ORIGIN

Continued from [EVENT] Makin' My Way Downtown

The trolley took a small tour through the main street of the city, its curbs and alleys littered with various bones and some glittering stones, before it finally came to a rest in the corner of the city center, entering a large and spacious station. Azigh had followed it in silence, but as it stopped to suggest its passengers depart, he let out a small and thoughtful hum.

"It is not as bad as I thought it might be," he admitted, still taking in its sights. "Perhaps its minders are still about—oh!" At the cut of his voice, a hand left his face to point sharply at the corner of a tall building. "There, did you see it?" chimed his voice, its tones and whispers light on the air. Whatever he had seen was gone now, but its possible one of the others might have caught a glimpse: a cat-like creature, but from where they were, it was hard to make out much else. It had slipped from view into one of the windows.

"Then, indeed, they still mind the city," he mused, "but it may do good to seek out the inventor." His wings stretched and then resettled at his side while he turned to look at the multitude of display windows and signs that bordered the city center beyond the mossy but trickling fountain and lush, flowering greenery; benches and tables surrounded the fountain in what might have been a tidy and cozy park.

He could not remember which of these buildings was the workshop but he never really visited the city anyway. In fact, he much preferred the desolate and quiet air that settled on its forgotten buildings than the loud and noisy bustle of the city in its prime.

Azigh would remain a moment, hesitant to completely abandon the gembounds straightaway, but he was eager to get back to Pegasus.

@Wilder @Kai (Manticore, Hecate) @Tourmaline @Mossie

To say Tourmaline had not seen anything like the city would be an understatement. Sure, the crumbling buildings in Orion resembled some of these, but this was far more massive, reaching from floor to cave ceiling. The dark beckoned, the intoxicating lure of adventure and lives long forgotten.

She barely even caught sight of the 'Minders' Azigh spoke of, the thing darting away just as she looked up. Even so, some sign of life was far better than none. "At least it's not totally abandoned," she offers as a small comfort, before jumping from her seat to leave the trolley.

It was hard to imagine the city in its prime, especially for one who had never seen it in the first place. Even so, Tourmaline channels her magic, hoping something will give her answers as she sweeps over the vine-covered road. Her senses hone, and she focuses on the information they gather.

Kai had abandoned the tram at the first stop, following along with Azigh and Manticore on foot. This place frightened her on some instinctive level, the shadows of its unnatural angles promising myriad perfect ambush points in which a predator might lurk. The fur along her back was bushed into a thin, vertical strip as if to signal her unease.

"So-... what was this place for?" she asked, trying to swallow it down. Her tone, at least, she managed to keep calm. "Was there a reason it was--ahh, abandoned? That it's empty?" she tried. Conversation. Focus on words. On the relatively familiar back-and-forth of chitchat.

Not on the dark corners. The lurking alleys. The flash and dim of lights that left the eyes briefly blinded, again and again and again...

Kai's heart was thudding in her chest.

"And, ahh--what was it?" Faint alarm at whatever had been up there: was it dangerous..?

She sent out her magicka a moment later, feeling with cautious threads through the unseen streets. Was it wholly dead? Did plants still flourish here, somewhere, beneath the broken lights..? Or was it lifeless, only dust and... whatever the 'minders' were?

He'd asked the same question as they'd initially arrived: a blunt "Why is it empty?" But where Kai was fearful, he was indifferent. This place was unusual enough to spark some curiosity in him, certainly: Manticore was looking around, considering the strangeness of the place.

But mostly he just plodded along, following, wings occasionally shuffling around on his back and tail swaying stiffly behind him. And for whatever reason, he seemed to have accepted Azigh as his boss, for now. As though he answered to the room guardian, he turned to him. "What should we do? Who is an Inventor?" he asked.

His frustration at his magic still lingered, the traces of a growl in his voice--but it wasn't directed at Azigh. It was just Chaos, the faint promise of violence and whisper of battle pulling at him. For now, however, the young Valkhound focused, though his tail flicked now and then like that of an irritated cat.

She rode inside the tram, perched at its front, until it at last stopped at the final station. All the while she gazed up at the strangeness of straight planes and sharp angles, the sheer verticality and plunging shadows. The lights flickering didn't bother her, given that she was already half-blind: the details of the buildings and even their color were lost to her.

But it seemed a good place to rest, and the headache that now pushed its way in--its throbbing slowly increasing in intensity--was a promise that she'd need to do so soon. A side effect of her stone's location, among other things, though she didn't realize as much herself.

She flitted silently through the door, then turned midair and swept up to the tram's roof, landing there with a scratch of talons. Owlish head turned this way and that, and then she took flight again, alighting on the platform this time. Again she tried shamelessly to push her magic into it, voicing a silent demand for its secrets (or at least its past) to reveal themselves to her.

The stranger that sort of looked like her, she realized, was asking some of the same questions that she held in her mind. What was the thing they'd seen? What was this place for, and why was it now empty? What were they meant to do?

Oh, but there was another question, one a greedier mind could summon up, and one that an ambitious one might cling to. Hecate asked it. "Is there anything useful here? Anything that was left behind?" Anything that she could claim, or take?

Wilder remained on the roof of the trolley, her eyes round and wide as they passed through the city. Lots of different feelings were racing through her at the moment - awe and wonder at this incredible city, fear at the bones scattering, apprehension at the shape in the window. She cast out her magic quickly, to scan the surroundings for possible...dangers, but her nerves caused her magic to flicker and all she ended up feeling was a blast of

oh, shit, CHAOS. EVERYWHERE.

Her fur immediately fluffed out and she almost fell off the edge of the trolley's roof, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Not realizing that it had simply been one of the travellers below, she just gripped the trolley and tried not to let her voice shake as she called out to Azigh.

"It's incredible but...why are there bones? Was there fighting?" She wanted to know the story, what had happened here, why this place had been closed off and the tunnel collapsed. She shivered, imagination starting to run a little wild and suddenly she found herself not as adventurous as moments ago in the face of the terrifying unknown.

Game Master CJ

Tourmaline

Kai

Manticore

Hecate

Wilder