thedevilwhorose | [Abraxas] Inbox

What do you need?

What do you think should happen to the acolytes?

I'd rather them suffer the same eternal suffering imprisoned as I have been.

But I also just want them gone. Wiped away.

Because take it from my experience, kid. There's always a way for the damned to break out, eventually.

I never want to see them again. I just want to forget about it.

I've never had anyone's life in my hands, though. Not like this, I mean.

[Libertas was different. He'd made a mistake, not a deliberate choice.]

Your royalty not serving up executions on a platter?

[that's supposed to be a joke

it's probably not very funny]

Either choice you make you shouldn't have to see them again.

Like I actually have any power.

[Also, the death penalty is illegal anyway? But that's beside the point.]

What about if they break out someday?

The bloodhounds of the Summoned will hunt them down until there's not a scrap left.

So...we might as well end it now.

I wouldn't mind the sport of chasing them down through Abraxas, but no.

If they get out they'll pass on their corrosive ideas to others, like any religion. Instead of having less of them, we'll get more.

I think the worst part is

Well, ok, maybe not the worst part. But do they even think they did anything wrong? Do they feel sorry at all?

Zealots rarely do. It's the way of their life.

They killed people. There were a ton of bodies down there, just left around like...like it was nothing. We were just tools for them to use, it didn't matter what happened to us.

I don't fucking get it. How can they do all that and not feel a fucking thing?

Maybe because they believe they're just.

Maybe because they believe they're doing their "gods'" work.

Maybe they even believe they were doing it all in the name of the "greater good." To ultimately save people by any means necessary. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

It is all the same, Wilhelm, it doesn't matter the faith. Doesn't matter humanity, angels, demons. It's all the same.

They made me believe their bullshit too.

It was like...they didn't just take over my body with their weird magic, they took over my mind too. I thought I was finally taking control of a shitty situation, but I was just...caught in their trap.

I know you don't want to hear it but there's nothing you could've done to keep their poison out. You can't be blamed for whatever happened with it. The mind is always the target, maybe whatever happened with the fungus was just a side effect, I don't know.

If you want to explore ways to get control for yourself from here forward, we will. I don't know what that would look like for you since the rest of us might just be closer to faking it, but there must be something.

[He doesn't know if it's more comforting or less comforting to know that the adults in his life are apparently faking it...]

There's a way I can control it? Like, self defense for my brain?

[yeah sorry to burst your bubble buddy]

You know at least two telepaths, Wanda and Istredd. Istredd said something about a telepathic vampire but I don't think they're in Thorne. I know mental defense in the innate sense but those two would be your best bet. I imagine Istredd would have the logistics of it and I know Wanda has given you sigils in the past to help with your mental fortification.

I knew Wanda could do stuff like that. I just thought...

I don't know, it's something you either have or you don't.

Maybe if we were back home.

This place opens up options that wouldn't previously be open to us. Learning types of magic we shouldn't be able to. I'm sure mental defenses could be included in that.

You have your fire, forced upon you.

Have you ever considered trying to learn something else, for yourself?

I was kind of busy trying not to set things on fire.

I want to learn.

That's fair.

I've been busy trying to not set metaphorical things on fire.

It's gone about as well.

Any particular magical aspect calling your attention? There's quite a lot. I've been focused on Enchantments.

Ha ha...

Honestly? I still feel like I don't know shit about magic.

But it's not that different from how I can push out my feelings, right? Just, instead of pushing something out, I'm trying to keep it from getting in in the first place.

No one "knows shit" about magic. Even if they knew before coming here, it's different. This place operates differently, and we can't even access certain types where we are. Heck, we can't even access certain types of Academic magic without Thorne getting all fussy.

But yeah, it's all about just... simplest, putting a fortress up around your mind.