destinystrings | Slow Down, You Crazy Child

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Slow Down, You Crazy Child

Who: Maugris and Johnny for the first thread, then Maugris and OPEN
Where: A little restaurant in Virgo near the border with Libra, then wandering through the city back in the general direction of Pisces (so somewhere in Virgo, Leo, or Capricorn)
When: July 12th; just after nightfall, then during the 13th hour
Summary: Maugris finds someone he's got something in common with and has some dinner, then decides to see this whole 13th Hour business is about.
Warnings: Probably nothing in the thread with Johnny. 13th Hour threads will probably involve violence, possibly accompanied by foul language.

Maugris stepped off the tram, grateful that they ran as late as they did. He'd probably end up walking back... but considering his plans for the night after this, that might be just as well. He glanced around, and yes, there was the restaurant.

He really, really hoped this was the right move. But if this Johnny guy was Kindred, he might know if there were others in the city - and how things got managed around here. If he was really, really lucky, there might be some sort of system set up for getting ahold of blood without going after people at all. But he'd just have to see... hopefully they could talk privately enough to manage this.

Oh, well. Nothing for it but to find out. He took a deep breath, a habit he'd never quite shaken, and stepped into the restaurant.

---

Well, that had given him a lot to think about. Maugris whistled to himself as he headed back toward the apartment building. Slow down, you crazy child, you're so ambitious for a juvenile - but then if you're so smart, tell me why are you still so afraid?

He took his time, enough that he was certainly still out when the sky turned red and the buildings changed around him. His lips twisted a little - the changes were an unpleasant reminder of Metatropolis's fate - but he kept going, still whistling nonchalantly. When will you realize, Vienna waits for you? It was still a long walk back; time to see if he could entice something to come out so he could give this Persona thing a shot.

What turned up gave him a bit of a start - a little floating cape with a jack o'lantern for a head. "You're not one of the Pumpkin King's, are you?" he asked. "I don't even have his damn ring anymore." The Pyro Jack just laughed at him and twirled in a circle, and flames spouted from its lantern. Maugris dodged away, but not fast enough - the flames licked at his jacket, and he couldn't help but cry out as the flesh of his arm started to burn.

But the damage - though it was quite nasty - wasn't the worst of it. Vampires feared fire even beyond their ample reason to do so, and while Maugris usually managed to resist, this time the Beast's instincts were too strong for him. He broke and ran, running as fast as he could away from the source of the flame. But the Pyro Jack had found prey now, and it followed. So anyone else out and about would find a vampire deep in Rotschreck being pursued by a laughing Pyro Jack.

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The "Mrs. Pumpkinhead" line gets a skeptical look from Maugris, but hey, whatever works.

Any reasonable being would be happy to take the chance to escape when it was clear it was outnumbered and overpowered. A normal animal would have already turned and run after taking the worst beating of its life, especially since they in no way have it cornered - they're in the middle of a street, for God's sake.

Unfortunately, the Pyro Jack is neither a normal animal nor a reasonable being - it's a demon, and a quite aggressive and not exceptionally bright one at that. It sees two humans and a Persona - weird and very powerful humans, but humans nonetheless, and that means prey. It adjusts its torn hat and cracked lantern, squares what might possibly be its shoulders, and just outright swings the lantern at Maugris, but Malagi appears to be having none of it - it calls out "Rakukaja!" and a shimmering aura not unlike Lucas's shield blocks the attack.

Maugris nods his thanks to his Persona and starts chanting, casting a spell of his own - and another blade of wind tears another rent in the Pyro Jack's cloak. "I was afraid of that. I don't think this thing's going to be reasoned with." He sighs and looks back at Lucas. "Sorry, kid."

The boy closes his eyes for a moment and shakes his head slightly.

"Ah... It's OK. I try this a lot, but it never really seems to work..." He throws a slight, rueful smile in Maugris's direction as the light shining forth from his body intensifies. "Maybe I'm just not very charismatic..."

He turns back towards the Pyro Jack and speaks one more word, his voice dropping down to almost a whisper. "Sorry."

A few things happen at that point.

First, the familiar sound of cracking glass and the same flash of light that had just marked the arrival of Malagi is heard again. Before the boy appears the figure of a robed woman, head bowed and hands clasped around what appeared to be a globe. Lucas's face is frozen in an expression of shock as she turns back towards her summoner with a gentle smile.

"I am thou... Thou art I. From the sea of thy soul, I come. I am Homonoia, the goddess of concord..."

Second, as time catches back up with itself, the diamond patterns on Lucas's skin flash brilliantly, and a pure wave of... something erupts from his hand, surging towards the Pyro Jack - an attack of almost incomprehensible in form and substance. All that can be made out are cyan diamonds, flickering and darting through the air. Whatever it is, it probably doesn't bode anything good for the creature.

Lucas has stopped paying attention, though. His eyes are fixed on the woman before him, and his face is still frozen in place. She, in turn, appears to be stooping over, blocking his vision and preventing him from seeing the outcome of his attack.

"It's not your fault. This thing chased me-" Maugris stops abruptly at this point, because a Persona manifesting is the sort of thing that demands at least a moment's attention.

So is Lucas suddenly shooting bizarre energy at the Pyro Jack and sending it staggering back. He's definitely going to have to figure out what's going on with this kid... after the fight.

Whether Lucas can see it or not, the attack was well-aimed to begin with, and the Pyro Jack is too stunned by the appearance of a second Persona to dodge in time. The demon vanishes in a haze of sparks that look almost like pixels, not that Maugris is tech-savvy enough to make the connection. All he knows is that the thing finally went down. And he's just going to stand here for a moment and recover, because for one tiny little pumpkin thing that was a hell of a fight.

Lucas's surprise is slightly more exaggerated than one would expect from a simple manifestation of a Persona. He reaches a hand upwards to the woman standing before him - she responds in kind, and for a moment, their palms are pressed tightly against each other.

Then she vanishes, and Lucas is left staring at the remnants of the Pyro Jack.

"Homonoia..."

A few moments of silence pass before he shakes his head and quickly turns to Maugris.

"It's over... Are you OK?"

Malagi vanishes, too, disappearing back into... well, from what Maugris has been told, his Persona is in his head somewhere. Judging by the way they introduce themselves, he's beginning to suspect they live in one's soul when not in use. Which is nice proof that he has one, at least.

He sighs, sheathing his sword again. "I'm fine." He's not, he's still got that awful burn on his arm, but he doesn't want to worry Lucas. "Are you? I'm sorry you got dragged into that mess. You didn't have to help."

Lucas shakes his head slightly as he glances away.

"...Actually." A slight flush creeps over his face. "I... I was almost looking to fight something. I know I shouldn't have, but... I wanted to see about these Personas."

He would be a pacifist if he could, but experience had taught him that what pacifism didn't help anyone survive. There had been a sort of compromise involved - he would look for someone who needed help rather than searching for trouble on his own. Being the aggressor for the sake of something as selfish as learning about his Persona wasn't something he could accept, but he wasn't quite sure if this was much better...

"Are you really sure you're OK? I can just give you another heal if you'd like..."

Maugris sighs a little and adjusts his jacket, trying to make his state a little less noticeable. "I guess we're in the same boat, then - I was sort of looking for trouble, for the same reason. Though from what I've heard these things are mostly trying to cause as much destruction as they can, anyway."

He shakes his head, waving away the offer. "I'll be okay. I heal quickly. This should be gone in a couple of days." Though it's going to take a lot of power to do it... a stable source of blood is going to be a pain to figure out long-term, but if he's going to be healing and using thaumaturgy he'll need to do it. "Speaking of healing, though, I don't think I've ever seen someone do what you do. What is that, some sort of magic?"

The thought of what would have had to happen to a twelve-year-old to make him capable of pulling off the physical attacks Lucas had used on the demon is depressing, but Maugris doubts that conversation would go anywhere good. He still has to admire the strength of Lucas's convictions that he'd still try to talk an attacker down even after whatever he'd been through.

Lucas does not look especially convinced as Maugris waves his offer of help away, but he'll put it on hold for a moment or two as he attempts to explain.

"It's PSI. ...Um. Psychic power, I think you could say. I've heard of magic before, but I never thought it was real... Just something in stories and fairy tales. Is magic what you were doing just now - with the wind?"

It was perfectly possible that Kumatora had just skipped over aerokinesis for no particular reason when she had been learning her attack skills, but he had never seen any of his enemies manipulate the wind, either.

Maugris nodded. There wasn't that much point in trying to hang on to the Masquerade here, not when one of the first people he'd met had been a superhero and he was talking to a psychic. Though he was still a bit iffy on spreading the "vampire" thing around. "Yeah, that was thaumaturgy. Uh, basically the specific kind of magic I do. I don't think I've ever met a psychic before, not one who could do things like that." He did actually know a couple of seers, though. Genuine as far as he could tell.

"I can do shields, too, but you seemed to have those covered. I couldn't have blocked fireballs, anyway." He paused, feeling incredibly awkward about having this conversation with a twelve-year-old. "Uh. I'm Maugris, by the way."

"Thau..." Lucas pauses and decides that he had better wait until it wasn't past midnight to try and pronounce the word. "So a kind of magic... I've never seen anyone have that kind of ability, either. It was impressive!" He was, possibly, being a bit generous with his praise, given the kinds of things he had seen back home, but he was a generous sort of person.

"I can't read your mind or anything like that... I think that's what most people expect. PSI just means..." A short pause. How did you explain something that just sort of happened? Like breathing. "It means using your mind - your willpower - to... change things. Things that need a little bit of encouragement or that went wrong and shouldn't have. ...It's like holding your breath and waiting for air."

He was aware it was a terrible explanation, but it was the best he had to offer. "My name is Lucas. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Maugris." Another slight pause before he offers an embarrassed smile. "Do you think maybe we should go inside and talk? I don't really want to fight anything else tonight..."

"Thanks. It takes a long time to master, though, and it's not nearly as versatile as your PSI looks." If he could heal, throw up shields, and attack... to be fair, his Thaumaturgy was pretty versatile on its own, but it was still narrow, and relied on a finite resource.

"Nice to meet you, too, Lucas. But yeah, inside sounds like a good plan." With the force fields between them and any more flaming pumpkin-headed creatures. He should probably try and steer them toward Pisces, unless he wanted to either end up making a mad dash there later or explaining his condition to Lucas and forcing the poor kid to find a way to get a sleeping vampire there without a fatal suntan.

Something caught his eye in the rough area where the Pyro Jack had disappeared, though, and he stepped over to it and stooped down. "What in the...?" It was a pile of coins, each marked with a symbol - ħ, an h with a stroke through the stem. "It's like a game of D&D. Kill monster, receive cash. Don't know if this would even be any good, here - I think they just use yen, don't they?"

Lucas follows behind Maugris, peering over his shoulder and blinking in mild surprise. "...Oh. It's like Dragon Points. But I remember they said we have, um... things to trade with if we show them our card." The concept of money was still relatively foreign to him - virtual currency even more so. Lucas stoops down as well and pockets one of the coins, if only because it was a curiosity. "I wonder if he was out shopping..."

Did demons need human tools? He supposed a Pyro Jack would want to keep a ready supply of fire extinguishers.

"I live in, um... Libra, I think it was. The other apartment is closer, though, and they're connected..."

"Right, the whole thing's digital, I think." He shrugged a little, not sure why Lucas sounded so unsure, but he didn't bother to pry. Maugris himself was a little uncomfortable with the concept of money that was entirely digital, since he was used to living mostly under the radar, but he'd survive. "Well, I don't know if they can convert these or not, but I guess it's worth trying. If they can it's a little more leeway if getting a job takes some time."

What he was going to use the money for, if the government provided the apartments, was open to question. After all, it wasn't like Maugris ate much at restaurants. Still, it was nice to have money, just in case.

"Right, the portal. I'm in Pisces, and yeah, that's closer. Probably easier if we stick together and you take the portal once we get to the apartment."

"...Right."

Lucas doesn't move to pick up any more of the demonic currency, though; Maugris was welcome to the rest. His thoughts on money would probably be of interest for amateur sociologists and the like, but now was probably a bad time to bring up the evils of capitalism. With another nod, he glances at their surroundings and sheepishly smiles up at the man.

"Do you mind leading the way? I'm not very sure how to get there from here... It all looks a lot different this time of night."

Blood red was a slightly disorienting color to tint the sky.

Maugris scoops up a handful of coins and shoves them in his jacket pocket, but doesn't take the whole pile. It would take too long to gather it all up, and if they can't convert it he'll be stuck with a bunch of useless weird coins.

"Trust me, I know it does. Sure, though, I can lead the way." If Lucas had happened to look up, he might have noticed that the tram line is actually quite nearby - Maugris has been using it to navigate. He's pretty good at finding his way around cities, and he's been doing a little bit of exploring, though not in the 13th Hour up to now. He glances back and forth for a moment, working out just how far he's come since the last time before the fight that he was in full control of his faculties, then gestures down the street. "This way."

He trots along behind the man, maintaining a steady grip on the baseball bat just in case. His purpose for coming out tonight had been more or less satisfied - idle curiosity about what this '13th Hour' was really like had been almost as much a part of it as fighting a demon and awakening his Persona, and he wasn't terribly sure he had liked what he had been exposed to. If this was the kind of thing that happened on a nightly basis... Well, the citizens were apparently supposed to stay indoors, but still. There would always be a straggler here and there.

His sense of duty is strong. Had he not been out here tonight, he would have liked nothing better than to go home, but...

"Mr. Maugris? ...Um. You're new here, too, right?" What with the Persona awakening and all. "...What do you think about all of this? Demons and... things from our heads."

He shrugs a little. Maugris is lousy at handling emotional issues, especially other people's. "Easier than trying to handle demons without things from our heads. I've tried; demons are a pain in the a- in the neck. I'm still kind of creeped out by the fact that the government knew we were all coming, to be honest. But, well... I guess someone's got to try to save this place."

He rubs his neck absently. "I just hope we don't run into anything else that shoots fire. You might have noticed but I'm... not really good with fire." He reaches out and knocks on a tree as they pass. Probably not much protection from tempting fate like that, but it's worth a shot if anything is.

"...Are you afraid of it?"

Lucas is an extraordinarily precocious kid, but that doesn't mean he never acts like one. He asks the question without a trace of embarrassment, blinking solemnly at the man.

"I used to be, too. I was afraid of a lot of things, actually... But it's not so scary once you're a little more used to it." His best friend shooting flames at every opportunity had cured him pretty quickly.

"What I meant earlier though... Um. You don't mind staying around here and doing what they've asked us to do?"

"Um... basically, yeah. I'm usually fine with small flames, but big ones or being attacked with it take a lot out of me to resist running." Maugris sighed, running his hand through his hair. He was debating whether to explain to Lucas just what he was - but explaining vampirism and the Beast to a twelve-year-old who seemed to have been having trouble with the concept of money didn't strike him as a rewarding occupation.

He shook his head. "I don't really mind. I was planning on moving on from where I was before soon, anyway." The idea had been solve the problem in front of him, then light out - probably somewhere like Southern California. Of course, circumstances had conspired to make things happen otherwise. "Besides, I like helping people. And don't like seeing innocents get hurt."

"Hmm..." He frowns slightly at this explanation, not seeming to find it terribly peculiar. Most people probably would be afraid of being set on fire. "I used to have something to protect against fire, but... I don't think it came with me here." RPG equipment was nice that way. "I can take a look for you later when I get back to my room."

He gives a quiet nod of agreement to the next few words Maugris speaks. "I guess... I'm not so sure I was ready -- or if I should move on yet. I know time stops while you're here, but it still doesn't really feel right..."

"You don't have to, really. It's... uh, have you ever heard the word phobia?" He thinks he'd better check. "It basically means the fear isn't rational. I'm still going to be afraid of fire even if it doesn't burn me." It would help with just how badly Maugris seems to burn, but Maugris isn't going to steal the poor kid's stuff when he can just avoid the fire.

"I know what you mean, but I don't know what we can do to get out of here. I plan on finding out, but until then all we can do is live with it." He sighs; this isn't really great on the whole reassurance department, but Maugris is well aware he's lousy at that. "Trust me, if I find any way of having a chat with that guy in the butterfly mask, I'll let you know."

"Mm... I understand. It's like when people are afraid of a bug even though they're pretty harmless." Lucas pauses to glance up at Maugris for a moment. "Do you think it would help if you just had more practice? If you'd like, I can try and help with something like that - it would all be fake, but it would just feel exactly the same. Nothing bad would really happen to you."

He laughs slightly as Maugris attempts to be reassuring. "I guess that's a good point, too. People say you can go home, but... no one really knows how it's supposed to be done. ...Maybe that's some kind of sign." A sign of incompetence or something, anyway.

"Probably not, honestly. It's... kind of deep-rooted." Maugris really doubts therapy is going to work on the Beast. It's instincts and something resembling magic at the same time. "Thanks for the offer, but... things are probably better off with me just dealing with it."

He shrugs. "A sign? Maybe. But signs can mean just about anything; it's all how you look at them. I just know I do plan to figure out what's going on here... and to help these people, if I can manage it."

Exposure therapy works on everything surely if he set Maugris on fire enough times he would get used to it. Lucas didn't even really mind PK Fire so much anymore; it was Thunder that had the nastier bite to it. Still, he acquiesces to Maugris's refusal with a slight nod.

"It must be hard, living like this - you can't ever really be sure of being safe... At least at home, they never came into Tazmily..."

He could see the apartment building standing tall in the distance as they begin to draw near.

"If the only help they can get is people from other worlds... it's hard to say no, isn't it?"

"Yeah... at least they only come out in a certain time, though. So it's not like you can't ever go outside for fear of getting jumped. And they've got the force fields or wards or whatever they are to keep them out of houses."

He won't bring up the disturbing things he's heard about people occasionally going crazy all at once. No need to scare the kid even if it sounds like he's seen a lot.

"But yeah. It's hard to say no. Then again, I never could say no to people who needed help anyway." Which gets him into trouble less often than he'd usually expect it to. Usually trouble found him regardless.

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