I would know.'
piacularis: (they don't want to talk)

are the girls as pretty as mello though

[personal profile] piacularis 2021-03-05 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
There are so many things wrong with this picture. Mello is dead, that much is true, but an afterlife? This afterlife? Mello has no illusions that he was a good enough person to warrant an eternity in paradise. (He wasn’t even good enough to beat Near to solving the Kira case. Ha. Haha.) Mello became a criminal by design, and murderers - even if those murders were committed out of necessity - don’t get to reap eternal rewards.

Seeing Matt and Near both here, Mello thinks he must’ve fucked up - no, he knows Matt’s death is his fault, he saw his friend’s death reported on the news shortly before his own life expired. But Near was supposed to live. And if he’s dead too, that means Mello failed in yet another way.

He tries to convince himself that he doesn’t care about the nonsense with soulmates. He tries to convince himself that he doesn’t care that Matt and Near are paired up while he’s alone - not unusual, he was reassured, but not terribly common, either. So what if he doesn’t have a soulmate - Mello’s better off alone anyway. Maybe if he’d left Matt and gone to draw out Kira on his own, maybe if he hadn’t stayed, Matt would still be alive.

Mello doesn’t search Matt out - he’s not sure he can face his friend right now, and he knows he can’t deal with Near. Better to sit on the porch, sprawled in a stupid rocking chair, and glare at this stupid neighborhood behind sunglasses provided by the magic closet. If Matt happens to wander by in his investigations, that’s probably fine.
smokingguns: (pic#14420116)

No girls are as pretty as Mello.

[personal profile] smokingguns 2021-03-05 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
As if Matt wouldn't have made his way over to Mello. Mello knew it and that was all in a day's work of sitting on a porch instead of locked in a basement. Mind you, Matt knew how to pick a lock with the best of them, but that didn't mean that seeing Mello lounging around after a good tour around the neighbourhood wasn't a welcome sight. In fact it was very welcoming to think that Mello had stayed out like that and pretend that it was to make it easier for Matt to find him.

Now, was it easy to face Mello after being angel married to Near? No. But he hadn't had a say in that either. If he didn't face Mello he was worried of the consequences in that action, too. That would have made Matt feel like he wasn't wanted if the shoe was on the other foot. "Damn, Mello." he started as he walked up the steps, stopping a respectful distance. "You need to shine that halo before they see you."
smokingguns: (pic#14420135)

[personal profile] smokingguns 2021-03-05 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Alright... Fine. They could talk about cuties later. With a sigh, Matt adjusted his goggles on his face a little more, just a momentary replacement on the bridge of his nose and a quick run of his gloved finger on the strap through his hair. "No," He answered simply with a shrug of his shoulders. "Heaven always sounded boring and like I'd have to get up on a schedule just to give some guy validation because he has insecurity and Daddy issues. This place lines up pretty good with what heaven was supposed to be. Shit like in John: "In my father's house are many mansions." he gestures to the houses around them. "And if I go prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you that where I am there you may be also." They definitely got greeted upon their arrival. "We weren't the only ones in that stadium, I can't speak for them being multitudes of angels." Because he doesn't know what angels look like other than classically from the bible and no one here looked like that. "Thing I can't get is some of the other shit. I'm hungry, I could go for a good stiff drink and as far as I remember we're not supposed to follow the evil dictates of our heart up here. Catch me hitting on the guy like three doors down from me. I'm going to follow the hell out of that evil dick-tate." Also probably the fact at least two of them up there were dubiously bisexual and at least two of them had acted on it, so not even the Mormon following would've covered him being here.

"Lightnings, noises and thunderings. Haven't heard 'em. Earth quake? Haven't felt 'em. Thanks Revelations. Psalms said God's pretty loud so that could've been old interpretation of loud speaker and the voice did sound pretty damn majestic if you ask me." No one asked him but if they did. "Multi crowned, white, blood dipped horses with fire eyes and names unspeakable to anyone but him followed by mirror image horses ridden by more white-clothed angels I don't see. They've probably figured out that dirt and war is hard to get out of white before we got here though 'cause the bible was written like... long time ago.

"I don't see any crystal cities or gemstones, but that could have been lost in translation or something King James decided should be in there. I don't remember twelve pearly gates with multi-layered stone walls around them. Don't remember some old guy telling me that I shouldn't have done half the shit I did with my life before I got back to what I needed to do." Looking upward, he gestured to the sun with one hand over his eyes to do it, "Looks like we got a sun so technically there should be a moon and I've seen its moving shadow so that indicates a rotation."

Looking back down he scanned the area again, "Small exploration but I don't see a giant tree I'm supposed to yank fruit off of and heal nations with leaves. I mean if you found that one I've got a few nations that need healing." With a shrug of his shoulders he turned his attention back to the guy with the simple question who got a very complex answer. "So I guess so if we're going off of classical representation of heaven but like I said I didn't ever think I'd like how it was I just hoped I would if I got there one day. Why?" Thank you for coming to his TEDx Talks.

See they could've been talking about the cuties.
Edited (Tag had a stroke. x2??) 2021-03-05 16:11 (UTC)
red6l99d: (003)

[personal profile] red6l99d 2021-03-05 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hello." he replied, standing with his arms loosely crossed. "Room mate is much more appropriate." They could agree on that, specifically. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. There at least was an understanding that this wasn't some sort of actual arrangement Kankri was interested in past having to live with som-- "Yes, I know how I died."

Alright, maybe not as well as he thought it would go but he listened anyway. "Everything has a right to life, humans do, and bugs do. It's what both of your species do to one another as exemplified in your actions that make the difference. They have just as much right to be here as both of us do. Do you really find their life that insignificant when the rest of their colony depends on them? If they're dead or not doesn't mean they're not likely to feel pain or suffering. Likely all they do is lay there in agony in the form you've given them if they can't die again. Can you imagine living in agony for eternity?"
piacularis: (this time you fought us all)

damn right

[personal profile] piacularis 2021-03-06 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
Mello figured Matt would turn up eventually, or else he’d get over his anxiety and track the redhead down himself. The words that come out of his mouth sound like a bad pick-up line, and Mello pulls his sunglasses down his nose enough so he can level a flat, unimpressed stare at his friend. That expression only holds for a moment before it softens around the edges - with sadness, maybe, or worry, or guilt, or all three. Mello looks away and pushes the glasses back up his nose.

“I thought you better than anyone would know I lost my halo years ago.”

If he ever had one in the first place. Maybe when his mother was still alive - she loved her little Mihael without reservation, and he did everything he could to be worthy of her love, not that she ever required him to earn it. Certainly not after her death - the sisters at the first orphanage were fond of telling him how wicked he was, and Wammy’s House only measured goodness by a single metric, and it wasn’t a sense of morality.

Whatever. He made his choices. Being effective was more important than being virtuous, and Mello has no regrets about the things he’s done, save one - Matt’s death. He kicks a foot up onto the porch railing, scuffing the pristine white paint with the sole of his boot. Good.

“What do you make of all this?”
smokingguns: (pic#14420125)

[personal profile] smokingguns 2021-03-06 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
Oh. He knew that look and it was the 'Really?' look he was used to when he tried to use icebreakers of any kind. With Mello he knew at least it wasn't rejection, it was just him making Matt aware that maybe he had to up his game. "I don't know about things like that." Mello losing anything at all, including his admiration, wasn't something he thought he was capable of. Matt wouldn't see him as anyone but his best friend for the rest of his life.

Whatever they were, whatever they used to be, it didn't matter now. They could take this on together and they'd do fine. It'd suck to put Near in his place, but Near knew a game was a game because they played it to win, not to lose. "Mmm..." he shrugged his shoulder. "Dunno, I like the view." Which currently was Mello as he took the steps to round out standing flat on the porch and coming toward him. "The rest of it seems pretty normal. Too normal. I don't think we're where they say they are and neither do some of the others brought here."

He nodded toward the seat. "Waiting on anyone else?" or can he sit down? "Or is this a bad time. Your husband might catch us." Try humour on for size.
piacularis: (how many ways)

[personal profile] piacularis 2021-03-06 05:30 am (UTC)(link)
Typical Matt, making flirty jokes even when he’s dead. Mello manages to huff a quiet almost-laugh, but he can’t bring himself to return his friend’s words with any of his own in a similar spirit. He’s done that so many times in the past, played into flirting and attraction with someone to get something he wanted, and he simply can’t use the same disingenuous tactics with Matt. Not with someone he actually cares about.

“Oh, haven’t you heard? I’m an eternal bachelor.”

No husband to find them out. Not that he’s bitter about it or anything. Mello drops his foot from where it’s propped on the porch railing and gestures an invitation for Matt to sit.

“There’s definitely something wrong about this place,” he agrees, but pauses, lips pressed tightly together. Does Matt not remember what happened to him? Surely he can’t be OK with it ... right?

“But not everything is wrong. At least one thing they’ve told us is right.” The fact that they’re dead. Mello takes a deep breath to steady his shaking heart and shifts in his chair to face his friend. Carefully, he removes the sunglasses, because Matt at least deserves an honest look in the eyes for this.

“Matt ... I’m sorry. You shouldn’t be here.”
smokingguns: (pic#14420116)

[personal profile] smokingguns 2021-03-06 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
"Ohhh..." Matt says with a playfully 'didn't know' lilt in his voice. "So that means you're single and available. Good to know." He still wasn't sure what they were or weren't. Even with their dalliances he couldn't be certain and wouldn't try to nail Mello down to one thing or the other. At least not figuratively.

Matt nodded his head, red hair falling in front of his goggles before he gave it a soft brush away from his face with a gloved hand. They'd figure it out. Obviously they weren't dead, Near wasn't dead. It didn't make sense that they'd all three die out of nowhere. If they were here L should be too, he did things only slightly worse than the rest of them. Or maybe that was the threshold.

"Yeah?" asked the third curiously as he took Mello's offered invitation. There were a lot of things he thought they were more wrong about then right. However, all of it was lost in thought and translation when Mello's eyes made contact with his own and held his gaze like it was nothing. For a moment or two, Matt looked back at him and then set his arm behind Mello on the seat. "I just got here, so I'm comfortable." Whatever it was, the other successor was upset by it. "Besides that, you already offered for me to sit down."
piacularis: ('cause this time you aren't at all right)

[personal profile] piacularis 2021-03-06 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
They hadn’t talked about defining what they were - there wasn’t time for it, between planning and acting on those plans, and Mello didn’t think there was a definition for what he and Matt were to each other. And it didn’t seem terribly important at the time, because Mello didn’t intend to live past a certain point where that discussion could be opened. Now, though ... well, it might not even matter. Mello isn’t entirely certain that Matt isn’t still joking with him, pretending to misunderstand what he’s trying to say. Mello’s expression pinches in frustration.

“No, not - that’s not - not what I meant.” He shifts sideways in the chair to face Matt, one leg folded underneath the other. “I don’t mean here as in this specific physical location - I mean you shouldn’t be dead.”

He frowns deeply, gaze dropped to the folded-up sunglasses twisting anxiously between his gloved fingers. “Matt, you need to believe me - I didn’t think you’d be killed. That wasn’t part of the plan.”
smokingguns: (pic#14420115)

[personal profile] smokingguns 2021-03-06 07:18 am (UTC)(link)
There was that look again. He knew that one. The one where something really was wrong and they weren't connecting on what it was. There was a missing piece that he didn't either know, or understand and the way that Mello started angling himself toward Matt made it feel all the more serious. He straightened up a little bit, not moving his arm from the comfortable back of the seat but at least angling a fraction more himself to give Mello more of his attention.

He opened his mouth to say something and wasn't quite sure what to say. All the best that he was quiet because Mello was speaking again. Speaking again and Matt wasn't sure what to say now that he had the time to say it. Wait. "...Killed?" he asked softly, shifting a little uncomfortably in the seat he was in. He didn't remember being killed but if he was dead, that meant Mello died after him? Logically it made sense. If Mello was saying at least the detail they got right was them dying...

Then Near, too? "I don't..." He paused, his eyes flipping a few times between Mello's hands and back up toward his face. "I don't remember being killed, Mello." Maybe that was for the best if Mello was telling him he had been. "Or dying... but you have nothing to gain from telling me I died."

Or that, technically, it was Mello's plan that got him killed? "I wouldn't..." he shook his head, trying to bring his eyes to Mello's and met them at least a little while longer than he had, "I don't remember it. Are you su-- stupid question. We're all dead here."

Shit. So he really was dead. "I uh..." he seemed to be coming to grips with it, swiping his tongue at his bottom lip and fidgeting a little in his seat. Mello wouldn't have sent him in if he knew, right? He was saying he wouldn't. No, he wouldn't have anything to gain by seeing Matt die and the distraction would end at that point. "I believe you. I just don't remember dying. How... How did I... you know. Die?" The sound of his voice was shallow, low and like if he didn't say it loud enough-- "Wait... I'm not the reason you're dead, am I?" Never mind himself, if he had gotten Mello killed, then that was unforgivable.

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