the devil in the details

[isocelesmonster]

Who: Bill Cipher
Broadcast: none
Action: Anywhere in the fleet
When: The night of the 22nd, and ongoing.

Although ostensibly the Golden has a new crew member, there's no new person in attendance at any meals. No new faces in the hall, nothing additional in the laundry. One of the standard crew cabins has been sealed up as tight as a tomb, the brass nameplate on the door unhelpfully scratched out with something sharp. No noises at all come from inside.

It'd take a careful eye to notice the only other change: the same sharp instrument has been used to carve little eyes of providence, no bigger than a fingernail, in strategic public places around the ship. They're shallow markings, not deep enough to interfere with any of the working parts of the craft, and no great works of art - each little scrap of graffiti is a matter of five lines at most. But they're there - and if sometimes the way the gold of the metal hull glints in the pupil is strangely canny, it's probably nothing to be worried about.

(It's not that Bill doesn't care about the flesh puppets that make up his new crew - oh, he does, they're all going to get very careful scrutiny over the coming days - but more important is finding out what his new playground looks like.)

When the fleet sleeps, their minds open and blossom like night-blooming flowers, each one illuminating a new section of the shared dreaming plane. For all of their poetry, few humans realize that the state of dreaming is as real an exploration as whatever meaningless actions they take while awake. It's irrelevant to their survival, most days, so evolution has never sought to provide that particular revelation. They're a young species. Five senses, auditory languages, limited psychic potential, and as far as they know when they dream they're just watching random electrical impulses fire in their brains. Ha!

(There's an expression about a one-eyed man's status in a land of the blind, and Bill intends to make it a reality.)

He steps sideways out of the material world into the closest dream as easily as a three-dimensional being can move along any of their limited axes. He makes himself invisible, at first, just to get his bearings.

[Bill is visiting dreams, as a way of saying hello! His permissions post for this ability is here. I am treating this ability on an opt-in basis. If you didn't give me the okay, he won't be spying on your character at all tonight ~but where's the fun in that~?]
ZOGSLFTS GSRH DVZP ZMW RWOV GSVNV

RH ML NLIV BRVOWRMT YFG Z WIVZN

DSVM NLIMRMT GZPVH BLF UILN NB GSIZOO

YV TOZW R OVG BLF DZPV ZG ZOO

Comments

[axiomed]

But you must have a physical form in the Fleet.

[isocelesmonster]

IS THAT A QUESTION? I'VE LIVED IN THE MENTAL PLANE SINCE BEFORE YOUR UNIVERSE STARTED EXPANDING! FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, THIS IS MY FORM!

[He's not offended, or even bragging: just explaining the facts. He looks down. Oh right, he's still a fleshy human larva.]

WELL, NOT THIS...

[Big eyeroll. Like he'd have a torso and organs. Please, Chuck, what do you take him for?]

[axiomed]

[ He has half a mind to correct that supposition and decides not to. ]

So you exist only on the mental plane?

[isocelesmonster]

SHORT ANSWER IS: KINDA!

[He's. He's not real happy about it.]

IF YOU WANT THE LONGER ONE...

[He shrugs, and suddenly looks pretty tired.]

I DON'T KNOW, WANT TO DO IT OVER A GAME OF CHESS OR SOMETHING? I'M A LOT BETTER AT STORIES WHEN I DON'T FEEL LIKE I'M BEING HELD AT GUNPOINT!

[axiomed]

[ He nods slowly. ]

All right.

[ The scene changes to Charles' study. There's a chess set sitting on the table. Sunlight streams through the window, casting shadows across the board. ]

[isocelesmonster]

[Bill sags in relief, and rubs the back of his neck. This is a good sign. For his molecules staying together.]

APPRECIATE IT, PAL.

[He floats into place on the white end of the board.]

NICE PLACE YOU HAVE, HERE, BY THE WAY! IS THAT OAK PANELING?

[I'm not stalling, you're stalling.]

[axiomed]

[ Charles' answering expression is wry, but no less wary. ]

IT's in the mind. You know how rich in detail it can be.

[isocelesmonster]

AH SO HE DOES HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR.

[Bill winks.]

RIGHT, RIGHT. I SHOWED UP OUT OF NOWHERE, AND YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT MY DEAL IS! CAN'T BLAME YA!

THE STORY STARTS WITH NEIGHBOR PROBLEMS. LIKE A LOT OF EM DO!

[He sweeps his hand and alters the fabric of the dream - just a little. This won't work if Charles fights it, but it's really only an illustration. The chess pieces on the far end of the board become a set of ordinary-looking people. The pieces on the near end, Bill's end, become an odd cohort of creatures: ghosts and gnomes, sea monsters and minotaur. None of them are alive, but the carving and painting on the models is very detailed.]

[axiomed]

If you can call it that.

[ He glances at the chess set, but doesn't point out the strangeness of it. He sits down with ease. Charles has confidence in his powers, even if he's been ostracized by them far too often. He's the strongest telepath and this is his playground. No one else's. ]

Neighbors?

[isocelesmonster]

YOU KNOW. THE GUY YOU'VE GOT TO SHARE A HEDGE WITH, BUT ALWAYS LETS HIS DOG IN TO DIG UP YOUR LAWN? OR PLAYS HIS TERRIBLE MUSIC LATE AT NIGHT AND KEEPS YOU AWAKE? OR GETS SO PANICKED WHEN HE REALIZES SOMEONE'S LIVING NEXT DOOR THAT HE PUTS ALL OF HIS GENIUS AND SANITY INTO DEVELOPING SOMETHING THAT WILL LET HIM GO BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE HE KNEW?

[Bill moves his king's knight up and over the line of his pawns. In this case, it's an odd little triangular creature with one eye - and Bill's bow tie.]

[axiomed]

I can't say I understand the feeling. I own a mansion.

[isocelesmonster]

I NOTICED! AND IF YOU FOUND OUT THERE HAD BEEN SOMEONE LIVING INSIDE OF THE THE WALLS FOR YEARS, I BET YOU'D SAY THERE WAS PLENTY OF ROOM TO SHARE, HUH?

YOUR MOVE!

[axiomed]

Mmm. I don't know if I'd agree on that topic. I may understand and sympathize . . . but nothing more.

[ He moves his knight forward. ] Privacy is important. Even more so in the Fleet.

[isocelesmonster]

YOU COME DOWN ON THE SIDE OF KNOWLEDGE BEING POWER, AND I'M WITH YOU THERE! WHO KNOWS WHAT THAT MAN'S SEEN IN THERE! CREDIT CARD DETAILS! EMBARRASSING MOLES! I'M GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF, THOUGH. WHAT DO YOU DO IF THERE'S NO WAY TO REMOVE HIM? JUST FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE METAPHOR!

[The metaphor of the man in the walls has four meanings, and deliberately so.

First, the house is the earth and the man is anomalous entities. That's where the story is going.

Second, the house is anyone's life and the man is a piece of knowledge that makes him uncomfortable and helpless. A broader conversation about philosophy could branch off from here, he'll see where Charles takes it.

Third, the house is the fleet and the man is the Atroma. That's their current circumstance. Still productive, if Xavier takes this path.

And fourth, of course, the house is the dreamscape and the man is-

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Bill looks down deliberately, with nothing more on his face than a little frown of concentration over the game of chess, and moves one of his pawns to set up for an early castle.]

[axiomed]

[ Metaphors. Probes. Games. Charles is no stranger to this. ]

That seems like an oddly specific metaphor.

[isocelesmonster]

HEY, IT STARTED OUT AS AN ANNOYING NEIGHBOR!

[Bill grins, sheepish, and spreads his arms. He's working with what he's got.]

YOU'RE THE ONE THAT LIVES IN A MANSION, BUDDY!

[axiomed]

If you're angling to stay here, the answer is no, I'm afraid.

[isocelesmonster]

WHAT- HA!

[That's one he hadn't considered, and he bursts into giggles.]

NOT WHERE I WAS GOING WITH THIS. I'LL LET YOU KEEP ALL OF THIS TO YOURSELF, OAK PANELS AND EVERYTHING.

[He wipes his eye. Oh man. Staying in here. How awful would that be?]

I'M ABOUT TO TELL YOU HOW YOUR SIDE OF THE BOARD KILLED ME!

[axiomed]

My side?

[isocelesmonster]

THE HUMANS!

[Bill gestures to Charles' chess pieces.]

HOMO SAPIENS! THE DOMINANT SPECIES, LIVE NEARLY EVERYWHERE ON EARTH, LOOK SORTA LIKE THIS...

[He points to the face of the form he's shapeshifted into at the moment. Fortunately, the student whose form Bill had borrowed didn't have any outwardly obvious mutations.]

RING A BELL?

[axiomed]

Ah.

[ He tips a pawn forward, vaguely amused. ]

I'm afraid I'm not human. I'm a mutant. It's a fine distinction, but one that exists nonetheless.

What about them?

[isocelesmonster]

LET'S GO BACK TO THE LITTLE GUY IN THE WALLS! IN THIS CASE, HUMANITY'S BEEN LIVING IN A PRETTY NICE MANSION, BUT WHAT MOST OF THEM DON'T KNOW IS THAT THEY'RE NOT ALONE!

[Bill indicates his own side of the board as he plays his next move. The piece he picks up is a pawn, and in this case it's depicted as a little glowing pixie. He wiggles it around a little.]

THE WORLD'S GOT STUFF THAT ISN'T HUMAN LIVING IN IT! LIKE ME, AND LIKE THESE GUYS, AND LIKE YOU TOO, I GUESS! STUFF THAT'S WEIRD!

[axiomed]

[ He nods. ]

I am aware of that. We are living in a separate dimension of our own. Not to mention the Atroma might be inter-dimensional creatures with special powers.

[ His lips twitch. ] Powers that trump your own, it seems.

[isocelesmonster]

HEY, I'M COMPARATIVELY SMALL-SCALE! I HAVE A SPECIALIZED PURPOSE, NO SHAME IN THAT, AND IF IT'S NOT PART OF MY JOB I CAN'T DO IT!

[He shrugs, eyes wide. There's a hierarchy, you know.]

[axiomed]

I'm sure.

[ He's nonchalant. ] And what purpose is that?