[open] Of all the stories he ate...

[beholding_archivist]

WHO: Jon & you
WHERE: Library and around
WHAT: Jon deals with the loss of his powers, being screamed at by the moon and- Vampires?
WHEN: During the storm
WARNINGS: Eyes? Vampires
NOTES: TMA vampires are mute and can neither speak nor scream. They communicate telepathically and burn very well.



A - An eye can't see inside itself... Or can it?

The first thing Jon notices is the slight tingling at the back of his mind. A sensation that isn't a new one anymore, but that doesn't make Jon dread it any less as he feels his connection to the Eye flicker and knowledge leaving him.

"Shit." The Archivist mutters as he makes his way to the main entrance of the library. Stepping outside he already dreads to look up, yet does so anyway. He can't help but feel somewhat relieved that what looks back down at him isn't a massive eye, but the moon's leering visage. Jon only scowls back up at it before pointing a chiding finger as well. "Don't you dare!"

But the moon dares. It screams and the Archivist chokes on his own distorted scream as the world around him shatters and reforms. The library opens hundreds of glitching eyes in all shapes, colors and sizes, some glowing, some distorted, some phasing in and out of existence altogether. And Jon sees out of every single one of them. He sees himself barely touching the ground that now also watches. He sees himself unable to do anything but watch himself watch breaking what reality surrounds him.

Anyone daring to approach will have countless eyes instantly focus on them.

B - Lost

The effect of the moon luckily is only temporary, which doesn't make the experience any less unpleasant. Between these bursts of his powers altering reality, Jon is left more or less shambling around, getting lost between bookshelves or the area around the library. He tries to focus. He tries to remember where he was going and what his intentions were for starting to walk. But he can't. He just can't remember and the distress he feels should be obvious in his muttering.

He is somewhere around the hotel when he spots the person. He tries to recognize them, but fails. It must be someone he knows, right? There aren't many people here, this much he can remember.

"Uh... Excuse me?" Jon tries to address the person and they only look at him, not making a single sound. Jon still nods as if he had been given a response and walks closer, relieved to have found someone that can help him. How could he possibly know that this person he is approaching is one of those vampires he has only learned about from the statements given by a self proclaimed vampire hunter.

Comments

[in_extremis]

They weren't really getting anywhere anyway, not that Tony could really discern through the fog--it all looked like crumbling walls rearing up out of the misty void, and Tony was without his maps and scans to orient them. It wasn't much of a loss then when he stopped at the touch of Jon's hand, drawing him back so Tony could step in front of him instead, taking him by the shoulders, then the hands before he thought Tony was ignoring them.

"Do you think you can stop people from being miserable?" he asked, and tightened his grip briefly to get Jon to focus for a second on the thought experiment, and not any argument about what that meant about Jon. "Does that, can that world exist, where no one is ever sad or scared, everyone's just blissed out of their minds, 24/7?" It was something Tony had thought about, if he could protect the world from everything that hurt it. He thought about it too much. He hadn't yet devised a way to make that viable. The conclusion seemed obvious enough to him that he continued, "So, if people are going to be miserable anyway, where else is all of that energy going to go? Pure efficiency. And you're not--I haven't seen you do, that thing you did before, to Tommy, you know--if you're still doing that, okay, that's kind of a different equation..." He didn't want to think Jon was sneaking around terrorizing people while he was asleep, but he also didn't think Jon would just set a guy on fire, so he wasn't running entirely up to date software.

[beholding_archivist]

A sudden stop and then Jon's mind is entirely on Tony's hands on his shoulders, then taking hold of his hands. Jon looks down for a moment, then back up. That world Tony describes... Wouldn't be terrible. And if a world can exist where everyone is constantly afraid, then... Why not this?

It's not a thought Jon speaks out loud since putting it into words feels like a challenge. A perfectly blissful world would require an entirely different type of ritual anyway...

In the end he shrugs once and shakes his head slowly. "I don't need that anymore... Uh... Hunting." That's the best way to describe it, isn't it.

[in_extremis]

It wasn't a word that Tony was eager to repeat, but after a brief hesitation he agreed, "Hunting." Having a word for it was something of an improvement over Tony's awkward rambling. Tony was trying to reframe the perspective so Jon didn't feel like some kind of predator, though, so he quickly continued, "So, listen--you're not doing that, it's not you making people miserable. You're just a perfectly balanced machine, my love. When people are hurting, they're scared, they're pumping out the fuel for you to help them with this gift of yours. When they're happy, when you're happy--it's just, we're putting on the coffee, there's not a microwave in sight and you've got all the time in the world to explain some--bug or whatever to me, how much are you thinking about this power?"

He didn't actually know the answer to that, so maybe he was going to regret asking and did look apologetic then for assuming it was a logical argument. Those were the brief times he wasn't thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong himself.

[beholding_archivist]

Jon listens and tries not to be too flustered by that little nickname. The angle Tony picked isn't without flaws. There are several flaws to it, in fact. But trying to think about them and lining them all up in his mind is not something that currently comes easy to Jon.

He would like for Tony's angle to be the correct one.

The following part proves to be difficult for Jon to follow and he blinks a few times while doing his best to Follow Tony's words that suddenly land on bugs and Jon opens his mouth to respond only to close it again after a moment. He tries again a moment later. "Wha-- Is... Is this about making coffee in a microwave again?"

[in_extremis]

The machine was not running very smoothly right now, so it might not have been the best time to ask it to examine its own mechanism. While Tony pursed his lips and gave an irritable sigh, he didn't offer an argument, only shifted his hold to thread one hand securely through Jon's and said, "Let's get you in a bath." Trying to logic out Jon's concerns wasn't going to be as effective or necessary as showing him that Tony was going to care for him regardless. Try, at least. The library couldn't have been far, Tony would find it eventually.