Open Log

[not_a_possum]

WHO: Moxxie and OTA
WHERE: Undertown (both wandering around and in the Enki Education Center)
WHEN: The morning after his drunk post
WHAT: Moxxie looking for answers
WARNINGS: Will add as needed

Moxxie would like to say he remembered everything from the night before, but that would be a lie. However, recording his conversations did mean he only had to go back to check on his posts to catch up on everything...and, strangely, once he replays the conversations he'd had, he's grateful he drunk posted when he did.

Well, a sober post would have done the same thing, but Moxxie knows he'd have never been brave enough to post a video of himself while sober, but seeing that everyone else on this app seems to know about the supernatural...well, maybe that should change.

The knowledge that there are people out there who could help him and that there's hope that he could fix this gives him renewed vigor. Sure, he has a terrible headache and a bit of nausea, and he cringes whenever he has to look in the general direction of the light, but his renewed hope is enough to get him to push past all that. No longer is he assuming he'll just live in his apartment until the food runs out, only to go out and live the remainder of his life scavenging trash cans like a possum. Now he has a plan, a back up plan, and a whole future ahead of him.

First he needs a doctor's note to send to the university's main office so he can save his job. Second, he needs to research and find a way to turn back. If that fails...well, there's a whole secret supernatural world out here, apparently, including an Education Center. If his life is ruined in the natural world, he can start everything over in this one.

That's why he can be found wandering around Undertown, asking anyone who might listen, "Hello, do you know where I can find the Education Center? Also, a doctor. I need a doctor's note for a my work. I'm not sick or anything, but I'm going through a supernatural...thing right now, which you probably noticed, and I'd like to find someone to help me with my cover story."

Though with how pale and nauseated he looks from his hangover, one might question whether he really isn't unwell.

Or maybe you find him later, sitting quietly in the education center, pouring over the books and looking frustrated. "...I'm not sure how to even start looking for this. What would 'how to turn back from a demon' even fall under?"

Comments

[not_a_possum]

"Oh."

He hadn't thought about the possibility that bullets would just not work on supernatural creatures.

"I...really might want to look into that, because guns are kind of the only way I could hold my own in a fight."

Which is a very fair assessment. After all, he has no experience in fighting in general and on top of that, he's small enough that he's currently wearing clothes he looted from a ventriloquist dummy.

[a_cute_batata]

"It still might hurt them, but I'm thinking of those things with either intangible abilities or really thick hides. That'd be much harder without getting some enhancements."

Luz was always going to try and think about worse case scenarios: after everything that had happened to her, she was beginning to understand that there had to be a plan within a plan.

"How are you with, uh, melee weapons?"

Still not Luz's preferred way of fighting, but she doubted he had magic up his sleeve.

[not_a_possum]

"Yeah, I'll definitely want to look into enhancements, then."

It's his primary means of defense, after all. He wants to make sure it'll work no matter what he runs into.

"Um...not very good. At all. I have no idea how to use melee weapons."

Sure, he could try, but he'd rather stick with what he's good at.

[a_cute_batata]

"I'll keep an eye out! I don't know anyone right off my head who does magical weapons, but there has to be someone like that here!"

With all that Zodiac was doing, Luz refused to believe that they weren't already starting to make arsenal for fighting if they ever needed to take something magical down for study.

"Oh. Well. Hopefully you'll get what you need to take them out from afar!"

She just hoped no enemy tried to catch him up close.

[not_a_possum]

He's glad to have a second set of eyes on this, even though he does intend to look into it himself. It shouldn't be too hard, right?

Well, maybe he shouldn't be too optimistic. After all, look at all the luck he hasn't had in figuring out how to turn himself back.

"Believe me, I hope so. And thanks in advance for keeping an eye out!"

[a_cute_batata]

There were weird things happening with the way magic seemed to work here, and as much as Luz wanted to go back to the Isles, she wanted to know what was going on with the people that regularly lived her suddenly starting to get flashes of "other" selves.

If there was a fraction of doubt that this would bring back HER Eda, that meant that for everyone else too that were "alternate" versions here. If they were somehow "edited," that made things way worse than expected.

"Sure, of course! Since this is impacting you AND your livelihood, Zodiac should be looking into this for you so you understand why its happening."

[not_a_possum]

"Oh. Yeah, you're right. They should be. Especially since it did happen right after their app showed up on my phone, so if it wasn't a barista witch who caused this, it's definitely their fault!"

And he will absolutely be bringing the problem to their attention.

"I mean, I don't trust them at all and will continue looking into this on my own, but I will absolutely be bringing this to their attention."

[a_cute_batata]

"Right! They should at least give you some meager compensation for your trouble. What are you supposed to do when you just wake up as a demon? You still need to make a living!"

And Luz had more than just a bone to pick with them, even if she didn't think they'd be having an audience with her anytime soon. She was JUST a kid after all, and Moxie at least had lived here longer than she had.

"You ought to! In both respects, actually. You need to be on top of all this, and you need to have a way to still make money in this city. I'm thinking you have an apartment and all that you have to upkeep."

[not_a_possum]

"Exactly! You can't just cut someone off from their job and everyone they know and think they'll be fine! Of course, that's probably exactly what they had in mind. I was told about how they hire us to get stuff from the spirit realm."

And what better way to ensure a new employee than to eliminate their ability to work in the mortal realm?

[a_cute_batata]

"Ugh, that's gross! You think they're making it so you're having to go fetch things for them? Can't these people go and find out all of this magic stuff without our help? Or is it because we can be grabbed from our world so easily they don't want to get their hands dirty?"

That idea felt so reprehensible to her that it was just setting off alarms all over the place. HOW was Hunter working for these people?

Oh right, Phillip.

"And how does having a memory of being a demon play into this? Are they implanting these memories so you're more likely to help? I really hope they can't do that."

[not_a_possum]

"I mean, I don't know for sure. I don't know it's their fault that I suddenly changed. I'm not totally eliminating the possibility that I was cursed by a barista. But I have heard about them offering money for people retrieving things from the spirit realm, and while I don't know if the people coming through from other worlds or people in this one suddenly changing is their fault...it definitely works in their favor when they want to recruit people. But I don't know if they're causing it or not."

After all, while he might suspect something like that is going on, he doesn't want to fully accuse them until he actually knows.

"And I honestly don't know. I really don't see how thinking I'm from another world would make any impact on how likely I am to help."

[a_cute_batata]

Luz had another theory, but it wasn't one she was going to say out loud, because it wouldn't be something Moxie would accept or like. She suspected that being a demon WAS his natural state, and it had been changed so he thought he lived in Kaisou. It hadn't escaped her notice that this had already been the case with Eda, Raine, Antonio and possibly others, so it was the thing that made the most logical sense to her.

But it was not something she thought would be easy to accept, not until there was more concrete evidence for the people involved.

"I don't get it either, but that's because I can barely make heads or tails from the things they've been doing, or why we go from a calm state to whatever weird psycho thing happens in the next cycle. All I know is that once we started arriving, that somehow affected other people who live here too, and the coincidence is too important to ignore."

[not_a_possum]

"I mean, I definitely don't think that's a coincidence. I'm sure whatever's causing one is probably causing the other, I just don't know how to figure out what's causing any of it."

Since he's new to all of this and has no idea how any of it works.

[a_cute_batata]

"That's the boat most of us are in, I think," Luz said, sighing. "And as far as I can figure, something new seems to happen every month, so it makes things even more confusing. Getting to the bottom of this is going to take a lot of work, and I just hope it's not as long as I think it's going to be."

[not_a_possum]

"Yeah. Well, I was already planning on spending a lot of time in the Education Center in Undertown, so...I guess I'll stick with that plan and hope I find something useful."

[a_cute_batata]

"All right, good luck then! I'd still launch a formal complaint if I were you though!"

[not_a_possum]

"Oh, believe me, I will."

[a_cute_batata]

"Good. Let me know how things turn out for you later, ok?"

Wrap it here?

[not_a_possum]

Will do!

You got it!

[a_cute_batata]