( ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ )

[mantlepieces]

[ It's dark -- mostly because it's late, but there aren't an excess of lights on, either -- though Reggie's face is faintly illuminated by the light of his communicator screen and also something off-screen that might be a TV or bedside light. Either way, he's recognizable enough, and though he's smirking faintly his expression is otherwise somewhat blank.

He's been staying out of most of the current drama as best as any survival-oriented, cowardly narcissist can, which is pretty damn well. All things considered. Basically he hasn't been leaving the house if he can avoid it, for which has his reasons. ]

So, all right. Hear me out. Anyone else ever noticed how once you're here, you have to just start believin' in everything? Like that any kinda crap is possible and you just gotta get used to it... after a while you don't even have to think about it anymore. [ Which is, you know, nice. In his opinion. ] Nice thing about that is not having to worry so much about whatever happens, I think. No matter how bad things have gotten here, it's never been the end of the world.

... Well, not yet. [ And his brow crinkles at that, but only briefly. ] Kinda makes you think, huh? Like what's the best way to take advantage of being stuck in some world that actually takes okay care of us? Don't even bother arguing with me about that part, it's true and everyone oughta know it. We get a lot of free, fake time to kill being here, so I say it should be obvious: we can do whatever we can't do back where we came from. Anyway, what I actually wanna know is--

Anyone here made a bucket list yet?

Comments

[deadtective]

There's a lot of shit that's more unpredictable than magic, though, to be fair.

[mantlepieces]

like what? life and death?

[deadtective]

No way, that's predictable as fuck. I mean things like how much other people are going to fuck you over, or your bus being late, or if plagues from other worlds will suddenly sweep across the nation.

[mantlepieces]

ugh

[ He also says "ugh" out loud without really thinking about it. ]

thats basically the same thing. life and death. I hate thinking about kind of depressing crap when I dont have to

[deadtective]

Not really. The general idea of life and all forms of death are simple. There's not much about them that you don't see coming.

[mantlepieces]

people fucking u over and buses coming late r part of life though

"thats life," thats the saying. or "shit happens."

[deadtective]

That's living. Life is different.

[mantlepieces]

oh right. my bad. how could I miss the HUGE DIFFERENCE between life and living, ur obviously the expert

[deadtective]

They didn't give me that degree in semantics for nothing.

[she knows a lot about it, actually, but she can't say it outright since it ties so tightly to the fact that she's not a part of life anymore. oh well.]

But if you can't tell it apart then there's really no point in telling you. You're probably fucking up at least one of them right now.

[mantlepieces]

[ He's probably the opposite; the less he knows the better, in his opinion. ]

considering Im still alive I think Im doing fine, the bar isnt exactly high up there

[deadtective]

I don't know. I've seen some things that were alive that probably wished they weren't.

[like her.]

[mantlepieces]

[ A pause. ]

easy ways to fix that

[deadtective]

You'd think that, wouldn't you?

[mantlepieces]

yeah I would, cuz its TRUE

[deadtective]

For some people, maybe. But it's not always that simple.

[mantlepieces]

well obviously

thats usually why its a choice in the first place. minds either change, or they dont

[deadtective]

I don't mean like that. I mean - sometimes it's not so easy to actually do it, like in a literal rather than emotional sense.

[mantlepieces]

how the hell does that happen

cant be very often

[deadtective]

Have you seen some of the people wandering around here?

[mantlepieces]

do u mean cuz people dont stay dead here?

[deadtective]

That and the superpowers. I'm sure a bunch of people have stupid levels of invulnerability or something.

[mantlepieces]

yeah but

[ He pauses. ]

I didnt really think about that

I didnt figure a whole lotta people would be here trying either though

[deadtective]

There's a pretty big group of weirdos here; it wouldn't surprise me if there were a couple of people considering it.

[or people who should be, but she doesn't want to dwell on her cowardice any more than she absolutely has to so Hazel just brushes that aside.]

And you never know what's going to happen anyway.

[mantlepieces]

[ Him either, really. Better not to dwell. ]

I guess

everyone wants different things

[deadtective]

I guess. You could probably bullshit some abstract thing about how it's all the same deep down, but fuck that.