Avant

Mordhaben's Institute for Aspiring Mages [Gaslamp Fantasy] [Completely Dead]

"You know what I hate, man?" Honehe was awoken from his silent contemplation by the disagreeable drawl of his unintentional acquaintance, Joseph Milit. By sheer dumb luck, he had chanced into a few conversations and interactions with him over the past few months. While mercifully quiet most of the time, the man would sometimes be triggered into ranting about something that had "gotten his goat" to people he knew, and since he had been unfortunate enough to have "broken the ice" with him, he often chose to gripe to him when he was nearby. Honehe wondered what he had done to deserve such a pox on his person.

"No, but I imagine you're about to tell me." Honehe replied disinterestedly.

"Fucking Brovak, man. Him and his dumbass wacky learning class where he doesn't explain shit and has people doing crap like eating dirt. Who the fuck eats dirt? I bet that jackass never ate a speck of dirt before in his life. He's just doing this shit to get on our nerves. Why the hell do they let this guy teach? He's not even actually teaching jackshit!"

With a resigned sigh, Honehe prepared to engage with him, if only to keep him from nettling him until he got a response. "Perhaps his advanced experience has given him some unique insight into how to teach magical theory? I'll admit I don't care for him or his methods personally, but I imagine he must know what he is doing." His line of logic was intentionally half-hearted. Honehe didn't care to defend Brovak, but neither did he care to encourage Joseph's inane complaints.

"Bullshit, asshole. Stupid motherfucker is just a stupid motherfucker. He could stand to learn a thing or two from the Vances. They know how to teach the right way. The military way."

"Ah yes." Honehe began flatly. "I never tire of hearing about your love for the military." He recalled vaguely hearing of his father being a soldier or something. Whenever Joseph got the chance, he would talk about how he preferred how things were run in the military, in spite of never having been a part of it.

"Hey, fuck you. The military is where my heart lies, don't judge. What, you think it's better in your sissy commune up in the mountains? Maybe we should all have a sing along and hold hands to learn magic. I bet that will work out." Joseph knew this wolfey bastard had some monster playhouse way beyond the Unoctoc. From the sounds of it, they were all batshit insane and had some dumb ideas about "bringing together monsterkind". Sounded like a complete pipe dream to Joseph.

"Yes, my sissy commune is a terrible awful place and we're all stupid for wanting a place to call our own. Seeing how stupid I am, it boggles the mind why you would deign to speak with me." The irritation in Honehe's voice was plain for all to hear.

"Well gee, I'm so sorry I tried to make some idle conversation. Maybe if you weren't so high and mighty all the time, you could appreciate me taking precious moments to grace you with my pearls of wisdom. But no, you want to be the special monster kid from buttfuck nowhere looking down on all these lowly humans. You can be special all on your lonesome if you wanna be, dipshit, just don't come crying to me when no one cares." With that, Joseph mercifully returned to ignoring Honehe for the time being. Honehe knew this respite was but brief, considering they had engaged in many hostile conversations of the sort, only for Joseph to return to gripe at him as though all the cursing and hot air was somehow deepening the bond between them.

The arrival of their truck at their destination proved to be Honehe's salvation, allowing him to distance himself from Milit for the time being. He imagined he would be quite enamored with the fact they were being overlooked by members of his precious military for this exercise of theirs. Honehe was only vaguely aware of this "Mage Corps" as being an elite unit in the Unoctocan military. It did not truly matter to him who they were or what they thought of them. When Honehe had gathered all he could from this place, he would leave this empire behind him and focus on his own. For now, there was naught to do but steel himself for the trial to come, even if it was unlikely to be of much importance.

Persona in Wonderland: A Persona RP.

Hector wondered where all this outrage had been before the rabbit had explained himself. Rather than curse at him and questions his motives before he claimed to have a good motive, they chose to do so after he told them there was a very real threat to themselves. It flowed into what some of the other said, that their little group was unlikely to work together well. That much was absolutely true, but again, Hector could not see the point of pointing it out after he had told them he had limited choice in the way of people he could reasonably bring over. Amusingly, it was the young one that had made a point of screaming about how they needed to work together that chose to point out that they were all unlikely to work together. He couldn't fathom how saying that would help them work together any better, if that was really what he wanted. Even less helpful was the rabbit's dogged determination to remain vaguely condescending and standoffish at those he wanted allegiance from.

Going from worse to worse, the absolute disaster of this gathering turned even more sour as the aforementioned kid vanished in a cocoon of darkness, or something to that effect. After everything that had happened, Hector could only bring his palm to his face, wearing a look of intense frustration. Yet again, a life had been lost due to them being thrown in the deep end by this maddening group. The irony that it was one of their most fervent supporters was not lost on Hector. One consolation was that the rabbit had seemed to have undergone a transformation of their own, and for the better in his opinion. While they sounded nauseatingly sugary all of a sudden, they certainly sounded a great deal more conciliatory about the fact that yet another had perished for their recklessness. Hector imagined it was a slim chance that this transformation would be permanent.

In lieu of more reasonable leadership, their "Mad Hatter" arrived to deliver a far more reasonable explanation of events than this "Peter White" ever had. All the same details and more, without the condescension and dismissiveness he now associated the male rabbit with. This was all still far from ideal, but it was a marked improvement at the least. Ultimately, the Mad Hatter got down to business far faster than Hector had been hoping for. They now had a clear plan of action and a certain certainty in what they were to do. That was something Hector could appreciate. Taking possession of his "weapons", his own marble-thing manifested as an embalming knife. He recognised the type from a documentary. He wondered if everything in this land was going to be caked in symbolism, like the embalming knife for the mortician's son. He wasn't so sure he would enjoy that.

Nevertheless, they had their objective, and Hector was quite content to pursue it. There was little else to do here but stumble about blindly, so he would follow the given path until everything became more clear, following the others to their forested point of origin.

Mordhaben's Institute for Aspiring Mages [Gaslamp Fantasy] [Completely Dead]

Still around.

Persona in Wonderland: A Persona RP.

Finally, the why of it all laid at their feet. Why it had taken them so long to arrive at this point was beyond Hector, but at least they had their answer. He was less concerned about all the technical details and sudden revelations than he was about the reason this was happening. Whether they were all actually in a coma or had ended up in hell was irrelevant so long as they had no direction. As briefly curious as it was that one of their number was revealed to be many times shorter than they really were, Hector was unconcerned with them so long as they appeared to be no threat, and certainly their "saviors" appeared largely unconcerned with his presence. It was good to hear the rabbit express some remorse for the prior death. It didn't make up for it happening, but it was better than the arrogant bastard attitude he had been maintaining this whole time. As he told it, his motives for involving them in all this was almost noble sounding. So noble that Hector didn't fully buy it. While he had decided to take this as the truth for now, he wasn't so sure there wasn't a more selfish reason behind it all. The rabbit here didn't strike him as the purely altruistic type. Selfish or not, Hector had to admit that wanting to overthrow a mad despot with vaguely megalomaniacal ambitions was an entirely reasonable endeavour, and even if he wouldn't forget the fact that this had just cost someone's life, it was certainly a cause he could get behind.

"Right, I for one will step up." He spoke up, standing forward. He still didn't like the rabbit creature, but he wouldn't let that hold him back. "But I think there's a crucial piece of information you've neglected to tell us. How, exactly, are we going to help? I doubt we could fight that creature back there even as a group, let alone an army of them." Hector suspected they already had a plan for them, but given how difficult it had been to wrangle a meaningful answer out of this rabbit so far, he felt the question needed to be asked.

@The Jest

A Certain Variegated Pseudepigraphum [Toaru/Raildex RPG]

Allowing the Irishman to take the corpse, more than fine to have him do the work for her, a slight smile came Junia as he walked off in a huff. She had found an easy target indeed. "Oh but you're completely right!" She began, following after him, entirely unfazed by his veiled threat and determined to nettle him some more. "It IS beyond stupid to think someone would carry cash on them." She told him in the same mocking tone he had apparently utterly failed to recognise earlier. "Just as stupid as it would be to expect someone to carry a checkbook on hand these days. COMPLETELY idiotic, I know!" She could barely remember the last time she had seen or heard of a cheque. While he might have been vindicated by the fact that he found the only criminal in all of Academy City, and perhaps even all of Japan, that carried a checkbook while stealing corpses, let alone at any time, it did, by this man's own words, only make him a lucky idiot, but an idiot nonetheless.

"I would be careful cashing that cheque, if I were you." She continued as they exited into full view of the others. "I mean, a cheque given to you by an invisible criminal in a dark alleyway? It might not even be legitimate. Or even if you manage to cash it, it might come from a completely illegal source. You might just end up in a jail cell for all your trouble." It struck her that it would have been the perfect moment for that man to exact some revenge on the Irishman by writing him a cheque that was completely worthless. If it hadn't occurred to him, then these criminal folk must be equally cowardly and moronic. But, knowing how things had gone so far, Junia was fully expecting whatever invisible force that was favoring him to create a series of contrived coincidences that resulted in the Irishman coming off smelling like a bed of roses. It was almost as though they were characters in a story where the author was blatantly favoring his little pet.

@Crimmy @Plank Sinatra

Persona in Wonderland: A Persona RP.

Hector only needed to listen to the child that barked at him for all of two seconds before mentally writing him off and listening no longer. The last thing anyone needed right now was a preachy load of nonsense straight from a Japanese cartoon. He wanted answers, and he was going to get them once they escaped this danger. After some time, the rabbit lead them to a fitting hole for them to all crawl into. Or jump, as it were. Given everything that had occurred so far, Hector could care less about the absurdity of jumping into a rabbit hole to safety. Like the rest, he dived right on in, eager to reach safety and here some answers.

Despite the weird and wonderful environment they soon found themselves in, Hector was still squarely focused on getting an explanation. Fortunately for him, it appeared that some of the others were equally focused on the task. They quickly got down to brass tacks and interrogated the rabbit more effectively than he would have expected. While the horrifying visage that the rabbit undertook in reaction was certainly disturbing, Hector was still set on a singular purpose, and having already seen a man burn to death, he wasn't about to cower in fear of whatever this thing was. The rabbit's apparent indignation at being pressed only served to lower him further in Hector's esteem. It was as if he had no insight or appreciation for the circumstances of the people he had brought here. If he expected their co-operation, he was doing a piss poor job of soliciting it.

Nevertheless, the others continued to press for answers, and Hector wanted nothing more than to add his voice to the chorus. "Aye, answers. Oh, but only if you can be bothered with them, right? Wouldn't want to strain you or stress you out or anything." He mockingly mirrored the rabbit's earlier statement. If he insisted on getting shitty with them, then Hector was going to offer nothing but sourness in return.

@The Jest

A Certain Variegated Pseudepigraphum [Toaru/Raildex RPG]

Following behind the mad Irishman, Junia was amazed to find he had not only found their invisible foe but also assault them. It was almost as if some invisible force had favored him in doing so, provided he did not possess convenient powers of invisibility detection. Funnily enough, it appeared he had gone to such great efforts only to acquire recompense for his damages thus far. Junia would almost admire such mercenary behaviour, if she wasn't doubtful that this assailant of theirs was carrying around the equivalent of nearly 850 US dollars on hand. Even among those that carried cash nowadays, they didn't tend to carry so much for no reason. "Hey, why stop there? I think I saw enough to make up half a million on them. Go for gold." She called out to the Irishman mockingly. She had no idea if they had any money on them, especially as she still couldn't even see them, which begged the question as to whether this guy was confident in his ability to find the man or just a moron.

Her interest ultimately lay with the corpse that lay effectively forgotten and abandoned. The best thing she could think of right now was to take it from here and turn it over to the authorities once they arrived. That was the best revenge she could think of against those that had fought so hard to wrench the body from their sight. Admittedly, as she prepared to drag it away, she too considered an ambush, but she decided to take the chance. Perhaps she could count on the Irishman's godlike perception to protect her, if only so that he could secure his tribute.

@Plank Sinatra @Crimmy

Persona in Wonderland: A Persona RP.

A certain line of thought entered Hector's head as the explosion behind him signaled the death of one of their number. The rabbit had claimed to have brought them all here with his "looking glass" or whatever. None of them would have been here if he had not done this, if all was to be believed. Thus, it was entirely his fault that they were in the cross-hairs of that black beast. These selfish gits had caused the death of a person for their hidden agenda. Whatever shred of sympathy Hector might have been willing to give to this lot was as roasted to a crisp as whoever had perished in that inferno. The black one might have been the killer, but these people had tied them to the tracks.

For all the disdain that was building in his head, Hector kept running. He was under no illusions that the black one was nothing other than hostile to them, and while he had a newfound contempt for their seeming allies, they weren't actively trying to kill them right now. He followed, as prompted, into the tall grass, but as he ran, he called out to the white rabbit. "You had better have a bloody great explanation for all this!" There were only a handful of good reasons that could assuage his ire at this point. God help them if this was all orchestrated for some trivial whimsy on the part of these animalesque wankers.

@The Jest

Persona in Wonderland: A Persona RP.

These were the types of situations Hector hated to find himself in. As expected, the rabbit thing provided no satisfactory answers, and gave them some vague warning about something coming for them. Most annoyingly, something did come for them. Now it was a matter of pure chance. They could trust blindly in the white rabbit, and get out of here, and they might all run headfirst into a trap. Alternatively, they could choose to take a chance on this newcomer. He looked as suspicious as it got, but on the other hand, "looks can be deceiving" was a common adage for a reason. He had absolutely no idea what could happen with either of them, and that fact was excruciating. A decision had to be made with no facts or rationale, only instincts and assumptions. If there had been an appropriate opportunity, Hector would have spat on the ground in disgust and protest at this.

He decided to go with the obvious choice and trust in the rabbit, as many others seemed to be doing. He did not actually trust the thing one bit, but he didn't have a bit of a shred of info to go on here either. If it was potential death on either end, he may as well throw in with the one that seemed the least suspicious on the surface. If this came to bite him in the arse, then he would have to live with that...or die with it, as it were.

A Certain Variegated Pseudepigraphum [Toaru/Raildex RPG]

Junia rolled her eyes as their assailant disappear under a rooftop. As much as it angered her to see him escape her reach, a surge of lethargy overcame her at the thought of the gymnastics she would have to preform to chase in into whatever building he had just escaped into. Coupled with the fact that she was uncertain he would even be there by the time he arrived, she gave up on the prospect of melting him into a puddle. That girl that ended up in there with him could do the fighting. Or she could die. Junia couldn't care less either way.

What she did end up caring about was the bizarre antics of the guy with the ridiculous accent. As amusing as it was to watch him cavort about like a moron, it was more what his actions indicated towards that got her interest. He was screaming at someone, and unless he planned to take the extreme long way to them, it didn't seem to be the earlier cretin. Glancing closer, Junia briefly wondered if she did make out a shimmer of something, but she wasn't sure. Given they weren't under attack, it would stand to reason that any other interlopers had a different goal in mind. On a hunch, Junia quickly gazed in the direction their corpse should have been, and sure enough, it was gone. Someone had come to snatch their find from under their noses. "Oh no you don't..." Junia hissed to herself under her breath as she launched another glob in the vague direction the screaming moron was heading towards. This was a literal blind shot, but perhaps if Junia was lucky, she would land a hit on their fleeing target. She considered she might hit the corpse, but if they wanted it so badly, it might sting them to lose it.