Lugubrious

Umbra Rose Condos

While Erikson seemed leery of Khalid’s proposal, which the would-be therapist more or less expected, he at least offered to spread the word, which was all Khalid really needed of him. He offered his fellow man a grateful nod, then let him off the hook to go and handle Rebecca’s papers. Their dynamic was such that the two of them could never really have a normal conversation. One merely imposed upon the other until the other could scurry away. That hardly bothered Khalid, though, as long as Erikson did his job. Compared to her worrywart associate, Theria seemed more enamored with the idea, even if she was simply making a professional effort to be polite. Even if the two essentially said the same thing, the manner of speech made all the difference; one’s assurance could easily be interpreted as disingenuous placation, whereas the other implied considerate appreciation. For her graciousness Khalid offered the gorgon an affable smile and respectful bow of the head. “You’re very welcome, Miss Lasthena.” Recommendations from well-connected, well-liked, and generally trusted individuals like these two carried a lot more weight than the word of an unusual stranger like him–as Holloway’s response a moment later aptly demonstrated.

The veteran regarded Khalid with thinly veiled distrust, a subtle, half-imagined menace in -or behind- her eyes. Now that her aloof, thousand-yard stare lay on him directly, Khalid found her gaze rather intense. Staring at the sun was bad enough without it staring back, burning him away layer by layer in order to ascertain his true intentions. Since Holloway couldn’t actually peel him like an onion, though, she could only make assumptions about him, very few of them favorable. People tended to be most uncharitable the moment they deduced that someone wanted something from them, and the soldier looked down on him like she might some grifter in a back-alley bazaar. Her condescension rankled Khalid, though he kept his expression restrained to one of polite disappointment. He’d barely said anything, so why treat Shoggoth Therapy like a trick? Well…that was rather the point of it, admittedly, but how would she know?

“As you wish,” Khalid told her without any edge to his voice. “Though ‘wants’ have nothing to do with one’s duty, hm?” Before any healing could begin, they would need to earn one another’s trust, and that began with respect. Maybe she could relate to someone else who’d endure unpleasant truths in their line of work, earning him a modicum of respect. Or maybe, since she saw herself as protecting others from her past for their own good, his willingness to gaze into that abyss would be seen as a challenge. Either way, he didn’t plan to push any harder, but Khalid figured it wouldn’t hurt to say something.

Not long after that, more monsters began to come out of the woodwork. A strange procession passed through that consisted of a auricomous fox and a scarlet-haired girl with a rather commanding presence. The multiple tails of the former and the unblinking incandescent eyes of the latter suggested that there was more to them than met the eye, and to someone in the know, the truth was stranger than fiction. They were Miss Yumeiko and Miss Ryu, a fox spirit and a red dragon, respectively. Together they made an odd pair, considering whose company Yumeiko typically kept, and the dragon’s excitement suggested that they were up to something as they headed toward the courtyard. Before Khalid could guess what, though, another woman came the opposite way: Iris Madril, one of the condos’ more infamous werewolves. And judging by the tattered state of her clothes, she’d just concluded another one of her episodes.

It was starting to get a little too crowded around here for Khalid’s liking, so as Iris pulled up, the eruditionist veered away. Better to make himself scarce before ‘the wolf’ decided to eat anything else. Of course, eating a Shoggoth was a suicidal idea in theory, since it would not so much get digested as digest and assimilate its host from within, but the cryptozoologically-challenged couldn’t be trusted to know that, so he stood to lose a great deal to an impulsive, ignorant chomp. Still, Iris’s situation was interesting, especially to an armchair psychologist like Khalid. To him, it seemed that as long as she mentally divided herself into two beings -the woman and the wolf- each would oppose and impede the other. If both halves accepted the other, maybe the werewolf could become more than the sum of her parts. Hopefully word of Shoggoth Therapy would reach her ears.

For now though, Khalid left the building and ventured out into the ordinary world. He would have to trust Erikson, Theria, and his poster to advertise his new practice, as he had too much to do today to stand around and solicit storytellers himself. Classes, meetings, and errands would demand a decent chunk of his time for today. Still, he kept his phone on hand in case anyone called to schedule an appointment, checking it almost as often as he checked on the Shoggoth in his satchel. Things were already getting interesting, and the day had only just begun.

World of Light: the Endless Now

Dead Zone - Weeping Wastes

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (104/140) Lvl 9 Goldlewis (57/90) Lvl 7 Sandalphon (32/70) Lvl 3 Grimm (19/30)
Midna, Junior, Rika & Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate, Sectonia & Roland’s @Archmage MC Geralt, Zenkichi & Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Ace Cadet, Pit, Primrose & Therion’s @Yankee Juri’s @Zoey Boey Roxas, Ganondorf, & Captain Falcon’s @Double Venom Snake’s @DisturbedSpec the Witch’s @Drifting Pollen
Word Count: 2021

Once confronted by the multiple-choice question of where she’d be going, Nadia found herself hesitating. Leaping over the gorge had never been a problem for her to begin with, so Sectonia’s assistance made getting across a cakewalk, but the alternative route tempted the feral as well. Though she’d made plenty of friends among the Seekers already, it hadn’t gotten any easier for her to willingly place her life in others’ hands. In her childhood as a ragged little alley cat scavenging slums for scraps in Little Innsmouth, she learned to rely on nobody but herself to and grant her trust to precious few. For a few wonderful years after that she’d found not just friends, but a family that she could finally rely upon in the form of the Fishbone Gang, but the gang’s slaughter at Black Dahlia’s hands left her heart almost as scarred as her body.

Since then, the Life Gem made death a non-issue for the most part, meaning Nadia seldom needed to take anything seriously. But despite her bravado in front of Juri, she fully believed that a voidout could wipe her out once and for all. She was confident in her own instincts and abilities, but much less so in her allies. She’d been keen to keep some distance between herself and the others from the beginning, which was why Nadia preferred the mud slide to the rock slope, and since then the team had endured at least a half-dozen close shaves with BTs. It wasn’t a huge surprise, given how few of the Seekers seemed to have any stealth experience, but all those near misses definitely had the cat burglar on edge. With so many blunders, it was only a matter of time until someone screwed the pooch, and Nadia didn’t plan on paying the ultimate price for someone else’s incompetence.

So when Primrose and Therion took a detour into the ravine itself, followed by Sandalphon and Zenkichi, Nadia felt very inclined to join them. Anything to get away from this bumbling horde. That changed, however, when she looked toward Ace to gauge his thoughts and found his face filled with uncharacteristic fear. Despite all the horrors lurking around this haunted wasteland, the sight of her knight in distress rather than shining armor took her by surprise, igniting her protective instincts. How dare someone put the ever-courageous, ever-smiling monster hunter on edge! Change of plans, then. If this abysmal place could even get to someone like him, Nadia wasn’t going anywhere. Much to her chagrin she couldn’t sharpen her claws and shred these offending ghouls like curtains, but she could still stick around to support him as best she could. The success of this mission depended on him, after all, and Nadia wanted Ace to know that despite everything she’d been through, he could depend on her, too.

Of course, things went to hell right away. Moments after a few frontrunners moved across the crystalline platform to secure the other side, and Ace himself headed to its center so that everyone could cross the ravine within the safe zone, a pack of demons popped up from below. “I hate bein’ right all the time,” Nadia muttered. Right off the bat 'one rotund, cyclopean demon opened fire at Ace, and without hesitation the feral threw herself into harm’s way. Luckily Pit had the same idea, and was much better equipped to deal with the situation than Nadia. Bounced back by the Guardian Orbitars, the fiend’s barrage blew up in its face, and Ace himself returned fire to neutralize the threat before it could cause any more issues.

Edward, Midna, Edelgard, and Grimm leaped to the team’s defense, and in their weakened state, they fought all the harder. Grimm in particular allowed the others to hog the demons’ attention while he floated around behind them to lacerate their wings and backs with his claws. Nadia, however, just watched. The Cacodemons, Gargoyles, and Lost Souls all seemed vaguely familiar from her previous misadventures in Redgraccoon City, but she’d definitely slept since then, so the best way to deal with these things wasn’t fresh in her memory. And even if it was, this battlefield was a little too crowded with heroes to lend a hand. Given the current conditions, fighting these airborne adversaries was a dangerous game, so while her allies played it Nadia held out in front of the Cadet, content to body-block for him if push came to shove. “Don’t worry, Ace!” she grinned, watching Lost Souls detonate one after another. “I’m not about to let anyone I care about die, so consider this a demon-stration!”

Geralt had occupied a defensive position in the group close to Goldlewis and Snake so far, but when the Witcher moved to the forefront to help put down the demonic incursion, Goldlewis circled toward the opposite side of the crystal, with the SFE between himself and the marauders. This was not a decision borne of cowardice, but one of careful consideration. For one, his fighting style took up too much real estate to employ on an arena this size without jeopardizing his comrades’ safety through friendly fire. He also didn’t want to put another BB at risk, given their vital role in this expedition. For the most part, though, he just didn’t think the others needed his help. Even while suppressed by the SFE, they wouldn’t fall to small fry like that. The much bigger problem was the BTs, given how much noise the skirmish was making, and Goldlewis wondered how much weight Sectonia’s crystal could carry, as well. Keeping an eye on the fight, he led Sectonia, Snake, and Juri around the fight and to the ravine’s far edge, careful not to progress beyond the bounds of the SFE’s safe zone.

Once the furious but brief fight came to an end, and the team reached terra firma, a few members turned their eyes toward the crashed ship. Juri voiced her interest, but it was the trio she ate with that morning who actually left the group to check the wreck out. Junior, Rika, and the Witch scurried out of the white bubble and into the dreadful timefall, protected by their bubble shields until they could dive through a hole in the derelict ship’s wall and take shelter inside. Grimm watched them go, silent as ever, but fully aware of the risks involved after his own brush with a BT. He deigned not to join them, instead sticking with the main group as it pushed forward in the Qliphoth’s direction. Even after a number of Grimm’s teammates split off, this main force still commanded an impressive seventeen, including three BBs. Odradek readings indicated several BTs to the right, in the vicinity of the chasm, so the team gave it a wide berth as they followed its path northward. The echoes of gunshots from within couldn’t be helped.

Compared to the first leg of the journey, this area was much more open and featured fewer landmarks, but the going wasn’t much easier. Like the remains of some old battlefield, first carved up into trenches and then shelled by distant artillery, it was covered in miniature craters and ridges. In this light, it was difficult to tell the quicksand from the mud, but Rika could skate across it once her detachment returned, and Grimm was light enough on his feet that he could dart backward the moment he started to sink. For that reason the Troupe Master took point, next to Edward, as the team advanced. With only three BBs, the carriers naturally arranged themselves like the points of a trident, their followers less spread out. In this way the silent procession snaked around lurking BTs and treacherous obstacles, steadily headed northward without incident.

It wasn’t long before that changed. As the Seekers neared the northern edge of the ravine, Primrose’s team climbed up a slope and rejoined them. Though Sandalphon and the others had run into trouble themselves, their route had turned out to be the easy one. They found their allies weary and on edge after a tedious, stressful, and sometimes circuitous trek through the open wastes. Grimm’s countenance betrayed nothing, and Goldlewis maintained his composure, but this place was definitely starting to get old to Nadia. How much trudging around on all fours in the mud could one girl be expected to take? Still, it wasn’t feral impetuousness that kicked things off. Throughout the trials so far, one of the BBs had been putting on a brave face, but a stressed infant could only take so much. After watching tirelessly for BTs, coming dangerously close several times, and being within inches of vicious demonic attackers, all without a moment’s pause to rest or be comforted, Baby Mario began to break down. Sniffles and whimpers, muffled by his pod, eventually turned to sobs, and then finally, flat-out bawling.

Goldlewis had been watching a handful of drifting gazers when the wailing began. The veteran whirled on Edward, panicked. “What in sam hill!? You gotta shut him up!” He didn’t mean to be so brusque, but to say this outburst could have dire consequences would be an understatement. Not eager to exacerbate the situation, he glanced back over at the BTs, but this time he saw nothing. He froze, looking around in a desperate attempt to pinpoint the dark specters, only to notice that the splashes coming toward him weren’t made by rain, but a dozen handprints incoming from different directions. The odradeks went wild, clicking in a frenzy as they constantly changed direction–left, right, ahead, behind. The Seekers were surrounded.

Immediately, and without a word, Grimm broke formation. The tall bug charged out of the safe zone, protected by his raincoat as he pitter-pattered toward the Qliphoth at high speed. Several handprints veered toward him, picking up the pace like bloodhounds on a scent trail. Before they could grab him, however, Grimm disappeared in a flash of crimson flame. He’d teleported, perhaps to safety since the Qliphoth wasn’t too much farther, but not everyone he’d left behind had that luxury. By that time, a low roar echoed across the area, and a tar pool expanded from Edward’s position that quickly undermined the whole group. An awful chorus of groaning, gurgling voices broke out beneath them, and only the BB carriers could see their sources: corpses molded from pitch, reaching out from the pool by the dozen to seize ankles, calves, coattails, and more. Some of the Seekers could shake them off, but not everyone. There were just too many of them. Nadia managed to escape using Charge to become a bolt of lightning that zipped out of the BTs’ grasp, but she couldn’t get far enough. Sandalphon only managed to delay the inevitable with Vault, and no matter how many times he broke free Goldlewis could not reach the edge of the pool. Once he and the others fell, the hands dragged them along the ground, spreading them out. One by one the heroes were tugged beyond the SFE’s perimeter, until finally Ace’s own struggle came to an end, and the Stable Field Emitter smashed against the ground.

Tar, rippling like the surface of the sea, spread across the whole area. From its depths, buildings from the destroyed city began to rise, sink, and rise again, as if slowly fading in and out of memory. Finally, a monster emerged from the tar, a creature as tall and broad as a garbage truck. It looked to Goldlewis like an enormous lion, but ink-black, with a mane of writhing tentacles rather than fur. A death mask of golden, lustrous chiralium adorned its face, and when it roared, its mask split vertically to give its prey a glimpse of the oblivion that awaited them in its gullet. Though just a lone predator against an abundance, it only needed to catch one.

Over everything, the aging rain poured down. The shield packs wouldn’t last much longer, and the hunt was on.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Lewa

As Lewa advanced alongside the others into the dark passage, he remained alert and ready. He did not jump at shadows, though, or peer about with nervous restlessness. After proving himself amongst his peers, whose remarkable abilities scarcely needing demonstration by now, he felt like he could afford to be more brave--though never cocky. Though much better than a claustrophobic squeeze through cramped nooks and crannies, this spacious tunnel offered its own dangers by virtue of the sheer numbers of angles attack could come from. Furthermore, such huge swathes of inky blackness could be home to unseen behemoths, waiting just out of view to pounce on any prospective intruders and devour them whole. All that meant that any carelessness on Lewa's part could lead to dire consequences, but the toa nevertheless strove to keep his head on straight, and not feed his pessimistic side any further. After all, his travels through this bizarre world had it bloated enough already.

After a few minutes' suspense, the otherworlders' uneventful advance came to an abrupt end. From the darkness loomed two enormous figures, chillingly silent and still. Just when Lewa was beginning to get somewhat used to basic human anatomy, these monstrous bipeds went and defied it, with heads and legs arranged in all the wrong ways. Much more worrying, though, were the huge polearms that the pair soon hefted to wield with lethal intent.

Lewa leaped backward as the minotaurs took their first ferocious swings, putting as much distance between them and himself as possible. As impressive as his axe was, those heavy halberds made his own weapon look like a matoran's plaything, and the toa didn't even want to chance blocking a cleave from one. Luckily this wide-open cavern gave him plenty of room to move, and jumping happened to be something of a talent of his. Assuming that one of the others could put up enough of an up-front fight to get the minotaurs' attention, he hung back in order to support the team effort from afar. With a whirl of his off hand he manipulated the air pressure in the cave, creating a strong current from behind him that would buffet the monsters head-on. Any projectiles -or people- thrown toward them would fly with greater speed, while the two would (hopefully) be harder-pressed to rush the otherworlders down. Next, he gathered his power and began to hurl handfuls of highly compressed air that would rupture on contact with his foes, knocking them askew with blasts of concussive force. With Lewa's full attention on the main event, he did not notice the stealthy assailant come from behind, though perhaps his currents would interfere with rogue projectiles.

Umbra Rose Condos

... Except for, y'know, the whole writing down all your thoughts and stories and making them into "fiction" that he can sell to his publisher for his own reputation and profit.

But yeah, y'know, free.

@Xaltwind

When it comes to any creative endeavor, there's always a fine line between 'inspiration' and 'theft' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Umbra Rose Condos

I DON'T HAVE ANGER ISSUES!!

Ahem.
That being said. Will therapy be free?

@BunniesOfDoom

Yes, it'll say so on the cards.

Umbra Rose Condos

As the conversation between Rebecca and Theria continued at the front desk, Khalid waited for his Shoggoth Therapy materials to finish printing with a patiently feigned indifference. Despite his undeniable curiosity about the newcomer, he tempered his expectations about overhearing any juicy details. Based on her behavior so far, this aloof army woman did not strike him as the type to overshare; rather, she seemed more likely to jealously guard her secrets behind a stolid wall of dispassion. Who knew how much classified military intelligence she kept locked up tight in that mental strongbox of hers?

He certainly wasn’t going to edge any closer and risk an obvious invasion of privacy by peeking at her application form like some shameless schoolboy at test time. All Khalid could truly say for certain was that he and Ms. Holloway here hailed from very different walks of life, and judging by her exchange with the bespectacled receptionist, that went for Theria as well. Their conversation stalled as they began to talk at cross-purposes, the gorgon a little too earnest and innocent for her own good. It made Khalid want to roll his eyes, but he settled for politely averting his gaze.

For all the eruditionist’s attempts at discretion, he’d been paying enough attention to the others’ affairs that he failed to notice Max the moment his fellow human walked in. By the time he looked over, the hefty handyman was already behind the desk and nearing the printer, so while Khalid meant to take his own papers it looked like that ship had already sailed. Of course, he knew he needn’t be so secretive, especially around Max. Though the presence of an ordinary man here in a hidden monster enclave was something of an enigma to begin with, there were no secrets when it came to Max. He wore his heart on his sleeve, suspected nothing, and never thought to question. He also served as a litmus test for how the residents reacted to humans, and a much more obvious target than himself should a monstrous tenant seek to take out certain frustrations. Indeed, while the poor man seemed well-liked around here, he just couldn’t help himself when it came to monster-related misfortune, no matter how careful his fears prompted him to be. A person often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it, Khalid thought as he reached out to accept Max’s offering.

“Thank you, Erickson,” Khalid replied. While to most his words would still sound pretty formal, his omission of the typical honorific was a (dubious) honor few around here could claim. Not many monsters around here would ascribe superior standing to a human, so Khalid couldn’t afford to, either. That aside, he did not particularly like the way Max tended to look at him. Naturally he reasoned that the clerk’s trepidation treatment stemmed from his perception of Khalid as a monster, made all the more subtly menacing by his uncanny knack for disguising his true nature. But in his day Khalid had met plenty of humans who looked at him in much the same way. Not as a fellow, but as a possible threat. An ‘other’. At Umbra Rose Condos, at least, dehumanizing treatment was proof positive that his deception was working. On the most gullible and least threatening guy around, at least.

When Khalid looked over at the ladies, Rebecca seemed to be finishing up her form, so after a moment he returned his attention to Max. “You seem ill at ease…my friend,” he told the man, giving his low voice a dramatic and conspiratorial drawl. “It’s understandable, of course. Given all that you’ve seen, that was never meant for the human eye.” He held up the poster he’d printed out for Max to see. “As you no doubt noticed, I am offering a new service. Shoggoth Therapy, where monsters and mental health meet. You are no monster of course, but are we really so different?” Khalid affected a broad smile, all the more menacing for its lack of conventional menace. “If you ever wish you could simply sit and speak of what ails you, please feel free to visit for a nice chat.”

With that, Khalid turned his attention to the corkboard. Tacking his newly-printed poster to it took only seconds, but neatly folding and separating the business cards would take a little longer. Just long enough for Ms Holloway to finish her application, as it happened. When Max headed her way to pay the newcomer much more overt attention, the mysterious creature hidden within Rebecca’s clothes reared its head once more. In fact, it plopped down on the desk with a noise that more than justified a curious glance, and when Khalid looked over he witnessed the beast in all its scaly glory. It was…a normal snake? It was a decent size, its scales intricately patterned in impressive colors, but it seemed completely within the bounds of mundane biology as far as Khalid could tell. Not that normal animals -however exotic- were his forte. He continued watching, a little confused, as Rebecca draped her pet over her shoulders. So it was an independent entity after all, and while it could conceivably be some other kind of shapeshifter, Khalid knew better than anyone that Slick was no Shoggoth. With this discovery, the guessing game was back to square one.

As Rebecca began to wrap up her registration, Khalid pursed his lips and made a decision. He finished with his business cards, slipped them into his pocket, and strolled over. With the inception of Shoggoth Therapy, his time of detached observation in the background was officially coming to an end. It was time to step into the limelight.

“Since introductions are in order, please allow me to do so as well,” he began, his tone affable. He kept a respectful distance from Holloway as he sidled up to the counter, not approaching her from behind. “Welcome to our humble hideaway. I am Khalid Alhazred, the resident Shoggoth. As it happens, I am just now launching a program called Shoggoth Therapy. For now I am but an understudy, but it would be my pleasure to chat with each and every member of our colorful community. Which now, of course, includes you. So please stop by room 3-106 any time.”

With that, Khalid carefully laid two business cards on the reception desk, stacked so that the top one hid the bottom. Even if Rebecca declined to take one, there would be one apiece for both Max and Theria, either to keep or to pass on to whomever they wished. It wasn’t by accident that he was discussing Shoggoth Therapy with some of the most well-known individuals around.

Umbra Rose Condos

I'll be posting later today for Khalid in the lobby, interacting with Theria, Max, and Rebecca.

World of Light: the Endless Now

Dead Zone - Weeping Wastes

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (101/140) Lvl 9 Goldlewis (54/90) Lvl 7 Sandalphon (26/70) Lvl 3 Grimm (16/30)
Midna, Junior, Rika & Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate, Sectonia & Roland’s @Archmage MC Geralt, Zenkichi & Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Ace Cadet, Pit, Primrose & Therion’s @Yankee Juri’s @Zoey Boey Roxas, Ganondorf, & Captain Falcon’s @Double Venom Snake’s @DisturbedSpec the Witch’s @Drifting Pollen
Word Count: 3252

Once the Pelican disappeared into the rainstorm, the noise of its thrusters and engines swallowed by the cacophonous downpour, the two dozen Seekers were left -in quite literal sense- to their own devices. They did not set off straightaway, however. For one, not everyone was here just yet. Flying fast at a high altitude without missing a beat, the Avenger would be circling back toward the Dead Zone to drop off a round of hellpods containing the last few team members. Until they arrived, the others would need to wait so that everyone could proceed safely, sheltered by the Stable Field Emitter.

The other big reason for the group’s hesitation was, of course, the landscape arrayed before them. Muddy, mossy, rocky, and uneven, it offered no straight roads or easy footpaths. Last week’s voidout had cleanly carved the terrain into a massive, shallow basin, exposing a handful of underground tunnels and cave systems into which debris from the annihilated city had been thrown. Rivers of fresh rainwater lanced through the crater, their paths jagged and unpredictable, their currents surprisingly strong. As the downpour pounded their hoods and coats, the Seekers surveyed the environment as best they could, trying to plot out safe routes their makeshift convoy could use. Sandalphon calculated and charted better than most, but she knew as well as anyone that even the best-laid plans would go awry the minute a BB caught wind of one of the dreary realm’s spectral sentinels.

After another moment, the hellpods burst down through the clouds and plowed into the earth, suddenly breaking the tension with loud, rapid-fire slams and tremors. For a moment panic broke out, first about the sudden disturbance and then at the possibility of BTs responding to the noise, but no horrors reared their ugly heads. This spot, it seemed, was safe, so the team could take a moment to put together a game plan.

In the wake of the surprise, Juri’s jab elicited a snort from Nadia. “I’m pretty sure, yeah, but who knows? Maybe you’ll annoy me to death.” Right now, her own strategy for avoiding a voidout involved instinct and adaptation. If only she could go off on her own, where nobody else could ruin it for her. Then again, if someone did slip up and get eaten, nowhere she could go would be far enough. The feral sighed.

Sandalphon exhaled steadily, her pupils returning from concentric circles to normal. This was going to be dicey, no matter which way she sliced it. There were two dozen Seekers now, armed to the teeth, but powerless against the ghostly entities that drifted in the rain. Instead they clumped together within the Stable Field Emitter’s radius, clustered together like so many children under one umbrella. It struck Sandalphon as rather absurd, and the prospect of so many people maneuvering stealthily in an environment like this seemed impossible. Theoretically they could all forge onward with utmost caution, astringently detecting and then circumnavigating all potential threats, but time was a luxury that the heroes didn’t have. She was well aware that, being technological in nature, the Stable Field Emitter wouldn’t last forever. If it ran out of power, she and her companions would have nothing but their emergency shields and their synthetic raincoats between them and the Timefall. They would have to strike a balance between speed and caution.

The archangel narrowed her eyes. This, she realized, must be what humans called ‘anxiety’.

Edward moved to the front of the group as he outlined a tactic for BT detection. Though he seemed confident in its efficiency, Sandalphon couldn’t help but poke holes in his plan. Once he finished, she stepped forward to offer her feedback. “I respect your strategic eye, Edward. However, I’m afraid I cannot condone this policy. There is a critical problem…”

At that point, Nadia piped up with one eyebrow raised. “What does the temperature have to do with BTs?” she asked, completely serious.

Goldlewis winced, and Sandalphon’s pupils became minus signs. “...Two critical problems.”

“Oh!” The feral snapped her fingers, wide-eyed. “Ghosts are cold, right? That’s what you…uh, meant by degrees, right…?” She looked around at the others in increasingly dim hopes of confirmation, a dubious grimace on her face.

After clearing her throat, Sandalphon continued. “This strategy depends on vocal communication. BTs hunt primarily by sound. We would have to shout to be heard over this rain, and even if we whispered…” Her pupils became stress marks. “That might be too loud.”

Goldlewis scrunched up his face. “Can hardly see the doggone Qliphoth out there to begin with. Sounds like Juri’s right on the money,” he declared. ”We’ll be relyin’ on these doodads first and foremost.” He jabbed a thumb at the five-fingered odradek on his shoulder. “So keep a sharp eye on ‘em. And let’s be ready to run for it, if we gotta.” Right after Primrose nodded at Zenkichi, she got one from Goldlewis in turn.

While the others talked, Grimm kept his own scarlet eyes on the scenery. Having not accepted a shield pack, he wore his raincoat like a cloak over his unusually-shaped head, still out of sorts thanks to the SFE. Now, though, he spoke up. ”The rain is heavy, and growing heavier. We are not safe here. The path ahead may be perilous, but we must walk it all the same.”

Already feeling antsy, Nadia nodded her head in agreement. Whatever was out there couldn’t be as bad as this dreadful anticipation. Sandalphon seemed equally keen to set off, so before too much longer, the Seekers began their trek. For the most part they adopted the positions suggested by Edward, adopting a clock-shaped formation that made the most out of the safe zone’s circular perimeter. With the Stable Field Emitter clutched tight and held high, the Ace Cadet defined the safe zone’s center, and Sectonia hovered directly above him to make use of the vertical space. Roland, Goldlewis, Primrose, and Edward took up the one o’clock, three o’clock, nine o’clock, and eleven o’clock positions respectively, their BBs as alert as they were. Their odradeks beeped, but they had yet to focus on any targets, and if one of them stopped, they couldn’t yet be sure that the eerie shapes in the distance weren’t products of their imagination.

Before the BTs, the Seekers needed to contend with a more material matter endemic to the crater before them: its steep outermost edges. From atop the precipice, where half-melted rubble from the destroyed city lay in heaps, they could see a few ways forward. To the left, rainwater poured from the sheared-off end of a former sewer system, becoming a waterfall that washed down the basin’s slope. Thanks to all the water, the earth directly ahead appeared to be mostly mud, and judging by the mucky ruins where the ground evened out, at least one mudslide had already occurred here. To the right it was all rocks, a handful big but most medium or smaller, so they could definitely shift around underfoot.

Sandalphon quickly considered the options. Jumping into the water, or sliding down it once frozen, would be fast but risky. Nobody could afford to outpace the SFE, or slide straight into a BT, and it could damage the equipment. A slide in the mud would be a little more controlled. A Seeker could slip on the rocks or be sent tumbling if their weight dislodged one. Still, it could be managed. Goldlewis came to more or less the same conclusion, and in military fashion signaled to everyone to favor the right side. Slowly, carefully, began to pick his way down the rocks, testing each one with his foot before putting his weight on them. He used his hands for extra support wherever he could, trusting in his harness to keep the BB safe despite his protective instincts. Sandalphon followed behind him, lighter on her feet. If she lost her footing, Heavensent could still slow her fall enough to give her a reliable safety net. Meanwhile, Grimm proved light enough on his spindly legs that he found firm footing wherever he went. The Troupe Master could hop down at his own leisure, limited only by the advance of the safe zone.

Rather than climb down the rocks, Nadia hung back, allowing the others to advance until she perched on the precipice at the rear of the group. As the edge of the SFE’s safe zone approached from behind, she heaved off and began to slide down the muddy slope, her claws buried in the earth behind her to control her descent. Still, her effective weight meant that the feral built up speed fast, and after just a moment she slid out ahead of the Stable Field Emitter. “Crap!” Immediately the rain began to react to her personal shield. As it spattered against the yellow bubble, it glowed brighter in response, indicating the drain on its power. Seconds later, Nadia slid to a stop against the mudslide debris at the bottom of the slope, where she found an overhang to hide under until the rest of the group caught up. Though covered in mud, she cared about the timefall a lot more.

After a few moments, the Seekers reunited. Though lagging behind on the rocks, Sandalphon closed the distance with a jump that let her glide the rest of the way. The moment one trial ended, however, the next began. Just a few dozen feet beyond the slope, Roland’s odradek chirped. It focused on a point within the muddy ruins and began to clap its sensors together at a rate of about one per second. Everyone paused, including the other carriers. First contact. Goldlewis peered inside the fallen, half-buried building, but even while connected to BB Luigi, he couldn’t see anything in the shadows. Well, no hiding in there, that much was certain.. The group gingerly veered away from the ruins, with a very muddy Nadia holding her breath as she skirted around the crumbling, mud-covered structure. Edward’s odradek reacted after he started to move again, aimed in the same direction as Roland’s, but the next moment Roland’s adjusted to another point further ahead. Primrose’s clicked on and turned that way, indicating that the group should veer farther to the right, but the next moment the activation of his own odradek surprised Goldlewis. This time his pointed to the open area in the northeast, and after a moment Primrose’s joined his. There were BTs in all directions–the only question was how far away they were.

Almost immediately, Edelgard ran into trouble. Not everyone could see, and nobody wanted to risk jostling to see. Goldlewis stopped and crouched down, peering into the rain. In silence Grimm joined him, his stance low, and Nadia paused on all fours. Luckily the incident came to nothing, but the big man kept an eye out. He thought he could see shapes among the rain, but the atmosphere was too thick out here to tell for sure. At the very least, no BTs seemed dangerously close. He looked over his shoulder at Sandalphon, who nodded. This was never a question of whether or not the team could avoid areas with BTs completely; it was whether or not the Seekers could be quiet enough to brush past them when needed. Goldlewis beckoned to the others, and the team inched forward. Foot by foot. Yard by yard.

Suddenly, the veteran’s odradek picked up speed, clapping constantly. He stopped in an instant, then gasped.

He could see them. Shadowy, particulate humanoid, like shaped smoke or insect swarms, hung weightlessly a half-dozen feet or more off the ground like drowned men. Their umbilical cords swayed in the grip of otherworldly currents, anchoring them to the ground or to one another. They did not patrol, nor prowl, nor even seem to be searching. The whole row of them just floated there, like naval mines deep beneath the sea. Waiting for someone to stumble into them.

In an instant, Goldlewis composed himself. He held up a closed fist, signaling a stop. Since his odradek indicated only the closest one, he pointed out the rest to the others in quick succession. There were too many spread out to the northeast to get around them, so the team would need to edge north-northwest, around the muddy ruins, and avoid the quicksand patches. The moment Goldlewis began to move away the BTs faded, and the next second his odradek quieted down. He let out his breath and picked up the pace alongside the rest.

Grimm quietly dashed from the right side of the group to the left, closer to the ruins. The SFE’s safe zone would be roving over them, and while nobody dared duck inside, the direction of Edward and Roland’s odradeks convinced him that he could climb atop the structure and still be safe. The Troupe Master skittered up the nearest tilted wall, his black claws easily finding handholds. When he reached the top, he was pleased to find himself still inside the safe zone, albeit barely. Using the roof as a shortcut he could get across while the rest worked their way around the quicksand. After a few steps, though, Grimm heard one of the odradeks down below pick up the pace, and when he glanced down he spotted its light pointed his way. If it was indicating proximity from that distance, though…

A noise like a windy wail reached Grimm’s ears, and the Troupe Master turned to his left. Nothing met his eerie gaze, but after a moment spent scanning the roof, he thought he spotted something strange. By the time he confirmed the next one, it was too late. Black handprints were appearing one after another, some sort of sticky substance that didn’t wash off in the rain. As the trail neared Grimm, the Troupe Master stood stock-still and silent. He watched as the handprints paced around, coming within inches of his leg, but still he couldn’t see or feel any presence. After several tense seconds the trail veered away. Without a word Grimm turned, hopped off the dilapidated roof, and slid back down toward the others. He landed beside Nadia, who’d just extricated herself from a quicksand pit, and his sudden appearance making the excited feral’s hackles rise. She calmed herself, though, and peered up at the spot he came from. “See anything?” she whispered.

Grimm shook his head. ”Nothing at all.”

Cognizant of the light cast by her elaborate halo, and of her less-than-stellar physical ability, Sandalphon hung toward the rear of the group as they pressed on through the storm. The archangel hadn’t had long to acclimatize to her newfound emotionality, and so far this mission was already giving her nascent heart a workout. For someone accustomed to information warfare, whose powers of perception and coordination could decide the outcome of battles from the comfort of home base, being unable to pinpoint the threats around her made her feel helpless and frustrated. Still, even knowing that she couldn’t see the BTs, she continued her habitual monitoring until she stepped on a rock wrong and nearly twisted her ankle. “Ah,” she declared, her voice too flat to make it an exclamation. Only by quickly planting the barrel of her gunstaff did she prevent a fall. Of course, Zenkichi showed up the next moment to lend her a shoulder so that needn’t put pressure on her ankle to keep up. “My gratitude,” she breathed, glancing back at the edge of the safe zone. “For you, and these boots. I can scarcely imagine how much more difficult this would be in heels.”

Up ahead, Goldlewis encountered an issue of his own. When his odradek began clapping again, he ducked down in order to spot the BT responsible. It was close, but alone and off to the side, so no need for concern. Still, out of an abundance of caution he decided to move forward while crouching, and that turned out to be a big mistake. Immediately both his knees popped, eliciting a raspy snarl from the BT, and in that moment the tension got the better of the man. “Dammit!” he growled, covering his mouth with his hand a fraction of a second too late. With a moan the BT seemed to dissolve, and as its dark essence hit the ground a handprint splashed in the dirt. As his odradek went into a wild spin, however, the veteran got a hold of himself. Working his old but well-trained muscles, he quickly-crouch-walked out of the patrol range, and after another moment the alerted BT got left behind. He let out an exasperated breath as he stood, more angry at himself than anything. After that, his heart would be pounding for a while.

Remembering his BB, Goldlewis looked down at his pod and tapped on the glass. “How you holdin’ up, partner?” BB Luigi was wide-eyed, shaken but not so scared that he’d start crying just yet. The veteran gave him a thin smile. “Don’t you fret now,” he whispered. “We’re gonna get through this.”

Nadia made her way up to the front of the group, joining Roxas in between Roland and Primrose. Continuing on all fours for maximum silence and stability, she made her way forward until a new obstacle confronted the Seekers on their path. Up ahead, a huge fissure scarred the crater, its jagged length arcing in the approximate direction of the Qliphoth. As she neared the edge, the feral became aware of orange light emanating from within, and a quick look down confirmed the presence of lava deep within the ravine. It brought to mind her adventure with that ‘doom’ guy through the demon-infested part of Redgraccoon City, especially the fight against King Minos in courthouse above a lake of lava. Maybe some of the horrors plaguing that city had been buried so deep that not even the voidout annihilated them.

She also saw a number of ledges along the ravine’s sides that someone could conceivably walk along, or beneath, to take shelter from the timefall. Still, she didn’t entertain that thought until Goldlewis identified another pack of BTs along the ravine’s right side, where the Seekers were. The team could go around it to the left, into it, or maybe even over it. Nadia knew she could make that jump with a pressurized launch plus airdash, but the others might not be so fortunate. “We could go through there. Fis-sure looks like a shortcut to me,” she hissed, pointing down at the ravine’s sheltered ledges. The hazard of falling into lava spoke for itself, but she felt compelled to point out the other potential issue. “Gotta watch out for demons though. Could be in for a hell of a time.”

Sandalphon’s attention lay on the landmark to the left of the crevasse. A large crashed ship of extraterrestrial design lay in a field of tarry black earth and spikes, slowly deteriorating beneath the pounding timefall. Maybe the vessel had strayed too close to the Dead Zone in passing and lost power among the storm clouds, plunging down into these rain-drenched wastes. Its existence here rounded out the last of the team’s three options: BTs and tricky terrain, a shortcut through or across the ravine, or the long way around past the derelict spacecraft. By now the Qliphoth could clearly be seen through the rain, but this trip would get worse before it got better.

Umbra Rose Condos

Khalid is going to be very disappointed when he finds out “Slick” is literally just a pet snake.

@Massasauga

Embarrassed, too, about psyching himself out over nothing. Though that, in turn, will make Rebecca even more mysterious.

Umbra Rose Condos

When sitting in idle anticipation, awaiting the arrival and subsequent help of someone else, the mind tended to wander–especially if that mind belonged to a writer. A mind often leveraged to conjure forth intricate narratives, loquacious verbiage, romanticized mundanity, and highly descriptive scenes could seldom sit still, so while the writer’s body remained anchored firmly in place, his consciousness couldn’t help but range far afield through the uncharted realms of imagination. As he waited Khalid reminisced, waxed poetic, made mountains out of molehills, and generally got lost in thought. Agonizing over his current crisis wouldn’t solve anything, after all, so like dough he kneaded his beleaguered brain in an attempt to coax out character concepts, plot points, and compelling turns of phrase he could use later. Whether they generated any usable material or not, these mental exercised made the minutes fly by, but this frenzied daydreaming also occupied the thin man to such an extent that even as he stared at the complex’s front entrance, he didn’t notice the unfamiliar silhouette approaching the doors until they swung open to admit her.

Khalid straightened up, blinking repeatedly as the sudden disturbance stirred him from his absent-minded reverie. His eyes, fixated on a vista so distant that nobody else could possibly see it, refocused on the foreground and allowed him to witness the newcomer for the first time. In an instant Khalid realized that he’d never seen this person before, and if not for his well-practiced composure, he would have raised both brows in puzzled surprise. Of course, in terms of appearance there was nothing strange about her–and that was what was so strange. For all intents and purposes, this woman looked one hundred percent human, with not even subtle monstrous features or behaviors to betray a true nature breaking through the facade. It went without saying, though, that no human should be able to so brazenly stroll through those unassuming doors. That paradox could only mean that there was more than met the eye to this woman. Khalid hypothesized that he must be looking at a very convincing shapeshifter, or a powerful illusion. It did occur to him that he might be looking into a mirror, and that another practitioner of the arcane arts had managed to penetrate this place. Regardless, and much to his chagrin, it seemed that this woman’s true nature lay beyond his powers of perception right now.

Stumped by the question of what monster this woman might really be, Khalid took another tact, and opted to re-evaluate her as a human instead. Just what sort of person was he looking at? A quick examination made the answer crystal clear, but even without the telltale tags on her clothing that identified ‘Holloway’ as a US soldier, Khalid might have been able to guess. Though women in the army didn’t need to cut their hair if they wore it up, hers had still been cropped to a military-authorized trim, and despite growing out a little since then it gave no indication of styling. There was a world-weariness etched into her face, far deeper-seeded than that of the sad-sack salaryman or unemployed doomscroller. Those stony features had no doubt been hardened by terrible trials, evidence of an equally hardened heart, and those bandages were just icing on the cake. Even the way she moved across the foyer, her posture rigid and straight but too powerful to be called stiff, suggested a sense of discipline so thoroughly drilled in that it had become unconscious and involuntary. Her eyes were vacant, almost glassy, like she wasn’t all here, and some part of her remained on those distant battlefields. When those eyes roved over Khalid, he wondered if she even saw him.

He didn’t necessarily mind being ignored, though. When one thought of United States soldiers and middle easterners, the association was seldom positive. Of course, he had neither family history nor personal grudges to hold against her, and there was nothing about his place of origin -political, societal, or spiritual- that commanded any particular allegiance from a non-practicing Muslim like him. Still, Khalid did not like any being that might think to command power over him. No one, monster or man, living or dead, was entitled to the respect of Khalid Alhazred. No one.

Of course, for all Khalid’s overthinking, what actually happened in the lobby was very uneventful. Holloway entered, walked right by the thin man in his chair, and stopped at the vacant front desk. Under normal circumstances he might have objected to someone cutting the line, but she could go first this time. Right now he happened to be very interested to know more about who -or what- this newcomer was, in part because of something that happened right after she passed by. His stone talismans, dangling from his belt, shuddered and opened their eyes. They peered after Holloway as she receded from their owner, their enchanted lids only sliding closed again once she got a certain distance from them. That was all the confirmation Khalid needed to know that there was some sort of magic in play. “Curiouser and curiouser,” he quoted beneath his breath.

Since it would be rude to stare, Khalid turned around again and settled in to wait. Luckily, neither he nor Holloway had to wait long. The rhythmic sound of large scutes sliding across the floor announced the return of Miss Theria Lasthena to her post. If she was perceptive, she might notice Khalid scoping out her arrival with what looked like a pocket makeup mirror. Once he confirmed that her glasses were on, though, the mirror vanished just as quickly as it appeared. “Good morning, Miss Lasthena,” Khalid replied as he rose, turning to face the gorgon without a trace of anxiety on his face. As always, he spoke with measured, grammatically perfect English, flavored with a noticeable but hard-to-place accent. “Please, take all the time you need.”

In short order, his business cards and posters were printing. “Thank you,” he told her with a respectful nod of his head. It was polite of her to not say anything about the eldritch smell that tended to cling to him thanks to the Shoggoth. He did think it strange that Holloway didn’t remark on the odor either…perhaps army rations had dulled a couple of her senses? Or perhaps the smell of a Shoggoth simply wasn’t all that extraordinary to her. Khalid gave Holloway a wide berth as he waited for his papers to finish printing, listening to her exchange with Theria. People like you, hmm? Her words backed up what her appearance suggested about her not being on active duty, implying that she needed somewhere to hide. That same desire brought most Umbra Rose tenants here, but her military trappings made Khalid wonder just what she might be fleeing.

Then the cover slipped, and Khalid did not fail to notice. A creature emerged from Holloway’s clothes, a serpent that she identified by name and command as a separate entity, rather than a part of her. Slick, eh? It receded the next moment, leaving Khalid with more questions than answers. Before he could ponder much, however, his satchel stirred. The Shoggoth within bubbled up like bread in a baking oven, threatening to spill through the gap and into the public eye. Momentary panic spurred Khalid to turn away and grab his spray bottle in order to spritz Horace through the opening. After a moment, the unsavory sludge relaxed again, but Khalid remained alert. “What’s gotten into you?” he murmured, more to himself than the creature. Once he made sure that the Shoggoth was placated, the eruditionist returned his attention to the ladies. Just what was this 'Slick', to have prompted a reaction like that…?