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

[Tami]

"Well now.....seems that night in the bunker wasn't just a one off......fancy yourself a cook then?" Mulvric stepped up beside Kinu as she was working on her chickens. "I'll admit...hard reading you, got all the looks and acts of a wild woman....you'd fit in with the ones up north even. Take it you've had your fare share of livin off the land...."



Saint would find Mulvric looking over Kinus shoulder at her food preparation...chatting nonchalantly about something.

Casually, he walks towards Mulvric. Stopping nearby, "Mulvric, I was wondering if you had a few minutes to spare? I have a few questions I'd like to ask you."

[MrSandman]

The most dangerous things were usually the most unassuming. Xia had been expecting the dummies to come at her directly, not a blast to shoot out from a fake plant and hit her in the chest.

She grunted and pushed herself to her feet. Her chest was stinging, and there was a hole in her shirt, but she was fine. Guess Mulvric's balls aren't that big. "Okay." She still wasn't sure what the objective was supposed to be. Was she supposed to destroy the gun things so they couldn't fire at her anymore? Dodge until time was up? Sucked there weren't any instructions, but eh. It was time to wing it and see what happened.

She made a dash and grabbed her sword. More than likely, there were more gun things than just that one, hidden in random places. That meant the best place to be was with her back against the wall until she could get a grasp of where each one was. From there... she didn't know? Destroy them? Fancy toys were meant to be broken, or something like that.

Back pressed against the wall and unsheathed sword at the ready, her eyes scanned the surroundings. She was looking for two things in particular: where the rest of those guns were located, and if there was anything she could use as a projectile.

There were no weapons nearby that Xia could identify, and nothing that could serve as a projectile.....although, there was a compartment near the training controls that seemed to contain several vials of the magic fluid Mulvric had been making for Arx.

Observation soon made it apparent that whatever was attacking her was not moving between locations, but rather seems to be appearing and vanishing at will. Only a small shake of the foliage and the glint of something gave her any indication a blast was about to be fired...but once she could spot them, it was only a matter of swiftly dodging out of the way.

....counterattacking however, would be difficult......and Xia couldn't even be sure what was being requested of her for this training.

[MrSandman]

Casually, he walks towards Mulvric. Stopping nearby, "Mulvric, I was wondering if you had a few minutes to spare? I have a few questions I'd like to ask you."

"Questions......Sure, why not." Mulvric nodded while eyeing the chicken. "Shoot em."

[MrSandman]

" I have been looking for a way to recall my childhood. So I did ask EN if there was a psychiatrist on board. She told me that this ship's psychiatrist is missing. The moment you said livestock, it made me thinking about a cartel and an underground fighting ring," Jacob said.

" Somehow, I get the feeling that a cartel and underground fighting ring have a connection to the mark under my right arm. So you can't help me recall my childhood, huh, maybe I should try that option Lucifer was talking to me about?" Jacob said.

" Yeah, I could take some meds to clear my head, hmm it does seem like my only option to recall my childhood memories is to try that option Lucifer mention to me. Oh, about my mark, This is the first time I actually show my mark to anyone. Who wasn't my late wife," Jacob said.

"......Ok, justa moment den..." Horo dug through a cabinet nearby and shoved some pills into Jacobs hands along with a cup. "Take em wit sum water alrite? Aint no surpize a mark lik dat wud bee relatin to a cartil.....bucha hoodlimbs....the onez in 11 er the werst. Tak it frum an ald fox, yer wunna keep dat outa the pryin aies."

[Tami]

"Questions......Sure, why not." Mulvric nodded while eyeing the chicken. "Shoot em."

"Before I do, I hope all this food you and your people are preparing won't go to waste. It seems far more than is needed just for those we came here with." Saint then continued...

"As for my questions, I'd like to start by asking just how much of the past does En actually remember? Also, after all this time, how did she manage to survive? In my trips out to the lost remnants of the old world, I have occasionally found the broken remains of devices. Bits and pieces, too small and too damaged to be of any value. I have never encountered anything as intact as what this ship contains."

[MrSandman]

"Before I do, I hope all this food you and your people are preparing won't go to waste. It seems far more than is needed just for those we came here with." Saint then continued...

"As for my questions, I'd like to start by asking just how much of the past does En actually remember? Also, after all this time, how did she manage to survive? In my trips out to the lost remnants of the old world, I have occasionally found the broken remains of devices. Bits and pieces, too small and too damaged to be of any value. I have never encountered anything as intact as what this ship contains."

"Well...also gotta account for the civilians that came with you." Mulvric responded to the first point before hearing her out, nodded quietly.

"Near as I can figure...its the location. Anywhere else and this place would have been picked clean by scavengers...but the tales of the wildmen keep most people away, and in turn they won't come anywhere near here. Only thing that's been working on this ship for who knows how long has been weather and gravity...." Mulvric glanced around. "When we first found it.....took us days just to build the supports needed to get up to the hull. From there....we searched the ship for what we could, patched things up where we could.

"As for En....When we found this place, her systems were in bad shape.....most of her memory had been lost from age or power failure. Thankfully they had replacement parts in sealed containment below deck, and she had enough power saved to talk me through replacement and repair procedures....helped I always had a penchant for engineering. Learned a lot of things, working on her." Mulvric raised his arm, flexing the mechanical fingers. "......but memory.....no, she only had so much remaining when we found her........even less now after the...." Mulvric suddenly quieted himself. "........Understand......whatever that girl used to be.....I consider her my daughter, my flesh and blood. Don't matter what anyone else thinks...."

[Tami]

"Well...also gotta account for the civilians that came with you." Mulvric responded to the first point before hearing her out, nodded quietly.

"Near as I can figure...its the location. Anywhere else and this place would have been picked clean by scavengers...but the tales of the wildmen keep most people away, and in turn they won't come anywhere near here. Only thing that's been working on this ship for who knows how long has been weather and gravity...." Mulvric glanced around. "When we first found it.....took us days just to build the supports needed to get up to the hull. From there....we searched the ship for what we could, patched things up where we could.

"As for En....When we found this place, her systems were in bad shape.....most of her memory had been lost from age or power failure. Thankfully they had replacement parts in sealed containment below deck, and she had enough power saved to talk me through replacement and repair procedures....helped I always had a penchant for engineering. Learned a lot of things, working on her." Mulvric raised his arm, flexing the mechanical fingers. "......but memory.....no, she only had so much remaining when we found her........even less now after the...." Mulvric suddenly quieted himself. "........Understand......whatever that girl used to be.....I consider her my daughter, my flesh and blood. Don't matter what anyone else thinks...."

Matthias gave him a nod, his features softened slightly. "As a Scavenger myself, I can attest to the value of your daughter. There are those among the wealthy who would pay a Witches' ransom to possess her. Fortunately for the two of you, I've never been in it for the money."

"I am concerned that you won't be able to protect her here forever. This ship, I assume, is probably as much a part of her, of her body, as our bodies are to us. I don't see how she could escape from here should there be a need to do so." Matthias then gave him a slight smile, "Let's hope that time never comes, or if it does it won't be for a very long time. Speaking of which, I briefly caught a glimpse of a power source that I could not identify. From its size, it's easy to imagine that this ship once had a crew of hundreds at least, if not thousands. You could probably fit nearly every resident of the slums in here. Whatever the power source is, or was, that ran this ship, it had to have been significant."

[bruceleegreyhulk]

"......Ok, justa moment den..." Horo dug through a cabinet nearby and shoved some pills into Jacobs hands along with a cup. "Take em wit sum water alrite? Aint no surpize a mark lik dat wud bee relatin to a cartil.....bucha hoodlimbs....the onez in 11 er the werst. Tak it frum an ald fox, yer wunna keep dat outa the pryin aies."

Jacob takes the pills with a glass of water." You know I have a strange feeling that your chickens are afraid of me. If I could recall my child memories, then maybe I could discover the identity of the bastard who killed my wife," Jacob said.

" Beats chasing after the guy, I figure that would just get me into a whole lot of trouble. That word cartel, I don't know why, but it feels me with such anger. That I somehow feel is rational. Jacob said.

Rhea nudges Jacob. " Yay Rhea, what is it?" Jacob said.

"Jacob, I have been thinking about your daughters, and I figured out who took them. It was The Adminstratum!" Rhea said.

Jacob drops the glass in shock." The Adminstratum, they're the ones who took my daughters!?! Wait, could that mean they figure out what I really was before I did?" Jacob said.

" Yeah, probably, and that beastman who killed your wife was probably a part of The Adminstratum," Rhea said.

Jacob then looks at Horo as a musky smell like the smell of a wolf starts coming off him" Look doc, I'm not talking to myself. I'm talking to my spirit animal and, she just dropped some grave news on me," Jacob said.

Jacob then informs Horo want Lucifer told him about the alternative method of retrieving his childhood memories.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post5088503

[Melon God]

"Wuts a wee lass like ye doin wit so mani bruzes....Hmm..." She reached out and gently turned the young girls head a bit so she could see her head injury better. "Rite....Ly bac, I'll get ma tools....gunna ned some ointment fer those cuts and scrapes, a sitch fer the head....cast fer the arm.....an I ned to insart sum braces fer ye buck teeth."

"If I've got buck teeth, then yours must look like they've been kicked in by a horse." Morgen was momentarily taken aback by her own words, but began to relax when she realized she was just going back to the way she had always been: Combative and self-aggrandizing. She'd been awfully uptight the past day or so, and that sudden blow to the noggin must have rattled her brain around a little -- maybe not so much in a good way, one doesn't normally talk down to their doctor when their personal wellbeing is at stake. But, at least in some regard, she felt herself again; now, if only she could remove that encounter with Alice from her mind...

She felt around for her pocket mirror and snapped it open again, checking on her teeth while vaguely positioning the mirror so that Horo couldn't see what exactly she was doing. Despite her playful retort, the doctor's comment had made her uncomfortably self-conscious of her appearance. By the looks of it, she wasn't the only thing that'd been damaged. The reflective glass was fractured, creating a thick arcing line roughly across the center, and another, thinner line that branched off near the top. The y-shaped crack in the glass returned three separate but identical images of her face in different capacities. Just her luck. She'll have to replace this busted piece of junk later.

Instead of throwing it away she put it back in her pocket, for some reason. In the meantime, she lied down proper as she was instructed and watched the man across from her impressively hold a conversation with himself.

[grampagen]

Plip plop, the scale-bound sleeves rest upon the corner of the counter as Kinu rubbed her hands together, and grasping one of the birds by its neck, picked at the roots of the fine feathers.

Swiftly with barely a sound, the prickly teeth on the knife's edge sawed through the delicate cords of ligament and muscle, straight into the bone as dark red spurts pooled into one of the pots in the sink. Propping the chicken carcass upside down, she let it bleed there as she moved onto the next.

"Well now.....seems that night in the bunker wasn't just a one off......fancy yourself a cook then?" Mulvric stepped up beside Kinu as she was working on her chickens. "I'll admit...hard reading you, got all the looks and acts of a wild woman....you'd fit in with the ones up north even. Take it you've had your fare share of livin off the land...."


Saint would find Mulvric looking over Kinus shoulder at her food preparation...chatting nonchalantly about something.

Kinu started with a growl, baring her teeth as she turned toward Mulvric. As her stance shrunk something feral and savage increased about her bearing.

"...waddaya mean, 'fancy'?" She chuckled, as her widened eyes briefly darted to one of the resident cooks behind them; he grabbed a jar of orange stuff, and as a result, so did Kinu, groping blindly and hurriedly into the spice cupboard overhead. "Not knowin' how to cook is like not knowin' how to breathe, yeah?"

Clinking spitefully onto the counter were two bottles. Lemon pepper. Cloves.

"And not knowin' how to cook well is like not knowin' how to-"

Rummaging continued. Celery salt. Turmeric.

"-like not knowin' how to walk, fuh-fuh-fuh."

As the chickens continued to bleed into the steel bucket in the sink, Kinu set another one filled with water upon the stove to boil. Seem no different than any other bird, why'd the Doc want 'em so bad?

"On the contrary. I hardly think the Northern tribesmen would fit in with me if they're starving for Mascot meat. As far as I'm concerned, if they wanna mess with someone big-league, they're welcome to try."

The blood oozed, the pot hissed. Taking a brief reprieve from her work, Kinu began at poking the dozen or so spice jars she'd hoarded in scattered rows.

"You really have it made here, Mulvy. Fields of food, good cover for shelter, and that dampener thing," Standing tall, she inhaled deeply the scent of the kitchen. "All of this standing out here, just ready for the taking. The Tribes must be complete pussies if they can't even approach your operation."

Crouching down, she opened another cupboard, and found the sauces.

"I wonder why that is? Think they're scared of heights?"

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

OT: Nothing out of the ordinary, though that could be because of the dampening field.



"....Hrrm..." En responds with a uncharacteristic mutter. ".....are the contents of my bottom deck really that interesting...."

“Forgive my inquisitive nature, Miss EN. It’s a habit, I’m afraid.”

[MrSandman]

"You really have it made here, Mulvy. Fields of food, good cover for shelter, and that dampener thing," Standing tall, she inhaled deeply the scent of the kitchen. "All of this standing out here, just ready for the taking. The Tribes must be complete pussies if they can't even approach your operation."

Crouching down, she opened another cupboard, and found the sauces.

"I wonder why that is? Think they're scared of heights?"

"Not gonna look a gift chicken in the beak." Mulvric answered. "Maybe something about a several thousand ton metal coffin held up by a bunch of rocks, duck tape and dreams makes em think this place isn't worth it....could also just be the way they are. All sorts of strange beliefs come out of the wildlings."

Glancing over her shoulder, Mulvric said nothing and simply watched her work.

Matthias gave him a nod, his features softened slightly. "As a Scavenger myself, I can attest to the value of your daughter. There are those among the wealthy who would pay a Witches' ransom to possess her. Fortunately for the two of you, I've never been in it for the money."

"I am concerned that you won't be able to protect her here forever. This ship, I assume, is probably as much a part of her, of her body, as our bodies are to us. I don't see how she could escape from here should there be a need to do so." Matthias then gave him a slight smile, "Let's hope that time never comes, or if it does it won't be for a very long time. Speaking of which, I briefly caught a glimpse of a power source that I could not identify. From its size, it's easy to imagine that this ship once had a crew of hundreds at least, if not thousands. You could probably fit nearly every resident of the slums in here. Whatever the power source is, or was, that ran this ship, it had to have been significant."

"Quite the estimate there.....pretty sure if we loaded everyone in the slums on here the rocks would give out before the ship did." Mulvric chuckled. ".........but your right about one thing.......things can't last this way forever......."

There was a curious tone in his voice, the cogs in his head spinning in tune with his words.

[Tami]

"Quite the estimate there.....pretty sure if we loaded everyone in the slums on here the rocks would give out before the ship did." Mulvric chuckled. ".........but your right about one thing.......things can't last this way forever......."

There was a curious tone in his voice, the cogs in his head spinning in tune with his words.

Though Matthias could tell Mulvric was zoning out, there was still one more thing left to do, "One more question. I don't suppose that you've managed to collect any books or artifacts that might interest a history buff such as myself? En seemed to believe that you might have some things of interest."

[Noldere]

A couple of hours passed, then another.

Then, once he was as close to used to the suppression field - or at least its current strength - as he would get, Lucifer finally decided to take a look around the ship - mostly to see if he could find the supposed setup they were making for the memory extraction, but also to get a general feel for the ship's construction - old and new.

[Tami]

"Not gonna look a gift chicken in the beak." Mulvric answered. "Maybe something about a several thousand ton metal coffin held up by a bunch of rocks, duck tape and dreams makes em think this place isn't worth it....could also just be the way they are. All sorts of strange beliefs come out of the wildlings."

Glancing over her shoulder, Mulvric said nothing and simply watched her work.

Matthias also glanced over at what Kinu was doing. Cooking was not in his skill set, except for basic campfire cooking which he did rarely. The process seemed messy and a lot of work, though this isn't the first time he's observed someone preparing a meal from scratch.

Plip plop, the scale-bound sleeves rest upon the corner of the counter as Kinu rubbed her hands together, and grasping one of the birds by its neck, picked at the roots of the fine feathers.

Swiftly with barely a sound, the prickly teeth on the knife's edge sawed through the delicate cords of ligament and muscle, straight into the bone as dark red spurts pooled into one of the pots in the sink. Propping the chicken carcass upside down, she let it bleed there as she moved onto the next.



Kinu started with a growl, baring her teeth as she turned toward Mulvric. As her stance shrunk something feral and savage increased about her bearing.

"...waddaya mean, 'fancy'?" She chuckled, as her widened eyes briefly darted to one of the resident cooks behind them; he grabbed a jar of orange stuff, and as a result, so did Kinu, groping blindly and hurriedly into the spice cupboard overhead. "Not knowin' how to cook is like not knowin' how to breathe, yeah?"

Clinking spitefully onto the counter were two bottles. Lemon pepper. Cloves.

"And not knowin' how to cook well is like not knowin' how to-"

Rummaging continued. Celery salt. Turmeric.

"-like not knowin' how to walk, fuh-fuh-fuh."

As the chickens continued to bleed into the steel bucket in the sink, Kinu set another one filled with water upon the stove to boil. Seem no different than any other bird, why'd the Doc want 'em so bad?

"On the contrary. I hardly think the Northern tribesmen would fit in with me if they're starving for Mascot meat. As far as I'm concerned, if they wanna mess with someone big-league, they're welcome to try."

The blood oozed, the pot hissed. Taking a brief reprieve from her work, Kinu began at poking the dozen or so spice jars she'd hoarded in scattered rows.

"You really have it made here, Mulvy. Fields of food, good cover for shelter, and that dampener thing," Standing tall, she inhaled deeply the scent of the kitchen. "All of this standing out here, just ready for the taking. The Tribes must be complete pussies if they can't even approach your operation."

Crouching down, she opened another cupboard, and found the sauces.

"I wonder why that is? Think they're scared of heights?"

It was curious and fascinating to see how she cooked, one part primitive, one part with the skill of many restaurant chefs he had encountered. Then his attention switched with her next question, "Survival out here in the wilds breeds traditions based on superstitions. I have traveled to many ancient sites. In those times I have never encountered natives, tribesmen, or any evidence that they had visited those sites. The rare times I have seen a native, it was from a distance. Even when they saw me there, they never approached."

"Until now I have never considered why this was the case, only that I was grateful for it. Perhaps there are some sites that they do visit, but so far I haven't seen that happen."