Week Three

I couldn't focus any of my time on training this week, unless you count me running and barely fighting for my life against a Demi-God and his small army of Norse-themed thoughtforms as training. Well, I guess it could have been.

So. The Demi-God and Servants. I don't know what they're called or who they are or what they have to do with anything, but I did see them kill. So, I stumbled across a young teenage couple and their small gang of friends, and the young girl had a piece of paper titled Romeo and Juliet. I kept an eye on them after I overheard the fact that they had it, and it eventually paid off. This man walked up- I guess, you could call him a man. He seemed human enough, I guess. He had a tan fedora with a black stripe and a tan trenchcoat- classic PI style- but the weirdest and most eldritch thing is he made the fedora actually work. I'm kidding you not. Okay, there was also the blank mask with the endless, ever-changing stream of changing words and letters on it, and the fact that he seemed to have the onion layering effect as he walked- kind of like Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters II, as the closest possible example. He looked odd, and the kids knew too.

He walked up to them, and one of them asked him what the Hell he thought he was doing. Then he simply pulled out a book and read. He read aloud, and he continued reading for quite some time. When he mentioned the bright, clear skies, the clouds above him parted and made ways for the surprisingly warm ball of sun- I mean, really. I'm in Western Canada there shouldn't be any sun whatsoever- okay, whatever. Suddenly, two of them turn and fight each other. One pulls out a switchblade and kills the other. The Demi-God quitely said, "Mercutio has fallen." Then the boyfriend pulls out a pipe and beats the paralyzed knife weilder to death with it. The Demi-God then murmured, "Tybalt has fallen." Then the girl collapsed. A police officer came, trying to figure out what the hell happened. The boyfriend killed the officer, who was also paralyzed. "Paris has fallen." Then he sees her. She didn't seem to be breathing. He stabbed himself with "Tybalt"'s switchblade. "Romeo has fallen." Then the girl wakes up, sees the dead boyfriend, then tear-stricken, kills herself with the same switchblade. "And finally, Juliet has fallen. A glooming peace this morning with it brings; the sun for sorrow will not show his head." And the clouds reimbursed themselves across the sky.

"Curtains fade. Exeuent. Show's over, witness. Now you have to die." He turned to me.

His eyes looked human enough behind the mask, but I saw what he could do. I set forth a static burst at him. He stumbled back a little- so he wasn't Fury strong- but it didn't hold him back for long. So I pulled another one of my new magic tricks out- I made myself sound like I was running in three directions at once. I ran to the right. I heard the man laugh and say, "Fine. Be like that. I'll just do this." Then I heard some strange noise and suddenly a giant bipedal wolf and a giant blue man with plants growing out of his back.

"Found him, master," said the blue one.

"Excellent," said the masked man, suddenly behind me.

"The fuck are you?" was something close to what I asked. The blue man walloped me into a brick wall thirty feet to my right.

"You will speak fondly to the master of words, insect!" cried him in what sounded like a deep cockney accent.

"Leave him be, Laufey. I need to ask him questions. So- why are you here? Were you sent after me?"

"I was just here to train," I began, slowly at first, "I didn't mean to stumble across the things you've been doing- whatever you've been doing, but you need to stop."

"Hmph," he smirked. "Do you know what I am?"

"A Demi-God of some kind."

"Bingo. Question two- who taught you those skills?"

"..."

"Answer the master," continued the blue giant. Other beings- a flaming giant, a naked girl turned halfway away from me, and a man with a horse mask, to name a few- appeared behind the first two.

"...Isaac O'Zalia."

"I've heard of him. He's a god among telepaths, is he not? Why were you training here?"

"There are a group of people set on raising another Demi-God..."

"The Game Master?"

"Yes... how did you know?"

"I hate The Game Master with a raging passion." He paused for a while, then continued. "You've gotten off lucky. If you were anyone else I would have killed you. Laufey, Surt, Jormungand, Hel, Slepnir, back to the Page." The figures turned into strange, incoherent jumbles of words, concepts, and letters, and dissipated. "They're some of my favorite soldiers. You work on your training, get strong, and kill the assholes who dare try to bring back the Game Master. Also, I understand the need to get stronger. A year ago, my powers were so underdeveloped- but that's not a topic I wish to discuss." He motioned for me to go back and drive back to wherever I came from, but then he called me back.

"If you, O'Zalia, or any of them try to intervene in my own training again, I will not be so lenient. This is your only warning, Greyskin." Then he turned into a jumble of words, and flew away.

And so ended my nearly month-long vacation. Woot.

I've decided not to talk to O'Zalia about it. In fact, I'm keeping it locked away in my mind until Nolla Row's defeat and, if I can help it, the Fury's defeat, if not even further beyond. O'Zalia's got enough problems.

But now, I'm coming home.

I'm keeping up my training. I've learned a lot of new powers and I've increased in skill. Now I get to fight Camazotz and end that murderous bastard once and for all.

Week Two

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Week Two: Part One

Fifty two hours meditating, thirty four hours practicing hand to hand combat and mental powers, ramen, water, yadda yadda yadda.

One of the two big things is that I came back to Team Malzallaway (my new name for it, named after the three people most frequently brought up in conversation) briefly when O'Zalia broke just enough through my mental barrier (hurt my head like Hell, by the way) to tell me I needed to come back for a short period of time. He said he wouldn't interfere with whatever work I was doing so long as I came down to give him a brief update and lowdown on the new powers I'm practicing. So I drove all the way back there in record time.

******
Brief Interlogue: My Day Back at O'Zalia HQ

Basically, he just asked me how many hours I was clocking in with meditation, what powers I was practicing, how, why, assessing my new powers and strength. According to him I'm far from the level of Demi-Gods, but I'm definitely getting some progress in and eventually I could be on the level of lesser Demi-Gods if I continue my practice for several months. However, we do not have several months, so I only have one more week.

Then some shenanigans happened.

Then the Butterfly Proxy's water broke. I assisted in the birth by turning down her screams to assist O'Zalia in the birth. I kept my eyes shut for the duration.

Then the Fury showed up, right nearby. I jumped back, knowing fighting him would just get my ass handed to me, with Mr. Francois Bandages as the server for the day. He apparently said mental wordy things with O'Zalia. I couldn't tune in- my Choir-based frequency is nothing like O'Zalia or the bandaged guy's mental frequencies, so...

When he was done and left, O'Zalia just stopped and sat in thought.

"I don't know about that person." He muttered to himself, drowned out to most by the cries of- get this- Isaac Malkator. So Little Isaac got a lot of attention, but for some reason his namesake was too busily deep in thought.

I asked if I could go back. He agreed. He said I need to come back in a week.

Sadly, I don't think I can go back in a week. Actually, let me explain...

******
Week Two: Part Two

I did let the investigation take a backseat the first few days this week, but then it started increasing. Entire buildings were destroyed. It seemed to escalate so suddenly- and near one of the burnt down buildings there was the title page of Farenheit 451 nearby.

The pages laid out seem to be either instantaneous or took weeks. Apparently, there were two farmers nearby. One recieved a single piece of paper in the mail and began mentally regressing. Then the man accidentally choked people to death in the streets, and the other man eventually shot him after a small conversation, according to witnesses. The piece of paper in question had six words smack dab in the middle.

"Of Mice and Men

 

 

John Steinbeck"

 

It's definitely no normal human- likely not even a Servant, if whoever it is is having the power to mentally change and alter reality itself.

 

It's beginning to escalate quickly, but I still can't bring O'Zalia into this. He's dealing with a lot of shit right now, the Fury and the little baby Isaac and the impending fight against Nolla Row and Camazotz and according to his blog a creature I can only assume is the infamous Slender Man of urban legend. I can't get him involved in yet another thing while he's so preoccupied.

This is my fight. Demi-God or no Demi-God.

Or at least my investigation.

Kord out.



Week One

I meditated for ninety six hours. I practiced hand-to-hand combat and the use of the Voices in my head for approximately twenty four. I ate nothing but Insta-Heat Ramen and drank water. My stomach hurts like a bitch but it works. Echolocation is working like a charm. I blindfolded myself and walked around for an entire day without the use of my eyes. The rest

Though I am hearing things of mysterious deaths in the area I'm in. The MO is never the same- stabbings, electrocutions, bisections, shootings, and burnings, to name a few. There is no concrete connection between any of the numerous killings, save a title page of a book is always left at the scene of the crime. I'm going to have to investigate, it's likely just some sadistic human piece of scum, but it might be something worse. A Servant, Demi-God, or worst case scenario- a Fear. I'm going to assume it is at most a Servant, but I'll approach them as if they were a more dangerous threat. It's just safer to assume that.

Update #3 of 3- I'm Going Away For A While

Today I had the shit beaten out of me by what could be best described as a screaming giant in bandages. I walked up to him and, shocking my own nerves in my forearm enough to paralyze it and harden it like stone, socked him right in the jaw as soon as he started making his way towards the others. The man- if I can call him that- was unfazed. He's not normal- I know that, for my paralyzed forearm is usually strong enough to crush rocks if aimed right. And then he bashed me back a few feet. I tried sending a static scream at him, but he deflected it with one arm and w me against the wall, and I woke up hours later.

Apparently, he's on a power level similar to, if not greater than, according to O'Zalia and the others, the mysterious Game Master himself.

I learned just how weak I really am. Even after... well... months of training, I'm still weak as a feather, compared to Demi-Gods. But I expect everything coming up against me to be crushed. So I'm going to train.

I'm leaving behind O'Zalia, Myrir, and the others, just for a little while. I've come up with my own moves. I'm going to be training for a while. At least three weeks of nothing but intense meditation and practice from here on out. I'll be blocking myself off from them at the same time so they don't hunt me down and drag me back.

You see, I'm going to train and practice until all my enemies fall and die before me. That's the only way I can be assured I'll survive in this fucked up world.

So I'm off. And when I come back, I'll be stronger.

Kord.

Update #2 of 3

All right. So first thing's first. Training's going okay, I guess. Mostly meditating. I haven't mastered the new technique, but I think I'm close.

Anyway, We've been patrolling, trying to find those Emissaries, and that hard work finally paid off. Our teammate Wildfire got in a fight with Jerard, the animal guy O'Zalia interrogated before. I heard later that he had bad mouthed someone called Kallaway, which I guess is what set her off. Whatever. She managed to win by entering this dragon form and long-story-short, he's dead now. That's another one of those dickwad Emissaries ticked off the board.

So anyways, O'Zalia told me he thought of an idea for me to finally finish off Camazotz once and for all- I can't strictly talk about it

I learned something interesting during that fight. Nolla Row isn't actually projecting mental barriers on anyone. She can give people immunity to radiation, which allows them to carry uranium unharmed, which can apparently disrupts O'Zalia's powers. That's interesting and makes me worried for the upcoming fight with her. She's either a push over or a nuclear-powered beast of destruction hell-bent on bringing back a sadistic game-playing psychopathic mummy man, and since she commanded all these other powerful creatures with an iron fist, I'm assuming it's the latter.

All that's left now is Camazotz and Nolla Row herself.

Update #1 of 3

Hi people, it's been a while and that's because I've decided to stay silent and train for a while... well, if you consider "over a month" as a mile, in which case you have a fucked up sense of time like me.

So basically, we have two people in our party now- a proxy named Myrir and a guy named Jerome. I don't know these people and I generally enjoy staying away from the main group, but O'Zalia got me up to greet them, and I finally got to see O'Zalia the Great Psychic make a faux pas right out of Buffy. Honestly, I chuckled a little when he said, "There is a thing in your stuff!" but I was cackling wildly inside and I think he could hear it. So if I don't make another update it means I am dead. Very, very dead... or vegetized. Then Myrir explained she's pregnant to someone named Malkator's child. I asked Isaac who he is but he just stared off for a while, looking pissed and about to kill something, so I'm deciding to do my own research eventually, but I kind of got the jist that he's some kind of modern eldritch Perseus.

Then I found out that Jerome was an Emissary and... kind of flipped. See, at this point the only Emissaries I knew were bad, bad people- Jerard and Camazotz and this Nolla Row lady- so the fact that there is an Emissary on our side makes me more than a little suspic

Oh. I just got a mental IM from Isaac. Apparently he's an Intended Emissary as well. Well... this is awkward. ...dare I try to see if tinfoil will work, because I can't blog while someone's mentally looking over my shoulder.

Anyways, after our last little mission, O'Zalia went off on his own and found one of Nolla Row's henchmen. Not only that, he killed said henchmen, with seemingly no scars to prove for it. He told me all about it afterwards. Apparently, the spear he carries is fireproof, so it worked pretty well since his opponent was a fire elemental.

He's also been helping me truly master the voices inside of me, and practice intense concentration. He said he based it off of Tibetan meditation and the practices of Tulpa, to try to create illusions similar to him. It kind of works, but it barely fades into view, changes colors spordadically, spins around in midair then disappears. So... for now that's a total flop.

He's also been teaching me to perfect my Static Screech, and he's helping me come up with new tactics. And I got to say, that's pretty damn cool-

...and Isaac just telepathically said, "Damn right it is." GET OUT OF MY HEAD O'ZALIA. MENTAL SCREECHOWFUCKNOMYHEAD.

Okay. So I got to sign off. More meditation and concentration. Woo hoo, said sarcastically.

Kord.

The Meeting

O'Zalia planned this. It was supposed to work out so well. But it didn't. I don't know why, but somehow the whole damn plan backfired on us. O'Zalia was able to break into one of Nolla Row's people's minds- maybe they weren't in a close enough vicinity or something- and pinpointed the location of the meeting they were supposed to be at. They were supposed to be at the old industrial Cadillac factory.

Old, spooky, and good enough for a Batman villain. Heh. More like good enough for Bat Man. As in Camazotz. As in I suck at jokes. As in I should probably get on with it.

Also, Collector Rho did some bloodwork and found that the fungus was fused directly to my blood cells, right atop the nucleolus or something. Right in DNA storage central. She wanted to run some more tests, but enough was enough. She did ask a couple questions, of course. Mainly about my life before. Then I asked questions about her life before all this shit went down. She says she can't remember life before this shit.

...memory. Touchy subject with Archivists. Anyhoo- so... we took Tom along with us, just to bring in some possible backup, though if the mentally enhanced superbraniac and I were in a spot, a kid with some moderately handy knifework (I've been in prison and I've seen better than that) and a small .38 won't do much good. Unless he had some cool powers of his own. I asked O'Zalia about this on the way there. I asked him why doesn't the other three get ... granted superpowers or something. O'Zalia said something about equilibrium and protecting the peace of humankind and the warping of the fabric of the universe. And Demi-Gods.

He explained about a couple of the Demi-Gods. He talked about the Game Master, whoever the fuck that is (I remember hearing him interrogating one of Row's lackies about it... Jerard, I think), and some of the sick things he did. Then he talked about others. Mainly he talked about Benjamin Malkator. He took on a somber tone to his voice when he told me about the brave things he did in his life, the lives he saved and the straight up supervillains whose asses he kicked with his Archive-y soul-eating-mouth-y powers... I'm trying to build a mental barrier around my thoughts right now by-the-by. If he heard me call the brave Malkator kid that, he'd tear my heart out with his mind, I bet. He seems like the person who takes out his loss and sorrows on a hapless sap, good guy or no. And I ain't gonna take that chance.

OH RIGHT THE PLAN

Well, you see, we went there to the old abandoned factory. O'Zalia noticed that he couldn't feel any mental presences from within the building. He then slowly turned open the door and made sure it didn't creak when we stepped in. It didn't matter anyways. I could have asked Them politely and They may have muted the sound. But to each his own, I guess.

Camazotz ambushed us. He sent out a wave of screeching bats. O'Zalia countered and used his telepathy to rip the nails out of the door and impale four of the bats. I heard Camazotz screaming somewhere in some kind of empathically-linked pain. O'Zalia then tried tracking the mental presence, but he knew as well as I that it was no use. As long as he was under Nolla Row's care, the only way we could locate him is if he came out to face us... unless...

I heard O'Zalia tapping his foot on the floor, waiting patiently, eyes like a hawk, and I took the advantage. I used the echoes bouncing off the surfaces and used it to track the sound difference... there was a moving figure to the right, hiding in the shadows. I rushed without warning, and O'Zalia called after me. Too late, and I was bombarded by swarms of bats. O'Zalia came in, and used his telepathy again and broke the necks of about a dozen of the things. Then Camazotz came down. He flew down from the rafters with two bat wings coming out of his back.

"Serves you right for trespassing into someone else's territory."

O'Zalia was calm and collected as he demanded, "The Game Master. What do you know about him and what is Row planning?"

"Oh, come now, Isaac. You think you don't know. You may have erased the Game Master's body from existence, but he's a resilient thing. And you just erased his body. You didn't erase his memory, his soul, his influence on the things around him. It just needs a new shell. Enough worship, enough raw eldritch power... and maybe a new shell can be formed."

"So you're going to bring back the Game Master!? You're going to let the man who murdered Benjamin Malkator come back and kill thousands for the rest of time!"

"Yes I am. Tough titties, telepath!"

O'Zalia may have had intense mental capacity, but it didn't mean his likely days as a lowly grunt proxy didn't pay off. He picked up a metal pipe and hurled it like a javelin right at Camazotz. The pipe went right through him... and the smoky, fog-like hole where the pipe ripped through rippled back into place... and Camazotz' false image flickered out of view.

"Where is he!?" I yelled.

"Maybe I'm over here!" Camazotz laughed behind me. I turned to look at him, and his image faded like a burnt out light. "Or maybe I'm over here! Or over here! Or is it over here!?" Images of him flickered into view throughout the whole building.

I chose to find the one that was moving... which one of these things just doesn't belong here. And I sent a bolt of sonic waves at it before O'Zalia could tell me to stop. It reverberated around, booming in our eardrums, making O'Zalia grit his teeth and close his eyes and making me kneel to the floor and grab my ears in pain. When I got back up, Camazotz was gone- save the bats O'Zalia killed.

It's my fault. He got away because I didn't realize what shooting off a sonic bolt would have done. I should have known when I tracked Camazotz by the echo. I should have told O'Zalia when I tracked Camazotz by sound, instead of rushing off. I was careless, and I failed.

I have thinking to do.