#tsv 23

[tsvwords]

PAIGE: How would you like to pretend to be someone else?

HAYWARD: Who?

PAIGE: A traitor to all that stands.  A pioneer. A revolutionary.

​They sit there in silence. The wind howls around them.

HAYWARD: Yeah. I like the sound of him.

— Chapter 23: I'd Howl, I'd Scream, In Victory.

[archingcurrent]

Let's go Paige!! Really pulling up with the hey! you're awake! you're my hostage btw :)

oh! do you wanna create a new god with me? cool!!

[justconstantly]

obsessed with tsv 23 Paige is literally like awwww is Hayward feewing a wittle sad? does he wanna play with his lil tractor toy? would you like to make a god with me? would that make u feel better?

[tsvwords]

And so what? You got paid by bad people. What else is there? If you can’t stand it, go work for a community project, get paid less by good people, who take their money in turn from bad people. Feel relief at the distance you’ve built up from the way things work. 

— Chapter 23: I'd Howl, I'd Scream, In Victory.

[tsvwords]

Oh, the lawful gods won’t take my calls, Pray away, pray away, So I’ll find someone else to save my soul, And I’ll pray to the Damned Hysteria.

— Chapter 23: I'd Howl, I'd Scream, In Victory.

[tsvwords]

They all have names, the children who go missing from the estate. You don’t remember exactly what they were.

But your kickball game, a tournament of champions floodlit by the tenement windows all around, keeps on getting smaller.

You pass to one of your fellow players, the short boy with dark hair and big round glasses, and one night he’s no longer there.

The ball goes stray, trailing to a halt on the other side of the courtyard. You run to fetch it.

Your kickball game keeps getting smaller, and nobody is talking about it.

There’s a girl with braided hair who watches every evening from the outskirts, and is always too shy or too sullen to come and join the game, and then one night she’s gone as well.

Your kickball game keeps getting smaller, and there are nights when nobody shows up at all - and you wait for as long as you can stand before dashing home in a desperate frantic as if something terrible is chasing you down the long concrete stairwells.

Your mother says she doesn’t want you staying out after dark any more.

She buys a television, to distract you and keep you entertained during the evenings.

And soon new people move into the apartments that have been abandoned, and you forget about the children who went missing, and you get used to your new routine.

— Chapter 23: I'd Howl, I'd Scream, In Victory.

[tsvwords]

Our god wouldn’t come when it’s called by the safe or the stable. They’d have no way of speaking to it. It’d come only for those who whisper to it in their final moments of terror and sorrow before the sacrificial knife descends. Only for those who place the flowers over a tombstone in the depths of their grief, willing others to be spared the same fate.

— Chapter 23: I'd Howl, I'd Scream, In Victory.

[tsvwords]

Upon The Birthing Of Gods. Professor Elaine Trask, revised edition.

First Instruction. Faith may be practiced in solitude.

God-birthing, however, is a communal activity. Please do not kid yourself. You will need others.

Second Instruction. Ensure that you have a simple and communicable concept in mind.

Once you have settled on your god’s concept, immediately take the time to cross-reference said concept against an up-to-date register of licenced faiths.

Remember that international law prohibits religious plagiarism, and your national authorities are legally bound to seek out and nullify any attempted breach of copyright.

N.B. If you are defining your god as a committee, ensure everyone is on the same page from the beginning. Schisms during the planning stages benefit no-one.

Third Instruction. Know your history. 

Even if your chosen concept does not infringe upon the intellectual property of other licenced faiths, it is absolutely inevitable that someone has had exactly the same notion before you. You’re not an unprecedented genius, stupid.

Search the archives for abandoned or stray faiths.  If you can find any record of why a faith was abandoned, make a note of this information for future reference, as it may impact your licencing, claim.

Also make a note of any known prayer-marks. These will be your first retraced steps towards building a shared language, a way to speak and a way to be heard.

Fourth Instruction. Test your communication method. Establish a connection.

You should begin this process by deciding on a conduit, or conduits; some manner of hierophant, seeker, prophet, who can relate particularly strongly to the concept at hand.

If you are not the conduit in question, share the following steps with your chosen candidate, and then retreat to a safe distance.

You will need:

a variety of psychotropic smokes and commercial-grade teas (see the next chapter for a suggested list to get you started) 

some limited but meaningful form of sacrifice (a god must feed, and until you’ve established the exact ritual of sacrifice, blood and life remain the most effective general standbys)

patience, a great deal of it

Fifth Instruction. Focus on your god, to the exclusion of all other thoughts. Devote mind and body to drawing it forth.

Let your mind open up new pathways through the sullen waters of reality. Obsession is the winding road that will lead you to your god.

Again, you will need resilience...and still more patience.

Ninety-one percent of god-birthing efforts fall at this first hurdle. If you have access to a substantial labour force, this author advises you to make use of them and speed the process up. 

Dramatically increase the psychotropic dosage, deal with any casualties as necessary, and arrive at your destination sooner. Whatever method you choose, the crucial thing is to ensure that your chosen conduit does not lose focus.

You’ll know when you’ve arrived. It’ll feel as if a piece has fallen into place. A satisfaction so absolute that it terrifies you.

Like the world was incomplete until now.