24 Sulk sulk sulk

[raisedinabox]

Did anyone else get much chance to talk to the locals in that port? I couldn't help but find it ironic that their afterlife consisted of a seemingly endless journey towards an ephemeral end point.

[Jim sounds more or less calm, but there's a slight sharpness to his tone, as if something about this port left him feeling... just kind of generally unhappy.]

When I died, I was expecting my entire existence to come to an end. I find it... troubling that apparently spending your time embarking on futile tasks and endless journeys is a running theme when it comes to what happens after death, instead. Still, I suppose this place makes a lot more sense as a surreal punishment, than as a genuine attempt at creating some kind of reformation process.

[He sighs a slight sigh, before adding:]

And I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that a chewed up dog toy doesn't actually have any known use when it comes to spaceship repair?

Comments

[raisedinabox]

That's true. At least it felt as though things there changed. The locals decayed. Although I hope they lost their minds before that process went too far...

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[Stildyne is thinking of a worm skeleton, cheerfully inhabiting a bottle of tequila]

Maybe they don't need our kind of minds anymore, them.

I'm not going to say I enjoyed the feeling. But viewed as an alternative. [And given that he's getting up in years, and wondering what comes next.] It's almost heartening that there'll be a period of adjustment before you're plunged into nothing.

[raisedinabox]

Maybe. If that's true though... then... what we become is something... I don't know, something alien to what we are now. Whatever our consciousness becomes, we won't be ourselves anymore. And maybe there is no nothingness for us to eventually be plunged into.

I'm sorry, I doubt this is making much sense, I just never found the thought of dying so disturbing.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

No; makes sense to me. I try to only think on the parts of it that I had to handle to get the job done. Consider the advantages. But I can see a few sleepless nights on their way.

[raisedinabox]

I can imagine. This place has a way of ruining your sleep patterns.

Was this something you had to think about a lot, before you came here?

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Not really. Only recently I really took a moment to notice that I'm getting towards the end of my career as Fleet security. Could have shot for First Officer again, but circumstances intervened. Been too busy worrying about how I'd manage the rest of my life to consider past the end.

[raisedinabox]

That was always my approach as well. Life's too short and it moves too fast for you to be focusing on what might happen afterward.

Not that I'm finding that philosophy particularly vindicated here.

So you were a security officer?

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[He salutes neatly.] Chief Warrant Officer, Fleet Ship Ragnarok, Chief of Security.

[raisedinabox]

You were in the Navy? [Jim smiles, projecting polite interest.] That's quite impressive. I never had the discipline for anything like that. It must have been an exciting life?

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Not precisely: I wasn't planetbound. Fleet operates through all known space. Ragnarok was a cruiser-killer starship, not a boat. But it was all right. Got interesting scars. They fed me.

[raisedinabox]

Oh! [Huh.] Interesting that in every future the earth seems to have lined up we end up fighting with the rest of the galaxy.

So, interesting scars? I'm guessing you saw a lot of action then?

Typos 4-Eva

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, Jurisdiction isn't currently at war with anyone. And a good thing, it still not being settled which of the Judiciaries gets the First Judgeship, now the incumbent's been murdered.

Last real war was with the Nurail. And I saw plenty of action there. Rode through some firefights with the Langsarik pirate fleet, too. But it's been decades since there's been anything close to a real war. If Combine hadn't affiliated when it did, they were almost big enough that it could have been nasty, but they trade as hard as they fight and the economic-- sorry, don't imagine you actually care. [Having been surprised into verbosity by something that shouldn't surprise him-- nobody knowing much about Jurisdiction-- he cuts himself off. Honestly: it's been months, why does he still wind up being taken aback at random moments that nobody else knows Supicor from Chilleau from a herd of Aznir riding sheep?]

Typo's are the acceptable cost for all those fascinating words!

[raisedinabox]

[Jim pauses for a moment, he doesn't quite follow all of that, but it certainly sounds interesting.]

No, no, this is fascinating, I just.. I'm afraid I'm having a little trouble with the different factions you're talking about. Jurisdiction is where you're from, I take it?

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Yes. The governing body over all of known space. There's Gonebeyond outside the borders, but that's not charted and they've been trying to pretend it's not an entity in and of itself. But it's been growing, the last few years.

[Talking about it is odd, in that it's simply a thing that's known for him. He's never had to explain from the beginning, except for the barge. It's novel.]

Nine judiciaries, nine judges. When the First Judge dies there's a convocation of the Bench to decide which Judiciary's judge will get promoted and with Judiciary will lead in politics this go-round.

It's a big thing, Jurisdiction. So when a system or two gets angry or a few worlds act up it's not precisely a real war. There's just too much of Fleet.