hadriel | o1. → text;

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Normally, I would think what I'm about to ask is an odd question, but given the location and the circumstances, maybe not so much.

( this is gonna make for a good first poke at the network, innit, sammy? )

How many of you actually know about monsters? Spirits, things that go bump in the night, that sort of thing? Because where I'm from, they're pretty common, and I've noticed from meeting others here that it isn't that way for everyone.

( which is how it should be, if you ask him. nobody should know that the thing in their closet is real. )

Next question. Would anyone be interested in learning about things like that, and how to protect yourself against them?

( there. it's out there. he's doing a good thing. )

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[ Oh. Oh, this man is immediately fascinating to Gansey. ]

I don’t really think any of them are myths. I think sometimes they’re not what they seem, but I think I’d not be surprised if they were exactly what they seem.

How did your family get involved in something like that, though? Where I’m from most people don’t believe in magic of any kind, much less that there may be things dangerous enough to hunt.

I think some things start out with truth to them, and enough time passes that they become myths. Fade into the background, so to speak. Others ... there's no telling where their stories come from.

( and let him tell you, he's heard some stories.

~~it's nice to be fascinating. don't let it go to your head, sam. you might have a new friend, here.~~ )

My grandfather, on my mother's side. His family was one of hunters, and when my mom died ... my dad started hunting to try to find what killed her.

( john was just a marine, back then. he hadn't known a damn thing about monsters or that there were people that hunted them down to keep the world a safer place. )

It's kind of a long story.

Oh. Christ, I'm sorry.

[ His mother. It's bad enough to lose someone that close; worse, when they've been taken by someone else. Or something else. Gansey knows what it had done to Ronan to lose his father. ]

That's really terrible. I don't blame your father in the leat. Did he find what he was looking for?

It's okay.

( it's not, not really, but there's been so much time that's passed since their mother, since jess - he's almost all but numb to it now, even when there are those small moments when he catches himself slipping and thinks about the past. and then it hits him like a ton of bricks all over again. )

He did. Well, more like Dean and I did. He passed away before he could finish the job himself.

( winchester life is pain. )

[ There's too much death in this story already, and Gansey's only just started speaking to the man.

Poor Sam. ]

Then you finished his work.

This was an awful way to introduce myself. Usually I wait at least until I meet someone in person before I put my foot in my mouth.

[ The sad thing is, that's not even totally true. ]

I'm Gansey, by the way. I probably should have opened with that.

( the winchester story is full of dead and all sorts of things that no one really wants to hear about. it's just his lot in life. )

Finished it, found something else to follow. It's kind of a never-ending cycle.

Hey, don't worry about it. Introductions are introductions, and now you know why exactly I do what I do. ( see? no harm done. none at all. )

I'm Sam. Better late than never, right?

Whenever there’s a quest there’s a reason behind it.

[ Gansey’s is meant to be more investigative than destructive. He already knows how easily those lines can blur, though. ]

Does it mean you’ve familiarity with the kind of magic that brought us here? Portals etc. I mean I’m assuming that’s what the Door is.

( oh, the thin, blurred lines between investigation and something else entirely. it's funny, how acquainted he's become with that line of thinking, especially in the more recent years.

he thinks about that, probably a little more than he should right off the bat. )

I'd be more inclined to believe that it had something to do with wormholes if I didn't know for a fact that there were deities involved. ( that makes it more difficult, and the likelihood of actual magic more probable. )

That kind of magic is something I've never seen before.

Well, it could be wormholes. No one has actually discounted that theory. From what I've heard, Fear did open the Door, but none of the gods currently here are actually controlling it. It sounds more like a trap that they've triggered. Or at least that's what they claim.

[ Which is not overly comforting. Gansey is aware of that, but he doesn't see the point in sugarcoating what he knows. If they're ever going to figure out what's happened to them, they need to understand it for what it is. ]

We have to choose whether we trust what they say. They obviously have their own agendas, and telling us the truth may not be part of that.

( he appreciates the lack of a sugar coating. give it to him straight, like a shot of good whiskey, and he'll take it as best he can. while he's always been pretty damned good at dancing around certain subjects when the need arises, when it comes to information gathering, he prefers to be as on the straight-and-narrow as he can manage. )

Does anyone know if there were any other gods here before they were? I mean, I'm sure it's unlikely, but ...

( there's a small pause, and he considers what to say next, whether or not to admit what he has on his mind. dealing with gods ... )

Gods are tricky. I've never met one that didn't put their own agenda before anyone else's, and it never involved being helpful voluntarily.

( yeah ... gods, plural. this is the winchester life. )

There were, yes. At one point. That's what Hope's concerned with, in fact - bringing them back, or at least the ones he counts his friends.

[ Which might not be all of them, and might not be remotely useful either. ]

Honestly though, you have to remember our only reliable information on that so far comes from the gods themselves. We're not ignorant through a lack of trying.

I remain hopeful that the library will give me something more. So far that's not proven fruitful.

( never trust the words of gods, no matter how desperate you are for an answer. that's something that he's learned the hard way, even if he doesn't want to admit it. )

There's got to be some concrete information there, somewhere. I'd trust that way before I trusted the word of a god that brought me here against my will.

I'm pretty good with research, so if you ever want a hand in looking? I'd be glad to help.

I'd like as many extra hands as I can get.

[ He means that. The library is a big building, and there's a lot to go through. Gansey can't do it all by himself.

There is another stumbling block, though. ]

Unfortunately it's not just about the manpower. The books aren't in any language I can read. From what I've found, they're not in a language anyone can read. That doesn't help matters.

( there's the spark of something in him at that; at being able to dive headlong into something that he knows he's good at -

but it deflates almost immediately when that part comes next. not to worry; there hasn't been a language, living or dead that has given him more trouble than he can handle. )

Let me guess, then ... it's probably a language of the gods, and they don't want to share.

( because that's pretty par for the course, isn't it? )

Possibly. Or it's the language of the people who lived here before, assuming that there's any difference between the two. Possibly, there isn't.

[ He has his own theories about the languages spoken by the gods. Gansey leans forward, warming to his theme. ]

I'm interested in the history of those people.

[ Because of course he is. ]

No one seems to know about the Door now, but if it's natural to this place, then there must be something about it in those books. The gods are reluctant to speak of history. Hope outright said he didn't want to talk about it.

( he hadn't thought that far ahead - but the idea that it might be a language of the natives themselves is one that makes enough sense that it's plausible, and he nods to himself in agreement. ) There could be, and there couldn't be. There's no way to really know until you have something concrete to go off of. ( which means, really, that they need to make some sort of break in what they're researching before they can even hope to make any headway at all. )

... Well that doesn't sound good. ( anyone that openly admits that they don't want to talk about the past or their history in general means there's something to be covered up, or something worth covering up, at the very least. ) Has anyone thought about asking Delight?

I can’t really speak for anyone else. Are you volunteering?

[ Gansey’s encounters with Delight haven’t exactly been intellectual in nature. Maybe that’s a mistake; it hadn’t occurred to him that she would be more willingto help in that respect than Hope, but maybe that’s his own prejudice showing. ]

I know Laurent thought we ought to talk to Fear, too.

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