Bay 12 Games Forum

You looked this way and that as you ensured that the coast was clear, peeked into the windows of the nearest buildings quickly to confirm that you were alone. You would investigate them more thoroughly soon, though not until you had done something more important than this. Something that you felt should have been done already, something that you needed to do before you considered doing anything else. You needed to get a better look at your surroundings, confirm that there was nothing else of note that needed your attention, ensure that you had done that little more to ensure that you were alone.

You hurried across to another of the run down buildings, one that had a tree growing beside it, one that you could see was more stable than the others. One that you could use as a vantage point. You struggled briefly with the tree as you attempted to find a foothold on the rough surface of its bark. The tree was a medium sized oak, one that you knew should have been easier for you to climb, yet you felt that you were going about it wrong. For some reason, attempting to climb it struck you as the wrong way to go about it, not due to the fact that you would get your dress dirty, but due to the fact that it somehow seemed unnatural for you to approach it that way.

You didn't know why climbing it seemed such an alien concept all of a sudden, yet you felt that any attempt to climb it would be met with disaster. Of course, there was another way of going about this, a way that didn't involve climbing it, a way that as unnatural as it should have seemed to you, struck you as being the better choice.

You stepped back, sizing the tree and the building up before you leapt towards the building's wall, your foot kicking off it as you pushed yourself towards the tree, grabbing one of the low branches. You half hauled your body up before kicking off the tree, letting go of it as you grabbed the lip of the building's roof, pulling upward as you kicked off the side of it again, then backwards off the tree, your palms shooting down now as you pressed them to the lip of the building's roof. A slight grin came to your lips as you swung your legs up, as you stood atop the building's roof, now able to survey the surrounding area.

You felt proud of yourself.

You carefully paced across the building's roof as you surveyed the rooftops you could see before you, the streets, the tall buildings that stood out. There was the railway station, with what looked like the rooftops of carriages now visible to you, there was the church, still run down and with its roof collapsed inward. There was an opening for what could be a town square, or a marketplace, though you couldn't tell what it was from this distance, there was what you assumed may be a town hall.

There was something else though.

Something that set you on edge.

There was movement.

You could see what you assumed to be misshapen figures lingering in some of the inner streets, figures that moved in and out of your line of sight as they seemed to pace in an agitated manner. They were a good distance away, however, that was all you needed to know. They were a good distance away from you, and even further from the station that you planned to investigate just as soon as you had poked your head into a few of the nearest houses in search of a weapon.

You ducked and slipped over the side of the roof, dangling briefly before dropping down to street level, ignoring a brief stinging sensation in your shoulders as you did so. It felt almost as if you had pulled a muscle, yet not quite, though the sensation quickly passed. You checked a few of the less run down houses quickly, poking through them as you took note of how one of them had the bones of its former occupants within in. Bones that had been picked clean, bones that only invoked a sensation of jealousy within you.

You would have loved to have something freshly killed to eat.

The thought of food did at least remind you to check the kitchens of these homes, prompting you to pick up and discard several knives as you did your best to find the biggest, most sturdy looking knife you could. One that you knew would serve you well should you need to fight, one that you could stab into some foul creature's heart, like one of the Technomancers who had been looking at you with desire in their eyes.

Especially after they had found out what you were.

It was as if they thought that the discovery of what you were would allow them to easily woo you, as if it meant that you couldn't afford to have standards. The only thing you had really desired lately, was a meal, something raw, bloody, something that you could sink your teeth into and tear chunks out of. They could provide that, though you knew that a certain person would object to it, tell you that you shouldn't do that, find a way to make you feel bad for acting on your nature.

A nature he said you were better than.

What did he know though, what gave him the right to tell you that you shouldn't embrace more of this aspect of yourself than you already did?

You slumped against the wall, huffing as you sank down, crossing your arms as you brought them to a rest atop your knees. Your mood had soured with that thought, with the thought that this man, this idiot who thought himself so smart was trying to control you by using the fact that you owed him so much to allow him to do so. He was using the fact that you owed him, to make you bend to his word, to his will and you didn't like it.

Did you?

Was he?

You felt confused, as well as moody, as if something about this very town's nature was getting to you, as if the stench of death, as if the fact that tainted people were so free here caught some repressed desire to be free like that. As if they had everything you truly desired, yet the thought seemed so alien to you, so out of place, so raw and instinctual. Maybe it was his presence that had been keeping this aspect of you in check, maybe you had forgotten how it felt like. Maybe you had never felt it quite like this before.

You sighed as you absently toyed with the knife you had aquired, though the sound of footsteps caught your attention. Footsteps, in the street behind the house. Footsteps that fell unevenly, footsteps that belonged to more than one person. You could hear voices, too, voices that you managed to catch small snippets of as they passed by your hiding place, as they went by unaware that you could hear them.

"They will come, they that survived will come. Come. Into our home, to steal away with the train. Steal. Steal!" one voice wailed, a voice that bore a strange resonance.

"We shall ambush them, they shall pay. He is gone, the beautiful one is gone!" another cried, making you wonder who this beautiful one they referred to was. Were they talking about the idiot who sent you to investigate?

"Such ugly forms they-" came one voice, harmonious and light, though it stopped abruptly as another voice started, a voice that was deep and powerful, resuming where it left off.

"-bear, while we are blessed with such-" the voice cut off, as the harmonious voice resumed once again.

"-wonderous forms, gifts of the divine!" it finished, prompting a small frown from you. They were referring to the thing that Eurochkoles had beaten then most likely, not Eurochkoles himself, who bore a strange form of beauty due to his ageless nature.

As the voices and sounds of footfalls faded off into the distance, you found yourself wondering if you should continue to the station and approach these things in some manner, if you should head back to inform Eurochkoles of this, or if you should check another part of the town first.

You couldn't believe that you had agreed to do this, to head over to a town that had been clearly described as being a potential threat by him, that you were doing something for the good of people you cared nothing about. You were used to looking out for yourself, helping others only when it was a means to an end, when it wouldn't be too far out of your way to do such a thing. Yet here he had you acting in this manner, all because he had asked you, and you didn't know how to say no to him. When it came to it, with how fragile he seemed in comparison to you, with how easily he seemed to get hurt in these matters, with how much he had done for you, you found it hard to say no to him.

Like it or not you you knew you owed him for what he did for you, for all he was still trying to do for many others out of some misplaced sense of duty. You had been so confident that you could do as he wanted of you that you had set off unarmed, feeling while in his presence that you could easily overcome the hordes that no doubt milled about just out of sight in this town.

Pride told you that you couldn't go back and take one of the weapons, pride told you that you would just have to be as brilliant as he made you out to be. Pride told you that you would go above and beyond, that you would solve all the problems that needed handling immediately and be the hero for the day for a change. You didn't know who you were kidding thinking such things, yet you knew that he was counting on you, that if you did it for nobody else, you would do it for him.

For him.

You would make it up to him, the lifetimes of his that you had cut short because you knew that you should have known better, that you should have known you were being manipulated into it. You knew that some of those lives must've been ones of utter pacifism and generosity, and yet you had still killed him. You didn't like it, you didn't like the fact that fate had played its hand against you, that you were unable to play against it as the only thing you could do, was fight a losing battle against fate, playing within the rules it defined.

You briefly shielded your eyes from the sun with your hand, huffing as you gazed ahead, as you kept an eye on the town, while cursing inwardly. For some reason, you found yourself disliking the fact that the sun was shining brightly today, likely because it was in your eyes. Likely because you were feeling irritable and moody. You didn't know what it was about his presence that seemed to make you feel like a different person, what it was about him that made you feel content, what it was about him that made you feel like this now when you were away from him. One thing you did know, was that you didn't like it, you didn't like what you could only assume was some form of seperation anxiety.

Why did you feel like that towards him, though?

You knew that it wasn't because you felt for him, was it?

No, it was something other than that, it was something to do with that ageless grace he carried himself with at times, with the fact that there was something about him that had almost everybody disarmed in his presence. It was like he was completely unaware of how he affected people, of how people were awed by his presence. Maybe that was why you had killed him in some of your incarnations, because you had felt for him, because he had been oblivious, blind to those feelings. You couldn't have him, and thus you had made sure nobody could.

That didn't add up though, you knew that nobody could have him anyway, that he had likely pushed away anybody over the ages that he had experienced. You didn't feel like that for him, no, this was a different feeling. This was something more, this was closer to reverence, worship, as if he was some kind of authority figure, the man who was father to the world.

You huffed, kicking at the knee high grass.

This wasn't right either, just as he defied all comprehension at times, your feelings defied your ability to comprehend them. You did wonder if he would have done just as well without you, if he truly needed you, if he even needed Joy. When it came down to it, you knew that he would have somehow landed on his feet no matter what happened. Somehow, he made you feel very small, very insignifigant compared to him, knowing that he was older than you could even comprehend living for.

Your thoughts continued along in this manner as you closed the distance between you and the town, getting close enough to see just how run down it was. Close enough to find yourself wondering why there was no activity in the town. If those things had came from here, surely there would be more here, surely they would have returned by now?

You ducked down slightly as you hurried the rest of the way to the towns perimeter, hurrying towards one of the run down properties garden walls. The grass here was longer than the fields you had passed through on the way, with thorny bushes growing along many parts of them. You pressed yourself to the wall as you reached it, ducking down as you ensured that you were out of sight, listening for any sign of life for a long moment.

There was no sound but the creaking of old timber, the rustling of leaves from the trees dotted about the place and the whispering of the wind as it went through the grass. No sounds told you that there was anything here at the moment, yet the scents you could pick up told a different story. There was something more than the scents of the fields, something more than the wild flowers and brambles, something more than the mildew and damp. You could smell something that you were oddly attuned to by nature, something that you knew all too well, faint as it was.

There was the scent of death.

The scents of blood, ichor, decay.

You glanced cautiously over the wall as you took note of the immediate area's of the town that you could see from your current place of hiding, scanning the area for any signs of movement, listening for anything that would betray that there was anything near by. Despite the absence of any immediate and obvious threat, you still felt on edge, knowing that you hadn't confirmed if this place was safe or not. You could see the spires of a church in the distance, a building that's roof had visibly collapsed, you could see the tracks leading along the far edge of town, towards what you assumed was likely a railway station of sorts. You could see what remained of the cottages on the outskirts of town, many of them run down, partially collapsed.

The town couldn't have been abandoned or overrun for long, as they would have sent people to investigate sooner, you noted, moving along the wall to peer into one of the run down cottages, taking note of how it appeared that the walls had been struck by something large, something powerful, aiding the partial collapse of the cottage. Something large and powerful. You almost smirked at the thought of what that must've been, how it lay dead in the gorge, how it had been gutted and then you had unloaded a shotgun into it to ensure that it wasn't getting up again.

Ever.

You could have done with a shotgun right now, just incase you ran into something you didn't want to deal with unarmed. Just incase you ran into anything at all for that matter. Or anyone. You were none too picky, you'd settle for shooting just about anything that moved right now, if it would let you know that you were safe.

You had a task to carry out however, you had the town to investigate, a town that seemed dead at this point in time. While there was no activity, you knew you couldn't say it was safe and run back just yet, you needed to investigate it a little more diligently than that, still. The question was, where did you start, how did you go about it?



((Edit: Oops, meant to reply to a few things.

Also, may I sig...

If you wish to, then feel free, though it may be an idea for cautions sake to censor it mildly. F***ing cake, or something.

Karnewarrior/Calrogman:
If you're looking forward to epic, I hope I can deliver.))

You tilted your head this way, then that as you did your best to gauge what threat the town ahead would pose in all the most probable situations. You knew that if the people of the city remained, that they would likely have been set upon, beleaguered by the things that you had encountered in the gorge. If the towns people had left, there was always the chance that the bandits that you had encountered earlier that day had moved in and now used it as their base of operations. If the people had entirely been turned into those things, then you knew that they would attack on sight, and that you'd have to fight your way through them, that you'd need a good reason to even justify that risk.

You knew that ideally you should scout this place out, that you should see what you were up against, see what was there for you in that place. Once you knew what was there, you'd know what was the best course of actions, if you were better off avoiding the town or not. The problem here however, was that you were injured, that you couldn't carry out such a task yourself to a satisfactory level at this moment.

You loathed the idea of sending somebody else in your place, though you knew you would have to. You knew that somebody would have to go there, scout the place out, ensure that it was either safe, or worth the risk to go there.

The problem was, who did you send?

You briefly considered the bursar, knowing that if people were there, if they were towns people or bandits, that he would potentially be able to negotiate with them, though the odds were that if they were bandits that they wouldn't care for negotiations. Joy on the other hand, was a bad choice you knew from the start, given how bandits and towns people would be hard for her to differentiate between initially, given how she would attempt to take the entire town on alone if it was full of corrupted humans. Anne on the other hand, initially struck you as a poor choice given her nature, yet you knew deep down that she was a far better choice than the others. Maybe you didn't wish to endanger her, knowing that she was far from the most able of the group, yet...

Yet, you knew that towns people would take a shine to her, that bandits would grudgingly be forced to respect her, that if the town was overrun with corrupted creatures, that she would potentially be tainted enough in their eyes to walk amongst them. You didn't want to send her away, you didn't want to send away the only person here that you felt any real connection with, yet you knew that it was for the best.

"I'll get Anne to scout the place," you started, while the bursar glanced between you and the distant town. You knew what he was about to say, what he was thinking. You knew you could easily convince him otherwise.

"Honestly, you're going to send a woman out there alone, to do a task better suited to a man?"

"Did Joy handle her duty to assist you and to rescue survivors inadequately?" you asked, settling down on the top of the hill as you held your ribs. "Do you doubt that Anne is anything less than as brilliant as Joy, in her own way?"

There was a long moments silence, one that was finally broken as he spoke. "If anything, you should send Joy," he grumbled, while you found yourself picking up on a certain awkwardness he was exibiting, the fact that he found himself threatened by the concept of women being more suited to tasks that he associated with his own gender.

"This is the problem with society today," you sighed, shaking your head as you did so. "You seem to have this deep rooted social structure for keeping the so called weaker gender out of trouble, so you can play the part of the big strong man. I'm sure it hurts to admit that Joy's stronger than you, that Anne's more adaptable than you, but face it-"

"They're the inferior gender," he snorted, prompting you to climb to your feet, dusting yourself off as you started back down the hill towards Anne, towards Joy and the survivors.

"Refer to women in that way again, and I shall order Joy to kill you."

You didn't need to see the mans face to know that he had turned pale, that Joy had no doubt shown once you had inadvertantly drawn attention away from the survivors, that she was fully capable of feats that put strong men to shame. You'd leave it to him to find out if you had been serious or not, if you would actually carry out a threat like that, or if it was merely to keep his misogynistic opinions to himself. You still felt unsteady on your feet, you noted as you stumbled on the way down the hill, catching yourself before you fell. You were more stable than you had been when you had initially come too, at least, even if your ribs hurt like hell still.

"Anne, with me, we need to talk," you called out as you neared the group, leading her aside as you settled down on a dry looking rock out of earshot of the group. You could see her looking down at you expectantly as you did your best to keep straight, to avoid agitating your ribs further before they could heal. You knew that she was likely going to be just as awkward as the bursar had been over this matter of her scouting. "I need your help here Anne, I need you because nobody else is quite as able to adapt to the situations that may be involved here as you."

Anne tilted her head slightly, no doubt anticipating that what you were going to ask was something that she didn't wish to do, but would have to. "The fact you lead me aside, tells me that you don't want the others to hear you ordering me to do this," she started, tapping a finger against her lips as she did so. "That means, you suspect the town is dangerous, and-"

"It's that obvious, is it?"

"That you want to get me killed?"

You felt shocked that she would accuse you of such, your expression betraying how clearly she had caught you offguard with that, how horrified you were that she would suggest it. She burst out laughing however, kneeling down before you as she reached over to take one of your hands in her own.

"No, you don't want to get me killed, I know better than that, but it was so worth it to see that look on your face."

"That wasn't funny."

"Oh, please, that was nothing compared to some of the things I could have said."

You sighed, shaking your head slowly as you did so. "I need you to scout the town Anne, as you're probably the best suited person here to carry out such a task," you paused, glancing over at the group of people huddled together, many of them leaning towards Joy, betraying how they felt safe with her. They felt safe with the strange woman who felt nothing, with the woman who had protected them, lead them to safety. You couldn't blame them in a way for feeling like that. "I won't lie however, I believe that this will be dangerous, but I can't trust anybody else to do it."

"So, you want me to do what exactly?"

"Check the town out, I'm willing to bet that in order of most to least likely, what you'll find there are corrupted humans, bandits, or towns people. The thing we need most is transport, if there's a train in the station or something of the sort, we might be able to justify the risk of going there. Supplies, especially medical ones would be good, too. Keep your eyes open for anything else of note, too, I don't know what they may have there, but I'm certain that you'll know something noteworthy when you see it."

"So, if it's more of those things, you want me to do what, sneak around?"

"Ideally, yes. If they discover you, try and pass off your nature as close to their own, if you can't fool them, don't lead them back here until you've shaken enough of them that we can deal with them without being overwhelmed."

Anne nodded slightly, neither of you liked this that much was certain, yet you knew that she knew that you were right when you said that she was the most suited to this task. You would have gone yourself if you knew that you could have handled this, that you could have evaded monsters, outwitted bandits and dealt with towns people. "I guess," she started, glancing back at the group as she fell silent for a brief moment. "I guess I should go see to that now, as the sooner we're we're out of here, the sooner-"

She paused, narrowing her eyes briefly as she did so.

"Wait, did you mean cake, when you said noteworthy things?" she asked, narrowing her eyes as she did so. "As, if that was what you meant, I swear I'll break the rest of your ribs for you."

"That's not funny, either."

"You're no fun when you're hurt," Anne sighed, squeezing your hands softly before she stood. "I'll try to wait until you're better before I torment you further. I'll be back just as soon as I'm able, you'll see," she stated while pushing herself to her feet, straightening her dress and huffing slightly. With that she turned, starting up the hill and towards the town, leaving you feeling as if you had forgotten something.

Something important.

You slowly struggled to your feet, doing your best to ignore the twinges of pain as your body protested, hurting all the more now you had come to a rest, settled down and ceased motion. While Anne made her way towards the town, you made your way back towards the group, almost dragging your feet as you vaguely recalled the bandit, the figure that you had captured, a person who likely knew more about this area. Just what you needed right now, somebody with answers, somebody who could fill you in on the details you were missing.

You approached a woman dressed in what had been a maids outfit, one of the train's staff, a woman who trembled, a woman who's attire was stained with blood, ichor and what you could only assume was tea. "May I ask you something, ma'am?" you started, waiting to make sure you had her attention as you shifted your weight from one foot to the other. "I'm looking for a man, who doesn't seem to be amongst you, a man with short brown hair, a braided beard-"

The woman turned pale, attempting to stammer a response before she burst into tears, most of what she said unintelligable, though you did catch enough to hear that she had witnessed his death. A death that had been apparently none too pleasant to witness. It didn't suprise you that this man had died, that there had been so many people killed in the the crash itself, though it was inconvenient to know, as this man could have given you answers. He could have helped you make sense of what had happened to lead to this.

You walked around the outside of the group, moving to Joy's side, sinking down as you sat down near where she stood. You were starting to feel the situation getting to you, the hopelessness of it sinking in, though you knew you couldn't afford to show it. You had to remain strong, you had to remain positive, you had to make the people here feel like everything was going to be okay, when deep down you were feeling like things would be anything but.

There were things out here that shouldn't have been found so far away from London.

Deep down, you felt that things were only going to get worse.


End of Part Five

This lumbering monstrosity was one of the last things you could have done with right now, yet you knew that you had to deal with it as soon as possible, that you had to ensure that  it came for you, that it remained distanced from the civilians that you were saving. The problem was, that you were uncertain that your revolver alone was going to be enough to take this thing down, that it being bigger and stronger than the other tainted humans here, it was without a doubt tougher, too. You knew that you had left one shotgun behind, yet you were uncertain if that would be enough either. You couldn't load it while dealing with this thing, though there was always Anne.

You knew that if she was sent to retrieve it, that she could load it ready for you with one of the more destructive ammunition types you had brought with you. Assuming that was, that she was able to tell what one was what. It was your best option at this moment, the choice that you believed presented the most viable means of stopping this thing. Tainted as it was, it would recover slowly from any injury dealt to it, though lacking immortality like the Enlightened, a single good hit, or enough physical damage would still kill it.

"I'm going to need you to go fetch the shotgun we left behind, load it with ammunition and bring it back to me. Do you know the difference between the different types of rounds?"

"No, they all look the same to me."

"Load a little of each of them into it, then. I'll distract this thing so you can get there safely."

Anne nodded, while you gripped your revolver, watching as the thing continued to lumber towards you, almost casual in its approach. Limited as you suspected its intellect to be, this thing was toying with you, viewing you as prey that it could toy with before it struck. You were watching it however, taking note of how awkwardly it moved, of how its heavily corrupted form didn't move with any kind of grace. Its legs were awkward, slightly different in size and shape, too small to support this things bulk. It was powerful enough to fling a train carriage, yet it clearly wasn't stable enough to run properly due to the manner in what its legs were formed.

You took a few steps towards the creature, taking careful aim as you did so, both hands gripping the revolver, three shots fired off in rapid succession as you hit two of its eyes on its torso and the knee on the larger of its legs. The thing howled in agony, its weight shifting to the smaller leg as it started to limp towards you, as Anne made a run for where your backpack had been left. Two clicks followed as you continued to pull the trigger, reminding you that you hadn't reloaded your weapon yet, prompting you to flick the cylinder out and tip the spent casings from it.

You could see the wounds you had dealt were knitting slowly, fast enough that this thing would be completely fine again within half an hour, but slow enough that it wouldn't be alive long enough to see that come about. The problem was, it didn't seem too affected by the wounds you had dealt other than being slowed. You didn't know where its thought center was, as it had no visible head, while two more eyes seemed to open as its skin split to replace the ones that you had damaged.

You flicked the cylinder back into place as you finished reloading it, putting three bullets in each leg quickly as you did so, repeating the process of reloading as you started to jog away from it. It was still limping after you, babbling and howling as ichor ran from the wounds that you had dealt to its legs. You didn't feel as if you were in any immediate danger howeve, as this thing was signifigantly slowed down by those wounds.

That was, until its skin started to split once more, as bone plates started coming to the surface, as the thing leaned to the side and flipped over onto what had formerly been its hands. The wounded legs split at the feet, those feet reforming into pincers, pincers that had eyes on the outer side of each of them.

Then, it started to charge.

Bullets cracked against the armoured carapace that had formed over the creature as you opened fire on it once more, then again against its back as you ducked past it as that initial charge had it rush by you both rapidly and clumbsily. You had underestimated what this corrupted creature was capable of, though you still believed you had it under control.

You had two more shots, and you could see gaps in its carapace where it had eyes peering out, eyes that seemed to bulge as it turned to face you agian. Eyes that slowly extended as they started to protrude from the creature on stalks. Those eyes swayed unevenly as they defied you, denying you the ability to target them accurately, presenting you with a small target that moved too unsteadily for you to fire at confidently.

So you didn't fire at them.

Two bullets hit the base of the stalks that swayed before you, severing them from the creature as it roared, as it dropped down on all fours and charged at you again. This time you barely managed to roll aside as it hurtled past you, this time it span about, hurtling back towards you again as it denied you the chance to reload your weapon. This time it came so close to hitting you that you could feel your clothing catch on one of the corners of its carapace, tearing as it sent you off balance.

The creature stood, letting out a bellowing, laughing roar as it paced towards you once more, before it let out a resonant sound, a sound like a horn, a sound that reverberated off the walls of the gorge as it dropped down onto all fours again.

You too advantage of this moment to reload your revolver, though you were uncertain where you were going to aim for that would affect this thing, praying that Anne had found the shotgun, that it hadn't been lost too. You shifted slightly, wondering if it was wise to try and make a run for the bridge, to try and dance around the supports given that this thing had likely destroyed many of them initially. It was adapting to everything you did, regrowing eyes in different configurations while you attempted to blind it, bone plates protecting its body and limbs, falling low so you couldn't aim for its maw.

It was strong, it was fast, it was predatory.

You didn't need a shotgun, you needed a miracle.

You were on an endorphine and adrenaline high, your injuries and your determination to fight all you had to fuel you, you were armed with a weapon that was ineffective, you were in an area with scenry that presented little more than short term barriers to this thing. You needed to think, you needed to show some of that brilliance that you possessed at one time, you needed to show this thing that there was something no amount of mutagenic adaption could prepare it for.

You needed to create that miracle.

You started to run towards this thing, watching as it charged for you, sliding at the last moment as you dropped to the ground, raised your revolver and fired upwards. Ichor sprayed over you as you fired up into its unprotected maw, causing the creature to howl in agony as it hurtled overhead. Yet you found yourself frowning as you could see it turning about to face you, feet scraping against the ground as ichor oozed from it, as it spread its legs to allow for a lower center of gravity. It was't going to allow you to do that again, it seemed.

"This just isn't my day," you muttered as you heard the sound of shotgun fire from behind one of the fallen carriages, telling you that Anne had gotten herself into trouble. You couldn't go to help her, you couldn't risk leading this thing towards her, knowing that it would likely injure her horribly the first time it charged at her.

Inspiration hit as you took note of one of the broken coupling rods from the train's wheels, of the indentation in the ground where the earlier carriage had been flicked at you. You didn't need to shoot it, not when you could try and impale it. You ducked past the creature as it charged at you once more, running over to the coupling rod, grabbing it as you hauled it towards the dip in the ground, before you lay it flat, turning to face the creature as it sized you up once more.

As it started its charge once again you breathed deeply, edging back so that you were ready to drop into that furrow, ready to act out your plan. If this failed, you had no backup plan. If this failed, you were going to start running, very fast, in the direction it wasn't. The thing gained on you, hurtling towards you as the thundering sound of its feet pounding the earth filled the air, while you braced yourself.

Rod in hand, you ducked down into the furrow of earth as the creature charged overhead, one of its bulky feet slamming into your chest as you felt it wind you, as you felt more of your ribs crack from the impact of this thing atop you. The injury it dealt you, was nothing compared to the injury you dealt it, however. The rod as it was raised, jagged end first, tore through the creatures maw, catching on a stone buried deep in the earth and held in place by you.

Jagged metal tore through the creature as it rushed overhead, letting out a gurgling howl as it tore through it, as it ripped free of it as the creature passed over you. The thing staggered as its innards spilled from the gaping exit wound left by your improvised weapon before it collapsed, twitching, spasming in the throes of death.

Then finally, it was still.

You staggered to your feet as you held your chest, as Anne hurried to your side flecked with ichor, hissing as you felt her pull your one arm over her shoulder to help support you. The rest of the creatures upon seeing the death of their leader figure started to flee, wailing, mournful howls echoing through the gorge as they fled the scene of the train crash.

You had won, yet it didn't feel like a victory.

Something was wrong here, very wrong.

You knew that these people would have to have come from a village or a town, that there was likely one near the railway tracks, though now they had fled, you could see what you could salvage from this site, you could see if you had missed any survivors. Well, not you, personally. You'd be quite content with delegating duties to others at the moment, as the less you had to move, the better.

It was time to decide what your course of action was, time to take control of the situation. What was your plan of action to be?

"My duty here is to investigate the issue with the mines, while you want to treat this like a holiday, so," you paused as you quickly ordered the thought you were having in your head, making certain that it wasn't going to conflict with what you were supposed to be doing too badly. "I believe when we arrive that you should see to lodgings given that it'd be best to have them handled ahead of time. I'll keep the girls out of your hair with a little sight seeing so that can be handled quickly," you paused, watching as the man pulled out a notebook.

"Lodgings, first priority," he stated, as he pulled a pencil from his pocket, as he inscribed that first note in the little book.

"The day after, I can head up the mining town, get everything straightened out, while you relax and do whatever you please. Any time we have left after that, that we can get away with, we'll spend sight seeing, relaxing, whatever," you finished, while the man nodded, jotting down the rest of the notes he required.

"Well, I have no objection to this plan for the record," the man stated in response, before tucking his notebook back away in one of his pockets. "It means unless I'm actually needed, I get to sample the local delights."

"Oh, on that note, I have to get my hands on some fudge for a friend," you responded, with a small smile. You wondered if he would believe you if you had stated that you planned to buy it for the queen, who was clearly depending on you to do your duty to the country and bring her said fudge. That, and deal with the incident down here as a secondary matter, though the fudge took priority.

"I think we should make Joy try some, you know," Anne butted in, speaking through a mouthful of cake.

"Try some fudge?"

"That too, but we should make her try some cake first."

You nodded as you turned your attention towards Joy, picking up a slice of sponge cake with icing on it, holding it out towards her as you did so. Her impassive gaze shifted from you to the cake and back again, her head tilting slightly as she waited for you to make some form of statement in regards to it. "Joy, see this?" you asked, after a long moments silence, prompting little more than a nod from her. "Take it from me and eat it. It's cake."

Joy reached out as she attempted to grasp the cake, pausing to draw her hand back as her fingers sank into the soft sponge. It was clear that she hadn't quite expected this, though there was so little reaction from her other than this basic error correction, that you had to wonder. She gave off so little reaction that you could read, so little in the way of emotional flickers. You briefly considered the possibility of getting your hands on your old work in this field, seeing if you could still make out what each part of it did. If you could discern what each part did, you could extrapolate the effect that it would have on a person and develop countermethods, after all.

It was so simple that you had to wonder why you hadn't considered it before.

Well, other than the fact that the work on it was likely under lock and key.

You watched as Joy cautiously attempted to eat the cake, as if the soft nature of it threatened to have it escape her grasp at any moment, though her expression remained neutral. From start to finish, she exibited no sign of emotion as she made short work of the cake, no hint of enjoyment. "Well?" you asked, as you wondered if she would make some statement about how it was inadequate for the purpose of sustenance next.

"It was-" Joy paused, struggling to find an appropriate word. "Nice," she finished, prompting Anne to pause in shock, the sight of her almost dropping her cake visible out of the corner of your eye.

"Well, isn't that high praise," Anne muttered, while you reached over to take a slice of cake for yourself. As you did so, Anne shuffled closer to you, reaching over as she snatched the cake away from you, huffing as she spoke. "That's mine, too."

"So, if that's yours, and everything else I've picked up is yours, what am I allowed?" you asked, prompting Anne to pout at you. She had this planned, you could feel it, you could see that she was ready to spring some plot on you to make sure that you didn't eat any of the cake yourself, so she could have it all to herself.

"I still haven't forgiven you for shooting me and cutting my arms off when we first met," Anne huffed, prompting another look of shock from the bursar. You could almost hear his thoughts, almost hear him asking himself if this was true.

"Honestly, that's all you have?" you asked, shaking your head slowly as you did so. "You never returned my machete after I cut your arms off with it, on that note."

"It's mine now," she huffed, taking a bite out of the cake, before speaking through the mouthful she had. "Besides, I've started eating this cake now, so you can't have-" Anne started, though she quickly fell silent. "Wait, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" you asked, as you reached past her, taking advantage of the moment to take a slice of cake from the tray that it sat upon. "I honestly don't hear anything other than the sound of the train wheels on the tracks," you continued, pausing as Anne placed a hand to your wrist, placing her cake down as she brought her free hand up, pressing a finger to her lips.

"Shh!"

You paused, listening carefully for a long moment before you spoke "No, this ploy to stop me having cake isn't going to work Anne, as-" she slapped your shoulder, repeating that motion to silence you.

"It sounds like a deep, ominous groan, like... I don't know what it sounds like, but it's deep, low pitched, distant," she stated, glancing towards Joy as she did so. "Can you hear it, Joy?" she asked, before huffing as Joy merely shook her head. There was another long moments silence, before you started raising the cake once more, only to pause as you caught what she must've been referring to. It was a deep groan, like the sound of fatigued metal and collapsing wood.

Metal and wood...

The train tracks.

You pushed past Anne as you looked out the window, cursing as you realised you were on the outer side of the current turn the train was making. You couldn't see what was coming ahead, yet you could feel it. You could feel a gut-wrenching sensation of anticipation, horrific and dark as you knew what was about to happen was unavoidable. The sound of screaming echoed from further along, along with the sound of carriage after carriage crashing with a resonant boom as it landed in what you could only assume was a gorge of some form.

"Brace yourselves!" you yelled over the sounds of crashing and screaming that filled the air, your mouth opening as you went to yell something else, only for the carriage to lurch forwards, before plummeting downwards. Your words were drowned out as you ducked beneath the table, pulling Anne down with you.

The world about you tumbled as you clung to the table, to where it had been bolted to the floor as the windows exploded as the carriage struck something, as broken glass ricocheted about the interior of the carriage. The table didn't hold though, the table gave way and you found yourself bounced around the interior of the room you were in before you came to a halt with a booming slam, as the carriage landed on its roof, as the carriage buckled slightly as one of the carriages behind you landed against it.

Crashing and screaming continued to fill the air for several long, horrifying moments after, yet the horror wasn't over. The horror was far from over. You could hear the screams go from screams of terror relating to this fall, to cries for help, blood curdling screams, prayers, begging for mercy. You could hear the screams of people in the other carriages, trapped, screaming for help as what they described as monsters set upon them.

One by one those screams were silenced.

Breathing deeply, you started to haul yourself towards the window of the carriage, crawling out unsteadily as you clutched your ribs, as you wiped blood away from your forehead. You had a gash from the broken glass across your forehead, a few ribs were broken, at the very least cracked. You hurt all over and were likely going to be covered in bruises from how you had been flung around the interior of the falling carriage.

You turned back towards it as you attempted to shake off the disorientation you felt from the fall, reaching down for Anne's hand as she crawled out, hissing as she visibly started to regenerate from the injuries that she had taken, while Joy crawled out behind her, her own recovery occuring at an equally rapid pace. "Are you alright?" you asked, as you crouched down beside the carriage, looking at the bursar as he sat against the shattered remains of the doorframe on the other side of the room you had occupied.

"About as well as can be, all things accounted for," he mumbled, checking himself quickly for injury, though it was clear that he had suffered the least, that he had suffered little more than light cuts where glass had nicked him.

"Could you grab the backpack for me before you get out?" you asked, while the bursar nodded, crawling towards the compartment it sat within. "As there's something out here, and my guns are in that bag," you muttered under your breath, standing again as you took in your surroundings, as you took note of the high banks of the gorge you had fallen into, the afternoon sun casting shade over you.

A stream ran through the middle of the gorge, going around the trains carriages that had fallen in its path. You breathed deeply once again as you turned to face the bridge, seeing how it looked like it had been deliberately sabotaged, how supports had been removed here and broken there. It was intentional, and whatever had done it was preying on the people in the other carriages while you were struggling to find your feet.

You were about to yell back to the bursar to hurry up when something, a misshapen yet humanoid form stumbled around the corner of one of the carriages, babbling to itself as it pointed at you, as it started salivating at the sight of you. "What are corrupted people doing so far from London?" came Anne's voice from behind you, while you started towards this thing, while you braced yourself to deal with this thing as it charged.

As it hurtled towards you, you dived forwards, slamming your arm into the bloated mass of its neck, knocking it to the ground, ducking down beside it as you kicked it onto its stomach, as you placed your knees against its shoulders and twisted its neck with a sharp motion. "All I wanted was some fucking cake!" you snarled as the things neck snapped audiably, its last moments being ones of confusion, agony and fear as you left its twitching form in dying where it lay.

You stood, dusting yourself down as you wiped further blood from your forehead, glancing back at Anne, Joy and the bursar as two of them stared at you in shock. This wasn't your day, but you needed a course of action. People were still trapped, but you didn't know how many lived, how many of these things there were.

You hurt all over and it seemed like all hell was breaking loose. You needed to figure how you were going to approach this situation and fast. Fight or flight, what was your choice going to be?

You breathed deeply as you reached up to the overhead compartments, grabbing the backpack that was sat inside the one above your seat, tugging on it forcefully, though bracing yourself as not to topple backwards. The last thing you wanted to do was fall atop the cake that sat atop the table, to have to deal with these lowlife humans with your back covered in icing, cream and crumbs. You quickly unfastened the buckles that kept the pack closed, pulling it open as you grabbed one of your revolvers and a bag of ammunition.

"You don't have to do this, you know. You don't have to deal with every bad situation that comes along. We could just sit it out, we could make it clear that they'd be making a mistake if they tried to take anything from us. You don't need to risk getting hurt," Anne stated as she watched you checking the ammunition, before you set about loading it into the cylinder. She could see that you were set on this, that you were ready to risk this, despite how you had much longer recovery times than she did, than the Enlightened did.

You didn't answer at first, instead finishing loading the gun, putting the small bag of ammunition in your pocket as you found yourself wishing you had time to prepare, time to load extra cylinders, time to prepare ammunition in a belt. "Maybe I do not have to, but, what is to say that they will not stop at murder to ensure that their pockets are filled?"

"So, you're planning to take them on, all alone?"

"I am."

"There's more of them than you, you think you can kill them and walk back in here unscathed?" Anne asked, her voice filled with emotion, the fear that you could read in it betraying how she wanted desperately to talk you down. The emotion was touching, but it was the wrong time and place for it as you had taken it upon yourself to ensure the safety of those aboard the train.

"I don't plan to kill them."

Anne stared at you in disbelief, a stare that you knew persisted as you turned to leave the room, as you headed towards the door of the carriage. You knew that you needed a vantage point, that you needed to stare these men down, that you needed to make them feel very afraid. You needed to make them believe that carrying out this attack was the worst thing that they could do. You opened the door that lead between carriages, though instead of stepping into another you grabbed hold of the ladder leading up, hauling yourself upwards, sliding onto the roof of the train carriage.

You stood, looking down over the side of the train as you sized the men up quickly, figuring that the one at the front was the leader due to how he was the largest of them and the most confident. You raised your gun, pointing it skyward as you stood there, as you gazed down at these men, as you focused on actively instead of passively influencing them. You wanted them to feel afraid, you wanted them to believe that pressing on with this would be the death of them.

It very well could be, though you didn't wish to have to get into a gun battle if you could avoid it.

The man that you took to be the leader looked up at you, his eyes meeting yours, yours staring back into his without the slightest hint of fear, with your body language showing off how you were supremely confident. You felt like a god on high, like divity ready to shock and awe heathen mortals.

You felt supremely powerful.

You felt unstoppable.

Your own nature was affecting you, making you feel more than just a man, more than the figure who had been battered and beaten, shot and stabbed, forced to endure lengthy recovery. You felt like an unstoppable force of divinity, and these foolish mortals were going to bow before you, or suffer your wrath. You could see the fear in their eyes, you could see the way that they faltered, how none of them wanted to be the first in your way. You could see, though not clearly hear as they shouted to each other, as one of them, likely their sharpshooter was told to deal with you.

As he reached for and raised his gun, your flicked your arm down, a single shot fired off as the man's muffled cry of pain and suprise reached you, even over the roar of the wind, over the steady puffing of the train. The man's gun went sailing from his hand, shot from it with what had appeared to be relative ease.

Panic rippled through their ranks, as the majority of them peeled away, the more cowardly of them turning down one of the dirt paths that lead away from the tracks, wanting nothing more than to get away from you. The leader however, must have had nerves of steel, as he pushed his horse to the side of the train, his horse briefly concealed from view before it appeared again, this time riderless. He had leapt aboard, that you quickly discovered was so he could challenge you himself.

He clambered atop the carriage, giving you a proper glimpse of his face now as he pulled the scarf that concealed it away. He was a large man, a man with short brown hair and a short beard that hung in twin braids, a man who despite the fear in his eyes had come to challenge you alone. It was a mixture of pride and determination that had him resisting the manner in what you had influenced him, determination to be the one that faced you, to show the his men up as cowards. He wasn't a typical bully, that meant that he at least deserved something better than simply being shot and kicked from atop the roof.

You slid the gun into the back of your trousers after ensuring that the safety was on, turning to face the man as you took a fighting stance, as you readied yourself. No sooner had he managed to find his footing atop the train did he charge you, running along the roof of the train as he attempted to tackle you, though you were fast to step aside, grabbing him as you used his form to swing around, to avoid this precarious manouver allowing him to merely bat you off the side of the train at an opportune moment.

As you swung him about you brought a foot up, kicking him backwards as you hopped away from him, causing him to topple down atop the roof of the train. He was far from done though, not ready to run with his tail between his legs, not prepared to give up merely because you had the upper hand. He slid towards you as he swept his foot low, though you were fast to hop over it, hopping forward bringing your knee forward as you slammed it into his face.

He had anticipated this and he was ready to catch you off guard.

What he hadn't expected was that you were a lot tougher than you looked.

As his fist slammed into your crotch you staggered backward, hissing, before twirling about as you delivered a forceful kick to his face as it presented you with an easy target. The speed of the kick, along with how the expected advantage he should have gained over you never materialising had him unable to react in time.

He tumbled to the side, slipping off the roof of the carriage, his hands catching on the edge of it as he struggled to hold on, as his feet kicked in futility, in an attempt to find a foothold. That fear in his eyes was redoubled as you paced towards the edge, as you paced towards him, as you looked down at him. Blood poured from his nose and from where his lip had split, he was disorientated from the force of the blows you had dealt to his face and he was vulnerable.

He was helpless as he looked up at you expectantly, as he waited for you to kick him from the side of the train or to finish him off with a round from your revolver. He was helpless, beaten, at your mercy, and it was up to you to decide his fate. What was it to be?

((

Not an actual suggestion for what to do right now, but do we lose our memories each time we die? Does Anne, when she kills us? Or did we only lose them this time due to whatever we did to ourself?

If we don't lose them, is there even anything wrong in letting the cycle continue? Other than the pain of dying (and for Anne, the psychological pain of killing us), of course.

This, I can't answer without spoiling things at the moment, sadly.

One more question, how long do we have until our fate is supposed to kill us? Do we remember what season it was when the hermit died? It didn't seem to be winter, but that's not very specific.

I'll add a little flavour for this in the next post.))

"A ghost," you echoed, shaking your head as you did so. You didn't know what to call it given how she clearly seemed not to have seen it given how she hadn't seemed to witness that same vision you had. You didn't know if it was a ghost, if it was an echo of a former aspect of yourself that was long forgotten, or if it was merely a hallucination. If anything, you didn't want to dwell on it, you wanted to help Joy, to help alleviate that guilty weight that burdened you still. "No, it wasn't a ghost. It's nothing to worry about, though. Not when the most important thing for me to worry about, is you."

Joy smiled slightly, shaking her head as she wagged a finger. "Flattery isn't going to have me forgive you so easily," came her words as she paused, her smile becoming a touch wider. "It is nice however, to have somebody do so after so long. Tell me though, and honestly please, why is helping me so important?"

She was looking up at you expectantly, innocently even. If you hadn't known better you would have fallen for this, found this petite woman to be disarming and lowered your guard. Still, honesty was the best policy, as a web of lies was one that would catch up with you in the end, give you more trouble than it was worth dealing with it. Well, not always, there was always lying to protect someone, though times like that occured much less freqently, than the times in what regular people would find ways to insert lies into every day conversation.

"Honestly," you started, "using that look doesn't work on me. If you want to know, sit down with me and we can talk", you stated, gesturing towards the chairs in her domain as you did so. She pouted briefly, though that pout was fast to fade as she no doubt realised that wouldn't work on you either. You walked towards the chairs in the part of that dome that represented her, pulling them out under from the tables first for her, then for yourself.

"So, what are you up to, then?" Joy asked before you had even seated yourself, her hands tapping against the tabletop almost excitedly. This wasn't much better than the previous attempt to manipulate you, you noted as you settled down, as you placed your arms atop the table casually.

"I have already told you. Helping you is one of my priorites right now, that is what is so important to me, that is what I am up to. Believe me or not, I plan to help you, I plan to-"

"You have said this before."

"I am quite aware that I have."

"Lets talk about what spooked you so much then, as that's at least new," Joy shrugged, her one hand moving to support her chin, while the other traced patterns on the table before her. You cringed inwardly as she suggested this, not sure that you wanted to think about it just yet. You could see from her expression that she was going to pursue this topic all night if she had to, however. To what end you were uncertain, though it wouldn't have suprised you if she wanted to know a means to get under your skin.

"It was me, and yet it wasn't."

"Please, don't give me that and expect me to drop it. It's bad enough that I can't stop you from invading this refuge, but for you to-"

You narrowed your eyes, silencing her immediately as your expression darkened. "I saw myself, I saw the same person that I have seen in a dream, the same person that I know died a thousand-"

"You know, if you can invade my dreams like this, force yourself into this part of my mind... Is it possible for you to show me the inside of yours?"

"I... I guess I can try and show you. I'm not entirely certain how I get here, let alone how I would get you there," you sighed, thankful at least that she had lost interest in the prior subject. You reached across the table as you took her hands in yours, taking a deep breath as you closed your eyes, as you tried to focus on moving from this dream realm to another, on holding onto her so she could join you.

There was a brief sensation of motion in the pit of your stomach.

A brief sensation as if you were falling in a direction you didn't know existed.

Your eyes opened again as you found yourself in the find that you had seen several times before, a field that was once more scarred by the signs of war, with bodies littering the ground around a figure who lay motionless in the arms of a woman, a woman who's appearance you knew all too well.

Anxiety, she who makes you falter.

This time the dreamworld was different though, this time it was less a twisted memory from a new perspective and more of a recollection of the end of a prior life. You were seeing this memory clearly for a change, instead of as part of a feverish dream, distorted so that it only bore a passing similarity to the true events of the day it was based upon. The woman was in tears, sobbing as she held that figure in her arms, the same words whispered over and over again as she cradled that motionless figure in her arms.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't supposed to happen this way, I had no choice, please forgive me!"

You turned slightly to see what Joy made of this, only to realise that you had lost her, that she hadn't crossed over with you, prompting you to curse silently as you turned your attention back towards the woman you knew all too well. You could see the puncture wound on that figures neck, blood coating the womans hand from that wound she had dealt, though there was no visible weapon in her possession that could have caused it.

"Why?" you asked, as you moved to kneel before the woman, though the absence of reaction from her told you that you were only a spectator to the carnage that had happened in these green fields. She could not see or hear you, yet you could see the bloodshed that had taken place, you could see the sea of bodies that dotted the formerly pristine landscape.

"Why indeed," came a voice from behind you, as a gauntlet clad hand came to rest upon your shoulder. "That is the same question I asked myself as I felt my life fleeting, as life fled me through a tiny puncture wound in my neck."

You turned to face this figure, knowing that if it was you that you could ask them questions, that you could try and find out more about what had happened, the events that had lead up to this moment. The thousand years that this figure had lived through before they had been betrayed.The moment you began turning, you felt the weight of their hand on your shoulder vanish, along with them.

You scowled slightly, figuring that you'd at least spend a little longer with this prior incarnation of Anne on the off chance that you would be able to find out more from her. This too, proved to be impossible as the moment you turned back towards her you found yourself face to face with her, with green eyes staring back at you.

The shock of this had you awaken with a start, only to find yourself in exactly the same predicament, with a pair of green eyes inches away from you as Anne sat there face to face, propped atop the table. She was grinning, inadvertantly adding to how you felt that you had awoken from a surreal dream, to a surreal situation.

"I'm bored. Lets play!" came her words as her grin widened, as she reached for your hands to take them in hers. Her eyes sparkled with mischievous intent, while her voice was but an enthusiastic whisper. "Those two are asleep, so we can go get into trouble without them knowing. We could climb atop the roofs, or-"

You raised one finger, pressing it to her lips as you did so.

"How about we start with finding out if they serve tea and cake, and move onto mischief from there?" you asked, prompting a nod from Anne as she reached for your hands, as she pulled you from your seat and out of the room.

"Cake is good, too," came her words, before she turned back towards you. "Don't worry, I have... Aquired some money to pay for it," she stated, grinning once more as she did so.

Despite sleeping, you felt as if you were far from well rested, feeling as if the entire experience had left you drained of energy, though this wasn't what troubled you. What troubled you, was the role that Anne had played in this entire dream, a dream that you weren't entirely certain you could, or should trust yet. Did you plan to discuss it with her, merely watch her, or handle the situation in another manner, was the question.