deercountry | 15 . JOHNUARY

[They are and aren't. Possibly.]

Earth, wind, fire, ice, water, and lightning in particular, yes. There's also Light and Dark, though they aren't 'good' and 'evil' as some people might initially think.

[ She moves them along, and John feels the first jolt from the chair, mild enough that it rouses nothing more than a tightening of his fingers and a dark twist of his expression. It passes like a cloud over the sun, and he returns again to a distantly patient baseline.

So that's the game. At least it's straightforward. ]

Learning more of magic... if I'm to be here for years more [ which he says very mildly, as though he doesn't regard it as active imprisonment and damned inconvenient, ] that'll be the thing. There's plenty to learn about the local system - we have very few working theories on the fundamentals.

[ Corruption and all the curses aren't, after all, eccentricities that come and go like weather. It's all transplanted by an eldritch invading force, which really seems the thing to keep in mind. ]

Yikes.

[That's a hell of a description, and Qrow hadn't even realized this curse came with an eldritch visitation of sorts.]

And here I thought the cursed chocolate just appears in your house or something. Can't tell if some creepy pthumerian showing up instead is better or worse.

[He has missed out on this particular curse to date; his magical food poisoning came from Madame Generosity's party, some time back, and the previous year Doorway saw fit to slam him with the fire curse twice, so he was, ah. Busy.]

[ Heard loud and clear. John looks back at L with the same sense of exhausted acknowledgment, enemies eye-to-eye. They see each other clearly, and there's a certain gravity to that. He can think only of the dead woman he had tied to a chair, six months or a lifetime ago: some revenants are built different.

Still: he has a bit to play. John splays his hands wearily and looks to Light, as though to say: are you seeing this? And people call him the aggressor. As though he's not regularly forced to pry this guy out of his brain with a crowbar; as though anyone in his position wouldn't make it hurt. ]

And here I thought I might get to stop setting wards.

[ Lazarus will make him snap back every time, and take the flack that comes with it. He knows it. It's a maddeningly effective strategy if the goal is to wheedle John into cruelty, counting all his weak spots along the way. ]

Theories on a cure? Seriously? I don't even know how this happened, let alone how to fix it!

[It's impossible to keep the irritation out of his voice at what feels like a particularly ridiculous question under the circumstances, and if he could physically sigh when he hears his own tone, he would, but instead he just tries to reel it back in.]

I don't know. I was just standing here, watching the waves. I like the ocean. Mostly, anyway. Then I figured it was time to go home - there's someone waiting for me.

[Maybe. There's every chance Jon is still at the Archives, and not actually at home.]

So I went to leave and all of a sudden, I couldn't move.

[ L doesn't mind setting the tone; Light doesn't mind trying to take control over it. ]

Lazarus.

[ He won't necessarily allow it to be forced though he isn't going to completely 'betray' L, either. ]

The truth does cover both sides. You know I'll protect you if you're his target, but you should also know I'm not going to help you become his target.

[ Light's gaze returns to John, but his words are still to L. ]

You're right: I do want the truth. I can figure out my actions from there.

Well, whatever it has to say, I've nothing to hide.

[ embarrassment means you have to care what other people think of you, and asriel makes it a point not to. ]

Ideally, this will not take hours like last time; I prefer to keep some attempt at a schedule, at least.

[ this is an extremely petty complaint because he has never actually kept a schedule in his life and does everything on his own time. he just hates to be inconvenienced. ]

[ Robby lets it go, and he can see the kindness of that; it's an unexpected moment of relief in a world that seems to love grilling him. John tips his head in acknowledgment of the safer topic, the ease of a common enemy in the landscape itself. ]

If there was a takeover, [ he says, mild as a man remarking on the weather, ] I'm sure it was very spooky. Pthumerian infighting, probably.

[ He tips a hand to the mushrooms, and Robby here retrieving them. ]

The kind of thing they send us to deal with.

[ This visit is a trip from the very start. The goat-headed butler is frankly hilarious, and whatever God steps into when he walks through the front door, it's clearly a flex. Fair enough; at least his host has style. ]

Happy to be here. [ He goes to take his seat across from her, mild and unruffled. He has come without crown or ceremony, dressed like nobody, ambling in a witch's front door. ] Thanks for having me. Never a quiet week in this town, right?

Worse. They have to do the whole 'blood sacrifice' song and dance, really rub it in.

[ It's the hypnosis bullshit that gets him, insult to injury. Better to just get mugged into puking organs; what grates is that they go to the trouble of hijacking his free will, first. ]

Well, at least there's that.

[ It's at this point that John's chair gives him a light jolt, which he shows only in a suddenly unhappy twist of the mouth. He sits forward some, feeling watched. ]

It's not quite as big a playing field, where I'm from. All we have is necromancy: your elements are life, death, and spirit.

But, like I said, not a lot of schools for that. Not back then, anyway. We have some solid ones now.

[ Dutifully, John thumbs open the display on his Omni. He looks at Asriel. He looks at the text. He does something complicated with his eyebrows.

Finally, because it is very funny, he deadpans: ]

Men will literally wage war against God instead of going to therapy.

[ He sure hopes that's about the plan to attack and dethrone some squid. ]

Honestly? I'll give them credit on these. They made an effort.

[ He taps the getting-to-know-you questions between them. ]

These just don't have the same spark.

Necromancers tend to be in pacts with voidsent where I'm from - and those have a terrible hunger for the aether of living beings. So they tend to be bad for everyone around.

'Back then'? - Ah, when you were younger. The omni did mention you were quite old.

[Not that he has a problem with that. He's met some people who are even older.]

I'd imagine these schools try to curb the dangers involved? The thaumaturge's guild did that.

[He jerks a little from the zap.]

... Most of the time. They tried to be responsible with setting things on fire and such.

[ John shrugs this off with relative good grace. ]

Some of the storybook curses are more on-the-nose than others. We had one like this, late summer... something out on the water water hooking people in. You had to talk your way back from it. They really go in for the 'human connection' angle.

[ He tips his head to Martin with a vaguely awkward air. ]

Others, it wants touch.

Depends on the criteria. There's always a trick to it.

[ But there's a thread of something guarded, some wary doubt, in his voice. When this hit him and Asriel, they didn't puzzle it out; they outlasted it. An hour of sitting hand-in-hand, carrying on with research and pretending it wasn't weird. If there's some quicker route, John has yet to find it, and he's not sure he'll be willing to pay the price it asks. ]

The price could be a secret, a fear, a nice hug. [ A kiss, maybe, or the right words spoken. ] Something out of a storybook.

You have more experience in this than I do.

[ Not that Light plans on allowing John to puzzle it out so much as he's explaining why there'll be a need for his information. ]

If none of the conditions are extreme, we'll give them a try.

[ Light sleeps with a person he considers a murderer, a hug isn't going to deter him. ]

But I don't want to do it here.

[ A public hug? How scandalous. ]

And considering what I do know about you, I think you'll understand why I don't want to show you where I live. For that reason, we should avoid your house, too, but we can rent a nearby room.

So you're saying someone's been reading too many fairytales?

[He can't help but let out a hmph. None of this should probably come as a surprise, given everything he's found out about Trench so far, but it certainly doesn't make it any less frustrating.]

I've got plenty of human connections here - I've got friends, and my boyfriend's here too. What? Is this stuff random, some Pthumerian just goes, "you know, I feel like picking on Martin today. Here, have a little paralysis for no good reason?" I mean, I don't think I did anything to trigger anything - I was just standing here!

[Honor, betrayal, and competence all dance a fine line, as far as L and Light alike are concerned. At least, regarding one another; all bets are off, for everyone else, but Light is probably more concerned about where appearances and respectfulness feature, there.]

What a world it would be, with nothing to hide.

[It's a veiled concession. He's accepting, bit by bit, that he won't have a chance to steal what he wants anytime soon. By the time he does, it will likely be too late. John will have read what he has secured, and utilized the knowledge for better or, far more certainly, worse.

L's eyes burn, for a moment, the way he wants to set fire to John's campsite. With Light here, he won't try. Without Light, who could say what he's capable of?]

Never, ever! It's such a hectic place, things never seem to really calm down.

[ She gestures for the butler and he pours out a steaming cup of tea for John. There's milk, cream, sugar, lemon--everything you could want for a good cup of Bergamot. ]

Though I admit, seeing you contribute to all that in the past has been quite diverting.

[ asriel's expression, on the other hand, remains the same throughout whatever john is going through. if a look could be a question mark, this would be it. he also looks impatient, but it's likely that's just how he always looks. ]

Did they? I can't claim to be an expert on—... whatever they were going for.

[ memes. ]

I suspect we were meant to be so captivated by these personal revelations that we never get to the filler. [ eye roll. ] I suppose they are thorough, if anything.

[ he hates to give the pthumerians any credit, but since they've managed this much, asriel lets the omni give him a number at random because it's not like he's locked into anything if he doesn't like it. probably. ultimately, he decides to stick with what he ends up with because if something wants to keep circling this particular topic, he'll allow it. ]

'Do you believe in a higher power?'

[ it's not like he's shy about where he stands, but he supposes they've never had this discussion despite the proposed deicide. ]

Your solution, [ repeats John, slowly, ] is to get a room. I mean, I'm flattered, seriously.

I have a spot near here. No haunted castle, no skeletons, very aboveboard. [ Well, he'll turn the skeletons off. No one has to know about the potential skeletons. ] You with me?

Voidsent. That's quite a name. [ Big bad things from down below, that reach for the living - this does have his attention. ] And, hey: I think I look pretty good, for ten thousand.

[ He catches the jolt to Nara'a, and his eyes darken in consideration. Quite calmly, he says: ]

Our risks aren't the 'summoning demons' kind.

[ Well, that confirms a theory; they zap him for that one, and John sets his jaw in a humorless smile. ]

Most of the time.

[ John's smile slants wry. He goes for the tea and sugar, still calm and casual. ]

That's one word for it. Didn't get me far, eh? I'm on best behavior lately, believe me.

Hard to say. I have it on good authority the gods here hold grudges. [ His smile is wry. ] Might just be wrong place, wrong time. The luck around here doesn't run our way.

[ He reaches out a hand, but stops short of touching Martin's shoulder, palm open as he awaits permission. ]

May I?

Waver would do him one better.

Heaving a long suffering sigh, Waver sat up and regarded John with the wearied expression of a man used to handling a couple dozen excited teenagers handling explosive materials in a centuries old wooden structure at the same time.

He wasn't keen on taking bullshit.

"Quit making my Cav implode and I'll consider it."

15 . JOHNUARY

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one million years later

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Re: one million years later

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