entrancelogs | OPEN | here come the night

Entry tags:

OPEN | here come the night

Who: Adam Milligan (

halfwinchester) and whoever else might be admiring Ewaymas!
Where: Around the mansion.
When: Dec. 13, anytime from late night to mid-afternoon.
Rating: G for now!
Summary: What the hell's with all this Christmas stuff? At least one newcomer is out and about looking at the changes.
The Story:

_{[Very rarely does Adam sleep through the night--or at all, if he's being honest. When the light fades and the mansion gets quiet, it's the perfect time for thoughts of his time in the pit to creep back in, and almost every night begins and ends with him sitting wide-awake until he's too tired to mount a defense. Sometimes he likes to ward away his nightmares in the bathroom. It's smaller in there, and reminds him of the times he'd hidden there when he'd been sick with the flu as a young child.

That night, he's counting spots on the ceiling of his room when the snow starts to fall, and it's the first thing that grabs Adam's attention before the noise starts. Snow? Had that been in Wonderland's weather report? By the time his curiosity wins out over his apprehension, the noises outside his door have long since stopped.

He creeps into the hallway in bare feet to see what going's on. Christmas decorations? Is it Christmas?

The mansion looks beautifully done up in the late hours of the night, and for a while Adam looks around until the pull to return to his room grows too strong. He can be found downstairs inspecting the giant Christmas tree once daylight breaks, dressed for the weather in a heavy sweater. His breakfast is an apple, which he eats while poking at ornaments on the branches.

For once, he has something to do in the mansion that isn't simply "avoid angels." It's strange enough thinking it's already December. A lot of the time it feels like he just arrived, soul broken and all.]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{["New," huh? Around Wonderland, crappy news falls on a gradient and this is somewhere between "a sign of impending doom" and "something out of a bad sci-fi film."]}

Well, that's great. I'm guessing everything happening all at once isn't a coincidence.

_{[Is he supposed to be relieved they're in this together, or even more resigned to some awful fate? Adam's leaning toward the latter.]}

And your special powers don't give you any hint what's gonna happen if they come through the floor?

They're not that kind of power.

[Souji tilts his head, one eyebrow raised, but not offended.]

Do you have a problem with people having powers?

_{[He'd mostly been sarcastic about the comment, so Adam's not exactly shocked to get a negative response.

He can't even really fault the guy for asking if he's some kind of special snowflake bigot, either, given that that's how the train of logic seems to go in this place. Unlike at home where mentions of the unnatural would be met with a hell of a lot worse, here people with supernatural abilities and monsters strut around like it's normal, like questioning them is the weird part. The girl Lena had certainly seemed to think failing to embrace the supernatural right off the bat is a sign of a personality defect.

For Adam, though, having a "problem" with it implies he has any kind of say over the stuff, which he doesn't. Just experience. Experience he can really do without.]}

Is that what it looks like to you? Like I've got a problem? _{[Adam's not any more offended than Souji. At least this guy gets points for not letting a bug crawl up his ass.]} I know a little bit about powers and usually it seems to end with a lot of people dead. And when stuff goes down, it's because monsters with chips on their shoulders decided to show off.

_[Basically.]

[Well...Souji can definitely see that. Even in his world, people with powers got a little out of control, and most of their powers didn't even work in daily life.]

Is that how you ended up in Hell?

_{[He doesn't think there will ever come a time when even a mention of Hell doesn't sharpen his attention. He lowers his chin a little.]}

More or less. I had a life before this stuff got in the middle of it. One of the monsters hanging around here took the wheel, actually, a lot like these Mirror guys of yours. He screwed up, so down we both went.

_{[He gives the barest summary without much emotion; in fact, there's a thin layer of sarcasm turning the words into something more cavalier than they should be.]}

That's the short version. Never seen it for yourself? Good for you.

Which monster?

["Monster" is a pretty relative label, though Souji thinks Adam has a pretty good excuse for using it.]

_{[This isn't the jolly Christmas story most people would probably care to hear, but this isn't exactly home, now is it?

He gestures at Souji's hair.]}

Well, they're not fair-haired and they don't play the harp, but I meant the angels. I've been hearing they're stuck here the same as everyone else.

_{[And if this guy's been here as long as he says, he must have heard about them. Right?]}

[Souji glances up at his hair again and puts a hand on it, but then gets distracted by the conversation and lowers his hand.]

I've met a few of them. You were a vessel?

[Gabriel told him about those, but he made it sound like it wasn't that terrible a thing. Souji had his doubts and Adam is increasing those.]

_{["Vessel" is a surprisingly specific word, and Adam's surprised to hear it. A split second ripple of emotion passes across his face before it's gone.

So he does know about what angels do to people. Maybe Adam shouldn't be so surprised about that fact.]}

Yeah.

_{[Even this simple response sounds doubtful, and regretful, and uneasy all at the same time.]}

I wouldn't recommend it unless you like being burned up inside out.

[That confirms some of Souji's suspicions.]

Sorry. That sucks.

[Really, what else can he say?]

_{[Not much, Adam knows. No one wants to really try and imagine someone else's personal horrors when they have their own troubles and tragedies. If Souji were a proper inhuman monster with special powers, chances are sympathy for a human would be the last thing on his mind, anyway.

This is an improvement on Adam's usual company.]}

Yeah. _{[It's fine, is what he means.]} So... you know, if you like your health I'd be careful around them. That's all I can say.

_{[No Christmas miracle-performing angels, these ones.]}

Yeah, I will.

[All he's ever really experienced from the angels in Wonderland is getting chalk cleaned off of his shirt and being given beer. But he's sure they're capable of a lot more.]

Is that why you're so careful? [About coming out of his room, about talking to people.] Because they're here?

_{[Adam is silent for a time. Sure, the guy's asking, but does he really want the honest answer? Is he just that curious or morbidly curious?]}

Do you know what Hell looks like?

_{[He can't help but answer the question with another question. If Souji knows, then he shouldn't need much prompting to understand why.]}

[Souji's curiosity borders on nosiness, but he's capable of minding his own business if told to do so. He just has no problem with butting in until that time comes.

He considers his answer and his tone when he finally speaks is circumspect.]

I know what the goddess of the underworld looks like in her true form. [That's the closest analog he has for the kind of place Adam's referring to.]

_{[Well, that's new. Adam tilts his head, eyebrows lifting. He can honestly say he hadn't been expecting that.]}

There's goddesses?

_[Wait.]

Of course there are.

It might be different in your world and mine. But in my world, I met Izanami.

_{[Oh, right. The parallel dimensions stuff. It's a little too Twilight Zone for his tastes when Earth and all of its bullshit is so complicated all on its own.]}

I have no idea who that is.

_{[It's a calm confession on behalf of a supernatural novice. He's not sure he'd like himself if he was a supernatural expert.]}

[Souji's not surprised.]

She's a Japanese goddess. She helped create the earth and gave birth to a lot of the gods and to the islands. Then she died and went to the underworld, where she rotted away.

_{[A... Japanese goddess? Isn't the whole "created Earth" thing supposed to be a part of God's resume, or is that just another holier-than-thou lie the angels tell to make themselves feel better?

He doesn't really get it, to be honest, but he doesn't pretend to. Making sense of conflicting cosmologies is outside his pay grade.]}

And you rub elbows with her? That have something to do with your powers?

_{[What else is he supposed to call them? He barely even knows what a vessel is, and he's apparently one of them, a spare shirt in Michael's closet.]}

She awakened them.

[Sort of. There's a fine line between "gave them" and "awakened them" apparently.]

In the end, we killed her. Me and my friends.

_{[He hopes Souji isn't expecting an articulate response to a story like that, because Adam doesn't have one. At least not one he cares to share right away. He reverts back to a faintly quizzical staring.

A goddess giving people powers and then getting killed by a bunch of... what? Super-powered humans? Sounds pretty crazy, but then so does angels coming down to Earth to possess people so they can kill Satan.]}

Oh.

_{[An underwhelming response, to say the least.]}

She wouldn't give you a discount on the special powers thing or what?

Edited 2014-01-19 06:25 (UTC)

[Souji's telling of the story isn't exactly full of the details. There was a lot more to it than he let on, but he's not the type to tell something like that all at once anyway, even if he knew Adam better than he does.]

She wanted to cover the world in fog and turn everyone into Shadows.

_{[He blinks a few times, purposely toning down his reaction so he doesn't give himself a headache trying to think too hard about this stuff.]}

And you don't have a problem with monsters? _{[He reverses one of Souji's earlier questions with a dry kind of curiosity.]} I still haven't heard of a single one who didn't love to hate normal people.

_{[And if half of what this guy is saying is true, then he'd been normal, too, before the supernatural had dragged him into the middle of its shit like it'd done to Adam before.]}

[Souji isn't sure for a moment if Adam means the Shadows or supernatural beings--like Izanami and the angels--who meddle with people. After a couple of seconds, he decides it's probably the latter.]

I've met a few who didn't. There were three who helped me a lot.

Really?

_{[There's no hiding the doubt in his voice.

Adam shakes his head. He doesn't even know what a "shadow" is supposed to mean in this context, so this is way outside his area of expertise. Goddesses, strange powers, messing around with people... to him, it sounds like a a lot of the same shit just wrapped up with a different bow, but what does he know? Nothing, that's the answer. He's spent hundreds of years in the pit and is still just a novice at this stuff.]}

Going with the idea that I believe all of this, sounds like you've got your own crap. _{[A pile of shit smells the same in every dimension, doesn't it?]} Maybe this underworld is a different place with a nicer view, but all I was going to say is that you've been in the pit you'd be having culture shock, too. Underworlds are probably underworlds for a reason.

_{[Not places for visiting. Definitely not places to stay for an extended vacation.]}

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