001; video;

[goodtobebad]

[ The person on the video looks like he's trying way too hard to look casual. Dressed in black, with red hair that clearly has a lot of product in it, and sunglasses on indoors which just make him look like even more of a tool, he's sprawled lazily on a sofa. He sounds British*. ]

So, being kidnapped to another dimension is great and all, yippee, just what I wanted this week, good to see America is just as tedious in this dimension as in mine, but - there's really only one question worth asking, here.

Where can I get a decent drink?





[ *He's not, since Hell isn't in Britain. ]

Comments

[dragony]

[ There's a pause before she answers. Her expression — mostly serious, a touch bored — doesn't change much, but there's a slight cant to the way she looks at the communicator feed and the camera.

Her tone doesn't change, either. Still level, and polite, and a little bit distant. ]

You're not human. [ It's not a question. ] Were you only made to look like one, when you arrived here, or is this your usual appearance?

[goodtobebad]

Oh, I usually look like this. When I’m human-shaped.

[ Shrug! ]

[dragony]

Take care, then. Sometimes those who aren't human are made different, when they arrive here. The way your body works, the strengths you may have possessed. They might be stronger. Might be weaker.

You might not be even half as difficult to destroy, as you were before. So, you may want to verify for yourself, that you're still the same as you remember.

[ She doesn't MEAN for it to sound like a threat. ]

[goodtobebad]

[ He smiles faintly. ]

Eh, I'm not too worried. This body is as destructible as a human body is, mostly. It's just that destroying the physical shell doesn't actually kill me - which, from what I hear, is basically what happens to all imports here, even the ones who were mortal back home. A discorporation.

[dragony]

Hmm. It's not a term I've heard used for it, but it sounds about right. Though, it is possible to be killed, and not be brought back. Sometimes the dead stay dead.

It's a lot more irritating, that kind of uncertainty.

[goodtobebad]

Humans have always had to deal with the uncertainty of their own mortality.

[ Crowley pauses a beat. ]

They tend to either have sex or get into fights when faced with it.

[dragony]

Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

[ She shrugs. ]

Personally, I'm more concerned about the mortality of others. There are some that, in anticipating their immortality, only use it to feed their immorality.

It gets very tedious.

[goodtobebad]

Oooh, good one, I've got a friend who'd love to borrow that phrase.

[ He smirks a bit. ]

Sounds like you've got a mission.

[dragony]

I wouldn't call it a mission. I'm no hero, or vigilante, or anything.

I just live here, that's all. I would like to keep it that way.

[goodtobebad]

Interesting. Some of you have been here for - what, a few years?

[dragony]

That's right. The first of us arrived to this world five years ago.

[goodtobebad]

I've always appreciated the adaptability of mortals. I mean, I suppose they'd have to be, with how short-lived they are.

[dragony]

After all, what other choice is there?

[goodtobebad]

Well, yes, exactly. They've managed quite a bit, considering their limitations. It's very impressive. They could still be squabbling about in caves, you know?

[dragony]

In some worlds, we might still be. With everyone coming from so many different histories, that kind of possibility must exist too, right?

[goodtobebad]

I suppose it must. I mean, this dimension doesn't seem too different from mine, and in mine humans only came out of the caves maybe three thousand years ago. Not long at all.

[dragony]

Three?

[ There's an incredulous crack in her voice, expression going wide-eyed and bright for startled laughter. ]

You're serious, aren't you? Jeez, that's really late.

[goodtobebad]

[ He's also possibly just 1. an immortal who is 2. bad at maths and 3. sometimes takes absurdly long naps. ]

...Might've been four thousand. Look, the point is, the first couple of millennia were pretty boring, all things considered.

[dragony]

That's still pretty late. The place I'm from is a little unusual, but we already had proper civilizations, like, ten thousand years ago.

[ This is also a stupid bullshit number as far as real history goes, but that's just how it be sometimes. ]

[goodtobebad]

The Earth that I'm from is only six thousand years old, give or take.

[ So, as a proportion of the age of the universe, it's not actually that bad! ]

[dragony]

Huh. Did your world... skip, pre-human history? I mean, I suppose I'm assuming your Earth is at least a little like this one.

[goodtobebad]

Didn't skip anything. In the beginning, let there be light, all that.

Prehistory is a joke. Literally, God thought it'd be funny.

[dragony]

Mmm. Well, I suppose you'll have that in common, with this world. The strange sense of humor of the powers that be.

[goodtobebad]

Unknowable beings tend to be that way, yeah. I'm not surprised in the least.