Mokley

The Zephyr Extinct

@Plank Sinatra Yup!! Depends on how close she'll look. At first the corpse's forearm will seem clean, but there is a lighter discoloration, like old scars in the shape of a winding tree. Like something was there but had since been removed.

The Zephyr Extinct

Should have my post up today barring the local deer population rising up against me

@Grey Omen

I'm ....... curious and concerned.

The Zephyr Extinct

Thanks Lucky! 💜 Ye, all's ok, just distracted and exhausted, haha. 😅 I think it worked out though!

I feel like I instinctively just make life difficult for @drewccapp's characters out of habit. 😈

The Zephyr Extinct

"It doesn't matter!" she snapped. "I doubt anyone much likes you either, yet you wouldn't want to be in his place! So quit watching with popcorn and go get help, which two of us here need! Is everything some big joke to you?"

@LuckyBlackCat

"Don't say that, Rose. I like Fluke. Hey, uh, Fluke, if you do help out... I'll do your laundry or something."

@drewccapp

"A little bit more courtesy would be appreciated, Fluke."

@Grey Omen

"Hey it's not my fault it's funny," Fluke protested, shifting from one foot to the other. "Look, he's drooling!"

But no one else was laughing. In fact, Rose and Listener and Cedar seemed the very opposite of laughing. All of them were hurt, some more than most, Ruskali most of all. The old man seemed to have aged a decade in three minutes, his skin sagging and eyes glazed, brittle fingernails scratching into his frail palms. Rose especially seemed upset by this.

While they all turned their backs on him, Fluke fidgeted with a metal piece on his mask and squeaked it back and forth while he scuffed his boots in the dirt.

Finally Fluke knocked on Cedar's shoulder and shoved the drone controller into his hands. Between the thumb controls was a little screen with a live video feed of the drone's camera. It was currently hovering over the half-buried corpse in the alley.

Fluke jammed his hands in the pockets of his shorts and strode away toward an empty flower shop, where he'd spotted a landline telephone.

"Archer, I know you wanted to test us all, but please you've gotta do something!"

@LuckyBlackCat

Archer approached with a grave gait, the horns of her mask glinting blue and green. She slung Ruskali's arm behind her neck and cradled his weight away from Rose, then carefully laid him down on his back in the sandy street. While she held Ruskali's face between her hands, the old man whimpered and fidgeted and breathed loudly through his nose.

"Ruskali," she said, calm and firm, like an anchor for a ship in the storm. "What is coming? What did the voices say to you?"

In Cedar's head, a voice laughed like a pit of snakes.

When Ruskali's only answer was a gurgling sob, Archer sighed and laid a comforting hand on his forehead. She moved instead after Listener.

"Now, you'll only be a liability scuttling about like that," she warned, taking Listener's shoulders in her hands. Once Listener was standing still, Archer pressed her palms against Listener's neck to gauge her heartbeat.
"It's one thing if you know what you're doing, but you've obviously never been blind before. If ya don't want to go home, I've got something that might help temporarily."

Confident that Listener's blood pressure was mostly normal, Archer reached into a pocket and popped the cap of a little pill bottle. She pressed a gumdrop-sized candy into Listener's hand. "Lose one sense, rely on the others, yeah? Sound, taste, touch, smell. Just be careful of the kick, it's like seven cups of coffee, but you can handle it right?" There was a small grin in her words as she gave Listener an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

Archer looked up and took a step behind Rose. "Steel Rose," she said solemnly, her mask's scanners drifting between Rose and the jagged window above, where the singing continued. "What is it, what's wrong? Is someone in trouble?"

Fluke stepped out of the flower shop and stood alone with his hands in his pockets again, watching the clouds.

A whirring noise in the sky drowned out Jay's song, and a pair of hoverbikes appeared over the low rooftops. The two healers were bright in their orange robes, medical kits slung over their shoulders, a stretcher balanced between them.

They landed in a soft swirl of wind and sand, and with practiced efficiency they tossed supplies between them and scurried to Ruskali's side.

"etsaw a!" laughed the voice in Cedar's head.

The singing had stopped.

The Zephyr Extinct

I am actually stalling time ... it's been quite a week ... brain no go ... but I am here and thinking about this! 💜 (I really hope the next post will be epic when it actually happens) 😂

The Zephyr Extinct

Thanks so much Eodwyn! 💚

Here's a last call for posts!!

The Zephyr Extinct

@drewccapp Much appreciated!! 💚💜

@LuckyBlackCat I'm so glad you're onboard! I'm interested to see how things play out!

Good luck, Rose... 😂

The Zephyr Extinct

Aaa take care and good luck!!! Please be safe!! 💚

The Zephyr Extinct

Ok post is up and done! :D

@drewccapp I'm actually finding it a little difficult to reference your character sheet because it's in first person, therefore there's nothing in there that Listener doesn't realize about herself, you know? It's not important, but if you're ever bored and you wanna take a look and shift it to third person omniscient (or just add some third person notes for anything Listener wouldn't say about herself!) that'd help me weave the character in a little better. 💚

And if anyone feels like shifting around your character sheets after you get to know your character better, please do feel free, just let me know there's a change!

The Zephyr Extinct

Recalling something one had mentioned, she hummed a song she sometimes heard street musicians play. Holding a distressed person while humming could supposedly calm them with the vibrations. She tried to keep the tune gentle and even, but her breath juddered in her chest. Compartmentalising was all but impossible right now.

@LuckyBlackCat

Cedar holstered his weapon on his back, then held his hands in front of him, palms up. He took a step back, assuming his best 'I won't hurt you' stance. He tried to think of something calming to say, then promptly decided against it, settling on silence instead.

@Grey Omen

She put a grin on her face and reopened her eyes. She could see colors and vague shapes now, but everything was a blur. "Oh dear," She giggled. "I messed up. I'm not going to be much use for anyone in this state."

@drewccapp

The tall girl brought herself down on a landing pad and began rappelling down into the alleyway via vines; as good as she was, it seemed too dicey for a girl as tall and muscular as her, aboard a glider, to make a descent directly with everyone else. While they dealt with Ruskali behind her, Iris knelt and inspect the corpse. Whoa. What's with the ring?

@Plank Sinatra

Ruskali shivered in Rose's hold like a leaf in a hurricane, his stained teeth bared, his filmed gray eyes wide and wild and sightless. But as Rose began to hum a gentle tune, Ruskali slowly stopped struggling and began instead to gurgle a wordless sound in his throat.

There was nothing left of him but a heartbeat, a trickle of breath, and a streak of cold tears down his sallow, dirty face.

"Nobody really liked him anyway," Fluke commented. He'd walked up behind Rose, the little drone perched on top of his mask, and he lilted his head as if Ruskali were a funny street performer.

His gaze shifted toward Listener, who seemed to be wobbling around a bit more manically than usual. The shorter Ze ambled up to her and waved his hands in front of her mask. "Hey guys, I think Listener can't see. You really rolled a one on that hit, huh?" he laughed.

Ruskali's knees buckled, and his weight drooped toward the ground as if he no longer had the strength to hold himself upright.

An echoing voice hummed a faint tune in the empty square. While the vines and flowers shivered, and an armadillo scuttled across the cobblestones, they could hear someone else singing the same tune that Rose used to calm Ruskali. It was faintly coming from the broken windows of a high building that was veined with vines and violet flowers.

Rose might recognize the voice as that of an old friend.

Cedar, however, would hear a very different voice. One that no one else could hear, that whispered inside his own skull:

'tnelis peek. gnihton od. yaw eht uoy wohs lliw i.'

Meanwhile, in the alley, Iris might discover that the healer's corpse was pale, hollow and gray-eyed, thin and emaciated like the hosts of the Nox. The black ring seemed nothing unusual, except the skin around it had turned a deep bruised purple, and etched into the smooth dark surface was a circle with a dot in the center. It was a symbol of grounding, of energy and purpose. It meant a higher calling.

It was the symbol of Amalgam.