fandomtownies | The Park, Wednesday Afternoon

Marc was doing one of those not-really-thinking-about-why walks around the island. As he was going by the park, he spotted Gregorith and figured what the heck. He changed course to head over in Gregorith's direction.

"Hey," he said. Gregorith might notice things like, while the guy in front of him looked like Steven, his clothes were neater, were solid colors, his posture was better, and oh yeah there was a Chicago accent instead of a British one. "You're Steven's friend, right? Greg...orith?"

The hesitation there was because Marc was grabbing info out of the collective memory banks and fuck if he knew if this guy was okay with Marc calling him Greg.

All those clues were helpful, but Gregorith also appreciated the very clear signal of speaking about Steven like he was someone else.

"Yes that's me. Are you, Marc?" That had been the name right?

"Marc Spector," Marc confirmed. He gave Gregorith a nod of something that could be called greeting. It was Marc. His face never came off as overly friendly and personable as a rule.

His overall vibe towards Gregorith was a good one though. Or as good as Marc's vibes ever were. As demonstrated by him asking, "How's it going?"

That's okay, Gregorith was a little guarded himself. He was used to "hey you're that guy" carrying a less friendly vibe still. He wondered if he'd ever get accustomed to people not side-eyeing him.

So whereas if he'd been speaking to Steven he might have said something like "I'm still a little worried that I wound up sending wine and mead to a kids' party", he instead answered with;

"It's going well. Weekend was a little rough, and I'm still getting used to the weather, but it's not bad."

Marc nodded as he took that in. "Anybody giving you any trouble?"

"No, no everyone's been pretty nice."

Well, there was that one time, but Gregorith had long decided he wasn't going to hold Lucifer's reaction against him.

"The turning into kids thing, everyone seemed pretty chill with that. Does it happen a lot or it just a 'eh, it's Fandom' type of reaction?"

"Weird shit happens around here, yeah," Marc said "Turning into kids, having kids show up, turning into animals or whatever the fuck."

Marc waved all that off like "whaddya gonna do?"

"Not the kind of weird you're used to, I take it?"

Marc knew kind of a high level summary thanks to Steven but that wasn't the same as hearing it from the source.

"No, that was a new one. When you share an afterlife with people like Loki or the Monkey King some pranks will happen sometimes but nothing like that. Well...maybe turning into animals but that hasn't happened in a long time."

He was glad it hadn't effected him while he had a cold, that would have been a nightmare.

"Monkey king's a new one," Marc said.

He wouldn't have called the Loki he knew of a prankster. But at this point the idea that you couldn't assume alternate universe versions of the same people had anything in common with the ones you knew of was old hat.

"Settling in okay otherwise?" Marc asked.

It could get complicated. Not all the myths were letter perfect true, but not all of them were made up either. Gregorith wasn't sure who had originally said it but he recalled Jesus quoting once "if you look back on myths of yourself and don't cringe, it means you haven't grown".

"Yeah, yeah I am. I found the art supply store and I'm enjoying my work at the museum." His biggest challenge was possibly the conflict between his perceived responsibility to be more sociable, and his solitary nature. "I guess I'm still a little confused about money, but I think that's more to do with what I've heard about the mortal economy and the unique nature of this place."

~~Perhaps the biggest fantasy aspect of this place is that one can fully support themselves with a part time job.~~

~~Right???~~

"This place is weird far as that goes," Marc said. 'Weird' was such an easy go to for talking about the island. "Lotta places tend to need you to put in more hours to afford somewhere to live."

Marc frowned at Gregorith thoughtfully. "You've got a place here, right?"

Steven knew the answer to that one. Marc hadn't really bothered to pay attention when getting the quick download from the mutual memory bank.

Come to think of it he wondered if Lily was still irritated. I'm sorry, what? You work ONE day a week and that's enough? You bastard. she'd been laughing, but he suspected she was genuinely jealous. Good thing she'd opted out of ever going back to mortal life.

Gregorith chuckled at that. "Oh yeah. I was a little worried when I saw the street name, Derelict Walk, but the townhouses there are actually really nice. Well mine is, I'm assuming about the others."

Marc gave a shrug as though to indicate who the hell knew with the street names. "We're on Jones. Who's Jones? No idea.

"It's the boarding house," Marc added, in case Steven hadn't mentioned that. (He had, but again Marc wasn't super great with paying attention to these kinds of details.) "You ever in trouble, need a safe place to go, you're welcome to head over there."

Congratulations, Gregorith. Without even trying you'd managed to unlock the multiverse's easiest cheat code: being nice to Steven meant Marc cared about your well being.

Given his low key concern about invasions and whatnot, that was definitely information he was filing away. He also remembered Steven saying something about Marc being the action guy?

"I will definitely keep that in mind. I've slept since then so I don't remember exactly but Steven and I talked a little bit about trouble sometimes coming to the island. I'm handy with a knife, but out of my friend group, I'm not one of the fighters."

Come to think of it, he wasn't sure he'd ever actually been in a real fight.

"When in doubt, feel free to get behind me," Marc said.

Or, yanno, however much "behind" a guy who was like half a body's height taller than Marc could. Still. Principle of the thing. Thought that counted and all that.

"I'm used to fighting and getting hurt's not an issue," Marc added to explain the whole why of getting behind him.

"Is that part of the avatar deal? The not worrying about injury thing? Because I also know first aid if necessary." If it was a tough guy thing he'd roll with it but he might be a bit more concerned if it came to it.

"I've got a suit of armor that heals me," Marc explained. "And when I die I come back. So yeah, perks of the gig I guess you could say."

Marc's tone there didn't make it sound like he actually considered the gig to be a thing that the word "perks" really applied to. But on the other hand it was Marc, he wasn't really a cheerful guy in general.

He didn't think Steven had mentioned the dying part.

"Somehow that reminds me of how, in my afterlife mortal souls can regenerate from anything. But it hurts. A lot. So I mean, I don't mean to tell you your business, but I do recommend trying to avoid dying." Bit of "tough guy" humor there, possibly made less humorous by his concerned tone.

Someone might still be a little upset at his best friend almost dying.

Marc might have empathy for the concept of the impact of a death of someone close to you. but that would require him to actually focus on the impact deaths of those types on him and, well, the first D of DID pretty much stood for "Doesn't Want To Deal With It."

"Yeah it's not great," Marc admitted. He absent mindedly rubbed his chest where the bullets had been when he'd died from getting shot last time. "But could be worse. Not as painful as it'd be otherwise."

Gregorith thought about trying to change the subject to something less dire but then he had a thought.

"I hope I'm not being rude, but...from my conversations with Steven I got the impression that...I mean do you just come out if there's something happening?"

Had Marc been trying to alert him without worrying him?

"What?" It took Marc a sec to try to parse that since his thoughts had been elsewhere. "Oh. No. I mean yeah, I come out if shit's going down for sure. I'm usually the one doing things for Khonshu too."

Since Khonshu's needs generally involved violence, which Steven didn't care for. But Marc figured no need to go into that with a guy who had just admitted he wasn't huge into fighting either.

"Nothing now though," Marc said. He looked around the park, then shrugged. "Going for a walk. Saw you. Figured I'd say hi."

Again a thing normally Marc would have zero interest in doing with a random new person. But Gregorith had not only been nice to Steven but nice about something Steven felt particularly vulnerable about. Gregorith had earned a small bank of goodwill from Marc from doing that, even if he wasn't aware of it.

Ironic, considering his job back home.

"Oh good. I uh, wasn't entirely certain how it worked. It's nice to meet you by the way."

"Most people don't think that," Marc told him. Matter of factly, like talking about the weather. "But yeah. Thanks. I know you and Steven've been getting along. So. Yanno."

Were those words? Even sentences? Eh. There was a sentiment there that was good at least.

It felt a bit like talking to someone's less sociable older brother.

"He's been very kind. I'm not always the easiest person to get along with but he, well, yeah."

Somewhere all his friends probably felt the urge to contradict him about that. Sharkie might even bite him.

"He's used to dealing with me," Marc said. Since he was nothing if not possessed of some self-awareness. "Takes a lot for somebody to get him to walk away."

Or Steven might recognize he should walk away but then continue to give people multiple second chances. It was a work in progress for Steven. But so far Gregorith hadn't even remotely done anything for that to be a concern.

"He told me about - " Marc made a vague gesture towards Gregorith, aware this was going to be awkward but not being possessed of any skills that would help mitigate that " - your deal. Being a demon. I don't give a shit. You're cool."

In the language of Marc that meant "I don't have a problem with people not being human. You've got nothing to worry about." Perhaps his tone conveyed that even if his words lacked all those details.

Afterlife privilege meant that Gregorith hadn't had much experience with having to cut people out of his life. But through second and third hand accounts, he knew it could be very difficult.

"I'm glad it doesn't bother you. Even in the afterlife some people can get a little leery of us. For future reference, if it ever comes up, the way I look now is something of a disguise." One that he was aware was probably unnecessary but, it made him feel more comfortable. "So at some point you might see me with red skin and eyes, horns and a tail."

Like Steven, Marc had experience with Illyana and Darkchylde so the concept of those kinds of changes didn't throw him.

"Keep it in mind," Marc said. "And trust me. I've met plenty of people who did horrible shit that had nothing to do with whatever - " Marc made a vague gesture again to indicate he wasn't sure if he was using the right word here " - species? They were."

"Yeah, me too. Well...actually only humans but that's just because it's their afterlife."

Someday, maybe humans would make first contact with aliens, and then maybe his section of the afterlife would meet theirs and that would be an exciting, and confusing time.

"Heard there's a few of them," Marc said. He hadn't really paid attention much beyond that, because caring about lore was Steven's deal. But hey, you die and have to hang out balancing your heart for a while and you pick up on at least a couple of things.

"Monkeys were a surprise."

Segues spoken out loud were also not Marc's forte. Though he and Steven had that in common.

"They...often are." Like just now for instance. "Do they have their own afterlife in your universe?"

Do they have one in our universe?

The various deities were still keeping mum on whether or not certain animals on Earth were sentient or not. As far as he knew no one was going to any level of Hell just for not being vegetarian or vegan anyway.

"They were in the last one," Marc... explained was probably not the right word considering the amount of information he was conveying but sure we'll go with it. "No clue why."

Gregorith may or may not remember to ask Steven follow up questions about monkeys in the afterlife.

"Given how whimsical some deities can be, it wouldn't surprise me if it was just to make you wonder."

Steven would be happy to talk about it if Gregorith asked him. To the point that Gregorith might regret asking him, but Steven would be thrilled.

"All the gods I deal with have animal heads so who the fuck knows," Marc told him. "Not sure about whimsy."

Off the top of his head he couldn't remember if any of the Egyptian gods he'd met had had much of a sense of humor. Well, enough of one to stand out. And of course he had mostly hung out with gods of death. Anubis maybe. He was fond of deadpan non-sequitors.

"Yeah having said it out loud I'm not so sure now myself. Anubis likes things tidy and I would think that monkeys would make a mess."

If Steven found out about this conversation he would be in actual pain over how much context Marc was leaving out. But Marc's summation of this meeting would be "I saw your guy" which perhaps was for the best.

"Gods get as handsy in your world as they do in mine?" Marc asked.

"That depends on what you mean by handsy. They don't get directly involved in events in the mortal world, not anymore anyway. If you mean something more intimate than it depends on who you ask. Zeus has a bit of a reputation but we're all pretty sure Hera wouldn't have stayed with him if most of those stories were true."

If the gods were in control of what happened in the land of the living, there would be no need for punishment realms.

"Not that kind of handsy," Marc clarified. Everything he knew about Khonshu's love life was very much against his will. "Walking around. Doing shit. It's a mix where I'm from. Khonshu needs me to enact his will but other gods hang out with humans."

Or tend bar here on the island. Surprisingly common job for gods on this island, actually.

"Ah, gotcha. Yeah no they're all very limited in what they can do to affect things. It's very frustrating for them sometimes. But I think somewhere along the line there was a general consensus that they were doing more harm than good when they interfered directly."

All of that was before his time but everyone knew the stories. But it was a bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don't deal. Now that they weren't interfering they were still getting blamed.

The Park, Wednesday Afternoon

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