And here's where it all started (we hope)

by **Victoria Valentine** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:35 am

Victoria pulled up to Hyde Park, looking around for anything out of the ordinary, though she honestly didn't expect to see much until she looked in a more... magical sense. "Want a thought that will frustrate the hell out of you?" she mused as she stepped out of the car, reaching for a slightly larger-than-usual purse in her back seat. "Somewhere, there's someone who isn't behind this who knew exactly what was going to happen, and probably why, and isn't saying a damned thing about it. No reason, no gain for them, they just... won't."

by **Narrator** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:52 am

Something about Hyde Park just feels... off. The shadows seem longer, deeper. The outlines of the trees seem jagged, predatory. Naturally a rational person could chalk any and all of this up to an overactive imagination, but the overall effect is a bit unsettling.

by **Victoria Valentine** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:02 am

"Well, this is just... Cute." Victoria frowned as she looked around them, then pulled a small flask of silver dust from her purse. She pursed her lips, blowing gently onto the top layer of the dust, a low whistle accompanying the breath... The sort of long whistle that, while pleasant, makes your hair stand on end. Then with a flick of her wrist she sent the dust scattering into the air to sell out ambient magic to be drawn to.

by **Narrator** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:19 am

The flow of the ambient energies in the area looks bent, almost. The contours are dragged out of skew by something. If she watches closely enough, she'll see that skew slowly tighten, distorting things progressively more until it seems to reach a limit, then it bounces back a bit. Not all the way before it starts being pulled again. This time it pulls things askew a little more, tightening once again, before it finally releases. The flow snaps into place. Almost normal again, but something has still changed about it.

Then, the process begins again. It's a rhythm. A pattern almost.

Pull, pull, snap... Pull, pull, snap...

by **Victoria Valentine** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 8:53 am

She frowned, studying the distortions, and trying to find the center of it all. If it was all being pulled, it should be being pulled TO someplace, right? Goddess, she hoped so. She walked in through the park, following the pulse of the magic as her ritual dagger formed in her hand, congealing from the shadow and freezing solid.

All the same, she was reminded of the pattern that the bird spirit had been muttering. 'one one two, two two three... pull pull snap...'

by **Will Stanton** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 4:06 pm

"Is there something I should be keeping an eye out for here, or this one of those invisible to us muggle things?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:07 pm

"Well, that depends," Victoria said. "Does anything feel wrong to you?"

by **Will Stanton** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 10:46 pm

"It's...quiet. I'd expect to see more families and stuff around here, but people seem to be avoiding it."

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 1:34 am

"Yer a wizard, 'Arry," Victoria mused as she followed the pulse of the park's energies. "If you weren't following me in, you'd probably avoid it, too. Same reason people avoid cemetaries, haunted houses, murder sites... it's just not healthy and we instinctively know it. Then there are fools like me..."

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:08 pm

"Well, you've brought the Fool-In-Chief with you, or that's what my wife says, at least.

I'm getting goosebumps."

by **Narrator** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:35 pm

As Victoria and Will make their way among the trees, they start to get a very definite sense that they're not alone.

by **Will Stanton** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:50 pm

"Did you hear that?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:09 am

Victoria, wanting to find out what was following them, played dityz and hoped that Will would catch on to what she was doing. "Hear what? I'm not sure what you're talking about, darling." Despite appearances, though, her senses were on high alert and trying to catch any hint of what was giving her this feeling.

by **Will Stanton** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 3:53 pm

"Don't worry babe, I'm sure it was nothing," he said.

His eyes, on the other hand, shot daggers.

by **Narrator** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 4:02 pm

In the distance they spot a large, humanoid form. The outline might be familiar to Will.

by **Victoria Valentine** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 4:06 pm

"If there's anything they're pulling that looks really bad, I'll try to shout it to you before it happens," Victoria murmured. She stared down the figure, then started gathering power. "But... hm. I suppose you're the boss."

by **Will Stanton** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 4:11 pm

"If that is what I think it is, it packs a wallop, but it may not be instantly aggressive. If it is, I'll keep it's attention, by which I mean getting the shit kicked out of me," he said, sotto voice.

by **Victoria Valentine** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 4:16 pm

"Let's hope that we can come up with a better plan than that," Victoria said. 'What do you think it is?" She kept her eyes on it as they walked forward.

by **Will Stanton** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:27 pm

"A mindless one. Asakku. Took three of us to bring it down last time, after it got agitated."

by **Victoria Valentine** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:33 pm

Victoria stumbled at that, and looked like if she could have, she would have gone pale. "A... oh shit. That..." She took a deep breath. "All right. Let's... hope it doesn't have any directions."

by **Will Stanton** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:54 pm

Will raised an eyebrow. "Directions?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:55 pm

"Instructions. 'Mindless one' isn't just a cute name, they don't have any personal will. If it's been ordered to attack anyone that comes in here... that could be bad."

by **Narrator** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:32 pm

The figure appears to be lumbering amidst the trees. It doesn't appear violent at the moment, but as they get closer they see another shambling nigh-identical figure further in the distance.

by **Victoria Valentine** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:59 pm

"And this is where things go from bad to worse," Victoria said. "I... can try to banish them. This is pretty much the epitome of 'this is bad,' though. Someone's not playing around." She wasn't even hiding her worry, which spoke to how bad this was.

by **Will Stanton** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 8:36 pm

"One was loose downtown, too, so that makes three. You think this is the epicenter?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 9:26 pm

"I think it is. Or at least I think it's the start. You need to think of magical disasters more like a garden than a bomb sometimes... things will grow in whatever pattern it can take to best."

"Either way, I think this is where whatever it was happened. So this is probably the place to fix it."

by **Narrator** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:35 pm

In the distance, they hear a low humming noise. It seems to intensify, like a chorus is building. Then it trails off.

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:54 pm

"That's probably not good, right?"

by **Narrator** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 2:23 pm

Another chorus of droning strikes up. Victoria can tell that the distortion of the local energies seems to intensify each time this happens, the skew worsening.

by **Victoria Valentine** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 2:53 pm

"Yes, that's bad. Things are getting worse. We just lost all of our thinking time." Victoria chanted under her breath and invoked a small glamour to hide them from sight, holding it up in the back of her mind. Disconcerted at having half of her mind effectively out of commission, she pressed on, motioning for Will to hurry with her.

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 4:20 pm

"I work best without thinking time," Will said, following her closely.

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 4:28 pm

"So...what's our play? You have a spell or something you can use?"

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:32 pm

The deeper in they get, the more they can see other figures milling around. Each time the droning strikes up, they see the figures raise their hands and tilt their heads upwards.

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:34 pm

Will looked upward, to try to see if he could see what they were seeing.

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 8:11 pm

Dreading what she was going to see, Victoria looked up as well.

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 10:56 pm

It's hard to see through the trees, but they can almost make out a faint outline that seems to become more solid as the droning reaches a crescendo, then fades as the sound does.

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:01 pm

"I'm going to try to get underneath it for the next droning cycle. Get a better view."

by **Narrator** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 2:48 pm

As Will maneuvers around, he can start to see certain elements of the shape that fades in and out. At ground level there seems to be two pillars. Immense things, supporting the shape. It widens further up, then narrows again, nearly to a point at the top.

by **Will Stanton** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 3:17 pm

"What on earth...do you recognize the shape, Victoria?" Will said, trying to get some kind of better solid view of the thing to make sense in his mind. "What the hell is it?"

by **Narrator** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 4:18 pm

The Mindless Ones seem to be in a rough circle around the outline. As the droning trails off their heavy footfalls sound again as they start pacing around it. They stop again periodically, turning to face the center, and raising their hands and heads as the droning strikes up again.

As Will tries different perspectives, he can see that it's definitely wide, slablike. Rough-hewn, almost craggy. It would look like a natural structure if it wasn't for the fact that natural structures aren't usually supported by two pillars by accident. The top of the structure looks almost like a mountaintop in miniature.

Though after getting a few views, Will notices something he might have missed before. It's not just that it gets wider about halfway up. It's that two more pillars hang at the structure's sides, attached at the broadest part of it before it begins to taper again.

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