FORTY ONE ✖ VOICE

[wedonot]

[Charles sounds a little more hoarse and tired than usual, but he rallies enough to just sound serious and professional. This isn't a fun science lecture about genetics or ancient fish this time, but it's still kind of grounding to just lay everything out like this to an audience, asking for feedback.] I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier- [Anyone who was wandering the infirmary after port might have noticed that Charles pretty much camped out in a chair next to Erik's bed for the first four or so days after port, helped him escape back to his room, and since then has been pretty scarce in public areas of the ship.] But as there's been some discussion over what actually happened in port, I thought it might be for the best to provide my observations on what happened, if anyone was interested.

When we first arrived, I felt as if there was something very wrong with the building, but honestly, I couldn't quite explain what it was or why I felt so nervous about it. Obviously things fairly quickly deteriorated, and on the evening of the third day we were there, I was attacked by another warden who had succumbed to the hallucinations fairly thoroughly. [He won't name names, because that's not really the important part.] When he attacked me, I tried to use my telepathy to stop him, but instead of sensing his mind, some other telepathic force intervened and tried to stop me.

I've never encountered anything like it before, but it was certainly sentient, malicious, extremely powerful, and not an organic lifeform the way we - at least, from what I've studied in my time here of life in other universes, because it's certainly not like anything from my world - typically understand it. It almost knocked me unconscious, but I was able to overpower it and it let go of the other warden long enough for me to put him to sleep so he wouldn't harm anyone else if they woke up and whatever it was returned.

I don't know if it was somehow feeding off of our presence in the hotel or what it was hoping to achieve by convincing people to murder their inmates or friends, but if anyone has any further information on creatures or being that might be similar to it, or on what exactly it was trying to do, I would appreciate hearing about it. Thank you.

[Private to Ivy]

[He hesitates a bit before adding anything, because he's not really sure how she'll take to being checked up on. Their conversations usually range from civil to argumentative, so it's a little difficult to get a read on how chummy they actually are or aren't.

Still.]

Are you doing alright?

Comments

[routemistress]

That's what I've been trying to tell people, chuck! It were alive and it wanted something. Oh, I'm cheesed off we 'ad to leave before getting it sorted. Enough of us on it at once, we might 'ave.

[wedonot]

With all due respect, I'm just grateful we were able to leave at all. I'm not sure we would have been able to stop it without destroying the whole damn building.

[routemistress]

[Iris has got the idea from Charles' post that he's a different order of telepath than she is; this, and the fact that they can't go back anyway makes her less argumentative than she might have been otherwise. She has FEELINGS about leaving predatory sentient hotels where other people might fall into them.]

Aye, I'm sure you're right, chuck. I can't talk, I fell right in 'ead first till I come out feet first. But I wish we'd done summat.

Private

[chlorophylliac]

The death toll's passed.

I'm fine.

I've nothing to contribute to your survey, though I sensed an unusual influence over the grounds surrounding the hotel that expanded slightly as our stay there wore on.

Private

[wedonot]

Really? I suppose that explains the hedge animals.

Private

[chlorophylliac]

Territorial expansion is as good a motive as any for a hostile sentience to have, I would think.

[audio]

[magisterus]

There are a great many creatures that span the various worlds -- some ancient, some not.

I've yet to see its like before, but there are magics and other beings capable of usurping the will of another or possessing them.

Had it not been so virulent, identifying the heart of it might have been a simpler task.

[audio]

[wedonot]

What do you mean, identifying the heart of it?

[audio]

[magisterus]

Its most central part or origin.

Though its reach was quite pervasive, there should have been a point where it was possible to strike -- or if not that, a way of drawing it forth and eliminating it as a threat.

Unfortunately, it created too much "white noise", so to speak, to successfully combat its presence.

[tatty_bye]

So generally formless, malicious entities are not something you've ever encountered before?

[wedonot]

That is more or less what I said.

[tatty_bye]

I know. I suppose I am merely surprised. It never ceases to amaze me how the worlds will differ.

video;

[trenchcoatedly]

There were certainly ghosts - and other malevolent unpassed spirits - and dark magic. I sensed it immediately upon our arrival, but I unfortunately wasn't able to cast any more specific spells to discover the cause or desired effect.

[Because he was too busy slaughtering people.]

video;

[wedonot]

That's too bad.

Re: video;

[trenchcoatedly]

My suspicion is that the spirits at hand would have preferred I not know more about them. Usually, that's the case.

[Spam]

[wecanavenge]

[Erik has a lot on his mind, a lot, but at the moment it's a bit overridden but the most hideous sweater he has ever seen. He doesn't bother knocking when he heads over to Charles' room, just barges in holding up the sweater, half bunched in one fist.]

Have you seen the--

[But he stops short, staring at Charles, who is sitting at his desk, and wearing one of the awful sweaters.

Oh, Charles.]

You're not wearing that, are you?

[Spam]

[wedonot]

[Charles dutifully looks up from the book he was thumbing through, taking in Erik and then the sweater (?) he's holding, and while he wants to know what's apparently upset his friend this much (not that storming into his room uninvited was a really unusual occurrence), the question/accusation is commanding most of his attention right now.

Because yes, he is wearing his new sweater. Which, to be fair, is only three colors and doesn't sparkle.]

Yes. So?

[Spam]

[wecanavenge]

[It's still ridiculous, Charles, and Erik is just giving him a look. You have no taste. But yours also isn't hideous and that isn't fair. He tosses his sweater to Charles.]

Maybe you'd like mine as well.

[darknessb4me]

And you - just overpowered it?

[wedonot]

Temporarily, yes.

Private

[darknessb4me]

[Sharp:]

How.

Video

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara's voice is grim, her gaze weary.]

I've been wondering if it feeds off negative emotion.

There's a creature like that in my world, an energy being called the Antithesis. It manipulates peoples' darker impulses, growing stronger the more chaotic and violent things get.

Video

[wedonot]

How can it be stopped?

Video

[bodilesswarrior]

As far as I know - it can't, not permanently. It can be banished, though, to the dimension it came from. We've been calling it limbo.

video

[unweeping_willow]

Wants souls. [Her tone is a little subdued.]

It's a demon house.