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

[Noldere]

Night Branch

OOC: Rhea is still around.

Jacob drinks the milk. "No, that nightmare I had was an event that happen in my past. My wife is dead and, my children were taken from me by someone I don't know. My wife trying to tell me when she was dying in my arms but couldn't get the words to tell me out properly,"

" My daughters are probably dead." That nightmare is a reminder of how I failed to protect my wife and kids," Jacob said.

Rhea walks into the kitchen and stands near Jacob. Jacob, you had that nightmare again. You know that was nothing you could have done back then," Rhea said.

"Have there been any leads?" Lucifer asked as the feeling he felt not too long ago suddenly returned. "On finding either your children or the man who killed your wife, that is? Considering the circumstances under which we've met, I can't imagine going to the police would be wise, but have you had anyone help you look into the matter? I can't-"

Rhea gets the idea of using leftovers to make a message to communicate to Lucifer. The message reads. Hello, my name is Rhea. I'm this beastman's spirit animal.

"-wait..."

What Lucifer was going to say next was interrupted as the leftovers began to move seemingly of their own volition, slowly forming a message.

"... do you see the message on the food over there?" he asked after a couple of moments, unsure he wasn't still simply seeing things despite the evidence to the contrary. "Does that name mean anything to you?"

[Yun Lao]

"Don't worry, Leviathan can't leave the Realm of Shadows... I think. Otherwise it'd have come to me instead of me having to go to it. And it wouldn't have bothered with our 'deal' if it could come and go as it pleases. So I'm reasonably sure everyone but me is safe from it." Selma explained.

"Unless, of course, everything it said was a lie and it was just fucking with me, but I'm almost certain that it wasn't."

"If this... Leviathan doesn't want to become wall art, it'll behave," Lucifer said, unsure of what exactly it was he was even threatening but confident that large enough quantities of directed energy would be sufficient to deal with it - or anything else. "But let's hope that that's something that becomes necessary never, shall we? Anyway, I don't mind taking a closer look at the thing on your back for you. I mean, as far as I can tell from here, it looks like a rather extensive and intricate pattern with a single eye at its center but nothing that appears to be pulsating, but a more direct view may reveal something that can't be seen otherwise. Are we doing it here, or do you have somewhere else in mind?"

"Nope!"

It was surprising how well the girl hid, as she was completely missing visually with only the occasional shouts of "No" variants as the others spoke of things that they really shouldn't have been messing with. As for her? Well, Tekeli-li was special, it was always there.

...

Realizing how odd the thought was, her mind backtracked over the reason why she would even consider this. It wasn't a hunch or just a feeling, it was almost like one had forgotten that their left arm still existed.

But why?

Contemplating to herself with a mouth full of chocolate, the girl twirled her pen between her fingers only to eventually begin to write. She had a lot of catching up to do.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

A bloated corpse is washed ashore by the blood-tide.

Almost immediately, a creature skitters from its hiding place beneath a jutting outcrop of stone toward it. A slender, furtive thing, it stopped every few dozen steps, waiting. Listening. Ensuring it remained hidden even now, so close to its quarry; its hunger only just beating out its fear. It had been nearly a week since its last, it couldn't survive another day without. And the fetid feast that had only just washed ashore would feet it for several days...

Unfortunately, it's not the only one with the same idea.

---

Night on the Town - Dear Hunter

Left to her own devices, Arx simply... went for a walk.

Under the moonlight, there was no reason not to. Especially in the Slums.

Nobody cared much what she was, who she was. Destitute and hungry, the denizens of the Slums of A-11 were far too concerned with their own well-being- and their next meal- to care who or what it was that brushed passed them in the squalor and rot. Not that their acknowledgement mattered. Had she been in the more affluent sectors, she'd have walked all the same. The difference here was that, even separated as they were by life experience and species, Arx could sympathize with the Slum-livers... in her own twisted way. Half-starved and desperate; doing what they could to scrape by any way they could. Most having no idea when their next meal might be their last.

... in the end, it wasn't the first to reach the bloated corpse.

Another dreg had skittered across the bone-sand, just as desperate... hungry; and was already in the process of wrestling the fetid flesh and waterlogged bone from the blood-tide to drag it back to its own haunt. The one who'd come so furtively to claim it knew it stood no chance. To renege was its only option. Retreat.

To flee now?

Its death- a guarantee at this point either way. Desperation and hunger did well to strip away fear; and whatever doubt of success lingered. So instead of skittering back the way it had come, the Furtive Dreg hunched low and skittered toward the Wiry Dreg. Using the sound of the blood-tide's lapping against the bone-sand to approach without immediate detection under the moonlight...

To be born into such a life...

Lost in thought, Arx had no time to react as something hurtled toward her face.

CRA-ACK!

"...!"

The blow, a surprise, stopped the Dragon dead in her tracks.

Blinking back stars, the Dragon reached up to touch her face, only for the follow up swing to catch it- and the other side of her face- hard enough to shatter the 2x4 that had been turned into a bludgeon. Immediately, a dull throb washed over her; and pulling her hand away she saw that for the first time in a great while she had a bloody nose.

"... huh."

Looking up, she had just enough time to register the fist before it caught her square in her now sore chin. Though far less firm than the 2x4, its effect did more to annoy her than harm her. "Rrrr..." Perhaps her sympathy had been misplaced. Craning her neck, she saw that several humans had gathered around her while she was focused on the assailant in front of her. Of course, they knew as well as she that numbers were their only chance.

Low as that chance was of success.

Deciding now was as good a time as any to bother responding, Arx looked up... and actually had to look up. Her assailant, a relative slab of muscle and lacking in the neck department due to sheer muscle; was easily a foot or more taller than her. Huh... you don't see that every d-

"H-hey Mick..." A voice at her back drew focus momentarily. "She's got Administratum-issue g-"

"Shaddup!" This 'Mick' cut back immediately as he clenched and swung at her again. "Just make with th-"

Under the moonlight, the Dragon's claws glinted menacingly; and before this 'Mick' had even finished his sentence she'd closed the gap between them and lashed out.

"HRK..."

In the end, the muscles may have prevented him from turning his head, but they'd done little to protect him from Arx. Lifeblood spilled down the man's front, his head tilting back at an unnatural angle before 'Mick collapsed in a heap. To his credit at least, he'd successfully given the Dragon a headache.

Which left only...

Turning, Arx found the assailants at her back to the be the polar opposite of Mick.

Scrawny, holding a variety of makeshift weapons- broken bottles, jagged stones, and more of those pesky 2x4's- the half-circle of potential assailants were wiry at best; and she understood almost immediately that Mick was the best they'd had. Which of all things, hit her harder than the 2x4 that had been broken across her face.

The Furtive Dreg was close.

Could hear its better chomping greedily at the bloated flesh it had sought so desperately... and its desperation and hunger was added to by something new to it entirely: anger. How dare this other. How dare this other; and for the first time since its hatching the fear that had inundated the Furtive Dreg's every waking moment was superseded.

... and in that moment it lashed out.

Claws glinting under the moonlight, it struck first; and the Wiry Dreg never stood a chance.

Something swelled in her chest, staring at them, but it wasn't pain. So 'new' was this feeling, that for a moment the Dragon wondered if her last meal had made her sick; but the longer she stared the more she realized what it was: pity. All they'd done, is what she would've in their shoes. Everything they could to secure one more day. So eyes wide, and the blood of their 'leader' still fresh on her claws... Arx pointed behind them.

"Take what you need from him, and leave." They didn't move. So she urged them to. "Now." Those that didn't flee after she barked, took her up on the offered salvage. The starveling humans quickly looting the corpse- and carving away the parts of him that would make the most in the Slum's Black Market- before disappearing back the way they came.

She watched them leave with passing interest.

Pity. Disgusting.

After a moment, she turned and continued on her way. the train of thought she'd started before the desperate ambush resuming without a dropped beat, but now she had something more to consider...

It struck first, and didn't stop until the Wiry Dreg was a shredded corpse.

And after the adrenaline had faded, all the Furtive Dreg was left with was hunger; and the realization that it now had a fresh meal. Its fear of death no longer an issue- having come to terms in the moments before now with its own mortality- it didn't bother dragging either corpse.

Leaning down, the remaining Dreg began to fill its maw; as the blood-tide lapped idly at the bone-shore.

After she was fed, she'd drag what was left back to her hovel.

---

Arx would return to the Resistance Camp some hours yet, before dawn; humming to herself softly.

[Melon God]

Once more, Morgen took in a deep breath. She did as she was instructed, but...

Putting the chain of events together in her head, it was way too suspicious. First, she called Ange and told her the administratum was closing in on their exact location. Now, she was going to show up and suddenly say that it was a false alarm?
Not even she would buy that entirely.

"Say..." she began, eyeing Alice. "I might need you to help me spin a story... one where I barely escaped from a witch." Morgen swallowed nervously. Ange knew the administratum had a lead -- what reason would they have to abruptly change course? Perhaps if it was implied to be a trap set up for their forces, and she was 'caught' red-handed, and needed to 'escape' after being found out.

"I might need you to hurt me."

[Noldere]

Morning Branch

Selma raised an eyebrow at his boast in regards to a thing that may be as old as the Ruin, if not even older. She seriously doubted he could do so, but if it made him feel better to believe he could defeat something like that, then she'd let him continue doing so.

Shaking her head, Selma turned herself so her back was facing him and pulled the back of her shirt up enough to reveal her back to him. She gave a weary sigh as she said "Let's do this as quickly as possible so I can lay down and see if it'll make my head and back stop hurting. Let me tell you, I am beyond done with today."

OT: It looks like this with an eye in the center

"Yeah," Lucifer remarked as he took a moment to look at the now unobstructed pattern. "I can definitely understand that feeling. Both today and yesterday would get put back where they were found if I had a say in the matter."

~And then the one who found them would have been fired, then blacklisted~

"Anyway, aside from the eye at the center, I don't really see anything to be concerned about. No pulsating darkness or anything unnerving like that- just what to an admitted non-expert simply looks like a magic circle, probably a mark to prove you've actually made the deal you did or something. Go ahead and get what rest you can. I'll have a copy or two of it waiting for you to look at it when you're ready for them."

...

A few minutes later, having settled down near where he'd made his sleeping bag several hours ago, he began to weave once more- this time to make good on his promise.

"Let's see... I'll do one with black lines on a white background, another that's inverted, and two or three exactly as I saw it..." Lucifer muttered to himself as he gathered the light he would need to weave the pattern now firmly stuck in his memory into something tangible.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Xia crawled out from under a house, completely covered in filth and grime. The last task she had signed up for was by far the worst. Plumbing was at the bottom of her list of enjoyable pastimes, but this old woman had a badly backed up toilet and no one else gave enough of a **** to bother helping her. And it turned out Xia strolled through at the right time - or wrong time, depending on who was telling the story.

"Thank you so much, deary," the woman crowed happily. "Please hurry and take a shower. I'll take care of those clothes and have clean ones ready for you."

She was hesitant about the clothes. She had a very specific look she was going for and didn't want it ruined by whatever hand-me-down clothes this lady kept from when her granddaughter still stayed with her before heading to some higher learning academy or whatever. Xia stopped listening once a poop log slapped her in the face. "Thanks," she said hesitantly.

The shower was surprisingly powerful and the water was refreshingly hot. She was content to sit under the stream for hours, letting it take the stench away. She undid her braid out to let her fall to her shoulders. The stink was everywhere.

She had become known as a guardian, someone who cared when the Big Bosses refused to do more than what was required. She hoped that, eventually, someone would learn from her example and take it upon themselves to take her place when she moved on to another Center to start the process all over again. It was tiresome and sometimes frustrating, but in the end, seeing their smiling and grateful faces made it all worth it.

She stepped out of the shower, refreshed and clean. The clothes the old lady left were not what she thought they'd be: a pair of black jeans, combat boots, and a black shirt with some band name on it. There was a t-shirt under the shirt, which let her ignore the shirt completely. Thankfully, she left her jacket back at the compound. I should probably head back. It's time to move on, probably. Staying in one place while wanted wasn't smart. They needed to keep moving if they were going to stay under the radar.

She dressed quickly and several minutes re-braiding her ponytail.

"Don't you look precious," the lady said before pinching Xia's cheeks. "My granddaughter left all these nice clothes behind before leaving for that dreadful Witch academy thing." She shook her head and sighed. "Well, at least her stuff is finding a good use. Will you be back tomorrow?"

"I don't know. I'm just drifting through." She lifted her bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you around, lady." She was gone, vanishing within the throng of passing people. Prolonged goodbyes would prompt her to stay a little while longer. She couldn't afford to, even if she wanted to. And she did; the simple people who lived in the slums were often better company that the stuck-up assholes who lived in the big houses with big yards and big fences.

She could have traveled across the rooftops, but that would have drawn unnecessary attention. Long way it is.

---

She entered the hidden base as quietly and inconspicuously as she left. Tired and aching from all the work she did in those few hours, she flung her bag somewhere out of the way and wandered into the kitchen to find something to eat. For Red's sake, she better have gotten more eggs.

[The Dog]

Morning Branch



"Yeah," Lucifer remarked as he took a moment to look at the now unobstructed pattern. "I can definitely understand that feeling. Both today and yesterday would get put back where they were found if I had a say in the matter."

~And then the one who found them would have been fired, then blacklisted~

"Anyway, aside from the eye at the center, I don't really see anything to be concerned about. No pulsating darkness or anything unnerving like that- just what to an admitted non-expert simply looks like a magic circle, probably a mark to prove you've actually made the deal you did or something. Go ahead and get what rest you can. I'll have a copy or two of it waiting for you to look at it when you're ready for them."

...

A few minutes later, having settled down near where he'd made his sleeping bag several hours ago, he began to weave once more- this time to make good on his promise.

"Let's see... I'll do one with black lines on a white background, another that's inverted, and two or three exactly as I saw it..." Lucifer muttered to himself as he gathered the light he would need to weave the pattern now firmly stuck in his memory into something tangible.

"Good to know, thanks a lot." Selma muttered to him with a smile, wandering off toward the sleeping area. As she did so, she could have sworn she heard the sound of Leviathan's laughter in her head, quieter than when they talked, but there all the same.

"Hello? Leviathan, are you there?" Selma asked softly, not wanting anyone to hear it and begin asking questions of if she was working with the thing to do anything to somehow make everything worse. Particularly that one girl, since she already believed something terrible was happening with Leviathan. A not unfair worry, even if Selma wasn't working with it on anything more than watching the world because it was bored.

After several moments without response, Selma shook her head and continued walking.

'I'm going insane. It was going to happen, eventually, especially after the last couple of days.' Selma thought as she reached the sleeping area. Walking over to one of them, she all but collapsed onto it, laying on her stomach as she closed her eyes, and began trying to get to sleep, or at least stop her headache and the throbbing pain in her back.

[Yun Lao]

My name is Sigourney Estelle. I am 18 years old and will turn 19 in just about a month.

This is my new diary. I must have lost the old one in the chaos... things just haven't been the same since the Ruin came to A-9. I'm currently residing in A-11. I was saved and brought here by the Administratum, although I don't know why. All I do know is that it wasn't out of the kindness of their hearts. The only possible explanation for sparing me must have been my connection to Tekeli-li, since I haven't told anyone about the dreams; I don't think I can trust anyone here to tell them. This so-called Rebel group strikes me as the opposite side of the coin from the Administratum in that they both just want the power of Tekeli-li, but as of the moment, the Rebels haven't scooped out my brains or whatever morbidity I could subjected to. Speaking of the dreams, they have been growing extreme. They come to me now as visions with the last one being a waking nightmare that I've never witnessed previously.

I don't know how long I will be able to hide from the others, from the Administratum, and whatever else seeking me out. For now, I can only rely on Tekeli-li and myself.

Closing the leather-bound diary, Sigourney gave a small, content sigh as a tiny bit of normality had returned to her.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Night Branch



"Have there been any leads?" Lucifer asked as the feeling he felt not too long ago suddenly returned. "On finding either your children or the man who killed your wife, that is? Considering the circumstances under which we've met, I can't imagine going to the police would be wise, but have you had anyone help you look into the matter? I can't-"



"-wait..."

What Lucifer was going to say next was interrupted as the leftovers began to move seemingly of their own volition, slowly forming a message.

"... do you see the message on the food over there?" he asked after a couple of moments, unsure he wasn't still simply seeing things despite the evidence to the contrary. "Does that name mean anything to you?"

" 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.

[MrSandman]

Once more, Morgen took in a deep breath. She did as she was instructed, but...

Putting the chain of events together in her head, it was way too suspicious. First, she called Ange and told her the administratum was closing in on their exact location. Now, she was going to show up and suddenly say that it was a false alarm?
Not even she would buy that entirely.

"Say..." she began, eyeing Alice. "I might need you to help me spin a story... one where I barely escaped from a witch." Morgen swallowed nervously. Ange knew the administratum had a lead -- what reason would they have to abruptly change course? Perhaps if it was implied to be a trap set up for their forces, and she was 'caught' red-handed, and needed to 'escape' after being found out.

"I might need you to hurt me."

"Ohhh...I get it. So you told us the wrong location, we caught on and you got beat up a bit during your escape....Nice, I like it." Alice gave a enthusiastic clap, then sat there staring expectantly.

"..........Well....plenty of hard surfaces......go smash your face into them." Alice gestured to the car door. "....or wait....hold on....are you expecting ME to beat you up?" For a moment, Alice had to cover her mouth with the back of her hand while barely contained her hysterical laughter, looking down her nose like she were watching some dumb dog do something stupid and hilarious. "He..eh.....ahh....forgive me.....I don't do requests. You've got a moving set of limbs....show some initiative and go beat the **** outta yourself."

After another ackward moment, Alice sighed. "Finnne....I'll get the ball rolling but you handle the rest..."

An invisible force flung the girl out of the car with surprising force, before Morgan had a chance to prepare....smashing her head against the top of the door and catching her arm against the side, a sickening crack sounding as he bent to far to quickly, before depositing her in a heap outside.

"I'll be in touch flower girl!" Alice causally waved as the door shut and the car took off.

[MrSandman]

Edit: Moving this post to a later time

[KingofPie]

Idly holding the mask in her hand as she sat and studied the way Omu ate, she waved it around idly as she leaned back in laughter.

"Oh, is it? The wrong kind of attention, I mean," Kinu said giddily, a certain puckish excitement surfacing in her. "Whatever gets their attention, they'll try to take it for themselves. Figure out some clever twist or spin to make it go down easy."

"But...remember the real number of survivors from A-9, the ones they've funnel around town tonight. They'd like for everyone to forget about them, but really, that's something that's out of the Administration's control. And something that can't be ignored."

"Sure as the sun will rise upon another day, you may try to call it something else, but it is what it is," she said, taking a long gulp of beer, exhaling with relish. "something as sure as that..."

Plucking at the mask once more, she let it fall through her fingers, and it fell by the tether around her neck.

"But nobody is ready for what I, the Great Kinu want. Not yet."

Omu passed for a moment, taking the Kabuki warrior's words in. While disdain for the Administratum wasn't uncommon, this group was the first time he'd seen it displayed so brazenly. At least so brazenly, and not squashed as soon as possible by the powers that be. But it was as Kinu said...this could not be ignored.

He would have to change his mind. Most of these people would make bad recruits after all...but if they could become something else interesting? Omg chuckled to himself.

"So, what is it yer after, precisely? "

[The Dog]

~Slums: Evening~
The order had been given for the final evacuation. Though Ange hadn't yet reported back in.....the plan was already in motion to gather up who remained and escort them out of the city.

Those that were still at the hideout were to be led out in small groups, while Mulvric had tasked Saint with picking up any stragglers who were out and about, but hadn't reported in.

Their destination was an abandoned building against the slum wall, perhaps once a factory of some kind....though now old and decrepit. Looted by slum gangs over the years and left to rot as a artifact of an earlier age of the slums. Inside....a well hidden path to a basement area, were everyone was gathered and awaiting the journey out through what appeared to be a tunnel.

In addition to the group, there were also some civilians set to go with them.....including some Sig and Lucifer recognized from the cell they had all been imprisoned in what seems like a lifetime ago. Two Sisters, one of them crying quietly while the other did her best to console her......and the old lady from the terminal, stood up staring blankly at the wall and slapping mercer with her cane every time he ventured near.

Selma sighed, glad that at least her headache had stopped, even if her back was still hurting. And despite what Lucifer had said, she knew she could feel something... unnatural moving about her back. If asked, she'd describe it kind of like the magic she used to perform her magic abilities, but twisted and wrong. And every so often, she thought she heard something, most often the sound of great boulders grinding together, which she knew to be the sound of Leviathan's 'laughter'.

She shook her head, trying to put those thoughts out of her head for the time being, and turned back to what they were doing.

[Melon God]

Pins of light pierced through a tattered green awning, fluttering lightly in a passing breeze. Beneath the shade sat an older gentleman, his back against the brick wall of a retired noodle restaurant and his foot crossing where the sun and shadow met. He held up a small sketchbook on his knee, putting the environment before him to paper with careful strokes of his pencil. But he did not draw the crumbling store fronts as he saw them -- instead, he depicted them as he imagined them to look when they used to be new installments, before the wear and tear of the slums reduced them to improvised housing. Pages and pages of his sketchbooks were dedicated to different venues and angles of the slums, each image faithfully restoring them. His eyes flicked up again, and his hand became still.

In the darkness of the alley across the street, a figure shambled forward, its arm leaning against the side of the building for support. He watched quietly, at first with curiosity, and then with some amount of surprise when the figure revealed itself in the sunlight.

The man dropped his things and hurried over, physically supporting the injured woman by throwing her arm over his shoulder and hoisting her up. She seemed to be just barely clinging onto consciousness -- her head was bleeding pretty badly, and her other arm dangled at a twisted angle. She looked to have suffered some injuries to her back as well; deep gashes and bruises, like she'd been struck while fleeing from something. Looking both ways down the road, the man cleared the phlegm from this throat, hoarse from years of smoking, and coughed a few times before shouting aloud.

"Is anyone there?" he called, adjusting to catch the young woman from slipping off his back. "Someone's hurt!"

Morgen's lids fluttered.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

"Is anyone there?" he called, adjusting to catch the young woman from slipping off his back. "Someone's hurt!"

Morgen's lids fluttered.

Arx's arrival to this... scene should've been a foregone conclusion. She smelled blood, heard yelling... more importantly than anything else however; was the smell. Magic, and what's more it was familiar. So the Dragon had come running.

In seeing what- and who- the source was, the Dragon did take a momentary pause, before tilting her her head to express, surprisingly, her concern.

"What happened, old man?"