Sortilege of Creation IC Thread

[NoIn-LoKi]

Jean

Apparently she had scared her a bit, because Jean dropped her notebook. Dubhe smiled. Yes, definitely uneasy about something. However she didn't expect her next answer. Without warning, she grabbed Jean's arm and spun her around to face her. "You actually saw it?" she almost snapped, her voice sharper than she intended to. She was surprised and wondered how this could be. Was she not human after all? "You saw the whole ritual. But you're human and yet you're still here? Alive?" she couldn't quite believe it. So far she'd assumed that everyone closely connected to the ritual was dead. However this wasn't something to be discussed out on the streets. Jean had proved far more connected with everything than she had initially thought.

She turned her head left and right once to make sure they weren't already attracting too much attention and then urged Jean carefully into one of the cafes on the street, sitting down in the chair in front of her. "What did you see?" she asked, trying to keep her voice soft, even though the urge in her voice was hardly suppressed. Her eyes followed Jean's every move, while her hands were intertwining. When she noticed it, she spread them apart, flat on the table.

Reflecting on how strange her behavior must seem, she shook her head. "I'm sorry. I hope I didn't startle you too much. I haven't even introduced myself properly. My name is Dubhe" she paused. "It seems we both may have some interesting information at our hands."

[Payne]

fooly, madarra

The current of the river running through the heart of New Rome had a lazy drift, and objects tossed into it could easily be caught in the eddies and swirls of the many bridges that crossed it. As a result, debris dumped into the river often took days to make its way completely out of the city. Such was also the case with the discarded body of one recently deceased magi council member, which floated up to the docks early in the morning.

A fisherman, who was just about to go out for his daily rounds saw it bobbing in the water and pulled it out before calling the authorities to come and get it. Of course, by the time they had arrived, news of the body found in the river had already spread like wildfire through the market district, and people flocked to the docks in droves to get a look at the man, who had apparently been somewhat famous as a scholar at the university.

[Prisma*Illya]

Payne,

Darien was caught off-guard by Tear's response to the bagels, catching himself before he could make a choking noise. God, why was he being so damn flustered today? He should just keep his mind on backpedaling out the door. Fortunately she didn't seem like she was going to stop him, despite her sarcastic retorts.

"Well if you don't want me to leave, then say so," Darien called back, his brain kicking in a moment later to wonder why the hell he'd said something like that. He strolled idly into the chapel, staring up at the stained-glass windows depicting the famous miracles Jesus had performed.

It all felt nostalgic to him as he sat down on a pew to silently contemplate the small sanctuary. Vivid memories of when he'd gone to stay with an old friend of his grandfather's, a psychic like himself who'd trained him to harness his Synesthesia. For five months, that church had been his home, and the kindly old man and the orphans his family.

"I wonder how they all are.." he wondered, sighing. He often didn't allow himself to stop and think about the past. It made it too difficult to move to the present if he could think of how his mother and father were, and if the old man and orphans had survived the ritual that had changed the entire world.

He stood up from the pew, moving to the snow-white statue of the Virgin Mary with her holy infant cradled in her arms.

"I don't know if you're listening.." he said quietly. "But I hope you're looking out for all of them."

--------------------

Jean was completely taken aback by Dubhe's reaction. She had expected ridicule or disbelief, but not this kind of disbelief.

"O-of course I'm human!" Jean said temperamentally. "What do I look like, a horse?"

But she was really blindsided when Dubhe had taken her by the hand and pulled her into a cafe, questioning her quietly about the ritual. Jean inspected her notebook, looking at the hurried scribbles she'd made that fateful night.

"There was a whole group of people in black robes, and a speaker in the middle of this large spell circle. He was making some strange speech about.. Gaia and a Crimson Moon or something," Jean said, wondering if this was making any sense. She tapped her pen idly on her cheek before looking up.

"You know.. maybe it's better if I showed you," she said quietly, wondering if it was a good idea to take Dubhe to the mansion.

---------------------

Eliana sighed, gazing out the window of her castle. Castle St. Angelo gave her a magnificent view of the city. As Eliana reasoned, a propery fairy tail castle had to have a good view.

"Atticus.." she whispered, recalling his timely intervention the day before. At first, she had been quite taken aback that he hadn't carried her off into the sunset right away, but then she remembered that all the princesses had to wait to overcome the evil nemesis threatening them before they could be together.

"That's why I'll win this contest," she said fervently. "So we can have our Eden together."

She brushed her head, looking out past the stone walls toward where the park was. Maybe she'd venture out today.. maybe she would come across him again, and they could talk and get to know each other.

"Wait for me, won't you, my prince?" she sighed, humming to herself as she danced down the staircase to the door.

[madarra]

Emily

Emily walked around town again,first, she made her way around the Redlight district,without her sword, asking around if there had been a new victim last night.No one from around there died,but apparently a body had been washed up by a fisherman near the docks.Emily didnt hear any other details as she was quite far from the location so she decided to make her way to the docks to inspect herself.It shouldnt take her long if she keeps out of sight and takes the rooftops using her inhuman speed.Once close enough, she made her way back to street level and walked through the crowd to see the body for herself

[NoIn-LoKi]

Jean

Dubhe tried to keep her hands still while Jean was talking, nodding a few times. She was probably a little more familiar with the story of Gaia and the Crimson Moon from to her own research into the ritual. "Sounds about right…." she murmured. The group of men in robes were obviously magi and the spell circle must've connected the runes, but she held back explaining it, because she was unsure of how Jean would react. She was probably pretty open minded, but how would she react if all her quiet guesses and doubts were confirmed?

"You would?" she asked, more out of politeness than reconfirmation. She was already eagerly getting up. The waitress in the room had passed their table a few times, but Dubhe waved her off. No way she wanted to pause for something so trivial as eating.

"Lead the way….please" she said, standing at the table, her voice still displaying some of the eagerness. Subconsciously she pulled down her left sleeve, as if to make sure it was still covering her forearm. This had taken quite an interesting turn. Maybe she would find out a little more about the actual ritual spell if she saw the place it was used at.

[Gedomaru]

To no one in particular...
Last night had been a busy night. She had collected her pay for Ishtar from the distraught council... after convincing them that her job was not to protect their wussy asses. Such a nice bonus. She'd have to spend a bit of it for preperations now that her two targets knew she was after them. The puppeteer would be troublesome... Too many familiars. Mr. Chains seemed like the easier target, though she'd have to go for him in a closed space. That lightning earlier... She didn't want to let him have the chance to do it again, or something worse, even if he had to read a whole book to incite it.

So she ordered a few things. Went through the Red Light District to bribe a few people to bribe a few people to keep an eye out. The fees were rather expensive, but she still had a marginally large sum of cash afterwards. Maybe when this was over she'd have a nice little party.

Three Flameable Tear Gas Grenades. A magus couldn't very well incite something in it without having their throat close up. Extra ammo for her guns. Two Flash Grenades. Thermal Goggles.

Well, she still got eight hours of sleep. She wouldn't let some job inturrupt that. Woke up pretty late, but that wasn't a problem. It gave her target time to do things that were a mistake. A nice breakfist, then she went out to gather the information of Creus's, and possibly Corenlia's, whereabouts from those she bribed last night. It might prove fruitful, it might proove fruitless. Let's see if the city's citizen's know exactly what they're living with...

[foolcoolylover]

Illya

Atticus woke up with a start. While he felt that it was a good thing to protect Elianna he felt like he had wasted away precious time. Atticus really wanted to figure this whole mess out. "It feels way too cramped in here. I need fresh air." With a spring Atticus went through the door and began to walk in order to sort out what had happened. It can be said that yesterday was my greatest success in finding out anything. "Even though it was probably nothing more than a quarrel between ex-lovers." Shrugging it aside and keeping his focus inward, weaving in and out of anyone who was walking the other way. What if it was connected to who he was looking for? Atticus already knew today wasn't going to be a productive day because of how far he was already. He was already in the park and he still hadn't pieced anything together. Sitting down on a bench, Atticus stared straight up at the red sky and attempted to piece together the mystery.

Payne

Meeting the coranti, no the man from last night pulled doubt into Angelo's core. There wasn't much that the man had said, but what he had said rocked Angelo. 'Can one who has caused so much pain and suffering even be called a man still?' His fathers words echoed in Angelo and collided with what the man said. That man works for a higher power to eliminate those who cause harm. Yet he is filled with so much taint. Am I that tainted? Angelo needed to focus, rumor had it that a man washed ashore this morning and it was his duty to investigate. When he reached the docks he felt the presence of another Angel Rank. With the crowd it would be hard to determine who it was. Instead of trying to find the person with the tattoo Angelo mingled into the crowd until he could be sure who it was that had the mark.

[Payne]

Illya

Tear gave herself a blank look in the mirror as she tried to work the tats out of her hair. It was several minutes after Darien had left when she finally spoke. "What if I don't know the answer to that myself?"

After a sigh, she resumed the attack on her hair. Once it was properly straightened and dried, she folded it over her head and pinned it up with a pair of ornate chopsticks so that the folds fell over her left eye, hiding the bruise she had suffered the night before. One of the many skills that her executor training had provided her with was the ability to disguise her injuries, or at least to make them appear as if she'd gotten them out of clumsiness.

If Tear had only been out on the hunt again today, she wouldn't have bothered to cover it up, but she had other matters to attend to this morning, which required her to look as if nothing had happened. "Well, time to get going I guess."

She slipped out of her room and made sure to lock the door this time. Having unexpected visitors was bad enough when she was in, but having them when she was gone would be far worse. Stepping lightly at first, she tested her balance, which seemed to have recovered over the course of the night, but after reaching the end of the alleyway that led to her room, she increased her pace to normal.

A few minutes later, she made her way through the chapel, never realizing that Darien was only a few steps away because of the hair that covered her left eye. At the far end of the hall, she slipped into a moderately sizable room with a high ceiling, and was greeted by a wave of cheers from its inhabitants. Most of the orphans that had been taken in by the church after the cataclysm were currently being housed in Vatican City, and Tear offered singing lessons to those that wanted to use music as an outlet.

"Alright, everyone to your stands." She clapped her hands twice, signaling for them to hurry. "We'll get started with some warm ups."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

fooly, madarra

Sancraid wandered through the crowd, which had gathered to watch the police cart off the body that had been fished out of the river this morning. He could feel the presence of two angel ranks amongst the people gathered here, and he was curious to find them. From the top of a set of stairs, he surveyed the crowd, searching for his targets.

The first that his eyes came to rest on was the man from the evening before. He had probably sensed the presence of the other rank as well, but he didn't seem able to identify its owner. "Perhaps I'll give him a sporting chance..." Sancraid mumbled as he continued to look over the crowd.

And that's when he saw her. Amongst those trying to get a closer look at the body as it passed by was a girl with a face that could only be described as ageless. At first glance, she appeared young, but the longer he looked at her, the more difficult it was to guess her actual age. He had seen this look many times before, and knew exactly what it meant. A sudden wave of killing intent rushed through his veins, but he quietly suppressed it. There were far too many people here for him to make a scene, and if his guess was correct, she was an angel rank as well. Taking her on without a plan would be dangerous.

Perhaps, it would be better to use a more indirect approach. Sancraid slipped through the crowd, making his way towards Angelo, but never losing sight of the girl. When he had reached the man, he greeted him like he would an old acquaintance. "How goes the hunt?"

[Prisma*Illya]

Noin, Fooly, Payne

Jean left the cafe with Dubhe, walking toward the mansion. She still wasn't completely convinced that this was a good idea, but it was a risk she would have to take.

After walking for some time, they finally reached the old mansion. Jean pushed the old oak door open tentatively, stepping into the foyer. The haunting feeling she sensed the few times she had come here hung over her once more. With a fleeting glance at the stairs upward, she moved over toward the basement flight of steps.

"I wonder if that boy is still up there.." she thought as they made their way down. Soon they were standing in a large stone chamber, the melted gold gone but the carved trenches of the enormous spell circle still intact.

"This is where it happened," Jean said, standing aside to let Dubhe look, as well as observe her.

---------------------

"Well, fancy seeing you again," came a giggling young voice. Eliana de Winter stood a few feet away, beaming at him with childlike innocence.

"I often frequent the park," she said, moving closer. "But I never usually see anyone else here. Do you visit often?"

She seated herself beside him, playing with her hair as she watched him. Oh, if only he would kiss her now..

--------------------

Darien looked up as Tear emerged from the doorway, but frowned as she continued out another door, refusing to acknowledge his presence.

"I wonder what's up with her.." he wondered, stepping down from the altar and slowly following after. She passed into the hall and into a moderately sized room, where he could hear a sudden tumult of noise. He peered in, surprised by the large group of children within, all beaming at the sight of Tear. The sight was oddly warming to his heart. He could somehow sense they were orphans, and his mind traveled back to his days in the chapel.

He was so absorbed that he didn't notice one little girl, who must have been late for the class, running blindly to the doorway. She collided with his one leg, knocking herself to the ground.

"Oh god, are you all right?" he asked, helping the girl to sit up. She sniffed and wiped her eyes, gazing up at him.

"I-I'm okay," she said, trying to be brave. "It was my fault for not watching where I was going. I didn't want to be late.."

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Kaitlyn," she replied, eyes fixed on the hands folding and unfolding on her lap.

"Just be careful from now on, okay Kaitlyn?" he said gently, patting her head. She blushed slightly and nodded, avoiding looking at him. He lifted her to her feet, and she gave a muttered thanks before rushing back into the room. Darien smiled, leaning against the doorway as she took her spot, glancing back at him discreetly - at least for a child's attempt - before blushing furiously and getting back into the song.

Darien frowned as he watched the children singing, realizing that some of them had likely been orphaned by the Conception. Some may even have been orphaned as a result of these Dead Apostle attacks..

"This world needs to be set right," he thought, face grave. "And I'm going to start by killing that old bastard tonight."

[Payne]

Illya

Something about the voices of singing children was soothing to Tear. She enjoyed the presence it created, and for the first time in days, a genuine smile spread across her face. This is where she truly belonged. Eliminating threats to humanity as an executor of the Vatican was all fine and good, but nothing could compare to the feeling of being surrounded by this flood of voices.

Despite the fact that she was the one teaching the class, Tear joined in with the children on more than one occasion thoughout the lesson, pouring her heart into the songs as they rose to the rafters and rained back down again. This went on for the better part of two hours before Tear dismissed them to go about their chores for the day.

Looking far more relaxed than she had since they had met, Tear made her way towards Darien, who was leaning against the door. Amidst the controlled chaos of the lesson, she hadn't noticed him there, but now that it was over, she didn't have a good excuse to ignore him. That, combined with her good mood, led Tear to make her next decision without really thinking about it too much.

"I owe you for breakfast. So, do you care for a bite of lunch?"