The stage is set. @idv-thespians - Tumblr Blog

INTRO POST

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#off stage // ooc #spotlight's on you // announcement

yellow-rose-embalmer

[ knock knock knock! ]

“Hello? Is this where the Embalmer stays? I have some questions related to a friend of mine.”

— idv-thespians SORRY I TOOK SO LONG i kinda deflated oop

Aesop startles upon hearing the rapping upon his door. He's.... definitely not used to visitors. His steps are quick on their way to the door, even as he processes the question.

"Ah, yes. That would be me." Slowly, he opens the door, cracking it just a bit at a time.

"...I apologize, but... who is this?"

idv-thespians

“Oh, just call me Liam. It’s urgent—it’s about Glenn, the scientist?”

Liam was tall, even with the feeble attempt to bend down and smile rather goofily to the other. Of course, no survivor would be at ease to be approached by a hunter for no reason, but Liam felt (or hoped) Aesop would be able to help.

“His condition, that parasite thing—it’s getting worse. I heard he talked to you about it, may we talk and discuss what we have?”

Of course, Liam couldn’t force him to open up, but neither he nor Glenn had much choice.

yellow-rose-embalmer

As soon as he hears that the matter is related to Glenn, he straightens up, eyes widening. It wasn't like any sort of attempt to soothe would do much with matters such as these, though he appreciated them nonetheless. He knew how hard it was.

"Yes, he asked me about it. The eyes, and all that... I've... been wanting to discuss things. Preferably with someone who knows him." His eyes shut tight, as he recalls so, so many painful things, as his hands practice the motions of folding paper mandalas, just as two sit neatly upon his desk.

Once more, his eyes open, as he tries to make himself look... calm? Professional? Reassuring? He's not sure. But the door is opened wider, as he moves aside to ensure Liam has room to enter. "Please, come in. There's... so much that happened... so many things just in that last meeting with Glenn alone..."

idv-thespians

Upon being welcomed in, Liam nodded solemnly, uttering a quiet thanks as he walked in. While he couldn’t exactly recall the last time he entered a survivor’s room, he did notice that the Embalmer had a rather comforting place.

“You’ve also met him recently?” Liam turned to look at Aesop, eyes wide with shock and concern. “I heard he hadn’t been coming for dinner for a while, so I went to check on him and possibly invite him, if he were afraid of the other survivors. He just seemed… Even more on edge than he always was.

Of course, who would be at ease, especially when one was suffering such an…aggressive parasite? Whatever had happened to Glenn was terrifying. Glenn was rightfully scared, Liam just didn’t know what he could possibly offer to ease him—even for a little bit.

“…How do we start?” Liam mumbled, placing his palm against his forehead in thought. “A lot has happened… And I don’t want to lose someone else too.”

yellow-rose-embalmer

Aesop certainly tried for comfort wherever he could. Even so, the things in his room were pushed neatly into its corners, very rarely was something non-essential visible upon a surface. Everything was to be clean and organized for any work that may happen (though it may feel clinical at times...). Perhaps the lack of ability to handle such things right away meant it looked more 'lived in', more human? Who knows.

"Yes, we met not too long ago... he sought me out upon noticing... new developments with his arm. It had grown, and... there were eyes." Aesop looks down, clearly not enjoying thinking back. "We discussed what we could do, before deciding to investigate the library, and finding the map..."

He sits down, pulling on his gloves. "...I suppose we asked too many questions. I had to watch his whole arm be taken, and... and..."

"Whatever's in Glenn... it spoke to me. Offered me a deal. Three questions in exchange for stopping the search and not telling Glenn... I... can't believe I took it, now. All these things I want to do but... can't. I don't know what would happen if I broke the terms, and... I'm scared to find out."

idv-thespians

Liam glanced around the room briefly. While it was true that it was rather… minimalistic, perhaps he worked better in such a situation. He did recall someone he knew having a room that was quite the complete opposite, but still managing to work efficiently. Different strokes for different folks, he presumed. Liam would normally be curious and ask about the state of his room, but now was definitely not the right time.

“Eyes? I have seen his arm, yes, but…” Liam mumbled, squinting as he tried to recall Glenn’s expression. Of course, they varied quite a lot from how he last saw him. However… eyes?

… He had a hunch—maybe he was reading too much into it, but while it wasn’t uncommon for people in distress to have frantic, unfocused stares, the unfocused gaze of Glenn’s seemed to be something beyond mere panic. Was that speculation? Intuition? Perhaps. But if the embalmer claimed something like abnormal eyes were occurring… Something was deeply wrong.

“The map? Oh! The map of Scotland? I saw it too! Rather old and strange, I must say…”

Listening more intently, if Liam’s face had any blood to drain from it, it surely would have in horror.

“That… entity, whatever it is, in Glenn’s arm… It made you a deal and you took it?”

Liam’s tone was one of bewilderment, but it could be easily be mistaken as judgement. Liam shook his head, attempting to rephrase himself.

“…Well… If it offered you that kind of deal… It must be… afraid,no.” Liam didn’t even know if this entity could feel. “It must be aware you might stumble on something important, something it could see hurting it.”

Liam folded his arms, shrugging his shoulders. “Besides, if I start a search and you tell me what you know, that doesn’t count as you resuming the search, right?”

Such strict technicalities were a thing in fiction, but who knows? They had to try, and at least… this entity was not omnipotent, it had some hidden weakness that the two of them could hopefully find and use to save Glenn.

yellow-rose-embalmer

"Yes, that map... It was faded in one particular spot, and we decided to go looking, before... it appeared." Aesop looks down, wringing his hands. There were many things to be worried about in his recollection, after all.

"..." He freezes mid-motion as Liam asks, knowing he cannot lie. "...yes, I took the deal. It mentioned how we'd only find misery, and... I thought it was on Glenn and I's side... at first, anyway." At the end, Aesop's voice tinges with something grim, something bitter.

Breathing in, breathing out, he processes further. "That is true. If we found that location... who knows. Maybe it was... important, somehow."

"Right, the things I learned. I first asked about the circumstances where the entity immediately met Mr. Collins." One hand taps the fingers of another, as if to recount points. "He was noticed through a tear between planes—ah, right, this entity is... natively outside this plane of existence—and saw him as easy to possess, easy to make prey. Of course, these kinds are... not easy to witness, and fear was used to enter."

"He had... had two spouses. They succeeded in keeping the entity bound, likely to Glenn, but... the cost was... not easy for Glenn to bear. I believe... they didn't make it out. Their souls are still at work binding the entity to this day. The entity that... called itself a god. I... I swear I heard them, trying to encourage me after the conversation with the entity was finished." Aesop's voice aches with sympathy, a grief shared with someone who doesn't know that the grief is with those souls.

"One can technically pull tendrils off of the affected arm, as I saw the entity do, and they catch light blue flame shortly after, with no blood coming out."

"In regards to those... tears in reality, they occur where the space between worlds runs thin, too thin to keep itself together. Usually it can heal itself, but... said time scale is around... a few hundred years. Notably longer than our lifetimes. Very little is consistent in how these worlds work, like how physics and causality, possibly other concepts that keep us where and when we are. And yet, the mind and the soul are consistent between realities..."

"Lastly, I learned that the arm wasn't the weak point, but rather a point of binding, an additional measure to keep the entity from going further. Which, I was mocked for not paying attention when asking, but... it's important to be certain of these things, isn't it? Cutting off the arm is an option for getting the entity out, though it carries... many risks. Other methods mentioned... I was told I wouldn't have access to. They're likely outside the manor, in that case."

idv-thespians

The actor remained eerily silent as the embalmer spoke. That mask of his made it hard to observe his expression—the way his brows might be furrowing, raised, twitching… The only emotive changes one could ascertain were how his lips were pursed into a thin, firm line. He contemplated every word very seriously.

“This location…A place in what appears to be Scotland… It must be important if the entity deemed it necessary to step in then, and only then.” Liam raised a hand to his chin, brushing his finger against it.

He was thinking what could possibly be important about that location. It certainly was, considering that Glenn had some kind of familiarity, albeit brief.

“A map of Scotland. An old one though.”

Not only that, the entity acted up when Glenn went to touch the map. That couldn’t be coincidence.

“I think this place in Scotland might’ve been of some importance to him. Perhaps an old home?” Liam tilted his head, trying to think of how possibly could this dilapidated home be of importance… “Spouses, you say? Perhaps this location is where these three met, if not resided in, when attempting to placate this entity?”

No matter how long gone that time was, the mention of losing a spouse brought back painful memories. No matter how he tried to hide it, his lips grew a little slacker, drooping ever so slightly. Losing two beloved spouses? Liam couldn’t imagine the heartbreak it would bring. His own heart was not the focus here, he had bigger issues to solve for now.

“It wants us to give up… We can’t let that happen.” Liam scoffed at the mention of the entity’s proclamation of divinity, not because he didn’t believe in its might, but because no truly omnipotent being would go to the lengths it has to stop two “feeble mortals”.

”…Secondly, due to their work, the entity is bound to Glenn, and comes to some harm—the flames and all, when it dares to push those limits? Hm…” Liam mumbled, trying to integrate all this knowledge into his mind. Of course, Liam was no expert in any of this, but a weakness of any kind was certainly helpful. “The arm is not the source, but a bind… Even if we did remove his arm, it would only be temporary. Except next time, it won’t be just his arm that’ll go…”

A horrible idea. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.

“If this entity came to Glenn through a tear in reality, a tear that lasts beyond our lifetimes, we might be able to send it back through this tear?” Okay, this was sounding like some kind of movie plot. As a veteran in the industry, Liam couldn’t help but feel that his hypothesis might be a bit too simple. He needed more knowledge, but had to be careful of what this entity might do. “I… don’t understand the physics and causality and soul stuff, but if we can send it back where it belongs, Glenn should be safe, I think?”

“You heard them? The spouses? Huh. Do you think I could find them? If they’re dead, maybe a ghost like me could talk to them and learn more?”

Of course, if his previous statements were a calculated guess, this was a shot in the dark. But hey, never hurt to try, hopefully. Of course, not all dead people were spirits he could find, as painfully as he tried to look for his beloved, but maybe—just maybe!

yellow-rose-embalmer

Aesop's head tilted as he contemplated Liam's thoughts, nodding every so often with his eyes very clearly wide, a hand resting in front of his own mask.

Perhaps now is not the time to mention that he knew precisely nothing about the map. Not that it was Scotland, not what anything on that map meant, all he could do was try to figure out what lines could be what. Unfortunately, the unease in his eyes wasn't well concealed. "That... would be important. Considering the entity acted up both times the map was involved, I doubt it's simply a coincidence. If you did not see... it... maybe it wasn't deemed necessary, or maybe it could not do so fully until it held more." Aesop's brow furrowed at the thought, fingers drumming upon his side.

How it wanted them to give up. Aesop could feel his stomach churn, his eyes tinged with regret. Did he make the right decision? Ah, it was too late. "It... really does. I know Glenn wants to find the truth, even with everything happening... he can't even remember that his spouses were a part of his life." Aesop's voice drops low, quiet. "We have to keep going, however that happens. For his sake."

"Yes, the arm is the bind, and Glenn's spouses are doing what they can to keep the entity there and no further... I don't know what will happen if we remove it. Will everything be confined to the arm alone? Or will the entity be attached to Glenn still, because the arm was Glenn's? How will his spouses be able to help through this?" The onslaught of questions comes through worry and wrung hands and averted eyes. He has to be okay at the end, though. There's no other option, right?

"Ah, that is true. It should still be open... it will be for a long time. I do not know where these locations are, of course, or if we can reach them from here. I heard that there were many rituals to keep that tear closed, to keep things from getting through. It couldn't stop the inevitable, though, but delay it. There will be the issue of making sure our... entity does not get where we do not want it to, once it is brought out of Glenn. And then we have to make sure it can't get back in..." Aesop's eyes narrow in thought, a hum leaving him. How can this all work? Where can he start? Where can anyone start?

"Ah.... that. I'm not entirely sure, but... who else could it have been encouraging me? It wasn't loud, but I heard them near the end of my previous conversation with... well, what should have been Glenn. Considering they are bound to Glenn in the same way the entity is, in order to keep the entity from progressing too far, too fast... I suppose it makes sense. Still... maybe having that in common could help." He doesn't know. But he wants this to work. He wants anything to work, at this point.

idv-thespians

Liam stopped speaking and raised his knuckle to his chin. Contemplating. Too many questions, and not enough answers. They were the only ones who could prevent Glenn from a fate of becoming a vessel for some eldritch creature. That knowledge alone made Liam hesitant on what to do, but also determined to find a way to help Glenn.

“Ah, the map…” Liam noticed the unease, in the way the eyebrows twitched, his fingers tapped against himself. It was unfortunate that Liam knew… nothing more. A map of Scotland, an old one. That was what he had, but he would have to have more to put it together. Was Glenn from Scotland? Visiting there? Maybe he had some studies there too. It must be significant if Glenn could recognise it on sight, with its tattered pages and faded ink, not to mention the entity interfering, albeit in a more restrained way than with Aesop. “Glenn attempted to—well, I guess he tried to stop the entity in some way by hitting his hand against the wall. I didn’t notice in hindsight… but such a remedy won’t work if it took over his whole arm.”

If only he had tried to stop it before. Alas, looking back is always easier than looking forward.

The meekness of the embalmer was highlighted when he felt most doubtful, most reluctant to carry on. It was truly a heart-wrenching sight. Liam gently patted his back, hoping to startle the embalmer out of a spiral of self-doubt or fear. It was the least he could do.

“I promise, we will do whatever it takes to free Glenn from that creature.” It was low, declarative. It wasn’t something they could leave up to fate nor choice. “The arm… If cutting it off was the solution, I’m sure Glenn would have done so long ago. No, the entity’s hold can’t be just the body… And those spouses of his know better than us.”

If the entity was an unwelcome visitor, then they would need to throw it out the door and lock it out. Never mind that, they needed first to figure out how to separate Glenn and the entity. “If anyone were to know anything about the rituals that brought, and would banish, the entity from Glenn… it would be those spouses. If not, we’d at least know more than we do now.”

Liam spoke absentmindedly, his mind trying to wander and explore possible solutions. If these spouses are bound to Glenn the same way the entity was, perhaps their physicality was similar too. That could be something that could be a hole in that entity’s defences. If the worst came to pass, hopefully Liam would be able to make sure no one else gets hurt should the entity possess him again.

Liam shook his head, dismissing the theorising and wanting to act, which would hopefully involve finding more that could help them. “Should we head to the library? Or find Glenn? So many questions and so little time…”

yellow-rose-embalmer

"Ah, I... suppose that would work better with less spread... and he did say it had grown since we last talked..." Aesop looks aside. It was hard not to be aware of the severity of the situation, though it clouded everything else in Aesop's mind.

Enough so that he jolted at the hand on his back, nervously attempting to put himself together. Then again, with the current situation and how rushed it all was, these matters were difficult at best. "Mm— ah, sorry, sorry."

There was most definitely a point. Amputation was an extreme measure, but if it could work, it would have been at least tested when things were at an earlier stage, potentially to take less. Right? "...There's a reason that they're still here, I think."

Aesop tapped his fingers upon his leg, running through the question in his mind. "Hm... if we go to the library, we might be able to get a look at the map, but I can't guarantee I'll understand much of why it's important, and gathering anything extra will certainly take even more time... if we visit Glenn..." He paused, remembering the deal he made and wincing. "...or, ah, if you visit Glenn, you may be able to hear more from either the spouses or the entity. I know it will be hard for Glenn, all these things he doesn't remember. But for his sake..."

idv-thespians

Liam furrowed his brows in thought. With so little, there was so much to catch up on. Though, there was no denying that they would have to be careful, or they may risk alerting the entity, causing Glenn to truly be doomed. All hope had not been lost, but even a dead man like Liam could only look to achieve so much.

“Don’t be sorry,” Liam mumbled upon the embalmer’s flinching. “I… startled you, it seems, my apologies.”

Liam awkwardly chuckled, shaking his head in dismissal. For a survivor, it must be terrifying for Aesop to work with him. Even though Liam considered himself to be a rather friendly hunter… There was no way for the embalmer to know. Still… If Glenn and Liam shared that initial perception, maybe he should work on that… Once all this is solved.

“I believe we should check the library. If we go to Glenn, that entity may figure out what we’re doing.” Liam shook his head with a worried sigh. “Worst case, the entity locks Glenn up until its plan’s accomplished.”

#next take // reblog #dimmed lights // liam hubert #HI SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG i legit forgot Tumblr existef #came back from china and got hard resetted jesus

essence event brainrot… mrrgrmrrmrr…

I have two braincells and they are in distress

#off stage // ooc #I have 3k words to write in 2 days what am i doing