aterat | Panic at the harbor!

Entry tags:

Panic at the harbor!

Who; Waver and Anyone
What; Smart idiot needs ass saved
Where; Harbor district at night
When; During the event
Warnings; Being attacked by a wererat pack. So there will be fighting/injury/giant rat people.
Note; If you would like something specific or have an idea, you are welcome to talk to me about it. I am also open to writing personalized starters or doing other stuff, just drop me a line over on the plotting post or send me a message on discord @ WhimsicalSpook#8219

Waver had decided to head to his workshop in the harbor district that evening. He cut rather quickly through the more populated area with its businesses. Passing by the forges and the louder taverns where people were being sent away after last call, he started towards the more rundown area where his destination was nestled. It wasn’t too far from the docks, surrounded by a few equally ramshackle, dilapidated abandoned buildings. All he had to do was cut down another back alley stretch and a turn down another and he’d be there.

Truth be told, Waver had been more than a little lucky in his time here. He had picked the area, knowing full-well that it was less desired because of the occasional situation with creatures overrunning the area since they weren’t dealt with as often as they were in the main areas of the city. But he’d set up a solid bounded field to deter things (and strangers) from getting too close to the workshop, and he was mindful of what alleyways had reported sightings of the harbor's less pleasant denizens.

That said, luck had an unfortunate way of running out, considering the recent warnings going out in the city. As the professor fiddled with his lighter to try to get a flame to light a mystic code for the last stretch of his walk, there was the unexpected sound of footfall ahead of him. A group? “Hm?” His eyes narrowed slightly, and he lowered the lighter, the shiny gold glinting in the moonlight as he glanced around, only to spot a group of people-no... Wererats, ahead of him. Those… are definitely some rodents of unusual size… He mused with a growing panic, as one seemed to make a sound and all eyes turned to him.

He had been so confident he knew which routes were best to take to avoid things like this… It was then he realized it was signalling to another of its group, who’d been positioned in the shadow of the building. “When the hell did they get so organized?” The magus jumped back just enough to avoid taking a direct strike, but it still caught his side with a tear of fabric and a shot of pain that caused him to let out a shout.

A follow up curse on the tip of his tongue as he looked to the alleyway’s exit, backing up further to try to keep out of arm’s reach of the wererat that had attacked first. But… Well, there were a few more at either end of the alleyway. A whole damn pack? Fantastic…

Thunder rumbled in the distance as he dug a small glass bottle out from one of the inside pockets of his jacket and considered his options. A storm was coming, probably one of the fast moving ones that had plagued the weather recently. Not something he wanted to be caught in the middle of on top of this. Swirling the liquid inside, he activated his circuits and uttered a quiet word to add a little extra bang to the mixture, then wound back to throw it at one end of the alleyway to hopefully scattered the wererats there. The bang and the flash of light that lit up the night blinding and sending the creatures shrieking. A simple trick, but effective nonetheless. Probably wouldn’t work a second time, so he took off at a run to the next alleyway in hopes of getting to his workshop before they caught up…

Only to get tackled by the first wererat again, the others not far behind to circle around and close them off. Its jaws snapped at him and causing him to recoil and try to push it off of him even as he fell to the street. This was not happening. He was not about to become a wererat himself. Nope. Definitely not!

“Not interested in joining your little club, you fucking demonic beast!” He snapped, tone high in a panic, trying to push back against it and get in a decent opportunity for a feeble gandr shot that might deter it.

This just wasn’t his night.

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"The locals are angry about something." Vishnu disappeared with a thought and Joker approached the professor. His first instinct was to leave, let the professor sort himself out and maintain a bit of his mystique, but he pushed the thought away. This place was different, the people were different, and he didn't need to hide who he was.

And Waver's question proved to the boy he hadn't been as subtle as he'd liked to have been and that mischievous smirk returned to the rogue's face as he tugged the red gloves of his costume to straighten them.

"Something like that. Are you injured? I could heal you."

“Yeah… Well, they’ve successfully thrown the night off, so I think we’re even.” He muttered with a huff. His whole night was entirely thrown off now. Griping about that could wait, though, mostly… And the fact that Ren didn’t try to insist he didn’t know him was a bit of a relief, he had a feeling some people probably would have tried to keep some air of mystery about them as though he didn’t have eyes and a penchant for reading the people around him. Or they would have gotten pissed at him… It was a toss up, really.

But the smirk on the teen’s face gets a rise in his brow. “So you know some healing magic and you can summon things… I hope you realize I have a lot of questions right now.” So many… So very many… Most of them with vague, half-formed theories attached. “But yes, I am. Bloody things kind of landed a hit before you arrived.” He responded with a small gesture to his side and a rather nasty looking gash under the torn fabric. Knowing his usual recovery rate and his abysmal talents, he’s not so proud to say no to a little help with it. If he had one of his other mystic codes, he might be able to do something… But he didn’t yet.

"I'm sure you do, Professor." But he was going to see to that wound, first. Or rather, have a Persona see to it. He touched his mask again, calling Lakshmi from the depths of his consciousness, and a beautiful woman manifested at his shoulder. She twirled, and a wash of warm light surrounded Waver, knitting his wounds. It wouldn't replace the blood he'd already lost, but Diarhan would at least soften the blow. The woman smiled comfortingly before disappearing the same as the others.

"That should help. And...what I do is...complicated." How did he explain to the man he was a Fool, the trump card capable of summoning multiple Persona to aid him in battle? The guy didn't even know what a Persona was.

How many of these beings could Ren summon? the mage couldn’t help but wonder to himself as another appeared and the wound in his side closed up. Even if he was still going to need time to recover, not needing to actually worry about patching himself up was a very big help. The idea of trying to on his own hadn’t been particularly pleasant to consider. “It does, thank you. I’m not really skilled with healing magics myself.” He confirmed with a sigh, lowering his hand from his side as the pain faded.

The comment about it being complicated gets a slight tilt of his head. “Complicated doesn’t surprise me. As far as summonings go, I am quite sure Vishnu wouldn’t answer anyone’s call in my world.” Letting go of the barrel now that he felt a little more stable, he considered what he’d seen again as he started walking. There was no way he planned to do this standing around waiting for wererats to come back.

“Now, if you aren’t summoning the actual beings themselves… Then I might compare what I observed to something a classmate of mine focused on back when I was a student. Projection magecraft, some mages use it instead of traditional animal familiars. The magus does this by calling up and projecting an illusion tied to their own inner self. That said, I haven’t seen an example that powerful before.” Though there are things the man doesn’t yet know about this classmate on that subject, but Waver had been thinking about them a little more recently for a few reasons.

But not all worlds were the same, of course, and this was more him making an observation to see if something might share a close similarity mixed a little (or a lot) with his inability to not express some curiosity over the subject of magic he’d not seen before. “And it seems like you’ve got a variety to choose from…” One thing that probably would have helped them here would be the fact that he did know Mitsuru… Which meant he also knew of persona through her, but their methods were so different that it wasn’t like he could make that connection right from the start.

Several, and many more if he had access to the velvet room, which he doesn't. "They aren't actually gods." At least not as far as Ren could figure. They were manifestations of his psyche, only his was special and could form different strengths and weaknesses based on necessity.

He nodded as Waver continued, though. "Something like that. It's called Persona." He'd nearly said "we call it Persona" but stopped himself. He might have outed himself to Waver, but he wasn't going to risk his friends.

"My...Persona's special. The Trickster. It means it can change to suit needs."

The confirmation that he wasn’t entirely wrong gets a nod, so not actual gods but something more tied to Ren himself. It was an interesting thing to think of, but he paused as the teen continued and a look of recognition flits across his face. “A Persona? I’ve met someone here with one of those. Although their method of summoning was quite different, and they only had the one.” So he feels a little less silly than he might have for not thinking of it otherwise, instead it just makes him more curious.

“So a Trickster’s persona can change, hm?” From what the professor understood from his time here, a Persona was tied to the user’s inner self, not unlike what he had described before… So if Ren’s could change as needed, what did that say about Ren himself? Changeable, adaptable…

Humming, he glanced at the teen’s disguise again. “I take it the mask is tied to it as well?” It seemed important, at least from observing his last summoning. A unique method to call the persona forth, especially compared to shooting yourself in the head as he’d witnessed before.

He must have met one of the others, Mitsuru Kirijo or Shinjiro Aragaki. He'd yet to meet either of them, but Fox had told him enough about them to understand they were similar, but different. The 'evokers' were part of some sort of experiment, though Ren didn't know the details.

He nodded at Waver's question, as he was on the right track, both with the Trickster and the mask. He closed his eyes for a moment and with a shimmer, his clothes returned to their normal appearance, as did the glasses he wore.

"Persona is the mask you wear to face the world, at least that's how it was explained to me."

Waver could only watch with a curious rise of his brows as Ren’s outfit changed, and the mask was replaced with his usual glasses… He remembered Amleth’s thesis on projection. He’d actually read over it when he returned to the clock tower. Even if it was likely a little different, given the difference in worlds… It felt close enough to make the comparison. The man had thought things like this possible… but he couldn’t recall seeing Amleth put his theories into practical use. Weirdly, he absently realized he hadn’t heard much of what his old classmates got up to these days.

Yet Ren was, at least by the looks of it, manipulating his appearance to reflect his inner self and calling up these ‘Persona’ as easily as breathing. However, he did it, it was damned impressive. The professor nodded at the explanation, it made sense. Though he had to ask, as that last bit stuck out to him. “Someone explained it to you? So there’s someone who teaches you about how this all works.”

He nodded, though he was hesitant to explain everything about the Velvet Room and the strange people who dwelled there.

"There's a world that exists between sleep and the waking world, and there are...beings I guess you'd call them who live there. It's...complicated." Which roughly translated to 'I don't really want to get too into it'.

After their last conversation, Waver was getting the feeling there was a lot the teen ‘didn’t really want to get into.’ Which wasn’t necessarily surprising, a lot of his students had things they kept to themselves, even if he had his suspicions or had figured it out already. He wanted to know more about it, because complicated or not, it wasn’t hard for him to vaguely understand it enough to want more information to form a complete picture.

But… Again, being used to his students and their very complicated lives? It was better to not push too hard when trust was a tentative, fragile thing, depending on what they’d been through. Let Ren tell him what he was comfortable telling him and leave the rest for later. “I see… Well, it’s good that you have someone to refer to on this.”

Besides, there were other things nagging at him. Things he could probably actually help with given their deal and the fact that he owed Ren one for saving his ass. Coming up to the workshop, Waver passed through the bounded field he set up easily and expected Ren would do the same. Given their deal, he would have already taught him to ignore the light compulsion to ignore the property and there would only be a light tug at the back of his mind as he crossed it. Unlocking the door, the professor glanced at him thoughtfully. “I have a couple more questions, if you don’t mind. And something I’ve been meaning to show you concerning the deal we made a while back.”

He was glad Waver respected his privacy on the matter and fell into step beside the man as they made their way to his workshop. As it was, he wasn't sure how to explain Igor without getting into everything, and while he was beginning to trust Waver, he was a long way from spilling all his secrets. It had taken their being trapped there to really fill his friends in on the whole Velvet Room situation, after all.

He would be lying if he said his interest was piqued when Waver let them inside his shop and mentioned he had something to show Ren and he nodded. He could answer questions, to an extent.

"Sure, Professor. What is it?"

He’s silent for a moment, if only because the relief that settled over him at being in his space where it was safe and comfortable was rather heavy after all that stress. Sighing lightly, he shrugged off his coat and set it on the back of a chair before considering the idea of sitting down on the sofa for a moment while they talked. Sitting would be nice right now… Really nice. But the professor gets the distinct feeling that after the events of the evening that once he sits down and lets himself properly relax? He’ll have a hell of a time forcing himself to get up for the next 1-2 business days…

So, instead, he moves for what used to be a long tavern counter that he’d been using to keep his projects organized. One of them feeling a bit like it was turning into a dead end, while others had given him some things to think about. He ignores them, though, in favour of rummaging on the shelf below the counter for the thing he had thought of that might help Ren (and possibly others) out.

“Your ability. I am aware that using a persona can be somewhat draining on the user. The fact that you can change yours has me wondering if it’s more of a drain or not…? Secondly, your personas seem to have a variety of different abilities. Do any of them provide some form of security if you need a safe place to rest?” Waver could ask how often he finds himself in the middle of something, but between the things the kid brings him and tonight’s heroics… It seems a safe bet to say the teen gets into things often enough.

"It can be." It was an answer to both questions, and the young man offered it as he watched Waver work. He was prone to making his own tools, but enchantment was beyond him, and if Waver had cooked something up, he was more than interested in the outcome.

Ren blinked at the question, shaking his head. "I don't...think so? What do you mean by 'a safe place to rest'?"

He nodded in acceptance of the answer, having more or less expected it, but wanting to make sure he understood correctly. In some way, this ability delved into one’s inner well as easily as magecraft did. The drain made sense, but it was important to have some kind of safety net in place if you got yourself in a bad situation… And as someone who’s own rain was pretty shallow, he had developed small tricks to counter it.

Which leads to the second question and waiting for Ren’s answer. The question returned is as good as an answer, and made his prior concerns about a random mysterious teenager running around the harbor district (with a crowbar) feel more valid. “I mean just that, a safe place to rest. Safe from someone or something, jumping you when you’re in the middle of trying to take a breath and recover.”

He paused in his search and straightened, gesturing around the workshop. “Like the bounded field I have set up around the property of this place. Things like the wererats or random passersby who haven’t been here wouldn’t even give the place a second glance on the way by.” Lowering his arms, he folded them lightly. “Now, this one will stand for as long as I’m here with a little maintenance now and then unless something mucks it up. But mages like myself have also developed methods of generating temporary fields as well that cover a smaller radius using single use items.”

The teen never stopped listening raptly when the Professor spoke. He got the impression Waver didn't think much of his own abilities, but having the ingenuity to develop a means to shield oneself in the field wasn't something to take lightly, either. In fact, his limited magical talent could easily be thanked for the inspiration and Ren nodded as the older mage spoke.

"I don't have anything like that, and...I can definitely see the usefulness." it was something like having a safe room in your pocket and who wouldn't want that?

Ren was right, of course. His abilities weren’t much to speak of to begin with, not in a world like his own. But that was the truth of it. What he lacked made him work harder to find ways to keep up or stay alive among those far more powerful than him. “I thought you might say that.” He agreed, going back to his rummaging as he pulled out what he’d been working on. “Not that I know what it is you get up to in this place ‘exploring.’” But he can suspect things, here and there. Especially now. “But I expect that you could use some security in a tight spot, regardless.”

This world seemed to like to throw danger at them at random, after all.

What he finally pulled out appeared to be an incense and a holder. “So… The effects will activate once you light them. They’ll burn for about 20-30 minutes, giving you safety for about that time.” Naturally, the idea was developed from his own temporary bounded fields created with his cigars… But he wasn’t about to encourage a teenager to smoke, and the only reason his own was a cigar was because they were developed for more than just bounded fields. They were more of an all in one compared to what he was giving Ren now. “Having seen what you can do, I don’t expect you’ll have an issue with using them.”

There’s a part of Waver, the teacher in him, that also wonders if he should be showing the teen how to set up something more permanent. He had suspicions that Ren (and the other masked teenagers he’d heard running around the harbor) might have a gathering place around here somewhere… But that wasn’t something he was willing to approach now, let Ren come to him about it himself or wait till it seemed like they had a little more trust between them in their arrangement.

(ooc: I totally understand if you would like to hand wave the rest of this given how old it is, I am slowly getting back into things and if you want to do something else let me know <3 )

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Panic at the harbor!

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