warpweft | [popdrop] H1: Spectre & Poppy

[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, that could be worse.]

[Let's see this folder!]

[It's a list of printouts of stories and pictures. Tracking...something? Someone? Some kind of magical phenomena? It's missing too much context to fully understand, but it looks like Hex was looking for something and had compiled her research on where it might be in this folder.]

[You acquired Sightings.]

[Huh. Things to ask Nell about.]

[....okay, book time.]

[The books are a mix of a few things. There's academic textbooks and manuals on teaching and a bunch of stuff to do with a place called 'University of Manchester'. There's spell books and recipes for potions and tomes about 'Communing With Beings Most Exotic And Infernal'.]

[One that seems the most well-read of all is a book about the Void. It's mostly theories and conjecture, because the Void is so poorly understood by mankind. A lot of Nessa's own notes are scribbled in the margins in some fairly difficult to decipher handwriting.]

[MORE THINGS! TO ASK HEX ABOUT!!!!]

[Will take a closer look at that void book tho.]

[....and the infernal book.]

[The tome about communing outlines how to draw summoning circles, create contracts and commune with various beings, from the exotic, like the sphinx, to demons, like what are always on fire and whatnot. A lot of the pages are angrily crossed out and have 'NOT VOID' written over the name of whatever creature it is. Seems like Hex was searching for how to commune with something from the Void and got frustrated when this book didn't have it. 'Cept the pages on Succubi and Incubi. Those are still fine.]

[The Void book looks to be pretty old and has a lot of notes from Hex written in it. It refers to the Void as "an endless spiraling sea" ("close, actually") populated by "men made of black water" ("they're not water and men is not really accurate") and "every drop is a person and every person is one" ("Kind of, but not really"). At the end of the book, Hex wrote something in the back cover.

"The author used Dreamwalking to commune with the Void. Frankly, extremely ingenuitive. He was ahead of his time. But it led to some bad information and half-remembered half-understood conclusions. Cornelius doesn't remember talking to him. My current goal is to find an Umbral who did. I need to know how many other humans, however partially, have successfully communed with the Void."]

[Showing your kinks, Hex. Also gosh, some of these spells are very suspect.]

[The void thing is definitely interesting. Something to ask more about because, hey, she's for everything is one and separate sort of thing.]

[Hex may be a pioneer.]

[Okay, gonna head out.] Nell? You done freaking out?

[Nell pokes her head out again.]

....yes.

Sorry.

[She looks ashamed.]

[What is shame.]

I was wondering if you could tell me about these sightings?

Oh. Um.

Cousin Hex was looking for someone.

...and every time I ask who, she sprays me with a water bottle until I stop.

So this isn't an object to use on you. What about void voices?

[She looks at it.]

Oh. That's from her Study, huh? It's one of the things she uses to study the Void. I think she tries to use it to listen and see if anyone there has anything to say...

...there is one other thing.

I've noticed when she's really nervous, she just listens to it, without saying anything back or listening for a specific answer. She just listens to the voices.

It seems to calm her down.

Hmmm, just the white noise or is it a loneliness thing?

[...]

I don't think she would want me to say. Even if I would just be guessing.

She's. Very prideful about this kind of thing.

...is it guessing when you're part of her?

About the void or loneliness?

The...second one. Maybe.

....hm. So. Last door?

It's still locked....

Hmmnn...I think it's going to need something more than just sharing memories. Offhand, I'm not sure what, though.

Well, let's take a look.

[Time to examine the door!]

[It is still very, very locked.]

....I mean, we could just break down the door.

Please don't.

I'm pretty sure she booby-traps it against that kind of thing.

Almost definitely.

See, this is why Wild Shape is the best. It gets around so many problems.

What's a Wild Shape?

[popdrop] H1: Spectre & Poppy

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