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[power_of_yes]

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[power_of_yes]

"That they should say yes. That no is not an option. 'No' is weakness. 'No' is sin. 'No' is saying no to God."

He had said 'no' to Ezio in Zero, but, he tells himself, that had been a way of saying yes. It's different. It's better. At least...that's how he tries to justify it.

[ukan]

Lark nods to himself, thinks about that. "But there are lines, aren't there? even for you. If someone told you to leave Joseph, if they gave you access to a world without your brothers, you would say 'no', wouldn't you?"

[power_of_yes]

"That's temptation. I can't say yes to temptation," he tells him. And it's a fine line. But mostly, it's been Joseph who helps him with that line.

Without him, he strays.

He already has.

[ukan]

He tips his head ever so slightly. "Is it tempting to leave the fold?"

[power_of_yes]

"It's tempting to go back to the parties and the sex and the drugs and the drink, yes," he scoffs. "But I won't leave Joseph and I won't leave Jacob."

[ukan]

"But of course they aren't your only reason for staying. You could, theoretically, continue your work without them."

[power_of_yes]

"No. I can't. The three of us need to be together for the Collapse. Or - so says Joseph," he says, seeming a little unsure about it.

[ukan]

"I can see how being together is ideal. It gives you all the best chance of survival and who wouldn't want to be with their family when things fall apart? But..." A small frown. "The three of you being together doesn't cause the Collapse, does it?"

[power_of_yes]

He gives Lark a bit of a laugh. "No, Lark. No. We are simply reacting to the world at large. I've heard the news. The powers are falling apart. There's talk of war. Of nuclear war. All over." He looks up to the ceiling. "I don't know when it's going to be, but the signs are all around us. Have been there for years before Joseph showed up at my building."

[ukan]

"How do people come to find you? I don't get the impression you live in the center of a large city...but of course I could be very wrong."

[power_of_yes]

"Hope County, Montana," he laughs. "So no. But there's a sizable population. They come to us. Their family come to them, and they come to us. We don't do recruitment. Well, I do recruitment, but my brother just preaches and people come to him. They hear his words. Hear his truth."

[ukan]

Interesting. "What sort of recruitment do you do? I was under the impression that it all came down to faith in your brother's words."

[power_of_yes]

He looks away a bit. There's a small show of deception, though Lark might notice that he doesn't respond to lies in the same way. He's completely calm and sits in the lie for a while, letting it wash over him, savoring it as it forms completely before it comes out, smooth as silk.

John might not lie much, but he's skilled. Not many humans would be able to catch him out on it.

"Those who come to hear my brother's words have questions," he says. "So I help answer them. What they can do to save themselves and their family from the Collapse. How they can join Eden's Gate."

[ukan]

Lark lets him lie. He just watches him, impressed but unconvinced. "And?" A small smile; fill in the blank, John, because that wasn't an answer.

[power_of_yes]

He raises a brow. It seemed a perfectly good answer to him.

But he knows he's talking to another lawyer, so he presses forward.

"To reach Eden's Gate, they have to reach Atonement."

[ukan]

"Oh I know," waving a hand a bit in dismissal. "I'm curious about the rest of it. The parts you're...concerned I'll judge, maybe?"

[power_of_yes]

He raises his head a bit at that.

"What do you mean?"

[ukan]

"When you spoke of your religion before," he says, thoughtful. "You had so much to say. Your eyes lit up. But this? You thought a lot and said very little."

[power_of_yes]

He nods. "Yes. The inner workings of a cult aren't very interesting or - pleasant," he says softly. Not a lie. Deceptive and manipulative, but John isn't lying to him in that. He knows what Eden's Gate is. He knows what he does.

[ukan]

"Nothing about overcoming sin is pleasant," he agrees, still watching John intently. "But I find most inner workings deeply interesting."

[power_of_yes]

John isn't supposed to trust Lark. That's what Carol told him. They're not supposed to trust Wardens. And yet - Lark is here, the only one who listened to him. The only one who cares.

"They call me John the Baptist. But they also call me John the Inquisitor."

[ukan]

Ah, there it is. "How long does an inquisition usually take?"

[power_of_yes]

He tsks softly. "Lark," he says softly. "Inquisition is Confession. Confession is Inquisition. They're one in the same."

He frowns. "It was cruel, what would I would do." A lie, copper on his tongue. He loves it. Delights in it. He isn't ashamed of his lies, doesn't shy from them. He embraces them. Loves them. Is eager for more. "I told you that I could get people to tell me things, to Confess, and that's true. But I would use that information to blackmail. I would use it to hurt them. And, when it came to my brother, I would bring people into the cult, and the Confession would tell me their secrets. I would know who could be trusted. And I would know how to control them if they stepped out of line. I knew who was fucking who. I knew who had done drugs. I knew who had cheated. I knew who had lost the family's savings to gambling. I knew every secret they didn't want getting out."

[ukan]

"It would be wasteful not to," Lark says, perhaps not entirely serious. But from a strategic point of view? Well there's a reason he's never trusted religious authorities.

"Though with inquisitions you always have to wonder how much is true, and how much is just said to build up their worth to you."

[power_of_yes]

He goes a little blank at that. "I've always been good at seeing the bullshit," he tells him softly.