tuesday morning; dorian's room

[tevinteriscoming]

[Dorian is easy to track down if you want to talk to him. He's in his room, with Marinette outside guarding him. It's early in the morning for him, but he's been keeping an earlier schedule, grabbing breakfast and tea in the morning and re-checking out his tablet before returning to his room.]

Comments

[antietam]

[ No, he's a little more confused about what Dorian is trying to say. His own morality doesn't include various types of murders, it's just murder—of someone good or someone bad. It's lost on him.

But he does listen. Maybe he should stop himself from being so willing to listen to Dorian, but here he is. ] So... you think something is being powered or summoned or...? But the—the victims are around, somehow. Their bodies, I guess, aren't.

[ They don't know what happens to the corpses. So there's a possibility. And it looks like he is willing to believe Dorian, or believe that he truly thinks this. As long as Adam wasn't fooled again, this is alright. ]

[tevinteriscoming]

The victims...? [He's not entirely sure what Adam means. The only Furry Passing letter he received was from Kazuma; it's obviously just intended to upset from his perspective. Dead is dead.] No, I'm not explaining this well. I don't know anything about computers, or artificial intelligence, or 3D printers or what have you, so I must sound like an utter simpleton. But the concept surely translates, whatever the technology. The most powerful sort of blood magic relies on the sacrifice of another living being, sometimes many living beings. The very act of killing for the sake of obtaining, via magic, a boon or avoiding a fate is an act of blood magic. So then why, I wonder, are they so intent to induce us into it?

They recruited Bull before he was told to kill aliens. Back then, his task was to ensure there was never a week without killing. It's plainly important to them. I only wonder to what end.

Do you think me entirely off target? [It's a genuine question; he's not going to pretend to Adam he has the answers when he knows it isn't true.]

[antietam]

[ He starts to understand a little more. It helps that he did look at Dorian's secret and learned that blood magic can be used for more than he thought. ]

... No. It's just something I never thought about before. I think you're right—something on the scale of a mass killing ritual would have to occur in order to change people's histories around. Assuming the motives are true, which has never been proven other than... well. [ And he's still holding on hope to that. ]

What can we do about it, though? If people haven't stopped, they aren't about to now. Even though you have strong feelings about the issue, you still... The only way we stopped something like that, back home, was by transferring the spellcasters. I took over the ritual and still had to sacrifice something important to me.

[tevinteriscoming]

The killing won't stop. [He sounds sure about it.] I didn't wish to say so in public, but - the Kampff was not a singular role. There are others. Even if we manage to stop killings from our number, the demons and the Kampff can still pick us off one by one.

[Thinking carefully.] Stopping the ritual - how is that done?

[antietam]

[ Oh. That's something. ] Did Bull know who the others were? Did he tell you?

You'd have to take it over. So long as the ritual was started, anyone could complete it if they made a sacrifice. So I sacrificed something first, and then it was over. No going back.

[tevinteriscoming]

He did, but he didn't tell me. Couldn't, I think, at risk of punishment. They used to meet in the evenings. I think one of the early killers may have been one of them; it's a sense I got, that one of them had already died.

[He's considering it.]

So in this context, taking it over would be using the structure of the game to subvert it.

[antietam]

That's still useful. If we could use the buddy system, we could track who disappears in the evenings... What day did he leave? Every day?

Yeah, we'd have to gain control. The problem is we don't know where the ritual would be taking place. I had to go to where—all the candles and mirrors were, you know, stuff for offerings. But I doubt we have access to anywhere like that.

[tevinteriscoming]

It was after trials, in the evening sometime. I'm not sure how it works, though, and I'm not sure I'd want to stop them meeting. They'd still have to kill, they just wouldn't have the luxury of exchanging information. In any event, he hid their identity. I'd like to think he had a reason to do so, even if - [sigh].

Actually, there's another piece of information about the Kampff I've only just learned. I doubt it will be helpful, but I may as well. They've two incentives. Do you have the expression carrot and stick? There was one they must kill to avoid, and one they must get away with killing to gain.

He only told me about the one. I suppose he knew I wouldn't approve of the other, though at least he had the decency to not let me die for it.

[antietam]

No, I wouldn't stop them. But we should know who they are and try to work with them. Then at least we'd only have the aliens to worry about...

With two incentives, that makes it harder to convince them otherwise. But there has to be a way to get through. Was that the thing you didn't know? [ He stops and looks a bit upset. ]

... I'm sorry about him, by the way. I can't imagine what that's like.

[tevinteriscoming]

Hm. [He looks thoughtful at that, and also wearily sad.] You know, I think you're the first person to say so. Thank you for that. Killer or no, I did care for him very much.

I agree that the Kampff can be our allies, but the extra incentive is an impediment to their cooperation. And yes, that was his secret, as it happens. He let me do this much and he nearly let me die for a ridiculous, impossible fantasy.

[antietam]

[ Maybe it shouldn't be so surprising to him that no one's thought about Dorian's feelings toward Bull. ] I know. I don't think any less of him.

So she promised something ridiculous and he still believed her? What was it? [ There's a pause. ] But he didn't let you die.

[tevinteriscoming]

He didn't, no. I should be glad, I suppose, that he didn't betray me that badly.

[But yeah. The point of the secret was just that he lied, that there was another incentive. What it was doesn't matter so much, so he may as well.]

His people, the qunari, have been at war with the Imperium for, well, centuries. There's an island in particular we've squabbled over. His incentive was to end the war there, to see it at peace under the Qun. It's obvious why he wouldn't have told me. I don't have any love for the Qun, but my problem with it is more. It isn't possible to solve that with magic. Even if the Qun were to retake it, it wouldn't have been what they showed him. You know I make no apologies for my own people, but the Qun is savage to those who won't assimilate, and barbaric to mages, of which there are many. The thought of peace in Seheron under the Qun is but a fantasy, and he's smart enough that he had to have known it.