Stone of Farspeech | LifeAftr IC Contact

[eudaimonikos]

[Can't leave an answering machine message on these things, but hit him up! He barely sleeps!]

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voice;

[bibliophilicbells]

[Enter one very excited-sounding angel, who is trying his very best not to sound as excited as he is.]

I found him!

[Pause.]

...just thought you'd like to know.

[eudaimonikos]

Oh!

[It's a good thing these don't do video calls, because Michael is suddenly and intensely jealous!

But he knows, logically, that it's not a zero-sum game like that. Aziraphale having a friend here doesn't relate at all to Michael not having one.]

That's great! I - [wait, new demon arrivals] - ohhhh, was it Crowley?

[bibliophilicbells]

Yes! [The sound of an excited clap carries over the line.] I heard that you met him, wasn't sure if you connected the dots.

[eudaimonikos]

[Well, he mostly didn't because of wibbly-wobbly RP time, but - ]

It's possible I came on a little strong at first.

[bibliophilicbells]

[But who's counting, eh?

Aziraphale's tone changes some. Takes on an edge like, Please don't tell me you were rude, because then I will have to personally fight you.]

"Strong"? How so?

[eudaimonikos]

I just told him I'd stop him if he went after any of the mortals around here!

[Honestly, it was real similar to how he started things with Aziraphale, if a lot more emphatic on account of Demon]

And I may have tried to pull rank.

[bibliophilicbells]

[Aziraphale makes a face to himself. The first thing, well, that tracks.

But — rank. And Michael had mentioned something about a promotion, hadn't he?]

Where do... Architects, you said? — rank in the grand scheme of things?

[eudaimonikos]

There's different levels, but all Architects are at least middle management. I got promoted to senior staff, the day before my boss caught me smuggling humans and realized I'd been faking my reports for three hundred years - it was actually pretty funny, in hindsight.

[bibliophilicbells]

[Faking reports.

It's probably good that Michael can't see exactly how funny that is, to Aziraphale.]

Ah. I imagine your attempt with Crowley fell short?

[Crowley must've known, right away, that Michael isn't... like either of them, not really.

And even if not, Crowley is Crowley.]

[eudaimonikos]

I think things went okay, after we realized we were both threatening each other over the same thing.

[Michael doesn't feel bad for it, exactly; that's just demon talk. A little sheepish, perhaps, that he was so gung-ho when it wasn't needed.]

I never did tell him I don't work for Hell anymore. It's not - I don't just go around trusting other demons. Guess I could bring it up, though.

[bibliophilicbells]

You can trust him.

[Aziraphale takes Michael's point. He gets it. Generally, he's of the same mind - except in Crowley's case and, he guesses, Michael's.]

Take my word for it.

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah, alright.

[Michael was already inclined to lighten up on the matter, knowing that Crowley was Aziraphale's friend. That Crowley was like him, at least in the matter of turning his back on Hell.]

I've never even heard of another demon turning traitor back home. But I guess it's possible I wouldn't have - I know they were trying to keep my whole thing pretty quiet. Embarrassed a lot of higher-ups and all that.

[bibliophilicbells]

[#relatable]

A demon and an angel.

[It's an important correction to make.]

I never intended to, but — things happen, you know?

voice, 10/30

[vagabone]

[Out of the blue, late in the afternoon...]

Hey, Mig--Michael. Can you still do your 'summoning things' trick? Because I've got an idea.

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah, I can do that. What's the idea?

[vagabone]

Facepaints for tomorrow. How many colors do you think you can make?

[eudaimonikos]

Depends if I can cheat the system by making a multipack. Let me see.

[...]

Oh, yep, that worked.

[vagabone]

[Dead silence. Well then.]

...Huh. That was easy. Are you up for doing it again in the morning?

[eudaimonikos]

Shouldn't be a problem. Why, is there something going on tomorrow?

[vagabone]

It's Día de Muertos tomorrow! Or Halloween, whichever. At least, going by the calendar we've got. Good enough excuse for me.

[eudaimonikos]

Oh. I've never celebrated that. I know it sounds like the holiday we would like, but we were really never given any time away from work.

[Anyway...face paint fits in with what Michael knows of Halloween, he guesses. Not sure about the other one.]

None of my human friends were from Mexico. What do you do for Dia de los Muertos?

[vagabone]

[An easy question, it's only the greatest day of the year for the entire city of the dead! Except... well, different worlds or Earths or whatever's going on. Definitely different afterlives.]

Probably a whole lot cooler in my world than yours. Spirits like me can cross over and visit our living family or friends, if there are enough cempasúchil in the area and you have a photo put up on an ofrenda. Someone has to be thinking of you enough to put in the effort or it's no go.

I've never made it over, so I'm not sure how it actually works, but I've seen people come back with all kinds of offerings. The... the essence of the thing, I guess, not the real solid object. Real enough for us dead folks, though.

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, so you get to be ghosts for a night? That is fun. We don't have any sort of...life-death travel, except under very specific circumstances.

[...]

I think I was actually involved in all of it.

[vagabone]

It is fun. Best night of the whole year. I might even have something left for me next year, it's going to be great.

[No real sadness for the decades he went without, struggling and failing to cross that dumb flower bridge. There's only a quiet hopefulness. The next year, when he's back to normal and time starts moving again... maybe the Riveras who can cross will bring him back a tasty treat.]

[eudaimonikos]

Are ghosts real in your world, too? Can you just stick around and haunt them later, if you want to?

[That concept is interesting to him.]