I finally have a Braille keyboard overlay. Good.
Some good news and bad news. We've found the twin triangles spray painted on a few walls, as well as The Devil's call to embrace him. That's..actually both the good news and the bad news. It means we're on the right track.
In other news, I FUCKING TOLD YOU TARA WE SHOULDN'T HAVE SAVED HIM HE'S PETER FUCKING RIVERS WE NEED TO ABANDON HIM AS SOON AS FUCKING POSSIBLE IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH A SUCKER YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO RELY ON JEANETTE SAVING YOUR STUPID ASS.
You're like a Nintendo Princess who thinks she's a Disney Princess. You can't change the world. You can't help the downtrodden. Life sucks and there's nothing we can do about it and you insisting you can just means that the Black Queen needs to pull you out of Check every other move.
We're in the Devil's territory. For the uniformed, that's the Archangel. Looks like the Lovers decided to kidnap some potential Timberwolves! And it's our job to save them!
Except it's my job, apparently, because Jeanette is in Colorado with my dumb lovestruck sister for some stupid reason. When the Smiling Man says jump, Jeanette and I have to ask how high. Except he doesn't ask us to jump. Instead he kidnaps future victims/servants of the Major Arcana and then makes us save them, because we will be blamed if they aren't returned.
And you know why? I'll tell you, and this is your fault too, Tara. Ever wonder why Jeanette survived? Why I survived? Eye injury is usually fatal. Shock and blood loss can kill you in seconds, if not minutes.
We're proxies, even though she doesn't want to admit it. Yes. We. Are. Both of us. I'm starting to think everyone in our little too-dumb-to-live online group is a proxy now. Except you, Tara. The Smiling Man lost interest in you. Why would he want you, when Jeanette is so much more interesting?
It's your fault. It's all your fault.
You see?! This is what it means to be the Smiling Man's proxy. This is what it means to be his servants. You're a piece on a chessboard, sent against other pieces--except he's setting his own pieces against each other. He doesn't want us to worship him, he doesn't want to offer us power, or glory. He doesn't want to protect us. He doesn't want to use us, or make us think we're useful.
He wants us to struggle, to fight each other, and to kill each other so he can watch. He wants our pain and our discord and our despair and our panic and our oblivion.
So he can watch and Smile.
This is your fault, Tara.
It's your fault that this is what Jeanette has to look forward to.
A whole lifetime of this.
Just so she can protect you.
And here you are.
Sheltering a two-faced monster.
Because you're soft.
Because you're weak.
Because you're stupid.
But worst and most damning of all.
Because you're a good person.
In a world full of monsters.
Better sleep with one eye open.
And if you don't rescue the thralls, then what? You get their boss on your ass? Lots of people live with Them after them every day. Hell, rescue any Thralls in West Michigan and you're only saving them until I find them. You say you're Proxies yourselves, but you're nowhere near the class of the bastards I hunt. I haven't heard of you and Jeanette stalking and attacking innocent people, either blind or Runners. You haven't been kidnapping children and bringing them to Mr. Slim to do gods know what to them. You haven't been encouraging people to embrace the Archangel. You haven't been doing human experiments like the Blind Man cultists of the Archive or drowning people in Ichor. Your worst sins are rescuing the bastards I'd just as soon kill myself because you don't know what else to do and you're scared to find out what will happen if you don't. Some of them you even rescue while they still have the free will to run rather than serve, long before I'd consider them a target.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, they're fucking Timberwolves. Let them embrace their Master and find out what happens. If Smiley is able to kill them in a way that prevents their Master from embracing them then it's a win all around.
fightoffyourdemons
ReplyDeleteWhat else did you expect to be, having given form to the Grinning King? You were his servants before he had his form again, before you knew what you were doing. This is why he grins, bearing so many teeth.
ReplyDeleteAs for young Mr. Rivers...well, his is an unusual case, having been plucked from on high to be an experiment, a test of wit and will. One wonders if he can fight off his demons or if they will consume him much like the sky did.
If we do not continue, those we love die.
ReplyDeleteChelsea is not going to die.
I won't let that happen.