Ruins (Cira, Gwenafer)

As they entered the pyramid, memories started flooding back to Reynardo. He could remember clearly how each hall and each corridor had looked when it had been built. Now, though, it was all crumbling. His work, crumbling. All things came and went, he supposed.

Suri kept hold of his arm, just as she had always done. “Is this the work you did?” she asked softly, awed by the grandness - or former grandness - of the passages that wound around in a way that managed to be both haunting and artful. It was a trick of the light that he had crafted.

“Yes,” he said. “It is.”

“It’s wonderful.” She smiled shyly up at him. She had never been allowed into the Great Worship Hall, as she had never offered herself as a sacrifice. Or been forced to serve as one.

Indeed, Rey could see his last trek through this pyramid, led through halls he knew, to a destination he had crafted, only to be made into one of them, for their own use. It had been a horror like no other.

“And the boys?” Rey asked quietly.

“They grew up to be healthy and strong, like their father. And they had families, and married well. You taught them well.” Suri squeezed his arm.

“And then I left them, and never returned.”

“You were killed. They know that now. It is not your fault.” Suri tilted her head in a small pout, just as Rey remembered she always had. For being nearly four thousand years old, he had an extraordinary memory, especially of Suri.

That was when the very faint scent of smoke reached Rey’s senses. He sniffed and frowned. Then he looked back and realized he was nearly alone save for Suri. Cira had not been following as closely as he thought, and Salaam was nowhere to be seen.

Rey groaned and turned around, just as Cira announced that Salaam was gone and things were on fire. What? Why fire? “Move faster? We will have to move very, very fast if there is fire, amigo. The vampires are trying to close me into the pyramid.”

“It can’t be the vampires,” Suri said. “Psychic vampires are still vampires. They would not risk fire. If they have physical forms, they will be destroyed by fire just as easily as you, my love.”

Rey whirled around and stared at Suri. Somewhere there was motion inside the pyramid. But Suri had just given away the secret of fire killing him to Cira—and that wasn’t all, but he had no time to think about the full consequences of what Suri had said. “Then hurry after me, Cira, and do not lose sight of me. And please explain why things are on fire!”

Then there was a yell from down the corridor and to the right a ways. Someone was inside the pyramid—but how? Through the exit? If so, that person needed to head back now. Unless, of course, the person was an enemy. Who could tell? Rey moved forward, nudging Suri’s arm away. Fire at their backs, and the only choice was to go deeper into the pyramid.

“Ay wey….” He turned down the corridor toward the voice, trusting his sharp eyesight in the dim light. “Yes, there is someone here, in a maze! Unless you know your way around, or you are being chased, you must stop where you are right now and let us find you, or you risk being lost in this place forever!” At the same time, though, after turning to beckon Cira and Suri to follow him, he extended his fangs and also his fingernails, which grew out to become six inches long and clawlike. Just in case the voice did not belong to someone friendly.

He turned a corner and was met by an oversize handgun.

“Fuck!” He retracted his claws and fangs and then pushed the gun aside. According to his eyesight, the figure was a female humanoid, with a strange eye. More important, though, she was wielding a gun, and bullets had no effect on vampires aside from a mild discomfort. That made her decidedly not the enemy. “Those are useless to you here. We have no time for introductions. I know my way around, and he is with me.” He nodded toward Cira. “Keep moving. Hurry.”

They needed to get to the burial chamber before the vampires or the fire reached it. And he still needed to decide what to do about Suri.

edited 13th Jun '16 10:42:59 PM by savlamar

Underworld

"Very well, just know that I'm willing to listen if you want to tell you're side of things," Caleb said and continued down. It was cold soon, really cold. Caleb tried to imagine in a coat, and got something that at least provided some heat.

They reached what he hoped was the bottom, both his feet were level one what was at least softer. After that Caleb began feeling out the way with his eidolon; even then everything felt indistinct, like it was about to.... For a moment there wasn't any floor, they were just hanging on nothing.

Then the shapes of lights and spires revealed themselves, and Caleb landed on metal; from the sound the other two were still around. He barely got a chance to view the strange composition of the metal structure before it started shifting and gave out. The void he was falling into, he wondered if it could kill them; or even if it normally could wether his dream-state would protect them. Fortunately her didn't have to find out, as the group changed direction and landed sideways on another surface.

Terrified and nauseous, Caleb could only let out a "you aren't wrong." To Ano's comment. In the back of his mind he still questioned what she meant about a golden star, there were a lot of stars here.

Academy -> The Black Jungle

"I have little experience talking," Half told Phoebe, "and like she says I'm not a robot. Too Ashleigh he said "at first it was just to find answers to the problem I tried to tell you about earlier. But something about this trip became too personal, and I want it behind me just for that." Getting on Peggy behind Ashleigh he added "you're not wrong though, maybe 'half' right," he paused for a split second, "but I already talked about my story.

As they flew they came over what he though was the Blackwood, but the sound of birds did not match that place. "I know little of this Mystrica; will changes in the dream version of the jungle effect the real one?"

You say I am loved, when I don’t feel a thing. You say I am strong, when I think I am weak. You say I am held, when I am falling short.

Ruins(Cira, Reynardo, Gwenefer):

The vampires weren't behind that? Cira gripped his torch all too tighly, in the hope it would hold back the winter wind burning through his spine,and in the hope it would serve as a weapon against whatever waited deep into the temple. And maybe against those who where to guide him inside, after they weren't needed anymore.

Locking his eyes on Suri, he started saying: "How in the name of the Pale Saint...".

Before he could finish, however, a distant yell came from inside the building, giving Reynardo one more reason to dart into the building faster than a bullet darted into the head of the wrong man during a nighttime shootout, and forcing Cira to follow as well as he could.

"The burning one... the dream itself may have summoned it. Have you seen any being that looks like it?"

And he ran, with the torch still in front of him, filling his eyes with smoke and warding against whatever could hide in the dark. Thankfully, the smoke from his torch was different from the one he smelled before, more like... light incense, than like a city on fire. His right hand would probably have been put to better use shielding his face from the stray blood red embers, but his speeding heart and scared mind called for the familiar weight of his flare gun, and his hand was more than willing to comply.

It wasn't long until Rey turned right and came to a sudden stop, making Cira stumble and almost fall to the ground. His irritated eyes adjusted to the dark just in time for him to see Reynardo standing between him and an armed woman with a glowing eye, pushing her weapon aside with fingers that seemed, if only for a moment, longer and sharper than usual.

"Keep moving. Hurry!", the vampire told them, and Cira approached the new member of the group, looking her up and down. While he first assumed the glowing eye was a warping caused by bearing some sort of magic, the metal uniting it with the scarred tissue around suggested it was some sort of artificial replacement. Her weapon, while unusual in design, seemed to be powerful enough to classify as a witch-killer, making Reynardo's confidence in front of it foolish if he wasn't as fast as he was.

"I suggest following him,", Cira said, feeling the opressive atmosphere of the place, the weight of its bloody history. Could he draw on it? "but don't trust him. Don't trust anyone."

He raised his torch bearing arm a little, seeing it was engraved with wounds that did not bleed even thought they should. They were too even, too simetric to be the fruit of an accident or battle. The fire was having its effect on him, wasn't it? His fingers weren't covered with dry mud and blood a few minutes ago.

He reluctantly hid his flare gun back inside his duster, in part to leave his hand free, and in part as a demonstration of trust he couldn't feel. As he followed Reynardo however, he imagined something in his right hand, a tool that could prove even more dangerous than his usual weapons.

"He is right. Places like this one have a way with people's minds.", Terim whispered in Gwenafer's ear from his invisibility, backing away to watch her reaction.

edited 14th Jun '16 3:13:44 PM by EternaMemoria

"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."

Wasteland City - Academy (Aunrei, Hana, Miyuki, Xeqa, ???)

Some time after Phoebe and Ashleigh and Half left, there was a stirring over at the fountain Aunrei had washed up in a while ago. At first it was some odd ripples in the water, but then a dark shape started to materialize in the waters. From there it swam around the perimeter of the fountain, looking kind of like a very large betta fish given the dark, flowing fins.

But after a while, it raised its head out of the water, and the head looked a lot like that of a human with an unusually small nose. After looking around and taking in the surroundings, the head returned to the water... but a while later, the finned figure sat up in the fountain. It was quite clearly a woman at first glance, but with many decidedly non-human characteristics. In fact, she seemed to be a human-fish hybrid of some sort, but not a mermaid, as when she stepped out of the fountain, she did so on legs with fins covering most of the area of her shins and forearms. These fins were a dark purplish-red at their base, fanning out to a deep magenta near the tips, with tough black spines for support. Her forearms and shins themselves were black and spindly to match. On her fingers and toes were soft black pads for gripping and support, extending into long claws built into and extending past the edge of her fins.

Her head, torso, and upper limbs seemed to be covered with pale skin that glistened slightly, and that coupled with the red hue of her eyes might have suggested that she originated in a teenage vampire novel, if not for her fish characteristics. In fact, said skin was actually covered in tiny scales of a light grayish lavender hue. Moreover, there were pairs of what appeared to be very neat horizontal scars on her neck and just under her chin. On her head, a canopy of very straight black hair fanned out over the sides of her face, being just long enough to reach almost to her chin. Although it dripped a little just as she was coming out of the water, it looked very light, holding onto hardly any water at all. The same was true of her clothes, of which she only wore the bare minimum: a short maroon vest which left her arms and midriff exposed, and a matching half-skirt covering up the top half of her thighs, with its opening in the back for her tail, and with a pocketed pouch attached to the hip for storing stuff. Her very fish-like tail consisted of three fin segments: two long flowing ones which looked a lot like an elegant skirt, and one on top that was firm and cabbage-like in texture, nearly as long as her legs, with two rigid black spines on the undersides. She also had little triangular "fins" attached to the back of her otherwise small ears, matching her regular fins colour-wise.

When she stepped out of the fountain, she stood up proud and tall as she surveyed the area once more. She stood a little over six feet in height, at least a head taller than most humans of her age and gender. (It helped that she was standing on the tips of her toes, which rested near the edges of her lower fins.) Though her scales hid any muscular definition she had, she had a very sleek and slender figure, perfect for maneuvering around in the water. And yet with all of this, she had overall a confident and mature look about her - age-wise one would have guessed her to be in some stage of early middle adulthood.

It was soon clear that she wasn't the only one present, though everyone else looked quite different from her. There was a woman about her age wearing an elegant uniform of some sort, a young girl with some strange shadowy presence behind her, a man covered in blue-blooded lacerations, and an older armor-clad woman who had a weathered look about her, like she was a warrior of some sort who had seen many battles. The latter looked the most peculiar, because there was a strong shadowy presence around her, solemn and tinged with maybe the slightest hint of despair^note I know this "aura" is hardly noticeable to most, but it would be the sort of thing she could pick up on, as we'll see later. It reminded her of the guilt and grief one might experience when suffering a terminal illness, or otherwise being on the brink of death. By contrast, the shadowy being that was behind the girl seemed like it would be more of a nuisance than anything.

While the fish lady gazed at Xeqa with a look of concern in her deep red eyes, she wiggled the tiny stubby fingers of her right hand around a bit... something seemed to be missing. And then a look of surprise, causing her to promptly turn back to the fountain and reach a hand inside the water. She opened her mouth to speak, revealing short pointy fangs.

"Sen Watimari, kami ka tei." As she spoke, there was a glow around her hand, as well as another stirring in the water. Seconds later, she pulled out a staff nearly as tall as she was, made of some sort of dark bluish metal alloy. The charm at the top looked kind of like a black lily, made of a very dark stone that hardly reflected any light. Inside, one could barely make out the shape of a crystal orb, though it looked almost invisible in the sunlight. At the base of this charm, a silver ring separated it from the shaft of the staff, with bright red gemstones hanging from it. A similar ring was fastened around her neck as a loose choker, and the same stones hanging from it also hung from her ears as earrings.

After taking the staff out, she held it close to her for a brief moment, its black lily-like charm right in front of her face, the nigh-invisible orb within it taking on a faint purplish glint inside of it. This vanished as she walked up to the group.

"Pardon me, but do any of you know what this place is?" she asked them, her voice carrying a peculiar accent marked by very airy and barely voiced R's and unusually tall vowels. Looking around once more, she could see buildings surrounding them, and the immediate landscape looked like some sort of courtyard. "Even the sky looks markedly different than what I'm used to."

The Black Jungle (Phoebe, Ashleigh, Half)

Half really seemed to have some serious business to attend to, and he seemed oddly casual about it. Maybe because he had, as he himself pointed out, little experience with talking, and thus couldn't quite put a tone to his voice yet? Then again, according to what he had told them in the Blackwood, he was the future form of some other being, which sounded a bit disturbing if said other being could talk just fine.

And then Half said something even more unsettling: "Will changes in the dream version of the jungle affect the real one?" A shiver ran down both girls' spines.

"God, I hope not," Ashleigh replied to him, sounding genuinely worried. "We've had enough trouble as it is with changes to Mystrica, ever since this mysterious virus took over all the main infrastructure. Although it's rarely manifested as changes to the landscape itself. Mostly, it's just caused the creatures in the area to turn hostile and attack us."

"It better not!" Phoebe moaned, clinging more tightly onto Peggy's mane. "Although wasn't the cathedral near Castleton previously peaceful, but became all dark and haunted after the lockdown? And then the university had all that barbed wire and electric fences around it and looked more like a military camp. Even that garden where we got our first elemental essence had all the roses die on us."

"The Elemental Essences are what we are trying to gather in order to put a stop to this virus," Ashleigh explained. "Gon was right - it does sound kind of like a video game plot. Which is odd because I never even was into video games, and here I am suddenly thrust into one."

"This place is really giving me the creeps though... are you sure this is the way to Misery Manor?"

"I think as long as we just keep on moving, we're bound to reach it eventually," Peggy reassured them. She had been keeping up a steady trot all the way through the jungle. "And I am a Light elemental in case this place gets really dark. Speaking of which, let's see if we can get some more light in here. Glowing Beacon!"

The ball on top of Peggy's carousel pole lit up brightly, illuminating several of the trees ahead. Before her, several birds which had been sitting in trees scattered away from the light. Well, except for one parrot-like bird that swooped down and tried to peck at Peggy's face.

"Ack, get off me!" Peggy growled. "Rainbow Beam!"

A quick rainbow shot straight from her horn made quick work of the bird. Moreover, at that point, both Phoebe and Ashleigh's Scanners had a new message on their screens. Phoebe immediately checked hers: its screen bore a picture of the bird Peggy had just defeated, with the words "Mad Macaw" at the top. Below that was a touch-screen button with that red "Scan", but since it had already been defeated, she saw no point in using the feature. It was almost immediately replaced with a blurb that read "Peggy gained 142 EXP! Fooly and Zippy gained 71 EXP! Zippy reached level 41!"

Ashleigh also used her Scanner, but for a different purpose. Exiting out of the EXP screen Phoebe was looking at (her Mystripets gained some experience too despite not participating in the battle), she instead navigated to an Inventory screen, and pressed the "Open" command that popped up. She pointed the Scanner at her side, and a circular black portal just a couple feet in diameter opened up right next to her. The light from Peggy's pole illuminated some of the interior: what looked to be a cupboard of sorts filled with random stuff. However, Ashleigh was interested in only one such item: her violin. After she took it out and closed up the inventory portal, she placed the accompanying bow on the instrument's strings and slid it across, playing a gentle tune on it.

"This is a melody I'm in the process of composing," Ashleigh explained as she played. "It's meant to reflect the places we've gathered essences from so far. I find sometimes it helps when traveling through troubling areas."

edited 14th Jun '16 6:05:41 PM by ladytanuki

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

[The Tranquil Underworld (Mazra, Caleb, Anoerith)]

Mazra looked curiously at Caleb and Anoerith (trying to keep her eyes mostly on the former), not certain what half of what they were talking about was. The other part, though, she recognized, and it fit with something she'd been thinking.

"So is there an actual reason we should be doing what the guardian wants, or is it just because ze can attack us with evil ghost birds if we don't? Because if that's all, I'm not really sure we should be going along with it. The guy seems like ze 'sucks'." (Apparently she had a new favorite word to try).

She tugged her waistcoat, meant more for culture than for warmth, a little tighter. "Also, is it just me, or is it getting colder - "

Her voice cut off into a startled scream as the floor went from hard-to-see, to something she barely registered, to not there, and the three of them plummeted through what at first looked like space. She again didn't really have time to register the finer details - or to realize that being able to draw breath to scream meant it wasn't actually space - before they turned at a completely unnatural angle to land on a small platform. Mazra sat down hard.

That was undignified. Best to cover.

She looked up and exclaimed "That was great!" Standing - a little unsteadily at first - she glanced around. "It's like we're... we're surviving in the middle of space! Except that it's not, exactly." The metal shards didn't seem like any sort of natural thing in the real world, but they didn't look obviously artificial either. It really was exciting; even most of the less believable fictional Paladins hadn't experienced this sort of thing.

Although.

She glanced around again. "Um. I can't really see a specifically golden star either. Or anyone I recognize, actually."

[Ruins] (Gwenafer, Reynardo, Cira)

Gwenafer gave the short, bespectacled man a skeptical look. Had the shadows been playing tricks on her, or had those been claws she'd seen? He didn't look like a werebeast or ghoul or anything - or much of a threat at all really - but he couldn't expect her to follow him just like that, could he?

She reluctantly lowered the handgun, but didn't holster it. Useless, huh?

"What do you suggest then?" she asked, matter-of-factly. "Silver, blessed salt, or fire?"

"I suggest following him, but don't trust him. Don't trust anyone."

The man was quickly followed by two companions. One of them was a woman, with something unmistakably eerie about her, almost like a vision of the Pale Lady herself... Not that the red haired man who had spoken was much better with all the scars and whatnot, though Gwenafer was hardly in any position to judge in that case...

"You got that right," she answered. "You didn't happen to see a big haugr running about on your way here, did you?" she continued. "Maybe carrying a..."

   "He is right. Places like this one have a way with people's minds."   

Fuck. She spun around, pointing the gun in the direction of the voice. There was no one there.

"Gods... Please tell me you heard that..?"

edited 15th Jun '16 5:54:09 AM by Corvidae

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

[Ritter Clinic]

"Hey now, where do you think you're going with your chest in that state?" Friedrich looked at the clock. Was it time for more painkillers? Wait, shit. He didn't remember what time it was when he gave him the first one. Well, at least there'd been a change of subject. "You can think about it all you want sitting down. Wait for the snow to clear up, at least."

"But Friedrich!" Heinrich grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently. "You can cut through the snow with magic! And he may be injured, but he has help! There's four of us all together."

Friedrich gave his brother a withering look. "I don't have unlimited power."

"His wife could be—"

"You think she'd appreciate her husband dying on his way to finding her?"

Heinrich backed off, making an apologetic, but strained smile. "Well, you're right, we need to be smart about it, but just sitting here doesn't really feel good. What do you two think?"

---

[Farm (exterior, field)]

I really do ruin everything.

Seilaan trailed behind Min for a moment before gritting her teeth and speeding up to a brisk walk to catch up with her. Stop thinking like that. I can fix it. Suddenly being covered in blood is awkward and horrifying, but I can still fix it!

"Y-you know, I remember asking if you'd like me to do some makeup for you." Her smile was almost definitely forced. "But, you know, only if you want to. No pressure."

This is so awkward. So awkward! Why did I think that would help anything? I look and sound so stupid! Just—please play along, Min. Please, please, please—

A drop of blood rolled down the un-bandaged arm. Alarmed, she raised the arm to check its scars. Yes, they were opening too. Seilaan steeled her eyes again as she started wrapping it up. Something deep inside her was clearly screaming at her to explain this all to Min, to deliver the warning. It would help both of them, wouldn't it?

All right. If she asks now, tell her now. If she doesn't... you have to get it out before you part ways. You have to. She needs to know what'll happen to her if she goes down the same path you did.

---

[Farm (inside barn)]

Were the children heading this way to get out of the rain? Ren Yangchao wondered how Seilaan would feel about seeing them here. Put pressure on her to be on her stiffest, most formal behavior probably. Then again, maybe she wouldn't be quite like that with another young person around.

"Trying to avoid what Mikio and I go through?" they said dryly. "Sometimes I do wonder if I should have taken that kind of route."

They took a sip of tea and added, under the breath, "My fault for caring too much."

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

[farm, inside barn]

'For caring'? Is that what they said?

Vince sat there stock-still. Not fiddling with his neck order, or checking his coffee, or deciding what piece of candy he wanted next. "However, I'm a stranger everywhere I go. A homeland that you have actual stake in and a proud heritage within reach are not to be taken lightly." He looked outside to find Lise leading the way. But she wasn't smiling?

The girls got a bit closer. Seilaan seemed to be wrapping her arm, but seeing how she was trying to run at the same time, she wasn't doing too well at it...

There was red dripping down her hand. Wounds on her other arm continued to bleed through the bandages, creating obvious red lines that tracked up and down her arm.

No... God, no... were those from self-harm?

He tossed his crap aside and got to his feet. "Miss Ren's hurt."

As he slipped his jacket off, two of his psychic arms reached straight behind him into portals, the fabric of space rippling around them like water. They emerged a second later with two cashmere cloaks, then jetted straight out the door and drew the hooded garments over the girls' shoulders.

He hung his jacket on a nail sticking out of a nearby support beam and strode over to a storage unit near the door, then retrieved a plastic first-aid case from one of its drawers.

---

[wasteland academy, some distance from the fountain]

As soon as the three ascended above the walls, Aunrei turned away, pulled a cigarette out, and got to lighting it with a little wisp of aither. Ahh... what the fuck?

A mermaid was emerging out of the fountain. A goth-looking one... with hair. In a desert. She looked around a bit, her gaze settling on Xeqa for a moment, then turned back to the fountain and started to summon something else.

Oh, shit... he hadn't breathed in a while. He narrowly managed to catch his cigarette before doubling over into a violent and probably terribly disruptive coughing fit. If Hana bitched about him smoking, he didn't care- he could burn his butts up regardless.

I'm aware the fish-lady doesn't look anything like a Disney-style mermaid, but she does slightly resemble merfolk from Aunrei's world in terms of general shape.

edited 21st Jun '16 5:37:02 AM by CrystalGlacia

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

[Farm – Barn (Min, Varris, Seilaan, Vince, Ren Yangchao)]

Min looked back at Seilaan with a scrutinizing gaze, trying to figure out just why Seilaan was bringing this up now, of all times. Was it a joke that she just couldn’t pick up on? Was Seilaan making fun of her, or something?

Or maybe she’s just trying to lighten the mood, thought Min, feeling slightly guilty for doubting Seilaan’s intentions. Finally, she said, “...Sure, if- if you want. We should get inside first, though.”

Min quickened her pace as they approached the barn, grabbing the cloak from Vince’s psychic arm and rushing inside, quickly muttering a “thanks” under her breath. As she walked into the barn, she wrapped the cloak tightly around Varris, who was still shivering weakly in her arms.

Min froze halfway into the barn, just now realizing that someone she hadn’t seen before was in the room: a tall person with black hair, dressed in white robes. They definitely hadn't been in the barn when Min first arrived in the dream. “Who the hell are you?”

Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...

Underworld

Recovering a bit from the shock, Caleb gave an afermatory grunt to Mazra's point about the star; and remembered something from earlier, "'sucks' or not, I'd prefer someone from my world not being stuck here." He looked around at the surfaces at various angles, "so how do we get around here? If we have to do that again I'm probably going to lose breakfast."

You say I am loved, when I don’t feel a thing. You say I am strong, when I think I am weak. You say I am held, when I am falling short.

Misery Manor - Upstairs Bedroom (Yamiko)

Yamiko stood in silence, staring at the door Lorraine was telekinetically placing back on its hinges^note actually it's Sinistrina having her will-o-wisps re-attach it, but Yamiko can't see that, nor can she see that it's actually a wooden bedroom door rather than a heavy steel prison cell door. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye - in the place where her father had previously stood, there was a fleshy pink tentacle rising out of the ground, standing erect, its point wriggling and pointing directly at her.

Yeesh, this reminds me of this really weird type of anime porn Gon told me about. What kind of a sick joke is this, placing it right where my dad was? She even stood with her thighs pressed tightly together upon sight of it.

And then she heard giggling behind her. Turning around, she could see Alice, the little girl who was actually her grandmother, being tickled in the face by a smaller tentacle sticking out of the ground. "Stop it, Dad, that tickles!" she was saying amidst the giggling.

Yamiko took a step backward, again being extra careful to keep her legs together. "Alice, get away from there!" she blurted out without even thinking.

Alice then tried to grab the tentacle, but it slipped out of her grasp. "Eww, it's all slimy!" Then she looked squarely at Yamiko, sitting on the floor with her legs apart (thankfully, Yamiko thought, she was wearing a simple dress that covered everything up). "I can't!" she remarked in an oddly happy tone. "My legs are stuck to the ground! Why are you worried about me anyway? You love your daddy, don't you? It makes no difference if I hate mine, does it? Oww!" The tentacle slapped her across the face, leaving a slimy mark on her cheek and tears in her eyes. "Don't worry though. I know where his stash of death caps is. It would be incredibly ironic feeding one to him, wouldn't it?"

Yamiko remembered something she read back in her high school biology class. The scientific name for a death cap mushroom was Amanita phalloides, so named for its phallic shape. She also remembered a Kenji Murakage's doctorate degree in mycology hanging in the hallway. If this person was Alice's father (and thus Celia's husband), then Alice was right - it would be a brutally appropriate killing method. But she did a double take. Did Alice actually poison her own father? Come to think of it, Celia could have assisted her with the murder, with Kenji's sexual assault of their daughter being a reasonable motive, and just maybe she could have cursed her family because of it. It still didn't make a lot of sense to her though, and was still very unsettling. She didn't even know whether Celia actually loved Kenji, for one thing. Why wouldn't she?

I feel like a detective solving a mystery... Yamiko thought.

And then she heard a different giggling behind her, one which she immediately loathed. Lorraine was floating with her back to the repaired door, her outstretched arm pointing to the side... right at the larger tentacle, as Yamiko glanced. But now the tentacle was black, and quickly shriveling.

"What? I'm helping!" Lorraine taunted. "You don't want this thing to tickle you, do you?"

Rage welled up inside Yamiko once more, except now that she had no door to pick up and shove in anyone's face (not that that would even work considering Lorraine was a ghost), she instead took out her Scanner, pointing its retracting beam right at Lorraine, putting her back inside of it. The tentacle returned to its original colour, but still looked shriveled and lifeless.

"I think I've had enough of this place," Yamiko seethed, as she mustered up her remaining self-control and opened the door calmly, not surprised in the least that it was unlocked. "And I think I've had enough of that sugar-coating witch. She gives me diabetes just looking at her."

Misery Manor - Upstairs Hallway (Sinistrina, Gabe)

Sinistrina put on a bemused smile at Gabe's retort. Who was he talking about? She was about to ask, but Gabe answered for her, making her smile even more pronounced. This "Lilith" was apparently now dead and in Hell, and it seemed to be a huge source of regret for poor little Gabe. Then he talked about the manor making him angry and being tempted to break the door down again. This caused Sinistrina's smile to stretch as far as it possibly could.

"You are most unusual," Sinistrina mused. "You have done something that happens only every other decade. You have made me happy." Her smile promptly faded. "If you could even call it that. Truth is, I'm not sure I even know what happiness is anymore." With a black-nailed hand, she beckoned her will-o-wisps back to her, a look of brief surprise on her face when she saw that they were purple again, and let them rest inside the skull dangling from her staff.

She blinked at Gabe a couple of times. "You really do remind me a lot of my sister, Dext- I mean, Lucina. She also had a knack for fashion, although her style was a lot more doll-like. She also had quite a temper. By now it is quite clear that you are not affiliated with her as I expected, but the resemblance is still most uncanny. Likewise, this Lilith..." She heaved a sigh. Though she opened her mouth to speak, no words came out, and when she closed it, her cheeks flushed a rosy pink for a bit.

"...Never mind," she finally spoke. "Anyway, I couldn't fathom how you thought Yamiko was addressing you in the first place, when I clearly heard her shouting at a French guy she called 'Mr. D'. Unless you actually are French and have a surname starting with D, I would think that the manor's curse is really starting to get to you. You've fought valiantly against it, but what will you do now? Will you run away to deal with this back in your own world? Or will you succumb to the manor's curse and face it yourself? Right now you seem... conflicted on the matter. One thing I do hope is that your anger is only with the manor, and not with me."

Just then, she saw a mildly agitated-looking Yamiko open the door, muttering something unintelligible under her breath^note Here Gabe might hear some things spoken by Lilith, and if he's really unlucky, he might even see her in place of Yamiko. She walked out of the bedroom and turned right to continue down the hallway.

"Oh dear," Sinistrina mentioned to nobody in particular. "She's headed right for... hmm, no, this will be interesting. I think as long as we keep a close eye on her, she'll be okay without any interference." She let her will-o-wisps out of her staff again and sent them hovering behind Yamiko, where they remained purple. "Well, at least it's a bit easier to see the way now. Right, Gabe?" She turned her head to face him.

edited 21st Jun '16 3:50:29 PM by ladytanuki

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

[Wasteland City] (Academy)

A small bird swooped down and snatched Aunrei's cigarette away from him.

"And you are a shortsighted fool," Hana said to Xeqa. "If you can't see beyond your immediate desires, then you are no better than the animals you are wearing. An empire, like a garden, requires tending and work - investment - else it devolves into chaos, and ultimately dies. Or haven't you discovered farming yet?" she said. "Lets say you 'use' your empire to its maximum potential, and everything is centered around you and what you want. Then you die. What happens next? I shall tell you: It collapses and you leave no legacy behind. Either your successors or the forces of time grind any remaining hint 'you' of into dust, and you are gone from history, just a brief and irrelevant moment in time, quickly forgotten by the future." She shook her head. "But I have tolerated your insolence long enough. Perhaps you had best crawl back into whatever cave you crawled out of and go back to living like a dog."

Despite the nature of her demands, Hana did not seem to have any plans on getting up off her bench. She still seemed quite relaxed, actually. She glanced over at the fish-woman who'd crawled out of her fountain and raised an eyebrow. "This place is the Hakoda Imperial Academy. It's also private property, and I don't recall inviting you here..."

Miyuki, meanwhile, seemed very frustrated. She hopped off the bench and stormed over to Xeqa. As she did so, the sky turned black, with an ominous shade of red at the horizons. The birds fell silent, the fountain's water stopped flowing, and the gentle breeze went still. Miyuki glared up at Xeqa, followed by her dark doppelganger, who now appeared quite solid and clear, though still quite shadowy, especially given the sudden darkness. "No one gets to talk to her like that," said Miyuki. "Not you, not anyone!" She pointed towards the gate. "Get out."

Not entirely dead.

[Misery Manor - Upstairs Hallway]

"Hungarian, not French," Gabe said. He began to trail Yamiko, from a safe distance. For the time being, he could at least ensure that she didn't get hurt. As if this manor would allow mere physical pain to rescue its victims. "Though you may have noticed a few centuries sanded off the accent. And I am not angry at you. Just remember," he turned to look straight into Sinistrina's blood-red eyes, "I have not pried too deeply into the story between you and your sister; if you start asking about Lilith, I may take that as permission to ask similarly probing questions about your own past." He turned back to face Yamiko, but after a moment paused mid-step apparently considering something. And then...

"Sinistrina," Gabe said, his voice oddly casual. "I just had a curious fancy. Assume I'm capable of doing so and killing anyone or anything that dares to try and stop me: is there really any reason I shouldn't," and here, he did not raise his voice — in fact, it became slightly softer, yet somehow far more intense, "level this entire manor once all its prisoners have been released?" It was what his friends upstairs wanted from him, and his previous concerns about preserving the delicate balance of light and darkness were rapidly losing traction.

[Wasteland City] (Academy)

Xeqa was about to respond, but the darkness surrounding her responded. Not with words, but a vision. The Eyes and Teeth looked into the (least avoidable possible) future of Hana's own world, and showed her, in cruel, visceral detail, the fall and ruin of her beloved nation, whether by enemies, by revolution, or in the grand scheme of things, by the inevitable caress of entropy and decay. At any rate, Hana would behold her all she worked for gone from history, just a brief and irrelevant moment in time, quickly forgotten by the future. (To ensure maximum damage, it would also briefly allow Hana to see time from its perspective, where little things like nations, planets, stars, even universes were brief, noisy embers.) It would not, however, reveal this in such a way as to allow Hana any information with which to avert the crisis, if indeed it could be averted. Xeqa couldn't make out the vision, but understood and remained silent, letting the Eyes and Teeth speak for her.

Instead Xeqa, after nodding at the newcomer, turned towards Miyuki's shadow, studying her, silent, considering, probing.

You need not say what exactly Hana saw. Just her reactions.

edited 21st Jun '16 8:01:46 PM by KillerClowns

Wasteland City - Academy (Hana, Miyuki, Xeqa, Aunrei, ???)

The fish lady furrowed her brow slightly at the uniformed woman's response. The name Hakoda was entirely unfamiliar to her. She took a quick glance back at the fountain she had emerged from; she had faintly remembered swimming in a particularly tumultuous ocean last thing she knew, leading her to think that either she fell unconscious and was now dreaming, or she discovered a secret portal to another world.

"Hmm, the name does not call true to me," she responded. "And I apologize for intruding - I assure you I arrived here quite by accident. However, as I am one of the Oradamin, I..." She stopped herself, suddenly realizing that this woman might know as much about the Oradamin as she herself did about Hakoda, "...acknowledge the existence of other worlds which might not have such a group."

She studied the clearly human woman a bit more, making out a faint energy halo around her, one that looked rather bright and strong, which to her suggested an air of pride and importance^note Yup, she's the third of my CDT characters with Aura Vision, the first two being Nemaforte and Lupin over in Frontier. Not surprising, given the way she mentioned not being invited. In fact, she had to wonder if she was in a similar group, though something seemed clearly different about her rank in whatever it was.

But before she could say anything more, she saw the surroundings darken. Looking up, she could see the sky quickly turn black. Her immediate response was to dismiss this as a solar eclipse (an unusually quickly forming one at that), but she couldn't see any blacked-out sun in the sky, nor any round celestial object for that matter. At this, she started to grow worried.

More so when she looked at the people around her, specifically the young girl with the shadowy presence behind her and the warrior with the shadowy presence around her. The former was glaring up at the latter, having just told her to leave, and a quick glance at her aura indicated frustration indeed... but also something else, some sort of mark that the fish lady had seen before, which indicated some sort of either a magical influence over them, or hidden yet often dark abilities. Given the presence of the shadowy being (with an aura matching that of the girl), she suspected the latter.

The warrior woman, on the other hand, had something far more peculiar going on. She had a more or less normal-looking aura around her (which also indicated frustration), but on top of it, the shadowy presence about her seemed much stronger, and on top of that was another aura, one that looked pitch black to her, which extended towards where Hana was sitting. She could tell that some sort of magic was being used on Hana, and from the blackness of the outer aura, probably not the benevolent kind. As if noticing this concern of hers, Xeqa turned her head towards her and nodded in acknowledgement, then turned to Miyuki, seeming more contemplative than frustrated now (though the outer black aura doing who-knew-what to Hana was still there).

The fish lady shot a concerning look at Xeqa for a moment before turning back to Hana. While facing her, she leaned the top of her staff in close to the military commander's face.
"Dia shibe, sio dranda la katea nova-ya!"
With the incantation, a bright white light filled the orb nestled in the black charm on her staff. and there was a stern resolve in her deep red eyes.
"Dore-ya!"

Retrieving the staff and holding it in the bend of her elbow (the light within it vanished), she abruptly clapped her hands right in front of Hana's face, snapping her out of the vision Xeqa had made her suffer^note Hana will probably see the vision for a few moments before having it cut short near the end - I'll leave exactly how much she sees up to Blackfire's discretion. And then, with quite surprising speed for someone who stood on fins, she leapt over to where Xeqa and Miyuki were and positioned herself right in between the two, looking back and forth between them, holding her staff at the ready beside her.

"My name is Durnem, and I am a member of the Oradamin," she announced, the concern over them not even knowing what that was not even crossing her mind in this dire situation. "As such, I cannot tolerate the casual use of such harmful magic. Now, if you will kindly explain what is going on, we can settle this peacefully." There was a very serious and stern look in her eyes as she continued to look between Miyuki and Xeqa.

edited 22nd Jun '16 3:11:14 AM by ladytanuki

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

[San Francisco] (Moreena, Lauren, Demo, Gon)

"Are you kidding me? You look more like an ordinary goth girl to me."

Moreena raised an eyebrow. "Hippies" and "goff girls"... How odd.

"I have to look like something, don't I?" she responded. "And I happen to like this body."

She shrugged, casually extending some of the inky black tendrils of her true form - clearly visible even to magic-less mortals given the rules of this particular world - into the air behind her.

"Convinced?" she asked, smirking a bit. Showing off to mortals in this fashion was somewhat beneath her, but it was entertaining every once in a while.

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

[Wasteland City] (Academy)

Curiously, Hana did not react to the vision. It would appear that the insidious message had fallen upon deaf ears... And thus, Durnem's magic was equally ineffectual, in that it counteracted something that had apparently effected no one. Hana's only reaction to Durnem's putting the staff near her face was a quizzical look, followed by "What in the world are you doing?" All this, perhaps prompting a closer inspection of Hana's aura...

Regardless, Miyuki was not content to be ignored. "Get away from me!" she shouted, weakly shoving Durnem aside. Then, to Xeqa, she said "If you don't leave, I will make you leave!"

And with that, her shadowy follower silently unsheathed its scimitar, which glimmered brightly, despite the dim lighting that now pervaded the academy grounds. What's more, others like it emerged from the darkened sky, all very similar but each with a different sword. They floated down to the ground without and noise and each drew their weapon. There were five of them now, with more on the way.

With this, Hana got up, and very nonchalantly headed up the path, towards the academy.

Not entirely dead.

Ruins (Cira, Gwenafer)

Neither of his two reluctant companions seemed as eager to get out of the place as Reynardo was. But then again, Rey was really eager to be out of there. He figured there was a strong chance he would have to deal with fire sooner rather than later, and even if this was but a dreamscape, he was not keen on dying in it.

The woman he had just found did not seem bothered by him at all. He heard her remark regarding silver bullets and fire, but did not respond to it. For one, Suri was still close by. More than likely the vampires already knew his weakness, but in case he was lucky and they did not, he was not exactly going to share it.

“The being of fire? I’ve never seen anything of the sort around here,” Rey said quickly to Cira. “If it has some connection to you, I would guess the dream conjured it.”

“Dreams are strange things,” Suri added, inching closer to Reynardo again. “Sometimes they show us that which we do not wish to see.”

His hearing was sharp enough that he did hear Cira’s comment to the woman, but he said nothing about it. It was fair enough. None of them had given the others reason to trust them. So instead of worrying about trust, Rey said, “I believe you should be more concerned about the psychic dead vampires that are likely trying to seal us into this building right now. Follow me.” He started off again, then came to a halt as some of the woman’s words hit him.

“A haugr? I have not seen one here, no. How exactly would one have gotten here?” Had this woman brought additional trouble on them as well? “Let’s just keep moving. We are easier to track standing still.”

The blood pouring and caking on Cira’s hand would pose a problem. They were dealing with vampires, after all. Their specialty was blood. Even Rey felt a slight draw to it, but he knew enough magic to note that something about Cira’s blood was off. With a gesture, he led the others farther into the pyramid.

Wasteland City - Academy (Durnem, Hana, Miyuki, Xeqa)

Instead of answering her, the young teenage girl just pushed her aside, threatening the warrior queen again. Behind her, her shadowy presence drew a sword, as did four others that suddenly descended from the sky. And the uniformed woman she had just cast the neutralizing spell on just walked away from it calmly.

In fact, looking around more closely, the whole scenario didn't seem quite right. Usually when Durnem cast any sort of spell, unless she was intent on concealing her involvement, it left a brief aural mark on its target. Instead, a few of her own aural fragments were just dissipating around her, indicating no effect at all. Moreover, her aura looked exactly the same as it did before Xeqa used whatever spell she did, meaning that didn't have any effect either. As for Miyuki and Xeqa, it was clear that they were angry at each other (Miyuki in particular was furious now), but Durnem had no idea why.

Judging by how Miyuki just shoved her aside (very rude of her, Durnem thought), she clearly wasn't interested in talking, so she turned to Xeqa instead.

"Did you do something to anger her?" Durnem asked Xeqa. "If so, she seems to be overreacting a bit much. Summoning is quite an advanced form of magic, after all... Though nothing I can't handle."

The aura around all of the sword-wielding shadowy creatures looked blood-red to her, indicating a dire warning and intent to harm. Durnem decided to keep a safe distance from both Xeqa and Miyuki for now, facing both the former and the latter's shadow knights at an angle, though being a bit closer to the former. Both were clearly capable of black magic, and she wasn't ready to take her chances, even if so far Xeqa seemed to be the victim here.

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

[Misery Manor]

A low warbling thrum shuddered through the house strong enough to faintly rattle the floorboards. A few moments passed before it sounded again, discordant and mechanical, like the feedback of some dark machine. There was something about that sound. Eerie, but in a way that no Human mind- or any mind remotely similar- could quite place. Complex, sublime, yet also tremendously primal.

It called without words, beckoning whoever might hear it further into the house, and no matter where in the Manor the listener was, it always seemed to be emanating from just around this next corner...

yey

The Underworld(Mazra,Caleb,Anoerith):

They... couldn't see the golden star? But... even telens could see it in the in-between, and telens were the only beings Ano was sure couldn't see it.

"You... try to keep your eyes on me then. A single distraction could send you to saints know where, if you are not careful. It will be... easier after we leave this in-between, if the Underworld is what I think it is."

Now, how to reach it? She had been in the in between before, but never ventured deep in it. It didn't help that solid ground seemed to exist only around her. Maybe if...

"Follow me.", she said, walking towards one end of the platform she constructed. As she did so, the shards in the platform's opposite side started breaking off and joining the deadly storm around. She began following the edge, fragments breaking off or assembling as she got further or nearer, but never expanding beyond a certain radius. That is, until she was halfway around the circle, and shards began to form a straight and narrow path, which she followed as the storm opened way for her. "Maintain focus. We may be here only psychically, but there are lots of places that will make you crack and snap and leave you to rot and rust before letting you wake up."

Intent on following her own advice, she looked to her left towards the lone golden star, and followed the path that appeared ahead of her. If one her companions spoke to her, she would not listen. If the path moved, she would not waver. If the Emperor struck her with his fiery javelin, she would not flinch. Soon the path began to curve and ascend, circling towards a shadow that blocked the stars and soon swallowed the sky. As they approached, the shadow took the form of a upside-down tower of immeasurable dimensions. For what could have been hours, or days, or maybe just a few incredibly long seconds, Anoerith walked towards it in the path that dissolved behind her and formed ahead. As they got closer, the metal storm grew thinner, weaker, and their raft grew narrower.

The mental effort to to anchor them was making Anoerith dizzy, tired, but they would soon reach their destination. It was impossible to discern much in the starlight, but as they walked closer, it became clear the building was not as uniform as it seemed. In fact, it was chaotic, full of smaller towers and bridges attached to its sides, and windows and gates leading into the void. The path Ano followed lead them to one of those bridges, which was made of iron and concrete, wide enough to let two carriages pass side by side, and had its sides framed by long iron rods atop of which rested glass bulbs, each containing a thin incandescent metal string. "Electric lights,", Ano said, "not the kind of thing most heroes encounter in their quests to mystical lands.". It made her relax a little, that they landed in a place that was closer to what she already knew. That is, before she heard the screams.

the post was supposed to be longer, but I think it would be better to let Mazra and Caleb react first.

edited 26th Jun '16 6:10:06 AM by EternaMemoria

"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."

[wasteland academy]

O-kay. Things were getting... well, he really didn't know what to call this. Nightmarish? But his was over quite some time ago. Somehow, a heated political argument had turned into some kind of threatening magical display.

Aunrei couldn't decipher what the shadow-things even were. He couldn't imagine he was particularly welcome here, either, and that they'd probably turn to him once they were done with Xeqa.

But could he even keep them away? His gun was probably useless, he sucked at combat sorcery, he couldn't run in this state...

Fuck it.

With that, he faded away, returning to the relative security of the waking world.

Not actually sure what he'd do here, so out he goes.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

Ruins (Cira, Gwenafer, Reynardo):

"You... said you heard something?", Cira said, glancing at the woman with suspicion in his eyes. Maybe it was the vampires, or maybe the burning one.

Cira was sure Reynardo lied when he said he never saw anything like it. Impossible, considering how often pyrokinetics were sent by the Empire or the greater houses to deal with anything remotely linked to dark magic, and from the woman's gear and her mention of fire and "blessed" salt, it was unlikely she hadn't seen any people on fire before. In fact, she made Cira uncomfortable at first, due to how prepared she seemed, how her weapon was obviously made to kill hexed beings, and also because of her glowing eye. Was she a pilgrim like him? A secret hunting, ash-dragging, tomb opening occultist? Or was she a mercenary witch-warrior, or worse yet, an archivist?

The look he found in her eyes made him postpone such questions, however. He knew that look well enough, it was the look of a person who never heard voices from within sepultures, never saw blood still fresh pooling inside trenches of a war from years past, and could never distinguish the faces of spirits from the shadows by the waves cast while crossing the Sea of Ashes. She was ready to deal with monsters or warlocks, but the powers the greatest of them dealt with were still unfamiliar to her, much like how a man shooting lightning from his fingertips was still spectacular, even after electric lights became common on the streets of the rich. Whatever spoke with her made her feel vulnerable, which meant Cira didn't have to fear her yet.

"Can you... walk closer to me?", he said, his expression softening a little. Not that it helped much, as it only made the contrast between his scars and his pale and all too smooth skin more obvious. "I am... I read those things better than most. Decayed data, silenced sounds, stray transmissions. I may pick some fragments, with luck.". As he spoke the pupil of his right eye seemed to get less distinct, as if his iris was bleeding into it.

He looked towards her for one more second, trying to read her essence. Her wound didn't seen deep, and he didn't feel any curse he could recognize. But then, Reynardo's wound didn't appear as remarkably deep as it should be, yet he was clearly supernatural, and Cira's sight was generally unpredictable, especially on the living. If Reyardo and Suri weren't as united with the Ruins as they were, Cira probably wouldn't have learned anything useful about them.

Without further delays, he resumed following Reynardo deeper into the ruins. Part of him hoped the woman wouldn't follow his advice. That part of him was afraid of her, and of Reynardo, and would rather try to find a way out alone, even if it meant walking through fire again. What if it was all a trap designed to get him surrounded and then attack as he prepared a ritual against an imaginary enemy? Suri was all too similar to Aian, and Reynardo's fear of fire was also not a good reason to trust him. That part of him kept on remembering the details of the weapon he intended to summon before being distracted by the newcomer's question, while the other part of him said aloud as he walked:

"You can call me Cira, if you care about names."

edited 26th Jun '16 8:29:36 AM by EternaMemoria

"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."

[Ruins] (Gwenafer, Reynardo, Cira)

Dreams? Psychic dead what? Gwenafer snapped back from the direction of the sound, focusing on the recently arrived strangers again. Something was seriously wrong with this place.

"Gwenafer," she answered the redhead, Cira, doing her best to hide the unease she felt. Something didn't seem entirely right about him either, and it wasn't just the wounds.

"You're a mage?" she asked. The relatively practical looking clothes might have fooled her, but that inquisitive look - clearly searching for something more than most normal folk would notice - did not. She'd seen the same look in Jann's eyes a dozen times over, usually right before something bad would happen. "What do you see then?"

She followed the others down the dark hallways, trying to catch up to the shorter man. Trustworthy or not, he seemed to know the way, at least.

"Hey, what did you say about the dead... whatever it was?" she shouted in his general direction.

"And the haugr's with me. Or she should be anyway. Probably off spending our payment at the local tavern, by my luck." She shook her head a bit. Varg would never do that, but still... "We came here together looking for the... looking for... for..."

She went silent. Now that she thought about it, what had they been looking for? How had she gotten here? Her memories on the matter were disturbingly fuzzy. Was Varg even here?

"Pale Lady's arse..." she mumbled. This was going to be one of those days, wasn't it?

Gwen's got a simple enchantment that makes her eye work, but nothing obviously supernatural beyond that.

edited 26th Jun '16 9:11:45 AM by Corvidae

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

[Misery Manor - Upstairs Hallway]

Gabe again paused, hearing the strange sound, his fans suddenly at the ready. "Oh my," he said, turning to Sinistrina. "Your manor continues to find new ways to toy with us. What, pray tell, is that wretched sound?" He raised an eyebrow. "It sounds like something some self-declared twenty-first century avant-garde artiste might insist is music."

[Wasteland City - Academy]

Xeqa shrugged and said to Durnem, "Was honest: dying for a nation is for simple minds. Like theirs. No need to honey words." She measured the fish-woman as she spoke. Didn't see a reason to make a new enemy yet. One thing at a time. "The woman," she glanced towards the academy, indicating Hana, "didn't like that." She looked over at Miyuki. "Girl doesn't either."

At this point, Durnem would notice something curious about the aura of Xeqa's "pet". The particular nature of the darkness — it wasn't really darkness, but most magical practitioners would see it as such — it wielded was a very specific sort. It wasn't the darkness of the night sky, beautiful and terrible, but the darkness of a scabrous sewer rat, its fur matted in shit; grotesque, diseased, vile, but as dangerous as it was disgusting. Oh, it was powerful and eldritch, but unless one was of a mind to be driven to awe by mere displays of raw, unrefined power, there was nothing in it to inspire.

edited 26th Jun '16 7:06:44 PM by KillerClowns

Misery Manor - Upstairs Hallway (Yamiko)

Yamiko walked down the nondescript dark hallway, silent, alone, emotionless (the latter a very odd occurrence for her). If there were an air about her, it was perhaps one of challenge.

What else will Celia throw at me? Already she has sent her daughter to explain their history, and has apparently used her husband's sexual exploitation of her to paint my father as a filthy pedophile. I might say this is merely useful information to me. Although, hesitation began to well up inside of her, just as soon as she thought it.

No sooner than that did she begin to hear music. It started as a low rumbling, but then gave way to a most sorrowful melody, courtesy of strings and a flute. And then some operatic vocals, of a language she did not understand^note It might sound similar to this, one of my own favourite songs... Yamiko froze. She recognized this song. And just as soon as she remembered it, she saw a lit stage before her, and upon it, a teenage girl in an elegantly simple black dress, with flowing crimson hair and black ballet slippers upon her feet.

She stopped. That's... that's me... At the talent show in high school... Although it was just under two years ago, she remembered it like it was yesterday, and now she was seeing it before her, and hearing that same melancholic aria she did her routine to. Instinctively, she began to walk towards her former self, entranced by the somber beauty of her performance. She had to smile a little as she admired it - she remembered hearing complaints from her instructor about leaving her hair down for this performance, but agreed upon it in the end because it was a sign of mourning, matching the tone of the song (which by the way, was also at her insistence, as her instructor had suggested something with a happier tone).

As the song continued, it builded in tone, becoming slightly more musically intense, and younger Yamiko's dance grew more elaborate and solemn, almost desperate, to match. And yet, there was a dissatisfaction in her eyes. A desire to convey her sadness even more drastically, which she vowed to do at the song's climax. And then came a quiet moment in the song, which she knew to be a brief musical lull just before said climax, during which younger Yamiko's body drifted about as if lost.

Current Yamiko's heart skipped a beat, and she knew she had to act. So she ran, right up towards the stage, reaching a hand out to stop younger Yamiko from trying that desperate act...

Until the floor gave out right before her, and she fell down a large shaft. As she did, agony surged through her, right from where her foot landed on the trap door, just as it did when it landed at an awkward angle during that fateful leap on that stage two years ago. As the stage view retreated from view, she could faintly make out her younger self continuing the dance anyway, flailing about while standing on her left foot, reaching out in surprise and pain disguised as grief and desperation.

And right when the song ended, younger Yamiko landed in a quivering heap on the stage, while current Yamiko landed in a quivering heap on something softer. That same sense of loss filled her... just like the woman who had lost her lover in that song, just as her younger self who knew she would never dance again.

Misery Manor - Upstairs Hallway (Sinistrina, Gabe)

Just as Yamiko was walking away from Sinistrina and Gabe down the hallway, a sound shook the manor. A deep, mechanical sound, as if from some ancient technological instrument. When it struck, Sinistrina's blood-red eyes narrowed. First the raven at the door, and now this? It was as if someone was playing some sort of prank on the manor.

Just as she was thinking of asking Gabe about this, he asked about it for her, and made a remark about 21st-century avant garde artists in the process. At this, Sinistrina couldn't help but smirk.

"It's music to my ears, that's for sure. Why, I seem to recall one or two of the zombies wandering about Necromere being former musicians, these dreadful tones being all they could produce anymore." Suddenly she remembered Gabe's pointed remark about not questioning her about her sister, and while her smile disappeared, she shrugged it off. "Honestly though, I could go on for hours about my sister and I. I just feel that given the present situation, there isn't much time for such tales. One thing I do know though," and here her eyes narrowed again, "is that this is exactly the kind of prank Lucina would pull."

She paused a moment when the odd sound came again, turning away from Gabe and staring longingly down the rest of the hallway, which had one more door leading off of it before turning a corner. Just then, a trap door opened right below Yamiko, causing her to fall down a long shaft below the floor. Entirely unperturbed by this, Sinistrina merely walked towards the edge of the shaft, staring down it.

"Incidentally, this shaft leads directly to the cellar," Sinistrina informed Gabe while peering over the edge. Quickly she sent her will-o-wisps after her... and as they descended, they darkened, until they turned black again. But when they reached the bottom, they flared up all of a sudden, flashing magenta for a moment before resuming their original deepest black. "And that means Yamiko is very close to encountering what she came here for. I think she shall be fine for now. Meanwhile, I should like to know exactly what the source of that sound is."

She led Gabe to the end of the hallway, where it split off in two opposite directions, each leading off at about equal distance before reaching dead ends. The hallway on the right, however, lead to two large and ornately decorated doors at the far end, whereas the one on the left ended at a blank wall. Both had several doorways leading off of them along the way. Behind them, the trap door in the hallway resetted itself, becoming just part of the rest of the old wooden floor.

"Funny, I can't tell where the sound is coming from now," Sinistrina wondered, looking all around for the source... before turning back to Gabe. Then she remembered his question about destroying the manor, and she froze in place for a bit. She blinked for a bit as she gazed into his eyes, but then she closed them and sighed. "Regarding destroying the manor," she finally spoke, "that would not be advisable. Remember how I warned you against leaving shortly after you arrived." She opened her eyes again, though she couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze. "I am afraid... that simply destroying the manor will not rid it of its curse. Said curse can dissipate, and possibly even spread throughout Necromere and beyond. Maybe..."

A peculiar thought occurred to her, and suddenly she met his gaze once more. For a moment her blood-red eyes did not look so tired, even though they still had bags underneath them. There was a gleam of intense interest behind them, somehow. "Maybe, there is a possibility it may even spread all the way up to Heaven itself and spark another war. That'd be a pity, really." She looked away at the last moment, down back over to where the trap door to the cellar lay - her will-o-wisps were just now hovering above it, but now they were red, the same hue as Sinistrina's eyes... which, upon meeting them, turned the wisps black again.

edited 27th Jun '16 1:43:53 AM by ladytanuki

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.