♕ |[77]| ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them

[had_not_lived]

Before you ask, as someone always does: I would have announced auditions this weekend, for the play, but I think under the circumstances it might be better to hold off until things are back to normal. I love when everyone comes to visit, but it does make it difficult to get work done! And I don't know that the announcement would be as widely noticed today.

Besides, I'm not sure I could concentrate; I'd much rather just visit with everyone.

Welcome to the City, if you haven't been here before-- and if you have, welcome back!



[ooc: Please no other Neils (tho face doubles are fiiiiine) and don't outright tell him he doesn't exist. Otherwise, s'all good. ALSO this post is as always eternally backdating friendly! This is Neil's faaaavorite so do come play 8)]

Comments

[had_not_lived]

Well, I can't argue. Even the worst curses, it gets a little easier to get past them over time.

How have you been, Elle?-- both of you, I mean?

[and_identity]

And you've been here a long time. It's been what, two years since you first met me? It's been longer for me, obviously, but I've got the advantage on you in that respect.

Oh, you know how it goes. Some things change, Eternity never does. Bastian's off telling some guy not to come near him lest he barf all over his shoes. We're as classy as always.

[had_not_lived]

It's hard to believe it's been so long. I suppose-- it will be three years, in April.

Do I want to know why he's threatening to do that?

[and_identity]

The cruelest month. I had someone call me the hyacinth girl, once. But that's a long story and probably incredibly boring, even if you'll try to insist that you want to hear it because it involves poetry.

He's not threatening so much as he is, uh, warning. There's someone here who makes us queasy as all hell, and he's got this vendetta against Bastian on top of it. So Bastian took it upon himself to lay out the ground rules, you might say.

[had_not_lived]

I know that one, a little. Mixing memory and desire. I never understood it, though; maybe your long story would help?

[After all, the both of you tell the best stories, and Neil is always a willing listener.]

I can't understand why anyone would have a vendetta-- I mean, for what he does, but not if you know him. But I hope you'll be all right in spite of it?

[and_identity]

The super short version is, I used to hang out with a lot of poets. Half the time I didn't know what Eliot was talking about, either, for the record. But I was in a hyacinth phase back then, which makes me think that's where he got the idea for that particular image.

Like I said, it's a really boring story. You should ask me about Poe, instead. Now that guy was a kick.

And the guy has a vendetta because he's a douchebag. Such is me.

[had_not_lived]

Well, even if I don't understand it, it is a beautiful piece of work. [Which, you know, is an awkward compliment from Neil.] But I'm surprised that Poe didn't spend more time with Bastian. Based on his work, you know.

Is it-- does he make you feel sick because he's like me and Todd used to be, because of our deal? Or is it something different? [He's only asking because he'd hate to think they were that disruptive to the natural order of things.]

[and_identity]

Oh, he did! See, that was back in the day when I still thought Death was out to get me? There was this big mix-up and Eternity was encouraging me to be all paranoid about him and our PR departments got all these crossed signals and basically, I just thought he was this super creepy inchoate abstraction that was out to be the end of me rather than the hilarious but endearing idiot that he actually is.

So anyway, Poe had this amazing knack for rhyme--I'm sure you've noticed--and I liked to sit around listening to him, so I hung out with him for a while. But Bastian and I have this sort of knack of following each other and bumping into each other all along the timeline, and so one day along comes Death, and I flip out--rightfully so, considering the information I had at the time--and book it for...I forget where I went. Italy, maybe? But anyway, so I take off and then there's Death and Poe about flipped tables with fascination over this whole encounter.

So that's why he was all about the Death thing. It's kind of my fault. Annabell Lee's a long story, too, but that one's tragic and gets into the pukey thing.

And speaking of which, the answer is yes and no. It's the same concept, the whole "outside of the natural order regarding life and who has it" thing, but this guy has done such fucked-up things to his soul trying to live forever that it's really just. Blech.

[had_not_lived]

...Oh.

[Gosh that's a lot to take in at once.]

[and_identity]

Yeah, we have this long history of thinking we didn't like each other, without ever actually, y'know, meeting each other. He got a bad tip from the whole fundamentalist "Death is the last enemy to be conquered blah blah eternal Life" thing, and I got the whole "Death seeks to end all Life" thing and we both thought the other was being an unreasonable dickweed, when it turns out it was really just our organizations getting their wires crossed and Eternity encouraging it. Fuckers.

Poe was a cool guy, though. A little weird, kind of quirky, but fun to hang out with.

[had_not_lived]

Well, I can see how it would happen, but I'm glad you got to know each other. And that I've been able to get to know you both.

[He's feeling warm and fuzzy, okay, it's been a reasonably good month.]

It must be amazing, meeting as many people as you do.

[and_identity]

It'd make your head explode, trying to comprehend how we keep them all straight. It's not so bad for Death, he only has to handle his set cases and clients, and he's definitely not present for every death. But there's a lot more people alive than there are dying at any given moment, and I get to keep track of them all. It's a trip.

[She fans her fingers out with a flick of her wrist, an odd motion that looks like she's separating a handful of threads--but of course, there's nothing there.]

Still, there's a knack to it. And I've gotten pretty good at it over the eons.

[had_not_lived]

Well, I'd expect you'd have to.