[audio] @HK; set during the middle of the event! [open]

[catholicisms]

( Matt isn't big on the devices, for a multitude of reasons. he'll answer on occasion but most of the time he observes and doesn't participate. his username might not be familiar, even to the people who have met him. maybe his voice will be; that's the medium he chooses, it just makes delivery easier. )

I am sure we've all heard what is going around, that plenty of us are suffering from hallucinations. I know how real they must look, or hear, or sound.

( he's had at least a little of his own issues, mostly voices in his head. touches he can't explain. Matt thinks he might be getting off a little easier on this round of misery because he's blind. that's a first, but it also means he has a different perspective on the situation.

and while he's generally not big about talking about how he uses his other senses, in this instance? he feels like he should. )

If you don't recognize my voice, my name is Matt. If you don't know me yet, I'm the one with sunglasses and a walking cane. ( hopefully this is obvious enough a cue to imply he's the blind guy wandering around. ) I can't see what you are seeing, any more than anyone else can. But I can tell you that your other senses could help you decipher if what you are experiencing is real.

If you see blood, something dead, rotten, you'd smell it as much as you'd see it. If you can feel things on you, they can't just come out of nowhere. When things come towards you, they leave an audible clue, and it means something if you can't hear it.

The things you are seeing, hearing, feeling — they're terrible, and horrifying, but they also aren't real. Try muffling the sense that is troubling you most. It's already dark here, but a blindfold could help you ignore what isn't there.

( and because he realizes it isn't easy to rely on senses without practice, ) And if it seems real and you need help figuring out what you can trust, maybe I can help.

Comments

[catholicisms]

( she sounds young... god why do the babies suffer the worst??? this is his nightmare!!! )

You're welcome. I really, really hope it helps. If you're not sure you trust yourself without your eyes, I'm more than happy to help you out.

[catholicisms]

It's a little small to do the laundry. It's a ... spirit child. Or something similar, I've yet to encounter another this small.

Do you remember the wailing out in the woods? It was some sort of mandrake spirit, shrieked if you scared it. I managed to calm it down and it ... lives in a flowerpot outside my door now.

( Matt realizes how bizarre this sounds, and you can tell just in his delivery. )

[catholicisms]

( Steve — Matt knows Steve, not well but well enough to think he'd look after the girl if he was there. even if he looks flayed, jesus.

is it all right? short answer: no. long answer: definitely no, but ultimately? it's not his call, and even if he was there — what could he really do? )

If that's what you want, then it's okay. I'm just worried about you. It's hard to sit back when you're worried, I've never been good at it.

[isochrone]

[ Elizabeth gives a soft, rueful laugh. ]

Well, I don't think the approach can make it worse.

You're very kind to offer. It's not an easy thing, when you can't trust your own senses...

[catholicisms]

Apparently it's possible to hallucinate even with your eyes closed, so it might not help at all.

( but hey... he still tried. that's about all he can do. )

No, it isn't. You don't realize how much you rely on a sense until you can't trust it anymore.

[isochrone]

I actually think the visual ones are the least upsetting, if only because sight seems to be--

Oh! I'm so sorry, that was... very thoughtless of me to say.

[ To a blind guy. ]

[catholicisms]

It's all right.

( people often forget he's blind and make slightly thoughtless references. "have you seen anything like it" or "would you look at that" or a litany of other things. he's used to it, as long as it's not said with intent he doesn't mind that much. )

Sight seems to be what?

[isochrone]

[ She's embarrassed by the slip anyway. ]

I was just going to say... well, with the darkness in this place, sight is the least reliable sense anyway. It doesn't have the same visceral reaction that say, smelling something does.

[catholicisms]

It might not be as reliable, but that's half the struggle of being here. Letting go of that sense isn't easy.

( he'd know, wouldn't he? )

I'm not an authority, but it seems visual seems to be a common type of hallucination. I take it yours are olfactory?

[isochrone]

[ Perhaps Elizabeth was a special case, having seen so much of the world through her Tears, seeing the way things splintered off into what was real, what could be real. ]

Mm... yes, the worst ones are. It feels like I can't even breathe until it passes.

[catholicisms]

Is it combined with another sense? Visual, or auditory?

( it might seem like a bunch of personal questions, but he needs to know details if he's going to help her work around the hallucinations... though, she seems quite lucid. she already knows it isn't real, at least for know. )

[scarsolderthanyou]

We call it the Three Worlds, but it's only one... what do you call it, planet? It's only one planet. As far as I've heard, nobody's ever thought about there being other worlds out there besides earth, sea, and sky-- other planets.

[He considers with a funny rumbling sound that comes through the tablet as clearly as his voice. It doesn't sound like it could come from a human throat, but it's not really like the growl of an animal Matt will have ever heard, either. Alien!]

So you hear instead of see? Like how I smell? Will you hear the shape of me? Or would you need to touch it to really know what I'm shaped like?

[webshoots]

[ there's a silence and then peter laughs, because jfc matt. ]

Honestly? The weirdest part of all that is you have a flowerpot outside your door. Next you'll be telling me about the white picket fence you plan on building to keep youths and wayward spirits off your lawn.

[ you've already got the stick and the billy club to angrily wave, right. NATURAL NEXT STEPS. ]

[catholicisms]

( no billy club, he's been Well Behaved. but the stick for sure. all he needs now is an old timey rocking chair so he can shout the youths off his porch. )

In my defense, I found the flowerpot after the mandrake. It still likes to sleep in dirt. I have no current plans for a picket fence, if only because nobody else would have a chance at yard of the week with that much homey charm to contend with.

( pretty far from his general style but he's living in a cabin, pretty hard to get industrial loft vibes from a cabin. )

[catholicisms]

Other worlds was more of a science fiction concept than an actually realized idea, at least in my world.

( unless heaven and hell counted. and it probably shouldn't, since not everyone believed in them, and Matt has no actual proof they exist. besides the angel running around, anyway... )

Not quite. I used to be able to see, I lost my sight when I was a kid. I have the rest of them, still, and I have to make the most of what I have left. ( the reality is he probably could get a sense of Stone's size through the rest of his senses, he's just not about to admit it. ) Touch might help, but I find asking to touch people is a little personal.

[webshoots]

That kind of makes it worse. It means the flowerpot is a choice. Suburbia'd suit you.

[ yeah yeah, not everyone gets fancy schmancy lawyer-salary apartments matthew. some people get apartments that they share with two other people, one of whom is a wannabe-supervillain turned ... not supervillain and pants stealer so... ]

—How d'you know it wouldn't prefer a flowerbed? I know nothing about gardening, by the way.

[catholicisms]

I think that’s the cruelest thing anyone’s ever said to me, and being blind in grade school offered plenty of opportunity for insults.

( unlike their last conversation, voice makes it abundantly clear he’s joking. even still, he kinda means it — he’s a city boy through and through, his flowerpot is for the sake of the tree baby, not suburban acclimation!!! )

That’s a little on the nose, pun wise.

[webshoots]

I'd apologise, but you're the guy with a flowerpot outside your door. I feel the need to milk it for all its worth.

[ LOOK peter gets it, but that doesn't mean he's going to make it easy for anyone else! ]

[catholicisms]

Similarity doesn’t prove causation. You’re reaching.

( that sounds like an old man trying to be hip, but it’s actually lawyer talk. though maybe the fact he said “causation” in casual conversation gives him away more..... )

[webshoots]

Reaching's basically my middle name.

On the plus side: this is definitely not the city, so you're in your element.

[catholicisms]

No, it’s definitely not the city. It’s quieter here. In theory, it’s a good thing. I’m not sure in execution.

( only a New Yorker would mourn the loss of traffic and people yelling on the street at all hours of the night. )

[sauntered_downward]

Though it might be hilarious watching everyone try to manage this place without their sight, I think we should work out what's causing these first. Can't trust any of our senses right now.

[webshoots]

[ peter feels u bro. ]

If the going theory wasn't that we're already dead, I'd say the lack of air pollution has definitely increased my life expectancy by at least five years, but also that I'm not convinced it's worth it if I don't have access to Cucciniello's.

[scarsolderthanyou]

What? Why?

[Says the guy who is used to Abora climbing all over him, sitting in his lap, regularly shoving and swatting and hugging people.]

Sounds boring. And lonely, if nobody touches anybody around here.

audio | @wayne

[pearlstrings]

The seasons started changing.

I suppose that makes this festive, all things considered.