Signum Malum

[Undersiej]

After their little talk the two guards gave Siej a stern look, but the male actually broke his hard glance into a smile when the wolfman stuck out his tongue. The young man was wondering what to do now, as the others were scattering quickly, paying him no more mind now that the threat of his run had ended. He had already decided to check up on the local bounties after he'd settled in, but he'd had no idea where he was headed. The man checked his new device, configuring it as quickly as he could as he moved to sit on the fountain's edge. Legs crossed and arms in the thinker position, he scrolled through screen after screen of settings, finding that it also served as a sort of phone. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought of acquiring any contact information from the guards so that option was out for the time being. Besides, he doubted he'd get their numbers after their little skirmish.

With a sigh he checked the message boards, posting an ad saying that he was looking for a group to take down the missing bounty heads. He wondered just how long that would actually take, considering that he didn't know anything about this 'Nexus' place he had found himself in. He shuffled in his position, smiling at the jangling of coins in his pocket. After a few minutes of searching he found an Atlas program that he quickly installed into his Datalink Device. He was forever grateful for it, despite not knowing what any of the symbols meant so far, though he noted that it also had a GPS function in it as well. From the looks of things, there seemed to be at least seven gates that led somewhere, and there were buttons on the touch-screen that showed completely different locations when pressed that led him to believe that those things way off into the distance were, in fact, portals to another realm.

If he was right about reading the symbols on screen, anyway.

He looked up, and with his (very good) eyesight could see that Mami had traveled quite a far distance ahead of him, and it'd take all of forever to catch up without using a power or something. He smiled, ready to try to break the psionic lock on his powers. He stood, stretching his arms and legs by kneeling, squatting, and raising his arms above his head.

"TruePortation."

He said it with force, and he could feel his energies rising throughout his body from his torso, spreading to his legs. However, he felt a deep cold pierce him from his spine, and felt something inside make a small noise and felt something of a 'pop' that echoed in his head three times. For a moment, he was frozen in time, unable to think, speak, or act in any way other than to move his eyes. His perception of light began to fade, and everything around him seemed to melt as the curse began to take hold of his being. Suddenly, a creature appeared, a Tengu with a smile on his face. Instantly he recognized him as Dave, a Tengu who was as tricky as he was clever.

"Oh, so you made it after all?"

Unable to speak, he thrashed from within the curse's stun lock, finding himself barely able to move milimeters. The power contained within allowed him to move more and more before he was vibrating as if Phasing. But still the curse did not fade.

"You suck, bitch. You suck, bitch. You -- suck -- bitch!"

His anger mounted, and he thrashed with greater force. All of a sudden the icy feeling in his body became more pronounced and the cloak wearing man felt the bindings that held him in place shatter, freeing him. The darkness that clouded his mind seemed to diminish, but Dave was still there.

"No, you suck, bitch!" He almost went to draw his switchsword, but thought better of it.

"..."

Dave vanished from his view, and the rest of the world took on a brighter tone, much like it had originally been. However, things took on a soft, nostalgic glow that took him by surprise and made him feel somewhat high. He realized slowly that he awakened himself psychically against the lock the others had put on him across the gap but was unsure of whether he could still use his powers. Siej stretched again before scratching his head and shaking his hands, still feeling a dark chill piercing his every fiber of being. Finally, he moved into a ready position for running.

"TruePortation!" he shouted. Unfortunately, the same thing happened, but this time he could see the darkness before it took him. He moved quickly out of the way and the entire space where he had been standing seemed to shift and stir, the air buzzing as if moving very rapidly. It was a strange curse indeed, obviously meant to lock all of his powers gained through having lived temporarily in the MIndscape, and he lamented.

"Now what? With this stupid curse I can't do anything."

He felt a pop in his lower spine, and suddenly that feeling of cold left his legs but still lingered slightly. He wondered if he was cold to the touch, though he noticed a bit of frost clinging to his lower arms that had already begun melting. He doubted it was a power or something, as he'd never been one to try the Chill Touch before. He was more at home with flames. With the pop also came a feeling of being stronger in his legs and arms, giving the impression that his natural speed had returned--but not his mystical speed. He sighed again, putting away the Datalink Device in his cloak's pocket without no more than a further glance at it. He looked around, noticing the others were gone.

Just how long have I been standing here?

He looked into the distance and saw that Mami had completely faded from view and that he was alone again. Like she had thought, he felt sort of bereaved of companionship and felt somewhat vulnerable despite being somewhat of a forced loner. He withdrew from a pocket his pack of cigarettes and lit one up, starting on his long walk towards one of the gates. With a long drag off of his cigarette he realized very swiftly that he was in for quite a long walk and quite an adventure to get somewhere even remotely close to home.