Paisley Peinforte Adventures: Southern Gothic
(This is ongoing)
[23:05] *** Peinforte Manor
[23:05] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte is sitting alone in her study, eyes closed, a book in her lap
[23:06] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte 's brow furrows as she recieves a telepathic message from Karn.
[23:06] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte acknowledges it.
[23:06] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte 's eyes open
[23:06] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte heads to The Room
[23:07] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte approaches the door, and it opens on its own
[23:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...So that's how it is, eh?
[23:07] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte pats the door
[23:07] * Old Man is sleeping in his chair
[23:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Oi. Wake up.
[23:07] * Old Man opens one eye
[23:07] <Old Man> What do you want now?
[23:08] <Old Man> It's not tea-time, is it?
[23:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> no.
[23:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You're coming with me.
[23:08] <Old Man> I told you, i'm not leaving this place. Stop--
[23:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Skagra.
[23:08] <Old Man> ...what.
[23:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> After centuries of searching, The Sisterhood has narrowed down a possible location for his vessel.
[23:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> They want him alive.
[23:09] <Old Man> Why?
[23:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> He kidnapped and tortured one of the sisters.
[23:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We want to repay the favour.
[23:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Slowly.
[23:10] <Old Man> And what have *I* got to do with this?
[23:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I need a Time Lord.
[23:11] <Old Man> Go find Intern, or Aclatex, or something.
[23:11] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Aclatex?
[23:11] <Old Man> Oh. Right. Hasn't happened yet. Forget that.
[23:11] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> No. I need you.
[23:11] <Old Man> Well you know where to f--
[23:12] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte GRABS his arm.
[23:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> YOU. NOW.
[23:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> THIS YOU.
[23:12] <Old Man> Look my days of traveling are done.
[23:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Rubbish.
[23:12] <Old Man> I'm not taking on any more companions!
[23:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...
[23:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Get real~
[23:13] <Old Man> Eh?
[23:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I'm not going to be your companion.
[23:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You're going to be mine.
[23:13] <Old Man> ......
[23:14] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte GRINS and pulls out a Chalice.
[23:14] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Prpeare, for the ride the back of time~
[23:14] <Old Man> NO, WAIT!
[23:15] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte THROWS down the chalice and a TIME STORM ERUPTS in the Old Man's sitting room, and the duo vanishes.
[11:02] *** SKAGRA'S SHIP
[11:03] * the Old man and Paisley land on the ship in a smoking heap
[11:03] <Old Man> OH GOD I'M ON FIRE WHY AM I ON FIRE
[11:05] <@> Something went wrong with the incantation
[11:05] * @ is now known as Paisley Pythia Peinforte
[11:05] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ^
[11:06] <Old Man> WHAT HOW COULD SOMETHING GO WRONG
[11:06] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte is beating up the old man with a blanket to put him out
[11:06] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Those bloody Typo Demons are getting more powerful. They even affect reality structures.
[11:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We really should check them out some day.
[11:07] * Old Man rolls around trying to extinguish himself
[11:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...
[11:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Are you done.
[11:07] <Old Man> No I think I'm still rare.
[11:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Jesus Christ
[11:08] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte grabs him by the arm and pulls him up, swatting away the flames
[11:09] <Old Man> I'd close my mind as tightly as possible. If I recall Skagra has weapons that can home in on mental emissions.
[11:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Yes well, considering what you emit.
[11:12] <Old Man> Oh be quiet :P
[11:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> MY mind is fine.
[11:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You're the leaky boat, so shut it.
[11:13] <Old Man> I'm old, give me a break.
[11:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I swear to go--
[11:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Have you LOOKED in a mirror lately.
[11:13] <Old Man> I don't have mirrors in my rooms.
[11:14] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte takes the old man by the scruff of the neck and turns him to look at a shiny bulkhead.
[11:14] <Old Man> ....
[11:15] <Old Man> Who's that? why do I look like that?
[11:15] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You mean sixty instead of one-hundred sixty?
[11:15] <Old Man> I am several thousand years old.
[11:15] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN STOP ANTAGONIZING ME
[11:15] <Old Man> ....
[11:16] <Old Man> What did you do, Paisley Pythia Peinforte. This can't be regeneration.
[11:16] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That tea was very good, wasn't it~
[11:16] <Old Man> ...
[11:17] * Old Man snaps his fingers
[11:17] <Old Man> Elixir!
[11:17] <Old Man> you piked my tea with Elixir!
[11:17] <Old Man> ^Spiked
[11:17] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Ptth don't be so crude about it.
[11:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I've been making careful, controlled adjustments to your body via controlled application of Elixir and other things the Sisterhood researched during the Time War.
[11:18] <Old Man> ..... you had no right
[11:19] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Don't you find the synapses firing just a bit quicker~?
[11:19] <Old Man> NO RIGHT!
[11:19] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> What, no right to not let you just wither away?
[11:20] * Old Man SHAKES with anger
[11:20] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That's good! you weren't able to do that before.
[11:20] <Old Man> ....................................
[11:22] <Old Man> I WAS READY TO GO! I--
[11:22] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Shut it! Something's coming.
[21:24] *** Skagra's ship
[21:25] * "And then the doctor put all my wires in SO firmly, and it simply overloaded ALL my circuits with such wonderful sensations~
[21:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ Oh god how long is it going to natter on about the Doctor
[21:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ It's like it's in love with him
[21:27] <Old Man> ♦ So the ship is shipping itself?
[21:27] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte looks at the Old Man dimly
[21:27] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ No, no. No. Don't.. don't do that.
[21:27] <Old Man> ♦ eh?
[21:27] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ I make the shipping jokes here, not you.
[21:28] <Old Man> ♦ :P
[21:29] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ At any rate it's so preoccupied with fawning over the Doctor it hasn't noticed us AND it's not helping us find where the hell Skagra is.
[21:29] <Old Man> ♦ Well what now?
[21:30] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ Don't just stand there looking pretty, do the Time Lord thing and I don't know... hack it, or something.
[21:30] <Old Man> ♦ ... pretty?
[21:30] <Old Man> ♦ PRETTY@
[21:30] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ FOR F[BLEEP]KS SAKE FOCUS MAN
[21:30] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ Find Skagra!
[21:31] <Old Man> ♦ We are going to have words, Paisley. WORDS.
[21:31] * And the things he did with his scarf, he measured me in both metric AND imperial...
[21:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ Will you. Just. GET. TO. IT.
[21:32] <Old Man> I... knew the doctot!
[21:32] * The ship goes quiet and you could swear you hear it suck in an excited breath.
[21:33] * "Tell me EVERYTHING"
[21:33] <Old Man> Of course, of course. But I was wondering if you could tell me something as well?
[21:34] <Old Man> Where Skagra is.
[21:36] * "Well, after he escaped from me, and had a run in with that other man and the perky girl, he found me
[21:36] * And then tried to touch my circuits in such inappropriate ways
[21:37] * The Ship proceeds to complain ceaselessly
[21:38] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte looks around for the strange Silurian-like creature that had been stalking them
[21:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ Oi, can't you speed this up
[21:38] <Old Man> ♦ The ship just likes to talk, I can keep it occupied but that's about it
[21:45] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte rolls her eyes
[21:45] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ Fine you keep it busy, I'll find bloody Skagra.
[21:45] <Old Man> ♦ How am I going to do that?
[21:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ Just prattle constantly like you always do.
[21:46] <Old Man> ♦ I haven't prattled in CENTURIES
[21:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ THEN WHINE AT IT I DON'T KNOW.
[21:46] <Old Man> ♦ :P
[21:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ♦ stop thinking at me, I'm meditating
[21:47] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte assumes the Karnian Lotus position and closes her eyes, mentally probing all the spaces of the ship to find Skagra's mind
[23:04] *** Skagra's ship
[23:05] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte heads down a corridor, stepping over a decomposing body
[23:05] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte senses Skagra behind the next door... but something seems off.
[23:05] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte looks back, the Old Man is now arguing with the ship over what's better, Duotronics or Isolinear chips.
[23:06] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte cautiously opens a door, and light slowly spills into a darkened room
[23:06] <Skagra> ....
[23:06] <Skagra> You...
[23:06] <Skagra> Are you..a Time Lord...?
[23:06] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Hmph.
[23:06] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You wish.
[23:06] <Skagra> ....
[23:07] <Skagra> Kill me!
[23:07] <Skagra> Kill me now!
[23:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You what?
[23:07] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte senses tremendous confusion and fear coming from Skagra
[23:07] <Skagra> Quickly! Quickly! Before--- Be--fore...
[23:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Before what?
[23:07] * Skagra 's eyes suddenly glow green
[23:08] <Skagra> ♦ We play the game again... Sister of the Flame, Paisley Pythia Peinforte
[23:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> .............
[23:09] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte knows that voice.
[23:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> - ... The Great Intelligence. -
[23:09] * Skagra LAUGHS
[23:09] * Skagra waves his hand and the ship SHUDDERS
[07:29] *** Skagra's Spaceship, which is veering out of control
[07:30] <Skagra> When that fool Skagra reached out his mind across the stars to try and dominate the universe, I took notice. And I waited. And when he returned here, I waited for him, hidden in this primitive machine, whose addled brain was filled with only thoughts of The Doctor.
[07:31] <Skagra> Silence, you old, used-up thing, unworthy of my attentions!
[07:31] * Skagra chuckles darkly, focused on Paisley
[07:32] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte glares, trying to keep her footing even as the ship is shaking itself apart
[07:33] <Old Man> God between the ship and this fool, I don't know who's the worse chatterbox
[07:33] <Old Man> Why's he looking at you like that?
[07:33] <Skagra> She knows that I want~ :r
[07:33] <Old Man> Eh?
[07:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> He wants my body.
[07:33] * Old Man raises an eyebrow
[07:34] <Old Man> Well, I never knew you had a suitor~
[07:34] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Oh f[BLEEP]k off ><
[07:34] <Skagra> The body of one of the most powerful Sisters of the Flame. Such a highly trained mind, capabable of resisting even me~
[07:34] <Skagra> Capable of reaching out across Time and Space all on its own~
[07:35] <Skagra> And so deliciously tainted with the ancient power~
[07:35] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte crosses her arms over her chest
[07:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You're not getting me! I've defeated you at every turn!
[07:36] <Skagra> Hahaah, but you are already caught in my web.
[07:37] <Skagra> It was so easy to point the Sisterhood to my location. Just a tiny psychic hint.. and of course they sent you, their eyes and ears on the outside universe~
[07:37] <Skagra> From the moment you set foot on this ship, your fate was sealed~
[07:37] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Tch.
[07:37] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte grabs the Old Man by the arm
[07:37] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I don't think so.
[07:37] <Old Man> Careful!
[07:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Quiet, before he decides he wants to upgrade from Skagra there
[07:38] <Skagra> Why would I waste my time with such a decrepit old man when I could have you, bursting with Vitality and vigor~
[07:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And Vim. Don't forget vim.
[07:39] <Old Man> The Text editor?
[07:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ..what?
[07:39] <Skagra> Used in Linux systems.
[07:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ....
[07:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I'm no a penguinhead, all right
[07:40] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte Throws down a small pouch and there is an EXPLOSION of temporal energy
[07:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But what I am-- is gone!
[07:40] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte and the Old Man vanish in a Time Storm
[07:40] <Skagra> ...Fools.
[07:41] <Skagra> Did I not already say you were both in my web~?
[07:41] * Skagra presses a hand to the wall of the still chattering ship, which suddenly goes silent
[07:41] <Skagra> Wretched vessel, given the power to circumnavigate time and space.
[07:42] <Skagra> Go now, to the place I have prepared.
[07:42] <Skagra> The Place where Peinforte will finally be mine~
[07:42] <Skagra> And, with the power of the Pythia I will spread across the Universe as the Ultimate Mind-Force!
[07:43] * the Ship Shudders
[07:43] * It vanishes, re-appearing elsewhere
[07:43] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte and the Old man land unceremoniously in some kind of murky swamp
[07:43] <Old Man> Where are we?
[07:44] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I don't know... the Great Intelligence managed to throw the Time Storm off course.
[07:44] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It's really frighteningly powerful.
[07:44] * Old Man sniffs the air
[07:44] <Old Man> Earth.
[07:44] * Old Man licks a tree
[07:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Disgusting. Don't you have a machine or something for that.
[07:47] <Old Man> You pulled me out of the house with nothing but the clothes on my back!
[07:48] <Old Man> Anyway, it feels like the 1980's...
[07:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> God. Any idea where?
[07:48] <Old Man> Hmm..
[07:49] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> /DM The Louisiana Bayou, 1981.... deep in Wyatt Tarritory
[07:49] *** The Louisiana Bayou, 1981.... deep in Wyatt Territory
[22:06] *** Deep in the Bayou, 1981
[22:06] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> God, this marsh is disgusting, It's like a New Jersey Beach.
[22:07] <Old Man> Well at least you didn't land on a Cow Pie.
[22:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> What the hell is a cow pie?
[22:07] <Old Man> It's what Americans call a pile od Cow ... offal.
[22:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Why would there be cows in a swamp.
[22:08] <Old Man> LOOK I don't want to think of what else it might have been, all right?
[22:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Given where we are, maybe it was a wild pig.
[22:09] <Old Man> I don't particularly care what made the mess, only thatI laded in it.
[22:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well I have to smell it so we are both suffering here.
[22:10] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte and the Old Man are surrounded by an eerie sea of firelfies, and the sound of deep-croaking frogs and cicadas.
[22:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I'd say this had a certain loveliness to it, but Id' be lying. This place smells.
[22:11] <Old Man> Well at least your hooker boots are acting like waders. My pants are soaked.
[22:11] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...........
[22:12] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte PUNCHES him in the arm "Oi! They're not 'hooker boots'! they just have taller heels!"
[22:12] * Old Man groans. "I don't damn well know about fashion."
[22:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Yes that is why we are getting you out more.
[22:12] <Old Man> To a swamp. Filled with probably deadly creatures.
[22:12] <Old Man> With the Great Intelligence after us.
[22:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> No he's after me. he could give two s[BLEEP]ts about you, Mr. Past-his-sell-by -date.
[22:13] <Old Man> Then I'll just make my own way home :P
[22:13] * Old Man turns as if to leave
[22:13] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte looks briefly upset
[22:14] <Old Man> ...I'm not serious, you know.
[22:14] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...I knew that.
[22:14] <Old Man> (No, you didn't.)
[22:15] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It is me, or are theanimals all staring at us oddly...?
[22:15] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte looks around as you can see the reflections of many small eyes in the night
[22:15] <Old Man> Maybe they're hungry.
[22:16] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Usually wild animals hide and observe.
[22:16] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> In my experience, anyway.
[22:16] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> These are just... standing around staring.
[22:16] <Old Man> You're right...
[22:17] * As if in unision, all the animals look towards one spot... an old home, about half a mile down the way.
[22:17] <Old Man> .....That's certainly not natural.
[22:17] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It's got to be a compulsion.
[22:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Even with my defences up, I know it's here. In this place.
[22:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> The stink of the Animus...
[22:18] <Old Man> We're in his web, aren't we?
[22:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I think we are.
[22:18] * Old Man stumbles a but across a tree root
[22:18] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte grabs his arm firmly
[22:19] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Come on, we've got a trap to spring.
[22:19] <Old Man> Joy...
BR> [16:40] *** The Wyatt Compound, Louisiana Bayou, 1981
[16:41] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte and the old man seem to be walking in darkness, but jagged shars of light high above betray that they are just under a very thick canopy of trees.
[16:41] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I hate this place.
[16:41] <Old Man> It feels unnaturally cold.
[16:41] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It *si* unnaturally cold.
[16:42] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> There's a lot of psychic energy and distrurbanse kicking around here.
[16:42] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ^disturbance.
[16:42] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Not just the Great Intelligence.. but the Animus... Baron Samedi...
[16:43] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> This whole place reeks of influence over time.
[16:43] <Old Man> Some kind of a Nexus?
[16:43] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> The Deep American South has always been a hotbed of suppressed mysticism..
[16:44] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Holdovers from ancient cultures that walked the land long before the White Man.
[16:44] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Expressed sometimes in the rites of Vodoun, or Santeria...
[16:45] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> As if there's always been a calling to the primal.
[16:45] <Old Man> ... I hate those things. They never seem to follow the laws of Physics.
[16:45] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Oh they have laws all their own.
[16:45] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> A Physics all their own.
[16:45] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Everything has a system, even chaos.
[16:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But it's learning how to interpret it.
[16:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> How to put your logic aside and partially give way to the madness, but not enough to lose yourself in it.
[16:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> To master that twisted knot of confusion and interpret.
[16:47] <Old Man> You sound remarkably well-versed.
[16:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well it's what I do when I'm not hanging about at the HOTEL or writing masterfurl works of erotic fiction involving kittens and Godzilla.
[16:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I work to keep away the larger forces of the night.
[16:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And not just me.
[16:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Lots of other people. Not as a group or anything like that. Not usually.
[16:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Independent stands against the tendrils of the quote-unquote gods.
[16:49] * Old Man winces. On some level their telepathic connection has never severed, and he feels the hatred coming from her. And he knows why., thanks to what she had shown him.
[16:50] <Old Man> They can't all be bad, surely.
[16:50] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I don't want to talk about that right now.
[16:51] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte fixes her gaze straight head, looking at a cluster of fireflies that is hovering, as if waiting for their approach, and then moving them towards the dilapidated house.
[16:51] * Old Man grunts in acknowledgement.
[16:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> One day. Let's get through this and I'll talk about it with you. Promise.
[16:52] <Old Man> All right.
[16:52] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte winces
[16:52] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte steps back a bit and rubs her forehead
[16:52] <Old Man> What is it?
[16:52] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> At the risk of sounding like Counselor Troi... "pain".
[16:52] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Not mine.
[16:53] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte points at the house.
[16:53] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> From there.
[16:53] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> So strong it's just like a bullhorn.
[16:53] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte breaks into a run to get to the house
[16:53] * Old Man follows
[16:54] * getting into the house, it is pitch black. Every board creaks loudly, as if they were specifically placed to alert the inhabitants of trespassers.
[16:54] <Old Man> The smell ><
[16:54] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Death.
[16:54] <Old Man> I know.
[16:55] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte pulls out a twig she had picked up along the way and concentrates on it hard, causing it to catch flame.
[16:55] <Old Man> ...Mastered that, have you?
[16:55] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I'm a quirk study.
[16:55] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ^quick
[16:56] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte waves the torch around, and they see a butchered cow hanging from the rafters
[16:56] <Old Man> See, a cow!
[16:56] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Don't be so full of yourswelf it probably came from a butchers'
[16:57] <Old Man> Heh. You can't stand me being right
[16:57] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I just can't stand you :P
[16:57] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte chuckles
[16:57] * Old Man spies a jar
[16:57] * Old Man picks it up
[16:57] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> What is it?
[16:57] * Old Man looks at it more closely, and then drops it in sheer revulsion
[16:58] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Are you all right?! what happened?!
[16:58] <Old Man> It was filled with.. bugs... large roaches i think. they'd fallen in and had no way to escape... they apparently would spawn and... then jkept eating each other alive.
[16:59] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte turns a bit green
[16:59] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Jesus.
[16:59] * then they hear the sound of a young boy muttering "Jesus"
[16:59] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte swivels to look. The pain is coming from the boy.
[17:00] <Young Boy> Jesus... Sister Abigail tells us all to be very afraid of Jesus...
[17:01] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte aims her makeshift torch at the boy
[17:01] <Old Man> "Be afraid of?" Why would a sister--
[17:01] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Not every Sister belongs to the faith you might expect.
[17:02] * Young Boy boy turns his head slowly and looks at them
[17:02] <Young Boy> Hello, travelers, come from the heathen lands...
[17:02] <Young Boy> ...from the cursed light...
[17:02] <Old Man> ...
[17:02] <Young Boy> ...welcome to the dark, where you cannot hide...
[17:03] * Young Boy GRINS at thenm showing off broken teeth
[17:03] <Young Boy> - Run. -
[17:03] * Everything goes pitch black
[10:02] *** Wyatt Compound. 1981... maybe.
[10:02] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte and the old man are in total pitch blackness
[10:02] * Old Man starts gasping
[10:03] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Settle down.
[10:03] <Old Man> Can't you feel it?!
[10:03] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I can. Time's gone.
[10:03] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And apparently, space.
[10:03] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte can'tr feel the "pressure" of nearby objects or minds, except for the old Man's
[10:04] <Old Man> Did we leave the cabin:
[10:04] <Old Man> Were we moved? It idin't feel like a transmat...
[10:04] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> This is beyond science.
[10:05] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We're not in between dimensions, or merely out of space / time.
[10:05] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> This is the space between Life and Death.
[10:06] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Where mind and matter and metaphysics are all one and the same and neither all at the same time.
[10:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It's where initiates to the higher arts of the Esoteric are tested, and where titantic battles are fought, all outside the realm of normal perception.
[10:07] <Old Man> ...
[10:07] <Old Man> ...This is your life?
[10:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And yours now, too, mate.
[10:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You don't get here by chance.
[10:08] <Old Man> You dragged me along. The Great Intelligence--
[10:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> --Is a Cipher. A mask.
[10:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> A tool to get us to this place.
[10:09] <Old Man> Whose tool?
[10:09] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte smiles tautly, and even though it can't be seen, the old man senses the expression somehow.
[10:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> The answer would terrify you.
[10:09] <Old Man> You don't know, do you :P
[10:11] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte Chuckles sadly. "I wish."
[10:12] <Old Man> So who is it, then?
[10:14] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte sighs
[10:14] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> There is a school of thought that some hold.
[10:14] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That the Gods are but a mask.
[10:15] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> When you get advanced enough to see.
[10:16] <Old Man> ...Masks worn by whom?
[10:17] * The darkness partially dispels and Paisley and the Old Man can see each other but nothing else.
[10:18] <Old Man> ...
[10:18] <Old Man> Ludicrous.
[10:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Believe you me, I'm not a fan of the concept.
[10:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You know why.
[10:18] * Old Man remembers the painful memories Paisley showed him.
[10:23] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But, if we're here, that's one piece of information you will need to internalise.
[10:24] <Old Man> ...Why.
[10:24] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Because, my old, dear, friend. This is a place of testing.
[10:25] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> The whole quest for Skagra and the machinations of the Intelligence are just markers on a path.
[10:25] <Old Man> Haven;t you already gone through all this? You're a Sister of the Flame?
[10:25] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Initation is never ending when you walk as I do.
[10:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Maybe I'm to lead you forward into a new path, now, at the end of your life. Getting you set up for the next story.
[10:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Maybe I need to move ot another level.
[10:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Maybe the universe is f[BLEEP]king with us.
[10:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Who knows?
[10:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We will only find out by going forward.
[10:31] <Old Man> What if I don't want to move forward?
[10:31] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte rolls her eyes so hard you could almost HEAR it.
[10:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> 9_9
[10:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That ship has bloody sailed.
[10:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> If you don't want to mmove on, if you just want to expire, then you can just stay here and let yourself be eaten.
[10:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Or whatever happens to people here. I've never been foolish enough to try and peronally find out.
[10:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> So, you'll get your chance to make your choice.
[10:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Because that is what this place is.
[10:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> A place of Choosing.
[10:33] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte grumbles
[10:33] <Old Man> What?
[10:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> What if your fatalistic bulls[BLEEP]t is what's forced to to this moment.
[10:33] <Old Man> I heard that :P
[10:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Good ears for an old ba[BLEEP]rd.
[10:34] <Old Man> :P
[10:34] <Old Man> So what happens now?
[10:35] * a spotlight snaps on from an unknwon source, illuminating the body of s small boy strapped into a chair, bound and gagged, with a sword over his head.
[10:35] <Old Man> ....
[21:32] *** Journey 1: "Imposter Syndrome"
[21:33] *** in the neveerplace where Paisley and the Old Man are
[21:34] * Old Man sees the boy with the sword of damocles over his head vanish
[21:34] <Old Man> ...where did he go?
[21:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> A cipher. Easily dismissed.
[21:35] <Old Man> I don't understand.
[21:35] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte purses her lips, thinking of how to convey this.
[21:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...Stakes. Consequences.
[21:36] <Old Man> Hmm?
[21:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We all struggle and fight so valiantly when there
[21:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> is an external goal.
[21:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> When we have to beat a clock, save a friend, save a world.
[21:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We rise up, beat the odds and move on.
[21:37] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It's what we do.
[21:37] * Old Man nods "this is true."
[21:37] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It's a great motivator. Great way to keep oneself busy.
[21:37] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> but tell me, Old Sir who has spent centuries sitting in my Ancestral Home...
[21:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> when you are alone, in the dark at night, with no one to save...
[21:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Who are you?
[21:38] <Old Man> I'm still me.
[21:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But how do you define yourself, in the absence of context?
[21:39] <Old Man> I'm still... me.
[21:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And what is you?
[21:40] <Old Man> A man. A Time Lord. Sometimes a soldier, sometimes a father.
[21:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Contexts.
[21:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Slots you put youerself into to provide a handy Cole's Notes definition.
[21:41] <Old Man> What are you driving at? What's that got to do with the boy?
[21:41] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> you and me, fighting to save the soul of some random boy.
[21:41] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Very noble, very feel-good.
[21:41] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Very distracting from the truth of this.
[21:41] <Old Man> ....
[21:42] * For a moment, a wickedly smiling Yaijinden appears and vanishes.
[21:42] <Old Man> What the--
[21:42] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That was my fault, I'm afraid.
[21:43] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> He's my mental shortcut for "cutting insight."
[21:44] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> The kind that bleeds you to enlightment. Obviously my thoughts leak.
[21:44] <Old Man> So he's you're conception of what this place is?
[21:45] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I told you already, I know what it is. And what we are. What we are to each other at this moment in no-time.
[21:47] <Old Man> And what is that?
[21:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Yaijindens.
[21:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well... piss-poor copies of same.
[21:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> No one can be him.
[21:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But where he is a scalpel...
[21:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> we are to be knives.
[21:48] <Old Man> Cutting what?
[21:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...What else is there?
[21:48] <Old Man> ...Each other?
[21:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And ourselves.
[21:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Bleeding our way to freedom. Or destruction. Mtaphorically of course. And... perhaps literally.
[21:50] <Old Man> Well that's just dandy.
[21:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well...
[21:51] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte sighs.
[21:52] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> There's nothing for it but to get stuck in.
[21:52] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> The only way out is through.
[21:52] <Old Man> But how do we even begin?
[21:53] * a Bright Moon shines out of no where
[21:53] <Old Man> The Moon?
[21:54] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Ahh yes, the moon,
[21:54] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Without which we wouldn't be here.
[21:54] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> If it wasn't for some war between the Earth and the Moon 10,000 years ago, none of the Senshi would have appeared in Japan and none of us would have been drawn there.
[21:55] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> In the Tarot, the moon represents a traumatic gateway experience.
[21:55] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> A passing through of Darkness that leads you to the other side.
[21:56] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> In a way the tribulations of Usagi and her friends and the people of the HOTEL who befreinded them have all been rites of passage.
[21:56] <Old Man> And now it's our turn, is that it?
[21:56] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> As I said, A turn...
[21:56] * the sound of a young girl crying can be heard.
[21:56] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Oh... bugger.
[21:56] <Old Man> Hmm?
[21:57] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte turns her head to see a tyounger version of herself, about 15 -16, crying under the light of the moon by Stonehenge.
[21:57] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well, here we go, then.
[21:58] <Old Man> That's you, isn't it?
[21:58] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Heh, no doubt you recognized that from the breif look you had at my memories.
[21:58] <Old Man> Yes. Broad strokes, not details.
[21:58] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well, that was foreplay. A peek under my skirt.
[21:59] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Apparently sir, tonight you're going to get to go all the way.
[21:59] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte says that mirthlessly, not like her usual teasing self.
[21:59] * Old Man doesn't see the humor in it either.
[22:00] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That is me, age 16, having just made her first mental leap to Karn and back again.
[22:00] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> D'you know who I was before then?
[22:00] <Old Man> No?
[22:00] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I was nothing. No one.
[22:00] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I never existed.
[22:01] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Before that moment, the last Peinforte was Fiona Peinforte, who died in the 15th century.
[22:01] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> She dies having merged with the Statue Nemesis, known to you as rei.bot now.
[22:01] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But...
[22:02] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte sinks down, holding her head
[22:02] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> but because...
[22:02] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> because Noriko died... and because...
[22:02] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> because a f[BLEEP]king killbot decided she wanted not to have a hole in the RPG party
[22:03] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> and that we needed A healer, a magician and a time active....
[22:04] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> she LEAPT into the World Tree and adjusted history so that about a year or so before her death Fiona Peinforte had sex with her new servant boy / lackey Richard Maynarde.
[22:04] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And gave birth to a girl.
[22:04] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Who carried on the line, and so on and so on... until I came to be.
[22:05] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I was never supposed to be.
[22:05] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I was a CHEAP REPLACEMENT FOR NORIKO.
[22:05] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And that historical truth is what I Saw the first time I went to Karn.
[22:05] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> In my first awakening.
[22:05] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That I was a F[BLEEP]KING PLOT DEVICE.
[22:06] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte curls up into a ball, sitting and drawing her knees up towards her
[22:07] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Before... that... you know... in the 90's genetics science was becoming a thing,
[22:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And DNA testing was a big deal and i'n Omni there were articles talking about what our genes coudl reveal
[22:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> and I was curious
[22:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I wanted to know where the pasty white girl from Windsor came from, you know?
[22:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I imagined what secrets a test would tell
[22:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Was I part French? The scandal!
[22:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And then I wen tot Karn
[22:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> and all of that...
[22:09] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> seemed like such childish bulls[BLEEP]t
[22:09] * Old Man tentatively goes to hug her
[22:10] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte gently shoves him away
[22:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> No.
[22:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Don't comfort me.
[22:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> that just lets the mask stay on.
[22:10] <Old Man> ....
[22:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Tonight (assuming it is night) we have to rip our masks off.
[22:11] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And mine is that veneer of...
[22:11] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> of... pretending that I belong anywhere.
[22:11] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That I'm comfortable.
[22:11] <Old Man> But you do belong!
[22:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But do I belong because my friends care about me? Or because I was WRITTEN IN by Sakura April?
[22:12] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That is the lingering seed of doubt that gnaws at me.
[22:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Do you all care because I earned it? Or was I handed it?
[22:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Did I ride upon the presumption of acceptance to a faux acceptance?
[22:15] * Old Man tries ot think of words that could reassure her.
[22:15] <Old Man> .... I can't honestly tell you.
[22:15] <Old Man> I can't reassure you.
[22:15] <Old Man> you could argue that everything I feel towards you is the product of that.
[22:16] <Old Man> That anything anyone feels towards you is that.
[22:16] <Old Man> It's a stupid f[BLEEP]king question <_<
[22:16] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte jerks her head up angrily
[22:16] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> STUPID? IT PLAGUES ME
[22:16] <Old Man> I didn't say it wasn't serious.
[22:16] <Old Man> But it is stupid.
[22:17] <Old Man> It's like a Kligon Lawyer trying to discern motives.
[22:17] <Old Man> As Klingons say, "who cares for motives?"
[22:17] <Old Man> They only look at results.
[22:17] <Old Man> So you were dropped into reality by Sakura April.
[22:18] <Old Man> I was produced when my parents decided for whatever reason they liked each other and wanted to reproduce.
[22:18] <Old Man> Who knows if that was a setup by the Old Ones or something.
[22:18] <Old Man> Who cares?
[22:20] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Yeah well...
[22:20] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It takes two to tango and you can see under my skirt and I can see under your... kilt wrll that metaphor died quickly.
[22:20] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte points to someone behind the Old man... to X
[22:21] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> See him?
[22:21] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> that man with a family?
[22:21] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> So happy?
[22:21] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> you were like that once, yeah?
[22:21] <Old Man> That man is a blissful idiot.
[22:22] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But he has everything you don't.
[22:23] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Aren;t you just jealous.
[22:23] <Old Man> No.
[22:23] <Old Man> I know better than he does.
[22:23] <Old Man> I know that everything dies, one way or the other.
[22:25] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Yes, and that led you to my manor in the past.
[22:25] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> To sit there and rot in the face of the transience of the world.
[22:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I feel like I don't belong, you feel betrayed by the universe for robbing you of everything.
[22:26] <Old Man> A perfectly natural reaction.
[22:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And a mask.
[22:27] <Old Man> ...
[22:27] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You could have died at any time, there in that room.
[22:27] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Willed yourself to stop.
[22:27] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Cut yourself.
[22:27] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Done whatever it took.
[22:27] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But you didn't.
[22:28] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You desperately wanted a lifeline.
[22:29] <Old Man> You flatter yourself.
[22:29] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...Myself?
[22:29] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Did I ever mention me~?
[22:29] <Old Man> ...Well who else was there? your Butler? your cat?
[22:30] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> _Generations_ of Peinfortes passwd you by.
[22:30] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You never knocked,
[22:30] <Old Man> Maybe I did. Maybe I knocked and whispered words into Fiona's ear~ Maybe I was Sakura April's tool.
[22:31] <Old Man> Maybe I am the reason for you.
[22:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ....
[22:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You old f[BLEEP]ker.
[22:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You don't want to admit it.
[22:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> As much as I don't want to admit that yes I do bloody belong here_
[22:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You don't want to admit that you wanted me to save you
[22:32] <Old Man> Didn't you start this tango stating that it's always more distracting to have a quest to go on?
[22:33] <Old Man> Aren't you just imagining that to boost your sense of self-w....
[22:33] * Old Man checks himself
[22:33] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte backs up as if grievously hurt
[22:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Am I...?
[22:34] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Did I just kleep coming back to you just because I wanted to .... pretend I was needed?
[22:34] <Old Man> No.
[22:34] * Old Man stopped hismelf because he realized his words were hurting Paisley and--
[22:35] <Old Man> No... You're correct.
[22:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You're just saying that.
[22:35] <Old Man> You can tell if I' lying.
[22:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Not here. Not now....
[22:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Here I can't be certain of anything...
[22:38] <Old Man> You sounded so sure when I came in :P
[22:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ....
[22:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I'm full of s[BLEEP]t.
[22:39] <Old Man> ...
[22:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Oh I know all the things. And I fight all the things.
[22:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But confidence?
[22:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Certainty?
[22:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> When it comes to myself?
[22:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That's just s[BLEEP]t.
[22:41] <Old Man> Paisley.
[22:41] * Old Man hangs his head.
[22:41] <Old Man> Paisley Pythia Peinforte.
[22:41] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> What.
[22:41] <Old Man> you're NOT wrong.
[22:42] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte looks at him
[22:43] <Old Man> You mad, sarcastic knife of a woman.
[22:43] <Old Man> Who laughs at the world and mocks even the devil himself for a bad slashfic.
[22:43] <Old Man> Of course I was waiting for you.
[22:44] <Old Man> If only even just for conversation.
[22:44] <Old Man> A pleasant way to meet the end.
[22:45] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte keeps looking at him.
[22:45] <Old Man> /what?
[22:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> you're here now.
[22:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> At the end.
[22:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> At the edge.
[22:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> This is only the first of many steps towards an unknown future.
[22:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> They say Ianna walked through seven gates to be transformed.
[22:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> This would be the first.
[22:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But you can stop here.
[22:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You can end this.
[22:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> If you were waiting for me...
[22:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> and even if it was just to see an old friend... one last time...?
[22:48] <Old Man> ....
[22:49] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Tell me now, Old Man, tired of life, scared of betryal and tired of loss...
[22:49] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte holds out her hand
[22:49] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Do you want me.... to save you?
[22:50] * Old Man looks at her outstretched hand for a long, ponderous moment that may have stretched out for eternity.
[22:50] * Old Man takes her hand firmly. "Yes."
[22:51] * there is a breaking sound, as if porcelian dishes have just hit a floor in some tiled kitchen.
[22:51] <Old Man> What...
[22:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Our Masks have fallen away.
[22:52] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I accept I'm not an impostor filling in for someone else.
[22:52] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And you accept that despite the cold lonliness and tiredness you have of this world, you still believe, and have faith... in someone.
[22:52] <Old Man> And I always have.
[22:53] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte nods.
[22:53] *** The scnercy breaks and changes as the first stage in their journey is cleared... but it is not yet done...
[07:28] * Now the Duo find themselves in the midst of a bustling, anonymous crows.
[07:28] *** Journey 2: "Emotional Burden"
[07:28] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...You can let go of my hand now.
[07:29] <Old Man> ...
[07:29] * Old Man sheepishly pulls back
[07:29] <Old Man> Sorry. I didn't know if ti was necessary.
[07:30] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte chuckles.
[07:30] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Maybe it is. I don't know.
[07:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> As we progress, things are goign to get maddeningly non-specific and more metaphorical.
[07:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Like a bad episode of Evangelion, except We're the stars.
[07:31] <Old Man> Are we going to get flashing words in the sky :P
[07:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Words.
[07:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Words. Names.
[07:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Limiters.
[07:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Just as we defined ourselves by our roles, we lock ourselves in with words.
[07:32] <Old Man> Hmm?
[07:34] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte waves to the bustling crowd around them. It's like the sceme int he matrix when Neo and Morpheus are walking through the crowd.
[07:34] <Old Man> It's like that scene in--
[07:34] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Yes.
[07:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But am I Morpheus, are you Neo, am I neo, are you Morpheus, or--
[07:35] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte is suddenly looking very stunning a red dress.
[07:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Am I the woman in the Red Dress?
[07:35] <Old Man> ....
[07:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Or are you?
[07:35] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte is back in normal clothes and The Old Man is in the dress.
[07:36] <Old Man> GAH
[07:36] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte snorts
[07:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Why are you uncomfortable right now, and why am I amused?.
[07:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And before, why were you--
[07:37] <Old Man> Quiet :P
[07:37] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> There's precious little secrets here, :P
[07:37] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Because we have been prepared to react in certain ways.
[07:37] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> _told_ that certain things are appropriate.
[07:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Women allure in dresses. Men are to be allured. Men are ridiculous in dresses.
[07:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> All just societal constructs, designed to perpetuate a subtle system of action and reaction.
[07:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But it goes so much deeper.
[07:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Back to words.
[07:39] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte gestures to the crowd again.
[07:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> What are they?
[07:39] <Old Man> Metaphysical constructs, I'd imagine.
[07:39] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> F[BLEEP]king sheep.
[07:40] <Old Man> ..What?
[07:40] * Old Man is schocked to hear that from her.
[07:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I don't mean that of course.
[07:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But when I said it...
[07:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Mentally, your concept of them varied, did it not?
[07:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> for even just a moment.
[07:41] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You pondered--even if you did not accept it -- the notion of a mass of humanity moving in lockstep under the spell of someone else.
[07:41] <Old Man> Well... yes.
[07:42] <Old Man> In addition to being surprised that you would say that about someone.
[07:42] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I meant to be shocking. This whole experience is about shocks to the conciousness. Some gentle, some not.
[07:43] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But the word sheep. So simple, yet so potent. Contextualized in the presence of this crowd, and my forceful personality, it took on a new meaning, and a life of its own.
[07:44] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> If I had been more forceful and you weaker, and I actually convinced you that these anyonymous people were sheep, how would you begin treating them?
[07:44] <Old Man> ...I'd probably see them the way Jedite does.
[07:44] <Old Man> And treat them accordingly.
[07:44] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Indeed. And after a while it would feel natural to you.
[07:45] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Words shape roles shape interactions shape realities.
[07:45] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I am "Paisley". I am a "Woman". I am a "Sorceress."
[07:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Put all these words together and a shape of me forms.
[07:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You are an "Old Man" who is "tired".
[07:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We shape ourselves and each other.
[07:46] * Old Man digests all of this
[07:46] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> More fundamentally, sir.
[07:47] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte waves at the people
[07:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We'ee going to play a game.
[07:47] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Word association.
[07:47] <Old Man> ....
[07:48] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> given what I told you-- and you're a fast thinker-- do you begin to understand the danger of what I'm asking you, and why the exercise is so potent?
[07:48] <Old Man> Yes.
[07:48] <Old Man> If I understand correctly, it won't just reveal how I perceive things, but how I... consider them to be, is that right?
[07:49] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Yes. Which tells you a distressing lot about them.
[07:49] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And yourself and your relationship to them.
[07:49] <Old Man> then what do you see?
[07:49] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Misery.
[07:49] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Exhaustion.
[07:50] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Hoarde.
[07:50] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You?
[07:50] <Old Man> alien.
[07:50] <Old Man> Fascinating.
[07:50] <Old Man> Dangerous.
[07:50] <Old Man> ... Why...
[07:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That's what we're going to find out.
[07:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> These are the keys we'll use to open the doors of each other.
[07:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But as usual, we hae to turn the knives on each other as well.
[07:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> What do you see when you see me?
[07:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Rather what words?
[07:52] <Old Man> Intense.
[07:52] <Old Man> Beautiful.
[07:52] <Old Man> Weary.
[07:52] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> ...
[07:53] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well for you I have.
[07:53] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Judgemental.
[07:53] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Afraid.
[07:53] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Lazy.
[07:53] <Old Man> Judgemental?
[07:54] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> We'll get to it.
[07:55] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> So explain your words about me.
[07:58] <Old Man> Intense. You approach everyone directly. You rarely sugarcoat things, for good or ill, like you're trying to bulldoze them with your words before they can react or counter. Beautiful ... because that's what I see. I'm not going to lie and make up some justification for it.. Weary - Because you're also tired of it all, and you're trying to hang on to that last bit of socialization that keeps you human.
[08:01] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well, I just think you wasted a word trying to throw me off my game.
[08:01] <Old Man> :P
[08:02] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Judgemental - You try to hide it, but you assess EVERYONE that comes into your path, sometimes very harshly. You sort and categorise them and push them away or bring them closer depending on your analysis, sometimes too harshly.
[08:04] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Afraid - You fear people and their true motivations, because you've been burned so many times. As you described the crowd, theyr'e fascinating to you, but dangerous because of how they would hurt you if they get too close. They're alien because you can't ever really know or trust them.
[08:06] <Old Man> And lazy?
[08:06] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Lazy - You find a comfort zone and stick with it aggressively. You don't like to be pushed out of it. Oh, you say you do, by your friends or traveling companions, but only to a very limited extent.
[08:08] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You are an obstinate, stubborn, almost to the point of impacability old man who was old when he was young.
[08:08] <Old Man> You're no different!
[08:10] <Old Man> You're Just as Stubborn and Just as Mentally old. Which is why I said "Weary." You see that "Hoarde" of people as a source of "Misery" and "Exhaustion" because you can't keep up with them. You wish they would just give you your space and leave you alone.
[08:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But not too alone.
[08:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Just like You.
[08:10] <Old Man> ...Which is why you're beautiful.
[08:10] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Eh? It's not just the legs, the tits and the smoking arse?
[08:10] <Old Man> Don't be stupid.
[08:11] <Old Man> Even through the misery you push forward.
[08:12] <Old Man> Taking the time to reach out and rescue the ones who push you away,
[08:12] <Old Man> Even if it hurts.
[08:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And the rest of it too~? :P
[08:13] <Old Man> What is your problem :P You always do that.
[08:13] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Do what?
[08:13] <Old Man> Unnerve.
[08:14] <Old Man> When you're uncomfortable with a topic you'll change it to something ribald.
[08:14] <Old Man> I said you were beautiful. That word could have so many contexts. You chose to throw it at me in the one way that--
[08:15] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> --That makes you blush, and act the fool?
[08:15] <Old Man> I don't have enough blood left in my body to blush.
[08:16] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I wouldn't say that~
[08:16] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte looks down meaningfully
[08:16] <Old Man> ....! Where are you looking? Stop that!
[08:16] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Hah!
[08:16] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> all too easy.
[08:16] <Old Man> Why you---
[08:16] <Old Man> You're doing it again.
[08:17] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Or maybe I'm pointing out you're not as pure as the driven snow.
[08:17] <Old Man> Or maybe I'm too close to the truth.
[08:17] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> and maybe I am as well.
[08:18] <Old Man> Onore....
[08:18] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte snorts
[08:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I love it.
[08:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> "you" in English just doesn't have the connotation.
[08:18] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But in Japanese you can throw that extra bit of nuance.
[08:23] <Old Man> You're deliberately--
[08:23] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Telling you something that makes you uncomfortable?
[08:23] <Old Man> Changing the subject.
[08:23] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> So are YOU.
[08:24] <Old Man> Yes well My subject is more relevant!
[08:24] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That's not what you wanted to say! Your thoughts leak! You wanted to say important!
[08:25] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Your subject was more important than mine.
[08:25] <Old Man> Well it is.
[08:25] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Why? Because it's scoring a point about me and not you?
[08:25] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You're a f[BLEEP]king interrupter, you know that?
[08:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> you just need to get YOUR point of view out because you're so SURE it's the right one.
[08:26] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And it's MASSIVELY IMPORTANT that you dispense YOUR wisdom to the world because EVERYONE ELSE has got it WRONG.
[08:27] <Old Man> ....
[08:27] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And isn't that how you REALLY LOST--
[08:28] <Old Man> SHUT UP!
[08:28] * Old Man back s away from Paisley, pushing people in the crowd aside without even a thought.
[08:28] <Old Man> I don't need to hear this from YOU.
[08:28] <Old Man> I don't need to hear this from YOU.
[08:29] <Old Man> You just look at people like they're Stimulus machines!
[08:29] <Old Man> Oh, "those two want to f[BLEEP]k each other." "Those too are idiots" "Those two are boring" "She's cute." "She's stupid."
[08:30] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I ONLY DO THAT BECAUSE WHAT THE F[BLEEP]K DO I REALLY KNOW ABOUT PEOPLE
[08:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I'm not YOU, you colossal A[BLEEP]LE.
[08:31] <Old Man> ....
[08:31] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Somehow, for all your introversion and social INEPTITUDE, you MANAGED.
[08:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> YOU DID IT. You found people who LOVED YOU.
[08:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And ...and had some kind of a LIFE.
[08:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Even if later you lost it all.
[08:32] <Old Man> ...
[08:32] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I have always... ALWAYS been at a distance.
[08:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> you, Time Lord, who looks upon this mass of humanity and deems it the Alien?
[08:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> THIS IS WHAT HUMANITY ALWAYS has been to me!
[08:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Despite me BEING BLOODY HUMAN.
[08:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I have NEVER been able to make truly close friends.
[08:33] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> People TOLERATE me.
[08:34] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I look good, so they dont mind me being around, but open my mouth or share an interest? And they LAUGH or LEAVE.
[08:34] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> so F[BLEEP]K you.
[08:34] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte is shaking with anger
[08:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> YOU'VE HAD IT ALL. YOU'VE DONE IT ALL.
[08:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I just OBSERVE AND NEVER INTERFERE
[08:35] <Old Man> .............
[08:35] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That's right. That's Right.
[08:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I'm more of a f[BLEEP]king Time Lord than YOU are, you who just went from one person to another!
[08:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> GLORIOUSLY Interfering and being interfered WITH!
[08:36] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> So don't you tell ME I'm looking at people like they're machines!
[08:36] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte is sobbing now, and slumps to the ground
[08:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> It's all... I've ever been able to do...
[08:38] <Old Man> .....................
[08:38] * Old Man just goes abck over to her and hugs her tight
[08:38] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> f[BLEEP]k off!
[08:38] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte shoves him away
[08:40] * Old Man goes back and hugs her again
[08:40] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Just go away. Leave me alone.
[08:40] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte goes to push him away again, but with less force
[08:40] <Old Man> You're right about me.
[08:40] <Old Man> I'm sorry.
[08:41] <Old Man> I am a judgemental old fool.
[08:41] <Old Man> I never saw it.... your struggle.
[08:41] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte whimpers, not really answering
[08:41] <Old Man> All I saw was how you carried yourself.
[08:42] <Old Man> the mask you put forward, to let you interact with the others.
[08:42] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> There's nothing behind it
[08:42] <Old Man> That's not true.
[08:43] <Old Man> by virtue of your distance, you ARE a keen observer of people.
[08:43] <Old Man> you DO understand the heart.
[08:43] <Old Man> Better sometimes than those who are "in it", so to speak.
[08:43] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Am I doomed to just watch?
[08:49] <Old Man> you've shoved away every attempt to set you up. And Edgeworth was unfortunately more interested in--
[08:49] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Because it wasn't *time*
[08:50] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I always said I'd know.
[08:50] <Old Man> And?
[08:50] <Old Man> Do you know now?
[08:50] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> I think I do.
[08:50] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> And it scares me.
[08:51] <Old Man> I'm sorry I hurt you.
[08:51] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte rubs her eyes.
[08:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Knives hurt when they cut.
[08:51] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte sniffles
[08:51] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> That's the f[BLEEP]king point of it all.
[08:52] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> You can stop hugging me now
[08:52] <Old Man> ....
[08:52] <Old Man> no.
[08:52] * Old Man keeps hugging
[08:53] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte blurts out a laugh and keeps hugging
[08:53] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> All right then. just for a bit more.
[08:53] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> But we do have to keep moving.
[08:53] <Old Man> Paise. Knives hurt when they cut... but wounds will heal, if you let them.
[08:54] * @Paisley Pythia Peinforte looks up at the not so-old Old Man.
[08:54] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Those words, I think you need to take to heart as well.
[08:54] <@Paisley Pythia Peinforte> Well, hearts.
[08:54] <Old Man> Maybe so.
[08:55] *** the Scene shifts again as another layer of dross is cut through.
