warpweft | [popdrop] H4: Vermillion and Hospitality

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[popdrop] H4: Vermillion and Hospitality

[The first thing you notice is how dark it is. It’s really, really stinkin’ dark. You can’t see anything. Even if you naturally have the ability to see in the dark, well, not anymore. Which may be the second thing you notice - any powers you have, any magic is gone. Silenced. You can’t feel it, similarly to when you’re in the theme park, with an additional sense of anxiety and loss surrounding the inability to tap into it. Even a heightened sense of emotion won’t bring them back, like it might in the theme park. If you have other powers of some kind, enhanced physical capabilities or the like, they’re either gone or significantly reduced as well. You feel extremely normal and it doesn’t feel good.]

[Whether you stay still or stumble along in the dark, at least it’s not too long. You eventually catch notice of something illuminating the darkness. You find yourself drawn to it. It's a small spherical glass object. Near the edges, it's black, but bits of purple and violet appear, gradually brightening and swirling together in a spiral shape at the center. The spiral at the center is bright enough to bathe you and the surroundings in a soft violet light. As you get closer, you can feel voices coming from the sphere. You can’t tell what they’re saying, but maybe if you were closer. You feel a deep desire in your stomach to just…reach out….]

What are you doing?

[The voice, a woman’s voice, comes from behind you. You didn’t hear anybody approaching, but you’re immediately filled with an intense sense of foreboding. You turn and look, but you can’t see anything. The darkness is once again overpowering, the violet glow from the object next to you being the only thing that isn’t swallowed up by it. All you can make out in the darkness is what may be someone’s face and…two eyes. With nothing in them. Pitch-black.]

You touched the Heart…

You touched MY Heart!?

[There’s a lot of anger and it’s not making that sense of foreboding go away. The darkness and the person(?) inside it advance towards you, slowly engulfing the violet glow around you. Just when you’re thinking you’re gonna have to decide between fight or flight, here — something moves.

Towards you.

You feel something punch into your chest and before you know it, you’re on the ground, searing pain running through your upper body. A few things briefly pass through your senses. You hear a loud scream. If you tilt your head up, you can see a long black spike…embedded in your own chest. And you can taste… …yup. That’s your own blood.

That’s about as far as you get before consciousness leaves you.]

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Well, like...

[...she's suddenly fidgeting and appears hesitant to answer.]

[she cocks her head, waiting expectantly]

“Mmn…well...don’t get me wrong. I’d like to help you and I’d like to help—“ [She pauses for a bit, she was about to say something else, but instead says:] “Hex too. But…she can be a very private person about some things. I just don’t know if I should share too much or it’d be violating her privacy…”

[Puck jumps up on the back of the couch and lets out a little ‘mrow’. He walks towards Nell, who gives him a couple scratches. This seems to give her an idea.]

“Oh, well, what if…” [She looks at you.] “Um. This might be asking too much. But um. Would you be willing to maybe. Share something of yours first? Um. I’m a witch, too, so I know a little bit of magic and Puck is pretty good for a cat, too!” [She picks up Puck. He lets out another ‘mrow’.] “We can take an important memory of yours and share it with Hex…I think that’d probably make her trust you to walk around in here a little bit more, right? If you put a bit of yourself out…you can get something back!”

[She considers this for a moment, rolling it around in her head.]

...Sure, why not.

What do I have to do?

Oh, well!

[She picks up Puck and holds him out. He stares at you.]

Just hold on to Puck with me and think deeply about what you want to share! We can handle the rest!

[She does as told.]

[Today's the day. You've fought your whole life for this moment, and so few make it this far. But you did it. You made it. Today's your day.

You're standing in a line of your peers in a long, dim hallway. All of you are in exceptional condition — healthy, strong, passed every mental and physical test they gave you, exceeded every standard. You all look the same, with hardly any variation between you.

This is what quality looks like, you tell yourself.

You can barely contain your excitement as the girl ahead of you gets processed, and a moment later, it's your turn.

A bored, sour-faced woman taps your serial number into the holoscreen as you recite it to her, and she loads a new bean-shaped implant into the tip of the gun in her hand. You lean forward, dropping your chin to your collar, and she roughly pinches up the skin on your nape and presses the tip of the gun against it.

There's a sound of a spring as she squeezes the trigger and the pain explodes through your neck, all the way from your teeth to your chest. Your breath locks for a moment, the feeling of the pain is nothing compared to the overwhelming sense of pride you feel.

The woman waves a scanner over the back of your neck and you hear the machine peep as it correctly detects your microchip and accesses the file with all your credentials, your history, your quality. Everything is working as intended.

You made it. Today you have obtained proof of your value and become an adult. Today's the day you take your first step into the world.]

[Nell murmurs an incantation. Puck brings up a paw and lightly waps it on your forehead. A moment later, both of them are covered in a soft violet glow. You can feel something in your mind, but it's...gentle. Nell doesn't want to hurt you or cause stress while she's getting the memory, so she takes a very deliberate pace as she touches your memory, eventually dredging it up. The process is gradual, but when it's done...]

[She looks slightly confused.]

Oh, was that...something akin to a graduation for you?

[Off in the hallway, you can hear a door open.]

Something like that. Only so many are allowed to make it to adulthood, so they only take those who truly earn it.

[She reaches up to touch the back of her neck.]

This is the proof of my value to the Empire, such as it is. I'm not worth much more than this microchip, but this is still an achievement earned by fewer than half of those I started out with.

Anyway.

[She flaps her hand, fanning all that away like a bad smell]

That was one of my fondest memories. I hope it will suffice...?

....oh....I see.

[She looks down. She looks like she has something more she wants to say about that, but. She keeps it to herself.]

Um. Yes! I think I heard the door open over there, hopefully you can explore the other rooms in the apartment now!

Excellent. Thank you.

I'll poke around and see what I find.

[First stop, the kitchen!]

[There's not much of note, initially. There's a pretty damn expensive looking coffee machine and a bunch of fixings for various kinds of coffee, but that's pretty consistent for Hex at this point. There's also a lot of take-out menus organized by what they serve. There's enough food in here to indicate that Hex knows how to cook but a lot of the time she simply chooses not to.]

[In the fridge, however, there's a section that says 'Witch Stuff. Don't Eat.' And there's, uh. A bunch of witch stuff. Weird looking potions. What looks like a very tiny head of some kind floating in a jar. A bowl of gelatin that's darker than the blackest night.'

There's also a bottle of some kinda drink that looks pretty good. Maybe it'd be fine if you just....]

[You acquired Witch's Brew.]

[Vermillion acquires Witch's Brew!]

[What does it smell like? Can she smell around the edges of the... cork? lid?]

[It's a twist-off lid. It smells fizzy, kind of fruity aaaaand definitely alcoholic.]

[Oh hm. That's good to know.]

[She puts the lid back on, nice and tight so nothing spills, and takes it with her.]

[Time to poke around. Anything else of particular interest in the kitchen?]

[Not much, nope.]

[Onward to the hallway!]

[There is...one open door, now! There's still two doors that are locked. You can either enter or ~~go yell at Nell to open the others~~ return to the Living Room.]

[We will poke our noses into the one open door for now, and go harass Nell again after that! Surely nothing will happen to alter this plan.]

[You enter Nell's room.]

[Nell’s room has a bed, a desk and a dresser. On the floor there’s a stack of books and a tablet that mostly seems to be for playing audiobooks. In one corner there’s a big stack of music in a bunch of different mediums. There’s neatly compiled stacks of CDs, cassette tapes and there’s even a stack of vinyl records. And there’s a cassette player, a CD player and a record player all kept neatly next to each other as well. There’s even a guitar laying against the wall next to the stack of music. There’s also a nightstand with a lamp and a couple photos on it next to the bed.]

On the desk, there's a loose stack of a few papers and photos.
On the nightstand, there's a framed photo.
There also seems to be something on the bed, under the covers.

[You can explore this room or return to the Living Room.]

[Looking around a bit before investigating whatever is on the desk.]

[You examine the stuff on the desk. It looks like an itinerary. There's a schedule, a list of places to go and photos of those places. Museums, galleries, parks, boutiques, lots of stuff like that. There's a letter included with them.]

[Dear Agnis,
Here's some places I thought we could go to. If there's anywhere else in Manchester you'd like to visit, please tell me and I'll look up everything about it! We can't wait to see you and I'm so looking forward to meeting you in person for the first time! <3
Love,
Nell]

[You acquired Trip Schedule.]

[Neat.]

[She spends some time studying the photos. This is what Hex's world looks like. This is what human settlements look like. Fascinating.]

[What's on the nightstand?]

[It's a framed photo of Nell and Hex, both of them dressed up like witches, complete with the pointy hats and broomsticks, presumably for Halloween. Puck is with them, but he's huge. It's not clear whether this was done by photoshop or if he was actually made that big with magic for the photo.]

[You acquired Halloween Picture.]

Hmmmm.

[Okay, time to investigate the thing under the sheets. She carefully pulls back the covers.]

[popdrop] H4: Vermillion and Hospitality

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