AW [Secret World] Charades

[Gunhand4171]

Play Room

In Judgment's mind, he reviewed the evidence and began to eliminate suspects. But no matter how often he ran the information through his mind, he kept coming to the same terrifying conclusion.

Of all the Gen 1 Augurs, the only ones who they knew for a fact were not in their pods and had the capabilities to do such a thing were all standing there in the Play Room.

The Fool

Death

and Hierophant

He attempted to keep his face neutral; however, anyone reading the blind boy's emotions could see the turmoil roiling in his mind. He didn't want to believe that they were capable of such horrors. He looked up to the big three, aspiring to be like them. However, they had the means and the opportunity to do it. He just needed to find a motive.

Judgment slowly turned from the table and began to walk towards Kay. Once he stood in front of her, he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. "What were the three of you doing, Hierophant? Please tell me you had nothing to do with this... Please tell me I am wrong..."

 

[LavaLung]

Play Room

A discombforting feeling of omnipresent static broke Moon's corrupted soul free from the swirling depths of dread, disconnecting them from reality whilst the nerve gas bit into constantly regenerating skin. She didn't even consider how long she might last. On paper a biomancer would last longer, but she was rather twisted and broken already, so...

Tower felt the effects more. The blind aura of empathy was weakly soothing them, despite the tall morbid girl's lack of focus and mental presence.

"Object... anger... object... anger..." She whispered, basically staring directly into the floor.

Should they attempt to escape?... Or did creatures like them deserve this fate?... That small room, they'd only pump the air out quicker with more of them inside...

A visual image of that bloodied claw, a new guidance. Moon slowly sank to all fours, then crawled ungainfully in a slow arc back towards the location of the killing, pushing against the furniture. Nearly bumped right into Judgement's legs, with their steel white hair dragging across the floor.

Logic. If the Gol's claw was bloodied and was not the murder weapon, that implied that another assailant was the target of the aggression.

But the claw was gone. Another spiral of carnage had happened since. And if an Augur was slashed, they would likely have healed.

She had to visualise the original scene, place it back into reality... and follow her baroque, inhuman sensations...

One of these spatters on the floor... One of these little droplets... One of these smells...

If Moon could just find it, tease it out... Could she uncover the smell of the other?...

 

[Char]

Enkidus Room

Enkidus pod was suspiciously untouched. The interior lacked the presence of having been used at all recently, the water was fresh and smelled entirely of ozone, the lid had no internal condensation from the heat of a body.

Whats more despite their spartan and austere quarters Enkidus was recently unlived in. The robes and shifts they all wore were lacking in any touch of his DNA such as hair or dead skin.

Even the laundry hopper was filled with those same fresh and already clean clothes just thrown in to have the look of being used.

The final nail in the coffin was the personal terminal. All the normal video-audio logs most of them made were not present, and all of the text-based logs and files of his research were all there but on cursory glances just didnt read right as if information had been left out or removed but would have just enough information to seem subjective without implying as much to someone whose brain wasnt a bio-computer.

Nerve agents tickled the skin of Hermit and Magician. Their vision was slowly becomming blurred, lungs heavier with each breath, arms flexing as muscles began to spasm. It would take at a full run possibly forty seconds to make it back to the playroom with what they found. Hermit knew she would last longer than Magician but with the tightening of her throat muscles it became harder to try to speak let alone breathe and she would almost certainly be down within thirty-

Magician slumped as his body curled in on itself as the muscles all spasmed and tightened. There was a different taste in the air and Hermit knew a new nerve agent had been introduced. By the time she had turned fully around her body simply kept going as if she continued to spin as her world went horizontal and her vision played back almost in every frame as she watched in a strange fascination as her legs gave out and she crumpled to the floor even as her vision seemed to blur to gray, and then white and then-

Play Room

"Oh? You know you can call me by my name~" Kay didn't look at Judgement, didnt have to to see him though he could hear the usual smile she gave in her tone. "I never liked Hierophant. Do you know what that even-"

She paused, Judgement's emotions overflowing like a silent psychic accusation. She didnt let anything slip, as unreadable as anything Judgement knew he could only sense what she allowed him to and if she chose could be completely invisible to him in every way that counted.

"Working on a thesis together, dead-o and I." An obvious lie, but one she fed the emotions of embarrassment a something more personal he couldnt place.

The Augurs were all young. Some as young as to have not gone through puberty. But they knew more about biology and the human body and condition of being a teenager with psychically-enhanced super hormones than anyone. It was projected in such a way to seem a simple slip of control he could pick up on and entirely genuine.

But Judgement was stronger every day and could pick up the nuance enough that may have fooled him a month earlier.

There was danger in that the moment he picked up on the lie. Kay knew it the moment he saw through her and while nobody else likely could at their proximity there was the briefest sense of incredible danger being close enough to someone who-

Someone who could kill him as easily as she could Enkidu. And unlike with Enki she could do it near instantly and without the tell of a psychic pulse from his death.

"Jealous?" He could hear the smile in her tone again after the feeling was gone as soon as it happened. "You kids are something special to me but with a mind like mine, everyone wants my time these days." There was a subtle teasing and innuendo in that he could sense like a carrot before the stick.

And then, while his attention was fully on Kay, Judgement could tell the moment he fell for it when Kays subtle suppression around him he had missed of his proximity senses as a hand touched his bare arm and tingles went up his arm as The Fool clasped his hand in her ungloved hands and brought it up between them.

He couldnt see her eyes. But he could feel her gaze, the power in her words even if each one was lost the moment he heard them, the subtle inflexions and the the way she was teasing the very signals in his body all the way to the chemical signals in his brain. There was something else there he could feel that he never explored in the way she subtly conditioned him mentally. It wasn't something he could replicate but a kind of connection to a type of his power felt a connection that he could develope-

Judgement sank to his knees, nothing more than braindead as the intensity in La'Grans eyes faded as she gave Kay a sorrowful look.

"His baseline will fix him. I just put his mind elsewhere for now." She sounded sad as she looked down at Judgement slump on the floor as he slowly slumped onto his back with a glossy look to his eyes.

"I know~" Kay mused.

La'Gran, also known as The Fool was widely known for her manipulation ability. She could use electric signals and subtle suggestion to manipulate others through just an extended period of contact and her voice. It had made her very useful to the OIA but even in the Columbary, she was partly an outcast when some of them discovered she could also temporarily manipulate them and not even remember the violation of their minds as sacred as that was to each Augur.

"Moon next." Kay ordered as she pulled judgements head onto her lap and patted him like a sleeping dog while silently humming to herself.

Moon had come close to the same conclusions as Judgement though far too late. Being a biokinetic she was widely resilient to The Fools ability to charm but not when the hand that touched her was that of Death.

It took only a flexing of his will to suppress her and a split second of physical contact to stop her heart. In that brief moment between her body moving to instantly jumpstart her heart as important as it was to keep the oxygen running to her brain it was all it took for La'Gran to catch her as she toppled forwards, two hands on her face as she brought moons face within inches of her own.

La'Grans sad eyes looked into moons as everything became warm and fuzzy and all was right in the world.

Not knowing what was going on Miss Pennys concern flared in her readable emotions, She knew about La'Grans ability and knew what it meant for her to touch someone physcially. She turned, to run anywhere but only managed to turn around before-

A string of statements that were Pentendras trance conditions La'Gran had placed on her months ago activated and the woman turned around to face them a mental slave even as La'Gran wrapped her arms around the older woman and wept.

Death looked impassively at the sight and then at the collapsed Augurs.

"We're on schedule." Kay chimed, standing up finally to join them as Penny slumped from the nerve agent and La'Gran still clasped on to her sobbing.

"Fools mental suggestion to Black about the random nerve agents." Death nodded, knowing that he, Kay, and La'Gran each knew the individual nerve agents and their composition and when they came into effect allowing them to counteract them ahead of time.

"Magician and Hermit?" He asked.

"Will have succumbed before even entering Enkis room. The OIA will have cleaned out all the evidence for their investigation. I'll wake up first and submit my findings about the gol killing Enki."

"Will moon and Judgements conditioning last?" Death asked La'Gran, who simply kept sobbing right until the moment his hand grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her up with a shriek. Fools hand launched out on instinct for his hand on her neck to make a connection right until the moment the connection to her limbs was severed with just a static pulse to the right part of her spine.

La'Gran The Fool whimpered in terror and sorrow as the normally very quiet if polite man brough the back of her head up to him so he could speak directly into her ear.

"Will. It. Last."

"They-" She choked, terrified and still half paralyzed as she gagged at the slight tightening of his gloved hand.

"She hasn't failed me yet." Kay pulled The Fool from Deaths graps with telekinesis and pulled her over to then reach down and help her stand as her baseline healed her spine. Though even as La'Gran tried to grab Kay for support if nothing else the Hierophant skillfully grabbed her by the backs of her wrists to keep the necessary contact from forming and even to another poweful Gen-I was able to suppress her undetected enough to keep La'Grans emotions all over the place enough to keep any vocal connection from influencing her either.

She kept her there, seemingly coddling the younger girl while supressing her enough for the nerve agent to take over as planned as first The Fool slumped down, and then Death allowed himself.

Kay sat back down cross-legged on the floor and rested La'Grans unconscious head on her lap and stroked it for a time right until she sensed the door to the columbariums bolts retract and she allowed her body to go limp; Completely conscious but seemingly anything but as the Special Project Groups Witchtrip team entered in full bio-containment gear, weapons at the ready as they secured the entire columbary before other OIA agents entered with the first of many thorium-lined containment vessels each psychic would be housed in.

"Not that one, Not Kay." Blacks muffled voice came from one of the suits as the psychic was first loaded and then unloaded from one of the pods and instead several tubes inserted directly into her neck as she was restrained to a stretcher.

"My team will debrief her." Black could not order the Witchtrip team though she could insist.

"I'll leave you two of mine, no more." Their squad leader nodded before two of them picked up Judgement's body and carefully laid him out into one of the pods before sealing it and turning on the gas that would essentially flash-freeze him into a state of cryogenics.

Three Weeks Later

Each psychic awoke with an instant sense of exactly how much time had passed since they lost consciousness. In their own rooms again they awoke on the hard floor fully awake and conscious in an instant inside a now unzipped and thick plastic bodybag-like slip that they had no doubt been placed in their rooms in after some kind of containment and then opened for them to eventually wake up to.

They were naked, like usual but their lockers contained all the normal clothes. The only difference was the still and empty-sense of the columbary that usually hummed passively with psychic activity. As they left their rooms, still the same as always, a small easily broken ribbon on their door tore and broke to fall to the sides. Down each hall the individual dorms each had a single-use ribbon over them marking them as yet unopened. Pressing the senses they could feel the other Augurs in their induced torpor and simply not having awoken yet.

As any of them made their way down the halls they found their way to the play room where Black sat at one of the tables pulled up from its place set into the floor on one of the uncomfortable pop-up benches.

A cliche stack of paper was arrayed on the table and several over documents and data-slates. Standing behind her was Miss Pentendra, and all the way by the entrance to the Columbary was a single Assault Golem obvious not of the two now dead ones, and a dozen armed BAMF personnel in navy jumpsuits but full combat gear whose surface emotions could not be read.

Black patiently waited at the table for the psychics clearly expecting them but did not immediately herd them over as her surface emotions showed a degree of sympathy and concern enough to give them some time first as the handful of psychics that woke up met at the columbary...

 

[Gunhand4171]

Play Room

Time froze for Judgment; no one else in the room except for him and Kay. He even missed Moon bumping into his leg. He experienced a myriad of emotions in that brief instant. Shock, which lead straight into betrayal, before settling on fear. She had trained him, been there when he had awoken into this world. All the memories of his previous life were gone, but he thought he could always count on Kay.

And now he knew the truth. She could and would kill him on the spot without batting an eye.

"I trusted you..." He managed to squeak out before La'Gran grabbed him. He felt the impulses crawling up his nerve endings in slow motion. This was it. He was going to...

Then nothingness claimed his consciousness, and he fell to his knees.

Three Weeks Later

When he finally awoke, his senses pressed outward, finding the familiar surroundings. He was back in his room. But how did that happen? The last thing he could remember was... was the scream. He went to check it out, and he saw... "Enkidu..."

He tried to remember what he did after seeing Enkidu's body, but he couldn't recall. It was like remembering a vague dream you had a few days ago. There were bits and pieces, but nothing substantial. Nothing he could remember in detail.

All he knew for sure was that one of their own had died. Judgement would have grieved that fact, but he couldn't. The other would need him. He had to be strong for the others. He forced the emotions down and bottled them away. Standing on stiff legs, he pulled on a tee shirt and a pair of shorts before slowly making his way out of his room, a hand on the wall to steady himself and guide him as he walked.

He sensed Black and Ms. Penny in the Play Room as well as the dozen or so heavily armed visitors. Slowing, the blind AUGUR made his way to Black and Ms. Penny. However, he bumped into the table that wasn't where it was supposed to be and fell as he overcorrected onto his butt. He elected to sit there, directing his gaze down at the floor. "You know you're supposed to tell blind people when you move the furniture around?" He said softly, waving a hand in front of his eyes. His attempt at a joke fell flat, and he returned to sitting there in silence.

 

[Soresu]

Three Weeks Later

Whatever had struck her proved a most unpleasant experience. Of that, a now-awakened Hermit thought as her mind ordered itself within moments. It took a little time for her to rise on legs that had been asleep and unused for nearly a month, and she tottered precariously for a moment before her momentary grogginess faded.

She dressed herself painfully slowly, feeling prickles run from leg to toe. At least her body's recovery and awakening were coming along at a good pace, enough that she could finally fall back into her room's chair. It was only at the aching in her hands that she realized she was clutching the armrests tightly. She looked down at one hand in disbelief, seeing it shake uncontrollably. She took a deep breath and slowly willed herself to release her grip.

Standing up again, the girl took a few minutes to calm herself down. By the time the young Augur joined the growing group of people, she had regained a semblance of composure. The Augur carried himself with the air of a person who hated the morning and desired nothing more than to savor their caffeinated beverage in peace before transforming into a more sensible and affable human being.

"The floor?" Hermit asked, looking down at the bald, blind Augur and then up to the table and back. She almost asked, "When did that move here?", but managed to squash the urge. Instead, she put a hand on one of his shoulders, either to offer assistance in getting to his feet or simply for support. Likely both, given the uncertainty of whether she could adequately perform the former. There was no need for pretense with the BAMF personnel present. No need to show shock or awe. It was painfully obvious why. Although an actual stack of paper on a table didn't go without notice.

 

[Wolf626]

Magician eyes widened as he and Hermit found something that truly frightened him. No one had been living in Enkidu's room. He turned to Hermit and in shock, spoke, "How?" However, that was his undoing as the gas entered him. He tried to fight it, but he was just Magician. Always the lesser, always the weaker.

I'm sorry-

Darkness.

Three Weeks Later

Magician woke up, muscles still straining, mind aflame. He got up and dressed, mind going over and over it again. He was screwed. Even if he had been better at lying, he was surrounded by other psychics, who were all better than him. Hermit could probably hide the secret, but he was so damned useless!

Not thinking, his hand flew at the wall in a lousy haymaker. The pain stung him through his thoughts. Damnit, he needed to be like the book heroes, like James Blackstone or Ronan the Barbarian. Not like Magician the angry weakling that everyone knew was a fool.

Wait...

Everyone knew him as a fool. Everyone would be expecting him to act a certain way...

As he put on his shirt, a grin slashed across his face. He had a plan.

As he walked into the constabulary, every augur there would see a moping, slouched Magician, walking towards Judge and Hermit. His thoughts swirled around the memory of Enkidu, of finding his body laying in the floor. He let the grief subsume his thoughts, the pain painting his mind.

"Yeah, they should've gotten their paperwork done at HR." He joked, eyes avoiding Hermit beyond a few seconds.

 

[A_Bibor_Farkas]

In the short time it took Tower to turn to see her companion fall, it was if a switch was flipped in her own mind, as it did so did the grasp on the...others.

three weeks later

Shooting up from her torpor state, the young girl looked frantically throughout the room, her heavy breaths echoing in the now empty sterile room." not again, not again, not again not again!" This time, as she screamed, a ripple was sent through the floor of her room. before getting dressed frantically, the Gen-1 rushed out to the others, another, less....hinged look in her one bright golden eye, the other a clouded gray. she almost ran into Hermit and Judgement as she groaned for but a moment. " they did it again...digging....poking...prodding, I can tell, AI always tell, its not hard. but why!? But why!? Why why why!? Doesn't my poor little brain meat have enough holes!"

She shouted down the hall, tears erupting from her eyes as she now rushed through the crowd to confront the BAMF personnel and the familiar visage of Black sitting in the play room. Each footstep became an echoing ripple of matter below her, the emotions of hurt, of anger and betrayal echoed in her mind, but the only justification? More...digging, more experiments. or so she thought.

 

[Char]

Columbary

With all assembled Black cleared her throat. Far away as she was it was still audible to their enhanced senses as the Liquidator straightened her posture and gestured them over.

Dataslates for most and in the case of Judgement and Kay a nearly 50-page stack of papers each in braille were handed out as Black picked up a slate and began.

The debriefing lasted almost two hours. Going over all the findings the OIA had come to the conclusion from all the findings Black had said the Augurs had discerned and been backed up by Kay and Death; That Enkidu had been skipping his time in seclusion and cultivation for several days in a row and with his research platoing had built up considerable mental stress.

Kay, and several others confided that Enkidu had approached them about new angles of research looking for alternate opinions but had been continually dissatisfied by the results and without the mental outlet of letting his brain enter a sedentary state like most of them did sometimes daily he had a mental breakdown and attempted to forcefully exit the Columbary at a point they suspected he knew the security would be lapse.

After being unable to exit they suspected he made some kind of diversion to lure the two Assault Gol outside of the door into entering at which point they attempted to restrain him. The Gol were able to restrain him temporarily but Enkidu continued to lash out and in the process damaged his own body and managed to break his own neck in the process while a hemorrhage had formed behind his frontal lobe and had ultimately hindered his baselines recovery due to his erratic mental state and lunac episode making his bodies baseline perform at a fraction of its capable function.

"And so the brain bleed caused continual hemorrhagic pressure which starved the oxygen from his brain which continued due to his broken neck and fractured spine..." Ms.Pentendra continued on her section of the report, the woman looking absolutely pale.

"With all this information at hand the Office of Internal Affairs has concluded no wrongdoing on the part of the subjects of the Columbary. Those few of the first generation who participated in the death of two very rare and hard to produce Golem will remain in custody for a time to be revisited later. But on testimony from the Hierophant, their actions are in line with expectations and it is likely they will avoid being censured.

You all did well.All duties on the schedule will be postponed for two days to allow for the other subjects to awaken and to give you time to adjust. But we have a mission the day after and we expect you will be performing as normal, That is all."

With the cold clinical tone of the Auditor she was, Black pushed her chair back into the floor and left without another word. The OIA team filled out behind her and with finality the vault door to the Columbary closed.

"I will be here for a few hours more to see that everyone wakes up properly," Penny added after not leaving with Black as she awkwardly toddled in place.

"She is right though; You children did do very well. It isn't long I know but take some time to mourn and come see me if you need anything."

With that, she too left to one of the Halls of the Columbary to no doubt check on some of the still sedated Augurs.

With a flexing of mental will, Kay compacted her papers into a small ivory-white smooth marble before placing it on the back of her tongue and swallowing the compacted paper whole.

"Suppose I should raise some of the rabble too," She hummed, rolling onto her back and then kicking up onto her feet gracefully before staring off into the distance despite the fact they all could feel her mental senses running over them.

"We missed weeks of practice and training." She stated, her tone jovial and friendly but the implications clear that she would be pushing them harder sooner rather than later. As it happened, however, Hermitand Magician managed to stamp down the impulse reaction when Kay had washed her senses over them. It was not an invasive action and they could mask their emotions enough to let it slide over them even as everyone else seemed fine they were in close enough proximity to sense that the others werent hiding their emotions.

With what the two of them knew, and the Context that let alone Kay and Death but that La'Gran had been involved made it clear to the two of them that their comrades had been subject to mental suggestion or manipulation from The Fool. While not overly effective against other Augurs they could guess that it didnt need to stick permeate, just long enough to put the right impressions and damage the short term memory...

The two of them knew the truth and it took everything they had to keep that tamped down as Kay strode away before tripping over a still erect chair before righting herself with a self deprecating laugh and continuing towards a different hall into one of the wings of the Columbary than Penny had.

 

[LavaLung]

Moon sat sideways in multiple layered robes as the formal instruction took place. Exchanging their normal distant demeanor with failing to reveal their face at all. It was strange feeling so certain of something, for a creature who's emotions were normally so mercurial. But the obviously false description of events, combined with a confusingly uniform hole in her memory, made some ulterior motive immediately apparent.

She wasn't angry. Her entire existence had centered around being broken and resculpted into a walking psychic device, for as long as her coherent memories could even organize at this point. But it dragged along a crushing feeling of despair, a soul-wrenching weight which felt as though it might pull them straight down through the floor.

As she sensed the wave of oppression being sent from Kay to Tower, all they could consider was- What was the point of even trying to improve yourself, if somebody was just going to meddle in your brain, reformat your personality, anyway? It only took one bad review meeting.

Could Magician, Hermit and Judgement not sense this? Was she really so alone?

Conflicting emotions were allowed to sub-task parts of her brain, creating an indistinct bed of chaos. Part of her considered what had really happened. Part of her considered changing her own anatomy and becoming less human. Part of her dared the stronger Gen-1s to just delete her already. Part of her wanted to just rip her own brain out, and become a vain, simplistic dribbling child-thing.

"...Define. Mission parameters." She spoke awkwardly to Kay as they approached. No prose. A vindictive, baleful energy as deep as a storm on a gas giant. It felt like distant laughter, though her face and tone was still obscured.

They'd perform the tasks.

She'd see how far it all could go.

 

[Wolf626]

Magician tried to keep himself from shivering as Kay's senses passed over him. He instead avoided looking at Hermit and trying to act like Old Magician would've. "Maybe we should get Judge and Kay some sticks..." he wondered out-loud.

"Uhhh, who's on Tower duty again?" he asked the group. Damnit all, if the crazy one wasn't asking the right question. Why?

"But anyways, what do we do now?" he asked, speaking truly. At this moment he finally looked at Hermit, with uncertain eyes.

 

[Soresu]

Hermit had begun the whole procedure of dealing with a panicking Tower. Checking her over, from the scalp all the way to the base of her neck. It wasn't exactly an accurate thing considering their considerable constitutions. Even if something had been done, the young Augur doubted she'd find anything.

Giving Judgement a look she knew he couldn't see. He could be on Magician duty if she was on Tower duty.

"Because they moved the table." Her free hand gently patted the unstable First Generation Augur, "Not to mention the whole stack of papers thing. Overly dramatic." A few data slates would've been more than enough. So why go through the trouble?

 

[Gunhand4171]

As the debriefing went on, Judgement was still puzzled over the fact that he couldn't remember what all had transpired. It was just... blank.

As he continued to try and remember he felt Kay's senses washing over him. Usually it didn't bother him, but again something just felt... off. He couldn't put his finger on it. As the feeling dissipate he was filled with... relief?

"I'd have been fine had Black not moved the table into the middle of the room." He said to Magician. "And if you get me a walking stick I'll just smack you with it." He added, only half joking. Judge could also feel Moon and Tower fraying at the seams. As Hermit fussed over Tower, he moved over to Moon and rested a hand on her arm lightly. "Let's take everyone someplace a little more quiet. We can all go to my room." He suggested to the assembled group. To Moon he added, "Can you walk with me? Everything is still fuzzy." He asked hoping to give the Augur something else to focus on.

 

[Char]

Judgements Dorm

The columbary felt off. Not for lack of any pervasive emotions from the whole ordeal as they walked the halls as Augurs tore down hazard tape and woke their fellows but more a sense of wrongness in the very facility itself as those few now awake augurs now very much reserved guarded themselves.

Mental barriers erected some looked on at them suspiciously and others guardedly as Enkidus death had wracked the columbary and put much into perspective.

And yet, very little of it felt related to his death at all...

Those who looked on at them did not do so as though an enemy. Instead it took very little cogitation to note many of the first to have been woken being of the first generation what few of their own second generation they passed were either with, or close to one of the first and the initial feel of suspicions could now be tailored closer to distrust or disapproval.

A few of the second generation and a small handful of the first seemed seperated from this. Having woken early they too recognized the tension in the air and remained sealed in their rooms or in small groups of confidants who looked unsure at the group as they passed and reached judgements dorm. It was the same as all of theirs; Spartan and spacious with the few knicknacks created or collected while anything resembling a weapon like usual had been confiscated long before Enkidus incident to prevent over eager Augurs from harming themselves or others despite their baseline.

And as they entered some of the pervasive emotions around them subdued at the unspoken agreement between the many psychics of the Columbary to respect each others privacy.

But to someone like judgement and his senses better than most he, at least, noticed the attention of some linger before noticing his attention and retracting. In Judgements room and under his oversight the Augurs at least could speak or act freely from anyone short of the stronger bloodhounds like Kay who was one of the least stealthy of the Augurs relying too much on her perception to see her surroundings they would sense her from the hypothetical mile away...

 

[Wolf626]

As usual, it was Magician who tactessly broke the silence. "So, guys. How are you feeling?" He leaned on the wall, trying too hard to seem casual. The augur's leg jerked incessantly as he bounce his heel off the floor.

"We need... we need a plan of action." he said, stating the obvious. But sometimes that's what was needed. And what was Magician if not the support member? To fill the gaps of everybody's specialization.

"No more. Not a single one dies. Not here." It was obvious their shelf life was limited. They were tools to be used and spent. But that was out there. This was home. Or the closest thing they had to one.

 

[Soresu]

"It happens, Magi," Hermit began her voice thin and nearly without substance. She'd seated herself on the floor in Judgement's room. Crosslegged, the female Augur was fiddling with a piece of paper she'd brought with her. Her emotions as usual were barely there but enough shone through to leave a clear and present message. She was unnerved by what happened.

The usually unflappable Augur was folding the paper with deliberate care. Miss Penny said that the Yue used to do such things and thought the young woman would find it cathartic instead of participating in more group activities. But there was more to her folding of the thick sheet. Clever fingers running along not just the creases but the flat portions and never looking up from her little project. She was dancing around the subject, and when you had the best poker face of their group, especially when playing actual poker, Hermit kept the lion's share of what she felt under many locks and with only one key.

Oh from the outside perspective, she was the same fair-skinned girl they all knew. Under the surface, she maintained a mostly steady set of biological readings. Heart rate, blood pressure, and even her breathing. Hermit kept these things as in check as she dared without giving away the game.

Exhaling through her nose as she worked the sheet into the shape of a delicate multi-petaled flower. For flair, she even changed each 'petal' color until it became a veritable rainbow assembled from a single sheet. "But, why would they kill Enki?" she asked, her voice subdued while getting to her feet. "Were the Gol... were they provoked?" Hermit frowned sad eyes turning to Magician. "Usually you could pelt'em with balled-up ration-bar wrappers and they wouldn't so much as move." Pursing her lips then she padded over to Judgement and rested one hand on his shoulder. He'd know it was her clear as day.

A small shudder left her. Oh, it was acting. Mostly. Sticking to the narrative that the Gol had been the ones to kill their kin. "It's been three weeks and two days since we were gassed. But do you think Miss Penny and the techs would let us hold a little vigil or wake for him?" It was then that she picked up one of the bigger Augur's hands and placed the origami flower into his hand. Hermit always felt he could appreciate such things. He couldn't see as the rest of them did. But he could feel it. Every texture. Every crease. Every fold. It wasn't teasing. But a means to at the very least share to the best of her abilities the things he may or may not miss or regret not appreciating when he'd not been blinded.

Applying a little pressure to his grasp, just enough to not crush it. But enough for him to know she wanted his opinion.

And if he took his time with it, he'd notice little bumps. Barely perceptible to one unaccustomed to relying on their other senses to make their way through life. "I think he'd like that. I was going to make some of these if they let us." Her words were soft but enough for the others to hear. As for the bumps? They were in braille. The bottom indicates where to start his 'inspection'. Whatever was 'written' was random. It'd been meant to be to give the illusion of his judging it how he normally went about it.

And the writing? Everything both Magician and herself had discovered in the room. Right down to something different being added to the gas. Of their group, she'd been the last Augur standing by her specialization and cleverness in using the bathrobe and bit of cloth to allow a few seconds of additional and precious consciousness. In the end, there was 'This flower will self-destruct'. Just enough time for him to read it. With the very last few disguised dots telling him to play along with what came next.

And that was the paper flower beginning to discolor and wilt. Its fibrous structure beginning to unravel. A strangled sound escaped her as the paper came apart bit by bit. Flaking away to something akin to ash.

"Wh-What?!" Hermit exclaimed her throat tightening her hand while her hand went back to his shoulder. He'd just destroyed it! But then again, didn't Hermit boast to him she was expanding her repertoire of messing with organic matter? She'd seemed hellbent on making a fruit, any fruit to taste like a lemon. Much to the dismay of her test subject, Tower. "What did you do!" she snapped. Of course, there'd been something in her little flower about messing with the paper's color. And with Hermit's propensity to try strange new or whimsical things. It was only natural for some of those experiments to fail. It was time for a slight segue into another Hermit experiment gone awry.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Judgment sat on his bed and listened to Magician and Hermit as they spoke. Per usual, the blind augur stayed silent until Hermit moved next to him and handed him the flower. He began to decipher the brail writing, and just like that, the dam opened.

He remembered everything that had happened. He remembered figuring it out. Confronting Kay. Being subdued by the Fool. Despite his best efforts, anger flooded him. The same electric feeling coursed along every neuron and muscle strand in his body. She betrayed him. His teacher and once friend had orchestrated all of this. As the flower began to wilt in his hand, a small arc of lightning zipped between his fingertips and set the last of the dissolving flower alight. The fire quickly fizzled out, but it did little to hide that Judgement had set it ablaze. Judgment had, of course, studied all the current power manifestations of current Augurs, and this seemed to be Static manipulation. It seemed that was how he was "seeing" despite his blindness. He was sensing the electrical signals of the people and objects around him.

But before he let his mind dive down that rabbit hole, he turned to Hermit. "Me? It started wilting all on its own. Then... then that happened." He said, wiping the burnt fragments off his bed. As he did, Hermit could see his finger moving in a tapping motion.

It was Morse code... .M.E.S.S.A.G.E. .R.E.C.I.E.V.E.D. .B.I.G. .3. .R.E.S.P.O.N.S.I.B.L.E. .T.A.M.P.E.R.E.D. .W.I.T.H. .M.E.M.O.R.I.E.S.

It took a lot of control to tamp down his emotions, but he managed it. However, he still put on the airs of a confused and slightly offended teen at Hermit's accusation.

 

[A_Bibor_Farkas]

Tower sat cross legged, Calm and quiet, she had been rather reserved since his passing. A rush of guilt, shame and anger swirling around as the girls argued in her mind." If we could only be in control this wouldn't happen!" one would snap the other, Two cried and the third sat, waiting patiently for the outbursts to stop before sighing. "I will take control and ensure our family doesn't hurt like we did, like they have done. no more fighting. fall ibn line and we can protect." Protect... the word echoed in Towers mind before looking up, her hands still in her lap." Hermit, I couldn't keep him safe, or the rest of you, but no more. I agree with Magician, we need to stay closer than ever. I will take this seriously from now on, no more outbursts while I can help it." Her words were cold and directed to the group as she sat up slowly and attentively.

 

[Char]

Room

With judgement now aware it wasnt hard for the high-perception-based Augur to let them know when it was safe to speak freely as everything unraveled. It was hard for judgement with his connection to Kay. But all the Augurs were rational to their core and as soon as the truth was revealed it had been as though a curtain from their memories had been lifted.

For whatever reason Kay, or more likely both her and Death had killed Enkidu for some reason relating to his research and then covered it up. With exploiting or controlling La'Gran it was mad all the easier and in all likelyhood extended beyond the Columbary. Scahatch Kay despite her aloof nature had the sharpest mind in the Columbary and if The Fool was involved it was entirely likely that without some way to determine who, anyone from Miss Pentendra or Blue could have been hypnotised or manipulated.

Beyond that there was clear friction in the air after Enkidus death. With obvious cliques forming each of the hyper-cognative minds of the Augurs in the room could at least guess if not make a good hypothesis that a faction was forming in the Columbary as evident of most of the First generation grouping together and some of the more influenced seconds shadowing them.

And it was unclear if everyone in that room was in that faction with Kay, or if it was one arrayed against them...


Columbary, Play Room

The beloved by all, Enkidu, was dead. And tension had come to the Columbary as xander_malgroff , also known by his Tarot as Emperor was woken from the nerve agent and out of his sensory deprivation pod into a suddenly tense atmosphere. His pseudo-kin in the other Augurs were tense and suspicious and more than a few glares were pointed his way as he stretched his legs waiting for his bodies baseline to take care of a cramp in his back as he entered the massive play room that was little else than a large dome the size of the interior of a stadium.

He didnt see so much as sensed when someone stepped into the radius of a normal persons blindspot with intent. Feeling the immediate suppression of someone psychically stronger than him it was only enough to whir around and get on the backfoot only to find now three members of the First Generation around him.

Three of cups, Two of Swords, and Laeckshima; and augur who had yet to recieve a Tarot name all positioned around him out of reach and supressed him to the point his nose began to bleed.

"We need to ask you a few questions, Xander." Two of swords, one of the Augurs who actively participated with OIA liquidators asked as he took a step forward only for the pressure to ease off of the Emperor near instantly and the three jumped back as someone new arrived.

"yoo hoo~" Scathatch Kay, The Hierophant cooed at the group as one of arguably the three most psychically powerful Augurs of the first generation walked past first, before turning towards them slightly as the blind woman felt her way over to stand just behind and off to the side of Xander.

"You're being a bit forward, Moebus." Kay admonished at Two of Swords as wordlessly the three agitated psychics backed off and stormed away. Turning to look past Xander, Kays blind act was only as convincing until any of them remembered that while she couldnt see with her eyes, the Hierophant could see in other ways beyond normal comprehension as she rather forwardly patted Xanders thigh, chest, and then up his arms until she had a hand on one of his arms as if unable to find him otherwise.

"My little Emperor, are you unhurt?" She asked with a nuclear smile that would have been extremely endearing if she wasnt looking off to the side at nothing. Kay was old. Not in the sense of age, looking perhapse a year or two older than the biologically eighteen most of the Augurs were. But old in the sense that she was one of the first of the first-generation that had not turned themselves and everyone around them into a red mist when being woken up for the first time.

They had chemically blinded her. And when waking her for the first time had been saved as her bodies baseline set to the damage and focussed on repairing instead of instantly lashing out. They had crippled many of the first generation in that way to save them and the researchers. Whereas those in the second generation like Xander had been woken up sedated and slowly with other methods which caused them to be psychically weak at first but quickly growing in power that hypothetically would someday soon even pass those of the first generation who were awoken at their limit.

"If you're hurt you can cry into my chest if you want~" Kay teased playfully, being known to very well harass most anyone from the researchers to the OIA liquidators and even some of the other Augurs that she tended to fawn over and train personally. A group that Xander was not ever part of and to which had rarely seen him much of a passing hypothetical glance from the blind woman before now as she seemingly tutted over him as warmth seemed to swell in his chest at the attention against all usual reason.

Enkidu had died, after all. Everyone loved Enki. Even Xander deserved to mourne after all as behind him, unseen by his own perception as Kay skillfully hid her from his perception, La'Gran The Fool had a hand placed on the back of Xanders forearm where Kay had stopped the signals to his brain in that area for touch as the mental manipulator worked her magic on the Emperor and gave Kay a nod as the signal.

"My little Emperor." Kay cooed again, looking at him now, her eyes milky white but still staring directly into his own. "My sweet, caring little friend of mine."

A tightness in Xanders chest took over at the attention and then slowly faded as La'Gran behind him pulled her hand away and then walked away just as unseen as she had been when arriving as Xander suddenly snapped back to reality with the sensation that he had been falling until Kay stedied him.

"I told you that you shouldnt over exert yourself, ye know?" She tutted freckles on her nose and dimples prominent from her bright smile with a single slightly crooked front tooth, suddenly reminding him that Kay was there as she helped Xander stay upright before releasing him.

"You were just telling me about your research and how is helping in developing your powers?" She asked, reminding the Emperor of what they had been talking about before he suddenly became light-headed from the other augurs mental attack.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Room
Judgment waited for several long moments before he finally spoke. "There is a storm brewing. I know you all can feel it, too. Now, I couldn't care less about the cliques that are forming; that's one thing. But... whatever Kay and Death are planning is another. As we are, we have no chance of stopping it." He stated matter-of-factly. "At the moment, Kay still believes that our mental conditioning is still in place. So let's keep it that way." He raised a hand towards Magician, anticipating his response. "I'm not suggesting we do nothing. But while Death and Kay still believe we are docile little students, we train. Train harder than we ever have before. We also try to get as much dirt on those three as we can. The more information we have, the easier it will be to plan our next moves."

All the Gen 2s in the room stood no chance of taking on any of the Big 3 one-on-one, let alone all at once. Moon and Tower were much more powerful because they were Gen 1, but they would need help. "We can't count on the OIA to help us. La'Gran or Kay could just as easily manipulate them. We are on our own." Judge turned his head towards each of the AUGURs in the room. "I refuse to allow another death like Enkidu's." He added, his final words barely above a whisper.

 

[A_Bibor_Farkas]

"we will help however we can, I will dig into some of the handlers and see if I can get access into some of the restricted areas, with enough time and extra material I might be able to make headway, but id need moons help, and most of you. I'm much stronger at the manipulation of matter, but if we teach one another..." Tower began to trail off for a moment, sweat beading down her forehead, the physical exertion of forcing cohesion in her mind was a herculean feat. Taking a breath her gold and white eyes glowed faintly with a look of determination. The big three had only more time to hone their skills, yet with time, it always came back to more time. Something that was bigger than the group, than kay and her cronies, than the Lady Tiamat.

taking a shaky breath, Tower stood up stretching for a moment sitting next to moon and Hermit. "We will not let anyone else die like Enkidu, like some of us did on the trip here."