2019-12-06: Prokope
- Cutscene: Prokope
- Cast: Seraph Harmaus
- Where: Somewhere in Aquavy
- Date: December 6th, 2019
- Summary: Months ago, Harmaus achieves an objective.
BGM: (Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse ~ Ryota Kozuka - Dagda Theme) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk9CRjrWa0w
SIX MONTHS AGO
In the end, it had been very easy. Simply let slip a snippet of a secret -- easily obtained, for one who could not be seen by most and ignored even by those who could -- out into the gathering places of the more adventurous sorts, and then simply wait and see who turned up.
The others had been an unpromising set, so far. Too stupid, too weak. Too old. Too young. Too sickly. Too unusual.
He needed a suitable one, one that would permit him travel where he must, but not one that would give out too soon. Or be too easily noticed. One that would not be missed.
He needed an ordinary one. That alone would would suffice.
And so he waited. And he waited. What were days against centuries?
It was true, about the secret. There really was a king's treasure here, in the heart of the ancient and slowly withering forest.
'Was', of course, being the operative word. The first clever one had bypassed the traps and made off with the prize. He had let the woman go untouched -- she was far too unusual for his needs.
But that was how it often went. The secret's nature often outlived the fact of the secret, itself. Even after the bait was taken, the mice keep coming to the trap, perhaps?
It took time before something proper turned up.
But turn up it did.
And so he had slipped down from his perch to take a closer look.
Middle-aged as humans go. Not particularly tidy. A bit of an odor. But still strongbacked and nimble enough as he crossed the streams in the forest. Still capable as he felled a beast that came lumbering out of the dark. Old enough that no one would miss him. Young enough that the flesh would not falter. No sign of disease or injury.
Capable.
Ordinary.
Seraph Harmaus stepped into the patch of sunlight that pierced through the canopy above and broke through the darkness that otherwise shaded the man's path. And there he sat, watching and waiting.
The man walked up to and past him without a word or even indication that he had seen the feline-formed thing there. He continued on, in search of the prize that no longer rested in the heart of the forest.
"It sees us not," the Seraph remarked to himself, then rose from his place in the sun to follow after the man.
Good. If the man had been able to see him, that would only make the next part more difficult. For Harmaus himself, of course.
The man continued on into the dark, unseeing, unaware of his pending fate.
Yes, this would do. This man -- this body -- would suffice.
Then the next step could begin.