#ripley liminalverse

[nullandvoice]

"Oh, I get it. You're insane."

His smile is sickening.

"Do you really think that?"

He is so incredibly different from the only other person they've met with this particular psychosis. Alex is never confident, never so at peace. But this man, bandaged face and tattered coat, exudes something that disturbs them deep down. For some ineffable reason, they know he might be the only one in this setting that isn't crazy. Their stomach turns.

"...You know why I said it." The power rests on the tip of their tongue, the words that are so familiar and base shaping foreign and distant in their mouth, like the chant in a far language of world-eaters. They are dangerously toeing the line of not only knowing, but understanding. In this moment, they know the difference between the two of them is one of knowledge and understanding.

"Nope." The man smiles, leans forward across the table, resting his chin in his hands. His tone is vacuous, empty, a distinctive quality of someone who has glimpsed beyond the walls of code and letters. It hits them like a falling brick. He does not know because he is not the one being spoken to. "But I'm told I have a good feeling why you think that. You believe everything is in the frame of a narrative, do you not? If this is all a narrative, or a series of narratives, there must be a frame, containing many frames of the smaller stories. And I happen to know the frames are made of glass. I am a plot device, Ripley. And you know what that means."

Ripley swallows hard. Takes a shaking breath. This is as close as they are allowed to get, and they have the inalienable thought that this is somehow so much worse than Jacob's gift. Their blood runs cold. They never asked for his name. The wrecking ball of another story stares them in the face. They know, in that moment, they are part of the machine that will break their frame. They take a breath and stand.

"No. I don't. And I don't want to know. Take it back." And in all of my kindness, I give them the blissful ignorance they so desire. This conversation has not happened. Ripley may be touched, but the greater frame is obscured to them once again.