Fandom Soul Eater: F.A.T.E

[The Regal Rper]

Ark | Atlanta | Rings: 0/1

With Tia's explanation of her spells and Raph taking the suggestion at least to go with her, the news Gauss provided about Chanterelle’s findings provided some clarity on the situation with how KN9 may have been copying spells Ark had nothing to add or more to suggest. Especially after hearing Maria's response.

“No questions on my part in that case.” Was all he had to say. The results with KN9 would come later.

Mentions: Merciless Medic

Interactions: RedArmyShogun
Peckinou Sir Les Paul Meredith

 

[Sir Les Paul]

North of Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey​

GM Post

Chanterelle would try to warn them, but by the time she realized what the colony was going to do, it was too late.

The plan—if one could call it that—was going fairly well. As it would turn out, being a Sorceress and a studious one at that, Maria was more than capable of integrating her own spell work into the relatively simple runes and magic circles being used to freeze KN9. It was common knowledge that Sorcerers were often leagues better at this type of scholastic application of magic and moments like this proved it. They may have lacked the raw control and intuition of a Witch, but they did in fact make up for it. The Witches alongside Maria successfully created an area of lower pressure around KN9. Not a perfect vacuum, but enough to accelerate the rate of freezing. More so, another Witch would conjure more water any time they needed the icy block to ascend upwards to try and encase the creature.

"Who is that human?" Tia asked, a type of half-eager curiosity obvious within her. She had seemingly softened substantially since Gauss humbled her. During the flight to KN9, she bothered to inquire about him directly at such an inopportune time.

Raph could answer, if he found some level of forgiveness for the Witch. On the other hand, there was a type of irony in her fixation given how moments prior, she was so hateful to him and his kind. Gauss had that effect, though; just look at what he did to the Sphinx.

Nevertheless, Raph had other concerns and greater successes. He learned something about himself and his chain suppression. With the help of Tia and a few of her flying summons acting as anchors for his runes, he was able to suppress bits of KN9. Whether or not that simply weakened it or outright prevented it from casting any greater magic was unknown; it was impossible to quantify exactly what he was doing. What was possible for him was the realization that in a complex situation like this one, he was able to selectively choose which magics he wanted to suppress. His chains possessed a type of supernatural sense around them, not quite like Soul Perception, but an awareness of all the different forces they encountered. All the different magic, in this case. When he made it a contest of will to suppress KN9, it was the first time he had ever tried to suppress more than one source of magic or power or really anything.

Light like bulb flipping on for the first time, Raph was illuminated by an always-existing feature and factually a great strength of this chains. They only suppressed what he wanted them to.

Meanwhile, the slaughter of the paralyzed zombie fish below was literally like shooting monkeys in a barrel. A fitting analogy, but there was plenty of value to it. Arkayis was able to unleash all that pent up fury in blue flames around him and Ark was able to push himself to compete. Noah could relax for a moment while Arkayis vented in the forefront and Gauss went on auto-pilot. Essentially, it became a competition of many agents, but more so Ark and Gauss with Arkayis. Who could destroy the most of those decrepit, waterlogged bodies. In most situations, Ark would probably come out on top here. He had a myriad of greater ways to eliminate targets in a large area in quick fashion, especially when they were essentially sitting ducks with no resistances or shields.

Thing was, Arkayis was heated. Those blue jet flames of his were powered by anger and frustration from Tia and their former encounter. His soul was afire and that also fueled Gauss. Not that the two resonated, but it was no secret that the more passionate the partner, the greater they strengthened their allies. Ark would find himself surprisingly challenged by keeping up with the energized Gauss and the heated Arkayis. He may have had more flames to work with, but none of them burned as hot.

Together, they must have cut through hundreds if not thousands of shambling corpses on that beach.

All things seemed to be going well on all fronts. That of course meant disaster was bound to happen. While KN9 wasn't entirely encased in ice yet, it had stopped moving almost entirely. It half-frozen. It didn't need to be encased in ice for its tissues to begin forming ice crystals. If that were all there was to it, the plan might have worked.

But, there was more. So much more.

Before Chanterelle would ever get a chance to explain, the torso of KN9 would explode into tsunami of half-frozen flesh. Erupting like some B-rate horror film or Alien rip-off. What spewed from it were waves of ugly, little, flying creatures and a black cloud of spores. The first hundred or so were slowed down and frozen by the efforts of the Witches, but soon after were hundreds more that broke through the magical field. The sky was soon swarmed with a toxic black cloud and an ever-growing flow of those flying bastards. It was safe to say KN9 was dead, but with a new swarm of meter-long flying snake rat things, the fight was now far from over.

Sure, the immediate danger of being melted by plasma was gone, but Maria and the other Witches now had to contest with that swarm. It wasn't seeming to end, either.

Chanterelle would finally get to explain. KN9 wasn't actually the Kaiju. At least, not all of it. It was more like a lure. A creature in and of itself, sure, but more like a puppet. The real KN9 was exponentially larger and still in the water, heavily damaged from the bombing the military had done the day before. The entire creature was an anglerfish, essentially, and KN9 as a kaiju was a walking war path that it used to attract its prey in the water who followed its wake of destruction. Problem now was the mushroom colony had taken over that body and turned into a factory for spore generation.

KN9 was in fact dead. Now the creature was nothing but a funnel for those little flying bastards, each apparently a spore that would try to infect any body it could. Apparently, it was also leaking them into the water some ways out via the tether that connected it to KN9. There was probably nothing they could do about the ones being leaked into the ocean, but this thing originated from the depths of the sea. Hopefully, it would return there. The ones flying around in the air were an entirely different problem. If this fungal colony adapted to life on land, it would wreak havoc on every ecosystem it touched. They were looking at a bona fide Walking Dead situation if they didn't end it right there.

RedArmyShogun Meredith Merciless Medic Peckinou The Regal Rper​

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov
New York City - North of JFK International - NYC
September 26th​

With all that was happening Nadia kept most of her attention on the Paladin and Dani. Her partner was a bit agitated, but such a thing wasn't too different from how she always was. There was little point in saying much to her, or maybe there were things that should be said? Though the all too human part of her was happy to see the man and his group in this position, a measure of pride had been restored.

Still, she would not gloat over the defeated and now used... enemy? Was he truly the enemy? Perhaps an enemy of tomorrow, but for now the truce held even if bloodied. Inclining her head slightly, Nadia spoke; "Thank you. I cannot speak for all here but as far as I am concerned you held up your end of this show, and now so will I. You are free to go." Hopefully no one would challenge this, and that it would take some time to bite her on the ass as she thought on the rest of what was said, with Adrian chiming in.

"No matter how interesting the Witch thing is, we have a mission to do, we'll file a report in detail in all that has happened. I'm not specialized in hunting witches either, but this makes me worry for Feng's team. So, for now, we focus on this, if the plan doesn't go to plan, then that is where we step in more directly." She stated, wanting to get away from this distraction as she viewed it.


Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (Adrian/NPC's) The Regal Rper (NPC's)

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Maria Mayer - Atlantic City - New Jersey​

As the situation grew from bad to worse and the parasitic fungi exploded from the beast, Maria was quick to make use of her, acting as she seen fit, with mana coursing from her book and her eyes taking on a reddish hue. She was pissed, more than pissed point of fact as she voiced as much, making use of all the heat in the air around her person.

"It is not enough that you disrupt my work! It is not enough that you continue to live!" As she said these words, she pulled from the air making a great many Wind Blasts, detonating them via circles at random points to dent the swarm, but yet still something else remained as the pages of the Grimoire came to life, dancing as they did so. "But that I cannot use my darlings against the likes of you, that I must do something so utilitarian!" It at some level bothered her a great deal to have to do something she did not consider artfully done. Even if she was not bound to a given theme, that mentality was still there.

To not use her creations, and now to go for area saturation, Maria was not pleased in the least. She would make sure to put her true creations to work, the subtle movements and that which ground combat offered her. An artist with an elegant hand towards how she carried out her craft, reduced to being artillery. She would make up for it once back on land. But for now, that cloud needed dealing with, then she needed to get out of here. Hopefully no others got caught up in what was to come, that they would take note of the spell circle and retreat, Maria was going to make good on this attack to escape, then join efforts to fight on land with her small squad. Hopefully none among the Witches would be so foolish as to stand their ground with the literal glowing warning sign before them all.

But to be safe, a loud shout of "GET CLEAR! WIND EXPLOSION!" echoed outwards to all that could be reached. She did not need to call out her attack, but doing so had worked rather well with Elly the last time around.

As the cloud fought to expand the spell circle and hazy air up where Maria had been glows faintly as with sudden fierceness as a green orb fires downwards expanding outward with a faint breeze that quickly turned into a sucking pressure over a large area, the Wind Explosion spell would gather pressure and spark setting fire throughout as a fuel air explosion. Maria for her part had gained some distance and decided to look at her handy work as it lanced downwards with its explosive force.

Interactions: Merciless Medic (Raph-Noah) Meredith (Chanterelle) Sir Les Paul (Gauss) Peckinou (Arkayis) The Regal Rper (Ark)

 

[The Regal Rper]

Ark | Atlanta | Rings: 0/1

Two fingers curled up, spikes of earth shot from the ground, gouging out his targets all while blue flames washed away undead flesh and bone trapped in a funk by Chanterelle's ministrations.

As they cleaved through bodies, Ark could not help but think of Tia's subtle shift to Gauss before she had left with Raphael and how it reminded him of something Zosar had said.

When told about the situation in Egypt and the fact his aunts had found some minor interest in Gauss when Ark had recounted the story, Zosar had decided to poke some fun at the idea of Thaddeus joining the Astraeus family. Granted the Meister hadn't believed his peer had actually convinced a Sphinx to do anything.

Had Ark not been there, neither would he.

The idea Gauss could woo any of his aunts though wasn't in the realm of possibility. Sphinxes were one thing, his family was an entirely different one.

Perhaps Tia likely might have had an entirely different tune had she known about Egypt. It was hard to say, the glance she tossed Gauss' way, he was certain her whole opinion of him had taken a shift at least. Which he had to admit was a good thing, perhaps. The thought was really just something that occurred to him as he slaughtered undead as casually as one might throw trash into a bin.

His attention however was piqued as Gauss joined with Arky but elected to leave Noah out of it. Fairly given Ark had some understanding that Elemental abilities for Meisters and Weapons were a bit more taxing if not trained properly. He wasn't an expert in the nature of Soul Studies, but like anything that piqued his interests, Ark had done his research, talked to friends who were pairs themselves. He hadn't gone on a deep dive like he had his research for developing Demon Tools like his gloves and jewel but he had invested some time to satisfy his curiosity. Enough to understand more than simple basics at least where most hardly knew much of anything. Even then, he was still pretty sure there was a lot he didn't know. Books after all, weren't always factual.

Of all the other agents, Gauss and Arky in action motivated Ark slightly as he saw them rapidly picking up in their body count. It wasn't often he found someone that sparked an interest in him to push a little above what was needed. For a little bit that's what he did. To his minor amusement, Gauss and Arky seemed to just surge forward though. It made Ark almost want to put more effort in, but he chose not to. The KN9 was still a factor, and he wasn't about to make the mistake he made the day prior.

A friendly wager might have been nice and the thought occurred to him but he dismissed the notion to avoid unnecessary friction.

What he could see from witnessing the duo in action was Arky was capable at least when he had something to focus himself on. In a weird way, he was reminded of the situation in Congo that led to all the pockets of conflict across Central and West Africa. There became something almost akin to a competition between mages and their spiritual counterparts. Mages especially had more of an image to preserve when that conflict arose due to how Rogues had aligned themselves within certain political groups for power grabs.

Things were going smoothly, until the outcry as something happened to the Kaiju.

Witnessing it explode, or at least part of it, had caused Ark to pause as a cloud of creatures rose from its mass.

“No way” was all he could mutter in grim reaction.

Yes way, they had crossed into the realm of horror movies, and were on the potential path to experience their own slice of the Walking Dead.

Chanterelle's explanation did one thing for Ark and one thing only, it convinced him to start killing as many as the flying little creatures as fast as possible. Which meant he needed these things to be within a more effective range for him to do anything. Arkayis would and Noah would undoubtedly come in great handy here.

Maria's explosion attack did seem to have its own effect on this new swarm, Ark however had elected to time his attack appropriately as he shifted the from pure earth to now flame magic. Specifically focusing on this element as he timed his attack to make certain it was more effective.

Mentions: Merciless Medic

Interactions: RedArmyShogun
Peckinou Sir Les Paul Meredith

 

[Merciless Medic]

Sara Middleton​

Date: September 27, 2067
Location: Castle Kleist, Liberec Region, Czech Republic
Interactions: Dante, Elly, Kisei, Zosar, Wren
Mentions: N/A
Pumpkid EmperorsChosen Sir Les Paul The Regal Rper Haze- RedArmyShogun

Sara mentally giggled at Dante's question, so she commented back through their soul connection. 'It's less that they smell like a carrot and more like they smell of a distinct vegetable smell with no way to tell what kind it is. But it's only for people who are uh... vegetative. Like brain death or lobotomies.'

Not that Sara had met that many, but passing by one person was enough to leave the scent in her mind.

She nodded at his words, her nose being blinded by the astringent smell of chemicals nearby. It stung her nose a bit, all the while she was hopping about hitting and pulling on random bits of the wall and floor nearby, avoiding the skeletons and lesser vampires with an occasional swing here and there.

But when the door opened, she was surprised to see a monster there. She growled, only to look on strangely as the thing said it wasn't an enemy. She looked back to check the status of their enemies. When the coast was clear, she listened with some trepidation.

Whatever this Cabal was, it was weird, and Sara didn't like listening to it talk. It was unnatural, it smelled off, and it made her want to run. But she stood there, listening to it. It spoke in riddles and Sara was having a hard time following along, but she got the gist of it: which was to go to two places to stop the ritual. Which meant they had to split.

Not ideal, it wasn't something Sara wanted to do as strength was in numbers, but this - she guessed - was a necessity. As the creature rambled, she looked back at her teammates, her ears back and eyes wary, tuning out the monster's rambling as it no longer held and importance.

As Elly said the plan, Sara had her reservations, but she didn't voice them. It was clear on her face she didn't like it. Zosar was alright with it, which just made her sigh in defeat. Not like she could think of a better plan, anyway.

Kisei spoke, and it was motivating. Her eyes glanced at Zosar, and she grinned. This felt like a hunt. A much more dangerous hunt, but one nonetheless.

"Let's go then. The traitors aren't as important. Let's get rid of the one powering it, and then we'll catch up to fight the Duke." With that, she hurried off in the direction of the smell, heading down to wherever this chamber laid to stop the ritual.

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Blood Hunt
Elimination and Recovery
Date: 09/27/67
Location: Castle Kleist - Liberec Region - Czech Republic​

With that and in quick order, the die had been cast, there was no turning back, no sudden changes to make, though Zosar had been wrong with his assumption, something that the Abomination Cabal did not see fit to correct, for the traitors were not there, nowhere near it point of fact. But he, it? Had its own goals. And that was aligned with theirs for the here and now.

Moving out of the way to allow the four down, or rather the two with weapon partners, Cabal would state nothing as they had not been asked anything. Akin to a jester, or better yet a harlequin in every sense of the word, help had been given, but the Stage was not for Cabal, that stage was for the mother, for those here. Regardless of the odds, their decisions were what were beyond this actor in the backdrop, it seemed as if Cabal had smiled at the team reaching this decision as they followed the two Meisters, keeping far distance from them, so they would not misunderstand their reasoning or actions. No guilt was to be held about the misplaced odds they had put themselves in.

Going down the ancient stonework's and getting ever closer to the scents that bothered Sara so much, they would come upon a large chamber, true to the visions the others had the area was divided up with a few halls running from the central chambers, a large number of experimental tanks that contained parts of creatures or things best left unknown would fill a central bay. Along the sides were a number of cells, holding a host of captives, most fearful, a few addled, some in the process of changing into undead, In addition, a few concealed tanks and assorted machinery with purposes and forms unknown were also on hand and a considerable number of alchemic devices and materials littered portions of the grand room, with pillars at key locations to support the castle above, as four figures at the center of it all casted a glance at the interlopers.

First a woman with piercing red eyes, nearly dressed in all white, leggings and garter hose, her worn items and style were remarkably modern, she was the figure that was seen directly by Dante in his own memory dive, information he had glossed over or failed to provide, a clipboard was in her hands as she casually glanced at some technical readouts on a computer display near the tanks, soon to be replaced by annoyance. Quickly she made her nature known, dropping the clipboard and transforming into a nasty looking warmace that Sauron would have been proud of.

The Next figure who would quickly act to grab her and glowered at their approach was dressed in garments of crimson red, black cloth, leather and rusted armor upon various parts of his body. His aura was one that was unmistakenly ancient, how he came to be with his current partner was unknown, but he carried himself with the bearing of a soldier, or a knight, he spoke in a clipped or urgent response as he took hold of the mace and advanced; "Continue the Ritual, Machine Witch. Your creation failed or betrayed us. We will speak of this." Akin to the Bloodsuckers back across the Atlantic, this man stepped off with great speed and power, aiming to smash who he seen as the weakest, the werewolf meister with a hefty one-handed swing with his right arm and a held his left up in defense from any looming strikes by the dark-skinned man with a chainsaw.

Durning the split instant of this conflict two more things would be of note, firstly, the CIA agent, battered, bruised, restrained by chains to an X shape bench that was tilted upwards at a slight incline, was a captive of the enemy, a hostage who had a spell circle at her feet, visibly siphoning mana from her, to be gathered in the circle, then shot up a number of other pylons up above, branching out elsewhere, of note all of these relays seemed to have been constructed of mana crystals, with enteric designs, disrupting this would hamper the spell, but the process, true to Cabal, was well and truly a case of needing multiple processes to stop. In regard to the CIA agent Witch, a sense of despair with a kindling of hope would be detectable by the ability Sara had in sniffing out in these matters, hopeful yet so thoroughly beaten

As the young nameless witch had said, this plan had long been in the making and likely contained conspiracy within conspiracy. Sensing the spell, what it was doing, where it was going, these would be known to one degree to another by Dante, and at the very least it seemed that the CIA Witch, though battered, was very much alive. The other two missing agents, and their fate would require a bit of focus in the now, or a search of the 100 or so souls in the dungeon complex.

And lastly, channeling via spell circles stood a woman dressed entirely in red, a dark blood red, in what was clearly caster garb, with blonde hair that ran down her back and was braided on the left side. Short and diminutive whatever threat she had was purely magical at face value, had one looked at her soul, or had Dante the skill to detect such things, then the woman was a Sorcerer, not a Witch as the little Witch had thought. What was her medium for empowering herself was another question altogether, one that would need focus to determine.

Albeit one with deep mana reserves. Her gaze looked tired, distant, her breath carried on akin to Darth Vader, mechanically assisted, a gasmask with tubes running to parts unseen behind her back, a mechanical claw and a clearly prosthetic right hand and a left boot that had rings inside of the leg hinted at even more prosthetics, with a chained clasp around her right leg, she had a limited amount of movement within the makeshift lab, seemingly one cell was made comfortable enough just behind her, a residency no doubt. Whoever this woman was, she had seen much trauma over her life and offered no resistance as her mask carried out the simple and plain words of "Affirmative... The cycle continues." a detached feeling to it all, tinged with the light of obsession.

Spoiler: Pictured

~~~~

Elsewhere with Team Elly and Kisei would have a more eventful and longer trek, forces of the undead traps and a few chimerical creations stood between them and the Duke, most annoying of all was how the way up was constructed akin to a Castlevania game. It was no problem for Elly and her partner, even the enemies serve to delay than threaten, but it was clear that the commandos outside would have never made it this far, being human soldiers, no matter how trained, only those with physical enhancements could clear these floors. For Kisei and Elly, it was just tedious, tedious and calorie burning.

And it all would end with a pair of great ebony ironwood doors being pushed open by the Meister, with obsidian and points of it giving way to the powerful presence she felt upon entering this castle became all the clearer, with a long regal purple carpet, pillars, balconies and banners stretched out before them, ancient sigils with designs unknown to all but historians of the medieval period and the most skilled of blood hunter families. Torches and a great chandelier, with massive support columns covered in a mix of obsidian, marble and silver, adorned the large hall and at its head stood a throne with a single figure seated upon it and another standing next to him.

​

Wearing an ascot, and regal looking frock coat, riding pants, a long cape with purple accents and a pair of calve high leather boots, a man with a harsh and decidedly inhuman face with ashen skin, black hair and glowing yellow eyes, took a drink from a wineglass, somewhat amused but unafraid of the situation before him, took his measure of the enemy. Next to him was a woman in a styled trench coat, ripped pants shorts, and other modern clothing that would not be out of place with the modern world, a stark contrast to her partner simply watched with a bemused grin before with ashen grey hair and piercing red eyes, that quickly vanished. Radiating undead souls, Elly would also sense that the woman was a weapon. Things were about to get interesting.

Spoiler: Enemy

Once he sensed Kisei's ability, he nonchalantly threw the glass against the wall. True to the form of a noble and a classical villain, chided the pair as he joined the fray at Elly's approach.

"So, you intend to use my own power against me! Better men than you have tried and failed! I offer mankind Unity, to be free of death where we all can stand together, no need for cattle, no need for farce! And your first act is to kill me?!"

Grabbing the sword that was once the woman, hurriedly raised his hand, and dark magic tendril reached out, touching the balcony the Duke rushed forward. "I give people a means to survive! To give the Gift to all! No More Wars, no more for the weak to overthrow their station!"

"You will die here in the name my ancient Master, Vlad Tepes. I, the Lord of this region, shall show the DWMA the way to bring about change and peace! But I must kill you now before you undo everything." Suddenly, skeletal soldiers would join in up above, summoned by the Duke with vamperic magic.readying arrows or taking delicate steps on bony feet, while the Duke sprinted forward, slamming his greatsword into the scythe to engage first.

"I just have to crush you like the bugs you are." While hostiles swarmed in, Elly sensed weapon and meister pair had not revealed their locations. Either they were hiding or waiting for a worthwhile opportunity to attack the obsidian.

Interactions/Mentions: EmperorsChosen (Elly) Sir Les Paul (Kisei) Merciless Medic (Sara) Pumpkid (Dante) The Regal Rper (Zosar) Haze- (Wren)

 

[EmperorsChosen]

Daniella Ethalyn - North of JFK International Airport, New York
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Dani looked to the member of Fox Hunt who didn't much answer her question, but then again they probably didn't know much more than she did. It wasn't their main concern anyway. Their aim was the titan, after all. Dani just wanted to know who the hell were the assholes that had tried to kill them and why. Still, it was good that enough of their equipment was preserved to proceed with their initial plan.

The pink-haired weapon's eyes glanced to Adrian and then Nadia as she folded her arms and shook her head lightly. "No, yer right. Godzilla's our priority," She relented. It was best to leave the investigation to people who were suited for it, which sure as shit wasn't her.

Her gaze then turned to Brennan briefly as he was turned loose, her expression a conflicted one, but it didn't linger. Nadia's mention of reports pulled her back. She could envision the ass-chewing she'd receive once all was said and done, though she wouldn't complain. She was already kicking herself, so some lambasting or worse was probably fair to come her way. "...Sorry for losing my shit." It wasn't spoken to either Nadia or Adrian in particular, but it was loud enough that it could be taken by either.

RedArmyShogun Sir Les Paul The Regal Rper

 

[Merciless Medic]

Raphael Valerias​

Date: September 27, 2067
Location: North of Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey
Interactions: Chanterelle, Maria, Ark, Gauss, Arkayis, Noah, Tia
Mentions: N/A
Meredith RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper Sir Les Paul Peckinou

It sounded like Maria was pretty down, not like Raphael cared at the moment. He was more concerned about his responses towards Tia, trying to do mental gymnastics in his head to be ‘civil’. However one does that…

It wasn’t the fact that Raphael couldn’t be civil, but it was because he just yelled at this lady (well, more like spoke to her with some exasperated frustration that wasn’t yelling) and now he had to act like he didn’t just do that? His pride stirred something ugly in his chest, and he didn’t really want to start sounding as ugly as it wanted him to be.

But everyone was doing their part, so he had to crawl in the mouth of that strange pelican summon and do what he needed to. When they flew up and the work of the Witches in freezing the thing became more clear, Raphael heard Tia’s words as he worked on lengthening his chain as long as he could. He raised an eyebrow, but decided to speak. While his tone was terse, he did try his best to sound less irritated. At least she seemed pretty docile now, which made it easier to speak to her. “Gauss. He’s got that aura about him, it’s hard to not listen to him.” He gave a wry smirk. “He may be a human, but he got the feel of a leader about him.”

The conversation had to be cut short, as his book flipped about as he created anchor points, chains lashing out to grab at something - anything - on this thing. That’s when he felt it, as his demon tool pulsed with mana…

This magic… Whatever this thing was, he could feel its magic. Feel what it could do as he brushed past it, like a blind man running his hand over a garden of flowers. It was instinctive knowing what some of this mana could do, and he began suppressing as much as he could of each one, testing out his own limits as he fought for control, all the while the ground units fought to destroy the rotting fungal apefish.

Then, something went wrong. The chest cavity burst open, and not only did black spores fly out, but so did these small flying creatures. He hissed, retracting his chains and causing their ends to break so they could fuse together, chaining the summons together to make a giant web of chains that started to burn hot. He wanted to give some sort of reassurance, his mind on that one little spell just in case as he spoke in some sort of a plea instead of a command due to his tone jumping an octave from stress. “Tia, I’m gonna make a giant bug-melting web, use your wind magic to guide them in! If one of these summons falls, I’ll break the chain-.”

Then he heard Maria say something about a wind explosion, his eyes widened. “Shit.” He broke the chains, letting them disappear but the runes stayed where they were. “Never mind, we’re going to get a massive thermal explosion, get back!”

Getting information from Chanterelle, he sighed, choosing to relay this to Tia so she can relay it to her allies. “This is just a lure like an angler fish… The real thing’s still underwater, but it’s been infested with magical mold…” Just who was controlling this thing??? Or what???

 

[Merciless Medic]

Noah Wiley​

Date: September 27, 2067
Location: North of Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey
Interactions: Gauss, Arkayis, Noah, Chanterelle, Maria, Ark, Tia
Mentions: N/A
Sir Les Paul Peckinou Meredith RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper

Seeing the Witch get humbled and seem quite docile afterwards was an interesting sight. Noah could never tire of watching people get pulled in by that magnetic wavelength Gauss had, the one that made him really feel like someone important, someone to listen to. Maria went to do her thing, and Raphael went with Tia despite his reservations.

Now, it was just to burn the fungal fish. While Arkayis had his fun burning things down, just because Noah was sitting in the back unused didn’t mean he was useless. He focused on Gauss’s wavelength, taking some of it to amplify it and give it back, becoming a backup generator of sorts while the main resonance between the two happened so he can further strengthen Gauss’s legs, letting him be faster.

Competing against Ark was fun while it lasted, until the creature’s chest bursted open with a cloud of black spores and serpentine flying creatures. His eyes widened within his soul space as he watched it break open, gulping slightly. “You need me now, man?” He asked, wanting to make sure he wasn’t needed for his lightning. If so, he’d have to change gears and start prepping himself.

That was when Maria yelled about some sort of explosion. They were nearby enough, and it startled him enough to jump into action anyway. He focused on amplifying more of Gauss’s wavelength to make him durable and fast. “This’s gonna be rough…” He lamented, already watching as the explosion looked to be ready to blow. He even caught Raphael in that bird, hoping that they would get out of the blast radius or block the incoming blast somehow.

 

[Sir Les Paul]

North of Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey​

GM Post

Chanterelle fought long and hard in a contest of will against the fungal colony, but her fight was now over. The release of this massive swarm was a death knell. It range out in the ocean and air, the end of one life but the beginning of millions more. One might consider it the ultimate sacrifice, but in truth, it was just the cycle of life continuing itself by any means necessary. Whatever KN9 was, it was long dead. The colony, perhaps by instinct, perhaps by intelligent decision, decided its life and its single colony was not worth risking the lives of so many others. The fundamental biological imperative of all life was to survive and procreate. Failure of the former was imminent, so assurance of the latter was the best it could hope for.

Not only were countless spores and flying fungal serpents released, all those involved would also get to witness the finding of a new species. Only later would they learn the species would be given its own name: magiamarinacordyceps. Whether she liked it or not, the less formal name for the fungus would become a Dubois Colony, named after the only Witch to have direct contact with the living colony.

A split second decision was made during self-destruction of the colony that would both change the flow of the fight and perhaps even save countless lives later. While the willpower and intelligence of the colony waned, what Chanterelle had left was a greater control for the brief while the mycelium networks allowed. She made an executive decision on her own, a heroic one perhaps, but one that did bypass Gauss and any chain of command. Before she lost her connection to the greater hive mind, she sent out a final message. A demand to all creatures connected to the colony, including those freshly born in the water.

Storm the beach.​

At first glance, this idea might have been stupid. However, there was reason for it. Hundreds of thousands of those serpentine fungal abominations had been shot into sea with the goal of attaching themselves to a sufficiently large life form to restart their colony. Reproduction in a means similar to an anglerfish, which made sense given what KN9 truly was. The fungus was merely recycling DNA. If those little bastards were allowed to flood the ocean and reach the deepest, darkest trenches, it would only allow this cycle to repeat. It was possible that these were natives to parts of the ocean still left unexplored, but that didn't matter. If they were allowed into the local environment, it would be a catastrophe. Rounding them up in a single location where they were vulnerable was their best bet.

Maria was wildly successful in her initial slaughter of the wave of fungal serpents. Other Witches joined in, though without the same fervor. Tia had little option other than to fall back behind Maria and some of the other Witches as they blasted into the cloud, killing hundreds if not thousands of the things at a time. It was a meat grinder and Maria was one of the better teeth in the machine. However, that did not mean the blind destruction was senseless killing. With her knowledge of aerodynamics, Maria would realize something quickly about these creatures. They couldn't actually fly, not well as least. They more so rode the air currents, each one being like an aggressive kite. They could direct themselves with small bursts, but in truth, not a lot. The reality was, these things were designed to be aquatic, not airborne.

Which meant that while Maria and the other Witches did genuinely destroy thousands of them, many more were left half-floating and either en route to the water or the beach. The initial danger they posed lessened significantly with the realization of how little control they had - at least in the air.

What mattered more was the volume. There must have been half a million in total with over half of that number now turning around and flocking to the beach in such great number that their momentum and magical affinity created a small tidal wave that would swallow the previous battleground. Not like that mattered, most of the remaining undead fish-ape-zombies had lost their animation as the colony had died.

Chanterelle had provided some amount of explanation as to what she did and why, but in truth, Gauss didn't care. Mostly as he didn't have the time to. He, Noah, Arkayis, and Ark were now in a dire situation. There was a flood of potentially lethal magical parasitic fungal serpents rolling in a tidal wave that itself might be able to drown them. Gauss really only had one thought, and it was the one he shared via his comms:

"Back the fuck up."​

Gauss and Ark would need to make a run for the high ground, which wasn't an impossible task, but did mean they would need to rush for the retaining wall on the West portion of the beach. Meanwhile, Maria and Raph would get to see the chaos descend with what looked like and hopefully was the entire brood spawn of what might have been a centuries-old aquatic fungal colony. The fact of the matter is that each and every one of them needed to die. Of course, there were other agents and the military to help, but that only assumed that these things would actually listen to Chanterelle or if they might just ignore her once the effects of the hive mind completely faded. There was no way of knowing.

At the very least, once they had dealt with the ones in the air, Maria and Raph could easily return to the ground fight. She could use her constructs and Raphael would return to stable ground with more anchors.

AIR TARGETS: 104,000/120,000
GROUND TARGETS: 477,000/480,000​

RedArmyShogun Meredith Merciless Medic Peckinou The Regal Rper​

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Maria Mayer - Atlantic City - New Jersey​

With the massive wind explosion going off, Maria did laugh a bit, psychotically one could say; "HAHAHAHAHAHA!" As thousands up thousands of the flyers died, with that witches focusing on the focal point, Maria was happy to see their efforts were making quick work of the beasts. Though, it ultimately was not enough, thousands more remained. However, it was a mixed blessing at least. The flyers weren't flyers at all, they were gliders. This was an important distinction strategically it painted them as both threat or liability.

Hoping the other witches caught on, Maria would turn away from the swarm as a much larger problem had just risen from the depths causing a mini Tidalwave. Yet more abominations had made their presence known, each a unique threat, yet relatively helpless one on one. With a large amount of her Aether having been expended on cooling the kaiju, then blasting apart the swarm with that selfsame energy, plus the flight and actions before on the previous day had her taking a step back, so to speak.

Landing back where her creations were, as the beach swarmed, her two human sized dolls were brought to the front, wires connected them to two further small dolls, and the two human sized ones were connected to Maria. Or at least at times they were.

She had made herself a mobile battle squad, picking one portion near the center Maria took an interesting approach to the airborne foes, rather than forming a full wind spell and thus using more of her magic, Maria would start the beginnings of a spell, to pull and tug at the air, causing the air currents to bring the gliders down close for the ground team and herself. While her darlings Alicia and Matilda would advance, double blades swinging and chopping into the swarm while the four small dolls would act akin to a close protection system, stabbing or firing at anything that tried getting in from up above, or ganged up from below as the blazing eyed mage patrolled behind them, issuing new instructions as she followed from behind.

She had not counted how many she was killing now, tiresome, hard work. But there was little choice but to carry out this butcher's craft.

Interactions: Merciless Medic (Raph-Noah) Meredith (Chanterelle) Sir Les Paul (Gauss) Peckinou (Arkayis) The Regal Rper (Ark)

 

[Merciless Medic]

Noah & Gav​

Death City Streets
May 6, 2067

Part 2 Collab with The Regal Rper
Part 1 Collab

​

Livestreaming Shenanigans

It didn’t take them very long to get to the Entertainment District of Death City. The atmosphere was thick and heavy with not only the kind of air that permeated the district, but also the competitiveness, the sweat, and the feel-good fun times.

And maybe the occasional fighting from furious players.

But for once, Noah was steering clear of the arcade areas. He was going around the areas where there were lots of people, typically the sidewalks leading to malls and such without actually going into establishments. Mainly because - in the alleyways bordering on these stores that trap consumers with their pretty advertisements banking on using people’s lack of self-worth against them - there was a type of crowd Noah liked to entertain himself with.

This area didn’t really have gangs until later in the night, but it was where prostitutes and the like came to frequent. But that demographic wasn’t really what Noah was aiming for. No, he wanted to look like one, and he sort of did: a blend between a valley gamer girl who showed a bit too much skin and seemed all too keen on throwing frivolous and flirtatious glances and winks at passing men. He wanted to get a reaction, fish for content by doing something pretty avant garde and his chat was just eating it up.

Noah was keeping an eye out while also looking at his phone, setting up his scheduled livestream for the late afternoon, and turning off text-to-speech donations. Once he was in position, he fixed his makeup a bit with his self-facing camera and then looked at Gav, thumb hovering over the livestream button.

“You ready, sugar?” He gave a frisky look at Gav, his sweet emerald eyes - the only thing that looked like Noah - gazing at him with an excited gleam only a gremlin could have.

He wasn't, in fact, this was actually sort of odd both to be part of and to be doing as a whole. In his hay days he had had his fun clowning on people in his own way- but not quite like this.

Making fun of someone for their shortcomings had been, after all, what he had learned as a youth to put himself above. And when you were good enough to be able to put your mouth where your weights were, well, it did a lot to backup the claim he used to make as an early One Star. In a lot of ways he wasn't bothered by what they were going to be doing, so much as he was wondering just how exactly all of this going to the Internet would turn out later.

That wink though was pretty nice. And if he were honest, he was curious just to see what was going to really happen here.

He gave Noah a thumbs up.

Chuckling airily, Noah pressed the button and gave a ‘V’ sign to the camera. His chat, who were mingling with each other and saying hello to DeathTube while waiting for the stream to start, blew up with greetings and laughter. “Hayyyyy, chat~. Welcome, my fellow ladies, gents, and enbies, to chaos central~.” He giggled, sounding much more like a woman now that he had practiced the voice earlier. “Oh, and because you sweet peas wanted me to be protected since the last time I did this-” he waved his hand nonchalantly to dismiss such pitiful concerns, he pointed the self-facing camera to Gav, then whispered into the mic, giggling. “-I got a bodyguard, just in case.” He then looked between the camera and Gav. “Say hiiii~.” He looked back at Gav, giving him a cajoling smile as he told both Gav and the chat to say hello to each other. The chat was blowing up, giving greetings. Some in his chat were trolling their appearances, trying to start flame wars, but Noah seemed to have a couple mods that kept them in check, the comments being deleted as quickly as they were made. There were quite a few who were enchanted by Gav’s appearance, giving compliments of how ruggedly hot he looked.

And already, there were quite a few people wondering if they were dating. A constant when it came to internet influencers, whose fans become either too nosy or become jealous when they let their parasocial feelings fester, much to Noah’s chagrin.

Whatever was going on in the chat itself though the Witch spawn kept his nose out of it. He did of course wink and make a kissy motion, instead of waving at the camera. “I'll be lingering around. Wanna keep an eye on things so if anything were to get out of hand I can step in and pull you out.”

Gav’s kiss and wink had the chat going wild, ogling at how hot he was. Hot, rugged, and protective? People were losing it. Some people even chatted out thank you’s to him, as Noah’s safety was their concern. Noah giggled, hiding his smile behind his hand. “Awwww, my fans adore you~. Now, before I get questions asking if he’ll come back next stream, that’ll be a maybe~.”

Now that the stream was underway, Noah walked about the entertainment district of Death City, keeping a bit of a distance to Gav as they walked about while Noah spoke to his chat and read off the few donations that came - the notification sounds and text-to-speech muted. He stayed a distance away from Gav so it didn’t look like he was with Gav at all, which allowed the men nearby to start whistling at him with confidence that he was just a preppy pretty girl. Noah mischievously turned the camera around and placed his phone against his chest, looking like he was protecting his phone as he regarded the man who came forward.

Giggling like a girl, he fluttered his eyelashes and struck up a flirtatious conversation with the man, who had started the flirtations first. However, as a couple minutes went by and the man asked if Noah wanted to see his pad, Noah’s voice dropped and became masculine immediately.

“Sure, baby~.”

Blindsided, the man stumbled backwards, then flipped him off as Noah cackled, giggling as he waited for Gav to catch up.

They played this little game, tricking unsuspecting or drunk (or both) men into flirting with a disguised man. A harmless little prank and it got the chat into a riot.

After an hour of playing around and being an internet personality, Noah was starting to feel mentally exhausted. He hadn’t done this in quite some time, so he was going to stop soon. He read off some more donations and superchats before calling it a night. “Alrightyyy, I think it’s time for me to goooooo~. We’ll see you at the next scheduled gaming stream, my lovelies~. It was soooo much fun, I’m glad you guys got to have such a treat. You adorable fans may make clips of these and blast it on your DeathTube, I will also make clips for my channel. You know where to go.” He gave them a wink, the chat blowing up with goodbyes and adorable ‘nuuuuu’, not wanting the stream to end. Noah looked back at Gav and nudged his arm to get Gav to say goodbye or something.

He gave a half-assed wave with only a small chuckle at the end. As soon as he did so, Noah was able to turn off the stream, allowing Gav to speak more freely. “Watching you do this was the oddest date I've been on but probably the most fun, in its own weird way.”

Noah laughed, dipping back to his more normal pitch. “Well, I’m glad ya had fun. ‘N’ hey, remember when I said I knew a place to go?” He pointed to an incomplete building structure, the workers having left for the night. It was illegal to trespass, but no one was here at the moment. “It’s got an amazing’ view. Let’s go.” He ran on in, careful of where he was stepping as he scaled the stairs up to where there were no other floors, and climbed up some scaffolding and metal support structures to get to one of the horizontal beams, straddling it as he got a good grip on the metal and looked out over Death City, his dark grey stocking-covered legs kicking idly. He took off his sparkly plastic blue cat ear headband, and then his orange and blue highlighted pixie-bob wig, sighing peacefully as the wind from up here rushed past them, blowing around his sparkly pastel blue skirt and his sunset orange blouse, the wind tickling the exposed skin from around his black tank top and soothing the strange feeling he had on his face from his makeup. He felt free of everything.

Gav was behind him in a flash. Looking over the same distant view of Death City. It wasn't sparkling like candles in the dark like it would in the night but in the setting sun, it had a feeling about it that captured the eyes. He breathed in deeply, exhaled slowly, glanced at Noah.

“Something on your mind?” Just in case.

Noah carefully leaned back, resting against Gav as he stared at the shadows extending out from the city as the sun slowly set. He sighed. “Nothin’, actually… Feels good ta not have’ta think all the time…” He looked back at Gav with a smile. “Here, I feel free…” His voice was soft, quiet, almost reverent. He looked up at the sky, his head resting against Gav as he stared at the pastel colors of the sky going from golden amber to pink and orange to violet and indigo. “Ta see all those things below, all th’troubles that plague us look just as small as the rest of th’people down there… It makes most obstacles not look like sheer mountains.”

Chin resting atop Noah’s head, Gav hummed. “I suppose I can see what you mean. Does shift perspective a bit when you're up here, with the bird’s eye view.”

Noah hummed, his eyes closing as he felt inner tranquility. Silence would continue to stretch on, as far away as the glowing horizon. The gold and orange light finally snuffed out and Noah let out a soft sigh.

“Let’s get back. I’m about ta fall asleep here.” He chuckled, letting Gav help him down the iron beam. Wrapping an arm around his shoulders once safely down, and walking out of the zone.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Sara & Noah & Arkayis

​

Streets of Death City > Sara's Apartment
May 12, 2067

Part 2 Collab with Peckinou
Part 1

​

Field Trip

There was no answer for Arkayis, just that Sara was dragging both Noah and Arkayis through the busy streets. Quickly, they found themselves in front of a shop selling yarn and cloth. It was - by and large - a shop for knitters and seamstresses.

Noah raised an eyebrow. “Got another li’l crafts thing?”

Sara giggled, nodding. “Yup. There’s this good friend of mine who lives in the basement of our apartment complex, and her cute little plushie dolls kinda got me inspired to make something of it.”

Noah was sure Sara was talking about her, he was just glad Sara remembered not to say what she was.

Sara turned to Arkayis as she pulled him along to some different colored fabrics. “So, what’s your favorite color?” She asked, wanting to make something cute for him, all the while Noah was tiredly looking over the different types of yarn. Sheep yarn, alpaca yarn, llama yarn, synthetic yarn…

Arkayis really didn’t know who Sara was talking about but he didn’t ask questions on it instead he was focused on the place they were brought to. It wasn’t a place Arkayis ever really visited and his sister never took him to one like it. He was a bit curious, but they luckily weren’t too caught off guard by Sara’s question answering quite quickly, ”Purple.” It was his sister’s favorite color though and naturally he took after her in that department.

Sara smiled wide. “Ooooh, a pretty color.” She grinned wide. “Alright, here we go.” She grabbed some purple cloth, some extra fluff, and a myriad of other colors - some of which were obviously for skin tone. Getting what she needed, she went to the counter, paid for her things, and idly chatted with the clerk, and then gripped the baggie with her acquisitions before heading for the door. “Follow me, follow me~.” She sang, with Noah rolling his eyes and chuckling before following suit, making sure Arkayis followed.

Noah decided to speak, wanting to see if Arkayis was okay. “Ya alright? ‘Er energy gettin’ to ya, ‘r ya holdin’ up well?” They were right behind Sara, who seemed blissfully unaware of their conversation. But Noah knew she could still hear them.

Arkayis was a bit on edge but was mostly relaxed for the most part, though he was taken a bit by surprise when Noah asked him how he was feeling. Arkayis shook his head before saying ”I’m fine, I just wasn’t expecting her to be so chirpy.”. He honestly hadn’t met many Werewolves before but he honestly wasn’t expecting any one of them to have an attitude similar to Saras.

Noah chuckled, sighing as he followed Sara. “Ya get used to it.”

After getting a few food groceries to stock up, Sara dragged Noah and Arkayis back to her apartment. She and Noah set the bags down while Sara let Arkayis look around the place.

The apartment had a very large living space. Plain, light grey carpet stretched out throughout the open room, only stopping short in the kitchen hugging the left wall and around the island counter that paved way to white tile. The walls were plain off-white, pictures of Sara with friends and family lined the walls. Sara’s past partners even had pictures on the walls, with Noah’s being the most abundant. She even had a picture of Noah and his past Meister on the wall, wrapping arms around each other’s necks. The more plentiful pictures that weren’t of Sara’s friends or past partners were of Sara with her family, especially that of her parents and of her oldest brother, who held a similar hair color scheme to her, but his hair was far longer and braided.

There was no threshold or door that separated the open space most likely used for exercise, the kitchen, and living room space. The living room held a three-seat couch, a coffee table, an entertainment center against the wall with a flat-screen TV sitting, and consoles and their controllers sitting within the cubbies and shelves. Behind the couch was a little alcove that was currently empty, but desk feet and chair wheels still indented into the carpet from when Noah’s set up was still here. From the door, a window and a sliding glass door with drapes pulled away showed the outside world and a railed balcony that held a couple of chairs.

Next to the kitchen held a door to a small walk-in pantry that was open, and along the right wall held two doors. One furthest away from them was a bare door that was currently closed that led to Eva’s room, while the door closest to them held a collage of sticky notes that had random quotes from Sara herself or those of her friends she really liked.

There didn’t seem to be any bathrooms, but it’s safe to assume the bathrooms were connected to the bedrooms.

Sara’s room - which could be seen due to an open door - was a very bright pastel pink with a forest green trim and fluffy pastel blue carpeting, the bed situated into the corner of the room across from her door. The blankets were fluffy and in a variety of colors in a little wolf motif, with the bed frame being a stark white. A window was over the headboard, its blinds and light red, polka-dotted curtains. Next to the bed was a night stand with a simple alarm clock and lamp, and next to that was a bookshelf and then a dresser. Against the far wall were a pair of sliding doors and another door next to them. The sliding doors looked to lead into a closet, while the other door held a bathroom with a wooden floor and simple design. Under the bed, there didn’t seem to be any space as it was covered with little, colorful pull out drawers, each with little locks on them that Sara made sure were locked. There was even a red bean bag thrown haphazardly in the middle of her room somewhere, and her walls were littered with pictures of her family, friends, past partners, Noah, Suzu, Eva, and drawings made for her from her siblings and even pictures of herself.

Arkayis eyes wandered around the place, his steps were hesitant as he wasn’t exactly fond of intruding into peoples’ living areas unless he was completely comfortable with them. But it really doesn’t take too much beckoning from others to get him to go along with things. Besides he was a bit curious when it came down to it anyways. Still though he mostly opted to stick close to Sara considering her status as their host, though that didn’t stop Arkayis’s eyes from wandering around the place.

What had mostly caught Arkayis’s attention was Sara’s room. He honestly didn’t know what to expect from it though, seeing the color scheme and the items he was able to get a glimpse of, he supposed it suited her cheery personality. Definitely not the type of decorative choice his sister nor her friends would have chosen for themselves. After a moment, Arkayis turned his eyes to Sara, then Noah, then Sara again before saying, “Errrr, Du hab- I mean uhm, your home is quite nice.” His face turned a bit red as he said that and he began to wish he had just stayed silent instead. Perhaps it would have been better to just maintain silence all the time, let others do the talking while he pretended to be mute.

Sara’s eyes were wide and gleaming as Arkayis said her place was nice, making her tail become a blur as she giggled. “Awww, why thank you-” That’s when she noticed the look on his face. He looked embarrassed, so she wanted to ease him. Instead of calling out his embarrassment, she continued with why she liked his compliment so much. “Most people don’t think about saying how nice a place looks, so I’m glad you said something about it. Makes my efforts feel validated.”

Letting Noah wordlessly put away the groceries, Sara went to work making something small and adorable in short order. Once Noah was done, he noticed that Sara still had her consoles. Smiling, he looked back at Arkayis. “Hey, wanna play a game ‘r two?”

Realizing Sara had absolutely ignored them both with a one-track mind towards completing this little thing, she chuckled sheepishly. “Oh, right, yeah, make yourself at home. This was once Noah’s home too, so relax here for a bit. If you need something, he’ll fetch.” The phrasing caused Noah to stare at him with an unamused glare. “I want to finish this little project and have you take it with you when you two leave.”

With a sigh, Noah walked over to the couch and turned on the TV. “So, what’cha in the mood f’r? We got a ton of games. Classics.” He began showing off the collection he and Sara had obtained over the years - half-boasting and half-finding a game.

Arkayis relaxed a bit when Sara thanked him for the compliment, and explained how it meant to her, soon turning Arkayis’s embarrassment into a light hearted smile. It didn’t take long before Arkayis’s attention turned back to Noah though, as he asked him if he wanted to play a game. At first he didn’t budge too much until Sara gave them permission to do as they please here. After that, Arkayis went over towards Noah, leaving Sara alone in order to look over his shoulders. When Noah asked what type of game he wanted to play, Arkayis replied pretty quickly “A Strategy game, or Action.” he was honestly fine with either one.

As Noah found a strategy game that piqued Arkayis’s interest, Sara had been rather silent. Time flew by quickly, and by the time Sara was just about done with her little craft project, dinner rolled around. Sara let the boys have fun while she made dinner for them, feeling rather accomplished. While the little project wasn’t the most perfect thing in the world, it was still pretty decent.

She should blame Maria for making her want to make adorable things for other people.

“Dinner’s ready~.” She called out to them, putting in a variety of foods on the kitchen island, letting them choose between more asian-oriented foods or something more western. While there was a lot of food, Noah figured that Sara made enough for Gauss to have some when they returned.

With a groan, Noah got up and walked over to the island. “Time flies by when we’re havin’ fun, huh?” He said with some weariness in his voice. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw the amount of food made. “Saraaaa, ya didn’t need to make this much-”

“But Gauss.” Sara smiled innocently. “I don’t care if he’s got chefs, they make food out of an obligation and a wage, I make food because I care. They taste different.”

Noah couldn’t argue with her, sighing. He decided to just enjoy the food.

Sara looked at Arkayis with a sweet smile. “Aaaand, I got a little present for you before you leave. It’s a thank-you gift for being Noah’s partner and hanging out with us today. But go eat first.” She giggled, turning around to clean up before she joined in on the good eating.

Arkayis had fun playing a neat strategy game with Noah, a game that makes you think was always interesting to him. Though he did admit that time did go by very quickly, it was quite unfortunate to say the least, as it soon became evident that Sara had taken their time to make them some food. Which was a bit surprising to say the least though it didn’t take him completely off guard. He expected perhaps, maybe, snacks for them to partake in, not really an actual meal. Arkayis didn’t have too big of an appetite though, so he only planned to take just a bit of food at most, not really wanting to disappoint their host after all.

But what surprised him the most was when Sara said they had a present for them, something very unexpected and caused him to stammer out a bit. “Erm, I - ” after a short pause in his speech he simply opted to give a curt nod as a thank you before saying, “Thank you, but that really isn’t necessary.” His face turned a bit red as he said that, as he then went on to get himself a drink. While he wasn’t all that hungry he was quite a bit thirsty and fully intended to get himself two glasses of juice before going on to get a small plate of asian food that Sara had opted to make for them.

Sara couldn’t help the smile on her face at Arkayis’s words, not saying anything yet. She giggled, joining Noah and Arkayis as they ate. Sara - while she did savor it - seemed to also eat pretty quickly. Once she had packed up the rest of the food they didn’t eat, she went back to her little crafting table. She hid the thing she made in her hand and approached Arkayis’s side. “But I wanna. Here.” She set a small plushie version of him. It was round, had the scythe against his back, had the purple he chose as a sort of hoodie, and he was made as if he was on all fours with little nubs. Still, it was adorable and it very clearly was Arkayis. It even got his eye and hair color.

While it wasn’t the perfect thing she’s made as some of the stitching was obvious, the shape and form was still great. She giggled. “Here, take it. If you don’t take it with you, I’ll just have Noah carry it back.” She couldn’t help the mischievous grin, but she wasn’t going to keep a gift meant for someone else at her place.

It really didn’t take long before Arkayis finished his meal, but that didn’t really prepare him for the surprise gift Sara gave him. When he saw Sara's gift, Arkayis went completely frozen, his eyes were trained on the plush doll that Sara made for him. Her words had completely silenced him as he stared at the plush doll she made him. He hasn’t received a gift like this in a long time and his body had completely froze in place when faced with a situation like this. Eventually though he closed his eyes in order to take a moment to recollect himself, taking a deep breath in and out for a few seconds. Before taking the doll from Sara, his voice was shaky as he finally said his thanks. “I -, Th-Thank you, very much.”

His eyes avoided making any sort of eye contact, his feelings were mixed, as his head couldn’t settle on how to feel. The mix of emotions were swarming his mind, though he was grateful in the end, as he hesitantly took the gift Sara gave him. It may not seem like much, but him receiving a thoughtful gift such as that one meant more to him than what most others might think.

Sara waited until Arkayis finally responded. Was it gift paralysis? Sara would sometimes see people freeze up whenever she gifted them anything, usually coming about from not being used to having gifts. She just giggled and smiled wide. “I’m glad you like it. Oh oh, and take all this food with you, too.” She ran over and put tupperwares into a large insulated bag with long enough handles to hang over someone’s shoulder. “I don’t care if y’all got chefs over there, nothing beats my cooking!” She boasted, absolutely in nirvana right now.

Noah rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Aight, fine.” Noah looked back at Arkayis, his expression looking rather tired. Then again, that was pretty natural for his expression. “It’s gettin’ late. Shall we go back?”

While Arkayis may have taken the gift, he was reluctant to take the food, but since Sara more so demanded that they take some with him, he opted to take just a bit with him. He wasn’t that hungry anymore so he really wasn’t sure what to take, though he eventually settled on taking a small amount of food. Before nodding to Noah when he asked if they should go back home and giving him a quick “Ok.” His attention then turned to Sara in which he gave a slight appreciative bow before politely saying, “Thank you very much for the gift and the food.” After giving his thanks he shuffled over to Noah’s side without another word, only giving a polite goodbye wave to Sara as they were about to make their departure together.

Noah shouldered the rest of the food Arkayis didn’t grab, mainly because he knew Sara would just take whatever they didn’t grab and surprise them with a doorstep gift. He then led Arkayis out of Sara’s apartment, while Sara waved goodbye to her friends, wishing them a safe journey home.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Raphael & Ark
​

Death City Streets
September 24, 2067

Collab with The Regal Rper

​

Ifechi's Family Meeting

Petrea and Senora hadn't stopped asking him questions the whole walk back to the Manor and the text from Raphael had been the perfect excuse to simply get away from all this nonsense.

To say meeting up with Raphael had been a major breath was an understatement. The second they met up Ark told him, after a polite greeting, to avoid any topics related to Hawaii completely as because of Elly (yes he had flatly pointed out this was her fault), there was going to be a likelihood of questioning about if anyone else he knew had been there and experienced that rather sad incident. And Ark's advice as they walked in the direction of his uncle's home, was to bloody damn well lie about it.

Though the missing factor was why he was so insistent about Raph lying if asked or dodging the questions completely.

“It is complicated” was the exact same thing he said to Elly, then he glanced the distance ahead, and considered. “but if you want to understand a bit more about Wiccan culture, I can educate you a bit since you will be meeting one of my aunts who is a figure in the Realm.”

Raphael raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “I know, I know. I don’t wanna talk about it either. Don’t worry, I’m a pretty damn good actor with misdirection.” He was hyping himself up, there was no proof Ark had to refute this nor help in Raph’s case, and Raphael wasn’t about to try and make up a story. He then patted Ark’s shoulder. “But yeah, sure, let me know. I’ve only been here to get books and learn and stuff. So I haven’t really brushed shoulders with anyone like this.”

“Wiccan culture has some similarities to the feudal era of earth. Not in totality, but superficially. So what you have is a lot of focus on the rules towards how one should behave in different situations, with a particular focus on image.”

Raphael rolled his eyes. “Ugh, okay. I mean, I already maintain an image, but that’s because I have to.” He looked away, disdain on his face regarding his Madness of Pride. “Either way, it's just a game of etiquette and retaining image.” He concluded.

“Just keep in mind, my aunt and Grandmother are--”

“Are what, Claec?”

The words he had meant to say died with an ‘ah’ before Ark turned to the shorter woman watching him and Raphael with a patient expression.

“When you excused yourself I decided to have to follow you, since you seemed to be in such a hurry, I wanted to apologize for keeping you so long to whoever it was you were trying to meet. I didn't realize you had other company aside from us today.” The short woman informed. Eyes moving to Raphael as she finished speaking. “You are?”

Raphael noticed the small lady and figured she was one of Ark’s family members. He bowed low with restrained grandiose flair, his body making a near right angle. “I am dear Ifechi’s humble friend, Raphael Valerias. A pleasure to meet you.” While his actions may come off as a bit much, his voice became sincere and soft with a tinge of a purr. He knew his place among witchkind, so he was going to do his best to be as respectful as possible. He relaxed his posture as he gazed at the lady with a sweet gaze. “Ifechi here was just informing me about how I should conduct myself, as this is the first time I’m meeting with any House within the Witch Realm, let alone that of the illustrious House of Astraeus. If I happen to offend anyone, I deeply apologize in advance. I will do my utmost so that it doesn’t happen.”

“Hmm, polite,” came the additional voice. “I like him. Better than what you did on the day of the tournament at least.” Said a dark skinned woman, taller than Luna, with bronze eyes like Ark. “It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Raphael.”

Lady Luna in turn offered Raph a polite nod with only a minor smile of appreciation of his etiquette. “So this the Raph you mentioned who was in the tournament months ago?”

“I recognize the face, I'm sure Ark would correct me.”

Clearing his throat, he nodded. “That is, uh, yes, the same Raphael. He doesn't have a twin.” At least trying to make light of that recall to that specific day.

Raphael actually winced when they brought up the tournament. Who would forget him? The guy who tattooed his eye and became blind? He chuckled sheepishly, his brow knitted. “Well, that was who I was months ago when I first started my days in Fate, but that program has been a learning experience and it’s helped change me for the better. I have a better temperament and I try my best not to instigate like I did in the tournament. It is a great pleasure to meet you both. May I get your names?”]

“I’m Ifechi’s grandmother, Senora.”

“I am his aunt, Luna Astraeus. You may call me Lady Luna.”

“Where exactly were you two headed? If we are interrupting…” his grandmother trailed off.

“We actually were going home, mine” he clarified.

Raphael smiled, nodding to each one who introduced themselves. Though, they didn’t seem to react much to his words about how he’s changed, but that’s something he figured would happen. They want to see his change in action, not just hear it.

As Ark let them know Raphael was joining them in a very indirect way, he smiled. “Yes, I’m going with Ifechi to see what his home and his family is like. I hope I’m not imposing on you. I am unsure of how long I will be able to stay, but my father does have a need for me later in the day, so I won’t be around for too long. Still, I would be honored if you two allow me to enter your abode.”

This was starting to get difficult. Raphael can feel the stirring in his chest, and he felt like he was getting sick spouting all this nonsense to these witches he barely knew. However, they didn’t seem to be quick to hate him for being a Sorcerer, so the stirring sensation wasn’t as bad as it could be, which allowed him to keep a straight face.

It was Senora who smiled. “We would love that.” To which Luna merely nodded. With Ark being the first to take a step, then all, almost synchronous, following in the direction of his uncle's home.

“So Raphael, any siblings?”Senora asked.

Raphael followed alongside them, wondering if their order of step was even a custom thing too, so he decided to step last and followed slightly behind them. Their warm welcome helped to ease the stirring in his chest. Just as long as his words get the reactions he wants, he’ll be fine. All of it is just about showing respect, consideration, and being polite.

He shook his head, chuckling. “No, I’m an only child. My uh…” His brow furrowed, and he sighed, sounding rather defeated. “I was pretty young when the MIBVI hit the UK. My parents were thinking about having more kids after we got a bit more stable, but now I just live with my dad in Death City.” He didn’t say where his mother went, but it was likely obvious she was another casualty of the MIBVI crisis.

Ark's hand lightly patted him on the shoulder. Though of anyone to speak, Lady Luna was the first.

“My condolences. The effects of that time took many lives, cutting many shorter than they need be.” Genuine sympathy making it into her voice. “What is it your father does? Sorcerer blood isn't common among humans, so I assume either your mother or father held the necessary genes that led to your magical aptitude.”

Raphael smiled a little at Ark’s comforting touch, but what surprised him was when Lady Luna spoke. It seemed she at least grasped what had happened, even from their realm, as was evident in her tone. No stir in his chest for now.

He smiled as they moved on from the topic, giving Raphael’s heart and mind a much needed respite from the horrible memories. In fact, this was one where he felt the most proud, as his face lit up. “My father is the owner of Valerias Vanity, a small shop where we make clothes - either simple pieces of fashion or those with enchantments. I am to take over his business after he retires. In fact, he knows Ifechi’s father and they have quite the rivalry. Oh, and my father is indeed a Sorcerer. I’m third generation.” Seemed he knew where he was down the family tree, but he had a sheepish look. “I wish I knew who my great-grandmother is, but unfortunately I know nothing about her. A shame, I would like to get to know my roots.”

“The world's a rather small place in spite of how large it is. There's always a possibility you may just meet her down the road.” Ark's grandmother smiled warmly.

“Valerias Vanity,” Luna hummed in thought. Head tilting to the side. “I don't believe I've heard of them, but I will likely seek your father's store out then. If you make clothes that would be perfect, at least two of my sisters are obsessed with this world's fashion diversity. We may make requests in the future.” Her tone was neutral but the interest was clearly present.

Raphael unintentionally may have scored dad some business, and not from some low rank Wiccan house either. The pat Ark gave Raph on the back was a bit harder this time, the smile on his face slightly wide.

“Something funny, nephew?” Luna inquired.

With a clear of his throat, Ark straightened, giving Raph a final pat before his arms went behind his back, gloved hand holding the other at the wrist. “Not at all.”

Raphael was stunned. Did he… just get Witches from the Astraeus house to be interested enough to come by? He gave a happy smile, bowing slightly with a hand over his chest. “It would be an honor if you or others of your family could come by, even if there are no sales. My father is a man of hospitality, I’m sure you and your family won’t leave dissatisfied.” That was enough to lift his spirits from the sad talk of his past. More than enough. And the fact there was a possibility that he might be able to meet the Witch responsible for his family? That would be even better.

The patting was much appreciated, but Luna’s inquiry had Raphael thinking that she was definitely serious. He chuckled as Ark tried his best to look a bit more serious about it, speaking up. “To be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever pitched my father’s business to others of such an esteemed House, even if my intentions were not to solicit business whatsoever. Ifechi is just as proud as I am.” Of course, he had a huge grin on his face which positively lit up the area around him.

“Throwing yourself out there is sort of a common motto in the Wiccan society,” Ark said, though he said it with a mild smile. “And I am. Because of the way things are, at least in the Realm, it's not common for most to pitch ideas when they aren't asked for” he chuckled. “My point, keep pitching, it'll give you surprises like this.”

Raphael nodded, feeling emboldened now by this new piece of information. That was when he realized what time it was. “Oh, I know you’ve already allowed me to come by, but would it be alright if I stayed for dinner?”

“I don't see why not.” Was Luna's reply. Accompanied by the nod from Senora.

“Have you ever had fried plantains with a stew-like dip? It's amazing.” Ark chipped in. “I think you'll like it.”

 

[Merciless Medic]

Sara & Wes
​

Death City Streets
September 25, 2067

Collab with Shotgunpenguin

​

A Friendly (Aggressive) Hang Out

The world was alive with sound. And all Wes wanted was for everyone to shut up. He was laid in his bed, having long since woken up from his rest, clenching his eyes shut in hopes that his body would get the memo to go back to sleep. Unfortunately for him, the constant assault by the sound of the apartment’s other inhabitants, a literal chorus of souls that clashed and swirled together into an almost incomprehensible mess, was making that plan very difficult.

”Sounds like the two below me are fighting again…” Having lived in the apartment for long enough, Wes had gotten familiar with the sounds of those around him. The duo in the room below him for example usually sounded like a string duo, a pleasant if not slightly monotonous background noise.

That wasn’t the case today, as both souls were tense, resulting in a jarring discord that occasionally flared with a sharp screech. Mentally debating whether he should just throw his headphones back on and try and go back to sleep, a low growl from his stomach immediately put an end to that thought.

Letting out a groan, he kicked the covers off himself and swung his legs over the side of the bed, feet landing on the plush carpet of his bedroom.

The room was rather bare as far as furnishing went, although it was more a result of his personal preference than a lack of space. His bed was shoved into a corner, a mess of pillows and sheets haphazardly thrown together. A small desk sat against the opposite wall, cluttered with empty takeout containers, cans of cola and coffee, and a laptop partially covered by a discarded shirt.

A squat dresser took up the remainder of the wall, its drawers containing multiple t-shirts, shorts, underwear, socks, and pajamas. Across from that was a closet with a wooden door, where multiple versions of the same sweatshirt and pants hung from plastic hangers, with three pairs of identical shoes placed below.

However, despite the comfortable appearance it may have exuded, there were signs that Wes had been neglecting its upkeep for quite a while. Piles of discarded clothes littered the floor, some having been worn recently, while others exuded a scent signifying days, if not weeks having gone unwashed. A small wastebin was shoved in the space between his bed and nightstand, containing a small mountain of empty meal-bar wrappers and canned coffee that threatened to spill onto the floor at even the slightest of touch.

A slight scent of citrus masked most of the unpleasantness, courtesy of the empty aerosol air freshener that had fallen from the nightstand and rolled itself underneath his bed. It had come to rest against a large black case, curiously the only object in the room that seemed to be clear of dust and grime.

The case itself was made of a hard plastic, and upon further inspection showed multiple stickers haphazardly slapped against the outside of it. Faded stickers displaying the initials of states such as Florida, Oregon, California and Louisiana mingled with newer ones, including a sticker showing a trio of pyramids against a blue sky.

A habit he picked up after his time crossing the country, he made it a point to pick up a sticker and slap it on the case whenever he went somewhere new. His recent expedition to Egypt was no exception, although he doubted the officer expected something so simple to be his souvenir request.

His phone buzzed on the nightstand, drawing his attention as it reverberated against the wood a few times before falling silent. Reaching out, he grabbed the phone and thumbed over the screen, lighting up to show an older picture of himself.

In the picture he stood, a good foot and a half shorter than he was now, with an electric bass guitar slung low by his waist. Despite the difference in height and age, the most noticeable thing was the smile on his face. Not the small upturned corners that had become his standard, it was a smile born out of genuine excitement that would make his cheeks hurt after the fact. It was the same home screen he had since he was fourteen, a relic that he never ended up changing.

Three missed calls from his mom, one from his dad, as well as a few text messages from both asking him to call them when he had the chance. He stared at the notifications, lidded eyes staring at the screen before the phone was shoved into his pants pocket. He would answer them later.

Stifling a yawn, he walked over to his bedroom door, stepping past the piles of discarded clothes and opened it, walking into his living room. The room was in a very similar condition to his bedroom, with a thin layer of dust present in the air. A ceiling fan was running on full blast in an attempt to provide some sort of airflow to the room, a futile effort considering the shut windows and the thick, dark blinds that were drawn over them.

A comfortable looking couch sat against a wall; a short coffee-table placed a small bit in front of it partially covered by a discarded blanket from the night before. Across from it, mounted on the wall, was a small flatscreen television. A thin layer of dust coated the screen, although the few smudges on it showed an attempt at cleaning at some point.

Off to the right of the living area was a small kitchenette, alongside a small closet that had been converted into a pantry. It contained everything a motivated individual would have needed to cook up a quick meal; a two-burner stove, a wall-mounted microwave, a mini fridge stuffed underneath the counter space and a stainless-steel sink.

Crouching down, he opened the fridge and was met with a half empty water-bottle, an empty pizza-box and a box of Chinese takeout that smelled absolutely rancid. Cringing, he shut the door and stood back up, checking his cabinets to find they were similarly out of anything edible.

’Guess it’s takeout again. Walking over to the coffee table, he brushed off an empty candy-bar wrapper and grabbed his wallet, shoving it in his other pocket before making his way to the door to his apartment.

Multiple garbage bags were placed in a loose stack by the door, filled with empty pizza boxes, cans and enough air-fresheners to make the room smell somewhat habitable. Idly, he wondered if he should take them out to the dumpster.

’Does it even matter? It’s just going to pile up again.’

Shrugging his shoulders, he crouched down and grabbed a discarded pair of sneakers from the floor, shoving his feet in them without bothering to re-tie them, and stomping down on the heel until his foot slipped in. Standing, he unlocked his front door and pushed forward, walking out into the hallway.

Right as Wes opened the door, it revealed a very familiar blue-haired Werewolf girl, her yellow eyes wide and her ears perked up as if like a deer in headlights. Wearing her signature white jacket, blue jeans, and a dark red t-shirt, she looked like she was about to go out today. She had a plastic bag of food, the smell of teriyaki and sushi wafting from the plastic baggy. There were a few tupperware containers, each having a sizable meal portion that would last someone a whole day, or a few if they were sparing with their portioning.

Then, the smell hit her. Unfortunately, a werewolf’s nose could not be fooled by the meek attempts at the air freshener’s masking of the rancid scent that came from his room. Pressing her lips together, she blinked a few times, as if trying to figure out what to say. Her soul probably sounded concerned to Wes, like the whining sounds of an upset dog. “Uh… Would you like me to clean your apartment, too?” She asked genuinely as if it were a normal Tuesday thing to do. There was no accusatory tone, nor disdain or disgust. Just a matter-of-fact question and an offer to help.

“It’s fine.” He grunted, shutting the door closed behind him. He could take care of it himself, he just didn’t feel like doing it at the moment. looking at the plastic bag in her hands, his stomach grumbled as the smell hit him, eyes darting up from the bags to Sara. “Was just going to grab some food, run some errands. Guess I can skip on the first part now.” He said, giving a slight nod towards the bag.

Sara sighed, giving him a raised eyebrow and standing up straighter. Even though Wes towered over her, she was still giving him that look that a mother would give to a child. “Look, I get it, you can handle it later. But I used to have a weapon partner who was pretty similar. If I didn’t whip him into doing it himself or I didn’t do something, he’d keep putting it off by saying ‘I’ll do it later’, only to keep pushing it off further and further. The more it piles up, the more daunting it’s going to feel cleaning it and the more subconsciously shitty you’re going to feel.” She then handed him the bag of food, arm outstretched. “If you think you got it, cool, but I don’t want you drowning in your own self-negligence. If you need help, ask. I’ll gladly help you get your place straightened up for you so you can feel a bit better about the place you live in. I don’t want to see my own acquaintances feel burdened by the place they live in, even if they don’t really feel it because they’ve gotten used to it. In fact, that’s even worse.”

“Look, I said it’s fine.” Wes grabbed the bag of food by the handle, reaching back with his free hand and allowing the door to swing open. The bag was quickly deposited on the floor before the door slammed shut, not allowing Sara to see any more than she already had.

He could take care of it whenever he wanted to, he just hadn’t had the energy recently. Between his recent mission, his previous partner being injured, and being assigned to a new partner all in the span of a few days, he wanted to relax. He didn’t want to do anything, especially something that he didn’t view as a problem. So what if his place was messy, it wasn’t like he was ever going to have people over.

“I just haven’t gotten around to it.” Shoving his hands into his sweatshirt pockets, he turned and began to walk down the hall and away from the wolf-girl. “Thanks for the food.”

Sara shook her head, following along beside him. “So, what errands do you need to do?” She asked, dropping the topic about his apartment swiftly. Being the nosy werewolf she was, she wasn’t going to let Wes go that easily. She easily trailed after him, like an unwanted friend.

Wes let out an internal sigh as Sara trailed behind him, turning into the stairwell, and descending to the first floor. Truthfully, he didn’t have any errands to run, or at least none that he’d want company for. He was only leaving his apartment to grab a bite, and since he just so happened to run into her while she was dropping off one of her care packages, that was already taken care of. Still, from their previous interaction he knew that there was no way she was going to just leave him alone now.

“…Have to grab a few things from a place in the entertainment district.” Hooking a right, he slowly trudged his way down the street. “You don’t have to come along. Sure you have better things to do than watch me shop.”

Sara shook her head. “Nooope, I got nothing going on.” She said simply, catching up to his side so they were walking side-by-side. “Besides, sounds like you want company anyway, even if you would prefer to be alone. Ooo, maybe we can get smoothies.” She pondered, eyes now wide with gleeful contemplation of what they could do together now, even though she was just trying to rope him into it. “Entertainment district sounds fun though. Do you like the arcades over there, or is the loud atmosphere too much?” She asked with boundless curiosity, amber eyes staring at him with doe-eyed curiosity. She didn’t mean to sound insensitive either, her questioning sounded innocent.

Of course she was free. Her dropping off that food was probably the last thing she needed to get done for the day with his luck. Still, he wasn’t that much of an asshole to try and ditch her, slowing his pace from a brisk walk to a casual stroll.

“Wouldn’t know. Haven’t been to an arcade since….” He trailed off, trying to remember exactly when it was. He remembered going into one somewhere during his travels, although for exactly what he couldn’t remember. It was one of those multi-storied complexes, with a restaurant on one of the upper floors and a go-kart track in the back. The only ones he ever saw before were smaller ones with maybe a quarter of the space, which is why its size stuck with him. “Oklahoma, I think. And that was a while ago.”

Oh, he was slowing down for her. Sara happily took his side without having to strain her legs, looking at Wes with amber eyes like a sponge soaking up whatever he said. Her eyes widened as he found the end of his sentence, and she let out a soft ‘oooo’. “Oklahoma. It’s been a while since I’ve been there.” She smiled. “My mom has family there. Though, it’s been a while since we’ve last been.” Something concerned Sara. They haven’t seen her mom’s parents in quite a while. Were they okay?”

The concern dissipated as she focused on the here and now. “Anyway, maybe we can find a small arcade for you.” Being considerate for his hearing despite not being direct about it, Sara really didn’t want to drag him somewhere where Wes would end up going deaf. She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself. “The arcade’s pretty fun, and I got money to spend anyway.” She grinned wide. Why shouldn’t they take some of the day to make it fun?

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Wes offered her a brief shrug of his shoulders, keeping his gaze forward, his mind already working out an excuse to bail out. He didn’t plan on staying out any longer than he had to, Sara’s arrival notwithstanding. Just a quick pop out for some food and then back to his apartment for the rest of the day. Then it’d be back to more mind numbing reality television and the comfort of his couch, at least until everyone else in the complex came back for the night.

He’d have to throw on his headphones and throw on some music to drown them out once that happened. Fortunately, most of the apartment's residents weren’t night owls, meaning it shouldn't be too long for the noise to become bearable.

His ears twitched as a particularly grating sound invaded his hearing, face contorting into a grimace as one of his hands slowly moved up to reach for his headphones. It was a combination of sound, both of the soul and physical. Someone was either strangling a cat, or were strangling the neck of a guitar trying to look cool. Either way, it was enough for him to want to throw on his headphones and cut off at least one source. Shooting Sara a quick glance, he clicked his tongue and brought his hand up to his hair, scratching his head before letting his hand fall back to his side.

The noise passed soon after as the duo continued their pace, with Wes stopping a few steps in front of Sara as they arrived at his destination. A neon guitar was placed on top of the entryway, with a paper sign in the window advertising that the shop bought used instruments. The store itself was nestled in-between a used book-store, a cardboard cutout trying to entice passers by to come in and browse their selection sat out front; and a small comic book store that dealt in popular comics from all over the world.

Sara had heard only one source of this noise Wes heard. Her head immediately shifted over to the guitar place and she winced. “Oof… Someone needs to learn how to use the damn thing. Ow.” She caged the closest ear that was assaulted by such a noise with a hand and began to rub it vigorously. Looking up at Wes as he said he was going to grab something, she decided to follow, unable to stop her curiosity. She was - however - worried for him when she saw him going to the music shop. Didn’t he also get ear-blasted by someone’s electrical screeching?

“Just need to grab something quick.” He nodded his head towards the shop, the door opening as an excited looking teen exited the store holding a guitar case. He mumbled a brief apology before moving past the duo, clutching the case tightly as he made his way down the street. Wes shrugged, before moving forward and catching the door to the music shop before it could close, pushing it open before entering himself. Not wanting to be left behind, Sara dashed in to catch up with Wes.

She did her best to keep herself from snooping whatever Wes was looking into. While she was near him, she was captivated by the other selections in the store. Most of which were just guitars - instruments one would find for some rock ‘n’ roll or metal. Acoustic guitars, too. There were even a couple electronic keyboards.

Wes walked through the store with an almost practiced ease, despite this being his first visit to this particular shop. He’d been in enough of these shops, both independent and franchised to know where what he was looking for would be located. He stepped past the array of instruments in his way, guitars strung up on walls as the more cumbersome instruments were arranged in a way so that anyone could come up and give them a look. It was a controlled clutter, the owner of the shop wanting to utilize every single inch of their shop as best as they could.

Bass strings, a new pair for the neglected instrument he kept underneath his bed. Even after months of disuse, he still remembered exactly what he needed for it. He doubted he could ever forget, considering that thing was his main source of income while he was traveling the country. Sure, he’d pick up the odd job here and there to help fund his travels, but few were willing to hire a random stranger who wasn’t guaranteed to stick around for more than a few weeks at best. That meant relying on the age-old practice of busking for his change, hoping that enough people were willing to throw a few bucks his way to pay the night at a motel.

Grabbing a pack, he turned to head towards the counter, only to pause as he saw Sara taking in the selection of instruments on display. For a smaller shop, there was a decent selection outside of guitars, with some keyboards and even one or two drum sets tucked into corners here and there. His thoughts drifted to his new partner Feng, their conversation revealing that she was quite familiar with instruments in her own right. Tucking the strings underneath his arm, he walked towards Sara and asked her. “You play?”

Sara looked up at Wes with some surprise, before smiling. “I wish… My fingers get kinda… clunky. String instruments are always so beautiful, so powerful. They induce so much emotion with a couple strums… Hah, maybe I’m a little over dramatic about it.” She shook her head, an easy smile on her face. “My former weapon partner, Noah, knows how to play the piano. I tried to get him an electronic keyboard because getting the kind of piano he wanted up three floors of the complex was complete ass, but he said it wasn’t ‘classical’ enough.” She giggled softly. “I bet if he worked on it instead of playing video games and the nth edition of Osu, he’d be really good at string instruments, too.” She looked at Wes’s item he was getting and she smiled.

“Ah, bet you’re a really good player of the strings. I wish I was that good. My hands are good for crafts and cooking.” There was a solemnity to her voice despite her attempts at trying to be optimistic, as if she had already given up on trying to play the guitar. She has tried, and it always ended with her getting frustrated and then crying because her hands just didn’t work right. She knew she just needed to build up muscle memory, but it was like her body rejected the movements’ memorization.

“That…. Sounds like a pain in the ass.” The words slipped from his mouth before he could even think to filter them, although in his defense he could imagine the piano Noah had wanted. Heavy, unwieldy, and an absolute chore to maneuver up and through the stairwell of the complex. The two hadn’t interacted much during their mission, outside of the weapon trying to comfort him after Annika had gotten poisoned. He had offered him his hand, a sign of comradery or some form of comfort. Wes hadn’t been to Dr. Arc since he got back, but one thing had burned in the back of his head ever since then.

He didn’t take Noah’s hand. It would have been easy to just accept the offer, to take solace in someone trying to help him through what he was feeling. But he didn’t, instead just staring at the man’s hand before turning away. From their brief interaction, Wes knew that Noah was being genuine with his attempt at comforting him.

He seemed the kind of person anyone would kill to have as a friend. But something kept him from taking it, and the mention of his name brought that memory right back to the forefront of his mind. Giving his head a shake, he tried to clear the thought away as Sara lamented on her lack of talent when it came to the strings.

Even if he couldn’t hear her soul, it was obvious that she had some sort of hangup on the matter. And it made sense, most people get discouraged when trying to learn an instrument. Beyond a rare few, most people sucked when they first started out, and he was no exception. It was ironic in a way, that despite his ability to hear soul signatures, he was as tone deaf as they came when he first started.

“Eh, not like I was strumming perfect chords when I started. Can’t tell you how many times I wanted to just bash the thing off the ground.” He offered to her, raising the strings and holding them loosely between two fingers. He didn’t consider himself close with the wolf-girl, at least not to the extent that he was with Annika, but she was nice enough to slave over a hot stove for him. The least he could do was try and make her feel a bit better about her lack of musical talent.

“Just gotta keep at it. Kind of like those lessons back at the academy.” He offered, making his way to the counter where a middle aged man with a scruffy beard sat. The smile on his face was worn, the telltale sign of someone who had been working in retail for far too long. “Sure, it sucks when you first start out. Everything sounds like crap, your fingers hurt from playing, and you want to hang it up then and there.”

He tossed the packet on the counter, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet before sliding his card on the counter, turning back to face Sara. “But, you just gotta keep at it. Little by little, you’ll start to improve. Eventually, you’ll get to a point where you can look back and laugh at how bad you were.”

Sara looked up at Wes in awe, following him as he went to the counter. The more he talked, the more activity her tail had. Whenever Sara wasn’t good at something, she would just leave it be. Her natural abilities due to being twenty-percent werewolf all the time helped with exercise and parkour and fighting. Even cooking was aided by her mother and older brother. She knew how to hunt and track from her father teaching her.

If she didn’t have a teacher, she’d have given up. She didn’t have the support when trying to learn a guitar, so because no one pushed her, she just gave up. But hearing Wes talk about his struggles, how he was able to just learn it without much support even though Sara’s impression of him was pretty lazy, had Sara wondering if he used to be driven and motivated back then.

It honestly inspired her.

Looking back at the acoustic guitar hanging on the wall, she was tempted to try again. She looked back at the strings he had, then looked up at Wes. “Thank you…” She said quietly and softly, a stark contrast to her usually bubbly self. She waited for Wes to get done with paying. Looking back at the acoustic guitar, she knew she’d have the money for it the next time she was paid. It wasn’t a whole lot, but it was enough to get her just over the cost to buy it. It’ll have to be later though. Still, she obediently waited for Wes to get done and so she may follow him out.

“Don’t mention it.” He really wasn’t sure how he felt when, after some light encouragement, the look in Sara’s eyes had changed. It had been a long while since anyone had looked at him with any sense of awe or wonder; the last time he could remember was when he first started to attend the academy. Back when everything had seemed new and exciting, when the thought of training didn’t make him want to curl up under his covers and go back to sleep.

”I really don’t deserve it…” He gave a dismissive wave with his hand before turning back to the employee behind the counter. The employee quickly rang up the strings, swiping Wes’s card and handing it back to him before bagging the strings in a small black plastic bag.

He saw Sara eying a guitar out of the corner of his eye as he took the bag, pushing his hand through the bag loops and letting it hang on his wrist. A guitar wasn’t the worst instrument to pick up as a beginner. It was a popular enough instrument that you could find dozens of online guides, and that was if you weren’t able to find someone offering lessons in real life.

Honestly, the biggest hurdle was actually going out and buying an instrument in the first place. Unless a person was committed to picking up and keeping with it, it was hard to justify buying something that would just end up becoming an expensive decoration. A thought suddenly worked its way into his mind, a faint memory from when he was dared to learn how to play bass. Of course, back then neither him nor any of Rebecca’s friends had owned a bass. Fortunately, for as many people who picked up an instrument, there were just as many who decided to put one down for good.

Wes gave a mumbled thanks to the employee, giving a curt nod before exiting the store, trusting that Sara would follow him out when he was done. “Did you want to grab that guitar?” He asked once they were on the street, turning his head back to look at the store, and the few guitars that he could see propped up on stands through the front window.

Sara idly followed Wes, almost not even thinking as she acted like she was gravitating towards his presence. When he asked, her mind snapped back to reality and she smiled. “Yeaaah, but I gotta wait to get my paycheck next week.” She shrugged. “I don’t mind waiting.” She really, really hoped Wes didn’t grab it for her.

“Alright.” He returned with his own shrug before putting his free hand into his sweatshirt pocket. “Was going to say, if cash was an issue you could always try a pawn shop. It’s where I found my first bass.”

Being a teenager with little in the way of things like disposable income, or any income for that matter, picking up a used guitar was his only option. Looking back, he was honestly surprised that the shop had decided to even buy the thing in the first place with the condition it was in. The body was covered in cigarette burns, the paint was chipped all over, and the neck was held together by duct tape and a healthy helping of luck.

It sounded awful, and he had to hold it like he was holding a baby that would break if he even breathed on it wrong, but it at the very least let him try it out and learn the basics. He was kind of sad when he finally got what would become his actual bass, and his first one was relegated to the abyss of his parents’ attic.

Huh, a pawn shop. Sara had never considered that an option, but she shrugged. “Some of those are hit or miss, but I can see about that later.” She smiled, thankful that he didn’t offer to get it for her though. “So, any other errands?”

“I guess so. The one I went to was pretty nice. It’s just past….” He trailed off, his face falling slightly before correcting himself. “It was a few blocks from the main street. No idea if it’s still around though.”

He really hadn’t explored much of Death City since he made his return. Some things were still there, but old shops that he used to visit had long since closed, or been replaced by new ones. Whenever he passed by one of those shops he’d always feel a sense of melancholy, and that was usually enough to derail whatever he had planned.

“And not really. This was pretty much all I needed.” He gave his arm a shake, causing the bag hanging from his wrist to jerk slightly. With Sara’s delivery he was set for food for the time being, and beyond picking up milk and cat food for the strays he didn’t need anything else. He realized his mistake a moment after he said it, admitting that he was finished with his errands which meant he didn’t have an excuse to fall back on.

Sara chuckled forlornly. “Ah, I know that feeling. Things change too fast, huh? Blink and it’s gone.” She shared in that melancholy at least. But then, her expression brightened. “Buuuuuut, it’s a good idea to experience them while they’re here before they disappear, like that arcade.” She grinned wide. “At this time, there shouldn’t be too many people. We can probably make it before the rush.” She said excitedly. “It’s just down the street, come oonn.” She coaxed, skipping down the sidewalk before turning and looking back at Wes. A mischievous glimmer was in her eye.

“Tch.” Wes clicked his tongue, mentally kicking himself for walking right into that one. He should have known that Sara wouldn’t have just let him slink back to his apartment after following along. She already told him that she didn’t have anything else to do, and his little errand was hardly enough effort to just call it a day.

Even if he did decide to break off and go back to his apartment, she probably would have asked to hang out, or even try and convince him to get a start on cleaning. It was a lose/lose situation, and he had no one to blame but himself for it. Breathing a sigh, he trudged down the street after Sara, lacking the pep in her step or the twinkle in her eye.

Sara almost felt bad for dragging him along, but she honestly couldn’t care too much. She wanted him to have fun and there was no telling what would happen to this arcade in another decade or two. Once they got near enough to the arcade, she made sure there weren’t too many people inside. Upon seeing there was only a small group, she figured it was probably quiet enough for him.

When they entered and since it was during the day, the lights weren’t as harsh. Sure, it was a bit dim, but the volume of light didn’t make the neon lights too harsh to look at. Some of the arcade machines could be heard creating a strange harmonious and then discordant sound together but it wasn’t too loud and it wasn’t as grating as nails on a chalkboard at least. At least, not to Sara’s sensitive hearing.

Whenever they got used to the sounds and sights, Sara dragged him around to the different arcade machines. Co-op shooting games where they shoot zombified Kishin, co-op Guitar Hero, and a few other kinds. What she wasn’t expecting was to see Wes suck at nearly every game she thought he’d be good at, especially Guitar Hero.

Not wanting him to leave frustrated, she ended up finding a pvp fighting game. Maybe he would be good at this.

He was, and a little too well. In fact, she swore he was some psychic savant, but she still giggled and had fun, even if she was beaten so ruthlessly. All to see if she could get Wes to smile.

Wes was pretty middling when it came to actual skill, lacking the patience or drive to obsess over things like frame data or any other fighting game terminology that people in the FGC would rave about. But what he lacked in skill, he more than made up for it by being able to hear the changes in Sara’s soul when she moved in to attack. He could hear the slight jump when she went in for a grab, the slightest of twitches that let him predict her mixups, and the bit of annoyance when he would suddenly block her wakeup super after rushing in.

Essentially, he was cheating.

But, after being dragged around multiple games and being utterly trounced by the werewolf, he found himself not minding it so much. Well except for the guitar hero game, that one still managed to sting just a bit.

It just wasn’t fair, his body kept betraying him whenever he tried to hit a note. His fingers would suddenly leap out and press down multiple buttons at once, his strumming hand kept nudging the flipper back into place on the guitar and dropping the notes he was supposed to hold, and he swore the little strap that came on the guitar was designed to be just too small around his shoulder.

Despite his rather lackluster performance, he had to admit, he found himself having fun. It certainly wasn’t how he wanted to spend his afternoon, but being dragged around by someone else reminded him of when he was younger. Back when Rebecca would insist that they were going shopping first thing in the morning, and without fail she would be dragging his half conscious body across Death City to meet up with her friends.

Faced with Sara’s own giggles and the memories of his first partner, he couldn’t help the slight smile that formed on his lips. It wasn’t exactly the same, and he doubted it ever would be, but it felt nice, nostalgic, and left a nice feeling in his chest, despite the small ache that accompanied it.

After being beaten for - what Sara thought - was the tenth time, she found herself giggling and lightly tapping his shoulder with a fist. She swore she saw a smile on his face, but she might just be imagining it. “Alright, I know you’re cheating, but that was fun. We burned an hour here, soooo...” Sara fully expected Wes to leave, but the fact he stayed? That was nice. “You probably wanna head back home, huh?” Her hands were clasped behind her back, her body swaying as her tail wagged. She was relinquishing control of his day, she might as well help him back home and leave him alone for a while.

Wes couldn’t help but shake his head at Sara’s accusation, holding his hands up defensively but making no effort to defend himself. He couldn’t help it that she read as easy as a book, it was just a byproduct of an otherwise annoying part of his life. “Yeah, I’m pretty beat.” He said, bringing his hands back down and stuffing them into his pockets. “Think I’ll go out on a high note with my wins.”

“Won’t lie. This wasn’t how I was expecting my afternoon to go. But…” He gave a small shrug of his shoulders, the slight smile on his face becoming just slightly more apparent as he regarded the werewolf in front of him. “It was kind of fun.”

If Sara could explode from happiness, she would have become a cannon of streamers and confetti. She was so happy he was smiling and actually had fun with her. Now, he didn’t have to look like some personification of a lazy black cloud. “Good.” Her tail was practically a blur as she walked out of the arcade with him. “Maybe I won’t have to drag you out of your apartment if we go to the arcade, huh?” She giggled. “Though, I don’t think I’ll be that lucky.”

Speaking of his apartment… She was reminded of that horrendous smell. But now that she maybe gave him some energy from having some arcade fun with her, maybe he’ll do his chores when he gets back home. If not, well, she’ll just come knocking again.

“Yeah, we’ll have to see about that.” He deflected, pulling a hand out of his pocket and waving it in front of his face. While it was fun, it was still a far cry from what he usually did on his days off. Not something he’d make a habit of doing, but not something he would go out of his way of avoiding now. A rare treat, although whether that was for himself or Sara would remain to be seen.

“Maybe after I get in some practice.” His hand fell back to his side as a slight cringe ran through his expression, still remembering the simulated boos of the virtual crowd. He’d been heckled before, but somehow the crowd not even being real stung more than that.

Double checking to make sure he still had his strings, he looped the opening around his free wrist and nodded towards the exit of the arcade, taking a few steps towards it and back onto the street.

Sara gave him a sly expression, chuckling. “Uh-huh, and when will you be practicing, huh?” She followed along with him out of the arcade, not expecting he would practice at all since her impression of him was Mr. Procrastinator. “Either wayyyy, that was really fun. I’m glad I dragged you along.” She couldn’t help the cheeky smile. “Thank you for humoring me, Oh Great Procrastinator.” He was too easy to tease.

“You know. Between missions and training and stuff.” He bristled under Sara’s teasing, having never been good at being teased. He could handle being heckled, jeered, and all other sorts of negative attention. But something about teasing, the friendly ribbing, always managed to dig itself right into his side.

“It’s just a game after all. Not like It’s going to keep me up at night.” Despite his assurances, there was a small part of Wes that was nagging at him to at least make an attempt at getting better at the game. Partially due to his lackluster performance, but an equal part that urged him to practice for the sake of practice. The same urge that he felt ever since Feng mentioned her own instrumental ability, and the entire reason he purchased a new set of strings for his neglected bass underneath his bed.

Seeing him bristle, Sara laid off on the teasing, simply chuckling at his statement. “Well, at least you’re not too hung up over it.” Their walk to the apartment was quick. Sara didn’t want to leave Wes alone, but she had grown up and out of that phase and she really didn’t want to fall back into annoying loners again. “We’re back already? Dang. Well,” she turned towards Wes as she walked backwards and up the steps. “I hope you enjoy my food I gave you before we left. I’ll leave you alone for now, get myself out of your hair.” She giggled, twirling about and jumping up the stairs quickly. “Let’s do arcade stuff again soon.” Her voice echoed down the stairwell as she hurried her way up to the third floor, not wanting to impose her presence upon him anymore than she had been today.

“Yeah…” He offered the hyperactive werewolf a small wave of his hand as she ascended the stairs, the smile on his face growing from a small smirk to an actual, factual smile now that Sara couldn’t see it.

“Thanks.” He spoke softly, shaking his head as he walked down the hallway to his own apartment. As he opened the door, the familiar scent of air freshener welcomed him home, as well as the slightly aromatic scent of the food he had deposited on the floor. It’d probably have to be reheated, but that wasn’t too much of an issue. Grabbing the handles of the bag, he walked over and deposited it on the kitchenette counter, before tossing his strings onto his couch.

He paused, taking a good look at his apartment, and the heaping pile of trash stacked up by his front door. ‘Maybe I should give it a clean’ He thought to himself, before shaking his head and unpacking the food containers. Maybe Sara was rubbing off on him, or maybe it just took someone else mentioning it to finally get him into gear.

And, as Wes sat on his couch, a reheated but still delicious meal set in front of him, he couldn’t help but shake his head before he dug in. Today had been a pretty good day.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Sara & Zosar & Wren
​

Death City Cafe
September 25, 2067

Collab with The Regal Rper and Haze-

​

Werewolf Meet-Up

Wren might not have known it but the day they got back Zosar had reached out to their mentor figures. Word had been sent to Az who was discussing things with Reiko and their collection of peers on what to do about Wren’s situation. They needed a detailed evaluation and an understanding of the situation before things started up again for the next round of missions. So getting info on that as soon as possible on who or what was to be done was crucial.

Catching up to the other had been its own ordeal.

The scars had healed up pretty nicely. The other scars would never be noticeable with clothing on. His shoulder had a bit of gnarled looking scar tissue but was mostly fine with the rest of his body. The more obvious scar was the one on his cheek and down to the side of his jawline. That scar was partly why he planned on leaving early. Against his lighter brown complexion the scar stuck out with its slightly darker scar tissue. He hadn't told Sara anything much about their mission except it had been rough and Midori had gone through something brutal and was now going by Kisei, and all of that had been shared the day after he got back almost immediately. Not just to her but others too, that Midori was now Kisei and to avoid referring to him as the latter if it could be helped.

No other details had been given except the vague assurance that their first mission had been pretty bad, and he would appreciate it if no one brought it up around his new partner unless she brought it up herself. That had been clear to Sara, and all the others in his contact list, from Dani to Adrian, Noah, Ark, Feng and Aki. Even Gauss.

It was a preemptive measure to avoid the topic of that entirely given all parties involved.

With Maria being close friends with Nadia and Dani, there was nothing he could do about their reactions when she shared her tale of both missions. The least he did was give the notice with none of the details, and the warning to drop the subject in his presence or the presence of his partner.

Everyone else however had their own little chaos pie though.

Gauss's group, according to Ark, had faced off against a Sphinx or come close to it until the rich boy had managed to talk the situation out of a fight.

Then there was the whole situation Sara had informed him on with their mission. Cultists and another strange situation similar to what Dani had experienced, with the prompting as he understood it some complex situation involving a completely different reality, which was just jarring to process by itself.

He had elected to visit Eva first, and visiting her solo had prompted the unexpected message he had sent to Sara about meeting up that afternoon.

Wren hadn't gotten much of a warning, except the fact that he planned on introducing her to some of the others eventually, with no promise or notice on when or how soon that would be given all the other things he had been doing since they got back. He had messaged her prior to arriving that he planned on introducing her to someone today. And that was an hour before he had appeared at her door.

Aside from her awareness about him being in communication with Az and Az having Wren's number to keep her updated also, this meeting hadn't been one Zosar would normally take the time to plan properly

It just happened, which frankly, was the sort of sudden thing that could remind someone about the same random sudden irrelevant thought he had mid battle about their dubiously attractive reptilian enemy.

The meet up would be at a smoothie place.

Neither of them knew the details about who they were meeting.

Sara already had the text, but not the details of whom Zosar was introducing her to. He had made it vague, hard to interpret if he was introducing her to his Weapon partner or if it were one of the very very few limited people that he still had outside of FATE that actually thought better of him to bother with any form of contact.

It was a mystery, except to him because he knew them both. The only thing he had said was he would have to leave, had some things he had to do so just wanted to make sure the two were able to meet up without any trouble and then he would be off.

Wren might have gotten a smoothie or several, Zosar was paying. There were several kinds, any of which she could blend flavors to her interest. All he asked is that she not completely suck him dry of all cash if possible.

She tried to look presentable, really, but the outcome of those— arguably half-assed— efforts were a foregone conclusion in her mind.

Wren wore her silver hair down, tangled, unkempt, like her bed had come to life and she’d boxed with it last night. A wrinkled, neck-opened dress shirt— not for style points, she was just missing that one button— and black, office slacks that somehow looked chewed at the hems, as though she’d grown too far into them.

Her eyes were narrow, unfocused— in her mind she knew she was either looking like a retiree from the few dozen apartment complexes in Death City, or downright a homeless person. Alas, she’d given up all hope already, just hoping that this other person would look just as deplorable as her.

Her tail swayed just behind her, in a tight pendulum, like the hand of a metronome. A sign of her impatience, a hint of her nervousness, a cue of her craving for endless smoothies perhaps; no one knew and no one would know. Not even her. At this hour, she was too asleep to be worrying about first impressions.

To Zosar’s dismay, she’d ordered several. A graveyard of plastic cups and striped straws was tucked away in a corner of the table. He, on the other hand, sipped a simple strawberry blend.

She’d gone through the roster. From protein chocolate, to plain strawberry, and all the way up to a puke green abomination of avocado, cucumber, spinach and kale— just because she thought the vegan smoothie on the menu looked funny. In fact, it was funny. She still, however, didn’t bring herself to understand what exactly made it vegan. There was no meat in a smoothie. Were these smoothie-makers stupid nowadays?

Truth be told, she didn’t really like smoothies at all. In her eyes, they were nothing but a pointless step-down from ice cream, one-up from frozen yogurt— something about them was just bland. Not that anyone would’ve ever noticed, with the way she’d been steadily gulping them down like they were juice.

After a while, a chilling numbness crept into the forefront of her skull, right between the eyes, like an invisible icicle digging into her forehead. It was the consequences of her habit of chewing her smoothie catching back up to her.

Wren threw herself onto the table, hands holding her head like it were about to blossom and split open. She sat there writhing with her ears pinned down to her forehead for a second or few, making an ugly face “Save me, Z…” She croaked, pleaded like a dying old man on their deathbed.

“Huh?” The brain freeze didn’t last long however. She perked up, eyes lazily looking around, ears standing on end, tail banging on her seat. Her nostrils flared, unconsciously. Like it’d happened with that monster cat back in Wales, there was a ping in her mental radar. Less instinctual and aggressive, but just as alert.

There was that poignant smell of fur all around Death City, something she still hadn’t gotten used to. She could tell whenever a werewolf passed her by. It wasn’t an uncommon thing for her, necessarily. Annoying, more than anything else. It usually didn’t mean much.

A brow went up and Zosar couldn't help but wave her attention. “Let's slow down on the shakes, maybe. I don't want you unintelligible before she gets here, chica.”

Sara, getting a message that she was going to be meeting someone and Zosar, came with gifts in mind after her hang out with Wes. She wore her regular jacket, a black tank top underneath, and black shorts. Her blue hair was down and had been groomed, and her tail - well… There wasn’t much done to the tail, it wagged too fast and had the windswept look 24/7, it was impossible to make decent. When she arrived at the smoothie place, she was carrying a plastic bag, the bag containing Japanese cuisine she made herself in bulk that day within tupperware (it tasted better if she made huge batches than if she made them for a single person or one meal). In fact, she made so much and she didn’t know when she got to see Zosar again, so she made extra, unaware of Zosar’s new person’s feeding needs.

When she arrived, the scent of teriyaki came with her as she looked around and spotted her boy. “Ohhh, Zosar!” Accidentally causing a little scene (even if it was wholesome), she ran for him, set the food on the table and immediately tried to get him in a hug, her werewolf ears pinned back and tail a wagging blur like a happy dog. She also had a collar around her neck, one of those incapacitator collars issued by the DWMA. Even though she could have gotten one around the wrist or wherever, she had chosen this design choice, because she didn’t care about some human calling her a mutt or being seen as a dog.

She also, indeed, noticed Zosar’s buddy via scent - a werewolf - but she didn’t seem to mind. Sara also smelled like she was a part of a different clan from her, but she was just glad that Zosar had friends.

She hit almost like a missile. Sara locked in at the same time Zosar had gotten up upon sensing her. Her bearhug tackle came barreling and Zosar elicited the slightest grunt of exertion on impact, and then immediately began laughing as he returned the hug, and giving her a playful little twirl.

“Hey there! It’s good to see you too.” Putting her down lightly. He immediately shifted attention to Wren. “This is the someone I mentioned you would be meeting.” He grinned.

And what a wise grin it was. Zosar had been somewhat eager for this meet up. It was a bit of a blast from the past, werewolves exchanging greetings, in the memories of his childhood, back when Lars had been around. And with how he shifted so quickly to pulling Wren into the introduction it hinted clearly he was eager for the two to meet.

Sara giggled happily at being twirled, pulling away to see the werewolf friend he had. She noticed the many drinks, and realized that this werewolf had a more insatiable hunger than the rest. “Hi hi, I’m Sara, Zosar’s buddy, nice to meet you, Wren. Oh, and this food is for you two.” Patting the several tupperwares-worth of food in the bag, she then held out her hand, wanting to shake hands with her. With her olfactory soul perception, she picked out a latent smell of rotten eggs, so it was clear to her she was madness-touched. Whatever it was, she would never try to make Wren lesser for it and would want to help her.

Was she third-wheeling right now?

Wren went stiff for half a moment there, cringed at herself, at that side of her brain reminding her that Zosar and her weren’t on the ‘twirly hug’ level yet. That awkward, jarring feeling of apartness soon turned to something entirely different. Now she was just annoyed at the fact she’d even thought about it in the first place.

She looked off at her gang of desiccated plastic cups with a narrow glare, as if looking for their advice, holding back a scoff on a squared jaw. She pushed the tip of her tongue against her front row teeth. Jealous? Her?

Nah.

When she looked back and noticed Sara’s hand was right on her face, Wren immediately shot up out of her seat, tail knocking a few of the empty smoothie cups off the table as she went. She tried straightening up, clearing her throat, fiddling with her sleeves, roll them up— until she just stood there with that estranged type of grin that wasn’t really a grin at all, more of a nervous flash of the teeth. Like a cornered animal. One hand in her pocket, she reached out for the handshake with the other.

The quick, robotic introduction she’d planned out was completely thwarted now.

“Nice t’ meetcha too, Sara. I guess I’m one of Zosar’s buddies too…” She punched in a less than confident chuckle, one hand instinctively going up to idly scratch at her face. For a moment, her eyes flashed over to Zosar. On the ‘buddy-buddy’ scale, she figured she was a couple ladders below Sara when she really thought about it. It felt like a lie to just say that out loud.

“You two seem close to each other, huh?” In true Wren fashion, she teased, wriggling her eyebrows at the both of them with a shit eating grin on her face “Thought y’ were brother an’ sister at a first glance.”

“Take it yer’ from the nuthouse too?” She blurted out all of a sudden, as blunt as Zosar knew her to be. She brought both hands up, shook the bracelets around her wrists and tugged on the collar choking her neck “Got the same stripes.”

“Ah, and, sorry by the way. I didn’t really think ‘bout bringing anything for the occasion…” She eyed the bag of food on the table, almost apologetically.

Sara giggled, smelling the jealousy from Wren, Zosar however hadn't caught on to it the same way. What had been jealousy he misconstrued as irritation that Wren had felt almost immediately after. But she said nothing, as Zosar was definitely going to get a text from her later. She shook Wren’s hand with a quick and firm squeeze. “I’m glad you’re with him, his last partner wasn’t the greatest when it came to his mental health.” She made a choking noise when Wren said they looked like siblings. Zosar actually made a face that translated simply as ‘blech’.

Blurting: “Ewww, noo, he’s too hot for that.” She figured that might get poorly translated, but she was going to fix that later. “But yes, I’m also from Fate, and you don’t have to worry about gifts. I just do this because I wanna.” She smiled wide, bringing up all the points in a quick fashion. She did give Zosar and Wren a look between them, then her eyes half-lidded with a smug grin.

That got Zosar's brow up.

“Hehe, have you told her yet?”

He wasn't getting the hint, and that was partly because he was focused on making sure this meeting stayed positive; he was missing the obvious at the moment. She looked towards Zosar, her tail wagging. Of course, it probably was best they didn’t say this out in public, but her volume quieted down considerably. She mouthed out the word ‘poly’, a subtle reminder about how she was polyamorous back in Hawaii, given the time that had passed. Still, she wanted to get this out of the way considering she noticed Wren was jealous and wanted to make sure Wren knew of their situation. Well, future situation, Sara wasn’t exactly dating Zosar yet, but that was because she was waiting for him to get comfy before he popped the question to her.

Unless she had to hunt him down in the more romanticized werewolf fashion.

To say he didn't quite catch on at the first attempt was obvious, his brow stayed quirked, a second hint, eyes glancing between him and Wren made it click nigh instantly.

The loud outlandish snort of surprise that came out as amusement probably wasn't the first thing anyone would expect from the somewhat private cryptic conversation they were engaging in without Wren. It certainly wasn't the reaction Zosar had intended and when he realized he had done that he said with amusement, “Very eager I see”, in Spanish. Something neither of them would understand.

“I usually only bring that up when it's needed," was his more serious yet equal parts amused and confused reply. There were plenty of reasons why he wouldn't have brought such a topic to the table with Wren.

The biggest was the implications Wren might take from it.

Wren was his partner. DWMA specifically, had a higher percentage rating compared to the Enlighteners, when it came to paired partners hooking up romantically. How would he have taken it if someone he had only been recent partners with dropped the ball in an outing with a friend she had introduced him to, that she was poly?

None of the possibilities in his mind were positive. By default, Zosar went through life assuming most people he interacted with wouldn’t be interested in someone of his poly nature, especially with his current reputation. He had been right to think Dani wouldn't. He had been wrong about Sara. How many others though were, honestly, like Sara or Becky for that matter? Very few, his skeptic mind provided. Very few were like these two. Especially in this program.

He'd sooner believe Gauss and Nadia were having a secret affair than believe he could get into more than one romantic bond with anyone else here and even with Sara, he was intentionally taking it slow. Whatever had his friend asking him this, he was definitely thinking she was way off here. Markus hadn't seen him lesser for his fumbles in their adolescence with romantic interests, but he had never given Markus the impression he was interested in him beyond their platonic brotherhood.

He was a risk taker, but he knew some risks weren't worth it. He wasn't going to take such a risk here. If Sara wanted to discuss this, she could do it with Wren when he was gone. The last thing he needed was his partner to think that right after their traumatic mission he set this whole thing up to capitalize on her.

“Unless Wren's super curious though, I'll set that topic aside for later. Which reminds me, you said something a bit odd there a second ago actually.” He turned the tables, pointing the finger at Wren. “There's no ‘I guess I'm one of Zosar's buddies too’, còmo te atreves,” questioning her daring behavior. “We are buddies, and don't you forget it, pelusa!” His tone slightly scolding but the brief rise in his voice ended with a grin as he patted her on the shoulder. “ Seriously how could we not be close after what you did for me on that first mission?” A light back pat came right after. “You are literally the only Weapon I've met that can handle me, and you're one helluva faithful friend. Don't forget I said that next time you second guess.” Lightly tapping a finger against her jawline in a playful nudge.

Her head swiveled right when he bumped her on the chin, and she held it there, avoiding both of their eyes. She looked off, tail stiff, grumbling Italian under her breath before finally deciding to look back. Wren crossed her arms over her chest, glaring daggers at Zosar with her head tilted to one shoulder, like she were looking for another angle of him, an angle where she could figure out what exactly he was trying to hide from her.

“Sì, sì, sì — non essere un barbone,” She hissed out, turning things to a confusing goulash of foreign between the two of them, hopscotching languages like she were trying to see who would end up understanding who the least.

He was certain he wouldn't be getting any answers on what she had just said.

“‘Course I know we’re buddies. When have you ever seen me second guess anythin’, hm?” Uncharacteristically, even for her, Wren starting feeling a blush of redness start to creep up on her face.

That specific reaction is what caught Zosar off guard just as Sara had. Wren blushing over something as innocent as this when she was more the sort to brush off and poke fun at such affections, really meant he had caught her off guard. He hadn't expected this to really phase her in a discernible way.

Wren bit down, thin lipped and frowning for no apparent reason “I was just trying to sound modest in front of her. Or do y’ just want me to brag about us and how perfect I am at my job and how lucky you are to have me as your partner? Huh? You’d like that wouldn’t ya’? Little ph—heasant.” She spat out, stretching out the words with an annoyingly arrogant tone, one hand un-crossing just to fan herself like a proper stuck-up royal from a light novel. Clear signs that Beelzebub had rubbed off on her in one way or another.

‘Pheasant?’ he parroted quietly in more of slight amusement at her throwing that particular word out.

A sigh escaped her, finally breaking eye contact.

“Poor Sara might just start getting jealous and want me as her partner all of a sudden; I’m really a catch. Think about it.” She shook her head, threw her arms out and shrugged; eyes shut with a shit-eating grin plastered all over her face. There was a faint moment of seriousness breaking apart her act for a second there.

Wren stood rubbing a fang over her bottom lip, grimacing “And I’m not curious at all, actually. Contrary to popular belief, I ain’t nosy. We don’t need to know everything about each other now, do we?” Wren quirked a suggestive brow, lazily coming back down on her seat, rearranging some of the cups on the table. There was something restless in the motion, something in her soul, too. Something that would’ve let Sara know that this apparently nonexistent nosiness of hers would appear the moment Zosar left. And Zosar wasn't sure what to make of it.

The deviant in him was soaking all this up and found it a mixture of energizing and amusing. It was tempting to push Wren's buttons just a little with all that talk and grandeur, but-- “Well,” with a pinch of incredulity as he watched Wren arrange the empty cups and glanced at Sara, “I'll get going soon now that you've officially made your debuts.” A little chuckle and playful nudge Sara's way. “For the record,” walking up to where Wren was, “I am hoping she doesn't.” Glancing back at Sara with a wink and small lopsided snicker. “You two try to stay out of trouble alright?” knowing it might be as fruitless to say as it was with the others.

He turned to Sara, gave her a hug, and then a polite kiss on each cheek with an exaggerated ‘mwah’ at the end. “Don't do anything I would do.” He advised. “Take pics if you do though” he hissed at Wren as he disengaged from Sara, winking at the former in mock fashion.

Sara was pretty lost when foreign languages were thrown around, but she did know she was trudging dangerous territory. It occurred to Sara that Wren might just be a clingy weapon and had no inclination towards having Zosar anymore than just a friend and a meister, but she knew that Wren would ask after Zosar left. Hearing Wren's pride confused Sara, but she wasn't able to say anything as Zosar began leaving. She gave exaggerated cheek kisses too, blushing a little as she giggled with his parting words.

Wren rolled her eyes, sticking her tongue out and fake gagging when they both started damn near French kissing in front of her. They were rubbing the fact in her face, at this point.

She got up, one hand fanning Zosar away like he were a persistent fly buzzing in the room, quite literally mouthing a — ‘Shoo, shoo~’ — as she started shoving him out of the establishment “Yeah, yeah— we’ll go rob a bank or somethin’, kill people. You’ll see us on the news, don’t worry about pictures.” Wren started playfully jabbing claws into his back, lightly of course. Either trying to pop him like a balloon or get him to run away from the stabbing.

The vicious attack only stopped when a lightbulb lit up over her head, Wren stood still, pinching the back of Zosar’s shirt to stop him in his tracks as she let the thought marinate. Her mouth hung open to an ‘O’ shape, something ominous took over her face, lips twisting to an insultingly big, cheeky grin.

“Hey, Z~” Zosar would’ve felt the heat of a body fall onto his back, a set of arms wrapping around his shoulders. A wolf-eared shadow loomed over him “Remember that…” Wren walked two clawed fingers on Zosar’s shoulder, menacingly trailing them up to his face. She pricked a nail on the side of the Meister’s face, her sweet, chirpy tone dropping all of a sudden as she glared at him through his peripherals “Thing…you took from me yesterday? Hm? You said you would pay me back, no? But I don’t recall that ever happening…”

“Maybe you…” She let the words sink in, laced with threat “Thought I would just forget about it, huh? Did you?”

The cheeky smile he had been giving her and the equal ready poke he had been about to make died as his eyes widened with the recollection.

Wren pulled back from behind him, tutting with her tongue like she were utterly disappointed at such a prospect. A silver, fluffy tail wrapped around Zosar’s leg for a faint moment, curving in and slipping away before she finally let go, humming “Y’know, back where I’m from, we used to give a stern reminder to those who were late on their payments. It’s quite a rude practice to default on someone like that…”

“But,” Wren sighed, shrugging. Dropping the subject about as fast as she’d brought it up. “Since we’re such good friends an’ all, I’ll let it slide this once.” She pointed a claw at him, over her shoulder, heading back to her seat right beside Sara “You don’t need to pay right now or anythin’, y’ already know my info. Just send the money right in,” She waved her phone up. Yes, she was having him send a coffee cup’s worth of cash to her bank account.

“I wanna buy Sara some coffee.”

“I'll uh be sure to send you something then.” Nodding his head as he slipped out the door.

Sara waited for Wren to come back, the eagerness in her expression not dissipating, even when she could hear Wren arrive at the table. She tried her hardest not to overhear what was going on, but she did. She even looked over to see what was going on, unsure if she should be concerned with Wren threatening Zosar, only to realize he hadn’t repaid her for something. Ah, she let it be.

Sara slid over on the other side of the bench, tail wagging excitedly. “Contrary to what you say, I'm actually really glad you're with Zosar. He had a previous partner who was all barbs, very unenthusiastic when working with any meister, and his soul made their partnership tentative. Despite your guys’ flaws, you two are wonderful for each other. I can just tell.” She giggled, sounding innocent. “Anyway, so, uh…” She pursed her lips, confusion on her face as she tried to figure out how to say this.

Unlike Sara’s tail, Wren’s was dead still on her seat. Mostly because of the fact that she was deliberately sitting on it. As she was about to start talking again, Wren chimed in. Head lazily propped on one hand. Pretending that the topic of being the perfect weapon for Zosar— or for anyone for that matter— wasn’t still making her feel funny. “He doesn’t talk much about his previous partners, but I uhhh…” She threw glances between Sara and the table, picking her words before fixing her eyes. “I’m glad we’re doing as good as we are together. Hell, we’re doing better than I thought we would…”

Sara tilted her head, then smiled. “Good. Oh, and I can smell people's emotions and traits about them from their souls. I'm a bit curious but uh…” She stared at her with puppy dog eyes, her voice quiet. “What kind of Madness do you have?” She asked, very excited to get to know this new friend but not wanting to give the wrong impression or make Wren hate her. Her tone was careful.

Sara’s question gave Wren immediate pause, froze her. She squinted her eyes at her, reeling back in her seat with both arms crossed. Awkward chuckles and drawling, her brain failing to fully catch up to the question. Her tail was throwing itself against the empty seat space beside her, a hint of her bottled up anxiousness “So you can tell…”
Sara nodded.

Even after facing similar questions time and time again, even after telling herself that she was over feeling shameful about it, it still had her fumbling for her words. Her therapists would’ve told her that it was a healthy thing to do, opening up like that, that she had to own to it. Flipping though their little notebooks, pushing up their glasses— telling her that like it were easy.

Wren snapped back out of reverie when she recalled that thing Sara said about sniffing out emotions.

Wren straightened up, cleared her throat “Hunger.” She replied, as plainly as she could make it sound. “Madness of hunger, gluttony— I don’t even know what the hell they call it anymore, honestly. It sounds silly but I…” She threw an eye over at the smoothie graveyard right beside her, clicking her tongue. “I can never feel satiated no matter what. Doesn’t matter how much I eat, or whatever medication I take, my stomach just feels like an empty void half of the time.”

She rolled her head back, idly gazing at a ceiling fan draw loops over them, huffing in a breath. “Food sorta just doesn’t taste the same anymore… Sometimes I smell things that don’t make sense. Things that aren’t even there at all. Something in people’s soul…Sometimes I feel like I could just ea…If I don’t con…I—” Wren started trailing off, holding her tongue from slipping everytime she realized how much of a lunatic she would come off as if she told Sara half of those things.

After a second or two of silence, Wren chuckled, propping both elbows on the table “L-Let’s just talk about something else, yeah? What’s with you and Z, huh? How’d you guys meet?”

Hunger? Considering how much Sara ate on the daily due to her being practically half-transformed all the time and exercising so much, as well as being in her early 20s, there was no telling how much food Wren would straight up just eat. She listened attentively, acknowledging that she smells and tastes things in a similar but different fashion to Sara’s olfactory soul perception. The attempted stopping of Wren’s words sadly spilled too much for Sara’s over-eager mind. Instead of doing what Wren expected of her to do or say, Sara gave her a cheery smile. “Hey, it’s okay. I understand.” Her voice was soft and soothing, her wagging tail stilling until it thumped infrequently on the booth contently. “Know that it’s not you, but whatever it is making you feel that way. It is bothersome to feel though, huh?” She smirked a bit, yet there was no humor to it.

”Yeah…”

With the shift in topics, feeling like Wren wouldn’t want to talk anymore on the subject, Sara continued. “Anyway, we met when we were first inducted into Fate. We met on Lot C and his soul’s scent was…” She paused, smiling dreamily. “The best smelling soul I’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling. Bloody roses, of compassion and betrayal. Poor guy’s been through a lot. Well…” She looked away. “I can’t actually smell the history of someone, I can just smell the aftermath of what they became. It might not have been betrayal, but either way.” She smiled. “He was forced to tell his entire story of how he got into Fate because the mentor he was with for that specific group didn’t want him trying to hide it. I personally thought it was unfair, being exposed like that. So I listened to his story, and every other person’s story there, even if I was in a completely different group. Good ears do that.” She chuckled, tapping her werewolf ear, which twitched. The skull and mugs as crossbones charm was tied onto a handmade hoop earring with black and blood red ribbons making a cute bow shook as the ear flicked from her touch. “I’ve been pretty attached to him since, so anytime I had the chance, I’d give him food and let him know that at least someone looks forward to seeing him again. I feel like if I don’t…” She trailed off, her expression going from smiling to solemn serious. “He’d end up going rogue. I don’t want anyone to get hurt trying to stop him, much less know he’s getting hurt doing something he shouldn’t.”

It was a serious statement to make. However, Wren had an advantage here Sara didn't. The bond between a Meister and Demon Weapon, their resonance, was a deep connection, and though they had rocked the boat, they had something at the very least solid, sturdier than it had even been at the start.

Going rogue against the DWMA was a greater loss than even losing whatever benefits his former employers had provided. Resources, connections, all that would be gone and for a guy she had known less than a month, as cautious as he had been, both missions, would he really take that kind of risk? Lose her even when he had said himself she was the best partner he ever had and, from the affectionate pat he had given her earlier, the contact to share his honesty, she did feel how genuine he meant it in full. At the same time, she also had seen some unexpected things in the last two missions. Midori or now Kisei being primary. Leaving DWMA like Kisei might have done was the whole reason Zosar has gone. To stop him from doing something stupid and costly, even if he had been putting himself at risk to do it.

Was he really the sort to take such a big risk though as Sara was implying? He was a spy after all, and if he had information about DWMA from his time here, the likelihood of them just letting him go so easily seemed…idiotic really. It seemed like…an over exaggeration almost.

That bloodiness Sara mentioned though…it rang to Wren as that natural edge in his wavelength that she could feel with or without her Madness attached. Maybe it was the Volatile Soul or maybe it was him, or maybe it was both but she could wrap her head around what Sara meant on some level. Those moments when he had let the calm stern mask slip had been insight into what he didn't show. Not like how Kisei swapped from serious to cold, this was different. It was like letting something else out just a little, against Royal Pain that had been clear, that brief flicker of ferocious killer intent like a real killer- that voracious desire to do harm against his opponent, how he hadn't flinched at shredding her arm, where his soul seemed to burn with a venomous fury and deep satisfaction, wavelength like a pounding war drum with every exchange between their resonance in those brief seconds. Where every exchange hit like a shot of caffeine right into the bloodstream and sent her skin tingling even in the incorporeal state of soul space–

She’d seen different faces, different sides of his coin. Possessiveness. Bloodlust. Anger. Hurt. Greed. The problem was she didn’t know which one was him. Or if any of them really were.

There was a part of her that held onto the belief that he wouldn’t do such a thing, or that she could help him let go. That she could start to show him another path, just like he’d done with her. But then “…” there was the part of her that remembered, and that reminded her. The cynic. The one that spoke blunt and clear. Something she didn’t want to hear. Something, maybe, she refused to acknowledge.

‘You don’t know him.’

‘He doesn’t know you.’

‘You keep clinging to him,’ Wren grimaced, hands wrapping around one of the plastic cups on the table ‘You’ll only bring him down with you.’

“Bloody roses, hm?” Wren hummed, a lightness in her tone that she didn’t seem to be feeling whatsoever. Something hung heavy at the pit of her stomach, yet her eyes didn’t show a thing. Just cradling her smoothie cup with both hands and tilting it around, toying with it— something too relaxed, too calm about her gaze.

She brought the cup up to her face, slurping whatever drops remained of the smoothie “I…” There was a pause, a raise of the brows, her breath hitching at her chest as she settled for the words. As if she were coming to terms with the fact that she was about to say what she was about to say. “I don’t think he would do that. Or maybe I don’t want to. We’ve only known each other for— what? — two, three weeks? I’ve tried opening up to him a little, back in that mission we had. Tried to get him to do the same. But he only gave me bits and pieces of the story.”

“I don’t know him at all.” Wren admitted, finally meeting Sara’s eyes for a split moment of poise. Spitting out the words like they tasted of defeat. And in a sense, they absolutely did. “I’m a stranger, really, doesn’t matter if he says otherwise. And it sounds stupid of a stranger to say…but I still don’t think the Zosar I know would throw it all away like that.”

If Sara could sniff out any emotion from the complete deadpan and frown Wren was forcing on her face, it would’ve been a weird mix of dread and petty determination. Like she was forcing herself to believe what she was speaking as her tongue formed the words.

Wren finally banged the cup on the table, wiping her mouth with a frown as she looked away, grumbling. “And if he does I’ll drag his ass back to his senses if I have to…” Her hand coiled around the smoothie cup, squeezing it into crumpled plastic, clicking her tongue while she anxiously tapped at the floor with her foot. She looked awfully annoyed for whatever reason.

“We might have to switch up the topic again, yer’ makin’ me feel all soppy.” She sucked in her teeth, scowling. Picking herself back up to move the conversation somewhere else. Wren blurted out the first thing that came to mind ”What do I smell like? You have my full permission to say I smell like shit, don’t worry.

”I’ll try not to cry too hard.”

Sara turned on her olfactory soul perception, smelling the absolute dread and determination - even if childish - as Wren spoke. She chuckled as Wren wanted to move on, but Sara believed her. She smiled. “Just because you may not believe yourself doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least trust yourself some. If you think he won’t do that, then I believe you. If he’s changed these past few weeks because of you, then that’s awesome. I hope he continues to change for the better. As for him opening up, he still hasn’t told me a whole lot. I’m just very nosy.” She giggled, tapping her nose.

She decided to give Wren the grace of moving on. “Anyway, what do you smell like…” She mused, stating a rhetorical question. “Besides the rotten egg smell from madness, you don’t smell that bad, and the madness smell isn’t too strong either.” She said after a quick whiff. There was a sudden interest in her gaze as she looked seemingly at the wall behind Wren, taking a deeper whiff. “Hah… Comfortable. Like the smell of home. Not because you’re a werewolf, mind you, we’re different clans.” She giggled. “But more like… the scent of a homely cottage, the air cold and yet inviting despite its lonely feel.” She smiled wide. “I like this scent. You’re a rather comfortable person, don’t let many things bother you, and while you try to appear cool and indifferent on the outside, maybe even prickly like the cold air, you’re still warm and inviting when you want to be. The rotten egg smell has a tinge of viscera, but that was a bit hard to find.” She smiled wide. “You’re doing a really good job fighting it if I’m having a hard time smelling it.” She chuckled.

“N-Nosy, huh?” Wren chuckled, awkward, smiling sheepishly. Pretending that Sara’s over-descriptive words didn’t just feel like a slap to the face. Trying not to deflate. The bluntness of how she’d dropped it on her reminded her of Maria's complete and utter lack of understanding of what social cues were, in some bizarre way. In Sara’s defense— she did just go and ask her to describe her scent.

“Mm,” She hummed, looking off with feigned disinterest. If Sara hadn’t picked up on it yet, based on their few exchanges, this was one of her many predictable cues— Wren was preparing to mess with her. “Callin’ me comfortable almost made me forget the fact that you just called me rotten eggs and loneliness— y’ almost had me there, really.” Wren scowled, a half-believable, petty frown forming on her face as she went to check her nails. Beyond her passive-aggressive, teasing act, it was hard to tell whether or not she was pretending to be butthurt or not.

“You smell like one of those sour hard-candies that you set to the side— but don’t throw away— because y’ granny bought ‘em for ya’.” She dropped that entire, very specific sentence with a complete deadpan, tongue slipping fast. Like she were setting it down on Sara’s hand and letting her fail to process what it even meant. “Cozy, too, I guess.” Wren shrugged; her tone and face unreadable.

After a beat, she leaned her elbows into the table, both palms holding her chin. She grinned at Sara, one ear flicking down, a keen interest showing through her relaxed expression. “So, what clan did y’ say you were from? You did say we were from different clans, like y’ could tell just off of my smell.” She questioned all of a sudden, tilting her head as she grumbled out. “I never really got much into the culture or anything— haven’t looked for my roots. They said I was Cutem clan, or whatever, but I don’t know much about ‘em. I was born n’ raised human, technically.”

“Though, I’ve always been curious about what I’ve been missing out on, honestly…”

Sara snickered at the passive-aggressiveness. Honestly, if it weren’t for so many people who acted like tsunderes - like Noah - doing that around her, she would have completely fallen for it. She just gave a simple “thank you” to the scent comment, not really too sure what she meant by sour hard-candies. Pretty to look at, but probably not the best to eat. Maybe that was a good thing?

“But I was truthful when I said all that other stuff. The other smells are just aspects of who or what you are. Why would I lie when you asked me with such curiosity?” She giggled. Then her eyes widened at a sudden idea. She spoke faster than Wren could reply, standing out of her seat as her hands were on the table, supporting her now bouncing body.

“Oh, oh, oh, I can take you to my biome! I’m from the tracker clan, the Vena clan. The largest clan that’s joined the Reformed Monster Clans with incredible hearing, smell, and eyesight. Oh.” After her quick introduction, she then smiled as she regained some of her neutral state… Sort of. “Cutem clans are able to have partial werewolf transformations, even as a Demon Weapon. No other Werewolf Demon Weapon from another clan can do that. The reason why I look like this is because I’m rather stunted due to MIBVI when I was like four. Oh, and uh…” She chuckled. “Not sure if you know this, but because of how much I act like a dog, slurs and stuff towards me don’t affect me, my own clanmates kinda look at me funny.” She giggled. “You should’ve seen them when I went in wearing a dog collar. They threatened to tear it off and beat up whoever put it on me.” She held a hand over her mouth as she laughed, preparing to leave the booth with an unsteady sidle.

“They didn’t tear it off and beat you up, did they?” Unlike Sara, Wren simply hopped off the seat, a couple of empty plastic cups coming with as her tail swayed. She stood, stretched, shot the other werewolf a wide, easy grin, excitement already aglow in her eyes. She couldn’t say she was excited about sightseeing; she’d done that plenty enough in her spare time whenever she didn’t feel like being holed up in her apartment, put in steps throughout the city enough to double someone else’s mileage. Checking up on her ancestry, however, that was the concept that had her heart beating right now.

Wren hadn’t wandered into the Reformed Monster Clans’ bits of land yet, out of fear that she wasn’t preened enough to be taken as nothing but an outsider, and out of shame of never even bothering to learn her clan’s customs not once. She felt lost even when she wandered too close to them. But now, there was someone that could guide her through it.

“Well, we’ve got all day, I guess…” She rubbed some blood into her palms, still cold from all the milkshakes she’d emptied “I mean— I’ve got all day, dunno about you…” She scratched the back of her head, drawling, stretching out the moment not to seem too excited.

“So why don’t ya show me around, then? Everywhere, I mean. Haven’t really been around those parts of town just yet. We can even take a detour t’ buy me a collar and match; I’ll take the bulk of the weird starin’.”

Out of excitement, Sara happily accepted the friendship hangout and dragged Wren to a Hot Topic-like store to get her a collar that would fit her personality.
.
.
.
.
“Where do you even go to buy those things? If there was a weird pet-play store ‘round town I woulda seen it by now…”

“Haha, imagine Zosar walks past us leaving one of those stores~.”

 

[The Regal Rper]

Ark | Atlanta | Rings: 0/1

The command to back up was taken with eagerness. While not on edge, and not necessarily about to drop into another episode, Ark certainly did feel the urgency of this development quite clearly. So when they were blitzing back to the West side, Gauss running while he himself shifted earth with every pump of his legs to get by, if he managed to overtake Gauss on the flight out, Ark did not hesitate to offer the team lead a fast ride out so at the very least, Gauss could conserve some energy and focus it into his partners. Whether that was taken up or not, ultimately didn't compare to the necessity to just get the hell out of there as spores of a colony followed the command Chanterelle had issued.

The second they were at a safe distance though, Ark immediately began releasing pure fire concentration on the enemy. Relying on his lava magic here seemed both wasteful and while the heat of lava would probably do a good job at also getting rid of the spores, it was also more preparation than simply just going at it with pure flame power. Given fire was one of his affinities to a nature element, the ability to call upon it without immediate spells was not as difficult as it would be with another element. Especially since he had practiced with the element outside of using his Earth affinity. Concentrated balls of flame were created and then released in a continuous attack, where if necessary would implement uses of magma magic too if anything warranted it.

Mentions: Merciless Medic

Interactions: RedArmyShogun
Peckinou Sir Les Paul Meredith

 

[Merciless Medic]

Noah Wiley​

Date: September 27, 2067
Location: North of Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey
Interactions: Gauss, Arkayis, Tia, Raphael, Maria, Ark, Chanterelle
Mentions: N/A
Sir Les Paul Peckinou RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper Meredith

The explosion was huge, the resounding sound of it sort of hurt Noah’s ears. However, as the ensuing tidal wave of fungal monsters approached, he realized just how many there were. It was terrifying.

Alongside the command to back up, Noah worked on Gauss’s wavelength, amplifying it to give a constant stream of energy to Gauss’s legs so he was faster. Electricity around his demon weapon form crackled minutely, but he wasn’t even intending to use any of his lightning. Not like his lightning was useful against the creatures unless they were all just fodder to destroy.

If they did make it and Arkayis didn’t have blue flames to spare, he’d help with his lightning, already having generated some as a safety measure.

He was just glad that Maria seemed to be doing more than fine and that it seemed Ark was keeping up in his own unique way. At the moment, he had lost track of where Tia and Raphael went, but - if he were honest - they weren't the most important thought right now, he was sure Raphael was fine.

He just thanked Chanterelle for her information about why she let the colony storm the beach, it just left them in a ... sort of dire situation.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Raphael Valerias​

Date: September 27, 2067
Location: North of Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey
Interactions: Tia, Gauss, Noah, Arkayis, Maria, Ark, Chanterelle
Mentions: N/A
Sir Les Paul Peckinou RedArmyShogun The Regal Rper Meredith

The ensuing explosion had Raphael hunkering down within the pelican’s net-bill, holding on to the netting for dear life as they managed to fly fast enough to even pass Maria. But they were fine, yes they were fine. They were following the crowd of people from overhead. Raphael watched as there seemed to be a walking aquatic mushroom forest beneath him.

Once he was in a safe position, he grinned.

Hopping out of the pelican, he actually bowed to Tia with a flourish. “Thank you for keeping me safe.” He smiled, turning heel as he went back into the fray. Joining the frontliners, he created an anchor point and let a chain materialize into existence as it grew in length. It then began to burn as it whipped around at the enemies, making large sweeps as it burned through mushroom and flesh.

Meanwhile, he elongated his own Demon Tool, using it as a short whip to protect himself from any crawling fiend that got too close and either burning it, the whipping motion wrapping around the enemy where he could suppress their magic swiftly before burning through it.

This was oddly fun!

He noticed Maria nearby had turned into a mobile unit with her dolls - reunited at last - and Ark was flinging fireballs. Once he held back this part of the line enough for those beside him, he scooted on over to Maria’s little grouping. He created an anchor near her and grew a chain from it, his chain either making more restrained sweeping motions to funnel the monsters towards the meat grinders that were Maria’s bigger dolls or burning right through the weaker ones as the end of the chain grew hot.

He shot a smile at the seemingly overly gleeful Maria. “Hey, it’s been a while.” He cheekily said, the chain beside her slamming down upon a group of creatures, those under its line of attack becoming squashed.

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Feng Long - Aki Kiyoko - Wes Kraven - Korne
New York City - Car Rentals JFK Airport
September 26th​

With the chase of the needles and the constant need to stay in motion, Feng was somewhat happy that this witch seemingly never learned to lead her targets, for then things would have turned badly. It was still not wise to move in just one direction. It was during one of these errant strikes would another unsuspecting target be struck, cursing in a language that Feng had neither the time nor inclination to translate or learn the origin of. If it were one that she knew, then that would be a matter for another time, for now something existed that Feng very much wished to not exist.

A wounded witch who was now recovering… So the other witch wasn’t in control of but half of what they had seen up till now? Either way it was time to learn which half.

’She dies first. Any objections?’

‘Nope,’ Aki chimed in response to targeting the injured witch, as neutrally as she would have if asked if a seat was taken. ‘I think I kind of get how witches die to young EAT pairs if they act like this,’ She mused further. It was amateurish, really, for an attack which the witch had such control over.

‘We can take her down first.’ Wes intentionally avoided using the word kill, unlike Feng or Aki, but otherwise offered no protest. In any other situation, he might have advocated for disabling or knocking the witch out, but after everything the group had been through in the past hour, his patience and his empathy was running thin. He told himself that it was the only way, that if they didn’t do it then they would eventually get overwhelmed.

‘Just-’ He started, before cutting himself off. A feeling of unease would briefly shoot through Feng, amplified by their resonance and causing it to hitch slightly, before smoothing out as he continued. “-try and make it quick as possible.”

Feng said nothing for a bit as she focused getting closer, to either slash the undead raiser, to free all these bound souls, but Wes and his unease that threatened to up end everything, well, it needed to be addressed.

’Wes, focus. I’ve no plans on torturing her or drawing out the fight, she has made puppets of the dead and enslaved them. We must save these people. And there is only one way to do that. We’ll talk about this later, but focus, we will join them if we drop out of resonance.’

’Do not debate in the middle of a fight,’ Korne said, rebuking them both. ’Partnership is simple. Demon Weapons–like us–support a Meister unless they do something so stupid we’re willing to transform and be a sitting suck. Lecturing your partners mid-fight only runs the risk of weakening resolve,’ he explained, the tone he carried through their souls reflective of the frustration he had with their communication.

’Communication should be simple and quick.”

’We will kill them. How, when, and where don’t matter.’

’One mind, one page. Get on it–all of you. Cut her down.

Turned out, Korne had a darker side to him once pressed. His excitement for battle was slowly shifting to bloodlust. He didn’t just want to fight, he wanted to kill. The type of sensation that, on one hand, could be absolutely terrifying. On the other, a type of charismatic pull to it. A unifying force that provided direction, urgency, and results. Something that swept away clouded judgement and left only the objective in front of them: kill the target.

‘Are you serious?’ Wes blurted out, a spike of irritation running through him, once again causing the resonance to waver slightly.

He had wondered why Samuel hadn’t wanted to use the demon weapon, chalking it up to arrogance that he didn’t need to. But maybe the reason why he hadn’t used it, why he was fighting with just a normal weapon, was because their personalities clashed. The sensation he was getting from Korne reminded him of the twins back in Egypt, a sensation that was in the same vein of madness. Pure, unfettered bloodlust.

Part of him wanted to call the demon weapon out, to argue that him expressing his concerns wasn’t lecturing his partner. And yet, he bit his tongue, both out of concern that his outburst would distract him and destabilize their resonance, and out of a desire to avoid the argument in the first place. Breathing a deep sigh, he spoke to the group within their shared soulspace.

‘Fine, whatever. Let’s just get it done then.’ Reigning in his distaste for the weapon and his ideals, Wes smoothed out the hitches in his own wavelength, returning the resonance to a stable form. His tone held a tinge of irritation towards the borrowed demon weapon, one that he wasn’t able to bite down on, but one he didn’t mind letting slip out.

Feng was thankful it was over with for now, but she wasn’t so sure she would be letting Korne get the kill… Then again… Pondering on it, Feng knew what he was doing as his impulses touched her soul. Unfortunately, she was pretty much in agreement and with Wes making all engines run full throttle, she was going to attempt humoring his request.

’Fine, let's do it, I don’t trust gunshots to finish that witch. We take her head off, one pass, quick, painless, then we keep booking it to the building unless I’m right and that spell circle collapses then we may rethink things.’ With that said Feng quickly boosted off to end the witch that had been outed, Korne at the ready as she ran at her like a cavalry horse charging something that by all rights could do nothing but die to and gives a swing of the blade in her right hand, aiming for the neck.

Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (NPC's) Shotgunpenguin (Wes)

 

[Sir Les Paul]

North of Steel Pier, Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey​

GM Post

​

Gauss tried to keep up for some time. He had managed to outpace Ark in retreating, but the range of the Sorcerer was simply too great. Once the battle turned into a tidal wave, there was little Gauss could do from this range and even less way to fight safely in the no man's land that would eventually become the beachline between the ocean and the retaining wall. The best he could do was spit fire and flame with Arkayis if the creatures came close, but that was far and few between.

What came next was likely a nightmare scenario for the Witch-heating scythe. He would soon get to see the epitome of pride in Witchkind. It would be the same for Noah and Gauss, alongside the entire U.S. military, and every other agent. The mages, though, those with the blood of the Witch Realm coursing through their veins, they would interpret the next series of events so very differently that it would be as if reading from two different books entirely. It all started with one simple command: the Witches would now be in control.

She flew into the air. Without broom or incantation. A Witch, a true one, unknown to the others due to their age, she was at one point one of the most well-known Witches of all time. Time caused many things to fade, including the chaos that ensued when it was found out that she was, in fact, alive. Believed dead as a babe as just one of many horrors of humanity, she was a living, breathing testament of just how cruel humans could be.

"My brothers and sisters of the weave, do not worry, do not fret... for we are the blessed," she announced, her voice booming as if a loud speaker. Clearly feminine, but low and raspy—to the point that it might have even been described as sultry in a different context. As floated in the air, behind the retaining wall, and ushering in a wave of other Witches as cavalry, her tone was a type of seductive. The same way one might give into the morale of a Captain riling his men. The same way that great power often drew others in. The same way that those who wore their identity outwardly with no shame or guilt made others wish they could do the same.

Mercy did exactly that, the Scarecrow Witch having taken on more and more features of her magic during her centuries.

"It is no Devil that gives our strength—not Satan, some black sabbath, or other infernal stand-in," she shouted, denouncing all those rumors that the church would have others believe, "but our own blood. Blood that traces back to countless witches, beyond our memory to mother, Hecate, and directly to the founding of this world."

The ground beneath her shook. A magic circle of incredible complexity began to sprawl outward with a crimson glow. Raphael and Ark would never seen anything quite like it, despite the noble house of the latter. The only one with experience seeing such a truly impressive rune work and witch script was Maria, and only because of her encounter with a man that had warped space itself with it.

"Our power was once so feared that we were hunted," she announced, "so very feared that man would slaughter his kin and burn the innocent out of stupid superstition and unprovoked paranoia."

From that magic circle was conjured a massive effigy. Nearly thirty foot tall itself, hardly anything compared to KN9, but as an obelisk that now towered behind them and a monument to Witchcraft, it was no small thing. Mana radiated from it and it was difficult to tell if this was made by this Witch or if she brought it from other realm. In truth, it did not matter.

"It is time to remind the world of that power." A bold, prophetic statement.

Much like Maria would with her dolls, the scarecrow launched out threads of mana to every Witch and Sorcerer on the battlefield, irrelevant of their gender or status. It was perhaps possible to deflect or dodge it, but it was more a boon than a bane and given the speech from the floating Witch, it hardly seemed a threat.

What each person connected to the scarecrow would see... was tragedy, cruelty, and hatred. The harsh winter of 1692 was one of the worst on record. In a village that was already stressed by conflict with Native Americans and the French, not to mention disease and starvation, a single bad season was all it took to tip the scales into even greater malice. Even if it was believed to be the in the defense of young girls afflicted by what the ignorant physicians merely called an "evil hand", the true evil came in the absurd accusations that followed.

Women accused of witchcraft—mere humans with no sense of honor or honesty—would lie to save themselves and damn their sisters to the gallows. These victims did not burn as many believed, instead they often hung in the air, gasping for breath until there was none to give. Only the lucky had their neck snap for a quick death. Time and time again, this was the vexation; the colonists and their church cared more of confession than the truth. Evidence was arbitrary and all that mattered was satiating public paranoia.

Those were the Salem Witch trials. Those were the memories and experiences that each connected Witch was being shown now. Time would slow just as it would when resonance occurred because in truth, they were connecting to something. The scarecrow effigy contained a vast amount of mana that was pouring into them, but it was more. It was the power of every Witch throughout history that had been slaughtered for the sake of fear and paranoia. Many wished to escape the hellish oligarchy that was the Witch Realm only to die at the hands of mere humans. Irony being not only in their failure to find freedom, but that man killed many more of his own kind than he did witches.

The greatest heartache, as it came from Mercy, was that of Sarah Good. One of the first of the trials. Accused of forcing a slave woman to perform dark magic, she was imprisoned while pregnant, her oldest daughter—ironically also a Witch by blood—turned on her with their father, and left alone to give birth in the dirty cell she was kept. Mercy would have died had it not been for the magical interference. Such was normally forbidden as those that defected were left to their fate, but there were rare instances of compassion. In her fleeting life, Sarah could only feel relief her youngest daughter would go on to live before she died by the noose.

What followed was not just power, but seething rage and heartbreak. It was the plight of Witches not just in the moment, but throughout history. It was a reminder of just how important the peace that had been brokered was.

"I am Mercy Good, daughter of Sarah Good, a true Witch hung by the Province of Massachusetts Bay on July Nineteenth of Sixteen Ninety-Two," she decried, knowing now that those compliant would have felt her pain and saw the story of her mother.

"And I say we should seek not vengeance, but a demonstration of just how wrong those narrow-minded men were. Show them the true power of Witchcraft, destroy thine enemies, and protect what was once a Province all the same as Massachusetts," she continued, only increasing in cadence and energy.

"Show them we are better."

With her words and the power of her effigy, they were. While far from the power that came from Blood Magics, those connected to the effigy were given mana to spare. It was an incredible feat given the complexity of converting personal mana over, but such here was possible through a magic that embodied the spirit and memories of Witchkind. Dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of ancestors inside of the effigy all working in concert to give power to the descendants of their kin. Not only were their mana pools restored, but there was a significant bolster to their spellpower. Not a multiplier, like Resonance, instead a flat increase to them all. Not quite doubling their power and varied between each one of them, but it was close enough and plenty to work with.

Witches had natural destructive tendencies. Now was the time to embrace them.

Of course, Gauss, Noah, and Arkayis did not know what was occurring with the flow of mana or the increase in power. All they knew was that suddenly, there was massive shift in tone. The military stepped back, more Witches stepped forward, and what was a competition he was somewhat winning in the beginning now stalled out entirely. He went having no real way to keep up to having no real hope of impacting the battlefield. Yet still, his main concern had nothing to do with the power, but more so what this implied.

"The fuck is this?" Gauss asked aloud, frustrating and confusion seeping through his teeth.

"Was this always an option? Why the fuck wait to use it now?" Gauss questioned, continuing to voice his concerns. There were answers to this question, of course, but none at present. In his mind, he was wondering why this wasn't used for MIBVI or Asura or any other major fucking world-threatening issue. Was this personal? A million questions ran through his mind as to why only now suddenly this came into existence. Perhaps Witches were genuinely just that fucking petty. If so, he was now regretting some of his wild nights for entirely different reasons.

Gauss would receive no immediate answer, only bare witness to the ensuing slaughter.

AIR TARGETS: 98,000/120,000
GROUND TARGETS: 461,000/480,000​

RedArmyShogun Meredith Merciless Medic Peckinou The Regal Rper​

 

[Sir Les Paul]

North of JFK Airport, New York City, New York
GM Post​

Eastern Front - Battle with KN9​

It was a good feeling when things finally went right. That was the feeling Nadia was likely feeling right now.

The trio didn't have to do much with Fox Hunt to salvage what was lost. Which, fortunately, wasn't nearly as much of their resources as initially believed. Plenty was destroyed, but much more was still in working order. By the time Nadia, Dani, and Adrian had finished their dealings with the Paladins, the equipment was reorganized and the group was ready to go. Granted, they had less vehicles than before, meaning Adrian had to sit in an entirely separate vehicle, but such wasn't a problem. If anything, it was advantageous given his last few interactions with Nadia. More friction between the two was the only thing that could have made this otherwise smooth ride more coarse.

The past was in the past. It was on to a new future.

KN9 was within their sites. It was absolutely massive. To see a living creature, especially one wreaking such havoc, stand over twenty stories tall, was a daunting sight. For many, it was enough to put them directly into prey mode. Run for their life, it was hopeless. And, in truth, that was a justifiable response for the average person. What could they do against such a beast?

By the time they had reached it, it was on the southernmost line of the Delta Airlines strip. Pelted back by intense barrages from what must have been hundreds of Witches, it was bruised and beaten, but far from dead. Not that there was any real way to tell. Even if there was, the trio had just arrived. They wouldn't know the mark of a randomly successful spell from a slightly burnt piece of flesh from a microwave. It didn't matter, though. Nothing had worked well enough to slow down the creature, only guide it.

Fox Hunt was looking to take advantage of that. They firmly planted themselves in the southern airstrips that connected the main buildings of the airlines where KN9 was and the marshland south of it. Mostly because that was the only free, solid place they actually could plant themselves.

Which in turn was an important facet. The trio would get to see what all the fuss was about with the equipment Fox Hunt had been investing their time and effort into. Originally four, but now only three, massive ballistas that required no small amount of construction on site. It was an interesting amalgamation of extremely old technology, new military advancements, and of course, Magitech. The trucks they were carried in belied their actual size, mostly due to the modular nature of which they were built. Once they were finally taken apart, each were roughly eight feet long, but had a base constructed of a spike for the ground and six legs that at first outstretched seven feet before digging into the ground to anchor the main frame of the device. By the end of it, it was roughly five feet in width, and close to six feet tall depending on the angle each were at.

The balistas were simply called spiders. Which didn't really make sense as they only had six legs and didn't crawl, but there was no point in arguing.

The balistas were one thing, but their ammunition was another. What appeared more like massive harpoons than bolts with threading that would have likely intrigued Maria highly were being used with the Balistas. Apparently, each was designed to be fired as a normal balista, though it would then have additional mobility in-air to adjust its flight. Not a lot, not a homing missile by any means, but enough that it could increase its chances of hitting. It couldn't afford to to have any complex systems on it as its secondary purpose was simple: on impact, it would use a complex explosion created via magic to further inject a rod that had the thread tied to it. Apparently, this thread was a composite weave capable of transmitting wavelength, electricity, radiation, and even magic. It wasn't the greatest at any one of them, but it provided an array of options. Right now, that had as much chance of working as anything else that was thrown at it.

Mister Prey was supposed to lead this part of the mission, but he was unfortunately far too hurt from the previous battle to do so. The one instead leading the event was the white-armored individual seen in the previous fight that could seemingly go intangible. He went by Wraith and he ran things smooth. Even though it seemed Blue Steel, Red Fang, and Crimson were all fairly high up on the pecking order, once given an order from the man in the white helmet, they simply did as told. Luckily, most of the equipment was fairly self-sufficient. It destroyed the concrete slabs beneath it, but it was anchored to the ground incredibly well. Spools of the thread were lined up, more than they would likely need unless they began unleashing literally every harpoon they had.

It began. The plan was straight forward. KN9 was still a decent distance away, but the balistas would cover that. Other members of the team would be manually guiding them. Then it would come down to the group simply trying to fire as many as feasibly possible before KN9 turned its attention to them. If they could embed themselves in its hide or ideally directly into its flesh, they had the potential to do some real damage. They realistic, though. KN9 would be no Gulliver and they had no illusion they could restrain it. They would guide it into a different direction and buy time, at best. However, once it turned on them, it would be a free for all and those balistas did not possess the reinforcement to remain in place against the raw brute strength of the Kaiju.

Nadia and Adrian were given rudimentary instructions. Another member of the team would cut the threading when it was at its complete length, reattach it to a new harpoon, then give Nadia or Dani said harpoon to load into the balista. A simple job, but actually relatively important. The device would be effectively engaged the entire time, a requirement of the thread being attached directly to the core. It didn't take any elaboration for them to understand the value of "do as told and only as told" and the extra hands were appreciated. Even with only three working, they were working on borrowed time to get as many of these threads embed in the creature as possible.

It started. The sound of a compound balista firing through the air was an odd one. The harpoons were far from mach speeds, but they still had a loud, impossible whoosh with some backdraft as they went by. The force these things put out was far greater than even what Nadia could withstand while resonating with Dani. The tension on that cable was intense. The force those projectiles were launched at was northing short of impressive. The fact each one of them used some type of force-multiplying converter was beyond the scientific understanding of any of them; Magitech at times was indistinguishable from real magic.

What was clear was that the harpoons had some, albeit limited, effect. In their first volley, one missed, one exploded but did not embed itself, and but the third did, able to penetrate into what looked like a piece of charred flesh from some other attack, magical or microwave. Wasn't clear. Didn't matter. The timer was counting down and efficiency is what mattered. The goal was to get as many of those harpoons in KN9 as possible then try to kill it in as many ways as possible. Each thread was akin to an IV, as Sibyl told them, and if you poured enough poisons into IV's, one was bound to work.

Volley and volley and volley, the creature cried out. It was large and cumbersome. Turning to them was no small order, but it did. Hit with explosions that only sometimes broke into its skin, there was nothing at the moment actually stopping it from chasing after them. And, it most certainly was. They poked the proverbial bear and now the balistas were the new targets of this massive, profane beast. Its cries were deafening, arguably worse than any sonic boom, and of a shrill nature that sundered the air. It screamed like this each time it was hit.

By the time the thing was upon them, or at least too close for them to remain safe unless they were intentionally going to be in melee combat. The reward for all of their efforts was a total of eleven harpoons planted firmly into the creature, to what depth was unknown, and mostly scattered across its body from the front as it approached them. To that end, this was a success. They had dozens to hundreds of feet of the composite thread they could latch onto without getting in range or the option to in fact get in range with it. As promised, Nadia, Dani, and Adrian would all get access to a few of these threads, but it was now essentially a free for all to see who and what could do the most damage to the kaiju - if any.

---

Car Rentals JFK Airport​

'I must admit, I'm a little hurt by your underestimation.' It was true. Disappointment did radiate from his soul.

But, there was so much more.

Wes was a capable Demon Weapon, but he did not apply himself. At least, not enough. HIs grizzly sin of sloth set him back in more ways than he truly realized. He was able to maintain a strong, proper connection of Resonance with Feng, but he was not able to optimize it. The energy, now amplified, that poured through her was not being used to its greatest effect. Korne would mend that. His oscillating energy shot through her spiritual network, from conduit to conduit, and helped guide that empowered energy that Wes provided her. The raw power that she felt from Wes and how quickly her body adapted was one thing, but the icing on the cake was when it was taken to that very next level by a Demon Weapon that properly knew how to regulate Wavelength.

Sara once felt this skill with Midori, when that was his name. Akin to seeing color for the first time or releasing restraints on your body that you never knew were there, it was more than a pleasant feeling. It was exhilarating. It was, in truth, the way things ought to be. It was, actually, the way her very Berserker Wavelength worked if left unbridled. What Korne could do for her was something her body yearned for as its natural state. The extreme efficiency, the work being done mostly for her, the raw power it came with. It was the closest she could get to going berserker without actually going berserker.

More so, Wes could see it all. He was just as connected as Feng. Aki could see it, too, if she was intend to focus on it. The increase in efficiency. The power was one thing, but just how well Feng could make that power work was beyond him. Truth be told, Wes could not recreate the effect Korne had here. Not because his sound-based abilities were inferior, but because without the express goal and inherent effort of bettering one's self, one simply wouldn't. Wes was worse at this because he simply didn't try. A muscle never flexed never grew. And, never before in his life had he got to see so closely what that muscle could do once honed.

Truth be told, without all of these things aligning, Feng had no right to kill that Witch. She possessed not the ability, temperament, or physical capability. That Witch used forbidden magic that could even go as far as interfering with resonance. With a mere touch, had she the chance, she could have ruined the conduits and spiritual network of Feng in a way that perhaps even the psychic surgery of Sybil could not correct.

Everything did align. Feng was faster, stronger, and more capable than even her peers like Nadia or Gauss at the moment. This was the cumulative effort and skill of Korne and Wes with the Resonance. It was also more.

This was a moment that Korne wanted each of them to remember.

That first cut would have missed. Dodged by a grotesque spell that allowed the Witch to reform her body. Her brain now in her right hand, her heart entirely out of the way. Lopping off her head would have meant nothing because where her head was would have simply been a pointless lump of flesh.

Feng felt it. The bloodlust. The instinct. The drive to kill. The guidance from Korne. The option to redirect that blade and its cut to not merely cut the head of the Witch, but to slash vertically down her torso and out through the side of her body, which in turn would actually cut her brain from most of her body. It was a split-second instinct, the type of thing that was a direct result of both experience and skill. The idea that there was a counter for her attack already, knowing the Witch couldn't dodge, and now there was a counter for that counter.

'The desire to kill is just another weapon to be used,' Korne urged, a combination of condescension and temptation.

'Use it—instead of it using you," he instructed, his melodramatic words carrying more weight than he actually anticipated all things considered.

Feng, a berserker, controlling her instincts. It was something she did, sure, but not necessarily to the same degree Korne was here. Wes seeing someone his senior in experience and skill now weaponizing a concept he reviled. Aki, who lacked all such control but would have no qualms giving in to the impulse, now being informed it was something to be controlled. In one fell swoop, Korne said words that meant entirely different things to vastly different people.

In that moment, none of it mattered. Feng only needed to decide if she was to give in to the controlled urge to kill, redirecting that blade to change its course, or to stay true to her current path with the straight horizontal slash at the neck.

RedArmyShogun Shotgunpenguin EmperorsChosen​

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Maria Mayer - Atlantic City - New Jersey​

With the sudden appearance of the sharp toothed woman, foreboding, powerful, Maria for some reason felt that she knew this woman and for good reason, but it was so dim, lost among a thousand more faces her Master had taught her. But this one, as she noted was powerful and all others took notice. Others followed her, as if rallying a wave of her own, no, she was rallying them, it was no conjurer's trick. Never mind that she was flying of her own accord without any device or tool. That bespoke of an old power, or one whose magic was allowed to be honed and fashioned for centuries.

This woman was also very much in touch with her craft, but that was when it all started to become more of a cause of concern as the great magic circle began to form and the woman spoke, Maria was more attentive to the spell, having seen it before, once before. That man... She thought to herself as mana built up, a great massive circle which summoned... What? Of that she was unsure, but it radiated with power and even the Military and DWMA took notice, as if called, or rallied those blessed by the Magus. As the woman spoke, Maria listened closely, her eyes narrowing as the woman made mention just moments prior things that hinted at knowing the true nature of the world, its founding even. Such a thing would have a profound impact upon the world and would be one of the oldest questions of the Magus, that of origin, that of myth from times far long gone.

What secrets did she have if any? Was this all the words of delusion or a truth? There was much to ask, but the immediate problems of the here and now were paramount. While she wished to study the effigy, wished to ask questions, she was not really senior enough to demand those answers, as she was caught partially by surprise, strands connecting to the Dollmaker, red strands that bled emotions, that bled memories, a faceless mass, a chorus of the damned. Was such all Witches? Where how and why did this tower have these things? As power coursed through her veins, Maria felt somewhat violated by the influence that contained emotions she largely kept in check or did not know, her line of reasoning rebelled slightly.

But what was shown was not wrong. Witch kind and Man had always been at one another's throats, and mankind had done much to ruin that relationship. But there was something wrong, that she dimly would recall from Gauss's words provided she had the presence of mind to hear them as all of that turmoil entered her soul.

This all fundamentally was wrong and made one large error as it was Peace through strength. It only worked as long as you had strength to leverage, mankind would fear this and grow envious about it. More so with the question of why, had the witches never used this from the start? Ego likely played a role, but there was also the fact that such magic had its limits and rules for use within the spell.

Still, it was power that should not be wasted, it came at a high price, even if the emotions untattered her and made Maria wish to seek out a more muted wardrobe or to be alone. Summoning up her magic with new determination and concerns, Maria's airborne suction would return to blasts as she became a cyclone of destruction, moving in with her dolls, hacking, slashing, blasting. Bit by bit she progressed deeper into the swarm, like a rock with waves smashing upon it. Her ultimate goal was to cleanse the beach of the taint so that it could be made anew, she was not so much concerned with carrying out destruction as the others, but in restoring Order, beauty, to make the canvas clean.

And so it would be.

The cry of the fallen would be answered, the enemy wiped out till the last, till the slate would be anew for artful things to be built upon it.



Interactions: Merciless Medic (Raph-Noah) Meredith (Chanterelle) Sir Les Paul (Gauss)

 

[RedArmyShogun]

Nadia Semyonov
New York City - Eastern Front - NYC
September 26th​

As the day progressed, Nadia would hear out Dani, but said nothing as she pointedly kept her distance from Adrian, helping with the recovery of the shattered Convoy, pleased to see 3/4ths of the material was intact, even if the manpower wasn't. All thing's considered things were going well. Minus the continual lack of transmissions from Feng. That would have to be delt with later, or after Nadia attempted opening a radio link herself and getting nothing in return, there would be hell to pay for this. From the drop site, to the Knights, to the Witches... Things had gone from bad to worse and Nadia fully expected to have complications in the debriefing. It was the DWMA she was accustomed to that would twist the knife in her back. Still, for now at least she had rolled well with the punches and things seemed to be working now.

It was just her and Dani in the car, which was a welcomed change, Nadia had yet to find the time and place to voice what she planned to bring into the debriefing. Adrian was a good influence around Dani till he wasn't. Once either of the two slipped into madness it blossomed into the other and the DWMA seemed to frown upon her solving matters with her partners via violence. Honestly thinking on it all seemed to just sour her mood and she was a bit eager to watch the monster, no, if anything she was.... Happy.

A Homicidal happy, for in front of her was her White Whale, the soul of the Conquer, the soul of treasures of conquest, it yearned to be the cause of the beast's destruction. At least the Bloodsuckers had an efficient chain of command, such flexibility and clarity of purpose was not often possible with DWMA Teams. They were commendable at the least, and at least some of them she knew. The new commander wasn't very talkative, at least not to her, and while she was grateful for the assistance this was not how she pictured it at all, or even planned to engage it, but still that new smile stuck.

"Heh."
​

There was something incredibly fitting to the Warrior that this whole thing was known as the Eastern Front, to fight a juggernaut that threatened all. There could be no greater Glory in the here and now, maybe in the future. It was a shame she had to rely on Dani's new feature and a mercenary group to achieve this, but it wasn't practical in this case for her to behead the ugly apartment building sized bastard. Loading the spears was simple work, a bit insulting even. But it was worth it given the results and the thrill of the chase. But not a step back could be taken from here. All forces seemed to be converging. Any now she could finally act, no distractions, no third parties screwing around, what she was sent for could now be enacted. A clarity of purpose and knowing the enemy in front of you. The call of any true warrior as far as she seen it.

"Unless you two have a better plan my first is to inject the poisoned blood along these lines, provided Dani has that much reach in control. We need only pick out a good wound and set the poison into action. If that fails, well, we scale the strands and put in the blade directly and withdraw. I wish I could just rip it to shreds, but I'm afraid that reality just isn't possible." She was unafraid, standing defiantly as she had been the whole chase when it was time to reload and fire, how the other two were, was another question.

"Originally I had planned for us to sneak into a Highrise while others pounded it, then aim for a surgical strike. Easier said than done."


Interactions: EmperorsChosen (Dani) Sir Les Paul (Adrian/NPC's) The Regal Rper (NPC's)