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#1
Unbelievably Majestic

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a_little_spot_on_the_edge_of_town__by_pa

 
 
[Play the song Mr DJ!]
 
Tiny-Clamor is much like every other large city. It's entirely ordinary as far as the world is concerned. The weather is fine, fair, generally warm-ish but with a chill breeze for most of the year. It rains regularly. And it's not on a coast. So there isn't much of a tourism trade. It's full of all the usual sights and sounds and smells you'd find in a city of it's size. Though the people tend to bit a little more relaxed. Like somehow the city never quite lost that easy going feeling from when it was a small village. Even it's very name hints to it's humble nature. Tiny-Clamor. It sounds a little bit rowdy, but not really anything to worry about. Like a pub garden full of merry drinkers singing along to Don't Stop Believing on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

All of this leads up to a pleasant place, but not really a memorable one. The sort of place you pass through on your way to your destination and have a nice meal. You then think to yourself that it was a nice place to take a break from driving and you'll have to come back on the return trip. But then you forget and take the bypass because it's a little bit quicker.

Basically, when choosing a place to visit one would look at Tiny-Clamor and get immediately distracted by Vegas or some other city, forgetting Tiny-Clamor even existed at all.

And that's just the way those who live in Tiny-Clamor like it.

Because underneath all of that pleasant dullness lies a city that is jam packed with the weird and wonderful, the stupendous and the scary, the fabulous and the freaky. It's all gone nuttier than a squirrels secret stash. Hidden right in plain sight are all manner of strange things. Most of them love having the cover of Tiny-Clamor to hide them. Though some would be happy to tear away the veil and show people the man behind the curtain.

And so one day a group of these no good peace-haters decided they were going to be, well... less than stealthy.

 
The day these people chose was, like roughly a seventh of the days in Tiny-Clamor, a Sunday. And a very nice, casual Sunday it was. The kind of Sunday that gives you a cheeky wink and a nudge, tells you you haven't got anything important to do today and kindly lets you to curl up on the sofa in your pajamas and fluffy slippers for as long as you want. And from that comfortable position you would look out the window to see the city basking gently in a soft cloud of mist. You might see the wind playing on the tree leaves. You'd barely even notice how few people were around. Because they, like you, must also be enjoying their lazy Sunday morning. It was certainly a good day for it. Who'd want to be going out on a day like this? Who would be willing to deal with all that hassle? Not anyone you'd associate with. You can't think of anyone who'd bother going out today. In fact, you can't think of anyone at all. You might suppose that you should be worried about that, but you're probably just tired, you have been working hard today. You deserve a rest, you might think. You might decide that maybe you'll just get a quick nap in before you set about making that breakfast or whatever that thing was you were going to do. Just a quick nap. A little one. You probably won't even get to sleep, you'll just be resting your eyes for a bit really. It's fine... It's all fine.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP

Suddenly John sprang from his sofa and up onto his feet. His wife's soft pink bunny slippers only half managing to cover his feet. He had no idea when he'd put them on, but he decided he liked them. A decision that was now a secret he would take the the grave. His pajamas hung from his bony shoulders like he was a human coat hanger. A look that was only accentuated by the fact that he was wearing his old pajamas, from before William had helped him lose all that weight. He shook his head gently from side to side and rubbed his eyes in an effort to wake up. Even though he was up and standing he felt like he was still half asleep. It took him a moment to realize why he'd even been woken up. He looked around for a second in confusion before seeing his emergency phone laying at his feet, screen bright and blinking. Every now and then it would shake and make another series of beep noises. He sluggishly leaned down to snatch it up and pressed the only button on it. A large button in the shape of a stylized MB. The Mystery Busters logo. Williams voice emerged.

"DON'T GO TO SLEEP!" His voice screamed right into Johns ear, he winced and rubbed his tired eyes again. "IT'S NOT A GOOD TIME TO SLEEP JOHN IT'S NOT GOOD AT ALL. THEY'RE GUNNA COME AND STEAL YOUR FACES!" John was very much awake now. In fact, he thought he was awake permanently now.

"Wh-what?! Who, eh- uhh, what? Why?! What- Faces?! I've only got one face!" He stammered. His voice doing that high-pitched thing that it does when he gets nervous.

"Well if you go to sleep you'll be wishing you had some spare." John felt faint. The world seemed to spin for a moment. He may never have really been a massive fan of his own face but he at least liked to know it was there. "John, hey! JOHN! Listen John. Okay? It's gunna be fine if you do what I say. Just don't go to sleep. Remember that. It's important. Sleep is bad." Williams breath was coming out harsh and ragged like he'd just been running way further than he was happy about. Though he still had that usual care-free tone to his voice. "I'm sending you a message John. I need you to put it on the website okay? Use the special account, send an MB Alert. Dramus'll know what to do from there." And with that he put the phone down.

John kicked into action. He rushed to his computer. Fought the urge to have a quick nap as it booted up, and opened the Mystery Busters website. Almost as if William had been waiting for the perfect moment to send it, the message he'd promised came through on his phone. So John typed it up word for word and hit send. Then he hoped silently to himself that Dramus was paying attention somewhere. He then set off to find some duct tape to try and stick his eyes open. He couldn't go sleep with open eyes right?

Elsewhere in Tiny-Clamor the members of the Mystery Busters! were finding themselves, for reasons unknown, highly driven in their desire to take a look at the Mystery Busters! website. Some, perhaps, may have been sleeping. Falling prey to the strange sleepiness of the day. But even they would find themselves waking up and feeling a desire to check the website. And when they did they would find something different about the website. Because instantly upon entering the site they would be greeted with massive letters in flashing green and blue stating, simply, ALERT! After clicking on the alert pop-up they would be taken to a message from the one and only leader of the Myster Busters! The handsome one himself. Grand Myster. Though some call him William. For that is his name.

ALERT!

Spoiler

OOC:
Spoiler



#2
Diabolical Rhapsody

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Lucifera

 

 

Tiny-Clamor was a quaint little town and even on weekdays there wasn't many things someone can do here. Though some bizzare events took place from time to time Asta had found herself more than bored on almost a daily basis. She was a drifter for some time now, hitting the road in search to find herself or maybe lose a part of her she didn't want, anything would do. So when she had come to this town, it had seem perfect for someone like her to start over.

 

She asked the local tavern if they needed a waitress and there she was, all set and ready to rumble. Her thick southern accent had made her favorite with the occasional truckers that passed by and she had a good rep with the sheriff and his squad of two hillbillies that worked with him. They were nice loving people, nothing of the sort you'd expect from a big city. Everybody knew everybody and for the most part, things were pretty normal if a bit slow.

 

But this day was lazier than usual, the cafe diner won't open till noon and Gary's garage was closed as well. She had no place to hang out. Well atleast physically, she felt that maybe Mystery Busters would give her a reprieve though she didn't expect much. She turned on her pc, a hardened veteran that had seen good days, the Celeron heart that beat inside was having it really tough and his days were loaded. By the time the boot cycle had finished, Asta had already changed and cooked her breakfast. As she sat down in front of the screen with a bowl full of cereal. She clicked on the browser to go to her favorite hangout place.

 

It seems a new post was up! Grand Myster had posted an interesting even happening at the park. She posted a quick response and was on her way, downing the cereal in two large gulps. With her beaten down bike and a metal bat, she threw on a leather jacket and was ready to rumble.

 

Her computer screen still flickered for a while before the blank screensaver came on. Her reply was written in Red!

Spoiler

giphy.gif

 

If you have the time: 

Spoiler

#3
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"You haven't brushed your teeth, eaten your breakfast, you haven't even changed out of your pajamas yet!"

 

"But there's a mission from this elusive Grand Myster himself!"

 

"HADRIAN. GET BACK HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT."

 

Despite being of more noble blood and having a great amount of power, Carris had been like a sister to the boy as he grew up in Hellrealm. Now, as his personal maid, she was more like a mother to him in his child form. Sighing in exasperation, Hadrian stalked back towards the bathroom of the luxurious city apartment he resided in with Carris. The young woman's howling was irritating, but he felt the urge to comply to her harping. His boyish excitement for this Mystery Busters mission, the very first one he had ever beheld on the website, had ignited so ferociously that the young man had forgotten himself for a brief moment. Hadrian ruffled is messy hair and slammed the bathroom door shut.

 

"HADRIAN, WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT SLAMMING THE DOOR?!"

 

Meanwhile, Vivica slowly blinked her eyes as she awoke to a dull ache in her temples and a foul stench coming from the interior of her vehicle's cabin. She exhaled softly as she gained her bearings. Seated in her car, belt off, legs still on the pedals. They were locked in place though, and moving them proved to be a tad bit painful. Her hands were slimy and crusty, they were covered in something red and gooey. They smelled gross too. Vivica looked ahead to her windshield and was met with the sight of a ghoulish face breaching through her windshield, its albino body behind it, with dried gore practically everywhere else.

 

"Oh yeah, the hunt from last night...well job's done!" she happily chirped, leaning back into her seat.

 

After the clean-up and her personal hygiene was taken care of, Vivica decided to check her computer for any information regarding the monster. Seeing nothing on the news of her spectacular hunt, she decided to peek at the Mystery Busters! site.

 

"Oh...that looks bad."

 

It seemed her work wasn't done yet.



#4
Vafhudr

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David Acer - The_Mind's_I

 

David was confronted with a problem: to coffee or not to coffee. An eternal dilemma. It could mean mental clarity now, but insomnia later, or perhaps simply a feeling that everything is rushed in his head but still fall asleep later. Drinking coffee always struck him as kind of a wheel of fortune thing. You never know what you are signing up for. Today, though, he was feeling even more lethargic than usual - and more then he felt was natural. Had he done something to upset the humours in his body? He was feeling particularily bilious and phlegmatic today. Regardless, with a lot more effort then he though the action required, he started his electric ramen maker/water boiler and waited for the ebulition by sitting in front of his computer. He let out a big old yawn as he did so and considered just going back to bed. Sunday was a day of rest, after all - right? It sure was for him. He had a small tradition of doing fuck all on Sundays. The desire subsided as he began his usual routine of mindless internet browsing. Imgur. Gawker. Facebook. A quick look at some newspaper. Bunch of worthless news about worthless people. Whatever. Funny cat pictures. Well at least that's nice.  A quick detour through 4 chan. Reddit. Ugh. Why does he do this to himself. It was pretty much mechanical at this point, he had realized. He didn't even like these goddamn sites. They just filled some time and satisfied a sort of craving. A way to relieve to some anxiety by pulling the plug on his thought train. In this stupor at least he was not falling asleep. 

 

With some effort he managed to unglue himself from the screen and walk to the kitchen and finished making some coffee. God. Why does coffee have to smell so good and yet taste so shit? There was a great injustice in that, he thought. But he drank anyway. An act more mechanical than willful, the habit of a deprived student. A bit of a kick in the ass to get the old think tank going. 

 

As he feared, though, the black stuff did not dispell the sleepiness he felt. He could feel his brain going faster, but everything else felt sluggish. He groaned in frustration. Why this. Anyway. As he went and slinked back to his computer, that window into the world (he had several other windows in his house but they all opened on a rather uninteresting street), he felt almost impelled to go check that forum he signed up for. 

 

Oh yeah. Mystery Busters. As he opened the forum, though, an ALERT message popped up. 

 

"Oh great fucking ads now." he said to himself, annoyed, ready to pounce with his mouse to close the uninvited guest. 

 

But wait! It wasn't an offer that would let you make 500 000$ dollar at home every year. It was a message from the moderators. David's eyes blinked wearily, trying to wipe away the sleep that seemed to have gotten into them like grains of sand. He read through the little message and sat back in his chair.

 

"Hmm. Okay. Not sure what they expect us to do about cultists. Or how this is a mystery. But I guess we can meet up." He said to himself. Oh. He began to talk to himself a long time ago. He helps break the silence. He looked up the meeting spot on google map. His mind returning once more to the message, he took the time to reply on the forum.

 

"K. Will see what we can do."

 

Looking back to his computer, it turns out google maps had no idea what he had meant by "Down Here" as a destination. Huehue you are such a smartass. Regardless, he thought, he could use a walk. He got a jacket and decided to go do some wandering. Maybe he'd find some clue or see a bat signal. 


Edited by Vafhudr, 24 September 2015 - 03:50 PM.

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#5
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Cultists. With cultists came rituals. With rituals came all manner of nasty things. They ranged from ghosts, demons, and even creatures from different dimensions. It was Vivica's belief that her supreme knowledge on the variety of dangerous, unnatural creatures that most of mankind was woefully unaware of would come in handy in the first Mystery Bust. Inviting strangers to combat these eerie cultists though? She could not agree with the notion, and she hoped the Grand Myster wasn't inviting people to their demise. With a cult, you never know what could happen to you if you weren't killed outright. Slavery, ritual sacrifice, perhaps even indoctrination, they all sent a shiver down the woman's spine as she slowly wrote mystical glyphs onto the side of her pristine machete. The preparations would only take just a bit longer, and reaching the park would also take some time. That was, if she had even chosen a location within the park to arrive at, for all she knew it was totally infested with the cult...or worse.

 

Meanwhile, Hadrian finished brushing his teeth taking a shower. He walked right through the apartment, naked as can be, and snatched his neatly folded clothing from Carris's hands. She was bowing in respect to the boy, her eyes closed as she held up his fresh outfit. The boy smoothly approached the front door, throwing his clothing on hastily. He seated himself down onto the floor and pulled on a pair of socks before slipping his feet into his shoes. It was then that his stomach grumbled loudly, and Carris opened one eye up a sliver to stare at the boy.  Hadrian bashfully glanced at her, but then stuck out a finger towards the front door and placed his other hand onto his slender hip.

 

"We shall get breakfast on the way! Onwards Carris! These Cultists will be subjugated at once."



#6
Unbelievably Majestic

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The Mystery Busters! gang began to arrive at the park. Tess, who had been walking about in a small area, became a sort of wandering welcoming party. Upon reaching the Park her fellow Mystery Busters! all seemed to find their was to her just by wandering randomly in whatever direction they fancied. Tess knew Dramus must have been doing his job pretty well for them to be drawn to her like that even as she walked around the park. She decided she'd toss him a sausage or something later. Maybe a slice of bacon. Anyway, she greeted each of the Mystery Busters! with an excited hug and a wide friendly smile, introducing herself with glee. There was a little small talk as the group slowly got larger, passing the time until everyone had eventually arrived.

"William got bored of hiding up the tree. He's on the swings trying something." Tess announced, the tone of her voice saying more about how often this sort of things happened than her words would need to. "Come on. I'll show you the way. Hopefully he's done. Or nearly done. Yeah. I hope he's nearly done." Tess walked off, the group following after her. "Usually these things end with him getting a face full of dirt. Wouldn't want to miss that."

---

The group arrived at a small playground in the park. It was only a couple of swings, a slide and some monkey bars, but the kids would play here often. William was stood atop the crossbar between the two swings. His shoes tied to the bar with a few loops of rope. He looked up from checking on the knots with a grin when he realized people had turned up. "An audience! Fantastic! Get ready people, I'm about to make the impossible possible! Keep your eyes peeled friends, you'll be telling your grandchildren about this one day." He saluted the small crowd. "I'll see you on the other side."

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back. Falling backwards with his feet tied to the crossbar, the soles of his shoes followed around the bar. He looked like the hand of a clock as he went all the way around the bar. It didn't quite look like it should have been possible. He was moving a little too slow on his way back up for it to be believable. Basically, if you saw it in a video you'd know it was fake in an instant. But somehow he'd done it. He regained his footing on the top of the bars and burst out laughing. "Haha! How'd it look? Was it awesome? I bet it was. I wish I'd set up a camera. Those stupid Cultists' have somehow messed up probability. I barely had to try for that. Haha! Good stuff... Of course, the down side is that you don't accidentally do this kind of stuff unless you're trying something big. Those stupid culti-" Just then he attempted to hop down off the swing's frame, forgetting all about the ropes tied to his shoes. The result was that he swung forward and ended up hanging upside down for a moment before his feet slipped out of his shoes. He fell about a foot and landed on his face. Tess chuckled quietly, trying to hide it behind her hand.

William bounced back up onto his feet like nothing had happened and masterfully ignored the chip of wood stuck to his cheek. He flashed the group a smile. "Glad you could come guys." He smiled at everyone. "I'm William. You all probably know my better as Grand Myster! It's great to meet you all face to face." He stared for a moment as though unsure how to continue. "Ah! Ahaha! Yes! I-" His hands scrambled at his back trouser pocket for a second. "I brought gifts!" He yelled as he pulled a book out of his back pocket. A hefty book. It was larger than a book that fit into his back pocket should have been. He rested the book on the palm of one hand and flicked it open to the back pages. Strangely, even though only the back cover was resting on his hand, the rest of the book didn't fall to the floor like it should have, it merely rested in the air as though it was on a table.

He began to write on the back page, a quill seemed to shimmer into existence right into his hand at just the moment he would have touched it to the paper had it been in his hands all along. He didn't write too much but it was all in a language no one there would have been able to read. It was a fancy text with lots of curling letters and long flowing words. He scribbled a few lines of this language onto the page stuck to the back cover and put a single letter on three of the empty pages at the back of the book. Next, he pulled the newly marked pages out of the book. The back three pages. There was a noise as they came out, but it wasn't a ripping noise. It was more of a rushing noise. Or a whoosh. A silent whoosh. A silent whoosh you could hear only as it rushed past the edge of your soul. It was that kind of noise.

He handed the three pages to their new owners. One each for Asta, Vivica and Hadrian. Each marked with a single letter of the strange language. Each one was different. He smiled wide, looking down at the pages in their hands and waved his hands over them once quickly. There was another silent whooshing sound. And without any kind of fanfare, warning or sense of urgency, the pages simply began to multiply. You would barely notice it was happening. But it was. Suddenly they were holding two pages. Then three. Four. Twenty. A hundred. More. The page with the marking on it getting lost somewhere along the way, there was no way to follow it. But there was no need to find it. At some point the paper decided it had enough pages. At which point the marked page slid itself from the stack and, not caring a hoot for the reality of it's dimensions and it's inability to be bigger than it was, the page wrapped itself around the rest of them. Seamlessly, and without drawing attention to itself the page became a book cover. The texture sneakily changed, along with the material, and then the colour changed and the marked page quietly expanded into a book cover. The three found themselves holding strange books before they really knew what what happening.

"Spellbooks!" William barked with joy. He always loved watching spellbooks come to be. He always almost missed it. It just had that sense of "don't worry guy, there's nothing's going on here" to it that made peoples eyes kind of glide over it. "Did I mention these before? Pretty sure I did. Anyway, those are yours now. They'll attune to you specifically within the next few minutes or so. They'll end up looking like whatever you imagine a spellbook to look like. At least I think that's how it works. Maybe it's deeper than that. Did you read Merlin's theory on Spellbook Physicalities, Tess? I remember him rambling on about it for a while but I don't think I payed much attention."

"Ah, no I didn't get around to that yet. But Selena Trastli said it was to do with how in touch you are with mother earth."

"Hah! Of course she did. She's half-elf, a massive hippie and she lost her marbles so long ago they hadn't actually been invented at the time. Which I guess is impressive in a way... Haha! Do you remember that time we visited her to get some supplies? You accidentally stepped on that snail, remember? She told you mother nature had cursed you to turn into snail unless you cleaned the shell of every snail you came across. Hahaha! I mean, sure, shes powerful as hell, but if anything she says sound a bit hippy-ish, you don't bother with it. Right? That's why you didn't bother with the snail thing, she's crazy and likes to mess with people." Tess averted her eyes, a tinge of red reaching her cheeks. William turned back to the group, not noticing Tess's secret snail-based shame. "Sorry guys, I'm rambling. Tess is always telling me to rein that in. The point is, every book is unique to their owner. Yours will change appearance soon enough. So that's exciting."

"Asta, I put a little summoning spell in there for you. It'll disappear after it's used once. It summons a potion I made. It's sat back at the Mystery Museum right now. Remember that time you said you'd let me experiment with making you uhh... larger? Well, drink that whenever you feel like rolling those dice and we'll see what happens." William had that little glimmer that he gets in his eyes when he's doing some sort of crazy experiment. Tess saw it and was not amused. Not even a little.

"Vivica, I'm not sure how you feel about using magic so uhhh... I can take that back if you want. It's no problem. But doing magic is awesome! I have no idea why you wouldn't want that."

"Hadrian, you can do some magic already right? You probably know the drill. But this spellbook will open up non-demonic magic to you. Something that's pretty damn rare among demons. A lot of people would most likely be more than a little peeved at me for giving you that, but whatever. It'll probably be fine. We'll deal with that if it comes to it."

William smiled and looked at the group. Four lucky new wizards who, if they have the drive and the aptitude, were about to embark on the journey of a life time. Like baby birds about to leave the nest. All four of them clutching their brand new spellbooks, all full of hopes and dreams and promi- Wait. Where was David's book? William frowned at David for a moment. Had he been there the whole time? Was he some sort of sinister infiltrator? Was he a cultist? Some kind of perception charm perhaps? Maybe William would have to do something about tha- Wait. Wait. Wait. No. That was crazy. And William was not a crazy person. He remembered the plan now. How could he forget? He turned his suspicious frown into a slightly overly-friendly smile and reached back into his back pocket. "OH, hey, 'David.' I almost forgot. Your 'book.' I've brought you one too. It's right..." He whipped his hand out of his pocket and thrust it towards David. "HERE!"

In his hand he held out a scruffy old spellbook. Raggedy, some might say. Not that it looked neglected. It looked in fact like it had been cared for a lot, it was just old. And age just has that way of leaving it's mark on things regardless of the time or care put into them. While the others books had been intact and brand new, this one was rough and scarred. The cover of this one was scuffed and marked, the edges were that special kind of messed up that happens to old books that have been put in and out of pockets and bags or onto shelves regularly. On the back was a palm print, not a printed-on picture, but a mark worn faintly into the leather itself. A book such as this one had needed the dramatic entrance so as not to be shown up by the entrance the other three books had gotten. Because sometimes spellbooks could get a little jealous like that.

"This one was mine. Well, I mean my teacher made it for me so in a way it was his, though that was before we fell out and accidentally caused that plague. But that's a long story, you don't wanna hear about that. The point is, I had that for the first... oh I don't know... Century...ish, of learning magic. I had a lot of good times with that spellbook. Bad times too I suppose. But I don't think about those as much. I stuck with that spellbook waaaay longer than I really should have." William laughed a little and shook his head gently from side to side. "It was like I was swimming with weights by the time I finally let it go. And then I've loaned it out like this a lot of times over the long years since then. Tess actually had that for a while before she could make her own. That spellbook has seen a whole lot of learning. It's a good one. Anyway, I figured you might get a kick out of it because of your whole Psychometry thing. I mean, I can get you a fresh one if you'd prefer? Maybe it's too much history or something? I don't know how your thing works. Whatever you feel more comfortable with."

---

A short time later, after answering any questions and generally going off on tangents for a bit, William declared it was time to go find out what the Cultists were up to. And so the group left the park and headed towards the depths of Lindol Memorial Park. As they walked the trees started to crowd around them, like bullies gathered around the small kid. There was a sinister feeling to them. Though that was mostly from the mist. The gentle mist that had spread across the entire city had become a very different beast here. Here it was getting thick. Here you could feel its chill touch on your skin. Here you could imagine all sorts of bad things lunging out of it. But this mist isn't so obvious at that. It isn't going to do anything so vulgar as that. It's much more insidious. This mist decieves. And before long you might turn back to ask a friend something, and they aren't there. They're gone without a trace. And before long a sinister thought comes to mind. You realize the sounds of your friends muttering to each other in the background hadn't been them at all. So... who was it?

The mist seemed to pull away from Asta and she found herself in a circular clearing. It looked as though there had once been a large tree there, long since removed. But the space it had left behind hadn't grown new trees. So there she stood, where the mighty tree trunk had once stood, and she looked around. But as she looked around she noticed something. There were more trees now. The gaps between trees were being filled with more trees. Soon they were almost completely encircling the patch of grass she was stood upon. Just one gap remained. And as she turned to face it she saw a robed figure stood there. The figures' long dark robes covered all features, even the persons gender couldn't be told. But the gem affixed to the figures' hood seemed to be pulling the mist out of the small clearing. It was drawing it in like water to a sponge. The gem going from a dark blue to a lighter blue as it leeched the mist from the air. The figure raised one hand, pointing it at Asta, and spoke. The voice came out harsh and jagged, as though from a broken throat. "Die." Suddenly something shot from it's finger tips, heading straight for Asta's heart.

Vivica and Hadrian had somehow managed to keep themselves together. Possibly something to do with Vivica's experience in these matters. But still, the pair found themselves in a similar situation to Asta, the mist pulled back from around them to reveal a clearing. But their clearing wasn't encircled by trees like Astas. It was surprisingly open, at least on one side. They found themselves on the edge of the tree line, facing out to the large open field where most park visitors spend their time. Off in the distance she could see a blue light gently glowing. That was where the mist around them seemed to be retreating to. The light itself was pulsing gently with a regular beat. But the mist was too thick back there to really make out what was happening with the light or what it was coming from. What they could see however, was the mist in front of the light. And that mist was being... well... weird. After retreating back there the mist had grouped up and started coming back towards them. But it wasn't acting like normal mist. It wasn't rolling in gently towards the pair. It was moving in chunks. Rushing forward bit by separate bit. As it drew nearer it would become clear what was happening. The mist had been magically altered, forming into the shape of wolves. The closest pack of Mistwolves were rushing straight towards Vivica and Hadrian. And they didn't seem like they were friendly.

David found himself at the edge of a wide old pond. For a moment all was still as he stood beside the pond and its ink-black depths. Sound all but ceased to be a thing. Mist silently shimmered across the still surface of the water. The lilypads quietly glimmered with gentle obfuscated sunlight. In other circumstances it would have been nice. Beautiful. Peaceful. But not this time. This time the very air seemed sinister. This time the tree-line threatened to close in and swallow a man whole. This time the sound of wind through the reeds was deep and threatening. This time something felt wrong. And then suddenly a figure rose from the waters. Silently and slowly it rose until it was standing upon the glassy surface. As the water ran off the figure it become more and more clear who it was. It was William. "David." He murmured, water spilling from his mouth. "Come." He said, his eyes black, dark as the night sky. "Join us." William gestured towards the water. Between the ripples Tess could be seen lying on the pond floor. "Come." A tendril of water shot out in an effort to grasp David's ankle.

---

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#7
Diabolical Rhapsody

Diabolical Rhapsody

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Lucifera

 

As she reached the grounds, it wasn't the sight she had thought it was. Up on a swing stood a guy with his shoes tied to the bar before he went on to perform a weird but cool stunt that ended in him kissing the dirt. Soon things settled somewhat and she was joined by more people. The ones that she had only known through the site. It was a bit weird seeing them in real life.

 

But unexpected was fun and Mystery Hunters was all about that. On meeting the William she certainly agreed to his quirky personality compared to his sister who seemed more logical. Not that Asta minded that. 

 

After a brief introduction, they were handed their first piece of 'equipment'. A self evolving piece of paper that twisted and turned into a book. As it floated in front of Asta she finally took a firm grip of book which again seemed to quiver under her touch as it wildly shook for a moment before it changed colors once again and changed to a black matted book with serpentine indents on it. Asta was loving it as it was.

 

She opened it to scan through it and found a single entry of a spell, she wondered how to use it when William finally dropped the hints on how to use it. After a bit of a  briefing regarding the impending the trouble on their hands they headed into the Lincoln Memorial park. A thick mist permeated the place as Asta found herself alone by the time she came into a clearing. The mist too seemed to be vacuumed out of the place. The clearing seemed big when she had first entered but suddenly her mid started playing tricks or the reality started warping as the clearing started getting reduced with a number of trees popping up.

 

She gave a 360 to the place to finally locate a robed figure standing in the center of the clearing noting could be told from its features apart from a fist sized gem that seemed to be planted at its head. It shone a deep blue but started taking a lighter hue as the fog seemed to be sucked in from the surrounding area.

 

Suddenly the figure jagged a pointy finger at Asta and spouted the words that every mystery lover swears by, a villain crying "Die!". A spark like thing sprouted through its tip. Asta reflexively cast the spell she had seen in her book, hoping it would be the shield the book said it was as she dived to the ground and grabbed at a flimsy rock and tested her arm. Gunning straight or the figure's face.


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#8
Shmuser Name

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Vivica's surreptitious profession was not a profitable one, and it was incredibly demanding, not to mention outrageously dangerous. However, as they say "it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it." Funnily enough, she had a more honest job that paid most of the bills and paid for her equipment. Vivica's cliché dual-life was destiny...or not, depending on who you asked. The woman chose to hunt those that most of society normally had no contact with outside of random sightings or more violent exchanges. It could be argued she was meant to choose to be a hunter, she was meant to meet the Guild, she was meant to join the Mystery Busters! Or...it was entirely her own choice to practice this profession, it was entirely her own choice to thrust her life into a constant struggle of balancing secrets and juggling life-threatening threats such as being mauled by a monster or worse...unemployment. Her decision was always one she didn't put much thought into, all the hard thinking had become evanescent. It was inconsequential information now, and frankly Vivica could care less about the past. She was in deep now, and being naturally proficient at killing things doesn't get a person far in the real world unless they want to invest most of their life to serving others. 
 
Regardless, Vivica headed out to the park in her wrecked car, having no care in the world as she blared music and chugged coffee in an effort to avoid becoming entrapped in a state of lassitude. The streets were pleasantly devoid of traffic, and given how no one from the Mystery Busters! chat had taken her up on her offer to taxi them to the park, she expedited her way to her destination smoothly. The soporific atmosphere of Tiny-Clamor was irritating to resist, but the woman was used to staying up despite the physical conditions of her body. Vivica was a bold woman, and she dressed boldly as well. She had a small, selfish desire to leave an impression on the others when she met them that even she did not want to admit. She dressed, suffice to say, daringly.
 
Slip-resistant, steel-plate heeled and steel-toed hunting boots colored jet black armored Vivica's feet. Going up her slender and strong legs was a form-fitting, glossy, stretchy pair of black leather trousers that contoured quite tastily onto her callipygian hind-quarters. Going down the side of her right thigh was a small triplet of satchels that held trinkets such as crucifixes, holy water, and talismans. On her left hip was a holster that held a flare-gun. Vivica wore a large belt on her trim waist purely for fashion, while a diagonal belt of homemade herb grenades went across her torso. On her upper body was an outrageously revealing camouflage crop-top, its hem ended just below her nipples, exposing the underside of her cleavage and her muscular belly. This was a terribly reckless clothing choice given how exposed it left Vivica's soft abdomen and mid-riff, but the woman knew the risks and decided to go through with it. She also wore a small, gossamer thin camouflage vest that complimented, and matched in terms of defense, her crop-top. Vivica's hands were protected by sturdy, waterproof gloves colored gray and black. Her wrists were decorated with bracelets that hugged her skin. Her shoulders were bare, although on one of her upper arms there was the sheath for a buck-knife that had a wooden handle. Vivica's hair was in its usual style, and on her head was a mossy-colored hunting cap with stylish goggles resting above the visor, their strap going around the circuit of the cap.
 
At the park, Tess shepherded the unimpressive Mystery Busters! to William's location. The man was certainly a bit...recondite to say the least, and quite discursive as well.
 
"I'm Gunpowder Butterfly, the supernatural hunter. Vivica Shelby, at your service."
 
When William peremptorily gifted the Mystery Busters! with their own spellbooks, Vivica was completely astounded. She had to stop herself from dropping it as the spellbook transformed from a single page to entire tome radiating with mysterious power.
 
"Vivica, I'm not sure how you feel about using magic so uhhh... I can take that back if you want. It's no problem. But doing magic is awesome! I have no idea why you wouldn't want that."
 
"N-no, no it's fine! I only know a bit of enchanting, it's a trade passed around in my specific line of business. Etching runes into tools to grant it magical power. Yeah, you don't see paranormal investigators with this kind of gear."
 
Vivica unsheathed her machete, which had three glowing runes on one side of the blade, each a different color and all roughly the same size. She looked around to catch everyone's expressions. Vivica looked down to her spellbook after sheathing her blade. On the cover of the completely white book was a manacle. The dark-skinned woman getting the shackle, huh? It was a dark thought, but one she could not help but manifest. Whatever power this book held in regards to spells, Vivica imagined they'd assist greatly in subjugating or capturing whatever enemies she'd face.
 
On their drive to the park, Hadrian had noticed that Carris was drowsy. She was yawning excessively. When he questioned as to why Carris went on to explain, in that tone of voice the Prince had become familiar with over the years,
 
"It's because I've been sitting here driving, my body isn't active, my beathing has slowed so my lungs are getting more air. That's why I'm yawning so much, my lord."
 
Seated in the passenger-side seat, Hadrian raised one eyebrow and narrowed his eyes, giving a sideways look to his guardian and personal servant. She was trying to look more alert.
 
"So where should we go for your meal, my lord? You must be hungry, you haven't had breakfast. Please spare me for not preparing something for you."
 
Hadrian simply stared out the window, looking out to a quiet Tiny-Clamor.
 
"Let's just get to the park as quick as possible, I'm feeling anxious. I can afford to skip a meal."
 
Carris have no response. After a moment of eerie silence, Hadrian slowly turned his head to look at the woman. She was slouched forwards, appearing extremely sleepy. Hadrian was feeling quite the opposite, he didn't know how to operate a vehicle. This hybrid car Carris had looked easy to control, but he'd tried driving it once and it had ended up as an epic fail. The pedal was far too sensitive for his liking, and the gear-shifts were just...annoying. Whatever the Grand Myster had spoken of in the forum, it was having a pernicious side-effect to its victims.
 
"CARRIS! STOP THE CAR!" Hadrian screeched, shaking the poor woman. She silently acknowledged his request by sloppily pulling over onto the sidewalk. Hadrian clicked the ignition button and turned the vehicle off.
 
Hadrian unbuckled himself and Carris, and comfortable set her up inside of the vehicle. Hadrian's window had already been open a small crack, so the matter of having fresh air was solved. Caris was unconscious now, completely asleep. Hadrian locked the doors and exited the car, giving a long sigh. Whatever was affecting the city had also taken away one of his most valuable assets, no, one of his most valuable friends. The boy pulled out his smartphone, a recently acquired tool that was completely beyond his own realm's technological capacities, and looked up his location in the city. The park was so nearby, he was thankful he had made it. With his hunger completely ignored, Hadrian glanced back to Carris and felt a seething rage grow in him. He began to head towards the park, stalking to its front entrance as his royal blood began to churn magical essence through his body.
 
Tess was a wonderful sight to behold after being all alone for some time, just meeting her assuaged his nerves. The other Mystery Busters! also arrived, and Tess helped guide them all to the Grand Myster himself. Something about seeing William in the park urged Hadrian to run into the park and quench his desire to swing, slide, and run. However he understood this was his boyish nature acting up, and he tried his best to stop this aching feeling from blossoming even further. He had a mission now, a duty as a Develin noble now that Carris had become personally involved. Taking a deep breath, Hadrian calmed himself.
 
"I'm Greatness, please there is no need to bow before me."
 
He was quite obviously the runt of the group. outfitted quite plainly in his black sneakers, blue jeans, white shirt with those thin black stripes, that warm gray vest, and the large scarf that had the black skull and crossbone design. That would change though. He wasn't just a kid. He was a Develin noble, and these Cultists would have Hellrealm to pay.

 

"Hadrian, you can do some magic already right? You probably know the drill. But this spellbook will open up non-demonic magic to you. Something that's pretty damn rare among demons. A lot of people would most likely be more than a little peeved at me for giving you that, but whatever. It'll probably be fine. We'll deal with that if it comes to it."

 

The spellbook summoning was amusing to witness, Hadran had to admit. He held the large book in his small hands and could feel the magic within it. The book's cover held a single eye on it. Hadrian could not immediately grasp this foreign magic, he was naturally accustomed to blood magic and demonic forces, not this strange type of magic William horded.

 

"You have my thanks for the gift, and I promise you it will not be wasted."

 

Away the crew went into the forest, and slowly the mist separated them. Hadrian, to his adolescent joy, was paired with the sexy huntress, but not by his own choice. His heart did sink a bit when he realized that Carris was not by his side.

 

"Hey boy, hang back hang back c'mon. Hold up. What's your name, your real name?" Vivica suddenly asked the boy, glancing back at him as she slightly unsheathed her machete. Her spellbook was attached to her belt now, right next to her left hipbone.

 

"It is Hadrian my fair lady."

 

Vivica closed her eyes for a second and held back a snicker. She still didn't fully know who this boy was. Right now, he was simply a tagalong given how the others had seemed to vanish.

 

"Stick with me, don't let the mist fool you, we don't want to get lost like the others."

 

"Get lost? I saw them walk in other directions. How odd, you're implying the Busters! lost each other? Already?"

 

"Wait, you saw them split up? Why didn't you say anything?" Vivica incredulously replied. She stopped dead in her tracks and spun around. It was then that she discovered a notion as to how Hadrian could see in this foreboding mist and ominous forest.

 

"Your book is glowing."

 

Hadrian shot his eyes down to the book he had tucked under his shoulder. He had been carrying it as he walked, and neglected to gander upon it more after the initial lookover. The eye on the cover was glowing a lurid color of blue. Something from the book plucked at his blood. The boy blinked, and then looked up to Vivica.

 

"I think...I think I've connected to the tome now. It has a few spells here that I'm able to slightly make out. One of them is this enhanced vision, it's cutting through the illusions."

 

"Great, can you see the others?"

 

"It's Great-ness, easy blunder I understand. The answer is no, they're too far gone out of my vision. I-I apologize but I don't think I could find them right now with this power."

 

"It's fine, c'mon Hadrian." Vivica quipped, emphasizing her last word. The young man nodded and followed after her.

 

The two soon reached the clearing. Hadrian stared out to the distance, and suddenly he felt his blood begin to change. The spellbook's connection had become stronger now. His eyes flashed blue, and suddenly he could see the prolific pack of creatures charging towards the Fair Butterfly and himself.

 

"Pray tell, Fair Butterfly, your blade is out?!"

 

Edit:

 

"I see it too. I take it you're not a fighter?"

 

"It is not an it, it is a they. I can fight."

 

Vivica took out an herb grenade and flung it at the pack, watching in silent satisfaction as her homemade ordinance started to hiss and expel light-green gas into the area. This cocktail of chemicals and herbs was effective at warding away wild animals and monsters of the forest or mountains. It wasn't a sure-fire repellent, but it would buy some time for Vivica to prepare herself. As for Hadrian, he set his book onto the floor and closed his eyes. Once he opened them again, his sclera had become completely red, and his skin started to blush a dark shade of crimson. His royal blood seemed to rush to his extremities and heat his body, his clothing wasn't even necessary now, but it did give him a cool look as magical energy blew at his scarf and made it flutter, alongside the hem of his shirt and the ends of his sleeves.

 

"You powering up or something? I-I don't really know, like, what you are?"


Edited by Shmuser Name, 26 October 2015 - 01:12 PM.