So she made a voodoo doll. Or some kind of construct to make you feel pain if she does something to it. I wonder how she did that without taking something from you.
[ Like blood or hair or toenail clippings. Or some other gross shit. ]
Guess those witches are vindictive assholes. Wonder why someone like Lilith might take interest in Ms. Ives.
[ S u s p i c i o u s. ]
It keeps you on a written Statement diet. But it wouldn't surprise me if it's worse than you assume.
Ms. Ives is possessed by some manner of demon. I accidentally let it out when I took her Statement. Mother of Demons?
I'd like to not be cursed, if it's all the same. Is there any chance you might know how to counteract it? Please don't tell Martin or Alessandro about this. Or Hawke. I don't want it getting back to Alessandro, especially. He already wanted to murder the witches who cursed me the first time. I told him I didn't see who did it.
[ How much more complicated is this going to get? ]
I have a few ideas. I'm going to need some things before I can figure it out. Stop lying to Alessandro. He's right to be pissed. You hurting people deserves recompense, yes, but not torture. If these people think they can get off without a problem, they're wrong. If they try something again, I'll fucking kill them myself.
Also you're a Dom and you can go to the authorities.
I don't want anyone killed. Christ! And you wonder why I don't tell you things?
[Going to the authorities, though... hadn't actually occurred to him for this. Lilith is a Submissive, though. As is Dorian. Nick, there might not be much to do about, but the other two?]
And I don't want them put in one of those centers or the People Zoo, either. I don't even know if there's a legitimate prison system or reasonable fines or something. This place is awful.
YOU'RE going to get killed if this keeps happening. They're not fucking around, Jon, and neither am I. I don't want to kill them but since no one can be a fucking adult and go to the police or tell them to fuck off, then murder's going to stay on the table until something happens.
And yes, there's an actual prison. I've talked to some people. It sucks but it's not as bad as the rehab center.
And don't get started on "but I deserve it" because there are a lot of problems with this and it's complicated, but cyclical retribution isn't fucking helpful. Especially when you getting cursed hasn't exactly changed anything anyway.
No. It hasn't. Which I tried to explain to her. It just made things worse. And this probably is, as well. She doesn't understand that sometimes I need to take Statements from people. It's not always about feeding. It's about being able to stop something terrible from happening, too.
I'll consider the authorities. But I'd want to guarantee they'd go to prison and nowhere else. And they wouldn't be assaulted or god knows what else.
The potential apocalypse? We already know the Eye is here. The Corruption might be, as well. The Lonely absolutely is with Martin here. Maybe the Web. They might try to start gathering power.
Duplicity is a city. Veracity and Insincerity are cities. They're not whole-scale worlds of their own. I don't think so, anyway. So why would they bother?
Okay but there's, like, three cities here so far. So why does a powerful being like the Beholding want to scrabble for one single piece when it could just bide its time and take the entire chessboard?
No, you're misunderstanding. Why would any Entity want to pull of a ritual here? Why would it waste its energy trying to bring about the apocalypse here, in this Earth-adjacent place (if it's not some kind of illusion or simulation or matrix) when it's just a waste of time? There are three cities that we know of and little else besides. That's my point. Until now, we thought it was only two cities.
If anything, the Entities are here to scalp through as many people as possible to get more power and to pull off a ritual back home. Or to invade all of the other worlds.
I've certainly never thought there were only two cities. I thought they just had some sort of Big Brother, controlling the information nonsense. Honestly, this place is what I might imagine if all the powers managed to pull of a ritual simultaneously somehow. Except maybe the Dark.
[But then she posits an even more terrifying idea and that really doesn't help his concern that he should be trying to find as many manifestations of the powers here as possible.]
But if you're right... Christ, that's worse, Ava? I don't even know what to do. We're not supposed to stop the little things, just watch. But if they're trying to take people for that. I don't know what to do.
Woah. Slow down there, bud. You're getting ahead of me and freaking out. Take a breath.
Here are the facts: 1. Up until now, we've only had confirmed knowledge of Veracity and Duplicity. 2. No one's seen the actual city of Veracity until now. Could've just not existed. 3. No one found any other cities UNTIL now; people have told me there were none on their long trek back from Fort Harmony.
So there's been no definitive evidence of one theory or another. And for all we know, these cities exist on focal points, hence why we can't just walk to them via land or sea. We have to go through a tunnel. That's kind of suspicious. Why wasn't it visible until now? Why can't we get there via bus or cab? Why do we need to, essentially, go through the processing center?
Nothing about this city or this world makes sense.
And before you fly off the handle, answer me this... What came first: fears or the Entities?
[Well, if she wanted him to slow down, throwing all of that at him isn't the way to go about it. He'd just been worried about curses at the start of this. He hadn't expected a diversion into the possibility that there's just nothing beyond the borders of Duplicity and the Dread Powers might be plotting to invade the bloody multi-verse after sucking on the fears of everyone here.
He's not the one who does all the connecting. He just collects the knowledge. He tries his best to piece together the puzzle, but Jon's fully aware that without the 'helpful' insights from his patron he's not that good at it. Which is why he'd decided to smash the table instead of thinking it through on what that thing was doing to hold back Not!Sasha.
His heart is thrumming away as he types back.]
I don't know. No one does. They might have emerged at the same time as life did? What does that have to do with anything? If they're here, if they're trying to launch some sort of plan to get out into everywhere, we have to stop them. I need to compel the LIEs people. Someone. We need to figure out who to interrogate. Who do we interrogate for this? I need to look more into the Statements we have.
[ Yep, this is what she'd worried about before. Maybe Jon would be better suited as a Malkavian. ]
JON. You need to fucking take a breath. You are running ahead of things and you're not thinking. We talked about this. Re-read what you just wrote. "I need to compel the LIEs people." "We need to figure out who to interrogate." We need to slow down and just think about this.
What I'm saying is that we don't know why things have manifested as they have. The Entities might be here naturally. They might exist on other worlds, too, but no one's categorized them as they have in yours. Or no one from those worlds knows, if they've been brought here, but others do. There are a lot of possibilities. Don't freak out when we don't have information. And for fuck's sake, don't type out any intentions of hurting people at LIEs. You'll get in trouble and you'll get hurt.
Why I asked is this: if the Entities could emerge on your world at the same time as life, then it's possible and likely they already exist on other worlds. If something else brought them into being, then they are unique to your world alone. People have been affected by the Entities before you came here. Like Alex. Like others. So it's likely they already existed before LIErs came here, and that this world isn't a harvesting ground.
But they could still be planning something. For here? For the multiverse? Simultaneous rituals conducted across multiple realities? How would they time it? Communicate between each other?
I mean some of the avatars seem to have some idea of what's going on. Peter and Elias. The Beholding prompts me with knowledge sometimes. I mean most of it is rubbish, but sometimes it's important. I only learned Lilith's name from it. She wouldn't give me that or why she was even there until I Looked at her.
We still need to check into this, make certain there aren't any of the cults or something like them. The Lightless Flame? Maybe they're part of LIEs. They could have been responsible for that hellscape last month?
Because I was having a theoretical conversation with you? Because I was just kicking around ideas? You were the one who took it and ran. Have you never sat down with someone to just speculate things? You know, sit around with a drink or coffee and chat on the meaning of things?
We don't know how big this world is. If it's even a whole world. That's my point. This might just be an illusion and LIEs might be imitating the Entities to get data. I mean, let's be honest, people looking in on us can feel a lot like Big Brother Beholding. They can make things appear and disappear, so I assume they can also just conjure up creepy insects and put weird, obsessive, Lonely ideas in people's heads. There are just a lot of possibilities.
I can start looking into cults. But they're probably all going to be sex-themed, just warning you.
LIEs is the only group responsible for this. They can make things come and go. This is why I'm not sold on this place actually existing. Or, if it exists, that it's not a whole world. I don't know.
That wasn't really something we did much of, no. I worked things out on my own.
[And he regrets it. Sorely. Regrets not trusting the others. Regrets letting the paranoia eat away at him, at the relationships he'd had with Tim, Martin, Melanie. He'd connected a little with Basira, but they still rarely talked until recently. And now she's more-or-less in charge and just... works away while she runs around doing god knows what for Elias. All in service of some 'grand plan,' no doubt.]
Elias didn't really encourage much 'team building.'
[He really tries hard not to let himself hare off again when she suggests they're just imitating the entities.]
The Beholding is here. I know what it feels like. And how would they even know to imitate the entities years before they pulled me out of my own universe? Before they even knew they existed? It would make more sense that they do exist here.
[He's going to start working himself up again with Ava's own logic.]
Yeah, well, fuck Elias. That seems intentional on his part.
Well, if the Entities have always existed? They might not have names for them or even rituals but they can still understand fear and conceptualize it. So they probably exist here. I don't know. Where does 'fear' end and 'Entity' begin? Fears likely existed before them in the grand cosmos of time. The Entities probably just found out that fear is particularly tasty and adapted accordingly. I digress.
Don't jump before you know what we're going for. We have no evidence for anything just yet. We just need to do some digging. We've got ghosts, insects, people who use fire a lot, the feeling of being trapped, a bunch of caves, and assholes who like to murder.
You might want to be careful throwing that phrase about in a place like this.
[Ha ha ha...]
Or fear began to exist when life started preying on one another? I can imagine the Hunt as one of the oldest. The Dark and the Vast, as well. Of course, that's assuming they weren't all birthed at the same time in some cosmic horror mass and only were able to properly begin manifesting once life had reached the point they could be frightened of them. I doubt the dinosaurs were overly preoccupied with feeling lonely.
[Then again, he's never met a dinosaur... Would there have been something like the Archivist back then? The Distortion? The Hive? It's too strange to think about.]
I'll sit with the Statements for a bit and see if any of them call to me. That helps. Sometimes.
[Sometimes he's just sitting on the floor for hours doing nothing and feeling like an idiot.]
We don't have nearly as many as the real Archives, so that should limit the range of potential.
I would be happy to introduce Elias to a dentata if I should ever have the displeasure of meeting him. Until then, he can rot.
I should think anything related to hunger, to food, and dark and/or light would be the most obvious ones. Maybe even the Stranger. The unknown.
How many Statements do you even have now?
[ Just...ballpark figure... ]
I'm going to be heading into Veracity and Insincerity in the next few days. See what I can see. I have off from work. I figure I can spend a few hours at each figuring out the lay of the land and what it's like. Maybe things are different there.
Do I want to know what that means? Dent... Something with teeth?
I have about 50. Mostly from the public. A few people in our program are providing them regularly to me. I haven't entirely sorted the public ones. I can't imagine they're all actually legitimate. I might do that this week.
You probably shouldn't go to Veracity after what I've heard about that from the others. Some sort of torture Fort? I'd like to come to Insincerity with you, though. I've been meaning to look in on that.
Oh, and I'm going to ask Martin about drawing up an employment contract. What sort of salary did you want? I can pay you now I'm not worrying about saving up for the building. Whatever you'd like as long as I have enough to pay Martin and whoever I hire for security.
[ Too late. She does a quick Duplicit search and sends him a picture. Enjoy. ]
That's not a horrible number. And I know where I can get a few more for you. Maybe sorting will help?
Sure, we can go to Insincerity. But I'm still going to go to Veracity. I want to know what's happened there. I just probably won't stay long, is all.
[ Oh, and...here we go. Ava's response to his last message takes much longer than the others. ]
No, it's okay. You can hold off. I'd just make sure you're helping Martin and paying security. That's more important. You keep getting too many people on your ass. Focus on that first.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
winterfish
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 04:18 pm (UTC)Or some kind of construct to make you feel pain if she does something to it.
I wonder how she did that without taking something from you.
[ Like blood or hair or toenail clippings. Or some other gross shit. ]
Guess those witches are vindictive assholes.
Wonder why someone like Lilith might take interest in Ms. Ives.
[ S u s p i c i o u s. ]
It keeps you on a written Statement diet.
But it wouldn't surprise me if it's worse than you assume.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 04:31 pm (UTC)I accidentally let it out when I took her Statement.
Mother of Demons?
I'd like to not be cursed, if it's all the same.
Is there any chance you might know how to counteract it?
Please don't tell Martin or Alessandro about this.
Or Hawke.
I don't want it getting back to Alessandro, especially.
He already wanted to murder the witches who cursed me the first time.
I told him I didn't see who did it.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 05:44 pm (UTC)Christ, Jon.
[ How much more complicated is this going to get? ]
I have a few ideas.
I'm going to need some things before I can figure it out.
Stop lying to Alessandro.
He's right to be pissed.
You hurting people deserves recompense, yes, but not torture.
If these people think they can get off without a problem, they're wrong.
If they try something again, I'll fucking kill them myself.
Also you're a Dom and you can go to the authorities.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 06:06 pm (UTC)Christ!
And you wonder why I don't tell you things?
[Going to the authorities, though... hadn't actually occurred to him for this. Lilith is a Submissive, though. As is Dorian. Nick, there might not be much to do about, but the other two?]
And I don't want them put in one of those centers or the People Zoo, either.
I don't even know if there's a legitimate prison system or reasonable fines or something.
This place is awful.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 06:09 pm (UTC)They're not fucking around, Jon, and neither am I.
I don't want to kill them but since no one can be a fucking
adult and go to the police or tell them to fuck off,
then murder's going to stay on the table until something happens.
And yes, there's an actual prison.
I've talked to some people.
It sucks but it's not as bad as the rehab center.
And don't get started on "but I deserve it" because there are
a lot of problems with this and it's complicated,
but cyclical retribution isn't fucking helpful.
Especially when you getting cursed hasn't exactly
changed anything anyway.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 06:32 pm (UTC)It hasn't.
Which I tried to explain to her.
It just made things worse.
And this probably is, as well.
She doesn't understand that sometimes I need to take Statements from people.
It's not always about feeding.
It's about being able to stop something terrible from happening, too.
I'll consider the authorities.
But I'd want to guarantee they'd go to prison and nowhere else.
And they wouldn't be assaulted or god knows what else.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 06:42 pm (UTC)I don't understand.
Why do you need to take Statements from people in person?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 06:58 pm (UTC)We already know the Eye is here.
The Corruption might be, as well.
The Lonely absolutely is with Martin here.
Maybe the Web.
They might try to start gathering power.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 07:25 pm (UTC)Veracity and Insincerity are cities.
They're not whole-scale worlds of their own.
I don't think so, anyway.
So why would they bother?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 08:23 pm (UTC)They're just as likely to be in those other places as they are in Duplicity.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 09:16 pm (UTC)So why does a powerful being like the Beholding want to scrabble for one
single piece when it could just bide its time and take the entire
chessboard?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 11:02 pm (UTC)You think there are three cities in the entire world?
I'm just one piece of the Beholding, Ava.
I'm hardly everything.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 01:03 am (UTC)Why would any Entity want to pull of a ritual here?
Why would it waste its energy trying to bring about
the apocalypse here, in this Earth-adjacent place
(if it's not some kind of illusion or simulation
or matrix) when it's just a waste of time?
There are three cities that we know of and little
else besides. That's my point.
Until now, we thought it was only two cities.
If anything, the Entities are here to scalp through
as many people as possible to get more power and
to pull off a ritual back home.
Or to invade all of the other worlds.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 01:32 am (UTC)I thought they just had some sort of Big Brother, controlling the information nonsense.
Honestly, this place is what I might imagine if all the powers managed to pull of a ritual simultaneously somehow.
Except maybe the Dark.
[But then she posits an even more terrifying idea and that really doesn't help his concern that he should be trying to find as many manifestations of the powers here as possible.]
But if you're right... Christ, that's worse, Ava?
I don't even know what to do.
We're not supposed to stop the little things, just watch.
But if they're trying to take people for that.
I don't know what to do.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 01:51 am (UTC)Slow down there, bud.
You're getting ahead of me and freaking out.
Take a breath.
Here are the facts:
1. Up until now, we've only had confirmed knowledge of Veracity and Duplicity.
2. No one's seen the actual city of Veracity until now. Could've just not existed.
3. No one found any other cities UNTIL now; people have told me there were none on their long trek back from Fort Harmony.
So there's been no definitive evidence of one theory or another.
And for all we know, these cities exist on focal points, hence why we can't just walk to them via land or sea.
We have to go through a tunnel.
That's kind of suspicious.
Why wasn't it visible until now?
Why can't we get there via bus or cab?
Why do we need to, essentially, go through the processing center?
Nothing about this city or this world makes sense.
And before you fly off the handle, answer me this...
What came first: fears or the Entities?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 03:52 am (UTC)He's not the one who does all the connecting. He just collects the knowledge. He tries his best to piece together the puzzle, but Jon's fully aware that without the 'helpful' insights from his patron he's not that good at it. Which is why he'd decided to smash the table instead of thinking it through on what that thing was doing to hold back Not!Sasha.
His heart is thrumming away as he types back.]
I don't know.
No one does.
They might have emerged at the same time as life did?
What does that have to do with anything?
If they're here, if they're trying to launch some sort of plan to get out into everywhere, we have to stop them.
I need to compel the LIEs people.
Someone.
We need to figure out who to interrogate.
Who do we interrogate for this?
I need to look more into the Statements we have.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 04:17 am (UTC)JON.
You need to fucking take a breath.
You are running ahead of things and you're not thinking.
We talked about this.
Re-read what you just wrote.
"I need to compel the LIEs people."
"We need to figure out who to interrogate."
We need to slow down and just think about this.
What I'm saying is that we don't know why things have
manifested as they have.
The Entities might be here naturally.
They might exist on other worlds, too, but no one's
categorized them as they have in yours.
Or no one from those worlds knows, if they've been brought
here, but others do.
There are a lot of possibilities.
Don't freak out when we don't have information.
And for fuck's sake, don't type out any intentions
of hurting people at LIEs.
You'll get in trouble and you'll get hurt.
Why I asked is this: if the Entities could emerge on
your world at the same time as life, then it's possible
and likely they already exist on other worlds.
If something else brought them into being, then they
are unique to your world alone.
People have been affected by the Entities before
you came here.
Like Alex.
Like others.
So it's likely they already existed before LIErs came
here, and that this world isn't a harvesting ground.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 04:33 am (UTC)Why didn't you just say that?
[Don't ask him panic-inducing questions.]
But they could still be planning something.
For here?
For the multiverse?
Simultaneous rituals conducted across multiple realities?
How would they time it?
Communicate between each other?
I mean some of the avatars seem to have some idea of what's going on.
Peter and Elias.
The Beholding prompts me with knowledge sometimes.
I mean most of it is rubbish, but sometimes it's important.
I only learned Lilith's name from it.
She wouldn't give me that or why she was even there until I Looked at her.
We still need to check into this, make certain there aren't any of the cults or something like them.
The Lightless Flame?
Maybe they're part of LIEs.
They could have been responsible for that hellscape last month?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 05:03 am (UTC)Because I was just kicking around ideas?
You were the one who took it and ran.
Have you never sat down with someone to just speculate things?
You know, sit around with a drink or coffee and chat on the
meaning of things?
We don't know how big this world is.
If it's even a whole world.
That's my point.
This might just be an illusion and LIEs might be
imitating the Entities to get data.
I mean, let's be honest, people looking in on us can feel
a lot like Big Brother Beholding.
They can make things appear and disappear, so I assume they
can also just conjure up creepy insects and put weird,
obsessive, Lonely ideas in people's heads.
There are just a lot of possibilities.
I can start looking into cults.
But they're probably all going to be sex-themed, just warning you.
LIEs is the only group responsible for this.
They can make things come and go.
This is why I'm not sold on this place actually existing.
Or, if it exists, that it's not a whole world.
I don't know.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 05:49 am (UTC)I worked things out on my own.
[And he regrets it. Sorely. Regrets not trusting the others. Regrets letting the paranoia eat away at him, at the relationships he'd had with Tim, Martin, Melanie. He'd connected a little with Basira, but they still rarely talked until recently. And now she's more-or-less in charge and just... works away while she runs around doing god knows what for Elias. All in service of some 'grand plan,' no doubt.]
Elias didn't really encourage much 'team building.'
[He really tries hard not to let himself hare off again when she suggests they're just imitating the entities.]
The Beholding is here.
I know what it feels like.
And how would they even know to imitate the entities years before they pulled me out of my own universe?
Before they even knew they existed?
It would make more sense that they do exist here.
[He's going to start working himself up again with Ava's own logic.]
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 09:15 pm (UTC)That seems intentional on his part.
Well, if the Entities have always existed?
They might not have names for them or even rituals
but they can still understand fear and conceptualize
it.
So they probably exist here.
I don't know.
Where does 'fear' end and 'Entity' begin?
Fears likely existed before them in the grand
cosmos of time.
The Entities probably just found out that fear is
particularly tasty and adapted accordingly.
I digress.
Don't jump before you know what we're going for.
We have no evidence for anything just yet.
We just need to do some digging.
We've got ghosts, insects, people who use fire a lot,
the feeling of being trapped, a bunch of caves,
and assholes who like to murder.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-29 01:20 am (UTC)[Ha ha ha...]
Or fear began to exist when life started preying on one another?
I can imagine the Hunt as one of the oldest.
The Dark and the Vast, as well.
Of course, that's assuming they weren't all birthed at the same time in some cosmic horror mass and only were able to properly begin manifesting once life had reached the point they could be frightened of them.
I doubt the dinosaurs were overly preoccupied with feeling lonely.
[Then again, he's never met a dinosaur... Would there have been something like the Archivist back then? The Distortion? The Hive? It's too strange to think about.]
I'll sit with the Statements for a bit and see if any of them call to me.
That helps.
Sometimes.
[Sometimes he's just sitting on the floor for hours doing nothing and feeling like an idiot.]
We don't have nearly as many as the real Archives, so that should limit the range of potential.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-29 01:44 am (UTC)a dentata if I should ever have the displeasure
of meeting him.
Until then, he can rot.
I should think anything related to hunger, to food, and dark
and/or light would be the most obvious ones.
Maybe even the Stranger. The unknown.
How many Statements do you even have now?
[ Just...ballpark figure... ]
I'm going to be heading into Veracity
and Insincerity in the next few days.
See what I can see.
I have off from work.
I figure I can spend a few hours at each figuring out
the lay of the land and what it's like.
Maybe things are different there.
[ She means having different fears. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-08-29 02:33 am (UTC)Do I want to know what that means?
Dent...
Something with teeth?
I have about 50.
Mostly from the public.
A few people in our program are providing them regularly to me.
I haven't entirely sorted the public ones.
I can't imagine they're all actually legitimate.
I might do that this week.
You probably shouldn't go to Veracity after what I've heard about that from the others.
Some sort of torture Fort?
I'd like to come to Insincerity with you, though.
I've been meaning to look in on that.
Oh, and I'm going to ask Martin about drawing up an employment contract.
What sort of salary did you want?
I can pay you now I'm not worrying about saving up for the building.
Whatever you'd like as long as I have enough to pay Martin and whoever I hire for security.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-29 02:49 am (UTC)That's not a horrible number.
And I know where I can get a few more for you.
Maybe sorting will help?
Sure, we can go to Insincerity.
But I'm still going to go to Veracity.
I want to know what's happened there.
I just probably won't stay long, is all.
[ Oh, and...here we go. Ava's response to his last message takes much longer than the others. ]
No, it's okay.
You can hold off.
I'd just make sure you're helping Martin and paying security.
That's more important.
You keep getting too many people on your ass.
Focus on that first.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From: