hadriel | 001 [video]

[Jack's parked himself, where else, in Delight's bar, and even though he's halfway through the bottle in front of him, he's still composed. It's equal parts troubling and impressive...his reputation for being a party prince back home was well-earned.]

At least one of the gods here has good taste in alcohol. That's more than I can say for the god of my father. I think he prefers sweet wine and the blood of lambs or bulls...

[He waves his hand dismissively before taking another drink. He doesn't want to talk about sacrifice, or even think about it. But he's not shying away from the subject of blood.]

I'm here to ask where I can find training with the weapons in the armory. I served in the military of my world, but we were somewhat more...advanced with our weapons - which really just means we grew impatient with the time it took us to kill a great number of people, so we came up with tanks and guns. But since there are actual monsters here and I can't burst into flames or shoot ice daggers from my eyes, I'd like to master something as quickly as possible.

[And he doesn't find the up-close and personal aspect of if to be as distasteful as he might've thought. Maybe because he'll be killing monsters and not someone's son, though there are instances where he thinks the two can overlap.]

I'll be in your debt. [And the sobering way that he says those words show just how seriously Jack takes them. But it's followed by his lips curving into a smirk.] And in exchange, I'll also bring the tastiest monsters right to your doorstep. The ugly ones taste just like chicken.

[But they don't stay down as easily, not unless you're the youngest Stark girl.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Used it on me. Well, it wasn't a knife, but.

... Um, I have a body here, living a breathing and all that, but back home I've been dead for seven years. How about you?

Is that how long you've been here?

[He hadn't been entirely serious when he thought he'd arrived in hell, but he wasn't entirely joking either. Now he's wondering again.]

I was placed in a tomb, still alive, but still breathing.

Oh. [Noah's eyes widen a little with concern.] Did you get out? Like, back home or... did you come right here?

Um, I've been here... a few months now. Away from home for more than a year.

I came here. The air is less perfumed but much fresher.

[He smiles faintly at Noah's look of concern. It's appreciated. But something about his sacrifice is still bothering him.]

What happened during those other years? [I have a body here.] Did you haunt a house?

[Well, Noah's still worried about you Jackie boy and that concern is written all over his face but he'll let it go for now.]

Not a house. People. Sort of a general place.

I had something still to do, so I stuck around until I managed it. It mostly involved the same location, give or take a couple dozen miles.

[Noah never really manifested outside of their part of Virginia that the ley line covered the ghosts of on St Mark's Day. It was less a matter of 'could' as it was a matter of 'never needed to so never found out'.]

It sounds lonely.

[You don't have to be dead to be lonely, but Jack always assumed death would be an end to that. He thinks of a certain someone, the idea that he lingers instead of finding peace...]

Did you ever find the person who did it to you?

[Noah smiles sadly at that question.]

I never lost him. He was my best friend.

[He feels like he should've seen that coming, but it's not exactly the sort of thing a normal person would expect from a best friend.]

Tell me he suffered for it.

[Give it some sort of 'happy' ending, even if it's only a happy one for someone vicious like Jack.]

He was already suffering. That’s what made him desperate enough to do what he did. But yes, he did eventually die. Just recently.

[Noah siiiighs.]

Honestly, it was his own fault. If he could have just let it go he could have survived but that was never the kind of person he was.

You sound almost forgiving.

[Which confuses him, but forgiveness has never been one of his finer qualities. For example, he doesn't even know that man, and he's still glad that he died.]

Did he become a ghost too?

He was my friend.

[Enough so that Noah still considers Whelk a friend even after everything that happened. He also still considers Whelk his murderer. He's still got the bone-deep stain of fear on his soul so that when any kind of trigger for it is made manifest it's always Whelk, and half the time he's there for the happy memories too.

Noah doesn't think they were that close before Noah died - but after, that's all he really has left. Those eleven minutes when he went from living to dead.]

He didn't. I had ... special circumstances that he didn't have. It's weird because like... He was my friend. I would have been happier if he could have let go and walked away, then he'd still be alive. But I also understand that he did need to die. I don't know, 'forgiveness' never really seemed a part of it. I don't think it was an important thing to me when I was ghosting it up.

Maybe the dead aren't as petty. Or maybe you were just a better person in life too.

[Yeah, that's closer to what he believes.]

[That at least gets a bit of a laugh, a nice change from the heavy conversation.]

No, I was worse, I'm pretty sure. Like... not a bad person, but I don't think I was very good either. I lost a lot of myself when I died.

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