[open] september/october catchall

[techmaturgy]

Who: Viktor and special guests and YOU
When: Post-Nocwich, through September and early October
Where: Cadens, Libertas the Horizon
What: open stuff, closed stuff, Libertas stuff, horizon visits, whatever I WANT
Warnings: the usual references to terminal illness, will list additional warnings as needed.

[open and closed starters in comments! If you want a custom starter or something specific, just hit me up. full horizon details are here for any and all wildcarding needs. For everything else, I’m on plurk at whitticus and on discord at whitticus#8139.]

Comments

[ofthesword]

[Absolutely farthest from the worst thing he's ever had on his hand. He'll take slobber over demon guts any day.

Viktor's answer gives him a pause.] Shit. Yeah. Good point.

[Thorne's not made an enemy of Solvunn, likely because they're playing both sides right now. Until they fuck around, or get in the way. Until then, Nero's not shaking the feeling Solvunn's got tricks up their sleeves among that little council that no one else is privy to.

Once Rio's eaten what he had hold of, he wipes his hand on his pants.] Big sticky thing. I'd call it a demon, but I'm not really sure what constitutes demons out here. And it only showed up after one of the shrines reacted, so... gotta imagine something's infesting at least a few of them.

[techmaturgy]

[He offers a little shrug. Yes, it was a good point, thanks very much. Right now, it doesn't seem prudent to alienate Solvunn or accuse them of anything, when any allies against Thorne might be helpful. If anything, Viktor thinks that the Free Cities might be able to help Solvunn stand against Thorne's power, if it becomes necessary.]

I admit I don't put much stock in the supernatural.

[Because that's what this sounds like--Viktor is appropriately a skeptic, though perhaps less of one, given his dabblings in magic. Still, if Nero has empirical evidence, he's interested in hearing about it.]

What do you think they want?

[ofthesword]

[In hindsight, he is enjoying that he can drop words like "demons" in casual conversation and not get more than a bit of curiousity. The more he meets people, the more it's like they're all from extremely fucked up worlds, that more often than not got monsters walkin' around. Really helps Nero explain these things without having to dance around someone else's lack of belief.]

Don't really consider demons supernatural, I guess. They're just monsters. [He gestures to Rio.] Plenty of people would think she was, too.

[Demons just happen to be from, you know, another dimension. Whatever.

If he's gonna settle in with explanation -- and Viktor is actually interested, feels like -- he needs a seat. So he finds a little outcrop of rock that's flat enough it won't poke him in the ass, and takes a seat. Shadow curls up herself behind him, tail thumping against stone.] Hard to say. You know, most of 'em want simple stuff. Human blood. Chaos. Destruction. Bein' the king. They're not super complicated. But this one didn't attack or anything, so... if anything, I'd say it wants people out there, deep in the woods. For what reason, though, I got nothin'. So far. It might just be luring stupid assholes into the woods to feed something else. I'm sure plenty couldn't resist the temptation of finding whatever's hidin' out there.

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor supposes it doesn’t matter what they’re called, though demon implies a different level of power than the monsters one might find in the desert. Or Rio, fair enough. The rest of it is certainly interesting, though not necessarily something they’re experiencing in Cadens. Maybe he should be glad for that.]

In my experience, the correct solution is usually the simplest one.

[Nero seems to be ascribing behavior based on what he knows from his world, which could be correct, or entirely off the mark in a place like this. What Nero’s describing could be calculated. It could be an animal acting like an animal.]

Is there an indication that whatever it is—in the forest, I mean—is sentient?

wrap up around here?

[ofthesword]

[Nero snorts.] Yeah? Wish everything always stayed simple.

[Things could definitely be divided down in smaller parts. Made simple. But everything he's always encountered always ends up being so fucking complicated.

And for that reason, among others, he figures the thing he saw is just like a blinking neon light. A snare. The wiggling lil bit on those weird deep ocean fish. Very attractive bait to someone like a devil hunter.

At least he can say the appearance wasn't tailored exclusively to him. Wanda saw the same. But he wouldn't put it past it, if that's what it was posted at a shrine for.]

I wanna say yeah, but it's not a simple explanation. Call it intuition. But there's enough weird shit in the forest that something out there is definitely calling to people. Whether it's just a bigger monster is, you know. Up in the air.

good thread. enjoy your new lizard friend

[techmaturgy]

[In many ways, this is not necessarily his problem--it's highly unlikely that he'll be dealing with the monsters outside of Solvunn anytime soon, though there's no guaranteeing that similar entities aren't out in the deserts of Cadens, or that all of it won't bleed into the Singularity eventually.

He's not sure what he can do, but monitoring events like these seems to be a start.]

I would be interested in hearing about anything else you find. [If only to keep an eye on it.] You're welcome to come back. I'm sure Rio would enjoy the company.