Postdated to after the rescue

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

It has... come to my attention that my Overlay, while... under the influence of that foul thing... inflicted several Travellers with a particular form of madness that I am all too familiar with.


It's original vector is not Eldritch but rather parasitic, and I have reproduced a treatment from my world of origin.

I am a carrier, immune, and my presence suppresses it.

I will provide this treatment without obligation or any strings attached, for the safety of all Travellers, myself not least of all.

...no one should have to suffer it's effects.

I regret that it must be injected, as I know that is... a... a common feature of the paranoid phantasies of those affected. This is important enough that I have been forced to confirm it in the Red.

Comments

[awitchdidit]

No, you wouldn't.

It's just...ever since I was reborn...or no, really, since I've arrived here, I've come to the conclusion that it's possible to share my suffering in a way other than inflicting it on people. It only really works with people who have similar circumstances, however, and there's few people who have circumstances anything like ours.

I suppose what I'm saying is that if you care to tell your story, or even talk about some tangent related to it, I'll acknowledge it. As much as Witches fight, we're the only ones with a chance to understand each other, right?

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

More might understand than I thought would, I grant you that. I said as much to Armin. Were he from our shoal on the Sea of Fragments, I wonder what title his Witch might take?

And of course, there is the small matter of Moebius. Should I be relieved that half of the reason that Jaunt was allowed to exist is disqualified, now? And that I likely helped bring it about, in my ignorance, as Justice's playing piece?

I appreciate her sacrifice play, if so. She hates Nyarlathotep and all his kin, rightly - a group concerned mostly with making witches and what you would call Furniture of all mortals they can wrap a tentacle around.

...As much as I will have to personally thank her for the honor of being Nyarlathotep's piece.

[awitchdidit]

I'm not entirely sure how much influence our specific patrons have on games that they aren't running...it's something to try and find out from Magician next time we speak, and then when she obfuscates about it, have someone ask Chariot instead.

I compared the Arcana to you and Lambdadelta - Voyagers - when I arrived here, but I was speaking from a position of ignorance then. The three of us ultimately stem from humans who had to shed their humanity. The Arcana are primal forces whose only resemblance to humanity is what we choose to believe of them. That makes them far more difficult to understand or anticipate. I've put aside judging their actions by human standards long ago.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

If I can contact Justice again, her idiom is to be straightforward. And I will ask.

I try not to think of them as human. I try to think of them as the ideas that their cards represent. If I anthropomorphize them in error, shame on me.

[awitchdidit]

Personally, I think the important thing is to determine what their goals are. Not just what they're willing to share, but the details and implications. Fighting them directly is...let's call it a "Battler" move. Figuring out how to direct the flow of their game to our benefit is what I'd call a "Beatrice" or "Bernkastel" move...although we differ in our techniques, of course.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Ahahahaha, why do you think I backed the Chariot over the Tower during the Jaunt to Achaia? One can be negotiated with, as the idiom of agency, and the other wished to watch the world burn.

Were I myself in my other games, I would have fought not to promote victors but to eliminate rivals bad for humanity. As much as I love Moon's tactics, what fool can trust the concept of deception? Who wishes to see a more deceitful World?

Were we to believe what Justice said, her goal is simply to gain the power to deeply injure Nyarlathotep and his allies. I did, in fact, ask.

[awitchdidit]

In the past, I may have supported Moon myself. The goal of my game was impenetrable illusion, after all. In the end, though, I couldn't get behind that as a universal axiom, no.

I see then. Well then, you've been used as a weapon by the concept representing Heaven. I suppose I could call that an appropriate reversal, but frankly neither of us really deserves to be used as someone else's piece anymore, do we?

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Certainly not without a proper invitation. I think, had I been invited to play rather than having been waylaid and made into a piece, I would back Justice. Or your patron, for that matter.

The fact that she did not means I cannot. The fact that she believes she has no choice... well. I can be sympathetic - a shocking new development, I know - but that doesn't mean we have to take it lying down.

Besides, all those who she in her wisdom and I in mine would want to destroy have been laid low. We can afford politics, now.

[awitchdidit]

And of course, the continuation of politics by other means, should that fail.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Naturally! I imagine Chariot and Strength would love that, alas. But one does what one must to survive.

Don't we?

[awitchdidit]

Survival was never my top priority...but what we can agree on is wanting to win.