Author: dark_light | After Glass's party is over with, Amariah and Kas go home.
Amariah fetches down their alethiometers.
"It's about time I took care of Alethia's afterlife, whatever it may be," she says quietly. "What can the alethiometer tell you about what I'll find?" |
Author: truthwright | "Good question," says Kas. "You wanna be a little more specific?" |
Author: dark_light | Amariah laughs. "Is it dangerous for me - or for other Bells who might help - even with all the powers we have stacked up? What is the place like, what condition are dead Alethians in?" |
Author: truthwright | Kas fiddles with dials.
"Can't say boo about the other Bells unless they're here when I ask," he says first. |
Author: dark_light | "Mm, okay. I'll get someone to pop in for a visit." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell appears, wished against the appearance of a daemon, a minute later. |
Author: truthwright | Kas is just reading off, "The afterlife is a - daemon wasteland. Daemons can't go there. Dead people - aww, it's cute how you phrased that - dead people have no daemons." He asks a followup question. "But if you take the dead person out of the afterlife, you can put their daemon back. Hi, Shell Bell!" |
Author: dark_light | "How hard will it be to put a daemon back?" asks Amariah. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Hi," says Shell Bell. "I wonder what I'd even have, if I had a daemon. I wonder if wishing could show me, like it can with coin colors..." She tries it, and an illusory bird appears on her lap. "Huh," she says, and dismisses the illusion. "I don't even know what that is." |
Author: truthwright | "It's cute, though," says Kas. And to Amariah, "Not that hard." He doesn't consult the alethiometer anew about that. "It didn't directly say, but just by the way it was talking about it, I'm guessing you could wish it and it'd only be a star or so." |
Author: dark_light | "Now Shell Bell's here can you ask if it's dangerous for her to go there? And we can extrapolate to the other Bells from that." |
Author: truthwright | "...okay, sure," says Kas.
He asks.
"You'll get a daemon," he says. "You have to have one, that hangs back on the other side, or you can't go in at all. But the place can't physically hurt you, emphasis on physically. Doesn't say if it can non-physically hurt you past what it'll feel like to separate when you go in, but I'm guessing yes." |
Author: dark_light | "...Well, that will seriously hamper my ability to get volunteers," mutters Amariah. "Can you get any more details about how it can non-physically hurt people...?" |
Author: truthwright | Kas asks. He gets one symbol.
"Not... exactly," he says. "It says what kind of hurt, but I couldn't begin to tell you what it means. It's one of those symbols that's hard to translate without context, and it's not giving me context." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I might take a daemon, if you need the help," muses Shell Bell. "I can always put him away, can't I?" |
Author: dark_light | "You can," agrees Amariah. "I'm not sure why you'd want to do it all the time, but that's just me being used to them; you could." |
Author: truthwright | "Anything else you wanna know?" says Kas. |
Author: dark_light | "Are the dead people conscious? Are they suffering, without their daemons?" asks Amariah softly. |
Author: truthwright | He asks.
"They're... sad," he says. "Sad and cold." |
Author: dark_light | Amariah shivers.
"But we can fix it," she says, "we'll be physically unharmed - can you convince it to give you context, about the non-physical harm...?" |
Author: truthwright | He tries it. Several different ways.
"It just says - there's something there that might hurt you," he translates. "It's very specific about the kind of hurt, but it's not something there's directly a word for. Grief? Anguish? Hurt in your mind and your feelings, not your body or your soul." |
Author: dark_light | "It it recoverable?" tries Amariah. |
Author: truthwright | "Uh..."
He asks.
"...now it's getting all philosophical on me," he says. "I'd say - mostly. Or maybe." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I'd feel better about walking into danger if I knew more about it," Shell Bell murmurs. "I wonder if Cam can talk to these things." |
Author: dark_light | "Good question. Jane, can you invite Cam over specifically, please?" |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam shows up presently - by Jane, not by door - also anti-daemon-wished.
"Hey, alethiometer," he says. |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer's hand spins. "I tell the truth," it says to Cam.
Kas watches it in fascination. |
Author: lifes_sake | "You sure do. Tell me about this world's afterlife." |
Author: truthwright | "The afterlife is where all the dead are," says the alethiometer. Kas snorts. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam sighs. "Is there anything else there?" he asks. |
Author: truthwright | "What inhabits the afterlife other than the dead causes suffering," says the alethiometer.
"That's the same way of saying 'hurt' it's been using all this time," Kas contributes. |
Author: lifes_sake | "What are the things that cause suffering?" asks Cam. |
Author: truthwright | "What inhabits the afterlife and causes suffering is not dead," says the alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "How does it cause suffering?" Cam tries. |
Author: truthwright | "It has knowledge and hungers for truth," says the alethiometer.
"What exactly are you getting from all this?" wonders Kas. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Not much," Cam tells Kas. And to the alethiometer: "What knowledge does it have?" |
Author: truthwright | "This is weird," Kas declares.
The alethiometer repeats, "Knowledge." Kas frowns. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Why, what's it doing that you're picking up?" Cam asks Kas.
To the alethiometer: "What truth does it seek?" |
Author: truthwright | "It's talking the same way it always does," he says. "But then you're talking back in English. There's way less - depth to what you're saying."
Meanwhile, the alethiometer is repeating itself again: "It hungers for truth." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Do we have truths that will satisfy it?" Cam asks. |
Author: truthwright | "You can sate its truth-hunger," says the alethiometer.
"I didn't know this thing had a word for your kind of wizard," Kas comments. |
Author: lifes_sake | "I didn't hear it talk about wizards - did it?" And to the alethiometer: "Me, or the others like me too?" |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer says, "Who can speak the truth can satisfy truth-hunger."
"If I'd asked it that question, I might've said it answered, 'Cam can do that'," says Kas. "But it doesn't talk about people by name; it talks about them by who they are. And it talked about you by you being a wizard. Why, is that important?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Maybe. I mean, something is hungering for truth, maybe only wizards can talk to it, maybe we should bring Tilly and Jellybean, but on the other hand maybe it's calling me a wizard to tell me apart from Amariah and Shell Bell and the key thing is my truthy aura and we should bring Elspeth," says Cam. "For that matter, I'm getting sufficient heebie-jeebies around this that maybe we should borrow Mary from Stella, or Alice from Golden." |
Author: truthwright | "...Can I talk to it for a sec?" says Kas. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam hands Kas his, and takes the other, which he asks: "Are wizards particularly helpful for the thing in the afterlife that hungers for truth?" |
Author: truthwright | "You can speak the truth," says the second alethiometer.
"It called you a wizard again," says Kas, who is watching Cam instead of questioning his own. |
Author: lifes_sake | "I'm just hearing 'you'... I'm going to ask Jellybean and Elspeth in here so it can compare them..."
Through Jane: [Hey Jellybean, want to wish upon a star and come be in Alethia so the alethiometer can 'see' more than one wizard?]
And a similar invitation to Elspeth. |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | Elspeth shows up a moment later. |
Author: pythbox | [Sure,] says Jellybean, and he makes the wish. Immediately upon arrival, he kisses Cam. |
Author: lifes_sake | Mmmm, kisses.
"Are wizards, like the self-defining over here, a source of truth like what the thing in the afterlife wants?" |
Author: truthwright | "Wizards can speak the truth," says the alethiometer.
"That's the exact same thing it just said," says Kas. |
Author: lifes_sake | "How would the princess in this room," says Cam, lacking a full wizard name for her and unsure how the alethiometer will comprehend names, "interact with the thing in the afterlife that hungers for truth?" |
Author: truthwright | "She speaks the truth," says the alethiometer. Kas cracks up. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Was something funny about how it said that?" Cam asks Kas. |
Author: truthwright | "It was just the same two meanings backwards and forwards," he says. "Truth/speak/speak/truth. But the first part meant Elspeth, and the second part meant her power." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "The alethiometer refers to me as 'truth speak'?" says Elspeth, amused. |
Author: truthwright | "It doesn't really do grammar," says Kas. "If I was trying to translate it properly instead of explain the joke, I'd say it called you Truth-Speaker, or 'the one who tells the truth', or something." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "I wonder if I can communicate with the alethiometers. Are they intelligent?" asks Elspeth. |
Author: truthwright | "Um... good question," says Kas. |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | Elspeth peers at the one in Cam's hand and sends, wordless: Can you hear me? Tell Cam. |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer tells Cam, "The truth-speaker is speaking to me."
Kas giggles again. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Yeah, it hears you," Cam reports to Elspeth. "Maybe you'll have better luck than me." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "What do we know so far?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "The Alethian afterlife isn't physically dangerous, but there's some sort of other hazard there that has knowledge and hungers for truth," says Cam. "Although come to think of it I'm not sure appeasing this hunger is the best bet, maybe it'd just eat us." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | Elspeth nods and sends again. Still wordless; Cam may have to take the reply in words but that doesn't mean it can't be helpfully unconstraining to send the question freeform. Tell Cam, please - what will happen exactly if he and I and Jellybean and Amariah and Shell Bell go to the afterlife here? |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer tells Cam, "If you and the truth-speaker and the self-defining and the witch and the one whose daemon is unseparate go to the afterlife, you and the truth-speaker and the self-defining may please that which hungers for truth."
Kas says, "Wow, that was long. Do you guys want me to translate too?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Yeah, in case you got different details than me." |
Author: truthwright | "Okay. It said that if Cam and Elspeth and Jellybean and Amariah and Shell Bell all go to the afterlife, Cam and Elspeth and Jellybean are the ones who might make the truth-wanting things happy. It doesn't mean that the rest of you can't make them happy, just that Cam and Elspeth and Jellybean have the best shot at it. And it called Cam 'Truth Wizard' and Jellybean 'Self-Defining' and Elspeth 'Truth-Speaker' and Amariah 'Witch' and Shell Bell 'Daemon Inside'." |
Author: lifes_sake | "I guess as far as it's concerned Shell Bell doesn't have any other defining characteristics, huh. Elspeth, ask what happens when the truth-wanting things are happy." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | Elspeth asks. |
Author: truthwright | "When those who hunger for truth are happy, they do not cause suffering," says the alethiometer.
"That one was pretty straightforward," says Kas. "Except for that thing about 'hurt' again, but I think it's given us as much as it's going to on that." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Okay. So wizards and Elspeth and possibly me-especially can calm down the truth-hungry... things... and then they will stop bothering people." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "But anyone who goes will acquire a daemon. A square will show what you'd get," Shell Bell adds, "mine would be some kind of duck thing." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | Elspeth would apparently get a brightly colored parakeet. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam's daemon would be a kickass hawk. |
Author: dark_light | "And if I understand it right, the reason you have to get them to do this is because your souls can't enter the afterlife - which means separation. I've done it, all witches do, but it's not fun." |
Author: truthwright | "It is not fun," Petaal confirms, curling around Kas's neck as a small black snake. |
Author: dark_light | "But it doesn't cause long-term trauma if it's done purposefully, and - can one of you ask the alethiometer if the associated pain can be wished gone?" |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | If I wish on a coin, can I separate from my daemon painlessly? Elspeth asks the alethiometer. |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer says to Cam, "To separate from one's daemon is a thing of anguish."
"That means no," says Kas. |
Author: lifes_sake | "I wonder if Sarion could ignore it," says Cam. "How bad is it, Amariah?" |
Author: dark_light | "Bad. But I did it on the first try, on foot," Amariah says, "when the only consequence for failing was not being considered an adult witch till I managed. It's not as bad as having someone touch your daemon... I'm trying to think of comparisons you're familiar with but I've got nothing." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "I judgesighted Kas along with all the other Jokers. I could pass a taste of it on, if we assume it's similar for everyone," says Elspeth. |
Author: truthwright | "I don't see any good ways to tell," says Kas. |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "I can show Amariah and she can compare," suggests Elspeth, "if nobody involved minds." |
Author: truthwright | "Fine by us," says Petaal. |
Author: dark_light | "Go for it." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | |
Author: dark_light | "...Similar intensity. Different flavor," murmurs Amariah. |
Author: truthwright | "What do you mean?" |
Author: dark_light | "We both felt about the same amount of bad - well, I assume you were in worse shape at the time, but Elspeth filtered out the parts that weren't about separation in particular - but not the same kind of bad." |
Author: truthwright | "Huh." |
Author: dark_light | "It's probably a fine gauge for total unpleasantness, though, if you want to share it around, Elspeth." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Hit me." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I'm probably not as important to the expedition but I'll have a look too." |
Author: pythbox | "Me too," says Jellybean. |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "How long does it last?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Yeah, that's what I wanna know too." |
Author: dark_light | "It varies how far away you have to get. Usually about a hundred yards." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Do people ever do this with somebody else holding their daemon for them? Someone who'd be generally allowed. I wonder if it would help." |
Author: dark_light | "People usually never do this at all, except witches, who are in our early teens at the time," says Amariah. "I've never heard of it. It might help. It might even help a lot. I don't know." |
Author: truthwright | "I know who to ask," says Kas, and he turns the dials on his alethiometer.
"It might help," he concludes. "It says it - won't make the bad part better, but it'll be a good part where there usually isn't one." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I'll go, then, if Sherlock will stand somewhere not in the afterlife and hold my duck thing for me," says Shell Bell. "If you want an extra Bell along." |
Author: lifes_sake | "...Hey alethiometer, how would my hawk daemon interact with my notebook?" Cam asks. |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer says, "There is no precedent." |
Author: lifes_sake | "I thought this thing was supposed to generate objective truth," complains Cam. "What does it need precedent for?" |
Author: truthwright | "I can give you no answer where no answer exists," says the alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "But if Grace were an ordinary notebook," argues Cam, "it wouldn't interact with a daemon at all, and you'd know that. She's not ordinary notebook. Can I conclude that she would interact with a daemon?" |
Author: truthwright | "You can conclude that she might interact with a daemon," says the alethiometer.
"...Is this the part where I point out that it's calling your notebook 'Paper Daemon'?" says Kas. |
Author: lifes_sake | "...Yes. This is the part where you point that out," says Cam. "Paper daemon. Huh."
"I could fly!" exclaims Grace.
"If it works that way! It might not work that way. Also then how would I write in you? Or read you?"
"You could wish for me to be able to turn back into a notebook," she says reasonably.
"...Alethiometer, if Grace turns into a hawk, can I safely wish for her to turn back into a notebook?" |
Author: truthwright | "There is no precedent," says the alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "If Amariah wished for Path to be able to turn into a notebook could she do it?" Cam tries. |
Author: truthwright | "He could become able to be a notebook," it says.
"I wonder if I could be a notebook," muses Petaal. "Not that there's any reason for me to be." |
Author: lifes_sake | "I'd consider it proof of concept," Cam remarks mildly. "Right now Grace can be as far away from me as we want - if I set her down somewhere, move a hundred yards and change away, and then she turns into a hawk-daemon, do I get to have the separation over with instantly?" |
Author: truthwright | "If it happens that way, it will happen that way," says the alethiometer.
"Yes," says Kas. "But it's noncommittal about whether or not Grace is going to turn into a hawk-daemon." |
Author: lifes_sake | "I wonder if I can make a conditional reversal of my anti-daemon wish. Alethiometer, can I do that?" |
Author: truthwright | "The wish magic works in that way," says the alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Awesome. So I'll go if Grace gets to be my daemon, and otherwise I think I'm gonna have to pass." |
Author: her_imperial_radiance | "...I'll hang back in reserve," says Elspeth. "I'll go in if I'm needed." |
Author: truthwright | Kas shrugs. "Anything else we want to know?" |
Author: dark_light | "Will all our magic work in the afterlife?" |
Author: truthwright | Kas asks.
"The afterlife doesn't work the same way as other places," he reads. "Meaning: not all of it, but not none of it, or it would've just said so." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Which magic will stop working?" Cam asks. |
Author: truthwright | "Magic that depends on how things are outside of the afterlife will not work in the afterlife," says the alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam theatrically smacks himself in the forehead.
"Will we be able to use coins there?" he tries. |
Author: truthwright | Kas giggles.
"Wishcoins will not receive wishes in the afterlife," says the alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "...What did you get from that?" Cam asks Kas. "I'm not sure I know what it meant." |
Author: truthwright | "It means no," says Kas. |
Author: lifes_sake | "The way it put it was weird. 'Receive' wishes." |
Author: truthwright | "I wouldn't translate it that way, exactly," says Kas. "It was more like - the part of using a coin where you wish on the coin, that's kind of like you're telling it what you want, right? In the afterlife, the coins won't be able to hear you do that." |
Author: lifes_sake | "...Huh." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "When are we going? And do you want me along?" Shell Bell asks. |
Author: dark_light | "As soon as we know who's going, I think. Elspeth in reserve, I can go, Cam will if Grace works out, you will - who else, though, not everyone's going to want a daemon. Jane, please ask all the Bells to see what sort of daemon they'd get and consider coming along? With all the relevant information." |
Author: mind_game | Jane passes this along. |
Author: luminous_regnant | Golden would not prefer to accompany the expedition, although if no one else is willing she will do as Shell Bell plans and leave Edward with her daemon for the trip. She reports, in case anyone is curious, that she would have a small golden dragon. |
Author: bellfounding | Pattern would have a firefly and doesn't want to instantiate him, thank you. |
Author: self_composed | [Hey Alice,] says Stella, [Amariah's gearing up to go after her afterlife. The alethiometer says anyone who goes there will get a daemon wish or no wish, and will have to separate from it too. I don't think I want to go, but apparently a square will show me what I'd get if I did, want to see me wish it?] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Sure!]
He teleports to wherever she is. |
Author: self_composed | Stella wishes on a square.
Her result is a lap-sized dragon, red like her coins and broad-winged and with a peculiar effect like lava-flows between some of his larger scales.
"Nifty," murmurs Stella. "Tempting. But separation sounds nasty." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "You could always just go to Alethia and get a daemon anyway," Alice suggests. "I might want to go along. How nasty is nasty?" |
Author: self_composed | "I don't think I want a daemon just to have a daemon, but I can always go later. Elspeth can show you what it was like for Kas to separate; Amariah compared with hers and said it was the right amount of nasty but a different kind of nasty," says Stella. "The alethiometer says it will be just as nasty but with a mitigating good part if someone who you'd let hold your daemon does that while you're separating. I'll go with you if you want. With this little cutie safely warded off, though." She dismisses the dragon illusion. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "If you'll snuggle my daemon I'll definitely go," he says. |
Author: self_composed | "All right then. Jane, please notify the Alethia contingent," laughs Stella. |
Author: autokinetic | The various laughable handlers of War and Peace with whom Aegis largely plays along, in addition to putting them on shuttles to get from place to place, schedule them time to sleep, for some reason. It is one of those times when Jane's message arrives, and Sue's in the room at the time.
"Huh," says Aegis, and she wishes up herself an illusion-daemon. She gets a large orangey-colored flying squirrel. "I think I'll pass. For myself, anyway." |
Author: pythbox | "I'll go if there's a reason to," says Sue. "I've already got Ivy. I guess it'd be handy if I could link everybody, huh?" |
Author: autokinetic | "Probably, yeah, you probably wouldn't even have to go into the afterlife and separate from her to link people." |
Author: pythbox | "Okay. So I'll go and hang back with everybody's daemons," says Sue.
"And I'll snuggle them if they get lonely," says Ivy, instantiating for this purpose. |
Author: autokinetic | "'Course you will," says Aegis, scritching Ivy on the head. "Thanks, Jane." |
Author: thaumobabble | Glass is in the middle of reading the girls a bedtime story (they can all read, at this point, but still like being read to) when she gets the notification. She now has enough processing power to continue reading without skipping a beat, and to also inform her wives of what's going on. [Some of the Bells are hanging back as a reserve force of sorts, if they don't particularly want daemons but wouldn't much mind them and have someone to look after them during the separation required to get into the Alethian afterlife,] she says. [If one or both of you would be willing to do that I think I'll be in that contingent.] |
Author: allthebrightest | [Of course!] says Tony. |
Author: calendarofcrime | [Of course,] says Sherlock. |
Author: thaumobabble | [Also apparently a square suffices to see what one's daemon would be. I'm rather curious.]
"The end," she tells the girls, and she kisses them each goodnight, puts them in their respective rooms and tucks them in, and goes to where Sherlock and Tony are and wishes up an illusory daemon.
"Aww," she says of the tiny flying squirrel. |
Author: calendarofcrime | "That is adorable," says Sherlock. |
Author: thaumobabble | "Isn't it just?" Glass reports her daemon result to the rest of the peal and then dismisses the illusion. |
Author: incanted | Aurora bounces everything Jane tells her to Brilliance and Lexi both. [I'm not going,] she adds to all three, [but I'm gonna see what I'd get if I did.] |
Author: lexicality | [I wanna see what I'd get, too,] says Lexi. |
Author: cardistry | [I bet I know what I'd get,] laughs Brilliance, [and I'm not going anyway.] |
Author: incanted | [Yeah, you'd probably get the standard unsettled thingamabob. If devices can even have daemons,] says Aurora. [Do you want to come see what me and Lexi will get though?] |
Author: cardistry | [Yeah!]
He goes to where they are. |
Author: incanted | Square! Square!
Aurora gets an awesome kite. |
Author: lexicality | Lexi gets a nifty sorta pigeon.
"I might just want this anyway, it's cool," says Lexi. |
Author: cardistry | "Ooh, pretty," says Brilliance, hugging Aurora. |
Author: incanted | "Yeah, I don't want to have a daemon but it's nice to know what it would be if I did," grins Aurora. "Lexi, you should think really hard and talk to some people with daemons before you get one, but you can if you want." |
Author: lexicality | "Yeah, I know, I won't just scamper off to Alethia," says Lexi. |
Author: beheld_beauty | Rose notifies her husband. And Yseult too, why not, this even though she does not plan to go on the trip. [But it would seem that if I did, my soul would take the form of an orchid bee,] she adds. |
Author: deslandes | [Pretty!] says her husband. |
Author: mindfields | [I wonder what my soul would be,] says her daughter. |
Author: beheld_beauty | [You can find out with a square, if you would like.] |
Author: mindfields | [...My soul would be an enormous bird,] Yseult reports. [An enormous flightless bird with little fluffy wings. I do not want one.] |
Author: beheld_beauty | Rose laughs. [Then do not go to Alethia without a star protecting you from its existence.] |
Author: mindfields | She giggles. |
Author: cross_and_bow | Juliet tells her Sherlock what's up. [I'm gonna stay home,] she adds. [But apparently I'd get a tiger, if I didn't.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Of course you would,] he says, amused. |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Well, everyone else who's reported in so far gets something that flies, or at least a flying squirrel that can fake it. I guess a tiger is pretty neat though.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [It suits you.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [Stripy, carnivorous, and endangered, that's me.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Of course. The stripes are particularly fetching.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [I love you.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [I love you too.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [If the first wave needs the reserve wave to bail them out and the reserve wave starts desperately looking for further assistance I may require you to follow me to Alethia and hold my tiger.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [Happily.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [No, probably not, the idea behind the holding thing is that it will make the overall experience of having to separate less unpleasant, so he'd be yowling miserably at you, but thanks.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [I stand by my adverb; I would be happier doing that than staying home and letting you suffer.] |
Author: cross_and_bow | [With any luck it'll just be Amariah, who's already separated, and Cam, who expects to be able to it instantaneously, and maybe Shell Bell who wants to go for some reason maybe because she couldn't bring herself to come along beyond door-holding last time we attacked an afterlife. Second wave probably won't be necessary, let alone third.] |
Author: eversomuchfun | [With any luck, yes.] |
Author: small_magics | Sarion opens up the subset of her mind that is listening to Jane, when Jane speaks to her. |
Author: endragoned | Her beloveds tell her that they would go, just to find out what happens. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion tries a square, and gets an illusory raccoon. She is not sure if experimentation is the best way to address this matter. |
Author: endragoned | How else will we find out? says Ansharil, quite reasonably. |
Author: small_magics | Did a square not work for them? They should at least try a square first. |
Author: endragoned | What do we do with the square, beloved? |
Author: small_magics | She shows them the wish that got her the raccoon illusion. They could try it once each, and for them-as-a-complete-entity. |
Author: endragoned | It does not go; it does not go; it does not go again. |
Author: small_magics | How strange.
If they would really prefer to make the experiment - well, she is curious too, just nervous. |
Author: endragoned | They want to find out. |
Author: small_magics | Will they also be attempting to help with the afterlife, or do they simply mean to appear in Alethia unprotected and see what happens? |
Author: endragoned | They will help with the afterlife if the afterlife wants their help. |
Author: small_magics | Do they want her along (with her raccoon wished nonexistent) for the same reason that Stella will be there for Alice? |
Author: endragoned | That would please them very much. |
Author: small_magics | Then she will do that. |
Author: endragoned | Her beloveds love her. |
Author: small_magics | She loves them back! |
Author: endragoned | Love love love. |
Author: small_magics | And traveling. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | Angela relays everything Jane tells her to Micaiah. She is a tentative volunteer for a second, bailout wave. She would have a tern if she had anything. |
Author: yovahs_kisses | Micaiah does not think he wants a daemon of his own, but he will hold his angel's if she needs him to. |
Author: jovahs_heiress | All right then. Angela relays this information to Jane. |
Author: bellfounding | After Jane tells her that some Jokers are going on the expedition for reasons of their own, Pattern notifies Queenie and Ghosty. |
Author: yourheartstrings | [Could be fun,] says Ghosty. [Count me in.] |
Author: bellfounding | [Jane'll take you if you show up at the point.] |
Author: yourheartstrings | [Okay.] |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | [Do we have any idea how long this is gonna take?] says Queenie. ['Cause if I'm losing my snugglebuddy for a week, I want another one.] |
Author: bellfounding | [No clue. It's an unfamiliar afterlife, the alethiometer was cagey as hell. I have a decent coin stash, if you need to go visiting someplace.] |
Author: gunpowdergelatine | [Mmkay. Cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess.] |
Author: yourheartstrings | Ghosty manifests at the Janepoint. |
Author: mind_game | Jane contentedly serves as interdimensional transit. |
Author: lifes_sake | The final tally is:
Amariah, definitely going. Kas, also definitely going.
Cam, going if his experiment with Grace works out.
Shell Bell, going. Pearl, hanging around to hold her duck-thing. (It turns out that this sort of duck is called a smew.)
Alice, going, recreationally; Stella, not going but hanging around for his daemon.
Ghosty, going recreationally.
Sue, going to link everyone but not intending to separate from Ivy.
Aianon and Ansharil, showing up just to see what will happen, and Isibel along with an anti-raccoon wish in place for moral support.
Elspeth, Glass, Golden, and Angela as backup; Juliet as emergency backup. Elspeth is hanging out in Alethia as the most likely necessary backup and because she was already there. Jellybean has gone home. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | When Alice appears in Alethia, no daemon appears with him. |
Author: yourheartstrings | The same with Ghosty. |
Author: endragoned | The same with Aianon and Ansharil. |
Author: dark_light | "...That's weird. Sue got one this way," Amariah says. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam returns from depositing Grace in a safe place some hundred yards away from the clearing around Amariah's house. He assesses the situation and asks the alethiometer, "Why don't the three Jokers who just arrived have daemons?" |
Author: truthwright | "It is not in their nature," says the alethiometer.
"Let me," says Kas. He asks about the three of them separately.
"Okay, so Alice's power is apparently stopping him from getting a daemon. Aianon and Ansharil aren't the right species, and Ghosty's just... not. I think it's kind of confused about Ghosty," he says. "I mean, the world is confused about Ghosty, so the alethiometer is too. And the world being confused about Ghosty is why she's not getting a daemon." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Okay then," says Cam. "I wonder if they can comfortably enter the afterlife." He asks the alethiometer. |
Author: truthwright | Of Alice, the alethiometer says, "He cannot enter."
Of Ghosty, the alethiometer says, "There is no precedent."
Of Aianon and Ansharil, the alethiometer says, "If one goes, the other must stay." |
Author: lifes_sake | "...Is the one who stays going to be a daemon?" |
Author: truthwright | "Daemons cannot enter the afterlife."
"Yes," Kas translates. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Okay, you guys get the exciting opportunity to have one of you be a daemon, I guess, and Sarion can hang out with that one and hug him," says Cam. "My turn."
He makes a conditional wish.
There is a half-instant of discomfort, so quick as to be almost more vividly imagined than felt, and then from where he left Grace comes a hawk. She lands on his shoulder and starts fussing with his hair. |
Author: truthwright | "Cute," says Kas. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon and Ansharil confer. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "...So I guess there's no point in me being here," Alice observes. |
Author: self_composed | "Yeah, likewise," shrugs Stella. "Unless you want to hang around and help Isibel hug whichever one of those two is a daemon. I'm going home, though." She kisses Alice and cues Jane and vanishes. |
Author: lifes_sake | "You guys could pull off the same trick I did with Grace," Cam points out to Aianon and Ansharil. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "You know what," says Alice, "I wanna go to Origin and cuddle Queenie. Jane?" |
Author: endragoned | "We could," Ansharil agrees. "We do not know what we want to do." |
Author: mind_game | Jane puts Alice in Origin. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Where he finds, and snuggles, Queenie. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I guess I'm next," says Shell Bell, leaning on Pearl.
She reverses her anti-daemon wish. Her smew appears in her arms.
"You're going to have to name me, at some point," he points out to Shell Bell. |
Author: sicaria | Pearl hugs them. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell melts as soon as Pearl comes into direct contact with the unnamed smew. "Oh I love you," she breathes. |
Author: sicaria | "I love you too," she murmurs, stroking the smew's feathers. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Standing up is hard. Shell Bell lifts one inch into the air and hovers effortlessly, sighing. |
Author: sicaria | Snuggle snuggle.
...they should probably be accomplishing something right now, shouldn't they. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Not really! They're waiting for Aianon and Ansharil to decide things. Shell Bell can totally bask until then. |
Author: sicaria | Perfect. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon and Ansharil... are still thinking.
They decide that if one of them is going to have daemonlike characteristics, it should be Ansharil.
"I will go to the afterlife," says Aianon. |
Author: dark_light | "Okay," says Amariah. "And now the question is how we get there."
She tries a boosted teleportation power, like the one Aurora has to let her get between subworlds of Rainbow - and she tries to carry everyone to the border of the afterlife, where the daemons and their attendants can sit and wait and everyone else can walk in.
This place turns out to exist.
It looks like a dock, shrouded in mist, leading out into murky water.
And here is a gentleman in a canoe. |
Author: alicornucopia | He blinks once.
"That's new," he says. |
Author: dark_light | "I'd be stunned if it wasn't," Amariah says. "My understanding is that the daemons have to stay here. The rest of us can go over the water with you? Is that where the dead people are? Who are you?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "I can take you there, if your daemons stay behind," shrugs the boatman indifferently. "It's what I do." |
Author: lifes_sake | "There's something dangerous there. Do you know what it is?" Cam asks. |
Author: alicornucopia | The boatman shrugs. "I only go as far as shore." |
Author: dark_light | "Are you the only one? Or are there other ways in? It should be more crowded, here, if you're the only way there." |
Author: alicornucopia | "If I've missed anyone," says the boatman, "I don't know it. Time doesn't matter, not here." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Even in the minute we've been here, with Jane syncing us up there should have been dozens, hundreds, of dead people accumulating... Jane."
There's no response.
Cam grits his teeth, and wishes himself away, and reappears a moment later. "She can't see out of our gems down here," he says. "But from her perspective we've been gone less than a second, and that and the failure of the dead to accumulate means we can continue, just have to wish out instead of getting Jane to grab us." |
Author: dark_light | "...Okay. I guess that's one of the things that doesn't work down here." She looks at Shell Bell, who's still floating. "But apparently we can fly. We might not need to take the boat." |
Author: lifes_sake | [Brainphone... works,] Cam reports. |
Author: mind_game | [I can hear you when you do that,] Jane reports, in text, all as a block. [But time-dilated like you're traveling much slower than I am. I can compensate with more sample data like I can when I'm talking to an accelerating spaceship, though, say something else.] |
Author: dark_light | [Testing, one two three.] |
Author: mind_game | [You're proceeding through time at a rate about six thousand times slower than I am,] Jane says, still in text. [It appears constant, at least over the sampled time.] |
Author: alicornucopia | The boatman doesn't seem to have any comment on whether they should take the boat or not. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah hands Path over to Petaal for safekeeping and starts flying, but stops when she's only about ten yards out from the edge of the dock. "How far is it?" she asks the boatman. |
Author: alicornucopia | "A ways," says the boatman. "Time doesn't matter." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Does it matter which direction we go? Would we get lost?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "If anyone's tried it, I don't know about it," says the boatman. "I can row you there." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "And back?" puts in Shell Bell, who has been largely quiet with the distraction of her Sherlock holding her smew. |
Author: alicornucopia | "If anyone's gone back I don't know about it." |
Author: dark_light | "No, of course not," mutters Amariah. "Probably safest to let him take us. We can bounce out directly when we're done, wishes still work here, has everybody got boosted teleporting?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Done." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yes." |
Author: endragoned | Aianon nods. (Ansharil is back at Amariah's house.) |
Author: yourheartstrings | Ghosty unravels.
A moment later, from right next to Sue, her voice says out of thin air, "Oh, so that's how you do it. I'm covered." |
Author: pythbox | Speaking of Sue, he taps all available minds, including Jane's. |
Author: truthwright | Kas looks up from fiddling with his alethiometer and teleports out to Ansharil, then back. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell pets her smew once, kisses Sherlock twice, and steps into the boat. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam has a whispered exchange with Grace, runs his hand over her feathers, and leaves her on the dock by herself and follows Shell Bell. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah has already given her Path over to Petaal. She lands in the boat neatly, and hands Cam her alethiometer in case they split up. |
Author: small_magics | Up by Amariah's house, Sarion settles in comfortably with Ansharil to wait for daemonic traits to appear. |
Author: truthwright | Into the boat goes Kas, after giving his daemon a hug and a kiss. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon follows. |
Author: yourheartstrings | The boat is getting a little crowded; Ghosty turns up her aura to let them know she's there, but she doesn't wrap herself in a body again. |
Author: alicornucopia | The boatman begins to row away from the dock. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah preemptively wraps her arms around Shell Bell's shoulders. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell - and the smew, calmly nestled in Sherlock's arms - are fine. At first.
And then Shell Bell starts shaking, and tears run down her face, but she doesn't sob aloud, and the smew presses himself as close to Sherlock as he can get but makes no sound either. |
Author: sicaria | Pearl cuddles the smew. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell peers into her girlfriend's thoughts; focusing on her instead of on the growing distance between self and soul is definitely an improvement at this time. |
Author: sicaria | Pearl is thinking about love. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon shivers abruptly, flaring his wings and lashing his tail, then settles again.
Ansharil, back at Amariah's house, keeps still. It might be some trouble to their beloved if he did not.
Speaking of their beloved. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell leans into the thoughts, drowns in them, opens them up and sinks as deep as she can. The drawing-away is a nightmare; with attention on and from Sherlock it is a lucid nightmare, it doesn't win. |
Author: small_magics | Sarion wishes to know if all is well. She runs her thumb along Ansharil's foreleg. |
Author: endragoned | He rumbles happily and sends her what it feels like. Love, pure love, the best thing in the world. |
Author: small_magics | That is lovely, lovely, lovely. She settles in for a good long snuggle.
She wonders if he can change shape now like the other Joker daemons can. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | The boat travels.
Shell Bell cries harder, the smew shakes, and then at once they relax. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah lets her alt go. "Okay?" she murmurs. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Mmhm," murmurs Shell Bell.
On the dock, the smew sighs.
"We love you so much," he tells Sherlock dreamily. |
Author: sicaria | "I love you too," she says, petting him. "You're beautiful. What's your name going to be?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I don't know. Do you want to name me?" |
Author: sicaria | "I would, but I can't think what." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "We'll think of something," says the smew. |
Author: sicaria | "No rush, I suppose." |
Author: endragoned | (Ansharil does not presently desire to change his form.) |
Author: alicornucopia | The boat ride takes a good half an hour.
They are let off at the shore.
It's sort of like a negative of Downside. There there were buildings but no plants; here there are - occasional, dead, lonely - trees, but no buildings, just endless landscape.
Over which drift the shades of the dead.
The nearest shades are intensely fascinated by the visitors, with their color and solidity and live-ness, and several of them drift closer. |
Author: dark_light | "Hello," Amariah says. "I am Isabella Amariah. I want to know all about this place." |
Author: alicornucopia | "It's the land of the dead," says the shade of a man. He drifts near enough to touch Amariah's shoulder, but his hand goes right through her; on inspection, a number of the shades are also intersecting each other. "It's - only this." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Only this, what do you mean?" |
Author: endragoned | Aianon folds his wings and watches curiously. |
Author: alicornucopia | Many of the shades seem particularly nervous of Aianon.
"However far you walk," the shade says, giving up on trying to touch Amariah, "it's never any different." |
Author: truthwright | Kas reaches curiously towards a shade. |
Author: alicornucopia | The old-woman shade who is nearest doesn't move out of the way, but she's insubstantial - and frigid. |
Author: truthwright | "Cold," he murmurs, drawing back his hand. |
Author: alicornucopia | "Always," murmurs the old woman. |
Author: dark_light | "I didn't notice," murmurs Amariah. |
Author: alicornucopia | "There are some like you," says the man she's been talking to. "Who don't notice the cold. They notice everything else, though." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Everything else?" prompts Shell Bell. |
Author: alicornucopia | "The nothingness," says the man.
"The hurt in your heart, that never goes away," murmurs the woman Kas tried to touch.
"Nothing feels like anything except cold," complains a wisp of a girl from the crowd of more distantly observing shades.
"The dark. The way you can't quite sleep," says another girl who stands with her arm in the same space as the other girl's; they look a bit alike.
"The harpies."
"The hunger and the stillness and the sameness."
"The -" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Excuse me," says Cam, "harpies?" |
Author: alicornucopia | "They come up on you when you're dozing," says the shade of a young man. "They know everything bad you've done, ever, they scream it at you, you can't ignore them."
"Maybe you could," says another shade doubtfully. "With your colors still in." |
Author: truthwright | "I'm pretty good at ignoring people screaming at me," Kas says cheerfully. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon laughs. |
Author: pythbox | Ghosty giggles out of thin air. |
Author: dark_light | "What do the harpies want?" Amariah asks. When the shades have no answer ready to hand, she turns to Cam. "Cam, ask it if the harpies are - the thing." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Are the harpies the thing that hungers for truth?" Cam murmurs to the alethiometer. |
Author: truthwright | "They are known by that name," says the alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Yeah, that's the thing. So, based on what we learned before, I guess they'll quit screaming at people if we find them and - unravel this truth-hunger business," says Cam. "Where do we find harpies?" |
Author: alicornucopia | None of the shades know where to find harpies on purpose. |
Author: truthwright | So Kas does the obvious thing.
"They're around, but they move," he says. "If we stay here long enough, we'll run into some." |
Author: dark_light | "Let's split up, talk to more people, congregate wherever the first person to find harpies is," says Amariah. She lifts into the air - provoking breathless surprise from the shades - and says, "I'll go that way." |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam picks another direction. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell goes a third way. |
Author: truthwright | Kas starts walking in yet another direction. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon takes wing in a fifth. |
Author: pythbox | Who knows what happens to Ghosty. |
Author: alicornucopia | Kas is the first to find a harpy.
She lands. She looks at him.
She takes off and flies away.
All of the nearby shades cluster close and cold around him, murmuring about how he sent her away. |
Author: truthwright | He shivers, thinks about going after the harpy, and then reports this event through the link instead. |
Author: dark_light |
It turns out that the others can't teleport to where he is. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam asks the alethiometer he has with him: "Can we not teleport to destinations in the afterlife, or from starting points in the afterlife, or both?" |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer tells him, "You can leave at will, but not so easily return." |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam bounces this result to everyone else, along with a proposal that they all try to converge on Kas's position manually. |
Author: truthwright | Kas points out that the harpy is long gone by now. |
Author: lifes_sake | If none of them runs into her on the way, they can continue their search in a group so as to better corner the next one to appear. If they can't teleport to each other, splitting up isn't as valuable as expected. |
Author: truthwright | True enough. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon circles back toward where he last saw Kas. |
Author: pythbox | Ghosty flickers parts of her attention between all of them; she is not any more restricted in her movements than usual. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell is the next to meet a harpy! She reports this information.
That is the last thing the link hears from her. |
Author: pythbox | ...Sue is alarmed! Bells aren't chatty on link, but this is important, he'd expect her to be talking about it. |
Author: arenaria | Sherlock probably notices the smew tensing and shaking in her arms before he says anything. |
Author: sicaria | She gathers him up and kisses the top of his head. |
Author: arenaria | "We're sorry," he whimpers. "We're sorry, we're sorry, we're sorry -" |
Author: sicaria | "It's all right," she says. "Whatever it is, it's all right. I love you." |
Author: pythbox | Sue reports this situation to the link. |
Author: arenaria | "No, no, it's not all right, we're sorry, we're sorry," he says desperately, like he expects the words to be a charm against some evil that just - isn't - working. "Sorry sorry sorry -" |
Author: dark_light | Amariah flies high, to see if she can spot Shell Bell - they weren't flying for that long - and -
The spatial layout of this place is like one of those impossible objects that you can draw but not actually have, she says, bouncing an image to the link. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock pushes her love for Shell Bell to Sue, trusting that he will know what to do with it. |
Author: pythbox | He bounces Sherlock's message to the intended recipient. |
Author: truthwright | So what the fuck do we do? says Kas, heading back the way he came. |
Author: arenaria | The smew presses himself against Sherlock harder, still apologizing desperately.
There's no response from Shell Bell herself. |
Author: lifes_sake | Tell Shell Bell to bail out, tell her to teleport to Amariah's house, or the dock, anywhere that's not here, we can start over from scratch if we have to. Scream it at her, get her attention. |
Author: sicaria | Leave the harpy, says Sherlock, through Sue. Teleport away. Teleport to me. I love you. I need you. Come here. |
Author: arenaria | "Sorry," wails the smew, "sorry, sorry, we wish we wish we wish - sorry -"
Shell Bell is still unresponsive. |
Author: dark_light | Try wishing her out directly? |
Author: pythbox | Sue goes up through every available level of coin.
Nope. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock cuddles the smew.
"I love you. It's all right. I love you. It's all right. I love you..." |
Author: arenaria | "You shouldn't," whispers the smew. |
Author: sicaria | "I should. I do. I will continue," she says. |
Author: arenaria | "We're sorry we're sorry -"
And the smew is now beyond words, and appears to be trying, if ineffectively and with mixed feelings, to get away from Sherlock. |
Author: lifes_sake | "What is the harpy doing to Shell Bell?" Cam demands of the alethiometer. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock cuddles the smew, but doesn't hold him prisoner. |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer says to Cam, "The harpy is causing suffering in her." |
Author: lifes_sake | "How?" Cam snaps. |
Author: arenaria | "Shouldn't - shouldn't," the smew is murmuring under his breath, and eventually he manages to flop out of Sherlock's hold and fall gracelessly to the dock, where he huddles and whines to himself. |
Author: pythbox | Ghosty is spread out a little too thin to get clear details, but there is a harpy by Shell Bell, and it is shrieking. She forwards this information to the link. |
Author: truthwright | "It is in their nature," says the alethiometer. |
Author: arenaria | The smew is not doing too well without Sherlock's comfort to mitigate whatever the harpy's doing, and he's wailing his lungs out where he's flopped on the dock but refuses to make a move towards his person's girlfriend. Occasionally he looks at her, but then clumsily hides his face under his wing. |
Author: lifes_sake | Kas, can you get any better answers out of your alethiometer than I can out of this one about what's going on with Shell Bell? |
Author: truthwright | Kas tries.
Harpies have a kind of magic that makes you listen to what they say, and they use it to make people feel horrible. |
Author: arenaria | The smew pretty obviously feels horrible. Yep. |
Author: dark_light | I have no idea how we're going to find her! There are millions - billons - of shades here - and space is all folded in on itself - Kas, if we can't get her, how long will it take the damn thing to get bored with her and move on? |
Author: truthwright | ...answer's basically 'How the fuck should I know?', in alethiometer-speak. These things can't tell the future or anything. It could be - any amount of time. |
Author: dark_light | Sue, if you've been concealing some ability to make people do things via link and you can force her to teleport, or sleep, or something - this is when to fess up. Otherwise I don't have any better ideas than flying around asking shades if they've seen her. Fuck. |
Author: pythbox | Sue wonders if she is fucking kidding him. No, he cannot do that.
...he can wish the daemon asleep, though.
Or -
no. No he can't. |
Author: sicaria | I have a better idea, says Sherlock. |
Author: lifes_sake | Let's hear it. |
Author: sicaria | I will find her. |
Author: lifes_sake | How? |
Author: sicaria | If you knew my template, you would not ask that question, she says.
She boosts her remote-viewing powers and her flight speed as high as they will go, and telekinesis for good measure. She sights on the river, extending her sense of physical space until she understands the boatman's route.
Then she flies.
Left alone on the dock, a white falcon screams. But not for long. Sherlock is moving fast.
He spreads his speckled wings protectively over Shell Bell's smew. |
Author: arenaria | "No, no," mumbles the smew miserably, but he can't muster the wherewithal to force himself away from comfort a second time; he doesn't move away. |
Author: dark_light | Is there anything we can do to help? |
Author: sicaria | Show me everything you know about where she might have gone. |
Author: pythbox | Ghosty gives up keeping tabs on everyone else and focuses on Shell Bell's location, getting as wide a 'view' as she can with her not-very-visual perceptions and sending it on to Sherlock. She can't manifest properly, though, with part of her attention caught on the other side of the river. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah pushes what she saw of Shell Bell's initial trajectory. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam tries assorted phrasings to get answers out of the alethiometer that might help find her. |
Author: truthwright | The alethiometer gives Cam directions, but they are cryptic and unhelpful-sounding.
Kas tries, too, and he just pushes the meanings directly to Sherlock through the link. |
Author: sicaria | Every available piece of information settles into her mind, and she turns and flies and turns and flies and dives and flies and turns and flies.
There.
That is Shell Bell, and that is a harpy. She gives the harpy a telekinetic shove as she comes to a stop just beside Shell Bell. |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell looks up just long enough to identify Sherlock's face and then she flinches away. |
Author: alicornucopia | The harpy banks with vast black wings and screams at Sherlock, and in the scream is not so much words as the distilled essence of shame.
Don't leave me, no, please, I missed you, not yet, please -
No wonder the smew wouldn't let Sherlock hold him, she was always going to leave - |
Author: sicaria | She scoops up Shell Bell and teleports them both back to the dock. |
Author: pythbox | Ghosty tracks the harpy. |
Author: alicornucopia | The harpy is confused. Also, all the shades nearby took advantage of her preoccupation with her live victim to flee the area. She takes off and departs in a random direction. |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell struggles in Sherlock's arms, crying; she wouldn't be hard to restrain, but if Sherlock's going to let her wrench out of her arms, there is some risk of her falling near enough their daemons to come into contact with the gyrfalcon, unless he moves out of the way (and the smew wouldn't follow).
The smew has quieted, but he's still shivering. |
Author: sicaria | "Talk to me," Sherlock says softly. "Tell me what's wrong."
She doesn't let go. |
Author: arenaria | "Shouldn't - shouldn't -" Shell Bell whimpers, scrunching her eyes shut. |
Author: sicaria | "Shouldn't what." |
Author: arenaria | "You shouldn't care, you should hate me," sobs Shell Bell.
The smew whines agreement. |
Author: sicaria | "That is nonsense," Sherlock says flatly. "I love you." |
Author: arenaria | "Last time," sobs Shell Bell, "I wanted you to." |
Author: sicaria | "I don't understand." |
Author: arenaria | "It doesn't matter," mumbles Shell Bell.
"Put her down, let us go," says the smew, "forget about us." |
Author: sicaria | "Absolutely not. It is obvious that you intend this abandonment to benefit me. It will not. I refuse to allow you to make that choice on my behalf. Tell me what happened." |
Author: arenaria | "She screamed," Shell Bell whispers, "and I remembered, everything bad I ever did, ever thought, and I felt it, and I still do, and it's terrible, and I'm - so - selfish I still don't know what to do -" |
Author: sicaria | "The harpy hurt you," says Sherlock. "Understand what she did, and then fix it." |
Author: arenaria | "She didn't lie." |
Author: sicaria | "If she made you think that leaving me was some kind of moral duty, then she told one of the worst lies I can imagine, whether or not she did it using the selective application of individual truths." |
Author: arenaria | "She didn't say that. I figured it out." |
Author: sicaria | "It is false." |
Author: arenaria | "I wished you dead, I did, I wished you dead - and hurt and away from Tony - just because I wanted you where I was," sobs Shell Bell. "And when I told you before all I said was please still love me like that made any sense -" |
Author: sicaria | "But I do still love you," she says. "And if I had known where you were I would have wished the same." |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell sobs, and shivers, and mumbles something unintelligible. |
Author: sicaria | "What is it?" |
Author: arenaria | "I don't know what to do," murmurs Shell Bell, "I always just do whatever makes me feel better but I shouldn't feel better and I want to do something that - but then it's about what I want again - I don't know how to do anything else, I'm so, so self-centered, I can't even be guilty right." |
Author: sicaria | "I want you to feel better," says Sherlock. "Your suffering helps no one but that harpy." |
Author: arenaria | "No," whimpers the smew, and Shell Bell is silent. |
Author: sicaria | "Does it then have some practical benefit which I fail to understand?" |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell shakes her head, slowly. |
Author: sicaria | "So you are in pain, and I am in pain, and nothing good is coming of either," she says. "This is not optimal." |
Author: arenaria | "But," says Shell Bell, "I should be and you shouldn't care." |
Author: sicaria | "You should not be, and I do care, and I will go on caring. Your suffering does not help me. Your recovery will." |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell has no rebuttal. She weeps. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock hugs her. |
Author: arenaria | The smew squirms under the gyrfalcon's wings, whimpering, and makes a tentative escape attempt. |
Author: sicaria | There is really no practical way for the gyrfalcon to keep hold of him. So he doesn't. |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell and smew regard each other.
She reaches down and picks him up and holds him, not deliberately bringing him into contact with Sherlock but not going far out of her way to avoid it either. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock hugs them both.
The gyrfalcon flutters up to perch on Sherlock's shoulder and then bends down to run his beak through Shell Bell's hair. |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell peers up at the falcon, wide-eyed. |
Author: sicaria | He does it again. |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell thinks about that.
"Can I sleep, is that okay," she murmurs. |
Author: sicaria | "Yes." |
Author: arenaria | Shell Bell puts her head on Sherlock's shoulder and closes her eyes and falls asleep, smew on her chest. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock sits down and holds them in her lap and snuggles them. Her gyrfalcon continues to preen Shell Bell's hair. |
Author: lifes_sake | Meanwhile Cam and Amariah are still looking for the accompanying Jokers and each other. Cam, midflight, asks the alethiometer: "Can harpies attack more than one person at a time?" |
Author: truthwright | "A flight of harpies will often harry a much larger group of ghosts," says the alethiometer, "although they do not prefer to." |
Author: lifes_sake | "What about live people, can a single harpy attack more than one of us?" |
Author: truthwright | "It is possible," says the alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "But it's harder for them." |
Author: truthwright | Apparently this doesn't count as a question. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Right?" |
Author: truthwright | "They do not prefer it." |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam bounces these results to the link and starts grilling the alethiometer for directions to find the others. |
Author: truthwright | It's able to direct him, although not with perfect efficiency.
Kas, still trailed by an entourage of hopeful ghosts, is the first one to find him. He's having much better luck consulting his alethiometer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Hi," says Cam. He doesn't land; he doesn't want to be among the chilly ghosts. "You're better with these things than I am, where to to meet up with Amariah and Aianon?" |
Author: truthwright | "On it," he says. "This way."
He keeps walking. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Why aren't you flying?" Cam asks. |
Author: truthwright | "...I don't wanna leave 'em," he says, gesturing around him. His arm passes through a dozen ghosts. "They're so sad." |
Author: lifes_sake | "You don't have to fly fast, but if they're just following you because the harpy decided not to scream at you they don't need to be that close, you must be freezing." |
Author: truthwright | He shrugs, and indeed shivers a little.
"It's not so bad." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Okay." Cam continues flying, following after Kas.
He has his aura out, and the shades notice.
"Are you here to help?" one of them asks him.
"Yes," Cam says. |
Author: endragoned | Is that a winged figure in the distance?
It is! |
Author: lifes_sake | Hello, distant winged figure!
Now to find Amariah.
"The harpies probably can't get me or her as bad as Shell Bell, but I don't want to find out experimentally." |
Author: truthwright | "No shit," says Kas, waving to Aianon. |
Author: lifes_sake | While Kas gets directions on where the party of three should go, Cam asks his for directions to relay to Amariah. |
Author: truthwright | It references landmarks to direct her course. |
Author: lifes_sake | He bounces them to her. |
Author: dark_light | Amariah obeys. |
Author: endragoned | Aianon spots her first. |
Author: dark_light | She flies over to join them.
"Now I guess we wander around looking for harpies," she says. "I'm probably an easier target than you, Cam, and you're the truthy one anyway." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Yeah, I'll get in front of you when we see 'em - not sure whether to expect them to flee both Jokers or if that's just Kas," muses Cam. He asks the alethiometer "Why did the harpy leave Kas alone?" |
Author: truthwright | "They cannot make him suffer," says the alethiometer.
"Whoa, really?" says Kas. "All of us?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Did it say all of you?" |
Author: truthwright | "It didn't specify singular or plural, but it didn't call me what it usually does, it called me a Joker. And it meant Aianon, too, kind of." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Maybe you guys just... don't have a 'guilty' setting?" |
Author: truthwright | "Yeah, that's pretty accurate." |
Author: lifes_sake | "So I guess if I can't happify the harpies on my first try and I get wrecked - although I don't have nearly as much material as Shell Bell I don't know how much that matters - we bring in Jellybean, since wizards have harpy-happifying powers and he's a Joker." |
Author: truthwright | "Sounds like a plan," says Kas. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Can I fly faster than a harpy can?" Cam asks the alethiometer. |
Author: truthwright | "You can." |
Author: lifes_sake | "Okay, so if the Jokers scare them off next time we're in eyeshot we can chase them," Cam tells Amariah. |
Author: truthwright | Kas giggles softly. His ghostly friends cluster closer. |
Author: pythbox | Ghosty observes through the link that she is still tracking this harpy, and should she find the rest of them instead? |
Author: lifes_sake | If she could direct them to the harpy, that would be swell. |
Author: pythbox | Fuck if she knows where they are. |
Author: truthwright | Kas asks his alethiometer for directions to the nearest harpy. |
Author: lifes_sake | And the party all follows its lead. |
Author: pythbox |
The nearest harpy, it turns out, has several friends. |
Author: lifes_sake | Hmm.
Cam holds up a hand for everyone to stop.
He approaches a little nearer, just within shouting distance.
He flares aura, brightly, brightly. |
Author: pythbox | The harpies—there are five—circle warily. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Can we talk?" Cam calls. "No screeching, just talking?" |
Author: pythbox | "Go ahead and talk," a harpy calls back derisively. |
Author: lifes_sake | "I want to know why you hurt the shades here," Cam says. "And see if we can come up with a compromise that doesn't involve that." |
Author: pythbox | "We like to," says a harpy.
"They deserve it," says another.
"It's food for us," says a third. |
Author: lifes_sake | Cam glances at his alethiometer.
"This truth-telling device says you hunger for truth," he tells them. "Not all truth is about bad things people have done." |
Author: pythbox | "Isn't it?"
"Then why is that all we see?"
"And all they see—"
"—after a while!"
The harpies cackle. |
Author: lifes_sake | "Because you are doing screamy-magic at them," says Cam, "that brings it to the surface. One of the other harpies met one of our friends, and screamed at her, but if she'd just talked to her nicely Shell Bell could have told her all sorts of true things about her life, and the things she's seen." |
Author: pythbox | "Oh, yeah?"
"Like what?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Shell Bell was born in a place called District Three, in Panem," begins Cam. "In another world. With her mother Ranae and her father Shark. And he was a fisherman and she was a teacher and Shell Bell decided that when she grew up, she was going to be a clammer."
He pauses to gauge harpy reaction. |
Author: pythbox | "Why should we care?" |
Author: lifes_sake | "Why didn't that help?" Cam mutters to the alethiometer. |
Author: pythbox | "It was not yours," the alethiometer replies. |
Author: lifes_sake | "All right then," he murmurs, and then he leans on his perfect recall and starts telling them about his own life, instead.
"I was born in a little town called Forks, but when my mother left my father - they get along fine, they just didn't belong married - I moved with her to Phoenix, and lived with my dad summers. I had to go to school, which was all right but not very interesting, till I was fourteen, and I found a certain book in the library." |
Author: pythbox | The harpies circle slower, and closer. |
Author: lifes_sake | "And this book was titled So You Want To Be A Wizard. It sounded like it would be fun. Fiction. I checked it out and I brought it home and I started reading it, and it turned out to be a manual. I didn't know it was real, but it was interesting, so I pretended, and I said the Wizard's Oath. In Life's name, and for Life's sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, is threatened or threatens another. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so—till Universe's end." |
Author: pythbox | "Pretend," one harpy jeers, but the others shush her. |
