Encounterlogs
Korinas Odd Encounter Sr Ritsuka 240926
Korina's morning routine of clearing land near her Elm street apartment takes an eerie turn when her axe strikes something much harder than wood, stumbling upon a bizarre and unsettling scene. As she investigates further, she discovers an obsidian stone embedded within the tree, surrounded by pulsing red veins and oozing what appears to be human blood. Her curiosity piqued, she decides to extract the stone, suspecting it to be part of a ritual sacrifice with ties to hell. Korina's knowledge of the occult tells her that this stone could be used to summon a powerful demon, a prospect that puts everyone at risk should it fall into the wrong hands.
In her effort to safeguard the stone, Korina encounters signs of pursuit from The Destined Host, a group evidently interested in the artifact for their nefarious purposes. Opting for a stealthy retreat to avoid drawing attention, she cleverly misleads them to an unintended location while securing the stone within her heavily warded apartment. Although she briefly contemplates the consequences of her actions and the potential interest of her adversaries, Korina ultimately decides to keep the stone, planning to return it to Hell at a more opportune moment. Despite the looming threat of The Destined Host, she relaxes on her balcony, overseeing the aftermath of her diversion with a sense of mischievous satisfaction. The day's events culminate in tranquil solitude, as Korina, now in feline form, dozes off, content with a job well done and the chaos she's skillfully navigated.
(Korina's odd encounter(SRRitsuka):SRRitsuka)
[Wed Sep 25 2024]
In The Forest
It is morning, about 50F(10C) degrees, and there are a few wispy white clouds in the sky.
(Your target and their allies have come into possession of an artifact that is of great interest to The Destined Host. The artifact is said to have the power to bring forth a powerful demon when used in a specific ritual. The Destined Host is aware that your target has the artifact and will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Your target must either find a way to neutralize the artifact, hide it, or prepare for a confrontation with the members of The Destined Host.)
The sun's risen high in the sky, and Korina's grabbed an axe before making her way out behind the Elm street apartment. The building is visible to the south, though the sounds of town are muted at this distance, the chirping of birds and cries of small animals taking precedence here. Her axe swings through the air, in the process of cutting down one of the large trees here to make space for a dirt road, mindlessly at work.
Mist rises all around, shrouding both the ground and the patch of land marked for the new road. The birds suddenly fall silent as a strangely warm breeze stirs the air. Even the distant hum of the city fades into nothingness for this fleeting moment. The air grows heavy, tense, and still. As Korina swings her axe, and instead of the familiar thud of wood, the blade meets something hard, glassy. The sound rings out and a moment later, crimson begins to seep from the tree, bleeding into the misty earth below.
Maybe Korina's not a professional lumberjack, but even /she/ knows that's not a normal thing. She's cut down a tree or three in her lifetime. Instead of continuing to swing all willy-nilly, she pauses, squinting at the tree. The axe goes down to the ground, placed upon a nearby patch of grass, and Korina moves closer to figure out why her tree is made of glass instead of wood - or whatever else is going on there. To figure it out, of course, she does what any reasonable person would do:
Korina kicks the tree.
Korina kicks the tree, and surely it would have left some form of impact behind with most trees, and this one does, too, above and below and somewhat centric, bark flies and sheds and perhaps, in some distant memory, it is recognized as if kicking against very stable glass where the kick lands. Exposing some of the wood of the tree, with bark smashed around and lying in the surrounding environment on the ground, it is now possible to see an obsidian stone perk through from the wood. The obsidian stone is all in black and smooth, nothing out of the usual, but seen over its surface are small and red little veins that pulse. More red liquid spills and flows from under the obsidian, coating the tree and bark below red and the iron smell of blood hangs to the air. Then the seeming blood stops to flow.
This is /definitely not/ normal tree behavior. Korina lifts a hand to shield her eyes against any stray splinters of bark that have gone flying, and then moves in closer to peer at the tree some more. "What." she says out loud, as though it's going to answer her, sniffs at the air - does it smell like /blood/ blood? Trees aren't supposed to smell like blood - and then reaches out, slowly and tentatively to poke at the oozing crimson and the obsidian stone beneath. Poke.
... she's not going to try it out by /tasting/ it, is she?
Korina looks like she wants to.
The obsidian is poked, but it does not draw more blood from below its inset into the wood of the tree. Korina can easily tell that it actually is genuine blood, perhaps from a human, by the smell of it and her extensive knowledge means she only needs a couple of seconds to understand what this is.
Someone hid this here, the blood a part of a ritual, a sacrifice. to meld it into the tree itself, to allow the forest itself to hide it. The obsidian stone pulses, and it is connected to hell. Korina is fairly certain that a powerful demon could be summoned with this, the kind that would cause tremendous trouble for absolutely everyone, if left to the wrong hands.
Korina licks the blood anyway.
Just a little bit, the part that had gotten on the tip of her finger. That's better than letting it go to waste, isn't it? There's a wrinkling of her nose right after, definitely not the best meal she's had, and she then reaches out to grab the stone carefully, trying to push and pull and slowly weasel it out of its spot embedded in the wood, if possible. There's a glance around, just to see if anyone's watching - behind her, to the sides, even towards the apartment building in the close distance. Maybe she can just sneak it back to Hell, or somewhere not in the middle of the forest where anyone can get to it.
Turns out, strength is a wonderful thing to have, especially supernaturally, because it makes prying something like this far easier, though it still resists, but with some effort, the obsidian stone is pried free, some more blood reveals and seeps itself down along the tree, and covers some of Korina's finger again, and the word Rorzanir runs through her mind.
Just as she looks and pays closer attention to the surrounding, listening for any observers, she does not find any, not in the apartment, and not in the distance in the parking complex or the street, nor in the forest, though surely a fae could evade detection. What she however does see, feel, is an unnatural ripple in the air. The obsidian stone is dormant, it isn't from it, and as it often does, it is incredibly helpful to know a lot about the occult. Someone has been looking for this for a very long time, so much so that they have started to make a mistake - and become detectable in ther effort to locate this item. But it means whomever is looking for this, knows.
Right. Korina palms the stone in one hand - is it small enough to be palmed? - and reaches down to grab the axe from the grass with the other, slinging it across her shoulder. There's a distasteful grimace at the ripple in the air - that's certainly nothing good, once again, and she tells the stone out loud, "You are too much trouble." Because it is.
She steps away from the site of what looks like murder even if the only murder that's taken place here was a tree - recently, at least? - and moves for Northwood trail nearby, keeping an eye out for anyone who might intercept her upon the way; hopefully she can make it back to her apartment - her nice, warded apartment with the best locks and security money can buy - and using the back alley instead of walking about Elm Street for it might be more inconspicuous. Or it might just make her look that much more suspicious, who knows?
Concerns prove to be warranted, for her ears soon pick up the incoming sound of a handful of vehicles. They stand out from the rest of the crowd. Usually, at this morning hour, there would be some vehicles, but none so close by. From the sound, they might be recognized as vans, which would pose enough room to transport a fair bit of manpower or other distasteful equipment - and they try to drive on by speedily, definitely breaking a couple of traffic and speeding laws. It's evident it is prudent to deepart from here quickly, but if they, too, have super naturals, then it would prove more difficult to escape the pursuit.
The obsidian stone is small enough to fit right into Korina's hand and not be an entire nuisance within.
Korina shouldn't stay to figure out what's going on out there.
She really shouldn't.
And yet, there's a saying about curiosity and cats for a reason. She makes her way southeast to Northwood trail - it wasn't that far of a walk, maybe a minute at most, and then it's south into the dark alley until she finds the back entrance of the apartments.
Korina walks in, and instead of heading for her third floor penthouse apartment, instead makes her way to 104 - definitely not hers, though surely if there's supernaturals following her scent trail, they won't know that, right? In she goes, the key procured from her pocket - who doesn't have keys to Emmanuel's apartment in this day and age? - and sneaks her way into the bathroom to peek out the small southern window into the parking lot and Paine Avenue behind. Can she see whoever it might be in those loud, loud vans?
Vans drive on out onto the parking lot, doors slide open, and Korina can just see as several people stand out and about, with one sniffing the air. The whole group begins to move northwards, into the forest and all of them are armed. They do look to be in a bit of a hurry lest their presence draws other undesirable attention, as it would in a city like this. Peering out, Korina can see the mark of a crimson hand holding a blackened, thorned crown upon the collar of one of the people, and then another on another piece of attire on someone else. Their pace is a quick one as they make their way into the forest, and wary eyes glance around for anyone that's stopped to watch.
The mark of the Destined Host is all too obvious - Korina's had fought against them in the nightmare not two hours ago, and here they are, out in the open, this time in the real world instead of the nightmare. She sniffs, nose wrinkling up a little bit. Definitely not her most favorite group of people. There's another glance down at the obsidian stone cradled in her palm, and by this point Korina's decided that finder's keepers.
Pop, Korina goes into the nightmare, floating her way through the liminal space up, and then further up, until she can pop out of /her/ bathroom this time. She makes her way over to the ritual room at the heart of the apartment, places the stone on Vaelys' shrine there, and then makes her way out again, sans-stone, washing her hands free of any blood before she makes her way out to the balcony, curiosity well and truly piqued.
The balcony offers a view of the northern end of Elm street and wraps all the way around to the north, looking over the forest. Korina takes a seat upon her egg chair upon the terrace, and peers out and below across the glass railing, unrepentantly nosy - what are the Host up to this day? She's got her theories, of course, but nothing like having it well and truly confirmed.
Overlooking into the forest, Korina can peer between the branches into the ever growing forest, and there they are. They stand by the blood covered tree, one touches the blood that has started to dry, another two sniff the air. It is about two dozen people, and one of them looks up and back at Korina. This is the gaze of a man, probably in his mid thirties, maybe Korina recognizes him as one of the people she did indeed fight. And he recognizes her, too. But here, in Haven city, busy with other affairs, there is no direct aggression, their tones are very quiet, purposefully so and the gaze of both of the people sniffing the air leads them to turn to the alley Korina had passed through. Clearly, they are trying to trace, seems Emmanuel's apartment will soon be searched through, ah what a joyous day for a Templar.
Korina twiddles her fingers in a little wave at the man - it's really just to make him a teeny tiny little bit angry if he remembers getting a ball of light from Korina's prismatic sorcery smashed into his face as the last thing before disappearing from the nightmare. He's all healed by now, so it's okay to rile him up some more, surely. She watches the men follow the trail of her scent - she can't look into the apartment downstairs from here, but she can imagine the Templar is having a no good very bad day, and mischief has been managed, that's for sure. Serves him right for having terrible security. And mice. Especially the mice.
And then Korina settles back into her egg chair, letting out a big yawn as the sun's rays shine down on her - the weather is nice, at least, and the shade of wispy clouds is enough to make her sleepy. She's got all the plans of curling up into a teeny tiny ball and drifting off, unless the Host are going to rudely interrupt her anytime soon.
Walking, the single man does come to a stop and gives Korina(cat) a scowl. His temple twitches, but there is the others, too, and they are certainly not here to bicker. And so, the group disappears into the alleyway, there is no noise downstairs, evidently they have someone with them that knows to pick a lock. Whatever is happening downstairs, they probably will come to think that the temple possesses the stone, though they certainly would deduce it was a woman. But then, there is also the sirens in the distance, and then the hurried driving off of vehicles from the parking lote.
The morning sun is a little cold in this weather, but still, it's soft ray still carries a little bit of warmth. For the moment, the skies are blue, with a few wispy white clouds that travel between. Eventually, the sirens just fade, too, and all is well. All is well.
Now significantly more feline, Korina(cat) stretches out, claws digging into the seat of her chair, tail swishing through the air, and then properly relaxes, belly up, paws curled in the air, the faint breeze and the soft sunlight putting her to sleep. Off she goes to sleepy sleepy land, the softest of snores escaping her. She's earned her rest after pulling off such a flawless heist, surely. When she wakes up, she can take the stone back to Hell so it doesn't fall into the hands of one of the cults -- assuming the Hand has no need of it. Korina(cat) isn't really fond of demons, and it would be mighty inconvenient for one to be summoned anywhere nearby where she has to deal with it.
In her effort to safeguard the stone, Korina encounters signs of pursuit from The Destined Host, a group evidently interested in the artifact for their nefarious purposes. Opting for a stealthy retreat to avoid drawing attention, she cleverly misleads them to an unintended location while securing the stone within her heavily warded apartment. Although she briefly contemplates the consequences of her actions and the potential interest of her adversaries, Korina ultimately decides to keep the stone, planning to return it to Hell at a more opportune moment. Despite the looming threat of The Destined Host, she relaxes on her balcony, overseeing the aftermath of her diversion with a sense of mischievous satisfaction. The day's events culminate in tranquil solitude, as Korina, now in feline form, dozes off, content with a job well done and the chaos she's skillfully navigated.
(Korina's odd encounter(SRRitsuka):SRRitsuka)
[Wed Sep 25 2024]
In The Forest
It is morning, about 50F(10C) degrees, and there are a few wispy white clouds in the sky.
(Your target and their allies have come into possession of an artifact that is of great interest to The Destined Host. The artifact is said to have the power to bring forth a powerful demon when used in a specific ritual. The Destined Host is aware that your target has the artifact and will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Your target must either find a way to neutralize the artifact, hide it, or prepare for a confrontation with the members of The Destined Host.)
The sun's risen high in the sky, and Korina's grabbed an axe before making her way out behind the Elm street apartment. The building is visible to the south, though the sounds of town are muted at this distance, the chirping of birds and cries of small animals taking precedence here. Her axe swings through the air, in the process of cutting down one of the large trees here to make space for a dirt road, mindlessly at work.
Mist rises all around, shrouding both the ground and the patch of land marked for the new road. The birds suddenly fall silent as a strangely warm breeze stirs the air. Even the distant hum of the city fades into nothingness for this fleeting moment. The air grows heavy, tense, and still. As Korina swings her axe, and instead of the familiar thud of wood, the blade meets something hard, glassy. The sound rings out and a moment later, crimson begins to seep from the tree, bleeding into the misty earth below.
Maybe Korina's not a professional lumberjack, but even /she/ knows that's not a normal thing. She's cut down a tree or three in her lifetime. Instead of continuing to swing all willy-nilly, she pauses, squinting at the tree. The axe goes down to the ground, placed upon a nearby patch of grass, and Korina moves closer to figure out why her tree is made of glass instead of wood - or whatever else is going on there. To figure it out, of course, she does what any reasonable person would do:
Korina kicks the tree.
Korina kicks the tree, and surely it would have left some form of impact behind with most trees, and this one does, too, above and below and somewhat centric, bark flies and sheds and perhaps, in some distant memory, it is recognized as if kicking against very stable glass where the kick lands. Exposing some of the wood of the tree, with bark smashed around and lying in the surrounding environment on the ground, it is now possible to see an obsidian stone perk through from the wood. The obsidian stone is all in black and smooth, nothing out of the usual, but seen over its surface are small and red little veins that pulse. More red liquid spills and flows from under the obsidian, coating the tree and bark below red and the iron smell of blood hangs to the air. Then the seeming blood stops to flow.
This is /definitely not/ normal tree behavior. Korina lifts a hand to shield her eyes against any stray splinters of bark that have gone flying, and then moves in closer to peer at the tree some more. "What." she says out loud, as though it's going to answer her, sniffs at the air - does it smell like /blood/ blood? Trees aren't supposed to smell like blood - and then reaches out, slowly and tentatively to poke at the oozing crimson and the obsidian stone beneath. Poke.
... she's not going to try it out by /tasting/ it, is she?
Korina looks like she wants to.
The obsidian is poked, but it does not draw more blood from below its inset into the wood of the tree. Korina can easily tell that it actually is genuine blood, perhaps from a human, by the smell of it and her extensive knowledge means she only needs a couple of seconds to understand what this is.
Someone hid this here, the blood a part of a ritual, a sacrifice. to meld it into the tree itself, to allow the forest itself to hide it. The obsidian stone pulses, and it is connected to hell. Korina is fairly certain that a powerful demon could be summoned with this, the kind that would cause tremendous trouble for absolutely everyone, if left to the wrong hands.
Korina licks the blood anyway.
Just a little bit, the part that had gotten on the tip of her finger. That's better than letting it go to waste, isn't it? There's a wrinkling of her nose right after, definitely not the best meal she's had, and she then reaches out to grab the stone carefully, trying to push and pull and slowly weasel it out of its spot embedded in the wood, if possible. There's a glance around, just to see if anyone's watching - behind her, to the sides, even towards the apartment building in the close distance. Maybe she can just sneak it back to Hell, or somewhere not in the middle of the forest where anyone can get to it.
Turns out, strength is a wonderful thing to have, especially supernaturally, because it makes prying something like this far easier, though it still resists, but with some effort, the obsidian stone is pried free, some more blood reveals and seeps itself down along the tree, and covers some of Korina's finger again, and the word Rorzanir runs through her mind.
Just as she looks and pays closer attention to the surrounding, listening for any observers, she does not find any, not in the apartment, and not in the distance in the parking complex or the street, nor in the forest, though surely a fae could evade detection. What she however does see, feel, is an unnatural ripple in the air. The obsidian stone is dormant, it isn't from it, and as it often does, it is incredibly helpful to know a lot about the occult. Someone has been looking for this for a very long time, so much so that they have started to make a mistake - and become detectable in ther effort to locate this item. But it means whomever is looking for this, knows.
Right. Korina palms the stone in one hand - is it small enough to be palmed? - and reaches down to grab the axe from the grass with the other, slinging it across her shoulder. There's a distasteful grimace at the ripple in the air - that's certainly nothing good, once again, and she tells the stone out loud, "You are too much trouble." Because it is.
She steps away from the site of what looks like murder even if the only murder that's taken place here was a tree - recently, at least? - and moves for Northwood trail nearby, keeping an eye out for anyone who might intercept her upon the way; hopefully she can make it back to her apartment - her nice, warded apartment with the best locks and security money can buy - and using the back alley instead of walking about Elm Street for it might be more inconspicuous. Or it might just make her look that much more suspicious, who knows?
Concerns prove to be warranted, for her ears soon pick up the incoming sound of a handful of vehicles. They stand out from the rest of the crowd. Usually, at this morning hour, there would be some vehicles, but none so close by. From the sound, they might be recognized as vans, which would pose enough room to transport a fair bit of manpower or other distasteful equipment - and they try to drive on by speedily, definitely breaking a couple of traffic and speeding laws. It's evident it is prudent to deepart from here quickly, but if they, too, have super naturals, then it would prove more difficult to escape the pursuit.
The obsidian stone is small enough to fit right into Korina's hand and not be an entire nuisance within.
Korina shouldn't stay to figure out what's going on out there.
She really shouldn't.
And yet, there's a saying about curiosity and cats for a reason. She makes her way southeast to Northwood trail - it wasn't that far of a walk, maybe a minute at most, and then it's south into the dark alley until she finds the back entrance of the apartments.
Korina walks in, and instead of heading for her third floor penthouse apartment, instead makes her way to 104 - definitely not hers, though surely if there's supernaturals following her scent trail, they won't know that, right? In she goes, the key procured from her pocket - who doesn't have keys to Emmanuel's apartment in this day and age? - and sneaks her way into the bathroom to peek out the small southern window into the parking lot and Paine Avenue behind. Can she see whoever it might be in those loud, loud vans?
Vans drive on out onto the parking lot, doors slide open, and Korina can just see as several people stand out and about, with one sniffing the air. The whole group begins to move northwards, into the forest and all of them are armed. They do look to be in a bit of a hurry lest their presence draws other undesirable attention, as it would in a city like this. Peering out, Korina can see the mark of a crimson hand holding a blackened, thorned crown upon the collar of one of the people, and then another on another piece of attire on someone else. Their pace is a quick one as they make their way into the forest, and wary eyes glance around for anyone that's stopped to watch.
The mark of the Destined Host is all too obvious - Korina's had fought against them in the nightmare not two hours ago, and here they are, out in the open, this time in the real world instead of the nightmare. She sniffs, nose wrinkling up a little bit. Definitely not her most favorite group of people. There's another glance down at the obsidian stone cradled in her palm, and by this point Korina's decided that finder's keepers.
Pop, Korina goes into the nightmare, floating her way through the liminal space up, and then further up, until she can pop out of /her/ bathroom this time. She makes her way over to the ritual room at the heart of the apartment, places the stone on Vaelys' shrine there, and then makes her way out again, sans-stone, washing her hands free of any blood before she makes her way out to the balcony, curiosity well and truly piqued.
The balcony offers a view of the northern end of Elm street and wraps all the way around to the north, looking over the forest. Korina takes a seat upon her egg chair upon the terrace, and peers out and below across the glass railing, unrepentantly nosy - what are the Host up to this day? She's got her theories, of course, but nothing like having it well and truly confirmed.
Overlooking into the forest, Korina can peer between the branches into the ever growing forest, and there they are. They stand by the blood covered tree, one touches the blood that has started to dry, another two sniff the air. It is about two dozen people, and one of them looks up and back at Korina. This is the gaze of a man, probably in his mid thirties, maybe Korina recognizes him as one of the people she did indeed fight. And he recognizes her, too. But here, in Haven city, busy with other affairs, there is no direct aggression, their tones are very quiet, purposefully so and the gaze of both of the people sniffing the air leads them to turn to the alley Korina had passed through. Clearly, they are trying to trace, seems Emmanuel's apartment will soon be searched through, ah what a joyous day for a Templar.
Korina twiddles her fingers in a little wave at the man - it's really just to make him a teeny tiny little bit angry if he remembers getting a ball of light from Korina's prismatic sorcery smashed into his face as the last thing before disappearing from the nightmare. He's all healed by now, so it's okay to rile him up some more, surely. She watches the men follow the trail of her scent - she can't look into the apartment downstairs from here, but she can imagine the Templar is having a no good very bad day, and mischief has been managed, that's for sure. Serves him right for having terrible security. And mice. Especially the mice.
And then Korina settles back into her egg chair, letting out a big yawn as the sun's rays shine down on her - the weather is nice, at least, and the shade of wispy clouds is enough to make her sleepy. She's got all the plans of curling up into a teeny tiny ball and drifting off, unless the Host are going to rudely interrupt her anytime soon.
Walking, the single man does come to a stop and gives Korina(cat) a scowl. His temple twitches, but there is the others, too, and they are certainly not here to bicker. And so, the group disappears into the alleyway, there is no noise downstairs, evidently they have someone with them that knows to pick a lock. Whatever is happening downstairs, they probably will come to think that the temple possesses the stone, though they certainly would deduce it was a woman. But then, there is also the sirens in the distance, and then the hurried driving off of vehicles from the parking lote.
The morning sun is a little cold in this weather, but still, it's soft ray still carries a little bit of warmth. For the moment, the skies are blue, with a few wispy white clouds that travel between. Eventually, the sirens just fade, too, and all is well. All is well.
Now significantly more feline, Korina(cat) stretches out, claws digging into the seat of her chair, tail swishing through the air, and then properly relaxes, belly up, paws curled in the air, the faint breeze and the soft sunlight putting her to sleep. Off she goes to sleepy sleepy land, the softest of snores escaping her. She's earned her rest after pulling off such a flawless heist, surely. When she wakes up, she can take the stone back to Hell so it doesn't fall into the hands of one of the cults -- assuming the Hand has no need of it. Korina(cat) isn't really fond of demons, and it would be mighty inconvenient for one to be summoned anywhere nearby where she has to deal with it.