Clearing the Smoke || Bridget, Brett, and Roger [chatzy]
Further investigation into the smoke monster leads to discoveries.
This mysterious ghost-but-not-actually-ghost-black-smoke-thing was a mess of a creature. Bridget paced around outside of Roger's office door. She was going to be of help, again. Even though she still hadn't totally figured out why Ashkent was a magical hub, she'd done enough research throughout her year and a bit of living here that gave her some knowledge to at least talk about the issues at hand. So, with another deep breath and a pressing down on the skirt of her dress, she walked up to the door of Roger's office and gave it a sharp knock. "I'm here, as requested!" She called out. "Can I come in?"
Roger looked up from the many tomes in front of him, struggling. This was the one thing he couldn't fake. He simply wasn't familiar with the texts in this place, the system, anything. He had no idea where even to begin looking, and just brute forcing it wasn't going to work in a building with over a million books and even more scrolls, letters, randomly assorted files. Their database needed serious upgrading, too, even with the digitisation that was in process, it just didn't have any answers. The closest he'd come was a Brollochan, which was scary as shit, but it didn't have the glowing white eyes he was looking for, nor the shadows of claws and teeth. "Of course, Blythe, come in." At least it made sense that, theoretically, Roger Hawthorne couldn't possibly know everything there was to know. It just wasn't feasible. "Given the descriptions we've gotten, it's rather hard to pinpoint. I've gathered these texts I think may be relevant." He gestured at the pile as tall as him that covered everything.
Bridget opened the door and came in, making her way over to Roger's desk. "Well," she chirped, peering to see what the book on the top of the stack, "that's quite the number of relevant texts. Ha." She bit her lip. "It also doesn't seem to be targeting any specific type of individual, far as I know. But I don't think it's like that dreamscape I ended up in many months ago. One, there was no specific creature that lead to that ordeal, and two, we're not in the gosh darn Herculean Labours any longer. The eyes are the part that's stumping me the most, if I'm to be honest. But it's not the eyes that cause the -- whatever's going on -- the creature seems to have to touch the individuals for something to happen."
A creature made of smoke. Certainly something to get the mind rolling. Part of Brett wondered whether it was linked to the disappearing and switching towns. Could it be something form that other town that had found it's way into theirs? It was certainly not too far removed to be the case. With Roger personally messaging him, something that had been quite out of the ordinary as normally Brett was the one messaging him first, he decided it might be wise to actually figure this out with Roger. He certainly would be the most qualified in this building to help him out. With his folder tucked under one arm of all the research he had on Ashford River, he made his way to the door and was just about to knock when he found the door already open and with Bridget in there. Oh, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He took a deep breath and stepped into the doorway, catching the end of her sentence. "Maybe it's feeding on something then." He shut the door behind him. "I'm really sorry but the door was open..."
Roger nodded, his eyes quickly flicking to the door as another figure stepped in. He waved Brett's apology away, unconcerned. Whatever bigotry Hawthorne held towards Tharp was mostly unfounded and entirely irrelevant to the situation. "Feeding on what? Confusion, perhaps? I considered Brain Biters briefly, but I haven't heard of any mentions of anyone losing their memories, only gaining them." He looked back to Bridget. "I agree. It does, but it's hardly an attack. We also need to consider that this is not something we have in our records because it may be from Ashford."
"Also Brain Biters don't look like what those I've talked do have described." Bridget chimed in, glancing over to Brett. "Unless there's a breed of them that can turn into black smoke." She rubbed her fingers against the bridge of her nose. "They could be feeding on confusion, concern, worry... or something else entirely, should that be the case." She bit her lip. "It's quite possible that it could be from Ashford, but it also could easily be from here and using the confusion all of us seem to be experiencing about Ashford to take the time to arrive and do what it's doing, now." She gave a shrug. "Someone who I talked to about it was very explicit about how what they saw couldn't have been real, so I doubt it's causing some sort of 'wish-to-have-beens' or whatever. It seems wholly separate from that. Especially since it's not all sunshine and perfection."
Brett moved over to the desk, peering at the books on there before he sat his folder down. "Then maybe it's memories, but not... exactly their memories," Brett mused, taking some of the photos out of his folder. "Ashford River and Ashkent Creek have been changing places, right? So, these memories, what if they are memories from the other town? If this creature has come from Ashford, then what if it's giving memories of this other town? What was the exact memories this person you spoke to was having? If buildings can switch, surely memories could too? Maybe I'm thinking too much into this... but it could be this."
"Obviously, but it isn't unheard of for the magically inclined to cast glamours on creatures in order to cause chaos." Roger said thoughtfully, flicking through the book in front of him. Thank fuck for the image to text ratio, it was so much easier to flick through if he didn't have to read the description. He listened to their deductions, sticking to his completely in character lie that he wasn't experiencing this. The guy had literally lied about being on the verge of death to his colleagues. "Possibly. It could be more than memories. Has anyone reported any changes in personality?" It was definitely one of his nagging concerns. "There isn't any simple creature in our bestiary that can traverse dimensions in that way. Not to mention, we've had one report of someone from Ashford River experiencing this too, and while the buildings have gone to Ashford, nothing has come back."
"Yes of course." Bridget said, breezing through her comment. "But still, seems doubtful. There's no memory-swapping going on, just getting memories that aren't their own." She fiddled with her necklace (the one benefit of the pageant she'd sooner forget), and looked between the two of them. "No, not as far as I can tell." She took a few more steps forward and picked up one of the books from the pile. "Yes, there doesn't seem to be an exchange of buildings. They go and are gone forever, or show up and don't seem to have any hope of switching back to what used to be." She turned to Brett. "It's not my place to disclose the exact memories, privacy and all, but they were remembering a different family structure than they can have here, and behaviors that are highly uncharacteristic of how they normally act."
"But they were having memories of themselves? Memories that aren't theirs but... are of them." Brett frowned, reaching for his notebook and starting to jot down notes. "It could well be some sort of glamour but I don't know. It depends on whether the being is purposely doing it or accidentally as well. It could be a side effect, not the actual cause of what's happening." He made sure to note down everything that had been said so far by them all. "It sounds like the two towns are blending then. Not switching, but blending. As in, what's happening is permanent. Which could be a spell." He bit down on the end of his pen, tugging at his hair. "What if this being is giving memories of the person they are in the other town? Their 'what if' selves?"
Roger listened to the two theorizing wordlessly, waiting for them to catch up. It wasn’t their fault they were from Ashkent, they didn’t have any inside experience, so didn’t realise how very disorientating finding yourself in another universe was. "I would disagree, we can't establish that anything is permanent yet. The Horrors were reversible. That said..." He drummed his fingers on his desk. "We've been looking at creatures. This creature could indeed be a spell." But at least it seemed they didn’t think people were changing. Roger wasnt ready to be a boring old sod yet.
"It might be reversible but, I dunno, it could still be some other self." It would make sense, at least somewhat. Why Effie saw some sort of creature neither she nor Bridget could place. Why there wasn't a wholly clear sort of logic to it all. "So a creature that's the side-effect or intended-effect of a spell, you mean?" She bit her lip. She could message Cece about it, should such a thing be needed. She knew a witch now, a real and proper one! But now wasn't the time to offer that up. "I don't know if this is the case for everyone, but some of the visions, or memories, or what-have-yous folks have been experiencing seem, shall we say, less than ideal. As I said, not something they'd dream up for themselves, at least not in full."
"That we haven't thought about..." It could be the side-effect of a spell certainly. Magic tended to leave a trace and what if that's what this was? "If this is a spell, then the being, whatever it is, could potentially be the lesser of two evils, as it were. If this is from a spell, someone must have done the spell to create it, and if that's the case, is it even possible to undo what has been done if the spell is in Ashford?" He tugged on his hair a little more. "Maybe we need to look at spells more, not creatures. Spells that can create something out of nothing maybe? Do we know if the memories can be stopped too? If they can, then that might help us figure out this being."
Roger nodded at Bridget's assertion, closing the book in front of him and reaching for a nearby theory of magic book. These got agonisingly technical, with spinning diagrams - bubble diagrams? - that he'd once seen in the physics books that he'd stumbled across in Cincinatti. "I have no doubt that the memories are memories, just concerned that it may not be the only thing spilling over." He looked at Brett and nodded there too. "The spell is leaking over, and it's still possible that these are the consequences we were warned of last summer. It may well be reversible. But this creature is new, so something has changed." He started flicking through the new text, gesturing at where the other two could find others. "I haven't heard of anyone who specialises in mental magic successfully undoing the memories, but I wouldn't discredit the possibility."
Bridget gave a nod. "It's a fair concern, I agree." She bit her lip. "I -- so if there's alternate places and possible alternate selves, like Brett said, does that make Ashford on another plane of existence or...?" She trailed off, shaking her head, before giving an involuntary cough at mental magic. Flashbacks to that gosh darn pageant that wouldn't let go. She had half a mind to pull the 'Don't you know Bruce? Can't he do something?' card, but now wasn't the time for bringing up times when she'd felt unsafe or uncomfortable, not if they wanted to solve this. "The memories seemed to only start with the arrival of this being, so maybe if we get rid of it, they'll go away? I'm not sure if they're permanent or not."
"So far, we don't know of anyone changing personalities but that could in theory be the next stage of whatever is happening now. As silly as it may seem, it might be wise to see if we can find it, at least so we can get a clearer picture of what we are dealing with." Not the brightest idea when it came to supernatural beings, but if they knew exactly what it looked like, it might be easier to identify. "Ashford could be an alternative dimension. A divergence of a path the town once took." He reached for one of the books, flicking through. "So the spell may have been newly performed then so it could be someone who's in Ashkent right now. That at least might help us find the source and yes, maybe if the being left, it would help stop the memories developing at the very least."
Neither of them could see it, but Dodge was cackling on the inside, listening to them speculating about his own very existence. He kept the face of studious curiosity. "Mirror dimensions. We have evidence of dimensions that are completely unlike our on, but the theory of universes that are this similar has never been supported by such compelling evidence as now." It was the one thing outside of himself that Roger had researched so studiously, looking for loophole after loophole. "I suggest that we focus our intentions on the being for now, though, it being the immediate threat."
Bridget couldn't help but grin. Well, at least they both seemed to support some of her ideas. Which wasn't totally abnormal, she was able to get some to listen to her when she didn't talk about her particular area of expertise, but it was still nice. "Yup. Plus, what with other towns that follow the pattern of our own existing, having a semi-replica of our own town existing in some parallel or pseudo-parallel world doesn't seem to far off." She dropped the book she'd been paging through on Roger's desk. "Perhaps in researching the being we'll find out more about Ashford and perhaps why it has started to bleed into Ashkent."
"Certainly." Brett agreed with Roger on that. They had to focus on the memory changer first and then they could focus on Ashkent and Ashford. It could be that they end up with them ending up in Ashford before they got a chance to figure this all out so the sooner, the better. "Does it seem to be going after certain people or is at complete random? Is there any pattern? If there's a pattern, that could help too."
Bridget truly was one for attention. Perhaps not the fierce red head Marley had known, but she seemed thrilled just by their agreements. He was almost worried for her in getting close to Marley, she was far too easy to manipulate. "Exactly, that would be my hope." Every day it felt like the possibility of getting back was growing slimmer, but he could hardly dwell on that now. "It seems to be completely random so far. Hopefully we'll find-" He paused, as the page he turned on seemed obvious. "What about this? It should have hit me sooner." He turned the book to them. Thaumogenesis.
"Well, we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?" Bridget chirped. "But yeah-huh, it's my hope too." She pursed her lips as Roger continued to talk, rising up on her tippie-toes as he turned the book over to them. "Oh!" She practically yelped, before sucking in a breath of air. "A being created as a by-product of a spell. Side-effect, right?" She glanced at the page Roger had opened to, skimming over the words as quickly as she could. "You think this is our thing?"
Brett stared down at the book that Roger showed to them, reading over the information. Oh, if it was going to be anything, that seemed to be it. "I think that could very likely be what we're looking for. Now, we just need to figure out a way of getting it to stop affecting people, or, reverse the spell..." He reached for his notebook, writing down the details. "That definitely seems like it could be it..."
Roger smirked, proud of himself. He could bullshit the research after all. "Black, white eyed, and it would make sense that a spell of this magnitude would result in something like this, and it certainly explains the effects." Blood exploded from the man's entire body, coating him and Cecelia in blood from head to toe. Sanguinode, he knew it. Roger clenched his teeth, but otherwise gave no recognition to that vividly gruesome memory. He spun the book back towards him, curiously. "We'll need to look elsewhere for that, there are no details of how to stop it in here." Just one sentence caught his eye. Destroying it may undo the spell. Dodge couldn't help the quirk of his lips at that. He might go home.
"Yes, that does indeed explain the effects." Bridget gave a nod. She watched Roger carefully, as he briefly clenched his teeth. But it was probably nothing, or nothing more than general worry about fixing the town. "Okay. I'm down for trying to figure that out, if you'd like. We'll work this out in no time, I'm sure!"
Brett watched him a little curiously. Things were odd about Roger recently, especially the fact he had actively contacted him and was taking on board his advice. He hadn't been mean to him once or forceful. It was strange. But, he'd worry about that later. He nodded in agreement with Bridget, picking up his folder. "We'll figure this all out."
[pm] I have your report. My only comment is that while generalisations can be made about a species, do not assume every individual will fit in it. Some bugbears will attack without provocation, although it is unlikely they are responsible for the growling we are hearing.
[pm]
Right. Duh, Sorry!
I wasn’t assuming it
For pete’s sake, I did the interview
For the future, what would the proper phrasing of such opinions be?
Yes, I thought they wouldn’t be the cause of the growls, and I’d guess the lion-bear creatures and the growling are coming together??
