3 [@necromantica: video] (WARNING: blood and gore)

[burntbridges]

Hello everyone! I hate to bother, but I thought I might share some exciting news with you all.

[This is a blatant lie, as everyone who's met her knows - she loves to bother. But that's not the point.]

First of all - I took the time to talk to a doctor about my child, and everything seems to be fine with her. It's a girl! I haven't thought of a name for her yet, but perhaps some of you have suggestions. A family name didn't seem appropriate seeing as... I have no intention to see my family again, nor bring any of them here.

[With the obvious exceptions, she guesses.]

Second thing... Here, Walter, come in here.

[She pulls a dead body into the camera view with her - a certain zombie-killing sheriff might recognize him from a certain zombie-related misunderstanding. Since then his bones have been bleached clean (mostly), and his head glued back together to the best of her abilities (it's missing a few pieces), and she's even done her best to clean the clothes she found him in. They're torn and bloodstained but... she thinks it gives him character.

Those living on floor one may take issue with the smell that came from her amateur attempt at cleaning the corpse... the bathroom on their level may or may not have suffered a lot of damage from her efforts. Aside from the bathtub being dyed pink from her filling it with chemicals she has a very approximate knowledge of and a dead body, there are bloodstains that she didn't know how to clean up, as well as some leftover gore that she failed to throw away. (Exact levels are up to player comfort.)]

This is Walter! [She seems perfectly happy to refer to him as though he's a living person, and has propped him up so he can sit next to her while she continues to speak. She even picked his hand up to make him wave when she introduced him.] I found him outside of the perimeter while everyone was handling those monsters... and we ran into a bit of trouble, but I was able to get him back to the communal hall in one piece. Mostly.

Now, it's been brought to my attention that some people come from worlds where necromancers don't exist or are frowned upon. I'd like to assure everyone that while I am a necromancer, my magic is only used for good. It can be extremely dangerous, but I've become very attached to many people I met here so I'm taking extra precautions not to take any risks with it. And, well, I very much like to stay alive as well. So there is that.

For those of you from worlds that don't have necromancy, I suppose the easiest explanation is that I can speak to the dead. I can make them move too, but not both at the same time and I thought it might be better to talk to Walter rather than- yes yes, I'm getting to it. I told you I would.

[She's addressing Walter, who has not made a single noise as far as anyone else will be able to tell. She clears her throat.]

I made this.. video.. [still a weird word] to give people the chance to ask me anything they might need to know about necromancy and the dead and... Walter agreed to answer questions about himself as well - seeing as he is a native of the Quarantine, he can give us more information about it and what's outside of it. [She may or may not have bullied him into it, but Walter can't communicate with non-necromancers, so he can't exactly ask for help.]

Comments

[batbullets]

[Yeah, okay, he'll bite. Jason Todd's a previously dead person himself, though he still isn't clear on how, exactly, he came back to life. One minute, Joker had been beating him dead, the next, he was awake, dressed in a suit, six feet underground. Though this happened years ago, it is still something that causes the odd nightmare every once in awhile.]

How much does he remember? I mean, you know. When you bring them back - how much does he remember of his life before? Or is he just kind of an empty shell?

[burntbridges]

He remembers everything as long as I don't bring him to life. But if I do bring him to life, I'm essentially replacing his soul with mine for a time, so he's just a puppet. He can't do anything unless I will him to.

[Partly to show off, she decides to make an example. At first it looks like nothing is happening, with just a hand over Walter's chest, but then he starts to move shakily on his own, and his jaw moves in time with some very amateur ventriloquism on Letha's part.]

I'm Walter, I smell like rotten eggs and Letha found a rat inside me.

[batbullets]

[He watches as Letha brings Walter to life for a moment. If he's fazed by it, it doesn't show on his face, though the ventriloquism does get sort of an amused smile.]

That's interesting. [For his part, Jason had just been a shell until he'd been plunged into the Lazarus Pit, and then all of his memories had come screaming back to him.] I actually expected something more zombie-like - mindless - but this seems...huh. I don't know if less dangerous is the right phrase.

What happens to his soul when you replace it with yours?

[burntbridges]

Hmm... I suppose it stays in the afterlife until I'm done with him. He simply won't be able to hear me or speak to me while I'm using his body.

[While she's talking, she's also making him do jazz hands.]

They can be very dangerous, though. If used properly they can fight for days without growing tired, and they're much stronger than any human I've met.

[Although to be fair, most of the humans she knows are wimps... wimps with extremely dangerous magical prowess.]

[batbullets]

[Jason watches Walter intently. Fact of the matter is, with the situation they're in, this sort of power and control could really come in handy. But was it fair to control them this way?]

Have you led them into situations where they've had to fight for days, or is this just something you haven't put into practice yet? Don't get me wrong - it's interesting, and potentially useful. I'm just trying to understand.

Video - @chandra

[firelogic]

Wait, your zombies remember things and junk? They aren't just walking soldiers to carry your purchases at shops and weapons against your enemies?

*Chandra you're too close to your camera again. So honestly there is a lot of orange eye and not much else to see on her end. But this is different from when she usually runs into zombies. Not that she has a lot of practice.*

[burntbridges]

Well, he's like that if I'm using him. Any other time he's just a dead body with all his memories of living.

[He says something insulting to her, and that gets a little laugh out of her.]

[firelogic]

Man. Gotta make sure I don't die on this plane.

Death on this plane sucks.

*Death on most planes sucks.*

So the dead here just... remember everything but their spirits can't become something else? Like a wisp or a specter? Okay, not a specter, those things are creepy. A geist, that's the word!

[burntbridges]

I don't know what any of those things are. But I've never heard of the dead being anything other than... dead.

[firelogic]

A geist is a soul without a body, a specter is sorta the same thing but mean. And with a horse.

*Well that cleared everything up Chandra.*

But you're saying you find dead with all their memories still in them? They aren't just empty vessels. I mean on Innistrad some zombies were like five or six dead people stitched together. But that's not really what Liliana does. Her's are just, dead.

Voice - @lolococo416

[threatenwithcuteness]

Wait, you're pregnant!?

Like? On purpose?

*Sorry, Lola is not seeing enough age difference to really warrant that. She is also not talking about the zombie, or to the zombie, or discussing the zombie. She hopes the zombie won't be a thing anymore really. Yeah, if she pretends it isn't there that's fine right?*

[burntbridges]

Yes, I'm pregnant on purpose. I'm a little old for a first child, but... there were complications.

[Obviously they have very different perspectives of 'too old for a first child'. She's just scraping 18, but her grandmother was teasing her about being a virgin by the time she was 16. So.]

My husband isn't here, but I can assure you she's not a bastard at least.

[threatenwithcuteness]

Old!? But, you're not that much older than me.

And I definitely didn't want to be pregnant.

*The legitimacy of the child was not really Lola's concern, so she ignored that.*

[burntbridges]

Well... in all honesty it wasn't my first choice either, but it's happening now.

[And the last thing she wants is to lose the very last connection she has to her world.]

[threatenwithcuteness]

I guess it's better than being the only one from your world, without any family.

Wait, you said you had a husband too? And that's just... normal, where you're from?

Married, with a kid on the way, what about school? Or working? Or really judgmental friends talking about something you didn't want to happen behind your back?

@R.Greenhilt: Video

[greatcleavage]

...I feel like you may have neglected to mention this to me at some point.

[His sarcasm might bite, but really, lying beneath it all is simply... disappointment.]

[burntbridges]

Did I? I thought for sure I mentioned being pregnant.

[Feigning innocence is helping no one, Letha.]

[greatcleavage]

[Roy puts a hand to his forehead, pressing fingers in like he can force the headache down by raw strength.]

Explain how animating a corpse is, in any way, shape, or form, a Good action.

[burntbridges]

Well, that's simple. It gives them some use after they're dead - they can carry the injured back to where a doctor can see them, for one. Or carry supplies for you. Or lend you a hand if you're in danger.

And they're very good company.

[greatcleavage]

That isn't Good. That's wrenching a formerly living body back to a mindless, slavering mockery of life for purely utilitarian purposes.

And for the record, my archnemesis is a lich and my former best friend is now a vampire trying to get the world, literally, destroyed -- that's the sort of things undeath leads to.

audio; un: d.grayson

[fingerstripes]

...I get the feeling where you're from this is probably stupid undead question number one, but how accurately can Walter really inform on anything with about five pieces of his skull missing?

[burntbridges]

There are many stupid questions, but I don't think this is one of them. [She points to his head.] The soul isn't in here. Not exactly. It's more... in there. [She sticks her hand inside his ribcage and wiggles it a bit.] Technically, it's more along the lines of... how these 'tablets' and 'phones' work for us. He isn't in the living world, but I can hear his voice. Even if all I have is a fraction of his bone, I can speak to him.

[She indicates the hairpin she's wearing, which is mostly fashioned out of a crow skull and its feathers.] It works for animals, too. There's a law where I come from about using feathers from different birds in one headpiece - they startle easily and it can be quite bothersome.

[fingerstripes]

-Wow. So you're kinda the conduit for the raw data?

[ That's... actually terrifying, but it says something that she's willing to be so open about it on a public network. He's seen metas with stranger gifts. ]

I take it there’s not a lot of potential danger if he happens to get up on the wrong side of the coffin. [ That was going to be the his next question. ]

[burntbridges]

I don't know what any of that means, but... if it makes sense to you, yes.

[What in the sam hell is data.]

No matter how cranky he is, he's powerless over his own body. There's some danger if I'm controlling him and someone startles me, but I'm skilled enough to keep him in line.

[No she's not, she is a liar. But she refuses to let other people fear the glorious craft of necromancy.]

[fingerstripes]

[ As much as paranoia dictates not taking anything at face value, it's hard not to believe that she believes it.

On the other hand, it's not as if he hasn't seen many a well-meaning kid do more damage to innocent people than anyone knew what to do with. ]

Remind me not to drop in on you anytime soon.

...But, uh- for the sake of argument let’s say someone didn’t get the memo. We talking full on zombie apocalypse, or are the consequences more limited than that?