Visiting Post

[wellthrownstone]

Garion is in one of the beds in the infirmary where he's been since he came in yesterday. He's been asleep for most of it; his consciouness had been an effort of pure will kept up only in an attempt to lessen what worry his friends might have for him. This morning, however, his eyes did open (though it was something of an effort) and while he

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[gone_byebye]

Takka takka takka-

"Hi, Garion," says Ray, who's got Francis with him. "Bar said you were.... yeeeugh, you don't look good."

[wellthrownstone]

Not particularly, he agrees dryly. His mouth still hurts, his jaw is still a little off and he has an alternative so he's using it.

[gone_byebye]

"Garion, if anything went wrong with the PKE meter and those things were able to sneak up on you because of it, I'm so sorry-"

[wellthrownstone]

He moves to shake his head before discovering that's a bad idea.

It wasn't anything to do with you and I won't have you getting upset. I shouldn't have gone by myself in the first place. And, Belar preserve us, but I've never seen anything like the things I saw there. I had no idea.

[gone_byebye]

Ray winces in involuntary sympathy. "Gimme a second to drop my shields the rest of the way and you can put the rest of the pictures in without having to describe them," he says. "I'm listening."

[wellthrownstone]

As you wish. And I'm sorry about the PKE meter--there's a flash of Garion smashing one of the demons in the head with it and jamming the remainder into another one's chest.

Then he lets the scene play out, almost like a video from his point of view. The squalid village, the rituals, the horrifying child--

The demons. Vampires as well, humans twisted by demonic taint. All manner of creatures, both humanoid and other.

One of them noticing him and calling the others. The fight. The loss of his boots as he kicked them away and they scrabbled at them to pull him back. Running.

And finally passing out on the door to Milliways and flopping through.

[gone_byebye]

"Just for future reference, those things explode a lot if they're overloaded. I'll show you hoooooooo ooh."

The thing that lay half-bent on its side in a foetid pool of greenish-yellow ichor and tarry stickiness was almost nine feet tall, and the dog had torn off all the clothing and some of the skin.... It was partly human, beyond a doubt, with very manlike hands and head, and the goatish, chinless face had the stamp of the Whateleys upon it. But the torso and lower parts of the body were teratologically fabulous, so that only generous clothing could ever have enabled it to walk on earth unchallenged or uneradicated-

"... yeah, not cool at all. Merciful mother of Azathoth.

[wellthrownstone]

I can see what might have driven the spies mad. It was pretty horrifying.

The worst part being that the Karands seem to revere and worship those otherwordly things.

[gone_byebye]

"Yeah," says Ray, whose own memories are currently flicking to the brief and awful glimpses he had of Yog-Sothoth, and over his memories of debased circumpolar cultures given over to the worship of the most hideous of the Great Old Ones and their spawn. "That's sort of a documented part of... look, you know what might be a good idea? I should get my hands on as many of the stories of the Great Old Ones as possible from my world. You know. Like what happened with the Whateleys. They're as close as I'm going to get to having viable research on anything in your world, considering how many similarities there seem to be between- that- and the stories I'm remembering..."

[wellthrownstone]

If it's not too much trouble, Ray. I know you have problems in your own world often enough...

[gone_byebye]

"The stories won't be any kind of trouble at all. First-hand documentation's harder to come by and has a tendency to drive the unprepared moderately mad, but I had access to those stories when I was a kid. It won't be a problem, believe me. Detective Chen says the incidents with the sprayfoam insulation can wait, anyway."

[wellthrownstone]

If you say so, Ray.

He doesn't reach out, but he does give Ray a meaningful look of thanks for more than just that. Ray is one of his best friends and while he knew that he'd been perfectly all right before meeting him, he couldn't imagine a Riva without the occasional explosion anymore.