tucky | ♻ 001 | video/spam

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♻ 001 | video/spam

[It's Christmas, Barge residents. And as it happens, one of your new arrivals is a Christmas angel.

Well, okay, she's just dressed up as one. Interestingly enough, it was Christmas on her world too, and she just got done performing in a Christmas pageant: she's wearing a white costume robe, and has a tinsel crown on her head. The front of her robe is bloody and dirty, and torn in a few places-- and given how beat-up and damaged her face looks, it's probably safe to assume that at least some of that blood is hers.

Currently she's wandering into to common area on level 6, a bit unsteady on her feet. She's also filming herself, because she found a fancy phone so why the hell not. Soon enough she stops walking and poses dramatically, arms held wide.]

Be not afraid-- for behold, I bring good tidings of... of, uh...

[And then she collapses. So yeah, that's a thing that's happening.]

[OOC: Permissions post for this character!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They don't teach Purgatory in your church?

We ain't got a church, just a chapel.

Your congregation, I mean.

[He sits back down, dragging the chair closer to the bed.]

Besides, the resurrection isn't about Heaven, Tiffany -- it says the dead will rise and inherit the Earth. To live again, incorruptible and freed of the chains of fear and shame.

... Is that after the rapture?

[For such an enthusiastic Christian, her knowledge of actual Christianity can be fuzzy at best.]

[Yeah, he's definitely starting to notice that. Tiffany is starting to read a little less First Corinthians and a little more Left Behind. But what kind of ~~cultist~~ disciple would Simon be if he let that deter him? So he shakes his head patiently.]

The Second Coming -- we're still waiting on that one. But the Rising, that's already happened where I come from. [Ireland?] It's happening here, too, in a way. Just a different way.

Is this Catholic stuff? Because I don't go for that.

Well, I am a Catholic. [Mostly.] But this is just the truth. Honest. I'm dead -- I rose. See?

[He pushes his sleeves up to the elbows and holds his hands up, showing her that the pallor in his skin isn't only limited to his face and hands. There's no blood pumping there, no life, nothing red beneath the surface. Just gray skin and tiny black pinpricks dotting his forearms: needle marks, clotted but never healed.]

I'm walking proof.

[She recoils, just a little, but she also looks fascinated in spite of herself.]

That's-- no, that ain't how it works. You die, and you go to heaven or hell. There ain't nothing else.

You high? What do you shoot?

Dunno. Don't remember. It was five years ago, and I wasn't thinking all that clearly about it at the time.

[He pulls his sleeves back down, but calmly, unashamed. He's already shown half the damn ship, anyway.]

What I do remember is waking up and knowing the world had changed. [He smiles faintly.] That some of us are chosen. You don't think you were?

I was.

[She says this emphatically.]

But not like this. I was saved.

So was I.

[Still calm, and very, very sincere.]

And so are you all the more now.

... No, this ain't how I was told it would be. And I trust him. And I trust Him-- capital H.

Then why not trust in Him that He knows what He's doing?

I do and He does! But this ain't right! I weren't told wrong!

[Well, there's a pretty clear contradiction here: either Simon is wrong, or whoever was preaching to her before was. He's not sure that she's terribly bright, but given that she's here -- physically, undeniably here -- he's still reasonably confident that she can resolve that for herself without his overdoing it on the conviction.

On the other hand, this is the part that the other wardens were probably trying to avoid: she's scared and unhappy now. He can't convince her of the truth, but he can try to comfort her. He puts a hand on the bed -- not touching her, but near hers if she wants it -- his voice soft, expression kind.]

It's okay, Tiffany.

[She shakes her head, agitated. If she notices his hand, she doesn't react to it in any way.]

No. It's not. Because you're telling me the only person who ever loved me ain't what I thought he was-- either that, or he don't exist at all. And that ain't right with me.

Why? Why does it have to mean that?

Because He sent me here! This-- this hell, or purgatory, or whatever it is you want to call it. We're supposed to go through trials in our living lives and then get rewarded in our heavenly lives! If I'm dead, my trials are supposed to be done.

This isn't Hell. This is the way to freedom. If He chose you for this, it's because He wants you to find it on Earth. That is love.

How can I find anything at all on Earth if I'm dead?

Because when you're done here, you'll be able to go back. To the kind of life you want. That you choose. And you won't have to fear anything ever again.

That sounds like a story to me. Nothing's that perfect.

What about Heaven? The Rapture?

That's heaven. You're saying I won't fear anything on Earth.

Would you rather?

[It's teasing, a little snarky, but still gentle. He's trying to be kind.]

♻ 001 | video/spam

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