#cotlf

Yes, yes I know, “oh no but then Jon won’t get marked by the desolation! It’ll wreck the story!” Hear me out.

They fuckin hated Gertrude’s guts cause she screwed stuff up for them.

Jude knows Michael’s the archivist, though the vibe doesn’t come through immediately, cause… well, spiral.

Michael also knows she’s important, but I think while Jon gets information in the form of words, Michael’s knowledge-grab stuff actually is more visual/vibe-based, cause that’s what his brain works best with. Processing words is annoying.

So instead of the information dropping into his head as “Jude Perry- member of the cult of the lightless flame” like a computer spitting words out of a search engine, his eyes “focus” again and he sees the symbol of the lightless flame cult somewhere on her, and remembers a bunch of random images he’d felt from statements she was involved in in some way.

The mental image folder goes away, and the lady sits down.

Introduces herself, though she doesn’t need to, and holds out hand for handshake.

But Michael isn’t comfortable with handshakes. (This is in italics simply cause I realized how amazingly perfect this is, and it didn’t even click until just now- I love it when this happens :D)

She assumes it’s cause flame cult but he’s like “no no I just don’t…” *Buffering, trying to figure out how to explain indirectly* “hands. They don’t feel good.”

She bursts out laughing.

The conversation goes well enough. She notices he’s not being too prying about his questions, I think, and he warms up a little bit to her, (pun unintentional but still totally there and perfect).

I feel like Jon’s method of asking just has the vibes of ‘Tell me or I’ll rip it out of you’, (cause he WILL), while Michael’s is… well, more indirect, and what basically ends up happening is that the person doesn’t even know what he did until the conversation’s over. Like casting “friends” on a person and then asking a bunch of questions, or something.

So Michael’s just got a better charisma buff than Jon, basically. /j

Anyway, they actually have a proper conversation about stuff, and Michael tries his best to explain a bit about how he got hurt by Gertrude. (Not all of it. He’s not sure he should, just yet.)

Jude’s internally like “oh fuck yes, vengeful ex-assistant who’s literally in the most important position at the institute, came to me for shit, this is Christmas!”

And then he remembers something.

And… nervously — mentioning she doesn’t have to talk about it if she doesn’t want to — asks her if they… killed Emma Harvey.

“Nope- … we did kill her assistant… that one little candle that Harvey went and burned out too fast… don’t remember her name, though, but I sure do remember her face!” *cackling*

He starts nervously unraveling the napkin.

Jude asks him what’s wrong.

Honestly… he doesn’t know. She’s been giving him answers, sort of, and she doesn’t seem totally evil, but.

“Can you ever… not hurt a person?”

“Only if you want that fire to burn out.”

And proceeds to explain herself similarly-ish to how she did in the original episode.

As the story progresses, Michael can feel his nails getting sharper, and the ends of his hair becoming more tangled and spiraling outwards just a little. He… understands the feelings she’s describing, and it’s…

They’re… not the answers he’d wanted.

But they were the answers that he’d been expecting, on some level.

She seems to kind of snap out of her zone once the story ends, and notices his hands, and the other bits of him that have bent and twisted a little.

She looks… a little bemused, but in an almost curious way.

“So you’re working with two now, archivist?”

He asks what he means, and she laughs, joking about him not knowing the basics, at which he gets really frustrated, and says something along the lines of “well, I’ve got someone to blame for that, haven’t I.”

She grins and says she likes his spirit (or something) and tells him he might want to use a flamethrower the next time he wants to go on a rampage. (Possibly a suggestion like “hey you should totally join our desolation cult, you’d be great” I think?)

(Unknown to either of them, Michael’s appearance got noticed by someone.)

Michael’s already been touched by the Vast, so it’s Jon’s turn in the falling chair. Maybe Michael manages to get a message to him through the mirrors? Not sure.

Also Jude goes up and is like “by the way.” And puts a hand on his shoulder, initially like a friendly pat, but it quickly starts to burn. “That’s for tricking me into spilling things.”

…Ow.