savetheearth | Entry #A-4: "Ante" [February 21, Text]

Though the police and the Blood Keys obviously represent a threat to many numbered individuals, I have a question about organized religion, and what pulses might mean when framed within certain philosophical contexts. No matter how natural it might feel, if there really is another being nudging its way into an existing consciousness, changing a person's aptitudes, physical attributes and even their personality... there have to be at least a few churches that would consider that demonic possession, right? Has anyone tried to reconcile what's happening with influential religious practices, and do we have any resources for assisting anyone who might wind up the subject of an attempted exorcism? Those still happen today, they can be extremely dangerous, and I'm concerned about the possibility of frightened numbered people seeking out such assistance, or being subjected to it by their families and communities. Thinking you're crazy is one thing, but sincerely believing that the devil is wielding you as an instrument is another entirely. Probably not something that the FAQ page can successfully assuage, for the most tenaciously convinced.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes... He was king of the Holy Roman Empire from the late 8th century to the year 814.

[Both points on which they differ. Anthony's inclined to find conversation that involves history an extra kind of comforting.]

So you're from a very long time ago. Longer than anyone else I've talked to, I think. So if you were a messenger to the king, you knew him personally? Spoke to him often?

[He's trying so hard to think of this in realistic terms, rather than the glossy photographs of paintings in history books he only skimmed well enough to get high marks.]

[He'll avoid remarking on that; that's the second time he's been told that and for some reason he feels passively pleased with himself over it.]

I haven't had any visions of it. However, I am assuming that he (my other) did, based on the ones that I have had.

Are you in school? It seems like having access to a lot of university-level history texts might be able to get you some more "visions," if you're interested in pursuing them.

I am only sixteen, and I am a "mutant". I can't go to the university. Still, I am trying... A librarian at the main public library is one of us. They have been helping me getting books to research.

A "mutant"? You mean you're numbered? Or do you look different enough to draw attention?

I would draw attention. I'm a zombie. [The more matter-of-fact, the better.]

A zombie? Rotting, no heartbeat, shambling walking corpse with a taste for living flesh? Like that?

I don't eat anything. Otherwise, yes...

...do you know if both of those are going to be sustainable in the long run?

[Pause on his end.]

I am sure I won't start eating people. I am not sure how long I will stay "alive," however.

[The sureness on the first count isn't due to any evidence rather than being rather secure in the fact that otherwise would make absolutely no sense - that and him having locked the thought in by addressing questions on it several times, at this point.]

It's a valid concern. You might actually be immortal, though. Isn't that also true?

[He can't pretend it isn't, with the circumstances they're in being wildcard after wildcard, he supposes, but he'd much rather put it out of his mind.]

I suppose that it may be...

You don't seem comforted by the possibility. Who doesn't want to live forever?

It is only a possibility. I won't know until more time passes.

[The answer to that could easily be longer - he'll skirt the possibility of bungling any overthought, long as he can, particularly with the way this discourse's gone so far.]

Was this what it was like when your other was in service to Charlemagne, or do you think that your degeneration is due to the fact that you're so incredibly old?

He was like this while he served Charlemagne. [While he cannot get a good read on exactly how long the periods overlapped.] It was caused by a spell in a scroll which he was delivering.

That's some really bad luck. If a scroll could cause that, it's not ridiculous to think that a scroll could reverse it, though.

Entry #A-4: "Ante" [February 21, Text]

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