It was a rather casual day for Noctina, she was wearing something a bit more brown and grey then what her usual attire was, predominately black. It was a rather nice day, the bite of winter was closing in but not yet in the air and Noctina had a mission. She had heard that there was a rather uncared for and unclaimed hallow in this region, she just now had to find it and make it her own. It was rather dull, the area was hardly densly populated and most of the homes were run down and in need of some care. As she was looking she noticed that one house stood out, its resonance was far stronger than that of all the other places around. She parked her bike up to the curb and inspected the old for sale sign in front of the house and she smiled.
“I think this might just be my lucky day.” She said smiling to herself as she goes around back to inspect the property. Around the back there was a rather uncared for and small apple orchard out the back but there was one tree right in the centre that appeared to be flourishing and the area beneath it glowed to her mage sight. With a massive grin she pulled out her phone and punched in Aenigma’s number.
“Hey, you may want to get over here, I have a present for you~” Noctina said in a flirty voice before giving him the address. She would then hang up, sit down under the tree, grab a ripe apple and bite into it, only to be surprised as it tasted amazing and even better she could feel mana starting to seep into her pattern from the apple.
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"Present?" Aenigma was intrigued by what she meant, so he wrote down the address and headed in that direction.
It took him about 45 minutes to get there since he had to use public transportation most of the way, and the walk up to the house Noctina had told him to meet her at. He knocked on the door and waited for a couple of minutes. The place looked empty, and he figured that Noctina was maybe playing a trick of sorts on him. He still remembered the night when they met and she tried to pickpocket him. So he decided to walk around through the back. He noticed that the gate on the fence was unlocked, so he looked around to make sure no one noticed and then walked through into the backyard. Once there he noticed Noctina sitting under a tree, whose resonance was unusually strong.
"Hey, whose place is this?" He asked as he smiled at her.
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Noctina smiled and slowly stood up stretching her body before then standing on her tippy toes to reach an apple that was just out of reach. After a second or two of straining she jumped and grabbed the apple before landing on the ground and then throwing the apple gently towards Aenigma.
“Try that, and then I think you will understand what I am talking about.” Noctina said with a bit of a cheeky smile before then a look of confusion came across her face.
“Oh, how do I spell your name, I just have you listed in my phone as A-n-i-g-m-a, is that correct?” Noctina asked as she pulled out her slightly older model i-phone.
Noctina would then wait for him to take a bit of the apple before she answered his question.
"It could be ours."
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Aenigma caught the apple with both hands. He looked at it for a few seconds and then took a bite off it. He smiled after he was done chewing the piece.
"It's tass! But how did you find this place?" He took another bite of the apple, since he was actually kind of hungry at the moment. "It is spelled A-e-n-i-g-m-a. It's basically the Latin spelling of the word." He continued to eat the apple but he almost choked at Noctina's last words.
"What do you mean ours? Whose place is this? I hope we are not violating someone's sanctum...that would be bad news bears." He looks around to see if there are any signs of other people, especially other mages in the area. It is obvious that he is a bit nervous.
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Noctina would burst into a large cheesy grin when he asked how she got the place, she herself hadn’t got it without help, but she didn’t know who that help was.
“Well... I seem to have a creepy stalker who seems to help... Anyway I got a notice I should check this area out and then I found this, if you look out the front there was an old for sale sign, it looks like this place hasn’t been owned in a very long time. Hence my statement of... We could have it.” She said as she then walked away from the tree a few steps before pulling out her USB drive from her pocket.
“Free mana for casting spells you see~” She sad rather sweetly before pointing out her USB drive and made a little flourish with her hand as she attempted to Scry back to her childhood streets where she grew up in new York. She felt the magic come cleanly and free, she didn’t have to spend mana or anything. Casting with a hallow again felt amazing, no need to try harder to get those daily spells, just spend some mana to reinforce them in your pattern.
The scene that opened up was a dark back ally, in it was a man on the ground with 3 others kicking him, Aenigma would see the scene if he watched too, but Noctina would quickly close the window,
“And... that umm... was my childhood street I grew up on. I guess some things never change...” She says with a sigh obviously reflecting on the scene she just saw, it apparently taking all the wind out of her sails as she now appeared deflated instead of the severe happiness of only a few seconds ago.
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"Creepy stalker? Well, if he guided you here...it must be someone who is awakened." He looked around again, trying to figure out if they were being watched. Aenigma was slightly worried that whoever had sent Noctina the message to come check out this place could be setting a trap for them. You are just being paranoid. He turned back to her and smiled. "Well, if no one lives in this place, I guess we could try buying it. After all, a hallow is a precious resource, and we shouldn't let that go to waste."
Aenigma watched as Noctina casted a spell and opened a scrying window. He got a quick glimpse of the image before Noctina was able to close the window. However, he did not mention anything about it because he could tell that it was a touchy subject.
"So, should we mention this to Curator Tyria? I mean, she is the big boss around here and all." He wanted to make sure that they were following the right protocols, and since the Curator was the Mysterium's figure of authority here in Sacramento, he figured they should probably mention something about this to her.
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Noctina looked at Aenigma, the spark was not really in her eyes like it was seconds ago, she passively listened to what jag said and nodded.
“Well he is a space master is all I know, able to open portals in a second and seems to have some weird interest in me. He tends to have a habit of ruining every job I go on, although he tends to leave a prize of some sort, its like a game at the moment” Noctina said, giving a bit more information on her stalker and what he/she has been doing.
Noctina then sighs as she senses a ripple in space open up right next to her, she simply looks at thee invisible portal and gives it the finger before returning his attention to Aenigma.
“And now he wants us to know he is watching… It’s only visible with space sight, the scrying portal isn’t magic somehow…” Noctina said Apathatically as she points to the now open scrying portal.
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Aenigma listened closely to her description of the unknown stalker. I sure hope he isn't a Seer or worse. He looked at her curiously as she gave the finger to no one in particular, and then turned his head frantically from left to right as he searched for the one spying on them. He frowned and then said a few unintelligible words as a space magical effect went off.
"Well, you do know there are ways of shaping your soul." He pauses as he inspects the spatial disturbance, unsure of what to make of it. "My mentor back in Georgetown told me some about it. So you know nothing of this person that's been watching you?" His tone is one of honest concern.
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Noctina listened to Aenigma slowly forgetting the childhood trauma that her scrying window had brought back to the surface of her mind.
“Ahh, you mean legacies yes? Yeah my mentor was apart of one, he was able to see the connections between everything, but all the time!” Noctina said as she then pulled out her knife lightning quick.
“He even caught me after I stole this from a certain requisitioning, although he then gifted it to me as it was just a minor item of not much importance, I would have been in alot more trouble if I tried to steal the artefact from them.” She said, the knife itself had a faint aura of matter magic and appeared to be a few hundred years old, common term for it was a Rondel Dagger.
Then from the scrying portal a note appeared.
“Aenigma over there deserves a cookie.” was all the note said and then from the portal cae a large 250 gram choc chip cookie... and a bow???
“The bow is for Noctina, have fun you two!” A voice could be heard coming from the portal, it was obviously british and appeared to belong to an older man before the scrying portal then closed, then opened a brown box popped out and then closed again.
“What the fuck...” Was all noctina would say as she stood there looking stunned and then she slowly moved over to the bow and picked it up. The Bow was a simple wooden thing, if she knew about archery she would have worked out it was what is commonly called a training bow, often used for young adolescents or those new to archery.
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"Yes, that's what I meant. My mentor back in Georgetown was one of those as well," he said with a smile on his face. "They are called 'Sphinxes' due to their aptitude with solving puzzles and riddles, which extends from their ability to see the connections between things." He watched as Noctina showed him her dagger, inspecting it closely as she told her story.
Aenigma was dumbfounded as the note appeared. Who the heck is this guy?!?! He watched as the bow and cookie dropped from the portal, not knowing what to do in this situation. As he heard the voice, he quirked an eyebrow. Hmmm, maybe he is just playing games with us...but why? As Noctina moved to grab the bow Aenigma went after her.
"Wait! Do we know if its safe to touch those things? What if this guy is trying to lure you into some sort of trap?" It was obvious that Aenigma was quite paranoid about almost everything, which could be blamed on the fact that he had awakened and lived in a city that was at war. Growing up as a young mage in Washington, DC meant dealing with Seers on a regular basis. While he was overtly paranoid, he was also very curious. This curiosity usually got him into all sorts of trouble, but Aenigma ignored past experiences and started to scrutinize the box that had fallen through the portal. "What do you think is inside?"
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Noctina looked over the bow and pondered the accent the man had, this was the first time she had heard his voice and it was british as well, did he think he was some sort of robin hood? She immediately picked up on Aenigma’s immediate concern about what was happening, Noctina was a bit more care free, she had been getting little shinies here and there for a while now and this was another one of them.
“Eh… He has been doing this off and on for a week or so, I don’t see any real harm in it.” She ignored Aenigma’s warning and picked it up. She then stood up very rigidly and gave Aenigma a really creepy state.
“I see it all now… I must kill the one called Aenigma!” She said before Lunging towards him and then braking out into laughter.
“Is that what you worry about? The bow appears to have no magical aura so I am sure it’s safe.” Noctina said grinning before looking around for some arrows but found them lacking.
"Last time I opened a box Jewelry was inside, I am not sure whats in that one..." Noctina said, but she was too busy with the bow in her hands to open it. The scrutinizing would reveal a resonance of Wealth and Debt, inside there would be some signed documents that have someone acting as a co-signer for the loan to purchase the house they were standing at.
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Noctina would then look at the box for a few seconds before bending down to pick it up. It felt relatively light so odds are there was not wads of money and jewellery like last time she opened up a brown package. Knowing there was not something of probably too much value she then threw the box over to Aenigma and hoped he could catch it.
“Yep, you can open the box. Also paranoia is wise however I have dealt with this person on a few occasions; if he wanted me done in he had far better chances and opportunities to do so.” Noctina said pondering on this mans strange behaviour, then she remembered what Aenigma had said before.
“Wait… If he has a legacy, and the legacy magic, if he is doing this does this mean he wants me as a pupil or something? That would actually make a lot of sense now that I think about it.” Noctina said as she then thought over what the person said and how he had been introducing himself so far?
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Aenigma, slightly caught of guard, caught the box after fumbling it around for a few seconds. "A warning would be nice next time!" He said in a playful tone as he inspected the box closely. "I guess you are right about that. Perhaps he doesn't mean you any harm." He opened the box carefully and then inspected its contents, a wide grin showing on his face a few seconds later. "In the contrary, it seems that he wants to help you. I'm not sure what his motives are though."
He handed the contents of the box to Noctina after he had finished skimming through them. "Take a look at this." He waited for her to read over the papers before piping up again. "If he does belong to a legacy and wants you as a student, this is a rather strange way of showing it." He laughed a little at the thought of an old British guy stalking her and giving her odd presents.
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Noctina looked at the papers that was handed to her, it was quite obviously some official document and most of it was already filled out and dated for tomorrow.
“He is if nothing else helpful, but also a douche, Do you know he called the police on me in the middle of a job? It was a very irritating job that went south when he did that...” She said commenting on her semi-bungled mansion heist that occurred a week ago. She would then look around on the ground for two sticks that look sturdy and look like they could withstand a beating. After she found two appropriate sticks she threw one to Aenigma.
“So... Time for an Oblation?” She asked as she started digging the stick into a patch of dirt and making a circle in the ground with it.
“The Winner gets the mana, fight until you can’t fight anymore or you give up, although if you give up too quickly none of use will get the mana, so let’s hope you don’t quit prematurely huh?” Noctina said as she was basically challenging him to a duel for the mana. Mastigo’s as a general rule thrived under competition and it was not uncommon for two Mastigo’s to duel as an Oblation if they shared a hallow, of course only the victor got the mana, Noctina would then lower her mage armour, neither her or her partner were probably proficient in pointy stick fighting so mage armour would make this last all day.
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Aenigma had a look of shock on his face. "He did what? Why would he do such a thing?" He watched as Noctina picked up a pair of sticks and caught the one Noctina threw at him. "What are these for?" He gave her a funny look, obviously confused by what she wanted him to do with the stick. Oblation? I guess we have a different idea on how to perform one of those. He looked down at the stick in his hand and then at Noctina.
"Umm, I'm not much of a fighter really. If you wanted to duel, the only way I'd stand a chance would be in a Duel Arcane...but we would need someone who has the ability to square the circle for us unless you can do that yourself." He paused for a moment, and it was obvious that he was slightly embarrassed about admitting that he could not fight. "If you want some sort of competition, you should probably come up with something that will actually BE a competition...rather than a lopsided fight!" His tone was friendly and playful, and he laughed after saying those last words.
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Noctina looked rather disappointed at Aenigma, she was in no way an expert at fighting, and this man would rather just give up.
“Well… We can’t have you being useless now can we?” Noctina said as she then took out her dagger while it was still in its sheath and threw it an Aenigma, once again without warning. She would then get a stick, place it against the tree and step on it to snap it in half and make it smaller. One of the pieces was around the same size as a knife.
“Now you want to start by holding the knife like this…” Noctina said demonstrating correct holding technique, if Aenigma did not get it right she would walk over and manually correct his hands.
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Aenigma caught the knife, but he was obviously not pleased by having it thrown at him. "Careful. Those things are sharp!" He frowned slightly. "I'm not useless, I just don't play with sharp objects." He chuckled. "I try to avoid fights, and when I find myself in the middle of one I tend to use other tricks to get away." He winked at her playfully.
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Noctina would look Aenigma up and down a few times before holding out her hand wanting her knife back. She was slightly disappointed in Aenigma’s lack of physical ability he appeared to be showing a bit too much dependence on magic, while Noctina relied on her magic quite alot she knew she also needed to be able to handle herself without magic.
“Ok then! You want to not play with sharp things, how about you show me how you can do that?” Noctina said as she would then place a mental shield upon herself incase Aenigma tried any sort of mind magics on her.
“So big boy, you think you could get away from lil ol’ me?” Noctina said placing her hands behind her back whilst pouting and speaking in a very cute and child like manner, obviously trying to goad him into action.
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Aenigma handed the knife back to Noctina and smiled. "Well, I guess there's only one way to find out." He winked at her and then muttered some words in high speech.
OOC
Once he casted a couple of spells he turned his attention back to Noctina. "Ok, come at me, I'll try dodging out of the way."
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Noctina would look at Aenigma and blink once, twice and a third time in disbelief. When she wanted a game of cat and mouse she did not want to attack him, she wanted t chase him down, he had no defence this was dangerous! Sure he had a bit of magic but that isn’t too significant, it helps but wont protect against a good knifing.
“I was more thinking a game of cat and mouse, but if you are sure...” Noctina said before taking a jump and wiled for her magic to as she stood under the hallow, strategic placing at it’s best.
She would then rapidly draw her knife and stab towards the bag that Aenigma had on his waist, this action accured at the same time her nimbus kicked in and all those observing would feel an intense feeling of vertigo and distant whispers that were unintelligible.
The attack hit despite the distortion field that was around Aenigma and Noctina hopped there was nothing valuable in the bag as the attack tore through it.
“A defence is never as powerful as good offence...” Noctina said Somberly.
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Aenigma tried dodging out of her way, but was not quick enough. He frowned as his bag got torn up. "That wasn't very nice. What was that you casted anyway?" He had felt her nimbus, so he knew she had casted some vulgar spell. "Fine, you want some offense? Ok, I'll show you my kind of offense." He stuck his tongue out at her and then began to mutter some more words in high speech.
Rolls
As he finished chanting the last words he stared directly into Noctina's eyes.
OOC
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Noctina loved standing on top of the Hallow, the energy that was flowing from it even passively was suffusing her magic and supplying the mana she needed to cast the spells she wanted.
As she saw with the mage sight Aenigma cast some sort of spell on himself and she decided to give him the evil eye…
It was then he started casting in high speech, whatever spell was coming Noctina didn’t want to be around to feel it. She would launch the first attack to try and stop him and somehow manage to miss entirely which was rather unusual considering her accuracy. Not wanting to miss the second one as she knew the attack was incoming she poured her will into enduring what was to come before retaliating with another strike. The blow hurt like a punch to the face however she would be fine eventually. (1 bashing -2 from fate, -2 from increased defensive attribute.)
Spending 1 WP to increase resilience attribute by 2, combined with what I am assuming is a successful evil eye assuming Aenigma doesn’t have 7 composure.
This time the attack hit home, she knew the knife would tear through his flesh, she looked away and closed her eyes at the moment of impact. She didn’t enjoy what she was doing however she felt that there was a lesson to be learnt and it should be taught. True she did use magic while doing all this however no mind attack could compete with her knife attacks, at least at this level. Even if she was in melee range things wouldn’t have changed that much, he left himself completely open when chanting in high speech, she could have run up and attacked him while defenceless as well.
“Are you ok!” Noctina shouted as she ran over, sheathing her blade, to help the now wounded Aenigma.
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OOC
Aenigma dodged Noctina's blade the first time around, returning her strike with one of his own as he casted a psychic assault against her. However, the second time around he was not quick enough to move out of the way, so he was struck by her blade and started to bleed.
"Ouch! No, I'm not ok! You just stabbed me!" He said as he held the wound with his left hand. He began to chant in high speech again, allowing the supernal energy of the hallow channel through his magic.
Rolls
Once he had finished casting the spell, he kneeled down to pick up some of the things that had fallen out of his bag when it was torn by Noctina's blade. Among them there were some bandages, which he grabbed and started to use to bandage up the knife wound. He was visibly upset, and didn't say another word as he worked on patching himself up.
OOC
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Noctina had a similar Idea to Jag as she called down knowledge from what she assumed was the astral on how to treat her friend, although before she did that she removed the ranged blow spell from herself.
“Here, let me help!” Noctina said as she bent down next to Aenigma to try and help with the first aid efforts, she wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing exactly but her mind seemed to know what to do when for treating the wound.
“It only appears to be a sub-dermal laceration that missed critical arteries, you should be fine.” Noctina said before shaking her head wildly side to side confusing herself with what she said.
“Now... Do you want to go to hospital or do you want me to set you up in the basement downstairs in the house... It’s actually rather pleasant down there...” Noctina said once the first aid was done, she would also give Aenigma a bit of a hug, taking care to avoid the injury and give him a gentle reassuring stroke down his arm or spine, assuming he didn’t react negatively or hostile.
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Even though he was upset, Aenigma let Noctina help with the bandaging of his wounds; after all, it had been her blade that caused them. Once he had finished bandaging the wounds he turned to her. "I don't think the hospital is a great idea...how would we explain this to them?" He seemed to be slightly more relaxed than before. "And this is why I don't like playing with sharp objects!" His tone was playful as he stuck his tongue out at her and released a couple of the spells that he had casted.
OOC
He concentrated for a bit as he pulled some more magic from the supernal, allowing the hallow to power his spell.
Finally he looked up at Noctina. "The basement will suffice for now." He gave her a friendly smile. "You will be taking care of me, right? Since you stabbed me and all, I think it's the least you could do." He gave her his best "puppy eyes" look as he tried to persuade her.
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Noctina would look at the man giving him the puppy dog face... *Noctina doesn't try to contest the persuasion, she was doing that already*
“Thats exactly why you need to learn to play with sharp objects, so you can do it before they can!” Noctina said as she stood up and offered him a hand to get up, she would act as a support if he needed it to get him down to the basement of the house.
Down there was a single room with some thin walls, 1 was a bed room and 1 was a living room, there was a sink in the corner and a little bathroom in a corner behind the only thick walls in the basement. She would help get Aenigma onto the bed, or the lounge but she would encourage him to lie down. The place was bare of any electronics apart from a noisy fridge that hummed by the sink. Once Aenigma was settled she would speak in a low voice.
“You said I should take care of you right...” Noctina said before leaning over to kiss him whilst sliding a hand across his body, ensuring not to hit the injury.
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Aenigma shrugged. "I guess you have a point, I usually prefer to remain unnoticed and avoid sharp objects alltogether." He started laughing but then stopped as it made his wound hurt, an expression of pain painted across his face. "Ouch. Ok, no laughing for a while."
He accepted Noctina's hand and walked down to the basement with her help. Once down there he took a few moments to take a look at the place. "Not too shabby." He winked at her playfully. "It does have some coziness to it." He gave her a friendly smile and then listened to her advice, lying down on the bed nearby. Noctina's kiss to him by surprise, and even though he was slightly awkward to react at first, he returned the kiss.
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*Fade to black*
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