Claire Tourneur: Until the End of the World

[monde_finis]

In the summer of 1999, very little surprised Claire Tourneur. She simply wouldn't let shock take away valuable time that could be spent partying away the fact that her life was going to end. Everyone's lives, actually. The nuclear satellite hung precariously over the earth, losing a battle with gravity that would end life on the planet when it

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[defense_rests]

((Placeholder, as I will be out most of the day, but I said I would tag and then RL snowed me completely.))

Someone else who was dead, or thought they were dead. Interesting. Mia studied the other woman for a moment. There was nothing judgmental in her expression, just simple curiosity.

"Those who want to complain the most after death are usually the ones least accepting of it," she observed thoughtfully, giving the other woman a polite but friendly smile. "Have you received the 'You're not really dead' speech yet? It tends to get repetitive after the first few times, I admit."

[monde_finis]

Claire had received the speech, in a manner of speaking. What she hadn't gotten was the meaning. Claire thought that if she was really dead, there would be nothingness, not a room full of people. She thought of this room as the life after death taught to her as a child, not an actual rebirth or resurrection.

"The man told me," she said, pointing to Crais. "So you've spent much time talking to people after they've died? Is that what you do here?"

[defense_rests]

((Repost for HTML fail. Sorry.))

"Quite the opposite, actually." Mia was completely aware of the irony of that statement, having come from a family of spirit mediums - but even then, the medium was never present during the actual channeling and thus did not really speak with the head. "I've only spoken to one person who truly was dead -" if taunting and GET OUT OF MY LITTLE SISTER counted as talking - "and one other person who claimed to have died.

"Everyone else I've met here has proved to be alive and well. I found myself on the receiving end of that speech when I came here." Never mind that she had been dead for three years and was used to being channeled by a spirit medium at that point.

[monde_finis]

"So you chat with the living. Is it as boring here as it was before?" If Claire had been sentenced to unending mindless chitchat, she was going to find a way to break out of this life, too. It might just take more creative planning to do it.

[defense_rests]

((Sorry, had lost the ability to finish a sentence when you tagged and I think I've revised this tag about three times now.))

In spite of herself, Mia couldn't help but smile a bit. "Hardly. But then, saying that the student body here is unusual is an understatement at best." She folded her arms. "I'm afraid that chatting is a necessary evil in order to leave this room. I personally think it's a good idea to actually talk with someone first instead of arbitrarily voting them somewhere."

The no-kill spell would probably require Claire to get very creative indeed.

[monde_finis]

Voting? Based off of her religion classes, she hadn't been expecting a democracy. "What if I was a mime, would I not be able to leave?"

[defense_rests]

Now there was an amusingly absurd mental image. Mia chuckled, imagining a mime confronting the raptor she'd met earlier. "No. Given the attitude towards anything resembling a clown here, you'd have either been dismissed out of hand or voted into the sort of House that would take characters like Barney or Carrottop." Read: the sort who'd drive everyone else mad. From what she'd gathered, though, it was an adequate description of the four secondary Houses.

[monde_finis]

"Oh. So if I am dismissed, there is something worse than this?" From the tone of her voice, it sounded like she found that hard to believe. "Or does it get better if I stay?"

[defense_rests]

Mia frowned. "I've been told that being dismissed, or 'squibbed' is definitely worse than this. No one's bothered to explain why." Which wasn't very comforting; either the answer wasn't something she wanted to hear, it was covered up, or the people who were supposed to know really didn't.

"But once you're voted into a House here, you're free to go wherever you like," she pointed out. It went without saying that having a choice in the matter was preferable. "Which seems to defeat the purpose of assigning people to certain living arrangements."

[monde_finis]

"Wherever I like? What's out there that's worth going to?" she asked.

[defense_rests]

"Last I checked, there appeared to be a world outside this room that had most certainly not ended yet. Whether it's worth it to you - well, that's up to you to figure out." She cocked her head. "A chance at a new life is worth at least investigating before you decide to embrace it or not."

[monde_finis]

"Mmm." Mia was the third person to hear that sound. It was neither agreement or dissent, but rather a polite noise meant to fill space. "I suppose that by now, it is too late to take this new life back. I fear that I'm getting it worn already."