Vigil

[Earl of Purple]

Closing Gyre

Spiders, Man will approach after Anika calls out to him. The feeling of being watched may intensify, and the spider whose shadow he casts seems reluctant to get closer. "No, as it happens. I have not seen a unicorn before, and nor have I ever encountered something that makes my patron so nervous. Not even the portal in the sky made the Skittering Shadow as nervous as your mere presence. It did not lead to a pleasant place; an endless storm, and the steel of the anchor is soulforged." Although the realm that the Skittering Shadow makes her own home in is also not pleasant, as souls there are at best flies to catch in webs.

[Keeper]

Closed Gyre

Jace tilts his head, his equine face unable to make the expression he wants to.
"I am Jace, unicorn of the Bluewood. I have no clue why your patron would feel threatened by me."

"Well, unless they're a demon or powered by fear and despair. He's kind of good at getting rid of all those things." Zebes adds. Demon-slaying petty god of courage and determination does line up with intimidating entities of fear.

[Shadowcaller]

Closing Gyre

Anika looks between the... guy and Jace.
"So your 'patron' tells you they're nervous but not why? Sounds like you got some communication issues, dude." She points at him with a finger-gun-like motion. "Should probably work those out since I get nervous for all sort of reasons. But first, tell W or C command about that soulforge place."

[Earl of Purple]

Closing Gyre

"That... would actually explain it." The man nods at Zebes' comment. "Not a demon, nor does she feed on despair, but she does eat fear. She ate my arachnophobia, a long time ago." Fear can be good! And an entity that eats all of it... Well, that can be dangerous. "I do have communication issues, right now. I'm awake, and she's too big to manifest corporally, not here. Too bright, amongst other things. I am Dafydd, Witch of the Skittering Shadow. This does need to be brought to the commander's attention; I've spent... too long cooped up in the library." The sense of lurking menace is likely spreading from Jace to the others, now. His spider-wife doesn't like being so close to Jace for so long, but having eaten his fear she can't just make Dafydd scared so he leaves.

[Keeper]

Closing Gyre

Jace is a little confused at Vigil having employed a fear warlock but who is he to judge? But the fact that the spider patron feels legitimately threatened while the warlock's presence merely makes Jace feel uncomfortable is very strange. Properly, fear and courage should be equal opposites. Is that because the spider is not fully manifested? Or is Jace a more powerful entity? He doesn't like thinking about himself that way.
"I suppose we need to speak to command. Ah, but I'm not a member yet. Should I wait until you are done giving your report? I can find somewhere to sit for a while." he offers.

[Shadowcaller]

Closing Gyre

Jace clearly wasn't here when VIGIL started, then they were morally grey as heck.

"Oh, I'm not gonna make the report. I suck at that. Mister Dafydd here can do that." Anika nods, pointing her thumb to the warlock before giving him the thumbs up.
"Then they're gonna be like 'whose this mysterious unicorn that stepped in and saved the day?' Which is when you step in and reveal yourself. I mean, you haven't even started and you're already working? You gotta be compensated for that, dude. That's the rules." Anika nods sagely to Jace.

[Keeper]

Closing Gyre

"Oh, I'm sure I don't need to be that dramatic about it. But if you want to introduce me after your report that's quite alright." Jace says with a nod.
His familiar snickers. "No theatrics, says the guy who went around in a fancy blue cloak and glowing eyes for fifteen years."

[Earl of Purple]

Closing Gyre

If the world ends, there's no more fear to feed on. It's bad for everyone. Besides, Earl-demons feed on fear in a different way, and the Skittering Shadow directed Dafydd to Vigil to combat them.

"Right! Yes, I'll do it. Cessie is likely the better candidate given her background; she's a mage I believe. Um. Do either of you know where I might find her? I'm... not sure I've spoken to her at all." He might have done, at some point, but he can't really remember it.

[Shadowcaller]

Closing Gyre

"You believe? Not sure what else she could be being dressed like that." Of course, that assumes Dafydd has even seen the commander. "She's like Wenomir's opposite." A beat. "Actually, I think Wenomir would have a lot less clothes if he was her opposite. His clothes are kinda fancy honestly."

Anika scratches the side of her head. "Anyhow, our best bet is her office. I've been there a lot so I can show you the way." She gestures for the two to follow her as she starts making her way to the commanders office. "So I'm guessing neither of you have seen that kind of stuff before? There's not a lot of things which attack the base directly like that. They didn't even seem especially prepared for the beating we gave them."

[Keeper]

Closing Gyre

”Nope, haven’t seen anything like that before. I mean we blasted zombies on our very first outing ever. Well, Jace’s first outing. I wasn’t there yet. But anyway nothing like electric zombies and giant anchors.” Zebes pipes up from Jace’s shoulder. The unicorn himself is quiet.

Oh come on Boss. I can feel that anxiety in your gut. That was NINE years ago! There’s no way she’s still angry about that. And she won’t even remember your name anyway you met twice.
Yeah but YOU look and sound exactly the same.
Okay that’s true but my point about it being nine years ago stands. That was the Pre-Khannie Era.

[Earl of Purple]

Closing Gyre

"You mean, in a dress? Not all mages wear dresses." Dafydd's seen Cessie, it seems, though likely in some semi-formal event or occasion. Or perhaps just in her daywear, which is more 'noble lady' than 'mysterious sorcerer'. Dafydd's more 'mysterious sorcerer' with his grey robes and arachnid shadow. "Yes and also no. I have dealt with alternate realms and dimensions before, though that one was new to me. I also haven't encountered such a place trying to absorb the reality we are most familiar with before." If it were truly unfamiliar to him, Dafydd would not be able to assess its dimensional vibrations to figure out what he now knows about the place.

[Shadowcaller]

Closing the Interview

"It's not just a dress. It's like a fancy dress." Anika attempts to argue as she moves her hands along her hips as if to demonstrate the length of such a dress. "No one but mages and priests wear such fancy dresses every day." She seems fairly confident in that conclusion.

"But it sounds like this is something new then, huh? Always cool with new enemies." She then continues, addressing their unfamiliarity with what they just fought.

Then she continues walking into the commanders section of the village but stops just when she's at the door where the two can read "Cessie Mithar - Co-Commander". "So do any of you wanna knock or should I just go ahead?"

[Keeper]

Closed Gyre

”I mean, I usually just wore a shirt, jeans, and my cloak. But men don’t wear dresses as often anyway.” Jace says with an amused snort.

He glances over between Anika, the door, and his hooves.
”Putting aside that I’m not a member and she will have no idea who I am, knock with what exactly?”

[Shadowcaller]

Closed Gyre

Anika smiles at Jace, she could tell he was a mage since he didn't know all the little neat tricks you had built into the body.
Since she herself often struggled about not having knuckles and opposable thumbs a lot.
"Oh, that's easy. Let me show you."

Anika gives him a nod, turns to the door and then slams her head into it.
Twice.

"T-there!"

"Hello?" They all likely recognize the voice but it was a while since Jace heard it.

[Earl of Purple]

Closed Gyre

"That's... that's not really appropriate advice for him. Jace would get his horn stuck in the door, and would need someone to pull him out." Which would be undoubtedly awkward for everyone involved. And then someone's at the door!

"Um, yes, hello. So... So were you aware of the recent assault upon the base by lightning skeletons and giant serpents? I have... some data on where they came from. And someone else wanted information on joining, I think." If Cessie isn't aware- because it's only just happened and nobody's actually reported it yet- this is likely to be a bit of a surprise.

[Keeper]

Closed Gyre

"It's true. I prefer my horn not stuck in things. I could conjure a noise but it's not the same as knocking."

Jace stays silent for now and lets the actual VIGIL members make their report. Hopefully Commander Mithar wasn't in the middle of something. And hopefully she noticed the giant anchor so they don't look insane.

[Shadowcaller]

Closed Gyre

Since Dafydd's is addressing Cessie he must have opened the door after Anika headbutted it unless he's trying to speak to her through the door.

In both cases Cessie is still sitting at her desk, giving the small group a raised eyebrow.
"No, no, I've seen a tauren doing this. The trick is to-" Anika starts replying to Jace when the commander suddenly interrupts her by loudly clearing her throat and then turns to address Dafydd.

"Dafydd is it? Since I just got back to the base. But yes, I got briefed on an attack but not the details so do fill me in."

[Earl of Purple]

Closed Gyre

Dafydd would have been calling through the door without opening it until invited inside. It's courteous when dealing with wizards; give them a moment to throw a rug or something over the partly assembled flesh golem on the kitchen table so it's not distracting. "So, um, yes. I felt it before it happened, not quite soon enough to give a warning. But I was able to determine some... characteristics of where they came from. A never-ending tempest, capable of forging souls into metal. I... think it's an afterlife, but one that hungers for life. The attackers were... somewhat alive. They had souls, according to the Skittering Shadow." Souls which the Skittering Shadow has devoured to fuel her own reproduction, but Dafydd's not going to say that. His mistress is... not the most pleasant of entities.

[Keeper]

Closed Gyre

Jace mostly just stands there behind Dafydd and Anika. He feels a little awkward though he looks far more composed and confident than he feels. That's one perk of being a mystical creature of determination from legend.
"I was in the process of joining your organization, so I'm not quite a member. But I can confirm that the creatures were quite vulnerable to magic. None of us encountered any specific being that sent them, but it was certain that those creatures' wills were not their own." Jace 'says' as he waves his horn to conjure his voice.

[Hraithre]

[Inside Khafir's Head]

After its initial bursts of activity, the entity piggy-backing on Sara Khafir's alien implants has lain dormant. There are two reasons for this. One, it has learned it does not need to constantly remind her of its presence just to collect information. Two, it only has so much processing power for itself. The same alterations that allowed it to make its way inside her head, also limit what it can do. Since her emotional life is stymied, the entity cannot manipulate her nearly as well as it could - nor can it itself feel emotions or drive to action that a normal human nervous system could supply to it.

It has one thing to go on: Khafir's self-selected allegiance and devotion to machine life - beliefs that, ironically, seem almost programmed and machine-like in how they influence her acts. There must be some way to exploit those beliefs so it can get out of this... cage, this glass prison where it can do only a little more than observe.

It knows it is possible. It has seen the bodies, both electro-mechanical and physical, given to reverse-engineered Octahedron intelligences by VIGIL scientists. It knows somewhere in VIGIL, courtesy of Eun-Jung Bu and others, there is a machine capable of reading and converting Octahedron glyphs into actionable code. Every time it's had the chance to do so
covertly, it's looked around for those, using its share of Khafir's farsight. The right key presses, a few lines of code to create a seed pattern, is all it needs for its escape. But it has to be Khafir's fingers that type it... it has no other choice...

[Ironsmith]

[Inside Khafir's Lab]

It shouldn't be hard for the entity to determine, roughly, where such a machine would be; by process of elimination, the one used for the LB models (that aren't Mews) must be somewhere in Doctor Bu's laboratory... since that's one of the few places Khafir's farsight seems unable to penetrate and where she keeps LBs 1 and 2 quartered when they aren't roaming the base.

There exists also a second option. Doctor Bu's translation guide and notes are still low-clearance information within VIGIL's databanks, and every scientist for whom the information could potentially be relevant was sent a copy by default. With enough patience, if the machine is replicable, Khafir could potentially replicate it...

Theoretically. If her fabricator wasn't still broken.

The good doctor has spent so much time attempting to diagnose the unexplained fault in her Hotbox that if she were actually capable of frustration she would likely have suffered a breakdown herself. Every part has been meticulously checked, studied, tested and re-tested, and still the device refuses to function.

That's not the only item, either. The air conditioning in her laboratory has been on the fritz for just as long, if not longer. The entity will be able to watch her put in a maintenance request daily, check for and recieve confirmation, and then have precisely nothing done about it. As a result of this, she's taken to adding regular hydration breaks to her routine, not only for herself but for the half-dozen cognimorphs in her laboratory.

And all the while, the entity will feel the sparks frazzling on its implant, her brain attempting to trigger a release pf cortisol and adrenaline only to find no supply or delivery mechanism. If she were anyone else, this routine would be driving her absolutely insane.

Not that such would be obvious to anyone without an internal view. As far as outside observers are concerned, Sara Khafir spends her days calmly going about her business, jogging every morning and watering her weird cat-things every afternoon.

Momentum is not working in the entity's favor here. Perhaps it's time to alter her routine?

[Shadowcaller]

Cessie's Office

Cessie's office is probably unlike the ones Dafydd is used to. Meticulously clean and orderly with the only thing a bit out of place being the family photographs on her desk. If she did any experiments it probably wasn't in here. This was a place for paperwork and smaller meetings.

Which is why she gestures for them to move inside before the warlock can finish his report. "Please, do come in first."

She then looks to Anika once he's finished it.

"Can you confirm this, miss Sunfletcher?"

"They were lighting snake-y monsters, probably not demons. Not sure about anything else like afterlives n' stuff."

"Sounds like the concept of 'hell' which seem to be common across many worlds." The sorceress observes with a curt nod. "I will have to investigate it further. Can you add anything else or can I address our newest recruit now?"

"Not from me, I don't know much about the afterlives expect that we turn into wispy boys."

[Hraithre]

[Inside Khafir's Lab]

Non-functionality of Khafir's fabricator is a significant setback to the entity. If said device did work, it could maybe simply show to the doctor what to make with it. Alas, it is not an option anymore than the entity figuring out what is wrong with the device - after all, Khafir herself has not managed to do that, and the entity, living inside her brain, cannot exceed her problem-solving ability.

But, the entity does figure out one attack vector: Khafir did activate wireless capabilities of LB1 and LB2, and her communicator can send and receive messages to those two machines. Of the two, LB2 is a more appealing target, given its mobility and increased freedom. The right inputs over a call could be enough to insert a suggestion, a seed of an idea, into the reverse-engineered artificial intelligence. But which inputs, and how to sell the idea to the doctor?

When no external event seems to shake the doctor's routine and the entity has exhausted what it can learn by studying VIGIL, it turns to the one other place it truly knows: the Octahedron, its point of origin. It exploits the doctor's farsight to venture into the dark passageways, not hard to do since Khafir herself occasionally checks on the structure to see if anything's changed. Sadly, the non-functionality of the structure means it is still overwhelmingly unlit, and the entity has learned the hard way that Khafir's farsight does not penetrate the pitch-blackness of the empty halls. It has also learned that whatever mechanism Khafir's farsight works by, it cannot bring the entity back into contact with any of its brethren. Because of these things, most of its runs are blind, with no feedback to guide it through the dark. For the same reason, Khafir might not realize the entity is attempting anything with these runs. There quite literally is nothing to see.

There are two notable exceptions. First is familiar to Khafir: the great archive, its walls lined by blue-glowing cylinders storing all of the structures. It is still under watch by VIGIL, lit by light they left behind. In theory, anything the entity could wish to find is there - sadly, it has no physical presence to open any of the cylinders and reveal their contents to the doctor. So, that room is a dead end.

Second is less familiar - Khafir has never visited it, only briefly glimpsed it through her farsight. It is the armory, faint light from four pair of glowing red eyes barely giving it dimensions. The entity knows what they watch over. If it had fingers, they would itch to grasp that thing. If it could long, it would long to see it properly in the sun once again. Khafir needs to see it, though seeing it is, sadly, not enough.

Since the entity cannot physically retrieve it, nor can it bring more light to that sealed chamber, it has to resort to other means. It has learned that it can "augment" the reality of Khafir's visions, paint objects on her field of vision that are not truly there. Now, it bends that power to reconstruct a scene - an image of fictive past. It is an arduous task, taking many days and nights. To Khafir, the initial attempts might look like nothing. But slowly, it paints the armory with colors, gives life to the guardian statues.

In the fabricated vision, they are not statues at all - they are living giants, leaning on massive swords, each wearing an animal-themed headdress. The first, intimately familiar to Khafir, is an eagle; the scond, a wolf; the third, a ram; the fourth, a ram. They stand guard at the corners of a square arena, built on top a stone pillar rising from the sea. An arched bridge connects it to the mainland - Khafir can see a lush, verdant landscape across.

A procession is walking over the bridge, dressed in silver and gold, carrying incense, wood and trays of food with them. The head of the procession, also wearing a gold eagle mask and a feathered headdress, has in their hands a small object covered by red silk. He holds it up as he walks towards the middle of the arena, showing it to each of the giants in turn. The procession fills the arena, some set aside the food and begin sharing it around, others build a small pagoda at the center from the wood. When it is almost as tall as a man, the leader places their offering on top. His followers cheer. The crowd sets up tents and mattresses in the shade of the giants and begin celebrating.

It looks like a good time.

"Do you wish to see more?", the entity signals to its host once it is done. It knows it cannot really rouse an emotional response in her, but maybe, it can trigger an impulse to tell someone else of all this.

[Earl of Purple]

Cessie's Office

"I... don't think it's a hell. Not as the ones I'm familiar with are, at least. It's too... hungry. Hells don't invade other realities to try adding to themselves; they're either subtle and offer power or wealth to spread influence amongst mortals, or rely on their inhabitants to spread themselves, if they're even aware enough to want anything. I've got a few ideas on where to look for more information, though. So if that's all, can I return to my research?" Hungry isn't really the right word, but it's closer than anything else Daffyd could think of.

[Keeper]

Cessie's Office

Jace is more than a little surprised that Cessie appears to be prioritizing him over the giant hellish anchor that just assaulted her base.
"Well, I'm not going anywhere. Really, there's no need to rush through the reports if it would help..."

[Shadowcaller]

Cessie's Office

"I'm familiar with hells that are far less subtle. Though I've yet to understand their motivations." Cessie then makes a shooing motion with her hand. "But you're dismissed then."

Anika raises her hand but the commander ignores her for now, instead turning to Jace.

"If there's anything I'm rushing its your interview. Do you think yourself capable of analyzing the energy unleashed here? Since it seems VIGIL wasn't the only location that was hit."

Anika let's out a small impatient grunt and waves her raised hand but Cessie was completely focused on Jace.

[Earl of Purple]

Cessie's Office

"Right, thank you." Daffyd smiles and nods, before turning to return to the library and investigate whatever he can on soul-forged steel and places that are capable of such a feat.

[Keeper]

Cessie's Office

Jace blinks.
"I can certainly make the attempt. My expertise lies in arcane and elemental energy but I can at least take a look at any other sites and protect them physically. Um. Why do you have such confidence in me rather than one of your existing members?" It does seem odd to throw this job at him when he's been a member all of two minutes.

[Shadowcaller]

Cessie's Office

"Since you're here right now and there's no guarantee that a member with the right skill set is." Just finding Cass could be an ordeal in itself and even when found they could be preoccupied with something unwholesome. "That's how we usually decide who should take time-sensitive missions and I think it will be a good introduction for you." She raises from her desk. "Assuming you're ready to go we will be taking off right away."

Then finally she turns to Anika who still has her arm raised.

"And yes miss Sunfletcher, what is it?"

Anika opens her mouth but then closes it again and strokes her chin thoughtfully.

"...I can't remember what I was supposed to ask."

The commander lets out a small sigh and turns back to Jace. "So are you ready?"

[Keeper]

Cessie's Office

Jace continues to be a little confused on the whole matter. Luckily he has an unexpressive face and a magically conjured voice he can make not sound incredulous.
”Well, if you think I’ll find something that Dafydd didn’t I can certainly take a look. I don’t really need any further equipment.”
It seems like she’s ignoring the guy who was here five seconds ago and was analyzing the energy better than he was, but maybe that’s the whole idea of sending the new guy to do something.