Cecile hid her tear-swelled eyes behind her long black hair.

“Have a great time!” bubbled the park employee as she took the ticket. Cecile muttered a “thanks” and struggled through the turnstile. Dusk’s light peeked behind her, framing her slender silhouette.

At the midway, Cecile closed her eyes and immersed herself in the surroundings. The amusement park had always been her escape. The dazzling lights, smell of cotton candy, and roar of machinery — they filled her senses and muted her sorrows.

Rejuvenated, Cecile strolled into the carousel’s line. The ornate mirrors and incandescent light-bulbs gleamed. As smiles and laughter accompanied the disembarking ones, she noticed a twenty-something boy stayed behind on a Pegasus. He had curly, brown hair and wore a retro varsity jacket. She met his gaze and he smiled. He looks familiar. Curious, she weaved her way to a glittering pony next to him.

“Your face’s longer than these horses’.” The boy winked.
Blushing, Cecile closed her hair curtain.
“Apologies for my pathetic attempt at humor. Name’s Henry. You’re Cecile?”
“How’d you know?”
Henry pointed to the embroidery on her bag.
“Oh. Thought maybe we’ve met before.”
“Maybe! I’m always here.”

The pony and Pegasus began galloping to the calliope music. Henry flexed and flapped his arms, pretending that he was really flying a Pegasus, along with a million other silly poses. Cecile watched and cracked a smile.

“Aha! The princess’ smile’s brighter than the carousel!”
“Is your middle name ‘corny’?” Cecile rolled her eyes, still smiling.
“That, and ‘swell’, and ‘charming’. By the way, the Ferris wheel said we should go ride it.”
“Oh really?” she scoffed. “The rides talk to you?”
“When you spend eternity here, you resonate with them.”
“You need to add ‘poet’ to your middle names.”
They laughed, adding to the sense of wonder in the air.

Henry leaped off the carousel just as it stopped, even before Cecile could dismount. They meandered together to the Ferris wheel. The white gondolas were adorned with golden carriage motifs; the operator wore a top hat, a long black coat and white gloves.

“Here ya go, ma’am.” The operator tipped his hat and opened the waiting carriage’s door.
Henry sneaked in before Cecile. “Hope ya don’t mind a stowaway,” he smirked.
The operator did not react. Cecile curtsied in jest and followed Henry. The wheel then started turning.

“My mom passed a year ago today. Haven’t been back here since.” She turned away to admire the setting sun. “I couldn’t stop crying at the grave today.”
“I’m sure she’s at a good place.”
“You wouldn’t know.”
Henry smiled like the sunrise, “But I do.”
Cecile believed him.

They spent the rest of the evening gallivanting around the park. They conquered the ferocious Matterhorn and stomached the dizzying Teacups. Even the Pirate Ship was no match for them. The park was almost empty when midnight crept up on them.

“Cinderella needs to head home soon?”
Cecile forced a smile. “Either that or I turn into an ugly gremlin.”
“Better that than the horse face earlier.” Henry cackled.
Cecile laughed and swatted at him, but he glided away.
“Come on, you can ride the train back to the entrance.”
She huffed but smiled again.

The train station was devoid of visitors. Only the distant sound of roller coasters punctuated the silence. Cecile boarded the last car.

“You’re not coming?”
“Nah, gonna stick around a bit longer.”
“You really do like this park, don’t you?”
Henry grinned, “I just can’t leave.”
The train started to roll away.
Cecile tightened. “Wait! Will I see you again?”
“Just bring the brass ring,” he winked.

The train horn drew Cecile’s attention. When she looked back, Henry was gone.

Brass ring? Bewildered, she fished out an old photo from her bag. The shot was taken at dusk, with her and her mother in front of the carousel in this park. Reflected in a mirror of the carousel was a twenty-something boy with curly hair; he wore the same varsity jacket as Henry’s.

Cecile’s heart skipped a beat. Henry took that picture decades ago! Afterward, he gave her a brass ring so she could ride again. Instead, she saved it as a keepsake and had been carrying it with her ever since.

Rhogar reached out and traced the unknown language on the sarcophagus with his scaly claw. He retrieved his ritual book and flipped to the back pages of the volume where they were filled with sets of five horizontal lines. Without hesitation, he bit into his index digit. He winced a little at the slight pain. A small bead of blood oozed from the wound. Then, he started tracing the unknown symbols at various positions on the horizontal lines with his blood. He let his mind navigate the musical stave. To the untrained eyes, the symbols were static. To Rhogar, they drifted and shifted along the musical lanes. Inside his head, the unknown symbols echoed and resonated a cacophony. He couldn’t help but hum along with the music formed in his head.

When he’s done tracing all the symbols, he licked his finger and the wound closed. He then took out his lute and started playing the tune he heard. First, it was rough and primitive, like a novice learning to play his first song. As minutes go by, it grew in complexity. Rhogar’s fingers danced up and down the lute, traversing the string highways. Finally, with one final pluck of a particular high note, the symbols on the pages glowed a crimson red momentarily and washed the room with sonic energy.

Rhogar put the lute back on his back. He took a deep breath, gleaming he said, “I’ve got it!”

In a small hut somewhere outside the city of Borealis, two young men huddled around a small laptop computer. One Atrox and one appeared to be Opifex. Tangled wires and junk equipment suffocated their personal space in this abandoned computer shop. The air was stale, only lightly decorated by the scant scent of silicon from the circuit boards. The room was dark except the dim emotionless light emitting from the laptop screen. Scrolling text danced along the walls of the shop, showing their artificial beauty and disappeared into thin air.

Pacing back and forth, Rasque broke the silence, “Dude, how much longer?”

“Just a minute,” said Defunct, his eyes never left the screen while his fingers frantically typed.

“Geez, hurry up already. You know, I am really sticking my neck out for you to get you access to this network.”

“Yeah whatever man, I paid you good money.” Defunct’s eyes still glued to monitor.

Rasque did not say a word, but grinned with his sparkling white teeth. Defunct inserted a small test tube into the side of the laptop, then resumed typing.

>>> Searching Omni-RK personnel records…
>>> DNA match found.
>>> Displaying personnel record…

An Opifex male’s picture and his information filled the screen. In the picture, he dressed casually and carried a rifle. He looked to be in his late thirties.

“Got it.” Defunct cracked a barely noticeable smile. He skimmed through the data on the screen and continued typing.

>>> Searching for spouse records…
>>> Access denied, higher security clearance required.
>>> Re-scanning Omni-RK security clearance…
>>> Invalid certificate, intruder alert.

The nanosecond that text appeared on screen, Rasque exclaimed, “Son of a bitch! We gotta jet now! Omni-Pol will be here any second!”

“Damn it all to hell!” Defunct slammed his fist on the wooden crate underneath the laptop. Teeth clenched, he said, “Gimme another minute or two!”

Bushes started to rustle outside. Not a second too soon loud knocks descended upon the fragile wood door, accompanied by a loud male voice, “Open the door, now!”

“Dude! We don’t have a minute or two!”

“I don’t care! You’ll be busted too if this laptop is confiscated. So do whatever you can to slow them down.” Defunct continued typing.

Rasque spitted, “Fine fine fine! You’re lucky I’m not charging extra.” With a few simple hand gestures, he fired up several nano programs in his NCU and darted out the shop through a wooden window close by.

The sun was shinning brightly outside. Rasque had to squint his eyes for a brief second to adjust to the light. He ran past the Omni-Pol officers, so fast that they didn’t notice. Now on their back, Rasque shouted, “Hey you Omni scum! Want a piece of me?” Hands gestured, nanobots activated, streams of signals transmitted to the Omni-Pol officers’ NCU via Rasque fingertips. Instantly, a white glow appeared around the officers. They were immediately immobilized but started to open fire. Rasque darted back into the bushes with nano-enhanced speed and ran.

Dashing back to the shop, Rasque said, “Alright dude, you got 52 seconds to…” Rasque didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. A loud crack formed on the door. A raging Enforcer scowled as he chopped down the door bit by bit.

“Oh man! I didn’t see him! Now I really have to go!” Rasque yanked the laptop from Defunct’s hand, Rasque mumbled, “God I hate this.” Within seconds, Rasque transformed into a cloud of nanobots and disappeared into thin air.

Left in the shop alone, Defunct hopped behind one of the crates and buried himself in webs of computer cables. He made a mental note of the spot when he first stepped in the room, precisely for this kind of situation. Without even the slightest breath, he waited. A tick later, the enforcer came raging in with eyes glowing red and beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. Six other Omni-Pol officers came rushing in after him. They surveyed the whole shop meticulously, but every time they came close to where Defunct was hiding, they quickly moved on to another area.

“So much for gridding here so quickly,” said one of the officers, looked to be in his mid twenties.

Now calmed, the enforcer said, “No worries, they will try again and next time they won’t be so lucky.” Wiping the sweat from his forehead, the enforcer turned his back, and the rest of the crew followed.

Defunct waited a few more to ensure they were indeed gone. He came out from behind the crate, hand holding a small slip of print out.

“Omni-Prime security clearance 8A.” He crumbled the paper in his hand. “You betcha I’ll get it.” He took a deep breath and walked outside. Staring at the blue sun, Amicus, he whispered, “Wait for me, mother.”

###

(End Part 1)

Here’s my contribution to the RP thread:

A Meta-Physical Calling
Late at night, Votary was laying in bed in his modest apartment at the westest side of West Athen. He picked the most remote apartment he could find so when night falls it would be quiet.

He was just pondering about himself, and his progress as a meta-physicist. Ever since his awakening to become a meta-physcist from his mining days, he has worked hard and long to become the best that he could be. He found ways to augment his abilities to be on par with his nanomage, solitus and opifex meta-physicist friends. He trained hard and spent long hours reading ancient meta-physical texts. He knew he was one of the best meta-physcists at his point in the path.

This night, he was pondering even more. His path might soon come to an end. Soon he will be able to summon the mightiest demon that a meta-physicst has ever summoned on the planet of Rubi-Ka. He already possessed the most devastating nano programs a meta-physicst could have and could execute them with ease. He was frustrated. He was also scared. What if that was it for his metaphysical stuides? After his mining accident and the awakening, he has been very clear in what he wanted to do with his Atrox life. But then recently, he was not so sure anymore.

He slowly drifted into sleep. Between the half awake and half asleep state, where you couldn’t tell whether something was real or something was in your dream, he heard a voice. A voice inside his skull. His tatoo on his temples started to itch, then burn. He couldn’t make out what the voice was saying but one word.

“Shadows…”

He struggled to get up, but he couldn’t. His arms and legs seem to weigh a thousand men. He could not open his eyes. He could not turn his head. He could not even wiggle his fingers or toes. He was stuck at the limbo between the real world and the dream world.

The voice kept whipsering and mumbling inside his skull. “Shadows” was all he could understand. Then the voice became two, and the two voices became four. Not even a tick after, thousands and millions of voices were mumbling “shadows” in his head. He wanted to scream, but he could not. He wanted to open his mouth to gasp for air. He could not. He was overwhelmed with terror. What was happening to him? He did not know.

Instead, he remembered his studies. He focused. He channeled his emotions. He refocused them. He manipulated the nanobots in his body with pure willpower. He activated them without even a single movement with his hands. He was no longer scared. Instead, he was then angered. He was angry at the voices. He was angry at whatever was doing this to him. His anger then turned into rage. From rage they turned into wrath. His emotions kept elevating. They fought with the voices, which made them even louder. They thundered Votary’s skull. He felt his temples were about to burst wide open. Beads of sweat ran down from his forehead. Veins were showing up all over his muscular body. Veins that were black and purple.

Suddenly, the voices stopped. Or did they all become one? He heard one voice, and one voice only. Was it a male voice, or a female voice? Or was it two voices? One male and one female, overlapping each other.

“On the second Sunday of June, the month of the balanced, you must show the same prowess you have demonstrated to me, to all others. Join your fellow pilgrims of the path, and a new path shall be shown in front of you.”

The moment the voice stopped, he opened his eyes. He could move again. Everything was normal then, just the same as every night at West Athen. He did not move even though he could, for a good half an hour after that ordeal. What was it? Who was it? He did not know. Though he did not question. He knew what he had to do. He no longer was frustrated. He no longer was scared. He had a mission and he planned to fulfill it.

He got out of bed, grunted at the now soaked bedsheets. He gazed at the three moons and prayed. He pondered what is in front of him. Emotions of frustration and terror are now filled with excitement. He could not wait.