HokumPocus

The Five Senses

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Octavio sighed, as if the doors to his mind were creaking open from someone opening the floodgates once more. "That woman was certainly interesting. Under normal circumstances I'd consider her behavior ridiculous, but if our past exploits are anything to go by, ridiculous is synonymous with dangerous." His eyes looked at no one in particular, as if he were still talking to Lynx alone. Lynx arched his head towards the humans, eager to pitch in his own ideas.

"She's the one we know the least about, so we must absolutely be cautious of her." It felt strange to engage in conversation with people outside of Octavio, but knew that forcing himself to do so would be the quickest way to gain their respect. Octavio looked at him oddly, not having expected a response from him, but brushed him off the same.

"Caution?" the words came out of Octavio steeped in disapproval. "Don't you want to do the opposite and have a better idea as to who we're meddling with here?" He felt himself entering the start of a long bickering match with his familiar, one of many they typically had, and forcefully stopped himself to save face in front of the others. Lynx followed suit, but not without getting some final words in.

"These are our lives that are being toyed with. You must be more careful when considering a course of action such as that."

Octavio turned to the others, still discontent. "Well, aside from that, when viewing them as a whole... it's interesting that they know the being of many names. It makes him an even more intimidating character now, honestly." His coy smile showed the face of someone who was impressed.

#StillNotBitten [Invite Only]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- O'Neal Family Tavern}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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The adults that accompanied Damien picked the tavern clean in a flurry of heavy footsteps, making Damien feel out of place with his far less tactical mindset. He had been itching to just run out of the place and head to the camp, where unconditional safety would be granted. This fantasy of his was something he knew in his gut wouldn't be all that it was cracked up to be, but that's just how teenagers were. He wanted to act now and face the consequences later. Unfortunately for him, "consequences" had gone from a phone call home or a suspension to a slow and painful death. He could feel himself growing more cautious these past few days, and he didn't like it.

He entered the kitchen, not content with just sitting around, and tossed cans of whatever was edible into his backpack. It was a tavern, so he had options. Watching his already respectably full backpack fill even more, he couldn't help but feel both proud and lucky. His dad had always stressed survival of the fittest as far back as he could remember. Damien knew that this was the man's justification for screwing people over in business, and it wasn't uncommon for him to hear about a bankruptcy here or even a suicide there caused by his dad's greed, but damn, it felt good to be the fittest.

Jennifer brought up the idea of cooking something before leaving. It was obvious, but survival had frequently caused him to forget about having to eat regularly, so it was a helpful reminder to him. He approached the stove and raised his eyebrows at it still functioning.

"Anyone up for omelettes?" he asked, in a tone too jovial for a teenager caught in the middle of a pandemic. "Can't promise they'll be MasterChef level though. The club only put me as a cook when everybody else was too hungover for it." A memory of the club's head chef telling him that it wasn't a kitchen unless there was at least one person on something rang in his mind. He tried not to think if he was still alive, and opted to instead check the fridge. The refrigerated ingredients looked good enough. He wasn't completely confident, but nothing smelled funny, and that had to count for something, probably.

Dark new world (a post-apocalyptic Pokémon story)

So the grimer weren't entirely loony after all. Maya felt a pang of envy, but then again, Khelfin wasn't the one throwing rocks at them. She looked at the few grimer that had stayed, unimpressed. They were of course gravely injured, or at least as gravely injured as a puddle of filth could appear to be, and none of them looked like tempting party members. Zombie was already a handful, so her disappointment was short lived.

"So... Khelfin..." said Maya, awkwardly, "You gonna explain why you decided to be a double agent and work for the guy that was fine with getting me and Aro killed?" She asked the question with the casual tone of someone talking about the weather, but there was a hidden edge to it. Knowing that people like Cooper were stronger than her instilled a sense of helplessness within her, an urge to grow even stronger. She'd have to grit her teeth until the day she'd be able to take someone like him on in battle.

She wasn't mad at Khelfin. This world was now survival of the fittest, and he, like her, was trying to get by. That didn't mean she didn't distrust him, though.

Hewwo, mortals!~

HEWWO UwU, WEWCOME BWACK OwO

The Five Senses

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More slaves entered the chamber, carrying exquisite looking food and drink. Octavio was used to the wealthy parading those below them around with the power of gold, but even he was starting to get confused. They must have been quite powerful to have enough resources to support all of them. While it was tempting to try what they were offering, Chres abstaining made him follow suit. These people seemed too prideful to attempt poisoning them, but there was no point in taking that risk.

The man who appeared to be in charge introduced himself as an information broker, and the other two as the head of the watch and a friend, respectively. Octavio felt the urge to mock the woman and her delusional introduction, but if she was anywhere near the level of the people he had encountered ever since embarking on this journey, then she was probably telling the truth, to some extent. His gaze lingered on her the longest, as if trying to spot anything he could work with. Unfortunately, her odd choice in clothing made that impossible.

What do you suppose she could be? Apparently Lynx had been thinking the same thing.

Leader of some sort of mercenary group, red herring, the true instigator of this gathering, a delusional underling, close relative or lover to someone in this chamber, owner of the slaves... thought Octavio, dumping his ideas now that Lynx had opened the floodgates. That stunt with the grape was particularly interesting. I didn't think adults had it in them to do that kind of thing.

You did something similar when we infiltrated-

Yes but the wealthy are a different matter! A small huff from him permeated both of their minds. What interest does the order to man's chaos who murders rabid dogs and such have in squeezing grapes menacingly to intimidate a group of nobodies?

Lynx flicked his tail. Being called a nobody must have rubbed him the wrong way. Octavio didn't care.

#StillNotBitten [Invite Only]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- O'Neal Family Tavern}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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Damien listlessly wiped the blood off his golf club with the bar´s napkins, steadily creating a pile of dark red and off white in front of him. He knew wetting them first would have probably been better than just rubbing the dry blood around, but this was about distracting himself. In the same building as him was every possible alcoholic drink he could have ever desired, but he wasn´t in the mood to take even a single sip. Damien the party animal, looking for the juice and water. Even he couldn´t believe it.

It had been a few days since the world as he knew it ended, and the memory of seeing that first infected lumber out of the country club´s restroom carrying the limp body of an infant was still raw in his mind. Things had only gotten worse from then. Their elderly customers had been surrounded while on golf carts, slowly being mauled to death with no doors to protect them, with the few who managed to run damned by the open pastures. He and most of his young coworkers had managed to get away, but not without having left dozens behind. He wanted to feel bad, but it was survival of the fittest now.

Damien now found himself in a bar alongside adults twice his age, planning their next course of action. Seeing them worry over their spouses and children made him feel strangely grateful for being just a teenager with a dysfunctional family. After the past years of falling out with his friends and dad, it was hard for him to say whether he really missed anyone. He sighed, at last satisfied with making his makeshift weapon partly silver again.

"The more we wait, the less they're gonna have for us," he grumbled, "but, we're gonna bump into a lot more people that way." A smirk spread across his face as he stated the obvious. Would it really be a good idea to barrel into the rest of humanity?

From the drawn out divorce between his parents and the gaggle of teachers that made his old life hell, he had come to harbor contempt for his elders. These adults were different though. Rational, to his surprise. He had assumed that most people stopped thinking once they got comfy at their job and gave up on their dreams. The same couldn´t be said for the imaginary adults in his mind, however, all squabbling for resources in that park he never cared about. It was funny, the park his parents dismissed as entertainment for poor people was now his ultimate priority. He wondered if his dad would be able to swallow his pride and go as well. A part of him wished the old man was dead.

Dark new world (a post-apocalyptic Pokémon story)

Zombie jinked around the battlefield like a clunky machine, continually avoiding streams of gas or sludge by only a hair´s width. The look of hyperactive terror plastered on his face and Maya´s cursing revealed that this wasn´t born out of skill, however.

"Zombie, six o' clock!" she shouted, sprinting. Teaching your pokemon to face certain directions was a basic part of being a good trainer. Unfortunately for Maya, she had only taught Zombie a couple. His head swerved to look behind him as per her instructions, quickly enough to notice the wad of contamination arcing towards him and drop to the ground with a hard thud to dodge it. Maya pumped her fist in celebration and threw several rocks at the grimer to help him out.

Just as she had begun to think that the battle was turning in their favor, she heard the pained gasps of one of her teammates within the turmoil. It was Aro, swarmed by grimer.

Maya cursed loudly. "Rock throw!" she barked. If there was a silver lining to this, it was that grimer huddled together made for easy pickings. Zombie attacked repeatedly, far less focused on having the perfect shot now that it wasn't necessary. The sight of a large sword threw a wrench in her plans, though.

"What the hell?" she shouted. Maya and her pokemon kept their distance from it despite its closeness to Aro. There was no telling what that could be. She faced them both tensely, unsure of what either had planned.

The next few moments were a disaster. Khelfin revealed himself to be in leagues with a rival company, and both Ms. Amy and Cooper crashed down to join the battle. Zombie hobbled over to Maya at her command, even more bewildered than she was.

"Can´t really say I trust this is antidote right now, no offense," said Maya. She walked over to Aro and administered it, only just now realizing he had left a message in the dirt. "It beats doing nothing though... petros?"

She cocked her eyebrow at Cooper. She didn´t know who this man was, but his insistence on leaving her to die sure was an introduction. "Y'know, I was kind of hoping Ms. Amy's personal life wasn't gonna get in the way of making some money." Maya wasn't in the mood to respect her either, as her aerodactyl had come close to incinerating Zombie.

Dark new world (a post-apocalyptic Pokémon story)

Maya raised an eyebrow at the lack of care Aro displayed in handling the fossils. She knew they were more experienced than her at this though, so she kept her trap shut.

"I can´t seem to figure out why it took the three of us to dig up that fossil."

She smirked at Khelfin´s words and opened her mouth to speak. An odd noise stopped that from happening.

It was a family of grimer that had begun to encircle them. She hadn´t counted on their shapeless bodies making no noise across the landscape, but the sound of a loosened rock hitting the ground had fortunately gotten her attention.

"Well, I guess this is what they must´ve meant by toughening up my pokemon." She took mental note of the sheer amount of them and continued. "Zombie, scary face!"

In an instant the once twitching pokemon puffed out its chest and delivered a striking glare to a pair of nearby grimer. An eerie glow circling his eyes had stopped them dead in their tracks.

Maya squinted. Were they afraid, or were they just momentarily confused? One of the grimer wobbled in place, but the other seemed to have answered her question as it shook itself off and lunged for Zombie.

"Rock throw!" She shouted.

Zombie materialized a large stone and sent it hurtling towards the blob. If there was anything he could do right, it was this. She had spent ages training his accuracy with tin cans outside the lab, so aiming for a fat ball of filth was the least of her worries. A confident smile spread across her face as it let out a wail of pain from the impact. Her happiness was short-lived however, and she´d have to do more than just that if she wanted to get out of here in one piece.

"About that..." she muttered to Aro. "Zombie has wings, but he hasn´t gotten the hang of flying with them yet. The best I can get out of him is a hop and a glide, enough for a wing attack." Almost as if he understood her, Zombie did this exact maneuver to awkwardly dodge a stream of poison gas.

She dug her boot deeper into the ground. "Good job Zombie, now use scary face again!"

The archen fidgeted with the satisfaction of having been praised and once more cast a striking gaze on the grimer, this time aiming for the ones near Red.

Dark new world (a post-apocalyptic Pokémon story)

Maya adjusted her hair absentmindedly. “Well, Ms. Amy’s love life doesn’t matter to me unless she somehow drags us into it.” She paused. “Then again, this could have something to do with it.”

She called for Zombie to walk along with the rest of their party, relieved that he was listening to her for once. It was probably out a fear of getting left behind, but hey, she wasn’t complaining.

“Zombie? Nah, I had a herdier before him. She was a nightmare to handle, but my uncle always told me that starting off like that would toughen me up for any pokemon I´d want in the future.” A small laugh escaped from her lips. “I always thought he just wanted someone to dump her on, but what do you now, he was right."

A growl of static interrupted her thoughts. She must have forgotten to turn her radio off. The news was probably urgent if it reached them all the way in the wild.

She scoffed at the report. "Ghost types, as if that was good news." It might have been for the scientists cooped up in their laboratories, but for anyone familiar with the paranormal and their curses, hauntings and possessions was no doubt as disappointed as Maya to hear they were back. "I guess it makes sense, with the world being as dead as it´s ever been."

Pariah Online III

_{:: the streets of thorinn // thorinn ::}

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Alex was at a loss for words at the small gathering that had formed around what had just been him and Eaudenil. When he came up with the design for his outfit, he had played it safe and just decided to model it off whatever the rich NPCs wore, with some adjustments here and there for comfort and utility. He didn´t know a lot about roleplaying or looking like a warrior, so he had just assumed that dressing well was just looking like you were loaded as opposed to strutting around in generic peasant clothes.

All it took was one look at the other, more confident players to prove him wrong. From the intricate and morbid outfit a player called Tif wore to the brutal armor of the one who had referred to her as such, Alex suddenly felt a whole lot smaller than before. Even Verglas, who was going for the same shtick as him, managed to overshadow Alex with the booming voice of someone you´d actually think was nobility. The outlier of the group had been Tessa, who made Alex think she was trapped in the wrong game. He was especially jealous of her though, as he felt she was in the same boat as him in terms of not caring about roleplaying, if her potty mouth was anything to go by.

“Can´t say I´ve seen anyone like that, sorry guys,” he said, cupping his chin in thought. It was awkward to be in the middle of a reunion full of people you didn´t know, so he had fallen back on mentally retracing his steps. "Wait..."

His eyes narrowed and looked at Eaudenil. “You were shoved to the ground right? Could it have been the chick they´re talking about?”