first statement } audio; un: archivist

[aparticularlyhollowlaugh]

[oho, what’s this? a new voice on the network?]

Erm … I suppose it’s customary in a situation like this to introduce myself. [he lightly clears his throat before continuing:] My name is Jonathan - erm, Jon. Sims. [and he really has to bite down on the impulse to add the archivist after that.] I am somewhat new here and have yet to meet many of you. [which is intentional, on jon’s part.] But I - I actually just have a question, seeing as - if I understand the situation correctly - we are all from different places.

[jon hesitates for a moment and takes a deep breath to steady his nerves. public speaking is so much less comfortable than reading statements into a tape recorder.]

Have any of you heard of something called The Vast?

Comments

[relance]

Why would I kill you? Planning on doing any giant ass sort of ritual to a dread power in order to turn our world into some bullshit ass hellscape?

[There's a small movement, and Handy just peeks himself out of Julia's hair when she reaches into her pocket to pull out a pack of cloves.]

[aparticularlyhollowlaugh]

[jon is now so busy being offended that he forgets to be nervous about julia possibly killing him dead.]

Don't be stupid, of course I'm not - we've been trying to stop the rituals. The woman who was Head Archivist before me, Gertrude Robinson, managed to disrupt a good number of rituals during her tenure, and I just - we - [jon huffs in disgust, presses his mouth shut, and pinches the bridge of his nose while he takes a deep breath to steady himself.]

The Stranger just attempted its ritual, The Unknowing. And I ... I think we managed to stop it, but I'm fairly certain some of my people were lost as a result. Right before I was brought here, I'd been in a coma for - I don't know how long, exactly.

[jon looks back up at julia and belatedly notices handy.]

Good lord ... what is that?

[relance]

This is Handy. He’s the severed arm of Stonewall Jackson brought back by a necromancer.

[Handy just waves as Julia lights the clove and offers him the pack. ]

What was the date for you when you were fighting the Stranger.

[aparticularlyhollowlaugh]

[a severed arm. never mind that jon has no idea who stonewall jackson is - necromancer??? jon can’t seem to tear his eyes away from handy, even as he accepts the pack of cloves from julia.]

Good lord ... erm, thank you.

[finally, jon blinks and looks away, focused on removing a clove from the pack, lighting it, and returning the pack to julia. he inhales a breath and lightly coughs it out, unused to such strong smoke.]

I was quit for years ... just doesn’t seem important anymore.

[he smiles thinly at the irony of that. he already died - sort of? being killed by cigarettes is hardly his most pressing concern.]

The date? It was August - 6th August, maybe 7th. Things got ... rather strange during the ritual.

[relance]

[Julia laughs and decides in this moment that she likes the weirdo from Magnus. ]

Well good news. It’s January and the world didn’t end. We stopped the Slaughter in October. On Halloween actually cause some people are dramatic as fuck.

[aparticularlyhollowlaugh]

The Slaughter? [jon raises an eyebrow.] The Risen War was attempted only sixty or so years ago - how did it manage to acquire enough power to make an attempt so soon? Gertrude seemed to think it was a non-issue.

[relance]

My guess is that Gertrude didn't know that the President of the United States was a Slaughter Avatar who happened to be a necromancer and was attempting to harness the ghosts from the bloodiest battle on US soil to do it. Fiona Dixon was someone who had a tremendous power base even before one added in that whole 'President' bullshit. But we stopped her, and she's definitely dead now so at least hopefully we've got another amount of time before we've got one on our side of the pond. Does make me wonder if any of these idiot churches really do get together and talk about some bullshit like this.

[aparticularlyhollowlaugh]

Yes, well, I'm sorry to inform you that America is not the center of the universe, so those of us who live in other countries may have more important things to manage than keeping track of who your heads of state are.

[he taps the ash off the end of his cigarette and inhales again.]

I suppose if we come across any members of The People's Church of the Divine Host, you can ask them.