Chapter 1.7: Hunt

The vending machines in the psychology building are a bust, so Alric and Hope leave to find other food.

They're crossing the quad when they hear the commotion. Shrieks and yells turn heads and chaos follows. People collapse, a couple vomit, some students take off running, both away and toward.

Hope, Alric, roll Spirit

spirit: [1, 6 💥 1 = 7] Result: Success! 🎯

Rolled: [6 💥 6 💥 5 = 17, 1]-1 Result: Success with 3 raises! 🎯🎯🎯🎯

Like a stochastic wave, the effect tears through the quad. Random people suddenly seizing or falling or shrieking.

Alric catches sight of someone right in front of him fall on their ass, and then lights, sounds, planet tipping, skirt getting tangled in his legs, pungent onion from the sandwich he just bit into, tinnitus, blinking from the bright sunlight he just stepped into, sharp pain from falling, indecision between reaching for his holster or his falling coworker...

Hope's head hurts from the strange magic concussion she just got, hungry shakes of low blood sugar...

And then the foreign sensations pass. Skin and eyes and ears agreeing again on the world they perceive.

The commotion is down the street now, out of sight. The people in the quad are catching their breath, dusting themselves off, and shrugging their shoulders.

But the two agents hold on to their memory of what just happened. Remember the flashes from other perspectives.

"What the... We need to find the source." Hope attempts to triangulate the direction based on what order people fell in, or where more people fell.

"I think it just ran past us - you just had the same thing happen to you, didn't you? I could describe it as everyone's qualia being mixed up, but I really don't want to jump to conclusions."

The commotion already seems to be on the east end of campus. It moves fast, but seems random in its walk. It didn't linger long, each jump was a fraction of a second.

"You're right. I was thinking of it as a wave, but it's looking more like a moving circle. Which means it's invisible. Because of course it is. Come on!" Hope begins sprinting towards the commotion - or where it might be soon.

The crowd is already starting to seemingly recover from the event. Most individuals look like they are resuming whatever it was they were doing, and as more look around and see that their fellows are unpanicked, normality returns.

A couple of individuals still don't look reassured. The closest: A brunette girl of mixed ethnicity. "Was that the jumper?" she mutters to herself. She pulls out her phone and begins to nervously type.

Alric tries to go after Hope, but she is definitely faster and more agile. He resorts to shouting as the distance grows. "IT WON'T - WORK! IT'S NOT INVI - SIBLE! IT'S ANTI-MEMETIC. YOU CAN CRASH INTO IT - AND NOT NOTICE IT'S THERE! HOW DO YOU WANT TO - SHOOT SOMETHING LIKE THAT?"

Hope is currently running at 12mph through an urban environment, tracking a moving target, and does not have attention to spare for anything behind her.

Aaaaaand she's gone. Alric doesn't keep up, and loses track of Hope. He makes his way quickly back to the quad, looking to catch the girl that seemed to have perceived the same thing he did. It's been only a few seconds - she's still standing in place, texting. "Hey, question. You just had the same weirdness happen to you, right? What's the 'jumper'? The thing running around campus?"

"Eeep! Uh, yeah. The weirdness thing. It seems like it was jumping? I don't know, like bodies? Are you after it?"

"Yes, me and my Dawn agent coworkers. You said it was jumping bodies?" Probably not an SCP, thank god. "What else do you know about it? Quick would be good, we're kind of in a hurry here."

"I-I don't actually know that it jumps bodies. But it's like that trope of the bodyswapper? Seeing out of other people's eyes. My friend who saw it before called it a 'shuffle jumper' but I think he doesn't actually know what it is. Um. It shuffles perceptions? And it started last night at the Chi Frap Frat House. What do you mean Dawn agent? What agency is that?"

Roll Athletics. If you succeed, roll Spirit

Rolled: [6 💥 2 = 8, 6 💥 6 💥 5 = 17] Result: Success with 3 raises! 🎯🎯🎯🎯

spirit: [3, 3] Result: Failure ❌

spirit benny: [3, 4] Result: Success! 🎯

Hope catches up to the phenomena, and gets caught by it again.

For a split second, the burning in her lungs vanishes and she instead feels her skinned knees, then gets a view of the world if greens were more red, then she’s aware of her own legs again, managing not to trip as her proprioception syncs back up with her own skin.

This happens a few more times as she runs to follow the trajectory. As it happens again and again, she notices that each time the stray perceptions she picks up are from people in her line of sight, and often the glimpses she gets contain her body in their field of view.

"Dawn commission. Brand new in town. At least as far as I'm aware, I've only been with them for a few days. I'm 85% sure we're not affiliated with the soap."

Alric sits down on the floor, in front of her, criss cross applesauce. "Sit down. What's your name? And have you ever heard of rubber ducks?" He pulls out the tome and starts hunting down info on capturing or banishing Weirds.

She squints at him then sits on the pavement too. "Cassidy Worth. What's yours? And yes, I have heard of rubber ducks, they're like brick walls but better listeners, yeah? I'd like to think I'm a better sounding board than a rubber duck." She has just a trace of bitterness in her voice.

Chapter 1.5: Student Survey The group chat dings. New message.

[Inara]

hey guys, we're finished with matt. found something that might help with the weird if sunfire doesn't kill it. where are you? is alric feeling better yet?

Hope is able to keep up with it for 4 blocks, following it out of campus, before it seems to vanish.

Alric's phone dings. "One second."

Ah, I see.

[Alric] i'm fine. i'm on the quad. what did you guys find? what's better than magical fire? a magical rocket launcher? also, new theory: based on Hope's speed running after the weird, i'd estimate it'd have to already have left the city by now, if its movements were random since yesterday - which means they probably aren't [Alric] seems to jump bodies, possess?, mixes people's qualia up in the area, then jumps bodies again. people forget, some antimemetic shit going on. as it's not perfectly randomly jumping bodies, i suspect it's somehow either tethered to the area, or has a reason to stick around. my bet is on the people here in general

"Hi Cassidy, I'm Alric. Exactly that kind of rubber duck, but we're flipping things. I'm going to be the completely oblivious rubber duck, but I'll be asking questions and making wrong statements and you'll answer and correct me. With a bit of luck we'll be able to find a solution this way."

"Alright. Weirds are to abstract concepts what fire elementals are to fire. Fire elementals are drawn to areas with flammable things. Weirds are drawn to areas where they can make their concept happen. A qualia weird would be drawn to areas with a lot of people, preferably people who have life in them and haven't died inside yet." Alric throws an expectant look towards Cassidy, then turns back to the book to look for a capturing or banishment solution.

[Inara] i have a banishment disk that might work on the qualia weird, but it has some... side effects. going to try sunfire first, then the disk if that doesn't work

[Inara] stay where you are. we're coming

“This sounds like you want me to check your work. I’d call that a proof check instead of a rubber duck, but ok.” Cassidy says. She runs a hand through her hair. “First hole: what makes you think fire elementals are drawn to flammable things? It seems just as plausible that they are drawn to fire, or repelled from the presence of other fire elementals. Also, lots of lively people would analogize to lots of fire, not lots of flammable. … Are you saying the shuffle jumper is a qualia weird?”

Her phone starts to buzz with a cascade of incoming text messages. She glances at the screen, then taps at it for a second to silence it.

"That's the running theory right now, yeah. Of course, the evidence is highly limited, so we don't want to jump to conclusions. But if we were in a hurry, that'd be the one to jump to. And we seem to be."

Alric checks his phone.

"I should warn you, a coworker of mine is on her way here. She's evil, so don't take personally whatever she says. I'm sure she won't hurt you if you quote Nietzsche at her. Now, do you happen to know how to capture or banish an elemental or weird?"

He continues looking through the book. It's about the taxonomy of weirds. Banishment procedures gotta be a criteria to classify them around.

Finding info on capturing or banishment of Weirds: [6, 3]+3 Result: Success with 1 raise! 🎯🎯

“…No.” Her eyes flick to her phone. “I might know someone who does.” She fiddles with her phone more.

"Just in case: I'm a Dawn agent, but that doesn't mean you have to work with me here. You can do whatever you want, including leaving."

To banish weirds, one can either use a general purpose anti-magic banishment, or starve them of their Concept, including by putting them in a place antithetical to their Concept.

“Are you kidding? You might actually have answers about what’s actually going on!” Her face is set with hungry determination.

Lucian and Vesper arrive.

"Okay, just making sure." He sees the two approaching. "Brace yourself", he whispers.

Lucian waves upon Alric noticing them. "Hey Alric" He notices the book and is confused, is the situation safe now? "Is the weird here? Whats that?"

"No, Hope has been running after the Weird. Don't know where she ended up, she was too fast for me. This here is the tome from earlier, turns out you can banish Weirds by either using 'general purpose anti-magic banishments' or by starving them from their capital-c Concept".

"Lucy, Irina, this is Cassidy. Cassidy, Lucy and Irina. Cassidy has been helping me solve this problem. You guys mentioned some banishment something?"

Lucian pulls out the disc, "Yeah this thing, We've got a related pamphlet for it too. The side affects are concerning though. We both spaced out after using it and it interacted worryingly with Ves-hmm... Inara's situation." No need to explain complicated group dynamic stuff with a stranger present. Lucian doesn't quite give Alric the disc. Impulse control so far has not seemed Alric's strong suit and Vesper wants to try other magic stuff first.

"Cool, how does it work?" He stretches out his hand, waiting for Lucian to give him the disk.

Lucian deftly hands him the pamphlet as if that is what he was reaching for all along.

Alric takes the pamphlet and inspects it closely.

Chapter 1.5: Student Survey

"We'll start with fire," I say, interrupting Alric's inspection of the disk's activation instructions. "Activating the disk has some unfortunate side effects that we'd like to avoid."

I glance around the quad. Sun blazes down, its harsh light bathing the grass, and students laze about on the lawn, blithely unaware of the predator that passed through minutes before. Their blank, bovine stares disturb me. Has the weird already fed upon them? A shiver crawls across my skin, fading as I return my gaze to Alric.

"You said you were attacked by the weird, but I don't see anything out of the ordinary here. Where is it now?"

"I - what? I never said it attacked me. I don't know where it is, you should call Hope to find out."

Lucian gets on that and calls Hope.

Hope picks up. Wind and heavy breathing can be heard.

“It’s Lucian, Inara and Alric are here with me at the quad. Might have the tools to deal with the weird. Are you still following it?”

"Yes but ... not for ... much longer"

“Location?”

Some of the tension eases from my body. "My mistake. Based on what you said about Hope pursuing it and it mixing up qualia, I assumed you had been caught in the effect. I'm glad you're okay, though."

He squints at her.

"Yeah, I experienced its effect. But it only happened for a moment, and then everything was back to normal. Most people forgot about it immediately." He points at Cassidy. "She was one of the people remembering what happened."

"What side effects does the disk have? If it banishes things possessing people, we should just use it."

Alric's probing gaze makes me want to shrink into my robes. I force steel into my spine and lift my chin. "The details aren't important. Just know that I'll avoid using the disk if possible."

He opens his mouth to object, but I press onward. "However, if the creature's actively possessing someone when we find it, we may have no choice. I'll stay well back when it's activated." I don't mention that the disk likely destroys the weird outright. No need to feed Alric's naive notions — this is a monster, and it deserves it's fate.

Hope fumbles through sharing her location with the group chat.

"Shared"

Hope has just run off campus. She’s by the dorms/appartments that are off campus proper.

The freshman girl stands up and sticks out her hand to Vesper. “I’m Cassidy Worth.”

Oh. Inara actually does care! She only hides it behind a facade of condescencion until someone gets hurt. I think I can actually work with her.

Alric goes from the squint to a friendly smile, then turns his attention back to the pamphlet. With all the new information gathered in the last days, this pamphlet got him the final hint on how at least some magic works. It's practically spelled out.

His first theory was massively wrong. And so will this one be. But this one, at least, will be slightly less wrong.

I take Cassidy's hand and shake it. Inara has a whole complicated introduction with titles, but I don't bother, simply introducing myself as 'Vesper'. "Alric said you were affected by the weird. What was it like?"

“Like I was looking at myself from someone less eyes and wearing someone else’s skin.” She says with a grimace.

"Sounds unpleasant. How come you still remember it when everyone else forgot completely?" I wince. "Sorry. That came out a little more accusatory than I intended — I'm just trying to figure out how the weird's magic works. If we can duplicate your protection, that would help us kill it."

Inara stirs deep within my mind. Alric remembered too. Maybe the antimemetic property doesn't work if you already know about it.

She fishes something from a pocket, a dark red volcanic pebble with a large hole eroded clear through it. She holds it up, seeming a bit embarrassed. “Ah, my friend called this a seeing stone… though I’m pretty sure it’s just another prank…”

"Hold on, let me see." I raised my hands, moving through the forms for Spectral Sight.

spectral sight: [7, 4] Result: Success! 🎯

The pebble’s aura is only slightly differentiated from normal rocks. It’s only a little more magical than most good-luck charms, which is to say barely, and mostly because it is a gift.

I lower my hands and offer Cassidy an apologetic half-smile. "You were right, it's just a rock. Pretty, though."

Lucian eventually figured out how to pull up Hopes location on his phone. “Alright, Hopes not too far but might lose the weird soon so we need to get moving.”

"Lead the way," I say.

It comes out less confident than I expect. Inara is much better at this sort of thing, but when I ask if she wants to front, she gives me the mental equivalent of an apathetic shrug. The disk must have messed her up worse than I thought... though if it was the disk, then why is Lucian unaffected?

A question for another day.

There’s a shortcut to Hope’s location through an abandoned lot. (The weird didn’t travel in anything close to a straight line.) There’s a moldering ancient house on the lot, barely visible through the overgrown vegetation. But it is faster by how the crow flies. Trespassers will be combat-encountered

I stride onto the abandoned lot. Years of scraping together magical tidbits have taught me that places like this tend to have more than mundane squatters, but time is of the essence. Besides, with Inara's combat magic fresh in my mind I'm confident I can handle whatever lives in here. If anything even does. The place looks genuinely abandoned, half-collapsed and covered in crawling ivy.

Alric silently follows the group. With the tome back safe in his backpack, he's mulling over the information he collected in the past few days. Just going on a single mission got him quite the stack of data - some of it he might even make sense of later, when he's cured from his headache.

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