Running his bow across the strings he stopped for a moment, his hand reached out and slowly met the stranger's before pulling back; it was a simple hand shake. Meanwhile his eyes stared deep into the stranger's, he was interested in him to a degree but he would have plenty of time to question him later, he knew they would be here for quite awhile, leaving the city would be counter productive at this point and the land outside the city was much more dangerous than the land inside the city. After a few moments of silence Hadrian began,

"If you're interested in self preservation, leaving the city will lower your chances of just that by a huge margin." Pausing his hand rose as he slowly swept his limb across the sky

"This city is surrounded by tribes who shun urban life, although they may not settle extremely close to the city they'll find what's going on right now as a threat to their tribal lands and will most likely respond by attacking refugees and rioters alike" Pausing again he thought for a moment

"In fact, this could cause the tribes to go to war with one another which in the end will simply bring more blood shed. So regrettably, I'll have to turn you down on your offer to guide me out of the city, I'll take my chances here for a little while longer."


Returning to his instrument he began to play again, hoping to finish the piece

Kain was relieved to see that Trisha was safe, and agreed with her suggestion.

"We'll head for the Kremlin," He saiid with a hint of relief in his voice. " We'll be somewhat safe there." With that, he followed Trisha down the dark alleyway, trying to clear his head of that encounter.

ooooc: hey ccs im gonna intrude on you okay baby

Lying comfortably against the walls of the alley, India had his nap interrupted by the sound of Tanya's footsteps. His head was underneath a dirty paper bag that was wet around its corners and covered with traces of dirt. Such apparel was an effort of his to stop his psychic abilities from distorting the vision of others in case anyone had walked across him. However, he could still see the surreal images of his mind inside the darkness of the bag, thus his idea still failed to reduce the stress of his insanity. While his waking did not change the sight of his dreams in any way, India could tell he was awakened when he felt the damp coldness of reality once again.

He reached into the right pocket of his coat and fumbled past the bit of rope to reach for his rock friend. As soon as he took it out for him to cherish, the loud din of something thrown into a dumpster startled him and made him drop his little companion, forcing India into a panic to scramble for it. This sudden urgency made him hear dreadful cries for help, cries created by hallucinations that could be heard by anyone near India.

"As a matter of fact, he and I will be heading there right now, there's a crack in the wall that we can escape through deeper into the Odin District. Thank you for helping us." the young woman answered him.

"I was the one that found that crack," Frank said to himself under in his breath as he hurried after her, "By the way, didn't catch your name. I'm Frank Chase, Private Investigator, maybe you've heard of me."

As if, he thought. He didn't have time to play with the common men and women of the city as of late but he still knew the businesses that operated in the square. Too much time spent with the big wigs meant he started losing grasp of his roots. Well, its not like he could replant himself here after Dr. Aristo decided to employ scorched earth tactics. How would anyone be able to live after anarchy hit? It would take way too long to get back in the groove. So what came after the Kremlin? There had to be something else that he could do that was just as fulfilling as information trading. Maybe he could travel, but then where would he go? He had no means to even begin living off the land. Still, it seemed better than staying in New Moscow for the rest of his life, however short or long it may be.

The man who had saved her followed them as they went towards where she believed the crack in the wall to be. He introduced himself as Frank Chase, a private investigator. Had times been more cheerful she probably would have been excited to meet the man and would have had a series of various questions. However time was against them, and it would be long before the chaos continued to spread through the city to a point where escaping to the Kremlin would no longer be an option.

"A pleasure to meet you" she said while huffing "I'm Trisha and this" she nodded in the direction of the boy with his sword "is Kain. I'll just let you know right now that we are both mentals, but we mean you no harm, that is....unless you mean us harm. Though I can't say I've heard of you, perhaps that's a good thing in your profession?" They halted before an old abandoned building, it was clear that no one had been to this area of the Odin District in a very long time. The ground here was trodden upon dirt and had not been covered with cobblestone like many of the newer more frequented areas of New Moscow.

Looking around warily, she entered into the building. She didn't like the look of it, the entrance was dark and the entire building looked like it was most likely to collapse upon them if they so much as sneezed in the wrong direction. At the far back of the room, the crack was noticeable by the slight shadow. In the early days of New Moscow, some homes were built directly attached to the wall, especially in the Odin District where it would be cheaper to build up three other walls as opposed to four. This made many of the older homes potential escape routes, since she wouldn't be surprised if other cracks had formed in the walls of other abandoned houses such as the one they were currently in.

"Alright" she piped up suddenly, her voice seeming to be swallowed by the darkness around them, making it almost sound muffled. "I'll crawl through first. Stay close Kain." She got on her hands and knees and shuffling could be heard as she made her way through the wall. Occasionally she would place her hand on something sharp, a pebble or something else minor, to which she would call out saying she was fine so that they did not panic. She was nearly blinded upon climbing out from the tunnel until her eyes adjusted to the light of the full moon. There was a great plain surrounding New Moscow, and looming above her stood the ancient Kremlin Ruins. A chill went through her body as she gazed up at it. "Ok whoever's next you can go ahead' she called down the tunnel.

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"My name is Anya" replied the little girl chewing the marrow from the bones of the meat she had been given. She wiped her mouth with her dirt covered arm and raised her stuffed bunny in front of herself "This is Rah-Rae and I'mmmmmm five and a half" she raised her right hand with her fingers spread to further emphasize the number five. She blinked at him curiously while following behind him dragging her rabbit on the ground.

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In the streets a chant could be heard, it grew louder and louder, as more people joined in on the chant. "The master race shall not stand down, we'll crush the Dead Heads to the ground."

The chanting grew louder as Ivan soaked in the man's words. Hadrian was clearly more intelligent than him, despite his age. However it was hard to believe that they wouldn't simply be seen as easy targets to the rioters who were rampaging now just a few blocks away. Despite this, he felt as though he should probably take the fiddler's advice to heart and avoid the outskirts of town. After all, it was probably easier to reason with angry neighbors than angry tribals.

If worse came to worst, he could still protect himself with his strong Alexipath powers.

"I see." He remarked, while eying the nearby streets cautiously. "Well, I don't suppose you would mind me staying up here with you? I don't think it would be a great idea to get back down in the streets with all those people killin' each other."

Patrick quickly grasped the taser when he saw the old woman run. But even faster was him taking off when she got closer, a suprising speed for someone stationary. "Sorry, but I'm too young to!" he yelled. He striked her below her left kneecap as he tried to go past.

Pitre chuckled at the young girl's emphasis and playful nature. In a way he was shocked that she was not bawling, considering that she was separated from her family forever and people were dying all around her. He understood well the enduring spirit of the downtrodden, he being similar at one point in his life, but it seemed unreasonable for a child so young to not to be afraid. He had killed many people, some of them children, and many cried as he euthanized them. It was necessary for survival, but he still desired to end it with as little pain as possible.

"Anya, stay near me at all times." He ordered her, a serious expression on his face.

He knew they were beginning to near the main path as the forest was thinning out. After traveling on this path around most of what he understood was a continent, he understood the serious nature of life and death on this road. It was not just the bandits, but the wild animals and freakish weather that plagued the trails.

He made a note of her name as she crawled through and rummaged through his memory for any one that seemed to match her description. As for the boy, he had no clue who he was, the Odin district had too many faces that didn't stand out. The downtrodden usually were like that. Those that stuck out were his informants and he knew them far better than they knew themselves. When she and Kain had gone through, he continued after them, emerging in the deserted ruins of the once great fortification. Well, almost deserted, he could hear the faint sound of music. It was a string instrument and the notes seemed to rain down from one of the buildings. A musician, no doubt a civilised chap. There was strength in numbers and that was probably in their best interest to make sure this man wasn't going to leap down and slaughter them all or something.

He turned to the woman.

"So, Trisha," a short pause before he settled on an educated guess, "Lei I think we should be safe for now, at least until nightfall. There shouldn't be any ghosts that a clerk like you can't handle. They say the ruins are haunted but people say a lot of things. It should be empty but I'm hearing some music. I suggest we find ourselves the supposedly warm body playing that tune and band up with him or her before thinking farther in to the future. Your empath abilities should be able to convince him."

And before she could give him an odd look, he added,

"And don't look at me like that, it's in my business to know."

Frank reticence on actually speaking with the boy was because he knew so little about him. The many "Trisha"s that he knew, only two fit the description of the woman before him so it was a 50-50 guess. It did seem about right though, he knew about a shop that had a fine young woman named Trisha as an employee. The other Trisha would probably be scruffier though since that name also belonged to a young thief and scoundrel. At least that was what he heard a few years back when the latter was more active. The empath ability was something he didn't expect though. He had to use a bit of mental ability to figure that out.

The group introduced themselves to Arthur. They seemed like a smart bunch who new what to do in such a situation.

"My name is Arthur, nice to meet you all. Do any of you guys have a plan out of this mess?"

Hadrian shook his head, his eyes were still fixed on the destruction below and the eerie chill of the old world tale still lingered in his mind.

"I see no reason why you couldn't stay, it's been quite some time since I've been around another person and spoke equally with them." Pulling the bow across the strings a few subtle times he rested the violin beside him.

Ivan unwittingly let a charming smile spread across his face. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "I'll try not to be dead weight. If it helps, I'm an Alexipath," he boasted meekly. The thought that revealing his abilities as a mental in the middle of a genocide might be dangerous hadn't occurred to him.

Before Hadrian could respond, the Alexipath noticed the sounds of footsteps and speaking. The sounds were distant at the moment, but they were quickly getting louder.

"Do you hear that?" Ivan stuttered. "Someone's coming."

Hadrian stood up and motioned with his hand, grabbing 'his' violin in the other.

"It doesn't sound like more than three or four, it's most likely more refugees but it's better to be safe than sorry." After a few steps he slid down against a broken support to hide himself from view.

ooc: sorry I've been MIA, I'm cooking up something possibly...

The elderly woman's eyes widened in shock, quite literally as the prongs of the taser plunged into the area below her left kneecap and shocked her into submission. She clattered to the ground with her cane still grasped in her hands and her breathing heavy as she struggled to regain her composure.

"You abomination! You runt! Your kind is a menace to society," she clambered up leaning on her cane as she stood; this old woman was clearly a fighter. "Look at what your people have done to this jewel of civilization. You have brought the mighty New Moscow crumbling to the ground!" In a desperate attempt to go at him again, she swung once more with her cane to no avail, and she fell to the ground trembling, staring at the boy with an expression that nearly would make one want to be pitied.

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Obediently Anya nodded, dropping bones on the ground carelessly and hugging her stuffed rabbit to her chest. She blinked at her surroundings, not quite sure what to expect, though not afraid. She had never been taught not to speak to strangers, or of the impending dangers of the outside world. To her, this new experience was like being let out from a cage, the forbidding walls of New Moscow no longer enclosing her. It was unusual though, for some reason she felt as though she had seen this place before, as if she'd journeyed on these paths. Perhaps it had all been in a dream?

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Trisha blinked vacantly, not expecting Frank to know so much about her, though she supposed it made sense seeing as he was a private eye. Still, she found it a tad disconcerting, though she was slightly impressed at the same time. She looked back over her shoulder and she could hear a crowd of people chanting some sort of kill threat. She truly didn’t want to have to deal with anymore, especially after such an encounter with Lucas. This whole situation seemed to have brought the worst out of so many people.

“Alright then,” she said in agreement with Frank and she took Kain’s hand and together they walked towards the Kremlin before stopping right at the foot of the building.

“I wonder if this place truly is haunted” she said more to herself than to the others beside her. “I suppose we should go inside” The hallway they entered was covered in thick layers of dust. Glass shards glittered in the moonlight on the ground, and a gentle breeze blew through the window panes stirring up dust and disturbing ancient cobwebs. You could tell that someone or something had been in the halls quite often, perhaps it was the centuries of children investigating the insides of the ruined castle. The tiles near the middle of the hall seemed more worn, much more ancient. One chandelier lay on the ground, many of its crystals stolen, and looking above you could see a gaping hole opening out to the floor above.


“So…we’re here now. What next?” she said, her voice echoing throughout the hall.



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“Pleasure to meet you” replied Shamus “And fortunately we do have a plan out of this hell hole” he continued with a grin. “Little Nikolai over there is a technopath. That is, he’s a technopath with a drill” he indicated to the moderately large-sized backpack on Josef’s back. “We plan on going under the wall and we’ll be free from the city. It was Granny’s idea of course” to which he nudged the old woman in a friendly manner who then laughed to herself, pleased.


“That house over there is where we’ll dig. While my daughter and I will be on the lookout. If anyone comes we’ll keep them busy. Okay people let’s get this show on the road!”


Josef, Nikolai, and Granny headed to the house that Shamus had indicated to. It wasn’t an abandoned house, though it wasn’t the best built of homes. Josef slid the backpack off his back and onto the ground, leaving it with his brother who then opened the bag, while Josef began to move rugs and rip off the wooden floor boards revealing the earth beneath. Nikolai closed his eyes and raised his hands and a rather industrial sized drill began to levitate from the bag towards the hole in the floor that his brother had made in the house. The drill came to life, beginning to spin faster and faster and it was moved in the direction of the hole and began to drill into the earth. Mud and dirt flew everywhere in the room while the hole was being made.


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As Tanya and Elias walked throughout the alleyways, they heard the cries of various ominous cries for help coming from around them. It was a pitiful cry, though one that would also frighten those who were unaware of its phantom-like source.


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“I’m sure I heard music come from this direction” mused a young woman’s voice.


“Look around” replied another woman with a harsher voice.


“What makes you think we want to find this violinist anyways” whined another young woman.

The woman took one look at the assailant's fallen body, let out a scream and ran out of the alley, shoving Elias aside. He gazed after her, dumbfounded. As he saw her throw her shoes in a dumpster, he wondered briefly whether it would be best to let the woman go and try to find his own way out of the city. And yet, as he saw her wandering off, he could not help but imagine her as a lost child, separated from her parents in the deadly maze that had become New Moscow. Indecision immobilized him as sounds of the ongoing conflict assailed his ears.

A single sound rose above all the others. It was a piercing scream, and it seemed to come from the direction that the woman had run. His decision was made. Elias dashed across the street and darted into the alley where he had seen the young lady go. As he went careening by the dumpster, his foot caught on something and he went down, hitting the pavement face first. After a moment, the old man lifted himself up groggily, certain that he would have a nice welt on his forehead as punishment for his hastiness. Turning his head back, he saw the object responsible for the untimely redirection of his momentum. It was a leg. Said leg was attached to an individual, and said individual was slumped against the dumpster. He wore a paper bag over his head from which long strands of dirty hair protruded. He was barely moving, the exception being his right hand, which was stroking a rock held in his left. The man seemed only semi-conscious, a theory supported by the fact the he hadn’t shown any signs of noticing that Elias had just tripped over his leg.

Suddenly, Elias became aware of a multitude of cries for help. They seemed to be coming from all around him, even though the alley was void of any life save himself, the paper bag man and... another scream reached the old man’s ears. Looking down the alley, he saw his young benefactor curled up on the ground, hiding her head under her hands. She let out another scream, followed by “Get away! Get away!” Elias looked around, confused. There was no one else in the alley. What was she afraid of? It wasn’t until his eyes fell upon the wall at the and of the alley that he understood. On it was a giant, horrid face, grinning, grimacing, gnashing it’s teeth. Fangs protruded from it’s beak-like mouth, as did a long red tongue that hung limply from it’s jowls. It’s skin was putrid green, it’s eyes red as blood. “What devilry is this!”, the old man exclaimed in horror. He rose to his feet as quickly as he could and ran to the woman’s side, picking up a stone that lay near the wall. He lobbed it at the apparition, but it flew straight through, hitting the wall and falling to the ground. The beast was non-material, at least. Elias knelt by the woman, saying as gently as he could, “Are you alright? Can you hear me?” He glanced again at the monstrous eyes on the wall. The face wasn’t getting any closer, and it seemed content just to gaze at them. Elias placed his hand on the young lady’ shoulder and prayed aloud, “Lord, I know not what perils we now face. Please, watch over this young woman and guard her life. Free her mind from this torment.”