un: Eagle1 > Text

[fraternalshield]

Greetings,
Despite what I’ve been told I am firmly of the belief that this is the afterlife, as I am with no amount of uncertainty dead. I need no consolation or words of wisdom, nor do I need anyone to try to convince me otherwise. Rather, the point of this post is to search for people I knew in life, specifically Regis Lucis Caelum. If anyone has been in contact with him or anyone else who might claim to hail from Eos or Lucis I would appreciate being informed immediately. Thank you for your time.
-Clarus Amicitia

Comments

text » @LOKIOFASGARD

[ikols]

You are correct, you are dead! You ought to pay homage to the god of the afterlife at their temple on Floor Five.

[fraternalshield]

A poor place for a temple. Is there not a grander temple to visit near the city center? It seems a proper place for a revered god.

[He's not falling for it, but he'll play along.]

[ikols]

Plenty of temples in the jungle but all in states of disrepair. In any case, the Moon King and Wanderer cares not for the location of his worship!

[fraternalshield]

I've not heard of this god. Are the Six not present here?

[ikols]

Depends if they came here too. Best to take advantage of the deities that ARE around, no?

text | un: RE-L124C41+

[realimperfect]

You aren't dead, so all that blustering about trying to convince you otherwise is unnecessary.

[fraternalshield]

I doubt beings such as astrals are bound to single worlds or realities as we are. There must be a representation of them here.

@gladio text

[leatherdaddy]

[ It takes him a good long time of staring at the signature before Gladiolus manages to finally get some semblance of order to the torrent of feelings and disbelief enough to be capable of writing complete, coherent sentences.

'Amicitias walk tall and steadfast on the groundwork you've laid...' This is what they'd written, Iris and Gladiolus, on the lantern they'd sent floating off in that one festival he hated. A light for their father, for Jared, for everyone who lost their lives and livelihoods to the war.

And now he's here. It's kind of a shock. ]

Hey, dad.

Still texting like you're writing a letter?

[ Look, he'll... get around to addressing more important matters, just let him approach having his world turned upside down on his own terms ok. ]

[fraternalshield]

And yet you try anyhow.

[fraternalshield]

[Gladio is far from the only person to be shocked by the exchange. Clarus stares at the title and the words as if he's been impaled yet again, mind going blank before racing to conclude exactly how it was his son could possibly be in the realm of the dead. Perhaps an impostor? But for what purpose? Was he being tested in some way?

A good, long while passes before Clarus finally responds.]

First impressions are everything, and formality never fails to impress.

[ikols]

Of course, and variations of them throughout all existence. The Moon King is a benevolent god, he accepts modern forms of worship from coffee through cheques.

[leatherdaddy]

Dad. It's just texting.

[ This is embarrassing, they don't need to be thought of as that backwater reality that doesn't even know how to text. They have smartphones. And flying cars. Stop this. ]

Also, what makes you think you're dead?

[ Well, he is, but Gladiolus has already run into a few people who weren't quite as he remembered them being when he last saw them back in their reality. Better safe than sorry. Better to ask than risk spoilers on someone's death. ]

Text; @fraulein.zweihander

[oniondaughter]

I regret to inform you, Sir Clarus, that this cannot be an afterlife.

[Honestly, concepts of an afterlife aren't exactly common in her world, and they're certainly not one Sieglinde buys into.]

Even if such a thing were to exist, I am undead. My curse would prevent me from ever reaching such a place.

[fraternalshield]

[He knows how to text, and he knows how to do it informally, he just... Prefers not to. He's a politician and a noble, after all. If his text logs were ever to be leaked to the public, he'd prefer they look neat and professional. And back in his day the Regalia didn't fly and he preferred it stay that way, thank you very much.]

The memory of being skewered onto a wall.

[Informal enough for you? And blunt. And... Now he had to wonder if Gladiolus hadn't known he was dead and he just scarred his son? Well, it was an inevitability that he die in the line of duty. Gladiolus probably accepted that years ago, even if the peace of the wall gave them a false sense of security. He'd always done his best to impart the reality of their situation on his children.]

[fraternalshield]

He sounds much like our Bahamut.

Perhaps I could spare some coffee. Does he have any preference in blend or style?

( text ) un: q.compson

[shadowstepped]

[The words form slowly but diligently as he hunches over the peculiar smooth tablet whose keys lack the satisfying tidy click and slow release of a typewriter’s. How novel it is that he can clear his many fumbling errors with but a few careful taps.]

If you believe this is the afterlife, then are you in heaven or in hell?

[fraternalshield]

Perhaps your gods sought to bless you with peace and rest.

[oniondaughter]

The fact that you would say such a thing is very kind, but it shows how little you know about the gods of my world.

[ikols]

Large soya skinny cappuccino with a shot of salted caramel and cream with choc sprinkles.

His epic wanderings have given him APPETITES.

[fraternalshield]

I'm beginning to think the concepts may be misinterpreted. This place doesn't seem to be either an utopia nor purgatory.

[fraternalshield]

I admit I know little to nothing about the worlds the people who inhabit this place originate from. In my world, however, the Astrals were a mixture of benevolent and malevolent. They balanced one another.

[fraternalshield]

And when I arrive at the temple on the fifth floor, for whom should I ask to impart this offering?

[leatherdaddy]

[ Skewered. So they can even pull people after they've died? This is... not possible, right? He must have been rescued. But why he would feel so displaced or some desire to escape his demise while safeguarding the King is... that just doesn't add up. That throws into doubt what is common knowledge here. People are here because they didn't feel like they belonged, displaced, or otherwise had to leave.

Clarus. He's - was - a King's Shield, killed in the line of duty. It's a source of pride for his next of kin, who wouldn't know what kind of potential besmirching there could have been for their family name had it not been for the fact the Crown City was overrun. ]

You're not dead. You must've been pulled right before your heart stopped.

You probably woke up in the hospital, right? Are you there now?

text; @angela

[hevenly]

I have been to the realm of the dead. This is not it.

[ikols]

Mister Horns.

[fraternalshield]

There may be many realms of the dead, just as there are many worlds.

[hevenly]

That is true. In that case, I can only say that this is not the realm of the dead for the Ten Realms from which I hail.

[fraternalshield]

[He thought about arguing with Gladiolus, getting into details about his death or at least the tiny flashes he remembered. It was futile, however. Either this was or was not Gladiolus, and only time and meeting face to face would tell. For the moment he refused to get his hopes up, or allow himself to imagine just how it was his son had come to be in the land of the dead, as he perceived it.]

I was released this morning. Currently on the 14th floor of the housing complex where I've been assigned.

[As to why he was here, what regret he'd expressed to himself... He'd thought, in the last miliseconds of his life, that he'd let freely flow the thoughts and doubts that had been building up in his decades of service and failures to not only the king, but to his family and his country. Apparently it had been heard, and he hoped whatever deity had brought him to this place was that only thing that had.]

[fraternalshield]

[Really. You're going to make him say those words? Of all the things...]

And I assume the baristas of this world can supply such an order?

[shadowstepped]

No it doesn't seem so different from being alive.

Dante reckoned that purgatory is a mountain, one you have to climb in order to conquer. In that way it was different from hell, the inferno, because there the challenge would never be overcome, nor would it ever overcome you either, not completely. That would be letting the poor sinners off too easy.

[ikols]

I wouldn't suggest an insurmountable task, goodly Clarus.

[fraternalshield]

Fair enough. There is, to my knowledge, only one realm from which I hail, and I had never been to its afterlife. This place seems to me as a crossroads of many realms.

[hevenly]

My brother has said this place draws from the multiverse. People from many worlds, and many versions of the same world, have been brought here from across the vast multitudes of space and time.

text | stupeo

[cookingmama]

King Regis is not here, Mr. Amicitia. If this were the afterlife, I assure you, you would not be able to interact with your children. They are stronger than that.

[fraternalshield]

I see. Thank you for the reassurance. Both are here? And you as well. Is anyone else?

[fraternalshield]

Many versions? So even people I believe I know may not actually be those I knew in life?

[hevenly]

Indeed. Though they may not look or behave the same, they share a name and a history.

[oniondaughter]

I see.

Most of the gods of my world have abandoned humanity and fled sometime after the curse came about. Those that remained have either gone mad, or they are not the benevolent sort.

The promise of an afterlife would be a reassuring one, but it's a promise that no one is making.

[realimperfect]

Grandfather always said I was bull headed. Regardless, save face here even slightly : you are not dead.

@a.bonny; text

[venturer]

Well I for sure ain't dead.

text ; @68

[sixtyeighth]

Maybe you are dead, but I am not.

text @moogles

[carrotkeeper]

[It takes her a long time to process the words on the screen. The name of their lost king. The names of her world and country. The name of her dad plastered to the bottom of the screen. She can't believe it. She would have switched to video, if it weren't for the tears poking through the corners of her eyes. She doesn't want him to see that.]

Dad?

[You're not dead is what she wants to write next, but she can't bring herself to do it. In their world and in her time, he was dead. Just a month ago, they had sent off a lantern in his memory. All she can think to is ask:]

Where are you? I'm coming to meet you!