Mokley

The Zephyr Extinct

Recalling something one had mentioned, she hummed a song she sometimes heard street musicians play. Holding a distressed person while humming could supposedly calm them with the vibrations. She tried to keep the tune gentle and even, but her breath juddered in her chest. Compartmentalising was all but impossible right now.

@LuckyBlackCat

Cedar holstered his weapon on his back, then held his hands in front of him, palms up. He took a step back, assuming his best 'I won't hurt you' stance. He tried to think of something calming to say, then promptly decided against it, settling on silence instead.

@Grey Omen

She put a grin on her face and reopened her eyes. She could see colors and vague shapes now, but everything was a blur. "Oh dear," She giggled. "I messed up. I'm not going to be much use for anyone in this state."

@drewccapp

The tall girl brought herself down on a landing pad and began rappelling down into the alleyway via vines; as good as she was, it seemed too dicey for a girl as tall and muscular as her, aboard a glider, to make a descent directly with everyone else. While they dealt with Ruskali behind her, Iris knelt and inspect the corpse. Whoa. What's with the ring?

@Plank Sinatra

Ruskali shivered in Rose's hold like a leaf in a hurricane, his stained teeth bared, his filmed gray eyes wide and wild and sightless. But as Rose began to hum a gentle tune, Ruskali slowly stopped struggling and began instead to gurgle a wordless sound in his throat.

There was nothing left of him but a heartbeat, a trickle of breath, and a streak of cold tears down his sallow, dirty face.

"Nobody really liked him anyway," Fluke commented. He'd walked up behind Rose, the little drone perched on top of his mask, and he lilted his head as if Ruskali were a funny street performer.

His gaze shifted toward Listener, who seemed to be wobbling around a bit more manically than usual. The shorter Ze ambled up to her and waved his hands in front of her mask. "Hey guys, I think Listener can't see. You really rolled a one on that hit, huh?" he laughed.

Ruskali's knees buckled, and his weight drooped toward the ground as if he no longer had the strength to hold himself upright.

An echoing voice hummed a faint tune in the empty square. While the vines and flowers shivered, and an armadillo scuttled across the cobblestones, they could hear someone else singing the same tune that Rose used to calm Ruskali. It was faintly coming from the broken windows of a high building that was veined with vines and violet flowers.

Rose might recognize the voice as that of an old friend.

Cedar, however, would hear a very different voice. One that no one else could hear, that whispered inside his own skull:

'tnelis peek. gnihton od. yaw eht uoy wohs lliw i.'

Meanwhile, in the alley, Iris might discover that the healer's corpse was pale, hollow and gray-eyed, thin and emaciated like the hosts of the Nox. The black ring seemed nothing unusual, except the skin around it had turned a deep bruised purple, and etched into the smooth dark surface was a circle with a dot in the center. It was a symbol of grounding, of energy and purpose. It meant a higher calling.

It was the symbol of Amalgam.

The Zephyr Extinct

If anybody wants to drop in another reply, now's the time! 😊

The Zephyr Extinct

Is there still a Horror at Ruskali's place, or was that Nox the one that got him? I know it's possible he was the mentioned host all along, but either way, I'm guessing the investigation will continue just to make sure all threats are dealt with?

@LuckyBlackCat

Honestly it's up to you guys whether you want to continue searching or focus elsewhere now! We were taking a long time to get to Ruskali's apartment so I brought the Nox to you. 😂 But if you were to go to the apartment now there would probably be more clues at least!

The Zephyr Extinct

I've never roleplayed someone that's been blinded before. This is going to be interesting.

@drewccapp

All of it is totally up to you! 💚 She could recover quickly or....

Sounds good, I'm trying to gauge whether Rose would have a phone, considering her dad is likely pretty wealthy. On the one hand it's a practical thing, on the other, she left behind most aspects of her old life and prefers to make her own way rather than have everything handed to her.

Leaning towards no, for that reason and the fact she'd figure the Ze would have some form of communication. Now I think about it though, it's likely there are rich people out shopping, and somebody would get help. Or is Archer in contact with the care centre, since the Ze deal with hosts on a regular basis?

@LuckyBlackCat

For the purposes of RP, it's probably safe to assume that all NPCs are just as helpful and mindful as Fluke, unless a PC asks them to do something. 😅 You guys make stuff happen. If Rose is looking for communication, you can totally assume she gets it wherever she looks for it: ask a random passerby, ask Archer, run into a shop and use their phone, etc. Or, as in the opening, make up a NPC who has a phone, who can call on her behalf. Anything you wanna do, you can assume success. 👍🏽

The Zephyr Extinct

@LuckyBlackCat Good question! Let's say cell phones are a thing for the wealthiest class, otherwise most shops and homes should have a landline! Archer may also have some alternative communication networks for Ze.

The Zephyr Extinct

"Y'know Fluke, less talking and more doing would be nice!"

@LuckyBlackCat

"I'm doing!" Fluke protested. "I'm watching your back! You're welcome."

"Uh... guys... Ruski has become a, uh, host for a Nox."

@drewccapp

"Whoa, is that what the mass panic's about?" Fluke hopped down from the weapons chest and began to meander through the running, screaming, shouting crowd, like a raging sea of billowing bright robes and fear-stricken faces. The sound of stampeding feet echoed in the square. "I gotta see this!"

Behind him, Archer straightened her posture. She watched the fleeing people with a glassy shine in her helmet's eyes, like a deer that had spied a wolf, but she did not interfere. Not yet.

Cedar moved closer to the body, motioning to shoo the armadillo away from it.

@Grey Omen

The armadillo jumped backward, wiggled angrily at Cedar's hand, then scuttled haughtily away through a cracked hole in the wall.

What was left beneath Cedar's feet was a slightly misshapen form beneath the soil: a young man with a black ring on his finger, wearing the orange wrapped robes of the reservoir healers. His brown skin was cold.

She aimed for his mouth as she tearfully struck forth hoping she could end the Nox without ending Ruskali with it.

@drewccapp

Ruskali reached for Listener like a man dying of thirst in the desert, while black ooze bubbled out of his throat and began to gnash bright teeth of its own. A wide perimeter had grown around them, littered with paper and food wrappers, while along the walls the people fled stumbling, their eyes averted from the horrific sight of a Nox being born--

Listener's shaking reluctance gave the Nox time to shift nearly out of the way, jammed against the roof of Ruskali's mouth like oily black taffy-- but the spear struck a quick long gash into the Nox and triggered a bright white flash like lightning inside Ruskali's throat: it shone in his eyes and glowed haunting beneath his skin for only an instant while the Nox screeched like a tortured cat.

The ragged, tattered, injured Nox fled like torn paper out of Ruskali's mouth, desperate to get away from the fading light of Listener's spear, and it swirled over Ruskali's head in blind confusion--

"Cover your eyes everyone!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, before bracing for recoil and firing.

@LuckyBlackCat

The projectile thudded into the soil and burst with a bright explosion of light that blinded the entire square. A few straggling passersby shrieked and ducked their heads under their arms while the Nox howled a long, low death cry into the white-blinding light.

Iris reflexively lifted up one hand over her eyes, feeling the cool texture of her mask against her skin. She almost felt, rather than saw, the resulting muzzle flash from Steel Rose's weapon going off, but from her height above the rest of the team she wasn't as affected by the blinding light of her teammate's energy blast;

@Plank Sinatra

When the light cleared, all that was left of the Nox was a shimmer of dark smoke that dissipated into the air. Listener had nearly killed it, and Rose's flash had struck the destroying blow.

Iris, from her vantage point, might see a shock of orange cloth in the alley, where Cedar and Rose had left the young man's body: the same color of the hooded figure from the roof.

Dimly he was aware of Iris above them, but the issue that caught his attention more was Listener's clear reluctance to risk harming Ruskali. He didn't blame her, but he still moved closer, taking a combative stance as his vision readjusted slightly from the shot.

@Grey Omen

Ruskali was not dead.

His eyes clouded haunting gray. Black and red mucus dribbled from the corner of his mouth and snagged in his scraggled beard. Tears leaked from his hollow eyes, and he sobbed quietly...

...then suddenly bared his teeth, his eyes widened in terror and fury as he saw Cedar's mask. Ruskali screeched a horrible manic noise and flung himself at Cedar, his thin hands striking at Cedar's throat with deadly intent to crush his windpipe in his grip.

The Zephyr Extinct

Well I hope there will be no tragic deaths! And I think we're all not in a rush, so no stress either! 😄

The Zephyr Extinct

Aw cool!! :D

@Grey Omen Will Cedar be making a decision? I warn you, indecisiveness itself is a decision not to act, and so will cause things to happen. 😉

(can't guarantee they'll be good things, and can't guarantee other characters won't feel the effects, just sayin)

The Zephyr Extinct

Aw man, everything's getting crazy!! And hey cool logo Lucky! 💚

Yeah it looks like there's gonna be some mass panic in everyone's future....

Last call for posts!!

The Zephyr Extinct

"So, I have three days to live! I wonder what I can do with that kind of freedom? Well, there are a lot of ways to live. Just as many as there are to die. I wonder, how do you want to live? How do you want to die?" She then shifted her tone from playful to serious. "I can tell you have a great amount of love for your people. After all, what kind of person is willing to commit social suicide for their peers? We live in a stable time. Who wants to hear a message of doom? Would you listen to your own message in the way you've delivered it today?"

@drewccapp

Ruskali peered at her mask from under bushy eyebrows. "To live..." he murmured, "...to die. There is no such thing, or there won't be, soon. You should know, Ze. You protect yourself from them, but the Horrors and the Nox are not the ones that need worry you. It is Amalgam. It is the Ravel. No one will hear it, no one will believe. All life as we know it is about to end, but only after your light goes out. So you must listen, and speak."

He lashed out and grabbed Listener's shoulders in a vicelike grip. "It's true, they're complacent! They won't hear the death knoll, but they will hear you! The Ravel draw the swarm, the swarm devours and then becomes one in Amalgam. Warn them, warn them!"

His skin began to rapidly lose color, turning papery thin while a roiling swelling darkness swirled in his veins. Ruskali was wasting away before her, as if his very life were being sucked from his body. "Secure the Light!" he choked while his gray-fogged eyes sank into skull-like sockets, and a group of passersby shrieked and backed away.

Inside Ruskali's widening mouth was the writhing, oily black sinew of a Nox.

"So...not to freak anyone out, but there's an evil death cloud just rolling up," Iris reported brightly over comms. "Just cruising in like it owns the place. I know in all the stories bad things always happen when someone goes to check the evil vortex out up close, but does anyone have juuust enough curiosity to talk me into flying closer and seeing what's up with it?"

@Plank Sinatra

On the rooftop below, the hooded figure left the barrel to burn and swept away through a rooftop door, which squealed and clacked tightly shut.

The undulating dark cloud-- like shifting starlings --was still miles away on the horizon.

"'Evil death cloud' sounds like a plague of locusts," Fluke jabbed conversationally while he spun the drone around and around Rose's head to see her new Nox-scarf from all angles. "I vote you fly straight into it. If you're not devoured like a chicken leg in a pool of piranhas, then I guess the rest of us'll be alright. But if we don't hear back from you in an hour we'll be in the fallout bunker. Oh hey, Cedar's got a gun pointed dead-on at Rose's face!"

He aimed Steel Rose's gun slightly off, just in case a direct hit would hurt her somehow. Then a colder part of his mind took over, steadying his hand and moving slightly to line it up directly. 'Better safe than sorry,' something in him whispered. 'Safety as in guarantee Nox removal, that is, not her safety specifically.' He made a silent prayer that a direct hit would only burn the Nox away without harming Rose, then pulled the trigger. (@LuckyBlackCat)

@Grey Omen

ka-BOOM!

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The impact was like a heavy mallet; it struck Rose in the face of her mask and threw her sprawling backward to the ground while the narrow alley brightened with searing, blinding white light. She could suddenly breathe again, because the Nox had dissipated into a poof of harmless black smoke.

Its death-scream echoed down the alley and rang in their ears before it was gone.

The armadillo, undisturbed thanks to Cedar and Rose, continued digging in the dirt, uncovering more and more of a dead human arm that was still connected to a body, somewhere beneath the packed ground.

Fluke's drone whirred helpfully overhead.