Goodneighbor || Open

[Felixr2]

Fotein had been intruiged by what Duren said. However, she had no chance to respond as, when she wanted to speak, a bird came flying into the café and landed right on her head. Must be a nice place there, then. As she cautiously petted the bird, Duren said it was his brother's pet.

 

"You have a brother?" She asked, trying to get the bird to walk into her hands. "Is he just as kind as you are?" She had meant this mostly as a compliment, although she also was a little bit curious.

[padfoot]

Skinner immediately began to snoop around in Hancocks house, reguardless if he was watching him. He slid a book off the shelf and began to thumb though it absentmindedly. He was really thinking about what Mina had told him about her enemy. He knew two things for sure, that if it was up to him he wouldn't even mess with two forest sprites, they're too powerful and smart and that he knew that species had weaknesses. He would need to borow hancock's lab though and they were running out of time. Skinner replaced the book whe Mina spoke up in the living room. She had still only answered one of his questions, was this the second one.. Sure did take a lot of secrecy, "cross my heart", he said, tracing an X across his breast pocket, the lines hung in the air with a jagged red light.

 

Skinner furrowed his brow with confusion as she began her explanation. That confusion turned to wonder as she dropped her glamour and showed off her true form. First thing; she is huge. Her pointed ears were close to grazing the ceiling. Skinner's mouth dropped open, causig his cigarette holder he had been chewing on sliding from his mouth and clatter to the floor. Skinner shook his head ad strode aross the room, hardly aware that Hancock had come back, and touched the sides of her face with both hands, "You're....well, terrifying" he said truthfully with a look of wonder on his face. Skinner always kinds geeked out when he meets new species, "And your eyes! I knew you had a lot but with the whole context-" Skinner took a step back and motioned to her entire body,"-of the rest of you they fit. They are beautiful by the way. Are the bottom pair compound, they look special". He laced his fingers on top of his head and stared at her for several seconds without speaking, "How did you get here? Wait! Do you exist in more than three dimensions and this form is all we can perceive?" Skinner shook his head, finally regestering that Hancock was standing in the room as well, "Oh, Can I borrow your lab for a tick? I need to whip something up for Mina's guests." he asked politely.

[shadow_claw]

Mina sat and watched as the others in the house gawked at her form. She shifted her weight uncomfortably, before carefully sidiling into a plush recliner. It did, at the very least, make her feel less cramped.

 

The whole staring and gaping thing clearly made her uneasy. It was a problem when people who were well associated with the unknown were gaping in awe. Or perhaps terror? Her kind were certainly much larger than humans. And faster. Though not particularly stronger.

 

"My people are shape-shifters; our eyes let us see what we're trying to hide. Glamours, hidden forms, that stuff. We can always tell each other apart." Mina explained. In times of stress or seperation, the best way to pick one another out was to be able to see their true forms.

 

Unamused with Skinner's many questions, but too tired to snap at him, she watched him prance about like a giddy child. Most people responded with fear. Excitement was new and somewhat frustrating. "That's another story for another time. What you need to know is that I'm here and I wasn't here to start with. Okay?"

[SheridanCharon]

Duren couldn't stop himself from blushing slightly at the compliment. Compliments were plenty from his brothers, but that was to expected of relatives as close as the three of them were and, in all honesty, didn't hold as much weight with him as they should've done. Not because they were insincere, no, his brothers always truly meant what they said. But the kind words of a stranger always made Duren feel somewhat better, even though the doubts remained.

 

"I'm the oldest of triplets. After me is Zaren - he's the one I just mentioned - and then there's Malice," he smiled as he watched Fotein trying to coax the tiny bird onto her hands, something even Zaren struggled to do, "We're...well, completely different. Mal is a sweetheart when he wants to be, but he's usually a bit of a jerk. Zaren is...he's distant. He's so much better than me, but he's...not exactly a social person,"

 

He neglected to mention how "distant" was a sugar-coated understatement, but that was probably for the best.

 

~~~~~~~~

 

Malice allowed himself a grin when he noticed the confusion enter her face after she had glanced downwards and saw his lack of footwear. He didn't care what anyone other than his master thought of him and his quirks, and to be honest, it was a source of great amusement for him. Behind him, he could sense the shadows starting to twitch and murmur again, but a quick click of the tongue quieted them.

 

"Name's Malice. Not my real name, by the way, so don't bother trying any hoodoo voodoo bull with it,"

 

He stretched and cracked his neck, presenting an air of calm confidence, but inside, he was on full alert, ready to move if this woman - Gabriel, she had called herself, - decided to take a swing while his guard appeared to be down. He still wasn't sure on what she was, but something, some primal instinct, told him to remain vigilant.

 

Still, there was one thing he could tell she wasn't, and that was kindred. That was something good, at least, for both their sakes. The last thing he wanted was one of his brethren lurking around, that would only lead to bloodshed that Malice would rather avoid. Even if he did enjoy the taste.

 

"As for your second question, that's simple. I live here with my master and his brother, and before you start getting all snicker-snacker happy with your vorpal blade, they're not demons,"

[RavenWolf1010]

Hoodoo voodoo? Did she really look like a witch doctor? His reference confused her, but she didn't ask, getting the idea at least. She maintained a cool composure, despite at the mention of 'brothers' feeling the urge to scan the area to avoid an ambush. The man seemed as neutral as she did at the moment; a fight didn't seem that likely. "But you are. A demon." Did he not know what she was? Or did he not care? She thought all demons were preconditioned to be able to spot an angel from a mile away. An archangel, two miles away. Maybe it was because those demons often caused massive amounts of trouble, and were wary of those who they knew would come to stop them. With that, she figured this demon must've never done anything to attract the attention of angels, and therefore wasn't likely to prove a major problem in the future. "I'm somewhat surprised you haven't vanished by now. Usually most demons at the sight of an archangel turn tail or raise sword. I like to think I don't have a stick shoved as far up my as my brothers. With that being said, as long as you don't cause any problems for me, I won't have to carry out my duties as 'Heavens' Warrior'." The angel wanted to ensure he knew she would be around and watching, but posed no threat unless he forced her hand.

 

((I'll have to do Hancock later, sorry guys.))

[Lemniscate]

If it were any other case, Eleusis would have squawked indignantly at being pet by a stranger, but the woman was rather nice and warm, a contrast to the slightly chilly morning breeze. Still, she only just tolerated it, and tried to wriggle away. However, the woman's fingers only seemed to circle closer, making her chirp in annoyance. That was a drawback of her bird form. Most people tried to treat her like some ordinary pet and move her as they pleased. Well, she wouldn't stand for that! She stubbornly remained glued in place, occasionally squawking when a finger came too close. Duren's explanation became a mere background noise as she ducked around the woman's hand, nimbly dodging the various nudges. Eventually, she grew tired of the constant acrobatics and took off, choosing to perch on Duren's head instead. If birds could stick their tongues out at people, she would have done so.

 

For a few moments, she settled in comfortably, before the aroma of food made its way over to her nostrils. Hm? Did someone forget to finish all of their meal? Turning her head, she located a plate full of food scraps and flew towards it, quickly digging in. The fact that she had just eaten breakfast did nothing to slow her consumption of food. An arriving waiter with plates of food quirked an eyebrow slightly at her (as she didn't have a glamour on - birds weren't that suspicious), but went on with his job and delivered a plate of pancakes to Duren. The fresh aroma caught her attention, and she hopped over to the plate, giving Duren a pleading look. Of course, he wouldn't know that she had already eaten breakfast and a little more food couldn't hurt, right? She wasn't going to grow fat or anything anyway since her metabolism was quite a bit faster than average.

Edited November 4, 2016 by Silverphoenixx

[RavenWolf1010]

Hancock shrugged and poured a cup of hot water and dropped a tea bag in for himself. "Sure," he said between sips of tea. "It's the shed out in the back. It should be unlocked." The man walked Skinner to the door and outside, around to the back. "Help yourself to whatever is in there. It's not much. I haven't restocked in a while." Boy, do I sure regret it. I'll have to send Raven for me.

The shed was bigger than it appeared on the outside. All along the walls where there wasn't a bookcase, there were swords. Even some of the bookcases had swords piled on them. Half the room was dedicated to swords. The other, a few tables strung together. Along the tables were a variety of neatly organized ingredients and open books along with some notebooks with scribbled notes. On the wall above the tables were pictures. The pictures spanned across at least half the wall, and were of many different people or rather Fae, that had come and gone over the years. A good chunk was of him, Raven, and Gabriel. There were a few from Christmas with a disgruntled but festive canine Raven and Gabriel, and a much too joyful Hancock. Some were of each of them at the lake (tucked deep in the forest) obviously having a great time.

Hancock left Skinner to do what he needed and headed back inside to greet the guests that would begin to arrive any moment. He turned to Mina. "They will arrive soon. You might want to reinstate your Glamour." The idea bugged him. She seemed more at ease in her true form. If only there was someway to make it so she wouldn't have to go back. Maybe if he cast a spell on the others? That was too risky. Spells didn't always work as well on non-humans. "After they leave, and if you take me up on my offer to stay, you're of course welcome to take your true form while you're here. It seems to be more comfortable and the only visitors I get are Raven and Gabriel."

 

 

 

Raven blinked spots from her eyes after something flashing has momentarily blinded her. What was that? She squinted trying to make out what exactly it had been on Corr that could've shown like that. Blue glistened and winked at her. It looked like blue lines running across Corr's skin. Rising to her feet she crept closer and tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Were those blue crystals on his skin? No... they were in. Very strange. It was about then she heard huffing behind her and before she could turn, a massive amount of weight slammed into her.

Claws raked the thinner skin of her ribs and face. The blood oozing from the gashes of her face blinded her and she couldn't make out her assailant. However she could smell the musk over the metallic reek of her own blood. It was another bear, likely male, probably attracted by the sounds of fighting, thinking there was a female to fight over. Yet upon seeing the oblivious wolf, it chose to attack.

With a mighty snarl she used her back legs to try and push the bear off of her. It did little to move the massive grizzly. Then she tried her front paws, doing her best to smack the bear in the face and claw back. It hardly made a difference. She could've been a fly for all the bear knew. The canine snapped at the bear's face and tore at its ears, desperate to escape being mauled. Is this really it?

Edited November 5, 2016 by RavenWolf1010

[Felixr2]

The fight with the bear was intense. Corr only held back a little bit, to make sure the bear didn't get permanently damaged by the fight, because Hancock had said he wasn't allowed to do that. Then he heard another bear approach to the right of him. This could get interesting. However, the other bear kept distance for some reason. When Corr turned to take a look again, he saw the bear fighting the wolf that he had seen earlier today. Had it followed him? Whatever, if this wolf behaved so different from other wolves, and this bear is attacking it, then... would he be allowed to hurt the bear? This thought excited Corr. He ran to his left, getting followed by the bear he was fighting. As the bear caught up with Corr again, he used it's speed as an advantage to throw the bear into the river. It landed with it's teeth right on top of a big fish. How wonderful.

 

Now he turned back towards the bear that was bashing on the wolf. "Hey! Why don't you fight someone your own size?!!" He ran towards the bear and punched it in the chest, launching it a few feet backwards, into a tree. The bear now wanted to fight Corr, while the other bear was enjoying it's fish on the other side of the river. The bear ran back to him, and he grabbed it's neck and tossed it over his own head, slamming his back on the floor. The bear, now quite hurt, scurried away in fear of taking more damage from this man. Corr turned towards the wolf. "Can you show me the way back to the town?"

 

((I'll post Fotein later today))

[RavenWolf1010]

I'm just a little preoccupied right now.

 

The wolf laid panting on her side, blood soaking the dirt and grass underneath her. Gashes ran down her flank and crisscrossed her face. She tried to get up, but snarled in frustration as she only fell. I should be healing by now. I've had worse and bounced back quicker. Again, she struggled to her feet. Blood soaked and matted her ebony fur.

 

Alright, come on.

 

Her legs shook with just the effort of walking. Apparently it still proved to be too much as she only went a few feet before her legs gave out. It was a pitiful sight, but Raven's pride kept her going. And one day, it might very well be the death of her. Today however was not that day.

 

Just... give me a few minutes.

 

She huffed, the frustration obvious in her 'voice'.

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Zoey huffed as she opened the door, hearing someone's footsteps follow her out the door. Luckily they went away rather quickly and she turned her head to see who it was but saw no one in sight. Without warning she ran right into someone. Turning her head, she smiled up the man she just ran into. "Excuse me sir," Zoey said, wondering what she could take off of him. There was a necklace around his neck that she could easily take. "I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

 

==========

 

Theo, after leaving the café decided to go tangible again. Sticking his hands in his pockets, Theo skulked down the street, looking up at the shops to see what was there. He paused, looking up at one store that, for whatever reason, caught his interest. An art shop. He blinked up at it, wondering why it caught his attention.

[padfoot]

When Hancock metioned that he could use his lab Skinner smiled, "Great thanks", he said. He went back to theplace where Mina's appearance caused him to drop his cigarette holder and retrieved it. As he walked towards the hallway something caused him to pause. He looked at the front door and frowned. "One second, friend" he said, pulling out a sharpie and a pad of post-it notes. He scribbled something on the top note and slapped it over the door jab. There was another strange rune scrawled on the yellow paper, "Charm of ill intent. surprised you don't have more to protet this place. I can fix that....you know, for the right price". Skinner could feel that there was something protecting the house but it felt like against ghosts and demons. What Skinner had placed over the door would act as a suggestive force on the inside of the house that suppressed aggressive tendencies of its inhabitants. Skinner's own doors were framed with runes carved into the doorframe that protected him from all sorts of nasty things that might mean him harm.

 

After his little home improvment task compleate, he followed Hancock out the backdoor and into his yard. His lab was a small shed pressed against the bak of his property. Like him, he assumed that Hancock's real lab wa located someplace else and the door was just a long distance entrance. His own lab was located in his parent's basement...well, one of their basements. Along with his lab, he also had his own room, and a priviate libeary in a tower not visiable from the outside of his house. Skinner thanked the man, and started pouring through the shelves. He was right, he was missing a lot of supplies, "You know I can restock you. I supply to a couple users nearby and wouldn't mind adding your list to my roster." he said before he left him alone. Rubbing his hands together, he got to work on his gift for Mina's friends.

[RavenWolf1010]

What the hell was this bull town? Upon arriving, he could feel the forces at work, protecting and shielding it. Dameon grimaced. His power would be affected. The forces didn't allot him to teleport out, only in. Great. I hate this place already. The demon straightened his jacket. From the pocket he pulled a comb and brushed his hair back into his usual style. Other demons called him 'pretty boy' behind his back. Yet despite his shallow appearance, his was intelligent and had a streak for lashing out. You didn't want to be on his bad side. "First thing first, where the do I find this feathered freak?" Dameon could sense many other interesting beings residing here, their forces calling to him like a siren's song. Maybe this place will prove to be useful yet. Strong hosts meant magnified powers. But that was for later.

Having landed just outside the town, he took stock of what he had. A harrowing blade, coated with angel tears, meant to kill an angel. Check. A pack of Virginia Slims. Check. A wad of cash. Check. He was ready to go. "Time to earn my wings."

[Felixr2]

((I think birds actually can stick out their tongue...))

 

Duren's response had somewhat surprised Fotein. That such a kind person was one of triplets, the middle brother being distant and the youngest one being a jerk. Fotein didn't like that word, she never used it and it hardly ever appeared in her thoughts. The youngest brother was quite rude.

 

"Well then, it's a pleasure I met you first."

 

The bird flew away from Fotein's head. Apparently it didn't like how she had treated it; weird, because most birds seemed to like her warm touch. She immediately felt sorry for the poor little bird that was now sitting on Duren's head in front of her.

 

"It seems the bird decided it likes you better"

 

---

 

The wolf growled a bit in response to him, struggling to get up. Why did he ask it in the first place? Why did he even think a wolf could understand English?

 

The wolf eventually got up and started to walk. Not for long until it fell to the ground again, but long enough to see the direction in which it was heading. Corr decided to walk in that direction. The wolf behind him was still struggling to walk. If the wolf died here, he wouldn't have any excuse for hurting the bear, so he picked up the wolf and decided to carry it. Maybe it might even be able to show him the way, somehow...

 

---

 

Trees. Wind. Various animals walking around. Shouts. Light in the distance. He was getting close. He could already feel the arcane energy of protective spells, as well as some... protective runes. Only protective. Defensive. No offensive runes. No danger... yet. Traces of the use of black magic, holy magic and alchemy, as well as some other kinds of magic, some of which he couldn't identify. Interesting. With all those traces, this had to be the town he was looking for. The town where his deeds would no longer be described as the work of God, ghosts or, in one country, lepruchauns.

 

Although he couldn't identify some of the kinds of magic he noticed, he did notice the basics of all magic in all of them. Except for one. There was one stream of energy he felt, that wasn't natural energy, but also didn't follow the basics of all magic. He had only heard stories about such kinds of magic. Stories from some of the most ancient of his kind, that had lived since the beginning of time, back when arcane was the only energy that allowed the use of magic. Before most of the arcane energy was changed, converted to forms that allowed for more specific use. The stories said that with such high amounts of arcane energy, it was possible to create portals to places that otherwise had no connection to this world. Places that never started with arcane energy, but something entirely different.

 

It seemed that there was something - or someone - from such a place, that had made it to this world, to this town, and was still alive. Alive enough to emit this much energy. He had never seen something like this in his entire existence. This was a unique chance. He had to know more.

 

He walked to the house. A single rune was protecting it. A rune of ill intent, with quite little effect as it was just sketched on paper rather than magically set in air. But that has rarely been done since the downfall of the Norse gods. That didn't mean that sketched runes on paper could be seen as serious protection though. They sure had effect, but the effect was minimal. Why had it been placed there? Many explanations were possible, no need to think about it.

 

He entered the house. The creature that was inside was indeed out of this world. His surprise was so big that he let go off an uncontrolled wave of arcane energy. A lot of items in the room moved a bit, and apparently he had created a small portal, because there was suddenly a hedgehog sitting on the table. Not wanting to be misinterpreted again, he made himself visible, using the first appearance that came to his mind: a tall, old man with short grey hair and a short beard in the same color, wearing brown cloth trousers and a brown cloth vest over a white cotton shirt. The shoes were brown leather. Or well, depicted, as it was all modification of photons using arcane energy. But these people didn't know. Or well, the man didn't know, he couldn't be sure about the otherworldly creature.

[RavenWolf1010]

Without warning, everything in the cabin shifted and Hancock felt a wave of energy wash over him. Next, a hedgehog spawned on the coffee table. "What in the..." And then a man took form in the center of the room. The tea cup in his hand drop to the ground and shattered. A string of curses flowed under his breath, quickly followed by spell to mask Mina's form. It was weak, but better than nothing. He was then transfixed on the man that had materialized in the middle of his house. With a hedgehog. His eyes shifted to Mina. The man seemed to be fixed on her. He moved himself smoothly between the man and Mina, knowing that if she wanted her true form to be kept a secret she certainly wouldn't be happy to see this... man. The spell would only last so long and only hide so much. "Well, howdy there." He greeted, at a loss for much else with all that'd just happened. His eyes dropped to the hedgehog, who seemed to be just as confused as he was, and heading right for the edge of the table. Before it fell he gingerly picked it up and carefully cradled it, hoping it wouldn't fight him. He thankfully usually had a thing with animals (except cats of course) that made them fairly friendly.

 

 

 

 

Hey! What the hell are you doing?!

 

She growled and snapped, but it was feeble. The shifter wouldn't admit it, but she was thankful for the help. Dark spots had begun to fill her vision while she had been struggling, a sure sign she had been on her way to passing out. Eventually she settled down, having exhausted herself. Up close to Corr, she could see the blue running down his arms and across his chest. Were they... crystals? Her head was spinning and her vision still to blurry to be able to tell. I really wish this would just fix itself now. This to her was utterly demeaning.

[halfsourpickle]

Cyan put his bag of fresh art supplies into an inner pocket of his jacket. Honey had deigned to buy a box cutter, though Cyan was sure she'd only use it to trim new growths of her bamboo pole. Somehow that thing was still alive, even though it had been passed down through her family for generations. Opening the door, Cyan ran into a tall, pale guy dressed in all black. He must have been over 6 feet, and he towered over Cyan and Honey.

 

"Oh! Um," Cyan stuttered, "Sorry, I'll get out of your way. Honey...!"

 

"Yeah, yeah," Honey drawled from behind him. "Let's go, let Mr. Emo here buy his black paints."

[padfoot]

The bear Corr practially WWE'ed to deathdidn'tmake it far before collapsing from the weight of it's own injury. Slowly, the bear seemed to decompose at a rapid rate, deflating in lumpy, uneven proportions. Unnoticed to the wolf shifter he attacked and the giant blue man, a smaller form began to move underneath the bear's pelt. They also did not notice when the form shot off the ground and went loping into the woods, the oversized bear pelt flapping behind like a untied bathrobe.

 

A little while later The man had to stop and rest. A naked man wearing only a large bear pelt collapsed once again to the forest floor. struggling to catch his breath. Goddamn experiment. Where the hell did that blue dude come from? The injuries he inflicted were gone but the pain still lingered. Zeke, a skinwalker who had been living in goodneighbor for two months and hired to kill or retrive her. Every interaction with her had been a failure and now his time was up. He was scheduled to return to his employer and get his next assignment ad will not be getting payment for this one. Pissed at himself, Zeke shifted back into a bear and lumbered off towards the closest big pollulation center.

 

Thirty thousand feet above Goodneighbor, mearly a dot in the darkening sky, flew a military grade UAV silently watching the town below. The live feed camera mounted under the shatterproof dome switched from it's zoom lens to a thermal camea to cut through the clouds that were accumilating below. All it could see was miles ad miles of trees. That would be the case if Skinner's massive glamour he was generating over the town was working. Or if this drone didn't have a Adder's Stone outfitted to the camera.

 

On the other side of the drone sat a regular white collar worker, ot someone with military training. Standing uncomfortably close to the man was a rather tall, imposing man in a tailored suit. "This is uh...this is the town we tracked your signal too. it...it doesn't show up on any maps of the area...or on any of NASA's satellites. But there it is, with a population and buildings and everyting. I...I don't....what is this, Sir?" The an at the computer asked, not taking his eyes off the monitor. The man clapped his hand on his shoulder and squeezed "What kind of people would live in a town that dooesn't exist?" he asked calmly, turning to leave the room, "And if this leaves the room you will be terminated." He left the man stunned and alone when the door slammed.

 

When Zeke stepped into the spacious office of his employer and looked around. It appeared to be empty. The floor was a strange reflective red material, like blood red marble. The wall directly aross from him was all glass. Sitting dead center of the room was a huge desk made of deep brown wood that Zeke was not cultured enough to know the name of. Against the left wall was a collage of framed pictures of a professional looking man bumping elbows with celebrities, positions in government, and business tycoons. Centered on a oak pedestal was a bronze statue of a nude muscular man standing flexing his bicepts. Zeke found himself staring at the statue for a unusual amount of time before a sudden voice startled him.

 

"See something you like?" a smooth voice of the man sitting in the plush swivel office chair across the desk. "! You scared me Mr. P", Zeke said, stepping carefully towards the mn's desk. He was still wearing his bear pelt and dirt caked his arms aand legs. The man curled his lip, "Could you at least shower before comeing back? Did you at least bring Raven?"

Zeke's eyes darted to the window and back at the man nervously and he shifted his weight, "You see...about that...."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Skinner stalked back into Hancock's house carefully. A tattoo on Skinner's forarme nickname "Specter Detector" was burning and swirling like mad. His cigarette holder, unloaded, was clenched between his freont teeth. In his hand he clutched a good sized rock he found in the garden. The surface was covered in runes that seemed to be burned in by a blowtorch. He crept down the hallway, heel toe, keeping as quiet as possible. Despite hi gifts, Skinner was still just an unassuming human. Maybe the fact it was able to withstand his charm meant that it was powerful or different. Or differently powerful.

 

Skinner stepped into the living room and surveyed the situation. the only thing out of place was Hancock's half-assed attempt at a fae glamour over Mina and the flickery old man standing next of a hedgehog. skinner stil had the rock and his holder, but he was still a scientist. He cleared his throat gently, "Um. Hello. Can we help you?" he asked as unthreateningly as he could manage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RavenWolf1010]

Ick. This place reeks of stale, old magic. Dameon's nose wrinkled. They must have used some ancient runes to protect this place. It was outdated stuff. So outdated that ways to counteract and undo it had become lost with time. Just his luck. He needed information. "Doesn't this town have a library?" It didn't matter anyways. Mortal libraries likely wouldn't hold the information he needed anyways. He needed someone who specialized in it, and he knew that they had to be around here somewhere. Moving stealthily behind buildings and in shadows, he followed his senses to a modest house within the town. It reeked of the same magic that protected the town. Inside, it was bound to have what he was looking for. Dameon inconspicuously made his way to the front of the house. He felt himself pass through something. A barrier of some sort? Or wall of energy? He wasn't sure. Nothing seemed to happen, but he didn't trust it. Carefully still, the demon walked up to the knob and tried it. Something like an electric shock ran through him. " !" The man jerked his hand away and clutched it to him. It burned. Looking down, he saw a rune burned into the back of his hand. That can't be good. Of course, he hadn't a clue what the rune could've meant. Disgruntled, he looked back to the house and debated a second try. Maybe the trap or whatever it had been was now triggered and wouldn't be set off again. Against his better judgement he reached for the knob. His hand was about to make contact with it when he felt all the hair on the back of his neck stand up. That certainly can't be good either. Defeated, he turned from the stoop and walked back onto the street. He wasn't about to get fried again.

The rain provided little relief for the burning on the back of his hand. The rune still hand't desisted. Dameon muttered another curse and ducked under the awning of a building and pulled out his phone. It was time for him to make a call. He dialed and the phone rang only a few times before someone picked up. Party music, yelling, and other party din could be heard in the background. "Aight party dude! Who's this, man?" A vein in Dameon's forehead was beginning to throb. "You insolent fool. I will have your head. Have you any idea who this is? You're speaking to Dameon the Damned!"

"Woah, chill out, dude. It's just a party."

"You have exactly three seconds before I reach through this phone and cut your head from your shoulders to find Seth. One. Two." There was a crinkle of movement and yelling. The music went silent and he could here the stoner yelling. "Hey, uh, is there a Seth here? Some guy called 'Pretty Boy' is calling you." Dameon could hear a muffled curse and the phone change hands. "Hello Bo-"

"Pretty boy? You'll be very lucky if you live to see the light of day after this task. Bring me books on ancient runes and magic. I'll give you my location." The demon ended the call and then sent him the location of the obscure Goodneighbor. Now he had to wait.

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Theo had to look down as he felt someone bump into him. He stared at the person who was talking to him before the person behind him started talking. He grinned slightly at his new nickname, Mr. Emo. Well, he was wearing all black, but that necessarily didn't make him emo, he just liked to be left alone most days. "Theo," he said, trying to correct the person who had nicknamed him. He didn't know why he was trying. Maybe he was lonely in a new town?

[shadow_claw]

Thing is, Mina wasn't neither as patient nor as kind as Skinner or Hancock. Rising to her full height, her head brushed the cieling and tail smashed something behind her. A growl rumbled in the back of her throat as her third set of eyes focused.

 

Something clearly man-shaped stood in the room. Being that her eyes locked on the essence of people, she had no problem seeing whoever had intruded into her place of rest. Mina, being both pissed off and injured, had mo qualms with forcibly evicting intruders.

 

She lunged forward, a powerful hand grasping for the stranger's neck. Her lips curled back as she growled once more, revealing surprisingly human teeth. They were flat in the front, curved and serrated moving towards the middle, and stumpy in the backs. Though, her canines were much more intimidating and took up more space than a man's.

 

"GET. OUT. OF THIS HOUSE."

[Felixr2]

The response of the two men had been calm, not vulgar in any sort of way. One of them had tried to hide the special creature with a spell. Arcane. And weak and simple as well, only temporarily affecting photons, but not hiding the energy that came from the body. The creature itself, however, was a lot more violent, demanding him to get out of the house now. This got tricky, he had no way of predicting what this creature would be able to do. The creature lunged at him. No use of magic. No threat. Would this otherworldly magic affect him? He couldn't know. But he could try to win their trust by helping them...

 

"Please," he said, voiceless, with arcane energy, not moving the mouth of his appearance, "give me a chance. I see there's a rune on the door over there. Although I'm not a runecrafter, I have met the honorable Norse gods, the creators of runic magic, one of the five Great Magics. And this... this ink-on-paper rune just doesn't work. The only kind of paper that provides power to runes is papyrus, all other kinds of paper don't even bind with the rune well, if at all. Another problem is that, although ink does provide power to the rune, it works nowhere as well as blood. Especially dragons' blood. But if you can't use blood, ink is still worse than charcoal or lemon juice. Unless the ink itself contains magic of some sort, but this ink doesn't. Third-" He created a sear in the middle of the paper on which the rune was drawn, burning it away, "- if you put runes on paper, always add smaller runes in the corners to make it fireproof. Have any questions?"

[padfoot]

Skinner couldn't believe it. This ghost waltzs in here and spooks Mina and then criticised how he drew a rune. And what was the nonsense he was spouting about Norse gods? Oh, and she said that word, that word he has been pushing away since he was a teenager.

 

"Magic? Magic isn't real", he said flatly once the spirit finished talking. Skinner was used to this type of criticism from a certain group of fae, it was something his dad told him early on when he was teahing him. Old fae and fae born of magic tend to turn up their nose when they get a whif his exotic matter style but usually shut up once they see what he can do. "What I do issn't based in anything that you just said. You see, eventuality people got tired of that and started looking for shortcuts. Us humans are awfully lazy, you know? My family's style is unique to say the least." Skinner relaxed and wished Mina would do the same, "Besides, you missed a spot". Skinner pointed to the slightly singed spot. Visible in the wood, was the same rune he drew on the post it note. It looked as if it was carved using powertools and was only a few millimetres deep. The symbol was small and weak but infected Hanckock's door like a virus. It created a memnic field across the threshold of the front door that suppressed aggressive tendencies of those who pass through it. Skinner smiled, "The fireproof trick is smart though, thanks," he said with a sincere smile and dug out his pad of sticky notes, "Transfer Paper. I designed it to make runes permanent in structures and draw power from it's inhabitants". He scribbled a smiley face onto the top pad, peeled it off and slapped it to Hancock's forarme, "See, in a couple of seconds he will have a cheery brand".

 

Skinner laughed and turned to face the old man again, "So what are you?", he asked, digging under the collar of his shirt and pulling out his amalgam of charms and artifacts on their silver chair. He put his Adder Stone to his eye and squinted. He couldn't uderstand what he was looking at. The old man was unsurprisingly gone but he was replaced with a contained cloud of blue vapor. He lowered the stone and looked with his human eyes. Old man. He raised the stone. Blue cloud. He looked puzzled, usually spirits retain some kind of visible form but this guy was...something different. "How are you doing your glamour? Is it a form of optical camouflage or is it a memnic thing?", he asked, looking through his Adder Stone, "you're gorgeous whatever you are."

 

Skinner's hous did not like whatever just touched it. The purple ivy undulated across the outside walls of the house. All of the windows closed their blinds and slammed their shutters simultaneously. Everything with a lock, locked and a rather harsh deathmetal song began to blast from somewhere within. The house seemed to creak nd groan with discontent. Whatever it was had left, but it knew it would be back.

Edited November 7, 2016 by padfoot

[Felixr2]

"Transfer Paper... impressive. In all of my existence I haven't seen such an ingenious addition to the work of the Norse gods, and that's longer than the existence of runic magic. That, along with the rune you hid behind the paper, explain why the energy of the rune appeared to be so much higher than a regular ink-on-paper rune should have. You are a lot smarter than I thought. Although you might also still want to use lemon juice rather than ink as not only is it more powerful, it is also invisible to non-magic users. Oh, and in a sense, you are right about magic not being real. However, if you hear the complete story you might want to change your mind. See, magic is caused by nothing but energy.

The primordial form of this energy is arcane energy, which was later converted into the other four Great Magics; first elemental magic, initially used to shape the worlds. Many times have groups of people with powerful abilities in elemental magics gathered to be worshipped as gods.

Second, black magic was created, by those seeking to use the energy solely for their own good. Then, quickly after, holy magic was created to stop those using black magic. For a long time this was enough, there was no need for other kinds of magic, so there was no need to make any.

Until shortly after I came to exist, a bit more than 2000 years ago. A group magicians that were extraordinarily powerful for their time had a great vision, they imagined a form of magic that could be used to form structures. A form of magic that functioned like language, set in symbols. A single symbol contains power, but tying them together doesn't just add up power, it adds an entirely new layer of power. The magician created this magic, and their children perfected it. The result was called runic magic, and formed the beginning of a revolution.

Magic got adapted in so many ways that many people forgot how it worked and, ultimately, stopped believing in it's existence. Alchemy, the most succesful attempt at searching a way to get the effect of magic while only using the natural energy, also contributed to this. Since then, science has taken over and everything suddenly had to be either "energy" or "matter", a wave or a particle. This was completely accurate for arcane energy, as it is energy. However, the detection of arcane energy requires the usage of magic.

What some scientists were able to find - but not give subtantial evidence for - was the unusual matter that was present when using it. This was nothing new, magical energy temporarily changes matter, that's part of the basic of all magic. However, the scientists didn't see the energy, just the matter, so they mistakenly called this "exotic matter" the truth behind magic. Since magic had changed meaning since the time of the Norse gods, they took this as proof "magic" didn't exist. But what they had found, was nothing but a side effect of the original idea of magic, and the only form of it that's inherent to any place physically linked with this word."

 

He didn't talk about how the tall creature did not follow the basics of all magic.

 

"About what I am... I'm an ethereal. Our kind consists solely out of compressed arcane energy, while in the time of my creation, due to the increasing lack of arcane energy, elemental energy was also used. Nowadays the amount of arcane energy that's left is so low that it's nearly impossible to create an ethereal."

Edited November 7, 2016 by Felixr2

[RavenWolf1010]

Thankfully for Hancock, Skinner had reappeared. He was much better versed in runes and whatnot. He made it a buisness, Hancock took it up to help the Fae that came through. It would seem the conversation was going to be over his head. Once determined that the 'old man' didn't prove a threat he edged out of the conversation. As he was walking by, Skinner slapped something onto his arm. It was a sticky note with a smiley face on it. Raising a brow he watched as it shimmered and seemed to melt into his arm. The face was now on his skin in blue ink. "This comes off right?" He asked Skinner quietly, half joking. "If not, well, I always wanted a tattoo." He continued to the kitchen and set the hedgehog in one hand and grabbed the broom by the side of the fridge with the other and began to sweep up the shattered remains of his tea cup. "Shame. That was one of my good ones." It was as he was about to bend down to finish up getting the pieces that he suddenly froze. Just as abrupt he stood and the broom clattered to the floor beside him. "Something's wrong." The man moved swiftly to the door, handing Skinner the hedgehog (whom in his head Hancock had named William) as he passed. Then he picked up his discarded satchel, shoved a number of things into it, and rushed out the door with barely a "I'll be back."

 

 

 

"What in the .... Dameon spun around as the house he'd just come from seemed to come to life. Heavy metal blasting within shook the panes and could be mutely heard from down the street. "This town is one freak fest after another." Even in his numerous years on earth, this by far was the strangest thing he had yet to witness. Shaking his head and now fairly spooked, Dameon moved on further down the street, away from what he would ironically call "Hell House". There were some things about. Certainly they weren't human. Dameon could tell from their alluring life forces: stronger and very different from humans'. Yet, what they were exactly were difficult to tell; most likely because of the town's inherent Glamour effect. He growled in frustration and slunk into the shoddy cafe.

Upon entering, the cafe seemed to become soaked in an almost tangible darkness. The bell's usually cheerful chime seemed to even be dampened. Dameon liked the obvious power that rolled off of him. He didn't care if people noticed. He wanted them to notice. He wanted them to fear him. Their fear only fueled his power. Little did he know that the town's glamour would work against that too.

 

((Raven was already done. For Gabe I'm still waiting on Dusk. ))

Edited November 7, 2016 by RavenWolf1010

[Lemniscate]

((I don't think canaries have long enough tongues to stick them out.))

 

Eleusis was just about to dig in, regardless of Duren's response, when a sudden shift in atmosphere occurred in the cafe. Tilting her head, she watched a stranger come in through the door. Probably some sort of powered dude, though the glamour negated most of the person's effect. Huh. He could be interesting... Abandoning the food, she took off once again and landed right on the newcomer's head. Even as a bird, you could practically sense the smug smile plastered on her face. Oh boy, this would be fun. He seemed like one of those arrogant people who had hilarious reactions when they were brought down a notch. Taking advantage of the element of surprise, she "did her business" on his head before he could brush her off and quickly flew back to the table. Hehe, now to see what would happen.

[padfoot]

Skinner Strained to grin through the ghost's long winded explanation on where magic came from and how scientest were wrong and how everything in the universe seems to have been created by a game f balance. It was all things hehad heard before. His mother was a professor and his father regularly bumped elbows with powerful people that belive this. He just doesn't think its all that different and easy to explain, espeially when Mina was just standing there ad disproving what she was saying. Skinner was too old to get into argument about this stuff so he did what he always did when someone tried to change his mind. "Thank you for the...story. Unfortunately, I have been researching this for to long to be swayed by someone who thinks they can even begin to explain how complex it is," he said politely. Skinner was thankful that Hancock had his episode of suspicious activity and used it as an excuse, "Pardon me, I'm overdue to abuse my lungs. I'll be out front" he said as he leaded a cigarette into his holder and stepped outside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I gave you two months. Two Months! To catch this wolf shifter and you are telling me that she beat you every time?" Juan Petro rubbed his temples, his doctor's voice reminded him something about blood pressure, "Did you ever think to, I don't know, use a gun?" Zeke looked at the floor, "Guns aren't really my...style", he said sheepishly, as if Mr. P had caught him with a girly mag. the office was silent for almost a fulminute before Petro spoke up again, "she was the first fea we ever developed, well, living one anyway, and we would like to get her back to find out why she wasn't on a shute to the incinerator like her brothers and sisters. A lot of powerful people would pay big money for genetic engineering of this caliber". The large man took deep breath and when he spoke again, he was much calmer, "But, I digress. We at Marshel, Carter and Dark LLD do not have much of a use for getting her back and because of that, we have no need for you." Zeke did a surprised double take, his eyes widening, "No Mr. Petro, I need this income I-" Zeke was cut short by a hand falling heavily on his shoulder. Zeke followed it and found that it belonged to the bronze bodybuilder he saw when he came it, "Get ride of him, Thirteen", Juan Petro said with a wave on his hand.

 

Zeke threw off the statue's hand ad lunged across the table, two daggers flashed from somewhere inside his pelt. He roared and stabbed forward, planning on embedding them in the top of his balding head.

 

He was stopped short by an iron grip on his ankle yanked him back. One of his daggers were left embedded in the surface of Juan's desk and Zeke was thrown across the room. Before Zeke could rise and shift into a bear to maul the two to death, the statue was standing over him. A old, metal hand closed around his airway and hoisted him of the ground. Dangling a foot off the floor, Zeke could only slash uselessly against his arm sending showers of sparks with every blow. His attacks became more and more frantic as the statue's face began to split, reflective bronze plates opened and thrashed like the mandiables of some kind of terrible insect. Zeke couldn't help but screamin horror as he was thrust headfirst into the statue's innards.

 

~Removed; please watch the violent descriptions~

 

Seconds later, the room went silent and Thirteen;s face slid back to normal, lines of blood were the only evidence of the invisible plates that made up the statue. Thirteen wiped his face with a scrap of bear fur and looked to Juan, 'What now boss?" if said it's mouth not moving as it spoke. Juan glanced at the knife which embedded itself in an open file on his desk. Mr. Petro flipped through the pages. Raven, Handcock, Luke Skinner. The file was full of the papers detailing each resident in the town of Goodneighbor. Juan looked up at Thirteen and smiled, "Think it's your turn to try. Head to Goodneighbor and get it ready for us" The reflective statue nodded and left the room.

Edited November 8, 2016 by SockPuppet Strangler