Trail 49: Beware What You Summon

--- Jon ---

Just like when he’d summoned Wolf he felt some part of himself twitch, not into existence but rather into a more prominent place, and again he was sure that if it wasn’t for the Madness exposure making him very aware of his own mind he wouldn’t even have noticed.

(Maybe I should look into what’s going on there…)

Shaking his head, and pushing back whatever was going on with his mind to a later date, he instead focused on the tall human looking figure standing in the center of the summoning circuit, wearing baggy old clothes and sizing him up with two eyes that seemed to glow in the dark of the night despite the long matted hair hanging over it.

“Who are you?” The figure asked, tilting its head at an angle no human could handle.

“Jon Whitaker.” He answered, feeling something in the back of his head itch as the figure continued to stare at him.

The figure looked down at the circuit trapping it in place and snarled as it met his gaze, “Why did you bring me here, witch?”

“I used a summoning catalyst and it summoned you.” He explained, trying to resist the part of him that did not trust whatever Madness the thing before him was giving off.

“Really?” The figure chuckled, leaning forward in a way that would break a man’s back. “And tell me why should I contract with you?”

Part of him thought about pointing out how the Confidant Catalyst was supposed to summon a creature you were ‘most compatible’ with but he also remembered Ms. Delacroix’s warning that while the potential was there the catalyst was no true guarantee that they’d get along.

“What do you want?” He asked instead.

“To hurt people.” The creature answered, smiling with more teeth than his mouth could fit.

“What kind of people?” He frowned, reluctantly seeking clarification as something told him the creature in front of him was just trying to unsettle him.

“Does it matter?” The thing blinked, stretching its neck until its face was about to touch the circle’s edge. “As long as you don’t know them do you care?”

“I’d rather you not hurt any kids.” He admitted, contemplating if he should dismiss this summons or kill it where it stands. (Mm, I think the Catalyst should have a failsafe to do the first and prevent the second…)

The creature narrowed its eyes before its body began growing bigger and bigger until it dwarfed him.

“And what are you going to do if I harm a child?” The monster asked with a maw full of foot long teeth.

“Hmm…” He considered it for a moment. “I’m leaning towards… burning you alive, that usually kills the eldritch dead. Maybe chop you into little bits beforehand if you prove too slippery.”

Rather than being offended or intimidated by his threat the monster threw its head back and laughed as it slowly shifted back into the form of a man.

“You’re a bit of a monster yourself ain’t ya?” The creature smiled in a twisted sort of way.

He tried not to show how that dug under his skin more than it should’ve.

The monster’s smile seemed to grow even wider. “Ah, that’s your fear isn’t it? That you’re a monster?”

“Man or beast, I’m not a monster.” He told the creature firmly.

“We’re both monsters.” The creature disagreed with a shake of its head. “We just prefer the taste of other monsters.”

“What do you mean?” He frowned once more.

The figure gave him a considering look. “If a man was about to harm a child what would you do?”

“I’d stop him.” He answered the only answer there was.

“And if he wouldn’t stop? If he just kept coming back to hurt the child?” The creature pressed getting close enough to touch the barrier that sparked in the air, a mad sort of fervor to its eyes.

“I’d stop him.” The beast answered, meaning something completely different than he had just a moment before.

The creature looked almost relieved as he smiled once more, if a bit softer this time. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, I would.” He nodded.

The figure looked to the side before giving the circuit at its feet another considering look. “Tell me, do you know what I am?”

“You’re not human.” He knew that much. “You also have a form of… Madness to you.”

“So do you.” The creature pointed out. “Though yours has a bit more… Insanity to it than what I possess.”

He didn’t bother arguing about how they were just two sides to the same crazy coin.

“Still I’m guessing you don’t know what I am then?” The figure smirked. “That’s good, the last few people to summon me knew exactly who I am when they did so.”

“And who are you?” He wondered.

“Depending on the legend, someone very dangerous.” The creature admitted before laughing at something. “Though nowhere near as dangerous as some of the things lurking about.”

He gave the creature an unimpressed look. “Meaning?”

“Meaning, I’m dangerous to certain people but completely harmless to others.” The creature told him in a roundabout kind of way.

“And who exactly are you dangerous to?” He asked, starting to get a feel for the creature’s personality.

“Those who like to hurt the innocent.” The creature smirked, showing off his fangs before shaking his head with a soft smile. “But I’m harmless towards children.”

He wasn’t sure how much he believed that, but at the same time he felt a sort of… kinship with the creature’s fervor or rather his own Madness did. “Well I don’t intend to hurt any kids so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I figured as much, but had to be sure.” The creature shrugged. “A fair few of my legends make me out to hurt children rather than protecting them.”

“Oh?” That seemed like an admitted red flag to him.

“Side effect of a few of my… predecessors believing stealing children from their families was the best way to protect them.” The creature explained, liking picking up how that sounded. “Though do keep in mind that was about four, five hundred years ago when people weren’t quite so… protective of kids as in the modern era.”

“Right…” That still seemed like something to keep an eye on, (but at the same time that was centuries before child protective services were a thing so I can -kind of- believe that there was a magical protective service for kids.) (Though it's just as likely there are in fact monsters that kidnap kids to eat them.)

Like he said it was something to keep an eye on.

“Believe me or don’t it’s not going to hurt me.” The creature shrugged, before looking towards the sky. “Though I am a little curious. If you weren’t summoning me specifically, why exactly did you summon me so close to not only Halloween, but the Hunter’s Moon.”

“The Hunter’s Moon?” He blinked, feeling something connecting with those words.

The creature pointed at the nearly full Moon. “It might be a few days early, but October’s Full Moon is known as the Hunter’s Moon.”

“It is?”

“Yeah, the horror holiday and a full moon on the same day? It’s probably going to be twenty years before we see that again, lots of powerful magic going around this time of year.” The creature told him. “I mean, I get summoned once or twice a year on Halloween but this is like my fifth summon this year… also the first one that didn’t try to sacrifice a kid to me, so that’s nice.”

He felt his whole body do a spasming twitch at that. “What?!”

“Don’t worry, none of them actually killed the kids and all of the cultists are in the hospital.” The creature assured him before smirking. “Definitely freaks those Sanctuary folks when I call them though. They don’t expect a summons to have their number memorized.”

“I’m sure…” He sighed, trying to calm himself down. “Anyway, I used that catalyst because I might need backup for this thing?”

“Oh?” The creature smiled, its face twisting in that distorted way again. “Hunting monsters for Halloween? Sounds like fun.”

“I’m glad you think so, because there are apparently these Creeps that invade the city every year in search of this demon seal or something.” He explained with a grimace.

“Uh, hold up.” The creature stopped him. “When you say creep do you mean capital C ‘monsters from another world’ or lower case c ‘monsters who kidnap kids’?”

He blinked at that need for clarification. “Um, capital C?”

The creature grimaced. “Yeah… no can do.”

“What?”

“Remember how I told you I’m kind of harmless to certain things?” The creature asked.

“Yeah.” He nodded slowly.

“Well, that includes anything that doesn’t feel fear.” The creature told him looking uncomfortable with that detail. “Though to be fair it’s pretty much all Nightmarians that are weak to anything that doesn’t feel fear, since it’s our primary defense mechanism.”

“Oh… That’s… a problem.” He admitted a little awkwardly.

“Yeah, but uh, if you want to hunt down the lower case creeps, you know the kidnappers or rapists running around on Halloween, then I am your guy.” The creature continued, trying to salvage the situation. “Just, uh, if I fight a capital creep… they might eat me… like depending on what you're up against they might, uh, they might actually be my species predators given this time of year and the kinds of capital C Creeps running around.”

“That’s a… bigger problem.” He agreed.

A sort of awkward silence fell over the both of them as they just stood there processing the situation.

“Oh, and uh, the name’s Noctis by the way… Don’t think I told you that…”

Scene Consequences

-Jon is now Contracted to Noctis, The Nightmarian

--Current Contracting Capacity: (10/13)

--New Trait: Nightmarish- Slightly increases all checks when applying Fear effects, as well as increasing offensive checks against enemies who are under Fear effects.

-Gained 1XP to Psych Warfare from engaging the ???? in a verbal duel.

--Currently: Lv. 4 (9/10)

-Gained 1XP to Contracting: Summons and Occult for using the Contracting Catalyst.

--Currently: Contracting: Summons Lv. 6 (2/14) and Occult Lv. 7 (15/16)