Recording #002 | June Log

[the_archive]

WHO | Jon and OTA.
WHAT | DITL mostly, with a few starts in the comments. Feel free to run into Jon anywhere mentioned. He's flexing his Knowing, so if you're interested in dropping some knowledge, that'd be lovely.
WHERE | The Castle, Thorne, the Library, the Dungeon
WHEN | Post-Festival through the rest of June

Realizing that his connection to the Eye is whole again rather soured the end of the Festival for Jon. He spent a day behind the curtains in his room, enduring a headache, but now that's settled down to a mute throb, he's walking off the rest of it while he wrestles with himself.

It's not a surprise, this reconnection. Ambrose told him the respite would only be for a few days. And it's not explicitly unwanted. There are a lot of questions to which he needs answers, and he knows he can seek out those answers, but not without some cost. He knows he'll do it, since the information isn't only for himself. He has to work up the courage.

And he hasn't read a statement in over two weeks now, which is... troublesome. Despite taking full advantage of the dining hall daily (okay, nearly daily), he's aware of a constant vague hunger.

So the walking is as much distraction as exploration. He's going to wear out his sandals pacing the corridors of the castle and the aisles of the library, walking out into the town. He mostly confines his town visits to mid-day, when folk are often too busy to waylay an "honoured guest."

Comments

[the_archive]

Jon looks up before his steps pause, the line between his brows deepening. "Very astute of you. You have a little something in your hair."

[not_caroline]

"Probably." She shifts along the branch a little, so she can tilt backwards off it like a gym bar, hanging by just her knees so she's upside down on his face level, arms folded across her chest to keep her shirt down; there's more light down here, but it just makes the cracks in her bark deeper from shadows that are a bit too sharp for the ambient light. Her hair hangs upside down in stiff branches that make her look even scrawnier, like a diminished Christmas tree. "I do a lot of tree-climbing when I can. They make me feel safe."

[the_archive]

It's an interesting effect, and he can't help but smile. It's so good to see her out here. And out of the prison rags.

"I would too, with camouflage like that. If I liked heights."

[not_caroline]

The shock is a whole-body effect: her eyes widen, just a little, her hair trembles like a branch as the rest of her goes very, very still. If she wasn't wearing clothes you'd almost be able to mistake her as a particularly weird branch.

But it passes in a moment, and instead she unfolds her arms, swinging to get some momentum so she can slam a fist into Jon's shoulder - before using it to fold up and swing easily back up to sitting on the branch. Her words are a mutter, bitter and - a little panicked. "Fuck you, of course Mister Know-It-All can see through my fucking Mask."

[the_archive]

He's more startled than hurt by the punch, but he takes a stumbling step back all the same, holding his shoulder. Someday, he'll get used to people randomly lashing out. It is not today.

He stares up at her in concern. "That's the other face, isn't it? This is actually you?"

[not_caroline]

She pulls one knee up and curls both arms around it, resting her chin on her knee so she can glower down at Jon defensively.

"It's what I used to look like. Before." She lifts a hand to push an escaped branch of hair out of her face. "People aren't supposed to see what we really look like, it makes them freak out. Magic isn't supposed to be real on our world, but we're proof of it, so. It's kind of mind melty."

At least she's been paying attention to some things Hunter had been telling her.

[the_archive]

"I got my mind melted some time ago. No freaking out." He leans against a lower branch, arms folded casually. "I didn't know this was something private, I just assumed you were showing off."

[not_caroline]

"I mean. I was." The admission's only a little bit guilty. "But it was the 'hiding in trees' bit, not my mien. I've started getting my magic back, that's like. The easiest thing I can do."

[the_archive]

He sighs, and looks aside for a moment, and then nods a tiny bit to himself. "My 'magic,' it comes from something called the Eye. Or It Knows You, some people call it that. It's an entity made of fear, very specific fears about being seen or known or exposed..." He shrugs slightly, shoulders stiff. "So it makes sure I always know just the thing someone wishes I didn't. I'm sorry."

[not_caroline]

Coraline's eyes narrow slightly as Jon talks, but it's not completely judgemental as much as just. Unimpressed. Largely to hide the discomfort from the Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known, but since that's apparently Jon's whole thing...

Her response is just a measured hum, as she moves to jump out of the tree completely. It's habit, not showing off, that makes her land completely silently on bare feet, barely even kicking up dust. She's not heavy at all. "The way you're describing it makes it sound like you sure didn't choose your shitty Cthulhu," she comments evenly. "Is that why you got kidnapped?"

[the_archive]

He huffs a laugh, not entirely without humor. "No. I was... selected. To be the Archivist, a living record of unpleasant things. I was kidnapped because another servant, of a different fear, wanted to use me in their ritual to bring their fear into my reality to rule the world. That fear, the Stranger, and the Eye are enemies. I would have been a powerful prop for them - not that they'd have succeeded anyway." He rubs the back of his neck, then stops himself, pulling his fingers away from the scar there.

[not_caroline]

That's rough, buddy.

Coraline grimaces a little. "I feel like you'd fit in well on my world." Horrifying entities forcing their will upon those unfortunate enough to catch their eye is incredibly homey. "Even since you're still human."

[the_archive]

He makes a face, and shakes his head. "I just get to still look like I am."

[not_caroline]

She raises an eyebrow at that reaction. "Well, which would you prefer? Looking like yourself and knowing you're all fucked up inside, or looking like what happened to you but no-one else can see it?"

[the_archive]

He acknowledges the point with a nod. "I know it's a privilege, to still wear my own face." Even if he doesn't always feel like he recognizes it, anymore. "Do you want me to see if I can close my eyes to this? Just see the Mask?"

[not_caroline]

She just shrugs, looking away. "You already know what I look like and I know it, so. Do whatever you want, I guess."

It's not like he can take back knowing it now, and that's really the crux of it: that she didn't get a say in him doing so.

[the_archive]

He pushes himself off his branch, dusting dry bark off his clothes and scowling at a bit of sap on the hem of his tunic.

"I'm sorry," he says, again. "And I'll do my best to keep it from happening again. Which is about a 75-percent guarantee," he admitted.

[not_caroline]

Coraline also has a few patches of sticky sap on her, some bark and needles stuck in the folds, but she doesn't seem bothered by them at all.

She gives him a look, staring with an unnerving intensity - but then she shrugs.

"I could hold you to that, you know. You shouldn't make promises you can't a hundred percent keep around me."

[the_archive]

"I can keep the promise to do my best," he assures her, with gentle emphasis. "I can't promise anything for the Eye."

[not_caroline]

"And if it's as much a part of you as my magic's in me, it won't differentiate," she retorts evenly. "It's like... fuck, what's that word Hunter used," she mutters, drumming her fingers in a quick rush along her arm a few times. "Geas, that's it. You'd have to do what you promised or you'll get punished."

[the_archive]

"The Eye is not-" He stops, breathes out, looks away. No, he knows better.

"All right, I understand. No promises, then."

[not_caroline]

She almost rolls her eyes. Actually you know what, she will roll her eyes, and when she looks back at Jon there'll be an odd reversal of sensation, where all the staring his Eyeness gives off is suddenly redirected back at him in dizzying magnitude.

But the sensation passes in just a few seconds, and - well, Jon's certainly aware of the power of Statements. Something just notarised his.

[the_archive]

Oh, he doesn't like that. The sudden sensation- almost a mirroring- makes the hair on the back of his arms stand up, makes the scars Nikola left him seem to twinge, and for a second, he looks away from her. He knows, intellectually, that it was her, but he still has to look around just in case. No. It's just the two of them.

"That's... very interesting."

[not_caroline]

Coraline may take a little bit of private glee in his discomfort. It's hard being not-really-fourteen and not being taken truly seriously by anyone; at the very least doing shit like that makes her feel a little more in-control.

"Changelings are like that," she replies easily, shrugging as she turns casually away. "A lot of what we do isn't anything like how they talk about magic in stories."

[the_archive]

"So I've promised not to make promises," he says, tone neutral and careful. He's also careful not to make it a question, but his expression makes it plain - he wants an answer.