11:34 <Quaker> You know, this is only the third worst prison Badawi has been in. 11:37 <banana> Technically, she's not in it yet. Octocat gave her the address of an alley off Sherborne Street, opposite Strangeways proper; they're meeting behind a Dixy Chicken and a Cash & Carry. 11:38 <banana> This is the first time she's seen the archivist-mage outside. He has sunglasses but shades his eyes anyway, and he's clearly wearing one of those electric heater packs under his jacket. 11:39 <Quaker> Yeah they are. Badawi is eating a Supreme Chicken Burger. “‘Alright, Cats?” 11:39 <Quaker> Is Rolf rubbing off on her? 11:40 <banana> Octocat: "Guess that's me. Damn.. I should have advised you not to eat anything before we went in." 11:40 <banana> "Uh, it probably won't be an issue. How are things?" 11:40 <Quaker> “I’m shopping for a new mug. The one with the orange cat.” 11:41 <Quaker> “And I’ve got a meeting with some wizards. After you, I mean. And I have to look after some crime lord’s ex-wife.” 11:41 <Quaker> “That’s pretty much it.” 11:43 <banana> Octocat: "Always a shame to lose an old friend." Badawi as John Travolta? He can see it. 11:43 <banana> The mage waves vaguely at the end of the alley, where there's a covered walkway which slopes up, crosses the road and enters the prison complex. "We've got to go in the ʞɔɒd way." 11:46 <Quaker> The non-word seems to hurt her ears. “I’m guessing that’s more…magic. Me literally not being able to understand some things you say.” 11:54 <Quaker> “What’s new with you?” 11:55 <banana> Octocat: "Yeah, let's fix that. I feel kind of a dick offering this temporary measure, like. But you know... we've worked together a while now. And you're going off on this interesting new work, which might also be dangerous. You should have a taste of what really matters, even if it can only be a taste." 11:55 <banana> He takes off the sunglasses and wipes the ends on his shirt. Offers them. "You've seen They Live?" 11:56 <Quaker> She puts the sunglasses on. Cool. “No…what’s that? A wizard thing?” 11:58 <banana> Octocat focuses on the act of Badawi donning the glasses. He drums his hands on his chest, over the body heater and says another couple of words in that strange language - the first one is imperceivable, impossible to remember, but by the end of the second Badawi's hearing it it as normal noise, and now it's just a language she doesn't know. 11:58 <banana> The sunglasses are barely tinted at all. They looked dark, but she can see the world more or less as it was. There are just two obvious differences: 12:00 <banana> Octocat himself is outlined in a nimbus of shimmering text, green letters and numbers slowly raining onto his shoulders and drifting down his body. And the sign above the covered walkway no longer says "HM Prison Manchester" but instead "STRANGE WAYS". 12:01 <banana> "It's a John Carpenter film based on a true story." 12:03 <Quaker> “Can I keep these?” 12:03 <banana> Octocat: "Yeah, but they'll stop working fairly soon. Sorry." 12:03 <Quaker> She was starting to get excited. “Can they detect vampir- oh.” 12:05 <banana> He walks to the walkway gate. It's shut, but opens at a touch. The inside is a perfectly ordinary municipal structure, concrete and iron slats, leading southeast over the road to a pair of green double doors on the second floor of the hexagonal-rodded prison structure. 12:05 <banana> "Interesting question. I think you'd see a vampire as a corpse, something visibly dead-but-walking." 12:05 <banana> "That is the truth, after all." 12:06 <Quaker> Badawi runs her knuckles across the iron bars as they pass them. “I don’t know. Aren’t they more like death-spirits? Thinking of them as corpses feels like…looking at you and saying you’re just a sack of meat. Too Lacanian.” 12:09 <banana> Octocat: "Well, like us, they're more than dead meat. There's a mind in there, and meaning.. they have intention that affects the world. But they aren't subject to the passage of time. Seems one-way, less of a connection?" 12:10 <Quaker> Badawi shrugs. “Every vampire will eventually die of something.” 12:11 <banana> The upper gate to Strangeways has no handle or lock, but Octocat touches it like the other one and it recognises him. Badawi sees.. hands, ghostly things pulling at the doors, swinging them open, suggestion of a torso and bowing neck. None of this is visible in her peripheral vision. 12:11 <Quaker> “Makes you human-ish in my book.” 12:12 <banana> Octocat: "Guess I'd rather hang out with a vampire than a banker or something." 12:12 <Quaker> “Is that a…ghost-door?” 12:12 <Quaker> “Funny you mention that. The WASC is supposed to be a bunch of trade unionists.” 12:12 <banana> "Ghost door. More normal than you'd think. So, this facility... there's little here that I can claim credit for." 12:13 <banana> Octocat takes a deep breath. "Actually, this facility is supra-regional. What you've seen in the Mysterium, our collection and study business - that is what we mostly do. Artifacts. But not here." 12:14 <banana> Inside, you can see walkways - metal catwalks and beams suspended high above large interior spaces. 12:14 <Quaker> “Uh huh.” 12:16 <banana> Octocat: "The Manchester Consilium operates northwest Europe's primary multi-paradigmatic habitat complex and holdover stations for entities beyond the scope of feasible normalisation." 12:18 <banana> He makes an after-you gesture. Beneath this entry section of catwalk is something like an enormous tank of water, if water glowed with pseudo-light and streams of strange sigils. There are shapes deep within it that you'd have to get closer to make out. 12:18 <Quaker> “Oh…like Hotel Transylvania.” 12:19 <Quaker> She’ll walk along the catwalk. What do the shapes look like? 12:20 <Quaker> “What’s in there?” 12:20 <banana> Octocat follows. In the tank with the water made of words are are giant punctuation-forms, with the shape of a colon or interrobang but made of flesh and rubbery skin. Things like grammatical manatees nose about between inkblot 'seaweed' and call to each other in low tones. 12:21 <banana> "Less self-directed than Hotel Transylvania... although this place isn't really a prison. It's more like a zoo." 12:22 <Quaker> Badawi enjoys zoos a great deal… 12:23 <Quaker> “Wow…what the hell are those things? They’re very cool…” 12:24 <banana> There are ordinary rooms and corridors down there among the vast holding cells, and occasionally the catwalks have a cable lift which would presumably take you down to the ground floor. All of them are locked up, though. 12:24 <banana> Octocat points at a plaque on the nearest one - Badawi catches it through the edge of her sunglasses first, where it says something about A WING and exercise yards. Once she sees it properly, the signage describes the creatures: "Letterselkie Enclosure. Origin shadow/mythos overlap." 12:25 <Quaker> Badawi loves this! She’ll jog ahead to see what the glasses can show her. 12:25 <Quaker> “Octocat, come on!” 12:25 <banana> "They're strangely useless creatures. Where they come from there's a functioning ecosystem, but they aren't predators or prey... just description." 12:25 <banana> He laughs and speeds up. 12:26 <Quaker> “So if you had actually captured an idigam…would you keep it here?” 12:28 <banana> There are more cells, or habitats. To her right, Badawi sees a long hexagon-spoke that stretches outward under artificial light, initially looking something like a savannah. There are bending trees, cracked red earth, and termite mounds - but instead of ants, tens of thousands of tiny dogs. They march, long columns of every kind of breed, swarming over the carcass of a, hm. That looks like a 12:28 <banana> dead human being. 12:28 <Quaker> “Oh, wow! Did they eat that guy?” 12:29 <banana> Octocat: "Maybe, but I don't think we've got the security for it. Idigam are supposed to be indescribable, formless.. they predate spacetime as well as the Lie. My theory is that they'd have to take forms we can manipulate, to exist on this side, but it could still be something protoplasmic." 12:29 <Quaker> “What a…tragic…” Hm. Maybe Octocat knew them. “Accident. Unfortunate.” 12:29 <banana> "Ah- what- ahhh." 12:29 <banana> He peers down over the railing. "Right, no, that's a hollowman. Puppet being." 12:30 <Quaker> “A what? Where do they come from?” 12:30 <banana> Having stopped a moment, you can hear hundreds of ferocious yaps drifting up through the space. 12:31 <banana> Octocat: "Manufactured. They're very much like people, but no brain. Just enough programming to sort of run the various body systems for a bit when we need to feed the ones that prefer live prey." 12:32 <Quaker> “Wait, you can grow people? Body parts?” Her gums ache, suddenly. 12:35 <banana> Octocat: "We can. Everyone should be able to. We should be able to restore limbs and vision and give people the skeletomusculature of an elk if they want it." 12:35 <banana> "If it weren't for a measly dozen false gods squatting in Heaven and draping the world that should be in a veil of countless horrors." 12:37 <banana> The catwalks branch in strange directions. On the other side of the walkway you've reached are some individual cells, closed in but glass-topped; some are empty, but Badawi sees that one is occupied by a humanoid creature about five feet tall made of smooth dark rock, with a head that widens into a flat platter on which are bunches of multicoloured fruit. 12:37 <Quaker> “Ah…so I’m guessing you can’t just grow my teeth back.” 12:37 <banana> Octocat: "That's not quite true." 12:37 <Quaker> “But I appreciate your commitment to militant anti-hegemonic activity.” 12:40 <banana> "It would be a risk. To you and the medical practitioner. Things could go wrong, biologically and semantically. It's against policy." 12:41 <Quaker> “Well, I didn’t ask for it.” 12:41 <banana> Octocat: "Okay." 12:41 <Quaker> Badawi stares at the fruit-head-rock-thing. 12:41 <Quaker> “What’s the most dangerous thing you have here?” 12:41 <banana> He brightens up. "Follow me!" 12:42 <Quaker> “Great! I WAS going to ask to see it.” 12:45 <banana> You cross more strange cells on observation platforms. There's nobody else up here - either Octocat's arranged that, or this isn't the normal way to get a tour. There are people down there, some of them funny-looking through the glasses - Badawi spots an ageless couple in flowing robes, each with one hand on a wooden stave; it's topped with an impossibly vast cut jewel that thrums with 12:45 <banana> energies she doesn't know how to name. 12:46 <Quaker> “Octocat, this is going to sound weird. And don’t take it the wrong way.” 12:47 <banana> You pass spirit-possessed furniture and a cell with no walls that seems to confine a flowing mass of bedsheets and coathangers (Octocat: "Antighost"). 12:47 <Quaker> “But I would LOVE to steal from this place.” 12:47 <banana> "What's up?" 12:47 <banana> "Ah! That's understandable, but I can't recommend it." 12:49 <banana> You've stopped above a medium-sized chamber with no movement in it. There are screens and consoles along the walls, with cables running from them to the centre of the room, where there is a pedestal; on it is a stone sarcophagus covered in symbols in the strange language. 12:50 <Quaker> “No, it’s just…a professional challenge, that sort of aspiration.” 12:50 <banana> The sigils are all black and mobile, scrawling themselves across every inch of the sarcophagus and sometimes spilling out onto the floor, which seems to absorb them. 12:51 <banana> Octocat: "You might be wondering: What's in the box." 12:51 <Quaker> “The one vampire that actually will never die.” 12:52 <banana> "Hmm, probably not.. as far as we can tell there's a living human in there, although 'vampire' would make more sense given they don't breathe or eat, like." 12:53 <banana> "Still: thermal and thaumic imaging says it's just some dude. Or dudette. Sex is classified." 12:53 <banana> Octocat: "The thing is." 12:53 <Quaker> “Is it…the Devil?” 12:53 <Quaker> Is that Twilight Zone episode…real? 12:54 <Quaker> ?????! 12:54 <banana> "Whoever they are, they're in direct communion with the Psychopomp, who is worse than the Devil. Have been for at least sixty years." 12:55 <Quaker> “What’s direct communion mean? And who is the Psychopomp?” 12:56 <banana> Octocat: "You don't want to know the details, or at least Closure doesn't want you to know the details, but the Psychopomp is responsible for death being bad." 12:57 <banana> "Death happens. That's natural. But it's only a bad thing because of something someone did - is doing - on purpose." 12:58 <banana> "The good news is, we know of no way whatsoever to open the coffin!" 12:58 <Quaker> “Oh.” 12:59 <Quaker> “Hey, Octocat.” 13:00 <banana> There's far too much to see. You can get a few more things in, with fascinating or inadequate explanations, but the tour and the morning will come to an end. Octocat is happy to keep chatting on the way out. 13:00 <banana> "Hm?" 13:01 <Quaker> “What do you think Sourjack is?” 13:02 <banana> This time, he takes the question seriously enough to spend ten minutes quizzing Badawi for information to answer it. Is she willing to give up every little detail that you know about your silent partner? 13:02 <Quaker> Uh, yes? Fuck that guy. 13:05 <banana> You've returned to the "back way" by a different path, crossing above another tank-cell which contains alien atmosphere. There's a little moon-city down there with grey aliens going about a facsimile of life in what a plaque explains are actually instinctual rather than sentient behaviours. 13:05 <banana> Octocat pauses before the door for Badawi to finish, preferring to answer while still within the Strange Ways. 13:06 <banana> "He's.. limited. A two-trick pony. It strikes me that you've described exactly two things *Jack can do." 13:07 <banana> "He can send messages to people in unusual ways, using almost anything as a medium. It's not clear why this is useful - does it just serve to preserve his privacy?" 13:08 <banana> "He also knows things he oughtn't, but from what you've said, there are surprising gaps and surprising inclusions.. it strikes me that this is also about messages. Sourjack seems to know only everything that people have talked about." 13:09 <banana> Octocat: "There must be limits - certain people, certain situations, types of discussion... unfortunately, this doesn't fit the M.O. of anything I've encountered." 13:09 <banana> "Mostly, I encounter inanimate objects." 13:09 <Quaker> “Hm.” 13:09 <Quaker> “I’ll keep my ears open.” 13:09 <Quaker> “Oh, Octocat.” 13:11 <banana> He opens the second-floor doors, and you can see out over the city. Badawi is still wearing the sunglasses; Manchester at noon alternates between ugly and shiny, but joining its miasma now is a melange of impressions, little visible facts about the city's life and death and space and time. It's already beginning to fade. 13:13 <Quaker> “Repeat something for me.” 13:14 <Quaker> “Out loud, I mean.” 13:14 <banana> Octocat: "As long as it doesn't include the word 'updog'." 13:14 <Quaker> She’ll say it slowly so he can follow. “اللهم احمني من عمل الشيطان.” 13:15 <banana> There's a little stumbling over pronunciation, but the wizard repeats what the hunter has said. "What does it mean?" 13:17 <Quaker> “It’s a protective prayer.” 13:17 <Quaker> “Say it every day at least once.” 13:17 <Quaker> “Thanks for showing me this. I really enjoyed it.” 13:19 <banana> Never look a gift charm in the mouth. He'll say it, but he's going to have to look it up among the Cryptopolies. 13:19 <banana> "Thanks for letting me show off. We'll keep in touch, yeah?" 13:19 <Quaker> “We will. Stay safe.”