hadriel | Video

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[a shaky moment as George readies the camera to catch her on the video, technology like this is unheard of in 2003]

So, uh. I've been told that I should get out more. Meet people. I'm not any good at that, so you're just gonna have to--bear with me as I figure this shit out. But I guess I've gotta bite the bullet sometime, right?

[she looks off camera and flushes slightly out of a combination of nerves and embarrassment]

Anyway, I'm George. I'm newish. I have--no fucking idea what I'm doing here. Does anyone? If you do, could you please fill me in.

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was a bad park to start with. only had one honest ride
i don't think it earned beign called an 'amusement' anything if you ask me. but i'm pretty sure there wasn't competiton, which mightve had something to do with that.
[ Disneyland-- does he know that name at all? Not off the top of his head, anyway. Must be something from the surface, which accounts for his confusion. ]
folks back home. don't think they're here, which is probably for the best. keeps them from havng to deal wit this.

sure, abslutely
could always slip up and call somebody the wrong name, nd then you have to fake your own death and move out of the country. or cave as thecase may be.

jokes aside i'd say it' s better to try than just sit around n the dark by yourself. sometimes you gotta give things a shot anyway, yknow? you're doing it right now, and you haven't made a fool of yourself
how about that

Yeah, that's not much of an amusement park. Kinda sort on the amusement part. Probably short on the park part, too.

Don't jinx me. I'll probably trip over someone the next time I'm out in public now.

...I haven't?

by the time i got there? definitely
it was one bighunk of junk. s maybe my opinion of it's not quite accurate, b t i get the feeling it wasn't that great in its heyday.
[ He remembers the audio logs he'd found there, even if he'd prefer otherwise. Somebody had enjoyed it, although it didn't end well for any of them. ]

eh, i dn't think you need to worry that much. there's plenty of other things to trip on down here. no need to limit yourslef to just people

you're doing fine. see? its not that bad!
seems like you've already got the hang of it

That kind of sucks. I mean, people need places to go where they have fun. You know, just do fun things just to do them.
[scary amusement park with things malfunctioning to harm those going there?]

I don't know, it's just--socializing is weird.
Glad someone thinks so.

there were bars, lounges
a park
maybe those wrre good when they were oepn. i came back way, way later. nothing 'fun' stuck around.
[ There had been people sealed inside when the riots cut the power-- supplies hadn't lasted very long from there, and there had been no escape. Even when cut off from the rest of the city, it had suffered the same fate. ]

agreed
place makes it easier in a way? at least fr me it does. typos aside
need to get better at using this damn thing.
[ There's a slight pause as he considers a question-- ]
what is this supposed to be, anyway? guide called it a phone bt it's not like any of thos ive seen, so i'm kinda doubting it.

That kinda sucks. Sounds like maybe it wasn't so bad to begin with.
[that sounds. . . unpleasant]

You and me both. I figured out the video by accident.
I guess it's a phone? It's not like one I've ever seen before, either.

who knows
could've been! dont really have anythign to compare it to, aside from. here i guess. no idea what it's llke now.
[ 'Unpleasant' was certainly a word for it. He'd probably made a mistake in getting inside, but it had to be done, and that was that. ]
what's it l ike where you're from? assuming it's not a giant cave

seen something like the video part before, but i don't have it down pat on this thing yet. probbly wouldn't be real helpful, so it's alright. i'm not much for talkin face-to-face.
[ If there was ever an understatement-- ]
f everybody else calls it that i guess thats what it is. either that or none of us know what the hellw e're talking about, which i suppose is just as likely.

You don't? Well, what did you do for fun back home?
It's pretty normal. Boring. White picket fences and suburban homes featuring a husband, a wife, 2.5 kids, and a dog.

I'm usually not, either, but I figured I had to at least try. See how it went. So far, it's okay.
It's nothing like the cell phones where I come from, but I dunno what else to call it. Maybe this place is in the future?

well
[ Shit, okay. He's got an answer for this that doesn't sound completely weird, he knows it-- ]
no
[ --nailed it. ]
i'll be straight wth you. i have no idea. don't rmmember a damn thing when it comes to what i used to like doing.
i just. worked, guess you cuold say. overtime literally all the time.
[ It's not a lie, but it's not quite the truth, either. That's easier to work with than the genuine article, really. ]

that, uh. sounds nice though
was that how topside was? got ''shown' it was awful in that theme park but i thought that was bullshit. chalk a point up for me if it was 'cause that means i was right

if all the future has in store fr us is a cave, i'd like a refund
or tospeak with the manager if thatt's not something we can do.

Seriously? No fun whatsoever? That sucks. We've got to meet up or something, do something fun. Whatever you think you wanna do.
[she is just. horrified at the thought of no fun being had, ever. granted, she's not any good at being fun, but she's willing to try]

That's how it was where I was at, anyway. And it was pretty much bullshit. My mom and dad could barely tolerate each other. I ignored my little sister and quit college just because I could.

Yeah, I'd say that's only fair.

i'd trust your judgment moret han mine when it comes to fun, for sure
i dont think id be real good at picking out stuff t do. you've done way more than i have.
[ What do people usually do for fun, exactly? Well-- that he can do. Delta takes a few seconds to try and think of a handful of possibilities, although he doesn't come up with a lot. He's never really had the chance to try enjoying himself, and he's having a hard time picking what would be best to go for first. ]

oh
that's a hell of a drag
[ He does mean it in a sympathetic way, even if there's not much inflection there. ]
sppose nothing's 100% solid, huh? no matter ifit seems good.

Yeah, I'm kind of a beginner at this whole "fun" thing. Usually, all I'd do is stick my nose in a book and mope or sit around the house and mope. And then I was dead and I moped. So now I mostly go to the Speakeasy and watch other people have fun.
[George is no better, honestly. she just can't stay shut up in her own room forever, not under these circumstances]

[George gets the sympathy and it makes her feel weird since she knows her own death helped make matters worse between her parents]
Yeah. I guess so. I wasn't around much the last few months.

[ --wait, what. She was dead? That made two of them, although Delta's situation was a bit different. He's got a couple new questions for George, that's for sure-- that, and he's honestly a little more okay with the idea of spilling more of the weird shit now that he knows she's handled something vaguely similar. It's doubtful that anything's going to line up perfectly, but it's an unusual thing to have in common, so he's alright with that. ]

you died?
shit, i didn't knkw you got to hang out afterward. may be you got lucky? 'cause i just had a whole lot of nothing for a while til i came back.
[ The absence of anything wasn't too big of a change from his 'life' beforehand, so he wasn't too terribly upset about that part. Other aspects of his first death, though? Those still rankled, particularly now that he had a mind to think of them. ]

sorry t hear that.
this cave's kind of a secnd chance, then? no sunlight, though. wish there was.
[ It'd be nice to get to see it properly, but-- no dice. ]

[she most certainly did die. then she became a Grim Reaper. she's been exposed to a lot of weird shit involving death.]

Sure did. Then, I got the good news that I was being forced to be a Grim Reaper. Which is why I was able to hang around--had to be there to take those souls, after all.
You died, too? And you didn't go anywhere or see anything?
[one of George's few consolations in reaping souls was that theoretically, she was sending them to a better place. the idea she could have been sending them to nothing is horrifying to her]

One for both of us. I mean it, though, we'll have to meet sometime and find something to do that's fun. And the sun would be nice.

that's. hell of a job, there. howd you get stuck wth it?
[ Did that make the afterlife a real thing, or? He feels like he should be a little jealous, but from the way George talks about it, it probably wasn't that much of an improvement. ]
nope. did it twice and i'm still not sre if i missed out on somethnig. what can you do, though.
[ Aside from...not much of anything, that is. Delta doesn't think dying again is the best answer, anyway. ]

yknow what, i'll takke you up on that
between the two of us we oughta be able t othink of something to do. right? even if we're both bad at it.

All Reapers have a quota of souls to take. When you fill the quota, the unlucky schmuck you just reaped gets the job.
[the afterlife is real, but George couldn't tell you what it's like. she assumes it's better than what she has to put up with, but since she can't go there, she can't be sure]
Wait a second, you died twice? Who did you piss off?
[George would've preferred to not die at all]

Exactly. And I am bad at it, just warning you.

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