JUMP TO MONTHLY PROMPT ↓
A TRAIN COMES INTO THE STATION.
You wake up on a train.
Your phone is buzzing. It's in your pocket, in your hand, on the seat next to you. It's a normal phone, and you're on a normal train car. One of the lights flickers, a little further down. The world is very quiet. It feels like you're right where you're meant to be. On the phone's surface is a white screen and the words—
WELCOME TO THE CITY. BEGIN ORIENTATION?
▶ NO
Please take a moment to complete your orientation.
Once you're finished, the subway doors slide open to let you out onto the train platform. To your right, the platform continues on and eventually ends; to the left is a set of stairs that will lead you up into the station itself. The platform is quiet, clean, empty—there's no one else around, and the only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, your own breaths, and the occasional faraway sound of a creaking pipe or rush of air. The train you disembarked will stay there as long as you do, its doors still open, until you finally decide to venture up into this new locale.
As you make your way up the stairs to your left, you find yourself in the belly of City Hall station. The station is large, a sprawling underground mini-metropolis of corridors and storefronts. Here, you may find others like you, freshly-arrived city residents from other realms (or even your own). There is also a subway map, which will give you an idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and ticketing machines, which can currently only be used to buy tickets to a handful of stations located on lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9.
If you're hungry or in need of any kind of supplies, there are plenty of storefronts inside the subway station as well—snack stands, convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores, a pharmacy, and a variety of empty shops that may or may not have ever been in use. Everything is unlocked, and you can take whatever you need.
Characters may stay on the train platform indefinitely, and may re-board and re-disembark from the subway as many times as they like, but the train will not depart nor will the doors close. Once they go up the stairs into the train station, they may hear the train doors closing and the train departing. Another train will not arrive, no matter how long the character waits. Only once they come up the stairs into the station itself may characters encounter their fellow newly-arrived residents and take advantage of what the city has to offer.
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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
The station is located in the city center. It has three major exits that lead to areas of interest in the district, but there are several other smaller exits that lead in other directions around the neighborhood. You are welcome to use any of them, but may find the north, southwest, and east exits to be the most welcoming.
TO THE NORTH
The northern entrance to the station leads up into the sunlight and puts you out in a brickwork plaza. There's a modest building in front of you, three or four stories of stone with a welcoming facade. There's a sign above the entryway—it says City Hall. You may be tempted to explore, if you're interested in learning more about the city and how it functions, but prepare to find yourself disappointed—the folders in the records rooms are full of empty, blank sheets of paper, and the logbooks and balance sheets are similarly devoid of information.
Immediately to the southwest of City Hall, you will find a small building that houses the tourist information center. It looks welcoming, with an inviting glass facade and a sign above the entryway announcing it as the "TOURIST CENTER." It's a humble building with a receptionist's desk on the back wall opposite the entrance, empty magazine shelves lining the side walls, and a few spinning brochure racks full of blank pamphlets. Anyone is welcome to peruse the tourist literature, though they won't offer much information, being primarily filled with pictures of the surrounding area—City Hall, the park, a statue garden, and the surprisingly heavily-featured cemetery. There are a few sentences sprinkled throughout about basic offerings of the city, such as apartment complexes and office buildings, as well as a few maps with the same limited scope as the larger version on the wall behind the receptionist's desk.
TO THE SOUTHWEST
The western exit of the station takes you up into a city park, lush and green with a very light fog still hanging about the trees. There are lampposts on the walkways and benches where you could rest, and plenty of flora, although you can neither see nor hear any signs of animal life. You walk the paths that meander idly through the verdant grass and you feel a sense of peace, some of your unease about this place easing into a pleasant calm. The air smells fresh, like it's recently rained, and you'll find the grass ever so slightly damp should you decide to take a seat.
As you make your way deeper into the park, the trees grow denser and the smell of soil and plant life grows stronger. This is the older part of the park, very nearly a forest, with ivy climbing the trunks of the trees and plants and shrubs growing riotously around their bases. As you turn a corner, you find yourself first in the statue garden, although the statues are harder to see now, choked as they are with ivy. There are many statues, some partially obscured, some fully—very few of them still stand free of the vines and clinging roots. (It doesn't feel quite as peaceful here.) If a statue's face looks a little bit familiar, you may not want to look at it too long.
Continue down the path and you will find yourself in a graveyard, one that seems centuries old. Most of the headstones are worn away by time and covered in moss, rendering them impossible to read. The few that are free of moss are blank, or bear only suggestions of names too faint to be understood. (Was that the name of—no, it couldn't have been. Could it?) Many of the headstones stand at an angle or are toppled over completely, having been subjected to either strong winds or the roots of the trees that grow up from some of the graves, spreading branches toward the sky.
TO THE EAST
The final exit of the station, to the east, puts you out on a quiet surface street. Are you hungry? Or are you paralyzed by choice? There are plenty of restaurants, offering options of almost any food you can imagine. You could try a convenience store—it's well stocked, and the items there seem free for the taking. How about a restaurant? There's no one to take your order, but when you look in the kitchen, there's something on the stove, and it's just what you've been craving. Imagine that.
A few blocks down, you come in through the lobby of a tall building and find yourself in a corporate office. The fluorescent lights are steady and unforgiving, and the cubicles and offices are empty. There are a few pieces of paper on desks, a few folders left in organizers, but everything is perfectly blank. Despite how empty and quiet the office is, it nonetheless gives you the feeling that just a few minutes ago, this place was bustling with workers going about their daily business.
You enter another building and find yourself in the lobby of an apartment complex—finally, a place to rest. The first door you try opens easily into a completely empty living room, freshly vacuumed but without a single piece of furniture. It's a nice apartment, quiet, but with a little too much echo for your taste, maybe. Still, and perhaps oddly, you have no trouble envisioning what life here would be like.
The second door you open leads to an apartment that feels lived-in. Why does it feel lived-in? It's fully furnished with items that seem to go together perfectly, true, but the feeling is more than that—the room feels like someone was just here, maybe standing right in the kitchen only moments before you swung the door open. The air is a perfectly comfortable temperature, and it somehow smells like home despite that you've never once set foot here before. The refrigerator is stocked, and the cabinets are full of spices and flatware and kitchen utensils.
As you look around the living room, you find that there are pictures in frames on the walls and some of the flat surfaces—a seascape, a field, a shot of a city park bench. In each of the photos there's something just slightly wrong with the angle, as though the photographer were aiming for a subject that can no longer be seen.
Characters are welcome to explore the district around the City Hall subway station to their heart's content. The City Hall building itself contains several floors of offices and file rooms, but none of them contain any particularly interesting information. Nonetheless, characters may wish to team up with other newcomers and try to find some hints about the nature of the city. They can also spend a while in the park, the statue garden, or the graveyard. In the blocks surrounding the station there are plenty of options for food and housing, as well as office buildings, storefronts, and alleyways to look around. There are no workers in any of the buildings, and there does not seem to be an honor system for payment, nor any consequences for taking food from the stores or setting up camp in an apartment or office building.
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IT IS THE ULTIMATE SHADOW, THE DEFEAT OF CREATION.
In one section of the newly accessible portion of the city, nestled in among normal looking residential and commercial buildings, is a wide and relatively short and industrial-looking building with no windows and only one grand set of black glass doors set into one side. Above the entrance is a neon sign that plainly states ART. with smaller letters sm added to the front in metallic paint. Hopefully, this simple signage will give passersby the impression that this is an art exhibit of some kind, with a twist.
DO NOT TOUCH THE ART…
Once stepping through the front doors, guests will be greeted with a lobby with walls covered in vertical neon lighting that pulses in a rotating rainbow, and mirrored ceilings that make the space feel surprisingly small. To one side is a bar where various cocktails await pickup. They don't have any special effects, but being a bit tipsy might help enhance the experiences waiting for you beyond. There's also a rack of bottles behind it, stocked with the typical liquors and mixers, if you'd like to play bartender for a while. Thanks to the disorienting amount of colored lighting and dark corners, it may be easy to get lost and turned around in the large building, and guests may be surprised to find that they're unable to locate the exit (or entrance) while alone.
After leaving behind the lobby and stepping into the exhibit proper, you'll find yourself walking through a central winding hallway with large rooms branching off from it in both directions at regular intervals. Some of them are more interactive than others, but all of them are dimly lit except for the "art" that guests will find themselves in the middle of, encouraged to touch and participate in creative collaboration. A few of the simpler rooms include:
Hanging ropes that will light up where touched, changing color with the amount of kinetic force applied: purple for a brush of the fingers, red for a crushing grip. These pulses of light will travel out to either end of the ropes the longer touch is applied, and considering that the room is pitch black and seemingly endless thanks to the mirrored walls, you may want to find some help in lighting up the dark.
A sunken floor filled to the brim with translucent plastic balls. This ball pit is a literal bath of color with every-changing light shining up from the floor of the ball pit and diffusing through the balls. A wall of cubbies at the room's entrance awaits belongings and shoes that are asked to be removed by a polite sign at the top of the stairs that descend into the ball pit. Be careful, for the pit is deep and it's easy to sink beneath the surface if you sit or lie down; you may see some shadows of people a ways away from you, but if you wade through the balls to their rescue, you won't find anyone tangible there.
A small theater of benches all facing the back wall that is a single large screen. The display is a moving series of lines on a black background that give the audience the sensation that the room is moving, or they themselves are traveling through the space. Atmospheric music—mostly heavy bass and noise that's been timed with the movement on the screen—hums through the room and adds to the sense of immersion.
... IT MIGHT TOUCH BACK.
One of the more interesting rooms is actually divided into three smaller rooms, each with a heavy, sound-dampening door that only has a small square window set into the top of it. Through the window, you can see that there is a red room, a green room, and a blue room. Stepping into any of them will be a different experience where guests will be entirely immersed in the color—even the window is a one-way mirror from the inside, blocking out any sights from beyond. The longer guests stay in these isolating rooms, the more disoriented they'll become, and it's entirely possible that moods will shift from the experience. Be careful stepping back out into the exhibit itself, your eyes and ears may need time to adjust.
In the green room, guests may feel like they've stepped into a concentrated and unfiltered essence of nature. The speakers play a variety of animal noises layered with leaves rustling and branches creaking as they move as well as wind, rain, and other kinds of weather. Looking at yourself, or your companions if someone stepped inside with you, you see their eyes and teeth pop clearly in the bath of green, somehow more obviously animal than ever.
In the red room, the temperature is higher than the rest of the exhibit, not uncomfortably so but noticeable all the same. Looking down at your skin, you can see more of the blemishes, the dark spots or pale scar tissue that contrasts much more starkly. From hidden speakers in the ceiling comes a mixture of sounds that are hard to place as they're so layered over one another, but the overall noise is inorganic, discordant, unsettling. It's hard to focus, let alone look at anyone else you might be sharing the room with.
In the blue room, there is almost an absence of experience. The only sound is a low, steady hum that vibrates through you as you stand and close your eyes almost on instinct. Everything gets erased in the layer of blue that covers everyone and everything in the room, skin looking almost gray from the lack of any other colors that are so often associated with life.
The last room of note is completely black and empty except for three massive umbrellas of flowers and other plants that are suspended from the tall ceiling, illuminated by lights shining on them from above. Each umbrella is about as high off the ground as the average human and varying by a few feet or so, so that it's possible to stand or crouch beneath them. Once standing in their shadows below, guests will be able to hear whispers coming from above…
These whispers tell real secrets of city residents—past, present, and future—though names are never included. The secrets are told in their own voices, though, almost like confessionals to a confidant or their pillow in the dark of night. These secrets can be positive, negative, or simple fact. Some may be shocking revelations of guilt, or shy mutterings of love, or secrets spilled as if the speaker has never thought of this part of themselves before. There is a hush throughout the room, and if guests were to whisper to each other beneath the umbrellas, conversations would not be easily overheard.
Residents are encouraged to meet up in the bar with friends, grab some drinks, and then head into the art exhibit. It's also a great place to meet someone new as there will be plenty of interactions happening as everyone hopefully discovers a bit of their inner child. There's no right or wrong order to exploring the rooms, but residents will not be able to find the exit without the presence of another with them—even if you came alone, you're leaving with a friend!
For the Secret Garden whispers, players are encouraged to make up something scandalous to discuss with others or even have their own character's voices whisper to them from the flowers. Please remember to discuss with other players before including any information about existing and potential characters that may affect their gameplay.
Inspiration for this location includes 9 Lights in 9 Rooms as well as Hopscotch. Title is from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
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WILDCARD.
The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There are even some places that other residents have created! There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back.
If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations. We highly recommend checking out the Character-Run Locations as well - they might be great places for new characters to get started!
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citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
citylogs2023-11-01 09:00 pm
no subject
Brook isn't a particularly empathetic person. It led, in part, to his downfall, all those decades ago. But he learned something recently, thanks to his encounter with Satan's newest Reaper, thanks to the deal he struck with a dying human sinner.
He kind of likes being around people who are kind of like him. He likes having someone to talk to who understands him, even a little bit. He likes to do things that are important to them, likes aligning his purpose with their happiness more than with the orders that make existing convenient. Even if continuing like that is so, so much harder.
He likes... making friends. Maybe. It probably won't be worth it in the end. But Scarlet and Chase started something, inviting him into their lives, and even separated from them, he doesn't want to stop.
He looks unflinchingly up at Nikolai, with his faltering facade of charm and confidence, the tearing talons and darkness bleeding through at his edges. Then he shrugs.]
Then maybe you're something like me.
[No judgment, no gentleness. He offers only a matter-of-fact suggestion.]
I stopped being human a hundred years ago.
no subject
I... could be. From the looks of it.
[ But not too alike, he hopes. Nikolai wouldn't wish an... uninvited guest like his onto anyone. Before he can ask any questions that might clarify matters, Brook makes that outrageous statement about himself. ]
You're a hundred years old?!
[ Nikolai's mouth hangs open with surprise. It's not unprecedented. He knows that Grisha with great power age very slowly if at all. The Darkling had been hundreds and hundreds of years old and only looked maybe a decade Nikolai's senior. He just... hadn't been expecting it!
That shock deflates the tension that had been building in Nikolai. If Brook isn't human, either, it seems less likely he'll brand Nikolai a demon and start up some kind of witch hunt. Hopefully. With a slightly shaky exhale, Nikolai says: ]
I'm not sure whether we're alike or not. I don't suppose an ancient evil being infected you with living darkness? Left a sliver of his magic in you even after he died, so that you can never be completely free?
[ He says it with false breeziness, as if he's talking about the weather or some amusing anecdote he'd heard once. But that brightness and nonchalance are brittle, not quite convincing. ]
no subject
...Well, not exactly, but...
[The similarities are uncanny. He keeps watching Nikolai, noting the shift in how he holds himself, the crumpling of his brave front. Brook's not the empathetic sort, but he's been around for a long time. He can pick up some cues.]
Look. You don't want people to know about you, right? Let's go somewhere else, where the light isn't doing... [He waves vaguely at Nikolai and the room in general.] That. There's a little park or something not far from where the train stops. We can talk and walk.
[So he turns and leads the way out of the green room, too. As he crosses through the installation's main lobby, heading for its exit, he even makes good on the offer to talk.]
My "ancient evil being" didn't die. He can't. But he did put a demon in my body so I can do my job for him.
[Shrug.]
I agreed to it, though, so it's fair. And he made this body in the first place, anyway. In the end, I guess he can do what he wants with it. I wouldn't be able to stop him now, and I definitely couldn't then.
no subject
Probably for the best. You're right, I would prefer to remain discreet about my, ah. Situation.
[ Anyone at all could walk through the door right now, and the prospect of explaining his affliction to even one person is daunting. ]
In fact, is there a way to destroy that image? The 'photo'?
[ No use leaving it lying around, where it could be leverage against him. He might be choosing to trust Brook at this moment, but there's a difference between trust and pure carelessness. Possessions could be lost. Someone less inclined to be sympathetic to monsters might find that device and the photo, and where would that leave Nikolai?
Nikolai follows Brook from the green room and out of the exhibit entirely. He walks with his hands clasped together behind his back, listening intently as Brook explains that their stories are not so different after all. Nikolai's throat goes tight, hearing those words - he did put a demon in my body.
It had never occurred to him, that he might ever meet someone who had been through a similar experience. Nikolai's heart beats quick, and he doesn't know if he should feel relieved or nauseous. Somehow, his body is managing to do both at the same time. ]
You would know best, of course, but...
[ Nikolai looks sidelong at Brook as the two of them exit the building. The chill air of the street is a relief, after the oppressive atmosphere of the exhibits. He measures his words carefully, conscious that he might be overstepping. ]
I'm not so sure I'd call that fair. It doesn't sound as though you had any real choice in the matter at all.
[ Nikolai is extremely aware of how power can pervert the ability to choose freely. Agreeing to go along with something you would have no ability to refuse is hardly the same as choosing that thing. He'd spent much of his adult life devising ways to avoid inadvertently coercing those around him. It was one thing to issue an order, as a ship's captain or later as king - but it was another to wield the kind of influence Brook seems to be alluding to.
Nikolai isn't sure what Brook could mean, that this being had made his body. Surely if it was his father he were talking about, he would just say so? And how else could a body be made? ]
What job calls for a demon?
no subject
[Easy come, easy go. Though no one can say whether or not the City enforces some kind of cloud-based auto-storage on all its network users' data, Brook's done his best from his own end. He's an aspiring influencer, not a cybersecurity expert.
He slides his phone back into his pocket. Then, noticing the brisker outdoor air, he unties the bubblegum pink jacket from around his waist and pulls it on. BROOK, it advertises in big white letters across the back. Whatever that means.
In the meantime, he mulls over what Nikolai's saying and the question he asks. He's told one or two people here what a Reaper's work entails, but... well, not at their first meeting.]
I don't really want to get into the details of what I do. As you can imagine, it's nothing pleasant.
[Generally, nothing involving demons is.]
But I did choose it willingly. While Satan's a hell of a lot more powerful than me-- [Pun unintended.] --I was outside his jurisdiction then. The one who made the offer was me. He just explained how it would work.
[He sighs and puts his gloved hands in his jacket pockets.]
I couldn't hold up my end as I was, and he thought it would be funny to let me try. [He withdraws one hand to place it over his thin chest.] So he created this body, put my soul in it, and then stuffed one of his demons in with me so I could use its power. That makes me what he calls a Reaper. And I'll be working for him until the world ends... or I fail.
no subject
The name 'Satan' doesn't stir any recognition in Nikolai's face. He walks beside Brook and listens in silence, grateful that he was wrong. Brook had made his choice, evidently. That's good. Better than the alternative. ]
You were a soul without a body?
[ There's another question hovering behind that one - one that Nikolai isn't quite sure how to ask. Were you a ghost? But it's difficult to know where to begin, speaking to someone from a completely different world. Maybe plenty of people in Brook's world don't even have bodies to begin with. Maybe that's the default state, and being corporeal is the exception!
Nikolai rubs a hand against the back of his neck, overwhelmed but also a little giddy. ]
And- I'm not asking for details, I promise, but - you can control your, ah, demon?
[ Is it foolishly optimistic for Nikolai to hope that maybe Brook will be able to give him some tips? Of course, their situations might be too different for that, but... no harm in asking. Probably. ]
I do apologize for asking so many questions. This is the first time I've met someone else with a similar... situation.
no subject
It's okay. You're asking because you have a lot of questions, right?
[That's what Scarlet said. She told him he was the only one she could ask, the only one who stood a remote chance of explaining what she was going through--at least, he figures, the only one with no reason or inclination to manipulate his answers.
He bobs his head to one side.]
To answer them: [He holds up one finger.] I was dead. Still am, technically. But I needed a physical body to do my job in the living world, so that's why I was given one. Same goes for the other Reapers I've met. They were all human, once.
[A second finger joins the first.]
As for the other thing, yeah, I've got a strict handle on my demon. Like I said, I've had a hundred years to get used to its influence, but I can say I've never lost control of it once, even at the beginning.
[He returns his hand to his pocket.]
It's harder for Scarlet. The other Reaper I work with--someone like me, I mean. She has a harder time reining in her emotions. That's why she and her human friend brought me in. To help her figure it out.
no subject
[ The gratitude is audible in Nikolai's voice. It's a relief that Brook isn't growing annoyed by his questions already. That had been a constant problem for Nikolai from a very young age. He was always infuriating people - his tutors, his parents, his brother, the staff at the palace - with questions. It didn't matter how hungry he was for knowledge; their patience for him ran out long before his curiosity was satisfied.
He listens, taking the information in stride. Brook had lived as a human, died, and been returned to life in a new body. It answers his question, and raises a dozen new ones. How had Brook died, where had he gone afterward, how long had he been dead, what kind a being could control demons and make new bodies...?
Nikolai bites those questions back for now. He feels a flutter of something like hope in his chest. Brook can control his demon. He's had a hundred years of practice. Surely he must know some tips he can pass along? And from the sound of it, this won't be his first time teaching such skills.
It occurs to him, when Brook mentions his associate Scarlet, that the name is unusual. Which is when he realizes... ]
Here I was, about to ask if you'd possibly consider helping me figure it out, and I haven't even had the decency to ask your name!
[ Nikolai says it with a laugh, but there's something a little frazzled underneath it. It's not like him, to be so rude. To miss something that big and not even realize it. He is putting the cart before the horse, just because he's so excited at the idea that someone, anyone, might be able to offer him some guidance. ]
I'm terribly sorry. My manners have become... appalling. I'm Nikolai. It's - truly good to meet you.
no subject
Certainly, nobody has ever sounded so sincere about it.
He shunts away the weird feeling that elicits with a little half-snort and shrugs.]
It's okay. I'm Brook, and I think manners are stupid.
[That much is probably obvious without his saying so. Regardless, the introductions make some minute change in the air between them. It's a bit friendlier, perhaps. They're not quite strangers anymore.]
I can try to help, sure. It didn't go so well when I started with Scarlet... but I just won't do what I tried with her to you. [He tilts his head to peer up at him.] What exactly do you need help with?
no subject
What did you try with her? If you don't mind my asking.
[ After all, 'didn't go so well' could mean any number of things. Nikolai needs a little more information before he can say whether the approach was at fault or not.
When Brook asks what he needs help with, the smile slips from Nikolai's face. He chews at the inside of his cheek, weighing his words. If Brook is going to help him, he should be honest. But that doesn't make it easy. ]
Control. I need help with control. You said you've never lost control of your demon... I've never had any.
[ Nikolai gives a small shrug, looking away from Brook. It's so hard to know where to begin, when the whole thing is such a tangle in his mind. Each thread of it is so wrapped up with other threads, other stories, the context around his affliction a complicated knot snarled tight. ]
For me, it wasn't a choice. It was... intended as torture. I would've been able to bear just- physical harm. So instead, I got this. And I need to figure out some way to keep it at bay. But there was never anyone I could ask.
cw: casual mentions of extreme violence
With Scarlet... I was trying to help her figure out how to manage her stress levels in the moment. Primal feelings like fear and anger are what bring our demons out, and she had a lot of reasons to be fearful and angry. I thought she needed to either control her stress, or learn to replace those powerful emotions with something more rooted in humanity. Like, I don't know. Love. Or. Something. [His voice steadily drops into an embarrassed mutter.] She's very protective.
[He's quiet for a moment.]
Anyway, I guess I went too hard too fast, and kind of threatened to crush her skull unless she stopped me? I thought she might take control of her demon to do it. [...] But no, the demon took over and she tried to dismember me. Again.
...That was a really annoying day.
[bROOK.
It's his turn to glance away, uncomfortable with how stupid his lesson plan sounds in retrospect. In his defense... Brook may be stupid.
Bottom text.
He sighs again, facing front.]
I don't even know if something like that would work with you. What brings it out? Your... is it even a demon? You said it was magic.
no subject
But at that point, Brook loses him a little. He's not sure how threatening to hurt Scarlet was meant to make her feel less fear and anger. Probably something is getting lost in translation. Right? Something must be.
His stomach gives an odd sort of twist when Brook so casually mentions Scarlet trying to dismember him again. Like it was just... an average occurrence. Nothing traumatic or abhorrent. Like he isn't even mad at her.
Just last night, by Nikolai's reckoning, the demon had taken him over and nearly ripped Zoya's throat out with its teeth. He knows, down to his bones, that she will never be mentioning that casually. Nikolai remembers their grim, silent hike back to the castle. She hadn't even been able to bring herself to look at him.
Ignoring the strange mix of shame and jealousy in his guts, he says: ]
Ah. I see. And after that, she didn't want to try again?
[ Nikolai also is getting the sinking feeling that Brook might not be able to help, after all. For all that they are so similar, the differences might be fundamental enough to make it all pointless. ]
It's a monster. A beast. I don't know exactly what it is. But it isn't tied to my emotions.
[
At least, not as far as he knows yet.]It's sleep that brings it out. When I go to sleep, it emerges, and I'm not there at all. Not lucid. Then when morning comes, I wake up and it's dormant again. But I can... feel it, waiting.
no subject
We got caught up in some other stuff after that, and I guess she figured it out without me. How to bring her demon out but still control it, I mean. So they didn't need me for that anymore.
[He fiddles with the loop of his headband, shakes his head slightly, and then curls his finger in front of his chin.]
So it comes out when you're unconscious, huh...
[Luckily for Nikolai, Brook's had a month to remember what the daily need for sleep is like for humans. He's not about to suggest, "Have you tried not to?"]
Then... I guess it's similar in one way. For us Reapers, we cede control to the demon when we're really afraid and want to run away; or, when we're angry, that anger feeds it until it's strong enough to overpower us. You kinda have to give up control of your body when you're sleeping, right? That gives the... beast thing its opening.
[Pondering, he stares up at the sky.]
I wonder if there's a way to train your body to keep control even when your brain's not awake.
no subject
Yes, exactly. When I'm awake, I'm thinking. That's the key.
[ Nikolai starts walking a little faster without realizing it, energized by what feels like progress. The monster may not be tied to anger or fear, but it has predictable patterns. Things that it can use, and things that repel it. ]
The monster is mindless. Without thoughts, without any reason. It doesn't speak, it can't read or- or plan. It's just... instinct, impulse, and hunger. That was the whole point of it. To take away the things that make me me.
[ Nikolai can be a man of action - he has been a soldier and a sea captain. But it is his mind that makes him who he is. That defines his sense of self. That was why the Darkling had targeted it. Nikolai knows that all too well. ]
It's not my body we need to train. It's my mind. If there were some way to keep it active even when I'm asleep, then the demon might not be able to slip through.
[ It sounds exhausting, but it's certainly better than his current situation. Nikolai can't go on like this for much longer, and he knows it. ]
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All right. So, like Scarlet, Nikolai needs a way to block off the beast's roads in when he's most vulnerable. It seems the difference, according to him, is that the key is his mind, not his emotions.]
Okay.
[...]
...I don't really know how to do that. [As though he knows that news will be a disappointment, he shrugs a little and continues:] Until I came here, I hadn't needed to sleep in a century. I have no idea how it works or what the mind is doing while we nap.
[As he finishes, he looks at Nikolai.]
But I can stand by while you try things. If nothing else, I have experience fending off Scarlet when she's completely out of control. I've kept her from hurting others or herself. [And, just in case it's in question:] Without killing her.
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But of course it's not that easy. Nothing is ever easy.
Nikolai doesn't give in to despair. He feels like just in talking to Brook and reasoning it all out, he's made an inch of progress. That's better than nothing. ]
A century without sleep. You must've gotten an awful lot done.
[ And what does it say about Nikolai, that his first thought about hearing that Brook didn't sleep is that he must have had the time to accomplish a lot of tasks. For Nikolai, there never seemed to be enough hours in the day. Too many obligations pulling him in too many directions, all of them urgent and complex. ]
You may not want to make that offer until you see what you're dealing with.
[ As much as Nikolai wants to immediately take Brook up on it - say yes please he would love the security that comes from knowing he has a safeguard like that - he is wary. What if he blithely accepted the offer and ended up maiming or horribly traumatizing Brook? No, he wouldn't let that happen.
Nikolai rubs at the back of his neck. ]
I'm doubting neither your skills nor your willingness. It's just- you've been very kind to me already. I'd hate to make you regret that generosity.
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It's not that generous. It's practical. It doesn't really do any of us any good if monster-you is rampaging all over the city at night. Until you figure out what works for you to control it yourself, if I'm nearby, I can at least see what I can do to slow you down.
[After all, what can Nikolai or even his beast do to Brook that someone else hasn't done worse? What could they have in store for him more terrible than what awaits him for eternity?
He inclines his head.]
And if I can't do it, I'll run. ...I'm probably faster than you think.
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Practicality is a much more stable foundation. ]
I guess it's beneficial for both of us, then.
[ Nikolai's smile goes a little wry and rueful, and he adds: ]
Though I wasn't planning on simply letting myself rampage. I'm not giving the monster that satisfaction. I'd rather barricade myself in every night, if necessary.
[ It's a temporary solution, and Nikolai knows it. But he can't stand the thought of Brook believing he was just going to let himself terrorize the people here. ]
Sunlight is the best way to slow the monster down. Any kind of powerful light magic, really. But guns and axes will work perfectly well, if necessary.
[ He says that with the confidence of someone who knows from experience. Not a detail he might have mentioned, to someone else, but Brook seems like the sort not to be shocked by it.
When Brook says he'll simply run if things go wrong, Nikolai gives a short nod. ]
Good.
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Hmm. If someone hurts the monster, though, do you get hurt?
[Or perhaps the better question is, does the monster heal faster than a human would? The level of punishment that would put a demon out of commission would be, ah... unpleasant for a human to wake up to.]
...Also, have you tried sleeping during the day?
[If light slows the monster down, why not make like a cat and snooze in a sunbeam? He could still lock himself up or chain himself down in a room with a view, right?]
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It's still my body. The monster is harder to injure, but the damage that gets through stays.
[ He's gotten used to ignoring the bruises and scrapes that came from the demon's nightly attempts to free itself from David's clever chains.
Nikolai should have anticipated Brook's next question. He sighs, shaking his head and explaining: ]
When I say sunlight, I don't mean the kind that you'd walk in on a summer afternoon. In my world, there are Grisha - that is, people with powers - called Sun Summoners. They can wield a concentrated form of it that is harmful to the monster. The monster is stronger at night, but... daylight isn't enough to work as a deterrent.
[ He could just leave it there. Brook doesn't need to know anything else. But Nikolai adds: ]
And it's not like I would've been able to get away with that, anyway. My... job, in my world, is very demanding, and very publicly visible. It's important that no one outside a few trusted friends find out about my 'guest'. I'm only lucky that the few times the monster managed to get out, the moon wasn't full, or I might've been seen and that would have been... very bad.
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Oh. That's annoying.
[Yes, Brook, Nikolai is absolutely living with some mild inconveniences, here. He doesn't question any of it, at least, just takes note in his head. Sunlight: not sunny enough. Being seen: bad. Why wouldn't Nikolai's job be public-facing? He's clearly a people person. Brook's incuriosity and lack of imagination save the day again.]
Well... I don't know if anyone here has light powers like that. You could ask, I guess. Seems like people ask questions like that all the time here, just because.
[...Ah.]
I don't mean, like, interrogating people. They'll just ask everyone, on the phone network. [He spreads his arms a little.] "Hey, if you have powers, what can you do?" Like that. Guarantee you'll see a post like that within the week.
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[ Usually. But then, usually they found Nikolai before he was seconds away from murdering someone. ]
I suppose it wouldn't be too suspicious, if I framed it like that. Just a casual survey about powers, no motives in particular... Because I really would like to keep all this discreet, if I can.
[ Nikolai's smile goes frayed at the edges. He curls and uncurls his scarred fingers and adds, with fake brightness: ]
In my experience, people don't tend to react all that well to things they don't understand. I'd really rather not be burned at the stake if I can avoid it.
[ At least there aren't drüskelle here. That's a small comfort. ]
Do people know about Reapers, in your world? Are they out in the open, or...?
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[Brook threw a car into a helicopter. He is NOT an innocent party to that particular incident.]
--but no, until then, it was always a secret. At least it was for me. I mean, I told my boss, because I needed to make a deal with her. She made me wear a mask when I went out so there'd be no chance of seeing my face.
[Of course, it helped that he never had to go out except on business. There was never an opportunity for anyone to recognize and seize the Red Spades' little hitman. Not until he ditched them for Scarlet and Chase.
Brook's shoulders hunch a little. He's more tense inside his bright pink jacket, as though warning off some invisible, hovering presence. Or memory.]
But I guess... she let other people know about me without my knowledge. And, yeah, that didn't go well. So I get it. I'll keep your secret, and I'll help you keep keeping it secret, if I can.
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He's confused for a moment why Brook would've needed to tell Satan he was a Reaper in the first place, when it clicks that the pronouns don't match, anyway. There's a lightbulb moment, and he asks: ]
Wait, so this is a different boss than the one that gave you your demon?
[ There are too many pieces of the puzzle missing for Nikolai to really see the picture, but he can at least grasp the frame of it. Brook had kept his role as a Reaper a secret and worn a mask to do it. He'd trusted a woman with that information, and she'd betrayed Brook's secret, and things had gone badly. ]
Well, that was a cruel thing for her to do if you ask me.
[ A hint of a sneer creeps into Nikolai's voice; he has a particular distaste for back-stabbers, and none moreso than people in power who use their position to treat those they ought to be responsible for poorly. ]
I'll do the same, of course. No one will even hear the word Reaper, from me.
[ He mimes locking his lips with a key and tossing it over his shoulder. The gesture itself is comic, but the look in his eyes is deadly serious. ]
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[Oops, right, context. Brook isn't used to having to explain himself so much. The confusion pulls him out of his mini-funk.]
The boss I was talking about was the human boss I had before I switched over to Scarlet's side. She was the worst. [/NO HESITATION.] I still had to work for Satan, of course, but circumstances meant I was left to my own devices the vast majority of the time, up in the living world. Another boss meant more direction.
[He looks at Nikolai, then down at the sidewalk for a couple beats. How should he say this?]
I'm not good at deciding how to do things on my own. Working for her helped me. And in return, having a Reaper at her beck and call gave her one hell of an edge in her field.
[Blowing out a breath, Brook shakes his head and offers Nikolai a--not a smile, exactly, but a lighter expression.]
But she's gone. I don't work for her anymore.
As for my secret... thanks. [He shrugs, dropping his gaze slightly, sheepish.] I haven't been as careful as I should be, but... a lot of people here don't seem to care if you're human or not. Still, I, uh. Appreciate it.
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