[IC CONTACT]

[photophobic]

You should know where to find me.
But if you leave a message here, I will see it.

Comments

[photophobic]

Because I wasn't trying to stop it before. Everything that happened. All of it. It was an accident. I didn't intend it. I didn't choose it.

[...and those are words that summon up an old panic, when he stares at them.
So he confronts them with a reminder.]

It happened because I wasn't in control. Now, I am.

[solarcharged]

[ All magic is, is change. How many times had he heard Jeroen say just that? Apollo had watched the Earth's shaman turn poison gas into Chanel Number 5, turn the burning debris of flaming shiftships raining down onto Los Angeles into gently falling autumn leaves. All magic is, is change. But there has to be something to be changed in the first place surely?

Apollo has to spell it out, literally. ]

Now you're in control. You mean now you can give him access to the infinite connections of the Force and not lose him, right? He takes, rather than gives.

[photophobic]

Yes.

[Well, it's slightly more complex than that. But essentially.]

If he needed more energy than he has access to in himself. In his own world, he had a magical source to draw on. A "ley line". Some kind of localised concentration of the Force. He's cut off from it here.

[solarcharged]

These connections... you mean people, don't you? Creating a baby universe would surely need thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands, even.

[photophobic]

The efforts of billions, possibly.

[solarcharged]

Willingly?

[photophobic]

No.

[He should probably dress that up in something prettier. But he's Kylo Ren. Despising comfortable lies, this is the best he can offer.]

I could ask them to choose to submit themselves. But they would have no power over the dream. They couldn't. As you said. Sheer force of will. I would need complete control, to shape Ronan into what we would need to seal your Breach.

[solarcharged]

Asking if there's another way to do it is a pointless question, right?

[photophobic]

We both know how it works. Don't we. The greater the gift, the higher the price.

Just as we both knew from the beginning the shape of the choice that will have to be made. There will always be other ways. But to prevent the destruction of reality? There will be no easier one.

[solarcharged]

I know what you mean.

[ Agreeing to something of this magnitude shouldn't be so simple. ]

What happens to those billions, if this works?

[photophobic]

I don't know.

[But he does, really, doesn't he? They both do. If this was about billions of people falling asleep, dreaming and waking, there would be no hesitancy at all. They know. Not knowing the details is ultimately irrelevant.]

Nothing worse than what happens to them if it doesn't.

[solarcharged]

Good point.

[ Horrible point, actually, just well made. ]

What do you need me to do?

[photophobic]

[He... really wasn't expecting to be offered support. An uncomfortable understanding, perhaps. An argument, more likely.
But then again, now he thinks on it, considering everything else they've discussed? It fits. He should have known that Apollo would understand necessary cost.]

Nothing yet. There are some other complications to consider. But when I have what I need to protect Ronan, I will need your memory. Of the shiftship.