Veda, 317th Central Camp

As the recording began, Veda stared intently at the screen, barely even blinking as he took in every frame. His expression did not change, even at the sound of slaughter, remaining calm and calculating throughout.

When it finished, he put a hand to his chin.

"...this data is inconclusive." He assessed. "There's no clear visual of the creature moving, or attacking, so I cannot gauge it's capabilities. Even if Katie is faster, this thing is clearly mechanical, so it's entirely possible it has ranged weaponry. As such, I can't advise trying the Hazard Gate again."

He gave Ross a glance. It was obvious the driver was afraid. A rational response to... that.

"A faraday cage isn't necessary. If the construct damaged electronics, the recording would be damaged from the start, but the video distortion increased after the creature appeared; it wasn't damaging the camera, it's a cognitohazard-type effect. Which might mean that simply looking at it could harm us if we encounter it in person. Additionally, the runic array was also distorted, implying it can interfere with magic as well."

During this rant, Veda had begun to pace back and forth. He stopped, taking a deep breath.

"I can't stop you if you decide to go through with it, Ross, but there's enough unknowns here that there's no guarantee of survival." He looked at the assembled team. "It's up to each of you if you want to take that risk."

Jayden

It was strange, what stood out to Jayden about the diary.

It wasn't that his dad had been friends with Carl. It wasn't that his dad had apparently been the kind of person to drink, or drive drunk. It wasn't even the investigation.

No, what stood out to Jayden was just how little he and his siblings were mentioned.

Their mother had been the breadwinner of the household, so their dad had been the one who'd taken care of them. It was an arrangement some would raise eyebrows at, but Arthur had been the best parent anyone could ask for (if you wanted Jayden's admittedly very biased opinion). He'd taken care of them, soothed them when they were upset, shown them love and compassion and kindness. He'd taught them to be as human as humanly possible.

So for him to barely spare them a word in his diary...was sort of like a slap to the face.

At least, Jayden thought bitterly as he closed the diary, he cared more than Kyrio seemed to have.

He slipped the piece of paper with the spell circle between its pages, then stood up, slinging his backpack around to his front to store the diary.

But then he had another idea.

Wait. What if I put it somewhere safer?

Jayden blinked, then frowned. He hadn't really exercised his magic up until now; the biggest new thing he'd done was earlier that day, when he turned to shadow and slipped through the gates. But...the thought of his own little pocket dimension bag of holding...was a tempting one.

Suddenly, he had to try it. He picked up a nearby pencil, found a dark corner of the room, and focused. He imagined a pocket in the wall, one only he could reach, one that was big enough to contain whatever it needed to...and putting the pencil in.

And being able to take it out if he needed to. Obviously.

Rebecca Weathers - 317th Central Camp

Becca watched the footage play out, and when it showed only static and screams, she winced. Once the video ended, she decided to weigh in.

"There are two thing we do know for certain," Becca said to Veda. "If we open a gate, this thing will come out. But unlike those people, we'll be at our best and on guard. But more importantly," she continued. "If the thing is at least partly mechanical, it's solid. Which means we can hit it back. So I say we see how tough this thing really is."

Becca looked at the whole group. "If we're going to master conjuring up a Hazard Gate, that'll include closing it when we're done. So if this thing wants to hijack our gates, we can turn the gate against it. I can put up an ice wall to give us some extra protection, then we open gate. And once that thing starts to come out..." Becca pounded her open palm with her fist. "We close the gate and cut that thing in half. If this thing has any sense, it'll think twice before sticking any other appendages through the gate. And if it tries again, we'll just see how many we have to take to get the lesson to stick."

Ross Chase - The 317th Central Camp

"I wasn't exactly planning on backing down, no," Ross said with an uncharacteristic conviction, "I'm sure I could take a little bit of ranged weaponry. Katie is a comparatively small target. Agile. Hard to hit." Despite the obvious fear of the thing, and the mood dampened by Veda's conclusion, Ross's sense of duty, and his need for freedom didn't allow him to leave the matter unaddressed. However, the things Veda concluded... "Cognitohazards. Scary stuff. Do you know how to protect oneself against those?" He asked, focusing on the observation he disliked the most. It was a sound conclusion, and Veda has proven himself to be a perceptive fellow. There was however, one problem with it: Ross didn't want it to be true. It's one thing to go up against a powerful foe; it's quite another to go up against a foe you can't even see without getting hurt. And so, he clicked the rewind button. And watched out for the signs that could determine the truth of the matter. Any kind of reaction from those unfortunate mages that would suggest they had been harmed by merely seeing the beast. Perhaps any electrical device that was also interfered with - something that would prove his initial theory right. The anguished screams seared into his mind.

"If it interferes with magic, will we be able to close the gate after it hijacks it?" He asked as he looked at the disturbations in the runic array and in the gate itself. He hoped this disruption didn't extend past the gate itself. If it interfered with all magic in the area, it would impact his connection with Lil' Katie, and that would be disastrous. And so, he rewinded the footage once again, listening for signs of other spells backfiring, or at the very least, failing to be cast. Because if there were problems with that, Ross would have to turn to traditional means of making his car go faster. To putting a proper turbo in her, for an instance. Of course, with Sandfield disconnected from the outside world, getting hands on one could be difficult. He'd... oh no. He'd need to contact them. The Perpetual Hoarders. The technology gatekeepers. The ones that snatched most cars from the streets of this town. He didn't look forward to that. Speaking of them, however...

"It's the Forge's turf. What's their role in all of this? Why didn't they help?" He asked, puzzled. Did those mages that died, did they mess with the Forge somehow?

Edited by JackCossack on Apr 30th 2024 at 8:23:23 PM

James nodded grimly. "We'll do our upmost. I promise you that. I'll go talk to the 317th then. Let's hope they know something about what we're about to face." In a weird way, he was relieved to see Chase acknowledging the possibility of Cici's death. Perhaps he should have been more optimistic, but that was never really his temperament. He would, like he said, give it his all; but he had a hard time believing they would succeed. He started walking back towards the two schools to try and see if he could find Daniel. There was a doubt in the back of his mind as to whether they would be permitted to go on their frankly haphazard rescue mission. To another party, this plan might look like the perfect combination of futile and dangerous. He knew that he would go through with it even if they were refused. They had made a promise, and he would deliver on it or die.

Edited by bobbitwormhobbitwyrm on May 2nd 2024 at 11:33:08 AM

Pablo managed a smile once James accepted doing the talks. He didn't know if he could have been diplomatic enough or show he had a good plan for this stunt.

"If nothing else, we can steal some vehicle or something from the docks to get out, if we can't get a ride back" He said, joking a bit.

"So, how do you guys feel about this one?" He said, thoughtfully "Do we look for something to eat in the meantime?"

Colt Griese - En Route to Monroe

Colt reacted with exasperation at Luke's exclamation. Is everyone in this goddamn town magic?

Never in his life had he met a magic anything and now the delinquent seemed to meet them every time he turned around. Given the time he would've said something quite ignorant had self-awareness crept in. He was too. Or it was, or whatever. He had no right to act like a scared victim. This was a situation he could control.

But before he could muster some powerful statement that stopped the conflict in it's tracks, the ragged group intruded upon the conversation. It's leader pondered a thought.

"Who's asking?"

It was second nature to shrink a bit during confrontation. Easier to duck that way, to grab something. Fools would post up and get their ass beat. Smart fools fought smart. For his part, Colt wasn't sure what he was anymore, but he remembered how to play the role of the wise thug. Pragmatic. Humble. Smart. He glared at the boy from beneath his glasses. His eyes narrowed. Distrust was the philosophy of the strong.

The man at the head of the refugee group stepped forward, standing closer to Colt - looking him in the eye at first, and then seeming to give the boy a once over. As if looking to see if there was anything telling about him in one way or another. "My name's Carl Kesper. I've been leading these folks from a safe spot that got found out a bit further south trying to get to Two Schools and the supposed safety I heard they got up here."

Carl then crossed his arms, "And who're you two?"

"Well, I am the illustrious and dare I say famous fencer Luke Locke. Seventeen mi—-" Luke started.

"Yeah, you can shut up. I don't need to hear your fucking follower count," Carl interrupted, and then focused on Colt, "And who're you?"

As Jayden concentrated and worked his magic, he would see an undulating bubble slowly develop - barely visible dark energy formulating from the blue. Generating a strange "hole" in the world, leading to a sort of ethereal pocket. A safe spot carved from the between spaces. A contained area that could be called upon wherever Jayden found himself. It almost felt by second nature by this point.

As Jayden finished his spellcraft, he would be able to hear a sound downstairs.

It sounded like Elwood was doing something. A sharp creek, and a snap.

Rand Hawkins crossed his arms as he heard the group speculate upon whatever it was that was disrupting and interfering with the Hazard Gates. Tell the truth, there were a number of suspects who had been in and around Sandfield before and during the fall, and several of them were not accounted for.

"Can't say I'd advise trying to involve the Perpetual Forge," he shrugged his shoulders, "They're not keen on anything interrupting their endless industry. If I had to guess, those folks beat up some of their guards to get the spot, and they're not really inclined to help interlopers besides..."

"But...if you guys do have something, some way to bargain more effectively with them, I guess it's worth a shot." Looking at Ross, "You got some connections there?"

The talk with Daniel

It wouldn't take much work to find Daniel - it seemed that he was commonly around a certain command post in and around the School. The Vice Principal's office, newly remade into one of the centers for the 317th command. The access to the school's loudspeaker letting Daniel send messages quickly and effectively around campus.

As James entered the office he would be able to see that the desk and bookcases had been largely cleared out to maximize access. Where once there'd been school reports and papers detailing goings on around the School, now there were military after action reports, detailed files about persons of interest, strike files, and maps showing various areas in depth.

It was a telling transformation of the spot from domicile of learning to a militaristic headquarters.

As James entered, Daniel leaned forward on the desk and propped himself up on one arm, "You got a plan going forward for the Investigation Club, man?"

Mina Parker

"Yes, we believe that we've found a missing person, named Cecelia, which I think Chase would have mentioned to you or others in the 317th already," Mina said professionally, getting ready to project the necessary data for the briefing. She enlarged the footage from the camera outside the warehouse and zoomed in on the emblem flown on the flag. "As it happens, I managed to trace her phone to this location, but we don't recognize the group that has this strange crest and were hoping that you'd be able to offer more insight."

"Right now we're planning to be diplomatic about it, if it's another magical group, but if they're not friendlies," she explained, trying to cleave to the military formality of the meeting and provide a good set-up for James to add his voice. "Then we'll need to know how we can best deal with the situation, pending your approval, of course."

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 16th 2024 at 4:37:55 AM

Ross Chase - 317th Central Camp

Static. Not only was it hard to tell visually what was going on, with all the white noise covering the footage, the audio didn't fare any better. It was difficult to tell one scream apart from the other, let alone gleam any useful information. That really only left one avenue of investigation. He rubbed his temples, not particularly looking forward to asking for help from his liaison.

"Well, it is true that the Forge... is fairly isolationist and unlikely to talk with outsiders," Ross said quietly. Eventually, he swallowed his pride and added, "But there is a person that I could get in touch with, and which will probably help."

He noted the date of the incident. May 23rd, 2016. Three weeks ago. Might be useful.

"This hospitality doesn't really extend to the rest of the Forge, so I'd prefer taking as few people as possible with me? A good talker perhaps. Or someone sneaky... They really don't like letting outsiders in, so the less of us we ask them to let us in, the better?" That, and, well, the liaison had a way of messing with Ross in ways that he really preferred as few people to see as possible? Nevertheless, he did look forward to talking to them again, to listening about the crazy shit Forge is up to, about their personal projects, to breaking out of his shell a little bit.

James swallowed, he knew that a confrontation might be coming about how they were using their manpower. Still he had to make his case, and maybe it wouldn't come to that. "It's as Mina said sir. You've probably already received word of the disappearance, or have it on record. I understand that normally it would be unwise to expend so much effort on a single missing person case, but since we already have a plausible lead on their whereabouts I think it could be worthwhile; especially since the perpetrators may be carrying out further abductions. Civilians outside the Two Schools are in an unstable enough situation as is, we don't need them being preyed upon for god-knows-what purposes. As for who's behind the whole thing, it seems rather clear that it's Umbral activity. We don't know what the current situation with them is, so we wanted to see if this might be resolved without violence but we're not optimistic."

Veda, 317th Central Camp

"It depends on how the cognitohazard spreads. For some, the only way to avoid it is to never become aware of it. Thankfully this one doesn't appear to work through recordings, but if we see it in person I can't guarantee our safety. Between that and the fact I'm uncertain we'd be able to properly close the gate, or if closing the gate actually damages anything caught in-between... I can't recommend blindly opening one." Veda summarized.

At the mention of the Forge, he scratched his chin. "I think contacting the Forge is the better idea. I can analyze people just as well as magic, so I can help with the talking. If they can give us a better idea of what we're up against, and what their relationship to this creature is, I'd be more confident in the plan's success."