{Hello fellow spoops of the Net, I welcome ye to the beginning of the third week of the Skeleton War. I can only imagine how many spooks have been made in the meantime, yet I say it is time for another "Tell a Story to Me" story, hosted by @calluna... Also thank you @calluna for your dedication post towards me, Uwa peckin’ wU... Today's music-aides: "8-bit SSB Ashley's Theme remix" [1.] "Ashley's Song, Musicbox version" [2.] and "Ashley's Revolution 3" [3.] (a SSB Ashley's Theme remix, a WarioWare: Touched OST remix and a Game and Wario OST song, respectively).}

Image source here

- A campfire story for It -

[1.]

All six mechanical limbs plunged into the spooked cadaver, black blood spilling out and hitting the Elder Shu'ulathoi's face. It scoffed and mind-repelled the black ooze off from its collar hair while mechanically scrubbing the substance from its breather and metallic, red-pulsing eye-pieces. Now levitating surgical tools above its levitating slug body, its six metallic-limbs held the cadaver while jotting down notes of any and all oddities.

Ten yards away, a group of fire gathers up. The Witch-in-training's hair dulled back to black as her flaming red eyes unlit back to hazy black. Her scepter-staff transformed back into her impish-aide and was told to scavenge for sitting logs. A Thief approaches the campfire and uncloaks herself, twitching her arms to pressurize the open wounds. The last person walks away from the Elder Shu'ulathoi and loosens Its tie and unbuttons the blue governmental suit jacket. Once gathered, It sparks a fire to life and graciously sits on a log, only then putting the suitcase down and petting Its kestrel. The rest of the logs are placed and they all sit down, except for Elder Shu'ulathoi conducting the autopsy.

As the fire grew a bit, the Thief spoke:

"So what's your name, stranger?"

"I'm not at liberty to say..."

"Heh."

"I understand, it frustrates me as well - hmm... What I am at liberty to say is that I am connected to the Mysts, which Ashley is wholly aware off and I presume you only in words."

"Yeah, Ashuri~ didn't leave me in the dark about them. I did after all ask what those other stamps on her contract were."

"Red~ we're going to need more kindle wood. Mind getting some?"

"Of course, Ashley."

Red plopped off his seat and began gathering wood, yet distracted by the Elder Shu'ulathoi's work. The Elder senses Red and hands a separate note for Red while dissecting, saying:

Continue gathering... pester me later whence I'm free.

Red blushed and returned back to gathering, yet in that meantime Ashley chimed in:

"Saddie's correct... I would've told you that eventually. However, what brings you here other than this coincidence?"

"Miss Ashley and Saddie, I came here to honor a favor for Mr. Pretzel... Particularly, to grant your first ever favors - this book here shall explain it all as I see you all are weary. But know now that you three, you two and Red, can now request my services - just burn the right type of favor... Anyways, Miss Saddie, I see you are wounded..."

"I know, Ashuri~"

"Ugh, fine you Goat~"

The campfire burns extremely high and catches even It off guard, Red plops back to his seat. It chimes in:

"Well, Mr. Red. I see the tasker was done quick, as you saw: Miss Saddie is being tended by Miss Ashley. I rather not question them on and let them focus... So let's get on to the real discussion: what exactly happened? I hadn't predicted this to occur, but I guess fame comes with a price."

"Well it's a long one..."

"Don't worry, I won't burn a favor to hear such - I see you're tired as they are. I originally came to have a long discussion on favors, yet I see it must be for another time. So please..."

[2.]

"Well, how do I even begin... Well it was just like any other day, but I guess this night had to be different. You see, it started with a weird fog, say at the afternoon. Now we've faced many types of fogs, yet this one was purely solid. Not even Ashley's purple bolts could pierce through it!... Hours later the fog inched closer and the skeletons patrolling were rattling so intensively that they dug their own graves... By this point Ashley's hair whitened and her eyes glowed red, while Saddie sharpened her blades. Yet the fog spawned nothing at this point..."

As Red continued telling the tale, It saw skeletons dig themselves from the ground and approach the campfire - sitting down beside them all. It smirked a bit and continued listening on.

"So now, we've had every window and door sealed, hours before the fog even enclosed our mansion... Four hours before midnight, Ashley began twitching and Saddie's words couldn't even calm her down. I pretty much was a sitting duck, and then I heard in the attic a loud scraping noise! I rushed down the flight of stairs, yet I saw Ashley and Saddie climb up the stairs. So I sealed and locked the hatch - then hearing the roof punctured but not a step on the attic floor. Ashley squeezed me tight while Saddie unsheathed her two blades; Ashley put her hand on her. Saddie took a step back and suggested we play a game with it, Ashley stood back before the realization hit her head and she grimaced."

Red took a moment to catch his breath, It noticed more skeletons gathering around and leaning in to hear the next few words carefully. It turned to inspect Ashley and Saddie, light was buzzing around Saddie that had an ancient smile plastered all over her. Yet Red continued on:

"For the next few hours, as the darkness crept in, the fog intensified both in its attacks and density. All stopping on the eleventh hour at night, I must say it amused us all that the following half-hour was purely quiet. But soon the front doors exploded and I saw through a vent shaft the figure. Yet it wasn't even the one I figure would come out of a fog, as it was popping in and out of existence while covered in a black aura. I haven't a clue when Ashley snapped, but, when I heard a loud thud, I know our plan was in motion. For the figure, though sporadic in its placement, began investigating, yet not without making the loud finger taps, the eerily long stair step, the murderous breathing and random white noise. I swear, though I am a dæmon myself, I never encountered such in my life - especially with this mannerism..."

The Elder Shu'ulathoi plunged hard at the cadaver, the blood spurts heard loud and clear. It noticed Red taking comfort, instead of disgust, unlike the majority of the skeletons now present, yet Ashley and Saddie remained unfocused with the noise and focused more on the story. It asked a question:

"Though I see the battered corpse... how did the figure look at first?"

"Uh..."

"I can take it from here. See I saw what Red~ saw, and well let's say it wasn't as stable as that corpse there. I unsheathed my blades despite thinking I hallucinated a figure popping in and outta sight. Even, more-so, I was dumbfounded of its simplicity. For it had disconnected limbs, yet functioned like a humanoid. Also splotches of black-puss skin surrounded the exposed white-boned jaw. Not only that, it appeared to have a black cross planted on its white head in place of a nose, eyes, upper mouth and eye brows. Finally, and not so obviously, it seemed to have spawned chains with spear-tips through its skin, and I think ensnare and hide the traps as it mucked about. And ARGH!"

With that, everybody but It, the working Elder and Ashley became startled. It noticed the skeletons more-so were startled, yet It understood why even if It sees worse dæmons on a daily basis... Turning back to the main three, Ashley simply stated:

"Curses!... Saddie~ stop moving like you're in a theatre, you know I'm still a Witch-in-training."

"Ashuri!~ How can I not, after nearly dying to that wicked dæmon?!?"

"Ahem..."

"Oh sorry, Blue-suit. Anyways... Yes, let's skip a bit to where first contact was made... Okay... So finally its feet crunched the flight of stairs leading upwards; with that I angled my blades and jumped down to deal what they call in the pirate world a "slicing touch." Of course, I luckily got out of its scanning sight and it jumped back wildly, yet then the son of a bun pulls what looked like a rail-track lever and plopped it on the floor. Gravity yanked me to the side of the house as the entire housed flopped over. But I managed to lunge my blades to the wooden floor and hold on tight, yet soon I shambled my position as a chain bursted from the ex-floor wall. However, I became a prancing spider as more and more of those chains kept erupting from all sides of the mansion. Then finally I saw the lever and strung a path towards it, so I carefully dislodged from the floor while throwing one of my blades to the ex-floor. Unsurprisingly a chain erupted to dislodge the blade, yet I carefully monkeyed my way down after I collected my blade..."

With a sudden stop, Saddie began wheezing blood which only added on to the stained cloak and rags. Ashley only hummed as the skeletons and Red died a little, Saddie reacted by picking up her bottle o' rum and swigged it away. Yet It began sweating, though not visibly and began psionic comms with the Elder, the Elder gurgling:

"I am sorry... But if what Saddie says... be true... and what I've been analyzing from here..."

"Then yes, unfortunately, we're dealing with a voidist..."

"H-h-h-h-h?!?! What are voidists doing in contested territories! I thought they were a silent, galaxy-eating infection collection?"

"That's the trend, but remember that even in the middle of contested territories there are intense zones of quiet. The voidist collective experimented..."

"Don't say they did, oh please! Just let it be a rouge!~"

"Appears to be, withal: hadn't we exterminated them?~"

"... The Anti-Voidist wars... I thought we scrubbed clean of them all!"

"Apparently not, anyways check on the Agent. I and Mr. Pretzel felt wrong when the Agent left, I sense those unintelligible creatures set up a perfect trap."

"I'll check in with comms, they seem really messy right now... especially the Shu'ulathoi of Red-Flame's."

With that, It refocused with the crowd: the skeletons and Red piped down while Ashley kept applying light magic on a drinking Saddie. Red stuttering said:

"We-well that's not only it. Albeit I regained my posture after I heard the first chain, I clambered back to seeing what all the other noise was. Of course the chains were at fault, but I noticed the impossibly blacker origin they seem to come from. Then and there I finally spotted the slow but steady climbing Saddie, I knew she was going to attempt another "slicing touch" on that creature in conjunction with hitting the lever. Yet, on the moment of dropping, I saw how the creature phasing about as it walked on the stairs normally risked a swing strike on Saddie. Yet Saddie countered and gave back a meaner slice, effectively in the stomach regions mind you. And then she fell unto the lever and unscrewed the house position, leaving her the ability to muck about and play with this dæmon's dæmon."

"To play? Heh! I say survive it at this point. Anyways, the peckneck really gave me trouble because now it really set off those chain traps from earlier while it chased after me. Of course, I abused the darkness and noise to scurry it elsewhere while I tensed it up for the real battle. But then it stood absolute still and I waited patiently for another move, yet I felt the cross on its head somehow glow darkness... I mean, the cross on its head just became darker yet it felt like it glowed and such... Anywho, I then saw the chains from earlier wiggling around and out came my-my enemies... and my comrades..."

"Saddie?~"

"No, no. I'm fine, I be fine Ashuri~"

"I'll take it from here you two, ahem. Yes vestiges spawn about and began stalking the area... Indeed, I saw not only pirates but also dæmons me and Ashley fought against from the past as well. Out from the shadows, Saddie pulled out her flintlock and swung about; swinging about her blades while landing clean shouts on the vestiges. I noticed some vestiges that Saddie felled would phase into twisted cadavers before puffing out of existence... And with each distortion, Saddie fought sloppier and even received scratches from the vestiges. Ultimately, the thing would finally put Saddie into a choke-hold in the air - but Saddie gave an impossible kick that released her. Yet it left her gasping for air on the ground - thus it took the chance to spawn a black sphere... I couldn't wait any more and I jumped in with my trident, I furiously stabbed the creature which bought Saddie time - however I was yanked back before it slammed the orb on where I stood."

The skeletons collectively gasped finally after rattling for the longest period, It connected back to the Elder on a quick check - the Elder was muttering gurgles intensely. Something on the lines of the Agent being pierced in the stomach by a chain and two Shu'ulathoi failing to yank him out of the pierce. It shuttered and dropped the smirk before refocusing on Saddie who chimed in again:

[3.]

"Now began our real playtime with this peckneck, as I finally saw what she meant about her dæmon form!... Getting back on track, Red was transformed into her scepter-staff and wielded as soon as he was dragged back. There she stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the main hall, the figure stared at Ashuri~ intensely - waiting for her to budge. Yet the figure ended the staring game by using its chains again, yet a mere spectre 'twas as she poofed away before contact. The figure then approached the kitchen, still popping in and out as per usual, and then it got zapped. It turned around, nothing; soon another zap followed which enraged the figure towards the kitchen. There, I saw Ashuri~ gleefully smile as she began levitating the utensils and screwing with the figure. Ultimately forcing it into a corner, where a water pipe began "leaking" and allow her to employ another zap, yet whence 'twas trenched she bolted purple lightning at the creature."

Once more Saddie wheezed heavily but managed fine with a swig of the bottle o' rum, by now even the quiet Ashley began tensing and lost her focused demeanor. - It took particular note off. Seeing as Ashley had been firm and dedicated to healing, for which now this nuisance can't be ignored; as the wheezing after wheezing only grew louder instead and more frequent in lieu of reclining back. It was about to lend a helping - white misty - hand, yet Ashley quickly chimed in to fill in the quiet void:

"No thank you... Sir? Madam?... Your voice is a bit funny."

"Heh, worry not of my voice or looks, they are only appearances to make social contact... easier. Hmm... Why don't you carry the story on? I can heal a weird medical occurrence such as this."

"Well... Fine..."

With that, It and Ashley changed places and roles; though the skeletons and Red focused on Ashley, Ashley was keen on the moment when Its hands turned to a white mist. Yet she would question that later on and began her piece:

"By then this wretched creature began glitching about the place, bolts jutting out in cadence to its pop-ins. I restarted the kitchen-utensil whackings and even used Saddie's "slicing touch" all over its body. With such it writhed away in whimpers towards the upstairs area, I peeked at the kitchen door and noticed that the fog was less intense. Seeing fruit, I began to taunt it once more: spectre stills from impossible spots, the zaps and slice-touches, giggling randomly and maybe a few fireballs - that I admit was on me. Yet all contributing towards the weakening of the fog, by then it would stand right where I wanted it to be at - there I finally became solid and taunted a fight. It tried a charge, I simply blew it away with fire; chains counteracted with purple lightning bolts from my pointing finger; change of gravity redirected against it as it flew off when the lever was toggled; and occasionally darkening the room to remind it of its impotence. Yet finally, it would gurgle a roar that rumbled the old wooden foundation and truly unlit every candle; I simply appeared in front of it, scaring it a few feet back, with a devilish smile plastered across my entire face, it self-forcing even more steps back, and I simply screeched."

The skeletons rattled intensely at that part, Ashley flashed her hair white and glowed her eyes red - subduing the skeletons. However, It was intrigued on the magicry, yet remembered how a transmutation from a Myst can easily make that look like child's play. As Ashley shrugged off the stress and breathed in, she continued:

“The creature began trembling while covering its ears, I granted no mercy to it and continued my terror. Walking slowly, I played the old tropes again and it violently stuttered in knowing I was the cause. I twisted my neck to get a good view of the fog which I blasted purple lightning again on that diabolical creature. Finally! The fog dissipated and the creature’s morale was utterly crushed. As it tried limping away, I sprouted my wings and flew out to combat it one last time - to do the job it couldn’t even do. However, then I smelled of a smoking hot pretzel in the distance, which calmed me down...”

It recognized where this was going and chimed in quickly:

“Yes indeed. That’s where me and the Elder Shu’ulathoi finally... showed up... In any case., I guess Mr. Pretzel’s pretzel gift proved more useful to Miss Ashley’s health than as a commodity I consumed... Well I and the Elder came to first see the white fog blocking our way, yet we saw it dissipate violently fast as I’m sure Miss Ashley can corroborate as to why. In fact, we found that so humorous that I held the smoking pretzel high while the Elder floated elsewhere. Evident in letting the smell spread better, I saw the ashen-black Miss Ashley swoop down with her bat wings… and nab my pretzel… I’m more surprised that my hand wasn’t taken as well, very precise targeting Miss Ashley… Regardless, I must say I was surprised Miss Ashley did indeed revert to a... less terrifying form as she was nibbling on it.”

”D’aww, Ashuri~”

”Ugh! Cut it you Goat!~”

”I’ll continue on, of course I would… appear in the creature’s periphery and bolted away it did. Yet, the Elder mind-pinned it to the ground and mind-dragged it towards us. But I must say… the Hocus Pocus hex was a wonder to watch Miss Ashley and well… I’m not at liberty to say. Yet now we would end up here - telling this story.”

And the whole skeleton crew carried and tossed the main Three, leaving It and the Elder to communicate. However, two other Shu’ulathoi would appear, carrying the Agent’s battered corpse - It placed a gentle touch on the Agent and again the hands reverted to a white myst form. The Shu'ulathoi chimed in that the Agent faced countless vestiges with chains that materialized structures to life and even tried dragging it to different plains of concrete... Yet It and the Elder chimed in that in the same occurrence a voidist was spotted and dealt with. The Shu'ulathoi present just took in the peace as It continued reconstituting a broken Agent.

Once the celebrations were over and the skeletons went back to the haunted mansion to clean-up the mess, the Three inspected the gang of four crowding around the Agent. Ashley once again saw the white myst hands before It retracted them and turned around.

Ashley confronted It:

“How magical... Why do you switch between forms?”

“Hmm... Out of convenience.”

“So, are you the White Myst of Blue-Flame I met in the Spirits’ Course?”

It smirked, replying:

“Unfortunately... I am related to all Mysts. Yet what is my connection with me and White Myst of Blue Flame?... Simply put: I am spawn of such, yet granted with freedom to develop my own Self-Consciousness... But I sense your real question is why I don’t reflect my Other and why have this whole unified image... Well convenience, for others, is a mere factor, the other factors I refuse to comment on.”

“Indeed… oure mutual friend here cannot comment… especially after the revival of these... spirits... Anyways, we need to light load the Agent’s jobs for now - they took too many pains from the same kind of creatures. Plus, we can always deal with the heavy jobs...”

“Yes, the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the World... Miss Saddie, is adventuring still in your blood?”

“I do have a few things left unfinished... You think it wise, Ashuri?~”

“Eh. The mansion is already screwed to pieces, we’ll be useless… and it’s not like the town over is particularly active… We can utilize, “The Agent” to make our lives easier.”

“Good choice Miss Saddie and Miss Ashley. Anyways: good morning Tadeusz.”

“Huh, it be not the mornin’ and that’s only a nickname... Methinks I know what this entails, especially since me body aches even after the healin’ against those pecknecks like them... I have no clue how that dimension works other than being an endless round of purgatory, punishment and chains.”

The Elder Shu’ulathoi covered their metallic eye tube while the Three stared longingly and almost became statue-like, yet It ripped open a galaxy hopper and gestured the Shu’ulathoi. Leaving now a new chapter, of two having shared pains despite differentiated histories in different galaxies.

It found Itself on a train with the Shu’ulathoi, the two carriers gave their goodbyes and returned back to Black Myst of Red-Flame’s home. While the Elder convened with It - the genus of Mysts were going to have to unite now, if not for the New Angels, then the Void shall re-emulate the past tragedy into a farce.

One could only ask, yet the Void shall be hush as it eats away.

The New Angel Saga:

@theironfelix - Adviser readjustment

@theironfelix - Shu'ualathoi

@theironfelix - Portal Inferos Scriptor

@theironfelix - Connexione

@theironfelix - The Spirits’ Cave Course

@theironfelix - Third Party

@theironfelix - Pretzel's apocalypse

@theironfelix - A childhood acquaintance

@theironfelix - A Divine Intervention

@theironfelix - Incident 111a

Cited posts:

@Calluna - "Tell a Story to me, 11th iteration"

@Calluna - “Dedication post”

Cited images

"By Kennith-S"