Surrounded by weirdoes
Pablo just sighed at this whole thing.
"This is gonna end badly, isn't it?" He asked, dreading the answer. "Is it bad that I want to know whether there are some dumbbells around? Need to lift some tension"
Wake me up at your own risk.
Xander breathed a sigh of relief when the others here took the concerns seriously. He was worried for a second after saying his piece that—-well. He'd said it himself, really. It showed why adhering to that idea so extremely wasn't any way to live. "Thank you, all... I think it would indeed be wise for us all to go to the roof to make sure that nothing happens."
He glanced over at Mina, smiling briefly at her.
Tom for his part got up and nodded, "Oh, it's fine. Nothing any of you or Xander have to blame yourselves for. As soon as this is done with, we can get back to eating...hey, Parallaxus?"
"Yeeeeeeeeesss?" The dragon answered.
"Can you just kinda...mind our food?" Tom asked.
"Sure thing~!" A couple of odd laughs and the machine avatar slid along the table and planted its head right by the food and drinks. "Nothing's getting past yours truly!"
Matthew got up - rather impressed by how Tom was taking to all of this - and began following the group to the roof. He remained quiet, arms crossed, admitting this was probably all to do with his failure to mind the mental state of Heather. She'd gotten it into her head somehow that she could launch a one woman crusade against...the state of the multiverse, really. He just hoped he could preempt any actions up there if the numbers factor didn't work.
For a moment, Jackson swam in front of Kyle, trying to keep himself from blushing as red as a tomato. He was confident, cocky even, and he'd gone out with just so many women - and men - before. Why was trying to do something with one guy getting him tongue-tied? He tried to come up with one of his many lines from the circuit parties...but saying those things just seemed to fail on him.
Eventually, Jackson managed to say, "I—-I wanna kiss you, bro. I mean, if that's okay."
Fuck, what's wrong with me?
A single moment looped endlessly in James' mind. They were back fighting the Demon Beast, it exhaled a cloud of acid, and Heather ran straight into it. Then there she was, prostrate on the floor, her flesh half made liquid. She must have been able to see that outcome, she must have, but for some god damn reason, one he would never understand, she had done it anyway. What was happening now, James knew, it was just the same thing in slow motion. He wanted to believe she could make it by herself, break the heavens in two with a pair of dollar store sunglasses, but it was bullshit, pure self delusion. At the end of it all, they would be lucky if Heather was the only casualty.
"Honestly, I fear we'll all be the worse for this."
He sighed to himself and headed for the roof.
Edited by bobbitwormhobbitwyrm on Feb 3rd 2023 at 11:25:03 AM
The Light That Blinds
Jayden
Kyle blinked. Several times. "Oh. That's...sudden."
"At least buy him dinner first!"
Kyle whipped his head to glare at Jayden, who had clearly started paying attention at some point and now had a shit-eating grin on his face. "What?" he said faux-innocently. "You can't just whip out the first kiss on the first date!"
Kyle facepalmed. "Okay," he said flatly. "So that my brother doesn't make fun of me for the rest of eternity...how about dinner?"
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Surrounded by weirdoes
Pablo sighed "Whatever happens next, just try to not get the place set on fire, we are guests here" He said, resigned and going up.
Making sure to thank for the meal, he at least hoped that Heather knows what the hell she wants to do, or else this is only going to end in tears.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Fwomph
Bar Bizarre, The Roof: Heart To Heart
The roof is like an arena.
It's wide open and a bit barren: smooth murky glass pierced by beams of light and a couple HVAC boxes that could be cover in an emergency, all ringed by a not-tall-enough ledge that Heather sits on at the far side of this distended and elongated roof. She sits with her back to the stairs, staring up at the strange and uncanny night sky of this spatial bubble. One hand is held tight to the ledge, likely for safety; the other is holding tightly to her pair of triangular black sunglasses.
"So. You're clearly aware of what the Umbral Horde does. Or... I guess, the piece of it that has rotted the roots of this town."
She doesn't turn to look at whoever approaches, her attention is rapt upon the stars above (or else she's just facing away for dramatic effect).
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
Surrounded by weirdoes
Pablo just sighed at this, but took a moment to keep his bearings, he didn't want things to get ugly too fast. "Yeah, they suck"
"So, you are planning a war?" He asked, trying to get the cards on the table "Make sure you know what you are getting into, because it's not something you'd be able to take back" He commented.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Xander
A quick glance around, and then over at Heather. The shape of the area, the nature of the "invitation", and her behavior...yeah it was pretty clear to him what was probably intended in this. Crossing his arms, Xander leaned back and nodded, "I'll admit, a lot of what we've done, if I had any kind of command, I wouldn't have done. What happened at the gala was...especially bad. I failed to pick up on anything. We...we really have done wrong by you guys."
"But I can't change what's been done, and I can't help but feel like my objections to the choice of Scion, and what the plan most likely is...it'd just be words in the wind," Xander shook his head and looked around, "A lot of what's happening now built up over time. Two wrongs definitely don't make a right, and having known you guys better, I don't support what my comrades do. Many of those I know have long, long memories of purges - my fellow Umbral teens have been chased out of homes, heckled, assaulted and attempts been made to pry them from their parents. Attempting to talk them out of their course at this point..."
"I could try," Xander shrugged, "And I'm willing to try my hardest, for Mina, but I'm just one man in the face of something...a lot bigger."
Edited by NickTheSwing on Feb 9th 2023 at 6:20:40 AM
Fwomph
The Rooftop, The Resolve
Heather visibly flinches as she hears the voices, clearly from everyone that she didn't invite up here talking but as Xander launches into a speech she leans a little bit as though focusing on his words. It's only once he's finished that she sighs audibly and speaks while getting up from her seat on the ledge.
"... I told him to come alone. Wanted this to be a private thing, him and I."
Once she's no longer seated she turns and walks towards the group with an absolute power strut, still clutching her sunglasses as though they are the most important thing in the world.
"I was gonna ask him, with all he knows about the stupid evil stuff Kellon's flock does and the fact that he knows that there's factions that don't, whether he was going to remain with the people responsible for ruining this town or if he was going to be a better man and fall in with kinder folks. And he's given his answer..."
A pause, both in word and step, Heather lifts up the glasses and stares at them for a moment before shaking her head and slipping them to hang out of her front shirt pocket.
"I respect it. I still have a couple problems with it, but I respect it. So uh... Yeah. I guess you're cool enough to hang with the Investigation Club."
And there it is, that cocky smile.
"Man, I went to all the trouble of finding a cool place to have a mage duel and Xander turns out to be enough of a dork to not need it! Talk about anticlimactic..."
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
For once, things had actually gone better than James had expected. Heather was still Heather, but it looked like she was capable of compromise. Maybe he had been too quick to judge.
"I spoke about trust earlier, but I clearly haven't been so great on that end. I should have had more faith in your judgement. That's on me"
Edited by bobbitwormhobbitwyrm on Feb 12th 2023 at 5:56:27 PM
"Well, all's well that ends well, I guess." Matthew stated, looking around the area. Maybe he had kind of misjudged the situation - but it never hurt to be more safe as opposed to sorry if something happened. A fight at this point could fracture the group beyond repair especially considering how close Mina and Xander were. For whatever else Xander was, to Mina, he was her boyfriend.
"Let's head back down. Hopefully Parallaxus has some stronger stuff. I know I need it tonight." As Matthew led the way back down into the club however, the Investigation Club would be met with a rather alarming sight.
Parallaxus seemed to have...somehow...generated a massive flatscreen TV resting on the counter where he acted as bartender. It wasn't plugged into anything at all, yet it was displaying some sort of news reel that even from a distance sounded alarming, confused and frightened.
Many of the other guests were gathered around the area as well, all staring at the broadcast.
One of the guests, a broad featured, golden blond haired young man in a dress shirt and black pants, his hair cut in a slightly disheveled style, had his arms crossed and said derisively, "...What a lunatic thing to do, especially at this point. To think he'd actually do it..."
Another, an Egyptian woman in her mid-twenties with a pair of dazzling red blue and gold wings imitating a cape upon her back, shook her head, "...The poor dears in that city...what barbarian would kill in such a fashion?" She seemed dressed in more traditional, downright ancient attire as opposed to her fellow.
Unknowing of what was going on...
Jackson just paused in the lake. He realized that not everyone was probably down with how things just...seemed to go in the circuit party lifestyle. Usually, a first meeting was at least a kiss. But he nodded and said, "I—-uh, yeah - yeah, dinner sounds good. I'm looking forward to it."
He then looked around and asked, "So uh, until then, how about we enjoy our swim, maybe do some wrestling, I'm pretty sure my friends are gonna bring out some food sooner or later."
Edited by NickTheSwing on Feb 15th 2023 at 8:56:48 AM
The Light That Blinds
Jayden
Kyle nodded. "Yeah. Sounds good." He cast an annoyanced glance over to Jayden, who was still grinning. "Now will you stop?"
"Sure thing!" And with that, Jayden closed his eyes and lied back on the grass, basking in the soft glow of sunset and the knowledge that everything was finally, finally right with the world.
Life, Jayden Gardner decided, was pretty good.
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Walking down the stairs, James found the sense of relaxation he'd been striving for all night. Unfortunately, the universe seemed intent on making things more interesting. His heart started pounding in his chest as soon as he saw the gathered crowd. It was obvious that something very bad had just happened.
"I'm sorry to draw attention but I wasn't present for the announcement" he said apologetically "What's going on?"
Surrounded by weirdoes
Pablo took a moment to look at the room, tensing up for a minute.
"Makes me think someone collapsed on the pitch" He commented. Perking up his ears, he could tell someone really crossed some kind of line. But what? He felt the need to brace for impact.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Fwomph
Heather And The Aftermath
Heather was feeling pretty good after how the little talk on the roof went. Oh sure her allies had betrayed her wishes but at least she knew where Xander stood and where he was standing was acceptable to her. Of course, now that the squad had come back down to the main bar there was clearly some commotion going on.
"Hey, Matthew?"
Heather gestured at the big screen.
"How are your Masquerade Mind Mages gonna cover up that?"
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
the beginning of the end
Matthew just stood there, stunned for a moment, completely taken off guard - it was clear this was something completely and totally outside his realm of expertise. Something he had not even remotely expected. "W-Wha—-? What's...?" He just stood there for a moment flabbergasted. It occurred to him that the crowd gathering included not just these two - friends of his - but also the concerned faces of former foes.
"What's going on?" Matthew asked the disheveled blond young man standing by the TV. A tone present that indicated the two of them had history.
"Ah, Matthew! Warms my heart to see you again, though I do wish this could've happened under more pleasant circumstances..." The other man said, "A terrorist attack, utilized mana cells hooked up to a nuclear device."
The Egyptian woman cupped her chin and turned slightly, "Sheer barbarism! That city was reduced to flames and ashes on glass..."
Parallaxus piped up, "Dubai...Dubai went bye-bye..." He said in a whispered voice, not even dropping the famous mouse-like vocal inflection on this, "Everybody died. They're about to say whodunnit."
The voice of a reporter seemed to ripple through the huddled group of magic users, eyes wide with anticipation. "We have the story live for you now - Dubai in a scene that will live in infamy across human history has been leveled by a strange device with an energy signature unfamiliar to all trained observers. We have a release from the man claiming to be the culprit..."
The room immediately went dead quiet, "The culprit is the leader of the Ephas Abjuration Cult, Justin Henderson. He claims that this is merely the first of many "centers of wealth" that will be subjected to complete destruction. We will keep you updated as the story progresses. The exact location of Henderson...remains unknown." The reporter seemed completely disgusted - and sounded completely defeated.
The broadcast then started on opinion pieces from other newscasters...and one rather disturbing bit stuck out.
One panelist said he "had it on good information" that Henderson did all this with "some form of Magic". And that "this witchery demands a thorough investigation".
At once people started glancing around the room. The Masquerade was well and truly dead at this point. Whatever came next would be something new. A completely unpredictable series of events not a person could predict.
Tom for his part just seemed to feel lost. He wavered and looked around for something familiar. Someone to talk to. The world had suddenly become so much more complicated. It was almost hard to believe that this could just...happen out of nowhere on a day like this. That things like this could just hit and everyone was expected to—-to deal!
He felt a hand on his shoulder. The dress shirt wearing blond guy had seen Tom looking distressed and immediately went to calm him down.
"I uh...I—-how'm I even supposed to handle this?" Tom whispered, "No thanks to Henderson, everybody's gonna be—-I mean..."
The disheveled blond whispered, "It'll be fine. I'll go find Henderson and exact a bitter toll indeed for this. What the council wants be damned."
"...But who are you...?" Tom asked, quiet again - respecting the moment as he heard people more quietly talking. Considering their plans. Thinking things through.
The man smiled, and said, "I'm Midgard's sworn hammer, you know me...as Thor."
And despite all the chaos, and the events going on out there, Tom believed this individual. And he felt...assured, somehow. And he wished he could one day make someone feel as relieved as he did feeling the mighty Thor's hand on his shoulder.
Edited by NickTheSwing on Feb 19th 2023 at 7:30:56 AM
"fuck" he said, his voice strained and hoarse
James was trembling, he barely felt able to hold himself upright. Millions had died today, the content of their lives rendered into ash. Would there even be people left to mourn the dead? He'd been so focused on saving Tom, on getting through life in this ridiculous little backwater that it was easy to forget about everything outside of Sandfield, build a little barrier between the local and the global. That was impossible now, the enormity of the world and its cruelty had forced itself into his view.
"How, how could somebody even do that?"
Fwomph
The Sixth World Dawns In Fire And Glass
She tried to let the news and the panic wash through her, channel it all into reinforcement of her path. Ultimately, she didn't need any more of that and instead shreds of doubt and empathic sorrow were creeping in. She needed some kind of focus, something to direct all of these emotions into something snappy and confident.
And then someone said they were Thor.
It would be stupid to attack here, especially when this Hemsworth-looking man (though, Heather considered, ironically he more resembled one of the other siblings than the obvious) was likely going to be armed with hammer-creation magic and all the divine energy of fully approximating a fake god rather than merely totemically stealing power from one. So instead of just leaping in with a blade to make good on her claims of fighting the gods, she opted for a caustic remark.
"Hope your followers aren't going to cause any trouble. Though I hear there's some right terrible folks taking the Norse out there who are liable to start misusing magic."
With that said she just found a place to sit and rest her head on the counter. Thoughts were swirling around her head, but it was one of the most frivolous and honestly kind of dumb ones that managed to hit her mouth first.
"If we're not an anarchic wasteland by November this'll probably be a big poll boost to the reactionaries..."
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
An Ordinary Oddball
Mina Parker
"O-Oh my God..." Mina gasped, only able to stare at the scenes of destruction on the screens all around them. Dubai was gone. Wiped off of the damned map. Gone bye-bye, as Parallaxus had said. All around Mina was a silent blur now, laced with a persistent ringing in her ears, as if the bombshell had not only gone off across half the world, but right next to her as well. "It's g-gone. Dubai's gone. I th-thought it was just a vacation s-spot for rich people like my father..."
"P-People are going to notice because of it," she pronounced, a tone of dreadful certainty in her voice. Like a particularly uncanny parody of the Greek Pythia, Mina stood there, rooted to the spot, and proceeded to prophesy: "It's done. M-Masks are off. It's over. Magic's done f-for. We'll be hunted down like d-dogs!"
Edited by JumpingFruit on Feb 22nd 2023 at 10:14:52 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
Surrounded by weirdoes
Pablo took stock of the reactions, but once what was happening sunk in, his face lost any color in an instant. His fists were shaking and his eyes opened as wide as they possibly could. All that people, gone... just because some psycho felt like he was making a point.
He didn't realize the low growl that he let out, as his own mind froze and started boiling over.
"That... son of a bitch!" He roared. He had half a mind on going there and tear him a few new orifices, but there was no way he could make his way so far, and the sheer confusion he is feeling doesn't help matters.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Closing Time
People were leaving the bar.
Everyone - except for Thor, Nephthys, the Investigation Team and friends - were clearing out. Suffice to say the festive mood was ruined. Everyone felt the need to return home while they still had their homes. Both to check in on any Non-Mage / Mundane relatives (so they didn't get caught up in what was to come), and to prepare for what everyone could tell was likely coming.
Parallaxus just about entered a tizzy fit, spinning around behind the bar muttering outloud, "This is bad - terrible - awful - horrible - I'm emulsified! ...Whatever that means."
Xander for his part immediately went over to put an arm around Mina's shoulders. Comforting her even as he himself felt the same familiar panic as before. Remembering the many moves - except now, there was nowhere to move to. He'd thought it would just be these people moving in on the town. But now? Now this would be something everywhere. Mages would be the subject of something depraved and ugly.
And Thor for his part just ignored Heather needling him. He went right over to the clearly distressed James and said, "Not without consequences, friend. Trust me. I'll make sure even if I couldn't save the people of Dubai - I'll be damn sure to avenge them."
Matthew figured everyone needed an explanation. They deserved it. So he rested for now against the bar, and started, "How can someone do that? When that someone's Justin Henderson, it's—-just part of his madness. He started as a hero, believe it or not. A good guy. But then he was mangled by a monster, and resurrected by a witch named Amanda utilizing technology and a magic substance called Neo-Stasis. Coming back from that space of near death broke Justin's mind. He has spent the years since then bent on my death for not stopping something there, and the death of everyone who has relished while he has languished. He's not a rational man. He likely did that entirely due to one voice inside his head or another."
Matthew breathed, "I've fought him countless times now. Every time, I thought I killed him. Put him outta his misery. But he...keeps. Coming. Back." Matthew punched the wooden serving bar hard enough to shatter the wood to pieces, clearly frustrated.
As Matthew raised his hand the bar began repairing on its own.
Tom for his part tried to say something for him, "You tried your best to stop him before. Whatever happened you were here, busy, and you couldn't have known."
Matthew breathed, looked around the area at the remaining teens, "...Alright. Everybody, go home to your folks. Get ready for whatever's gonna come of this. Because no way in hell is Henderson bombing Dubai gonna be the end of this. Something's coming. I can feel it. Be ready."
Meanwhile...
Jackson was surprised by how much fun just messing around in a non-lewd way in the pool with Kyle was, after so many hook-ups. Maybe it paid to try things a different way once in a while. But increasingly he was wondering why there was nobody else out there yet. Usually the party was in full swing by now... but nobody'd gone out on the lake yet.
After taking another splash to the face from Kyle, Jackson said, "I'm...gonna check on the status of the party inside."
Stepping out of the lake, drenched, he crossed his arms and walked past Jayden right in toward the house. He hadn't the slightest idea of what was going on in the world in general. He could see everyone just glued to their phones, looking at something.
"Hey guys uh...did something happen?" Jackson asked.
Garth Summers, one of the partiers involved, looked up from his phone with a horrified expression. "Dude. You need to hear this. Something big went down. And uh...you know anything about magic?"
Jackson tilted his head, and he realized he couldn't see Bryce Parker anywhere...
Edited by NickTheSwing on Feb 22nd 2023 at 8:15:14 AM
James just nodded at what Thor said. He didn't have any better response, this was far too much for him to process.
His phone began to ring
"Shit, James, did you see what happened?"
James had only heard his father swear about five other times in his life.
"About Dubai? I saw it, it's disgusting, that somebody would do that."
"I need to know you're safe, where are you right now"
"I'm at a friend's house, like I said"
"Can you give me the address. I can come pick you up."
"There's going to be some difficulty with that, it's in sort of a weird location, it gets left off a lot of maps."
His father sighed "Look I don't care if you're somewhere you shouldn't be, just tell me the address. Theres a lot of people getting worked up, people saying we need a fucking witch-hunt. It's crazy, I just want you to get home safely."
"Look it's fine, I can get somebody to drive me home. I'll be no safer with you than with them."
"Fine, I don't have the energy to argue with you. Just promise me you'll avoid any roving mobs."
"I will, you know I'm not a big risk taker"
"Ok, I'll see you at home then"
James looked at the others. "I guess we should all be off. We all have people we need to see right about now. I'll help you get home first Tom, since you don't have any magic to defend yourself with."
The Light That Blinds
Jayden
...it was quiet.
Too quiet.
Jayden sat up, now confused. Did the party end? Pretty brief party. He was pretty sure these sorts of things were supposed to go on longer...
Seconds after Jackson went back inside, Jayden's phone buzzed. He jumped in place, then fished it out of his pocket. A text from his mom.
It's an emergency.
I'll explain everything when you're there.
Jayden stared at his phone. A pit grew in his stomach, and the relief of the past few days ebbed away, replaced by a growing dread. "Kyle?" he called out. "Mom wants us to come home."
"Huh? Why?"
"She didn't say. Just that it's an emergency."
"Oh. One sec."
Soon, Kyle was out of the water and back in his clothes, and the two entered the house. "We're leaving," Kyle said. "Mom asked us to come home."
Jayden lifted his hand for an awkward wave. "Bye."
He sent a quick text to his mom.
And then, they were off.
Jayden really hoped this feeling was just a fluke.
"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."
Fwomph
Heather At The Bar As The World Turns On The New Age
"Aaaaaaalright. Back to Matt's car then. I've got a probably very confused mom to reassure. And yaknow, sleep. Just in case the world doesn't change like, immediately and we still have school tomorrow."
Heather started on her walk towards the door before she paused, her expression a little confused.
"Wait hold up it's a Friday. I can sleep in. And devote the weekend to training mom in the Totemic arts."
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
Mina Parker
"Y-Yeah, I don't think anyone c-can make you go up there if you don't want to," Mina noted, wringing her hands into the cloth of her skirt. "But if you do w-want to see what Heather w-wants to say, I'm w-with James. If you want, we can hang back to g-give you two privacy, b-but be near enough to help if anything g-goes awry."
Edited by JumpingFruit on Feb 20th 2023 at 6:03:28 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.