>>28264679
>Character Creation goes thusly: You will be given a scenario, and there will be a social interaction. You will chose the tone of this social interaction. You may write in an actual verbal response if you like, or the QM will make one up that is appropriate to the tone you selected. These “reaction tones” will determine what sort of symbiont you bond with, and the value of one of the three stats which you will not recognize. No, they're not in the book. Yes, they do matter.

>At the end of these scenarios, you will undergo the Rite of Transfiguration, and hopefully bond with one of the symbiotic life forms from Beyond that will make you into a Tager. Depending on the stats and the tone of your answers, you will hopefully bond with a symbiote that is suited to your nature. Likewise, those who are undergoing the trial with you will hopefully become your Tager Pack. They are your brothers, sisters, maybe-lovers, maybe-rivals, and definitely people who know you for what and who you are – or whom they think you are. You will go out and do battle with the enemies of the Eldritch Society.

>Or you will go mad, or you will die. For you, there are no other options. Success does not mean you will not go mad, or that you will not die. Those things are only delayed, for you are At War.

>>28264711
What Has Gone Before:

You were adopted because of an attack on the arcology you were born and lived in when you were six. Almost everyone you knew died, but the N.E.G. and their mecha and soldiers saved many people. You were among them, and they placed you in social services. At the age of seven, you were adopted by a young woman.

Your adopted mother, a Human scientist, fell in with bad people. You discovered this when you were ten. At the age of twelve there was an intense fight and you saw horrible things. Chief among those horrible things was watching your adoptive mother be kidnapped by horrible things and spirited away. You were rescued by other horrible things and brought into a cult, which gave you into the safe keeping of ordinary men and women. Yet, you remembered them, what they called themselves. The E.S. Later, you did your best to discover their true nature, especially since the People in Black Body Armor and the People in White Trench Coats asked you so many strange questions about the monsters you saw and the people you met.

>>28264727
At fourteen you sought out the cultists of the Eldritch Society, who were the source of the horrible things that rescued you. They had been keeping an eye on you, because you might know something, something they needed or wanted to know. Whether or not you do, you have not decided yet. But they did promise you one thing: if you worked hard, if you dedicated yourself to them, they would give you the chance to find your adoptive mother, and further, to destroy the source of those horrible things that took her.

When you find her, there will be a reckoning. Because you think that it was not a kidnapping at all.

You think it was a rescue.

What Is Happening Now:

A cold sweat is probably among the most uncomfortable things you have to deal with. That and having to cope with the thing you don't remember. You don't remember it because if you do remember it you start throwing up uncontrollably – at the very least retching violently. It took a lot of training to learn to not think of elephants when someone mention elephants, but that is something you can do now, instinctively and without effort. Because if you couldn't you wouldn't be able to cope with what you've been training to do.

Sadly it doesn't always help with the T.Y.D.R. But you're working on it.

>>28264748

You sit up in bed, your cotton t-shirt clinging to you like a second skin. Stripping it off helps immediately, and Fanzi rolls over in her sleep as the bed-springs squeak when you strip off completely. Pushing the top blanket and extra sheet – the one with the microweave middle so you don't soak both sets of sheets through – off the bed too, you lie back down, pulling up the second blanket. The room is almost dark, a faint blue light giving the room a slightly haunted glow. You're not afraid of the dark, or much else, for that matter.

“Wha's wrong?” Fanzi is running a hand through her disheveled hair and looking blearily in your direction. “Worried about the ceremony?” Fanzi is dedicated, and studious, and like you she might become a Tager. You've shared a room for almost two years, and while she's nice enough.... She's like all of those seeking to become Tagers: there is something more, a fanatic's aloofness, a mystic's inattentiveness.

>Aggressive
>Shy
>Calm
>Aloof
>Reassuring
>Straightforward
>Secretive
>Honest
[Write In]

CnV
PhD
ToL

>With this selection only include Human or Nazzadi as a racial choice. There are no other choices.

(There will be a minimum 30 minute wait from this post as people digest the wall of text.)

stop talking in third person, retard

[x] wake up, rape the frogs

>>28264772
>Shy
>Nazzadi

>>28264772
>Reassuring
Nazzadi

>>28264924
>>28264992
>Shy
>Reassuring
>Nazzadi

CnV 0
PhD 1
ToL 1

Her question startles you; you hadn't been thinking about the ceremony at all. Your bedding and clothes all over the floor while she's still awake was actually at the forefront of your mind; usually you get everything put away before she wakes. “....it's nothing. Nothing much, I mean. I....”

This is ~so~ not going well.

“I'm fine, Fanzi, really. Just the bad dreams again. I'll be fine.”

“At least you don't scream yourself awake. I can live with you tossing and turning.” Fanzi moves around a little. “I'm looking forward to it. I hate the waiting part. Getting it over will be a relief.” You can't help but agree with that. Even though no one ever blames someone for not going through with it, you can't imagine not following through with the ceremony.

[Con't.]

>>28265248
“No, I'm not worried about the ceremony. Thanks, though.”

The Human woman laughs a little. “If you say so. Sleep well.” Fanzi rolls over and goes back to sleep. Sleep is a longer time coming for you. Tomorrow will be the second to last day of your life as a normal mortal.

If only that were what was keeping you awake.

The next morning, after your morning rituals of showering, applying what little makeup you wear, and checking to see if Fanzi is going to be inviting anyone to the room in the afternoon – you won't be, you have other things to do – there is breakfast and then meditation. The office building that this branch of the society uses for headquarters and living area, much as the ancient Japanese Zaibatsu companies used to, houses well over a thousand people. Of them, there are usually twenty to thirty of them undergoing the training and teachings of the Ta'Ge Fragments, stolen by the Founders. They tend to eat earlier and somewhat isolate themselves from the rest of the societies rank and file, with the exceptions of the curious and the initiated. The seven packs of operating Tagers who serve in this sect live elsewhere, you will be meeting some of them tomorrow.

[Con't.]

>>28265268
Today the eight of you, the eight who will tomorrow be starting the ritual to become those vaunted powers and strange beings, have a table by yourselves. The others in the dining hall give you all a wide berth, and there are many whispers and awed looks. It is a huge sacrifice, and an even larger risk. And no one has ever looked down upon anyone who has stepped back from the precipice.

Fanzi has a plate piled high with eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, and sausages. It's the most you've ever seen her eat, and she's never gotten so much....well, GREASE on her plate before. Holmes, a Human man who has as more scars along his arms than you have in your mind, sits down and stares at her plate full of slop. “Planning on sleeping through meditations, Fans?” Yen Chau, a Human who is the closest you've ever seen to a pure blooded Asian in this day and age, chuckles and gives his rich, throaty chuckle. “It's not a last meal yet, that's tonight!”

Fanzi shrugs, and smiles. “I want to be well grounded today. Weird dreams.” That small pronouncement settles the table, and she looks around at the suddenly silenced group of would be warriors. “What?”

“You're not the only one,” states Rechert, the youngest male at seventeen, whose entire life has been spent among the Eldritch Society. “I had some bizarre ones. Almost enough to make you think....well, that's impossible.” His pokes at his pancakes with a fork, his pale look not entirely complexion this time.

[Con't.]

>>28265286
Viss slides into the seat next to yours, her dark skin devoid of the usual Nazzadi markings. “What's impossible?” she asks, her crimson eyes focusing on Rechert, who blushes. The youngest and last female, at a mere sixteen, she too has lived her entire life among the Society, and despite her age she may know more about the Ta'Ge fragments than anyone except the elders. “The Dreamlands are gone, if that's what you're implying.”

Settling down opposite you is Jakob, the oldest, a Human male in his mid-twenties. He's also the most combat experienced, having been an N.E.G. Soldier before he was recruited to the Society. Despite his mundane upbringing, he has taken the Eldritch Society's creed to heart. “Don't be so sure. Just because magic and science have traded places doesn't make either one predictable.” Rolling her eyes at the Zen-like statement, Viss digs into her meal.

Irren, the other Nazzadi at the table, waves off the comment. “I don't dream.”

“That's impossible too, everyone dreams,” claims Viss, who is vindicated by a nod from Yen. “If you don't dream, you go crazy.” Holmes doesn't look convinced, and Jakob glances at you. “What do you think, Anne?” They all know you don't sleep well. None of them blame you, either.

>Aloof
>Condescending
>Dubious
>Certain
>Reticent
>Annoyed
>Vicious
>Suspicious
[Write in]

CnV 0
PhD 1
ToL 1

>>28265299
[x] Write In
"I think dreams happen just to drive us crazy. worked for me!"
Humour works well to diffuse tension.

>>28265389

I like that. Some humour never hurts.

>>28265389
This. Avoids the question, and keeps us friendly with the rest of the candidates (hopefully).
If they press the issue, tell them we've no idea.

>>28265405
>>28265402
>>28265389
[Write in]>Humor

CnV 1
PhD 1
ToL 2

“I always thought dreams were supposed to drive us crazy. Worked for me.”

The best thing about being Nazzadi, is that often it takes a Nazzadi you've been around a long time to realize that you're deadpanning. The silence at the table, as you sip your drink is shocked; Viss is staring at you with her mouth open, Fanzi is struggling to not laugh and ruin the joke, and Yen is looking at you like you actually are crazy.

Then Fanzi nearly spits her drink all over Rechert, while Holmes suddenly guffaws, and the mood at the table visibly lightens, though Rechert is confused and Viss looks almost offended for a moment, before Yen managed another of his low chuckles. Jakob grins as well, and shakes his head. “Lady, you ARE crazy.”

You relax, grinning, and the conversation turns to more normal, every day topics – the latest news (largely faked, everyone agrees), the rumor mill's current gossip (Chrysalis this, Chrysalis that!), and whose doing whom among the Society's movers and shakers.

[Con't.]

>>28265550
You finish your meals – even Fanzi, who has somehow managed to eat everything on her plate – and head for the meditation room. There are no bells, no buzzers, though a few beeps from various watches serve as reminders. The Eldritch Society isn't just about you and your companions, and it has been on your own recognizance that discipline is maintained. Discipline will get you through part of it, but there are also freedoms to be had, because the symbiotes have needs as well, and you need to be free to work with them. Working against them only leads to death, in one form or another.

When you reach the Meditation chamber, things have been rearranged slightly. Normally, there is room for twenty to thirty people in the room, and the walls and floor are plain and unassuming. Today the windows are blocked, the lights turned off, save for a single blue-white circle of light above the middle of the room. Nine cushions are set in a circle under that light, and they lie within two circles of red paint. It's not blood, you know what that looks like. There are tiny rhinestones or bits of glass or metal here and there in each circle, and on either side of each pillow is a heavy piece of blank paper. An elder sits on the cushion furthest from the door, and as you approach he speaks a name, and points to a pillow.

>Obedient
>Confused
>Suspicious
>Doubtful
>Uninterested
>Insulted
>Accepting
>Curious
[Write in]

CnV 1
PhD 1
ToL 2

>>28265568

>Obedient + Curious

We may not know what's going on and may want to know but lets be honest, it's NOT a smart thing to do anything to mess up a ritual.

>>28265568
>Obedient
>Curious

>>28265568
[X] Obedient.

Questions later, though.

>>28265627
>>28265642
>>28265727
>Obedient
>Curious

CnV 2
PhD 1
ToL 3

You take your indicated seat, between Yen and Jakob, though you share in the curiosity of several of your companions. Jakob, despite his military background, is clearly trying to figure out what the papers signify, while Rechert looks at the circles with confusion, shaking his head as though to dismiss any actual ritual power they may have. Viss simply does as she's told, her absolute faith in the things she'd been taught all her life and her trust in the Society unwavering. Irren too is obedient, his self mastery overriding any impulse to be curious. Fanzi glances at you, then shrugs, and settles down.

Elder Tirasi, a kindly old man who has helped teach more would-be Tagers than any other teacher still alive, murmurs softly as you take your places. “We begin with the Gha-Jho meditation, and will move into the Ynii'khu'maet meditation. As that ends, you will lift the page on your right, and look upon it.” People's eyes flick towards those now threatening pieces of paper. “After appropriate time has passed, we will repeat both meditations, and then you will look upon the page to your left.” Somehow that even seems more ominous. “Then we will complete the session with a simple Blank Slate meditation.”

[Con't.]

>>28265741
He lifts a small silver key, and uses it to strike a shimmering cut leaded-crystal bell to begin the meditations. The methods and ways fall into place quickly, practice making perfect. Even as the sound fades you are imagining the geometries and systems of the Gha-Jho meditations. It seems only moments when he rings the bell, signaling the change in meditations. The sutras and litanies of the Ynii fall effortlessly from nine tongues, the slight differences in cadence and recitation not entirely inharmonious, but soothing to hear even as the spill off your own tongue.

The bell is struck again, and the chants drift into silence. The rustle of paper is the only noise you hear as you open your eyes, and pick up the mysterious piece of white paper.

It takes up half the paper's surface, a stunningly detailed painting of a night-gaunt. Though it is merely a painting, the jagged, bone-like claws, the segmented, barbed, and peculiarly prehensile tail, the flabby, inhuman body....all lovingly rendered and carefully designed. The thing you don't remember, laid out in unwholesome detail. You study the picture, looking at the blank black swath where the face should be on most anything, horns and spines surrounding it, emphasizing the emptiness.

[Con't.]

>>28265754
It's not a photograph, but whomever did this must have worked off of a photograph, or a corpse. You've seen the real thing, and it takes all your skill, all your will to not remember that thing. You look at the incredibly well done painting and don't remember at all. It is a triumph of your skills, and when the bell is rung, you are able to put down the picture without a qualm. Not so some of the others. Holmes is looking like he's seen a ghost, while Viss is shaking like a leaf as she sets down her paper. Irren looks nonplussed and Jakob has clearly seen worse. Most of the others look confused or unimpressed, but it is only a moment, before Viss excuses herself, walking shakily to the restroom. Fanzi glances at you, and then rises to follow her. Yen also looks worried, but more about Holmes than Viss.

>Arrogant
>Concerned
>Curious
>Insulted
>Self-involved
>Stoic
>Bemused
>Angry
[Write in]

CnV 2
PhD 1
ToL 3

>>28265765
[X] Stoic
We can handle it.

>>28265765
> Stoic
We can handle this. See if the others are okay, though.

>>28265765
>Concerned
Check on Holmes, then Viss.

>>28265765
Concerned.

>>28265789
>>28265809
>>28265828
>>28265873
>Concerned
>Stoic

CnV 3
PhD 1
ToL 4

You push your own issues to the side, standing easily and walking over to Holmes. You kneel behind and off to one side, close enough to speak quietly to him since Fanzi has left. “You all right, big guy?” He glances at you, and nods, pale, and clearly shaken by whatever was on his piece of paper. You manage a half smile. “Been there too.” He knows, as they all do, about the incident you don't remember. Unlike most people, you didn't used to have the option of hiding it. But training and effort have made you much stronger.

More importantly, these are people who have helped you become stronger, and likewise, you've helped them. Holmes told you about the scars – scars gained when he choked a dhoanoid long enough for several other people to kill it. He'd done it by shoving both arms into its mouth up to his biceps. You can guess what was on his piece of paper.

With some color back in Holmes' face and Yen smiling at you gratefully, you follow Fanzi and Viss to the restroom. Viss is leaning over a sink, and Fanzi is holding her long hair up and away from her. You recognize the situation immediately and dig into your pocket.

[Con't.]

>>28265977
Viss glances at you, embarrassed, her cheeks the weird purple-black of of flushed Nazzadi skin. You don't smile, you just place a folded paper cup and the small tin of breath mints you always carry on the sink's edge. Her eyes grow wide and you shake your head, letting her know you didn't see anything at all, before you leave the restroom. You go back to your pillow, since everyone seems to be settling down, those whose wits were scattered recovering them.

Tirasu lifts the bell, having seen – or perhaps having allowed you all to see – what he wished.

Collecting yourself, as the others collect themselves, is only the work of a second's thought. You are once more calm, collected, riding the feelings as opposed to suppressing or ignoring them. The ringing tone, crystal clear and pure, draws your attention and you resume the Gha-Jho meditations where you left off, the forms and images firm and easily continues in your mind. You were always good with shapes and forms, even geometric ones as complex as the Gha-Jho. Then the murmuring litanies and slow sutras and mantras of the Ynii.

The third ringing of the bell brings you to the second piece of paper. The others as well, of course, but their situations and issues are lost to you as you look at the dark painting on this piece of paper. It is nearly identical to the previous one, save for one hideous difference.

[Con't.]

>>28265983
The blank, black place where most people place the faceless surface of a night-gaunt's 'face' has been left open, and there is a simple symbol painted there, a symbol more cruel and elegant than any of the Ta'Ge Fragments arcana, more vicious than any Aklo symbol, more maddening than the Yellow Sign could possibly be. A delicate three-quarter circle, mounted atop a vertical bar, hovering menacingly over a simple dot.

?

Not even your hard won and intense discipline could be expected to cope with that.

When you were seven, you were playing in the park near the orphanage. There were always several adults, and usually several military personal. It was dangerous times. It was early enough that the lamps had not completely gone out, nor the solar arrays made transparent enough to show the real sky and thick clouds above. The shadow had swooped out of the darkness of a nearby alleyway, flapping and jerkily struggling to find purchase in the terrestrial air of the arcology. Like some massive, brain damaged bat it had skittered and struggled through the air, darting low enough to capture one child, which it dragged up towards the dome-covered sky.

[Con't.]

>>28265995
Then it started tickling you. Clutched in bony clawed, tugged and yanked in varying directions, the greasy, smelly thing held you fast and struggled for altitude even as that long, writhing, thrashing tail poked and slipped and wriggled against your skin, over and under your clothing, along your face, cold and spastic. You laughed and screamed and howled and it wouldn't stop, not even after you'd been unable to keep control of your bladder. You lost a shoe in that dizzying, maddening flight and it put you on a ledge, six stories up, crying and exhausted, unable to move and gasping for breath. Gasping, until you looked into the place where a face should be.

People always said that night-gaunts had no faces. There were very few people who survived that understood ~why~ night-gaunts were depicted with no face.

By the time the rescue workers were able to collect you from the ledge, you were unconscious, yet still suffering from dry heaves. You'd puked up breakfast, then bile, and finally blood, your throat so raw and your guts so violently affected you'd torn your own stomach lining in your efforts to void them. Even now, you were on your hands and knees, struggling to keep breakfast down, trying to breathe past the need to vomit. It wasn't that seeing it it had sickened you. It was that your body was trying to expunge the memory of what it had seen in the only way it could.

Your vision is still greyed out when a voice – you haven't the slightest idea whose voice – asks you if you are all right. If there was something they could get.

>Hateful
>Aloof
>Stoic
>Calm
>Confused
>Grateful
>Dismissive
>Vehement
+Vomit (This is an action, not a emotional response, and can be optionally attached to the emotional response.)
[Write in]

CnV 3
PhD 1
ToL 4

>>28266003
> Calm
> Grateful

>>28266003
[X] Grateful
[Write In] Stoic

No throwing up after we gave away our mints!

>>28266112
>>28266045
>>28266045
>>28266112
>Stoic
>Calm
>Grateful

CnV 4
PhD 2
ToL 4

Taking shallow breaths and avoiding the urge to swallow the hot spit that comes with nausea, you reply slowly and carefully. “I'm all right. I got this.” You do, but it is hard, one of the hardest things you ever have to do. You concentrate on your breathing and your heartbeat, and slowly sit back up. A warm hand is set on your your shoulder, and Yen is watching you, his inscrutable expression given the lie by the concern in his eyes.

The best you can manage is another half smile, and you nod, grateful for his support. It took a long time for you to accept the support of others through your private little hell. Now that you have it you don't entirely know what you'd do without it. Now that you've gathered your wits, you notice Viss looking at you with a measure of awe, while Jakob pats you on the back once, a solid thumb that earns a soft grunt.

When you return to your cushion – notably not the last to do so, that dubious honor goes to Irren of all people – you are calmed and steady. Without looking you pick up the piece of paper and set it aside, making certain that you do not actually look at the picture, only note that one side has smudgy darkness and the other does not. Discipline wins out over need to be exacting, and you manage to set it aside and face down, if not perfectly in place.

[Con't.]

>>28266221
The bell rings, and you clear your mind, breathing calmly, slowly. You let the sensations, the physical, slip from you easily, slowly turning down your awareness until there is only breath one, and breath two. In and out. Receptivity and awareness. Yin and Yang. This goes on for a moment, for hours on end. The sounds of others getting up bring you to awareness, and fully half of your people have already left as you finish the centering exercises that bring you out of the trance and prepare you for the real world.

Everyone leaves the pieces of paper.

The choice between combat training – even after the painful experience at meditations – or the opportunity to make a final study of the Ta'Ge fragments is a difficult decision at best. However, while walking with Irren and Viss towards the halls which split between the storage area for the precious fragments that will give you the power to discover the truth, or the training hall which will give you the ability to force the truth from others, you see others with whom you usually train rushing towards the combat training area, speaking in hushed but excited voices.

You and your companions manage to pluck a few words out of the excited babble, a word which explains all of it. “....Reapers of the Whirlwind....” Irren and you exchange a startled look. The Tager pack that was supposed to arrive tomorrow have arrived a day early, and apparently are going to be joining your training....though it's common knowledge they often return to study the fragments as well, seeking new insight and reassurance in the Holy War against the Thousand Masked Servants.

>Shock
>Interest
>Aloof
>Derision
>Confusion
>Humility
>Reassured
>Eagerness
[Write in]

[] Go to combat?
[] Study the fragments?

CnV
PhD
ToL

Second to last one.

>>28266245

Aloof

Combat

>>28266245
> Interest
> Humility
> [x] Study the fragments

>>28266260
>>28266264
Writing, will accept anther vote or two.

>>28266401
Humility
Eagerness
Combat

>>28266410
>>28266264
>>28266260
While demonstrations of their power and abilities are often granted to those who seek to become like them, you had the somewhat dubious honor of seeing them in actual combat. It makes the demonstrations a little too staged, a little too simplified in comparison. It's not a grandiose display of power and ability, it's a terrifying slaughter and nothing that the demonstrations can justify. Still, they make good teachers, and there is always the possibility you can glean something new, some slight edge that will give you the ability to take on the symbiont and become one with it more easily.

Viss is already hurrying to follow the crowd, while Irren walks with you. “Will you be joining us?”

“Only for a short while. I've seen them....” You trail off, noticing someone you're not familiar with turning down the halls to the Ta'Ge Fragments. “I've seen them in a real fight. It's not the same watching them demonstrate their skills outside of a fight.” Irren looks dubious, but nods, and moves to catch up to the rest of the small crowd. Fanzi rushes past you, grinning like an idiot, and you can't really help but smile back, her enthusiasm infectious, and the others are also going in that direction.

[Con't.]

>>28266546
Combat training has been harsh, and there isn't a single person who hasn't experienced broken bones, concussions, deep wounds, and even life threatening injuries in the combat training you and the other Holy Warriors are put through. Still, you have to admit, that seeing a powerfully built man take on six of the trainee Warriors and wipe the floor with them makes your blood run hot. Not just because of the display of testosterone or the skill with which he fights. No, this time it's because soon, you'll be like him. Powerful, able to deal with impossible odds, and strong. Strong enough to defy the things you've been told. Perhaps even strong enough to discover what happened to your adopted mother.

It is a heady feeling, knowing how close you are to your goal.

When combat training begins in earnest, you quietly excuse yourself, heading towards the door. Normally you couldn't get away with it, but you have only one day before finding out of you are worthy. Just before you leave you are shocked to see a slender Nazzadi, a lean man who smiles at you knowingly. You're sure he wasn't there a moment ago, and it doesn't take a genius to recognize a Phantom's unique ability. That brings home just how truly different your life is going to be, and despite your earlier claim, you feel humbled knowing that there is more to it than simply being powerful.

[Con't.]

>>28266550
The halls are quiet and almost deserted. Between the elders and their discussions with the Tagers, the combat and meditation classes, and the preparations for the massive rituals tomorrow people are simply far too busy to be idle. It doesn't take long to reach the rooms where the duplicates of the Ta'Ge fragments are kept in their crystalline cases. They're not the real thing, no, but they are exact in every detail. Along with the replicas are the notes and translations, as much as has been decrypted up to this very day. It isn't enough, it can never be enough unless it allows the defeat of the Chrysalis corporation and their unholy abominations to Human and Nazzadi.

A short, handsome young woman is studying some of the fragments. She is the only other person here, and while she appears to be absolutely ordinary, that can be a fatal mistake in the line of work you've dedicated your life to.

>Aloof
>Curious
>Humble
>Stoic
>Indifferent
>Suspicious
>Calm
>Trusting
[Write In]

CnV 4
PhD 3
ToL 5

With these last answers, character generation will be complete.

>>28266560
> Calm
> Aloof
Keep an eye on her, if you don't recognize her.

>>28266560

>Calm
>Indifferent

>>28266593
>>28266609
>Aloof
>Indifferent
>Calm

CnV 6
PhD 3
ToL 5

You go towards the fragments you are most interested – those concerning the ritual itself. Certainly you've been drilled on how it will work, and you understand intimately how draining and stressful it will be from lesser rituals you've participated in and taught to experience, but the act of looking through those rituals at the source – or as close to the source as you can get is....it is reassuring. Affirming.

She only glances up once as you pass, a slight smile on thin lips making her look more predatory than polite, before she continues her study of the fragments, making notes in a simple and well used journal. That's reassuring in its own way – a spy or infiltrator wouldn't have movie tickets, personalized bookmarks, or an actual hand written journal. There are far too many ways to make electronic records and your counter-intelligence training (a necessity for people hunting spies, even if those spies are inhuman monsters) makes the possibility of someone collecting that much personal information on a spy ludicrously dangerous. So, whoever she is, she isn't a threat.

You nod politely, but nothing more and continue on your way, the matters ahead of you far more important than a stranger needs to know about.

The not-so-ancient stone fragment that details the ritual is as tall as you are, and the light inside the crystalline encasement makes the cuneiform markings clearly visible. You'll be spending an entire day in the ritual, drugged out of your mind, hungry, thirsty, unable to leave the small circle that will be your entire universe. And during that time, you will travel, or something will make its way to you. You will be presented with a chance to become something beyond Nazzadi, beyond Human, but not entirely inhuman.

File: 1384348920360.jpg-(207 KB, 1000x566, tage_fragments.jpg)

207 KB JPG

>>28266704

“You'll be fine.”

The woman smiles at you, her eyes guarded but despite that her tone is not unkind. “You'll be fine, Anne.”

[] Do I know you?
[] I appreciate the support.
[] I remember you....
[] Write in.

>>28266716
> [x] I remember you....

>>28266716

[] I remember you....
Maybe?

>>28266716
[] Do I know you?

>>28266827
>>28266954
>>28266988
Writing, last post for the night. morning. Whatever it is.

>>28266827
>>28266954
>>28266988
[x] Do I know you...?
[X] I remember you....

You know you haven't seen her before. Her sharp features, lean frame, and her less-than impressive stature combine to make a fairly unforgettable person. “I'm sorry, do I know you?” She smiles her thin lips pressed together, and cocks her head, looking at you, her guarded eyes filling with something akin to mirth.

“We met once, a long time ago. I don't think you would remember. But I am confident after all you have been through that you will walk the way well.” Before you can respond she tucks her journal under one arm and walks away from you. Her movements ginger and mincing although strangely self assured for all that.

Almost like a spider. A giant one. Like the one that saved you from being eaten by monsters when you were twelve.

>To Be Continued.

I'll be around a little longer to answer any questions.

>>28267108
Any idea when you'll run again?

Don't forget to archive this.

>>28267162
Thursday, 2:00 AM.

Cool.
Looking forward to more.

File: 1384352752016.jpg-(786 KB, 4428x1072, Tager CYOA.jpg)

786 KB JPG

Does this apply/

>>28267256
Yes and no. Some of it is accurate, but it's also oversimplified.

> missed it
FFS.