Oblitus Magia: Verse 1 - Fateful Encounter in the City of Fools

[MrSandman]

Owen pauses and stared, eyes roving over the ancient battleship.

Amazing.

He had obviously never seen one in person, but he’d read enough and spoken to enough older people to listen to stories that had been passed down. Long ago massive ships had sailed the waters of the world, and before him lays one.

He grins and gazes at it with all his senses, Keen Eye and Identify roving over it.

OT: Is there a name Owen can see, Sandy?

Somewhere along the side, Owen catches sight of some barely readable wording. Though most of it was worn away with age....he was able to gathered the following.

"U-S En--prize"

[bruceleegreyhulk]

After what seems like an eternity of travel through the tunnel, the group finally emerges into a canopied area of trees, behind them Mercer does one last check for anyone before closing the tunnel and covering it over with foliage.

Different from the straight path through the earth, the terrain outside was wild, untamed and, frustratingly, without a marked path. The En Crowd seemed to at least have some idea of where they were going, making regular check ins with HQ for the status of their path to avoid the more impassable land routes and other threats. To the people who had experience traveling outside the safe havens, the going was bad...but not terrible, nowhere near as bad as it could be.

To those who had never stepped foot into this "World of Ruin" however, the experience was.....alien.

Most people lived their entires lives within the Urban Centers, where clean parks, gardens and rimmed lawns were the norm for the higher class....and muddy slums were for the lower. Every bit of land was precious, and treated as its own resource to covet and control....

...But outside, it all belonged to Nature.



It took them 20 minutes of walking through trees, with only shafts of light piecing the roof of dark green keeping them from stumbling in the dark, before they emerged into the bright orange light of a setting sun behind them. The city was still visible, the conflux tower pointing to the sky like a proclamation of civilization....but only the walls could be seen at this distance. They were moving east....away from it, and further into the wilds.

Towering trees, green meadows, the occasion signs of animals were dispersed between more ancient sights......more then once the movements of some large thing in the distance were heard, ruins of human origin lay gutted and abandoned for ages....poking out under the cover of distant trees, only visible as the last dregs of sunlight filtered over them. Soon not even the landmarks were visible as the sky grew darker and darker.

Soon they were descending downhill through some more thick trees cover, at this point Mercer and the others had to break out torches to keep the path lit.

It was around this time that the group would begin feeling something...unusual. There was something in the air, a sort of muting effect. Those with magic powers would find them less effective, or dampened entirely....same with enhanced senses. Ange, who had been carrying Morgan while using her skill seemed to realize the power dampening and seemed both re leaved and slightly annoyed. "No need to be alarmed.....our HQ has a dampening field around it. Makes it difficult to locate and in the off chance the admins every find us the side effect of it means we could fight them on an even footing....for a time."

Then....not a few minutes later. Then stepped out in an open area.



Held in place by rocks, and overgrown with jungle like trees, was a massive metallic vessel unlike anything the majority of them had ever seen before. There was no indication of how it had managed to get where it now rested, but all around it small buildings, huts, ladders and hanging structures had been attached. It appeared as though work had been done to multiple parts over the course of many years.....and a village of sorts had been built up below, around and on top of it. Several attempts were seemingly ongoing in keeping the thing intact and supported.

Jacob looks around. "This scenery I don't know why but it all seems familiar somehow like I been here before, well except for that ship. Hey, Rhea don't try to do anything else that will draw unnecessary attention like in that tunnel," Jacob said.

" Hey, look I'm, not going to try anything like in that tunnel, okay. You are a beastman, Jacob, so this should be a familiar sight to you," Rhea said.

[Noldere]

OOC: Brain won't let me not deal with loose ends.

---

Night Before Branch

" I haven't been able to find any leads. The only clue I have is an unfinished word Ad, but my wife never finished saying the word before she died. Yeah, I see the message. My spirit animal wants to communicate with you," Jacob said.

" She has the same name as my wife. So that name we're seeing on that message is the name of my spirit animal and also the name of my late wife. Up until this point, I've been living a lie pretending to be human when I'm not. I have been pretending to be a human for thirty-three years," Jacob said.

I have been looking for a psychiatrist to help me get in touch with my childhood past. So far, I haven't been successful in my search. My spirit animal found out that supposedly there's a cartel running an underground fighting ring. Two things that sound familiar to me, and that somehow pissed me off," Jacob said.

If there's a lead on who the man who killed my wife is, it would be in my repressed childhood memories," Jacob said.

~...~

An unintentional moment of silence reigned as he took in both what was said and what was written; there was a lot to unpack in what Jacob had shared, and Lucifer wasn't sure where to begin.

...

Well, that wasn't exactly true.

"Unless you want to risk getting reported to the Administratum," Lucifer said after the moment, "I wouldn't try seeking a psychiatrist in A-11- at least for a little while. Granted, there's a chance you can find one capable enough of helping you with what you need and want that's also discrete enough that you won't have to worry about being recaptured or worse, but I personally wouldn't bet my life or my freedom on that. You'd probably have better luck asking one of En's people if they have a psychiatrist on staff or if they know of a safe one. Their heart seems to be in a good enough place that they'd make the earnest attempt to help you, though I don't know if I'd trust them to actually get results."

Another pause, as he checked the oven and what currently cooked within it.

"There may very well be an alternative method to finding a psychiatrist for gaining access to your repressed memories. Granted, there's a lot more faith required- faith that En has what's required for you to be able to see your memories once they've been encoded and faith that I can even access and encode memories, much less memories that have been repressed for decades, from another person at all. It's not something I've ever tried before, and there's no telling how well or poorly things are going to go, given there's also Ruin Poisoning in the mix to complicate matters, but it's at least as much a possibility as anything else. But enough of things that can't be helped at the moment. What's the deal with, well, everything else? Speak to me of the cartel and the fighting ring they run, the supposed lie you've lived until now, and the spirit animal that shares your wife's name- though I suppose the last of these is perfectly capable of speaking on her own, in her unique way."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Somewhere along the side, Owen catches sight of some barely readable wording. Though most of it was worn away with age....he was able to gathered the following.

"U-S En--prize"

He carefully uses Keen Eye to mentally photograph the entire thing.

“En—prize? Hmm.....Enterprise perhaps? How utterly fascinating.”

He looks at Ange and Mulvric.

“How long have you been living here?”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Xia had grown up on the streets, but she was still very much a city girl. The woods had no real value to her outside of an abundance of hardened punching bags. This, however, was different than anything she had ever seen. The sheer growth of the plant-life and stillness of the air as they trekked through the overgrowth of trees was unnerving. Her eyes darted to and fro, from this side and back, paranoia taking hold of her. Anything could have been lurking in the darkness. Her free hand gripped the hilt of her sword, just in case.

Incredible. It was a thought that cycled repeatedly through her head despite her apprehension. This was what the people on the other side of the outer walls, tucked away inside the Centers, were missing. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not, but that there was an entire world outside of that bubble was... incredible.

After some time, a strange feeling came over her. Red said it was a dampening field on powers. She shrugged. She didn't feel too different; she didn't have much in the way of powers anyway. In fact, the opening they just stepped into would give her particular skillset a lot of room to work with. Her eyes cast upward to take in the entirety of what was laying before. "Wow," she murmured softly.

It was a big, metal...thing. She had never seen anything like it before. It was obviously some kind of weirdly-shaped building; one that hadn't been taken very good care of. "This is it? EN or whatever it's called?" If so, they were close to getting some answers and meeting the rest of these so-called researches driven to terrorism.

[Noldere]

It was around this time that the group would begin feeling something...unusual. There was something in the air, a sort of muting effect. Those with magic powers would find them less effective, or dampened entirely....same with enhanced senses. Ange, who had been carrying Morgan while using her skill seemed to realize the power dampening and seemed both re leaved and slightly annoyed. "No need to be alarmed.....our HQ has a dampening field around it. Makes it difficult to locate and in the off chance the admins every find us the side effect of it means we could fight them on an even footing....for a time."

To say that entering the dampening field was unpleasant was perhaps the understatement of the hour; it took almost everything he had to avoid vomiting up the meal from the night before as the field seemed to deliver a gut punch to Lucifer's very soul.

~F*****g hell, a bit of warning beforehand would have been nice~

The thought was left unsaid only because his mouth and body were too busy dry heaving to speak.

He carefully uses Keen Eye to mentally photograph the entire thing.

“En—prize? Hmm.....Enterprise perhaps? How utterly fascinating.”

He looks at Ange and Mulvric.

“How long have you been living here?”

"I'm... slightly more curious... as to how long... it's been here," Lucifer said in between deep breaths, wondering at the type of construction that could possibly remain as intact as this was where it was- and the implications thereof.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"I'm slightly more curious as to how long it's been here," Lucifer said, wondering at the type of construction that could possibly remain as intact as this was where it was- and the implications thereof.

“It’s a battleship, I think. They were built to last, sailing the waters of the world of the old stories are to be believed. It’s possibly hundreds of years old. Maybe even older.”

[MrSandman]

Upon seeing it, Matthias pauses to take it all in. It's been years since he last saw this massive ship, though only from a distance. He then looked over at Ange, as if seeking permission to continue.

"What are you waiting for....didn't bring you out here just to stand at the gate." Mercer waved them all towards the base, Saint included.

Concealed behind her mask, her eyes started, wide as saucers. "Nifty little village."

She took a step forward, but something in the ground felt...off. Tapping her foot against the ground a few times to test the Squared Circle, Kinu found it less than giving because of the Dampening Field. Well, that's a little annoying.

"Guess we made it, then," she said, folding her arms across her puffed out chest with a curt nod. "Now, where's the brains of this operation? These folks marched all this way, the least you got give 'em is an answer."

"We'll need to head upwards....there are some lifts over near the base" Mercer pointed. "Take a moment to look around if you like, grab something to eat....we farm all our food in the area. Pretty good too."

"I reccomends the spuds..." Mulvric stated in his low, world weary voice. ".......dam....good to be home...."

He carefully uses Keen Eye to mentally photograph the entire thing.

“En—prize? Hmm.....Enterprise perhaps? How utterly fascinating.”

He looks at Ange and Mulvric.

“How long have you been living here?”

"I'm slightly more curious as to how long it's been here," Lucifer said, wondering at the type of construction that could possibly remain as intact as this was where it was- and the implications thereof.

"Not sure how long its been here.....but I've been living here since I was 10." Mercer laughed. "Mulvric is the oldest of us.....been here since En was founded, 47 years ago. He's the one to thank for keeping the place from falling apart......and En, well...." Mercer crossed his arms and smirked. "Well...you'll see...."

[MrSandman]

“It’s a battleship, I think. They were built to last, sailing the waters of the world of the old stories are to be believed. It’s possibly hundreds of years old. Maybe even older.”

"Close.....but not quite." Mulvric replied as he stepped up beside them. "You can't see it well from down here...but the upper area is flatter and wider, used for carrying smaller craft. I read the term is aircraft carrier." The old engineer frowned. "........didn't fare nearly as good as the ship......mainly used em for spare parts and scrap."

[The Chou Lives]

“It’s a battleship, I think. They were built to last, sailing the waters of the world of the old stories are to be believed. It’s possibly hundreds of years old. Maybe even older.”

“ Waters? Does it have a rotator filter system? If not it flew.” Hunting he wrote stories on such material, although it sounded stupid. But the multiverse has had dumber ones.:

[bruceleegreyhulk]

OOC: Brain won't let me not deal with loose ends.

---

Night Before Branch



~...~

An unintentional moment of silence reigned as he took in both what was said and what was written; there was a lot to unpack in what Jacob had shared, and Lucifer wasn't sure where to begin.

...

Well, that wasn't exactly true.

"Unless you want to risk getting reported to the Administratum," Lucifer said after the moment, "I wouldn't try seeking a psychiatrist in A-11- at least for a little while. Granted, there's a chance you can find one capable enough of helping you with what you need and want that's also discrete enough that you won't have to worry about being recaptured or worse, but I personally wouldn't bet my life or my freedom on that. You'd probably have better luck asking one of En's people if they have a psychiatrist on staff or if they know of a safe one. Their heart seems to be in a good enough place that they'd make the earnest attempt to help you, though I don't know if I'd trust them to actually get results."

Another pause, as he checked the oven and what currently cooked within it.

"There may very well be an alternative method to finding a psychiatrist for gaining access to your repressed memories. Granted, there's a lot more faith required- faith that En has what's required for you to be able to see your memories once they've been encoded and faith that I can even access and encode memories, much less memories that have been repressed for decades, from another person at all. It's not something I've ever tried before, and there's no telling how well or poorly things are going to go, given there's also Ruin Poisoning in the mix to complicate matters, but it's at least as much a possibility as anything else. But enough of things that can't be helped at the moment. What's the deal with, well, everything else? Speak to me of the cartel and the fighting ring they run, the supposed lie you've lived until now, and the spirit animal that shares your wife's name- though I suppose the last of these is perfectly capable of speaking on her own, in her unique way."

" You make a good point. Well, I get the feeling that a cartel running an underground fighting ring is somehow connecting to my past. I'm a beastman but, repressing my childhood memories made me forget that," Jacob said.

"Something during my childhood when I was seventeen made me repressed my memories and made me pretend I was human. I spent thirty-three years believing I was human then, I come to find out I'm not one by Rhea, my spirit animal," Jacob said.

Rhea makes another message with leftovers. That reads Jacob wait outside this kitchen. I want to talk to this person in private. Jacob leaves and, Rhea makes another message.

I'm an amalgamation of souls in the form of a canine. That Jacob subconsciously summoned around the same time his wife died. Because he summoned me around the same time his wife dead, her soul became a part of my amalgamation. I was nameless back then when he summoned me, but I took it upon myself to name my self after his wife.

Jacob is a beastman with beastman shaman blood. It's because of his beastman shaman blood that he was able to summon me in the first place. I was the canine that Jacob saw that faithful day. If it wasn't for me.

Jacob would have perished that day. I have reason to believe that Jacob's daughters were taken by the Administratum. Oh, and Jacob has a mark under his right arm. Which might have a connection with a cartel.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"Close.....but not quite." Mulvric replied as he stepped up beside them. "You can't see it well from down here...but the upper area is flatter and wider, used for carrying smaller craft. I read the term is aircraft carrier." The old engineer frowned. "........didn't fare nearly as good as the ship......mainly used em for spare parts and scrap."

Owen’s eyes widen.

“Aircraft carrier? That’s even more amazing. A ship that carried other ships. Fantastic.”

[Sub-Zero MKA]

"Close.....but not quite." Mulvric replied as he stepped up beside them. "You can't see it well from down here...but the upper area is flatter and wider, used for carrying smaller craft. I read the term is aircraft carrier." The old engineer frowned. "........didn't fare nearly as good as the ship......mainly used em for spare parts and scrap."

Terms like "battleship" and "aircraft carrier" flew right over Xia's head. They meant nothing to her, zero point of reference to understand what the hell either Gumshoe or Mulvric were talking about. Not that it mattered. Whatever this structure's purpose was in the past had long since become obsolete, and the structure itself was unfit to carry it out even if it hadn't. The only important thing was, "Will it hold up if attacked?"

[MrSandman]

Terms like "battleship" and "aircraft carrier" flew right over Xia's head. They meant nothing to her, zero point of reference to understand what the hell either Gumshoe or Mulvric were talking about. Not that it mattered. Whatever this structure's purpose was in the past had long since become obsolete, and the structure itself was unfit to carry it out even if it hadn't. The only important thing was, "Will it hold up if attacked?"

"The inhibitors will keep magic based attacks from causing us serious damage, and blankets the area so nothing can be detected....its also a pretty strategic spot, the nearby hills and treelines make it so you have to be looking and fairly close to find this place. But....if the admins came in force, I'm not sure...." Mulvric nodded. "I work on adding new defenses where I can.....but really....this place still needs a lot of work."

[The Dog]

Terms like "battleship" and "aircraft carrier" flew right over Xia's head. They meant nothing to her, zero point of reference to understand what the hell either Gumshoe or Mulvric were talking about. Not that it mattered. Whatever this structure's purpose was in the past had long since become obsolete, and the structure itself was unfit to carry it out even if it hadn't. The only important thing was, "Will it hold up if attacked?"

Selma stared up at the massive ship with a frown, squinting slightly as she said "It looks like it's made of metal, so it should hold up, if momentarily at least. Probably be long enough to get out of it. Though I don't know what we'll do after. Especially if the Administratum sends more than a couple of Witches. Which they almost certainly will."