[Center][color=ed1c24][h2]Fujiwara no Mokou & Sectonia[/h2]
Level 8 (holding 2 level ups)
32/80

Location: Location: College of Winterhold
Wordcount: 1877 (+3)[/color][/Center]

[center][b]Palace of Earthly Spirits[/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/8IWpM1u.png[/img][/center] Before Mokou and Sectonia extended a long, tall, stately corridor, featuring classic columns, golden chandeliers, and a half-dozen antechambers on each side. In the checkered floor, patches of glowing tiles shone, reminiscent of stained glass windows. The moment the Phoenix entered, she could hear an unmistakable sound emanating from the side-rooms both near and far: the varied meowing of many cats.

Mokou let out a small whistle at the sight of the palace, keeping her hands in her pockets as she floats around, “Nice place. Seems like this is rather populated. Do you think cats are cursed too?” she asked aloud as she lazily rotated in the air. When Mokou floated over to check one of the palatial corridor's many antechambers, she discovered an oddly ordinary room. It looked rather like an ordinary living room, albeit with a pronounced rustic aesthetic, with wooden walls, animal fur rugs, and wall-mounted taxidermies. A pet gate, over which the Phoenix could fly effortlessly, was her only obstacle, and sure enough there were a half-dozen cats inside. Three were adults, and while the [url=https://i.imgur.com/sgVWlVn.png]oldest cat[/url] (featuring a forest green color palette and an eyepatch) lurked toward the back watching her, the other two -a white-spotted [url=https://i.imgur.com/2ltLiCB.png]female[/url] and a [url=https://i.imgur.com/qQaikGo.png]male[/url] with a brown hat plus colostomy bag- seemed to be the proud parents of a three-kitten litter. These kittens, for the most part, represented a mixture of their parents' traits, but one seemed to have a rounded mouth and a big, protruding tongue. Each feline featured a collar that offered its wearer's name at closer inspection: Vlady for the papa cat, Jitterbug for the mama cat, Fenrir for the old tom, then Stamper, Bzam, and Coarse Dirt for the kittens. 

[color=92278f]”I would not be surprised.”[/color] Sectonia said, not only confused at all the cats but their names and everything. Cats weren’t common on popstar. [color=92278f]”I do not see much use for this room outside of… another trophy room perhaps. Whoever runs this place seems to like to make trophies out of various things.”[/color]


[color=ed1c24]“That seems to be true. They surely like their cats”[/color] Mokou comments, scanning the room for anything out of place… Ultimately coming to the conclusion that there was nothing truly of notice here aside from the large variety of cats.

Upon turning to leave, Mokou found herself confronted by somebody new in her way. A [url=https://en.touhouwiki.net/images/b/b3/ThGKSatori.png]pale girl[/url] in a pastel blue sweater over a flowery white dressed stared at her with a stern, deadpan expression, as if her dark eyes could see straight through Mokou. "Satori Komeji," she declared out of the blue, answering the unspoken question of who she was. "This is the Palace of Earthly Spirits, my abode within the magic labyrinth of Winterhold College," she went on, perhaps trying to skip as much conversation as possible. "And yes, these are all my cats. They appreciate being understood, unlike most people. Which is why I don't have much interest in leaving. But I might have an idea or two that'd help you out." For how easily she seemed to discern what the Seekers wanted to know, though, the girl wasn't all that forthcoming.

Mokou blinks slightly, but slowly rotates back to an upright position. Surprisingly enough, her mind actually becomes somewhat streamlined for Satori’s mind reading… An act that indicated a lot of experience with one’s own memories, [color=ed1c24]“Understandable, I can get the appeal of chilling in a place where folks don’t annoy you. Got plenty of experience like that”[/color] Mokou states, looking back at Sectonia, [color=ed1c24]"Seen-”[/color]

“Nope,” Satori replied before Mokou could ask anything. “Nobody else has entered this place.” She crossed her arms, her expression neutral. It could easily be interpreted that she wanted as little to do with the newcomers as possible, but perhaps she just wanted to save time. After a moment, her eyes wandered to her cats, especially the old tomcat with the eyepatch. “Easy, Fenrir,” she told him. “They don’t want to hurt us. And its not like your bear traps would affect them, anyway.”

[color=ed1c24]“She’s right. Well, it might slow me down. But that’s about it”[/color] the phoenix comments towards Fenrir, before letting out a small sigh, not even voicing her words towards Satori but instead directing her thoughts about the two moving on. There wasn’t much that concerned them anyway, and they had to regroup with the other individuals that got teleported around.

“Farewell, then.” Satori moved aside so that the Seekers could proceed down the hallway. After a moment, she ventured, “If any of your friends have pets, tell them to drop by. My cats could use someone new to play with.”

When the Seekers reached the far doorway, Sectonia bid her antlers push the door open for her. Sectonia and Mokou found themselves within a vaulted chamber smothered in tattered curtains and spider silk. Appallingly dark, it featured only a couple glass globes containing glowing fireflies and a faint spotlight from above for illumination. The floor itself appeared to be made of molded metal, or perhaps lustrous chitin, arranged in ceremonious circles and ridges. Fallen surgical tools could be found around toppled tables, wheelchairs and gurneys, with broken bindings that suggested involuntary captivity. Most striking of all was the enormous metal contraption that stood in the room’s center, a pair of arcs supporting a half-dozen giant spikes pointed inward, strung with dimly luminous silk and outrageously, surgically sharp. There seemed to be two wooden double doors to allow patients in and out. While before the chamber had been mostly empty with slight shifting of creatures, with the previous seeker having visited this chamber before many silk laden corpses rest around the room, some burnt, some shredded, most destroyed by what seemed to be machine gun fire, but most of all the chamber was eerily quiet.

The silence in the surgical chamber is oppressive, the darkness heavy. It suppressed the Seekers with an atmosphere that made them keep their voices down instinctively, though as far as they knew, there was nothing here that could hear them. There seemed to be no signs of life, yet something struck the intruders as oddly...furtive. Secretive. As if something in here didn't want to be seen, and with every moment that passed, this unseen presence grew more and more nervous, pushed closer to the breaking point. [i]DON'T LOOK AT ME. DON'T LOOK AT ME.[/i] Finally, after a few ominous moments of absolute, unnerving silence, the shadows screeched at them. [b]"HIEAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!"[/b] From the darkness, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/kTqwCvB.png]smudge of a face[/url] loomed out at them, warped and weeping. Corrosive pitch-black paint dribbled from its misshapen maws, ready to be spat, and its hypnotic movements began to make the Seekers feel drowsy.

Mokou instinctively raises her hand to a snapping motion, only to grimace slightly when she remembered the anti-magical field that was preventing her from properly casting. But it only took a few moments for her to readjust, taking a small gamble as she closed her eyes and raised her hands, [color=ed1c24]“Hey, chill. We’re just passing through.”[/color]

Sectonia meanwhile wasn’t looking for peace with such a hideous monster, and knowing the dampening magic field, pulled out her new ‘cursed’ relic and just unloaded on the new creature. Although she wasn’t happy with the huge mana drain the item caused nor its long windup, once the Last Prism had its beams converge it made quite the effective light laser to pierce the darkness and do some good damage to the dark creature until it sucked her mana dry, forcing her to swap to her swords and axe and keep low to regenerate her mana. 

[color=ed1c24]“... Or not. I suppose we’re doing this”[/color] Mokou says with a sigh, taking out her Pokeball and, in a flash of light, releasing Keine from its ball. The young Spheal looked around slightly before it locked onto the creature before them, almost seeming to panic and look back at Mokou, [color=ed1c24]“It’s fine, I’m here. Let Sectonia take the lead but support with Rollout”[/color] Mokou commanded, earning a somewhat hesitant but brave nod from Keine as they curled into a ball and began to roll towards the dark creature. Unlike most of its cute rolls however, it began to pick up speed rather quickly, barreling down to smash into the target.

The shadow creature reacted fairly violently but unknown to Mokou he would’ve done this anyway since they had looked at him. While it looked like a mass of tendrils and other abominable features, its method of attack was unexpected for the two girls as instead of using its limbs to strike them, instead it spit globs of acidic paint at them. Meanwhile its tendrils moved in a bit of a hypnotic pattern, making Mokou and Sectonia a bit drowsy as they looked at him. While Sectonia thought a big blast of light magic would do massive damage to this creature, it was just normal damage while Mokou’s spheal did greatly reduced damage. Apparently this thing wasn’t made of shadow, but of paint and ink and bludgeoning attacks did almost nothing to it.


Mokou herself simply stepped to the side of the acidic projectile fired at her, her expression completely unimpressed as she took her hand out of her pocket again. She hadn’t used her magic before because of the antimagic from earlier, but in the moments that had passed she realized that no, the presence [i]wasn’t[/i] actually around anymore. Thus there was nothing holding her back.

… And therefore, nothing stopping her from incinerating this monster.

With a snap of her fingers, a stream of fire erupted from Mokou’s hand, carving through the air and slamming into the monster of ink, causing it to instantly catch aflame and screech in agony, flailing wildly, its attack on the Seekers forgotten now that it was in the process of burning alive. It staggered away, trying to put out the flames, before it collapsed into a smoldering pile.

Sectonia was too big to dodge the projectile, but besides the dot damage ticking on her for a few moments it didn’t hurt too much. The creature, once lit on fire, seemed to go down pretty quickly with the smell of burning paint emanating from its smoldering corpse before it turned into a spirit. The two girls were still drowsy from its hypnosis, but that would wear off in time.

[color=92278f]”Grab the spirit and let us continue on.”[/color] Sectonia said, Mokou being closer as she took a look at where the creature was and smashed one of the nearby operating tables in disgust… or maybe that was from something else? Hm…

Mokou watches Sectonia already move on, tilting her head slightly at the Queen’s random act of destruction, but otherwise not commenting on it, instead returning Keine to its Pokeball and picking up the spirit to hold onto for the time being.