WHEN: 1943 AUG 24 ; morning
WHERE: Beneath Windgrace Manor
WHO: Sato, Hunter, and Dinah
--
Cael — Today at 1:21 PM
Sato was, perhaps, not in the best state for meeting with anyone. He had just hunted, just fed - he had at least bathed and changed his clothes but the smell of fresh kill clung to him, irony and sharp in the air despite his glamour being back in place. He hadn't really thought to send a message ahead of time for the lady of the house, relying on Hunter to squiddle on up to inform Dinah with excited black-bunny hops and a toothy grin that Sato was loitering in the opening to the caverns beneath.
He was dressed in one of his black Academy shirts, not buttoned up all the way but at least tucked in, high-waisted pants ending just below the knee where they'd normally tuck into boots of some sort. Instead he was barefoot, a set of sandals tied together by a cord hanging from a belt loop at his waist. One hand was on the wet earth of the initial sloping tunnel down into the depths, eyes closed as he waited.
dollihead — Today at 1:29 PM
"What, now?!" Di had been perfectly at ease in her room when the bunny messenger arrived, and after a quick pat of his toothy little head, she threw her glamour up and hurried down towards the garden. It was a little difficult to find the entrance to the tunnel in the fog, haphazardly positioning Helios on her shoulder, and she paused when she saw Sato waiting.
she smelled blood
Di was in a plain grey day dress, even lacking shoes; she never usually wore them in the tunnels anyway, and she lifted her hand in greeting towards him as she approached.
"thank you for coming to see me. How are you?"
Cael — Today at 1:57 PM
“Now, now!” Hunter had responded, the little rabbit darting about excitedly. He followed Dinah down to the entrance, morphing as he often did down below into the winged furry bat form to flutter about in a sorry attempt to help her find her way. He fluttered over to not so much land on Sato as hover around in the air nearby, eliciting a little shake of the head and a soft exhale of air through the nostrils that could be construed as a chuckle by those that knew him well enough.
“How do you mean?” He asked as he turned to her, eyes opening to peer up through the dark. They were always bloodshot, the whites full of many little red vessels that almost seemed to move. Sato turned to gesture down the tunnels. “This place. Did you build it?”
dollihead — Today at 2:02 PM
The sound of the gentle flapping was an easier method of following him than Hunter would no doubt give himself credit for. With Helios too, it was as if she didn't need to see at all. Her own eyes were still rheumy and white, with her sickly-pale skin and similarly pale hair, she looked practically ghostly in the dim light.
"No, we didn't build it. We found this place. Everything down here...with the exception of the furniture, the candles and the drugs...oh, and my books. it's just as we found it. Mind your step. There are roots that can be a little hard to see" Said the blind girl, practically skipping ahead into the dark. "I was under the impression you were already aware of the place. You knew to meet here, at least."
Cael — Today at 2:15 PM
Sato was not quite as pale but the visible veins in his skin maker him look moreso. He might’ve looked older thanks to that and the silvery hair but for the youthfulness to his face otherwise, no wrinkles to speak of. It was maybe more accurate to say he looked like someone who’d died and never quite fully decayed.
“Hunter didn’t mention details,” Sato explained as he made his way along the cavern’s entrance, first by uncertain footsteps and then, after contemplating, along his hands and feet by way of skittering along the walls. Spikes of blood made decent enough climbing grips and kept him aloft well enough. When they reached flatter ground he dropped to the floor again, dirt falling to the cavern floor as his blood separated from it to seep back into his body.
dollihead — Today at 2:18 PM
Di paused at the bottom of the descent into the cave. The candles were lit around the dark crystal on it's podium, the sign of the Gate held aloft on each statue adding more eerie yellow light to the darkness. "A lack of details...is probably for the best. Don't take it personally, but I don't generally approve of guests down here in general. What was it you wanted to see? anything in particular? or just a look around? We can get you better...situated first, perhaps, and then we can discuss what dorian suggested, mm?" she smiled cheerfully.
Cael — Today at 2:25 PM
Sato shook his head. He didn’t seem offended but then again his face didn’t do much of anything emotive to begin with. <No unwanted guests,> Hunter confirmed with a happy flutter around their heads. <Only by sll’ha. Inviting. Others are consumed.> The bat flew over to stretch and coil about Dinah’s neck like a fuzzy black scarf. <But the Bthnknythgof'n is invited.>
There was no surprise at Hunter’s speech in his head. Sato wasn’t looking around at the place at large… rather he was staring specifically deeper into the tunnels as if drawn by something in particular. “I can feel him here,” the Jikininki explained and lifted an arm. Wriggling worm-like movements were visible beneath his skin. “Further in. But we can talk anywhere you prefer.”
dollihead — Today at 2:28 PM
Di reached her hand up for Hunter as he fluttered with a giggle, and as he settled around her throat, she nuzzled against him with a red-lipped smooch against his head. "All others. yes. you've kept the place so safe. have there been many wanderers, my little love? lost sorts?" she cocked her head at Sato's reaction and her smile grew knowing.
"you're looking for the father, aren't you? The Gate?" she gestured to the squirming in his skin. "I can show you the way. Stay close. not all of the tunnels are mapped, and some end in a dead-drop into water" she sauntered further into the dark, beckoning him to follow her.
"you have met him? You have the Wigglies. That's what blake called them, at any rate. It seems they are everywhere."
Cael — Today at 2:41 PM
Sato observed the affectionate interaction between the pair of them with a quiet curiosity. “He’s adopted you,” he remarked and looked away as if not to intrude. From the squiddle there was a little pulse of affirmation followed by something… other. Curious and quiet and ruminating, as if Hunter himself weren’t sure how to process the feeling. Di received a flash of something by way of explanation- a room, dark like the tunnel. Candles, sigils, an operating slab. Confusion and chanting, blood and black ichor. Hunter’s birth had been into a world he immediately fled from, pursued by the threat of restraint and control and binding. And prevailingly there was the sense that Sato had been there.
“You’re familiar with Blake as well then,” Sato was saying. He’d waited until the vision subsided, indicating that he’d seen it too or at least been aware it was happening. “Familiar enough for him to speak on them. They’re a mark of his…” he faltered at the word. “…father.” He didn’t say much beyond that, instead choosing to follow in thoughtful silence for some time until he felt the need to add, “…we’ve met. We’re. Always meeting.”
dollihead — Today at 2:48 PM
At the vision of his Birth, Di snuggled Hunter a little closer. She reciprocated with one of her own memories, opening the door to the stars and letting him through, bringing him down by feeding him her datura-laced blood. She beamed at Sato's words. "sometimes I rather think of it the other way around. Hunter is likely the closest I have to a child of my own. He isn't the first I have called through, but he is the one that stayed closest" she brushed her fingertips over Hunters' head, shivering at the sensation the eldritch Beastie's memory had invoked.
"Blake is a great friend of my twin. We've met a few times. A sweet boy, but reckless" she agreed. "He's told me of his father, of their connection. I brought him down here not long ago. To the pool" she paused at the sculpture at the doorway to Yog-Sothoth's temple, turning to smile towards him. "I have shared my blood with him too. The old ones work through me. Give me gifts, and enable me to share those gifts with others, if they are willing. I like to think that these tunnels are a gift too. This way. This is the room" she beckoned again, stepping into the blue illuminated chamber, pausing in front of the font.
[12:37] Naoki Sato || Snuggles were always welcome with the squiddle. Hunter let out that chittering sorta happy noise he did when receiving such affections, nuzzling his catty-batty head against Dinah's fingers. "You're more a parent to him than I," Sato admitted without any sense of sadness or grief. It was stated like a fact, the same way someone might mention the sky is blue. "He is happy with you and your twin. Fond of Blake. I wasn't sure if beings out of Time could form connections like that."
As they entered the temple Sato paused, standing on the stones that made up the wide circular border running around the perimeter of the pool's base. He had to shut his eyes in there, so close to the pool. The 'wrigglies' under his skin were far more active, almost threatening to burst from the protective layers of flesh to jump right into the waters despite the distance.
"...Blake. Does this happen with him yet? In his father's presence?" Sato asked, taking a few uncertain steps forward to lean a knee against the stone, then hand on the pool's edge.
[12:41] Dinah (dollihead) too remained at the base of the font, not getting any closer. her 'reworking' was not yet finished, and she didnt want to risk any splashes exposing her. She did give a quiet warning of "Be careful of the water", fingers playing over Hunter's 'fur'. She chuckled quietly.
"I sometimes think of myself as a creature out of time too. I am far older than I look" she stepped up onto the bottom step, shaking her head at his question of blake.
"he dived straight into the water when I told him it was connected. It is. I have been feeding it, blood and eyes and other parts. As I said, my blood is a gift. It heals some" she walked around the edge of the pool, watching the writhing under his skin with a shiver of revulsion at the imagined sensation of what that would feel like.
[12:51] Naoki Sato looked at Dinah for a moment as she warned of the water. After thinking on the warning he nodded. "It's been some time since I've interacted with him directly," he said with a little tilt of his head. "...and at the same time, it feels like it's only been a few days. Things are distorted, with him. I couldn't tell you my age. I could use physical markers to determine what the biological age of this body would be. But it wouldn't be accurate either. Either way, if we... woke him. You and I would not be able to discuss what we need to."
Standing from the pool he stepped away and turned to face Dinah fully. There was a sharpness in the stare, something probing and studious as he looked at her face, at the thump of pulse in her neck. "Do you give it to heal him or because you enjoy giving it? There is a difference. If he feels that, he may get carried away."
[12:55] Dinah (dollihead) sighed gently and she peered down into the luminous pool. "...that happens with such alarming regularity around here, I find. people not remembering their ages. I still have a grasp on that at least, if not the exact year. Close enough to count, i suppose" she nodded again, bouncing down from the step. She canted her head in thought at the question though, pausing her petting of hunter.
"Both" she decided after a few moments consideration. "My life is theirs, in many ways. it pleases me to offer and it be accepted. And that it actually helps, all the better for it" she smiled again, though this wasn't the same usual plastered-on sunny smile of topside. This was somewhat dreamy, a little unsettling.
"Whenever I have had any direct validation from any of the rest, it has normally come in the form of dreams, omens. directions. signs. to be able to give back is a strange and wonderful thing to me"
[13:04] Naoki Sato lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "This island does not follow the rules of the mundane world. Even if the people do - for now." The pause in pets made Hunter-bat twitch his ears and let out a 'murr' that copied one of the newest feline additions to Windgrace manor but otherwise, he didn't protest. He remained Dinah's black fuzzy scarf and even lost the bat wings for the moment, melding them back into himself for more streamline wear. The squiddle seemed a teeny bit surprised at Dinah's answer, his head tilting to peer a few eyes up at her. <Good pain?> he asked, making Sato chuckle a little - actually smiling, if faintly.
"His father enjoys the things that are involved in those offerings. Pain, blood. Knives, teeth," Sato said, teetering on taking another step closer to the pool again but thinking better of it. Instead his blood slit a cut open in his forearm, letting the pinkish-pale tendrils of odd wriggling nerves reach out as if seeking further connection. "If you open yourself to him directly, be careful. You may end up with them as well. But that requires he place a part of himself in you. You'll have more than dreams, then... though what you see. Feel. Is quieter when he's dormant as he is now."
[13:09] Dinah (dollihead) returned her fingers to petting her scarf, chuckling at the question from Hunter and she smiled impishly.
"Ritual pain is neither good nor bad, darling. it hurts, but it is necessary. the pain is what makes it an offering" she tried to explain. "if it were nothing but pleasantries it wouldn't be a sacrifice" she sat herself on the edge of the font, stretching her legs out in front of her and plopping the squiddle in her lap.
"I mostly only tend to use knives. I always have, before I could use claws or teeth." she watched the squirming nerves and she hummed in consideration.
"I wonder if he had tried, when he nearly consumed my arm. I touched where he rested, and they flooded up my arm and would have consumed me. it needed removing before I lost myself" she looked upwards to the floating stones.
"Yog-sothoth has never been one of my primary patrons until I came here. It is strange how things wane and change in that regard. The decision is ultimately his. I have been putting my face in the water at least, when I have been giving him my eyes. If I end up chosen like that, I suppose that will be how"
[13:25] Naoki Sato held his hand out towards Dinah, watching idly as the writhing appendages stretched through the air, reaching and uncoiling in that direction. He pulled his hand back, carefully pressing as if to force them back into himself, red webbing like stitches closing the wound and beginning to clot shut. "There is the possibility of being sent... thrown elsewhere. Forward. Backward. He sees, experiences it all at once so there is no reference for where you came from once he's inside you. Of course he could bring you back - or forward. But there is always a cost for traveling like that. The mortal body is not meant to."
"...but maybe things will be different once the world is changed." Sato looked upward toward the ceiling of the chamber. The shift subject matter was quick. "They created a statue out of the energy you contained in the ravine. It is sealed, stable. But it is a viable source of power that can be focused." Sato looked back down and nodded at the pool. "I mean to break open a Gate. I am not certain that doing so, on its own, would shatter the magic that covers the island but it is the only place I know to start."
[13:30] Dinah (dollihead) had lifted her fingers from Hunter's fur at the offered hand, nearly reaching to touch one of the squirming veins but she returned her hand to the squiddle. Resumed her petting.
"I suppose that would make sense" she murmured "whenever I have had to do time manipulation of any form before, it always requires an anchor. most often, at least two" she turned her gaze from his wrist to his face with a smile as they spoke of the changing of the world.
"The goddess told me how. I know what to do." she stood again, gathering hunter to her chest. "I need a strong source of necromantic energy, which we have. We need a weak spot. We need a necromancer. And we need the spirit of a powerful dead hermeticist. And it just so happens I know one of those." Her smile widened. "There needs to be two hermeticists. one on this side, and one dead. And they pull apart the veil from both sides at the same time."
[13:37] Naoki Sato raised a brow. He looked at the chamber around them and back to Dinah. His own knowledge of the gods and goddesses was limited and it showed on the quirk of questioning on his face. "I don't know a goddess," he explained with a shake of his head. "But I am a necromancer. And I suppose, since you teach the subject, you would be the living Hermeticist?" His face twitched, lips pulling thin. "Professor Dashrix would be the other... but he would not assist with this. In fact if he knew, I'm sure he'd put a stop to my ability to leave the estate." Sato took a step forward, eyes focused on her with unblinking intensity. "If you don't want him to intervene, he can't know what we're attempting to do."
[13:40] Dinah (dollihead) smiled and she turned to face Sato with a little laugh. "My first Patron. Alethea, the goddess of truth. specifically, the truth in revelation of hidden or forbidden knowledge. She is seen as hands, with eyes at their centers. One of my first mutations" she bowed her head. "I have been studying hermetic magic since I were a child. Most of our family line do. My father, however, was taught, and is quite sadly dead" the tone of her voice said it was in fact, not quite sadly at all.
"I do not tend to speak to the professor. I have seen him but a few times outside of the academy and I am not quite the chatterbox with people that are not like to reciprocate it. does that mean, then, that he will attempt to intervene if we begin the rite?"
[13:46] Naoki Sato just nodded. "Alethea," he repeated as if he were a pupil memorizing a lesson. Something about the imagery of eyes in hands made him furrow his brow but he said nothing on it. "He would try," he answered, his jaw tense as he chewed on the inside of his cheek. "There are things he could do to make it more difficult, maybe stop us entirely but - maybe not a group of us. I've never tried before." Sato frowned and looked down at the stones beneath their feet. "....he's been quiet. Immersed in some--project. Some great work that's occupying his focus and I worry that it may be pre-emptive, to prevent the effort. We should act quickly."
[13:49] Dinah (dollihead) reached up to scritch Hunter under the chin, considering his words.
"I know a few people that might be willing to give assistance but I am not entirely certain what assistance would be beneficial in a situation like this" she admitted. "Most of my ritual is on a far smaller scale. Far less...groundbreaking. This will be a first for me. for many of us, i suspect." she worried her lip with her pointed teeth.
"i will check the stars. if we want to destroy something, then we ought to wait for a dark moon. I will pray. Reach out. When the stars are right, that will be the right time for it. I have a great respect for professor dashrix but this is far, far more important. I shall not let it be disrupted."
[13:56] Naoki Sato sighed. "...protecting us. Cover. Distraction. Lex -- the Professor is a Technomancer. He has automatons, he can manipulate shadows as well as I do blood. If we are occupied with the ritual itself, there should be others around to prevent us from being disrupted," he explained. At the notion Hunter teleported out of Dinah's lap, forming himself into the form he took only when stalking, guarding, menacing those that did not belong in spaces given to him, or spaces he'd claimed. <Ya nnn-geb,> came the rumbling voice, echoing in their heads. <Guard you. Guard ritual. Consume - > at which Sato grimaced. "...don't consume the Professor. Thirteen needs him," he admitted with some level of lingering reluctance.
[14:01] Dinah (dollihead) nodded and she smiled cheerfully "I will speak with dorian. he would be there protecting me as he always does, i have no doubt. And I called forth Freedom itself, I will ask him to come too. Maybe a few others that I have spoken of changing the world with, see if they will put their money where their mouth is" she released Hunter as he left her, though she beamed at his form and lavished that with pets too, despite his monstrous appearance.
"Sweet baby, you would do beautifully. but yes. please don't consume the professor. I wonder, though, If i ought to open a few more doors prior? A little distraction, perhaps? Simple creatures, not difficult to deal with but irritating" she glanced backwards towards the gate. "...I know the names of many things that ought not crawl here. but. If my attention is on the rite, I will not be able to control them as i'd like" she conceded, resting her hand on Hunters monstrous side.
"Will you need anything from me if you are to compel the spirit of my father? he will fight it. he will need forcing."
[14:14] Naoki Sato hummed. "Dorian. Your twin. Is he a fighter?" he asked with a tilt of his head. "Hunter shares... flashes, snippets. But the details and context are missing. And we don't speak often," he confessed with a downward gaze at the squiddle. Sato reached out to offer Hunter the hand attached to the forearm he'd previously slit open to evoke the appearance of those wrigglies and seemed to steel himself. Without hesitation the beastial squiddle opened up and snapped his jaws down right on Sato's wrist. Teeth dug into flesh and Hunter wrenched his head, tearing, gnashing until with the assistance of some of Sato's own blood, Sato's arm from the elbow came away into Hunter's teeth. He stumbled back, panting and tensed, veins bulging from the effort of clotting and closing the messy stump over and redirecting the blood back to his body where it ought to be. He seemed more than happy to let Hunter devour that part of his arm. "...I need... soemthing of his. Something intimate to him. It would be helpful to have remains but... if they are lost at sea, belongings will do. Blood would be nice... some of yours, some of your siblings. My necromancy is stronger when I tie it to my own blood magic."
[14:18] Dinah (dollihead) hummed happily and she nodded, clearly proud of her solar half. "he's incredibly strong. Heals quickly. And can fly" she gushed with a giggle, taking a half-step back with a gasp at the snap of teeth and the crunching of wet flesh. She didn't reach out to pet Hunter when he was eating at least, though she watched the bloody stump. "...will you need any help with that?" she offered, gesturing her fingers towards it, but she shook her head.
"I can give you as much of my blood as you need. And I have some of father's belongings at home. I know his magical name, too. I can give you that. HE sure as anything won't need it anymore" she agreed. "as much blood as you will need. I heal incredibly quickly. A loss of a limb would affect my capacity to cast, but we could find a means to siphon it off mid-rite, certainly. I normally carve when I work anyway."
[14:58] Naoki Sato shook his head. "It will regrow. And I have prosthetics," he replied, moving the arm a few times to test how the motion and change would affect the seals and pathways he'd created with his bloodwork. "It's what I know to offer him. I don't... do what you do," said as he let the stump hang at his side, watching Hunter consume the wriggly-ridden flesh. "Save your blood for the ritual. Even if your body replenishes it quickly." Mention of limb loss, or sacrifice of parts during the rite got him thinking and he turned to the pool again. "Is there anything of yours that you've been told is reminiscent of your father? Eyes. Manner of speak. Ears, nose. Anything like that? And from your brothers? You won't find my rituals in any books. I have no deities. Only my connection to him - " he nodded at the pool, " - and the experience of prior successes."
[15:02] Dinah (dollihead) watched the stump a little longer and she hummed again, nodding in thought. "if i were to cut my hand off... it would be grown back before i left this tunnel" she said softly. "if i give him my eyes... I stab them out and put my face in the water. if i give my blood, I cut my limbs and watch the patterns of the drops. I gave him my wings, too.." she looked back to the water, but she shook her head. "Dorian and i look like our mother. Drystan looks more like charles." she paused "...though I think I have some letters of his" she added, but she smiled again.
"I have the elder gods, the old ones. I have the hermetics books and teachings but this..." she opened her hand towards the altar. "This comes more naturally to me. I will find what I can. And i will ask the boys. Maybe they have something of fathers"
[15:05] Naoki Sato || Beneath the surface of congealed redness the wriggle of tendrils was already visible, working to reconstruct and recreate. It was a slower process than Dinah's but perhaps purposefully so - Sato liked to be conscious of the process, to make amendments and changes as it regrew and he was momentarily distracted by that effort before the discussion returned to things of and from the Windgrace patriarch. "Drystan. Don't think we have met. Will he let me take his face? Would it regrow?" he asked without any of the gravitas one should ascribe to such things.
[15:08] Dinah (dollihead) worried at her lip with her teeth in consideration "Perhaps not you. But perhaps me. I could recover it far quicker and preserve it, if that would work. But i am not sure if he would allow it at the time. he would be good to have beside me as an assistance for the hermeticism rite and obviously regrowing a face might be a little distracting" she sighed and smiled again. "I will ask him. We will find something. if in doubt, we could always try to ask the sea to return charles's skull, perhaps, but that might be somewhat difficult to manage at present"
[15:12] Naoki Sato hummed. "I have no power over the sea nor do I know anyone that does. But the dead.. perhaps some of them would search for it. I'll ask them. Tell me what your brothers say. If I am not at the Academy or at the Dashrix estate... I can be most easily found in the Seiiki district. There is a house there. Blake will know the place." He was already turning, meaning to head out now that he had another step to take, another task to accomplish. No pleasantries in and out for this one.
[15:15] Dinah (dollihead) nodded again and she smiled. "if you can find his skull, you can keep it for all i care. WE certainly have no need of it. I would ask them sooner rather than later. it might take a while to find it." she nodded again. "I will ask around. Carefully. Send word to me here if you need to, or if the professor gets wind of the plans" she took a few steps closer to the font as he turned to leave, lifting her hand in a wave. "be careful on your way out. I will ask the boys"