[Voice]

[break_the_ice]

Have we got any good cleaning supplies? I need to clean scorch marks off the wall and floor.

I may have thrown a grenade into the hall last night. I think whatever happened a few weeks ago is still trying to take root. I haven't had as vivid a dream as that in a long, long time. Never bad enough that it made me go for a weapon. And certainly not a grenade!

Comments

[break_the_ice]

Shadows can absolutely come into the safe areas. They just can't lair in them any longer, and it's not so easy for them to breach deeper into our areas. Every piece of territory we hold, we must watch. The shadows have attacked our territory on more than one occasion.

But no, it was in the dream that I was being consumed. It is something I am familiar with. I've fought it many times. And blown myself up to take some minion of the darkness with me many times.

[martelapproves]

'Many times?' In the dream you mean?

{ Because blowing yourself up 'many times' can't be good for your health. }

[break_the_ice]

No. In combat situations.

... Ah, let me rephrase. I carry the essence of an all powerful being within me. So long as I have it, I can't be permanently killed. Blowing myself up is just a valid combat tactic for me, and a momentary inconvenience.

[martelapproves]

So, basically, you're immortal too, then.

{ Yes; he said 'too.' }

I can't be killed, either. But being blown up would be a little more inconvenient than that, for me.

[break_the_ice]

Functionally, yes. I can't die of old age, and normal poisons and illness mean nothing to me.

I can still die in combat, but I get right back up a few moments later, good as new. The enemy hates that.

[martelapproves]

So what happens to your soul?

{ This person... does have one, right? }

[break_the_ice]

Don't know. I'm not a thanatonaut, they creep me out.

I'm pretty sure it goes into torpor, shielded by the light of the traveler. That's how Ghost revives me. Just reconstitutes my body from the light.

I was dead for a couple of centuries before my ghost found me for the first time. I don't remember any of it.

[martelapproves]

I have no idea what any of that means.

{ His body is inorganic and his soul is outside of his body, and he thought that was complicated. Every time he thinks he has this place figured out, it throws him another curveball. }

So... you do have a body underneath all that armor, right?

{ And it's not... y'know... just light? }

[break_the_ice]

I do, yes.

[She reaches up to take off her helmet and show her face.]

From the top, then. Thanatonauts are guardians who explore death. Some pick the most lopsided fights they can find, and die that way. Others sit in labs and shoot themselves in the head repeatedly. Their goal is to explore death and what it means.

As for the Traveler, it is... well, it's the guardian of humanity in a way. A "Divine Being" that brought knowledge and prosperity to our world. Until the darkness chased it to us, struck it down, and destroyed our world. Guardians like me are its agents, we carry its essence in us. We fight the darkness.

And the ghost is the Traveler's literal child. It's my link to the Traveler. It's a guide, a teacher, and a deus ex machina all in one.

[martelapproves]

{ Wow. He listens to her, genuinely fascinated by what she's saying. They... explore death? Where were one of those when he needed them? He really could have used their help with Martel.

He's fought demons, too, but thankfully, the Ginnungagap mostly kept them out of the two worlds after he split them up. Well, this rules her out as being human, at least to him. Congratulations! In his mind, that's very much a good thing. }

So what's it like, then? Dying?

{ He thought he was going to die. He... well... didn't. He ended up here instead, and he's been thoroughly assured that this isn't the afterlife. }

[break_the_ice]

Usually? A few moments of intense, lingering pain, followed by silence and light. When I come back, it's like waking up from a vivid dream and the pain is gone.

Many Thanatonauts say differently. Which is what makes the field so strange. Very few of them actually agree on what they've seen. I personally am not a fan of dying, but I'm even less of a fan of letting the darkness win. So if I have take a quick dirt-nap for a few minutes to get the job done, I'm willing to do it.

[martelapproves]

{ He honestly didn't remember much about it; when he strains his memory, he can remember pain, certainly, but he wasn't sure if that was because he had just been defeated by Lloyd, or if it was indeed the process of dying. If the fatal blow did land, he didn't remember it. All he remembered was waking up in this world, alive and well. And the Cruxis Crystal was intact. }

Do you think it has something to do with how you die?