when visions in the final end must shatter like the glass [open to multiple]

[amourtician]

When Jay opens his eyes, he stares into a white wall. Around him is the noise of a city, though the rumble of automobiles is so much louder than he's used to, merging into a sort of feral buzz, a cross between angry bees and static. The noise of the crowd is interwoven into this hum, a hideous counternote. Jay shudders and tries to figure out what sort of wall he's staring at. He reaches out to touch it, then thinks better of it and instead turns around.

He's standing under a marble arch that stands at the entrance to a park. He stumbles back into the inner wall of the arch, suddenly feeling dizzy. It's the noise, the hideous noise that's tunnelling down his ears to his brain, making him feel like his whole head is vibrating. He screws his eyes shut and leans against the wall, shaking. He wants to throw up, but he's very aware that he's in public and he does not want to be unseemly.

He has no idea what's going on. It feels like he's lost some time, for he cannot remember the last thing he was doing, only the distant morning, breakfast with his twin. And now this. He shudders. He wonders, briefly, if he's hallucinating and the idea makes him moan in dismay.

To anyone who may be passing by, it appears as though a lavishly dressed, young, black person of absolutely indeterminable gender just popped into existence of nowhere. He's wearing a suit that looks like a New Romantic gone distinctly Regency, with a floor-length, pleated black skirt rather than trousers. A fur stole drapes around his shoulders; his hands are bedecked with rings, his face is painted brightly. He's wearing boots with pointy toes and high heels, elevating him to a height of 5'8", rather than his natural 5'5".

And he looks so very overwhelmed and sick.

Comments

[amourtician]

"Satan?" Jay says, doubtfully. He has no idea who Satan is, but he figures it's best to sound like he doesn't believe he could be here. "Mmmm. Well, I doubt he's all that dangerous. I've probably seen worse."

He's probably slept with worse, he's quite sure, if only because the list of people he's slept with includes Raimut. Jay isn't quite sure how you could get worse and scarier than Raimut without being spirit-touched or possibly a spirit.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Mm," says Daniel, pitching the syllable lightly upward to correct that rather flagrant error in judgement, "no, no, I wouldn't say that really. If you want a good idea of what he is, just, ah - in a particular human religious ideology, Satan is basically the epitome of all evil, sin, death, and suffering in the world."

That seems a good enough starting point. Just - bad. All around, fire-and-brimstone bad. Satan's not very obscure as far as theological Earth figures go but Daniel's not a stranger to explaining similar concepts to offworlders. Would Jay count as an offworlder? Technically he's on-world now. He'll have to think about that one.

"Also he looks physically human here," he adds, sipping his kaleidoscopic cocktail of a drink that's already begun to ramp up his speech rate. He continues with forced, pseudo-cheeriness, "And he enjoys getting drunk. And putting fists through people's chests. And slaughtering indiscriminately. And popping in my dreams to say 'hola'. Wait, you too?" Iman's words have finally caught up with him, and his eyebrows shoot upward at an alarming rate. He doesn't think hey so Satan has an undue amount of interest in me is the best thing to have in common with anyone.

[powerdealer]

Seth gives a brief nod to the not-really-a-question of whether he knows Satan is around. It had been pretty difficult to avoid picking up on for several reasons. For one thing, Seth keeps pretty up to date with big Rift-related news, and for another, well, Lucifer's brother is his friend and landlord.

"He came by my house almost immediately after arriving in the city, actually," he comments, leaning back and taking a good long drink of newly-arrived gin and tonic.

He's not sure if he's more or less worried by him apparently visiting Iman as well, so it's not just Daniel who's caught his attention. On one hand, he wouldn't wish Lucifer's presence on anyone, on the other, it might mean Seth doesn't have to worry quite as much about Daniel.

[etherthief]

"Wwwait, wait, wait, wait." Iman levels a gleeful drunken stare at Daniel and Seth. "He visits your dreams? He went to your house?" Holy shit, maybe it's not just her. That would be great, maybe. If it wasn't just her.

She sits back, now definitely grinning. "So okay, Daniel, you're still alive, that's good." To Seth and Jay, she adds, "He's sort of shit at dealing with the Devil. Last time I had to just about physically remove him from the room. Seriously, baby, it's like you were trying to piss him off." She shakes her head.

"And Jay. Sweetheart. Yes he is that bad. He is more than that bad. I don't doubt you've seen some heavy shit, and I don't know how he ranks against it, but he can kill you with basically no effort, and he does not need a reason. I cannot be clearer about this, do not engage him, ever."

She's gonna show him the video, but not before it's been drilled into his phosphorescent-eyed head that he should be feared. Because the video is really does not support that assumption. It makes him look like an innocuous drunken idiot. She should probably get a video of him doing something insanely scary, except that would involve being around him when he's in a bad mood.

[amourtician]

Jay shrugs. It takes a lot more than words to scare him and he's not very impressed by "personification of evil". He's been called worse, by people far more credible in these matters than three near-strangers who insist he's in another world.

He smirks.

"I'm sure it's just propaganda, darlings," he drawls. "No one is as terrifying as the rumours say." He feels like he's an expert on this, having been the target of many a rumour. He's pretty sure there are still people back home who think he's a literal revenant and vampire. "But, ah," he holds up a hand, because there's something far more interesting that's come up, "visits you in your dreams? How? That's an awfully advanced art and really, we haven't heard of any practitioners achieving it in ... ah, must be five hundred years, since the last verified account."

[peacefulexplorer]

"Okay, well I didn't know he was Satan," Daniel replies to Iman with a good-natured scowl. "But granted, not my best decision ever, I'll give you that."

Jay's apparent flippancy regarding the Devil is considerably more worrying. It's one thing to go off intentionally trying to get a rise out of him (it's not like Daniel knew, come on) and it's quite another to underestimate him so completely.

"No," he says, drawing the word out in a concerned pull, "I wouldn't call it 'propaganda'. I'd call it 'he actually showed up and murdered several people without breaking a sweat'. No moral restrictions. He unapologetically thinks people are scum and it's his divine right to just - everyone, you know? God knows why he hasn't."

He suspects the Rift might have something to do with the lack of species-wide genocide, but he's not about to go asking. If all else fails, at least the Rift can keep damage control restricted to the island and he can't believe he's actually thinking that.

"Dream-sharing isn't exclusive to him, though." Sadly. "It's a pain but it's an - equal opportunity pain. The Rift likes to cobble people's brains together like that."

[powerdealer]

Seth can't help but smile and shake his head a little at Iman's description of their encounter with Satan. Because it's so very easy to imagine.

As Jay continues to be unconvinced, and the other two try convincing him, Seth pulls out his phone and starts flipping through his messages, looking for a picture someone sent him. Finding it, he shows the phone to Jay. The photo looks similar to a crime scene photo, of one of the first victims in the park, with a hole punched clean through the chest. "An example of what he did. Fair warning, it's not pretty," he warns before Jay looks at it.

"And he's got a host of powers, teleportation, matter creation, advanced telekinesis, illusion, nigh invulnerability..." he rambles off. He's basing part of it on what he knows about Gabe, and part on personal reports. Seth takes another good drink. This isn't exactly an ideal decompression topic. Neither is the dream-sharing. Especially after last night.

[etherthief]

"There you go," says Iman, nodding to Seth as if to say atta boy when he shows Jay the picture. "Seriously, it's. Yeah. You can believe us or not, but just don't go looking for him, all right? That's all. Odds are he won't find you if you stay out of his way and that'd be best for everyone."

She's getting the feeling they should move away from this, not just from Jay's continued refusal to listen to them, which is its own whatever, but from Seth's attitude. He looks shaken up about something, whether it's this or something else - didn't Daniel say something about decompressing? Yeah.

"Anyway," she says aloud. She points between Daniel and Seth. "How do you two know each other? Same universe, or...?"

[amourtician]

Jay wrinkles his nose at the photo, unpeturbed by the goriness. Looking at it, he decides that yes, indeed, he's seen worse-looking corpses. Of course, some of the damage in question had been done by him. He shrugs, again.

"Fine," he says, pouting. "I'll ... I'll not antagonise him. But still! I maintain that I'm hardly defenseless. And I have seen worse corpses, for the record, darlings."

That over with, he turns to Seth and Daniel. Something about the way the two men carry themselves around each other gives him an inkling as to what the answer to Iman's question is going to be.

[peacefulexplorer]

Well, that's better than before at least. It's not a matter of defenselessness, just that - it's the Devil. Even Daniel, he of the formerly extraplanar composition, now does his best to avoid him, an endeavor that's grown increasingly difficult. But Iman's question has successfully derailed that less-than-pleasant line of thought.

"Um." Daniel's head goes to one side as he sips his drink and studies Seth for a moment, mildly perplexed by the assumption. "No." The word pulls itself out inquisitively, capped by a question mark that hovers belatedly at its end.

"Met my first week," he explains. Was it his first week? Ah, close enough. "Seth's a friend. Real - real pal." He pats the other man's arm with a hand that's a little lacking in muscular coordination, and sips again.

[powerdealer]

Seth's not sure if wants to that Jay's seen worse corpses, and isn't quite comfortable with how he.. It's not quite bragging exactly, but it's close enough to be worrying. Seth's probably seen worse corpses too, or at least somewhere around the same level, with injuries he inflicted himself (please let there never be another instance of him having to fight zombies), but that's not something he would mention so casually, or almost to reassure someone. He's thankfully when Iman deftly changes the subject.

Seth opens his mouth to answer, then closes it again, glancing at Daniel, who is now looking at him, and Seth leans back in his seat. And then he can't help but give Daniel an amused look at that particular descriptor, wondering if he should take the alcohol away from him already.

"Daniel needed advice on the Rift and powers," he answers, refocusing on Iman and clearing his throat. "I've been around for a good ten months, and I keep my ear close to the ground, so." He gives a half shrug.

[etherthief]

'Worse corpses' is something that probably merits a follow-up, but definitely not right now. Iman is pleasantly drunk and hellbent on keeping the pleasantness part of it intact. Besides, Daniel is being hilarious, which is much more important.

"Uh-huh," she says, smiling broadly. She takes a moment to sip her liquor and then says, "It's good to have real pals."

She suspects Jay is thinking the same thing, the way he and Eliot latched onto each other.

[amourtician]

Jay can't quite suppress the snort of laughter that comes at Iman's words. He gives Daniel and Seth a disbelieving look, a smirk still dancing around his lips.

"Yes," he drawls. "Pals. That's ... that's soo important, darlings. Especially pals you can go to for advice." He cocks an elegant eyebrow at the two of them.

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel replies with a perfect, eloquently compiled rejoinder - involving his mouth hanging open slightly and his head to one side and a small frown nestling on his features as he tries and fails to see what both of them are getting at. They're both smiling. Why are they smiling? This isn't the corpse thing, is it? Daniel's fairly certain it's not the corpse thing. They seem to have moved past that by now, what with Jay proclaiming to have seen worse-looking corpses - Daniel himself has probably been worse-looking corpses, but he's not going into that here - and upon further rifling through their previous discussion topics he finds he's unable to grasp whatever private joke these two seem to be sharing in.

"Well, yeah," he says with a tiny, meaningful lift to his eyebrows in an effort to direct this conversation back to an area he feels qualified to comment on. "Seth gave me lots of advice my first week. Still does, really. Helped me figure out how to do this."

It strikes him that it might be good to be a little more prudent about displaying stuff like this, but the alcohol is starting to have a bit more of a pronounced effect on his reasoning. With a faint measure of pride, Daniel opens his palm and manifests a small pile of paperclips to nest there, apparently out of nowhere. And he - overcalculates, because the next minute a larger number of paperclips come spilling onto the counter in a sequence of quiet clatters.

I exist

[powerdealer]

Seth narrows his eyes a little at their reactions. Are they...?

Daniel seems completely oblivious to any insinuations (as usual), but Seth has a sneaking suspicion he knows what the're smirking at. And he'd really rather not this conversation go there. Because they might not be right about Daniel, but they would be about Seth, and, well, this would be a really bad way to bring it up. And unbelievably embarrassing. Seth takes another drink.

But then, thank fuck, he is rescued from having to worry about it by Daniel deciding to show off his power. And... kind of overdoes it. Ah well.

existence!

[etherthief]

For a hot second Iman really thinks Daniel is about to give a demonstration of something dirty, and her eyebrows shoot up, and then she stares at the ensuing flood of paperclips. It takes her a minute to figure out what's happening here. Is that supposed to be some ridiculous (and yet pretty impressive) sleight of hand? Is Seth a street magician? Doesn't really match his personality at all. Is that Daniel's rift power?

"Wow," she says, already giggling. She covers her mouth and reels back in her chair, completely failing not to laugh out loud. "That's pretty neat, Daniel! And really." She slumps forward again, back onto her elbows, flipping her mood instantly back to mock-serious. "It's so important to have friends who can show you how to manifest a buttload of paperclips." She can't make it. By 'show you' she's cracking up again, burying her head in her arms. "Seth, you picked a real winner," she says, muffled.

i'm alive too

[amourtician]

Jay's eyes widen at the sudden flood of paperclips and then he laughs, mostly in confusion. He assumes it's some sort of trick - matter from nothing? How prepostrous.

Regardless, trick or real magic, it doesn't seem terribly useful.

"Ah, I see, darling," he says. "Can you do ball-bearings? Or tacks? Those might put pursuers to some trouble, unlike, ah. Little flat things that aren't even pointy unless you put some effort into bending them."

[peacefulexplorer]

He picks at one of them and studies it ruefully.

"Just office supplies. They don't last long, just kinda, uh, temporary manifests. I think."

In a motion that's just as unconcerned as it is ill-advised, Daniel drains his glass and immediately wishes he hadn't. That is a lot of alcohol hitting his system all at once.

"C'n do pens if I try real hard though," Daniel offers after a minute of concentrated blinking. What does Iman mean by a real winner? He looks at Seth in helpless puzzlement.

[powerdealer]

Well, so much for taking the alcohol away from Daniel. Seth's just going to go ahead and get someone to bring over a glass of water for him, otherwise Daniel's going to get a roaring hangover tomorrow. Seth probably won't be a lot better actually, considering he started the day getting drunk, and then by the time he'd more or less sobered up, they came here.

But, whatever. After the traumatic dreams of last night, and their rather heavy conversation earlier today, getting drunk seems like a good plan. More alcohol will hopefully also make this conversation and Iman's laughter feel a bit less uncomfortable, even if he isn't entirely sure why that's happening in the first place. Shame Seth doesn't have as low tolerance as Daniel.

"What can you do, then?" he asks, directing the question at both of them, to steer the conversation in a slightly different direction. And, well, because he's always curious about people's powers.

[etherthief]

Iman raises her hands and wiggles her fingers. "Nothing, yet, so far as I know," she says. "Apart from, you know, the wide range of talents I came in with." She could expound on that, but nahhhh. He drops her elbows back onto the table and sits her chin in her hand. She wants to ask more about Seth and Daniel but she's gonna have to play that slower. As Daniel gets drunker - what a god damn cutie - it'll probably get easier.

[amourtician]

Jay bites his lip. He doesn't particularly want to give away his powers - he might need the element of surprise, after all - but it seems rude not to join in.

"I'm, ah, a ... natural philosopher," he says, deciding it's a safe euphemism for what his actual profession had been. "And I'm somewhat skilled in magic, but ah. Most of it probably doesn't work here."

[peacefulexplorer]

"Magic?" Daniel perks up immediately, interest sufficiently piqued. "We've got a few like that, donnwe?" He's pretty sure - yes, Gabe probably counts, but even as Daniel's thought process is somewhat dulled and his speech slurring - on that note, thank whatever gods may or may not exist for Seth and his timely hydration strategies - he knows that's probably not the best topic to bring up right out of nowhere.

"Mmhm. What - your universe, s'that pretty, uhm, pretty common?" Drunk or no, the anthropologist is always interested.

[powerdealer]

Natural philosopher definitely sounds like a euphemism for something, but it's vague enough that Seth has no idea what it would be. Plus Seth is doing a pretty good job at pouring alcohol into himself which is making his brain comfortably fuzzy and incapable of really thinking too hard about it.

"Mmm. Mos' of the powers here could probably be classified as magic. Jus'. Very specific, I suppose," he comments. His alcohol level is mostly apparently through his accent getting stronger. He's also a little glad he hasn't yet been asked the same question in return, as he doesn't completely trust a very drunken Daniel to remember that Seth's not all that open about his primary power, and usually defaults to sharing the phasing instead. Especially as Daniel's already mentioned that Seth was the one to help him with his own power.

[etherthief]

"So you're a scientist," says Iman, tilting her head curiously at Jay. "I mean maybe that's not what they call it where you're from, but 'natural philosopher' is definitely what western civilization called scientists before the field was properly developed. Alchemists, you know." She waves a hand, duh, everyone knows this, forgetting that 'alchemy' kind of fell out of fashion in this universe, around the same time the 'natural philosophy' terminology did.

"And Don't be so sure your magic won't work here, I mean - there's a weird amount of co-existing... stuff." She waves a hand vaguely and takes another slug of campari. "Might take some time to figure out your new parameters."

She drops her chin into her hand and looks at the two goobers sitting across the table. These two, seriously. All slurring and awkward and soooo obviously not looking at each other. Wow.

She's pretty sure she means to ask Seth what his rift power is, but what in fact comes out is, "Have you two ever considered just like, making out?"

[amourtician]

Jay tilts his head, curious about the tone Iman takes when she says alchemy.

"Is there something wrong with alchemy, darling?" he says, trying to keep his tone mild. He's not personally offended - yet - but he's bristling a little. It's the drink and his natural orneriness finally showing through. He's been oddly friendly to Iman since meeting her, mostly because he's been too shocked to remember to distrust and dislike everyone he lays eyes on, but some of the shock seems to be wearing off now.

And if it turns out she's badmouthing alchemy, the quills might rise up properly.

But then he's distracted from that line of thought by what Iman says next. He bursts into nervous giggles.

"Iman!" he says, grinning. "You can't just say things like that, darling! You have to be more subtle. It's more fun that way."