12069/15 Fears: Beyond the Pale

15 Fears: Beyond the Pale
Date of Scene:	06 August 2022
Location:	The Velvet Room - Library
Synopsis:	The Justice League Dark gather to discuss the Old Ones, come up with some ideas to gather information, and discover that a certain book was owned by a certain Velvet Room attendant. And, maybe most importantly--their true foe is Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos.
Cast of Characters:	Jonathan Sims, Megan Gwynn, Michael Hannigan, Cael Becker, Chas Chandler, Robbie Reyes, Rien D'Arqueness

---

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The Velvet Room library has been set up for a meeting, with coffee and tea service, chairs pulled into a large circle, the lighting turned up /just/ a bit. There's also a large whiteboard with various-colored markers, and a corkboard--yes, a corkboard, with various items pinned to it, although no red string. We're not going /that/ far into madness here, folks.

    As people arrive and gather, Jon--standing near the whiteboard, with a heavy mug of tea in one hand and a black marker in the other--says, "Thank you all for being here. I don't know how much any of you know about what's been going on of late, but, ahh--well. We've been targeted by servants of the Old Gods, directly, and this meeting is meant for us to pool our information and maybe start to figure out why and what to do about it."

    He gestures at the whiteboard and corkboard. "I know all this might look a little... umm... crazy?" A chuckle. "But really it's meant to help us lay out information in a way that'll... make sense. So. First off... does anyone have any questions about... well. What the Old Ones even /are/? I've read Lovecraft but I'm not certain everyone has, you know?" A pause. "But it really is a lot of Lovecraft. In that vein."

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn is not totally out of the loop, but kinda. Something to do with spiders and marionettes and someone posing as Rien is all she knows. So when she steps in and finds a seat, she just stares blankly at the complex looking chart on the whiteboard, biting her lip. Maybe she should have ordered some coffee too!

Michael Hannigan has posed:
As he sets foot into the library. It appears that one Michael Hannigan is in a good mood. Dressed in his Goodwill-esque attire and wearing a soft smile upon his face, there is little evidence to the call to come here having any dampening effect to his emotional state.

How annoying.

Either way, the musician is here, a hand reaching into his pocket momentarily before sliding back out to give a wave of greeting to those who take the moment look his way. There probably would have been a "Good Whatever time of day it is here. Just let it be a good one." thrown in as well if it wasn't apparent that the meeting was starting. And being he wasn't one of the ones targeted, he does need the summary provided. And then there's the prompt asking if people want to know what the old ones even are. Which...seems like an important thing to know.

"An explanation to what they are would be nice." Mike pipes up, eliminating the need to wait for someone to take the bait.

Cael Becker has posed:
    With Jon at the whiteboard, Cael has pulled up a chair right there beside it. Apparently proximity is still a thing for her - she'll probably get over that in a few days time. Seated in front of her, with his head in her lap and his vest on, is her nigh ever-present companion, Bear, accepting her idle pets and scratches with one hand, while Cael sips coffee from a mug held in her right hand.
    She nods in agreement with Mike. "Honestly, I could use a run down. All I know is what I've- well, read off the internet. And who knows how accurate that shit was?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas has a compiled works of said novelist in his hands and has been looking it over casually while waiting for the meeting to start. He's got a glass of water nearby, or it at least -looks- like water. "When you are stepping into a war, sometimes you have to look a little crazy to start" he says casually at Jon's words and sips his water. "Not to mention Lovecraft supposedly died insane, and we're getting closer to the source of it than he ever did. Or maybe that was the syphillis." He shrugs.

    "Old Gods, Great Old Ones, Dead Gods, The Formless are entities that exist outside of time and space. They are the remnants of the First Gods who were destroyed when Oa broke the First Firmament, which was a war of the gods before the existence of much else. They were sealed behind the wall of Nullspace and from that nightmare prison, they went further insane in their thrashing captivity."

    He takes another sip of the water to wet his throat. "TLDR? They're big bads that want to make reality their playground by unravelling it like a skein of yarn. Which is something they can do at will if allowed."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie's hunkered down at one of the couches toward the back, possibly so he doesn't bother anyone else with the clove he's surreptitiously smoking. He's in jeans and one of his old, worn out hoodies-- with the hood pulled up like he thinks he's a gangster.

This is feeling a little too much like high school for his liking, though he does try to pay attention to what's being said.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien enters the library accompanied by the scent of MORE PASTRIES. This time it's an assortment of danishes, paczkis, and donuts.. as well as a few more jammy dodgers and shortbread biscuits for the british folk. She may have co-opted Robbie into helping carry again. Setting the treats down, she also tosses a rather large ball of red string towards Jon with a grin, "Figured we might need this before the night is through. Some of these things get complicated, after all, and some of the connections aren't very intuitive."

She'll go for a nice cup of a good dark french roast coffee, no cream or sugar, claiming a blueberry and cheese danish as she gets settled in at one of the tables.

"I've done some research on them before.. you don't go as long as I have, with the people I have, and not run into mentions of Old Ones," Rien frowns faintly and shakes her head. "Which makes this all the more.. unsettling."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon nods. "Suprisingly enough, a lot of what's on the internet is fairly accurate. I think Lovecraft and Derleth and all of those people had some kind of information pipeline--and given what I know of the Old Ones, that's a rather terrifying thought." He sighs, and then peers at Chas. "Oa? First Firmament? We're going to need to talk, I think. But--not now."

    He breaks away from being near Cael long enough to go grab a pastry, offering Rien a smile. "Thanks. Umm, well--so I think that what's going on here, /specifically/ is that while the Old Ones are... rather universal, there are quite possibly different... aspects? Is that the right word?" A pause. "Alright, so--first of all, alternate universes and timelines exist. I've been to one, quite recently, and seen one way to access the multiverse. The beings we're dealing with, the Fears, appear to be timeline-hopping in some fashion, and that was their last stop."

    He glances to Rien again. "I found out how they came here. It seems they were looking for a new universe--one that would have enough resonance with theirs for them to appear as they are--and this one... okay, so we get into time travel here, let me..." He starts drawing on the board. "Alright, so from /their/ perspective, they're in the dark between timelines, looking for somewhere to go. There's a bright beacon through Nullspace--Saint Michael, being dragged through Nullspace when we bound him with negative energy in two different places." A pause, and a cough. "That... was on me. Anyway, so, that beacon leads them /right/ to Rien, who is from another timeline and has deep resonance with Nullspace anyway. So they use Rien to come into this reality. Hence why she's been said to be the 'gateway.'"

    He looks around to the others. "Then they started going back in time to ensure their arrival here--one Fear spoke to me and gave me the idea to bind Michael in two places at once, and tried to interfere in other parts of my life. It's quite possible they've interfered in others' lives in the past as well. I have no idea how far, and I'm not certain it matters. The /important/ thing to be aware of, here, is that they operate outside of time and space. Much of what's going on now is, I believe, an attempt to stop us from doing something in the future."

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn raises a brow at Chas' mention of wars and gods..Oh and of course there were those angels. She bites her lip as she listens, swallowing. Wait what..Multiverses and nullspace and different times and places Suddenly she has a headache and starts rubbing her temples,trying to figure this all out..But remains quiet for now.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike looks over to Chas as he offers his insight to what the Old Gods are. "Ok. So... these guys aren't supposed to be in control of anything right now and they they're playing take backsees.

Ok good. Not Dream then.

The mention of time travel is concerning. And a bit open ended. Imagine having to go analyze all the bad things in the past to determine if any of them were Old Ones influenced. Ugh.

The smile fades as he considers the word usage. Nightmare prison. He looks over to Chas, "Do you mean Nightmare prison as in 'Just don't want to be there' or 'actually containing Nightmares inside'? Those creatures that were at Rien's tower looked similar to a nightmare I met a couple weeks ago." He pauses, "Although the one I met was just a baby and pretty harmless."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Jon," Cael points at one of the pastries, and gives them a hopeful look.
    She couldn't possibly move, she has a //dog// in her lap. Or at least a dog head. Does it work as well as 'cat in my lap'? We'll see.
    She's all smiles when Jon actually bring her back one of the sweets, and she takes a bite - before letting her expression go contemplative.
    "Okay. So terrible horrors from beyond reality and beyond time are manipulating the past to break in and stop us from doing something in the future. So it seems to me - our ultimate goal is to find a way to seal them out of this reality? Or am I not understanding something?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas looks at Jon's bewilderment about Oa and the First Firmament. "Oh... thought you knew about that stuff already..." he says. "Welp... put it on the list. "Also, Jon, slow down some" he gives Megan an apologetic look. "So yeah... basically Cael hit the nail on the head. Our ultimate goal is to make push them back--if we can--and seal whatever cracks they're using to get in and effect us the way they are. Barring that... I mean, I've never heard of a way to bind and contain a god, but it's probably possible in theory."

    Another sip is given to the water. To Mike he frowns. "Well... they -are- Nightmares themselves. Like. The things in Lovecrafts work. C'Thulu, Yog-sothoth, Shub-nigurath. They are all very real and very keen on driving humanity and everyone else mad"

    He rubs at his brow. "But these things they're... more insidious than those examples. I don't think they're as keen on destruction so much as..." He shakes his head. "I don't really know what they want. Aside from us out of the way. But as to the why of that... again... unknown."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie ashes out his cigarette into the empty glass in front of him, gaze flicking to Michael when he mentions 'baby nightmares'. Then back to Jon, with a frown.

"Okay, so we have an idea of what they're tryin' to do, why, and how they got here. But other'n you and Rien, what the fuck do they want with the rest of us? They tortured Gabby, and got me to set fire to my fuckin' apartment. But why? I don't get it. Why not just wipe us out? Or if they got an end game like you say, how does all this--" He gestures around the room with his cigarette-holding hand at the various JLD in attendance. "--play into it?"

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien flashes a quick smile back towards Jon and lifts her danish in silent toast to his pastry selection. She seems rather sanguine as they discuss Old Ones and who/what they are, nothing particularly surprising. Even when the talk turns towards them having found they're opening through her, and then playing with the timestream to ensure certain events do happen to set themselves up for success.

She shifts her attention to Michael briefly, but doesn't have the answer to his question. Instead, her gaze turns to Chas, then Jon. "I think this is where I should share what I learned during my time in the ivory tower."

Motioning to the castle around then, Rien starts, "This place has a formal name. Castle of the Unconscious Mind. Our claiming it was part of what They needed us to do." Her eyes skip over to Chas for a moment, "So.. whatever happened where you got this place for us, that was probably at least partially influenced by the Old Ones."

Turning back towards the group at large, she continues, "We're also supposed to find the purpose of this castle.. which we're in the process of doing. The butterfly doors, the tarot rooms, the training tower.. it's all leading towards us discovering the true purpose of this place. Supposedly, once we do.. we're going to have decisions to make.. and the decision that they're banking on will start a war for reality itself."

Frowning, Rien mutters, "The Fifteen, the Fears that we've been being attacked by, are soldiers in that war. Soldiers for the Old Ones." Clearing her throat, she reaches for her coffee, taking a healthy slug of it.

This last part has her very uneasy and she glances around at everyone before finishing with, "This war, however, is just a smokescreen. A cover, so that Nyarlathotep can overthrow the 'Keeper of Unconsciousness'.. presumably whoever is at the heart of this castle." There's an expression on her face that say just /saying/ the Crawling Chaos' name leaves a bad taste in her mouth, and the inhuman tongue of the Ancients isn't a pleasant one to speak, even for a single word. "We.. might want to talk to the TVA. They could have some insight that we don't." To Chas, she offers, "Gods /can/ be bound, the rituals exist.. but the power level required for it... you would basically need one or more people that can out-power the God's own power in order to do it. Which.. usually means you need Gods to bind Gods. So.. we could potentially make it happen. Maybe. If we got more people. A lot more people. Maybe entire pantheons."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon hands a pastry over to Cael, listening to the others talk, and he's about to comment when everything else flies out the window. He stares at Rien in shock.

    "Nyarlathotep? Oh. Oh, /fuck/." Jon actually goes to sit down next to Cael, rubbing at his forehead. "Fuck, that explains a lot, though, right? Because his whole thing isn't /destroying/ reality, it's--" He sighs. "Corrupting. Polluting. /Twisting/."

    He sits there for a moment, drinking tea and eating the pastry, then gets back up, pacing. "Okay, so. One of the reasons I was stuck in the Astral Plane for years was that I needed to discover something. I came upon a village of Dreamfarmers that had been corrupted by a mi-go hiding in their well." A pause. "Wait. Go back. Okay."

    He sighs. "Okay, so there's this... river in the Astral Plane. It starts at a great city full of gods and spirits--think a reflection of Shangri-La and El Dorado, Gondor and Waterdeep. Atlantis." A brief, sad smile. "There's a spring in the City that turns into a stream, that flows out and becomes the Great River. In some places it's a river wider than the Amazon, in some it goes up into the sky and is basically the Milky Way. It waters the whole of the Astral Plane and feeds mortal imagination. In some ways it's more of a huge artery, pumping the lifeblood of the Astral Plane."

    He looks around. "The mi-go was trying to corrupt the river, using the well in this village. I destroyed the mi-go, with the help of one of the Velvet Room attendants. But I became aware that /in the future/ we are going to stop their larger plan from unfolding--a plan, I /think/, to corrupt the Great River at its source."

    He looks to Robbie. "They want /all/ of us. The Mother of Puppets told me that. They want us to /serve/ them. The best way to win a war, or even a simple fight, is never to have the war or the fight at all. To cripple your opponent before it happens. Just /one/ of us turning to the service of Nyarlathotep--" He shudders to say that word-- "could bring the whole group down from within. All of us?" A beat. "Can you /imagine/ the havoc that could be wreaked upon the world if everyone in this room served these things? If the /Justice League Dark/ turned to the service of evil?"

    He sighs. Then adds, "Binding gods isn't /that/ hard if you know their True Name. Or stick them in an avatar and know /that/ True Name. My old mentor bound Ma'at, in me. We might need to... I don't know... trap them somehow."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael's hand reaches out as Jon sits beside her - resting on their shoulder and back. She doesn't hold it there long, though, because Bear is just eeeeeying the pastry she'd set down to do so. No, Bear.
    "We won't let it happen. We stand united, we watch each others' backs, and we call each other out on our bullshit. Yeah?" She grins at Jon - how often has she called Jon out when she disagreed?
    "Until we find the way to seal them away."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike nods to the explanation Chas gives. Ok so they're nightmares, which would explain the general resemblance. But, other reality nightmares, so maybe Dream doesn't sway over them. But...

"So they're trying to steer who they see as the decision makers into making the one they want. Maybe molding their thoughts to be more in line with theirs?"

He frowns, "For the ones already attacked...How have they've been approaching you? In dreams? Physically?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas blinks as Rien drops the bomb of names. "You're... this is all... from... from -him-?" he says. Inadvertantly, the blue fires of ancient stars fill his eyes as the angelic energy reacts to the informal name of an ancient foe. "The Crawling Chaos is involved in this?" he asks, his voice overlapping with soomething ancient and angry. "Fifteen of his servants swipe for that which he cannot have and drive at the heart of our stronghold."

    Chas looks like he's struggling with himself and closes his eyes. When he opens them again they're still blue but the overlap in his voice is gone. "Dreams... yes. Mostly. Or from what I hear" he nods at Rien, Robbie, Jon, and Cael.

    "They try to coax you to join them... often it's through two avenues. We have names of some of them but, if there's fifteen, we're short a great many. I..." he frowns and looks at Jon and Rien. "I think they might have gotten Lydia to join in... I can't be sure but... well, her eyes and she just... she feels wrong." He looks ashamed to even be suggesting it but it's the truth as far as he sees it.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien watches the reactions to the name of the enemy they face at the core of it, nodding first to Jon, then to Chas. She draws in a deep breath and lets it out slowly, then glances to the others in the group, "Nyarlathotep is one of the oldest of the Old Ones. Spawned by Azathoth, it has two siblings; The Nameless Mist, or Nyog'Sothep or Magnum Innominandum; and Darkness, also called Magnum Tenebrosum. These three siblings are the progenitors of the other Old Gods. The grand-daddy's of their warped pantheon. So.. it's pretty bad."

She looks back to Jon, "What I want to know, is /who/ is the Keeper of Unconsciousness that the Crawling Chaos is coming for, and /what/ is their connection to this place. But.. in doing that, we start a war. So.. the other option is to just.. not. To not explore the castle any farther. If we don't poke at it, we don't find out who/what is at the core of it, and thus, no war. BUT. I have a feeling if we do that, then that also plays into their hands."

She lets out a heavy sigh and shakes her head, "My instinct is to stop pussy-footing around with this place and start beign more aggressive about getting to the heart of it. To start the war on /our/ terms, not theirs. But that's just my personal feelings on it."

Chas' mention of Lydia's possibly having given in to the evil has her frowning heavily, "I didn't want to say anything but... hrm. It... we should be careful. How much of what we say around her."

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn remains quiet for a while, just trying to absorb this maelstrom of an information overload. "Umm, let's see if I get this right. So some super powerful god..Or gods, are pulling the strings, affecting time and space and trying to manipulate us to do some big bad thing, that's somehow linked to this ivory tower or psionic castle or whatever, and they're using us to solve the puzzles so they can seize control after or something?" she rubs her eyes, "Well I can teleport to different realms, not sure about time travel though, if you need someone to help seal cracks, I don't see what they would need *all* of us for though.." she certainly is not a big game changer or earth shaker or major player really.."I mean..Is it so bad if we find out that tower's secrets for ourselves? Maybe we can turn it against them, I dunno.." she shrugs.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon smiles briefly to Cael, but the smile really is brief. Chas' words make them sigh and close their eyes. "Really? I... I supposed I'd hoped... I'd hoped she really had pushed away this 'Viscera.'" Their shoulders slump for a moment.

    He downs the rest of his tea, then looks to Rien. "I /think/ this... Keeper of Unconsciousness might have spoken to me, directly, while I was in Hell? I think we're already attached somehow. Certainly I never would have gotten home without them, as annoying as all the obfuscation is. But I'm afraid for me it isn't even a question. My Purpose is to defend and support ma'at, and these things are isfet. Necessary, in their way, but they /must/ be overcome. So I'm with you--I think we should definitely start digging into the castle more."

    He looks to Megan, and says, "Technically they are /dead/ gods, but yes. The secrets of the Velvet Room... two of us now have been encouraged to find them." He nods toward Rien. "I don't know what they want with us /exactly/--I presume we need to try to find that out. But don't sell yourself short, Megan. Cael here doesn't have any magic at all, and they came after her. Sometimes the best spies are the ones that are the least obvious." A pause. "Like... a good friend. Like that Not-Rien thing. Or Lydia, being corrupted." He sighs. "Or someone you might normally overlook and not think much of. Or someone who doesn't know her own power yet." A grin for Pixie, at that.

    He looks around. "Alright... how about people tell us about their dreams? I'll go last... and I'll add what Lydia told me, too." A glance to Michael. "Lydia doesn't dream anymore, but they came at her in her dreams. My dreams are overseen by /two/ powerful goddess, and they got into mine. They've also come at us physically--Rien got kidnapped, I've had more than one encounter in the past."

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn bites her lip, not entirely sure she *is* important, but.,She smiles faintly nodding to Jon..Until he asks them to share their dreams. "Err my dreams? But they're kinda private. l mean..I always get that stupid dream where I forgot to study for a test, or I missed the bus..Or I..Become a demon, but..It's nothing really.." she laughs nervously at the last one..Actually it bothers her the most. Of course her more private dream, she simply doesn't want to discuss them..Nope!

Michael Hannigan has posed:
"Well, Chaos and Dreams do go together." Mike muses, "The very act of the mind trying to sort through a pile of jumbled memories and stray thoughts can cause for some amazing dreams. And some memorable nightmares." He pauses, considering one of the newly found pages in the mental book, "You could... possibly try the verse from Raphael's Flask dealing with nightmares if you suspect outside influence on the dreams but the effects fade over time. More of a temporary relief thing. If you notice a difference during that time period, that might be confirmation. Do you think any of what they're pulling is crossing over into the Dreaming or just straight Astral Plane?"

He pauses, "Oh. Uh. Nothing out of the ordinary for me dream-wise. Only time I really have nightmares is if I burn off too much energy and don't deal with the backlash beforehand." He pauses, "Usually. There are exceptions. But not recently."

Cael Becker has posed:
    The news about Lydia puts a deep frown on Cael's features. "I'd wondered about her eyes," she admits. "But she still- seemed more or less like herself." She lets out a heavy sigh, but nods her agreement, to keep important things from the vampire woman.
    The suggestion that she talk about her 'dream' gets a wince - but she shares regardless. "Well. Mine wasn't exactly a dream," Cael admits. "It happened when we were in the astral, on our way to find Rien." Not rescue. Rien wasn't the sort that needed 'rescuing.' "We were on this boat, a fog rolled in... and I couldn't find anyone. I ended up wandering the hold of the boat, trapped in that mist, meeting something that //seemed// to be my sister Alis, over and over again. But she didn't remember me - and slowly, I didn't remember her, or any of you... or myself. And then two beings that looked like me came, and asked me to choose between them, or stay trapped there forever. The Spiral, and the Lonely. And... with no sense of self, I couldn't choose. So they let me start to remember. ...and I told them to fuck off. Then they let me go."
    A puzzled look grows on Cael's features as she adds in a whisper, "The Twisting Deceit and The One Alone." Where did that come from? Has she always know that? It's Jon she looks to, with confussion pulling her brows together on her forehead.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas pinches the bridge of his nose a bit. "I can't be touched by them in that fashion. Or at least my dreams can't..." he says. "My consciousness resides in the Silver City if I ever fall unconscious. And if they're able to touch that... then we have bigger things to worry about." He shakes his head and grabs his water, downing the rest of it. His eyes stay the firey plasmatic blue as he speaks, the angel within him unable to turn his attention away from being on high alert.

    He flinches as another one of the servitors is named. "That makes five..." he mutters. "Only ten more to go. This'll be easy... sure..." He rises from his seat moves to the white board. "May I?" he asks Jon before picking up a marker for the whiteboard and writing things down.

    Names start going down in a small but decisive print. 'The Mother of Puppets' 'The Ceaseless Watcher' 'The One Alone' 'I Do Not Know You' and 'The Twisting Deceit' are followed by ten empty bullet points. He turns and listens to the others for their input and any names they may have learned in their endeavors.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"Ah... Gabby had an encounter as well. She was also approached by two of them. One was a soldier," Rien pauses, frowning as words seem to spill unbidden from her lips, "The Risen War. And the other she descibed as... living black flame," the brief pause and struggle before the name proper rises up again, "The Blackened Earth."

She blinks, then shakes her head, "I don't.. know how I know that. It's just.. there. They fought for her. Over her. She went through a Hell of her own.. an alternate universe where war was constant and.. she.. she had to do some really bad things. And some equally bad things were done to her."

Clearing her throat, Rien reaches for her coffee, reheating it with a touch and taking a fortifying swallow. "She lost her left hand in the attack, and for the dream... it never grew back. But.. in the end, she told them to fuck off. And she still had both hands when she woke. Thankfully."

Rien looks to Jon and nods, "We need to bring in Elizabeth, and Lavenza, and anyone else that will talk. And we need to go up those stairs and start /really/ exploring this place." Glancing to Cael, she offers a sympathetic smile for her experience with the Lonely. That is something they share. To Megan, she smiles, "We're not asking you to share your normal dreams. Only if you find yourself being... approached.. by ancient, evil creatures that are trying to induct you into their service. Not demons, way more powerful than demons."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon steps back as Chas comes up to the whiteboard, and goes to sit next to Cael, wrapping an arm around her as he eats his pastry. "The Blackened Earth... that's the one that was working with Asag to take Agnes." A sigh, and he shakes his head. "Right, well--my own dream was... it started as a normal statement dream. I, ahh, mostly when I dream I go to the Archive, but I also spend a certain portion of the night re-living statements I've taken." He glances to Rien. "It was your statement, about Hill Top Road. The other timeline you saw, on the other side of the crack."

    He sighs. "I saw what my other self lived through. How he died. He was... pulled out of that reality. I don't really know what happened to him." He sounds... inexpressably sad, but pushes on. "Then it was /me/, and I was suspended in a web of tapes, facing a giant eye and a spider. The Ceaseless Watcher, and the Mother of Puppets. They wanted me to serve them--tried to tell me that I've /always/ served them, and always will. But I got a... message, from the other reality. A way to get away from the Watcher. I gouged my own eyes out."

    A pause. A smirk. "They grew back, obviously. Gods, that seems so long ago, now."

    Shaking themself, they go on, "I couldn't get /much/ from the other timeline, I suspect on purpose--obfuscated by Nyarlathotep, maybe? What I do know is... the Fears literally survive on our fear. If you're not afraid of them, and don't serve them, they can't really touch you. So that's how they come at people." He nods to the board. "The Twisting Deceit is... fear of madness, deception, lying. That your senses are tricking and deceiving you, or your friends are. The One Alone... isolation, loneliness, being cut off from people. Risen War would be... sudden violence, war, pain coming at unexpected moments. Manifests in music, too?" He frowns. "Huh. Anyway. Blackened Earth is... fire, the /bad/ parts of fire, pain and loss. Rien had... I Do Not Know You, right? The uncanny, the stranger, things like clowns and taxidermy. The Ceaseless Watcher is... paranoia, fear of people knowing secrets or of knowing too much. The Mother of Puppets--control, manipulation, addiction, also spiders generally. Lydia mentioned Viscera--flesh, meat, that kind of thing--and... Too Close I Cannot Breathe? Choking, being buried alive."

    He frowns. "I know there's... bugs, death, darkness, heights, being hunted... I can't seem to see the information until I get it here. Like it's only useful to confirm something's true?" He shrugs. "Still useful, I guess."

    A deep sigh. "I think... I think I know how to handle them, how to fight them off, aside from investigating the castle. I wrested the power of the Ceaseless Watcher away from--Nyarlathotep. I... wait, did I really do that?" He seems surprised. "Lavenza implied anyone could, though."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael leans into Jon's presence - and gives her own wince at the mention of the 'Blackened Earth.' "Fucker can't have her," she murmurs as a quiet aside to Jon. Neither of them are going to let that happen. No one in the Justice League Dark will let that happen. Then in another quiet aside she adds, "It was ten years ago, love." For Jon anyways.
    She still remembers the pain of that day very vividly, though. Waking up under a bush in the middle of nowhere - to a series of panicked text from a teen. Poor Agnes having to deal with that, without the back up she really needed.
    "So if we add Blackened Earth, Viscera, and Too Close? Then... that's eight. That's more than half of them." A solid start. "...and we wait for our friends to be attacked to learn the others? Seems pretty shitty."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas continues to write as more names are given and more options are opined. When Jon's finished he steps back. "Well... more manageable" he says with a frown. "If you can call Eldritch horrors from beyond reality manageable."

    He turns and nods to Rien's option. "I will see if there is any guidance they can give us on how to navigate the bowels of this place given our progress with the rooms." At Jon's mention of being able to wrest control from an Old One he arches a brow.

    "You... what?" he asks sharply. "Explain... please. Because that sounds like you took contol of an Old God into yourself and I..." He lets out a slow exhale. "I am not going to jump to conclusions. I am going to let you explain."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien looks troubled at Cael's point that they've just been waiting for their friends to come under attack, frowning down at the table. "I don't like that option either. We need a way to put names to the other seven Fears that doesn't include dangling the JLD members like bait in front of them."

She lets out a short breath and her frown deepens, "I can always seek out Nikola... see if I can't worm some more out of her. But frankly, I would rather deal with the Lonely than the Stranger. Lonely I can handle. The Stranger is..." She doesn't want to disappear again. Chances are good if she did they wouldn't be nearly so lax about it.

Looking towards Chas, she nods, "These are fae creatures, right? Maybe we need to ask what sort of deal bound them here in the first place. If there's a contract, maybe we can read it. Find out the ins and outs, use it to our advantage." She flashes a brief grin, "I spent a lot of this time's 70s and 80s dealing with fae creatures through the BPRD. I'm not unfamiliar with fae contracts."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon drums his fingers on his knee. "I think we need to reach out. The TVA for sure--there's some time travel shenanigans going on so it's within their purview. I might put out feelers to some people, see if we can bring in some of the sorts of people John used to run around with. Since he's off playing house." A snort; the anger that used to be there has mostly faded. "We're nicer to work with, that's for sure."

    He chews on his lip. "I think we've got some places to go from here. Continue collecting information. Contact the TVA, talk to the attendants--all of them--about their deals and what they can tell us about the Room. See if we can bring in other allies." He glances at Mike, quietly listening. "I think we should have the rest of the group try Raphael's Flask to try to protect their dreams. It's better than nothing. And maybe Mike can take a look at those of us who've been touched? See if there's anything about our dreams that's different, now."

    He sighs. "To some degree... I don't know if we can ultimately stop them coming after people. Especially those who've already had the nightmares. But I..." He straights a bit.

    "Alright, so. There's a concept in Jungian psychology called the Shadow archetype. It's... basically the worst part of a person. All the parts of yourself you suppress, don't want to accept." They wave a hand. "I'm not a Jungian analyst, mind you, I don't know how much stock it holds in psychiatry, /but/ I've found a lot of Jung's ideas on the mystical /do/ hold water. So it seems that--well, this makes sense. That Nyarlathotep is speaking to our Shadows. To our worst fears, our darkest impulses. Trying to corrupt us in that way. That... is probably how Viscera got hold of Lydia, if that's what happened. She's vulnerable right now, she hurt herself psychically somehow, so she gave into her Shadow." They sigh.

    "What I did was--I /partly/ did this, back at the chip shop, but I really only /fully/ managed in the Astral. I don't think the /where/ matters though. But I had to... I had to accept my Shadow. And not just accept it--embrace it. I am paranoid, arrogant, distrustful. I want to control every aspect of my life and my world, lock my loved ones away to keep them safe. I'm angry a lot. I'm overly curious, I dive into danger headlong without thinking. I very much want to be the big hero." A pause. "It's... it's harder than it sounds, and it's a lifelong battle, I suspect. But the key thing is--facing all of that, accepting it, /embracing/ it meant that Nyarlathotep no longer had a hold on me. I took that away from him--him? It?" He frowns, shakes his head.

    "Anyway, my point is--I was able to wrest the Ceaseless Watcher, the spiritual entity, /away/ from Nyarlathotep. To... cleanse it, and get it to work for me instead. I don't know that /everyone/ can do that, nor that they even /should/, but even just... even just looking within ourselves and accepting our fears and the things we don't like... it'll reduce Nyarlathotep's potential power over us."

    He looks to Rien. "What if you could steal Not-Rien and Nikola's power from them? Embrace being Queen of Nothing? /Use/ that?" A pause, to look to Cael. "What if you could embrace--the strength you have to get through adversity, even when alone? Or your surety that you know what's right, what's /true/, your clear-eyed gaze even when the world is telling you something else? I don't know, exactly, what it'll mean for anyone else. I'm not /you/. But I think it's worth trying."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Damn straight you do," Cael mutters quietly - as Jon mentions his tendency to drive head-first into danger. It drives her //nuts.// But would she have it any other way, really?
    She listens to Jon speak, leaning into their presence, a faint frown playing across her features. Could she really just... accept her fears like that? "I spent so many years alone..." It was part of who she was. Something she simply accepted. Something that was //safer,// and less vulnerable, but now...? Now she never wants to be alone again. "It's something to think about," she says dubiously.
    Changing subjects she adds, "So - when we talk to the Velvet Room attendants - you probably //don't// want me to chew them out for not telling me where you were, huh?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas caps his marker and sets it down. "They're fae... adjacent? I mean, like... they might've once been fae but are something else now. But they do work in bargains and contracts. I agreed to keep the castle safe and ensure it's use as a defense against evils great and small when I bargained with its former master. I mean, look it's worth a shot."

    He gives Cael a steadying look. "If they could've told us, likely they would have. I suspect that their former master is still mandating some of their actions behind the scenes. Keeping things from us until we're ready for the information. Or... something..."

    He listens as Jon explains what he did with The Ceaseless Watcher. "You purified it. You actually managed to purify one of the... visages of Nyarlathotep. That's... absolutely baffling. I didn't..." His gaze flatlines for a second. "That... wasn't something that any of the Hosts ever considered possible."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien quirks a faint, brief smile towards Jon and offers, "I did, a little. I didn't.. fully embrace it, but I used it as a shield against the Stranger's minions. Against it's influence." She lets out a slow breath, "But. I want to. I want to embrace everything of who I am, the good AND the bad. I.. need to."

She glances up and smiles, "I have a Name now, I'm more secure in /who/ I am. Now it's time for me to embrace /what/ I am. Which reminds me..." Rien opens a small portal next to her and reaches through, fishing around before pulling out... a rather large book. "Gabe and Agnes found this the night you guys came to collect me from the tower."

She sets the book down on the table, "Gabe has no idea how it got into his backpack, Robbie packed it up, but according to him it was on the stack of mangas that Gabe wanted to bring, so he just tossed it in with the rest." Rien glances around the table, "They were able to read about the rescue as it happened, real time. Gabe is the one that Named me, through the book. Something or someone is trying to help us. We might want to find out who. Whoever it is managed to get through the wards on the safehouse to plant a magical book in Gabe's belongings. Might be worth finding."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon looks to Cael gravely. "That's why I say--I don't know what it means, to accept your Shadow. I'm not /you/. That's intensely personal. But facing your fears /is/ a start." They squeeze Cael's hand. "I know that's hard, love. But it may be necessary, in the end. When we went into the High Priestess door--I look at my worst fear, what I thought was my worst fear, and I /laughed/ at it. And I think that laid a foundation, for all the rest of this."

    He looks to Chas and shrugs. "Mortal free will? I still /do/ have that, the same way that you do. Or maybe it's that Nyarlathotep took something that already existed, and corrupted it, and I cleansed it? I... don't know. But Lavenza heavily implied the rest of you could do it, too, so that implies it's not about /power/ necessarily."

    He smiles at Rien. "Good. That's... really good to hear. The more of us are strong in ourselves, the better chance we have."

    But then he gets up--relucantly--to move to the table and peer at the book. "The Voyage of the Soul? I don't--"

    "That's mine." The voice comes from the doorway to the library. Lavenza walks in, smiling brightly. "I wondered where that had gotten off to! Thank you /very/ much, Queen of Nothing." The girl winks at Rien. Winks!

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Fucking High Priestess door," Cael mutters under her breath. "Lousy door - great whiskey. //Why//?" she laments.
    As Jon starts to move away from her, she gives them a little squeeze before releasing, and uses her hand to pet her ever patient dog - who thumps his tail happily in response.
    She then turns her head towards the girl standing in the doorway, bluntly asking her as she retrieves the book, "How long did you know where Jon was? Did you know when they would be getting back?"
    She can be frustratingly One Tracked in her thinking, at times.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    As Rien reveals the book that Gabe and Agnes were reading he arches a brow. "Really, that's..." And then Lavenza is there thanking Rien for finding the book. Because of course she had nothing to do with the placement of such a powerful artifact. Certainly.

    At Cael's impromptu interrogation he shakes his head. "Cael..." Chas says warningly. Seriosuly, does the woman not listen to a word he says. "Hello, Lavenza" he says politely to the girl. "I suspect there are a number of things we may want to ask you and your kin in the coming days. Can I ask how many of you... attendants there are? We've met Igor, Elizabeth, and you... are there others?"

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien looks less than surprised when Lavenza shows up to claim the book, smiling towards the girl. "Hm. I don't suppose you have an idea for how /your/ book got into /my/ highly warded house? Not that I'm complaining, mind, it was a great help. But I'd love to know what sort of magic was used in that." Lifting her cup, she sips from her coffee, then smiles again at Lavenza.

Looking back to Jon, she nods, "So.. I think I need to go back there. To the ivory tower. I need to... take the power of Nothing back. It's not good, Nullspace has never been /good/.. but it wasn't evil either. It simply was. Nothing is a lack of anything, that includes intent. I need to reclaim it." Rien pauses, then grumbles, "Fuck, that means I'll have to... make peace with Nikola. Godsdammit, I was /really/ looking forward to unravelling her one thread at a time."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Lavenza turns to Cael. "If I had known where the Archivist was when we met, I would have told you. I spent the time between our meeting and their return guiding them home--so I was not here to tell you where they were. If I'd come back to let you know, it might have taken them longer. Or he may not have come back at all. And I know you don't want /that/." A pause. "I can't speak for the others, of course. If they knew and did not tell you... that's between you and them. Awfully rude if they didn't say anything."

    Lavenza beams at Chas as she collects the book. "Good questions! There are seven of us, now. A good number, I think. You will meet the others in time." A pause. "I know you are all /full/ of questions--but now is not the time. I /will/ suggest that you do explore past the door at the top of the stairs. But, now--I need to put this back where it belongs. It's served its purpose. Hello again, Archivist! And goodbye."

    With a toss of long platinum-blonde hair, the girl turns and strides right back on out of the room.

    Jon sighs and shakes his head. "She's like that. Evasive, and she'll just ignore a question if she can't or won't answer. But I /do/ trust her."

    He looks back at Rien. "That's on the list, then--although who's to say you have to accept this Nikola? Maybe you defeat it and take control of its minions. But... well, I think we have plans, hmm? Something to move forward on?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael's gaze remains locked onto Lavenza as considers the being's words before finally giving her a nod of acceptance. Fine. She spent years in the astral being Jon's guide. It still stung a little but- she would have to simply accept it.
    "I'm certainly game for a little exploration," Cael offers easily. "That sounds like the easiest of the options ahead of us, though I doubt it'll be as straight forward as I'd like. ...nothing arond here ever is."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas turns to regard the whiteboard as the being leaves. A little more than halfway. They'll have to go digging to get the final six names, or sacrifice their friends in order to learn them. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

    He turns back to nod at Cael and Jon. "Looks like it. Let's formulate a plan of what we're going to need to go dungeon delving. If I recall, getting here required people dying over and over to make a bridge. I'd rather we didn't have to do that again just to find the depths of the castle." He gestueres over his shoulder. "I'll dig through some more of this... and maybe I'll come up with something. It's possible knowing who we're fighting will jog some of the angel memory in here and something new will jump out."

    He shudders thinking about the creature at the heart of their quarrel. It never rains for the JLD, but it surely pours.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien watches Lavenza collect the book and leave with an amused smile on her face, shaking her head. "You can take the fae out of Faerie, but you can't take the Faerie out of the fae. Whatever they /are/, it's very clear where they come from." She lifts her cup of coffee for another sip, then clears her throat lightly at Chas' pronouncement.

Glancing sidelong towards him, she quirks a wry smile, "Yes, I did. And I would do it again in a heartbeat. Especially given some of the alternatives." Rien looks back to Jon and shakes her head, "Can't. Nikola didn't come from the Crawling CHaos, it was made by someone. Which means whatever it was originally was corrupted by the Old Ones. If I'm going to take back the Nothing, I won't start it with a tyrannical act driven by personal aggravation."