[Christmas, part 2]

[floatingplot]

[You have escaped. Congratulations, surely all your problems are over and you can return to your apartments- Oh, wait, no.]

Comments

[sharkbites]

[...Does he want to check out that scroll or go upstairs...

...Fabian moves to check the scroll first, at least.]

[floatingplot]

[The priest is robed, not monstrous, untouched by the contamination of magic madness somehow. The scroll unrolls into a map of the ancient world.

It shows five cities.

East Blue, the city drenched in magic on the surface, attributed- To Isate, wait, what?
Atuin, the floating city of Cang Long.

These two, at least, aren’t changed:

Sakmet, the city of Metoth.
Saena, the city of Angha.

Those four each have a red cross somewhere on them, an X marks the spot in places you might know as untamed wilderness where nothing is. Totally. Of course the tourist and other modern maps of the cities are entirely accurate, trust your gods.

And the fifth, the capital in the center of all four:

Righad, the capital city.

There’s an extra new addition to the map, a messy scrawl of ‘Dome Righad’ on a piece of blank ocean.

But the map doesn’t end merely with the world. It shows a blank stretch of stars, and there’s an X up there, too...]

[vanitying]

[Reading over Fabian's shoulder, with an expression that could only really be described as 0_0, before he looks away, sliding glasses up and pinching the bridge of his nose.]

... I need a drink.

[... Taking a minute to write all of this down in a notebook, first.]

Kid, gimme that scroll.

[sharkbites]

[Fabian will be prying the scroll away from the body and handing it over to Ichiro!]

[vanitying]

Thanks.

[Putting it away in a safe place!]

Ready?

[sharkbites]

[Fabian moves toward the staircase!]

[floatingplot]

[Up the staircase is a half-lit gate. It clearly requires more magical power.

There's a closed door on this level, over there.]

[vanitying]

[Looks at the door.

Looks at the gate.]

... Looks like we found our way out. Any ideas?

[sharkbites]

Gate needs more juice. Maybe in the other room?

[vanitying]

Maybe. Go check, I'm gonna try something.

[Fishing around in his coat for something -- a knife, and experimentally cutting his finger.

If he's got magnetite for demons to use, maybe it'll charge the gate a little too. Kind of smearing it on there and looking for a change in the status.]

[floatingplot]

[Oh, yes. It charges a little off that.

You're going to need more blood, a lot more, though.

...And uh, Fabian. Remember that supernatural hunger? It suddenly kicks in with a vengeance with the scent of human blood in the air.]

[sharkbites]

[Oh fuck no if Fabian had anymore sanity he'd be cursing you Ichiro HE SAID HE WAS A FUCKING SHARK

Last ditch attempt to salvage this situation -- by bashing his own head against the wall, repeatedly. He is not going to be a cannibal here nope.]

[vanitying]

Shit --

[Oh

fuck that was a thing wasn't it

SORRY BRO I GOT DISTRACTED BY THE GATE

Putting that finger in his mouth to get the remainder of the blood from the wound out, and running on over to the other room.]

[sharkbites]

[Fabian just keeps bashing his own head against the wall, until he bleeds, then --

Well, he's out, slumped over.]

[floatingplot]

[In the other room are crystals, mostly charged.]

[vanitying]

[Grabbing as many of those as he can, then coming back to the gate! Then putting them down -- first, he needs to pick Fabian up and throw him over his shoulder, in case something happens at the last minute.

Then he tries charging the gate with some of the crystals.]

[floatingplot]

[Ding, you're through!]