Played you like a violin, then cut your strings

Jude was not the kind of person who went into things half-cocked. No, he was the kind of person with meticulous preparations, and having a whopping three hours notice was not sitting right with him.

He'd been dropped off at a grocery store by Eon, picked up food and supplies, and then grabbed what he'd need. He wasn't sure how long he'd need to be there, which meant having extra supplies was more or less mandatory. Twenty four hours was the high end, but he was hoping it wasn't going to be that long. He'd nearly started off, only to make a quick 180 and head back towards Officer Genovese's house. He had something to pick up.

—-

Getting into the house was hilariously easy: The apparently sole cultist who'd been left behind to watch the house while the others supported their master had been told he was coming. He'd let him in, set Jude up in a living room, and told him to wait. Jude had waited--about ten minutes--and then he'd used the blueprints he'd seen to slip out of the room, navigating to the access tunnel, and headed into the basement.

Realistically speaking, Altizica had more than prepared. Shoggoth were horrifying creatures, and any burgler who made it into the subbasement was going to be in for a nasty surprise. Jude couldn't help but wonder just how many people had already met that exact fate.

Unfortunately for Altizica (and very fortunately for Jude), he knew what was down there. Even before the first one appeared, he knew there were at least three shoggoth's lurking in the dark. He wasn't making any bets on Altizica not having fudged the number, and so he was being extra, extra cautious.

Because he'd come prepared. Even ignoring his backup plan, he had a string of homemade amulets, each with one of the elder signs on them. He didn't know which one was going to be correct, but Theo had been clear enough to him that, yes, they should work against something as simplistic as a shoggoth. Maybe not Altizica himself, but shoggoth were the most basic of basic. They were big and scary and terrified of the elder sign, so the moment Jude came into view one of them let out a noise that was probably a screech, reeling backwards.

The shoggoth kept their distance as Jude navigated his way to the shrine, ignoring all the side tunnels. He'd seen the blueprints and knew just where to find it, even as the shoggoth continued their distressed noises, lingering at the edges. One of them was in the shrine room when he entered, screeching in apparent pain until he moved to the side, allowing it to charge out.

They'd wait outside, he was sure.

He double checked the room for extra entrances, and then set up his handmade wards near the entrance. There was maybe a half hour to the fight if they were on time, but Broen was absolutely the kind of guy who'd start a bit early, so Jude wasn't going to wait.

He let Giltenn study the room, the markings, the magic. It was all there, a connection to a greater whole. It had been set up not to bring a piece of Altizica back to life, but instead to bring that specific piece of Altizica back. The same piece. That made it infinitely easier to do what he needed to do, working through it all bit by bit.

And once he knew what he was doing, Jude grabbed his supplies out of the bag and started to ruin it.

It was like a glorified magical one way exclusion door. Jude could have ruined the magic entirely, preventing Altizica from coming back, but that wasn't what he wanted. Not with Altizica having a daughter. Not with him having a life. Instead, he wanted to cut him off. Altizica would die in his duel. He'd respawn. But when he started to respawn, the magic would activate, cutting him off entirely. He'd be Altizica, but he'd no longer be connected to the real Altizica.

He'd be a separate person. An independent entity. And he'd no longer be half as similar to Phokrus as he was right then.

It took Jude less than ten minutes.

Once he was done, he settled in against the wall with a book to wait, double checking his backup plan as he did.

Who knew how long he was going to wait?

The moment the room started to dim, Jude glanced up, snapping his book shut and shoving it in his bag. He had his own charms on his body to get him (hopefully) safely out, but that would still require him to get out physically. His little lamp didn't cast light far, but it was enough for him to see Altizica's twisting form, just on the edge of things.

For a moment, he was actually surprised to hear that he seemed to understand what had happened to him, but a moment later Jude's 'second brain' kicked in, with Giltenn's voice sounding in his brain.

He would have to have a connection to his original self, Giltenn corrected, and Jude seemed to relax slightly, nodding. He had to know. He had to have a connection back, a link to his fuller self. That was how he called it's attention.

"Because this is the option where everyone gets what they want," Jude said. He'd practiced this speech, so his voice stayed steady, but more then that: He wasn't really afraid. Not really. He'd faced down worse, and Altizica was obviously pained by the precautions he'd taken, as well as the damage to his self.

"Your full self won't care it lost you. Not any more than I'd care if I lost a single hair on my head. You're a part of it, but it doesn't care, because things like you can't really care. I get what I want, because that full self isn't going to care about Earth with you cut off. And you get what you want."

Jude stared at him, clearly inviting him to ask.

Jude would have described Altizica's behavior as erratic, only it was hard to tell which part was real. Was what he was seeing now the real Altizica, or was what he saw normally the real Altizica, and this was just him being put off?

Jude had his things in his bag, and he pushed himself to his feet, not taking his eyes off the man in the doorway. Technically speaking, he was blocking Jude's way out, and that was making Jude really wary.

"I'm going to, for the sake of making this easier on both of us, just call you Altizica, and I'm going to call it The Devourer, because that's what it is. One day, you're going to get bored. And when you're bored, you'll have marked this world to be devourered by the Devourer. And you'll become part of it again."

Jude paused for a moment, letting it sink in before he forged on.

"Do you really think that the Devourer--of which you're only a fraction, with no real control over it--would recognize your daughter? Do you think that it would care about her? Do you think it would, as vast and powerful as it was, even hesitate before it consumed the planet?"

"That's why this is the best option," Jude said, shoving his hand into his pocket. "The Devourer doesn't care about people. You care about people. You said you were trying to make amends, to better yourself, but you cant' do that as a part of it. You can't make nice while it continues eating planets. Like this? Like this you're something entirely new. You're a person. You could change your name and be a new person and not have to be tied to the thing you were. A fresh start, with your daughter."

Jude hadn't met his daughter (and honestly wasn't sure he wanted to), but she was a useful part of the equation. If he cared (which he'd done a very good job acting like he cared), then he had no reason to deny what Jude had said. This was his chance.

"I didn't do this on the spur of the moment. This was something I thought about. I could have disrupted your revival so you couldn't come back at all, but it wouldn't have helped. Not really. If anything, it might have drawn the Devourer's attention."

Jude had thought to give him an easy way out. To change his name. To be someone new. But instead he was going to wear the name with... pride? He wasn't going to hide who he was, even if Jude thought it would be far smarter for him to do so.

"Fine," Jude said. "You'd be better off if you distanced yourself from it, but done is done. I'll give you credit for owning up to it at least."

That was one point done. Point two was pending. Point three was getting his ass out of the basement.

"I think you have the potential to grow to be more human over time. Not in capabilities or appearance, but in personality." Which was to say, someone capable of some kind of empathy. "But I also think you should start with... the basics. Avoiding Syrra for a while would probably be the best." He cringed at the mental image of the attempted apology, at how blatant it was, and how much it had angered Syrra. He'd try and solve that himself, but it wasn't going to be fast.