Heaven's BBS | Text

[adventurology]

Posted: 29th of May
Sender: Athena

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Hello to whomever might be reading this. My given name is Lara, and I am the current incarnation of Athena.


I've gathered I am not the first to bear her name, and I'd be interested in learning more about my predecessor. What sort of god was he/she? As I've begun settling into her temple here, I've found quite a lot of things that they probably left behind, and I also thought that perhaps it would be right to return them if any were on loan.

And I would also like to ask about the community's feelings on something. Truth be told, I've only recently begun to accept that the supernatural is real and there might be a higher power(s) at work. At least, until I woke up here and was hit in the face with it. It's a lot to absorb.

I'm feeling a touch overwhelmed and I'd like to know what role you believe a god should play. I've my own ideas, naturally, but I'm curious what others think. Do you want to live up to the legends of who came before? Do you want to change those legends into something else? Or is there something else you believe about divinity? I'm curious, so please, let me know your thoughts. It may help me better sort out my own.

Comments

[adventurology]

Thank goodness for small favors, eh?

I wonder just where those things came from? Nobody said anything about an Akayashi.

[reformedsinner]

Oh, yes. I'm glad I'm the wrong kind of dead for that.

It's hard to say where they might have come from, although it seems that all those bodies must have come from somewhere. It's a big city.

[adventurology]

Tokyo's beyond big. It makes London seem small.

I wonder if anyone has thought to check and see if there was anything missing from the morgues?

[reformedsinner]

Not that I was able to discover. Not unless it wasn't just local morgues.

How big is London? I'm not familiar.

[adventurology]

And the Tokyo metropolitan area is too large to feasibly scour. A corpse here, a corpse there. Not likely we'll be able to follow their trail in that case.

London? It's the largest city in the UK. 8000 square kilometers, 8 million residents. Compare that to Tokyo? Something like 2 million square kilometers, and 13 million people.

[She is, in fact, a know it all.]

[reformedsinner]

I thought Tokyo was crowded! In London, they must be living on top of one another. How fascinating.

[adventurology]

Practically, yes. I don't miss it, honestly.

private; text

[reformedsinner]

[...and a few minutes later, he adds a private message:]

As a matter of fact, we did find a few interesting things.

May I ask for your number?

private; text

[adventurology]

Absolutely.


[And she'll provide that number. Which, let's just say it's 867-5309]

phone, voice

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai punches the number into his own phone, strolling outside the school as he types. It's a few minutes before he settles back against a wall and puts the call through.

His voice is quiet, a little roughened by all the tile dust he's been breathing, when she picks up.]

Lara? Hello. Excuse me for bothering you, but I'm afraid I just don't know who might be watching on the network....

phone, voice until further notice

[adventurology]

[Lara, expecting the call, slips out into a private room and answers quickly.]

It's no trouble at all, Hakkai. I understand completely. Believe me, after the last few years this is relatively normal.

[She lets out a breath, and there's the sound of springs as she flops down on a couch.]

What's up?

[reformedsinner]

Well. [He sounds a little embarrassed.] Please excuse me for misleading you, to begin with. We did find the source of at least some of the bodies -- they were in mausoleums and morgues in the area.

[adventurology]

Hey, don't worry about it. [Really, she sounds okay with it.] I'm familiar with secrecy, don't worry.

So, bodies taken from around Tokyo, then? Did there seem to be any pattern, or just random samplings?

[reformedsinner]

In terms of the people involved, no. None of them came from too far away from the parade route, and the bodies were relatively fresh, that's all.

[adventurology]

So...what? We have a necromancer on the loose?

[She clicks her tongue, muttering to herself.]

Christ, I can't even believe I just said that. I sound like Alex and one of his damn video games.

[reformedsinner]

You're a god speaking to a dead man, Lara! Is it that hard to believe in magic?

But no, I don't think it was necromancy, at least not of the standard sort. There were no signs of any kind of spell around where the bodies were taken from.

[He hesitates, and then adds, slowly:] ... And too many of those souls were familiar to one or another of us.

[adventurology]

Magic? No, not...really. I've seen enough proof of it...here and at home...but still, it sounds so strange.

[And it's like...yes, that exactly. That's one of those things that's bothered her. She hadn't seen a body that looked like Alex. Or any that'd looked like Roth, or Simon's friends, either.]

You saw someone you knew, too? Or ran into someone that did?

[reformedsinner]

Both. My first goddess's soul was among them.

It makes me wonder... [He hesitates for a long moment before continuing, slowly.]

If it was part of the same event that is bringing our souls into the Heavens. To bring so many souls from so many different places, and have them be familiar to the new gods? To have at least one of them have been a god? It can't be a coincidence.

[adventurology]

It can't be. No. There's someone or some thing that wants to mess with Heaven's plans.

The man I saw, Alex Weiss? He's been dead for three years. Which begs the question, how did whoever or whatever did it get his soul?

[reformedsinner]

I think some of the people here among us have been dead for longer than that. Time doesn't seem to matter as much as it should.

[adventurology]

Fair point. I met a samurai I knew from history lessons the other day, so there's that at least.

Still, how did those souls get here? Is whatever brought them here able to take them from Heaven?

[reformedsinner]

Or the wheel of reincarnation, for instance?

[Or places involving more creative torment, and possibly also demons!]

But regardless of what normally awaits the dead, there's no denying that whatever or whoever brings us here can steal souls away from their intended fate.

[adventurology]

I meant our employers more than any grand harps and halos sort of place, but yes, essentially.

Anyway. So we have someone taking the dead from local morgues and mortuaries. Giving them souls of people we know to animate them. For what? To unsettle us? It hardly seemed an effective military force.

[reformedsinner]

The floats were inhabited, too, and I couldn't find any signs of deliberate reanimation.

Or of their being taken out from the outside, either. I almost wonder if this was some kind of...

[He hesitates, and makes a face, unwilling to let go of the idea of deliberate enemy action. Yet, there's no point in looking in the wrong places for an enemy.]

... accident?

[adventurology]

[Lara's frown probably carries over into her voice, but she can't really fault him for thinking it.]

It's possible. We really can't rule that out. Though that's a lot of power to have an accident with. And, I guess more to the point, they were rather focused on getting into the temple. Would the temple just draw them in like that?