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 Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 4:18 pm
An hour passed.
The night was unchanged. A bit cooler, maybe, but hardly noticeable to the small army of Knights patrolling Northpoint.
The sky was no darker. The air was no fresher. The streets were no less empty.
But, they had made progress on their investigation and, for better or worse, they were slowly realizing that something was going on here. There was truth in the rumors--at least, some of them, but it was hard to tell where fact met fiction and who had embellished what online.
In person, it was easy to tell that something was wrong, it just wasn't easy to explain why.
An uneasy pressure had befallen Northpoint, unseen but felt. An electric tension had been slowly building, so dense now that it crawled over their skin like a thousand little ants.
They did not meet in the same place they arrived. Instead, the rendezvous point was the most prominent feature left standing in Northpoint--a tower of would-be office buildings, sharp in silhouette but soft with sheets of ivy that had long since overtaken nearly every wall.
Not just any ivy, of course. It was black, and rubbery, and bled a foul, tar-like substance. A few other buildings were covered in such plants, but this one was by far the worst. Though the ivy blanketed nearly all of the building, working its way from the ground up, it was perhaps notable that the ivy had been cut away from one door, visible from where the Knights had begun to cluster.
Some of the windows were broken out, so long ago that whatever glass shards might have fallen had long since been ground to dust. There was no breeze, but a strange whistle seemed to whisper from the building occasionally. It was vaguely metallic, too long winded to have been human but there was a strange warble to it that made it feel alive.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 4:19 pm
The black residue stuck to his shoe.
It wasn’t thick enough to make a sound when he moved, but there was a subtle stickiness beneath his sole that made his stomach uneasy. He’d tried scraping it off once against the cracked curb, but it only smeared. That was hours ago--.... No, just one. It felt longer.
Now, standing in front of the tower with its black, rubbery ivy, he felt a moment of vindication that he didn’t particularly want -- the fact that he’d been right and that something was off. He hated being right. He hated that Dering and possibly some of the others had felt it as well. This was more than just exploring a creepy abandoned place in town now.
“Of course there’s a door with the vines cut away,” he muttered, eyeing the dark, tar coated leaves that framed it like the entrance to some otherworldly realm.
His shoulders ached from a tension he couldn’t quite shake. He could still smell the strange metallic scent that came from the residue they’d found down the side street.
Yvoire was beside him, and that helped if only because it gave him something to focus on that wasn’t the growing unease that twisted in his gut. He glanced over, voice low. “You feel that too, right?”
He turned toward the approaching footsteps before Yvoire could answer. The others -- finally. The knot in his chest loosened a little when he spotted Ephesus, Amarynthos, Lyon, and Halle first. They looked like they were unharmed at least.
“Tell me you guys found something better than we did,” he grunted. “Because unless you like your nightmares filled with being stuck in tar, what we found is probably more gross than interesting. We’ve got a sample to have a Mauvian take a look at, though,” he said as he glanced over to the others as they approached, more relief settling at their uninjured states.
Ephesus had seen strange things before. Magic that defied reason, ruins that felt alive, rainbows and flowers on the actual Moon… but none of it compared to this.
The ivy didn’t look like any plant he’d ever seen, not even among the plants on other worlds they’d visited. It pulsed faintly when they got too close, and the smell alone made his head spin.
When they finally regrouped, he was relieved to see everyone else again. Even the darkness around them felt a little more bearable with the sound of his friends' voices cutting through it. He kept his hand held tightly to Amarynthos’s as they approached, grateful for the contact.
“It’s not natural,” he said before anyone could ask. “The plants. They look like ivy, but… something about it is wrong. It acts like it’s… alive somehow.”
He frowned at the tower, the strange whistle of wind weaving through the broken windows. It sounded almost like it was breathing.
When Reims spoke, Ephesus gave him a weary look, standing a bit closer to Amarynthos.
“Better? Not really…” he said softly, his grasp tightening in Amarynthos’s hand once more, before whispering, as if afraid to be overheard by anyone other than their friends, “I don’t think we’re supposed to be here.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:23 pm
Yvoire answered Reims’ question with a quick nod.
The individual auras of their friends drifted closer. Yvoire stood quietly and picked through them as figures began to emerge from the dark. Amarynthos. Ephesus. Halle. Lyon. Two more Knights incoming. That must be Dering and Lisse. A Knight, a Squire, and a Page came from another direction. That would be Stirling, Cynthus, and Rose.
Relief did not quite loosen the tension in Yvoire’s shoulders. He tried to sense beyond the familiar auras, searching for the flicker of strange energy he and Reims had felt during their search, but it remained elusive.
“Did you sense anything?” he asked the others. He kept his voice quiet, too wary to speak in anything above a whisper. “A little while ago we felt this… energy. I don’t know how to describe it. It was gone before we could get a good sense of it. Like it was swallowed by nothing.”
All signs seemed to point to this building. Whatever they were searching for must have made its home here. Yvoire tried to listen for the strange wail they’d heard before beneath the sound of approaching footsteps. He hoped it was as simple as a youma. They could handle a youma.
“I feel like a creepy office building really fits the whole vibe of this place,” Cynthus observed as they made their approach. “Like, the decay. The rot, or… whatever’s going on here. Like, of course ground zero’s an office building. If this was a movie there’d be nerds online writing social media essays about how it represents the evils of capitalism.”
They probably had a point.
Unfortunately, there were other evils to worry about. Something or someone was responsible for all of this, and it probably didn’t have anything to do with economic systems. The stench wasn’t natural. The ivy wasn’t natural. Magic had to be involved somehow. When it came to magic, only bad things hid away in dark, abandoned areas of the city.
Cynthus would’ve preferred someone cooking meth, honestly.
“What are we thinking? Weird sludge aliens? Youma? Both? Maybe something’s mutated. If this stuff’s alive...” She eyed the ivy with disgust but kept her distance from it. “I wonder how long it’s been like this. When did the online chatter start? Should we maybe worry the rumors might’ve been spread on purpose to get people here?”
She kept checking over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t being followed.
Rose arrived with Cynthus and Stirling. Every once in a while she took another cautious but purposeful sniff of the air, hoping she could identify the smell. She kept coming up empty handed. Every time she thought it reminded her of something—chemicals, or burning rubber—her attention caught on all the other oddities that didn’t quite add up to such a simple explanation.
She tipped her head to eye the office building up and down. Everything was worse here. The smell. The strange ivy. The tension in the air. Rose couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something lurked just beyond the edge of her awareness.
“A door being cleared probably suggests intelligence,” she said. “Something without might’ve just gone through one of the windows. I guess someone else could’ve come here before us. Maybe they saw something about it online, too, and decided to check it out.”
Best case scenario: some other Knight or Senshi was already working on whatever this was and had cleared a pathway for themselves to get back inside. Rose hadn’t seen any evidence to support it, but maybe they’d made a point not to leave any.
A conspicuously cleared door didn’t have to be a bad sign, she reminded herself.
(It was probably a bad sign.)
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:25 pm
“Twenty seventeen,” Lyon said, catching Cynthus’ eye. His lollipop was gone, not by choice, though he could have helped himself to any of the other ones he had packed away if he didn’t have the distinct impression that he should appear to be taking things seriously. It was hard to look like you weren’t just screwing around when you were setting up a cavity factory in your mouth, and everyone else had already established competence by nature of being a Knight–or Squire. Rose was cute, she could get away with being a page. The others knew her, at least.
Lyon was still a stranger to them. Even those who knew him most–Reims, Ephesus, and Amarynthos–had only a single conversation to judge him by. He didn't think he'd made a bad impression–enough to get Reims to invite him here, and Ephesus was already declaring them friends. Not really a difficult bar to clear, though.
Though he considered himself a people person–and very likable–Lyon was not entirely delusional.
He still had to earn his space here. “The online chatter,” he clarified. “That was the oldest one I could find. But the videos were from the last five years. Most of them the last eight months.”
Briefly, he glanced from Rose to the door and then back again. “If someone else was here to investigate, they’d have posted it online. That’s how those things work. Like, ninety five percent of them are about the attention, they don’t actually care about what’s going on. Whatever gets clicks and follows, you know. If someone investigated this place already, I think we’d have been able to find something about that. Unless,” he dragged the word out, slowly, mischievously, “They didn’t make it out alive to talk about what they found.”
A surprised laugh trickled from Amarynthos, not because he was spooked but because he did not want Ephesus to be. “I’m sure that’s not the case,” he insisted, giving Lyon a look that was promptly ignored. Amarynthos continued, “We didn’t see anything else suggesting someone was here. We did see a lot of plants doing weird things. They were growing pretty wildly, pretty weirdly. I saw buildings with plants all over it, but I didn’t see any other that had a path carved out of them. I don’t think any of the other ones were covered this badly, though. Honestly, I don’t get it. There were other buildings that looked like they were in pretty okay shape." He hesitated to describe any of them as being in 'good' shape. 'What’s so special about this one?”
“Um,” Dering said, a very quiet interjection in a brief patch of silence. He didn’t interrupt anyone, he was very careful to only speak when the group had entered a silent pause. He was standing by Lisse still but had taken a spot close to Reims. Not wildly a fan of speaking in front of any group–even his friends–the brief pause between his words felt like it had grown into a strained interlude. He found the means to be grateful his friends tolerated the delay, as they always did, but it was no excuse to waste their time.
Shoulders tight and pressed inward, Dering made a visible attempt to relax. It wasn't met with much success, but he'd told himself a thousand times that his overthinking was going to cause more problems than it spared. The entire point of separating had been to do an investigation, and he and Lisse had uncovered something.
He glanced at the other Lysithea Knight, as if testing to see if he wanted to interject, and when Lisse didn't, he mustered the conviction to finish his thought. “There–we think, maybe, there's a generator, or something. For this building. Lisse said it’s like a fridge that’s working too hard, um–you can hear it. And feel it. In the ground.”
The world hadn't ended. His friends hadn't condemned him, no one was trying to shush him. His heart beat a little less violently in his chest.
Dering cleared his throat, softly, but when he spoke again it wasn’t with any more volume or clarity. “It’s really strong, on the other side of the building. But there aren’t any doors or anything back there. It’s all boarded up or, um, covered in vines.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:26 pm
Stirling wrinkled her nose at the door, and was still trying to chase the smell out as well. “There’s something stinky about this place, and that’s.” No, she wasn’t trying to joke, but it did stink. The whole place did, and while she had honestly hoped that it was something simple like people making meth, she knew it wasn’t. This was something bigger than just that, and it was up to them to deal with it all.
“There were a bunch of pipes that led here too, and they were all issuing a horrible smell, so that’s kind of what I mean, but…there were no people, nothing alive that we found.”
A horrible thought, what if there were dead bodies in there? What if that was the cause of the smell? Were people burning bodies? She didn’t have a baseline for that anywhere but…she supposed that would smell…awful, and…ugh.
“Kind of a burning smell. Hoping now that it’s not someone burning bodies, if you say that nobody’s made any comments about coming up here…that’s. Mildly terrifying.” It might not be magic, it could just be…
No. Almost everything in this city was magic related, and Stirling shuddered slightly, looking at Lyon with a slightly concerned expression. “I guess. Keep your eyes open for fire or like…ovens…?”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:27 pm
Reims glanced toward Lyon, catching the mischievous curl of his lip. He didn’t believe it, but the joke sent a shiver down his spine… because part of him couldn’t ignore the possibility that it wasn’t a joke at all.
He glanced at the door again, at the tar black ivy deliberately cut away from the door to allow access. Someone had done this on purpose. Someone -- or something -- wanted to gain access easily. It wasn’t random.
Why it was left so blatantly open though sent the suspicious part of his mind reeling. Was it intentionally left to be found? Or was it possible that whoever did this didn’t think it would be found in a place so desolate?
Wine red eyes scanned the building and surrounding shadows. “If there’s someone inside… trapped… or worse,” he murmured, voice low only for Yvoire to hear. “We’re the ones who’ll find them. We won’t leave them here.” He wasn’t sure what they sensed, but he nodded to let Yvoire know there had been something.
He didn’t want to bring too much attention to the others. Some were much more sensitive to things like this. Dering and Ephesus specifically. He tried catching Amarynthos’s eye, and then Halle’s as well, hoping they’d catch on that he was on high alert for what they might find. He hoped Lisse could keep Dering distracted from the possibilities that something darker and more sinister could be happening in a place like this.
His shoulders tensed. He wasn’t thrilled about the thought, but Reims already made up his mind. “Stay close and watch each other’s backs,” he said, despite knowing the others were quite capable and likely thinking the same thing already. “Don’t get reckless. Anything we need to handle, we’ll figure it out when we get to it.”
Even if it turned out Lyon had been exaggerating, even if it was just plants and slime and weird smells and strange vibrations, Reims couldn’t shake the feeling that they were standing in front of something alive and dangerous. And possibly cruel. He wasn’t willing to take unnecessary chances.
Ephesus’s stomach sank at Lyon’s words, his hand gripping tighter to Amarynthos’s as he gasped at the implication. No. Surely that was a joke… but then Dering’s quiet words drifted through his thoughts.
A Generator, or something, running under the building. A hum, a pulse, something alive or powering the place from beneath. That wasn’t random.
He glanced at Stirling wrinkling her nose at the door, hearing her quiet concerns about the stench and pipes, and Rose, carefully sniffing the air. It all pointed to the same thing: this likely wasn’t just random decay. There had to be something more.
He tightened his grip again on Amarynthos’s hand, more resolute than fearful, despite the quivering of his voice when he spoke. “If someone -- or something -- is inside… we have to check,” he said softly. “...We can’t just assume it’s ghosts or plants.” As much as he would prefer it be nothing.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:28 pm
Lisse listened to what everyone else had found and seen, and it all sounded. Gross. This whole place was uncomfortable and he was starting to really have a bad feeling of his own. He supposed it was inevitable, but. That was fine.
Truly, he wanted to be holding Dering’s hand again, having got just as much strength from the other Knight as he was hoping to give, but…no luck with that. He flashed Dering a smile and a nod when he mentioned what they had found and finally. “There was a really…creepy scream too? Like, otherworldly maybe? Scared me…startled me more than I would like to admit but there we go. Um…”
He took half a step towards the door and shrugged. “Are we going to stand here and keep worrying about what’s inside…or should we just open it and hope for the best?”
It was bluster. He was trying to sound sure of himself and honestly, was doing a great job. For now. “Between all of us…I can’t see much that would be able to stop us, if it is something magical? And if it’s not? If it’s just some kind of…twisted civilian thing…we’re good with that too, right? I say let’s go…”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:30 pm
It seemed that the other groups had also experienced a slightly unpleasant and creepy walk as well, but no one was hurt. The weird ivy had continued to become a greater presence the closer to the towering building they’d gotten, the building itself near buried in it. It would, Halle mused, be an interesting set up for some kind of modern take on Sleeping Beauty. An idea that was only strengthened by Lyon’s ominous campfire storytelling. Mouth quirking,Halle kept his sense of humor to himself. The blonde had clearly done some extra research on this place, online from the sounds of it, and more than a simple google search might drag up.
With the mention of generators and heat, Halle nodded slowly, thinking it over. “It makes sense. Greater temperatures can increase the growth of plants, and it gets pretty obvious when it comes to something like vines. Even something like a mundane power generator could have an effect, though…” he gestured to the extremely abnormal excess of otherworldly nightmare ivy. “Well, it’s Destiny City, after all.”
Of course it wasn’t going to be a mundane power generator.
It seemed like they were getting ready to enter and see what was waiting inside. For a moment, Halle considered offering to stay at the door, despite his own intense curiosity. Someone should be there to guard the path out. But if there was trouble waiting inside, the lack of an extra shield in the fight could mean someone else getting seriously hurt, and he wouldn’t want anyone else by themselves out here, either. Plus, the grim reality of it was, those that were the greatest danger to knights could teleport. Right past him.
Lisse, at least, seemed raring to go and weirdly confident about stepping into a place that was this creepy and gross. Thankfully, Reims had already voiced the order to not be reckless, so Halle didn’t have to suffer his brother’s eyeroll by saying it himself. As the group began to ready, he positioned himself to bring up rear, always liking to get as full a view of the situation as possible. “I’ll guard the back.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:35 pm
Yvoire shifted closer to Reims under the pretense of hearing him better, offering another nod in response to his murmuring. He glanced over everyone long enough to ensure they were all in the same condition in which they’d left, then lowered his gaze to the ground, scuffing the red sole of one boot against the pavement. He’d said what he’d wanted to and let the others take over, more comfortable in silence.
He listened. He chewed on the inside of his cheek. Gloved hands twitched, anxious to pick and twiddle, but Yvoire stubbornly resisted the compulsion and gripped his parasol tighter instead.
“There’s no way a generator would last longer than everything else around here without upkeep,” he mumbled, caught on Dering’s quiet comment. Whether or not it had anything to do with the growth of the weird vines like Halle suggested was a question they would have to find the answer to. “Someone’s been here for sure.”
The only question was how recently. Days ago? Weeks? Months?
Maybe hours.
Maybe seconds.
Tense and grim-faced, Yvoire didn’t feel especially confident in taking the lead on this. A mystery of this caliber seemed better suited to those with more experience than they had. Not that Yvoire had let a lack of confidence or experience stop him before. Most of them had been doing this for well over two years now. They’d helped stop a Negaverse plot at a bank. They’d rescued Stirling’s stolen starseed. They’d helped remove Chaos from other worlds, and they’d successfully imprisoned the Calamitous Hollow.
They were here now, and they had good numbers—more than Yvoire had expected when he’d agreed to come. Most nights he patrolled with less, going out with whoever had free time unless something big happened or their schedules lined up to allow for more.
They would never be fully prepared for everything, but they couldn’t let that stop them.
Lisse went for the door first. Yvoire peeled a hand off his parasol and grabbed Reims' arm as they fell into step, seeking comfort and reassurance.
Cynthus put on a brave face. If it was weird sludge aliens, they’d kick their a**. If it was youma, they’d kick their a**, too. If a bad guy of the non-monster-or-alien variety was in there, they’d kicked their a** double. No one did weird s**t in this city and got away with it!
(Plenty of people did weird s**t in this city and got away with it.)
At the very least, Cynthus hoped Stirling wasn’t onto something with the comment about burning bodies.
“Lyon and Rose should probably stay in the center,” Cynthus suggested as Lisse stepped toward the door and some of the others looked like they might start moving in, too. “They’re the weakest. No offense,” she added with a rather pleased smile. At least she was better than Rose at something, even if Rose was prettier (and also nicer).
“Maybe we should also have a shielder at the front, rear, and center? I think we’ve got one, two, three,” she continued, counting over Dering, Stirling, and Halle, the latter of whom already seemed to be taking up a position at the rear. Good. He had a brain. Not that the others didn’t. Except maybe Reims, who was too hotheaded for his own good. (Said Cynthus, who could be quite hotheaded herself.)
“Maybe healers more toward the center, too,” she added, glancing toward Ephesus, with whom she shared similar abilities. “You’ve got the summon, though, so if you think you should be ahead of me I guess I can suck it up and be a little more toward the back. That all makes sense, right?”
In reality, Cynthus had no idea what she was doing, but she wanted to seem cool. She wanted to seem like she had it all together.
(She did not have it all together.)
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:36 pm
Oh, they were just going to get on and do it then? Okay! Okay.
Easy peasy. “I think I should be near the front? My shield is more like a wall? And like can move with me and like, you all would be able to get past it if you needed or wanted to attack, so let me be in the front if that’s okay?” It made sense, if one shielder was going to be in the back, Cynthus was smart to start grouping people up, and it made sense. The two babies and the healers in the center…
Okay not babies, but that was how she had thought of herself as a Page and it wasn’t something she could just change. They didn’t have to know they were babies though.
“Dering, do you want to guard the middle? That way we have all three of us who can offer protection spaced out?” She wasn’t one for plans most of the time, but this one…seemed solid. And with that, she felt just a bit better…if this was…some kind of murder scheme…all of them working together and being in some sort of a formation…that was cool. They were cool.
It was like they had a real idea of what was going on and not just guessing or going on hope…which. Was what she was kind of doing, not that she would let anyone know that.
“Anyway that’s…my thoughts for the pile!”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:36 pm
Dering’s eyes were on Reims’ lips, and though he couldn’t hear him, he understood that he wasn’t supposed to. Whatever was whispered to Yvoire was meant for him alone. Dutifully, Dering turned his gaze away before he could start reading the words on his lips. It wasn't that he meant to, sometimes his mind just went into overdrive, unnecessarily. There was plenty else to focus on. He’d already done enough eavesdropping–accidental as it was. Dering had already promised he was going to try and be better.
There was a moment where his heart sank, where cold dread filled his stomach so quickly he thought he might vomit. With Lisse in front, with calls for a shielder, he’d expected that he was going to be volunteered.
A weight lifted from his shoulders when Stirling suggested herself.
He trusted her, she could take care of Lisse, and anyone close to him. And he could stay in the middle with the pages. He should have been ashamed. He was ashamed.
He was relieved, too. He didn’t want to be in the front, or the back, or anywhere anyone would pay too much attention to. He could be in the middle.
Without protest, he moved to stand by the pages.
Lyon clicked his tongue when Cynthus suggested he was among the weakest. It was most certainly true, by magical standards. He didn’t really understand those yet, or even know what parameters to judge yet. All he knew was that he did not have shielding magic, or healing magic, or animal magic, or magic magic. He had a trowel, but he didn’t need that to dig someone’s eyes out. It might help.
He wasn't sure it was enough to turn the tides in any great battle but he was creative enough to make use of it somewhere along the way. He'd rather not get close enough to have to use it on someone. Being that close range suggested a level of violent intimacy he'd rather avoid.
Cynthus seemed so smug. So catty.
He liked that about her, so instead of sassing her, he bit back a laugh. Gentlemanly, he offered his arm to Rose. “Well, I know how the buddy system works. Let’s stick together so they don’t have to worry about us too much.”
Dering had shuffled over, still a few feet away, so Lyon flagged him closer. Amarynthos and Ephesus had already preached about the benefits of shielding magic so he wasn’t going to let that go to waste. Dering obliged without protest, hurrying closer before standing resolutely by his side.
Amarynthos watched the team sort itself out. He’d have given compliments to them for their practicality but he didn’t want to sound insincere so praise could wait until this was over and they were all safe and done.
“Sounds good to me,” he said, pushing the tip of his staff into the ground before trailing after the group. He’d have been fine anywhere–front, back, middle. He wasn’t afraid of the building. He wanted Ephesus in the middle as much as he wanted Ephesus by his side, so the two Moon Knights moved to stand between Cynthus, Dering, the pages, and Halle. He might have gone towards the front if Reims and Yvorie weren’t already headed there.
There was a lot of information to file away. Strange smelling pipes that led here. Electricity to the building. The odd plants, the sludge. The scream–that at least Lisse had heard. He tried not to think about burning bodies but he supposed Stirling and Lyon probably watched too many horror movies.
Brushing his thumb across Ephesus’ hand, he resumed swinging it with each step, as if he might lull him into peace. They couldn’t let their guard down but neither would it do them any favors to be so high strung that they were ready to snap.
It was a good group, Amarynthos decided, glad to have so many different minds dissecting this. What might have taken Reims a whole night to investigate had taken them only an hour, so they were already ahead of schedule.
He’d gotten along with Halle while they were out on their earlier excursion. He was smart–but Amarynthos knew that even before he’d speculated about how a generator might be having an effect on the plants. Halle was trustworthy, too. Level-headed and stable, in a way that made him feel reliable. Amarynthos was glad to have him watching his back.
“Halle, thanks for volunteering to take the back. I know it’s not exactly the most desirable position. If anything feels weird, you’ll speak up, yeah?”
He trusted him! There was just also a lot of testosterone, and while Amarynthos would have pegged some of the others as being a bit more prideful, he didn’t want anyone to feel like they couldn’t speak up.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:37 pm
Rose mulled over the timeline Lyon presented. She didn’t know if there were any answers in it, but it might help them pinpoint… something. Anything. They couldn’t know what details might be important at this stage, so it was better to have as many as possible.
Twenty seventeen. Eight years was a sizable chunk of time (compared to how long she’d been a Page, at least). What did it mean that there’d been chatter that long ago but most of the videos themselves were more recent? Decades earlier she could have blamed the lack of conveniently portable technology, but twenty seventeen didn’t pose that issue. So if there were no videos from back then there must not have been anything worth taking video of. Maybe there hadn’t been any truth to the conspiracies then; whatever had been occurring in the last eight months could have simply fit into the existing rumors.
Rose took a moment to study the building again.
“If only we had floorplans,” she said. “I wouldn’t know where to go looking for something like that, though. If they even still exist…”
Rose doubted that was the case. They’d probably been lost and forgotten like the rest of Northpoint.
The center. Alright, she could do that. Rose maneuvered herself between the others, more cognizant than ever of her lesser abilities. One hand gripped her spindle. The other took Lyon’s proffered arm without any fuss. She looked into his face for a moment, examining his features. Reims obviously hadn’t said anything about meeting Lyon before tonight to Yvoire, but he’d told Rose. A new Page. Chances were this investigation would be something of an introductory course for him. Rose didn’t get the sense that he was nervous. He didn’t seem shy around so many unfamiliar faces either.
“They’ve gotten me through danger before,” she told him. “We’ll be safe near Dering.” Rose’s smile brightened for the Knight in question, maybe because she thought he needed it more. “Reims, Effie, Mary and Evie weren’t too hurt when you all fought the Calamitous Hollow. Reims still gushes about how you protected them.”
Needless to say, Rose was optimistic. They had a mystery to solve, but she knew her friends. She was certain she could rely on every single one of them.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:38 pm
Reims’s jaw tightened when Lisse mentioned the scream. So the others had heard it too.
He scoffed under his breath. Irritated -- not at Lisse, but at the idea that something might be trying to mess with them. The sound had been distant, but not distant enough.
“Good to know you’re so eager, Lisse,” he muttered, the hint of amusement not quite hiding the tension in his voice. “If you’re in a hurry, you can take point -- behind Stirling.”
He glanced over to Stirling, making sure she looked ready and aware that he’d be close if anything happened. Just because she was in front didn’t mean she’d be unguarded. Shield or not.
He straightened a bit as Yvoire’s hand found his arm. He glanced down at Yvoire, meeting his eyes for a moment, before he looked back forward the door.
The others were talking. Cynthus with her strategic plan, Stirling making sure those who could shield were organized, Halle volunteering for the back, Lyon offering information that could help them. It all made sense, and for a moment, Reims couldn’t help but feel a flicker of pride. They were good at this. Experienced. It was almost enough to make him forget how unsettling everything felt.
Until Rose opened her mouth.
“I--” His face flushed. “I did not!”
It was too quick, too defensive. There was no denying how highly he felt about Dering, but Rose didn’t have to say it so casually like that! She could have said something like… maybe how he’d been really proud of Dering! Because he was! Or how cool Dering had been! Not that he’d gushed over him!
He sighed and muttered under his breath but turned his attention to Dering, who looked pale and a little lost, and Reims forced his scowl into something softer to try and reassure him. Not quite a smile but something to let him know he was still thinking about him.
“Stay close. If something moves, don’t run off alone. We go in together, we come out together,” he nodded, trying to shake the feeling that this was a bad idea. He made sure Yvoire still had his arm before starting forward. “Let’s get this over with.”
Ephesus’s heart was pounding too hard for him to blame it all on nerves. The building didn’t look like a place where anyone should be alive, but if someone was inside, whether for nefarious reasons or against their will, this was something they should take care of.
For just a moment he considered suggesting to Amarynthos that they should contact his dads. Surely they’d have more experience. Maybe some other adults should get involved. Lysithea, Ganymede. Or any of the Mauvians they knew.
But then how would they ever be trusted to handle things on their own? They would always just be looked at as kids who needed to be protected.
So he focused instead on the voices of the others. He looked at Halle, grateful when the other Knight spoke up about staying at the back.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, feeling a little more relieved. He knew Halle was good with his shield. “We’ll cover both sides then. Our summons can help with that, too,” he did his best to reassure, both for Halle and for himself. If something tried to attack from behind, they’d be ready.
Still, the air felt… wrong. It wasn’t just rot or mildew. And the hum, now that Dering had mentioned it, seemed to vibrate through his bones.
Ephesus squeezed Amarynthos’s hand again. He felt a little helpless. Small. But the others were counting on him. They’d prove they could handle themselves and keep each other safe.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:39 pm
Oh, s**t! Point position, hm? Stirling couldn’t help but feel a little bit excited that her suggestion had been taken, and that she was going to be able to lead with her shield. It was flattering. Truly, and she nodded, flashing Reims a smile.
Her mind niggled on the idea of a summons, and that seemed like something that she should try and get as well. It could be helpful in the future…whatever it might be.
Okay, good. Halle was going to be in the back, and he was going to be up front, behind this other Knight who had a shield so…that made sense and he was fine with it. Lisse hesitated for a moment, half wondering if Reims was mocking him, but he quickly squelched the idea. Now wasn’t the time to have hurt feelings, real or imagined. Now wasn’t the time to do much of anything other than focusing on the new task at hand.
He didn’t look at Halle for a long moment, and honestly didn’t look anywhere but at the creepy door, shoving even more emotions down into a pit he made inside of his mind but finally, he turned and nodded to his brother. “Protect them, I’ll do my best from up here.”
When he turned away from his brother he looked to Dering, wanting to give him whatever support and strength that he could and took a second to go over to him, taking his hand and squeezing it gently. “I’ll keep you safe too. I promise.”
Hesitating for a moment he leaned close to Dering’s ear, whispering just for him. “And I promise you right now, I won’t do anything dumb in there like I did while we were on patrol. Honest and cross my heart.”
If Dering didn’t need to worry about him, that was a good thing. He looked a little pale and it made Lisse worry, which wasn’t unnatural but.
He drew away and took in a deep breath, moving back towards the front of the group. Stirling seemed quite confident, and that was good. Two confident shielders in the front and back would make things easier if things went south which…
They might not even go south. There was about a one in a million chance that such would be the case…but if it was…
…It was a pity none of them were old enough to play the lottery.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 5:41 pm
Other Blonde…Yvoire? Had the right of it. The building was definitely occupied in some capacity. And if it was youma, that meant agents. Once again, Halle found himself hoping it was just some local Halloween weirdness.
Cynthus proved to have a decent eye for positioning strategy, and it was nice to hear. He wondered if she and Amarynthos got to butt heads for fun sometimes. In response he gave a solemn salute that was absolutely ruined by the grin that accompanied it.
When Stirling began to describe her shield ability, Halle couldn’t help but feel grateful for the extra information as well as her good positioning. A permeable shield was great to have on point. And it likely didn’t block visibility the way his own did. Tilting his head for a moment as Amarynthos and Ephesus thanked him, Halle then shook it. “Nah you guys, I like being able to see as much of the field as possible. But if I see anything, I’ll hoot like an owl.” It was followed by a small grin and a wink. He for sure would just shout as concisely as possible, but it was a fun thought. For a moment he thought to himself that the Moon Knights really liked thanking people, but that didn’t quite sit. Maybe it was more that they really valued clear communication; though they rarely seemed to need it between themselves, if their silent interactions were anything to go by.
Floor plans? He looked up at the building, unfinished and abandoned. “Well, depending on where construction stopped, there may be floor directory maps around?” It seemed big enough to merit them. “Worth keeping an eye out for, at least.”
The grin faded at Lisse’s quiet request, all determination now rather than his usual energy and attitude. “You’ve got this,” he answered with a nod, then watched his brother take his place near point. As much as he’d been asking his brother to take things more seriously since they’d first powered up, it was a bit of a relief to see his expression turn a bit more childish as he whispered to Dering.
He’d always just wanted his brother to be safer, not…less himself.
But, considering the people Lisse had chosen to surround himself with? Maybe Halle needn’t have been too worried after all.
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