He did the monster mash! [party thread]

[smithnjones]

[OOC: I know there have been a lot of posts lately, but this one can be tagged from now until whenever. I just wanted to get it up this weekend. It technically happens Sunday evening. There has been advertisements up in the journal and around the Kashtta. Non-Kashtta residents can come too! Costume is not required though remember, you can feel free

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[arrowblessed]

Off in one of the corners there stands a small young lady in black with a haphazardly painted face, no older than sixteen (at the most) who some might recognize as Kenzie Douglas. She's perched upon a makeshift stage of sorts-a bunch of empty boxes pushed together that just barely support her weight, covered with a maroon sheet-reading to the small crowd gathered around her.

The book in her hands is large and heavy, easily as big as her head if she decided to hold it up for size comparison, leather-bound and lined with fake gold trim. The cover reads, simply, POE.

She's currently reciting The Raven, one of her favorites, with all the grim enthusiasm and emotion of a seasoned actor whose done this hundreds of times. (The count might not be into the hundreds just yet, but it's close.)

[arrowblessed]

Kenzie was going to make words, but instead, she's just gaping at Iris.

A little voice in the back of her head has to point out that Iris is from another world, and that doesn't mean that everyone gets an afterlife, but Kenzie's always wondered and always hoped that her parents were somewhere nice. If they were really anything at all.

And to hear that this girl sacrificed herself-

The only thing she can think to say is, "Really?"

[sophicsulphur]

She nods, softly. "Really. All of it."

She takes another little drink. "I've... never been so happy as when I was there. --No, it's... not quite happiness. You can't call it that. It's more like peace. Endless peace, so deep, and so...." She spreads her arms, not even knowing how to describe it. "There aren't words."

There's a faraway look in her eyes, as she continues to speak, words tumbling from her mouth she wouldn't normally say to anyone. "...In fact, the main reason I live is that I want so badly to help people. If it weren't for that... well." She smiles, like this is nothing. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that no one should be afraid of dying. It's an amazing thing."

[arrowblessed]

Visible doubt creeps into Kenzie's features as she listens to the other girl, brows coming together and lips pursing.

Her voice, when she speaks, is unusually quiet. "What if it's not that way for everyone?"

She wants to believe so, so badly that it is that way for everyone, that maybe the afterlife is connected by a bunch of rifts-or something like them-that draw people from everywhere together and keep them there, at peace, forever.

Except that's not what she was raised to believe, and that's not what most of the stories say.

[sophicsulphur]

Iris looks at her with a smile, like she thinks that's a silly question but doesn't want to say it.

"Of course it's that way for everyone," she says, lightly. "Why would different people have different things happen to them? People are the same all over existence-- even if you look at Chicago, that's true. Look at all the people who came from different worlds, and look at how much they look alike. You can't even tell. The principles of alchemy run through everything, all over the universe. And... death's the same kind of thing. It's a state, not a place, really. It's like... ascending. To another plane of reality."

Sorry, Kenzie. You just happen to have engaged the alchemist on a topic that she could talk about all day. You might have to feed her some cookies, just to shut her up.

[arrowblessed]

Iris won't have to do much more talking on the subject, because Kenzie's pretty much sold. It makes sense, really, and Iris speaks with such certainty that Kenzie thinks she'd be foolish to question the other girl further.

There is one thing she has to ask, though.

"How'd you come back? After you died, I mean."

[sophicsulphur]

Iris shoots her a wry smile. She's going to grab a cookie herself, because to be honest, they look kind of tempting. Even if they are covered with a lurid green icing that doesn't entirely look natural.

"I came to Chicago," she says, ruefully, and takes a bite.

And then realises that sounded a bit flippant, and decides to explain. "I was... I was there, in the afterlife. And then a Rift brought me through, and I wound up in some big metal shack somewhere in the scary part of town." She chases the cookie with a sip of her punch. "I was... I was so afraid. Being alive again... breathing, feeling my heart beat... my body was so heavy. I didn't know what was happening to me."

She shakes her head. "I mean, it stopped being scary after the first day or so. I just never thought I was gonna be alive again. I thought I was done." She glances around the room full of people, taking in the blur of energy, all the small lives she knows, and plenty she doesn't. "I guess I'm not done. There are so many who need me."

[arrowblessed]

The lurid green icing is the best thing about these cookies, Iris. Can't you tell, with the way Kenzie's licking the icing off first?

"That's weird," she decides, running her tongue over her front teeth to clear off some icing. "So you... use your alchemy to help heal people and stuff, I guess? Is that what you mean by 'people need you'?"

[sophicsulphur]

Iris is just kind of worried her insides might melt if she actually puts any of that green stuff anywhere near the vicinity of her stomach. But she's cautiously nibbling on it anyway, although she's sort of avoiding the icing if she can. It just looks... so much less than pleasant.

"It was kinda weird," she admits, deciding to take Kenzie's statement as a comment on being alive again, as opposed to any of the rest of it. "And-- and yeah, pretty much. This place is so... there are so many people hurting." She takes another little nibble of the edge of her cookie. "So many with problems. This world's so far from being fixed. I wanna do what I can."

[arrowblessed]

Kenzie would loudly protest if Iris made any claims of people-melting icing. That's just crazy. ICING IS AWESOME.

But, we digress.

"Do you really think-I mean, this is gonna sound kinda mean. But. Do you really think you can help that much? This place is... you live here. You know what I mean."

[sophicsulphur]

She wouldn't be convinced. Nothing that colour can be healthy. Nothing that colour can be anything short of... well, she doesn't understand radioactivity, but if she did, she'd say the mere presence of that hue indicated some kind of atomic-decay-related hazard to biology.

Although it smells fairly harmless. Non-nutritious, but harmless. Maybe she'll try just a little bite