Various After the Fall original ideas

(a random rant about nihilism from Bea)
Bea: The whole problem with "nothing matters in the end" is that it solves nothing.
If nothing matters, then nothing gets fixed. The problems stay.
It's the *future* that matters. You can talk about how the universe will end all you want, but that's trillions and trillions of years from now.
In the meantime, we're all alive. Maybe not everything will get fixed in your lifetime, but the people who're born long after you're gone will have to deal with what you left behind.
Saying nothing really matters is selfish!
*no idea what would prompt this…*

(discussing religion with Angus)
“See, the thing is, it wasn’t any outside force that made your mom treat you the way she did. It was her decision alone.”
“I *suppose* you’re right… but obviously there wasn’t any “divine intervention” involved.”
“I don’t think God’s gonna fix *all* our problems. Sometimes we gotta do it ourselves.”
“Hmm. Still would’ve been nice.”

(stuff)
Mae: "…It's so cool! They spend most of the song only playing five notes!"
Mae demonstrates this on her bass.
Mae: "Y'know, 'cause a pentagon has five sides?"
Bea does some mental calculation.
Bea: "Mae… that's *six* notes."
Mae: "…Why you gotta be so iconoclastic, Bea?"

*
"I sometimes wore contacts to change my eye color. God, I was so dumb back then..."

*
"It has an electric piano sound and a drum machine. It's good enough for now." ~Bea
"If I could afford something with weighted keys and aftertouch, I'd get that."
"...Huh?"
"Nevermind."
"It's got, like, the same damn twelve samples that everybody else uses. Makes me sound like a video game."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"For my purposes, yes. Thank God it has a MIDI port, otherwise I couldn't use better samples."
"I still have no idea what you're talking about."

(listening to music with Germ)
Germ: You like black metal?

player: Totally.
player: Kind of. It's a little creepy for me.
player: Isn't that Satanic?

-satanic
Germ: Some of it, yeah.
But I don't listen to those. These guys are better.

Seems as though he's going to play the record for you anyway regardless of your apprehension.
He pulls out a vinyl LP from a bookshelf full of others like it. Among the gnarled branches and spiderwebs in white-on-black silhouette is an inverted pentagram with an inverted cross nestled inside it. You raise your eyebrows.

player: I thought you said it wasn't Satanic!
Germ: It's not. Dusty Tomes did the research.
The pentagram means whatever you want it to. Satanists didn't even use it until 1966.
And the inverted cross used to represent a Saint.
Ever hear of Baphomet?
player: …Yes?
Germ: Completely made up. Never existed until The Knights of Templar confessed to worshipping him under torture.
player: Uh…
So why does… Dusty Tomes use it?
Germ: Uh, they’re kinda like trolls?
They like to scare people. People who don't really understand it.
People who like the Satanic stuff will be disappointed to hear themselves getting mocked.
People who don't know their history will steer clear of them anyway.
player: Sounds… intellectual.
Germ: The guys in Dusty Tomes do a lot of reading, yeah. They base their lyrics on old poems they find, stuff like that.
Wanna hear it?

-other options
He pulls out a vinyl LP from a bookshelf full of others like it. Among the gnarled branches and spiderwebs in white-on-black silhouette is an inverted pentagram with an inverted cross nestled inside it.

Germ: Cool, huh?
The band's called Dusty Tomes.
The cover here is all about how the pentagram means whatever you want it to.
And how the inverted cross used to represent a Saint.
They kinda like to scare people who don't really understand that.
They do a lot of reading. They base their lyrics on old poems they find and stuff like that.
player: That's kinda cool.
Germ: Wanna hear it?

*
You sense that that wasn't really a question, as he takes the record out and sets it down on the player, gently placing the needle on it as soon as it's spinning.
The first song is a little less frantic and more moody than you're used to hearing from the genre.
You ask to see the front cover. He hands it to you and you squint, trying to read the band's logo. It looks like a mess of thorny brambles, like so many other black metal bands.

Germ: Check it out. The cover looks almost exactly the same upside-down.

You turn it over and you discover that he's right.
The logo and the title are used twice on the cover in near-perfect mirror symmetry, and the difference between the trees' upper branches and their roots is suddenly lost.
But most of all, the pentagram and the cross are no longer inverted.

Germ: Symbols only have the meaning we give 'em.

When you try to make out the words, somewhat lost in all the echo and reverb, a few screamed words manage to stand out to you. Why do some of them sound… familiar?
You open the gatefold and take a look at the lyrics. You’ve definitely read them before.

player: Hey… one of my dad's old books has this poem.
Germ: I'm not surprised. Sounds like your dad was way into that occult stuff too.
They don't take it too seriously, though.
Not like those cults who worship fake demons and hurt people.

Germ seems very opinionated about this, which makes you wonder… why DID your dad collect all those books?
You have no idea what his feelings about it were- whether he merely took an academic interest in it or if he had some kind of spiritual connection to them.
You were hoping that he was some sort of spiritualist and just believed in seances and stuff like that.

(on a date with Germ)
Germ: She was completely covered in fleas. Took me a couple of hours to get them all off. And when I was done, she went to sleep, and…

	And…?
	…What?

Germ: …She died.

	That’s awful.
	Oh no!

Germ: I like to think she died happy.

	Why?

Germ: It was probably the first time she felt comfortable in her life.

*
player Germ?
Germ Yeah?
player I want to have peaches with sriracha.
Germ Sauce or 'possum?
player …Both?
Germ She can't have spicy food, but you can.

(more clues)
"Mr. Borowski,
Your resistance to my offer to join our fellowship is, frankly, infuriating and even risky.
I would have thought you of all people would understand the struggles of the working class.
Your reputation, as well as your attachment to that little "memento" is proof of that.
I would advise never speaking to anyone of my offer if you expect to stay out of trouble. But you were never one to run from trouble, were you?"