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Comments

[driftsintobuffetline]

Okay, so that explains the immortality thing. Let's see if I'm getting this right: Death and the Devil decide you three are a game. Joaquin gets a magic talisman so he doesn't die, which sort of explains the heroics and the shitton of medals. You and Maria fall for each other, the guy who's backing Joaquin decides rather than losing--

Well, he obviously doesn't kill you because your first death doesn't work that way... So he kills Maria? As what? Punishment to you all for not working according to his plans for you?

[matadorable]

There was a snake. Maria...she saw it first, shoved me out of the way and took a bite to the ankle. I managed to catch her before she collapsed to the ground, but her pulse was already gone, and I...

[He swallows hard. That was the worst moment of his life. It still flares up in his nightmares sometimes.]

What Joaquin and I didn't know was that she wasn't actually dead. The snake bit her once, which only made her fall into a death-like sleep.

[driftsintobuffetline]

But you thought she was dead, had every reason to believe that, so you wanted to join her. Hence Death #1, Joaquin's poor life choices, and--

How did you get...un-dead, though? Wait, wait. First. WHY was he marrying her after you died? Why was that even a thing?

[matadorable]

I felt like it should have been me, and I wanted to see her again. The god betting on Joaquin warned me that my choice would have consequences, but I'd made up my mind. The same snake that bit Maria bit me twice, and it was over...

[The marriage, though. Newt can't see it, but Manolo makes a face, like he'd just swallowed a particularly nasty pill.]

...I can't speak for Joaquin or Maria. But he says it was because the town wanted Joaquin to settle down in San Angel to better protect everyone from bandits. He'd already proposed to her, and all the people clearly wished for her to acceptance.

[driftsintobuffetline]

[He wants to ask what dying is like. He's morbidly curious.]

Well, yeah, ok, if it makes the Village Protector happy and more willing to protect the town, then I get the villagers' reasoning for pushing the marriage. It's still shitty, but people do a lot of shitty things in the interest of not dying.

[He can't resist.] ...What WAS dying like?

[matadorable]

Yes, I see what you're saying...[There's a "but" hanging in the air. Manolo swallows it down, though. He's partially to blame anyway, so he tries to keep himself from getting too indignant over what happened.

Instead, he focuses on the question. He's actually grateful for it because it successfully diverts his attention toward something else.]

...You know, you're the first person to ask me that. [But of course Newt would ask. He's a scientist. Asking questions is his life's work.

When Manolo answers, his voice is quiet and oddly calm.]

Dying was...the happiest moment of my life. [A pause.] Hearing me say that would upset more than a few people, I'm sure, but it's true. I didn't even realize I'd hit the ground. Instead, I was floating, my surroundings grew farther away, all the pain and grief from before lifted off my shoulders. No more worries. It was freeing -- no, euphoric.

[driftsintobuffetline]

[Newt isn't terribly surprised he's the first, considering it's kind of a rude question, or at least an insensitive one, and if anyone's going to be the first to open his big mouth and ask the insensitive questions, it's Newt.

Manolo's death is nothing like what Newt experienced in that first Drift. That had been fear, anxiety, pain and a pounding rush of his heart--But he hadn't died. He wonders if he had died, would it have been as Manolo described, or would it have still be painful and fearful? Is Manolo's universe a strange enough place that death is both personified in a god and not...painful?]

I'm sorry. I'm trying to get over the macabre irony of you saying it was the happiest moment of your life when it's literally the end of it. [Insensitive again.]

So, did you turn into a ghost? Was that it?

[matadorable]

Believe me, I am totally aware of the macabre irony, so there's no reason for you to apologize.

[Manolo's friends think he's insensitive about his own death. It's really hard to offend him on that front, Newt.]

I woke up in the Land of the Remembered, actually. You've seen my other form, yes? The one that makes me less squishy and more skeleton-y? That's how everyone there looks.