xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 10:58 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Inside a darkly lit room within the base of the dark guild, Pazuzu's Easel, a spinning vortex that was connected to a black painting had begun to spin around violently as a magic circle had appeared and out emerged some of the members of Psycho Circus.
"Guh!" Camilla exclaimed as she flopped out of the portal onto the ground onto her chest. Immediately after she hit the ground, out came Anatoli as he landed on Camillas backside.
"Blurgh!" Anatoli grunted as he landed on Camilla. "Ow that hurt- oh." He said as he noticed he landed on Camilla, who was glaring at him with anger.
"Do you mind?" Camilla said with a tone of aggression as Anatoli made an embarrassed expression as he looked at the agitated S-class wizard. Looking behind them at the portal, the two noticed another individual was about to come out of the spinning vortex, prompting them to quickly rush to the side to avoid Camilla and Anatoli being crushed as the Earth Elemental, Baurs, had arrived, her large frame leaving an indent in the ground as she landed.
'"So glad we moved..."' Camilla and Anatoli thought with relief as Baurs begun to stood up on all fours as she turned over to see the pair of Psycho Circus wizards.
"Are you both alright?" Baurs said casually.
"Yeah, especially because you didn't crush us!" Anatoli said with annoyance as Camilla turned her head towards the painting to notice the spinning vortex disappeared from the portal painting they came out of. Walking over to it, she poked her finger against it to see if anything would happen.
"Well it looks like this isn't the way back..." Camilla said as she looked over at Anatoli and Baurs.
"Where the hell are we?" Anatoli said as he and Baurs looked around.
In the dark room, the group noticed the large array of tarps covering over a large variety of objects with only a few ceiling lamps keeping the room lit. Alongside the covered objects, there were shelves carrying a multitude of artist tools and random supplies such as jars, ropes and bags of random substances.
"Looks like a storage area." Camilla said as she looked around.
"Any idea as to where?" Baurs asked.
"Call it a hunch, but I think we are still in the Pazuzu's Easel base." Camilla said as she looked at Baurs and Anatoli, the latter looking around for something in the room.
"Can you tell?" Baurs questioned.
"Guess I'm pulling a "Bernard" here but taking into consideration how limited the power of that camera that stopped us yesterday had. I highly doubt this Claudia person has magical abilities that give her control over space to send us somewhere other than somewhere else in her own home." Camilla said, giving her analysis.
"Another location or same building, doesn't matter. This isn't good that we are separated from the rest." Baurs stated as she looked around. "I'm not doing a good job if I am this far away from my master to protect him." She stated as Camilla rubbed her neck.
"Bernard can handle himself, he probably has Vulp and Corvus with him but even still... Baurs is right, everyone being separated like this in an unfamiliar place is not good." Camilla thought with concern.
"Damn it... Damn it..." Anatoli said as he looked around, catching Camilla and Baurs attention as they were confused watching him meander about. "Damn it!" He shouted loudly as he walked over to a bunch of the covered objects and looked behind them, searching for something.
"What's wrong?" Camilla asked as Anatoli turned towards the others.
"Where the hell is my ball!?" Anatoli exclaimed in a crazed tone.
"Huh?" Baurs muttered.
"We came out of that weird painting and I was on top of my big ball! And we are here now and I can't find the damn thing!" Anatoli exclaimed in frustration.
"Is now really the time to be going crazy over a dumb ball?" Camilla questioned with her eyes half closed.
"Hey! I love that ball so don't call it dumb!" Anatoli said as he pointed at Camilla.
"Why does that ball mean so much to him?" Baurs asked towards Camilla.
"It's like a "safety blanket" for him. He used to sit on a smaller one when we were kids and then he got that really large one when he grew up. He doesn't even need it to channel his Wind Magic, it's just something he likes having around like a lucky charm." Camilla explained with her arms folded as she looked at Anatoli still continuing to scramble around looking for the ball.
"Don't get me started on "lucky charms!"' Anatoli said disgruntled as he looked over at Camilla. "I bet you kiss Bernie every morning as some kind of "good luck ritual!"' He continued as Camillas face begun to blush profusely in response.
"Sh-shut up!" Camilla exclaimed in embarrassment. "He isn't entirely wrong but I don't do it for good luck..." She thought in the midst of the awkward conversation.
"Is now the time to argue?" Baurs asked as the two looked at the giant rock lizard.
"N-no... Sorry." Anatoli apologized as he looked at Camilla.
"Yeah, yeah... Me too." Camilla said, apologizing as well. "Look, we need to get back to the task at hand and get out of this room." She said, taking charge as Anatoli and Baurs nodded in agreeance. Looking over, Anatoli became curious at all the cloth covered objects.
"The heck are these things?" Anatoli said as he walked to one of the tarp covered objects.
"I wouldn't touch that. It's better we just find the exit door." Camilla said as she walked away with Baurs following her.
"Oh come on, how bad can it be? It's covered by a tarp, it's probably just some furnishing or something." Anatoli said as he grabbed and pulled the tarp off one of the objects, revealing what was underneath to be a statue of a man, with several additional extra arms, covered in molding clay. "What the hell!?" Anatoli shouted in shock.
"That's... Disturbing..." Camilla said as she looked at the statue with Anatoli and Baurs.
"It appears to be a sculpture of some kind." Baurs stated.
"I think you just found a piece of Claudias handiwork..." Camilla said as she got close to the sculpture. As she got closer, the statues eyes begun to lit up as a magic circle appeared underneath the feet of the statue as the arms of the statue begun to move. "Ahhh!" She screamed in shock as she and Anatoli jumped back at the sight of the statue begin to move.
As the statue begun to pace towards them, the other tarp covered objects revealed to be a myriad of other statues of human-like objects with multiple extra appendages sticking out of their bodies.
"Oh crap! Clay zombies!" Anatoli remarked as he hid behind Baurs large frame.
"Could you please not name them?!" Camilla replied back as she formed barriers over her fists as she struck a combat pose as the statues begun to approach.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 10:59 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In another area of the base, another portal opened up from a vortex painting into a large room with multicolored red, green and yellow lighting that was dangling from the ceiling. Within the room, there was a myriad of vastly different and overly ornate clothing hanging from racks strung out everywhere within the room. Emerging from the portal was Pietro, landing on his feet as he looked on into the room.
"Hmmm..." Pietro mumbled as he looked around as he got out of the portal. "A room filled with clothes..." He thought with intrigue as to where he was.
"Waaaahhh!" A shrill scream exclaimed as Pietro turned around towards the portal and noticed that someone else was emerging from the vortex as Corvus and Vulp came out into the room, bouncing off the giant belly of Pietro and onto the ground as the portal disappeared. "Blegh…" Corvus mumbled as he and Vulp hit the ground.
"Are you both alright?" Pietro said as he bent over to look at the Celestial Spirits.
"Ugh... Better if I wasn't turned into paint and thrown through a portal to heaven knows where..." Corvus said, complaining as he and Vulp sat up.
"It would seem everyone has split up unannounced." Pietro said as he stood back up as Vulp begun to look around.
"That's definitely not a good thing for us. Without the kid around, we are good as toast." Corvus said as he begun to fly up and met Pietro at eye level.
"Then don't use your power, we will find Lil Bern soon." Pietro said calmly as he said to Corvus to reassure him before noticing Vulp had begun to sniff around and move around on the floor. "But it would seem someone is growing impatient..." He remarked as Vulp continued to search.
"Looks like Vulp wants to get back to the kids side as quickly as possible." Corvus said.
"The fox is rather attached to him, isn't he?" Pietro said as he looked at Vulp.
"Yeah, I guess so." Corvus said as he looked at Pietro.
"How about you?" Pietro asked.
"What? Me? Nah, I'm more of an acquaintance if anything..." Corvus said as he looked away from Pietros gaze.
"If you were just an acquaintance of his, you wouldn't be so willing to protect him. Or keep wearing the guild logo collars he had given you." Pietro said as he walked away, Corvus staring at him as the big man followed Vulp before looking down at the Psycho Circus collar around his neck.
"...Me and Vulp are gonna have to leave the kid one day... But it doesn't mean it has to be soon..." Corvus thought with concern as he flew after Pietro and Vulp.
"Vulp, something the matter?" Pietro asked of Vulp as Vulp sniffed into some of the clothes on the racks with intrigue.
"Pretty sure he is just smelling the weird clothes." Corvus said casually as he perched himself on Pietros shoulder.
"But what for?" Pietro asked with curiosity.
"Beats me." Corvus said as he shrugged his wings. As Vulp continued to smell the clothes, he proceeded to stick his nose in the loose sleeve of a long overcoat on the rack. Suddenly, looking within the sleeve, a hand begun to jet out from the clothing as it reached forward towards Vulp as the fox jumped backwards on reflex towards Pietro and Corvus, stunned by the sudden act.
"What the heck?" Pietro said as he watched the coat sprout a hand as Corvus and Vulp looked on with wide eyes of surprise. Popping out more appendages, the coat begun to spawn a male with yellow and black hair slicked to the side and a regal party mask on his face with a smirk.
"Welcome to me and my sisters "Fashion Corner!"' Said the voice of Tazo as he jumped out of the rack, only sporting the long coat and his mask over his face.
From behind Pietro and the Celestial Spirits, Tiza, wearing a sequined green dress and her own mask that was attached to the rack, emerged proceeded to kick Pietro in the back with a heeled shoe, causing him to fall forward as Vulp and Corvus got up and away from where he fell.
"A den of beauty that adorns the bodies of males and females! Another form of "art" that was shown to us by our graceful master, Claudia Vanderheem!" Tiza exclaimed as she stood with her arms outreached, under the fanciful lights of the room.
"My word, do you leave the house dressed so plainly?" Tazo said with a smirk as he looked over Pietros casual attire.
"Surely you could use some better designs than that! Perhaps some mauve and teal pants?" Tiza said, giving a critique of Pietros sense of style.
"Adorned with a golden gem stag beetle headband with an ascot!" Tazo exclaimed as he got next to his sister.
"The hell are you two talking about!?" Corvus said with confusion and frustration as he begun to charge up electricity as Vulps fur begun to move to prepare for a fight.
"No don't!" Pietro said towards the Celestial Spirits as he quickly stood back up as Tazo and Tiza rushed into the clothing racks, disappearing once more.
"What?! Why?!" Corvus said as he and Vulp looked towards Pietro.
"Without Bernard around, you are limited on what you can do. Conserve your energy until you are back at his side... I'll handle this." Pietro explained as he pulled out his wrestling belt and placed it around his waist.
Charging up his magic, Pietro begun to glow an aura of power and his body started to shift in size. His clothing ripping and revealing his black singlet underneath, Pietro grew in size with a bulging giant mass of muscles on his body and displaying immense concentration.
"Whoa..." Corvus said as he saw Pietros large muscular physique.
"My! What a gaudy singlet! You look like a filthy wrestler!" Tizas voice exclaimed, hidden within the clothing racks.
"Get back, you two..." Pietro said as he walked forward. "I'll handle this..." He said with a serious tone.
"G-got it..." Corvus said with concern as he flew out of the way of the clothing racks with Vulp following him. "The kids probably fine... He's probably with the big rock lizard or Camilla..." The crow thought as he got out of Pietros way.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 11:00 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The last portal opened on the ceiling that was attached to a vortex painting in a large white and brightly lit room that had no furnishings in it, covered in a variety of random paint all over the walls like the room was a blank canvas painting blotched with various colors. From the portal, out came out a large yellow ball with googly eyes on it that bounced on the ground as who came out next was Marlene.
"Whhaaa!" Marlene screamed as she landed on the ball chest first, comforting her landing. "Ugh... Well, at least that was soft... Huh?!" She thought with relief before looking upward as she noticed another person was falling from the portal, moving out of the way on reflex as Bernard had emerged from the portal.
"Gaah!" Bernard exclaimed as he bounced off the ball and landed on his backside hard on the ground. "Oww!" He exclaimed as he clutched at his back as Marlene approached.
"Hey, you alright?!" Marlene said with worry as she looked over Bernard.
"No, I am not alright! That hurt like hell!" Bernard complained as he sat up to look Marlene in the eye as he continued to rub his back.
"You-you don't have to yell, you know." Marlene said with a stern look forming on her face as Bernard continued to rub his back.
"Sorry- Ow..." Bernard apologized until he still felt hurt from the his backside hitting the ground.
"Here, let me look, I have a salve for some wounds I made." Marlene said as she moved around towards Bernards backside as he lifted his shirt and showed her his back. Reaching into her utility belt, she pulled out a little vial with a greenish paste-like liquid and begun to lather it onto a reddish area of Bernard.
"Ahhh… Sweet relief..." Bernard said with a sigh as some of the pain went away.
"Better?" Marlene questioned.
"Much better. When did you get good at salves and potions and all that?" Bernard asked as he looked at her.
"I started learning when I was sixteen from reading books on crafting this stuff and I got some practice with some of the mushrooms and leaves around the mountains near Hemlock. Figured it be useful in case anyone got hurt at the guild doing a job or a performance." Marlene said as she helped pull Bernard up from the ground.
"I can understand the jobs but the performances are something completely different, I never would have asked anyone to do something I know they couldn't do and get injured." Bernard said as he looked at her.
"Yeah but it's something useful nonetheless. Especially after you left the first time and everything was up to us to try and come up with ideas for acts." Marlene replied. "Some tried things we honestly shouldn't have attempted like Harriet tried to do pull-ups with her magic beard but it nearly broke and she fell hard on her back." She said with a smirk.
"Pfff! I would have loved to see that! Hahaha!" Bernard laughed in response.
"Course, it's nowhere near as bad as the times Anatoli tried to do tightrope walks without his ball." Marlene said as she and Bernard looked at Anatolis googly eyed ball.
"Hehehe. Would have loved to see that too." Bernard said as he continued to chuckle.
"Sometimes I can't tell if you are laughing because it's actually funny or you just like seeing us get hurt." Marlene said with a wry smile as Bernard scratched his face in minor embarrassment.
"Sorry, my bad... Still working on that after the whole mess at that training day." Bernard said.
"Well, I can't say I am not impressed at how far you took this whole thing." Marlene said with an impressed expression.
"Oh come on, not you too..." Bernard said as he put his hand on his forehead to Marlenes surprise. "Why is everyone constantly giving me that look for doing this?" He said with a complaintive tone.
"Why shouldn't we be impressed? You're taking charge to fix a problem that you felt you were capable of stopping, it takes guts for that kind of thing. It's pretty cool honestly." Marlene said with an earnest smile.
"...It's really not that big of a deal." Bernard said, trying to ignore the compliment. "Camilla said Marlene always respected me... Never really noticed it till now..." He thought as he looked at her with a modicum of concern. "Hey, mind if I asked you something? Are you alright?" Bernard asked to Marlenes confusion.
"Huh? Yeah, I am fine. Why?" Marlene replied.
"Well, I noticed you were giving me and Camilla some odd looks the past couple of days. Figured I may as well ask..." Bernard asked with a tone of concern.
"Oh... That... It's..." Marlene said with a minor blush as she scratched the back of her head. "It's... Well... A bit of a hard conversation to talk about with you and her..." She said as she glossed her eyes around.
"Hard to talk about with me and Camilla? What's that supposed to mean?" Bernard thought with a raised eyebrow. "Maybe this isn't the right time, sorry about that." He said aloud.
"Yeah, we can talk about it later." Marlene said as she locked eyes with Bernard.
"We gotta get back on track and that's finding the others." Bernard said with a serious look as he and Marlene looked around the bright paint stained room.
"Right. But first, where are we?" Marlene questioned as she and Bernard looked along the wall for an exit.
"It's a room for our struggling new recruits..." Said a third voice that was familiar to Bernard and Marlene as they both looked over at the other side of the room as they saw that they weren't alone in the room.
Leaning against the wall, wearing only white pants with purple suspenders with no shirt or shoes to hide his immense amounts of tattoos was Dolph with a calm smile on his face as he looked over at Marlene.
"You..." Marlene said with an offended expression on her face.
"Great... This douchebag..." Bernard said with an angry expression.
"Takes one to know one." Dolph said towards Bernard as Bernards eye twitched in response before giving a soft look towards Marlene.
"Sorry for the hard reveal of my affiliation, I thought we were going to talk once again after the matter of the infant would be handled." Dolph said with a smile towards Marlene who just gave him a harsh look of disgust.
"Don't act sweet with me... Pretending to be a waiter when all you are is a scumbag with a bunch of tattoos." Marlene said, slinging insults.
"Oh come on, baby... Don't be cruel. I can still see through those eyes of yours." Dolph said with a confident and cocky attitude as he walked forward until Bernard stood in front of Marlene, as if to keep her away from Dolph.
"Stay away from her, you walking ink blot." Bernard said threateningly.
"Are you going to stop me? And just how are you going to do that?" Dolph said with a smirk as Bernards eyes widened.
"What does that mean?" Marlene said behind Bernard.
"...Damn it..." Bernard thought as he came to a dark realization. "...Formosa is outside breaking up the lower tier grunts and the others were outside of me when we got separated..." He said as he started to move backwards some steps with Marlene.
"...Oh no... You don't have any helpers..." Marlene said as she came to a realization of what Bernard meant.
"... Not an appropriate joke but did you suddenly gain combat skills in the time between we separated...?" Bernard asked as he looked at Marlene.
"Not really..." Marlene said as she looked at Dolph with the same smug look on his face.
"Well then, let's have some fun. Tattoo Magic: Viper Party!" Dolph exclaimed as a magic circle formed beneath his feet as his snake tattoos started to come to life from off his body and slithered off onto the floor.
"...Shit..." Bernard thought as he and Marlene stepped backwards to make space away from Dolph and his tattoo snakes.
Separation anxiety, I hear, is a terrible thing but in the case of the Psycho Circus wizards, it's more than harmful. Divided into groups within the base of the dark guild, Pazuzu's Easel, the Psycho Circus wizards are trapped in nightmares of the dark guilds machinations. While Camilla, Anatoli and Baurs face against zombified living statues of prior victims of Claudia Vanderheem, Pietro protects the Celestial Spirits in a battle with the sibling duo of Tazo and Tiza. But what of Marlene and Bernard, who have to deal with a tattooed magical deviant in the form of Dolph? Can they handle the situation of his magical ink on their own with none of Bernards beasts to help? Find out next time on Menagerie!