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Fantasy ━ across // the // planes ━
tsumu
simp
Mage ･ﾟ★ Marren ･ﾟ★, Tags; n/a
A shadow slipped past the threshold of the door. The outside air was crisp and cool, and it rustled the hooded cloak of the shadow. The sky was just barely beginning to lighten, the very first licks of dawn seeping into the horizon. The village was quiet except for the soft pit-pat of the shadow’s footsteps as it exited a two-story inn, a couple of bags slung over its shoulder and spears on its back. They did not clink as it walked, kept completely still and in place by a spell. The shadow was on a mission, after all, one that would eventually require a great deal of stealth.
Slowly but surely, it made its way out of the village, dropping its hood once it was sure that it would not be seen. Two pointy ears and pointy horns were freed from their cloth prison, and Mage shook his hair out in the same manner a dog would. He was sure he looked like a mess. Sleeping on the road was no luxury, especially when he had scarcely a coin to spare-- only the very cheapest food and lodging would suffice.
He was hoping very much that the trip would be worth it, though, for he loathed to return from a two-day-long trip empty-handed. Or, dead. That was also a possibility.
But he was willing to risk it.
He ambled farther and farther away from the town, and as the sun began to climb higher into the sky, he pulled out rations to munch on-- dried meats that tasted... well, aged. They were good though, and enough to keep his spirits high despite the task ahead. He picked up the pace just a little bit after considering the possibility that maybe someone had beaten him there-- he hadn’t traveled all that way just to find that the beast was already defeated, his precious potion-making materials snatched away.
No, that would not do.
He marched with great purpose towards his destination: a little village south of Prord called Marren. The posters nailed up around Prord proclaimed that Marren was in a dire state, and living under constant fear of a monster that prowled the outskirts of the village and snatched up women and children in their sleep. The village was also plagued with a disease, and when Mage had paid a visit to the Adventurer’s Guild for more information, they’d warned him that he should be exceedingly wary of anybody exhibiting the sickness. They’d encouraged him not to go, in fact.
He could scarcely believe it when they described the symptoms to him. Gray discoloration of the skin, fatigue, a limping gait, and most concerningly, loose and rotting flesh.
Mage had had his bags packed not an hour later.
It was around midday when he caught sight of rectangular figures on the horizon. Two miles out from Marren, Mage broke into a steady jog. His feet weren’t hurting, by some miracle, and he’d taken some potions before setting out that morning to keep his energy and vigor nice and high. He was ready for a fight; he was ready to get some potion materials and maybe… just maybe, he’d speak to the townspeople about the plague they’d been fighting. He was never one to get his hopes up, and he had to continuously extinguish any flames of hope or thrill that flickered their way into his mind.
It does not matter if the illness is the same, he reasoned, brows furrowing as he ran, and he picked up the pace.
They are not going to come back either way.
As Mage drew closer and closer, a feeling of great unease began to seep into his gut. The buildings which he had seen standing tall and proud on the horizon were, in fact, sagging. Some of them did not have… roofs. He passed homes on the very outskirts of the village, and he didn’t hear a whisper.
So they fled into the village, rationalized Mage, although his stomach and the very pit of his mind were telling him to turn away. It was his reptilian instinct, he knew, the very base level of his psyche was telling him to leave because it was perceiving something he was not. Preemptively, he raised an arm above his head and drew one of his javelins from its magical sheath, and wrapped two tight fists around it.
He slowed his pace from a jog to a walk as he passed into the village. A sign proclaimed “Welcome to Marren!”, although the M in “Marren” was burned off and a charcoaled indent took up the place it had once been. Mage shivered. He stepped a couple of paces into town and then stopped to listen. He strained his ears, but all that could be heard was the soft sound of wind rustling through town and the very subtle creaking of buildings. His heart began to race. Marren was empty.
He walked for another thirty seconds, in a straight line, towards the town square, although his instincts were blaring. In one swift movement, he’d dropped to his knees and set his bag down heavily in front of him; he dug his hand urgently into a side pocket and it emerged with a compass in its grasp. He brought it close to his face, his breath fogging its glassy surface. It was freezing in his palm.
It spun madly, the needle flailing from side to side, every couple of seconds making full rotations. Mage’s throat closed up despite the chants in his head to keep calm, keep calm.
The compass had never spun in such a manner before, not even when placed directly in the middle of his workshop, which was packed from floor to ceiling with magical potions and items. Considering the compass reacted to the presence and volume of magic… Mage knew something was more than amiss in Marren.
The prospect was nearly exciting. Magic was right up Mage’s alley, after all.
Even though the compass was vibrating in his hand; even though his subconscious was begging him to leave; even though his knuckles around his javelin had turned white. This was… an opportunity.
A shadow slipped past the threshold of the door. The outside air was crisp and cool, and it rustled the hooded cloak of the shadow. The sky was just barely beginning to lighten, the very first licks of dawn seeping into the horizon. The village was quiet except for the soft pit-pat of the shadow’s footsteps as it exited a two-story inn, a couple of bags slung over its shoulder and spears on its back. They did not clink as it walked, kept completely still and in place by a spell. The shadow was on a mission, after all, one that would eventually require a great deal of stealth.
Slowly but surely, it made its way out of the village, dropping its hood once it was sure that it would not be seen. Two pointy ears and pointy horns were freed from their cloth prison, and Mage shook his hair out in the same manner a dog would. He was sure he looked like a mess. Sleeping on the road was no luxury, especially when he had scarcely a coin to spare-- only the very cheapest food and lodging would suffice.
He was hoping very much that the trip would be worth it, though, for he loathed to return from a two-day-long trip empty-handed. Or, dead. That was also a possibility.
But he was willing to risk it.
He ambled farther and farther away from the town, and as the sun began to climb higher into the sky, he pulled out rations to munch on-- dried meats that tasted... well, aged. They were good though, and enough to keep his spirits high despite the task ahead. He picked up the pace just a little bit after considering the possibility that maybe someone had beaten him there-- he hadn’t traveled all that way just to find that the beast was already defeated, his precious potion-making materials snatched away.
No, that would not do.
He marched with great purpose towards his destination: a little village south of Prord called Marren. The posters nailed up around Prord proclaimed that Marren was in a dire state, and living under constant fear of a monster that prowled the outskirts of the village and snatched up women and children in their sleep. The village was also plagued with a disease, and when Mage had paid a visit to the Adventurer’s Guild for more information, they’d warned him that he should be exceedingly wary of anybody exhibiting the sickness. They’d encouraged him not to go, in fact.
He could scarcely believe it when they described the symptoms to him. Gray discoloration of the skin, fatigue, a limping gait, and most concerningly, loose and rotting flesh.
Mage had had his bags packed not an hour later.
It was around midday when he caught sight of rectangular figures on the horizon. Two miles out from Marren, Mage broke into a steady jog. His feet weren’t hurting, by some miracle, and he’d taken some potions before setting out that morning to keep his energy and vigor nice and high. He was ready for a fight; he was ready to get some potion materials and maybe… just maybe, he’d speak to the townspeople about the plague they’d been fighting. He was never one to get his hopes up, and he had to continuously extinguish any flames of hope or thrill that flickered their way into his mind.
It does not matter if the illness is the same, he reasoned, brows furrowing as he ran, and he picked up the pace.
They are not going to come back either way.
As Mage drew closer and closer, a feeling of great unease began to seep into his gut. The buildings which he had seen standing tall and proud on the horizon were, in fact, sagging. Some of them did not have… roofs. He passed homes on the very outskirts of the village, and he didn’t hear a whisper.
So they fled into the village, rationalized Mage, although his stomach and the very pit of his mind were telling him to turn away. It was his reptilian instinct, he knew, the very base level of his psyche was telling him to leave because it was perceiving something he was not. Preemptively, he raised an arm above his head and drew one of his javelins from its magical sheath, and wrapped two tight fists around it.
He slowed his pace from a jog to a walk as he passed into the village. A sign proclaimed “Welcome to Marren!”, although the M in “Marren” was burned off and a charcoaled indent took up the place it had once been. Mage shivered. He stepped a couple of paces into town and then stopped to listen. He strained his ears, but all that could be heard was the soft sound of wind rustling through town and the very subtle creaking of buildings. His heart began to race. Marren was empty.
He walked for another thirty seconds, in a straight line, towards the town square, although his instincts were blaring. In one swift movement, he’d dropped to his knees and set his bag down heavily in front of him; he dug his hand urgently into a side pocket and it emerged with a compass in its grasp. He brought it close to his face, his breath fogging its glassy surface. It was freezing in his palm.
It spun madly, the needle flailing from side to side, every couple of seconds making full rotations. Mage’s throat closed up despite the chants in his head to keep calm, keep calm.
The compass had never spun in such a manner before, not even when placed directly in the middle of his workshop, which was packed from floor to ceiling with magical potions and items. Considering the compass reacted to the presence and volume of magic… Mage knew something was more than amiss in Marren.
The prospect was nearly exciting. Magic was right up Mage’s alley, after all.
Even though the compass was vibrating in his hand; even though his subconscious was begging him to leave; even though his knuckles around his javelin had turned white. This was… an opportunity.
Cealen
★彡
The sunlight hitting Arius’ eyes suddenly made him cringe away in reflex, covering his eyes with a free arm. His eyes had gotten used to the darkness of the night, and the sun rising up on the horizon just was a major irritant. It didn't help that his eyes were already stinging from the lack of sleep- again, he had worked through the entire night. Nights were always more fun to Arius than the day ever was, it was when all the excitement happened, the minute the sun disappeared into the endless black sky of the night. That’s when all the more interesting things came out to play. Arius couldn’t miss that due to sleeping, could he?
He stretched out his arms, blinking more to adjust more to the sunlight and letting out a sigh when he dropped his arms unceremoniously to his sides. He was hanging out around the outskirts of the village- or really, what remained of it. Arius came in the early morning hours over here to see if he could figure out anything before the “monster” got dealt with. Arius was feeling jittery, a buzz of excitement running through his veins. The townspeople he talked to who had run away from Marren entirely had described the “monster”- that’s the word they used to describe it, but Arius wanted to see it for himself before he made a classification of what it exactly is- as being quite a sight. People couldn’t even describe it without using vague terms, saying only vague descriptions of the monster like “it was terrifying looking” and “it was huge”. It seemed like whatever this beast was, it made quite a number on this part of the village, though! While Arius could still see some untouched houses and buildings off in the distance, most likely the inner parts of the village, the area he was in now looked like it had been abandoned for years. And all the townspeople say the monster had shown up about two months ago or something? How strange. This was definitely something he needed to look into!
The vague descriptions only made Arius more curious. They, for some reason, tried to tell him to stay away from the village, like he was going to just ignore this super cool monster they were all reportedly seeing. When Arius refused and stated proudly he was going to see what it was, they all looked at him like he was crazy. At least, crazier than he usually is seen as. He swore to them he could take care of himself out there, and they told Arius that if he found some way to deal with it, they would pay him back for it if there was no convincing him otherwise. So, he got to go check out something interesting such as this, AND get paid for it? It was a dream come true for Arius! So much so he went out immediately out to Marren, and hung around the general area, trying to see if he could see what it was from afar. He’s not stupid to run into the village outskirts impulsively, he would take his time with it, naturally. Though he really really did want to see it earlier.
Arius had noticed a lot of strange noises coming from the village, and more buildings getting more sagged over, but he never saw what was causing such things. It must be some sort of magical-in-nature monster, then, Arius would think. He would have heard heavy footsteps hitting the ground, snorting, and all the general stuff of a normal, non-magical beast if it wasn’t something magical in nature. Arius could also feel the magic in the air, something he’s quite sensitive to after all these years. If he couldn’t figure that one out, though, he’d be pretty stupid. He just knew whatever the monster was had some magical properties to it- everything else he was completely stumped on. So, he has to do some more… direct investigation. As the sun rose, the noises completely subsided as well, but Arius didn’t know if that was temporary or a reaction to the sunlight. He needed to figure out this one as soon as he could, especially now seeing it was probably safer to do so.
He had left his encampment that he made further away from the outskirts of the village as soon as he prepared, and now he was standing out here, looking at the sagging buildings in all their glory. Well, prepared as much as he could. He was hoping he would find most of his… materials out there when he started investigating. No one can yell at him for using what he has available to get rid of the monster, right? Alright, time to look around! He gave himself some words of encouragement before he took steps further in, then being long strides, ones that wanted to look around with no sense of caution whatsoever.
Arius’ mind only became more excited as he thought of what kind of monster could even cause this level of destruction. What had to be once a bustling village was a complete ghost town. Arius felt a strange, prickling sensation on his skin, the feeling of lingering spirits hanging around. The who had either perished due to the monster or that sickness going around- Arius couldn’t talk to the people who had it, something about “he’ll get sick too if he goes near them” or whatever he got lectured on- had still remained here, in their old homes, Arius would assume. It wasn’t something people could just abandon- even in death, they still stuck to their old homes, as if they could come back and reside there once again. People never wanted to move on, especially if their lives ended in such a way like a sickness or the victim of a monster attack. It wasn’t a peaceful death, thus they still clung on in desperation.
Arius hummed to himself in his musings as he walked through the town. It was so quiet, and Arius couldn’t feel the presence of anyone living, that’s for sure. His musings were the only thing to keep his mind away from the absolute unnatural silence of it all, with even the birds not singing their usual morning songs. He was snapped away from his mind wandering when he suddenly heard something in the unnatural silence, and the sudden presence of someone living. The feeling of the living was much different than of the dead, and Arius wondered if it could be from someone who was still sticking around in the outskirts despite the absolute destruction. Arius quickened his pace, heading towards the general direction of the town square.
Sure enough, someone was there. Most likely not a villager, Arius can quickly deduce, seeing that the person was holding a javelin and was dressed in general adventuring attire. Ooh, did they not trust Arius enough to deal with it and decided to send someone else after the monster or something? That’s the only reason someone would even come in here, honestly, there’s nothing even left in the deserted outskirts for thieves to steal.
Arius thought to himself, wondering what he should do. Hmm… they do have the same goals, don’t they? It would be wise to see what this... tiefling, he assumes, with the horns and all, knows about the monster already. But hmm, he had a throwable weapon and Arius was in throwable-weapon-range, and judging by his stance, he was absolutely freaked out, which does not... spell well for Arius. Haha, why was he so scared in the first place? This town isn’t that scary, honestly, at least there are no weird noises coming from it anymore. Maybe if Arius just stands here he’ll notice him. If he didn’t already with the amount of jangling Arius makes when he walks. Ok, maybe it was just better to go and say hi. He’ll make it clear that he isn’t a monster, that’s all!
“Hello, fellow living person?” Arius hummed, greeting him in a questioning tone, unsure of how this is going to work out. If he ends up with a spear in him, then he’ll go and deal with it, no big deal. But see, he made it clear he’s not a monster, at least!
He stretched out his arms, blinking more to adjust more to the sunlight and letting out a sigh when he dropped his arms unceremoniously to his sides. He was hanging out around the outskirts of the village- or really, what remained of it. Arius came in the early morning hours over here to see if he could figure out anything before the “monster” got dealt with. Arius was feeling jittery, a buzz of excitement running through his veins. The townspeople he talked to who had run away from Marren entirely had described the “monster”- that’s the word they used to describe it, but Arius wanted to see it for himself before he made a classification of what it exactly is- as being quite a sight. People couldn’t even describe it without using vague terms, saying only vague descriptions of the monster like “it was terrifying looking” and “it was huge”. It seemed like whatever this beast was, it made quite a number on this part of the village, though! While Arius could still see some untouched houses and buildings off in the distance, most likely the inner parts of the village, the area he was in now looked like it had been abandoned for years. And all the townspeople say the monster had shown up about two months ago or something? How strange. This was definitely something he needed to look into!
The vague descriptions only made Arius more curious. They, for some reason, tried to tell him to stay away from the village, like he was going to just ignore this super cool monster they were all reportedly seeing. When Arius refused and stated proudly he was going to see what it was, they all looked at him like he was crazy. At least, crazier than he usually is seen as. He swore to them he could take care of himself out there, and they told Arius that if he found some way to deal with it, they would pay him back for it if there was no convincing him otherwise. So, he got to go check out something interesting such as this, AND get paid for it? It was a dream come true for Arius! So much so he went out immediately out to Marren, and hung around the general area, trying to see if he could see what it was from afar. He’s not stupid to run into the village outskirts impulsively, he would take his time with it, naturally. Though he really really did want to see it earlier.
Arius had noticed a lot of strange noises coming from the village, and more buildings getting more sagged over, but he never saw what was causing such things. It must be some sort of magical-in-nature monster, then, Arius would think. He would have heard heavy footsteps hitting the ground, snorting, and all the general stuff of a normal, non-magical beast if it wasn’t something magical in nature. Arius could also feel the magic in the air, something he’s quite sensitive to after all these years. If he couldn’t figure that one out, though, he’d be pretty stupid. He just knew whatever the monster was had some magical properties to it- everything else he was completely stumped on. So, he has to do some more… direct investigation. As the sun rose, the noises completely subsided as well, but Arius didn’t know if that was temporary or a reaction to the sunlight. He needed to figure out this one as soon as he could, especially now seeing it was probably safer to do so.
He had left his encampment that he made further away from the outskirts of the village as soon as he prepared, and now he was standing out here, looking at the sagging buildings in all their glory. Well, prepared as much as he could. He was hoping he would find most of his… materials out there when he started investigating. No one can yell at him for using what he has available to get rid of the monster, right? Alright, time to look around! He gave himself some words of encouragement before he took steps further in, then being long strides, ones that wanted to look around with no sense of caution whatsoever.
Arius’ mind only became more excited as he thought of what kind of monster could even cause this level of destruction. What had to be once a bustling village was a complete ghost town. Arius felt a strange, prickling sensation on his skin, the feeling of lingering spirits hanging around. The who had either perished due to the monster or that sickness going around- Arius couldn’t talk to the people who had it, something about “he’ll get sick too if he goes near them” or whatever he got lectured on- had still remained here, in their old homes, Arius would assume. It wasn’t something people could just abandon- even in death, they still stuck to their old homes, as if they could come back and reside there once again. People never wanted to move on, especially if their lives ended in such a way like a sickness or the victim of a monster attack. It wasn’t a peaceful death, thus they still clung on in desperation.
Arius hummed to himself in his musings as he walked through the town. It was so quiet, and Arius couldn’t feel the presence of anyone living, that’s for sure. His musings were the only thing to keep his mind away from the absolute unnatural silence of it all, with even the birds not singing their usual morning songs. He was snapped away from his mind wandering when he suddenly heard something in the unnatural silence, and the sudden presence of someone living. The feeling of the living was much different than of the dead, and Arius wondered if it could be from someone who was still sticking around in the outskirts despite the absolute destruction. Arius quickened his pace, heading towards the general direction of the town square.
Sure enough, someone was there. Most likely not a villager, Arius can quickly deduce, seeing that the person was holding a javelin and was dressed in general adventuring attire. Ooh, did they not trust Arius enough to deal with it and decided to send someone else after the monster or something? That’s the only reason someone would even come in here, honestly, there’s nothing even left in the deserted outskirts for thieves to steal.
Arius thought to himself, wondering what he should do. Hmm… they do have the same goals, don’t they? It would be wise to see what this... tiefling, he assumes, with the horns and all, knows about the monster already. But hmm, he had a throwable weapon and Arius was in throwable-weapon-range, and judging by his stance, he was absolutely freaked out, which does not... spell well for Arius. Haha, why was he so scared in the first place? This town isn’t that scary, honestly, at least there are no weird noises coming from it anymore. Maybe if Arius just stands here he’ll notice him. If he didn’t already with the amount of jangling Arius makes when he walks. Ok, maybe it was just better to go and say hi. He’ll make it clear that he isn’t a monster, that’s all!
“Hello, fellow living person?” Arius hummed, greeting him in a questioning tone, unsure of how this is going to work out. If he ends up with a spear in him, then he’ll go and deal with it, no big deal. But see, he made it clear he’s not a monster, at least!
tsumu
simp
Mage ･ﾟ★ Marren ･ﾟ★, Tags; n/a
Mage sat still for a long time in a deep crouch, muscles tense as if the monster he sought would materialize behind him and pounce at any moment. For the most part, he just watched the compass spin in his hand, lips pulled into a disbelieving sneer; he was plotting his next move as well-- if he placed more value on his life he might’ve hightailed it out of Marren right then and there, but he’d come for a reason, and there’d be a cold day in hell before he returned home empty-handed.
Mage was pulled from his contemplations by a faint noise; it was just barely there-- clanking? He was unable to pinpoint it for a couple of tense seconds, but it wasn’t long before he realized it was coming from behind him. He didn’t move, even as the clanking-- which mage deduced was most likely the sound of metal hitting together-- grew closer and closer. He knew it was humanoid without even turning-- its gait was bipedal, and, oddly, unhurried.
It came to a slow stop a good distance away from him, wisely so. The only thing keeping him from turning and launching a javelin at the source of the noise was the fact that it could be either the beast he sought or maybe just a very, very unwise Marrener.
Luckily, he didn’t have to guess.
Its voice rang out-- or rather, his voice rang out; it was a young man.
“Hello, fellow living person?” he said, sounding too unsure for Mage’s liking. Why had he even said that? Of course Mage was alive. At least he could be certain that he wasn’t in any immediate danger.
Slowly, Mage slipped his compass back into its pocket, then placed a firm hand on the ground for stability as he twisted his head and body to get a look at the man. His first impression was simply: he is puny. The figure behind him was… tall, sure, but he was far from robust. He was dressed in a dark ensemble, and Mage could see that his face was soft, not hardened or weathered by years of strife or adventuring
“Who the fuck are you?” Mage asked, voice coming a bit harsher than intended. The situation was tense, and for this guy to amble up to a town dressed in weird clothes with… were those stains? Mage was not having it.
“I am Arius,” he said placatingly, and Mage stood. He shouldered his bag and turned to face the stranger completely, but he did not move towards him or sheath his weapon.
“Have you seen the monster that’s supposed to be here?” Arius asked suddenly, giving Mage no real time to ponder him or respond in kind.
So he must be out for the bounty as well… I guess two spears are better than one. Worse comes to worst, I can subdue him if he turns out to be a fucking loon.
“Mmm,” Mage hummed in acknowledgment and glanced around them at the empty town.
“I haven’t seen it, no. I got here not long ago. There’s a… suffocating magic presence here, though, and it’s fucking weird. I have no clue what this thing is. It’s just as weird that nobody else seems to know…” Mage muttered, the end of his sentence trailing off as if he was speaking to himself.
To his surprise, Arius nodded along with him. It was both worrying and comforting that everyone else was in the dark too.
Mage turned left and right, surveying the town square and listening closely. Still, there was no perceivable sound; only the clinking of Arius’ multitudes of metal jewelry. He reasoned that the best course of action would be to attempt to draw the beast out; he really did not want to be stuck in Marren for longer than he needed to. Now that he had a [i[partner[/i] of sorts, he’d have to adapt.
“What do you think we should do?” asked Mage, although he may or may not bother heeding Arius’ suggestions.
“Um, try to find it?” came the response, and Mage pursed his lips. Ah. So he’s an intelligent one.
“Okay. Yeah. That is exactly what we should do,” he sighed and turned away from Arius. He wasn’t very deep into the town yet; there was still plenty for him to explore; it would be logical for him to-
“We could follow the magic concentration; see where it’s strongest.” Arius’s voice rang out behind him, and Mage tilted his head.
“Hmm, that’s fine. I’d assume it’ll get worse the farther in we go. Get your weapons ready,” Mage instructed gruffly, “I feel like we’re really not welcome here.”
Mage sat still for a long time in a deep crouch, muscles tense as if the monster he sought would materialize behind him and pounce at any moment. For the most part, he just watched the compass spin in his hand, lips pulled into a disbelieving sneer; he was plotting his next move as well-- if he placed more value on his life he might’ve hightailed it out of Marren right then and there, but he’d come for a reason, and there’d be a cold day in hell before he returned home empty-handed.
Mage was pulled from his contemplations by a faint noise; it was just barely there-- clanking? He was unable to pinpoint it for a couple of tense seconds, but it wasn’t long before he realized it was coming from behind him. He didn’t move, even as the clanking-- which mage deduced was most likely the sound of metal hitting together-- grew closer and closer. He knew it was humanoid without even turning-- its gait was bipedal, and, oddly, unhurried.
It came to a slow stop a good distance away from him, wisely so. The only thing keeping him from turning and launching a javelin at the source of the noise was the fact that it could be either the beast he sought or maybe just a very, very unwise Marrener.
Luckily, he didn’t have to guess.
Its voice rang out-- or rather, his voice rang out; it was a young man.
“Hello, fellow living person?” he said, sounding too unsure for Mage’s liking. Why had he even said that? Of course Mage was alive. At least he could be certain that he wasn’t in any immediate danger.
Slowly, Mage slipped his compass back into its pocket, then placed a firm hand on the ground for stability as he twisted his head and body to get a look at the man. His first impression was simply: he is puny. The figure behind him was… tall, sure, but he was far from robust. He was dressed in a dark ensemble, and Mage could see that his face was soft, not hardened or weathered by years of strife or adventuring
“Who the fuck are you?” Mage asked, voice coming a bit harsher than intended. The situation was tense, and for this guy to amble up to a town dressed in weird clothes with… were those stains? Mage was not having it.
“I am Arius,” he said placatingly, and Mage stood. He shouldered his bag and turned to face the stranger completely, but he did not move towards him or sheath his weapon.
“Have you seen the monster that’s supposed to be here?” Arius asked suddenly, giving Mage no real time to ponder him or respond in kind.
So he must be out for the bounty as well… I guess two spears are better than one. Worse comes to worst, I can subdue him if he turns out to be a fucking loon.
“Mmm,” Mage hummed in acknowledgment and glanced around them at the empty town.
“I haven’t seen it, no. I got here not long ago. There’s a… suffocating magic presence here, though, and it’s fucking weird. I have no clue what this thing is. It’s just as weird that nobody else seems to know…” Mage muttered, the end of his sentence trailing off as if he was speaking to himself.
To his surprise, Arius nodded along with him. It was both worrying and comforting that everyone else was in the dark too.
Mage turned left and right, surveying the town square and listening closely. Still, there was no perceivable sound; only the clinking of Arius’ multitudes of metal jewelry. He reasoned that the best course of action would be to attempt to draw the beast out; he really did not want to be stuck in Marren for longer than he needed to. Now that he had a [i[partner[/i] of sorts, he’d have to adapt.
“What do you think we should do?” asked Mage, although he may or may not bother heeding Arius’ suggestions.
“Um, try to find it?” came the response, and Mage pursed his lips. Ah. So he’s an intelligent one.
“Okay. Yeah. That is exactly what we should do,” he sighed and turned away from Arius. He wasn’t very deep into the town yet; there was still plenty for him to explore; it would be logical for him to-
“We could follow the magic concentration; see where it’s strongest.” Arius’s voice rang out behind him, and Mage tilted his head.
“Hmm, that’s fine. I’d assume it’ll get worse the farther in we go. Get your weapons ready,” Mage instructed gruffly, “I feel like we’re really not welcome here.”
Cealen
★彡
Arius could just tell this person didn’t like him already. It wasn’t like it was anything new. He was even polite in speaking with him and yet this is how he’s treated! Arius is beginning to think he should just stop having contact with any alive being whatsoever at this point. But, he’ll get bored if that’s the case. Arius still had to be annoyed at how he’s treated right out of the gate! Arius walked ahead of him, picking up his pace. The tiefling moved way too slow for Arius to just follow obediently behind him.
“Hmm, who are we not welcomed by, though? The monster? Obviously, it doesn’t want us here if we intend to put a stop to it.” Arius hummed, looking back at the man with a grin. No need to be polite anymore, he guessed, if he won’t be treated the same way back. “I dunno about you, but I feel quite welcomed! The townspeople would certainly like Marren back, don’t you think? The only way of getting it back is if this monster gets dealt with accordingly. It’s the only way all these spirits around here are going to move on eventually, too!” Hmm… maybe the man doesn’t know exactly what he’s talking about here, especially if he’s not sensitive to these sorts of things like Arius is.
“Of course we need to go kill this thing, or whatever it is, that wasn’t my point. And “spirits”...?” The man responded to him, looking visibly annoyed at Arius. Ohh, he was one of those ones, huh? People who got annoyed at everything Arius said and did?
“Hehe. I guess you can’t feel them or whatever, but there are definitely people who can’t move on here, surrounding usssssss! Does that make you scareeeeddddd?” Arius laughed, then quickly spoke again before the man could speak further. “I don’t get why you don’t feel welcomed here, though. We’re heroic adventurers~.”
“Are you… daft or something?” The man asked him uselessly. Of course, he isn’t! “You don’t feel like you can die here?” Acting like death was some sort of final thing! Arius felt annoyed at him, even though everyone always thought that.
“Hmmm, sure I could die here. But honestly, I don’t get what the big deal is? Not my problem anymore if I die, oh well. Not saying that I want to die, mind you, I would very much prefer being alive than dead. If I truly didn’t want to die or get killed by this thing, though, I wouldn’t have taken up this task in the first place, you know. You’re a shitty adventurer if you keep on worrying about dying and all that stuff. You might as well just sit in your house all day if you’re that scared. But you aren’t, rightttt? Hence you’re out here with me!” Arius spoke bluntly and nonchalantly, like the possibility of him dying was some far-off thing. It wasn’t in that he felt overconfident or arrogant, he just didn’t get the fear of death whatsoever.
“Uh.” The man didn’t know how to respond to him, huh? The annoyed look on his face proved that even more. How funny! “Of course I’m … scared. A dead adventurer is a useless one.” Oh, that one again? He should go and die right now so Arius can disprove him now!
“Obviously. So simply don’t die, and keep your wits about you! A more useless adventurer is one who can’t do anything in the first place. You agree, right? Whatever your name is? You know, it’s suppppper rude to ask for someone’s name and not give them your own name.” Arius said in a sing-song voice, wanting to actually have a name attributed to this person now.
The man looked ANGRY angry at him right now, giving him a forced smile. “My… apologies.” He said with a look of sheer annoyance at Arius. What? Wasn’t he just saying the obvious? Why did people get mad at him for talking? “I am Mage of Prord.”
“Huh? Is that really your name?? That’s like if people were to call me nec- wait, they already do, never mind.” Arius thought back to how that word got spoken to describe him either with fear or contempt. Isn't that just a normal magic school he’s interested in though, gods… “Eh, I actually don’t care if that’s not your real name. I’ll call you what you tell me to call you. But, huh, you’re kinda a local around here, huh? Do you know if something like this appeared around here before?” Arius was going to take any chance he got to understand this monster even a little more. They were approaching the more inner parts of the village, the magic getting stronger and stronger the more they walked. Mage looked even more annoyed at him, somehow.
“I’m not exactly a local... so no, I have no clue about what this is. I live in the city where this shit doesn’t happen. I do know that it’s fucking powerful so, hmm, maybe be a little more afraid? For survival’s sake.” Arius almost laughed out loud when Mage finished speaking. Haha, why does he want him to be afraid? People are sooo weird!
“I already know it’s powerful and all, I heard that enough from the townspeople I asked around. I don’t have any good reason to be that afraid, honestly. I kept watch on this place all last night and heard all the strange noises the monster was making, and even some more buildings falling over. Now I don’t hear strange noises and there are no buildings falling over on me, nor do I feel any acute magic presence here, just the leftover concentration that something was here. Perhaps the monster doesn’t like the sunlight or something. I’m intending to not only kill it but to understand it as well, you know? Something like this must be rare!” Arius spoke excitedly over the prospect of the monster.
“Hmm… that sounds interesting. I only got here this morning, so…” Mage started, but Arius quickly cut him off.
“Yeah yeah, it sucks you don’t know anything more beyond I do. I’m just as clueless as you are with this monster. Anyways, though, this place… you can feel how strong the magic is, right?” Arius went on ahead, glancing around and relying on his instincts to find where the source of this was. The dust around this area looked kicked up as something had moved through here, and the buildings were crumbling even more and more the longer Arius looked at them, giving away to the flimsy destroyed support system they were trying to hold onto. The air felt heavy here, and Arius’ hair was even sticking up on end due to the high magic concentration here.
“The monster definitely was here. Recently, at least. Try looking around if you can find anything interesting, ok? I don’t actually feel any acute presence here like I said before, so I don’t think it’s here and about to attack us. Just the aftermath of it being here remains.” Arius told Mage, before going over and looking around more, not going too far away from Mage. Arius thinks it would be better if they stuck around one another, regardless of how he feels about this.
...People were living around here recently. There was still uneaten food now rolling on the ground, not rotting away scraps of food like the other parts of town. Arius should see some footprints in the ground too, all facing towards the more inner parts of the village. The beast must be chasing the villagers more and more into the inner parts of the village… soon, they’ll have nowhere else to go, huh? Why is this beast even attacking them in the first place? Usually, beasts were after food, or something along those lines, which is why they attacked villages. This monster… must have some reason to be going after people, then, huh… what an awful thing. Arius didn’t feel particularly too upset at killing it, seeing what it does to people here. Why has no one tried to deal with it before? Strange.
“Hmm, who are we not welcomed by, though? The monster? Obviously, it doesn’t want us here if we intend to put a stop to it.” Arius hummed, looking back at the man with a grin. No need to be polite anymore, he guessed, if he won’t be treated the same way back. “I dunno about you, but I feel quite welcomed! The townspeople would certainly like Marren back, don’t you think? The only way of getting it back is if this monster gets dealt with accordingly. It’s the only way all these spirits around here are going to move on eventually, too!” Hmm… maybe the man doesn’t know exactly what he’s talking about here, especially if he’s not sensitive to these sorts of things like Arius is.
“Of course we need to go kill this thing, or whatever it is, that wasn’t my point. And “spirits”...?” The man responded to him, looking visibly annoyed at Arius. Ohh, he was one of those ones, huh? People who got annoyed at everything Arius said and did?
“Hehe. I guess you can’t feel them or whatever, but there are definitely people who can’t move on here, surrounding usssssss! Does that make you scareeeeddddd?” Arius laughed, then quickly spoke again before the man could speak further. “I don’t get why you don’t feel welcomed here, though. We’re heroic adventurers~.”
“Are you… daft or something?” The man asked him uselessly. Of course, he isn’t! “You don’t feel like you can die here?” Acting like death was some sort of final thing! Arius felt annoyed at him, even though everyone always thought that.
“Hmmm, sure I could die here. But honestly, I don’t get what the big deal is? Not my problem anymore if I die, oh well. Not saying that I want to die, mind you, I would very much prefer being alive than dead. If I truly didn’t want to die or get killed by this thing, though, I wouldn’t have taken up this task in the first place, you know. You’re a shitty adventurer if you keep on worrying about dying and all that stuff. You might as well just sit in your house all day if you’re that scared. But you aren’t, rightttt? Hence you’re out here with me!” Arius spoke bluntly and nonchalantly, like the possibility of him dying was some far-off thing. It wasn’t in that he felt overconfident or arrogant, he just didn’t get the fear of death whatsoever.
“Uh.” The man didn’t know how to respond to him, huh? The annoyed look on his face proved that even more. How funny! “Of course I’m … scared. A dead adventurer is a useless one.” Oh, that one again? He should go and die right now so Arius can disprove him now!
“Obviously. So simply don’t die, and keep your wits about you! A more useless adventurer is one who can’t do anything in the first place. You agree, right? Whatever your name is? You know, it’s suppppper rude to ask for someone’s name and not give them your own name.” Arius said in a sing-song voice, wanting to actually have a name attributed to this person now.
The man looked ANGRY angry at him right now, giving him a forced smile. “My… apologies.” He said with a look of sheer annoyance at Arius. What? Wasn’t he just saying the obvious? Why did people get mad at him for talking? “I am Mage of Prord.”
“Huh? Is that really your name?? That’s like if people were to call me nec- wait, they already do, never mind.” Arius thought back to how that word got spoken to describe him either with fear or contempt. Isn't that just a normal magic school he’s interested in though, gods… “Eh, I actually don’t care if that’s not your real name. I’ll call you what you tell me to call you. But, huh, you’re kinda a local around here, huh? Do you know if something like this appeared around here before?” Arius was going to take any chance he got to understand this monster even a little more. They were approaching the more inner parts of the village, the magic getting stronger and stronger the more they walked. Mage looked even more annoyed at him, somehow.
“I’m not exactly a local... so no, I have no clue about what this is. I live in the city where this shit doesn’t happen. I do know that it’s fucking powerful so, hmm, maybe be a little more afraid? For survival’s sake.” Arius almost laughed out loud when Mage finished speaking. Haha, why does he want him to be afraid? People are sooo weird!
“I already know it’s powerful and all, I heard that enough from the townspeople I asked around. I don’t have any good reason to be that afraid, honestly. I kept watch on this place all last night and heard all the strange noises the monster was making, and even some more buildings falling over. Now I don’t hear strange noises and there are no buildings falling over on me, nor do I feel any acute magic presence here, just the leftover concentration that something was here. Perhaps the monster doesn’t like the sunlight or something. I’m intending to not only kill it but to understand it as well, you know? Something like this must be rare!” Arius spoke excitedly over the prospect of the monster.
“Hmm… that sounds interesting. I only got here this morning, so…” Mage started, but Arius quickly cut him off.
“Yeah yeah, it sucks you don’t know anything more beyond I do. I’m just as clueless as you are with this monster. Anyways, though, this place… you can feel how strong the magic is, right?” Arius went on ahead, glancing around and relying on his instincts to find where the source of this was. The dust around this area looked kicked up as something had moved through here, and the buildings were crumbling even more and more the longer Arius looked at them, giving away to the flimsy destroyed support system they were trying to hold onto. The air felt heavy here, and Arius’ hair was even sticking up on end due to the high magic concentration here.
“The monster definitely was here. Recently, at least. Try looking around if you can find anything interesting, ok? I don’t actually feel any acute presence here like I said before, so I don’t think it’s here and about to attack us. Just the aftermath of it being here remains.” Arius told Mage, before going over and looking around more, not going too far away from Mage. Arius thinks it would be better if they stuck around one another, regardless of how he feels about this.
...People were living around here recently. There was still uneaten food now rolling on the ground, not rotting away scraps of food like the other parts of town. Arius should see some footprints in the ground too, all facing towards the more inner parts of the village. The beast must be chasing the villagers more and more into the inner parts of the village… soon, they’ll have nowhere else to go, huh? Why is this beast even attacking them in the first place? Usually, beasts were after food, or something along those lines, which is why they attacked villages. This monster… must have some reason to be going after people, then, huh… what an awful thing. Arius didn’t feel particularly too upset at killing it, seeing what it does to people here. Why has no one tried to deal with it before? Strange.
tsumu
simp
Mage didn’t feel very inclined to take any orders from this man, “Arius”, but his suggestion to look around was… fine, he supposed. He probably would’ve done so anyway. He did feel the slightest bit safer after Arius informed him that the beast itself was likely not hanging around-- that’d give him some much-needed time to breathe… and snoop around.
With a grunt of acknowledgment and nothing more, Mage turned his back on Arius and set off towards a two-story building. He stayed within what he assumed was screaming distance of the man, just in case, but he felt well-equipped enough both mentally and physically to explore things on his own-- it was how he’d intended to operate initially, anyway.
So he entered a nearby building that was nearly hunched over, the outside bearing the marks of… well, Mage wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t in good condition. The windows were not broken, only clouded, the door and doorframe were splintered, and there were great cracks in the stone the building was constructed with. When he entered, Mage didn’t have to push very hard on the wooden door-- in fact, it swung open and then promptly crashed to the floor and made a sound that jarred him to his very core. He glanced over in the direction of Arius, but he couldn’t catch sight of him.
Stepping carefully over the broken door, Arius entered the bottom floor. It seemed to be a shop. There were plenty of things inside, so Mage simply assumed it was a general store of some kind. It was shockingly intact; Mage had entered the place expecting to find the inside torn to shreds, but it was fine. Eerily so. As he passed a shelf of food, he nonchalantly swiped a couple packs of dried meats, and some sweet drinks when he came across them, swinging his bag around so that he could tuck them in. It felt just a tad wrong, but he was sure that the owners wouldn’t mind, especially if Mage was successful in vanquishing the thing that’d forced them out of their own store. He had no clue what Arius would like, but he took a couple of different drinks and resolved to let the man choose, for courtesy’s sake. He had to admit, he hadn’t been the friendliest upon their first meeting.
Silent, Mage made his way through the aisles until he was at the back of the store. A door caught his eye-- or rather, the absence of a door. There was a doorframe, but no door, and there was a very deep gouge in one side of the frame. It was tucked away in a corner, and above it, a sign read “do not enter” in neat lettering; a woman’s lettering, if Mage had to guess. Naturally, he felt compelled to enter.
Through the door, Mage found that it led to a set of stairs going up to the second floor. He could see the landing from the bottom of them, and more concerningly, he could see scratches along the wooden walls of the corridor.
Fuck, he thought simply, brows furrowing, but pressed on, up the stairs. He found that at the top of the stairs there was a door on the left. Well, more accurately, there was a door on the floor in front of the doorframe. It led directly into what he assumed had been the living space of the shop owners. He was appalled.
The living space was in shambles. Furniture was flipped over, there was clutter and grime everywhere. Mage stepped in and was nearly knocked back by the stench. His stomach flip-flopped, and threatened to leap out his mouth. It was sour, it was sweet, and worst, it was familiar. He glanced around worriedly and saw that all but one of the doors in the quaint little home was open. He was curious, he really was. However, he took a couple of steps closer to the closed door, which was alarmingly pristine, and could no longer stand the smell. He had a hunch as to what was behind that door, but he didn’t have the courage to peek. Instead, he swerved into one of the open rooms and found it in much the same state as the living area. It looked to be an office or a work area of some kind, and papers and books and paraphernalia were strewn about. It looked like a tornado had blown through the house-- a tornado with claws. The marks were everywhere-- on random items, on the walls, on the floor. Mage could’ve sworn he saw footprints in the wooden floor-- not marks, no, but indents. The smell was in every room, and he was puzzled as to how he hadn’t noticed it sooner.
Dread welled up in his throat. He felt a bit like vomiting. No, he didn’t just feel like vomiting, he suddenly felt the bile rising in his throat and lurched over to the open kitchen area just in time to spill the contents of his stomach into the sink (which was just as cluttered as the rest of the place and had some broken porcelain strewn about in it). He rose from his slouched position, mouth twisted grimly around a vile taste in his mouth. Without a second thought, he fled the second floor, tromping noisily down the stairs with something like panic clutching his heart.
He breezed through the aisles and burst out onto the street, a bit of a crazed look on his face. He walked directly away from the store until his anxiety eased.
Hell no. What is this? he pondered exasperatedly while he dropped his bag so he could fish around for the drinks he swiped earlier. He pulled open one of them with his teeth, and let the sweet lemon taste fill his mouth before swishing it around and spitting it out onto the stonework of the street. He did this a couple of times until the bile taste was gone. He sat back on his haunches and let out a tiny groan, already exasperated with the case. He’d just wanted to stab something and go home, bag chock full of weird liquids and tissues. Was that too much to ask?
So it has… claws? And it’s gotta be humanoid, he reasoned silently to himself, thinking back to the selectiveness of the creature, how it’d chosen to leave what it deemed unnecessary untouched. But what was that smell? Why was it there? Is that the plague they talked about? Surely it’s not the same as… Mage shook his head. He did not want to hold onto false hope. It wouldn’t make much of a difference if it did turn out to be the same illness that’d shredded his hopes of familial reconciliation.
Maybe I should tell Arius. I’m sure we both came in here expecting to fight some sort of feral, four-legged thing. I’m getting a very, very bad feeling about this…
Cealen
★彡
Mage just went straight into a building… wasn’t he scared before? Wasn't he worried about the building collapsing in on him? Arius looked over at the sagging-over building, assessing it quickly before following Mage inside, keeping close to him. And in the case of the building collapsing… well, then it’s both of their problems rather than just Mage’s, he guessed. The building had a broken sign out front advertising some sales going on, but Arius doesn’t think anyone could take advantage of those savings now seeing the state of the shop currently. The monster definitely did a number on this place… Arius couldn’t understand why though. Rarely did monsters just attack for no reason. Only if they felt threatened, or something along those lines, would they lash out like this. Monsters attacked to almost protect themselves, in a way, despite how much carnage that unleashed on people. They were monsters. They don’t think about what is “right”, only what they have to do in the face of a threat. The almost methodical way this monster was destroying Marren was simply… odd. Strange.
Arius was becoming less and less convinced this was a mindless monster attacking this village. Whatever this creature was, it had intent. Intent to harm people. Arius could see the food wasn’t even eaten whatsoever, and how it seems like the shop was only caught up in an attack- the people were the real targets, not the shop, huh… Arius shook his head. He was just making assumptions based on what he was seeing in a general overview of the trashed shop. Seeing how Mage was stealing- not really stealing, but still- food really did drive home how the food was completely untouched by the monster. Didn’t Mage think it was odd? How the food wasn’t ransacked at all? Mage seemed to be going on his own investigation, charging down the aisles of the store and then disappearing into a door in the back. So much for sticking together! Maybe Mage liked going alone into things like this. Arius huffed out a sigh and then proceeded to look at the damages the shop had suffered more closely.
The floor had no broken holes in it, which was nice for getting around, but… concerning, again. Monsters were big. If one came in here, the sheer weight of each step it took should have caused the floor to buckle in under its weight. The only sign of any damage to the floor was some indents, but this monster had to be “huge” according to the townspeople. There would be holes, not indents if this monster was that big. These indents… looked to be more like trauma to the floor due to things getting thrown onto the ground with force.
The monster had to come in here, didn't it? The store looked too much like it had been thoroughly destroyed to have been just affected by falling in roofs and blows from outside. Arius was just… confused. He could smell the familiar scent of blood and rotting flesh down here, which means there would have to be some unfortunate people who were killed by the attack. A bit distant, though… not in this room. Maybe looking at the bodies themselves would give Arius some indication of what happened… eh, if Mage is charging around, he’s sure to find them! Doing the work for him. Going over to the door frame that Mage disappeared through, he looked at the gouge in the side of the door.
That wasn’t a clean cut. It was jagged, the gouge, with bits of wood splintering off the edges and onto the floor. The cuts were deep in some sections but shallow in others- it looked like it took effort to cause a gouge like this. This monster had claws, did it not? Why did it struggle to cause a gouge like this… looking around, he noticed the strange location of the door that used to be attached to this door frame. It was lying within one of the aisles, looking broken and definitely not functional. So… if it was out in the aisles, something that came on the other side of the door- the one marked “do not enter” above the door frame, Arius notices- came out into the shop. Not like one would think, where the monster would have no respect for the sign’s suggestion and enter regardless. Arius noticed a large amount of boxes piled nearby this door too, ripped apart and smashed, knocked out of the way to the door- a failed barricade, he had to assume. Something was trying to be kept out from entering the main shop. Maybe it was some resistance the people in this shop put up against the monster? Even then… the monster would have done easy work to any barricade they put up.
Arius heard thudding coming down from the stairs past the door frame. Moving quickly out of the way, he saw a frantic Mage speed past him, not even acknowledging his presence, heading outside. He must have seen something up there! Arius hoped it was what he was hoping to be able to see. Arius went up the stairs, again, noticing that none were broken.
Ah, it looked to be a house. These shops usually did have a living arrangement for the owners up the stairs. Maybe the “do not enter” sign was just a warning for any shoppers to not go to their house? Arius inhaled a deep breath in, getting the disgusting scent of the room deep into his lungs. It smelled a lot more unbearable than it usually is, even Arius is finding himself queasy at the stench. It must be something else alongside the rotting flesh that is a welcoming smell to him. Glancing around the just as trashed house, stepping carefully over the broken shards of furniture and glass scattered across the floor, approaching a door that looked strangely untouched. The smell became more unbearable the more he approached it, and Arius knew what he was going to see the moment he pushed open the door. Almost fearlessly, he pushed the door open slightly, sunlight pouring into the closed, dark room.
Arius could see about two bodies in there. Looked to be a husband and wife, if he had to assume, judging by the closeness of the two. They looked… not to be in good shape if Arius had to put it lightly. They looked as trashed and wrecked as the rest of the house did, and Arius could see a number of bruises and scratches on their skin even from here. No blood, though, strangely enough- Arius swore he could smell it earlier. Maybe it was that sickness thing they talked about when Arius asked around…? Arius glanced behind his shoulder, wondering idly if Mage actually looked at these people himself. He wasn’t going to do all his investigating alone! He wanted to keep up with Mage so they both had the same information. As much as Arius wanted to look, he closed the door again, turned around, and headed down the stairs and out the shop, glancing quickly around to see if Mage was around. He saw the crouched figure of him quite a ways away from the shop, and he moved quickly towards him, his bracelets jingling loudly as ever.
“Haha, you know, it’s rude to ditch me! Anyways, though… did you actually see the bodies…? If you didn’t… we should look at them together. I think it would work out for both of us to see how they died if we want a chance to understand how this monster works further. There’s no blood, I already looked~.” Arius said, seemingly perfectly ok with just seeing some dead people. He just thinks Mage convinced himself that it was worse than it really was.
Arius was becoming less and less convinced this was a mindless monster attacking this village. Whatever this creature was, it had intent. Intent to harm people. Arius could see the food wasn’t even eaten whatsoever, and how it seems like the shop was only caught up in an attack- the people were the real targets, not the shop, huh… Arius shook his head. He was just making assumptions based on what he was seeing in a general overview of the trashed shop. Seeing how Mage was stealing- not really stealing, but still- food really did drive home how the food was completely untouched by the monster. Didn’t Mage think it was odd? How the food wasn’t ransacked at all? Mage seemed to be going on his own investigation, charging down the aisles of the store and then disappearing into a door in the back. So much for sticking together! Maybe Mage liked going alone into things like this. Arius huffed out a sigh and then proceeded to look at the damages the shop had suffered more closely.
The floor had no broken holes in it, which was nice for getting around, but… concerning, again. Monsters were big. If one came in here, the sheer weight of each step it took should have caused the floor to buckle in under its weight. The only sign of any damage to the floor was some indents, but this monster had to be “huge” according to the townspeople. There would be holes, not indents if this monster was that big. These indents… looked to be more like trauma to the floor due to things getting thrown onto the ground with force.
The monster had to come in here, didn't it? The store looked too much like it had been thoroughly destroyed to have been just affected by falling in roofs and blows from outside. Arius was just… confused. He could smell the familiar scent of blood and rotting flesh down here, which means there would have to be some unfortunate people who were killed by the attack. A bit distant, though… not in this room. Maybe looking at the bodies themselves would give Arius some indication of what happened… eh, if Mage is charging around, he’s sure to find them! Doing the work for him. Going over to the door frame that Mage disappeared through, he looked at the gouge in the side of the door.
That wasn’t a clean cut. It was jagged, the gouge, with bits of wood splintering off the edges and onto the floor. The cuts were deep in some sections but shallow in others- it looked like it took effort to cause a gouge like this. This monster had claws, did it not? Why did it struggle to cause a gouge like this… looking around, he noticed the strange location of the door that used to be attached to this door frame. It was lying within one of the aisles, looking broken and definitely not functional. So… if it was out in the aisles, something that came on the other side of the door- the one marked “do not enter” above the door frame, Arius notices- came out into the shop. Not like one would think, where the monster would have no respect for the sign’s suggestion and enter regardless. Arius noticed a large amount of boxes piled nearby this door too, ripped apart and smashed, knocked out of the way to the door- a failed barricade, he had to assume. Something was trying to be kept out from entering the main shop. Maybe it was some resistance the people in this shop put up against the monster? Even then… the monster would have done easy work to any barricade they put up.
Arius heard thudding coming down from the stairs past the door frame. Moving quickly out of the way, he saw a frantic Mage speed past him, not even acknowledging his presence, heading outside. He must have seen something up there! Arius hoped it was what he was hoping to be able to see. Arius went up the stairs, again, noticing that none were broken.
Ah, it looked to be a house. These shops usually did have a living arrangement for the owners up the stairs. Maybe the “do not enter” sign was just a warning for any shoppers to not go to their house? Arius inhaled a deep breath in, getting the disgusting scent of the room deep into his lungs. It smelled a lot more unbearable than it usually is, even Arius is finding himself queasy at the stench. It must be something else alongside the rotting flesh that is a welcoming smell to him. Glancing around the just as trashed house, stepping carefully over the broken shards of furniture and glass scattered across the floor, approaching a door that looked strangely untouched. The smell became more unbearable the more he approached it, and Arius knew what he was going to see the moment he pushed open the door. Almost fearlessly, he pushed the door open slightly, sunlight pouring into the closed, dark room.
Arius could see about two bodies in there. Looked to be a husband and wife, if he had to assume, judging by the closeness of the two. They looked… not to be in good shape if Arius had to put it lightly. They looked as trashed and wrecked as the rest of the house did, and Arius could see a number of bruises and scratches on their skin even from here. No blood, though, strangely enough- Arius swore he could smell it earlier. Maybe it was that sickness thing they talked about when Arius asked around…? Arius glanced behind his shoulder, wondering idly if Mage actually looked at these people himself. He wasn’t going to do all his investigating alone! He wanted to keep up with Mage so they both had the same information. As much as Arius wanted to look, he closed the door again, turned around, and headed down the stairs and out the shop, glancing quickly around to see if Mage was around. He saw the crouched figure of him quite a ways away from the shop, and he moved quickly towards him, his bracelets jingling loudly as ever.
“Haha, you know, it’s rude to ditch me! Anyways, though… did you actually see the bodies…? If you didn’t… we should look at them together. I think it would work out for both of us to see how they died if we want a chance to understand how this monster works further. There’s no blood, I already looked~.” Arius said, seemingly perfectly ok with just seeing some dead people. He just thinks Mage convinced himself that it was worse than it really was.
tsumu
simp
Mage had but a brief moment of respite before he heard the telltale sound of clinking jewelry. It was Arius making his way toward him, looking utterly unaffected from his foray into the unnerving shop. That itself was unnerving, enough that Mage fixed him with a wary look as he came to stand near him. He felt a bit pathetic at the same time-- this guy seemed way more childish than him and yet mage was the one left on the ground, the taste of bile in his mouth, after catching a whiff of something questionable.
He supposed, at the least, he had a semi-valid reason.
Mage stood, turning to face Arius head on.
“Look, Arius, was it? I apologize for ”ditching” you. I just… hmm,” he murmured, searching Arius’ gaze for a speck of humanity or sympathy or remorse. He found some; enough. “I’ve seen-- er, rather, smelled-- something like this before. It makes me really uncomfortable.” Why was he admitting such a thing already? He’d never been one to speak about personal matters to people he didn’t know well.
“What, dead people?” Arius asked cluelessly, but Mage didn’t blame him for being a bit confused. He could see how, to someone else, it would appear that he was just squeamish around the smell of death.
“No… there’s just something off about it. I think I have an idea of what afflicted them. Maybe. I’m not sure.” Mage shouldered his bag, and mentally steeled himself for the task ahead.
“But I suppose you’re right. We should probably take a better look,” he admitted, and started off towards the door of the shop again. A few beats later, he heard Arius follow, but he could also sense him… practically vibrating.
“You think you know what it is? Tell me!” The man exclaimed, and Mage winced at his loud outburst. Oh, he should’ve just kept his mouth shut…
“Well… let me preface this by saying I’m not sure. About any of this. It could be totally unrelated,” they got nearer and nearer to the shop, “but I’ve been around people who um… smelled exactly like that. It’s unforgettable. It was a fucking weird disease they had… they turned kind of grey, their skin was really fragile. And also they’d, um, do a bunch of weird things.” Mage heaved a soft sigh, and let Arius enter in front of him when they reached the entrance.
“It’s like it slowly stole their humanity. They became soft, squishy shells of what they used to be,” Mage wrinkled his nose, and swallowed down a lump of grief, “so you can imagine why I'm not exactly ecstatic to be back around it.”
Arius’ voice was surprisingly understanding when he spoke, “That is exactly why we have to learn what this is all about. If it has something to do with the monster, then we might have a better chance of beating it!” he encouraged, and shockingly, Mage did feel the slightest bit more certain of himself. Yeah, he had the chance to do some real good here for the people of Marren.
With nothing more than a grunt of acknowledgement, Mage followed Arius to the back of the store and up the stairs onto the landing. He took a very deep breath before stepping back into the living space. The duo made their way over to the source of the smell, Arius leading the way. He spared a quick glance at Mage before pushing open the completely intact door.
It struck him in the face, the smell, and the only thing that kept him from retching and possibly vomiting on the floor was the fact that he didn’t want to appear weak in front of Arius.
The couple on the bed looked just as mage envisioned. Well, he hadn’t known that it was a couple, but the grey, glass-like skin was exactly as anticipated. They looked bruised and a bit abused. He wanted to speak, and tell Arius that he really thought it was the same illness, but when he opened his mouth, he realized that it would be a horrible retching noise that came out in place of words, so he clamped a hand over his mouth.
Arius brushed past him and headed straight for the pair on the bed, eyes scrutinizing and curious. “Hmm, I have this idea based on what you said, and the state of this place,” he leaned over the bodies, and Mage’s brow furrowed, for he was too close.
Mage swallowed hard. “Yeah, this is… it really looks to be the same,” he admitted weakly to Arius, taking shallow breaths to try and get himself accustomed. Was Arius a doctor? He wondered. He seemed to have little fear towards the bodies, and the way he was so curious about the illness indicated he had experience in the medical field. If he was a doctor, he was an odd one, that was for certain.
Cealen
★彡
It’s the same, huh… Arius shook his head as he looked at the bodies. What he’s thinking must be the case based on what Mage reported about his own experiences with this illness… but why? How? How could an illness cause something like this? Arius's old teachings when he was expected to become a cleric- a hilarious thing to imagine- never mentioned something like this, where people became violent after contracting some sort of virus. Obviously, the monster was spreading it, but what kind of monster did it have to even be to spread such a disease like this? And for what purpose? Was it truly just to harm people? Ahh… whatever. Arius needed to find some proof of his theory more.
He stared down at the bodies before him, changing his angle to get a good look at all sides. They looked like they got bruised more or less by things hitting them… maybe from the things falling around in the store? They had what looked to definitely be scratch marks, not gouges like one would expect to come from the class of a huge monster. They were bright red, not too deep marks. Caused by fingernail scratches, specifically human ones, which the couple appeared to be. Did they do that to themselves…? Arius noticed some more different-looking scratches here and threw, too, but he couldn’t figure out if those were caused by someone or just scrapes due to running around before.
The scent was very unbearable, Arius couldn’t exactly blame Mage for not wanting to get near them. Arius found himself having to stop breathing out through his nose, opting to rather take shallow breaths in and out slowly as he looked over them. Augh, this definitely isn’t rotting flesh, that’s a bearable scent, not whatever… this is. The scratches left on their gray skin didn’t look the same as if Arius were to scratch his own skin. They were shallow cuts, but they looked… strange on the skin of these people. He couldn’t describe it other than.,. mushy. Rotting flesh, surprisingly, never tended to be… mushy… like that. These… definitely weren’t some normal corpses. If there could be anything “normal” about corpses.
If they left scratch marks… maybe it would be best to look at their hands. He didn’t want to announce something like “these two people caused their own shop to get destroyed” with no solid proof behind it. Suggesting that the monster did not do anything that they see here- just the sickness- is a much harder thing to do, since it went against common sense. Arius could see one hand out, the woman’s, laying on top of the man’s side, a loose embrace. Maybe they were holding themselves closer before they lost any ability to move their limbs, their grasps losing their strength and falling to the sides. Arius… kind of wanted to grab it, but withheld himself. It was probably a better thing to not touch the body of someone he knows was diseased. Thankfully, the position of the hand provided a good enough look for him.
Arius peered over to Mage, seeing how far away he was… how was he going to figure something out if he stood that far away? It’s not like the scent isn't inescapable in this room, anyways… and Mage promised to look at these things together, didn’t he?
“Mage. Come over here.” Arius said, beckoning him over with one hand, attention focused down on the hand again. “You should see this too if you’re here already. It’s useless if you just stand far away, you know, I would have come here by myself if you were just going to do that.” Arius just wanted them to have the same information, was that too much to ask? Before Mage had any time to respond, Arius began again. “You can see splinters… bits of wood in their fingers. And their nails… they’re very blunt, aren’t they?” Arius sounded like he was half talking to himself, scrutinizing the hand with a focused gaze. He had to figure this out, he felt an overwhelming urge to, clawing at him more and more the further he looked.
After a “brief” moment, he felt Mage beside him, obviously not wanting to get close but still wanting to prove something to Arius that he can go look at dead people too. How brave! He seemed to be a bit… confused? Arius couldn’t read his expression. “Huh… so, does that mean they…?” Mage questioned out loud. Oh, so Mage does get what’s going on here too! That makes explaining easier, right?
“Yeah, yeah!! You get it, right?” Arius smiled, happy to show off his theory. His extremely focused look seemed gone as he looked at Mage with excited eyes. “The monster didn’t actually do any of this, you noticed too, huh? It wouldn’t make sense if this was a large monster the type of damages that were caused here, obviously! This place would have gotten a lot more roughed up even beyond what it is now, honestly, if the monster did this. I just wanted to make sure I had proof… and this is enough, I think, based on even what you said about what you knew of the sickness before…! By “weird”, did you mean like, violent? Bitey? Scratchy??” Arius wanted to say more, but he somehow withheld himself back. Understanding how the monster worked was a step forward, wasn’t it?
Mage seemed to consider it for a moment. “Sometimes…” Mage still seemed like he was thinking as he spoke. “They’d really act more like they were out of control more than anything.” Hmmmmmm, interesting!
“Ah, so, hm…” Arius thought, mind buzzing. “So! That means that it’s the sickness causing this, then, right? And the monster definitely is the only thing that is spreading this illness, other than possibly person-to-person? I’m not aware of how it spreads… but whatever started it, it was definitely the monster! So, it’s giving people this sickness so they could be violent… but why… and how does it work fully? Does the monster just give them it and then the disease develops slowly in each person, causing this infection? If that’s the case, everyone in town could possibly be infected with this already, but they don’t know… how awful, honestly. But, if it’s not, then possibly the monster just “activates” a quickly progressing sickness…? But then there are people in the city nearby who have it…? Oh no, that means they’re going to eventually attack the people taking care of them if they’re being treated there, huh?” Arius just kept on going on, brainstorming his way through his logic. “Wait, so did this monster attack people you knew, actually, Mage? If you’ve seen this sickness before…?”
Mage seemed to be knocked out of his brooding state by Arius’ question. Was he even listening to him…! This was important! “I don’t know what caused the sickness that I saw back then.” He stated only, giving no further explanation to Arius. How could he not know!! He guessed if a monster was attacking people like it was here, though, Mage would remember that one… so maybe he really didn’t know.
“So, a monster did not cause the version of the sickness you saw…? Well, whatever, because obviously, it had to have been causing that here. I was hoping you’d know more, honestly… but, the important thing is to figure out how the monster is doing this… and why, if possible. You know this isn’t a mindless monster attacking everyone, so “just because” isn’t an answer here, huh…” Arius was thinking out loud, gears turning in his head. What could they even do…? “Oh, we could try asking them, I guess! I know a spell that will slow us to. They usually suck at conversation though… but worth a shot, right? All we have to do is ask what the monster did to them exactly!” Another great idea from Arius!
Mage looked at him like he had two heads. “You can talk to them?” What? That isn’t even that much of a powerful spell to pull off!
“Yeah, they do suck at talking though… they’re so vague. So it’s not really “talking” but more or less “pestering” them, I would say?” Arius thought about it. The times he has used in the past usually resulted in him getting more frustrated than feeling like he got any information. But, it still didn't hurt to try… “Ok, then, I’ll go and cast it! Just hold on a sec~.”
He stared down at the bodies before him, changing his angle to get a good look at all sides. They looked like they got bruised more or less by things hitting them… maybe from the things falling around in the store? They had what looked to definitely be scratch marks, not gouges like one would expect to come from the class of a huge monster. They were bright red, not too deep marks. Caused by fingernail scratches, specifically human ones, which the couple appeared to be. Did they do that to themselves…? Arius noticed some more different-looking scratches here and threw, too, but he couldn’t figure out if those were caused by someone or just scrapes due to running around before.
The scent was very unbearable, Arius couldn’t exactly blame Mage for not wanting to get near them. Arius found himself having to stop breathing out through his nose, opting to rather take shallow breaths in and out slowly as he looked over them. Augh, this definitely isn’t rotting flesh, that’s a bearable scent, not whatever… this is. The scratches left on their gray skin didn’t look the same as if Arius were to scratch his own skin. They were shallow cuts, but they looked… strange on the skin of these people. He couldn’t describe it other than.,. mushy. Rotting flesh, surprisingly, never tended to be… mushy… like that. These… definitely weren’t some normal corpses. If there could be anything “normal” about corpses.
If they left scratch marks… maybe it would be best to look at their hands. He didn’t want to announce something like “these two people caused their own shop to get destroyed” with no solid proof behind it. Suggesting that the monster did not do anything that they see here- just the sickness- is a much harder thing to do, since it went against common sense. Arius could see one hand out, the woman’s, laying on top of the man’s side, a loose embrace. Maybe they were holding themselves closer before they lost any ability to move their limbs, their grasps losing their strength and falling to the sides. Arius… kind of wanted to grab it, but withheld himself. It was probably a better thing to not touch the body of someone he knows was diseased. Thankfully, the position of the hand provided a good enough look for him.
Arius peered over to Mage, seeing how far away he was… how was he going to figure something out if he stood that far away? It’s not like the scent isn't inescapable in this room, anyways… and Mage promised to look at these things together, didn’t he?
“Mage. Come over here.” Arius said, beckoning him over with one hand, attention focused down on the hand again. “You should see this too if you’re here already. It’s useless if you just stand far away, you know, I would have come here by myself if you were just going to do that.” Arius just wanted them to have the same information, was that too much to ask? Before Mage had any time to respond, Arius began again. “You can see splinters… bits of wood in their fingers. And their nails… they’re very blunt, aren’t they?” Arius sounded like he was half talking to himself, scrutinizing the hand with a focused gaze. He had to figure this out, he felt an overwhelming urge to, clawing at him more and more the further he looked.
After a “brief” moment, he felt Mage beside him, obviously not wanting to get close but still wanting to prove something to Arius that he can go look at dead people too. How brave! He seemed to be a bit… confused? Arius couldn’t read his expression. “Huh… so, does that mean they…?” Mage questioned out loud. Oh, so Mage does get what’s going on here too! That makes explaining easier, right?
“Yeah, yeah!! You get it, right?” Arius smiled, happy to show off his theory. His extremely focused look seemed gone as he looked at Mage with excited eyes. “The monster didn’t actually do any of this, you noticed too, huh? It wouldn’t make sense if this was a large monster the type of damages that were caused here, obviously! This place would have gotten a lot more roughed up even beyond what it is now, honestly, if the monster did this. I just wanted to make sure I had proof… and this is enough, I think, based on even what you said about what you knew of the sickness before…! By “weird”, did you mean like, violent? Bitey? Scratchy??” Arius wanted to say more, but he somehow withheld himself back. Understanding how the monster worked was a step forward, wasn’t it?
Mage seemed to consider it for a moment. “Sometimes…” Mage still seemed like he was thinking as he spoke. “They’d really act more like they were out of control more than anything.” Hmmmmmm, interesting!
“Ah, so, hm…” Arius thought, mind buzzing. “So! That means that it’s the sickness causing this, then, right? And the monster definitely is the only thing that is spreading this illness, other than possibly person-to-person? I’m not aware of how it spreads… but whatever started it, it was definitely the monster! So, it’s giving people this sickness so they could be violent… but why… and how does it work fully? Does the monster just give them it and then the disease develops slowly in each person, causing this infection? If that’s the case, everyone in town could possibly be infected with this already, but they don’t know… how awful, honestly. But, if it’s not, then possibly the monster just “activates” a quickly progressing sickness…? But then there are people in the city nearby who have it…? Oh no, that means they’re going to eventually attack the people taking care of them if they’re being treated there, huh?” Arius just kept on going on, brainstorming his way through his logic. “Wait, so did this monster attack people you knew, actually, Mage? If you’ve seen this sickness before…?”
Mage seemed to be knocked out of his brooding state by Arius’ question. Was he even listening to him…! This was important! “I don’t know what caused the sickness that I saw back then.” He stated only, giving no further explanation to Arius. How could he not know!! He guessed if a monster was attacking people like it was here, though, Mage would remember that one… so maybe he really didn’t know.
“So, a monster did not cause the version of the sickness you saw…? Well, whatever, because obviously, it had to have been causing that here. I was hoping you’d know more, honestly… but, the important thing is to figure out how the monster is doing this… and why, if possible. You know this isn’t a mindless monster attacking everyone, so “just because” isn’t an answer here, huh…” Arius was thinking out loud, gears turning in his head. What could they even do…? “Oh, we could try asking them, I guess! I know a spell that will slow us to. They usually suck at conversation though… but worth a shot, right? All we have to do is ask what the monster did to them exactly!” Another great idea from Arius!
Mage looked at him like he had two heads. “You can talk to them?” What? That isn’t even that much of a powerful spell to pull off!
“Yeah, they do suck at talking though… they’re so vague. So it’s not really “talking” but more or less “pestering” them, I would say?” Arius thought about it. The times he has used in the past usually resulted in him getting more frustrated than feeling like he got any information. But, it still didn't hurt to try… “Ok, then, I’ll go and cast it! Just hold on a sec~.”
tsumu
simp
Just what kind of nutcase had Mage gotten himself mixed up with? He certainly respected magic users, but he’d never met one who could speak to the dead. Was Arius one of those… necromancer types Mage had only heard of in stories? His mentor had told him that they were always wrong in the head, and strongly discouraged Mage learning any sort of necromancy spells. Arius did look the part, he supposed, dressed in all black and gold jewelry like some sort of shaman.
Mage shuffled a few steps back as Arius brought his hands up, moving them towards the bodies on the bed. His brow furrowed just a bit in concentration as his fingers hovered above the forehead of the man on the bed, and Mage watched with horrified fascination as a very faint greenish glow began to emanate from Arius’ eyes. The room was dead silent while Arius concentrated on the spell, until Arius spoke a very unsure “hello?”, his voice a pitch lower and sounding as if there was… a second one behind it. There was more silence, until a minute later, he abruptly dropped the spell.
“They’re not talking to me?” he questioned aloud, clearly puzzled. Mage narrowed his eyes. That had been extremely creepy.
“It usually works! I guess they’re not not willing to speak to me,” sighed Arius. Either Arius was a delusional magician, or something was actually off here. What was so special about these corpses that they wouldn’t want to speak to a necromancer? Was it a matter of the people’s personalities? It could just be that the man had been a stickler in life and really didn’t feel like conversing...
“Try the woman,” Mage instructed gruffly, and Arius turned to look at him. “Don’t boss me around, I was gonna,” he said, some mirth in his voice despite the circumstances. He shuffled around the bed for better access to her, and repeated the same process, complete with the same uncertain “hello?”, holding it only a bit longer. It seemed as if Arius had gotten the same result; he dropped the spell, the green glow vanishing in a wisp from around his eyes.
“Hmm,” was all he said, and promptly began frantically muttering to himself as he took a second go at inspecting the bodies, and the space around them.
Mage was thoroughly freaked out. Arius’ spell had been bone-chilling enough, but neither the man nor woman was willing to communicate with them. Why? Or was it that Arius’ spellcasting ability was dogshit?
Swallowing his nausea, fear, and common sense, Mage took a couple steps towards the man on the bed, hand weakly outstretched. Necromancy spells worked on the dead. Breath shaky, he placed four fingers on the man’s forehead, and very carefully peeled back the eyelid of his right eye with his thumb. The air was promptly squished out of his lungs.
“What the fuck?” he wheezed, ripping his hand from the man’s skin like it was a hot skillet. Arius was looking at him with owlish eyes. “What? What? What is it?” he asked, voice on the verge of excitement.
The feeling of the man’s disgusting, fragile, squishy skin lingered on his fingertips, and Mage’s stomach began to rebel. He looked around frantically for some sort of receptacle, but he could see none. He settled for emptying his stomach contents in the corner of the room, the image of the man’s eye burned into his mind as he did so.
He could hear Arius scoff a little sound of laughter. How fucking dare this guy, really! Mage stayed in the corner for a few moments after he finished, spitting and willing the taste of bile out of his mouth.
“Fuckwad, his eye isn’t dead. S’ not bloodshot at all, and his pupil isn’t dilated,” he spat venom at Arius, not turning to face him for fear that he looked utterly disheveled.
“But they look dead. Do they look like they are breathing to you?” Arius retorted incredulously, voice as light and amused as ever.
“Have you ever seen a dead person with crystal clear eyes, idiot?” Mage stood from his squatting position, and flashed Arius a terrible grimace.
“Oh? Why don’t you try talking to them then?” Arius retorted, clearly unconvinced by Mage’s theory.
“Ew… no thanks. I was taught that necromancers are fucked in the head,” he muttered, a bit unsatisfied at the bored look Arius gave him.
"Can you be more original? I've heard all that before," said Arius, and Mage just frowned. Serves him right for messing with things that should be beyond a mortal persons' control.
Mage brushed past Arius and out of the bedroom, feeling as if he’d seen enough. He was a little bit curious as to whether or not other infected people in the town had fallen the same fate as the couple in the general store, but another part of him wanted to leave, bounty be damned. It was more in his interest if he stayed… he’d get some neat potion materials, money, but he might also end up with some closure.
Cealen
★彡
Arius didn’t know why he was getting so hopeful that a clearly necromantic in nature spell would get a good reception. Maybe if it worked actually, Mage would have been impressed with it. Yet here he was, standing in the room now alone, with a visible look of annoyance on his face now. Ugh, running off again after embarrassing himself, now with the added bonus of insulting Arius on the way out? He brushed it off before, but it didn’t change the fact that Arius was truly annoyed at him. How was he going to defeat a monster when everything he does is going to get criticized? Or be toooo scary for Mage to deal with? Arius would have loved if he at least attempted to clean up after himself.
This was truly a common thing. Arius is used to it. But he was expected to work with someone in this situation. A bit hard when your monster-hunting partner gets scared at every little thing regarding death and just parrots the thoughts of others. Isn't it natural for him to feel more annoyed in this instance? Maybe annoyed isn't the right word, more just… frustrated. This was bound to happen, wasn’t it? And there’s nothing Arius can do. He doesn’t get it, but he does at the same time. People dislike people who practice a totally normal form of magic because it deals with dead things. People who can create explosions using only their hands and their minds aren’t dangerous, only Arius is because he is able to bring back things that are half-rotted (or in some cases, completely rotten) and are under his complete control! Aughhh. As much as he would like to defend what he does, he doubts Mage would really listen. It’s a worthless endeavor. As it always is.
Arius’s eyes drifted over to the bodies once more. Hmm… if what Mage was saying was true, that would be a concerning thing, eyes not being “dead”. He checked the man, right? Walking over casually to the side of the man, he leaned over and gently pushed up one of the eyelids, not wanting to accidentally tear what looked to be weak skin. Ew… it felt as mushy as it looked. Well, Mage did see right, that’s for sure. The eye was as clear as day, not bloodshot whatsoever. If you were to look at this eye sans-body, it would look like it came out of a living person. Huh. Eeugh… it almost feels like the eye is staring right through Arius, even this made him uncomfortable. Maybe Mage’s reaction was an overreaction, but he can kind of get what made him spooked. Here he was thinking how funny it was earlier! Ok, it was still a little.
Arius quickly followed up by checking the other eye, to be sure. Same normal-looking eye. Arius scratched his head with the hand he wasn’t using to pry open the eyelid. This is the only really strange “alive” thing he noticed about the man though. How was Mage so sure he was really alive? Just because Arius couldn’t get them to answer him when he called them? He moved his hand away from the body with a sigh, wiping his hands on his robe in an effort to get rid of that mushy feeling. He looked over at the woman, wondering if she had the same thing with her too. Wouldn’t hurt to check…
“Same thing…” Arius murmured to himself as he looked. These people are definitely dead. Arius would have felt the blood pumping in their face underneath his fingertips if they had any sort of blood pumping through them. They felt cold. Freezing. They’ve been dead for a while. So, how are the eyes…? It’s not like they died recently… Arius cursed under his breath for these people not wanting to talk to him. And making him look like an idiot! In an effort to prove them wrong, he quickly held out his hands over the woman once again, concentrating once again, seeing the green edge at his vision once again, and speaking in that tone his voice took on in this state once again, to nothing. He ended the spell abruptly, lowering his hands swiftly and letting them thud against his sides in frustration, dealing with how the sudden cancelation of the spell making his vision go blurry for a good minute in annoyance. He can’t really force them to talk to him, he knows that, but why? Don’t they want this monster stopped? Spirits are way too finicky to deal with, he swears.
He couldn’t feel any signs of necromancy being used on these corpses before. If they weren’t dead but weren’t alive, the logical conclusion would be that they were undead. Arius has made plenty of undead creations in his lifetime, and these looked... different. He couldn’t tell if that was due to the sickness or that they were people who were revived by not using necromancy, but other means. How, though? It was well known that was the way to revive things- necromancy. Of course, people were discouraged to not use it, but it still was how you revived things. Arius would always find it funny when necromancy got hit with the “unnatural” label. Nothing that people do is natural. These corpses though deserve the “unnatural” label. Maybe the sickness is unnatural…? But, if it’s unnatural, how does it exist? Too much philosophical questioning for Arius. He should get Mage, he guessed. If Mage wants to even talk to a super scary necromancer anymore. It would be something they can start with, that’s a lot more plausible than these people just being “alive”. He still had his doubts with this whole thing, basing it off of one spell he did, but he’ll play along with it for now. Ugh, how he hated not knowing!
The air outside felt nice on Arius’ skin, though the scenery outside was still not comforting to look at. Everywhere looked like the state of the shop even outside. The sun was high in the sky now- looked to be about noon. They’ve been at this for a while, haven’t they… yet it was still so quiet. It was more unsettling when it was daytime and no one was out. Arius could imagine this being a popular part of Marren- there looked to be a lot of shops like the one they were just in around this area, yet, it was empty… Arius couldn’t help but wonder if there were any more people inside the buildings they passed by. There was still that buzzing feeling within himself that was indicating a high magic concentration hanging around. The monster must have covered a large area…
He spotted Mage nearby. At least he didn’t run away from him or something. Arius went up to him, annoyance seemingly gone from him. He was too distracted by his curiosity to be really that annoyed at Mage anymore. “Hmmmm. I’m going with the definition that those people are “undead”, personally. I don’t think they’re alive, but you are right that it’s kinda strange with the whole eye thing… I thought you were exaggerating, because you only looked at the eye for like what, half a second? But, I don’t get how they are undead though…” Arius went into a thinking pose, crossing his arms and looking around the general area. “I still don’t believe they are alive, and that they are just unwilling to talk to me for some reason. Trying to explain the behavior of spirits is impossible, I tell you. They might not want to tell us stuff in an effort to make us go away. Or in other words, not try to fight the monster. But we’re still gonna look around and figure this out together, riggghhtt?” Arius was totally not trying to nudge Mage in the direction he wanted him to go in.
It looked like Mage was nearly not as unannoyed as Arius was currently. “I suppose we should…” He muttered, clearly still being annoyed at Arius. Oh well! Arius went and paraded off into another direction, heading further into Marren, ignoring Mage asking him where he was going. If he was so curious, he’d follow him!
This was truly a common thing. Arius is used to it. But he was expected to work with someone in this situation. A bit hard when your monster-hunting partner gets scared at every little thing regarding death and just parrots the thoughts of others. Isn't it natural for him to feel more annoyed in this instance? Maybe annoyed isn't the right word, more just… frustrated. This was bound to happen, wasn’t it? And there’s nothing Arius can do. He doesn’t get it, but he does at the same time. People dislike people who practice a totally normal form of magic because it deals with dead things. People who can create explosions using only their hands and their minds aren’t dangerous, only Arius is because he is able to bring back things that are half-rotted (or in some cases, completely rotten) and are under his complete control! Aughhh. As much as he would like to defend what he does, he doubts Mage would really listen. It’s a worthless endeavor. As it always is.
Arius’s eyes drifted over to the bodies once more. Hmm… if what Mage was saying was true, that would be a concerning thing, eyes not being “dead”. He checked the man, right? Walking over casually to the side of the man, he leaned over and gently pushed up one of the eyelids, not wanting to accidentally tear what looked to be weak skin. Ew… it felt as mushy as it looked. Well, Mage did see right, that’s for sure. The eye was as clear as day, not bloodshot whatsoever. If you were to look at this eye sans-body, it would look like it came out of a living person. Huh. Eeugh… it almost feels like the eye is staring right through Arius, even this made him uncomfortable. Maybe Mage’s reaction was an overreaction, but he can kind of get what made him spooked. Here he was thinking how funny it was earlier! Ok, it was still a little.
Arius quickly followed up by checking the other eye, to be sure. Same normal-looking eye. Arius scratched his head with the hand he wasn’t using to pry open the eyelid. This is the only really strange “alive” thing he noticed about the man though. How was Mage so sure he was really alive? Just because Arius couldn’t get them to answer him when he called them? He moved his hand away from the body with a sigh, wiping his hands on his robe in an effort to get rid of that mushy feeling. He looked over at the woman, wondering if she had the same thing with her too. Wouldn’t hurt to check…
“Same thing…” Arius murmured to himself as he looked. These people are definitely dead. Arius would have felt the blood pumping in their face underneath his fingertips if they had any sort of blood pumping through them. They felt cold. Freezing. They’ve been dead for a while. So, how are the eyes…? It’s not like they died recently… Arius cursed under his breath for these people not wanting to talk to him. And making him look like an idiot! In an effort to prove them wrong, he quickly held out his hands over the woman once again, concentrating once again, seeing the green edge at his vision once again, and speaking in that tone his voice took on in this state once again, to nothing. He ended the spell abruptly, lowering his hands swiftly and letting them thud against his sides in frustration, dealing with how the sudden cancelation of the spell making his vision go blurry for a good minute in annoyance. He can’t really force them to talk to him, he knows that, but why? Don’t they want this monster stopped? Spirits are way too finicky to deal with, he swears.
He couldn’t feel any signs of necromancy being used on these corpses before. If they weren’t dead but weren’t alive, the logical conclusion would be that they were undead. Arius has made plenty of undead creations in his lifetime, and these looked... different. He couldn’t tell if that was due to the sickness or that they were people who were revived by not using necromancy, but other means. How, though? It was well known that was the way to revive things- necromancy. Of course, people were discouraged to not use it, but it still was how you revived things. Arius would always find it funny when necromancy got hit with the “unnatural” label. Nothing that people do is natural. These corpses though deserve the “unnatural” label. Maybe the sickness is unnatural…? But, if it’s unnatural, how does it exist? Too much philosophical questioning for Arius. He should get Mage, he guessed. If Mage wants to even talk to a super scary necromancer anymore. It would be something they can start with, that’s a lot more plausible than these people just being “alive”. He still had his doubts with this whole thing, basing it off of one spell he did, but he’ll play along with it for now. Ugh, how he hated not knowing!
The air outside felt nice on Arius’ skin, though the scenery outside was still not comforting to look at. Everywhere looked like the state of the shop even outside. The sun was high in the sky now- looked to be about noon. They’ve been at this for a while, haven’t they… yet it was still so quiet. It was more unsettling when it was daytime and no one was out. Arius could imagine this being a popular part of Marren- there looked to be a lot of shops like the one they were just in around this area, yet, it was empty… Arius couldn’t help but wonder if there were any more people inside the buildings they passed by. There was still that buzzing feeling within himself that was indicating a high magic concentration hanging around. The monster must have covered a large area…
He spotted Mage nearby. At least he didn’t run away from him or something. Arius went up to him, annoyance seemingly gone from him. He was too distracted by his curiosity to be really that annoyed at Mage anymore. “Hmmmm. I’m going with the definition that those people are “undead”, personally. I don’t think they’re alive, but you are right that it’s kinda strange with the whole eye thing… I thought you were exaggerating, because you only looked at the eye for like what, half a second? But, I don’t get how they are undead though…” Arius went into a thinking pose, crossing his arms and looking around the general area. “I still don’t believe they are alive, and that they are just unwilling to talk to me for some reason. Trying to explain the behavior of spirits is impossible, I tell you. They might not want to tell us stuff in an effort to make us go away. Or in other words, not try to fight the monster. But we’re still gonna look around and figure this out together, riggghhtt?” Arius was totally not trying to nudge Mage in the direction he wanted him to go in.
It looked like Mage was nearly not as unannoyed as Arius was currently. “I suppose we should…” He muttered, clearly still being annoyed at Arius. Oh well! Arius went and paraded off into another direction, heading further into Marren, ignoring Mage asking him where he was going. If he was so curious, he’d follow him!
tsumu
simp
Against his better judgement, Mage followed Arius. What a fool he was, pursuing the bounty after discovering that it had an odd connection to the illness that’d stricken his family many years prior-- with a necromancer nonetheless! He could practically see his old mentor rolling in his grave. Still, he felt a sense of duty for some reason… And Arius, rather than put him off, was serving to be more of an inspiration. Well… “inspiration”. It was more like Mage wanted to prove to the creepy guy that he was more than just someone who vomited on the floor and never stopped grimacing around (supposedly) dead people.
He was resolutely silent as they walked, although Arius occasionally filled the space between them with chatter and speculation. Mage listened, but never responded with more than a grunt-- not specifically to be an asshole, he simply was not a huge talker, and Arius didn’t outwardly seem to mind. He was comfortable with silences, and usually couldn't stand people who never shut up…
Marren seemed to be a shred of its former self. It felt peculiar traipsing through uninhabited streets that had once been bustling and chock full of people heading to and fro, selling wares, enjoying the sunshine. Now, it was only him and Arius, Mage walking with a javelin at his side while his companion strolled through the streets like they were in a nice community park, jewelry jingling obnoxiously with every swing of his arms. Clearly, he was unperturbed.
As they ventured further into the town, the buildings grew crowded, larger, and more upscale. There were less ruins, but the streets were still empty, and Mage seldom heard a sound coming from within the homes. He voiced this to Arius, saying briefly and gruffly, “There’s still hardly anyone.”
“Don’t be so impatient,” Arius chided him, and Mage narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t being impatient… not really…
It was only after they’d been walking for around a whole hour that the smallest of sounds made itself known to Mage.
“Hmm?” he said aloud, lifting his head from its downturned position to look around. He could feel his ears twitch as he strained to hear more.
He did not make Arius stop walking so he could listen, and in fact, the sound grew steadily easier to pick up as they continued on. It was simply the soft pitter-patter of human footsteps, the sound Mage was used to hearing every day as people streamed past his workspace in the daytime.
“Arius,” he murmured, turning his face but not his eyes.
“We are coming up on some people.”
Arius immediately brightened, his posture improving and his step quickening. Mage appreciated his enthusiasm (a little bit) but he was unsure how they should go about speaking with the people of Marren. Would it be best to warn them of what they saw, or keep quiet? Should they interrogate someone for what they knew , or keep quiet about the fact that they were monster hunters?
He didn’t get much of a chance to mull it over, as Arius was hurrying it up, heading straight for what Mage could only assume was the main town square.
“Uh, so what should we say to them?” he asked hesitantly as they grew closer and closer to the source of the noises.
“Well probably what we’re doing here!” Arius suggested immediately, and mage almost found it funny.
“Yeah, that may be a good place to start,” he conceded, “and we should also ask if they know anything about the monster.”
Upon entering the town square, for the first time since the previous evening, Mage laid eyes on some people-- they were not happy looking people, there was not many of them, and they were rushing about, but they were there, and alive so Mage breathed a little easier. He turned to Arius to discuss who they should approach, but when he looked to his left, Arius was not there.
He panicked for just a split second, and whipped his head around to scan the area, searching for a dark, tall figure. He was easy to find, though, he’d just managed to evade Mage’s detection while he slipped away to the left, and was currently making a beeline to a man outside of his house who was seemingly getting ready to board his windows.
Mage was quick to follow, breaking into an awkward jog to catch up with Arius before he said anything to the man without Mage there. The man looked up suddenly upon hearing two sets of footsteps approach him, and a fearful look immediately painted his features. Ooh, Mage should’ve expected that.
Cealen
★彡
Although he didn’t show it, Arius was relieved to have seen even some form of life in Marren. It was getting him nervous seeing how empty the rest of Marren was. If the monster had already done its work on everyone in Marren… his job would have been a failure. Of course, he’ll still go and stop the monster, but if everyone had already perished underneath it… it wouldn't feel much like a “victory”, really. So seeing the gazes of the rattled people pass by him as he quickly walked felt like the first good thing that they have encountered in Marren ever. He knew they were looking at him with a “who is this strange man” look, but Arius didn’t care.
Marren definitely didn’t look like a normal, peaceful, town, though. A lot of the stores were closed, with warnings that one of their family members had contracted the sickness and needed to be taken care of. There was a distinct lack of people in the main square for a sunny afternoon, with no children even running around playing at all. The silence in the other parts of Marren persisted here, but at least there were the heavy footsteps and mumbled grumblings of other people around that made all the difference. It seemed like the people of Marren were preparing for the worst. Arius’ attention fell on a man who was boarding up what seemed to be his house. “Hey, Mage, let’s go talk to him-“ Arius turned his head to look at Mage, only to see a lack of the tiefling next to him. Huh? Why wasn’t he keeping up with him? Did Arius get that excited over seeing people that he ran off that quickly?
“Uh… who are you people?” Arius’s attention was grabbed once again by the man in front of him, who was looking at him with a scared, distrustful look. Just like Mage looked at him when he first saw him. Guess this is typical… Arius felt the presence of someone beside him once again, and he assumed it was Mage.
“We’re adventurers!” Arius stated gleefully. “We’re here because we both heard about what’s happening in Marren. We wanted to see if we could do anything about the monster.” The man looked at him with a look of doubt immediately.
“Both of you… sigh.” He sounded like he had already given up any hope of them being able to actually do anything. “You should just leave immediately… there’s no hope for Marren. We’ve had plenty of people come and say they’ll deal with the monster only to end up dead. You can’t do anything to stop it. Didn't you see what it did to the buildings on the outskirts of town…? Especially... you people don’t look like you’ll actually do anything of worth.” Wow, that “you people” sure was spoken with a tone of disdain, even though they said they were both here to help. The man seemed a little warier of Arius though… was it something he’s doing…?
“Well, the monster…” Arius trailed off, glancing over at Mage to see if he should mention the fact that the monster didn’t exactly… do all that damage. Maybe it would show that they are trustworthy!
“The monster… isn’t exactly a large, savage beast, like we previously thought.” Mage started, and Arius felt happy that Mage was doing some explanation himself. “We investigated outside of town, and we believe-“ Mage was cut off right away by the man, who seemed like Mage… offended him…?
“Huh? Do you think you know more than we do?! We have seen how the monster has destroyed our town…! And you’re saying someone like you knows better than us?” Oh… this doesn’t look so good. If Arius had to guess, the man was only a moment away from insulting Mage a lot more than he already implied with that “you”. Way to make Mage feel ”othered”... and for what purpose?
“No, no, the monster is definitely still a threat. It’s just that there’s more to it-“ Arius tried to put in to help out Mage, but the man just looked at him with a look of disdain in his eyes.
“I’m not listening to a necromancer. I can tell, you know. You reek of using that kind of magic.” He spat. Oh, he must be a wizard, as well… Arius felt a flash of annoyance run through him. He’s just trying to… ugh, there’s no point. This is the same reaction he gets to everyone he meets. You would think magic users would understand him more, but they more or less see him as “ruining” magic for everyone. “You… probably want us all dead, don’t you? You want us all to get killed by the monster…! So you could use your fucked up magic… that’s why you’re lying to me…! How am I supposed to believe that the monster isn’t just some beast? I won’t believe people like you!” Arius… couldn’t exactly be mad. The man just sounded extremely paranoid and was just jumping to conclusions. But… Arius cannot stand willful ignorance like this. He’s refusing to listen to Arius because he’s a necromancer and accusing him of wanting them all dead or something. Arius is against murder, mind you.
“It’s just a theory. I assure you we are simply here to help.” Mage stated, and Arius could hear annoyance also creeping into his voice. “How do you think the monster operates, then…? We want to have as much information as possible.”
The man looked even more frazzled. “I know the monster is dangerous!! And it is going to kill us all at this rate! We don’t need a necromancer and tiefling to “help” us… we’ll be worse off with you two “helping”! And you two act like it’s not dangerous… go ahead and get killed by the monster if you do want to “help” us. The world will be better off without you two, I promise you.” The man spat, before storming into his house, slamming the door behind him. Seems like the man is too convinced of his own beliefs and is too paranoid to listen to them whatsoever. Arius huffed out loudly.
“That could have gone better. But, we still need to help.” Arius turned to Mage, sounding slightly upset. Ugh, even if he’s used to it, it’s always the same. Arius supposedly is a mass murderer for being a necromancer… he already has a big enough supply, why does he need to harm other people? People fear death, he gets it, but why fear him and what he does? “We should go ask around more, I think… maybe someone would actually want to talk to us. Let’s go!” Arius ran off almost immediately, not letting the man get him down.
Marren definitely didn’t look like a normal, peaceful, town, though. A lot of the stores were closed, with warnings that one of their family members had contracted the sickness and needed to be taken care of. There was a distinct lack of people in the main square for a sunny afternoon, with no children even running around playing at all. The silence in the other parts of Marren persisted here, but at least there were the heavy footsteps and mumbled grumblings of other people around that made all the difference. It seemed like the people of Marren were preparing for the worst. Arius’ attention fell on a man who was boarding up what seemed to be his house. “Hey, Mage, let’s go talk to him-“ Arius turned his head to look at Mage, only to see a lack of the tiefling next to him. Huh? Why wasn’t he keeping up with him? Did Arius get that excited over seeing people that he ran off that quickly?
“Uh… who are you people?” Arius’s attention was grabbed once again by the man in front of him, who was looking at him with a scared, distrustful look. Just like Mage looked at him when he first saw him. Guess this is typical… Arius felt the presence of someone beside him once again, and he assumed it was Mage.
“We’re adventurers!” Arius stated gleefully. “We’re here because we both heard about what’s happening in Marren. We wanted to see if we could do anything about the monster.” The man looked at him with a look of doubt immediately.
“Both of you… sigh.” He sounded like he had already given up any hope of them being able to actually do anything. “You should just leave immediately… there’s no hope for Marren. We’ve had plenty of people come and say they’ll deal with the monster only to end up dead. You can’t do anything to stop it. Didn't you see what it did to the buildings on the outskirts of town…? Especially... you people don’t look like you’ll actually do anything of worth.” Wow, that “you people” sure was spoken with a tone of disdain, even though they said they were both here to help. The man seemed a little warier of Arius though… was it something he’s doing…?
“Well, the monster…” Arius trailed off, glancing over at Mage to see if he should mention the fact that the monster didn’t exactly… do all that damage. Maybe it would show that they are trustworthy!
“The monster… isn’t exactly a large, savage beast, like we previously thought.” Mage started, and Arius felt happy that Mage was doing some explanation himself. “We investigated outside of town, and we believe-“ Mage was cut off right away by the man, who seemed like Mage… offended him…?
“Huh? Do you think you know more than we do?! We have seen how the monster has destroyed our town…! And you’re saying someone like you knows better than us?” Oh… this doesn’t look so good. If Arius had to guess, the man was only a moment away from insulting Mage a lot more than he already implied with that “you”. Way to make Mage feel ”othered”... and for what purpose?
“No, no, the monster is definitely still a threat. It’s just that there’s more to it-“ Arius tried to put in to help out Mage, but the man just looked at him with a look of disdain in his eyes.
“I’m not listening to a necromancer. I can tell, you know. You reek of using that kind of magic.” He spat. Oh, he must be a wizard, as well… Arius felt a flash of annoyance run through him. He’s just trying to… ugh, there’s no point. This is the same reaction he gets to everyone he meets. You would think magic users would understand him more, but they more or less see him as “ruining” magic for everyone. “You… probably want us all dead, don’t you? You want us all to get killed by the monster…! So you could use your fucked up magic… that’s why you’re lying to me…! How am I supposed to believe that the monster isn’t just some beast? I won’t believe people like you!” Arius… couldn’t exactly be mad. The man just sounded extremely paranoid and was just jumping to conclusions. But… Arius cannot stand willful ignorance like this. He’s refusing to listen to Arius because he’s a necromancer and accusing him of wanting them all dead or something. Arius is against murder, mind you.
“It’s just a theory. I assure you we are simply here to help.” Mage stated, and Arius could hear annoyance also creeping into his voice. “How do you think the monster operates, then…? We want to have as much information as possible.”
The man looked even more frazzled. “I know the monster is dangerous!! And it is going to kill us all at this rate! We don’t need a necromancer and tiefling to “help” us… we’ll be worse off with you two “helping”! And you two act like it’s not dangerous… go ahead and get killed by the monster if you do want to “help” us. The world will be better off without you two, I promise you.” The man spat, before storming into his house, slamming the door behind him. Seems like the man is too convinced of his own beliefs and is too paranoid to listen to them whatsoever. Arius huffed out loudly.
“That could have gone better. But, we still need to help.” Arius turned to Mage, sounding slightly upset. Ugh, even if he’s used to it, it’s always the same. Arius supposedly is a mass murderer for being a necromancer… he already has a big enough supply, why does he need to harm other people? People fear death, he gets it, but why fear him and what he does? “We should go ask around more, I think… maybe someone would actually want to talk to us. Let’s go!” Arius ran off almost immediately, not letting the man get him down.
tsumu
simp
Mage was not typically quick to anger. He had a naturally level head when it came to most things, and especially when dealing with people. Even still, he felt exasperated as he and Arius had a door slammed on them. A sneer made its way onto his face, and he also considered spitting at the ground in front of the door, but he held himself back (just barely). How dare that man lump him and Arius together? He believed tieflings and necromancers to be of the same disdainful caliber? It made rage momentarily burn in his heart.
But he didn’t have much of a chance to think before Arius was running off again, shouting about how someone would probably be willing to talk to them. Sighing heavily, Mage took off after him at a comfortable jog, and after catching up to him, grabbed his shoulder firmly.
He didn’t say anything right away, but he was looking around, surveying the area around them. There were a couple of options-- a distressed woman holding a child, a gruff-looking man carrying a couple of wooden planks on his shoulder, two teens walking at a quick pace, and an elderly woman hobbling along with a sturdy cane.
“Hmm,” he pondered aloud to Arius, “do you think they’d be willing to talk?” he asked in a low voice, gesturing towards the pair of teenagers.
“Yeah, younger people might be more willing to talk so let’s try that,” Arius agreed, and so Mage let go of his shoulder and set off towards their new targets.
They were a bit hard to catch up to, but he and Arius managed, and Mage caught their attention with a polite, “‘Scuse me?”
They both whipped around, allowing Mage to see their faces clearly-- they seemed to be unrelated to each other, with one boasting darker hair and tanner skin than their friend, whose hair was shockingly light and skin as pale as a small flame.
“Sorry to bother you,” he said in a placating voice, and the two stalled to a stop, postures stiff.
“We’re here from Prord, we’re going to kill the beast,” Mage told them, “can you tell us what you know about it?”
The two shared a tentative look, and Mage really hoped they weren’t planning on bolting.
“You can’t kill it,” the dark-haired boy said, voice a tad dubious. Mage’s brow furrowed.
“Why do you say that?” he asked cordially, and once again, the teens looked at each other, but this time they were confused.
“You can’t kill something nobody’s ever seen,” he snorted.
“Well!” Arius piped in, “we can try and draw it out with the infected people!” Mage’s eyes widened just a smidge. He wasn’t sure how that would go over.
The two teenagers wore looks of disgust. “I guess,” the light-haired one said, but it was the kind of “I guess” that strongly suggested they did not believe it would work in the slightest.
“Do you need anything else? We’re trying to get home,” said the other boy in an impatient tone, and Mage held out a hand.
“Yes, please. Could you describe some of the… things it does?” Mage asked, and the teenagers once again made faces.
“Didn’t the guild already tell you, or whatever?”
“Sure, but I want to hear it from someone with firsthand experience.”
They no longer looked annoyed but perturbed.
“Well…” the light-haired boy began, “it makes a bunch of noise at night. Everyone says that you shouldn’t ever, ever go out at night, and everyone’s barring their windows,” he gestured to a couple of men and women working outside their houses to nail boards over the windows.
“It messes things up, like buildings and stalls and trees, like it’s slowly trying to tear the place down,” he concluded and looked to his friend as if to ask if he’d missed anything.
“S’ never directly attacked anyone, I don’t think,” the dark-haired boy continued, “if it has, nobody’s heard about it. But everyone’s getting fucking sick, so they’re avoiding each other.”
Mage nodded sagely, appreciative of the information they’d been given. It further solidified their theory-- of course, the town is getting destroyed slowly, because it’s not one large beast that’s doing it, it’s a bunch of ill people.
“Thank you guys,” Mage bowed his head, “we will do our best.” He’d purposefully omitted the information he and Arius had learned-- they were young, and already seemingly scared shitless, and he didn’t want to make their days worse by telling them that their own people were the monsters.
Before they took off, Mage swung his bag around to his hip so he could dig out some of the flavored drinks he’d swiped from the shop. He held two out to the teenagers, who took them, albeit warily.
“Thanks,” the blonde said awkwardly, and after another beat, “good luck. Or whatever.”
“Oh! We really think you should leave. Leave town, if you can. You could go to Prord, or Vail, or literally anywhere but here,” Mage advised them seriously,
“But we live here. And you’re gonna kill it right? So it’ll be fine,” the darker-haired one said, and Mage couldn’t tell if he was mocking them, or if he genuinely believed what he said.
Then, he turned to his friend, and they set off at the same time.
Mage let out a deep breath.
“Well. Better than getting death wished upon us,” he shrugged to Arius.
“So what do we do now? Doesn’t seem like anybody knows much more about the thing than we do. If you’re gonna use sick people to draw it out, shouldn’t we wait til’ night? Y’know, so nobody sees you dragging corpses out of their houses…”
Cealen
★彡
Young people are always a lot more open-minded, aren’t they? Arius felt relieved that the two teenagers were a lot more willing to actually help them. Even though they seemed like they disliked the one thing that Arius said. Whaaat? It’s a good plan! And now with the information they got, it even sounded like it really was the people that were destroying the town. It was the only explanation for the strange, methodical way the town was getting destroyed, and Arius wanted to get to the bottom of it before the part of town they were currently standing in got affected too. He’s surprised that people didn’t up and leave, seeing how at this rate the entirety of Marren will be destroyed, but he guesses people kind of just… have an attachment to this place. Even Arius had to admit when he left home he missed the place a lot. People don’t want to just run away and give up their home, hence why Mage trying to convince them to go to Prord failed. Even if it seems hopeless. Arius couldn’t feel mad at them for their stubborn refusal to leave.
“That did go well! Yaaaay!” Arius grinned, turning his attention to Mage. “Even though… thinking about it, wasn’t that just reinforcement of what we previously thought, not any new information? Oh, well. I’m 100% convinced that it’s the sick people we should be giving attention to even more now. Even though they didn’t like that plan, those teenagers, you do, right? Doesn't it make sense?!” Arius’ pride in his deduction skills was showing off in his words. “We definitely should go do that during the night. Not for the reason you said, though. People would understand why I'm dragging out corpses if I explain why I’m doing that, right? The monster is only active at night, they said it too, those teenagers. And it lines up with what I saw… err, heard... when I was camping out during the night. So, if we want to draw out the monster, doing it at night makes more sense, no?”
“Um... hmm… well, I can’t say I'm excited to use someone’s grandma or whatever as bait. But it’s not the worst idea you’ve had.” Mage seemed resigned to this plan. Obviously, because he can’t argue against it! “Yeah, let’s wait until tonight. You said you had a… camp?”
“Whaaaaat? You want them to go and be used by the monster or whatever it’s doing to them instead? I feel like even if we didn’t use them as bait, the monster would still do something to them…” Arius sighed. “But, yeah, don’t you remember me telling you I stayed overnight watching this place from afar? I haven’t slept in 24 hours and YOU’RE the one to forget! Hmph. But, yes, I do have a camp! We can go over there if you want since I don’t think we’re going to get an inn room here. Used to that already, but I think the added complication of a monster attacking the town will mean no inn room for us.”
Mage gave a grimace at hearing about Arius’ bad sleeping habits. It’s not his fault he got too excited at the prospect of finding out more about the monster he forgot to sleep! “24 hours… you should go get some rest, then. Let’s go there until nightfall, since talking to people amounts to jack shit.” Arius couldn’t argue with him on that one. It seems like people were scaring themselves into ignorance here. Typical. Arius nodded his head and turned around to walk the way he came into the town. Going back the way you came is shockingly an easy method for getting back home.
Arius’s head felt filled with possibilities of what could happen at nightfall. If the plan worked, would they actually see the titular monster? Or would they just see the effects the monster is placing on the sick people? The monster definitely is magical based, so it could be attacking Marren from even afar if its magic is that strong… this magic didn't feel like magic people weld though. It was a lot rawer, and it made Arius feel… uncomfortable around it. It wasn’t that bad when walking in the town’s streets, but when he was next to those bodies… ugh, he felt uncomfortable. He thought it was just frustration of his magic not working making him feel uncomfortable in there, but the more he thought about the fact that he didn’t feel any traces of necromantic magic on the bodies despite them being “undead” was making him more concerned. What exactly were they actually dealing with? Arius felt curious. He needed to figure this out. But he couldn’t deny that he was getting a little worried about this all. Well, he can't back down now! Especially with the people of Marren needing this thing stopped more than anything!
“Hey, Mage.” Arius piped up after quite a bit of quiet walking through Marren’s streets. “What do you think this monster even is? It's not a typical monster, that’s for sure… and I never heard about a monster spreading sickness then making those sick people attack a town. Also… I really do think this thing isn’t going down without a fight. I think you know how I fight already. What about you? You just throw javelins at stuff?”
"I have no idea what this is. if it was a dragon, this entire place would be in shambles, if it was a howler, there'd be far more dead, and people would've seen it. I hate going in blind..." Mage seemed annoyed at the mystery of the monster as much as he did. He then gave some weird look that Arius couldn’t figure out. People are too confusing… “Yeah, I throw javelins at stuff, among other shit. They all have magic in them though. Got a couple of molotovs, potions, magic blades, y'know." He uses magic items, but seems pretty freaked out by Arius’ own magic even though it’s a totally normal school of magic… he can never work with these kinds of people!
Arius thought a bit for a second. “Well, it’s a good thing you can fight too, it seems like then! I guess that’s why you’re called “Mage”, huh?” Arius still did not believe that was his actual name. “But, hmm… I don’t like the idea of going in blind either. So, uh, maybe tonight we should just bait the monster out and just kind of… attempt to watch it? I know, we really need to stop it, but understanding the monster more seems smart, doesn’t it? Of course, if it catches us, we’ll have to fight, but I don’t think observing it for tonight and then coming back tomorrow night with a plan to fight it would be too problematic, right?” As much as Arius wanted this thing gone, he couldn’t help but feel a bit worried about just charging in like this.
"Huh," Mage started, then paused."Now that is the best idea you've had so far. In this case, I’d also prefer to be safe rather than sorry. Not worth dying for some potion materials.” Way to boost Arius’ ego!
“All my ideas are good, don’t you see?!” Arius grinned.
“That did go well! Yaaaay!” Arius grinned, turning his attention to Mage. “Even though… thinking about it, wasn’t that just reinforcement of what we previously thought, not any new information? Oh, well. I’m 100% convinced that it’s the sick people we should be giving attention to even more now. Even though they didn’t like that plan, those teenagers, you do, right? Doesn't it make sense?!” Arius’ pride in his deduction skills was showing off in his words. “We definitely should go do that during the night. Not for the reason you said, though. People would understand why I'm dragging out corpses if I explain why I’m doing that, right? The monster is only active at night, they said it too, those teenagers. And it lines up with what I saw… err, heard... when I was camping out during the night. So, if we want to draw out the monster, doing it at night makes more sense, no?”
“Um... hmm… well, I can’t say I'm excited to use someone’s grandma or whatever as bait. But it’s not the worst idea you’ve had.” Mage seemed resigned to this plan. Obviously, because he can’t argue against it! “Yeah, let’s wait until tonight. You said you had a… camp?”
“Whaaaaat? You want them to go and be used by the monster or whatever it’s doing to them instead? I feel like even if we didn’t use them as bait, the monster would still do something to them…” Arius sighed. “But, yeah, don’t you remember me telling you I stayed overnight watching this place from afar? I haven’t slept in 24 hours and YOU’RE the one to forget! Hmph. But, yes, I do have a camp! We can go over there if you want since I don’t think we’re going to get an inn room here. Used to that already, but I think the added complication of a monster attacking the town will mean no inn room for us.”
Mage gave a grimace at hearing about Arius’ bad sleeping habits. It’s not his fault he got too excited at the prospect of finding out more about the monster he forgot to sleep! “24 hours… you should go get some rest, then. Let’s go there until nightfall, since talking to people amounts to jack shit.” Arius couldn’t argue with him on that one. It seems like people were scaring themselves into ignorance here. Typical. Arius nodded his head and turned around to walk the way he came into the town. Going back the way you came is shockingly an easy method for getting back home.
Arius’s head felt filled with possibilities of what could happen at nightfall. If the plan worked, would they actually see the titular monster? Or would they just see the effects the monster is placing on the sick people? The monster definitely is magical based, so it could be attacking Marren from even afar if its magic is that strong… this magic didn't feel like magic people weld though. It was a lot rawer, and it made Arius feel… uncomfortable around it. It wasn’t that bad when walking in the town’s streets, but when he was next to those bodies… ugh, he felt uncomfortable. He thought it was just frustration of his magic not working making him feel uncomfortable in there, but the more he thought about the fact that he didn’t feel any traces of necromantic magic on the bodies despite them being “undead” was making him more concerned. What exactly were they actually dealing with? Arius felt curious. He needed to figure this out. But he couldn’t deny that he was getting a little worried about this all. Well, he can't back down now! Especially with the people of Marren needing this thing stopped more than anything!
“Hey, Mage.” Arius piped up after quite a bit of quiet walking through Marren’s streets. “What do you think this monster even is? It's not a typical monster, that’s for sure… and I never heard about a monster spreading sickness then making those sick people attack a town. Also… I really do think this thing isn’t going down without a fight. I think you know how I fight already. What about you? You just throw javelins at stuff?”
"I have no idea what this is. if it was a dragon, this entire place would be in shambles, if it was a howler, there'd be far more dead, and people would've seen it. I hate going in blind..." Mage seemed annoyed at the mystery of the monster as much as he did. He then gave some weird look that Arius couldn’t figure out. People are too confusing… “Yeah, I throw javelins at stuff, among other shit. They all have magic in them though. Got a couple of molotovs, potions, magic blades, y'know." He uses magic items, but seems pretty freaked out by Arius’ own magic even though it’s a totally normal school of magic… he can never work with these kinds of people!
Arius thought a bit for a second. “Well, it’s a good thing you can fight too, it seems like then! I guess that’s why you’re called “Mage”, huh?” Arius still did not believe that was his actual name. “But, hmm… I don’t like the idea of going in blind either. So, uh, maybe tonight we should just bait the monster out and just kind of… attempt to watch it? I know, we really need to stop it, but understanding the monster more seems smart, doesn’t it? Of course, if it catches us, we’ll have to fight, but I don’t think observing it for tonight and then coming back tomorrow night with a plan to fight it would be too problematic, right?” As much as Arius wanted this thing gone, he couldn’t help but feel a bit worried about just charging in like this.
"Huh," Mage started, then paused."Now that is the best idea you've had so far. In this case, I’d also prefer to be safe rather than sorry. Not worth dying for some potion materials.” Way to boost Arius’ ego!
“All my ideas are good, don’t you see?!” Arius grinned.
