Out of the Bone Orchard

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Out of the Bone Orchard

Who: Death and Everyone Else
Broadcast: Of course!
Action: SS Caprine
When: Today

Action – SS Caprine (Bridge)

He is the first to arrive and the last to leave. Of all the temporary things in life, he is the one that lives the longest, so to speak; longer than plants, people, and the stars themselves. Death is a force of pure energy that is needed wherever there is life, no matter how small. Naturally, he feels quite out of sorts on a spaceship. This is not his beautiful manor nor is it his beautiful planet. Nay, the SS Caprine is the very opposite of one.

It’s the starts that bother him most, really. They’re not at all familiar from anything he’s seen in the past, nor do they look like anything he had seen coming up on the horizon. For a being that’s used to knowing precisely who, what, and where he is, it’s awful. So much vastness in the universe and now he’s lost in the thick of it.

So he sighs. The sound is like dried leaves scattering through a graveyard, the final breath of a whole world, the very essence of finality in the softest tones. The pudding in his hand is pushed around with the spoon.

I DO HOPE SHE WILL FORGIVE ME…

Broadcast

There’s a sudden burst of noise as the feed partially turns on. Still quite dark, but the deep tombstone voice is distinct as it mutters away.

OH! I THINK IT TURNED ON. ODD. SHOULDN’T I BE ABLE TO-

And the broadcast is completed at last, with deep dark pits marked by two bright blue pinpricks of light look into the camera. The pits are a part of a skeleton’s face, permanent grimace and all. Death makes a thoughtful noise.

SO IF THIS ONE TURNS THE VIDEO ON, IF I PRESS IT AGAIN-

Darkness once more, but now the reaper may yet speak with confidence! He turns the feed right back on and nods.

YES, I THINK I HAVE IT NOW. IT LETS YOU TRANSMIT BOTH IMAGE AND SOUND. HOW INTERESTING. THE WIZARDS WOULD HAVE QUITE THE TIME TRYING TO PIECE TOGETHER HOW THIS DEVICE FUNCTIONS. AND IF THIS WORKS THE WAY IT APPEARS TO, I WOULD LIKE TO SAY HELLO AND MAKE AN INQUIRY OF ANYONE WHO CAN SEE THIS. WHERE EXACTLY AM I, AND IF POSSIBLE, WHEN AM I?

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[Death is everywhere- where mortal things exist, so, too does Death. This is something everyone knows. But he doesn't normally show up, and Crowley hasn't seen him here before. Not so blatantly, anyway.]

...Azrael?

[Should he be worried? He feels he should be worried. And why is he talking about wizards? ]

Um. You're in the Drift Fleet. Hi. You're not here to...collect anyone, are you?

YOU KNOW OF AZREAL?

[A kind of shock works it's way into his voice. What a strange man to know that name.]

I AM THE DEATH OF DISCWORLD. AZREAL IS MY BOSS, OF SORTS, AND APPARENTLY SOMEONE YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH. HOW DID THIS COME TO BE?

Edited 2018-03-03 20:21 (UTC)

[ The burst of noise definitely turns his attention to his communicator and there are regrets as he turns it on to watch. Yikes that is definitely a skeleton... He's a little creeped out, but honestly? It's better than corpses with rotted flesh, even if it is very concerning either way. They are all stuck together, though, so Carl bites the bullet and turns his own feed on to respond.

Oh god here goes nothing. ]

..Hi. The entire Fleet can see you- or at least hear you. You're in a place called Drift Fleet, which is nowhere near where you're from.

[Death is used to being considered creepy. It comes with the territory and lack of flesh. More importantly, he can't help notice the injury.]

THANK YOU, YOUNG MAN. I'VE ARRIVED VERY RECENTLY, SO THINGS ARE A BIT...DISORIENTING. THIS EXPERIENCE I A FIRST FOR ME IN QUITE A FEW WAYS. THIS THING- [He gestures to first side of his head.] SAYS I AM TO BE A COOK.

Yeah, sure.

It'll get better after a little while. It took me a few weeks to really get used to it. Everyone has a job, but I don't know that there's a pattern to it. I wouldn't mess with it, though.

IS THAT SO? A SORT OF COMMUNITY WITH ASSIGNED ROLES. [He nods.] I SUPPOSE IT ISN'T MUCH DIFFERENT FROM HOW I'VE HAD TO DO THINGS IN THE PAST.

PERHAPS IF I CAN ACQUIRE SOME KIND OF STAR CHART, I CAN GET A BETTER IDEA OF JUST HOW FAR I AM FROM HOME.

About that.. I know some of the Captains keeps star charts from the places we visit, and nothing really compares to anything back home. For anyone.

We're in some other place, away from everything. An alternate universe or something like it. There are people here that have been to other places like this one, too.

I SHOULD LIKE TO HAVE A LOOK AT THEM ANYWAY. MILLION TO ONE CHANCES HAPPEN NINE TIMES OUT OF TEN WHERE I COME FROM.

[A deep sigh comes out of him, although his body hardly moves.]

A CONDUIT SET ASIDE FROM NORMAL REALITY, THEN, OR THE UNIVERSE IS TRULY FAR LARGER THAN WE TAKE IT FOR. IT CALLS FOR A GREAT DEAL OF EXTENDED STUDY IF I AM TO POSSIBLY RETURN HOME.

I'm sure others might be able to give you more of an idea what we're dealing with than I can.

I will say that whenever we go to planets or stations, nobody has ever heard of Drift Fleet, or any of the places we mention. If you find out anything, I'm sure the others would want to know, too.

[ By now he's kind of, sort of, starting to get the hang of this, and he's bright enough to put two and two together when he hears that same trill of musical tones as when he showed up. Han isn't exactly eager to play welcome wagon, but he's good at commiserating and... Well, look. He's been a spacer most of his life, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get bored on long-haul sublight flights. It just means he knows how to deal with being bored.

Part of which is taking advantage of distractions. ]

Welcome to your home away from wherever,

[ he says mildly, coming in and... okay, stopping short, just a little. ]

[Not Azreal, then. How...very weird. Crowley's not sure the best way to deal with this at all.]

The...Discworld. [He's heard about that place before, here and in Paradisa. ]

Uh. I'm not from there. I'm from- well, I live on Earth, currently, and the Death I know is called Azreal. Angel of Death, and all that. He looks and sounds pretty much exactly like you.

[Is that...a skeleton? A talking skeleton? Sure, Rose has fought skeletons before, but they've never been self-aware.]

[Of course, what else should she expect.]

We can all see you. You're in space. As for when, I don't know, and I'm not sure there's anyone here who could tell you.

I AM AN EXTENSION OF HIS WILL, AS IT WERE. HE IS THE DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE. I AM A DEATH OF A SINGLE PLANET.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU, THEN? YOU DON'T LOOK MUCH LIKE A WIZARD, SO THE NEXT LOGICAL STEP WOULD BE A KIND OF MONK OR ENTITY.

AND YET YOU HAVE BEEN A GREAT DEAL OF HELP ALREADY. IT IS A BAD HABIT TO UNDERMINE YOUR OWN CONTRIBUTIONS.

[Now that gets Death's head to quirk ever so slightly to one side. He even raises a hand to his jaw.]

INTERESTING. I WOULD WONDER IF THESE...SHIPS ARE OF A DIFFERENT ERA THAN THE ONES SEEN ON THE DIFFERENT PLANETS. THIS MAY NOT BE FAR FROM WHAT I AM FAMILIAR WITH AT ALL.

[Death turns slowly, his robe sweeping the floor as he does so.]

OH! HELLO THERE. I'VE GATHERED THAT THIS THING IS A KIND OF SHIP, BUT IT'S VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE KIND I'M USED TO. ARE THEY STILL REFERRED TO AS WOMEN HERE?

[ Fundamentally, Han is a skeptic. He's pragmatic. His strong point is definitely, definitely not believing in things.

Which means that half of him registers this as a large, robe-clad skeleton with glowing eyes. But that makes no sense-- so, the rest of him,reasons, this must be some sort of being that kind of looks like a skeleton, which really isn't all that impossible to buy. The galaxy takes all kinds and now they're in a whole other one. ]

...As women?

[Those ears! He can't help how his attention focuses on them.]

SO I HAVE BEEN INFORMED. I MIGHT HAVE A GO AT EXPLORING THIS SHIP LATER ON.

[Cause space is weird when you've been living on a planet for millennia.]

[Take your time, Han Solo, he'll be here a while yet. Death is still pushing around his portion of the pudding.]

SHIPS AT HOME TEND TO BE CALLED "SHE" BY THOSE WHO RIDE THEM ACROSS THE OCEANS. I WONDERED IF SUCH A CUSTOM EXTENDED TO THIS KIND OF SHIP, SINCE IT NAVIGATES THROUGH STARS RATHER THAN A BODY OF WATER.

[ Nope, he's... yeah. He's satisfied with that assumption. Some kind of alien. Han tries not to be weird about that kinda thing, you know. There are humans who are, but he's never been a fan of most Imperial attitudes. ]

Oh... Well, I don't know about here, but where I'm from, a lot are?

[No touching the ears]

Good luck with that. These ships tend to be rather small.

[He won't. They're just so distracting.]

ARE THEY? I SHOULD GET TO KNOW THIS ONE ANYWAY SINCE IT SEEMS TO BE MY NEW DOMICILE.

[Technically, Death is a kind of alien. He is meant to only exist on his home planet, after all.]

I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED WHY IT WAS SO. ALL I COULD THINK OF WAS THAT TREATING THE SHIP AS A WOMAN MADE THE SAILORS MORE WILLING TO TREAT HER WITH RESPECT, THUS PRESERVING ITS INTEGRITY AND APPEARANCE OVER TIME.

I guess?

[ Han has never thought about it. At least having a reasonable thing to discuss is a bit of a distraction from the weirdness of... whatever his new fellow crewman is. ]

This is the Caprine. I don't think I've heard people address it either way, and we're still getting acquainted.

I'm not much of a researcher is all. Give me a gun, and I'm your guy.. mostly.

You think that might be it? I guess it explains a few things if it's true.

Yes, they are. There's also a ship at the center of the Fleet named the Iskaulit. It tends to be less miserabke than the rest of these cages.

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Out of the Bone Orchard

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