Chapter Text
And Sam Looked. He Saw eyes, so many eyes that they could fill a sky, a mournful face-faces scarred and pale and so very pleased. Blue and Green and Grey and Brown and Hazel and Black all gazed upon him, in him, through him. A hand, dark and scarred cupping another, pale and blurred, holding a knife to a chest-an eye-a face-a world. A tape becomes a line becomes a rift becomes a cable becomes wires. A three sided scale. Symbols and words. Words incomprehensible, but they sound almost like-
“ SEE ”
And Sam did see. He saw his breakfast evacuating his mouth and onto the pavement.
When he finally wiped his mouth on his jumper sleeve and tried not to think about how unhygienic that was, he looked back up at the archivist. No, he Looked back up at the archivist. Maybe it was his adrenalin dying down, maybe this was just the first time he wasn’t wholly afraid of this thing, but something had changed. It looked different. More human. He noticed its ragged t-shirt with a hole in the chest where eyes watched him from, he noticed its tangled hair that went down to its back. He noticed that even though he couldn’t see its face, he knew that it had one.
His words came out between heaving gasps for air
“What” wheeze “The hell ” wheeze “Was that?!”
The archivist just watched him. Of course it did. But through that gaze he felt something. Sadness? Desperation? The overwhelming urge to be understood even when you don’t understand yourself?
…Sam was beginning to think he might have a concussion. Or at the very least some short term side effect of changing realities.
“ SEE ”
Its voice crackled with static.
“ SEE ”
“I-I saw…I don’t know what but I saw.”
“...”
“You… you can follow me. If- If you never do that… shoving memories into my brain thing again. Or force people to tell you things.”
Eyes watched him. A slow and shaky nod. Progress.
Sam took off his jumper and threw it at the archivist.
“Wear this, you’ll freak people out with all those eyes”
It slowly slipped the red jumper on and pulled the hood over its head. If Sam didn’t look hard enough, it just seemed like a lanky guy.
“Alright, where are we headed?”
Even as the words left Sam’s mouth, he already knew there was only one place to go.
“The Magnus Institute.”