nexus_sages | enter a lost prince

Jalan had been through Hel. No literally. He'd walked through actual Hel and it honestly was one of the worst experiences of his life. Far less fire and brimstone then he thought though. It was mostly just a vast endless gray desert. Filled with, of course, countless abominations that wouldn't be out of place in the deepest dankest of nightmares. Which was why he was so very incredibly thrilled to discover there was actually an Exit. An exit that would take you anywhere you thought of when you opened it. Unless you weren't thinking of a 'where'. Then it just dumped you kinda... wherever. And Jalan wasn't really thinking about anything besides outrunning the terrifying lady demon who seemed rather keen on tearing off his delicate bits.

So he really didn't care very much where he ended up as he tumbled through the door. He spun around to slam the door shut, a magical black key clutched in his hand ready to lock it up tight so Little Miss Hellspawn couldn't eat his soul... only to discover there was no door. He looked around in confusion but ended up breathing a sigh of relief. His key was on a chain so he slipped it back around his neck as he got a good look around.

Didn't recognize anything one bit. But he wasn't really concerned. Honestly he was just grateful that he was alive and not in Hel, and there were no undead monstrosities looking at him with hungry eyes.

He was a little concerned when he read the brochure. The food wasn't safe? What about the water? He hadn't had a sip since he started traipsing about the Afterlife and he was beyond thirsty. And starving. Honestly he was just a complete mess right now. Even his garb, which normally might make a Lord of the Rings cosplayer green with envy, was covered in dust, dried blood, and torn beyond repair.

"Pardon me," Lost, alone, and on the verge of dehydration, the prince put on his best, most charming of smiles and waved to the closest person, "I've read the food and drink here could be dangerous. Any chance you can lead me to something safe? A change of clothes too... these have. Had it I think."

Plus he felt as if he was sticking out like a sore thumb. Most of the people here... well they weren't dressed like him really. In fact a lot of them reminded him of the little he'd seen of the ancient Builder's culture. Weird.

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"Everyone excepts gold," he replied with a grin. Rub a couple Gold Standards someone's way and they'll drop everything for you.

"The Builders... The Night of a Thousand Suns happened to them," he poured himself a cup of coffee when it finished, blowing on it to cool it down a bit, "Well over a thousand years ago they came across secrets and magics that scared them. So they unleashed their greatest weapons on each other. The Builder Suns, though the oldest texts just called them weapons of mass destruction. Burned the sky, burned the world."

Adia reaches for a mug while Jalen speaks, deciding a cup of coffee is a good idea, after all. But his explanation pushes the thought from her mind and she simply lets her hand rest on the counter, her eyes wide and worried.

"That sounds a lot like thermonuclear weapons," she says softly. "Um... what planet are you from, if you don't mind me asking?"

Once satisfied that he was going to burn his tongue off he takes a sip of his coffee and sighs. Yes, that's just what the healer ordered.

"Thermo-?" he looks puzzled, and then even more so at her her question, "What planet? Earth of course. Though I heard the Builders walked on the Moon, and even sent people as far as Mars. Pure fantasy probably."

"Earth?" She repeats softly, looking disappointed. Then she sighs and picks up a mug for herself. "Sorry, it's just that something similar happened to my planet. Much more recently than a thousand years," she adds with a sad smile. "Earth is a myth where I'm from, and I know that everyone here comes from a different place, but... well, that's the first Earth I've heard of that had such a catastrophe."

Instead of coffee, she selects hot water and grabs a packet of instant hot chocolate. She needs the comfort.

He never thought about people living on other planets. You could see them sometimes in the night sky, a few ancient texts still existed to describe them. But they were so far away, it was hard to think of them as places where people might live. He had questions but his bit his lip and pushed them away.

"I'm sorry," he put a hand on her shoulder, "They say the poison will fade from the promised lands some day. And they can be reclaimed. So the catastrophe may not be as big as it seems. The same may be true for your world."

She's surprised by his touch, but doesn't pull away. Human comfort, even from a stranger, is appreciated. "It's a nice thought," she says, smiling sadly. "But the radiation half-life is a few hundred years. I'm not sure I'd want to go back, anyway... I wasn't there when it was attacked. I can keep in my mind the way it used to be."

She politely shrugs off his hand so that she can make her hot chocolate. "So the part of Earth you live on, it's safe? No one is losing their hair, or teeth, or wasting away?"

"Teeth falling out? Ugh, now there's a thought," he shudders and grimaces. Just imagining his teeth dropping out of his head... as if he didn't have enough things to trouble his sleep as it was, "There are plenty of places free of the poison now. And they have been for some time. My ancestors lived underground for a long time as they waited for the world to heal. The only places that remain poisoned are the promised lands."

"Sorry," Adia says automatically, regretting that she had said anything. "It's a symptom of radiation poisoning... that's good, though, that where you live is safe." It's reassuring, too, that his Earth was able to bounce back from nuclear devastation.

She pours the hot chocolate mix into her cup of hot water and stirs it with one of those little plastic stirrers that isn't good for much else. "I wonder why they call those areas the promised lands, if they're still poisoned."

Bounced back, yes, but it's taken over a millennia, and society is no where near where it was before. That might not be the most terrible of things though.

"Because they've been promised," he replied with a shrug, lips pursed. Everyone knew about it so no one really had to talk about it, which meant explaining it exactly and finding the right words was a touch difficult.

He took another sip of his coffee and considered.

"They're poisoned now, but they won't always be. It'll fade in time and when it's drained from the land they'll be reclaimed. A promise."

She listens without interrupting, giving him the time he needs to explain. "That makes sense," she says when he's done. And it does -- it reminds her of her own search for Earth, a little. A place out there that could become her new home, someday.

She blows on her hot chocolate and takes a small sip, careful not to scald her tongue. "What is your Earth like now? Where you live, I mean." What she really wants to know is how he ended up a bloody mess, but she wants him to have at least a little time to relax and enjoy his coffee without worrying about whatever horrors he left behind.

"A mess, really," he sighed and finished off his cup and moved for a refill.

"I'm pretty sure the world is slowly breaking. Everyone is more interested in fighting then fixing the mess the Builders left with us and me..." he frowns and sets his mug down instead. All the caffeine probably wasn't good for him. He was jittery enough right now as it was, "I just want somewhere quiet where I can lie around in the sun all day with a bottle of chilled wine and good company."

He doubted he'd ever get back to that kind of life at this point.

It's disappointing to hear, that his Earth is no better off than the life she now lives, but she can't help but smile faintly at his description of what he'd rather be doing. "You're not alone in wanting that." She takes another sip of hot chocolate, but its cloying sweetness no longer comforts her. "I can't think of a day on New Caprica that I've seen the sun for more than an hour or two."

She offers Jalen her hand -- clean, even if her clothes aren't. "My name's Adia, by the way. Welcome to the Nexus."

enter a lost prince

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