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Post by Anthony Cartwright on Nov 14, 2021 21:45:12 GMT -8
Get me out of this state I'm in, When I spiral down, it's a vile spin, Got something I can't hide, Still alive, it's an overwhelming drive
To prevail and get out of this jail.
Having found family in the Court of riches, greed, and new beginnings had its perks. Accepting that bizarre narrative as his life, Tony agreed to Abigail's networking opportunity to secure him an internship within the realms of Good and Safe. He had a stable relationship with a supportive harpy, had a crystal Amazon teaching him how to shoot and defend himself, and a dragon making sure he didn't feel crazy or defective. He was trying to take a page from his late father's attitude and decide that all these were good things. Because what the hell was the alternative? "Heard things were about to get a little crazy. Can you at least let me see it coming?"
The reedy CEO was one of the Fae, who had become decidedly nervous since the turn of the season. Their moods changed on a clock, sure, but he hadn't recalled a Fall where Abigail and Serena were constantly looking over their shoulders or snapping at someone coming around the corner. His developing kinesiology degree had grown beyond helping Kai with tourists at the ranch to a full blown program where he was responsible for rotating clients, who happened to be very stressed out investors, traders, and analysts. Tony was being paid well above what was to be expected for an internship, but he was pulling his weight in designing nutrition plans, and running workout sessions that Nate Henley had implemented for a beneficial tax write-off. Stock volatility was one of the leading causes for heart attacks. Go figure. His professors were excited for him, even if Tony knew it was inevitably cronyism. Would be a shame to waste the opportunity, though. The faerie's high anxiety presented another one, tapping the known variable for a Bargain to keep him hidden from encroaching dangers. He had done it before with Serena—Aello—and knew the second time around that it was better to secure a boon in the exchange. As Henley mulled his request over, with the anticipation he was just going to argue that he was already paying him well and giving him a goddamn career launch, the young student's brow pinched as his phone buzzed. It had been long established that no amount of professional criticism prevented the mundie from checking his messages. The alternative was panic attacks, or Tony simply leaving. It seemed worth it this time, however. Tony stared at it longer than the usual exasperated hiss; his thumb not moving to fire off a text to never bother him during the nine to five.
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Post by Henley on Nov 16, 2021 18:20:13 GMT -8
Henley was leaning back in his chair, long fingers steepled and lips pursed. On one hand, it was a risk. Normally, he'd have told the kid no, without a second thought. If his mother didn't give him the Sight, and neither had Squire Rose, why would he stick his neck out? It wasn't something he would normally feel inclined to do.
On the other hand, it was Anthony's wish, and unbeknownst to the Ogre, he was deeply infected by the Title that was rampaging about the Freehold. Inhibition to the wind, he gave a nod immediately.
"Sure, that can be something I grant you, so long as we add to the deal that you promise to warn me as soon as possible if you notice any weird beings rolling up on me or our office."
Why not? If Solomon's laser cannon was teaching him how to fight, it made sense to let the kid get between him and the bad guys. Henley wasn't exactly a fighter, was he?
"I offer you a Bargain, then, Dreamer: I shall grant you the sight and the job as agreed in your mortal contract that you signed on employment; in exchange, your acknowledgment shall defend me. You agree that you shall not reveal my nature to anyone not sworn to the Freehold, and should you notice a being that your Sight shows you is supernatural coming toward me, my staff or my business, you shall warn me forthwith. Three months duration, and we'll discuss renewal at that time. Do those terms sound reasonable to you?"
If they did, he would do the Reveal. There was no time to lose. The Huntsman had to be eluded.
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Post by Anthony Cartwright on Nov 17, 2021 19:35:26 GMT -8
Anthony almost jumped, schooling his expression at the ease of negotiation. Usually Henley would twist and barter at least a little bit.
"Yes it does."
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Post by Henley on Nov 19, 2021 14:46:37 GMT -8
"Then let it be done. See me as I am, so that others who with me harm may not."
The financier's door was closed and locked, giving him enough time to do what needed to be done here. The facsimile of skin began to ripple off him like fat sloughing off of water for a moment, then it all shattered, his true height and reed-thin nature apparent. He pressed his Will into the binding, binding their Bargain with the power of the Wyrd. It was good. Important. The season of the Hunt was nigh, and he wasn't interested in being captured by the Herald's master. The Ogre leaned forward, looming over the desk at the shorter mortal.
"Quite the world you walk in, isn't it, Mr. Cartwright?"
The Drowner smiled.
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Post by Krakenbox on Nov 21, 2021 21:18:33 GMT -8
Anthony tried his best to play it cool, but the striking vibrancy that Arcadia promised would always clench mortals hearts on a visceral level. A small sound from the back of his throat escaped as he stopped himself from gasping, slightly leaning back on instinct with a forced neutrality that made his stoicism all the more obvious.
"Yeah. I'm waiting for a mystic crone to hand me a legendary sword, or learn I have a sacred bloodline of angels and devils," he responded jokingly. It's all he really could do at this point. The glamour shimmering across his vision like sparkling sand cleared as he blinked a few times, or maybe was absorbed. Clearing his throat as he did his best to casually switch gears—like it was No Big Deal—he flipped his phone around for Henley to take a proper gander.
"Normally I'd ignore this kind of thing, but at this point I'm just going to assume this shit is legit until a fairy tells me otherwise."
Snapchat was open, with a low-quality image of the pavement and a crudely scratched symbol. The text attached proclaimed: Welcome To The Game.
Along with a phone number.
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Post by Henley on Nov 21, 2021 23:42:04 GMT -8
The Ogre just grinned at the angels and devils comment. Then, he saw the weird photograph. The symbol. The number.
"...huh. Okay. Let me see that."
Henley took a quick photograph of the photograph, not wanting to lose the Snap. It was evidence, and those things disappeared.
"Who did you receive that from, Tony? And have you received anything else of a weird nature lately?"
He pulled up his own internet browser and started searching different combinations, throwing in descriptions of the symbol, discussion of the phone number, and the like. Start simple, go from there.
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Post by Anthony Cartwright on Nov 22, 2021 22:53:05 GMT -8
The number existed, but Henley was mildly convinced it was a ghost number over the local dentist—it would display as a local number and reroute to something unexpected in order to appear more legitimate. Wasn't Rx for pharmaceuticals? The larger portion looked like a demonic sigil, like what the symbol cult paraded around in the horror movie Hereditary.
"Dead account. I've seen that graffiti before on campus and a few back alley bars, though. I know it's got a rumour going around that people are perpetuating and copying for clout. People making videos around it to participate in sharing spooky stories and theories. Either started on reddit or someone's group chat, but it's on a few platforms at this point. The following is local and nothing loud so far, where I actually don't remember the tag for it. Getting sent it is supposed to bad, though, so I guess I've pissed someone off or one of my friends think it's funny. If I catch anyone filming me the next few days, like, I wouldn't be surprised."
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Post by Henley on Nov 23, 2021 11:15:57 GMT -8
Henley blinked at the sigil, narrowing his eyes, his mouth lolling open a bit with his face arranged like 'what the fuck' as he stared at the symbol. This was some nerd shit. He took a photograph and fired it off to Gavin Graves along with a text message. Any idea what the fuck this is about? Sent to a normie I know by a dead account. Strange stuff or bullshit?
"Kay. Well. Either it's a prank, or it's some occult bullshit. And I've just sent this off to my favorite nerd. So. We'll see what he thinks, yeah?"
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Post by Gavin Graves on Nov 23, 2021 14:38:43 GMT -8
Henley quickly got a text reply. "I see three symbols used in Alchemy: 'Take' and 'Crucible' and what seems to be an inverted 'Mercury' buried within one of the Sigils. The rest looks to be Goetia."
"Gimme a minute. I'm going to need to look some of this stuff up. The season's whispers are buzzing in my head just looking at this."
His reply didn't come quickly. When Nate bumped the thread again impatiently, the Beast merely replied "Sec."
It took nearly ten minutes before Gavin called Henley back.
"Hey. So I've done some digging and I've got quite a lot to say, so bear with me."
"These are all legit occult symbols from a couple of sources, like I said. You've got the Alchemical prescription symbol, which means 'Take,' like 'take this pill' but, it's in conjunction with the symbol for 'soul.' So the obvious thing comes to mind: 'Soul-theft.' That's the left branch of the Sigil. The right branch is the Alchemical symbol for crucible, but it is contained within another symbol I'm trying to track down. Identifying the containing symbol will put the crucible into context. Crucible can commonly mean trial, ordeal, or purification. Since there are other alchemical symbols, at first blush I'm leaning purification."
The tone and pacing of his speech clearly indicated this was going to be a lot of information. The Beast had been uncorked.
"Now, in the middle, bottom and top you've mostly got Goetia. The symbols for the names of Demons. On the top you've got Phenex, a Marquis of Hell also more commonly and favourably known as Phoenix. A warning is given about him: give no ear to his song and convince him into a human shape to get him to instead speak poetry and of all the sciences."
"In the middle and bottom you've got a bastardization of the Sigil for Amducias, another more powerful Demon. He's reported to have claws for hands and feet and the head of a Unicorn and the power of a trumpet or thunder with his voice. He can be called upon to play a disembodied symphony of his 'music' and bend all trees and plants to his will."
Anthony watched Nate, hearing the incessant chirping of a voice over someone else's phone, wondering if it would ever stop.
"What is of particular note here is generally Goetic Sigils are found within summoning or binding circles. The presence of the circles would indicate someone had called upon those entities to do their traditional services. These are unbound. The names here are self-professed or unbidden."
"Within the Sigil for Amducias is the inverted Alchemical symbol for Mercury. Mercury is generally associated with the transition between life and death. Sublimated within the name of a Demon, it could indicate it is controlling or withholding the transition of that state."
"The presence of the two types of symbols here is interesting as well. Alchemy is like mystical chemistry and the physics around reactions and their formulaic outcomes. Which makes sense in the context of the science bird, but it is attached to the Unicorn, not the bird. The Unicorn might be using the knowledge of the bird to accomplish things it doesn't necessarily fully control. The patterning of magics and names in this way might introduce the vulnerabilities and particularities of both Alchemy and Goetia, and quite possibly be a means of escaping the interference of someone who only knows one of the arts."
"I'd dare say we'd need a couple of books on Alchemy and the Clavicula Solomonis to be most certain."
"But I'm getting a little carried away here," the manic bird finally stopped. "Give me all the context you have. I'll narrow it down."
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Post by Henley on Nov 23, 2021 15:36:18 GMT -8
The call was taken on speakerphone, allowing Anthony to hear what was going on. The Ogre explained that the human involved was in the know, closely related to the Spring Court, bound by Oath and that his information would probably be important to know what was going on. Henley took notes in a fevered shorthand that wouldn't mean much to anyone but him, thinking it over with a frown on his face. When the Razorhand was done, Henley let out a little grunt.
"Well, Tony, I think the answer we have here is 'it's probably occult bullshit'."
The Terrible offered a shrug and a quiet chuckle before he leaned forward in his chair, drawing it closer to the desk as he prepared to get to work.
"All right. This sigil was sent by Snapchat to Mr. Cartwright here. He tells me it came from a dead account, but that he had seen it graffiti'd on campus and a few dive bars. Apparently there is a rumour associated with it that people are pushing about, and spreading it while they share stories and theories. Apparently, it started on Reddit or a group chat, but it has spread around - so far, locally only. He tells me that getting sent it is supposed to be bad, so either he has upset someone or someone he knows thinks it is a good joke. Personally, my mind goes to 'stories have power' and the like, but largely local spread and it appearing in the hands of an associate of ours makes me suspicious that its origins are focused on Las Vegas. Does that help? Buy the books, I'll cover the bill."
He looked to Anthony.
"If you can remember any other details or oddities you've experienced lately that may relate, that may be helpful."
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Post by Anthony Cartwright on Nov 23, 2021 20:47:06 GMT -8
Anthony blinked, silently pleased that he had not been dismissed. He snorted quietly with a small smile as the excitement of Henley's Spring Mantle paired with Gavin's intense rant over the receiver. Glancing at Henley, he wasn't sure if he should be taking notes either, but he doubted he would know the spelling for the listed demons.
Wanting to deliver, he sent out a few texts to inquire with friends he figured would know more.
Henley detects that something has indeed been cast on the recipient of his Bargain, however it was somewhat frustrating given the fact that he had just been granted the Sight.
"Hey," he answered in a friendly greeting as Henley mentioned him, looking up from his phone as messages began to trickle in. "I guess the idea is that you call this ghost number at 2:30 AM, where you say 'I wish for the power to curse', and the response is supposed to say 'welcome to the Game'. You have to come up with a way that causes you to suffer constantly as a warding charm against the demon, or you're dragged off to hell in a dream after ten days. You can extend your time by cursing others by giving them the symbol and repeating the phrase, where it doubles, but then is basically halved with every person you tag in. So, like: first person I extend my time to another ten days, then five, then two, then one. If you make the call yourself, things start going your way? It makes it hard to hit the win condition, but I guess people are trying it out and swearing it's boosting their GPAs, or getting the girlfriend they've wanted. That kind of shit."
He paused, picking up on the obvious question, "I guess people were sending the symbols to transient tourists, but now there's two people missing from the dorms and some people are blaming the Game...Sarah Pullman and Hassan Dhaliwal."
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Post by Gavin Graves on Nov 23, 2021 22:43:28 GMT -8
"Thank you Mr. Cartwright! With that additional info, I think the last symbol I was having trouble with has become clear." Gavin sounded relieved to finally have what he considered the last piece of the puzzle.
It was because it too was a bastardization of another element. I think the reticle looking dealy around the inverted triangle bit with a tail is a deeply modified solar cross. The solar cross is supposed to be protective in nature. This one has been modified to protect only if the subject is in pain. Put into the context of the word crucible, a purifying level of pain." To Gavin this math seemed obvious, but he went to the trouble of explaining it to those who can't hear Autumn whisper its sweet nothings in his ear.
"So the Demons in question line up very well with this creepy pasta alchemy amalgam you've got there. The only fully intact Demon name within that depiction though is Phenex. Everything is an extension on him and his power. I suspect I previously had it reversed maybe. Yeah, he could be being loaned some additional power from Amducius to amplify the effects of his alchemy and do things he might otherwise not be able to."
"Even if it is not an actual Demon, if there is such a thing, whatever it is has adopted the trappings of its legend. It might similarly have reshaped its power to borrow the legend and taken up some of its patterns. The pattern of that magic likely also inflicts its legend's costs."
"Point being it may have taken on a taboo or three that can be exploited, and that's something I know how to work with."
When Henley sensibly asked what could be done about it. Gavin sputtered a bit. "Stopping the effects. Right. Woof. Okay."
A long pause hung static on the line as he considered. A page turning cut through.
"So looking at Phenex, he tends to be an obedient little monster to his superior but also to his summoner. It might be possible to summon him and bind him within a proper ward using the Clavicula Solomonis as a guide. We use the summoning task to get him to do something that requires him to take on a human form so we can disconnect the power of his bird song from his voice. From there, enhh, we can burn that bridge while we're on it, yeah?"
"Fuck me dead, I can't believe I just said all that." The Beast sounded suddenly and overwhelmingly self-conscious. "I know exactly how crazy it sounds and I'll thank you to not put it into words. Lemme just run the mental math on this one more time to make sure I haven't missed anything."
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Post by Henley on Nov 24, 2021 10:21:44 GMT -8
"Unicorns. Birds. Songs of power. Hell in a dream. Soul theft. In the context of an invasion by an Other for whom such things are symbols. A fucking songbird showed up at Coronation to herald its coming. What if this is actually just part of Its play?"
Henley was staring at the phone.
"If that's the case, then I'm afraid we're going to have to take this very seriously. I just swore a Bargain with Mr. Cartwright here. He can See us now, and is shielding me from the Huntsman through the Pledge. If the rumours are true... then he is in grave danger, indeed, and if he should fall, I'm not long for this world after him. Nor is anyone who received an invitation to this... Game. And we've got days to solve this."
He drummed long fingers on the table, glancing at Tony.
"Do you want to tell Ivory and Rose about your specific... involvement? Or do you want to help us solve it yourself?"
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Post by Anthony Cartwright on Nov 24, 2021 22:55:33 GMT -8
Anthony exhaled sharply, stifling an inappropriate chuckle as Gavin stopped mid-rant to consider the scale of actually tackling the problem. Adding Satanic Cult extermination to his list of bizarre experiences seemed like a natural evolution to the situation. His fingers drummed silently against the fabric of the armrest, where reality refused to set in and his mind buzzed with a disassociated stoicism. It wasn't that he found it funny, more just the inability to fully digest the absurdity.
Ask Henley for a faerie favour, immediately get cursed and his debt called in.
Well, obviously that was the way it had to be. It's not like most of the fables warned of this kind of crap.
With Henley's question, he blinked from his numb stupor of simply focusing on the occultist's chatter. The mundie was clearly mulling it over, taking the prompt as seriously as the Bargain and running some complicated math wrought with familial obligations and his own collected issues with agency.
Ivory? Was that what she went by?
The reveal of her alternate identity caused Tony to turn a little grey, though without context it just appeared that he was stressed about the curse. It felt wrong to learn about it so casually, with the way Kai and Abigail had kept it from him, like he had committed some kind of deep breach of privacy that set off all sorts of emotion he didn't have control over. He ran his hands over his face as he silently counted to himself, trying to get back to Nate's question. Abi- Ivor- Abigail would sit on him while Kai took the reigns, and with Nate's kidnapper in the mix it would likely cause him to break his end of the promise. He wasn't sure if he would survive two broken vows without dragging his family's name through the mud of the fairy court and fuck with Ivory's meticulously hoarded status. Nate would be angry, and he had done him a real solid today, but he had money and a deeply ingrained honour code Tony had witnessed from Kai's unfiltered rage over his small betrayal. He had a duty, though his own life seemed to be getting gambled.
Tony recalled his feelings when he realize he would never be in the same circle as his would-be fae guardians, where even Evelyn held a special spot because she was touched by something more.
He just needed to be useful.
"They would absolutely stop me from helping you, and that would fuck us both. Gavin seems to know more than both of them when it comes to paranormal investigation? I'll call when it's absolutely necessary and you need more fire power." He knew Henley wasn't hurting for cash, plus he would just offer his own before tapping Abigail.
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Post by Gavin Graves on Nov 26, 2021 15:45:37 GMT -8
"Alright, yeah, the Phenex and Amducius goetia, plus the layers of alchemy, carry the Roman Psychopomp, yep, math checks out." He said with confidence. "So the way I believe it's doing its work is implanting the idea in human minds using its adopted legendry."
"In layman's terms, its a Faerie being using memes from the collective consciousness of human history that it adjusted to suit its purposes." It was a fairly apt parallel.
"Now it's an educated guess, but I think the power takes root in the human mind when a person perpetuates it, either by willingly calling the number and saying the phrase or by believing after receiving a call from someone already cursed and then when they pass it on. From that moment it becomes real to the participant and grants it power and the permission to eventually claim them. It meters out a little blessing here and there to nudge things in the direction it wants. It essentially creates a metered Ponzi scheme of power because it has to manage those blessings to match the pace of its new participants. Eventually it will become self-sustaining, if it's not already. So first thing we need to accomplish is a stop to the new participation and mitigate its power."
"In short, we counter-meme the bastard," even though the words sounded like bunk, he said them with authority. This was a war of ideas. It didn't matter that the ideas were all bullshit. They had power.
"We get the idea out there that an equally weighty symbol and set of actions breaks the curse or protects the infected. We might just catch him while he's going exponential on the outflow of power and suddenly the balancing inflow stops. People stop joining, people stop disappearing, the blessings stop because it can't power enough of them to sustain the belief broadly, further undoing the belief in its power. In its weakened state, we call it up under its adopted rituals and work it over with its taboos and banes."
"Backup plan, we arrange for the phone system to be shutdown during the narrow time-window where the curse can be perpetuated on each night. I don't know who would have the juice for that kind of thing though."
Though Gavin was confident in the nature of what had to happen, it was still a lot to do. Some of it he wasn't sure he could do himself. Particularly the things that involved reaching a lot of people.
"Then, I extract whatever I can out of it for our future fights before doing something as permanent or damaging as I can think up to take it off the board for a while. The obliteration that a Sentry can deliver could do the trick I imagine." Where he'd choose to perform such a summoning was still up in the air. Inside the wards and it might be smoke and ash before anything useful was extracted. Outside the wards and there might not be enough firepower to take it down. He was pretty sure he didn't have the authority to summon an agent of the Good Cousins within Vegas and not break his Oath. Bastion might have the authority to allow the operation and have some ability to direct or stay the actions of the Sentries.
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