video

[aglonby]

[ the feed comes on to show a boy with very tall hair and a much shorter girl with scratches on her face over her eye, one looking rather cheerful and the other less so. ]

Hi hi hi everyone, I have an important question. [ he holds up a finger, tilts his head as if a thought had just occurred to him. he's so preoccupied he was going to launch himself into his spiel without even introducing himself. ] I'm being rude. I am Henry Cheng, and we were wondering —

[ the not so tall and in fact very short girl interrupts. ] We're looking for someone we know! [ she pulls a little face, looking over at Mr. Henry Cheng. ] A few people, actually. [ okay, maybe that was a little rude. she murmurs something unintelligible and takes a step back. please, proceed. ]

And that was my lovely friend Blue. [ he gestures with a flourish toward her, shoots her a wink, absolutely unbothered by the interruption or her outburst. ] As she said, we are looking for someone. Multiple someones. I'm sure this place has a list of sorts, yes? A quick way to CTRL-F a friend's name and find out their status?

[ he looks a bit more serious, then, like underneath the cheerfulness he's exhausted. his next words are very earnest. ]

We would appreciate any info. Thank you.

[ in the background, Blue begins tromping away, shedding dead leaves for some reason, and can be vaguely heard to say 'maybe we should've mentioned Gansey by name' before the video ends. ]

Comments

[brushoff]

[ Adam haaaaaaaates him. ]

You've got to understand, back in my world, beings like myself aren't active. Vampires, sirens, immortals, most people simply don't know about things like that. It's in my best interest to stay relatively under the radar.

[ here though....fuck all that subtle jazz ]

[oceiteres]

[ Yeah, she can see it. ]

You can help people without revealing who you are or getting credit for it.

[ Blue is very small and has to travel very far to get up on her high horse, but by golly. She'll do it, buster. ]

[brushoff]

[ see Blue but that involves dealing with people. ] I fought a necromancer once, back home. Suppose that counts.

[ necromancers are always bad news, that's a point in his column, right? right. ]

[oceiteres]

[ Yes, so it does. Actual human people. Er, generally speaking? She can't really talk.... ]

Do you help people here? With your gifts?

[brushoff]

My abilities are inherently selfish—part of the terms and conditions, I'm afraid. I'm immortal and I can heal myself. I can't heal others, I can't transfer immortality or something like that. So really the next time you decide to judge something you don't know about, at least ask a few more questions to gain a better baseline. You'll look smarter that way.

[ blue "judgey mcjudgeface" sargent. ]

[oceiteres]

I already got a good baseline, thanks. There's plenty of ways to help with your gifts. You could literally run into burning buildings to save people. You'd probably be a really good life guard, if you can swim. Security? You'd be great at that too. Say someone got lost in a snowstorm. You could help with that. I mean, if you can survive a bomb going off, there's tons of things you can do.

[ Dorian "selfish mcsnobface" Gray. ]

[brushoff]

I still feel pain, you know. Just because I can survive a bomb going off doesn't mean I want to.

[oceiteres]

[ Ugh, she hates it when she has to eat her words. ]

Well. I'm sorry about that. [ Look, being a jerk is no reason to suffer. ] I don't think you'd have to put yourself in danger to help though.

[brushoff]

Half the things you listed involved me getting hurt in the first place!

[ gosh, blue. :| ]

[oceiteres]

Well, I can think of plenty that wouldn't! [ Gee. Come over here so she can toss leaf litter at you. ]

[brushoff]

And some are...? [ come on Blue, name some, gosh. ]

[oceiteres]

[ Don't be so demanding! She's thinking! ]

I bet you could help out charitable causes a lot more than someone with an average lifespan. And you'd have more time to learn new things that could help people.

[brushoff]

Right, help out charitable causes by...living. [ his tone is so deadpan it HURTS. ]

[oceiteres]

[ Not her, she has plant armor to hide behind. Or a bunch of desiccated leaves. Same difference, right? ]

If you're going to live forever, I'd get concerned about what kind of world you're going to be living in.

[brushoff]

Why? I know I can survive whatever it throws at me.

[oceiteres]

Yes, you said that, but something tells me you'd like to live comfortably. [ Possibly pointing out the business about how he can still feel pain? Could be? ]

[brushoff]

That's where the richness and the good pedigree come in. [ being rich solves a lot of problems, yo. ]

[oceiteres]

[ Mark this moment down as the moment of no return. Blue gives the screen a rather withering look. ] Money doesn't solve everything. [ Some months younger Blue would've added: 'I bet even you aren't rich enough to buy a new planet. Though who knows, by the time it dies, I guess you could be. Especially if you keep all that money to yourself.' This Blue actually does not. ]

[brushoff]

No, but it does a damn good job of solving most problems. [ and that Dorian's learned straight up from first hand experience. ]

[oceiteres]

Lucky for people who have it then. [ Said a bit coolly. Or a lot. Is the Arctic cool? ]

[brushoff]

[ a cool that Dorian just MASSIVELY MISINTERPRETS ] Don't worry about any lack of funds in this universe—it's entirely too easy to get back on your feet, especially if you're registered.

[oceiteres]

[ She half-squints, half-glares at the screen. ] Are you registered?

[brushoff]

Indeed I am. [ free stuff, yo. ] But I hardly buy into the party line.

[oceiteres]

You don't believe in what they're doing, but you go along with it? That's pragmatic. [ She says "pragmatic" like it's a synonym for "that gross thing I found on the bottom of my shoe the other day." ]

[brushoff]

I'm never one to turn away a free meal. Registration comes with room, board, a little bit of a stipend, and a whole host of other benefits. If you don't give an ideological damn one way or the other, why not register?