ataraxion | ╰x10╮[text]

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[ This is the most important question he's actually asked in a while. It could be a combination of getting lost down in the ship for weeks, a bad jump. Hard to say, but he spends a decent amount of time typing this out rather than using the voice to text function. ]

yeah so

dead people dont bother me since ive been around them for centuries. and if youre dead that kinda sucks

but how do you get rid of a ghost. is that possible???

because i think i might have a problem

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[ Oh. This guy again, huh? ]

I don't wanna tell it to move anywhere. I just don't need it bothering me.

Yeah? Might want t' be careful with your phrasing, then. Politely asking it t' go... is out for some reason?

I'm not sure that would work. Do they usually listen when you ask?

They can be-- respectful, yeah, listen to reason. That's what I've heard. If it's done politely.

Well, I'm not gonna tell 'em to just fuck off. I wouldn't do that. 'Cause even as a ghost, they still mean a lot to me.

You already knew--

[Him? Her? The right pronoun is important here; even ghosts have a sense of identity, and Mitchell is sensitive to that. (It comes of living with a ghost.)]

--this ghost, personally? Did they come at the Jump?

Yeah, I knew him. [ There's a slightly muffled noise as he shifts and shrugs and sighs. ] And he's gone, so. I dunno how to explain it. Maybe it started at the jump. Can't say for sure.

[...well. That just sounds crazy, not like ghosts at all.]

What d'you mean, he's-- did you do something t' get rid of him, then?

No. [ That comes out a lot sharper than he means it to. ] I mean, uh. No. He went home about two jumps ago.

[That suggests at something sort of-- unpleasant. Maybe. Depending on how it's interpreted--like going home makes you a ghost. And then you take that and add it to that sudden sharpness just there, and-- er. Well. A pause, first.]

But he wasn't a ghost before, when he-- left.

[ He sighs now, frustrated. Because he doesn't feel like explaining this exactly. They're not on the best terms; they're not close enough for that. But Bells has known a couple people to come back and not actually be ghosts. He only assumes it's in his head. Mental ghosts. ]

Everything was fine as far as I could tell, yeah.

We're not getting to the theory that we die when we leave this ship, are we, because that's really unlikely.

[It's something of a joke. Or-- an attempt at one, anyways. If anyone would know that they're not dead, it's an angel that's been to Hell, right? (And Mitchell, too, though he's careful with that information.)]

If he's gone, then your problem's solved anyways, yeah? Might not have been a ghost at all, they tend to last a bit longer, I've heard.

Not unless they're dead from before they come here. [ Because one of his closest friends on the ship deals with that knowledge every day, and it's not a pleasant thing to talk about. ] So if it's not that, what is it then?

Might be a new exciting feature of the ship. I hear we get treated t' those every now and then, and it's been quiet.

[Horrifying, even as he's saying it, he's thinking it's a little horrifying. He knows all about dead people, and ghosts, and people you don't want to see again.]

Oh. [ He's quiet for a while, trying to actually consider that. He's only had one friend in the entire time he's been here come back, and they hadn't been dead or a ghost or some figment of his imagination. ] Well, I dunno if it works like that. The ship likes to fuck with us, sure. But people usually come and go how they are from their own world.

[ He scoffs. ] Maybe I'm losing it.

I'd more go for the ship fucking with you and tryin' t' make you think that you're going mad, but. Maybe. Yeah.

[But he's not really convinced of that, because--well, angels are angels, right? Who knows how their brains and things work. So--rude question here, probably, but he asks it anyways--]

Can you? Er-- lose it, I mean.

Hard to say. Lucifer's an angel, and he kinda, uh. Well, I'm sure you've heard the stories. [ As if that answers the question really. ] So I guess it's not like it couldn't happen.

You're tellin' me Lucifer's fall happened... because he was insane. No offense, but that's a bit of a different version than we get, unless the Church has done some serious redrafting of that one in the last-- hundred years or so.

[..or whenever the last time he had anything to do with bibles and things; whatever. The point is, this is questionable.]

No. He's crazy now. Falling had nothing to do with that. Sort of anyway. [ There's a bit of a scoff. ] I dunno what you've heard, but he was cast out for trying to take over. Didn't like the way things were up top, you know?

Can't blame him for that.

That's, er, sort of what I'd heard, though, yeah. So what's driven him mad, then, just the bein'-in-hell thing? General-- pressures of the job?

I dunno. I'm not friends with the guy. [ There's another pause, and he laughs. ] I really don't think he actually has those, and it's not like you'd wanna get to know him like that anyway.

[He snorts.]

Yeah? Now, is that 'cause he's mental, or because he's the prince of darkness?

Because you'd wish you hadn't ever tried. [ Like that's the obvious answer. ] Why're we talking about this anyway? Not a lot of people are really interested.

I'm not-- interested. [It comes out a bit defensive; he tries again.] You don't think most people are interested in Hell, and all of it, what comes after?

I dunno. I've never really thought about it that way before. Humans care too much about what's gonna happen later and not enough about now.