eachdraidh | video | open to both courts

[ The locket is, as usual, in the air and facing the Outsider. Unfortunately, his gaze seems to be a bit to the left of the locket and instead of floating in mid-air, he's sitting on his bed. A large white rat scurries up his arm and across his shoulder, then leaps to the mattress and then the floor; judging by the faint noise in the background, it's not the only rat in the room. ]

I can no longer see, [ the Outsider states simply, sounding faintly confused. ] The Maidenfish have handed me a piece of paper, but if it says anything, I cannot read it.

[ The aforementioned piece of paper is held up so that the locket can get a good look at the writing- or that's the intention, anyway. He's holding it backwards, and one of the Maidenfish (in the form of a woman, wearing a veil and a long, black dress with a train) gently turns the paper around so that the words face the screen.

Dearest Outsider,

You will have found by morning's light that I have divested you of your eyesight. Is it something you miss? Something you might like to have returned to you?

I'd hoped so! For I'd dearly like to have those shards of mine returned. I propose this to you:

Deliver either a fully-powered shard or a sigil tablet to an old, ruined place where the Black Shuck was once worshipped, in the dark of Nimh Gleane: a circle made of seven stone statues of the Old Dog himself. Place the object in the open mouths of any number of the statues and be on your way. If this is done within a month, I shall make the return to you as swift and silent as it was stolen!

If not, I'll distribute what I've taken among the humble populace of native folk.

Best wishes,

Reynard the Fox, Rightful Lord of Maupertius, titles & honors, etc. ]

If someone could inform me of what it says...?

[ After what he deems an appropriate length of time, the Outsider lowers the paper. Shifting slightly on the bed to hand the note back to one of the Maidenfish, his movement reveals one more thing: on the wall behind him, a fine drawing of a winking fox's face in red chalk. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Many would't. It's a very heavy burden, killing others. [Geralt's face twitches only minutely. Possession didn't exactly make a great case for the Outsider, though animals were far better than other things. Human things.

So does he encourage that, or satiate his curiosity? On one hand, keeping himself from becoming involved in what he thinks is ghostly possession; on the other....] Are you able to possess things other than animals?

It is- less so in the world I am from. Kill your enemies, kill those less fortunate than you, kill those who have slighted you. But perhaps that is simply nobles.

[ The poor are mostly interested in not being killed. ]

In my own world I am capable of many things. But I am- apart from what I was chosen by, and so I am diminished.

Not just nobles in some places. [The Outsider's world sounds about like Geralt's own world save for the fact that the poor definitely engage in a lot of murderous antics, too.]

But you're not a ghost. A kind of wraith perhaps? [The Outsider looks decidedly better than most wraiths, so there's that. But usually wraiths have no memories, and they are aggressive, and they typically linger around places of their mortal death. Also, they don't really possess anyone that he can recall.

Maybe The Outsider is a demon.]

[ He laughs, idly stroking along the spine of the white rat. ]

No. I am the Outsider -- god of the Void, in my own world. The source of magic, Spirit of the Deep, the Great Leviathan, and so on. The Abbey of the Everyman considers me a spirit, but they are hardly a true authority on such things.

[While it's very true the Outsider is a god, Geralt hilariously enough doesn't believe in gods and, therefore, tries to think of other things the Outsider could possibly be. A kind of nature god doesn't even come to mind.

Geralt just never trusts the validity of a powerful creature saying they are a god, sorry, Outsider.] Interesting. You're a god [He's humoring Outsider.] predominantly around water? [Because "The Deep" and "Leviathan," though Geralt is momentarily confused by the rat--rats?--until he remembers that rats are very often found around docks and on ships.]

Does your magic work better there?

Much of my world is surrounded by water; the predominant Empire is composed of several islands. Whaling is currently the largest industry, though if they are not careful they will cause their world's doom with the death of the last.

[ He doesn't sound too bothered by that -- he accepts it as a possibility, as something that he will not change. ]

It does. The Void picks a deity, a representative, when it feels the need for one; I am the latest, though not the first and potentially not the last. Each is different, matching the world in their own way -- as you have noticed, I have certain sea-based titles.

[So The Void is what happens to be the governing force, whatever that is. It sounds like what the name says, a void of space with magical properties. Currently, Geralt isn't sure what to make of either the Outsider or his Void, but that doesn't appear to bother him much. He's learning that things are very different in the Drabwurld than in his own; he's running into very strange and curious beings here.

And he hasn't had to hunt a one of them yet.] Stealing your eyesight sounds like the only option the Fox had. Do you plan to appease him for the return of your vision?

He has stolen a girl. A- friend. [ This is still something he seems to be puzzled about, but he says it all the same. Most of his friends have never enjoyed his company. ]

Sight can be restored in other ways, or lived without. I would have her returned first.

video | open to both courts | morning of the 26th

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