[ video ]

[blingking]

( Molly sits in all his fabulous glory on a bed, coat off; scars and tattoos bared for the world to see with his undershirt wide open. The baubles and trinkets adorning his horns and neck are being carefully removed as he films himself, half making a show of it because why wouldn't he. )

Tell me a story, Genessia.

( A simple request, he thinks. A silver chain drops into his palm, and he adds it to a growing pile on the nightstand. )

Something interesting. Something exciting - maybe even something you never told any one else before.

Comments

[Video]

[such_a_teez]

Demanding, aren't you? [Tyki is leaning back against a wall, cigarette in hand, but he's taken the bait. And he's also beyond shameless about eyeing the tattoos and scars, the horns too and goodness Molly's appealing and he reminds Tyki a little of a friend from Hadriel. Too bad the video response doesn't quite get that across.] I've got a few. Do you want one about aliens that called themselves gods and made people crave touch? Or maybe about how a family breakfast turned to chaos? There's a nasty one about about a filthy pervert who kept a corpse in a box and fought one of god's children too.

[blingking]

I was getting bored.

[ Molly continues the long and drawn out process of removing his accessories, listening intently to the suggested stories. By the end, he's got a brow raised. ] You're really telling me to choose from such wonderful options? Hm.

Let's start with the pervert. That sounds exciting.

[Video] Private

[such_a_teez]

He's a general in the church, and generally a pain in the ass. He uses a pretty face to hide his perversion, he leaves hoards of dept for his apprentice and anyone else who he can foist debt upon. He drinks like a fish, sleeps his way through brothels and ranks, and still somehow manages to get things done. But that's not the most interesting part about him. [Tyki grins wickedly.] Do you want to know about that corpse now?

[blingking]

I like this guy already. [ Molly chimes in before the pause, foregoing his accessory removal for the moment to give Tyki his full attention. He smirks back, head cocked to the side. ]

Do you really need me to answer that? [ uh duh he wants to know about the corpse. ]

[such_a_teez]

Someone needs to. He's well hated, despite his position. [Tyki grins.] So in that world, there's a dangerous power called Innocence. So sought over and terrible that even death doesn't keep the church from clinging to it. And he keeps one of those exorcists, Maria, with him to use a lovely weapon for his cause. She's quite a beauty, and absolutely doornail dead.

[blingking]

Funny thing to name it, then. [ Unless it's meant to be ironic. Molly considers this for a moment before focusing once more on Tyki's story. Right, corpses. ]

So he's a necromancer? I've met one or two before.

[such_a_teez]

Propaganda. Can't have a dangerous weapon that sometimes turns on it's wielder called something that actually suits it. [Tyki would name it filth, or corruption personally. But it is what it is.] Have you? It's not entirely common where I'm from. He's something of an oddity when it comes to romancing the dead.

[blingking]

Makes sense, I suppose. No one ever appreciates the horrible truths. [ Molly does, sometimes. But only sometimes, and only if the truth will make things better to some degree.

He shrugs. ] I can't say it's common back home either, but enough people practice it that I know what it entails. Haven't tried it myself, though. Well--

[ He cuts himself off. Well, not on purpose, and not with someone else's corpse. He doesn't elaborate. ]

How about that family breakfast?

[such_a_teez]

I'm rather fond of them myself. Especially if they cause a scandal. [Tyki raises an eyebrow at that well, and sudden silence. It's too interesting to not pry.] Come now, don't cut me off when it's getting interesting.

[blingking]

( Molly laughs. ) I have far more interesting stories than that. Besides, you were supposed to be keeping me entertained.

[Video]

[aka_shazam]

You look like you'd have a lot of stories of your own.

[blingking]

I have plenty! But that's not what I'm here for today.

Unless you want to do a little story swap.

[aka_shazam]

Um. Sure. We could do that.

You first.

[blingking]

Me first? I'm the one that demanded entertainment!

[aka_shazam]

I guess that's fair...

[Hmm, but telling his most secret but more exciting tale may not be a wise idea to reveal to strangers. Even if he hasn't been completely careful with it so far. It wasn't specified that it had to be true... So he makes something up.]

So there's this kid and he's out late at night. He's on his own so he has to run from thugs and the police. They could both give him trouble. He's searching for something. For someone. But he doesn't know who. It's just... searching, for something he knows is out there.

[He pauses, takes a breath. Well, maybe there is some truth in there.]

Then one day when the kid was feeling really horrible and thought there was no hope left... she appeared.

[He bites his lip. OK, this was more than stretching the truth now. This didn't happen.]

An angel. She glowed like a comforting fireplace and she gave the child a big warm hug and... took him back to her home and he lived happily ever after.

[Well, maybe it wasn't that exciting... But somehow he has teared up and he hurriedly wipes at his eyes.]

[lazuline]

An interesting request from a stranger. What would you consider interesting?

[She's currently sitting at her desk in the guardian's office, but clearly has little to work on if she's entertaining answering this.]

[blingking]

Practically anything, so long as you can keep my attention.

[ What a good answer??? ]

[video]

[bigbadrose]

[Lol okay whatever.]

In between universe is a town where only ghosts live. The shadows of the fallen, the glitched of the afterlife. A place of grey, like steel and concrete, and never ending twilight from the dying light of a fading sun. It's both greasy and gritty in a way that should never be. The too much industrialization, and not enough focus on life.

The people themselves were walking dead. Once humans, now converted into soldiers controlled by distant radiowaves and computer programming, more than any amount of drilled exercises can ever affect real people of free will. The dead, the fallen, they march. They know not what they seek, but still they exist, because they must, they do not have it in their programming to die.

Those with souls are unbound to bodies, instead glitching, ghosting along circuit waves. Final thoughts, lingering personalities, digital uploads of memories begging the eternal question of what is real, what is death?

And there I walked unseen, unheard. A solid ghost. Life among the dead. Unable to stabilize it to make it more real or solid. What is a ghost town but a dream of the still living?