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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Apr 1, 2015 22:07:11 GMT -8
The Morris Building, 5 PM. The sun's rays were going sideways, but vampires and their powers were far from waking up. Trevor had explained he might not be able to do much without his Lepponen spirit powers, but Santi insisted they'd need better protection that couldn't wait for nightfall. Trevor would need a spirit guide, and no small amount of luck for this. Santi stood nearby as he prepared his favored kind of ritual. Miss Bunny might be able to translate - this time between Trevor's Glennish and spirit tongues he wouldn't understand - and she stood ready as well.  
Santi-
"Do you need anything else? Are you ready?"
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Post by Kristi is prescribed skeletons on Apr 2, 2015 18:34:08 GMT -8
A circle drawn with soapstone chalk lay on cleared floor space, the stems of freshly cut basil leaves, harvested from a greenhouse, soaked in a jar of clean water, beeswax candles were gently glowing golden hues, and the the four cardinal points were each called out.
Trevor, now a displaced Lepponen, wondered if word of his flight would effect this summoning. Would they really come?
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Post by Kristi is prescribed skeletons on Apr 2, 2015 18:48:42 GMT -8
Trevor -
「TORRAIGHN ここに来てください。」
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Apr 2, 2015 19:06:49 GMT -8
Trevor felt good about working magic in the daytime. As sick as he was, being able to connect to the supernatural felt like getting a fraction of his nighttime senses back. He had to chant for a while, but he was confident that he was doing it right. The only reason this wouldn't work is if Torraighn didn't want it to.
At length, a face emerged from the floor, startling Santi and Miss Bunny.
 
Torraighn-
"Drebor." Their voice was an unnatural drone without his spirit speech powers. "Doo yoo bish doozee?"
 
Miss Bunny-
"They say, you wanna go?"
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Post by Kristi is prescribed skeletons on Apr 2, 2015 20:08:46 GMT -8
Trevor -
"Hello, again. I'm ready."
Miss Bunny -
"Ou sae, 'Hee thar. Wey goh naou.'"
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Apr 2, 2015 23:15:27 GMT -8
Eerie white hands reached from the floor, trailing folds of cloth. Did he take them?
  
Torraighn-
"Embraaze mee."
Santi-
"...good luck."
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Post by Kristi is prescribed skeletons on Apr 2, 2015 23:27:49 GMT -8
Here we go again!
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Apr 3, 2015 22:19:36 GMT -8
  
Santi- Miss Bunny-
"Whoa, there he goes." "Uh-oh! I wanted to go!"
Trev saw his body list, unconscious beside the others near his magic circle.
Torraighn-
"WHAT DO YOU SEEK?"
Soon he was in the silvery void and pleased to find that when out of body, he was himself a spirit and able to communicate with his fellows freely, even without vampire powers.
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Post by Kristi is prescribed skeletons on Apr 3, 2015 23:23:37 GMT -8
Trevor -
"Thank you again for your help."
Trevor -
"My new comrades and I are facing dangerous opponents. Study has allowed me to manage a temporary buffer against enemy surveillance, but that won't amount for much once they've prepared reinforcements. Do you think we could ally ourselves with a spirit capable of deterring the likes of Inka Lepponen?"
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Apr 5, 2015 22:33:13 GMT -8
The silver emptiness stretched out forever. Maybe this was Torraighn's home?
Torraighn-
"You are welcome. To help the sought be found, this is my purpose.
For those who are sought and do not wish to be found, you will need another. A powerful spirit, but one with temporal concerns. One who would help you, Kato. I can find this." As they swept down over a nighted land, he was struck by the patterns of the terraced farms and roads. Familiar, but not quite. It was still in the spirit world, but could it be Kohon?
As if to answer, they swept down a street past a train station with two Oni smoking joints the size of Trevor and listening to a boom box the size of a car. And as if that sensation wasn't weird enough, he realized his vampire powers had awakened. It was pre-dawn here, pre-dusk in Glenland.
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Post by Kristi is prescribed skeletons on Apr 13, 2015 3:59:28 GMT -8
((Kristi and Christopher collaboration post is a go!))
These oni were right out of ヘヴィメタル獣医師, with baggy clothes and flamboyant hairdos bleached orangey blonde- just like real gurenniis. Thinking these hellion were not punishing the damned, but disappointing their parents, was enough to elicit a chuckle. Torraighn and Trevor passed by noisy but seemingly empty houses. They creaked, groaned, bumped, and chattered with some unknown pandemonium.
These Two-
"..."
Torraighn veered into an alley of broad pavers between walled-off houses and came to land with Trevor having to kick at the ground awkwardly in the last stretch. They came to stand at an opening in a wall, leading to a house with an open door. The house had grown quiet and Trevor almost wondered if he and Torraighn had been the cause. Suddenly his attention was drawn through the open door of the house, to where several Yanari - tiny goblins with tinier hammers - ran out from under some tatami mats before jumping impossibly between the floorboards. Soon the noise began anew and the very foundation of the building started to shake.
These Guys-
"キキキキ!''
Torraighn-
"Many of the spirits in this place will be more sympathetic than those nearest your body." He could tell when they said "sympathetic" they meant something like "spiritually resonant." Perhaps his life in Kohon was a factor, perhaps it was that many here were hearth spirits. They did not bother to clarify. "I will leave you here. You may call again, but will find a sufficiently powerful spirit for your purposes to be a capable guide."
Trevor-
"Thank you. I'll do my best."
Torraighn disappeared in a flap voluminous, stiff cloth. Trevor doubted the little things in the house were powerful enough to be of use, and further guessed that the most powerful spirit in each house was probably bound there, so he turned to survey the land for someone free floating. He could see the direction of what passed for light here, see the notions of heat and color, smell the metaphorical scents of a world made of ideas. Pathways before him could take him to other parts of this place, or beyond, depending on how he trod them. One path he could not take, however. He felt like a complete wraith as he reached out for material Kohon, and just walked the imaginary lane instead.
Out of that lane on the main street, the oni had moved along, letting less bold creatures cross to the train station. On the benches sat a remarkably old and hairy man - a momonjii scolding a young boy playing nearby. When the momonjii finally had enough of the child's impudent laughter and swung his walking stick, he only caught air. He flailed about at nothing, no longer seeing his target, but the true culprit - a weasel - bounded away from the station, under the turnstiles, and was gone.
A rat was sitting upright near the turnstiles and studying a sketchy map. Laying on the concrete beside him was a long bamboo pole with a bale of rice tied to one end. Trevor's spirit sight gave him a feeling this was his kind of spirit, and though he couldn't tell if it was powerful enough, he could at least tell it was a safer bet than the humanoid fuzzy fellow. He struck up a conversation. This spirit's language was not reminiscent of Glennish à la Washy Wendy and Miss Bunny, nor was is so much reminiscent of Kohonese. The rat was still but for the subtlest of body language and the occasional high register chirping, but being a spirit himself at the moment, Trevor understood every communication easily.
 
Rat-
"It is our nature to keep searching. Do you know what I mean? ...My family has long harvested the millet, and more recently been harvesting from the rice paddies that appeared one after the other not far from our old forest home. I have a rough map here as my guide to the remaining three sacred crops, but I can't make head nor tail of it! There are no scents on here, nothing to guide me. Who makes a map without scents, honestly?"
Trevor couldn't read the map either. It was in simple magic language, but covered too many concepts he hadn't yet studied. He offered to try translating the map, or if that failed, find somebody that would be able to read it, and ended up with it in his possession. Surely that little task would get him into the creature's graces without the need for elaborate ritual, and he could use it to start the negotiation for its protection.
Trevor and the rat went to sit on the bus side of the platform while the man kept trying with the map. Fox fire beguilingly floated by to lure anyone easily distracted through the fence into a dark forest. The rabbit in the moon had curled into a ball to nap among an unnatural swirl of stars. It was trying to slip behind the horizon, and Trevor could feel his vampire powers starting to ebb. They'd probably last a good while longer, but when dawn came, he was going to move through this world with much less confidence.
Suddenly a bus came to rest at its stop. It spoke with a creepy giant tongue lolling out of the grill.Bus -
"Where would you like to go?" Trevor took a chance.
Trevor -
"To somebody that can read maps?"
The bus doors opened.
Trevor was let off near some houses with tangled and snapped electrical wires trailing up to listing and splintered utility poles. Nobody seemed to be around until a karasu-tengu leapt out of a window and started casually walking up a knot of wires with an unwieldy bundle of purloined goods on its shoulders. Trevor took advantage of his vampire powers while he still had them, hustling up the utility pole to stand before the crow man.
Trevor-
"Good evening, tengu-san. I am a confused traveller in this land and was wondering if a powerful being such as yourself might know how to read a magic map." He gestured with it.
Karasu-Tengu-
"Of course I can read the map!" said the karasu-tengu with an idle preening of his feathers. "Now, I ask you, why I should help you read it? ケケケケケケ!"
Trevor-
"Mm, to show a humble creature what impressive map reading powers look like?"
Karasu-Tengu-
"...Well, I am pretty cool..." As the spirit went over the map, Trevor was sure to ask what sort of olfactory landmarks there were along its paths. Soon he was confident in his ability to translate it. The bus had moved on by that time, but it was a quick jog back downhill to the old train station. Once there, the momonjii had already boarded a train, and only the rat remained.
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Apr 14, 2015 5:44:08 GMT -8
 
Rat-
"Welcome back, Kato. Have you translated my map?"
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Apr 21, 2015 0:49:39 GMT -8
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Post by Kristi is prescribed skeletons on Apr 21, 2015 1:31:28 GMT -8
((That'd probably be good. There's some stuff I'd like to discuss about Trevor's new mate.))
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Post by Kristi is prescribed skeletons on Apr 3, 2016 20:37:07 GMT -8
As the spirit went over the map, Trevor was sure to ask what sort of olfactory landmarks there were along its paths. Soon he was confident in his ability to translate it. The bus had moved on by that time, but it was a quick jog back downhill to the old train station. Once there, the momonjii had already boarded a train, and only the rat remained.
Rat-
"Welcome back, Kato. Have you translated my map?"
Trevor -
"I've done as well as I could."
Rat-
"Thank you, ah... You seem ill. Are you alright?"
Trevor -
"I am weakened by sunlight. Sorry."
Rat-
"Not at all. Rats have their own discomforts regarding the sun."
He returned to reading the map, and after Trevor recovered from the shock of the sun cresting the horizon, he remembered the demands of magic. The Entreaty - an initial offering to gain an audience with a spirit. The Wish - what he sought to gain. The Sacrifice - what was expected in return. He had one of three. Now then...
Trevor -
"Excuse me? May I ask for a favor in return?"
Rat-
"Please. You did well." He let the map
tilt away from his whiskers.
Trevor -
"In my home realm my friends are under attack. I was wondering if there's anything we can do to diminish our, how should I say, 'visibility'."
Rat-
He pondered for a moment, looked
at the map, then back to Trevor.
Rat-
"I can help you, but need an equal favor before I return in kind.
My family and I can obtain the first four sacred crops with little
effort, but this... The final crop is in Menfukurou's forest. I do
not like that one. If you do this thing and meet me at this station,
we will help you with your troubles."
Rat pointed out the spot on the map. There was a train stop there, which was ideal for his own purposes, but at the forest itself he would be walking up "the million steps" to reach the shrine. A small price to pay for magic that could possibly fend off Inka's scrying.
Trevor agreed, caught the train...
...and ascended. The climb was not physically difficult, as he was a ghost. But his soul burned in the sun, his eyes hurt, and without full spirit sight, he had to take the world at face value. It was overwhelming to behold. He made a gesture of supplication and walked beneath the gate into the shrine grounds. The Kohonese word for such gate meant "bird dwelling" and he could imagine a giant barn owl swooping down from it. Though perhaps the daylight would disadvantage the bird as well...
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