TO EVERYONE

[princessvegas]

[ In her domain, Julie sits in a booth, bent over the table with a stack of paper and pen. She bites the tip of her tongue in concentration, then starts writing invitations. She intends to leave them all over the Horizon, fliers more than proper addressed invites.

Soon, all of the off-worlders are able to see writing in their vision. This writing appears to simply be written on any nearby surface: a tabletop, on the page of a book in place of the text, in a pool of water. It sparkles to summon attention to itself, just enough of a twinkle to earn a glance. ]



[ It's signed at the bottom, Julie Lawry.

Soon, other thoughts may begin appearing in your vision, sparkling until they catch your eye. Your own thoughts can be broadcast too. If you put in a little effort, you can even send them directly to a specific person, or a group.

And most of you are welcome to the party. ]

Comments

[princessvegas]

They teach you that you could go to Heaven if you just think real hard about it? I don't remember that major in that book for KU they gave me in high school.

[ She did not go to KU. She did not go to college at all. She would have liked to, based on her impression of college from copious amounts of TV and movies, but she didn't. Also, if she ever did go to college and she tried to go for barding, her mother would have killed her for wasting the money. ]

Karaoke? It's when you sing along to music, they got the lyrics on the screen. It's just for fun, you do it with your friends. Do people usually pay you for limericks?

[ The only limerick she has ever heard is "There once was a man from Nantucket". She cannot imagine that is something people make money on. ]

Well, our witches aren't real magic. It's kind of like a religion. Not a real one, but... kind of. Anyway, the haunted house is gonna be the big one. It's gonna be AMAZING.

Wait, your signature says your name is Julian. Julian Pancakes. Packrats. Pankratz.

[cointosser]

Er. Heaven?

[The words come out a little less fluid this time, as if he paused in the middle of writing them. Or. Well. Thinking them.]

I don't think it's what you mean, no.

[There was way too much to try to understand there. He has a feeling their planes are Extremely Different. Or she likes speaking another language.]

People pay me for all sorts of things, lyrically-speaking.

[At least it isn't the first time he's heard that witches are not a Thing. Or, apparently, are Witchers.]

I look forward to seeing this house of yours, either way. And yes, my birth name is Julian. But one needs a rather fantastic name to play under, when one intends to be famous -- and that is Jaskier. It is not simply a moniker for me when I perform. It is a concept.

[Truly the Marc Jacobs of our time. Of music.]

[princessvegas]

Yeah, Heaven. Like when you're good to people all your life, then you die and go to Heaven and you get everything you ever wanted. And if you're bad to people in life, you go to Hell. Y'all don't have Heaven and Hell?

[ Julie, a terrible and not-at-all religious person, grew up in conservative rural America, and spent years being forced to go to Sunday School and sing in the choir. Despite her lack of belief, she still has a distinctly Christian understanding of the world.

A Christian understanding that is also extremely colored by pop culture. ]

So like Lady Gaga? I guess that's cool. Do you do the whole dress up thing, or is it just the poetry?

[cointosser]

[Oh, Julie, you're trying. Trying to explain this to a person from a world with no concept of Christianity.]

What on earth...? [Is the first initial thought that returns to her. Certainly, there are heavens that exist to them, mostly for poetical purposes. But this whole morality thing is beyond him.] Ah, no. Perhaps not like you mean it. These sound like separate planes to your own, but I don't see how one's moral failings come into it.

[If you ask him, it sounds like someone needed motivation to be a good person.]

I do not know her, but... sure, yes. Like the Lady Gaga, if she is talented and a gift upon this wretched world, like me. [It may be hard to read intention in the written word, but there is not an ounce of irony in that statement.] I do love dressing up, given any opportunity to do it. Though considering the vast differences between us already, I would love to see what you consider "dressing up."

[princessvegas]

[ Which is definitely something she is beginning to understand. But she can't be from the only place that uses the afterlife as a reward and punishment -- plenty of different religions on Earth evolved the same idea independently, right?

Actually, she's not sure if that's right, but it sounds good. Like how Hindus keep getting reincarnated as something better and better based on their behavior in life? And their ultimate form is... a cow, maybe? Hm, that sounds a little less correct than she thought after all. ]

No, it's like about your soul. I mean, people die where you're from, right? And when they die, where does their soul go? If they were a shitty person their whole life, then they don't deserve to go spend eternity being happy. You don't reward kids when they break the rules, people shouldn't be rewarded for being shitballs for 80 years or whatever either. But if someone was sweet and good to everyone, then their soul deserves to rest and get whatever they want. Like I think there's one version of Heaven where dudes get 70 virgins? And Mormons get a planet or some shit, but that's a fucking cult.

[ Pot, meet kettle. ]

She basically changed music. Like all music. And she acts, and makes this really good makeup too. She's iconic. One time, she wore a dress made of raw meat and they put it in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[cointosser]

Of course people die. And there is plenty of debate of what happens after. But there is no guarantee, no moral failings or victories that weighs on it. For me, at least. I don't speak for everyone on the Continent. Perhaps it is a lot to accept that we simply may all receive the same fate.

[He certainly never entertained the idea he may be debating beliefs on the afterlife with writing behind -- in front of? -- his eyes.

It's certainly more interesting than whatever else he may have spent the night doing. He finds it all rather imaginary, the idea that those who do evil are always punished for it. Not necessarily in this life, but, per chance, in the next.

Quaint.]

Then yes, I'm exactly like the Lady Gaga. Though I'm quite sure a dress made of meat is one just begging to be eaten by a pack of wolves. Or worse. Wargs.

I would love a costume, but I'm not showing up at your party wearing slabs of beef. Perhaps something a bit sexier.

[princessvegas]

I mean, personally, I think a lot of it's religious bullshit, but I guess it's still nicer to think that there's real karma after you die. Plus, who wants to think about their dead loved ones just rotting away in the ground forever? Or worse. I didn't get to bury my family. I don't want their eternity to be just decomposing in their beds with flies all over them.

[ Look, when you come from an extremely traumatic place, it's good to have even a tiny bit of emotional comfort. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, not really; believing that there's nothing after at all means that the people she loved suffered for no reason.

She can give them a reason, even if only in her head. ]

Well, yeah, you can't wear the meat dress. She already did it, and you don't know her, so it would be a shitty costume for you. The point of the costume is to make it an extension of yourself. It's about what you want to be or what you like, or what you think is funny. Stuff like that.

[cointosser]

[Karma? At least he's following otherwise.] I can see the appeal of wishing for more than a rotting emptiness.

[It's all he adds for a time. Of course one may want more for their friends and families -- well, if they have close family. But death is so close so much of the time to him. He's watched so many die. By accident, by fate. By the wrong choice in the right moment. And their bodies left to decompose in the mud, or the swamps, or thrown outside the banquet hall to be disposed of later.

It's only a body.

I will never be accused of copying another, thank you. I am considering I may find inspiration for something more suitable once I see the sort of costuming you mean.

[princessvegas]

Plus, if it keeps some people from being dicks to everyone their whole lives, it can't be all that bad to believe.

[ It will, of course, not keep most people from being dicks, but she has definitely known some folks who were God-fearing enough to behave under the threat of eternal damnation. Take your wins where you can. ]

Do whatever you want, don't worry about how other people are dressed. I'm not doing a costume contest, so you aren't competing or anything.

[cointosser]

You raise a very fair point.

[The less dicks in one's life, the better.]

Hah. I appreciate the reassurance. Then I shan't worry for a moment, even if I still intend to dress to impress.

[princessvegas]

Sugar, if you're out to be a big deal like you say, then I'd bet my bottom dollar you'll impress.