Encounterlogs
Sams Odd Encounter Sr Rashid 250124
In a dark, foreboding room with obsidian-painted walls and an eerie green serpent depicted on one side, Sam, a determined individual awakens to a strange and supernatural scenario. He discovers ominous message "I see you" crudely written on the wall and receives cryptic texts from Mark, a past acquaintance, warning him of looming danger. Promptly armoring himself with a Kevlar vest and arming with a glock and knife, Sam prepares to confront the threat head-on. The intruder, a grotesque, pale humanoid creature with a chilling presence, suddenly confronts Sam. Despite the shock, Sam readies to fight, demanding explanation from the creature, which only replies with a repeating, "I see you". An intense encounter unfolds as the creature attacks, overpowering Sam with inhuman strength until he loses consciousness, leaving the stalky figure victorious and Sam's fate uncertain.
As night falls over Haven, contrasting tranquility with the occurrence in the dark room, Ritsuka, a poised and powerful individual, receives a distressing message from her society—instructing her to manage a paranormal investigator named Jared who unwittingly stumbled upon the supernatural world. Prepared and resolute, Ritsuka ventures into the forest, armed and accompanied by an assistant, intending to suppress the exposure of their hidden society. Ritsuka eventually confronts Jared, who, dangerously near a werewolf, remains oblivious to the peril he instigates. Through force and wit, she subdues Jared, intending to erase his memory to maintain the secrecy of their supernatural existence. Despite his pleas and epiphanies, Jared's fate is sealed as Ritsuka feeds off his fear, ultimately rendering him unconscious and at the mercy of the peculiar protocols of their hidden world, illustrating the lengths to which these guardians will go to protect the veil of secrecy surrounding their supernatural society.
(Sam's odd encounter(SRRashid):SRRashid)
[Thu Jan 23 2025]
In A black-painted bedroom
The walls of this room have been painted in a dark obsidian, making it somewhat hard to discern where the walls are.
No windows are present, and the lighting comes from for subtle spotlights in the corners of the room, casting only indirect light on the floor.
Around the bottom of the Northern, Southern, and Eastern wall, are a pair of simple green lines, breaking the dark gloom of the room somewhat.
Sprawling over the western wall, is a depiction of a large, bright green serpent, seemingly drawn like a cobra of sorts. It's maw is agape, and its fangs blinkering.
A Dark Red stain, roughly in the form of a triangle, sits in front of the circle, close to the western wall.
It is dusk, about 12F(-11C) degrees, and there are a few dark grey stormclouds in the sky.
Yawning, Sam rubs his eyes as he slowly rolls out of bed, grabbing a fresh shirt and his jacket, preparing for the day ahead. The jock yawns into a fist as he blearily looks about the room.
(Your target has been abducted and is being held hostage by a supernatural criminal out to trade them for something or just use them as a shield against the factions. Your target must attempt to find a way to escape, or simply survive until they can be rescued by their allies.
)
As Sam stirs, wakes, and scans the room, he notes something strange. Almost immediately too. Wall left of him and his bed. Red letters, looks like someone used red paint and let it drool on the wall. Or maybe it's blood? "I see you, is there, scrawled in large, crude letters. His phone buzzes. A new message.
"You helped me a while ago, I'm just paying forth the favor... -Mark," lists the message. Then another comes forth right afterwards. "Someone's come after you. Guy I'm chasing. You don't have much time.""
As Sam stirs, wakes, and scans the room, he notes something strange. Almost immediately too. Wall left of him and his bed. Red letters, looks like someone used red paint and let it drool on the wall. Or maybe it's blood? "I see you," is there, scrawled in large, crude letters. His phone buzzes. A new message.
"You helped me a while ago, I'm just paying forth the favor... -Mark," lists the message. Then another comes forth right afterwards. "Someone's come after you. Guy I'm chasing. You don't have much time."
Letting out a growl, Sam pushes up from the bed. He grabs one of the kevlar vests from his closet, tugs it on, and narrows his eyes. Next, he reaches into his pack to grab the glock in there. He then grabs the knife at his side from it's hidden sheath. A flick, and the lights in the room turn off.
The jock positions himself beside the room's only door, and presses himself against the wall, hoping to catch whoever would arrive unawares.
As Sam pushes up from the bed and grabs one of those kevlar vests from his closet, he realizes, then and there. Whomever is after him is already here. Androgynous, seemingly, is a pale humanoid looking creature. Its lips, blood red, with peeling, chapped lips, chewed and pock-marked by something sharp. Its teeth, revealed by an unnaturally large grin, yellow and black as if the teeth were rotting in its skull. Razor sharp, nothing but rows and rows of fang like incisors. Wide eyes without irises, dead looking, though those humongous pupils are affixed upon the jock. The creature looks bloated, skin pale and just as pock-marked, loose strands of black hair hangs downwards like strings. It stares at the jock as he he grabs the kevlar, watching him, still as a statue. It makes no noise. Doesn't even breathe.
The jock freezes, and turns. He narrows his eyes, looking the thing over as he tries to get a good look at it, trying to scan the room for his options. Sam's blade is drawn, and he looks the creature in the eyes, speaking slowly and with a very wary expression on his face. A sickly, blackish light envelops him, and he braces, ready to strike, should the creature prove hostile.
"Ya got abouts five seconds to explain why you're in my domain." He hisses. In terms of fight. flight, or freeze, the jock's on fight.
It doesn't answer. At least, not at first. Its eyes are still trained upon Sam, cheeks oddly dimpled, perhaps the only reason this creature retains any humanity whatsoever. But for the most part, it looks as if a whale and a shark were given shape into a man. It takes one step towards Sam, seemingly rather nonchalant about the sickly light that radiates within the room from the jock. Tall it is, and as it steps forth, further into the light and past everything that lurks in the man's closet, it's over six feet tall. Nearing seven feet tall. It stares downward, still grinning, still silent. "I see you," it repeats, in a cool, quiet rasp, lips twitching, unfurling, tightening as it speaks, as if the methods of noise were unnatural for it.
Slowly, Sam looks up at the thing, and he clasps his hand around the knife in his hand. He tries to get around the creature, keeping his eyes on the thing. He answers, trying to distract the thing from the spot he is sneaking towards: The ritual triangle nearby, and the binding circle next to it. "I see you." He echoes the strange creature, the jock looking a little unsure of himself, really.
Almost a minute passes between Sam and the creature as it doesn't seem to move, stays stock still. Watching, watching, forever watching. "I SEE YOU!" it finally repeats as the arcanist slowly reaches the ritual triangle. And when he does, it takes no time for the creature to rush towards him, with surprising speed. That blubbery skin of the beast stretching and nearly ripping as it moves. Nearly sloughing off. The smell, it hits the jock then. It's an awful stench, similar to when road-kill has been left out for too long, when dead creatures die in the woods during the summer, odorous, musky, stomach churning. It smells like quite a few critters died.
Regardless of the lengths at which it is revealed now, and hints as to its nature, it's bearing upon Sam in an instant, seizing him with inhuman strength before, inevitably, slamming him repeatedly on the floor. Up until he loses consciousness.
A grunt, and Sam barely has time to raise his knife, before he is picked up like a rag-doll, and slammed into the ground. He hisses, and does manage perhaps to put up some semblance of a fight, but soon after, Sam is knocked out, and slumped on the floor.
Ritsuka just finished cleaning up. There is an unconscious body that lies besides her, and she smiles. She had just gotten to feed.
(An amateur paranormal investigator has stumbled onto the truth of the supernatural world and has evidence. Your target and their allies are tasked with containing the situation.
)
The darkness of night time had already fallen over Haven, bringing a freezing rush of air gusting through the corners of the town, and even colder outside of it, where the lack of cars, machinery and lights didn't build up some residual heat to deal with the winter climate.
For many it was probably just another Thurday night, people delighted with the fact that tomorrow is Friday, getting off work and going back to their homes to shield themselves in the warmth of it. Or just going around clubbing for the night. But what might just be a slow and relaxed night for most, is about to change for someone like Ritsuka, who was, aware of the truth behind the town, and of the secrets that lingered in the otherwise calm town.
The happenstance this time, located somewhere in the northern forest of the town, the main reason why it was her who the message is delivered to, in the form of a message coming from the society channels. Something that might not be what often is echoed in there, but instead a call for help.
"We have just been informed someone saw something they shouldn't around Forest View Drive" The voice of a woman says over the device, not the voice of someone too active within the society, more in charge of secondary tasks, like this one, giving warnings and passing on messages "Venice is already on edge with the murder. We want them to be on their good graces with us. Is anyone available that can head there and do a quick cleanup before we have to deal with erasing it from media?".
Accompanying that, Ritsuka's phone vibrated, a message lighting up in it, again, not a personal message, but one sent over probably in a diffusion to the other members of the cult, containing some coordinates. When entered into any map applications, they pointed towards somewhere not too far away from the woman's house, a little southwards, and towards the west, but it seemed to be right in the middle of the forest, a dangerous place to be for sure.
Ritsuka tilts her head at the phone. That is actually part of her property, if she is seeing it right. She does own a huge amount of land south at the end of Tsubaki Avenue, and there is messages that go out to some of her people there, particularly her personal guard, to accompany her before she speaks into her communicator "I will just go to handle it. Any more details about the person? Who are they? Usual human? The Tsubaki courtyard has sometimes supernatural events, so the people there generally are prepared to handle it, but this is far away enough for them to not draw to usually." She does however turn around, walks to her bedroom and gets a hold of her backpack. She dons the vest, puts the blade at her hip. The forest is still very dangerous, she had run into kobolds before, and they had been problematic had she not brought her equipment.
The voice returns to the communicator shortly after, the same woman "Mundane human as far as we know. Has had a supernatural related blog online for some time, but purely speculative up until now. A couple minutes ago the man livestreamed on it following a werewolf into the forest, before the lack of signal cut the transmission off. We have already worked on deleting the content, and barely anyone saw it, but we need someone to deal with him before something else gets posted".
Then there's a brief moment of silence, probably the woman on the other side looking for more information to give Ritsuka as she gets geared up and ready to leave her home. The night chilling, though probably something one has to get used to leaving in these areas, pitch black, maybe even more so that other days, specially in areas like these, so far away from town, but maybe a bit tamer right where she is, the new Avenue bringing some lights with it to fight back the darkness.
And before she even gets to the road, the woman on the device returns, echoing out to the Japanese woman directly into her ears "Man, around five two, green eyes, black skin, short black hair. Wearing a red coat and jeans judging by the transmission. Thirty two years old, named Jared, came from New York recently following the stories about the Salem trials, seems he decided to check out Haven too. We know he also has evidence of some fleshformed monsters, not only werewolves" Probably a showcase of the intel the societies in the place were able to get on people and the speed with which they did it, leaving Ritsuka to handle the situation in the way she found most fit.
Ritsuka does also put on a coat. It is getting cold, and she can hardly keep doing this and go out with far too little clothing into the cold. The katana is by her side. If one of her protection detail goes on and joins her, then they will be able to not just support her but keep a hold of her equipment should she need to shift.
She makes her way on out on for. being able to see a little bit better in the dark she does glance around. She is no tracker, has no sense for smell, not as a human, but it does not mean she cannot take a look around for any distant lights, reflections and to follow on the signal that was last recorded.
At home, there is unconscious dinner, but she can worry about dinner and waking dinner up later. Coma is a bitch, after all, and that person might just be lucky to be surviving.
Upon arriving at the last given location, it becomes apparent that it is a bit away from the Tsubaki avenue, surely closer to it than most things, but still further into the forest, at some point between this new area and the town itself. Now, tracking a human in the woods might have been harder for someone without training, but whatever this Jared was going after? A wolf? That was a bit easier. Claw marks around trees, huge animal footprints befitting of something that big, and the occasional howl leading deeper into the darkness and in between the trees.
The woman, Ritsuka is a lucky one, having the ability to see in the darkness, even if it's only to a little extent, is certainly helpful in situations like these, and she doesn't even to carry her weapon herself, having some security guard from her property do it for her, making the Japanese keep her lightness and probably not alert anything by her sound, at least if she was careful enough not to step on branches or brush against the vegetation.
Luckily for them both, it doesn't take long in the searching before they are able to sight the man that she had been tasked to search for, and to make sure remains silent about what he saw. His back facing the two of them, Ritsuka and her current assistant. Wearing the same coat and jeans that the operator had told her he was wearing. And, in the distance, at around fifty feet from Jared, the beast he had been tracking. A wolf the size of a cow, seemingly having mauled a deer not too long ago, and now in the process of eating it raw, all sense of humanity stripped from the animal, though what probably is of more interest for the seekers, the man was holding his phone, and recording the whole thing as it happened, the unnatural size of the wolf showcased by comparison to that of the dead prey, having just acquired to himself a certain proof of the existance of the supernatural
A shallow sigh leaves Ritsuka when she sees that the idiot is, of course, doing this right as it feasts. And you know, a part of her just makes the most simple of decisions. She gestures for her protection detail to halt, and she slides to the side, and just waits. She, though good at heart, was still a monster. She would want to keep the guy safe, but there is also the question on whether or not it is worth it. There is then another sigh, and she glances around, watching stupid Jared and the beast. She opens a palm, and draws up a the flame of her soul over it, the golden foxfire, part of what and who she is, the innate magic that allows her to be effective at range without any such weapon. At the least in case the beast suddenly turns to jump poor stupid Jared.
But the beast doesn't seem to notice Jared at first, no, for a little while it seems only preoccupied with feasting on the dead deer. Dirtying its maw and claws with the blood and guts of the animal. Though once Ritsuka lights the fire within her palm, light starts spreading to the surrounding area. The stupid occult obsessed Jared doesn't notice, of course, too busy watching the same thing he's recording. But the wolf certainly does.
Turning its head towards the pale woman, the animal halts his feasting. Staring at her for a good couple seconds. There are probably thoughts to just jump to the offensive, to give in to the beast and end the woman. But it isn't a full moon. The wolf isn't afflicted with lunacy. It's probably just some super rejoicing in its own nature rather than negating it - It is not a monster seeking for blood, but just another person, embracing who they are an eating. Its mind is still present and sound, which might be contrary to what a lot of people think of their kind. Then the eyes of the oversized canine roam to the sides, watching the assistant, and then Jared. Even if it wanted to attack, it was unwise to target three people at once.
And whether it is reason, or simple good will, is unclear. But the animal gaze is lifted from the observers and pointed up at the sky, releasing a loud howl that is moments later answered by a couple more, and without finishing dinner, the huge beast starts running away in between the trees, leaving the area with incredible swiftness for something of its size. Something that only has the black man in his thirties try and move to follow it again, phone camera fixated on the dead prey and then aimed towards the direction in which the werewolf left, slow steps at first before shifting into running, trying to chase the beast further into the woods, though probably not as fast as Ritsuka could be were she to try and catch him.
Ritsuka moves up, and now she does shift. Contrary to what most thing, she is actually not that speedy, but this may well change when she suddenly brings up the flame to land near Jared, blown at his face, in surprise, to then try and smash into him to throw him off onto the ground. She was very good at pinning and very much tries to hold him down and pin him in place, and there is a smile. "Hello stupid! Do you know what shall soon happen with you?"
And down does Jared go, completely caught off guard by the assault, blinded by the light of the fire at first and then slammed into the ground like he was just some sort of doll a child was playing with, defenseless against the supernatural strength of Ritsuka. And even as he tries to free himself of the woman, it is for naught. He was already not that fit among normal humans, just enough to track some animal around the forest, he was clearly not match for something beyond human.
There is a little moment of panic, some fear that pours out of him upon being suddenly attacked, faced with flames, with a strength that didn't seem befitting of the frail-looking woman wielding it. This was all really odd, strange. And it was happening to him in the middle of a dark forest where no one could listen to him scream, right after following around a beast out of myths and legends.
Surely, it was something he had been trying to prove for years, but it hits different when it is your being that is the one threatened, instead of some imaginary story. It isn't the same to be fascinated at tales of a monster in the woods, instead of being the human hunted down in that tale. And so that fear starts pouring out, and probably adding to the dinner Ritsuka was having before, someone like her unable to control just how much she ate others' fright.
And so, as he is being consumed outside his knowledge, in panic and nerves, he tries to lash out against his captor, trying to throw his arms and legs towards her, to kick or punch her into being let go, screaming his lungs out "What are you doing?! Let go off me! I will tell everyone! Let go!" He probably isn't making much sense, and he even is threatening with doing the same thing Ritsuka was sent to prevent, it is not a lucky day for Jared really
Ritsuka rolls her eyes and smacks the phone away before the same hand grasps at poor Jared's throat in a choke. Not enough to kill, enough to be felt, to be feared, though it does not last very long. "Hello Jared. I am a goddess, beautiful as ever, am I right?" She grins, predatory golden eyes stare at Jared's green. "You are causing me a lot of unnecessary work, do you know? Now I will need to take all of this stuff from you. If you are lucky, I'll syringe you up, if you are unlucky, I'll put the crown on you. And you will get to live an entirely new life!"
While someone like Jared could probably answer Ritsuka's question on the whole god-like matter given other circumstances, it seems like right now his focus is something else, probably due to the restriction of his air flow, or the strength of the woman. Both of his hands moving to wrap around her wrist to try and move her hand away from his neck, but once more, he lacks the strength.
His shouts and threats as silenced at least by the choke, his voice really going down to the level that he doesn't even answer the Japanese woman, he instead gasps and pants - The constraint wasn't enough to kill him, but it was certainly painful to feel how not as much air goes through, a stinging and burning sensation birthing on his lungs, and only helping amplify that fear that was oh so nutritive for the supernatural Ritsuka.
His attempts to kick her off him remain, legs landing against her body, though not presenting too much trouble for someone like her, he was indeed at her mercy. And even if he didn't understand half of what she was implying, he certainly wasn't listening either. He barely registered the loss of his phone. To him, he was fighting a battle right now for his own survival, not knowing what the monstrous woman had planned for him.
"Why does there have to be stupid people like you? You always make it so much work for me and everyone else to drag you and keep you down," Ritsuka continues to scold, sounding a touch annoyed but she does relent on the choking. The trying to escape, well, he can keep struggling. He won't really succeed unless she were to utterly fuck up and there are habitory zip ties in her satchel. Of course that is more difficult, though she does say to her assistant "Yuki, would you grab one of the zip ties? Let's get Jared here turned into a Jared Giftbox."
And as Ritsuka commands, Yuki is soon to follow, want to keep the boss happy after all. Even with Jared struggling, the restraints are eventually put in place, first his feet pressed together, keeping his legs out of the question, both preventing the kicking and any attempts at running away. Then come the hands, wrists bound together over his chest, this maybe not stopping the possibility of him trying to go back to punching, but certainly making it way harder for him to reach for his phone or try to run away from the forest.
When the hand comes away from his neck, there's a sharp intake of hair, almost exaggerated, gasping and making a big deal of the air coming in, even coughing a couple times after that, whether from the hyperbole of the breath, or from the choking, it is unclear. But he doesn't answer Ritsuka's question about his stupidness, no, instead, with what little voice he has right now, he begs to her "Please, let me go. I didn't do anything. I don't have whatever you want, I was just following that thing!".
Much like before, feasting Ritsuka with his fear, pouring out from him like water coming from melting ice, this man was clearly unaware, at least outside of conspiracies on the internet or occult mumbo jumbo on some weird blog online. He had way too much internet, and happened to stumble upon the Truth when going out of his way to seek something else.
"It was real. You saw it. I've got to tell everyone" Jared keeps going, his voice breathy, almost a hiss, and his eyes dart around, trying to find the phone, and spotting it not too far away from himself, laying on the forest dirt. He tries to reach to take it, with his bound hands, but he cannot reach it, not with Ritsuka pinning him down
Ritsuka lets out a sigh and shakes her head. "You will forget this, I will make you forget it. You may be syringed up, or get to be put under the crown, I do not yet know." She pauses, and smiles, viciously. "There is a hidden side to the world, where the monsters roam in the dark, where little humans like you are food for us. There is many societies, but all stand unified under the rule of a place." She smiles. "Fairies, there is so much more that is real, including the gods, consider the widespread destruction and the chaos that would come from such information becoming too public. There is terrorists that seek the destruction of our beautiful earth."
She shakes her head. "Jared, sometimes the wisdom lies in looking away, not to pursue or chase it because it excites you. You get to not be a part of this hidden conflict, your life is safe, you will live your life peacefully. Many would envy it. And now, stop screaming before I'll need to stuff your mouth and make your captive experience even more unpleasant. Just cooperate with the next few hours, and though you won't remember any of this, you will be free and unharmed."
Jared certainly freezes at the revelation, his eyes open a little wider as the woman starts confiding secrets, and for a moment he does seem excited, just like Ritsuka mentioned. But his current situation dawns on him moments later, he's still bound and helpless in the middle of the forest, with beasts like that werewolf roaming around, and a woman stronger than a powerlifter pinning him down and threatening with erasing his memories.
But now he knows screaming and kicking won't get him out, it hasn't worked so far, and the woman has laid the warning there not to keep going. So he tries something else, shaking his head and trying to struggle free from the pin down "No... The world needs to know- If there's monsters out there everyone needs to know! Are you crazy?" The more he speaks the more that voice goes up again, seemingly losing that little semblance of peace and strategy in his mind as he lets the fear and the emotion drive his actions and body once more "The world needs to know this... I will just show them... It's better than living in the dark and then seeing... That!" He says nudging his head in the direction in which the wolf left
Ritsuka makes a slight shrug of her shoulders, and the predatory smile turns over her lips again. Now, now there is less nice-ness as she draws a the little wakizashi from its sheath - and it does not take long before she makes the slightest cut onto Jared's arm. The moment he screams, she stuffs his mouth up with some bandage. "Well Jared, you see, I've tried to make you cooperate. I am going to show you how I feed, you will be deliciously traumatized." her face does draw closer to his, when has she lost seeing a human as more than something so far beneath? But it does go on into the beginning of delicious torture. "How does it feel to know that you will never remember any of this? Feels just right, hmm?"
Of course her lips turn into a smile, her eyes glance over the wakizashi and the blood at its edge, how it runs along of the far too sharp blade. "Maybe I will just kill you." She can't, but he does not know that.
Now muted and bleeding, the terror within Jared's mind starts growing and growing. The fear skyrocketing as the dubious woman turned out to be not so good, at least on the eyes of the human right beneath her. It would have been probably a deterrent to other people, to see the horror in the green eyes of the victim, but people like Ritsuka, well, they couldn't help but feed on that fear, it nurtured them, it was food just like it's normal for wolves to hunt deer.
And even if the wound is not too deep or too big, just enough to make him scream and in turn get silenced, it's more what it means in his head than what was actually done. A threat not so physical as it is mental. He tries to kick and run, but he can't. He tries to distract himself from the thoughts of the wolf lingering in the darkness, but he can't. He tries to convince himself that his memory will be untouched, and that he'll get away from here unscathed, but he can't.
All the little frustrations and fears having their boxes checked, adding to the defenseless man a sense of impotency, a lack of control over his own safety, and now, over his own mind, thoughts and memories. He is deeply terrified, and, as it was bound to happen at some point or another, the man finds himself passing out.
Much like the previous meal, the light slowly goes away from Jared's eyes, and his body starts slacking, attempts at resistance finally ceasing, and his limbs limping onto the ground. A little difference probably being a wet patch forming on his pants, it seemed Mister tell-the-truth-to-the-world had urinated himself in fear right before leaving the conversation. He could handle tracking a werewolf but not the confrontation from Ritsuka, surely they were different kinds of scenarios, but it at least gives one something to think about.
Now that poor stupid Jared was passed out, there was no more need to persist there. Ritsuka had gotten to feed and feed well, though she would not spend too much time touching him. She just grabs him by an arm and starts to drag him back to the street. The wakizashi is cleaned and hidden, and then the rest summarizes down to organizing a syringe - she can make them, but that means visiting the goblin market. On the other hand, she just calls back on the contact line "I have Jared secured. He is passed out. Want me to syringe him or is he to be handed over to some Venecian squad, or yet the Institute? Just another naive boy."
It takes a little walk out of the forest for the reception of the communicator to be back, carrying Jared unconscious along with them, but again, not a big deal for someone of Ritsuka's strength. Now with the weapons concealed and with Yuki following along, the step out of the forest, to the more familiar street. And as the comms channel is prompted with the question, the woman from before is soon to reply.
"Better to hand him over to the agents of Venice. We want them happy after the incident, and even if they have to work a little extra, they surely will appreciate doing the proper removal process. I will send them to the location marked as your domicile. Take whatever was used to transmit and record with you so they can properly dispose of it" The voice echoes into the channel, before disappearing once more.
Now, if Ritsuka and Yuki had been careful in their task, they already had the phone with them, if not, it was probably just a matter of walking the same path again to find it discarded on the dirt, retrieve it, and then walk all the way back once more. An annoying thing to do, but necessary.
And eventually, as the woman returns to her home, not too far away from the Tsubaki Avenue, two men in formal suits are already waiting. They got there way too fast considering when the woman had told Ritsuka she would send them there. With little questions, they take the unconscious Jared with them, and retrieve his phone along with him. Letting everything into their own personal vehicle, before they hit the road again, disappearing as soon as they have came, leaving the pale woman once more alone with her assistant, back in front of her home, and with a free night ahead of her. Maybe a bit late to dinner though.
As night falls over Haven, contrasting tranquility with the occurrence in the dark room, Ritsuka, a poised and powerful individual, receives a distressing message from her society—instructing her to manage a paranormal investigator named Jared who unwittingly stumbled upon the supernatural world. Prepared and resolute, Ritsuka ventures into the forest, armed and accompanied by an assistant, intending to suppress the exposure of their hidden society. Ritsuka eventually confronts Jared, who, dangerously near a werewolf, remains oblivious to the peril he instigates. Through force and wit, she subdues Jared, intending to erase his memory to maintain the secrecy of their supernatural existence. Despite his pleas and epiphanies, Jared's fate is sealed as Ritsuka feeds off his fear, ultimately rendering him unconscious and at the mercy of the peculiar protocols of their hidden world, illustrating the lengths to which these guardians will go to protect the veil of secrecy surrounding their supernatural society.
(Sam's odd encounter(SRRashid):SRRashid)
[Thu Jan 23 2025]
In A black-painted bedroom
The walls of this room have been painted in a dark obsidian, making it somewhat hard to discern where the walls are.
No windows are present, and the lighting comes from for subtle spotlights in the corners of the room, casting only indirect light on the floor.
Around the bottom of the Northern, Southern, and Eastern wall, are a pair of simple green lines, breaking the dark gloom of the room somewhat.
Sprawling over the western wall, is a depiction of a large, bright green serpent, seemingly drawn like a cobra of sorts. It's maw is agape, and its fangs blinkering.
A Dark Red stain, roughly in the form of a triangle, sits in front of the circle, close to the western wall.
It is dusk, about 12F(-11C) degrees, and there are a few dark grey stormclouds in the sky.
Yawning, Sam rubs his eyes as he slowly rolls out of bed, grabbing a fresh shirt and his jacket, preparing for the day ahead. The jock yawns into a fist as he blearily looks about the room.
(Your target has been abducted and is being held hostage by a supernatural criminal out to trade them for something or just use them as a shield against the factions. Your target must attempt to find a way to escape, or simply survive until they can be rescued by their allies.
)
As Sam stirs, wakes, and scans the room, he notes something strange. Almost immediately too. Wall left of him and his bed. Red letters, looks like someone used red paint and let it drool on the wall. Or maybe it's blood? "I see you, is there, scrawled in large, crude letters. His phone buzzes. A new message.
"You helped me a while ago, I'm just paying forth the favor... -Mark," lists the message. Then another comes forth right afterwards. "Someone's come after you. Guy I'm chasing. You don't have much time.""
As Sam stirs, wakes, and scans the room, he notes something strange. Almost immediately too. Wall left of him and his bed. Red letters, looks like someone used red paint and let it drool on the wall. Or maybe it's blood? "I see you," is there, scrawled in large, crude letters. His phone buzzes. A new message.
"You helped me a while ago, I'm just paying forth the favor... -Mark," lists the message. Then another comes forth right afterwards. "Someone's come after you. Guy I'm chasing. You don't have much time."
Letting out a growl, Sam pushes up from the bed. He grabs one of the kevlar vests from his closet, tugs it on, and narrows his eyes. Next, he reaches into his pack to grab the glock in there. He then grabs the knife at his side from it's hidden sheath. A flick, and the lights in the room turn off.
The jock positions himself beside the room's only door, and presses himself against the wall, hoping to catch whoever would arrive unawares.
As Sam pushes up from the bed and grabs one of those kevlar vests from his closet, he realizes, then and there. Whomever is after him is already here. Androgynous, seemingly, is a pale humanoid looking creature. Its lips, blood red, with peeling, chapped lips, chewed and pock-marked by something sharp. Its teeth, revealed by an unnaturally large grin, yellow and black as if the teeth were rotting in its skull. Razor sharp, nothing but rows and rows of fang like incisors. Wide eyes without irises, dead looking, though those humongous pupils are affixed upon the jock. The creature looks bloated, skin pale and just as pock-marked, loose strands of black hair hangs downwards like strings. It stares at the jock as he he grabs the kevlar, watching him, still as a statue. It makes no noise. Doesn't even breathe.
The jock freezes, and turns. He narrows his eyes, looking the thing over as he tries to get a good look at it, trying to scan the room for his options. Sam's blade is drawn, and he looks the creature in the eyes, speaking slowly and with a very wary expression on his face. A sickly, blackish light envelops him, and he braces, ready to strike, should the creature prove hostile.
"Ya got abouts five seconds to explain why you're in my domain." He hisses. In terms of fight. flight, or freeze, the jock's on fight.
It doesn't answer. At least, not at first. Its eyes are still trained upon Sam, cheeks oddly dimpled, perhaps the only reason this creature retains any humanity whatsoever. But for the most part, it looks as if a whale and a shark were given shape into a man. It takes one step towards Sam, seemingly rather nonchalant about the sickly light that radiates within the room from the jock. Tall it is, and as it steps forth, further into the light and past everything that lurks in the man's closet, it's over six feet tall. Nearing seven feet tall. It stares downward, still grinning, still silent. "I see you," it repeats, in a cool, quiet rasp, lips twitching, unfurling, tightening as it speaks, as if the methods of noise were unnatural for it.
Slowly, Sam looks up at the thing, and he clasps his hand around the knife in his hand. He tries to get around the creature, keeping his eyes on the thing. He answers, trying to distract the thing from the spot he is sneaking towards: The ritual triangle nearby, and the binding circle next to it. "I see you." He echoes the strange creature, the jock looking a little unsure of himself, really.
Almost a minute passes between Sam and the creature as it doesn't seem to move, stays stock still. Watching, watching, forever watching. "I SEE YOU!" it finally repeats as the arcanist slowly reaches the ritual triangle. And when he does, it takes no time for the creature to rush towards him, with surprising speed. That blubbery skin of the beast stretching and nearly ripping as it moves. Nearly sloughing off. The smell, it hits the jock then. It's an awful stench, similar to when road-kill has been left out for too long, when dead creatures die in the woods during the summer, odorous, musky, stomach churning. It smells like quite a few critters died.
Regardless of the lengths at which it is revealed now, and hints as to its nature, it's bearing upon Sam in an instant, seizing him with inhuman strength before, inevitably, slamming him repeatedly on the floor. Up until he loses consciousness.
A grunt, and Sam barely has time to raise his knife, before he is picked up like a rag-doll, and slammed into the ground. He hisses, and does manage perhaps to put up some semblance of a fight, but soon after, Sam is knocked out, and slumped on the floor.
Ritsuka just finished cleaning up. There is an unconscious body that lies besides her, and she smiles. She had just gotten to feed.
(An amateur paranormal investigator has stumbled onto the truth of the supernatural world and has evidence. Your target and their allies are tasked with containing the situation.
)
The darkness of night time had already fallen over Haven, bringing a freezing rush of air gusting through the corners of the town, and even colder outside of it, where the lack of cars, machinery and lights didn't build up some residual heat to deal with the winter climate.
For many it was probably just another Thurday night, people delighted with the fact that tomorrow is Friday, getting off work and going back to their homes to shield themselves in the warmth of it. Or just going around clubbing for the night. But what might just be a slow and relaxed night for most, is about to change for someone like Ritsuka, who was, aware of the truth behind the town, and of the secrets that lingered in the otherwise calm town.
The happenstance this time, located somewhere in the northern forest of the town, the main reason why it was her who the message is delivered to, in the form of a message coming from the society channels. Something that might not be what often is echoed in there, but instead a call for help.
"We have just been informed someone saw something they shouldn't around Forest View Drive" The voice of a woman says over the device, not the voice of someone too active within the society, more in charge of secondary tasks, like this one, giving warnings and passing on messages "Venice is already on edge with the murder. We want them to be on their good graces with us. Is anyone available that can head there and do a quick cleanup before we have to deal with erasing it from media?".
Accompanying that, Ritsuka's phone vibrated, a message lighting up in it, again, not a personal message, but one sent over probably in a diffusion to the other members of the cult, containing some coordinates. When entered into any map applications, they pointed towards somewhere not too far away from the woman's house, a little southwards, and towards the west, but it seemed to be right in the middle of the forest, a dangerous place to be for sure.
Ritsuka tilts her head at the phone. That is actually part of her property, if she is seeing it right. She does own a huge amount of land south at the end of Tsubaki Avenue, and there is messages that go out to some of her people there, particularly her personal guard, to accompany her before she speaks into her communicator "I will just go to handle it. Any more details about the person? Who are they? Usual human? The Tsubaki courtyard has sometimes supernatural events, so the people there generally are prepared to handle it, but this is far away enough for them to not draw to usually." She does however turn around, walks to her bedroom and gets a hold of her backpack. She dons the vest, puts the blade at her hip. The forest is still very dangerous, she had run into kobolds before, and they had been problematic had she not brought her equipment.
The voice returns to the communicator shortly after, the same woman "Mundane human as far as we know. Has had a supernatural related blog online for some time, but purely speculative up until now. A couple minutes ago the man livestreamed on it following a werewolf into the forest, before the lack of signal cut the transmission off. We have already worked on deleting the content, and barely anyone saw it, but we need someone to deal with him before something else gets posted".
Then there's a brief moment of silence, probably the woman on the other side looking for more information to give Ritsuka as she gets geared up and ready to leave her home. The night chilling, though probably something one has to get used to leaving in these areas, pitch black, maybe even more so that other days, specially in areas like these, so far away from town, but maybe a bit tamer right where she is, the new Avenue bringing some lights with it to fight back the darkness.
And before she even gets to the road, the woman on the device returns, echoing out to the Japanese woman directly into her ears "Man, around five two, green eyes, black skin, short black hair. Wearing a red coat and jeans judging by the transmission. Thirty two years old, named Jared, came from New York recently following the stories about the Salem trials, seems he decided to check out Haven too. We know he also has evidence of some fleshformed monsters, not only werewolves" Probably a showcase of the intel the societies in the place were able to get on people and the speed with which they did it, leaving Ritsuka to handle the situation in the way she found most fit.
Ritsuka does also put on a coat. It is getting cold, and she can hardly keep doing this and go out with far too little clothing into the cold. The katana is by her side. If one of her protection detail goes on and joins her, then they will be able to not just support her but keep a hold of her equipment should she need to shift.
She makes her way on out on for. being able to see a little bit better in the dark she does glance around. She is no tracker, has no sense for smell, not as a human, but it does not mean she cannot take a look around for any distant lights, reflections and to follow on the signal that was last recorded.
At home, there is unconscious dinner, but she can worry about dinner and waking dinner up later. Coma is a bitch, after all, and that person might just be lucky to be surviving.
Upon arriving at the last given location, it becomes apparent that it is a bit away from the Tsubaki avenue, surely closer to it than most things, but still further into the forest, at some point between this new area and the town itself. Now, tracking a human in the woods might have been harder for someone without training, but whatever this Jared was going after? A wolf? That was a bit easier. Claw marks around trees, huge animal footprints befitting of something that big, and the occasional howl leading deeper into the darkness and in between the trees.
The woman, Ritsuka is a lucky one, having the ability to see in the darkness, even if it's only to a little extent, is certainly helpful in situations like these, and she doesn't even to carry her weapon herself, having some security guard from her property do it for her, making the Japanese keep her lightness and probably not alert anything by her sound, at least if she was careful enough not to step on branches or brush against the vegetation.
Luckily for them both, it doesn't take long in the searching before they are able to sight the man that she had been tasked to search for, and to make sure remains silent about what he saw. His back facing the two of them, Ritsuka and her current assistant. Wearing the same coat and jeans that the operator had told her he was wearing. And, in the distance, at around fifty feet from Jared, the beast he had been tracking. A wolf the size of a cow, seemingly having mauled a deer not too long ago, and now in the process of eating it raw, all sense of humanity stripped from the animal, though what probably is of more interest for the seekers, the man was holding his phone, and recording the whole thing as it happened, the unnatural size of the wolf showcased by comparison to that of the dead prey, having just acquired to himself a certain proof of the existance of the supernatural
A shallow sigh leaves Ritsuka when she sees that the idiot is, of course, doing this right as it feasts. And you know, a part of her just makes the most simple of decisions. She gestures for her protection detail to halt, and she slides to the side, and just waits. She, though good at heart, was still a monster. She would want to keep the guy safe, but there is also the question on whether or not it is worth it. There is then another sigh, and she glances around, watching stupid Jared and the beast. She opens a palm, and draws up a the flame of her soul over it, the golden foxfire, part of what and who she is, the innate magic that allows her to be effective at range without any such weapon. At the least in case the beast suddenly turns to jump poor stupid Jared.
But the beast doesn't seem to notice Jared at first, no, for a little while it seems only preoccupied with feasting on the dead deer. Dirtying its maw and claws with the blood and guts of the animal. Though once Ritsuka lights the fire within her palm, light starts spreading to the surrounding area. The stupid occult obsessed Jared doesn't notice, of course, too busy watching the same thing he's recording. But the wolf certainly does.
Turning its head towards the pale woman, the animal halts his feasting. Staring at her for a good couple seconds. There are probably thoughts to just jump to the offensive, to give in to the beast and end the woman. But it isn't a full moon. The wolf isn't afflicted with lunacy. It's probably just some super rejoicing in its own nature rather than negating it - It is not a monster seeking for blood, but just another person, embracing who they are an eating. Its mind is still present and sound, which might be contrary to what a lot of people think of their kind. Then the eyes of the oversized canine roam to the sides, watching the assistant, and then Jared. Even if it wanted to attack, it was unwise to target three people at once.
And whether it is reason, or simple good will, is unclear. But the animal gaze is lifted from the observers and pointed up at the sky, releasing a loud howl that is moments later answered by a couple more, and without finishing dinner, the huge beast starts running away in between the trees, leaving the area with incredible swiftness for something of its size. Something that only has the black man in his thirties try and move to follow it again, phone camera fixated on the dead prey and then aimed towards the direction in which the werewolf left, slow steps at first before shifting into running, trying to chase the beast further into the woods, though probably not as fast as Ritsuka could be were she to try and catch him.
Ritsuka moves up, and now she does shift. Contrary to what most thing, she is actually not that speedy, but this may well change when she suddenly brings up the flame to land near Jared, blown at his face, in surprise, to then try and smash into him to throw him off onto the ground. She was very good at pinning and very much tries to hold him down and pin him in place, and there is a smile. "Hello stupid! Do you know what shall soon happen with you?"
And down does Jared go, completely caught off guard by the assault, blinded by the light of the fire at first and then slammed into the ground like he was just some sort of doll a child was playing with, defenseless against the supernatural strength of Ritsuka. And even as he tries to free himself of the woman, it is for naught. He was already not that fit among normal humans, just enough to track some animal around the forest, he was clearly not match for something beyond human.
There is a little moment of panic, some fear that pours out of him upon being suddenly attacked, faced with flames, with a strength that didn't seem befitting of the frail-looking woman wielding it. This was all really odd, strange. And it was happening to him in the middle of a dark forest where no one could listen to him scream, right after following around a beast out of myths and legends.
Surely, it was something he had been trying to prove for years, but it hits different when it is your being that is the one threatened, instead of some imaginary story. It isn't the same to be fascinated at tales of a monster in the woods, instead of being the human hunted down in that tale. And so that fear starts pouring out, and probably adding to the dinner Ritsuka was having before, someone like her unable to control just how much she ate others' fright.
And so, as he is being consumed outside his knowledge, in panic and nerves, he tries to lash out against his captor, trying to throw his arms and legs towards her, to kick or punch her into being let go, screaming his lungs out "What are you doing?! Let go off me! I will tell everyone! Let go!" He probably isn't making much sense, and he even is threatening with doing the same thing Ritsuka was sent to prevent, it is not a lucky day for Jared really
Ritsuka rolls her eyes and smacks the phone away before the same hand grasps at poor Jared's throat in a choke. Not enough to kill, enough to be felt, to be feared, though it does not last very long. "Hello Jared. I am a goddess, beautiful as ever, am I right?" She grins, predatory golden eyes stare at Jared's green. "You are causing me a lot of unnecessary work, do you know? Now I will need to take all of this stuff from you. If you are lucky, I'll syringe you up, if you are unlucky, I'll put the crown on you. And you will get to live an entirely new life!"
While someone like Jared could probably answer Ritsuka's question on the whole god-like matter given other circumstances, it seems like right now his focus is something else, probably due to the restriction of his air flow, or the strength of the woman. Both of his hands moving to wrap around her wrist to try and move her hand away from his neck, but once more, he lacks the strength.
His shouts and threats as silenced at least by the choke, his voice really going down to the level that he doesn't even answer the Japanese woman, he instead gasps and pants - The constraint wasn't enough to kill him, but it was certainly painful to feel how not as much air goes through, a stinging and burning sensation birthing on his lungs, and only helping amplify that fear that was oh so nutritive for the supernatural Ritsuka.
His attempts to kick her off him remain, legs landing against her body, though not presenting too much trouble for someone like her, he was indeed at her mercy. And even if he didn't understand half of what she was implying, he certainly wasn't listening either. He barely registered the loss of his phone. To him, he was fighting a battle right now for his own survival, not knowing what the monstrous woman had planned for him.
"Why does there have to be stupid people like you? You always make it so much work for me and everyone else to drag you and keep you down," Ritsuka continues to scold, sounding a touch annoyed but she does relent on the choking. The trying to escape, well, he can keep struggling. He won't really succeed unless she were to utterly fuck up and there are habitory zip ties in her satchel. Of course that is more difficult, though she does say to her assistant "Yuki, would you grab one of the zip ties? Let's get Jared here turned into a Jared Giftbox."
And as Ritsuka commands, Yuki is soon to follow, want to keep the boss happy after all. Even with Jared struggling, the restraints are eventually put in place, first his feet pressed together, keeping his legs out of the question, both preventing the kicking and any attempts at running away. Then come the hands, wrists bound together over his chest, this maybe not stopping the possibility of him trying to go back to punching, but certainly making it way harder for him to reach for his phone or try to run away from the forest.
When the hand comes away from his neck, there's a sharp intake of hair, almost exaggerated, gasping and making a big deal of the air coming in, even coughing a couple times after that, whether from the hyperbole of the breath, or from the choking, it is unclear. But he doesn't answer Ritsuka's question about his stupidness, no, instead, with what little voice he has right now, he begs to her "Please, let me go. I didn't do anything. I don't have whatever you want, I was just following that thing!".
Much like before, feasting Ritsuka with his fear, pouring out from him like water coming from melting ice, this man was clearly unaware, at least outside of conspiracies on the internet or occult mumbo jumbo on some weird blog online. He had way too much internet, and happened to stumble upon the Truth when going out of his way to seek something else.
"It was real. You saw it. I've got to tell everyone" Jared keeps going, his voice breathy, almost a hiss, and his eyes dart around, trying to find the phone, and spotting it not too far away from himself, laying on the forest dirt. He tries to reach to take it, with his bound hands, but he cannot reach it, not with Ritsuka pinning him down
Ritsuka lets out a sigh and shakes her head. "You will forget this, I will make you forget it. You may be syringed up, or get to be put under the crown, I do not yet know." She pauses, and smiles, viciously. "There is a hidden side to the world, where the monsters roam in the dark, where little humans like you are food for us. There is many societies, but all stand unified under the rule of a place." She smiles. "Fairies, there is so much more that is real, including the gods, consider the widespread destruction and the chaos that would come from such information becoming too public. There is terrorists that seek the destruction of our beautiful earth."
She shakes her head. "Jared, sometimes the wisdom lies in looking away, not to pursue or chase it because it excites you. You get to not be a part of this hidden conflict, your life is safe, you will live your life peacefully. Many would envy it. And now, stop screaming before I'll need to stuff your mouth and make your captive experience even more unpleasant. Just cooperate with the next few hours, and though you won't remember any of this, you will be free and unharmed."
Jared certainly freezes at the revelation, his eyes open a little wider as the woman starts confiding secrets, and for a moment he does seem excited, just like Ritsuka mentioned. But his current situation dawns on him moments later, he's still bound and helpless in the middle of the forest, with beasts like that werewolf roaming around, and a woman stronger than a powerlifter pinning him down and threatening with erasing his memories.
But now he knows screaming and kicking won't get him out, it hasn't worked so far, and the woman has laid the warning there not to keep going. So he tries something else, shaking his head and trying to struggle free from the pin down "No... The world needs to know- If there's monsters out there everyone needs to know! Are you crazy?" The more he speaks the more that voice goes up again, seemingly losing that little semblance of peace and strategy in his mind as he lets the fear and the emotion drive his actions and body once more "The world needs to know this... I will just show them... It's better than living in the dark and then seeing... That!" He says nudging his head in the direction in which the wolf left
Ritsuka makes a slight shrug of her shoulders, and the predatory smile turns over her lips again. Now, now there is less nice-ness as she draws a the little wakizashi from its sheath - and it does not take long before she makes the slightest cut onto Jared's arm. The moment he screams, she stuffs his mouth up with some bandage. "Well Jared, you see, I've tried to make you cooperate. I am going to show you how I feed, you will be deliciously traumatized." her face does draw closer to his, when has she lost seeing a human as more than something so far beneath? But it does go on into the beginning of delicious torture. "How does it feel to know that you will never remember any of this? Feels just right, hmm?"
Of course her lips turn into a smile, her eyes glance over the wakizashi and the blood at its edge, how it runs along of the far too sharp blade. "Maybe I will just kill you." She can't, but he does not know that.
Now muted and bleeding, the terror within Jared's mind starts growing and growing. The fear skyrocketing as the dubious woman turned out to be not so good, at least on the eyes of the human right beneath her. It would have been probably a deterrent to other people, to see the horror in the green eyes of the victim, but people like Ritsuka, well, they couldn't help but feed on that fear, it nurtured them, it was food just like it's normal for wolves to hunt deer.
And even if the wound is not too deep or too big, just enough to make him scream and in turn get silenced, it's more what it means in his head than what was actually done. A threat not so physical as it is mental. He tries to kick and run, but he can't. He tries to distract himself from the thoughts of the wolf lingering in the darkness, but he can't. He tries to convince himself that his memory will be untouched, and that he'll get away from here unscathed, but he can't.
All the little frustrations and fears having their boxes checked, adding to the defenseless man a sense of impotency, a lack of control over his own safety, and now, over his own mind, thoughts and memories. He is deeply terrified, and, as it was bound to happen at some point or another, the man finds himself passing out.
Much like the previous meal, the light slowly goes away from Jared's eyes, and his body starts slacking, attempts at resistance finally ceasing, and his limbs limping onto the ground. A little difference probably being a wet patch forming on his pants, it seemed Mister tell-the-truth-to-the-world had urinated himself in fear right before leaving the conversation. He could handle tracking a werewolf but not the confrontation from Ritsuka, surely they were different kinds of scenarios, but it at least gives one something to think about.
Now that poor stupid Jared was passed out, there was no more need to persist there. Ritsuka had gotten to feed and feed well, though she would not spend too much time touching him. She just grabs him by an arm and starts to drag him back to the street. The wakizashi is cleaned and hidden, and then the rest summarizes down to organizing a syringe - she can make them, but that means visiting the goblin market. On the other hand, she just calls back on the contact line "I have Jared secured. He is passed out. Want me to syringe him or is he to be handed over to some Venecian squad, or yet the Institute? Just another naive boy."
It takes a little walk out of the forest for the reception of the communicator to be back, carrying Jared unconscious along with them, but again, not a big deal for someone of Ritsuka's strength. Now with the weapons concealed and with Yuki following along, the step out of the forest, to the more familiar street. And as the comms channel is prompted with the question, the woman from before is soon to reply.
"Better to hand him over to the agents of Venice. We want them happy after the incident, and even if they have to work a little extra, they surely will appreciate doing the proper removal process. I will send them to the location marked as your domicile. Take whatever was used to transmit and record with you so they can properly dispose of it" The voice echoes into the channel, before disappearing once more.
Now, if Ritsuka and Yuki had been careful in their task, they already had the phone with them, if not, it was probably just a matter of walking the same path again to find it discarded on the dirt, retrieve it, and then walk all the way back once more. An annoying thing to do, but necessary.
And eventually, as the woman returns to her home, not too far away from the Tsubaki Avenue, two men in formal suits are already waiting. They got there way too fast considering when the woman had told Ritsuka she would send them there. With little questions, they take the unconscious Jared with them, and retrieve his phone along with him. Letting everything into their own personal vehicle, before they hit the road again, disappearing as soon as they have came, leaving the pale woman once more alone with her assistant, back in front of her home, and with a free night ahead of her. Maybe a bit late to dinner though.