#mercifuldexth

Surviving this night was going to be one of the greatest accomplishments of his life. He had chosen to be assigned to Raccoon City because of the death in the Arklay Mountains, hoping to help solve everything and stop this violence from arising in the city again. But then they immediately told him not to come just after he had signed on. He had assumed it was to get his stuff ready or that they thought the situation in the mountains would be too much for him...But nothing could’ve prepared him for what actually occurred.

Now what he hoped to accomplish most was to help Claire when he found her, and make Marvin proud by finding out exactly what happened to the city he was going to call his home. Though, first he did have to survive, which was...Difficult. Especially with the zombie dogs. Which he now just discovered as well, in a dark parking garage that was starting to feel more like a dog cage than a brief haven.

@mercifuldexth​ said:🎄 from Lyria!! ☆ ( Our muses decorate a Christmas tree together! )

Wylan would be hesitant to say that there was ever a visit to Tokyo that could be defined as normal. This was mostly thanks in part to his own antics and mannerisms, true. There were a number of occassions where he nearly got himself arrested in the pursuits of amusement to offset the weight and impact of his work otherwise. His work of course being what made the rest of his visits that weren’t for some kind of pleasure abnormal.

Yet even if Wylan took every one of those visits together they wouldn’t come close to how bizarre and unnatural this visit was. What had begun as a post to oversee a joint meeting between Yakuza and Bratva turned into something otherworldly. Literally. As in Wylan literally found himself pulled into another world where the inner machinations of the Russian pakhan who had done a great deal of manipulation to his life were made manifest.

Since that moment of his awakening he’d set out to do a few things. First of all was to figure out why he had these abilities and who else may know about it. It wouldn’t take long before that question was answered, the muttering of Phantom Thieves and mental shutdown cases being prevalent on the news. Wylan knew of the shutdowns, whenever he removed a shadow form of someone inside a Palace the real world counterpart would suffer something similar.

Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that the deaths of prevalent crime administrations weren’t included in the news reports. That wouldn’t play well at all with the narrative the people were seeking at the time. What was getting reported however Wylan found very interesting. Changes of heart, over the top confessions. If these things were all connected, there was more to this otherworld that he didn’t know.

Finding research or any information at all was difficult. Everyone and their mother was hitting google and what was coming up might as well be propaganda and hearsay for both sides of the argument. Righteous. Villainous. Wylan can’t help but crack a bit of a smile. Whoever these Phantom Thieves were, they might be in a similar boat as him. Maybe.

His searching for information and answers takes him to some darker networks and areas of the web. Places where prevalent hackers spent a great deal of their time spinning webs and gleaning their data. His own contact back in the states, a younger male who lived with his grandmother, affectionately referred to as Nerdlord had always cautioned him about how and when he accessed these things. And that if he wanted to use those channels, well, maybe it’d be better to have him do it?

Sometimes Wylan wondered if that advice was something he should have taken. Even in the past he had run ins and information taken from him. Some of his phones that he liked and computers that he liked having to be burnt up and thrown into a pit. When you have folks like Alibaba and then the various companies with their own cyber jackasses. Well, some of these run-ins had been better than others such as the former.

Perhaps it was an irony then that after searching for information into the mental shutdown cases, and using words such as Metaverse in his searches gained their attention. A day or so after doing some random attempts at research (which were, as expected, fruitless) he finds his tablet becoming unresponsive. Programs aren’t opening and pages aren’t loading. He curses himself, already lamenting having to purchase another tablet because some script kiddy caught his connection info and was going to slave his device.

“Aw man... c’moooon...” He attempts the usual things. A ctrl alt delete. Smashing buttons, blowing on a usb port. Tried and true methods! Alas nothing seems to be helping, and he ends up force shutting down the system for a reboot. The email he’d been writing to his sister probably not saved but... he could write it again. The device doesn’t boot up to the usual product logo however, but a familiar grin on an eyeless Cheshire cat.

[ Hello there ]

The words appear on the screen and Wylan wonders if a maid cafe is the right place to have this conversation. The waitresses weren’t around, and his omurice with ketchup insignia was already half eaten. Maybe this can be wrapped up before they come back around about another coffee or the check. Wylan stares at the screen pondering how the fuck to respond to this. Or if he just throws out the tablet and decides not to deal with the prevalent hacker. Again.

The previous run in hadn’t gone too poorly. So. Maybe... He sighs. Why not see what happens? They already know it’s him.

In the sky that day Vanille could see a neverending ocean of clouds hovering above ― her favorite kind;  ❛ Big, white, and fluffy as a herd of wild sheep! ❜ she said out loud, swinging her arms about happily. They reminded her of the days she spent with Fang as a child, watching them race by and imagining them as all sorts of funny things together. Fang was always the creative one. Not every cloud looks like a chocobo chick or a flower, ‘Nille, she would say. Where’s your sense of adventure? Those memories seemed forever ago, now.

Finally she dragged her eyes away from the endless sky to look at the beautiful world around her. She was comfortable here in the untamed land of Gran Pulse; on Cocoon, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being cramped into one small space. Here, she could spread her arms and feel the unknown... But she wasn’t sure the others felt the same. Must be a lot at once, I guess, she thought.

Her gaze finally landed on a figure some feet away, and she recognized the outline of none other than Lightning. Underneath the expanseful blue patterned by white, a wave of nostalgia hit Vanille, and she yearned for a friend to admire and debate the shape of clouds with. Although Lightning could be no fun at times, she knew there was a softness underneath... perhaps even enough to play with her. Vanille wasn’t sure, and the guilt she felt about Serah lingered like a bad taste in her mouth, keeping her from spending time with the distant girl she had traveled alongside for a while now. Maybe now’s the time to be brave! You can do it, Vanille!

With a deep breath, she desperately pushed her worries aside with the sunniest of smiles, and began to make her way forward ― calling out through the fresh Pulsian air toward unsuspecting ears.

   “  Up  to  trouble,  Shinoa  ?  “  

   Shinya’s  demon  sat  sprawled  on  the  roof  of  the  building  she  was  sneaking  out  of,  blue  eyes  focused  on  the  girl  as  a  tail  flicked.  Byakkomaru  hadn’t  expected  this  particular  sight  when  he’d  gone  to  keep  guard  of  the  area.  A  demon  fiercely  loyal  to  his  wielder,  Shinya.

   However  this  was  something  interesting  and  slightly  amusing.  “  Not  going  to  do  something  stupid,  are  you  ?  Don’t  worry,  I  won’t  tell.  Unless  there’s  a  risk  of  someone  getting  hurt  because  of  it.  “  Byakkomaru  commented,  disappearing  in  a  surge  of  blue  flames  only  to  reappear  a  few  feet  from  her.  

Happy birthday dear!!!!! ����������

Nonverbals

“It’s just over here?” Cain follows behind, hand in hand, quite comfortable with the physical contact. He wasn’t entirely sure where they were going, but this ‘secret reading place’ seemed to be promising. If he were to find a place to read silently, he wouldn’t be a burden on the crew. That and he’d be able to read with certain people if he were to bring them over.