No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering.

[reddosmod]

NOVEMBER 2021 EVENT

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Red mushrooms with white spots growing rapidly.]
[Image Two: Mushrooms on log with morning mist. ] Within Prompt: Orange mushrooms walking on small, greenfeet. Jellyfish-like mushroom with mini-mushrooms growing on top. Vine-like mushrooms with clear heads. Blue mushrooms.

Prompt Two
[Image One: Corpse pinned to chainlink fence with man standing in front.]
[Image Two: Limbless, headless, semi-naked bloody bodies wiggling in walls.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Disfigured humanoid with skin stretched over eyes and chattering, exposed teeth.]
[Image Two: Large organ-like structure pulsating with a human head attached on top via metal contraption.]

[NAVIGATION]

Prompt 1 • Prompt 2 • Prompt 3 • Plotting • Newsletter

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

MUSHABOOMING

WHEN: Month of November
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Poisonous mushrooms that induce paralysis and suffocation and violent hallucinations.

---

Come November, Trench is flourishing with a wide variety of mushrooms. Mushrooms can be found growing in the woods, around your house, and maybe even on your house if you're especially lucky...Or unlucky, depending on the type of mushroom.

The mushroom is considered to be arguably the most important food source in Trench. It's the easiest to find and grow, and one of the easiest to harvest. It's a dependable source of protein and can fill people up. They are filled with vitamins that directly help your blood and heart health and can help keep your digestive system on track. But not everyone is a mushroom farmer and most Trenchies wind up foraging for their own mushrooms. Woven baskets are sold just about everywhere to help forage. Omens are extremely good at scenting out edible mushrooms.

The following edible mushrooms can be found/grown throughout Trench: button, portobello, cremini, oyster, chanterelle, porcini, black trumpets, morels, enoki, shimeji, shiitake, and giant puffballs. If you are extremely lucky, you might even find rare truffles. Truffles can be exchanged for highly valuable goods such as magnificent jewels and specialized weapons. Or you can keep the truffles to yourself and use them in a nice dish.

It is said there are hundreds of unique species of mushrooms to Trench. The following mushrooms are permanent features in Trench and can be found most commonly during Bone Season:

WALKING TERRORS

These parasitic mushrooms seem to "walk" around the forest floor. Arcane scholars have determined that their motion is actually just a natural response to stimuli in the environment and helps the fungi to spread its spores onto living hosts. Once you have been exposed to a cloud of these spores, you will immediately begin to hallucinate the world around you warping into a terrifying hellscape. Some say that Walking Terrors have driven people to beasthood in a matter of minutes. But there is a huge benefit to finding Walking Terrors: their caps, once dried and crushed down, are an ample treatment option for corruption. The tricky part is actually getting them. Covering your entire body, head to toe, completely is one way of avoiding the spores and probably the easiest way. Does anyone have a hazmat suit? Another option is knowing a darkblood or someone with similar abilities who can manipulate the direction of the spores in the air by pushing them away. Once the caps have been removed from the rest of the mushroom, the spores seem to lose their nightmarish quality and, at most, will just make you sneeze.


FLOATERS

These mushrooms come out exclusively at night and float lazily through the air. They bob and bump around, their tentacles searching for something to cling to and settle on. They mostly search for tree branches but have been known to accidentally cling to animals and people. The tentacles paralyze any sentient being it lands on. The good thing is that the cap and the little mushrooms on top are completely harmless to touch so if you have a buddy around, they can pull them off with no problem. You'll regain the ability to move your body a few seconds after the tentacles have been removed. The paralytic quality of these tentacles do not impact vilebloods. These mushrooms dried out and cooked are said to amplify electric abilities in coldbloods for a short moment of time. They can also be used to enchant an item with paralytic properties.


WEEPERS

These rare mushrooms can pop up just about anywhere. Only one grows every hundred feet or so and they don't get any bigger than a penny. Weepers are highly sought after since they have been known to greatly reduce corruption. Consuming a Weeper raw will immediately calm someone down, get rid of any current anxiety, wash away depression and paranoia, and clear the mind of hallucinations. Weepers can sharpen the mind and help increase focus. The effect lasts for days and sometimes even weeks. It isn't a permanent cure but it sure beats having a panic attack. Weepers can be collected and saved indefinitely. There are no other uses for them than mental relief, and they must be consumed raw. Cooking a Weeper will get rid of its healing properties - but it does add great flavor to a dish! If a mentally stable person eats them, there will be no effect.


BLUE CHEEKS

These radiant mushrooms grow in clusters on healthy trees and seem to thrive among vegetation. You might find Blue Cheeks in your own garden. They are certainly pretty, but you don't want to eat these. They will cause you to slowly suffocate - even if you don't typically need to "breathe" in the traditional way. It's an agonizing way to go. Your body will start to experience micro-seizures as it locks up, your throat slowly closing up, lungs squeezing inward. It will begin to feel like someone is sitting on your chest and there will be no relief. Your cheeks start to turn blue. Most who eat Blue Cheeks wind up dead, but if someone forcibly makes you vomit shortly after consuming a Blue Cheek, you may be able to survive. Some harvest Blue Cheeks and smash them up to coat their weapons in the jelly-like substance. This substance causes the same effect but must be used while the Blue Cheek jam is still wet. It will stay wet for an hour.

THE SLEEPER FARM

WHEN: Month of November
WHERE: Everywhere + The Sleeper Farm
CONTENT WARNINGS: Kidnapping, claustrophobia, harvesting blood/organs, imprisonment, temporary nerf of powers, blood sacrifice, brief amnesia, confusion, loss of time, breathing in blood, treatment of humanoids(?) like livestock, themes of meat markets, themes of torture, mutilated corpses, mutilating injuries.

---

The blood pollution is thick this month and the more a Sleeper is exposed, the more a Sleeper will find themselves falling into a strange stupor. You seem to forget what you were doing, where you are, what time it is. You will find it increasingly difficult to use your blood powers. Some may lose their new abilities entirely. It's like trying to wake up from a deep dream, everything's sluggish and hazy.

Then you blink. That's all. Maybe you went to sleep or wash your face. When you open your eyes again, you're somewhere else entirely and have no recollection of how you got there. Your body has a deep ache, you're filthy, hungry, and feel like it's somehow been days. You have nothing on you except a drab red jumpsuit. No shoes. No Omni. No weapons.

THE STALLS: 1st FLOOR

If you're lucky, you wake up in a stall with another Sleeper (or more). You can hear and feel the dull vibration of heavy machinery chugging around you; you can smell oil and something thick and musty fermenting.

You are in some way restrained upon waking, whether through shackles to the wall, one another, or some other means. Whatever put you here doesn't want you to escape. You can barely access your powers (for now), but maybe you can find help in nearby Sleepers.

Once you escape, you almost wish you had stayed in your stall. The stalls are the only thing that's farmlike about the Sleeper Farm. It's an architectural masterpiece of steel pistons gyrating, metal staircases heading in every direction, steam-powered doors that exhale open upon an approach. Oil drips continually from above, like filthy rainfall, but every now and then, so does blood of all kind. Never enough to detect the source immediately though.

Your only real option left is to...explore. And this metal palace is huge. You will find various tools for construction around: wrenches, hammers, saws, nails, anything you'd find at a hardware store. You could come across workboots, protective gloves, helmets with lights. The metal around you is boiling hot, and if you're not careful, getting burns is all too easy. You can hear something banging around above. You may even see movement through metal slots of humanoids rushing away. Then you start to find the source of the blood...

STORAGE: 2-9th Floors

Sleepers have been strung up in various locations. Maybe they are ones you recognize, maybe they are you (if you're unlucky enough to wake up like that), or maybe they are completely foreign to you, maimed beyond recognition. Many have been pinned up and mutilated in some way, whether fully skinned and bled dry, or body parts removed, skin carved into. Some have buckets beneath them to collect blood while others seem to have been decoratively destroyed. There is no saving some, but there is saving many. Some might have only just been strung up, still alive, still fully intact, and without any harm done just yet...But no matter what, most won't remember how they got there.

The further you go, the more bodies you come across. Some bodies have been rolled up into bags and tossed into empty rooms in piles. The floor is slick with blood, and the metal maze becomes increasingly complex with tighter turns and thicker blood pollution. It becomes difficult to breathe without ingesting in some kind of blood - but on the other hand...Your powers begin to work because of it. You can start to feel it coming back to you. You can feel yourself slowly start to regain your strength. Which is probably for the best, since you're not out of this hell just yet.

BLOOD HARVEST: 10th Floor

You enter a perfect, circular room built out of pure bloodstone from the different blood types, neatly flushed together in a mesmerizing display of artistry and architecture. At the center of a room is an enormous golden statue of The Tower, hands held out with palms open.

Filling the palms of the statue and surrounding the base of the Tower are hundreds of organs, perfectly intact, given to the statue in sacrifice. The miraculous thing, however, is the fact that most of the organs still seem to be functioning - or at the very least, they aren't rotting the way they should be. It isn't something one wishes to look at for too long.

More importantly, are the five doors that represent the five different blood types. Each door is made from the same gray wood, but with a single bloodstone in the center. Beyond the door is where you come to discover the true horror of where you are.

You're in a Sleeper Farm. Sleepers have been organized by blood types into a vast room. Some cannot be saved, opened up on tables, their organs already carved out and given over to the sacrifice. Others are still alive, but hooked up to tubes, their blood being pumped into vats kept in the ceiling. More disturbingly are the bodies of Sleepers that barely look like Sleepers at all anymore - they have been stripped so thoroughly of everything, left like hunks of meat on hooks. There are fires stoked towards the back, with shelves of jars with blood vials and bloodstones.

It's probably time to wonder who did this to you. Who brought you to this place?

And probably how the hell you get out.

QUICK FACTS

1. To avoid this prompt, you can simply handwave your character getting lucky or Wearing a gas mask and full facial/bodily coverage to help keep the likelihood of blood pollution impact lower.

2. If characters don't have eyes, any variation of vulnerability will count (ie; turning away from something, putting on headphones, etc).

3. Characters cannot have their Omni or any other item in this prompt except items they find along the way. They can still summon their Omens. Omens can help guide Sleepers, and provide communication. One can use Omens to transmit messages to the Network. However, characters cannot find their way to this location from outside. This is a by-chance location.

4. You can choose your character's level of restraint (muzzles/handcuffs/etc) and how easily they can escape them (maybe the shackles can be broken apart with enough strength or you need a nearby key).

5. Those whose Patron is the Tower will be able to more easily navigate the Sleeper Farm and figure out its continually moving parts. They may get a "telepathic" swaying by the Tower to go in the right direction. They will also instinctively know that they are inside the Tower's body in some way.

6. Characters can wake up in any part of the Tower and experience this prompt multiple times.

7. To get out, one must sacrifice some sort of blood or an organ directly to the Tower whether their own or someone else's. This will transport a Sleeper back into town in a random location. Alternatively: Moon Presence will be saving Sleepers by "pulling" them out of this place at random. It will feel a lot like traveling through the lamps, but Sleepers will realize it's the Moon Presence instead. She will place them back in their homes. This can be done at any time.

8. This prompt is meant to go hand-in-hand with the third prompt, but it is not required to engage with both.

BLOOD CRAZED ZEALOTS

WHEN: Month of November
WHERE: ???? Everywhere and the Sleeper Farm
CONTENT WARNINGS: Severe disorientation, psychological horror, paradoxical horror, feelings of being trapped/lost, Cenobites/beings with extreme bodily modifications, themes of mental and physical torture.

---

You are not alone in the Sleeper Farm, and someone powerful has brought you here. It wasn't the Tower though. It was someone obsessed with the Tower. Or...obsessed with blood.

They lurk throughout Trench, never letting themselves be known until they want to be known. They abduct Sleepers in the blink of an eye, masters of reality-bending and experts of blood abilities.

Meet the Blood-Crazed Zealots.

Or, as you will come to learn through various interactions, ancient Sleepers who have been exposed to blood pollution for far too long and who have been completely corrupt by it. These are masters of their blood magic, darkblood magicians who can snap their fingers and rip a Sleeper off the streets. Palebloods who can make you forget who you are, where you are. Vilebloods who have mastered the exact skill of extracting blood and harvesting it for bloodstones and sacrifices. Warmbloods who have gladly given their bodies up to power the Tower. Coldbloods who keep the metal machinery of the Sleeper Farm running perfectly.

These are the Sleepers who learned to survive in a different way, Sleepers who learned to cohesively blend their skills together to not only survive but excel. Most have completely disfigured themselves, claiming it to be an act of religious commitment to the "Patron Pthumerians that guide us."

The Blood Crazed Zealots believe that they must continually sacrifice Sleepers to the Tower primarily in order to keep the city of Trench strong against corruption. And the thing is...They technically aren't wrong. The Bone Season is when Trench becomes the weakest, so the Blood Crazed Zealots work overtime to get the blood pumping into the streets.

These beings are naturally sadistic, uninterested in compassion. Yet they show the potential for what Sleepers could learn, and if you're clever enough, you may even be able to get a Blood Crazed Zealot to pause and teach you a thing about your own blood type. They are ruthless and powerful, but far from irrational or stupid. Corrupt they may be, senseless they are not.

Some of you may wake up to one of these creatures torturing you or torturing a friend. You may catch them in the streets of Trench, turning a corner, and that may be your chance to follow them into the Sleeper Farm by stepping into the black holes they leave in their wake when teleporting.

The Blood Crazed Zealots can summon hooks from nowhere and snare you in their traps. They can get extremely creative and oftentimes will enjoy dragging out the agony. They know how to drain Sleepers of their blood and their powers...So how is one to even combat one of these?

Use their own game against them, of course. Blood is power and you might as well use yours. Blood Crazed Zealots are tied to their word and obey the law of the blood. If you create a blood oath with one of these Blood Crazed Zealots that's just clever enough, you may be able to protect yourself and a few others. But be careful. Blood oaths with Blood Crazed Zealots can have loopholes. Ask to be set free and they might let your body go, but keep your mind to drive you insane.

Despite their power, they are still limited in what they can do. They can't be everywhere at once, and one can hide from them. They can even be killed if a Sleeper properly regains their strength.

QUICK FACTS

1. You can create your own variation of a Blood Crazed Zealot. Their general concept is inspired by cenobites, but the general concept is a humanoid-being who looks like they have sacrificed a good deal of their body.

2. They will communicate this information openly to Sleepers who ask about it as well as tell Sleepers about other lore and facts about blood types/the Pthumerians.

3. Their powers are based on regular blood type powers (ie; a coldblood BCZ could torture people with electricity.) Some are much weaker than others.

4. They would not accept a new Sleeper who wanted to become "one of them" since they are created after decades of exposure to blood pollution.

5. People can run into these both in the Sleeper Farm and in Trench. One could convince a Blood Crazed Zealot to bring them to the Sleeper Farm in order to save others.

CODING

Comments

Kyle Broflovski | South Park (CRAU) | Darkblood | OTA

[kyley_b]

[All events take place after the 17th of November.]

I: There is a secret song at the center of the world...
CW: possible violent hallucinations in comments

Kyle has somehow appointed himself as "guy who’ll drop by with a casserole." His mother would be so proud. As such, he works to keep a decent supply of foodstuffs in his pantry and in his little garden. Noticing how many mushrooms grow in Trench, particularly in November, he has started growing mushroom picking fairly regularly, and has constructed a mushroom log in his backyard so that he can grow his own.

Besides the edibles, Kyle is particularly interested in two mushrooms this month: the Weepers and the Walking Terrors.

Harvesting the Terrors is dangerous, but Kyle had been told by some other Arcane Scholars that they were capable of treating corruption and they are more common than the Weepers. As such, it seems like a wise thing to have on hand, and so he’s determined to get some.

Boots, gloves, a thick face mask, goggles and a hat he’d wear anyway and he figures he’s set to try.

Even though his easily recognisable hair is covered up, he’s easy enough to spot by the orca whale that floats serenely through the air around him, when he’s in the woods. He won’t say no to company, or if you’re having a rough time because you touched a fungus you shouldn’t have he might be able to help.


II. ...And its sound is like razors through flesh.
CW: Cenobites/beings with extreme bodily modifications, themes of mental and physical torture, mention of violent death.

Kyle is intimately acquainted with what the Blood Crazed Zealots can do. He’s just not sure how they do it.

You can find him in the Archive, reading up on the Zealots or poring over books with titles like Penumbrae, Lux Haeresis, the Afflicted Mirror. His notebook is overflowing with scraps of paper, and he looks like he hasn’t been sleeping as much as he should.

You can also find him on the street. He isn’t looking for a Zealot, exactly, but when he sees one he doesn’t run.

Maybe you need help yourself, or maybe you’re just curious as to what kind of lunatic would square his skinny shoulders and start following one of these mutilated monsters.


III: Wildcard!

(Because you know I'm up for anything. )

I

[klawful]

Karkat was dressed for success in the field of mushroom hunting. Or at least he figured he was. In any case, he was ready to learn more about foraging and had found Kyle's location swiftly once he had left his cave. They hadn't exactly agreed on a time or place, but Karkat put two and two together and it doesn't take long at all for him to do that.

He's standing on a fallen tree nearby, hand on hip, sickle in the other, and he's staring around.

"Tonight's a good night for killing the shit out of a bunch of fungus," he states as an opener. Sorry if you haven't noticed him yet, Kyle. What is a normal greeting anyway?

[kyley_b]

One could be forgiven for thinking that a screech followed by "Jesus CHRIST, dude!" was actually Kyle's way of saying hello to Karkat. It tends to happen a fair bit.

He's already scowling before he can finish swearing, stomping over to the fallen tree to glare at his partner before he reaches up and gives him a hug. "You look cute."

He steps back, smiling under his mask. It shows in his eyes, though. He has his own sickle and a basket in which to put what they forage. "Okay, I've got a guide for what is edible, and I'll show you what they look like as we find em. I heard there's some that fucking FLY and we want to avoid those in general. If you see any walking? We want those, but we gotta be careful getting them."

[klawful]

"Kyle, honestly, your awareness skills are so bad." In Kyle's defense, Karkat was extremely sneaky. There is the slightest hint of amusement in his voice, suggesting he might be doing this on purpose at this point.

He smirks down at Kyle, both because he felt tall for once in his pathetic life, and because he loved getting one up on Kyle. He hugs him back, dropping down from the tree.

"You're biased," he points out, "Although I like to think I look badass as fuck. Cute is for puppies." He gestures towards Kyle with his sickle. "And you. Meaning. You look cute too."

He nods, eager to learn, but maybe more eager to run into some of these more challenging mushrooms. "How safe is it to cut them down? Or is there a certain way to do it?"

[kyley_b]

"You're sneaky!" Although Kyle does recognise now that he's woefully ill equipped for life in Trench.

"Badass as fuck, then."

Kyle nods. "Yeah. So, okay. I looked this up and talked to a few people at the school. The Walking Terrors, it's the spores that are dangerous. Hence the cool outfit. You really like the hat? I love the hat. Anyway."

He starts walking, eyes trained on the forest floor.

"If we pick the caps, the spores are safe. But they're likely to be everywhere before we can do that. So it's pretty important that we're dressed like this. Unlike a lot of Darkbloods I don't seem to have telekinesis, BUT I do have a fan in my basket so I figure we can literally use air to help reduce the amount coming at us."

He stops and changes course a little before kneeling. "Okay, sweet, these? Are porcini, which are like, really good in this one pasta I know how to make so we're gonna get these. So check it out."

He takes his sickle and shows Karkat how to cut the mushrooms at the base, then shakes them off a little and plops them in his basket. "Easy."

[klawful]

"That is true. It is an unfair equivalence." They would fix that. He smirks behind his mask at Kyle agreeing to his compliment and winds up standing a bit taller for it. Not literally - he was still short as fuck.

"Yes, I really like the hat. It's cool," he says, and he completely means it, reaching out to tug at it lightly. He liked to think he wasn't interested in fashion, but he had some mild form of taste and that hat was entirely in that realm.

He follows after Kyle, listening attentively. He at least knew about spores in general, even if not these ones specifically that he nods along. "I wonder if the spores impact all species equally?"

He probably wasn't about to test that theory...Except there was just enough curiosity in his voice to suggest that it was on the table in his mind. He kneels down next to Kyle, leaning over to watch him.

"Can I just..." He reaches out and slits at the mushrooms with his claws. They cut away easily enough and Karkat smiles at Kyle, his eyes squinting in the corners just slightly. "That doesn't fuck them up, do you think?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle is very fond of his ugly hats, so he's inordinately happy to hear that.

"I dunno," Kyle muses, and then looks at Karkat sharply. "And we are NOT testing!" He is already getting good at telling what Karkat is thinking because he's used to total dumbassery.

He beams. "No, that's perfect! Like this isn't rocket science, mostly you just want to not trample the ground unnecessarily. Jeez, you're so fucking useful." Which he means as a compliment.

"Okay, and you wanna get ones like these, with the caps opened up. If they're all like, buttoned up just leave em." He gestures to some of the smaller, rounder mushrooms.

"Cool, right? So let's just look for more. And if you see anything moving let me know."

Just a casual fungus date.

ii

[kingofsarcasm]

Well Kyle, it looks like they are two of a kind because that zealot you're following has also caught Stiles' eye. He also spends a whole ton of time in the Archives and anywhere he can research things here in Trench and wired on low sleep is his default setting.

It would be so easy to blame it on the sleep deprivation, but really, he's just willing to take risks to get answers. But he's not stupid about it, choosing to stay out of sight as he follows and then 'pssts' at Kyle from where he's standing behind a fully stocked vendor stand. He gestures with his hand for Kyle to come over to where he is and talk quietly.

"Over here."

[kyley_b]

Kyle looks up and over, then hurries over to Stiles.

"What the hell are you doing?" he hisses, eyes cutting back to the zealot. He doesn't want him to get away.

[kingofsarcasm]

Stiles also glances at the zealot real quick before answering in an equally hushed and urgent voice, "Same as you, but I'm willing to bet I've got a better plan."

[kyley_b]

"I really fucking doubt that, do you know what those things can DO?" Still, he doesn't run off, just stays beside Stiles. There is a chance the guy is secretly a genius or something.

"I want to get one talking. They're like us, or were once, and I wanna know shit that they know."

[kingofsarcasm]

"Nope, not a clue. I'm just stalking the Hellraiser cosplayers for a chance at a selfie," He scoffs and takes a peek at it again. He's not an Einstein but he's got a great head for strategy and detective work.

"I wanna get it talking too, but we need to get the jump on it and it's not a one man job. What sort of blood powers do you have?"

[kyley_b]

"You MIGHT be." But he doesn't believe that, not really.

"I fuck with time," Kyle replies. "If I want something it's like I can change something to make it happen. So it's not exactly a combat power, but for that I have a big fucking sickle." He eyes up the zealot again.

"What about you?"

i

[wwrench]

There really is something to be said about just not having a single fuck to give.

Some might call it depression, and perhaps they're not entirely wrong about that. Three years in Deerington is a long time to have to learn the lessons he probably should have in childhood. But it's hard to tell if that wisdom simply didn't stick, or if the way Wrench has found himself in Trench is one-part destructive tendencies.

Suffice it to say that where Kyle has found himself is near what Wrench might call his home. There's no landmarks to indicate as much -- not even a genuine structure to be seen for some distance. But the space is nestled into the crook just below an elevated mound that protects from the elements, and there's enough ground cover to hide most of his shit. (The motorcycle is about all he truly worries he might lose.)

He's presently stripping and snapping branches into a manageable pile of kindling, one knee to the ground and back huddled and almost too perfectly unaware of a tentacled mushroom drifting idly in the breeze on a path to intersect with his bare neck.

[kyley_b]

Upon seeing a big half guy crouched down in the woods, Kyle's first thought is, Oh God, I found Trench's cruising spot!

But no, he's alone. And snapping wood of a different kind. Kyle's going to just continue on his way when he sees the mushroom bobbing through the air.

"Dude, look out!"

Being behind Wrench, his cry does no good and he watches with shock as the mushroom latches onto the big man's neck.

Kyle hurries over and hunkers down. "Oh shit, it's cool, I'll get it off of you." Not that Wrench can read hus lips with the mask covering his face.

Carefully he wraps his gloved hands around the mushroom cap and tugs hard. It detaches from the tentacles, which lose their grip and fall to the ground a moment later.

[wwrench]

For better or worse, the only wild thing in these woods is the wildlife.

A fact which is about to be very much worse for Wrench. The tall man doesn't respond to the warning, but the mushroom certainly gets his attention when the tentacles fan out and grip the fleshy back of his neck. Wrench barely has enough time to lift his hand to swat it away before the agent takes effect. It's as though he's been suddenly cut off from his body. The sensation isn't terrible; in fact, it's barely anything at all. What's worst is the realization that he's very trapped.

And then he isn't. All at once, he feels the chill rushing back into his bones, and he gasps for air like he's just come up from underneath a frigid lake. Wrench strikes out, thrusting and kicking like he could make up for the mere moments of immobility by kicking and punching the aura of the air itself. Then he notices Kyle, and stops.

What the fuck was that?

[kyley_b]

Kyle barely avoids getting hit in the face by Wrench's flailing hands. He acks up, trips, and thumps down on his ass.

Kyle pulls his mask down. "Floater mushroom. They're paralytic." He looks to see if he's crushed the cap, sees he hasn't, and drops it in his mushroom basket.

"You okay?"

[wwrench]

Paralytic floater mushroom sounds about par for the course. Wrench rolls his eyes and turns up the collar of his jacket to leave less of his skin exposed to the elements. This is going to require a new approach, if he's got to worry about defending himself from floating attack mushrooms here in what's become his makeshift home.

He watches Kyle reach for the mushroom cap and comes close to slapping the young man's hand away. This strike doesn't make contact either, but when the mushroom seems to give him no trouble, he scowls curiously.

That question's kind of relative, isn't it? I'm fine. Despite his insistence, he shudders and bats at the back of his neck. What are you planning to do with it?

[kyley_b]

Kyle signs, sorry, because that one he remembers.

"Oh, I'm gonna dry it. This place is crawling with special mushrooms especially this season, and most of them have really dope properties. These ones are good for coldbloods, so I'll dry em and offer em to people. What I'm REALLY after are these tiny little guys who look like water drips, and these walking one-- oh DUDE. Dude, if you see walking mushrooms? Get the fuck away, the spores are SUPER dangerous, they make you hallucinate. That's why I'm dressed like this."

Kyle looks around. "...do you live out here?"

II - Library

[onerthes]

[She had managed to escape the tower once already, after a rather harrowing experience with those ... things. She wasn't willing to still call them humans, much less sleepers. One had sworn they were a sleeper, but that had only made her that much more disgusted...

Especially when they'd begun to rot like one.

She had come here, to the library. And, about the time he was reaching for the copy of the tome of witchcraft, hers was reaching for the Lux Haeresis as well. She paused and glanced over at him, raising an eyebrow.]

What brings you here, Kyle?

[kyley_b]

[Kyle jumps a little - he had been so focused on what he was doing that he hadn't even registered Vira-Lorr until they were both nearly face to face. He's a little twitchy, and he looks tired.]

Fuck! I mean, hi. Sorry, you startled me. [He taps the book.] I was getting some research materials. I see you're doing the same, heh. You wanna share it? I just need to take some notes and stuff, I'm pretty sure I can just skim it to find what I want. I have a table!

[He gestures toward a table set close to a display of pinned insects.] You wanna join me?

[onerthes]

[She smiled reassuringly over at him when he jumped like that, laughing very softly and reaching over to pat his shoulder.]

Easy there. Don't get too wound up. We're safe here. the library is almost always safe... almost always anyway. I'd be happy to share, but I'm curious why you're looking into cults and witchcraft?

[As she said it, she took the book in question, moving to join him at the table.]

[kyley_b]

I haven't seen anyone dangerous in it yet.

[Kyle carries the book over to the table. He has a pile there already - some are leatherbound and ancient and some are just ragged paperbacks.]

Well, a lot of it is related to some stuff I've been trying to learn more about, and now it seems really important to. Stuff about, uhm, will and intent, and language. I could bore the shit out of you with it.

[He sits down with a little sigh. He isn't half as cheerful as he usually is. He's almost grim.]

...and I want to know about the Sleeper cult here. The one where they feed the city blood. You know what I'm talking about?

[onerthes]

Yet. [She managed a snicker, coming over with him and setting the book down.]

Will and intent? Are you attempting to learn the process of magic? Those kinds of tones are pretty common to that language in Earthly magic at least. [Her own had been a bit more refined and practical.]

.... yes, I'm familiar with it. I was attempting to see if there were references in history books. They remind me of the Disciples, if the Disciples were truly deranged.

[kyley_b]

Yet. [A tired smile.]

Yeah, basically. It seems to be a practical method to tap into my powers.

Yeah. Deranged and deadly powerful. [He looks a little paler as he talks.] But they WERE like us, once. That I know. And I know what they do to people. But there's got to be more.