Training with Matthew
This time, when James went to swing the short sword, the sound of rushing air was augmented somewhat by a sound like some sort of boom. A large wave of blueish energy flew through the air along the arc of the sword, extending outward and striking the pillar. James would be able to see a far deeper gash in the stone pillar.
This time, Heather's attempt with such further diminished confidence resulted in a puff of smoke.
Matthew's attention for now was on the display Jayden made. The destroyed pieces of the pillar still let out black smoke that trailed off. Matt seemed to contemplate how to do this, and put a hand on Jayden's shoulder even as he seemed to get really excited by this, "After you get used to it, you won't need to rely on emotion quite so much. As for how you did, well, you discovered one of the routes to power. Basically, you channeled your negative emotions I'm guessing. Frustration among others. There's a path related to that, which I don't think you should proceed down. Negative emotions in conjunction with magic tends to attract the wrong kind of attention. There's a kind of Magic Specialization out there called a Fiendbonder that is at the end of this kind of rabbit hole. It uses negative emotions in order to bring Demons to the Fiendbonder, and then beats the Demons summoned this way until they consent to share a portion of their Mana Reserves with the Fiendbonder...that is, if the Fiendbonder wins. It's very easy for these people to end up Demon chow instead."
Sandfield, Darker
This time it seemed like the sudden movement managed to let Pablo see - in a sort of way - what was out there. A confirmation he may have wanted in the moment. But what he would see would be something gruesome even in the limited visibility. It was like a great discoloration, a bruise on the world. It blended in with the matter, foliage and air of the world around it...but it wasn't. It was a great and obvious lie.
He would be able to see, through the distortion of the world through the lens of its shape, that it was a great and unsightly beast. Long limbs - arms and legs two jointed but the joints up in the air due to the sheer length of the limbs. A squelching whipping tendril flailing from the end of each elbow and each kneecap. It walked with an unnatural waddle on the ground.
A large hairy mass of fur and something else on its back, lined with innumerable watery, pus filled tentacles constantly letting out sickening noises.
And glaring out of its face, identifying where indeed the face was, was about three pair of glaring red eyes at haphazard spots on its bulbous face, jaw hanging open and snapping shut like a pair of scissors.
Edited by NickTheSwing on Feb 2nd 2021 at 7:14:04 AM
An Ordinary Oddball
Mina Parker
"Whew..." Mina huffed, exhausted from all the swinging and the whacking of concrete columns that she had been doing up until this point. Indeed, there were a few small impact craters on her column. She looked over at Heather, seeming as if she were considering something. "U-Um...hold on a m-moment. C-Can I have a look a-at that spell r-real quick? I w-want to try it..."
Peering over Heather's shoulder by standing on the very tips of her feet, she felt like she had a general grasp of the wording of the fire spell already, since it was so short and strangely memorable. "A-Alright, thank you, H-Heather..." she said, nodding timidly, before going back to her own column and pointing at it with a finger pistol.
"I call upon the flame dwelling in the world, ignite and burn evil!" she commanded, imagining the words she spoke striking a flame in her hand, which would then act as a real firearm to discharge a beam of flame. Then, another phrase wormed its way inexorably into her mind, and she had a great urge to add it to her incantation. "Incinerate the lies I see!"
Because there had been a great amount of obfuscation surrounding Tom's death, Mina was tired of it all, and she was not about to pass up another way to fight those in charge of the conspiracy. Even if it did involve burning those involved like witches assuredly guilty of malice.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Feb 2nd 2021 at 11:30:21 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
Whoopsies
Mina would end up seeing a massive fireball forming in front of her. Larger and larger still, undulating and growing until it flew right at one of the unoccupied pillars and blasted it into a pile of burning rubble.
Matthew for his part went right from giving Jayden direction to looking around frantically, "Ohh shit!"
While it didn't spread owing to a lack of nearby flammable substances, what did happen was a fire alarm started to sound off.
Loud and blaring...
An Ordinary Oddball
Mina Parker
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!" Mina squeaked. "I didn't—I didn't—t-too much—I d-didn't mean to—sorry—"
Her inelegant blubbering continued much in this way, while she waffled to and fro while waiting for the sprinklers to come on. When it was clear that the sprinklers were either late in activating or entirely defunct, she began to panic even harder.
"D-Do we scatter? The a-alarm's going off! Oh my Gooooooood! D-Dad will be so angry if he f-finds out about this!" she exclaimed, peeling off from the main group in an attempt to reset the fire alarm on the wall. "Do y-you think we should scatter? If the p-police catches us, w-we'll be..."
The look on her face conveyed that she did not want to finish that sentence.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Feb 2nd 2021 at 11:30:36 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
Hello? Hello, hello?
Merry Winston, Oh Shit
Merry was continuing on kicking her pillar when Mina accidentally turned on the fire alarm by causing a fire.
"....oh crap." She muttered.
Well shite. That's.. Something. Didn't knew that Mina was powerful enough to do... That.
She panicked for a bit. "So, uhhhh.... What now?"
artsy geek | any pronouns | "well, if you're hearing this, then chances are you've made a very poor career choice."
End of Training with Matthew
"Alright, alright...everyone, keep calm!" Matthew announced, and then crossed his arms, thinking and biting his lip. That was really not expected. He didn't hold it against Mina - she seemed just as surprised as everyone else, and probably had no idea she was so capable. Well, this required some improvisation. Making sure everyone was still there...
Duane stayed by Mina as the plan was announced.
Matthew stated aloud, "Alright everyone, leave the building in teams of two. Don't head home by yourselves and don't let on that anything's different..." He looked around, "Stay away from the main roads and any police cars, and if anything fucked happens while you're heading home and nobody's endangered, don't get involved."
Matthew looked out the front door, "I'll make a distraction. You guys run for it."
An Ordinary Oddball
Mina Parker
"O-Okay...come on, D-Duane!" Mina gasped, not even waiting a few seconds to see if he was following along before bolting out of the door to the factory and onto the streets after she'd hurriedly shoved her bats back into her backpack. Her instincts and reasoning were a bit scrambled, after all.
She hunched her head and tried to breathe slowly to calm herself down. If she ran now, it would only be more suspicious. She was dressed respectably, she told herself, and it would deflect any more suspicion if she didn't act panicked. Still, she looked over her shoulder with considerable unease, which might multiply if Duane was nowhere to be found...
Edited by JumpingFruit on Feb 3rd 2021 at 1:51:00 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
Fwomph
Heather was already going to get depressed at the little puff of smoke that her spell manifested, but with Mina coming over and performing the spell well enough to blast the fire alarms into action to bring the training to a close, Heather gave into the salt.
"Wow! Okay! Cool, guess we're done for today. Guess I'll go home and think about how screwed I am given I can't do magic, thanks!"
Without even waiting for someone to join her under the buddy system, she started walking away back towards home.
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
Hello? Hello, hello?
Abandoned Factory
"..alrighty." Merry mumbled.
She walked out of the factory. She was half-tempted to run the fuck out of there, but she decided against it.
artsy geek | any pronouns | "well, if you're hearing this, then chances are you've made a very poor career choice."
Surrounded by weirdoes
Pablo could see the world distort, as if he was seeing things through... a kaleidoscope? He couldn't even imagine a good analogy for all this. The world looks... broken.
Of course, everything goes out of the window when he could see the horror in front of him. His blood seemed to freeze on his veins as the murderous beast wanting to eat him. There was plainly nothing right about this thing. It was a mockery of nature. There were many ways to describe it, but even then, it might fall short.
"You are one ugly motherfucker" Pablo managed to say, not even realizing the words were out, or how bad a time to quote a movie it was.
Backing away, bumping a tree, he could feel his own heart's beating like it was a war drum.
His mind seemed to be in fast forward and slow motion at the same time. If he wanted to get out of this one, he'll need his body to be up to the task.
Wake me up at your own risk.
The Light That Blinds
Jayden
"Fiendbonder," Jayden murmured, putting a finger to his chin. "Interesting. I'll have to do more research later." As he talked, he started sliding off his backpack. "Need to write all this down, too—"
And then Mina set the place on fire.
Jayden stared at the burning rubble that used to be a pillar, the fire alarm blaring loudly as everyone freaked out. "Welp!" he said, pulling his backpack back up. "Everything's on fire, that's my cue to leave. I'll see you guys tomorrow, have a nice day!" And with that said, he dashed out of the warehouse and started heading back home.
Which, incidentally, meant he was walking next to Heather.
"That was wild," he said. "Magic's real, we're learning how to do it, and I was right about everything!" Jayden beamed. "Best day ever."
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
James had been rather hoping to continue developing his newly gained faculties. He had several questions to ask Matthew about the nature of the magical world. That would not be possible now that the police or worse were likely to be making their way to the factory at any moment. James wasn't really sure what to do with the sword, but eventually decided to simply leave it lying on the floor, there was't really any other option He motioned to Dave as he left the factory "Hey man, if we're gonna be splitting into groups then you ought to come with me. Especially since you have the car, it's a long way back to town"
Fwomph
Heather let out a little disgruntled groan as she found out the conspiracy guy was walking with her right now. But, it passed enough for her to at least try for conversation.
"Yeah, you utterly trashed a pillar by getting angry. Meanwhile it turns out I can't do magic. So hey maybe I'll be like... Your little super team's home base nerd coordinating efforts. Like a freakin' Barbara..."
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
Escaping the Building
Matthew led the way out of the building, kicking the doors open and looking around. He could spot at least enough routes the teens could use to get back to their safe havens and homes. It was just on him to make sure they had a distraction - something nice and long, able to hold the attention span of the fake police.
"Alright, we're out. Pick your route and stick to it..." Matthew started making an oddly ornate looking sword in his right hand, the two sided blade divided in two, one side seeming to have an odd steamy quality to it, as if it contained air somehow, and the other was crackling with pronounced electricity.
"I'll see you guys soon. If you have any questions about magic or anything, send a text message my way and I'll get back to you about it." Matthew didn't seem too worried about his own ability to handle what the police could deal out.
Sandfield, Darker
And then the creature started moving - bounding and leaping forward over anything in its way, crawling at a surprising speed toward Pablo. Its tongue lashing at the ground, long and thin and ending in a hook-like biological structure. It seemed not entirely familiar with the human world, and as it moved toward him, its tendrils suddenly going taut and slimming...
As Pablo passed a tree, he'd hear a whirring noise as one of the creature's many tendrils lashed out and cut the tree down behind him.
This however would prove to be an oversight, as the tree instead fell in the creature's path, necessitating a leap over it as it continued following Pablo.
However as he made his escape, mind racing, he would hear something; "C-Can you hear me? Can you hear me? If you can, go over a bridge crossing a river. He can't cross flowing water!"
Surrounded by weirdoes
Pablo avoided getting sliced into pieces, but whatever that thing is, it's no joke. No time to check himself for injuries, but he wouldn't be surprised if he got some kind of cut or bruise, even if it was just a brush. Leaping aside to keep the distance, he picked something up.
A voice spoke. Shier, quieter than he would think he could listen now.
A river? He thought. If he was right, the river was in...
He threw the rock or dirt to the creature. God, it was hard to aim for something you can barely see directly without weird nausea. Hopefully he got it on the face as he ran for his life once again.
If nothing else, he'll have broken his own records after this is done.
Wake me up at your own risk.
An Ordinary Oddball
Mina Parker
Mina shivered and pulled her blazer tighter around herself as she made her way home. While she walked, she pulled out her phone and sent another text to Matthew.
Then she put her phone away and kept walking.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Feb 7th 2021 at 11:42:12 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
The Light That Blinds
Jayden
"I mean, it's probably not that you can't do magic," Jayden said. "You were probably just not...confident, enough. Maybe you have to believe in yourself. Or maybe you can do a different type of magic. I can send you the link to Ghost House, there's a lot of experts there!"
"And, um, it wasn't exactly anger. It was more..."
Envy.
He didn't know why he wasn't comfortable with saying it.
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Fwomph
Heather was torn between continuing her little angsty pout session or actually hearing Jayden out on this. Eventually, the more practical response won out and she let out a wavering breath as she calmed herself.
"I don't think I've really got it in me to believe in myself like that. But... Sure, send me a link to your conspiracy buddies and I'll look into magic classes."
She did that hands-behind-head thing, you probably know what it looks like.
"Promise ya though, I'm not gonna be making any kinds of pacts or picking up a religion. That could mucho backfire for all of us."
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
James and Dave that day would find that they made it back to the car well enough, and it seemed whatever distraction Matthew created, it was effective.
Merry would likewise have no trouble making it home.
Jayden would likewise find his way home after a short trek back with Heather.
However as Heather started working her way home, she would see a figure walking behind her after a short while. He didn't however give off the appearance of a cop. He was a mid forties Japanese businessman, somewhat heavy set in a stronger way than usual. He was dressed in a fancy black business tux - and even wore gloves. His hair was slicked back and seemed slightly receded. If Heather looked at his neck, she would be able to see the slightest hint at a tattoo.
"Excuse me, girl." He spoke in a gravelly tone, "Do you have the time?"
At first, as Mina and Duane proceeded home, Duane was right behind her, but then as some police cars drove by, Duane seemed to vanish while he was hiding himself away. As Mina continued on, she would be able to see some police cars parked close by the street leading toward her home. A couple police officers - burlier than usual and not wearing body cams - walking around as if they were maintaining a perimeter.
Sandfield, Darker
The creature's lashing tongue was either closer than it seemed, or Pablo was just able to hear that grotesque, whip-like fleshy thing searching for something new to eat. Its long limbs crawled and cut up the ground underneath it, even as it hopped over anything that ended up in its path. It snarled and hissed as it got detritus chucked in its eyes.
A distraction that more than opened enough time for Pablo to crest a slight hill and gain on the small river going through the area, heading toward the man made lake.
When he crossed the bridge, it would seem for a moment nothing immediately pursued him...
...
...
And then it was barreling right over the hill at breakneck pace, more of it visible as it closed in on Pablo all at once. He would be able to see the grotesquely overgrown, tangled black hair growing out in massive tufts from its back. The tendrils whipping the air between the tufts. The bulbous, multiple eyed head - silvery, milky color between bloodshot veins.
Its claw had seven digits on it, huge nails erupting from flesh that could best be described as looking like it was boiled and constantly pulsating—- and then it stopped, barely an inch past the start of the bridge.
Its flesh started letting off incredibly painful looking steam as it tried to push through something evidently only it could see. Hissing, snarling and snapping its scissor like jaws open and shut. Blood curdling and gushing out of the arm outstretched.
But it could not breach that inch. Something forbade it from crossing flowing water, indeed.
It leaped backward, injured arm bubbling and oozing as it slowly repaired right in front of Pablo's eyes. And then it slowly started to disappear again. As if it was just—-not existing any more. Fading away. Like it was some mad specter rather than a thing that had physically existed, and torn up the ground demonstrably so as it gave pursuit.
Pablo would then hear that voice again, "Whew, whew...you're safe. I've been...I've been dodging that thing for I dunno how long in here. You're...you're the first person I've been able to see! It's like I'm...I'm in a weird version of reality. Oh uh, m-my name's Tom. Tom Winters."
An Ordinary Oddball
Mina Parker
Mina froze as she beheld the scene, and swore silently as she found that Duane was no longer following her. She couldn't call her father now, since it would most likely tip him off if whatever this was had connections to the cult in the woods. Nobody here was able to help. But...
Mina set her phone to recording and put it in the pocket of her blazer. Since she realized that the light indicating as such would give her away if she ever had to do such a thing secretively, she had already taped over it. Then she started walking, drawing herself up to her full height—not much, but it was the thought that counted—and stepped towards her home, feeling the crackle of magic underneath her skin forming a makeshift shield of determination.
If she was attacked here, so close to home, her father would have her assailant's heads. It was more likely that they expected someone to be with her, but Mina was not so foolish as to look around for Duane and give him away. If she tried to sneak around it would only make her look more suspect. The only way out was through.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Feb 8th 2021 at 12:25:05 PM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
Fwomph
Heather Smythe - And Also This Dude
The appearance of someone else on her walk (following her, the paranoid words in the back of her head said) caused Heather to flinch, scrambling for her phone to get the time and if need be begin a voice call to the first friend on her contacts list...
"Evenin'. Almost seven. Now if you'd kindly add a little more personal space, I'm feelin' sniffly. Six feet, all that."
She gave look she hoped would be sharp enough to mask her dread and turned her attention back to her phone.
"And don't even think about tryina grab me. My dad's a determined man and knows every punk in town... Also, I'm quite of the disposition to stab first."
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
Surrounded by weirdoes
Taking a moment to recover his breath, and wits Pablo tried to get it together get the freaking rush hour on his head to at least make a lick of sense.
"For a given value of seeing" He grumbled to the voice "That thing gives a headache. And not even a mother could love that mug"
At least he could trust his own two legs. Whatever else, he could only count on his own body. And his own ability to fight like a demon.
The name brought his attention. He had to handle this carefully.
"The kid that went missing" He said slowly. Well, that was the wrong thing to say "Thanks for the help, by the way. Might have been able to keep randomly running around the place, but that plan never works out. I am Pablo Martinez Olivares" He introduced himself. "For what's worth, we go to the same school"
"Are you OK?" He asked, trying to be nicer about it "What does it look over... wherever's there?"
If nothing else, he might be able to pass a message to the so-far dogless Scooby Gang. Might be getting himself too involved, but that's one fall he'll figure out how to survive later.
Edited by Blueace on Feb 8th 2021 at 7:34:26 AM
Wake me up at your own risk.
After bidding farewell to Dave, James unlocked the front door of his house with the key he kept in his pocket and went inside. Once in his room, he pulled out his phone and began to type. "Hey Matthew I have loads of questions for you"
"First, just generally what is going on, not just in Sandfield, but also in a more cosmic sense?"
"Demons clearly exist, but what exactly are they (fallen angels, manifestations of mankind's evil, reincarnated sinners etc)?
"How do spells work, are the arrangements of words inherently powerful or is it just the thought behind them? If the latter is true, why are older spells generally more powerful?"
"How integrated is magic into the structure of the world and society at large, are there loads of wizards and evil gods all over the place, or is Sandfield particularly anomalous?"
"Who in town can we trust? Obviously Kellon, Kenneth White, Mina's dad and their ilk are bad news, but what other figures are in on this whole thing? Corpheus for example, the others seem to like him but he gives seems to me like a real Jim Jones type."
"For that matter, how do we know we can trust you? No offense meant, it's just we have absolutely zero knowledge of the situation and therefore no real way to evaluate how trustworthy anybody is (not that you've really given us any reason to distrust you so far)."
Texting
Matthew stood in the middle of the outside area of the factory, now looking out at a whole mess of unconscious "replacement policemen". They didn't change or turn gruesome at all, so it looked like whatever they were, they weren't likely with the guys he'd been investigating. Creating Stormruler had made such a drastic wind situation that it rendered these guys unconscious. If they had been members of the Cult, then that would've resulted in any passengers being made manifest...
...however.
He did see tools he was familiar with on them from the Mikinomi Family - a bunch of anti-magic crusaders and fundamentalists. So it looked like more than just the cult was involved here.
Then he got a number of text messages from James, responding thusly;
I've fought a lot of demons. The mythical variant that exist down in the bad place. And the kind that serves the Gods. The former consists of manifest human sins and fallen angels. The latter are Pure Mana beings made by the Dark Gods, humans transmogrified, and other critters that just exist in the realm of the gods.
It's a mixture of it, really. Your connection to Mana and recitation of these words, but early on your belief really pushes your ability to use mana. Over time, it becomes like second nature. Not even needing to strongly believe x or y.
I've been around. It's not just Sandfield. As soon as the rest of the Masquerade wholly fails, the world is gonna get a whole lot messier and a whole lot more magical. The appalachian mountains are just nasty with dragons.
Kellon, Mina's Dad and Jackson's Dad are all uber bad news indeed. Corpheus...I haven't ever really seen anything bad from him, but keep wary.
As for how you can trust me, I've been involved in fighting off bad stuff in Sandfield for a while. I can provide my record per the Mage Association. I'm like a Magic Side Cop, just...way more accountable.
Pablo and Tom
"Wow...we do? I never saw you around."
"It's like...a weird version of reality, constantly swirling, metamorphosing and changing, but a few things are relatively constant, like a base line. There's certain places the bad things can't go. Like over rivers. But not all of em. I saw Dhakar stride right on over a river no problem."
Tom then seemed to realize something, "Oh...oh dammit, the connection—-going. Can't—-keep—-connect—-"
And then Tom seemed to lose his connection to Pablo.
Heather on her way home
"Ah, my apologies, young lady. I didn't intend to make you feel quite so uncomfortable." But then when Heather spoke that toughly, it just resulted in the older Japanese man bursting out laughing. Continuous, merry and strangely bemused laughter. As if he found what she was saying amusing rather than threatening to him in the slightest.
"Then I imagine I might know your father, if that's true."
He then kept walking past Heather, and by the time she got home, it seemed the awkwardness of the encounter was just that. Awkwardness. Things seemed to settle in for the evening.
At least, until something happened.
A knock at the door. Tap tap tap tap, the sound of bare knuckles knocking on the door of the house.
Mina and Cops
"Excuse me, maam." One of the cops approached Mina, and looked at a notebook held in his belt. He seemed to grin somewhat oddly, and then said, "We would have to ask that you stand by. We have a suspect matching your description logged, and we'd like to ask you a few questions."
The other cop however just chuckled lowly, and said, "Best just cooperate as you should, citizen. We have good cause in this case for forcible apprehension of a suspect."
Both looked at each other and chuckled again.
Jayden
The pillar cracked...and then fragmented...and then crumbled, leaving behind nothing but a small pile of dust. Jayden stared at the pile, first in shock...and then in excitement.
"I DID IT!" he cheered, jumping in place and grinning widely. "I can do cool magic stuff! Did you guys see that? I punched it, and the whole thing just went down! I don't even know how I did that, but I love it!"
He eagerly dashed up to Matthew, practically bouncing on his heels. "How'd I do that? Could I do it again if I wanted to? What sorta magic stuff was that I really need to write all this down!"
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."