text; un: higgs

[finalrequest]

I have a couple of questions for y'all, and I'd be much obliged if you could answer them.

1.) How many realities have you visited, and what were they like?
2.) What is the last thing you remember before coming here?

It probably goes without saying that I'm new around here. There's not much to say about myself, really. Name's the same as the username, this place is a step up from home; the usual, I'm sure.

[He makes it sound like he's been world hopping before but really he's just read a lot of science fiction.]

Comments

text; un: thefunone

[morethanatrickster]

1) What makes you believe this is another reality and not simply another world?

2) Dying.

My, how creative you are.

[finalrequest]

1.) By "another world" do you mean a different planet, or...
Just so we're keeping our terminology clear.

I actually am familiar with other planes of existence. Just the one, though, and it's not a fun one.

2.) I'm actually kind of surprised I'm not hearing that answer more. I've got experience with that, myself. I don't stay dead, though. It's actually a whole thing.

Personally, I don't see the point in not just using your name. These names all confuse me. Everyone just uses their full names where I'm from, for the most part.

[morethanatrickster]

1) I do mean another planet, yes. I have visited several, each with its own rules governing physics. It's very possible we've simply been spirited away to some far-flung section of the universe.

It's never too late to expand one's horizons.

2) Congratulations? Had I a choice, I would have elected something similar.

It affords creativity. Your name was given to you. A username is your own choice. If it's my name you'd like, though, I am Loki.

[finalrequest]

1.) Right. That works. I'm talking the more metaphysical kind, really. Realities layered atop each other. It's not a pretty picture when it happens, though.

2.) As far as I know, I'm one of two people with the particular "gift"; it's actually not a good thing at all. Sorry about what happened, though.

I really don't get it. There aren't even a million people left alive left alive where I'm from. Usernames are pointless.

Were your folks fans of Norse mythology?

[morethanatrickster]

1) Yes, worlds do work that way, too, and it's often rather pretty. You should endeavor to visit better dimensions.

2) A matter of perspective.

If there are more than one they can still be entertaining.

Yes, in a manner of speaking. We inspired it.

[finalrequest]

I'll have to take your word for it. The Beach was a novelty the first time I saw it, but that wore off pretty quickly. This place is a step up from where I'm from just by virtue of the fact that the rain isn't trying to kill you.

Wait. You're THE Loki?

[morethanatrickster]

Quite a charming homeworld you have there. You must be glad for the reprieve.

I am.

[finalrequest]

I absolutely am.

So, inquiring minds want to know, do the stories of Angrboda and all that have any basis in fact?

[morethanatrickster]

I've never heard the name. What does it mean to you?

[finalrequest]

Well, in Norse mythology, she and the mythological Loki had a bunch of kids together. Mythological kids, so they weren't normal.

The most normal one is a god of death, who as far as I know isn't an animal. There's also the world-enveloping serpent, the giant wolf...

Oh and I don't think Angrboda has anything to do with it, but there's also an eight-legged horse.

I don't know all of the stories by heart or anything so I couldn't tell you the details.

[morethanatrickster]

I can assure you I have no children.

[At least not that he's aware of.]

I know of no god of death, though I've an adopted sister known as the goddess of death, though that was her own claim. She did have a mount which happened to be a giant wolf. How in Heaven's name do mortals get things so wrong?

Odin rode an eight-legged horse, yes, but it existed when I was a boy.

[finalrequest]

It might have been a woman? I don't really recall; I know much more about Ancient Egyptian mythology than I do any other.

I think the name was Hel, if that helps at all.

I'm also going to spare you the full story about the horse if one detail is that off.

[morethanatrickster]

Lucky for them.

Her name was Hela. Hel is a place.

Morbid curiosity notwithstanding, I thank you.

You mentioned being familiar with more than one reality yourself. Tell me of yours.

I'm sorry for this infodump, this man never shuts up

[finalrequest]

Pluto is both the name of a god and a place in which the god inhabits in a different religion. Ancient peoples were creative like that with their death gods.

The reality I'm familiar with is more like two worlds layered together, as I've said before. There's the mortal world, the world of the living, and then there's the Beach. Think of it as an endless purgatory filled with sand, saltwater, and a lot of dead marine animals.

The cycle of life and death broke some fifty or so years ago. As a result, the dead can't move on to the afterlife. The only direction is back to the world of the living, where if they reach their bodies results in a creature invisible to the majority of people known as a BT.

Should the living come into contact with them, it causes a massive explosion capable of wiping out entire cities known as a voidout. So people burn bodies after death to sever the dead's tether to the living world.

Material from the Beach known as chiralium has blotted out the sky. It caused every satellite on Earth to stop working, and cut off contact with the outside world.

Oh, there's also the rain that ages anything it touches. Walk outside unprotected, and a person would be dead in minutes.

[morethanatrickster]

And just as like them to take credit for the naming.

And what caused this cycle to break, I wonder? Whose blunder and damned your world? And what does 'BT' stand for?

[finalrequest]

That would be the fault of the Extinction Entity, I'm sure. Though She never did tell me exactly what happened. She quite literally has the ability to wipe off all life on Earth, so it was Her doing.

BT stands for "Beached Thing". Like how marine life used to strand itself on beach shores, the BTs are stranded in the world of the living.

[morethanatrickster]

If that's the case, why didn't she do it? Why instead sentence the lot of you to this half-existence, living in fear of the dead you can't see?

Ah, quaint and profoundly creative.

[finalrequest]

Because She enjoys toying with people.

I would have thought the inspiration for the Norse trickster god would have gotten that. You really ARE different from your human-created counterpart.

[morethanatrickster]

Or others saw to it the humans saw me poorly.

There is a line between mischief and tyranny and your death god crossed it.

[finalrequest]

"Mischief" in mythology tends to be code for "toys with people in ways that vary from stealing all the spoons in the house to kidnapping and eating children" depending on the culture.

You know, standard tales for how to stay obedient in society.

I don't disagree, really, but She does still exist to end the world. There's nothing benevolent about the Extinction Entity.

[morethanatrickster]

If I understand correctly, the Norse saw me as a god of revolution and chaos, which I much prefer.

The world? Just the one?

[finalrequest]

That's the optimistic way of framing "trickster god", I suppose.

It might be the entire universe, I don't know. I guess if you're one of those "it's just one planet" folks it's not exactly important. It's not like there are that many people left alive on Earth to begin with.

[morethanatrickster]

There's nothing wrong with a bit of fun.

Ah, humans haven't encountered anything beyond their little world in your reality, then.

[finalrequest]

That, and there's no way to leave at all. Radar and satellite technology is useless.

The technology to launch rockets was lost along with most of the rest of human knowledge before I was born.

[morethanatrickster]

Oh, I'm sure it's somewhere, you need only find it. There are greater things out there than the pittance to be found on Earth.