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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Kitty Dreams]

"Ah, my apologies. I have assumed too much. I'm surveying that specific area as the host of the party your daughter attended to is on my watch list. As for how I remain undetected, I'm not doing the observation." A humanoid hand manifests from Shadow Of Light and gestures at their sun-like halo. "People tend to see me coming. So I rely on other means to see my targets while remaining undetected."
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Post by Gullara »

[Kitty Dreams]

Kitty glares at the angle, but she thinks for a moment while she does it. "I might answer your questions. I'll need to hear them first. But if I do you have to give me something in exchange. You tell me how you monitor people, and then you stop monitoring me and my family."
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Kitty Dreams]

"I'm not monitoring your family. I am monitoring locations and people that your family happens to be interacting with. That said, nothing we say here or your family's activities will be known to my superiors as they're not included in my mission. But if it still makes you uncomfortable I could give you a list of the locations and people that are included in it for more information." Shadow Of Light concedes.
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Re: Home

Post by Morty »

[Fayyaad's Place]

Fayyaad is at home, sitting at his kitchen table and looking uncharacteristically downcast and uncertain. He's looking at the door, obviously expecting someone.
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Post by Gullara »

[Kitty Dreams]

Kitsuki crosses her arms. "Fine, tell me." She replies tersely. She's not sure she believes it, but she might as well hear it.
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Kitty Dreams]

"So I shall, in no particular order. The first one is an individual known as Atsede Nnadi. She's an angel changeling. It's standard protocol to keep eyes on them so this is nothing unusual. The second is a location that you would know as 'moth park'. That's where you picked up your daughter and the one known as Siana." It doesn't seem like Shadow Of Light want to go into details why the park is under surveillance however.
"The third is a psychopomp known as Jaahlyn Hesperos. An agent tied to a lot of peculiar organizations. Finally, Nye and Fusago, the hosts of the party. They're powerful fey, you might think of them as royalty in mortal terms. They're the prime target of my current investigation."
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Re: Home

Post by Gullara »

[Kitty Dreams]

Kitsuki makes note of all of this, but there's one sticking point. "That's not going to work. You're monitoring one of my daughter's good friends, who she spends a lot of time with. That's a deal breaker for me." She states plainly.
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Kitty Dreams==>Bellamy Apartment]

"There is-"

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK!

The sound vibrates through the dream-space. A maddening series of knocks that causes the world around Kitty to blur as it seems to grow more distant. Like she's being flung away from Shadow Of Light and all her surroundings.

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCK!

"Don't open it." She can just barely make out the angels voice through the overpowering noise just before she wakes up.
Yet the noise seems to have followed her into the real world. Since it is coming from their front door.

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK!

She can hear the other occupants of the apartment waking up to the insane sound. Babies are crying and even Ana and her boyfriend might have been forced to wake up. Since this is the same night that Ana was visited by the same angel.
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Re: Home

Post by Arkhosia »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Anastasia startles back awake scant minutes after finally drifts off. She pulls herself away and wriggles out of her boyfriend's arms rather violently, leaning up and whirling to face her own door. What was - oh gods, had something come for her? She spares a quick glance from the door to Eliseo.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Post by Gullara »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Kitsuki wakes with a start. It takes her a moment to process the difference between dream and reality, and she staggers out of bed before she's totally collected herself. Pulling on a robe, she steps out of the room with a parting word for her fiancée and daughter, who'd been bunking with them. "Obriane, check on the kids. Annie, stay with Obi."

She heads promptly out and down the stairs, where the door lays at the bottom. Her first priority is making sure none of their children decide to go to the door. Seeing that's the case, she takes a cautionary look through the peephole.


In Ana's room, Eliseo wakes with less of a start than Ana. He sits up, slinging his legs off the side of the bed. "Hey, what's going on?" It takes him a second to fully process the violent banging. He frowns and stands up, his focus sharpening.
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Obriane who is wide awake doesn't need to be told twice. She's on her way checking on the kids as soon as Kitty is out of bed without as much a word.

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK!
The knocks only seem to grow louder as she approaches the door. Coming down with unrelenting force which causes it to vibrate slightly as the knocks just never seem to stop. There's an impossibility to it that excludes whatever is beyond that threshold to be anything close to human.

KNOCKKNOCK-
Yet as she peers through the hole the knocks suddenly and abruptly stop and Kitty will find herself peering back at the eye of something pressing itself up against their door. It's bloodshot and wild. The pupil is dilated and moving around irregularly as if whatever is there is trying to look back at her.

"...Ana?" She can hear a whisper on the other side through the noise of children crying around her.
A whisper in a voice that sounds just like her daughters.
Last edited by Shadowcaller on Jun 07, 2023 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Home

Post by Arkhosia »

[Bellamy Apartment]

The panic in Ana's eyes grows just a little more when Eliseo rises from the bed. "I- I don't know, I -" another quick glance back to the door. "I'm gonna find out, just - just stay here, okay?" With that she turns the handle and steps out. Padding quietly down the hall, she watches the door from the entryway. "Mom? What's-" she keeps her voice low, her whole body tingling with anxiety.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Re: Home

Post by Gullara »

[Bellamy Apartment]

"Hold o-" But she's already gone. What the hell is going on? He's not just going to sit in here.


Kitsuki recoils from the door, stopping after one step back. Some distance might be a good idea, but she's the barrier between this thing and her family. Their current protections might be enough, but- Her thoughts are interrupted by her daughter's voice on the other side of the door. Okay, this is really bad, It's targeted.

Kitsuki starts and whirls when Ana shows up. Spirits... "There's some kind of spirit or other creature outside the door. Just keep your distance, okay? Make sure none of your siblings come this way." Then she looks up the stairs. "Obriane! I need my work bag."


Meanwhile Eliseo, now with a pair of pants, peeks out of Ana's room, then steps down the hall to stand several feet back from Ana. "What's happening?" He asks.
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Obriane is coming down with two crying babies that she has found somewhere and for a moment she stares at Kitty as if she were crazy. "UhhH-"

Then her gaze starts scanning the rest of the room until she spots Ana who she attempts to hand them over to. She can't let her monthly dose of trauma get in the way of taking care of her siblings!
"Here, thank you so much!" She proclaims before running off to get the bag.

Meanwhile, the whispers outside the door are getting louder.
"Ana, are you there? I need you Ana. I need you so badly right now. That's why I came all the way here. That's why I want to see your family. Since they could be mine family too. Our family." There's a sound of something large pushing itself up against the door. Starting to lean against it with all its weight.
Last edited by Shadowcaller on Jun 08, 2023 12:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Home

Post by Arkhosia »

[Bellamy Apartment]

A spirit of some kind? The girl pales a little. There'd been entities like that at the party, and one of them - "Does it sound like me? B-because -" Then Eliseo speaks up. She jumps and whirls around to meet his gaze as Obriane stuffs two of the babies into her arms. Her eyes seem startled and panicked. "El - please - I don't think it's safe -"

And then she hears it. That voice. Her voice, twisted and refracted back at her. Oh gods. Oh gods, it really was the yokai. It followed her home and now it was going to - Ana seems frozen for a moment, her eyes somewhere else before they refocus on her boyfriend. "W-we - we need to get these kids upstairs," she insists, shoving both of the babies into Eliseo's arms.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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[Bellamy Apartment]

"Uh-" Eliseo suddenly has two blue haired crying babies in his arms. "If it's not safe for me, it's not safe for you either." He insists.

"It's not safe for anyone." Kitsuki cutrs in. She leans her shoulder into the door, providing some counter to the pressure. She's not sure the spirit can break through the door, but she best offer some resistance before she can get proper protection. "Not upstairs, don't bring them past the door."

"Annie! Bring the other two babies to the stairs! Hurry!" She calls back up the stairs, her words following Obriane up. As Obriane disappears into their room, Annie emerges from the opposite room struggling with two more babies. Once she's close to the stairs, Kitsuki gestures. The three children together lift from the air, with a yelp from Annie, and get lifted over the railing and settled down on the floor below.

"Get into the bedrooms until I say it's safe." She instructs, and Annie hauls the two babies she's carrying into the triplets' bedroom. "Hey, get in your beds." She orders, presumably her stern words directed at her younger siblings inside.

"That means you two as well." Kitsuki directs at the two teens.
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Just as Obriane returns with both Kitty's and her own bags of supplies an unexpected voice can suddenly be heard coming from the other side of the door.

"PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!!! BE QUIET!!!" The voice is vaguely familiar but they can't place it. Certainly no one they know by name.

There's a short pause followed by what sounds like a giggle from the creature weighting down on the door. "I will dedicate this one to you, Ana..."
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Re: Home

Post by Arkhosia »

[Bellamy Apartment]

"This isn't your-" Anastasia starts to protest, panic and frustration beginning to break her ability to keep her voice low. Thankfully, Kitty interrupts before any of those emotions can misfire and break out into an actual argument. She seems to waver for a moment, as if wanting to fight her too. Insist that she needed to help. That she needed to make things right and do something, anything to rectify this awful mess she'd brought right onto their doorstep.

Ultimately though, she doesn't. Instead she darts into her room, grabs her sword and runs to the window. She checks the latch and closes the blinds fast, then turns around, flattens against the wall and sinks to her knees. She looks back at Eliseo wild-eyed and bristle-tailed and motions with a nod of her head for him to do the same beside her. When the new voice echoes through the door, Ana's breath sticks in her throat as she realizes just what's coming next.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Post by Gullara »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Eliseo lans against the wall and slides down to sit next to her. He vainly tries to rock the two babies in his arms to calm them, with little success. He's used to being able to pass off a screaming baby, so he's at a loss right now on top over everything else.

Outside Kitsuki pauses at that declaration. Then she digs through her bag and produces a piece of paper. She sticks it to the door. Then she takes out a sort of unique writing implement to draw thick, black lines on it, drawing a phrase of protection in her native language, putting a segment of her will into it. "We should do the windows too."
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Bellamy Apartment]

"But, uh-" Obriane remarks as she gestures at the door, though isn't sure how to continue that sentence.
Was she really going to suggest opening the door? That was crazy!
But at the same time if this was a spirit they were the people that were supposed to be dealing with them right?

Though as she hesitates on a course of action the door suddenly stops tilting.

A silent understanding forms between Eliseo, Ana and Obriane at what just happened as Kitty is reinforcing the windows.
Since the next thing they can hear is something big moving up the stairs outside.
They can't quite out what happens next but they can guess it's a door being slammed shut and locked as its followed by the awful grinding noise of wood and metal being torn into.
Obriane stands door staring at their own door. It was the same standard security door everyone had in this apartment building but unlike the one that was being torn open she and Kitty had warded it. She had considered trying to sell similar wards to their neighbors but it felt like that was being noisy and bothersome.

She hated when her mother was once again proven right. Each opportunity not taken is forever lost. She just had never imagined it could be this bad.
There are screams.
Not yet dying screams but more panicked ones. Pleads for help barely heard over the noise of tearing.
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Re: Home

Post by Arkhosia »

[Bellamy Apartment]

In any other circumstance Anastasia would be all too happy to help ease things for her boyfriend, scooping one of the babies into her arms and rocking them gently But right now she's far too wound up to even realize that. There's just too much noise - the wailing children next to her, the shrieking split of metal in the distance, a voice begging for help. The rising staccato of her breath and the rabbiting tha-thump-tha-thump-tha-thump rushing past her ears.

For the second time in two nights, with nothing else to do and nowhere else to run, Anastasia breaks. She curls in on herself, burying her face into her arms and letting out a defeated whine. How could she do this? How could she bring something like that here? It was all her fault, all her fault! And now someone was going to die again and pay for her sins and all she can do is sit and watch and listen and remember because anything else would just hurt everyone else - the girl's fingers squeeze into the flesh of her shoulders. Had her nails always been that long?
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Re: Home

Post by Gullara »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Eliseo gently places one of the bawling infants onto his lap so he can free his arm and put it around Ana. He squeezes her tight against him, as if his grip alone can hold her together. The boy's only barely coping with this harrowing experience as is, but he's got to put up a strong front for Ana's sake.


Kitsuki meanwhile moves around the apartment quickly, slapping her rough layer of additional protection onto every window. She's putting up barriers around the mounting guilt. It's not as though she can justify risking her family to help, and who knows the capabilities of this thing. It has them cornered here if anything goes wrong.

It's with this stony faced shield up that Kitsuki enters Ana's room. She pauses for a moment, looking at them. She doesn't have the words right now, though. Instead she moves to the window to put up the paper talisman before moving swiftly along.
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Bellamy Apartment]

CRACK!

That's the loudest one yet and it's followed by an eerie silence outside.
Even with the children bawling and Kitty moving around reinforcing the windows it still feels too quiet.
Obriane approaches the door but she isn't crazy enough to open it. Instead pressing her ear against it.

A few moments a sudden scream cuts through the silence beyond the door which causes her to gasp.

"NO, PLEA-" The voice sounds coarse from screaming by now and it's almost immediately cut off as silence follows once more.

Obriane slowly sinks down into a sitting position, having gone rather pale.

A little while later with only silence coming from the outside they can finally hear sirens in the distance. Sounds like someone called the police at some point.

[Codebreakers Home]

A few minutes after Siana, Codebreaker, Arne and Jaahlyn left the house there's someone knocking at the door.
If anyone is still home and looks through the peephole there's a child-sized figure outside clad in a black robe.
They're staring down at the floor and is holding a large sack in their hands.
An extremely early trick-or-treater? How bizarre.
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Arkhosia
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Re: Home

Post by Arkhosia »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Eliseo's efforts help to cushion the blow, make sure she knows she's not truly alone to endure all this - but while that knowledge will certainly help later, it's not enough to keep Anastasia from unraveling when the neighbor's scream cuts off. Because at the moment of death, she feels it - instantly, instinctually. The echo of a snipped-short thread in her mind is crisp and clear and final. Eliseo will feel her whole body trembling as she breaks out into sobs and squeezes herself tight. She doesn't even seem to care about the way her nails dig into her skin, raw white lines traced into the flesh beneath her shirtsleeves.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Re: Home

Post by FracturedSimulacrum »

[TS Ars Goetia: Haven 29A]

The sickly, cloying odor of phenolics taints the atmosphere within Haven 29A. Corpses of exotic entities - some eldritch, some utterly mundane - lie on surgical tables in variegated stages of dissection and decomposition. Esoteric instruments monitor each specimen, and all specimens are sealed within warded cells with transparent aluminum walls. Spindly servitors scuttle about the ceiling, their claw-like appendages and bell-shaped heads emitting visible and ultraviolet light in what appears to be a rudimentary form of communication as they interact with violet cysts suspended from the ceiling by tarry, black webbing. A collection of surgical tools - scalpels, bone saws, syringes filled with bubbling, perhaps animate fluid, and, as a matter of course, all manner of embalming tools - glimmers and gleams as sets of portable work lights shift across the room with the unerring, interminable consistency of a celestial timepiece. Oddly, if not downright alarmingly, these lights seem to burn away the creeping shadows emerging from benighted corners and recesses that seemingly extend forever but lead nowhere. Moreover, this light does not illuminate as much of the chamber as it ought denoting that unseen, supernatural forces are at play.

In the chamber adjacent to the succubus, the bloated body of a long-dead beholder affixes her with its glassy gaze. It sees nothing with its blurred, whitish eyes, yet its central eye reflects a distorted, blasphemous caricature of the woman. It is akin to a funhouse mirror reflecting the worst parts of her. First, she is lanky and grotesque. Next, she is diminutive and rotund. Now, she is a child. Then, she is withered with age. She might see herself with fists balled in white-hot fury or shrinking from the light in white-knuckled terror. If she stares too long, she might even see tendrils worming beneath her reflection’s skin - an all too real representation of her treatment. As the work lights pass, a greying eyestalk glitters like a golden sheaf. It twitches before lolling to the side as electricity pulses through exposed muscle tissues. Though this aberration died elsewhere, this is its cradle. Here, it will be given new flesh. Here, it will be born anew.

By all appearances, this forlorn succubus is the sole living specimen in all of Haven 29A, and with that comes obvious benefits. The most noteworthy is that her cell has been furnished with creature comforts. She is not restrained, unlike the deceased, and the air pumped into her cell smells faintly of vanilla. Someone has dressed her in luxurious silk pajamas that are a touch too large for her. Said pajamas are hot pink and monogrammed with the initials “TvF.” Matching slippers rest on the bleak tile floor beside the surgical table. Why, her hosts have even placed a television mounted on a portable stand inside of the cell opposite her “bed” for her viewing pleasure.

Perhaps she will appreciate her hosts’ efforts to make her stay more comfortable; unfortunately, she is unlikely to find everything to her liking: namely the situation developing before her very eyes. Footage of the attack on Hell Bend plays on the television. The sound and image quality might leave something to be desired, but the more pressing concern is the panic and bloodshed captured using what could well be a surveillance satellite. There is no commentary: at least not any she can hear. Someone or something is highlighting elements of the footage almost as if commentating on a football play.

Should this succubus stand up, inspect herself, or move about, she will find all of her wounds have miraculously healed. In fact, any physical scars or similar lasting damage from old injuries have vanished without a trace. Aside from her hunger, which is doubtlessly more acute than normal, she is effectively the picture of health. Whether this is refreshing or unnerving news matters little; it serves to demonstrates that her current situation has spiraled out of control.

Regardless, she will be left to her own devices for only a handful of minutes before someone approaches. Surprisingly, this newcomer is certainly not the nasty tiefling who one-punched her into dreamland. As crazy as it might sound, this woman - or kitsune - or devil - might almost blend in at the Temple of Inari with all the other fox folk - y’know, if not for her haunting red eyes, rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth, wicked claws, and that awful, predatory smile she wields like a knife as she presses her buxom body against the transparent aluminum barrier separating her from the succubus and knocks on it to attract her attention. Her scrubs are dripping with blackening blood that she carelessly smears across the walls as she stares at the succubus like a cat might stare at a bird in a cage and susurrates.

Hello again! I'm Nicole. I fixed you up after my sister, Asera, brought you in. She was all out of sorts, but as far as I can tell, you started a riot because you hate us or something. She hit you hard enough that you blacked-out, right?

With that ever-present half-crazed look in her eyes and two of her three tails lazily flicking back and forth behind her, Nicole saunters over to the door and waits as an eye-shaped sensor scans her.

Don't worry. I mean you no harm and you aren't in trouble or anything. I just had to lock you in here so you didn't wander around and get got is all. Haven 29A - The Xenobiology Lab - isn't the safest place, you know - especially since half of these dead-looking things are actually undead Asera and I are outfitting with base-level cybernetics. If you escaped and somehow broke into another cell, I might have to rebuild you from scratch. Then, you wouldn't be you; you'd be the you I wanted you to be.

With an airy hiss, the hermetically sealed door unseats and swings open.

I mean, do you have any idea how much self-discipline it took for me to restrain myself from at least amping up your mana conductivity? That'd be real useful if you forged a pact with Asera, Penny, or me so we could grant you some powers or something.
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Re: Home

Post by Gullara »

[Bellamy Apartment]

It's hard to imagine Eliseo getting more pale, but he looks practically sickly now. Ana's reaction is tears, but her boyfriend is just a blank slate. How did they ever get in this situation? Why is this happening? At least he can give Ana some comfort with his presence.


Kitsuki has made her way upstairs by the time it happens. She's moving from one bedroom to the other when the scream stops her dead in her tracks. Spirits, what the fuck is that thing? She's caught in place for a long moment as she copes. But then with a shake of her head she keeps moving. She can't know that this is gone; she needs to finish the task at hand. A nice corner unit with lots of windows seemed nice when they picked the place out...
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Bellamy Apartment]

Obriane turns to Ana and Eliseo. "I... need you to go and check on Kitty. I'll take care of the babies, alright? Give her a hug since she needs it." She will try to pull both and and the children into a big awkward hug before gently trying to take them off her hands.. "We all need it right now."

The sound of sirens get ever closer and it sounds like the police just arrived outside the apartment building.
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Re: Home

Post by Ironsmith »

Shadowcaller wrote: Jun 14, 2023 12:59 pm [Codebreakers Home]

A few minutes after Siana, Codebreaker, Arne and Jaahlyn left the house there's someone knocking at the door.
If anyone is still home and looks through the peephole there's a child-sized figure outside clad in a black robe.
They're staring down at the floor and is holding a large sack in their hands.
An extremely early trick-or-treater? How bizarre.
[Codebreaker's Home]

Oh, that's not suspicious at all.

Owena stands at the door for a moment, internally debating what to do. Last time she let a stranger into the house, she was bludgeoned to partial brain death by a homicidal robot, and that stranger was much less clearly ill-intentioned than the sack-bearing child outside the door now.

...Well. She might be jumping to conclusions on that one. She doesn't know the stranger's intentions. She's guessing. Maybe it would help if she had something to go on other than a shady appearance.

The strigoi takes a deep breath and presses her fingers against the door, weaving a simple spell that manifests as a glowing blue figure standing outside, just behind the stranger.

"I'm sorry, but the person you are trying to reach can not come to the door right now." The apparition explains in a calm, clear voice. "But I will gladly take a message. Please leave your name, contact information, and any information you can regarding the purpose of your visit. Thank you."
FracturedSimulacrum wrote: Jun 14, 2023 9:22 pm
[TS Ars Goetia: Haven 29A]

The sickly, cloying odor of phenolics taints the atmosphere within Haven 29A. Corpses of exotic entities - some eldritch, some utterly mundane - lie on surgical tables in variegated stages of dissection and decomposition. Esoteric instruments monitor each specimen, and all specimens are sealed within warded cells with transparent aluminum walls. Spindly servitors scuttle about the ceiling, their claw-like appendages and bell-shaped heads emitting visible and ultraviolet light in what appears to be a rudimentary form of communication as they interact with violet cysts suspended from the ceiling by tarry, black webbing. A collection of surgical tools - scalpels, bone saws, syringes filled with bubbling, perhaps animate fluid, and, as a matter of course, all manner of embalming tools - glimmers and gleams as sets of portable work lights shift across the room with the unerring, interminable consistency of a celestial timepiece. Oddly, if not downright alarmingly, these lights seem to burn away the creeping shadows emerging from benighted corners and recesses that seemingly extend forever but lead nowhere. Moreover, this light does not illuminate as much of the chamber as it ought denoting that unseen, supernatural forces are at play.

In the chamber adjacent to the succubus, the bloated body of a long-dead beholder affixes her with its glassy gaze. It sees nothing with its blurred, whitish eyes, yet its central eye reflects a distorted, blasphemous caricature of the woman. It is akin to a funhouse mirror reflecting the worst parts of her. First, she is lanky and grotesque. Next, she is diminutive and rotund. Now, she is a child. Then, she is withered with age. She might see herself with fists balled in white-hot fury or shrinking from the light in white-knuckled terror. If she stares too long, she might even see tendrils worming beneath her reflection’s skin - an all too real representation of her treatment. As the work lights pass, a greying eyestalk glitters like a golden sheaf. It twitches before lolling to the side as electricity pulses through exposed muscle tissues. Though this aberration died elsewhere, this is its cradle. Here, it will be given new flesh. Here, it will be born anew.

By all appearances, this forlorn succubus is the sole living specimen in all of Haven 29A, and with that comes obvious benefits. The most noteworthy is that her cell has been furnished with creature comforts. She is not restrained, unlike the deceased, and the air pumped into her cell smells faintly of vanilla. Someone has dressed her in luxurious silk pajamas that are a touch too large for her. Said pajamas are hot pink and monogrammed with the initials “TvF.” Matching slippers rest on the bleak tile floor beside the surgical table. Why, her hosts have even placed a television mounted on a portable stand inside of the cell opposite her “bed” for her viewing pleasure.

Perhaps she will appreciate her hosts’ efforts to make her stay more comfortable; unfortunately, she is unlikely to find everything to her liking: namely the situation developing before her very eyes. Footage of the attack on Hell Bend plays on the television. The sound and image quality might leave something to be desired, but the more pressing concern is the panic and bloodshed captured using what could well be a surveillance satellite. There is no commentary: at least not any she can hear. Someone or something is highlighting elements of the footage almost as if commentating on a football play.

Should this succubus stand up, inspect herself, or move about, she will find all of her wounds have miraculously healed. In fact, any physical scars or similar lasting damage from old injuries have vanished without a trace. Aside from her hunger, which is doubtlessly more acute than normal, she is effectively the picture of health. Whether this is refreshing or unnerving news matters little; it serves to demonstrates that her current situation has spiraled out of control.

Regardless, she will be left to her own devices for only a handful of minutes before someone approaches. Surprisingly, this newcomer is certainly not the nasty tiefling who one-punched her into dreamland. As crazy as it might sound, this woman - or kitsune - or devil - might almost blend in at the Temple of Inari with all the other fox folk - y’know, if not for her haunting red eyes, rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth, wicked claws, and that awful, predatory smile she wields like a knife as she presses her buxom body against the transparent aluminum barrier separating her from the succubus and knocks on it to attract her attention. Her scrubs are dripping with blackening blood that she carelessly smears across the walls as she stares at the succubus like a cat might stare at a bird in a cage and susurrates.

Hello again! I'm Nicole. I fixed you up after my sister, Asera, brought you in. She was all out of sorts, but as far as I can tell, you started a riot because you hate us or something. She hit you hard enough that you blacked-out, right?

With that ever-present half-crazed look in her eyes and two of her three tails lazily flicking back and forth behind her, Nicole saunters over to the door and waits as an eye-shaped sensor scans her.

Don't worry. I mean you no harm and you aren't in trouble or anything. I just had to lock you in here so you didn't wander around and get got is all. Haven 29A - The Xenobiology Lab - isn't the safest place, you know - especially since half of these dead-looking things are actually undead Asera and I are outfitting with base-level cybernetics. If you escaped and somehow broke into another cell, I might have to rebuild you from scratch. Then, you wouldn't be you; you'd be the you I wanted you to be.

With an airy hiss, the hermetically sealed door unseats and swings open.

I mean, do you have any idea how much self-discipline it took for me to restrain myself from at least amping up your mana conductivity? That'd be real useful if you forged a pact with Asera, Penny, or me so we could grant you some powers or something.
[Haven 29A]

"You stay the hell away from me!"

The succubus's command would probably be a bit more authoritative if she wasn't as pressed back against the wall of her cage opposite the door, looking to put as much distance between herself and the kitsune as she physically can, given the confines of the cage itself.

After a moment, the succubus wraps her wings around herself, attempting to use her innate magic to conceal herself from sight... only to likely fail, thanks to the beholder staring into her cell.

"I... I mean it! Stay back!" The demoness reiterates, huddling back against the far end of the cage. "If you come any closer you're going to regret it!"
Who're you? ...Don't matter.

Want some rye? Course ya do!

Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
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Shadowcaller
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Re: Home

Post by Shadowcaller »

[Codebreaker's Home]

The child(?) turns around to face the specter. Revealing that they're clad in a round white mask with a smiley face crudely drawn on it.
It's eye-holes are positively tiny, making it impossible to see the eyes of whoever is behind it. Though it should really make them effectively blind as well yet they seem to be aware enough of the world around them to be able to tell where the specter is.

Their hands are covered in cheap green monster gloves made of plastic which they stick down into their bag to fish out a plastic card with a simple line scribbled on it with what must be the same pen they used to make the smiley face.

They hold it up over their head, clearly presenting it to the blue servant.

CaNDY?

It's curious that they didn't even seem a little startled by the ghosts sudden appearance. Their movements rather stilted and cumbersome. Not really the energetic movements of a child.
If this stranger is able to speak they choose not to and will soon turn to face the door and knock on it again if the apparition doesn't give them any more information.
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Arkhosia
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Re: Home

Post by Arkhosia »

► SHOW SPOILER
[Bellamy Apartment]

Anastasia only manages to pull away from her own inner turmoil once Obriane addresses her, lifting eyes red with tears and starting to ease out of the death grip she has on her own shoulders. It's only now that she realizes the look in Eliseo's eyes and feels a hot lance of guilty empathy rip through her core.

"I- I'm sorry- I'm sorry its all my fault I should've -" the girl babbles into her mother's embrace, not entirely sure whether the words are for her or Eliseo. Should've what? Grabbed her sword and run out there, tried to fight it instead of hiding like the coward she is? No, she could never make a dent against that thing - maybe she should have just let the yokai take her. What it would do to her would hurt and she'd never be able to look Eliseo in the eye again, but maybe it would be satisfied and her family would be safe. Probably not though; it would keep hunting her, no matter what she gave it.

"I- okay," Anastasia answers after a long moment, as if only just registering what's been asked of her. She pulls away and lingers with one last look at Eliseo, feeling so utterly at a loss as to how to comfort him before opting to reach out and give his hand a reassuring squeeze. There's a fleeting flicker of a smile, an attempt to be his comforting and stable rock as if she hadn't been dashed to pieces minutes before, and then she turns and leaves to find Kitty. Once she does, she'll wordlessly reach out and pull her mom into an anxious hug, burying her face against her in a grim repeat of their conversation earlier that morning.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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