If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks...

[coldsong]

It's customary to have a Wake after the subject thereof dies. Even Loki knows that. But this is a special occasion. Ego-death is coming to his alternate, and the idea of letting him go off to perish alone, uncertain he will even be mourned, is too dark a proposition even for a flawed and callous person to contemplate.

That, and this Loki has been in a melancholy mood since speaking to the spirit of Frigga. He anticipates a dark choice of his own, sooner or later, and where the fates will send him after that, he can't know. Maybe oblivion, although even at that rate there may be worse places.

What's important right now is that no one dies unremembered. And honestly, any excuse for mischief a party. The first text rolls out to Harley, an innocent enough invitation to join them for milkshakes. Cricket is next, because it occurs to him that Cricket has plenty of liquor, which is good for a reckless celebration.

Things snowball from there.

As long as they don't destroy too much property, they'll call the night a success.

Comments

[chiron_survivor]

Caspar's thinking specifically of Hunter's trial of the Seven Sisters, in this case. But he'll bet that by this point, both Jims have had their run-ins with the Divine. How can one not, around here?

And then Jim voices exactly what he's thinking and he can't help but chuckle wryly. Although some of that humor is lost when he thinks back to the Spring Revelry. "So long as one doesn't pop out of my wardrobe back home."

Adia looks away, feeling a trifle guilty. If a god were to somehow end up on Atlantis, it would likely be because of her. "Some of them are very nice," she says, in their defense. "The Nexus is probably a respite for them. Being a god is hard."

[smartass_captain]

Jim checks his tongue before he lets any more irreverence pass his lips. He's not unaware of where he is right now, and under whose banner this party is for. Moreover, Felix's entire professional career is based around finding and befriending gods. Trying to do get on their good side for whatever aims he might need them for later. If Jim undermines that with his own confusion and skepticism it wouldn't be great for Felix.

His own late night lessons in the world of Nirn and their beliefs stir up from the silt in his mind now. Jim gives a slow nod.

"I'm sure some of them are." He concedes to Adia instead, a smile on his face that's as much his own self restraint as it is to comfort his friend. "Felix has mentioned the gods do not have such an easy time before."

[chiron_survivor]

It's a smart decision, one that Caspar should try to abide. He'll take a cue from Jim and ease up on the snark. In fact, when he sees that hint of guilt on his girl's face, he drops his smirk entirely and gives her a reassuring squeeze around the waist. He can behave. See?

"Felix would know," she says thoughtfully. "Are there really no gods where you're from, Jim? Or is it that the gods people worship don't make themselves known, like where I'm from?"

[smartass_captain]

That's a hell of a question to ask a man.

It reminds Jim that if he answers how he feels honestly it would be so much hubris to claim such a thing. Opening himself up for trouble should he in fact be wrong. But he's read up on how the aedra and daedra of Nirn work enough to be at least more confident than most. So he shrugs at first before offering a slow nod.

"If there were gods in my plane they've got to be near dead by now." If not wiped out entirely. "They require prayer at least on Nirn. Belief and devotion to exist. Without that, even if they live they can't do anything. And most of the Federation believes there can't be anything like that in our galaxy. Even Earth has by and large become atheist. If they exist, good for them. They don't interfere in our affairs or care. But no one who does magic or anything that relies on divine power or aether can control their powers well on my world either. Leads me to think there must not be much of it, if any, in my plane."

[chiron_survivor]

Considering that she and Loki have already had a rather lengthy conversation about gods and faith, she's unconcerned about asking it at his own party. Jim's answer is met with a thoughtful look, and perhaps a touch of sadness, too. She'd hate for the gods she's come to know and like to fade away into nothing.

"Felix has trouble with his magic when he's visiting you?" That's certainly powerful evidence of a lack of divine authority.

"Is it too late to relocate there?" Caspar mutters, before quickly taking another sip of moonshine.

"Loki and I talked a little bit about the power of belief," Adia says to Jim, ignoring Caspar's commentary. "I think he'd agree with your hypothesis. I'm not sure how it is on my world. I know some people believe the gods helped us find Earth... and some weird things did happen to lead up to that..."

"If you're referring to any Cylon weirdness, there's a good explanation for all of that."

Adia looks at Caspar and nods, although her pensive expression remains. "There's my moon rune, too," she adds quietly. "But maybe it's different when it's something granted to you on another world..."

[smartass_captain]

It's not as though gods can't exist in other worlds. Loki and Thor are proof enough of that. Plus, well. Jim's never able to remember his encounter with Felix's patron daedra very well. It's always a half formed thought he can never seem to grasp fully in his hands. It eats at him, not being able to remember.

It was an important meeting, he's pretty sure. One he still sees in his dreams. Only he doesn't even know if they're nightmares or not. It's always gone when Jim wakes.

"Everyone does. Not just folks from Nirn. But I've...met...one. In their own realm before. I think. There's definitely not anything like--" Sam. Sam? That was his brother's name. His brother's smile and an easy laugh. And the debt. The debt to yet be repaid. Why can't Jim remember? "Nothing like that being in my world."

[chiron_survivor]

It sounds like Jim only half-remembers his encounter. He's seen that same distant, preoccupied look on Adia's face sometimes when she's staring at the full moon. Like she's a million miles away, or caught up in a dream. He instinctively wraps an arm around her waist, as if to reassure himself that she's still here.

Adia notices, too, but she doesn't draw attention to it. Encounters with gods can be difficult to describe. "I've felt the same thing. Not at all like aliens, or even some kinds of magic." She pauses, then admits sheepishly, "Although I did assume Loki's brother, Thor, was an alien when I first met him."

"An alien who's a thousand years old and uses magic?" Caspar interjects, his dry amusement returning.

Adia rolls her eyes. "It's the Nexus, anything's possible. You must know some aliens who live a lot longer than humans, Jim?"

[smartass_captain]

"Thor is..."

Jim grimaces and shakes his head. No matter how many times the god of Thunder comes up, all Jim sees in his head are the old holos of George Kirk. He's trying to get better about it but it's a slow process.

"Oh! Yeah actually." This is a much better topic of conversation. "Vulcans live a lot longer than humans do. The older Spock has gotta be well over 300 by now, for one. And he's only half Vulcan. They can live longer than that."

[chiron_survivor]

Thor is... what? Adia tilts her head a little in confusion. Why would Jim have such a strange reaction to his name? "Have you met him?" she asks tentatively. "He's very nice... the most personable god that I've met, by far."

But, if Jim wants to drop that part of the conversation, she won't pick it back up. All this talk of gods might be tempting fate too much.

"He looks good for over 300," Caspar says casually, quietly impressed. He only met the older Spock once, but he enjoyed their conversation. And this was back when he was new to the Nexus and barely spoke to anyone.

"Are they the longest lived in the Federation? What about the..." Darn, what was the name of the pig people who liked to argue? It takes Adia a long moment to remember. "...the Tellarites? Or the Andorians?"

[smartass_captain]

"I have, yeah. Nice enough guy, but he's a dead ringer for my...for someone from my world."

Can't even say it's someone Jim knows, what with him never actually having the chance to meet his father. Everything he knows of George Kirk is nothing but legacy and stories. How fitting for the man who resembles the late George Kirk to be so much more than just a man. It fits the long shadow his legacy has cast over Jim.

"Vulcans live the longest out of any of the Federation species, and Spock is exceptionally old for his kind. On average the rest of us generally only live to be about a hundred, give or take a few years." It won't occur to Jim int he least that human life expectancy isn't that much in other times or on other worlds.

[chiron_survivor]

"Oh." Adia nods in understanding. That must be terribly awkward, for a person you're familiar with on your world to share the face with a god. She catches Caspar opening his mouth and turns towards him. "How's the moonshine?" she asks him brightly. "Is it good?"

The Cylon presses his lips together in the faintest of pouts. He was about to ask Jim who Thor resembled. Busted! "...good enough," he says finally, before taking another sip.

"Only a hundred," Adia says with a soft laugh, moving the conversation along. "We should all be so lucky, Jim. Maybe as our healthcare improves, we will be. How curious that the Vulcans live so much longer. Do you think it's because of their blood? Or are there other physiological differences?"

[smartass_captain]

"If it wasn't flavored with berries, I'd be trying that already. It certainly smells good." Good taste, Caspar. Thankfully Jim's brought his own drink for the occasion and Felix is scoping out the area to find something he can have safely.

"Why's that funny?" His eyes narrow in confusion, only to go a bit wide. Adia's world has tech that makes his own seem dated in a lot of cases. He'd sort of assumed... "Humans don't, in your time?"

[chiron_survivor]

"I'm sure if you asked Cricket to make you a berry-free moonshine, he'd be on that right away." He's never met someone so enthusiastic about moonshine. Except his neighbor, Seth, but the difference is that Cricket actually knows what he's doing.

The fact that he doesn't follow up his statement with any sort of sarcasm has Adia looking at him thoughtfully. She knows that the two of them had a conversation at this very party. Must have gone well! She smiles briefly, then returns her attention to Jim.

"We can live to a hundred, but it's pretty rare. Our lifespan is closer to eighty."

[smartass_captain]

"If I could drink enough to warrant asking for a batch of anything substantial I'd ask. As it stands I'll keep my ear out and see if he comes up with anything that sounds promising. He oughta satisfy his clients' tastes before a lightweight like me."

It's probably always going to sting that he can't drink the way he used to before his death but Jim's come along enough to realize that it's a lot better for his health that he can't. Plus if he gets stupid drunk easily it means Felix can drag him away from trouble while he's still mostly sober. In theory.

"Only...but..Wow." There's a bunch of questions Jim wants to ask suddenly, but he's struck by how inappropriate many of them might come across. After all, there's probably a really good reason why medical advancements were stalled for so long. Things like a war, and the near end of humanity, for example. Caspar nor Adia will want to talk about that especially given their relationship. Jim nods slowly and licks at his bottom lip out of nervous habit before he makes himself shut his mouth. When he tries again he opts for the diplomatic approach.

"Well, but you have allies now to bounce new ideas off of. We didn't develop our medical tech over night. Even before the Federation was officially in existence collaborating with Vulcan scientists helped a lot."

[chiron_survivor]

Caspar nods absently, taking another sip of moonshine. He's probably as much of a lightweight as Jim, and as much as he enjoys a high-quality drink, he's not about to over sample. Him, loosen the reins on his inhibitions and let his emotions take the wheel?

Nope. Not in public, anyway.

Jim's reaction has both human and Cylon alike looking at him curiously. Is that really such a strange thing to learn? If that twenty years' difference is a loss to her, she doesn't show it. "We are branching into new avenues of tech, it's true," she replies, her tone equally diplomatic. "But, um..."

"They aren't learning anything from us," Caspar says flatly, saving her the trouble. "Cylon medicine is terrible. What's the point of saving a life if there's a new body to download into, am I right?" His lips tighten into a bitter smirk. "We had a virus on one of our basestars and the solution was to cut it from the network. That's about as high tech as we got."

"It's better now," Adia says softly. "The Cylons are learning about their own physiology, and human-based medicine is sufficient for most things."

[smartass_captain]

It wouldn't be so strange if he was talking to someone from Viatorus' time, back in the 2000s or the like but Jim's often found a lot of the tech in Adia's world to be comparable or more advanced than his own. It's a stark reminder of how fortunate his time is, for all it's many many faults.

And then Caspar all but confirms the image Jim's starting to get about the state of affairs. Caspar who is, just by his existence, something that his world and time couldn't even fathom how to replicate. The differences between worlds never cease to amaze him.

"You'll walk forward together though. That's important." For the Cylons to continue to exist, it's gotta be critical for it Jim figures. Everyone's got to learn how to change together.