[Audio] First Contact

[amicalolafalls]

[There's nothing but the sound of breathing at first. Distant, echoing sounds of traffic and civilization. Almost as if he were in an alley, halfway up a fire escape. Something that might be the sound of someone wetting their lips.]

Hi.

[A space then, where the thought of a laugh might fill it but nothing does.]

I'm Glenn. I-

[There's a noise, almost disbelieving.]

So this... It's some kind of purgatory, right? I know there was information. Something about...spirits, and kidnapping? Only I'm not sure how kidnapping works exactly if you're already dead. Never been good at all of that religious stuff.

[A pause, and then a sigh.]

So am I close? I just know there's no way I'm alive. Trust me on that one. Anyway, this place... It isn't even touched. No way a real city looks like this. Maybe the...message when I got out of that thing had more information. I didn't pay it much attention.

I was kind of waiting for her to tell me I was her only hope.

[Glenn takes a deep breath, more purposeful this time. He sounds more certain, when he speaks again.]

I guess this is my way of saying that I'm looking for answers. If anyone's got them.

Comments

[maggierhee]

The message on the network plays once, then loops around to play a second time before Maggie can find the button to reply, her fingers suddenly shaking.

Her fingers aren't all that's shaking - it feels like every part of her is trembling, a choked sob escaping before she can stop it, as if she even had the power to stop it. For a moment, the response is just blank sound, a muffled sob. Then, strained, "Glenn?"

She didn't know whether or not to believe it, but god, she wanted to.

[amicalolafalls]

[That voice shakes him almost more than waking up had.]

Maggie? [There's panic in his voice.] No, [Slipping out his mouth almost unhindered from his mental litany. No, no, not yet, not if this was some kind of afterlife. He couldn't picture her dead, couldn't picture that somewhere...]

What happened? [Glenn starts to ask, the sound of his steps, hurried on the escape as he moves to dismount it, phone in one hand. Before his feet are back on the ground he's re-thought the question, and has a more immediately important one.] Where are you?

[maggierhee]

It's hard to get words out, almost choking on her sobs, but she swallows hard, forces herself to speak. "We're not dead, we're not.." She couldn't quite get past it, because he was dead, he was, and there was nothing she could do about that but he was still here, somehow, and why hadn't anyone told her that the dead could come back here?

Maybe Glenn was right. Maybe she was dead, and this was an afterlife. Some kind of heaven, but with suburbs.

"I'm-" She swallowed again, "I'm in a park. Um. A few- a few blocks from where you wake up."

[amicalolafalls]

Okay, it's okay- [His own voice sounded thick in his throat now, and if Maggie said she wasn't dead he would believe it, however little sense it made to him just then. He'd believe anything, if it was for her. If it would help stop the sobs that were tearing at his heart.]

Park. [He tried to remember, and he could have sworn he had seen it but his heart was beating too fast in his chest.] I'm coming. Okay Maggie? Just stay there.

[The sounds of traffic, of civilization are louder. There's a distant sound as he grabs a passerby, asks with the smartphone away from his ear.]

The park which way is the park? Please! Thank you!

[maggierhee]

"They said this place just- it just takes people, not because they're dead, just because, nobody knows why." She was rambling, a little, between sobs, curling up on the bench a little, knees pulled up to her chest, head down with her forehead on her knees, her phone that had been on her lap now cradled between her thigh and her stomach. "It's safe here, there's no walkers, there's no-" She cut herself off, bit her lip hard enough to taste blood. She wouldn't mention that, she wouldn't mention it. If he didn't know that was better for him. He didn't need to know.

[amicalolafalls]

No what?

[Glenn was breathing harder as he ran, not focused on technique, or on anything but his destination. The park. Maggie. Who was here and not dead, in some place that gave the dead second chances, some place free of walkers. It sounded like a dream. Like any second now he was going to wake up, and the bat was going to come down again. Just let me hold her first, just one more time. Let me make sure she's okay.]

I see the park. I'm almost there. I'm almost there.

video;

[innocent_royal]

[A young, blonde girl appears on screen. Her blue eyes filled only with kindness.]

It's...complicated... But people have been brought back from the dead. Genessia is not so much Purgatory as it is... a second chance, I would say?

I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Re: video;

[amicalolafalls]

This... Isn't usually what it looks like when people come back.

[He's taking in the information he's been given, and figures he wasn't too far off then. Some kind of city made up of people being given some kind of second chance at life. How, he wonders, but he doubts he'd get that answer from the girl.]

They mentioned the necklace from the box. That they make us 'real'. Is that what's keeping us like this, instead of...?

[Instead of dead.]

Re: video;

[innocent_royal]

I wouldn't know what anything is supposed to look like when they come back from death. I didn't die in my world, or in this one.

And yes, that is the summary of it. We don't "exist" by Genessia's definition otherwise. So we need the necklaces to appear "normal" and exist as natives.

But we're certainly not deceased.

Re: video;

[amicalolafalls]

Oh.

[That... He thought that might make less sense, actually. Some of the people had died, and some hadn't.]

I'm glad. That you didn't die, I mean. I've... I've seen a lot of death, the past few years.

But I think I understand what you're saying.

Re: video;

[innocent_royal]

I have come close to dying... An awful lot, actually...

If you don't mind my asking, what's happening on your world? ...is it a war?

Re: video;

[amicalolafalls]

I'm sorry. I... I had some pretty close cases too.

[There's a pause, silence on the line while Glenn tries to decide whether this girl needs to know. How to suggest easily that she probably didn't want to know. Eventually, he sighs.]

It's...kind of. People... When they die, they come back, like I told you. But it's not like this. They're not...them anymore. [They eat people, he doesn't say.] They try to hurt people. Kill them, and then those people become like them too. Different people call them a lot of different things. My group - we almost all called them walkers. But...while this was happening everything fell apart. Food and things stopped being produced. Then the people who were still alive started fighting each other, killing each other for what was left. ...I guess it's kind of a few different wars now.

[The whole story was almost soft in a way, like the world's most depressing bedtime story.]

[video]

[tevinteraltus]

[When the video initializes, he looks very thoughtful.]

You make a fine point, but I have one question: are you very certain you were dead before you arrived? Perhaps you're certain of your eminent demise but were then drawn here before it was completed?

[Audio]

[amicalolafalls]

I'm... I'm pretty sure. I can't explain it really, but...

But it stopped. Before I woke up here. I can remember that.

[His breathing sounds shakier now.]

[Audio]

[tevinteraltus]

I...yes. I wager that's rather traumatic. [And I'm an ass. He clears his throat.]

My name is Dorian. I've never known anyone to arrive here post-mortem; however, death has no permanent stay here. I realize that is, most likely, not a comfort. I...apologize. I have it on fairly good authority I was not near death when I arrived, so this being some sort of half-way house for the dead seems unlikely, and I can also assure you we are very real, as is the city. What do you mean by 'untouched'?

Re: [Audio]

[amicalolafalls]

[There's a pause, a few moments where it seems like he's starting to say something before he stops short.] Yeah. [It was the most neutral response he could give.]

Untouched? [He tries to remember what he'd said, and eventually a small noise of comprehension can be heard.] The city isn't destroyed. People live here. There are no broken windows, or abandoned cars, or- or messages written in blood. It's still civilization.

Your turn. Tell me what you mean about death not having a permanent stay here.

[Audio]

[tevinteraltus]

..."or messages written in blood"...Maker's breath, what sort of world do you hail from?

[He clears his throat.] Well, I, thankfully, haven't experienced it first-hand, but, if death should find you here, you are given a choice. You may sacrifice something of import in order to return to the land of the living.

Re: [Audio]

[amicalolafalls]

[There's a breath that could almost be called a laugh. A little hollow, but almost definitely there.]

One where the dead are walking around and people are still our bigger problem? And a couple of those messages were actually among the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

Here... If you do all that they come back the same, right? Not... different. Not something else.

video;

[mrhero]

I think the pod and water brings you back.

[ It's a quiet voice attached. Thoughtful. Was anyone asking for Link's to start sharing theories? Probably not. But the idea that the Bay served a similar purpose to the Shrine of Resurrection has been sticking in his head since he got here. And then not everyone needs 100 years to heal, which is why people from different places don't always wake up together. It makes sense, right?

If he's going to actually open his mouth for once to share the idea, it might as well be at this guy. This guy who sounds like he's tired in a way very few people get to experience. Or maybe he's projecting. ]

So it wouldn't be kidnapping...

[Audio]

[amicalolafalls]

That hologram thing said we were kidnapped. And I mean... If not kidnapping I had to get here somewhere. So... body-snatching?

[It made as much sense as anything else he guessed.]

[mrhero]

Right. Body-snatching. [ A pause. ] But a good kind of body-snatching?

[amicalolafalls]

Not complaining here. Trust me on that.

[He wouldn't be there otherwise. Wouldn't be...anywhere.]

Have you been here long?

[Audio]

[youfool]

[Ted usually chooses Video respones--more personable--but decides there must be some inexplicable reason people choose others. Not looking presentable, perhaps? At any rate, there's a cheery voice on the other line.]

"Aheh, somehow I'd bet good money that you're as alive as any of us. You certainly sound so. Welcome to Genessia, whoever you are. It has its faults but I'm reasonably certain it's better than death. Unless you were on your way to Heaven for being so virtuous; Purgatory is a bit of a downgrade, I'll admit.

I've been here almost three years now and been reasonably attentive during my stay. I might have answers for you!"

Re: [Audio]

[amicalolafalls]

I don't exactly have a lot of experience being dead. All I could do was guess.

[It had made more sense than anything else, after all. It still would.]

If we were brought here... why? I mean, is it supposed to be some kind of Battle Royale? Are there population issues, skills they're looking for? Like... I don't know like hill people kidnapping a doctor from a village because they don't have one.

[Hey. Before the end of the world he'd watched a lot of television.]

Re: [Audio]

[youfool]

Ahehuh, I would hope not.

[He offers commentary on the guesses]

Cold; warmer! Yes, there are certainly a lot of issues with the population. No souls, for one; heartless automata awaiting...we know not what. Not that I advise treating them badly, mind. Ought to be good stewards if nothing else.

Are you familiar with the idiom that ends with "great artists steal"? Genessia and those who manage it would like to be great artists themselves, with life as their painting. As the aforementioned automata might demonstrate, they aren't very good at it, so they'd like us to blaze the trail. I know that's a little abstract and unactionable, but that's the truest I've heard thus far.

You see, Genessia as a whole is largely incapable of solving its own problems, so it's up to us to do it for them, like it or not. Most, unfortunately, do not. I don't know; I find it very flattering to be chosen, however arbitrarily, as a symbol of "Life". Your metaphor is right on the money.