"Why are they excited? Limbo's much worse news than Paradise."

"It's good that you have an afterlife at all, though, they didn't know for sure. And soon they'll be able to visit."

"Oh, visits will be nice."

"Mmhmm. Not too long, I hope. Anyway, I should get going, thank you for talking to me."

"Thanks for the train things!"

"You're welcome!" And he teleports away.

Actually getting the other Raafi's attention is a little tricky and more expensive spellwise than he'd like - he teleports into the back of the truck, which is just barely big enough to work for the purpose, supplements his dexterity and luck, and then teleports to the roof to walk up to where he can ease his way down onto the cab to get his attention. It works, though, and soon enough he's inside and they're back on the road.

"So," the younger says, when they're done with the sandwiches he brought. "What is the story with religious people here? I keep - catching things, I'm not quite sure what to make of it."

The other's knuckles go white around the steering wheel, just for a moment. "Not while I'm driving, sweetheart," and he reaches over to give him a squeeze and pull him over to kiss his forehead. "How about you tell me what you've been up to?"

"Sure. So, we tried that PR firm that the demon suggested..."

Later, they're cuddled up together on the narrow bed in the back of the cab. "Did you still want to know about the religion thing? It's not a very nice story," the one asks, combing his fingers through the other's hair.

  "I think I should. The other clerics are talking about working with them."

"-yeah, you should know, then. They've gotten better, but -" he pauses, sighs. "There was... a disease. It started up when I was young, twenty, twenty-five, something like that. It was - we didn't know, at first, just... people kept getting sick. Dying. Gay men, sometimes drug users. Kids with certain diseases, if they gave them other people's blood to treat it, there was a famous one. But at first it was just... us, and nobody knew what was happening. And they could have researched it, could have -" he trails off.

  "That's horrible."

"It was. Terrifying, too."

  "I wish I'd been there for you."

That gets a little smile. "You're sweet. I was - well, I wasn't all right. None of us were. But I made it through it. That's how I met Kat, too. But it was - so many of us died. Nothing is worth that."

  "Yeah, it's not."

"And they-" he freezes up again for a second, shakes his head to clear it. "That was my problem with my father. I was gay, and he was religious, and he hated me for it. Kicked me out as soon as he knew. And that happened to lots of kids - my Kat and I started a home for them, later, when things were a little better. They hated us, and they wanted us dead, and they were glad the plague was killing us."

  "Wow. I - wow." He holds him close.

"So I - can't, now. They got better - I lived to see marriage legalized, even - but."

  "You don't forget something like that."

"No, you don't. Shouldn't, even."

  "It's good to know. I don't know what Pelor will make of it but he won't like it. None of our religions would do that - none that could call themselves good or even neutral, anyway. It's obviously evil."

"They won't like you saying that about them."

  "I know. I don't really care. I won't do it where they can hear, anyway."

"Okay. Just - stay safe." He runs his hand through his hair again.

  "I will. And then I'll be a fairy and come get you to live with me in fairyland."

"Only if Kat can come too."

  "Of course."

They sleep, there, in the back of the cab, two snuggled together on a bunk that's already narrow for one, and in the morning they unload the portable hole, and the cleric goes back to Earth.

Hope Miller Sphere has processed your application. You may view or update your record at hopemillersphere.sta/citizens/4670875. Welcome!

You may put down your first malpractice insurance premium via Riverbank or other processor at...

Oh good. He takes care of the insurance and goes to drop off the pictures and video off with the PR people and run his Q&A answers by them, too.

"Hi!" says Ramona. "Oh, this is charming. Might have to crop out that guy who isn't wearing pants."

"-whoops. It seems like there's a lot of that there, I tried to catch it all."

"Well, it's not clear where they'd get pants but rules are rules."

"Mmhmm. If I do something more formal I'll bring some with me. Could you look over these questions, too? I want to put them on my blog."

"Sure, what've you got?"

The questions and the other Raafi's answers to them are written in a notebook, this time; he hands it over.

"Skip the Hitler one and the Jesus one. Uh, let me rewrite the suicide one for you like... so. Okay... oof, uh, reword this about the babies... okay."

"Thanks."

He posts them on his blog:

Are people who were kings and stuff in olden times ruling parts of it? Sometimes, especially people who attained power via charisma.

How do I tell what my Limbo thing would be? You can guess, but there's no way to be sure.

What did cavepeople get for Limbo things? Mostly food-bearing plants, some shade trees, some early tools, some dogs.

When you die do you appear naked? Yep. Unless your thing is clothes.

How do you summon people from Limbo? You can't.

How do you find your dead family and friends? These days, you put your information in the sneakernet when it comes around, and look for people who predeceased you, and go wherever they're living. Before you kind of had to guess where they might have settled and walk there.

Why didn't daeva tell us about Limbo before? The daeva who interact most with Limbo are demons, who are usually gagged. Ungagged demons are usually on long term summonses and not keeping up with concordance information. Contact with Limbo was pretty unrewarding before Hell started being able to send them electronics to produce recorded writing and such on it, so not all demons even knew about it, the way most humans can't name every country on Earth. Angels and fairies who interact with concordances usually do that full time rather than taking summonses. It's probable that some daeva did tell humans about Limbo despite these factors but it wasn't publicized due to sounding fake or the summoner feeling timid about it.

Do babies go to Limbo? Yes, if they die during or after birth.

What do Limbo people eat? Often nothing. Some Limbo things generate food and they eat that; the concordance trains send them more things to eat, among other items.

What is Genghis Khan doing? He rides his horse around leading armies who want to fight recreationally.

What about suicides? All dead humans who weren't summoners in life go to Limbo.

Do animals go to Limbo? Only if they are someone's Limbo thing.

Are people who died old old in Limbo? No.

Is Vincent Van Gogh okay? He has his ear back and has painted a lot since his death with regular supply shipments from the concordances.

Does everyone go to Limbo? Summoners, even if they've only summoned once, go to a daeva realm instead.

Do you lose your memories when you've been in Limbo for hundreds of years? It depends on how much you jog your memory and what you fill the time with.

What language do they speak in Limbo? Mostly creoles, but language communities have formed for most of what has been spoken on Earth. There are also some Limbo languages unrelated to Earth languages.

Is God there? Not any moreso than anywhere else.

And finds a cafe to do some more looking around on the internet - in particular about this plague the other Raafi mentioned.

It was called HIV; it is still extant in some places but cheap antivirals can control it completely and render it untransmissible so it's mostly only being spread by people who don't know they have it or can't stay on top of their meds. Some places use conjuration to identify infected people and this is controversial.

Better than it could be, definitely. Anything at all about the history of it? A book, for preference.

How about AIDS in America?

Sounds good; he gets it, and skims.

Ronald Reagan was a bad dude. Gay culture was decimated. It got more attention when it became common in straight people. Medical research improved with Revelation shortening development cycles and startup costs and those nice antivirals were developed.

Yeah.

He heads to the hotel where the clerics of Pelor are staying, with the book tucked under his arm. He finds the half-elf first. "Can I help you?"

"Something like that, yeah. You've noticed how nervous they are about religions?"

    She nods.

"I found someone to ask about it, and - it's pretty obvious that this wasn't the only thing, but it's pretty bad. Plague, about half an elf's age ago, horribly mishandled." He offers her the book.

    "Oh. We're trying not to judge them too much? Since they haven't had any moral guidance. Of course the'll get it wrong."

"No, this - goes beyond that."

    "All right." She takes the book, glancing at its cover. "Can you give me a short version?"

"Well, they were homophobic at the time, for one thing. I hear that's gotten better but I haven't done my research yet. And it affected gay men to start with, and they let it, until it started affecting straight people too."

    Her eyes go wide. "Okay, that's - a little harder to ignore, yes."

He nods. "And two hundred years is a long time for humans but not that long. People really do have reasons not to trust the churches, here."

    "Yes, I see that. I'll make sure the others know."

"Thank you. And I'll keep looking into it, I just thought you'd want to know sooner rather than later."

    "Yeah. Thanks."

And he goes off to have a fly and clear his head.