Utterly Mad

   “I was told the soul shards would power my aura indefinitely. As a matter of fact, we were working on a material that could power my aura indefinitely...but that doesn’t matter anymore…”, Melody responded, she looked a bit solem for a moment before picking herself up and giving a cheery tone. “But now I got people who are willing to help me! I think I can pick this up quickly enough!”


   “So you focus on securing dangerous magic, contain it and then protect against it using wards? That sounds pretty cool!”, Melody commented, she had a child-like glee in her eyes; the topic of the arcane certainly interested her. “Oh, maybe you can tell me what this is?”, Melody asked Helen before she pulled out a little pendant with a small blade attached to it, “Miss Bla- Randael told me it was a sort of seal, that when I was ready I would be able to break it and claim what it hid.” Helen would recognize this as nothing more than a charm that held lots of essence for a single artifact. A basic item for carrying large amounts of essence; the fact Melody didn’t know this showed how much she had to learn.

---

   "But your room has sound proving, that can come in handy.", Roxanne explained to Victor.

   "Yes, but your has an actual altar we can use. You have all the material as well. Should be simple for use to set up there; besides, we don’t have much time.", Victor retorted

    "And why not? What is the rush?", Roxanne asked.

    Victor pointed at Helen and Melody talking, his face had an expressing on, ‘do I really need to explain this?’ Roxanne gave him a confused look to which Victor sighed. "Helen will eventually figure out something is off; then she will use her mask and we don’t want that happening until after it is done, don’t we?", Victor explained.

    Roxanne nodded in agreement at this, she took the spirit pill and gave it a cursory look. "Do you think Melody will mind?", Roxanne asked Victor, "I mean, it’s not like we aren’t going to give anything in return."

    "We both know how it feels...if anything, she might be asking for another ‘session’... ", Victor responded. Roxanne smirked at this comment. "Personal experience?", Roxanne joked.

   Victor stood there silently for a moment before he gave a silent nod. Roxanne stifled a laugh as best she could upon seeing this. "Pffff, you are just as much of a degenerate like the rest of us. Maybe one day we can try mutagen too?", Roxanne said. "Yeah no...there is now way you can convince me of that...look where it has gotten you...", Victor responded, the last bit laced with sarcasm.

   Roxanne just rolled her eyes and laughed it off. She then turned her gaze to Melody and then Helen and finally Victor again. "Alright, let’s get going. 30 minutes max, not much time like you said.", Roxanne explained. Victor nodded, "Lead the way then, this was your idea after all..."

   “So that means I can eventually use it safely? That is an option? I was told I was to bear a curse for power...That there was no other way around it...thank you Helen...thank you for giving me hope.”, Melody responded. She genuinely thought the aura of harvest was always to be a double edged sword in the most extreme sense.

   Melody then watched as Helen messed around with the pendant. The way her mask turned on and contorted scare and made Melody flinch back. That sight of the mask was only known to her in the battle field and it would take awhile to see it in any other light. “It houses essence? What can I use it for? And linked to another item? How so? Is that bad?”, Melody started to bombard Helen with questions. It could be seens as endearing or annoying depending on the person.

   She was interrupted as Helen commented on Roxanne and Victor. “I don’t know, are they known to do stuff to warrant that worry?”, Melody resumed asking. Then Helen asked her a question as well. “Well, he did talk about three peculiar artifacts, a device that could allow him to talk to familiar spirits, a ring that allowed the user to control other worldly being in exchange for their sanity temporarily and a peculiar sword he treasured alot. He said the sword was a piece of a puzzle and that when completed, our dreams would come true…”

---

   Victor and Roxanne soon exited the library and head for Roxanne’s room. Roxanne lead the way and then opened the door. Victor took out a silver athame from a pocket before he entered, Roxanne smiling and rolling her eyes at the sight. "Who is doing the bleeding?", Roxanne asked.

   "I think we should decided that on the unbiased art of coin flipping.", Victor responded before letting himself in. Roxanne nodded and then looked for a coin in one of her pockets. The door closed behind them and they both got to work on setting up a particular ritual.

   “Do you think maybe we can use such artifacts to power the aura of harvest? I don’t know, I am asking…”, Melody responded to the comments about the aura and pendant, “And yes, if there is a link, it is important we find it; even I wouldn’t know...he left me in the dark of some many things...he really did use me didn’t he?”

   “Inexperience? That makes sense...I don’t want to make mistakes due to my inexperience that is why I am asking others to help...if it isn’t a bother…”, Melody said in regards to Victor and Roxanne, “Wait...if Victor isn’t inexperience, what is his excuse?”

   “You were looking for an item? Victor’s sword? What is wrong with his sword? You are saying it might have a link to the one Randael held?”, Melody asked once more. She was confused but the pieces were beginning to click in her mind. “Tell me...if you found it it was and we somehow go it in our possession...what would you do with it? And item like that is dangerous…”

---

   Roxanne was in her closet looking for some material when she stumbled upon it. The sword that she had found in the cabin where Randael fell. She smiled as she looked at it; then she touched the handled and a surge of energy flooded her. Roxanne felt powerful, like she could take on the world!

   "Roxanne, are you ready?", Victor called out. Roxanne panicked for a bit and then put the sword away, she got the time she was looking for and close the closet. "I am now!", Roxanne responded to Victor.

   “That’s great! You even know a technique for it already! Will you be able to teach it to me anytime soon? The aura of harvest is literally all I got going...apart from the basics of course…”, Melody responded to Helen’s answer about the source of energy. “Controlling the dead? Randael showed me how to do that but it didn’t hurt when they got hurt; we used soul shards to make them semi-independent. As for making a deal with a spirit of death...I don’t know if I understand correctly...like a deal with the devil but...with death?”, Melody asked her questions again.

   “I didn’t know that item was so important then...good thing it never fell into the wrong hands...even Randael himself was afraid to use it; guess he wanted to preserve that body…”, Melody said about the sword, “Yeah, it is best if we wait until tomorrow to find out about this and about the sword...don’t want to ruin everyone else’s fun! I never been to a party before, anything I need to know...”

---

   Roxanne and Victor had finished their ritual. Roxanne had applied a bandage on her arm to stop the bleeding. "Not the smartest move there...", Victor told Roxanne. "You are one to talk...seriously, you carry this everywhere you go?", Roxanne answered back. Victor nodded and Roxann just shook her head.

   "You think this will work?", Victor asked Roxanne.

   "Yes, I still have divine essence in me, this should all go smoothly.", Roxanne answered. She then took her spirit pill and crushed it into the small vial of her blood making it turn green. "It is done, the preparations are set!", Roxanne exclaimed.

   "I can’t believe we are actually doing this...why did I agree to this?", Victor commented.

   "Because you are no different than I am, we are both part of the same order after all.", Roxanne answer, "Anyways, just remember to take your pill before the party and find Melody ok?". Victor nodded as he picked up his stuff in preparation to leaving, "Remember, I am betting against it! Anyways, see you later, don’t get hammer before the party."

Several hands went up, including Atomos's. She hadn't had a hotdog, even an improper one, in quiet a while. The cook picked her out right away, saying "Hey! Lady of honor! Why not? Hey everybody, this is the lady who brought in all that meat!" There was a little cheering and back slapping at that. The refugee center had been without meat for a week or two since the centers cooler had been blown. Cook boiled the hotdog, then seared it off in a pan. "Ketchup? Mustard?"

"Neither," Atomos said before taking the tube of meat wrapped in a slice of bread, "I like to taste my food before putting anything on it." She bit into the hotdog, then grimaced. It was tough and tasted of plastic. The bread was fine and Atomos came away with a bite of that, no problem, but the hotdog refused to be bitten into. "What the hell?" She said.

"That was the other things about this thing. The casings are inedible, see?" Atomos did see. The hotdog bore the mark of her teeth, but trying to bite into it was like sticking a rubber chew toy in her mouth. She tried again, this time bearing down with her fang. This new strategy worked, but once again she wished she hadn't. The hotdog tasted like a rubber chew toy. Cook was putting away the hotdog press and binning the others. "Tastes like shit doesn't it?"

Before Atomos could answer, someone from the crowd shouted, "Yo, cook, waddafuck? We ain't gettin' hotdogs?" Cook shook his head and made a gesture, signalling a couple of his assistance to wheel something else out. It looked like a large box with a cloth thrown over it. "This," Cook said, "Is what I really wanted to bring everyone down for." Atomos tossed her hotdog in the trash disappointed until cook whipped the sheet off the box and revealed the theater popcorn machine. "Line up everyone, buttered or unbuttered?"

---

A little while later, Dervish and Atomos were sitting under the snake skin with a bucket of popcorn between them, discussing life in general.

Hoyt had invited them in, but Mica held back. The RV had the reek of poison and chemicals wafting off it in invisible streamers, and the spider was unsure if she should draw near once the invite was given. When Hector strode in with only a little pause, she figured it would be fine. She was wrong.

Hector turned at the sound, barely audible, coming from behind him and saw Mica. He was struck with a momentary feeling of strangeness, as if looking at someone he'd never met. It wasn't that she was someone new of course, it was that he was seeing the rare occasion when Mica shut her mouth.

Her lips were drawn tight, rendering them invisible save for the two strips of darker pinkish skin that made up her very convincing pair of false lips. Hector saw that her reddening eyes were beginning to well up with tears and her nose to run. "Mica? Are you-" the illusion of her closed mouth was dispelled abruptly by the appearance of a black line tracing her lips and a dark ichor running from it down her chin. Her lips parted, and more of the resinous ichor spilled forth accompanied by an agonized hiss, covering her silk blouse and spraying gobs onto Hector's tunic.

"My-ka..." She said with syrupy slowness, "bees in My-kas head."

"W-" Nathaniel began, but then Mica was sneezing, ejecting fans of ichor and mucus. On some level, she knew she'd bit her tongue. Maybe even lost part of it. It would grow back, it always had, but for now it would be an agony to her. When she could get over her current hang up. The combined stink of drugs and cleaning product, especially cleaning product, which had come out to meet Mica as she attempted to climb into the RV after Hector had taken her sensitive olfactory system and drove a steel tent peg into it. What she wanted now was to thrash about, biting and flailing with her claws, trying to take the wasps nest in her nose out by force if necessary. Instead what she did, was shriek and black out for a little bit.

---

"So." Dervish said. He picked another single kernel of popcorn from the bucket between Atomos and himself, savoring the theater butter it had been coated with. It had been years since either of them had eaten anything so "decadent" as theater style popcorn. "Found anybody you'd like to start a relationship with?"

Atomos coughed, nearly choking on her last handful of popcorn. When the fit passed, she asked "W-what?"

"Found a boyfriend yet?" He repeated nonchalantly. "You're out of the vault, among other people. Somebody must have caught your eye. Or you theirs."

Instead of answering him, she asked him, "Why do you ask?" Atomos peered at Dervish with suspicion, and he seemed to understand that look.

"No," He said, "I'm too old for any such thing as relationships. I ask simply because it is part of my job around here. I keep track of all the mutants that come in and out of the refugee center. You don't have to come over all shy with me, you already let your tail out." That was true. Atomos had pulled her tail carefully out of her pants before sitting down, and now her luxurious brush lay behind her flipping this way or that occasionally. "Everybody needs somebody." Dervish went on, "This next year more than ever I think."

She thought about it, and seriously. She had been interested in someone, as a matter of fact, but that someone had been a taken man. Dee was off limits, she realized, but that didn't mean anyone else was. "You'll find somebody." Dervish stated. "Even if you don't intend to go into anything serious, you'll find somebody. You're going to need it this next year."

Alexei had taken off after making sure everyone was fine after the barn collapse. He’d found himself a deer after making a few crude arrows for his bow and found his mind drifting as he lined up his shot. His original plan had been to stay for a few days and let his wounds heal before moving on. But with the warm welcoming and his chance meeting with an old friend other thoughts had wandered into his mind and settled. Of course with his luck the people that had caused his walk out this direction would find him.

His mind caught up with reality as he left the deer carcass outside The Hall to go inside and check the still. Seeing that it was going fine he pulled out a bottle of vodka and took a sip as he went to find someone. He needed to get himself an axe to go cut some firewood to cook the deer. That and he figured he should ask about staying for a night instead of assuming.

Meanwhile Drifter walked over to Alice and gestured for her to follow him. He checked his Mosin before handing it to her and guiding her into the swamp. From there he set up a few targets for her to shoot and found himself happily surprised as she hit all the targets. Not bullseyes but still competent enough shots that he figured she could defend herself.

From there he helped her track one of the giant frogs before telling her to take the shot. Following his advice and teaching she managed to land the shot before looking back at him to receive an approving nod. After that he dragged it back to the farm before showing her how to butcher it and setting aside the meat to cook.

Before setting about that task he decided to go into the library and put his rifle on the small rack he’d put above the door. He’d made sure the weapon was safe to put up before walking back out and helping Alice put away the meat to cook later. For now he was satisfied with her progress in self defence. Other things could come later.

Nathaniel gave a sigh at that as she heard her, shaking his head. "Please Kath, we've been worried sick about you." he said, before trying the door. "Lilith especially. She came to the river right after these guys ran off with you, and she's been flipping between being sad and being pissed off since then." he remarked.

Hector now was a bit dizzy, swaying some as he laid Mica down beside Lilith, checking her breathing, and her pulse as best as he could given her chitin-covered nature. "How the hell do you get used to those fumes like that..." he remarked, looking over at Carrol.