Dear Peri,
Enclosed are a copy of those works on Thosk you requested. God knows why you have such interest in those monsters. While I have you, I’ve been meaning to inquire: I’ve been looking over those entries of yours, and I’d be extremely interested in hearing more about that business with the wendigos. I believe it was about wendigos, at least. The matter being, of course, the minimal degree of detail present in your explanation.In fact, if you don’t mind, I might submit an annotation. There are some interesting studies which Arcaon, Howe and Anure have published that might supplement your findings.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
My thanks for the resources.
I owe Legacy a favor from the time they helped set up the thylacine breeding project. Griffon’s interested by the species, and thinks that their anatomical redundancies could be due to some sort of cancerous retrovirus. Ridiculous, of course, but I think whatever caused him to develop secondary brains throughout his body and boosted his intelligence also resulted in a corresponding increase in arrogance. Legacy works with Bast frequently enough that one would think he’d be used to the concept of supernatural forces by now.
My encounter with the wendigos? Well, there are several species that have been called that. Several species of anomalous humanoids in the North have been called by that in the past. More recently, the same term has been used to describe a variety of xal from the same universe as the ones down in Antarctica. Which one are you talking about? I’ve had run-ins with both of them.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
I’m sorry, it’s just… his name is Griffon.Well, that aside, there might be merit in what he says. Granted, Thosk adaptations are still a cultural relic, but one must consider the means about them. Of course, I don’t know that retroviruses even exist in Yoren, and gods are undeniably a responsible factor, so very well. All in all, I suppose you can have this one.
I wasn’t aware that there were two varieties, as I’ve only gotten ahold of one text in which you refer to anything by the name “wendigo”. Most of my notes are a good few decades old, so I should be more versed in the former. But then, I find myself interested in this second kind. I’ll try to find what I can on the matter in the morning, and write to you then. My fort has had a bit of a collapse, I’m afraid, and I spent most of my day trying to clear it up.
Therianthus
Dear Peri,
Me again. I discussed it with the fellows working in the south, and a few of the other experts on elementals I'm in good stead with. Well, I find myself fascinated. I've noticed a very consistent theme of living ice, which is certainly exciting. Do write back soon.Therianthus
Therianthus:
In any event, he’ll probably find something interesting. Just glad I wasn’t asked to retrieve half a dozen live ones.
The type of xal known as the wendigo is, from what I’ve managed to find out about it, the alien universe’s (I do need a better term) equivalent of an air xal. They can only be seen out of the corner of the eye, and resemble distortions in the air (similar to someone concealed by a badly done metamaterial cloak) in the shape of an emaciated humanoid figure. It seems that the air in the alien universe drives anyone not from it insane (though given the inhabitants, I can’t imagine how they’d be any more insane). I’ve also seen one superimpose itself on someone and use changes in air pressure to manipulate them like a puppet; Walmajarri saw one even farther gone than that. There wasn’t any difference between the xal and the host.
The fact that the Native Americans had legends about them is unnerving--and at the same time slightly inspiring. I can’t help but wonder if there was at one point a rent in the Arctic. If there was, though, it was withstood--without anyone actually knowing what it was, it appears.
Now that I think about it, the skinwalkers I encountered in the Southwest bear similarities to the air xals in many respects. When the tablets were translated, they didn’t mention anything that would imply xals, and multiple things that would imply that xals weren’t involved, but it would be consistant with the translations and physical evidence that they were experimenting with manipulating forces either from the alien universe or from a universe like it.As far as living ice… well, there's life that's made out of ice, and then there's ice that's actually alive. Personally, I doubt that the living glaciers, despite their irritating tendency to eat endangered penguins, are actually from the alien universe. More likely, in my opinion, is that they are a form of genius loci.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
Wonderful. I must say, though, that it is indeed fortunate you didn't have to interact with any number of live Thosk. Those creatures have adapted to uncontritely kill things. I’ve heard of one terrorising the area around Tstal during its expansion into Yorۥmatal in the south… but then, I do go on.Your business in the more remote regions is rather curious – I don’t know why you show such interest in constantly almost dying. I mean, I can understand the investigatory appeal of the life that forms there, but it seems almost like jumping into a volcano to study the various kinds of fascinating molten igneous rock. Which is dangerous enough when the magma isn’t also predatory. I suppose the excitement must attract.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
What's the environment like around there? I don't believe I've ever been to the area. By all means, go on.
The excitement isn't my reason, actually. And given my traveling abilities, if necessary I can always escape. Mostly, it's because I'm perfectly capable of jumping into a volcano to study molten rock and coming out again (so long as I remain in motion, the heat doesn't affect me). And someone's got to do it; might as well be me--if I wasn't the one going into some forsaken place to help others or retrieve valuable information, someone without my abilities would be doing so. There aren't many of Those Who Walk who aren't in Falyx.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
Ah, very well. I do love the opportunity to practice the expertise I have in no great range.You won’t have – I don’t know of any individual that’s ever travelled there successfully. What little the academic community knows of it is based largely on documents and the occasional entity that pass through from time to time. I believe that phenomena is mostly concentrated in mid-eastern Europe, particularly France and Germany. There was even a facility established around the 1920s in Nîmes dedicated to Yoren’s research. They call it “Alexandrie Petit”.
As for what the place itself is like: well, that’s rather complicated. D’est, or at least the accepted understanding of it, does not allow easy translation of the present, so we have only vague ideas of the era which our documents originate from – if it’s even one definite time. Theological dynamics also appear to have a more prevalent effect, which makes the nature of the landscape rather fluid. As far as can be determined, the landmass known as Yoren was at one point a desert, which shifted into some analogue of vegetation around the same time that the archaic Thosk underwent their cultural decay. It was some time after that that the phyratical and academic institutions, which are now one of Yoren’s major cultural pivots, were established – even if you do find relics of Thosk tradition from time to time.
Tell you what, now: perhaps in exchange for this exposition of mine, you could tell me a little more of that homeland of yours.Therianthus
Therianthus:
I may have to try and travel there. Is the landmass itself vegetation?
Well, to begin with, Falyx doesn't work the same way Earth's universe does. It's one giant semidesert, similar to the Sonoran or the Australian bush. The sun is about a quarter of the way into the sky, and never moves from that position. When it's night, the sun simply starts dimming—and changing color so that the light is more like moonlight than anything else. It isn't plasma and gas either, it's a giant luminescent rock. When I first left Falyx I had trouble seeing colors, since our light has a very faint purple tinge.
All motile life in Falyx has the ability to move in two ways. Firstly, they can move by mundane means, similar to that in most univerii. Secondly, they can enter a sort of trance state where distance becomes subjective, having to do more with similar areas. On Falyx, if I'm Walking and I step into a cave, I can step out of an unconnected cave. And entering that trance state is easy to do accidentally, so measuring Falyx is simply impossible. It could be infinite in size, or it could be self-contained. It could even have definite boundaries.
Falyx has recently been playing host to a bunch of xals (and other beings) from the alien universe. Rifts are popping up everywhere, and it takes a great deal of effort to close them. Large swaths of Falyx have already been converted into darklands.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
Firstly, I should think not. At least, not to the best of my knowledge. What an odd idea; a land of vegetation. As an aside, let me tell you that the history of the documents pertaining to Yoren is itself quite notable. I should really tell you more about this at some point.Falyx sounds like a wondrous place. Especially its mechanics. I’m curious as to certain details: might I ask, what was your life there like?
Therianthus
Therianthus:
I've encountered far stranger things. But I look forward to hearing their history.
Time is also sort of fluid on Falyx. I don't recall how old I am, days seem to blend into each other and the place has a timeless air. Most of my life was spent wandering the wilderness—so long as I did, I didn't need to eat, or sleep, or drink. Every once and a while I'd come to a settlement and spend a few days there before moving on again. Eventually I ended up on Earth (specifically, New England in 1849) when running from a tralax, which is basically a great big praying mantis.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri.
The documents relating to Yoren are believed to have first started appearing in Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. God knows why that time. Unfortunately, due to cultural, social and – perhaps above all – religious reasons, they weren’t publicised. Some are known to have survived, and study of their nature was known to have at some point commenced, but due to political discrepancies involving the French occupation of Germany, the majority were destroyed by the republican government.In the mid-19th century, an institution for the thing was established by Christopher Hanes, an Englishman working with a derivative proto-sect of the Hand, who provided the term “Yoren” — I know that “D’est” originated from a group of Austrians working in Toulouse. The works that have lasted between then and the second Great War now make up more than half of the current body of information associated with the place, and most breakthroughs regarding it were made at that time. I know, for example, that D’est was first translated into a local language the 1860s.
At some point after this, it became apparent that the area of effect was slowly migrating north-west: nowadays, you have severe problems with the documents, which are usually a form of paper or other porous material, dropping into the channel, which worsens their otherwise moderate damage.
Shortly after the Second World War, which resulted in some great disruption to the process, it was decided that at any one time, copies of known works should be possessed by parties uninvolved (partially or otherwise) with any conflicts held by the nations of the discoverers. The Sub-Kingdom of the Guard in northern Scotland, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland — and later parts of the United States as well — was originally established to fulfil this function. More recently, the organisation has set up facilities in Russia.
And that’s where I come in. I, and a few others, work to maintain the Library’s pertinent articles on D’est matters. On top of the work I do with Arcaon’s notes, it’s one of my main tasks.
Now, I’ve considered that last letter I sent you, and I do apologise for averting your question. It did come off rather blatant, didn’t it? I’m afraid I’ve simply been incredibly busy lately. After cleaning up that collapse my residence experienced and holding an elongated debate with a Librarian over removing an offensively poor piece of erotica from the Library’s collection (which didn’t go well - the poor bastard just sort of stared at me blankly) I fell behind on my actual workload.
And again, I do apologise for my insistence about your personal life, but something seems… odd about your story. Did you not have a childhood?
Therianthus
Therianthus:
My species is only sentient after we reach maturity. I simply don't remember, and usually it's not a subject discussed—it's considered faintly humiliating to be told of the time one spent nonsentient. Having lived among other species for the majority of my life, though, I'm used to people being curious. In any event, I know nothing of it.
So these papers are popping into Earth's reality within a given area? How, and why?
How'd it collapse? Earthquake, or did the GOC stop by and end up wrecking the place?
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
Honestly, I simply don’t know the details of why they’re appearing. There is an under-studied phenomenon known as the Shore of Theryn that could conceivably be responsible, but it doesn’t extensively account for it. Most things that pass through, however, seem to demonstrate a consistent state of damage: pages experience a slight singing on the bottom right corner, and a few are in halves or pieces from extreme burns. Jars and samples are usually least affected, but not so as to leave them living: a few are simply dead for no apparent cause.Oh, I do forget. One of the supporting books seems to have given out on me, and the whole thing fell apart. I still have a bruise from where the heavier parts of the ceiling literature collided with the back of my head.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
Isn't the Shore of Theryn basically a result of metaphysical 'closeness' between two worlds? And has attempting cloning or resurrection magic worked? A similar problem happened when I tried to get a nearly extinct Falyxian species' essence into a magical location, the essence didn't quite transfer over well.
Your house is made of books?
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
In essence, yes. Reports on the matter seem to have it as some disembodied coast which occasionally intercepts sea-faring traffic. The thing is crescent-shaped: sailors who pass through it never seem to come back. I’m not quite certain how they become so horribly charred. Whatever they must pass through is never documented in the intervening time.Perhaps I’m failing to properly explain the difference between known and D’est biological principles. I apologise. Cloning magic is notoriously unpredictable at the best of times, and applying it to entities that don’t have the nucleic material for it tends to result in a bit of a tumorous mass. Resurrection is similarly unsuccessful, since most of their body cannot be successfully substituted for something more survivable than ash.
Ah, yes. Have I neglected to tell you this story? When I first began associating with the organised patrons of the Library, I decided to make my residence here. The Librarians don’t seem to mind except for the Books they’re sometimes forced to remove. You’d be surprised how rarely it compromises the structural integrity, especially since I learned rather quickly not to stock it with literature anyone would want. You might also be startled to learn that constantly being surrounded by awful writing isn’t as detrimental to the soul as you might think.
In hindsight, it may have been a very stupid choice to make. But I’m too comfortable and lazy to relocate now.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
I'd guess as to some sort of elemental realm, but that fails to explain those that are simply dead. Walmajarri once passed on a rumor about 'death xals', but I doubt that they are responsible for something like this.
So they don't have DNA? Interesting. How do they pass down coding? Some sort of primal essence in the gametes? I once went to a place where preformation was true.
So you stock it full of Twilight novels? Good as use for them as any.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
What a funny idea. Wouldn’t know at what point they stop being elementals and start being gods. Or a collective god.It’s a strange old thing. Analysis of surviving organisms has revealed Tharecal tissue is just a sheet of substance produced by chemical agents. This is never present in their anatomical and physiological works (likely because Yoren has yet to invent the microscope), however.
Among those studying Yoren, there are two competing hypotheses. One dictates that the physical form living and various inanimate subjects is held consistently together by the interaction of various incorporeal forces: chiefly, the neomoid, the theosphere and Hanes’ connective parafluid. But these aren’t very good names, so the community has taken to call them ix1 through ix3. These are known to interact in varying ways – ix1 and ix2 vary quantitivey, while ix3 has a constant quantity with a varying structure. Asexual reproduction is thereby possible through the replication of this interaction.
The second theory is somewhat sillier, somewhat less convoluted and rather more valid. It holds organic entities as a form of lesser deity: organic matter is held and self-proliferation carried out through a minor form of reality adjustment.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
Gods can't be killed.
Or, rather, they can't be killed so easily. Kill a god and they just reform, and they will later in all probability kill you. The only way to permanently kill a god is to destroy everything it is associated with. When the thylacine was made extinct, Walmajarri died (sort of--he was actually rendered senescent; the details were rather unusual). When they were cloned again, he was revived. Killing a death xal would be as simple as either dispersing its physical structure or infusing it with its opposite--life. A suitably large amount of vitae should, theoretically, destroy a death xal. The only problem is getting close enough to it.
I thought you said that the organisms never survived.
So then, if one knows how the different forces interacted, one could create the organism from scratch. Possibly without even any real materials.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
Oh, silly me. I’ve spent too much time with the journals published about the thing. No, organisms never survive; though the term “surviving” gets thrown about a lot in regards to the nature of tissue.Indeed you could, if you were on Yoren, controlled a mechanism to vary these things and this particular theory, in fact, possessed greater credence. Although… it might be possible to do a similar thing using analogous forces.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
Interesting. Perhaps a universal bleed could even allow the creation of organisms from Yoren in other univerii.
I have a question. I have heard that you once penetrated a Foundation facility. How'd you accomplish that?
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
I am sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I've been in France talking with a senile, old, holy bastard: one of the members of the Harmony of Insensé Légèrement. You wouldn't believe some of the stories they would tell you. "Back in my day, we had to walk twelve hours over hot spikes made of coal to get to school. One time I tried to take a shortcut through a lake of pigs' intestines and had to drown twice. And when we got to school, they made us kneel on sharpened trees for eight hours, after which I approximate I'd go home. Eight days a week we did that, we did."As for how I got in: trust me when I say it had more to do with luck than any ability on my part. The limited resources at my disposal allow me to access the Ways, and I was fortunate in that that process extended to some of the Foundation's sites. I have among my possessions a small piece of glass, which Lovell can use to scry, so I was able to determine the nature of the place and pass through one of the doors. I spent enough time on the thing to get past most of the mundane security, but I couldn't do it again. I'd probably be killed, captured, tortured interrogated, or some combination of the four were I to attempt it once more.
Odd man, that Lovell. He's mostly unanomalous, and so is the glass piece. It's just the two together for some bizarre reason that achieves an effect. He brought it with him when he came to the Hand, and he hasn't really told me the story behind it.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
Given that Insensé Légèrement translates to "Slightly Insane", perhaps he was senile to begin with?
It's rather interesting, from the perspective of one who studies the Ways, that they don't extend to all Foundation sites. Those are places of unique happenings, of power. There should be truly giant--and easy to access--Ways to the Sites. Granted, I'm used to… easier travel, I suppose (though I can't get everywhere, as I learned about sixty years ago), and thus expect that everybody has as easy a time getting around. Perhaps the Foundation isn't quite as puritanical in not using anomalies as it likes to say. Bloody hypocrites. Did you see anything interesting at the site you visited? I've been searching for something they apparently possess for quite some time now. It's a copy of the Holy Bible infested with mushrooms, colloquially referred to as the Mushroom Bible (due, no doubt, to a total lack of originality). My sources indicate it originated in Victorian England, possessed by some oddball naturalist who left it near a dish of agar.
'Mostly' unanomalous?
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
Indeed it does. The order is structured around the worship of a very old, powerful and tired entity. There’s a shrine in the Alps dedicated to a large shipping container – which has been there for about 30 years now – in which this entity has retired to undergo what's left of its remaining existence, furnished with a fireplace, a massive seating implement constructed of steel and lined with a warm, soft fluid on its surface, and a window made of a hardened version of the same viscous liquid looking down on the sea.Initiates of the Harmony regularly make a pilgrimage which takes them out to the British Channel to collect documents describing D’est news, and bring them to this shrine. When they come before this entity to make the offering, they sort of go… soft in the mind, to put it lightly.
That’s actually the reason I was there. Recent investigation has revealed that they seem to have a more accurate and older translation of D’est than any other known group, as well as a simply marvelous method of printing and document reproduction. Which brings me to this Bible of yours. The Harmony most certainly does have a copy of it; in fact, they have three, each with a different kind of fungus. Two of them sprout mushrooms, including the webcap copy and one I've not been able to place. It bears a sort of black-and-white, spotty variety, which seems to have removed a great deal of the ink. Which one were you looking for?
Oh, and as far as the Foundation is concerned: now that you bring it up, I’m half-suspicious that they have a few personnel of untoward commitment to then who are getting up to something. When I spoke to Dr. Rye, he seemed scared and… resigned, is the best way to put it. Like he'd been anticipating someone showing up. Perhaps it was just the things he works with, or my imagination. But I can’t escape the feeling that there’s something going on. Lovell seems to know a bit about all this, so I shall have to question him about the subject.
And I say "mostly". His unique association with that piece of glass makes him a toaty bit supernormal in and of itself.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
Truthfully, the thought doesn't surprise me. The Foundation is huge, and they crack down on any dissent (which is one reason getting spies inside there is so damn hard if they're going to be anything but janitors). The fools may not realize that such an environment is a breeding place for resistance. Newton's Third Law as applied to sophonts. Mostly disillusioned agents seem to go join the GOC, because their experiences are generally with things that want to kill them or do various unspeakable things to their minds—rather nasty way to be introduced to the anomalous. Not all disillusioned agents leave or follow predictions. A few more infamous ones have betting pools for when they'll quit.
Definitely not the webcap copy. No, the one I'm interested in seems to grow shiitakes. But the one you describe… I'll have to take a look at it. Sounds like a knowledge-eater of some sort. Didn't know that there were multiple copies… perhaps it reproduces by spores?
Anyone know anything more specific about the entity? It sounds similar to a species of velvet worm I once came across in the Ravelwoods… though larger (specifically, it excreted a form of mucus that could be used as glass once it hardened). Perhaps the organism is from D'est… would explain why it wants the news.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
If it’s not either of the copies held by the Harmony, I can only conclude that they made several derivative copies without retaining the original. I have heard reference to loose sect of citizens in China which hold a variety of shiitake cultivated by a Man O’ Herbalism, which have testified that they were originally removed from some “relic of a holy nature”. I would try there.I am not fully aware of how the Harmony does what it does with written word, but there is speculation. Most assume it has to do with the creature they worship, or that they have some sort of sacrificial practice. A few madmen in northern Germany have stated that they have a very specific practice. During their more lucid periods, they describe a great shrine in which members of the order consume a fluid produced by an entity, and slowly – over the course of a few days – undergo physical change, until they become an object they’ve committed to memory. This would, at least, explain the deviances the process experiences.
Of course, what these people say cannot be taken with absolute confidence. It’s difficult to trust or predict the actions of the demented. So, perhaps the thing is a native of Yoren or the Ravelwoods. Perhaps it has simply borrowed attributes from both. I simply do not know enough to be certain. I would guess that it is something very significant, to have this effect on people.
My mind grows muddled to think of it, for some reason. It’s bothering me a little. It might be the effect of this thing manifesting itself in me.
Anyway, in other news, I managed to speak with Lovell. It took a little while, but it yielded some insight into the phenomenon. Lovell described to me that it was not him in particular that had this ability. It was an idea he had been exposed to. Some sort of passage that allowed those who could call it to mind to see, through this object, things that others couldn’t. He was just about to tell me where he learned about it, and where he got the object in the first place, when he grew withdrawn and dismissed me.
This is proving infuriatingly curious, so I intend to investigate more. I’ll ask around, perhaps he’ll have let something slip to others at some point.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
My apologies for the late reply; the Feathered One recalled me to Falyx, the bastard. Sometimes I hate gods. Arrogant sods. Queztalcoatl in particular… Can't criticize his reasoning, though. Sometimes the Chaos Insurgency baffles me. How can any group be so stupid? To try and enslave xals from the alien universe… Well, it didn't end well for them. Or the xals. I have relatively little sympathy for either of them. They do keep trying to kill me.
So if they study the Mushroom Bible extensively enough… interesting. Of questionable ethics, but interesting. I'll have to look in China; where did they say it was? If it's in Hong Kong things would be significantly complicated.
Possibly. I've heard of entities with that sort of ability, including one that the Foundation somehow managed to contain. I have my suspicions about it, but they're likely incorrect.
I wish you luck in your search.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
Well, arrogance is inevitable in entities who exist as a manifestation of power. And it’s an attribute innate in such things as gods: having manifested thinking only of reality in relation to whatever specific purpose or concept they embody, it’s no wonder they’re inclined to think themselves the most singularly important entity in existence.I wasn’t aware the Insurgency even knew of the whole business with alien elementals. It’s persistently troubling, how much of the true nature of things they’re trying to make use of. Most of the Hand’s knowledge comes from continued access to the Library. I’ve no idea how they figure these things out.
As for the Bible – last I heard, it was “somewhere near the Pearl River” when he last saw it. That was thirty years ago. It could have been in Hong Kong at one point, but I have no idea if it is now. Apologies for the vagueness of the information, it was the most I could get out of my informant during his lucid periods. Although he also told me that he remembered it being in the off-coloured day of a sideways clock, and to watch out for the migration of the sea-lamps. I expect that won’t be of much help.
On a detail closer to home, I swear that damned cat has been trying to keep a very close eye on me. You know, the talking one. Midnight or some such thing. She keeps cosying up to me and being all affectionate, and when she’s not doing that, she seems to be trying to stay in the same room as me. I can’t escape the feeling that she’s staring at me whenever I turn my back. What's more, she'll always become evasive whenever I ask her about what the cause for the sudden attention is. In my worse moments, I fear someone might be spying on me.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
Not necessarily inevitable… though that would depend, I suppose, one what one means by 'power'. Because there are 'gods', if you will, that are of things that are now gone, and some of them have inferiority complexes. When you start believing that what you embody was rightfully destroyed… I cannot even imagine that level of agony. I predict that deity therapy will be a growth industry in the future.
That being said, actively worshiped 'gods' are a different story. Goes to their heads, especially if they haven't had their religion nearly wiped out at some point. They start getting ideas.
Apparently they have links to the Foundation… though they are on very hostile terms with them now. If anything, the Insurgency is far more ruthless, though. The bastards ally with the very worst dictators in places that the Western world can't be bothered to care about. I also wouldn't be surprised if they steal books.
Still, it's a starting point. And sea-lamps… I do recall reading something about them. I'll have to do a bit of digging.
The black one with the adorable fluffy tail? She very well might be spying on you. Try bringing her catnip mice. It's cute when she has a giggle fit. There's a special blend you can get from an apothecary in Cairo.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
I gave her a pot of jam and some sleeping pills. I remember reading somewhere that cats like sleeping pills.Sorry. It’s very late at night. It took me all day to get her to eat the damn things, and I only now feel comfortable writing with the likelihood not I’m not being watched removed. In hindsight, I probably could have just confronted her about it; I shall have to do so when she wakes up.
It shouldn’t suprise me. The Insurgency seem to have their fingers in a lot of evil pies.
No, they’ve made an evil swan pie of everyone’s fingers
They’ve rudely stolen everyone’s pie and
I wish I’d brought more paper in with me. I'd go get some more now, but I don't want to wake her up.
I seem to recall he said they were headed towards the fleetingness of a sparrow’s smile. So I guess you could start there. As I’ve already sad, this man is very much insane – it’s unlikely he meant to hint at something factual through riddles and cryptology. Although I never do know how present the members of the Harmony really are: perhaps they make more sense than I assume they do.
Oh, actually… I looked a few old articles out. A grouping of Men O’ Herbalism in Shanghai have apparently taken up a tendency of spelling out religious dialogue in symbolic plant species. It could have something to do with your book. I’ve enclosed a street name and a few people who were involved in the business before the Arbivulg fanatics rooted them ou
I’m sorry, that… that was a pun.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
Are you sure she ate them? Absolutely sure? And what kind of jam? Not blueberry? Please tell me you didn't use blueberry.
Yes, that they have. Specifically the blueberry. I liked that pie. It was an anomalous pie. Delicious. Rematerialized after you ate it. And you know what they did? The bastards stole it! Right now they're probably gorging themselves on my pie. It was the fabled Pie of Struartzkey! There has never been a better pie so made! And someday, I'm going to steal back my pie.
Thank you.
Oh, and Midnight, if you're reading this, mind your own damn business or I'll slip catnip in your food, take Lolcat pictures of you, and post them to the internet.
— Peristrixalo
Dear A
Dear Arist
Dear friend,
It might well have been blueberry. It could equally have been raspberry, blackberry, gooseberry, applederry or manoferry. I was in a state enough last night to confuse flavours, much in the same way I confused a bundled rug for a talking cat.I'm not sure what happened last night, but I woke up in a pile of blank pages clutching a journal. The content of the journal was itself odd: there were various pictures, cut-outs, sketches, poems and short stories of some kind. Most of it's disjointed. There was one section with a picture of a whale with a clown's face and a poem about how sea shells are plotting to take over Amsterdam. Another one had a collection of excerpts from magazines, military reports, letters and other documents (some of which seem to be 13th-century) all about a particular three year-old Dachshund named Doris.
I'm not sure what this is, but I don't think it’s a book taken from the Library. The final section is signed off "H. L. Lovell", and has a short piece of verse about a "chunk of recast sand". Lovell himself appears to have disappeared.
I've come out of this with no more clarity as to the happenings of late, and an inexorable compulsion to call you Aristotle and make up types of jam.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
Well, then, you came off luckier than I. I woke up yesterday in bed, thankfully dressed, apparently dually married to what appears to be a Pompeii worm with lungs, and a talking sea lion. I also now own a Malibu mansion, which it seems I liquidated all my long-term investments to buy. We would arrange divorce proceedings, except that it seems the paperwork necessary was all stolen. Meanwhile a scan of my belongings indicates that I spent the last three days in Las Vegas, which explains the bigamy.
I have decided I do not want to know.
Guess that’s what happens when a certain goddamn feline slips One Who Walks sleeping pills. Give us back that paperwork right now, Midnight, or you will become the latest LOLCat sensation. And I know you’re reading my mail.
Is it a photograph or a drawing? This could be vitally important.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
I know it's been another few months since my last letter — but I do have an excuse again. My continued research and need to sort out the mess that is the combination of our simultaneous drugging and my accrued psychoses and paranoia. Said paranoia is fortunately now completely excised.In my absent time, however, I have made some progress as to my research. Firstly, it seemed to be a monochrome stencil, which may equally have been a sketch or a treated photograph. Furthermore, after contacting Peter and getting my hands on some very well-enchanted cryptography software. I've put it to work on the journal, which should lead to a clearer explanation — or rather, based on how the program works, a large list of explanations to sort through for a single explanatory result. Pending some deduction, of course.
I suppose you Falycians must respond differently to dormative chemicals. I'm partly curious as to the effect of other substances: particularly hallucinogens. I don't suppose you have any familiarity with the biochemistry of your species, do you?
Oh yeah: I've been keeping tabs on Midnight, and I'm confident she was conspiring with someone. Possibly the Jailors, or another such organisation. Maybe one of the more antisocial sects of the Hand — if she wasn't conspiring, she was at least a sympathiser, and at the very best, a rather nosy individuals.
Fortunately, due to action on my part, I'd be very surprised if she continued to present a problem.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
A photograph could be one of the clown whales, which are known for attempting to be funnier than dolphins and failing. If it was a drawing, though, I would be more inclined to attribute it to a flight of fancy; such things are hardly un-thought of among the mundane world.
Yes; what humans experience as tranquilizers act as a severe alcohol overdose mixed with a hallucinogen. While we're under those effects, long-term memories are impossible to form, which is why I don't remember anything.
Near as I can tell, we're similar in biochemistry to most Earth life, but our neurotransmitters are radically different. For instance, GABA doesn't result in a lowering of my stress levels, it puts us in an altered state of consciousness where we're hypervigilent. Ghrelin puts us in a torpor state where we can survive in suspended animation for long periods without moving. And carbon monoxide isn't deadly because our blood is iridium-based. That means we can survive in a hydrogen atmosphere, and that our blood vessels are coated in thick melanin sheaths.
If it was the Jailors, I think that either I'd be in one of their prisons or there'd be news about a rather nasty security breach. Oh, and she seems to have given us the paperwork; I did indeed turn her into a LOLCat sensation.
What action?
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
Further decryption and translation of Lovell’s notes has allowed me to build a small device out of three rubber bands, a cat’s paw, a cardboard box, some helium and half a dog-collar. Though its function is mostly uncertain, the same copper leaf on which the schematic was finely inscribed titled it a “Markson retro-jambulation machine” and described it doing something called “jambulation” at an efficiency and with a processing speed one-point-five times that of other leading jambulators.I was hoping you would know what to make of that, because I certainly don’t.
In any case, the same schematic also had more than one note mentioning both photography and whales, which led me to – on a hunch – feed the image we were discussing into it. The results it gave back, if accurate, may clear the matter up: the printout basically said that the image was created with a standard Photoactive Corpographic Reflector, which means that it is likely a clown whale after all. Or rather, was. It’s certainly not one anymore, based on the state of the most recent PCR prototypes and what they did to that giraffe.
Apart from simply clarifying a minor curiousity, this whole business has confirmed a hypothesis of mine regarding these notes. Since I began my study, I’ve been continuously throwing out speculations as to its nature; but at this point, I’ve narrowed it down to just two.
The first is that the book is that the unusual items of the book form part of an immensely convoluted maze of code, designed to obscure an extremely significant piece of information. If this is the case, then it’s uncertain whether it’s this central meme that’s giving the superficial aspects of the book mild reality-altering properties, or whether the code simply involves those aspects incidentally.
The second is that Lovell has found (or attempted to find) a means to copy his mind to paper in the form of a series of riddles and knick-knacks.
I’m confident that the truth of the matter will become known once I’m able to fully make sense of the thing. If I temporarily take some time out of my normal work, I’ll be able to get to the answer sooner.
That business aside, your biology does seem rather odd. If your blood vessels are coated in a think exterior layer, wouldn’t that impede their absorption of oxygen? Unless, of course, they have some other function and you don’t require oxygen as a part of your metabolism. Is that the case? And how do you know so much about your own physiology? Were you some analogue of a medical student back on Falyx?
As for Midnight: we need say no more than that I took action. She’s no longer a problem.
As a tangent – how goes the search for that Mushroom Bible of yours?
Therianthus
Therianthus:
A… cat's paw? In any event, jambulation is basically bottling extrauniversal particles into full jam jars. The jam acts as a containment matrix for the particles, and contains them until the jam is burnt. Alternatively, one may eat the jam. Eating the jam is more versatile.
From the function you described, I would say that it is using theta-tachyons linked into a M-III analytic difference engine to determine its origins. In any case, good riddance. I dislike clown whales.
I'd buy the second one. Meshes with what little I've heard of the man.
Not really. It's just the cells surrounding them that have a lot of melanin, it's not like it's a layer of pure melanin outside of the cells themselves. Makes for rather interesting looking skin, and I have had to wear glamors more than once. These days I don't get too much attention, though. People assume I just have a full body tattoo.
It's true, though, that distributing oxygen/hydrogen isn't a particularly important part of their function. More important is their role in setting up the travel field I use when Walking--after all, I don't need to breath so long as I'm in motion (and since iridium based compounds aren't too great at oxygen carrying, I'm not very alert when I'm not Walking).
Most Falyxian life, though, can also become more alert by absorbing infrared radiation, in a manner similar to reptiles.
I was actually a drifter back on Falyx (most are), but knowing our own physiology is considered extremely important. Why I haven't the faintest idea. Perhaps they imagine that we'll try going on a jaunt in a star and get ourselves killed by having all the oxygen-carrying molecules in our blood degrade, but I was once forced to do just that and I'm still alive.
Well, the sea lion has actually been quite helpful with the search for the Mushroom Bible. So far we've found some very intriguing clues left behind by an old dragon who left the area around a thousand years ago.
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri,
This will be a short letter, as I'm now fully engrossed in my studies of this thing; I most recently decided simply to pass all my unrelated works on to other scholars.I've been foolish in my investigation of this diary. I wrongly assumed that all the pertinent information was contained in the volume itself. From the get-go, I should have considered the additional objects: the glass fragment; the subjects of the photographs that have been pasted in here; the type of paper which the narrative parts are written on, and the places those types originated from; any minerals which might have at some stage come into contact with the ink.
The Foundation's cache.
It has become clear to me now that it is not possible to pursue whatever enigma Lovell has left behind part-time, and I should never have allowed myself to work out of such a busy area as the Library. Which reminds me to note — should you need to contact me, it's best advised to do so through these letters at the normal addresses. I've got a good system to get them undetected.
You certainly won't find me if you try to look.
Therianthus
Therianthus:
My apologies for my absence, I was escaping from an angry dragon. I have obtained the Mushroom Bible, and it has proven to be quite interesting. Also useful, as the fungus regularly regrows and thus is a useful source of food. Or at least that is what I thought when, in the middle of the desert, I suggested that the sea lion eat the mushrooms, but they proved to be psychedelic mushrooms, and she is currently stoned out of her mind.
The properties of the Bible itself are rather interesting. When she comes out of her coma, I'll have to talk to Sabia about the contents, because many of the visions she's had are related to the Mushroom Bible's contents, and she didn't read it.
I am convinced that some executive somewhere would take one look at my life and turn it into a reality TV series.
How goes your research?
— Peristrixalo
Dear Peri
I deciphered another fragment! When ever removable item is placed in a spiral in the ground, organised by size and with the glass at the centre, and paint over it with all the logos Dosett & Clarks has used for their opticians department, it functions as a spell to make glass opaque. It's a minor discovery, but it all goes towards finding the truth and intent.I'm running out of chicken blood, though.
A dragon you say? What sort of dragon?
Therianthus:
I can't help but wonder why, if one wanted to make glass opaque, they would not use paint instead of a time-consuming ritual. How much glass are we talking about, though?
The package this letter is attached to contains 666 ounces of chicken blood. It's a long story.
Typical Asian sort. Big, long, scaly, snake-like… maybe a bit pretentious. Got offended after I asked him if he would stop with the enigmatic stuff and give me a straight answer. The result is I spent a week ducking from place to place in Hong Kong. Unfortunately I ended up Walking while in the botanical gardens after the dragon's henchmen ambushed me and we ended up in the Gobi Desert.
But I'm currently writing this from what seems to be an oasis created by the Bible. I'm recording my observations religiously, and I believe that the Hand will find them of extreme interest.
— Peristrixalo