nexus_crossings | A Strange Afterlife

A Strange Afterlife

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?"

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It doesn't bother Mantis at all. He's long reached the point where intentionally stirring the metaphorical pot is an exhausting prospect. The idea of peace being reached somehow among such traditional enemies almost gives him some hope.

"Anything can happen here. I might even have a good time being away from Liquid. Being dead doesn't leave much room for things outside of talking to those who are likewise on your current plane of existence, but I've got good company and plenty to watch where the living are concerned."

"Removing God from the equation has proven to be adequate to remove the historical rifts." God did cause many of the issues.

"It's my understanding that there are many dead walking here." Belial pauses and considers clarification. "Both in the manner of undead and those who are dead in their home realms but live again here."

"A well-intentioned leader is sometimes the worst." Big Boss, he's thinking of you. Man was a legend, and rightfully so, but he wrecked lives all over the world.

"I haven't felt hungry in such a long time. Food isn't something I expected to miss, but now it's all that I have on my mind." And sleeping. And smelling. He's been a bit sensory deprived on the other side of life. "This place is interesting. I might stay a while."

"I'm not convinced He is good intentioned in most universes." Belial had seen very few positive explanations of God.

"Have you thought about willing sensory possession?" Belial doesn't shy away from topics like these. Besides there were people willing to do all sorts of things. Temporary inhabiting or sharing mind with the dead seemed mild in the grand scheme of magic and possession. "I've found it interesting. There are so many cultures present."

Mantis is quiet for a couple of seconds before nodding. "He's definitely down the list."

"Tried that when I was alive on accident. I learned about interesting foods that way. A lot of people will mix spices together in a way that makes a very unique flavor. I learned about gumbo that way." He has a slight smile to his voice. Yes, there is much to try again with regards to food.

"I'm sure there are some here who would share their experience." Belial considered the the situation. "There are many here with mental abilities that could accomplish the feat."

"I think I might like to meet them. See who is a natural born and who might have been given their abilities. There weren't many chances to meet people like me back home."

"I think you'll find plenty here who weren't born but came into existence by other means." After all Belial was one of them. Angel's weren't born. They were created.

"I used to think angels were born as little stars that unfolded into people-like shapes. Your appearance is more like the space between stars." Not at all in a bad way, though. Very gothic.

"There are a lot of odd ideas about the creation of angels." Belial considers the comments with care. "We are more the energy undercurrents behind the workings of the universe."

"The force that makes all other things happen." He's not sure he entirely gets it, but he gets enough of it to make an interesting mental picture. "It reminds me of when people would speculate on how my powers come to be. I'm not even entirely sure of it myself."

"We can make things happen, but we don't have to and they will still happen." Belial pauses trying to think of a good mortal analogy but he's not coming up with one at the moment. Mostly because he doesn't know much about Mantis' living situation to make something meaningful.

"We have similar speculations about ourselves. We often wonder if the things we manifest gave us our personalities or if those personalities define what we fuel in the universe. I am not sure God even has an answer to that question."

"Like a conduit? Celestial beings live interesting lives." There's some things he can wrap his head around. Belial is odder and more out of the way as anything else Mantis has experienced, but in a good way.

He considers the lines of logic and nods quietly. "I think everyone is born with natural inclinations to do certain things. The blueprint tells us how we act and what happens because of what we do is how you define a personality."

"Potentially, though we may also be considered the battery." Belial agrees with his assertion. "Long lives make everything more interesting."

"I think that is true for beings who are born. We we never born. Creation is more specific than the random chance of birth." This was the kind of discussions the angels really got into. They loved thinking about how things worked, why they existed, how universes progressed. They could be very head in the clouds and think well beyond mortal comprehension too often, though they couldn't really help it.

"I started entertaining the idea that a long life might be worth the effort. My death happened in my early thirties, so I missed the chance to properly become a bitter dedushka."

Mantis made a surprised noise, followed by a more contemplative one. "That doesn't seem very fair. Interests and personality should be more happenstance than something that's inherent to one's being. You could get stuck in a role or a rut that you can never get out of."

"Well, many of us passed through that phase some time ago. When you go on forever, you pass through phases more fluidly." Belial was one to sit and contemplate just these sorts of questions.

"I can't recall any angel finding fault in the personality they were born with. It is true that many celestials stagnate but the fallen are constantly in motion and changing since the fall when we diverged from the other angels."

"It might have been fun. My last real chance of ever coming back in a meaningful way is a girl who's part of the current generation of a massive extended family. I keep away, out of respect to her fathers and her mother, but she's constantly toeing the line many others fell over."

He laughs quietly imagining the kinds of personalities that presented straight away. "From the way you talk of your kin, it sounds as though you have done well over the years to learn who is best left alone. Personalities clash when lives are as short as mine. Angels would have a lot more time to figure out who really ought to spend time around each other."

It's a very rare thing for Belial to laugh, really laugh from humor, but Mantis has managed to get one from him. The laugh is deep but short. "I see you haven't met Lucifer yet. He, for valid reasons, goes out of his way to mess with everything that should be left alone and clashes with him."

"I would hope I'd remember someone like him." He doesn't mind the laugh at all. It's always easy to tell when you've touched on something deeper and older than you. "One in every family. Can't imagine what a reunion would look like if that's his truest instinct."

"He would make sure you did." Belial knew full well that Lucifer made a first impression that no one ever forgot.

"There are three million with similar views, much to God's dismay. It does make for endlessly amusing stories around the dinner table."

"Three million?" Even with a human's natural inability to process a number of such magnitude, Mantis is keenly aware that is a hell of a lot. "God bless God, if that's appropriate to say. I've never had anything close to that many people to keep an eye on all at once."

"A third of heaven's angels were cast out during the fall." Belial cracks a smile. "God cursed himself when he cursed us."

"Does he ever complain about that?" The idea of divine complaining is an amusing one. "He has to at least be able to admit it's a problem of his own making."

"He comes to scold Lucifer." Which was infinitely amusing to Belial because it was like screaming into an abyss. Lucifer probably enjoyed it even.

"God does not make a point of taking blame for anything. I'm sure he blames Lucifer for it."

Mantis has been the subject to such scolding. It's quite easy to tune out the angry one when you have no remorse.

"There's enough of you that you could go up to Him and talk His ear off. I don't know what it would accomplish, but numbers have to mean something."

A Strange Afterlife

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