Scaring the neighbors

[Nisha]

How the hell did this even happen? She had just had a nice day, walking around, killing stuff as she suddenly saw a thunderstorm coming in. Wanting to go back before it came over her like a... well, storm, she wandered off and wanted to go back to the town or seek some shelter. It had been a good idea, a very good idea. but just as always her sense of direction was terrible her decisions, even though mostly working out fine to impulsive and not thought through. And so, she had just come across an old mansion while stumbling through the forest. It had not looked like much or all too old, definitely weird how the nature had reclaimed it already, windows broken out of their frames and tendrils of plants creeping into the gaping holes, lightning audible in the distance and the door that creaked open without Nisha´s consent or help. It made her gulp for a moment and then enter, frantically hoping that she did not just walk into what she thought it would end up as. But there it was, as soon as she walked through, she knew she had ended up opening a can of worms.

The doors crashed together and left her in near darkness. Shivers running up and down her spine, her tail bushing and bristling, she stood still for what seemed an eternity as she waited for something to happen, but nothing did happen until she felt ready to breathe again, her lungs feeling like they would explode, her tail tightly pressed against her back, looking like a squirrel now more than a fox, she slowly stepped forward into the darkness just to freeze up again as suddenly lights erupted from every candle stick that was around and shone light on everything around her. Slowly getting up after having fainted from what could not have been more than ten minutes, the thunderstorm was now directly above the house and lightning was drawing scary faces everywhere she looked, furniture and paintings alike. The lobby in which she now stood and shivered like the last leaf before winter in the wind in was indeed grand and filled with red old furniture, cracks in the wood and satin made sure to tell her that it was a very old house and she did not like that at all, because most likely she would encounter those kinds of things soon enough. She sighed silently, trying to not make a sound and crept closer to the fireplace, which was the only source of light that had not been lit so far. It was nothing special that drew her to it, or better that was exactly it, it was something that did not give off weird light or had been mysteriously lit, making it about the only thing normal or not scary looking thing around here, a little point of normality in this otherwise maniacally ghost mansion. Oh shit, she had thought about it... and like a command she heard a sound...

Words: 505
Mood: OH GOD PLEASE NO
Music: None, cause silence
Tags: Nisha

[Nisha]

She was sure it had just been the wind or something, no way this would happen just like in all the movies about these kinds of situations, right? She shivered again and closed her eyes, she had to prepare herself, it was pretty common in video games after all to meet these kinds of things around. Actually it would be more rare she guessed if she would never meet those kinds of things. And at least this time around, she actually had weapons at her disposal to take care of these things. Not like all those nights she had cowered under her blanket as she saw weird shapes drawn in black, hush over the walls and whisper of the wind turned into the voices of these things. Even the name of these creatures did not want to come to her lips without her at least shivering and that was normally, now only the thought of it made all her digital hairs stand on end. And now it was maybe the time she had to turn around and face whatever had just appeared behind her and made that weird sound. But, wait, there was a flaw in her logic somewhere, she knew it, but she could not figure it out right away. And then it clicked, since when did those things make any sounds at all aside from a whisper here and there, maybe some crying or whatever, but that sound had sounded more like... feet? Maybe someone else was in here after all, caught together with her? Someone who was not as afraid of what might lurk in here than herself, that would be awesomely awesome. time to turn around... tuuuurn around.... her body was not really listening and with only the most difficultest of mind control of her own self, she managed to inch around. Now open your eyes.

Open... your eyes. One eyelid fluttered and suddenly she jumped back a foot or two, a smell of rotten flesh and other such things had just hit here and there it was, just a few feet of, a zombie had tilted it´s head toward her and looked her in the eyes. A frown came over Nisha as she surveyed the zombie, she had no fear of the undead, they basically were the same as people or beasts, the other things had no body to really destroy and were hushing through walls, not slumbering along and looking like they could not hurt a fly. Well, time to... She was about to grab her sword as she had an idea. She had not trained her exorcist skill before, maybe it was time to do so now. Smiling toward the zombie, she stretched out her arm, which had begun glowing white and bright. The exorcist skill with which to hurt and damn the undead and spirits, shooting the laser at the zombie, slashing right through it and finishing it off, but as the brightness subsided, Nisha gulped. A silvery substance came from the remains of the zombie and began to hover. After half finishing her gulp, Nisha was already running deeper into the mansion and took the first door her mind allowed her to register and found herself in a library, that was well lit with candlesticks in every corner and a candelabra above Nisha. Nisha decided to hide under a desk for a while and let her heart beat return to normal from panic mode.

Words: 573

[Nisha]

Hiding under the desk had been a good decision. Not only did her heart beat slowly go down to a normal pace, but she even calmed down a bit and did not faint as the ghost slowly moved into the room through a wall and out of it on the other side again. Nisha bit her lip and held her breath until it was gone and had gone from pale to purple soon enough until the ghost had left. Relaxing a little and hoping it would not come back, she slowly got out from under the desk after shoving the chair to the side and looked around. It was a small library, these that fit into a normal room, but had surprisingly interesting books in them, since someone had only put their favorites or useful ones in. Walking around slowly and after unequipping her boots, so that she was now walking on socks, she walked alongside the bookshelves and with her finger on the back of the books slowly read their titles, ranging from funny stuff like: 'The book for everyone, even sad clowns and pantomimes.' To more serious stuff like accounting, calculations, astronomy and then she found a book that caught her interest. It was a basic scribe workshop book for those who wanted to learn the craft, there were even old timey pictures in there and even though the book looked very old, it was not only readable to her, but the pages were nice and thick still, no brittleness to them and the ink looked as if it had just been applied, still looking fresh and nice, but the real wonder of it all was not the paper, it was the back and the whole binder, which had made her even notice the book. It looked so grand and old and yet timeless as if time had stopped for the book and binder at some time.

Nisha wondered if there was some explanation to this phenomena. It seemed like it was a showcase for what was in the book, since after all, it did say 'workshop on how to create books', so the binding and back had to be parts of it, did they not? Looking around, she was searching for a candlestick that was not floating or changing color and found one stuffed in the back, as if whoever had created the room had been embarassed by having such a plain thing around. but it was perfect for Nisha who did not want to have some creepy looking or swaying candle stick, but just a steady flame to read this book and not get a headache from it. Lighting the candle with one of the red flamed ones, she went over to the desk and put the book and the candlestick down, just hoping she would not be interruped in between, she looked around the room and wondered if she should build herself a book fort, but decided against it, if the ghost could go through walls, why should it not go through books. Shivering as she had just thought about it, she decided to quickly look through this and then get out if possible and if she did not find something else interesting as well.

Words: 540

[Nisha]

Sitting down nervously, but also with burning curiosity as she pulled out the chair from under the desk she had cowered under. Looking back and around the room one more time, she sat down for real, after first faking it to see if something was waiting to pounce on her. As Nisha opened the book, she quickly put her hand in front of her mouth. Sure, the binding and paper had been good, but apparently, opening the book fully released all the dust stored inside of it. A huge cloud of dust surrounded Nisha and made her eyes water and cough silently, with her nearly eating her own fist. After calming down a little more, she went and slowly opened the index to see what kind of things and wonders to find in here, maybe she would easily find what she was looking for. At first just like always she was smitten with how much choice she had, but in the end, she decided to leave the other topics for some other time. She was getting all giddy and nervous at the same time, finally she would do some research as well, maybe even find something out that would be of use to her and further the advancement a little to make this world even more fun. Opening the book at the site she had been instructed to, she began to read. She shook her head and squinted her eyes, stood up for a second, stretched a little and went back to reading. She wanted to scream, here she had a book that could help her find out whatever she wanted, most likely holding secrets beyond evil and good and maybe the key to a long fulfilled life, but something had gone amiss and even as she quickly scanned the pages it was the same everywhere.

Some child had drawn pictures all over the text, practically making the reading meaningless and only the scribbles and the drawn instructions were left, but without context? Well, she could try to reconstruct what they showed, but who knew what that would get her. She sighed, rocked back and forth on the chair, was close to tossing the book and just get out as she took the book in hand once more. Felt how heavy it was, the history stored in it most likely and decided to just use what she had to try and make the best out of it, actually putting work in it for once. She tilted her head at the idea and broke and bend her own ideals for a bit for her own good, since even though the pictures were little help, what they showed up to the last few sites were extraordinary, but one step after the next. Since she did not have materials on hand to use, she would have to improvise and use the weirdly placed stuff placed in the next desk over, filled with all kinds of materials. Well, if this was not heaven, it was at least hell with the ghost still around somewhere. She shook her head and took some thicker paper, some pieces of leather and string out of the desk and moved back to her own. Following by the picture it was an easy procedure to create a sturdy and yet magical binder that would keep pages intact well beyond normal means, even able to hold magical pages more easily and without risking magic leaks or what looked like eplosions. Nisha looked apprehensively at her own stupidly easy made grimoire that hung at her side on a chain and wondered if it would really do that. Well, it could at least serve as another example so that it was easier for Nisha to figure out what to do. Studying her old one, she noticed that it seemed really old, even though she had just gotten it, there were weird patches all over the paper and the parchment inside of the leather had already started to brittle down, no wonder, she did use the book much and it would naturally in a game whittle down it´s durability and effectiveness over time, maybe it was time to look for ways to make sturdier versions of them for real, well, the first step would be to figure out this book and maybe find a way to accomplish exactly that new way to create better grimoires. The binding seemed easy, but once she had started, she noticed that something was missing as soon as she put the parchment into the leather she had folded into size.

It felt rough and as if it sucked all water out of her hands. That could not be good for pages. Looking closer at the book, she saw a small detail she had missed. A tiny arrow with a number, most likely leading to an entry, she could not friggin read anymore because a horse had been squarely drawn on it, pointed to a small black edge behind the parchment, as it there was something on the other side of the parchment. Standing up, she walked over to the other desk and looked it through for an answer. Sheesh, sometimes she was indeed stupid, magical ink. She cleared a little space on her desk and began to paint the parchment black from one side, not only would it most likely lead to more stability with the leather, but because it was magic ink, it most likely never dried out completely, giving off just the right amount for the pages not to become brittle and counter if this was true magic leaks with their own magic, or so she thought it could be. Now to let it sit for a while. Her first impulse was to quickly skim through the rest of the book and look for the most awesome thing, but she decided that she had barely been able to stand the vandalism on the few pages she had seen, if she did not know better, this could all be a prank and she was right in the middle of it, so instead of trying, she stood up and hid under the desk again, it calmed her down to sit here in the darkness and ponder things. After a while she crawled out and looked at the parchment. Well, time to try it out. Putting the inked parchment in and stitching it together she found it was an easy process after poking herself only twenty one times before finishing, her health bar sinking by a credulous one percent while doing so. Looking at the finished product, she felt over it and even though it did not have the quality of the book she had gotten out of the shelf, it was definitely about the same feeling she got from it. It seemed like it had indeed worked and what she held in hand was definitely much sturdier than the flimsy work that was her beginners grimoire.

Words: 1157

[Nisha]

Now that she was done with the binding maybe it was time to do something more substantial, because even if the binding looked awesome, also quite customizable now that she looked at it, maybe even more so than she had thought would be possible, seeing as it was now thicker and able to most likely carry all kinds of accessoires and beautfiers and would most likely get her somewhere. But it was still not something that could be called a finished product, more like something intermediary that needed to be filled to become something, something to make it more powerful and giving it enough power that the idea of containing magic did not go to waste on it, but that it really imprisoned some magic, maybe rather channel it outwards with a better scribe. Going by her thoughts, she slowly waded through the books with heavy sighs, that could most likely battle whails from ghosts and zombies with all the echoes in the house as she went through the beautiful looking pages with the abhorrent drawings. But another site right after the binding had caught her interest before and Nisha was quick to go back to not have to stare at more new images of horror and childrens minds. Nisha shook her head to get some clear thoughts and get her san level back to anywhere close to her normal and looked at the pictutre and fragments of words written on the page. The image on top was one that showed the binder from before as well as pages added to it, but it was different from her grimoire, the pages looked nicer and the writing neater, also the image on the bottom had it in action and the shot of it looked quite an amount larger and ranging farther than what she had now. Her range was maybe two meter and it had a cooldown of a few seconds.

Maybe with this it would become better, but in the pictures there were no real indications how to do this, the fragments of the text were a bit better saying something like adding runes to each strength symbol to amplify the energy and then add some others to make them work better, btu most of the writing was either drawn on or was ripped away from the child using too much force to draw. Since she could not find much more ideas in this particular book for that, she looked through her own, wondering why she could read these weird symbols like she could. She also found quite some strength and shoot and such runes, but none for amplifying. Since she could not find any help in these, she tried to think of the rune for ampify, since she could read them, she should be able to draw them, but after much doodling, she found that she could not do that. Reading yes, but apparently not draw them without having seen it first. Sighing, she went around the room and looked through the books, oh, there it was a book about amplifying magical effects, but Nisha had not seen it as interesting since she had looked for something else before. But now it seemed like it was a reference put there to draw her attention to it. Well, she would still have to research how to do this stuff, but maybe with this she would be able to go another step on her way to finding it. Browsing through the book, she soon found the symbol and went back to brooding over the other stuff in the book. Muffling a scream of frustration in her sleeve, she got a page of paper from the other deska nd just began to draw symbols and mixing and forming them, rowed them up and tried to precisely copy them over, but to no effect at first, but after her twentieth or so try, she found out how she had to do, it was more like a code she had to rewrite rather than a book, she added the amplify she had found in front of the symbols that were necessary to create a normal magical bolt, much smaller than if it was written in a book, but it would produce a small bolt at least. She got another paper strip and wrote the same without the amplifying symbol, to have some point of origin to see how and if it would work.

She poured some mana into both strips and the one with amplifying symbol glowed a bit before it shot, also the two bolts created flew to the other side of the room and hit the wall, while the other, normal one barely made it over half a meter where she stood. Well, this was quite something, by adding a parameter to the line she could permanently alter what it would do, This seemed like quite the advancement to have. But because of it, the lines would not fit as well anymore, maybe she was still missing something from somewhere. Back to the book of origin and looking through it, she found that the next that had looked like a grammar lecture was actually designed to get the mistakes out of a beginners book, since several useless runes and phrases would be in there, that had no use in it normally. Actually disturbing the flow of magic and needed to be deleted, it was a good thing that the images were mostly clear of childrens images since quite some were printed there and Nisha went through her old grimoire and found that many of these were actually in there and clogged up the grimoire. Knowing that, she just needed to... Actually, would she write a book now? Looking out of the window that was barred by wood planks and only left small slits to look through, she saw and heard through the cracks the wind and the rain as well as the occasional lightning. She had nearly forgotten where she had been and suddenly felt a chill running bacl over her spine. But she also knew that most likely she would not get out of this house before the storm passed, so she should have a little bit of time to get things moving. Sitting down, she got more paper and began to copy the runes over, leaving out the runes not needed and adding the amplify rune in front of every line. It was good that there were few pages in the beginner grimoire and since she had no idea what to add to the grimoire by now, she wondered if it was alright that she had several pages less than she had in her grimoire before. Well, she did not want to create a new class of grimoires or advance them to being godly, so if she got them any better it would do good for the community and maybe even help her upgrade her beginner grimoire. Looking at the finished thing it looked better than her book now, but it was far from the wizard tomes you got in games. Maybe she should call it intermediary? It was not medium or good, but somewhere in between beginner bad and beginner good. She put the book on the table and looked at it wondering if this could be considered finished.

Words: 1220

[Nisha]

Poking the intermediary grimoire with her finger some time while wondering what to do with it, she pondered on picking it up and use it or more likely try it out at least. But she did not really want to blow herself up if she could and maybe she should just hand it to her brother or someone else who knew how to use grimoires and watch them explode or use it correctly. Well, if she was the first to advance the grimoire, she would most likely find a huge mass of people interested in it as well as enough people to experiment with. Her tails were moving on their own as always when Nisha was in thought and if they had not, Nisha would not have been alerted to the presence of something else behind her. Or rather on the ceiling, but first she was shocked and frozen solid from what her tail had touched, a single drop f liquid had dripped on her tail which was now bushing up and shaking like a leaf in the wind. She let herself fall back on the chair and rolled over the back of the chair while pulling out her katana. Some grotesque thing stood in front of her. But Nisha did not mind grotesque as long as it was not a ghost or something dead-ish, but this was just a gross monster of sort that was definitively undead. The empty eye socket, the smell of a rotten body and the single eye this creature had was empty and blind. Looking nowhere and yet the creature was definitely focused on Nisha, it´s claws long and razorsharp slowly dragging over the ground and seemingly trying to find Nisha. The only question Nisha had before blasting this one away like the zombie down below was if a ghost would come out of this one as well, that would be pretty bad for Nisha and would definitely not do, maybe she should get this thing out of here so that even if it became a ghost, it would not be in here and Nisha had time to hide in here again, maybe even let the aggro cool off from it. Slowly she walked backwards toward the door, the claws of the monster slowly searching over the place, it´s bat looking nose in the air and directly pointing towards Nisha. And there, just as she reached the door, it began it´s attack.

Nisha jumped to the side and opened the door in the process, the monster flying against the wall opposite of the now open door. Rushing out and over the flailing monster, she ran down the hallway which seemed... yes, it was one of those in horror games which stretched into eternity and beyond to keep players in a vicinity and only trick them into thinking there was much more around. At least she had made some distance between herself and the monster which had come to it´s ape legs and was now sprinting after her. Opening the doors right and left of her before the monster came into jumping distance, she feigned jumping left, but turned right in the last second, the monster crashing into the wall again. Nisha in the meantime had jumped into a shallow cabinet a few brooms and pictures standing around, all those filled with dark paints and hellish drawings. Rolling her eyes at this cliche like thing, she felt the air change as the monster turned around, from all the running into things it´s face looked even flatter than before and the blind eye looked bloodshot. Nisha threw a broom at it which was cut in half, but both sides still hit the monster flat in the face, using that extra second, she activated her lightning armor and used the short distance to build up a run and blade first ram into the monster, pinning it to the wall in the next room which was an atelier. Apparently the whole house was some kind of artist dorm or something the like. Jumping back a few feet to escape the flailing claws, she stretched out her hand toward the monster as if trying to give it a handshake, but instead, she made a fist out of it and felt the holy energy build up in her fist as she rammed it into the monster, which tore away her lightning armor and then simply was obliterated with the holy light penetrating it and shining out of every pore of it´s body. Nisha only had a smirk left for the monster.

Words: 760
Mood: Indifferent
Skills: Denkousekka, holy banishment