A Strange Afterlife

[ginger_firebird]

 It had to be impossible. He could feel his skin. A pulse beat under his neck. He stood in front of a store window and regarded his reflection in the glass. Same black leather outfit. Same brown trench-coat. The fabric weight down on him and he rubbed his arms as he tried to figure out what was going on. A wandering spirit had doors to enter and exit when it came to the world of the living, but he'd never achieved something like this. It was alien and wrong and he had no idea where anyone was.

Mantis sighed, marveling quietly at the way his chest rose and fell with his breathing. It didn't matter. He'd keep moving and hope for the best. If this was some punishment for a misstep, he knew exactly who to take it up with.

"Sorrow!" Even his voice carried an echo. Mantis pointed himself into a new direction and began to walk. "What did I do this time, old man?"

Comments

[harness_the_harness]

"What do you intend to do now? Try to return? Avenge your own death? That would be quite dramatic." He scratches at his jaw and muses: "I wonder if quantum mechanics would even allow for a body to return to that timeline."

[ginger_firebird]

He scoffs at the word 'avenge'. "There's nothing left to avenge where I'm from. The one person left who I had any reason to hate is as dead as I am. All I need is to stay with my Commanding Officer and keep an eye on the living world."

[harness_the_harness]

He frowns deeply. "It seems like a waste, what with the breadth of the multiverse now at your disposal. Why not move on and discover something new?"

[ginger_firebird]

"I wouldn't know what to look for. Do I find a world where I lived? One where I wasn't the bad guy?" He shakes his head. "How many other worlds could there be?"

[harness_the_harness]

"Oh, an infinite number!" he declares, excitedly. "If the Everett model is to be believed."

Sigma tilts his head. "Most people don't self-identify as a 'bad guy.' Did someone judge you as such?"

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis is going to nod along with that explanation. He has no idea who this Everett is or what model he made, but the general idea makes a little sense.

"Call it a lifetime of bad choices. Every time I tried to get away from hurting people, I got dragged in again. It was easier to be a more efficient villain than a reluctant one."

[harness_the_harness]

"An interesting choice, but thoughtfully made." Plenty of people are villains without even recognizing it.

"If it was always your intention to do good, maybe this is your opportunity. Whatever was 'dragging you in' is no longer a factor?"

[ginger_firebird]

Damn depressing situation to be in, but Mantis is starting to make peace with it. He shrugs at the man's suggestion. "I can try? I barely know anything about this place, least of all the kind of people in it."

[harness_the_harness]

"I encourage you to keep an open, scientific mind. That's always helped me in times of confusion."

He extends a hand. "That said, a proper introduction is in order: I am Sigma."

[ginger_firebird]

"That I can do. Maybe not well." He takes Sigma's hand and shakes it. It's weird feeling how thin his fingers are again. "Psycho Mantis. Former soldier and spy."

[harness_the_harness]

The state of his hands don't go unnoticed. Sigma's grip is not as tight as it might usually be.

"Psycho ... Mantis? A code name, I assume?" This a fairly recent concept for him, including the use of his own. Like the stuff of Bond movies and super heroes.

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis can feel the hesitation. It's a nice gesture.

"Only name I use anymore. I got it during my last job." Mantis takes his hand back, rubbing the fingers together and against his palm. "Your code name is interesting. It's used in mathematics, if I'm remembering correctly."

[harness_the_harness]

"Ah, I suppose I could say the same," he says with the ghost of a wince. "If one stretches the meaning of the word 'job' to its limits.

"And yes! The symbol is used across many sciences. My specialty is astrophysics, so things like velocity dispersion and the Stefan-Boltzmann constant come to mind.

"Does your name have any special meaning?"

[ginger_firebird]

"Generally, if you get paid to do it, it's a job." Sometimes you get paid to potentially nuke the world, but still.

"Astrophysics... That's to do with things like rockets, doesn't it? It never crossed over into my work too much, but it was always interesting to see how far we could observe things like planets by launching a machine off Earth."

[harness_the_harness]

"Then no, maybe there's no direct comparison there," he laughs, humorlessly.

"A common misconception. Astrophysics studies how the laws that govern the universe apply to cosmic bodies and phenomenon. Stars, planets and so forth. That's not to say we don't benefit enormously from advancements in space flight."

Sigma focuses his concentration on a bit of Nexus litter. With a twist of his hand, it flits into the air. He pulls it closer for a moment's examination: an empty bottle of something called Staminan X. Some disgusting energy drink. With another gestural flick, it zips into a nearby trash can. "My career has been focused on the study of gravity and black holes. What these can tell us about the universe."

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis felt himself thrill at the display. It didn't matter if it was psychic powers or some mechanical construct giving off the illusion, it was an incredible display! He unthinkingly draws up some more of the litter hanging around and it swirls in small circles around him before he even seems to notice. Then a flick of the wrist sends it all in a line to the same trash can.

"Your study is impressive. I've heard of black holes, but they don't sound too frightening. Many of them seem too far away to be a threat to anything but what is right next to them."

[harness_the_harness]

"Oh yes, most of the work around black holes has been theoretical. They're very difficult to detect--" He pauses mid-sentence, distracted.

"Ah! Another one!" he declares with a clap. So many people here can bend the laws of gravity. Exciting! "You're the third I've met in this place. Please, tell me how you came by this power, Mr. Mantis."

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis starts at the sudden enthusiasm, only to find he is quickly matching it. The possibility of other psychics was one he could scarcely ignore. And he made three, much like how he had ranked up in his childhood.

"I was born with mine. It isn't strictly manipulating gravity, though. Mine is called psychokinesis." And he's got a few others to name-drop slowly.

[harness_the_harness]

"Yes, yes. I'm familiar with the term, but it brings to mind parlor tricks and so many ruined spoons. Pseudoscience. Certainly nothing as advanced as that," he says, gesturing to the now-full trash bin.

"The other gentleman I met was also born with a similar innate ability. I came by mine through artificial means. An accident, really."

[ginger_firebird]

"It's not pseudoscience where I come from, but it's not well understood, either. Some of the abilities can be mimicked somehow, but most border on impossible to induce artificially."

But now you have caught his attention, Sigma. "Who is the other one?"

[harness_the_harness]

"A young man. Dark hair, a bit long. He said his name was Ben Solo."

Sigma gives Mantis a sidelong glance. "He also mentioned other ... shall we say, comorbid abilities. It sounds like you're hinting at the same?"

[ginger_firebird]

"I met Ben. I knew he had telekinesis, but not psychokinesis."

Mantis snaps the fingers on one hand, producing a brief flame. "Reading minds, moving things, making fire. Others can speak to the dead and see into the past. Occasionally, I can also see the future, but that gets depressing."

[harness_the_harness]

"Fascinating. Quite the range of ability." The list causes more knee-jerk skepticism, but this man has manifested two of those powers already. What's to say the others aren't perfectly real?

"Is mind reading something you do at will? Or is your world filled with the constant chatter of others' thoughts? If I envision something specific, can you tell me what that thing is?"

[ginger_firebird]

"You typically hear about people getting one in fictional works, but I think they cluster together in some form. Something built into the genes that causes the powers to manifest in the first place."

Now this is something he hasn't heard in a while! "If you're comfortable with someone rooting around in your head, I'll take you up on that. You can picture anything you want."

[harness_the_harness]

"Curiosity trumps comfort in this case."

Sigma exhales and focuses his eyes on a distant point. He imagines something simple: an apple, red and waxy. In his mind's eye, it slowly rotates. For a bit of embellishment, he imagines its peel unraveling in one long strip. He raises an index finger. "There."

While the placid image of the apple spins at the fore of his consciousness, his subconscious is a glittering nebula of memories, concepts, beliefs, sense of self and his real name: Siebren de Kuiper. Straightforward. However, if Mantis hazards a glance at the very back of Sigma's mind, a black, spherical void pulses and distorts the mental space around it.

... Eh, probably nothing, right?