(no subject)

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

*A certain being is sitting with his back against the well, reading a book with a plain red cover. He's humming tonelessly to himself as he flips pages and in general he seems exceedingly bored. A better distraction than the interminable tome would be welcomed.*

Comments

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

One has, but no one noticed the difference. It's nothing but a different color of robe unless you look carefully, after all.

[dee_lorean81]

Huh! I guess that one was really good at passing as you. I thought they'd be more -- snowy, I guess? How long do they last, usually?

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

People don't generally look under the hood and at Christmas everyone is tracking snow around.

Usually they're gone in a month at most. There are ways to make them real, but those are difficult enough that very few people try. I've only heard of one success at it--and one more citizen of the Neath, what is that?

[dee_lorean81]

Yeah, fair enough. Not to mention everybody's got something else on their mind at that time of year. We certainly did! [meaning mostly helping Victor and Alice with Chester's first Christmas]

Awww, too bad. Would be funny to have a snowman friend wandering around in summer. . .but knowing the Neath, I bet making them real requires some -- questionable methods.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

According to the snow child I will dream of seeing in Irem, it took blood, living metal grown in human hearts and a set of children's teeth. Sometimes learning things just isn't worth it, even by my standards.

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee sucks in a breath] Ooooh. You know, if it was just the blood and the teeth, I'd say that wasn't as bad as I was expecting. But "living metal grown in human hearts?" Yeaaah, that's about exactly as bad as I thought. How do you -- no, no, you said something very sensible just now. Things Man -- or DeLorean -- Was Not Meant To Know.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

The Neath is full of lovely little things like that. They're carved in the ice of Frostfound and gleam from the Bazaar's spires. Wounds that cannot be healed and dangerous forbidden loves and moths to folly's candle all intertwine down there.

Perhaps it is all inexpressible, the things down there in the dark. The things that are done in my name certainly are.

[dee_lorean81]

Everything beautiful and horrible at once. That's more or less how Alice put some of her adventures down there, anyway.

Maybe. . .hard to talk about things that lurk just beyond your vision. Humans aren't like cats -- they can't see very well in the dark. Why all the monsters live there in stories.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

That is a very good description.

Down beyond the vision of gods it can have monsters indeed.

[dee_lorean81]

Alice is good at that.

Oh, I bet. In a world where sunlight governs what's real and what's not, I bet all sorts of weird shit lurks in the shadows.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

There are so many bizarre things that I can't even begin to name them all. Are the nomen stranger than the Drownies? Is the Iron Republic more confusing than Irem? What of Winking Isle, or the Mirror-Marches?

[dee_lorean81]

I can't answer most of those questions, but -- as a matter of personal opinion, particularly as a time machine? Irem being time-displaced and thus causing all sorts of fun tense issues when trying to talk about it means it's probably more confusing than pretty much any other place down there.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

Don't discount the Iron Republic, they abolished gravity again last week.

[dee_lorean81]

. . .again? How many times have they abolished gravity?

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

You know, I don't recall. Probably every time it started working again.

[dee_lorean81]

Ooookay. . .you wouldn't happen to know what they have against gravity, would ya? Because I like flying, sure, but I also kind of like being able to land too.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

It's a law, they dislike laws on principle.

[dee_lorean81]

Right. Okay, maybe that place is weirder than Irem. How the heck does anyone even live there?

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

With great difficulty, I imagine. More than one person has gone Seeking just to cope with visiting that place for too long.

The Iron Republic is Liberation as the Devils see it. Things are . . . different there.

[dee_lorean81]

Seriously?! Well, I guess that's good for you, but it doesn't sound like it's good for anyone else.

Oooooh. . .so it's run by literal creatures from Hell? Okay, that makes a little more sense. Making everyone confused and miserable is all part of a devil's job -- er, right?

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

Devils are always rebelling, as well. Between the two you get a dreadful mess.

Not that I stand against a Liberation of Night, but that’s the worst possible ending to the matter. Devils would generally tend thus.

[dee_lorean81]

Yeah, I can imagine -- at least it explains why they've got such a thing against gravity!

[frowns] Why do you think that would be the worst possible ending? 'Cause it's gotta be pretty bad if you think it's the worst.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

Perhaps it is not the very worst, but not for want of the Devils trying. The only worse thing I can imagine is reality coming apart too much for anything to continue existing at all.

A world with so many of the laws of physics broken in such pointless ways . . . I hardly care about the Chain, or about the usual madness of the Neath, but to lose gravity and time? To have your nightmares embrace you as an old friend while your body mutates and your mind shatters? When attempting Liberation we must make things better and not worse.

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee shivers] Yeah, that -- that all would be -- bad. [understatement of the century, but DeLoreans aren't know for their way with words] I can understand wanting to stick it to the jerks higher up the Chain, but -- yeah, if you're not working to make things better for people. . .but then, I guess devils wouldn't be interested in that. Have they tried to outlaw time too in the Republic?

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

They probably did next Friday, or something equally inexplicable. *He chuckles darkly.* To be fair, more than a few of my Seekers have a 'no candle' in their collections of candles, so the inexplicable is hardly unique to the Iron Republic. St. Destin's Candle is one of the stranger ones.