MONDAY JULY 18TH, 2011
(A Conversation with Tiresias)

9:42 AM
I stayed awake for some amount of time last night just thinking. Thinking about what I need to ask Tiresias today.
Donnie's up. We slept on mattresses on the floor. I don't think sleeping arrangements were accounted for when building this library. Fair enough. It's a library.
There he is, at a table covered in stacks of books. Leafing through them. Not even putting his hand on them or anything? How do the blind read?
Alright, okay. It's time to get up. It's time to talk.

9:45 AM
The Peisistratos looks a lot.. darker than usual. We’re gathered around a lamp that’s the only light source here.
Tiresias isn’t saying anything. He's stuck in his book.
The lamp is weird. It’s, like.. stained glass? All these little colourful shapes on it that, when lit, project presumably images onto any nearby walls. However, since there are no walls close enough, their projections are lost to the shadows that surround us.
“The Sampo built you to fulfil a promise.”
o_o Tiresias?
“Hm? Sorry. What’s up?”
You. Wanted to talk.
“What day is it? Wait, we must be in July. Never mind.”
We decoded the sixth Cipher. Cockroach Jesus said we've destroyed the thing that was holding back more cruelty?
grimace and grunt "He has reason to say that. Overnight, the frequency of Doors on Earth has increased, with many of them opening up on worlds that are.. hostile, allowing free passage for monsters to run across our planet. New Doors, new monsters. Furthermore, enough time has passed that the monsters you're used to are, likewise, getting used to you."
Shit.
"The nature of the Doors themselves, the passages, the portals, is evolving too. Many of them are no longer mere physical doors."
donnie "Oh yeah, we've experienced some of those. There's been times we've just been driving along, and suddenly the scenery around us changes without warning."
"A portal without a door. The Doors are now just a formality. I fear this most of all, as I fear what it means. I fear what has happened to the Empty City…"
The. The Empty City. We heard something about that. A denizen of the rabbit holes, uh, Polygamus was his name, told us that some Earthlings had mentioned... uh, dammit, where's the journal…

9:48 AM
Right, he didn't say much, just that Xanadu isn't the Empty City.
"The Empty City is a Fear. ...was a Fear. The Doors were on Earth before, you see. There was a time when humans would notice a door that didn't match their building's blueprints, a door that they hadn't noticed before, a door that shouldn't be there. They would open this door and step into the Empty City. And they'd be trapped there, forever."
That.. was a thing? On Earth? Already?
donnie "Was there anything in the Empty City? I know the name is Empty, but…"
"It's a fair question. And I am the one to ask, as I spent a lot of my youth on those streets. I think there was something in there, something alive. I never found out what. But the City itself was alive too, and it regularly saw visits from the gods. The.. Fears. We were free to come and go, we were free to hold our meetings there."
Right. Okay. But. This City is no longer around?
"At the moment the apocalypse began, the City vanished."
And meanwhile, the Doors were still here, but they took you elsewhere. To Xanadu.
"Mm, the coincidence is not lost on me."
But. But Polygamus was pretty convincing about that place never having been just a city. So I don't think the Empty City turned into Xanadu, like some kind of werewolf-city-universe.. were-city...
"I don't think it did either. Yet the Doors have been unmistakable. Xanadu somehow took the Doors for its own purposes."
Hm…
donnie "what, that makes sense to you?"
I'm not saying that, exactly. But it's.. sinking in for me, the kind of scale of the entities we're dealing with here.
tiresias "As well it should. You need it to sink in, both of you: Whatever Rapture is, it is an encounter between gods, gods of man and environment. Did you know that England, and the immediate European coastline, is gone? It is one giant rabbit hole. Xanadu's Doors have merged there."
we both said "fuck."
"Yet you also need this to sink in, and I realize this is a jarring juxtaposition: Humans are not powerless against this."
Well, no. We have you guys. We have the Fears!
donnie "When they're not too busy trying to kill us."
"I fear you're missing my point. The Fears are more gods in this encounter."
Maybe you're missing a point too. Maybe humans, alone, can do great things, sure. But humans and Fears, working together? This apocalypse might have been over already.
"…"
Why are the rest of them so.. hostile?
"For some, habit. For others, a genuine disdain for humanity. Understand, your gods have a long history. Most of the gods you meet are descendants of long lines of rivalries, with long memories recalling scathing battles and far-dead ideas. We call ourselves 'Fears' now out of... it's... it's complicated. We're not strictly hostile to you. We fear ourselves too. We fear the things we can do so easily, and we absolutely fear the things that humanity might have us do if we were to open ourselves up."
So. So it's not impossible.
"It's not impossible. It sounds like your partner doesn't approve, though."
donnie scoffed. "I don't."
but you're okay with tiresias, right?
"so far."
"Might I ask who you were thinking of.. befriending?"
Anyone who'd be receptive!
donnie "He's already buddy-buddy with that Camper thing."
"Heh. Now this is beginning to make sense."
Should I not be? Is Salmacis known for betrayal or something?
"A friendship with EAT is not necessarily up to you. They're the one reaching out. If you're on board with it, then so much the better, I see no reason to stop you."
Well-- thanks. But actually I didn't want to bring up EAT. I wanted to bring up the Musicians.
...he accidentally hit his hand on the table in surprise.
"Ow. The Musicians? You want to cooperate with the Musicians?"
donnie's shocked too.
Look, it's more that I'm wondering about them. I want to know more about them. They definitely aren't friendly. But they're... odd. They're talkative. They know a lot about humans.
"The..." sigh "The Musicians, or their ancestor, is the reason we have gods in the first place. Ptah has never wavered from his righteousness. Ericapeus... has. But I'd never tell them that. The truth is, those two, even in the present day, are the glue holding us all together."
Okay. That's a lot of names and statements that mean nothing to me.
"They are not used to working with humans. At most, they like to watch humans. And if they understand much about your brain, it's because the patterns making up a human mind are more fundamental than the mind itself. I don't.. think you can work with them? I don't think they want to work with you."
But.
…
"What?"
...but would they lie to me?
"...about what?"
Tiresias.
Did you meet Anna? Did you tell Anna she needed to decode the Ciphers?
...

9:52 AM
I read, for Tiresias, the entry in my journal about the paper we found in the factory.
"Cipher's ahead, a few Doors away. Someone's gotta do it. Tiresias said. Remember, Anna: Someone's gotta do it."
Tiresias remains silent.
I think I hit a target.
"That was... that Anna. Of course. It was about a week ago. She found her way into my library, she had clearly been wandering the rabbit holes. I told her about the Ciphers. She must have... misunderstood."
Are you sure? Are you sure you didn't tell her something similar to what you told us last time?
"What does it matter to you? Perhaps I've told the same to every human who makes his way here. I want my book back."
Tiresias, I.. don't even really care about your motivations here. I'm not trying to hound you. I just want to know one thing:
What was her last name?
he's looking at me, mouth open, a little baffled.
"It was... Rhodes. Annabelle Rhodes."

9:55 AM
Jordan has walked off. If I'm understanding the situation correctly, he needs to be alone right now.
This leaves me alone with Tiresias, but I don't really feel threatened by him. He's an old man, far more interested in talking. He encouraged me to take the journal and write for myself. And, he said that someone will need to write down the last thing he needs to say.
"With six ciphers decoded, my book is held shut by yet one more lock. But I have been, perhaps, overzealous in sending you off to face eldritch horrors in the name of the one positive consequence that this will bring. The truth is, the ciph"
Sorry, I'm cutting this off. The ciphers do what? How long have you known?
"I was a fool. I didn't connect the dots."
You said. The ciphers assist Rapture's coming.
"Rapture's terminal coming, specifically. The jargon is important."
But how long have you known? Did you know when you sent us for the God Machine?
"The what?"
Um, number five.
"Ah, of course. Well... I had all the evidence in front of me. I have not learned anything new since I have last seen you. I have only been untangling all that I know."
Well. Where are you getting your knowledge from, if you're trapped in here? Do you have sources?
"This book." He pointed. "Written by an ancient rhapsodist, identity long shrouded in mystery– though I believe it to be the work of either Gengelk or Hebehkreh. In any case, the author had prior experience with a very similar sequence of events. They weren't called ciphers then, but there is a clear linear sequence of Sevens. First come the Seven Locks, then the Seven Dialogues, and then the Seven Temples, or Houses. Each leads into the next, and at the end of the Seventh House is the terminal coming of Rag'Toor, or, Rapture. I believe the Seven Locks to be the Seven Ciphers."
So we shouldn't be pursuing these ciphers at all.
"'The Seventh Lock opened to silence, until began plastic broadcast doom duets.'"
Whatever. Does that book say what Rapture is?
"No. Nothing says what Rapture is. There are only ever riddles. At the end of the seventh House, or whatever it'll be for us, the seventh Dialogue is finally ended, as that one apparently lasts the whole duration of the Houses. There will be a Beast that is imprisoned once more, a Harlot there with him. A Newborn strangled in his crib. The Future in a plastic bag. The Lamb lies down on the broad way, Jordan will get a kick out of that one. And then the last statement in the entire book:
"1 = -1/12."
Math?
"It.. bears resemblance to a famous infinite series. But it's wrong, it's warped, it's.. impossible."
And then, after all that, comes Rapture.
"Yes."
Whatever the fuck Rapture is.
"I think Rapture is the future in the plastic bag."
Well, what the fuck does that mean?
...silence. I think he spoke faster than his brain, and now he's trying to think things through.
"You will not set foot in this library again for some time. That Beast that was mentioned, well, we do have one of those among our Fears. And his influence grows, flourishes, and condenses into a dew."
Again, I..
"Yes, you're lost. That's fine. Give these things time. You two have new worries, and they require full concentration. Hold your mind high when facing your Fears."
Alright. Thank you, Tiresias.
He smiled at me. "You're welcome, Donnivan. Goodbye."

10:30 AM
I followed the Door that Jordan had entered and found my way to Castle Dale, Utah. Back to the red sky, back to the empty towns.

10:32 AM
I'll find you, Jordan. We'll get through this.

10:40 PM
IIII II

(Attached: “Have you ever wondered what the world would look like if we were all blind? I mean, if everyone on Earth suddenly lost their sight at the exact same time. And we all worked with one another– after some hefty tough early days of total chaos– to support each other and make life okay again. Music would prolly become way more popular. But what would things look like to an outsider, I wonder? Like, someone who could see who just sorta stumbled upon our planet at that point. And I mean, besides the fact that lots of people would be screaming and crying and bumping into things, maybe more or less than usual. I wonder what colors our world would become, our cultures and our fashions and stuff, the colors of a world that can no longer appreciate them.”)