05 | voice | day 108

[intelligently]

I know that this sounds odd. [ And isn't really a question that people generally ask. Also what isn't odd, around here? It's her justification ] But with what's been happening I'd like to know.

[ There's a pause. It's a touchy subject, obviously, and she's not even sure where the conversations might go ]

I want to know about your experience with death. [ She's going to try and go slow on this. As slow as Lydia Martin wanting to know something can. But things are pretty messed up. She feels pretty messed up. And she'll even tell her reasons for asking if she's asked ]

Not just if you know someone has died but... if you've seen it. [ A two second pause ] Or nearly died.

It's happened here, and could have happened a lot more. [ If Dirk hadn't put out that useful message. People were still taken but at least they were warned ]

But- Can people come back? [ It might sound crazy, but it's happened before. It happened to Jackson - twice, although that was a supernatural thing. But it leaves the possibility, right? ]

( PRIVATE: Allison Argent | "Stiles" Stilinski )

I'm going to the library. Hopefully it's as useful as it should be.

Comments

[video]

[justrunsasaloon]

Managed to make it here instead of the afterlife. Know a few things about coming back from the dead.

[She's working in the bar, painting symbols on the walls. Someone found paint.]

Whatcha wanna know, kid?

Voice

[recognize_an_opportunity]

I've seen my fair share of people dying.

[A pause.]

Back home, nobody ever came back. Dead was dead. The way I see it, though, around here anything's possible.

all the voices

[intelligently]

[ Whoops. She didn't expect that for her first response ]

How did you come back? Did you do it?

[ Her many wondering options are a) was it a supernatural thing, b) was it some other thing, c) did the people that brought you here do it?

Also, even though Lydia knows why she wants to know, she's not entirely as sure on what specifically she wants to know ]

I know that people die. I just don't know how many people know it more than knowing someone who has died. [ Aka 'is what is happening to me a more regular occurrence?' She'll get to that ]

Voice

[intelligently]

Has someone died here? Before Wallie.

[ Everyone knows about that by now, right? She's not sure, didn't quite keep tabs on it, but it was a little much ]

All the video, look at the pretty symbols

[justrunsasaloon]

[Ellen chuckles.]

I blew myself up along with some hellhounds helping out an old friend's pair of sons. Don't recommend it.

[She shifts position.]

Then again, I watched said friend claw his way out of a hellgate to kill the bastard that had killed his wife.

Re: Voice

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Yeah, people have died here.

[If he doesn't sound particularly disturbed by the idea, well, as he said, he's seen a lot of people die. Eventually, it becomes unremarkable.]

I wouldn't say it's necessarily a common occurrence, but it happens more than most people are comfortable with.

private video

[nedofpies]

[ Ned honestly doesn't even know where to start. ] Sometimes when people die here, they stay dead and don't come back, like normal. [ He is thinking of Wallie. He doesn't want to let himself hope that it will be the same as it was with Jesse, that he'll show up after a week or two with absolutely no idea what had happened. If he starts hanging his hopes on things like that, he's going to go absolutely out of his mind ]

But sometimes they do come back. It happened to a guy I used to live with, and, uh... [ He hesitates here; it's not something he talks about much, not something that a lot of people know about - just him, Erik, Charles, and River. Even Daneel doesn't know ] ...to me. I, um. Died. [ He chews on the inside of his bottom lip, decides that is probably plenty of detail for the purposes of this discussion, unless she asks for more. ]

[ Though he and Lydia had found Wallie's body and he'd refused absolutely to touch it or go near it, he hadn't given the reasons why. But with her asking, now, he wants to be honest. It's just a bit peculiar, even now, revealing his powers to others, not knowing how they'll react, if they'll treat him differently after. He wants to let her process the whole I-died-and-came-back thing before he dives into an explanation of his unusual ability ]

[servingmichael]

Yes Lydia, sometimes people come back. I've spent time with one girl who did, and was quite distressed.

is she demon trapping?

[intelligently]

[ Lydia has to say that is not on the list of things that she ever expected. Or wanted to here. Wow ]

The sons. Did it work, what you did? To help them. [ Please say yes because otherwise... double ouch ]

[intelligently]

[ No, don't tell her those words. She knows what's coming ]

I don't think it's supposed to be comfortable. [ That could be extended to 'their whole experience and being here' but it works just for death, too ]

How many times has it happened?

Yep among other things

[justrunsasaloon]

Not as much as we'd hoped. Not as little as we'd feared. Kept the hellhounds off their asses so they could try what needed to be done.

[She takes a deep breath.]

Back home, they're both still alive. I can't ask anything more than that.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

A few times.

[A sigh.]

There're also the people who've disappeared and never come back. It's arguable that we don't know whether they're dead or not, but the effect is similar.

private voice

[intelligently]

You died?

[ Lydia sounds surprised. She is. Other than Jackson (and knowing that she'd resurrected Peter stupid Hale) she hadn't seen or spoken to anyone that had died before. Until now. And it seemed that it wasn't just limited to him, either ]

When?

[ She's not asking how, it's too traumatic no doubt, and she's not sure that she wants to know how, either. But she might ask how he came back, if he knows ]

[intelligently]

Even here?

[ There's a little bit of hope. Even if it means that Wallie would be distressed (and who wouldn't be after dying) it means he wouldn't be dead. She doesn't know him, but from seeing Ned's reaction to finding him? She'd rather he wasn't dead ]

Could Wallie come back?

[intelligently]

Then it worked. If they're alive it worked.

[ Little is still good, it's just sad people had to die for it to happen ]

Why did you do it? Wasn't there anything else that could have stopped them?

[intelligently]

But they could have just gone home?

[ Like Lydia did that time before she came back and didn't remember being here. The 'other' Lydia that had been here ]

They might not be dead.

[justrunsasaloon]

[Ellen stops, looking at the symbol she's drawing with paint. How to explain it?]

No, there wasn't another way. Tried to think of other things, but in the end, it was all that could be done.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

There're people who've gone home. There're people who've been...

[How to phrase this in a pleasant way?]

... kidnapped and experimented on by our captors.

[Whatever would have been a pleasant way, that wasn't it.]

There are also likely some who are dead. It's hard to detect a pattern or predict an outcome from what we've seen so far.

[nedofpies]

Forty-six days ago. [ Maybe it's weird that he answers her down to the day, but at least he doesn't go so far as hours and minutes, even though he probably could. He notices that she doesn't ask how, and is grateful for it, offers other, easier information instead ] Apparently, I was only dead for maybe a quarter of an hour, but I uh. Was definitely very dead. [ She's just going to have to take his word on that. He says it with plenty of conviction, and a certain amount of discomfort ] Things were a bit strange that week and I had these healing powers, so it was probably that. Other people... it's taken days before they show up again, without a scratch on them, and they don't know how or why.

[ Even if Ned's accustomed to thinking of life and death as less unchangeable than others, that had still been startling to him. He still doesn't know how their captors managed it. ]

There's something else, too. [ He draws in a long breath, says in a rush ] I've got this thing. This... ability. When I touch dead things, they come back to life. I don't really know why, though best guess according to people I've met here is that I'm some kind of mutant and it's in my DNA. That's why I wouldn't- it's why I made you check for his pulse. If I'd touched him, he would have come back to life, and then I would have had to kill him again in a minute or else let someone else die. That's how it works.

[runboyrun]

[She sounds distressed, and that causes him distress.]

Hey, want some company? I haven't checked out the library yet.

[intelligently]

Yeah. [ That tone is still there, sorry Stiles. Be glad you weren't here recently ] It'll go quicker.

[runboyrun]

Okay, where d'you wanna meet?

[You're probably hearing the flailing of him pulling on his hoodie and shoes. Sorry, he'll never be a graceful ballerina.]

[intelligently]

I'm at house 17.

[runboyrun]

Be right there!

[And it doesn't take him long to get there, not when he half-runs the whole way, still zipping his hoodie up against the chill.]

video

[hung_garian]

Can and do. Haven't you ever read the Bible? Or at least seen Dawn of the Dead.