Open All the World's a Stage

[Raylan Ramsey]

Foxface found himself in a curious predicament as he muled over one singular thought, letting his focus shift away from The Inverted hunt for a few moments. Even as he wanted to steal Aenisa's bird or ask Madeira Spoo' out for a tea date. Raylan found his attention sharply set onto the newest ghost that had approached them. Mainly because he realized that he knew nothing about ghosts. And since he knew nothing, Raylan took the moment to forge his ignorance into a sold opinion on the matter.

His fingers transitioned from the thicker to the slimmer ones on his mandolin, returning the song he played to its previous innocent lighthearted nature. He'd forgotten how it originally went, so strummed a few wrong notes until he found the correct cords by ear. "Hmm... I shall call this song, 'Mad for Singing'." He thought briefly, finding it to be a suitable name since everyone seemed mad about it.

"How do you become a ghost after death?"

It was the one silent question that he thought to himself as his lips pursed towards one side of his mouth underneath the mask. He thought about that question as Hurik was speaking to him. He found no reason to acknowledge the ghost. Mainly because, well... the thing did not exist. If it could not enjoy a drink or the pleasures of life, then it did not matter like a fly in the wind.

But as he continued to think about ghosts, he wondered if he could manipulate one like a normal living breathing being. Considering how... irked, most seemed to be by his music, Raylan decided to take a few steps back to watch the group converse with each other as he thought about a small 'trick' to preform.

He did roll his eyes at Lady Renee Kelling decision about not wanting a massage, considering that he knew he could give a very pleasant one. And so, stood back to learn more about the ghost that he wanted to test and as Hurik spoke to the two other women.

"Us fiery folk? Must mean he must like birds too..." Almost as much as he wanted to try and steal the bird out the girls bag, he figured he could use it in his experiment. He suspected that the Craven girl was spiritist due to her namesake, but took some interest in learning that she was possibly an insomniac or had reasons to not sleep. That offered him some insight into why the Spoon girl seemed to be so irritable upon first meeting him.

He fingered a D chordFor context, imagine a Row, row, row your boat sound. and strummed down on the four strings he pressed down, striking them with a constantly rhythmic stroke. As Raylan played, he could taste the feeling of Djed that he willed through his body to pull into his mouth, as if he'd drunken too much wine or salivated over delectable food and could taste the arcane within his taste buds.

Singing aloud, but specifically wishing to try and pull a trick on the male ghost.

"Do you think me mad for singing, apples and the hounds are tweeting. Swine and crow are here and beaming. Don't you think me mad for singing~"

Raylan played the song proudly while singing the song with a renewed vigor, this time trying to actually keep a steady tone, and sing in a bearably tolerable manner. All that djed that he'd pulled into his mouth were released through the words 'Swine and crow are here while beaming' that he'd sung.

He used his voice to deliver the hypnotic power of a Flash towards the ghost. Rayland wanted to test if it would effect the ghost, and aimed to have the bird loving male ghost experience a single moment of hallucination.

A flash where the ghost would see many dead falcons on the ground around it, falcons just like Aenisa's bird, all laying lifeless and bleeding on the ground around it.

Then vanish from the ghost sight as quickly as they appeared.

When Raylan's attention returned to what the female ghost had suggested, the fox masked Alvad shrugged. "Could try our luck at Towers Idol Slanderer. I hear nothing but bad things about that sculpture."

magic1 Competent use of Hypno Flash.

[Aenisa]

The question that she had asked lingered for a moment before an answer was gotten, not from the man and neither from the ghost itself but from the lady. It did not help Aenisa that the name that Madeira gave her for the man was that of a woman, her brows just found themselves in a deeper frown. Maybe it was the norm in the city of Alvadas to name the men with the names of women? Aenisa wouldn’t know and she didn’t feel like asking either, she had to make friends, not eliminate them all at once. As they stood in the group, Aenisa found that the people around her seemed to not want to continue along their daily routines. Perhaps this was the group that she could first get to know in the city. The city was weird in more ways than one, first the Sanity Center, although the lady had been nice, the place was a mess and spoke of a woman slowly going mad. As soon as she got out of the Sanity Center, this was what she had gotten herself into, a group of madness. Madeira had not been of too much help either, Aenisa had been wrong to look for her to help her get out of this deal that she had pushed herself into. Aenisa still didn’t quite follow what was truly going on, though she had the feeling that she would find out in a short moment’s time.

Whilst the conversation with Madeira had been ongoing, the man hiding behind his fox mask had been ogling her oddly, Aenisa thought. Aenisa was going to have to either get to know the man or punish him before the day was over, it was obvious in the way that he moved, the way he carried himself. He was reckless and beyond caring for anything, a strange type of a person. It was almost the total opposite of what Madeira was displaying, confidence and a finer upbringing had led to her displaying manners. Aenisa allowed herself to look over the small group that had gathered, it was the strange man who did the handstand, the fox man and this young girl who Aenisa had turned to, for help. Lost in thought as to what was truly going on in this madness of a conversation that they were having, the approaching entity snapped her out of her trance. Shifting her gaze over to the newcomer she paid him no mind, probably just another one of the common rabble that seemed to drag through the streets around them. Like a sea of fish goes around an obstacle so too did the crowds in the street go around them. The words of the ethereal being then spoke of his fiery past and although Aenisa did react, her eyes wandering back onto the being, she had more pressing issues ahead of her. Somehow the hand standing man was going to have her body for something and it seemed as if it would come at any moment. Madeira had told her to take a deep breath and be prepared, prepared for what? Aenisa still didn’t know what was going on, fully.

This was definitely not something that Aenisa had prepared for when she had left Wind Reach, her home seemed so normal in comparison to what she had encountered the first hour in Alvadas. Confusion and frustration at not knowing but being expected to know was creeping over her like an itchy blanket, this was something she was going to have to experience to learn. Focusing her gaze onto the man in front of her, a slight nod allowed the man to know that she was ready for whatever were to come next. Aenisa allowed for the fresh air to fill her lungs, not wanting to go into the unknown, unprepared. Madeira had told her to do this, why she trusted her, Aenisa didn’t know. Like the shimmering lakes during the morning hours after a cool night in the summer, mist started to appear from the man. Something about the situation was off and to her it seemed as if it was almost magic, how could one make mist appear in the streets like that? What purpose would it have, Aenisa managed to look around at the others for the briefest of moments before it hit her.

Enveloping her in a cloud if mist before it seemed as if the mist was absorbed into her body. At first it was as if nothing had happened but then she could feel it, she could feel the strangeness of how she felt and something inside of her was speaking? Thinking? Or maybe it was whispering to her? Aenisa had felt tired for quite some time and it would not take much strength on behalf of the ghost to take full control of her body. The voice that came out her own mouth was her own but the decision to speak them wasn’t hers.

"Firstly, Aenisa, don't be scared. You'll have your body back in a short while."

Without having told her body to move, it did, turning to the man that had produced the mist just moments earlier.

"Go on, run off. Your body isn't one I feel like entering again."

She heard herself telling the man from which the mist had come to carry on and go about his ways.

"The Inverted are finally here, Ionu's theatre troupe are here to perform for us. Now if you'd let me... I've heard a lot of things. Most complete balderdash, let me assure you. But, and I'd still take this with a pinch of salt, there was a lot about a sculptor. Or a sculpture. Something like that."

She addressed the other ethereal being as well in what Aenisa thought was her condescending tone. She could feel the spite. She might not have struggled much but Aenisa was almost screaming on the inside, feelings of fear of what was going on bouncing around her head like a ball. Questions were raised on the inside and although she didn’t know what she could do about the situation, her mind spoke clearly of her fear for what was going on, what was going to happen and what they were going to do. Her own voice telling her to not be afraid wasn't doing much for her feeling of safety. Was this how one found the Inverted, did everyone in Alvadas do these types of things? Was this magic? Am I a passenger in my own body for the rest of my life? The questions were endless and they were bouncing around inside of her head.

All of the questions came to a halt once she heard the music coming from the fox masked man again, it was like the music that he was playing was disruptive to her train of thought. Silence would once more come to dominate her mind as the sounds of the instrument sounded out among the group.

"Anyone have any ideas where to start?"

SPACER

[Madeira Dusk]

"Hurik!"

Madeira's voice traveled the spectrum from pleasant surprise at recognizing the familiar red-bearded spirit, to mortification in a single syllable. As the first thing he did as he joined the loose coalition was to rib the musician in a way the affluent virgin deemed wildly inappropriate.

When Hurik finally turned to the Spiritist she had her eyes squeezed shut and was exhaling hard through her nose as she fought to organize her thoughts on the rapidly disintegrating situation. There now seemed to be five participants in the hunt for the famed Inverted:

The nameless, abrasive busker, who had shown no interest in the trope but seems invested anyway. Possibly for entertainment.

The ghost of Lady Kelling, the dancer without a body, who she suspected was more interested in their quest than she let on.

Aenisa the foreigner, who stumbled into this situation completely on accident and is now being bundled along for the ride.

And finally the ghost of Hurik, who popped in just to sow the seeds of chaos.

Madeira finally opened her eyes and endeavoured to explain the situation as best she could to the confused ghost.

"The Inverted are the best performers in Alvadas, the best of the best. They're gone for most of the year as they travel the world preforming in port cities. But they are back in Alvadas today, and are putting on a show. Unfortunately, nobody knows where they are. And thats why we are going to find them."

Next, with a businesslike tone, Madeira pointed to each member of the group in turn:

"The redhead in Aneisa, and this man here is possessed by the ghost of Lady Renee. I don't know this other man's name, but Foxface works perfectly fine I suppose. And this”, she spoke louder, addressing the collected group as she motioned to the red-bearded spirit, “is the ghost of Hurik."

Formalities dealt with, Madeira sat back and watched the madness unfold.

Foxface answered Hurik’s rudeness with another song. Not quite as awful as before, but still not pleasant. Madeira continued to ignore him and his melody. Instead she watched with furrowed brows as Renee left the rugged man and lunged into Aenisa. The possession was over quickly, and the new body stepped forward to speak. It seemed their quest was to start with a sculpture.

But before everybody could get carried away, Madeira tapped towards Anesia while rolling up the sleeves of her blouse.

"Hold on, Renee, let me see her first." She took the possessed body by the shoulders and pressed one hand under her collarbone. She could feel the reassuring expansion under her palm, and concluded she was still breathing. Good. Breathing was usually autonomous, but a shocked host or a negligent spirit could easily derail the necessary function. Next she pressed her fingers to her wrist, and under the feather light touch she could feel the girl's pulse galloping.

"She's scared." she mumbled to no one before looking the woman in the eye and smiling kindly. It was a practised gesture, one she had perfected over half a decade of reassuring unruly ghosts. "Hey, hey, you're alright. You've been possessed by a ghost. Her name is Renee, and she's going to take good care of you. Then she's going to leave and you'll have your body back. I just need you to bear with it, ok? Just for a bit. Then everything will go back to normal." She squeezed her shoulder and stepped back, once again joining the loose circle of strangers. Only then did she give herself room to think about what kind of 'sculpture' Renee could be talking about.

“I hate to say this, but I agree with Foxface. That's the only public sculpture that doesn’t change. There is that gold sculpture being built by the Vantha, but the thing is only knee high, and I haven’t a clue what it could be yet. At least the Slanderer could speak to us", she said offhandedly, unaware of how bizarre that would sound to the foreigners.

[Hurik]

3rd of Spring, 517 AV

Hurik took in Madeira's helpful introductions, and realized the unnatural movements had been the result of a possession. Ghosts can possess people? How had he never heard of this ability before now? Still, it seemed like a bad time to bring up his inexperience especially seeing how this "Lady Renee" seemed to be vastly more comfortable in her state of being than he was presently. Still, careful observation of her behaviour could give him answers without needing to ask any questions. Their motley crew then, of a pair of ghosts, two women and a bard, were searching for a troupe of players? That could prove both entertaining and enlightening. And so Hurik watched as Madeira went to Aenisa, her body having been taken up by Renee's presence. And as he did so, Foxface's song wormed its way into his ear.

"Do you think me mad for singing, apples and the hounds are tweeting. Swine and crow are here and beaming–"

A flash of imagery split through Hurik's vision, of death, blood, and darkness.
He was standing in a sea of dead falcons, all stricken with rigor mortis. A red sun glared, illuminating the forms flayed, twisted, broken and burnt. Hurik's hands were running red with blood, and there, in the middle of it all lay his wife. She was covered in gore, and much like the broken birds around her, she too was stiff and pale. Mists roiled over the bodies, and an echoing clang of metal screeching on metal, and clashing wetly with flesh, filled Hurik's ears.
He smelled the stench of piss, shyke, and spilt blood. Hurik blinked furiously, horror and revulsion mounting. The images wouldn't go away. A man clad in black armour clawed through the pile of bodies and reached toward him, hand morphing into a cruel talon sinking into Hurik's chest. A strangled cry rose up over the sounds of flies, maggots, and rolling thunder. His own voice magnified beyond human capacity, soulmist spewing forth from his throat, and he grabbed at his amulet, hanging about his chest. Hurik clutched to it, closed his eyes and knelt on the ground.

Cobblestones, clean save for dust and the smallest bit of refuse drifting past, were there when Hurik finally opened his eyes. He heard shocked silence, and looked to his hands. They were dripping with red soulmist, seeping from nowhere. His sense of taste and smell had dulled once more, and if that horrible vision had come suddenly, it was gone just as quickly. Shaking, Hurik got to his feet, and said nothing. The statue...of the Slanderer? He thought numbly. And without another word or look to the others, he started to walk slowly in the direction of the Towers Idol. His explorations and the words of the citizenry had at least clued him in to that statue's whereabouts. Hurik also began mumbling, as he idly rubbed his amulet.

"Lover's grip loose and slackened, opal skin tight and blackened, what's a man to hold when she's gone through? Purpose lost amid the rue..."

"purposelostamidtheruepurposelostamidtheruepurposelostamidtheruepurposelostamidtheruepurposelostamidtheruepurposelostamidtherue..."

OOCTo all the other members of the party, when Hurik sees his vision,
he goes quiet. Then after a few ticks, he lets loose an extremely loud scream.
Think as loud as a normal person can yell, then that little extra bit because while he screams, soulmist bubbles out of his throat, for all the world looking like misting blood. After a full three ticks of this scream, he doubles over in the street, and that's when the vision leaves him. The "shocked silence" he hears is the brief pause you'd expect from even a busy crowd if somebody made such a huge noise. Though I expect not long after, people lose interest. It is Alvadas after all. Also, thanks a ton Raylan, you totally triggered Hurik!

[Chameleon]

The busker in the fox mask was at it again. Even in this new body, Renee squirmed uncomfortably, letting her distaste of the music show clearly in this new form too. He was still atrocious, and it wasn't helped by the fact that he didn't sing a particular song but instead nonsensical lyrics that barely formed coherent sentences. Her reaction, with the subtle eye-rolling and the slight shift away from his direction, was nothing, however, compared to the other ghost's. At first, he was deadly silent, then gave out a horrific scream that she couldn't help but to step away from. In the deadly silence that followed, Renee was quick to speak, "Keep your soulmist inside you, and control yourself!"

Before she could say anything else, however, Madeira insisted on checking on Aenisa's body. As if Renee wasn't experienced at this all, and couldn't be trusted. The cheek. Still, she let her perform the necessary checks, letting her believe that her little skill could be used occasionally.

Once she had been assured that Aenisa was, of course, alive, she stepped back, taking in what "Foxface" had put out as a suggestion. Tower's Idol Slanderer, and Madeira seemed to agree. That awful place seemed even worse than being around Foxface's singing - but at the same time, they had good logic behind their thoughts.

"Well, then, if we've decided?" she spoke, a little too enthusiastically than she had expected. Testing, she took a step in the girl's body, although it was a small one and lacked direction, "Feel free to lead the way." Then, she loosen her hold of the body she sat in, directing her next words to Aenisa, "See if you can do the walking, the boring parts. I'm here to sit back and enjoy the ride."

Whether or not her attempt of relinquishing control to the owner of the body worked, Renee wasn't going to lead the expedition valiantly forward. That seemed to eager, and while the thought of dancing was more than certainly there, she wasn't going to make it clear to everyone else that she was eager to get there. That was beneath her and far too not ladylike.

As the group made their way through the streets, the crowds didn't thin, in fact swelling with size and the words on their lips echoing clearly. It seemed that more and more claimed to have actually seen them, watched their performance and most importantly, found them. However, who those individuals were was more of a mystery, as if anyone tried to stop them and ask, they'd either hurry off or shrug their shoulders as they weren't the ones to have experienced it.

The further they went, the more it seemed like the streets had no idea where they were taking them. They moved through streets and streets of houses, no major shop, building or landmark in sight, especially not Tower's Idol Slanderer, which seemed to be a world away. Renee, getting visibly annoyed, was tempted to flicker out of Aenisa's body and hurry forward alone, but that wasn't dignified enough, so she stayed put, wishing they could hurry the process up.

Until they turned back to the Gaping Maw, and she had enough. Seizing the body back, she stepped forward, growling angrily at the busker and the other ghost, who she blamed for all of it. "Surely Ionu doesn't hate you that much? There must be a way for you to find the statue, without just walking in circles!" Her little snap out, she turned to Madeira, who, at least, she knew was a true Alvadas citizen. "Ms. Craven, please, show these gentlemen how it is done."

She longed to do another handstand, or a cartwheel, but it wasn't the time or place. The sooner they arrived at the Inverted, the better.
Patience could never be called her greatest virtue.

[Raylan Ramsey]

Did Raylan know how Hurik would react to the flash? No, but he had more reason than the others to predict that type of outburst. He used that information to remain at the back of the group when the shyte hit the fan. He never even stopped playing his mandolin after the scream, filling the deathly silence with the small little mandolin melody he'd created to match his nonsensical song lyrics, but did not sing.

As the group continued to walk, Raylan simply practiced scales on his mandolin, holding it up into a playing position. His finger held down the first note of a scale by holding down the middle string, then strummed to let a soft sound emit from the instrument. Next, dropped his finger down a fret along the neck to play the same string. Then play the same D string at the fourth fret, and fifth fret. Once he'd played the note up and down the neck of the mandolin, his finger moved to the next string to repeat that all over again.

He glanced around at the group to take note of the situation. An attractive silver spoon, an attractive ghost possessed bird brain, a sexy ginger bird brain ghost, and... he was now bored. To stave his boredom, he started to walk backwards, then sideways, then backwards again. "Why am I doing this again?" He asked himself while working backwards, shifting his fingers back to the first string after playing the last one and simply keeping the scaling melody going. His eyes drifted to Aenisa as he kept walking backwards. Then shifted his head to look over his shoulder at the ghost who seemed to be leading the charge towards The Slanderer. "The Ginger Ghost seemed distracted enough to halt its peasantries with the Red Feather..."

Then turned his head to look elsewhere as he looked at the bird girl out the side of his eyes. "Lady ghost and Red Feather seem to be... distracted with each other." Raylan pursed his lips. The fact of the matter was that there wasn't really any point in continuing this stupid trek down a street. So Raylan's thoughts drifted back to one of his previous machinations...

"Daring caper.. The heist of the Ghost Feather." He thought to himself as the ghost inside of Aenisa started to have its own outburst.

The only other point to life had ever been simply batting boredom away. So he used the female ghosts outburst as an opportunity. His eyes immediately shifted to a door in the distance, an inconspicuous door. Or rather a door frame, one dark that had no door but only a stair well leading down. "Escape plan..." Then shifted his eyes back to the ghost when she turned to look at Madeira.

Foxface then ran to position himself behind the possessed Aenisa; hoping they were both distracted enough as he reached into Aenisa half open back pack, palming the falcon chick within, and took off in a dead sprint towards the staircase with bird in hand.

The entire time, his running was accompanied by the loud shrieks and whistles of a bird. His breathing rough and haggard as he quickened his pace to vanish down into The Streets Below with the girls bird. Raylan then began a somewhat repeated process of running to new staircases leading up until he found Slander, and peaking out from them.

"Only a street...Again..."

He thought to himself as he ran back down that failed staircase, then up another only to find himself back down and dodging past the erected tents of people who lived in the eternally nocturnal narrow streets, then up another staircase. "Petch!" Foxface yelled as he found yet another false lead, and had to trudge down another staircase. This time, he walked towards another exit to the streets above next to a homeless man sleeping near the base of it.

A sound he heard over his shoulder shocked Raylan into running again. He had not run this fast in a long time, which resulted in his heavily winded gasping for air after every other stride through the narrow streets of the underground. But, this was a place he'd spend most of his time as a child. More than anywhere else, he felt like home here.

The tenth time when he peaked out from the top of a stairway, he saw The Slanderer not too far in the distance. "Well, that was a nice run." He absently pet the bird with his thumbs as he palmed it with two hands to keep control of it. Then used one hand to pet his own side that stung slightly from the pain of running. And then with a calm stride, walked over to it, using the stroll to catch his breath.

He then simply waited... at some point in time, the others would manage to show up. Raylan simply just needed, like a drug, to get his and everyones blood pumping.


"Mushroom caps on ragged dogs,
nothing less than golden toads.
Do you think me mad for singing,
apples and the hounds are tweeting...
Swine and crow are here and beaming.
Don't you think me mad for singing~

The Voices in a head, life fleeting.
Inou in the heart, life singing~

He sung aloud to himself in a peppy way as he meandered like a slow turtle towards The Slanderer.

OOCOK'ed it with Aenisa to steal her bird.

Also got permission from Chameleon if Ray could find the Slanderer in this post. Feel free to have chased after him by following bird noises, or not. And Chameleon, let me know If you want me to edit anything, I will gladly do so.

[Aenisa]

The fear, the confusion was slowly turning into something else, acceptance, understanding and perhaps even a bit of relief. The power of the ghost was evident and strong, Aenisa tried to see what she could do in her current state and found out that it wasn’t much past what she was doing, thinking.

The music was bad as it was but it wasn’t really until she heard the screams coming from the other ethereal being that Aenisa really woke up to the fact that someone really didn’t enjoy the music that the man with the fox mask was offering. It wasn’t quite the normal yell or scream that the ghost let out, it sounded like something that Aenisa had never heard in her life. The yell was like that of a singer, performer that touched the highest of notes during their performance, this however went beyond even that. Piercing her ears, Aenisa felt like she wanted to shield her ears from the noise but as she tried, realised that she wasn’t herself. Weird words came out from Aenisa’s mouth after the piercing scream, soul mist, what was that even? The question didn’t linger since it seemed to ultimately be of little interest to her. Aenisa could feel the fury seething from her possessor as the other girl came to check on Aenisa and speak to her like she had been a five-year-old girl.

The cheek of the ghost, after having taken over her body under the promise of not being to invasive, she was allowing for the boring parts of the journey to be handled by Aenisa, find this, find that. Aenisa couldn’t exactly hit this Renee in anger because of her ethereal nature and so with a sigh, motioned up the road a bit before she took the lead. Having never been in the city before, Aenisa was at a loss for words as to where they should go and decided that the best course of action was to keep left. Keeping left was the sane choice, it was something that she thought she remembered her grandmother saying one time, maybe she was talking about something else. Aenisa however figured that if she was heading in the wrong direction, someone would tell her eventually and with confident she headed off.

Like an itch that you can’t quite scratch, that is what it was like to carry Renee within herself and it was growing tiresome already. A ghost, what were their purpose anyhow? Stupid creations that shouldn’t exist, someone should just capture them and send them far away. Looking around at their little rag-tag group, it was an odd situation that Aenisa was in now, she had never quite expected to be dragged into this fruitless journey for a carnival acrobatics group.

“How long you live in Alvadas?”

The question was empty in meaning, but she might as well try to disguise her inability to lead the group for a little longer as she led them on a circular route with a bit of conversation. Aenisa felt the eyes of fox mask as they were walking, something about it made her feel uncomfortable, perhaps it was just the fact that he was a creep or maybe because his music had driven the other ghost completely mad. Aenisa didn’t feel like going insane today, she ignored him, figuring that his eyes would wander elsewhere in due time.

After they had passed by the Gaping Maw for the second or third time the feeling of her mind being pushed out of the way came back. Berated and cussed out, like a child, again. Aenisa found that the ghost had become impatient and wanted to get there quicker. Left didn’t work, grandmother had been wrong. It was now left in the hands of the other femal…

Shrieks and screams, whistles and chirps interrupted the scolding that the group was getting. Someone was fumbling with her backpack as well, the feeling was clear. Someone was stealing Ignacio! Aenisa immediately seized control over her own body, pushing Renee out of the way in a most internally violent manner as her right hand formed a fist. Coming around like that of a wide-swinging comet, anyone standing close to Aenisa and that wasn’t prepared was sure to feel the force of her hand as she swung for the fox masked man. There was nobody there, the thief was already out of reach for her, legging it like he had just seen a charging bull coming his way, the chirping of the bird seemingly in tune to his thieving steps.

Aenisa took off after fox mask, screaming and shouting for him to stop as she was leaving the group to their own devices. Darkness of the staircase swallowed up the man as he disappeared out of her view for a moment, Aenisa wasn’t far behind though and the sound of the bird was leading her through the underground pathways that she found below the streets. Pushing herself hard, her feet carrying her quickly along the pathways wherever the sound of the bird was carrying her. Renee was struggling and trying to regain control of the rampaging bird mother, at least that is what it felt like to Aenisa. The will of Aenisa was trying to push the mind of Renee out of the way and to take her along for the journey.

“Stay put, ghost woman or who you be!”

A sharp tone sounded out, almost like a scream as she was darting after the thief, up staircases and down the others, all the time the voice of the bird was guiding her way.

“Petch!”

Came the yell of fox face. Aenisa shouted, as she got closer to him.

“That is my bird! You can’t just steal it like a loaf of bread, you oaf!”

Aenisa was too overwhelmed to realise that she wasn't speaking in a language that Ray could probably understand. The overwhelming feeling of wanting to throw something after the man was almost too much, Aenisa had been chasing his back for too long. She wasn’t going to stop, although she was panting heavily now, Aenisa had a focus and a goal, adrenaline keeping her going, it was her bird. Fox face took off even quicker after she had yelled for him, leaving Aenisa further and further behind in the pathways below the city, the heavy foots of them both doing plenty to liven up the cold underbelly of the city.

Suddenly it was just her footsteps that was left in the streets below the streets and Aenisa came to a full stop. Her ears on high alert as she couldn’t hear the chirping of her bird any longer, couldn't hear the footsteps of an escaping thief either. They must have emerged back onto the streets somewhere. Dashing for the nearest exit, Aenisa was soon back onto the streets again as well. Aenisa shot glances in every which direction as they surfaced back onto the streets. Houses, alleyways and then there was some strange sculpture nearby. Aenisa pleaded for help from within, hoping that the ghost might be of help.

“Ghost woman, where are we?! Can you see bird thief?”

SPACER

[Madeira Dusk]

Madeira didn't see Hurik fall soundlessly to his knees, but she certainly heard his scream. The sound sliced through her head and lanced her heart. Her hands instinctively crawled over her ears and her shoulders rolled forward as if to physically protect herself from the terror he was feeling.

Then the ghost was suddenly on his feet, his soulmist in a riot around him as he stumbled away. He was mumbling something, but she couldn’t make out the words in the press of celebrating citizens.

"Hurik!" It only took a few strides and several hard elbowings to reach his side. "Hurik, was that another episode like before? What happened?"

The ghost didn't seem to hear her, however. Or at least did not design to answer. Renee and Anesia brushed past them and forged ahead, followed discreetly by Foxface, both supposedly looking for the Slanderer. Madeira let them lead the way, and did her best to urge the shell-shocked Hurik forward.

After several useless laps of the changing streets deposited the group back at the Maw, it seemed Renee had had enough. With a curtness that put blades through the Lady's tongue, Renee chewed out the two men and turned to Madeira like she might have the secret to Alvadas scrawled on the back of her hand.

But before Madeira could even open her mouth to reply, several things happened at once. The unknown Foxface sidled up behind Anesia before taking off in a whirl of a black coat. He barrelled through a doorframe to nowhere and descended, hands wrapped around a bundle of feathers that was shrieking in terror. In less than a tick the foreigner was after him, roaring in anger and throwing herself down the stairs herself. Madeira was left standing in the middle of the street, her shout of warning lost in the crowed.

"Don't go into the dark! Anesia! Wait!"

She was beginning to feel like the group's mother hen. Don't hurt that girl, Renee! Don't run off, Anesia! Hold yourself together, Hurik! Stop playing your annoying music, Foxface! Why was she the responsible one? Why?

The Spiritist hopped from foot to foot. If she judged Foxface correctly she knew exactly where those stairs lead. She had never been to the Underground before, and had never sought it out. She knew her family kept a secret in the Streets Below, though they had never confided it to their youngest. What she did know was that the Underground was dangerous.

And Anesia and Renee just charged in.

And Mother Hen couldn't let them go by themselves.

"Damn it all! Hurik, come with me." she pleaded. Though she'd never admit it, she didn’t want to go alone.

She ran across the street and down the stairs, where the bright, festive day immediately sank into eternal night. Grimy buildings reached high into a black sky, uninterrupted except for a bright red crescent moon that hung like a bleeding scab. Madeira followed the shouts of the red-headed woman and the chirping of the bird down impossibly narrow streets that met in sharp angles and twisting slopes. She passed people, many people; homeless urchins with dirty faces, the restless dead, revellers from above. She didn't stop and she didn't spare them a second glance. The place reeked of twisted minds and hearts, of things that had never seen daylight and did not wish to be found.

Madeira made ground on the trio as they stampeded up a long set of rickety stairs to the surface. And just as she saw blessed daylight, the blonde woman collided with a mess of red hair. Both women went down hard. Madeira landed underneath her backpack, crushing the breath out of her.

She rolled laboriously to her feet and spoke between breaths to the woman she had just run over. The Spiritist's shape had always been somewhere between doughy skeleton and exhausted child. That wind sprint had done her no favours.

"Alvadas - Will - Kill - You - One - Day" she warned, hands on her knees and breathing hard. "I - Swear - It - Will."

She shielded her face with her hands and scanned the crowded street. In the distance she could see a tall, dark granite statue of a man on one knee. It seemed they found the Slanderer. And between the statue and themselves, wandering casually away, was the Foxfaced Thief. His completely black clothing might as well have been a lit match in a
dark room when the street around him was a riot of colour.

"He's - Over - There" she wheezed, pointing at his broad back. She’d leave his capture to Anesia or the ghost's, all she could do was hobble to the statue. As she got closer more familiar details began to appear. A gentle face was framed by long, cascading hair and a glint of ruby eyes. Oh she knew that calm and benign expression. To someone as insecure as herself the thing might as well be made of fire and salt. It was to be avoided at all costs.

Well, it was too late now. Bracing herself, Madeira called to the granite horror.

"Slanderer! We need your help. Where are the Inverted?"

[Hurik]

3rd of Spring, 517 AV

"purposelostamidtheruepurposelostamidtheruepurposelostamidtheruepurposelostamidtherue..."

Hurik blinked through the haze, he saw a red sun. He heard running footsteps. A bird was chirping. A lurid chord of madness was running over in his mind, a repeated and distorted succession of D scales. Over and over and over and–

This is familiar. Clarity for a brief tick. I have seen this red sun in life.
Last night... Hurik's lodestone stopped. He heard a loud thud in the distance. Outside of his shell of protection, he could make out laboured breathing. Something pierced through the haze, and Hurik blinked, looking around. The statue, was it the Slanderer? It seemed to match the descriptions he'd heard around Alvadas.

"Alvadas - Will - Kill - You - One - Day."

"It already has," Hurik uttered softly. He made his way over to Foxface. A dark and violent streak coursed through his brain. An angry red sheen bled through his vision. His soulmists were whipping up at a dangerous rate. A sort of impulse coursed through him, and he charged at the man. His mists were growing more incorporeal, and he found himself pressing deep into Foxface with all of his soulmist whipping like a storm into the man.

It was like Hurik had suddenly dropped into cold water. He had a shock as feeling flooded into him, a million sensations at once. And as fast as the feelings came they started to slip away. Hurik felt Foxface– Raylan –forcing him out of the body. It was like he was trying to climb a rock face without handholds. Hurik set himself, trying to...put down roots? It was like falling into a river with a heavy current. Hurik frantically doubled down and tried to hold what he had in a vice grip. He focused on what he did have, and thought it helped. The flexing of his fingers, the twitching of his nose, and even the curling of toes. It was here that Hurik found something that might just be the faintest semblance of control. Here were his handholds then, even as his essence was leaking out of his eyes, nose, and mouth. It felt as though they were a stranglehold on his throat, and he sensed stippling sensations on his extremities. The extreme oddness of the experience was distracting, and his control was slippery at best, non-existent at worst. Still, Hurik tried to refocus and soon all he could sense was the tingling in Raylan's fingertips and toes. Controlling people was predictably... Petching impossible.

The last sensation of living fingers wrapped carefully around a soft downy warmth made Hurik's will flash strong for a split-second. The corners of Ray's mouth twitched momentarily in a smile. Then... He felt his strength give way. Like mist burnt through a noon-day sun.

OOCDiscussed the entire confrontation with Ray OOC, and we both agreed there would be no real chance of Hurik possessing Ray successfully. That said,
a ghost's got to start somewhere right?

Boxcode credit: Roselina.

[Chameleon]

The ghost struggled to stay within the body as Aenisa gripped control, slipping out at the shock of being expelled. Her wispy form took a moment before pushing back in, shrinking to the bottom to let the girl take control. Clearly, the woman's interest in the bird was much stronger than anything Renee wanted, and besides, it wasn't like they were any closer to finding the Inverted than they were before.

So the chase began, following the terrible singer through the Underground as the others trailed after them. Fairly uneventful there. That part of the journey was uneventful, but Renee would still have given a sigh of relief as they re-emerged into the fresh air of above, still bustling, but little less than before. There was a scent in the air

When she was referred to as "Ghost woman" for the second time, however, she had enough, worming her way back into the mind and control of the body. Aenisa could fight as much as she wanted, but for now, the ghost was in control and she wasn't going to let it slip as easily as she had last time.

"Lady Renee Kelling," she said sharply, finding the speech in this body, "Not ghost woman. And if you slow down for a moment, I'd be more than happy to tell you-" But then Madeira was with them and let everything out. Renee pressed her face - or Aenisa's face - into a scowl as the man was pointed out, before she realised that the wild chase had been successful. Twisting her face back into a smile, she stepped forward in pursuit of the statue.

Then she gave a laugh at the other ghost, her smile growing dramatically at what could only be a failed possession. Before she could say anything herself, the statue gave a laugh, "What an awful attempt - you're such a rubbish ghost. Can't possess anything for the life of you - if you had one. You can't remember that either, can you?"

As if to demonstrate her own skill to show the statue what she could do, Renee pulled the other body around tightly into a sharp pirouette and following it with a quick succession of steps to an imaginary tune.

"You dance as beautifully as a duck with one leg," came the booming voice, and she faltered, flustered at the strange insult. "I know why you want to find the Inverted - so you can join the clowns!" Irritated, Renee opened her mouth to speak before, but the statue didn't care about her thoughts, changing his attention to the girl she possessed.

"And you," his voice was almost accusing, "You think you're good enough for Alvadas? I mean, Wind Reach doesn't want you. Maybe being this ghost's body is the best thing you can do? Because you can't even hold onto your bird!" His ruby eyes seemed to flick in the busker's direction. "What's with the mask? Hate yourself that much that you need to hide yourself? At least everyone else here doesn't have to resort to that."

Finally, he addressed the Craven, the insult the obvious one, "If you could only do your family proud, and not spend all your time disappointing them with everything you do. Can't even control one ghost, can't even find the Inverted! And you call yourself an Alvad?"

There was another deep laugh, although it sounded a little like a snort, and the statue spoke again, this time not really an insult, but an attempt to guide them to their goal. "And you run through the whole of Alvadas like crazy people, when the answer is right beneath your noses. But I don't have the time or crayons to explain." Another Alvad hurried by, hoping to be ignored as the statue occupied himself with the group, but even then an insult came flying. "I'm a little busy right now with these people who want to be called Alvads - just call yourself an idiot for me."

But Tower's Idol Slanderer didn't turn back or speak to them again, leaving the mystery of the Inverted up to them.

Renee slinked back into the body while at the same time shifting control over to Aenisa, still recovering from the insult she had expected but hadn't. Meanwhile, the other four were left to decide what the statue had meant to tell them before he was distracted with other people and insulting them.

As they thought, the ground beneath their feet would begin to change, an illusion spreading from where Madeira stood out. It was a trail of footprints, just lighter than the ground they stood on to stand out. They stretched around the statue and into a side street, ignored by the rest of the public as if they couldn't see them. Of course, the four that gathered there (and Renee, although she wasn't looking) could, if they happened to look down.