Fish of Oblivion

Old One Rising (A Lovecraftian adventure-horror RP) (Reboot)

Ob has no such excuse. I'm stalking him.

@RBYDark

i'm just forgetful, pls no bully ;w;

Old One Rising (A Lovecraftian adventure-horror RP) (Reboot)

@ONL So, just been drafting up ideas for the next post, and RBY suggested that Frederick encountering August and/or Jeremy nearby campus (or just on the way over towards where he's staying, depending on exactly where they are) could help get him more involved in what's going on; alright by you if I try and set that up in my next post?

Also, RBY reminded me that there was something I was supposed to ask you about; mind if I PM you about that in a bit, or a bit busy with sorting out university stuff still?

Old One Rising (A Lovecraftian adventure-horror RP) (Reboot)

And I deliver, courtesy of some NPC help from @RBYDark!

Old One Rising (A Lovecraftian adventure-horror RP) (Reboot)

Frederick Hughes

Mental State: Focused.
Physical State: Wide awake and mostly healthy

It was coming up on eleven when the train ground to a slow halt outside the station on High Lane, and whilst many of his fellow passengers had since awoken and pulled themselves to order, Frederick nonetheless found himself amongst the first to disembark into the dreary soon-to-be-afternoon Arkham day.

Ignoring the slow trickle of other passengers out from the train as he took his cases across the platform and towards the street outside the station, he set them down on the concrete before rummaging through his coat pocket. A moment later, a folded-up piece of paper was out and open in his hands, showing a somewhat faded map of the town; with a red ink circle surrounding and highlighting a large chunk of buildings a distance south of the station, across the Miskatonic River his train had crossed on the final stretch of its journey.

“West College Street… West College Street…” Mumbling that to himself to ingrain the rough area of his destination into his mind, he folded and tucked the map back into his pocket before taking his cases in his hands again. It was a fair walk, but if he wasn’t mistaking his current location, it wasn’t a complicated one; if he took the left turn from the station, he could take the bridge his train had passed under to cross the river, and then it was just a matter of walking three blocks down.

With just a slight shiver that he attributed to the shock of passing from the warm air of the car to the unpleasant chill of the winter morning instead of anything else in the air, Frederick started to walk again, continuing to outpace the rest of the disembarking passengers as they began to flow onto the street like spilled water from the platform above.
____
The walk to the Miskatonic campus was uneventful, to put it simply. After what had likely been the kind of busy early morning you’d find in any town, Arkham’s late morning seemed to have become similarly routine in its slow pace, as if waiting for midday to energize it once more.

However, there was something about the uneventful trek that made Frederick feel suspicious of his surroundings in a way that he hadn’t before. Even at this time in the day, there should have been more people about the streets than there were after he crossed the bridge over the Miskatonic river, more students going about their business in the immediate surroundings of the campus; and there seemed to be something a little off in some of those he did see navigating the narrow streets alongside him, a sense of quiet dread about them that crept out into the air.

His imagination might have drawn something deeper out of that, if not for what he saw when he finally reached the campus.

“Oh my.” That was about the only response he could manage as he passed the final block to the Miskatonic University campus, and found himself greeted by the unpleasantly familiar sight of a tape barrier.

He hardly needed imagination to discern what had caused the dread in the people he’d passed on his way over. Whilst the barrier could have meant many things, none of them meant anything good.

An officer from the middle of the scene seemed to notice the stranger’s presence and jogged over to the border, the last physical divide between the normal world and the one that cast a shadow of fear over Arkham.

“Um, sir, you can’t come down this way. Active investigation. If you need directions, I, uh, can try to help? I mean, I did grow up around here...” He didn’t even look like he had finished growing up yet - face bereft of the expected facial hair, skin free of the bags and wrinkles that invariably attended those who had spent their lives chasing criminals only to be sent to war, voice lacking that deep boom of authority. Practically a child compared to Frederick.

“Don’t worry, son, I’ve been behind enough of these barriers to know the drill.” Frederick sighed; this was beyond inconvenient, but he supposed it would just be best to rearrange his plans and go set up and unpack at the house instead of pushing the man who’d come over to warn him off. Poor fellow looked like a stiff breeze would knock him over, so clearly he was looking at some kind of worst case scenario behind there. “That said, I did have an appointment here- are you allowed to talk about what happened?”

“I - oh!” The uniformed officer shivered, and not from the chill rising off the icy snow. “I’m sorry, sir, I - I don’t think I’ve seen you at the station yet. Peter Bailey. Guess you were on vacation?” Clearly, the young man had misunderstood to some degree. “Well, just - a witness described it as a suicide but, well, our boss thinks there are some rather unusual circumstances behind it. Right now, until he says otherwise, we have to treat it like a homicide. You know?” He glanced back at the scene. “The, uh, body got removed yesterday, but we keep finding pieces.”

Frederick blinked, staring at Bailey as he revealed the reason for the barrier. A suicide? Unusual circumstances? “... Vacation sounds about right, Station back home arranged an appointment with Miskatonic about a security position that was open. Is there anything more you can say about the suicide, or is it need-to-know? ”

“...oh. Oh no.” Bailey blanched. “I - oh, jeez, I thought you were a senior officer!” He sounded just a tiny bit panicked.

“Relax, son, relax!” Frederick tried to keep his voice down, for both his sake and Bailey’s; there didn’t seem to be anyone about besides the two of them, but that could soon change if either of them made too much noise. “I can keep a secret, no problem. Doubt it would have been too long before I found out about what happened, anyway.”

Bailey stared at Frederick as he spoke, but his breathing did seem to slow a bit and finally returned to a more proper rhythm. “Well... maybe not the part about the homicide. That’s not in papers yet.” He flinched a bit. “I guess at least I didn’t give the witness’s name...” Though still not entirely reassured of his competency, he cleared his throat. “Well, rest is in the papers. Yesterday morning, a teacher on campus, Dr. Atkins, was seen jumping from that building-” He pointed up at the building behind him, in front of and to the right of Frederick. The building was easily the highest point on the campus. “He, uh, obviously didn’t survive the impact. His lectures are all being delivered by a temporary substitute until they can get a new professor in, I think. Right now, the official story is that officers are still cleaning up the scene, and-” Bailey grimaced. “-we kind of are.”

Frederick managed to withhold a wince as he looked at the sheer drop that Bailey pointed out. No wonder the barrier was up; the thought of the state the poor bastard’s body must have been in was getting him green around the gills, God only knew what the actual sight might have done to him.
“In which case, I think that might be my cue to mind my own business.” With that, Frederick quickly checked his watch; it was starting to come up on midday, which meant he’d have to move if he wanted the best chance of getting to the house on time. “Thanks for telling me what you could- in any case, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to take my appointment today after all, if everything’s all shaken up after this. I’d probably be best going and finding where I’m staying, but do you happen to know where I could find anyone to arrange a formal appointment with?”

“Erm, yes. South a block, head down that road to the large brick building with the hydrangea shrubs lining the front. They’re a little, uh, leafless right now, but they’ll look much better once the cold clears out.” Bailey pointed down the street as he gave his directions to indicate ‘south’. “If you’re a counter, fourth building down. That’s the main administrative building - you should be able to talk to one of the secretaries for help. They’re all very pretty, so at least that’s good.”

“Alright, thanks again, and Godspeed.” And with that, Frederick turned in the direction that Bailey indicated, bidding him farewell with a friendly wave and a smile.

He wouldn’t say he’d been lying through his teeth when he said he’d mind his own business, but nonetheless, he had absolutely no intention of letting the suicide stay an unpleasant cliff note to his stay in Arkham. Bailey had mentioned something about ‘unusual circumstances’, and for the first time that day, his imagination was flared up.

Perhaps those chills hadn’t just been the winter morning nipping at his heels, but rather his instincts raising their heads in response to a nightmare to come.

Old One Rising (A Lovecraftian adventure-horror RP) (Reboot)

Sorry I've been away for so long, my dad dragged me down to the cabin for us to work a bit, so been without internet ever since. But now I'm back! Sadly I'm still waiting on T Risket to finish our collab. @gohKamikaze Hopefully you'll have Barry to interact with soon!

@ONL

ohey you're alive

All good, I had some family stuff of my own to work through, so no way I can really judge you. That said, sorry for stalling on the post again, I'll try and have it up sometime at the weekend?

Old One Rising (A Lovecraftian adventure-horror RP) (Reboot)

Alright, so I wanna apologize for the delays in getting my next post written and out; I promise there's about half a post or so already written and waiting to be finished when RBY's available to collab.

Until then, I bow my fishy head in shame.

Fortissimo//Akkord: Seihai Sensō

If this gets off the ground, I'm all in.

Old One Rising (A Lovecraftian adventure-horror RP) (Reboot)

Short and a bit overdue, but Fred's head is in the game now. Next post will have him doing stuff, I promise

Old One Rising (A Lovecraftian adventure-horror RP) (Reboot)

Frederick Hughes

Mental State: Confused but resolute.
Physical State: Wide awake and mostly healthy.

It was only late morning when the train began to approach Arkham, but even after his long journey, Frederick was wide-awake amongst the rest of the sleeping or half-asleep passengers.

It wasn’t that uncomfortable sleeping arrangements or sharp morning light had coaxed him from his sleep early; with a long trip between Maine and Massachusetts, he’d begrudgingly paid for first class and the ability to sleep mostly unhindered, and the view afforded to him of the sky from his car’s window was uniformly grey or dirty white, the sign of a dreary winter day to come instead of a bright spring day that filled all who saw it with energy. Rather, a few hours earlier, perhaps as the train had passed the state border from New Hampshire to Massachusetts, he’d woken with a start and a head that felt as if it had been hollowed out and filled to the brim with filthy, fetid water.

It was about as unclear as that figurative water as to what caused his unpleasant awakening, but he didn’t wish to dwell on it for long; not that he could, as his mind seemed unable to entertain any real thought about his strange awakening, instead almost seeming to distract him with a bevy of other issues if he tried to concentrate on it. So as the rest of the passengers remained sleeping and stationary, he instead pulled himself together and prepared himself to disembark as soon as possible, readying his cases and watching the misty forests and river streams creep along the outside of the window as the minutes of his final approach left him alone with his thoughts.

‘Should I make the business call first, or settle in at the house?’ Distinctly mundane thoughts, as it was. Whilst he was supposed to be in Arkham to recover, he’d been advised to find some means by which he could earn upkeep and keep himself engaged; whilst his usual line of work would have been out of the question in any other situation, the Chief back in Madawaska had managed to find something similar, but more forgiving. Despite initial reservations, he’d ultimately phoned ahead at the last station ahead to confirm the appointment, which meant it wasn’t a question of whether he should make the call, but when.

As the river creeping across his window drew closer, falling out of his field of vision as it nestled close to the railroad tracks, and as he instead saw the first buildings of the town draw up in the distance, he made his mind up.

Settling in could wait, he’d made an appointment with Miskatonic University and he’d make sure he kept it.

Digimon: The Convergence of the Human and Digital Worlds

While BanchoLeomon and Examon were making heads or tails of what just happened, a soft growl escaped Dorugoramon’s metallic maw as the dragon slowly, if not shakily, pushed herself back up again by digging her feet into the asphalt. The beast showed no signs of wanting to back down in spite of her clearly weakened condition, her feral thirst palpable in the air around her. That said, it didn’t seem to act purely on instinct or bloodlust anymore, a sign that she was no longer the feral Digimon she once was.

Fangs gritted and claws clenched, she looked at the two silently, as if acknowledging their presence and re-affirming their status as allies, then turned to the sky, brown eyes scanning for any threat in their sights, muzzle pointed towards the sky and a deep snarl signalling her alertness.

“I smell a threat,” Zei said to the two. Her voice, normally gentle, if not a tad stoic, was gnarly and simmering with feral backdrop, as if a wild animal was pretending to be the normally-composed woman. “It smells of the ocean… Of prey.” Her steel claws began to burn with a light ember, sparks of fire coating every digit of her fingers. Her snarls grew louder like a revved up engine and her brown eyes brightened, its earthly hue seemingly shifting back to a lustrous, yet savage gold.

------
“So...this is happening.” BanchoLeomon muttered to Examon while raising an eyebrow at his draconic companion. “Who’s your friend? Another one of your subordinates? Didn’t see them back in the Digital World.”

“Not exactly. In fact, I think she’d be offended if you asked her that.” Examon paused for a moment, contemplating exactly how to broker his little discovery to BanchoLeomon. A few moments more and he supposed that if anyone would be able to take it in without doing or saying something stupid, it would be BanchoLeomon; and thus, any elaborate method of explanation went out of the window.

“That’s Dorumon and Zei in there. Alphamon hopped out of their body, what happened to D- what happened in the Tokugawa Building before everything went to hell triggered something.”

“We’re missing Alphamon? Shit. So that DNA Digivolution you used against Imperialdramon is off the table, then?”

“Well. You get one guess as to where she jumped.”

“You? That’s convenient.” BanchoLeomon scoffed, twirling his sword around as he gazed up at the massive crystal in frustration.

“We clearly have very different ideas of ‘convenient’,” Examon grumbled, before his lance appeared in his hands in tandem to BanchoLeomon’s swordplay. “But if it gives me- gives us any kind of edge against this thing, I’ll take it.”

“Going to get on with it, then? I’d like to not die today, thank you.”

As it turned out, BanchoLeomon wasn’t the only one keen on not having to be at Death’s doorstep. Glancing from the corner of her eyes, Zei stopped snarling and turned to the two, golden eyes looking back and forth between the two. “Be quick, Siggy. I want to kill.” As if to emphasize her newly-gained bloodlust, she let her tongue slip out and licked the edge of her metallic maw.

“By all means, after you,” Examon grumbled, as he produced his lance again. The jab was more to lighten the mood than anything; he had as much intent to kill whatever the crystal was as they did, but something about it sent a horrid chill through his body. It wasn’t only the sheer power it was giving off; there was something else in the sight of the thing that produced some kind of dread. As if the very sight of it reminded him of everything horrible that had happened in his life.

Taking his remark as an invitation, Zei growled and spread her wings open before, with a quiet sweeping motion, took to the skies and, once again, turned her sights towards the crystal. There was an unmistakable air that sent her basic feral instincts into high gear, but that feeling was overshadowed by the rage now flowing without restraints. With a loud roar, the angry beast took the woman’s place again as she made a beeline for her floating target, claws blazing and golden eyes glimmering with bloodlust.

“You always were an asshole, BanchoLeomon.” And with that last one-liner of vitriolic friendship, Examon blasted forwards as fast as his wings and power could carry him. Calling up every ounce of power he could pull from out of his body as he joined Dorugoramon in sounding his war cry, a strange and new golden light beginning to radiate from his body as he prepared to join the fight once again.

“So…” BanchoLeomon noted to himself as two dragons flew off. “Still can’t fly. So there’s that.” He clicked his tongue, starting to search for an alternate way to reach the abomination in the sky.