| Canon Story | ||||||||
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| Why Do I Deserve To Die | ||||||||
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| Artist | Writer | |||||||
| David Hopkins | David Hopkins | |||||||
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| Arc XXVI: The Ghosts Of Plato's Past | Short XXXV: So This Family Walks Into This Talent Agency... | |||||||
Jack is recounting a recent event to an unseen companion. A restaurant owned by Jatter is the target of a bombing, which kills most of the patrons and staff at the time. Most of the victims are taken swiftly to their Judgments, but Jack leaves five ghosts behind who were in precarious moments of their lives at their time of death and decides to give them an opportunity to deal with their issues first. They include Jatter, his hyena waitress Sharika, and customers Nathan, a bird of Middle Eastern origin, Wryn, a lizard college student stopping in town on her way home, and Emmanuel, a janitor at a local hospital. They are left in the rubble of the restaurant to discuss their fates.
Jatter is combative with Jack, still harboring a grudge for him taking Arloest to Hell during the events of Arc V: Dinner At Arloest's, and Jack reveals he's giving four of them a chance to get right with themselves before Judgment, and the fifth is destined for Hell for setting the bomb that killed them all.
The reveal of this information prompts everyone to suspect each other, and immediate attention falls on Emmanuel, whose ghost is completely mutilated, suggesting he was the closest to the explosion. He pleads his innocence in the matter, and after being assaulted by Nathan tries to shift blame to Sharika, saying she's being too quiet. He points out that the wounds on her arms are more in keeping with self-harm lacerations and not a bomb blast, suggesting she's suicidal. Jatter defends Sharika and again shifts the blame back to Emmanuel, who admits under duress than he is responsible for other deaths but denies being the bomber. He begs Jack to save him from the others and send him off, and Jack does so, the ground opening beneath Emmanuel and seemingly sending him to Hell.
Jack reveals to the others than Emmanuel was innocent in the bombing, he instead was harboring guilt for his actions at work, where his carelessness investigating leaking chemicals at the hospitals resulted in the death of several babies in the maternity ward. The actual bomber is still not revealed. With the most likely suspect cleared, the others become more despondent, with Sharika finally breaking down, crying that she doesn't want to be dead. She then finds her pocket knife, revealing Emmanuel's diagnosis of her is correct, she is a "cutter" and proceeds to slice shallowly into her arm to relieve the stress. Jack's companion interrupts the story to reveals that the area is actually a sufferance zone, and Jack confirms two Pomfrans are helping him and that the victims are warping reality as need be, explaining the sudden appearance of Sharika's knife when she "needed" it. Nathan's cell phone also rings, and he takes a phone call from his mother, assuring him that he's alright and she doesn't need to worry about the news story of the bombing or the minister coming to her door.
The remaining ghosts share their backstories. Sharika reveals she's an immigrant from Africa and that she started self-harming for stress relief. She knows this is wrong but can't figure out why. Wryn tells her that cutting himself for small problems can lead to her taking more drastic measures when major problems occur. Next Nathan tells how he moved to America, but Jatter interrupts him, having made xenophobic comments about him earlier. When Nathan reveals his family is from Pakistan, Jatter again attacks his character, claiming he was probably a suicide bomber. Next Jatter takes his turn, saying he's had one misfortune after another since opening the restaurant, from his best employee leaving, to the sign outside being misspelled, to financial problems, and more personally, not being able to live up to Arloest's legacy.
He again blames Jack for taking Arloset away and angrily throws a rock at Jack's head, the combination of this violence and Jatter's accusations cause Jack to have a flashback to his life. His anger frightens to others,and he calms back down. It's Wryn's turn, where she recounts how she's home for the semester and how she feels uncomfortable looking young for he age, resembling a teenager even though she's 25. She tells how a police officer who made an uncomfortable comment on her young looks ended up dying later in an unrelated incident. At the time of her encounter Wryn wished he'd die, when he eventually did, she felt guilty.
With the guilty party still not revealed, Jatter again antagonizes the others, making bigoted comments toward Nathan and saying he doesn't buy Wryn's story, saying it's too early in the year for college to be let out. Wryn breaks down and admits she got expelled from school, and when Sharika confronts Jatter about his attitude, he reveals he doesn't trust any of them, even Sharika. This information shatters Sharika, who chooses to leave. Unlike Emmanuel, her departure is relatively serene, simply fading away. She seems at peace as she dissipates. Jack reveals that Sharika was not the bomber.
Jatter is devastated that his final moments with Sharika ended so badly, with him not trusting her and attacking her character. He again turns angry and targets Wryn and Nathan, and Nathan, fed up with Jatter's accusations, turns the suspicion back on him, saying he probably bombed the restaurant himself to collect insurance from the failing business, accidentally killing himself in the process. Jatter and Nathan come to blows and Wryn, desperate to get them to stop fighting, admits to the bombing. She quickly tries to walk this back, saying she only admitted to it to get them to stop fighting, but Nathan finds one of her textbooks, a chemistry manual filled with suspiciously highlighted texts and instructions on how to build a timebomb.
Wryn pleads her innocence, claiming she was just angry but never had any intentions on carrying her plans through. Jatter, unable to determine the guilty party, requests Jack remove him as well. Again, Jack says the guilty party is still present. Nathan finally reveals that he was the one who set the bomb, showing himself to indeed by a religious fundamentalist and had deliberately targeted Sharika so she could join his harem in paradise. He accidentally killed himself in the explosion, not able to exit the building in time. He tries to claim Wryn as a consolation prize, but she angrily attacks him, bitter that she and others lost their lives and their loved ones have to grieve them due to Nathan's selfishness. Jack claims Nathan, sending him to Hell for his crimes. He discusses Wryn's plan to bomb her college and if she would have carried it out. Wryn sadly admits that no, she would not. She harbored resentment at God but decided if they were good, they wouldn't want her killing people.
It's revealed that Jack's companion is Lucy, who has been working on a secret project during the story. Jack tell him that Sharika went to Heaven and Jatter, Wryn and Emmanuel all ended up in Purgatory. As for Nathan's fate, the Devil reveals he's been regularly exploding Nathan and collecting each of his corpses' heads for an unknown reason. The Devil cryptically hints at an upcoming gift when "Evade" is in Hell.
In an epilogue, Jatter catches up with Jack, having decided to give life another shot at life. He also reveals that Farrago's feathers on her wings are starting to fall out, still devastated from her last encounter with the Sin. Jatter leaves on a high note, hoping he'll meet Arloest again in his next life and jokingly wishing she won't be a lesbian this time.
Characters[]
Locations[]
- Earth
- Jatter's
- Sufferance Zone