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[thedifferencebetween]

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Comments

[thedifferencebetween]

Okay but counterargument, cuz you're sounding like a Foggy right now...You chowing down on those brain dead cultists is basically supporting it. That's saying 'I am okay with this to the extent I'll participate in it'! And I'm only even bothering to try and talk to you about this cuz I really don't wanna lose another friend to some crazy ass doom cult, and for fuck's sake you're smarter than this. You're one of the only people around here who's got a fully working brain! Or so I thought....

[Jack's not gonna knock convenience in general, he's a big fan! Instant gratification, it's awesome! But this whole thing is just creepy. Like face pizza levels of creepy.]

[And Slade's better than this. He's smart, he's rational, he doesn't trust shit.]

You're drinking the friggin koolaid and you better watch it before you're back here next month trying to tell me the Fog's not really that bad....

tftbl flashbacks are a blessing

[ikonsuit]

[ Face pizza is... creepy.

But this is strange. Talking is strange. Anything that isn't planning, giving orders, or hunting for information tends to fall outside of Slade's range of conversation. Rarely is he one to chat — especially about himself — in any significant way. ]

The Fog is that bad. And then some. If I ever start singing Her praise, feel free to take me out. [ Which he wouldn't offer, not even glibly, without knowing how this place works. Death doesn't seem like much when the Fog gives you what seems like infinite re-dos. ]

What's your solution, Jack? We're past the propaganda phase. We've reached the point where the Fog is everywhere. As in always here, always watching. As in I can hear Her.

[thedifferencebetween]

[Jack is silent for a good few moments, just looking at Slade with his unblinking, mismatched eyes.]

You hear her.

[He lets that sit another minute.]

You realize that's not normal, right? Your average Joe Shmoe monster doesn't hear dark gods! Yeah, you need to pull your ass out. Or get a Fog blocking helmet or something because I will take you down if you get any further in, and I know how to keep somebody just at the edge of dead for months. Killing somebody doesn't put them out of commission here, but there's ways. Believe me, there's ways. I'm not even trying to threaten you right now, by the way, I'm just being honest. You're going foggy and that's not okay, Slade.

[ikonsuit]

I imagined this dark god tries to get to everyone in some way or another. Figured it was part of Her strategy. Promise the people what they want and offer them a way to get there. Her way... She hasn't made you an offer once?

[ Still, when you put it all together like this, there's not much room for argument. ]

The mission is to leave this place by any means necessary. That's what I'm beholden to. Pulling out isn't an option.

This? [ He gestures to a space of open air. ] This is collateral damage. Until it isn't. Might not have been noticing them, and I couldn't tell you when they started. But it's a path in.

[thedifferencebetween]

If she's in your friggin head, the mission's already compromised! It's not a path in for you, it's a path in for her! Into you!

[Jack gets up, pacing in agitation, the whirs and clinks of his metal chassis filling the room.]

You....what is wrong with you? Why didn't you look into some sort of protection? Why didn't you take note when you realized you were hearing the bitch in your head? You're a fucking trojan horse now! Cuz no, she has never made me an offer or tried to talk to me. And I don't wanna talk to her, either. Of course she probably knows everything I've friggin said to you now....

[Oh fuck all of this with a rusty buzz axe.]

[ikonsuit]

Protection from the omniscient, ever-powerful, ever-present God who has the strength to bend time and space. Jack, we aren't from the same decade, let alone the same universe. Someone with that kind of power? A heavy-duty tin foil hat should've about covered it, I'm sure.

[ A better explanation for Slade's lack of planning might be his own naivety. Three months in with next to no knowledge about the gods, there was no way of telling just how large a fire he was playing with. ]

Didn't want to talk to her. Didn't ask her to reach out. [ But this is good to know; not everyone is on a first-name basis with their kidnapper. ] I've been tailing one person, an outlier. Javert talks to Her every second of the day, it seems like. Fog follows him; he's got it at his fingertips. Shifts the perception of what's normal and what isn't.

[ Still seated, Slade watches him walk past, and then walk past again. Some of his eyes glance off to take in the scenery. ]

My mind's still my own. She hasn't made it in. It's easy to turn down offers that're too good to be true.

[thedifferencebetween]

Oh Javert's not an outlier, he's just the only one who flaunts it and makes a huge fuss of it. At least these days. The Fog clings to and follows all the high ranking foggies.

[Other Fog voices have been more...quiet. Aside from the handful that's always trying to make people think they're totally nice and good people who just want to help. Bullshit.]

You might not have meant to ask, but yeah, you opened yourself up to this. You know what you are right now?

[Jack stops, hands on his hips, to fix his eyes on Slade again.]

You're the dude who's opened the doors on cosmic horrors from beyond. You're hearing it in your head, you're going to the places it owns...how can you even trust your own mind right now? How much of this is you, and how much of it is whatever influence is already inside of you? And now I gotta deal with being all worried about you and shit, and I hate that. I have way too much to worry about already!

[ikonsuit]

[ Is... Is he being scolded right now? Slade's eyes narrow further, not in anger but out of bewilderment. He hadn't seen someone hands-on-hips him over his terrible life choices since his last talk with his ex-wife.

He has to stand up because being talked down to — literally — is too damn strange. ]

I can trust my mind because I know what it's like to lose it. I've already been there: Gotham's Bedlam with a head stuffed full of cotton, nanochips, and Vicodin that left me doubting my own name. [ It was a strange time. He taps a finger against his temple, just below his horn, and holds it there. ] This isn't that. I know who I am. I know what's important to me. The Fog's not going to take that; I won't let her.

No one's asking you to worry. In fact, it's the last thing I want you to do. You got a kid. I do, too. Keep your worries there.