Video | un: Stone

[bookbrawler]

[Jacob Stone comes from a world of both smartphones and magic (and sometimes those smartphones had magic in them), so he isn't entirely unfamiliar with this. The Omni is a little awkward at first to deal with, but he's managing.

What he isn't managing, is the rattlesnake that seems intent on curling around his shoulders in a cozy fashion.]

Hi. My name is Jacob Stone, I just got here, so there's a lotta new things I ain't quite got the hang of yet.

Uh.

So.

So can y'all tell me if there's an incantation or something to get rid of--of whatever this little critter is?

[The snake looks just as grumpy as he does, for a moment, and hisses at him. He looks mildly offended at the gesture, or maybe the snake might have said something rude.]

I'm not--I don't use magic, I mean, but this thing just sort of appeared outta nowhere and now it won't go. I didn't mean to summon it! But I guess I did and now I don't know how t'make it go away.

[He's just...a little stressed. Being a Librarian whose job it is to find magical artifacts and hide them from the world and as a rule doesn't use magic because he's terrified of it is now in a world absolutely steeped in it, and he just accidentally summoned a smoky creature right out of his chest.

It's fine. He's fine?]

Comments

[bookbrawler]

[Interesting, this one's only audio. And it's very good information, too.]

I don't want to give it a name. Giving it a name means I'm gonna get attached to it! If it goes away, does it just...come back on its own?

[He gives the snake a suspicious glance and the snake looks at him just as smugly, hitting him on his neck with the rattle at the end of its tail. Really? Why this...?]

...a projection of our souls and innermost beings.

[He gives the snake another equally long look which gets a shrug from the snake, which is impressive considering it doesn't actually have shoulders.]

I mean, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. It depends on which culture and mythology you are pulling from. For example, in Japan, snakes are seen as good luck, in many Western cultures like England snakes are usually a symbol of deceit or evil, the Ojibwe consider snakes to symbolize rebirth and healing, and in Viking mythology the giant serpent Jǫrmungandr surrounds the earth and when it lets go of its tail it's the beginning of Ragnarök. So. Pretty much a mixed bag there.

[He trails off, a little worried. It's probably the deceit. Or the rattle representing keeping people at arm's length or something.]

[subject_013]

Names have power. In most magic systems - for that matter, in basic psychology - if you can put a name to something, it grows more manageable. Some of us Sleepers keep our Omens in our minds, while others let them out as an assistant of sorts, a second pair of eyes and even as a means of self-defense in a tight place.

[A faucet squeaks and the water stops.]

And there's the pinch: you get to decide what it means. This place draws on the beliefs and dreams of the people summoned here. Your Omen is no more good nor evil than you are. [A small cough of a laugh in his throat.] There's some Sleepers who find their Omen is a better being than they are.

[bookbrawler]

[That's pretty good information and advice. A second pair of eyes in a dangerous new world couldn't hurt, even though he's still not exactly over the existential horror of it all just yet.]

Well, here's hopin' that this lil' critter takes on the good parts and leaves the bad.

A place that draws on the beliefs and dreams of people summoned here...sounds like a recipe for danger and disaster to me.

[subject_013]

Keep that in mind: if you're someone who generally makes the better choices, it will reflect in your Omen. It's not always the case. I've made some dire choices in my world of origin, but my Omen is sometimes held in higher regard than I their Sleeper. Though said Omen is a weasel, or more precisely a stoat.

[There's a plastic rustle, as of a hose being coiled up, and the Sleeper continues.]

I take it you're from a world where the supernatural is a clear and present part of reality? I haven't that experience: there are things in my world of origin which may look supernatural, but which have their origins firmly planted in the natural.

[bookbrawler]

[He'd...like to think that he generally makes better choices, but he also knows that he'd spent most of his life making bad ones. At least he's gotten better?]

Stoats are pretty cool. They feature in folklore as well.

Yeah, you could say that. I didn't know about all the supernatural in the world up until a few years ago, and most people still don't. I mean, hell, some days I wish that I had your kinda world, but then again, I wouldn't trade what I've seen for anythin'.

[CW: Zombie Epidemic mention (figured I'd better, given current events)]

[subject_013]

If I recall rightly, they're depicted in Irish and English folklore as having human-like qualities, including having families and being neighborly. But I think in some Native American legends, they're either shifty creatures whose alliances can't be trusted, though there's one legend of a stoat taking down a wendigo.

[A rustling, as if the speaker were walking along a hallway, clad in something rubberized.]

[A dry, closedmouthed chuckle.] Ah, so in some ways, I'm nearly as much a neophyte to the supernatural as you are. There's something to be said for that: it lends one a healthy skepticism, keeping one from getting too comfortable with the supernatural.

I'm not sure you'd want to tarry in my world of origin: there were periodic outbreaks of pathogens that transformed the living into shambling, ravenous nightmares.

[CW: Zombie Epidemic mention]

[bookbrawler]

Yeah! You're absolutely right! And you know how easy it is, to get comfortable with the supernatural? I know I have, and...

[He loves talking about folklore and myth and literature and everything that falls within such and his voice brightens, sounding even more enthusiastic.

Except.]

...you don't mean zombies, do you?

Re: [CW: Zombie Epidemic mention]

[subject_013]

And it either opened your eyes to a new world you never expected. Or you grew too comfortable with it, to your peril. Or... another path presented itself? Don't hesitate to elaborate. I enjoy hearing the stories of other Sleepers.

[A pause, lending weight to what follows.]

The shambling undead. Not the hapless enslaved beings of Haitian lore, but the contagious and flesh eating horrors of Romero's fever dreams.