Debt Unsettlement [audio, backdated to the 1st, private to Porky... err... Pokey!]

[controledfreak]

[One of the things Yg'baladoth came to appreciate was a consistent passing of time. The metered rate of it was so good in fact that she was willing to bet that there could be a device that would measure it's passing. A pity something wasn't invented.]

[Still, she knew well the length of the casting shadows when certain times of the day came. And when the shadows fell to the right length on one seventh day, a voice rang out specifically to one certain boy doing... well.. who knows, really. That wasn't important.]

[Only the three words that she had to say:]

Time is up.

Comments

[ceasetoexist]

Interesting. Sure.

[It...bothers him, on a fundamental way, to hear a place he cares so much boiled down to the word 'interesting'. He tries to hide his anger at the phrasing. After all, it's not like he really wanted this thing to get too interested in it.

Still.]

I can't really describe it the way it should be. You had to be there to understand it.

[controledfreak]

That can be arranged.

[ceasetoexist]

[No, it can't. At least not right now. Yggy doesn't have the power to leave and move to other dimensions, and won't until this is all over, if all powers are actually returned and this isn't just a closed box like Mayfield. He's seen this game before. And even if you could when all this has ended...Mayfield will probably be gone by then. Pokey knows how long this can go, and how little time the server has remaining.

He's resigned himself to never seeing it again, to just being trapped in this damn place.

Still, with a tone of mild curiosity,he asks]

Oh yeah? How would you do that, let alone transplant yourself into a computer server?

[Better to act like he believes she actually could then call her on why she can't, though it's tempting.]

[controledfreak]

Through you.

[A vague answer. But for all intents and purpose that was her reason to gain access to the curiosity that was Mayfield.]

I will need your help, of course.

[ceasetoexist]

[A pause.]

Why do you want to go there so badly and have so much interest in this dumb town?

Why should I waste my time helping you?

[The answer for now, he's decided, is no. But he may as well play along.]

[controledfreak]

Because... [she actually thinks of her words carefully.]

...it is a challenge.

[ceasetoexist]

And what'll you do there when you've conquered the challenge of getting there?

Gee, still not making this worth anything to me.

[controledfreak]

[grin]

You can't think of something?

You are smarter than that impulsive stunt that got you into this situation in the first place.

[ceasetoexist]

[Praise. Praise was something Pokey tended to try and drive head forward towards, to adore, and it's hard for his ego not to take Yggy's last words to him as some form of praise. Even now, even still, he still wants praise. Affirmation.

But instead of letting his guard down, as he'd be want to do, he builds it back up. Because those words? Were so similar to the way Giegue would talk, and tempt, in it's brief stay at Mayfield.]

Going there "through me"...

That could mean a lot of things, don't ya think?

[Possession. Tearing him apart and using his body or consciousness as some road map that could lead back to the source. Corrupting his mind and memories to open some eldritch portal there.]

Sure would help me come to a decision if you could explain what that means better.

[controledfreak]

The world of Mayfield you know exists in your mind. I know of a place that would allow us, or me specifically, to explore that world.

If you believe it would be dangerous the answer is yes. Any exploration of any mind is not without risk of vulnerability.

[ceasetoexist]

You wouldn't be in Mayfield in that case, just my memory of Mayfield. You'd have failed to reach the actual place.

[Unless exploring his perception of it was the point after all, which is a bit...more worrying.]

Y'know you're really dancing around the dangers of this compared to how blunt you were the first deal we made. If the danger is corruption or removal of my memory of it, then guess what? The answer's no.

[controledfreak]

I am not used to explaining myself. This is easier for me to understand.

The danger does not lie in the exploration of your mind. The risk to you is relatively benign though it does require a certain degree of trust. To explore your mind would mean you would be at the edge of exploring mine. My domain allows for this, I think. I simply have never tried it on a being of order.

I could temper myself to allow for your safety. But should you choose to act in a way that is unexpected I could no longer ensure your safety. Even a marginal exploration could be very damaging, I would suspect.

[ceasetoexist]

[Well. That he can understand a little better. Walking on the edge of being psychically influenced by something else was something he - or, well, the actual him, and what was passed down to him - had done before. Had come close to touching infinite power. And madness.

That wasn't something Pokey was looking to have happen again.cHe had no interest in exploring or gauging this thing's mind. But at the same time, he had to wonder-]

So if we did this, would it just be like you were rummaging through my mind? Or would I be re-experiencing Mayfield again, or what?

[controledfreak]

You would be with me, of course.

[ceasetoexist]

[This is a stupid idea. A bad idea. And he knows he's playing with something he really, really shouldn't. It's something that, if he actually was back in Mayfield, he'd maybe have the self-control to still deny.

But he isn't in Mayfield. And that's part of the problem. Because he knows, deep down, he isn't going to see it again. Isn't going to experience it, or the new town they made after it, ever again.

And this? Might be his only chance to.

He thinks on it for a few moments. Which turn into minutes. Ponders it. Before-]

Let's do it.

[Just one more time. One more time to see it, and then he'll be satisfied and be ready to fully start looking for a way to isolate himself from the rest of the people here. To hide from this dumb, colorful world until either whatever monster it is that's hanging outside the fringes devours the place or he finally withers and dies from old age.

He hopes, almost, for the former. Because even if he removed the immortality that time distortion had given him thanks to the Post Office in Mayfield, his understanding of dragons?

Was that they lived a long time. And without the place he cared about, the people he cared about? He expected life would be a long and grinding thing.]

[controledfreak]

...very well.

This will take me some time, I would see to ensure that I have mastered myself enough to allow you harborage. Bear with me in the meantime.

Ah, and another thing.

Do take the passing of time to reconsider. I would not fault your sense of self-preservation.

[ceasetoexist]

[That gives him pause. It was never said that Pokey was a brave boy, and the few things that could give him bravery were far away now. He blanks for a moment at that. Would she honestly give him a chance to back out of this, when it comes to it?

It's a thought that comes in and then passes for Pokey. Given the time, perhaps he'll take her up on bowing out. At the moment?

His sense of self-preservation, in combat with his desire, is losing out.]

Yeah. Sure.

...You're not going to get much of what you want if you just tell people they can back out of crap like this whenever you want, you know.

[Seriously what is your deal? He's never encountered something alien or, supposedly, diabolical like you that would do this before.]

[controledfreak]

If your words are advice, I will take them under advisement. If they are not, I will dismiss them immediately.

[ceasetoexist]

Eh. Take them however you want.

[Well okay. Now it's hard almost not to laugh. Who talks like that?]

Though, and this is advice: you could learn to speak more naturally. People would probably show you more of who they are if you didn't talk like some weird fax machine robot voice.

[controledfreak]

Relevant, but useless. I am speaking naturally.