[center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/bSrl0gg.png[/img] [img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/3ef51b0e-7f95-4e55-99df-65071c554fbc.png [/img] [h1]Matthias FitzClarence, Nep Wach[/h1] [hr] [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNfTSAzl1nI[/youtube] [/center] [h2]WaterFront Vale - Clinic[/h2] [b]Interactions:[/b] [@ERode] Matthias Matthias FitzClarence [b]Mentions:[/b] [@flux] Antonio Litwin Waterfront Vale was peaceful, in spite of it all. Inside a clinic, Matthias watched as a young woman with platinum-blonde hair laid in bed. Her chest rose and fell shallowly, her skin so pale it appeared translucent. In the neighbouring room, he could hear the cries, the vocalized nightmares of another woman, scarred still by her past. It would not have come to this if he had known about the monster, or about all the bastards that Antonio had gathered up. It would not have come to this if those unknowns were an ‘either’ instead of a ‘both’. It would not have happened, if he had the appropriate caution, if he had thought more like a snake than a human. But instinct too was lost to him, intuition just background noise, a pricking sensation on his thumb. He had thought Celina as invincible, so long as the conditions were met. Now, there she laid, and he had no clue whether she would even wake up. The Lodestar stared at her face for a while longer. People did not look peaceful when they were comatose. A blank stillness, heavy as a gravestone. A dead man, drowned in his hubris and delusions. Was it a sigh that escaped from him, or the sizzling of a fuse? He gripped the wheels, turned around, and left for the lobby, where others were. “Nep.” Matthias’s voice was restrained, a forced calm like an ocean frozen over. “I’d imagine you can’t return to Antonio, and the territory I control will become a warzone soon enough. Where do you want to go?” Nep sat in the room beside Matthias, an unusual calm within him, a result of the stasis within the room. “I don’t think there’s anywhere to go that won’t be a warzone eventually.” Nep’s head rested low. “It’s happening again. I thought I stopped him before, at least slowed him down, but he’s doing it again.” Nep nodded. “If it’s all the same, it’s probably best I face the fire with you.” His head bounced. “Hell, maybe that way I’ll at least go down screaming. Maybe that’s better than just running before the noose tightens.” He let his hands slide up his face, lost in thought for a moment, before parting his hands. “The water didn’t affect you though. Maybe there is hope.” Nep finally looked at Matthias. “You saw what Antonio really was, didn't you? The thing, that cancer that grew out of him into its own creature.” “I’m on decent terms with Asterion. If you’d like, I can see about settling you up in Nickel. There’s plenty of places that aren’t a warzone currently.” Perhaps it was the charlatan in him, inspiring words to be spoken that he couldn’t necessarily back up. “And by the time ‘eventually’ comes around, there won’t be an Antonio to speak of.” That was all he wanted to get across, really. Ideologically speaking, it was actually kind of funny that a man who raised an army of addicts consumed by a monstrous drink was going to go up against an Order that ran rehab centers all over their territory [i]for[/i] addicts. But Nep didn’t have that same ideology. As far as Matthias was concerned, [i]this[/i] wasn’t going to be a conflict where he would be leveraging a mob of civilians. “I have no head to speak of. No brain, for that matter. So whatever that monster was couldn’t grasp on, I suppose.” He shrugged. “I’m surprised it’s not worse. The barman could’ve started a brewing company and just foisted his drinks across all of Nocturnia in the century he’s been around for. Would be a lot more different if it was like that.” Nep huffed before speaking. “He almost did. I burnt it down.” Nep’s head lowered. “I burnt it all down. His brewery, his preparations.” Nep paused. “My own men. All of it. Cleansed in fire.” He seemed to fall back into the past. “That’s how he gets you. Promises he can help you help everyone else, and at first he does. Things get better. Then when you have all that influence, he poisons the well. Everyone starts turning on eachother, and once it’s in you most don’t resist.” Nep raised his head looking blankly to the wall. “He was ready to wash over this city like a wave. I was supposed to be performing, a whole warehouse packed with people. Half of them poisoned, the other half making sure they would be poisoned. From there they would’ve flooded the district and if they succeeded that.” Nep slowly shook his head. “Nothing could’ve stopped a mass like that, short of an air strike or a nuke.” He bounced his leg a couple times. “So I did the only thing I could. Let my Gyft go wild. Took them all into a state of frenzy. By the time the fires started no one even bothered to notice. I don’t know how I survived but I just remember waking up to ash falling like snow. I don’t remember anything for a long while after that, but I knew I bought Nocturnia some time, but that’s all I did, buy some more time.” Nep looked at Matthias again. “Antonio wasn’t shocked though. No. He laughed. He laughed and he said: ‘Failure is all you will know boy. For when the final body falls and the flesh rots away, we will take our final ascension through evolution, the earth itself becoming our shared vessel, a predator on the cosmic field preying upon the flickering lights of life throughout the universe.’ “ “ ‘We will grow so that we consume even the stars. Then at the end of everything, when the universe knows nothing but darkness, we will have formed singularity, the only mass space will know forevermore.’ “ “ ‘For when even entropy has ceased, there is truly only death. Death we survive for it is death we have become.’ “ “ ‘We are salvation, and I am its prophet.’ “ “ ‘[color=8a00c4]And the noosea shall take us all.’[/color] “ Nep went silent for a moment, eyes looking down. “We won’t see it in our lifetime, but after what I’ve seen, one day, I think he might just bring that to pass.” Nep’s eyes went back to Matthias. “But you saw through him. You couldn’t even be swayed by that heart of darkness. I don’t know how to kill it, but if you can put Antonio down or at least hold him back, I know someone who might give us an answer to end it once and for all.” Nep put his hands on his knees. “I’ll fight beside you, or I’ll take your offer, if Asterion has me. Either way I’ll make inroads to figure out how to finally kill that thing. What would you prefer?” “For a prophet, he sure didn’t see Frostfare coming.” Nep chuckled for the first time in a long time. “That he did not.” It was a meager victory, all things considered. But it was an important one too. And a cult based off of becoming Death? At one hundred years old, Antonio still hadn’t grown up, huh? What would happen if he was struck by a Gyft Negator, dragged out of his building, and then executed? What would happen if they just placed tall walls around the Jolly Jalopy and then submerged it in concrete? How about bringing an excavator and digging deep, deep, deeper, before routing the city’s sewer system to dump a sinful city’s worth of shit into that monster’s gullet? Matthias had given Antonio the benefit of the doubt. Had thought it was a beautiful thing, that an immortal could exist that made a sanctuary the size of a small pub in Nocturnia, where within its walls, he could put an end to any violence and ensure a spot of peace in a bloody city. Everything Nep had told him though? It sparked darker feelings in him now, the cold calculus of the innumerable ways one could deal with an immortal problem. All you needed was a bit of creativity, after all. What the fuck was a noosey? Why did cultists always jump so readily into ascension, when they couldn’t even get their own regular human lives together? What was [i]wrong[/i] with these people? Every single one of those bastards in the Jolly Jalopy (maybe not the plague doctor) had mind-related powers, going by how none of them decided to shit fire or punch fast. Every single one of them… The Lodestar caught himself. He drew in a breath, even if only through his phantom-lungs. “One thing, then, Nep. Explain to me what your Gyft is.” Nep nodded. “Emotional feedback, I can amplify it all the way to a point of psychosis. In a way I’m a relay taking in everyone’s feelings around me and vent it right back out. I can hold it back if I focus, but I can always feel what everyone else around me does. Walking down the street can be overwhelming. It’s quiet here, mentally, so it’s easier, and after seeing what you did to Antonio. It was a little bit of hope, a reason not just to go with losing my goddamn mind. It’s dangerous to give up, I know that, but after destroying everything and listening to him laugh like it was an inconvenience.” His eyes closed. “I just didn’t see the point.” He took in a breath. “Now though, seeing him coming back to power and him actually being struck, well I’ve got a lot of wasted time to make up for, maybe stop him using The Eel in the same way, maybe it’s too late.” His hand cupped his mouth. “He looked like he was taking Flint as his new protege. The Eel might alright be dead if that's the case, or soon at least.” “I know an info dealer; I’ll get them to look into the Eel. As for you…” Matthias reached out once more, a bandaged hand cupping a curl of smoke. “Try this. If you can vent [i]this[/i] out, it may change the entire course of the upcoming conflict.” And if not? Then Matthias was definitely going to stick Nep somewhere safe. Because for everything that laid ahead, a positive feedback loop of rage and bloodlust was the one thing he didn’t want Lenore to be exposed to. Nep hesitated, still a lingering fear of potentially being manipulated by another would-be prophet of another new age. After witnessing what Matthias had achieved in a single meeting however, even if he was dominated, he knew it was better than the alternative. He took the smoke, raised it to his face as if to suggest inhaling it. With a nod from Matthias he did so. Suddenly the noise no longer affected him, he could still hear it but it was only exactly that noise. Noise to be deciphered and studied, noise to be silenced. Pushing the feeling outward he looked to a nurse. They seemed somewhat confused but they began to operate in a state of calm rather than frantic shuffling between their duties. Nep looked back to Matthias. “I have my mind. I still hear it but it's fine, like just watching the chaos whirl around below.” He blinked, holding himself back from hugging Matthias. “You’ve given me my mind.” “And can you project this lack of ‘emotion’ onto others?” Nep nodded. “Looks as if I can. It’s harder the further I push the radius, but rather than intensifying someone's emotion, I can null them out.” Nep squinted. “I’ll be honest, I’m a little worried about what people would do if their emotions went cold entirely. Killing someone might just become a weightless logical step. So long as I can focus though it shouldn’t plunge to that depth.” “The capacity for murder isn’t a consequence of emotion, only of circumstance.” And what did that say about himself, the ‘slumbering’ miracle-child whose first conscious thought was to commit a patricide? “But the interaction of Gyfts is a complicated thing, so if it comes down to it, Nep, it would still be for the better if this didn’t have to be used in any way. Not until we can figure out for certain whether or not this ‘emotion-nulling’ would also be able to clear the minds of those affected by Antonio.” Which meant, Matthias supposed, that he [i]would[/i] be using Nep in the upcoming conflict after all. Hypocrite and imposter that he was, pulling together scraps in order to endure the tide to come. “I’ll arrange for a place for you to stay in Waterfront Vale, in any case. In the meanwhile, could you tell me about Akula’s Crew? I understand that they favour Nocturnia’s segregation movement, but…” Any gang would favor that, if it meant the police stopped getting supplied. Nep tilted his head, trying to find the right words to describe what was asked of him. He eventually just let what came to him first fall from his mouth. “They’re broad. Best known as smugglers for a reason. When the wall went up, a good few people saw it as a siege action. In response they established supply lines, prepared for invasion to protect their homes and families. Sharks in the water to deter anyone trying to take advantage of everyone. Over time though it stopped being a resistance and more, a way of life? I think that puts it best.” Nep slouched a bit, hands gripped together. “Nocturnia doesn’t have a standing army and the police are just as bad as the gangs sometimes. No where for the patriots or the forgotten to go, no where for the aimless or foolish, or the desperate or brave, so the Akula’s ended up filling that gap by association. Just taking in people sick of the bullshit with the will to do something about it outside of all the politics, power plays and backstabbing. An honest life earned in blood.” Nep huffed. “That being said, they don’t just hand out weapons to children. A lot of disfranchised kids end up hearing or even seeing the Akula’s work and think they can be that kind of punk. Akula’s usually give the stubborn ones some basic jobs, boring stuff that keeps them out of trouble, running harmless meds to seniors that the aid drops don’t cover. They’re the runners, the meat that keeps the Akula’s moving. The ones that settle down, stick with it, show some discipline, they become the gunners, the backbone, the heart, the spirit. Keep the Akula’s alive.” Nep took a breath. “The gunners, the ones that earn names, range from wanna be vigilantes to elite militia forces. Organised into cells they’re mostly independent. Some work with local gangs or police, some fight staunchly against them. Usually they just respond to the shit commonplace Nocturnia can’t deal with. If someone puts a knife to you, you call the cops. If they have a gun, you call SWAT. If it’s a maniac with lasers shooting out their eyes and ass, you call Akulas.” Nep shrugged. “Ultimately the thing that unites them is their general desire to make sure the city has a semblance of freedom and choice, or at least some sense of a livable future. If the military won’t charge the gates, pillage everything and burn it all down, the Akulas will just take the fight to those inside who think they can. Those who betray those values end up branded. Best case you’re exiled from everyone you became family with, worst case you're dead before you know it.” Nep’s head drifted lower. “I can tell you for a fact though I would have preferred the latter.” He cleared his throat. “If you wanted a measure of force, I can tell you there's hundreds upon hundreds of them, but with absolutely no coordination outside of friendly association with each other you’d only be dealing with one cell at a time, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. For the most part they’d be negligible to your organisation, something you probably wouldn’t even notice.” He looked at Matthias again. “The only time you need to worry about Akulas is when they rally behind a champion, someone that begins to unite gunner cells. Once upon a time that was me, before that another man who was also branded, before that again a self appointed general who fought in war zone 13. Now, the Eel. Those are the individuals that will define what the Akula’s will be to you. If you want to understand where you’ll stand in a diplomatic regard, get to know the champion leading them.” He leant back. “As for tactics. Hit and run, shock and awe. They know the underground and how to pop up and fade back into nowhere. When the attack picks up in intensity rather than dies out is when you need to worry, when they feel the noose is tightened and it’s time to kick the chair. If you can hold off the brunt though you might turn the momentum for a quick clean up. In short, set up, fortify, assess, if they leave, don’t pursue, if they charge, survive. Then kick the shit out of them.” Nep parted his hands before closing them again. “Hopefully that gives you everything you need to navigate them, politically, or martially, but I guess that’s dependent largely on what Antonio has done to them as a whole.” “Mmm.” Matthias could understand how Antonio could gradually take control of the ‘organization’ now. It was a flat hierarchy that only unified on occasion under a single, strong leader. Similar, perhaps, to how the Order was run, though even more scattered in that there was little communication or collaboration between each branch. If it had been any organization, it may have ended with the Jolly Jalopy being firebombed. “That was a lot more than I expected,” he spoke, after a short pause. “Hopefully, there would be no need to navigate them at all, if a plan of mine pulls through. There was a shift in his body, the only indication that his gaze was being directed elsewhere. Past the frosted glass of the window, to two blurred individuals. “I’ll leave for tonight now, Nep. If you need to contact me, the phone number’s on the website.”