kaisou | Intro log

Entry tags:

hunter

Intro log

WHO: Hunter and open!
WHERE: The labyrinth, followed by the city.
WHEN: Early February.
WHAT: Hunter arrives and gets his bearings.
WARNINGS: Likely mentions of a toxic familial relationship.

[Hunter has walked through these halls enough times to know when something is off, and here, right now, he knows something is off. The walls, the columns, the floor - they look worn down, old. Not meticulously buffed and cleaned as one would expect of the Emperor's castle. The hall is empty aside from himself, though that isn't surprising at this time of the night. When it's this late the only people around are the night guards, so he disregards that in favour of focusing on his surroundings. He's suspicious, immediately on his guard.

He doesn't come upon the statues until he's a bit further down, but they immediately jump out at him, too. These aren't decor he's seen before, and - well, they're unnerving, because they look like him. Not him-him, Golden Guard-him, and they look far shinier and polished than the rest of the hall. This is weird and wrong and there's many of them stretching down the hall, around the corner, that he can only freeze and stare for several seconds.

This is Kikimora doing some illusion to mess with him, right? Right. It has to be, there's no other reasonable explanation, and clinging to that answer he turns and storms down the hall, the gears in his mind working to come up with some way to get her back. He turns the corner, and then another and another, and those statues aren't ending, and they're making Belos' words bubble up in his mind as he walks.

It would be such a hassle to find a replacement.

He hates that he doesn't have his artificial staff. He hates that he can't bring his palisman out, it's too dangerous.

He's at the end of his rope by the time he finds a doorway and, not bothering to pause and weigh the risks of going through an obviously unknown door. He's feeling far too frayed at this point, and he barrels through it to find himself... somewhere.

A city. A very bizarre-looking city, with wide streets and no sign of any Titan corpse towering overhead. This definitely isn't the Emperor's castle.

Hunter stares, utterly bewildered. Thankfully, it's late enough that there aren't many people around, giving him time to hurriedly get his helmet on. Once he does he turns back to the door, only to find it gone.

Great, wherever 'here' is, apparently he's stuck until he can figure out how to get back. Unless, of course, this is more illusionary work from Kikimora, which he wouldn't put it past her. She hates him enough to ambush him with a trap like this, something that'll try to kill him like that handdragon before. Best to keep his guard up, in that case, and he curls his hands into fists before turning and heading down the sidewalk, very much looking someone who just walked out of a LARPing session.]

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[Hunter is having a whole time so far. All of this looks familiar in the vaguest sense of 'a city', but aside from that it looks so completely different from the Boiling Isles that he's thrown off-kilter.

Especially when what appears to be a human approaches him. The ears are unmistakable, after all. That can't be right though, there is a grand total of one human in the Boiling Isles and she broke the portal between the two realms. That's why he stops, staring from behind his mask, and decides to ignore that question.

Because things aren't alright. Not at all.]

You. You're human, aren't you?

[... Okay, well, that's an interesting question. That's either a point in favor of off-worlder or "particularly committed LARPer."]

I am, yes. [He pauses.] Did you just get here?

[That... that is not good. Not good at all. Someone is messing with him, surely?]

Yeah, sure, let's call it that. [It's hard to keep the impatience out of his tone. Kikimora, this is probably Kikimora trying to kill him again, or something. Some stupid elaborate plan of hers.] Where's 'here' supposed to be?

Kaisou, it's a city in the United States, on a planet called Earth. I don't know how much of that means anything to you.

[Possibly none of it! Hell if Kakyoin knows!]

You're not the first one to stumble out into the city from... elsewhere, if it helps.

[Most of it doesn't. 'Earth' is vaguely familiar, something he's sure has been used in relation to the human realm... if that's the case (and he has a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that it is), that's terrible news.

He's quiet for several moments, trying to sort out his thoughts. Right now it's a whole jumble of he needs to figure out where he is, he needs to figure out how to get back home. He can't disappoint Belos, not again.

His entire posture is tense when he speaks up again.]

Who else has? Give me names, human.

[Kakyoin's also quiet, letting the other collect his thoughts.]

There's a family called the Madrigals, and a guy named Amal, but there's more that I don't really know? [There is also Suzume, but he's pointedly leaving her out because he doesn't really want this guy bothering her.] That being said though, I think it'd be easier if I just... took you to the Zodiac building. They're the ones providing housing for off-worlders in the meantime. Would you like for me to do that?

[Those names aren't familiar to him, and he can't decide if that's a good or bad thing. They could still be from the Boiling Isles and just be complete nobodies, he isn't sure. Either way, it doesn't help.

The Zodiac sounds likes his best bet, as sad as it is. Maybe he can find someone there who can tell him how he can get home.]

That doesn't sound totally useless. Fine, let's go see this Zodiac place. What's their deal?

[He motions for the other to follow as he starts walking.]

Their primary thing is research on the Spirit Realm--which, you likely stumbled out of one of those gates if you're here--but, ah, I'm pretty sure it's mostly if not entirely for profit.

[There's an exasperated mutter of something that sounds like "capitalists" before he continues.]

But they tend to know the most about whatever's going on, unfortunately enough, so they're probably your best bet. At some point they've got to figure out a way to get off-worlders home, I'm pretty sure.

[And then something occurs to him--]

By the way, what should I call you?

[Hunter will quickly follow, trying to not look around too much. His eyes dart around behind his mask though, taking everything in. It all looks so.... put together. Not falling apart, or cobbled together like most places in the Boiling Isles.

He's got one pointy ear on Kakyoin's explanation the entire time, though as he goes on Hunter's pace slows. Try as he might, he can't really deny the obvious facts that are being laid out for him: He's in the human realm. He's in the human realm, not the demon realm, and it isn't the Day of Unity and he's here without Belos and there's no way for him to get home and he's screwed up so bad -

Hunter sucks in a deep breath. He needs to leave. He needs to leave right now. It takes him several long moments to respond, because he desperately wants to collapse right now.]

The Golden Guard. The head of the Emperor's Coven and the right hand of Emperor Belos, of the Boiling Isles.

[Kakyoin's paying close attention to Hunter as they walk along, and as Hunter's pace slows, so does his.

He doesn't stop completely, but his pace has slowed considerably by the time Hunter introduces himself. Approximately none of that title means anything to Kakyoin, of course, but it certainly sounds impressive.]

Coven... like a group of witches? [Of course that's the part that grabs his attention.

... But wait, that's not the important part here!! He clears his throat a little.] ... Tenmei Kakyoin. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.

[It's nepotism at its finest! Though to be fair to Hunter, even though he doesn't have magic himself he's still a prodigy at it.

Also, he doesn't particularly care at this guy's name, though he does at least make sure to remember it. Despite everything else going on in his mind.]

Witches and demons. There normally aren't any humans in the Boiling Isles.

[It really is interesting how different other worlds are.

Which is a sentence Kakyoin never really imagined himself thinking before--he would've dismissed such claims as ridiculous prior to January. And demons? Forget it. But everything that's happened in the past month... Well. It's all a little easier to believe now.]

What are the Boiling Isles like?

[He doesn't know if it'll help to get this guy talking about his home at all (if this guy even answers), but Kakyoin can't help his curiosity.]

[Ugh, he doesn't really feel like answering that, but regardless of where he is he has appearances to keep up. He doesn't try to stop the smarm from dripping into his tone.]

Lands born from the flesh and blood of a fallen Titan. The magic from the corpse was so potent and dangerous everything on the islands evolved to wield magic. [And with additional forced snark:] Humans like you don't stand a chance there.

[Witches, demons, and titans, oh my.

Kakyoin pays close attention as Hunter speaks. He can't help but snort at the last part, though.]

I mean, considering I was pretty normal until about a month ago, I can imagine.

[Well, that gets his attention. It's a pretty weird response to that information on the Boiling Isles, and it's interesting enough that he decides to focus on it instead of fighting a breakdown over his current situation.]

What are you talking about?

Okay, so.

[... He's not going to talk about the memories, that's just too weird to address at the moment, especially what with there only being fragments, but the other stuff...]

I've lived my whole life with nothing particularly strange happening to me, but about a month ago, when my family moved here... Well, I imagine hair suddenly changing colors is nothing terribly impressive to you, but... [He tugs at the largest of his bangs.] I used to have black hair, not red. And over the course of the last month...

[He pauses, digging some loose change out of his pocket, then opens his hand to show Hunter.]

I couldn't do this before, either.

[He lifts the coins with telekinesis, letting them hang in the air as he puts his hand back in his pocket.]

[His mask tilts upwards as he examines Kakyoin's hair. He's had experiences with a grand total of one (1) human so he doesn't really have a baseline for normal for them, so he'll take the guy's word for it that this hair colour is unusual.]

I've seen weirder hair than yours.

[His own is platinum blond which yeah, not as outrageous as bright red, but there are the Blights with their distinct sewage-green hair, and he's pretty sure that mess on Kikimora's head is also a big hand? Yeah, that is weird.

Anyways, his attention moves to the apparent magic. That's way more interesting than hair.]

Levitating things. You're not using glyphs to do that? [Luz needed glyphs to do any magic, and he needs his artificial staff. This is bizarre.]

The fact that it changed at all was the weird part to me.

[But that's neither the important nor interesting thing. He makes the coins form a circle in mid-air.]

Nothing of the sort, no. I can't lift anything bigger than a pen like this, but it's something.

I guess it would be, if you didn't dye it yourself.

[Through... normal human means....

Actually, he isn't even sure if that's something humans do.

He straightens up. This is bewildering and the bafflement in his voice betrays him.]

Humans can't do magic without glyphs. You don't have the right anatomy for it. [What's worse, this is way more than anything he can do on his own.] If you're not using glyphs and you don't have a bile sac, how are you doing that?

Yeah, exactly. Which I didn't... would've stood out too much in the place I lived last.

[He holds out his hand again and the coins drop into it.]

It's just like... reaching out with my mind and moving them around. I don't really know how I'm doing it, just that I can. I can... let you know if I figure out how, though? Or if anything changes.

Not many redheads there?

[He's curious, shut up.]

Yeah, do that. [Not that he expects this to change his own situation, but maybe it'll help Belos, somehow.] Even the smallest change might be useful information.

Not really, no. And standing out because of it... ehhh. Not a fan.

[He nods.]

I will, then. [He's quiet for a bit, but then--] And there's the Zodiac building. If you need anything in the meantime, I can give you my contact info just in case?

Makes sense.

[Sticking out like a sore thumb isn't the greatest feeling, as he's been learning.

Contact info? He really, really doesn't want to be here long enough to need it, but on the other hand, it might be helpful to have someone he can send questions to.... so he hesitates a few moments, then nods.]

Alright, if you're offering it. Might as well.

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