[Open Post] Feeling more like himself...

[silvereyedphage]

He couldn't completely give himself a clean bill of health: the burns still need to be dressed twice a day, but they're healing better than he expected, given their severity. The stab wound has finally healed over, though he's likely to have a scar on his back for the rest of his life, however long that ends up being. He credits this to Belize's

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[only_paul]

Paul has been reading about the Phage - and when he spots Muraki, he'll wander over.

He of course has no idea that the man he thinks of as a fellow scholar is responsible for the eery red moon. It's probably for the best.

"Good afternoon," he offers politely when they cross each other in the hallway.

[silvereyedphage]

"Ah, Mr. Paul, we meet again," he says. "Have you had a chance to follow that thread of research I offered you when we first crossed paths?" His color has improved, and he looks less ghostly, almost more human, albeit a very pale one.

[only_paul]

"I will confess to have found it a little bit unsettling," he replies, humbly. "And I would quite appreciate if you would take a moment to discuss this... energy vampirism once more."

[silvereyedphage]

He smiles, and this is clearly something he's only too willing to discuss. "I'm in far better condition than I was when we first met," he says. "I've even started weaning off the painkillers I was taking, which leaves my head a lot clearer and better able to keep the facts straight, thus any time you would care to continue our discussion is a good time for me. I haven't any particular plans in mind for today, aside from seeking out some space in which to set up a possible laboratory, though given the fact that I seem to be on a permanent holiday here, that can easily be rearranged."

[only_paul]

Paul smiles a little. "I'm quite available as well, if that suits," he replies. "And perhaps it would be a good time for me to interrupt my current line of research."

[silvereyedphage]

"Ahh, and what, might I be so bold as to ask, does that current line entail?" he asks, curious. Part of him can't help but wondering how many of the denizens of the Mansion saw his signature written on the moon that night when he set his next sacrifice in motion and he suspects it might have something to do with it. He has to be sure, to satisfy his own vanity.

[only_paul]

"I'm currently changing a little bit my pace and considering atmospheric phenomenae, and their cultural significances - for example, did you know that the book of Revelations refers to a moon turned to blood, which symbolizes the persecutions of the church?"

[silvereyedphage]

"Mmm, I believe I recall hearing that: I was baptized and sent to a Catholic boys' school outside of Nagasaki for a term and the Christian scriptures have fascinated me ever since, though I've found the apocrypha to be slightly more interesting than the established canon," he says. Then he adds, "Might this new line of interest have something to do with that strange eclipse that we had three weeks ago? I'd had trouble sleeping that night since the pain killers I was taking had stopped working too soon for me to take the next dose and I had trouble getting back to sleep. That blood-red moonlight made it hard for me to settle back down again." Not a complete lie, since he'd gone off the pain killers entirely to keep his head clear for that night's ritual...

[only_paul]

"It was a very peculiar phenomena," Paul comments. "It made me curious about its signification, which I don't think is particularly surprising."

[silvereyedphage]

"Indeed, it isn't, if you consider the mountain falling into the sea in one chapter of Daniel; and the apocryphal Book of Enoch is, in some ways, the stylistic ancestor of Revelations," he says. He glances down the hallway toward the library door. "Shall we take this conversation some place more comfortable?" he asks.

[only_paul]

"I was on my way to the library," he says - "will that do?"

[silvereyedphage]

"That would be ideal," he replies with a smile and is quite willing to follow Paul there.

[only_paul]

After a moment's walk, Paul says, thoughtfully, "I find rather difficult to believe that a Biblical event is at hand, however."

[silvereyedphage]

"Mmm, I doubt that anything of that proportion is impending, but that night, I sensed something... strange, something powerful, and I've been keeping my feelers out, as it were, for the cause behind it," he replies, thoughtfully.

[only_paul]

"What do you believe you might have found, pray tell?"

He really has no idea...

[silvereyedphage]

"I haven't found anything yet, but I'm in the process of trying to identify what it could be: I'm suspecting something along the lines of a Gnostic Aeon, if not a Demiurge," he says. "But in a realm like this, it could be most anything."