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

[ginger_firebird]

You're purple. This confuses the Mantis. What is this place?

"He's not even my old man. He's a busybody grandfather type who doesn't mind his business."

Alteans are in short sort of space elves

[neverseenhimbefore]

Yes, he's purple. One of the few things he gets from his father's side, genetically. Most of his looks can be solely attributed to his mother's side. Altean genes are strong.

Hm. He shouldn't have instantly thought it's about one's family. Shows his bias. Now he tries not to feel embarassed.

"So I see. And yet you've never told him to mind his own business? Or perhaps he simply never listens."

He's never seen an actual alien ever.

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis isn't entirely sure where he got some of his more notable features from. He may not look it with a bald head, but that's a redhead of the "fiery locks" variety.

"I have. He's stronger than I am in the one way I can't fight against, so it's a futile effort to assert myself when he thinks I've overstepped a boundary."

He might see quite a few in Nexus. XD

[neverseenhimbefore]

"If you think it's unwinnable, you should refine your strategies. Find weaknesses you might've overlooked. Nobody's perfect, and that's one thing that can always be used to advantage."

"I take it you're new in this reality. Nexus, reality between realities, but in other way than the rift. It's a fascinating place, although I'm less and less sure I find myself capable of uncovering all of the Nexus's secrets," Lotor says.

Awesome!

[ginger_firebird]

"Maybe going through Voyoveda... But she's a whole different obstacle compared to Sorrow." He shudders at the thought of trying to take on The Boss. So strong. So pretty. So brutal. Grandma scares him just a little bit.

"Very. I arrived whenever 'today' is." Mantis turns his head to take in his current location. "It's different. I could get used to it, but I'm not sure to what degree."

[neverseenhimbefore]

"I'm not certain I follow."

Hm.

"I hope you do get used to it."

[ginger_firebird]

"I'm dead. Or I was? It's been over ten years since I've had a living body. Sorrow And Voyoveda... They keep an eye on me. I need to be held accountable for my actions, apparently."

He shakes his head. "I'll try. This place is...odd."

[neverseenhimbefore]

Lotor looks uneasy now. Not disbelieving at all, but uneasy.

"Perhaps you simply were near death," he offers.

[ginger_firebird]

"No. I saw the passage of time. I watched the man who killed me aging. This place... It did something to me."

It makes him uneasy as well, but he can't place what exact feeling is sparking up in him.

[neverseenhimbefore]

Lotor takes a step back, wincing.

"My condolences," he says, dully.

[ginger_firebird]

He sees that flinch, and it catches his attention. Is he not the only one who's been murdered before arriving here?

"I don't feel as bad about it now. I spent over twenty years holding on to pain. After a decade of having nowhere to put it, I've learned to start letting it go."

[neverseenhimbefore]

"You're a strange man."

And the prince's not sure what to think about him.

[ginger_firebird]

"Strange isn't a new one for me. I've been called worse by all kinds of people." He stares down at his hands and flicks them quickly, creating a quick burst of flames. "Oh. I might have everything."

[neverseenhimbefore]

Lotor looks at him curiously, now intrigued despite a certain wariness.

All his thoughts and emotions are still behind a barrier, though.

"What kind of powers do you have?"

[ginger_firebird]

"I can tell you're trained in creating a mental barrier. If I wanted to, I could lift you in the air and hold you there for a while." He slowly turns his gaze back to Lotor and finds himself smiling behind his mask. "Setting fires, seeing briefly into the future... There's a lot I can do."

[neverseenhimbefore]

"Into the future? Reliably so?" the Prince asks, leaning closer now, even if Mantis had died before.

That's not certain, anyway.

[ginger_firebird]

"Not completely, but what I do see is pretty telling at times. I don't have a way of really controlling what part of the future I'll see outside of broad strokes, so what I see might not make sense to either of us."

[neverseenhimbefore]

"Hmm. I'll think on that. Until we meet again, perhaps. As this place seems small enough that we probably shall meet again," Lotor replies, after a moment.

[ginger_firebird]

"I'm learning this place gets all types. No one where I come from looks quite the way you do." That said, he's becoming very curious about the non-human residents of this strange place.

[neverseenhimbefore]

"And where do you come from?" the prince asks. "With the mask, it's a bit hard to tell, you must admit."

[ginger_firebird]

"I'm from Earth. Never so much as set foot off the planet." A thought crosses his mind and he makes a thoughtful kind of noise. "What do you call your species?"

[neverseenhimbefore]

"I see, like the Paladins of Voltron," Lotor replies.

"I'm an Altean."

[ginger_firebird]

"From the planet Altea? It must have been something unique to make your face look the way it does."

[neverseenhimbefore]

Half and half, but his Altean half seen as something not to speak about much, or not to speak at all about if he was to listen to his father, and maybe that was one of the reasons that over the centuries he came to cherish the Altean heritage - because he definitely didn't want to be like his father, but rather like his mother, from what he knew of her and her people - this was one of the first time Lotor's introduced himself to a non-Altean stranger as an Altean.

Somehow, he liked it. It was true, as much as if he introduced himself as a Galra, but it was a unique experience to him. And perhaps it was more honest, because, truly, he sometimes hated the Galra Empire, his tyrannical father's Empire, but he cherished all the information he could find on Altea.

He nods.

"Yes. My mother was from Altea."

"Did you arrive here in Nexus alone? Strangely, it seems as if most people did. I'm glad it wasn't the case for me."

[ginger_firebird]

Mantis can't be quite that proud of his species. If anything, he's been consistently disappointed in humans as a whole. It's only rare exceptions that made life bearable while his heart was still beating.

"I don't even remember how I ended up wandering into this place. I was lingering with the other dead people."