Board 8 > The Notes of Cain, Topic 2 [CYOA]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Entry 8: Nice To Meet You, Bright Eyes

"Nice to meet you, Bright Eyes," A voice spoke from the dark.

Goetic found himself shivering. And it wasn't very cold.

//###//

As the chaos of the battle died down, the caravan riders who had survived were forced to take stock of their situation. Ignael was dead, but not much of anyone cared about that. The guy was a bit of a bastard. They were grateful he had taken so many of the bugs with him, but they weren't too sad to see him go.

Torin was the only person emotionally attached and fragile enough to feel that loss. It had more to do with his own view of himself and his capabilities as a leader.

A boy had been killed in the opening charge, but almost no one here knew his name. "It was Tristan," Captain Punch muttered to himself, as he thought about the boy. Memories from a time not too long ago were swirling around in his head now. Images and experiences which he had absorbed from Tristan's mind when he shared the moth parasite with him. That parasite hadn't been enough to save the kid.

And even though they didn't know Tristan, they knew that he wasn't mean like Igni was. And, well, the fact that he was some dumb kid who had only come here to follow the legendary Captain Punch made it seem like much more of a sad loss. The innocence of youth had been punished with one of the harshest outcomes.

Seth's body had fallen off of the rooftop and gone limp on the ground after his brains were smashed out of his skull. Despite how messy the scene was, Matsuda knelt down beside the beareded blonde man silently. He didn't let the smell of death drive him away. All he could do was look at that corpse and wonder if he could have done anything differently -- if he had been quicker on the draw, if he'd made a more risky play and it had paid off -- could he have saved Seth from this fate?

Or was it all just out of his control? Had the draw simply turned out that way...?

Dismas sauntered over to the area as well. The robber prince had done a fine job of keeping himself safe and free from harm, but it was hard to put any sort of blame on him. Even if your instincts wanted to make this guy out to be the villain he had actually gone out to the front line to join the fight along with the chained man.

Dismas glanced at Matsuda, then looked down at Seth. "Well... damn guy was supposed to keep -me- under control," Dismas said in a tone that conveyed his sense of literal graveyard humor. "Guess this means I'm free to do as I want, now."

Even though he knew Dismas wasn't to blame, those natural instincts were still telling Matsuda that he was just a bad guy in general. He found himself glaring at Dismas. He found himself not laughing at those remarks which made light of death that had happened only moments ago. "He brought you here, and you'd better honor those reasons."

"Heh." Dismas turned away. He seemed to be taking stock of things. "Make no mistake, from that guy's point of view I was nothing more than a dog. Was brought here to sniff out treasure and kill monsters. Done a good job of that so far, too, and I'll continue to do it. But I'm a stray dog. Nobody puts a leash on me."

The chained man was clanking loudly in his self imposed leash as he walked off after Dismas.

Then, before Dismas departed completely, he turned back to Matsuda. "By the way, don't play around with corpses. You'll get sick."

The two of them went over to where Maria had fallen. She was one of those who had gotten away with an injury but hadn't died. Right now her head was spinning as she looked up at the sky. As that swirling void of stars and night sky was being swallowed into itself, she almost couldn't take her eyes off of it.
---

Her arm was badly injured and she held it against her side while trying to ignore the pain. She couldn't entirely put her weight onto her left foot. And...

"Your nose is bleeding," Dismas said, as he walked up. "You might want to block that up for a while. Or at least wipe it away."

Maria looked over at him, and noticed that he was holding something. It was the potion of regeneration they had been arguing about earlier. And he seemed to be offering it to her. "You think that will help?" She looked over at the others gathered near the wagon. "I think there are others who would want it before me."

"It's mine," Dismas said. "I'll do whatever I want with it."

As he was saying that, the chained man took out a handkerchief and handed it to Maria.

"Ah. Thank you." She took it with a polite expression and used it to wipe the blood off of her face. Then she held it over her nose to stop more from coming out. "To what do I owe this honor, then?" In her experience, nothing in this world was free.

"I could give it to someone strong and help keep everyone safe. I could do something nice and make people happy by giving it to a person they wanted me to heal. Truth is... I'd rather think about keeping myself safe, and giving it to someone who'll stick by me and watch my back." Dismas held the potion forward. "I'm saying I want you to join my team."

"Forming our own teams now?" Maria replied in a half-joking manner, but this remark was only meant to deflect the conversation so she could take a moment to decide. This allowed her to remain calm and make the choice that was best for herself without leaving an awkward pause. It didn't take long. Her entire body was in pain. She took the potion. "I've grown weary of the leadership here, in any case, and no one else seems prone to throwing a revolution."

"You'd think... people from Hendrake... would be..." Abom muttered. It was strange for the big man to talk, or to try and make a joke. But this sudden outburst, emphasized by the hesitant tone, drew the laughter of both Dismas and Maria. As they started to dictate the terms of their partnership, Cata returned from the wagon and joined them.

Those four had already gone off on their own by the time the man from out of town arrived. The first thing he saw was Lancer Aaron, sitting on the ground, having stripped all of his armor off, and hammering it out for himself. His broken lance was on the ground. If he could repair some of the dents in that armor, it would be nice. But finding a way to fix the broken haft of his lance would be essential.

The magical blade wasn't something that could break easily.

But Aaron had no desire to forge it into a new weapon. Better to continue to use it in the fashion he had grown used to. The open charge was all that he understood.

Leone went to where Aaron was and sat down beside him. "I'm sorry..." the hooded figure muttered. "Things aren't really that easy out here. I shouldn't be placing blame on you, for..."

Torin noticed the man from out of town and gave him a wave. "Are you a late arrival?" The older gentleman asked. "Or a traveler? Come on and join our fire."

"I wasn't eavesdropping, I swear," was the reply given by the man in the long coat. "I'm Enoch. Was coming to Cain's to meet up with an old friend, but..." The buildings in town were all destroyed or collapsing. The estate itself had fallen into a state of disrepair and had a dark look about it. "Seems as if these lands have seen better days."
---

"You must have been away for some time," Torin told him, as Enoch came to sit by the graying older gentleman, and by the fire. "There was an... event... sometime last year. They say monsters came from beneath the earth and attacked the villagers. You knew Cain? And those who lived here?"

"Some of them," Enoch said, sadly. "I go from here to there. But 'here' is a place I'd stopped before. I'm a bit sad to see things have turned out this way. Do we know exactly what happened?"

Torin shook his head. "That's what I'm here to find out. Why don't you join us? We could use the help. Our caravan has already fallen on hard times." Near the wagon were several bodies that had been wrapped up. The corpses of giant insects still hadn't been cleaned up from the surrounding area. "If you want to learn the mystery of Cain's downfall, or avenge the people here, you'll find help with our company."

Enoch nodded. Torin was probably only ten, maybe twenty years older than him. But the wizened way he spoke and how he carried himself seemed to speak to the younger man in some way. "Never considered myself an avenger, or someone obsessed with solving mysteries," Enoch admitted. "But I go from place to place, and when I find something worth investigating I'll stay for a while."

After that last event Torin had started to question his own lack of confidence. He was beginning to realize that the more he doubted himself, the more he allowed himself to be paralyzed by that inaction, the worse things were going to go. The only way to become a strong leader was to get over those fears and doubts and to force himself to act with confidence in order to inspire the others.

Having someone like Enoch here was helping with that, and so he was somewhat grateful that the wanderer had found them. Even if it had been a chance encounter, it had definitely been a stroke of good luck.

//#######//

"Nice to meet you, Bright Eyes," A voice spoke from the dark.

Goetic's mouth opened but he was almost too scared to say anything.

His fingers were twitching and his mind was racing. Was this thing one of those Devils that Avel had been trying to make contact with? Did it know what was going on here? Did it even care at all...?

As those questions raced through his mind, he found himself asking another one.

Did it want to hurt him? Did it want to consume his soul?

"I-... I'm not even fully human, you know," Goetic said. "I might not even have a soul. So-.. so..."

"Heh. Heh heh..." The darkness around him and before him chuckled. The Devil chose to reveal some of its form, but it was only a brief flash in space. That image imprinted itself on the brain of the Abnormal and then the space around them distorted.

Goetic found himself on a snowy cliffside. They were overlooking a mountain range beneath them. He didn't know this place. It hadn't accessed his memories or something to make him more comfortable. Instead, it brought him to a mountain that he hadn't heard of, and that he had never been to before.

Did that mean it knew that he loved to see new things and learn about them...?

"I see the sun," Goetic remarked. He fell over in exhaustion and looked up at the sky as his butt felt wet in the snow. "I feel the cold around me, and even the snow is wet. Did you create all of this?" Maybe the Devil was trying to make him relax. Maybe it was working.

They were in a dry place now. It was a hill of sand. And behind that was another hill of sand. The air was hot. It was so much that it almost shocked him, the difference between here and where he had been. The wind was moving and it stung as it beat him across the face.

"You haven't seen anything like this before, either, have you?" The Devil asked him.
---

"No..." Goetic admitted. "But I heard that there was a country to the south with plains of sand. Not like the beach, but..." His eyes scanned the horizon and he didn't see one. No lake. No ocean. No rivers. No grass. "A place without water."

"Things can survive even in a place like this," The Devil explained. "You'd be surprised at how tenacious living creatures can be. Human or not... I have an interest in all of them."

Goetic stood up as his surroundings shifted again. Now he was in a darkened corridor. A cramped and somewhat scary place filled with cobwebs. And he was sure there were monsters and traps around the next corner. He thought about his gun and wondered if it had come here with him. It had. "Where...?"

"You may want to silence your voice, here, and speak only with your mind," the Devil warned him.

He began to do that. Somehow his words were forming in his mind but they had reached that Devil in the distance. His eyes, which had always shown he was an Abnormal, were glowing in the dark here. "Where did you bring me?"

"It's where you wanted to go, isn't it?" The Devil inquired. Cain's Estate.

Goetic wanted to know what happened here, yes. He was curious to know if the Devil had been in contact with Avel or Cainas or anyone else from these lands. Before he could ask those questions he was more concerned about something else. He sure as hell didn't want to be here alone. "Is it really safe?"

"I can protect you," the Devil told him. "I can reunite you with your friends... if you wish."

"Friends?" Goetic wasn't sure about that. He'd never been good at making friends. He wasn't human, after all. There wasn't a person he could get along with easily. And his own kind, like Ignael, tended to be mean and put him away.

"Heh. Heh heh..." the Devil chuckled. "Well, if you don't want to be alone, you may be happy to know that I'm going to stick with you for a while. By the way, Bright Eyes, why don't you call me Gray?"

"Something between light and dark," Goetic blurted out. "Is that how you view yourself?"

Gray was scanning the area, though Goetic didn't know how he knew that. The guy didn't answer his question. Instead, he totally changed the subject. "For now, they may not be your friends, but I'll find you a group of pawns to keep you safe."

"It'll be annoying if this body gets killed," Gray explained

Goetic wondered if he had any value beyond that, but he was sure he wouldn't get an honest answer to that kind of question.

[End]

8. Where will Gray send Goetic?
A. Lower entrance.
B. Front Entrance.
C. Collapsed Wall.

Note; Goetic's placement determines chapter order. Goetic's group will always go last in the chapter order. He will not appear again until chapter 11, and the same goes for the group he is placed with. I won't explicitly spell out which group is which but it should be pretty easy to figure it out.

The Ditch Party
Dismas the Guilty - eddv
Maria Taylor - nfun
Abom, the Chained Man - decider
Cata Spade - Cata

The Shell Party
Torin Gemmason - Mana
Lancer Aaron - FB
Enoch the Wanderer - crazy
Jen Lowell - pk2k
Leone the Cat - CPU

The Moth Party
Captain Punch - xey
Owen the Coward - stan
Beastkin Zephyr - ermine
Matsuda - trdl
Fakeru - fake
Gunslinger Kidd - drak

We're still waiting on Maniac to get caught up and give a placement to Inspector Jamison as well, but he has until Sunday morning-ish to do that. Lefty doesn't get to place Goetic directly, but the group as a whole can decide where Gray might choose to send Goetic against his will.
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A
---

[Leone will remember that]
[Maria will remember that]

Ignael was dead, but not much of anyone cared about that.

Lies!

As for choice mmm...lets leave it to rng!

B
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(Nice introduction.)
B
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Also A
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edit: err I mean A
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Hmm, B.
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Hmmm....I actually want to see where Jamison ends up.

I think ideally Shell Party would get Jamison and Moths would get Goetic to insure each party has int leaning builds. Shells already have Torin so the more well rounded Jamison makes sense for them, while Goetic is more of mixed toward non combat skill build and would be helpful in directing the mountain of firepower that is the Moth Party.

That said his potential devil powers WOULD fit nicely with Team Morally Ambiguous over in the ditch.
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I also think Front Door is obviously shell and given that, they are probably listed in the same order.
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A? A. Im not sure which is which... >_>
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FakeAccount3000 posted...

A? A. Im not sure which is which... >_>

Lower Entrance=Ditch party
Front Entrance=Shell Party
Collapsed Wall=Moth Party

At least im pretty sure it is
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Eddv posted...

Hmmm....I actually want to see where Jamison ends up.

Goetic and Jamison do have similar builds so it might be a good idea to try and split them up, yeah. This depends on players voting one way and Maniac putting Jamison somewhere else.
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item lists

Ditch Party
Collected Gems and Jewelry
Monster Intelligence Scrolls
1 Diary (Dropped by Goetic, collected by Maria)
A Map of the Estate
The famed Bicycle Tools
Self-inflicted Chains (Abom)
Cata's Sabre

Shell Party
Alchemy Kit
Aaron's Armor and Lance
Torin's Cane
A Cat-Ear Cloak
Enoch's Coat
Supplies From The Wagon (Includes free weapons for unarmed characters)

Moth Party
Iron Tools, Silverware, Fine Cutlery
Land Deeds
Owen's Camera, Photograph, and Woodcutter Axe
Matsuda's Poker Chip
Zephyr's Bow and Arrows
Fah's Magic Sandals (Floaty!)
Kidd's Gun and Locket
Supplies From The Wagon (Includes free weapons for unarmed characters)

Jamison will bring the Disc Catalyst and his Protection Amulet to whichever group he joins.
Goetic will bring his rifle and the rest of the books with him.

let me know if I missed anything for those detail-oriented readers who might have caught my own errors.
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B.
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Oh yeah wondered when alchemy thing would come in

Did Jen's starter item (small travel pack) come into play or is that what wagon supplies is supposed to be (though Moth Party gets that too)

Also since it seems Jamison has the catalyst I wonder if sending him to Shell will be better now if that will have any effect on the alchemy stuff or if they don't really have any bearing on each other
---

the alchemy supplies were basically handed over to 'whoever is going to take care of jen'

the spell catalyst can be related to the alchemy supplies but it doesn't have to be

I actually missed Jen when I was itemizing the sheet because:

```
I 100% blame pk2k for submitting a picture instead of just posting his sign up in the topic
I have missed it every single time I scan over the topic and look for character info again```

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Ahh mmk

Regardless I am basically of similar view that Goetic and Jamison should both end up in either Shell or Moth ideally (one each). Based on personal speculation Goetic should end on Moth and Jamison to Shell to balance those parties out stat wise

Oh yeah would Torin have gotten any intel from the Smithy as well?
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Pirateking2000 posted...

Oh yeah would Torin have gotten any intel from the Smithy as well?

unfortunately Goetic took the books with him. Maria got the one that had the card in it, because she pulled it out of his satchel before he fell, but welp... we're gonna have to wait and see where Goetic ends up.
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A.

Got an uneasy feeling about something happening to whichever team 'Bright Eyes' Goes to, soooo....
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I don't think much else will happen to the group he is sent to aside from the dangers they are already going to face and Goetic is one of the few remaining tacticians of the team (with Ditch having the best one already). That and he has intel on the place from the Smithy

It seemed the Devil intended to just surround him with people so he hopefully won't die to the dangers of the place
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A
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B to put Goetic in shell party,

I was already leaning Moth party from the start and in character following Fakeru definitely makes the most sense. Sorry about what it does to party balance but Jamison is sticking with Fakeru and Kidd.

Jamison will join Moth Party.
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I just have a mistrust of devils, generally. ...Maybe it's a bit racist of me, I dunno. ._.'
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A
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IhatethisCPU posted...

I just have a mistrust of devils, generally. ...Maybe it's a bit racist of me, I dunno. ._.'

hey Jack was pretty cool
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I vote B now that Jamison is a moth
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changing back to B
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A

#TeamDitch
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The Ditch Party
Dismas the Guilty - eddv
Maria Taylor - nfun
Abom, the Chained Man - decider
Cata Spade - Cata

The Shell Party
Torin Gemmason - Mana
Lancer Aaron - FB
Enoch the Wanderer - crazy
Jen Lowell - pk2k
Leone the Cat - CPU

The Moth Party
Captain Punch - xey
Owen the Coward - stan
Beastkin Zephyr - ermine
Matsuda - trdl
Fakeru, Lucky Girl - fake
Jamison, Inspector - maniac
Gunslinger Kidd - drak

8. Goetic To...

(1111111) A. Ditch Party
(1111111) B. Shell Party

This one is a pretty close race, still. Let's see what those last few votes look like!
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B
Wait I voted already
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B
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Going with B.
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B

Going A cause why not
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Switching to A for Drama~
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Switching to A
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O_O

I think Team A is most equipped to handle whatever weirdness Goetic might bring back with him..

8. Goetic To...

(111 111 111 1) A. Ditch Party
(111 111 11) B. Shell Party

this should be accurate. looks like A is probably winning. I think one person hasn't voted yet but that wouldn't be enough to overturn it or even make it into a tie at this point.
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C, just to be contrarian.
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update tonight??

or tomorrow morning????
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Or maybe even right now??????
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Whoooo knows?!

Not me!
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Shell Party:

Undermanned, under-gunned, wounded, new blood, low intel, iffy leader (so far)...and some grit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xgrnlt5pss" data-time="

Lets rock
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The Ditch Party
Dismas the Guilty - eddv
Maria Taylor - nfun
Abom, the Chained Man - decider
Cata Spade - Cata
Goetic - lefty

The Shell Party
Torin Gemmason - Mana
Lancer Aaron - FB
Enoch the Wanderer - crazy
Jen Lowell - pk2k
Leone the Cat - CPU

The Moth Party
Captain Punch - xey
Owen the Coward - stan
Beastkin Zephyr - ermine
Matsuda - trdl
Fakeru, Lucky Girl - fake
Jamison, Inspector - maniac
Gunslinger Kidd - drak

I'll start Phase 2 tomorrow with these groups, then.

Chapter 9: Owen/Enoch
Chapter 10: Torin/Jamison
Chapter 11: Abom

Not 100% sure on these but those are my ideas. I'm trying something a little different with the POVs and groups in this project, some people might have already noticed as compared to my older projects; rather than doing one group at a time I'm trying to get more comfortable sharing viewpoints between separate groups.
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Oh gosh a Owen chapter. Should be interesting!

neat some stuff with the new crew member
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alright apologies for the slow update cycle, by 'morning' I really mean either right before or right after I eat lunch... which is usually early in the day. anyway long story short I had to skip lunch today and I'm eating right now so I'll get to writing afterwards.

over the weekend is usually the slowest time for me so updates are gonna be inconsistent on sundays and saturdays. but now that it's monday again I have to get something on the page soon!
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