un: klapbak

[clussy]

(Eddie had debated on whether or not to share this piece of information. But what the natives had said weighed on him heavily, and he felt like if he didn't and something were to happen...

He wasn't so sure he could live with that guilt.)

I asked one of the natives if bad things from our homes could come to this place. They said it was possible.

maybe some of you will think I'm crazy. Or the adults won't believe it. The adults in our town didn't believe anything and they didn't want to pay attention to what was happening. they didn't care about all the missing kids. I don't care if you believe it or not. some stuff exists whether or not people want to believe it does. me and my friends took care of it before and we'll do it again if we have to. we made that promise.

our town had this fucked up evil in it. and im not talking hellfire church-evil stuff either. I'm talking like...fear. real fear. maybe even the thing that made Fear

IT knew what you were afraid of. no, not your 'kind of' fears like thinking spiders are gross. i mean the kind of fears you dont even tell your best bud about. the kind of fears you don't even tell YOURSELF about cause the shame's so bad. IT knew you and IT fed off those fears. i guess it liked how kids tasted best when they died in terror

IT ate them too. im not saying it like sucked out their soul. no. IT would

(Eddie has to stop here. To breathe. To focus. He touches his own arm, closes his eyes, and counts.)

i cant explain how you'll know when you'll see IT
you'll feel
like you have to go towards something real bad, real scary
you'll know you shouldn't but you HAVE to...and maybe you'll be lucky like we were
like i was. and be able to get away when the fear gets bad enough.

IT takes the shape of a clown the most when ITS just existing normally. IT only changes when its hunting. IT can come through pictures or sinks or anything. i dont know what ITs limits even were

sometimes IT called ITself Pennywise the Dancing Clown. IT told me its name was Bob Gray when IT talked to me. And sometimes you could hear that carnival sorta music.Sometimes it'd lure you in with the smell of popcorn. IT sometimes had balloons. A lot of balloons. I don't know. It lived in the sewers and

I want to say we beat IT for good but we didn't. i'm not sure if IT can BE beaten.

I dont know if IT'll ever show up here
but don't trust things to be what they seem. don't.

and maybe realize the monsters you know might come here too. please be careful.

Comments

[whists]

[E d d i e. She just. Wants to take you out for ice cream or something.]

You aren't wrong. Most adults are just desperate and desire what they can't have to the point of forgetting everyone else. Everything else. [hahahahahahaha it's not like she has experience with any of that or anything....]

Maybe IT just wasn't trying hard enough with the adults. You take away the right things, and their fear pours out of them.

[this is a child, Emily, get it together.]

There's a large community here, Eddie. Even if IT were to come, I feel some of the adults here are different than the ones you knew.
I don't think IT would have a chance.

[clussy]

(God, Eddie would kill for an ice cream cone. Talk about a way to his heart.)

has that happened to you? (Yeah sorry, Emily, Eddie's a little too perceptive for his age to miss how specific that particular statement felt.)

you think so? every adult i meet always seems so brave. or when they're scared it's for dumb, small reasons and it only seems like a selfish fear
i dont know if that makes sense though.

(Eddie could scarcely be counted as a regular child. It's okay, Emily. You're doing fine.

Really, if anything, her tone of blunt honesty worked well with Eddie. He liked when adults were real with him.)

im starting to think so too. maybe not all of them, but a lot of you seem to really give a shit about helping if you can.
I dont know. Id really hope so.
but I guess if a bunch of dumb kids could stop it, then so could a bunch of dumb adults, huh?

[whists]

[That's a loaded question. The easy answer is "yes". Since the moment she was born, probably, but if she's thinking of a specific time as a child?]

There was a group of opportunists who used my mother's death to try and use me in her stead. It didn't work well.

It makes sense, but I've [done things that have really fucked people over holla] noticed that no person is exactly the same.
We all have breaking points.

[It's the best way she can deal with anyone, she thinks, but it's hard to be blunt when she has to be diplomatic. Corvo was blunt with her, and she always appreciated that as she grew older.]

Dumb adults are more capable than you think.

[clussy]

(Sometimes Eddie had that childish naivety where he honestly forgot that adults used to be kids too. He was at the age where it still felt like such a massive difference, that adults and children might as well be two separated entities. He sometimes wishes that they were. But it's moments like these where he realizes, yet again, that adults came from somewhere similar to him.)

Im sorry. thats fucked. what wound up happening?

yeah. i suppose that's true. i like to think i wouldn't do certain stuff but I guess you never know.

(Especially since Eddie was willing to do a lot for his friends.)

so are dumb kids. i guess people in general are worth more than everyone thinks

[whists]

[Sometimes, it does feel like they're separate entities, even as an adult. But she was a curious child who knew too much, and that's shaped her worldview a lot. She just wishes that kids didn't have to suffer the indignities of the world, regardless of how they come about.]

My father made sure they were justly punished. [She doesn't talk about these things much. Who does she have to talk to back home, besides Corvo and Wyman? Of course, it was common knowledge what happened to Empress Jessamine and the scandal of Corvo Attano's imprisonment, his redemption. But to talk about it? It's an odd feeling.]

There are good people in the world, despite what the world tries to teach us.

[clussy]

i'm glad your daddy did something about it. What was his version of 'justly punished'?

it kind of sucks that kids can never do any punishing of their own. (Sometimes there had been moments in Eddie's life where he never understood that. Adults sometimes just seemed like they would rather do anything else than hold up their own rules. It made him wonder about how punishment worked here.)

I know. I've always had my friends and Im really lucky. I dont know what id be or where id be without them. theres nice people here too. at least it seems that way so far.

[whists]

Exile, exposed, left without allies. There are plenty of ways to hurt people without killing them. [Is it worse than death? Maybe.]

Children shouldn't have to worry about those things but I could teach you a few things. Not to punish,
but to protect yourself. If you wanted. [If she had more skills, if she had been better, if the Outsider had marked her sooner, would things have been different? Could she have saved her mother? Freed herself? Helped Corvo?]

People here are much nicer than most of the people I've known.

[clussy]

Jeesus that would be awful. i never thought about that kind of thing. (To this day he wondered if that's why they lost their memories. If IT wanted them weaker by isolating them from one another. Anything was possible.)

...maybe. im learning to fight from a man here. he teaches me how to fight with knives. im not good at fist fighting

what kind of stuff do you know how to do?

[whists]

[Awful? No way, it's so satisfying, Eddie. I MEAN] The point got across, at least.

Knives, swords, crossbows, stealth, hand-to-hand, but most importantly.

I know the Tyvian chokehold.

[clussy]

You're not wrong there jeeeeez

i have no idea what the tyvian chokehold is?

[whists]

Which is why you should learn it.

[He's small. He needs every advantage he can get at this point.]

[clussy]

(God she's right.)

Okay thats a fair point.

Where would we do this? do you know a soundproof place?

[whists]

I could find us a place, or at least work more on soundproofing my own room. [It's generally empty, except for a bed and some bones. The normal stuff.]

[clussy]

Mine is soundproofed. (His had its share of strange oddities in it as well, truthfully.)

[whists]

That would work, if you're up for it.

[clussy]

We can give it a go. If I don't like it, I can always back out right?

[whists]

Yes. I would never force you if you weren't okay with it. [you need better adults in ur life, Eddie.]

[clussy]

Okay yeah. That's fine. Let me know when you're ready and we'll figure something out. (Ummmm he likes his weird shambly collection of questionable adults TYVM.)

[whists]

I'm good whenever. [THAT'S FAIR it's not like she isn't one of them.]