mogmelodies | To All Heroes

To Everybody:

Whether we've met or not, I'd appreciate a reply from as many people as are willing, especially if you didn't just come from a version of Earth.

So, let's talk holidays. Christmas, I was willing to let pass as a coincidence. Any civilized planet out there with a winter season ends up with some version of a winter solstice. It doesn't matter the time or the planet or the alien race, they've got some kind of tradition that we would recognize. Celebration for being 'almost out of the dark,' as a friend of mine would put it.

But Valentine's Day? Definitely a product of Earth, of a specific time period of Earth, to be sure. At least, in my experience. And that's where you guys come in. Anybody else, not from Earth, have a custom or a legend like this? Something specifically surrounding a holiday, something that's celebrated. Also, is anybody else reading up on Aqures Ixen legends enough to know if we're going all going to be dealing with rabbits and eggs in two months? If so, I'm calling shenanigans now.

-Captain Jack Harkness

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"Shit." Because what else do you say to a thing like that? "I know we're going to try to get those people back." Jack frowns. "But, if the people in the hospital are anything to go on, no idea what to do with them once we have them."

Crap, nope, this is bringing up things Jack doesn't want to think about. "Does that mean that everybody who comes here is stuck here, one way or another? Stuck fighting or eventually lapse into those crystals? Means dragging the Doctor here has messed up my timeline for good, and nobody gets the benefit of actually having him help."

The look on Jack's face has turned sour, and he matches Johnny's long drink. "Fuck. Sorry. About every step of this process. Sorry. Because nobody else is apologizing."

Johnny just shakes his head. "Ain't anything you should be sorry for. Someone else owes us all an apology. 'Specially if you know someone stuck like that, too. Who knows, maybe someday we'll figure out a way to reverse it, what with all the magicky bullshit that goes on here."

He was quiet for a moment, lost in thought, before speaking up again in a quiet grumble.

"Lukas might be a demon, but ya'd never meet someone more harmless in yer life. What I wanna know is why those who get brought here, get brought here. Why were we chosen?"

Jack props up his head with one hand. "Now isn't that the million dollar question? Part of me wants to say that it'd be easier to bring the noncombatants, right? Like, if they're going to give their 'Heroes' whatever powers they need in the first place, just bring in people who don't already have stuff going for them."

"But no, for some reason, they get people who already have abilities," he gestures to Johnny, "or fighting experience," waves a hand at himself, "and rewrite what we know into what they want us to be. It's stupid."

"I'd kind of understand, if it didn't seem so systematic. Like," Jack waves a hand in a circle, as if trying to will his thoughts into making more sense, "somehow what we were in our old reality isn't real here, so we have to get changed to fit the laws of reality of this world? That guy, Sephiroth, was saying something about that."

"Hnn, maybe. Ya think that'd be more, uh... polarizing or somethin', though. I mean, I haven't seen any other demons here. I don't think there are any. If they are, I don't think they're like me. You'd think in that case, I'd end up turned human or somethin'. Or half somethin' else. Same goes for anyone else who ain't human or hypello or moogle or whatever."

Johnny just shook his head. The more he tried to understand, the more questions he came up with instead. "I doubt any reason I'm ever given as to why I'm here'll be a good one. 'N if ya ask me, there's a difference between someone who doesn't know how to fight, and a guy like Lukas. I wouldn't call him a pacifist or anythin', but he just..." Was too dumb? Too nice? "I dunno. I guess not every Hero here's a combatant. But I doubt any of 'em bargain for human souls, like he does."

Jack gives Johnny a truly startled look at that. "And here I was about to suggest that the 'human souls' thing was just a cliche. Really? Life form not native to Earth, not human, my timeline would categorize you all as 'aliens.' But, the stories are somewhat true?"

"I guess it's hard to ask 'what's the difference between a demon and an alien' if you don't have any aliens. So, what's the deal, where do you come from, then?"

Johnny holds up a hand and ticks off a finger for each demon he can give an example of: "Demons who bargain for yer soul, demons who's job it is to give you nightmares, demons who make sure everything you own turns to shit, demons who... well, ya get the idea. Yeah man, they're out there. Least they are in my world. Most people don't know about 'em. Hell, I still barely do."

He taps a finger on the bar as he thinks that question over. "What's the deal? Who knows. Maybe there are aliens there. And vampires. And whatever the fuck else. Cuz if there's angels and demons that most people aren't aware of, who's to say all that other shit ain't around either?"

"There were certainly things like that, where I came from, interdimensional travelers who would latch onto an idea or a piece of folklore. Somebody's belief, or what they expected something to be, that could be more powerful than anything else. They'd end up looking like your classic horned and pitchforked demon because that's what the person they were talking to expected, you know? Angels, demons, ghosts," Jack shakes his head, "it was all kind of the same. Maybe it is the same, even here."

"Bah. Us two dopes with beers aren't going to crack this all open tonight. But I guess all this crap does put you at the front of the line for explanations, when we ever find who's doing this to us."

Johnny let out a long, slow breath, and nodded in agreement with Jack's assessment.

"I hear that, man. I'm kinda resolved to never solving most of the weird shit goin' on in my life. And it's been weird since day one."

He holds up what remains in his current glass for a toast. "To us, forever the chew toys of the universe. Universes. Whatever."

To All Heroes

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