“The main thing is, we have to get out of here,” Adam the witch said. “This place is dangerous.”
“Huh, you think?” Detweiler said. Standing in a circle with six other grown men and women made him feel even stupider than being afraid of some nebulous thing out in the dark had. Detweiler didn’t like to feel stupid. His brain rejected the emotion and defaulted to the more comfortable, more familiar alternative of anger.
“The problem is, how?” Lee asked. “Any which way we go, we’re blundering through the trees.”
“That’s where the monsters are!” a woman shrieked.
“First, we don’t know there’s more than one,” Adam said quickly. “In fact, we’ve only had singular attacks, so it seems extremely likely that it’s only one. Everybody focus on that.”
“Right,” Detweiler said. “Get that, everybody? Focus.”
“Believe it,” Lee said.
“Wait!” Adam said. “Don’t.”
“Don’t believe there’s only one thing out there?” Detweiler asked.
“Don’t everybody focus your belief on one monster,” Adam said. “Seven people in a circle focusing their belief on one monster… that’s a very bad recipe.”
“What are we supposed to do then, each focus on different ones?” Detweiler asked.
“Hey, you asked for my help and I’m… wait, that’s a good idea,” Adam said. “We all know that something is out there. We can’t deny that, unfortunately. But we don’t know what exactly it is, or where it is.”
“You’re not telling us anything we don’t know,” Detweiler complained.
“No, he is,” Lee said. “He’s telling us exactly what we don’t know. Everybody concentrate… imagine the thing out there is something.”
“What?” a man asked.
“Anything,” Adam said. “Whatever pops into your head. Something personal, something nobody else would think of… and don’t say it, whatever it is. Keep it to yourself.”
“Everybody got something?” Lee asked.
“I can’t… oh God, I can’t think of anything,” a woman said.
“Think of nothing, then,” Adam said. “And tell yourself that the monster is hiding right in front of you.”
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“Thin of nothing, then,” Adam said.
Should be think instead of thin?
Anyways, excellent chapter.
Adam is now my new favorite character.
Trying to dissipate the monster by all imagining it in a different place with a different form? I love this psychologically based magic.
“headology” at it’s finest
This is story is crazy (in a good way)!
Will the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man make an appearance next?
I’m really glad to see Tribe updating again. It has been missed!
–Maeglin
When there’s something strange in your neighbourhood,who ya gonna call?
This idea of magic makes perfect sense to me…I love it.
And Adam seems to be quite a clever witch.
I really love the approach to magic in this series…
Two in a row! Yay! I like the approach you take to magic, where reality is subjective to one’s idea of what that reality is. I really think that’s sort of how things are, only maybe in the real world, that monster thinks it is one thing and in one place and so he wins. Because he “knows” it. You know?
I too immediately thought of the Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man.
Hopefully, we don’t have 7 Ghostbusters fans in the group, or their in trouble.
Gratheo said:
“Thin of nothing, then,” Adam said.
Should be think instead of thin?
It’s all right either way… we’ll stick with Alexendra through think or thin.
The monster’s name isn’t Djoser, is it? Does it have a Keymaster and a Gatekeeper with it?
Remember, if it asks if you’re a god, say yes.
@Maeglin:
The Ghostbusters produced the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man by failing to avoid thinking and thus giving the monster a form.
These people are being asked to think of anything in order to prevent the monster from settling in one form.
Interestingly enough, they still seem to be failing… but they may have the better recovery tactic. If you must not think and you do, then you’re screwed irreversibly. If you must think and you can’t, you may still have time to come up with something… or to cleverly turn that lack of thought into one you can use.