aterat | Pulse 003

Who; Everyone
What; Monthly Pulse!
Where; Throughout the City and Beyond!
When; Throughout September
Warnings; None as of yet, will warn if this changes.

As Summer Fades

The winds from the sea and from the north are chilly as the month changes and life in the city seems to fade back into a sense of normalcy from the celebration last month. The sun is setting earlier in the day and rising later, signs that the summer months are coming to an end and autumn is approaching. Milder temperatures aren't the only suggestions that things are changing in the city. Beginning with the new month and growing in intensity as the month progresses, those sensitive to magic, psychic imprints, or the dead will have a growing sense of foreboding. If observed, the barrier encircling the cemetery, once a nearly imperceptible sheen in the fading light of dusk, wavers like heat off hot stone, and if observed for long enough, it happens in a pattern, as though the wavers have a rhythm. Will the barrier keeping the undead at bay in the cemetery hold?

A Pulse of Business Opportunities

With proof the new arrivals from other worlds are here to stay, several places around town have opened their doors, and their employment opportunities, to all the newcomers. The Guard are hiring patrolmen to help keep the city streets safe. Patrols will be regular and will include keeping the peace in nearly ever quarter of the city. Craftsmen are needed at the Carpentry as rebuilding amps up. A huntsman's lodge has even appeared at the edge of the southern forest, with a working tavern and a room full of gossip.

Another notable addition is the Notice Board that has appeared outside the Market District Pub. It seems to be a place where anyone, natives and foreign arrivals alike, can use this as a place to solicit aid in whatever endeavor they may have at the time. There's a bounty there from the Guard, and also advertisements for local businesses as well as a few choice criticisms on various things in the city, posted by "concerned citizens" (you're free to use your imagination for this graffiti).

Aside from the above mentions, the City and its Environs offers a lot of fodder for exploration and play, and all players are welcome to devise their own encounters and locations as well. In fact, if you want to make them official, you can always submit them to the Content Submission!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While Jagger lacked tact and faced the world with sarcasm and nonchalance, he'd begun to embrace using his ability to track people using psychic imprints to help others. When he'd heard of the notice board, he'd begun making it a point to check it regularly as well, to see if anyone was in need of his particular brand of expertise. He hadn't expected to find Illyana there but his brief bout of surprise was quickly darkened by her comment as he moved to read the notice as well.

"Well, that's a thing. I happen to have a knack for finding missing things."

It took a moment for her to actually turn her attention to him. Instead she found her mind preoccupied with her own past. It seemed there was no escaping the strange feelings that seemed to overwhelm her with that particular topic. So many memories of being a scared little girl washed over her. Memories that she did not want others to know still held power over her.

"Do you?" Her voice held a slight waiver to it, revealing more hesitation than normal. "Even children?"

"Anyone who's touched something recently." He nodded. He noted the quaver in her voice and his brow lowered slightly in concern. "Everything alright?"

"Anyone? How useful," she replied in the most casual tone she could muster. It was difficult to try to seem unbothered when the truth was quite the opposite. Yet, that was precisely what she was attempting to do. At least until he asked her if everything was alright. That caught her by surprise. Why did he care? Why ask at all? She looked away from him and refused to lift her head when she answered.

"Yes. I simply...know what it is like to be a missing child."

"Well, I can at least get an idea of where they are. If it's not something I'm familiar with or can't piece together, I might as well have known the question in Jeopardy without having an answer."

He watched how she responded to his question, his frown deepening, and then two thoughts connected that he hadn't realized fit together before. She'd been in Limbo for years. She led a hostile takeover. She couldn't be older than him, and seemed a bit younger in features.

"You were a child when you were taken to Limbo."

She blinked at his statement and for a moment seemed almost caught off guard by it. The fact that it was a statement and not a question made it appear as though he were quite certain he was correct. Was there any getting out of this now? Yes. She could just teleport away. Run away from questions and facing truths as she so often did back home. There was no Limbo to escape to here though and for some reason she didn't quite feel like running. What a strange and confusing feeling.

"I was six," she said quietly. "Belasco took an...interest in me. Love he called it, but, can one with no soul love?" she let out a strange chuckle and looked down. Perhaps that was a question she should ask herself. "He took mine. Piece by piece to create his precious Bloodstones. Stones he would use to summon his Elder Gods." She shook her head. "I know what it is like all too well to be missing, alone, and scared. To know that no one can come save you. Or perhaps that no one is even trying to."

He frowned as she spoke, but he wasn't disbelieving. He hadn't been in business long as a private investigator, even less so as a paranormal one, but he'd spoken to clients who were lying, who were trying to find sort of attention but had nothing to back it up. He'd also spoken to clients who'd had such traumatic things happen that their emotions were impossible to fake.

Illyana had experienced something he could never fathom, or, more to the point, he could, and all it would take was removing a glove, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. There was a part of him, the part that willed him to use his abilities to help others finds closure, that even urged him to, but he wouldn't violate that trust. That, and he'd felt the auras of demons. He was pretty sure he didn't want to feel Hell.

"I'm sorry that you know that." He nodded, though, serious. "But I know what it feels like to be cast off, and I'm not leaving them to it."

There was a certain degree of awkwardness to having said so much only to get such a simple response back. A response that she could not help but feel as though there was pity in his response.

"I do not need pity," she said with her head down slightly. Her tone lacked any signs of annoyance or too much emotion at all. "I should not have..." shared so much. She cut herself off and shook her head. "If we know where they last were, you could find things out about them?"

He kept people at a distance. He knew that about himself, but that didn't make him any better and allowing them closer. There was something about Illyana, though, that made him want to break that habit of pushing people away with noncommittal responses and he frowned as she withdrew...exactly the way he'd made her.

"It's not pity. Sympathy, maybe, but...you deserve better than pity." He didn't know how long the children had been missing, but he had a feeling they'd wait just a bit longer. He didn't reach out to her but that was more out of habit than a desire to avoid the contact. "I can't imagine how lonely your life must have been. For what it's worth, I don't think it defines you."

"You would not know what I deserve," there was some bite in her reply, but less than it might be expected. There were many things she probably deserved, the top of that list was more than likely distrust. Perhaps pity was among those as well.

"I was not completely alone there. I ...escaped eventually and found... teachers," she said hesitantly. Friends. That was more accurate and yet she could not bring herself to say the word. "I survived because of what they taught me. One taught me white magic and the other taught me combat. Without them I would not have stood a chance against S'ym and N'astirh," she closed her eyes as she remembered both of them. "Without them I would have never taken Belasco down." Thoughts overwhelmed her and she opened her eyes with a perplexed expression. "This is...odd. I am not usually so sentimental." And yet all she could feel was this strange overwhelming sadness and regret. Both of those teachers had died for her. Because of her. One by her own hands.

She frowned and then a white disc began to form around her feet. Running seemed like the best action here before she said too much.

"It sounds to be like you've done a lot of things you had to do to survive." He watched the disk appear, remember watching her use them to, what, to teleport? That was probably one of the less weird things in this place. He could get used to it. He wasn't going to stop her. It was clear to him she hadn't talked about this with a lot of people if anyone outside of those directly related to it. He'd give her space.

"And someone who's done a lot of things because they were forced to or else and can still keep it together doesn't deserve pity."

Pulse 003

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