Either way, we're not alone

[gildedlife]

Who: James Fitzjames, OTA
What: Exploring, and also finding some friends (early Sept catchall)
When: First few days after arriving
Where: Around Milton!

Content Warnings: The Terror-typical themes of death, illness, and general Bad Times, but anything specific will be added as it comes up!


For the first two days or so, James doesn't really leave the house he's taken up (temporary?) shelter in. Instead, he spends most of the time sleeping, occasionally waking up to make some rosehip tea and wage the mental battle necessary to drink it, then falling back asleep and repeating the cycle.

But although any sort of true recovery will take far longer than a few days, by the third day of being in this new place he feels much better than he had when he'd arrived, and even if that was an incredibly low bar to clear it's still more than enough to be encouraging. This isn't some sort of strange dream or dying hallucination. He's really here, somehow, and--for once in so many months now--he's getting better, not worse.

He might actually live. But this time, unlike his many other close brushes with death, he finds he isn't entirely sure what to do with the knowledge of that possibility.

He also has zero desire to contemplate that fact or any of its implications, but unfortunately, the downside of feeling better is that he's now capable of overthinking things again. And the only way to avoid doing that is through distraction, so it's only reasonable that he decides to go exploring.

Comments

[solitarysoul]

"Months ago, during the winter. We all had a dream and he was in it. That's the only time I've seen him, but he's out there somewhere." Or in an overlapping world or however gods' realms worked.

[gildedlife]

"Everyone? On the same night?" Probably... Not the weirdest part about this if he really thinks about it, but for all the strange things he'd encountered during the expedition at home and the new ones he's getting used to here, somehow a shared dream stands out as particularly unusual.

[solitarysoul]

"Everyone who was here at the time. All on the same night. It was a message from a god."

[gildedlife]

"A god." He doesn't say it mockingly or disdainfully, but it's probably clear all the same that he's dubious about the idea. "Is that what it's seen as?"

[solitarysoul]

"By some. Or a powerful monster of some sort. I think its some sort of god of destruction. I think the people who lived here viewed it like that? Or a, um, demon?" Demons were the bad spirits in books from worlds with religions like this ones, he thinks.

[gildedlife]

"A broad spectrum." A monster is entirely different from a god, or from a demon, at least as far as James is concerned. But being pedantic about descriptors is not the point, so he follows up with something more practical. "I've heard it's a threat to us. Aside from the dream, what has it done?"

[solitarysoul]

"Sometimes it kills people. We don't know if anything causes it, but we all know when it kills. The shy changes and everyone's overwhelmed by fear. When it passes we can find the bodies of whoever it killed. There are no wounds...Dr Goodsir did an autopsy and said they died of fright.

"Sometimes it...uh, I don't know how to put it, it kind of fucks with us. Talks to us in our heads and tries to get us to give up or snap. A few months ago it was goading everyone on to anger and violence."

[gildedlife]

Changes to the sky aside, the first part of that sounds somewhat... Less, somehow, than he'd imagined from what little he's been told about the creature. Dying of fright is not particularly supernatural.

Somehow influencing them to kill is a little different, but even then, is that really what it's doing? Or are people letting themselves get carried away? Thoughts can spiral in desperate times and places, and people can give into their worst urges with only minor provocation.

The shared dream could be a mass delusion, seeing the creature individually could be brought on by paranoia. There are reasonable explanations for this. But then again, it really could be exactly what it seems, some sort of truly supernatural being that can do things unknown to normal people.

"You say it speaks to you; has anyone spoken to it in return?" He'd asked Francis the same question before, but different people might know different things.

[solitarysoul]

"Um...I don't know. I only ever told it to shut up and go away...I never asked if anyone else spoke to it."

[gildedlife]

"Did it listen?" He imagines he knows the answer, but has to ask all the same.

[solitarysoul]

He scoffs, "No. Gods don't care what we want."

[gildedlife]

"Neither do any number of other things." If ignoring being told to shut up and go away makes one a god, then James has some divinity to claim several times over. But that is two answers now that say the same, that whatever connection the Darkwalker might have that lets it speak to them, they may not be able to speak back.

[solitarysoul]

"I guess. But I don't know if anyone would even have tried to have a real conversation with him."

[gildedlife]

"Perhaps it's worth an attempt." After all, it must want something, right? If it's intelligent enough to speak to them then perhaps it can be reasoned with, or at least they can learn a bit more about it.

[solitarysoul]

He shrugs. "It was months between the times he spoke to us, but its worth a try whenever he does next I guess."

Worth a try from someone else. That's not really his kind of thing.

[gildedlife]

Fortunately--or unfortunately?--trying to talk to some sort of creature with three heads that kills through fear sounds like exactly the right combination of horrifically risky and potentially useful to be James' sort of thing.

But that will have to wait for an opportunity, so he shifts the topic slightly.

"Is there anything else I should know about this creature or what it's capable of?" Just in general.

[solitarysoul]

"We don't really know much. There's a story from this place that it will eat the entire world. We're pretty sure he's why the town was empty when we first showed up last year."

[gildedlife]

"Were there bodies? Or was the town simply devoid of inhabitants?" Because that point does feel like it might make a difference.

[solitarysoul]

"There were bodies. We were later showed how they died, they all just sort of...fell over." Well, the ones that didn't kill themselves or each other.

[gildedlife]

Interesting; he'd have a comment about the manner of death, but a different part of what was said catches his attention. "Shown? How?"

[solitarysoul]

"There were...back in the early auroras it showed us ghosts. N-not really ghosts, more like a film strip playing in the air. It showed us the last night of the people here."

[gildedlife]

"And we're certain that is what actually happened?" As opposed to, say, a hallucination, or perhaps even worse, something somehow purposefully shown to deceive them?

[solitarysoul]

"Well, um, it matched were the bodies were." He's not sure it all did that, since he tried not to pay attention to the ghosts. "And the causes of death..a-at least for some. I didn't pay that much attention. But what else would it be?"

[gildedlife]

"Any number of things." It's matter-of-fact, not sharp, especially since he really has no way to say that what the others had seen hadn't indeed been the truth. But he's also hesitant to believe it is. "A shared hallucination, or if what you and others have said of the Darkwalker's intentions and powers is true, perhaps a show meant to intimidate."

After all, if it could do that to an entire town, why hasn't it just done so again? Perhaps it's not as powerful as it wants everyone to believe.

[solitarysoul]

"I hardly think it needs or wants to try and intimidate us. When he comes around we all feel such strong fear we can't do anything but hide." He assumes James is just one of those new people who don't want to believe in magic and gods and whatever's happening here, though. He'll probably change his tune after Some Shit happens, like it always does.