paradisa | 051 ♕ [dictated]

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lois lane

051 ♕ [dictated]

[ annnd down to business. lois has a lot of people to contact today... ]

[ Raine Sage ]

Here I heard you were back and I hadn't even gotten to talk to you yet. Pretty sure that's a grievous oversight on my part.

[ Annabeth Chase ]

Your boyfriend told me to look you up. Said you might have some questions I could help with you.

[ Chris Kent ]

Hi sweetie. Are you and Conner getting along now that he's all settled in?

[ Anti-first gen / evil people filter ]

Turn my head and fifty new things are happening around here. Did somebody end up putting an expedition plan? I've heard buzz floating around. You'd better not leaving me hanging, because if I miss a scoop, so help me...

[ and after a moment, she adds one more. ]

[ Clark ]

So I've been thinking lately. As in ever since the whole Mirrorworld revelation came to light. It's one thing to suspect what this castle's getting out of us living here, but hearing it that way... Well, let's just say I've got an oversized case of the heebie jeebies. Not for us, so much as for the fact that we're trying to raise a kid here and-- [deep breath now] Smallville, I want to move.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A little bit more, as of recently.

It feeds itself through our emotional spikes. Happy, sad, angry, confused, anything. It's one reason it probably screws with us so often.

Has anyone managed to work out why it's necessary for us to be taken from our worlds to this place?

Our best guess is that the castle itself brings us here. Since it can't sustain itself without people, and somehow it has some kind of extradimensional reach.

Are you saying the castle is alive?

... Yes?

Well, that's not completely unheard of.

What about us being here? I noticed someone else's journal a little while ago, something about how they were musing about whether we're just copies of the originals. I'd almost believe it, Percy says he's been here for two years but I've never heard of him being missing. ( she thinks a moment and adds: ) But he also claims to be from my future, which is just as strange but I take it that's a common occurrence?

Thaat part's a little more complicated, and I wish I could give you a solid answer. It seems like this place can snatch people from any point in time, from a number of parallel universes, and then mindwipes them when it sends them home so they don't ever remember being here. And takes them back to the moment it left. It's happened to me and I can tell you it sure as hell feels real.

But the castle can age us up or down or play with our memories, so it has me wondering if everything's already happened, and it's just making us forget until it decides to give us another 'fast forward'.

Parallel universes too? Man. Percy says he went home and came back, too. I have to wonder if it was by some fluke or maybe the castle has some preference to the people it keeps here.

Hmm. Messing around with our ages and things — are you talking about the 'losses' that I've heard about?

He said you were sharp.

Losses it is. There's really not much of a definition for them, since they can be so many different things, but it basically amounts to the castle altering your life whenever you get too comfortable.

So there's never been a resident that hasn't gone without a loss, the permanent ones not withstanding?

... That's a good question, actually. I suppose it might have happened, with some of our residents who never stayed long.

That's interesting. I guess that might mean a few things. such as maybe the castle's existence requires heightened emotions to sustain itself properly, so it puts us through losses so that we have some for it to feed off of from time to time.

Or maybe it's sentient enough to require amusement, and just gets kicks out of it...

The former's what we're leaning towards now. There was a passage discovered only a couple months ago. Here, I've got it copied:

""...in the heart of the land. Though it is no longer the metropolis it once was, it remains active, continuing to take in inhabitants in considerably smaller quantities to maintain its current size.

The primary source of power has always been the human soul and its wide range of emotions. Sudden pikes or changes in emotions generate greater power, and as such Cair Paradisa has become volatile in nature in order to produce more power for itself. This has been necessary since the Great Departure when The Five first departed from the castle, resulting in the creation of five additional smaller castles. [SEE THE GREAT DEPARTURE, THE FIVE] Though the most prominent castles in the land, there would be many smaller castles to arise, and their numbers have yet to be recorded...

...named Libet, whose personality differed from that of Cair Paradisa. A more benevolent castle, it catered to the whims of its residents to the best of its ability. The result was castle that maintained a cycle of power. The love its inhabitants felt for it fueled the castle itself, and in turn it would reward the people by bestowing them with gifts. Often times the gifts were rather extravagant, requiring a great deal of energy.

It was not nearly as volatile as its predecessor, and as a result took in less power than it exerted. Though loved dearly by its inhabitants, Libet could not continue to sustain itself, which resulted in its untimely demise, and the demise of those who did not wish to flee in its final hours..."

Huh.

Seems like Libet's destruction came because it was too nice to the inhabitants. Using up too much of its' energy to bestow gifts and such. That's a shame.

Makes sense, then, that Cair Paradisa needs to do random things such as losses to it's residents, but what about things like events that take place such as when the castle sort of changed into Camp Half-Blood? Is that the castle trying to 'reward' us — or some other form of emotional spiking to gather all the more energy?

Personally, the second seems more likely to me. It's happened quite a bit, and while some of the changes are harmless, sometimes they're pretty dangerous.

It's more like it's trying to entertain itself as well as us sometimes.

Do they happen that often? Things like camp randomly appearing here?

A couple times a year, maybe?

Could be worse.

— I've heard something about ghosts here, is that true, or...?

Completely true. They're all of the friendly Casper variety though. They're sort of like the built in room service crew. As far as we can tell, none of them have any actual memories or information, though.

Ah, dang. There went my next question. If anyone would have had information it would have been ghosts from this places' past. That's unfortunate, man.

That and the people who used to live here. But only a few of them will talk.

Something scared them into silence?

They're scared of Paradisa's influence. And some of them hold sway over the others, policing no contact with us.

So the castle can affect even the ghosts. So weird, it's like the castle is some all powerful being like a god or something. Sheesh.

Actually, it's held gods before.

Annabeth;

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