[Video]

[motivenotfound]

[Wow, another perky teenage Japanese(?) girl! What a novelty. Here in a setting where everyone is by default generically Japanese, and there is an entire participatory subcategory of youths in the local lifestyle-sport that is just called 'miniskirt.' And yet here she is! No one could have seen this one coming!]

He-llo! I hate to be a downer, but I just got here, and I was wondering if anyone could prove that we're not dead. Not that death seems very likely, given what I know about it, but I tried asking the locals and the nonsapiens life about it anyway after I found out what was going on, and all I learned is that for some reason they didn't really like the question.

That being the case, any evidence in either direction would be useful! And this is just a formality, so anecdotal evidence is okay, too.

By the way, since I have your attention, I'm sure you won't mind telling me how long I have to walk on order to be able to buy some new clothes that aren't what's in my bag, right?

Comments

[video]

[strikesachord]

[The question would have caught Gobo more off-guard if he didn't have a dear friend who is completely fixated on things like death, illness, and disaster. But he does! So he's not put off by the question, and even gives it some consideration, rubbing his chin with the hand not holding his Pokegear.]

I suppose it's a possibility, but it doesn't seem that likely to me. I mean, I fell asleep healthy and just woke up in this place, and I'm sure I'd have woke up if there'd been a cave-in, before it was too late.

Oh, and I just got here a week ago, but I hear there's a place called Goldenrod where you can buy a lot of things, I bet there's clothes there!

[On the word "Goldenrod," he moves his hand from his chin and waves it through the air, like it's some magical, far-off place. Mostly, he's just excited to get there because he hears that's the most likely place to get a guitar... But he does like the name, too!]

[Video]

[bestswordmaster]

[There Felix is, minding his own business, when Dimitri abruptly shoves his Gear into his hands and walks away. Felix gives it a suspicious glare and peers at whatever Dimitri was looking at, then takes out his own Gear to find that video and give this brat a piece of his mind.]

No. We're not dead. Stop putting insidious nonsense like that on the network.

[motivenotfound]

[Well, now that's interesting.]

You seem pretty confident! Or at least pretty angry.

"Insidious" is an unusual choice of words.

Don't tell me you think I have some kind of agenda!

I just said I just got here, what possible motive could I even have?

[bestswordmaster]

I'm both. I don't care when you got here, just take my word for it. This isn't the afterlife.

[motivenotfound]

[This is all pretty magical, really. Very 'suspension of disbelief,' and that's coming from a woman who majored in metaphysical biology!

She nods, thoughtfully--then laughs.]

It wouldn't be statistically improbable to assume that anyone who doesn't remember dying just suffered a sudden aneurysm or something similar, but it wouldn't explain literally anything to do that, so I'm not going to.

But hang on, though... Goldenrod.... Goldenrod....

[The video angle moves downward as she uses her Gear to look up a map. She's very comfortable with the technology, but clearly not at all worried about how her face looks on camera. It's a pretty weird angle.]

Ah, shit. That's a month of travel?

[Hmm. Well...!

She rights the camera again.]

There are some towns in between... if I can find a pair of pants or at least a longer skirt before then, it won't be so bad. And then when I get to Goldenrod, I can do some real shopping!

[motivenotfound]

[Okay, that escalated.]

I didn't say it was!

Damn. You're making a lot of assumptions, and your attitude is shit.

If you have a problem, just say so. Otherwise I'm going to assume you're dead, in denial, and pissed off about it.

[Is she saying that to spite him? Absolutely. If he's going to be a pain, she's going to see if she can get a rise out of him and learn something more useful.]

Text

[vrdantwind]

[Oh boy.

Claude pinches the bridge of his nose rather hard before he replies.]

From what I understand of this place, people who are dead in their home worlds can be pulled here even post-mortem, and they can live out lives here. That said, it's not exactly a requirement for being brought here, either. So some of us (and by us, I mean us otherworlders; some people here are natives) could be dead back home, but it's not exactly the norm. And we're definitely not all dead, in some weird 'oh, this must be the afterlife' way. The fact that some people were already dead before coming here kind of slams the lid on that theory.

So let's turn the question around - rather than proving we're alive, what proof do you have that any of us are dead? Unless you know yourself to be dead already, I guess, but let's just file that under 'personal issues' for now. That wouldn't say anything about the rest of us, after all.

[bestswordmaster]

You wanted someone to prove we're not dead. If we were, this would be the afterlife. And I don't care what you think of my attitude.

My problem is you publicly asking for proof against something completely ridiculous that will only upset people. If you really can't help yourself, then I suggest you find someone to ask about it privately.

[It sure did escalate...but listen. She upset Dimitri. That's practically a declaration of war, as far as Felix is concerned.]

sorry he can't help himself

[amaure]

And what makes you so certain? Do you have a specific affinity with the afterlife? A personal account of it, perhaps? Or is this merely wishful thinking at play?

[He asks while knowing full well what the "afterlife" is in his own reality, and it's nothing like this. His questions are merely to satisfy his own curiosity. Honest!]

[video]

[freckledarcher]

[Ashe placed his book down when Ky carried over his gear. Loog looked over as Ky got in his lap and Ashe read the message. Oh someone new! He pressed camera and waved at her.]

Hey there! I can tell you that we're not dead. The people here are really nice and they don't want anyone to think that they've died. Don't worry, we're not dead. Hmm, you can get new clothes in Goldenrod. Where are you now?

Oh lord maybe he'd better save his boyfriend before he throws Dimitri's Gear down the toilet

[vrdantwind]

To be fair, it's not like Felix doesn't have an entire lifetime of being alive to draw conclusions from. If you're extremely familiar with the color red, do you need to know what blue is in order to identify red?

So it'd follow that knowing what being alive is like would be reasonable evidence to pull from in order to say yes, we're alive.

LMAO omg emet...

[bestswordmaster]

Oh. It's you.

I'm not letting you drag me into some self-indulgent argument for your amusement.

[amaure]

And you're certain that being dead isn't merely a slightly differing shade of the same color of being alive?

Interesting.

please rescue him lol

[bestswordmaster]

[Claude will hear Felix calling from the other room: "Stop engaging with that pretentious bastard!"]

Sometimes the old man needs enrichment. In the form of trolling angry boys.

[amaure]

It is indeed, I see your ability to recognize faces hasn't declined. Good for you.

[He punctuates that with a playful wink and a curled smile.]

Now, now. I merely wished to share an insightful conversation, I care little for arguments. I wish only to know your perspective and what lead you to such a conclusion.

[bestswordmaster]

[Ugh. Now he's winking. Disgusting.]

Bullshit. Claude's told me about you. You don't care about anyone's perspective but your own.

[vrdantwind]

I've actually talked to an immortal who knew all the ins and outs of being dead. We had a fascinating chat about it all. It also seemed like his world had a pretty unique perspective of the afterlife, to say nothing of its relationship to mortals.

If I learned anything from all that, it's that I'm not even sure how death or the afterlife work is necessarily universal across all possible worlds. And in this world, death seems to be an impossibility for us at all - not to mention people who were dead before they arrived apparently being resurrected when they get here.

So my thought is that death and the afterlife are potentially subjective realities to each world, and that maybe that's why this world doesn't offer us either. We can live anywhere, but we can only die back home.

[motivenotfound]

[Oh boy. He's one of those, huh... well, she's used to it.]

You don't know much, do you?

There are multiple ways this could present phenomenologically outside the extremely hypothetical existence of a so-called 'afterlife.' I also already said that the locals and their nonsapiens cohorts don't have any answers for me on this; I've mostly got a lot of trees around me--I guess they might be better at this than you are!

To be honest, I don't think you really have what it takes to be having this conversation!

[amaure]

If that's what Claude told you, then he understands me even less than I thought.

A pity.

[He shakes his head with a sigh.]

In truth, I welcome all perspectives, though I may not agree with them nor their conclusions, it is still refreshing to hear them. If Claude believes otherwise, then he is free to do so.

[bestswordmaster]

[Ah. She's one of those. Like the jackass version of Claude. He'll just ignore the pretentious words he's never heard before.]

Of course the afterlife is extremely hypothetical, I never said it wasn't. Although I have spoken to someone from the afterlife of his world who was immortal before he got here, so unless you're calling him a liar, that's at least one piece of evidence that we're not all dead. You're welcome.

[vrdantwind]

Okay, interjecting here to say I definitely did not say that, but Felix has pretty limited patience with long explanations, especially about people he doesn't really like. So either I may have abbreviated something for my audience in a way he misunderstood, or he wasn't exactly paying attention.

Could be both, really.

video;

[shiro2hero]

Pretty sure that, unless I yelled myself to death before I woke up here, we're all alive and well.

[On the other hand, he's also pretty sure if anyone could kill Shiro Patience Yields Focus Shirogane, it was that @#$%ing space ferret]

[bestswordmaster]

I--ugh. Don't put words in my mouth. I never said that's what Claude thought. I said he told me about you. The rest was my own conclusion, because that's how you speak to people and how you act.

[vrdantwind]

...or I guess his first and second statements were unrelated! Assumptions make fools of us all, huh?

[motivenotfound]

What? I never said I had proof we're dead. If I had that, I wouldn't be asking! I thought that was pretty obvious.

If I were to go by the last moments I remember, I would not be experiencing 'death' as you think of it. But what I would be experiencing would be unlikely to be this, either. And 'this' doesn't align with being dead. Are you following me now, or am I going too fast for you?