Trial of Trials : Act 2

[thequestgiver]

There's something uneasy that can be felt in the city, and seemingly no end to the rumors springing up in the wake of the downtown explosion that leveled BOARD's headquarters. Stories of an odd sickness where the afflicted suddenly winds up anemic, their blood levels dangerously low, despite feeling fine that morning have already taken root, others of strange animals seen roaming at night, and horrible screams and gunshots in one of the parking garages....

The space where the ill-fated headquarters lays silent, an empty patch of dirt and gravel that seemed to attract those drawn to stories and rumors. Police have already had to shoo away opportunists with metal detectors, hoping to find something interesting in the impressively quickly cleared wreckage, and others have reported something that just feels... wrong, when they walk by the site. The ghosts of those who hadn't made it out of the collapse? Or something else? Noone can really put a finger on it to explain.

And meanwhile, under the cover of shadows, things unknown to those who still walk in the light continue to move. Whispers of the rogue mage and a treasure trove of information, of upsets in the vampire hierarchy, and sworn revenge on the mages who had used one of their own for their gain.

And deep in a hidden lab, BOARD's remains and allies continue to work, twisting all they can get their hands on to create the perfect weapon; made of the very things they wish to cleanse from the world. The loss of the incapacitated vampire elder was only a small one, with how much they had already extracted and drawn from it. And if the rumors of their knowledge being in the hands of their enemies were true? They would just have to speed up their projected timeline. Or simply slow down that of the world. After all, they were mages. Reality bended to their will, not that of those who opposed them....

Comments

[kamenwriter]

Kotaro didn't even notice the Changeling, truth be told, until the younger man speaks up and makes him jump. He looks vaguely startled, and the shock in his eyes doesn't fade as they glance rapidly over Phillip's slightly-less-than-human features, but it quickly all fades into embarrassment.

"Ah, sorry about that," he chuckles awkwardly. "I tend to get really sucked into my work."

[morethanashadow]

...Phillip knows that look. That's the 'I can definitely see through your Mask' look. Bakura didn't mention that. But he keeps smiling, all the more curious now. "I can tell. What're you working on?"

[kamenwriter]

It's really not - he's just a creative type who notices when people look strange. And he's had enough encounters with magical beings over the past week to give him a much healthier appreciation of that. "Ah-- nothing actually important," he comments mildly, looking back at his screen. "Just a book I'm working on."

[morethanashadow]

Excuse you, he doesn't look strange. ...Maybe a little bit under the mask, which is why he made that assumption, but he's not that unusual looking. Phillip looks around to glance at the screen best he can from his angle. "Well, it's probably important to you at least, if it's something like that. What's it about?

[kamenwriter]

Don't mind as he turns the laptop away from you, Phillip. "It's about that whole weird mess that went down with BOARD recently. I've been looking into it for a few weeks."

[morethanashadow]

Well, he didn't think it would be that easy. But this is definitely the person he was looking for. "You have? That sounds... tricky." You really are going to get yourself killed. (Not that Phillip thinks that's unusual.)

[kamenwriter]

He laughs warmly, and there's an eager spark in his eyes. "Oh man, you have no idea. It's almost impossible to find anything on them, something's going and deleting information online about it, I've only had any luck because of Tach--"

And then he seems to realise what he's saying, and that spark fades as he sits back. "Ah, sorry. I got a bit... carried away there."

[morethanashadow]

Whelp. That sure is a name all the Changelings know at this point. Or part of a name, anyway. Phillip leans back in his chair, sipping at his coffee. "No, it's fine," he says with an easy smile, "But I don't think Tachibana's the only reason you've gotten lucky."

[kamenwriter]

His grin is much more bashful now. "Yeah, he's really not. He was the one who tried the hardest to talk me out of all this, really. I've had, uh. Other help."

Ones that he's going to be much cagier about after his irredeemable fuck-up of a run-in with Hayami.

[morethanashadow]

"Yeah, I know." Phillip isn't going to say how he knows, or who specifically he knows of (there's a chance that if there's anyone else, the guy might give up some other names), but he does know. "You've gotten kind of infamous. That's probably not good for you."