Yue

 11th January

09:39 GMT

Since I don't have anyone at the other end, I'm forced to come fully into the Honden. My starting location is as it was last time, but now I'm certain that this is just my mind's attempt to turn what is actually here into something concrete. Like… When they showed the Q Continuum in Star Trek Voyager. Just one interpretation, though one that is completely valid so long as you remember that it isn't the only one.

Not wrong or dishonest, just easier to deal with. Like organising a reference library by the Dewey Decimal system rather than just putting the books in a big pile.

I'm not surprised that I'm manifesting in here as a snake rather than a humanoid, or… I don't know, a vague presence or something. And I feel my skin made of my desire for wholeness and integrity, and the blood which supports it made of the memories of early injuries and ancient, ancestral weighting given to physical states which promoted survival. If I stare deeply, I could follow those threads back to the individuals who first bore the genetic mutations which caused those behaviours.

"If you're quite done with your navel-gazing?"

Hinon appears as Hinon, wearing her desire for her Hinonness as her robes. I could probably look deeper, but… That would be rude. And counterproductively unnecessary. I'd like her to open up, to work with her on realising her ambitions, and I'm sure that she's still enough of a Guardian to resent a mortal stripling like me being too assertive about it.

"I'm not sure that snakes have navels."

I flow down a not-corridor, my tongue of ambition and curiosity flicking out. Morris Brocklesby's desires have a particular taste to them. His absolute abhorrence of death, his fear of his own decay… Yes, I know those drives well.

I touch the Ophidian's presence for a moment, communicating as I do exactly how gosh darn much I appreciate not having to worry about things like that any longer.

If they'd pushed us, we'd have eaten our way through the Silver City, wouldn't we?

Yes, my Agent.

Stupid angels. / Stupid angels.

Ah, here we are! The taste of his desire, mixed with the desire of one of the Endless… I can't put it in other terms, but once tasted never forgotten. The only place like it I found in Sol is my toilet on the moon, which means that either one of them visited me while I was us, or they just really needed to use the facilities.

Fawney Rig, here we come!

I step out onto the grass outside of the fully restored manor. Wearing my formal robes, I note. Something about how I think of myself, probably. But… They're not really the clothes for traipsing across a National Trust property in England during the winter, even if an environmental shield means that I don't really have to worry about either the mud or the cold. I switch the robes out for something a little more appropriate: a tweed suit, waistcoat, shirt and tie, all with the orange sigil embroidered somewhere upon the material.

Hinon returns to the corporeal universe a moment later, appearing as she did when we left. Parts of her robes glow with orange light, pulling away from her body almost like they're… Sticking to the place we just passed through. She glances at them, a faint hint of nervousness in her eyes as they fall into place.

"Hmpf. Not the most comfortable way to travel."

"I can only suggest complaining to the Ophidian. Or to the entirety of Creation, given whose desires make up that place."

"And don't you think that I won't." She looks around, seeing the manor for the first time. "Hm."

"Would you like a guided tour, or do you want to just wander around on your own for a bit?"

"Hm."

"I'm sorry, Controller Hinon, my ring's translator appear to have broken. Would you-?"

"How in the Triarch's name did that even work?" She looks up at me. "Do you have any concept of the effort my people put into studying the Endless?"

"No? Was it… A lot?"

"Humans." She shakes her head. "A bizarre combination of ambition, brilliance and shocking superficiality."

"You know full well whose fault that is."

She stares up at me, her expression hardening. "Yees."

"Though I am working on the superficiality. Also… While there's no one around…" Though this is a national trust property, this isn't exactly peak tourist season. "Could you possibly check-?"

"Oh, for-. Uhr." She raises her hands, orange mists flowing around us for a moment. "Nothing. No detectable overflow, or 'weakening of the veil' or whatever else you've convinced yourself is happening."

"Thank you."

"Hm. Well, while we're here-."

I frown at her. "Is this what you're actually like? Or is the whole crotchety grandmother thing a mask? I've been wondering for a while."

"Is the impudent grandson façade what you're really like, or."

"Yes-." She stopped talking before I could interrupt. I smile.

She doesn't. Instead, she walks towards the wrought iron gates and passes through them without disrupting the ironwork at all.

"Ah, excuse me?! Ah, you can't-!"

I jog towards the ticket office, giving the woman inside a friendly smile. "Don't mind her. I'm paying."

"Oh-" She turns my way with a smile. "-right. Yes, but… There are rules about magic-. People being allowed on the site. We had an.. incident a while ago…"

I look at Hinon's departing back. "What..? Do you think she is?"

Her eyes widen, her right hand covering her mouth in horror. "Oh God, is she just-? I thought-."

"No, she's an alien. I just wondered how much training you get on a job like this."

She reaches down and pulls up a laminated sheet from below her desk. Simple drawing of the sorts of thing that might turn up, clear labels for each one and a green-yellow-red danger rating. Fae, demons and John Constantine.

"Is that booth warded?"

"I think so?"

I bow my head. "I'll get it upgraded tomorrow. Are you supposed to report things like this?"

"Actually…" She frowns. "I don't think we have to report aliens. Um."

I shake my head and I take the… Hm. Hinon should qualify as an OAP, shouldn't she? Take the fifteen pounds and eighty pence out of subspace and slide it under the window. "Feel free to report it. Our visit isn't a secret."

"Okay. Um, are you..? Orange Lantern?"

"One of them, yes. Was it the ring or the glowing orange eyes which gave me away?"

"Oh. Um, the manor's not about to explode or anything, is it?"

I bow my head. "Not to the best of my knowledge, no. But I better go and keep an eye on Hinon just in case. Do you have a guidebook?"