[closed] no more dreaming of the dead

[nascensibility]

Who: Freya Mikaelson & Evelyn O'Connell
Where: 5th floor bar
When: February 14th
Rating: PG-13
Summary: There aren't many people with experience in "The Afterlife."
The Story:

[It's been a month.

Evelyn intended to settle sooner, to find a way back to however she used to function in this place prior to her untimely departure, but curiously the lack of cognitive dissonance between one world and the next upsets her more than any sleepless night used to. There was a time when she had become to well-adjusted to night terrors that the lack thereof - all thoughts now supplanted by strange, flickering memories of a world that should arguably not exist - that anything less felt an anomaly.]

Freya:

I've gathered my thoughts, and ensured I took down notes as quickly as possible so as not to forget.
If you are available, I should like to speak with you about the Duat.

I've a small area in one of the corner booths of the fifth floor bar.

-Evelyn

Comments

[deathlessness]

[Giving Evelyn her space to process is the paramount thing, and she doesn't want to rush her, as curious as she is about what the other woman has to share. That being said, when she does get Evelyn's message, she barely gives a response in return, before getting up and making her way to the bar, and sliding into the booth across from her.]

I'll have to admit, I was waiting for your message. Given my world's ... complex relationship with death, I'm always curious about elsewhere.

[nascensibility]

[Freya comes quickly, much to Evelyn's surprise; although perhaps she shouldn't be as surprised as she is, given the subject matter. The other woman slides into the booth seat across from her, prepared to get down to business, and Evelyn offers a hapless smile.]

Thank you for coming.

[Already nursing a glass of something strong she nudges a bottle of whisky across the table to Freya.]

I'm not sure where you think I should start, though. Do you have a preference?

[deathlessness]

[She doesn't really need to know the gruesome details of Evelyn's death, and she's not cruel enough to force her to relive it. It takes a moment of thinking, before she tips her head to the side, considering.]

Would it help if I tell you what I know of mine? We could ... compare and contrast?

[nascensibility]

[Evelyn's shoulders visibly sag in relief at the suggestion, grateful for guidance in a field with which she has no real experience. Her personal venture into the long dark has nothing to compare to, nothing familiar. Fiction is all well and good, but it's just that: fiction.]

Please.

[She'll even stop fidgeting with the locket around her neck.]

I would appreciate it.

[deathlessness]

We know for certain that there are two options. The good place and the bad place. It's a bit simplistic to call it Heaven and Hell, but the basic archetypes are the same. One is a place of contentment and peace, the other punishment and torment.

[She pauses to take a sip of her drink before holding up a finger.]

But, for about two thousand years or so, there was a third option for the supernaturals of my world - witches, werewolves and vampires. We called it the Other Side.

[nascensibility]

[It isn't an inaccurate start. It was suggested to Evelyn quite explicitly that following the trials, one would either be sent to the rolling hills of Paradise, or an equivalent of Hell. These things are consistent.

Those who could not find the end of the trials, make their way through the mazes, would be trapped. Their spirit would not rest.]

Like a...Purgatory, or more of a place of holding, do you think?

[deathlessness]

More the latter.

[And she says that with more certainty than she probably should, but this is one piece of the supernatural puzzle that she can speak with some authority on.]

Two thousand years ago, there was a powerful witch named Qetsiyah, who was in love with another witch named Silas. They were engaged to be married, and as a wedding gift, he persuaded her to create an immortality spell, so they could be together forever. She agreed, charmed by him, but what she didn't know was that Silas wasn't truly in love with her. He was in love with her best friend and handmaiden, Amara, and they were having an affair behind her back. The immortality spell was for he and Amara, not Silas and Qetsiyah.

[She picks up her glass with a smirk.]

Naturally, when Qetsiyah learned the truth, she was ... less than pleased.

[nascensibility]

[Qetsiyah. Sounds Greek. The context and tone of voice also suggests that this is an extremely old story, one of ancients, and that the root cause of Freya's particular purgatory is envy. A woman of power is spurned and betrayed, fearful and jealous, and- what?]

She sought to punish her lover. [A beat.] Did she make that place? The Other Side?

[deathlessness]

[Freya nods once, before a smirk crosses her features.]

She created a cure for her immortality spell, and then faked the death of Amara, using her immortal, undying form to anchor that plane of existence to this one. When Silas was convinced that the love of his life was dead, he wished to take the cure so that he could be with her in death, but since he was a witch and Amara was a mortal woman, if he died before finding a way to destroy the other side, he would never be able to be with her.

He would be trapped with Qetsiyah forever, and would never see his love again.

[nascensibility]

Ah.

[That is certainly one way of ensuring that the "love" of your life remains in said life for all eternity. Evelyn nods, chewing her lip and trying to imagine what it must be like to find oneself in such a situation: Silas, betrayed and lied to, Qetsiyah, equally betrayed and vengeful.

Hell hath no fury.]

Your tone suggests that her intentions were not entirely fulfilled.

[deathlessness]

Silas refused to give her what she wanted, but he also didn't want to live without his love, so he did the next best thing. He stopped feeding and desiccated in a cave where she couldn't find him - and he took his version of the cure with him.

[There's a pause.]

He wasn't quite a vampire, but he did require blood to survive, so while the immortality spell kept him alive, his body deteriorated as a result. And there he stayed, for two thousand years. In the meantime, however, every witch, werewolf and vampire who happened to die in the interim found themselves in the Other Side - forced to observe the world, but unable to be a part of it.

[nascensibility]

Oh, my God.

[Neither Hell nor Heaven. A limbo, of sorts. Waiting, and watching, and incapable of having any influence upon the world as it passed them by slowly.]

You stated that it only lasted about two-thousand years, though - was it destroyed?

[deathlessness]

From what my brother told me, it more ... deteriorated, I suppose. Amara, as an immortal, was a sturdy enough anchor to bear it, but her replacement didn't have the kind of robust power she needed to maintain the spell. Add to it a coven of witches who Qetsiyah cursed and wanted revenge, and it was only a matter of time before they weakened it enough to bring it down.

[Meanwhile Silas and Amara died in a weird blood drinking murder-suicide, but Amara wasn't exactly sane after all that time either. The supernatural world is a mess.]

Now we're back to two afterlives again - the good place and the bad place.