mincingminuet: (Fuck Off)
Penelo ([personal profile] mincingminuet) wrote in [community profile] recolle2018-01-12 06:06 pm

[Closed] I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night...

WHO: Penelope Raban, the esper Mateus, and an (un)fortunate few.
WHERE: The streets of Recolle, Recolle Woods, and Kumou Shrine
WHEN: January 12th to January 15th
WHAT: Penelope has regained the demonic summon Mateus that she cannot control without a fight. Mateus flees, seeking to gather support for the inevitable conflict between them and to hurt the people close to Penelope.
WARNINGS: Violence against people and animals, blood, possible gore, potential mentions of ritualistic sacrifices. Other warnings may be added, so please assume this log will involve any number of unpleasant things.





In the early evening outside of Wiffle Waffle, something stirred, and bystanders reported that it seemed just a touch more chillier than normal. Shouts were heard, the resonant crash of steel against steel, and a deep, rasping laugh but few people got a clear picture of what was going on. It wasn't anything to worry about, probably, even if a young woman was spotted limping to her car and driving off like a maniac. Just someone who fell, probably.

Others may have noticed an enormous shape slinking off into the shadows too, but that was just a guy carrying an old Christmas tree. Probably.


I. January 12 to January 14, Streets of Recolle.


In the immediate aftermath of the incident, nothing happened. The creature expected that it would very likely be met with immediate pursuit, but when it wasn't that gave it time to think. Slulking from alley to alley, Mateus considered it's surroundings in bewilderment, maddened by its failed attempt at freedom. It knew only what its summoner did, and the deluge of information took time to process.

Traveling outside the city was simple enough, and surrounded by the cold of Recolle Woods it found a place to build into a stronghold. A shrine with a certain kind of energy to it worked quite nicely, giving it an opportunity to call forth minions.

It needed more support though, and it needed it badly if it wanted it's freedom. Fortunately, this new place seemed a likely place to find the gullible and foolish, those with more ambition or desire than caution. People with darkness in their hearts, the wicked or the misguided. These were people it could use.

The darkness helped, masking its movements and making it easier to study potential allies. Moving with an unnaturally graceful gait for its ungainly form, the esper followed at a distance...weighing and measuring, trying to get a feel for who to approach. When it does, it calls out first in a voice as cold as a glacier, and as dry as a desert. Just a greeting, always delivered from a particularly dense patch of shadows, concealing itself at first.

"Why...hello there," it rasps, "...I was wondering if perhaps we could speak..."


II. January 13 to January 14, Streets of Recolle.


When dawn came, Mateus had come to several conclusions, and chief among them was that it would need to attract its summoner's attention somehow. To draw her in, to keep her off balance, and get her to come in upset. Easier prey, that way, and what better way to draw in a self righteous mortal than to play on her sense of loyalty. Discovering who she held dear was simple enough, they reeked with the girl's scent, and those become its first targets. Others as well, those not allied with the girl, but those who might carry word of the attack back to her.

Skulking, stalking, moving from shadow to shadow, Mateus observes and waits. The attack comes on suddenly, a streaking blur of cold rippling out of a shadow, a demonic form rising up from a snow drift or out of the mouth of an alley. The esper shrieks something unintelligible in a gutteral tongue, and then...

"Where is Penelope?!" before attacking with an arm, its trident, or a spell. Defend yourself, run, or perish!


III. January 14, Recolle Woods/Kumou Shrine.


As the third day arrived, Mateus had decided that staying within the bounds of the city was less than wise. It could not continue these forays into a confusing tangle of concrete and lights, and if it attacked many more people it might draw the eyes of a mortal militia. So into the forest it goes, waiting to see if its labors to attract Penelope are successful.

While out in the forest, though, it hardly remains idle. Humans that visit the Kumou shrine or who are out in the woods are both potential targets or potentially approached if they have a suitable amount of darkness in their hearts. A rustle of leaves, the tinkling of ice crystals, and a sudden deepening of shadow are all that announce its presence.

Individuals it seeks to bargain with will be greeted with a simple "Greetings..." while those it intends to attack will hear only a battlecry before being struck with a shock of freezing cold...

IV. Contact Pen.

If your character wants to contact Penelope after a thread about being attacked, this is the place to do it. Post deal threads involving action with Pen I will reply to in the original thread.


V Any Day, Wild Card.

If there is a specific scenario you'd like to play, or a different set up to being approached or attacked, then feel free to write your own prompt and I will respond with Mateus accordingly. If you want to do a group thread, as some of you guys have mentioned, just leave me a note of who is participating in the subject line as well!

I'm perfectly fine with whatever you want to do, but if you feel the need to get in touch with me OR just have any general questions, please hit me on Plurk. [plurk.com profile] intercession. Reference art linked above courtesy OperatingThetan.

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-14 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
If I were brought into a strange world all of the sudden, I might be scared too. [ Fear leads to violence, lashing out at anything close or who might be responsible, both of which point towards Pen, from Mateus' point of view. ] It talked of wanting to go home... And spoke courteously towards me.

[ So he had no reason to disbelieve anything Mateus said, lacking a normal fear response or even just common sense when it comes to things like monsters he's just discovering could be both ally or foe. All he has to work off is the one encounter that he had, which he thinks is just as valid as Pen's encounter. Towards Minato, it was amiable, and that's what he was back. ]

It stayed in the shadows, so I couldn't get a good look at it. But why should appearances matter...?

yep! o7

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-14 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Maybe he really is just stupid for wanting to believe in anybody and everybody, but the look he returns is set neutral, voice exactly the same. ]

If I were born with extra arms, would we not be friends? You can't understand somebody if you refuse to talk to them.

[ Just talk. He could bring Pen down to the shrine, set up a whole bunch of light in order to keep Mateus away, if that'll get Pen to feel a little safer. He's still optimistic that he can make this work. ]

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-14 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She would be one of the precious few who wouldn't care, and that's exactly why he thought he could convince her of the same for Mateus. For what it's worth, he feels like a demon sometimes, has malevolent thoughts even if he's unable to project them, isn't a pure and wholesome person and never pretends to be. He just believes in redemption and letting things live, maybe get along, maybe be at peace. He believes he isn't completely destroying their friendship when he reaches over his shoulder to take the bow out. ]

I got this from Retrospec. It glows, so I've been using it as light to get around the—

[ He lifts his arm and that's all he needs to do to leave his pocket clear. The Azer bursts free and Minato makes a wild grab for it, and misses. ]

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-15 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ "I'm not—"

"That's not—" ]


Don't hurt it!

[ What is explaining that he didn't know the Azer would some out and rush her like that? All he knows is that if Pen destroys it, he might not be able to find Mateus again without a guide, so he rushes forward to put himself in between the Azer and Pen's knife. His bow is out completely now, though he doesn't reach for any arrows; he tries to reach for the Azer again, and only gets his palm sliced by ice for his troubles. ]

Pen, put that knife away!

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-15 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
[ His gratitude it towards the Azer for healing him, fear and caution towards Pen and her words that whirl in his mind and he tries to clamp down on them, shove them aside in order to process later because he can't deal with this right now. ]

It's not a monster. And—

[ He flinches when her foot strikes the ground, as if it were his own soul being crushed. It's not a monster. He's only ever used his bow as a light, never fired it at any living thing. If she wouldn't come, he would have kept trying to talk to her, but as it is right now...

His teeth grit, jaws clenched. ]


This is nothing to do with being friends.
Edited 2018-01-15 03:47 (UTC)

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-15 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Rather than tackling the Tonberry, Minato runs his shoulder into the Azer to knock it askew; whatever backlash he gets from driving his arm into spikes of ice he can deal with, with or without healing, but he won't let the Tonberry hurt it, he won't let the Azer hurt Pen, and --he draws an arrow, points it at her-- he won't let Pen hurt his Azer either. ]

That goes both ways— you're not even giving what I'm saying a chance!

[ And there's no way she's going to anymore, or ever again, he realizes, not with him pointing his arrow straight at her face. ]

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-15 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know.

[ He didn't even think the Azer was sentient when Mateus had formed it out of the air, like drawing the snow into the palm of its hand until it crystallized. That doesn't forgive his blind trust— all things are in charge of their own agency, it's not his fault that the Azer attacked, that's what he wanted to believe, but even as the thought runs through his mind, he knows that's an excuse not to take responsibility. ]

I didn't know. It said it wanted to talk. [ He jerks his bow sideways and lets the arrow fly; it hits the robes around the Tonberry's feet, pinning it to the ground, and Minato draws the next arrow. ] It wanted to be free— to go home! To make a home for itself!

[ He sympathized; that's why he believed so easily in Mateus. He was also somebody who had cut himself loose in order to make his own home, and if he had to destroy everything around him to do it, so be it. He had the power to do so. ]

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-16 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ He could probably scream his intentions all he wants and they would fall on deaf ears, so he gives up, clenching his teeth as his arm raises before his face to defend himself from the bite. Its teeth sink into his arm, but he doesn't try to throw it off or grab hold of it; he drops the arrow but not the bow, staggering towards Tons and the Azer and he swings the bow down in between them like a sword.

Stop fighting.

Stop.

STOP.
]

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-16 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ Minato goes down easily, and he goes down hard. He can feel the warmth of the bow leave his hand when he drops it, seconds before his back hits the ground. There's no pain. Not in his back, not where Pen drove her shoulder into his chest, not in his arm when the tomato's teeth tears off his arm and splatters the snow with red. All he feels is heavy and numb, Pen's voice an angry buzz in his ears that he ignores before he can't make sense of it. He turns away from her to shove past Tons and throw his jacket over the Azer as if it's attacking by sight and not sense- throws his own both over the damned bundle of ice because maybe it's not a friend, but it took care of him and he hasn't yet repaid that debt. ]

[personal profile] compendiem 2018-01-16 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ Thanks for sticking around, Azer...

Minato straightens up and stares at Gilgamesh, almost defiantly. He wasn't able to explain anything, wasn't able to clear up anything, wasn't able to stop anything. He can't just leave... But the choice isn't his. Pen makes it for him and Gilgamesh voices it: leave.

He takes a step back, wanting to say something about betrayal or friendship or apologies, but that's no longer his place. So he simply stoops to pick up his bow, without a glance or word at Pen. Mateus... There's no point of returning to the demon when the Azer took that job upon itself, but a part of him feels like he should apologize for failing it. For failing Pen. Failing himself.

A sigh, visible in the cold night air.

And he walks away, wondering if he should turn himself in to the hospital, or just go home. Home sounds nice. ]