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In test 5 yrs ago Forum: Test Forum


Hey there! I'm interested in joining this as well. Should I join the discord server?
Hi there!

I'd be interested in joining, if there's room for one more. Should I join the discord if there's space?


Ava found herself on staircase somewhere when she awoke, in what looked like the fire escape of a building. The sharp bend of the steps and the cold cement prickled against her skin, stirring her into a sitting position. It felt like it was evening at this point, golden hour maybe, before sunset, but there weren’t any windows nearby to make an accurate assumption. It was probably for the better anyway - it’s a miracle enough that Ava managed to find shelter from the sun, before passing out the previous night.

Waking up, however, is hardly ever as easy as sleep itself, in Ava’s case. Leftovers from yesterday’s dinner were sprawled at the end of the flight of stairs. Whatever amount of blood remaining in the cadaver had coagulated and dried around long incisions that stretched across his wrists and neck. Nearby, a few flasks meant for alcohol laid next to the body, stained in the same hue of rusted red.

“F-fuck,” Ava shivered, not cold, but paralyzed by a wave of anxiety that ran through her. She darted to the body, placing her shaky hands to the side of the man’s neck, right below the jaw. There wasn’t a pulse, obviously - his glassy eyes and sunken cheeks were more than sufficient proof that no life remained in his form.

Then, she noticed that her fingertips were dyed scarlet, the same hue that gruesomely marked the man’s sallow skin. A weighted hollowness overcame her, and suddenly, the stairwell felt suffocating. She did this. Again.

Ava clenched her hands so tightly that her nails dug into her palms. Unfortunately, she didn’t drink quite enough to forget what happened the night before. She had been feeding on a string of intoxicated partygoers, taking small amounts from each. Greed clouded her reasoning, though, once intoxicated enough. The last man was unlucky.

The flasks placed by the man likely contained his blood. Ava vaguely remembered collecting it the night before. The memory disgusted her - it felt like she was a passenger in her body, observing the actions of some ghost that possessed her. Still, Ava opened a bottle and chugged the contents, shoving the remaining three flasks in her bag.

---

Ava’s apartment was in the basement of a building, with a small window at the top of one of the walls. It was scarcely decorated and rather messy. A single mattress sat in the corner of her bedroom, draped with a thin blanket that spilled onto the floor. Piles of personal items, paperwork, and clothes burdened the modest desk nearby. The invitation sent by the Black Iris Society was placed on the corner of it, reminding Ava of tonight’s plans. She was appalled at the thought of attending an event infested with vampires, but thought it would be a good opportunity to see what kind of people vampires were. She figured that if she had enough to drink through the night, the presence of other vampires wouldn't agitate her as much.

Ava arrived at the Black Iris manor around two hours later, with the flasks she collected earlier that night in a small bag. She hadn’t bothered to change out of the dress she was wearing the night before - soft, black fabric, with thin straps and a plunging neckline, and a skirt hemmed shorter than appropriate for a formal masquerade. Black tights and strappy heels added to her uncouth attire, which Ava weaponized as a way to show her disapproval for the event. Despite her intentional underdress, she was disappointed by the appearance of the shabby event venue. Nevertheless, most others seemed to be dressed much more formally than her, juxtaposed to the poor exterior of the building.

The tables of food and hor d'oeuvres caught Ava’s eyes. She was baffled - everything she used to love eating tasted like bland mush now. Maybe it was for the witches and werewolves - there seemed to be a few in attendance. Ava took one of the tall champagne glasses displayed on the table - it seemed to contain sparkling water or something similar - and dumped the contents on the white floors. The glass was refilled with the deep red concoction from one of the flasks she carried. Stepping over the puddle, Ava walked deeper into the venue to explore the area, as more guests rolled in.


In test 5 yrs ago Forum: Test Forum
asjdal
Nova Amherst


After giving a quick assessment of the scene, Isaac led Nova and the other detectives into the theatre. It was dark, and a little colder than she expected.

Then the smell hit. A sharp metallic, coppery, like old coins.

Bodies littered across the interior of the room, all staring with their grotesque, coerced smiles and glassy irises. She didn’t have enough time to turn back out the door before involuntarily retching at the scene. A scene - that’s exactly what it was. The murderer was the director of a play, and the victims his unwilling actors.

Nova’s knees felt weak. As much as she didn’t want to, she forced her legs to wobble closer to the corpses. If she couldn’t do at least this much, she would be in the wrong line of work.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Nova spoke solemnly, as one of the detectives stood beside Lenny’s body. She was devastated to hear that one of the OIA’s detectives would be connected to one of the victims here. She couldn’t imagine how it must feel if someone she knew had been defiled in this way as they died.

Isaac brought up the correlation between the scene and some sort of ritual, or cultist behaviour. Nova twiddled her thumbs - she didn’t know enough about cult belief systems to pitch in a good lead, but Darc easily pulled up a photo of a suspect. Her head tilted slightly to the side in confusion. Maybe he had some ability she wasn’t aware of.

“I don’t have any leads on the guy, but I think there are other ways we might be able to track down the people involved.” Her eyes scanned the room, stopping at the yellow centrepiece of the stage. She gulped, before continuing, “If you say we’re looking for men in yellow cloaks, maybe we can start by looking at local fabric stores for particularly large purchases of yellow fabric dated back to before this incident, or similar incidents started happening. Well, I doubt H&M is selling cultish yellow cloaks.”

Nova managed a chuckle despite the situation, but quickly cleared her throat and continued. “Um, well, I’m not sure if that will get us any leads but it’s worth a try. We might also have some luck looking through past cases for similarities; my intuition is telling me that a cult would do smaller test runs before a big, 50-person ritual to summon their demon lord.”
Nova Amherst


An abrupt ringing filled the confines of Nova’s room, at 6 AM sharp. Her alarm clock. Groaning, a hand weakly emerged from the duvet, stretching to the left side of the bed where Nova kept her cellphone. Upon securing the device in her grasp, her arm recoiled back into the warmth of her sheets, to shut it off.

There was a moment of silence, for five minutes.

Then the ringing began again. To make sure she got up, numerous alarms with different blaring ringtones were set in 5 minute intervals. Nova tried to ignore it for a few seconds, before becoming annoyed at the sound and turned it off again. The cycle repeated a few more times, and by the time Nova finally sat up on her bed, it was 6:20 AM.

Not bad, Nova thought to herself, looking at the time displayed on her phone. Despite having gone through police academy, Nova’s sleeping habits remained as terrible as in her college days.

By the time Nova finished getting ready and scarfed down a muffin, her Uber driver was already waiting outside. Normally, she’d take the subway - she didn’t own a car - but it was better to be safe than sorry on her second day. Subway delays have not yet been considered in her schedule.

The morning was filled with rather mundane tasks. Nova had gotten an orientation the day before, and was introduced to some of the other detectives at the precinct. At the moment, she was familiarizing herself with how to do paperwork for different aspects of a case. As she typed away on her computer and shuffled through a pile of papers, her eyes peered over to another desk nearby, belonging to a demonic fellow named Darc, happily consuming ring-shaped sweets. He was one of Nova’s superiors, or so she’s been told, and she’s been meaning to make a formal introduction. Today’s the day, she had told herself, a moment earlier. Her eyes narrowed. But it looks like he can harvest my soul as fast as those donuts. She shuddered at the thought, and ducked back behind the safety of the computer screen.

It was a bit past noon when Nova was ordered to assist at a newly discovered crime scene. She almost choked on her coffee when she received the call.

“A-are you serious?? Already?”

A mix of excitement and nausea twisted within her as she received the debrief. She hadn’t seen a real crime scene since that one time in high school, the rest had been photographs. What would a real one be like? What about the smell? She had been told to expect several bodies. As her cab pulled closer to the theatre, Nova couldn’t help but feel a giddiness rising up inside of her.

She approached the police line, and was expectantly stopped by an officer.

“Sorry miss, you can’t be here.”

A gleam shone in her violet eyes, a smug smile on her lips. Nova swiped her badge, which she had just received that morning, from her coat pocket, and flipped it open for the officer to see.

“I’m,” Nova began, making a quick side glance at her badge, “part of the OIA.” She almost giggled.

The officer promptly allowed her past the tape. Unexplored territory, Nova noted to herself. She found her mentor, Isaac, and another man perched over a corpse. The poor man lying on the ground had a drying red gash on his neck.

Nova stifled her reflex to gag, and cleared her throat. “Good afternoon, detectives,” she began, and glanced at the second man next to her mentor. Was she supposed to know who he was? The thought was pushed away as she continued, “I received the debrief before arrival. May I ask what has been ascertained about this victim?”

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