Astral Morningwood's Story

Astral was eating food like there was no tomorrow. He was hungry, and who could blame him? He had not eaten in over 400 years.

He seemed to be especially obsessed with hamburgers and pizza. He continued eating, surprising one of the detectives. The detective looked at his partner, and said "Right...so, you deal with this, I am going to ask around who's kid this is. Okay?"

Astral continued eating and drinking. "Hey. You think we can get some more of this?"

Astral was acting as if this was normal. That, or he was focused on his hunger. He had already eaten more then could possibly fit in his stomach, but it was as if nothing could fill this kid up. "So, who are you guys anyways? What are your names?"

He simply smiled and continued eating.

The Pulse of Magic would be felt by all related to magic.

Were you to ask him two hours ago about where he would be in the afternoon, he most certainly would not have said, "Feeding a boy I found in a well a year's worth of hamburgers" as his answer. He, however, found himself in just that position, and couldn't exactly figure out why. He recalled the day's events, remembering that the case he was currently on turned out very strange indeed, what with the boy he was looking for showing up out of the blue, and the kidnapper(s) nowhere to be found. That was certainly strange. Then came this boy, who after a strange display of light he couldn't pin the source to, appeared from inside a well, then requested to eat.

Maybe the strangest part was that this kid was eating copious amounts of hamburgers with no signs of stopping, nor slowing. He wasn't exaggerating when he said the amount of beef he intook was probably enough to feed a school, K through 8. Hopefully, he could find this boy's parents, lest this bill cost him every dime James had, which wasn't an enormous amount to begin with. Being a PI didn't earn you the big bucks, unfortunately.

"Right...so, you deal with this, I am going to ask around who's kid this is. Okay?" came his friend's voice. He might as well have said, "Here, lemme ditch you with this kid. Oh, and take the bill too." James sighed and nodded in defeat.

"Let me know what you find." he said, watching his friend and supposedly fellow PI leave him. James wondered how he got stuck with all the stuff like this every time, as he watched the boy eat yet another burger.

"Hey. You think we can get more of this?" the child asked.

"I'm not normally selfish," James began. "But I'm afraid that if you eat too much more that I won't be able to eat. So, no, I'm afraid not." he replied.

"So, who are you guys anyways? What are your names?" came the first bit of non-food-related voice from the boy's mouth. Truthfully, James was a bit relieved to hear something new.

"Well," he replied. "My name is James De Santa. My partner is... well, I'll let him tell you when he gets back. For now, how about you tell me about yourself. How about your name? And do you know where you live?" he asked, focusing his attention fully upon the boy. "If you do, I can drive you home."

Earlier that day...
Cecilia stood in the nursery greenhouse, having just arrived for the day. The forecast showed that it was going to be sunny and warm, the perfect weather for the plants that stocked the nursery. In fact, Cecilia was surrounded by the content feeling that seemed to accompany healthy plants. Glancing down to the end of the aisle, the woman could see her son, Peter, playing happily. He was pushing himself around on his little scooter, smiling broadly. Turning back to her task of restocking the shelves, she gave a satisfied sigh. This day was looking out to be a very good day - the weather was good, Peter wasn't fussing, and she had already had a few customers straggling in despite the usually slow early hour.

Suddenly, a bolt of energy seemed to shoot through her. It felt like an electric shock, and she stiffened and fell towards the ground. As quickly as it started, the pain subsided. Sitting up, Cecilia looked around. People were looking towards her strangely, but that didn't concern her. Where as the rest of the people did not seem to have felt what she had, her son had fallen to the floor. Rushing over, she could see the same stiffness and pain that she had felt only seconds before.

Currently
One of the customers who had been in the store had been kind enough to drive them to the hospital. After the strange pain Cecilia and her son had felt, and the strange feeling that had lingered, there wasn't anything else to do but talk to the doctor. Strangely enough, the doctor had said there was nothing wrong with either of them. Cecilia drove down the street, pondering the strange events of the morning. She knew that something momentous had occurred but was not sure what.

Taking a deep breath, Cecilia made a decision. There was really only one way to put this out of her mind. She pulled into the nearby parking lot of the towns coffee shop. "Peter, how about you and mommy visit the nice coffee ladies and then go for a nice trip to the park." Peter, recognizing 'park' as one of his favorite places, gurgled happily. Getting out of the car and lifting her son onto her hip, Cecilia made her way into the shop.

(While I wait for Peaches to post...well, let's get things really started...)(Accidentally tagged Astral)

A dark shadow entered an auto shop, finding four men inside working on a stolen car. The shadow took the form of a man, who startled all of them.

"Hello, Mr. Banes".

"Who are you, want do you want?"

"To make a deal with you. You have skills that my employer finds useful. He wishes to help you, but you must help him first. It will require violence. So, what do you say?"

He looked at the others, and then back on the shadowy man. "Sure. We can do violent, if the reward is great enough".

"Oh, it is Mr. Banes".

All four men soon became engulfed in a dark mist, and they screamed. But they would become lesser servants of darkness. They would have power beyond their dreams. And their mission: Kill the boy, and all those who stood in their way. For you see, the boy was the final piece of the puzzle. The darkness needs his corpse, not him. The corpse would become a vessel for The Darkness. A physical form, that would permanently link him to this universe.

"Now. Let's go get our Lord a vessel". The shadow man disappeared again, into the shadows, and went in one direction: Astral's.

Astral looked at the man. "Astral. Astral Morningwood. And you would not believe me even if I told you..."

He looked over at the waitress as she gave some customers their steaks, as well as giving them some forks and knives. She immediately walked back into the back.

"You are a detective right? Well, I guess you might believe me now. Let me ask you something. The entire time you were here, did you hear anyone order a steak?"

The customers started to stand up, picking up their knives. As the partner came back, one of them stabbed him through the heart. All of their eyes were pure black, and they seemed focused on Astral and the detective. A shadowy figure appeared behind the counter.

"Hello Astral. It isn't nice to hide from me".

He vanished, and the waitress came out with a shotgun, raising it to fire at the detective.

(Well that escalated quickly. Writers block can do that to me).

"Astral. Astral Morningwood. And you would not believe me even if I told you..." answered the boy, who began looking around the establishment as he continued. "You are a detective right? Well, I guess you might believe me now. Let me ask you something. The entire time you were here, did you hear anyone order a steak?"

"..." That was not something he was actively listening to, but come to think of it, he hadn't heard any order from the people who just received one. There was this woman who had ordered tea, if he recalled correctly, and someone ordered a chicken sandwhich. But no, there was nothing about steak in his memories. Though... now he wanted one. Or did. His appetite suddenly changed as he saw his best friend approaching, only to be stabbed by one of the people now holding a steakknife.

"NO! WE DIDNT EVEN NAME HIM YET WTF!" shouted James, who could only watch his friend fall limp and lifeless to the floor, the men staring at James and the boy without so much as a second glance to his recently deceased friend and partner. He wasn't entirely sure what the hell to think -- there was too much to think at once. He was sad, angry, confused and frightened all at once. James wasn't entirely sure that this was even happening for a moment, but even still, his hand dropped to his side as he retrieved his firearm hidden underneath his shirt. His friend was just brutally murdered in front of him, and they locked their eyes on James and the boy next, so something was obviously up with him and this whole situation. The colorless pupils said as much to him, but so did the figure that appeared seemingly from nowhere.

"Hello Astral. It isn't nice to hide from me". it teased before suddenly disappearing and being replaced by a shotgun-wielding waitress.

"Astral, get down!" James ordered as, without further provocation necessary, he fired a shot towards the waitress while pushing his one piece of the puzzle forcefully down so that he wouldn't be hit by the lead that was sure to begin flying, and joined as well as he kept his head down.

Just what was happening? Today, James had just been talking with his best friend, now he's dead on the floor just a few feet away, surrounded by knife-wielding murderers and a waitress who probably wanted to show them what buckshot looks like fired from close range into their faces. Either way, with his position and small weapon, things didn't seem to be good or understandable for James De Santa.

Cecilia entered the diner just in time to get cut-off from any escape by the 'nice coffee lady' with a shotgun and her black-eyed henchmen. As the gun was raised, Cecilia instinctively ducked behind one of the hefty chairs in the diner, trying to create some kind of protection. The scene quickly went down hill. A man was stabbed in the chest, there was blood everywhere. A figure appeared, calling out to some strange young boy. A man, probably some kind of policeman, began firing off shots. And then the chair she had been sheltering behind flew off, as if drawn by some invisible string, to flatten the lady with a shotgun. Peter, upset by the noise, was crying. If she thought it would do any good, she would have been as well.

Looking frantically around for another barrier to hide behind, or escape avenue, Cecilia came up short. On her right was a woman who seemed to have barricaded herself in. In front of her, between the doors and escape, was a couple of the black-eyed men and the downed form of the shotgun-waitress. Despite the fact that she had just been nailed in the head with a solid block of chair, the waitress's arms seemed to be twitching, as if puppet strings were still being tugged. On her left was the man who seemed to have the only weapon on the civilian side as well as the strange child.

Quickly, Cecilia made her decision. Holding Peter tight to her, she dove to stand next to the detective and Astral. "Are you two okay? What are we supposed to do?" She asked, her voice surprisingly even despite her rising panic. In the crisis, she directed her queries towards the one who seemed to have the authority... or at least the firepower... which was the detective.

All of a sudden, one of the possessed was on the floor with his arm cut. Astral was standing there, weilding a sword. To explain what just happened. Astral took out his wand, and in front of everyone magically turned it into a sword and unpossessed one of the ptraons. that patron was also unconscious though. They passed out when you saved them.

"I know how to handle my own" he pointed out, as another patron attacked him with a knife. He blocked it with his sword, and cut the man's hand, unpossessing him as he fell to the floor. "They only need to be wounded to be unpossessed!"

(Sorry, Writers Block, Field Trip, and two Essays)

So James De Santa attempted so very hard to wrap his mind around the situation. So much effort and so much confusion had led him to a dead end in his mind. There was no real logic about these events. They defied what he believed to be real, and they almost literally shot every theory he could make about the scenario down within an instant. There was no way this was some joke. No, you can't fake a death that realistically without people who are there to witness it noticing. If his friend's neck wasn't really slit, then James wouldn't have tasted blood in his mouth from the spray, but cornstarch or something like that. The movies didn't really kill people, so the blood was never real. This blood was. Among his other theories was that he was dreaming - which still seemed like the most obvious conclusion - but he took cover rather hard and although it did not make him cry or wince, he still felt a pain on his back from basically slamming into the thing. He wasn't dreaming either.

But then... what was going on? A chair flew across the room and hit the shotgun-toting woman in the face, presumably knocking her unconscious. After that, people started grouping up around him. That was rather odd. Well, I guess it's good they don't think I'm the one at fault here. He thought, knowing that people can easily get confused in tense situations like this. One even asked him something.

"Are you two okay? What are we supposed to do?" came her query.

He peeked over his cover before then replying to her in a hurried voice, not bothering to answer the first question at this point. "If I knew how to throw chairs like that, I'd suggest that but... " his voice trailed off for but a moment. "I'm not sure. I have no clue what's going on. I'd rather not kill someone...." he went to look away to see if he could think of something, but then Astrid began moving on his own. He pulled a wand from his butt out of nowhere and made it a sword, magically. It was... unreal. But he continued.

He knocked one of the men unconscious, and then another who had attacked him saying something along the lines of hurting them will subdue them. Not one to argue about their weakness with a boy who had magically summoned a sword and/or ancient hidden samurai ninja skills, James quickly popped up. "I have no fucking clue what is going on, but whatever! I'm done with this!" he exclaimed as he took two shots at the first possessed person he saw towards their legs. One shot missed by an inch, but the other nailed him straight in the middle of the leg. It was possible he just crippled this man, but in contrast to blowing his brains out, James thought it to be a decent compromise. "Really... would rather know what all this shit is when we're done!" he said as he then turned on the offensive with a means of non-lethally taking these people out.