[07:23am] Quaker: -
[07:23am] Quaker: -
[07:23am] Quaker: -
[07:23am] Quaker: -
[07:23am] Quaker: -
[07:23am] Quaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPU8XJcA__k
[07:27am] Quaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyP9_O4RuSw&t=3032s
[07:29am] Quaker: The sky is a dim and pale red. If they were to try to look at the sun, they would see that it’s hidden behind pink clouds, which darken and lighten from time to time. All that’s here with them is four bodies, and the endless fields of red flowers, divided only by the white marble pathways that continue on out past their sight, and the white pavilion they sit in.
[07:30am] Crion_: Cav: "We could be in serious trouble."
[07:30am] Quaker: The two of them know that there are versions of themselves on the tables, and another version of Cavanaugh sitting there, and
[07:30am] Quaker: is on the table.
[07:31am] Crion_: How's the woman on the table positioned?
[07:31am] Crion_: And does Frost appear to know who she is?
[07:31am] VoxPVoxD: Yeah.
[07:31am] Crion_: Well, shit.
[07:32am] Quaker: The woman’s table lays at the head of the other two, between and above, like so:
[07:32am] Quaker:     I
[07:32am] Quaker: I                I
[07:33am] Crion_: I'm all like...fully dressed, right? This isn't some weird sex shit?
[07:33am] Crion_: Cav would never live that down.
[07:34am] Quaker: Which Cav?
[07:35am] Quaker: The audience at the auction waits for another item to be brought out. Tommy can make out words in the low murmur around him - it’s not English, most of the time. Or Spanish. The faceless auctioneer raises his hands.
[07:35am] Crion_: Any of them. It would be bad if any of them were involved in weird sex shit.
[07:36am] Quaker: The Cav on the table is naked under a white sheet that’s been drawn over his whole body. The other two are clothed.
[07:37am] Crion_: Cav: "Well. I guess now we've seen each other naked."
[07:38am] Crion_: "We're fast friends, Baron Hollywood."
[07:38am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I knew this was a sex thing."
[07:38am] VoxPVoxD: "And yet, here I am anyway."
[07:38am] Crion_: Cav: "Seems too high budget for a sex thing."
[07:38am] Crion_: "If we're being honest with ourselves."
[07:39am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Kubrick got 70 million for Eyes Wide Shut. And that was 90s money."
[07:39am] Crion_: "Please tell me you have some idea that doesn't involve mutilating these bodies or wandering out to see if we can find a wall."
[07:39am] Quaker: The rest of the audience seems to be putting in ear plugs.
[07:40am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I don't know. This is even less my field than yours."
[07:43am] Crion_: "Great." Cav sighs. "Okay. You start with everyone that's not me. I'll start with everyone that's me."
[07:45am] Crion_: "We're looking for anything out of the ordinary. Tattoos that shouldn't be there, strange wounds -- like stigmata, so on -- birthmarks we don't remember having. We know ourselves pretty well. As for her...just look for anything weird."
[07:46am] Quaker: The auctioneer doesn’t move as a little platform appears beside him. On it is a perfectly red flower, cut just below the petals.
[07:46am] Crion_: "She doesn't strike me as the type to have any tattoos except maybe a heart above her left ankle. Or something."
[07:46am] Quaker: Tommy can hear something.
[07:47am] Quaker: A few in the audience turns to glance at him.
[07:48am] Crion_: Cav: "And if nothing jumps out at you, move on to the tables, the chairs, and then I dunno. This whole structure."
[07:49am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I take it this was not part of the program?"
[07:49am] Crion_: Cav: "Buddy, if I could do this, you think I'd lead with the acoustic guitar?"
[07:50am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I suppose not."
[07:51am] Crion_: Cav: "How much you think it'd cost to Truman Show us like this?"
[07:51am] Quaker: Cav remembers going over this with Leisurely. Not *this*, but the theory of the chrysalis. She said that each transformational sequence was unique to the Coil, and that each sequence was conditioned by the psychic mood and emotional history of the participant. The basic task would remain the same, though - ignore everything else, and complete the symbols of the Coil. Make the metaphor real, as it were.
[07:52am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Just this much? Not that much. Maybe 250 grand. Cut it down to 50 if you write off the bodies."
[07:52am] Quaker: Wilson notices something about his body on the table. It’s not…it’s like it was before. Before he was embraced. His face is just his face. There is no deformity.
[07:53am] Quaker: It is, however, completely lifeless. He is cold to the touch.
[07:53am] Quaker: Cav’s body, next to it, is warm.
[07:53am] Crion_: Cav: "Not sure if that's reassuring or not." Cavanaugh stands back up. "I don't want to alarm you, but I think this is supposed to be someone's Chrysalis."
[07:53am] VoxPVoxD: Heartbeat?
[07:54am] Quaker: No for Wilson. Yes for Cav.
[07:54am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Your body's still alive."
[07:54am] Crion_: "Yeah, I was afraid that might happen."
[07:55am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Do you need some privacy?"
[07:55am] Crion_: Cav: "No. You probably don't want to go wandering off, anyway."
[08:00am] Quaker: Now the rest of the audience is looking at Tommy. Some are shaking their head. Others shrug and share laughs with each other.
[08:02am] Quaker: It’s probably not a coincidence that the walls and ceiling of the auction floor are becoming nearly transparent, or that he can see beyond them.
[08:03am] Quaker: Wilson and Cav both look at the body of the woman in their own time. Both notice something about it.
[08:05am] Quaker: The last time Cav saw her, there was a long scar running down the side of her body, from right under the armpit to the top of her thigh, and another scar where her stomach had been cut up and then healed. Both are gone.
[08:05am] Quaker: The last time Wilson saw her, she had no scars. But he knew how she died. There would have been marks around her neck.
[08:06am] Crion_: Cav: "...How do you know her?"
[08:08am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Laura was my sire."
[08:08am] Crion_: Cav: "Wait, fucking what?"
[08:09am] Crion_: "Laura?"
[08:09am] Crion_: "...Okay, describe the woman you're looking at."
[08:09am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Do you see your sire?"
[08:09am] Crion_: "I do."
[08:10am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Then if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not. We're clearly not related."
[08:10am] VoxPVoxD: "Though it makes you wonder what else we're not seeing the same."
[08:10am] Crion_: "Well, we're agreed on two Cavs and a Wilson otherwise, right?"
[08:11am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Yeah. I'm dead and pretty."
[08:12am] Crion_: Do the corpses have blood in them? Could we feed off them if necessary? Or are they just very very good simulacra?
[08:12am] Quaker: Cav does. The others don’t.
[08:14am] Quaker: Cavanaugh, in the chair, balls his fists and screams.
[08:15am] Crion_: Cav: "FUCK!"
[08:15am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson starts.
[08:15am] Crion_: "SHUT UP! FUCKING SHUT UP!"
[08:16am] Crion_: This is a bad, bad trip.
[08:19am] Quaker: Does Cav remember what Leisurely taught him about the structure of relationships he’d be altering?
[08:20am] Quaker: Something occurs to Wilson, though.
[08:23am] Crion_: Well, if the other him would just stop screaming, he's sure it'll come back to him.
[08:26am] Quaker: Leisurely told him how it worked. The consciousness inhabits the body, mind, and soul. In his chrysalis, the petitioner inhabits the soul, empowering it to enact change upon what he wishes to change.
[08:27am] Crion_: Cav: "Okay so--"
[08:27am] Crion_: Is that idiot still screaming?
[08:29am] mattbaby joined the chat room.
[08:29am] Quaker: Occasionally
[08:29am] Quaker: .
[08:30am] Crion_: "So--" Jesus. "--worst case scenario is, we're in my head. Or in my Beast. I might have dragged you into a second stage of my Chrysalis."
[08:30am] Crion_: "That's the worst case scenario."
[08:31am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "...what's the next-worst case scenario."
[08:31am] Crion_: "We're in someone else's fucked up, aborted nightmare Chrysalis."
[08:32am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Why just us?"
[08:32am] Crion_: "I guess that might actually be worse for you. It'd be less embarrassing for me, personally."
[08:32am] Crion_: "Well, the stupid answer is, you happened to be standing too close to me when the switch flipped on this thing."
[08:33am] Crion_: "But I get the feeling there should be more to it than that."
[08:33am] Crion_: "Especially given that you're...represented."
[08:33am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I don't like this."
[08:33am] Crion_: Cav pauses. "It couldn't be YOUR Chrysalis, could it?"
[08:34am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I don't even know what a Chrysalis is."
[08:34am] Crion_: Cav: "Well that would explain a lot, really."
[08:34am] Crion_: He sighs. "Anyway. So, the deal with the Chrysalis, according to Leisurely Foster: The consciousness inhabits the body, mind and soul."
[08:35am] Crion_: "You'll note we have three dead, naked corpses."
[08:35am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "So which is which?"
[08:35am] Crion_: "Now, in his Chrysalis, the petitioner inhabits the soul, empowering it to enact change upon what he wishes to change."
[08:36am] Crion_: "I'm guessing our--" There he goes again. "--our friend here, Screaming Clinton, is the petitioner."
[08:36am] Crion_: "But then, that makes no sense, right?"
[08:36am] Crion_: "He's human. Ish."
[08:36am] Crion_: "Mortal."
[08:36am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Yeah."
[08:36am] Crion_: "Mortals can't undergo Chrysalis."
[08:37am] Crion_: "So maybe instead of the petitioner, he's the body."
[08:37am] Crion_: "...Or maybe he's unrelated. Shit."
[08:37am] Crion_: "He kind of has to be either the petitioner or the soul, doesn't he?"
[08:41am] Crion_: Cav: "I gotta be looking at this the wrong way. One sec."
[08:41am] Crion_: He takes one biiig step back, then begins sidling around the pavilion one huge sidestep at a time.
[08:47am] hrolf joined the chat room.
[08:47am] Quaker: The version of himself in the chair seethes with anger. The cries and screams don’t seem to be from pain, but…he can feel it, pouring off of him. He doesn’t even need the auras that he’s heard about. The Cavanaugh in the chair seems to be emanating a horrible sense of rage, of malice, self-hatred, fear, madness…and hunger. Something stirs in Cav. He’s felt it before. Tugging at his control, whispering in the back of his head with not fully formed words, the place that he seems to drift for a moment before he can fully react.
[08:47am] Quaker: drift into*
[08:48am] Crion_: It could be his Beast...except for the fact that it's quite clearly mortal.
[08:50am] Quaker: Wilson finds himself looking around while Cav makes his round of examination. Funny….something’s shimmering in the air above…well, above the woman lying on the table. It’s about three feet in the air above her.
[08:50am] VoxPVoxD: Uh
[08:50am] VoxPVoxD: What?
[08:51am] Crion_: From across the room: "If anything weird happens, just go with it!"
[08:51am] VoxPVoxD: What's shimmering here?
[08:52am] Quaker: The air above her. It’s like….bending. Warping?
[08:52am] VoxPVoxD: Is it bending into anything in particular or is it just a distortion in the air?
[08:54am] Quaker: It’s hard to say…but for a moment, the air resolves into something like…a chair? Someone sitting in a chair? But it’s just for a moment, and then it returns into something indistinctly hazy.
[08:56am] VoxPVoxD: Can Wilson get up and touch it?
[08:56am] Quaker: He can. Does he reach to touch it?
[08:57am] Quaker: He just has to get up on the table the woman’s on, but she’s not complaining.
[08:57am] VoxPVoxD: She wouldn't.
[08:57am] VoxPVoxD: Alright, let's get up on the table.
[08:58am] Crion_: Cav is still making his big circuit of the pavilion when he sees Wilson start to climb. Well. He did say go with it.
[09:02am] Quaker: Hup! The air seems…a bit more solid, up close. Wilson can hear something very, very faintly.
[09:02am] Quaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpW7iYfuGDU&t=4098s
[09:14am] Quaker: “Cavanaugh”’s jaw clenches so tightly Cav can see blood roll down his chin.
[09:16am] Crion_: Is there anything to gag the idiot with?
[09:16am] mattbaby left the chat room. (Ping timeout: 121 seconds)
[09:16am] Quaker: His hands tighten on the arms of the chair, and he starts to stand up.
[09:16am] Quaker: Hmm…one of the sheets?
[09:17am] VoxPVoxD: What the hell?
[09:17am] Crion_: Muttering: "If I'm the petitioner, then, what am I supposed to be inhabiting?"
[09:19am] Crion_: To Wilson from across the room: "Screaming Clinton's starting to move around. Watch your ankles."
[09:23am] Crion_: He's reached something of an impasse. There's something very clear and obvious that this pavilion seems to be trying to tempt him to do -- and under no circumstances does he intend to feed on himself.
[09:23am] Crion_: Screaming Clinton might force the issue, though.
[09:25am] Quaker: He doesn’t seem to be doing much except standing, at the moment.
[09:33am] Quaker: Leisurely said: The symbolic medium of change in the chrysalis is always blood. Life is given through the blood - change is enacted through the blood - the mind and the soul are tethered to the body by blood. Ownership, parentage…regardless of intent, or origin, or desire, there is only ever one way to begin any alteration of the triune structure of consciousness.
[09:34am] VoxPVoxD: Well, this doesn't make a lick of sense.
[09:34am] Crion_: Cavanaugh completes his circuit of the room and sighs.
[09:34am] Crion_: Cav: "You know what it's gotta be, though."
[09:34am] Crion_: "The symbolic medium of change in the Chrysalis is always blood."
[09:34am] Crion_: "Only one guy here's got the blood."
[09:35am] Crion_: "Question is, do I have to feed or just spill it?"
[09:36am] Crion_: "The mind and the soul are tethered to the body by blood..."
[09:36am] Quaker: Cav and Wilson both have their blood, of course.
[09:37am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Do you want to break the tether?"
[09:37am] Crion_: Wait, no they don't. Cavanaugh and Wilson have vitae...right? Shit, are they different for this purpose? Cav can't remember.
[09:37am] Crion_: He was really hoping the guitar thing would do it.
[09:38am] Crion_: To Wilson: "Not particularly. Wholeness of mind, soul, and body seems a lot more prudent."
[09:38am] Crion_: "Screaming Clinton here represents, I think, my uh. Fight Club rage."
[09:39am] Crion_: "I have anger issues I've been working on. So here he is."
[09:39am] Crion_: "Now, I put it to you: if you murder the physical manifestation of your anger issues, have you really made progress?"
[09:40am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Did you do it calmly?"
[09:41am] Crion_: Cav: "I haven't done it in any fashion yet. But I don't have my gun on me, and I don't see any knives lying around. Can you kill someone 'calmly' with your bare hands? And is that even preferable to doing it in anger?"
[09:41am] Crion_: "Maybe I should try using vitae first."
[09:42am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I don't know. I'm not a shrink."
[09:42am] Crion_: Cav: "Eh, you could play one on TV."
[09:42am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Maybe."
[09:42am] Crion_: Cav: "Okay. First test."
[09:42am] Crion_: "I'm gonna try feeding my vitae to these corpses."
[09:43am] Quaker: Cavanaugh takes a lurching step towards the bodies on the tables.
[09:43am] Crion_: "Oh fuck off."
[09:43am] Crion_: Cav will go to one of the ones Screaming Clinton isn't at.
[09:45am] Quaker: which one does he pick?
[09:45am] Quaker: Which*
[09:45am] Crion_: We'll start with the more cooperative of the two Clintons.
[09:46am] Crion_: Cav would feel less bad if the consequences were catastrophic to his body, rather than Wilson's or Alicia's. Even fake versions.
[09:47am] Quaker: Cav’s body lays on the table, eyes staring up at the ceiling of the pavilion. It still hasn’t moved, and appears to be completely docile. At least it has a heartbeat. And Cav can tell there’s blood under the hood, flowing like normal.
[09:51am] Crion_: Cav: "If you're the body...that makes...Wilson the mind? And Alicia the soul?"
[09:51am] Crion_: "...Why the hell would Wilson be the mind?"
[09:52am] Crion_: Across the room: "Wilson! Can you think of any reason my Chrysalis would represent you as either my mind or soul?"
[09:52am] Crion_: "...Also, what the hell are you doing?"
[09:53am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson's just sitting on the table with the woman's body. "Not really."
[09:54am] Crion_: "Yeah, me either."
[09:54am] Crion_: "Maybe my subconscious thinks you're really smart."
[09:54am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "You really are fucked up."
[09:55am] Crion_: Cav: "Considering I'm about to bite into my own neck and then snowball my own blood into your naked corpse's mouth, I guess I'd have to agree with you."
[09:56am] Crion_: Cav: "Get ready to tackle Screaming Clinton if he charges me while I'm busy."
[09:56am] hrolf left the chat room. (Ping timeout: 121 seconds)
[09:56am] VoxPVoxD: "...okay."
[09:58am] Quaker: Cavanaugh doesn’t charge, or even scream. He does take another step towards the bodies, though.
[09:58am] Crion_: Cav mutters, "And away we go," lowers his fangs to "his" neck, and tries to bite down as gently as possible while still pulling this off. Hopefully he still has the Kiss in here, or this experiment is going to be short and messy.
[09:59am] Quaker: Tastes great, actually. It has a distinct warmth that surprises Cav. What does he do with a mouthful of blood?
[10:02am] Crion_: He's doing his best to ignore the taste as he hunch-walks over to table-Wilson's body. He's gonna try to feed it like it's a ghoul.
[10:03am] Quaker: Or a baby bird, presumably. Wilson-on-the-table doesn’t move as Cav does his thing and blood falls into his mouth.
[10:04am] Quaker: Wilson on the other table, under the shimmering air, feels all the blood in his body move at once.
[10:04am] mattbaby joined the chat room.
[10:05am] Quaker: How long has it been since he’s blushed with life?
[10:05am] VoxPVoxD: "Urk-"
[10:05am] Quaker: Cavanaugh takes another step towards the bodies. He’s about halfway there.
[10:06am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson blushes almost every day. Hard to drink otherwise. But unusually, he hasn't had a drink in a couple of days.
[10:06am] Crion_: Time to get this moving. "You good?" he says over his shoulder at Wilson as he heads back to table-Cav.
[10:06am] Quaker: It feels different. Novel. Effortless. It feels good, actually.
[10:06am] Crion_: "Oh, and if that woman still looks like your sire, I'm uh, sorry about this."
[10:07am] Crion_: "It's probably not weirder than what I just did, though."
[10:07am] Crion_: Cav leans down and takes another careful bite.
[10:07am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Yeah..."
[10:08am] Quaker: The woman on the table doesn’t move, either. This time, neither Wilson nor Cav can discern that anything has happened when the blood goes in her mouth.
[10:09am] Crion_: "Not getting the impression that did anything."
[10:09am] Crion_: He looks around again. "Not seeing too many more ways to use the tools we've been given here."
[10:10am] mattbaby left the chat room. (Ping timeout: 121 seconds)
[10:10am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Do you think if we sit here long enough the manager'll get mad and explain the point of this to us?"
[10:11am] Quaker: Cavanaugh raises his hand to his mouth and brings his teeth down into the skin. Blood drops everywhere from the tear. He’s going to get to the bodies in a bit.
[10:11am] Crion_: Cav: "No, I think if we sit here long enough Screaming Clinton over there will eventually be Screaming Clinton over here, and I'll have to hurt him to stop him from messing with these bodies."
[10:12am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "And the bodies represent you somehow?"
[10:12am] Crion_: "Well, three bodies, three parts of the whole, and my anger trying to destroy them."
[10:12am] Crion_: "That's all pretty straight-forward. I'm the petitioner."
[10:13am] Crion_: "You're the wild card here. One of the bodies looks different to you, and you're supposedly one of my aspects instead of, I don't know, my mother, or my fourth-grade teacher."
[10:13am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Maybe I got sucked into your brain somehow and poisoned the test."
[10:14am] Crion_: "Now everytime I want to learn a new Coil, you get to come with me on adventures into my fucked up mind. Lucky you."
[10:15am] Crion_: "Outside of ghouling or embracing these three, I'm fresh out of ideas on how to mess with them."
[10:16am] Crion_: Cav sighs. "Which, you know what, fuck it. I'm giving some back, buddy." Cav walks over to table-Cav and rolls up a sleeve.
[10:16am] Crion_: "Drink up."
[10:17am] Quaker: Cavanaugh has gnawed his hand off, and left it behind him. His arm leaves a stream of blood on the white stone of the pavilion’s floor.
[10:17am] Quaker: Does Cav have a knife or something on him? Or is he going to do it the old fashioned way?
[10:18am] Crion_: "Buddy, don't make me come over there." Cav's already opened up a wrist with his fang. Like popping a bottle cap, just, you know. Down the street instead of across the way.
[10:20am] Quaker: Cavanaugh just looks back. His eyes are bottomless pools of molten gold.
[10:20am] Quaker: Cav’s blood falls into Cav’s mouth.
[10:20am] Quaker: Cav wakes up on the table.
[10:21am] Crion_: "Morning."
[10:21am] Quaker: To Wilson, it looks like the naked Cav suddenly disappeared. And the clothed Cav, the one he came in with, is now laying on the table.
[10:22am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Cavanaugh?"
[10:22am] Crion_: Cav: "Which one?"
[10:23am] Quaker: The petals of the flowers move as a wind passes through them. It spreads out like a ripple among them. The three of them in the pavilion can see it pass out to the horizon.
[10:23am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Does the you on the table look different to you now?"
[10:23am] VoxPVoxD: "What just happened?"
[10:23am] Crion_: He looks down at himself. "Nah, I think it's pretty much the same."
[10:24am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson looks around and realizes what seems to have happened. "...is that it, then?"
[10:24am] Crion_: "Some kind of cross between a mystery play and incest."
[10:24am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "This is why I don't watch Game of Thrones."
[10:24am] Crion_: Where's Screaming Clinton?
[10:24am] Quaker: Cav on the table begins to fade away. They can watch him become more translucent by the moment.
[10:24am] Crion_: He still slouching his way on over?
[10:25am] Quaker: He’s not slouching, anymore. He’s standing up straight, looking at the scene.
[10:25am] Crion_: Has he at least stopped moving forward?
[10:28am] Quaker: He has. He speaks. “I.” He looks down at his hands. and grips the one remaining, as if flexing it. He takes a deep breath, and looks up at the sky. “The air.” He seems to notice the two of them, and smiles. It doesn’t…feel good to see him do it.
[10:28am] Quaker: “You. The Soul. Awake again. I heard you.”
[10:29am] Crion_: Cav keeps his distance. "And what are you?"
[10:30am] Quaker: Cavanaugh thinks about it. “I am…” His brow creases in frustration. “Old…across time….”
[10:31am] Crion_: To Wilson: "You think everyone's manifestation of inner rage is this, uh. Dumb?"
[10:31am] Quaker: His eyes fall on the woman on the table. “She said to me, when I was asleep…”
[10:31am] Quaker: Cavanaugh falls silent for a moment. Then:
[10:31am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I have to assume."
[10:33am] Quaker: “Your eyes have pleaded with me for a song
[10:33am] Quaker: Among flowers and stars, day and night, in the dusty light of dusk
[10:33am] Quaker: You wonder why I do not sing
[10:33am] Quaker: I lost my lyrics in my pain, I forget my tune
[10:34am] Quaker: You have called to me in the fierce storm wind
[10:34am] Quaker: From upon wild waters
[10:34am] Quaker: In the thunder of mute clouds
[10:34am] Quaker: In monsoon torrents, you have called me towards death
[10:34am] Quaker: You wonder why I do not come
[10:34am] Quaker: I cannot find my way to you across seas
[10:35am] Crion_: Guessing Cav doesn't have his phone in here to transcribe that.
[10:35am] Crion_: But also guessing that somehow, that won't be one of the things that slips his mind, thanks to the curse.
[10:37am] Quaker: Cavanaugh stops. He nods. “It must be close. Thank you. Soon, I will be myself again. And I will remember you, when you are gone, and I have placed you in the sleep of peace forever.” Where his hands were, there are only black feathers, spreading up his arms, running up his legs, and then he crouches, and changes. A great avian form beats its wings and lifts off into the sky.
[10:37am] Crion_: Cav: "Yeah, fuck you too, buddy."
[10:37am] Crion_: Did he sing all that?
[10:38am] Quaker: He sang the part that was a song. He spoke the rest.
[10:38am] Quaker: The bird disappears into the red sky.
[10:38am] Crion_: ...How good was his voice?
[10:39am] Quaker: It was excellent. He sang in a language that wasn’t English. But they could understand it all.
[10:39am] Crion_: Goddammit!
[10:39am] Crion_: The manifestation of Clinton's rage has a better voice than he does!
[10:39am] Crion_: Cav might be starting to feel a bit light-headed.
[10:41am] Quaker: Maybe he just needs vocal training. Anyway, the moment seems to have passed. The two of them are left with a body of Wilson, the body of the woman, the shimmering air above the woman, and an otherwise empty pavilion. The great hum that they heard upon entering fades away. The only sound is the other, more distant sounds Wilson heard in the shimmering air.
[10:41am] Crion_: Cav: "...Was kind of hoping they'd send us back now."
[10:41am] Crion_: "What's that noise?"
[10:46am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "I think a boat?"
[10:46am] VoxPVoxD: "I got up on the table to try and hear it clearer but no luck."
[10:47am] Crion_: Cav: "Well that doesn't sound thematic."
[10:47am] Crion_: "Maybe it's an actual boat."
[10:47am] Crion_: "Try reaching around. See if there's a door there."
[10:47am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson grabs at the air.
[10:49am] Quaker: His hand disappears into the shimmer, but he can feel his fingers brush against something solid. If he grabs hold, his hand can fit around something long and thin.
[10:49am] VoxPVoxD: Is it attached to anything? Can he pull it out?
[10:51am] Quaker: It’s attached to something a bit larger. When Wilson pulls, it’s like…you know when you tug at a balloon from its string, how it jerks towards you but then floats back up, and you have to keep pulling it along? Anyway, it comes pretty easily and weightlessly. Wilson gets his hand back, and it’s holding someone’s leg, attached to a foot. Presumably the rest is attached further up.
[10:51am] VoxPVoxD: Someone sitting in a chair?
[10:51am] Crion_: Clinton's eyebrows are arching further up as this pantomime plays out.
[10:52am] VoxPVoxD: Can Wilson like... pull them down? Carry them down to the table level?
[10:52am] Quaker: If he pulls a bit farther, he’ll see the leg of a folding metal chair, yes.
[10:53am] Quaker: Wilson’s tugging drags the rest out. Tommy floats above them, seated on a chair, bathed in white light. Both his hands are bleeding from wounds in the middle. He doesn’t seem to be too aware of his surroundings, but at least he’s smiling in a placid sort of way.
[10:54am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson: "Huh."
[10:54am] Crion_: I mean, sure.
[10:54am] Quaker: The white light chimes twice. It sounds so beautiful. Tommy’s chair begins to lift higher. It’ll lift Wilson with it if he holds on.
[10:54am] Crion_: Cav: "You think that's really Tommy?"
[10:54am] Crion_: "Oh shit, hold on,"
[10:55am] VoxPVoxD: Wilson holds on.
[10:55am] Quaker: And Cav? The chair is starting to go up.
[10:55am] Crion_: We're riding on out of here, boys.
[10:58am] Quaker: Cav’s added weight doesn’t seem to slow it down. The white light moves down and winds around their hands, grasping back. As it rises, the chair and Tommy seem to split the roof of the pavilion ahead of them. The white marble dissolves into a shower of red petals, and they soar up through the blizzard into the sky.
[10:59am] Quaker: They can see further now. The fields of red flowers continue on, forever.
[10:59am] VoxPVoxD: That's pretty.
[11:00am] Crion_: Cav's less able to appreciate the aesthetics than Wilson. Red flowers? What's THAT mean?
[11:01am] Quaker: Tommy takes them further, past the pink clouds. Above them, the sky has changed. They can see stars that they might recognize from looking up at night, living in Orange County. There’s Orion’s belt, and Andromeda. The night sky isn’t yet fully black. They can see traces of blue from where the light hasn’t fully left. The moon is full and white.
[11:02am] Crion_: I can show you the world~
[11:02am] Quaker: The chair drifts into a bank of clouds.
[11:03am] Quaker: There’s a bump as they roam sightlessly, and then several bumps, and then -
[11:04am] Quaker: Tommy, Wilson, and Cav spill out onto a carpeted floor, banging into several other metal chairs, rolling and bouncing off a row of seats with a loud metal crash. The rest of the audience of the auction is now completely distracted. Several patrons throw their hands up in annoyance.
[11:04am] Quaker: K.J. and Frances Yuan look back, surprised.
[11:04am] Crion_: Cavanaugh stands up and nods at KJ and Frances with a grimace.
[11:04am] mattbaby joined the chat room.
[11:05am] Quaker: They can hear the P.A. address the audience: “Bidders are, once again, *strongly* reminded to protect themselves against the latent effects of items being displayed, ownership will *not* cover any damages or personal injury-“
[11:05am] Crion_: That's what everyone gets. A smile and a nod, like this is all the most reasonable thing in the world -- while Cav swiftly heads either for an empty seat or the exit, whichever is less conspicuous.
[11:07am] Quaker: Nobody stops them from taking seats. Cav, though, feels someone standing behind him. “You know, you’re supposed to have an invitation,” says Trubee.
[11:07am] Quaker: NEXT WEEK: Forty seven missed calls