maskormenace | 001

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001 - VIDEO

[There's the sound of some fumbling with the communicator as someone struggles to get the thing oriented and recording. For a moment, there's a flash of one giant, emerald green eye close up to the lens as the owner inspects the device.]

Is this...is this thing on? Is it recording...? Gods dammit...how the hell...

[More fumbling. Then another voice offscreen can be heard: 'Hey boss, you want me to show you how to--']

No. Look, I got this. Go over there and finish checking the inventory and let me--

[Finally, he manages to get the comm aligned and recording. The blue haired newcomer looks absolutely exasperated.]

Okay, I think I've got it. Anyway, I'm not sure who all can see this? But I'm having some issues here. Now, I, for one, am glad that I was provided employment upon working here. I kinda wish it was more in my field, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, am I right? I've run a shop before. I know business. I know how to sell. I can sell a full set of plate mail to an eighty year old wind mage. My point? I can do this job. Here's the problem:

[Darin tilts his comm to show his store, namely the Thot Topic in Nonah that he has been given management of. The store is in great shape and people are shopping and being helped by the staff. But over by the entrance there stands three seemingly disaffected teens. Two girls and a guy, and they are all taptaptapping away at their phones.]

Can someone explain to me what the hell is happening here? They've been here for hours. They're here every other day, it seems. They don't talk. The best part? Hang on.

[Okay, looks like we're moving now. Darin walks over to the group and not-so-discreetly circles them while holding his comm aloft. Maybe some eagle-eyed viewers might catch one of them texting 'omg, the old blue haired guy is back guys lmao' before Darin walks back to his original position towards the back of the store.]

Did you catch that? Did you? They're sending those messages to each other. They're talking to each other! Through their little devices! Instead of using words! Culture shock my ass, is there a priest or something out there? Because I think these kids are possessed and I do not deal with ghosts. Seriously, if anyone can offer me any insight into what the hell is wrong here, I will give you ten percent off of whatever the hell you want from my store. Hell, make it twenty percent.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You're telling me! Don't get me wrong, all of this technology's fine and all - you gotta check out HGTV sometime, it's the best stuff ever - but sometimes you just want people to appreciate the little things, right? Having other shit's no reason not to keep everything else going.

Like a forge that makes more than dull blades.

That's what I've been saying! It's like everyone got lazy and never learned how to do anything for themselves! Guys like us, we live for this kinda thing!

No dull blades come outta my forge, friend. In fact, if you ever want to get together, I can personally show you something my Old Man forged for me before I left home. The quality of it will melt your mind.

Hell yeah I wanna see that! Name the time and place and I'll be there.

Come by the Thot Topic in Nonah around closing. 9 PM. I'll show you something really impressive.

Can do! I'll see you then!

[ And Magnus - excitable as he is - just hangs up after that. ]

[Darin laughs and goes about his business for the rest of his shift. When Magnus arrives later, just around closing, Darin waves him inside the store before locking the door and lowering the shutters.]

Until I get a real forge set up, I figure this place will have to do. At least it's got shutters to keep prying eyes to themselves.

Hail and well met! [ Magnus booms as he enters, broad grin on his face. He's actually pretty excited to meet Darin in person - he loves the variety of people he's met here and all of the experiences they bring to the table but it's been forever since he's met another crafstman with some decent claim to the title. Oh sure, they've got engineers and all kinds of biologists and programmers and other kinds of geniuses, but can that really compare to a craftsman?

In Magnus' wholly unbiased opinion: nope! ]

So... have you just been keeping all your cool blacksmith shit in here?

[First thing's first, Darin is shaking this big smiling man's hand. It really was amazing to have met someone who could understand his struggle in this modern world. That, and the fact that Magnus seemed like one of the nicest people Darin's ever met just made him feel like this was closer to home than he realized.]

Well, not as such. Most of what I've managed to scrounge up is back at my place for me to pick apart and research. But, I never leave home without these:

[Darin reaches to his right hip an unsheathes his smithy hammer, a particularly well-crafted and, more importantly, obviously well used tool. The metal on the flat ends of the hammer are worn almost to a glistening shine; obviously this hammer has been in use for years. Decades even. With his other hand, he reaches around to the small of his back and unsheathes a jet black dao. The blade is polished to a mirror shine and almost looks like obsidian or damascus steel. There are runes inlaid in the side of the blade, etched into the metal and embossed in what looks like gold. It's a beautiful blade that looks like it's never even been used.]

This? This is my old man's greatest work. He made it for me years ago. I haven't made anything quite to this caliber, but I can promise you I've come close. He managed to keep a few trade secrets from me, it seems.

[He speaks of his old man with pride and a laugh, despite knowing that he still has a plateau to reach, despite calling himself a 'master' blacksmith.]

Either way, I think his technique speaks for itself.

[ If Darin was looking for enthusiasm about craftsmanship, he came to the right place. Magnus may seem like he's just perpetually excited - something that is not, in fact, too far from the truth - but there's a knowing glint in his eye when he leans forward. He's not just taking in how impressive it looks. He's actually looking at it intently, taking in how it was made and how well it's been preserved. He may not be a blacksmith himself but you don't live in Raven's Roost for as long as he did without being able to recognize the best of the best.

He winds up crouching down a little to get a closer look at it. Magnus knows full well that this is the sort of blade a Hero uses - yes, with a capital H - and that one could never give away something of this caliber. He also finds himself really, really, really wanting it anyway.

Instead of voicing that, he just whistles. ] I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before, and trust me: I've seen some good work in my time. [ He points at the side of the blade, hand hovering just above it. ]

What're those runes? Is it magic?

You know, I had always wondered that myself. They appear magical in nature but I don't have any mana. My old man knew that. I never got the chance to ask him before he handed the blade over to me because of...well...

I kinda had to make a quick getaway.

Ah.

[ This doesn't sound like a pleasant story - nothing involving a quick getaway is. Or, well, nothing involving your dad dad, which means that most things that involve a getaway of an amorous nature are out of the question. ]

Sounds like there's a story behind that one. Wanna talk about it?

Can't say there's much to talk about. My story is no different than any other great wayfarer's. Got framed for a murder I didn't commit, then I had to leave my hometown to try and find the bastard who framed me.

[Darin takes the dao and sheathes it in one quick, skilled motion.]

Been on his trail for a couple of months but then I wound up here.

[Darin stretches, leaving out the fact that he did manage to find the culprit. But explaining to someone he just met that he was framed by his twin brother who was supposed to be dead might make for a bit of an awkward time.]

Dang. That's rough. [ Not as bad as the answer could have been - some people here have had pretty fucking rough lives - but it's still not fun. ]

You ever find out who did it? Or why?

[ It'll be easy enough to lie, but Magnus has got the sort of personality to ask inconvenient questions and to care about the answers to boot. It doesn't even occur to him to doubt the veracity of what Darin's saying. If he says he was framed, then hot damn, he was framed! ]

[Darin scoffs.]

I did, actually. I tracked him down just before I got here.

But believe me, big guy. You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Even I could hardly believe it.

[Darin hops up on the counter and takes a seat. Leaving it hanging so ominously, he wouldn't be surprised if Magnus pressed further. The guy just had that look to him. Like a big curious bear that wants to paw through your trash but you don't have the heart to stop him.]

It was my brother. My twin brother.

You'd be surprised at how much I can believe.

[ That said, Magnus listens attentively. It being Darin's twin brother sounds like something out of one of those traveling plays that swung by Raven's Roost every now and then - who ever heard of having a secret twin? - but it's certainly not the most unbelievable thing he's heard in his life. He whistles. ]

Damn! That'd explain how you got framed. So - what, you guys got separated at birth?

Heh. Not at birth.

[Darin appears to mull over what he's about to admit to Magnus. But something about the guy says he can be trusted. Like he's one of those big guys who is more loyal than a dog you've had your entire life.]

Dromas was...killed. He and my birth father were killed in the same night when we were only five years old. Demons appeared. Attacked the house. I barely managed to survive but they left me for dead.

[He shrugs a bit. There's a lot more to unpack there. About how he managed to survive when any other person would have been cut in half. About why demons were just showing up at his house in the first place.]

Heh, imagine my surprise to find out that my brother had clawed his way out of hell and was leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake, all for the sole purpose of getting me to track him down. He made it so I couldn't go home. He forced me on the road to find him.

[ Magnus grimaces. ]

Shit. [ He's not sure whether or not it's needed - or, quite frankly, wanted; Magnus' tendency to get into people's personal space seems to be met only with middling success - but he feels moved to clap one hand on Darin's shoulder anyway, squeezing it reassuringly. ] I'm sorry. That'd be rough for anyone to deal with, let alone a kid.

[ That brings him to his next point, though - if Darin's brother really did have to claw his way out of hell to get to where he's at now, he must be suffering too. ]

...Think there's any chance for him?

[Luckily for Magnus, Darin's just as much the touchy feely type as he is. He gives Magnus an appreciative smile.]

Ah, it's alright. Life's not supposed to be easy, you know? I just lucked out I wasn't dumped in some orphanage. My Old Man took me in. Taught me the ways of the forge.

[Magnus' next question tugs at Darin's heart a little bit.]

As for Dromas...? I...

[He sighs.]

I don't know. When I saw him last...just before I came here? He was...the same, but different. All of his old personality ticks were there but...like...dialed up to eleven, you know?

That and he had become so powerful...it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Unlike anything the world had seen before.

Well, for what it's worth, I hope you can drag him back from that. Family's family, even if they're getting up to some shit.

[ Bold words for someone who abandoned his own family and never looked behind again, not for the rest of his life. But he found his real family later, the one he chose and not the one he was bound to through blood, and those are the ones that matter. ]

Any clue what happened to him? Any, uh... special weapons, maybe?

Cursed weapons? No. He just lost his mind.

I kinda left the part out where he was killed when we were five. Him and my father. I should have been killed too but...

[To hammer this point home, Darin shrugs off his overcoat and pulls up the black shirt underneath to reveal a vicious, jagged scar. Whatever did that to him should have cut in half.]

...I guess it didn't take, y'know? Anyway, according to Dromas, his soul was brought to the Archfiends' realm. I'd probably go nuts too if I was trapped in Hell for nineteen years.

[He's just going to try and tiptoe around the big Doomsday Prophecy that he and his brother were meant to fulfill, along with the fact that he's not entirely human.]

So... going to the afterlife fucked him up but good, huh?

[ Magnus clicks his tongue sympathetically, looking at the scar. It's not the ugliest scar he's seen in his time - he's seen an awful lot in his time - but it's a pretty bad one, tempered only by the presence of age; old scars always look better than the ones that are fresh and new. ]

I hope you can help him - whatever it is that looks like. [ Sometimes you gotta kill someone to help someone. He'd rather be dead than wander around like that. ] These demons, uh, did they leave you alone after the whole shebang?

Pretty sure getting killed and dragged to hell would mess anyone up.

[Darin crosses his arms in front of his chest in thought.]

They did. They must have thought I was dead. They didn't really count on me healing up after a strike like that.

[There's so much more to the story. The fact that Darin wasn't cut in half was thanks to his brother taking the strike when Darin tried to run. The fact that he healed up in the first place was due to his powers.]

Either way, I'd like to help him. I want to understand why he's doing the things he's doing. I just don't know if I can. His power is out of this world.

Well, step one to helping him is wanting to help him, so at least you got that one downpat. Step two's probably to have a really dope sword, [ Magnus says, looking pointedly at Darin's sword,] so that's steps one and two all dealt with.

[ He shrugs. The smart thing would probably be to tell Darin to kill the guy, save himself, not subject himself to that sort of power and misery. But that's never how Magnus has lived his life and he doesn't think that's how his new friend lives his life either; life's too short a prospect to waste it on regrets. You need to keep on moving forward, no matter where that takes you. ]

You won't know unless you try. You much of a fighter, Darin?

No, not at all. I actively avoid bar fights in general because I find them to be boorish and in no way shape or form hilarious to participate in.

[Do you detect the sarcasm, Magnus? Maybe the fact that he's got a giant shit-eating grin on his face is a bit more of a giveaway.]

I'm no wilting flower, if that's what you're asking.

I was gonna say that if you weren't, I could help train you up, but with that kind of attitude? Looks like we're gonna need to spar instead!

[ Magnus is never one to back away from a challenge, even if a challenge wasn't even implied in the first place. He's just that kind of guy. ]

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