backspacing | Camp: private conversations

Who did it ask? And what was it that it asked for?

[One thing he knows is that not everyone Red works with has the same goals -- that much is obvious even just from her communications alone, much less the videos they've been dealing with. It's possible that she doesn't know, or parts of her organization don't know, how deep divisions go or where exactly all of this is headed.

He's not sure, himself. He doesn't have all the answers. Just the questions, actually, that the dead and the lake cats have given him.]

The first ones from my organization who came here, many many years ago. The ones who built this camp.

'It' asked for 'food'. I can't recall the exact wording, but something about bodies and minds? But that's why this camp is here: to feed it. Because that's what it asked for.

Bodies and minds.

[He stumbles, momentarily, thinking over what the sacrifices are needed for. Kon. The body and the mind. Was there a way to save him, at all? He tries to push that away. If he lets too many questions take over then he's going to lose himself in them again, and he needs to pick his battles right now. For now, he does.]

Those from your organization -- were they from here? Or from elsewhere, like you and -- and the rest of us?

Back then, they were from here. They only recently found a way to bring in people from other worlds, but once they did they switched to using us instead.

... What Mishibijw told us was that the god was holding souls in its mouth. Many of them.

[They hadn't had the chance to find out how many. But there's hope there, even in the jaws of death.]

I don't think it's taking the food, right now.

[It's perhaps grasping at straws, but coupled together with what Talcott has told them -- there's something there, he thinks.]

[She is so confused right now.]

But...why? That's what it asked for. Why would it not eat them?

I don't have that answer yet. The Mishibijw didn't, either. But I think we should find out.

[They're all just about as confused, and they don't have any of the benefit of context that Red does.

But perhaps that's a good thing, in a way.]

Maybe something changed, since it first asked.

...maybe. It has been quite some time since we last spoke to it directly.

Do you know how to talk to it...?

Not personally, no. But maybe someone else...

[The gears are turning in her head now.]

[That's promising, in a way. He can't help asking.]

Could there be a way... for us to talk to the god? We can only hear it, and the dead, but I don't think they can really hear us. Not all of the time.

[He's honestly not sure when the dead are present or when they can perceive things. But the connection... is like a bad satellite one, picking up and dropping again. Like passing through a bad magnetic field.

But if there's a more direct, two-way link then maybe they have a chance to learn more.]

I'll see if I can find the files on it. They communicated once in the past, so records of that should still be around.

... Thank you.

[The fact that she's willing to hear him out, despite her preconceptions and her likely greater knowledge of the situation at large. If they can at least go this far in working together -- if they can put together what knowledge they have, as a group and with Red where they can... maybe they can move forward somewhere.

It still trips him up, not being able to be honest all the way. He's used to being able to face a team without reservations, knowing that they all have each other's back out in the field. It's so much more complicated here.]

I don't know how risky it is to dig around like this. But if you can find anything...

That sort of information should be free for me to access. Generally we get to look at any files related to the job we're on, and I would call that related to this.

I hope so. That would make the answer quicker to get.

[They are running on a very limited schedule. Despite upcoming red tape wait times.]

Camp: private conversations

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