Colin's posts

Ryker just rolled his eyes.

"We can't just camp out in the middle of the parking lot." he told him. "There ARE laws against that." he said.

"Then where should we go?" Savra asked.

"Oh, we'll just move to the corner of it, out of the way." Ryker said. "We'll not be breaking any laws until it passes a specific hour, which we'll be gone long before." he assured them.

"But we'll want to make it so we're not in anyone's way. Minimize the chances of complaints." he reasoned.

"Ah, yes." Ciroc then said, before opening the door.

He looked towards where the attendant was, as well as Aedan and Levi.

"She should be more receptive to treatment now." he told them, going back into the room and approaching Ally.

"To make a long story short, you were being influenced by what was essentially a demon from MY realm." he said to her.

"It was causing you to make self-harming decisions." he continued.

"What I did was overload the area with my magic energy, suffocating it and causing it to go back from whence it came." he went on. "...which will be a bit of a journey, but the call of Adaminia is strong to the remains and souls of the dead." he then said.

"...and everything else in between those two." he mumbled.

"...all right." Levi responded.

"I trust you." he told her.

"Wait, weren't YOU...?" he started to ask, before Aedan shushed him and started to explain.

Meanwhile, in the medical room, the attendant left, and Ciroc shut the door behind them, before turning and looking at Ally sternly.

"All right." he said. "You will torment this girl NO MORE." he declared, taking off his bracelet again.

"Forgive me, miss." he then apologised to Ally, as his own magic energy surged forth, causing her own arcane mana to swell within her, as she felt like a bottle ready to burst. However, it was short-lived, as a blob emerged from her shadow, and barely had a second to scream, before it too disappeared like the one that was flung off of Aedan.

Ciroc then quickly replaced the bracelet over his wrist.

"Please!" Levi pleaded to her.

"You have to let them help you!" he said, though it was to deaf ears, it seemed. She was still resisting them.

Ciroc narrowed his eyes, and spoke to the one tending to her.

"Please leave the room." he told them. "I will see to it that what addles her is removed." he said further.

"You as well." he told Levi.

"O... okay..." Levi said, standing up and hesitantly making his way to Aedan.

As soon as she left, he followed, and stopped the security guard that was there.

"Wait." he said, noticing he was leering at Aedan.

"I've helped her." he told the man. "I've rid her of the influence that was making her a danger to herself and others." he assured him further.

"You have?" the man asked.

"Most certainly." Ciroc responded, causing the man to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Welcome back then, Aedan." he said to the zombie.

"Now." Ciroc said immediately.

"The longer we leave it off, the worse it gets." he told her.

"To the point where, if denied the opportunities to fulfill their 'new' end goal, the victim will literally not eat, drink, sleep, anything." he warned her. "They will stop doing what it needed to keep their bodies functioning, until they shut down." he said further.

"...which, admittedly, is not a problem for YOU, but I suspect others won't be so fortunate." he then commented.

"Regardless, this should be done post-haste." he insisted.

"...I have my suspicions." Ciroc muttered.

"And I have no idea how many made it here." he went on.

"Might need to to a sweep of this whole place." he told her further.

"Regardless, I am most certainly willing to help the others that they have latched themselves onto." he assured Aedan.

"...in the end, they're probably here because of myself. Or Vyran. Or both." he lamented, guilt in his tone.

Ciroc just glared at where the... thing... had been, before replacing the bracelet back on his arm.

"That..." he said, venom in his tone. "Is a pathetic creature of the Void." he told her, before pausing.

"Or, to put it another way, a demon from MY world." he clarified.

"They latch onto people, hiding in their shadows, essentially, and their presence gives off an aura that... well... amplifies negative feelings or tendencies with their victim." he went on.

"Eventually driving them to either become so careless with their lives that they end up dying, or they outright attempt such a deed."

Ciroc nodded in response.

He then took a step back... and removed his bracelet.

As soon as he did, she could feel the overwhelming presence of his magic/mana... and she also felt like... something was in pain. She didn't feel like SHE was in pain, but that something connected to her was in pain.

She then looked over at her shadow, and saw what looked to be an inky black blob emerge from it. It let out a sound... a screech of sorts that sounded unholy, even by her own standards.

"CURSED DWELLER!" Ciroc exclaimed as he stepped towards it.

"BE GONE!" he commanded, as the blob shriveled up and turned into a black mist... which then seemed to be sucked up into thin air, much like it was spinning down a drain of sorts.

And immediately, she felt like herself again.

Ciroc didn't say anything for a moment, but Aedan could tell he was thinking hard about something.

And that he was NOT liking the conclusions he was coming to.

"And... the demons of this world cannot identify them. At all?" he asked her.

"That is correct, yes." Aedan confirmed.

"Then... then I might know of what is doing this." Ciroc told her. "However, before I reveal anything, I wish to test something." he then said to her.

"If this works, you should return to normal. If not, then you won't be harmed by it, since you possess no active mana." he told her. "Is that all right?" he asked.

Ciroc paused for a moment and thought about it.

"No." he said.

"I mean, all the incidents are so different." he told her. "From what I've heard, anyway." he said further. "Seems the only common thread is... that.. they..." he continued, before trailing off and seeming to drift into his own thoughts.

"Wait a moment..." he said.

"With all the incidents... the net end was the person attempting something that would result in their death, right?" he asked her.

"No matter how permanent it might have been... as odd as that was for me to say... or no matter if it seemed deliberate... the result would have been an end to their lives, right?"

There was a moment of silence, before she heard him.

"Yes!" she heard.

"Coming!" he said further.

After another few seconds, she heard the clicking of the door, and it opened.

"Come on in." he told her, his voice a little sad, mostly because he didn't like how she had been put under such lockdown, even if it was of her own volition.

"Nice to see you out and about." he commented.

Levi was silent for a moment, before nodding.

"Sure." he said. "Maybe I can talk some sense into her." he mumbled.

"I get the feeling that she'll be more reasonable when she wakes up." Hal told him.

"Really?" Levi asked.

"Whenever the victims of this phenomenon experience sudden physical trauma, such as Cain tackling Aedan to the floor, or Mira smacking Agent King upside the head, they seem to experience some clarity. Hence why Agent King and Aedan willingly put themselves under the lockdowns they're under." Hal explained.

"Oh!" Levi responded.

"So when she comes to, there's a very good chance she'll have enough clarity to be herself for a bit." Hal finished.

Hal thought for a moment about that.

"I'll delegate that task to you." he told her.

"I need to log this incident and make sure it's compiled with the others." he sighed.

"Others? Like Ty and Aedan?" Levi asked.

"And a few others." Hal responded.

"If you have anyone you think would be good for talking to Icesska, send them." he then told Angela. "Otherwise, I'll do it when I finish the report."