The feelings the creature was putting out - compassion, altruism - were as alien to Colton as the creature's appearance. No, maybe not alien - he knew what weakness was. These were impulses and drives that got you taken advantage of. He'd been kind too, once... before the world taught him that for every inch he gave, the universe would take a mile.

He didn't want to hurt the creature. Colton wasn't a bad person... at least, not in that way. Just tired. Burnt out. Empty.

And distrustful. These feelings... they were clearly unnatural. They were coming from the creature or the worms it had been feeding him. Why? To gain his trust? Colton did not trust people that tried to gain his trust. In his experience, that was a sure path to betrayal.

And the only thing stronger than his desire to avoid social awkwardness was the determination to never let himself be taken advantage again, in any world, by any creature.

"Thanks for the worms, but I gotta yeet on outa here." He gave the creature double-finger guns and started walking away, ready to run if the creature followed.

Sweet Angel Rhyme looked surprised, well she didn't had a facial expression but Colton could feel her surprised.

He heard her cry in sorrow as he was running, she didn't try to follow, he could hear her sad calls and sense her despair and sadness for him bolting. He didn't stop he kept running, when he got his breath back he was at the edge of the moor.

The sky was getting dark and the air was getting cold, the ever storm clouds had abruptly stopped at the edge of the moor.

He was facing a grassy plain, the grass looked sick and yellowish but stubbornly clanged to the hard earth. He could see to the north west ruins of some sort, behind them at the distance he could see a huge forest, stretching across his field of view, behind him there were more swamp land.

Shelter. That's what he needed. His t-shirt and cargo shorts, wet with swamp muck, didn't offer much protection from the cold... even if the storm couldn't leave the swamp.

He took a moment to observe the absolute cut off between biomes. He wasn't a biologist, but he knew that wasn't natural. And if it wasn't natural, it was artificial. Someone had done this, someone had decided to do this. Maybe the whole place was fake, like an alien nature preserve.

Or zoo.

But for now, he needed to worry about more immediate concerns. Maslow said so. He set off towards the ruins in a light jog, hoping the activity would keep him warm.

It took Colton the better part of an hour to reach the ruins.

By the time Colton reached the edge of the ruined city the sun was low in the sky.

It once was a magnificent city, the once white stone was now dark and crumbling. The buildings had once large arched window now stood like open skulls with empty holes staring into the abyss.

There was a cold wind inside, it was the chill of the grave. There was green, black moss growing everywhere like a parasite slowly chocking the life from the pillars and once great monuments.


The sun was about to set, Colton didn't had much time to explore not if he wanted to find shelter for the night.

Exploration could wait. Colton needed to find shelter. Building a fire wasn't really a concern - he had no idea how - so he was looking for somewhere dry and sheltered from the wind. Maybe kinda hidden, in case of monsters. Or someplace that offered him a good vantage to spot trouble before it manifested.

And comfy. Comfy would be good. You know. Not like, on a pile of gravel. Soft grass. Or something.

Colton started it search, he could see even with a quick search that the deeper he went into the center of the city the more ruined he saw. He was no expert but to his eyes it seemed like damage from bombs with the only anomality was that the craters and damaged building seemed to be suffering more from the dark black green moss. When he passed next to large deposit of the moss a chill ran over his spine that had nothing to do with the weather.

In the end he found three places he could stay, the first must have been a theater, it's roof miraculously survived and it provide a descent dry shelter.

The second was the ruins of a small castle, it was most likely a keep of some sort, perhaps a relic from older time, the castle took massive brunt of the damage, it had gaping holes. It was open to the elements but it provided good vantage place to see around the desolated city.

The third building was once a workshop of some sort, it had a dead furnace and a rotten sign above its main entrance. Most of the roof was blasted away but it had a bed, it must have been an apprentice cot once. The mattress turned into rotten rags and the wooden frame hardly held his weight but it was a bed.

[Private to GM: The Fey Theatre: A large stone-walled theatre, said to be built upon the ground where a sidhe noble was betrayed and murdered.
The ancient ruins of a small castle, said to be haunted by the ghost of the last tyrant of a long-forgotten empire.
Coenbehrt's Hauberks: The workshop of a male human armorer named Coenbehrt, who is rumored to lead a cult of chaos.]

Colton stopped looking as soon as he found the first shelter, the theater. Would there be better spots to camp? Yeah, probably, but good enough was good enough, and that was good enough for Colton.

With the last of the fading light, he decided to scrounge around for anything useful - old costumes, matches, maybe a pump well or something. He didn't know, really. Maybe a mop handle or a rake he could use to defend himself.

Just whatever.

He'd find some hidden closet or alcove or *something* concealed if he could, a place to spend the night, and investigate the mysterious ruins in the morning.

It was a miserable night in the theatre. While dry and safe from the rain that started pelleting the roof. Beside the maggots he had nothing to eat or drink in over a day, his stomach was rumbling and his lips were cracked dry.

Sleep was hard, perhaps because of that he saw the light, peeking outside he saw glowing translucent humanoid forms materializing.

Both figures were humanoid, dressed in dark leather, they were bold with pale gray blue skin. Their faces were covered with pins and each held a little glowing box. They were arguing silently there was no sound. Than one of them pulled a long sleek knife and thrust it deep into the other phantom belly. There was a shocked scream that threatened to freeze Colton soul as the murder victim fell and crumbled into sparkling light.

The other turned scanning the environment before it moved away toward the empty doorway.

Oh snap, it was that guy from that old classic horror movie... Phantasm or something? Like Chucky, but with an evil rubick's cube? Colton wasn't sure, he wasn't into shlock. But the guy - pinface or whatever - was bad news.

Why was pinface here? Another point in the 'this world is fake' category. And why were there more than one? Well, now there was just one. Whatever. The guy seemed like BAD NEWS. Colton surmised that *why* he was here was less important than *what* Colton should do about it.

Hide.

Colton would stay hidden. Maybe see if the theatre had a back door he could sneak out of if the fictional movie monster tried to stab him or whatever.

It was a miserable night, as if it wasn't enough that he was hungry, thirsty and tired he had to deal with monsters as well. At first he stayed hidden, sleep evading him, than he decided it would be better to sneak out so he started exploring the theater with the intention of finding a back door. He found a dark stairway leading to a shadowy cellar but he didn't take it. He did find a back door, outside it was raining, black oily rain the made puddles of dark liquid. He could see more creature like the one he saw in the theater. They were both male
and female, all bold all dressed in the odd leather and all had silvery pins on their faces. Some had the held to the small box while other had it tucked on their belt.

Colten kept hidden, sticking to the alcove of the theater away from the attention of these creatures. He had seen at least half a dozen at once and later at least double that amount but he couldn't tell if them apart to tell if they were the same or different ones.

Just before morning the creatures entered different ruined building, those were the more luxurious buildings although they were in the same sorry state as the rest of the city.

Colton wished he'd seen more bad horror movies because then maybe he'd know the pinface's deals. Their leather outfits were all fetishy and they hung around fancy buildings... maybe they were the ghosts of rich weirdos? Or vampires? Something gross and decadent, probably.

Despite his lack of sleep, Colton knew that daytime was his chance to look for CLUES and SUPPLIES, the two things he'd need to survive. For now the theater would be his base of operations - the creatures didn't seem to care about it. Like LARPers they mostly seemed to care about posturing around and stabbing each other, so if he stayed out of the way he should be safe.

Pinface Fetish Larpers. That's what he'd call them.

First: Check out the theater basement, make SURE it was safe. Then, look for supplies, food, a weapon, anything... or a safer place to crash. He got this.

There was a lab at the theater basement, it was large and abandoned, when Colton entered it the walls started glowing blue giving him a modicum of light. The smell of the place was of dust and loss. At the center was a large glass cryo-pod, something/one smashed dark green glass and whatever liquids were inside spilled across half the floor leaving a dry pink colored stain. Someone had ransack the place, and on a casual scan Colton was pretty sure the looters took most of everything with them but he could search for longer period of time.

On the floor next to a metal table Colton found a skeleton. it was a twisted humanoid skeleton, the bones seemed to have some odd growth on them, the spine was contorted. The skull had dozens of dull silvery pins scattered next to it. There were remains of the dark leather outfit, he could see the outfit also had thin long needles in it, presumably to pierce the flesh.

"Oh it's a pinface." Colton briefly considered wearing the leather to disguise himself, but figured the monsters would probably figure it out on account of his skin not being blue.

Also, needles.

He decided to give the room a search, mostly because he was already here, and a little lazy. He wouldn't spend all day on it - he was hungry and wanted to check out the rest of the ruins - but it'd be a start.
[Private to GM:
ooc: He has the Keen Eye for Detail (Basic) talent if it applies here.]

Colton spent the morning searching the abandoned lab. He did found that as he suspected the lab was picked clean. After hours of searching he had the following to show for it:
A club made from a metal leg of one of the work benches.
Several bars of gray paste, he liked to think this was their original color.
A canteen with some water in it, the regular kind and it didn't smell so bad.

He had enough for a day, perhaps two if he was really lucky in rationing the food.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:40, Sat 04 Dec 2021.

Colton hadn't expected searching the lab to take so long. He really hadn't. But sometimes? Sometimes things take longer than you'd expect. He was a thorough kid with an eye for detail, and it'd netted him some water and what might be food. And a club, so that was cool.

He'd have some breakfast, and start searching the rest of the city. Yeah - that's the ticket! Him and Mr. Smashy.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:45, Sat 04 Dec 2021.

The gray paste tasted as one might expect from gray paste to taste, which is tasteless. The water had an odd metallic flavor but Colton didn't feel particularly bad after drinking so all was well.

The section of the ruins he was at was dominated by a huge ruined Cathedral, once it was a great a magnificent place now it was ruined and covered in the same green black oily moss.

Colton was at the edge of the ruins, could go deeper into the ruins, or he could go around the edges (east or west), the risk was he would lose his path back to his base. Alternatively he could try to search more in his immediate surrounding, he would learn more on it but from what he saw it didn't contained much of anything of interest.

There really wasn't much of interest in the theater, even if he lost his way, so Colton decided to press on. Not so much into the Cathedral - he didn't like that moss - but around it, clockwise. If there was a boss fight, it'd be in the Cathedral, and he'd rather go around the edges before confronting it.

Colton went through the ruins counter clock wise, as a he traveled he had noticed that the he moved out from one district, the one with the ruined cathedral, to another. This was was dominated by the ruins of a castle/mansion.
Colton could see a road leading toward the castle but he would need to navigate the ruins before he could reach it, assuming he was interested.

As he walked in the ruins of the streets, his shoes tapping on the dark cobble stones, he saw something odd. On a second floor window he spotted a bird made of pewter. It was very life like with wings opened on the verge of flight.

He paused in a plaza there was a fountain shape like a terrible beast, with ten tentacles, four of which were pushing a young female into its maw.

On the side of the fountain he saw a graffiti in English:

Johnny is still alive!
==>

The arrow was pointing toward a street leading deeper into the district and if Colton had to guess, to the castle.

"I'm gonna go get that bird," Colton said as he went to get that bird.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:52, Sun 05 Dec 2021.

As Colton watched the pewter bird above he figured there are many ways to try and get the bird. If he wanted to get that bird, he better stop just stand there gawking at it but take some actions to get it.

The best way to get the bird, Colton reasoned, would be to go inside the building, look for stairs, go up to the second floor, go to that room, and take the bird.

So that's what he attempted to do, assuming that nothing stood in his way, like doors or monsters. He couldn't see any from the street, but that didn't mean they didn't exist!

Colton scanned for an entrance and couldn't find any. Perhaps there was an entrance from another side of the street, fortunately there was large gaping hole not far that led to the inside.

The building was rather well preserved, it had a roof and it was dark and dank. There was the strong smell of fungus in the air.

Colton located stairs leading up, the stairs were some sort of wood and they were complaining and groaning when Colton climbed them.

Upstairs was a large space leading to several rooms, he was again lucky noticing the the window the bird was on the other side. He walked toward the window, half way through the room he heard an ominous groan from the floor, the sound of splitting as the ancient timber began break under him.

Colton yelped and jumped, trying to clear the weak portion of the floor before it collapsed, hands outstretched, hoping against hope to reach the window ledge that seemed so far away...

[Private to GM: ooc: Colton is as yet unaware of his increased strength or ability to leap. It will  come as a surprise to him. Talent: Jumping (Basic)]

Things seemed to slow down around Colton, or maybe his perception of time changed. He could see the old timber start to splinter, he could hear the groan of the wood as it began to disintegrate under his weight.

He jumped, it was not a possible jump, no man could jump forward in a falling. Well in the movies it would have worked but in real life, he would just end up falling as the surface he leaped from collapsed. Colton head and torso slammed into the wall. It wasn't the floor it was the wall at the back end of the room. He had enough sense to grab the edge of the window before he fell down to the pit that opened up behind him.

He pulled himself up, he did it with ease, it must be adrenaline cause he did it with no effort. Pulling himself up and sitting on the ledge of the window. watching the street below.

He was two stories high feet dangling over the ledge and the pewter bird was two windows to his left.

Colton stared down at the street, not really sure how to feel about that jump. It was a desperate act. It should not have worked... and yet, here he was. It didn't make any sense, but neither did any of the rest of this... he could attribute a lot to adrenaline, but he didn't even appear to have strained his muscles.

What the hell, man.

He cast a sidelong glance at the pewter bird. "Buddy, I'll do a lot on a whim, but in the future where I come from there's a little economic concept you might not be aware of called the sunk cost fallacy."

Second floor. That was what, a 15 foot drop? Less the nearly six foot length of his body, it wasn't that far. And Colton wanted to be dead gone before anything came to investigate that crash. He'd continue his clockwise exploration of the city's central area.

Moving quickly but carefully, he lowered himself from the windowsill before letting himself drop to the street below.