[Entering...]
[Subject: Ariel Marcet]
[Arcana: VII, The Chariot]
[Experimentation on the subject was successful.]
[Mutation: Aquatic]
[Status: Successfully adapted to the applied mutated effects. Body adjusted to aquatic conditions, gills growing on the side of the subject's ribcase, along with chromatic scales that appear visually in contact with liquid surfaces.]
[Physical Description: 149cm, 49kg. Short, dirty-red hair with a sharp, glowering stare and deep brown eyes. Requires glasses to see whilst not submerged under liquid.]
[Bound Instrument: Leviathan Anchorbows]
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Men and women in black suits scramble as they set out tape to create a barrier reporters couldn't cross, a symbol of a golden fruit embroidered on the shoulders of all their uniforms. "This is a restricted zone! TULPA entities have been discovered--"
"Please clear away from the area--"
"On what scale is it? How dangerous could it be?"
"Do you have anything to say about the people presently being held inside the building? Is it a hostage situation?"
"N-Now, why would it be a hostage situation!?"
"Oh, Captain!" A man stepped in, lifting the tape over their head; long black hair draped over their shoulders, the coat barely hovering just above the ground before lifting them in full, towering over the worker before them. "You're finally here. What Zodiac do you hail from?" They asked as they ushered the man forward.
"Goat."
"S-So..." They hesitated. "Y-you're from the Goat Zodiac?"
The man stopped just a few dozen meters away from the building entrance. "Apostle?"
"At the moment, it hasn't fully manifested into a thoughtform quite yet, but... at this rate, it might."
Turning toward the man beside him, the Captain's face is revealed in full, showing a massive scar that starts just below the chin and rides up to the left eye, some instrument put in its place with a horizontal pupil, the color of gold. "I'll be the only one going in. We need as few people to perceive it as possible."
"I-I'm just shocked that it grew so powerful so fast without an influence, y'know? I guess that's just how living in the Jupiter Sphere is, though, yeah? Their Perception must've been shattered quite considerably to draw out that much strength to almost become a full-on TULPA, y'know?"
The man hadn't been paying attention, simply looking down at a watch he had been clicking incessantly.
"S-Sir? When will you go in?"
"Apologies for being late!" A woman's voice followed as they walked up from behind.
The employee stepped away as he watched the girl approach, her hair red, her eyes an aquatic blue, carrying no weapons at all.
Click, click, click...
"Were you waiting for me?"
The man turned to look over his shoulder, "I was."
"Isn't this an urgent situation? Why did you?"
"I wanted you to see this. Take this as an example of your prospects."
The worker tending to them distanced themselves, returning to the rest of their group.
"Well..." She paused, giving a half-hearted bow. "I'm Alex Lee, Fourth-Rate member for Grief. I will be your Vice Captain as of today."
"Norayr Pogosian. Just Nora would do."
"What's the situation, Captain?"
"Nora."
"Nora."
"Apostle-- they're going through the process of becoming a thoughtform. I need to prevent that from happening."
"And... how will you do that?"
Click, click, click...
"By making sure that no one else comes inside with me. Regardless, you have to observe from the outside, for now."
"So you're entering on your own?"
Click--
"What is with that clicking sound?"
Nora took out a watch that he had put into his coat pocket. "A watch..."
"It's... annoying, why are you doing that?"
"It's so I can be lazy."
"Wh-"
Before she could ask, the man was already stepping toward the building where the Apostle was being held, this place being some casino and strip club, the sign flickering with light, slowly dwindling and fading away, half destroyed by time.
Nora entered through the front door, closing the door behind him.
Another grief worker approached Alex from behind. "I sure hope everyone can make it out alive this one." A girl with short, brown hair.
"What makes you say that?"
"There are people stuck in the building. It's why so many of us are gathered here, fencing off the reporters and stuff." The girl recoiled in disgust at their existence. "They're vultures here... is everything always so full of greed here in Jupiter?"
"Why did he go in on his own then?"
"Maybe he felt as--"
Click--
"What is that clicking sound--" Alex blinked, shaking her head in confusion.
Nora took out a watch that he had put into his coat pocket. "A watch..."
"W-Wait, what? I..."
"It's so I can be lazy." He looked back at the watch before going straight back into the casino, ignoring Alex's confusion.
"W-Wait! Where are you going!?" Alex rushed forward, grabbing him by the shoulder. "What just happened? Why are you going in alone?"
"I'm the best to handle this. Simple as. You're just here to observe, so... stay." He lightly pushed her back before continuing inside.
Alex did as she was told, stepping back to where she was standing before. "What the hell...?"
Another grief worker approached Alex from behind. "I sure hope everyone can make it out alive this one." A girl with short, brown hair.
Alex stared for a moment. "You've said that before."
"Hm? Did I?" She paused. "Maybe to one of my colleagues but..." She shrugged. "Regardless, y'know? I hope this doesn't become a big thing."
"How many hostages are there?"
"I don't know if I'd call them hostages."
Alex decided to push away the sudden anxiety, watching with a pinched face, the door to the casino.
Click...
Alex's head whipped around to look at Norayr, who stood beside her once more. "How is this happening?"
"Oh? You didn't continue what you said like last time."
"Did it become a thoughtform!? What's happening?"
He showed the watch. "It's an instrument," Before once again going back into the building."
Apostles, though mostly either coming from someone with a Manifest that had gone mad, or those infected by a TULPA's influence, sometimes hold the power similar to what a TULPA can hold. Thoughtforms cannot be killed normally as long as someone has perceived the TULPA at some point. Apostles can be killed permanently, but as was stated, that does not necessarily mean that an Apostle is naturally weak.
That is where one's 'Perception' comes into play. The original Perception, an Apostle, or TULPA can hold is a significant factor in how dangerous either concept can become after said Perception has been shattered in its entirety. How much the Perception of the world had been altered changes significantly if either an Apostle, or a TULPA is either something anyone can handle, or is a world-ending threat.
The form of a woman swaddled in skin could be seen amidst a massive room, flesh sticking to the walls like a spider's web, wrapping people together in a euphoric embrace, laughing all the while as their own love consumes them.
A form that vaguely resembles a depiction of the Great Mother, bloodied bones acting as a thorned crown along the woman's face, skin pulled over her eyes like a linen sheet, chest inverted open to reveal a beating, pulsing heart.
There are times when one can revert someone from their Aposilized state. This is not one of them. "I've died too many times for you... I'm sorry." A-Cases, #378; "Mother Swaddling Skin".
From his waistband, a gun is pulled, pointed at the still living corpse of a woman before him, the words "Gravetender" printed on its side.
Bang!
"Lyc Scale Apostle. Not overtly threatening, but if approached, will instantly render a person unconscious, swaddling them with her own flesh before fusing them with any available subject they have available, siphoning the two victims of their life force."
"I heard that you have a high number of 'repaired' cases... what happened here?"
"She wouldn't have survived even if she had returned to normal," Nora continued, "She had virtually split herself open to provide enough flesh to siphon out from and would've died upon reverting, plus, she wasn't remotely conscious enough to listen. I had to make the hard choice, simple as."
25th of Eleos, 218. 6 months, to a year riding off the back of the Seeker's War, where the human populace is still recovering from the effects of the previous war.
The frequency of Apostilized individuals and the irritability of TULPA entities had increased by 25%, which is a record high comparable to the 37% during the war itself. Due to this, SHIVERS was created explicitly to compile, capture, and protect the populace from such entities that other Spheres can't.
Wonderland, as a facility, had existed before SHIVERS, before it became a separate branch within Mercury itself, but, as Eve moved as the modern director of Mercury itself, emphasis was placed on studying supernatural and biological effects and entities that can be considered as TULPA phenomena to such a degree that a separate branch became necessary as Mercury's original purpose was not to be so heavily invested in said topic more than other sciences they had already invested in revolving the human body and augmented technology.
5th of Doxa, 218. Hotel Abraxis was overtaken by an LYC TULPA entity that stalked the doors of each room, preventing renters from leaving through their own abodes without risk of death, designated after capture as C-03-21, and has the form of a mumified man with pin-prick black eyes, beads around its neck, and its hands are clasped in prayer.
Rank 7, Norayr Pogosian of the Goat Zodiac, along with Vice Captain Alex Lee, was sent to handle the matter of containment.
Both stood at the front door of the facility, staring down the creature itself, which sat behind a glass pane, legs seemingly fused as its mouth produced unintelligible noises for a time, up to an hour.
"So..." Alex sat at the steps leading to the hotel itself, looking over her shoulder at the bizarre entity. "What are we to do to contain it?"
"It's a curse."
"What?"
"Rather, how it manifested was as a curse of some kind..." A beat, "Typically... for thoughtforms such as this, there is an object of interest that it latches onto. It shouldn't be possible for it to spread itself as thin as it has. It's in front of every door, yes?"
"That's what the calls said..." Alex paused, "Probably including this door as well, actually."
Upon exiting a room, constituents reported hearing sounds that could only be described as, "Distinct sounds of mutiliation, followed by a permeating scent of iron."
Nora gestured at Alex to his nose. "You're able to sense Kismet Energies, no?"
Alex sniffed the air before recoiling, "Yeah, I can. It's strong at the door."
"Probably stronger around the artifact it's latched itself onto, I'd assume."
Alex sighed. "Oh... no..."
"We'll have to brute force this first section here. I'd imagine the item is attached to inside the building itself."
"Okay..." She stood up, summoning a thin blade to her hand, crossing to the doors of the hotel. "W-Wait, we can fight that?"
"It's not impossible." Nora lifted a Gravetender to the door, firing it into the monk in front of them, shattering the glass wall, inadvertently releasing it as the bullet did nothing. "Shit."
Nora rushed forward, past the shattered glass, slamming a fist into the figure whose eyes widened almost instantly.
"That landed."
Rushing past, Alex spun behind the monk, stabbing it in the back, causing it to lurch toward the ceiling. Its limbs snapped into multiple directions, hitting both Alex and Nora, leaving Alex significantly more shaken than her Captain, feeling almost ill just from barely making any contact with this creature, even through a shield she produced through her wristwatch.
Again! Alex screamed in her own head, ducking to the side, using her momentum to stab it once more, black, ichorous blood now pouring from the wound as Nora attempted to distract it with a flurry of blows.
It managed to connect a single strike, but Nora remained unflinching as its fists snapped forward in rapid succession, one of them sending Alex back, visibly growing pale each time it made contact with her body.
"This thing's body is as solid as a rock," Nora growled, slamming a few more blows into it, finally causing it to recoil, Alex using the opportunity to sever the monk's head.
There was a moment of pause, the body of the creature dissipating in front of them, before Alex spun around to hurl in the corner. "Not my best moment."
"I believe it should be easier for a moment, so take some time to rest."
"What do you mean?"
"There are rules for the TULPA." He rounded the lobby, pointing down a hall, showing an array of doors, no monks in front of them. "And that's the rule."
"If we open a door, it'll be behind it?"
"An instance of them. They all have rules."
"All of them?"
"Humans have rules. Thoughtforms are created from the human consciousness, so... of course they'd have rules, some are just more difficult, or dangerous than others for both us, and normal people alike."
Alex sighed, crossing over to one of the lobby's seats and slumping into it. "Do you have any ampules?"
Nora reached into his coat pocket, throwing it to Alex. "I'll give you a couple of hours."
"Thanks."
Curses that latch themselves to a physical object often transform it. What the Goat Zodiac team had found of the TULPA was what looked to be a weapon, or an instrument of some sort, that had transformed into this effigy of a man. The Thoughtform is currently being contained in the Lethe Department of Wonderland. 29 casualties are known.
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19th of Diadema, 219. It was the first month of the year, and recruits came flooding into all sorts of Organizations and Spheres, including Mercury, including me. I came here to join SHIVERS Grief program in search of something.
Most youths, when they come of age, when searching for jobs, either go for their average part-time position, or, if they want to make something with their lives, join an Independent Organization, or Sphere. Pigeon-holed by society to fall under some sort of group, even if the profession doesn't necessarily require it, with the advent of the internet and all, if you want to make it anywhere in the world, eyes will be on you, watching from afar.
Want to get into the Arts? The Nerve might notice you, and if you reject their invitation, they'll sabotage you until you do. An orphan? You'll be sought after by The Intestine and most likely mutated in some way to become some sort of insectoid/humanoid mix. Involved in acting or the sex service industry? Well, the Cervix would like to talk with you.
At the end of the day, if you don't get involved with a Sphere or reputable Associations, you might have no other choice but to join a gang within the Organ instead.
For my own reasons, I chose a Sphere, Mercury, because, unlike the majority of the populace, I have a Manifest. Those who can manifest through Kismet Energies, if they are not with a specific group or organization, are typically looked at with general caution, worse if you're a mutant. I'm both.
If I wanted a reliable place to learn about my own Manifest, then it'd most likely be at the organization that focuses on studying and containing the resource. I'd rather not live my life being feared for my inherent traits.
At the moment, I'm unsure what my Manifest does, but I have a general idea that it has something to do with the Principle of Change. Aside from that, I'm unsure what it can do. I've been able to somewhat soften objects here and there, but for now, I'll just rely on SHIVERS to give me a clearer answer.
I suppose this is my fate for now...
Hopefully, I'll grow powerful enough one day that I won't have as many worries as I do now. Maybe Mercury will allow me to handle my problems, help me with my present issues? The information I have could warrant their involvement in the future, but I'll hold off for now.
I've been training for about a year, learning how to be a Gardner, along with Grief de-escalation tactics. Orientation was today.
My time to finally become a member of Grief was now.