Katelynn. You're... the most normal of the group. Sort of. Not that that's saying much, but you bring a sort of stability to the group. The others tend to depend on you, turn to you. Sort of makes you the de facto leader at times. Or spokeswoman, sometimes. Which is nice, you guess. When it isn't a pain in the ass.

Your own magical interests tend to run along the lines of enchanted object, jewellery, artifacts. That kind of thing. Not that you have a whole lot of experience or skill necessarily yet, but you've got a pretty good intuition when it comes to working with 'em.

Curiously, this means you actually don't wear much in the way of ornamentation. At least, not at once. These things don't tend to play nice with each other- you can only use a few at a time.

Name?
Well, the name thrust upon me by dear old mom and dad is Susan. Yes, despite being a guy, I was named Susan.
As you can guess, the rest of my childhood was particularly unpleasant thanks to that horrible name. How the inquisitors didn't drag my parents away for it, I'll never know.
My thing? I understand others, 5 minutes talking to me about plesantries and I could tell you what your favorite hobby is, even if you keep it a close secret.
And why'd the Inquistors come knocking recently? I like chains. Alot. For me, it's because of this stupid name I'm shackled to. So the nickname around my pals, is Chained. Unoffical nickname, I do respond to Susan, I even have the hair and face to look like it. But despite that, everyone calls me Chained nowadays. Everyone except my crazy parents, that is.

Alice. Sixteen years old. When you were eight, your parents were lost in a fire, and you raged against a god that could permit this. You've settled down since then, but you've carried that injustice with you. You've had some difficulty getting along with normals, appreciating the faith they have, but you've grown to appreciate that it's not THEM you should be angry at.

No, normals are to be pitied for their naivete, not hated.

Save the anger for He whose fault this really is, He who really deserves the rebellion.

And His enemies can't be all bad, now, can they?

For a moment, your head fills with confusion, multiple ideas about who you're. Then you remember. That's right. You're Katelynn. Sixteen years old, half of it terrible. You vaguely remember a pleasant enough childhood with your parents. That ended abruptly in a fire. Despite being told you never saw their deaths, you still dream about seeing them inside the flames as they reach out to you, screaming for help.

You remember the home for children with no one else to look after them. They were big on religion, with constant preaching about the shitty divine order and how everything has a purpose, how the gods all serve that purpose and brought humanity their gifts, including the gift of technology. But neither technology nor the gods saved your parents. And above all, the divine order killed them.

And that's why you turned to seeking the power of demons. Those outside the natural order, complete aberrations to it. Abominations to the proper way of things. Yeah, fuck that 'proper way of things'. They offer power, the power to defy the world's laws, maybe even to turn back time. You want that power. And you don't see how they could be any worse than the divine order. You've even heard some of them're exceptionally compassionate.

You're the one who gathered the group of aspiring demonologists, and even though you never really looked for the position, they look to you as their leader. It can be a pain sometimes dealing with their issues, but the group'd fall apart without you.

The clicking of chains around your wrists rouses you to awareness, as the noise in your head dwindles just enough to only be a nuisance. The first thing you see's the sigil of Discord upon your belly, where you'd pulled up your shirt. Traces of blood can be seen where you'd lightly traced it with your ritual knife and then recited the names of Discord while pouring sacred ink over the wound. A desperate move; binding a demon right onto your body, and Discord of all things, wasn't your first choice. But you'd worked with what you had on hand.

The pounding on the door reminds you of why you were so desperate. The fucking whitecoats. Teenagers like you that're wannabe inquisitors, with less self-restraint than the real inquisitors. Usually they're just a pain, but today they'd gone more nuts than usual.

You don't see many options in here. A storeroom full of musty smells and shelves covered with supplies and dust. A locked door that's rattling with the blows on it. High windows. You have only your knife, backpack with school stuff, a few convenience trinkets useless in this situation, half empty bottle of sacred ink, and the book you'd copied the sigil of Discord from. The only legible sigil in it, sadly.

And the voices of Discord buzzing in your head. Then it hits you. You'd just successfully summoned a demon. You'd never managed that before. If only you could get them to tell you how to use their powers.

You, my dear, are in for quite the ride...Now, unfortunately, as far as powers go, that takes us a bit to find out. And by the way, we should introduce ourselves!
We've been called by many names, throughout many dimensions, many worlds.
Leigon.
The Voices of Many.
And even called Gaurdians...
But unfortunately for you, if you want flashy powers, we don't provide that. Not right away.
What we CAN do, is offer advice...
You bear chains around your wrists? How long are these chains? You might be able to use them as whips, with which to strike at these whitecoats from a distance, instead of drawing close enough to melee, which will end poorly.
[emit a mist]

>the voices of Discord buzzing in your head
>successfully summoned a demon
That would be us, I suppose. Although we're not so much one demon as a collection of many.

Congratulations, you're now the leader of even more than you were before.

>If only you could get them to tell you how to use their powers.
Well, you automatically gain access to our powers of perspective, planning, lots and lots of eclectic knowledge, and time compressed consideration. Regrettably, if we have more... directly applicable powers we can bring to bear, we're currently ignorant of them. Our discordant nature kind of comes with a certain ignorance entering new situations.

Unless... [list powers].

Fortunately, unlike many demons, we don't actually come with our own agenda! Which leaves us free to follow your goals, and our amusement. Making us one of the safest demons you could have summoned.

>what do?
Well, you could barricade the door, but that would only buy you time. You could also try and pile up a way of reaching the high windows.

Or... you could take a second look at what the supplies in this room are. With the right materials, we might be able to suggest some chemistry or ritual that would aid in getting you out of here. (Don't scoff at chemistry. Yes, demons off power beyond this world, but there's no reasons not to use the world's own rules and powers to your advantage when possible).

>>532475
Jeeze, bring up all our uncool names, why don't you. :V

>use chains as whips
From her description, I assumed the chains are ornaments. Jewellery. Not much of a weapon, unless she wraps her fists and punches them. And one untrained 16 year old girl attacking a group with improvised weapons does not sound like a good idea to me.

Confusing thoughts bubble through your head... wait, are those yours? No, some of those're the demons'. Right, those're some good ideas you've--no the demons've had. Those're the demons', right?

Right. You aren't the demons. You're Legi--no, Disc--no, Voice--no, those names're embarrassing. You're Alice... No, wait, you're Katelynn, aren't you?

A loud crash on the door interrupts your thoughts. Right, no time to get confused about who you're. That idea you had... no, it was the demons'. Nevermind, you'll just label them as ideas for now and sort it out later. Yes, most of your chains're ornamental, but you do have one heavy duty chain wrapped around your waist. You tried wearing more, but that got too heavy and unwieldy (though you've started working out because of that). And school makes too big a fuss about it for you to wear it in class. You could use it as a weapon, but it's not like you're experienced with it. Still, it's good to know you have something you could use just in case. As for moving the shelves, you might be able to muscle one of the less full ones over to the door or the window.

The idea to try some chemistry... hmm, let's take a look. There're some cleaning ones, you guess. Making an explosion or something would cause a lot of trouble, but getting creative with them's always an option.

As for things you could use for magic, there're actually only a subsection of gods that you can call upon. The ones who don't really get offended by your dabbling with demonology. The rest, it'd be an especially bad idea now that you've got an actual demon, or demons, bound into you. Anyway, binding a more useful (in this context) god'd take time but you do have the sacred ink to spare and it looks like there're a couple of already prepared spiritual vessels here you could use. A doll and a wooden pointer shaped like a hand. Not to mention your chains and jewelry.

Powers... the buzzing in your head increases at the thought. Like some sort of pressure's building up. It gets harder to think when you think about that. But it feels like something wants to get unleashed. To fill the world with noise and strife. Yes. You just have to do it. You want to do it.

We just have to do it? Well, then. I say unleash what we can unleash, and see what happens from there.

Suggestion 2013/08/08(Thu)03:42 No. 532565 ID: f0357f
File 137595856611.jpg - (52.33KB , 500x474 , delete.jpg )

>Sitting in school, feeling frustrated at the blatant error the teacher's written on the blackboard and refuses to acknowledge.

Okay, seriously?
Outright refusal?
That's just the cruelest thing.
The fuck is she being wrong about now?

Welp this is new i gess we chould try and fuck reality [null-G feld around kat] if that works yay your in space will in atmo if not then no reality fucking for us :( but if yes y not spawn a M82 in our hands just for the heck of it and to get them whitecoats out of your'way:/

Hum. Seems there's some kind of bleed over. We don't just talk to you, it seems we sort run over your own thoughts and cause identity confusion. Frustrating. Sorry about that. Hopefully we'll learn how to communicate more easily or less clumsily with practice, or you'll get the hang of processing our input without being disoriented.

>magic requires calling on and/or binding gods
Oh, divine magic is the only kind available? Sorry, we're not in fully tune with the rules of this particular reality... yet.

>unleash power
...why not. Let's see what we can do. Worst case, it doesn't help, and you're back to calling on a god (there are a few we're on good terms with, although I'm not sure you can contact them from here) or climbing out the window.

>>532565
For some reason you find yourself thinking about that again. You don't even remember, but it was something pretty blatant like that.

>>532585
You're right, it's frustrating for you--argh. Let's try this. We'll label "Katelynn" as "I" and the rest can be "you". I still don't feel that separate from the rest of us, but thinking of it like that does help sort things out.

It looks like you don't know much about this world. It makes sense for demons, I suppose. As for gods, they embody the natural laws and can be called upon to exert that natural law, blahblah. Point is, if it's something that could be done naturally, they can do it. For example, a god connected with lightning could make lightning but not cold lightning.

Naturally, there's technology and stuff. That isn't quite as flexible as channeling gods, but it can do a lot nowdays. Mobile phones, trains and planes, alchemical solutions. You know, technology. But of course it's limited to natural laws.

Demons like you don't have those limits. But from what I've read, demons have their own things they do, just like the gods have their own things. Speaking of...

>>532575
I don't think that's something we can do. But let's test our limits.

Concentrating, I try to direct that buildup toward the force binding me to the planet. And it does--

Suddenly I feel dizzy as it feels like I'm being pulled everywhere and--

Ow. Judging from the aching on my head and elbow I think I hit them on the shelves I'm leaning on right now. That wasn't gravity nullification. It was more like a whole bunch of different gravities everywhere. Also, rather straining; even if I didn't stop I don't think I could've done it for more than a few seconds.

But that pressure, I can feel it building up again. This time I decide to let it take the most natural course. I just let it flow where it wills. And it pours out from me--

"Hey, hang on, should we be doing this?" a voice comes from behind the door.
"What? You getting cold feet now? We're just going to, you know, rough her up. Show the diabolist not to mess with vile forces."
"Let's kill her," a third voice says.
"What the fuck? We aren't killing anyone!" the second voice says.
"If she lives, she'll just keep defying the divine order and getting worse and worse. Remember the Samios?"
"I think we should just take her in the authorities and let them sort it out," the first voice says.

Sounds like they're distracted by their bickering right now.

OK, it appears to me that we have the ability to inject chaos into the world. Given that we're 'Discord', I suppose that makes sense.

While the whitecoats are distracted, I think we should use this time to flee. The windows are high, but we may be able to manhandle the shelves into position so we can reach them. We *can* move the shelves, right?

So that's how this works-we basically can inflict our squabbling unto others, and can screw with the laws of reality...Oooooh. Ok, so let's keep track of our powers-I find making do with what we have can make us better and more skilled in the long run-and I'll wager being skilled and able to make do with lesser demons will make us more dangerous.
Discord (us) can-
inflict our squabbling on others
limited reality-breaking magic?
Gods-
Enhance Reality rules (Not the most exciting normally, but has it's uses.)
Let's try that gravity thing again, but this time? Use it on some random item. Perferably one that easily replaceable! It's probably going to shoot off wildly...But we might be able to learn to control it in time...

...huh. Okay, we're basically a wide-band ring of conflict. Applied towards your enemies, we sow discord, disagreement and confusion. Applied towards gravity, we randomized and multiplied the vectors. We can make a target more chaotic. Increase the entropy. That might have interesting applications.

...for the meantime, I think >>532599 is right. Let's run while the running is good. Push something into place, climb to the window, and get out. If you have to break the window, I'd use a chain to do it- try to protect yourself. (We could try and apply discord powers to the glass, but we don't know how dangerous that might be).

Once you're out, throw discord at the room you left. Leave it a chaotic mess- like a bomb went off. Leave them guessing as to where you went, or what you did.

>>532601
It doesn't feel like we can control it like that, but it might be worth experimenting...

>>532606
...Later. For now, let's get out of here.

I shove one of the more empty shelves toward the window nearest to it. There's a screeching sound of it scraping against the ground, but the argument outside barely pauses. And then a swift climb, unlocking of the window, and then I'm through it and hanging on by my elbows.

Covering my tracks sounds good. Once again, I concentrate upon the noise in my head, shoving it out toward the entire room. My vision fills with colorful noise before going white. I feel myself falling, and only reflexes let me land on my feet before I find myself lying on the ground.

The loud crashing from inside and the glass raining from the shattered windows tells me that I succeeded. But I feel drained and sore inside, like I pushed myself a little too far while exercising.

But I manage to stand. At this time, there won't be anyone in the adminstration offices, but there's probably a security officer somewhere around. As for the others, Susie's home's just downhill, followed by my own home a few blocks, the store Marco's family lives in a couple of blocks away, Raven's in the rich part of town, and Haven's who knows where.

It's too bad you had to leave your own communication charm behind when the whitecoats ambushed you while you were using it.

...Crap, I did it again. I, I, I, let's get into the habit of using it.

Hrrm...So Gods=laws of physics right Kate?
I can't help but think that demons like myself, working cooperatively with the gods could to impressive things!
Like, say a Demon of Gravity launches an object, and then the God of velocity enhances that object's speed. ZOOOOOM!
I wonder why the Gods dislike us demons, then? We don't HAVE to stand in opposition, we could coexist, and complement each other!
So, quick history lesson for us:
Why do the Gods and Demons feud?

Under the circumstances, I suggest we make for Susie's home, spending as little time exposed as possible. Her place is closest, and since we lost our communication charm, we'll be out of contact until we can get assistance from others.

Incidentally, just what is the attitude of the security towards the whitecoats? Somehow, the whitecoats strike me as the sorts that push beyond what the authorities prefer to condone independently. It will be nice to know just how much we can can count on security or police to protect us if things come to that.

>drained
Makes sense. There's a limit as to how much you can use our ability, and your own reserves are probably what's powering it.

>where go
Not sure how much I'd trust security forces. I mean, if their purpose is to keep the peace, they might keep the inquisition kids off of you, but... well. There are laws and/or heavy stigmas against what you're doing, right? You might not find much sympathy.

Susie it is. She's closest, you could use some help, and hey, she's the protective one, right?

>>532622
They probably don't like us because we don't play by the rules. The people who set up, run, or use a system within it's rules don't tend to appreciate hackers or cheaters.

>>532622
It's like the others said. They don't like anyone who refuses to play by the same rules as them, and some even argue violating those rules threatens the very natural order everyone relies on. Weakens it enough that everything could go crashing down. But the best demonologist authorities I've read say that's bollocks. The most that can be done's making a local mess of things. Maybe gravity goes wrong in the area, or the sky gets stuck as green, or the trees get turned into flesh and the squirrels become carnivorous. Nothing that can't be fixed by the gods that specialize in fixing that sort of thing.

>>532623 >>532624
They overlook regular bullying, but the kind of beatdown the whitecoats were going to give me goes too far. So the whitecoats'd have gotten in trouble. Still, I literally have a tattoo declaring myself as a diabolist. Might be better not to risk it for now.

Susie it is. She should know how to handle this.

As I jog down the hill from the school, I suddenly hear Haven's voice yell "Alice! You got some new friends!" Before I know it, I'm tackle-hugged from the side. I go down in a heap with Haven on top.

What the fuck?

>tackle hugged to the ground
>sigil carved into your belly
...ow.

Get off, please?

>new friends
Huh, so she can intuitively tell we're here? Interesting. Less so if anyone who's not an ally has those kind of sensory abilities.

Still uh, her enthusiasm is ill timed. You're burnt out, tired, and possibly still pursued. We should be getting off the street, she can be excited about us when we're somewhere safer, and out of sight.

Right. Tell her as quietly as you can that you've got a sigil on your stomach with a DEMON inside it, so we'd like to get inside the house, away from danger. And FAST!
And what are these gods that are ok with us demons? I'm curious, because frankly, it seems to me like such a waste to kick us out because our powers 'break' the normal flow of things. So much lost potential!

>>532637
I'm having to agree, here. Getting off the street and to a place where we can rest under cover is paramount. Yes, nice to see you too, Haven, but we need to keep moving.

Tattoo on the belly declaring ourselves a demonologist. Uh, what are we WEARING? I'm thinking that staying with clothing that doesn't expose the belly might be a good long-term plan.

>>532633
Well, just in case anyone's watching, give Haven a glare before smiling, pulling her into a hug and whispering "I just escaped a pack of whitecoats one of which was all for murdering me. We're headed to Sue's house right now since that's as close to safety as we can quickly get." Get the two of you up and headed in that direction (try not to look too conspicuous if possible) and tell Haven she might want to give the rest if the gang a heads up that you "can't make it to the movie later" or whatever pass phrase your group has for "shit went down, find cover for now." If you don't have one, hopefully Haven will catch on or let you borrow her communication charm.

>>532643
I'm not going to list out their names, but they tend to have little connection to the natural order, no fear of disruptions, or some insanity going on. So, abstract ones, strong ones that feel like they can easily ignore or fix our messes, or scary fuckers like the Bloodbather. Who's pretty much the only war god I can call on, by the way.

>>532646
I'm wearing a shirt that covers it, but they always check for marks like that when they think you might be a demon summoner.

"Ow," I say, "I'm really tried and there're whitecoats on my ass. Move your ass off so we can go to Susie's."

"Alice, you're falling down the rabbit hole but I'll help you," Haven says as she helps pull me up with a damn cheeky grin on her face.

So, she's this pretty short latino girl. No taller than five foot, I think a little shorter. I don't think she pays that much attention to herself given how her hair's always a short-trimmed mess sticking all over. Not that I'm one to speak with my troublesome kinky hair. She never wears makeup, of course. Face like a chipmunk, with round cheeks.

Wears lose t-shirts with really metal slogans (some of them she actually got banned from wearing to school) even in absurdly cold weather. Never takes the bandages off her arm. Everyone single one of her shorts're black, and I've never seen her in anything but sandals either. She looks out of place with the rest of us who've got more of a punk or goth look going, to the point where people suspect we're just humoring her by letting her hang out with us. But she's the biggest demon freak of us all. Speaking of...

"Hey, how'd you know about my 'friends'?"

"Oh, they're pretty easy to see. All crowded around you messily like. Arrows going everywhere. Discord, right?"

Wait. Wait. Is she talking about the divine sight? That's rare, really rare. Only the lucky few born with it and big shot servants of the divine order get it. Inquisitors have it as a matter of course. Really good for weeding out inexperienced demonologists. There're ways to hide demons, but most of them require a demon that's good at hiding things. Or someone else with a demon like that to do it for you.

"Oh, yeah, need any help covering that up?" Haven asks.

>most of them require a demon that's good at hiding things
...oh. We're terrible at keeping secrets, or hiding. Mostly because we can never agree on it. At best we end up fighting about it, which just gives everything away anyways.

>need any help covering that up?
Probably, yes. If it's as easy for Inquisitors to pick us up as she did, you're in trouble. Also, from what you've told us about her, it seems somewhat likely she's got something of her own she's already successfully hidden.

The Inquisitors didn't see anything on her when they investigated her, but... INTERESTING. THAT'S how it works.

We most certainly want the help of her demon in covering up our presence, yes. If we don't conceal our presence, we'll be vulnerable to the Inquisition harassing us when we're just innocently going about our demonic way, and we can't have that, now, can we?

Also... while we're on the subject of cover ups, what are the legal penalties for being outed as a demonologist? I mean, aside from being beaten to death by vigilante classmates.

She had an demon friend all this time and never introduced them to you? That seems a bit rude, though they probably had their reasons and it is nice of them to reveal themself in order to help us out.

About this binding thing, does that mean that there are minds like us (except bits of gods rather than demons) in all magic items, or does binding to items just get a part of the god's power without any of the thinking bits.

>>532697
From the earlier description, it seems like she told us, she either just wasn't believed or didn't offer much in the way of proof.

Hrm.
What Demons are good for hiding AND providing massive cold resistance? Or maybe resistance in general?...
Or would that Bloodbather guy you mentioned sound about right for what she's got?

>>532709
Bloodbather would seem to be a war god, not a demon. What I find interesting is her legal name is 'Haven', which... well.

Consider that we are a demon of chaos named Discord.

Consider what one might call a demon of protection, at least based on that.

I rather suspect Haven changed her name to match her demon's.

>Or would that Bloodbather guy you mentioned sound about right for what she's got?
Your kidding, right? A war god with a name like 'Bloodbather' having anything to do with hiding or subtlety?

Hang on just a moment. I'm gonna let my mind stagger with the implication. Haven's never really given the impression of competence, her encyclopedic knowledge of demons aside. She gives sometimes random answers to test questions, gets distracted all the time, makes outrageous claims, and otherwise comes off as a spaz and poser. Yet not only can she apparently hide at least one demon from inquisitors, she's got the divine sight. Actually, that'd explain a lot of the times when she just stares at nothing.

>We're terrible at keeping secrets, or hiding. Mostly because we can never agree on it. At best we end up fighting about it, which just gives everything away anyways.
That... doesn't surprise me.

>>532684
Getting sent to rehabilitation, or execution if you refuse rehabilitation. That's the legal penalty for a lot of things, though. Anything that isn't minor enough to just get you a fine and a telling off. Most people choose rehabilitation, by the way. It's not that bad. Well, it's bad, but not that bad. Really strict, lots of religious indoctrination, compulsory asceticism and good works. Pretty much a forced religious retreat.

>>532697
Binding a demon or god in something gives you a link to that person. Some're more chatty like you guys, while others just lend their power. Actually, you guys're way more talkative than usual. I sometimes have trouble hearing myself think. And of course, they have to want to lend you that power. In exchange they can draw from your spiritual energy.

>>532709
It's not like she's limited to one demon. Though I'd say max four or five demons. Only ones I've heard of with much more're legends among demonologists. A very few that're infamous enough everyone knows them, like the Samios.

>>532715
Yeah, Bloodbather's a psycho. I'd only call on him as a last resort. And if I wanted people dead. Messily dead.

"Please do. We can do it inside," I say to Haven as I knock on Susie's door. After a while, this eleven year old blonde with a mushroom cut opens the door. Susie's brother. "It's your weird friends again!" he yells into the house.

It doesn't take long for Susie to come out. White girl, about average height--nearly on eye level with me. A little chubby, but under that she's got a surprising amount of muscle. Like I said before, she's got lots of piercings. I'm not even gonna bother counting. Today she's got her hair up in a white mohawk.

She tends to wear studded jackets, punk band shirts (especially the ones that toe the line as close to being outright demon punk as they can without getting warned by inquisitors), and canvas pants. Oh, yeah, and badass boots. I kinda lust after those boots, actually.

"Hey, Chain and Spaz. What can I do you for?"

Chain's her nickname for me--shortened from the "Chain Freak" name she used to call me.

I'd personally suggest coming clean to Susie. We're going to need what support you can get, now. And, yeah, we should see what Haven can do about keeping our condition hidden from the Inquisition.

>What can I do you for?
Ducking whitecoats. I had a close call today.

...and yeah, I see no reason not to trust your friends. Don't go blurting out you're demon infested on the doorstop, or with her brother nearby, though.

You're probably going to need first aid for that sigil you cut in yourself (both to prevent infection, and to cover it up). And we need whatever Haven is offering.

Spiritual energy? So that's whatever we were using?
Hrmm, time for a nother question barrage from me-
1. What does the stuff do for you normally?
2. Is there anyway to improve on it? Like how much you can carry inside you or something like that?
3. What happens if you run out.

4. and this is off topic from the last three- Who are these Samios folk? They sound like a possible haven of safety, which we might need!

>>532742
It's kinda vestigial for people who don't use it a lot. So, they don't have a whole lot of it. But they can improve it by using it, it's like stamina training. And it's about the same as muscle fatigue. Though overdoing it can harm you like overdoing exercise can. And, geezus, you guys really don't know much. You're sucking it out of me, you know.

The Seimos... they aren't a group. They're a single person. Though most think of them as more like a monster. Supposedly they've got over a thousand demons bound to their body, and they're pretty insane and erratic. All kinds of crazy stories like saving an orphanage and then eating half of the kids, massive massacres, ritually sacrificing people to use them as sacred vessels, you know, all kinds of freaky stuff. Many demonologists think the stories about it're just propaganda. The stories about the Seimos first started showing up a millennium ago and are still going today. It's like an urban legend or something.

>>532724 >>532732
"Hey, let's do some girl talk," I say. Susie's brother makes a face and wanders off. Susie nods and we all go up to her room. It's full of punk posters and occult symbols. No demon sigils, we know better than to have those out in the open like that.

"So, spill," she says, and I quickly tell her the whole scoop or rather the gist of it. It was almost worth going through all that just to see her jaw drop like that.

"You actually did it. You summoned a demon. But hold that, I'm going to make a call." She picks up one of her cheap mobile phones, the ones with pre-charged plans, and does a quick dialing. "Hello, school security office? I'd like to report a break-in by some whitecoats at the back storeroom, yeah, that's the place. Sorry, can't tell you who I am, I'm scared they'll come after me if I do. Sorry, I've said as much as I'm willing to. Bye." She hangs up and then messages the other group members on her real phone to warn them.

"Alright," she says. "Hopefully that'll frame them for the mess in the storeroom."

Damn, I'm glad we have her on her side. But before I forget, I ask for some first aid and while she's working, Haven pipes up. "Alice, you can handle a second Wonderlander. It's always the first one that's hardest, adding more'll be way easier. I can give you the name and signature for my friend that hides stuff for me, or another one if you want a different one. Like one that lets you see Wonderland, but you don't need that for the sight. I can give it to you in trade for a few hours. Erm, I mean that it'll knock you out for a while, but it'll save you having to keep a Wonderlander just to see Wonderland."

Okay, is she seriously talking about giving me the divine sight just like that? What the hell? Even inquisitors have to bind a god to get it if they don't have it already.

So how many 'invisible friends' does she have, and if she doesn't mind us asking where did she get access to all of these?

About which demon to consider, first consider what it is you actually want demons for to begin with. I mean, magical powers are nice and all, but you do plan on going somewhere with the whole demonology thing after all that effort and risk, right?

Giving the answer to this immediately because it might have bearing upon your choice.
>>532840
I... I wanted to beat death itself. To turn back time or change the past. But something like that... it'd take enormous amounts of spiritual strength, if it's even possible.

Wait can we sign to haven of something(and by we i meanthe demon or what ever we are) but as for more linked demons or whatever they are realy i think the stelth one is best atm but if she can get one that is for tech like aircraft or AFVs that may help for moving around in safely and for self def as well:)

I think we should stick with the one that hides things, for the sake of our own safety. What we SHOULD do is thank both Haven and Susie sincerely for their help, and ask Haven for more details about how she'd just give you the divine sight. That's just crazy, there.

Also, out of curiousity, why did we and Susie break up?

OOC Note:
Just to clarify, you can just ask Haven to hide Katelynn's demons for her. Katelynn being able to do it herself might come in handy, not to mention that such a demon's likely to have benefits related to the kind of theme that would allow that. That said, a different demon theme could give you different benefits. It's all about what sorts of benefits you want.

Just giving you information to make an informed decision. This isn't a completely binding decision, but it's still going to shape your capabilities for the time being.

...more demons? Hmm. Getting all protective and territorial, now!

Is this the best time to get one, though? You were desperate before, and you were lucky to bind us- we're friendly, cooperative, and largely without our own motives.

Taking on another demon of unknown motives when you're weak, and largely drained of spiritual power seems as if it could be dangerous. I would think you'd want to wait a bit, wouldn't you?

>>532846
Changing the past or time takes crazy amounts of power, though. If the nutjob religious types are right about anything putting reality in danger? That would do it. Fuck it up and you're not changing things- you're breaking them.

...and you won't be able to do what you want with just us. Assuming you amass sufficient power to alter time, or bring back the dead? You're going to want to control what you're doing. Applying our discord to time or the boundaries of life and death would likely have disastrous consequences.

>what demon to choose
>Haven could provide stealth for you
Hmm. Well, stealth is obviously required to survive. Controlling it yourself might have certain benefits, but freeing yourself up for something else might be useful too.

Not sure what that would be, though. Something that furthers your own ends. A demon of necromancy? Of Time? ...or we're getting ahead of ourselves. A trainer, sort of? A demon who would help you grow stronger.

>>532899
I think getting stronger will happen with time and practice. Hey, I've got something. Probably going to be fairly cheap/good way to build power-take an old shirt, one that doesn't even fit you anymore even, and shoot our discord at it, with the intent to change it's colour.
Now, as far as bringing back your parents goes...I actually thought of a way TO do that with us? But here's the thing-if you run out mid-attempt, that's going to end horribly, so that's what I'm leery of-basically, go to their graves or remains, and use Discord on their temporal state-return them to before the fire killed them.

>growth will happen on it's own
Well, yes, but I expect there are ways to accelerate that. Demons are kind of all about the quick route to power at a cost, aren't they?

>use discord on their temporal state
...I'm reasonably certain that would have catastrophic results.

I mean, we're chaos, basically, so there's always the chance you'll get the result we want out of that. But there are so many possible bad result. It's not worth rolling the dice. There has to be another way to go about it.

Is there a demon of Time? Might be something to start small with, unless he's too big and scary to mess with at this level.

Perhaps if there is a demon of Time we have access to, that would be a good choice, but otherwise I'm inclined to stick with having control of our own stealth. Safety first, after all.

Hmm, I'm no longer certain that your friend Haven is entirely human. Know anything about demi-gods/fiends, avatars, manifestations, etc.? Probably wrong, but she's got something like a fae vibe going with the whole speaking in riddles and outright ignoring weather effects shtick.

Anyway, for more pressing matters take her up on the stealth demon offer and try to get the tattoo somewhere more discrete than ours. It shouldn't matter much but concealment fits the theme of the demon and it really doesn't hurt to have an over abundance of caution about these things.

You should probably take her up on the Sight too, but definitely get more details first. For all we know she's going to have to temporarily kill you (one foot in the other side and all that) to awaken it or gift it to you. Also, we might want to confirm that the Sight doesn't lead to madness or open you up to other sorts of spiritual attacks. If it does it might be best for you to build some serious mental defenses before opening that can of worms.

Sorry, I ended up deleting to fix a thing or two and repost, but it turned out someone posted after my post.

Yeah, it might be best to ask some questions first. I ask the first thing that comes to mind.

"Just how the hell can you do something like giving me the divine sight? That's crazy!"

She just smiles. "Wonderlanders don't care about rules and limits. This's for real. It isn't something like grabbing the Moon or all the other goofy claims I make."

"Is now the time? I'm worn out, and I was lucky to get one as cooperative as Discord."

She shakes her head. "Don't worry, I'll be selective which Wonderlander I give you."

"Just many of those 'friends' do you have?"

"It's a secreeeet. Not too many, though, don't worry. I just know a lot. I'm not like the Samios or Ruby or the Mad Lord."

"Hm. I thought of some ideas. What about time?"

"The twins Tomorrow and Yesterday. Right now you could speed, slow, or stop time for a short while, or undo something that just happened."

"Er... Bringing back the dead?"

"Beyond. Things outside the borders of the known world and bringing them here. You couldn't do resurrection right now, but eventually..."

"Growth?"

"Trying to speed up your own? Eye Blossom. Impossible growths."

She pauses. "Oh, and for hiding things, I'd be giving you Nobody. He's so quiet I sometimes forget I even have him, but he's handy. Good choice if you want to be unnoticed or forgotten."

>Also, out of curiousity, why did we and Susie break up?
We just weren't feeling it. It got kinda weird. I'm more comfortable with Susie as a friend.

I'm thinking our best bet for our long-term goals is Beyond, although Eye Blossom is tempting for helping cultivate our immediate situation. Hmmm.

I say Eye Blossom.

>>532919
>Hmm, I'm no longer certain that your friend Haven is entirely human.
I... just don't know. She can be eerie sometimes, but for her to be something like that'd be kinda weird and unlikely. Mostly she just acts like a weird and spazzy human.

Yesterday and Beyond sound like their powers would add up to your long-term goal if mixing powers is a thing you can do. Between thoe two Yesterday sounds like the more immediately useful, as time rewind is a hella great power.

By the way, with all these gods running around, is there an afterlife that the souls of the dead go to around here?

>>532924
"They're a package deal. Two Wonderlanders for the price of one. By the way, shh about this. I'm not going to make a habit out of talking to you."

>Nobody
Hmm. There are kinds of applications for stealth powers and forgetfulness, but his primary advantage is hiding us from sight. And Haven can provide that for us, if we ask.

Ultimately, I think we're stronger if we have allies we can rely on than if you try to do everything yourself.

>Beyond
Huh. Resurrection is conducive to our long term goal, but in the short term, necromancy isn't a very subtle power. I mean, you'd be working with dead bodies or spirits (which pose their own problems). Unless this is a settling where healing magic counts as evil necromancy, I don't see that as the best choice right now.

>The twins or Eye blossom
Okay, that's the tough choice. Time powers have all kinds of applications. And factors into your goals. But... so does getting stronger. They both kind of compliment Discord as well- time sort of involves order and disorder- and entropy is merely time's arrow, after all. And sudden growth is a nice opposite to our more destructive applications.

...let's meet the twins. We could use active powers.

She's an interesting one...She's got a point though-we've gotta grow and learn this stuff on our own as well, and we can't just mooch off her either.
That's why I suggested the shirt thing-we want a nice, easy way to build our stamina that's not very strenuous. The more we can do with our spirit energy, the better...
Also?
Something I just thought of-spirit sight lets you see demons and gods-would someone register on that if they have enough spirit energy?
Like, no demons, no gods, just, soo much energy they show up regardless, is that possible?

>necromancy isn't a very subtle power
"It's things beyond, not necromancy. Those things that aren't in this world. Important difference."

>>532930
Thing is, I'm reasonably sure 'Impossible Growth' actually would cover active powers. I don't think Eye Blossom is just inward-focused. Which means that Eye Blossom would cover both 'active powers' and self-development.

Which is why I prefer Eye Blossom to the twins.

>>532935
>I don't think Eye Blossom is just inward-focused
"Eye Blossom can grow more than just yourself, yes."

I want Nobody and Yesterday I think.
We can AOE large mobs, and Yesterday is pretty sweet/ builds into our long-term goal, but I'm gonna guess if you fight an inquisitor you'll just be crushed under his/her power and experience. For now, it's staying hidden that's important, so I want Nobody for that.
Another reason why the shirt thing-it's a sutble thing to mess with, especially if it's old, or if we work with several shirts.
Ah, one last thing, is there some sort of 'acclimation' or something were if you use a Discord Demon like us for long enough you start like, getting a bonus to doing that sort of thing?
If there is, I REALLY want either Yesterday or Beyond now-it'll put your long-term goal closer to becoming real faster, and given how hard and how dangerous this trick is probably going to be to pull, we're gonna need all the help we can get on that.

>>532933
Even if we're not dealing in corporeal undead, outsiders and spirits come with their own problems. I mean, sure, they could be useful. I'm just not sure that's what we want.

>>532935
>>532936
Yes, I assumed as much. It's just, temporal manipulation seemed the stronger active power. Although, really, Eye Blossom and the Twins seem the hardest choice to me. Both would be very useful. I wouldn't object to either.

Reading three votes for the time demon so I'll go with that.

After some consideration, you decide that the power of time's the way to go. Yeah, it could be dangerous, but you still want it.

"I want Yesterday and Tomorrow."

Haven nods. "Time ticks and tocks, as does the heart. Thusly..."

Without warning, she places her hand upon the center of my chest. "Yesterday and Tomorrow! Yesterday and Tomorrow! Yesterday and Tomorrow! Let's come and be friends!"

Before I can say anything about her ridiculous chant, a sharp pain shoots into my chest, like needles pricking it. And then she's taking her hand away, and I can feel something new. Two somethings. They feel like they're waiting to be acknowledged. Wait, no, that feels wrong. One's already introduced itself as Yesterday and the other's about to introduce itself as Tomorrow. Only that that's never going to happen, because it's only about to happen.

I'm beginning to get a headache already.

"So am I," Haven says with a sigh. "Thinking straight's really beginning to hurt my head. Do you want the sight right now or not?"

Okay, what the fuck? Did she just read my mind or something? She's just getting weirder and weirder. I can see Susie staring like she doesn't really know what's going on.

Yes. We need the sight. But why don't we try and reassure Susie that things aren't QUITE as insane as she thinks?

...she said that would knock you out for while, right? Maybe we should wait on that. I think we might have real-world concerns to work with, and we should get used to our new companions.

And yeah, Susie seems like she could use a little reassuring.

>paradoxical introduction
Oh, you two are going to be / have been fun, aren't you. Good to be working with you. You'll forgive us if we've worked together before and forgotten, I hope. Our memory gets spotty on that kind of things.

Ask Susie to get you some excedrin/advil/ibuprofen and some water, please.

She's oscillating between worrying and feeling left out.

Hrm. The Sight DOES seem useful for scouting out Inquisitors and other demonologists...Except I'd wager the Inquisitors tend to move openly and demonologists would try and conceal themselves unless powerful enough to actually FIGHT the the Inquisitors...
I'd personally rather the Blossom to the sight, but if that's not availible, the sight it is...
Hrrm...I wonder if there's other side effects to binding these demons to you Kate...

Oh, and we should ask her if Nobody can cover us for her, if we haven't already. ...unless the Twins can keep us hidden? Just, temporally displace the signals divine sight would pick up. Keep them out of phase plus or minus a small amount of time.

>>533019
Getting Blossom over sight isn't the choice we have to make. She's offering us sight without a demon (somehow).

The decision is if we want it now (and to be knocked out in the process) or later.

>Reassure Susie/ask her for help.
"Susie? I'm okay. It's not as insane as it looks. Actually, now that I think of it, it's exactly as insane as it looks, just in a different way. I'm starting to think demons just don't make sense. But I'm fine, things're fine for now. I just need something for my headache. Some of that alchemical tea?"

After a moment, Susie nods. "I'll make some." And she leaves the room after giving me a hug.

>Get Nobody to cover for us.
"Haven? Co-"
"Already done while I was touching you."
"I didn't notice."
"You don't notice Nobody."

>Usefulness of the Divine Sight
Extremely useful. You can use magic without it, but it really helps. With the Sight, you can see something of the underlying natural order which gives you a better view of what you're doing. With it, I can use the gods and demons' powers more precisely. It's like the difference between doing something by feel and doing it by sight. Also, I'll be able to see bound objects and sigils, as well as gods and demons in the wild. In short, an offer like this's fucking incredible.

>Might be better to wait until later
Yeah, that does sound like a good idea. Maybe before I go to sleep, I'll be out then anyway.

"About the Sight, could we do that later?"
Haven nods, then her eyes unfocus and she begins staring blankly at the wall. When she gets like that, I won't be able to get anything out of her for a while.

>Side effects of binding demons
Mostly extra noise in your head, though it can start to affect your personality if you aren't careful or if you bind too many. Actually...

You know how I said Haven should have four or five demons max? I'm beginning to think maybe she has more than that. It'd explain a lot about her spazziness. Maybe ten or close to it. Twenty's on the extreme side.

I hear more than one footstep. "I'm back, and I brought Birdbrain and Sad Boy," Susie's voice says.

>too many demons make you spacey, affect personality
Well, then, we'll have to think long and hard about which others you might like to sign up, later. Longish term planning, though. Us and the Twins are enough to get used to, for the moment.

...although the girls don't see too talkative, for the moment.

>Birdbrain and Sad Boy
Raven and Marco, I presume. Say hi to your friends and stuff!

Wait can we chat with the outher demons? If so hi:3 and say hi to your mates:)

Hrrrm...Sooo...
Kate- how are you feeling as far as your energy reserves? I mean, sure, it's one thing to show and tell about the sigil, but it's another to introduce your pals to it by doing something cool!
I wonder what we COULD do though...Maybe confuse their senses for a short period of time! Good way to start off. Or you could pull some sort of time shenanigans, like dropping something then slowing it down so it's easy to catch in mid-air.
I'd rather we use something like a ball or so, in case it fails.

>>533053
...I'd prefer not to fuck with our friends for the hell of it, thanks.

Also, pushing herself when she's close to empty unnecessarily seems like a bad idea.

We should test the current scope of our undo power, such as whether it effects a specific event or area, or if it rewinds everything aside from our memories (or indistinguishably sending our memories back in time) and power expenditure.

Raven's wearing his makeup again. Today he seems to be going with an Egyptian theme. You know he's got really pale skin underneath that makeup--he sunburns really easily which's why he wears so much even in summer. He uses Winter just to stay cool. Means he can't do anything that'd fuck with winter, but Winter doesn't care if its users fuck with other stuff. It's just too big and impersonal to care about the small details. So a pretty decent god choice for demonologists. The seasons're chill like that. No pun intended. Honestly, you wouldn't be surprised if Haven was using Summer. Though she might be going the more roundabout route of using a demon for that.

Right. Raven. Black hair, and you know it's not natural. Cut short and curly and really easy to ruffle (or so you know from personal experience). Kinda square face, or rather more rectangular. About as tall as you, so a little short for a guy. Wears elaborate goth fashions because he can afford it. Hell, he's even got a cravat today, of all things.

Before you guys ask, I broke up with him because I realized we were just using each other for makeouts, and I didn't really feel like that kind of relationship. He was cool with the breakup, said he understood.

Right. Marco. Native Virginian boy, with a soft face and strong nose. Wears his hair long in a cut which you jokingly say reminds you of Snape. The tallest of you all, on the tall side for a guy too.

He kinda has weird taste in clothes. Checkboard and stripe patterns, things like that. Right now he's wearing a checkboard blazer with a striped shirt underneath, and tight jeans.

When I ask why they're here, Raven says the whitecoats're out in force and pissed off. Something about some of their own getting apprehended at school. He decided we might as well all chill out at the same place, so he took his car and drove himself and Marco here.

As I sip the alchemical tea which does a lot to soothe my headache, Susie suggests we all stay over at Raven's place. So we do, jamming into Raven's car to get there.

It's a nice purple three-story house in the sort of gated community where they keep a close eye out for trouble. So a good choice when there're berserk whitecoats stomping around. We hang out in Raven's big room full of occult paraphernalia (we practically use it as our storeroom), relaxing and watching a wendigo movie while chatting.

I spend the afternoon recharging and getting to know Yesterday and Tomorrow better. I end up having to drink a lot of alchemical tea. An example of why:

Me: Right, so you warned me about the salsa and that's why we didn't eat it.
Yesterday: Had already told me it was from too far yesterday, yes.
Tomorrow: Will inform me that it'll warn me if something comes from too far tomorrow. (Nevermind that doesn't even make sense.)
Me: Uh, right. Thanks for that.
Yesterday: Already told me I was welcome.
Tomorrow: Is about to tell me they're pleased to be of help.

And so on. Gods, why did I pick the time demons? At least they should be worth it.

It's getting on to evening. I already called my guardian and told her I'd be staying over here, and the rest did the same for their families. Well, Haven didn't bother calling hers.

"Want to do it now?" Haven says. Raven just breaks into spluttering laughter at that, and Marco and Susie follow suit.

Yeah, let's do it now. Native Virginian? Hmm. Where are we, exactly, then? Out of curiousity.

OOooooh...
Ok.
Tommorow's the one to pay attention to if you want warnings about the future, and she? Always talks in the future tense.
Yesterday keeps track of the past, and you should ask it if you want a reminder of anything that's been done or said, always talks in the past tense.
Even just listening to their chatter can thus grant you perfect recall and a degree of precognition.
In short-there's a reason we wanted the time demons. Trust me on that one, we've found it to be REALLY HARD to beat time users.

>Native Virginian? Hmm. Where are we, exactly, then?
Oh, right, you guys don't know anything about this world. Let's see, some Europeans--that's Susie and Raven's ancestors--decided to sail over the sea to here and try some looting and conquering and colonizing and whatnot. Here's the only place they really pulled it off. Up north the Dutch and French--that's groups of Europeans--hit it off really well with the Iroquois and mingled to form the Confederacy. To the west over the Mississippi, the tribes rallied together and formed the Great Plains nation. Southwest of here, the Aztec Empire beat off all invaders. There're people there with Spanish ancestry like Haven, but it's all ruled by the Aztecs.

Around here, the inhabitants weren't united enough and the English--another group of Europeans--conquered them and called the place Virginia. That's all old history now. Our neighbors aren't enemies with us anymore, and we're now independent. We just have a honorary queen over in the UK.

Anyway, it's about time, looks like. I nod. "Let's do it." Let the others snicker.

And she just thrusts her hands into my forehead and stomach. I start, it's a really fucking weird sensation having someone's hands inside you, but then suddenly-

The world goes insane. Color explode everywhere. And I begin seeing and seeing and seeing

The world's made out of patterns, did you know that? Billions and billions, no, trillions and trillions... oh, hell, you can't count them like that. Innumerable patterns everywhere. Chair-shaped patterns connected to the floor-shaped patterns and the air-shaped patterns which're connected with the human-shaped patterns with their soul-patterns inside and really everything's all the same, only they aren't and the patterns're popping all around and forming places where they probably are and everythng's mingling and concentrating in places and

So, there're all those god-patterns. They're everywhere. They're really bright. And some are and some aren't paying attention to people like me who're looking at them. And the winged fox pattern turns and stares at you and asks why you're staring at it. Stupid mortals, why do they always have to stare? Then it walks off with a huff.

So, did you know there's sorta a film around me? It's saying the patterns or anti-patterns in me don't exist, really, they aren't there. Only it's not even saying that, it's so quiet that no one would pay it heed. They just look and don't see anything and then they lose interest. It's that kind of film.

So, did you know demons look weird? No, seriously, they look freaking weird. Their patterns just don't make sense when you look at them. All kinds of crazy and impossible patterns and shapes and whatnot. Or shapes that aren't there. Oh, hi, you guys, you're pretty funny looking. All buzzing everywhere like bees crashing into each other and zigzagging in crazy patterns and it's pretty hilarious actually.

You know, I might be starting to understand Yesterday and Tomorrow. Looking at them makes them make a lot more sense. See, their patterns stretch into the was and the will be and I can see them changing then and later and I'm beginning to wonder why the present even exists. Isn't it more interesting to live in a more broad band of time?

You know, I think I'd be a lot more overwhelmed if my brain-patterns weren't changing, I think to handle all this better and it's really interesting to watch and watch and watch and help there're so many patterns too many patterns too many--

I think I just woke up. There's Susie's face. Oh, man, I can actually see her face again, it isn't just patterns. I mean, I can still see the patterns but they're all faded and not overwhelming anymore and it's a relief really. What? Did she just say something?

I ask her to repeat what she just said. So she does. "Chain? Are you okay? You've been out until noon."

I- yeah, you're fine. Everything's good. You miss anything?

Try not to let yourself be overwhelmed by the patterns. Focus on the real world, only pay attention to the divine sight when something stands out.

Wait it's Noon!?
As in, those stupid Whitecoats ran you out of school?
Nice job breaking it whitewashed idiots, really.
Ok, tommorow if you can manage it, you should go to school.
I know, it's lame as all get out and seriously did a DEMON just tell you to go to school!? But if we don't act like the Nobody we come across as right now we'll draw attention, maybe from someone who might notice that 'film' on us.

Okay, quick physics lesson that you might need to understand all of this.

At the deep level of reality, everything is made of really small things that come together, like glue and then take the pieces and glue them together again and that's what everything is made of. So when you see a chair, all you see is really small things that got glued together and pieces are flaking off all the time but they're too small for you to see. (Air is made of the same stuff, but it's too warm, too flimsy to stick together. If you cooled air enough it'd start running, like water.)

So all the patterns are things that your brains do, get? Just approximations of small-things that coincidentally stuck together. Except in this world, that's not entirely true, is it? See, there's patterns in this world that don't _have_ visible things underneath it. And earlier you could see patterns that your brain hadn't comprehended yet. So there's two options.

Either you see every pattern that every living being perceives, including the Gods, or the world itself has a sense of patterns that exists outside anybody's mind. So what you should try, if you have some time, is perceive the pattern of some domain that doesn't have a God or Demon of it. Though to know what domain that could be, you should ask an expert. Is there something like a diabolist for Gods? Deist?

That said, don't rely on pattern sight too much yet. Your sight and your everyday brain may disagree on what constitutes some pattern, or people may figure out how to project fake patterns and confuse you. (You should see if there's a way to do that, too, or if it'd be considered an affront or some such)

>Physics lesson
I remember learning some of this in physics class. And, yeah, I didn't realize how much of the, let's call it normal level, I was filtering out. I think I'm beginning to notice more on that level too. But it's like my brain's getting more used to the divine level and starting to filter things out same as it does with the normal level.

>Faking patterns
That's pretty much what Nobody's film does. Fakes normal patterns for me. Only way to do that's with demons--it requires bending things in unnatural ways. Inquisitors and the like can't hide their powers, but they don't really need to.

>Experts on gods
You mean theologists?

>Going to school tomorrow
Yeah, I really should.

>Reassure Susie
"Yeah, I'm alright. The Sight was just a little much to take in all at once. Did I miss anything?"

Susie crosses her arms and leans back. "The whitecoats're in shit now. They're starting to go into hiding themselves. Authorities aren't too happy with them. Bad news, though. Word is an inquisitor's coming to town tomorrow. Haven says her protection should cover you, but you better stay on the lowdown with your powers while the inquisitor's in town. She also says that you should try using your powers and looking at the results."

The door opens, and Marco slouches into the room. "It's my turn--oh, you're awake."

Using our powers and looking at the results, huh? Maybe we should do that NOW, before the inquisitor shows up.

Hmm. Yeah, we can just not do anything demon-y while the inquisitor is in town.

You've already seen what you can do with discord- sow chaos literally or metaphorically among things or concepts. I don't really see much to test with here- you don't want to turn your friends on each other, or break their stuff.

Unless we want to try introducing discord to more abstract things. E/M jamming by introducing discord to the local fields? Unbreakable electronic encryption by introducing real chaos to the security protocols? (No random number generator is actually random). ...putting out a fire by disrupting the ordered chemical reaction? (Or interrupting any chemical reaction, really). Although, you still risk slipping and breaking stuff, or introducing discord in unintended ways.

Experimenting with the limits of the twin's powers might be handy, though. And relatively safe. Be nice to know the limits- how far the precog goes, how fast / slow you can make something, how long a time-stop lasts, or how far back you can reverse or undo. (Handy side power- you'll never need a watch again! Perfect internal chonometer).

I wonder if we can cause an internal conflict in someone's mind? Like cause them to question their beliefs or cause them to be effectively frozen by indecision.

Let's do physics on this. Can you use your discord power on a glass of water? As fine-grained as possible? If it heats up, it'd demonstrate you're able to increase entropy in a purely physical system. (Hilarious abuse of demon powers: Diabolist Steam Engine)

>>533283
...maybe, although I'd be loath to test that outside of a combat situation. Discord of the mind might result in insanity, which I don't much want to inflict on a test subject. (Be it friend or hapless passerby).

There's also the problem we don't know if such an effect could be reversed, or if it would time out.

Okay, those're some interesting ideas for experiments. First thing, though, I want a shower.

As I towel off and look at myself in the mirror, I notice two things. First's that the film's covering up the sigils. Second that I haven't told you guys what I look like. So here it is.

So, I'm this black girl I'm seeing in the mirror. About average height or a little taller. I keep trying all kinds of different hairstyles in the hope that one of them won't come out a total mess but it's hard to find a good one for kinky hair that doesn't take forever to style. So right now it's in "I've given up" style. Maybe I'll shave it short or even go all the way bald. I'm all angular faced and my body's just as angular, sharp elbows and knees everywhere. My guardian tells me I'll grow out of it soon but whatever.

As for fashion, the first thing that seems to come to people's minds is the chains I like wearing. I don't know why but they seem to comfort me. I sometimes joke that they're a reflection of the way reality's chaining me down or some such bullshit, but there wasn't really any thought put into it. As for the rest of my wardrobe, I tend toward dark colors but not black. Violet, burgundy, the like. Most of it's stuff picked up from bargain bins and thrift store, because my guardian isn't rich and I can only work so much part-time with club activities. They're more important to me.

So. After changing into some of the stash of clothes we keep at Raven's place--look, this isn't the first time the whitecoats've given us bullshit, though it's the first time they've started looking to give us a real beating--I set up in the kitchen.

Testing the precog's kinda tough, and I try some things before I retort to having Susie try to slug me while I'm not looking. It turns out Tomorrow only seems to care to warn me when I'm about to get hurt (and not anyone else). Poor Marco. He did his best at putting up his usual lineface but I can tell it hurt. Still handy, but it looks like it comes at a price. They suck up more juice just existing than you guys, I think because of having to reach me from the future and past. The warning time seems to vary, but it's more like seconds or minutes. I also seem to burn a little energy whenever I ask them to tell me something in the future or past.

Making time go faster, slower, or stop's kinda weird to watch since it seems like Tomorrow does it by arriving (but never actually arriving) faster, slower, or not at all. That was pretty weird because I didn't think the passage of time'd be something embodied by a demon--I'd expect a god. Of course, the more I try to affect, the more energy it burns.

I can stop time for about seven second before I start feeling pretty tired, three without feeling particularly tired. Longer if it's on a smaller scale. Speaking of, turns out the twins can tell me how long something took or will take, but they're useless for telling me what time it's. So I guess I'm not ditching watches, but at least I can ditch stopwatches.

As for turning time back, just doing it at all's at least a little tiring, and it seems like pushing it past a few seconds or so or doing it often'll start to wear me out. Long way to go to changing something that happened eight years, but the twins tell me it'll be possible eventually. Also, I become the me of the past instead of becoming a timetraveling clone.

I do notice that doing anything affects the patterns in an obviously unnatural way, though with the twins it fades quickly.

A lot of those ideas for experimenting with you guys' power I don't really have the means to do right now. Or don't want to in the case of fucking up someone's head. You made a good point that I should only try it on an enemy. Correct that, someone I wouldn't mind driving insane for who knows how long.

I do try the water thing and manage to heat it up. Kinda a roundabout way to manage something I could do more efficiently with a god, and it isn't that hard to find a fire god that just wants to burn or heat stuff up without giving a fuck about my demons. Hungry bastards. Speaking of, I don't think I told you, but gods're more energy-efficient. It's easier to work inside the natural order than break it.

Oh, yeah, I notice that the water's patterns stays disordered in an obviously unnatural way for a while before that fades when it cools down.

As for messing with a burning fire, the fireplaces in Raven's house come in handy for that. Turns out I can put them out but trying to do it without messing up the firewood gets pretty fiddly. I think I can manage it, but it'd take some practice. And the traces of discord in the firewood lasts way longer. As in it only really goes away when it's all burnt up.

I notice I've been seeing the boys and Susie around, but I haven't seen Haven since I woke up. Raven tells me when I ask about her, "Oh, yes, she told us she really needed to go fix something up at school and that you'd understand after doing what she told you to do. Also not to worry about her since she's nobody. Uh, it seems like that means she can disappear?" He just shakes his head. "Would've thought it was more of her fantasies if I hadn't seen her do it right in front of me."

>gods are more efficient
Hmm. Yes, I suppose they would be. Although, we're more versatile. While a god might be better at a specific task, we can apply discord to all kinds of things. Without having to have the right god contracted ahead of time.

How do arrangements with gods work, anyways? So far with demons, it seems we grant you access to our abilities for the sake of using them. As hated outsiders, we're satisfied for the chance to influence the world, and spiritual power to maintain us.

What does a god want, though? I mean, for example, the obvious problem with contracting a fire god is they would probably expect / demand you to burn things (firefighters must have it interesting in this world). Well, demons may have that problem too. Although so far experiencing our discordant chatter and perceiving time haven't exactly been onerous demands. ...have you just been lucky in who you've contracted so far, or is there a difference in mindset?

>nobody, clean up
Ah. She has to cover up our cover up. Throwing discord at that whole room hid the physical evidence of what you were up to, but probably left quiet a mess visible to the sight.

Also, we now know why you can't afford to use your powers while an inquisitor's around. It leaves evidence, traces. One advantage nobody would have brought, I suppose. The freedom to hide your own messes if you felt the need to make them.

>school
Oh! What do you study, anyways? What are you good at? We're probably rubbish for things specific to this world, like history, or geography, or dates, or who discovered what. But we know a lot of stuff. Math is the same everywhere. Science should be okay, if the physical laws are what we expect. And we're good at anything that requires analysis and discussion...

Yesterday rewrites the past-you become self from that past.
Ok you know what I was actually kinda worried about our end-game there for a bit, but really if we pull this off it's going to be nothing but awesome I think.
You get your happy ending, unless some jerk god decides to undo that for some reason, but hey, seeing what it does to your life, I'd think they'd be more willing to look the other way, or even try and recruit you to the cause of inquisition...Well, I suppose that'd depend on what you get to keep though. I'm guessing it's a deal where you lose spiritual energy and everything.

>our end-game
Actually, let's stop and think about what you need to make that work.

-You need the power to change the past. You have that now.
-You need sufficient spiritual power to reach far enough back into the past. At least 8 years, depending on how long it takes to accumulate that power. Contracting with Eye Blossom when you're ready for a third demon may hasten this process.
-You need to survive as a demonologist in a society that hates and hunts them long enough to gather the necessary power. We'll have to play that by ear as we go, and see how much you and your friends can help one another.

All that's just the warmup. Then we get into the time-travel problems.

-What happens if you successfully change the past? Do you have to relieve your life from 8 years old, or do you snap back to the present and while history rebuilds to account for your changes?
-What happens if you travel back to before you contracted your demons? Will you still be able to draw on their powers? Or will you be an ordinary, mortal 8 year old trying to change history? (That's harder, but still doable. We should do a lot of research and prep work ahead of time- find out exactly what happened, so you can plan exactly what to do to change events).
-What happens if you travel back to before Nobody hid you? Or before Haven contracted Nobody? Will you still be cloaked? If not, that may present problems operating in the past. You might need your own contract with Nobody to work around this.
-How much evidence would this kind of change leave behind? If you successfully save your parents, we don't want inquisitors coming down on them. If Haven isn't strong enough to cover up your mess, or if you end up trapped in the past, you might need a contract with Nobody to protect them.

Out of curiosity, do inquisitors also go after people who bind to the nastier gods like Bloodbather?

>Math is the same everywhere.
Yes, you can use our otherworldly knowledge to cheat on your homework! MUAHAHAHAHA!

>More versatility with demons
Good point. Plus there're technological solutions anyway for a lot of stuff I would be doing with gods. Only reason I use a communication charm instead of a mobile phone is I can't afford the phone.

>How do gods work
Oh, yeah, I never explained that. So, you can bind gods to sacred vessels instead of your body, but you can't do that with demons because they're hard enough to use they need something more permanent and intimate. Most people use vessels, really, they mean you don't have to have the god active 24/7. You just awake the bond in the vessel when you need it and go into god mode. That means that if I bound a god of fire, I wouldn't have to fight the urge to burn things all the time since I can just awake the vessel when I want to burn something.

I've heard inquisitors're one of the few people that bind gods to their bodies. Pretty much all of them bind a god of stability that way. And sight if they need it (sometimes even if they have divine sight already). They usually carry their war gods in vessels, though. And that's just the basic kit that all of them use.

As for what gods get, they get spiritual energy and the chance to do what they like doing. They don't really need the energy, but it's nice to have. I've heard the ones that hit it off big use it to build big fancy houses, extravagant things like that.

>Cheating on schoolwork
Sounds great, but some of the demonology books I've read recommend knowing the sciences and some math. And after having seen the patterns, I think I can understand why. There's a lot I can do just by instinct, but knowing more might help with more fancy effects. Like using you guys to heat up water, I guess. And you can't exactly help me with history which I hate way more anyway.

I suppose I could always use the twins to peek at the answers in advance.

>Endgame
Okay, yeah, that's a lot of stuff to think about. I can answer already from that testing that I stay in the past, though I might be able to jump to the future if I wanted. Yesterday just now already told me that my demons should persist with me. Apparently demons don't properly exist inside time? But I'm most worried about that last problem about covering up my traces. Yesterday told me that it'll take a lot of covering up, maybe even doing it my whole life.

>Maybe the gods'll be nice about not reverting stuff
The twins said and will say in union, "Not even a remote chance. Today hates us." Fuck, I just got another headache. I need to get used to them fast.

"So, uh," Raven says, "I heard you bound two demons? Can you tell me how you did that?"

I... I'm not sure I have an answer for that. It was like my mind just snapped into the right place out of desperation. My head was so full with anger and panic I had trouble thinking, and then suddenly I realize you guys're there and I've already cut your sigil into myself.

>Nasty gods like Bloodbather
That depends on where you're and who you're. Some places use Bloodbather in their military, other ban him. He isn't exactly legal around here. But he isn't heretical the way demons're.

Sorry, we don't know either. While the effect and communication are instinctive, the specifics of the binding process were not in our hands.

Further experiments if you'd care to invest the time!

Try to remember how hard it was to heat a glass of water. What about:

a glass of water being held by somebody else

a glass of water that somebody took a sip from

a glass of water where the cup has sentimental value to one of your friends

a glass of water one of your friends has declared "their own"

I'm trying to establish whether humans can exert an "ownership" over stuff they hold/own/claim, in which case the above should be harder. If those turn out to not be the case, a cheap&nasty attack would be to heat up the fluid in somebody's brain (or eyeball if you're feeling vicious). I highly suspect that it's hugely harder or impossible to do this to another person's body though, simply because it'd be too easy. Still, interesting to know if that extends to property.

*DEFINITELY* pay attention in school, if only as a matter of self-preservation. The more you understand patterns, the more efficiently you can perceive them, the less likely you are to get overloaded. Also, if you paid attention in physics, you should now be able to calculate how much heat energy you put into that glass of water! (homework :D) It would be interesting to know if the thermodynamic entropy change is the limiting factor on power exertion (or if there's a question of skill). If this is a universal limit, and if the skill fundamentally generalizes (that is, if learning to project discord into one system also makes you better at all other systems), a glass of water would be a useful measuring bar of power improvement.

Can you pull something from the past into the present? This might present a more manageable (and less showy) avenue to rescuing people. Can you project something from the present into the future? What happens to the patterns when you do that?

>cheating at school
...well, I meant more helping than cheating. But yes, you should definitely learn math and science. Anything that increases your own understanding of the forces you're manipulating is a good thing.

>gods
...they really don't sound very different than demons. Except they're approved and we're hated. I guess that they have the option to not be bound to a body is an advantage, since you're free of a potentially dangerous influence on a mortal mind. I suppose that makes the use of demons inherently less safe.

Hey, what happens when gods and demons are bound in more than one place, anyways? Does each get a different copy/instance, or is each binding just a node or terminal in the larger consciousness or...

>a lot of covering up, maybe even doing it my whole life.
Then it's probably more than you can count on Haven providing for you, especially in the past. Add Nobody to the list of demons you're going to eventually need a contract with.

>Can you pull something from the past into the present?
I don't like that plan much. Having her parents appear out of nowhere or resurrect is a lot more suspicious and harder to cover up than just never having them die in the first place. Part of the reason I liked the Twin's approach more than Beyond's.

>powers
...a more useful power might be if you could look into the past of a place, or person, or object. You don't want to jump back eight years only to fail. Which means researching exactly what happened so you are prepared to counter it appropriately. Once you've exhausted mundane avenues (records, reports, news, etc) we turn to the supernatural.

>Raven
...aw, poor guy wishes he had some demons. Be sympathetic. You're... not exactly sure how you got the first one. It's kind of a blur. You were trapped and desperate and angry and panicked it somehow just worked. After that, letting in the second was easy. It's... setting up the frame of mind for the first one that's the hard part, you think. (Please don't get yourself attacked by whitecoats to duplicate it).

Sorry you're not being very helpful. You'll try and remember what you did, better. But hey, at least we know we can do it now, right? And we have to lay low with the demon activity anyways, with an inquisitor coming to town.

>twins cheating on tests
Just remember not to apply power on such frivolities when we run the risk of discovery (can't leave evidence with an inquisitor poking around).

You also don't want to suddenly stand out too much (prefect scores in a class you're bad at do that). Drawing attention to yourself is a bad thing. (Honestly, I wish you and your friends didn't present yourself as so obviously counter-culture, but it's a little late for that). Not that you can't make things easier on yourself (making sure you pass history, for example), but be careful with how far you take that.

The other thing you need to work on is a poker face. You're not supposed to have divine sight, remember? So have to to learn how not to show your reaction when you see something you shouldn't be able to.

Note: For anyone not already aware we've a discussion thread at >>/questdis/74934

>Not cheating, but helping
So you guys'd basically be my tutors? I could use some help with my alchemy homework. And I can ask Marco too, he gets the highest grades of us all.

>Calculate how much heat energy I put into that glass of water
...Yeah, I really need to brush up more on this stuff. Been putting most of my studying effort into demonology and trying to get a demon in the first place. My grades're mediocre. At least I scored high marks in theology and item binding.

>Gods not much different than demons
Yeah, it's fucking unfair.

>Need to not stand out
Too late for that. I'll try not to any more than I already do, check. Honestly, some of the minor gods've already noticed I can see them, like that spinning wheel guy buzzing annoyingly around the room. At least I can always pass it off as a sudden awakening of latent sight under stress. It's not unheard of, and I never got tested for the ability so they don't know I didn't have it in the first place. Or I can just start trying to pretend I never had it. It's not like minor gods constantly report on everyone that sees them or anything. Mostly they just bum around and do their own things.

>Show sympathy for Raven
I can do that easily. I've wanted demons really badly, too. All of we have. Well, I dunno about Haven now. Why didn't she tell us before?

Nevermind that. I say to Raven, "I wish I could tell you. Seriously, I know how you feel. Thing is, I was in a real panic and pissed off to boot. Not thinking clearly. Next thing I know I've got a bloody sigil on me and voices in my head. Haven said it's hardest the first time and easier after. Think it's all about the right mindset. I'll try my best to recall for you, okay?"

Raven nods slowly. "Appreciate it. Maybe I'll ask Haven."

>More water glass experiments
I've never heard of anything like 'ownership' that makes it harder to affect stuff. Just to make sure, I repeat things with Raven holding his favorite cup that he just took a sip from. No difference.

There's a reason demonologists're feared. There's also a reason inquisitors permanently bind gods of stability to themselves. Makes it way harder to pull that kind of trick on them. In a lot of ways they're specialized for hunting us. The odd crook and heretic're just bonuses on the side.

Not that the local inquisitors do any heretic hunting. We aren't the Holy Country. You can get away with badmouthing the divine order here. I've made use of that plenty of times. Like the time I brought the Book of Divine Order to school and burned it. I only got detention for that and a scolding about not setting fires or doing inflammatory stunts at school.

What can I say, I was a pretty pissed off kid. Actually, that stunt's what attracted the attention of my friends. Before then, I didn't really have friends. Just sat by myself scowling. I've chilled a lot since. Still pissed off sometimes but at least I can have fun with others now. I guess Susie's taken over the pissed off slot but she uses it more productively than I did. Gets shit done like with the call to frame the whitecoats.

Marco comes into the room with his usual lineface and Susie's at the other end of the room making some calls on one of her disposable phones. And then Haven suddenly says, "Let's have a sleepover!"

Shit, that startled me. She totally came out of nowhere.

>Multiple bindings of gods/demons
They're in more than one place at once. Can focus on one at a time if they want.

Sooo in a fight between Demonologists versus Inquisitors, it's kinda a matter of who shoots first?
Might be good to know how exactly the opposition fights in case we actually get into one. Though by that point that's really really bad news and we need to be ready to run or take on a whole army of inquistors.

>I've never heard of anything like 'ownership' that makes it harder to affect stuff.
...well, then we're probably pretty deadly to anyone without some kind of explicit demonic or deific protection. A living body is a delicate mix of a thousand ordered systems ticking along all at once. You could kill someone by throwing any number of them into disarray.

Not that deadly force is really something you want to resort to. Maybe this sounds silly coming from demon of all things, but that's a hard line to cross, and all lives have value. And death will only bring more attention and investigation, especially if the cause is discerned to be demonic.

We're much better off using time manipulation to avoid situations where deadly force would be necessary. Or... maybe determining if there's a biological system we can safely throw discord at to disable people or trigger unconsciousness. Or really, using our wits to avoid such a situation entirely, if possible.

Problem for a later time. Any magic stuff that's not an intellectual exercise is gonna have to be put on hold while the inquisitor is poking around.

>Why didn't she tell us before?
She did! Sort of. She just didn't back it up with proof, or a practical demonstration, and none of you took her seriously.

>Too late not to stand out.
I know, I know. We can't ask you to plan your life in advance.

>sleep over
...another one? Why not. At least you'll be conscious for this one. Hang out with your friends, try and enjoy yourselves.

Haven probably has a good reason for suggesting that.
Maybe you could ask if she is alright with describing the demons she has?

>>533670
Eh, I wouldn't push her on it. She'll tell us what she wants to when she wants to. And we've been doing demon stuff all day.

Okay, there's an obvious future failure mode here, and it's that for some reason - fear, rage - you lose self-control and damage something you can't fix.

Do you know if anybody in town offers meditation classes? Does your world even have meditation as a purely psychological activity without mystical elements? Currently, you have to strain to project disorder. This will not always be the case. By the point where you can break systems with a misplaced thought, your self-control will have to be absolute. Not an immediate concern, but something you should look into _especially_ if you bind Eye Blossom.

>Fight between demonologists and inquisitors
Inquisitors have bound war gods on top of combat training, protection against tricks like disordering their brains, more efficient abilities, and whatever other tricks they might've bound. You have to really load for bear if you want to go after one, and then you have to deal with whole attack teams. Most demonologists just work on avoiding notice. The Samios's one of the few that got away with fighting them once they got their acts together, and that's practically a mythological monster. A thousand demons isn't really a feasible number, but if they had that many they'd be as insane and unpredictable as in the stories about them.

I can tell you about the showing off the inquisitor that visited us once did when some students asked her. She set up some targets in a circle and spun around spraying fire with a paintgun. Every shot hit. Inquisitors're scary. Weird, too. That one joked and laughed all the time.

>Didn't believe Haven
It's hard to believe someone who's claimed to have infinite numbers of demons and be a reincarnation of Ruby, the Samios, the Mad Lord, a dozen other major historical demonologists, and more. And if I asked her to describe her demons, she'd just ramble on about every demon ever and how they're all her friends. I know because she's done it before.

The competent Haven's a new and kinda scary thing.

>Loss of control
It becomes opening an door trivial, not breathing or thinking trivial. I can tell you that because I reached that point with my communication charm.

>Reasons for a slumber party
I'm pretty sure she just wants a slumber party. That was more like the regular her I knew. The one who dragged us to the zoo after school because she suddenly felt like going to the zoo. On a rainy day. She talked up how there wouldn't be any crowds, but I think she just came up with that excuse after the fact.

"I could sure use some fun," I say to her.

"I'll try to hold in the dark power trembling in my arm," she says. See, that's more like the her I know.

The slumber party gives us all a much-needed break. We watch cheesy movies and make fun of them because we don't feel like anything serious. Raven plays around with the fancy colored lighting in his room. Susie owns us in the Luigi Kart game but even she admits she got lucky with items. Marco actually says something positive. Haven shows off her ability to swallow a whole melon in one mouthful. For some reason she has a demon that lets her do that. The All-Devourer, probably.

In the morning, after being greeted by Raven's parents before they go off to work, we head off to school. In the first period, the teacher announces that an inquisitor's come to school and will be questioning students. After the class, he takes me aside and tells me the inquisitor wants to have a talk with me.

alright go with him and stay calm, adults always do that can you come with me crap just to see if they can scare you. He's probably going to ask you some questions then give you some crap lie about he knows your a diabolist or something along those lines and once he figures out he's got nothing on you move on to the next kid and try again. Just a crappy scare tactic really.

Prolly just wants to talk to you about not-conforming to society's rules and what not, due to the whitecoat incident yesterday. Which, in all honesty, is gonna be a massive waste of time but hey-you get out of your next class! And maybe the one after that, too!

Probably just a scare tactic. They're focusing on you because you and your friends are easy targets, or because you missed school (unless that was the weekend?), or because they actually have some reason to suspect you were involved.

Just go along with it, don't overreact.

Not much we could do if they know already, anyways. Although in the worst case, I do have some ideas as to how you could get through a re-eduction camp with your mind intact.

>Probably just a scare tactic
Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem. It's not like they can find anything with Haven covering up all the evidence.

>Worst case ideas for surviving rehabilitation
I hope it doesn't come to that.

I head off to the conference room the teacher points me to. When I open the door, I see a nice table with nice chairs all around it and nice decor. This's the kind of bullshit this school splurges its money on, looking impressive to visitors. Whatever. Looks like the inquisitor isn't here ye--

Suddenly I'm wrapped in a way too tight bear hug. And a familiar far too fucking cheerful voice says, "Hey! Kate was it? How's my favorite rebel? Wahahaha!"

Gods, not her. She was so irritating when she came the last time.

So, this annoying woman's a native Virginian. Shortest full-grown woman I've ever seen, with a face like a cherub that provides there's no divine justice because if there was, an annoying git like her wouldn't have such a cute face. It's got wrinkles from ungodly amounts of laughing. She's got her hair back in a ponytail.

She's wearing the usual inquisitor jacket, a super stylish floor-length affair. White with black trims. Really, the whitecoats' coats're a pale imitation of it. Other than that, she's wearing all white and and black dress shirt and pants with a white tie. Boots just as stylish as her jacket. Supposedly the pure colors stand for purity or some such gag-worthy meaning.

I can see that her patterns're amazingly stable, which must be because of Stonesweight, a god of steadiness who's a dour sort. The other gods she's got bound to her body are a pretty serious god of vigilance and... Huh. It's not really usual for someone to bind a god of war to themselves, even a disciplined one like she's got. Most people don't like war gods' grim outlooks. As for the final one, she's got--why would someone bind a god of mirth to themselves? Gods, that'd explain a lot about her. Inquisitors really are insane.

Um. For vessels, she's got a god of truth, one of sneakiness, one of investigation, and a few convenience ones like seasonal gods, anti-pest ones, things like that. Even her gun's a vessel for a god that, well, hates demons. So much that hurting demons and demonic things are pretty much her big thing. The truth vessel's active, by the way.

Then we'll have to word things carefully then?
Compliment her jacket and boots-you DO like those, you just can't get them for yourself, due to the accident.
You're less then pleased to see her again, but you are curious about what she's going to talk about.
Quick question-can she combo investigation with truth to force you to answer a question, and force you to tell the truth? Because if she does that? We're screwed.

>I hope it doesn't come to that.
Ditto. No idea if my ideas would even work, and even assuming they did, you'd come out the other side in a worse position, cut off from your allies, and probably under scrutiny for a relapse.

>why would someone bind a god of mirth to themselves?
...maybe as a counter to some of the other gods she has bound? I mean, vigilance, stability, and war are all pretty uh, heavy concepts. Mirth may make living with them bearable or interacting with people easier. Or make it harder for the grim doom and gloom guys to influence her directly.

>The truth vessel's active, by the way.
For detecting lies/truth I assume, not compelling it? We can work around the former, but we can't really counter the later.

Try not to lie directly, when possible. Or give her lies that she expects or isn't interested in. Not sure if Nobody will shield you from truth scrying. ...or if we can. Discord means double-think. Simultaneously holding incompatible truths. We might be able to give false readings when it really matters (like if she point blank asks if you've contracted a demon). We probably shouldn't chance trying to use our abilities at all directly in front of her though, unless absolutely necessary.

>What do
The important thing is to not act like anything has changed. She knows you, right? So act the way you did before. If you were disdainful, or generally uncooperative, or grumpy, or just put up with her, whatever. Present that face again. (If you were particularly combative or confrontational before though, reign it in. Act like your opinion really hasn't changed, but you're being restrained).

Play into the self-absorbed school-kid thing too. What is she keeping you from with this meeting? A class you hate or love? Something you look forward too, or are grudging glad to have an excuse to be late to?

>Countering grimness with mirth
She's overdoing it them.

>Can she use investigation to
He's a god of investigation, not interrogation. Detectives who can bind use him and all.

>Act like before
So, sullen. Got it. Pretty easy to do with her.

"And it's my least favorite inquisitor," I mutter. "Let's get this over with so I can get back to class."

"Come on, don't be like that. There're others way worse than I. Why, there'e ones that routinely make anyone they interview cry! But, seriously. You know anything about the storeroom? I've been there, and it's one of the worst messes I've seen in my life. Actually, that's a lie, I've seen far worse messes, ones that would make you scream and toss in your bed after tossing every cookie you've eaten for the past month. The worst non-nightmarish mess, then! Hahaha! So, you know anything about this storeroom?"

Say Yes. You heard whitecoats were causing problems again.

Both very true. Can be taken as a single statement when you actually mean it as two.

>She's overdoing it them.
Well, that or she likes it. I imagine it's like an neverending high. ...or it's to combat the horrors or what she sees and/or does in this job.

>you know anything about this storeroom?
Yeah. They store stuff in it.

Look, your vigilante fanclub's been the ones running wild, lately. If someone's vandalizing the school, why don't you talk to them?

"Yeah. They use it to store things, don't they? Anyway, haven't the whitecoats been causing trouble lately? Why don't you talk to them?" I say.

Her smile just widens. Gods, why's the sudden twinkle in her eyes so frightening? She leans even closer, getting right up in my face with that abominable smile. "And what makes you think I haven't already?"

'I didn't. Just saying you kinda shoulda asked them about it since I was all panicked from them chasing after me. I wouldn't have been in there if they hadn't decided I was too suspicious looking or however they think.'

>And what makes you think I haven't already?
Dunno. Persecution complex? Something about a lifetime of seeing authority figures crack down on 'rebels' and people who don't fit in instead of their own little pets?

>>533812
No no no. That's volunteering way too much information way too early. You're cracking. We don't know what she knows, yet.

>>533812
Gonna have to ixnay that as well.

Instead simply give a sullen shrug. maybe throw in "How the hell should I know?"

For a moment, I feel tempted to tell the full story of their threats and pursuit. But instead I clam up on that. "How should I know?" I glare at her just a little. "Don't the authorities always target the rebels?"

"Ah." She leans back. "See, here's the thing. I understand how you're feeling. At that age, you see 'the authorities' as a monolithic block. All out to make your life a misery for not fitting into their precious divine order. All ignoring those who bully you for it. I understand, I really do."

Suddenly she smiles that predatory smile. "Did you think us inquisitors don't have bigger fry to fry than a few little rebels? Did you think we really like such amateur vigilantes trying to ape us and only making a mess of things? Did you really think we wouldn't take every opportunity to put pressure on them?

They spilled every detail. They didn't want to fess up to ganging up on a single girl, but they spilled it all. Every single little detail."

Holy fuck. She wasn't this scary the last time she was here.

Dang, we done fucked up. I thought we needed to cover up how you got out of there and any evidence of the ritual, but the mess is even worse.

Okay, so I'm assuming the whitecloaks chasing you got a good enough look at you to ID you. Bitch here knows you were there, that's why she called you in. We can't really get rid of that. The hard part is gonna be tricking her into not pursuing a demonic angle.

...our best angle is to make it look like she's pulled the truth out of us, but not to make it as bad as the whole truth.

>She wasn't this scary the last time she was here.
Well, she wasn't gunning for you specifically last time.

>what say
So you know they're dicks, then. And you put the fear of gods into them. Thanks for that, I guess.

Whataya want from me? Confirmation that they attacked me for no good reason? That they were arguing about killing me? A confession that I trespassed and broke a window getting away from them? Fine. You got it. That help your little vigilante crackdown?

(The key here is to act like we don't understand what she's after. To take her at what she just said at face value- that her interest here is cracking down on the imitators. Not that there's something demonic involved).

You should start to let a little anger into your responses at this point. She's trying to hard-line a victim. So you should go a little hysterical to break her momentum.

>>533824
Well, actually, we don't know how much she knows, and the oldest trick in interrogation is to lie and pretend you know more than you do to get the subject to talk. The correct stonewall response would be to not blink. We don't know that she really talked to the whitecloaks, or what details they gave her.

Unfortunately, the whole truth-god thing changes the mechanics. We're not trying to not give her anything- we're trying to give her a false positive. To convince her she got the truth out of you, while stopping short of anything truly damning.

"I don't know if you even talked to them or what they told you." The anger's beginning to show in my voice.

And... her response sounds almost bored. "Really? You're gonna play it that way? How about this. Here's the story as I heard it. They're in the middle of breaking down the door, when they suddenly break into a conveniently timed argument. In the middle of said argument, they hear some loud crashing from inside the door. They finish breaking it down and find the room in an absolute mess, one that'd be improbable for a single cornered kid to create in such a short time and still escape.

Now, I'm curious. If you're dabbling with demons (and you should drop that hobby if you're), you might be able to answer this one. Would you happen to know just what sort of demon might be cause a sudden disagreement and instantly throw a whole room into disarray? Mmhmm?"

Right now I'm wishing she'd return to her bad comedian self.

But then before I can reply, she suddenly smiles. "I'm not saying you're a diabolist, but if you happen to be, there's a way out of this."

...
Ok-guys, we've been caught.
Now, What, precisely IS this out? Because details of the choice infront of us is really important.
And now, here's something you should mention-depending on the details? This could very well actually be worth switching sides over.
But, she must phrase her offer VERY carefully, and now would be a great time to be as open as possible. IF she leaves something out, or a catch that she 'forgets'? It could possibly end badly. If I'm right about her offer, it basically means a Diabolist with not just civillian level, but in-depth workings and personal experience about Inquistor workings running around, and that's a massive danger.
On the flipside, her goal here is not punishment-she desires us to change our evil, rebellious path. She needs to play up whatever her offer is enough that we won't just take the punishment retreat, come back, wait a year or something, and then get back to being a demonologist.
So. Make your pitch, but do it carefully-your actions now can and will shape my future. Are you up to it?

So they specifically said it was me that they cornered did they?

Fine you want to know what happened the other day, here it is. Me and my friends all got together and had a sleep over. We heard that the whitecoats where pissed about something and when they normally get that way they give us goth kids shit so we all got together and just watched a bunch of movies till we passed out and then came to school. You don't believe me, call our parents, we all told them what we where doing last night so they can confirm this for you if my word isn't good enough.

And where not lying either so that truth thing shouldn't ping.

>I don't know if you even talked to them or what they told you.
Gah. No. That was supposed to be internal logic. Sorry, guess I wasn't clear. Problem with being discordant.

...not that it matters since she suspects Discord is involved, but.

>strategy
...you can't let her know she's right. We throw as much real information and emotion (fear and anger) as we can to throw her off.

>response
Everything is conveniently timed, in hindsight. You put a string of probabilities together and the odds are always against a specific combination of outcomes happening just so. That's just math.

Idiots argue. People panic. They judge the passage of time poorly. It happens.

I'll just wait around and let them beat the shit out of me next time, if escaping abuse is so dang suspicious. We can have our next friendly chat in my hospital room. I'll try not to bleed too much on your tidy whities.

...how much bleach do you guys go through, anyways? Or you got bulk deal with the god of laundry?

>I'm not saying you're a diabolist, but if you happen to be, there's a way out of this.
Probably true. Exorcism and rehabilitation. Honestly, the safest option, but it means giving up any hope of accomplishing what you're trying to do, and betraying your friends.

Our hail mary, if you really think you need to sell it after everything else, is to lie to her face.

Tell her you ain't no diabolist, can I go now?

Big risk, because if her truth god catches the lie, we're fucked. But nobody might be able to hide it, and we might be able to use Discord double-think to give the truth god a false reading.

"I- What do you expect from me? I was fucking panicking and all! How do you know they even judged the time right, anyway? Or that I didn't have a tempest god on me? Just what do you expect from me? Fucking lie down and get beat up?" I'm nearly shouting by this point.

She watches with a patient expression before continuing, "The out I'm offering is this. Here's what I think. Someone covered that up. I'm thinking it wasn't you. If it was, you would've had other options than trashing a storeroom. And what's more, I'm guessing you're a brand-sparkling new diabolist. That's a maybe, but I think it's a decent guess. This other person, they'd be more experienced. A far bigger threat. What I'm saying is I'm willing to release the tiny fish if it means I get the big fish. You understand what I'm saying? You wouldn't even have to go to rehabilitation, though naturally you'd have to give up your demons."

...Fuck no. I'm not selling out my friend. I'm not even going to listen if any of you say to do it. Truth god or not, I say, "I don't know what you're talking about. I trashed that place to cover my escape, I'll admit it, and I did it without any demons."

She just slowly shakes her head as I speak. Then she says, "Is that your final story? Well, it's not as I've enough to convict you for sure. But you know what?

I've no problem with people disliking the divine order. I don't even care much for it myself. But do you have any idea just how bad demons can be? I'm not kidding when I say I've seen things that'd make you sleepless. In fact, I got a call not long before you got here, about some rather bizarre and twisted deaths.

Something I've seen far too often is people thinking they can handle just one more demon and that turns out to be too much. Their judgment gets that much more erratic, more... alien. Demons're entities that live by their logic. They don't understand or play by this world's rules. Remember that.

Right now all I have for proof is my gut feeling. That's not enough to make me stay here. I'll be leaving to handle this new case. And I won't return unless I hear about another incident like the storeroom, or worse. And I'm saying I better not hear about anything like that. Especially if I hear evidence of you going loco, I won't show any mercy. You think this was bad? You haven't me in full inquisitorial mode."

...well that was a complete failure. We failed to convince her of anything, or of your own ignorance. Or even introduce doubt.

She as good as knows what you are and what you did, she just doesn't have proof.

Pretty bad start. We're under a spotlight. I mean, you can be a lot more low key with your abilities from now on, but the biggest problem is your friends getting their first demons might leave their own messes. In addition to slowly getting stronger, keeping your friends from attracting attention, or ending up with a violent or crazy demon is gonna be a concern.

>I'm not selling out my friend. I'm not even going to listen if any of you say to do it.
Of course not. That was a reason not to take the safe route. Sorry, we can't help listing all the options. Even the bad ones.

...of course, the larger problem of your friends is what you're going to do about them when you go back in time. If you successfully save your parents, that'll change a lot of the trajectory of your life, including what drew you to them. Working out how to keep them in your life after is gonna be a little tricky.

>threats
So play with demons or go crazy and the inquisition comes down. Same as it's always been.

Go catch your murderer. That shit deserves to be stopped, demon, god, or person.

Hrrrm...What she said there was...Worrisome.
Let me be honest with you- I've been wary of if there is a reason beyond the war of demons and gods that gods are the upheld norm. It sounds like this is it. The more demons, the more crazy you get-with how spacy Haven is, and how many stories she's told you...Yea. It's nice to FINALLY hear the concrete reason why. I wonder one of two things-
Why is she in particular a demonologist? We're like this because of our parents-and we aim to fix that.
Ask this Inquisitor-what's her deal with the divine order-we pretty much lost our family, and that's why. I wonder what her story is? I kinda wonder if she used to play with demons back in the day...
Secondly

Say this as she/you go out the door "order can not be with out disorder its the way of life" idk if this is giveing away to much but it sounds like some thing to say right now

>Ask this Inquisitor-what's her deal with the divine order
...theoretically interesting, but we're dancing on thin ice a single atomic latices thick, here. Not pushing it any further with her.

>>533956
Taunting her with oblique references to discord isn't smart. Again, thin ice.

She's letting us walk knowing what we are. Don't push it.

Go ahead and ask something like
"Wait, diablerists can 'give up' demons?"

She seems optimistic for us. Might as well play into that.

>>533959
Kate already knew that's possible. She said earlier the legal penalty for getting caught (alive) was reeducation and forced reform. Kind of implies giving up of demons.

...and showing interest just seems like confirming it. I mean, she as good as knows, but what's the point in that?

I think we can't really say much more without giving anything away so ask if she doesn't have any proof can you go now?

>>533956
>>533959
no, don't say anything or it could land us in deeper shit then we already are. Right now we just became a person of interest which means if shit goes down around here we'll be the first ones to have our door kicked in even if we had nothing to do with it. No need to try and give them further reason to seek us out first.

As for what we should do. Go back to class and keep a low profile for at least a month if you can so everyone will forget about this, then we can start stepping up our game.

>>533975
It's also important to tell your friends what happened when next we get the chance. Make sure they understand this.

The bitch knew exactly what happened, right down to as good as guessing what demon you used and that someone more experienced cleaned it up. The only reason you're still here is she can't prove any of it.

I'm sure some of them are going to be antsy to try and get their own demons now that you did, but you're all going to have to be extra careful and not bring down any attention for a while. Or you're done.

"Can I go now?" I say.

"Sure, buddy," the inquisitor says cheerfully as she pats me on the shoulder like I'm her old friend. What, she's back to her regular self already? "I hope not to be seeing you again."

"I don't want to see you either," I say as I leave. Questions stick in my mind but I feel like it's a bad idea to ask.

And then she says, "I was a lot like you when I was younger. Made some of the same mistakes, too. Including one I really regret."

For some reason, I feel more pissed off at that. But I do say, "Hope you catch your murderer." Then, rather than classes, I go to warn the others. But they aren't in class. Later, at lunchtime, the demonology club meets on the roof to discusses the Inquisitor and how she pulled us all over for a 'discussion'. No one said anything, though, and it looks like I got the worst grilling.

"Her name's Marlene Rhea," Susie says.

>name
File that away for later use. Once we have a secure means of conducting research, it might be worth trying to find more out about her. For example, it would be nice to know why she's showing you leniency. Or how far it goes. Or what those mistakes she made were. My first guess is she dabbled in demonology herself. Or she was close to someone who did. Until it went wrong.

And by secure, I mean, really secure. Either direct divinations, or a computer / internet connection we've encrypted and hidden with discord hacks and/or Nobody. You do not want anyone to know you're researching her.

>what do
She's good. She as good as knew exactly what had happened, right down to the fact I was brand new, what demon I'd used, and that I'd had help. If she had any proof, or if she wasn't feeling lenient for whatever reason...

I think we'll be okay though, so long as we keep a low profile. Whatever we do from here on out, we have to keep it quiet. Careful. We can't give her a reason to come back.

remember how she said she was willing to let a small fish go if it meant she could catch the bigger one? Don't be surprised if you find someone watching you from now on. If I had to guess I think she thinks you know who the murderer is and you're trying to protect the bastard because he's giving you demon powers or some bullshit like that. Either way I think you should try to lay off the more hardcore demon shit you and you gang does for a bit just incase she is following you. I mean even if she did try to arrest you or whatever it is she would have done she has nothing beyond gut feelings and guess work at this point, don't give her evidence is what I'm trying to say here. Also if your friends give you crap about how unfair it is that you got a demon and they didn't and that you're now telling them they can't have one just say if something does happen and the inquisitors come back all of you will be the first people they look at and it will not end well. We will however help them once the heat has died down, cause after all good things come to those who wait.

>>534041
That she might be waiting for us to lead her to Haven isn't impossible. Tying in the murder is kinda nuts, though. Completely different case, happening somewhere completely different.

>She's waiting for me to lead her to Haven
That's a worrisome possibility. But I haven't seen anything suspicious so far. Even the minor gods I've seen so far're just minding themselves from what I can tell. I'll just have to keep an eye out.

>Researching Marlene
Sounds like a good idea. I bring it up to Marco, who's the computer expert. He maintains his parents' computer and runs their website. I also mention the demon-backed hacking idea. "That's a cool idea. We likely can't grab the Inquisitor records--they've got a crazy secure network fortified with gods. Read that on the net, from people who failed. Many got caught. But other government records could tell us a lot."

>Previous questions about Haven
Those've been dwelling on my mind for a while. She's been awfully secretive about herself.

I speak up, "Um, you don't have to answer if you mind, but why didn't you tell us earlier about your demons? We'd protect your secrets. We're friends after all."

Her eyes refocus on me. "I enjoy hanging around with you all."

"Eh?"

"The more I tell you about myself, the more likely I'll have to leave."

...well like we said before if you don't want to tell us you don't have to, we're friends after all and that's good enough for me.

but off the record I have a strong feeling she maaaaaayy be one of those ... what the hell where they called again? The guys with way to many demons in them and are crazy strong, think it started with an m. but yeah I wouldn't be surprised to find she's one of them.

...DO you want the friendly, spacey fun Haven?
Or do you want an expert demonologist?
That's the choice before you.
One or the other, but to be both, seems to be impossible with the life we will lead.
In a simmilar manner, it may become dangerous to continue to associate with them-for their sake and for your own.

>I haven't seen anything suspicious so far.
Well, she doesn't necessarily have to have you followed to track you back to her. She can afford to play the long game here. She can let the rookie demonolgist go, wait for her to screw up again, and see if that gets her the master.

>But other government records could tell us a lot.
Well, yes. Although even the public record might be able to tell us a lot. There's a lot out there, if you're good at looking for it and putting the pieces together. I just want to be secure before we start doing research- you don't want big brother or anyone else knowing what you're researching.

>"The more I tell you about myself, the more likely I'll have to leave."
Yuuup. Either she's not entirely human, or there are complex conditions on some of her demons. Or, well, she's just trying to protect you.

*Bemused smile* I don't quiet get that, but if that's the way it works, I guess I don't want to. I'd choose friends before... other stuff. Keep what secrets you have to, I guess.

You know I'm betting she is the current incarnation of Samios. I'v been suspecting she wasn't lying when she said that for a while and people knowing something like that would drive her away.

"Alright, I'd rather not lose any of you so I'll keep that sorta question to a minimum."

>Bunch of theories about Haven
I'll pretend I didn't hear those.

"Haven, you don't have to tell me anymore."

She nods slowly, but then hesitates before saying, "If you guys ever get into trouble, really bad trouble, so bad you can't get out of it at all, just call me for help. But you won't see me again after that. I'd rather that than you being dead or gone or something, though."

"Haven, that won't happen," I say. We're all silent for a good while.

Marco speaks up. "Maybe this's a bad time, but can you help us get demons?"

Both Susie and Raven facepalm.

>I'll pretend I didn't hear those.
Probably for the best. If we're actually right about her, it's probably better if you don't know. At least if she'd like to say around. Don't collapse the wave-function.

>Maybe this's a bad time
What, with the inquisitor who has as good as found you out still nearby and waiting for the slightest whiff of trouble to come crashing down on us like a ton of bricks, and Haven hinting at horrible consequences if we draw too deeply on her resources? :V (No, don't actually mock him, please).

>can you help us get demons?
Was that directed at you or Haven? (Meaning do you pause and let her answer first). My guess is she probably could, but either doesn't want to because it's something you're supposed to find yourself the first time, or, again, it would tax her stay here. You might be able to, although recreating the stressful conditions and mental state you were in without putting people at risk is tricky.

The correct response here is understanding. You know how bad the others want this. And how frustrating it is that we have to slow down and be careful right as it seems like we're just getting started and discovering this can actually work. And when we might have real resources to draw on (Haven). But we're under a spotlight right now. We have to be cautious, let attention die down a little. We can't afford to get caught, or give the inquisitor an excuse to come back.

That said, you managed it. I'm sure we can find a way the others can, too. (Preferably cleaner than you did, and without imposing much on Haven).

yes and yes, yes we can help you and yes this is a BAD TIME. We just narrowly avoided the inquisitor wrath and I wouldn't be to surprised if we're being followed right now. We'll help you but after the heat has died down.

Doing anything demonic right now would be a catastrophically bad idea. The inquisitor has nothing on you. So try not to give her anything; that little talk you just had was a fishing expedition nothing more.

You know, based on the information presented, the main danger with demonology is the lack of unbiased data, because it's taboo/illegal. With the variety of gods available it seems like binding the wrong god could have the same disastrous results as binding the wrong demon.

Sounds like all of you think doing anything right now's a bad idea. I agree, now that I think of it.

"I understand you're eager, and I do wan to help you. But I just got out of a really hairy interview with the Inquisitor, and I think we should lay low for a bit. Make sure we aren't on their radar. And then we can try to get you your demons."

Marco nods half-heartedly. "Alright."

"Oh, don't worry! I'll tell you just what to do, and help you pick out your new friends!" Haven pipes up.

I start to say "Are you sure that's ok--" but she interrupts. "It's fine! Talking about them isn't a problem, it's just talking about myself!"

"So we avoid the dogs' attention and do it all quiet like later. Got it," Susie says.

[You can now choose between flashing forward a week or so right now, or following Marlene as she tracks down the murderer. In the latter case, you won't be playing Discord or talking to her like you talk to Katelynn--you'll just be giving suggestions for her actions. After the case, you'll rejoin Katelynn and friends.

You can also suggest things for Katelynn and her friends to be doing during that time.]

>>534399
Seeing the other side of things would be neat. Let's tack us down a murderer!

might as well see what an inquisitor does consider a threat, on to the murder

Oh and as for what Katelynn and friends can do for the week, just have them do what they normally do just lay a bit lower on the demon stuff. Want to make it look like nothings changed to keep suspension low.

Marlene! I want to hunt me some evil demonologists!
I think it's fairly obvious which side of things I'd be on if I lived in that world-Inquistor side

...see what the other side is capable of, get more useful information on the setting, and possibly out of character information we can exploit? Hell yes. And we can try and get her killed, too!

>suggest things for Katelynn and her friends to be doing during that time
Laying low and not using powers, immediately.

Studying and planning, when possible (like what conditions we might use to demon-up the others, and what demons they might be interested in, and which Haven thinks are safe or good to get to know). When you feel safe too do so, practicing 'small' applications of discord- mixing something up without breaking stuff (fine control will be important when we try and tweak computer stuff). Getting a sense of how long the pattern trace of a given demonic action will persist is also important to develop, and will guide our choices in the future.

...avoid noticeable changes. It's one thing if your peers or teachers notice you acting out less after all getting dragged before an inquisitor. It's another if, say, you become too obviously interested in math and science after being suspected of starting into demons. Don't leave evidence she can use.

Question on using yesterday to go back in time- where is the pattern disturbance from that visible? Do you leave a shimmer in the air where you came back? Or since it's something you did to yourself, does it only show up on you? (And is therefore hidden by Nobody).

It's a quiet small suburban town. Marlene knows the type. Putting up a pleasant face but secretly full of rot. But rotten or not, those people don't deserve to die. And so she shall save them. Sailing in like a white-caped hero of justice. She laughs at that hilarious imagery.

The white-uniformed policeman looks at her strangely. "Um. Inquisitor?"

"Oh, just thinking of something funny. Now, let's look at the stiffs." Her face suddenly becomes serious. "And then I will find the one responsible."

The house's just the same as the others. Rows after rows of neat white houses, precisely trimmed lawns, and so on. Ah, Marlene thinks, this must be the kind of place that has a neighborhood association.

Inside is a gruesome scene. Blood's pooled underneath the sphere, cube, and pyramid of flesh that used to be people. Immediately, Marlene recognizes it as the work of Sphere, the demon of perfect shapes. Unless someone's faking Sphere's handiwork; she'd ran into such forgeries before. Still, this killer wasn't exactly being subtle about it.

She takes note of the lack of obvious demonic influence upon the local patterns. She actually laughs a little at the idiocy of doing something this blatant and then trying to cover it up like this. But perhaps there was some motivation at work, or something else they wished to hide.

She activates the stylized eye jewelry that acts as a vessel for Lens. Immediately, details stand out far more sharply and more clearly. One, the blood drops that'd been mostly scrubbed off off the stairs to upstairs, but faint traces still remain. Two, that there's no sign of a break-in here.

Upstairs, she finds where the faint blood trails must've started. Looks like the murders took place in the victims' bedrooms. One master bedroom, almost certainly shared by the parents. Blood trail leads to a bed with a really fresh sheet. An imprint on the carpet next to a suitcase, looks like another suitcase was there. An open jewelry box, empty. No signs of any wallets. Drawers show signs of having been hastily searched.

Two children's bedrooms. Judging by the bands featured in the posters on the walls, likely both young teenagers. Other than the blood trails leading to the also freshly changed beds, nothing else significant.

In the pictures scattered around, there're a boy of about 11 years and girl of about 13 years. Also featured in the pictures're a man and a woman in their mid-30s. All of them black. Also in the pictures's a large yellow mutt.

Returning downstairs and doing a quick inspection of the bottom floor, she finds nothing else interesting except a locked door. Still no signs of a break-in so far. No signs of the dog, and no dog house outside.

Hrm...
So magic element aside- someone came in, stole the jewelery, and killed this family. The weird part, of course, is where the magic comes in...
I think we should examine those shapes more closely-the impression I'm getting is that the lousy cover-up plus the obvious use of Sphere is meant to cover the use of a different demon for fighting-whoever did this wanted that demon as a hidden trick.
The blood cleaning probably fell under the general clean-up of that other demon's actions...suggesting the other demon might work with blood.
Now, the jewelry is something to keep an eye out for, but the main thing I think that might be for is making a special vessel for a god that perfers jewelry.

Wait, four people, three mangled flesh-shapes. Are the children sharing, or is one missing? (Can we use any of your gods to determine that without a time consuming autopsy?)

got a few theories on what happened
1) someone in the family did it, either on purpose or accident and try'd to cover there tracks and stole what they could before leaving in an attempt to run as far away as they can.
2)seeing how it seems like this place wasn't broken in to it could have been a friend of the family and something went wrong and then this happened. Could have taken one of the family hostage or this could have been premeditated and the missing family member was in on it.
3)something else
Whatever happened in here I suggest checking out the laundry room since it looks like whoever was here changed the sheets after the murders so there could be some clues in there.

Briefly, Marlene ponders the possibility of someone using blood as a weapon. But the blood's easily explained as the drip trails from the flesh shapes being moved downstairs. Which meant the culprit'd moved them for some reason.

A quick inspection of the laundry room reveals no bloodied sheets. Well, there're any number of things to make things disappear with demons. Checking the closets reveals the likely source of the fresh sheets. Everything's racked up extremely neatly except for the stacks of sheets and covers which look disturbed as if someone'd grabbed something off them hastily.

Now, the flesh-shapes. First thing Marlene does is lift them up, much to the distress of the policeman who asks what she's doing. "Trying out for the world weightlifting championships," she jokes, and then quickly clarifies that she's inspecting their weights to clear up a hypothesis. Sometimes Harlequin could be inconvenient like that, but without him she was so grim that it unnerved everyone. She still remembers the "You're so scary, like you're always about to kill someone" comment that spurred her to bind Harlequin. It was the first time anyone'd dared to speak up to her about it.

The weights of the flesh shapes... none of them were adult weight. It's entirely possible for a demon to tinker with weights, but... Acting upon a suspicion, she pulls out her Inquisition-issued saber. On top of everything else, they were sanctified vessels. She'd bound the Lady of Battles to it before she moved that binding to her body. After thinking upon a suitable god, she marks the sword with the sacred ink she keeps on hand for times like this and calls the name of Keen.

With a blade sharper than a scalpel, she neatly cuts into the flesh shapes. The policeman grimaces and looks like he wants to throw up. The pyramid and sphere have human skin along with other viscera inside them, but cutting open the cube reveals golden fur. That explains the missing dog that'd been nagging at her.

So that puts the tally at two children dead, one dog dead, and two missing parents. And there's still that locked door. Might or might not be relevant.

Theory time.

One or both of the parents went demon-mad. Probably suffers from a bit of OCD by the cleaning. Afterwords they panic and make a run for it.

I think its time to go into the locked room. You know how to pick a lock? Or is it time to kick open a door?

Two missing parents. Victims, or culprits? Or one of each? One advantage of their being adults is there will be records available. They can be looked up, their pasts and lives investigated for leads. Specifically, looking for any evidence either of them might have been a demonist, or had connections to anyone who might be. Not the priority at the moment, but something to look into if we don't find anything obvious to follow at the crime scene.

Might as well check that locked door. No way of knowing if there's anything relevant behind it until you do.

could be where the perpetrator through the sheets which could give us some clues.

Marlene says, "Hey, time to open that door. You know the usual lockpicking procedure?"

The police officer says, "What... oh, that. I'll handle it then."

"Sure. If being turned into plastic ground beef is your thing, I won't judge."

"Huh?"

"Ahaha! Was a joke. But seriously, biabolists're often full of nasty surprise. You probably want to let me go in first."

"Oh, right. Yeah, uh, I'm not used to dealing with diabolists."

"That's because it's our job. Don't worry, you should be safe enough if you hang back. You've already done your part showing me in here."

"Alright, then..."

And then Marlene applies the usual lockpicking procedure to the door. As the part around the lock splinters under her kick, she has her gun ready. But the door stops partway with a thump, like it's blocked by something. No signs of hostile response. Fully alert and ready to instantly react, she peeks in.

It quiclkly becomes clear that the room's:

1) a study, with bookcases and a desk.
2) decorated in a blatantly occult manner, with demonic glyphs painted on the walls right out in the open and oddly shaped tools scattered around on the desk.
3) whoever used this room was a maniac for solid shapes, to the point where the room's filled with them.

In fact, that last's apparently what's blocking the door. It's stopped against a metallic octagon, really heavy by the feel of it. The rest of the room's full with similar shapes, of plastic and wood and rubber and glass and more, to the point where there's barely room to move.

Carefully stepping over it all in an almost-dance, Marlene scans the room for further clues. Books on demonology, must've been smuggled in. Maps and pictures of nearby landmarks. Shapes've been drawn over many of them, particularly Mount Willy, this lumpy little thing that's had a triangle drawn around it in the pictures, and a pointy church which's had a cube drawn over it. Huh.

(Yay, this quest isn't dead!)

Hmm. Well, this would seem to confirm Sphere's involved. That or they're very dedicated to that deception.

You divine sight pick up anything else in here? I doubt they cleaned up all their work in the workshop, especially with so many obvious signs displayed. Although things in this room might be old enough for traces to have faded.

...do any of your gods allow forensic type checking? Like... how many people have been in this room? Presumably only the demonologist used this room, it would be nice to know if only one is involved.

>mountain, church
Potential targets, or places the culprit might have gone to? Trouble is we don't know which to check next.

I was hoping maybe there would be a geometric progression we could use to guess the next target, but we don't have enough data.

could be point of interest or they could just be distractions meant to throw you off the killer's trail, You did just get done saying the killer could be trying to imitate a demon and this room could also be just that... although I do have to admit if this guy is just trying to throw you off he's going all out on this.

As for what to do I say search the room for anything that might give us more clues in here and maybe see if some of the boys in blue can check out the places marked on the map, just give them the description of the family members how have yet to be found as any of them could be the killer. If they find someone who matches the description tell them NOT to engage them and call you right away so we can deal with it.

Hrrm...What are high-end Shape Demonologists like? The impression I'm getting is that this guy might have been OCD about cleanliness and order, to the point where he got Shape's attention. Might have slowly been eaten away at, until he ended up dominated by it, and now is spinning out of control.
I'd like to say take note for the next time you're dealing with a young demonologist, so you can warn her of this danger and how out-of control one can get.

>Involve the police
Marlene would have to get them to send plain cloth officers. But time she spends waiting to hear back could be spent simply heading to one of the destinations. Maybe if there were more destinations involved.

>Culprit was OCD
Quite possibly. Often the worst diabolists are the ones who've picked demons a little too attractive to them and who listen to them far too much. It isn't always a good idea to listen to gods. Demons're even worse for that. The worst idea is letting a demon dictate ones actions.

>Check for more details/forensics stuff/a numeric pattern
A more intensive investigation yields surprisingly little dirt, dust, or other such detritus--including hair. For all the clutter, it seems like the culprit was obsessively clean. Even with a god or demon to help, that's a lot of work spent on keeping the room clean. Still, with the blatant glyphs and the demonic patterns immediately apparent, it doesn't look like they were trying to cover themselves up. Looks more like fussiness.

Speaking of patterns, the solid shapes say very loudly to Marlene's senses, "This is a completely unnatural object." It doesn't look like there were any less permanent demonic workings done recently enough for it to be apparent. Discounting a more subtle coverup, which's always a possibility, but paranoia's only reasonable up to a certain point. Not that she hadn't encountered nasty surprises, but the odds in this case would be really low in her estimates.

But not zero. That's enough for her to keep an eye out for a trick, but not enough to make her change her actions.

Thorough search does turn up more photos, including ones of the children and dog. And a whole folder of photos of other landmarks, including the famous egg-shaped Rebirth Monument. And... that's interesting. The children and dog have a single shape each drawn around them in the photos, but the other photos're considerably more cluttered with shapes. The mountain has two triangles, one around the mountain and one just drawn somewhere on the photo. The church has four squares or cubes. A local lake has eight pentagons--and if she squints, she can see that it could vaguely be taken to be have five irregular sides. Later photos have a ridiculous number of shapes Marlene's not bothering to count.

Looks like her next target's the mountain. And she's fairly certain this diabolist doesn't actually have the power to convert it into a pyramid, if that's what they'e trying to do. If they did, they'd become as legendary as the Samios or the Mad Lord. And even that would just be pretext enough to call down the resources of the entire Inquisition, including branches from other countries, as well as at least the local military, much as she doesn't like the thought of either of those. Many other Inquistorial branches're more hardass than hers, in fact she'd be considered disqualified or even heretical by them just for not being too fond of the divine order. And while the Mad Lord was brought down by an army, it was a really bloody war. But that wasn't modern weapons.

Speaking of forensics, while she didn't find anything in the study, there's one thing she can do. A quick further check of the innards of the flesh shapes exposes children sized and dog teeth, but no adult teeth.

"So, uh, just tell me when you're done." The police officer says with nervous squeamishness. Clearly he doesn't get a whole lot of grisly murders in his precinct. Marlene smiles with grim mirth at the thought.

"At this point, we can assume the victims're two children and a dog. Two adults at large. Either or both're our culprit. Next target's presumably Mount Willy," she says.

"Mt. Willy?"

"It's my next destination. Oh, say, what can you tell me about the parents?"

"Well... The mother was a really quiet one. Real career woman. The father was... He was really well regarded. Really nice, helpful, pretty much no one could say anything bad about him. Practically the perfect househusband. He's an immigrant--apparently she met him aboard?"

"You can return to make your report. I'll be going to Mt. Willy. By myself. Combat's expected."

Mount Willy turns out to be a hour's drive. She stops the car at its foot. There's a road leading up--she could keep driving or climb the thing by foot. If the culprit're really trying to alter the mountain, they'll be at it for quite a while anyway.

Now this depends on how long it would take to 'Sphere' the mountain into a perfect tetragon shape, and whether it's smarter to interrupt before the demonologist before he charges up big-time or after.
I would think before- all that energy if charged up would have to go somewhere, and a half-cast spell could be more dangerous than a full cast-no predicting what would happen, outside of just general guessing based on how much energy was released...

>The worst idea is letting a demon dictate ones actions.
...*cough*.

>parents
Hmm, neither of those descriptions mentioned the OCD we might expect. Although 'househusband' might come with a certain degree of cleanliness, and if he was the one who stayed home, it would have been easier for him to maintain a hidden demonic workshop than her.

That's all pretty lose speculation, though.

>climb, or car
I'd go on foot. We don't want them to see us coming (even if you have a god to protect you from direct attacks on your person, sphere could probably still fold your car around you). And we want to be free to look for signs that will lead us to our prey.

just hoof it for now, it will be easier for you to see any clues or signs of where this guy went

As for who it could be... maybe it was both. I mean if the father stayed at home all day yes he could have made that room but then again the mother was a very business like women and it wouldn't be to far fetched for her to claim the room for her personal office. But to live in a home for years and to rise a family without ever going into your spouse's 'private room' is just a little hard for me to believe, not impossible mind you but still a bit far fetched.

Aaaannnndd if they are both involved that could mean that either they split up and are going to hit each of the targets at once or are working together to put a little more punch into pulling off these impossible feats of magic. Just throwing that out there.

>Harmfulness of interrupting a working in progress.
Only if Marlene interrupts them right as they're firing it off. That can cause it to go astray. But if she interrupts them while they're still preparing to do it, it just doesn't go off. And there isn't really any charging up spiritual energy for this kind of thing. A person can only hold so much. If they could store enough to do this, they could just do it in one shot. But converting a whole mountain's a big deal even for the big time major diabolists. Ruby did turn a whole town into her own personal playground but then had to recover afterwards--and was sniped while still recovering. Even the Samios was never described as transforming mountains left and right willy nilly. Though Marlene'd never want to face something like it even right after it'd done a feat like that.

As for working together, it's still take a lot of diabolists or two really strong ones.

>Going on foot
Yes, stealth's best. Speed's unnecessary, with almost certainly no one up there to hurt other than the other spouse and relatively little the culprit could actually do to the mountain. Maybe transform a few rocks or outcroppings. Let them waste their energy trying. If Marlene wanted, she could just take a leisurely stroll and do some sightseeing.

Maybe afterwards. For now, she runs silently at a steady pace, leaping from cover to cover. Stonesweight gives her the steadiness to keep going indefinitely, the Lady of Battles gives her the physical prowess, and the Invisible gives her the quietness and sneakiness.

Still, it's a good long run before she finally reaches the point where the road ends. And there at the top is a car, and what looks like the man from the pictures in the house. He's sitting by the parking lot on a bench, reading what looks like a novel and now and then looking around. He looks surprisingly relaxed for someone who's either a culprit, an accomplice, or a kidnappee.

watch him for a bit and see if he does anything weird. If not at least see if he has anything that looks like a weapon and then approach him and see how he reacts. Even if he had nothing to do with what happened back at home you could still arrest him for being a suspect right, or at least bring him down to the station? Also do you have anything that lets you seance demons cause if you do use that to see if you can spot any on him.

Huh. Anything about him or in the car ping divine sight?

>He looks surprisingly relaxed for someone who's either the culprit, an accomplice, or a kidnappee.
...it's possible he's entirely ignorant of what's occurred, I suppose. (Either his wife is the guilty party, or there's someone we didn't know about living in the house?). That, or he's just nuts.

I'd watch him for a few moments, see if we learn anything. Then we can try approaching him, and see if that gets a reaction. If not, we can try questioning him, see if that gets a reaction. Start light- what's he doing here? Work up to where's your wife, and later, where's your kids. See how long the story holds up or he can keep his cool. Bring down the hammer and report the death of his children when it's time.

The important thing we're trying to do here is either provoke him into revealing himself as a diabolist, or verifying he's not, and then trying to figure out where his wife is, or if there was someone else in the house.

Oh and comes to think of it? He's not alone, his wife is probably helping him, might be why he's so relaxed-she's the one on gaurd duty. You didn't find any signs that an adult died- only the children.

He might be relaxed because what he's up to is trying to figure out how he can appropriately transform the mountain, and right now the demon is nonplussed by the question of how to get it right.

Awful hypothesis time: Can demons manifest human bodies? Could either of these parents be either a conjured servant or someone whose mind was being ridden hard by a demon? The story you heard about this husband guy being, "A perfect husband," and also an immigrant suggests to me that he was gathered or even created/twisted by demonic powers. If so this husband may be a servitor set up at this park bench to provide early warning while the wife does crazy shit.

>Controlled or created human beings
This thought crosses Marlene's mind. It isn't unheard of. The minimal profile she got for him does match up with that possibility, but it's just that. Minimal. She'd need more information to judge better.

She decides to observe the situation. The man doesn't show anything to the divine sight, but that doesn't mean anything with the diabolist knowing how to cover up their traces. The car, on the other hand, there're faint traces. Heh, looks like she're dealing with one of tho cheapsake diabolists that like making their cars run without fuel. Of course, one could just get a car that runs on spiritual energy, but those cost more and the diabolist might not want to advertise they have that much spiritual energy. Still, Marlene owns one of those herself. Handy things.

It turns out to be a boring observation. The only thing that changes is the man gets further into the book. Finally, Marlene steps out and grabs his attention with a friendly wave just as he's looking up. He looks slightly surprised but not alarmed. "Oh, didn't think this got many visitors this time of year," he says.

Marlene nods. "Oh, yeah, it isn't really tourist season, is it?"

"No, ma'am. Is there anything I can help you with?" he inquires with a friendly tone.

"Not particularly. Well, at least the weather's pretty good for this season."

"It's a nice enough day for this month, yes."

"Hey, I see by your ring that you're married. How's the spouse?"

"Oh, well enough. She's doing pretty well."

"No worries?"

"She does get a little too into her work. But she's doing what she loves even right now."

"Ah. And that would be?"

"You know, bringing a little more regularity to things. She's like that. Likes things tidy and in order."

Marlene pauses. Just from that alone, it's hard to tell if he realizes or not. The way he said it just as pleasantly as everything else, it's hard to get a good read off him.

"Ah, I see. How about children? Any of those?"

"Oh, two. They're quite picturesque and lovely."

"I see! How're they doing?"

"Well, you know. Children, they can be a little troublesome sometimes. But children'e like that. Perhaps if I'd raised them a little better..."

Okay, this guy? She's having a really hard time reading him. She decides on a little more direct probing. "Oh, yeah, I know how children can be. But that doesn't warrant turning them into flesh balls, does it?"

"Perfect shapes," he corrects. His pleasant demeanor doesn't change. "You know, I did try to talk her out of it, but in the end she did have her reasons. I can only support her."

Well. Okay. He's either kind of nuts or brainwashed, here. At best that means he belongs in a deprogramming camp, or a psych ward, at worst charged as an accessory to murder and diabolism...ing. That's a problem for the shrinks and district attorney or whatever the inquisitor equivalents are, though. You just bring 'em in, and put down the ones you can't.

At least I doubt he's much of a threat to you. And if he were to try anything, disabling him would be a simple matter.

>I can only support her.
Where is she?

...you probably want to make it so he can't escape or interfere before you move on. And disable the car too- it would be really annoying if she were to double back around you and drive away while you're stuck on foot.

well it's always nice to support the one you love but I don't think killing others you love to support the one is the best way to go about doing that, so is the misses around here as well or did she decide to head to the church for ... reasons?

How quick can you draw your weapon? cause if this guy tries something I want to know how quickly you could put him down but I don't want you to draw your weapon yet incase we can get him to tell us what's the game plan he and his lover have cooked up.

Call me crazy, but I'm thinking that this situation is creepy enough we should decapitate and bisect first and ask further questions never. When the provably insane are given the chance to babble on once their masquerade has fallen that tends to be when the most terrifying spells and headfuckery comes out in my experience. End it before he has the chance and then hope that the disruption in his wife's perfect loving relationship unbalances her perfect order enough that she makes a mistake.

I also really don't like how this guy went from perfectly harmless looking to perfectly creepy in an instant, is this shades of Sphere's perfection at work? Might need a trick to sabotage that: A 'perfect' strategy for this situation could have meant that this couple perfectly anticipated your arrival, perfectly lulled you into a non-combat posture, then perfectly fucked with your head to throw you off your game, in preparation for a perfect ambush from behind.

...jeeze. We're a souped up inquisitor with a war god and a durability god bound to our body. I'm pretty sure we could render him unconscious without drawing a weapon. I'm pretty sure we could kill him without drawing a weapon.

Unless he actually tries to attack us, and in a manner than might actually have a chance of being at all effective, lethal force seems rather like overkill.

Do you have a god that can watch your back while you talk? We can probably get more information out of this guy if we talk to him longer, but this situation looks very muck like the husband is placed here to distract you while the wife tries to stab you in the back with a line segment or something.

Also, while basically anything here could be a magical trap or bomb, I find myself suspicious of that car in particular. Shape-lady seems quite capable of concealing her traces (even when seemingly unnecessary), so an object with traces that we can see seems out of place, possibly a cover for something else.

"So. The wife. You wouldn't happen to know where she is?" Marelene asks.

"She's busy right now and wouldn't appreciate any interruptions. Why don't you wait here and talk to her when she gets back?"

Marlene begins feeling like she's only wasting her time here. There's a very simple way to test if someone's a construct or just brainwashed. And quick pre-emptive action's best. In a swift, smooth motion, her gun's out and pointed at his leg, barking with gunfire.

The husband's reaction is immediate and perfect, twitching neatly out of the way with a speed that can't be human. But the concentrated hatred for all things demonic within the bullet ripples out as it whizzes by, tearing into the man's leg. A small chunk of the leg dissolves into nothingness. Construct confirmed.

"Oh dear! Now why did you go and do that? Unwarranted violence isn't good!" the man says. Fucking constructs. Lunatics, all of them.

Nothing to do but finish the job: Prevent the construct from helping the demonist or slowing you down, and then proceed.
Bonus if you can use the construct to track her but speed and safety are more important than being cute: This crazy already has been summoning constructs and transforming children into geometric dead lumps. My guess is that she's not planning on being particularly subtle today.

So, I assume if he's a construct, the real husband is long since dead?

If he's not human, and simply a demonic creation, and not providing you with useful information, you have no further use for him. Finish him with some warranted violence.

Then we need to pick up his wife and murderer's trail before she commits her next atrocity.

great, a scarecrow. We aren't getting anything from this thing so might as well finish it off and track down the puppeteer pulling the strings.

So in other words he is probably eternally loyal to the killer, so there is not much to be gained from capturing him alive. (I wonder if constructs dream of demonic sheep.)

>So, I assume if he's a construct, the real husband is long since dead?
I suspect the original husband was a construct all along.

>>552460
I'd think not. They had real kids, after all. I'd suspect creating people would be a big investment of demonic power.

>>552461
That depends on how 'functional' you can make a construct. (If that is how things went, I would be curious what the kids' DNA, but we probably can't find out by now.)