IC Contact;

[nohalfway]

[Automated Voice]

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Comments

[abduxel]

that's rough kid. No wonder you're so tense. Maybe you just need to unwind.

[nohalfway]

to be honest?
this place makes me more uncomfortable than home. i cant really explain why.

[abduxel]

Maybe there's too many people here for you.

[Was that a tasteless apocalypse joke? Or just logical?]

Maybe you're used to needing to survive, so you don't know what to do here. Just a guess. I love it here, and my world was hell, but it is unsettling.

[nohalfway]

youre a magician whos home world is hell
ok

[abduxel]

Well, figuratively speaking.

It wasn't exactly apocalyptic, but it was certainly dystopian.

[nohalfway]

what was it like

[abduxel]

[He decides to just describe Hell but without the word, and without the obvious symbolism, acting as though the world itself changed and not his own circumstance on account of his own choices...]

when I was young, it was normal, like here but a hundred years ago. but then there was a supreme ruler who controlled everything and his underlings tortured each other and the rest of us to keep everyone in line. there were no plants or animals anymore. only rocks and fire. and no where else to go.

[nohalfway]

shit
yeah that sounds like hell to me
this place must be paradise for you then huh?

[abduxel]

yeah, it is, and i hope i never go back.

you said everyone died from a disease in your world, or something. how did you survive?

[nohalfway]

not everyone exactly, but a lot of people
um
just luck i guess
luck and packing heat, basically

[ And her immunity. But, well, that's a secret. ]

[abduxel]

how do you shoot a disease?

[nohalfway]

in the head
i mean you can pretty much shoot them anywhere else and when they bleed out enough but its a waste of bullets
it grows around the brain.

[abduxel]

oh, wow

that's fucked up

[nohalfway]

ever heard of a cordyceps fungas?
it started off as something that just infected insects
like ants and spiders
its fucking bizarre because ive read about it in the books ive seen here and nothing ever mentions it infecting people

[abduxel]

[He is soooo uneducated.]

no, i've never heard of that

it exists here too? let's hope it doesn't make the jump in every reality

[nohalfway]

in biology books it just says that it attacks insects
but just the fact that it still exists bugs me enough
at least infected are predictable

[abduxel]

so it grows in your brain

then what?

what do the infected do

[nohalfway]

the fungus travels to the brain and spreads
takes over after it kills the host and makes that host attack other living things
sort of like zombies
the body is dead but still moving and the fungus covers the body over time

[abduxel]

[............]

right

packing heat makes a lot more sense now

this place must be paradise for you, too

[nohalfway]

yeah
sort of

[abduxel]

why only sort of? because it's unsettling?

[nohalfway]

that world back there?
its all i know
the outbreak happened 20 years ago
nothing here makes sense i guess

[abduxel]

[this is how you friend:]

want to see it again? i can do that for you

[nohalfway]

[ what a strange offer... Ellie stares at the text for a long while, but it doesn't take much for her to figure out a response. ]

honestly?
im sure you can but i dont miss the place
i just dont think i can get used to here

[ She takes a moment, waiting to send another text that is sort of biting to be sent at the reminder of what this guy can do. ]

what about the past
can you do that
show it i mean

[abduxel]

i specialize in the past, Ellie. i can put you back into your memories.