reincarnation psl

The message comes like a whisper, a tingle at the back of your neck, a shiver that runs fast up your spine. He may not be gone from this mortal coil yet, but he's already a ghost.

We're nearing the end now, but there's still time for one final act.

Should you find yourself brave enough, you know where to seek us out in the deepest, darkest corners of your hearts. Follow it down down down into the underground, just before the witching hour on the eve of the fifteenth.

It's time for one last challenge, one more shout into the void. Foolish boys shouldn't be so quick to throw it all away on one last hurrah, but the Morrigan still has a lesson or two in her yet.

The kings are dead, long live the kings.

It's not a message that's been plastered all over social media but it will find its way to those meant for it. Between the pages of ancient library books, musty and thick with mildew. In the cassette tapes of song recordings you caught on the radio, worn from use. In the pockets of clothing covered in moth balls, largely forgotten in the back of your closets. In the kiss of someone who's betrayed you, not yet untethered. In the hearts and minds of those the Morrigan has touched before. If you wish to seek Her out, you shall find Her.

[ooc: In response to this post.]

For the first time in nearly two years, The Morrigan, previously known as Maxwell Landon, has consented to an interview. Not much is known about the circumstances surrounding his sudden disappearance from the public eye in August of 2016, only what others have been able to piece together from the various rumors that began circulating in London's more underground circles shortly after, when the whispers of a performer known as The Morrigan first started. A triple goddess, bound to the shadows. Maxwell Landon has been in the spotlight for years, but more recently, his name has all but disappeared from every corner of the universe. Only the name 'Morrigan' remains, and the secrets that he's holding.

Now, for one night only, he's agreed to speak with us.

When asked how it happened, his answer isn't exactly straight forward, but we filled in the blanks. In his own words, he explained that while he's technically a reincarnate, reincarnation means something different for him and the other members of his Pantheon than it does for most. When pressed, he wouldn't immediately expand on why, he just continued to talk in more riddles.

"First there was a prologue. I had fooled myself into thinking I was already larger than life, but there's really no comparison once you've become a god. That's the epilogue. There is nothing in between, only before you were a god, and after, until we're reclaimed by the earth. Other reincarnates go on with their lives more or less the same, but when you become a god, you are becoming something else entirely. Though, when it comes to the rest of our Pantheon, even we are not like the rest. The Morrigan is always alone in her struggle."

Despite how much he's changed in the last two years, in that moment I catch an almost far away look in the triple goddess's eyes that reminds me of the intense, enigmatic young star who first charmed London audiences so many years ago. Looking at the man, at the god he's now become, I can't help but wonder if there's still a small part of him in there who remains untouched from all of the raw power coursing through the rest of him.

I asked him what it felt like to become a god, and that far away look in his eyes only deepened. He said, "It felt like I was falling. In some ways it still feels that way."

We've spoken with a number of people who claim to have born witness to at least one of the Morrigan's shows and they all say the same thing. The entire time he's performing, it feels like your'e falling. Like life and death and everything in between is inevitable, but that it's okay. The end will come no matter what you do. Apparently, a lot of people find this comforting. As one fan explained, they felt it gave them the freedom to accept their end and stop pretending that death wouldn't eventually find them. "At some point, death finds us all," the Morrigan said almost wistfully.

At this point I'm starting to get the sense that he's still holding back from saying something. Maybe many things, so I try a different tactic and abruptly change the subject. I ask him if he remembers much of his life and who he was before becoming the triple goddess. "In some ways, yes. What I remember most is the pains of being mortal, both self-inflicted and done unto me by others. She once said that like the elephant, she never forgets. And neither do I."

I ask him about Keegan MacAlister next, one of the more burning questions that everyone, including myself, wants to know. "We have a story that everyone already knows. And then a story that no one knows." For anyone that somehow doesn't already know, MacAlister and Landon were long time rivals in the London music scene, long before they suddenly started performing together as a secret underground act. But when asked directly about the nature of their new found relationship, the Morrigan refuses to give a more straight answer. "Our history is long and complicated, just as theirs was, and it's not without its razor sharp edges. But it's ours."

There's an almost chilling sort of air surrounding him, it makes me involuntarily shiver and fill me with an inevitable sense of dread. Everything about the Morrigan radiates a kind of power that one can't even hope to fully grasp. The Morrigan seems to be aware of this, and rests in it comfortably. He sits on his side of the train car as if he were sitting on a throne of bones, body draped over the seat like a cat lying in the sun. Except he looked like he'd never seen an ounce of sunlight in his life, his skin as pale as the moon and looking as cold as steel. This was the Morrigan.

"Neither of us are who we were, and yet, the men we once were are never truly lost. We grew from them, but like our predecessors, we can never truly escape ourselves. Not even gods are capable of that."

I ask him if he would have chosen this life, had he been given a choice. Most reincarnates in the public eye are asked this same question, and every answer is different. The Morrigan just offers me a knowing smile, barely passing over his face before he gets that far away look again. "No one gets to choose. I certainly didn't, and while I can't say it's something I would have chosen, it's something I can't imagine not embracing. It's who I am."

Because it's been on my mind ever since the start of the interview, I finally ask him why he's decided to give his first interview as the Morrigan now, after all this time. The Morrigan looks at me with a haunted expression, as if something significant was weighing on him.

"It's almost done now. The clock will strike midnight soon, and even the Morrigan will have to return to the ground with all the rest. Sooner or later, we all return to dust. The Morrigans before me and I wish to be known before that happens, so people have a chance to know our truth. Every Pantheon is different, and none is ever perfect. I have my demons, just as everyone else does. Be not so quick to judge us for ours, some of us have no choice in bringing them along for the ride. Baal especially, he and I have had our differences, in this life and the last, but there is more to him than children's bones. We all have our crosses to bear."

I ask him then if he believes in the things his worshippers do, the inevitability and sanctity of death. The Morrigan smiles another sad smile that makes me think of the boy I went to high school with who smoked cigarettes behind the gym at lunch and always sat in the back of the classroom where no one bothered to talk to him. He painted his nails black and wore his hair in the front of his face to hide his eyes, and he spent most of the class drawing into his desk with a blunt pencil. The other kids thought he was weird, even dangerous, but I imagined him as thoughtful, and curious. Misunderstood, as the Morrigan often was.

"So much about this time around is unknown to all of us. We may only live to two years and we may live longer, but in the end Death will come for us all. Even me. With the time that we have left, however long or short, I'll embrace it as I embrace every single person who comes to my kingdom to worship. All are safe with me, here in the dark, and my king and I will defend our sacred ground with our last breaths."

At that, I decided to press a little further to ask if he was referring to Keegan MacAlister, known these days as Baphomet. "As I said, what is between us is complicated, but it's ours. Mistakes are made, but we learn from them. We learn to fix things instead of only destroy them. I could lay waste to entire cities in one night, but I'd rather not. That is not the sort of legacy I wish to leave."

I suddenly get a strange feeling that steadily creeps up my spine and spreads goosebumps along the back of my neck, like if I continue to lose myself in this conversation with him on the last train after the last train, that I might disappear into the next tunnel and never be seen or heard from again. The Morrigan looks at me with those haunted eyes as the train we're on zooms along the track underground and suddenly everything smells of dead roses and metal, the way I always imagined the Underworld would. "We were always doomed."

To: Keegan
From: Max
Subject: ( You Have (1) New Message )

"... Late on Friday night, November 10th, there were a number of reported disturbances just after midnight coming from the immediate area surrounding Kensal Green Cemetery, one of London's oldest remaining cemeteries. Sources who were not actually at the scene that night described what they heard from a few blocks away as something that sounded like a very loud rock concert coming from the cemetery itself. Some even claimed to see flames shooting up over the grounds, though we've found no evidence of any fires after the fact, and no one seems to have heard anything that sounded like fireworks. Police officials who were eventually called to the scene confirmed the rumors that it had indeed been some kind of illegal concert. They wouldn't tell us much more than that, only that once they arrived, the crowd broke up shortly afterward and the alleged performers disappeared before they could be arrested. We were able to track down two individuals later who claimed they were actually in the cemetery that night, but what little they could tell us about the experience does nothing to shed any real light on this mystery. From what we understand, the event was not publicly advertised, at least not in any of the widely used forms of social media. This 'secret performance' was put on by two men who unironically call themselves the 'kings of the Underworld', though one of the performers seemed to be able to change his appearance dramatically through some unexplainable show of theatrics. Other curious details we learned? The presence of an abnormal number of crows that went flying overhead at some point during the performance, our sources even claimed to see ghosts. To our knowledge there are no existing photographs from any part of the show, including any photographic evidence of the two male performers who, according to our sources, frequently called themselves gods as well. When asked what the show was like, the only thing either of them could say about it was that, "It was really dark, and the whole time it felt like we were falling". There are some rumors that these so-called 'gods' are somehow linked to notorious music rivals Maxwell Landon and Keegan MacAlister, though no one's been able to prove it, and neither one of them has been seen since, or for some time before that. Maxwell Landon himself mysteriously hasn't been photographed or interviewed in over a year. Could this be another incident in a long line of incidents connected to the growing population of reincarnates? It would hardly be the first time a celebrity has come out of the reincarnation closest. Most recently? Beloved producer turned artist Tristan West took a page from Kanye's book and announced to the press that he was a god reincarnated. Could he have some idea of who these 'kings of the Underworld' are? We're still waiting on him for a comment."

To: Max
From: Keegan

( You have (1) new message )

To: Keegan MacAlister
From: Maxwell Landon
Subject: ( You have (1) New Message )

To: Maxwell Landon
From: Keegan MacAlister

-ring ring-

[After this conversation.]

To: Maxwell
From: Keegan

( You have (1) new message )

To: Keegan MacAlister
From: Maxwell Landon
Subject: ( You Have (1) New Message )