riverview | 7 [@necromantica/anonymous: audio/text]

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7 [@necromantica/anonymous: audio/text]

[This message is preceded by an accidental audio clip from the username "necromantica". It's only a few seconds long, and contains only a single phrase.]

--Oh, bloody hell--

[The clip stays up on the network for an hour or two, before she remembers how to take down mistakes like that.

Several hours later there is an anonymous message, in text:]

I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on death, in this city. It's been so long since I've had new thoughts to hear on the matter.

Are you afraid of death? Would you be less afraid if you were in your home world?

If you had the chance to die briefly and return, just to see what it was like, would you take it?

Do you feel abandoned by those who have died before you? If someone abandoned you, could you forgive them?

Do you believe that corpses are people, or simply objects no longer in use? Should the dead have a say in how their body is used?

Could you love a ghost? Could you even stomach being their friend?

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Death isn't scary. I never thought it was anyway, and it helped. Being ready to die is the only way to use my Persona. I'm not afraid now either, but I'd rather be dead back home than dead here. At least my death serves a purpose there.

Dying was never their fault. [Shinji, his parents.] So, yeah, I'd forgive them.

Can't really say much about corpses. I mean, they aren't that person anymore, what made them who they are is gone, right? I don't know though.

I never met a ghost, might be cool though.

This is really dark for most people. We haven't met but are you alright?

I'm fine, there's no need to worry. The culture of death simply fascinates me.

I don't meet many people who are immune to the fear of death. It's very refreshing... back home we never worried about death, it was simply an inconvenience.

I believe we could be very good friends, given your outlook.

Glad to hear that. If you need to really let something go though, sometimes a stranger is easier. No worrying about their opinion changing or anything.

I always saw it as inevitable. Why be afraid of something outside your control?

I'm always open to more friends. I'm Makoto.

You can call me Cinna. It's very nice to meet you.

Death is inevitable, yes - which makes what you do with your life far more important. There's no sense worrying about how one will die when there are adventures to be had and people to meet.

Cinna then, nice to meet you.

Exactly. I spent mine trying to help people and it was worth it. What comes after, I don't care so much so long as the people I care about are safe and alive.

[He still hates using text and he's fascinated with that he can actually see faces clearly while he speaks on these devices, because it's so close to him and not at least five feet away, so have this face looking back at you though you killed the feed.]

I can tell you a lot about death. Spent a lot of my time around it. Decades, in fact. I don't know what it's like in your world, but I can only assume it's the same as mine. I was a mortician back home and I'm something like that here, but there's been no business to speak of for it in this world. But there are ghosts. There is a life after death. I see it every day.

[Well, she does like using videos. However, still camera shy, she answers with a heavy black veil and a fur hood over her features, and speaks in a slightly muffled voice that's forced a bit deeper than it's supposed to be.]

My cousin was an undertaker's apprentice - I always liked the smell of the funeral home. Embalming fluid and rubbing alcohol, and lilies.

Did you like the ghosts you met?

[He sees that and it brightens his grin and doesn't bother him in the least.]

Well, you surely would have liked it in my parlor. The guest room always smelled of burning candles and old lumber, but in the back where my clients were kept, it smelled of the formaldehyde and waxes I used.

[He reaches up to scratch at his cheek with one long, dark nail.] Hard to say. We never really spoke. But ghosts are just the people they were in life. I didn't know many of them, but I met them all over the country.

I'm not particularly fond of candles, but I do love the smell of wax. It would be lovely to spend time in a mortuary again - do you have one here?

[She nods understandingly to the topic of ghosts; she didn't believe in them until her adventures in Riverview began, but she supposes in retrospect they make about as much sense as any other sort of magic. They just bend the rules a bit beyond what she knows as truth.]

The dead are fascinating creatures, aren't they? I often think they make better company than the living - they're far less likely to judge.

[Well, well. Someone as fond of the dead as he is. This is interesting.]

I do, but I'm almost sorry to say I haven't had a chance to use it. This world is very good at keeping their living alive. Not my place to complain about that, I suppose.

[He shrugs. He doesn't worry about it. A job in this place is a job and it's kept a roof over his head and food on the table. With his wealth back then and what it is now, that's all he cared about.] Oh, but they are. They don't judge, they don't lie. They're simple creatures.

I think most people aren't afraid of death so much as what might come after. Or what might not come. We can't fathom nothingness, so it's terrifying to think that it might be all we'll get after death.

Each world might be different in that aspect, though. In some realities people might end up having a life after death. Heaven, reincarnation, anything. I didn't experience any of these things, not that I can remember. I simply died.

I don't think you're wrong. Knowing what comes after makes it so much easier to accept death as a bump in the road.

The afterlife in this world is very much like my home - it is a place where people exist and can be visited, living in their own eternal dream. It's much better than simply ceasing to exist... but my own death was rather horrible, so I think I would have preferred simply dying.

Though, currently, I much prefer being alive again.

If anything comes after. Suppose that's what makes it difficult for most people.

We have no proven afterlife, where I am from. Some people believe in that sort of thing, depending on their religion. Heaven, for instance. Turning into spirits, or being born again, with a new body and a new life. But no one truly knows for sure what happens.

I'll have to agree with that. Even if I can't go back to my world, this certainly beats the alternative.

How did you die, exactly? If you don't mind me asking. I know some people can be put off by the subject but I find it rather fascinating to speak to others who have died.

An incident involving an airplane.

[ Not an accident, not really, but he doesn't really feel like sharing about how he pretty much killed himself, even if he did so to save other people. ]

What about yourself?

I'm not afraid to die. That doesn't mean I'm chasing danger recklessly. I have plenty of people to live for and I know there is more for me in the future.

(The next question hits home. She decides to be perfectly honest, though her answer lacks detail.)

I was given the chance to be reborn in a new world. I took it and I don't regret the decision.

At one time I did feel abandoned. I was angry and confused. (The death of her parents had been a nasty shock.) But I know better now. I will remember those who have passed before me and carry on in their stead. There isn't anything to forgive.

(She pauses and re-reads the rest, frowning.) Corpses should be respected. Their souls have fled, but they are still a piece of those we have lost. How can they have a say? Unless you're talking about a Will?

Yes.

I can respect that. Even if one doesn't fear death, one shouldn't be seeking it without a good reason.

You were reborn? What was it like to die, for you? And what was it like to live again?

A will, yes. Or a ghost. I wonder how others feel about whether one should care whether a death person wants to be buried or burnt, if their body has a better use for the living.

[ he recognizes the voice. recognizes the username too, and it takes a moment because he's shocked. she'd left but now she's back... he's not sure how that makes him feel. ]

Letha- You're back.

[Well... there's no hiding it from Nico; it takes her a few minutes but she sends him a private message from her own account.]

I am... oh, Nico, it's so good to see you again.

[She's aged by roughly a year by the look of it, and has a scar now over her right brow. And, now replying a few days after Ivar caught up with her, she has a very obvious bruise over her neck in the exact shape of a hand that she's trying very hard not to seem like she notices.]

How have you been, what have you been up to?

[ the hand print is a bit disconcerting, along with how nonchalant she's acting despite it. nico frowns a bit, still unsure how to feel about her being back and thus it takes a moment to respond. ]

You've been hurt. Is- Was it Ivar?

[ because he's spoken with ivar before about how angry the viking is to be left like he was. vaguely, nico wonders what will become of winter. ]

Far too many questions to ask of strangers, I think. I can tell you that I've seen those who have died and risen again, enthralled to an abomination.

That should strike fear into one's heart.

I do think so, yes. Anyone who can raise the dead should be feared and respected.

Abomination is a bit harsh, though.

The Night King isn't anyone. I'm uncertain as to what he truly is. His army marches against the living. In short, he is in fact an abomination.

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7 [@necromantica/anonymous: audio/text]

text; @mementomori

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video | un: undertaker

@anonymous // video

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text; un: s.trevor

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Text; UN: blinded.by.light

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video; un: ghostking

@necromantica//video//private

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» text, un: stormborn

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