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[rathercommon]

So - all right.

[ Young Miss Kathleen Jones has the good grace to look embarrassed as she's making this post, because it is very embarrassing. And yet this is sort of a question that needs to be asked, because she hasn't really seen anyone asking it. Even though it's sort of... ]

We've never really managed to figure out why we were the ones who ended up here, have we. I mean - it's pretty clear that the Porter, or Lachesis, or whatever it was that brought us here, didn't just pick at random. So obviously there's got to be some reason why it's us. And I've sort of noticed -

[ She makes an awkward little gesture of her hand. ]

I mean - No one really talks about it, but you can just look around and see...

[ Another embarrassed little wave of her hand, and that embarrassed little wave finally gives her courage enough to just go for it: ]

Has anyone else noticed that we're all ridiculously good-looking? This isn't a joke post, I'm not trying to be funny - It's completely improbable, just how attractive we all are. I'm not just talking about humans, either. I'm not being human-centric, I don't think. Because I know that there are a lot of non-humans here who are uncommonly gorgeous by their species' standards. And so it's just...

[ She falters. Her face is decidedly pink with embarrassment. ]

Anyway. I don't know. I just wanted to know if anyone's looked into it at all. This is really a serious question, I swear.

Comments

video ABDUXEL...............

[rathercommon]

[ The terminology is new to her; she could figure out what he was asking if she gave it some thought, but in the moment she instead asks: ]

A ten...What?

[abduxel]

[He patiently repeats, smiling.]

Out of ten.

[rathercommon]

[ ...oh. She flushes a little bit. ]

All right - first, rating scales are completely bloody awful, and people who are using them clearly have a very wrongheaded approach to evaluating others. And second -

[ Eurgh. ]

I'm quite pretty, yeah. I'm not going to quantify how pretty, but I am.

[abduxel]

[He pauses, looking at the screen thoughtfully. As if he just ignored the first line,]

Well, based on this -- [he gestures a box around his shoulders and head, indicating that, you know, he can't see her body] -- I'd say ten out of ten. Good for you. [He smiles.]

[rathercommon]

Ugh.

[ That's a really firm pronouncement, firm and pointed. ]

Leave off or I'm going to find you and punch you right in the nose so hard that you'll turn into a negative three out of ten. I'm asking seriously. It's a serious question.

[abduxel]

[He puts his palms up in surrender and laughs.] All right, all right, I'm just pulling your chain. I have to admit that I've noticed the biased selection as well.

[rathercommon]

[ Eurgh, finally. Still a little crossly: ]

Good. Any thoughts on why it might be so?

[abduxel]

Maybe the Porter is a fan of eye-candy. Our collective beauty will save America because the Ruskies will be too enamoured to bomb us.

[rathercommon]

[ She treats that like it's a serious response. ]

But the Porter also doesn't seem to care much about saving America, does it. Think about all the really horrid, destructive people that have been brought here.

[abduxel]

Well, maybe the Porter wants to crush the Ruskies, then. After all, the best defence is a good offence.

[rathercommon]

Stop calling them Ruskies. That's quite offensive, you know.

[abduxel]

Is it? I'm sorry, I died in the twenties. The world has gone on without me. [He seems honest, but not remorseful.]

[rathercommon]

[ ...well, she didn't expect THAT response. ]

You...died in the twenties. Are you not human, then?

[abduxel]

[He looks faintly surprised, and then backpedals.]

Oh, no, no, I'm human, you know how the porter is. Lights out, then I'm here.

[He smirks.] It's been an adjustment, but, you know, I'm learning.

[rathercommon]

Sure.

[ She nods indulgently, then continues on: ]

Because I've talked with ghosts before. A lot of them were a bit self-conscious, but there's nothing wrong with it. An afterlife can be just as rich as a regular life, I think. Just in case you feel that way at all.

[abduxel]

[She doesn't believe him, but she thinks he's a ghost rather than a demon... that's okay for now. But he remembers someone telling him about net security and that somehow other people can find and read this. If he just switches to private now, people will think he stopped replying and that he is a ghost, which conflicts with the lies he's told... a lot of people.]

I'm alive. [Uh.] Sort of. I mean, look - [he shows his hands] - I have a heartbeat and everything. And, apparently, I am ridiculously good-looking. Enough to bring back from the dead.

[This isn't better, actually, since he told a lot of people he's immortal. Oh, well, hopefully they have better things to do than read the network.]

[rathercommon]

[ She tilts her head to the side - but then, after a moment, accepts this with a nod. ]

I guess I have met a few people like that - who were dead back home, but perfectly alive here. Taken from just after they died, as far as they know. The very next moment.

[ It's just weird...Psychologically, it's weird. The world went on without me doesn't sit right with her. Because all the others - they don't perceive time having passed. Not in the same way. They talk like any others who were pulled into the future - not time progressed, but different world. It's weird... ]

I imagine it was the same for you?

[abduxel]

[He does speak of it like it was long ago, a telltale flaw in his lying that will probably continue to undermine it.]

Yep, just like that. One moment, I was bleeding out on the ground, and the next, I was being conscripted as a super hero. You've never died before? I don't strongly recommend it, but it isn't so bad, really.

[rathercommon]

[ Without any real joy: ]

A bit too good at surviving for that.

[ Still. One fingernail taps thoughtfully on the table in front of her. ]

How did you die? Bleeding out, you said.

[abduxel]

Oh, yeah? Just a survivalist, or do you have healing abilities or something?

I was stabbed. A lot.

[rathercommon]

Something like that.

[ Hmm. ]

Can I ask who stabbed you?

[abduxel]

So mysterious, aren't you?

I don't remember their names. I'd only met them that day. I might have made some bad life choices.

[rathercommon]

Yeah, so mysterious.

[ If you say that sarcastically, it'll be scathing, right? ]

Anyway - what sorts of life choices?

[abduxel]

Mostly, cheating at cards. Bad idea, I learned, especially in the company of the sort of shady people I used to hang around with.

[rathercommon]

And so you were found out. And killed.