fingeronthebutton | Duplicity IC Inbox

[That comment earns Elias an irritated glare.]

I don't intend for this to be entertaining. I'm going to find a way that won't hurt him.

Jon, when has you saving anyone ever resulted in no one being hurt?

[There's a long pause.]

Morrigan. [He regrets the saying the man's name to Elias almost immediately, but presses on.] I led him out of a den of silver-tongued backstabbers when this place went to literal hell.

Nothing bad happened.

Edited (Thanks autocorrect) 2020-09-04 13:42 (UTC)

Oh? Tell me all about it.

[He might allow this exception but only after he hears the story from Jon's own lips.]

[Jon's well aware that Elias could just pluck the information out of his head. Asking for it seems to be an actual courtesy... even if the implicit threat of taking it more or less overrides any actual choice Jon might have in sharing the story.]

It was before you arrived one year ago. The 8th of August. We woke up covered in fingerprints with some sort of 'sin' scrawled on our bodies. [His had been 'ALOOF' back then.] The city was warped into a hellish place with different domains people found themselves trapped in based on those sins.

[Jon had started in the lowest level of that hell... treachery. The shades of his victims, of Tim and Sasha, of the boy who'd bullied him and lost his life when it should have been Jon to die to the Web.]

I was exploring each domain, observing it. [Archiving like the good little living recorder he is.] I found Morrigan in Haven Hospital, a maze of confusing corridors and charlatans promising salvation. I owed him a favor, so I stepped in when I saw a pair of people trying to trick him. It was easy enough to compel the truth from them, their plans to steal his things. I told him to follow me if he wanted out, and he did.

I have my rib here with me. [Jon reaches down to touch one of his desk drawers absently. It has his rib and Raymond Fielding's disembodied, perfectly preserved hand hidden within it. Thank you, Agnes.] I focused on it and led us out.

I admit I was... very hungry after. It was like trying to find my way through a weaker version of the Distortion's corridors. But I didn't feed on Morrigan, just sent him on his way. I told him how to escape the hellscape, too. I still had a few more domains to visit... but I knew he'd want out as soon as possible.

And how did you feed?

[Yes. That is indeed his next question.]

There was a tavern spawning creatures from our own worlds. I ran into the Boneturner there. I took another Statement from him in return for one of my kidneys.

[And then Hawke had freaked out and intervened before Jared could take out his appendix in return for letting Jon and Hawke go free. Much more trouble than it needed to be.]

Which then led you to causing someone to panic out of concern for you. It led to injury and emotional suffering. One action trickled down into others that day. Something bad did happen from a result of your own actions, Jon. that is the point you wish to ignore but the one that stays relevent.

He wasn't- The only thing hurt was Jared. [Physically. Mostly. Jon had been hurt, of course, but nothing lasting. He expects he could lose quite a few of his organs at this point and still function. Somehow. But Hawke had escaped physically unscathed.

But horrified.

The Archivist could have fed on that encounter as a Statement.

Jon's expression falls.]

Get out.

[One time. Just one time he wanted to help someone without horrible consequences. Why can't Elias let him have that?]

Pain is not always physical, Jon. And self-harm is also a consequence.

[But he's not getting up to leave. After all, Jon has ordered him and he needs to understand where the power rests here.

Spoilers: It's not with Jon and never has been.]

Like you care if I self-harm.

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cw: mentions of self-harm