[voice, ota]

[wingfic]

Okay.

[There's a sense of low-level frustration from this telepathic broadcast, as though someone has been roused from a state of lassitude by something that turned out to be very, very annoying.]

Does anyone here know what the fuck is going on?

Comments

[enflame]

( He may or may not be broadcasting this while staring out from under his hut bed at a spirit vaguely moving around outside in the sandy area. It's not fucking with him but he's still Very Warry, despite his lizard child trying to wriggle out of his clutches to go zap at the thing. )

I don't know! There are blue people floating around everywhere!

( Captain Obvious In The House )

[wingfic]

Well, duh!

[Yes, she's . . . been spending the last ten minutes trying to wave a child spirit away from leftover Aimintas snacks.]

What I want to know is why.

[enflame]

( Is it her fault for expecting people on the "network" to have answers, or Emil's for answering a question he doesn't have the answer to? )

Ask the stupid witch or something! Ugh...I thought only home had weird ghost-spirit things!

[wingfic]

Like she ever talks to us.

[Wait, there was something kind of important, or at least mildly interesting, in that.]

You have spirits in your world too?

[enflame]

Yes...I'm not an expert, but they're there, I guess.

( His friend could probably fill you in on those a little more, Emil's not very religiously inclined. )

Those make noise, though...! These are just standing around ominously! What does it want, out there?

[wingfic]

. . . this one just wants snacks.

[Which are hers, thank you very much.]

They don't seem to be here for anything. Which is weird. Usually when spirits cross over, they want something, don't they?

[enflame]

It just wants to eat?

( Well, that's probably what he'd do if he was dead and then alive again. Actually, that sounds like a good point to him. )

Well, maybe they just want to keep living life. Like they used to...?

( Which actually makes him feel better about the whole thing. )

[wingfic]

But why are they here all of a sudden? Shouldn't they be in the land of the dead or something?

[enflame]

You would think. This world's gone crazy as of late. A few days ago I was walking through someone's dream, and now there's a dead person walking on the beach.

( Said with an exasperated tone that clearly showcases how done he is. )

[wingfic]

[Ugh.]

This shouldn't happen. Aren't there any actual mages around? People who can tell us how whatever separates the realms got screwed up?

Besides Qri. She never tells us anything.

[enflame]

My friend is a mage, but I don't know how much he can do about things like this with his...mageness sealed away on this ridiculous island.

At least these spirits don't seem to be doing much, even if I do wish they weren't here at all.

[wingfic]

Yeah, I guess.

[She doesn't really want to concede that anything is good about this situation, but he has a point.]

Do you think he'd know if something was really wrong, though?

[dawninglight]

[there's a frazzled response; someone is still getting used to the telepathy, and focusing her thoughts into a sentence is a struggle with the added distractions.]

I was sort of wondering the same thing. Not exactly in those words, but close. Has this happened before?

[wingfic]

No. [But after a pause:] Not as long as I've been here, at least. The dead usually stay where they're supposed to be.

[dawninglight]

[sighing, a little...]

I thought meeting ghosts would be more exciting than this. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if everything else wasn't happening too.

[wingfic]

You wanted to meet ghosts?

[dawninglight]

I wasn't exactly planning on it, but I thought it would be interesting to meet one just once!

This is much more than I expected it to be, though.

[wingfic]

Well, yeah. There's supposed to be . . . a veil between the worlds, or something.

[dawninglight]

I haven't heard it phrased like that before, but maybe that veil was torn back somehow. Do you know if it's possible to do such a thing?

[wingfic]

. . . yeah. It is. But it takes some pretty strong magic, I think.

[dawninglight]

Magic that we don't have, unless we're counting Qri. So maybe it's accidental and not something intentional?

[equivalence]

More ridiculous bullshit.

[Helpful as always.]

Whatever it is, doesn't look like it should be possible. Souls shouldn't be able to exist in unattached, disembodied states. So it's got to be some sort of trick.

[He might be taking some of this personally.]

[wingfic]

Maybe in your world. We had ghosts too. They just usually need some kind of magic to appear in this world.

[She's a bit fuzzy on the details, but magic is definitely involved.]

[equivalence]

So ghosts in your world is normal?

[He'd repeat "more ridiculous bullshit" but for once in his life he's going to try not to immediately make enemies. That's personal growth is what that is.

But the thing is, what is dead is dead and there is nothing you can do to change that. It's a painful lesson Edward learned, so the ghost thing hits him the wrong way.]

Did you have 'magic' in your world too?

[wingfic]

I didn't. Other people did.

[She doesn't really count the shapeshifting.]

[equivalence]

But it's something that exist. Anything like the way it does here?[If it makes her feel any better, Edward wouldn't count that as magic either. That he's seen before, in his world. Alchemy. Twisted alchemy. But regardless, not magic in his mind.]

[wingfic]

No. You have to learn spells, you don't just magically have them. And mages can do different types of magic, not just one.

[equivalence]

Can anyone learn them? Or does it take a certain skill or something?

[Sorry for the interview. Edward is trying to get a handle on this world and the worlds Qri drags people in from. Also he's basically always more curious and nosy than he should be.]

[wingfic]

[There's a noncomittal feeling coming across the link, a sort of telepathic shrug.]

Some people are better at it than others, just like anything else. I don't really know. It's all a lot of books and studying.

[equivalence]

[Books and studying sound right up Ed's alley.]

That makes a lot more sense than just randomly being able to do something.

Er... sorry. Guess I got off topic. What's going on right now, think it's going to wind up dangerous?

[Or is that just Edward being a cynic.]

[wingfic]

I don't know. You'd think she'd tell us, if it was something dangerous.

But the dead aren't supposed to just be walking around like this. They have their own realm.

[The last time the dead crossed over into the waking realm, things got decidedly hairy.]

[equivalence]

Would she? I don't know if I have much faith in someone who kidnapped me and my brother and refuses to show her face to have my best interests at heart.

But you're right. The dead are dead. Whatever is going on isn't right. Maybe they aren't ghosts.

[wingfic]

They look like ghosts.

And I don't trust Qri, but if we die, she's wasted all that energy bringing us here.

[equivalence]

They look like people out of phase with their surroundings. Depending on how we're brought here, maybe it's like an incomplete transportation. Or some echo...

I dunno. Depends how much energy that takes, and how useful and how disposable we are. People pick flowers knowing full well they're going to wither in a few days.

[wingfic]

Or they could be ghosts, and the veil between the worlds could be down for some reason. Magic can do that.

[She's not touching the stuff about Qri yet. He has a point, but . . . . ]

[equivalence]

Maybe it's me, but I don't want to believe that. Some veils aren't meant to be lifted. And life and death are too dangerous to mess with, without awful consequences.

[wingfic]

Yeah, well.

If it's dangerous, isn't it better to figure that out now?

[equivalence]

It's better to have the truth, either way. And no matter what I want the truth to be won't change what it actually is.

If it's dangerous, yeah. Better to know sooner then later.

[wingfic]

. . . So what do we do, if it's dangerous? I don't know anything about spirits.

[equivalence]

There are enough of us here that someone might have seen something like this before.

And barring that, I guess we stay on guard. Stick together.

[wingfic]

Yeah. I was hoping someone who knew about spirits would answer this, but I guess not. Maybe no one here does.

. . . I guess we can stick together for now, though.

[Although she doesn't sound like she likes the idea that much.]

[equivalence]

No luck, huh? Figures.

At least we've all got some common ground to work with -- co-abductees and all. Something like that anyway.

[wingfic]

Yeah.

. . . I'm Tara-Fay.

[equivalence]

Edward Elric.

Good to meet you, as much as you can call this meeting.

[soulcomet]

I don't know, but it's awful. There isn't really anywhere to hide, either.

["hey, Madoka, do you believe in ghosts?"

"D…don't talk about scary things!"]

[wingfic]

. . . are you scared of ghosts?

[That hadn't even occurred to her.]

Mine just wants snacks.

[soulcomet]

No!

[Madoka, stop lying.]

I mean ... I know I shouldn't be afraid of them, logically, but...

I think I'd rather just stay in my hut for now.

[wingfic]

Uh. Okay.

They're not going to hurt you. I mean, probably.

[Very reassuring.]