PARABOLICAL GRAFFITI

In the Gospel of Luke 16:19–31, Jesus tells the story of Lazarus, a beggar who lay outside the gate of a rich man who dressed in fine clothing and dined sumptuously every day, but gave nothing to Lazarus. Both men died, and the beggar received his reward in the Hereafter, at the everlasting banquet, while the rich man craved a drop of water from Lazarus' finger to cool his tongue as he was tormented with fire.

In the Gospel of John, Lazarus was a man who lived in the town of Bethany. His sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus that he was ill. Jesus delayed, and when he finally arrived it was found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Martha reproached him, and when Jesus assured her that Lazarus would rise she thought he was referring to resurrection on Judgment Day. To this Jesus replied, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die". In the presence of a crowd of mourners Jesus had the stone rolled away from the tomb and bade Lazarus to come out. This he did, still wrapped in his grave-cloths.

There is a Lazarus pit, I saw it on the news. Has anyone been?

( filtered; hal )

Can someone please explain to me why I had to argue over the fact I exist? Just when you thought this place couldn’t get any stranger, it surprises you.

[filtered to friends and family]

A miracle cure all for all of life's ailments; just dip yourself into a pit; voila your cured?

Call my cynical, but I don't buy it. Call me jaded, but there has to be a catch. There's no such thing as a free miracle.


[Filtered to Heather]

Those new pits that opened up; I want to find out if they can cure mental ailments.


[Filtered to Lucien]

You've been awfully quiet.

[Filtered to Sarah]

Add one more to the list of people with mind control abilities.

Lucien LaCroix.

Um. Opsec concerns aside.. you all do realise that the so-called 'bad guys' don't argue like this, right? I'm, you know, just saying. God, I feel old, sometimes.


Edit: I just realised this sort of sounds snippy, and I swear I didn't mean it to. I apologise if anyone took it that way. I'm really not a rude person, honestly.

Why does it take so long for men to realise the hints you've been giving them!

Don't. Just don't. The majority of you don't know what or, more importantly, who you are dealing with. That's not an insult. But don't use them. If you have someone telling you 'No, don't do it.' Listen to them.

[ooc: as Batgirl]

Seen a lot of crazy in 800 years but no over all cure for anything and everything. There is always a catch, probobly a dangerous catch

Filtered to Sam

Don't. I know what you're thinking and its dumb.

Filtered to John

This thing, I'm not gonna insult you by asking you if you realise its dangerous.

Sam...He's curious though right?

Well, well. This place just seems to get more and more interesting by the second. Is it always this exciting around here, or is it just a weekend?


Filtered to Torchwood

You saw the news, or at least you better have. Who's coming to take a look at these pits?

I threw a vampire into one of those pits this morning. He came out all shiny and new, and surprisingly, he was also very alive. He tried to hit me with a stick afterwards, so I had to eat him, but even so, I learned what to stay away from today.

I want to fling one of the Cullen brats into one and then
Wouldn’t it be so
I love this place

It fixes anything...

That pit thing....anything

Sometimes we're meant to be as we are. Miracle cures, Lazarus Pits... they're not right. I was shot through the spine twice by the Joker. I'm paralysed from the waist down, something that completely altered my lifestyle. I've had access to the Pits for years through connections of my own, but I choose not to use them.

It's not right. Just... don't. Don't validate Ra's' Talia's purposes here. The side effects are temporary, but it's just not worth it and they can be dangerous. If you knew Ra's Al Ghul you'd understand why. Just, please trust me on this one.

Stay away from those things.


[Posted as Babs]

Greeks. Gifts. Timeless philosophy.

Where do you get decent pizza around here? The kind where the crust isn't hard enough to kill someone with it.

All this healing stuff going around... Remus? Lavender? What're you thinking?

I don't know what to think.

Merlin, Remus, I do not want to get your hopes up. I don't
This can't be happening.

[Filtered against Talia, and Dahlia]

I feel like a massive hypocrite right now. I don't like these pits, I don't like the catch behind them, and I don't like the fact that these may be the things used to 'cleanse' this place.

But the temptation to go into one of them is strong. They're supposed to heal mental wounds, or something of that sort. I want that so much, but if I did it I would be joining the mass of hypocrites.

Well this isn't gonna turn into a big mess at all.

Let's get the facts straight, shall we?

-- The Lazarus Pits are completely natural. It's not chemical, it's not magical, it's not science. The news got that right at least. They're a natural phenomenon that occur in my universe, but they're usually centered in various areas around the Middle East rather than LA beaches.

-- Yes. They heal. Nifty fact: They bring people back from the dead. Unlike the pits themselves that is not natural. This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of why I'm absolutely adamant that people need to stay away from these things. I can't explain the scientific process behind the how and why the Pits do these things, but it would be a lie for me to claim that they don't work. They do. I know a man who's two-thousand years old because of them. I know people who have had their abilities restored to perfection after a swim. I've seen people brought back from a week or two of death. They work very well.

-- Nifty fact number two: For those of you wondering about immortality? Stop it. Stop it right now. The side effects of one use of the Pits are temporary insanity and bouts of violence that can last anywhere from minutes to days, depending on how mentally sound and strong you already are. I know people who've had side effects that lasted for only minutes, but I've never met anyone else --here included-- as trained as they are and so there is almost a guarantee you will suffer. Continued use of the Pits will make these effects permanent. You will be immortal, yes, but insane. You will make the Joker look like a minor annoyance.

-- Ra's Al Ghul (the two thousand year old lunatic I mentioned) has control of most of the known Pits on earth in my own world and if he shows up we're all going to be in a world of trouble. This Talia woman is his daughter and both have led an organisation called the League of Assassins. This talk of cleansing? That's what the League does. They destroy societies they consider decadent and unworthy. Admittedly, there's usually more fire, sickness, and death involved. Where I'm from they set the plagues in Europe, they set fire to Rome in 64 AD, London in 1666, and Chicago in 1871. They were behind the stock market crash of 1929 and the French Revolution. Are you getting the idea? If you're not then you're obviously a lost cause. Associating with these people, or any thing that they promote is a bad idea. No, the Pits won't kill you (unless you're already healthy), they'll even heal you, but they're not connected to anything with a history worth praising.

I admit, I don't know why Talia is going about the cleansing this way. It's completely different from the League's normal MO, but that doesn't mean I trust her or that you should either.

-- I completely understand that I'm not going to sway everyone. You've all got your own minds, but most of the time you all seem fairly intelligent. I just want everyone to consider what I've said. Think about the history here. Think about the League Talia Al Ghul represents. Her first word here was cleansing not healing.

Just think about it hard before you make the decision to get in line. What you don't know, in this case, might hurt you.

Larger files are available for those who want them.

And that's as unbiased as I'm getting.
[posted as Oracle]

I'm not much of a speeches to the masses man myself and God knows there'll be fifty posts on this board about both sides of this before I get this posted. Some'll have all the information you think you need, some'll support it, some will declare it a disaster in the making and some'll just be mocking you.

But for those of you tossing aside the morality concerns, not caring about changing parts of you that might make you too different to remain here - because we're all here for a reason and you go changing what these powers thought you were, what they thought you could do, they might well throw you right back to where you were and maybe you think even that'll be an improvement back in your own worlds, but you don't know that - think about this.

In the end, none of you, not even the woman behind this, knows what this'll do in this world. Things happen here that shouldn't happen in a lot of the worlds we know, like people coming back from the dead for starters. Most of you have seen this things you know be turned upside down by a person who shouldn't exist or a spell that shouldn't do what it does or abilities that shouldn't have failed you but did because someone affected them.

This isn't the world of these pits and there are higher powers - the Powers That Be, the Senior Partners, God times two - stronger than nearly everyone in this city, some who won't take kindly to their good guys losing all their super powers and some who might decide this is the best way to turn more of this city into evil. Only an egocentric maniac will sit there and say that they know, despite never being here with their miracle cure, that this'll work here just as it's supposed to there.

And so help me God, I'll tranq and lock up every last person I know who tries to get in these things.

I have a question for Superman.

Why do you wear your underwear on the outside?



I'm sorry, this is just going to bug me all day if I don't ask! I have to know.

Edited: Apparently even this type of question is too sensitive for people. Do me a favor. Next time I think of asking a stupid question, someone go to my apartment and punch me out. I'll make things easier for all of us.

I don't even want to be on these boards, but it's not like I know your phone numbers, even if you have them, so it's necessary for just this post, I guess. I don't even know if you'll read this or bother to reply, because I already know you've written me off as one of your creations that gets what everyone else does. But I have to ask, even if it doesn't get answered.

Is Dean just going back to Hell when he dies someday? Does everything he's doing here, from fulfilling the reason he was pulled out to fighting evil in this city, not get him another chance at Heaven?

Ok, I know there's been a lot of noise about these Pits and what they might be able to do. And I know a lot of people might be tempted. A miracle cure right? Answer to all our problems. I bet all of us probably have some memories scars we want rid of.

But it's these scars that make us what we are. For better or worse we've each gone through some truly insane shit in our times and we've come through them stronger. If we get rid of any of that it weakens who we are.

I'm not going to go into the side effects or not because I don't really know what they are. I'm not going to tell people they shouldn't do this, that's not my place. What I will say is if any of you are thinking about this, really thinking about it, then bear in mind just how much you'd be changing. You'd be altering a fundamental part of yourselves.

And ok, I suck at speeches so I'll stop there. I'll just say that none of you need the Pit from where I'm standing.

[Filtered to psychics]

Who here knows anything about mind control?

You know, I've believe in God my entire life, even if I doubt Him now but these pits...

...they just don't make sense to me. I want to believe they're from God and for good and all, but nothing that good comes so easily.

This is just to easy. Nothing in life should be that way.

I need to ask a favour of you, my love.

A bit of paradise from a pit.

Well, it's not my issue.

I wonder what would happen if I hopped on into one of the pits.

[ooc: Filter includes Sarah Petrelli and the Weir]

Did you guys see the news? I feel like...oh MERLIN. I HATE THIS.

There has to be a way, to check if this is real. A spell of some form. I think I read about them once back at Hogwarts, but I don't...

There has to be SOMETHING to prove if this is real or not!

You know how when something seems too good to be true, it usually is?

That's all I'll say.