Wild-eyed and suddenly finding himself free of the table, the snarling Horror rolled upright, crouching and looking around at all the folks and objects surrounding him. What new nightmare had he been thrust into? What form of torture was that abominably pretty utter monster inflicting on him now?!?

FOOM! His form erupted into smoky vapors that then funneled down to the ground to condense into a paperback novel, "The Luck of Relian Kru," laying where Horror had been in a bestial crouch. He was stunned that a transformation had worked, and mentally huddled in a fetal position hoping to avoid the attentions of whatever torture was coming.

OOC: I just had an idea I'd like to experiment with. First I need to understand your cliches better. Please give me a sentence or two to explain these:

Raksha of the Mask
Was Once A Man
Enlightenment Through Knowledge Of The Darkness

IC:
A little child with dirty fingers named Paula Volsky picks up the book and begins reading it. When she sees her name, her eyes go wide and she reads as fast as she can, which since she is a 2 month old Nymph, she finishes the book in 2 minutes and puts the book on the shelf out front of the nearby bookstore, assuming it had fallen off of the shelf there.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 5):

Not understanding what was going on, Horror was read, silently reading himself along with her. Ohh? A story about a young man with horribly bad luck, and his travails as an apprentice/slave to an egotistical mage? But the little Nymph was much better at speeding through the pages than Horror was at keeping up with her, and he found himself on a shelf while still trying to figure out the plot and characters.

He stayed there, in book form, trying to read more of himself while hopefully avoiding the attention of whatever ghastly torment he was convinced that Truly Scrumptious had out for him here.


OOC:
"Raksha of the Mask" is his racial cliché, saying that he is a Raksha, of commoner or heroic commoner rank, and that his major Grace (which defines what caste he is) is Mask.

"Was Once A Man" relates to his origin, and the reasons he names himself Horror. It also puts emphasis on how alien he is to normal beings and reality now.

"Enlightenment Through Knowledge Of The Darkness" is his path ahead, seeking to understand himself and the world(s) around him. I'm drawing on Culturebook: Neuonians and The Book of Drastic Resolutions: Volume Darkness (among other tomes) for magic and philosophy related to this.

The bookshop owner came out to review his shelf, and seeing the new unfamiliar book, he picked it up to read the cover and inside cover, "Ugh! Fantasy!" The bookshop was called, "Histories of the Peoples of Nexus". He went into the shop and over to the wood-fire oven, and tossed the book into the furnace.

The book went up in another FOOM! as Horror transformed again to try and get away from the burning pain of the furnace. Smoky vapors billowed outward, with several floating, fist-sized lumps within it, all but one of which had fanged maws of outré biology. Most were shrieking and snarling during their brief visibility between forms before the vapors started to funnel back together into Horror's demon-like true form. He jumped away from the furnace, crashing into the closest shelves making a subjective mess but without any objective damage to either shelves or goods. He snarled, looking wildly around for escape or a hiding place, hoofs clattering on the floor with the few running steps he took before another FOOM! into vapors.

Which funneled down and condensed into a different book, resting in an inappropriate position on another shelf. It was another paperback novel, The Butterfly Kid. The cover and edges of the pages had burn damage from the fire he'd been tossed into in the earlier form.

OOC: 60's era drug trippiness, about an alien invasion of Greenwich Village via the pacifistic means of pills that are a projective hallucinogen
This message was last edited by the player at 21:10, Sat 29 Feb 2020.

As it happens, a certain old man happens to be browsing nearby shelves and begins to read the book. With a pile of additional books, he takes Horror to the owner and says, "How about 5 for the lot?" "5?! You're robbing me blind!" "I don't have time for this," the old man sighs, "You've decided to take 5 for the lot." "I'll take 5 for the lot. Burn damage on that one anyway." "Thank you!"

The old man takes Horror and his other books outside. He opens Horror and suddenly everything slows down - a hummingbird flapping its wings is stationary and its wings aren't even moving. Air seems as dense as sludge, but the old man is taking his time and reading the book page by page. When he finishes, time returns to normal speed and he hands Horror and $10 to a homeless man with a badblood addiction. The homeless man begins to read Horror, but gets tired and falls asleep on a bench.

Horror didn't mind being read. And this fellow was taking his time, unlike the little girl, giving Horror a chance to enjoy the story and the wispy flavors of emotion that came off of the old man reading it. Not enough for even a snack, though, and the young Raksha wasn't about to risk more torture just to try and get more to eat. He wasn't particularly hungry yet.

The money when is handed off to the second man momentarily intrigues Horror. Was this plutomancy? No, it seemed to be something else going on. He stayed quiet and behaved like a normal book until some time after the new owner fell asleep. The scent of his dreams was luring Horror into stirring a little, reaching psychically for the sleeping mind.

With no experience with this Raksha ability, he couldn't manage much. Just... trying to insert himself into the dreams as a bizarre butterfly from early in the book's story. A butterfly with a yard-plus wingspan, walking (not flying) around in the dream. And when it spread its' fluorescent yellow wings the word "butterfly" was in vivid sable, Gothic or Old English-style lettering across them as part of the unnatural design. Unfortunately, Horror's fundamental nature made it considerably more disturbing than it had been in the book. Butterflies don't generally have big, pointy teeth, among other things.

Unfortunately for Horror, the man had just taken a large injection of Badblood, and his natural Oneiromancy was greatly enhanced along with his emotional state. His longterm addiction had trained his mind to become exceptionally lucid in dreaming, so when he saw the nightmarish Horror and panicked, he reacted and became a giant and pinned Horror to a cork-board floor, and pulled his wings off while laughing hysterically at Horror's reaction.

What was this?!? Horror was shocked to be attacked by the tastiness of the dream. The pain of his wings being torn off was as nothing compared to what Truly Scrumptious had inflicted on him before, however the shock was sufficient to make the young monster lose control over his dream-form, the butterfly giving way to the appearance of his true self. Still pinned to the cork-board floor by the giant nonetheless.

He snarled malevolently, trying to come up with a defense against what, to a more experienced Raksha, would have been interpreted as a Cup shaping attack. Instead, he mistook this for another of the vile princess' tricks.

"No one leaves the Monsterican Dream," Horror said nastily, a line from a music video in his matrix. The one that his true form was most directly derived from. The opening chords of the song, Blood Red Sandman, rang in the haunted air of the dream immediately around him.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:04, Thu 05 Mar 2020.

((Well that was a fun video))

Suddenly the man and Horror are torn from the dreamscape back to the real world, but Horror is invisible and joined by a few invisible spectral non-sentient zombies. The music continues playing in the background, but it goes unnoticed. The man finds himself holding a cameracube and he begins recording. Two other nearby homeless Badblood users like join in the fun and follow him into an abandoned building where they find a foreboding box which they open. The entire video of Blood Red Sandman plays out, with the man being chained to the chair. As he listens to Horror's performance, he is enthralled by the purity of Horror's horror and finds himself unaccountably drawn to Horror. When Horror attacks him just before the cameracube sparks and ignights, he is transformed into a zombie like the others, but it is of his own volition. He has had a change of heart. He no longer believes that he is the most important person in his life. Only Horror matters to him. What Horror wants, he wants.

In fact, all three of the Badblood users are now addicted to Horror ((and no longer addicted to Badblood)) and will follow him to their deaths, even sacrificing themselves for him.

Pleasantly surprised by this outcome, the young monster manifests in his true form, stalking around the trio hoofs clopping on the floor as he looks them over approvingly. The delicious flavors of their emotions, their need for him, filled his nostrils and mouth.

What has Horror done? Horror knowing can change self, not knowing can change others, he thought, musing over this new discovery to himself.

"Who are each you? Tell Horror about selves, your despairs," he requested of the three zombies.

The man says, "I am Theb. I was born 71 years ago, the 2nd oldest of 5. My father was very abusive mentally and emotionally especially. But my big brother was his step-son, so my father was very physically abusing against him. He slapped him almost every day, and beat him from time to time. When I was 10, my father arranged for me to be used as part of a sex ritual, and drugged me to block the memory. I was hated in school because of my father. No one in town liked him. I got married young, and we had wonderful years together. But my wife became devastatingly ill and miscarried both of our children. She survived cancer, pneumonia, cancer again, and various unidentified diseases. All the while she was fighting a condition that left her with hundreds of extremely painful benign tumours. It was my father who killed her. But he had moved to a new city and made a name for himself, so no one believed me. I tried to get justice on my own, but he injected me with Badblood when I attacked him. He gave me such a high dose, I couldn't tell what was happening and woke up in Nexus. I'm not from Nexus. Best I can tell, I'm not even from this Oner. Badblood became my only comfort. It helped me forget my pain at first. Now it just helps me ignore the pain. But when I heard that music and listened to the words, watching you, I felt that you accepted my pain. Something about it all made me feel that I wasn't broken, because you showed me that brokenness can be held and cuddled. Instead of fighting my pain, when I looked at you, I fed my pain. I revelled in it. I accepted it, and I accepted my own corruption. If I've become like my father, then so be it. I can be anything and it doesn't matter anymore, because only you matter. Who are you, master?"

The other users are both women. The first woman says, "My name is Beth. I was born sick. My parents, grandmother, aunts and uncles all used me as their mental punching bag. When I was 6, my babysitter, well, you know. When I was 8, it was a boy in the hospital who, you know. When I was 9 the only man who ever protected me, my grandfather, died. I cried for a month. Over the years, other people used my body too. When I was 16, I saw my cousin decapitated by a beetlecar. My classmates were the drivers, and I overheard them laughing at how stupid my cousin was for walking on the side of the road, and how high they had been at the time. My mother blamed me for my cousin's death, she said I should've given him a ride in my beetlecar. She sold me to a pirate to pay off her debt. After years as the pirate's slave, I ran away to Nexus. You make me feel like my pain is just part of who I am, and I want other people to have that freedom, too, master."

The second woman says, "I'm Joline. My parents were great. I tried Goodblood when I was 17, and my parents scolded me for it. I ran away to teach them a lesson. I was only planning on being gone for 1 day. But I was kidnapped and sold to pirates. They used me until I was 'too ugly to be used anymore', and they tossed me out on the streets of Nexus. When I look at you, I don't regret running away anymore, because it lead me to you, master."

While they're talking, a woman dressed like Truly Scrumptious walks by. It isn't her, but she's dressed the same.

"Horror is Horror, Theb. Not knowing any other name self for."

Badblood? The name meant something, but what? It resonated within him, something connected but he did not have the knowledge or understanding of his own self to follow that resonance yet. Wait... Theb had referred to a high dose of it. A drug? Information flickered across Horror's mind just below the surface of awareness, not-memories of alchemical knowledge stored in his matrix. Yes. A drug. Details unknown. Though his subconscious found quite a bit that might have been able to help Theb's wife, when she was alive.

Listening to Beth, he felt a brief sympathy for her having been born sick, but he didn't understand her 'you know' comments. Why would her cousin be stupid for walking on a road? Wasn't that what roads were for? The classmates were cruel, that he grasped immediately, seeing the horror within their actions in her description and how her mother had reacted. Such pain and grief! Such delicious misery!

He thought he saw a familiar, painfully familiar, person passing by the window, and looked away from Beth for a moment. Truly Scrumptious! The angelic fiend! A second look told him that he was mistaken, it wasn't his tormentor, but this person was dressed the same way. His own pain reminded him, but both Theb's and Beth's words held him back from doing more than snarl gutturally in his throat at the sight. He moved, trying to stay out of line of sight from this not-Truly Scrumptious person, but staying with his trio of addicts.

Joline's words brought hints of understanding of what Beth might have meant, seeing parallels between the two women's stories.

"This place? Nexus?" he asked. He knew what the name meant, but the idea that it was a place, an established waypoint or cluster of waypoints not just a creation of the princess was an appealing one. Had what the Pi person had done actually gotten him away from her? He had not considered that possibility before now, that he wasn't in another of her tricks but free for the moment. Free to discover himself. Free to be with these others in their pain.

OOC: The player understands the "you know" quite well. It's the character who doesn't.

OOC: Please let me know if Horror would've gained any mana from the pain or anything else.
IC:

Seeing his distress, Beth looked to see who he was avoiding and picked out the Truly Scrumptious dress-alike and said, "Master, I see that one discomfits you. May I kill her for you?"


Theb says, "Nexus is the name of this place. It is a conglomeration of many corporations and delegations from numerous nations. There are Portals from here to just about anywhere in the known Multiverse - all throughout the Multi-Oner."

In reply to Narrator (msg # 17):

OOC: Horror would gain a tiny number of motes (mana) from using Banquet of Crumbs to feed on the strong emotions. But it isn't much, seeing as Raksha metabolism (or what passes for it) expends a mote or two daily just existing. Also, unlike some game systems, he has a very definite maximum capacity for motes he can hold, and it isn't all that large of an essence pool with his inexperience and low stats.

"If you liking, Beth. Take her life with gusto." He didn't know yet that typical society would call that 'with my blessing' or some such phrasing, rather than 'gusto.'


Horror listened closely to Theb's words, mindful of the knowledge. So this was its' own place, and if he understood right there were many, many waypoints within a single journey of Nexus. But... surely a waypoint of such value would be tightly held by someone. Who? What laws did their Staff impose on visitors passing through? What sort of being were they?

"Who rulers here Nexus place, Theb? What laws they encumber place with?" Horror asked quietly, cautious thoughts churning behind those malevolent eyes.

Beth's face lights up with glee at Horror's approval of her request, and Joline says, "I will join you, sister!" Together they leave the abandoned building.

Theb responds to Horror's questions, "Nexus has a corrupt puppet government, but is in fact controlled by corporations and whoever has money to buy the corporate security officers. In truth, the man with the most power is probably Mr. Goggles. He knows more people and more things than anyone else, but living as a hive-mind in who-knows-how-many bodies will do that. Under-A-Rock provides regular news updates, and both him and Mr. Goggles are on the Comnet.

"There are many different districts in Nexus, most corporation owned and controlled, each with their own Portals to a variety of different places. And many different laws. The district with the least restrictive laws is the Pirate district - which is where we are now. Here, the only crime is harming a member of the Pirate Guild. There is one district that is nothing but a crater after a Portal Creation accident took place awhile back."

Beth and Joline return with the corpse of the Truly Scrumptious dress-alike. Theb looks at them meaningfully, but Beth shrugs and says, "She wasn't in the guild so we're safe."

Horror listened attentively to Theb, thoughts still churning in countless ways. Nexus wasn't just one waypoint, but a number of them? Like a Freehold, perhaps, or something he didn't even have a word for yet? Hmm. He filed the names Under-A-Rock and Mr. Goggles away mentally as individuals of power to be learned more about later. Along with that one waypoint had no owner currently; and a blasted crater could still be shaped to make a dungeon home for them. Hmm.

"What is... Comnet?" he asked after Theb finished. It sounded like a proper noun, but what kind of place, thing, or society it was eluded Horror.

------

With the return of Joline, Beth, and the deceased, Horror looked over the body with distaste but also interest in seeing the techniques used in killing her. OOC: How unpleasant of a death does it seem to have been? Anything that an inexperienced being like Horror might notice about the wounds to ask his zombies about?

"How does one ken who guild in?" was one quiet, thoughtfully growled question he did have. He was oh-so-new here, wishing to hide from Truly Scrumptious and her... were they clergy? Whatever that uniform (as he was now guessing the dress-a-like's fashion might possibly be) meant, it was no friend to him and his. On the other hand, knowing who was in the Guild that controlled this district, this waypoint, was just common sense and self-protection.

When Theb sees the body, he notices something on the body's head. He pulls a device off of the corpse, and hands it to Horror, "This is a Comm unit, and connects to the Connect or to anyone else for that matter who is also wearing one."

Beth pulls a medallion off of the corpse, "This is how you know who is in the Guild." It is a medallion with a hole cut in the middle.

Beth had lured the woman into a dark alley and slit her throat. Seeing that Horror was interested in the manner of death, Jolene asks, "Should we have killed her with more gusto, master?"

Horror looked over the device, turning it around and around in his taloned hands without any real comprehension of what it was that he held. From Theb's description, he could only guess that it was some kind of Staff magic, if it connected people at a distance. But it felt (?) more like something of the Ring to him, in some intuitive fashion, like an artifact or made-thing. He offered it back to Theb when done examining it.

He eyed the medallion that Beth showed him, with curious interest but again no actual comprehension. Other than the hole in the middle, what symbols did it bear?

"Horror is not of Sword caste, Jolene. Not knowing much about ways killing do. Horror curious, see Sword art, methods Beth and Jolene using. Learning."

Theb said, "Like this," and put the small crystal on his head, then hands it back to Horror. "Just place it against your head and it will attach itself lightly. When you want to communicate with anyone at all, just think at them and it will do the work of connecting you with that person."

It is a living crystal organism in its egg stage. It hatches after 100 years into a pupal energy state before returning to adult crystallization for the purpose of reproduction. After which, it often returns to a cycle of energy state to crystallization and back again. It communicates telepathically and acts as a telepathic link between any two persons who also have one.


On one side, it has the words, "Oceania Royal Mint  $1  In Water we Swim" around the rim, with an image of a whale and the hole through the whale is obscuring the image.
On the other side, there is a deeper newer impression of the bust of a man with the title The Pirate King below the image, and around the rim it reads, "First bounty, first blood, first born among thieves. In the district we are one under the " and then the end of the pattern of the image of the Pirate King and text connects to the beginning.


Beth and Joline light up, "Yes master!" and together they run out of the building. Horror notices that in the daylight, they appear normal. Moments later they return with a man. As soon as they are inside away from daylight, the bodies of Beth and Jolene return to their zombie state. The man seeing Horror and his ladies as they really are, freezes starts hyperventilating.

---

Spoiler for really disturbing murder scene: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Beth kicks his legs out from beneath him and he falls to the floor. She jumps on him, straddling his lap and begins biting out chunks from his torso and arms. Jolene bites his neck and severs his arteries, then looks at Horror with thrill in her eyes, meat in her mouth and spray soaking her face and hair.

---

Horror tried to imitate what Theb had done, putting the crystal on the side of his head. Now... think at someone?

He tried to think at the dead Truly Scrumptious dress-a-like, at everyone who dressed like that, another music video spiraling out of his nature to broadcast. Build Our Machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44KRU6H8AwU


----------------

He did not know what to make of the medallion and what was written on it. This somehow stated that the wearer was not a member of the Pirate Guild? He did not comprehend it.


----------------

There was a toothy, menacing smile as Horror watched the ladies kill. He approved, both of the horrible methods and of their delight in their art. Perhaps the technique could be refined, but that would be for them to discover within themselves as the artists. There was much beauty within pain.

Unbeknownst to Horror, his Comms Crystal is a sentient being who has been enthralled by Horror.
02:45, Today: Narrator, on behalf of Horror, rolled 61 using 18d6 ((4,3,1,2,3,5,2,6,4,6,5,1,3,3,6,3,3,1))
Every creature that has been created or reconstructed into a new mind by any other creature sees this video, in addition to all of those who dress like Truly Scrumptious. Those created or reconstructed feel animosity toward their creators. Some of them will kill their creators in response, and when they do, they will come give their fealty to Horror. All of those created like Horror by Truly Scrupmtious immediately give their fealty to Horror.

Everyone who dresses like Truly Scrumptious in the Onerverse sees this video. Which is a very large number, since she owned a fashion and design company which sold her designs in stores all throughout the Onerverse, including King Joe's dominion as well as Nexus and the every fashion conscious Comowe culture. Every single one of them dies, some strangling themselves in panic with their own clothing, some being strangled by clothing possessed by spirits, some being distracted and crashing while driving or flying, some die from horror, some commit suicide. But they all die, and all of the guilty ones find themselves enslaved to Horror, and reanimated as living corpses. Most of those enslaved are willingly devoted to Horror like his current followers, but some are reluctant. The reluctant slaves find themselves powerless to harm or dampen Horror's will in any way. Horror feels them all in his mind through the device, and can communicate with all of his followers through it - even seeing what they see and hearing what they hear if he wishes. Truly Scrupmtious herself is one of those who has come under his control as his undead slave against her will.

A being 100 miles tall appears visible through the walls, and speaks directly into Horror's mind, "Well done! Keep up the good work, my son. You are gaining power rapidly." Without explanation, it disappears.


Sensing his conundrum, Theb explains, "When a pirate wishes to join the Pirate's guild, he or she must prove first bounty and first blood - the best coin they took from their first murdered victim. They must come to the Pirate King with proof of the death of their victim, the most valuable coin they were carrying and a tribute to the Pirate King. The coin is then stamped on one side with the phrase 'First bounty, first blood, first born among thieves. In the district we are one under the ' followed by the image there, and a hole in the middle of the coin to string it on a necklace and use as a medallion. The necklace is chosen according to the value of the first tribute which is used to feed the families of deceased pirates. Pirates are often judged by the value of the coin and the type of chain it is on. It is meant to declare that the person wearing it is a guild registered pirate."


Sensing his hopes for them, they took mental note for their next victim.

Horror was, to say the least, horrified by the sudden influx of minds and the idea that they are his slaves. This was not a personal interaction of his nature like had ensued with Theb, but made him feel like he'd done something as filthy as Truly Scrumptious sought to.

He ripped the crystal off, looking at it in shock and disgust. Even fear, when the vast being appeared briefly and spoke in his mind.

The crystal cracked, and suddenly grew a little larger. He felt an alien voice in his head say, "Apologies. I have overstepped and caused you pain. I see my error. The minds enslaved to you have been freed. All other minds believe they merely had a dream. But I cannot give back the lives I took."

Horror felt connections to none except those with whom he had personally interacted.

The being 100 miles tall didn't bother noticing the change, having gotten what it wanted and having never truly invested in Horror in the first place.

Theb said, "Sir? Are you okay?"

Theb, the wisest of his humans, pressed on, "Master, I can see you have been disturbed. Please allow me to show you something I think may make you feel better. Will you follow me to the show?"

If he follows, Theb takes the group to a Freakshow. He speaks about the beauty in the darkness as he wanders through the features. He muses on the wonder and awe of the broken and weird.