Just a Passing Assassin...

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

Spiral: So I really want to understand something.



The Fallen: And what's that? Was I not clear enough?

Spiral: God no! Why does this whole thing have to be wrapped up in Cryptic Bullshit? What actually happened?

The Fallen: I told you already-

Spiral: Yeah and you insist on things getting messy the moment you don't get what you want. You really need this to end in death and violence?

The Fallen: It did so for us..

Steady: Say what you need to now then-

The Fallen: You've already made up your mind, wasted on you but.. I suppose the other one might be better at listening.

The Fallen steps forward in a elongated way like a cartoon character to get right up and personal.

The Fallen: We were settled not to far from this place, sent out on a mission to find a connection for God.

Spiral: Who??

The Fallen: Not the type you'd call by that word. Regardless, it wasn't long til a certain fiend came up. The one who you resemble, form perfect for the role. A fiend the perfect shape to make that connection and..

The Fallen: It rejected us, passed on the throne and role to be a pillar between worlds... we could not go back to where we started. We tried what we had to, the fear of damnation too great to fail.

That seemed to genuinely stress them out.

The Fallen: We were slain effortlessly, and we awoke like this. This is the closest to the image we've come but, there is no connection.

The Fallen: Whatever it did to us, I hear no voice but my own. Something went wrong, I might be cut off...



The Fallen: If I'm not good enough it's because that fiend took something we needed.

[skinstealer]

...so you tried to make cabinetta into a god figure? or, some kind of connection to one? what does that entail?

did you force her? what were the stakes of this "damnation", if you didn't succeed? was she aware of that?

ask cabinetta the same questions.

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

Spiral: So you tried to make her a god figure? Or at least you think she has some kind of connection to one?

The Fallen: Well no...  yes? She resembles our god in a way... we had to assume she was a avatar with her connection severed. We insisted, it was the whole point of the job..

Spiral: Did you force her?

Cabinetta: These people see my kind as accessory, their leadership drinks our blood as medicine.

The Fallen: She would not come otherwise, she's lost and so are well..

Spiral: This "damnation" you're talking about?

The Fallen: Spiritual connection, we are those who were given option. Find a suitable avatar for our lord or be cut off.

Cabinetta: I returned the violence they brought.

Spiral: Would you have hurt her?

The Fallen: We would've preserved the best we can, the process of our seniors is one we cannot say more on..

Spiral: What does being cut off mean?

The Fallen: Burial in a unmarked grave, isolated from our loved ones in the afterlife, left to rot with our flesh and bone forever soulbound til the dirt erodes us... but now we seem to be in the position to become a vessel ourselves. Enlightened but...

The Fallen: It has yet to happen, I can only presume there is trial.

The Fallen: A noise in my head, a compulsive rattle. To prove ourselves true we must show ourselves a better fit. Only with her death can we show out face home again..

Steady approaches the fallen fiend and reaches for a hand.

The Fallen: What are you trying to pull?

Steady: You're stressed, gonna sit you down while we figure things out. Can tell you haven't gotten much rest.
The Fallen's ears flopped down.

Steady: Sounds nice?

The Fallen: Maybe...

Cabinetta: A fiend who has been wronged has compulsion toward revenge. I was born of their church's crimes and now it's come to haunt me..

Spiral: Are you compelled right now?

Cabinetta: Always... the "rattling" haunts me too. I think its just... interpreted as something far worse. The cycle of violence ends tonight, I refuse to be the one to fall...

Spiral: You'd kill them?

Cabinetta: Better now while I can, the longer they live the harder it becomes.

You can feel her pushing for the front.

You resist as much as you can.

Fiddle: Hey, you still hear me?

Spiral: A bit in the middle of something..

Fiddle: I can tell.. you're mutating, seems like a fiend response to a threat in the room.

Spiral: Cabinetta's pissed and so is our intruder.

Fiddle: A-Ah! Fiend turf war, that's really bad actually..

Fiddle: I can intervene maybe, she's logged into our network while you two are bonded. Maybe I can help?

[skinstealer]

please god do what you can but Do Not Hurt Her, i don't want to betray her trust! i just want her to be safe. please.

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

Spiral: Step in if you can, just don't hurt her. I don't want to break her trust...

Fiddle: I wasn't planning to, let me just uh...

Fiddle: Maybe I can link directly hold on- okay cool.

Fiddle: That's weird..

Spiral: What is?

Fiddle:...I'm gonna pull something kinda out three cause I think I um..

There was a sharp pitch, both fiends making a yelp cut off abruptly by silence.

You don't feel Cabinetta's voice anymore. Likewise the Fallen's gaze seems to go blank.

Steady's ears pull back.

Spiral: Can't hear anything...

Steady: Fiddle, fuck did you do?

Fiddle: They're fine.

Fiddle: Still getting readings, they're conscious.

The Fallen crumples over on the floor.

Steady: Are you sure about that?

Fiddle: Their readings are still active, just.... isolated?

Steady:  You gotta explain now.

Fiddle: Box'd them, they're both linked to Spiral so they both can be yoinked by the lab. They're safe..  It's clearing up the signal for now at least, nothing preventing a warp.

Steady: A fiend can really mess with our teleporter like that..

Fiddle: With how much was going on between those two? Absolutely. Now we just need to-

4D: Hey! What did you guys do?

Steady: What was needed.

4D:  Right, okay. Well good news is you got signal now. Our rescue target seems to be conscious and possible to wake up. Downside is we got two stowaways. Someone want to explain?

Steady: Uh... Fiddle?

Fiddle: I'm not sure?

Spiral: Two fiends linked up to me through weird magic stuff, they got into the system.

4D: Ah... should I like, archive them in a ZIP or-

Fiddle: No. We need to sort out a few things. One of them should be restored to her body, the other.. god I don't know.

4D: Ah, okay the spider. Yeah we can fix her up easy. And the other is...

Steady: Thing that was causing us issues here.

4D: I see! I'll prepare to delete by the end of the day then if we can't find a use-

Rico: We probably shouldn't, remember last week?

4D:... Ah right, yeah cyber ghosts are real. No let's not um..

4D: Are things resolved over there?

Steady: I.... don't really know? Fiddle?

Fiddle: We should really play this carefully. At least they won't kill each other while stored on the Lab's database. Lot to explain, lots of putting people back together, figuring out what the hell to do with someone who can cause us this much grief....

Steady: Spiral, you were linked yeah? You got ideas?

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

You are Cabinetta, a fiend that spawns once a generation.


Right now you exist in a void, much the result of linking up mentally with strangers.

 

You do not feel mentally well.

 

Of course you're not…

 

The voice in your head is not your own. Doesn't seem to have much love for you.

 

Nor does it really want to be here right now.

 

You always do this, get too attached to the people you've just met and make your problems theirs.

 

You're making it mine as well. You monster.

 

Bit of a harsh way to put it.There’s plenty of good people in your life already, right?

 

You hardly deserve them if this is routine for you.

 

As if you would understand.

 

I absolutely did…

 

You call that cult of yours good company? Rejected every one of you…

 

It's of your fault that I exist to begin with.

 

I don't think anyone asks to be born, I certainly didn't… I do not want to participate with one like you..

 

You can be meaner than that, say what you're really thinking.

 

No. There is nothing that would satisfy you as a answer.

 

That you want me dead, that you’d kill me ten times over. I wouldn't hold back if given the opportunity and neither should you. I want honesty from someone...

 

You will have to settle for a stalemate..

 

Worthless…

 

Why do you want to appease those people so bad? Would you really be defending them so hard if there were choice?

 

Failures are not allowed the same soil as our neighbors, I simply wish to return home...

 

And you see it as fair?

 

It's all we have to look forward to...

 

Look at yourself, would you really be taken back? You are a failed vessel of a fake god. As am I…

 

What do you mean?

 

I was born of manufactured suffering by the boot who kicks you. You are extension of that. We are hardly different.

 

…The church made you?

 

Is that not how it was framed? Were details not transparent at any point who you hunted?

 

Then the pursuit of you…

 

You are no less a valid candidate and no more respected. You were sent on a suicide mission and no more respected as a result..

 

…You were once us.

 

Mm,from a perspective. Vengeful people I don't wish to see as myself or my past. The were born outside of this world and had their reality crashed down just as quickly.

 

The Devil himself…? Did you meet him?

 

A nameless child. Some of them had seen it go down..

 

You were there when it happened then..


Mm... lights that cleansed skies and cracks that reshaped the earth itself. It was.. something I suppose. To watch the queen fall, every piece of the set crumble because a handful of children breached the tower. I don't think anybody believed it, come up with any alternative explanation than that if we could.


What do you really think it was?


Karma. As much as I loathe the idea of being a product of hatred toward my own kind, I can't avoid the truth that my existence is out of continued perpetuation. They failed due to their choice to create misery, and at that point a child with a pipebomb is more than able to crumble a rotting kingdom...

I see...

I can still feel the voices, the feelings of betrayal when many were set against a unwinnable battle against a ungodly foe... They had it coming, I do not wish to relive their final fate in my head though...


Fiend as well?


Worse than that.... the pocket those people were born into, cracks naturally formed. Without the being that created it, it was destined to fall apart one day. Without Fiend to harvest their devices became unstable, and remaining bishops who wore their flesh had the people turn against them to fuel a few extra days. The church could not maintain its hold without the assets to back its coin. If diving the abyss was the last option, so be it..


...You're spawn of the last expedition.



Mmhmm...



They never mentioned this..



No, they knew you'd back down if you were aware what you had picked a fight with.



Th-they really sent us to die....



They did....



And you killed us anyway??



You are not them, not anymore.. and I did what I had to in order to protect myself and my town.

I-I was just doing my job!

As was I... I'm sorry.


Its all that's left to cling onto, without that we're nothing but nameless monster...



And that'll change too, as did for me..

You can feel the other fiend reflect for awhile, the crockpot of turmoil.


...You seem to know quite a lot on all this.



I've made my mistakes, maybe I can help you not repeat them...




I feel its too late to undo mine...




You can still awaken those you've harmed from their dormant state....




Nobody will take me with open arms regardless... the pain cannot be forgotten.



They have no obligation to forgive, you can still prove you are more than what you started as.



I'll wander the earth... If we can't find a home?



A gamble you'll have to take. First we need to sort ourselves, figure out what exactly is happening right now...



I'm am abnormal even among fiends from what we've gathered...



Same really... a fiend forms out of adaptation to strife.



You felled me...



Which makes you specialized in killing me in particular.



But you yourself are of a similar extremity... by that logic what created you is something terrifying, no?


Yet another anomaly..


What was it?


A knight, the kind who could never be satisfied. She wasn't very tall, had her hair in a braid. Outside of her glowing eyes she'd be completely unremarkable to the naked eye. She welcomed us to her home, a hut by a tower along a endless tides riding shore.... needless to say it was not much more than a ruse. To her everything was a resource.

Fat was fuel...

The Soul was text...

Blood a harvest of dyes and irons.

It wasn't all that much different from how the church had operated during its prime hours really.

The feast they were treated to seemed like a miracle, a reverse of misfortune that seemed without end.

They saw that dreaded heart...

...Ah.

Mmm... I was needless to say left at shore to send message.

..There's still a lot that doesn't make sense with your story, a lot of pieces that contradict and do not come into play together...

A fiend is not the most reliable source of recollection, you'll also discover that yourself...

Don't savor the thought...

You'll adapt...

Do you ever think about seeking out closure? On the one that killed you?

All the time... but they aren't me as one is not their hometown.

Maybe that can happen...

Oh?

I already feel tangled here, difficult to tell who's me and who's you... already our voice does not feel like its fully our own anymore. Or Mine? But I find things compelling...

I know I'm Cabinetta at the very least. And you?

I don't know. Maybe I am too? Maybe I could be...

...Maybe you shouldn't while we're both here together.

I mean why not? If we were formed of common strife...

....I mean... I would be willing to provide you space for a time at least..

Consider it, if I have no home to return to then-

I... will have to think on that. I really have a lot to figure out in general...

Fiddle: You two hear us?

Fiddle: Gonna warp you guys to home base while we sort them out....

Time is running out... Cabinetta?

Fiddle: Try not to mess with anything during the process....

I really shouldn't enable you...

Then at the very least, we'd like someone like you to help us heal, sort ourselves out. If a favor is returned well...

.....

Cabinetta, please....?

Fiddle: Alright, get ready to land safely. Gonna have you guys use a temporary setup so don't walk out sprinting while you're not used to your new legs.

Fiddle: 3...

.....I am trusting you to please behave.

Fiddle: 2...

You will not regret this...

Fiddle 1....

I'm worried I will...

PASSING ASSASSIN: ACT 1 END

[Guest]

THREE WEEKS LATER: Passing Assassin Act Two
CW: Assimilation, Occultism, Identity Crisis
Perspective: Steady

You got the call as soon as you were up and out of your room. Your usual monitors kept it brief.

"Crisis situation, specialist not coming quickly enough. - Rico."

You knock on the doorframe, the chair pair turning toward you.

Steady: Sup? Came as soon as I could.



Rico: You seen the guild room? 



Steady: Yeah, no gigs on the board. I gotta get paid for my date tonight... 

Rico: I mean besides that, the uh... gotta put it politely. 

Steady: You can just say it. 

Rico: I know you two are friends and all but-

4D: Cabinetta is a bit of a menace on our department's entire systems. Even by Spreader Categories she's really derailing things. 

Steady: I mean I've been saying to send her back for weeks now-

Rico: We did, she's still here. 

Steady: Like she made it back on her own or-



4D: Nearly everyone she interacted with her who's gotten killed on the job since she returned has seemingly respawned as her-

Steady: What...? I mean... I don't think she's doing that on purpose, she wouldn't-



4D: Need you to let me fucking finish! All recorded documentations on staff who interacted with her while she and the other fiend were here found her to be cooperative, friendly, mostly harmless, genuinely pleasant to be around. And... it seems that a few too many of them were willing to interact with her more unearthly aspects. 

Steady: They let her drink their blood-

4D: Let her treat them like a juice pack! And whether she realized it or not, her interactions seem to have driven her deeper into our system than when your little trainee linked up with her. 

Steady: I mean I've been fine but also I'm pretty lucky. Should look into some lotto tickets one day-

Rico: Luck isn't really a factor-

4D: In her case it is. 

Rico: Really? 

Steady: Chaos affinity, got that sneaky probability alteration stuff going on. 

Rico: That actually a thing? 

4D: Yes? 

Rico: Wow, how can you even pin down a trait like that? 

4D: Also luck unfortunately. But that's getting a bit sidetracked-

Steady:... I should really figure out which Cabinetta asked me out last night. 

4D: Knowing you? Probably one of the originals-

Rico: Could be the cutest one too-

Steady: Same shit. But uh... aren't they all like.. her? 

4D: They're all individually conscious as themselves just.. concerningly eager to be vessel to a hivemind. 

Steady: Yeah cause she's cute. 

4D:.. I wanted to ask you to help sort things out but I'm not exactly sure now. 

Rico: She kinda has a point though? 

4D: I don't think I get where you're going with this-

Rico: Steady? 

Steady: Folks here don't got much of a past life to go back to. Remember little to nothing, lots scared to move on cause they'd be ditching co-workers they've been friends with for years to start over. But if you're a a sweet bug vampire lady everyone likes-

4D: ...Hmm.. 

Steady: Becomes easier, especially when you got like 20 more of you to lift you up and all. 

Rico: That kinda sounds nice not gonna lie. You think-

2D: I forbid it. 

Rico: Not even for a night? 

4D: Steady? Can you see if you can find Fiddle? 

Steady: Yeah uh, should I get-

4D: Your student is currently in testing to see if there's any direct link through them. Suggest you avoid bringing her in before we can get results in case he might be a conduit of the apocalypse we're facing.

Steady: Yeah. Thank god she gave me her number, should be able to call her and-

4D: When, today? 



Steady: she gave me her contacts when we first had her chill here and then uh... she gave me a new number last night... Ah. is it bad if I still go out with her? I think I can fix her...

4D: You should call both of those I think and resolve that. 

Rico: Honestly if you can like, route for a bunch of them though that'd be-

4D: I'm divorcing you. 

Rico: We're not even married? 

4D: Would you like to be? 

Rico: Uh... Maybe?

4D: I can have the papers printed. 

Rico: Give me like five minutes. 

He leans toward your ear. 

Steady: Sup?

Rico: I kinda want to say yes? 

Steady: They're just gonna break your part, whole point of the bit-

Rico: Think I'm saying yes.

You give him a sigh and a pat on the head. 

Rico: What's so funny..? 

Steady: One day. Anyway so from here-

4D: We're trusting you to come up with the best possible gameplan. We'll be available on comms at any point. Get going. 

You are now Steady, The Luckbound Slugger. Entity Category: The Comedian 

You are the master of your own fate. Suffering is a temporary state of life.

[Guest]

I updated it and forgot to link whoops.

[Guest]

I also forgot to log in.