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

[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?

[oceiteres]

[ That's too practical. ]

I'd need to know more about what the "party line" actually entails before I said more, I guess. [ She shrugs aggressively. ] If something's hurtful, it doesn't matter if it doesn't hurt me personally, I still wouldn't want to do it without a good reason.

[brushoff]

Really, the government here seems more incompetent than outright hurtful.

[oceiteres]

So that's going to be familiar at least. [ Yay. ]