TLV Inbox

[greatoldjohn]

[in a rather deep voice] "This is John Doe. Please leave your message. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I may respond in text if I'm currently with Arthur. Apologies."

Now Moved To: Inbox: Act II - please tag in there!

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[lestercraft]

"And that's why you'll have me to fall back on if you need it," he comments cheerfully, shifting in his seat so he can pull his communicator out.

[greatoldjohn]

The cheerful assurance means more to him than you know, Arthur. But he can see Arthur's getting ready to handle his own business so he starts floating to the door.

"I know. I'm very grateful for that, Arthur. I'll see you... in a bit."

He's going to read that file and then see what Natalie has to say.

[lestercraft]

And Arthur has his own inmate to tend to, so he'll be a while himself with those enlightening discussions.

He'll be back a fair bit later; but at least before dinner, because he wants to check back in with John before they go together.

"You back yet, John?" As he easily, now, slips his jacket off to hang up.

[greatoldjohn]

"Yes, Arthur," comes the voice from John's room, but the door is closed. He'll hear it open and John's voice will be a lot closer.

"...everything go all right?"

For his part, he sounds exceptionally tired.

[lestercraft]

John's voice coming from his room doesn't bother him; his tone, however, definitely does.

"I could ask you the same question, my friend. Did you want to...?" He holds his hand out to take the mask, if John wants.

[greatoldjohn]

That mask is in his hand almost instantly; there is the distinct feeling, as the robes disappear, of something akin to but of course Very Different from a cat pawing it's way onto one's lap and settling down in place.

[Things with Natalie went well.

The talk with Misty? Less so, though not as badly as it could have been, given the circumstances.

That said: I probably shouldn't host in my room here.]

[lestercraft]

"Well, I'm glad Nat went well. But, er..." He's looping the mask onto his belt with now-habitual ease, but his hand falters as he actually takes in that sentence. "You had Misty here? Did something happen?"

[greatoldjohn]

[Of course. Did you really think she wasn't listening to that announcement as well?

I'm lucky she let me get to Natalie first as it is.]

He's not sure Arthur quite understands the level of... dedication that Misty has when it comes to Natalie. He's not going to belabor it, though.

[One of the murals I painted in my room...

I put a little too much of myself into it, I think.]

[lestercraft]

"Your murals?" He'd noticed the smell of paint, and had wondered, but he hadn't investigated more thoroughly than that just to allow John the ability to tell him himself. But now he's standing, mask secured, to move to John's room.

(It's mostly force of habit. Even if he can't see it for himself, he wants to see it.)

"What did you paint?"

[greatoldjohn]

[...where I was before the Dark World. The King's domain.

I wasn't even sure I'd remember it right. But I wanted a piece of it. Even if it's no longer mine.]

[lestercraft]

"...oh."

His voice comes out weirdly small, as an unpleasant tightness grips his chest. Of course John would remember that now, if he remembered everything else, but it was still... that didn't make it less jarring to remember.

"What..." He swallows a little, nervously. "What does it look like?"

[greatoldjohn]

He wants to ask if Arthur is sure, but he also gets the feeling that if Arthur wasn't sure, he would have changed the subject. So instead, he'll share.

[The wall opposite the door is taken up with a more mundane sight: the night sky from just outside of Arkham as I remember it, the moon full in the sky, and tree branches framing the deep blue depths between the pale stars.

To the left, however, is something else. There is a lake here, and a ruined city in the distance. Impossibly far away, twin suns sink into the water and strange moons hang in between stars that are blacker than the space around them. The ruins themselves are an impossible mix of styles, beautiful and eclectic and broken, the shadows between them overly long, as if they're seeping out from where they belong. The impression of the whole thing is something mournful and ancient and disorienting, as if it's pulling you to someplace and sometime that never has been and never will be because it never could be again. That is Carcosa: strange and dim and... lost.]

[lestercraft]

Even the description alone isn't immune to the effect, though Arthur wonders if that's not just himself overthinking it. All those other worlds, the Dreamlands and Dark World, they seemed to subscribe to poetic descriptions much more strongly than the rules of nature; it made understanding their logic a dizzying effort.

"A city on a lake," he echoes quietly. Then a brisk breath, and he moves towards the wall with his hand outstretched, like feeling the paint beneath his fingers - just paint, nothing more, when he doesn't have eyes to be tormented by it - will help settle his mind, and his tone is that of business-like curiosity. "Does it look at all like the city we found, under the hotel?"

[greatoldjohn]

[Only in the sense that they're both cities on black water.]

It's harder to describe Carcosa, having never been there to see it with Arthur's eyes. Everything looks different through them.

[lestercraft]

His mouth works for a moment, no immediate sounds coming forth but the shape of them on his lips, trying to work out how to phrase it.

Until finally it just comes out at once.

"Is this where we were going to end up?"

[greatoldjohn]

It hurts a little to think about it.
The ritual. What had happened there, what he knows now. Not in a bad way, other than knowing he'd betrayed Arthur's trust.

[ No. We would have gone to the Dreamlands. ]

[lestercraft]

"And that's not where the King in Yellow's domain is? Does he have his own, then, his own- realm to rule over?"

He'd not been letting himself think about it, before. Easier to dive into whatever else came forward than focus on what very nearly happened. It had served them well so far - keep calm, keep moving forward; but with so much free time on their hands, all of a sudden, his mind couldn't help but wander back and analyse every last inch for some sort of reason.

[greatoldjohn]

[ What is a king without a kingdom? ]

How to explain this? The lines between different worlds, different planes of existence, dimensions, realms... He does and doesn't understand them, but putting them into human language is nigh impossible. Or at least, it's beyond him at the moment.

[ They are and aren't the same. The easiest way I can explain it is to say that the Dreamlands provides an overlap between where we came from and where he came from. And even that is... simplistic.]

[lestercraft]

He hums, non-commital but confirming he's paying attention. The paint is rough under his fingers, the borderline between tacky and dried, and he has to resist the urge to scrape at a large streak with the side of his thumb.

"I suppose it must be like asking where yellow becomes gold. There's a distinction, real as you like, but the further you dig into the semantics of it, the more difficult that line becomes to see."

[greatoldjohn]

[ Yes. ]

A wry chuckle in the back of his mind.

[ One of many ways your more poetic take on understand serves far better than a scientific one. ]

[lestercraft]

That gets a soft laugh out of Arthur, and it makes the tension that has started setting in across his shoulders ease off a little.

"It has its time and place," he acquiesces, a bit diplomatically, but it leaves him feeling much readier to continue their discussion. Or, double back, as it were. "You said you put too much of yourself into it - what happened, exactly?"

[greatoldjohn]

[ I noticed her being somewhat fascinated by it while we were talking but it was only when we fell into a bit of a lull that her eyes wandered back. Then I couldn't distract her from it and she became dizzy and collapsed. I had to call her warden, Pagan Min, to come and collect her.

I was at least able to drag her into the main room and close the door, however. She woke up quickly enough but she wanted to go back and look at it more. ]

[lestercraft]

"So... something like when you tried reading the book- b-back at Miskatonic University? It was... just enough outside what a human mind was capable of handling, I still remember the feeling of those words."

[greatoldjohn]

[ Yes. Now that I remember everything, know who and what I was, it wouldn't give me a problem. But there are things about the King and the greater sphere that he's a part of that are... dangerous. ]