UnFamiliar [U4G; Text]

[mysticCharlatan]

Imagine a city very much like the great ones of our time. Tokyo, New York, London. Towering skyscrapers, pillars of glass gleaming in the sunlight. Well dressed men and women milling about on the street, walking from store to store or simply enjoying the day. Businessmen in offices making and losing fortunes in stocks, performers in the streets entertaining the masses, expensive cars caught in rush hour traffic. Perhaps this is familiar to you. And indeed, New Salem is perhaps one of the greatest post-Advent cities in the world. Under the watch and care of the Corporations, this city has flourished to heights rivalling the cities of bygone days, perhaps even surpasing them.

But the trained eye may notice sutble differences. The businessmen chant strange words as they look over ancient tomes, the cars run quietly and smoothly without even the faintest hum of an engine, and the street performers, while enjoyed, are almost imperceptibly avoided, as though they have some disease, some contagion that might spread by contact.

The streets host much fewer people than a city of this size would suggest. Cameras are on every street corner. Men in white suits and dark glasses can be seen casually watching the crowds. On most every man or woman's clothing, an emblem, a statement of loyalty is visible.

But the greatest difference are the animals. Creatures of any shape and size march alongside the well dressed men and women. Dogs and cats are present of course. But so are birds, black ravens and bright parrots. Lizards, tiny geckos that ride upon a shoulder, snakes that slither about, and great crawling reptiles that trail after their human counterparts. Bats flit about, insects crawl and buzz, and an ape even can be seen shambling behind a young woman. And all of this goes unnoticed by the people. Or at least, no on seems concerned with it.

That is because for the last two hundred years or so, such things have become commonplace.

These are the Familiars. The source, or perhaps conduits some researchers say, of magic.

But of course, every great city has two sides. Where there is light, there must be darkness. Where there are pristine skyscrapers, there must be dirty alleyways. Where there are haves, there must be have-nots.

That is where this tale begins then. In the darkness, in a dirty alleyway, with two young men, teenage boys to be truthful, who are most certainly have-nots. They are in the outskirts of the city, for away from the shining fortresses of progress and reason. They wear dishevelled and mismatched clothes, with no visible emblem. They pant heavily and look around nervously, as though they have been running from now unseen persuers.

Which is in fact exactly what they were doing. One, the shorter of the two by only a few inches, turns to the other. Fear in his eyes, he whispers, "We should never have gotten into this. What did Mom always tell us?"

The other one, taller of the two, pauses for a moment in thought.

"Always wash behind your ears?"

"Ye- No! Do you really think that's important right now?"

"...Look both ways before you cross the street?"

"N- okay fine, that's still kind of important. But it's not what I-"

"Stop doing that or you'll go blind?"

"What? No! I'm talking about how she always told us not to go into abandoned buildings or we might get hurt!"

"Ah. Right. But we weren't hurt, were we?"

"We now have three different Corporations and the Witch Hunters after us now. We're going to be, trust me."

<Would you two kindly stop with the unnecessary chatter? I don't feel like dying today.>

"Well I'm open to suggestions!"

"About what?"

"I'm not- or right, you can't hear her."

The shorter boy messages his temples. 'If I survive this,' he thinks to himself, 'I am never going to leave our shack for as long as I live.'

<Pretty big if.>

'Oh shut up and help me think of something useful to do.'

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Yeah, I'm doing a text adventure for the U4G contest. Probably the stupidest thing ever, but I thought, "eh, what's the worst that could happen?"

[supersinger472]

Red dude, who are you talking to?

[Wacom Guy]

Who is 'she?'

[OldManRupee]

Some kind of tiny animal familiar? One we can't see?

[kd7sov]

> Familiar: Exposit.

[Yako]

You need to hide. Somewhere you know like the back of your hand. Somewhere the agents won't do so well; it can't be permanent, but you can't think hard when you're running.

[Brickman]

Seek new clothes, fast. Go dumpster diving if necessary, just ditch the outfits they last saw you in.

[mysticCharlatan]

Seek new clothes, fast. Go dumpster diving if necessary, just ditch the outfits they last saw you in.

The young man looks over himself. Faded jeans that are torn to the point of almost being shorts, and a very unique shirt that he was told came from a land called "Hawaii" before the Advent. Runs a hand through his unkempt brown hair, looks around, and once he is sure that his persuers are not in the immediate vicinity, moves directly towards the nearest dumpster and hops inside.

"Uh... Bro?"

<What in the Aether's name are you doing?>

"What exactly are you doing?"

"I need to get out of these clothes," he explains to the two of them.

"I know that they always say we all look the same to the Patricians, but you never know."

<Well, well, well. An actual plan. A stupid one that will never work, but a plan nonetheless.>

"Shut up and help me out. Not you Jake," he adds quickly, seeing his brother begin to reply, "but feel free to jump in and help as well. And try and find some scissors. A haircut might not be a bad idea either."

Jake does so, and after a moment of silent searching the boy feels the slight ticklish feeling his new "partner" crawling out from somewhere in his clothes. Sure enough, a spider, large as a tarantula but looking more like a black widow, can be seen scuttling about the trash, lifting some small piece here and there with the tip of one of its front legs and looking inexplicably disgusted. Jake shifts away, and even the boy shudders slightly at the mental image of that thing crawling over him.

<I shouldn't be crawling around in this trash like this for a cretin like you.>

"You also shouldn't have been in that warehouse and bonded to a cretin like me!" he cries out in exasperation. He instantly regrets raising his voice, but doesn't hear the sound of persuit yet so it seems that no harm was done. Lowing his voice again, he whispers, "What exactly were you doing there anyway? I thought all of the Familiars in the city were already bound to a Patrician."

> Familiar: Exposit.

<Ignorant boy. The Chikara Corporation keeps at least a hundred unbound Familiars in captivity for new generations of humans to bind to, or because they do not meet the "acceptable variances expected in a tame Familiar". Bah. And who knows how many of my brothers and sisters are held captive by the other Corporations.>

<But that is beside the point. I did not intent to spend the rest of my life in cold storage like some bovine's carcass, nor did I relish the idea of becoming the slave to some puffed up monkey, so I made my escape and have been hiding here in the slums for the last few weeks.>

"And why exactly did you decided to bind to me? What with all that fuss over not being a slave."

<Silence, boy. I had no intention of being a slave, but the sad fact is that I cannot immediately access the full extent of my magic without binding to a human. I had planned to render you a braindead husk to be enslaved to my will, as nature intended, but something in the ritual must have gone wrong.>

"How terrible for you."

<Indeed. Here.>

The spider drags a nearly white, collared shirt towards towards the boy. He raises his eyebrows in surprise.

"That's... pretty good, all things considering."

<Well, until we can find a way to seperate ourselves that does not kill me or render me insane, we are stuck together. And I will not have you looking as though you have salvaged your entire wardrobe from refuse, cretin.>

"Would you stop calling me that? I have a name. It's Will."

<Yes, yes. Let us get a move on, cretin.>

You need to hide. Somewhere you know like the back of your hand. Somewhere the agents won't do so well; it can't be permanent, but you can't think hard when you're running.

After dressing himself in the black slacks and white shirt that the three discovered, Will pulls himself out of the dumpster and helps Jake do the same. Jake wears a new outfit of his own, but unfortunately neither of them discovered scissors, so they are still with the same hairstyles. The Familiar crawls out on her own, looking at once proud of the fact that she needed no assistance and yet offended that none was offered. Will doesn't know how he is aware of this. Perhaps it comes from being in contact with the thing's mind.

Once all three are out, they hear shouting coming from nearby, followed by the pounding of boots on the ground and the unmistakeable sound of guns being readied.

"So, either Witch Hunters or ICorp," Will muses, "Which would you rather get caught by?"

"Neither, if at all possible."

"Good idea."

The two brothers begin to make there way away from where they believe there persuers are coming from. After a few moments of silence, Jake speaks.

"Where are we going?"

"Not home," Will says forcefully, "I'm not bringing these bastards down on Mom's head."

"So where then?"

Will ponders for a moment, and then provides the first answer that comes to his mind.

"Antonio's chop shop. That whole wrecking yard is our turf, we'll be able to lay low there for a while."

"Great. I'll follow your lead."

[OldManRupee]

Practice magics on the way there.

[Wacom Guy]

Head over there, but punch a wall on the way there.

[Ouroboros]

> Will: Point out to the familiar that things will be easier all around if the two of you don't get into the habit of sniping at each other without reason. It's not like calling you by name takes any extra effort on its part.

[mysticCharlatan]

Practice magics on the way there.

The two brothers make there way as quickly as they are able without drawing attention to themselves, keeping to the back alleys and dark corners. The Familiar tries her best to keep up, but despite being able to maintain a surprising level of speed for her size, still finds herself falling behind. Eventually, she apparently gives up and quickly crawls up Will's leg while he and Jake stop to catch their breath.

Will shudders for a moment, still not used to the idea of an eight legged creature crawling on his body, before contact causes him to consciously realize something that terror has kept on the periphery of his mind: he now has a Familiar. By rights, that makes him a mage. Magic is a part of the creature he is bound to, and thus is now a part of him. Perhaps if he just sort of...

Will bites his lip in concentration, waving his hands in front of his face. 'Right now would be a real good time to figure out how to become invisible,' he thinks to himself. It is only a few moments afterwards that he recalls with some measure of embarassment that his thoughts are not only his own anymore.

<And how to you propose to do that, cretin?>

'Magic, I guess.'

<Hahaha. Don't make me laugh. Do you think I'd allow a miserable creature like you access to my great power?>

> Will: Point out to the familiar that things will be easier all around if the two of you don't get into the habit of sniping at each other without reason. It's not like calling you by name takes any extra effort on its part.

Will lets out an exasperated sigh, causing his brother to look at him in confusion. Will simply gestures to the creature currently trying to find a way to ride upon his head in an authoritative way. Jake nods knowingly, takes one last look around the corner, and motions for the party to resume movement.

'Alright,' Will thinks, remembering this time that he does not have to speak aloud for the Familiar to hear him, 'I think the two of us have gotten off on the wrong foot. Let's start over. I'm Will. I guess we're going to be partners for a while. What's your name?'

<You may call me Neith, and I am not your partner. As I said before, our connection as anything other than Mistress and servant is a sad accident which you will seek to rectify as soon as possible. In fact, forget a name. You will call me Mistress, cretin.>

'Look, I'm only trying to be friendly Neith. You could do the same. And is it really necessary to call me that? You know my name now, it can't be that hard to remember.'

<My memory is impeccable; it is yours which is faulty. I told you that you are to call me Mistress. I am not your "friend", so we will never be on a first name basis.>

'You know what? Forget Neith, and you can sure as hell forget Mistress. You are officially She Devil.'

Head over there, but punch a wall on the way there.

Will punches the nearest wall out of frustration. He then shakes his fist in pain, ignoring Neith's laughter in the back of his mind.

Suddenly there comes a sound which silences even her laughter: a voice, high and commanding, coming from the alleyway the group was just about to head down. The sound of footsteps behind them is still present, but none of the group can currently tell which way they are travelling.

[brainfree]

Still not willing to help yet spiderbitch?

[OldManRupee]

[Yako]

Grovel a bit for some magical help. It's not dignified, but it might get you something you need right now.

[supersinger472]

Threaten to smash her if she doesn't obey you

[Brickman]

Pick another alley fast. Preferably one leading in an entirely different direction. And hurry; they may be trying to surround you.

[mysticCharlatan]

Threaten to smash her if she doesn't obey you

'Alright,' Will thinks, his patience with the Familiar finally reaching its limit, 'I am pretty much fed up with this. News flash: the Familiar serves the mage, not the other way around. Now make with the magic to get us out of this or I swear I will crush you under the heaviest book I can find like the bug you are.'

<First of all, you ignorant cretin, a spider is an arachnid. Secondly, I only take the form of one in this plane, I am in fact a creature of pure magic. Finally, I sincerely doubt that anything you can do would actually harm me.>

'What?'

<We Familiars are designed to take much more damage than one of you pathetic humans could possibly endure. I have heard tale that there were some weapons before the Advent that were a threat to us, but now? Your only weapon is to turn us against eachother.>

Will remains silent for a moment, before reaching about his head, grabbing the spider there, and forcefully crushing it against the wall.

<Ow. See, I'm perfectly- ow- fine.>

"Damn it," he whispers under his breath.

<By the way, did you notice there is a third way out of here?>

Pick another alley fast. Preferably one leading in an entirely different direction. And hurry; they may be trying to surround you.

"Come on Jake," Will whispers, pointing towards another alleyway, "this way."

In truth it is not much of an alleyway, more like the slightest gap between two buildings, but there is barely enough room for a human being to slide through. The brothers do so, not a moment too soon as the footsteps of their persuers reach the point where they were just hiding. A single set of footsteps join them, sounding distinctly sharper than the heavy boots of the ICorp grunts, and a female voice follows it.

"Where are they? Come on, we have to find them."

The two brothers reach the end of the gap, and freeze for a moment, but hear no sounds of anyone following through. They both breath a sigh of relief. Jake leans against a wall, Will hunches over with his hands on his knees, and Neith finally clears the gap herself and hastily scrambles atop his head once again.

"That," Jake says, "was way to close."

"I'd say."

Will is the first to turn towards the source of the voice, keeping his panting brother behind him the whole time. A man in his late twenties, dressed impeccably in a business suit, stands at the end of the alley they have found themselves in, blocking the only exit other than the one they just used. His black hair is trimmed and neat, and his blue eyes show his Asian descent. A smile is upon his lips, and a snake hangs lazily along his shoulders.

"Can't have ICorp getting there hands on what rightfully belongs to Chikara, can we?"

[The One Guy]

> Will: 'Argue about whether I deserve it all you want, but now woud be a really good time for some magic!'

[supersinger472]

Whoa whoa whoa! Who's Chikara?

[Brickman]

That's the guys they "stole" the spider from, remember?

SEonding The One Guy's suggestion.

[mysticCharlatan]

Whoa whoa whoa! Who's Chikara?

"Chika-who?" Jake looks to his brother in confusion.

<Does this idiot know nothing?>

'Don't call my brother-'

"It's the Corporation you stole that familiar from, idiot."

"Hey!" Will shouts, taking out his frustrations on the man in front of him, "I said don't call my brother an idiot!"

"Suppose I can't expect much from Plebians like them, huh?" the man asks the snake on his shoulder.

<Ssssir, perhapssss we sssshould move along.> The voice is like Neith's, soundless and appearing in Will's mind unbidden, but he can tell instinctively it isn't hers. The voice sounds male to him, and he knows that it is coming from the snake on the man's shoulders. A Familiar.

"Yes, yes, Nachash," the man says while waving his hand in annoyance, "Right to business."

"Alright, this is how it's going to be. We're taking the spider back, and we can't just leave her bound to you. So this can go one of two ways. Either I drag you back to Chikara Headquarters and you undergo a painful procedure to seperate the two of you, one that will definitely drive you mad and will probably kill you. Or, I kill you nice and quick right here in this alley, so that that little pain in the ass suffers all the psychic backlash. I'm a nice guy, so I want to leave it up to you. But I'm also kind of pushed for time, so I'm going to give you... say, fifteen seconds to make up your mind."

With that, he pulls his Familiar off of his shoulders and runs a hand along its length, whispering something. As his hand passes over, the snake begins to change. After a moment, the man is holding a long, slightly curved, single edged sword with a sinuous design on its side, the only indication of the snake that it once was. How points the sword at his prey.

"Ten seconds now. Tick tock."

> Will: 'Argue about whether I deserve it all you want, but now woud be a really good time for some magic!'

'Come on now,' Will silently pleads, 'I know you don't want me dead yet. We have to get out of this, and magic looks like the only way.'

<I suppose so,> Neith concedes with a sigh.

<Very well, cretin. Hold out your arm and allow me to do my work.>

Will follows the Familiar's instructions, and in less than a second the spider crawls off his head and is resting on the back of his hand. Another second more and it is waving its front limbs in what is obviously an arcane fashion to initiate some sort of spell. A second more...

<What? What is happening?>

"Seven."

"What are you doing? We need a spell right now!"

"Six."

<It- it's not working! What have you done to me cretin!>

"Five."

<It would appear that you two have not fully completed the binding. Were you not aware->

"Four."

<Silence! I will not be lectured by a traitor such as yourself!>

"Three."

"Are you kidding? Are you saying after all that, you can't actually use magic?!?"

"Two."

"Um, guys? I think we might want to run."

"One. Alright, quick and easy way it is!"

[Malrone]

*pops up* here we are, now...

>Jake: Barrel (into the suit)
>Will: Roll (away from the attack)

[Brickman]

Point out that if you shout the ICorp goons are only feet away and will have no trouble finding you. And they'll have him badly outnumbered.

[Xindaris]

>Time for a rescue by a..hm..5th party. 1=kids/Nieth, 2=ICorp, 3=whoever the others were, 4=this guy with the snakesword.