deercountry | those demons from which we all hide, OPEN

Michael shrugs. "I don't know. Asia? There's a lot of them there, that's a big place." Maybe in big apartment buildings too? He's not super sure; all the places on Earth he's actually been weren't that crowded.

He sighs and leans back. Talking about demon life is always a little weird now. He's not sure what the word for it would be - it's like nostalgia, but kinda unpleasant. "We never really did anything outside of work. No breaks, no hobbies - no friends, sure, but that's more because we're all assholes." He picks at some grass on the ground. "That was in the Bad Place. Demon HQ."

"I suppose that's sensible enough? It is awfully big." She'd put money on big apartment buildings, too, only the tenements hadn't been anywhere near as nice as the apartment she'd stayed in for her first couple of weeks.

Rose watched curiously. She needed to know that Jack was in that Good Place. "That sounds completely unpleasant. But I suppose it was meant to be?"

"Yeah. I mean, for everyone. We're not generally that nice to each other either."

He waves a hand vaguely. It's really not worth going into detail about - certainly, not with a stranger. Some people can handle the Hell talk pretty easily; some don't. Michael thinks it may just come down to the particular supernatural situation in their worlds. "We're going through reforms lately, though," he says. "Can't really legislate what they do to each other as clearly, but it's a lot better for the humans these days."

"...I see. I suppose that's part of being a--a demon?"

Rose likely wouldn't. Not if there was the possibility that Jack had ended up there. If anyone deserved a good afterlife, it was him. Love for him still burned in her veins, likely always would. Even if he was her secret for the foreseeable future. She missed him like missing a limb.

"Yeah." He shrugs. "Is what it is, I guess. I haven't hung out with other demons for a while now."

Obviously he wasn't really friends with any of them. That wasn't a thing. "I see my old boss pretty often, we're on a few committees together, but I've been running the Good Place for several centuries now. Mostly because all of the angels left."

"Ah. I can't imagine most of them made for engaging conversational partners."

Just like Rose wasn't really friends with any of the First Class young women. Catty remarks and backstabbing weren't her style. "This may be foolish to ask, you've surely dealt with so many souls, but...were any of them named Jack Dawson?" And there's another question, one she has to ask. "Why did the angels leave?"

"Immortals usually have really good memories," Michael says reassuringly - it isn't that stupid a question! "But no, can't say I have. That doesn't mean much, though. It could easily have just been a different universe - lots of Earths out there."

Anyway, the angels. "They were bad at their jobs?" He ventures. "Couldn't handle it. Me showing up was an easy way out."

"Ah. I suppose that's a--a bonus for being immortal?" Rose replied, trying to not hope for anything. But the news of lots of Earths leaves her dismayed. "...how many?"

"Angels did seem rather stupid, from what I read of them in the Bible. At least from what I remember, I haven't actually read the Bible since I was ten." But showing up in cities like Sodom and Gomorrah was, in her opinion, dumb.

"Oh, I don't know. Infinite, probably. I don't deal with any of them myself, but if you talk to people around here...there's a lot of different worlds." Many not even involving any variation on Earth, but Michael's realizing that maybe Rose isn't really here for multiverse theory just yet.

He laughs. "Yeah, they sucked. The kind of people who want to seem nice and good, but don't really want to put any real work into it. Just said a lot of good things, mostly." He was the one who had to put in all the work, and honestly? He resents that a lot more than he does the demons. Not that he had to do it himself - he doesn't mind work. But at least demons are straightforward about what they are, and what they do. Angels...what if Michael had never changed his mind and gone to help? He thinks about that sometimes, even now.

"Infinite worlds, versions of Earth? That's extraordinary!" Perhaps there was a word where both she and Jack lived, running away together. The thought was both comforting and stirred a yearning for her Jack to arrive.

"Sounds like Philadelphia society to me. Many announcements of donations to funds for widows and orphans, very little work done in person with those widows and orphans." The widows' best hope of employment were textile mills, working under terribly dangerous conditions for hours upon hours and orphans...well, helping them would involve actually adopting orphans, unthinkable given the potential mess with family fortunes.

"Oh, yeah! I bet there's infinite versions of all of us out there - but I haven't run into anything like that." It'd be sort of weird, wouldn't it? But statistically speaking, Michael thinks it would be a little odd if another version of himself, say, were to show.

(It would also most likely be pretty bad. Infinity being what it is, there ought to be just as many good versions of him as bad...but it doesn't feel that way.)

He shrugs at the rest of that. He's not familiar with the Philadelphia Society, but he's sure. "I'm not completely Kantian - if you do something good for selfish reasons, at least you've done something good. But they barely even did that much."

"I hope to never run into anything like that. It would be more than a little strange to run into another version of me out there, living her life." She wonders how many of her lived, how many died, and how many were too afraid to leave Cal.

She's all too familiar with it and hated it. It was, at the very least of its sins, boring. "Kantian? I'm afraid I don't know that reference. But something good for selfish reasons is a good description of the world I came from."

"Oh, some human philosopher. One of my friends back home was a philosophy professor, back on Earth." Frankly, as much as Michael deeply respects Chidi, that does not carry over to his opinion of Kant. Not worth talking about!

"A lot of people do that. Nothing is ever entirely selfless, I suppose. Doing good because it makes you happy is something some philosophers would say is bad - but shouldn't it make you feel good? No reason to be a martyr about everything."

"That must have been an interesting profession. I admit, philosophy wasn't among my greatest interests, but I did enjoy the classics." Plato, Socrates, the old school philosophy, old even by her world's standards.

"I suppose it should make you feel good about helping others. But feeling good about it and bragging about it are very different things." That's why she's keeping the fact that she's going to go out with the wakers a secret, at least for now.

"Yeah, sure. There's definitely such a thing as being too focused on your own image. Had a friend who used to be like that."

He doesn't dwell on that, though. It would feel like beating up on Tahani, who had her reasons, and anyway isn't even here. "Philosophy's interesting. I don't think it's the be-all and end-all, but it was...helpful, to learn about morality. Humans seem to have more of a natural sense for right and wrong than I used to."

These days, he's a lot better about that! But in the beginning? Nah, he didn't have any instincts one way or another. Philosophy had given him something of a map - a flowchart for figuring out if an action would be wrong or not.

"Yes, though that can be brought about by plain-old selfishness. My former fiance was no great philosopher. Or reader. Or art critic. Or decent human being."

If Cal ever did arrive she'd be both horrified and angered, especially if Jack had yet to show up. Where would be the fairness in that, a complete waste of breath like Cal getting to live here while Jack...was possibly one of a multitude of squid.

She tries to not think that way. She knows that if Cal did arrive, he'd have a number of people gunning for him, not to mention the usual trials and tribulations of getting used to Trench life, to have his wealth and power back home mean nothing. He'd need help. Surely someone (who wasn't her) would help him.

"Marriage is weird."

At least, Michael's always found it so. Even the legal aspects of it don't make a lot of sense to him - sure, Tahani married Jason to share her wealth with him, but why couldn't she just marry all of her friends and split it evenly? He's never really understood how you pick a single favorite person, forever.

No matter, though. "I remember Tahani had some trouble because she wasn't married - and I guess that's important for rich women, or something? She almost got engaged to some doctor, but then she found out that Hell is real and she'd died in a previous timeline. Apparently that can make humans have existential crises."

"It does seem that way, yes."

After all, if a man of JJ Astor's age could marry a girl Rose's age and have it be only a mild scandal. And most people didn't come from places where plural marriages were seen as an option. Quite the opposite, really. Such practices were dismissed by society at large and Rose herself honestly assumed that sharing a husband would be a miserable experience.

"It's important for all of those with wealth, there must be children to pass the family fortune down to. Or the family debts. But I'd imagine that I'd do just about anything to not go to Hell, likely she felt the same way."

Michael waves a hand dismissively. "Oh, the Hell wasn't about any of that. I'm not sure she liked the guy that much in the first place - but either way, once you've been through Hell with people, it's sort of hard to ditch them for a third-string Hemsworth." No, he will not be explaining the reference!

"She used to worry a lot about finding someone to love. I think she'd be happier if she took it easy for a while. The money doesn't matter much now, anyway - I guess she probably left it all to charity. Sure as hell didn't go to her sister."

"I can only imagine, though it sounds as though this place might be its own crucible. I'd imagine that it's rather easy to develop kinship with those you've been through, well. A flash-flood river with," she says with a small laugh. "But what's a third-string Hemsworth? Is that a new sport?"

"That's a common fear, that they won't find the right person to love. But...I'd imagine it's not as big of a problem as it is in my time? "Charity is likely for the best."

those demons from which we all hide, OPEN

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(CW: underage/overage relationship)

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