Spren of Kindness

Sometimes I get those, and I have to reload the page to see the new post.

"In... Europe? Or Africa, I guess."

"Oh. I'm sorry. You're one of the ones who weren't there, then?" Martin really doesn't like this. Nothing is right, this woman doesn't seem upset about anything, and his warning shot just went off. He's lucky that he seems to have deflected the questions about Earth's location.

"Give it a second," he rasps. He hates it when this happens. It's the most stupid warning shot in existence. And of course it works across dimensions, or whatever this is. "Sorry," he clears his throat. "Sometimes have trouble breathing. It's a bit annoying when it happens in the middle of something. You were saying, you're from Earth as well? Whereabouts?"

"What do you think?" He's not alright. And how is she from Earth, there's no way she's from his Earth. It's all wrong. And there goes the last of his air. Things are almost amusingly fuzzy. It's then that his lungs unconstrict, of course.

He's dead. He is very very dead. If he doesn't die from lack of oxygen there will be a bullet with his name on it. "... a moment," he rasps, trying to force a breath.

"Well, Earth is... Earth is a bit unique, I've come to understand. See, most people there think we're the only planet that supports life." Martin grabs a twig and begins sketching. "The way we understand it, you don't come into contact with other worlds. They're so rare that it's nearly impossible to find one. We barely understand our galaxy. I'm certainly not smart enough to explain where Earth is. I don't even know where I am." Keep it true where he can. He makes a swirl of a partly circular shape, and a small dot inside it. "That's about where I came from." Not Earth. The YTP wasn't going to send him out that close to the planet. "And there are thousands, millions, of galaxies out there." The pain is building again. Why? It's pressing against his ears and neck, right along where his - his- No. He feels something lock in his chest. He's not - he's not breathing. He needs to breathe. To keep his front up. He can't make his lungs expand. "You'd need an astrophysicist to really explain what's going on." he manages to rasp, before involuntarily doubling over, just trying to get air. Stupid. Why'd he keep talking?

"Okay." Breathe. Get yourself under control. That's the first thing he was taught. He is not going to die because his emotions made him slip up. "Let's sit down for this part. I've been standing all day, and bonus dirt maps." Martin sits down carefully, crossing his legs.

Oh no. Oh no. He's dead. They're going to kill him. They'll do it. "Well, that's kind of a long story," he chuckles nervously, mind racing. He has to do something. If he dies, Reese will flip. Then she's dead too, for nothing. "Do you... have a minute?" Figure it out. Get a cover story. Just lie, they won't know.

"My name is Martin. Martin..." No no no that's too far. "Sicily." Well, that's not his worst move. Not when no one here would know his 'last name' is an island.

"A planet called Earth." He feels a strange tugging of emotion. It's been a long time since he thought he would ever have to answer this question. "Nowhere special." Not anymore. Not after what had happened. "Nothing like the places I've seen since I came here. We're a bit more mundane." Deflect, but give enough information to satiate. Nothing of importance.

"That makes enough sense." Another spike of pain. Insistent. At this rate he's not going to have a very good night. "We don't have anything like that where I come from. We don't really have powers at all."

"Interesting. So it's a sort of trade between deities?"

"Ah, my fault. Where I come from, you call someone a brother when you feel comfortable around someone or need to add emphasis." Martin is very much not comfortable. But he has been taught to lie rather well. "Interesting concept. I'd like to hear more about that, if you don't mind."

"Brother, where I come from, you don't just sell your soul to gain power. It's fiction. So I'm a little surprised to find that there are people who not only do that, they have the ability to do that." He rubs his forehead as a spike of pain lances through his skull. "Though I shouldn't really be surprised by anything at this point."

'You gave up some of your what?!" Martin is really hoping he heard that wrong.

"Well, that's true. I'm pretty sure this isn't a cult, though." Is he?

"Eh... probably. Never been in an organization where it didn't take a long time to get everyone in place." Lie. Liar liar liar

"I had much the same experience, though I was on a starship when I came through a ... whatever it was." Cold heat through all his nerves and raging colors behind his eyes as he was torn apart and remade, over and over, and over and over again. "I don't think it's a cult," he continues. "But yes, it's confusing. Worse than sorting out verb tenses." That always goes terribly.

"Nice to meet you, Soren. You get caught up in this mess too?"

Martin watches in amusement as even more new individuals arrive. Reese would think this is a security breach. It's not, though. It's something different. He steps over to one. "Hi, I'm Martin." @Voidspawn

I for one, would definitely watch Chaos and Brandon fight with Stabby awards.

I don't have a problem with the pacing so far, because I'm really chill with slow starts. But hopefully it'll start picking up soon.

So next is the 80s, right?