RUFUS CATCH-ALL

[robopriest]

Comments

[soulus]

That will be unnecessary.

Bounty hunters travel between dimensions via train. Rather than planets, we reach different worlds.

[robopriest]

Dimensional travel? Wow. How does a train like that even work?

[soulus]

I'm not an engineer. I just ride the train.

[robopriest]

And has this train always been around? We sure don't have anything like that at home.

[soulus]

It's been around since long before I was born. Without it, collecting souls across worlds would be difficult for bounty hunters.

[robopriest]

Hm.

So do all bounty hunters collect souls? Are those your form of currency in your world?

[soulus]

Bounty hunters collect souls for their bounties. Ultimately, what we're after is money.

[robopriest]

Soul economy...

[It sounds so funny but sure! Sure.]

You said you're a demon, right? So I guess souls are super valuable to you all?

[Sort of vaguely makes sense in the Biblical form of demons, who want to tempt people's souls down to hell, but...bounty hunters? Does Rufus tempt people? Intriguing.]

[soulus]

[He did say that. Thank you, Shiro.]

. . . Not all demons are the same. Strictly speaking, souls are valuable to Haros.

[robopriest]

Your kind of demons, I think you said.

...Do you eat them? Use them? Put them on the mantel to look pretty?

[soulus]

[He stares, clearly unimpressed.]

All I do is catch them. What happens to them afterward has nothing to do with me.

[robopriest]

[So it really is about the money for him.]

How do you catch them in the first place?

[soulus]

It's the same as apprehending criminals—with force.

[robopriest]

...

You arrest the souls? Like, you just...handcuff them?

[????????????????????]

[soulus]

There's no need to cuff them when you have a gun pointed at their head.

[robopriest]

Clearly you have to explain what souls are in your world, because in mine they're still basically a big abstract concept.

[soulus]

. . . Souls have form the same way as we do. How else would they be able to escape to the material world?

[robopriest]

[he]

[is so lost]

So they're basically just running around on their own. Somehow.

[soulus]

That's why Haros exist—to manage those souls in the afterlife.

[robopriest]

[oh wait, he thinks he gets it now]

You're basically preventing them from doing a jailbreak out into the real world?

[soulus]

That's one of the reasons.

Haven't I answered enough questions? I should be able to ask one or two of my own now.

[robopriest]

Go ahead, ask away if you want. Your world's just so intriguing.

[soulus]

. . . Have you learned anything new about the Realm?

[robopriest]

Hmm.

[He thinks for a moment.]

Well, I know that it doesn't "speak" like you and I do. It seems like it speaks through feelings. Or rather, memories, most likely, given the whole nova deal.

[soulus]

You mentioned that before.

Which of the Leaders have you met?