Something’s Lurking
In the newly renovated city, life was settling into the routine which seemed normal for the inhabitants of Brandenburg. Seraphie Malcom was getting practice on how to skid to a stop on hardwood floors with hooves. Black Robin was getting a thoroughly amusing afternoon watching her slide into walls. Iris Foster and Amelia Nordenheim sat in the freehold’s library, reading silently while young Douglas sang outside of the window. Tom Landsman, former detective and now newly Chrysalized troll, tried to find a comfortable position to sleep off the aftereffects of taking Bertram’s place for the three amorous mages. Betre and Ax struggled with living on their own, spending the majority of their time fighting and throwing a useless toaster.
Marius’s students and adepts bolted hither and yon, struggling with research, taking care of hundreds of fae children, and continuing with their studies. The former Technocrats, Valerie and Trenk, seemed the calmest of all, dealing with the stress as it came. The budding romance between them ended up cutting them a lot of slack with the other students, as the adepts gave them time together, feeling that a little more love in the world couldn’t be wrong.
Everyone was settling into new routines, seeking out some sense of normalcy in a world without mortals. The incoming werewolves were in mourning for lost mates, friends and relatives. Mages saw infinite potential in a world where reality had very loose definition. Changelings were lost and afraid, seeing now that without mortal Dreamers, they were going to have a very hard time getting along. Demons came to the city already quite put out, having lost minions, thralls and lackeys. Perhaps the only creatures who found more power in this new world were the ghosts. Now that the mortal population had been turned into sentient chimera and ghosts, the spirit world had become more populated than the living. Everything was changing, and everyone was trying to adapt…it was just looking really, really hard.
As normalcy was reestablished, and the Dreaming swirled in mindless chaos over the world, something hidden began crawling forward into the light. Locked away for thousands of years, it found something akin to joy in being able to move, twist and seek new boundaries. For the first time ever, there were new walls…and a door. As it slithered and writhed its way forward, it would have made a sound, had it been able. It was the first Nightmare, the first thing that made mortals scream and gave changelings a reason to fear the dark. It had birthed sluagh, redcaps and a host of other horrific creatures. Now, its bonds had been broken…and it sensed great potential in the world outside.