A Slow Day
Kei is playing old footage captured seven years ago. She bought it yesterday and is watching it with Eta. It is raining and the rain in Changye is not something you want to run around.
“What’s this?”
“Found footage.”
“Actual found footage or just a made up one?”
“Actual.”
Eta rests lazily on the side. I pull my office chair and sit with my chin rested on the backrest.
Kei plays the footage. Its first fifty seconds is the camera being pointed at a wall. Then the cameraman tilts his camera to the left and there’s a skeleton in robes. It is talking.
“Draugr?”
“Necromancer. Specifically, one that contracted with a devil.”
I looked at them and then hurriedly stopped the tape.
“Hold up. Pause. Kei, do we know if it’s haunted?”
Eta throws me the casing. A talisman is pasted on the back of it. I palmed my face.
“You do know that some of these tapes can induce a mind break? Do you even trusts low-quality talismans like these?”
Mind breaks can cause the person who witnesses the harrowing sight to go insane. It’s best to describe it as the mind not being able to comprehend the data it is processing and thus causes an overload of information that sends the mind into an temporary or an immediate terror.
“It’s fine.”
She hands me the form that says the footage has been watched already.
“You do know that sometimes they make it seem like someone watched it?”
“Stop being a baby and watch.”
Kei snorts and blows smoke out of her cigarette. I sigh. I took my smoking pipe and started smoking it.
“Look at you.”
I ignore Eta elbowing me. I focus on the footage. Right now there’s just a frantic shot of a cameraman running down hallways. The familiar buildings made me pause for a while, but then I continued watching as the cameraman held the camera up to where the Necromancer was.
He is raising the dead. As second passes rotten hands claw the ground and screeches.
The camera turns to the distance. A man whose head is censored with a black dot appears. He is dressed lightly and on his right hand is a saw-tooth sword with a flat end.
“What’s the title of this again?”
“Pale Magus.”
I check the tape casing and find the address of the shop selling it. Mentally taking note of the address, I put the casing down and sat back.
“This is lame.”
“It’s pretty okay.”
Eta retorts. On the footage is just a man with a censored face cutting down undead that keeps on attacking. The problem with the undead is that unless you purify the dead or burn the corpses. The undead will keep on coming back again and again.
The REDACTED swings that saw-edged sword with ease. Realizing the amount of rotten flesh he cuts through. He takes a stance, and then appears next to the Necromancer. A shockwave rang and a loud ground explosion followed by a sonic boom made the cameraman groan helplessly on the floor.
“My ears! My ears!”
The cameraman looks at the blood pouring out of his ears. The REDACTED swings his sword and turns the Necromancer into paste on the ground with a single swipe.
The cameraman continues to point the lens on the Redacted which is a mistake. Another sonic boom rang out and the cameraman flew back.
He is groaning behind the camera and slowly he takes a shot of the Redacted.
The screen warps. The head of the fighter is covered in a black censor. He is wearing a collared shirt and tie with sleeves rolled up. He wears a white collared shirt and on his left hand seems to be some sort of fabric or blood. On his body is what seems to be a pistol strap. Behind him there is pale white smoke coming out. The world behind him seems to distort into this gray void.
The redacted spoke and there’s only censored beeps and we barely could hear anything.
“This is a pretty bad tape.”
Kei fast forwarded it.
“I didn’t say that it’s going to be good footage. This is the Pale Magus collection. Do you know who the Pale Magus is, A?”
“Dunno. Never did watch found footage again after I saw someone’s head melt off their face. After that, I think I have enough of this kind of footage.”
Kei plays the next footage. The tape is mostly footage of the sighting of the Pale Magus. His appearances are all over Eurasia. Some are even clips of him just standing around with his weapons dangling around.
“Wait, that distortion on his head. It isn’t a censor at all.”
“Yup.”
I scratched my head and took a long drag of my smoking pipe.
“I still don’t understand what any of this means. I mean sure I think it's okay, but what about it? What makes this one fun?”
“Fun? More like I just want to watch it.”
Kei smoked and then gave me the side eye.
“I also realize that you aren’t familiar with the Pale Magus at all.”
“I admit. I have no idea.”
The two eyed me seriously.
“What about the Twelve Demis?”
“The Twelve who?”
“The Pale Magus and the Twelve Demis. The Twelve Demis are the Neo Gods that have recently appeared. Whoa, do you seriously not know?”
“I was under this rock called debt so I could barely know about that. The Shanghai Risk, I know, but this one? I have no idea.”
Kei nods her head slowly.
“No wonder. Well, I can’t really blame you. The Pale Magus is weird. We don’t know if it’s edited footage or real one. Because all we know is that the Pale Magus was the cause of the Twelve Demi’s sealing.”
This is news to me. Eta continued to explain for Kei and she said that the Pale Magus and the Twelve Demis is a popular legend. When the Twelve Demis threatened the world. The Pale Magus appeared out of the pale and brought their reign to an end.
It was a myth that everyone seemed to know.
***
It is raining. A curtain of water is covering the Lower City despite the giant platform above us. Because of the platform constantly releasing water to lessen the weight. The downpour floods the lower city. It was common to the residents of the city to look at the streets and see water filling lanes. The huge flooding system below was supposed to drain that, but with flesh pits appearing, disrupting the service tunnels to a disastrous state. I know because I had the displeasure of working as the assistant of a foreman in charge of the sluice gates. I still recall making my way through the service tunnels with so much difficulty.
The foreman was equipped with an exoskeleton and had an easy time navigating the service tunnels. It was during our entry into the main chamber where the control panels were that the foreman had a headache.
Flesh Pits are a problem. But once you start getting Flesh Creatures walking in these pits is where the problem really starts. Soulless Creatures they are. They are without empathy and function by their need to devour. Flesh Pit Flesh has to be made from something. I thought hard about where the flesh is usually generated. The foreman took me to the womb of the flesh pit and there I saw that it does not discriminate. Yes, the flesh mutates into a different composition after it grows, but it still came from rats or a cadaver that floated down.
“Usually this veiny ball of meat attaches itself to the body. Most of them attach to the mice, the bodies of whatever floated down here. You know how a plant grows? It spreads itself. Like a plant, then self-devours it.”
The foreman was describing it with a dull face. I can still recall the light on his hardhat flickering as he points out and explains it to me. His matter-of-fact voice too.
“Then it grows. Into this rolling meat ball that keeps on devouring until it hatches from its egg-state into whatever shape it thinks is most suitable.”
It eats and eats until one day it becomes strong enough to spread its shape. The foreman told me that the flesh pit creatures are similar to worker bees as well. They harvest flesh and bring it back to their flesh-hive until it spreads from tunnels to tunnels. Funny thing about these creatures? They have become so common after the Shanghai Risk that there are documents and how-to manuals on how to approach them.
I still remember memorizing that 50-page manual. How to operate the portable flamethrower and the amount of petroleum I was inhaling while working on that company.
Most of the service tunnels are being cleaned monthly. But various interests have probably prevented the cleanup. Why? I think the city being half-flooded is why I have come into this conclusion. No wonder Kei had me buy a stock of meat.
Eta’s cooking meat on the mini-stove. I am smoking outside. Kei comes out and lights another cigarette.
“Think you can go home?”
“Don’t think so.”
“We have sleeping bags so no worries. You two can crash on the couch until the flooding is over.”
Not far from Asobe Street is one of the pillars holding Changye up. On the pillars I can see water running down on its surface.
“You think there are Anoms out there?”
“Who knows? Right now I don’t want to think about those monsters. No way I’m going out there.”
The heavy acid rain is a problem. I can probably make it if I use the tenements to cross until I get to the service train, but it is a hassle.
“By the way, Boss. How’s the deal with Mr. Riva.”
“It’s alright. He’s an old man who thinks highly of himself, yes. But as expected he has a decent amount of people under him that will agree to our requests. Subsidy money’s going to them.”
She didn’t sound annoyed.
"Thought you'd be more."
“Gotta spend money to earn money.”
“Ain’t that a sad truth?”
Kei puts on a melancholic face. She taps her cigarette on the railing and looks at the sky blandly.
“Sometimes I think that I should stop and make my own restaurant. Small one that serves cheap draft beer and skewers and fries. The kind you can find on some wall.”
“Ain’t that hard?”
“Oh, it is. Shops and restaurants come and go all the time. And honestly, despite the gold mine that is the anomalies. It’s too dangerous for the long term. Especially when we meet unreasonable anomalies that can semi-tamper reality. ”
“Yeah, but it earns us good cash.”
“Yup. Too good to pass up on. Really, that’s why it's hard to have dreams in this city, my Assistant.”
She was quite sad when she said that. Like she truly meant it.
“That’s Changye for you. Kei, ever thought of finding a good place to live?”
“Like the Havens? Not my kind of place. Too… peaceful. And I’d rather not spend days in a safe place for years only for it to get broken and then go to the process of realizing I have to be strong and sturdy to survive again. I’ll be rusty if I ever decide to enter that kind of place.”
“Again huh... That so?”
"Yup. That so."
Havens are places where you can buy a place as long as you offer a particular skill set and the cash. It’s where the rich mostly live and are protected from the outside world. Kinda like an underground cavern community that stays away from the affairs of the world.
I don’t think I’ll fit in that kind of place too.
“Yo, the meat’s done.”
Eta calls out and claps the stainless steel tongs twice. Kei throws her cigarette off the railing. The butt landed on top of a car submerged underwater. I tapped my smoking pipe as well and watched the ash fly for a second before it was assaulted by the relentless rain.
It looks like today is a slow day for our office. Once the rain’s done it’s back to business.
A Slow Day
Kei is playing old footage captured seven years ago. She bought it yesterday and is watching it with Eta. It is raining and the rain in Changye is not something you want to run around.
“What’s this?”
“Found footage.”
“Actual found footage or just a made up one?”
“Actual.”
Eta rests lazily on the side. I pull my office chair and sit with my chin rested on the backrest.
Kei plays the footage. Its first fifty seconds is the camera being pointed at a wall. Then the cameraman tilts his camera to the left and there’s a skeleton in robes. It is talking.
“Draugr?”
“Necromancer. Specifically, one that contracted with a devil.”
I looked at them and then hurriedly stopped the tape.
“Hold up. Pause. Kei, do we know if it’s haunted?”
Eta throws me the casing. A talisman is pasted on the back of it. I palmed my face.
“You do know that some of these tapes can induce a mind break? Do you even trusts low-quality talismans like these?”
Mind breaks can cause the person who witnesses the harrowing sight to go insane. It’s best to describe it as the mind not being able to comprehend the data it is processing and thus causes an overload of information that sends the mind into an temporary or an immediate terror.
“It’s fine.”
She hands me the form that says the footage has been watched already.
“You do know that sometimes they make it seem like someone watched it?”
“Stop being a baby and watch.”
Kei snorts and blows smoke out of her cigarette. I sigh. I took my smoking pipe and started smoking it.
“Look at you.”
I ignore Eta elbowing me. I focus on the footage. Right now there’s just a frantic shot of a cameraman running down hallways. The familiar buildings made me pause for a while, but then I continued watching as the cameraman held the camera up to where the Necromancer was.
He is raising the dead. As second passes rotten hands claw the ground and screeches.
The camera turns to the distance. A man whose head is censored with a black dot appears. He is dressed lightly and on his right hand is a saw-tooth sword with a flat end.
“What’s the title of this again?”
“Pale Magus.”
I check the tape casing and find the address of the shop selling it. Mentally taking note of the address, I put the casing down and sat back.
“This is lame.”
“It’s pretty okay.”
Eta retorts. On the footage is just a man with a censored face cutting down undead that keeps on attacking. The problem with the undead is that unless you purify the dead or burn the corpses. The undead will keep on coming back again and again.
The REDACTED swings that saw-edged sword with ease. Realizing the amount of rotten flesh he cuts through. He takes a stance, and then appears next to the Necromancer. A shockwave rang and a loud ground explosion followed by a sonic boom made the cameraman groan helplessly on the floor.
“My ears! My ears!”
The cameraman looks at the blood pouring out of his ears. The REDACTED swings his sword and turns the Necromancer into paste on the ground with a single swipe.
The cameraman continues to point the lens on the Redacted which is a mistake. Another sonic boom rang out and the cameraman flew back.
He is groaning behind the camera and slowly he takes a shot of the Redacted.
The screen warps. The head of the fighter is covered in a black censor. He is wearing a collared shirt and tie with sleeves rolled up. He wears a white collared shirt and on his left hand seems to be some sort of fabric or blood. On his body is what seems to be a pistol strap. Behind him there is pale white smoke coming out. The world behind him seems to distort into this gray void.
The redacted spoke and there’s only censored beeps and we barely could hear anything.
“This is a pretty bad tape.”
Kei fast forwarded it.
“I didn’t say that it’s going to be good footage. This is the Pale Magus collection. Do you know who the Pale Magus is, A?”
“Dunno. Never did watch found footage again after I saw someone’s head melt off their face. After that, I think I have enough of this kind of footage.”
Kei plays the next footage. The tape is mostly footage of the sighting of the Pale Magus. His appearances are all over Eurasia. Some are even clips of him just standing around with his weapons dangling around.
“Wait, that distortion on his head. It isn’t a censor at all.”
“Yup.”
I scratched my head and took a long drag of my smoking pipe.
“I still don’t understand what any of this means. I mean sure I think it's okay, but what about it? What makes this one fun?”
“Fun? More like I just want to watch it.”
Kei smoked and then gave me the side eye.
“I also realize that you aren’t familiar with the Pale Magus at all.”
“I admit. I have no idea.”
The two eyed me seriously.
“What about the Twelve Demis?”
“The Twelve who?”
“The Pale Magus and the Twelve Demis. The Twelve Demis are the Neo Gods that have recently appeared. Whoa, do you seriously not know?”
“I was under this rock called debt so I could barely know about that. The Shanghai Risk, I know, but this one? I have no idea.”
Kei nods her head slowly.
“No wonder. Well, I can’t really blame you. The Pale Magus is weird. We don’t know if it’s edited footage or real one. Because all we know is that the Pale Magus was the cause of the Twelve Demi’s sealing.”
This is news to me. Eta continued to explain for Kei and she said that the Pale Magus and the Twelve Demis is a popular legend. When the Twelve Demis threatened the world. The Pale Magus appeared out of the pale and brought their reign to an end.
It was a myth that everyone seemed to know.
***
It is raining. A curtain of water is covering the Lower City despite the giant platform above us. Because of the platform constantly releasing water to lessen the weight. The downpour floods the lower city. It was common to the residents of the city to look at the streets and see water filling lanes. The huge flooding system below was supposed to drain that, but with flesh pits appearing, disrupting the service tunnels to a disastrous state. I know because I had the displeasure of working as the assistant of a foreman in charge of the sluice gates. I still recall making my way through the service tunnels with so much difficulty.
The foreman was equipped with an exoskeleton and had an easy time navigating the service tunnels. It was during our entry into the main chamber where the control panels were that the foreman had a headache.
Flesh Pits are a problem. But once you start getting Flesh Creatures walking in these pits is where the problem really starts. Soulless Creatures they are. They are without empathy and function by their need to devour. Flesh Pit Flesh has to be made from something. I thought hard about where the flesh is usually generated. The foreman took me to the womb of the flesh pit and there I saw that it does not discriminate. Yes, the flesh mutates into a different composition after it grows, but it still came from rats or a cadaver that floated down.
“Usually this veiny ball of meat attaches itself to the body. Most of them attach to the mice, the bodies of whatever floated down here. You know how a plant grows? It spreads itself. Like a plant, then self-devours it.”
The foreman was describing it with a dull face. I can still recall the light on his hardhat flickering as he points out and explains it to me. His matter-of-fact voice too.
“Then it grows. Into this rolling meat ball that keeps on devouring until it hatches from its egg-state into whatever shape it thinks is most suitable.”
It eats and eats until one day it becomes strong enough to spread its shape. The foreman told me that the flesh pit creatures are similar to worker bees as well. They harvest flesh and bring it back to their flesh-hive until it spreads from tunnels to tunnels. Funny thing about these creatures? They have become so common after the Shanghai Risk that there are documents and how-to manuals on how to approach them.
I still remember memorizing that 50-page manual. How to operate the portable flamethrower and the amount of petroleum I was inhaling while working on that company.
Most of the service tunnels are being cleaned monthly. But various interests have probably prevented the cleanup. Why? I think the city being half-flooded is why I have come into this conclusion. No wonder Kei had me buy a stock of meat.
Eta’s cooking meat on the mini-stove. I am smoking outside. Kei comes out and lights another cigarette.
“Think you can go home?”
“Don’t think so.”
“We have sleeping bags so no worries. You two can crash on the couch until the flooding is over.”
Not far from Asobe Street is one of the pillars holding Changye up. On the pillars I can see water running down on its surface.
“You think there are Anoms out there?”
“Who knows? Right now I don’t want to think about those monsters. No way I’m going out there.”
The heavy acid rain is a problem. I can probably make it if I use the tenements to cross until I get to the service train, but it is a hassle.
“By the way, Boss. How’s the deal with Mr. Riva.”
“It’s alright. He’s an old man who thinks highly of himself, yes. But as expected he has a decent amount of people under him that will agree to our requests. Subsidy money’s going to them.”
She didn’t sound annoyed.
"Thought you'd be more."
“Gotta spend money to earn money.”
“Ain’t that a sad truth?”
Kei puts on a melancholic face. She taps her cigarette on the railing and looks at the sky blandly.
“Sometimes I think that I should stop and make my own restaurant. Small one that serves cheap draft beer and skewers and fries. The kind you can find on some wall.”
“Ain’t that hard?”
“Oh, it is. Shops and restaurants come and go all the time. And honestly, despite the gold mine that is the anomalies. It’s too dangerous for the long term. Especially when we meet unreasonable anomalies that can semi-tamper reality. ”
“Yeah, but it earns us good cash.”
“Yup. Too good to pass up on. Really, that’s why it's hard to have dreams in this city, my Assistant.”
She was quite sad when she said that. Like she truly meant it.
“That’s Changye for you. Kei, ever thought of finding a good place to live?”
“Like the Havens? Not my kind of place. Too… peaceful. And I’d rather not spend days in a safe place for years only for it to get broken and then go to the process of realizing I have to be strong and sturdy to survive again. I’ll be rusty if I ever decide to enter that kind of place.”
“Again huh... That so?”
"Yup. That so."
Havens are places where you can buy a place as long as you offer a particular skill set and the cash. It’s where the rich mostly live and are protected from the outside world. Kinda like an underground cavern community that stays away from the affairs of the world.
I don’t think I’ll fit in that kind of place too.
“Yo, the meat’s done.”
Eta calls out and claps the stainless steel tongs twice. Kei throws her cigarette off the railing. The butt landed on top of a car submerged underwater. I tapped my smoking pipe as well and watched the ash fly for a second before it was assaulted by the relentless rain.
It looks like today is a slow day for our office. Once the rain’s done it’s back to business.
