First post [Video]

[bindsthedead]

So, I am trapped between Life and Death, and barred from reentering either. [The face on the screen is young- no more than eighteen- and deathly pale, save for a strange sunburn around her left eye. She pauses, draws herself up, and speaks with as much authority as she can muster, though Sabriel is hiding considerable exhaustion.]

If anyone here has some knowledge of necromancy, I wish to speak with them, as well as anyone who can tell me more about this place without insisting "That's the Emperor's business" [And Sabriel can't quite contain her exasperation as she utters that phrase.] , I would be grateful. I don't have much of the local currency, but I have some knowledge of Charter Magic-[And there's a long, hesitant pause before she begins to speak again, in a tone that's halfway between reluctant and reassuring.] And of necromancy- but I do not raise the Dead, I put them to rest. I am willing to trade my services in such for more information, particularly about whatever mechanism is preventing me from walking into Life and Death, and if this land has ever been troubled by the Dead. [And somehow, you can just hear the capital letters in her speech.]

Comments

[virginprice]

[Yes, the capital letters are clearly audible. Alcuin pushes a lock of white hair behind his ear, frowning.]

Most of those who are dead here do not cause a great deal of trouble, but I have heard that- before my arrival- there was an attack by vicious dead things who were not like the rest of us.

[bindsthedead]

But how are the Dead here different from those that attacked before?

[virginprice]

[He bites his lip in thought before trying to explain.] Our bodies, I am told, are created here, twins of the bodies that we had back in our worlds, and our spirits inhabit them. Some of us were dead at home, yet we find ourselves alive again here. I do not consider myself any less dead for all that my heart beats and I feel the breath in my lungs.

[iwillnotlookback]

I know it to be an art most foul, poisoning all who touch it. Magic is a blade with no hilt, all sharpened steel with no safe place to touch.

[bindsthedead]

That is true of necromancy, and most forms of Free magic.

[Sabriel frowns at the screen.]

But Charter magic is safe, unless you overreach yourself.

[iwillnotlookback]

Forgive me if I am rude and slow to trust, but I have seen great ill wrought of magic. Why should I believe your art is any different?

video;

[amonfire]

[ He had heard of magic, but necromany was a new word to him. It didn't have a very pleasant ring to it. However, death and all what came before it was nothing new to him. ]

Why not think of Life and Death as two sides of a river, and you're floating in the middle at the whims of strange current. It would fit with the image of the turtle whose back we currently sit on.

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[bindsthedead]

But Death is a river, and I-

[Wait, what?]

A- a turtle?

video;

[amonfire]

Is it? [ This wasn't sincere question. Really he just hopes there isn't some crazy religion about death she follows. ]

The city you walk through is aback a very old, very sick turtle of impossible size.

[willofjustice]

[And here we thought only Amelia had a penchant towards capital lettering.]

Not . . . really necromancy? I guess I do more what you do sometimes -- put ghosts and spirits to rest. Only if they're really being pests and not listening to reason, though.

Do you mean you're wondering what's preventing you from walking into Life and Death here?

[bindsthedead]

It is necromancy. I use the same tools, and draw upon the same powers- only to different ends. And why wouldn't you banish all of them?

Yes! I'm not sure how, but I can't get walk into either.

[willofjustice]

Well, some of them are okay! They just want to live their lives . . . or whatever it is? It's just the ones who are terrorizing people that are bad.

Mm . . . I'm new too, so I'm not exactly sure, but I think there's something to keep people from going anywhere. Some kind of barrier, maybe? Whatever it is seems to work on everyone; everyone seems pretty definite that no one's found a way to get out yet.

. . . What do you mean, "between life and death, though?" Aren't you already in life?

[This sounds ominous.]

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[liugan]

Tricky business, necromancy. An exercise in futility in this place.

audio;

[bindsthedead]

Futile to try to raise the Dead, or lay them to rest? [Because Sabriel doesn't care about the first, but the second may be a bit of a problem.]

[liugan]

Both.

To raise or to rest in a world not dead nor alive, what would they be in the end? They do not pass on to the next life, yet you cannot call them truly alive if the world itself is not living.

[video]

[wallcrawler]

I don't know anything about it, but I think I might know of someone, if that helps.

[Big. Red. Pointed tail. Can't miss him.]

He was trying to start up some kind of paranormal investigations bureau the last time I heard from him. I could send you the address if you'd like.

[video]

[bindsthedead]

If you would be so kind, I'd appreciate that.

voice;

[wintershepherd]

Yeah, we were "troubled" by zombies about two months ago.

voice;

[bindsthedead]

But none of them remain?

Re: voice;

[wintershepherd]

Uh.

No, we kind of set most of them on fire.

video.

[traitre]

What agitates the dead in your world so much that your-- [a brief pause, before an unfamiliar word] --necromancy is needed?

video.

[bindsthedead]

It's their nature. Some who die long to live again, even if the price is devouring the living.

video. how the heck did i do that, reposted. :(

[traitre]

How... [he frowns.] Unnatural. Me, I've never known anyone to so desperately fear the thought of passing.

[after all-- there are things about life that'd scare them far more than death, if only they lived long enough to know what they were.]

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[notdreaming]

[ Kara tries and fails not to chew on her thumbnail as she speaks. She's shy about being such an information hound, but not more shy than she's curious. ]

I'm afraid I don't have much to offer that you haven't already heard, but I'd love to hear about this Charter magic. I'd never heard of magic on Krypton and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept.

[ But hey, she sure is getting the hang of those figures of speech! ]

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[bindsthedead]

I wouldn't mind offering a demonstration. Most people in Ancelstierre don't understand magic either. [Including many of Sabriel's classmates, though they learned in time- some of them even becoming mages themselves.]