[Jon] Curious (open tag)sophiedbJuly 13 2006, 09:07:44 UTC
OOC: If this doesn't make sense, fine thing. It just popped into my head with the whole "I see dead people" post up there and the co-existing fandoms everywhere else :) Came out a bit long but..
Now that he had an idea of where the ghost was, Jon couldn't resist this new form of entertainment. He ambled into that general area, hands in his pockets as tried to find any strange sources of cold or resistance.
"He's a ghost," George pointed out sarcastically, earning herself a 'who, me?' look of innocence before rolling her eyes. "Oh no, you're not obvious at all. And you're nowhere near him, either."
"Saw me coming, huh?"
"Just possibly."
"Damn." Jon shrugged and went back to his post. There were a couple of questions hanging over his head about her version of the afterlife. "So how does this Reaper thing work? You die, but you don't.. move on?"
She grimaced, muttering something about the value of keeping mouths shut. "Something like that. And it's a light. You get Reaped, then you walk into the light."
Jon stared incredulously. "I hate clichés. Don't make them real!"
"Yeah, well maybe yours will be a black hole," George replied bluntly.
"I'll take the light," he deferred quickly: black holes were just a little too much like déjà vu. Oh yeh, like walking into a light isn't! That wasn't the point of query though. She'd explained about people being trapped before, and the fact that Vermin wasn't going anywhere until he was ready, which left: "What if you die but you're not permanently dead?"
"CPR doesn't count. If you're meant to die die, you'd be on a list and someone would Reap your soul beforehand -" George glanced sharply to her right. "That wasn't my fault!"
Ok, ghostly grudge issues, but still not what he was angling at. The CPR answer probably covered anything to do with sarcophagusses.. sarcophagoi.. sarcophagi!.. anyway, that part Jon could deal with, but what about the whole Ascension deal? "Ever seen anyone come back from the light?"
"Jon.." Daniel warned.
"Simple question!" Jon protested helplessly.
George looked between the two of them intently. "If you're truly dead, you've walked into the light and there's no way back - not that I know of - and no, I don't know what comes next. If you're undead, you find out about it PDQ. If you're neither dead nor undead, the paramedics will work their magic shortly. And finally, if you're dead and haven't been Reaped, you're stuck in a nasty rotting corpse until someone like me comes along. That clear enough for ya?"
Blinking from the onslaught, Jon ran the words through his head a couple more times. There was a loophole in there, he knew it: the whole "trapped in body" aspect. Daniel's Ascension hadn't left a body behind, so he wasn't trapped in it - kinda - and the rest - so none of SG1 had ever really died? Sweet, but my head hurts..
Suddenly Jon wished that he'd never asked, because it only brought out more questions. If Jack's soul got Reaped, would he be dragged along for the ride by default? That would suck, and what about the other way round? What about all the servicemen and women killed in the middle of nowhere, or off-planet? Souls got got left behind now and then, that was clear enough from the hike to Faith's plane! Worse - what did Charlie see before walking into the light? Himself, dead? Please, no..
"Yeah. I think. Thanks," he replied dully.
Ignoring his juggling stones, Jon sat down on the concrete and began his own form of meditation: dismantling and reassembling the gun. Next time he'd keep his questions to himself.
[George] My Big Mouth (open tag)sinanjuJuly 13 2006, 21:17:33 UTC
George watched Jon sit down and start taking his handgun apart. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything. Maybe--much as it pained her to admit it--maybe Rube had a point about not letting people know the truth. Jon wasn't panicked, but he wasn't a happy camper either.
"He's seen more than he's letting on," Verlin said. George glanced at him but didn't answer immediately.
Verlin was right. George wondered about Jon's question regarding people coming back from the light. She was willing to bet good money that it wasn't an idle question, not from a fellow castaway on this island. What had he seen? And where?
"Who hasn't?" she finally said. Jon had reduced the pistol to a collection of pieces. Now he began to reassemble it.
"What of people who die in remote locations?" George turned and found Ash standing there.
"What about them?" George asked.
"Mountain climbers. Ships that go down at sea. That kind of thing," Ash said. "How do you handle that?"
"An excellent question," Verlin agreed. George noticed that Jon's hand hesitated every so briefly over a piece of the gun before he continued. He gave no other sign that he was listening.
"Look," George said, "except for here on the island--don't ask me why--nobody dies without a Post-it. If your name's on a Post-it, somebody will be there to take care of you. Preferably before, but they'll be along."
"But what if--" Ash began.
"Ask Daisy!" George said. "I've only been at this for--"
Ash's eyes widened. Jon looked up suddenly. Verlin asked a question, but George didn't pay any attention to it. (Oh shit!) George thought.
"Uh, I mean--uhm...shit," George finished lamely. (Daisy's gonna kill me.)
OOC: I wrote George snapping "Ask Daisy" and went on for a bit before I remembered that Daisy's status was a secret. So clearly, George forgot as well. These things happen.
[Jack] My Big Mouth (open tag)purplerhinoJuly 13 2006, 21:54:57 UTC
Jack was listening to the conversation as he examined the inner workings of the pillar besides Daniel. Daniel was fun to flirt with, as he never really took it seriously either. No harm in making the offer, but Jack knew when to step back from bounderies.
"There's always someone to do the job." Jack offered up to the conversation. "Look, I've known agents to die in little backwatert planets thousands of years from their own timeline. I'm sure the cases of being forgotton or unreachable is pretty rare. No one snatched me before I died. I don't remember much about being dead, but there was no lingering trauma."
Jack shifted. "This thing has a crystal matrix. Energy crystals like this are not native to earth any more than this tech is. Wonder what they do when they run out of batteries?" Jack switched topics easily enough to talk and keep working.
"Anyway, I figure there's always someone to do the job. Plummer, waste management, Reaper. Even in nature, someone or something fills in where needed. It isn't worth brooding about." Jack hadn't actually touched anything yet. He was more getting a visual feel of the equipment.
[Daniel] Staying on Task (open tag)island_musesJuly 14 2006, 00:51:11 UTC
Daniel tuned out the extraneous conversation. His focus was translating the Ancient language, hoping to figure out the code. He did hear Jack's comment about the crystals. "I'd say that they probably don't use this method often enough to worry about it. Or, they've got a contact. The latter is actually a good thing."
"How so?" Ash piped up. "It means the bad guys can call for reinforcements."
"Exactly," Daniel nodded. "But it also means that the reinforcements *can* get here, temporal flux and every other bit of oddity aside. If there's a way in, there is also most definitely a way out.
"But right now, we just need to find a way *in* to the women." Daniel pushed several plates in slow fashion. Nothing happened, not even a buzz or a whirr.
"Instead of seeing ghosts, I need to see the future," Daniel mumbled.
[Jon] Staying on Task (open tag)sophiedbJuly 14 2006, 12:28:23 UTC
"No no no, you do not wish for a freaking brain tumor just so we can get wherever we're going more quickly. This is a Post-It free zone, even if we do seem to have two Reapers gunning for us," Jon responded darkly, finally reloading the firearm. Jonas had been an over-enthusiastic pain in the ass, but near-death was too high a price for those visions he'd had.
He shrugged at George apologetically. It wasn't her fault she became undead (apparently) and at least Ash hadn't automatically translated that into 'zombie'.
"I don't suppose your grim ju-ju extends to y'know, disabling the enemy, kiss of death or anything like that?"
"No!"
Cringing, Jon lifted his hands in surrender as he wandered back over to the pillar. He needed to get that foot out of his mouth real soon. "Sorry. Just checkin'. Uh, Daniel - that gene thing. Is that likely to be any help here?"
[George] Naughty Thoughts (open tag)sinanjuJuly 14 2006, 19:59:08 UTC
Watching Jon walk away, George thought about the question. Despite her immediate denial, she wasn't quite so sure about that. If she yanked someone's soul out when they were still alive, what would happen?
She knew it could be done, Roxy had done it once. George had never managed to get the full story out of Roxy or Rube, but Roxy had been in the doghouse for a while for doing that. It wasn't something George was willing to experiment with on people she liked, but--in an emergency, face to face with the bad guys?
[Daniel] We're Wasting Time (tag Jack, open)fikgirlJuly 16 2006, 01:40:06 UTC
An hour passed. An hour passed and Daniel was no closer to figuring out the riddle of the pillar than he had been an hour earlier. Random combinations did nothing; Jon tried touching it, interacting with it in the hopes that the ATA gene would affect it but his efforts proved futile as well. Jack was ready to dismantle it with the hope that reverse engineering would enable them to figure out the proper coordinates, or the last coordinates punched in. All in all, everyone was growing frustrated and annoyed or just plain bored.
Daniel was beginning to think that they should pack up and move over ground, particularly since they'd long ago lost the element of surprise.
"We should continue the rescue above ground," Daniel told those still below ground with him. "It's great if we can find some way to get this pillar to work, but we're losing time while trying to figure it out. We know that we have a guide to the women, one that we can take over ground. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for half of us to go that route, and a few to remain behind with the pillar.
"Jack, do you think that you or the Doctor could rig a way for the two groups to remain in radio contact? Maybe re-wire a few cellular telephones?"
[Jack] We're Wasting Time (tag Daniel, open)purplerhinoJuly 16 2006, 04:38:59 UTC
"The biggest challenge for that would be a power source. You've been preserving your radios for just that reason."
Jack then grinned and became animated, gesturing as he spoke. "But this pillar has a crystaline power source we could convert. If nothing else we can make sure no one else can use it for a while at the same time we can salvage parts. If we get Rodney working with us we can manage something."
He looked around at everything else in the room. "Might be other things we can salvage as well, at a later time."
[George] Tales...Of...Interest! (open tag)sinanjuJuly 17 2006, 01:38:56 UTC
"...so I drank the potion, said the words and here I am."
"Did you say them correctly this time?"
Verlin elbowed George, jolting her out of her reverie. "Uh...did you say it right this time?" she echoed. God, she was bored. When she hitched a ride on the Orb Express, she expected to be involved in a harrowing adventure to rescue Daisy and the others--not stuck sitting around in a dank tunnel...cave...whatever while the eggheads tried and failed to hack an obelisk.
Ash frowned. "Why does everyone always ask me that?" He sighed theatrically. "Yes, I said the words." Pause. "I may not have gotten every single syllable right, but I said 'em. Basically."
While the eggheads puzzled over the obelisk the rest of the group had nothing to do but wait. Jon had made a crack about the military not being the only organization where "hurry up and wait" was the operating principle. George thought that was an odd comment coming from a kid who was maybe just barely old enough to join the army--and who clearly hadn't because he sure as hell wasn't old enough to have finished a hitch. But it wasn't odd enough to be worth following up.
One of Ash's comments about zombies and the Necronomicon, on the other hand, had caught Verlin's attention. Somehow George had gotten drafted as an interpreter, passing along Verlin's questions. Fortunately, Ash was a long-winded guy when you got him talking about his favorite subject--himself--so George could tune out large portions of the conversation.
"Never mind that," Verlin said. "I just find it...implausible that second-rate professor at a backwoods university could have gotten his hands on the Book of the Dead. George? George!"
Oh. Right. Translate. Ash glared at where he thought Verlin was sitting, though he was off by a couple of feet. "Hey, I'm just telling you what I saw. He had the book there in the cabin and he'd recorded some of the translations. That was a really stupid move, I tell you."
"Fascinating," Verlin said. "That book was last known to be in England, in the possession of Rick adn Eve O'Connell. The Council lost track of them during the Second World War. Clearly, they must have traveled to America. I wonder..."
Verlin went on, but George stopped listening. She wondered how much longer the waiting would go on.
[Daniel]Tales...Of...Interest! (open tag)fikgirlJuly 17 2006, 02:31:15 UTC
"The O'Connell's supposedly uncovered the ruins of the legendary city of Hamunaptra, the 'City of the Dead.' Unfortunately, the only proof of this was their word, as the city could never be found again, and -" Daniel spoke as he worked on the obelisk, stopping when he realized that his words revealed that not only could he see Verlin, but hear him as well. Daniel finished by swearing in Sumerian.
"How does a common soldier know such things?" Verlin scowled. Evidently it didn't occur to the ghost that Daniel had never said he could hear the man, only that he could see him.
"I'm an archaeologist and a linguist. Which would be the reason that I am translating the writing on this pillar and the reason that I would be well-versed in matters of an archaeological nature. Legendary though it is, Hamunaptra is of great archeaological significance and personal interest," Daniel answered automatically. Then groaned. (And I'm defending myself to a ghost.)
[Jack]Tales...Of...Interest! (open tag)purplerhinoJuly 17 2006, 02:55:40 UTC
"Hamunaptra? Typical architecture of early 13th century BC, except for the booby traps, of which there were many. They actually did a lot mummification there, with one of the main temples set there for years. That's how it originally got the 'City of the Dead' title."
Jack moved back to let Daniel work. He'd salvage those power crystals as a last resort.
"That and it was one of the main treasuries, so the royal dead could be burried with full ceremony." Jack grinned. "Good vacation spot if you're into gold and silver and want to risk your neck. I always preferred galactic credits. After all, some planets have more gold than we have slate. But the statues were really impresive. Twenty feet tall. Seti never did do anything understated."
[Jack] Tales...Of...Interest! (open tag)purplerhinoJuly 17 2006, 11:26:49 UTC
Jack openly winced.
"Glad I left town before the main event. Even I know you never flirt with the king/emporer/pheraoh gender reversed significant other. Quick way to be dead or a eunuch. I can go to tenor, but never plan on reaching soprano, thank you."
Jack shivered. Some things didn't bare thinking about. "I was there when Queen Tuya was still in charge of the wives and concubines. I think Seti was on the throne for five years or so. Course I was there on buisiness, so didn't pay any more attention than I had to."
Now that he had an idea of where the ghost was, Jon couldn't resist this new form of entertainment. He ambled into that general area, hands in his pockets as tried to find any strange sources of cold or resistance.
"He's a ghost," George pointed out sarcastically, earning herself a 'who, me?' look of innocence before rolling her eyes. "Oh no, you're not obvious at all. And you're nowhere near him, either."
"Saw me coming, huh?"
"Just possibly."
"Damn." Jon shrugged and went back to his post. There were a couple of questions hanging over his head about her version of the afterlife. "So how does this Reaper thing work? You die, but you don't.. move on?"
She grimaced, muttering something about the value of keeping mouths shut. "Something like that. And it's a light. You get Reaped, then you walk into the light."
Jon stared incredulously. "I hate clichés. Don't make them real!"
"Yeah, well maybe yours will be a black hole," George replied bluntly.
"I'll take the light," he deferred quickly: black holes were just a little too much like déjà vu. Oh yeh, like walking into a light isn't! That wasn't the point of query though. She'd explained about people being trapped before, and the fact that Vermin wasn't going anywhere until he was ready, which left: "What if you die but you're not permanently dead?"
"CPR doesn't count. If you're meant to die die, you'd be on a list and someone would Reap your soul beforehand -" George glanced sharply to her right. "That wasn't my fault!"
Ok, ghostly grudge issues, but still not what he was angling at. The CPR answer probably covered anything to do with sarcophagusses.. sarcophagoi.. sarcophagi!.. anyway, that part Jon could deal with, but what about the whole Ascension deal? "Ever seen anyone come back from the light?"
"Jon.." Daniel warned.
"Simple question!" Jon protested helplessly.
George looked between the two of them intently. "If you're truly dead, you've walked into the light and there's no way back - not that I know of - and no, I don't know what comes next. If you're undead, you find out about it PDQ. If you're neither dead nor undead, the paramedics will work their magic shortly. And finally, if you're dead and haven't been Reaped, you're stuck in a nasty rotting corpse until someone like me comes along. That clear enough for ya?"
Blinking from the onslaught, Jon ran the words through his head a couple more times. There was a loophole in there, he knew it: the whole "trapped in body" aspect. Daniel's Ascension hadn't left a body behind, so he wasn't trapped in it - kinda - and the rest - so none of SG1 had ever really died? Sweet, but my head hurts..
Suddenly Jon wished that he'd never asked, because it only brought out more questions. If Jack's soul got Reaped, would he be dragged along for the ride by default? That would suck, and what about the other way round? What about all the servicemen and women killed in the middle of nowhere, or off-planet? Souls got got left behind now and then, that was clear enough from the hike to Faith's plane! Worse - what did Charlie see before walking into the light? Himself, dead? Please, no..
"Yeah. I think. Thanks," he replied dully.
Ignoring his juggling stones, Jon sat down on the concrete and began his own form of meditation: dismantling and reassembling the gun. Next time he'd keep his questions to himself.
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"He's seen more than he's letting on," Verlin said. George glanced at him but didn't answer immediately.
Verlin was right. George wondered about Jon's question regarding people coming back from the light. She was willing to bet good money that it wasn't an idle question, not from a fellow castaway on this island. What had he seen? And where?
"Who hasn't?" she finally said. Jon had reduced the pistol to a collection of pieces. Now he began to reassemble it.
"What of people who die in remote locations?" George turned and found Ash standing there.
"What about them?" George asked.
"Mountain climbers. Ships that go down at sea. That kind of thing," Ash said. "How do you handle that?"
"An excellent question," Verlin agreed. George noticed that Jon's hand hesitated every so briefly over a piece of the gun before he continued. He gave no other sign that he was listening.
"Look," George said, "except for here on the island--don't ask me why--nobody dies without a Post-it. If your name's on a Post-it, somebody will be there to take care of you. Preferably before, but they'll be along."
"But what if--" Ash began.
"Ask Daisy!" George said. "I've only been at this for--"
Ash's eyes widened. Jon looked up suddenly. Verlin asked a question, but George didn't pay any attention to it. (Oh shit!) George thought.
"Uh, I mean--uhm...shit," George finished lamely. (Daisy's gonna kill me.)
OOC: I wrote George snapping "Ask Daisy" and went on for a bit before I remembered that Daisy's status was a secret. So clearly, George forgot as well. These things happen.
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"There's always someone to do the job." Jack offered up to the conversation. "Look, I've known agents to die in little backwatert planets thousands of years from their own timeline. I'm sure the cases of being forgotton or unreachable is pretty rare. No one snatched me before I died. I don't remember much about being dead, but there was no lingering trauma."
Jack shifted. "This thing has a crystal matrix. Energy crystals like this are not native to earth any more than this tech is. Wonder what they do when they run out of batteries?" Jack switched topics easily enough to talk and keep working.
"Anyway, I figure there's always someone to do the job. Plummer, waste management, Reaper. Even in nature, someone or something fills in where needed. It isn't worth brooding about." Jack hadn't actually touched anything yet. He was more getting a visual feel of the equipment.
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"How so?" Ash piped up. "It means the bad guys can call for reinforcements."
"Exactly," Daniel nodded. "But it also means that the reinforcements *can* get here, temporal flux and every other bit of oddity aside. If there's a way in, there is also most definitely a way out.
"But right now, we just need to find a way *in* to the women." Daniel pushed several plates in slow fashion. Nothing happened, not even a buzz or a whirr.
"Instead of seeing ghosts, I need to see the future," Daniel mumbled.
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He shrugged at George apologetically. It wasn't her fault she became undead (apparently) and at least Ash hadn't automatically translated that into 'zombie'.
"I don't suppose your grim ju-ju extends to y'know, disabling the enemy, kiss of death or anything like that?"
"No!"
Cringing, Jon lifted his hands in surrender as he wandered back over to the pillar. He needed to get that foot out of his mouth real soon. "Sorry. Just checkin'. Uh, Daniel - that gene thing. Is that likely to be any help here?"
Or.. am I just getting in the way again?
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She knew it could be done, Roxy had done it once. George had never managed to get the full story out of Roxy or Rube, but Roxy had been in the doghouse for a while for doing that. It wasn't something George was willing to experiment with on people she liked, but--in an emergency, face to face with the bad guys?
Maybe.
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Daniel was beginning to think that they should pack up and move over ground, particularly since they'd long ago lost the element of surprise.
"We should continue the rescue above ground," Daniel told those still below ground with him. "It's great if we can find some way to get this pillar to work, but we're losing time while trying to figure it out. We know that we have a guide to the women, one that we can take over ground. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for half of us to go that route, and a few to remain behind with the pillar.
"Jack, do you think that you or the Doctor could rig a way for the two groups to remain in radio contact? Maybe re-wire a few cellular telephones?"
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Jack then grinned and became animated, gesturing as he spoke. "But this pillar has a crystaline power source we could convert. If nothing else we can make sure no one else can use it for a while at the same time we can salvage parts. If we get Rodney working with us we can manage something."
He looked around at everything else in the room. "Might be other things we can salvage as well, at a later time."
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"Did you say them correctly this time?"
Verlin elbowed George, jolting her out of her reverie. "Uh...did you say it right this time?" she echoed. God, she was bored. When she hitched a ride on the Orb Express, she expected to be involved in a harrowing adventure to rescue Daisy and the others--not stuck sitting around in a dank tunnel...cave...whatever while the eggheads tried and failed to hack an obelisk.
Ash frowned. "Why does everyone always ask me that?" He sighed theatrically. "Yes, I said the words." Pause. "I may not have gotten every single syllable right, but I said 'em. Basically."
While the eggheads puzzled over the obelisk the rest of the group had nothing to do but wait. Jon had made a crack about the military not being the only organization where "hurry up and wait" was the operating principle. George thought that was an odd comment coming from a kid who was maybe just barely old enough to join the army--and who clearly hadn't because he sure as hell wasn't old enough to have finished a hitch. But it wasn't odd enough to be worth following up.
One of Ash's comments about zombies and the Necronomicon, on the other hand, had caught Verlin's attention. Somehow George had gotten drafted as an interpreter, passing along Verlin's questions. Fortunately, Ash was a long-winded guy when you got him talking about his favorite subject--himself--so George could tune out large portions of the conversation.
"Never mind that," Verlin said. "I just find it...implausible that second-rate professor at a backwoods university could have gotten his hands on the Book of the Dead. George? George!"
Oh. Right. Translate. Ash glared at where he thought Verlin was sitting, though he was off by a couple of feet. "Hey, I'm just telling you what I saw. He had the book there in the cabin and he'd recorded some of the translations. That was a really stupid move, I tell you."
"Fascinating," Verlin said. "That book was last known to be in England, in the possession of Rick adn Eve O'Connell. The Council lost track of them during the Second World War. Clearly, they must have traveled to America. I wonder..."
Verlin went on, but George stopped listening. She wondered how much longer the waiting would go on.
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*scratches head*
*wonders if squirrely time could land Rick and Eve on the island*
*snicker*
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"How does a common soldier know such things?" Verlin scowled. Evidently it didn't occur to the ghost that Daniel had never said he could hear the man, only that he could see him.
"I'm an archaeologist and a linguist. Which would be the reason that I am translating the writing on this pillar and the reason that I would be well-versed in matters of an archaeological nature. Legendary though it is, Hamunaptra is of great archeaological significance and personal interest," Daniel answered automatically. Then groaned. (And I'm defending myself to a ghost.)
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Jack moved back to let Daniel work. He'd salvage those power crystals as a last resort.
"That and it was one of the main treasuries, so the royal dead could be burried with full ceremony." Jack grinned. "Good vacation spot if you're into gold and silver and want to risk your neck. I always preferred galactic credits. After all, some planets have more gold than we have slate. But the statues were really impresive. Twenty feet tall. Seti never did do anything understated."
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Daniel glanced up. "Wrong Seti, Jon. This one was a pharaoh."
"What d'I say?"
Jack carried on without missing a beat. "'Course there was a hint that Imhotep built the place for him, threw in all those lovely tricks and treats.."
Jon muttered. "'Wrong Seti,' he says."
"..then got buried alive with a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs for his trouble. Something about doing the dirty with Seti's girl."
"Wrong Imhotep too," he conceded cheerfully. You can't use a sarcophagus on a skeleton. I hope.
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"Glad I left town before the main event. Even I know you never flirt with the king/emporer/pheraoh gender reversed significant other. Quick way to be dead or a eunuch. I can go to tenor, but never plan on reaching soprano, thank you."
Jack shivered. Some things didn't bare thinking about. "I was there when Queen Tuya was still in charge of the wives and concubines. I think Seti was on the throne for five years or so. Course I was there on buisiness, so didn't pay any more attention than I had to."
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