Now that Magic and Masterminds is finished, I can share some of my favorite pogs that I made for the session! In order...
- Countess Pugguie Mary; the humanoid form of the “pug of death”. A Vampire/Werewolf hybrid who preferred remaining in her dog form.
- Aetius’ true shape; a dullahan who watched over the Sleepy Hollow. Very rarely in his true shape.
- Atticus Maruska; or Nevan Dehime’s dead body being piloted by the soul of the man who killed his mentor. Atticus had no magic to speak of- instead relying on weaponry to fight his battles.
- The Big Bad, Steven; a lich who sought to take over Araquu for the ley-line it rested atop. In the end, he was defeated by the power of friendship, and also being hit really really hard.
- Azurite’s true shape; a dragon from Eiriol’s home world, and one of her friends. Works at the Sleepy Hollow.
- Cadwgan; a fearsome dragon who also hailed from Eiriol’s home world, and was in fact the cause of their migrating to Earth. He worked for Steven largely for the chance to cause chaos, though wasn’t happy about being his literal dragon, and was defeated and then imprisoned.
If you want to watch/listen to Magic and Masterminds, you can do so here.
Araquu Journal Session #15 - A Mae Zing Training Kind of Day
Time: After Session #21
Characters: Cecily, Zing, Yahzu, Drewett
Posts indented like this were typed by the GM.
Posts that were not indented were typed by the player.
With stakes being stacked, and growth coming slow, Cecily decides she needs to learn some new tricks...
Somehow, Cecily felt she was going to find a way to regret this. She was standing in the DISC Unit station’s elevator and tapping her foot with slight anxiety. Of course, the swordswoman knew she didn’t really have much options or choices left when it came to preparation to recent events. That being said, she got off on the designated floor and walked straight towards the Second DISC Unit office. “Well,” she says when opening the door. “Keep an open mind.”
No sooner than Cecily walks into the door, a frog suddenly lands directly on her face, springboarding off of her and onto a nearby desk, as Sir Drewett very barely manages to stop himself from slapping Cecily in an attempt to grab it. Zing is sitting in a chair, sipping a cup of tea like this is normal, and Yazhu is nowhere to be seen.
“Ugh, bleh!” Cecily said, wiping her face and sticking out her tongue. A frog just landed on her face and she almost catch a smack from Drewett too. Lovely start. “What the hell?!”
"Hi Cecily!" Captain Zing waves. "We're helping Drewett with his reaction time and such." The frog seems to stick out its tongue at Drewett, who - despite being living armor, seems enraged as he resumes chasing it around.
“...You’re doing that in the office?” Cecily says with bewilderment. “Aren’t you worried about breaking stuff?”
"I have the utmost faith that Yazhu will not lead Drewett to anything that can be broken."
“Wait... Yazhu?” Cecily blinks with her single visible eye. She only looked around the place and wondered if she overlooked the small boy. Still, she didn’t see him. “What are you talking abo- ...Wait.” Now Cecily is just slowly looking at the frog Drewett is chasing. It can’t be.
As she stares, the frog jumps onto Drewett's head, spinning his helmet so it's on backwards, then springs away and continues taunting him. Pretty human-like actions, I'd say. "Yazhu uses Frog magic," Zing explains.
“Well, if he ever jumps on me again I’ll stomp on him,” Cecily just comments while just being in awe when it came to the second unit’s weirdness. And she thought her team was the only wild bunch. “A-anyways, Captain Zing. Seeing as you don’t look busy, I need to ask you something important.”
"Is this about my sword?" she asks. "Tashi said you might be asking about it."
“Well... it sort of involves that,” Cecily says, scratching her face with conflicting emotion.
She nods. "All right guys, that's enough for now!" Zing calls, and the two separate. With a poof and a ribbit, Yazhu turns back into himself, and the two sit down to discuss what they were doing right and wrong. Zing then turns her full focus onto Cecily. "What's up?"
The sound of a gulp comes from Cecily’s throat as she looks only directly at Zing. After a deep exhale of breath, the swordswoman immediately bows in front of the Captain. “Please train me under swordsmanship!”
"Okay, sure!" Zing smiles. Huh, that was remarkably easy.
Quinn only lifts up her head with a surprised look. “Wait... really?”
"Yep," she nods. "We're in this fight together, right? Why shouldn't I help my friends get stronger?" Then her expression becomes serious. "Besides, if we're gonna have any hope of freeing your mom, then we need to be able to beat her first, and it's too dangerous for me to fight her, considering I've got one of the relics they're after."
“R-right, of course!” Cecily nodded, standing up straight. “But, if I may ask, what’s special about the sword specifically? Like, what does it do?”
"It's like this weird magic luck thing," Zing explains. "If a hit would be bad enough, it's like it alters things so that I don't get hit at all!" Mechanically speaking, it grants her several ranks of the Luck advantage.
“So... it’s literally a lucky charm?” Cecily wonders. And here she was expecting some kind of more offensive use since... it was an actual weapon this time.
"Yep; sometimes it works the other way around too, like if I'd miss a critical attack I suddenly hit."
’Makes me wonder how strong she is with a normal sword,’ Cecily mentally thinks, recalling how Drillhammer said she could level a block if she fought her mom. “So... I guess I’ll be in your care while we’re training then. Haven’t exactly had any other teacher than my mother.”
Zing grins. "I swear, I'll help you become a better swordswoman, or my name isn't Mae Zing!"
Cecily only looks at Drewett and Yazhu, as if telepathically trying to ask the two on how much work does she have cut out for herself with Zing as a teacher.
"Dame Mae is... easygoing," Drewett stresses the word, "But she is a good leader. Once she has a good grasp on what you're capable of, she'll help you grow in ways that perhaps you may not have realized you needed."
“Good to know,” Cecily smiles. Drewett saying that sure did remove any doubt she had about this.
Zing gets to her feet. "What's a good time for you?" she asks. "Since we both do have our job-things."
“Oh! Well, my team is currently suspecting news or a good lead on something that happened to an ally detective,” Cecily mentioned, remembering the Mel clone incident they couldn’t stop. At least Mel survived her mother. “I never was good at picking up on a trail. So until I get called up by the others for a mission I’m free.”
Zing nods. "That's fair. We've been busy looking into a case ourselves, but we ran into a dead end so we're taking a break for a bit..."
“What kind of case?” Cecily asked out of curiosity.
"Werewolves," Zing nods seriously. "There's been a whole bunch, almost organized, lately."
“Werewolves? You mean there’s more still roaming about in town?”
"I mean, they're not ROAMING," she sighs, "If they were that'd make life much easier."
“...You have a good point there,” Cecily sighed. “I’d hate to have to deal with more.”
"But enough about that! What say you we head to the practice room and see what you've got?"
“Um, yes ma’am!” Cecily nodded, gripping her sword tightly.
Posts that were not indented were typed by the player.
Captain Drillhammer gets introduced to DISC founder Alex’s replacement...
Yue is currently at the office while others are doing some planning for sure. She is sleeping on a couch she moved into the office.
Vrrrrmn... Kerthunk. Oh hey that was the elevator just outside of the DISC office! Was someone back already? The door opened and... Oh that's a new face, a young man, with an... Interesting fashion sense, in some way fitting of Araquu, but not really in others. He looked grumpy about something. A concerned citizen coming in to ask for help, perhaps? "Hmm."
Oh boy. There is a sleeping Yue just turning in her sleep. The person would note 2 doors one on either side of the hall. One is the original room where offices are and the other is for the new DISC unit members like a 2nd branch if you will.
The newcomer, without a second of hesitation, shuffles a leg up slightly and mildly thwacks the side of the sofa in an attempt to awaken Yue.
This works as Yue sits up the side of her hair a bit messy, "What's the big disaster?" she wonders in a bit of a stupor.
"You were asleep on this tacky sofa, I'll give you a second to wake up. So, this is the DISC unit office hall isn't it?" The guy asks after Yue gets her bearings, getting right to the point, it seems.
After fixing her hair she stands up, "Yepper this is the DISC department H.Q." Yue says cheerily, "Are you here to report a small crime or a dimensional disturbance?" She asks seeing the guy getting right to business.
The man nods, and somewhat quirks a brow at Yue's overt cheerfulness, but he says nothing about it. "Thanks. I'm actually here to deliver some letters. One for a Sergeant Drillhammer, and the other for three members of the first unit."
"Oh, Captain's in the other room and um...3 members of he first unit?" she wonders. "Oh, those guys, They're out for now but the Captain or I can give the letters to them."
"I'll try my luck with Drillhammer first. Thanks." With that, the man moves along over, reaching the door to Drillhammer's little office. Then, he knocks on the door probably a bit too hard to be properly polite... Eh, at the least its confident.
After a few moments of shuffling sounds, Drillhammer answers. "Come in."
The young man opens the door promptly upon the signal and enters, closing the door behind him. As a matter of politeness he bows slightly. "Sergeant Drillhammer, I have a series of letters entrusted to me by Alexander Cadbi Kelazem. The specifics of his current situation in terms of his employment are detailed within the one addressed to you. The general gist is that he currently has no access to anything but... Well, physical mail."
Drillhammer gives him a flat stare, but after a moment wordlessly holds out a hand as if asking for letters.
As such, the letters are promptly handed over. Such efficient, much wow.
He opens the letter addressed to him with a long and annoyed sigh.
The gist of the letter is that Alex is unable to return and is dealing with something pretty heavy duty elsewhere out in the west. Furthermore, the man delivering the letter has been asked to replace him in DISC as a favor in return for assistance. In fact, considering this guy probably knows the contents of this letter at least considering it pertains to him in some manner, gives a similarly annoyed sigh. "Yeah, I know."
"...this unit and randomly recruiting people I swear..." Drillhammer rubs his forehead. "All right, what's your thing? Who are you and what do you do?"
Without a word, the man turns a dial on a device he has and—
"This. Call me ReRoll." Also wowie, no magic. Huh.
He takes a deep breath, and I mean a really deep breath, then sighs. "Right, I'll let them know to come by so they can meet you and all that."
"There's two others but, you get the idea." A zwoop and he back to normal. "Anything else? I'd rather not take up too much of your time."
"No, that will be all for now. I can get a demonstration of that when I'm not in the middle of paperwork."
"Understood, sir. Thank you." ReRoll nods and leaves the room, thereby returning to the main lounge. 'That went better than I expected.'
You hear a distant THUD as Drillhammer's head hits his desk.
'Nevermind.' ReRoll grimaces, almost audibly before properly moving on out of the office and therefore building to go and do other things.
Time: Just after Session 20
Characters: Navi, Cecily
Posts indented like this were typed by the GM.
Posts that were not indented were typed by the player.
Following the revelation that Navi’s lich is Steven, Cecily seeks out some answers...
Navi was making her way in the direction she could sense Eiriol had gone, browsing her phone's messages to pass the time, and groaning about the fact that Maska's Chirper update about the dragon fight already had 200 rechirps because he'd mentioned Yue in it.
Navi’s phone dings with a text notification. The text is from Cecily. The preview only says: ‘Can we talk?’
Navi looks at the new message, opening it and scanning to see if there was anything further, then tapping the 'call' button and bringing the phone to her ear as she walks.
“Hi,” Cecily voice picks up from the phone’s speaker. “Any idea where Eiriol flew off to?”
"Based on what I can tell, she's either at or making her way to the police station. Good news bad news on that front, because it means a lot of people'll probably have seen her, but they may be at ease if anyone sees her land there without attacking," Navi explains.
“Good,” Cecily replied. “Me and the others are still en route to the Hidden Hollow.” Then, a sigh goes through the phone. “...But that’s not why I called admittedly.”
"Had a feeling that'd be the case," she admits. Based on the wind and stuff she's walking pretty quickly, but she doesn't sound too winded. Perks of being undead I guess?
“I want to ask you about... Steven,” Cecily said, grimacing when even thinking of the name. “If that’s okay with you.”
"I dunno how much I'll be able to give y'all on that front, but I suppose you may as well ask away," Navi frowns.
“Anything you know is fine by me,” answered the swordswoman. “I want to diminish as many surprises as possible once I find that bastard... but for starters, how do you know him? Besides the obvious of course.”
"I mean, he rezzed me? That's about all I can give, really. I certainly hadn't known him back when I was alive, anyway," she explains.
“He never gave a reason why he revived you?”
"I mean, I can pretty well guess what it was, but it's not like I could ask."
“...that’s fair,” sighed Cecily. “Next question: how does he act as a person? Noticable quirks, unpredictability, etc?”
"Very... overtly polite? Or at least gives off the façade of that. Sweet to the point of saccharine, really. Tends to adjust things on the fly based on new developments."
That very much matched the tone of the letter Cecily read back at home. Probably how he suckers people in to be on his side. Despite that, an ability to adapt to any ten of events is something to worry about. “Know anything about how skilled he is at lich magic?”
"I mean, he rezzed me," Navi points out. "I'd been dead for like... at least forty years before he did. Apparently I'd been on ice, that's what he said, I think? Wasn't very coherent..."
“I guess I can say he’s highly skilled for now...” A pause elapsed as her voice picks up again. “I’m sorry if this sounds like I’m interrogating you Navi.”
"No, no, I probably deserve it," she admits, with what sounds like a shrug. "Ask away. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, honestly."
“But you haven’t done anything,” she argued. “It’s not like you asked to come back, or get involved with that man. Hell, we even got you involved with us and you almost died after getting arrested for something you couldn’t control. Does that sound like you deserve it?”
"Oh, right, you guys... hadn't figured out that... errmm... how do I put this delicately..." How do you put WHAT delicately? "I... kinda kick-started this whole thing. I'm literally carrying three of the relics on my person."
“...you’re what?!” Cecily covered her mouth, trying not to alert the others by her raise in voice. She then audibly clears her voice and proceeds to talk. “You have three of the relics?”
"Y-Yeah... the orb, the rose, and the locket." Well, that explains the fabric from the rose scene, but what's this about a locket?
“Why do you have them?” Cecily immediately asks. “And how come you never thought about telling us?”
"Because I was gathering them for Steve!" she hisses back. "Of COURSE I wasn't gonna tell you lot I was grabbin' them for your enemy! Especially with how badly you all reacted to him havin' been the one to get the mask to your mom, what was I supposed to say, 'By the way I'm part of this whole thing in ways that you don't know about yet and also helped her get into the city without being noticed by customs'?!"
Cecily was at most silent at Navi’s confession. So she was on his side at the very start. She honestly didn’t know how to really react to this info. Was she angry? Yes. Directly at Navi? That was unknown at the moment. “...I... don’t know what to say.”
There's a bit of silence for a moment. "...if it helps at all, I... don't know that he wanted me to have sentience."
“...do you consider us as friends at all Navi?” Cecily eventually spoke up.
"I'm tellin' you all this, aren't I?" she says. "Against my better judgement..."
“That’s true,” Cecily says in the same somber tone. “I... I obviously have never been good at holding back my anger when it comes to these moments. Hell, one could say that the slightest annoyance could set me off, given a particular someone in our company. And if I’m being honest when I heard you were associated with Steven... I wanted to lash out on you. But... I also don’t want to jump any sort of gun with someone I call a friend. Especially after what just happened earlier. I just want to know that I can trust you to watch my back. And... if you trust us to watch yours.”
"...don't let anything take the locket from me. Please." Navi sounds... oddly desperate about that request.
“...I promise,” Cecily nods. “Wouldn’t be a comrade, or friend if I just let that happen.”
"If it goes, then- I don't know what will happen to me. I- I don't know how or why, but- this locket is what gives me my sentience to begin with. I don't think Steven ever intended for me to have free will."
The locket is the reason Navi is still her? That must be what power the relic has. All the more reason to make sure nothing happens to her or the locket itself. “Then it’s another mistake that bastard made that’s to our benefit. We’re all glad that you’re you Navi. You have my word. And the others... if you’re willing to also tell them about it.”
Navi nods. "I'll... see if I can once I catch up with you guys at that Hidden Hollow place. Once I've met up with Eiriol it'll just be a matter of her flying us over, hopefully..."
“Promise to stay safe while you make your way back to us, okay?” Cecily asks. “Can’t help but recall that one time you split up from the rest of us.” Quinn still feels guilty about it to this day.
Time: Sometime after Session 19
Characters: Maska, Navi
Posts indented like this were typed by the GM.
Posts that were not indented were typed by the player.
After the event at Yue’s hideaway, Maska catches up to Navi to see if she’s okay...
After the deal with Wu, they part ways. Maska catches up to Navi, "Hey, Navi! Wait up!" He runs up to her.
Navi was making her way towards Willow's place when Maska ran up to her. She turned to look over at him, confused about why he was calling her. "What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about what happened back in Yue's place" He stops in front of her "Do you have a minute? It'll only take a moment, I swear. No bullshit."
She raises an eyebrow, or at least least that's what you think she's doing considering the hood. "I suppose so? Only if it takes a minute, though."
"Alright; What happened back there?" Wow way to be blunt, then again this is Maska, "Back when when were talking about the zombie invasion? It looked like you wanted to say something but couldn't, or wouldn't."
"What do you mean, 'what happened'?" she asked. "What kinda answer are you lookin' for?"
"I'm just asking because you seem really conflicted to say anything" He said, "Wanted to know if you're fine."
"Depends what all you mean by being fine," Navi frowns.
"Fine with Cecily and Nevan's ghost coming down on you so harshly, I meant" Maska explains.
"I'm fine," she says, shaking her head with a sigh.
"You sure?" Maska tilts his head, "I know I sound like a broken record but I'm just worried. Sorry if I'm acting a fuckboi or something." He grins nervously.
"I mean, I'm a bit concerned about what all we saw," she frowns, "But I'm fine."
"Great! Oh, speaking of zombies, our mutual friend finally helped me with that magic," Maska told her, looking proud all proud of himself.
"...really? He's helping you?" Navi seems a bit perplexed by that.
"Yep, taught me-" He looks side to side to make sure no one's near them, then leans over to whisper, "Taught me how to restore the soul of someone."
"That seems... unlike him," she frowns, but seems to accept it.
"I can be very persuasive when i need to be" Don't look proud about that Maska.
"Uh-huh," she doesn't seem to think so.
"No seriously, I can be very persuasive!" He tried to defend himself, "I persuaded Wu didn't I?"
"You made puppy eyes at her until it worked."
"N-no! I gave her" Dramatic pause, "the Smolder" then does it.
"What is that thing you're doing with your face."
"That's the smolder" He doesn't stop doing it.
"It's gonna get your teeth broken is what it is."
"You're no fun" He drops, but smiles anyways "In any case, I'll let you do whatever you were doing or going to do."
Time: Sometime during Session 19
Characters: Eiriol, Jessica
Posts indented like this were typed by the GM.
Posts that were not indented were typed by the player.
Eiriol heads to the Araquu Police Station to question Jessica about her friend...
The Araquu Police Station held prisoners of all shapes and sizes. Those kept in this particular branch were low-power individuals, of whom magical suppression could effectively contain. As such, it was the perfect place for Jessica and Jared to be contained. In separate cells, of course- the police weren't idiots- but this was where they were being held regardless. Velvet had been moved to a more secure prison after she had literally broken several walls in her Grand Escape after the last time she'd been held here.
Eiriol makes her way down to the prison cell that holds Jesse, along with a guard to escort her, as per protocol. When she reaches the cell she nods to the policemen to acknowledge that she would be fine from there, but to stay close just in case.
Jessica looks over from where she's laying on the cell bed, noticing she has a visitor. "Well, well, if it isn't the little dragon. Come to make amends for your little betrayal?" she asks, though based on her tone she really doesn't think that's the case.
"No, obviously." Eirol folds her arms over her chest and lets out a small chuckle. "I'm honestly surprised you let me in the way you did, not even thinking I could have been going in for stuff to bring you in, or... what do the humans call it here, 'under cover'?"
"Funny. When life gives you a dragon willing to attack its friends, you don't question it, you go 'Oh hey cool, a dragon that's gonna help me!'," she rolls her eyes. "So what do you want, then? I doubt you just came to say hello."
"I didn't even attack my friends that hard, and I was feeling so guilty for hurting them. I thought for sure my face was going to give me away, but it didn't." Her smirk grows a bit now that she's getting to what she came for "But yes, where are my manners! I never did say hello!" She gives Jesse an actual genuine wave and smile "Hello Jesse! I hope your cell isn't too out of your liking, but down to business, I'm here to talk about my friend Velvet."
You swear you hear her mutter something about her name being Jessica, not Jesse, but you may just be imagining it. "And? What about her?" she asks.
She goes off what she thinks she heard, "Would you prefer Jessica? If it bothers you that I don't say your name correctly, please, let me know." She'd rather be wrong, then not know at all. She uncrosses one arm, letting it dangle at her side while the other stays tucked where it is, "I want to know where Velvet came from please. I'd like to know her origin so I can better understand some things."
"Firstly, my name is Jessica, not Jesse. Secondly... I haven't the foggiest. She just appeared one day."
Eiriol notes her name is Jessica, and is going to make sure the others know that too "She just... appeared? Kind of similar to how I did?" She looks down in thought for a moment before she returns her gaze at Jessica. "Did she come through a portal as well?"
"Yes, though it was different than yours. Hers seemed more like a tear, while yours was more natural, I suppose." She rolls her eyes. The information isn't very helpful, which is probably why she's giving it.
"Okay, well, that tells me some good information. Now how about how she joined your group? Would you be willing to tell me about that? She's pretty dedicated to you."
"I asked her if she wanted to help us and she started calling me 'Keeper'."
"Okay, so that might be something from where she's from then, maybe what they call the leaders, or their elders like my home," She looks down, bringing the unbent arm up to her chin and begins to try out puzzle pieces together. "Did she ever talk about where she came from?"
"No, not at all." That's, kinda disappointing really.
"I suppose I could ask her myself then." She thinks up any other questions that could help her out. "How about where he portal appeared? Do you remember?"
"In my fucking living room," she sounds annoyed about that.
"... That was not insured either." She says with that face of just ew and cringe "Na- A friend of ours always gets mad when I accidentally lose my human form and turn into a dragon in her home, she's always telling me I shouldn't be wearing myself thin with that, and I should probably listen to her on that more. Anyways, do you remember how she was reacting when she left the portal? Scared or confused? or even calm and knowledge-able of what was going on?"
"Now, this whole thing has been fun, but why should I answer these questions again?" she asks.
"I'm trying to help my friend, why else would I be asking you questions?" she replies back honestly, and without hesitation, "You have a team with you as the boss, whom she looks up to and trusts. You and Jared have known her for a while and so you're the only ones I can ask about her, well, except for Velvet... but uh..." Eiriol sighs a bit. "She's still mad at me for trying to de-arm and safely capture you." She begins to rub the back of her head, " Sorry about the ice by the way, I'm still trying to get better hold of that so I don't cause damage when apprehending people..."
"She does whatever I say," Jessica smirks. "Without question. It's great."
"And she never says no, I know. And that worries me. I feel like she doesn't have her own will. What do they call it here... Oh, hive mind, it's like she has hive mind. She deserves her independence where she can say no to things, don't you think? With how much she's done for you, doesn't she deserve to have freedom from serving, even for a little while?"
"Let me think... no, not really. She seems happy to serve me."
"Again, because that's probably what she's used to" She sighs, "How would you feel if you were in her place? Just... minus the extreme hive mind... Wouldn't you want a break?"
"She's getting a break while we're all in prison."
"That's not a real break and you know it" Eiriol huffs "You don't call your time here a break, do you? It's more like... captivity. I know because I made them out me in a cell after I came back from ‘working’,” she does the quote fingers "For you. Those cells are not fun to be in for too long when you're a dragon."
"And she's not a dragon, is she?"
"And neither are you, and it still doesn't mean you're any more comfortable in there than she is."
"Things are quite comfortable actually, very nice."
She just rolls her eyes, "Well then I suppose I could let the office know that you're getting too comfy in your cell, and have you moved to a more let's say, compact living quarters that better suits your basic human needs."
"And if you do that, then good luck getting any answers out of me about Velvet."
"Hence why you know what you need to do, otherwise I will do what I need to." Eiriol has a very deadpan serious look not only on her face, but in her tone. She isn't fooling around about her friend at this point and knows she's running low on info from Jessica. She steps a little bit closer to the front of cell and lets a puff of crystally cloud ice from her nostrils. "I'll let you think on that. Have a good rest of your day Jessica," And with that, Eiriol turns and leaves with the guard that escorted her earlier, keeping in mind all of the bits of info she got to help her with Velvet.
Posts that were not indented were typed by the player(s).
After the incident at Floradai Park, the DISC Unit discusses what to do next...
Yue was laying on a couch in whatever meeting room they be in kicking her feet in the air as she lays on her stomach hands on her chin supporting her head, "Sooo, we're out of leads then huh guys? No more relics to go after then? Is there some Small crime going on we can handle then?" she wonders out loud.
Maska is sprawled on whatever table they have in the room, head resting on the hard wood. With a laptop in front of him i guess "I could look up news article of the past few days..."
Cecily is only standing up and leaning near a corner of the room, having her arms crossed. "I could call one of the council members and see if they have any more info on relic locations," she suggests, pulling out her phone.
"Is there any thing else we should be doing aside from relic searching?” Yue asks. “I feel like that's a fun pass time searching for relics and all, but isn't there some more important other things we should do? Like finding the person actually stealing the relics, then we don't have to waste time to look for the hard to find artifacts."
"I could look up the year they were made in," Maska blows his single strand of hair of his face, "What year was it again? 18 something?" He sits up and brings the machine closer to him.
"1944," Cecily corrected.
"Ah yes, the 40s" Maska said, in a mocking old timey voice "Where showing a single ankle was like hardcore porn to men" He typed up ‘City of Araquu, 1944′ on google.
Some furious Google searching is enough to yield some rather interesting results. You have learned the following!
• 1944 is the same year that the current Emperor became, well, the Emperor, having formerly been a part of the (then) council.
• Several businesses and attractions were established in that year; Café Bleu de la Lune, Yinxiu Trinkets, Floradai Park, and Shimmering Fabrics are all familiar names. Attractions at the Park of the Lady, and a few recently discovered things (exhibited at the History Museum and Museum of Modern art) are mentioned.
• Several powerful mage families also emigrated into Araquu at that time. Listed are the Summers family, the Noah family, and the Meyers family.
"Woah what?" Maska gasp, "Wendy comes from family of mages?"
"This is Araquu, most families here are families of mages, why are you so shocked by this Masky?" Yue wonders.
"Even my father's side of my family are mages," Cecily offhandly mentions.
"Yeah, but they're pleabians" He opens the Powerful Mage families emigrations on a different tab, "Says here they're crazy powerful, this I gotta see."
Which one(s) are you looking into?
"Hrm, let's start with Wendys family" He clicks on the Summers Family.
The Summers family is currently composed of:
• Mikhal Summers, aged 58. An expert at tracking magic and capable of using various other assorted magics.
• His son, Matthew Summers, aged 26. Rather talented in the art of plant magics.
• Matthew's husband, Mark Summers, aged 25. Rather talented in the art of song magics.
• Their adopted daughter, Wendy Summers, aged 10. She's too young to practice magic.
"I'd expected the current family be bigger, then again Wendy’s fathers are gay" Maska rubs his chin, "Plant Magic, Song Magic and Tracking Magic... her grandfather's magic could be useful provided he lend us a hand, what do you guys think?" He turns to Yue and Cecily.
"Well we can certainly add that to the things to consider," she cuffed her chin. "...Check to see if there's anything else worth looking into to broaden our options."
"Let me check to see if I can find a connection to the Summers Family and those darn relics," Maska searches the entirety of family to see if there’s a link.
You search the article for a while but don't manage to find anything. Apparently it's not online for everyone ever to see?
"Nothing, let's check the Meyers Family" He goes back on the site and clicks on the Meyers "Never heard of these people."
You have learned that an old lady named Geraldine Meyers is the owner of Shimmering Fabrics.
"Oh hey, it's that old lady from Upper City" Maska shows Cecily the picture of Geraldine, "The one we got the pin from."
"I recall her," Cecily said, flattening her expression. "Reminds me of something else I plan on doing later. Anyways, see what it says about the family."
"Oh right, I should actually look up the actual history of the family." Damn it Maska, anyways he reads the history of the Meyers outloud.
Geraldine lives on her own with like, 50 dogs, she has no family.
"50 dogs? Living the dream right there, good shit." He looks over Geraldine's profile once again, "For someone who comes from a powerful mage family, doesn't seem like she has magical abilities."
"So you're saying that they're nothing to note besides working at one of the locations we've been to?" Cecily asks.
The problem is, no one really knows much about her. She lives on her own and doesn't socialize that often. There's not much information available online.
"Nope, well if you count that she had the relic in her shop and having come from a prestige family" He goes back and clicks on the last family to emigrated to Araquu, "But I don't think that's a connection."
THE NOAH FAMILY, aka Councilman Noah's family, probably his parents or grandparents? That's like all you can find, the council is pretty damn secretive.
"I forgot how secretive mages were with their history, it's really fucking annoying" Maska lets out a sigh with a grimace on his face. Fucking mages.
A sigh only comes from Cecily. "Great," she says. "In terms of people that doesn't leave us with much. How about any other places that relate to the date? Some we haven't visited?"
"Give me a sec, you know you can come and look see yourself instead of trying to blend into the wallpaper" He closes the tab of TreeAncestry dot com and goes back to the google one. He clicks on the page relating to the business that open during 1944.
Before you can investigate any further, the door opens and Navi walks in. "...WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK WHY IS MY HOUSE YOUR HANGOUT!?"
"Hey boo, we just invited ourselves in hope you don't mind" Maska waves at her.
"...if it makes you feel better, I brought food over," Cecily says, pointing to some left over donuts in a box. "You can help yourself."
Navi mutters something about having sworn she locked the door before going to grab a donut. "Any luck with those last few relics we don't know about?"
"No, but I did find out that Wendy’s gonna be a powerful mage when she grows up" Maska stretches a bit, "Right now we're looking into the business that open during the 40s."
Navi takes a few bites to eat her donut, munching as Maska searches. Unfortunately there are too many Dank Memes on the interwebs right now, so he can't find anything that they don't already know.
Cecily, it suddenly dawns on you that perhaps it wasn't so much businesses that were given relics, so much as people who were entrusted to take care of them and put together something they could use to hide it. A lamp at a cafe isn't something that draws attention; nor is a hatpin at a clothing store.
"...There is a connection I do notice," Cecily thought to herself. "Perhaps it's not so much as locations, as it's actually people we should be more concerned with paying attention to. Like, people the Emperor must of knew or trusted."
"Huh- oh uh" Maska quickly closes the Bill Wurtz video he accidentally clicked on, "Right Emperor, question; how do we figure out who he knew? The guy is a well guarded secret."
"That... is the tricky part," Cecily sweatdropped. "I mean, we could ask one of the councilmen. After all, Councilmen Noah is tied to the year 1944."
"Hang on I'm gonna check this article for a hot minute" He clicks on the search result on how the current emperor became as such.
It seems to be a 'picked by the council' thing; and they usually have a sort of trial of their own design to figure out if the person trying to become Emperor is capable of the tasks that would be set before them. Also, you've found a forum where people try and theorize what kind of magic the Emperor uses.
"They do a trial to see if they're fit to be the Emperor, huh i always thought it was more of a 'who the most powerful mage of them all' cue lightning crackling-" He pauses at what he found "Oh hey! Look, conspiracy theorist!"
Navi groans. "Maska for the love of god no, when has anything useful ever come from conspiracy theories-" boom shakalaka
"Shut up! I'm listening to crazy people!" He clicks on the link to the forum.
Cecily facepalms. "...So, Navi," Cecily says, deciding to small talk while Maska is wasting time. Maybe he'll get back on track soon. "What have you been up to while we were in the Upper City?"
Maska, you can't find any signs of intelligent life here. There are approximately thirty different theories about what kind of magic the Emperor uses, although only two of them seem to be actually trying to present any evidence. There's also a running poll and betting pool about what gender the Emperor is, which is basically neck and neck for Male/Female right now.
"Mostly been runnin' deliveries and what not for Willow. Helpin' her out. She's expectin' a new shipment in soon and wants to be careful it doesn't get stolen again."
"Hm.... I should come back and bet on this when we find out," He mutters to himself and opens both theories that are at least trying their best in their own tabs.
"Robbed?" Cecily asks. "What was stolen?"
"It happened a while ago, she said it was some or other ingredients she doesn't actually sell 'cause they're usually illegal to hang onto," Navi explains. "Said she has permission to use 'em in her own private work though. Actually, she spoke to Aldrid 'bout it, I'm surprised he hasn't told y'all this happened."
Maska, the two primary theories are that the Emperor either uses some form of Body Manipulation Magic (that is, manipulating their own body) or that they use some form of Time Magic. The argument for Time Magic seems to have more proof - various photos of things and locations in places the Emperor has apparently been that indicate time changed somehow - although a lot of the photos and things are "I took a picture here with my mom at this point in time, and then a thing happened and now it looks like THIS" or something similar so it's hard to verify the validity of any of those; on the other hand, Body Manipulation Magic has a very strong following and many people have pointed out that surely it HAS to be that because of all the photos of the various damaged areas from the scene, or the fact that no one fucking knows what the Emperor looks like so they have to be able to change themselves at will... tough to say, really! However, based on your own investigations of these things, you're more inclined to think the Emperor is some sort of time mage; a lot of the things being argued as going under Body Manipulation can actually be viewed as time magic if looked at from the right angle, and with how secretive the council is it's really no surprise that people don't know what the Emperor looks like either; especially if he or she could just, I don't know, pause time and go where they need to go and then unpause it or something similar!
"Pft maybe Wu Hou is the Emperor, or maybe related," He re-reads the time magic theory again. Hypothetically, a egg inside of Maska’s head begins to crack, crack, crack, and hatch to reveal a chick. Maska stands up and shouts "OH MY GOD WE NEED TO FIND WU HOE" frantically.
"AAAAH, JESUS!" Cecily replies, jumping a foot into the air.
"AAAAAHHH!" Yue falls off the couch and sits up looking around. “I'm awake totally.... what happened who's yelling?"
"It makes somewhat sense" He re-reads both theories on the forum he found "Maybe we really need to find Wu Hou..."
"Huh? Why?" Yue asks standing up and brushing herself off.
Maska explains to her the theories he found and his after thoughts on how the Emperor could be using it, also he brought her up to speed on what they had found out "...So, if we do find her, not only could we find more about people that are connected to 1944, we could find out more about the Emperor themselves."
"Assuming that this Wu person would be interested in even bothering to help us. What makes you so sure we can count on her?" Yue puts a finger to chin in thinking form.
"Same goals? Cecily did mention she was trying to 'save the city.'" Maska opens up a new tab and goes to youtube. Might as well get some music in the background, the silence is the deafening, "Besides, I trust this Hou person very little but I do trust Cecily's judgement. Most of the time."
"Huh, Well, glad to see you're not taking that at face value." she smiles, "I've run into so many people that claim the same thing in this line of work that it's hard for even me to trust everything someone says. Besides how would we find someone that could travel through time, and not alert HQ?" Yue sits down cross armed, "What about talking with the council again, maybe they can help us figure something out?"
"I think that’s the point, even if the Emperor would use time magic, wouldn't their magical signature already be notified by the police?" He clicks on some random music and lets it play on low volume, "And true we could take it up with them again, but remember they can't always help us. When was the last time we even met them again in person? Still, not denying that we could go talk to them."
"Did you have a reason to meet them again in person before now?" Yue wonders leaning in.
"Beside seeing Fira again, not really" He leans back on his chair and yawns, "So we can either find the Hoe person or talk to the councilmen."
"I feel like it would be in our best interest to go after the councilmen, if we wanna continue finding the relics. I feel like we could stop this relic running round thing easier if we go after the person hunting them down first. Any ideas on who we could try and track down?"
"I don't know about them anymore, it feels like we're going on a wild goose chase." Maska scratches his head. "What would that even accomplish? We have the Relics then what?"
"I don't think we should be collecting the relics right now." Yue flat out states.
“Well, what do you suggest we do then?” Cecily turns to Yue, while rubbing the back of her own head. “I know we’re a police force that also deals with small crime too, but that still doesn’t mean there’s no sense of urgency either.”
"No no, hear me out here, why would we need to collect all of the relics? Can't we use what we have now as bait to lure out the enemy instead of gathering all the trinkets to make things easier for the opponent?" Yue smiles.
"That sounds flawed, you want to use all of the relics we have to bait out the bad man?" Maska pipes in.
"Pardon my askin'," Navi pipes up from where she's cleaning up a bit, "But have we figured out WHY these guys want th'relics?"
“Nothing concrete if that’s what you’re asking,” Cecily groans. “The only thing I could think of is someone destroy them because of that ritual hiding warehouse we came upon. The relics are tied to the city, right?”
"The relics are tied to the shield that protect the city" Maska leans back on the chair, "If you destroy one the shield weakens."
"Finding the reason as to why they wish the barrier destroyed..." Aldrid starts to say as he walks in "May be part of our primary objective."
"I didn't say use all of the relics Maska, why are you jumping to that conclusion? We would only need to use 1 of them like my hairpin." Yue is stuck on that conversation, "It would help us try and figure out why they're going after these relics and determine if we'll be falling into their plans by just taking all of the relics ourselves."
Cecily crosses her arms and only looks downward. “It could also give us the chance in catching my mother as well...”
"So, we're doing that instead?" Maska rocks himself on the chair he was already leaning on, "We're going to lure out the baddies?"
"I don't see why not, and I have an idea on how to get the word out about the bait too." Yue smiles.
"I swear to fuck if you tell me you're gonna make a god damn video about it then I'm leaving."
“You’re gonna leave your own house?” Cecily deadpans.
"WELL WHY THE FUCK NOT YOU PEOPLE HAVE TAKEN IT FOR YOURSELVES"
"You seem upset," Maska observes.
“Were the donuts not enough as an apology?” Cecily asks.
"Yeah we brought you donuts, isn't that enough?" Maska asks.
Yue goes over to Navi, "Aw, come on, So, what's your bright idea then?"
“Correction: I bought donuts,” Cecily looked at him. “You just shrugged and walked about nonchalantly.”
"Yeah, but I got her this laptop so suck it" Maska that's your own laptop.
“I’m not sure Navi wants whatever you already have stored in there,” Cecily assumes.
Aldrid just kinda stands there, awkardly, like usual.
Navi lets out a deep and clearly frustrated breath through her nose. "We're trying to keep people from panickin', ain't we? Publically announcing something to an audience that may not even include who we're looking for isn't a great idea," she points out. "Also food as a bribe only really works when I actually taste things."
“Fine, I’ll just make it up to you another way then,” she sighs. “But... Navi does have a point. We don’t want a city crisis, and given your popularity...”
Yue sighs then smiles with a thumbs up, "Do you really think that I would state something like 'This is a relic, one that holds the city barrier together. Protecting us from the outside world. Hey baddies come and get it if you dare.'" she states the script like statement in the most sarcastic tone she could muster making sure to emphasize that if this is what you guys were thinking then you're kind of dumb. “I was going to make a video about showing off this pin that could resize clothing. It's a cool parlor trick and any bad guys that seem to know exactly what each of the relics are, would know that this is a relic. Also on the point of if they would watch the video, I have a big following in the city and people do talk about my videos, so while yes it is a long shot that the opponents would hear about this, it is still worth the shot. This way no one knows about any relics that shouldn't know, also they won't know about who the baddies are or heck about the barrier. There wouldn't be a city crisis or anything like that with this idea."
“Okay, so stating you have a relic, but not flat out saying it is one,” Cecily followed along. “And the only people who would know about and make it known, that’s how we know the bait worked.”
"Well, the word would get around, and we would probably have to make a location known of where I'm live streaming or something... and we'll know if it works if the enemy shows up either at my home or on the stream, I guess really we'd have to wait and find out if it worked." Yue nods.
Navi stares at them. "...well, it's more thought-out than I thought it was, but it still seems stupid. Where would you be broadcasting from, first of all?"
"Unless you have a place, or we could use one of our houses," Maska rocks too far back and ends up flat on his back.
"Oh, I have a place we could use." Yue grins.
"Do y'all need me along or can I opt to NOT participate in this stupidity?"
"NO! You've been gone too long!" Maska struggles to get up a bit.
"It would be nice to have you along, Navi You're our friend, but if you don't want to join I won't force you." Yue says.
“We’ll need all the friends and help we can get,” Cecily says with a reassuring smile. “Please?”
Navi's eye twitches. "All right, all right, fine! I'll tag along on this stupid idea, but only so I can bail you idiots out when it backfires."
"Yay!" Oh he finally got up, "Thanks boo"
“We’ll owe you one if you have to,” Cecily smiles warmly.
"Can I use that to request that Maska never calls me 'boo' again?"
"Fine"
Yue does a quick hug on Navi, "Thank you, Navi. You're a true pal." she lets go with a smile.
"Let go of me," Navi bluntly says.
“Well in the downtime, might as well prepare for confrontation,” Cecily says, grabbing her sword and turning to everyone. “Need anything from me before I head out?”
"Let Eiriol know what's happening, then tell Willow I won't be able to make it to work for a bit, since I don't know how long this'll take."
“Sure then,” Cecily nodded. “Anyone else?”
"Nope, I'm good in fact I need to set up! See you around everyone." Yue smiles as she waves goodbye then leaves.
