Video, UN: Puppetking

[throneaway]

[ The video cuts in to a very plain assigned apartment room, and a tall, reedy-looking individual who smiles to see something light up or turn on on the device. Success!

Maxwell doesn't look too worried about all this 'saving the world' jazz.

Neither does the little floating eyeball that nuzzles up to his shoulder. He pets it absently. ]

Say, pal. How many of you 'randomly chosen' otherworldly visitors were already heroes in your own worlds? How many of you were ... Less heroic?

I don't mean to be suspicious, you understand: I'm sure they actually do need help here.

But I have some prior experience with kidna--err--this kind of selection process.

Comments

[throneaway]

So these were reoccurring dreams. With a through-line narrative. [ He meditates on Alice in Wonderland for a few seconds, letting his eyes reread the same few menu items again and again. Besides the odd literary reference, and the mathematical/logical aspects (and all those delicious chess metaphors), he can't say he's an expert on the dreaming parts of it, or even that they would necessarily apply. Maybe part of this experiment was programming this kid to respond to certain code words and some lab tech got cute.

He's done as bad to people, or worse, but he's still sorting all that out, and tracing culpability is hard when you're a villain and a victim in the same sitting. ]

Russell... [ He considers various lines of questioning. No good being cute about it. ] Is there somebody in this place who's looking out for you, or are you on your own here?

cw brief needle & fantasy drug use mention

[guilt_trip]

…Yes. I injected the drug every day and woke up in the same room in the same town.

[The Happy Dream Phenomenon is actually kind of fascinating conceptually - a technical marvel! (putting aside the highly unethical parts) - but Russell sounds very drab about it. He looks back down at the menu again.]

I live by myself. …… Doctor is here, though. …One of the people… from the dream.

[And it’s totally fine and they’re both Soooooo Totally Normal about this arrangement! There’s no wildly deep-seated unreality and guilt problems there at all! Hahaha ha ha haaa.]

[throneaway]

[ Yeah, nothing about that experiment is sounding anything but ominous. ]

Hmn. [ The part about living by himself isn't much better. Maxwell almost can't believe he's a responsible-feeling adult party. Who let this happen? ]

That's--[ Very interesting, but the server is returning, and he transitions totally smoothly to ordering a bowl of that sweet seafood stuff he's been craving and some breadsticks.

Dream figments? A real place, that Russell accessed somehow from inside his mind? All conjecture. And all academic, right now. At least the breadsticks will arrive soon. Wow, getting a meal cooked for you that you don't need to break the neck of and offer to the camp specialist to skin. True luxury. ]

Good to have somebody who might understand.

[guilt_trip]

[In Kantera’s defense, he had had the thought of inviting Russell to live with him almost immediately but quickly vetoed that because he’s a pretty sexually active dude nowadays with multiple partners and Russell has very deep and complicated feelings on both sex and fidelity. It’s fine, he’s really fine this way. He was a self-sufficient young man and he rather liked the quiet.

Russell orders the same dish as Maxwell, for science. Idly, he thinks of the Incarner chef on the resort island who would prepare the fish he brought it. He wonders if those fish could live here in Ellipsa - if those dishes could be recreated too, just like these recipes were.

He hands back the menu to the server and stares off at the decorations on the wall.]

Doctor understands… better than anyone.

[On so, so many levels.]

[throneaway]

Guess a lot of people pine for their old homes in one way or another. [ And despite missing the food from San Fransisco, it's the Constant, and the people in it, that Maxwell thinks is 'home'.

He watches Russell watch-without-seeing the shapes on the wall, chewing on the inside of his lip lightly. ]

This is heavy discussion without video game competition exchanges. [ He offers a fangy grin, reassessing mildly. ] I'm sure he does.

Look. I'm not gonna judge you. Or fuss over you. You've survived here long enough on your own. You're doing something right.

But if I can help, I hope you'll let me know, so I can consider it.

[guilt_trip]

[He hums a soft, almost amused little sound at the video game comment.]

…Thanks. I will.

… …You too… alright?

[For as much as he tried to paint himself as a terrible and irredeemably rotten kid who could do nothing but cause harm, Russell really was quite fond of helping people.]

… … Does it eat?

[His attention has drifted back to the immediate area and he is looking at the Peeper now. Right after the question leaves his mouth, though, there’s a slight wrinkle of his nose, as if he’s just considered the mildly horrifying possibility the answer is actually yes.]

[throneaway]

Alright, pal. [ The nine-tenths-a-lie flows easily; Maxwell's bound and determined to be, at worst, a neutral factor to Russell, not yet another failed guardian who needs him to assume more responsibility than he should have to.

The one-tenth-a-truth comes from this place being potentially fatal without teamwork. If Maxwell died in, say, the Forge gladiator arena, he wouldn't begrudge his necromancy-inclined nine-year-old niece reviving him. Some responsibilities are just unavoidable. ]

I'll do my best not to need anything unreasonable. You've done plenty, just getting me up to speed with the heartbeat of this century, too. [ It isn't lost on him, despite Russell's enigmatic outburst from earlier, that he's been generous with his time and information. Still early days to make a judgment. ]

Oh, does it ever eat. [ Maxwell reaches over to the Peeper's nearest dangling nerve-tendril, drawing it closer, and it nuzzles into his hand lovingly. ] You think it's sweet right now, but when it gets hungry, that eye peels back and it starts screaming for food like a baby bird with incisors. Real nails on chalkboard noise.

[ He reaches over to pluck a little sugar packet from the caddy, peering at it in interest to confirm what it is - they had sugar cubes Back In His Day - and then opens it, pouring it into one hand. ] Here, look.

[ The Peeper takes one look at the edible dust, pupil going big like a cat in attack mode, and then the colored parts of the eye retract into itself, unfolding a fangy maw around it and drooling tongue that licks delightedly at the sugar. ]

[guilt_trip]

[Oh. Yeah okay that’s kind of exactly what Russell anticipated/dreaded but honestly it’s not as bad as he was expecting it to be, actually seeing it. Like, his life is already so goddamn weird, this might as well happen. It really did look like something that he could’ve stumbled across in the dream.]

….Weird.

[Judging by the calmly interested way he watches it, though, it’s definitely more like “Weird (positive)”]

… …

So were there a lot of creatures like this where you were before? Or is it one of a kind?

[throneaway]

Honestly, I love this kind of thing. [ Maxwell wipes his hand free of Peeper slobber with a napkin, fastidiously, and notices Russell's response is also not negative. Good, so this Dream experiment wasn't all bad, maybe. Or at least it didn't all seem to network into bad associations. ]

Eyes? The "moon" is a living entity that watches the Constant, and They see just about everything. [ Carelessly, he folds his hands and leans his chin on them, looking at Russell solemnly. ] This little fella is a benign novelty compared to most things there.

Ah, one of my favorites actually has no eyes whatsoever, and a little herd of No-Eye-Deer. Draped in chains, mouth and sockets all sewn up. I didn't make any of these ones myself, I was more partial to spiders and clockwork chess monsters.

What about you? Anything you liked from back there? [ Home or the Dream, he's not particular. ]

[guilt_trip]

[Russell listens attentively to the descriptions. That all sounds kind of horrific. What a strange place. (As if he really has any room to talk.)

Basically all of the monsters in the dream, much like the dream itself, were meant to make Russell feel guilty and miserable, so his feelings on them typically ranged from indifference to active dislike. The other races that inhabited the dream, though… they were alright. In their weird, screwed up sort of ways.]

Mm. The other races in the dream were interesting. The Pengii and the Catties… and the Kelpies…

… As far as regular animals, I especially like… rabbits. And fish.

[Does the rabbit thing seem at odds with his little episode earlier? He seems perfectly fine mentioning them now, at least.]

[throneaway]

[ At least to Maxwell, the Constant promises a deeper understanding of magic, which he's historically always wanted more than anything, more than even before he knew to ask for that, and he accepts without condition whatever horrors come with - whether they change him or just destroy him. ]

Sounds like they could be a good time. If you could avoid them getting hostile, anyway. Did you talk to them?

[ The breadsticks and seafood arriving are a small intermission in the mutual cross examination of worlds, and Maxwell cheerfully rips one in half, dips it, and offers the seafood-bread to the Peeper, which floats down to land on the table next to him and starts chewing happily. Then he points the remaining half of the baton in Russell's direction. ]

Just want to ask in case this comes up again during a crisis. Did this experiment you were in involve... Mesmerism, anything like that? [ The time for delicacy is over, it's only fair to tell him why Maxwell's so concerned. ] For a second there, you acted like I stabbed you when I referenced Carroll.

CW pet death mention (almost forgot that)

[guilt_trip]

I did. I would… help them. [For the most part, anyway.] … … Sometimes they were beyond help, though. The Catties especially.

[It was kind of sad, watching them struggle with their addiction and fighting them when they lost themselves to it. Those wild, vicious expressions… The arrival of the food takes his mind off it, at least for a while.

Russell is still staring curiously down at his bowl when Maxwell poses the question. His whole body tenses as if a spotlight had just been shone on him, then relaxes as he contemplates an answer.]

…No, nothing like that. [Plenty of fucked up mind games, but no mesmerism.] I just… had a pet rabbit once. As a kid. White. [red white red—] … It got into an accident. It reminded me of that time. That’s all.

[throneaway]

It's a lot to deal with. In life, in any reality you happen to find yourself. Facing unwinnable scenarios. ...I thought once it was best not to fight it, but I don't think that way now.

[ He falls quiet, listening to the answer. A pet rabbit. A white rabbit. Maxwell opens his mouth, then closes it again, meditatively. ]

Good, if that's all. I didn't want to upset you.